Tim Teale
SUMMARY
Is there a requirement for varied writing levels for various markets?
Yes, the writing style needs to vary depending on the market, especially in the mid-market corporate sector where the target audience consists of well-educated individuals holding positions of authority and responsibility.
How to make a strong impression in a few words in an email, especially in the mid-market enterprise space?
Packing impact in a short amount of words in an email is a challenge and demands clear structure, clear results, and keeping it simple by thinking about the objective and message of the email and the steps to be performed.
What are the benefits of using video in sales, and how can it be used effectively?
Using video in sales is helpful because it lets salespeople use their strengths in presenting and talking, it's easy to share in Slack, and it lets the audience take in the information the way they want to.
How can I use video in sales effectively, especially when I need to shorten a long email?
Using video in sales is effective when the message needs to be delivered in an interesting way with visual aids, and it makes it easy for the customer to take in. However, it is not good for prospecting because it takes more time from the audience.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00]
Ricky Pearl: Today on a Couple of Pointers Podcast, we are lucky enough to have Tim Teale from Go One. Welcome to the show.
Tim Teale: Pleasure to be on the show, Ricky. Thanks for the invitation.
Ricky Pearl: Mate I'm so excited to have this chat today. I've been following your content on LinkedIn, learning a hell of a lot, and I've got quite a few topics I want to dig into.
Tim Teale: Let's do it.
Ricky Pearl: Mate, first of all, the hair, the surfing. Like what's first, right? You 're the surfing salesman?
Tim Teale: The surfing salesman for sure. Of course, the hair's only a recent Covid edition.
Ricky Pearl: Oh, okay. So that's a lockdown haircut. That's a Covid
Tim Teale: A lockdown haircut. But I have found a trend. The longer the hair, the more I have achieved quota
Ricky Pearl: Wow. So it's a little bit like Samson.
Tim Teale: Ex. Exactly. And the equilibrium one day where I'm gonna have to start cutting it back up.
Ricky Pearl: Wow. Wow. Okay. So the Samson Salesman then too. The Surfing Samson. Fuck. I love that. But there's so much I wanna dive into, but some of the topics you've spoken about recently, one's becoming a better sales [00:01:00] copywriter. One of the other topics I wanna dive into with you is just around like mental health within sales.
I wanna talk about qualifications and some of the processes there, and definitely one of your main topics at the moment leading the sale. Let's start off with the writing.
Tim Teale: Sure.
Previous writing experience?
Ricky Pearl: When you started in sales, did you have any previous writing experience? Were you like a straight A student in English?
Tim Teale: Absolutely not. Writing is easily my, the area that I need to focus on the most. So for me, it's always been back of mind, not realizing the true importance of, having good copyright skills.
Is the market that you're selling to for Go One an enterprise?
Ricky Pearl: Have you the market that you're selling to for Go One, is it enterprise?
Tim Teale: We vary between like SMB all the way through to, to enterprise little customers. I've sold everything from your mum and pop shop through to pretty large enterprise organizations like multinational banks. Vary varying sizes of businesses that we go off after.
Have you found that the level that you need to write at or your capability in writing needs to be different for different markets?
Ricky Pearl: Have you found that the level that you need to write at or your capability in writing needs to be different for different markets?
Tim Teale: Definitely I think in my early days when I was in SMB it, it didn't matter as much, but [00:02:00] now that I'm more in that mid-market enterprise space. The way that I write an email or a business case or put together a proposal, it needs to hit the mark because I'm presenting to well educated people, in positions of power and responsibility.
Simple and with structure
Ricky Pearl: So that whole write an email like a six year old maybe that relates to cold email, but once you get into the meat of a sale, you better write that email like a bloody professional right?
Tim Teale: I, I still do agree though that the tenets of writing a simple or easy to read email is important regardless of the market, but I think structure is incredibly key. Having clear outcomes of an email and what the next steps are incredibly important.
