Introducing Gondola!

Three years ago, Jack and I embarked on a journey to bring a solution to market. That solution was called Demoflow. Based on my experience in presales and sales, I saw a need in the market to create consistency within the live product demonstration. Every rep that I saw running a demo seemed to do it differently, even though two different reps might know the same information about that buyer going into the call. This struck me as a huge problem, so we sought to create a solution.

Over the past year, Jack, myself, and the entire team have done a lot of reflecting. We've reflected on why we created the company, to begin with. What problems we were seeking to solve? Who we are trying to serve? What we have accomplished so far and where we'd like to take the company and product into the future?

After thinking deeply about all of those pieces, we realized we were thinking too small. The common theme that I saw back as a solutions consultant wasn’t just in the product demo, it spanned the entire sales cycle. Everyone I worked with seemed to take different approaches to qualification calls, discovery calls, and live demonstrations. Really every AE ran each step of the sales cycle with their own flavor. There was ZERO consistency despite a sales orgs best efforts to create it. It quickly became clear that the problem we were trying to solve was much bigger than just creating consistency in the live product demo.

The problem we are trying to solve is creating consistency in customer conversations, regardless of the type of call it was.

Let me explain.

You see, the world of B2B selling is changing very rapidly. Buyers are becoming more informed and independent and make most of their buying decisions without sellers being present (Less than 5% of the buyer's time - according to Gartner). As a result, more people are involved in any buying decision, and more solutions are available.

The bottom line - buying software is challenging, and how people do it is changing.

Not to mention, buyers trust sales reps less than ever before.

This stresses the importance of a few key moments throughout that buyer journey that we do have control over - Live customer calls. That moment where a seller finally gets their buyer on a call and gets to engage in a conversation and walk them through their product offering. The best reps that I've ever met run these calls with ease. They seemingly ask all the right questions at the right time, perfectly framed. They run through a product demo with ease, clearly articulating the value of each feature while continuing to engage in good discovery process. They challenge the buyers at the right time and make them think differently about how they run their business today. Not to mention, they run a clear process that helps their buyer move through their own buying process and overcome any hurdles they may encounter.

From the outside, it appears effortless and sometimes, like magic.

The problem? It's incredibly challenging to replicate and scale across dozens or hundreds of reps. And now that the buyer journey is changing so rapidly and there are so many vendors to solve problems, it's more important than ever to create a consistently great sales experience for buyers.

I have a vision of a world that I want to help create.

I see a world where organizations and their customers work as one team to solve problems.

A world where every sales reps are truly consultative in their sales approach. They ask thoughtful, well researched and consistent questions of their buyers to uncover true buyer pain. A world where every reps have a library of storylines to choose from that will enable them to craft a narrative that perfectly aligns buyer pain with the right solutions that will solve that pain. A world that ensures perfect alignment and information transfer, both internally and externally, as additional colleagues get brought into the buying cycle. A world where sales reps know how to maintain deal momentum, suggest the right next steps and enable their buyers to be incredible internal champions as they go internally to promote the solution.

I believe this vision becomes a reality by making work conversations productive, frictionless, and collaborative.

Given this change in our mission, we knew that the name of our company needed to change. As much as I loved the name Demoflow, I knew it would no longer serve us. The name Demoflow no longer accurately portray the solutions we want to bring to the world and the vision we want to make a reality. It was too limiting and everyone knew it.

All of that to say, after over a year of searching, I am incredibly proud to announce the new name of our company, Gondola. We decided to move forward with the name Gondola for a multitude of reasons. Simply put, a Gondola is an easier way to get up a mountain. It rides on a single, predetermined track and quickly gets you to newer heights and better views. You also ride a Gondola with your friends which is hopefully accompanied by great conversations.

Also, from a company culture perspective, many of the people that work at Gondola are quite adventurous. We have lived in Colorado for over 8 years and many of our employees are based here. Jack and I have been skydivers, motorcyclists, and skiers/snowboarders for over a decade. We have had dozens of adventures together and this adventurous spirit is deeply engrained into the culture of our company. The people who built Gondola and are helping us make this vision a reality are no different. Everyone embodies this same adventurous spirit as Jack and myself. A spirit of pushing the status quo. Doing things that are challenging and might scare us a bit. A spirit of innovation, constantly questioning norms, and trying to look at life a little bit differently.

Change is certainly hard and I'll always look back at the Demoflow chapter fondly. But life is about constantly evolving and staying in tune with your "why". I am incredibly excited about a new chapter of this journey and know that this change will better serve our customers into the future.

Oh and if some of the things I wrote above resonate with you, shoot me a message.

Our team of Gondolians are truly exceptional. A team of real A players. So if you're looking to help us build something really great, it doesn't matter if we have an immediate position open or not, we'll be looking for exceptional talent to join our team long into the future so let's have a conversation.

Plus we have perks, you can't really have a company named Gondola without mandatory "Powder days" to get out and enjoy nature.

Blue skies!

Larson