From Transactions to Trust: The Role of Relationship Sales

Intro VO  00:06

Welcome to Revenue Rehab, your one stop destination for collective solutions to the biggest challenges faced by marketing leaders today. Now head on over to the couch, make yourself comfortable and get ready to change the way you approach revenue. Leading your recovery is modern marketer, author, speaker and Chief Operating Officer at Tegrita Brandi Starr

Brandi Starr  00:34

Hello, hello, hello and welcome to another episode of revenue rehab. I am your host, Brandi Starr. And we have another amazing episode for you today, I am joined by Matt Green. Matt has led sales and operations for multiple Hyper Growth venture backed tech companies. In these roles, he oversaw Personnel Management, strategic planning and sales leadership in multiple markets across the US, Matt now helps run the first and only scale as a service platform for the country's most exciting b2b tech companies. Matt says he's a pretty good husband and an even better father. He's an international travel enthusiast. And if there was a Simpsons quoting competition, he would no doubt doubly place in the top three. Welcome to revenue rehab, Matt, your session begins now.

Matt Green  01:34

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited about this conversation.

Brandi Starr  01:38

As I say, as a travel enthusiast, it is so appropriate that you've got a world map behind you. So tell me as I say, I probably wouldn't call myself an enthusiast, but I definitely am a traveler. What's your favorite destination?

Matt Green  01:54

Oh, great question. My wife and son and I we all mutually agree that Jordan is probably the most fascinating place that we've ever been great food, great people, great culture, great experience. So that would be at the top of my list.

Brandi Starr  02:10

Awesome. So I'm gonna have to now add that to my list. I am just getting back from Costa Rica not long ago, which is country number 19. For me, and so I am trying to get to 100 countries. So I'm gonna have to put Jordan top of the list based on your family's recommendation. But I like to start us off with a little Woosah moment I call buzzword banishment. So tell me what buzzword would you like to get rid of forever?

Matt Green  02:49

If not forever, at least for a little while and chat GPT mainly because is everywhere. And I understand the value, it's exciting. AI is going to be extremely useful will continue to be extremely useful. But I cannot pull up not only LinkedIn, but just my web browser in general without seeing chat GPT referenced somewhere. Enough already.

Brandi Starr  03:10

It is definitely the hot thing right now. And I can say I am totally enamored and probably talk about it at least 10 times a day. So I will try to set that aside, at least for our conversation right now. can't make any promises beyond that. Fair enough. Well, now that we've gotten that off our chest tell me what brings you to revenue rehab today.

Matt Green  03:38

Yeah, what brings me here today is we were fortunate enough here at sales assembly to work with a few 100 b2b software companies, leaders and teams have have a go to market organization. And what brings us here is we're seeing a pretty significant gap in leaders providing their teams, specifically their sales teams, with the tools, the resources, the competencies they need, in order to number one separate themselves from the competition today, which is becoming an ever more urgent thing that these sales organizations need to do and more importantly, start building and fostering more and more human to human connections and really pivot from going to a purely COVID virtual sales environment into one where to an extent business is getting done in person, right, you know, leaders are prompting their sales teams to go out and do more things in person but at the same time, not necessarily equipping their sales teams with the skills and the competencies to do so.

Brandi Starr  04:43

Okay, that's really interesting take and there's lots of places that I want to dive in there, but before I do, I believe in setting intentions, it gives us focus it gives us purpose, and most importantly, it gives our audience and expectation Session of what they will learn or gain from our conversation today. So what would you like to be different after our session? Or what's your best intention?

Matt Green  05:11

Yeah, my best intention would be hopefully, what I people will take away from today is at least a little bit of direction, in ways that they're going to be able, especially if you're a seller ways that you're going to be able to improve yourself, improve your capabilities, to transition into much more of a relationship based sales motion versus a transactional based sales motion. And if you're a leader, maybe some insight into some team, or I'm sorry, some things that your teams are struggling with right now, but might not necessarily be telling you that they're struggling with.

Brandi Starr  05:42

Okay, and just to level sets, because there are so many different industry terms, can you define for me? What is relationship selling?

