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ISEs3 Ep11: Bob Perkins, Founder - AAISP (now Emblaze)
Episode 11 • 26th March 2024 • Inside: Sales Enablement • Scott Santucci, Brian Lambert, Erich Starrett
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Welcome to OrchestrateSales.com's Inside Sales Enablement Season 3 Enablement History. Where we hop in the Enablement Time machine and explore the past, present, and future of the elevation of a profession.

On Episode 11, Erich Starrett hosts Bob Perkins, the Founder AAISP, the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals (now Emblaze) in the Orchestrate Sales Studios on the eve of the #digitalnow conference in Chicagoland next week (including a special promo code if you have not yet RSVP'd!)  

We begin with his origins in telesales to Inside Sales to forming the AAISP. And from where he first crossed paths with #SalesEnablement in the journey to modern day where Emblaze is partnering with the Revenue Enablement Society for track next week. 

Highlights from the episode include...

PAST:

⌛️ Bob was on the first ever Inside sales implementation of Siebel. "We used to pull out a stopwatch and time how long it would take to pull up a customer record."

⌛️ Bob and Larry Reeves held the first AAISP conference for 50 people in Minneapolis in 2009 using a sound system borrowed from Bob's church.

⌛️ By year two they had 200 and started getting calls from places like Japan, Afghanistan, France begging to start a chapter in their location.

⌛️ The explosion of Inside Sales created a need to scale the training of less experienced reps. Which created demand for Sales Enablement.

⌛️ Bob reflects on how Jill Rowley "The EloQueen" ushered the social selling mix onto the sales scene.

⌛️ In Bob's early experience the SES he talked with Scott Santucci about the similarities and differences between the two organizations.

PRESENT

💼 Sales is improving and growing with technology and with that growth there's need for training. Witness colleges that now have sales programs.

(Can I get an AMEN, Dr. Howard Dover Robert M. Peterson, Ph.D., Stefanie Boyer, PhD💧?)

💼 A behind the curtain look at the continuing evolution of the AAISP into Emblaze as Bob continues his transition from founder-operator to executive board member.

💼 Great salespeople make it about the other person. What does that mean? Empathy. Caring. Attention. Listening more than you're speaking. Those are the traits that winning sales reps carry. (shoutouts to Steve Richard and Dale Dupree)

FUTURE

🤖 The future of sales is being Amazonized. "We all know what Amazon is. It's everything. It's point and click, order, return, customer service, pricing, availability, everything at your fingertips, and sales is moving in that direction."

🤖 Leaders continue to need development. We should not lose an emphasis on enabling sales / revenue *LEADERS.*

🤖 What is the future of the AAISP in it's new incarnation as Emblaze? Where is "inside sales" headed? "We need to treat this profession like it's one of the most critical professions in the world."

🤖 Is AI friend or foe? What might be possible if AI enables sales to fully tap into their unconscious competence?

Please click 👇🏻, subscribe 📲, listen 🎧 ...and 🎙️ join the conversation! 

ORCHESTRATE Sales!

Erich

#RevenueEngine #DigitalTransformation

#RevenueEnablement #Orchestrator

#RevenueEnablement

Mentioned in this episode:

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ISEs3 PROMO CODE for Emblaze DigitalNow Revenue Summit 2024 in Chicago

Hit salesenablement.captivate.fm/diginow24 and it will plug in promo code OSCISE automatically -- for $745 off of the Emblaze DigitalNow Revenue Summit 2024 registration fee! Hope to see many Enablement Insider Nation smiling faces soon in Chicago. Or, more specifically, *just* outside of the Second City ...on April 2nd!

Emblaze DigitalNow Revenue Summit 2024



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Transcripts

Erich Starrett:

Hello, everyone, and welcome to ISE Season

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3, Sales Enablement History.

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And we have not only some sales

enablement history, But some insider,

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some American Association of Inside Sales

Professionals expertise on the show today.

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I couldn't be more excited.

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This is the first time actually

that Bob Perkins and I have

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had a chance to cross paths.

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I've heard his name going back

to, , the first time I talked with

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Scott Santucci about the, Early

days of the sales enablement society

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and the founding bob came up and so

i'm excited to unpack that further

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but bob let's go straight to him.

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He has been In this game for a minute.

