#185 – Consalia Roundtable: One week until GST XX!

Join the discussion in our Sales Transformation Forum group.

 

Make sure you're following us on LinkedIn and Twitter to get updates on the latest episodes! Also, take our Mindset Survey and find out if you are selling to customers the way they want to be sold to today.

 

 

Full episode transcript: 

​Please note that transcription is done by AI and may contain errors.

​

 

Will: Right. Hi. Hi, Phil. Hi, Jesus. Hi, will. How is everyone?

Jesus: Good, full of energy!

Will: Phil. Phil, I know you've been pretty busy, so it'd be good to get a, an update on where you've been and everything. But, um, really, we're, we're 10 days away from GST. Which is, you know, one of our, well, it is the keynote, um, event that Consalia runs every year.

This year is our 20th GST. Um, so it's a really significant milestone for Consalia and certainly since I've been at Consalia for the past eight years, it's really morphed in that time into something much bigger I think. So, um, we're getting quite excited about it. Certainly I am. But we thought, um, we thought it'd be great to bring you and Heza together for this sort of round table discussion, um, to kind of provide everyone with a few key updates.

Mm-hmm. Notably, notably. Our key partnership with Aviso, um, has us, I know we've spoken plenty of times about this, um, on our sales frequency weekly chats, but Phil, um, you know, it'd be great to hear it from your perspective as well. Um. Wanna cover quick updates on GST. A bit of an update on the global research project, Phil, that I know you've been, uh, I mean, you've been all over the place this year doing your interviews.

Um, so yeah. Could be a good opportunity just to, um, oh. Maybe tea. Have a few teasers as to what the research is, what research is emerging. Yeah. And, um, yes, and sort of lastly for, you know, anyone interested, hopefully you'll be inspired to join us at GST after this round table and, um, yeah, do get in touch if you wanna get some tickets.

Um, but yeah, why don't we, why don't we just do a very quick sort of. High level, perhaps not so much introduction because I think most of our listeners will know. Phil, you are the CEO Heus, you are head of consulting, but what, what have you been up to over the last few weeks? Let's start there. Do you want to start, Phil, or

Jesus: should I?

Phil: Um, I, I don't, I don't mind going. Um, so yeah, my, yes, I'm very happy to start. So, um, well, it's, yes, it's been pretty, pretty busy, so, um, it's. There's been quite a bit of travel, so I spent a couple of days in Qatar, which is always interesting, uh, to go back to Qatar. We've done quite a number of projects there over the years.

Um, but to, to catch up with some business contacts there was interesting. And then, uh, you know, seeing the transformation of Qatar over the years has been incredible. Um, then of course, then going to Singapore, uh, we're doing a very. Interesting project at the moment with, uh, Anglo-American, which has taken a lot of our time the last, um, six months or so.

Um, very interesting to, to see how their business has changed so quickly since we first met them a couple of years ago. Um, and then of course, in parallel to all of these activities, it's, um, getting ready for GST. So I feel as though the last, the last two weeks have been pretty manic. Um, but like you said earlier on, very excited about GST this year and looking forward to, uh, looking forward to, uh, saying a bit more about that later.

Will: Great. Thank you. Fa, how about you?

Jesus: Yeah, I think the last weeks, the last two weeks, Phil, have been manic. The next two weeks until GST are gonna be double manic. That is good. It's good. I mean, we've, we've had, uh, such an amazing, uh, things happening in the last month. So, um, we've recently announced the partnership with aviso, but this has a journey itself, right?

Uh, even when we had to, um. Write down a contract with an AI company, right? A based company. So that's quite interesting to see even that the, the law firms here in the uk, I mean the technology is, is, is, is well, uh, well in front of everything, regulation, but also law and some other things. So we, we are learning by doing and creating by doing, right.

So after the Spanish, it was announced, everything has been quite busy. So we were in hours in September in an event organized by our partner and shareholder development systems in Madrid, where we presented Aviso, uh, to the competition. Uh, and they won the, uh. Digital innovation and transformation, uh, award, uh, within, within all the candidates.

And that was an amazing exposure to many of our, uh, joint clients in Spain and Latin America. And we are now having a lot of meetings and follow ups after that with. Uh, creating a lot of interest. Of course, uh, ASU is coming and is gonna be part of the conversation today, but it's coming to the GST. So we are preparing a lot of things on the marketing side, on the sales side, new business development side, but also on the, uh.

