Petr Šorna: From Client to CSO at BizMachine

Since 2017, he was one of our first customers. In September 2023, he joined us to lead our sales consulting team. Petr Šorna talked not only about his nearly twenty years of B2B sales experience, but also about why he decided to leave corporate life for BizMachine.

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“I’m glad I joined a company that had my back for seven years in the corporate world and always pushed me forward in innovation. Now I can be part of its transformation,” he said in the interview.

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You have twenty years of experience working in multinational corporations. What skills or insights are useful for you now at BizMachine?

In corporate, I learned that all those rules, clearly defined culture, and processes that don’t bend much have their advantages. I learned almost military-level discipline there. I understood that when a system is set up well and everyone follows those clearly defined rules, a company can achieve things it wouldn’t have dreamed of at the start.

The second thing corporate teaches you is something I’d call “internal selling.” In larger companies, it’s common that if you want to push something through and you believe in it, you have to actively communicate about it. Essentially convincing colleagues inside the company about the benefits of a new solution—which is a skill I learned to appreciate and use effectively. As a salesperson, you need other colleagues on your side for everything to work. Which sometimes means you have to swallow your ego to achieve a common goal.

But even in corporate, words have power. I honor the good old principle where a handshake means a deal is closed. Your words and actions must then be aligned. And it’s good when everyone knows this. It makes a lot of work easier, whether in a corporation or anywhere else.

So why did you decide to move to BizMachine?

Since I was using Prospector myself, I was close to BizMachine. I actually remember being one of the first BizMachine customers. I used Prospector “secretly” in my sales teams for a year, and roughly a year later I officially presented it to Edenred’s regional management. From then on, BizMachine became the official supplier of all B2B company data. I’m glad I could join a company that had my back for seven years in the corporate world and always pushed me forward in innovation. I enjoyed how BizMachine works brilliantly with data and how they take care of their customers. And when one of the founders reached out and outlined the current situation and plan, I didn’t need to think very long. I wanted to be part of BizMachine’s transformation phase and contribute to its evolution. During transformation phases, opportunities arise to do things you wouldn’t touch in steady-state mode. I think every step you take at such a time can have a huge impact and truly help the company move forward.

Can you describe how Prospector helped you?

I’ve been using Prospector since February 2017. It became my right hand. And it was equally essential for our sales teams. It helped me better understand the market overall and access information that is often hidden. BizMachine gave me the ability to quickly and efficiently get all the information I needed, build possible strategies for our business development, and work better with my team. Additionally, individual sales teams at Edenred used Prospector according to their needs. Our sales reps used data about business locations—for example, which ones were newly opened or closed. Key accounts then used this data for daily small talk with clients and tracked events or signals connected to them. Our call centers could then efficiently segment leads through Prospector and add them to our database according to a system we set up together with BizMachine.

Back to the present. You’ve been at BizMachine for over half a year. Has anything surprised you?

My colleagues really impressed me. Everyone is super smart and, on top of that, they do their work not because they have to, but because they genuinely want to. But what never stops amazing me is the depth of knowledge we have at BizMachine across various verticals. From automotive through e-commerce and banking to insurance and B2B services. You can take any project and essentially easily replicate it across the Czech, Slovak, and Hungarian markets. In short, we’re not some static database. We offer a live view of what’s happening in the market. You can set up which signals or triggers BizMachine should immediately report to you. And so we can beautifully serve as day-to-day forecasting. Our clients can use us to understand their own clients. They can use us to determine the right moment for acquisition, retention, upsell, and even to prevent client loss. I saw this from a client’s perspective in one vertical, but I couldn’t imagine the same scope across the market and the broader uses of this sales engine we essentially offer to clients.

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“The quality and depth of information in individual projects never stops surprising me. From a client’s perspective, I couldn’t even imagine the breadth of verticals and depth of information we have available at BizMachine.”

What do you enjoy most about working for BizMachine?

I believe we’re two to three years ahead of the competition and the rest of the market at BizMachine. We’re essentially evangelizing the market and teaching companies to use data well throughout their entire sales process. I enjoy the chance to be at the forefront of innovation, not just evangelizing the market but also actively shaping and influencing it. And that’s something not everyone gets to experience.

I also like the international orientation and focus on expansion that we’re currently living. I like that our services and products genuinely help clients. It’s not just an empty phrase that every B2B company throws around. Here I see with my own eyes how our solutions help customers, managers, and entire companies move forward and achieve success—far beyond just selling their products and services.

And we manage all this in an internal, almost family-like atmosphere. I have to admit, I didn’t expect such care for employees. And I’ve been through not only corporations but also smaller companies.

Does your experience as a BizMachine customer help you in current meetings where you present BizMachine to other CSOs?

Every time, I have to smile inside when I hear the concerns of other sales directors, not just in corporations. I had similar questions myself and can vividly imagine what it’s like to navigate corporate waters and what challenges they face. That’s why I try to give them arguments for that internal selling we discussed at the beginning. I show them how BizMachine will help them understand the market, get timely signals that can determine whether they win or lose a customer. The key to success is having a deep understanding of the market. Knowing the challenges and opportunities of your industry and supplementing them with analysis of regional markets, products, customers, and competition. In short, leading sales teams without constant and current knowledge of what’s happening in the market is like steering a ship blindfolded.

I see. And how is it at BizMachine? Do you use our tools daily, or is it a case of the cobbler’s children having no shoes? What helps you lead our sales team?

Prospector is still my right hand. I use it daily for all needs and queries related to B2B data. Thanks to it, I can better understand the needs and challenges we face and predict and thereby minimize risks. But I also return to what has always worked for me. Meeting with our team every day. It helps me understand what each of our consultants is going through, what’s working for them, and where we need to push harder. And again, I’ve returned to the basics of strategy and verify how our assumptions about how our tools and services work are reflected in the real needs of the market. The market is like our mirror, showing whether our offering matches customer needs, is price-acceptable, and whether we’re communicating it effectively.