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He's been an inside sales leader

and pioneer very clearly all

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the way back to 1993, which is

when I was cutting my teeth.

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Actually, that's when I was

showing up selling long distance

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door to door in Chicago.

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You're the guy that's been

calling me a million times.

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I'm going to kick your hiney, right?

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Coming after me.

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And my early, this is

how I learned to sell.

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My early sales pitch

was, Oh, that's great.

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I'm here to help that go away.

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Those guys and gals won't

be calling you anymore.

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If you just press hard three copies

and then you can send them to me.

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So we were working maybe against

and or with each other at some

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point, the inside sales team.

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Bob founded the AAISP officially in

:

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We're going to get a little bit into

the present and future in a minute,

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but Bob, I'd love it if you just take

a minute to unpack the past, where

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you've been, who you are, And a little

bit about the year to date of AAISP.

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Bob Perkins: Yeah, I got into

sales and briefly carried a bag

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and then moved into management.

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I loved leading people.

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But it was predominantly field sales

for a few years and a friend called me.

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He said, Hey, there's this

telesales manager job.

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I said, what is telesales?

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He says it's sales and

you don't travel much.

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You do it over the phone.

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So I joined Unisys in 1993.

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I have to say that was

transformational in my career.

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Within a year, I fell in love with

this thing they call telesales and

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way back then people, the last few

years we've heard the hybrid model.

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We were a hybrid model in 1993.

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Our telesales reps.

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Traveled quarterly out

to meet key customers.

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And we were discreet.

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We were not an overlay.

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We had our own quota, our own set

of accounts, and it was run like

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a sales machine, like an engine.

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We were the first ever Siebel.

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Inside sales.

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I guess we were called

telesales installation.

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we used to pull out a stopwatch

and time how long it would take

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to pull up a customer record.

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It wasn't.

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It wasn't pretty.

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From there, I had a very long about

a, almost a 17, 18 year career in

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Director VP of Insight Sales, Unisys,

Silicon Graphics, UnitedHealthcare.

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And then when I left UnitedHealthcare

to go to a small company called Merrill

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DataCite, it was a software as a service.

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And then when I left UnitedHealthcare

to go to a small company called Merrill

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DataCite, it was a software as a service.

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I had a very small team and it afforded

me the opportunity then to finally

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launch the AAISP, which I had I had

a vision and I would dream about this

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thing called AAISP for about three years.

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And I would tell my wife all

about what I wanted to do.

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Finally, I had the wherewithal

to start it while I remained,

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employed as a VP of inside sales.

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we had our very first conference

in Minneapolis in:

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I borrowed a sound system from our church.

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Me and my business partner, Larry

Reeves, put on this conference.

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We had 50 people.

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And by year two, we had 200 people and a

standing ovation for what we had started.

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Because everybody was saying, finally,

someone is paying attention to this.

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Thing we all love called inside sales

and we brought forth great speakers.

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We were getting senior leaders from

companies like IBM, SAP even Salesforce

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to come and speak at our conferences.

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I didn't even have an idea

of what a chapter would be

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until after we formed AAISP.

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Within a year or two, we were

getting calls from places like

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Japan, Afghanistan, France.

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They all wanted us, they all heard

of AAISP, And they were really

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begging to, begging us to start

a chapter in their location.

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And boy, the thing just exploded

beyond my, I thought we'd have one

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conference a year with maybe a hundred

people near the end, we were just

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under a thousand people in Chicago

in:

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Erich Starrett: That is amazing.

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So shout out to larry reeves.

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It sounds and you and The church community

back in the day getting this thing seated.

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I love the backstory.

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Let's take a moment to shift gears

towards the past Of sales enablement.

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When did those first

two words come to you.

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Inside sales That would be interesting as

well When did you first hear inside sales.

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Bob Perkins: This is great.

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This is a great question.

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And I often say there's

nothing new under the sun.

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And I'll give you, I'll

give you a great analogy.

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And then I'll answer your question.

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But the analogy is this thing

that exploded about 6, 7 years

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ago called sales development.

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Everybody's getting SDRs.

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Everybody's getting BDRs.

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The fact is sales development and business

development has been around for years.

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It just wasn't called that.

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In Unisys, we had a group called

CRR, customer relationship rep.

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They were SDRs basically just

didn't have all the tools, but sales

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enablement the function of having

someone help with support training

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technology is not necessarily new.

