Episode 4: The Journey to Sales Mastery with Immacolata Bättig

In this episode of 'Your Future on Meritt', host Will Koning, CEO and co-founder of Meritt, interviews Immacolata Bättig, a seasoned sales development coach and leader at Salesforce. Imma shares her journey into sales, initially started without a formal college degree, and offers valuable advice for those looking to enter or excel in the sales industry. Key topics include the importance of building relationships, the essential traits for sales success—such as drive, resilience, and integrity—and the role of AI in enhancing sales processes. Imma emphasizes the significance of coaching, mentoring, and personal development in achieving career progression. They discuss the structured career paths at Salesforce, underscoring the rapid career advancement compared to more traditional roles. The episode concludes with practical advice for sales newbies and insights into upcoming AI developments poised to transform the sales landscape.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
01:18 Imma's Sales Journey
04:19 Core Skills for Sales Success
07:10 Career Progression in Sales
10:54 The Importance of Coaching and Mentorship
16:33 Practical Advice for Aspiring Salespeople
18:36 Quick Fire Round and Final Thoughts
24:01 Conclusion and Contact Information

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[00:00:00] 

Will Koning: Hey everyone, welcome to the Your future on meritt podcast. My name is Will Koning, I am CEO and co founder of meritt, and today we are joined by a very good friend of mine, Immacolata Bättig, I call her Imma, so you guys can too as well. But, um, Imma has been in sales, I think, almost as long as me.

 She is an amazing sales development coach, and she is currently heading up the German and DAC sales development team over at the one and only Salesforce. So Imma, it's really nice to have you on the podcast. Thank you so much for joining me. Um, how are you? 

Immacolata Baettig: I'm doing great. Um, and thanks so much for the intro. It's always great to work with you, Will. And, uh, yeah, and I'm really excited, um, to share some of my own key learnings and insights. Not only having done the job myself, but also [00:01:00] having managed close to 50 people at this point, uh, that transitioned through over the last two and a half years, um, here at Salesforce.

Will Koning: Yeah, that's amazing. Sounds like 50 SDRs all the way through. Uh, from SDR and they're all in like roles like sales development and account executives, account managers, that kind of thing. That's, that's incredible. Okay, cool. Well, before we get onto that, let's start at the beginning. And the question I like to ask anyone that's been in this game long enough is, um, think yourself back to the start of your sales career. You know and think about when you're explaining what you're going to do for your career, why didn't you get a normal job? Like, um, you know being a banker or an accountant or something. What what was it?

Immacolata Baettig: Yeah, that's a great question. So to be honest, I think I kind of stumbled into sales, um, by accident. When I was studying, so I don't actually have a official college degree, which made it a lot more difficult for me to get, you know, great opportunities. Um, and similar to, you know, some other people that might not have the best grades., you know, I had to kind of be a [00:02:00] bit more creative in what opportunities, you know, I could leverage. Um, and lucky for me, I found a great little, uh, startup in Munich. Um, and I joined them initially kind of like as a team assistant, office manager, PA to the country director. Um, and from there on, I kind of like assumed more responsibility for customer conversations, initially more in the post sale side.

Um, and then transitioning over to the Emerald Isle and where we really kicked off my sales career, um, joining the inside sales organization at Symantec at the time. So old school software sales, um, but absolutely fantastic learning journey. And, uh, from there on built my career into Into the kind of like, uh, SaaS sales field.

Um, so I really kind of stumbled in it by accident, really discovering, the potential of money you could make, um, but also the skills that I already had, um, and how I could put them into use in order to make that [00:03:00] money.

Will Koning: When you think back to those early days where, you know, it's easy to say now with hindsight that it was a great decision and stuff. It must have been challenging at the time. Have you got any insights you can share, to anyone that might be like looking for a sales role now, for example.

Immacolata Baettig: Yeah, I think one of the, one of the most difficult things, um, that people don't understand is, um, everyone is a seller. Everyone at one point has, has sold something to someone because selling is all about building a relationship with another human being, so this could be a friend. This could be your partner, your parent, where you had to influence them and understand, you know, maybe objections that they had.

