Andrew Claus is a Strategic Channel Manager and, through his partnership co-selling efforts, is the top-producing individual contributor at Kixie, the leading sales engagement platform that boosts sales team performance with ultra-reliable, easily automated calling and texting for Hubspot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, and other leading CRMs. Andrew is passionate about helping companies reach and break through their next level of success. His background is truly unique, with experience as a professional ballet dancer and actor that lead to a sales career working with all sizes of businesses, from startups to enterprise companies. Andrew’s latest passion has been in the SaaS field as he co-founded his own FinTech business in 2019 and experienced and learned all aspects of building a company from scratch.
Today, Andrew joins the show to discuss his unique sales origin story, his consultative and solutions-based selling style, and his overall thoughts on co-selling and why it works. Andrew shares the three things he attributes most to his success. These include strategically pulling in resources and project managing those resources, being an authority and expert in his field, and creativity. Andrew talks about managing the tactical sales process with the internal project management process, his philosophy of helping others win through partnership and collaboration, and his sales ‘superpower.’ Andrew speaks to how he is investing time and energy into current deals and how those efforts improve his reputation and, thus, lead to more and more deals. Andrew continues by expounding on the value of building a stellar reputation.
Andrew takes the audience through a typical day in the life, from his early morning dog walks to how he structures his work day and maps out his deals. Finally, Andrew issues an actionable challenge to the audience. He challenges them to pick a specific deal value that denotes a large deal for you and to not work that deal without collaborating with a colleague on it. That colleague could be a customer service rep, or an IT engineer, and it could be a six to seven-month challenge. The upside, however, is far greater than the time put in to achieve it. Andrew firmly believes that you will see a difference in your close rates on those deals, which is the most important thing for earning that next promotion and reaching quota.
What We Covered:
00:24 – 00:36 – Scott introduces today’s guest, Andrew Claus
01:07 – The top three things Andrew attributes to his success
01:15 – Number One: Strategically pulling in resources and then project managing those resources
02:58 – Number Two: Being an authority or expert in his field
04:00 – Number Three: Creativity
06:25 – Andrew speaks to his role at Kixie, quantifies his sales results, and speaks to a partnership with Hubspot
11:30 – Helping others win through partnership and coordination
13:28 – Andrew’s sales origin story, from ballet and acting to strategic sales professional
17:21 – What Andrew would do differently if given the chance
19:01 – Andrew’s favorite co-selling story
24:24 – Managing the tactical sales process with the internal project management sales process
30:09 – How investing time and energy into current deals leads to more and more deals
34:22 – Andrew takes the audience through a typical day in the life
44:07 – The books, news, podcasts, and trade information that Andrew consumes
49:40 – Andrew’s tech stack
52:34 – Andrew’s sales philosophy and ‘super power’
57:55 – What motivates and drives Andrew
1:03:01 – One of Andrew’s beliefs that the average sales professional would think is crazy
1:05:26 – Best practices for individual contributors to find partners to co-sell with
1:11:00 – An average sales professional’s belief that Andrew thinks is crazy
1:13:00 – The value of building a great reputation
1:15:23 – Advice Andrew would give to an upstart sales professional
1:16:31 – Scott gives a shout-out to David Gable
1:19:23 – Advice Andrew would give to a struggling sales professional looking to reach that next level
1:22:04 – What Andrew would like to learn from other top sellers
1:24:47 – Final thoughts from Andrew
1:25:39 – Andrew issues an actionable challenge to the audience
Tweetables:
“As a ballet dancer, they’re looking at your body. They’re judging your looks and everything like that. So it feels more personal, but they’re just trying to fit what they need. And so you learn that it’s not personal. And I see that the same way with Sales.” (16:55)
“With co-selling in general, there’s a lot of moving pieces as you’ll kind of see as this progresses. You don’t just jump on a call and have it be a straight discovery. You have to plan for it. And so you have to have pre-calls. And there’s a lot of extra little moving parts because both of us are trying to make the sale.” (20:38)
“It’s my favorite part of the day. I thrive on some of the chaos in the morning; it’s fun. It can be a little overwhelming at times, but it’s just nice to be able to sit down and focus on what I need to do.” (40:58)
“The moment that you don’t add value is the moment they go, ‘Eh, maybe I won’t do it.’” (47:32)
“I have a way, because of my performing arts background, of separating myself from when a deal closes, it’s a bummer, move on to the next. Not everyone can do that because you’re looking at your paycheck, you have these big deals, you put all this time into it, and then it doesn’t go through. You can feel so defeated. And if you carry that with you, it’s going to go into the rest of your calls and deals.” (48:49)
“My style is very consultative. So, the thing about me is that I don’t really push for the sale. I really lead them towards it by providing value. So, my superpower I would say is providing value that they didn’t see and showing an understanding of how we can really solve for what they’re experiencing.” (53:56)
“When we co-sell with Hubspot, there’s a sixty-eight percent close rate, versus half of that when we’re selling alone.” (1:04:45)
“We can’t win every deal, obviously. But if you’re just honest with the customer and you sell from the beginning the right solution, you’ve sold them clean.” (1:15:08)
“I think one of the best things you can find is when you can look at leadership and they can teach you something. They’re supporting and fighting for you.” (1:18:38)
Links Mentioned:
[email protected]
ALL Enterprise Sales Episodes
ALL Sobriety Inspirational Episodes
ALL SDR Episodes
Andrew Claus on LinkedIn
Kixie
Kixie LinkedIn on LinkedIn
MEDDIC Masterclass
Straight Line Persuasion System
Any.do
Loom
Vidyard
Slack
Apple Watch
Hubspot
David Gable on LinkedIn
Audible
Book Mentioned:
Selling in a Crisis
The Challenger Sale