Matt Green  05:55

Yeah, relationship selling is sort of indicative by the name, it's really number one, it is a focus on building and fostering meaningful relationships with not only your prospects in order to of course effect in the initial sale. But then there are second order effects, how do you maintain and foster relationship with an existing client in order to generate future sales, either expansion opportunities within that company, or perhaps gaining and leveraging referrals from that, hopefully, what is now a new champion. And that's really what we mean when we talk about relationship based sales. And as I alluded to, at the top, a lot of this, there's a big priority in making sure that these types of things begin happening more and more in person, rather than via zoom, or teams, or Google meats, which is what we've all been accustomed to, over the past few years. And what many sales reps, at least right now, if they started their sales career, over the past three or four years, they don't know anything other than 30 minute zoom increments, which is a struggle for them.

Brandi Starr  07:00

Okay, and so because you know, someone who has been in this industry for a couple decades now, to me when I hear that definition, and, you know, I always do a little research just to see what the industry is talking about topics before I talk to a guest. Everything that I've read, when I look at it to me, I'm like, that's just sales. And I do see that for someone who is new in their career, you know, especially starting post 2020, that this would be a bit of a new or foreign concept. But in general, how is this not just getting back to the fundamentals of what sales has always been? Is there a nuance that is different and new now?

Matt Green  07:48

Yeah, I'd say it's less about a nuance. And I completely agree with you that the first time that we got wind of this problem amongst, you know, some companies that we work with, my reaction was very similar to yours. It's like, No, this is just basic stuff, right? This is sales. But when you think about it, if you started your sales career in 2018 2019, maybe your entry level, you're a business development representative. So you're not really at that level, having a whole lot of actual face to face, human to human interaction. But let's say that you perform well in that role, and you get promoted into an account executive role in early 2020. Let's say that means that you know, we're coming up on three, four or five years. So you've been in sales for four or five, six years, perhaps, but still have never really done what you know, some of the you've never really mastered some of the competencies, or skills that you and I, we sort of take it's table stakes, right? Whether there's, you know, being able to hold a conversation for more than 30 minutes, right? Or even if, and I know it sounds weird. We've overheard a lot of leaders that are needing to coach their teams, like, Hey, if you're doing an in person meeting, and you're at a hotel in a different city, where you're going to meet a prospective client, and you pull up, if your meetings at 10 o'clock AM and you pull up Uber, it's like, right, you're gonna get there at 955. That's too late. Right? You know, you need to make sure that you get to the office building, you know, 15 minutes early, you need to account for checking time. So again, all these things that you and I, and people that have been in this industry for more than five plus years, we both like oh, yeah, that's common sense. When you think about it, as weird as it might sound for a lot of these folks, they never have that direct experience. And therefore this whole paradigm is extremely new to them. And I

Brandi Starr  09:41

definitely see the deficit. I'm just, you know, because of my title, I am considered a hot prospect for a lot of sales teams. And so I get all the reach outs whether it's BDRs or people following up and even just on the phone or on those 30 minute zooms, I do see that it is a bit transactional, of like, you know, we get on, we jump straight into what are you doing? What are your problems, like, you know, how about Hello, my name is, you know, at least exchange, you know, not everybody like small talk, but at least a little bit of pleasantries before we try to get right to it. So in thinking about the problem, because I always like to lead with, why should I care? What are businesses missing out on? Like, what if we don't figure out how to solve this? How is this going to impact our organizations?

Matt Green  10:41

Yeah, so what what it seems like most, if not the vast majority of companies are dealing with right now. And this began, late q2 early q3 Last year, when the economic environment shifted, is top of funnel so to speak, becoming very light, right, it's becoming much more difficult to generate new demand for your product or service. And if you are able to generate new demand for your product or service, the sales cycles are taken a whole lot longer. And that's only going to be exasperated, it's already being exasperated right now, by the rise of stepping on my own game here, you know, the term that should not be used chat GPT, you know, AI powered platforms that are able to essentially put together what, you know, most people would consider personalized outreach at scale. Right? So number one, you know, when you when you take a look at all this together, tougher to generate demand, deal cycles are taking longer and combined with both of those components, is you just have the space in general are getting a whole lot noisier because everybody now has automated outreach at scale through the power of AI. Right? So decision maker like yourself, you're probably noticing just the pure increase in quantity of sales, you know, pitches coming your way. So what are companies going to be missing out on if they don't start investing in some of these more relationship based components and arming their teams with the skills and competencies to start transacting business in person? is less deals, slower sales cycles, lost revenue? It's as simple as that.