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However, The same thing with inside sales.

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It was telesales forever.

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And then we wanted to pretty up that word

because telesales reminded people that

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telemarketing, nobody likes telemarketing.

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So let's call it inside sales.

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Inside sales has stuck.

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We have a little bit of a phase of digital

sales five, six years ago, got popular.

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So sales enablement, I first heard

about the term and the category,

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this role about midstream through my

tenure at AAISP, which was somewhere

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around 2012 ish in that range.

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I'm, and this is just a guess.

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And boy, did it take off.

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And I had some conversations with a

couple of the founding members there, and

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that thing was just exploding as well.

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There was a convergence of this

thing, now we call it digital sales.

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It's the power of the internet.

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And even the phone and the web and

being able to transact, to support, to

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prospect, to have meetings with folks

without having to go face to face.

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Many studies, especially recently

are showing people, oftentimes

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prefer virtual meetings.

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Back in 2011, 12, 13, 14,

15, somewhere around there.

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I got a hold of this thing called Zoom

and I started using it and I'd get

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up at these conferences way before

people even knew what Zoom was.

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And I said, raise your hand if you're

using video when you sell and not

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10 percent of the hands would go up,

and I said, listen, you gotta do it.

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It's the next best thing

to being there in person.

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So that, that's the era we went

through that, so back to your

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question of sales enablement,

probably around that:

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And I thought, wow, a little bit

like this thing called inside digital

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sales, a little bit long overdue.

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And now it's, now you have to have it.

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It's not even, should

we have inside sales?

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No, that's a.

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Table steak, you got to have it.

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Erich Starrett: And so what I've heard

generally is the folks who were putting

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those two words out there were vendors.

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The Sales Enablement Society itself was

brought into existence until:

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And Scott Santucci's work at Forrester

was in that:

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Forrester officially invest in and create

a practice and a business unit around.

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Who were those for you?

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If you could connect the dots for the

audience, what were those individuals

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that you recall that were using those

two words or what was your exposure?

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Bob Perkins: Yeah, it was you remember

when social selling got, had all the

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buzz around it again, that was probably,

somewhere:

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And oh, you had to be social

selling, and then word sales

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enablement just started being used.

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I wouldn't say it was fully understood.

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I, hopefully it's more understood today.

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But it became a thing and roles

started popping up for people that,

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that their role was sales enablement.

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Given that title, and I think

much like the S-D-R-B-D-R title

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in a very similar fashion, it was

something that was born out of this.

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This huge Engine that we now know, you

know back when it was called telesales.

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It's virtual sales now And it's

enabled by lots of technology

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Talk about the three legged stool

I don't want to I don't want to

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Discount the two most important legs

to that stool It's not technology,

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but it's people and it's leadership.

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And then of course you have

tools to make it all happen.

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Inside sales was explode.

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We grew too fast.

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I had this theory that we were hiring at a

rate that we could not effectively train.

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We brought in kids right out of college.

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We gave them a phone and a

computer and we expected this.

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Revenue would happen.

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And I think we got a little upside down.

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I would say right around

the year:

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And so, we needed to train better.

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We needed to have better tool adoption.

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We needed to, to somehow, bring

these less experienced reps.

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Up to snuff on their profession.

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Before there was this big

virtual explosion we had to

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learn just like you learned.

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You went knocked on doors and

you got, you got rejected.

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You had to get back up and do it again.

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And that was learning by experience.

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We shortcut that I think a little

bit, and I think it, it hurt us

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as a professional a little bit.

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Erich Starrett: Interesting.

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So you said that timeframe would

be the:

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even a shift from inside sales

as the two words to BDRs or SDRs.

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Bob Perkins: Certainly I put an umbrella

clause up there called inside sales

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late, you could call it digital sales

if you wanted their virtual sales, but

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that umbrella included this very popular

and expanding role called SDR BDR.

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Erich Starrett: Got it.

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And from a human being

perspective, again, we're all about

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community at Orchestrate Sales.

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Were there individuals, like when you

say social selling, was there someone

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that you interacted with or worked

with as a subject matter expert?

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Same with sales enablement.

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Bob Perkins: Yeah.

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Yeah.

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There's a woman called

Jill Rowley, the EloQueen.

