Episode 102: Alex Jagiello

From Hockey savant to top performing Sales Rep to SDR Manager, Alex Jagiello has always been competitive.

Now that he’s running a Sales Development team at Palo Alto Networks, he brings that same work ethic, competitive drive and open-mindedness to establish a winning team.

Listen to his thought process on establishing the program, hires a winning team, and runs it effectively. If you’re getting in to Sales Dev Management, you can learn a lot from Alex.

The Sales Development Conference 2019 is coming up August 23rd in San Francisco. EARLY BIRD SOLD OUT, grab remaining tickets while available! TEAM PACKS available.

http://tenbound.com/conference/

Big thanks to @Darryl Praill of @VanillaSoft for making this podcast possible. Check out their new Sales Engagement solutions here… https://www.vanillasoft.com/solutions/business-function/sales-engagement-platform/

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Notable Quotes:

“Top tier SDRs really are never looking for a job because the moment they start even thinking or considering leaving their current organization, they most likely have a network of peers or other former managers that they’ve worked for, that they can reach out to and pick their brain about.”

– Alex Jagiello

“I don’t care how good of an SDR you were, there are always, always different areas you can improve, and you need to have that type of mindset here.”
– Alex Jagiello

Brief Summary

Imagine you’re going through your regular day as an SDR, making cold calls, sending out emails, filling out your pipeline to hit your monthly quota, but all of a sudden, your bass calls you into their office and tells you that they’re promoting you and from tomorrow onwards, you’ll be a manager. How do you go about that when you’ve never held a managerial position in your life?

In this episode of The Sales Development Podcast, we’re talking to someone who had to face just that and more—Alex Jagiello, Sales Development Manager over at Demisto, shares how he also built an internal sales team from the ground up.

Today’s Guest: Alex Jagiello

Alex Jagiello was a huge fan of the San Jose Sharks, but rather than being on the hockey team, he found his first exposure to sales that kickstarted his career. After being on the frontlines as an SDR, he now has built their internal sales team at Demisto from the ground up as a Sales Development Manager.

The episode touches on the following key topics and ideas:

Check out the 2019 Tenbound Sales Development Conference (00:20)
David introduces the episode’s guest, Alex Jagiello (01:05)
Alex Jagiello and sales development (01:45)
Understanding the playbooks and processes before stepping into a managerial role (05:24)
Setting up the groundwork for a sales development team (06:36)
What to do as an Accidental Sales Manager (07:52)
Thinking about the type of people Alex wanted on his team (09:24)
Scoring people based on alignment to Alex’s criteria (10:25)
A tough market for SDRs (11:30)
- Implementing the learnings from The Sales Acceleration Formula (12:52)
The next step after securing the recruitment process (14:35)
The mistake of overlooking the value of training (16:38)
Setting up an SDR to be able to start producing within the first couple of months (18:12)
Balancing expectations and reality at recruitment (20:02)
The helplessness, the blame game, and the finger pointing (22:00)
- Taking up a theme of experimentation (23:20)
Balancing a program between scalable and flexible (25:02)
Setting goals to alignment (26:43)
Becoming the catalyst for alignment and having the evidence to back it (28:48)
Where to find and keep in touch with Alex Jagiello (32:28)

List of Resources Mentioned in the Episode

Alex Jagiello
LinkedIn
Demisto
The Accidental Sales Manager: How to Take Control and Lead Your Sales Team to Record Profits by Chris Lytle
Get it on Barnes and Noble | Walmart | Amazon
The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million by Mark Roberge
Get it on Barnes and Noble | Walmart | Amazon