0
SPEAKER_00
Brian, you know, we love our friends at PandaDoc.
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What if you could save hours, hours of administrative time and spend more time selling?
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Well, with PandaDoc, you can create, send, track and e-sign beautiful proposals and quotes faster than making a single cold call.
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They ve even got a new e-book that discusses the 10 essential elements your proposal must have.
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Go to PandaDoc.com forward slash ASP to download that book for free.
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So if you need help creating beautiful sales proposals and quotes, check out PandaDoc.
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You can look like a billion dollar business without spending like one.
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And you can go to PandaDoc.com slash ASP.
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SPEAKER_01
Welcome, everybody, to the Advanced Selling Podcast, the longest-running sales training podcast in sales training podcast history.
0
SPEAKER_01
My name is Brian Neal.
0
SPEAKER_01
I m Bill Kasky.
0
SPEAKER_01
I have my sick voice on today.
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SPEAKER_01
Can you tell I m a little sick, Bill?
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SPEAKER_00
No, I can t.
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SPEAKER_01
It s kind of good, though, for voices, I think.
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SPEAKER_00
It s good baritone, though.
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SPEAKER_01
Hey, that s what I was told.
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SPEAKER_01
Like, you could do voiceover work.
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SPEAKER_01
I m like, it s only because I ve got a tumor in my lung right now.
0
SPEAKER_01
Anyway, we re here every week for your listening enjoyment every Monday.
0
SPEAKER_01
Glad you re here.
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SPEAKER_01
If you re new, please go to our LinkedIn group.
0
SPEAKER_01
We have a LinkedIn group with about 11,000 of your favorite podcast friends talking about stuff.
0
SPEAKER_01
And Bill and I put things in there occasionally.
0
SPEAKER_01
Be sure to link into us also directly, if you would.
0
SPEAKER_01
Brian Neal and Bill Kasky.
0
SPEAKER_00
Have you ever heard of a tonsil stone?
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SPEAKER_01
I have now, I ve never.
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SPEAKER_00
I have never.
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SPEAKER_00
We were out at dinner the other night with a bunch of people, and half the people at the table had had tonsil stones.
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SPEAKER_00
I ve never heard of it before.
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SPEAKER_00
Never, never heard of it.
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SPEAKER_00
And then they started to describe it, which dinner is the wrong time to describe tonsil stone.
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SPEAKER_00
A tonsil stone.
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SPEAKER_00
But when you said something about Tim, I thought, well, maybe the poor guy has a small tonsil stone.
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SPEAKER_00
Maybe I ve got a tonsil stone.
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SPEAKER_00
I ve never heard of it, but it s gross.
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SPEAKER_00
I can t, I don t even, that s awful.
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SPEAKER_01
Maybe our guest today.
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That s our first question.
0
SPEAKER_01
Exactly.
0
SPEAKER_01
Hey, do you know what it is?
0
SPEAKER_01
And have you ever had one?
0
SPEAKER_01
I do not.
0
SPEAKER_00
Well, we re talking today with Brooke Bichesta.
0
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Brooke is the SDR manager at outreach.io.
0
SPEAKER_00
Outreach is one of our fine sponsors and colleagues and friends in the industry, and they ve been a sponsor here for the last few weeks.
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SPEAKER_00
And so we thought we would have Brooke on to give us some advice on just the whole revenue driving machine that outreach is.
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SPEAKER_00
And talk about outreach a little bit, but talk more about just generally how can people become better
0
SPEAKER_00
at sales process and all the things that touch it and all the tentacles that it has.
0
SPEAKER_00
So, Brooke, welcome to the show today.
0
SPEAKER_02
Thanks so much for having me, guys.
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SPEAKER_02
Pleasure to be here.
0
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
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SPEAKER_00
Where are you?
0
SPEAKER_02
I am in Seattle, Washington, with our brand new headquarters.
0
SPEAKER_02
Oh, nice.
0
SPEAKER_01
You re awake.
0
SPEAKER_01
Good for you.
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SPEAKER_01
Very awake.
0
SPEAKER_02
We get in pretty early here, so.
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SPEAKER_01
You play the East Coast sales game out there, do you?
0
SPEAKER_02
A little of that, yeah.
