The Modern Hybrid Seller – Multi-Talented, Dynamic, Enabled

Automated Transcript

Alastair Cole 0:06

Hello and welcome to ‘The Sales Scoop’. This is a weekly live show for the founders, and leaders of technology businesses who want to improve how they sell. I'm Alastair Cole. I'm an AI graduate, and ex software developer with two decades experience in sales and marketing. And I'm joined today for the show by a man who's helping me become a modern hybrid seller. My co founder and co host, Kiran Gill, hi, Kiran, hi,

Kiran Gill 0:44

hi. Alastair, Hi, my connection is a bit strange there. Sorry. Hello, everybody. My name is Kiran Gill. I am a co-founder of The Uplift Partnership, and I've got 25 years experience in sales enablement, in tech and in corporate finance.

Alastair Cole 1:02

Thank you, my man and together with our CTO Douglas, we are The Uplift Partnership. We accelerate sales for technology businesses, we help get them greater clarity, increase confidence, higher win rates, reduce their stress about selling, and increase their happiness. And today's show is a really exciting one, certainly from my point of view, focusing on modern hybrid sellers. You know what is happening right now in 2025 How can sales, people and founder sellers adapt themselves in order to keep up with the pace of change which feels in the last certainly two years, my friend, to be very rapid about how the role of sellers is changing right, from from fewer things to more more areas. Which is why we've, we've picked this topic, how, what have you? What are you seeing in the market at the moment, Kiran with clients who are working with and other people in terms of, like, what are the expectations of modern sellers, of modern hybrid sellers? What are you seeing?

Kiran Gill 2:07

Yeah, I think it comes across in different places, a concert complex selling, where you're noticing in complex selling, that the there's a re-emergence of a business development rep, a BDR, as you would call them, that suddenly there's gone away from the point of an SDR, a sales development representative, it's now gone into a BDR, what was something that I did back in the noughties? So it's quite interesting to see the RE emergence of this. And I think that's coming back because of the human side of selling. I think people have kind of moved away from or they kind of got scared of the whole technology burst that's happened and its selling has become a little bit distant from humans, and now we're bringing back the BDR role. You suddenly notice that, suddenly the humans are coming back into the game?

Alastair Cole 2:59

Yeah, that's a great insight. And I think we're going to touch on that role, that BDR role, and the kind of the rise, the RE, Rise of the humans, which really, I think, has come off the back of COVID. You know, COVID was an accelerator for digital, first sales approaches, video conferencing, and that has just accelerated the rise of this, of this hybrid seller that is, is hybrid in two cents, of the word both, you know, digital and as well as being in person, but also a hybrid in terms of just the sheer volume of new skills and capabilities they've got and are expected to have now the last six months, is a role has undergone significant transformation, driven by these technological advancements and shifting via behaviors and evolving workplace dynamics. So a really exciting show to get into for people watching live. We're as always, ready to take your questions on LinkedIn. Drop something in the comments, and we'll see we may be able to get to your question personally, we've broken down the modern hybrid cell into three chunks that we're going to cover off today without further ado this. The first these three are, they are multi talented professionals. They are dynamic market navigators, and they're also enabled by cutting edge technology. And for all of these three areas, we're going to dive into the diverse skill sets that they have in these three areas. We're going to touch on some of the differences that we're seeing now more than two years and even six months ago, and we're going to pick out some takeaway learning actions that if you're looking to become a modern hybrid seller, that you can do immediately to up your game. So those are the three, okay, and, and we're just going to dive straight into this first one so you. Know, multi talented professionals. I mean, the range of skills and capabilities that people are expected to have now just in the sales world, seems enormous. You know, they're blending marketing and technology and product and customer service with sales. You know, talk to me a little bit, Kiran, about, you know, your views on that, that kind of multi talented aspect that dynamic sellers are having to show,

Kiran Gill 5:29

yeah. So what you're seeing is that the modern seller needs to obviously bridge quite a lot of the sales process. They're going from prospecting at the top of the funnel all the way down to selling, and then potentially even then doing customer success at the end. So the smaller companies really need their salespeople to be multi-talented and multi-tasking across the bridge, and that's why they're using so much more technology, and we'll get over that in the third phase. But what you're noticing is that less people are doing more, and they're expected to do more because it is difficult out there finding the right people. But then comes the other side of it, are you overburdening potentially sellers because they're not selling because they're too busy doing marketing things, or they're too busy doing customer success things you've got to be careful. There's a balance here, to be fair, but that's what the expectation is nowadays of the modern seller. Yeah,