Ricky Pearl: Yeah, there's that famous quote and I don't remember who said it, I should look it up, but there's that famous quote that said if I had more time, this letter would be shorter. It's incredibly difficult writing a succinct email. Do you find that's one of the challenges is how to pack that impact in a short amount of, like words in a fewer
Tim Teale: Yeah. That quote just, yeah, it hit the nail on the head for me. I find sometimes I'll punch out a really long email and [00:03:00] different sections and bolds and hyper links, and then I get to the end of it and go, what have I done? Like I've gone back to what I would've been doing, a number of years ago, or even pre-sales and almost restart the email.
And again, think to myself before I write the email, what is the purpose of this email? What is the message I'm trying to get across? What are the actions I'm trying to get out of it? And keeping it back to basics.
Specific structure that you now try stick to?
Ricky Pearl: Now, does Go One or do you have a, specific structure that you now try stick to?
Tim Teale: No, but I would be open to hearing what works for others. I find that right now I'm probably more thinking consciously when I'm writing an email, but still probably have a lack of lack of direction in regards to true process. I'm still in my early stages of becoming a good copywriter.
Do you use any of those tools?
Ricky Pearl: Yeah, and copy really is one of the hardest skills to learn. Do you use any of those tools? Grammarly, Lavender, I don't know what else.
Tim Teale: Yeah, I've recently subscribed for, for Grammarly Premium. So Go one gives us like a learning development budget so we can go out and buy newspaper subscriptions or different tool subscriptions. So I've recently done Grammarly and it [00:04:00] has been very interesting to see their insights into how you can restructure or change the way sentence is structured.
And so that's been really useful from more of a specific feedback loop. But as for longer structured emails, again, that's probably an area that I need to work on a little more.
Ricky Pearl: I have some PTSD from Grammarly. Just I have nightmares. Someone saying, you're writing about this in the passive voice. I'm like, I don't know how to fix that.
Tim Teale: Okay, now it's a third of an aggressive, yeah. Hang on a minute. Yeah,
Do you ever flip over to video?
Ricky Pearl: Yeah. It's it's like I'm trying my best to Grammarly. I don't know how to change this from passive voice. Anyway I get that. Do you, whenever you get to that point where you've got this like massive email and you realize, fuck, I've just pushed out an essay. Do you ever flip over to video?
Tim Teale: Love video love video. I, just, before this call, I, yeah, condensed an email into a short video, and yeah I find video. I believe video is incredibly engaging. I can then use visual aid to assist in the message I'm trying to get across, and I'd like to think that it's easy for the end person to consume as well.
Ricky Pearl: [00:05:00] Honestly it to me everyone talks about video in prospecting, and I hate it in prospecting, like it's, if I'm not gonna read your email, which is gonna take 30 seconds of my time, I'm not pushing into a two minute 30 video. Fuck it. If a YouTube video hasn't caught me in seven seconds, I'm out. Like I'm not watching your prospecting video, but when I actually do wanna consume the information, It is so much easier to listen to someone talk to me and explain it the way that they understand it, as opposed to trying to, get Grammarly to help them structure this into a concise way.
Which tool are you using?
Ricky Pearl: And those visual aids too, superpower further down the funnel. Which tool are you using?
Tim Teale: I'm a big fan of Loom.
Ricky Pearl: Hey mate, I'm a biggest fan of Loom too. It's the cheapest. It does the transcript as well, so people can read like it, it just
Tim Teale: Post production. The editing's quite good as well.
Ricky Pearl: Yeah, absolutely. Share it off with the team and I don't need all of that buddy. If they open at four times to create a task in my CRM, like never used any of that.
Tim Teale: No, neither.
Ricky Pearl: Simple is better. And I also love how it just unfolds in Slack.
Tim Teale: Yeah.
Ricky Pearl: It just click play. It plays right there. So that's [00:06:00] amazing. Cuz people talk about as we are, email in your sales copy. But video really does fall into that category.
Tim Teale: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I find that, know, you've gotta lean on your strength. My strength is presenting, it's talking. So if I can leverage video in an email, which means that I don't have to punch out a long winded body of text, then I'm all for it.
