[00:00:00] My lovely people, welcome to another fabulous episode of the B2B Sales Trends Podcast. In this episode, we'll explore how to make sales success repeatable, rather than just relying on individual heroes. We'll look at what it takes to create an environment where strong performance can be replicated across the team, how that translates into the way opportunities and customer relationships are managed and how you know where that is.
[00:00:30] It's actually driving better commercial outcomes. On the B2B Sales Trends Podcast, we give you a sneak peek into the strategies of the world's best CROs and go-to-market leaders, the systems, the playbooks they are using so you don't have to figure it out the hard way. If you're looking to increase win rates, shorten sales cycles and learn from the best in B2B selling, this podcast is for you.
[00:00:54] My guest today is Lisa Maderer. She is the SVP of Sales at Dun & Bradstreet. Welcome to B2B Sales Trends Podcast, Lisa. Thank you, Harry. I'm very excited to be here. Let's take this opportunity to introduce yourself here, your role and your organization. Thanks, Harry. So, you know, my name again is Lisa. I am the Senior Vice President of Data Management Specialists here at Dun & Bradstreet.
[00:01:21] I'm a 20-year sales veteran. I've been with the company about 23 years supporting, you know, commercial data sales at various roles throughout the organization. I started when I was 23 and talk time was measured through the telephone in front of you and a headset, not through, you know, the computer. I've held various sales roles over the first 20 years and then have been in leadership for the past three.
[00:01:48] I think it's important to note my individual contributor roles kind of culminated in a strategic environment. I had about six accounts from 2020 through 2024 that I grew at double digits. And, you know, it was around 2024 that the right opportunity for leadership presented itself and have been handling a couple of leadership roles since then. I also want to take a minute to introduce to you guys just who Dun & Bradstreet is, if that's okay. Please, absolutely.
[00:02:18] Good. So, you know, Dun & Bradstreet has data on over 650 million plus companies. And the DMB commercial graph is the world's largest, most comprehensive collection of business data and analytical insights. We serve approximately 215,000 clients globally. And that includes 90% of the Fortune 500, different governments and small and mid-sized businesses.
[00:02:45] You know, and I think with the rapid pace of AI, the demand for trusted and connected data is making Dun & Bradstreet more relevant than ever before. Thank you, Lisa. A great introduction. Let's talk about the topic of the recording today, which was really the idea of how are we making sales success repeatable? What can we do to make sales success repeatable, I should say?
[00:03:11] Because most sales organizations have people who consistently deliver great results, right? We all have these people in our organization. The bigger challenge is achieving that level of performance consistently across an entire team, not just a few individuals. What does it take to make strong sales performance repeatable across an organization, in your opinion? Sure. You know, there's always going to be exceptional performers.
[00:03:40] And a good sales organization really can't depend just on heroes, right? So I think the job of leadership is to figure out what those people do consistently that produces the results that the company desires. And then determine which of those behaviors can be taught, you know, repeated and then scaled. So for me, repeatability kind of comes down to four components. Identify, simplify, organize, and measure.
[00:04:07] And the first really is about identifying what actually drives success. And it's important that we don't start with a theory, right? Start with the best business outcomes. Who are your strongest sellers and what are they doing well? You know, and the goal isn't to create 10 versions of that salesperson, much as we might like to. It's really to identify the fundamentals beneath their success. And once I do that, I think we simplify it.
[00:04:33] And this is important because I think sales organizations tend to be overly complexed and very matrixed very quickly. And so we take those fundamentals and ideally create some sort of framework around them that people can remember and use. If people can't remember the process, they're not really going to be able to execute on it. So I want to be careful that I'm not oversimplifying complex selling. I just am saying be very clear about the few fundamental behaviors that matter most.
[00:05:03] And then next, we operationalize it. So once you know what's working, build those fundamentals into how the organization actually operates. And that's really about sales execution, skill development, coaching, and accountability. And you create enough structure that it becomes repeatable. But I'm a big fan of making sure that it's flexible enough that your good sellers can take creative license. Because consistency isn't really about conformity, right?
