This episode features an interview with Todd Thomas, Chief Revenue Officer at Aiden Auto. In this episode, Todd describes how to organize your startup for success, and how to make RevOps reflect your go-to-market strategy. He also dives into which decision-makers are most important in his process.
This episode features an interview with Todd Thomas, Chief Revenue Officer at Aiden Auto. Aiden integrates third-party digital services directly into your vehicle to elevate your driving experience. Todd has experience with startups to Fortune 100 companies across the industry. No matter where he is, he helps businesses and networks expand and grow.
In this episode, Todd describes how to organize your startup for success, and how to make RevOps reflect your go-to-market strategy. He also dives into which decision-makers are most important in his process.
Guest Bio:
Todd Thomas is an innovative and strategic thinker with the ability to build businesses and networks that deliver explosive growth. He has experience with startups to Fortune 100 companies across Connected Products & Services, SaaS, IoT, AI, and Emerging Tech. He’s also a Google Android for Cars Open Innovation "Shark Tank" Champion.
Guest Quote:
“Every startup has limited resources, so you're always trying to do everything you can with what you have. But how you structure your revenue ops really can be one of the keys to whether or not the startup makes it or not. So make sure that you're amplified and getting the most outta the resources you have available.” - Todd Thomas
Time Stamps:
**(00:47) - Todd’s journey to RevOps
**(01:48) - About Aiden Auto
**(03:13) - Defining rev ops
**(09:28) - RevObstacles
**(15:29) - RevOops
**(16:44) - The Toolshed
**(26:49) - Quick Hits
Sponsor:
Rise of RevOps is brought to you by Qualified. Qualified’s Pipeline Cloud is the future of pipeline generation for revenue teams that use Salesforce. Learn more about the Pipeline Cloud on Qualified.com.
Links:
[00:00:00] Ian Faison: Welcome to Rise of Rev Ops. I'm Faison, CEO of Caspian Studios, and today we are joined by a special guest. Todd, how are you?
[00:00:07] Todd Thomas: I'm doing great. How are you doing today?
[00:00:10] Ian Faison: Excited to chat with you. Excited to chat about Aiden, uh, and all the cool stuff that you're doing. Chat about revenue, chat about rev ops and everything in between. And as always, our show is presented by qualified. Qualified is the absolute best. Go to qualified.com to learn more. They're a tool that every single Rev ops person needs in their toolkit.
[00:00:32] If you're selling with Salesforce, if you're using Salesforce, you need, you need to use qualified. Go to qualified.com. Let's get into it today. Todd, tell us a little bit about your first role in revenue.
[00:00:48] Todd Thomas: So I've been doing business development and sales my entire career. Uh, it's just always been, uh, where I've found myself. But really the first big opportunity in rev ops was when I joined Zendrive. Zendrive was a very cool new tech startup out of San Francisco, and I joined there in 2017 as the first BD hire.
[00:01:07] It was basically a bunch of really smart engineers and they needed to start building partnerships. Uh, and so they brought me in and over the next three and a half years, built out the entire revenue function. So we built out a, a sales team and a BD team. Uh, built out a PR and marketing team. Um, built a fantastic customer success, um, and also, um, added a couple of solutions engineers, um, and really built it out as one coordinated, um, operation.
[00:01:36] And it, uh, it worked really well and, uh, loved it. I've never looked back.
[00:01:43] Ian Faison: And so flash forward to today. Tell us what it means to be c r O of Aiden.
[00:01:48] Todd Thomas: So Aiden is a fantastic new startup. Um, just founded in 2020 and, um, playing a similar role to what I did at Zendrive. I, uh, again, was the, the first BD hire and we are just in the early stages of building out a sales and a BD team, um, starting to build out a customer success team. As well as PR and marketing.
[00:02:08] So we're, we're in the very early stages of building those out, defining what our customer journey looks like and what the procedures for each one of those different groups, um, uh, bring to the table. Uh, so, uh, we're really in that high growth, very fluid. Some would say chaotic time. Um, that's always fun in the start.
[00:02:27] Ian Faison: The perfect time to be talking about rev ops. Um, and it, and, and it's, you know, it, it is one of those things that I think is so fascinating with, with, with startup world, which is when you get to build everything from scratch and you get to build things the way that you wanna do it. Obviously resource constraint of course, but, uh, but it's a fun time to build.
