Experts Insights and Strategies for Successful Sales

John Alliston: 0:00

Understanding a customer and building a strong relationship is vital to be able Too often, people will propose their solution without understanding if it's fit for purpose. You've got two ears and one mouth, and you should use them in that order. So always listen before you start speaking. What Odoo has allowed us to do is free up so much admin time because everyone can have access to odoo. Everyone can see what their tasks are, everyone can see what their response is doing. That's why we became an Odoo partner because we've drunk the purple juice. We see how beneficial it can be. It just makes it so great that you're not constantly flicking through different systems. The sale should not be about you. The sale should be about the customer. It's understanding what our company trying to do, what's their vision, and how is Odoo going to help them achieve that vision. And if we feel that that's right for them, then you go on that growth journey with them.

Amy Caroline Downing: 0:56

Hi, everyone, and welcome back to Planet Odoo. I'm your host, Amy Caroline, and I'm thrilled to have you back for another exciting episode. Today we're diving deep into the realm of sales. The key to keeping any business company or organization alive but also thriving within their industry. Have you ever wondered how to transform a mere lead into a loyal customer? Or perhaps you're curious about the common pitfalls salespeople face and how to avoid them. Plus, we'll explore how Odoo can revolutionize and elevate your sales processes. We're welcoming back Gravetai for another episode, and joining us today is special guest John, the head of client Engagement. Together, we'll uncover invaluable insights and strategies to supercharge your sales efforts. Get ready because we're about to embark on an enlightening conversation that will empower you to thrive in your industry. So without further ado, let's dive right in. All right. So hi, John. Welcome. And thank you for joining me here today.

John Alliston: 1:53

A pleasure to be here.

Amy Caroline Downing: 1:55

So before we get started talking about all of your sage advice and wisdom and us a little bit about yourself and give our audience an understanding of what has made you an expert on sales?

John Alliston: 2:14

Expert? Strong word. So I started my sales career back probably around 1998, within recruitment sales, where I spent a number of years working up from a trainee all the way to my last role prior to joining Gravetai as a senior business director for Hays, which is a, I think, the largest recruitment business in the world. So throughout that time, my role was always been client-facing and sales driven. All right.

Amy Caroline Downing: 2:47

Great. So can you tell us a bit about why it's so important to have this Because, of course, customers are the center of sales, and how do we actually begin to even understand them in order to better sell to them, better offer them our services and products?

John Alliston: 3:07

I think relationships are key. I think if you think about any sales or any purchases you make as an individual, as a business, you always want to trust the person that you're buying from to believe that what they're selling you is what you actually need. So I think understanding a customer and building a strong relationship then is vital to be able to be offering them the right services or the right products and to become valued as a trusted advisor. Because if they believe what you're saying and the solutions or products you're offering are going to solve their problems, you're over the first hurdle in that respect. You know, I think if someone is untrustworthy of a salesperson, regardless of how good their product or service is, there's always going to be that element of doubt that are they telling you the truth? So it's key. And I think too often people try and jump straight into trying to sell their offering rather than understanding the client, the business, the individual, and what you need to offer them to deliver what they're looking for.

Amy Caroline Downing: 4:15

So you would say that you first need to understand the customer, listen to them how will they trust you otherwise?

John Alliston: 4:26

Yeah, 100%. I mean, when I first started in sales, and it's a bit of an old adage, but someone said to me, You've got two ears and one mouth, and you should use them in that order. So always listen before you start speaking. So I think you need to understand what a client is looking for before you can propose any kind of sales offering. So it's truly important to listen to the customer and understand what they need. Is it to solve a problem? Is it to better enhance their organization? Is it better to enhance skills? What are they trying to solve? And then what you're able to do is position your solution or product specifically against the problem or challenge that they're facing. And in most instances, you will get a lot more traction and get further down the sales funnel. If you start with listening, too often, people will propose their solution without understanding if it's fit for purpose. And in that instance, if don't want to buy a car, no one's going to sell me a car, Right? You know, it's the reality of it.

