Focusing on the Fundamentals with Paul Ohls

Paul Ohls is the Chief Revenue Officer at Sprinklr. He has had a
successful career in sales leadership, working at companies like
Aerotech, Ariba, NuScale, Zillent, Lattice Engines, Medallia,
Fuse, tenfold, and now Sprinklr.


In this conversation with John McMahon, Paul shares his insights
on sales leadership and the importance of hiring the right
people. He emphasizes the need for intelligent, driven, and
coachable individuals who can ask insightful questions and think
critically. Paul also discusses the challenges of forecasting and
the importance of focusing on the fundamentals. He highlights the
value of understanding the customer's pain points and aligning
the solution with their objectives. Additionally, Paul emphasizes
the need for a strong pipeline and the importance of conversion
rates in driving sales success.


HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT


[00:02:11] - Overview of Sprinkler and its purpose
[00:07:16] - Testing for key characteristics in potential
hires
[00:24:23] - Focus on testing and optimizing fundamentals in the
sales process
[00:30:06] - Enabling the team to have a realistic view of their
forecast
[00:35:45] - Considering the stage of new deals and their
likelihood of closing
[00:38:56] - Diagnosing reasons for consistently high
forecasts.
[00:40:12] - Implicated pain and alignment with decision criteria
indicate a committable deal.
[00:42:07] - Differentiating recruiting process through sales
manager pipeline generation.
[00:44:35] - Using a simulation exercise to assess candidate
skills and fit.
[00:54:40] - Key KPIs for decision-making: leading indicators and
conversion rates.


ADDITIONAL RESOURCES


Learn more about Paul Ohls:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulohls/overlay/about-this-profile/


Download our Sales Transformation Guide for Leaders:
https://forc.mx/3sdtEZJ


HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

[00:19:38]  "If you've done the right things and you truly
are connected to a corporate objective, if you think about the
concept of a value pyramid, those handful of things that are at
the top of that value pyramid, oftentimes the things that the C
level CEO has promised Wall Street, has promised investors. We
aspire to go from X to Y. We are making acquisitions. We got to
monetize those acquisitions, those acquisitions, these, these big
things. If you have started there and your solution is you can
make a direct correlation between what you are working with your
champion on. To the inability of a company to deliver upon those
things at the top of the value pyramid, the CFO meeting should be
relative, like a relatively easy thing to do." - Paul Ohls
[00:55:34] “What we ask our leaders to do is we call it sales
manager or sales leader PG. So we're asking pipeline generation.
For those that don't know what that means. We ask sellers and
other people in the ecosystem to dedicate time. To go build their
pipeline on future deals, block out the world, spend your time
doing this set of work in a defined period every single week." -
Paul Ohls