Episode 301: From Tech Sales to Business Conversation with Eric Shaver

25 snips

Jan 30, 2024

Eric Shaver, Managing Partner at Kensei Partners and former tech sales leader who has trained over 20,000 sellers worldwide, talks about shifting sales from product talk to business conversation. He explains why sellers should sell capital allocation and IRR, treat discovery as joint due diligence, and demand pro forma business cases to stop inflated pipelines. Practical tips on operationalizing financial value and reconditioning buyer expectations.

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INSIGHT

Sales Dialect Undermines Business Conversations

Salespeople default to a distinct sales dialect that sabotages business conversations.
Saying "maybe" and setting engagement requirements preserves resources and improves deal quality.

ANECDOTE

Startup VC Meetings Taught Business Fluency

Eric moved from product-focused sales into business conversations after pitching VCs in startups.
Mentorship and hands-on exposure forced him to learn corporate finance and value-driven narratives.

ADVICE

Stop Selling Features; Sell Multi-Year Value

Avoid over-rotating to product demos when engaging executives.
Replace budget talk with multi-year value and capital allocation conversations like IRR.

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So many sales professionals get caught up in the nitty-gritty of products and tech specs.

Then, they wonder why their deals go wrong.

We believe it is because they don't have genuine business conversations.

So, how can sales professionals switch from sales to a business dialect?

To help us with this incredible topic today, we have Eric Shaver, Managing Partner at Kensei Partners. Since 2008, Eric has personally trained over 20,000 quota-carrying and non-quota-carrying sales professionals across 33 countries in North America, EMEA/MENA, APJ/ANZ, Greater China, and Latin America. Leveraging his 19 years of successful technology sales and leadership, Eric closes the systemic financial, linguistic, and engagement management-centric sales execution gaps that corrupt revenue and operating margins.

Now that you’ve learned the importance of revenue enablement in driving sales growth, check out the full list of episodes at The B2B Revenue Executive Experience. If you enjoy the show, instructions to rate and review it are found here.

GUEST: Eric Shaver, Managing Partner at Kensei Partners

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Previous guests include: Eric Shaver, Managing Partner at Kensei Partners, Harry Spaight, Founder of the Selling with Dignity, Jeroen Corthout, Co-Founder at Salesfare

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