Brandi Starr  12:23

Okay? And do you feel that there is any variation in the need, based on whether it's type of company size of company length of sales cycle? I know, I was reading one article, and it talked about, you know, where things are more lower priced, more transactional, you know, you'll you're more comfortable, just buy in, based on you know, your own research. But if I'm spending, you know, lots of money, and depending on how much you know, how you define lots of money, that that relationship becomes more important. So is there any, you know, sales or marketing leader, that or revenue leader that is like, or that you'd say, like, No, this is really not a thing for you?

Matt Green  13:12

Yeah. Short answer is, yes, I think that's a great point, if you're in a very transactional sales environment, maybe it's just pure inbound. And people by and large customers, they could buy on your website, and maybe once in a blue moon, they want to talk to a sales professional. Yeah, this isn't necessarily going to be as relevant. But if you are selling a product at you know, call it a 20 $30,000 price point or above, you know, maybe you're dealing with a 6090 day sales cycle, three or four calls throughout that 6090 days, in order to effect that sale, that's when what we're talking about now becomes a little bit more relevant, right? Because that's when it's going to be even more imperative to separate yourself as a sales professional from all the other noise in the space.

Brandi Starr  14:01

Okay, so now I want to shift gears and start to dig into some of your tips. I want to start with some of the tips and recommendations and then towards the end, I'll jump into some of my kind of red flags and push back so that we can talk about those things as well. So if I am someone that is leading the sales organization, you know, at whatever level whether that's BDR is true account managers, you know, customer success that carries a number for renewals, any of those any of you know those leaders. What's your advice? If I see that my team is not skilled in you know, relationship, selling and building those relationships and going beyond the 30 Minute zooms, how do we go from the transactions to trust?

Matt Green  14:54

Yeah, I think first and foremost, it's just being cognizant of the issue with It's taken some of the sales leaders a little while longer than, you know, than it probably should have for them to be for them to get to a point where they realize like, Hey, this is actually something that's not just one rep or two reps. It is, you know, from a broader cross section of the team. But once you're cognizant of the issue, and you decide, okay, well, we need to take some sort of action on it. What are my recommendations, a couple, first of all, investing in skills training around things like storytelling, right, being able to hold a conversation with somebody for more than 30 minutes. And you mentioned this a few moments ago, where you hop on Zoom, it's like right down to business. Or maybe if you're lucky, like, Hey, where's the how's the weather where you're at, but, you know, you contrast the 30 Minute zoom with a 60 minute launch with a prospect or a 90 minute happy hour, with multiple prospects in the same room, or maybe a two hour meeting, in an office and your prospects office with multiple different stakeholders, being able to actually build and foster and maintain interest in conversations for an extended period of time is going to be critical. That'd be one big recommendation. Another one. And I know that sales teams have invested in this type of training. You know, for years and years, I think it's become even more relevant now. Training on improv, right, you know, making sure that the sales folks on your team, and again, that they're provided proper training of just how to react to different types of situations that are in this relatively unstructured environment outside of those 30 minute zooms, that we spoke about before. You know, if a leader wants to invest in shows upskilling and training on two competencies, walking out of this conversation today, my opinion, storytelling and improv would probably be the two at the top of the list. Very interesting.