Alastair Cole 6:27

yeah, totally. And I think that there is that balance. You know, there are stories out there, and you hear examples of role specialization, where some organizations are kind of restructuring with more specialized roles, right? Really super, super specialized. And we'll come on to the PDO on that. But I think across the board, it is about, you know, doing more with less, like you say, and, and, and, you know, they're there. The expectations are significant. You know, for me, they're expected to kind of communicate effectively, right across multiple different channels in terms of that multi talented professional there, they're expected to build relationships digitally, in person, and keep them going for longer. But one area I really, really passionate about is that the new expectation around analyzing and interpreting data right, that these sellers also are doing that research right like the buyers are, and their expectation is they can find the right data that's going to demonstrate value or convince, persuade a buyer to move forward in in the process. And there they got to sift the wheat from the chaff, find that information, quickly vet it, and then dress it up and get it out to buyers, which, you know, just wasn't happening, you know, two years ago. So what are your thoughts on, on how, how it's different now, right, in terms of that, that kind of multi talented, what, what will if you look back, you know, six months or further, you know, to what are the things that have changed significantly?

Kiran Gill 8:08

I think the expectation of the buyer is getting more and more so, from a buyer's point of view, realistically, by the time they've come to your web, you know, by the time a buyer has made contact with you, and we're talking about inbound side of things, the expectation is that you know what you're doing and you're able to help them facilitate the purchase. That's what it is out there from the opposite side of the kind of the place where you're looking at Outreach, when you're doing outreach, realistically, you have to be data LED. So you're looking at intent data. So you're looking at people who are coming to your website that aren't purchasing but are searching for certain things that are key problems for them. And that then comes back to your marketing side of your business, and potentially even your BDRs and people who are posting or reposting items and into LinkedIn or wherever you're posting this with the right keywords out there so that, you know, a CFO who's got problems in their, you know, financial department with certain kind of problems there that you're talking about those issues, so that when they are searching for those problems that your name is popping up, or your company's name is popping up, so that the intent data is there for you to then react on and I think that's a major thing that I've seen in the last six to 12 months, that now technology based, realistically you are looking at serious intent data. There's so many more technology tools out there that do this. Any company that isn't using intent data, pretty much is shooting in the dark. So that's where you are, and there is a lot more out there for you to potentially use.

Alastair Cole 9:42

Yeah, that's interesting. You bring up expectations. You know, they're enormous now, right? 87% expect to be delighted before and after purchase. Right? Expectations are sky high, hyper personalization, because these tools are available, are now table stakes and. You talked as well about having to own the entire buying journey, and that's the case right from from the foundational stuff of strategy and the playbook and the technology all the way through to the prospecting meeting and closing. You know, modern sellers expected to, you know, absorb these changes in their roles, folk. They're producing more content. They've got to be data fluent, mastery of all these channels. So there is a really, really powerful and broad skill set that is required. But you know, it's, it's, it's a lot, isn't it, you know, and we see the pressure with founders and senior leaders, you know, come on to kind of overwhelmed, but one area that you talked about there was the kind of marketing side of things. And you know, as sellers get into supporting their buyers digitally, what's the responsibility for the modern hybrid seller in terms of how they're supporting self service? Kiran, what? What is their role, and how has their role changed in terms of how they're supposed to, you know, create, maintain, kind of self service tools. What's your thoughts on that?

Kiran Gill 11:09

When it comes to self service tools, you've got to remember that your website pretty much is helping to facilitate that sale as well. So, you know, your chat bot, all the, you know, calculators and everything else that you've got on your website is slowly bringing these people in, and that's where the intent data is coming from, that you're getting people who are engaging with your website, and that is pretty much early on in the selling process. But as you go into the complex cell itself, and somebody reaches out to you, that's where the problems really start, because then what you have is potentially six to 12 potential buyers in that buying process that most of them you won't even see, and you don't even know what they want, and they're all engaging with this potential one person who's the pivot that you're thinking that you're selling to this one person, but you're not, you're selling to actual group. So it gets more and more complex and as and there you are now you've got three or four deals, that means potentially up to 36 different people. If you've got three deals, how do you service 36 different mindsets? It's an absolute minefield.

