This week, we’ve got insights into the gender disparity in enterprise sales, as well as some interesting lessons from some surprising sources. Take a break from the grind and catch up on some of the best content from last week.
What Does it Mean to Be a Woman in Sales? 16 Sales Experts Speak (HubSpot)
We’ve covered enterprise sales’ “boys’ club” problem before, but it bears repeating: It’s hard to be a woman in today’s revenue function. There are a variety of reasons for that, and none of them are good. In this HubSpot video, 16 female sellers from a variety of industries share tips, challenges, pain points, and more. It’s worth a watch, and if you don’t already agree that sales needs a more representative female presence, you will after seeing this video.
Conquering the Three Big Fears In Enterprise Sales (Enterprise Irregulars)
Even for experienced sellers – occasionally, fear of not retiring their quota becomes a paralyzing issue. In this post, Vijay Vijayasankar, Global Senior Client Partner & Vice President at IBM, shares the three biggest fears he observes in Enterprise sales, and his advice for overcoming them.
The Growing Business of Helping Customers Slow Down (HBR)
Emails. IMs. Meetings. Calls. Doing actual work. Everyone’s multitasking— including your prospects—but there’s value in getting away from screens whenever possible. HBR breaks down how some consumer companies are helping customers decompress and unplug, and there are valuable lessons here enterprise sellers, too, including the notion that meaningful human interaction unimpeded by tech can be seen as a value-add. Keep that in mind the next time you call on a client, and keep the slides to a minimum. Better yet, try to get them out of the office and away from tech altogether.
Inside Jeffrey Katzenberg’s plan to spend up to $1b by 2025 on programming for Quibi (Digiday)
The real story here isn’t Katzenberg’s quest to sell his nascent streaming network to investors—it’s how he’s selling it. This story details his pitch deck, complete with market research, a very buttoned-up (and very ambitious) set of financial projections and user metrics, and some big-time names being dropped. It’s essentially a how-to for selling a product that’s still in development from a guy who knows what he’s doing.
