Why Most B2B Sales Processes Fail and How to Fix Yours Fast | TFOS E6

🎙️ Future of Selling Podcast – Episode: Fixing Your B2B Sales Process with Jim Trimarco

📢 Welcome to the Future of Selling Podcast! Hosted by Rick Smith, Chief Customer Officer at Conquer, this podcast dives into the latest trends, challenges, and innovations in B2B sales. Whether you’re a sales leader, account manager, or founder, we bring you real-world strategies to navigate the evolving sales landscape.

🎧 In This Episode:
We sit down with Jim Trimarco (JT), a seasoned sales leader with over two decades of experience driving growth in SaaS and enterprise sales. JT shares his insights on what makes a winning B2B sales process and the key strategies sales teams need to stand out in competitive markets.

📌 Key Takeaways:
✔️ The #1 mistake most sales reps make—and how to fix it.
✔️ Why discovery is everything in sales.
✔️ The "Teachable Moment" and how it wins deals.
✔️ How to build credibility and trust in a crowded market.
✔️ Why "Time Kills All Deals" and how to keep urgency in the sales cycle.
✔️ How AI is transforming sales teams—and why you need to embrace it now.

📅 Timestamps:
00:00 – Introduction: Meet Jim Trimarco
02:00 – Fun facts about JT (including his love for fitness & food!)
06:00 – The fundamentals of a strong B2B sales process
10:35 – How to run an effective discovery call
12:31 – The power of the “Teachable Moment” in sales
18:13 – Emotional connection: Why buyers choose one company over another
25:20 – Common mistakes B2B sales teams make
31:52 – AI & the future of sales—how it’s changing everything
36:32 – JT’s top 3 takeaways for new sales leaders

🎯 Who Should Listen?
🔹 Sales leaders looking to improve their team’s performance
🔹 Account executives and SDRs navigating complex B2B deals
🔹 Founders and entrepreneurs scaling their sales process
🔹 Anyone interested in the future of selling

🔗 Connect with Us:
📌 Guest: Jim Trimarco
🎙️ Host: Rick Smith
💡 Learn More About Conquer

🔥 Don’t Forget to Like & Subscribe! If you found this episode valuable, hit the like button, subscribe, and leave a comment with your biggest takeaway!

#FutureOfSelling #B2BSales #SalesLeadership #SalesProcess #SalesPodcast #AIinSales 🚀

Creators and Guests

Host

Rick Smith

Chief Customer Officer at Conquer, Host of The Future of Selling Podcast, Eternal Student

What is The Future of Selling?

The Future of Selling is the go-to podcast for sales professionals looking to sharpen their skills and stay ahead in the competitive world of B2B sales. Each episode features expert interviews, real-world case studies, and actionable tips to help you navigate the complex B2B buyer's journey. Whether you're dealing with long sales cycles, multiple decision-makers, or rapidly changing technologies, we’ve got you covered. Tune in to discover the latest trends, best practices, and proven strategies for closing more deals and building lasting relationships in the B2B space. Perfect for sales leaders, account managers, and anyone aiming to master the art of B2B selling.

Future Of Selling (00:02)
All right. Hey, thanks. Welcome to the Future of Selling podcast. My name is Rick Smith and I'm the Chief Customer Officer here at Concur. So the Future of Selling podcast is all about looking at trends and challenges and innovations in the sales industry and talking about those and trying to educate our audience. As I said, I'm with Concur. Concur is a sales communications platform.

We live right inside of Salesforce and we work with some of the largest enterprise companies in the world. Me personally, I've been in and around sales most of my career as a CEO and a COO and a chief revenue officer. And now again, chief customer officer here at Concur. So thanks for being with us, but enough about me. I want to talk about our guests today. I am so pumped to have on our podcast today, Jim Tremarco. Now you're going to hear me refer to Jim as JT because

That's just who he is to me and that's who he is to everybody else. But you know, it's Jim Tremarco, right? So JT. So JT is an accomplished sales leader. He's got over two decades of experience in driving growth, innovation and excellence in SaaS companies and, you know, whether they're really large enterprise companies with thousands and thousands of employees or all the way down to, you know, really small kind of startups as well. So JT is the real deal.

when I talk about a sales leader, right? So I am just so pumped to have him on with us today. Again, he's worked with companies like, you know, like an ADP. He's also worked with, you know, other companies like Harvard and smaller companies like Simply Well. So, and man, I'm just so glad that he is working now with us at Conquer. So JT, welcome. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks for being on today.