Um, so I think a lot of people don't understand how many skills they have built already throughout their life and normal into everyday interactions, as well as through their studies or the educational backgrounds, um, or even in other roles that they can quickly translate into what may be needed for a sales role.

So [00:04:00] I think there's a lot of kind of misconception around. Sellers are like the, you know, Wolf of Wall Street, you know, making pesky cold calls. And to be fair, there's a lot of them out there. Um, but that's bad sales. If you focus on high quality sales, there's a lot of skillsets that most people already have and that they can bring to the table. 

Will Koning: For sure. From your opinion, you know,, you're working with SDRs all time over at Salesforce. What are those core skills? Like what are those traits? What are 

you looking 

for?

Immacolata Baettig: Yeah,

that's a great question. And I do want to give credit and this is something that my director when I joined Symantec said she was always looking for five traits and people. Um, she was looking for people who are smart, who have drive, who are resilient, um, have integrity, and are hungry.

And these are the kind of like five traits that at the time I didn't really understand what she meant by, but these are five traits that I think are absolutely necessary for you to succeed in the sales role long term. Um, and by [00:05:00] smart, it's not necessarily book smart. It's more the resourcefulness and understanding how you can influence other stakeholders because sales is very much a team sport.

So you need to understand where to go to for what information and who to loop in at the right time, um, in order to move the needle, whether that's in sales development or whether that is in sales.

Will Koning: Yeah, it's, it's so interesting isn't it, because I've been selling since I don't know, about two thousand and six, seven? How long have you been selling for?

Immacolata Baettig: Yeah. So I, um, I, I joined Symantec in 2014, uh, when I moved to Ireland, um, and then I was selling kind of like the five years before, um, or had exposure to, uh, to sales the five years before when I was working for the startup in Munich.

Will Koning: Quite a bit of time. And, it's for all the things that keep changing in the sales world, I just find those things that you're describing there, all those core traits of being a good salesperson, I think they've never, changed. It might be a different flavor, a different word, a [00:06:00] different taste, you know, us, we, we look for grit, which is kind of what you're talking about in, in, in different ways.

I mean, do you, do you think the

Immacolata Baettig: Yeah. Um, I think when it boils down to, um, to anything that is happening and we've seen a lot of change, particularly in the last 10 years with cloud, you know, kind of like come picking up SaaS sales, you know, kind of like leading the way and now, you know, the next revolution is going to be AI, but in essence, it'll boil down to,

a person to a person conversation. Yeah, you can leverage AI, you know, to have better insights to have, you know, better conversations with people, but people buy from people and that's something that will never change. And, building that relationship with another human being for them, winning their trust, um, demonstrating listening skills and showing the resilience to kind of go through from one call from one rejection to another, that's never going to change.

Will Koning: No, for sure. Do you do the hiring for your team over at [00:07:00] Salesforce and you do all

the interviews 

Immacolata Baettig: I do.

Will Koning: Excellent. And would you say at the moment, there's a lot of people in the sales world. I mean, obviously it's, I'm assuming it's an entry level role for you guys as well

Immacolata Baettig: Yeah. So, um, Salesforce has a very kind of like structured, um, progression path and therefore, uh, there's a lot of focus on university hiring. So, um, really helping those graduates start their careers in sales, or sales development. Usually, like what that looks like is we would approach a lot of graduates in particular for the market that I'm working in.

 A lot of these grads, um, have two kinds of ways that they're going to either moving into consulting or they're considering sales. Um, and a lot of them that, um, don't want to move into consulting, have an absolutely exceptional career in sales.

Will Koning: Excellent. What would you say then to a candidate and they might be looking at going to one of the big four, the McKinsey's, the PWC's, et cetera, et cetera. versus a career in tech sales with with a company like Salesforce or [00:08:00] any SDR kind of pathway for that matter.

What is it that you would say to them to get them to really consider sales? Perhaps, you know, let's be honest, sales can be perceived as beneath certain people. Um, it's not necessarily like the chosen career path. What would you say to that candidate to really help them make that decision to come into sales? 

