Table of Contents

Share this article

Learn from the brightest minds how to predictably and efficiently grow revenue.

Related Content

3 Keys to Avoiding Forecast Catastrophe in 2025

Forecasting isn’t just a numbers game, it’s a window into how well your sales engine is truly operating. And if you get it wrong, the consequences can range from embarrassment to a full-blown credibility crisis. We distill powerful insights from a recent webinar hosted by Adam Roberts, Sales Director at Ebsta, and Gerard McNamara, a…

How Not to Get Fired as a CRO in 2025

In a dynamic, high-pressure role like Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), job security isn’t a given, it’s earned. In this recent webinar, Alex Ollie, Co-Founder and CRO of Reachdesk, joined Adam from Ebsta to share his hard-earned lessons from the trenches. With CRO tenure now averaging just 18 months (down from 24, according to Harvard Business…

Beat the Benchmarks #3: How Top Sellers Outperform Their Peers

In this data-driven episode of Revenue Insights, Guy Rubin and Adam Roberts analyze 4.7 million sales opportunities worth $57 billion to uncover what sets top sellers apart. They reveal why top performers close 30% of deals at the discovery stage, how early stakeholder engagement increases win rates, and which proven techniques help B and C…

Beat the Benchmarks #2: How B2B Tech Sales Leaders can Drive Better Relationships and Engagement

This week on the Revenue Insights Podcast, Adam Roberts, Sales Director of Ebsta, speaks with Guy Rubin, founder and CEO of Ebsta. 

In this episode, Guy and Adam discuss enhancing B2B sales relationships and engagement, particularly in light of the challenging economic landscape that characterized 2023 and early 2024. They also explore the importance of consistency in the sales process, leveraging executive networks, and utilizing AI technology for deeper engagement insights. 

Guy Rubin is the founder and CEO of Ebsta, the Revenue Intelligence Platform for Salesforce and Hubspot customers. He founded Ebsta in 2012 with an aim to score the world’s business relationships. Guy is also CEO Ambassador at Pavilion and CEO at Culuru Consulting. 

Adam Roberts has over ten years experience across sales and business development within global professional services firms and tech startups. He is Sales Director at Ebsta. Before this, Adam was Business Development Director – Key Accounts at Wood, and Director of Business Development at Introhive.

Timestamps:

00:00 – Introduction 

03:05 – Current State of B2B Sales and Challenges in 2024

09:15 – The AI Advantage in Call Analysis

11:42 – Analyzing Lost Deals: Lessons from Top Performers

15:54 – Increasing Sales Velocity 

22:00 – Monitoring Activity Quality, Not Just Quantity

26:43 – Case Study Success: Improving Team Quota Attainment

31:40 – Consistency as the Key to Sales Success

Highlights:

The Impact of Economic Challenges on Sales Performance

In early 2024, many businesses were experiencing financial trouble, especially in B2B SaaS, since win rates were declining, sales cycles were lengthening and deal values had dropped. Guy Rubin notes that, as a result, 69% of workers did not reach their targets. Adam adds that the “delta” between top performing sales reps and the rest of their sales teams had grown to over ten times as much. This situation highlights the need for firms to consider smarter methods to increase sales success, instead of just hiring more people and spending a lot on marketing.

Closing Strategies of Top Performers

Guy says that the reasons top performing sales reps lose deals is markedly different to the rest of the sales team. While many average reps struggle due to qualification issues or handling of objections, top performers typically lose deals for more complex reasons, such as budget constraints or strategic misalignments. One of the most notable statistics is that the volume of opportunities has increased by 25%, but the number of opportunities that match ICP hasn’t changed. What Ebsta found was that top performers were much better at identifying which opportunities match ICP and focusing their energies on that deal. 

Using Benchmarks for Consistency and Performance Improvement

Guy notes the value of using benchmarks as a way of improving the performance of sales teams. By analyzing data and highlighting what top performers do at each stage of the sales cycle, sales leaders can inspire “B and C players” to do better. He stresses that these steps need to be easy to follow. This consistency (coupled with removing administrative burdens through AI) enables sellers to focus on essential skills like objection handling and stakeholder engagement. 

Subscribe to the Revenue Insights Podcast:

Table of Contents

Recommended Episodes: