The Interview

Kluster's Take

Tom spoke with Nicholas Shaw, Chief Revenue Officer at Brightpearl. Nicholas’s philosophy is to give people confidence and help them through challenges. He sees his role as helping people to achieve their goals.

Nicholas tells us that customers will always throw an objection and try to get the price down. He ensures that people have the confidence that they can handle that objection in a sensible way. It’s about getting to the point where the customer has a good deal, you have a good deal and then you’ve both won. He explains that you’ve got to let the customer win some of the battles. At the same time you’ve got to get some wins and trade, both sides need to walk away feeling they’ve had some wins. There is also the element of building rapport and relationships that fulfill a need. Nicholas’s approach is to drive the teams to their plan, if you look after the team then they’ll look after you. 

Nicholas is a data advocate, he relies on data to make decisions. He thinks a lot of sales VPs aren’t as data-driven as they could be. For him, a good VP is able to ensure repeatable success, in a positive motivational way. Sales is an emotional thing, but data takes the emotion out and is an objective measure. A good VP is looking at short, medium and long-term. He coaches the team on future challenges and understands that everyone has different strengths.