Alastair Cole 12:17

Yeah, well, that's great. You're talking about buying groups and getting into the market, because that is our second section here, right? Beautifully done, my friend. You know, as well as being multi talented, which we've covered, we scratched the servers on modern hybrid sellers are our dynamic market navigators, right? They are, you know, they're out there in a rapidly changing landscape that is moving very fast. They've still got to, you know, create the basic strategic fundamental components of selling. You know, they've got to get their the right funnel mix across multiple channels. But they are out there, right? You talked about buying groups, you know, buying groups, you know, growing in size. I mean, I think your hubspots, that isn't this, but I read something just yesterday that the average numbers in buying groups now was like, you know, 11.5 or something like, according to a recent HubSpot service, and that is growing, like you say. So in terms of modern hybrid sellers getting out there, into the market. You've touched on it a little bit there. You know, for me, it's a rapidly changing environment. They've got to embrace the digital technologies, you know, new platforms and tools, the streamlining of communication with potential buyers and the whole group. In terms of it being a dynamic marketplace, what, how, how are, how do modern sellers need to be agile? Be a bit of a leading question. But what's changed there in the last six to 12 months in terms of their requirements? I

Kiran Gill 14:00

think the rise of AI, and it's a buzzword, and it's out there, just the expectation is that you are able to handle a lot more communication. And some of that will be semi automated. Some of that will be totally automated. But however, as you come into the sales process and you're further along, none of it will be automated. So depending on the customer, where they are in your sales process and their buying journey, your level of attention has to be at the right point. Now, where do you take it, and who do you need to and what information should you be giving them at the right time to make sure that they are still in the buying process? Now, when you start bringing all those components in, that means your marketing material has to make sense at the right point at the right time, because you might think that one piece of material will fit everybody in that company. However it doesn't. And then you suddenly wonder, why hasn't that customer come back to me in the last three weeks? Well, because what you sent didn't resonate. That's what. Happen or their priorities have moved. So from a market opportunity point of view, sellers need to be fast. That's the thing about the modern, modern hybrid seller. As soon as a lead hits the desk, you need to be rapid. You need to understand what the client wants. They want it before you've even sent it. Because, to tell you the truth, the modern buyer probably has the attention span of a goldfish. Because, tell you the truth, the next thing that comes along, boom, they're now concentrating on something else.

Alastair Cole 15:29

So, yeah, and like you said, that human element of sales is coming back. I think, you know, post pandemic, we're we our friendship groups kind of shrunk a bit, and we put greater emphasis on building relationships, we've seen the rise of referral business that's gone up quite significantly since then and but the truth is that a lot of buyers you know, still want to they prefer interacting digitally. I think 96% according to HubSpot, prefer a digital interaction to start with, and 71% prefer independent research. So, you know, adapting in that area is really important, so they're having to pivot strategically very quickly. I think that's so true. What you just said, like, expectation is that the minute something lands, the minute there is movement in the deal. Good buy, good sellers are acting that right away, right? There's no, the competition is so high you haven't got time to wait, right? You've just got to crack on. And you've got to do it across all these, all these different channels, you know, which is, you know, I mean, it sounds ridiculous, right? Like that. You're right. Talk about AI. In a recent HubSpot study, Salesforce, sorry, suggested that a lot of companies had seen an increase of 10 to 30% of productivity as a result of AI. We're going to come on to the kind of technology tools in a bit, but tools are helping right, to cover off a lot of that. But the truth is that even if they are, you know, the original sales tenants are still required, right? You've still got to get your funnel right, and crucially, you've still got to find a way to deliver value right, because value, demonstrating value in your product or service, is still the thing, right, that is going to result in a higher likelihood of a quality deal with that buyer. So, so those, those strategic pillars are still there. You just got to do it across multiple channels, 24/7, so you know, fortunately, there is a solution, right? And that is monsters being enabled by cutting edge technology. And this is, you know, part of our area of expertise. You know, we help accelerate businesses, technology, businesses in sales by combining a combination of cutting edge tools that are out there, often several. We've built our own. We have our own SaaS platforms, which is one of the reasons we're able to help them with our technology skills. But this, this really is, is a huge area, obviously, you know, AI is enormous now, and I read recently that 28% of time is what sellers are spending on selling, even with AI at the moment, that was a Salesforce study, and that's 72% of time spent on administrative tasks. So that's a bit worrying. I was hoping that number might have moved a little bit more in the last six months of the arrival of AI, but maybe its additional workloads have been loaded on. What are your findings, your thoughts? Kiran on, on, on how important cutting edge tech is for modern sellers. And what are you using that really makes a difference to you?