Amy Caroline Downing: 5:31

Right? Absolutely. And before we even get to the point of building that trust and building that sort of relationship with the customer, I suppose that the business needs to have a presence that seems legit and trustworthy enough even before that initial contact. So how can the business establish that? Because guess I will bring in the leads, or that will give the customer something to refer to if we're cold calling or trying to approach them that way. So what are some of the things that a business can do?

John Alliston: 6:03

I think the first and foremost is to be honest and transparent. I think too often salespeople can get a bad name, that all they're interested in is trying to get the sale, trying to get the commission, whatever it might be, whatever targets or incentives they're given from their own internal business. But going back, I think you've got to demonstrate, whether that be across your social media platforms or the engagement you've had with previous customers, that you've delivered what they needed. So you've got testimonials, you've got reference points. But first and foremost, I think, and particularly something that's always worked for me, is being honest. If you feel that your solution isn't right for someone, don't be afraid to tell them it's not right. Don't be afraid to point them in the wrong direction. Because people move jobs. People move to different organizations. And I think they're always going to remember someone that they felt that they could trust rather than someone who tried to force them to purchase something that wasn't necessarily fit for purpose. And I think it's it's important that every interaction you have with anyone, whether they're a potential client or existing client, is you treat them the same. You know, you treat them with respect, honesty, openness. And I think that's what brings people through the door. If they hear in the market that you are someone that can be trusted and you always deliver that, that's going to get the market to talking about your services and your company. Um, you know, people always talk about bad experiences. You tell more people about a bad experience than you will a good experience. So you've got to make sure every time you're, you're engaging with a potential customer or customer that they come away thinking that was a great experience.

Amy Caroline Downing: 7:38

Yeah. And I guess it's so much more than that first interaction as well. You said something that struck me is that you have to treat the existing customers the same as you would treat a new customer. Everyone is important and you need to continually support and nurture those relationships. So in your own organization, how do you differentiate between the new customers and the existing customers? How do you give them, let's say, equal support and attention?

John Alliston: 8:09

I think and I can only really talk about our business here, but, you know, once existing customer, it's then ensuring that transition from sales into the services side of our business is seamless. And I think, as a salesperson, it's staying involved. When you've rung the bell for a better choice of word, and you've completed the sale, don't just think that you no longer have any involvement in that customer. So it's constantly ensuring that what you, as the focal point, have said your business is able to deliver or what you're able to solve is that you you're involved all the way through to ensure that what we're doing is fulfilling the original brief that you was given. And I think by doing that, what it also does is it opens up opportunities for additional upselling opportunities or cross-selling opportunities across the wider business. So so, it's not a case of it's done move on. Right. And you have to have a fine balance, and you have to rely on the support across the rest of your organization. Who's then responsible for the delivery to ensure that they are delivering. So so, for us, it very much starts on understanding what a customer is looking to achieve and then building a brief of what we're going to do to deliver that and ensuring that what we're saying is fit for purpose, and then we work and stick to that brief so we know that there should be no hiccups or problems along the way. But it goes back to communication. Communication is everything. If there's a customer and you're buying a service, you feel that you've purchased something and then you never hear from the person again, that that leaves a sour taste because you don't want people thinking, oh, they've got my money, and now they don't care. Right. And I think it's proven it's easy to get existing customers to spend more money than it sometimes is to land a new customer. Interesting, right? Why would you not stay where someone's already spending money with you?

Amy Caroline Downing: 10:00

Yeah, you know, it's a sure thing, so.

John Alliston: 10:04

Well, you'd like to think it's a sure thing. As long as you're again. As long as you're delivering. And I'm quite fortunate that, you know, sales is one part of it. Of a huge engine, you know, And I'm very lucky that the people that sit behind me once a salesman achieved are capable of delivering under the same honest and transparent approach that we have as a business. I've seen it before where you can have the best salespeople. But when it comes when it moves from sales into the next phase of the business, the appetite isn't as great as the salesperson, and that ultimately impacts the salesperson. So you have to take responsibility for not just selling but also ensuring the delivery aspect of things.

