Episode 72: Prospecting as a Function of Sales - Patrick Rodgers

Without prospects, there will be no sales. Yet, companies can struggle with incorporating prospecting into the sales process and getting people to balance the time spent prospecting compared with the all important task of closing the deal. This issue can be especially prevalent with leaner bootstrapped companies. Today, we will learn about an innovative method of solving this problem and attracting new sales talent.  

Today, I speak with Patrick Rodgers who is VP of Sales at LearnCore a leading sales training and coaching platform that combines technology with people for optimum results. Patrick is leading and building the sales organization for this bootstrapped company. We talk about the idea of prospecting as a sales function and some of the challenges when expecting AEs to close and prospect.

Episode Highlights:

• Challenges of scaling a bootstrapped company
• Difficulty of finding AEs who would go through the entire sales cycle
• Starting a 9 - 12 month sales training focused on prospecting
• Learning the process from start to finish they became top producers
• The program allowed growth acceleration and attracted talent
• Getting a perspective from different sales representatives
• Sales roles in the sales funnel process
• Shadowing into different areas and hitting sales goals
• Opening doors for the team and making it an easier path
• Challenges getting AEs to value the meetings set up by SDRs
• Having a blueprint for AEs so that SDRs and AEs work together
• Moving from sheer will to habit when changing roles
• Breaking down the training perspective into a career path

Resources:

• LearnCore
• Patrick Rodgers on LinkedIn
• Patrick Rodgers on Twitter @P_Rodge