Is selling SaaS solutions different than selling other complex B2B solutions?  Certainly, the business model and revenue stream looks different.  Rather than making money in a single transaction, the revenue stream is spread over the period of a subscription.  As a result, customer retention and renewals become critical in order to maintain the revenue stream.

But how different is it really?  As we discover in this discussion with Chris Palmisano, the fundamentals remain the same.

I couldn't think of anyone better to discuss this topic than Chris Palmisano.  Chris is current Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Business Development at Solarwinds.   Prior to that, he was a sales executive at Google.

Chris has a wonderful, pragmatic perspective.  I hope you enjoy listening to him as much as I enjoyed the discussion.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of participating in a great discussion on coaching with Thierry van Herwijnen.  Thierry had asked me to participate in his series of podcasts on his Sales Enablement Lab Site.

The core topic of our conversation was on Coaching.  We had a wide ranging discussion on how sales managers could integrate coaching into their daily activities, how to leverage reviews as powerful coaching opportunities, different approaches to coaching, and finding the time to coach.

The original of this podcast can be found at Thierry's site--along with a number of other outstanding interviews.   If you want perspectives from some of the leading sales enablement people in the community, make sure you visit the site and subscribe to his podcasts.

In the mean time, enjoy this discussion!

There are 3 questions that are critical to your ability to win a deal.  Do you know what those questions are?  Do you know how your customer would answer them --- for each deal in your pipeline?

If you don't know the answers to these 3 questions, then you ability to win a deal is seriously compromised!

Pardon my rant in this podcast.  The highest leverage of a manager's time is in coaching their people.  It's the manager's job to get people to perform at the highest levels possible.  Coaching is a key tool for doing this.

So given this, I get a little upset when I hear from sales people that their managers don't coach them.

Enjoy the rant, would love your views.

The folks at Openview Labs asked for my comments in new models for sales and marketing integration.  The original video and post can be found at How To Achieve Sales And Marketing Integration.  I've condensed a few of the key points into this podcast