🎙️Transcript: Drata SDR All-Hands

Drata SDR All-Hands
Tyrus Abram, Ralph Barsi
August 13, 2025

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INTRODUCTION

Tyrus Abram (07:28):
I want to thank Ralph for spending his morning with us. He's coming off of a forecast call. He leads the growth team currently at Kahua. So he's got a full day, he's got a full job. He is gracious enough sometimes to do this I think in special situations. So we are absolutely pumped and incredibly grateful to have Ralph here and I know you guys are going to get a lot out of this. I know you guys are prepared to listen and to take notes and to engage.

(08:00)
Ralph will talk with us, so come with your questions. As I know you guys have prepared, Ralph and I go back almost a decade, so he's been at this for 25 years. He has as an account executive walked our shoes as pipeline generator. He's closed business and he spent most of his career leading teams just like ours at high growth companies. He scaled all the way up. I think when I met him he was at ServiceNow, which is now market cap of 180 billion. I'll let him talk about if he wants to go further back than that. I think it's really cool that he actually is an industry changer. First started at UPS, which I thought from what I've heard in his discussions, pretty cool grounding insights. We've got several of you on the line that are also industry changers, myself and included. But after ServiceNow, Tray.io, I've crossed paths with Ralph.

(08:55)
I consider him a mentor and a friend. We would meet up at SDR leadership sinks most fondly were Craig Rosenberg's of TOPO. So there's just a lot of circles that we run in. If you're not following him on LinkedIn, you definitely will after this. I guarantee it. He's the type of giver that, like I said in my note last night, if you make that effort, he will be in your corner in your network long after this call. And him graciously accepting the invite to come share his morning with us today is proof of that. I've always learned something. He's always left me with multiple things to stick in my tool belt for me and my teams. I don't have an MBA, but I guarantee this discussion and others, no pressure. Ralph is at that caliber or more in terms of what you can take away. So Ralph, I want to give it to you. The floor is yours. We are recording. Take it away.

Ralph Barsi (09:54):
Thank you Tyrus. That's a very kind, thoughtful introduction. It's given me a little goosebumps here, so you're going to hear a little quiver in the voice. Yeah, that's very kind to hear. I appreciate the introduction and everybody, you're very generous with your time and letting me speak with you today. I'll do the best to optimize that time. But I also am going to ask you, Tyrus, you got to keep me on time because a lot of this stuff I could start going pretty deep on and I think the big takeaways I want to make sure everybody gets today include as we go over some of these topics. A lot of this stuff might not even resonate with you. A lot of stuff you might say, yeah, I already know this already. So my ask is going to be, well instead ask yourself how good am I at this or how good are we as an organization at this stuff?

(10:51)
And then obviously if you could take away just one nugget of value or wisdom that I'm happy to impart, then it's made my day. And then a final ask will be, please pay this forward because there are people probably two, three years behind you who are going to be asking you questions about when you were at DDA in August of 2025, what was it like? And I want you to have really solid stories for them as well as insights and little nuggets of value that you can impart to pay this thing forward. Because ultimately that makes everybody in sales and sales development look good. And that's the whole point. We want to be considered an organization and a profession that's held in very high regard and we have to represent well. So everybody on this call, as you hang up from this call in 45 minutes to an hour and go about your days, know that you're representing everybody on this call and outside of it that is in sales development.

(11:54)
It's a very precious profession. It has evolved in grown leaps and bounds over the last 20 years and it's an honor to be part of the sales development organization. So that's why I titled this nuggets for your notes. I do hope you take good notes. Don't trust your memory. If you're going to take notes, I highly recommend maybe on the left side of your page you take your notes and on the right side you ask questions or write some actions in terms of what you're going to do with what you learned today. So big shout out and thank you to you Tyrus and just to the whole ADA team for carving out time for me. Yes, I'm coming in hot right out of a monthly forecast call here at Kahua. In short, Kahua means platform in Hawaiian. We are a platform as a service offering in the construction management space.

(12:50)
We're based in Atlanta, Georgia. I live in the San Francisco Bay area, but I'm in Atlanta today for the forecast call and a couple other key meetings. So I'm on Eastern standard time zone and I built this deck over the last 24 hours. So bear with me. You'll see in the bottom left here that this is a talk that is handcrafted. It was done exclusively for this team on this day. So it's the first time all of us are hearing this presentation, so hopefully it's a good one.

KEEP IT PLAYFUL OR KEEP IT REAL?

(13:22)
Typically before presentations like this, I'll flip a little coin and on one side of the coin it says keep it playful. And on the other side of the coin it says keep it real. So I'm not sure how you want me to roll today, but I could either be playful, we can have a great old time here talking about some high level concepts with sales development or we could keep it real. I won't laugh much, won't smile much. I'll just shoot straight. We can get right to it. So I dunno, maybe we do a little poll in the chat. Tyrus, you could tell me do we want to keep it real or playful?

Tyrus Abram (13:56):
Yeah, let's see some comments here. Ooh, Antonio, I love it coming out the gate with keep it real. That has five votes. Daniel's for it. I think that wins.

Ralph Barsi (14:06):
Yeah, we're already setting the tone. Great, we'll keep it real then. Let's rock and roll. Let's get to the next slide.

TALK TRACK

(14:10)
These are some topics that Tyrus and I talked through. We talked through probably, I don't know, 18 to 20 different topics that we could have discussed today and centered today's discussion on, but these were the eight that really stuck out and I'll spend a little bit of time on each one of 'em. Questions and answers is there at the bottom. Doesn't necessarily mean that you got to listen to Ralph for the next 45 minutes and then we can tee up your questions. If you want to unmute and interrupt me, by all means do it. Just do it kindly and respectfully and I'll stop what I'm doing and fully address what question you have or even a comment, but I'll give a little bit background on myself for context, never really a big fan of the whole background slide, but it's in here nonetheless.

