DungeonsNDemos

Rolling 20's all day

Acclaimed Answer

Feb 28 AMA: Ready to Roll with DungeonsNDemos!

How’s it going War Room? I’ve been lurking in the shadows for the last two months while I crawl through the dungeon that is Q1, but it’s looking pretty solid for me.

@Gasty hit me up and invited me to join the AMA wave and I’m happy to participate!

Most likely, you don’t know me, but that's ok. I’ll rattle off a few facts. I’ve been bouncing around the War Room for about 3 years now and it’s been interesting to watch the evolution.

I’m currently an AE at a software company in the Hospitality Operations space. I just finished top of my team for 2023 and I’m up for a promotion sometime soon. Restaurant groups, hotels, just about anything in Vegas, they can all buy what I'm selling.

I’ve been selling overall for 7 years, 4 in hard goods and 3 in SaaS. My focus is on North America but I’ve run a fair amount of international deals as well. I’ve sold everything from fruit at the farmers market to scheduling software. My favorite part about sales is figuring out how whatever I’m selling will help whoever I’m talking to (and the $$$ of course).

Fire away whatever questions you’ve got whether they’re about sales in general, selling SaaS, getting into tech, you-name-it! I’m here because Bravado helped me get back up to speed when I made the jump back to tech. So I’m always happy to help a fellow War Room member.

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20 comments

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Beans

Big Shot

6

Enterprise Account Executive

Tell me bout your transition from physical products to tech!

HVACexpert

Politicker

3

sales engineer

I would be interested in this answer as well

3

Founding BDR

Me too ^

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

3

Rolling 20's all day

Hey @Beans ! Great question! I know so many of us have asked ourselves the question at some point "how the hell do I get into tech/saas?"
For me, I had taken a job in the city next to me way back in 2019 taking a chance on an SMB team that came up from an alumni at my college. I had a few years experience at that point selling lots of B2C goods (that were also B2B for our bigger stuff), and I leveraged my experience there selling to pain and needs as I sold into all types of industries.

I practiced my interview questions and really leaned on my adaptability and willingness to learn. He took a chance on me and I did really well even through the pandemic year. Down here in Florida we were back into the office by that May (LOL).

After that I had a recruiter reach out for my current company and I was REALLY tired of the commute and wanted to work remote. Because of the new/my current company being a legit, bigger tech player, I actually took a course through Aspireship (free to do) on selling SaaS and I leveraged that to show my worth in moving into a MidMarket team.

Now I've been slinging software for a few years and am beefing up on my skills, I've even closed a handful of 6 figure SaaS deals which have been a real high point.

jefe

Arsonist

5

🍁

Thanks for stepping in, and welcome back!

Given you're selling to the hospitality space and mentioned Vegas, how much of your time involves wining and dining and other more old school aspects of the sales process (you know, the FUN shit we always used to hear about).

And if you're doing any of the above, what's your wildest story?

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

3

Rolling 20's all day

Hey @jefe , thanks! Good to be back.
Honestly I really don't get out for too many wine-and-dines. I'm still almost completely active on just Zooms.
For the bigger deals that I run I do have budget for visits and often do so after we've built a business case to get face time and build the relationships a bit more.

Champion building is huge for our industry, and often it's really hard for them to make a change in provider. We use a lot of social proof and tools throughout our process to make them comfortable in making the change.

Wildest story?
I'll go with the time I had to road trip with another coworker on my team to miami as we were doing an in person demo and I didn't realize how hard he really liked to party.
We ended up out on Miami Beach and he was chain smoking cigs in between hookah bars. We got pizza from this place that serves slices as big as your torso, which he proceeded to throw up in a sketchy alley. And then he kept wanting to go to clubs with the company card, which I managed to keep him from doing.
Thank god we didn't get up to anything too crazy as it's not my thing.

Still won the deal and I saw him in a new light after that.

jefe

Arsonist

2

🍁

That makes a ton of sense, and is pretty similar to most of us in SaaS. I'd imagine some of those client visits can be a little more fun than other verticals. But no advice on how to expensive hookers and blow, then..

