Quantity and Quality in outreach activities with Giovanni Desiderio
Hi Croners, welcome to another episode of “The Prospecting Masterclass“! As you know, in this column every week we dive deep into the world of B2B sales, uncovering valuable insights and strategies from industry experts.
Today, we have the privilege of sitting down with Giovanni Desiderio, a professional in B2B sales and a Senior Account Executive at Ovrsea, a leading digital freight forwarder.
Giovanni brings a wealth of experience to the table, having worked with innovative companies such as Connecting Food, a blockchain-based B2B SaaS provider for supply chain digitization. With a background in business law, Giovanni’s journey to the world of sales is an intriguing one.
In our conversation, we explore Giovanni’s perspective on the challenges of prospecting and outbound sales. He shares the strategies that Ovrsea has implemented to overcome these challenges, emphasizing the importance of targeted prospecting, balancing quantity and quality in outreach activities, and equipping sales teams with the necessary skills to handle objections and rejections.
Find his interview below. Thanks Giovanni!
Here is the interview with Giovanni Desiderio, enjoy reading!
1) Hi Giovanni, can you tell us about yourself and your experience in B2B Sales?
Ciao Croners, thanks for the interview first of all. I’m a Senior Account Executive at Ovrsea, a digital freight forwarder that relies on freight knowledge and supply technology to make the client supply chain more efficient, resilient and sustainable.
Before meeting Ovrsea, I worked for another french startup, Connecting Food, a B2B SaaS provider, blockchain based, for supply chain digitization of food companies (you may have heard of food traceability by the blockchain). A bit before that, I was a business lawyer but that’s another story.
2) How would you describe yourself if you could only use 5 words?
Ambitious, determined, funny, results-driven and ITALIAN 😉
3) What are the most difficult challenges you have faced regarding Prospecting and Outbound Sales in your past and current professional experiences? How did you solve them?
Among the several challenges one may find, I would definitely focus on the following:
- the effort to find the right decision-makers in very crowded markets. To overcome this at Ovrsea, we implemented targeted prospecting strategies, leveraging data and research, but most importantly we test such strategies with the sales teams and ALWAYS adjust the direction based on the test results;
- the balance between quantity and quality regarding the outreach activity. Quantity may include prospecting automation tools that will multiply velocity but it will expose you to the risk of burning the market soon, and quality would mean to reduce scaling speed and trying to increase sales KPIs with more human resources focusing on excelling their performances. At Ovrsea we prioritize quality but we have highly ambitious goals for market scaling;
- handling objections and rejections. They will always be there and not every prospect will be interested or ready to engage in a meaningful conversation. Ovrsea prepares its sales teams with resilience and perseverance, active listening abilities, motivation and persuasive skills to address the specific needs of our interlocutors
4) How do you see B2B outbound sales changing in the next 12 months? What challenges and trends do you anticipate?
We are expecting significant changes. AI (e.g. Chat GPT) is the first that comes to mind. Moreover, the use of digital platforms and remote work will likely increase and sales professionals will need to leverage technology effectively.
Building a strong online presence, mastering social selling, and leveraging video conferencing tools will become essential. Technology will also help the rise of personalized and targeted outreach. This is one of our most important focuses at Ovrsea and we are constantly looking at new tools opportunities, especially for sales enablement purposes.
5) What advice would you give to someone starting today as an SDR?
Performing as an SDR is very hard. It is a job requiring discipline and dedication. You will need commitment to start things but most importantly consistency to finish them. At Ovrsea we have a very high performing BDR team because above all we care about the people in the company and we find the way to train them and help them succeed with us.
So my best honest advice would be to strongly consider the company to work for, especially how such a company values people and their achievements!
Keep reading The Prospecting Masterclass!