Amy Caroline Downing: 10:43

So what are some of the, let's say, downfalls of the salesperson? What are some of the things that we'll put a positive spin on it? What are some of the most important things that they need to focus on or skills that they really need to hone in on in order to be successful?

John Alliston: 10:59

First and foremost, I think it's understanding what you're selling. Nine times out of ten, you are probably speaking to people who will have some understanding of your product or understanding of similar products and what they're capable of. So if you try and pull the wool over someone's eyes and say it can do something that it can't, you can trip yourself up. And again, that goes back to being honest. So I think it's important that you understand the product you're selling and you learn if you're not, if you're on your learning journey, don't be afraid to ask people to support you on client engagements. Don't be afraid to ask technical experts to jump on calls with you or you know, your peers or your senior managers to help you get a sale across the line. The sale should not. Be about you. The sale should be about the customer. And I think too often people want to say, Look what I've done by myself, when ultimately then you're making it about you and not about your potential customer or your existing customer. So I think, you know, key skills I've learned is to ask questions constantly, ask questions. You're never going to know everything. Everything always changes. Be a sponge, you know, keep constantly. Keep learning and upskilling yourself. Um, don't be afraid to tell someone that you don't know an answer to a question, but you'll go and get that answer for them. And then do go and get the answer to the question that you didn't know. Rather than try and worm your way through it with stuff that might not be particularly true because that will always come back and bite you at some point in the sales cycle.

Amy Caroline Downing: 12:30

And that actually answers another question. I was going to ask you about this, how you actually keep your salespeople up to date and informed, and if they're working collaboratively with the team, they will learn from these experiences rather than trying to go solo and do things on their own. But do you do workshops, or do you have regular training or external pieces of training that you will either bring someone in or send your salespeople to, let's say, keep them competitive? Or how do you manage that with your team?

John Alliston: 13:06

I think from our side, we have a huge involvement with our technical guys So it's understanding, particularly when it comes to Odoo as a partner, you guys are forever evolving, so it's forever changing. The capabilities of what Odoo can do is forever changing in different releases. So for us, it's having that constant engagement with the guys who are actually, you know, understand the in-depth technical capabilities of Odoo so we know what, what new functions are available, we know what new apps are available and what they can do. So when someone comes up with a problem statement to us or what they're looking for in this instance. Odoo To solve for them, the challenge they're trying to do is to understand what, what areas of voodoo could deliver that. So from my side of the fence and our side of the fence, it's that constant interaction. We have weekly meetings with our team. They'll advise us of any new releases that are coming out or stuff that could be good. And that's not just for new customers, that's for existing customers. So a lot is done like that, and I think it's important to learn from your peers. But also, you know, the most successful salespeople I've worked with take it upon themselves to learn. You know, there's so many, um, podcasts or online learning available across any technology or any product now that there's nothing to stop you, um, you know, wanting to be the best yourself and going out and doing it for yourself rather than waiting for someone to send you on a training course. You know, I think as a business here, if anyone in our team wanted to go on a training course because they and could show that it would add value to them, then then we would put them on it. I think it's more about, as a salesperson, bettering yourself and saying, I think this will help me because of X and Y, and then we'll go, okay, we'll support you to do that, right?

Amy Caroline Downing: 14:56

Absolutely. People who take the initiative, and if they take the initiative for

John Alliston: 15:03

Well, exactly. So is is proactive. So you need to be proactive, not people are not going to be constantly knocking on your door, wanting your services. So if you have to be proactive to go out and get new customers, be proactive about bettering yourself and upskilling yourself. And I think that Proactiveness is key across anyone who works in a sales face sales facing role to just proactive is a key area of it. You can't sit and wait for someone to come to you, and that goes not just for a sale but for upskilling and everything else you want to achieve.