Immacolata Baettig: To be honest, um, the team is really doing most of the convincing and we just map out, you know, what the process usually would look like or what the career progression usually looks like. And one thing that most of the candidates and the ones that we hire into the role, um, always what stood out to them compared to, you know, maybe other industries, um, Is the fast career progression.

So there's a really very clear structured path, you know, with very clear kind of timelines attached to it, where you progress from, you know, from BDA to SDR to BDR to AE. And it's a very, very structured process. With timelines [00:09:00] attached to them where you know, you kind of like have these like milestones that you reach.

And that's what they're really looking for early in their career. They want to have those, you know, initial successes to build their confidence. Um, and also have a pay bump with every, you know, progression. A lot of the consulting roles start as, you know, a much higher earnings potential. And that's why a lot of the candidates are usually deceived into believing like, Oh, I'm going to earn, you know, this much of a paycheck, but the reality is you're going to have this paycheck and you're probably going to have this paycheck for the next five years.

Um, unless you clog 60 to 70 hours. Um, the differences in, you know, in a sales role, you can also clog 60 to 70 hours. And to be honest, a lot of top performers do, um, but they get, you they get the return on investment. Putting that extra money in, they will hit their accelerators and they will achieve their overperformance.

So it's down to you whether you want to have a steady sailing and , finish around 100 percent mark. Or if you want to get into those accelerators, um, and [00:10:00] it's all about. You know, working smarter, not harder. So leveraging AI, um, is your best friend in these cases, to be honest.

Will Koning: Yeah, absolutely. I'm absolutely loving all the AI tools as long as they enhance me and not replace the that that human to human connection, I think we're in a really really exciting place, and I think those will be the AI platforms that do really, really well. That's, that's really cool. Um, so yeah, going, going back to that career path as well.

One thing I was going to say about, you know, going down the big four or the, um, the consulting route as well is, is, yeah, they're going to be in that role for a long time yeah, they may be getting paid a lot and sure they might learn a lot of theoretical stuff still, but the reality is, is you, I think you just learn so much in sales simply by doing and learning and failing and dealing with things like rejection, which certainly in this day and age, that's a very rare experience to kind of encounter if you're not in the sales world.

I don't know if you had any light on, shed any light on what you would also learn outside of, you know, the [00:11:00] good pay and the career progression?

Immacolata Baettig: Yeah. Um, and I think that's like, there's a lot of learnings, uh, when it comes, you know, when it comes to sales and sales development. Um, so you have your high level example, we've set up a team kind of workshop for this Friday and I'm working with one of my peers who's, uh, an e-DiSK instructor.

 I'm not sure if you're familiar with the DiSK profiles, like the dominant, influential, steady. We're running this workshop to help the teams understand, hey, what are my strengths? Um, how can I play towards my strengths and where do I have areas naturally based on who I am that, you know, I could try it and tackle.

Um, so it's not only just about the career progression and learning about the products. Salesforce is, you know the leading CRM platform, but it's more about the personal development aspects. And this is what really excites me where you get people who don't have the confidence yet.

You have those initial discussions and conversations, around coaching them to have a [00:12:00] growth mindset and coaching them to achieve excellence in a particular area. And then they kind of progress and they see, you know, results.

Um, and they can connect the dots and they start building that confidence. And your mentees become your mentors. They will provide new insights to me as their managers, um, or former manager. And, and that's what I love being part of that journey. And, and there's no other team than sales development that has this kind of personal

progression as well, where they really develop and hone in on skills like objection handling or, you know, confidence, um, executive presence, presentation skills, like you name it. And all of these are key traits for them to be successful as account executives and this is what they learn in sales development.

Will Koning: Yeah, and that's so true. And I think you learn it more because you're dealing with the market forces, which means it's not always clear cut. So, you know that environment which they're in, they do, you're right, they learn presentation skills, they learn how to communicate, they develop their confidence, they [00:13:00] develop their grit, they develop their resilience.

