Description

In this episode Ross and John speak to Alan Temple, Global Head of Sales for Quark software. Alan walks through how he came from humble beginnings as a Customers Services Rep to now being the Global leader of sales. We discuss how luck factors into the mix but moveover how to seize an opportunity or even know what it looks like.

• How to bridge the gaps in what you have “not done” in your career?
• How to avoid Shawshank syndrome and becoming institutionalized?
• How he learned to take 1 step back to take 2 steps forward in learning a new skill?
  

During the course of his career he’s transitioned from Hardware to Software as a Service and explores some of the challenges this brought such as:

• What do you do when you’ve never had to ‘Do Business Development’ before?
• How do you handle customer retention when you’ve never had to?
• How do you cope with effective and merit based promotions in a fast paced environment?
• What is the data telling us and what can we do about it?
• When do Business Development Reps actually turn profitable for the business?
  

Moreover, Alan talks about the training model that allowed him to scale from 0 - 25 reps and 100% year-on-year growth in EMEA. With this in place he then walks through how he targets his sales team and balances quantity versus quality of pipeline generated.

For companies coming to EMEA for the first time he then shares

• Which countries mattered the most to his revenue number and why?
• Which countries can you sell in English to and which you absolutely can not?
• Why average hires do $250k and why those Rockstars with the edge sell over $1m?
• What are the 10 things that require zero talent?
• How to identify and deal with a bad hire in Irish law?

Finally, he explains the best way to sell your own products is to show others how you use your own product to win business.

Brought to you by sf-talent.com