Jim Trimarco (01:51)
Yeah, thanks Rick. And those are great words of early encouragement here. So I appreciate all the accolades and all the excitement early. So this is great. Thanks for having me.

Future Of Selling (01:59)
All right,

the plan is to keep you encouraged. That's what we're gonna do, right? But we're also gonna cover some really good topics as well, or at least I think they're really strong. But before we get going, just a couple of, I always like to start these with a couple of fun facts that with the audience, you're not just some name out there, but you're kinda, bring a little humanity to the whole thing. Does that sound okay to you? All right, first fun fact. I had no idea and I've been out to eat with you multiple times. I did not know that you don't like fish.

Jim Trimarco (02:03)
Good.

Yeah, let's do it.

Future Of Selling (02:28)
What is that whole story about?

Jim Trimarco (02:30)
Yeah, well, it's not a great story. It's just I'll start with it's basically a life miss because I really I watch the excitement on other people's faces when they're out to a great meal at a seafood restaurant. If they put a lobster bib on or if they saw sushi come out, it's so exciting and it's such an experience. And I think it's probably just something where my parents really didn't, you know, we didn't have fish in the house. And so it

It's probably a texture, something to the experience. But I miss it. I miss the idea of, you know, that as being part of the diet, just because for all the health reasons. But it's something that's passed me by and I don't think I'm going to catch up with it.

Future Of Selling (03:09)
Right. Right, right.

Well,

my wife doesn't like fish either, so you guys would get along great. But I'm going to try to guide all of our out to eat dinners from now on to somewhat to restaurants that serve a lot of fish. that's goal. That's exactly right. All right. That's fun fact number one. Fun fact number two. Early on in COVID, you were one of seven people on a flight to Europe. There were more like airline employees on the flight.

Jim Trimarco (03:19)
That's great.

Well, that's why we're friends. Yeah, that's how that should go. That's right.

Future Of Selling (03:43)
then there were passengers on the flight. that's, I assume that had to be a pretty unique kind of situation, right?

Jim Trimarco (03:50)
It was a different experience. mean, I've always loved the idea of global connections and as your career gets moving, you never know if you are going to be involved just in operating in your backyard or in whatever state that you're in. And I've been fortunate enough to be able to lead global teams and have some pretty real travel to some pretty cool places like the Netherlands, the UK, India, Singapore, Australia, and now even in Kosovo.

Yeah, early in COVID, I mean, there was literally seven people. I think there were 12 people working on the flight, you know, which was kind of cool and scary at the same time.

Future Of Selling (04:30)
That's awesome. right. Fun fact number three, you are a fitness and foodie lover. You love fitness. You're up at 5 a.m. That's almost the same time I'm up, but not, I'm just saying. So anyway, up at 5 a.m. every day doing some sort of workout. And then you love going to new restaurants. I'm trying to get you more into barbecue and smoking and all that. But anyway, it's all good. It's all good. You got to be you. So.

Jim Trimarco (04:54)
Yeah, no, it's a it's lot of fun. I mean, I've been been getting up that early. Well, probably for 20 years now. And just gives you energy gets the day started off right helps, obviously back on all the health stuff and helps check your weight and cholesterol and all those fun numbers. But you need to balance it, you need to be able to do all those things. So you can, you know, have fun eating out and and I love barbecue, as you know, not exactly going to, you know, spend all the time cooking it, but I will pay for it. And

But I love watching others and friends, the enjoyment of them staying up all night cooking it, but I'll leave it to them.

Future Of Selling (05:30)
Got

it, got it. All right, well, there's your, so there's our three fun facts. Now you are a human, so we know who you are, is great. So, but let's jump, kind of jump into the topic today, right? So let me set it up like this. A few weeks ago, maybe a month ago now, or a little bit more, you and I were in a conversation with a couple of other people, and you made this statement, you know, we've been working with a prospect, right, and getting pretty far along in the process, and you made this statement that, you know,

Jim Trimarco (05:36)
Yeah, thank you.

Future Of Selling (06:00)
we've run a really, really good process, know, really strong process. And when you said that, I kind of took it and wrote it in my mental parking lot and set it aside. And we went on the conversation, you know, whatever, you know, for that day. But the more and more I thought about it, I thought, you know, I want to get JT on and talk about this because this is something that affects any B2B sales organization. Any B2B team is the process that they're running.

