Clip from Episode 39: Microsoft’s #1 Inside Sales Corporate Account Manager – Phil Terrill:
You know I had a very transparent conversation both at the time with my sales manager and sales directors and part of the reason why I did that is because I don’t have a traditional sales background. We can talk about that. But the way I did it was look I don’t know these customers you know at all yet you just get we just got our book of business. And what I did was they will just let me do my thing based on my background. You know being around a lot of entrepreneurs and let me figure it out that way. And then while doing that right the admin work out I was like well I was very hygiene oriented so I was when I mean by that is I would go onto our sales tool. And I already knew what they wanted right. I asked them in the beginning what do you really need to go forecast you know to your manager or to your boss and so on and so forth. So that helped me really give them true true clear guidance for me for myself right is to hey. These are the things that you’re focused on. I’m going to make sure that you have this up to date at all times so I don’t have to either sit in multiple meetings with you or you don’t have to come ask me questions about deals or anything that’s going on. You have that access and visibility so that help take away even just the admin work preparing for the forecast. I would just build it into my routine. And so that where the extra conversation and layers were removed. And so that I get more time to spend with my customers or partners.
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- Having a business conversation based on earnings calls
- Building relationships in inside sales “I humanized everything”
- Learning about business, entrepreneurship and finance to win in sales
- “I’m going to do whatever it takes for my customer to be successful”
- Business acumen and financial acumen are more important than sales skills especially at the c-level
- “At the end of the day a great seller doesn’t always sell”
- Building trust and influence by telling a customer “No”
- “#1 comes with a price”
- Getting out of the data and just having conversations to build pipeline
- “I would spend about 4-5 hours a day just talking to customers”
- Effectively introducing yourself to existing customers as their new account manager
- Phil’s toolkit for managing a territory of 168 accounts
- Using gratitude to stay sane “given the stress that sellers have”
- Keeping a clean email inbox
- Staying focused on the results and on selling time
- After a call, when the information is freshest, go document it
- “I had one day every week where I didn’t talk to existing customers” Going after all new customers
- The mentality that it takes to get to #1
- Having a quarterback mentality “I wanted to put in 150% so that way at least I hit quota”
- Leading the team as an individual contributor
- From Top Account Manager to Sales Enablement at Microsoft
- Sales: Do you really want to do this?
- How are you going to differentiate yourself from the millions of other sellers?
- “Think about that territory or book of business as your own business”
- You should enjoy it with a passion or you should do something else because you won’t be successful