[00:02:47] Todd Thomas: it is. I mean, every startup has, um, limited resources, so you're always trying to do everything you can with what you have. Um, But how you structure your revenue ops, um, really can be one of the keys to whether or not the startup makes it or not. Um, so make sure that you're, you're amplified and getting the most outta the resources you have available.
[00:03:07] Ian Faison: All right. Let's get into our rev opening here. Uh, how do you define revenue operations?
[00:03:13] Todd Thomas: So I define it as everything that touches the generation of revenue for the company. So I, I have a pretty broad umbrella. I definitely think it begins with PR and marketing. Certainly sales, sales management, uh, the VD team, um, and customer success. I think that that's all probably pretty standard, but I also would include solutions engineering in there, um, because it's really part of the sales process.
[00:03:38] Um, if you're, if you're moving into a POC and your solutions engineer is integral to that, uh, particularly if. The, the actual process of integration is part of your value proposition. You know, if you have a faster integration or an easier integration or a no code integration, um, those are keys to your selling and the solution engineer is, is key to it.
[00:03:58] So I, I would include all of those different groups, and I would say you really need to maximize revenue. You need really good collaboration and cooperation across all of those different teams.
[00:04:11] Ian Faison: And how does Aiden go to market? Uh, who are you selling to?
[00:04:14] Todd Thomas: So Aiden really, uh, we reach out in, in two places. So primarily we reach out to auto manufacturers, auto OEMs, um, to provide our, our solution provides them a way to monetize access to their vehicles, to connected vehicle data. Um, not just data, but also to communicating and, and talking with the owners and drivers of the car.
[00:04:35] At the same time, we also reach out to service providers, anybody that wants to provide a service into a car, like an insurance company or a parking company, or an EV charging network. And one of the keys to where we are right now in our growth is maintaining balance. So we have auto manufacturers that have cars that provide data, uh, and then we have enough service providers to provide value to those auto OEMs.
[00:04:58] So it's, um, People often say, well, it's the chicken or the egg, and we kind of respond, look, maybe it is the chicken or the egg, but at the end of the day, if you want either chicken or egg, you gotta buy one of 'em.
[00:05:11] Ian Faison: That's all right. Um, And what does, uh, you know, it's early days, so you don't have a, uh, an entire massive, uh, rev ops team yet. Uh, so what does Rev ops look like at Aiden?
[00:05:24] Todd Thomas: So for us, one of the first positions we filled, um, we actually hired, uh, Angela Samos as our PR and marketing person. Uh, cause the first step was to build awareness.
[00:05:34] And she's done an amazing job of getting us to the right events and getting the right analysts and the right, uh, journalists to cover us.
[00:05:41] And we've really, um, in a short period of time generated some pretty fantastic awareness and we, and we run, won some really nice awards. We won the Editor's choice best of Mobile World Congress, um, so a couple of awards and, and really driven a lot of awareness. So that's been great. So that certainly is a fantastic tool for our BD folks.
[00:06:02] Uh, as they're reaching out to auto manufacturers and to service providers to kind of, uh, share with them, um, all the coverage we've been getting and, and the great analyst coverage that we've been getting as well. Uh, so that's been really helpful. So kind of step two is starting to build out our business development teams.
[00:06:19] Um, and we've done that in kind of a unique way. We, we have some direct employees and we've also used some, some contractors, um, with, uh, some highly motivating, um, compensation in place. So, so that's worked out pretty well. And, um, right now we're in the process of building out our customer success to really support our initial clients.
[00:06:39] And, um, so pretty excited about that.
[00:06:41] Ian Faison: Yeah. How do you think about building, um, you know, with. Think like a big company. You know, you always hear that, uh, with regards to your go, your go-to market strategy and how Rev op sort of fits into that.
[00:06:55] Todd Thomas: Well, I mean, the rev ops should be a reflection of your strategy and, and, and your go-to market plan. And for Aiden in particular, we have a, I would say, highly focused, uh, outreach. We have a very, the small team, but a very well connected team, very strong network. And so we leverage that network of the members of our team as well as our advisors and our investors.