Ricky Pearl: Yeah, my, what I often do, I write the email because that gives me structure of what I want to talk about as well. It's way too long. And then at the top of the email I say, mate, I've written it below in case you want it, but don't bother reading it. Here it is. And then I pop the video in as well. Just cause I've already written it.
Often get, get to the video and I realize, fuck, there should have been a video, so I'll just leave it all in. I guess that way people get to consume what they want.
When you're training up new sales reps, how do you help them with email?
Ricky Pearl: Now, when you're training up new sales reps, how do you help them with email?
Tim Teale: I'm still a huge advocate of video. I think when a new sales rep can get comfortable in recording their screen, typically they might start off with the camera turned off, and that's okay in the early days, but having your face there is incredibly important. But getting someone comfortable with [00:07:00] video to include in their email, they're having then multi modalities of delivery.
So now they can use hyperlink to a video. They can use strong body and text using, tables or attachments. I think it's another media that they can leverage. Of course it's probably more so the barrier of confidence that they have in jumping in and doing a customized video. As for emails, again it probably varies from someone's level of copywriting skills.
So of course we have sales copywriting, but there are better people in our organization with zero sales experience that could write a much better email than I can. So depending on a new sales rep, whether they are young within their career or mature and they have good copywriting skills, it's all dependent, on their level of of proficiency ultimately.
Ricky Pearl: And it's so important that you mentioned there's other people in the business that can write better. I always believe like writing is so important and you can't leave the success of your business to the writing ability of your most recent junior hire. You've got marketing, you've got senior leadership.
They should really help craft the messaging that your team's [00:08:00] using.
Tim Teale: Absolutely.
Do you have templates pushed through the organization?
Ricky Pearl: Do you have like templates pushed through the organization?
Tim Teale: Yeah, we have some, we have wonderful sales enablement team led by Danielle, and they have some sales or enablement assets. So we have a few different varying presentations that we can leverage where there may be some pre wording in there. But ultimately in sales, your copywriting is dependent based on what the prospect is sharing with you, their business challenges, the potential solution that is conveyed in their language that they're using.
So a big skill of copywriting that I focus on is how can I recap what I've heard in and condense it into a succinct formula that I can then share back with them? And for me, that is the real art of copywriting.
Ricky Pearl: That's pretty impressive.
Do you use some conversational intelligence tools that helps to capture that or are you just manually note taking during a call?
Ricky Pearl: Do you use some conversational intelligence tools that helps to capture that or are you just manually note taking during a call?
Tim Teale: I still manually note take with Apple Notes. Don't dis it.
Ricky Pearl: Whatever. I'm fine with pen and paper, like whatever works.
Tim Teale: Pen and paper. Yeah, pen and paper I think would be probably better than Apple Notes, but we utilize Gong as our call [00:09:00] intelligence tool, if you will. So for me, when I'm making that presentation or even writing the email afterwards, I can jump back into the call.
I typically, my shortcuts is I turn myself off as a speaker so I don't need to re-listen to what I've said and I'll simply listen to the words the prospect has used throughout and try and use that language in my email or in the presentation that I'm putting together.
Ricky Pearl: That's amazing. Like clever, clever use of those tools, I find most of those tools are very expensive, fancy call recorders and the use case that you've just spoken about is one of the great ones. Go back, review your meeting, pull out some language. I also like to get their tonality right.
Nothing worse than when you bang out this massive email than they write back with three lines. Yeah. Looks good. Yeah, let's talk on Tuesday. You're like, wow, okay. Probably they weren't that interested in reading it all,
Tim Teale: Yeah.
Ricky Pearl: Amazing. There's so many golden nuggets there that I could take out of it.
And if I was to summarize, it's just like practice that, that writing, it's actually one of the few skills I do try higher for. I'll teach an SDR to do anything. But teaching someone to write [00:10:00] well is very challenging when you're ramping up an SDR
Because there's so many skills to learn. Like in a year you have to go from zero to genuinely hero.