Kiran Gill 18:57

I think, I think what's happened in the last two years because it's the whole AI revolution. Everybody jumped on the bandwagon, and suddenly you've got an influx of loads and loads of tools. Now, a lot of the big players stayed outside of the market because they were biding their time to understand how they're going to utilize this. And it takes them, you know, the bigger the bigger companies, the sales forces and the Microsofts of this world takes them a lot longer to actually maneuver, because there are bigger ships where the agile, smaller companies came in with all these there were so many tools. Suddenly, everything was AI infused, and you did as a seller. It was quite overwhelming, because you didn't want to get left behind, and you wanted to make sure that you were using all this new technology, but then it wasn't right for your tech stack, because it didn't make any sense. And instead of, and this comes back to exactly what you just said, Alastair, in the sense of it didn't it overburden the seller, because now you've got more technology, you need to learn more, and now you've got too many things, and it's not really actually helping it, just because. Is AI infused? Doesn't mean it's better. It just makes it more difficult. Sometimes your sales process, it's something that you need to look at. Your sales process is something that's very, very delicate, and you add a new ingredient in there, and suddenly something that worked beautifully before, suddenly doesn't work at all. And suddenly we had all these tools, and we didn't know what to do. What you've noticed now in the last six months, and especially in the last three months, the big players have all found their gears, and now suddenly the sales forces, the Microsoft, the saps, all the big players are now saying, hey, guess what we've got. We've got a co-pilot that does this. We've got a sales agent that can do this. We've suddenly now we've got everything you've ever wanted. So the tool that you might be using a few months ago that seemed a little bit out of date now suddenly has all this AI functionality, everything that you wanted, and it's been designed in a way that it doesn't actually break your sales flow. So that's really, really important going forward.

Alastair Cole 20:59

Yeah, I think that's a great shout. You know, we've seen, for you know, over the last two years that those sellers are being overwhelmed, right? Too many tools they're 43% less likely to hit their quota because they've been forced to use X, Y and Z, right? So that is a genuine, genuine concern. And it's interesting that those those two areas, the small players you talked about, the big players, we're also investing our time and helping our clients by building personalized assistance for them, AI Power Systems bespoke to their business, all in service of trying to take advantage of the huge gains that are out there. You know, it's just Gartner's estimate last year that there's 27% extra bandwidth available, which you know is, you know, a day and a chunk you know, which is a fairly, a fairly interesting amount of time that you could win back. But I think it's not just about saving time. It's almost like you're getting a chunk of time back. And the quality, the personalization, if you're using the right tools in the right way, the quality of that outreach, that value affirmation is as high as well. And we have a framework for AI use with sales, and we break it down into kind of everyday utility tools which are better oil in your regular engine, for all your actions, a power player that is a specialist, and then a kind of strategic partner that you can use AI for. And but it isn't. It isn't just about AI. Is it, my friend, there are, there are other important kinds of non AI tools out there that we're using. And you know, there any What are your What are your favorites at the moment? What cutting edge digital tools are you? Are you enjoying

Kiran Gill 22:55

so Non, non cutting edge tools? I still like a piece of paper and a pen. I honestly think there's something you can sketch something out, a deal sometimes needs to be sketched out, and it makes it feel a little bit different when you're doing it from that side of things, when you're looking from a technology point of view. I think I've already touched on this. Buyer intent is really, really important. And I think if you're not using buyer intent now, as in your sales process, you're probably a step behind everyone else, because that really does give you a chance of catching up. And then if you're looking through your sales process, think about where you are going to be using it. So if you are going to be using emails or outreach, make sure that the flow actually works, and that you have your follow up and your whole campaign built in a way that there's a process involved here. What are you actually trying to play so, you know, try to be dynamic. Don't try to throw everything in there and think, Oh, just because it's the new tool on the block, we need to try this out really. Take time, take stock. Have an understanding of what your sales process, what you're trying to achieve, and then bring it in, slowly but surely, and to make sure that you get the right results that you

