Succession spoilers

INDUSTRY NEWS

Succession spoilers

Don’t worry. There are spoilers ahead, but they are all associated with succession news at Salesforce, not a certain popular HBO series. Imagine if Frank Vernon was revealed to be the successor to Logan Roy. Well, if you follow Succession and Salesforce very closely, you might have that same feeling about Benioff’s rumored successor. On Tuesday, news broke that Salesforce changed up its executive team with a bunch of new hires, including appointing Miguel Milano as Salesforce’s new Chief Revenue Officer. However, Insider had the biggest reveal – an internal memo hinting at current President and COO Brian Millham being the frontrunner successor to Benioff. Enjoy the show. HBO subscription, not required.

In the pink

What goes well with pink? If you’re a production designer creating a unifying theme for the new Barbie movie, the answer is “more pink” – even if it causes an international pink paint shortage. Unifying the buyer experience is equally resource intensive, and not so straightforward. One of the most important responsibilities of any revenue operations team is to generate the alignment required to give prospects a consistent experience throughout a highly dynamic buying journey. According to Forrester Principal Analyst Seth Marrs, aligning the growth engine enables team coordination, dynamic buying processes, and aligned execution. Seth refers to the process as a B2B adventure race. We agree, but would add “in heels” to the end.

Rich dad RevTech

Are you working for money, or making money work for you? That’s the theme of the iconic financial guidebook “Rich Dad Poor Dad.” Our legal department strongly recommends against The Closer doling out personal investment advice in any form, but we think it’s safe to point you to a helpful resource that applies Rich Dad principles to RevTech. Sandhya Mahadevan, a Sr. Director Analyst in the Gartner for Sales practice, believes that “RevTech is having a Rich Dad, Poor Dad moment,” where Rich Dad leaders will find ways to maximize ROI, while Poor Dad leaders will get bogged down with technology that is difficult to maintain and administer. When it comes to RevTech, who’s your daddy?

IN THE GROOVE

The good, the bad, and the ugly: AI

Whether the idea of AI has you running for the door or looking forward to the future, we can all agree that it’s here, and it’s taking the world by storm. Sellers are already using ChatGPT for their cold email messaging, and if they aren’t, they are falling behind. If you want to transform your understanding of AI in sales, join Groove’s Director of Revenue Operations, Ali Seibel, for “The Fine Line: When AI Enhances Sales and When It’s Better Left Behind.” Carve out an hour on June 28 at 11 am PT to delve deep into the dynamic world of AI and its impact on sales. You don’t want to miss this – just in case the robots really are after your job.

LEARN SOMETHING NEW

Selling in uncertainty

Uncertainty. Nobody likes that word. If you’re uncertain about uncertainty, well, we aren’t certain what to make of that. In a world with long sales cycles and no decisions on the rise, more economic uncertainty is not helping anybody close sales. In fact, a recent study by RAIN Group shows that selling in an uncertain economy is the second biggest challenge facing sales organizations right now. Luckily, to help you regain your sales confidence, RAIN Group drew up 10 tips for selling in an uncertain economy. From building relationships to highlighting value, these simple tips will certainly make you more certain in uncertainty.

Psychic sales

Everyone has their dream superpower. While teleportation would be really nice to avoid being late meetings or having a casual breakfast croissant under the Eiffel Tower from time to time, possessing psychic abilities would definitely help you close more deals. Sadly, unless you were the inspiration for That’s So Raven, you might want to scratch psychic abilities off your resume. Fortunately, there is a way to predict and influence the future in sales by figuring out what recurring problems you keep running into and how to deal with them proactively. If the problem of higher price has been brought up during the last four calls, you can predict it will happen again and take control of the narrative before you lose control of your deal. Poof – new magical superpower unlocked.

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