So that's kind of the tee up for it and where this came from and why I was so excited about having you on. So, but a few questions and I'll kind of let you take it from there. So when you think about running a great B2B sales process, what does that mean to you? When you say that, unpack that just a little bit. How do you define that or what does that mean to you to run a good, strong B2B sales process?

Jim Trimarco (06:57)
I think it really starts with, it has to start with the customer in mind, right? So hands down, the biggest disappointment, you know, for any buyer or anybody that's reviewing something that they're interested in is when whoever the person is that's selling them is just dumping all of their materials, right? They're just, they're showing up. They're, they're, they're so excited to highlight all of their stuff and all the things it does, you know, et cetera, but they don't spend the appropriate amount of time.

really figuring out, what problem are we trying to solve? Like how do I act as a partner? You you hear this debate between, you a vendor or are you a partner? And there's plenty of vendors out there that are just trying to sell something. The partners are the ones that actually stop, spend the appropriate amount of time in some magic words like discovery, and then really think about, okay, can I partner early and then partner over a really long period of time to actually help the customer?

you know, and achieve something and the company achieve something that they otherwise are either struggling with or they haven't been able to figure out on the.

Future Of Selling (08:03)
Gotcha. So, starts with the customer in mind, right? Focus don't be in a partner, not a vendor. So if you took it one step further and not just what does it mean, but what does it look like, you know, from kind of step one to step two, you don't have to go too deep, but go as deep as you want. But what is it? What is a good strong B2B sales process look like? If you're ever kind of laying this out in a map, what has to be there?

Jim Trimarco (08:33)
Yeah, I well, number one, it starts with preparation, right? And really preparation that that starts before you even have your first call or you're engaging with somebody. you know, there's this there's this, you know, marketing, you know, philosophy called ABM, account based marketing, really, where you're ultimately organization is really working to share their information, highlight what they do.

really get the word out and get their brand out and get awareness out. So at the point where you actually do engage with somebody, they already have a decent idea either of what you do specifically, or they have a pretty good idea of what they're looking for, right? And whether you fit or not, that's a different conversation. But the reality is the coolest technology out there actually sells itself, right?

That's probably less than 0.1 % of companies and solutions out there. know, for the rest of us, you've got to really run that discipline process, which is, think, you where, this conversation started is like, what does it mean if my stuff isn't that good? That will, it will just sell itself and it jumps off the shelves. Then I've got to run a better process. And that really starts with marketing preparation, making sure that the buyer has a pretty good understanding of what they're, you know, you know,

you know, who you are and, know, even before they get on a call.

Future Of Selling (10:04)
Got it. Got it. Okay. So starts up front preparation. buyer knows who buyer knows who you are before you get on the, before you get on the call and, when, and what, let me ask you this, what led you to make that statement that day that, Hey, we ran a really strong process. Cause we were already pretty far down, down the, down, down the pipeline, you know, back down the, down the process itself. So what do you think, mean, beyond, beyond just a, you know, those initial stages.

What does a great process look like from there? mean, what happens?

Jim Trimarco (10:35)
Yeah, I made the statement because when we first engaged with this buyer, they actually told us, look, I've read your material. It fits what I'm looking for, I think. Now I really like to learn some more. So what they did was they really gave us the opportunity to take the conversation one of two ways. We could have either jumped in and just started presenting and saying, hey, look, here's all the great things that we do.

and why we think we're going to be a great fit. What we did and really what our lead account executive did, they really took the time to just stop and really start getting deep around that discovery side, right? So they made discovery the foundation of the entire process. And discovery, look, that can take 15, 20 minutes. It could take an hour. It could actually be multiple calls because oftentimes,

You know, if you and I are the first ones that are talking about something and whether you're the decision maker or not the decision maker, there are other people that are also going to be involved in the process. So it's trying to figure out and learn from each of those different personalities could be, they could be part of a different business unit. could be, they could have a different challenge or something that they're trying to solve. And the key to that discovery part of the section is really learning all those things and then being able to come back later.

and tying it all together. Here are the things I heard, here are the things that potentially we could help with. And actually trying to present a teachable moment instead of just sharing all the different things that you do.

Future Of Selling (12:19)
Tell me about the teachable moment. You know, I've had these conversations about the dopamine moment, right? Is that the same thing? Or unpack the teachable moment. What are you trying to accomplish there?

