#Revenue 10: How Balto Raised $10M in Series A Funding

WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.879 --> 00:00:07.910 You get on the call, you know what you're supposed to do, you 2 00:00:08.230 --> 00:00:15.390 hang up the phone and you say I totally freaking blue that. Welcome to 3 00:00:15.429 --> 00:00:20.789 the Revenue Series on BTB growth. I'm your host, John Grispin, founder 4 00:00:20.949 --> 00:00:26.219 and sales coach at early revenue. So let's get going. Today I'm here 5 00:00:26.420 --> 00:00:33.060 with Mark Bernstein, the CEO and founder of Balto. Welcome mark. Thank 6 00:00:33.100 --> 00:00:36.450 you, John, appreciate you having me lots. I'm super excited to have 7 00:00:36.570 --> 00:00:40.369 you here. So let's just level set for for everyone. Our guests are 8 00:00:40.490 --> 00:00:45.130 CEO's, revenue leaders and venture firms, and our purpose is to provide early 9 00:00:45.289 --> 00:00:51.960 stage tech founders and their sales leaders insights and best practices on two topics that 10 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:57.159 are top of mine for leaders, how tos of growing early stage sales and 11 00:00:57.359 --> 00:01:00.840 fund raising. So thanks again for being here, Mark. No problem, 12 00:01:02.039 --> 00:01:04.390 and those are about my two favorite things. So it looks like we're in 13 00:01:04.430 --> 00:01:07.310 good shape, excellent. So we are aligned from the get go here. 14 00:01:07.390 --> 00:01:11.030 So why don't you tell us first of all a little bit about your background? 15 00:01:11.349 --> 00:01:17.510 Sure? So I started in BDB SASS as an account executive and actually, 16 00:01:17.870 --> 00:01:22.579 when I graduated school just a few years ago, sooner than I'd like 17 00:01:22.620 --> 00:01:27.340 to admit I asked one of the professor's Jaunched borship program what are the skills 18 00:01:27.420 --> 00:01:30.299 that I should pick up, the motion important skills in order to be able 19 00:01:30.700 --> 00:01:38.370 to start in market leading company, and the answer was sales, because you're 20 00:01:38.450 --> 00:01:42.090 either selling in order to get customers in the door, because in the beginning 21 00:01:42.689 --> 00:01:46.049 you can't just hire our sales person, it's you, and that's a true 22 00:01:46.129 --> 00:01:49.159 forever, I think. And then or you're selling to get dollars in the 23 00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:53.840 door, fundraising, tell your story and get investors excited about what you're building, 24 00:01:53.840 --> 00:01:57.560 or you're selling to get talent and have the absolute best, the best, 25 00:01:57.599 --> 00:02:00.950 join your team. So I heard that and said, okay, let 26 00:02:00.989 --> 00:02:07.750 me start in be to be Sass because that's space I'm particularly interested in. 27 00:02:07.909 --> 00:02:10.389 A cloud is booming. It was booming back that, it's still booming now. 28 00:02:12.030 --> 00:02:15.900 And I started as an account executive at a company in St Louis called 29 00:02:15.979 --> 00:02:23.419 top ops, and very apsolutely. Top OPS helps folks manage the opportunities in 30 00:02:23.460 --> 00:02:27.860 their sales funnel and if something is falling off track or you aren't following the 31 00:02:27.900 --> 00:02:30.330 process like you should, topps will kind of help you and say hey, 32 00:02:30.930 --> 00:02:34.810 you might be missing something here. So that was a really great way to 33 00:02:34.969 --> 00:02:38.729 get my feet wet and understand what is a good sales process look like? 34 00:02:38.810 --> 00:02:42.689 What is good follow up look like? How do you manage the interactions along 35 00:02:42.729 --> 00:02:47.120 the sales funnel? And what I found there is actually what led to the 36 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:52.439 inside of Ballt, and that is I would go into the my manager's Office 37 00:02:52.520 --> 00:02:53.960 for Sales Coaching, and the manager was a CEO, because topps is a 38 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:58.560 start up as well, and I go in the CEO's office and he would 39 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:02.349 give me a bunch of really great points on exactly how I should conduct the 40 00:03:02.509 --> 00:03:06.669 next call. It's a mark. I just listen to your call recording here. 41 00:03:06.669 --> 00:03:08.590 It is you. When they ask for the price, you just said, 42 00:03:08.590 --> 00:03:10.789 okay, sure, here's the price, and you just like Gott to 43 00:03:10.909 --> 00:03:15.259 spit it out, take a minute and confirm that they like the product for 44 00:03:15.180 --> 00:03:20.900 so I was a good point. And also member to ask the discovery questions 45 00:03:20.939 --> 00:03:23.580 that you know we've talked about, and remember to make sure you always ask 46 00:03:23.620 --> 00:03:25.939 the next meeting. Remember to make sure you qualify. And I would hear 47 00:03:25.979 --> 00:03:30.009 these things like this is all excellent coaching and I would get on the call 48 00:03:30.569 --> 00:03:36.330 and have that experience that every single person in sales has had their lifetime. 