Hey there Croners!
Welcome back to The Prospecting Masterclass, the original Crono column where we bring you insights and tips from the brightest minds in sales.
In today’s crowded B2B SaaS landscape, getting prospects to actually engage means outsmarting noise with relevance, empathy and real insight.
In this Episode we sat down with Jaime Balmant, Business Development Manager at Gartner, to unpack the core skills and mindset shifts that separate average sellers from top-tier revenue drivers.
Jaime’s approach is not about clever tricks, it’s about curiosity with structure, purposeful personalization and transforming outbound motion into strategic business conversations. Here’s what we learned. 🚀
Hi Jamie, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your journey in B2B SaaS sales?
Of course.
My career has been a journey across different industries: aviation, digital and now SaaS, but with one common thread: people.
I started my professional life flying for Etihad Airways. That experience taught me how to connect with people from every background and build trust in seconds, which later became fundamental in my sales career.
After transitioning into tech, I joined Gartner Digital Markets, where I help software vendors grow their visibility and generate qualified demand globally, with a particular focus on the UKI market. Working with both startups and established SaaS firms gave me a full view of how go-to-market strategies evolve as companies scale, and how consultative selling can truly drive growth.
At this stage of my career, I’m focused on combining strategy, empathy, and execution, helping businesses accelerate demand while making the buying journey more human.
From your experience, what’s the single most important skill that makes a SaaS salesperson stand out?
Curiosity. Genuine, structured curiosity.
The best salespeople don’t just pitch; they diagnose. They ask the right questions, uncover real problems, and then translate product value into business impact. It’s not always an easy task, but it’s essential.
In SaaS, the product can be a differentiator, but more often it is how you connect the dots between a client’s pain points and measurable outcomes that truly matters.
Curiosity fuels that. It makes you listen better, tailor your message, and position yourself as a trusted advisor rather than just a vendor.
When curiosity meets preparation, sales conversations become strategic partnerships.
Take a breath and focus on the answer, not on your next question.
In your experience you worked closely with C-level executives. What strategies do you use to open conversations and build trust with executives?
With executives, the key is to respect their time and speak their language: outcomes, not features.
I usually start by framing the conversation around their mission-critical priorities such as revenue growth, efficiency, market share, or risk reduction. Then I connect those priorities to what my solution can enable, not simply what it does.
Another part of building trust is listening at the level of context, not just content. C-level executives don’t want small talk; they want insight. I bring data, benchmarks, and a clear understanding of their industry’s challenges.
You don’t need to agree with everything. Sometimes, the best way to build trust is to challenge respectfully and aim for a deeper understanding of their situation.
Ultimately, it’s not about selling to them; it’s about helping them make a better decision, faster.
One tip for salespeople to improve their prospecting today?
Focus on personalization with purpose.
Too many reps think personalization means just mentioning a company name or title. True personalization means linking something specific you’ve learned about that person or their business to a challenge you can help solve.
Before reaching out, ask yourself: “Why should this person care about this message right now?”
If you can answer that clearly – and your outreach reflects it – your chances of engagement multiply.
And, of course, consistency wins. The best prospectors are not the loudest, but the most consistent ones, those who show up every day with focus and curiosity.
It might sound cliché, but do it consistently, especially on the days you don’t feel like it.
How do you see B2B outbound sales evolving over the next years? What key challenges and trends do you anticipate for sales teams?
Outbound is becoming less transactional and more intelligence-driven.
AI is transforming how we gather insights, automate outreach, and personalize at scale, but the human layer remains irreplaceable.
The biggest challenge will be standing out in an environment where buyers are overwhelmed by automation. That’s where authenticity and storytelling will become true differentiators.