(14:59)
Just for those of you who I don't yet know and you don't know me, you get a little idea of where I'm coming from. Secondly, I can't stress enough how connected all of us are and I can't thank most of you enough for reaching out to me on LinkedIn to connect. I got everybody's invite. I think I've accepted them all. If I haven't, please reach out and connect on LinkedIn. I have already looked at everybody's LinkedIn profile on this call. I have a spreadsheet with a link to everybody's LinkedIn profile. I've got some comments and some opinions, but we'll share it from when we get to that slide. Third, it's really important that we focus on attracting opportunities into our pipeline, attracting prospects, attracting partners, attracting new employees. I think salespeople do a terrible job of this. I think they spend a lot of their time and energy chasing things down and it feels that way when you're on the receiving end of a salesperson's email who's chasing a number and chasing your business.

(16:06)
It feels terrible and I pray that nobody on this call is chasing. Instead, I want you to attract, build a solid brand with proficiency, with performance, with process, with professionalism that's going to attract people to draha and to you individually. So we'll talk a little bit about that. Number four, like I said at the beginning of this call, a lot of this stuff might not even resonate with you. My vibe today might not even resonate with you. Some people on the call might have wished that I kept it playful versus the majority who wants me to keep it real. Look, I'm mindful of that. I think people are like tuning forks. You're either in tune with one another or you're not. I'm fine with that. I'm going to sleep very well tonight, but my intent here is to deliver enough content that regardless of how you feel about me or my vibe, you're going to learn a little bit of something today that you can carry forward and help somebody out with further down the line.

(17:07)
Number five, apropos. But the five barriers that impede quota breaks my heart. I see it every single year. It's the same five things. If somebody on this call is struggling with reaching quota, I guarantee it's because you're running into one of these five barriers. Good news is that each of these barriers is self-imposed. So once you decide in your head that you're going to make quota and you're not going to see any obstacles keeping you from that quota, guess what? You're probably going to hit quota and you'll do it repeatedly. Number six, communication is underrated. Again, can't emphasize this one enough. A lot of people think communication is what I'm doing now. Yeah, it is, but it's also every single email you send, whether it's automated or not, you have to make sure that every word has earned its right into that email. You have to make sure if you're going to leave a voicemail for somebody, that it's practiced, that it's concise, that it's brief, that it's informative and that it invokes or evokes a response from the recipient.

(18:12)
And it also comes down to how you listen to people. Do you listen to people actively? Do you pause and say, oh, so what I'm hearing you say is this. Well, what if that is an example of active listening and we can go on and on. Systems over goals. Great quote is Tyrus, you probably know it that losers have goals and winners have systems. So we're going to talk a little bit about the importance of having systems in your everyday life so that you can repeatedly win in all facets of life. And then finally, last but not least, and this number eight topic makes it into every single one of my presentations, and that is that we must always develop and evolve our attitude of gratitude. We're typically listening to presentations like this on equipment that we didn't purchase. I've got a fresh glass of water here that I can sip where there are people all over the world that don't even have fresh water in their villages.

(19:14)
There are people in hospital beds today just trying to survive the next hour, but we're all on this awesome call. We're all getting paid every two weeks. We get commissions. A lot of us just got promoted or about to be. I mean, yeah, just don't take it for granted and don't take advantage of all the great things that you have. Develop that attitude of gratitude and be thankful in everything and for everyone. Alright, so that's a high level overview. Again, I could probably expand on all eight of these topics and create eight separate presentations. So with that, I'll keep things very high level. I'll probably stay in the macro more than the micro, more strategic than tactical. But typically when I'm addressing teams like this, really good questions pop up about the tactical side of things and I'm happy to get into that, but I'll probably ask that you share a little context for me and for everybody on the call so that we have a very clear understanding of what it is you're asking. It's going to help me help you. Sound good?

Tyrus Abram (20:21):
That's awesome.

BACKGROUND FOR CONTEXT

Ralph Barsi (20:22):
Right on. Thank you, Tyrus. Okay, here we go. The obligatory background slide a little bit about me. I think if there's any takeaway on this slide, it's that this photo is way too big. Takes up way too much real estate on the slide. I also have more hair in this photo than I have now. Believe it or not. It's ridiculous. Anyway, I shared that I'm at kahua today. Again, we're in the construction management software space. I lead the revenue growth organization for anybody's interest. Revenue growth is really a cross-functional team. It spans sales development, sales operations, sales engineering, and a couple other teams prior to that at Kahua over the last two years, I led our sales organization. I'm also a coach voluntarily for a firm called Dream Team where we help D one athletes and professional athletes transition into software and tech sales. So all the things that all of us on this call do every day.

(21:27)
There's a lot of athletes out there that have the tenacity and the traits and the attributes of A players and they want to bring it to our profession, which is fantastic and I'm happy to coach and teach and guide and help shepherd them over to this side. I do a lot of advising for growth stage companies and I've invested in several of them as well. I've been part of the GTM fund for some time now. They have a fantastic podcast called GTM Now and just today actually, they published, I think it was one of the sales leaders from Vanta. So it's an episode you might all want to listen to if you haven't heard it yet, because they're about to reveal how they have beat the competition over the last several years and I'm sure that'll resonate with everybody on this call. So constantly be learning while you're out there.

(22:16)
My background, yeah. The thing I really want to talk about is playing drums. I've been a drummer since I was three years old. I started formal lessons in 1974. I've been in several bands. The longest of which started in 1991 still exists today. We've got some records on Spotify, on Apple Music, iTunes, I think it is, et cetera, et cetera. And I was this close to being a professional rock and roll drummer, but I had three boys and when you have children in the house, suddenly you got to start bringing some money in like yesterday. And so I jumped into sales right out of the gate and I've never looked back, married my college sweetheart and all my sons are in their twenties now. Lastly, this is how you can reach me. Ralph barley.com/about will tell you a lot more detail about my background and I put that there on purpose because candidly, I think every professional should have a URL of their own name. I learned that years ago when I was reading one of Jeffrey ER's books and took him up on that idea right away and I've not regretted it. So if tyrus abram.com does not exist, I highly recommend you get that URL Tyrus.