Amy Caroline Downing: 15:33

So speaking of being proactive and going out there and getting some sales, these leads to find out who to contact and reach out to?

John Alliston: 15:47

I mean, we work very closely with our marketing department. You know, our marketing department are responsible for getting our name out in the market and what we're capable of doing. And I think it's understanding what kind of businesses could benefit from the services you're offering. Um, Odoo is a fantastic product. And guess where, where it makes it more challenging is that Odoo fits into so many different industries. Your target audience is so vast. So I've always felt it's trying. It's better as a salesperson to try and focus in specific areas, whether that be industry-focused, because then you can feel like you are getting you are moving forward. Whereas if you're looking across all industries, you're constantly going left to right, and you're never moving forward. So from our side, we will have people that might, might focus within manufacturing and people who might focus within financial services or within retail. And then also, like we said earlier on in the. And if you do a good job, for one. Manufacturing company. It's very easy to use it as a testimony to the next potential customer, you know, And then also, you know, roadshows events are always. But LinkedIn's been a fantastic tool for any salesperson because you can pretty much now find the name of someone within an organization who might be within the right kind of area to make an introduction to. But then any, any cold introduction has got to have some context behind it as to why you're reaching out because everyone gets sales emails or sales calls every day for products that are not of interest to them. So how do you differentiate yourself? Is by trying to research the companies, and it's easy to do it now with the Internet, to try and understand where there could be a problem that you're seeing, whether it be a news article or whatever it might be, and then position Odoo to help them solve that product. And then you should hopefully get at least get some face time with them.

Amy Caroline Downing: 17:44

And once you do get that face time, what are the initial steps? So you have the initial contact, and then after that, do you often give a demo of the product in this case, or what are the steps to really developing their interest and ultimately signing? Yeah.

John Alliston: 18:05

So from our side, we tend to always have what we would perhaps call a discovery So and that goes back to the listing side, like understanding what is the challenge they're facing or what, what do they require a new ERP system to do for them? So so, we will look at taking a probably very high-level brief of what they're looking for the product to achieve for them, what particular areas are they interested in? And again, back to Ruby. There are so many different areas. Some businesses just want to look at 4 or 5 apps. Some businesses want to look at everything. So we'll have that initial sort of high-level requirements gathering exercise, and then we would probably take that and then move into an initial demo to give them a feel and flavor of the out-of-the-box functionality that Odoo can deliver. Now, you know, that might deliver 70 to 80% of what they need to deliver out of box. But being such a great product, it's very customizable, so you can customize it to fit your needs. And I think once, once you can get someone to see and feel and, and, you know, in some instances, you know, we can give them access to a demo environment for, for a set period of time to start playing around. I think the, the ease of use draws people in quite a lot. And then obviously having a partner to support them on that journey, I think, just gives them that comfortable feeling that they're not alone. So so they can achieve it.

Amy Caroline Downing: 19:37

Yeah, yeah. And that's interesting because here saying that they're not alone, of course you have to provide support, but it's more than just the sales. Are you also working with your support teams as well, or do you recommend this type of collaboration for other businesses who might be trying to do the same, to provide the same sort of excellent service for their customers?

John Alliston: 19:59

You know, I think as a partner, when we're working with a customer, there's no You know, so many instances as a partner. I think sometimes where project struggle is that there isn't enough in-house capabilities and when organizations need to lean on a partner for what can be, you know, in a year's time, two years time, some quite basic functionality because they've not upskilled their own people, that's when the costing element can become quite huge. So part of what we always try and do in any engagement we have is upskill internal people or advise organizations on how they can bring in the right type of people who are going to be able to support them. We never want to tell a customer like you're ready or where you go. We take the stabilizers off, but we want to be there to support them on on the difficult stuff, you know, where it's a benefit to them to spend additional money and engage a partner. It's not to say we won't be there for the more low-level stuff, but we think it's it's more beneficial to a customer to be able to manage that level of their systems by themselves. And part of our engagement is always upskilling people. So, so they feel confident enough to do that without us. But we will always be there at the end of a phone when they need us.