[00:05:30] Those different personalities and approaches can thrive in that same foundational framework. And it's important to point out here that continuous development is hypercritical. So something that I do within my own organization is I've developed what I call a master class series. I meet with the entire sales organization every other Friday at noon. People can bring their lunch. They can walk the dog and listen in. I'm okay with that.
[00:05:56] I want to give my sellers an opportunity to come together and get practical, small, bite-sized learning moments. My experience tells me that I know when we onboard sellers, we might have a 12-week course with 350 modules and a computer. But as sellers mature and progress, like giving them bite-sized knowledge that they can operationalize really quickly, I have found to be incredibly valuable. And, you know, lastly, we have to be able to measure it.
[00:06:26] You know, if you can't prove it with some sort of data point, you know, it's not real, right? So, and it's important that we measure the behaviors, not just the outcome. Because if we wait for that revenue number, it's not going to tell you early on whether it's working or not. So inspecting those leading behaviors, and I think we're going to talk about that a little later, that eventually creates the result is important. And so, again, I think the key here is making those behaviors, the good behaviors sticky.
[00:06:56] And that way, then, the best sales organizations don't have to rely on heroics. They understand what creates success. They simplified it. They operationalize it. And then they make those behaviors repeatable across the organization. Love that. So let's repeat that for the audience. Identify, simplify, operationalize, and measure. Did I get that correct? You got it correct.
[00:07:19] Love that process because a lot of the time, it's really challenging when you have some of these superstars in a team. And you want to make sure that you are replicating the right behavior. And I like the fact that you have a process behind that.
[00:07:35] I think that's what a lot of sales leaders are struggling with because they tend to lead or lean towards strategy and targets or whatever sellers need to do differently. That's sort of their instinct when they want better outcomes. Right. What needs to exist around a sales team for people to consistently perform at their best?
[00:08:01] So I chuckle at this question because I recently had a conversation with an executive last week and I said to them, you know, happy people do good work. Right. And I think, listen, happiness is not does not mean lack of accountability. You can give somebody a great, you know, process and strategy, but still create an environment where people, you know, can't perform. So, you know, there's a few components here that I think are worth mentioning.
[00:08:28] The first is it's it's important that we don't create unnecessary disruption. I think one of the mistakes that leaders, not just sales leaders, do is assuming that improvement requires some big reinvention. And it doesn't. Right. Change can doesn't always have to require full transformation. It may just require some amplification of something that's already good.
[00:08:49] So when I inherit a team or I'm building a team, I really want to understand as much as I can about the organization before I start changing it. And that's looking at what's already good. You know, what do people value? What motivates them? What creates energy? What stands in their way? You know, and then there's always something that's worth protecting. And then we get to, OK, what genuinely needs to change.
[00:09:14] So it's important that we don't destroy what's working simply because we're a new leader with a new strategy. I think also it's important that we create stability and focus. You know, people perform better when they're not trying to figure out what their leader cares about on any given week. So set the direction, be consistent and then give people time to execute. And I tend to live in the land of threes.
[00:09:40] You'll see this theme throughout our conversation today, but I always start each year with three pillars and three words that the team can always, you know, anchor in on. You know, and I'll go into those in a little bit, but I think people can operationalize three things well. Fifteen creates chaos and nobody, you know, thrives or grows in chaos. You know, and the next thing I think that's important is, you know, believing in people, investing in their development.
[00:10:09] Our job is not simply to inspect performance, right, which sales leaders are very, very good at, but it's to improve it. So coach people, develop them, challenge them, give them opportunities to stretch. At the beginning of each year, I always ask every single one of my sellers to come to me with what is your personal and your professional aspiration? And how does achieving those professional goals map back to something personally for you?
[00:10:38] And then let them give you what their stretch is. People usually will rise to an occasion if you give them an opportunity to do so. And when it goes well, say it. Like, give a compliment. You know, we're incredibly good at finding what's wrong, but surprisingly poor at pointing out the good, right? You know, and a couple other things, you know, you can create trust without sacrificing accountability. They're not opposites.
[00:11:05] I think you can give talented people autonomy, let them make decisions, sometimes let them make mistakes. When you're clear about the expectation and you hold people accountable to it, they don't have to compete. And in a high-performing culture, you can have both, that high degree of trust as well as that really high bar for performance. You know, and the last thing I'll say here is remember that you're leading people. You know, this doesn't have to be so complicated.
