When you're selling to hedge fund managers and quants who are smarter than you, traditional sales tactics fall flat. Farah Ruthnam-Sandys, Head of Sales at Neudata, reveals how she built a high-performing sales team that competes against inertia in the alternative data intelligence space without needing to outthink their prospects.

Farah shares her unconventional path from supporting her mom's food business to leading revenue across the Americas for a market-leading data intelligence platform. She explains why humility beats knowledge in complex sales, how to help prospects see problems they never planned to solve, and the single question that reveals whether a deal will actually close.

Key topics:
- Selling to highly technical and intelligent buyers
- Competing against status quo when you're the market leader
- Building sales teams that don't rely on technical expertise
- The power of humility in enterprise sales
- Transitioning from individual contributor to sales leader
- Value selling versus relationship selling
- Training sales teams for complex B2B deals
- Building a sales function versus relying on star salespeople

Connect with Farah Ruthnam-Sandys:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/farah-asghar-sandys/
Company: Neudata

Subscribe to Revenue Unscripted for more conversations with B2B leaders on building high-performing sales cultures and turning complex deals into predictable growth.

Kevin Onarecker spent 30 years rebuilding broken sales teams in med tech and pharma, and he'll tell you straight: when leaders say "we just need to close more," they're missing everything.

After leading sales orgs from rep to VP, Kevin reveals why promoting your top performer destroys teams, how Fortune 500 companies train customers to expect discounts, and the brutal math that makes quota-setting either your secret weapon or your biggest liability. He breaks down why confident reps who "porpoise" (up one year, down the next) don't actually have a plan, how one executive killed a deal by offering a discount too early, and why the best sellers radiate quiet confidence instead of cockiness. This isn't about motivation speeches or ABC (Always Be Closing). It's about the assumptions hiding in your recurring revenue model and why your top three accounts might be producing 60% of territory revenue while you're spread across 150 hospitals.
Key takeaways:

Quota-setting is make-or-break - bad assumptions about recurring revenue and customer retention destroy forecasts and kill morale
Top performers bring attitude first, then knowledge and skills - hire for resilience and self-confidence that comes from preparation, not ego
The optimal sales team size is driven by what managers can actually coach - focus on the 3-5 accounts producing 50-60% of revenue, not spreading thin across 150
Reps miss quota because they lack strategic plans - break annual goals into monthly benchmarks and reverse-engineer the behaviors required
Discounting without strategy trains customers to wait for deals and crushes your math - it takes more than 25% additional revenue to overcome a 25% discount

Have questions about getting your team back on track? Drop them in the comments.

Connect with Kevin Onarecker:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-onarecker-8401093/
Website: onareckerconsulting.com
Email: konarecker@onareckerconsulting.com
Book: Selling Smarter
System: Back On Track

I hope you enjoy this episode! Give it a like, share, and subscribe to not miss the content coming your way weekly.
– Jennica and the Revenue Unscripted podcast team

Connect with Jennica Dixon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennica-dixon/
Visit the Slattery Sales Group website here: https://www.slatterysales.com/

Listen to Revenue Unscripted on these podcast platforms:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7AUBIk1HFgUO6Cci4YFhKM
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/revenue-unscripted/id1869568856
Amazon Podcasts: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/5892af04-ab67-4379-9638-6a3aba17f953/revenue-unscripted