[00:07:19] So, To try to, uh, compress the sales cycle by getting in front of decision makers as soon as possible. And I know everybody says we want to compress, compress the sales cycle. I, I get that. But the way that we do that is by using existing connections to reach out directly. So ideally, our very first meeting is with a decision maker, so we can move really
[00:07:40] quickly. Um, instead of having to go, you know, months of going through, uh, gatekeepers and using drip campaigns, that's just expensive and startups don't necessarily have the money for that. So we, we very specifically selected people to join the team that were highly connected in the auto and connected car ecosystem so that we could use existing networks to uh, to go right to decision makers.
[00:08:05] Ian Faison: Yeah. That's fascinating. It, it, it is, uh, That sort of like any types of type of, um, sort of bottom up approach when you're a startup is like, if you're not talking to a decision maker, not only is it not helpful from a sales perspective, but it's also not helpful from like a product feedback perspective.
[00:08:22] Like when you're a startup, you need to know why they're saying no. And if they're saying no and it's not an actual no, then you're not getting any information, uh, from that exchange either.
[00:08:33] Todd Thomas: Yeah, that's absolutely true. Um, and for, for Aiden Auto, our, our product is a services platform, so we can deliver any service. We're really, we're service agnostic as well as, uh, auto OEM agnostic. We can work with any auto oem, we can work with any service provider, but really valuable feedback is, What are the use cases and services that the OEMs really want?
[00:08:56] What are their top priorities right now? And so, just as you just mentioned, that information really needs to come from well-informed decision makers within the auto OEMs. So the more we can get in front of those people and, and get their feedback, um, whether it's a yes or no or hey, we need to see you build out this first.
[00:09:15] Um, that's all invaluable feedback.
[00:09:19] Ian Faison: Well, let's get to our first segment, rev Obstacles, where we talk about the tough parts of rev ops. What's the hardest rev ops or or just revenue problem you've faced in the last six months?
[00:09:28] Todd Thomas: So, so the biggest challenge for us at Aiden Auto is we are really a brand new technology. We're not a data aggregator. We don't use mobile apps, we don't use hardware. We are a software only solution. That connects directly to a connected car and streams real-time data, directly off the car to our service providers and provides two-way communication.
[00:09:51] So these service providers, whether it's an insurance company or a parking company, or an EV charging network, they can communicate directly to the car. We actually allow them to deliver, um, webpages directly into the car so they can. Deliver their webpages, deliver their year all directly into the vehicle user interface.
[00:10:09] And it could be interactive webpages so they can communicate directly with the drivers. So this is really a, a new way for people to deliver services into the car. Um, uh, and so our, our biggest challenge is, uh, bringing people up to speed on what Aiden is, how it works, and the incredible opportunity for OEMs to monetize access to their vehicles.
[00:10:32] The incredible opportunity for service providers to deliver their services directly to the drivers in the vehicles. Um, and again, it's new, so people will always compare us to data aggregators or to, um, to mobile apps or, or hardware providers. And we're really different. And so a lot of our, uh, initial pitches is really educating people on the technology and how it works and, and what it unlocks.
[00:10:57] Ian Faison: Yeah. When you're, when you're thinking about sort of such a, uh, such a new, new product offering, is there any, uh, things either, you know, obviously this company is, is still very early days, but, um, something in your previous role where, uh, where getting that like, you know, just brand awareness of just being even on the map, how that can, uh, how that can help.
[00:11:23] Um, or any, any best practices there where that can help?
[00:11:26] Todd Thomas: I think that's a challenge that a, a lot of startups face. Um, and so that's why the,
[00:11:31] um, the, the other great advantage we have at Aiden is, Um, th this isn't just, uh, slides. It's not slideware. We're, we're actually live. We, we are live with, uh, Volvo group vehicles. We're live with Lincoln Co vehicles, so we can actually give live demos and show that yes, we are in production. This is live. Um, this isn't idea, this isn't just a concept.
[00:11:52] It's, it's live and it's out there. And if you go live on our platform today, we can connect you to, uh, to vehicles tomorrow. So that's a huge advantage. But, um, yeah, awareness is that, is that first step. I say the second step is building a sales and business development team that is really tenacious as well as really well connected.