There's so much to learn to be an SDR. And writing is one of the things that I just find takes. I married. I'm married in for it. By the way, I was so bad of a copywriter that my wife's a copywriter. One of the, one of the skills. I was like, no. Almost like Game of Thrones, right? We're gonna have to merge the bloodlines.
Tim Teale: I'm with you. I'm with you there. Not so much my partner, but my brother is an amazing, he's a published online author. I wish I had to of that skill, but absolutely not.
What are some of the tips that you have for how an account executive can lead the sale?
Ricky Pearl: Amazing. Now moving from that writing to leading the sale, because the, those two are intertwined, right? What are some of the tips that you have for how an account executive can lead the sale?
Tim Teale: So I think and I'm the biggest part of the sales process I'm most passionate about, and I appreciate, it's probably overkill is the discovery. The discovery is where you are able to dig in for all the information that you need to ultimately start to leave the sale. Without a good, [00:11:00] solid discovery, I believe you won't ever be able to leave the sale, even if they have strong interest and you're near the end of the sales process because you are leading that sail blindly. And I think coming back to trying to understand the information around the decision making process and understanding if you've got that process and it's validated and you think it's credible, or even if you think you've got a rough process and you're not sure it still needs some validation.
Because I believe that once you go through and you do a product demonstration, if you're gonna go through a trial, if you're then gonna start pulling in multiple stakeholders to then drive a business case and take to the execs, you need to know those stages, which ultimately form what the next step is gonna be at each stage of the cycle.
I think a really big, overwhelming terminology we use is a mutual closed plan. I just, I, when I hear those words, I feel like it's a shared document and you expect the prospects to go in there and the type away with you, and I just don't think that happens that often. But when we are talking about leading the sale, it's ultimately like a mutual close plan.
When the prospect doesn't even know it [00:12:00] we know what the next step is. You've of got it mapped out yourself already. There is a close plan in place. It's just we're not using that fancy terminology, which can often be a little bit daunting. I know it feels daunting for myself.
Ricky Pearl: Those mutual close plans, mutual action plans. I think the new term that's, people are starting to use is mutual or joint impact plan or mutual impact. Like every, all of these terms. But I love what you're saying there about leading that. You don't often get your clients to engage on those mutual action plans.
Maybe it's more prevalent in enterprise sales where there's buying committees where there's a lot of stakeholders, and by putting it in front of them saying, look, all right, we definitely want to get some input from finance. Let's make that part of it. And we as the seller, and you as the buyer, or as the champion within the buying team, we're gonna work together to go approach finance to get their input. And then we need to look at how it's gonna integrate from the IT perspective, whatever it might be. Complex sales, year long sales cycles, love a mutual action plan. But yeah, being able to lead it. You mentioned the discovery being the most important thing.
What framework do you use for discovery?
Ricky Pearl: I [00:13:00] am such a firm believer that the discovery process is the sales process. If you do a good discovery, all the rest is just facilitating the deal. All of it. A real key, good discovery is where they realize their gaps, their challenges. You've helped them uncover that, but maybe they weren't clear in their head, and you have all the ammunition you need to be able to decide if you are able to help them or not. What framework do you use for discovery?
Tim Teale: I, I've probably formed in a bit of a combination of my own. So of course you've got the classics like Bandt, Medic
Samson Surfing Salesman's qualification methods
Ricky Pearl: I want to hear the Samson Surfing Salesman's qualification methods.
Tim Teale: Oh. Look it's pretty rough. I think I've got a an Apple document and it's called my Discovery Template, which I duplicate every time I jump onto a new discovery. And I've probably got 10 to 15 topics that I have there where I will then punch in my relevant notes. And it just helps me facilitate the conversation and know where to go.
I don't follow it in any particular order, but for me it's a list of the information that I need to get out of that initial call. Sometimes [00:14:00] I leave a lot of it blank because the core might just not be addressing those topics and you are forever discovering. But it's what I really need to understand about the clients.
Then again, lead that sale.