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Erich Starrett: Every episode,

Jill is MVP of social selling.

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Bob Perkins: I can still remember some of

her little sayings that have stuck with

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me over the years, it was good stuff.

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She did a great job ushering

in that, that social selling

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mix into the world of sales.

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Erich Starrett: And what

about sales enablement?

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Any folks stick out to

you in the early days?

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Bob Perkins: Scott Santucci,

of course, because he and I

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met on a number of occasions.

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We did a couple of joint, I know we

did a joint meeting out here in Phoenix

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with the Sales Enablement Society and

A-A-I-S-P before we got acquired by CVI.

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I would say that was right

around the ,:

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So there's been some joint meetings.

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I understand.

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Since my retirement and selling AAISP

to CVI, that there was a joint meeting

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recently between Revenue Enablement

Society and Emblaze down in Atlanta,

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which I heard was very successful.

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So it's great to see the two

organizations working together.

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I now live in Arizona, but we did

a joint meeting, which I thought

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was excellent out here in Phoenix.

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And some of the SES members came

out, the AAISP members came out.

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We had a couple of different topics.

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One of which of course was sales

enablement that we talked about.

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And we, I would say we probably

did that in a handful of chapters.

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Maybe some of which I

wasn't even aware of.

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We had.

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Gosh, we had upwards to 60, 70 chapters

globally couldn't keep track of them.

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And I know sales enablement society

had probably as many, if not

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more even just here in the U S.

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I think there, there were

two distinct differences.

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During the time that at least I

had connection connectivity with

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Scott and team and that is we had

been up and running for a while.

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We were a for profit organization.

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We had very large sponsorship packages

upwards into the 100, 200, 000 dollars,

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and I remember talking with Scott a

little bit about hey, I'm happy to

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share a little bit of our framework.

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I believe at the time they were a

kind of a loosely put together non,

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non for profit, which by the way when

I found it in:

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Going the nonprofit route.

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I was doing this as a little bit of a side

thing because I was passionate about it.

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And was advised by some

friends and attorneys to go

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the LLC route, which we did.

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And, that, structure allowed

us to charge for conferences and

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memberships and trainings, and

then have a sponsorship package.

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And we, at our height, we had

about 12 or 13 full time employees.

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As well and without that forget

it we you know, larry reeves and

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I we were staying up late at night

Putting this thing together the

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first year or two before we hired

our first employee it was a fun time.

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I'll tell you a lot of work.

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Erich Starrett: That's exciting.

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So in that process, then there

wasn't an early partnership, just

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a, an awareness of each other of the

sales enablement society and AAISP.

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Bob Perkins: Yeah, not a formal

but we had , a couple of the

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folks speak at our conferences.

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It was a good thing.

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Sales enablement was, part of every

year we would pull the leaders coming

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to the, let's say the leadership

summit and executive retreats, AAISP.

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And we said what's top of mind.

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And I will tell you this tools and

technology, which I would bucket

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under sales enablement was almost

always in the top three or four.

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So we would always provide what's

the latest and greatest in the tech

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stack, for example, we'd have speakers.

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And so that's why we were.

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Open to and honestly, eager

to tap into the resources of

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the Sales Enablement Society.

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Erich Starrett: So let's move

forward a little bit on the timeline.

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The SES.

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announced just last year in October at

their annual experience:

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were evolving to shift from being the

sales to the revenue enablement society.

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Do you have a strong

opinion on that shift?

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Bob Perkins: Okay yet another role,

if you will, or function, you could

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call it a role or function, revenue

operations, revenue enablement

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I would, putting my historical hat on for

a moment and looking from past to present

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to future, it appears to me that this

big umbrella called the sales Profession

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has diversified and it has role.

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specification.

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It used to be that if you were

a sales rep, you did it all.

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You, and I go back to, and from your

beginning, I go back and say I, I had

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to prospect, I had to make sure my

CRM back then was, a DOS based ACT!

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Program.

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I had to make sure I had all that right.

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We didn't have SDRs, BDRs.

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We, and we had to do everything and the

diversification started coming in, they

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started separating lead gen from selling

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I don't think this is

something like brand new.

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I think it's really specifying a role.

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And I think it's also an attempt.

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To cross functionally recognize

that, yes, it takes an order before

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anything happens at a company.

