Revenue Interview: Nick Deacon Elliott at Boxphish

The Interview

Kluster's Take

Josephine spoke with Nick Deacon Elliott, CEO at Boxphish. He explains the steps he’s taken to set himself up for success.

Nick believes that focusing on doing the basics incredibly well is key. You need to find a problem that your software solves, what companies face that problem and haven’t done anything about it. Then think about who are the individuals we can talk to, it’s all about achieving clarity and working out how to make their life easier.

Nick’s philosophy is that perfection is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. He explains that your approach to sales doesn’t need to be innovative, it’s about getting the basics right to a high standard. He sets a clear agenda, has a good value proposition and uses data to model where you are in the sales cycle.He stresses you don’t need to re-invent the wheel, you need to be clear about what it is we do to both salespeople and end customers.

This starts with a really good education programme internally, as well as knowledge sharing. You need to get people to see that value in what you do and be really passionate about the problem you’re solving. Nick looks for certain key traits: willingness to learn, drive, motivation, curiosity and a continuous improvement mindset. He explains that you can have activity based metrics but they need to be linked to the way of working and the role that person’s in, he believes there is not one size fits all. He explains that you can have a lower volume but close just as many deals.

When thinking about team performance, buddy systems can be quite effective. Teaching by osmosis and quality on-boarding are also important components.