Brandi Starr  16:51

So it's so funny that you bring up improv, because I had a friend, former colleague, who shared on LinkedIn about starting a new company. And one of the first trainings that she went through like not all your typical, like corporate a policy was an improv training, like they actually brought in, you know, someone from that field. And I was like, my first thought was that such an odd? Like, you know, she said, it was fun, but she's like, I don't know how this is relevant. And as you say that I'm like you are right, because even in you know, a consulting role, which is not as much sales, there is a lot of improv that happens that you don't really think about it as improv, like, you almost think about improv like, that's a comedy, we go to a show, but that really is a skill set. And we do hear a lot about storytelling as a skill. So I do I see that one very commonly coming up a lot more of recognizing that, you know, whether you're face to face, or on a 30 minute zoom, people see themselves in the stories, and that makes them want to buy more so than like, features functionality. And I know I have people that I've talked to years ago, who I'll run into, and they remember stories that I've told they're like, I don't remember what that thing was called. But remember, you said, you know, the Old Navy story or this, like I have some, you know, stories that I tell quite frequently. And it really does help move things along in the sales process. So I think that that is really great advice. Any other tips before I shift gears?

Matt Green  18:45

No, I would just plus one that on the storytelling. That is what people remember. And, you know, as weird as the analogy might sound when it comes to improv training, it's all about building that muscle memory so to speak, that's going to be useful for objection handling, some that you have to do every day, whether it's on Zoom or in person. You know, I again, it might sound like a weird analogy, but I know that a lot of really high performing football teams, what do they invest in on behalf of their players? ballet training? Right, which sounds weird, but it's like what will Why Why should you know football players learn ballet training. It's it's because of the the movements, right? You know, the small movements, again, building that muscle memory, which is going to make them more effective on the field, which might not look anything like ballet, just like sales might not look anything like a comedy show. But it's the skills, the competencies, the muscle memory that you're building about how to handle certain situations that are going to make you more effective.

Brandi Starr  19:44

Yeah, that's a great analogy, because you think about some of those catches where they get the two toes down, barely, you know, in bounds and it is very much that same kind of toe posture of a ballerina. So that's a Good, good correlation. So I want I want to dive into where I see some of the challenges because there's a lot of times we hear about concepts and things like this. And, you know, the thought is that sounds great in theory. And that's followed by but and then a list of things. And so I want to talk about the bots. And the most obvious one to me is cost. You know, we are all in a situation where we're asked to do more with less resources, you know, whether that be headcount. So you've got people that are covering wider territories, or just general budget, you know, for spend, you know, I can think about early on, like salespeople had, you know, these unholy budgets for how to, you know, that they could entertain clients and things like that, for building relationships. And one of the, I always hate to use, like, blessing related to a pandemic, but one of the blessings that came out of the pandemic was those costs were able to be reduced drastically, because the virtual interactions became the norm and became acceptable. So in trying to reverse that, especially when budgets are, you know, way tighter, and perceptions of the spend has changed? How do you go into this focus of getting more in person, knowing that that also comes with a higher cost between entertaining, travel all those things?

Matt Green  21:40

Yeah, you know, that's a really important question. And like any other type of spend decision that leaders might be evaluating right now, you really just want to be able to find a way to look back at the ROI, right? Is there a quantifiable ROI attached to this, and the great thing about all things related to sales is that if it's something to do with your sales team, you know, usually that ROI, you're going to be able to find a way to make that clear as day whether it's working or not working, because sales by nature is very transparent. Right? So if you want to really do a deep dive and determine like, okay, is in person going to be worth it, maybe start with just some minor A B testing, right, you know, have some portion of your sales team, have them start doing more and more in person meetings, and have others just stick with virtual, and then take a look over the next, you know, two to three quarters and look back and say, Okay, what were our win win rates? What was our sales cycle time, take a look at all those metrics and see if it made a difference, right? And then if it did, then use the leader are going to have confidence in saying like, Okay, well, this is a strategy that not only works is worth doubling down on, so to speak, and therefore it's probably worth investing in additional training and competencies for the team to to do this more effectively.

Brandi Starr  23:01

Okay, and I know, during the pandemic, a lot of effort was made to attempt some of the relationship building virtually, I know, I personally attended some online wine tastings and cocktail making and paint and sip and you know, just different things to bring that same connection. And so in this, you know, move to take more of a relationship sales approach, do you still see a place for those virtual opportunities for relationship building? Or do you feel like it's kind of an all or nothing that we got a really shift to getting in front of people?

