Clip from Episode 39: Microsoft’s #1 Inside Sales Corporate Account Manager – Phil Terrill:

The reason why I say that is. So I spent time in the morning just making sure that my my responses and my inbox was clean and I was very very very like. I don’t like to have it and it sounds crazy but I don’t like to have an inbox full of emails. And the reason is like you get lost like they get with 100 even 100 accounts like there just so many moving parts so many people so many e-mails so many partners so many random things that come from Microsoft right where you need to to really make sure that you’re on top of all that. So I spent time in the morning depending on where how clean it was it might be 15 minutes but I had about an hour block of just in that early time where the time zone you know not applicable. I spent about 45 minutes doing all that admin work early in the morning.

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Clip from Episode 39: Microsoft’s #1 Inside Sales Corporate Account Manager – Phil Terrill:

Moment of gratitude right to just be. I’m being very tactical but as important just given the stress I think that sellers have is if you start your day off just like being grateful for the moment you have to go be a seller or to help customers you know be greater than what they could think about based on whatever you’re selling. You know that’s how I start each day and I’ll tell you that helped me stay sane as I started the rest of the day.

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Clip from Episode 39: Microsoft’s #1 Inside Sales Corporate Account Manager – Phil Terrill:

There is a lot of our you know actual tools right. So for me and not to to pitch Microsoft but you know specifically like I was between using our own CRM system which over time I became really efficient at using you know just to again minimize the noise from sales managers and sales leadership about where deals are at. You know the best sellers. You know what I started to observe is the best sellers had great sales hygiene. They just had their business intact. And the same is like how you would think about financials or anything like that is you know tight financials or tight house. You know is a great place. It is a great place to be. And so one of these are our CRM two I use I had what I call the master playbook. It’s all in the master playbook was everything. So when I would go to different data sources you know across Microsoft which you know through acquisitions and you know 40 plus years of being in business Microsoft just had data on data some more data some hidden data somewhere else I’m sure. And so I actually started to centralize all of this information on my customers and one massive playbook and in excel and that I had what I started going away from and this is a little bit of redundancy but it was good for me to be able to take really copious notes on a call and then transfer them or transcribe them you know back into our CRM in a you know consumable way for sales leadership because they were just you know some contextual things that. I was taking notes on that might have been like a you know Scott’s going on vacation to is like you know or whatever. Some of those kind of things. But between using our CRM using a combination of excel and One Note those are like my go-to’s and then my little notepad that I just had on the side for scratched commentary or things and I organize it that way. Well every time I got off a call I documented it in CRM. Every time something major happened in the organization you know I put them in my One Note a major meeting you know role changes at a senior level or at any point you know I am using using Sales Navigator helped as well. Right. Being able to just you know target or you know track people this sounds so bad. Well it really gives me a way to see what what movements were happening and the customers I had. I used those three to sort of document those things. So both quantitatively and qualitatively and then administratively for the sales leadership you know to have what they need in and then so I had what I needed on a call slide. That’s how I did it.

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Clip from Episode 39: Microsoft’s #1 Inside Sales Corporate Account Manager – Phil Terrill:

A lot of the time. You know the sellers specially in the inside model or in general when you send the intro e-mail you always are saying like new account manager like new right the word new or intro call or you know using these like very starter phrases or what I considered at that time or even now are these like they’re scary. Like for like lack of any other term like there’s just simple down right. It’s very scary for a customer to get an e-mail from a seller. Or account manager saying I’m your new guy or new girl. And the reason why I preface what I’m going to tell you the specifics around the messaging is like when you get that mail I’ve done it before I’ve done some other roles like that were more outbound related right. And it’s this could be a turnoff for a lot of customers like they don’t want a new person because it’s their frustration. They had a better relationship you know regardless of if you do internal hand offs or not just the way the customer psyche is if they’re going to go back to their old person or their partner. And so what I did was I sent these messages of OK like I’m not going to use the word intro and some of that kind of stuff and what I did was I said it I’m saying the word introduced but I didn’t use the word introduce. I told them this story. Look I just we just started the new fiscal year. I’m your account manager. I really think I’m your new account manager like I’m your account manager. Here are the things that I’ve identified that we need to go through based on these compelling events that are coming in so I would always include the compelling events. At Microsoft compelling events our end of life, end of support. Those two are can coexist there. There are agreement renewals anything that was coming from where I would call an internal engagement. So like we’re doing like a software asset review I would use some of these triggers right these compelling events to let them know like I’m very aware of you already. So I’m I’m not just calling your emailing you to say hello. Right. I really want to say hello and talk and let you know I validate through this e-mail or through this voicemail that, A.) I know who you are. I know the business are ready and I’m ready to talk to you and I have these resources available to get it done.