Tyrus Abram (23:34):
Copy that.

Ralph Barsi (23:35):
Yeah, right on. Appreciate it. And this is where you can follow me on LinkedIn and on Twitter. Sorry about that.

WE ARE CONNECTED

(23:43)
Okay, so we are connected. There's a great zen proverb here from a zen monk who's no longer with us who said that we are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness. I think if I were to ask any one of you, I don't know, three to five questions about where you grew up, where you went to school, where you worked, what neighborhoods you lived in, it's likely that I can connect dots pretty quickly. It's how the world works. There are studies done on it, the six degrees of separation in the entertainment world. It's the six degrees of Kevin Bacon who's done movies with all the famous stars, and it's why LinkedIn has 1.1 billion members today. It's because we're all connected in some way, shape, or form.

(24:34)
Yet SDRs and sales reps for some reason forget that, and instead they do their cold calling, which I think is ridiculous. I think you can warm up every single call if you know how to work a network, build a network, add value to the people in your network so that they can later down the line perhaps help you get an introduction into a target account that you're trying to engage, get you that next job, help put in a word for you in terms of a promotion that you're teed up for, et cetera, et cetera. So here's a snapshot of the spreadsheet that I created. As soon as Tyrus invited me on this call, it was around July 4th, fifth of this year, I immediately started looking everybody up. One thing I would call out, it's a minor detail, but it is a detail, and people like me who are nerds will look at all details.

(25:31)
Your URL on LinkedIn needs to have your name in it. Either that or some concise brief phrase. If I see linkedin.com/t, Abram 1 2 5, a 7 7 3 5 8, that just tells me that this gentleman is not paying attention to the detail. So it's very easy to go into LinkedIn, customize and edit your URL, and I would prompt you to do that as soon as we get off this call. You don't think it's a big deal, but all the executives or most of the executives that you're trying to engage with in these initial calls, they look at those little details. If your email or your video message or your voicemail is halfway decent and compelling, they're going to look you up and when they google your name, it's likely your LinkedIn profile is going to come up first and they'll notice how that LinkedIn profile is framed, how it represents you, if it represents you, and they'll look at little details like this.

(26:32)
So most prospects ignore our messages as it says in the first bullet point, and it's simply because a lot of people don't know Rada or don't know you or don't think your message is that compelling or worth responding to. So we want to focus on that detail. Number two, we talked about how we're all connected by up to six degrees. I'll spare everybody right now. Typically, if it was a smaller group and if we were in person, I would call a few people out. I would ask a couple questions and I'm telling you within one to two minutes we know somebody, we have mutual connections or I might know a family member or a friend, you might know who I am, et cetera, et cetera. It's pretty insane and uncanny when you get into how we are all connected and it's always important to ask this question.

(27:21)
Number three, who in your network can connect you to the right person who can warm this up? Now, this is tough to do at scale. We all have numbers over our heads. We're all trying to hit meetings, quotas. We want qualified opportunities crafted for our account executives. We want to represent well, right? Well, you can't do this at scale sometimes, so I would recommend if you have a set of target accounts, break them into tiers. Your tier ones are your most precious accounts. Your tier twos are the ones that would really be nice to have. The tier threes are the masses. Maybe for the tier ones. You do ultra deep work and you find out how you can multi-thread sooner than later. Who in the account, who you know that knows someone in the account? You'd be surprised. A lot of the executive leaders at DDA are likely already connected to the people in companies you're trying to reach.

(28:16)
They just don't know they're on your list and you're trying to reach them. So if you're going to craft a message and you're going to ask one of the executive leaders to broker an introduction for you because this is a target account, I highly recommend you do some deep work just in crafting the message to that executive leader. Make sure it's concise, it's brief. The bottom line is upfront, it includes a question mark which will evoke a response from that leader and you basically craft a message for them to then tailor edit, put their editorial in and then forward to the contact you're trying to reach. Do it smartly and you'll be surprised at the response rates, how much they increase. And then lastly, this bullet point, if you are determined, you can reach any person that comes from a great book from the late Chet Holmes.

(29:05)
The book is called The Ultimate Sales Machine. It's a very fast read and it's definitely one you should have in your library. If you're a big reader and you love books, I've got a ton of great recommendations for you to check out. You go to ralph barce.com/reeds, R-E-A-D-S, and you'll see a long list of recommendations on great books about our craft and our profession, and that's one of 'em, the ultimate sales machine. And if you are determined, you really can reach any person on the planet. Again, a lot of SDRs and sales reps off their days not realizing like, wow, I really can get to so-and-so if I want to. And they have defeating self-talk in their heads and they just struggle and they deal with an uphill climb and it breaks my heart to see so not on our watch. Let's not do that after this presentation.

ATTRACT SUCCESS

(30:05)
Okay? The late great Jim Rohn was one of Tony Robbins mentors. He's somebody I've followed and listened to for many, many years now, and one of my favorite quotes of his includes work on yourself harder than you work on your job and that success is something you attract by becoming an attractive person. Now the good news is I can see everybody on this zoom call. You're already all attractive people, okay? That's the good news. But what Jim means is being attractive while you are sleeping. So by way of your LinkedIn profile or if you have a blog, if you are active in social media, be it on X or LinkedIn or maybe the draw to website, maybe you're a key contributor to the YouTube videos that draw to publishes or any other means of communication, all of that is going to inform your brand so that while you are asleep and a key executive is reading the email you just sent her and you want an initial meeting, she's going to do her research and you better be dialed when it comes to your social media profile so that they are presenting you as an attractive person, someone who's going to add value, someone who's going to solve problems, someone who's going to educate, which is a nice segue into this very first bullet point that our goal is never really to sell.