#RevenueUnscripted #JennicaDixon #SalesLeadership #RevenueGrowth #B2BSales #SalesStrategy #SalesPerformance #ForecastAccuracy #SalesManagement #RevenueLeaders #FounderInsights #SalesCoaching #MarginProtection #SalesDifferentiation #RevenueOptimization Revenue Unscripted is the podcast where sales fiction meets reality. Hosted by Jennica Dixon, President of Slattery Sales Group, this show pulls back the curtain on what really drives revenue growth in complex B2B sales environments. Through candid 30-45 minute conversations with founders, CEOs, and revenue leaders, Jennica explores the real stories behind sales challenges, breakthrough moments, and the blind spots that quietly drain growth, margin, and valuation. Jennica brings over 40 years of combined client experience working with more than 2,400 companies across 170 industries. Her firm specializes in behavior-based sales transformation, helping organizations turn unpredictable pipelines into reliable revenue engines. From forecast accuracy and margin protection to sales team performance and competitive differentiation, Revenue Unscripted tackles the messy realities of human selling that traditional sales training glosses over. Whether you're a founder scaling your first sales team, a CRO rebuilding forecast credibility with the board, or a revenue leader trying to protect margins while accelerating growth, Revenue Unscripted delivers practical insights from leaders who've faced the same battles.

Why does promoting your top salesperson to manager usually backfire? Paul Fuller, CRO at Membrain, has watched this pattern destroy sales orgs across 80+ countries. He reveals how Fortune 500 companies massage forecasts through three layers of Excel because nobody trusts their CRM, why call volume and email metrics are mostly theater, and the exact team size where coaching actually works. Paul breaks down the difference between vanity metrics and real progress indicators, how founders accidentally crush margins by swooping in to "help" close deals, and why your sales system might be designed to collect data instead of helping reps actually sell. Whether you're making your first sales hire or wondering why revenue feels unpredictable, this conversation will change how you build your sales organization.
Key takeaways:

Stop measuring vanity metrics like call volume - focus on actual conversations and first meetings that move deals forward
The optimal sales team size is 5-6 reps per manager, anything more and coaching quality collapses
Your CRM should help reps sell, not just collect data for executives - if reps avoid using it, that's your answer
Sales leaders must hold themselves accountable to weekly one-on-ones as a KPI, not just revenue numbers
Define three client commitment milestones to create accurate forecasts without spreadsheet gymnastics

Have questions about building predictable revenue systems? Drop them in the comments.
Connect with Paul Fuller:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/psfuller
Learn more about Membrain: membrain.com
Podcast: Art and Science of Complex Sales

I hope you enjoy this episode! Give it a like, share, and subscribe to not miss the content coming your way weekly.
– Jennica and the Revenue Unscripted podcast team

Connect with Jennica Dixon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennica-dixon/
Visit the Slattery Sales Group website here: https://www.slatterysales.com/

Listen to Revenue Unscripted on these podcast platforms:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7AUBIk1HFgUO6Cci4YFhKM
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/revenue-unscripted/id1869568856
Amazon Podcasts: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/5892af04-ab67-4379-9638-6a3aba17f953/revenue-unscripted

#RevenueUnscripted #JennicaDixon #SalesLeadership #RevenueGrowth #B2BSales #SalesStrategy #SalesPerformance #ForecastAccuracy #SalesManagement #RevenueLeaders #FounderInsights #SalesCoaching #MarginProtection #SalesDifferentiation #RevenueOptimization Revenue Unscripted is the podcast where sales fiction meets reality. Hosted by Jennica Dixon, President of Slattery Sales Group, this show pulls back the curtain on what really drives revenue growth in complex B2B sales environments. Through candid 30-45 minute conversations with founders, CEOs, and revenue leaders, Jennica explores the real stories behind sales challenges, breakthrough moments, and the blind spots that quietly drain growth, margin, and valuation. Jennica brings over 40 years of combined client experience working with more than 2,400 companies across 170 industries. Her firm specializes in behavior-based sales transformation, helping organizations turn unpredictable pipelines into reliable revenue engines. From forecast accuracy and margin protection to sales team performance and competitive differentiation, Revenue Unscripted tackles the messy realities of human selling that traditional sales training glosses over. Whether you're a founder scaling your first sales team, a CRO rebuilding forecast credibility with the board, or a revenue leader trying to protect margins while accelerating growth, Revenue Unscripted delivers practical insights from leaders who've faced the same battles.