[00:12:14] And I think on the, on the tenacity piece, um, you need BD people and, uh, sales people that, uh, That push, that boundary of, um, they wanna be tenacious without becoming a pain in the ass. Um, and that's it. It's easy to cross over and I think we all have had experiences with both sides. But, um, if you can push that envelope, uh, again, it helps you to kind of maximize your, your, your output of what the effort you put in.
[00:12:42] Ian Faison: Yeah, especially when you're selling something new, like some people just. Aren't ready to take the plunge on something new, even if they, you know, you feel like it's their, in their best interest. You know? Um, and, and that can be kind of challenging.
[00:12:54] Todd Thomas: that, that's certainly true in, in our space, right? We're, we're selling to auto manufacturers and, and really the biggest service providers out of the door are insurance companies, both of which are very big. Um, typically, you know, big legacy companies that are very risk averse. Uh, and they don't change direction quickly.
[00:13:14] So, um, yeah, that, that's always a challenge in, uh, building their confidence, building their awareness, making them aware of all the opportunities and, and the problems that we can help them solve. Um, so yeah, that, that's a challenge. So,
[00:13:27] Ian Faison: You mentioned investing in customer success, um, obviously you've already invested in, in sales and in in marketing. Um, how do you sort, sort of balance the resources for those three groups? Or do you even see them as three distinct groups or do you just see them all as, as part of revenue?
[00:13:45] Todd Thomas: I actually like to build a team. Um, so you've got one BD or sales rep. With a customer success, um, rep that work together on a daily basis so they get to know each other and know each other's flow. Um, yeah, the solutions engineer in there to help out with the integration and the technical work. Um, so you've got all of those individuals working together, so it's not just the teams working together, but I actually like to team up the individual people so you're working with the same folks every day, and I think that really builds a fluidity and helps you have a, a seamless experience for your, for your end user.
[00:14:22] Ian Faison: Yeah. And then a a as you layer on marketing on top of that, um, how do you think about, you know, driving demand and, uh, and that marketing function?
[00:14:32] Todd Thomas: So again, I think you need to have really tight collaboration between your sales and BD team and their initial outreach and your PR and marketing. So that all is telling a consistent message and, um, and communicating the a consistent value proposition. Um, and then that comes back to the point you were making earlier about quality feedback, um, from your, from your customers, from your end users.
[00:14:55] Um, if we can get that feedback either from the BD and sales folks or from the customer success folks, uh, and we can then build that into our messaging and reflect that in our marketing so that we're constantly iterating and constantly improving the message and improving the value, and making sure that all of those different pieces are communicating that, uh, in sync.
[00:15:15] I think that's where you get the, the most efficiency.
[00:15:20] Ian Faison: Any, uh, rev, oops moments, uh, over the past, uh, year or so, or, or any mistakes if, if, if you had a magic wand and had a do over, anything that you would do over.
[00:15:29] Todd Thomas: You know, it's, it's always hard to keep all of those pieces, um, in balance, um, so that you are delivering the, the people that you need and the roles that you need based on the, the client base that you have. Um, so it's easy to, to start with your, your sales and your BD and ramp up sales as fast as you can.
[00:15:49] But if you don't have the customer success people in place to support those clients, um, you risk having an early client failure, which can be disastrous for a startup. So, um, I think even though startups tend to want to put. A ton of resources into sales and BD right up front and, and ramp up, um, client base and, and ramp up revenue.
[00:16:11] Um, you have to balance that. You have to have the customer success folks in place to make sure you're supporting those clients so that you don't have that catastrophic early on. Client failure.
[00:16:24] Ian Faison: Let's get to our next segment. The tool shed. We're talking tool spreadsheets, metrics like everyone's favorite tool qualified, no B2B tool shed is complete without qualified. Go to qualified.com right now and check them out. Todd, what's in your tool shed? How do have you, how have you set up the technology, uh, in the early days for Aiden?
[00:16:44] Todd Thomas: So Aiden, we use, uh, we use Google, so we use, uh, Google Mail and, and Google Docs. Um, and so right now we are using, um, a CRM tool called monday.com, uh, that syncs with all of our Google tools and makes it very simple and easy for our, for our folks to track their interactions with clients. Uh, before monday.com we were on Notion, which is great cuz it's super cheap.