Jim Trimarco (12:31)
Yeah, think, look, the teachable moment there's, and you know, there's, there's a great book and I can't remember if you and I talked about this or not, but there's a great book called The Trusted Advisor. And this came out, you know, early 2000s. And it talks about, you know, basically people buy from people that they understand, they trust, but ultimately it's something that, you know, they get taught something from them. So it also kind of references the difference between a salesperson and a consultant.

Future Of Selling (12:44)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jim Trimarco (13:01)
Right. Sales person is just trying to get something to the finish line. The consultants actually taking the time, you know, handling some coaching, potentially handling a teachable moment, really trying to take them through a journey of here's the things that I heard. Here's what, you know, potentially you could, you know, how you could solve those things. then, then by the way, it's at the end and then here's the things my organization or our team or our consultants.

can actually contribute to whatever goals that you're trying to achieve.

Future Of Selling (13:32)
Yeah, gotcha. Yeah, well, you brought it up so I can't help myself now, but I'm with you. I love the book, The Trust Equation, right? High reliability, high credibility, high intimacy divided by kind of a low self-interest, right? So it's not all about me. that's it. I think that's, you you talked many ago about partner versus vendor. That's that partnering relationship.

I'm building the credibility, the reliability, the intimacy, all those things are there. And it's just not about me trying to reach my end goal of close the deal, but it's actually trying to, it's about trying to bring value to the client and make sure that they're experiencing that. That's what I hear.

Jim Trimarco (14:10)
Yeah, it's well, and what ties together, I think really well there also is every salesperson, every company is trying to figure out how to build a relationship at multiple levels with their hope, you know, either perspective partners, you know, and, or if it's a, an existing customer. And so you really have to think about multi-threading, you know, your sales process and you know, it's, it's not enough just to say.

look, I'm at the director level or I'm even at the C level as part of an organization. We, have to be connected really from the executive level down through the power user level and make sure that everyone is heard. Right? So, you know, there, there's a, there's a, a pretty good stat out there and I'll probably get it slightly wrong, but it talks about how you, know, buyers need to be emotionally connected to the process and it gets a little squishy.

You know, when you start to talk about being emotionally connected to a sales process, but I think what it's saying is, and it's something like 50 or 52%, you know, you know, you have to, they have to feel like they're connected at that level, or they're just not going to be satisfied in the buying process. You, you won't get to the finish line is what'll happen. You'll get 90 % through presenting and talking and forming your relationship, cetera. But if they're not connected to the process, they'll actually just go and buy from somebody.

that they feel like they've got a better or stronger connection to.

Future Of Selling (15:38)
Okay, gotcha. So, you my next question I wanted to ask you was kind of right along those lines is how does running a great B2B sales process benefit? I mean, obviously it would benefit us as a company running the process, right? But then what are two or three or four things that, how does it benefit the buyer themselves? So one, know, that emotional engagement I'm sure is a net positive for them.

What are the other things that come from that for the buyer themselves if you're running a really strong process?

Jim Trimarco (16:11)
Yeah, I'll tie it back to that teachable moment. I mean, the reality is, you know, people come into a sales process and they most of the time know what they're trying to solve for. But I think the really exciting process, you know, processes turn into, well, okay, you shared with me maybe how you're going to fix problem one, two and three that I talked about. But now through the process, you actually brought up problems three, four and five that I wasn't maybe necessarily connecting.

or linking to this challenge. And sometimes that's because they didn't know that you had that product set, or they didn't know that something was integrated in a certain way as part of the solution. So again, back to that teachable moment, they're, coming in and they're learning something new. What does that do? It teaches it, you know, it builds credibility, you know, it builds trust. It also builds a discipline, you know, in the sales process, because you know, most times when somebody, especially at the enterprise level, when you're,

you know, in a full sales process, the reality is they're generally looking at two, three, maybe even more other companies that either do the near the same thing that you do. Everybody's trying to differentiate and trying to figure out and showcase why their stuff's different. but for argument's sake, if, if, if, you know, you're one of three or four and you, know, all do something similar, you know, although it's nuanced to your individual company,

If you're the person that builds credibility, you're the person that builds trust, you're the one that's that teaches them something different. You will end up shining at the end. And then oftentimes when people talk about, where does price come into this equation? Do you have to be the least expensive? Do you want to be in the middle or can you actually charge a premium for your service? I can tell you this. If you're not the one that's teaching something, if you're not showcasing, you know, your solution and really tying it back to solving their problem.

and you try to charge a premium, most of the time you're going to lose.

Future Of Selling (18:13)
Yeah, yeah, gotcha, gotcha. Makes complete sense. So when I think about the kind of how you answered that then, so, you know, how is it good for the buyer? One, they've got that emotional connection, right? That trust is built there. But then also just, and that's key, right? That the buyer, me as a buyer, if you're teaching me something, then I may again be focused on one, two, and three, but you show me four, five, and six. So I come out of that with really a

bigger picture understanding of how I'm going to improve whatever the issue is that I'm dealing with, right? Cause I don't buy software just for the fun of it. You know, don't just go, oh, let's buy something. I mean, it's either going to create opportunity for me or it's solving a problem. Those are the only two reasons to do something like that. So you're giving me a more holistic point of view. And, and, and, and actually probably creating a stronger, a stronger presence for me within my company I work in. So that's awesome.

Jim Trimarco (19:11)
Yeah. And I think one other point on that, Rick, know, sales teams often run into trouble because they forget that selling is a team sport. All right. So there's always someone that's out front. If you want to call them the quarterback, it's a little overplayed sometimes, but that person's role and that person's job is to make sure they're bringing your organization, whoever that is, and your solution to life. Yes, it's about

features and benefits, right? But ultimately it's around like, what is the team that's going to be involved in delivering the right experience? And the team starts in yes, in the pre-sales process, right? So you can have multiple people that are involved there. Sometimes, you know, that's a solution consultant or a sales engineer or someone that's helping more from the technical side of the selling could be, you know, some sales leader, you know, or manager that's bringing a different executive, you know, part of the relationship or talk track, et cetera.

But this is also where I think the sales team has to remember it's generally a go-to-market team, right? So we've had a lot of conversations around what does go-to-market mean versus just sales? Well, go-to-market generally then includes your marketing team. It includes your customer success or your customer support team. And why is that important? Because the customer, your prospective customer that you're trying to sell to also needs to have a pretty comfortable feeling around what's this going to feel like after?

Future Of Selling (20:15)
Bye.

Jim Trimarco (20:39)
I signed. So I've agreed to give you my money. I'm taking on your solution. If you're in the technology space like we are, well then does the selling end? Actually, the relationship is just beginning, right? And there's, there's this ongoing selling or sales, you know, and support process that now takes over. And, and, you know, the, again, the best enterprise sales process brings those personalities and brings that solution and brings that relationship in while you're

still testing to see if this is gonna be a good relationship moving forward. Because again, once they sign, the salesperson typically, they don't leave the equation, but they could move to the back seat. And then the rest of your go-to-market team starts to move to the front seat. And then the new process begins, and that's what's hopefully is gonna take place for a very long period of time.

Future Of Selling (21:22)
Yep. Yep.

Yeah, yeah. if I again, yeah, so if I'm running a good process, one, you guys are doing from an AE perspective or the sales team perspective, there's some real vision casting that's going on about, this is what, not only are we gonna be able to meet or whatever the solution is that you need, but this is what this is going to feel like in the future. This is the experience that you're going to have.

And then if you're doing a really good job, you're probably including some of those personalities along the way. So really giving them the full picture of that overall experience. awesome. Okay, good deal. So we mentioned on the, when we started, you've been in sales and global sales and everything else for 20 plus years. What have you seen?

changes in the sales process in say the last five years? What does that look like? What have been some of the significant or have there been any significant changes that you see coming into an effective sales process?

Jim Trimarco (22:39)
Yeah, I think the biggest change and this is, don't know if it's in the last five years, maybe it's over the last 10 years, I would say. And I think it's tying it back to the type of research and what the market knows before they even engage. So I've, you know, in previous lives, you know, all of our sale in a previous company, I should say all of our sales process has started really with an RFP, right?

Future Of Selling (23:07)
Yeah,

okay.