(31:27)
It's to educate and it's to help people and it's to solve their problems, and it's also to advise them and guide them. Oftentimes salespeople know about the problems of our prospects before the prospects do. That is the money spot. If you can engage a prospect and you're starting to highlight, Hey, I've been talking to your title and role and persona for the last three months, here are the top three to four problems that people in your role are facing on a daily basis. It's one, it's two, it's three, it's four. Any of those resonate with you When they say yes, then your follow on question will be, that's sad to hear. However, there's some light at the end of the tunnel. We might be able to help you. Can you tell me how you'd stack rank those problems? What's the most pressing problem, the most urgent and important one that needs to be resolved today versus maybe the fourth ranked problem that doesn't need to be solved until next week?

(32:26)
And if they share which one it is and why it's the biggest problem, then you can continue with your mini discovery and qualification and asking what are the implications of solving it? How's that going to make you look in the organization? How's that going to positively impact your team or the external stakeholders that your team benefits from or works with and you're cooking because now you're starting to educate and solve problems. You haven't sold anything at all, and that will come later in time. The more value you add, the more valuable you become. It's as simple as that. So finally, don't wish it were easier, wish you were better. Another great Jim Rohn quote, every single one of us on this call goes through rough patches. We all struggle. Sometimes it's for an afternoon, sometimes it's for a quarter, sometimes it's for a year. I'm a big believer and understander, if you will, that we're all battling something personally or professionally. Well, make sure you dial in your self-talk, get that self-confidence going. Momentum can happen very, very quickly over the next hour or two hours. If you're focused and your intent and you're determined and you know could be better than you are today, you'll be really surprised at how things start to turn in your favor. So don't lose hope. Don't lose sight of that. Just get to work on that self-talk and get to work on this kind of stuff and shaping your brand and be the person that you want to become.

PEOPLE ARE LIKE TUNING FORKS

(34:00)
People are like tuning forks. I'm flying through this tyrus, which is good. It'll give some good time for people to ask some great questions and maybe we can get some good dialogue.

Tyrus Abram (34:12):
Yes, sir. Halfway mark.

Ralph Barsi (34:14):
Right on. Cool. People are like tuning forks again. I talked about my drumming and I'm a huge fan of music as I'm sure most of you are. Well, if you're familiar with a tuning fork, it's only tuned to a specific key or pitch, and if you tag a tuning fork in a room full of tuning forks, it's funny, but only the tuning forks that are tuned to the same key will actually vibrate in response to that initial tuning fork where the others will remain silent. Why? I think people are the exact same way. We're all tuned to a certain pitch and it doesn't always match our pitch. So we have to be mindful of that. Don't take stuff personally. The less you apply emotion to most situations, the more easier and calmer your life's going to become. Let's not get all wrapped up or emotional about people not really down with what we're saying or down with our vibe.

(35:08)
Instead, let's just focus on the content. When we're on phone calls, when we're in presentations, when we're presenting to people at a conference room table, liken it to a bow and arrow. The arrow is your message and you draw back that bow and you fire that arrow, get out of your head. Stop with the inner dialogue. Gosh, I don't know if this is going to land. I wonder what she's thinking. I wonder why he's looking at his laptop and he's not paying. What do you care? Who cares? Get the content out on the table for people to digest the way they learn and absorb information. Some of us are visual, some of us are audio. Some of us like to read in the written form. Jeff Bezos at Amazon used to have everybody type up a six page memo and hand it out in hard copy form at the beginning of every meeting and he would spend the first 30 minutes in complete silence while everybody read. Not everybody learns that way. So just be aware that there's a variety of how people absorb information in the room or on the call and deliver the content that you think will hit and will resonate with them. Okay. Alright.

FIVE BARRIERS THAT IMPEDE QUOTA

(36:18)
Okay. I'm going to spend a little time on this

Tyrus Abram (36:22):
Definitely.

Ralph Barsi (36:24):
I'm going to take a big sip of water. We have any questions since we're halfway through? Anybody want to pipe up and ask a question or you want me to just keep rolling?

Speaker 8 (36:34):
Maybe it'd be a good time to ask what the band name was or is.

Ralph Barsi (36:39):
Thank you, Hannah. I think that's probably going to be the best question we have today. So the band is called Segway, S-E-G-U-E. We've got two maybe three records out on the interwebs. If you go to my website, I have a whole page dedicated to the band. We're all right. We're kind of a mix of black crows and black keys. It's kind like bar room blues and rock and roll. And we started the band back in, what did I say, 91 I think it was. Yeah, I think it was 91. We started 91 or 94. So we've been going for some time now and I play the drums for that band and do the backup vocals. So right on Hannah. Thank you.

(37:22)
Okay, the five barriers. Number one is obscurity. This is straight up. Nobody knows about you. There's nothing wrong with that, especially new SDRs who are just coming in to the sales profession for the first time. Several have just graduated or graduated over the last two years or so. How would anybody know who you are yet unless you're doing fantastic work and actually sharing that work? So one way to not be obscure and to start to get known is internally with your own team. Some of you who have made quota or I don't know, are building some really good momentum and you're getting really favorable responses to your calls. You're teeing up great opportunities and you're starting to shape a really good reputation with the reps that you support. Start sharing what you're doing with your colleagues and your peers. Start helping each other out. I think there's a big difference between being on a team and being a team.

(38:23)
So let's have each other's backs instead of, and I'm not judging anybody here because I don't know everybody, but if you are one of the quota busters here and somebody's struggling on your team instead of going, well, hope they make it not sure if they're going to make it. Why don't you kind of figuratively put your arm around 'em and go, Hey, would love to grab some coffee or lunch and just hear your perspective on how things are going. Numbers don't lie. I'm looking at the leaderboard every day. This must be very uncomfortable being where you're at. I might be able to help if you're down and if you're open to it, it starts small, like a ripple in a pond and then suddenly you're sharing some of your good work with the marketplace. Maybe you're contributing on a LinkedIn post instead of just talking about DDA and hyping up how well the team did for the quarter, which frankly a lot of people really don't care about.