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Let's you and I call it what it is.

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If you don't have a sale, you have

nothing, but I do believe that it

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takes many people and things to

make that sale and I think I think

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we're seeing role specification.

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In part due to the, I think the

profession of sales is getting a better

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name than it did 20, 30 years ago.

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It's an honorable profession.

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And, with that comes the fact that

there's growth, there's technology

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growth, there's need for training.

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Look at the colleges that are now,

they have selling sales programs.

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They train college age kids.

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About crm about selling about

prospecting and it's fantastic.

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We didn't have that 30 years

ago We barely had a few handful

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of colleges doing it now.

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We have hundreds So I think we're

seeing the evolution and the

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continued Improvement and focus on the

profession of sales and that's in part.

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I think that's Why you're, why you have

a focus on this thing called revenue

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operations or revenue enablement, because

it's really important without revenue.

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You don't have anything.

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Here's what I can tell you.

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The term inside sales is

near and dear to my heart.

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It's it, I'm wearing a shirt that

says AAISP inside sales, but you can

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just, you can call it digital sales.

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You can call it virtually,

you can call it sales.

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And I think the same thing

holds true for, you have a very

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specific need for sales training.

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Okay, that could fall

under sales enablement.

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It could fall under something called

revenue enablement revenue operations

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i'm not sure if it matters whether

you call it inside or digital sales.

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It's pretty much the same thing but we

know there's a need for it and there's

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a focus on it I think that's why

these names emerge And this might be

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a good analogy maybe not, with sales

enablement and sales operations,

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revenue operations, revenue enablement.

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And that is, I believe in

part the term digital sales.

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in part was adopted to say, you

know what, this is not just someone

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on the phone making phone calls.

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And it's more than that.

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And it's more sophisticated than that.

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And it's, and we're budgeting

more money to grow digital sales.

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And it's the whole universe of

the customer being web savvy.

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I like to say the future of

sales is being Amazonized.

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What do I mean by that?

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We all know what Amazon is.

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It's everything.

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It's point and click, order, return,

customer service, pricing, availability,

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everything at your fingertip, and

sales is moving in that direction.

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So I coined this term years ago.

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We're becoming, sales

is becoming Amazonized.

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And hence the need for Sales Enablement,

Revenue Operations and so on.

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Erich Starrett: So as we're shifting more

towards the present, maybe in parallel,

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we had the sales enablement society

becoming the revenue enablement society.

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We've also in recent years had.

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The AAISP become Emblaze, my understanding

is it's the a American is now global

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is part of the reason for a change

and the inside sales professionals

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to digital sales is another part.

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But instead of the global digital sales.

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Association.

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They went within Emblaze with a

tagline that it's revenue insights

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that ignite and that is a definitive

source for digital revenue leaders.

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So I would love to hear, I

clearly you went through a process

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:

of transitioning the AAISP.

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:

Can you give us a behind the curtain

peek on what kind of happened in

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:

that timeline and what's in a name?

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Bob Perkins: Yeah.

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Let's just talk about the, the

point that we were acquired by

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CVI and then the transition.

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And after about a year, they came up

with a more modern a different name.

357

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Number one, CVI was a great company to

work with because they really wanted to

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take the strong suit of AAISP, no doubt

was the community people were very loyal.

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They were very curious.

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They were dedicated.

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We had a tremendous community that

would come together, would share

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openly, would learn from each other.

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So CVI took that and over the last couple

of years have been really what I would

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call expanding on that to have a one, a

broader appeal, not just to this team.

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This word or phrase called inside sales.

366

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It's beyond that.

367

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So they're broadening the appeal.

368

:

They're also bringing some,

a little more of a scientific

369

:

research approach to what we did.

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Not that we didn't, we did our

own research but they're a little,

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they had more sophistication and

more tools and more, manpower quite

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honestly to do a lot deeper research.

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So they're bringing some

good science and research.

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Back stuff to the community,

which I think is excellent.

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And you're right.

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:

We were global when prior to

CVI, we had conferences overseas.

377

:

We had chat from seas, but we

still had the, that a the American

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:

word, which a lot of people

said, Hey, you really are global.

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:

Do you want to change your name?

380

:

And we thought about it, but we said,

Hey, AAISP is so well known, people just.

381

:

I'd be out, I'd be out and

people wouldn't know who I was.

