Munching On Sales - In Conversation With Ryan Aneja, Business Development Team Lead At 6sense.

Written by Sheena Ambarin, Content Creator at MidGear

“Son, you could become an engineer. Son, you could become a doctor. But, there’s nothing such as son, you could become a salesman. I think that needs to change, fundamentally. The stigma needs to end. It’s okay not to become doctors and engineers. I think right now, in India, we have loads of talent for the outbound SDR roles, especially.” Ryan Aneja shares with me on being asked about what he thinks about the sales stigma in India.

Ryan Aneja is a business development team lead at 6sense. Born and brought up in the US, this fun at heart guy is a hard worker of sorts and his thinking about life and careers is exceptional. There was a sense of positivity and cheer in the environment of the Google Meet meeting that took place, a few days ago. Well, Ryan knows the tact to make everyone in the meeting room comfortable and confident. Thanks for making it easy and fun, Ryan! So, what does he wish to convey to you? His experiences and views on sales. What’s your take? You get to ease out, my friend.

Being a management student back then, Ryan didn’t get to choose sales but, sales got to choose him. How’s that! Psst…We can thank his low attendance at his college. And guess what? The lad is a pro at cold calling and writing scripts for it. When asked about his approach to cold calling, he says “Clients’ objections are better handled on cold calls than emails. Your attitude matters. Self-confidence is super important.” Motion breeds emotion. That’s why Ryan chooses not to sit down but, to walk and talk with the customers on phone, not to forget that it makes him sound more human. Coming to the cold call scripts, he says that it’s a natural because of his background. He tends to understand the US people’s mind-sets and that makes him pitch to them easier. “Develop your own style. Always be funny, this will make your prospects laugh and you’ll have a high chance of getting those meetings booked with them and the AEs would be so happy with you!” Ryan explains.

Ryan is a lover of outbound sales and has always felt that he would add more value to the outbound team as opposed to the framework of account executives. “I feel AEs have a lot less freedom when compared to outbound SDRs. I get to sing to my prospects and what not, to get that meeting and AEs cannot do that.” states Ryan. Singing to prospects? Hmm, that’s something I’ve never heard of but, sounds fun to me! So, Ryan chose the route that would be more fun for him – becoming a business development team lead and becoming an account executive was never his cup of tea.

Coming to sales choosing Ryan, his first sales job at ConvertCart, was an accidental one. They wanted him but, he didn’t want them because he didn’t know what they did. He took up that interview just to see how the interview process looked but, later he took up that job anyhow. This, he believes, was a good move because the SDR role would give him a lot of confidence as he was barely out of college. “A lot of SDRs get this imposter syndrome and at that time, it is very important to just stick with what you are doing. Keep making those calls, keep believing in yourself, and someday, something will eventually flip.” Ryan advices the hardworking SDRs out there who want to make it big, overcoming their personal obstacles. After one and a half years at ConvertCart, the opportunity by Slintel (a 6sense company) presented itself because he had acquired great skills from ConvertCart which put him in the best position for Slintel, which was his second company.

“An equal part of being a good learner is being an un-learner. Something that got you here, will not get you there.” Ryan says and asks SDRs to un-learn certain behaviours. Something that has worked for your previous product may not work for the current product you’re selling. You got to un-learn the way you speak to specific prospects. Get your messages right, not all prospects resonate with one kind of message. He also adds that every SDR should have a beginner’s mind-set. “You got to be hungry to prove yourself, you got to be ready to try anything just so that you can get that meeting!” exclaims Ryan, who believes that possessing this mind-set can be really powerful because you’re always in a state to pick up and learn new things.

Sales is an amazing profession and is no different from any other profession out there. Ryan is an example of what sales can do to a person. It’s interesting what motivates him and gets him going – it’s his family. He wishes to see his family really happy and for that, he wants to retire quickly so that his hard-working dad could get to travel with his mom. His ultimate goal? To see his family proud! Whatever it is, fellow salespeople, keep going at it, there’s no stopping. There’s no success without obstacles and Ryan could not have reached to where he is right now without the gift of obstacles.?