(39:17)
What they want to hear is how you can help them and how you maybe overcome a challenge, overcame a challenge, always start with what the situation was, then present the challenge and then maybe pose a question and then you answer it. And it's a consultant acronym that's used in many presentations. It's SCQA. Another acronym is PAR like par golf. It's the problem, then the action or the activity and then the result. When you're talking in those terms, you're spreading knowledge, you're adding value, you're becoming more valuable, and suddenly your reputation precedes you and you're no longer obscure. Number two, look at this thing. I've got my mobile phone right here. I've been hit with so many freaking messages in the last 25 minutes. Your head would spin and it's very distracting. I don't think people do enough deep work anymore. They don't strategically block out time on their calendar so that they're not distracted, they don't set out of office replies when they're gone and they come back to a deluge of emails that are all urgent, not all important, and there's this expectation from the senders that you're going to immediately reply when there's too much going on.

(40:31)
So I would implore you to be less distracted and to create space in your lives and in your workday and workweek while you're scrolling on your phone quota is coming and going. The people who are the most focused and least distracted are the ones who are going to repeatedly and continuously hit quota and be A players. The third one, you got to get up and move around. There's a great zen quote, another one for today. It is move and the way will open. And another one is opportunity favors the one in motion. If that means literally standing up when you're on your phone calls or in meetings, create the emotion that you need to get focused and to be present. If you're not doing anything and you're kind of scrolling or you're studying and researching target accounts for three, four days in a row, really trying to work on what the email is, you got to pick up the pace.

(41:32)
You have to move and stay in motion and you'll be surprised how many opportunities surface number four, so many reps fail. It doesn't matter how late in their tenure they get. There are some A players and there are some C players. Just because you've been in sales for 30 plus years doesn't mean you've been great at sales for 30 plus years, and this is one barrier that continues to impede people and it is no conversation flow. So I'm going to encourage all of you to prep the page to practice, to have a talk track, to know what your pivot questions are going to be to use open-ended questions versus yes no questions, to have a beginning, a middle, and an end to a ten second conversation and to a 30 minute conversation. Always know in your little mind map in your head, if you're in the beginning phase of your conversation, the middle or the end, always tell the people you're talking to, especially prospects where we're going with this conversation.

(42:35)
A lot of SDRs and reps get super fired up when they get an engaged prospect on the phone that they just start bombarding them with questions with no end in sight. It's like a waterboarding exercise. So upfront, let people know, Hey, I'm probably going to ask 15 to 20 questions on this phone call. Let me tell you why. I want to provide a little bit of context. I want to make sure that we understand if and when next steps are going to take place. So I'll stop the call maybe five to 10 minutes before it's supposed to end. And all we'll talk about are next steps, and I'll make sure that the questions I asked were clear. I'll make sure I understand the questions that you have, either ones I've addressed or ones that are still outstanding and we can't wait for the potential to work with you and to work together.

(43:21)
Okay? If somebody answers the phone, hello, this is Ralph, you say, Hey, hello, it's Hannah. How are you, Ralph? If I answer morning, you say Morning, you mirror and you match the caller and you will build rapport quietly and subtly. Lastly, it's the failure to keep learning. So little time, so much to learn. I talked about the GTM Now podcast episode that just was published today. There are so many podcasts out there. I'm happy to share some, maybe not on this call, but if you DM me, I'll send you a list of all the best podcasts right now that are going to help you move the needle. There's also the books that I recommended. There's influencers, there are presentations like this all over YouTube that you can go learn from. Don't say, yeah, I know that. I know they're out there. Actually go learn from them and then give back. Contribute what you've learned to your peers and your colleagues and pay this thing forward. And then this little link here, of course, I'll share the slides, how to miss quota. That was a post that I did recently on LinkedIn. In my world, it caught fire. It didn't get corporate bro or corporate Natalie type interactions. But for a guy like me, I was pretty stoked to get over 200 impressions, not impressions, but likes and tens of thousands of impressions. So obviously it resonated and hopefully it'll help you.

COMMUNICATION IS UNDERRATED

(44:47)
Communication is underrated. So the greatest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. A lot of us are walking around with what we think we're communicating swimming in our head, but the people that need to know the information have no idea. Another thing I would say is once you actually have to write about something, that's when you realize you really don't know what it is you're talking about. So write more often and you're going to start to capture the knowledge you need and deliver proficiently and articulate the messages that your recipients need to hear. So the illustration on the left, you can look it up. It is an illustration of Metcalf's Law, which basically says as your network grows, it grows exponentially. So obviously those of you who connected with me on LinkedIn, you now have exposure to all the contacts that I have, and if done right, I might be able to help get you into some of the key accounts that you're trying to engage.

(45:47)
If you just ask and if you do your homework and you find out who I am connected to, same applies to people you're trying to hire for. Same applies to leaders that you're looking for, et cetera, or even future guests for this very call. Okay, so couple key points here before we go to the next slide. Make sure that you always acknowledge requests. Somebody might send a request to you via email and you're like, Roger that got it. And then you start to actually accommodate their request, but you didn't tell them that you received their email. So they're out there wondering, did he even get what I asked him to do? And is he even on it? So be mindful and acknowledge the request. You get to close the loop. Communication, although it seems like work to me, it's a real drag. I can't stand the administrative work that has to happen beginning, middle, and end of every day.

(46:37)
Oftentimes we're in meetings that start at 8:00 AM local time, and by 5 36 o'clock when you're going out for happy hour with the team, there's residual stuff that you're supposed to follow up on from that eight o'clock meeting, and that's where it gets to be work. But it is necessary and critical that you're communicating, which is why you have to write brief sentences and brief phrases and brief emails. I'll skip default to async tools and when needed, get on a call or get on a Zoom call. And finally, like I've said many times, put that bottom line up front. Try to package your emails in three, four, or five sentences. I wouldn't encourage you to do many more than that. If you have to do more than that, you're probably not a good writer. And there's too many words on the page, so take the time, especially for the critical emails, to write the shorter emails. How many minutes do we have left tyrus?