Matt Green  23:43

Yeah, I so by nature, I'm not a big believer in binary, it's either this or that black or white? You know, I do think that, like anything else in life, the truth and the reality is gonna live sort of within some level shade of gray, long winded way of answering your question, which I do believe that virtual is still going to have a component, you know, it doesn't make fiscal sense, let's say to start doing in person meetings, at the very tippy top of the funnel, right? That's one thing that we know that a lot of companies are evaluating right now is okay, if we're going to start doing some in person meetings, at what point in the sales process doesn't make the most sense to do those meetings, right? Is it after qualification discovery first meeting, then we do an in person meeting? Or is it earlier on in the sales process? Is it only right towards the tail end? Once we believe that we might be getting close to signature and in between all those different areas depending on what depending on how you determine what is going to be most effective for the sales organization? Of course, everything else is going to be virtual in nature because you you can still build a relationship virtually we've been doing that effectively over the past couple of years. But you know, the headline here is like okay, At How am I going to separate myself from the competition and get a leg up in an extremely crowded space, when budgets are tighter decisions are taking longer? How am I going to put my team in the best position to affect the sale and drive revenue for the company?

Brandi Starr  25:15

Yeah, and I think that's a key consideration is not necessarily that we're going to just go back to the way things used to be, but taking some of the value and lessons from what is traditional sales, and identifying where that tactic should be deployed in the process. Because you're right, it could be something that for certain type of accounts, or at a certain stage in the process, that that's where you pull that lever to say, yeah, it's worth it for the time, the expense, etc. But in these other scenarios, here's what we're going to do. Exactly. So the other big one that I want to ask about, because this is something that is passionate for me, and may or may not be something that you've thought of on this, but it's bias and discrimination. So if I look at some of the feedback that has come out of what's happened with things going virtual, as a result of COVID, you have a lot of populations, you know, women, minorities, the LGBTQ community, those with physical limitations and disabilities, mother's, which, you know, falls under women, but kind of a different slice of women that found that in sales roles previously, you know, I can remember I took golf lessons, because growing up, you know, going to school and wanting to be in business that looks like deals are made on the golf course, you got to learn how to play golf, whether you like it or not, like, if you you know, want to be successful, you got to be able to, you know, hang with the boys so to speak. And so a push and you know, we saw this in companies going back into the office, lots of feedback and pushback from some of those marginalized communities. How do you feel like this relationship approach impacts those populations? And how do we not make it a hindrance? Because I do agree the relationships are important, but how do we not put those groups at a disadvantage, as we start to push more for in person, and more, you know, relationships that are giving of who you are as an individual? Yeah, that's

Matt Green  27:37

a really important question. You know, I wish that I had sort of a silver bullet answer, so to speak, the one thing that I would say is that, going back to my comment a moment ago about how nothing in life is binary, right, black and white, everything is in shades of gray, there is still and there will still continue to be ways to build and foster those meaningful relationships virtually right to make sure that folks, whether they are working mothers, or people that are in some type of disadvantaged, underrepresented community, the net result of which is they might not have the flexibility, the opportunity to get on the plane and travel right to you know, to meet with, with clients or prospects. As mentioned before, there are still going to be many opportunities throughout the sales process to build and maintain a true relationship. Virtually, you know, what we talked about the competencies that we want to train on before you can tell really great stories virtually, right, you know, the improv that you theoretically would start training on, that would allow you to have, you know, more creative and more meaningful conversations, and you'll be able to handle objections in a more effective manner, virtually. So these are all things when we talk about just the broader scope of building relationships, you know, not necessarily has to be done in person. So again, I think it's going to be even more important for leaders to make these types of investments, equitable investments in their team, right, to make sure that they have the skills and competencies in order to do this, whether it's in person or not.

