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The secret sauce to your sales success? It's what happens before the sale. It's the pre-sales. And it's more than demo automation. It's the work that goes on to connect technology and people in a really thoughtful way. If you want strong revenue, high retention, and shorter sales cycles, pre-work centered around the human that makes the dream work, but you already know that.
The Unexpected Lever is your partner in growing revenue by doing what you already do best—combining your technical skills with your strategic insights. Brought to you by Vivun, this show highlights the people and peers behind the brands who understand what it takes to grow revenue. You're not just preparing for the sale—you're unlocking potential.
Join us as we share stories of sales engineers who make a difference, their challenges, their successes, and the human connections that drive us all, one solution at a time.
Jarod Greene [00:00:00]:
Hey, everyone. Welcome to V5, where we spend exactly five minutes getting on our soapbox about some of the hottest and spiciest topics in all of B2B sales. Natalie Marcotullio, Head of Growth Operations at Navattic, has a hot take she wants to share with you. And without further ado, let's get started. Natalie, what you got?
Natalie Marcotullio [00:00:21]:
Okay, so if you've heard me on any type of podcast or followed me on LinkedIn, where I'm on way too much, you've probably heard this before. But I have a fundamental belief that we have created buyers or buying just B2B buying software in general for the sales reps are more for the company and for tracking for CRMs than we actually have for our buyers. So I feel like ten years ago, buying software, people didn't really know how to do it. It was new. Not everyone was used to it. So it's really helpful that the buyers had a very specific process to follow. It was, okay, I'm going to see if you're qualified or nothing. Then I'm going to ask you a million questions, then maybe show you a demo, then do pricing.
Natalie Marcotullio [00:00:59]:
But a more complex sales cycle, which obviously software used to be more complex. It used to be more complex. That made sense. Now almost anyone's bought software, and not just like any leader. I feel like anyone across any has bought software in some way. So this concept still, that we think as the company, we know better than the buyer about what they want. I feel like we just haven't adapted. For example, the fact that still so often a first person you're meeting with is a BDR, and this is no shame to bdrs, this is not your fault.
Natalie Marcotullio [00:01:27]:
I think this is just the way the industry is. But you're talking to someone about a problem that you might have known for like a year or two in your life, you are deeply knowledgeable on, and someone who maybe knows a little more about the product than you, but probably not more than the problem to decide if you're a good fit or not for that software. In my mind, that just feels a little backwards and that we should trust our buyers and give them the information they need to qualify themselves versus feeling like they don't know what to do.
Jarod Greene [00:01:52]:
Totally. And I've seen the research you've done on this. I've seen you talk about this. When they come to the SDR, when they finally muster up the energy to talk, they're way down the buyer's journey. So, I mean, what recommendations do you have for folks who are in that position? To say, well, we've always done it this way and we need that qualification, because without it, we're going to end up talking to tire kickers of people who don't maybe want to part ways with their money as fast as we want them to.
Natalie Marcotullio [00:02:15]:
It's more just rather than using that time to just ask a string of questions that, let's be honest, you could probably get through enrichment, like enrich your data, figure out their company size, use it to have an open conversation about, really, what are you trying to accomplish, what are your goals? And then pass that to the AE so the AE doesn't have to do the same discovery twice or build on top of it. So I think the biggest thing is just like, give your reps the data up front and figure out what you can in an automated fashion versus doing all manual qualification.
Jarod Greene [00:02:44]:
Totally. And then what do you see at Navattic? The whole demo automation space fitting into helping accelerate those journeys, I think as.
Natalie Marcotullio [00:02:51]:
Much as you can. I talked about giving that buyer information upfront, like pricing demos, just a way that trust, again, that your buyer knows how to buy, show them the product beforehand, show them your pricing, and then they'll decide, oh, is this a good fit for me? Yes. No. And you don't have to worry about them wasting time with your AE.
Jarod Greene [00:03:06]:
Yeah. What do you say to the CRO who hears that and freaks out and says, no, I want to talk to everybody about everything all the time. Don't show them all that stuff. What would you say to that person?
Natalie Marcotullio [00:03:14]:
I would say start by experimenting, maybe in your sales cycle. Just start by showing your product earlier. Send interactive demos, send pricing in the sales cycle, and see how much faster and more qualified those sales cycles are.
Jarod Greene [00:03:25]:
Yeah, we see it all the time. And I've said this as well as Gartner research, most folks want to talk to the sales engineer, and I think that's a function of I want to see the product fast, I want to see what it does and I want to see what it costs. And if I can get those things, which I can't sometimes get on the website or can't get my own search, if I get those things, I can make a decision a little faster. So 100% subscribe and support to the thinking on, just show them the things and trust that they'll ultimately make the right decision.
Natalie Marcotullio [00:03:51]:
Yeah, just trust your buyers. It comes down to that trust.
Jarod Greene [00:03:54]:
I get it now. Anything you're working on or want to talk about in any context at all while we got some time left?
Natalie Marcotullio [00:03:59]:
Well, we have a little minute left. I think I mentioned, you know, we put out research about this B2B buying report. We put it out in like May, but we looked at top 100 B2B SaaS companies, how buyer friendly they are. If you want to see how most of these websites stack up and put their buyer first, go check out that report. I think you'll be surprised to see how many don't necessarily put their buyer first and hide important information like demos or pricing.
Jarod Greene [00:04:22]:
Love that. Thank you. Appreciate it. We'll get that into the link here. So, Natalie, thanks for joining us for the V5 audience. You know what to do. If this is a take you want to hear more on and extend this V5 to maybe a V15, let me know. Send me a message or comment accordingly and we might see Natalie back to extend on this hot take.
Natalie Marcotullio [00:04:42]:
Thanks for having me.
Jarod Greene [00:04:43]:
Hi. Thanks for being, thanks. Appreciate it. And we'll talk to you soon.