49 00:03:36.370 --> 00:03:38.530 That's you get on the call, you don't you supposed to do, you 50 00:03:38.849 --> 00:03:45.639 hang up the phone and you say, I totally freaking blue that I knew 51 00:03:45.639 --> 00:03:47.479 what I was supposed to do. I do supposed to do all those things, 52 00:03:47.520 --> 00:03:52.719 but I didn't. And what I realize there is that there's this gap 53 00:03:53.479 --> 00:03:57.750 between an inside of what you should do, knowledge but with the best practices, 54 00:03:58.189 --> 00:04:00.509 and then actually doing it in the moments that you need to do it. 55 00:04:01.069 --> 00:04:04.669 So, long story short, that's how that led me to Bolto, 56 00:04:04.909 --> 00:04:10.340 where we invented a what we call real time guidance, and that is an 57 00:04:10.340 --> 00:04:16.100 ai that analyzes your sales and customer service conversations as they are actually happening and 58 00:04:16.980 --> 00:04:21.579 it'll give you recommendations on the side of your computer screen about the absolute best 59 00:04:21.620 --> 00:04:26.129 thing you can do in that situation. Oh and also not forget the things 60 00:04:26.170 --> 00:04:30.490 that you wish you would do all along. What a great I was going 61 00:04:30.490 --> 00:04:32.290 to lead into this second question. You already answered it, which is what 62 00:04:32.410 --> 00:04:36.129 is ball will do. So you answered that put. First of all, 63 00:04:36.449 --> 00:04:44.000 congratulations. It is super rare that a CEO has a sales background and now 64 00:04:44.120 --> 00:04:48.439 you've taken your learnings and you've converted that into a product and you're kind of 65 00:04:48.439 --> 00:04:53.389 a three you know, x guy here. Right, you're a salesperson that 66 00:04:53.750 --> 00:04:59.589 is selling your software. You're selling sales software. So it's kind of a 67 00:04:59.790 --> 00:05:02.949 X. It's really awesome and it sounds like so. For How long has 68 00:05:02.949 --> 00:05:08.660 the company been around now? We have been around for just around four years, 69 00:05:08.860 --> 00:05:12.339 just to touch under so the company was founded a few years ago and 70 00:05:12.699 --> 00:05:16.779 it's got at the right time. So you're using intelligence to assist those that 71 00:05:16.819 --> 00:05:21.410 are on the phone, either customer service or SDR types, to assist them 72 00:05:21.449 --> 00:05:27.850 along the way, to guide them through a selling process. That's exactly right. 73 00:05:28.529 --> 00:05:31.410 and John I mentioned something that's got a little bit of a controversial debate 74 00:05:31.810 --> 00:05:36.519 in the startup world and you hear a lot about whether should a company be 75 00:05:36.759 --> 00:05:41.319 sales letter product led, and there's two different ways to run a company, 76 00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:45.920 sales that a product led. And where I would come in on that debate 77 00:05:46.560 --> 00:05:56.029 is that you're absolute best product management capability is sales, especially early on the 78 00:05:56.110 --> 00:06:00.589 company. So if you were getting your company started and you're saying, well, 79 00:06:00.629 --> 00:06:02.110 we're going to be product that we're not sales that we're going to think 80 00:06:02.350 --> 00:06:05.939 about what we want to invent. Invented it in wonderful detailing them put it 81 00:06:06.019 --> 00:06:11.939 out there. You were missing the product feedback, which is being able to 82 00:06:11.980 --> 00:06:15.139 actually be on a demo and demo that thing again and again and again and 83 00:06:15.220 --> 00:06:18.689 again and hear from your market this is what we like, this is what 84 00:06:18.810 --> 00:06:21.689 we don't like, this is what we want to change, this is what 85 00:06:23.449 --> 00:06:29.689 needs to be different. So your absolute best product management function is your sales 86 00:06:29.730 --> 00:06:32.160 team, who is having these direct and in depth conversations with your market all 87 00:06:32.199 --> 00:06:38.000 day every day. So that's that's the you know, when we consider ourselves 88 00:06:38.079 --> 00:06:43.319 perhaps like a sales first company, early on it really ended up also being 89 00:06:43.399 --> 00:06:48.350 a product first company. What a great question to bring up an answer yourself. 