Amy Caroline Downing: 21:16

That's amazing. Yeah. Maintaining that relationship, of course, they will always So Gravitai is using Odoo sales. Can you tell us a little bit about how you use Odoo and the different features to organize your sales?

John Alliston: 21:34

Yeah, so pretty much everything we do starts in the CRM function. So from inbound leads coming via our website, we'll automatically populate in CRM and then with the structure and layout of Odoo, very much like a Kanban Board where we take people through the stages that they're in, in our own terminology. So from a new lead to an inquiry to a qualified to requirements gathering, and then we move them through to a workshop and so forth. So it's very, very easy for me as a salesperson to look at where every potential customer is in, in the stage of the sales funnel. So that makes it really simple just to be able to open one app and look and see where everything are, then obviously be able to click through those apps. I think where for me, Odoo comes into its own is then being able to take from the CRM into a quotation, then from a quotation into a sale, then from a sale into a project. And at that point, it gets passed over to our project delivery team, but it still links back to the individual sales person, and we can see at what stage they're at in any given project. So the fact that you have one system where you can see the stage of every sale, but not just that, once the sale is completed, what stage it's at with that, but more importantly, if a sale falls off the radar for whatever reason, the ability to still track the ones that you got so far down the sales funnel, the reason it fell and where might be the right time for you to try and put them back up to the top of the sales funnel to bring back Froot. So so, in that respect, I think having worked with tens of CRMs, I think the ease of use, the visuality of it is great from a salesperson because you don't have to go. It's not multiple clicks to try and find the information you want. You can pretty much click once open up a screen, you can see all the notes, any attachments, any documents. You've sent copies of quotations. So you know some salespeople. You know, I've been guilty of inherently lazy. So we like everything to be in one place, and Odoo gives you that.

Amy Caroline Downing: 23:37

So you can keep track of everything.

John Alliston: 23:39

Yeah. And I think it's important to keep track of everything. And for me, you know, spent a lot of years keeping track of everything, scribbled down in notepads, and then you're constantly flicking back to remember where you spoke to what you said, what date you spoke to him on. But having the ability to put notes in recalled phone calls, recalled emails, etcetera, etcetera, means every interaction, regardless of how small or minor it was, is there not only for you to see, but any of your colleagues to see if there's any reason that they need to pick something up for you. They're not constantly chasing you. It's just there for everyone, everyone in the business to see.

Amy Caroline Downing: 24:16

Yeah, absolutely. Having a track of that history and then you can see where involved. So apart from just tracking the relationship with the customer and keeping track of that within the pipeline, what are some other aspects of the business that are essential to supporting sales? For example, keeping record of expenses, events, your support service? Can you tell me a little bit about how the sales team will collaborate with other departments to really flourish, let's say?

John Alliston: 24:49

Yeah. I mean, I think when I when I first joined Gravitai, I was quite surprised expense against an individual sale rather than just a customer. So you can, you know, if you've taken a customer out for a meal or a golf day or whatever, you know, you can actually attribute the cost of that against the, the, the sale. Or if you've done that as part of the, you know, initial engagement to try and create the sale as a business to manage the costs and your profitability. It's not just an expense with a customer. It can be an expense against a specific sale, which is invaluable for being able to manage how your profitability, you know, what margins you're operating at internally. And the fact that they're all interlinked, I think is phenomenal from my own opinion because you can then use that from a reporting perspective and see are you getting more sales from people that you take on a golf day? Are you getting more sales from people you do X, so it allows you to analyze what you're doing internally to create sales and what's working and what's not working.

Amy Caroline Downing: 25:58

Well, let's hope for your salespeople that they get more sales on golf days. I'm sure everybody is wanting to.

John Alliston: 26:04

I'm not I'm. Not too sure that they all would because some of them are not very good. At golf.

Amy Caroline Downing: 26:10

Oh. And then the customer will like it. But, um, and so what are some of the other keys to analyzing these sales? How do you use the data that you get from these sales to then define your targets?

