Bridging Cultural Fit and Sales Strategy for Unmatched Growth

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Zahra Jeeva is the director of sales strategy at Pipe Drive. She joined the company four years ago and manages sales teams, serving all global regions. She's responsible for defining and implementing the global sales strategy To help the company grow its business before joining pipe drive, Zara led sales teams at uni places and trip wicks.

She holds a master's degree in journalism and was a working journalist for three years before moving to sales. Zara. Thanks for being with us today.

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[00:00:48] Lucas Price: Tell us a little bit about how you got into sales, that transition from, uh, journalism to Sales. what led you here?

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So I started sales when I was about 16, in a real estate, uh, business, then retail as well, and then went to a contact center, uh, call center. That was actually my first job opportunity, the call center that allowed me to, uh, true commission, buy a car really old car, but super proud because it was the first achievement.

So that's when I started sales. And when I decided I want to do my master and I want to study a bit more. It's hard for you to identify where sales is when it comes to study wise. And then everyone is just like, no, you need to find a real career opportunity and, sales. It might be too stressful.

hat is, everything else that [: 00:02:00

And after a while I was just like this is really not for Me. I want more out of, uh, out of a career progression and job opportunity. And luckily I found uni places that was looking to hire individual contributor, helping, uh, students, uh, finding homes, uh, in the Spanish market and that's where, then I started developing my career until now.

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[00:02:57] Zahra Jiva: I think they work super closely without people [00:03:00] even noticing. Realizing so sales to journalism, I think not having afraid to just jump onto an opportunity and, be outspoken and, communicate, being able to communicate, uh, to others and. I think most of all not being afraid because in sales either you, go for it or you're going to get crushed by it.

Uh, so being in sales helped me getting interviews with others, like approaching someone on the streets, knowing that I had a story there to tell. Uh, and people are not comfortable at the beginning, tell you their story and you just making them feel comfortable. Trusting you as well. And being openly disclosing their story.

more comfortable as a public [: 00:04:00

Uh, also your manners and journalism definitely helped me when I went back to sales, to continue my career

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[00:04:30] Zahra Jiva: a hundred percent or the other way around, or you have a lot of time because, uh, you need to fill in and sometimes you're just broadcasting and you have a live event and you, have a specific moment, but then. You're not going to cut into a break and they need you to stay longer. Uh, and you'll need to find different ways to approach and still have your audience engaging.

make sure that someone stays [: 00:05:00

[00:05:11] Lucas Price: yeah, so if we go back to the beginning there, you started, I think you said you started your sales career when you were 16. So there, there must've been something that really gave you like a, drive and motivation to be able to, you know, do these things that are, you know, it's. I think you see it in every high performing sellers that they have a drive, but to do it when you're 16, you know, must really be part of your personality.

Where do you think that comes from?

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And then when he came to I. T. Him being super interested, on technology and development it was from him, not that he wanted. Or ever thought that I would go into this career for him. It was always like technology. And at a certain point when I was a kid, I was, Oh, I'll be a doctor. And he was like, Oh, fine.

That's a good, that's a good, uh, profession. But after, a while, when he understood I was in sales, it was kind of funny because it's, how he started as well.

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[00:06:46] Zahra Jiva: I think really understanding customers and how can we help our customers, knowing where we want to go next in the sense of we are a sales CRM. That's where Pipetribe is super strong. That's how we can definitely help [00:07:00] businesses grow. And while building this amazing CRM that was driven for salespeople, continue to have the same mission and continue working on development.

By listening to customers, I believe that the fact that we're so prone on voice of customer listening to what we're being told in the sense of, okay, maybe we need to develop this or look at this feature or understand where customers would like to go and super focused on customers interviews and research really allows us to develop an incredible CRM and knowing What do we want to do next?

So I think PipeDrive is incredible because of that. It's, really to help out others, uh, expand and scale up their businesses like PipeDrive did almost 14 years ago,

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And is that accurate in terms of how customers get started with pipe drive a lot?

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I love when you get a customer that just says, this is the first thing that I open when I open my computer is really a pipe drive and I cannot live without it. If I don't have access to pipe drive I, definitely lose the sense of. What it's closing what's coming next and because it's so friendly, you allow for someone that is just looking at pipe drive to [00:09:00] understand what to do, how to do it.