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SPEAKER_01
I understand.
0
SPEAKER_01
Maybe a little background just on your, how d you get to where you are?
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SPEAKER_01
A little, little bit of Brooke s life story to start with.
0
SPEAKER_02
Sure.
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SPEAKER_02
Uh, yeah.
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SPEAKER_02
So I, uh, as mentioned, I m an SDR manager here at ours.
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SPEAKER_02
I have my one year anniversary actually last Friday, I think.
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SPEAKER_02
So yeah, very exciting.
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SPEAKER_02
Before Outreach, I had been at a couple of other startups.
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SPEAKER_02
I actually started my career as an SDR down in the Bay Area.
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SPEAKER_02
I started there.
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SPEAKER_02
I m from the Seattle area, so once I decided that I wanted to stay, like I got into sales, wanted to stay in sales, moved back home.
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SPEAKER_02
Or for another company, as an SDR in the SaaS space, I worked up as an AE, became an SDR manager, and now I m here at Outreach in my second SDR manager gig and third SDR shop.
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SPEAKER_01
I like this SDR deal, don t you?
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SPEAKER_02
I do.
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SPEAKER_02
Good for you.
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SPEAKER_00
I ve been in the Bay Area and in California, there are millions of SDRs.
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SPEAKER_02
There sure are.
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SPEAKER_01
I think they should make their own little town called SDR.
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SPEAKER_01
Where do you live?
0
SPEAKER_01
I live in SDR, California, just outside of San Jose.
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, it s very close.
0
SPEAKER_01
Well, you ll see us.
0
SPEAKER_01
We all walk around with headsets on.
0
SPEAKER_01
That s how you ll see that they re there, right?
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SPEAKER_01
Little phones.
0
SPEAKER_02
Exactly.
0
SPEAKER_00
So give us a minute or two on outreach and the kind of work that you do and the kind of solution you provide to people, and maybe even get into some of the problems that you help companies solve.
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SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
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SPEAKER_02
Well, I got a very high level.
0
SPEAKER_02
Are you guys familiar with like how outreach became or came into existence?
0
SPEAKER_02
Or I can give you a quick overview.
0
SPEAKER_00
Awesome.
0
SPEAKER_02
All right.
0
SPEAKER_02
Well, about four or five years ago, we actually outreach, I don t think, I think we had a different name.
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SPEAKER_02
It was a recruiting and applicant tracking system.
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SPEAKER_02
And if Manny listens to this and I get this wrong, I m sure he ll let me know.
0
SPEAKER_02
He and a couple of the founders had actually met at Techstars.
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SPEAKER_02
Actually, before that, two of our founders, they were at this tech incubator here in Seattle.
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And Andrew Kinzer and Manny were paired up together.
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SPEAKER_02
And while Kinzer was pitching Manny on his idea, Manny was pitching Kinzer on his idea.
0
SPEAKER_02
Manny, our CEO, got Kinzer, our head of product, to quit his other idea and jump onto Manny s bandwagon and work on this new project for recruiting.
0
SPEAKER_02
And it was going okay, right?
0
SPEAKER_02
They had a couple other founders, Wes and Gordon, they were building this product.
0
SPEAKER_02
It was going all right, but it was a really competitive space.
0
SPEAKER_02
And as they kept trucking along, they were actually running into a huge wall and they weren t doing well at all.
0
SPEAKER_02
Like doing so poorly, they were going bankrupt.
0
SPEAKER_02
And they re like, man, we ve got to figure out how to sell some more of this stuff.
0
SPEAKER_02
There s only the four of us.
0
SPEAKER_02
There s no way that we can get in touch with all the people we need to.
0
SPEAKER_02
So they created a bot, essentially, to help them send out more emails, remind them to follow up on people, and stay on top of their sales process.
0
SPEAKER_02
And it turned out it was working well.
0
SPEAKER_02
They were booking meetings.
0
SPEAKER_02
They were selling more stuff.
0
SPEAKER_02
But the more meetings they have with their customers, their customers kept telling them,
0
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, this recruiting stuff is cool, but I m actually really interested as to how you got in touch with me, because nobody gets in touch with me, and I don t know how you guys did it.