382

:

And I heard someone say, yeah

we're going to AAISP next week.

383

:

They, it was almost a noun.

384

:

And so we left it, but I think

that, the Emblaze, they wanted a

385

:

fresh, modern naming convention.

386

:

And their, the mission, the future.

387

:

Is to really grow as was our mission

and our future was to influence and

388

:

I'll use your term enabled, which we did

enable leaders, predominantly leaders

389

:

and sales reps to a lesser extent, but

enable leaders to lead better and to

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:

bring what we used to call inside sales.

391

:

into the next generation.

392

:

.

under and chairman clearly in:

393

:

That's when it sounds as if you brokered

with corporate visions and shifted

394

:

gears to being and continuing to

remain a part of it as a board member.

395

:

Is that correct?

396

:

Bob Perkins: Yeah, that's correct.

397

:

I sit on the board and give

them my input quarterly.

398

:

And I just got through advising a company

for about a year as an advisor and I'm

399

:

still speaking with a few other companies

400

:

. Erich Starrett: On behalf of the

community, thank you for staying around.

401

:

A lot of times that's where

things fall apart, right?

402

:

When the founder who had the vision and

Had the people who've used AAISP as an

403

:

everyday term, like Kleenex or Xerox.

404

:

Bob Perkins: I love it.

405

:

Erich Starrett: Where'd the guy go?

406

:

That's our man.

407

:

And he's the one keeping it all together.

408

:

So that's awesome.

409

:

You've been there through the transition

and speaking of transitions and

410

:

combinations the sales enablement

society, as they became the revenue

411

:

enablement society, I think had an even

more keen eye towards AAISP now and just.

412

:

last month released a press

release that there was a

413

:

partnership growing officially.

414

:

There, is a revenue enablement track

at digital now coming up in April

415

:

next week, which we have a code for

everybody out there in the listening

416

:

audience to get a great discount.

417

:

Were you part of brokering that?

418

:

. Bob Perkins: I was not part of that,

but it's certainly it's fantastic.

419

:

Number one, it doesn't surprise me at all.

420

:

It's high time.

421

:

I think when I saw the announcement

myself, I'm like, this is really good.

422

:

I'm glad to see there's a track on it.

423

:

Every year we would spend

lots and lots of time.

424

:

We did have a board meeting,

by the way, on tracks.

425

:

And one of my, one of the inputs I

made there was let's make sure that

426

:

we have something for leadership

development, a lot of times leaders, Or

427

:

the last one to get trained and coach.

428

:

Maybe that's something that'll

even be part of this revenue

429

:

enablement discussion point.

430

:

But I do think leaders still

continue to need development.

431

:

That's near and dear to my heart.

432

:

I had a conflict this year and this

will be the first year in, I'm going to

433

:

say 16 years that I will miss Chicago.

434

:

But you know what?

435

:

I may get a last minute flight, just

show up and, say hi to everyone.

436

:

Erich Starrett: The Crackerjack prize.

437

:

There is a Bob.

438

:

I can't wait.

439

:

Keep me in the loop on that one.

440

:

Cause I will definitely want to share

it out if, and when you are able

441

:

to join us out there in Chicago.

442

:

So Bob, we covered the

past and the present.

443

:

How about the future?

444

:

As the founder of the A-A-I-S-P, as

the man who has been the cornerstone

445

:

of the transition towards Emblaze,

what do you see in this space?

446

:

And by the way, all those positions

we've been talking about and the

447

:

specialization, can you talk a little

bit down the vein of what was then inside

448

:

sales and is now multiple things and as

well, what was then A-A-I-S-P and what.

449

:

Does good look like in that community

as it continues to evolve with your

450

:

guidance as well on the executive board

451

:

Bob Perkins: This is a probably the

best and probably the hardest question

452

:

I've been asked in a long time.

453

:

And I you hit the nail on

the head with that question.

454

:

I wish I had a crystal ball.

455

:

People ask me would ask me

this question over the years.

456

:

Where's inside sales headed?

457

:

I really wish, I could,

I can paint a vision.

458

:

I just don't know if it's the if it's

the correct vision, but I'll give you my

459

:

thoughts on where I think it should go.

460

:

And I want to start with the

profession of sales as a whole.

461

:

.

