Sales Transformation

Announcer: 00:00

Welcome to another episode of sales transformation brought to you by Leadium, the leader in outbound sales. In this episode, Andrea Mortar shares the challenges and rewards of leadership, the importance of building genuine connections, and the unique mindset required for sales operations. Join us as we delve into the role of sales enablement and its impact on the success of sales teams. Colin, take it away.

Collin Mitchell: 00:25

Alright. Welcome to another episode of sales transformation. Very excited today to have a guest with us, Andrea Mortar, and she is the VP of sales, ops and enablement at Git Beyond. She's a doer of things that need to be done, aware of many hats, and lover of all things sales and people. Welcome to the show.

Andrea Morter: 00:46

Thank you, Colin. Thanks for having me on. Appreciate it.

Collin Mitchell: 00:48

Yeah. Before we kind of jump into some of the topics that we planned out for today, just give us like little background, you know, how did you, you know, get into the work that you do today? Give us the short version, and then we'll get to the good stuff.

Andrea Morter: 01:03

Yeah. Absolutely. So I grew up in the restaurant business with my family. They were always entrepreneurs and trying different things. And I, ran my family's restaurants for a couple of years, and that transitioned me into the card industry, and merchant services.

Andrea Morter: 01:20

And then, eventually, I found my way to Beyond. I was really excited about their morals and ethics and kind of the the way that they treat their Salesforce and their customers. So I joined as a sales professional outside sales. Our roles are called business advocates in the field. So So I joined as a business advocate, and then I've just kind of climbed the ladder from there.

Andrea Morter: 01:41

So I was a a team lead and then a division director running a smaller team. Then I took over VP of sales running the southeast. I'm running a larger team. Then I transitioned into sales operations, really looking to remove some of the barriers that we ran into in sales operationally, some of the roadblocks, and then eventually also took over leading sales enablement. So I help onboard our new hires and help continue education for the rest of the Salesforce.

Collin Mitchell: 02:11

Yeah. Wow. What what a journey. And you went from, like, business advocate or, like, individual contributor, into director fairly quickly. So I'm just kinda curious, you know, what, you know, what sort of in your mind for people who are thinking like, hey.

Collin Mitchell: 02:31

I'm a IC now, and I'd love to go into managing a team. What are some things that made you, 1, feel like that was the right choice to go into leadership? And then how was it that you were able to position yourself, you know, for that quick, you know, transition fairly quickly?

Andrea Morter: 02:48

I love those questions. So I would say feeling like I wanted to be in leadership is kind of innate. Right? Like, from my background and growing up with entrepreneurs, I mean, I've I've always enjoyed leading, and helping others, helping see other people grow. I think I'm really passionate about helping other people find success.

Andrea Morter: 03:08

I really think that's kind of the key. If if you are thinking you wanna go into leadership, I always suggest that you really, are disconnecting the money and the title and kind of the opportunity from what really innately drives you to be a leader. Because I think if you go for for the money and the upward momentum, you probably will find yourself miserable pretty quickly. And I think there's a lot of great opportunities to make a ton of money as an individual contributor in sales, sometimes more than you can make in a leadership role in sales. So I think I think that differentiator is important.

Andrea Morter: 03:46

And then I would say as far as positioning yourself, I think it starts with leading without the title. Right? Like, how can you help other people around you? How can you help level people up? How can you support other people, share information, collaborate with others?

Andrea Morter: 04:01

I think also getting connected throughout your company is really important. You know, finding the right way to do that, but making sure that you're making genuine connections across the company and building relationships is really important. And then, obviously, voicing that you're you're interested in being a leader. I think sometimes people just don't take the plunge to say, hey. I really wanna get there.

Andrea Morter: 04:22

What do I need to do to get into leadership? And sometimes just asking, and you can get a path that will will help you to those next steps.

Collin Mitchell: 04:31

Yeah. What what are some challenges that you had early on as, you know, first time sales leader?

Andrea Morter: 04:39

Yeah. I I think the biggest thing is not everybody is you. Right? Like, not everybody is gonna

Collin Mitchell: 04:45

That's a that's that's a tough one that people, I think, hopefully learn, like, quickly, because every gates great seller thinks that everybody should sell like them.

Andrea Morter: 04:58

Right. This is the way you should do it. This is, and I think a lot of leaders say, well, I do it like this. This is how I do it. Right?

Andrea Morter: 05:06

And getting to know everybody's style. Also, what motivates everybody is so different. Right? I mean, not everybody has the exact same drive. Not everybody wants to put in the the same effort.

Andrea Morter: 05:19

Some people hate the, you know, front end of the sales. Some people hate the closing portion. Like, you've gotta figure out where the gaps are, where you can help, and really be able to contribute to where somebody is at instead of trying to kinda fit them into the the box of where you feel like you struggled or your feelings

Collin Mitchell: 05:38

were. Yeah. And and common, you know, misconception, is that great sellers make good leaders. Right? Not always the case.

