Bart Fanelli, CRO of OutSystems, on Rigor and Cadence

Every top sales leader develops well-honed strategies, playbooks, and tactics for scaling revenue. But Bart Fanelli literally wrote the book on it. Now Chief Revenue Officer for OutSystems, Bart teamed with former colleague Tom Schodorf and Sandler Training CEO David Mattson to publish “The Success Cadence,” a book that documents his formula for sales success.Before rising to be CRO at OutSystems and publishing a book, Bart helped grow Splunk from $60 million to over $1.5 billion in annual revenue. It goes without saying that Bart is driven.That determination was evident from the start. Bored at college in Tallahassee FL, he drove 6 hours every Thursday trying to land an interview with Tech Data in Clearwater.  “That was my first lesson in perseverance. But I finally got the job and never looked back,” Bart explains.

At the end of your life, if you can count on one hand the people that have helped you and have gotten you where you are, you will be really successful.

Though self-driven, Bart is the first to tell you about all the help he’s had along the way. “You’ve got to have champions in life and in business.”Early in Bart’s career, a friend’s father convinced Bart that he had what it took to succeed. “He was the first person who made me believe I could accomplish things on my own.”At BMC Software, Bart met Tom Schodorf who shared many hard-earned lessons and lots of wisdom. “Tom gave me a true insider’s perspective on sales and I kept going back for more.” Once BMC acquired BladeLogic, Bart was introduced to legendary sales leader John McMahon. “From John, I learned a deep level of rigor and accountability.”All this brings Bart back to something his father once said. “At the end of your life, if you can count on one hand the people that have helped you and have gotten you where you are, you will be really successful.“Some of Bart’s other keys to success:

• Establishing an operational cadence. At the heart of Bart’s success and his book is a belief in the importance of establishing and sustaining a unique organizational rhythm to drive rapid growth.
• Prescribing rigorous sales training. Bart knows that a well-defined and enforced training regimen is one of the most important levers in driving sales success.
• Focusing on the basics. Rather than put content and product first in enablement, Bart zeroes in on operational discipline and the ABCs of selling.