And by the way, I would bucket sales enablement in there.

462

:

I would bucket revenue enable

enablement, revenue ops.

463

:

I would bucket this all together, and

464

:

I'm going to go back to the

three legged stool for a minute.

465

:

People we need to start with people.

466

:

It's all about, it is all about people.

467

:

We know through research that

hitting quotas is becoming harder.

468

:

Less companies are doing it.

469

:

We know through research and

questionnaires and surveys that Reps

470

:

are not getting coached adequately.

471

:

We know this.

472

:

It's not a surprise.

473

:

So I think in the future, we have

to double down on on training,

474

:

on mentoring, on coaching.

475

:

We need to treat this profession

like it's one of the most

476

:

critical professions in the world.

477

:

When you're an accountant, boy, you, when

you're a lawyer, you have to pass the bar.

478

:

When you're an accountant,

you got to get your CPA.

479

:

It's along those lines.

480

:

It's so good to see colleges

training young folks.

481

:

We need more of that.

482

:

When I was leading and consulting over

the years, people would say, can you

483

:

tell us if we're doing this right?

484

:

Do we have the right metrics?

485

:

Do we have the right software?

486

:

Do we have the right tech stack?

487

:

And I said, timeout, stop.

488

:

I'm going to tell you

right now, you want it.

489

:

You want to be successful.

490

:

Get a great leader.

491

:

Start with a great leader.

492

:

Great leaders build great teams.

493

:

It's a simple formula and

we need to embrace that.

494

:

The third one is tools technology.

495

:

Guess what?

496

:

Now we have this thing called AI

entering the landscape and all I

497

:

would say about technology is this

and I'll give you a good example.

498

:

When I started using zoom,

to me, it was a game changer.

499

:

Things like that can be game changers.

500

:

As a profession, I think we need

to make sure that the reps have

501

:

those tools that will not impede

them, but will help them and will be

502

:

productivity enhancements for them.

503

:

And I think that's where sales

enablement, revenue, enablement, revenue

504

:

operations can make a huge impact.

505

:

Let's, let's continue to find

ways to let people be people,

506

:

let them be great salespeople,

507

:

back in 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, there was

this thing called tech stack overload.

508

:

So I think the future holds

some interesting interesting

509

:

things in, in play for what's

going to happen with technology.

510

:

Whatever we do going forward.

511

:

We got to put people in the

center of this equation because

512

:

here's a great story.

513

:

I'm going to end with this little story.

514

:

There was this company that

had about a midsize company.

515

:

They had about 30, 40 sales reps.

516

:

I think they were about a 200, 300

million in sales and they had their

517

:

annual president's club and they

got all the sales reps together and

518

:

they were doing the annual awards.

519

:

And finally the VP of sales

gets up and he goes, the number

520

:

one was 180 percent of quota.

521

:

Is so and so John Smith, John.

522

:

Congratulations.

523

:

John gets up and He gets the award, a

nice trophy plaque, whatever it was, and

524

:

then dinner starts and the VP comes over.

525

:

John, congratulations.

526

:

And the VP happened to have his

iPad with him and he pulls up

527

:

statistics on John and there he is.

528

:

180 percent of quota,

but then he flips the.

529

:

The page to the next dashboard and

on there was number of sales calls

530

:

for the year out of 30 people.

531

:

And he said, congratulations,

but take a look at this.

532

:

You were in the lower third.

533

:

You were like eight from the

bottom with number of sales calls.

534

:

He goes, just think if you could even

improve that up to, 50 top 50 top 40

535

:

top 30%, you might've been at 200%.

536

:

John looks at the VP and says, with

all due respect, just think if all the

537

:

reps above me made fewer sales calls.

538

:

So the moral of that story is.

539

:

If sales were as simple as making

a call or sending an email or

540

:

doing a Zoom video, from a quantity

standpoint, anybody could be successful.

541

:

You and I know that Six very successful

sales reps are few and far between.

542

:

And you can't say, if you make a

hundred calls, you're going to get

543

:

10 meetings of the 10 meetings.

544

:

You're going to have five

go to demo of the demos.

545

:

Three are going to close.

546

:

It's not that easy.

547

:

A monkey could do it.

548

:

And so I would leave that thought to

the audience that, we, as much as we

549

:

are enabled to do a lot in a little

bit of time, let's not forget about,

550

:

the people and how important they are.