Ricky Pearl: And I just, I love so much that you've done that, that you've made a Google Notes that you duplicate for every discovery call. Cause it's that it's the basics and the consistency that creates an exceptional account executive. Yes, there's tools like Contura or Duly or Scratchpad or whatever, that you can duplicate your questionnaires and when you fill it in or automatically update your CRM. Amazing that you can do that and formalize a discovery process. But all of that's more on the enablement side. You as a professional, have found a consistent method that delivers results and it just takes discipline and that's it's remarkable. It genuinely is. I don't think you real appreciate how rare that is.
Tim Teale: I appreciate that, Ricky. Thank you.
Do you have like situational questions?
Ricky Pearl: Now those questions, do you have them semi broken out into, I don't know, if you were using a sparsed framework, like winning by designs? Do you have like situational questions like, Hey, what's your, what's the status quo or impact [00:15:00] questions like, how's this affecting you? Or pain questions like, are you're struggling with this?
Or how does this process hinder you?
Tim Teale: Yeah, so I'm, yeah, I'm happy to read out a few of a few of the kind of sub, they're singular words with empty dot points below that I go in and I fill out. It starts off with next steps at the very top and this is, it's in no order
Ricky Pearl: What classic salesperson. I love that.
Cause the number one thing I'll listen to people's discovery calls when they're asking me for feedback and I do it all day. I get dark, at least one person sending me a discovery call every day saying could I get feedback. And the first thing I do is I'll scroll right to the end and I just watch the last four minutes to see what the next steps were.
Tim Teale: Yeah, so next steps is important. I have things like company overview or information. They're contacts, right? So this is basic information you can have in Salesforce, but you don't know who they're gonna bring on the call. You dunno the names they're gonna drop and the piece and the puzzle that they play.
Talk about like current state, ideal future state, their pain or their objectives. And then I actually have a category and a little a little visual image of [00:16:00] Sandler's Pain Funnel. So I would run them through a similar pain funnel during that section. I've got things like timeline, decision process, decision maker, evaluation criteria, and then I also have underneath it a bunch of questions that I would rarely go into that I've heard other sales reviews that I wanna start to bring into my daily rhythm.
So creative ways of asking for budget or who the decision maker is. So I can always be learning when I'm in that discovery by utilizing new methods and hopefully just bringing myself into a rhythm of using them.
Ricky Pearl: Wow. I could hear that there was some mixed methodology in there, but a mixture of like really good things like like mixing, like caramel, a little bit of salt and a little bit of vanilla, all worked really well, like that signed the pain funnel the current states and future states, all of that.
Then I definitely got a glimpse of some Medic style qualifications there. And yeah, it sounds like you had a phenomenal sales leader once. Definitely some influence from previous Salesforce employees. But that is, that's all you need, right? It sounds [00:17:00] simple, right? But if you were able to extract that information in a discovery call, you would know very clearly if your solution is able to help them and how to help them. Really good.
How many meetings are you having to get to a point where you are happy to commit it to the pipeline and how many meetings until like you actually have closed one and you're no longer on the account?
Ricky Pearl: Now, your current sales process, how many stages is it like currently how many meetings are you having to get to a point where you are happy to commit it to the pipeline and how many meetings until like you actually have closed one and you're no longer on the account?
Tim Teale: Yeah, look, I think, and again, this might just be the stage of where Go One is at, but I've got deals that I've been working for 12 months plus that I've had 20, 30 meetings plus with over a very long period of time. Then I've got other meetings where I might have five or six meetings with different stakeholders, and then it goes all the way through the close.
Of course within that you have mini projects, like you've got identifying whether or not we meet their IT, the criteria, right? So you are then connecting with their IT and their implementation team and to see if we are the right fit. So I almost like to think that, and you nailed it and I kind of skim past it, but the discovery is a sales call and everything else is delivering on the project basically.
I [00:18:00] find that you have all that information you need. Now it's about trying to take it from the start to the finish, and it's running a project ultimately. And there are hurdles and there are bumps, and you can get ghosted and the project might flop and because it's not right or it's not aligned.
But I find that, yeah, I have varying levels of times to close.
