Great Products + Top Sales Skills = Rapid Growth

A great product is easy to pitch — but to sell it is a skill. We talked to three Chicago-based companies about the skills pro sellers need to close a deal.
Written by Cathleen Draper
August 17, 2022Updated: August 25, 2022

When Jennifer Mann explains how she pitches Showpad to prospects, she references her experiences dining out.

“Nothing is worse than asking a waiter at a new restaurant what their favorite entree is, and they reply, ‘everything is good,’” said Mann. “Rather than telling my prospects ‘everything is good,’ I can dig into my personal experience.”

That’s easy to do for Mann, who uses Showpad’s sales enablement platform every day in her work as a mid-market account executive at the company.

“The challenges I faced in my days without access to Showpad contrast with how my deal cycles are improved with the platform,” she said. 

That level of perspective helps her prospects and customers start to see how Showpad can fit their needs. And as they start to reflect, Mann can get to know exactly what goals they are looking to achieve, avoiding the “everything is good” conundrum.

“We don’t force our prospects and customers into a one-size-fits-all value pitch,” Mann said. “Every prospect and customer is different, and it’s our job to align Showpad to their specific needs and use cases; nothing more, nothing less.”

What makes Mann a strong sales rep isn’t just the power of Showpad’s platform — and the power of her personal experience using it — it’s also the skills she’s built as a consultative seller and her willingness to work with customers to find the best use case.

Built In Chicago found out how she and other tech sales reps make the case for their companies’ products and earn big commissions — and stronger skills — while doing it.

 

Jennifer Mann
Mid-Market Account Executive • Showpad

 

Showpad’s sales enablement platform helps prepare sellers, engage buyers and optimize performance with marketing and sales insights.

 

What about Showpad’s product or service makes it great for pitching to prospects?

The most thrilling part about pitching Showpad is the flexibility and relevance of the platform. Whether our prospect is looking for a more effective way to close deals, manage and report on sales content usage and performance, reduce new hire onboarding time or boost buyer engagement throughout their deal cycles, Showpad can be as focused or as broad in scope as the prospect needs. 

Showpad has also uniquely positioned itself within the modern selling era in which sales are increasingly conducted digitally or in a hybrid manner. We continue to lead the sales enablement market both in platform and feature innovations, as well as thought leadership and partnership services. Our people understand the challenges of keeping today’s revenue teams adequately supported, and that understanding is reflected in the current and future pieces of the Showpad platform.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my tenure at Showpad, it’s that there’s always an additional opportunity for discovery.”

 

What are the most important skills required for selling Showpad’s product?

The most valuable skill is finding the balance between curiosity and perspective. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my tenure at Showpad, it’s that there’s always an additional opportunity for discovery. The closer you get to your prospect’s driving cause of their evaluation, the more leverage you have to provide a valuable buying experience. On the flip side of relentless curiosity is the ability to have your own perspective when needed. 

 

 

Smartly.io colleagues having a team huddle in the office
Smartly.io

 

David Forestieri
Enterprise Sales Manager • Smartly

 

Smartly.io automates social advertising with a platform that combines media buying, creative and data. 

 

What makes Smartly.io’s product great for pitching to prospects?

Smartly.io has such an innovative product because it’s built based on clients’ needs and feedback. Automation is so important for customers today, and that’s the core of what we do across creative, media and intelligence. We have a great product offering and are always able to pair solutions with clients’ challenges and pain points. Each customer is different, so we customize the conversation to their business while also speaking to best practices for their vertical, across channels and formats. As a seller, this keeps the job interesting and fun, and I continually learn from my clients. Lastly, we pride ourselves on the support customers receive from the discovery conversations to onboarding and through the lifetime of our partnership.

 

What are the most important skills required for selling your Smartly.io’s product?

Having a consultative approach is very important for selling and finding success at Smartly.io. When selling to an enterprise customer, researching the business and mapping an account is key to navigating the relationship. We rely on presentation skills; we need to speak to an audience in their own “language,” as well as ask the right questions to uncover the right Smartly.io solutions that can help their business. We also work in a cross-functional setting and often collaborate with our sales development and partnerships representatives, customer success managers and enablement and onboarding teams. With that said, sellers have to strike a balance of being a thoughtful teammate while also advocating for our clients internally when it comes to prioritization of projects.

 

 

Image of the DAIS Technology app
DAIS Technology

 

Jason Kolb

 

Dais Technology is a fintech company on a mission to connect insurance agents, carriers and policyholders in real time. 

 

What makes Dais Technology’s product great for pitching to prospects?

Our product is a transformative piece of technology in the insurance industry. Our customers are literally doing things that haven’t been possible before. We’re opening up new possibilities for innovative insurance products that charge by the month, change with use, use new data and interact with customers in new ways.

The ability to deliver this innovation is incredibly freeing for customers who are used to moving at a snail’s pace, and this makes for incredibly fun and liberating conversations with customers. We love exploring possibilities with customers, and our reps usually become trusted advisors.

We look for problem-solvers who can take our tech and apply it to business uses.”

 

What are the most important skills required for selling Dais Technology’s product?

Clarity of thought and a gift for simplifying complex ideas — communication skills are key. 

Insurance is a complex industry with hairy problems, which our technology makes easy to solve. But to convey the value proposition requires that the sales representative is able to clearly articulate the problems that are being solved, which isn’t always easy. 

We look for problem-solvers who can take our tech and apply it to business uses, and we try to free them to be creative and solve big problems for customers.

 

 

Steve Brown
Chief Revenue Officer • Envoy Global

 

Envoy Global offers an immigration management platform that helps companies hire and manage an international workforce. 

 

What about Envoy Global’s product makes it great for pitching to prospects?

Prospects want to see how Envoy’s immigration platform makes it seamless to hire and manage an international workforce.

 

What are the most important skills required for selling Envoy Global’s service?

A combination of intelligence, coachability and attention to detail are the traits we see in our best sellers.

 

 

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