We recently caught up with Ed Puisis, who is the CFO of Intelligrated.  Intelligrated is a $700 million industrial automation company growing 20% per year and is forecasted to hit $1 billion in just a few short years. 

We asked Ed to share with us his views on Sales and Marketing, from the perspective of the CFO.  The Chief Financial Officer is a key player in the development of the sales and marketing strategy but is one that is often overlooked in its development. This podcast is meant to offer insight into how finance, sales, and marketing can work together. 

You can listen to the podcast here. 

By listening to this interview you will learn how to: 

• Build KPIs correctly
• Connect sales/marketing KPIs to corporate KPIs
• Measure process effectiveness
• Move beyond activity metrics and get to causation 

If you are a Sales or Marketing Leader and need a better relationship with the CFO, you might find this helpful.

Original article at http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/a-cfos-perspective-on-sales-and-marketing

Mark Synek of SBI talks to Rich Doggett, a twenty-year marketing veteran, and the VP of Field Marketing at Sysco Corporation. They discuss direct marketing, and how to apply corporate marketing strategies to field marketing. Also discussed is the importance of balancing internal and external customer needs. Follow along with Mark and Rich to find out how important buyer potential is, and why you should be getting away from product marketing and getting involved with customer marketing.

We recently interviewed Rich Doggett, Vice President of Product and Field Marketing at Sysco.

Sysco is the largest food distributor, does $45 billion in annual revenues, has 50,000 employees, and over 400,000 customers. 

By listening to this podcast, you will learn: 

• How product marketing can partner with the field sales team.
• An approach to think through which products should be sold through which channel.
• Examples of how to grow wallet share from key accounts.

Original article at http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/how-to-migrate-from-product-marketing-to-customer-marketing

We caught up with two bright Sales Ops Leaders from the software industry. Evan Randall is the Vice President of Sales Ops at software company Tableau Software. The work that Evan is doing contributed to amazing sales results during the last quarter. Check these numbers out: 

Revenue growth of 71% and on run rate of $420 million.

License growth of 66%.

Added 2,500 new customers.

Big deals (>$100k) up 68%. 

Jerad Lally is the Director of Sales Ops at Paylease.  The work that Jerad is doing contributed to the company tripling in size and getting acquired by top tier private equity firm Francisco Partners. 

By listening to this podcast, you will: 

1.  Hear why staffing sales enablement with former sales reps produces great results.

2.  Understand the difference between a strategic and tactical Sales Ops Leader.

3.  How to ramp new sales reps to revenue quickly through certification. 

If you are a CEO, or Head of Sales, at a software company, ask yourself: “Are you getting maximum value from the Sales Ops function?” 

Hopefully, Evan and Jerad are two calibration points to help you answer this question. Highlights are from the blog post: http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/best-in-class-sales-operations-leadership-in-the-software-industry

Matt Sharrers interviews Heartland's Chief Sales Officer about sales growth, how to acquire quality members, how to keep a good atmosphere in the workplace, and some key goals and struggles he faces planning for 2015.  More highlights can be read in this blog post: http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/the-1-ranked-sales-team-of-2014

Here is what you will learn by listening to this podcast: 

1. How Tony, 34 years of age, became the youngest Chief Sales Officer in the Fortune 1000.

2. Why they have not changed the sales comp plan since 1994.

3. What the “Sales Rep Bill of Rights" is.

4. The difference between the goose and the eggs. 

Greg Alexander, the CEO of SBI is joined by George Norton, the head of the chief sales officer practice at Heidrick & Struggles.  If you are not familiar with Heidrick & Struggles, they are the world’s top executive search firm.  As a Partner in the firm, George gets hired by CEOs to fill the role of head of sales.  If you are a CEO, and are wondering if you need a new sales leader, listen to this.  It might help you think through this. If you are a head of sales, and are looking for the next adventure, listen to this.  It might help you increase your marketability. More blog highlights at http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/heidrick-struggles-outlines-what-ceos-look-for-when-hiring-a-head-of-sales

A New Approach to Time Management for Sales Managers. Josh Horstmann, Principal at SBI, is joined by Mike Walz to discuss sales management cadence.  Mike is the VP of Sales and Marketing at Ramsey Industries with over 25 years of experience in the Industrial Sales Marketplace.  Josh and Mike discuss how buyer behavior is changing, and how sales managers must adapt their strategies.  Hear how Mike manages his team, and aligns their reps and buyers resulting in increased sales.  More highlights can be read at the blog post here: http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/a-new-approach-to-time-management-for-sales-managers