Ricky Pearl: It sounds remarkably mature and I love hearing that. And some of your projects taking 20 meetings, some of them taking four or five. That's identify with that a lot. You get a lot of sales leaders rarely trying to. Fines process down a sales process down so much that they lose the nuance of how every project is unique. And if you empower your account executives with what they need to do, they'll always do their best, and not try skimp. And if you try close a 20 meeting, deal on meeting number five and try get a decision out of them. The decision's just gonna be, no
it's pretty simple.
On that incredible disqualification process, incredible sales process thereafter where you are facilitating a buying process.
It's a project you're [00:19:00] looking for if you meet all the criterias that you've identified during a good discovery process.
Tell me, for those enterprise deals, is your discovery or is one call or is it sometimes a period of time?
Ricky Pearl: Tell me, for those enterprise deals, just quickly, is your discovery or is one call or is it sometimes a period of time?
Tim Teale: Yeah, I think, yeah. So wanky, but discovery I think is like a fluid state. You're always gonna be discovering at every single stage, all the way up until you are sending off the contract to be signed. We run our discoveries, so I like to run a 30 minute discovery initially, and you get to the last couple of minutes and you feel like you've only just scratched the surface.
But the reason why I like it to be 30 minutes is that it's so sharp. It's so sharp. You start to gauge whether or not you are the right fit and it's worthwhile continuing the conversation. It's a very minimal commitment for the prospect and you end up finishing the call and they wish they had more time with you.
So it, it's really it's a strong next step into the next meeting, into the next stage of the process.
Ricky Pearl: I love that. I've got pictures in my head of the sitcoms where you've got the protagonist sitting in a therapist's chair and starts unpacking something and they [00:20:00] hit on this massive epiphany and then the psychologist says that's it, that's all we got time for. We'll see you next week.
How do you qualify that?
Ricky Pearl: But I like that in a sales process, because they should want to be unpacking this. They should be wanting to discover the answers. How do you qualify that?
Tim Teale: It's something that I'm now working on. I've had a big issue of having a big fat ever growing pipeline and I don't want to ever let anything go. And I think that, most reps that have ramped, have experienced that feeling. And now I'm starting to focus more on spend more time on a smaller number of opportunities, not a smaller time on a large number of opportunities.
So right now I'm going through Sandler training. I've never really had formal sales training, so we're going through that together at the moment, and they're very big on qualifying out, and I'm really keen to start utilizing that as part of my process. I think, keeping it really basic, classic Sandler, no pain, no sale.
Where previously I may have dug and maybe I did get a couple of sales across the line when there wasn't really any pain, but hey, they were keen enough and, I was managed to wing it and get the close. But I think [00:21:00] now being able to confidently say in a call, I just dunno if we are the right fit.
Based on what you're saying, it doesn't seem like this is a priority. And I think from saying something like that, you get a couple of different potential outcomes. You either get 'em saying, yeah, I agree. We're probably on the same page. Let's put the project on ice for now. Or they come back and say no, it's because we've got, and they tell you what the real pain is and then you can then, you lead your way from there.
So I think obviously understanding if there's a pain, if there's a strong timeline And really openly telling them that you don't think there's the right fit and giving them an opportunity to convince you otherwise. I think you're respecting your own time, you're respecting their time, and you're not just trying to, yeah, push it uphill with a stick.
Ricky Pearl: I appreciate that is a real mature sales process to take, and I also get, it does take time for sales professionals to get there, to be willing to let go of some of that opportunity that sits in their pipeline to say, actually that's noise and it's hindering my performance on these accounts that can close. Our biggest customer is a customer I try to fire. I try to fire [00:22:00] them they were pushing for a particular kind of outcome and I said to them, look, it seems to me like you rarely want this kind of outcome, and what we are giving you is this process, which we think is the most robust process to ultimately deliver that kind of an outcome.
But you want to be there right now, and that's not something Pointer can do for you. Maybe another agency will be able to do that, and I think it'll probably be better if you found them because you keep bringing up this particular issue and I think you'd be happier if you had that issue resolved. Could I make some recommendations on agencies for you to look at?
