Welcome to Season 3 of 10/10 GTM: The Podcast for Revenue Leaders!
Our guest for Episode 62 is Jason Abrams, VP of Revenue Strategy at Plenful. Before joining Plenful in June of 2024, Jason held leadership positions at Spring Health, Color, and Lyra Health. He brings more than a decade of sales experience to the conversation.
In this episode, Ross and Jason discuss why it’s important to identify what works for your ideal customer profile (ICP), hire excellent reps, and maintain tight communication between your Sales, CS, and Product teams.
Listen to the episode here, and get the key takeaways from our conversation below.
Identify what works for your ICP
Building and sustaining a successful business boils down to your ability to identify what works for your ICP and implement it org-wide. To do this, Jason recommends asking and answering these three questions:
- What is the best sales process you can align your team on?
- What are your buyers seeking that they’re not currently receiving in the sales process?
- What feedback are you getting from buyers that indicates what’s missing, which could help them have a "light bulb moment" and decide to move forward with your product or service?
According to Jason, it's essential to document the answers to these questions, develop the necessary sales assets, and standardize these processes across your team. He stresses the significance of getting this right from the start: "This is the most important thing to get right upfront. If you don't manage these aspects effectively, when you expand your team, you'll find that everyone is following their own path. Then, six months down the line, you may discover that 75% of them haven't closed a deal yet. At this point, it becomes challenging to pinpoint where the gaps lie and what isn’t working. Without a standardized approach and proper training, your team's efforts may lack direction and effectiveness."
Hire excellent reps
The reps you hire can make or break your team’s success. “If you hire poorly, you're going to struggle,” explains Jason. “If you hire well, even if you do other things wrong, you'll probably still be okay.”
In order to bring the right talent onboard, there are several things to consider. These include:
- The stage of your org
- The nature of what you’re selling
- The type of sales process that’s most effective
Companies that are early stage, like Plenful, need to hire people that are independent, self-starters, “There’s not going to be a lot of structure. There’s not going to be a lot of support,” says Jason. “At a startup, reps should be entrepreneurial, and ready to tackle their roles with a high degree of independence and initiative.”
Keep in mind, hiring isn’t about filling seats - it’s about finding people who can align with your business’s current strategies and future challenges. For sales leaders, this means seeking out candidates who not only have the necessary skills but also the mindset and adaptability to thrive in your specific industry and company stage.
Maintain tight communications between Sales, CS & Product
In the chaotic and often tumultuous early stages of a company, maintaining close communication between Sales, CS, and Product teams isn't just nice to have — it's essential. "This is so important, I mean, it's everything," says Jason. "You could have a big customer that's interested, that wants specific things. And in the early stages, you're gonna go do that. You're not going to say no to that."
The reason open, clear communication matters so much is that responsiveness to customer needs can define a company's path. As companies mature, the nature of responding to customer requests might shift. "As you progress, and you get a little bit bigger, maybe every request isn't one that you take, but if it's one that pushes you in the right direction, then you do take it," Jason explains. He stresses the importance of scaling in areas that are strategically beneficial, which can only be achieved through understanding these dynamics and maintaining constant communication.
“At Plenful, our Customer Success team, which includes technical implementation, is deeply embedded with our Product team. Much of what we're doing is oriented around implementing customers with very complex data environments.”
Jason also stresses the importance of involving Product and Engineering teams directly in sales cycles, especially for big deals with specific requirements. "Having a Product team and an Engineering team that's comfortable being in those conversations, being a part of those cycles, having a seat at the table in the deals — that's been one of the things we've done," he says.
Ultimately, if the buyer believes that you're going to do what's right by them — that you're not going to overpromise and underdeliver — you'll build trust, close more deals, and establish meaningful long-term customer relationships.
About Jason
Jason is a sales leader who is passionate about building relationships and embracing innovative concepts that enhance his leadership, the companies he serves, his teams, and his clients' experiences. He has worked at top companies including Lyra Health, LinkedIn, Color, Quest Software, and Dell. In June of 2024 Jason joined Plenful as the VP of Revenue Strategy where he leads and scales the revenue organization.