And someone that has used pipe drive continues to explore and continues to know Where to go and how to see the developments that existed. So you can easily ramp up anyone that is joining your company, even if you're using PipeDrive for the longest, or if you're looking at PipeDrive for the first time, you can definitely understand how to do it.

So it's not just about the pricing being different and spending more if we look at Salesforce, because it's a fully different CRM when it comes to PipeDrive is. You're going to get the return much faster because you're going to use it from day one, day, hour one.

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[00:09:47] Zahra Jiva: Yes. So it means that I work super closely with our VP of sales, uh, defining the sales strategy. Uh, when I joined Pipedrive, I joined as a manager. At the time I was leading two [00:10:00] markets, uh, EMEA and LATAM. And for the past almost two years now, I've been. Looking at the sales strategy along with our VP my main focus is how can we grow our markets and how can we develop the best customer experience when it comes to sales simultaneously?

How can we then expand our customer base and bring more revenue to the business? So a normal day to me is numbers. How are we in terms of revenue? Which markets, uh, are we on track? Which markets do we need to still, uh, work with closely with marketing? Uh, Since pipe drive is, uh, focused on an inbound strategy.

rships team, and then at the [: 00:11:00

So how can we build our sales strategy along with our product strategy? So that we're. in line of what customers are really looking for and simultaneously understanding what is coming, roadmap, how can we sell, what is the value of it, what is going to be the return for our customers. So this is just working in collaboration with other departments while understanding market trends and, our competitors and how to position Pipedrive and sharing that feedback, uh, and working as a point of contact between Our team leads in our sales reps the rest of the business.

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[00:11:53] Zahra Jiva: I think one thing that for me, it's really important is aligning to the values of our business. Uh, and making sure [00:12:00] that every day we bring the values that our business really values. But first of all, understanding those values, I think for someone to actually follow them, you, you first firstly need to understand them.

And I believe that we've built such a strong and united team because of that. So when I joined, uh our, company, we had, I think in total, if I'm not mistaken, about 10, 12 people as an account as account executive. So individual contributors, we're now at 30 people. And we continue to grow. And then what happens is when you continue to scale up, uh, you want to make sure that you keep the same culture that you've built.

Of course, you're going to have different. Struggles. You're going to have other scenarios that you had, you didn't had in the past, but I think while building such a strong performance team, first of all, is they are individuals. They're also looking to grow. We need to connect the mission of the business.

em throughout, uh, the whole [: 00:13:00

They all have their individual attainment to reach. But at the end of the day, we're a team and we have a company goal. We have a department goal. How can we get there as a team? So that's the strongest message that we always send. And for me, it's a one team approach.

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[00:13:40] Zahra Jiva: Of course. So I think the mission of the business is first of all, understanding the, strategy. One thing that we made sure to implement while we've grown the team is sharing the results, not just the sales results, because they are really close to that, but also the company results. First of all, I think data and [00:14:00] really explaining how decisions are made and how they are made.

I think that's the first step for someone to understand, why are you making that decision over another one? Why are you prioritizing this project over the other? Or why are you thinking of segmenting each type of customers over the others? I think connecting the data to your decision making is super important while explaining the mission of the business.

I think it's also important that beginning of the year, you also explain your goals and where you're heading. for listening. Just so that it doesn't come as a surprise, you might shift. It might adjust because we're volatile in that sense, because we're adjusting to the market as well. But at the end of the day is be transparent, be open with your strategy so that people understand where are we going?

t is, why do you continue at [: 00:15:00

So we always get the product in, people and you get that because of the mission. Our mission is helping sales team and sales companies to grow while using our CRM.

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[00:15:43] Zahra Jiva: Rewards. I think I'd start to that. How do you re reward your teams? And then how do you unite your team? So for example, one, one thing that we always make sure is have a budget for events and be consistent on the events. Don't allow for like [00:16:00] one month. I'll do a team event. Maybe in two months I'll do another one.

Let's see if I have time to organize or Think about a team event. No, be consistent. If you're delivering one, let's plan for the rest of the year. If for example, you want to do a bigger one, maybe that justifies the fact that you're not going to have every month. So for me, people driven events, uh, one thing that we implemented, uh, starting uh, last year.