And I just think there's no real profession that does that. And I totally resonate with what you're saying around those formative years and they really do relate it to you. That's one of the things I love from my days of running SaaS Leads Academy. My cohorts that, I work with, you know, they still call me like almost every week sometimes, you know what I mean?

Where we're still, you know, frankly friends in, in many respects now where they go, "If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be earning the six figures that I am today!", you know, which is, which is often the goal that these SDRs have to, you know, I want to earn the six figures I want, the big bucks I want, all of that.

But I think there is that disconnect between what you've got to do to

get there. You know what I mean? And it's your job as the coach to kind of get them through.

Immacolata Baettig: yeah, absolutely. And it is hard, like it is hard for people coming, like a lot of the talent that we get in, they come from top universities. Um, so they have a really, really strong academic background. None of your academic results will matter in sales because it's [00:14:00] really all about your soft skills and how you can leverage some of these traits.

It can be very painful to come from a strong kind of like academic background and then be humbled very quickly, um, with not being able on track in particular, like those first kind of three months, um, can be absolutely game changing and that's why grit and resilience is so important because you need to push through.

 I always explain that to my team. The area where you feel uncomfortable, where you feel like I'm not cut out for this. I'm like, that's the sweet spot. That's what you need to hit because this is where growth happens, where things are hard, where you're almost going to give up and then you push through and you will get out the other side.

Immacolata Baettig: better, and that's when, once they get through this phase,

like that's when the magic happens because that's when they start believing in themselves. And that's when they kind of understands the importance of a growth mindset and understanding like, okay, this is challenging. What do I need? Let's take a step back.[00:15:00] 

And this is, this is where coaching really is helpful because you help them to reflect on their own performance on, on where they might have gaps. And then you just have them identify, right. Yeah. What could help you in these situations? Who could help you in these situations? And they come up with all their plans and answers themselves.

Um, they need very minimal hand holding. They just need to be asked the right questions. Similar like, like our prospects.

Will Koning: I used to call a pit of despair. And, and you get there the SDR comes to you and they be upset like, oh, Will, it's not working. You've seen it all the time. You're like, oh, don't worry. You're going through the pit of despair. I know exactly where you are and they can't see it. Now, I'm obviously a coach, you're obviously a coach by trade as well.

[00:16:00] 

Will Koning: What would you say to the SDR right now that is going through that pit of despair, so to speak, that low period that perhaps doesn't have a great coach like yourself, um, or hasn't got the support around them. Can you give them something practical that they could take away today?

Immacolata Baettig: If you don't have the funds to fork out a hundred euros, 150 euros an hour for professional coach, and you don't get that kind of level of support, within your organization, you can also coach yourself. A very like easy way is the grow methodology.

There's a book you can get on Amazon, I think for 20 bucks, and it has a list of questions that coaches would use, but basically the grow [00:17:00] methodology is a scalable format that was designed in order to support more people to, or companies, uh, predominantly to leverage the benefits of coaching, but you can also coach yourself with it.

So if you don't have access, be that coach for yourself and ask yourself the hard questions that you might not want to ask yourself, but in essence, GROW stands for goals, reality, options, and way forward. So it's really going through, what are my goals? Where am I right now?

What options do I have? And what next steps will I put in place for myself in order to achieve my goals? And it's a bulletproof way. And if you're familiar with the, uh, with the book, um, it will have, you know, a lot of the historical aspects, but it has a lot of like direct like techniques that you can implement today.

So I would definitely recommend, um, Invest at 20 bucks.

Will Koning: Yeah, no, that sounds that sounds like a good 20 bucks [00:18:00] investment. Um, so let's just recap that So that's the grow methodology. So that's G you know, what are my goals? Uh, remind me on

Immacolata Baettig: And R is for reality. So what's the status quo? Where, where am I right now? What's blocking me? Why am I not achieving what I'm trying to achieve?

