In our 36th episode of #NutsAboutSales, we got some killer sales tips from Mallorie Maranda, VP of Sales at WorkRamp.
Watch it now to hear about the time a picture of John Cena popped up on her screen during a live product demo, understand why it’s so important to try to disqualify quickly when qualifying your B2B leads, and why it’s essential to focus on value, rather than on features.
Watch the video or read the transcripts below:
What’s your name and where do you work?
MM: Yeah, my name is Mallorie Maranda, and I’m the VP of Sales at WorkRamp.
What’s your most embarrassing sales story?
MM: I worked in a very start-upy environment, and the tenured reps would prank the new account executives. They would download a Chrome extension that would cause a picture of John Cena to take over your entire desktop screen. It would just randomly pop up.
They did this right before I joined a demo with a prospect. So, halfway through the demo, a huge photo of John Cena took over the entire screen and I just started laughing. The prospect had no idea. It was very hard to explain to them that this was a prank and that this was normal to happen at the company.
What’s your golden rule in sales?
MM: Don’t oversell, and disqualify quickly. If you’re disqualifying deals quickly and only focusing on the people who really see the value of your product, you’re going to grow your deal size because you’re focusing your energy in the right place. You’ll be successful.
What’s the phase of the sales process that you hate the most?
MM: No one enjoys a legal review.
What do you love the most about sales?
MM: I love the competitive aspect of it. I love that success is quite easy to measure. But ultimately, what I love about sales is that you meet so many different types of people.
What’s your biggest challenge when demoing?
MM: Focusing on the value, not the features. I always challenge my account executives. I say, “Go and listen to a demo you recently gave. Write down for every feature you showed what the value proposition is for that feature. And next time you demo, only speak to that value, and if you couldn’t write down a value proposition for one of the features you showed, take that out of your demo.”
How do you celebrate closing a big deal?
MM: Personally, I sleep.
I don’t sleep if there’s a big deal on the line. So, once it closes, I get some good sleep.
Sell me a walnut!
MM: We all know salads are incredibly beneficial for our health, and we need to eat more of them. Walnuts are the perfect addition to that salad. They add that crunch. They add that saltiness. Would you like some walnuts?