90 00:06:48.470 --> 00:06:53.470 That's it's so relevant to the space that you're talking about, because often 91 00:06:53.750 --> 00:06:57.269 many struggle with that. which should I dedicate more time to? If I'm 92 00:06:57.310 --> 00:07:00.110 a CEO, if I'm a founder? Do I focus on product more, 93 00:07:00.110 --> 00:07:02.620 to I focus on sales more? And the answer is that one informs the 94 00:07:02.699 --> 00:07:05.420 other, and so you really have that you have two masters that you have 95 00:07:05.500 --> 00:07:10.540 to pay attention to. So now you have you've been around for some time. 96 00:07:10.740 --> 00:07:14.180 You've raised some funds up to this point and I think you might even 97 00:07:14.180 --> 00:07:15.810 have some new news. Maybe share with us a little bit about background in 98 00:07:15.850 --> 00:07:19.329 terms of fundraising and where you're at today. Yeah, absolutely so. The 99 00:07:19.569 --> 00:07:26.490 first eighteen months was boot strapped. It was the old fashioned way, and 100 00:07:26.569 --> 00:07:30.759 the other two founders old fashion is right. I feel like we went down 101 00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:33.920 to the local bank and they gave us a little sack of money and said 102 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:38.439 this is this is how you start your business. But it was it was 103 00:07:38.600 --> 00:07:44.750 us and our savings and getting that very initial traction, which is, can 104 00:07:44.829 --> 00:07:47.269 we bring a product to the market and get the market to say, with 105 00:07:47.430 --> 00:07:53.629 their dollars, with revenue, we like this, this is something that we 106 00:07:53.870 --> 00:07:57.550 think has a lot of potential. So that's what we ended up doing for 107 00:07:57.589 --> 00:08:01.019 the first eighteen months was putting together our life savings and bootstrapping from there. 108 00:08:01.540 --> 00:08:07.980 And then eighteen months and we had that moment that anybody who's starting a company 109 00:08:07.019 --> 00:08:11.939 has, which is how far can I really take this with my own dollars? 110 00:08:11.300 --> 00:08:16.689 And especially in technology, out of every field, it develops so quickly 111 00:08:16.250 --> 00:08:22.850 that if you are sparing expenses because you are trying to, you know, 112 00:08:24.009 --> 00:08:26.920 extend your runway or your sparing expences, because you're still bootstrapping, don't have 113 00:08:26.959 --> 00:08:31.759 a lot of money in the bank. You can guarantee that you are like 114 00:08:33.039 --> 00:08:37.799 buying the competition time to jump in, see what you're doing and do a 115 00:08:37.879 --> 00:08:41.789 better job, so you don't have the luxury of waiting. And that's where 116 00:08:41.789 --> 00:08:46.190 we knew we needed to raise seed funding. So we raise the most we 117 00:08:46.309 --> 00:08:48.590 could at that at that time we had a small customer base, but a 118 00:08:48.710 --> 00:08:54.230 loyal one, and we raised one point two million and then we said just 119 00:08:54.350 --> 00:08:58.980 give us the one point two million and a year later, will show you 120 00:08:58.580 --> 00:09:03.299 that, you know, this is going to have a three x return on 121 00:09:03.899 --> 00:09:07.620 your investment and that will be growing two hundred percent you every year. And 122 00:09:07.779 --> 00:09:11.850 we did just that. And then we raise another three million. So we're 123 00:09:11.970 --> 00:09:16.690 we raised a total of four point two and then we made the same pitch, 124 00:09:16.730 --> 00:09:20.289 which is, you know, let us grow three ax will come back 125 00:09:20.889 --> 00:09:24.169 and a little under a year, show your results and then show that we're 126 00:09:24.250 --> 00:09:28.360 really ready for the big time. So that's where we're so excited today to 127 00:09:28.440 --> 00:09:33.639 announce that we just closed a ten million dollar series a with a seer of 128 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:41.830 ventures out in the bay area and that is just such an important recognition for 129 00:09:41.149 --> 00:09:46.350 a midwest start up. You know, we're here in St Louis and we're 130 00:09:46.470 --> 00:09:50.669 going to be a one of the first in this tech community to really do 131 00:09:50.870 --> 00:09:54.820 something special on that level and really appreciated it to Sierra and appreciate to the 132 00:09:54.940 --> 00:10:03.259 Silicon Valley mentality of growing and dominating a market and we're ready to do exactly 133 00:10:03.299 --> 00:10:05.940 that. Fantastic. Well, that's correct. Congratulations. That's wonderful news. 134 00:10:05.980 --> 00:10:11.129 It's fantastic news for St Louis. One of the biggest series a rounds so 135 00:10:11.210 --> 00:10:15.929 we for our SASS company in recent memory. So that is wonderful. So 136 00:10:16.169 --> 00:10:20.090 you're at a point now with with the growth factors that you're mentioning, you've 137 00:10:20.289 --> 00:10:24.639 got to be finding product market. Fifth so maybe walk us through what's a 138 00:10:24.679 --> 00:10:31.360 typical customer look like for you guys? Yeah, our perfect customers going to 139 00:10:31.480 --> 00:10:37.830 be an mid market or enterprise contact center. So you can imagine a an 140 00:10:37.870 --> 00:10:43.110 organization that has hundreds or thousands of sales or customer service agents on the floor 141 00:10:43.669 --> 00:10:48.590 and the reason that that is such a good customer for us is think about 142 00:10:48.629 --> 00:10:54.379 what that organization needs to do to affect change in their conversations. Imagine you 143 00:10:54.500 --> 00:11:01.940 want a thousand people to all be communicating differently with your customers. How the 144 00:11:01.139 --> 