Alastair Cole 24:11

want with with, we're good, yeah, I think that's a that that is a great shout. You know that intent data, right? And it is really important. It's really important that sellers are able to crunch the data, go out to market, analyze and interpret it. You know, intent data is absolutely critical, but they're also using data to monitor customer behaviors almost in real time, fine tuning strategies in real time. So you know, as well as crunching data fast and furiously, there is a real kind of mindset shift to changing on the fly quicker, right, updating strategies quicker, changing your approach, quicker, changing the. In the funnel and your communication channel. So it's very, you know, kind of 24/7 real time, live. You know, hands on, hands on sales. You know, practices that we're seeing, which, you know, does feel a little bit a little bit scary. And sometimes, you know, guides are needed, frameworks are needed. So look that that kind of, that kind of wraps up quite nicely. Our last section on, on, enabled by cutting edge technology. There's loads we could talk about there in terms of AI. Previous episodes of this show, we've pulled out our top 10 AI tools for sales and gone through. You know, our steps on how you can use technology and technology platforms to accelerate your sales. Obviously, loads more we could, we could talk about there, but those are the three big areas that we see. You know, in terms of the modern hybrid seller. Now, we might have painted a, you know, a picture of intense pressure, but this there's, there are opportunities out there, aren't there, my friend, you know, there are opportunities for sellers on the front foot and and maybe you could talk a little bit about your feelings of that, and what's happening with the economy, and where you're starting to see kind of growth or or success for some scale ups and startups, what is, where is it looking rosy right now?

Kiran Gill 26:33

I think there's a lot of doom and gloom out there, especially with what's happening in tariffs around the world, because that's going to have a knockdown even in the services world, because what's going to happen there, potentially is that companies will then hold back investment, and that means we won't get to a position where people are investing, however, their opportunities are still out there. It just means that you have to create value and show value a lot more to the client to move them forward. Budgets are still to be spent. That means sales can't stop. So don't feel that just because Bloomberg and everybody else is saying that we're all at the point of meltdown, that means no one's going to be buying. It just means that we need to create more value and be more more emotionally connected with our seller, with our buyer, you know, make sure that the buyer understands where the value is, how we're going to change, help them navigate the difficult period that they're going through, because that's what our buyers are going through. They're going through a difficult period. They're feeling the shock as much as we are. So we all have to rally around together and make sure that we don't fall into a recession, that for some reason we're all wishing upon ourselves at this moment. I don't know why. And

Alastair Cole 27:44

so I think the you know, as well as being human and looking after buyers to this tough, just tough period, I feel like the growth opportunity is is in kind of skills and capable abilities, and that's what you can do now as a seller, you know if, if, irrespective of what's happening in the market, there is a now is the time to be thinking about how you develop yourself in these areas. How can you make yourself more talented? How can you practice dynamism and pivoting and changes in the market, and how can you play with and on board and master some of these new tools. So even though times are tough, there is an opportunity to grow now, so that when those times, you know, improve your you are a modern hybrid seller and ready to take advantage of that new job or smashing it where you currently are. So there is an opportunity for growth right now, and we believe in these three areas if you're interested in learning more about becoming a confident founder seller, and owning the entire buying journey, which is required now. Then you can head over to our website, the uplift partnership.com, forward slash white paper and download our 12 page white paper called The empowered founder seller. You can get it by zapping this QR code. Now, if you are interested in more detail around the people side, the skill side of selling, then the second section of our 360 sales diagnostic, which is on team structure, dives into the kinds of roles, like the BDR that Karen talked about, and others that you that you will need to be a successful business if and the next, the next live show we're going to have is a fortnight today. It's a subject that's very close to our heart. So. Sales playbooks. The rigor and the discipline that businesses go on in the production of the sales playbook and the creation of their their formalized approach to selling is something that, quite frankly, without that we've we've struggled to see businesses raising investment, which is why we're going to be talking about sales playbook that land investment two weeks today, and if you're interested in previous episodes of the show, you can head over to the sales scoop.com and peer in to that page and have a look at some of our previous shows, including ones like Top 10 AI tools for sales, how to move from seed to series A and other absolute bangers. That's us 1231. Thanks very much for your time today, Kiran, and your brilliant insights on the market, on modern hybrid sellers and what's happening out there in the marketplace. So thank you very much. Pleasure.

Kiran Gill 30:59

Alastair, as always. And thank you very much for all your wisdom as well.

Alastair Cole 31:05

My pleasure. Right, Well, we'll sign off here. Thanks for watching, everybody. Thanks, Kiran. Have a great day. Bye. Bye for now.