[00:11:34] Treat people with dignity and respect. And I always say this, like, you know, let's be honest, not being a jerk kind of helps, right? People know whether their leader genuinely cares and believes in them. And particularly salespeople, because they make a career out of reading rooms of people. And they can tell very, very quickly if, as a leader, you're being disingenuous.
[00:11:56] I want to take a quick second here and double-click on the concept of culture, too, because, you know, culture is the environment that we as leaders, whether you're a sales leader or you're an executive, we create that allows people to consistently do their best work. And I really feel like culture is a currency that leaders, not just sales leaders, tend to overlook. And it's not just about perks. And it certainly isn't lowering a bar.
[00:12:24] It's, I think, a strong culture allows you to raise the bar because people understand what's expected from leadership. They understand that you're invested in them. And they trust that those standards will be applied consistently. And I believe firmly that culture enables performance. And the process that we put in place is really how they sell.
[00:12:47] So, and then if the process determines how they sell and culture determines how people show up when they're doing it, if you get both right, culture and process, you create an organization where talented people can consistently do their best work. I'll close with this on this one. I think my job as a leader isn't necessarily to make performance easy, but it is to create an environment where talented people feel trusted. They are stable.
[00:13:14] They feel like we are invested in their development. And then we hold them accountable to whatever it is that they need to do to perform their best. I have so many questions. Fabulous, fabulous impact. Import. I really like the combo of culture and process. And I really believe in that first you have to have the culture as an underlying fundamental. This is how we deal.
[00:13:42] This is what are the expectations are and this is how we want to be treated. And then combine that with process. That should really elevate a lot of things. I really like what you said there. Now, it's obviously one thing to have a clear strategy that leaders implement in this.
[00:14:01] And that can be a huge difference between knowing what the organization wants to accomplish and having people really executing it on a behavioral level with consistency. So how do you close that gap? Because we hear that all the time between strategy and culture and process to execution. And what actually happens day to day? Sure. I love this question.
[00:14:30] Like most things, I tend to be very linear in my thinking, although this one isn't three. It's more like five. But I think if you think of it in terms of a framework, you have your executives that are setting the strategy. And then it has to cascade down to the managers who have to have absolute clarity around it and be bought in. And from there, it translates to behavior, execution, accountability, and results.
[00:14:56] So, you know, most strategies I don't think fail because they're wrong. They fail because they never become repeatable behaviors. So, you know, leadership saying, you know, we need to grow. That's not execution. And even a really detailed GTM strategy is an execution. So the real question is, what do sellers need to do differently tomorrow, you know, because of this new strategy? And I think managers, your frontline sales managers, are really the multipliers here.
[00:15:26] They bridge the gap between strategy and results. So you've got your executives and your senior leaders that are setting the direction, but they have to sell it downstream and make sure it's landing, right? So the managers have to not only understand the new strategy, but they have to believe in it. And that's when they can authentically sell it or lead against it. And then it will translate right down to priorities, coaching, observable behaviors, things like that.
[00:15:54] You know, I feel strongly that managers can't really create conviction in their teams if they don't actually believe in the strategy themselves. And I read an article recently that had an interesting litmus test. So it said, ask five frontline managers independently of one another to explain the revenue strategy and what their team needs to do differently because of it.
[00:16:17] And if you get five different answers, you have an execution problem before you have a performance problem, right? So if those managers aren't in lockstep, though, that's more of a reflection on what's coming down from above. An example I see in a lot of my customers, for example, is the rollout of AI and organizations, sales organizations in particular, over the past couple of years. Right. Right. Telling an organization, we're going to be an AI enabled team.
[00:16:47] You know, that's not really actionable. Right. So but it's up to managers. Like so when I took that, you know, that strategy that was rolled down to me a couple of years ago, I thought, OK, I have to translate this into something for my people. You know, what do I expect my sellers to do differently? What activities disappear or maybe consume less time? And then if they've saved time, where do they reinvest it? Can our customer engagement look differently?