551

:

To the equation.

552

:

And there you go.

553

:

Erich Starrett: Orchestrate the, the

friction out of the sales system.

554

:

Don't focus on fixing the sales folks.

555

:

Bob Perkins: I love what you just said.

556

:

In fact, before we started this the

conversation today, I think you and

557

:

I offline, you were talking about

how you broke some things and you

558

:

were a little bit of a renegade.

559

:

You're very best reps.

560

:

They figure out how to

get rid of the friction.

561

:

Erich Starrett: They take that comp plan.

562

:

They figure out what's going to

work and they do what it takes

563

:

to get there and provide there.

564

:

customers value to keep that

revenue coming in, right?

565

:

Bob Perkins: you got it?

566

:

Erich Starrett: Final note I

loved what you said about AI.

567

:

A tagline for me is AI

curious human enthusiast.

568

:

And what I mean by that is a version of

what you just shared that I see AI as an

569

:

opportunity to off load the administrivia

and focus on your given gifting.

570

:

And if that happens to be sales

to your point, it is a skill.

571

:

It is a gift to be able to sell well,

to have the patience and to, in this

572

:

day and age differentiate by leading

with more of a loving kindness, not the

573

:

old school boiler room approach, right?

574

:

Thank you.

575

:

But as my buddy Dale Dupree would

say, being more of a sales rebel and

576

:

really doing things differently where

you meet each customer where they are.

577

:

Bob Perkins: I love that.

578

:

Erich Starrett: Oh, thank you.

579

:

Can you say, I know, and that's

part of the reason, Bob, we're

580

:

completing each other's sentences.

581

:

Where does that land with you?

582

:

And is there anything finally you'd

like to say in that future space?

583

:

about AI friend or foe, and what's

possible when sales is able to tap

584

:

into their unconscious competence.

585

:

Bob Perkins: I think AI ultimately

is going to be a friend.

586

:

It has to be, it, it will be.

587

:

We just, we want to be careful

that we don't substitute

588

:

it for what you just said.

589

:

I love what you just said about

empathy and, the, being the rebel.

590

:

Really what that says to me is,

you know what, Great salespeople

591

:

make it about the other person.

592

:

What does that mean empathy?

593

:

caring attention listening More

than you're speaking Those are the

594

:

traits that winning sales reps carry.

595

:

And you probably know steve richard.

596

:

Erich Starrett: I just reached

out to him the other day.

597

:

Bob Perkins: Yeah, Steve is great.

598

:

He and I over the years would say we

have a listening and discovery epidemic.

599

:

It's not good.

600

:

People want to get out

there and just sell.

601

:

Here's how great my product is.

602

:

Why don't you find out what's happening

with the customer really understand them?

603

:

Erich Starrett: Maybe this digital

cluster will ultimately melt down

604

:

and consolidate to the point where we

get back to that basic blocking and

605

:

tackling of listening, leaning into our

gifting and bringing value, recurring

606

:

value, recurring impact to our client

in whatever way we can present it with.

607

:

The portfolio we represent

608

:

Bob Perkins: It's exciting.

609

:

Listen, this whole profession

is so exciting to me and

610

:

what the opportunities are.

611

:

Maybe I'll stick around a little

bit longer and do some more

612

:

advising because I just love talking

about the opportunity we have.

613

:

Erich Starrett: Yes, please bob.

614

:

We're with the not just the inside

sales, but the digital global

615

:

sales the leadership All of us we

need you on the scene my friend.

616

:

Thank you So much for your time today

on behalf of your global community and

617

:

the global podcast community I'm sure

they've learned a thing or three as I

618

:

have today Any final words you'd like to

share on your way out the door for today?

619

:

Bob Perkins: I would just give you

a boost of confidence and good luck.

620

:

Wishes with keeping the newly

mi nted Revenue Enablement

621

:

Society, RES, front and center.

622

:

Let's partner, as best we can

623

:

Erich Starrett: We'll look forward to

seeing you on down the road, whether it's

624

:

the Crackerjack Prize in Chicagoland or

further on down the street, my friend.

625

:

Thanks so much for being here.

626

:

Bob Perkins: Yeah, good.

627

:

It was nice meeting you and

hopefully our paths will cross again.

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