Research and development side. Mm-hmm. 'cause we are co-developing, uh, something with them.

Will: Mm-hmm.

Jesus: Maybe that's, that's the kind of the teaser before we

Will: Yeah.

Jesus: We announce in the, in the GST.

Will: But it, it is incredible how this partnership has developed and the kind of conversations as well that we're having, that's are evolving.

It's kind of opening up, uh, windows into. Kind of new conversations that certainly Consalia ISS having. So it's a really exciting time. Um, he, you didn't even mention the National Sales Awards. I mean, this is a big one, two, when, when, but I'll take the glory. I'm gonna take the glory, the glory yours. Um, but yeah, of course.

Sorry, sorry. Has No, no, it's, I mean, I was thinking when Phil was talking about, I have to mention it. Yeah. So go ahead. But, um, you know, on top of everything else, um. Yeah, one of the highlights has been last week, um, being at the National Sales Awards, uh, with a couple of our key customers, SAP and Royal Mail, and just to see Royal Mail being recognized for, um, their internal sales training program, um, which is something that we helped develop.

Called, uh, inspiring a sales mindset. Growth was incredible. And see Herold received that award, it's well deserved. And it was one of those, you know, one of those moments where certainly for me, I felt very proud to be part of it. And, um. Yeah, so lots, lots going on,

Phil: but I, I think people don't realize the amount of effort that goes into sort of running some of these sort of global programs from not necessarily the delivery team or the, um.

Participant team, but actually the people who worked behind the scenes. And it was fantastic to see Hiral with a huge, great grin on her fa face picking up the award. Um, but it was amazing to have two of our clients in, in the finalist stage, you know, of the awards. Yeah. And we mustn't, uh. You know, I know it's great for Hiral, but I, I'm sure it's such a close run thing, and, uh, and so I'm very, very pleased for SAP to have done what they did as well, and, and likewise with the leading sales transformation Master's program, which was the other.

Finalist program, if you like, and that's now been running since 2012. And a fantastic testament to the, um, the, the investment that SAP are making in their top talent, you know, from a leadership point of view. So I was delighted for Tina, um, that she got men, you know, that they got through to the final stages as, as well, so, yeah.

Yeah, because

Jesus: it is not, it's not easy to arrive there, even if you don't No, it's not.

Phil: Exactly.

Jesus: Yeah.

Phil: Exactly. Yeah. No, yeah, it was, uh, it was a fun day on Thursday, wasn't it? I was just, I was such a shame. I, I was in Singapore with, uh, Louise while you guys were looking very flashy in your black tie, having a.

A fantastic time letting your hair down.

Jesus: Yeah. I should say, I should say we are, we were average, right? Everyone was super nicely dressed, so we were average. I thought, I thought

Phil: you all looked fantastic. Have to say

Jesus: that's because you, you, you love us. That's the thing.

Phil: It probably is.

Will: Uh, well, you have to celebrate these moments and, um, I mean, it, it just strikes me that, you know, across the board, the kind of.

The um. What companies are doing to, to kind of inspire their sales teams is really, um, is really great. And I think what we need to do, of course, Phil and has us, is, you know, we need to start putting forward our level six B2B apprentices for, for awards our level seven apprentices for awards. So, um. If any students are listening to this, um, you've been warned, I'm sure we'll be in touch shortly.

Um, but yeah, that's just to say a huge amount of work over the last, I mean, it's nonstop, but, um, certainly, uh. September, October time now moving into the new year, we've got multiple court cohorts having just started. And yeah, to see salespeople on the journey is something, um, something amazing. So anyway.

I probably digressed a little bit, but we've had a huge amount going on, winning awards, traveling, um, new partnerships, new cohorts. I mean, it's, it's, it's great and it's all culminating failed to GST. Um, so I'm hoping we can all let our hair down again at GST. We happy to. But um, yeah, before we get into that, why, um, why don't we start, start off by, you know, we've announced our partnership with Aviso.

We've heard a lot from Heus on sales frequency about the partnership, but I think. It'll be great to hear from you, you know, your, the CEO of Consalia to get your thoughts about the partnership. Um, and, and really why don't we just start with why, why have we entered into a partnership with an AI company?

Phil: Um, yeah, I mean, it's a, it's a great question, um, in that I think a lot of this initiative around. AI has been, uh, driven by Hazer actually since he, he joined us in this role of, of, of, uh, head of consulting. We knew, we knew that we needed to go into it and, you know, it's been quite an interesting journey to my partner with Aviso.