And they came back saying no. We know that we can't have that right now, and there's a process to get there, and we don't wanna work on this with anyone else. We wanna work on it with you. that was the last time I had that issue with them. And they like since increased we are doing multinational with them, but it was genuinely until I tried to, fire them and call out the issue that they realized no, they actually are choosing this. And the same goes in that discovery.
Are there certain criteria that you are a bit harder on, on discovering? Is it that no pain, no sale, traditional side, or is it something like if they vague on a timeline they cut it?
Ricky Pearl: Are there certain criteria that you are a bit harder on, on discovering? Is it that no pain, no sale, traditional [00:23:00] side, or is it something like if they vague on a timeline they cut it?
Tim Teale: Yeah, if there, look there's no hard and fast rule, and I think like I'm very human in the way that I sell. I really wanna sell based on like relationships as well and actually fixing and solving a problem. Whilst I don't have anything that's hard and fast, I guess it's, it's also a bit of a gut feel, if they come into the core and they immediately just wanna talk about pricing and how you stack up against your competitors, I just, I don't know.
I just feel like I'm in the backseat that I'm probably not the right fit. So what I would normally do is I'd probably just give them that information that they want and I'm, that's almost me disqualifying going. There's the info you don't really wanna talk to us. I'll close it off in our, in our CRM and just have an open note, like if you wanna continue the conversation, we really need a book another time to connect, to understand if we are the right fit. If not, you've got the info you need and I'll move on about my day. I'm not rude. I'm not gonna say you're not gonna work with you, but I think, instances like that I would qualify pretty quick.
Ricky Pearl: Super interesting. I'd love your opinion on this. The reverse of no timeline. The deals [00:24:00] that I've never closed are the ones where they come and they're like, my timeline was yesterday. I need this now. And I'm like, all right, we need to do a proper, process to identify for outfits if we can solve your problem, et cetera.
And they're like no. I need your price. I need to know those. Send me your contract so I can review the NDAs. Let's go. I've never closed one, never. I find
Tim Teale: Getting Plus is excited every time
Ricky Pearl: Yeah, I get super excited. I'm like, oh my God, I'm gonna put it in the, put it in projections, right? Put this in the forecast, and then I send them the proposal, I send them the pricing and nothing, ghosted, almo like almost always.
So now like I've put a discovery process in place that if they're not willing to invest in building up a project plan where we can clearly identify what success looks like for us to deliver on. Then they might be easy come, easy go, but I don't know, do you, have you ever had those issues? And I'm genuinely asking your opinion here, or for your expertise, where their timing's the opposite of a don't have a timeline.
Their timeline is too short for you to be able to put in a proper project plan.
Tim Teale: Yeah, I think yeah, like I think we've all had those calls [00:25:00] where someone is on and they're ready to close. I'm probably, I've probably done the same to other people, right? I've probably gone into, JB High five being like, yep, I'm buying this and I'm doing it today. And all of a sudden I get sidetracked and now I'm over here.
And I think with that, again, it's like timeline is important, but it's more so the reason why the timeline is there, right? If you, if they said we needed this yesterday, you go, what happened yesterday? And, there's something, a significant event that you can actually correlate the timeline to, then it may be worthwhile.
But if someone says we need this before the end of, before Christmas, you're like, why Christmas? Oh, cause people go on leave then. And we're not gonna have time to implement. Like to me that isn't a timeline. Like to me that's just like a random date plucked out of the future with a really bad reason why.
If they say by Christmas, because they have an audit come the first week of January, and if they don't have this thing implemented by then they're gonna get a big fine. You start going, okay, now we're talking something a little bit more substantial. So I think the reason is you've got the timeline, but like why that date?
What is the significant event about that date [00:26:00] in particular?
Ricky Pearl: Super interesting. Yeah, I love that there's gotta be that critical event if you're using like a spice model or timeline isn't something that medic covers particularly well, but I love that definition of just, there has to be a strong justifiable reason. And, sales reps have happy ears.