Will Koning: then O for options. So what options have I got that I can actually do because of what's actually available to me? And then, and then I'm going to choose a way

forward. Is that right? Amazing. That is really helpful. I think that's really good advice for anyone that is struggling right now and perhaps can't afford a coach because I know cost of living is a real thing for many. Let's do some quick fire around. So imagine you can go and wave your wand back in time and you can go back to Imma from when she first started her sales career.

What are the three pieces of advice that you'd give yourself, um, right now, Imma, that perhaps, uh, you didn't take and you wish you had?

Immacolata Baettig: Um, yes. So the first one I would give myself is: sales is a numbers game, [00:19:00] so everything is based on an analysis. So understand what are the relevant KPIs for you, um, and understand how to influence them. Um, so that's, that's rule number one. It's, you know, it really is just plain maths.

Will Koning: So, for those that don't know, KPI is a Key Performance Indicators, right? Okay, so an example of that would be how many Calls do I need to make basically?

Immacolata Baettig: Exactly.

Um, the second one is get a coach, get someone who is going to ask you the hard questions or, coach yourself if you don't have the funds and the third one is, and I think that is absolutely fundamental. Get a mentor, get someone,

Will Koning: Yeah. I was about to say you can't get a coach, get a mentor, right? You know, I've had so many!

Immacolata Baettig: Get a mentor, you've got to find out, what it is that you are lacking. So do some, you know, behavioral analysis, um, There's a lot of free content out there that can highlight to you what your strengths are what your areas to develop [00:20:00] are. Be specific in your ask and identify mentors who can help you ideally you should have two or three mentors, but definitely get one get one person who's done the job before who can provide insights into what they have done. It might not work for you because everyone is different.

Um, and this is where coaching comes into play, but you need someone who can kind of show you how it's done.

Will Koning: totally a hundred percent. I mean, I couldn't agree with you more. When I think about it, you've got to know your numbers. You've got to know that reality. So to speak where you actually are and what you need to achieve, you know, coaching. When I think back to some of the coaches that I have, whether that's, uh, you know, from my career or even, you know, I, I have therapy for myself, which is almost the form of coaching.

If I didn't have that space, a safe space, so to speak, to talk about my challenges and to grow. I think it would have been much harder. And then of course, when I think about my mentors, you know, I've got more than three, right? That I know I can pick up the phone to morning, noon and night and say, Hey, I've got this problem.

That [00:21:00] has got me through so much, you know? And I think that's really, really fantastic advice. The one thing that just came to mind, Um, there as well is sales can often be seen as a lone wolf kind of thing. Right. You know, which you and I know it's not, but I think to someone that was looking in, they think this is a, this is a. You know, a solo sport, but I think you just really highlights that you shouldn't be on your own in sales at all. In fact, it's the opposite, right? You're in a big team, you work with Salesforce, but also as an individual, you need to have that kind of team around you of these wonderful people that are going to support you in your growth or your personal and professional

Immacolata Baettig: Absolutely. And you can achieve so much more as a team. And that kickoff, um, that we're planning for this week, Friday, um, that's gonna tie into that aspect as well, because everyone has different things that they can bring to the table, but it's putting it all together, and having one mission and one way forward where everyone will contribute towards that.

Um, this, this is [00:22:00] really where, where the magic happens, you know, in any sales or sales development organization. Yes, you can have some lone wolves who might be performing, but honestly, the most successful people, they operate as one high functioning team.

Will Koning: yeah, 100%. It's so true. Amazing. Well, the other thing I would say, guys, anyone that is looking for an SDR or I would try and find a manager like Imma here, because I think that really also shows, you know, having someone like that, that's going to invest in your time and develop you to be the next version of yourself is something that is well, that's it,

no one wants to be an SDR forever, or very few, I should say, want to be an SDR forever. It very much is that role where there is usually a next step, right? I love to ask everyone this, our little quote corner. What is your favorite quote and why?