[00:17:16] What does that what does that look like? What behaviors against this can I coach? Right. Right. And so I think this kind of, you know, brings us back to that question about the gap. You know, what someone what does somebody need to do differently today because of that strategy? And then incorporate it back into what we said in question one, which is, you know, making it, you know, a strong sales performance model that's then repeatable. How do you typically assess these gaps?
[00:17:42] Gaps is it through observation of your sales managers and leaders or you're running an assessment with people or do you get client feedback? How do you assess those gaps from your sellers? Well, I think it can go back to what we talked about at the beginning is is identify the sales team or salespeople that are doing things well.
[00:18:08] And what behaviors are they exhibiting that aren't necessarily being universally applied across the organization? And our frontline managers are the ones who see that. Right. Because they see what these sellers are doing day in and day out. And they see what the the leading indicators as well as the lagging indicators say about those behaviors. So I do think you're right. I think the frontline managers are the ones who see it first.
[00:18:33] And then sometimes you'll have clusters of teams, you know, especially in a very complex sales organization where you have, you know, 15, 20 teams of five, you know, account executives that cover North America, for example. There are certain teams who just seem to execute better than others. And so I think it's important to go in and look at the data as well as observe those behaviors and see which ones are really driving that result and what needs to be multiplied. And then also what needs to be omitted.
[00:19:03] Let's put it all into practice here and share with the audience your experience there, because you've had that experience of building and scaling a sales organization, especially a specialist sales organization, as a matter of fact, in a relatively short period of time, which is something that that leaders are striving to achieve. How did you intentionally build that culture you were referring to and the operating model? And what did you learn along the way?
[00:19:33] I'm a big fan of test and learn. So one of the things that was unique when this leadership opportunity was presented to me was, hey, we want to do a pilot. I loved this idea. It was something that after, you know, having been asked to consider leadership multiple times since like the late 20 teens, it was the first time something really clicked is like, OK, that that's something I could do. And it was intriguing to me. So it was this opportunity to build some things.
[00:20:02] So one of the things I did was I built the culture and the expectations really intentionally from the beginning. So, again, land of threes. I started the year with, you know, a couple of focus areas, both in a set of words as well as a structure. So I had the team settle in on three words, which was collaborative, agile and joyful.
[00:20:26] And, you know, at 185 year old company doing something new necessitates asking entire sales organization to think about these resources and utilize them differently. They were pivoting anytime they needed to and maintaining a positive outlook wherever possible. Right. In order to succeed. So this gave us the ability to establish clear operating rhythms, not just with how we engage with internal partners, but as well as our customers.
[00:20:56] And then I thought, OK, well, I've got to measure this. Right. So the framework really centered around three things was expand, enhance and land. It's a strategy. If a company says that they're going to prioritize master data management, it's not a one time event. So and no one ever invests in a data set for a single use case.
[00:21:15] So it expand was really about who in the organization should we be talking to that would gain value from this data set and bringing those partners across that customer ecosystem together so that we were expanding the reach of what it is we were selling in the organization. And enhance is really interesting. We wanted to be data driven.
[00:21:39] So one of the things I asked for at the beginning was, can we please look at our existing customer data and determine what good looks like when it relates to the makeup of a data management deal structure, if you will. So we looked at all different data points to see what success looked like. And we anchored on what we called four multipliers.
[00:22:01] And what we found was the more of these multipliers a customer would invest in, the stickier the deal was, the happier the customer was, the more obvious the ROI was. And more importantly, they also reviewed at the highest rates. So once we identified what these multipliers were and encouraged the team to enhance, we actually build an incentive structure around it. I'm a big fan that comp plan should drive not just results, but the specific behaviors that we want to see.
[00:22:31] And the last one was land, right? Is there anything we could do, right, to remove friction, create momentum and reduce that average sales cycle time? So what we ended up doing here on these two premises was scaled a framework that I had successfully sold with for nearly a decade and made it repeatable in a plan. And I called it a working plan.
[00:22:53] And this became a mutual project plan between my sellers and the customer that created clarity around the problem we were solving and how we would demonstrate value. And more importantly, how we would move forward. I want to provide a couple of details here because I think it's critical. Every working plan looks a little bit different, but I have three requirements that every single one must have. And every seller must even today have a full working plan on every opportunity over six figures.