[00:17:07] Um, but we did find as we grew, we needed more functionality, but we didn't think we were big enough, uh, to really need all of the resources of Salesforce. Um, Monday is, uh, a fraction of the cost of Salesforce. So again, it is a great place for us to start as a startup. But also one of the things that we made sure was true as we move forward with Monday was that when we are ready, when we feel we're big enough and we need all the functionality of Salesforce, we can very easily transition and move all of our data from Monday over to Salesforce.
[00:17:40] So that was. Kind of the ability to move forward to Salesforce at some point was a criteria in us selecting Monday, but it's worked really well. And then on top of that, we need to train, uh, our sales and our BD and our CS to really live in the CRM and make sure that they're capturing everything there.
[00:17:57] Uh, honestly, I think that's often one of the biggest challenges. Um, even if you're an organization, you've gone out and you've, and you've bought Salesforce and you've hired some consultants and you've customized the whole thing and it's all fantastic. If your, uh, sales and and CS folks aren't using it, um, it's of little value.
[00:18:14] So, uh, along with your investment in the technology, you've gotta invest in training your teams and making sure they're really using that CRM team and, and capturing everything in there.
[00:18:25] Ian Faison: What metrics matter to you?
[00:18:28] Todd Thomas: Well, we are, we are an early stage startup, so right now we really care about, Quality engagement with potential clients. Um, and for us that means a balance of auto manufacturers and service providers. So again, we don't want outreach to a thousand different prospects. We want outreach to a hundred high quality prospects that can move quickly and can convert to actual production and revenue in this calendar year.
[00:18:59] So we are, we are pretty focused on. A limited number of high quality prospects.
[00:19:07] Ian Faison: Yeah. Is there any, um, Is there anything that you measure within that where like to, to score those type of engagements or score those type of like i c P sort of, uh, accounts.
[00:19:20] Todd Thomas: Well, we always look at yield from outreach, so if we do, um, a LinkedIn outreach or email outreach, whatever that is, we're we're looking for where we can get the hi yield. And that comes back to kind of one of our original strategies, which was to hire highly connected people that have really strong networks in our specific, uh, ecosystem, which is automotive.
[00:19:42] And even within automotive, it's connected cars and connected car data and services into those cars. So it's, it's a pretty defined niche. Um, and so by finding people that are already well established in that niche that have known names, It really increases your yield. So instead of getting a a, a cold LinkedIn outreach from someone you're not even connected to, uh, you're getting an outreach to someone you've been connected to for years and have had previous conversations, which, and maybe even have done business with in the past.
[00:20:13] Um, and so instead of going from, you know, one to 3% yield, uh, we hope to get 30 to 40% yield out of, out of every campaign. So,
[00:20:26] Ian Faison: Um, What types of, uh, you know, you mentioned a couple of the types of campaigns that you're doing, you know, outbound with LinkedIn and outbound with, uh, um, with email and, and things like that. Any other, any other ways that you think about, you know, your go-to market strategy and, and, uh, and how you're doing stuff and tracking it?
[00:20:49] Todd Thomas: So, We do use LinkedIn a ton. We are heavy LinkedIn users. That's, that's kind of a critical tool for us. Um, but again, just kind of related to our highly targeted strategy, uh, we use our advisors on our investors a lot. So we have a, a pretty defined, uh, target list of auto manufacturers and parking companies and insurance companies, ev charging networks, um, predictive maintenance companies, fleet management companies.
[00:21:16] So we have a defined list within each one of those verticals. When we bring in a new advisor or we bring in a new investor or talking to one of those advisors or investors, we share our target list and we compare, you know, who do you know with these different companies? What introductions can you make?
[00:21:31] Um, and really, uh, an in a warm introduction. From an investor can be your most powerful tool because they can put you in touch, not only with the decision maker, but they often can put you in front of, uh, executive or or c-level people that can, number one, give you fantastic feedback on whether they believe your solution has legs or not.
[00:21:52] Um, they can point out holes that, uh, maybe you haven't seen and, uh, ideally, uh, they love your solution and can fast track moving from, um, Conversation into actual production and, and ideally revenue. So, uh, we, we really leverage our advisors and our investors and their networks.
[00:22:13] Ian Faison: Any, uh, blind spots that you wish you could, uh, measure better?
