Rhino’s sales philosophy: Q&A with Samantha Hills, Director of Sales

Interested in learning more about how we approach Sales as a B2B2C startup? Check out our interview with Samantha Hills, Rhino’s Director of Sales.

Q: How would you describe Rhino’s sales philosophy?

Rhino’s sales philosophy is honest, engaging, and solutions-oriented. When communicating with prospects and partners, we emphasize product clarity, expectation-setting, and leave room for questions. It is a priority of ours for them to feel confident when choosing Rhino. Our property owner & operator partners are called “partners” for a reason, they are not just clients. We offer true partnership and want them to feel empowered through their relationships with us.

Q: How does Rhino’s B2B2C model impact the sales process?

Rhino’s B2B2C model dictates our product positioning in 2 ways:

1. how Rhino benefits our partners

2. how Rhino benefits our partners’ renters

Our business model acknowledges both real estate operators and renters as our customers. It's integral to help our prospective partners understand how, by helping their renters, we help them in turn. Giving a renter options when it comes to satisfying a security deposit opens opportunities. By using Rhino, rental properties seem more attractive to renters and happier renters lead to higher renewal rates and lower vacancy.

Q: What are the most important steps of the sales process?

Discovery - Delving into prospects’ needs and concerns. We make every discovery call unique to the client. Questions are asked to better understand their landscape, where they operate, what challenges they face, their familiarity with security deposit insurance, and how they collect deposits.

Thorough explanations - It is important to thoroughly explain how security deposit insurance works. The last thing we want is for a partner to be confused about how our products work, so clear explanations and Q&A sessions are critical. This includes explaining what security deposit insurance is, how our deposit management platform works, and differentiating our products from traditional leasing practices.

Internal team communication - Making sure an account’s transition from prospect → partner → upsell goes smoothly is critical for the sales process. Rhino is unique in our ability to do this. Once a prospect has committed to a Rhino partnership, processes and systems are in place to ensure the sales team’s strong discovery is passed to the partner success team to ensure a high attention to detail on every account we manage.

Q: How would you describe the sales team culture at Rhino?

Rhino’s sales team culture is supportive, collaborative, and characterized by a deep care for Rhino’s mission.

The team is supportive of each others’ goals and wins, cheering each other on and building each other up. I’m fortunate to work with a team that works strongly together in a remote environment. Despite the physical distance of teammates, the team does a great job solving problems through collaboration. Everyone cares deeply about Rhino and the company’s success; the sales team truly believes in our mission, vision, and the direction the company is headed.

Q: Finally, what are the most important things for a sales team to focus on for success?

Three important things for any sales team to focus on are having a strong process, the ability to iterate and high output.

A strong process creates multiple opportunities to succeed. Such a process builds a robust pipeline to allow for continued wins. Iteration is key for a high performing sales team. The ability to adapt to market conditions is vital to a healthy sales organization as it drives company growth. Adaptability, coupled with our sales team’s strong work ethic, is the foundation we at Rhino utilize to add new partners to our platform each month.

Samantha Hills

Samantha Hills is the Director of Sales at Rhino.