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Proportional win rate increase
Increase in average deal size
Metomic helps businesses protect sensitive information at a time when data breaches and privacy concerns are at an all-time high.
With a rapidly expanding customer base and an increasing demand for their solutions, the company faced a critical challenge: how to scale effectively while ensuring their sales team remained laser-focused on high-value opportunities.
In April 2024, Paddy O’Neill was appointed as Metomic’s VP of Sales and became responsible for overseeing new business. Having spent over 10 years in software sales leadership and management at companies like Kolleno and Spendesk, Paddy was already highly experienced in building successful sales teams.
While many people consider revenue the primary KPI, Paddy knew that was a lagging indicator, measuring the past rather than predicting the future. To take Metomic to the next level, he was more concerned with measuring progression. How were individual deals progressing? What could be done to improve that progress?
“One of the pitfalls that small companies typically make is having a total addressable market (TAM) of 500 million different companies across every single region in the world,” says Paddy. “It might seem like a great thing, but it’s literally the worst thing for a performing sales team. You have no focus.”
An unfocused pipeline meant wasted resources and longer sales cycles. On the other hand, selling to the right person means:
Looking at the existing sales team, Paddy could see they were performing well, but they needed to get crystal clear on their ideal customer profile (ICP). “Rather than viewing Metomic as potentially selling to half a million companies worldwide, we needed to narrow our sights to around 10,000 – specific regions, verticals and buyer personas where we could truly add value.”
Paddy worked with Metomic’s marketing teams, product teams and leadership to define what represented a good customer. By narrowing the focus, the team had a much more manageable sales pipeline.
Metomic needed a structured, repeatable sales process that empowered its sales team to qualify prospects effectively, build strong business cases and guide buyers through the decision-making process with confidence.
Having worked with Flow State in the past, Paddy knew they were the right partners to help make his vision a reality.
“I liked their approach of marrying the fundamentals with practical coaching,” explains Paddy. “In my experience, you need a full programme to implement a sales methodology, including training, coaching, operations, how your CRM looks and your marketing plays. It’s a full company mission, and Aaron and Raff get that. As we were migrating into a highly defined ICP, it just made sense to engage people who understood what that journey entails.”
The engagement began with diagnostic sessions, where Flow State analysed key metrics and existing sales processes to get a feel for the business and identify improvement areas. “Right from the start, the team was impressed with Flow State’s in-depth knowledge of our business,” says Paddy.
To address these challenges, Flow State designed a multi-faceted program that combined interactive, full-day training sessions with ongoing coaching and feedback (for both the sales team and Paddy himself). This was all spaced out over a quarter to allow for progressive learning and application.
One of the training programme’s key components was business case development. Flow State taught the sales team how to build compelling business cases tailored to each prospect, crafting a narrative that aligned with the prospect’s critical business problems, strategic objectives and ultimately the reason for them to act now.
The team also covered advanced questioning and objection handling. Through role-playing exercises and live deal coaching, reps refined their ability to navigate complex sales conversations and handle objections with confidence. Flow State customised the scenarios to reflect real-world objections Metomic encountered, allowing the team to practice responses in a controlled environment.
Throughout the training, Paddy was impressed with how Flow State’s programme helped sales reps retain and use the information they were learning, far more so than any one-off sales seminar or refresher session.
“They integrate training and coaching better than anyone else,” explains Paddy. “Raff is really adept at understanding the nuances of your business, while Aaron’s style and delivery is top-notch.”
Beyond formal training, Flow State also engaged with the team outside of the scheduled sessions, with conversations on Slack to provide feedback on cold calls and business case templates. “They effectively became an extension of our enablement team,” Paddy noted. This level of ongoing support ensured that the concepts went beyond theory and were actively applied in the field.
Additionally, Flow State introduced coaching moments, where reps received direct feedback on their sales calls. This allowed salespeople to refine their approach immediately, reinforcing key lessons from the training sessions.
The combination of structured learning and hands-on coaching was an essential ingredient and helped embed new behaviours within the team.
The training had an immediate and significant impact on the team and their performance. Win rate went up from the low 20s to 50%, while deal size has doubled.
“The conversion rate is amongst the best I’ve ever seen in my whole career,” says Paddy, “and it’s because we’re only allowing the right deals into the pipeline. We’re giving a five-star service during the sales process, which is allowing us to capture higher deal prices, convert more pipeline and get faster onboarding times.”
The training sessions also helped change the way the Metomic team think about sales. One of the most impactful mindset shifts was the realisation that great selling isn’t about pitching – it’s about helping buyers make better decisions.
“It seems everyone nowadays is a sales trainer and they all talk about selling,” says Paddy. “Nobody talks about buying. Our job is to help people buy, not push a sale, especially in an overcrowded and competitive area like cybersecurity.”
With Flow State’s training, the sales team became much more buyer-centric in everything they did.
Metomic is now embedding Flow State’s methodologies into its long-term sales strategy, with ongoing coaching sessions to reinforce key concepts. While still early in the implementation, the results have been so promising that Paddy expects continued growth. “This initial cohort is just the beginning. According to our forecast, this trend is set to continue.”
For companies considering sales enablement training, Paddy offers this advice: “If you just want to tick a box for training, Flow State isn’t for you. But if you truly want to increase your team’s capabilities and be confident that when a deal enters the pipeline, it’s going to close, then you should have a conversation with them.”
Flow State’s expertise in sales training and enablement has helped Paddy transform Metomic’s sales process and set the foundation for continued success. By focusing on a buyer-centric approach, structured qualification and regular coaching, they’ve helped Metomic build a sales engine that’s primed for long-term growth.
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