AMA: Figma Global Director, Sales Enablement, Andrew Zinger on Sales Soft and Hard Skills
January 10 @ 9:00AM PST
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Figma Global Director, Sales Enablement, Andrew Zinger on Sales Soft and Hard Skills
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Andrew Zinger
Fastly Senior Director, Global Sales Enablement • January 10
Ah.. a great question and something that I have yet to see perfected, but continues to get easier as many enablement and development professionals know and argue that companies cannot afford NOT to invest in the soft skills development of their employees. Historically I have seen that budgets typ......Read More
2073 Views
3 requests
Andrew Zinger
Fastly Senior Director, Global Sales Enablement • January 10
People's definition of 'hard skills' may differ depending on where they work, what the sales organization makeup is, and what product/platform they are selling. In my experience, the 'gold standard' sales leaders have a few attributes in common when it comes to 'hard skills'. For instance all see......Read More
2325 Views
2 requests
Andrew Zinger
Fastly Senior Director, Global Sales Enablement • January 10
In my experience it's been less of a challenge enabling the sales/account team on 'hard skills'. Over time you can see to it that people become comfortable with demo'ing your platform, using your tech stack, understanding the financials. However, trying to coach someone in the art of 'customer st......Read More
1838 Views
3 requests
Andrew Zinger
Fastly Senior Director, Global Sales Enablement • January 10
Another topic that is always top of mind for sales leaders, and their recruiting teams, is their employee retention scores. It is a massive expense to organizations when they see talent leave, whether regrettable or not, and have to spend resources recruiting, enabling and eventually filling that......Read More
2134 Views
1 request
Andrew Zinger
Fastly Senior Director, Global Sales Enablement • January 10
First off, for those serious about a career change to sales, I would start off by building (or rebuilding) your network. This can be done is a number of ways including: - attending conferences and industry training events (virtual or in person) - focus on joining relevant industry and/or co......Read More
2124 Views
1 request
Andrew Zinger
Fastly Senior Director, Global Sales Enablement • January 10
The topic of 'feedback' is a passionate one with many people. For me, feedback is fuel, but at the same time it needs to be actionable and agreed upon for it to be that 'fuel' for change/innovation. My advice for if you don't understand, or agree with, the feedback you're receiving would be to st......Read More
1695 Views
1 request
Andrew Zinger
Fastly Senior Director, Global Sales Enablement • January 10
Great question and something I love talking to (and sometimes 'debating') our leaders about - the idea behind 'what's the characteristic (or two) of your best seller you would want to clone?' For me, at the top of the list are 2 attributes I look for in potential sales team members: 1) 'Custom......Read More
4576 Views
2 requests
Andrew Zinger
Fastly Senior Director, Global Sales Enablement • January 10
Another great question and one that will certainly differ from executive to executive. However, in my experience some of the top intangibles for the top performers I have seen include: - Confidence and a winning personality. Now, I don't want to confuse 'confidence' with 'ego'...to have 'confi......Read More
1974 Views
1 request
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