[00:23:22] So the first was we engage in a very structured discovery process that's tied both to measurable business outcomes, but also to corporate, you know, some sort of corporate objective. And I think we overcomplicate ROI in sales all the time because businesses at the end of the day, right, they write checks for one of three reasons.
[00:23:45] You've either helped them manage risk, you've helped them grow their business, or you've helped them create some sort of measurable efficiency. And it's our job as sellers to clearly understand which one we're solving for and how. So that's really what the discovery process is around. And the second is we use data to tell a story that makes that value tangible. So I just want to go back quickly. You know, at D&B, we're curating and owning the largest collection of commercial insight in the world.
[00:24:15] And our commercial graph really delivers those insights at scale. So particularly with AI and this, you know, AI-driven market, the value can be significant, but it's really up to us as sellers to make that value tangible for the customer. So we do what I call data storytelling, where we show clients what's possible when they bring their proprietary data together with our data.
[00:24:39] And I make sure that every sale includes an illustration of what I call the MVP, like what's the minimum viable product. And that is where we're illustrating something for the customer that they could do at the click of a button in production with our data that they cannot do today. And then we quantify that value. And the last thing is it must have an established, mutually agreed upon timeline or project plan.
[00:25:07] Working plans are presented across my organization weekly. Good ones, not so good ones, the ones we've won, as well as the ones we're trying to win. It's the framework almost with which we communicate with each other internally as well. So again, you know, it anchors back to that, you know, culture, the process. We hold everybody accountable. We make sure the customers are focused. So this ultimately, this nine-month pilot, if you will, we called it a SWAT team.
[00:25:36] I got everybody hats that said SWAT. It was really fun. You know, this became the foundation then of the sales motion that we scaled further in 2026. And just for the record, the 2026 words are connected, resilient, and engaged. So that's where we're focusing this year. Love it. There's so many nuggets in what you have just shared. I love the working plan.
[00:26:02] And thank you for laying that out and providing it to the community to learn here. I think that's super, super valuable. And what an achievement with all these improvements of opportunities and average sales cycle reduction and so forth. So fabulous. Fabulous. Really good. Now, of course, not everything is always rosy, right? Where do you see in this motion?
[00:26:32] And I think you have, like we say, your ducks in a row, right? Where do you sometimes see deals losing momentum? And how can we address that? Great question. You know, I think my experience is that deals tend to slow down when clarity disappears. You know, and I think momentum gets lost in a lot of places, right? Whether it's, you know, poor and complete discovery, lack of stakeholder, you know, alignment.
[00:27:01] Maybe the value hasn't been articulated. Maybe we're focusing on our process a little bit more than the customers. And let's, you know, listen, things happen with customers all the time. Priorities shift. Maybe the project gets canceled. It has nothing to do with anything that we've done. You know, but I think one of the things that's unique right now is that there's really little excuse for salespeople to be poorly prepared, right?
[00:27:24] I think AI has kind of changed dramatically how quickly, right, we can understand a company. And, you know, I think that our working plan is really what drives that momentum anchoring in on those three components. Another thing that I focus on is I encourage everybody to develop a contact strategy with their customers. Meaning, you know, what pace do our customers want to operate on?
[00:27:52] I would always say to clients when I sold, I don't want to be sprinting if you're walking, you know? So tell me what makes sense for you and then build it with them. And that could mean weekly touch points during an active project or sales cycle. Maybe monthly engagements with the signer or quarterly engagements with the executive. There's a particular customer of mine who probably will listen to this podcast and put a comment in the comment section.
[00:28:18] Who for the entire five years I managed the account, we talked every other Friday for five years. And I always had my finger on the pulse of what was going on there. So I encourage our sellers to develop whatever that strategy is that's going to work with that particular customer and implement it and hold firm to it. You know, I think the cadence will always depend on the opportunity. And the real important thing is that they both mutually agree to it.
[00:28:47] And the operational discipline of this isn't really about bureaucracy. It's about removing that uncertainty, to your point, stopping that disruption in momentum. And I think, you know, sales cycles don't accelerate because people work harder. They accelerate because the process is executed well. And that you've removed the uncertainty not just for the buyer, but for you as the seller as well.