John Alliston: 26:24

So You have the ability to obviously score what you feel the chances are within And a lot of that can be individual feel. But understanding the size of the customer, the nature of their business, and in line with that, you have the ability to set sales targets. So so being able to report around the profitability of an opportunity, whether you feel that opportunity is going to close the level of activity that salespeople are Needing to do to get to that level of profitability. The reporting capabilities in the dashboards are very easy to create, very easy to look at. So, you know, everything is only ever as good as the data that you're inputting into the system. So if you're putting the data in, you will definitely get the reports out however you want to do it. So I think from a sales perspective, it's always important to tell it, to tell a salesperson what's expected from them, you know, and, and that starts off ultimately giving them a target. But once a target has been given, it's then to be able to break that down for them and say, look, you probably need five customers that we think are going to be at 90%. Eight customers that probably think are up like 70% conversion and maybe a few that are at 50% conversion, you know, and then ultimately spend your time again was always thought to spend your time and effort to closest to the money. So make sure you're spending enough time on the 90% conversions. And once you've spent enough time there, move to the next level and move to the next level and what have you. Then you can then analyze what do you need to do to bring the 50% conversion potential up to the 70% conversion. What more do we need to be doing as a business is that we need to do another demo. Is it that the first demo wasn't really fit for purpose? You know, So by having all of that information to hand, you can then start helping salespeople to close the deal, right? You know, or you can make the decision is what we're offering not fit for purpose. And it goes back to them being honest and saying, look, based on the interactions and meetings we've had, based on your requirements, based on what your budget, based on what Odoo is capable of doing, it might not just be right for you at this juncture of your business and the growth phase you're on. But if you if you're upfront and do that, you know, I've seen it before where a customer might come back to you, and 18 months ago, I think we're ready now. Right? I think we've got our house in order a little bit ready. So when is it right to keep pushing, and when is it right to say this isn't right for us or for you? But it's always got to be It's not right for them first because they're the most important person in the relationship, in my opinion.

Amy Caroline Downing: 29:01

How do you strike the balance, though? Because you mentioned, you have leads that will have a 90% conversion rate, chance of conversion, and those who might be at 80 or 50 or 70. How do you strike the balance between focusing too much time on those, let's say, higher quality leads versus those where, you know, it could be one out of two? You aren't really sure how it will go. Do you tend to neglect those, or do you still make sure that they're getting the attention, some attention as well?

John Alliston: 29:33

I think anyone who interacts with a business needs, needs to needs to feel like You know, how you score an opportunity or give it a percentage could be based on a number of factors. Are they the type of business that spent money? What kind of systems have they got at the moment? What's their reason for looking at a new provider? Is it because a license is coming up for renewal? But the reality is, you know, they need to go out to RFP for new systems, but they're never really going to buy a new one. But this is part of their procurement process, you know, so it goes back to that very first engagement is. Asking enough questions to understand their desire. Are you really keen on this? And if you are, are you just window shopping? If they're just window shopping, then it's on. The onus is on us to prove that it's such a great product that can fulfil your needs. You then need to come into the shop and start having a look around for a better analogy. And so it goes back to how much time you spend on them is a lot. Depends on the pre-qualification questions you've asked and the level of engagement you're getting back. If you're constantly emailing a potential customer for a conversation or to come back and answer some questions you've asked in order to be able to put a demo together and they're not responding. They're coming, in my opinion. How serious are they. You know, so you've got to spend your time with the people that want to partner with you ultimately. Yeah, but again, you can't just disregard those lower-level ones. You know, some of the best customers I've had might be 5 to 10-man businesses, but that 5 to 10-man business could be a 200-man business in 18 months' time, you know, So it's not always going after the big shiny company, right? It's understanding what are a company trying to do? What's their vision and how and how is Odoo going to help them achieve that vision? Right. And if we feel that that's right for them, then then you go on that growth journey with them.