Brandi Starr  29:16

Awesome. Yeah, and that is a really good perspective. Because I do think that just as a term relationship sales, does lean really heavy to pointing out the in person. But it's, it's less about where things happen, and more that they happen. So that the relationship building and that sort of effort is happening. You know, one of the things I was told very early in my career is people buy from people they know like and trust. And, you know, so whether you're b2b b2b to see you know, all the different letters, you know, that human to human and having some trust factor. You know, I've seen clients follow People from company to company, because they like that relationship. And you know, we see that on the other end clients change jobs, and now their new job as a client because they love working with us. So the last thing that I want to ask you about is thinking about the relationship more holistically. So I know prospects is like the obvious place like that's, you know, people want to drive net new. And I know that you also mentioned relationship sales as it comes to customers. And so I have a question for you related to customers. And then I also want to throw partners into the mix, because that's a place where I feel like relationship selling could go a long way. That does not seem to happen today. So I'm going to start selfishly, you know, as a partner, I love to hear your opinion. But I know that is probably my biggest complaint. As we work with different whether it's tech companies or other consultancies, it's like, unless it's a lead exchange of I'm giving you some leads, or you're, you know, giving me some leads, there does not seem to be that value in the relationship. And so I'd love to hear your perspective on where you see partners in the mix of relationship sales. Yeah, that's,

Matt Green  31:28

that's a really interesting question. I couldn't be wrong on this. And I'd love your thoughts. When I look at one of the byproducts over the past few years, it seems like this focus or emphasis, I should say, on building more and more channel and partnerships, sales, you know, building this infrastructure within companies. It's all relatively new and nascent, right, you know, seem like beginning in 2020, and into 2021. That's when a lot of companies all at the same time, looked around and said, like, oh, wow, we should really start investing in Channel Sales and partner sales. So again, I'd love your feedback on this. Do you think that maybe the the lack of relationship based sales are the focus on building and fostering meaningful relationships with partners? Do you see that as something that is a byproduct of the fact that people haven't been doing it for very long and all they know, is just lead exchange, right? Because like, hey, let's set up this partner channel. And, you know, let's, let's get Matt on the phone. And let's see, we've swapped leads. And that's it. And it goes well, during the past few years, until it doesn't start going well.

Brandi Starr  32:40

Yeah, and I think I do agree there. And I do, what I see is it is very transactional. And for some partnerships, that transactional nature works really well, like there are some alignments where there's definitely, you know, clear ways to pass leads back and forth. And so I'm not saying that there is no place for it, because I do think there is, I think, the untapped place in the role of relationship sales, and I just, you know, even looking at my own influence, there are different things that I am talking to clients about, pretty much daily, like I talked to a client today, she's got a Marketo renewal coming up, she asked me, should I be considering this renewal? Or do we need to move? Is Marketo nurturing me at all? No, because, you know, we don't have that transactional relationship. And, and, and I don't mean to call them out, that's just a, you know, recent conversation. But there are a lot of partnerships that are extremely influential, where the partner carries that trust, and relationship that can be extended, especially in the technology space. But even in you know, we've referred people to other agencies or consultancies that do different things. Like all of these things, it just for me, it feels like in relationship sales, and even as I was doing my research, I came up with nothing that was talking about the partnership aspect, and actually building and nurturing relationships with I mean, you think about it's like influencer marketing, but we're not on tick tock. Um, and so yeah, it's one of those things that I just am always a little baffled that. It's like, Why is no one thinking about this? Like, why are you not asking prospects who they work with? Or, you know, or customers for that matter? Because, yeah, there are a lot of opportunities where you get insight that you never have before to acquire or retain customers.

Matt Green  34:56

Yeah. No, I am typing I've been on both. I've been in situations where to your point that you made a moment ago, just as far as why is, you know, marquetta? Why are they not just nurturing you? I've been in countless situations where I've won deals versus a competitor, those are referred by a partner, mainly just due to my level of responsiveness. You know, the fact that the partner thought like, hey, you know, Matt's a really good guy, you know, he likes to be helpful. Right. So again, to the larger point, it is kind of those intangibles that I would agree a lot of folks in the partnership space might be missing the boat on. Right? Yeah. So

Brandi Starr  35:35

there's something to add into your sales curriculum is how to effectively work with your partner channel beyond leads and referrals. But, so my last question goes back to the customer marketing, or customer relationship building. So a lot of companies have customer success or some other role that serves that function with a different title. And so their expectation is a bit more of the relationship. And so I'm wondering, do you see the same deficiencies when it comes to relationship sales? on the customer side? Or do you feel like, you know, most companies kind of have that groove going a bit better?