We're always gonna hear their reason and go yeah, that's a legit reason. That's a good reason. That makes sense to me. He wanted to get his daughter a bunny for her birthday, and that's on Tuesday. This has to be done by Tuesday. Yeah. So I get that and I'm definitely gonna take that advice to hearts.
I was like, what's and what's gonna happen if we don't do this by that
Tim Teale: Yeah, of course.
Ricky Pearl: For points it's often my SDR just quit. And we need to fill the position quickly and we think we'll be quicker with an agency than hiring in house. And I'll say, that's not a good enough reason because that reason will dissipate in six weeks from now.
And if you wanna be working with us in six months from now, we are gonna be working together. So what's your reason for wanting to work with us other than the three week problem that we solve for you?
And if I can't find that, [00:27:00] I'm honestly, rather just go hire a freelancer of Upwork for three weeks.
If you've got a three, don't put a long term solution to a short term problem. I've picked up so much from this and what I'm also picking up on as a sub context, yeah. I think Go One's doing a phenomenal job. They giving you sales enablement, they're giving you learning and development budgets, you're getting signed, training, they've got best in class tools.
Mate, this just sounds sounds like an incredible experience.
Tim Teale: Yeah, it's been it's been a really amazing journey with Go One. I joined in January or February of 2019, and that was just post series B, so I joined just before the announcement. Different organization entirely. So to really see it move from a startup into a scale up phase where we are now developing some strong process like it, it's been incre incredible to witness, but at the end of the day, I think having these amazing tools, this sales enablement that's coming into play is only as good as your own process of what you can actually implement as well.
I think make more with less. Not, yeah. Don't, just, there's more [00:28:00] tools isn't gonna solve the real problem I think. I'm happy using my Apple Notes. I don't think I could be sold a new note based system, although I sound like I'm an ideal candidate because as Josh Groin says, I'm getting the job done.
Like I don't really have a need to use Wonder List or a fantastic. Tool, but being with Go One's been an incredible journey. We still have a very long way to go. Our founders would say we're at the beginning. And I would also say that from a sales perspective as well we still, there's still a lot of maturity that's gonna come through the organization, which I'm really excited to be part of.
Ricky Pearl: It's been incredible chatting to you about that and I've really something that's crystallized in my mind through conversing with you is you can have a great company and they can have a good process. They can have a good system, but the reason account executives are so valuable to an organization is because they are part of the team.
They're part of the collective, but in as individuals, they're also fucking exceptional. And I think, You what you are bringing to go one as an individual, whether it's your advocacy for mental health, your professionalizing of a sales [00:29:00] process, and getting the job done in the best way regardless of what CRM they're using, right?
This is irrelevant if go one's on Salesforce or HubSpots, right? Your process is a professional process that facilitates closing good deals. And it's great to see that and it. It's really just refining my mind how important it's to have talented account executives and that systems won't solve everything.
Tim Teale: Oh, you're incredibly kind, Ricky. You're making me blush,
Where would they find you?
Ricky Pearl: If somebody wanted to catch you online, where would they find you? And if somebody wanted to catch you out on the waves, where would they find you?
Tim Teale: Yeah, look just straight on LinkedIn. Ping me and message me on LinkedIn. I'm always yeah, always open to a conversation, a virtual or a physical coffee. And out in the water pri primarily at the moment, Bondi or Tamarama or Bronte, Eastern and suburbs of Sydney at the moment. But I am a Newcastle born bread and race surfer, so don't hold that against.
Ricky Pearl: All right. I wouldn't know the difference. But I am in Bondi often, so maybe I'll see you out there, but it's been really so educational for me. I'm sure our listeners have picked up a lot as well, and fantastic to see leaders like you coming through. And [00:30:00] hopefully the sales community in Australia has many more years worth of learning from you
Tim Teale: Appreciate it, Ricky and of course, yeah, kudos to yourself as well. You share some incredible content and definitely a milestone ahead of me.
Ricky Pearl: right. We'll chat again. So
Tim Teale: Sounds good. Take care. Bye.
