In this episode of Coach2Scale, Matt Benelli talks with Jerry Pharr, Head of Global Commercial Operations & Excellence at Varicent. As a former salesperson who shifted to sales enablement, he now focuses on behavior change rather than just learning outcomes. Jerry shares insights on building coalitions of willing managers, leveraging technology for sales transformation, and driving performance through actionable frameworks. The discussion highlights the importance of focusing on behavior change to create real impact, the role of sales managers in enabling teams, and how technology like AI-driven insights can refine sales processes.

Takeaways:

• Prioritize initiatives that lead to observable and measurable behavior changes in sales activities rather than just training or business outcomes.
• Invest in conversation intelligence tools like Gong or Chorus to automatically surface insights from sales calls and emails. This helps in identifying performance gaps and measuring behavior changes effectively.
• Develop detailed frameworks to guide sales processes, such as discovery calls, instead of rigid scripts. Frameworks provide a structure while allowing salespeople to customize their approach.
• Engage sales managers in the coaching process by providing them with dashboards to track specific behaviors and metrics.
• Use AI tools to gather and summarize account insights, which can help salespeople personalize their outreach and reduce the need for interrogative discovery questions.
• Continuously reassess and be willing to change your strongly held beliefs about sales processes. Stay informed about evolving buyer behaviors and sales technologies.
• Train sales teams to effectively communicate the cost of inaction to prospects. This includes painting a vivid picture of the negative outcomes of maintaining the status quo.

Quote of the Show:

• “That's what my approach is: get the little victories, initiative by initiative.” - Jerry Pharr

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerrypharr/
• Website: https://www.varicent.com/

Ways to Tune In:

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0Yb1wPzUxyrfR0Dx35ym1A
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• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Coach2Scale

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