00:11:07.090 heck are you supposed to do that? And the answer is that until now 145 00:11:07.529 --> 00:11:11.409 you've had to you know, you have a resolution from the board and the 146 00:11:11.490 --> 00:11:16.490 board says we need to unveil this new pricing policy or we need to have 147 00:11:16.610 --> 00:11:22.799 a new rereturn, a refund policy, and that goes down to the director 148 00:11:22.879 --> 00:11:24.639 level, that goes down to the manager level, that goes down to the 149 00:11:24.759 --> 00:11:30.000 agents. Then some agents they're saying it and some agents aren't, and then 150 00:11:30.039 --> 00:11:33.950 it's checked by Qa and then Qa is calling out the agents that aren't doing 151 00:11:33.990 --> 00:11:37.029 it and then they get sent to training. It's almost like getting sent to 152 00:11:37.070 --> 00:11:39.750 the naughty corner. You get sent to training and it's like, why is 153 00:11:39.909 --> 00:11:46.509 this the way that contact centers are trying to effect change across the organization? 154 00:11:46.789 --> 00:11:50.460 What if you could have that board level decision, you put it into a 155 00:11:50.620 --> 00:11:56.899 technology, you push a button and then you check your graph and everybody's doing 156 00:11:56.980 --> 00:12:00.419 that change. And that's what we've we've built a ball too. So if 157 00:12:00.460 --> 00:12:05.129 you're in that several hundred or several thousand agent range and you're looking to not 158 00:12:05.370 --> 00:12:11.769 just maintain what's happening but transform what's happening or your context cumber floor. That's 159 00:12:11.049 --> 00:12:16.639 the perfect cost from ball to that's great. So in terms of how you've 160 00:12:16.759 --> 00:12:20.960 done outreach to these medium and large size organizations, are you using traditional channels 161 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:24.759 or are things a little bit different given the environment that we're in today? 162 00:12:26.440 --> 00:12:30.470 Yeah, I would say things are definitely different given the environment or in today. 163 00:12:30.870 --> 00:12:35.669 But the traditional channels in some ways have actually gotten more effective. And 164 00:12:35.110 --> 00:12:41.269 you take phone conversations for example. It used to be much, much harder 165 00:12:41.549 --> 00:12:46.899 to reach a decision makers because they were, you know, physically bouncing between 166 00:12:46.940 --> 00:12:52.700 meetings all day and now, you know, you finish a meeting and then 167 00:12:52.860 --> 00:12:54.340 you get up and you walk over the kitchen, you make yourself a bowl 168 00:12:54.340 --> 00:12:58.299 of serial and you're a little bit more likely to pick up that phone and 169 00:12:58.340 --> 00:13:01.610 you get some when you get a call. So we have noticed that, 170 00:13:01.809 --> 00:13:07.809 you know, targeted outbound prospecting, specifically when we have found some of the 171 00:13:07.889 --> 00:13:11.009 larger accounts that are just in our perfect target market and perfect fit, when 172 00:13:11.049 --> 00:13:15.919 we can reach out to those individuals and say we noticed X Y Z about 173 00:13:15.919 --> 00:13:20.720 Your Business, we understand your challenges and here is a way that you might 174 00:13:20.759 --> 00:13:26.679 be able to solve them. That's been a really effective method of generating top 175 00:13:26.799 --> 00:13:33.110 funnel. Of course we that do paid paper click. So we use basic 176 00:13:33.190 --> 00:13:37.830 paid digital channels, and then over half of all of our inbounds are actually 177 00:13:37.830 --> 00:13:41.860 organic. We work very, very hard to build up brand champions among our 178 00:13:41.899 --> 00:13:46.659 customers, people who absolutely love their experience and want to rave about ball too, 179 00:13:46.940 --> 00:13:52.019 and we do everything we can to also give them incentives to want to 180 00:13:52.220 --> 00:13:56.850 make a referral. Because you know, if I reach out to your cold 181 00:13:56.929 --> 00:13:58.610 you never heard me and I say, John, I got the perfect thing 182 00:13:58.690 --> 00:14:01.850 for you, you may or may not believe me, but if your friend 183 00:14:01.929 --> 00:14:05.529 in the industry who you're trusted have known for twenty years said Hey, I 184 00:14:07.370 --> 00:14:09.600 just came across this technology. You've been using them, we saw great results. 