[00:29:12] And some relationships remain sort of centered on individual transactions, right? While others grow into much broader relationships over time. Something that you've highlighted. What determines which direction the relationship is really heading? For now, at least, people still buy from people, right? And I think, right? The largest opportunities don't usually come from, you know, some sort of pipeline discussion.
[00:29:41] They're built with our customers through, you know, trust, discovery, sustained engagement. So, you know, I think that human component is actually more important as AI has become ubiquitous. I think, you know, technology can help us be more prepared and work efficiently, but trust is still earned.
[00:30:04] So, I think relationships expand when sellers build partnerships before, during, and after an individual opportunity presents itself. And listen, I think there's a variety of different ways we can do that. You know, stay curious. Constantly live in discovery. I joke, like, discovery shouldn't be a stage in a sales process, right? It should be a continuous thing throughout the life cycle of any customer.
[00:30:31] You know, make sure you're building your relationships broadly. Make sure that you bring value before asking for the next opportunity, right? Customers pay attention to what you do as far as solving problems, especially when then there's not an immediate sale attached to that component. And this is, you know, a time old rule here. Do what you say you're going to do. I think trust is earned through execution.
[00:30:58] And some of our very best, even largest opportunities in my career have been identified at the implementation of maybe a smaller project. Because we've delivered on that original commitment and have continued to learn about the customer along the way. I think it's important that we keep, you know, partnership, not transaction, right, in the forefront.
[00:31:21] And that first interaction, especially if it ends in a closed opportunity, should make sellers more curious. Because now we understand how the customer operates, right? And we should have greater success as well as the ability, you know, to demonstrate some credibility. I think if discovery ends when that first deal closes, we've probably limited the size of that relationship. Absolutely. Absolutely.
[00:31:51] Now, let's talk about proving the impact of all the wonderful things that you have shared with the audience. What leading and lagging indicators do you look at to know whether the operating model, the culture, and everything combined is actually changing behavior and improving outcomes? Yeah. Thank you for asking that question in that way. Because I think measurement really happens in two categories.
[00:32:18] You always have your lagging indicators, which everybody looks at, right? That's telling you the outcome. But there's a lot of leading indicators that help us understand whether the behaviors that are happening are actually going to produce the outcome that we want consistently. So, you know, the lagging indicators are everything we already know. What's the revenue attainment? What are the win rates? Deal size? You know, sales cycle length? You know, forecast accuracy?
[00:32:46] But I think the leading indicators really depend. They depend on the organization. But I'm looking for evidence that the right behaviors are happening consistently. So, for me, you know, what's the quality of the pipeline? How robust is the activity against it, not simply the size? Customer engagement.
[00:33:06] And I think it's important that we look beyond the face-to-face meetings to the overall level and quality, right, of the customer engagement across those meetings. So, not just the meetings, but how many calls, what are the email response rates? Are customers responsive to what it is that we're saying? You know, do we have stakeholder engagement on the executive side, especially with alignment? What's the progress, right, through a sales cycle?
[00:33:35] Or is it simply aging out or stalling? And I think, you know, those are all things we can coach and as managers we can inspect. And I guess my point here is measurement shouldn't simply tell us, like, what we're missing, right? It should help us understand where in that operating system that we talked about earlier, the strategy to the manager, buying and clarity, behavior, accountability, execution and results. Like, where is it breaking down?
[00:34:05] And just as importantly, where is it working? So, if we understand where the breakdown is, we can coach much earlier. And I think here, if it's okay, I want to just take a second to talk about sales metrics. I feel like metrics is a bit of a polarizing topic in sales. There's two camps and they're firmly rooted. You know, as a general rule, I believe that if you hire the right people, you provide the right strategy.
[00:34:33] You've created clarity, right? We've got the right execution model that we have accountability against. The metrics often take care of themselves. However, not every good salesperson achieves and succeeds 100% of the time. And a miss number once does not automatically mean someone isn't good at what they do. So, I do believe there has to be some sort of measurement.
