Scale-Up Secrets: Charting $2B Pathways from Start to Finish W/ Zoltan Vardy

Embark on a transformative journey with Zoltan Vardy as he unveils his unparalleled insights into the world of startups, scaling, and corporate conquests. 

Across three diverse topics, listeners will uncover the key to predictable revenues in a chaotic market, the nuances of global expansion, and the art of winning over the corporate giants. With proven strategies drawn from a 30-year career and a whopping $2B in sales, Zoltan’s revelations promise to be a game-changer for both budding entrepreneurs and seasoned business veterans.

CONNECT WITH PETER BOOLKAH

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ABOUT PETER BOOLKAH

Peter Boolkah is a business coach, author and speaker who has spent more than 20 years helping business owners build stronger, more valuable businesses that do not depend on them for everything.

He is the creator of The Hamster Wheel Trap® and author of Your Business Sucks: Build a Business That Works Without Destroying Your Life.

Peter works with founders and leadership teams on the issues that ultimately determine whether a business creates freedom or becomes another job: leadership, founder dependency, people, profit, execution, scaling, exit readiness and enterprise value.

His approach is direct, practical and built around one simple question:

Do you own the business, or does the business own you?

Learn more at https://www.boolkah.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Hi, Peter Balker here, and welcome to today's edition of the Transition Guy. Now, joining me today in the studio is Zoltan Vardy, who is a startup mentor and B2B sales expert. Welcome, Zoltan.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Hi, Peter. Thanks very much for having me on.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

So, I mean, P2B revenue and sort of being this startup mentor. How did you get into this in the first place? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Well, I think, you know, for me, it was a it was a path uh that started with um really understanding that you know business-to-business tech founders largely struggle with selling, right? There tend to be more product-focused folks. They they understand products, they understand the product development process, but they're not really comfortable with selling. And so actually, what I do now is I help tech founders who struggle with sales to sell and market specifically enterprise clients. And I do this by applying a blueprint that I created called the Launch Code. And the the launch code itself kind of captures, I think, what is unique in my background, that it combines two very distinct mindsets. So it brings kind of the structure and the experience that comes from closing over $2 billion in business-to-business deals that I did as a senior corporate executive, mostly in the media industry. But uh, but it also introduces some of those elements that are the reality of building business, which is that you, you know, you're you're clawing and scratching and trying to be very efficient in execution. So it's kind of combining those two different approaches, is I think what's uh what's been my point of view. As to how I got here in the first place, um, you know, it was a journey. Uh six years ago, I finished a 20-year corporate career in sales and general management. Um, I was in some big jobs in the uh in the corporate world. My most senior role, I was senior vice president of global sales for NBC Universal, International's television, uh based out of London. Um overseeing a multi-hundred million dollar business in 30 countries. I left that world. I wanted to get into something more entrepreneurial. And it didn't take me very long to realize that founders, while very knowledgeable and passionate about their products, they didn't understand sales. They struggled with explaining why customers should buy what they're selling. They didn't have a sales process in place, they lacked the ability to set targets. So a lot of those things that are kind of fundamental to the process. And so, so what I realized is that there could be a real opportunity to support them in a professional services basis to help them, you know, kind of create that clear offer, that that structured sales process, that target folks at execution that ultimately um is going to help them build and scale their business to generate predictable recurring revenues, which is I think ultimately the goal of any any growing business.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

Yeah, and I think you said something interesting earlier was the fact you use the term enterprise customer, yeah, which for probably most businesses starting out, that is like the holy grail of sales. People dream of people dream of getting this enterprise-sized customer where they're gonna just get that's gonna be their golden goose.

SPEAKER_02 3:04

Yeah.

unknown 3:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

In reality, is an enterprise customer truly a golden goose?