How Agility Logistics Transformed Their Sales Force. Andrew Urteaga, a Principal at SBI, is joined by Paul Mullins, the SVP of Business Development for Agility Logistics. Agility Logistics is one of the worlds’ leading providers of integrated logistics with five hundred companies across 100 countries. These two discuss sales adoption, and how to get sales initiatives to stick inside an organization. They talk about what signs denote a need for change, why a company should push for a change, and items of note to help with adoption. When trying to push new sales strategies, a key item to focus on is making sure key stake holders are on board from the beginning. More highlights in this blog post: http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/how-agility-logistics-transformed-their-sales-force

How Guidance Software Uses Data to Drive Their Marketing Efforts. John Staples, a Partner at SBI, is joined by Alex Andrianopoulos, the Head of Marketing at Guidance Software. Alex has an engineering background, which gives him a different perspective on marketing. His technical expertise has helped him understand the needs of his customers and how to help them most effectively. They discuss the many priorities marketing executives should be considering, including instilling a data driven culture.  They discuss relying on objective data and benchmarking to determine where to focus marketing’s efforts and resources.  More highlights in the blog post at: http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/how-guidance-software-uses-data-to-drive-their-marketing-efforts

The UPS Capital Story: Sales Training’s Contribution to Making the Number. George de los Reyes, a Principal at SBI, is joined by Curt Redden, Director of Sales Training for UPS Capital. Curt is a certified professional in learning and performance and has 20 years of experience in sales training and coaching. They discuss how learning development is becoming a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Listen to this podcast to gain insight on talent development to learn how to get the right people on board and invest in your people to maximize output. More highlights in the blog post at: http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/the-ups-capital-story-sales-training%E2%80%99s-contribution-to-making-the-number

A Sales Reorg with 99% Customer Retention & 5% Rep Turnover. Dan Perry, of SBI, is joined by Matt Boice, VP of Sales Operations for The Enthusiast Network. Matt’s organization was recently restructured and he is here to share his best practices. He will discuss the reasons for restructuring, the difficulties associated with it, and most importantly the benefits. Listen to this podcast to gain insight from your peer who was able to thrive during his company’s reorganization. More podcast highlights are at: http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/podcast-a-sales-reorg-with-99-customer-retention-5-rep-turnover

Mitel CMO Martyn Etherington Discusses Leveraging Buyer Personas. Martyn Etherington joins Mark Synek with SBI for the SBI podcast. Martyn is the CMO and Chief of Staff at Mitel, a global leader in business communication that easily connects employees, partners and customers. The two professionals discuss the topic of buyer personas, and all the ways personas can be leveraged throughout your sales and marketing organization. More podcast highlights at: http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/new-podcast-mitel-cmo-martyn-etherington-discusses-leveraging-buyer-personas

Hear How LegalZoom and Infusionsoft Manage Sales. Ryan Tognazzini, Principal at SBI, sits down with two thought leaders in the business community. Joining him are Aaron Stead and Ed Arcinue. Aaron is the senior vice president of sales at Infusionsoft and a fifteen-year veteran in the field. Ed is the vice president of sales at Legalzoom. They debate a huge struggle sales leader’s face today: the difficulties of balancing time, focusing on achieving short-term results, and planning for long term strategic initiatives. More podcast highlights at: http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/new-podcast-hear-how-legalzoom-and-infusionsoft-manage-sales

Sales Ops Inside Big Companies. Matt Sharrers, Partner at SBI, talks to Kimberly Appleton from On Semiconductor, and Chris Fris from Ryder Logistics about the role of sales operations; specifically the transformations that the role is undergoing and how the demands of the role are changing. They also discuss some of the challenges that go along with this role. The information that they have to share is revolutionary in this field of work. More podcast highlights at: http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/sales-ops-inside-big-companies

Pfizer and Jive Software Share Sales Enablement Philosophies. Greg Alexander with SBI interviews two Sales Enablement Professionals to gain insight on the topic. The first Sales Enablement professional's name is Andy Garrity and he runs Sales enablement at Pfizer. Joining him is Patrick Merritt who runs Sales Enablement at Jive Software. They discuss what Sales Enablement is, and the challenges concerning Sales Enablement. More Podcast highlights can be found at http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/podcast-pfizer-and-jive-software-share-sales-enablement-philosophies

By listening to this podcast you will learn:

• How to centralize sales enablement without creating a political turf war.
• Jive Software’s approach to on boarding sales reps.
• Pfizer’s approach to gamifying sales training.
• How mobility can enable the sales team without taking anyone out of the field.