Avtar Varma on LinkedIn: Sonar - Director, Global Sales Enablement (2024)

Most Chief Revenue Officers find themselves in a challenging situation dealing with a complex macro business environment, rising interest rates, obstinate inflationary trends, lengthy sales cycles, and disengaged sales reps who are grappling with the new normal of accessing clients in a remote-first world.Despite these challenges, CROs are tasked with growing quota completion rates, channeling sales team energy, instilling a passion for product and importantly scaling sales quickly.Growing sales fast requires new systems, new processes, and a tech infrastructure that supports sales team enablement, sales rep training and manifests, in the sales team, a willingness to learn every day.At Plinth we understand the complexities that Sales leadership is dealing with. Plinth’s deep technology solution addresses all these challenges and enables Always-On Sales Readiness.We have summarized some of the key challenges that CROs face and the importantly the solutions that Plinth’s sales enablement platform offers.Connect with Plinth’s sales transformation team on how they can help you raise your sales team’s productivity: https://lnkd.in/dziJxRPS#Plinth #PlinthTransformation #SalesTransformation #TheArtOfTheSale #SalesEnablementTechnology #DeepTech #SalesLeadership #ForCROs #SalesRepEnablement #PlatformEconomics #SalesOperations #AddressingKeySalesChallenges #AlwaysOnSalesReadiness

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Ever wondered why Management is so invested in the nitty-gritty of SDR activities like Discovery meetings, SQLs, Messaging, and more? 🤔It might seem like they have bigger fish to fry, but truth be told, it's not about micromanagement; it's about something much deeper. 💼💡Their relentless focus isn't just about keeping tabs; it's fueled by a burning desire for one thing: Revenue. 📈✨ And to achieve that revenue goal, they understand the critical importance of a robust pipeline. 🛠️🔍 That pipeline doesn't just magically appear—it's meticulously built, nurtured, and maintained by our dedicated SDRs. 💪🌟

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Excellent post on the challenges PLG companies face when they try to go Enterprise. It takes a lot more than simply hiring an Enterprise Sales team to be successful.

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"I spent the entire weekend building my lab.""I met with Product at 1 am on Sunday.""I worked 80 hours this week."Unfortunately, in presales, like many careers, there's a culture of "who can work the most hours" to determine how good of an SE you are. 🙄 It's unhealthy, unnatural, and unnecessary. I prefer a different metric:💰 Deals won.If you can be successful in half the time, why's that a bad thing?#sales #presales #salesengineering

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The biggest challenge in enterprise software sales is hiring experts who truly understand what they are selling and comprehend the product at least at the client's level.It's frustrating to attend a meeting and realize that I know someone’s product 10 times better than the sales expert who is selling it. This is a significant issue for hyper-scaling SaaS companies and was the main reason why, at some point, I replaced all Account Executives at SegmentStream with experts from the Customer Success team.Want to become an Account Executive? Spend at least 6 months in a Customer Success team working with clients and understanding the product! Period.#segmentstream #martech #saas

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25+ companies 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 for AEs, SDRs, AMs and CSMs. The last 3 posts have amounted to 1M views and 396 reshares.Here's the Christmas time twist.I'll make edits throughout to turn this into a live board, based on comments. 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 25 𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠:1. Gong2. HubSpot3. UserGems4. Showpad5. Instawork6. SailPoint7. LinkSquares8. Samsara9. Sprout Social10. Klaivyo11. ZoomInfo12. Okta13. CloudFlare14. Salesforce15. Deel16. ServiceNow17. Verkada18. Grammarly19. Plaid20. Cleo21. Nylas22. Grata23. Wiz24. Darktrace25. ActiveCampaign25 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠:1. Vanta2. Sitetracker3. MongoDB in Austin, Chi, Boston, NYC4. Responsive - AEs + CSMs5. Notified - BDRs6. Observe - SDRs7. Service Channel - SDRs8. Drift Net - BDRs9. Darwinbox - Sales Engineers10. Insightly - BDRs11. Merge - SDRs, SEs, CSMs12. Skai - SDRs, AEs13. PhoneBurner - Remote SDRs14. Attest - SDRs15. Issuu16. Recurrency - AEs17. Rippling - 89 sales roles18. Ethico - AEs, CS19. Nooks20. Plaid21. BioDigital - SDRs22. Lonescale - AEs in London, Paris-Not on the market?2 𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬:1. If you're hiring, join the party with a comment 🎉2. To help someone find a role, consider resharing ♻️There are 𝟮50+ 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗷𝗼𝗯𝘀 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘄. See salary info, quota attainment, culture scores, and more before applying: https://lnkd.in/gFAnMArk

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At Vercel, this decision drove the highest conversion from inbound leads to both Enterprise _and_ paid self-serve I'd ever seen from prospecting. Any team selling a technical product can execute.I avoided hiring SDRs from $1M to 10M ARR, preferring automation that covered 85% of what most SDRs can do. As the need for that last 15% became too great, I workshopped an idea for technical SDRs with Martin Gontovnikas and created the "Product Advocate" role.I documented a bunch of learnings with Gonto here: https://lnkd.in/g5ZdB6wtBefore Vercel, I'd created and managed two SDR teams for very technical products (Neo4j + GitLab), plus I'd been an SDR for a technical product myself (Pentaho from Hitachi Vantara). There's value in SDRs for technical products but also a massive gap in their abilities to (1) qualify enterprise interest and (2) avoid damaging self-serve interest.

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🚀 Navigating the Tech Sales Frontier: Embracing the Common Ground! 💻💼Hello LinkedIn community,In the ever-evolving tech landscape, let's shine a spotlight on the unsung heroes—our tech sales professionals! 🌐 From Solution Engineers to Account Executives, these roles are the backbone of bringing cutting-edge tech to the market.🔍 Solution Engineers: The tech translators. They bridge the gap between complex solutions and client needs, turning tech jargon into actionable insights.💼 Account Executives: The relationship architects. They cultivate partnerships, understand business challenges, and align tech solutions for seamless integration.📈 Sales Development Representatives (SDRs): The trailblazers. They're the first touchpoint, sparking interest and laying the groundwork for future collaborations.Kudos to these tech sales dynamos! 🙌 How do you see these roles shaping the tech industry's future? Share your thoughts below! 👇💬#TechSales #SolutionEngineers #AccountExecutives #SDRs #TechPartnerships #SalesRoles #TechInnovation

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🔥 "We hired The Sales Evangelist to help us with our outbound strategy. We didn't have a clear system before. We worked with the TSE team for 3 months and as a result, we saw a 200% increase in our investment. I highly recommend you hire TSE if you are looking to increase your outbound sales revenue." - Jim Henderson, Director of Software Sales 🔥💼 Ready to boost your sales revenue? Let The Sales Evangelist revolutionize your outbound strategy today! 💪💼Visit: https://lnkd.in/dyZ5rB6n or comment below if you're interested! #ClientReview #SalesTraining #OutboundStrategy #SalesEvangelist #BusinessGrowth #SuccessStory

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A Solution Engineer plays a pivotal role in aligning innovative strategies to technological solutions. "Solutioning" is fundamental to the SE role.🏆 But it doesn't just stop there. A skilled #solutionsengineer knows how to:🔹Understand goals, pain points, and tailor value props accordingly🔹Build trust, rapport, and credibility🔹Actively listening and empathizing🔹Document, share, follow up, and update needsBest way to get it all done? ✅ By improving collaboration, documentation, and reporting throughout complex sales cycles. 💡 Check out our blog to learn how to align your revenue teams (AE & SE), eliminate team blindspots, and double-down on work that drives the biggest revenue impact. 📈

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