Jim Trimarco (23:08)
Company

would send out a series of questions and they'd ask somewhere between three and sometimes 10 different companies to fill out all the information, put all your data points down, what do you do, answer this question. Some of them are yes, no. Some of those are pretty detailed and they're looking for use case examples, et cetera. And then they'd narrow it down to say the top two or three, you were the finalist, right? And you made it through to the next round.

and, and, know, in, in our current world, there's not as many RFPs, which tells you that, okay, the people are doing all their research ahead of time. It doesn't mean they're not going to ask you all the questions and, and, and have you explain how you're going to do things. But the reality is 85%. You know, of the buying process happens before you're even talking to somebody. back to that, how are you, how is the company thinking about ensuring that.

there's proper marketing, you're addressing the problems specific to your ICP, and it's really targeted because why is that important? Because they're doing all the research ahead of time. By the time they get into this conversation, of course, yes, you're gonna put your slideware up there in your deck and you're gonna get into a demo experience, but they probably have a pretty good understanding of what they're looking for already. And so therefore the question and answer period and that...

coaching and teaching, you know, that teaching moment should be very targeted.

Future Of Selling (24:35)
Yeah.

Right. Right. Okay. Got it. So yeah, that makes perfect sense because you've just got you, you, you've got less opportunity to make an impact. Right. Because if they've actually done 85 % of the research, if that's the number ahead of time, then you've really got 15 % left. So, so it's not, I mean, you've got to be extremely articulate and extremely clear and, and, be able to be, you know, be able to talk about your, know, how you deliver value. So, okay.

So what do you think, what are some of the most common mistakes you've seen B2B sales teams make in trying to run their process? Where do they, know, maybe where are the top three? Where do they fall down? Where do they make the mistakes?

Jim Trimarco (25:20)
Yeah, I think the biggest mistake, and it sounds like a simple one, and if you bump into any enterprise technology seller, they'll tell you that they do this, but the majority of them do not, which is before you leave your existing conversation, and sometimes that conversation's on an email, or sometimes it's on a live call, or sometimes it's on a Zoom meeting like this.

you have to make sure that you're setting up your next step, right? And there has to be actionable takeaways. Sometimes the takeaways or the actions are, you the customer owes those actions. Hey, Rick, we talked about these two or three things and we talked about, you know, these data points, you know, that would be really helpful if you can provide more specifics there. Why is that important? Because we're going to then take that and build that through our model.

and then be able to present back exactly how our solution can help you. So just kind of mock example. Sometimes the customer is the one that actually has to provide the information. And what does that do? It keeps them engaged in the process. Oftentimes it's on the actual company or the seller side. in every call, everyone's not gonna have every answer.

Future Of Selling (26:30)
Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Jim Trimarco (26:42)
You know, there's going to be things where I, you know, I just don't have that information. You know, when, when deeper than my technical expertise, I need to talk to this person or that person, or I have to go do some research. Well, that provides an opportunity to come back to the conversation and, know, and then present that information. So, you know, I can't leave the call, you know, if it's, you know, Tuesday, you know, at nine 30 in the morning, well, okay. Can we jump back on, you know, tomorrow afternoon at two o'clock as an example? Well, no, that's not going to work for me.

Well, how's Friday at either 930 or at 10 a.m. Right. So making sure that next step is set, because if not, the conversation most likely it'll just float away. Somebody else will swoop in and do a better job at their follow up process and therefore keeping the customer engaged.

Future Of Selling (27:32)
Got it, got it, okay. So yeah, and you didn't use this word, but I'm a big believer in this, right? It's just the urgency piece because, know, clear next steps, clear takeaways, clear things like that, but also clearly not delivered three weeks from now. Let's get back together tomorrow. Let's get back together Friday. Let's, know, Monday of next week to create that little bit of positive tension that, my gosh, this is important. We can't let this get away from us.

Jim Trimarco (28:02)
Yeah, and you're saying in the right polished way, but I'll say it in the soapbox way that happens oftentimes in the field. And the statement is time kills all deals. Right? So it's an age old saying, but it's true. And time doesn't equal, you know, if two or three weeks goes by, time can equal days. look, there's back to your comment around urgency. That company or person, they may need to make a decision.

Future Of Selling (28:14)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jim Trimarco (28:32)
that week or at a minimum, submit in for budget or get something approved or turn to whoever their bosses and say, look, I recommend Rick's organization and Jim's organization. These are the two I want to move forward with. Well, if you're the third person in that conversation and you didn't follow up appropriately, you didn't engage them, you didn't form a relationship on a different level back to that, you how do you, you know, making sure that you're covering.

Future Of Selling (29:05)
Yeah, gotcha, gotcha. Yeah, I've seen that before where it goes back, like I said, time kills all deals, right? Where we just didn't feel like we were, I don't know the other, we'll get back together in six weeks from now. That's almost, that seems like just like a nail in the coffin. mean, you either that or you don't really have.

