Guy Rubin from Ebsta on AI, Benchmarking, and Building Relationships in B2B Sales

I am thrilled to have Guy Rubin, the founder and CEO of Ebsta, the Revenue Intelligence Platform for Salesforce and Hubspot customers.  Ebsta delivers real-time forecasting tools and uses engagement trends to benchmark live pipeline against previously closed won deals. In this episode Guy Rubin, founder and CEO of Ebsta, a revenue intelligence platform for Salesforce and HubSpot customers shares insights into the role of AI in automating sales admin tasks, freeing up reps to focus on building relationships. He also discusses the importance of benchmarking sales data to improve performance, the challenges of scaling from SMB to enterprise, and advice on hiring for early-stage startups. Guy emphasizes the need to focus on human connections in sales, even in a world increasingly driven by AI tools and automation, and much more! Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on YouTube Subscribe on iTunes Learn * When is the right time to hire your first sales rep? * Should the founder be the one to create the sales playbook? * How important are logos? Does social validity really work in the enterprise? * How should sales teams use discounting in enterprise sales most effectively? * What is your favourite business book? –Crossing the chasm * What is your favourite online tool? –Slack * If you could go back to when you started working, what is the one thing you would have focused on? – Thinking and planning in advance Timestamps 2:45: The role of AI in reducing the administrative burden for sales teams. 3:30: The importance of relationships in B2B sales and how AI enhances, but doesn’t replace, human connection. 4:45: Analyzing sales data to identify key differences between top performers and average performers. 6:00: The role of AI in benchmarking and recreating unrecorded sales activities. 8:15: The impact of time on win rates and the importance of closing lost opportunities early. 10:45: Differences between selling to small, medium, and enterprise customers. 12:00: The importance of choosing the right customer profile for a successful sales process. 13:15: The value of company logos and social proof when selling to enterprises. 16:00: Budgeting for enterprise sales and managing slow-burn deals. 18:45: Guy’s advice on outbound sales and building human connections during sales calls. 20:00: The importance of relationships in B2B sales and becoming an expert advisor. 23:45: Guy’s advice on hiring the first sales representative versus a VP of Sales. 26:15: The difference between people who can turn zero into one versus those who follow existing processes. 27:30: Domain expertise in new hires and the importance of a startup mentality. 30:00: Pros and cons of hiring from your own network versus using recruiters for early hires. 32:00: How Ebsta analyzes sales data to understand revenue signals. Guy’s Links  LDN– https://www.linkedin.com/in/rubinguy Sales report - https://www.ebsta.com/2024-b2b-sales-benchmarks/ My Links  Podcast: https://lifeselfmastery.com/itunes YouTube:  youtube.com/lifeselfmastery Twitter: https://twitter.com/rohitmal 5-day email course: www.enterprisesalesexpertise.com Newsletter:  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit partnergrow.substack.com