Um, the reason why we knew we needed to go into it was because, you know, we have this, um. New technology that's emerging. We went through quite a lot of introspection about how to leverage the incredible research and data that we've done around the sales mindsets, all the student projects. And you know, we looked at the process of creating the, um, what we call the Consalia brain at the time.

Um, and then it was. I guess by chance or serendipity that we met offers Berman to share the thoughts we had to share the digital, uh, account planning tools we're starting to build and unbeknown to us at the time, of course, um, offer had been, uh, offered the job of, uh, chief Product officer of Aviso. And for those of you that know Consalia well or Will, will know that we've had.

A 10 year relationship with offer over the years since he was at SAP ServiceNow board and other companies, and in my view is probably one of the world's sort of leading experts on the link between data and behavior and the way that offer has interacted with us over the years. Presented at GST himself, you know, the fact that he joined Aviso was a, a real.

Also, what's the word? A real, um, influencer in the way we've ended up partnering with Aviso now at a strategic level. I've known about Aviso for a year before offer joined Aviso. Um, and so was aware that offer held them in very high esteem. But of course when offer then turned around and said, why don't we, why don't we develop a partnership?

Now we've got the Aviso, this amazing AI company that knows how to, uh, sort of work with AI agents. And I think we could see that this would be very much an accelerated, um, pathway that we could get into beginning to explore how we can. Leverage the incredible content we have with an ai, uh, sort of driven company.

Um, I think, I think for me, the underpinning, uh, driver for this is a, is a desire to. Do what we can to help improve sales performance, whether it's through education or training or consultancy. You know, we, we need to address that topic holistically, and I've always felt that there had been a piece of the jigsaw that we hadn't put in place, that we hadn't quite kind of worked out.

How do we start to look at the sales operations side of the business? Leveraging some of our research that we've got in that space, uh, with technology. And I think the combination of offers insights into behavior and data analytics, the link up with Aviso kind of has made this a really incredible partnership, um, from, from our point of view.

So. We're very excited that we're now in the build phase, I guess, of the Avis relationship. I'm very much hoping that we can share some of the insights we've got at GST, but um, we shall see

Will: and has this, what, what products and services are we gonna be offering together through this partnership with Aviso?

Jesus: I think there are like two. Two main areas, right? One area is an area where as Phil. When we look into sales transformation, we should look always into the four pillars of right, so strategy, people, processes, and technology. So it's not just enough that somebody like Aviso comes to a company and offer a great technology.

If the people is not the right one, it's not properly motivated, not having the right behaviors, if the processes are not the right ones. If the strategy is not the right one, then they will not capture the a hundred percent of the value that a technology is such an advance. Such advance as Aviso will, will be able to, to, to offer, right?

So I think this is one area where we, um, to our customers of Consalia and Consalia Alliance, we are presenting Aviso. And of course every customer is in a different situation. Some customers will say, well that's, that comes in the right moment. Some of the customers may say we are doing a major transformation change into CRM number one to CRM number two.

Maybe it's let's speak on two years or one year, but I want to know more. Everyone wants to know about AI and how they can use ai and the fact that Aviso comes with a proven AI technology that is being, uh, adopted by many, uh, sales leaders in the US and now in Europe. Gives a lot of trust to our customers.

So we present that and by presenting that, we find that some of the customers say, well, you know, we are not ready because we, we need to just even. Have a playbook and we don't have a playbook. We need to engineer the process so we can, this is where we can just jump in and say, okay, we can help you on doing this preparation, and we can help you to navigate all the transformation and the adoption with all the teams through education, through consulting, through process engineering, through different kind of interventions.

So this is one area where we are doing a go to market together. So Aviso and ourselves, we are talking to our customers, speaking about our partnership, and then we offer the services of the other because, you know, it makes sense to do a, a holistic, uh, overview of these transformations. Besides that, there is another area which I know that probably, um, field and some part of Consalia more, uh, uh.

Happy about is that, um, I mean most, like, more excited about, which is the, um, you know, co-develop a new product, which is combining some, I don't want to, to give a lot of ideas, but, uh, because it's for the GST, but we are combining both strengths. Our strength is. Probably the sales mindsets and everything that has been built around the sales mindsets and aviso strength is the AI and the technology applied to sales.