SPEAKER_02 3:11

Well, uh, you know, I think you have to put it uh in the proper context, right? So enterprise sales in itself is a long-term sales cycle. Um, it's talking to big customers who are buying high-ticket items or high-ticket uh deals. Um, so you have to kind of prepare yourself mentally for the fact that it's going to be a long road. However, um, once you get to the end of that road, it's likely to generate a significant value to you as a company because enterprise customers, while hard to gather and capture, are are uh easier to uh to keep because the the pain of change is much greater from the customer's perspective. Long story short, I think enterprise sales is a um is a game of patience. It's a game of focus, um, and it's understanding that not all enterprise customers are created equal. There are some that are more relevant for startups and there are early stage companies, and there are ones that are not relevant. And I think understanding the difference is is critical.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Oh, thank you. What when you talk about a long process, a long sales process, what does that typically look like? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

Well, I think the general accepted um time span is kind of six to 12 months. That's a reasonable amount of time you could expect to come to an agreement with a large enterprise customer. Um, anything shorter than six months is unusual. Anything more than 12 is probably um ineffective. I mean, there's something wrong there if it's taking more than 12 months. Um, I think the way you shorten that process is first of all, start by targeting the right type of enterprise customers. And there's a couple of things that I'll always tell my companies I work with to keep in mind. So I always say you have to hunt for deer and not elephants. Um, and what that means is that you know there are big lumbering organizations that are um, you know, market leaders and have very little initiative or or um inclination to change or to try out new things because they don't have to, right? They're the big guys. There's a whole other layer of enterprise customers that I call the deer that are the challengers in any kind of category, right? They're the ones that are more open to innovation because they have an internal motivation to try to become market leaders. And so trying to um work with these deer in any particular segment or vertical that you target is a good way to start. Um, the other thing I would say is you want to work mostly and target mostly companies that are privately held and not publicly traded. And the distinction there is that privately held companies generally are um willing to take greater financial risk um with new suppliers because they don't have these quarterly results that they have to deliver. Um, that's not the case, of course, with publicly traded companies. Uh the other thing I would say you want to talk to um headquarters of companies, right? So big multinationals often will have subsidiaries who um who may seem independent on paper, but they don't really have decision-making authority. So getting to the decision-maker at headquarters level um are is a great way. And then the final care category or characteristic I would emphasize is looking for companies that are what I would call startup-friendly. Um, you know, they already have some indication that they're open to working with companies. They've got a corporate accelerating program, they've got maybe a corporate venture capital arm, um, maybe they have a relevant leadership role called, you know, head of innovation or startup relations or things like that, right? So you can always get a sense that these companies have, you know, basically created some sort of openness to working with early companies. So, you know, if I had to kind of capture the essence of the perfect enterprise customer for an early stage business, challenger position, privately held, strong headquarter-based decision making, and ultimately a startup-friendly environment.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

They sort of, especially the deers, are there any suppliers they will tend to shy away from? Not in the UK, and it it varies, it varies. By government statistics say they may be 5.4 million SMEs. Yeah, at least sort of 4.2 or 4.3 of them would be one-man brands. Would these sort of enterprise customers typically look at the one-man brands, or would they be looking for companies that can supply with more of a substantial backup?

SPEAKER_02 7:19

Yeah, I think I think that's always a question, right? Uh I I sat on the the buying side on the corporate side for many years, so I can speak to that. You know, you know, what's the mindset of the buyer, right? So they want to, you know, you know, the the fundamental motivating factor of any corporation is the striving for certainty, right? That's why you have, you know, months of planning and scenario plans and meetings about what you're going to have in the meeting, right? It's all about kind of creating a really clear, certain environment. And so, you know, working with companies that by nature are uncertain is a risk, right? So then you have to kind of understand that mindset. The way you can work around that is by you know doing a couple of things. First, um, it starts with solving a problem that matters, right? So the last thing you want to do is to uh sell a service to an enterprise that at the end of the day doesn't really affect their bottom line or has any particular impact on their on their business because that's what people are motivated to do, right? Generate new revenues, save costs. Anything else is the nice to have category. And of course, when the world is blooming and everything's everybody's happy, then nice to have things are bought in this environment, which we're operating now, nice to have things are set aside. So focusing on need to have problems, I think is a really critical step. The second, you have to build credibility quickly. And this goes to your point, you know, how do you become credible as a single operator, potentially? Well, the way you do that is you first of all present a professional uh approach, right? So when you're pitching to them, you sound like and and and present like a professional that they can, you know, uh relate to. Um, you show your past corporate experience potentially if you have it, that gives them comfort that, you know, you're talking to somebody that's got, you know, has sat in their chair and they understand that environment. Um, you know, they you know, you prove that you're here to say. So, you know, again, as in the startup world, right, one of the things that that you can do to build your credibility is to highlight your investors, the fact that you've got funding, the fact you've got runway. These are all things that build credibility. And then ultimately, once you've got those boxes ticked, I think that's where the the sales portion gets into. You know, how do you access the decision maker? How do you get an internal champion who can support you in that process? So, you know, it's it's a it's a puzzle. There are many different elements there that you have to get right in order to be successful in in enterprise sales.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