I've never been to Miami, but that sounds like quite a night. He's luck he had you at his side! And you closed, so it's a hell of a story.

Thanks @DungeonsNDemos !

Sunbunny31

Politicker

4

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Nice to see your name up here! Were you in hospitality operations during Covid? How was that for you in the industry?

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

2

Rolling 20's all day

Hey @Sunbunny31 ! To put it lightly, really fuckin weird. But also I am in Florida and people were back at it like nothing was happening by month 3.
I would guess like 70% of our old people population did NOT care about masks or social distancing at all.

As I was selling, we actually offered a mobile app solution that many hotels and restaurants bought from us to cover remote delivery but it was a cluster from week to week dealing with all kinds of leads from SMB. (like lamp shops and even production factories reaching out to request licenses).
I did well!

Also when we went remote for those first two months, our CRO decided to never come back! So that was exciting haha. We had a very loose structure so I could pretty much run things how I wanted as the team was small and our CEO was preoccupied with keeping our international customers happy

HVACexpert

Politicker

4

sales engineer

What the biggest difference and surprise when dealing with customers between the US and international in the hospitality space?

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

3

Rolling 20's all day

Whaddup @HVACexpert ? In my market, the biggest differences I've found are that in international deals you almost never know who the real Executive Buyers are... Let me rephrase that.. When selling into the middle east (Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, etc) you almost never know who the EB is.

They often will try to play hardball when you know they are sitting on a dragon's horde amount of money.. but refuse to pay in annual sums and always want monthly.

Nothing against them.. it's how they do business. It's just tough because it's REALLY easy to end up negotiating with the wrong guy.

Phillip_J_Fry

Opinionated

3

Director of Revenue

What were some of the challenges with international deals and how did you find yourself in those situations?

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

2

Rolling 20's all day

Hey @Phillip_J_Fry , I kind of answered this above but it always feels like many of their companies are family run in my industry and it's hard to know who is the real decision maker (besides the quiet guy in the back of the room).
Cultural differences can be a bit different depending on the country too, so I've often found myself doing extra research to build rapport and put my best foot forward.

Also! They typically care about social proof even more than US based customers. They want to know their friends and competitors use us too.

QWhiz

Big Shot

3

Founding AE / ex-SDR

How do international prospects treat you? Any biases? Would they rather prefer talking to a local? Or is it the other way round - and talking to someone overseas is more exciting for them?

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

1

Rolling 20's all day

For the most part it’s almost always professional, but it’s 1000% easier when we both speak English and I don’t need to bring a translater. Most people I meet with have really great English for it being a 2nd language and I hold a lot of respect to bilingual people.
But yeah if you’re local they will prefer you.

oldcloser

Arsonist

2

💀

I'd be interested in knowing where you look first for cultural nuances that could make or break an international deal.

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

3

Rolling 20's all day

Hey @oldcloser This sometimes comes down to if I've run deals there in the past. OR because social proof and referrals go a long way in the middle east, I often will watch some gong calls of other deals that we've run in their country.

And sometimes Chatgpt can help fill in some blanks too. Like I learned a year ago Dubai made the jump to the American work week instead of being aligned with the rest of the Middle East doing Saturday to Thursday work weeks.

Gasty

Notable Contributor

1

War Room Community Manager

Tell me more about how bravado helped you back up to speed during your transition? I wasn’t around back then.

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

1

Rolling 20's all day

Back when I joined I was still selling a bunch of b2b filtration goods to maintenance departments trying to stay compliant with new regulations due to the pandemic.
At the time I wanted to get back into tech and I really used bravado to learn more about interviewing, SaaS terminology, and industry practices.
The SaaS I sold for a year before getting into physical goods again was fairly segmented away from other tech companies just because there were hardly any in that city.
Bravado is where I could come to virtually rub elbows and hangout by the water cooler!

CuriousFox

WR Officer

1

🦊

Hi friend 😎

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