So you can figure it out. We are thinking, I mean, we are working, uh, on, on a, on a pilot and hopefully we will be able to show something on the gst.

Will: You'll leave everyone waiting on Tenter Hooks.

Jesus: You know, if I say now, then there is nothing to say in gst. Right? So,

Will: but we're, we're incredibly thankful that Aviso is sponsoring this year's GST.

It must. Um, and we've got Trevor flying, flying over from the states. He's the CEO of of Visa. Um, and I know that he's gonna have, I'm sure he, well, I'm sure he's gonna be captivating all the audience who are attending. Um, but yeah, very exciting stuff. So we're just one, well, just over one week to go. Um, to, to G-S-T-G-S-T is the global sales transformation event.

This year's theme is winning the right way, human connection in the age of ai. And I, over the course of the year I sort of, I've heard through client conversations. How, although AI is, is sort of everywhere and it's top of mind for everyone in parallel, the importance of this human to human, um, approach is, is still of real significance.

So, um. Yep. Perhaps Phil, I think you are the one that, uh, back in probably January, January, February time it was, um, identified this theme as what we should be focusing on. Um, maybe if we could hear from you why you chose this theme.

Phil: I think that, I think that, um. In some respects, we're living in a slightly dystopian world in which we, you know, the, the reality of what we see in the news or what we read about, uh, um, some of which may be AI generated, um, it, um, is making people nervous and question about, about what is the truth, you know, what is the truth out there?

How do we, how do we know that what we are being. Uh, what information is being shared is based on fact how much of it is made up. So there's an element of, of, um, sensing, I guess, in the marketplace that yes, we know this revolution is upon us and we need to embrace it, but how do we do that in a way that, um.

Kind of speaks to authentic data, authentic information, authentic coaching, whatever it might be. And so, um, and it's been quite interesting actually through the global research project that we've been doing, is to get the perspectives of buyers, um, to get their sense of how they are seeing, uh, sort of AI and technology playing into the buyer seller relationship.

And, um, I think that of course we'll be sharing the results of the research, you know, at GST or I will be doing it, but I'm absolutely a hundred percent convinced that the theme of the human connection and AI absolutely has to be addressed in parallel, um, at the same, yeah. And, uh. Sort of looking forward to kind of sharing the results from the research and well,

Will: we'll

Phil: come onto,

Will: we'll come onto the research in a bit, but if I can just bring you back to the day itself, if you don't mind.

Yeah. So we've got a number of speakers. Talking at this GSC? Yeah, we do. Yeah. Um, you know, just, I've, I've mentioned Trevor. We've got, uh, Julian, professor Julian Birkinshaw. So if you've, if any of you have been on the Master's program, uh, you, I'm, I'm sure you would've referenced Julian Birkinshaw at some point.

Um, we got Jessica gear and we got Ron from Inhi. Jessica's from SAP. Panel discussion from, uh, people from raw mailbox and, uh, circles life. Is that right? Phil? Circles life. Um. Gareth Abel. Yeah. Um, but yeah, so maybe you could, if you wanted to just highlight a few of these speakers and you know, what we're gonna be discussing through the afternoon on the 27th, that would be, um, that'd be great.

Phil: Well, I think we've probably covered Trevor in, uh, in, in the introduction. Obviously he's gonna be talking about AI and, and how that's affecting the whole topic of sales operations. I think Julian Haw is gonna be. Fascinating. He's just written a book called Resurgence and uh, really talking about leadership and, uh, looking at the whole topic of AI through the context of strategic leadership.

Um, and he is going to be making connections to. The topic of sources of competitive advantage within that context. And I've, I've read his book and it's really interesting and he's a very dynamic speaker. So really looking forward to Julian taking part finally, after all these years. Um, and then we have Jessica Grard.

We always try and get, um, one or two alumni who've done a really interesting piece of research, uh, into their masters. Program and Jessica heads up the sales development team of SAP in Southern Europe. Now she manages pretty big, uh, a pretty large sales team of 120 or so people. And her research topic was really looking at the leader as a kind of conductor of an orchestra.

And, uh, some of the research that she's done into that topic speaks to the human connection. That we spoke about, we speak about in the title, and then we have a really interesting. Uh, sort of panel group. So we've got Samantha Vessels, who's the leads, the, uh, box, um, technology company for, for Europe. She's senior vp, uh, president of Europe.