Amy Caroline Downing: 31:36

Yeah, absolutely. And you also experienced a huge level of growth in the past few years. Can you tell us a little bit about that experience? How did Gravetai scale up? How did you guys adapt and increase, let's say, your organization to be able to adapt to their growth?

John Alliston: 31:58

The pandemic was something that no one had ever experienced as a business. We worked remotely, so we had no impact in terms of us all being in an office. So we were always set up to work remotely. I think the demand for resources for all of these organizations that had never been on the cloud didn't have the setup for people to work remotely. It meant our business pretty much grew from, I think, 12 consultants in one month to within three months to maybe like 60, 70, you know. And I think, um, at that point, we weren't using voodoo internally as ourselves. And I think we stumbled across Odoo, and it was able to solve a lot of our problems because of how quickly we'd grown. It's very easy to manage, you know, maybe ten consultants and manage all of the paperwork and the project management and the timesheets, etcetera that goes on with it. When we scaled so much, it was impossible. Um, but what, what Odoo has allowed us to do is free up so much admin time because everyone can have access to odoo, everyone can see what their tasks are, everyone can see what they're responsible for doing. They can log their hours, you can communicate via odoo, you can build project teams. Even so, for us, it freed up so much time and allowed us to take a see a better picture and overview of the business and where we needed to invest more time. Did we need to invest more time on sales? Did we need to invest more time on getting the project management side of things right? Did we need to invest more time on the actual delivery of projects? So to have that visibility, I mean, I think from speaking to our CEO, I think he would probably say the implementation of Odoo probably saved him 40 hours a month of work. And as a CEO, that's a week you're only actually then was really working three weeks in every fall. You know that's a huge amount of time to get back as a CEO of a growing business. Um, and I think that that that's why we became an Odoo partner because, you know, I think in his words, we've drunk the purple juice, and we see how beneficial it can be.

Amy Caroline Downing: 34:09

And you do feel that you have benefited from just, especially, the CRM. You mentioned that you tried other serum platforms. And here with Odoo, you're able to grow and increase and analyze your leads to be sure that there are high quality. Um, are you taking advantage of other features like events, for example?

John Alliston: 34:31

Yeah, we use events. I mean, given how remote the whole lot of our clients are, any event, any company event we do is managed for events. We've done a few external events, we've done some roadshows with you guys and we've used events to manage, manage our invitations and who's coming on our invitations. And then obviously once someone's registered for that, they're obviously then they're in your, in your platform, you know, who were they? Why were they coming to an event? Why did they come to the roadshow? What were they interested in? What could we send them out from a marketing perspective that could then get them into the beginning of the sales funnel? So again, it goes back to what I said. The fact that everything is interlinked just makes it, um, I don't want to say easy because it's not easy, but it just makes it so great that you're not constantly flicking through different systems, right? If want our marketing team to help me with a sales campaign, we can create a project in Odoo for it. We can see who's responsible for doing what part of it when it needs to be done. So it just it's like a diary, a CRM. It's whatever you need it to be. It can do for you, right?

Amy Caroline Downing: 35:36

More automation with scheduled activities. Reminders.

John Alliston: 35:40

Yeah. We like automation. We have a our is built on Odoo, which obviously which is brilliant. So if someone makes an inquiry via our website about a particular service, we can automate email journeys to take them through from an initial inquiry to book a meeting off of one of our calendars, depending on Who they're interested in, in what particular service they're interested in discussing, or is it just, you know, an initial conversation? You know? And I think what we try to be is just open and honest. Let's start with just a five, ten-minute conversation. This is who we are. Who are you? What are you looking to do? And then, you know, let's get a little bit further down the rabbit hole and then start showing you exactly what Odoo is capable of achieving for your organization.