So how do you help? So when you when you're helping sort of these startups, yeah. How do you help them navigate this process? So it's quite complicated.

SPEAKER_02 9:45

Yeah, it is indeed. But but I think you know the the great thing about um I I think my approach is that I actually try to simplify it, right? Because at the end of the day, you know, uh if you have enough insight into how the process goes, then you can create a lot of simple steps in order to make it more um more effective and less painful. Uh, you know, the the three fundamental problems that I discovered early stage startups have are they don't have a focused offer a message, right? So they can't articulate in very clear terms what problem they solve for who and why they're better in the competition. So the whole first pillar of the launch code is about focusing your offer message, creating a clear value proposition, creating a clear product offering, um, creating messaging that gets customers to engage and believe that what you're offering them is relevant. And that's kind of pillar one. Pillar two is about structuring your sales process. So, you know, generally speaking, you know, there are kind of three ways you can acquire customers. You can do it by proactively reaching out to customers, you can do it by working with third parties as partners or channel sales to get into, you know, and through them to get into to customers. And third is you're driving interest, inbound interest through inbound marketing. So we go through each of those three elements. How do you maximize your ability to effectively reach out to customers, um, drive inbound interest and work with third parties? And then the third piece that I found is often an issue is that you know, a lot of these early stage companies don't come with very strong managerial experience. And so they don't have the foundations of how do you set clear goals? How do you track your progress? How do you make decisions based on data rather than gut feeling? You know, how do you build an organization and a sales and marketing organization with clear responsibilities and elements? So the third pillar is really about the fundamentals of sales management and creating the clear targets and performance management elements and team so that you can execute effectively. And so what I do is I take them through that whole entire system and help them apply it. Um, and depending on the level of access they want to me personally, they can do it by just getting access to all the content through a video course, or they can have me do the system with them and take them, you know, lead them by the hand through a kind of a 10-week program, or then there's a combination where they can basically get access to all the content and they tap into my knowledge and experience for five hours during the program, and then I help them implement. So, you know, it's a different level of access for different budgets and for different uh you know comfort levels in terms of working with an external service provider like me.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

That makes sense. Do you think, given the level of global stability instability that we have, and it's been quite an interesting three years to say the least?

SPEAKER_02 12:22

Yeah, I feel like in March of 2020, the world just exploded and it hasn't come back in normal since.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Yeah, it's become it's interesting because the world's become exceptionally unpredictable. Absolutely. So, in an exceptionally unpredictable world, how is it possible to have predictive, predictable sort of recurring revenue at all or not?