Jim Trimarco (29:24)
You've wasted your time at that point. You probably

wasted their time. That's why they're telling you they'll talk to you in six weeks.

Future Of Selling (29:32)
Probably true. Probably true. How do you, how do you coach to that with your team now or your teams in the past? And, know, how do you coach to that, to that next step, you know, mentality, that urgency mentality?

Jim Trimarco (29:46)
Yeah, it's, it's, it's well, the coaching is take place obviously before, you know, you even get on that call and it's, and it's making sure you're working with your AEs or if it's your pre, you know, more of your, you know, SDR tip of spear and BDR type team. And, and it's making sure that there is some type of, you know, selling philosophy. That's, that's, that's really trained, you know, and educated throughout your sales team. And there's lots of good ones. Right. So I've been fortunate over the years to be involved.

you know, in a number of different selling philosophies, something like, you know, spin selling is a great one out there where you're really focused on, you know, the situation, the problem, you know, what's the implication, what's the need, how do you, how, how do you deliver that back, you know, challenge your sales, you know, a great one, force management, you know, each of these, you know, are good in their own, right. you, what you really have to do is make sure you're picking the right one.

that applies to your specific business, your specific market. you know, and then, and, but, then all of them, we, you know, we'll, we'll make sure that they highlight no matter what happens in the conversation, you're trying to set up your next conversation. You're trying to set up your next person to make sure that, that we have something on the calendar and that both parties are coming to the middle. If you don't do that again, things just take too much time. And then all of a sudden, well,

Nobody's responding anymore and that means you lose.

Future Of Selling (31:14)
Yeah, yeah. Got it. Got it. Okay. So name of the podcast is Future of Selling, right? So if we look ahead next, probably not five years, probably next 12 months, because everything is changing so fast. The onset of AI, you know, it's been here a while now, right? But it's continues to change things. know, data analytics, all the things that we do now, right? What do you see?

What do you see maybe changing in the B2B sales process over the next 12 months, 24, three years, whatever it may be? What are you seeing that we need to be thinking about?

Jim Trimarco (31:52)
Well, I'm glad you brought up AI, right? So you can't really, I think, have any conversation, read anything and not have AI now be a part of every person's life. That's both on the professional side and it's on the personal side as well. I think any organization or any go-to-market team that's really not already working on how do they implement AI as part of their process,

they've probably already lost. They're probably getting lapped by the competition because other teams are already working on this and thinking about it. And, you at this point, even, you know, our go-to-market team, you know, every single morning, and then every single day, they've already started layering in AI, not just in our technology. And it is part of our, you know, solution set in our technology suite. But simple things, like how's an email crafted?

Future Of Selling (32:49)
Right.

Jim Trimarco (32:50)
What's, what are the takeaways? You know, I mentioned, you know, force management before, you know, and the entire philosophy around force management is really thinking about the PBO, right? The positive business outcomes that the customer is going to care about. You, you have a problem, customer or company. What are you, how are you trying to solve that problem? And then what's the outcome if you did solve it, that's at the company level. And then it can be down into.

you know, the power user level as well. And then there's a way that that philosophy teaches you, you know, on how you communicate to the customer. It's how you communicate within, you know, your, your sales deck and your presentation, the language that you use, but then all the way down to, know, how do you follow up with emails? How do you follow up when they asked you three questions, you didn't have the answer. And then you send them some information later. You could just send them the answer to those three questions, or you could.

use AI, you know, and with just a couple of simple prompts and say, build this in, you know, as force management would respond. Right? So the question was this, this is our answer. Now build it into this format that delivers the message in a way that hopefully the person on the other end goes, boy, they did listen. They did listen. They gave me the answer. They gave me some data points that are going to support that. I like how they run their sales process. That all ties back to that.

Future Of Selling (33:56)
Right. Yeah.

Jim Trimarco (34:18)
Am I running something as efficiently as I possibly can in an enterprise setting?

Future Of Selling (34:23)
Yeah.

Yeah. Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah. So, so if I'm not using, so if I, as we look ahead then next 12 months, 24, 36 months, right. The key from your standpoint would be look, AI is here. AI is making a difference. If you're not using it, if as a team, you're not leaning into this already, then you're either getting lapped or you need to get in, get in now, right? You're getting beat by other teams or you need to get in now and figure, and figure this thing out and how to make, and how to make the most of it.