Tyrus Abram (47:37):
We're looking at 17 the whole hour.

Ralph Barsi (47:40):
Holy smokes. Cool. I hope this is helpful and useful. I see the chats popping up. I dunno what they're saying.

Tyrus Abram (47:46):
We'll come back.

SYSTEMS OVER GOALS

Ralph Barsi (47:47):
Okay, so if anything's really pressing and you want to interrupt, go for it. But this is one of my favorite slides and it's crafted specifically for you to screenshot. My favorite quote is every system, not of all time, but it's one of my favorite systems related quotes. Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets. So Edwards Deming was an economist. He taught future engineers about processes and about systems, and if you're not making quota or if prospects aren't responding to your emails or if you're at the bottom of the leaderboard or if you're having a tough week, I would just encourage you to look at your systems. I mean, what does your schedule look like every day or every week? Do you have a set schedule? Are there specific meetings that could be removed on a Sunday night? Once you're glancing over what the week ahead looks like, are you looking at where you need to be in your number by the end of the quarter or maybe the end of the year?

(48:47)
And are you reverse engineering and working backwards as to if I need to produce X number of qualified meetings by the end of this year to earn X in commission or to earn a specific opportunity to get promoted, where do I need to be in November versus October versus September, et cetera, et cetera. How much work are you putting into developing the systems that are going to get you where you want to get? I think you'll be surprised if you've got some broken systems. Once you line check that system, it's oftentimes just a little too degree tweak that you need to make that's going to get that, what's the word I'm looking for? Just to get the line moving again. And it doesn't take much effort. It's usually a little less than you think it is when you start to look at the whole system.

(49:37)
So I just compartmentalize this into four key areas where you can apply systems or should be applying systems as we speak. Obviously your knowledge management always try to create a second brain. I've used Rome research to take notes. I have a mole skin journal that I keep, that I journal in every single day. I don't know, I must have two or 300 of these in my house. You could see the spine is labeled with the date, so I know what date range it was. If we had a crappy quarter and I knew it was Q2 of 2012, I'm going to go back and take a look at the notes. In other words, I'm going to line check my system. I'm going to see, as I was creating my second brain and trying to remember all the things that were happening at a thousand miles per hour back in Q2 of 2012, what was I thinking about?

(50:28)
What was I talking about? What meetings was I having and with whom? And that helps me dial in my system for 2025 and beyond because I'm learning from history, I'm learning from my historical mistakes and on and on we go into time management. I would point out in the time management section, when you're sending out your meeting invites, they should always include something in the body of the invite. What's the purpose of our meeting? Sometimes people will set a meeting with me back in February. We're not meeting until May, and by the time that meeting pops up, I'm like, dude, what was this about? I have no time for this. I don't even know who this person is anymore. However, the people that put a purpose, an agenda and a desired objective in the body of the email, they're not writing a dissertation. It's going to pip pop pow.

(51:20)
It's going to give me the context. I need to make sure that we optimize the time together and we make it a win-win. So always dial in your invite templates. You've got to have pre and post questions for the meetings. If you're stepping into a meeting or if one of your reps is stepping into a meeting and they don't have kind of a dope sheet or a one pager of how this call went, typically we look in Salesforce, nobody's filled out the fields. There's not a lot of information and insights as to why this prospect wants to talk to the rep. The rep's going to reject your op and it's not going to go anywhere and you're not going to learn anything from it. So make sure that you always have a one pager for them, whether it's in a Salesforce opportunity record or by way of email that lets them know that you're on point and you've got this thing dialed and prepared for them to win. And again, it goes back to a couple slides. That's how you attract success. That's how you become a valuable person in your organization because your reputation starts to precede you as somebody who's got their act together. Alright? It applies to the communication management and the brand management, which we've talked about.

DEVELOP AN ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

(52:29)
Lastly, Mr. Rogers is a show I used to watch all the time. I grew up in the seventies and the eighties and in the seventies, this guy was what it was all about for kids. His TV show was fantastic. He was very kind, very kind man, big heart, generous, calm, and I just admire that disposition because if you're in a leadership position, I know we've got kind of a mix of leaders and individual contributors on this call. Everybody's watching you. You're setting an example whether you want to or not. If you're grumpy and have poo pants for a day because you didn't hit your number or it doesn't look like you're going to hit your number and you want to show that on your sleeve and be miserable, everybody is watching how you're responding to the tough times. If you're calm and you have a centered disposition and you're focused and you're staying in motion and you're communicating consistently and regularly and clearly, that too sets an example for everybody and you're going to be the type of leader that everybody else wants to be when they become leaders.

(53:36)
So Mr. Rogers had that disposition about him and I love it to this day. In 1995, he was honored with an Emmy, a lifetime achievement award. It's on YouTube. He gets up on stage, he accepts his award, and he implores everybody in the audience to close their eyes and think of the people who have helped them become who they are today. He goes on to say, there's someone or there are a few people in your life who've cared about you and wanted what was best for you in life, whomever you've been thinking about how pleased they must be to know the difference you feel they've made. So everybody on this call has at least one person living or not, who has had tremendous influence on them, enough to the point where you're on this call today because a lot of sacrifices that those people have made.

