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Part 2: Executive Interview Q2 '09

Posted by Trish Bertuzzi on Thu, Apr 09, 2009 @ 06:59 AM
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This is the 2nd half of our interview on Inside Sales methods, metrics & strategies with Bob Memmer, Director of Sales for Jigsaw, (read the first part).

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What technologies are in place to support your team's efforts?

Bob, how do you motivate your reps? What is their career path?

We have a great culture.  We are very focused on awards and once a month we take out everyone who made their quota to a reward luncheon.  We don't do many spifs anymore as I feel like they lost their charm and that recognition is now a better motivator.

As far as career path, an ADR can progress from that role to an AE and then out to the field.  We are fans of promotion from within.

Jigsaw did something interesting in that they chose to build their Sales and Customer Service team in Idaho. How did that come about?

Interesting story... Jim Fowler, one of our founders, actually ran a ski resort in this area many years ago.  He became familiar with the area and loved it.  When they were thinking about building a strong Inside Sales team, they did research and found that was a very strong location for IS talent and that a lower cost of operation could be found here.  So, we built Sales and Customer Service here in Post Falls, Idaho.  We are about 25 minutes outside Spokane, Washington.

How and how often do you communicate with executive management about your challenges and achievements?

Lots of communication at Jigsaw.  We have a Board meeting every 6 weeks so that is like the "state of the union".  On a weekly basis I speak with our CEO and COO and every morning everyone can check our sales dashboards for snapshots of activity and performance.

Bob, what issues would you be interested in brainstorming with your peers about?

How do you keep up with the evolving world of sales...what is new and improved? Are there things out there in terms of efficiencies, what is the latest and greatest?

Last question - is Garth as funny in person as he is on his blog?

Funnier - he is the best story teller ever!

Thanks for this and I hope it drives both interest and business your way!

Thanks Bob.  You have shared great information and we really appreciate your time!

...

A note from Bob:
As a special offer for reading this post, you'll get 25% off any Jigsaw Enterprise Solution.  To learn more about Jigsaw or take advantage of this discount Click here.  Offer valid through April 30th.  Happy Selling!

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COMMENTS

Bob, 
Are the any specific tools, technologies, or processes you would recommend for managing a geographically separate sales team? 
Thanks.

posted @ Thursday, April 09, 2009 9:07 AM by Phil


Good question, 
 
 
 
Managing remote reps and a remote office certainly presents some challenges but I do recommend the following which have helped and proven to be very successful at Jigsaw. 
 
 
 
1. Leverage video conferencing as much as possible. Voice is great, seeing each other in the process is better. 
 
2. Weekly one on ones are also important. 
 
3. Lunch and Learns along with having a remote rep lead the effort helps bond the team and ensure that they are part of the group. 
 
4. Transparancy. Making sure that all metrics, goals and training materials are equally accessible is paramount. Our intranet and company wiki zones are high traffic areas both local and remote employees. 
 
5. "In the cloud technology". Jigsaw uses solutions that are accessible from anywhere at anytime which allows our offices and remote salespeople to operate efficiently.  
 
 
 
Hope this helps, 
 
 
 
Bob

posted @ Thursday, April 09, 2009 11:15 AM by Bob Memmer


Don't want to sound too much like a sales pitch but ActiveConversion does have geographic auto routing among it's capabilities (as well as auto lead score routing, and auto landing page routing). 
Thanks 
Yves

posted @ Monday, April 13, 2009 12:34 PM by Yves Matson


Further to Yves' comment, ActiveConversion is a partner of Jigsaw, with API integration into the Jigsaw database.

posted @ Monday, April 13, 2009 5:56 PM by Fred


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