Jim Trimarco (34:46)
You.

Future Of Selling (34:52)
while probably at the same time still being human, right? People like to buy from humans, goes back to the whole trust equation, trusted advisor, that whole thing. But how do you use, how do you utilize AI in your kind of daily workflow? That's what I've been saying.

Jim Trimarco (35:07)
Nobody I think wants their homework anymore, but that's your night homework for every seller and every sales leader out there. You have to spend some time post-working hours to really figure out how are you going to layer that into your process? The magic words, becoming more efficient, becoming more productive, how do you get to that point? AI is going to help you do those things.

Future Of Selling (35:12)
Yeah.

Yeah, gotcha, gotcha. Okay, cool. So last question, I know you got to go, I you got to run. So I want to let you get back to kind of business here. But you know, I always like to end the podcast with a few key takeaways, right from the discussion. If somebody's listening to this and you know, so great discussion, love JT, love Rick, I hope. But you know, what do I take away from this really nice, really good discussion we've had? And here's the way I want to think about it. I'm a new sales leader.

right, a fairly new sales leader. And I've come into a team, I'm the new sales leader for that team. And I'm looking at I'm going something doesn't seem right. I want to improve the process I want to put in. I want to put in place just like you said, we ran a really strong process. If I'm that sales leader and I'm fairly new to the game and I'm trying to make an impact, what are the what are the key takeaways from from your perspective? The you know, the three to

could be as many as five you want, but what are the key takeaways? What would you recommend to that person?

Jim Trimarco (36:32)
If you

want to win in enterprise sales, I would focus on three things. Number one, make sure you're prepared. Preparation is going to win. You have to do your homework before that first call. The customer is doing their homework. You have to also make sure you're doing your homework. using things like, you know, in partnering, you know, with your marketing team around ABM and research, making sure you can understand who the customer is.

And how then can you or your company do something better than all the others? And if you're struggling figuring that out or thinking about your differentiators, you have more work to do as a company because what every company does have something that is better or different. You have to make sure you're bringing that to life, you know, in the copper, in the conversation. So preparation is number one. number two then is the focus on discovery. I would argue discovery is everything.

You know, back to that spin selling approach. If you're using thoughtful questions to uncover the customer's real needs, and then you're working on aligning that to whatever the value is, right? And whatever the solution is that you bring to the table, you can't do that the other way around. The challenge with, you know, failed AEs, you know, people that have just, you know, they've made a career in sales, except they've never really gone anywhere with it is that they do it the other way around.

Future Of Selling (38:02)
Right.

Jim Trimarco (38:02)
They're

very good at messaging. They're very good at communicating some of them, but they're starting with themselves first, not spending the appropriate amount of time in discovery and really learning from the customer. So I think that's the second thing. And then the third thing, this is now enterprise selling. So if you're in a more transactional sales environment, this one might not apply as much. execution and presenting and winning a customer and then winning a long-term partnership, that's a team sport.

Future Of Selling (38:33)
Got it.

Jim Trimarco (38:33)
Right?

So in order to build that, you know, become that true trusted advisor, you've got to focus, yes, on the relationship at multiple levels, but you're doing it from a team standpoint. So it's thinking about your own leadership. It's thinking about your, you know, other people on your team, whether that's someone else within go-to-market, someone else on the technical side, someone on the engineering side. There are other people that you will need.

in order to bring your company, your solution, you know, to life, to really make sure that you can close that deal.

Future Of Selling (39:06)
Got it, got it. Okay, so top three takeaways. You wanna make a difference, you wanna run an enterprise sales process. Preparation is key, number one. Second, focus on the discovery. Discovery is everything, making sure that you can align your product and the value you bring with their actual needs so that you can make a difference and make an impact on their experience, their environment, whatever they're trying to accomplish. And then lastly, I love this because you're really good at this one. I you're good at all of them, right?

the team sport, right? You bring that up a lot, right? This is a team sport and I love that about you. And so that's kind of the third key. If I'm a new sales leader, those are the three things I should be thinking about. Got it, got it. Okay. Thank you, sir. I appreciate the time today. I know you're a busy man and, but you know, thanks for being on the podcast today and we will talk to you soon. All right. Thanks. Bye.

Jim Trimarco (39:48)
That's it.

Thanks Rick, lot of Talk

to you later.