(54:26)
Do not forget those people. Honor all the work and sweat equity that they put in to help you get where you are right now and please pay it forward. Don't disappoint them. Don't disappoint us in the sales and sales development profession. Represent all of us well and develop this attitude of gratitude. Be mindful of the very little things in life, what I talked about earlier. We're viewing each other on a laptop we probably didn't pay for. Everybody's got the latest iPhone. Everybody can have a sip of water if they want on Friday night. You get to go out for those who like to drink. You get to go have a couple cocktails and have a great weekend before you start. Do you have any idea how good you've got it? We are among the top wealthiest people on the entire planet. So I feel there's a duty and obligation and a responsibility on all of us, not only to be grateful, but to be contributors. Let's not consume value as we meander through this life. Let's contribute value and be good for people. Alright, that's what I wanted to tell you today.

CLOSING REMARKS

(55:25)
We can open it up for questions. With the amount of time we have left, you've all been super generous with your time. Thanks for letting me talk to you. It's the first time I've given this presentation and I really pray it was useful for everybody.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Tyrus Abram (55:40):
Wow, Ralph. Incredible.

Ralph Barsi (55:46):
Thank you. Tyrus.

Tyrus Abram (55:48):
I can't say thank you enough. I have a page full of notes that I'm going to share with everybody of just new things that I've learned from you and we've been through several conversations together and discussions comparable to this powerful, powerful and the slide attitude of gratitude to end on. Incredible. I think I want to start by, we can start with the comments. There was a few tactical stuff. Hannah, you had a couple good ones in there, and then I think we should open it up to the team to see what's top of mind, what takeaways,

Ralph Barsi (56:22):
And Gracie, I saw you by the way. We will get to you and if we don't go ahead and interrupt, okay. So that we address what you wanted to talk about.

Tyrus Abram (56:29):
Hannah, first of all, you took my question, which I didn't know the name of your band name, Ralph. We will definitely check you out. That sounds like a blues, rock and roll style. Excellent. Hannah, you had another one that I thought I answered most of it, but you had two good ones. Why don't you ask yours?

Speaker 8 (56:49):
Sure. Aside from the acronyms, I think you covered both of those. Tyrus I had asked when you're journaling daily, if it's more of a brain dump or if you follow certain prompts or entries or what your system is around that.

Ralph Barsi (57:05):
Great question. So the system is that the system exists that I do journal every day. I typically do it digitally. I'm typing into, I mentioned earlier, it's kind of one word, Rome research, and you could use Apple Notes, Google Docs, whatever you fancy, as long as you're getting the thoughts out. The second part of your question, however, isn't so much a system for me. So for example, I don't have prompts or questions that I'm answering on a daily basis. Instead, it is more the former where it's kind of a brain dump, but I typically am mindful of the words. I'm not just writing, writing, writing, writing, and then I go back and edit. I'm actually really paying attention to what I'm writing because it's an example of my self-talk in my head, and every single person has to manage this throughout every day. No one is unique here.

(57:54)
We all struggle with beating ourselves up. I'm no different. So I'm always aware of the words I'm putting on the page that they are positive reinforcers, that they're triggers that you know what you're perfectly capable of owning today. You're perfectly capable of being better than you were yesterday. Why don't you be a little more grateful today? Why don't you be the first one to greet somebody today? If somebody's miserable right out of the gate on the first call, it doesn't mean you have to be. Maybe you could shed a little light, be a little mindful of what they might be struggling with or what they're grumpy about. It's all good. And once I see those words on the page, then the momentum picks up and the formula for momentum is momentum equals mass times velocity. So I start to really pick up my pace and my writing, and I do it every morning, and I then read for, I don't know, 20 minutes or so, and the whole process takes maybe 40 minutes and it's in silence, and I benefit greatly from it. Thanks, Hannah. Gracie, we'll get to you since I saw your hand raised.

Speaker 6 (59:00):
Thank you so much. My question was, aside from asking your peers and those around you, how do you continually develop your systems to improve?

Ralph Barsi (59:10):
Well, another great question. I typically look for the gaps and the failures. Those are great lessons. When you're not doing well in any facet of your life, that should be a trigger to you to go, I got to get my finances dialed in. Let me take a look at what debt I have. Let me take a look at my checking account versus my savings account. Do I have assets and investments that I need to be aware of and taking a look at, these don't look right. What do I need to do in terms of earning income? How quickly can I earn that income? How much do I have to earn? And then I go through kind of a series of questions that all that kind of represents the system. And you turn the page, you go to anything spiritually. Maybe I'm Catholic, for example. Maybe I'm not going to mass as frequently as I'd like to. Maybe I'm not carving out time for prayer or meditation during the day. I've got a huge list of friends, as we all do. Boy, I really haven't talked to Brooke in a long time. I should probably text him and say hello, or I haven't talked to Danielle. Maybe I should give her a call and check in, see how things are going. And that's how you start to fill those gaps and develop a streamlined process.

Speaker 6 (01:00:18):
Kelly Murphy. Thank you. That was super helpful.

Ralph Barsi (01:00:20):
Thank you, Gracie. Hi, Kelly.

Speaker 6 (01:00:25):
Hi, Ralph. How's it going?

Ralph Barsi (01:00:27):
Going great. How are you doing?

Speaker 6 (01:00:29):
I'm good. I just wanted to ask a quick question. It was kind of along the same lines. I know we're talking about a system for journaling every day, but outside of journaling and your job in your daily life, do you have any other winning systems that your regimens in the morning that set you up for a good day?

Ralph Barsi (01:00:50):
Yeah, I'm typically listening to influencers. I listen to a lot of podcast episodes and I write down notes during the podcast episodes. I'll press pause and I'll take a note. If I'm reading a book, I'm very slow. I have a ruler and I have a ballpoint pen, and I put a little asterisk in the margin and I'll write notes. I'll underline things meticulously, and then I'll copy that into my mole skin journal. Hey, you need to be better at this. You should be working on this. Or what are we doing as a team about A, B, and C? I know we can make some improvements. I'm going to send an email to so-and-so today, and then I'm back to the book and it takes forever, but it's totally worth it. And those are some examples of other systems. Kelly, we'll go to Julie and then Gabe. Hi Julie.