[00:34:58] But I'm a big believer in scorecards rather than relying on single metrics. I think there's always a series of behaviors that define what good looks like. And it's important as leaders that we take the time not just to identify them, but to quantify them and then build a balanced metric expectation around them. And I also think this helps gives leaders a more complete picture of what's happening,
[00:35:25] things they can actually coach to rather than saying, you know, simply that you just missed a number, you know. And I think, you know, again, I brought up AI a couple of times because I think the business landscape has changed more in the last 18 months than it has in the last 18 years. And so, I just think it's important to acknowledge how this has changed what we do every day, you know. And I think the seller's role has to evolve because of it.
[00:35:52] And it requires us to revisit what good activity looks like. And as technology kind of reduces certain, you know, lower value activities, yesterday's metrics may not necessarily tell us very much about tomorrow's high performer, right? So, we have to constantly be asking which behaviors, you know, have the greatest relationship to the outcomes that we're trying to achieve.
[00:36:20] And lastly, I think if we're only measuring the final result, we typically will learn about the problem too late. The number will tell us the result, but that's the behaviors, right, that get us there, you know, that are going to tell us if we're going to be able to achieve it repeatedly. Love it. Lisa, the last question I always ask on the podcast is always the same. And I know you've listened to a number of episodes. And you know that question then in this case.
[00:36:46] What are the top three skills and behaviors every B2B seller needs to execute really well to succeed today? What are those three? Well, I love three, obviously, but I do have a bonus one here. So, bear with me. So, I think the first one is curiosity. Good sellers ask better questions. They just do. They are always curious, not just about the business, the problem. They're very curious about the people.
[00:37:13] They want to get to know who their customers are personally and professionally. Understanding what's changing at the business and the market, right? So, curiosity, I think, fuels that discovery. And, you know, AI has helped to make us better informed, but it can't inform curiosity. So, I think an exceptional seller uses what's already known to ask the question that encumbers the things that isn't. The second is discipline.
[00:37:41] I think great sales professionals do the basics and the foundation or the fundamentals consistently well. So, I have a very athletic household. And so, my husband, who is a coach, always says, you know, the best athletes who make their high school teams and go on to compete collegiately, they have the best fundamentals. And I think sales really is no different. You know, are they prepared? Do they follow up?
[00:38:08] For me, the execution on the working plan, consistency will always beat out occasional brilliance. And so, you know, and I think, again, bringing in the AI component, it raises the expectation here because there's no more excuse for walking into any customer conversation unprepared. But the great sellers will use that advantage to become even more disciplined in their craft.
[00:38:36] And number three is business acumen. I think the ability to understand customers' businesses, connect the solutions to outcomes, you know, having that domain knowledge is really critical. And, you know, again, even with AI bringing in all that knowledge, the seller still needs the judgment to understand what matters. And if we do this well, that's what allows sellers to move through that continuum, right?
[00:39:07] From vendor to salesperson to advisor to we all want to be called a strategic partner, you know? And adaptability is my bonus, right? I debated it. But like I just said earlier, the change that we've seen in the past 18 months, if we aren't adaptable, like people may not, like we're not going to survive all the change, right? So while the fundamentals don't change, the environment around us is.
[00:39:32] So good sellers will know what to hold on to and when to adapt. And I do think, you know, AI isn't going to replace the great sellers, but I do think that great sellers who figure out how to leverage AI are going to expose average selling pretty quickly. Oh, very quick. You fully agree. Curiosity, discipline, business acumen and adaptability. Lisa, you've been an amazing guest.
[00:40:00] Thank you for your contribution to the collective pool of knowledge. We appreciate it. Thank you for your time. Thank you for having me, Harry. My lovely people, repeatable sales success isn't about finding more superstar sellers or relying on some individual heroes.
[00:40:18] As Lisa shared today, it comes from creating the conditions for people to perform consistently, measuring the behaviors that create that success, building that accountability and autonomy into the way the organization really operates. And of course, developing focused customer relationships that can grow into larger, much more strategic opportunities.
[00:40:44] And of course, ultimately, those changes have to show up in the numbers in stronger win rates, shorter sales cycles, larger deals and more predictable growth. If you enjoyed this episode, follow the show, share with your team and subscribe on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from. And look out for our upcoming book. Until the next time, my lovely people, take care of yourself, your loved ones and your B2B customers. Bye-bye.