185 00:14:09.600 --> 00:14:13.879 Thought you might appreciate it, it's a very different pitch. So if 186 00:14:13.919 --> 00:14:18.840 you can build up that organic brand champion base, that is a wonderful way 187 00:14:18.879 --> 00:14:24.669 to be generating top final especially in an early stage start out. So this 188 00:14:24.830 --> 00:14:31.269 looks like it's mostly horizontal offering. Are you hitting any specific vertical markets that 189 00:14:33.149 --> 00:14:39.539 could be impactful that you see over time? Absolutely so. The first of 190 00:14:39.580 --> 00:14:43.379 all, the way we tackle that as we ask the question. What markets 191 00:14:43.460 --> 00:14:50.139 have make or break conversations where the outcome is directly tied to revenue, where 192 00:14:50.259 --> 00:14:54.970 if that customer had a good experience on the phone, they're that sale just 193 00:14:56.129 --> 00:14:58.850 closed or they're going to buy more, or they're going to go and tell 194 00:14:58.889 --> 00:15:03.049 their friends, or they're going to come back and do repeat business or they're 195 00:15:03.049 --> 00:15:07.519 not going to cancel. Where can we directly impact the dollar? And it 196 00:15:07.679 --> 00:15:15.039 turns out that verticals like the insurance space, like financial services, like direct 197 00:15:15.120 --> 00:15:22.309 to consumer retail. Imagine any of those purchases that you make that are particularly 198 00:15:22.350 --> 00:15:26.110 expensive. You're going to buy, let's say, a fifteen hundred exercise bike 199 00:15:26.710 --> 00:15:31.950 and before you click the buy button, you might have a question or two 200 00:15:33.509 --> 00:15:37.620 and you might be sitting here thinking I don't want to do those three dept 201 00:15:37.779 --> 00:15:41.179 dots on the chat and hope that it says hi, under agent, I'm 202 00:15:41.179 --> 00:15:43.580 ready to answer your questions like you want to be able to hear. Is 203 00:15:43.740 --> 00:15:48.379 the person convinced about what they're selling you. So, if you're in that 204 00:15:48.539 --> 00:15:54.570 direct to consumer retail segment as well, anything that there's a lot of dollars 205 00:15:54.570 --> 00:15:56.529 on the line and a little bit of time and you got to get it 206 00:15:56.610 --> 00:15:58.649 right. That's the sort of vertical that we work we work best with. 207 00:16:00.769 --> 00:16:03.049 So it might be interesting, given that you all are kind of sales top 208 00:16:03.210 --> 00:16:08.080 heavy, did you all create your initial sales process or to that evolve over 209 00:16:08.200 --> 00:16:12.759 time? How did you come to figure out what the right sales process is, 210 00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:18.279 given that you focus on this technology all day? Yeah, so that 211 00:16:18.320 --> 00:16:23.750 actually came as a total God send from this book called the Challenger sale or 212 00:16:23.830 --> 00:16:27.269 the Challenger customer, and I think it was the challenger customer, which is 213 00:16:27.309 --> 00:16:30.909 the the second the part two. Yep, the second book. It's right. 214 00:16:32.149 --> 00:16:37.139 And one of the things they talked about is how to break your sales 215 00:16:37.179 --> 00:16:44.259 process up into milestones, and the big insight that they give is that historically 216 00:16:44.299 --> 00:16:48.370 the way that sales people have established a sales process is you think about all 217 00:16:48.409 --> 00:16:52.250 the things you need to do. You're like, okay, step one is 218 00:16:52.610 --> 00:16:56.610 due discovery, step to qualify, step to send the proposal, step three, 219 00:16:56.690 --> 00:17:00.679 review the prosal but what they realize with the challenge or customer realizes that's 220 00:17:00.759 --> 00:17:03.880 backwards. It's not about things that you need to do as a seller, 221 00:17:04.119 --> 00:17:07.799 because you can check all your boxes and the person still doesn't buy. The 222 00:17:07.920 --> 00:17:14.559 power is in the buyers hands. So can you picture yourself as the buyer 223 00:17:15.400 --> 00:17:19.990 having the perfect buyers journey with your company? What would those steps be? 224 00:17:21.430 --> 00:17:25.789 Well, first I would probably probably send a form. I'd sign up for 225 00:17:25.829 --> 00:17:29.509 a form and sign up for a demo. Then I'd probably get an immediate 226 00:17:29.910 --> 00:17:33.180 call from a representative saying hey, no, you just signed up for a 227 00:17:33.220 --> 00:17:37.019 demo. I'm going to schedule you for a time right now and tell me 228 00:17:37.059 --> 00:17:38.980 what are some of the things you like to cover? Then I'd probably you 229 00:17:40.099 --> 00:17:44.410 get the gist. So what we did is we put together all of those 230 00:17:44.730 --> 00:17:49.289 milestones at the perfect buyers journey would have and we look for those signs that 231 00:17:49.450 --> 00:17:52.569 buyers are saying yes, I want to continue to commit, continue to proceed 232 00:17:52.690 --> 00:17:56.049 throughout the process, and that's how we generated our sales process. So we 233 00:17:56.130 --> 00:18:02.039 actually had a buttoned up sales process on day one. It is changed and 234 00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:06.880 involved, as any good sales process should, but we had that idea of 235 00:18:07.039 --> 00:18:10.839 what exactly our buyers journey a perfect buy or dray with a license day one. 236 00:18:11.160 --> 00:18:14.190 That's been our guiding principles. there. It's great. So your re 237 00:18:14.309 --> 00:18:18.470 engineered way most people do it and you followed the recommendation of a great source. 