[00:22:19] Todd Thomas: That's a great question, but kind of by definition, I wouldn't know what they were, would they, would, I, I'm sure we have blind
[00:22:25] spots. Um, it's, it's always great to get someone that has a. Completely fresh perspective to look at your, look at your product, uh, look at your value proposition and look at how you are bringing that to, to market.
[00:22:38] Um, I love it when, um, someone that I would not think of as part of the automotive eco ecosystem reaches out and, uh, sees a clear connection and explains, look, we can service your clients as well, and this is how we do it. And this is a use case you haven't thought of. Uh uh I love that. So always. Enjoy getting that out outside perspective that points out something you, you haven't thought of yet.
[00:23:04] Ian Faison: Any tool that you're excited about investing in, uh, sometime in the near future.
[00:23:09] Todd Thomas: Um, well actually I've been talking recently with, um, the angel squad from Hustle Fund. Um, and, uh, I think we're gonna use them to, to help us, but, uh, they have a lot of energy and a, a really connected network. And they seem to be able to move at a higher pace than, than your typical VCs. Mm-hmm. Um, certainly since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and, and the subsequent additional couple of collapses, the VC world has gotten, um, really competitive, really tight.
[00:23:41] Um, it's a little bit harder to get VC money than it was, uh, before those collapses. Um, and so, you know, like. The Hustle Fund, um, and Startup Boost, um, are a couple of the companies that you can go to now that still seem to have a lot of momentum, have a lot of energy, and get things, uh, to happen quickly.
[00:24:02] So I would, I would definitely do a shout out to, yeah, hustle Fund and Startup Boost, uh, a couple of great organizations, so we're excited to be working with them. And, uh, also, uh, both companies that I would invest with personally.
[00:24:15] Ian Faison: Any other thoughts on, uh, on tool shed or spreadsheets or metrics or anything like that?
[00:24:20] Todd Thomas: Um, spreadsheets, get a bad rap, as, you know, old technology. But I think the reality is
[00:24:26] all of us, uh, if we're being honest, we'll admit we use spreadsheets all the time. Um, and, and they definitely have value and they, they have function and, uh, I mean the problem obviously is they don't scale. Although Google Docs helps a lot.
[00:24:38] If you can share a Google Doc, um, That extends the use of spreadsheets. Um, but ultimately, yeah, you, you need to convert over to a larger system that's more scalable cuz the. The next step for every startup. Once you've got your, your base clients and you've reached production and you've got revenue coming in, now you need to scale and ultimately spreadsheets and the processes that go along with spreadsheets, um, are not scalable.
[00:25:01] So that's when you need to look to, um, you, you, your larger tools, your enterprise tools. And I think that's why ultimately everybody ends up with, uh, Salesforce, uh, and high usage of LinkedIn. Um, cuz those two have, have proven to scale. Um, and I think. You, you kind of have the network effect with both of those.
[00:25:22] Ian Faison: All right. Any other thoughts on, uh, on like go-to market strategy or, uh, or any other go-to market, uh, type type things that, that you've seen best practices?
[00:25:32] Todd Thomas: Um, well, whenever you talk about strategy, you need to have an alignment. So strategy and company culture typically come from your ceo. Uh, the strategy and the culture is a reflection of theirs. Um, And then that needs to be tied in with your, your value proposition and your product, uh, so that your go-to market and your outreach all align with that, with that same strategy.
[00:25:56] And so for us, we have a very tight niche. So we have a very tight focused, you know, a laser focused outreach. Um, but that's just for us. Um, if you have, uh, different companies that are, you know, Have broad application across b2c, you're gonna need a completely different outreach. And you may need a different strategy and you may need a different, um, you know, culture within your company.
[00:26:20] So I think the, the key is to align your CEO's vision, um, and your CS strategy and culture with your revenue ops and your go to market plan and how all of that is communicated out to the market. That that all needs to be in sync and all needs to be collaborate, collaborated, and, um, All the different teams cooperating together to present a, a single unified, uh, vision and value proposition.
[00:26:49] Ian Faison: All right, Todd, let's get to our final segment. Quick hits. These are quick questions and quick answers. First question, if you could make any animal any size, what animal would it be and what size would it be?
