BREWing Sales at a Marketing-Heavy Company with Jeremy Werblowsky: Customer Café Podcast
Jeremy Werblowsky entered sales untraditionally through marketing. The combination of his sales and marketing background, meant we were excited to talk to him. His company’s name, Brew, was a nice little detail for us at the Customer Café.
Tune in wherever you listen to podcasts including Spotify, Apple, or here.
Brew crawls the internet for organic activity for you and your competitors and compiles all of the data into one dashboard by topic/region/audience/etc. and makes recommendations to increase your business’s voice in those marketable, desirable spaces.
He is helping Brew grow into Series A funding. Marketing and sales “go together. You can’t have one without the other” “without a pipeline you can’t grow” without marketing and all the collateral “it would be impossible to do our job.”
How do you approach sales differently based on region?
It is about personalities. You have to get a feel for the etiquette, whether or not they like small talk, etc. There are also legal restrictions based on regions with GDRP restrictions, for example.
Should SDRs belong under marketing or sales?
“I’m torn on the answer” SDR is a lead function and arguments have been made internally to pull from the marketing budget to cover their roles. At the same time, they should be fully integrated and collaborating with the AEs. “As the VP of Sales I want to see the whole picture including what’s going on with the leads. I have to be able to speak with everybody and have them together in a room.”
How do you get SDRs and AEs to work together and collaborate?
SDRS are an integral part of the sales team. “Maybe even more important. AEs may be better at closing, but you can’t close anything if nothing is there.” Jeremy empathizes with the challenges of SDRs in staying motivated especially because AEs successes tend to be highlighted in most companies over SDRs accomplishments.
Jeremy encourages the celebration of incremental goals so that all roles and departments are properly credited for closed deals.
Process vs Outcome?
Process is SO important, but you have to make successes known throughout to demonstrate that you are moving in the right direction. You have short term and long-term goals and you need to make all known throughout as they are accomplished.
Companies have a difficult time accepting that short term goals may be less aggressive in order to reach the long-term goals. You have to set up your teams and company up for success while generating smaller streams of revenue.
What makes it difficult to collaborate internally?
Priorities. “We have current clients, pipeline and demos. There isn’t enough time or manpower to do everything, so we have to prioritize” Product’s priorities and sales do not naturally align. You have to communicate to sort out how to meet everyone’s needs. After sales, you have to make sure that the handoff to CS is smooth as possible. “You don’t want to overpromise and underdeliver”
What do you look for when hiring for sales positions?
He is more interested in experience over education. He’s most interested in how they converse, and he will ask them to pitch to him with zero prep on the spot. “Sell it to me!” That’s how he chooses candidates. Spontaneity is key. “One of the most undervalued abilities is being able to think on your feet. Everyone can learn a product and be prepared.” It is difficult to teach how to be quick on your feet. It comes naturally to some.
How do you collaborate with outsourced SDRs?
You need to share a CRM and include them in weekly team meetings.
Jeremy explained that SDR role and skills are very different from the AE role. He feels so strongly about it that he insists that AEs without SDR experience will not be good at functioning as an SDR without training. He does not see a solution to keeping SDRs as lifelong SDRs. Most want to move on.
Jeremy from Brew’s thoughts on caffeine?
Part of the Brew onboarding and bio includes how you take your coffee. But the name “Brew” is about creating the right mix to hit the spot. It applies to your marketing plan for your company and your beverage, coffee or beer, of choice.
Favorite podcasts (following his prime spot reserved for Customer Café by Collabria)?
Sales Hacker Podcast and B2B Growth Show are great for picking up tactics. He also listens to the Art of Charm Podcast which is more about soft skills. He highly recommends all three!
Want more? You’ll have to tune in! Customer Café by Collabria is available wherever you listen to podcasts including Spotify and Apple,
Want to build a strong team and collaborate smoothly and easily with your colleagues? Get started as a beloved beta user!
Looking for more to listen to? Join Menachem Pritzker and Sharon Weiss-Greenberg, hard core Collabrians, as we drink coffee and learn from collaborative leaders in sales, customer success and account management.
Ready to get started? Customer Café by Collabria: Sales Collaboration Tips for Pros is available wherever you listen to podcasts.