238 00:18:18.589 --> 00:18:25.470 That's that's awesome. So along the journey, what kind of posits were 239 00:18:25.509 --> 00:18:30.700 you making in terms of the information that you shared, or maybe a shine 240 00:18:30.779 --> 00:18:34.900 alide on some interesting information, or you had some sort of content, any 241 00:18:36.140 --> 00:18:41.809 key learnings or insights about a customer or prospect that's going through the sales process 242 00:18:41.210 --> 00:18:45.930 and you're helping them along the way, you're helping make them successful through that 243 00:18:45.049 --> 00:18:48.410 journey, and some of that is content, sometimes that's data, sometimes it's 244 00:18:48.450 --> 00:18:52.410 revealing information to them maybe that they didn't have before. What have you found 245 00:18:52.410 --> 00:18:57.920 useful? So Don will actually answer that with a story and then a principle. 246 00:18:59.720 --> 00:19:03.640 I was on a sales call a few years ago and I saw this 247 00:19:04.440 --> 00:19:07.000 or other. I was sitting in listening to a sales call and I saw 248 00:19:07.119 --> 00:19:12.470 the representative get really excited in the buyer said this is wonderful, I absolutely 249 00:19:12.589 --> 00:19:18.150 want to buy it. Let's do it, and the cell representative said wonderful. 250 00:19:18.509 --> 00:19:21.349 While our next step is I'm going to have to show you the second 251 00:19:21.470 --> 00:19:23.779 part of this, which is our forecasting module. Basically, there were two 252 00:19:23.859 --> 00:19:29.539 pieces, the software pipeline and forecasting, and and the buyer said, oh 253 00:19:29.579 --> 00:19:33.740 wait, forecasting module, we actually have a department responsible for that and it 254 00:19:33.779 --> 00:19:37.690 would create a huge political in fighting if I ended up buying the software. 255 00:19:37.730 --> 00:19:41.769 I can't do it, and I watched the sales rep kill that deal right 256 00:19:41.890 --> 00:19:49.250 there in that moment. There's a principle which is only give your buyers the 257 00:19:49.450 --> 00:19:56.079 information that they want to see. Only give your buyers the information that they 258 00:19:56.200 --> 00:20:00.839 want to see. So one of the things you often see is people will 259 00:20:00.160 --> 00:20:07.509 send every single pamphlet they can possibly, you know, conjure to their buyers 260 00:20:07.589 --> 00:20:10.869 after the meeting and we just have a couple. So one of the things 261 00:20:10.950 --> 00:20:15.589 the pieces of collateral that any good sales possible have his customer stories, so 262 00:20:15.710 --> 00:20:19.549 with some castomer stories. But another thing that's kind of special is we have 263 00:20:21.069 --> 00:20:26.380 a document which we call consensus building. In it it's our consensus building prep 264 00:20:26.539 --> 00:20:30.700 sheet and basically what it is is, at the end of a meeting where 265 00:20:30.900 --> 00:20:36.329 you have presented to a group, you probably the group is going to go 266 00:20:36.410 --> 00:20:42.009 and talk and you can help them frame the questions that they're talking about. 267 00:20:42.569 --> 00:20:45.849 Gets some of the quick answers and the FA Q's and have some of the 268 00:20:45.890 --> 00:20:51.880 resources right there so when people go into group discussions, we send this consider 269 00:20:52.079 --> 00:20:56.960 them, this consensus building prep sheet, which essentially helps them answer some of 270 00:20:56.960 --> 00:21:00.920 the questions they're going to have in their eternal discussion and also guides them to 271 00:21:02.039 --> 00:21:06.069 be thinking about the product in the value in the way that you know is 272 00:21:06.390 --> 00:21:08.750 most effective, in the way that you know is most compelling. So it's 273 00:21:08.829 --> 00:21:14.910 sort of a buying guide, but you're really not marketing it that way and 274 00:21:15.029 --> 00:21:18.309 this is a tool for them to utilize to help them move in the right 275 00:21:18.349 --> 00:21:23.299 direction and hopefully, along way you're providing some insights perhaps about what you do 276 00:21:23.420 --> 00:21:29.740 or the questions that you're asking lead them down a path that's that's favorable for 277 00:21:29.859 --> 00:21:37.250 ball tope. Absolutely awesome. So we mentioned recent events. Has has covid 278 00:21:37.289 --> 00:21:41.930 nineteen changed the existing business as have been better or worse as a result? 279 00:21:42.450 --> 00:21:45.609 Yeah, it has been better and that was a very pleasant surprise. We 280 00:21:47.130 --> 00:21:55.400 didn't anticipate that. When I remember in early April when all of the developments 281 00:21:55.480 --> 00:22:02.309 for coming out or mid Marshall developments are coming out and downward adjusting our revenue 282 00:22:02.509 --> 00:22:07.349 guidance by about fifty percent, and I said let's cut him in half and 283 00:22:07.349 --> 00:22:12.470 and we did, and then April finish and then may finished and we had 284 00:22:12.509 --> 00:22:18.660 two of our best months on record and we said this is a economic catastrophe, 285 00:22:18.660 --> 00:22:26.220 it is a terrible toll on human life and it's an incredibly difficult time 286 00:22:26.380 --> 00:22:30.849 for the country and we are fortunate that we're one of those businesses, particularly 287 00:22:30.849 --> 00:22:37.009 in the cloud space, where we're enabling a new type of work. And 288 00:22:37.490 --> 00:22:40.970 the new type of work is that you have a bunch of folks who have 289 00:22:41.049 --> 00:22:45.359 transitioned from, you know, America's Labor economy, where perhaps you were doing 290 00:22:45.440 --> 00:22:51.559 something a little bit more physical, and you're now transitioning to the service economy 291 00:22:51.599 --> 00:22:56.279 and you're going to be taking a call center job and what do you know, 292 00:22:56.519 --> 00:23:00.950 you're not getting into the store anymore to ask questions about your product. 