Collin Mitchell: 05:47

So I think that, you know, that's why I asked that first question. It's like, how did you know you, like, you wanted leadership? Because I think there's a lot of people that struggle with, like, do I want it? Should I want it? Is it right for me?

Collin Mitchell: 05:59

And I think those are things that, you know, sellers need to really spend some time, you know, thinking about before just jumping into leadership, thinking like, well, I'm a seller, then obviously the next logical step is a seller. But there's a lot of other options. Like, you can go into enterprise sales, you can do, you can go into enablement, sales ops. Like, there's lots of options besides just, like, you know, being a frontline manager or VP of sales or, you know, head of sales and stuff like that. So, that's kinda why I was curious to just get your thoughts on that.

Collin Mitchell: 06:31

But so, so tell me a little bit of, you know, from going to, you know, leading a team to, into sales ops. Why why was that the right move for you?

Andrea Morter: 06:43

So I actually loved this transition. It was probably one of my favorites of my career. I I love leading people. I really love seeing people get to the next level in their sales career. But this was an opportunity to, really, the the sales ops role here was put in place to get rid of things that were in the way of selling.

Andrea Morter: 07:06

You know, those silly things, whether it's the way that you're boarding something or the process behind the scenes or, getting all of the right information, making sure that the process is smooth. So I think for me, from being a director and being in the VP of sales role, I could see these things, but it really wasn't it wasn't my role. It wasn't where I was supposed to be focused to be figuring out, hey. Why do we have to go through this 12 step process when we're just trying to get the deal through? Right?

Andrea Morter: 07:36

That that wasn't my place. So getting to move into an area where I feel like I had a lot of visibility to why this is a problem and then bridge the gaps, with those other departments. And, you know, I spent a lot of time sitting with our operations center and listening to them say, like, why the hell does sales do this? Like, why would they put this through like this? And I could say, well, this is why.

Andrea Morter: 08:00

You know, they're in the field or they're doing this from a cell phone or, you know, whatever the challenges may be. It was it's a really fun role because I was able to kinda communicate from both sides of the fence. So I really enjoy that part.

Collin Mitchell: 08:13

Yeah. And I think it's a it's a certain type of person that, thinks about those things.

Andrea Morter: 08:19

Yeah. Right? For sure.

Collin Mitchell: 08:21

Not not everybody like, people, you know, just the way personality or just the way that they're, you know, think about things, not everybody, has those types of questions. Right? So I think, like, if you're a seller and you're listening and you're like and those things are, you know, things you think about, then could be a great, path for you.

Andrea Morter: 08:42

For sure. I think a lot of times when I'm in, like, the executive meetings, I feel like they're not sure whether they're really happy that I'm there because they know I'm gonna challenge this, or they're like, why did we invite Andrea? Because I definitely like that people have really great ideas and I'm like, okay, yeah, but, like, our system will not do what you're explaining that you want it to do. Like, it will take us a year to make the pathway to do this really cool thing that you just came up with. So great idea, but maybe not possible.

Andrea Morter: 09:17

So I think,

Collin Mitchell: 09:19

Or is the net result worth it?

Andrea Morter: 09:21

Worth the work that's gonna go into it. A 100%. Right? Everything is possible, but is this what we wanna prioritize? And are you looking at these other projects?

Andrea Morter: 09:30

And, also, are you looking at how many other pieces of the company that this project may impact? So I think that's that's a fun part of the role for me is being able to kind of look at all of the different impacts across the company and drive forward. I mean, ultimately, my goal is to drive forward sales and the mission for sales and make things easier for them. But are we doing this in a way that actually will result in it working?

Collin Mitchell: 09:57

Yeah. Yeah. No. That makes sense. And and, what are what you know, you said that that was your favorite transition, and it seems like it's something that you just you know, the the way your mind maybe operates, you think about these things and and maybe, like, fixing puzzles, pieces, or something.

Collin Mitchell: 10:15

Right? But I'm curious, what was there anything about the transition that was difficult or that you didn't expect?

Andrea Morter: 10:23

Yeah. So when I would say the biggest difficulty was probably and especially in the sales enablement role, when you're running a sales team, you know, as a director and as a VP of sales, you have a lot of I mean, I don't wanna say control, maybe more autonomy in the mission that you're driving forward, the conversations that you're having, kind of your vision for that team and and what you're pushing. I think when you move into these overarching roles that are throughout the whole company and they affect other departments, there's a lot more. You really have to get a lot of buy in. There's a lot more background discussions.

Andrea Morter: 10:59

You've gotta make sure that all of these other people are aligned with the strategy, rather than you just being able to kind of put out whatever you're working on.

Collin Mitchell: 11:12

Yeah.