0
SPEAKER_02
But yeah, anyways, not surprisingly, it turns out the bot that they created was called Outreach.
0
SPEAKER_02
They decided to do a full pivot, got rid of the applicant tracking system,
0
SPEAKER_02
pivoted towards the sales engagement software, and they realized that the sales space was actually a lot less sophisticated than they had assumed.
0
SPEAKER_02
People were still working on spreadsheets, which a lot of people can empathize with that.
0
SPEAKER_02
Not a lot of insight into their data or their pipeline.
0
SPEAKER_02
A lot of it was just based on gut feeling.
0
SPEAKER_02
And so, four years later, here we are.
0
SPEAKER_02
We have the sales platform.
0
SPEAKER_02
We re helping people sell faster and sell more of it, and honestly, just sell like it s 2019.
0
SPEAKER_00
OK, so be more specific about that, because I don t know how to get from where I am.
0
SPEAKER_00
Let s say that I m a VP of sales, and I ve got a team of 10 to 15 people.
0
SPEAKER_00
So what kinds of problems am I experiencing that would cause me to reach out to outreach?
0
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, well, I think, you know, process and not having enough time in the day is like enemy number one of salespeople, right?
0
SPEAKER_02
Because we re really great at chatting with people, but there s just a lot of volume, and it s hard to stay on top of it.
0
SPEAKER_02
So as sales folks, we have to do things like send out follow up emails, make sure that we re keeping a checkbook.
0
SPEAKER_02
customers, if you re prospecting, keeping your pipeline full of people to reach out to.
0
SPEAKER_02
And what Outreach does is it automates all of those mundane tasks that you can spend more time on the phone, closing as a sales rep, and that your executives can have some better insight into what it is that you re doing on a daily basis and lend some help early on.
0
SPEAKER_02
Like a prime example is I know Manny and our CRO actually use it.
0
SPEAKER_02
to check in on the health of deals.
0
SPEAKER_02
They can see emails back and forth, get a better understanding of where things are in your pipeline, rather than just reporting things on the spreadsheet that s kind of static.
0
SPEAKER_02
Does that make sense?
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, totally.
0
SPEAKER_01
So here s a question.
0
SPEAKER_01
We had a lot of SaaS words.
0
SPEAKER_01
Bill and I joke about the SaaS community.
0
SPEAKER_01
It s got their own lingo.
0
SPEAKER_01
So I love we got founders, we got pivot, we got pitch deck.
0
SPEAKER_00
We got product.
0
SPEAKER_01
We got SDR.
0
SPEAKER_01
No, it s all happy fun, because we ve got lots of other SAS friends here in the Indianapolis area.
0
SPEAKER_01
We talk about the same stuff.
0
SPEAKER_01
Here s a question.
0
SPEAKER_01
This is a SAS question, because my other SAS clients struggle with this.
0
SPEAKER_01
Salespeople are notorious for resisting any sort of tool that s put in front of them, because they see it as something they have to do, and it s like big brother, big sister watching them.
0
SPEAKER_01
How do you, because this can apply to any sales enablement tool, how do you get outreach clients and customers and the users to use the tool?
0
SPEAKER_02
Oh, that is a good question.
0
SPEAKER_02
I think, honestly, like with our SDR, so SDR, Sales Development Representative, the team that I work with is in charge of cold calling and prospecting, teeing up our pipeline.
0
SPEAKER_02
It s very clear to them the value that they get out of outreach.
0
SPEAKER_02
So to give you a sense of scale, prior, like when I was in SDR, I could maybe manage
0
SPEAKER_02
in quality, you know, without spamming people s email or sending them a bunch of stuff.
0
SPEAKER_02
Probably, I would say, 50 people at once, right?
0
SPEAKER_02
Because I m handwriting their emails, and I m making myself calendar invites, and that s still like a lot to manage.
0
SPEAKER_02
My SDRs now, they re probably managing anywhere between 250 to 300 people at a time in their pipeline with quality messaging that they re never forgetting to follow up and bump.
0
SPEAKER_02
And for them, you know, the outcome is very clear.
0
SPEAKER_02
It s more commission in their pocket because their pipeline is larger.
0
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, that s fantastic.
0
SPEAKER_00
5X larger.
