From Inside to Outside Sales: The Growth and Progression

Joe Young currently holds the position of Vice President of Worldwide Commercial Sales at Zscaler, where he oversees both the inside and field Commercial sales organization consisting of 200 people, along with the sales development organization of 100 people. Before joining Zscaler, Joe accumulated over 9 years of experience at EMC & Dell EMC, contributing to various inside sales, field sales, and leadership roles across different segments of the company. A native of the Boston area, Joe is a Babson College graduate with a degree in Business Administration and Finance. Additionally, he served as a two-year captain of the Men's Varsity Golf Team. In this episode, Joe Young shares insights into how Zscaler organizes its commercial sales team, including inside sales, SDRs, and field sales. He discusses the segmentation of the commercial market into SMB (500 employees and below) and commercial (500-2,500 employees) accounts. Joe also highlights the importance of having field presence for commercial accounts and the role of SDRs in building pipeline and demand generation. He emphasizes the need for consistent enablement, common language, and sales processes across geographies. Additionally, Joe provides valuable advice on recruiting and developing talent, the key qualities of successful SDRs and inside salespeople, and the challenges of territory balancing. Tune in to this conversation with John McMahon and John Kaplan on the Revenue Builders podcast. HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT [00:01:13] Joe Young's background and experience at EMC Dell [00:07:40] Adjusting the line between SMB and commercial based on productivity [00:11:02] SDR organization's role in building pipeline and future talent pipeline [00:14:29] Distribution of commercial reps in local offices and managed by local leaders [00:17:26] Importance of enablement business partner and consistent enablement [00:20:15] Standardizing processes and language across stages to facilitate promotion and transition [00:22:15] Importance of establishing the three why's: why buy anything, why buy now, and why buy from me [00:26:20] Difficulty in finding multiple champions in SMB accounts [00:29:11] Deals stall due to lack of pain qualification or champion [00:33:04] Conversion rate decreased from 28% to 18% in the past year [00:36:45] Difficulty in holding onto inside sales reps and providing career paths [00:44:24] The average tenure for SDRs and inside sellers is 18 months [00:57:19] Joe Young highlights the importance of overcoming adversity and being a grinder in a sales role ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Learn more about Joe Young and about their company. https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-young-6959742b/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/zscaler/ HIGHLIGHT QUOTES [00:54:26] "If I can't self-identify on how that makes me feel, I call it the indignity of the close. If I'm not understanding what that means, that the sale really begins with probably an objection or a no or somewhere, and I'm not comfortable with that, then I'm probably not gonna do so well in that sales career." [00:55:41] "I wanna understand someone's character more so than anything. So I think those, As part of our structured interview framework, we're trying to focus more in the early stages of that process of identifying what are the aspects of someone's character and capability that we're looking for." [01:01:41] "I think if the sales reps need to remember where they came from and help invest in that SDR 'cause it's gonna lead to success for them if they make those investments."