Speaker 6 (01:01:39):
Hi. So my question is, when you do find yourself in a rut or you're having a bad day, how are you getting yourself out of it?

Ralph Barsi (01:01:47):
I remind myself that it's temporary. If you zoom out and you look at life, it's really just a series of temporary events. There's a great saying that is it too? Or This too shall pass. So yeah, it's going to be rough. But if you want to take this rough moment to define who you are and decide like, oh, I'm just going to be depressed now for the next month or two, then that's up to you. That's your interpretation and your choice. Now, I'm aware of what I'm saying in that we lose people in our lives. People die, for example. That is the worst. I don't wish that on anybody. And of course, that's going to naturally have you pulled down for a long period of time. But if there is any way you can face outward and instead of thinking about you and being in your head to use it to be of service to someone else, maybe just making sure that they have a good day today versus how you're feeling in time, you're going to start to feel yourself kind of cheer up and that self-talk will kick in again. You're like, I got this. I can do this and I can even help people and are having a hard time. I just went through it and it sucked. But here are some good takeaways that helped me. So hopefully that helps you and hopefully you're doing okay right now.

(01:03:07)
Gabe, pleasure. How are you? Oh, really important everybody. Yeah, I'm kind of geeky and all with a microphone. It's deliberate though. If I'm on a call with a prospect, I want to make sure I'm centered in my little screen here. I didn't want to look down on you with the laptop down here, and I'm looking down, I'm looking right at the camera. I want to sound crispy and clear. So a lot of people are on AirPods. I'm wearing 'em as well, but they're not my microphone because I think they sound terrible. And again, back to the little details, everybody's like, yeah, it was a good call, but I could barely hear them. It was kind of punching in and out. You need to be aware of all that stuff, how you sound, how you're delivering the message, how you look. I'm very grateful people aren't wearing baseball caps and hoodies and t-shirts and just dressed sloppily because again, we're at work. We need to be classy, we need to be professional, and we need to realize and remember that we're representing everybody, atda, everybody, investors, board members, customers. So be on point, especially when you're at work and be aware of those little details.

Tyrus Abram (01:04:16):
Alright, I want to be respectful of your time, Ralph, because Yes sir. Yeah, 9 29 maybe time. One

Ralph Barsi (01:04:22):
More. Cool. Here's what I ask. If I didn't get to your question, forgive me. It doesn't mean I won't get to your question at another time, so make sure those go to Tyrus or go to me directly. Presuming we're going to be connected, I promise you this is being recorded. I will respond to you and my ask is that you share my response with everybody so everyone can benefit from the answer. And that presumes that it's going to be a good answer.

Tyrus Abram (01:04:51):
I'm sure it

Speaker 1 (01:04:52):
Will. Alright,

Ralph Barsi (01:04:52):
Let's one more and then we'll roll

Speaker 1 (01:04:57):
To answer your question, Ralph. I'm doing well. Thank you so much for setting the time aside to join us today and answer these questions. My question had to do with your beginning and middle and end and kind of understanding and being able to be self-aware of where you are in the call.

(01:05:13)
For our role in cold outreach, it can sometimes feel like prospect sets the tone, they set the pace, they set the flow. How would you suggest when maybe I feel like I'm in the beginning of my conversation and the prospect picks up the phone and they're very clearly this is the end of the conversation where I'm going to hang up on you. How would you either A, again, maybe to your mirroring, how would you adapt or maybe adapt to their flow or how would you maybe even flip it on its head and take control of the conversation. Take control of the pace. Take control of the flow.

Ralph Barsi (01:05:48):
Outstanding question, Gabe. So I'm aware of the time, I'm going to be super concise, but I can expand on this at another time. So in terms of the beginning, middle end, I used to actually have a carpet that I would stand on and it would be red, yellow, green, red was the beginning of the call and I would stand in the red box of the carpet. And then when I stepped forward into the yellow, I knew I was in the middle of my conversation and there's a set of questions that I want to have asked in that middle piece. And then I would step into the green section of the carpet. And I know we're closing things out in terms of the second part of your question where you talked about the whole mirroring and matching and them kind of setting the tone, acknowledge that you're interrupting them.

(01:06:29)
Now, this presumes you've not sent a preemptive email or a video message or gotten an introduction broker to warm it up to let them know why you're going to be calling in the first place so that you can gain a little more time. But if it is cold, you're going to acknowledge that you're disrupting their day and interrupting, but you know who they are and you know about their company a lot. And if anything, you want to make sure that this is the right time for your two companies to start to get to know each other. And there's only so much we could probably cover in the next 30 seconds of this call. However, this is the whole reason I'm calling. Are you the person I wouldn't even ask that because it's a yes no question. I would say, who else besides you should I be contacting and in my hot, warm, or cold as it relates to time of year?

(01:07:18)
Because I'm going to be talking to you about governance risk and compliance issues, adhering to laws, rules and regulations in your respective vertical or industry. That's a big conversation. It's going to be longer than a 30 or 62nd talk, but that is why I'm calling and based on my research, maybe I want to talk to Olivia, maybe it's Antonio, I want to call. I don't know if it's Aaron, maybe you can help out. I thought I'd start with you. And that typically will calm them down, get them matching you, and all of a sudden you're the one who has set the tone, not them.

Tyrus Abram (01:07:53):
Thank you.

Ralph Barsi (01:07:54):
Thank you everybody. Thank you Tyrus. You're the man. I really appreciate the opportunity to present to everybody today. Again, I hope it was useful. I still see hands raised. I'm sorry I can't stay on. But again, just write to me and I promise I'll get back to you.

Tyrus Abram (01:08:11):
And that's the truth. He means that this is how we've been connected is Ralph, in 60 minutes. You've made us a better team. I really, really appreciate you sharing your morning with us. We know how busy you are. I'm looking forward to the next time that we talk.

Ralph Barsi (01:08:28):
Thank you. Thanks everybody.

Tyrus Abram (01:08:30):
Take care, everybody.