[00:27:03] Todd Thomas: Um, well maybe, uh, Maybe you could do something with bees. So bees are pretty amazing animals. Um, they are. Incredible at, uh, collaborating and, and cooperating and, you know, these little teeny creatures with very little individual strength, um, can accomplish so much and get so much done through, uh, really tight cooperation, uh, and really good communication.
[00:27:31] And I think kind of a, a good, uh, metaphor or, uh, Aspiration for any team that has a complex problem. If you can cooperate and communicate as well as bees, uh, you probably have a good chance of being successful.
[00:27:47] Ian Faison: And the world needs more honey, so you know.
[00:27:50] Todd Thomas: More honey's always good. Yeah.
[00:27:52] Ian Faison: Yeah. Um, and more pollinators. Uh, do you have a, um, do you have a, a, a rev ops, uh, misconception or, or perhaps a prediction for us?
[00:28:04] Todd Thomas: I'd say the biggest rev ops misconception comes to, uh, BD folks. Everybody, I think, thinks they're the fun guys or the fun gals that are at the party and buying drinks. Um, and, and while the engineers are back at the office working their butts off that the BD teams out, um, schmoozing clients. While schmoozing clients is absolutely a part of the job, um, you know, that's the icing on the cake.
[00:28:29] All of the extremely detailed planning, uh, and research that goes into who exactly are you going to schmooze and what exactly are you gonna tell them when you have them at that nice dinner. You know, all of that work kind of gets overlooked, but I would suggest that BD and sales and CS. All of the research and preparation that goes into that outreach, um, often gets overlooked cuz all they see is the fancy dinner.
[00:28:54] So I'd say that's a big misconception. There's a lot of work that goes in before you get to ideally sit down with your prospect at a nice dinner. So,
[00:29:05] Ian Faison: If you, or do you have a favorite book or podcast or TV show or something like that, that, uh, that you're checking on, you would recommend?
[00:29:14] Todd Thomas: You know what an old favorite that just came up in a conversation recently is the Challenger Sale. Um,
[00:29:21] Ian Faison: Mm.
[00:29:21] Todd Thomas: it's a great book and, and most people in sales or business development have read it at some point. It's, um, Dixon and Adamson are the authors. Um,
[00:29:30] It's just, it's a, it's a classic, uh, approach that says, you know what?
[00:29:35] Your, your client isn't always right. Um, and sometimes you need to challenge your client and help them take a new perspective to grow their business. Um, and you can use that to help move from transactional into relationship, uh, based, uh, conversations. Um, but it, it is a little bit different perspective and, uh, one that's, uh, I think worth finding on your shelf and rereading.
[00:30:00] Ian Faison: I love it. That's a great one. It's such a good book. Um, I feel like they need a challenger sale, like 3.0. That's. Mixed with, or today's go-to market, which is a little bit crazier.
[00:30:12] Todd Thomas: That's probably a good idea. If they updated that with some new use cases that that would probably be great. I bet that would sell.
[00:30:18] Ian Faison: Well, especially with like everyone on earth being available on LinkedIn and like how to do things the right way and how to scale efforts and what social selling is now and all that sort of stuff. Like there's an element to that challenger sale that I think is, um, Pretty fascinating, but yeah. Great, great, great shout.
[00:30:40] Um, one of my faves,
[00:30:41] Todd Thomas: Excellent.
[00:30:42] Ian Faison: Any, um, any final piece of advice here that you would have for someone who's newly leading a, uh, a go-to market team?
[00:30:48] Todd Thomas: Um, Focus. Um, every startup fights the challenge. You get all sorts of people bringing new ideas, um, and things that you can do. And you can only do so many things. And every startup has limited resources. So maintain your focus. Uh, stay focused on, um, things that you can do right now. Um, uh, don't let yourself get pulled in too many directions at once.
[00:31:15] Ian Faison: Awesome. Todd, thanks so much for joining. Uh, great to have you on the show. Um, for our listeners, obviously if you're in the connected car space, if you're an OEM or a service partner, check out aiden auto.com. Any final thoughts, anything to plug?
[00:31:28] Todd Thomas: Thank you so much for having me on. It was a great conversation
[00:31:31] Ian Faison: Awesome. Thanks, Todd.