Originally published by SalesTech Star here.
Robb Robinson, SVP at OXIO chats about the various methods that can help drive better channel sales experiences in this catch-up with SalesTech Star:
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Hi Robb, take us through your B2B tech and SaaS sales journey so far and what you’re most looking forward to as OXIO’s SVP of Sales and Channels?
My career has been an interesting journey across the broad spectrum of networked communications product offerings. Early on I worked for pure hardware plays like Boeing, Ingram Micro and Arrow Electronics, and then transitioned to emerging cloud services companies including Lantronix and Sierra Wireless.
What I’ve enjoyed is the diverse customer verticals I’ve worked within — industry, finance, consumer, transport, public sector, education – you name the vertical and I’ve probably sold into it at some point over the last 27 years. I’ve also been fortunate never to have been required to ‘operate in a box’. I’ve endeavored to avoid boxes by gravitating towards leading edge and emerging technologies, where I can drive new strategic initiatives, help to effectuate turn-arounds and build startups with game-changing business models. It’s looking back at the end of the year and saying “look what we’ve achieved – we did that,” that I find attractive and fulfilling.
All of that history leads to some expectations and conclusions about where the communications industry – and, specifically, B2B wireless – is headed. Hence, my interest in OXIO – a leading Telecom-as-a-Service (TaaS) solution – as I believe we’re initiating a journey towards cross-border, cross-carrier, private, secure, curated, B2B 5G networks. TaaS is undoubtedly revolutionizing telecom – reimagining how connectivity is accessed, distributed and monetized, and once again I find myself exploring opportunities to sell into various verticals, as the value of TaaS resonates across industries including retail, fintech, media, and more.
Being at the leading edge of big inflections in the marketspace has always been my “thing.” Helping to propagate new technologies, solving problems in new ways, market-making and forming new partnerships in order to do so, has always been where the excitement is for me. This is what I look forward to at OXIO; nothing quite like a cloud-native, global carrier has existed before and therefore the ways we can serve customers and forge partnerships are net-new as well.
SalesTech is a key tool when initiating new market solutions, perhaps even more so than when managing revenue streams in more mature solutions verticals. The ways we use SalesTech will reflect those new paradigms.
What about today’s state of B2B tech sales is broken in your view?
This is an interesting question, as I don’t think in terms of the ecosystem being ‘broken’. We’ve come so far in the last few decades, however new tech, in general, has earned some trust issues. Some so-called ‘game-changing’ technologies have certainly fallen short of their promises – ‘solutions’ which ultimately showed themselves to be more interesting ideas than actual problem solvers, and ‘integrations’ which were far from integrated and which sometimes spurred nearly as many new problems as they solved. SalesTech is no different; while, overall, we are inherently more productive and efficient than in prior years, there are still challenges to resolve. It remains to be seen, for instance, how much blue-sky marketing teams will tolerate on social media, especially on business-oriented or industry-focused platforms.
This highlights some old-school principles for me. While SalesTech can build your reach, how you reach-out is still fundamentally so important. Are you ‘just fishing’, or are you reaching-out because you actually can bring value to this person? The difference may be subtle, but it’s unmistakable. And here’s the key — people will tell you the challenges they’re facing; you just have to pay attention and listen. Help them solve their problems, even when they fall outside of your company’s immediate scope, and you’ll earn a business partner for life
How can B2B sales teams drive a better channel and sales experience given current sales cycle challenges?
Ultimately, it comes down to bringing value. It can sound a bit trite to say ‘become a trusted advisor to your client or customer,’ yet, we need to remind ourselves frequently that this IS how great solutions are achieved – in partnership. We can get caught in the trap of stressing ‘speeds and feeds’ of our cool new widget and can forget that if we function continuously as a trusted source of help and ideas, much of the rest of our sales and partnering goals will fall into place.
SalesTech allows us to capture, catalog and address what is important to prospects – the specific challenges they may face based on their core business vertical, their respective ideal customers, regulatory challenges, and so-on. Armed with knowledge that we’ve cataloged well, we can present meaningful solutions to prospects. We can bring perspectives, and we can do this across partnerships, through channels and direct to end-users. The surest way to build-out a mutually beneficial sales ecosystem is to always bring plenty of value to the table that goes well beyond your price sheet.
Take us through some of the SalesTech you’ve often relied on to drive impact over the years?
Our CRM is about so much more than tracking what’s closing next quarter. A CRM should be a key source of understanding the business – customer types, product strengths and weaknesses, where you fit, where to prospect, where to avoid wasting time – for both you and your prospects – and where you bring value to the market, even if it’s not exactly where you originally envisioned you’d be focusing.
As a sales leader, if you find yourself mostly logging into your CRM to check forecast numbers, then you’re doing it wrong. Using tools to maintain regular touchpoints – and to continue bringing value – are the path to long-term success with a specific customer-set, and frequently, for continuously adding new customers to the set from outbound prospecting.
A few salestech and salestech training optimization tips you’d share with our Sales and Salestech readers today?
Anything that facilitates knowledge transfer across the organization—especially within customer-facing teams—is invaluable. When everyone in the organization understands that fintech customers, for example, have unique needs and compliance challenges—and knows how to address them—we can provide exceptional, tailored service. Our expertise can bring real value.
Transferring knowledge across customer verticals, regions and touch-points allows us to raise our game universally. There are interesting and impactful ways to integrate sales, partner, marketing and product teams to enable continuous knowledge transfer as a cultural norm. Your CRM should help enable knowledge transfer, and Zoom calls specifically designed to transfer knowledge across the customer touch-points of your business, are not optional anymore.
Some thoughts on the future of Sales and how AI will influence new selling cycles and processes over time?
My view is that AI tools will bring bi-directional benefits to selling cycles – from the seller being able to identify the hidden value in their solutions, and who would benefit from that value, to buyers being able to identify solutions that make a real difference, faster. AI will help to “democratize” the value we spoke of earlier, facilitating faster, more efficient connections between rational buyers and sellers, which is beneficial on either side of the equation.