Amy Caroline Downing: 36:27

That's fantastic. So I'm going to shift gears a little bit. So you mentioned the primary thing that's super important for all businesses is to really develop trust between you and your leads. Your customers really develop those relationships. And of course, there are different channels, and different methods of getting these leads, whether it be social media, as we discussed, through these events, or just primarily on your website, getting awareness and visitors to go there. For a new business, where would you recommend that they start? It's kind of a big question. I know it depends a lot on the business type, but based on your own experience and the success you've had in these different channels, where would you start?

John Alliston: 37:14

I think if I knew the answer to that question explicitly, I'd be a millionaire. I think for me, it's I would always look, unless it was a start-up business, which is very difficult. And I've only ever worked in a couple of starts for me. When I joined Gravitai, I very much looked at what is our existing customer base and what are the types of organizations that we're working with at the moment in terms of size, turnover, What do they do? What again, what industries? And then did a load of market research around organizations that we've supported. So who are their competitors? Yeah, Who do they compete against in the industry who are similar type organizations and then makes make approaches to those organizations, whether that be via outbound mails, outbound phone calls, newsletters, whatever kind of strategy you've developed yourself. But historically, and I've experienced it, if someone's competitor is doing something, they tend to want to know about it in case it's going to be better than them. So you can sometimes start having a conversation. And again, it might not always be right for them, but the more conversations you start having, whether they are right or wrong, the more your name gets out in the market. And I think one thing that salespeople probably don't do enough, unless they're pushed and asked to do it, is when you're speaking to a customer. If they are interested in your offering is ask them do you think your previous company might be interested in something like this? Did you face these problems in a previous company? You know, who should I speak to at your previous company? Who else do you know in the industry? You. They might go to specific manufacturing industry events that are something that perhaps we might not go to. But what other businesses do you know? Or who else do you know within the industry that might be interested in hearing about this? You know, so if again, and if people like you and they believe to what you're saying is true, they will probably have no problems in introducing you to a PR or a friend in another organization if they don't believe you or don't value you, they're going to say, oh, I don't know. No one. You know?

Amy Caroline Downing: 39:29

Right.

John Alliston: 39:29

Referrals are great. You know, I always try and ask for a referral, whether it be a previous company or someone else, you know, anyone else in the industry that would be interested in perhaps having a conversation around this solution. Um, so what I can say is no.

Amy Caroline Downing: 39:44

Okay.

John Alliston: 39:46

And as a Salesperson, every salesperson knows you get a lot of no's. So it's only one more, isn't it?

Amy Caroline Downing: 39:51

Right. That's so true. So look at the people, you know, and try to get referrals and get the word of mouth out there. Yeah, that's. That's amazing. Thank you so much for your input. So we're actually running out of time now. Um, do you have any last bit of advice or words of wisdom you would like to share with our audience before we go?

John Alliston: 40:14

Um, I think as you know, as an audience, do your research, understand what importantly, understand why you think what you're selling will address a challenge or solve a problem for them. Most people buy out of need or want, right? Need is probably an easier sell. You know, I want a Ferrari, but I'm never going to get one. But. But I need a car. So you might buy a car now. So if you can find someone that needs a system or needs your product to solve a problem or a challenge, they're more likely to engage with you than someone who would like it. I've not really got the budget to have it, so it's differentiating between those. That would be my words of wisdom on that. But focus your efforts on the right people, not the wrong people. You should achieve yourself.

Amy Caroline Downing: 41:02

Focus your efforts on the right people, not the wrong people. Lovely. Well, thank you so much for joining me. It's been a pleasure discussing with you.

John Alliston: 41:10

Thanks very much for having me.

Amy Caroline Downing: 41:12

Well, there you have it, folks. I hope we've given you more insight into how you can ensure growth within your organization with the power of sales. Remember, sales are undeniably crucial, but it's the unwavering commitment to consistency and resilience that truly sets you apart. If you would like to hear more from us, be sure to catch up on our latest episode if you happen to miss it. I trust you found our conversation with John from Gravitai, both informative and engaging. We're excited to have you join us again next time. And don't forget to share the show with your friends and colleagues and be sure to subscribe to stay up to date with our future episodes. Until then, cheers and goodbye for now.