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Clip from Episode 39: Microsoft’s #1 Inside Sales Corporate Account Manager – Phil Terrill:

The way I built out a day is. I would be I would typically spend you know especially early on around four or five hours just talking to customers. And I mean they was so tactical to the point of you know a lot of the time and we are the new rep. You know there’s this there’s this feeling of OK one Microsoft did it again. They gave me a new person. You know after you know either after we made an investment or we’re on the cusp of making an investment if we get to a switch. But I was going about four to five hours a day just talking to customers whether it’s the first introductory call or there might have been discussions already in progress and really getting involved that way. Or just spending time just reaching out and really having you know 30 which ended up being like 45 minute calls. You know again back to humanizing the conversation and get to know these folks and let them get to know me and ask any kind of questions they wanted to know.

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Clip from Episode 39: Microsoft’s #1 Inside Sales Corporate Account Manager – Phil Terrill:

This goes back to the admin. They’re spending so much time with their new book of business or even some existing. You have to get a lot of new customers is figuring out like Who are these people so they’re going through all this territory planning and they’re wasting. To me it was they were wasting time. Right. You’re not going to learn too much. You know you’ll learn well you learn a lot from just looking at historical data at Microsoft like you could get lost in the data forever you know because they’re just data on data on every customer. And so instead you know to combat that or to the alternative for me was I’m just going to go talk to these folks. And by doing that I build the pipeline for the later in the year because I knew about so many things happened.

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Clip from Episode 39: Microsoft’s #1 Inside Sales Corporate Account Manager – Phil Terrill:

Had this commitment to number one like it sounds like, yeah of course we all want to be number one but number one comes with a price. And I’m just I’ll start with that part and they’re not really quantify like my the numbers for you. But what I get why I lead with that is you know it’s easy for folks to really want to be in any type of top spot but when you do get there there’s also this other pressure that comes with the that’s taxing you know mentally physically like you’re just like I have to maintain this. But I also needed. Keep thinking about you know intelligent ways to preserve you know the best parts of me for my customers and personally.

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Clip from Episode 39: Microsoft’s #1 Inside Sales Corporate Account Manager – Phil Terrill:

When you say no. Sometimes likes. Let’s take a break. You aren’t even more trust when I do come back right. OK it’s renewal time or it’s X time of the year. Or these things are going on. I think we should jump on this. You know based on X Y Z strategy and there they’re more prone are they. And I would say they are more prone or likely to buy them because the first time or at some point I told them to wait. Right. So now that trust is like I can it’s almost like I’m pulling. I’m able to make a decision for them so that you know retiring quota is a lot easier with that kind of trust and in even more it’s like influence right. When you can build influence and extend yourself as a part of the team you know beyond how that phrase sounds like at the core for that customer really help them feel like man this this guy really cares about me and really my well-being as a company to not distract me and in a technology investment over a number of period of years right which is you know the Microsoft way. You know really think through it methodically with them you know goes along a long way with customers especially in the corporate space.

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Clip from Episode 39: Microsoft’s #1 Inside Sales Corporate Account Manager – Phil Terrill:

A lot of times I would sometimes tell them don’t buy it like I’ve done the research and you know Microsoft people listening are going to go “What?” why would you do that. You know by the end of the day like a great seller doesn’t always sell right. We don’t go in saying hey buy this you need is just the newest and latest and greatest. Sometimes you have to tell the customer no. Let them ponder on why you’re telling them No because it’s unexpected for one like for seller to tell you no. And then to gave you a recommendation as to why you’re telling them no versus you know and then here’s what we should do based on X investment which are very different than buy this, buy now, it’s the newest feature really needed. And you’re going to love it. You’ve never tested it. I promise you you got to love it. You know being overly sales versus being really truly trust oriented which is sometimes you tell the customer no and my business background and in the sense of looking at financials will help me do that.

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Clip from Episode 39: Microsoft’s #1 Inside Sales Corporate Account Manager – Phil Terrill:

Would you say that the business acumen and the financial acumen was more relevant and more valuable than the sales skills that he developed. No question. You know and I say that because after a while like you know usually for us your point of contact is an I.T. manager I.T. director and you’re sort of in this middle management space right of technology owners is what I would call them. And so just being able to have this business finance you know experience and skill set, you know really help when you get to the decision makers, right when you get to a repeat or c-level. You know point of contact or relationship that you have to build. You know they’re not focused on a lot of that day to day tactical execution like someone in the middle management space might be you know. So having this other set of skills around just having a business conversation, especially understanding financials knowing and learning how the Microsoft sales cycle works is for a lot of my customers like nothing nothing moved until the CFO put a signature on it. And so being able to just know like when I got in a conversation with you know with a CFO or a CEO whatever the case may be is knowing that I’m coming in with their sort of their lens or their perspective spending time with you know like CEOs before or CFOs. I know what you are ready to talk about like I’m ready for what you’re going to say. And then I also before the meeting I’m able to really prep and make sure I have deliverables to that to the customer at that level. That makes sense and that they’re going to be able to digest you know make a decision off of at the end of the day which is yes or no. I just want to get them to go forward or not. And so you know I definitely think the blend of the business and the finance skills you know coupled with you know being able to sell which is it. You got to do that too. But before that you have to be able to disarm them and make them you know credibility built with them like you do. No you know you do know what you’re talking about. You know and you know Microsoft and you know are our investments. OK so now what’s the recommendation.

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