0
SPEAKER_00
That s huge.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, it s incredible.
1
SPEAKER_00
And trying to think of how I would manage this without the power of outreach is honestly really daunting.
1
SPEAKER_00
So I think that salespeople, once they start using it and they do see the value of it, it s very clear and tangible because it s helping them hit their numbers.
1
SPEAKER_01
So give us an example of, you said that it automates some of the tasks.
1
SPEAKER_01
Give us an example, a very specific example, without giving away any proprietary information, just about how that would work and what task would it be useful to automate.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, well, think about communication as a series of touch points, right?
1
SPEAKER_00
So if I m trying to get in touch with one of you guys, say I m trying to get in touch with Bill, and we ve already kind of been introduced over email, but people are busy, and it s very likely that you might just forget to respond to my email, or it gets buried, might not have your phone on you.
1
SPEAKER_00
So my attempts to get in touch with you need to be frequent, and studies show us that it takes about 18 to get in touch with somebody.
1
SPEAKER_00
So that could be a combination of I send you a call, maybe I text you, or I send you an email, LinkedIn message you, and then I bump those touchpoints multiple times.
1
SPEAKER_00
Data also shows us that most people, although they re being persistent, quit their attempts at around touch eight or nine.
1
SPEAKER_00
So it s halfway of what they need to get done.
1
SPEAKER_00
And there s still so much goodness left to be had within their touchpoint sequence of events here.
1
SPEAKER_00
So what Outreach is doing is it ll automate, so the emails are easy to automate, right, because I can just time it to send out and I ll never forget to send them.
1
SPEAKER_00
It ll also queue up tasks for me so that every day when I get in, it s like, hey, like, got to get in touch with Bill, here s a queue, like, queued up call for you to make or a reminder to go view his LinkedIn or send him a message.
1
SPEAKER_00
And then I can just live within this platform and it will prioritize all of my tasks based on who s most likely to get in touch with me, what s going to impact my pipeline most.
1
SPEAKER_00
You never forget.
1
SPEAKER_03
That s really good.
1
SPEAKER_03
You re kind of helping sales.
1
SPEAKER_03
I always say these tools, what I love about them is they help salespeople not think.
1
SPEAKER_03
That s usually a better approach when you don t have to think.
1
SPEAKER_03
It s weird, but it s true.
1
SPEAKER_03
I have more of a generic question for our listeners, especially for those because we deal with a lot of sales managers and VPs of sales that listen to the show.
1
SPEAKER_03
We have lots of salespeople that listen to the show.
1
SPEAKER_03
You re an SDR manager.
1
SPEAKER_03
Are you managing a team of SDRs?
1
SPEAKER_00
I am.
1
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, so let s talk about that for a second.
1
SPEAKER_03
So you ve got all this data now with outreach, and you ve got these automated systems.
1
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, my guess is if we looked at your team, you still have high performers, medium and low performers.
1
SPEAKER_03
How do you as a leader use the use, whether it s outreach or any other tool, I m curious how you as a leader use a tool like this sales enablement to be a better leader of your sales team.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, that s a great question.
1
SPEAKER_00
And when I think of that, I think of how I used to SDR.
1
SPEAKER_00
I ll use it as a verb and how I was managed before.
1
SPEAKER_00
Prior to Outreach, we didn t have a lot of insight into what we were doing every day.
1
SPEAKER_00
So I could say as a rep that if I make 101 more dials, I m statistically more likely to get in touch with people.
1
SPEAKER_00
So I ll just make more dials.
1
SPEAKER_00
Or my manager would say, send more emails.
1
SPEAKER_00
And while those are true, and they re certainly indicative of old school SCRing days, it used to just be managed by how many calls and emails that you made, which are certainly indicative of high activity behavior.
1
SPEAKER_00
But it s not really clear that if I make 100 calls at 6 PM at night, it doesn t mean I m going to book any meetings because everybody s already at home and they re not at the office anymore.
1
SPEAKER_00
So now I can, like one of my reps who s new, they re just green, right?
1
SPEAKER_00
Like a lot of potential, but green.