Maybe two years, no, two years actually was an offsite as our team is now located in three places. So we have a team in the United States. We have another one in London and another one in, Portugal. It's hard, to make sure that they get together. They talk about their roles because they do exactly the same thing, but it just different time zones, right?

ghout the morning, different [: 00:17:00

And then afternoon is. No fun in the sense it's working time so that we don't lose the full week. But it's a moment, it's a week that we get everyone in the same, space, and it has been so incredible to see, uh, how we brought the team closer. And the value that they gave because we're, doing That.

the other aspect is we get to have. For example, fireside chats with some of our executive members or more senior leadership. We do webinars or podcasts, uh, with different topics and teams just for our internal teams. Uh, we also have other events that, uh, our offices team, uh, work. So it's really focused on, people and how others see Pipedrive.

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Coaching sessions for them, either they are developing product skills or, uh, soft skills. It's one or the other in which again, we're here to help them at the same time. So always learning something new and something that they can take onthat also shows the investment thatPipedrive has s over people.

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Is that accurate? And how do you, look at that? How do you consider that during the hiring process?

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We just want to make sure that anyone that will bring in will respect and will Look at those values every single day and then we have the department fit So what do we do, for example, they have a hiring interview, they have an interview with the hiring manager followed by a simulation, a task.

It depends on which department you're applying, right? When it comes to sales it's a task around how would you sell, And then after that, we do a team interview. So we select the more senior people, uh, in our, uh, in our team that it's really an informal conversation, but they'll ask anything and everything.

them. And then the candidate [: 00:20:00

And is that person going to have the cultural feet overall as a business? And then they go on to the last step that is just with an interview with the VP, or in my case, in that case, it could be with Me. So that is one aspect while we're hiring that we make sure that we see, is that people going to match what Pytreb is looking for and what the department is also looking for.

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You don't have to go through all of them, but just kind of give us a flavor of, the PipeDrive culture pieces.

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But what we look is even if you're having a bad day, you shouldn't let that energy go onto the person that you're meeting. That is really important. It's not just about being respectful. It's about the energy that you bring in. And when, for example, we're in the interview process, one of the things that we'll ask is, Imagine that you had a bad day.

How did you handle it? If we were to ask someone that worked with you of scenarios or cases in which you weren't having a bad, a good day. What do you think they would say? And how did you handle, do you, what would be their perception of how you've handled it? If there was improvement areas from others, what do you think they would tell us?

dy sense if people are being [: 00:22:00

And I think when we ask those sort of questions, you really help to help us understand if the values are there.

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That's where you start to get a sense of like, Hey, is this a story that kind of has the details that, you know, it's kind of easy for them to access because they've lived it? Or is this something that. Hey, they just tried [00:23:00] to give me a quick answer because they didn't really like this question. And that's where you start to get a better sense of a candidate is telling the truth.

Is that, I think I heard you say something similar to that. Has that been your experience as well?

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And then, or the other part that is, no, I think I, I haven't heard anything negative on my behavior or in any approach or any scenario feedback has been super positive all the time. That is also a red flag

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I always feel really great about those people when I'm a manager. And likewise, if I'm doing that with my bosses, I think it builds a level of confidence. Whereas the people who tell me, no, there's no risk in this deal. I'm doing everything great. Everything's fine. There's no problems. That's where you're, that's where the antenna kind of goes up as a manager and

there's probably something wrong. And for some reason, this employee doesn't want to tell me about it.

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And, the overly confidence, uh, doesn't help. You should definitely have the confidence you're selling, you know, your pipeline, you have [00:25:00] a strong forecast, but always have something on the backend so that you're safe and you have the full coverage that you need. And recognize if that's not the case, just be honest, uh, not getting in those deals.

And ask for help. I think most importantly is being able to ask for help.

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[00:25:44] Zahra Jiva: Yeah. And explore it really at the beginning. Don't be afraid to ask questions because oftentimes you lose the deal at the end because you were unaware of every aspect that could get the deal going south. So [00:26:00] not being afraid. I think for me, it's super important to. What are the stakeholders? Who is involved?

Who is going to participate in the decision? Because at the end of it all, you might get someone coming in on a later stage that was already part of the whole process, the decision process, that it didn't have full visibility, which then Or increases your timeline or makes you lose the deal because you haven't really sold out to that specific individual and you're relying on the first one to actually sell it for you.