293 00:23:00.990 --> 00:23:07.390 You're going to call or chat or use their support line. So that sector 294 00:23:07.470 --> 00:23:11.430 of the economy is boomed. is absolutely boomed since covid hit and it's been 295 00:23:12.140 --> 00:23:17.460 a struggle for many businesses and it's been very difficult time for the country. 296 00:23:17.619 --> 00:23:23.539 But there are technologies, particularly in cloud, that are helping build that new 297 00:23:23.619 --> 00:23:27.930 backbone of what a digital world will look like and how people interact. The 298 00:23:27.970 --> 00:23:32.450 companies digitally, and I'm definitely proud to say that all those one of the 299 00:23:32.529 --> 00:23:37.369 companies who is leading a chart. That's awesome. So have you done anything 300 00:23:37.450 --> 00:23:44.319 as a management team, as you coach your team up, any changes that 301 00:23:44.440 --> 00:23:49.160 you've made to your style, to your approach to managing the team, given 302 00:23:49.240 --> 00:23:53.200 that everyone's remote now and we're in this new world? Any any moths or 303 00:23:53.200 --> 00:23:57.069 tweaks evening? Yeah, so, first of all, remotes tough. I 304 00:23:57.150 --> 00:24:03.869 think some companies are very natural at it. BALTO's not so natural at it 305 00:24:03.150 --> 00:24:07.029 and you know, I think one of the reasons is we say at our 306 00:24:07.150 --> 00:24:10.900 core where people development company. That's what we are. Our Product is about 307 00:24:10.900 --> 00:24:14.019 people development, you know, at helping the agents who are using it be 308 00:24:14.180 --> 00:24:18.099 better on their calls and take home bigger commission checks for their families and and 309 00:24:18.940 --> 00:24:22.779 then, of course, our company is about finding anybody with talent and drive 310 00:24:23.099 --> 00:24:26.930 who is looking for a great opportunity and and giving them that opportunity to develop 311 00:24:26.970 --> 00:24:32.329 their personal and professional skills. So when you have a culture like that, 312 00:24:33.049 --> 00:24:38.720 people being around people is a pretty important thing and we've been very delivered about 313 00:24:38.759 --> 00:24:42.960 taking opportunities to replicate that digitally. So I'll give an example we actually had 314 00:24:44.720 --> 00:24:49.319 last two weeks ago, Friday a couple weeks ago, had an all we 315 00:24:49.640 --> 00:24:56.349 an all day celebration for some of the big milestones that we had hit stick 316 00:24:56.390 --> 00:25:00.190 up, particularly on the Revenue Front. So in all day celebration and we 317 00:25:00.150 --> 00:25:07.180 know, made cocktails virtually and we we I'm trying what games we play. 318 00:25:07.220 --> 00:25:10.700 We will lunch again virtually. But you know, it was breaking everyone together 319 00:25:11.099 --> 00:25:15.019 and I think that we've been really delivered about finding opportunities to do team building 320 00:25:15.059 --> 00:25:18.539 virtually. I also think that you have to be more delivered about transparency, 321 00:25:18.819 --> 00:25:22.769 because you don't have thatpportunity to bump into someone in the hallway and they so, 322 00:25:23.009 --> 00:25:27.289 oh, hey, what's up with x and happen anymore. So there 323 00:25:27.410 --> 00:25:32.450 has to be the leadership team needs to be thinking more about how can I 324 00:25:32.609 --> 00:25:37.119 be constantly funneling information everything that's going on? How can be funneling that to 325 00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:42.519 the broader company rather than waiting for people to ask, because the burden of 326 00:25:42.680 --> 00:25:48.920 asking has increase in remote world and the way that you get around that is 327 00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:52.029 by just trying to understand what people are going to want to know and seeing 328 00:25:52.029 --> 00:25:55.789 if you can give them to them from actively. So it's so important to 329 00:25:55.829 --> 00:26:00.710 stay in contact when folks are remote, whether it's with the kind of tools 330 00:26:00.750 --> 00:26:06.299 that you're talking about, or are these ask me anything meetings or just smaller 331 00:26:06.380 --> 00:26:11.500 team meetups. Any of them helped just maintain that missing element that you had 332 00:26:11.579 --> 00:26:14.579 when you had an office, right when you had a headquarters office. That's 333 00:26:14.619 --> 00:26:18.450 just absent. It's unfortunate, but good news is we're we're coming up with 334 00:26:18.529 --> 00:26:22.490 creative ways to stay in contact with our teams and those are some great examples. 