And we've asked, uh, uh, Samantha to, to kind of share her perspectives of what it means to be a leader in the sort of AI world, the kind of initiatives that they're exploring. We've got Sam, we've got a Samantha and a, and a Samantha on the path. So this is gonna be a real challenge to manage the panel discussions.

But, um, Sam, who's again an alumni student, is heading up the CRM implementation at Royal Mel. It's got to be one of the biggest CRM implementations I would imagine, in the country at the moment. So we've asked Sam to actually give insights into, um, you know. What she is, um, perceiving as some of the key challenges of going through such a transformation, how they see AI kind of being implemented through CRM and how they're looking at the future use of technology.

And then we have Gareth and Gareth Abel is coming very much from a buyer perspective. So we're asking Gareth to comment on, uh, the research, the global research we've done with buyers. Uh, he was one of the people that we interviewed very interesting insights into, uh, what he perceived to be great sales practice.

So the panel is actually sort of looking at the whole area of AI and the human connection through three completely different lenses. Um, so looking forward to the diversity of conversation that will take place. And then of course we've got Ryan, and Ryan and Intra Hive have been long-term partners of, of Consalia and we've done, uh, interesting work together around the whole topic of relationship man management.

And, you know, Ryan is a, a PhD. In sales, you know, talking about, uh, relationship management. Of course Ryan's got more insights to share with us around the whole topic of how do we manage human relationships, how can we start to leverage technology to do that? So yeah, we've got fantastic panel speakers and also fantastic speakers.

But actually, you know, the audience is also amazing and I feel as though. We, we gain as much from the audience interaction over the years as we do, you know, from the speakers. And so, yeah, I can't wait for this GST to happen and we can start to sort of harness the, you know, the brilliant minds that we have, the people in the room.

Will: Hmm. So is there anything in particular you are most excited about, Phil? The, I think you kind of, it sounds like you're excited about all of it.

Phil: I am really. Well, of course, I have to say I'm really excited about the research we've been doing. Mm-hmm. Um, because at the end of the day, you know, everything that we're doing is grounded, as Jesus was saying earlier in that, uh, sort of foundational piece of research around the sales mindset.

And it's been a fabulous, um. Process of revisiting, you know, the same questions, but with the added input of. Three major sort of global events. You've got the pandemic, you've got ai, and also you've got the geopolitical risk that's associated with tariffs as well as war zone. So we're living it in a, in a moment of unprecedented change and having the chance to go out and do this research, reflect on the data question whether the sales mindsets that we kind of studied still are relevant.

All of that for me has been. Absolutely fascinating. So I've read every single one. Search topic. So I've really got into it

Will: a

Phil: big way.

Will: Phil, I'm gonna come onto your research topic. I've already started it. You've already started, you always do this on these podcasts. You always, we, for those listening, we have an agenda and then, and Phil always jumps to the, okay.

Sorry. Steps ahead. It always quite entertaining. But I, before we get to your research, Phil, which I'm, I am gonna talk to you about, um, that's fine. I wanted to mention that, you know, one of the things about GST that we're doing. Um, is, so the GST is the afternoon from 12 to five 30. We have networking, drinks, things after the keynote talks.

Um, but this year we have an opportunity as well to, um, uh, to meet with Trevor from Aviso. And I just wanted to, to mention that, um, because, you know. Every sales director, CRO that I'm talking to at the moment is interested in how AI can help improve, whether it's forecasting or if it's, um, uh, sales efficient, efficiency or effectiveness, what, whatever it might be.

Um. This is a fantastic opportunity to meet with, um, with Trevor, the CEO of Aviso, who's doing some amazing things. Jesus, do you wanna, do you, maybe you should add to that.

Jesus: Yeah. Yeah, I mean it's, uh, that's, that's a fantastic opportunity because, you know, we are having, uh, Trevor and uh, also offer, and Sri can from India as well, so they're coming here to London, all of them.

Right. And they're gonna be available on Wednesday. All Thursday and Friday. So besides the event, before and after, we are allocating, uh, one hour slots for, uh, private meetings with, uh, clients and people interested. And, and this is, I mean, this is really important, right? Because at the end many people is super interested on ai, super interested on new tools, and you know, some of these CRMs are trying to move into the AI.