So I think for me, the beginning of a deal is. Is what really sets apart your, conversion.

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[00:26:44] Zahra Jiva: Yes, definitely asking the right questions, not being afraid to ask those questions and they're sending the challenges, the pains, uh, who is involved, timelines, what is their research about, who is, do they sell? How did they [00:27:00] do it? I think a strong discovery call, it's going to lead you to success.

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How do you, help those sellers better at understanding, you know, asking the question that they might be afraid to ask and being willing to, qualify out instead of trying to hang on to a deal, hoping that it might turn into something great.

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So we connected our churn to sales, not fully because we also believe it's not, it's not, fair to them that they have a customer that churns one year or two years afterwards, they would get, that value discounted for their attainment, but what we did is we implemented a structure that if a customer churns within the first three months, after we sold, we tiered a percentage that will be discounted towards their attainment in month.

So let's say that a customer churns after the following month, they get a hundred percent of that churn. If it's on the on the, second month, they get 80%. If it's the third month, it's 60 percent that helped us drive the best behaviors because no one wants their churn rate to be high. So they really want to qualify in and qualify out, but by qualifying out, we really need to understand why.

about us. Uh, did we sell it [: 00:29:00

and we've decreased a lot by introducing the sales team, but he always gets some cases. At the end of it all, it's just, okay, it wasn't the right match or the customer decided not to use Ford, but we're certain that at a certain point, they'll come back to us because they've already tried PipeShare for a little bit.

But that was one action that we took to, to help out.

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Right. Okay. And and there and, there a lot of times asking hard questions get you there. But a lot of times I find that asking hard [00:30:00] questions, you know I'm getting like, you know, I might be in a situation where I think like, I'm not totally seeing it. I'm going to tell the customer that I'm not totally seeing it and they come back and say, no, we do have that problem, but then they can't, you know, articulate it.

You know, as clearly as I'd like them to be able to articulate it for me to like, feel like this is a great opportunity as a seller. So like, how do you wade through those situations?

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Your current process or like processing in a lot of cases, but you get used to that reality that sometimes it's hard for you to get out of that scope and see what's, out there, which solutions does the market offer and [00:31:00] how does it offer and what can do for us when you start being visually and showing the product itself and how Taylor it can be looking at different, for example, pre sales post sales, and adapting to different.

Types of users, then those hard questions diminish in the sense of the questions that will follow are more related. Oh, so what would be your recommendation? Like I do lead generation. How would you see those leads coming in into pipe drive? What would be the next action that we would take? So we transform those questions while we're doing demonstrations.

Of course, we're always going to have, we're always going to have some hard questions. What happens often is. During the demo, if it's really not the solution, we'll be upfront to the customer and we'll say, okay, based on your requirements, I don't see PipeDrive helping you at this Time. maybe you could do this, or maybe you'll see this part, I'm more than happy to help you out throughout so that you can continue to test.

ndation is that, so we'll be [: 00:32:00

[00:32:02] Lucas Price: Zara, lots of great information here today. We talked about, you know, kind of building. Uh, team that where the the mission of the business is connects to the individuals we talked about how to find those individuals during the hiring process that are going to connect to the mission of the business.

And we talked about the importance of the beginning of the sale. you know, of the things we've talked about any kind of key takeaways or summarization that you'd give to our listeners here to, start to wrap us up.

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It's not easy. I think it's one of the aspects that every company looks after is how can you retain your people? So definitely when you hire, it's connecting to the mission [00:33:00] in order to be able to, uh, have some retention around to then have the possibility of coaching and develop. Those high performance teams and then definitely understand what is your business strategy?

And how can the sales team help the business get there? I think sales, it's easy to connect to the performance of a business. And we love understanding, Oh, we had like X amount of impact to the growth of the business. And, Hype your teams around it, make sure that they understand their impact and celebrate them.

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Is having the rewards in place and being a place where people, get rewarded for good work. And so I think those are some [00:34:00] great points to take away here. And then also the, uh, the self awareness that you want to see, you know, both from candidates and employees in terms of where They can do better and how they can understand where the risk factors are.

Those are some takeaways for me. Where can people find you online or where can they learn more about either you or, pipe drive?

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So feel free to reach out.

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