335 00:26:23.170 --> 00:26:27.650 So any other words of wisdom that you might if you had if you 336 00:26:27.690 --> 00:26:33.039 knew that there were other early stage tech founders listening to you today, whether 337 00:26:33.119 --> 00:26:38.759 it's about early stage selling or whether it's about fund raising? Any particular words 338 00:26:38.799 --> 00:26:42.319 of wisdom or a key learning you have that you wish you knew earlier that 339 00:26:42.480 --> 00:26:48.589 you know now? Sure, I think one of the things that I'm continuing 340 00:26:48.789 --> 00:26:55.750 to learn is the strengths and weaknesses of people, and what I mean by 341 00:26:55.789 --> 00:26:59.509 that is not strengths of weaknesses that an individual has, like this person is 342 00:26:59.670 --> 00:27:03.980 a good at math but not good at communicating. I mean the people, 343 00:27:03.299 --> 00:27:07.539 like humans. What are we good at and what are we not good at? 344 00:27:07.259 --> 00:27:12.740 And I think that one of the things that you find is that you 345 00:27:12.859 --> 00:27:18.690 are probably way more capable than you had given yourself credit for and that a 346 00:27:18.730 --> 00:27:25.369 lot of the answers that you are arriving at. You may have been afraid 347 00:27:25.490 --> 00:27:27.049 to come to that answer. You may have been well, I wanted a 348 00:27:27.210 --> 00:27:32.880 double, third, fourth fifth opinion on it, but human intuition is the 349 00:27:32.960 --> 00:27:38.640 original ai the human and intuition is the ability to synthesize all of this information, 350 00:27:38.839 --> 00:27:42.880 not quite know exactly how you popped out the answer you did, but 351 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:48.670 arrive at some answer about how you know, good or bad, it's likely 352 00:27:48.789 --> 00:27:52.829 to make the next situation or the next the next thing that happens in your 353 00:27:52.910 --> 00:27:57.349 life. So I would say for all the folks who are just starting your 354 00:27:57.390 --> 00:28:00.900 start, I would say try to trust yourself and try to be decisive, 355 00:28:02.500 --> 00:28:07.259 because you can be decisive and wrong, and that's okay, because then you'll 356 00:28:07.259 --> 00:28:12.089 have that information really quickly, versus waffling on it and having that information three 357 00:28:12.089 --> 00:28:15.410 months later. It's a great point and poster syndrome is a real thing and 358 00:28:17.930 --> 00:28:21.930 it's something that struggle with from time to time. But then the idea is 359 00:28:22.569 --> 00:28:25.450 you got to think through it. You're actually more knowledgeable than you think you 360 00:28:25.490 --> 00:28:29.880 are and you use that tuition, intuition, because it can be a great 361 00:28:29.920 --> 00:28:33.519 asset. So this would be great. What is the best way for someone 362 00:28:33.559 --> 00:28:37.960 to reach out and and connect with you? The best way to reach out 363 00:28:37.960 --> 00:28:40.599 with me, reach out to me, is probably going to be collecting with 364 00:28:40.680 --> 00:28:45.309 me on Linkedin and I'm just Mark Bernstein, M Arc Bernstein, on Linkedin, 365 00:28:45.710 --> 00:28:48.990 and from there. Actually think I have my phone number, my email 366 00:28:48.990 --> 00:28:52.029 posted, so you can act on me pretty much anyway once you get to 367 00:28:52.069 --> 00:28:56.299 me on Linkedin. Great, and you are very active on Linkedin. I 368 00:28:56.859 --> 00:29:00.500 love your posts. So thanks for contributing to Linkedin and to the sales community, 369 00:29:00.940 --> 00:29:07.900 and congratulations on the historical success of Alto and congratulations on the new fund 370 00:29:07.900 --> 00:29:11.970 raise and continued success going forward. Thank you, John. Really appreciate it. 371 00:29:12.250 --> 00:29:15.849 So that's it. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Revenue 372 00:29:15.890 --> 00:29:19.970 Series on B to be growth. I'm your host, John Grispin, founder 373 00:29:21.089 --> 00:29:27.759 and sales coach at early revenue. Until next time I'm out. Are you 374 00:29:27.799 --> 00:29:32.680 an early stage tech founder that's frustrated by limited sales? Do you like the 375 00:29:32.720 --> 00:29:37.839 time to dedicate to a traditional sales training program John Gristlin's earlier revenue sales program 376 00:29:37.119 --> 00:29:41.549 helps early stage founders accelerate sales in large accounts. He's built a playbook that 377 00:29:41.630 --> 00:29:45.349 transfers what he's learned as a founder and sales leader into a condensed, easy 378 00:29:45.430 --> 00:29:49.869 to implement program if you're ready to increase your startup sales capacity, visit early 379 00:29:49.950 --> 00:29:52.829 revenuecom to get started today.