But you know, Aviso has built something during the last 10 years based on ai, which is a kind of a layer that connects to all the CRMs, to all the systems you have. So the sales professionals have to only. Connect to this layer. This layer does everything for them, driven by ai, but also, uh, depending on the instructions that the sales professional give to the ai, it is not acting on behalf.

It is like, uh, sales. Um, personal assistant, if you want to call it that, is hearing you in conversations. And then after the conversation with the customer, then it has detected that the CRM has to be updated. You just do a click and everything, uh, happens magically, right? So it's really interesting. I know that there are some.

Different groups within sales and out of sales around the AI people that are embracing ai. A hundred percent. People that are completely the opposite and people in the middle that want to embrace ai but don't know how to start with. So I think, uh, conversation with, uh, Avi, so leadership team, it's, it's quite, um.

Uh, lights on, right? It's like, uh, an and lighting, uh, I mean, uh, doing lights on, on what to do and, and, and, and provide ideas on what to do. So if you are hearing guys, if you are a sales leader that is in charge of, uh, you know, uh, a good amount of, uh, sales reps and are having these kind of issues. Of, uh, having the sales reps dedicated to sell less than 30% of their time, which is the average that we see from different, uh, you know, uh, servers.

Uh, Aviso is trying to change all these things together to, to, to keep the 30%, elevate that to 70 or 80% right. Or even 90% in this way is when we, we are. More into the human to human engagement and, and, and, and, uh, relationships, right? So that's, that's what we are trying to do. We are trying, we are helping our customers to discover that sometimes some of the customers are aware of part of the technologies that ASO is working on for conversational intelligence, for relation relationship, relationship intelligence.

For many other things, right. Forecasting, et cetera. But I believe that as they have an holistic view, 360 of all the sales process and they apply AI in different, in different ways through the process, is very, very, um, useful to have the opportunity you have that. So I invite everyone to, to write an email to us

Will: Yeah.

Jesus: Or contact us through link giving, whatever. There are some slots available yet. Uh, but I believe that this is a fantastic opportunity to have them in town and even with the, the big celebration that is coming in the us you know, next, next week. So they, they, they're making the

Will: Yes, exactly. Yeah.

Thanksgiving, isn't it? Next week. So, yeah. Wow. And it, um, so. Phil, Phil, moving on to your, to your research to what you are very excited about. So just for, just for context, uh, I'm gonna speak on behalf of you just very quickly. I won't take away your thunder. Um, that's fine. But, but back, it was back in 2009, wasn't it?

That was when you were, you finished your doctorates.

Phil: Yep.

Will: Yeah, so in 2009, you, you, you finished your doctorate, which could ultimately be distilled down into four words, which are authenticity, client centricity, capital, audacity, and proactive creativity. And these are the mindsets or values that customer look for in salespeople.

We thought that this year you could revisit your doctorate to see, um, to see are those mindsets still relevant in this day and age, or are there any emerging new ones? And um, yes, uh, it is kind of taken you off to. Research again, Phil. Yeah. And I know you are really excited about what you've been uncovering and who you've been speaking about, but why don't you, why don't you kind of introduce the research this year and, um, yeah, a bit of context for those that might not know exactly what you've been doing.

Phil: The, um, I think there's some major differences between the research this time round and when I first started. Um, so, um, and one of the differences is collaboration. Um, because when I did the doctorate over a four year period, all of the, all of the research was conducted by myself. But this time round, we've actually worked in collaboration with some of our partners and some of our students even, uh, to.

Uh, to interview, to collect information, to collect data. And so that, that in itself is interesting and I think, uh, potentially provides a more objective, uh, view of the kind of way in which the interviews are conducted. Um, yes, we've all had a structure. We've all had a series of questions that we've asked based on the questions that were posed.

Uh, all those years ago, but actually with some new questions, particularly around AI and the geopolitical situation. Um, so that in itself has been really interesting. Of course, in the in, in the day that I completed my doctorate, you didn't have any kind of AI technology at all available to help with thematic analysis and so on.

And it's been quite interesting to actually leverage some of the tools that are now available to looking at the data and to have challenged, I guess, ourselves about, um, about the words that were chosen then and are they still kind of valid today? Um, so. Um, so of course I'll be sharing what the outputs of that will be at GST.

But the other source of data, um, has been all of the surveys that we've, you know, the quantitative data that we've had. And I have to say, I've been really amazed at the amount of data that we've got. And also, um, the way in which we've managed to extrapolate information, for example, gender bias and, uh, sort of, um, well we've have all sorts of data sources, which I didn't have in the time, you know, um, you know, perspectives of customers and salespeople on, on the mindsets.