Matt Green  36:25

I think that they have the groove going a bit better, I do think and coincidentally, I was doing a training for for one of our companies today, there's still an area of opportunity for and I know that there's a lot of talk about the handoff and sales and ces alignment and all that good stuff. There still is a big opportunity for sales to lean in. Having built in develop this really fantastic relationship on the front end builds a significant level of trust. And then unfortunately, what we see a lot of salespeople do is contract sign Hey, lol, great, nice knowing you go talk to CES and then they never hear from them again. That's where I think, you know, there's a huge opportunity for salespeople that build out a cadence of structure to lean back in and periodically with this, you know, with this relationship that they spent 369 Maybe sometimes if it's an enterprise sale, 1218 months, investing in and fostering and building that level of credibility, to help the CS teams expand within the organization capture more revenue, which was great for, you know, great for everybody involved, I understand that, then you start getting into conversations around Okay, well, how are people compensated? And what are the levers that you can pull and carrots and sticks, but I still think that right now with again, top of funnel being light, and for a lot of companies, expansion, revenue being like the name of the game, like, Oh, my God, if we're not getting new logos, we really got to squeeze every dollar as possible out of our existing clients. That's where there's also going to be a good area of opportunity for salespeople to lean in and helped generate some of that additional revenue.

Brandi Starr  38:04

Yeah, and I do, I won't, I won't dive into the comp conversation. But that is always what I see is that the sales team is not comped on anything beyond the initial sale. And that's why they very much wash their hands of it. Because if there's no other role, that's money motivated, it's definitely sales, so there's not dollar tied to it, then, you know, they have no interest in it. But talking about our challenges is just the first step and nothing changes if nothing changes. And so in traditional therapy, the therapist gives the client some homework, but here at revenue rehab, we like to flip that on its head and ask you to give us some homework. So for those that are listening, and this relationship sales approach and putting more eggs in that basket resonates with them. What is their What is your one thing? What is that the key takeaway or next step for someone who is looking to move the needle in the right direction?

Matt Green  39:06

Yeah, I would say and I spoke to a few months ago, start start a B testing within the organization. You know, maybe again, if your sales motion, if it's, if it dictates it, if you think that'd be a good idea to start testing out some of this in person, offer some of these in person opportunities, pick a small segment of your team, make sure that they're armed with the competencies, again, like storytelling, improv some of those things that we discussed before, and just test it out, right and start tracking the data and determining whether or not this is going to make an impact and differentiate you from maybe some competitors that are trying to sell a very similar product into the exact same clients that you're trying to prospect into right now.

Brandi Starr  39:50

Always love a good AB test. And I do think trying that, you know, anytime that you're piloting or testing something in a controlled environment Men usually is a whole lot easier to do and to get, you know, some buy in to try things out. So I love that as an action item. And Matt, I have enjoyed our discussion. But that's our time for today. But before we go, how can our audience connect with you?

Matt Green  40:20

I'd love for you to connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm extremely online on that platform. So feel free to connect with me there. Our website is sales assembly.com. And we are just by pure coincidence hosting our own live podcasts on May 18. So we'd love to have folks involved there. And you know, here, myself and some other sales leaders across the ecosystem, providing what we'd like to think are going to be some best practices and some tips for both individual contributors and leaders as we head deeper into q2.

Brandi Starr  40:53

Awesome. That's really, really exciting. So lots of luck and positive energy. As you guys launch that we will definitely make sure to link to your LinkedIn and the sales assembly website in the show notes. So wherever you are listening or watching this podcast, those links so that you can plug in to Matt will be there as well. Well, thanks so much for joining me, Matt.

Matt Green  41:20

Yeah, thank you for having me. 

Brandi Starr  41:23

Awesome. And thanks, everyone, for joining us today. I hope that you have enjoyed my conversation with Matt. I can't believe we're at the end. We'll see you next time.

Outro VO  41:34

You've been listening to Revenue Rehab with your host Brandi Starr. Your session is now over but the learning has just begun. join our mailing list and catch up on all our shows at revenue rehab dot live. We're also on Twitter and Instagram at revenue we This concludes this week's session. We'll see you next week.