Beat the Benchmarks #2: How B2B Tech Sales Leaders can Drive Better Relationships and Engagement

This week on the Revenue Insights Podcast, Adam Roberts, Sales Director of Ebsta, speaks with Guy Rubin, founder and CEO of Ebsta. 

In this episode, Guy and Adam discuss enhancing B2B sales relationships and engagement, particularly in light of the challenging economic landscape that characterized 2023 and early 2024. They also explore the importance of consistency in the sales process, leveraging executive networks, and utilizing AI technology for deeper engagement insights. 

Guy Rubin is the founder and CEO of Ebsta, the Revenue Intelligence Platform for Salesforce and Hubspot customers. He founded Ebsta in 2012 with an aim to score the world’s business relationships. Guy is also CEO Ambassador at Pavilion and CEO at Culuru Consulting. 

Adam Roberts has over ten years experience across sales and business development within global professional services firms and tech startups. He is Sales Director at Ebsta. Before this, Adam was Business Development Director – Key Accounts at Wood, and Director of Business Development at Introhive.

• Guy Rubin on LinkedIn
• Adam Roberts on LinkedIn
• Ebsta website
• Ebsta Revenue Insights Newsletter 
• https://bit.ly/2024h1update

Timestamps:

00:00 – Introduction 

03:05 – Current State of B2B Sales and Challenges in 2024

09:15 – The AI Advantage in Call Analysis

11:42 – Analyzing Lost Deals: Lessons from Top Performers

15:54 – Increasing Sales Velocity 

22:00 – Monitoring Activity Quality, Not Just Quantity

26:43 – Case Study Success: Improving Team Quota Attainment

31:40 – Consistency as the Key to Sales Success

Highlights:

The Impact of Economic Challenges on Sales Performance

In early 2024, many businesses were experiencing financial trouble, especially in B2B SaaS, since win rates were declining, sales cycles were lengthening and deal values had dropped. Guy Rubin notes that, as a result, 69% of workers did not reach their targets. Adam adds that the “delta” between top performing sales reps and the rest of their sales teams had grown to over ten times as much. This situation highlights the need for firms to consider smarter methods to increase sales success, instead of just hiring more people and spending a lot on marketing.

Closing Strategies of Top Performers

Guy says that the reasons top performing sales reps lose deals is markedly different to the rest of the sales team. While many average reps struggle due to qualification issues or handling of objections, top performers typically lose deals for more complex reasons, such as budget constraints or strategic misalignments. One of the most notable statistics is that the volume of opportunities has increased by 25%, but the number of opportunities that match ICP hasn’t changed. What Ebsta found was that top performers were much better at identifying which opportunities match ICP and focusing their energies on that deal. 

Using Benchmarks for Consistency and Performance Improvement

Guy notes the value of using benchmarks as a way of improving the performance of sales teams. By analyzing data and highlighting what top performers do at each stage of the sales cycle, sales leaders can inspire “B and C players” to do better. He stresses that these steps need to be easy to follow. This consistency (coupled with removing administrative burdens through AI) enables sellers to focus on essential skills like objection handling and stakeholder engagement. 

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