SPEAKER_02 12:46

Well, the short answer is yes, it's just harder to achieve it, right? So, you know, it you know, people haven't stopped buying products and services and companies haven't started functioning, it's just a lot more un you know, uncertain, as as you just said, unpredictable. Look, I I think the in in these type of of um of situations, I think there's kind of two things you have to address. One is the mindset, and the other is the actions, right? So the mindset is yes, it's tougher, but the world is not ending. And I think that's important that you don't you don't get into that mindset of like, oh God, you know, what's gonna happen, and you know, because you know, that's not gonna help anybody. So, you know, kind of understanding that, you know, there have been times of trouble before, we've gotten through it. Um, you know, both of us are older enough, old enough to experience, have experienced, you know, the 2008 crash and then back the dot-com crash in the early 2000s, right? So there's different times of the year, you know, of history and even recent history where things have become unstable and you know, they've kind of returned. So it will be better. Um, but once you get the mindset down, I think the other part is you just have to do the fundamentals really, really well. And a couple of things that I always talk to my customers about is like the most important thing you can do when selling in this environment is keeping the funnel topped up, right? So that sales funnel of potential customers constantly has to be topped up. So you can't get into that comfort of like, oh, well, I've got enough customers now and you know, things will be fine because you know, customers disappear. Um, you know, I'm also chairman of a business-to-business tech scale-up called Entavo. Uh, they basically uh have a technology that enables uh enterprise customers to create and to manage loyalty programs for their for their consumers. Um, you know, this is a company that's grown from nothing to about you know six million ARR a year with very blue chip customers globally. Um, you know, and what we're finding there is that we are going through six to 12 month sales cycles and literally the last possible moment these decisions have made, but they're delayed, right? So that's a classic case of like where, you know, we're gonna hold off. Yes, we want you, but we're gonna hold off.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

And so what we're finding so common right now.

SPEAKER_02 14:43

Yeah, absolutely. And and I think I think for that reason, you have to make sure that you have enough opportunities in the funnel so that you're not subject to one of these things disappearing and all of a sudden being in terror. So uh, long story short, um, you know, continue to really you know be smart about marketing, build brand awareness, build authority. Um, you know, when in times of difficulty, people tend to go with with suppliers they trust, you know, kind of is positioning your yourself as a as a leader in that position. So one of the things we do at Antab, we have these loyalty leaders breakfasts where we'll have these intimate events, we'll invite uh potential customers, we'll just create stronger, deeper relationships, share a lot of insights. We do a loyalty customer loyalty report every year, we share the insights. So again, we're we're kind of creating that kind of comfort with customers and making sure we we build the funnel. The second thing I think you have to do, and this by the way is gonna be somewhat counterintuitive. Um, you know, you're thinking as, well, I got to have as many customers, so I'm gonna go and you know talk to everybody. I actually think that's the wrong thing to do. I think that every single business has an ideal customer profile, right? The the type of customer that is is gonna consider your solution, not one of many, but the perfect solution to their problem, right? You have to find more and more customers and target more customers that find you as the perfect fit because in times of difficulty, people are gonna default to the easiest decision, right? The easiest solution. So don't fall into the trap of like just randomly, you know, well, it's just numbers game. I'm just gonna reach out to a thousand customers and see what happens. No, focus your efforts on the customers who are most likely to consider you to be the perfect customer. Um, that's gonna be an important thing. And then finally, um, I think it's really important that you don't lose sight of the long term, right? So investing into your products, investing into your team, um, you know, eventually the world will return to some sense of normalcy. And the last thing you want to do is to be have have sucked all of the energy and and resources out of your company um during this time period. Um, and you know, be ready for when the market turns, it will turn quickly, you know, and I think that's something that people forget is that the the market has a very short-term memory, right? When things turn, then you know there's gonna be uh tremendous growth very quickly.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

And there is the problem if you look at it, what you say is true, this will pass. We don't know when it will pass, but it will pass. And the danger that people are sort of doing right now, because a lot of companies just do not have the capital. When you think they overextended during COVID, took out loans, they expected a recovery to happen soon after COVID sort of came to an end when the lockdown stopped. But what we've seen is no one expected the war in Ukraine, high inflation, high interest rates, and that's further crippled business, which has made it very tempting for them to cut back all the stuff you're talking about, like in terms of training and everything, which is going to further hamper them when the next sales cycle comes, and it will come when it comes to the actual pipeline, keeping your pipeline topped up. What percentage do you think they need to increase their pipeline by as a rule of thumb, given the fact that decision making now is so protracted?

