Servant Leadership in SaaS Sales - William Bagshaw - Coach2Scale - Episode # 006
Today’s special guest walks the servant leadership walk and has driven organizational success through others at B2B SaaS industry titans such as Oracle and Salesforce. William Bagshaw is the VP of Sales at Palo Alto Networks and a Limited Partner at Stage 2 Capital. William joins Host Matt Benelli to discuss the impact of servant leadership in sales, how to create a psychologically safe environment, and ways to motivate salespeople beyond money.
Takeaways:
- First-time managers often fall into the trap of focusing too heavily on the measurements and outcomes. They feel that they need to pressure their teams on these numbers and often resort to cracking the whip. This is not a good way to coach salespeople and it doesn’t deliver long-term results.
- The most effective sales leaders have a servant leadership mentality. Rather than thinking that your team is there to do what you tell them to, being a servant leader means thinking about what you can do to best serve your team.
- There’s no such thing as a perfect deal. The best sales reps know this and have someone they can use as a ‘soundboard’ to help brainstorm ways to improve a deal. As a leader, it’s important to build a safe environment where reps feel comfortable coming to you to use you as their soundboard.
- When you have created the right environment, great reps will reach out to you and others because they recognize the need to look for all the flaws and blind spots in their deals. They will be brave and humble enough to ask for help if you create an environment that encourages that.
- Great sales leaders ask their reps great questions. Two great questions to ask are “why is this client/prospect going to spend X amount of money for this solution?” and “how can we move the business forward?”
- Salespeople are motivated by more than just money. Effective leaders find out what the individuals in their sales teams are motivated by outside of work and can use that to better incentivize their team members.
- When a great leader is helping a great rep, that interaction is mutually beneficial because the rep is receiving the advice and feedback they need to improve in sales and the leader is getting feedback they need to improve how they deliver their coaching.
Quote of the Show:
- “Focusing on the end result is not true coaching” - William Bagshaw
Links:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billbags/
- Palo Alto Networks Website: https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/
- Stage 2 Capital Website: https://www.stage2.capital/
Shoutouts:
- Greg Linteman
- Jeff Breslin
- Pete Hesketh
- Kim Carpico
- Dave Viffieties
- David Kreberg
- Buckley Cooney
- John Boucher
- Tom Bonos
- John Nugent
Ways to Tune In:
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0Yb1wPzUxyrfR0Dx35ym1A
- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/coach2scale-how-modern-leaders-build-a-coaching-culture/id1699901434
- Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy50cmFuc2lzdG9yLmZtL2NvYWNoMnNjYWxlLWhvdy1tb2Rlcm4tbGVhZGVycy1idWlsZC1hLWNvYWNoaW5nLWN1bHR1cmU
- Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/fd188af6-7c17-4b2e-a0b2-196ecd6fdf77
- Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/coach2scale-how-modern-leaders-5419703
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Coach2Scale
CoachEm™ is the first Coaching Execution Platform that integrates deep learning technology to proactively analyze patterns, highlight the "why" behind the data with root causes, and identify the actions that will ultimately improve business results going forward. These practical coaching recommendations for managers will help their teams drive more deals, bigger deals, faster deals and loyal customers. Built with decades of go-to-market experience, world-renowned data scientists and advanced causal AI/ML technology, CoachEm™ leverages your existing tech stack to increase rep productivity, increase retention, and replicate best practices across your team.
Learn more at coachem.io
Creators and Guests
Guest
William Bagshaw
William Bagshaw is the VP of Sales at Palo Alto Networks and a Limited Partner at Stage 2 Capital. He walks the servant leadership walk and has driven organizational success through others at B2B SaaS industry titans such as Oracle and Salesforce.