You know, just, we've got some really interesting cases, so. Um, it's, it's still addressing the same question. How do customers want to be sold to, but now with an infinitely greater set of data, with also the benefit of being able to see that data develop over the years. So it's, it's a bit like a decade or more's worth of research that we've actually got.

When we start to look at all of those customer voice of the customer interviews we've done over the years, you know, uh, the mindset survey data itself. So for me, this is, um, a more holistic sort of process, though still with this kind of interest in the topic of the values and mindsets that salespeople need to have to be successful.

Um, so I'm, yeah, so, so excited about what the data is kind of suggesting are some of the trends and, uh, and looking forward to sharing it, you know, at GST. Um, so another reason why you should come to GST is, is get an update. It's, uh, I guess it's made me more convinced of the importance in this AI driven world with the human connection.

Of people's values and what they stand for and how do you come across as being, um, both relevant as well as human at the same time. Um, so yeah, I think it's going to be a very nice counterbalance, you know, to the excitement around technology. Um. So, of course we've used technology to help us with the research.

Will: Yeah. And have you, I mean, I know you won't want to give away too much on this discussion, but has there been anything that's surprised you or, um, sort of, um, reconfirmed what your gut feeling was or, uh. Of any little nuggets that you might want to share?

Phil: I would. I would say that the one area that. Has come out more and, uh, and the has been a surprise is the importance of authenticity as one of the core values.

And, but there is a nuance to that word, which I don't want to really go into here, but I'd rather share it at GST. But I think when we start to unpick that word and we start to look at. Really listen to what customers are, are saying that they look for in salespeople. There's a nuance to that word that I think is really interesting and it supports this theme of the, um, it, it is the human connection, but it's the relevance of the human connection that comes across with some of the yeah.

Interviews that we've done. And I think that. Having some time to really think about those customer interviews and thinking about, you know, what does it mean to the way in which we need to think as salespeople and act as salespeople has been, I, I think, super interesting. I.

Will: Well look forward to finding out more, Phil, and I won't, I won't probe you too much on this topic.

Phil: Yeah, I told me to hold back, so I'm holding myself back a bit. Well,

Will: yeah, I think we all can breathe A little sigh of relief now, but, um, yeah, if, if anyone's listening and would like to join. It is on the 27th of November. It's from 12 to five 30. We have networking drinks afterwards, so it can go on late into the evening if you want to.

Um, we do have a few tickets left available and I've been told, um, by our Ventee, Medi and George. Thank you very much. Uh, the link will be in the show notes. After this podcast. So, um, if you're interested, interested in signing up, um, please do get in touch. It is suitable for those who are in a senior sales position or senior in l and d or senior in hr.

Um, so yeah, if, if you are interested.

Phil: In the whole sort of revenue ops side of the business, you know, particularly on the technology side and sales Yes. Enablement function. So yeah, I think it's important.

Will: Yeah, absolutely. And, um, and I, if, if any, and on that note, if anyone is interested in exploring, um, Aviso and would like to potentially meet up with Aviso on the 27th.

Um, there will also be a link to book, a book a meeting. Um,

Jesus: yeah. 26, 27 and 28. Okay. There will be, sorry.

Will: Yeah. Has, you'll be the one that would follow up. So if anyone's interested in booking, I'm sure you'll be receiving a call from Heus. Yeah. Afterwards. Um, yeah, because it would be good to, you know, make the most.

Value of the time during the 26th, 27th, uh, or, or the 28th was it? Um, so that we can, you know, we can tailor the conversation accordingly. Um, but yeah, I think that's, that's it from me is is there any other comments from Hazard? Phil?

Jesus: I think it's, it is, it's, it's difficult to speak about all these things without unveiling, uh, things that are gonna happen in the gst.

Right. Uh, I'm thinking on Avis, but also thinking on the sales mindset. Uh. Numbers and, and and analysis that we've done over the last year. So, but anyway, I think you people has to come.

Will: Yeah.

Jesus: That's the outcome. So

Will: find out more.

Jesus: Yeah.

Will: Okay. Well thank you very much, Phil s for your time and um, yeah, hopefully see you all next week.

Jesus: Thank you very much. Will.

Will: Thank you Will. Thank you. Bye bye-Bye bye.

​