SPEAKER_02 17:53

Well, I mean, it I think that's gonna vary somewhat in terms of the industry and the size of the ticket that you're selling and so on. But yeah, I'd say that if you know, if looking at my business, I'd say that you know, if you normally have a pipeline, uh an opening, you know, top of your funnel at 100, uh you probably want to get to 130, like a little, maybe like 30 percent more, um, just to make up for some for some you know uncertainty as to how much of that converts, um, you know, is remains to be seen. But I think, yeah, it is it is a matter of being an and I think by the way, that's that's the that's I think one of the toughest things about selling is, and and I'm sure a lot of your listeners face this situation, it's like this feast or famine type of thing, right? Like you all of a sudden have a bunch of customers, you're like, oh, it's great, it's fantastic. Now, you know, how am I going to deliver all these? Maybe I have to hire new people. And then two months later, it's like, you know, crickets, right? And then it's this constant unpredictable. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:42

Get the work, do the work, get the work, do the work.

SPEAKER_02 18:45

Exactly. And and I think I think what you need to do in this environment is particularly not fall for that feeling of comfort of like, okay, well, everything's going well, and you know, you know, just keep pushing, um, you know, keep pressing ahead, getting more deals, getting more customers, you know, not letting up on the gas, because I think at the end of the day, um, you know, you're willing, your ability, your your sense of comfort is directly in proportion to the number of opportunities that you have, right? If you're cut if you're leaning on three customers and one of them disappears, you're really screwed. If you're leaning on 30 customers and three of them disappear in the grand scheme of things, who cares? Right. So I think that's why it's really important um that you have that that breadth of opportunity in whatever you do, whether it's customers, whether it's partnerships, um, you know, all these types of things.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

So if people are interested in sort of connecting with you and working with you, there's a lot of people tuning in today that are going to need this help. Yeah. What's the best way to go about it?

SPEAKER_02 19:46

Well, uh, I'm very active on LinkedIn. So you can find me on LinkedIn and and and certainly reach out to me that way. Um and uh I'd say, you know, one of the things I'd I I'd love to connect with business-to-business focused founders, entrepreneurs, you know, who are in that stage of struggling with sales, who want to sell and market to enterprise customers. Um, and I actually want to offer uh an opportunity for your listeners to take advantage of a completely free offer. Um, you know, the first step that I do when I start working with founders, I take them through this five-step process that I have where they can create a crystal clear value proposition, like one sentence that explains what problem they solve, who they solve it for, and why they're better in the competition. Kind of this is the lowest hanging fruit because oftentimes um, you know, this is something that a lot of people can't do very efficiently. And so what I want to share um with your listeners is if they go to zoltinvardi.com backslash podcast, so zoltinvardi.com slash podcast, they can access a free value proposition guide from me. Um, they can download a video, there's a worksheet to it. Um, and once they've seen it and they feel like they want to learn more, then there's an opportunity there to set up a one-on-one call with me to learn how we can potentially work together. So um, so uh I'd love to love to hear from from relevant uh companies who they think uh would benefit from this.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

Perfect. You know, thank you so much for that kind offer. Well, it's been great having you on the show today, Zolta. And if anything resonates with you as the audience, you want more information, head over to Balka.com and get in touch. Do you have any do you have any part in words of wisdom for the audience today?

SPEAKER_02 21:18

Just the one where I'm gonna have to say something that's really memorable, right?

SPEAKER_00 21:21

Yeah, really memorable, really profound. Not that I'm putting you on the spot at or anything.

SPEAKER_02 21:26

Well, I I'd say that in the grand scheme of things, um, markets change, products change, circumstances change, but the one thing that remains uh ever present is the importance of persistence. And I think that uh anybody who has taken on the incredible task of building a business, and I'm sure most of your custom uh listeners have, uh, just keep in mind that uh uh that stick with it, and ultimately, um, if you do it long enough, uh results will follow.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

Wise words. Well, thank you very much for being a great guest today.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_00 21:58

If you love today's episode, make sure that you like it, subscribe so you don't miss future episodes, and also share with others who may benefit from wise words of Sultan. And remember, failing to learn is learning to fail. Stay safe, everyone.