Immacolata Baettig: Um, I think my, uh, my favorite quote is, uh, "Be the change you want to see in people." I think this [00:23:00] is my favorite one. Um, just because we often talk about how we want to do things better, or what could be better, you know, we all like to have a little bit of a nag, uh, but this is why I really, I love that kind of trailblazer mentality, um, at Salesforce as well. There are those kind of people who will blaze that trail, who will just say there is a better world out there, there is a better future, there is a better path, and it just takes one person to walk it, so be that change, start walking that path.

It's going to be a lonely path in the beginning, but before you know it, there's going to be others that will follow along. So, yeah, be the change you want to see in people. 

Will Koning: It's such an important thing, isn't it? And I think it aligns with what you're talking about, the importance of integrity as well, right? If you're not prepared to do the thing that you want to see in other people, that does mean that you might be lacking in integrity. I mean, we call the business meritt, right? So, you know, I obviously very much believe in that because you've got to do things on meritt, right? Um, and integrity is so much part of [00:24:00] that. Imma, this has been amazing. This is now, of course, we are all salespeople here. So this is your moment to sell yourself.

Who are you? Give us a plug. What do you want to talk about? This is your moment to shine. Sell, sell.

Immacolata Baettig: I think sales is more about asking, uh, asking great questions, but yes, I mean, right now we're actually fully seated on my team, so I don't have any positions, but there will always be positions opening. And, um, one thing that, um, that I really want to highlight is the majority of companies out there are actually leveraging Salesforce as their CRM platform.

So we've got really great courses that everyone can do who's interested in a career in sales to learn more about the technology, learn more about the numbers elements that I shared. Know your reports and dashboards. My team knows that. So go on to our Trailhead platform, sign up for these courses.

They've got great AE courses, BDR courses. There's a very recently launched Sales Blazer community as well as, [00:25:00] um, as well as the sales certified badge that you can add to your LinkedIn profile. So if you really want to want to show employers, um, that, you know, you're, you're all about, uh, sales. Go and start with Salesforce.

Will Koning: Are you guys doing, um, AI in sales courses as well soon? Because I know AI is a big

Immacolata Baettig: We are, um, Dreamforce is happening this week. There was a strong focus on agent force, which is going to be absolutely transformational. And so imagine this, Will, you're going to have an AI agent that is basically your little PA telling you what you should be focusing on based on, you know, the data that is available throughout your systems.

So imagine you're an SDR and there's a little agent that's telling you, you should pick up the phone and call this customer because of X, Y, Z reason. And have that point of view ready crafted by your agent for you. And this is across the board, um, whether that [00:26:00] is, you know, card assistance, service assistance, um, you're going to have agents everywhere, um, supporting every function in the business to really add that human element to it and focus on building those relationships.

Will Koning: I mean, like I said, that is the best application of AI. AI is not here to replace us. I, not, not AI as it exists today, at the very least. It genuinely can enhance you in ways that you've never imagined. It really is a truly exciting time to start working in technology.

It might have been tough for the last few, few years, right? But I really think this is, I can't wait to see the next evolution of all this stuff. And it sounds like Salesforce again, it's going to be right at the spearhead of it all. So, uh, it sounds very exciting. If you're looking for a career there, I would be following Salesforce most definitely. Brilliant. Imma, this has been amazing. How can people get in touch with you? Imma, what's the best way to find you?

Immacolata Baettig: Best way is to find me on [00:27:00] LinkedIn. Um, so there's not many Immacolata Bättigs, uh, so you'll easily find me. Just put in Immacolata and Salesforce and here I am. So yeah, connect with me on LinkedIn. Um, I always, uh, love engaging with early and career talent and more people exploring, um, a move into sales.

Reach out to me on LinkedIn, uh, let's connect, um, and let's bring that new AI, uh, revolution to the next level together.

Will Koning: Indeed. Yeah. And also, uh, obviously a little plug for meritt. Um, if you can't find a job over at Salesforce, we have loads of SDR roles and AE roles on the platform as well. So, uh, yeah, guys, I think between that, there's plenty of places to learn about how to be an exceptional sales representative. So with that, everyone, thank you so much.

And remember your future is on meritt. Cya!.

Immacolata Baettig: Thanks Will. 

[00:28:00] 

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