1
SPEAKER_00
And so what I can do now is I can dig into their emails, which sure I could have done that before as a manager, digging into their emails prior to outreach, but now I can see their entire thread of touch points and I m willing to bet that they re using that exact same sequence on a number of other prospects.
1
SPEAKER_00
So I can go and make sure that, hey, do you have the right types of people, meaning personas for your ideal customer profile?
1
SPEAKER_00
That was a lot of buzzwords, sorry.
1
SPEAKER_00
Are you getting in touch with the right types of people that are best suited to buy your solution?
1
SPEAKER_00
And are they getting the right kind of messaging?
1
SPEAKER_00
So rather than saying, hey, Jane, send more emails, I can just say, hey, you re sending good emails, but they re to the wrong people.
1
SPEAKER_00
So let s make sure that your marketing folks are getting things marketing people care about, and your sales leaders are getting things that CRO or whatever, mid-level manager people care about.
1
SPEAKER_01
care about.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s good.
1
SPEAKER_01
Well, we re speaking today with Brooke Bichesta, who is an SDR manager at Outreach, one of our partners here at the Advanced Selling Podcast.
1
SPEAKER_01
And one thing that I m very thankful we did today, Brooke, is we will make you self-conscious about all the buzzwords you say.
1
SPEAKER_01
I know, I already am.
1
SPEAKER_01
Don t be.
1
SPEAKER_01
No, don t be.
1
SPEAKER_03
It s great.
1
SPEAKER_03
We ve made a list and we will joke about these once you get off.
1
SPEAKER_01
I will tell you this.
1
SPEAKER_03
You are not.
1
SPEAKER_03
You are not alone.
1
SPEAKER_03
You are not alone.
1
SPEAKER_03
I m telling you, it s a big island of the SAS buzzwords.
1
SPEAKER_03
I m telling you, nobody s getting thrown off SAS buzzword bingo.
1
SPEAKER_01
I got a full card.
1
SPEAKER_01
Well, Brooke, we appreciate having you on today, and we appreciate also your ability to describe the outreach system and then some of the things that salespeople and sales VPs and leaders can also keep in mind as they look to become more efficient, more effective.
1
SPEAKER_03
You can check them out at outreach.io forward slash ASP to chat with them and receive a free copy of their new book.
1
SPEAKER_03
I think one thing you could plug into your outreach process is, if you re calling on VPs of sales and CROs, is a link to the Advanced Selling Podcast.
1
SPEAKER_03
Oh, now you re talking.
1
SPEAKER_03
Because that s valuable on its own, right?
1
SPEAKER_03
And you ve got scale there.
1
SPEAKER_03
That s a differentiator.
1
SPEAKER_03
And it s like, hey, FYI, if you have a sales team, nobody s got that.
1
SPEAKER_03
Now they do, OK?
1
SPEAKER_03
You heard it here first.
1
SPEAKER_03
I m sure she ll get right on that.
1
SPEAKER_00
Cutting edge stuff.
1
SPEAKER_00
I can tell.
1
SPEAKER_03
She s like, oh my god.
1
SPEAKER_03
She s eye rolling us.
1
SPEAKER_03
All right, Brooke, thanks.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, thank you, guys.
1
SPEAKER_03
Bye-bye.
1
SPEAKER_03
Good job.
1
SPEAKER_03
See you.
1
SPEAKER_03
Bye-bye.
1
SPEAKER_03
That s it.
1
SPEAKER_03
We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Advanced Selling Podcast.
1
SPEAKER_03
Go to the LinkedIn group, linkedin.com slash advancedsellingpodcast.
1
SPEAKER_03
Or just search for it in your LinkedIn profile there.
1
SPEAKER_03
And we d love to have you there.
1
SPEAKER_03
We re closing in on 11,000 members there.
1
SPEAKER_03
So make sure you re part of the LinkedIn group.
1
SPEAKER_03
And if you haven t done so already, he wants to come visit you.
1
SPEAKER_03
Go to your sales meeting, sales launch.
1
SPEAKER_03
or anything like that, we d love to do that.
1
SPEAKER_03
Just send us an email, come see us, put that in the subject line and we ll call you and chat through what the details of that look like.
1
SPEAKER_03
That s it, see you next time on the Advanced Selling Podcast.
1
SPEAKER_03
Bye.