sales forecast

Carl Cross has an established career transforming and leading superior teams resulting in high performance and vibrant revenue growth. Carl has advanced through multiple leadership roles and has consistently been asked to lead key projects that drive corporate strategy. Currently, Carl is the Chief Revenue Officer of Alkami, a SaaS based digital banking platform. He started his career at Peoplesoft where he climbed into the sales leadership ranks before moving to SAP. After SAP he moved to BMC where he was responsible for the company's global outsourcing business and after a two year stint with HP, Carl headed up worldwide sales at AppSense and helped lead the company through its acquisition by ThomaBravo. He then held the position of Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales at Workfront and remained in that role leading the go to market integration after the acquisition by Adobe.

In this episode of the Revenue Builders Podcast, Carl Cross, the Chief Revenue Officer at Alkami, shares his insights on sales leadership and scaling a sales organization. He emphasizes the importance of effective leadership, creating a strong sales culture, and aligning sales and marketing efforts. Carl also highlights the significance of understanding the buyer's journey and conducting thorough discovery in the sales process. When it comes to scaling a sales force, Carl discusses the need for a sales capacity plan and the importance of staying ahead in recruiting to avoid falling behind in sales goals.

Tune in to this conversation with John McMahon and John Kaplan on the Revenue Builders podcast.

HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT

[00:05:20] Lesson learned as a first line manager: it's not about you
[00:09:59] Challenges of transitioning to a second line manager
[00:12:24] Transition from tactical to strategic thinking
[00:17:16] Importance of skills and pipeline in sales
[00:19:27] Accountability for recruitment and development of reps
[00:23:11] Importance of understanding and motivating individual team members
[00:27:08] Living by the culture and taking responsibility for it as a leader
[00:32:08] Challenges of being a CRO and the need for alignment
[00:41:27] Motivation and individual differences in sales
[00:51:14] Lessons on scaling a sales force

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Learn more about Carl Cross and about their company:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/crosscarl/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/alkamitech/

Download our Sales Transformation Guide for Leaders:

https://forc.mx/3sdtEZJ

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

[00:52:48] "But for me, scaling is really it's, you know, do you have a sales capacity plan? Right? And I'm not talking about like we're getting ready to come into a new year. We already know the sales capacity plan. We know what we're hiring to, but the most effective CROs, most every SAS company is going to have a 3, 4, 5 year plan, right?"
[00:53:28] "But have the plan higher to it, hold the leadership accountable to it and that's how I think about scaling it. There's a lot of things in it, but your sales capacity plan and your average productivity per head is probably the biggest driver in that well."

Today is all about forecasting and the common mistakes that are made.

Questions addressed: 

• It’s been mentioned that forecasting isn’t the answer, so why is forecasting not the answer? Why do people think it is the answer?
• If we think about forecasting as jobs to be done, what are we hiring forecasting for? What are you actually using it for? Where is it beneficial? 
• Why do we want predictability?

If you're liking the show, please make sure to subscribe and share it with your friends and/or coworkers. Follow us on Twitter: @dougdavidoff, @JessDCardenas & @demandcreator to receive updates on when new episodes publish or to get other great insights. You can also watch the video version of the show on our page. Thanks for watching and remember you can't solve your upstream problems, downstream.

In this podcast we’ll review tips, tactics and strategies to help you build a profitable sales plan. The goal is to create a plan with actionable steps to achieve your sales goals. 

Key Topics Covered in the Podcast:

• Sales planning fundamentals: Team, timing, and tools to use
• Open book management sales planning techniques
• How to align the sales plan with the business plan
• One page checklists and models to create your sales

Resources

• Check out the book: Beer Business Finance: A Handbook for the Next Generation
• Learn more about Beer Business Finance training for your wholesaler business

Listen to the podcast and learn how to build a profitable sales plan for your beer business.

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After reviewing 479,140 sales activities, we discovered the four laws that will increase your connect rates as well as conversations.

Join Gabe Larsen, VP of Growth at InsideSales.com, as he discusses these four laws. Showing you how to build a cadence that delivers real results.

Learn:

The four laws to build a successful sales cadence
Tips and tricks on building cadences for different sales situations
What 1,456 different sales cadences tell us about conversation rates

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• Demystifying the AI Black Box

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