Welcome to Mavens of Modern Sales, where we take a deep dive with the sales leaders pulling sales teams in the 21st century to get their insights on leadership, strategy, industry trends, and more.
This week we talked to Randi-Sue Deckard, Senior Vice President, Client Engagement at BESLER.
You mentioned the importance of trying new things and sharing your journey openly—how do you encourage your team members to take similar risks and bring their unique ideas forward?
Remember when we were kids? You were fearless – learning to swim, ride a bike, hula hoop – well you get the idea. You didn’t care about failing; you just practiced until you got the hang of it. From there, you just kept iterating. No one starts out as an expert even if they have some natural talent.
When did learning new things or failing stop us from LEARNING?!
Having a “Fail Forward/I’m Learning” mindset is key to growing. Learning new skills, getting experience and the most important – the lessons along the way. I define failure as doing something wrong repeatedly. If something doesn’t work out and you learn from it, that’s not failure.
Experiment and Iterating is the way to grow.
As a leader, I show up authentically and vulnerably—sharing my wins, failures and learnings (aka lessons). This helps foster a safe space for my team so they understand that failure is not a bad thing. The important part of trying new things is the lesson and what you change as you move forward.
Curiosity and continuous learning seem central to your approach. What steps do you take to foster this mindset within your team, particularly as they explore new technologies like AI, which you seem to be diving headfirst into?
It’s a combination of lead by example, creating a safe space, promoting collaboration and learning opportunities. Egos are checked at the door. There is no bad idea and everyone contributes regardless of title.
Workshops are one of my favorite ways to help foster collaboration and learning. I don’t silo my teams- marketing, sales and customer success are all invited. Homework for the workshop involves brushing up on a case study of how I or another company/team creatively approached a problem. The first part of the workshop is discussing what they learned and how they might think differently. The second part of the workshop is taking a problem or two we have and how we might apply what we’ve learned.
The team is also encouraged to bring workshop ideas and lead. This level of buy in and accountability is infectious and while not all ideas are implemented the creativity exercise is invaluable for the whole team.
Having a professional development budget is crucial for team members to explore areas of interest through books, courses and events. All team members share learning and sometimes even lead a lunch and learn to go a bit deeper. This is where leading by example is so critical. If I’m not investing in myself, how can I expect my team too?
Imposter syndrome can be a huge obstacle; what strategies have you found most effective in helping others (or even yourself) move past “what will people think” and build true confidence in their abilities?
Mindset is my love language. People rely too much on self-confidence and NOT self-worth.
Self-confidence is external based while self-worth is internal.
Hold up the mirror, be self aware and work on you.
Self-worth is knowing who you are at your core and this doesn’t change based on people’s opinions, job title, or experience. It’s the unshakeable belief you have in yourself to accomplish big hairy audacious goals.
Everything is “figureoutable”. The real question is “How long is the runway?”
Your path to sales was unconventional and required as you called it a leap of faith. What advice would you give to others who are considering a career pivot but worry about taking a step down in title or pay?
My advice is best shared with how I approached the pivot:
Ultimately, I believed in myself and even though I was scared I did it anyway. I asked myself, “What’s the worst that can happen?” For me, the answer was I could always go back to what I was doing before.
I didn’t want to have regrets so I leapt even though colleagues were giving me the side eye (aka she’s crazy).
This is why self-worth is so important. I truly believe that I am capable and can learn and figure out things using transferable skills and experience. I also have a network and resources to tap on; I don’t need to know everything to try something. In fact, having a fresh perspective can be a superpower.
What do you see as the most critical components of a successful GTM strategy for early-stage versus growth-stage companies, and how do you adapt your approach for each?
Early-stage startups succeed when they stay hyper-focused on solving a specific problem for a defined audience. The foundation is so critical -nail down your ICP (ideal customer profile) and work on PMF (product market fit). Customers must agree the problem is worth solving, they would pay for it and can articulate the impact it has on their business.
Until you have PMF, you can’t move into growth-stage. Why? You’ll just waste resources and the cash burnt can be devastating.
Once you have PMF, you can start building repeatable processes for sales, onboarding and support. It’s not all about new logos; the post sales side can help with the revenue growth via expansion and referrals; this will help with profitability and sustainability as this has a lower acquisition cost. Being disciplined and taking action on data to continuously iterate is crucial to growth.
With your experience overseeing Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success, what trends do you see impacting client engagement, and how should professionals in these areas adapt to stay relevant and ahead of these shifts?
Client engagement is evolving rapidly, influenced by technological advancements and shifting consumer expectations. Professionals must adapt to these trends to maintain relevance and foster strong client relationships.
In one word–be proactive.
Meet the customer where they are at. Develop an integrated communication strategy that provides consistent and cohesive experiences across all client touchpoints. Don’t forget about peer to peer engagement and community. It should all be seamless and frictionless to customers.
Be customer obsessed when thinking about AI. Always ensure you’re adding value to the customer: individualized communications and content based that is relevant to that client’s interests.
Where do you see the demand for fractional CROs going in the next few years, and what advice would you give leaders considering this path for their GTM strategy?
Engaging a fractional CRO allows companies to access seasoned revenue leadership without the financial commitment of a full-time executive. This model is particularly appealing to startups and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) aiming to optimize resources while benefiting from high-level strategic guidance. As more GTM AI agencies pop up, I believe fractional CRO roles will validate or refine AI generated strategic plans and be required to help execute the plan.
If you’re a leader considering a fractional CRO, it’s critical not to bring in this role too early or you’ll burn cash and waste resources. If you’re truly on the cusp of scaling, it’s important to ensure you’re clear on what you’re trying to accomplish (market expansion, sales process optimization, or revenue operations enhancement), how results will be measured and ensure this aligns with overall business objectives. With GTM changing rapidly, you want to ensure you look beyond industry experience and what have they done to stay relevant (AI and GTM trends).
Randi-Sue is an accomplished executive with an entrepreneurial mindset and extensive experience in developing and implementing transformational, customer-centric strategies designed to propel revenue, optimize,
operations, and enable rapid, sustainable organizational growth. She aligns high-performing teams with the corporate vision, forges value-add partnerships at all levels of the organization and delivers tactical roadmaps to unlock business value.
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