Andrea Morter: 11:13

And it's a lot more task oriented as well. Right? I think the results of sales are and I'm always I've been in sales for 15 years. So and on this side, I'm always trying to find a number, a metric. Like, what is the what's the deliverable?

Andrea Morter: 11:28

How does this impact? What are the KPIs around it? And there's not always that, with kind of the task project oriented work.

Collin Mitchell: 11:37

Is that is that something you miss?

Andrea Morter: 11:40

I do. I do. I miss and you know that if you hit a 110% of goal, like, you rocked it. Right? Like, you did a good job.

Andrea Morter: 11:49

Like, there's no you can't question, was this delivered well? Did this month go well? You're at a 100, a 150% of goal. You know the month went well. When you're delivering training content or you're, you know, fixing things behind the scenes, trying to see, like, okay.

Andrea Morter: 12:04

Did this fix speed up the process? Did more onboarding happen because of this fix? I think it's it's definitely a harder thing to measure. Is what I did successful? Was it worth the time?

Andrea Morter: 12:17

Was it what everybody wanted? It's definitely a harder metric.

Collin Mitchell: 12:22

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I see that. And is there is there a way I mean, how do you measure success in this type of role?

Collin Mitchell: 12:30

Like, just, you know, in your own experience.

Andrea Morter: 12:34

Yeah. I'm still figuring it out. I would say every week, I decide on a new measurement that I wanna look at. So it's kind of a compilation of a lot of things. You know, we look at attendance in optional ongoing training calls.

Andrea Morter: 12:50

I think it's one that says, are we delivering things that people want? Right? If it's an optional call, is 50 or 75% of the organization getting on to that optional call? I think also when you're looking at fixes or improvements to processes, are you getting feedback? I think just making sure that we're going back to people and saying, did this deliver on what you were looking for?

Andrea Morter: 13:14

And then I think as far as I mean, we support new hires. Right? So there are some good metrics that we can measure there on ramp up, how quickly are we getting them up to speed, how quickly are they really, you know, getting their footing and being able to run at full speed. So I think there's some metrics there, but they're they're definitely more difficult than just general set sales goals.

Collin Mitchell: 13:37

So there's a lot of companies that have still really understand the value of, like, enablement. Right? And then there I I've seen a trend and especially just kind of in the economic environment we're we're in that where they've cut back on enablement resources and such, and it makes zero sense to me. Right? Because it's like in times like now, it's where, like, sellers need even more to be successful.

Andrea Morter: 14:02

Right. So what I'm not sure if you asked a question there, but I I totally agree with you. And, I mean, I I think we've also got, like, AI, right, to contend with. And there's all these other free courses and there's things on the Internet that you can find. I think companies try to pull in a lot of just, you know, go take companies try to pull in a lot of just, you know, go take this course or try this free thing.

Andrea Morter: 14:28

And we transitioned probably about 3 years ago from really looking at what we were doing in our training department, from calling it, you know, sales new hire training, really, to calling it sales enablement. So we spend a lot of time with our veteran sellers and, you know, making sure that people are up to speed on all of the products that we sell. We sell a pretty wide variety of products to a pretty wide variety of the market. So I I think that also contributes to needing a lot of support throughout that process.

Collin Mitchell: 15:01

Yeah. And and what are some things that you've seen, like, sellers need, you know, more support than, you know, just in today's, you know, selling environment, which is pretty brutal.

Andrea Morter: 15:15

Yeah. So, I mean, I think every company is definitely different. I would say for us a lot around the just the technology and making sure we're piecing together the right solution. We sell something that is very not cookie cutter. Right?

Andrea Morter: 15:31

So there's a lot of sales out there that are very one size fits all. If this is your software, here's the three levels of what we're selling, and it's pretty easy cut and dry to just deliver on that. You know, we sell all kind we work in the merchant services space. So everything from point of sale just to stand alone terminals. We do ecommerce.

Andrea Morter: 15:51

You might need recurring billing. You might need a mobile reader. Plus, you need a way to send out invoices. Right? But then you also need something on the counter at your store.

Andrea Morter: 16:02

So piecing all of those options together, I think, and making sure that they really deliver in a way that fills all of the gaps, and that they're presented in a way that we're overcoming anything that they were challenged with in the beginning. We're doing enough fact finding to make sure that the solution covers all the bases.

Collin Mitchell: 16:21

Yeah. Well, thank you so much for today's conversation. Really appreciate it. Any final thoughts as we wrap things up, and then where's the best place for people to to get into your world?

Andrea Morter: 16:32

Yeah. Thanks so much for the time, and, you know, I I just really appreciate you reaching out and making the time to have the conversation. It's been great. And, as far as reaching out to me, I'm on LinkedIn, Andrea Mortar, and I think that that would probably be best.

Collin Mitchell: 16:51

Awesome. Well, thank you so much. If you enjoyed today's episode, please write us a review, share the show with your friends. It helps us to reach more sellers and help transform the way that they sell, and we will see you in the next episode.