From trust-based sales to SaaS: a natural next move
Making the move into SaaS isn’t always an obvious next step, especially when you’ve spent a decade building teams elsewhere. But for many sales professionals, the transition turns out to be more natural than expected.
The skills that drive results in trust-based sales – credibility, relationship depth, the ability to sell outcomes rather than features – translate directly into the VDR space.
We sat down with Simon Nystrom shortly after he joined us as Associate Director, Key Accounts in Munich, Germany, to talk about what drew him to Ideals, what the first weeks looked like in practice, and what he’d say to someone considering a similar move.
Watch the recording of our conversation.
Q: Simon, you recently joined us here at Ideals as an Associate Director. Give us a high-level introduction to you and your career journey so far.
Right, happy to. For the better part of my professional career, I’ve been working in the HR services industry, predominantly in staffing and recruitment.
I’m originally from Sweden, and that’s also where I started. Over a little more than a decade, I worked across various sales and sales enablement roles, with a lot of focus on process and project development across six European countries – heavily in Scandinavia. Later, I moved into a sales leadership role and then a business director role, with a specific focus on the German market.
To summarise: my career has been about enabling and building sales teams across different markets and structures, and consistently working to grow both individual and business unit sales capacity.
Q: You were with your prior company for the best part of ten years. What personally prompted you to look for a new challenge?
There’s been a quiet curiosity in the back of my mind for the last couple of years – a pull towards SaaS or an IT company. Ideals, honestly, came about by coincidence.
But once I started doing my homework, I quickly found a lot of very interesting touchpoints, and then those only got enhanced throughout the hiring process we went through together.
A lot of it comes down to the product. Ideals has clearly put serious focus on building something that’s both user-friendly and client-centric, while operating in a very high-stakes environment.
It became clear very early on that the priority has always been enabling clients – keeping data security at the highest possible level, while also driving real technological innovation through the platform.
The Ideals’ combination of complexity and simplicity – giving clients exactly what they need to just get on with their work – was something that really stuck with me.
Q: There are real parallels between your background and what we do – staffing and recruitment is itself a high-stakes decisions for businesses. Now that you’ve been in the role for a month or so, what would you say to someone who’s thinking about choosing Ideals?
Quite simply: Ideals is genuinely leading the market and the development of the VDR product.
The company is at an extremely exciting phase. Ideals is still seen as the disruptor – the challenger – even if it’s no longer new. Ideals is pushing against a status quo that’s defined this industry for a long time.
To be part of that – whether it’s building functions, building teams, or opening up new regions and client bases – that’s a great opportunity. So, come along.
When you look back at the growth trajectory over the past few years and then look ahead at where we’re heading, it’s genuinely exciting.
Q: You’re also one of the first Associate Directors to join the team and to go through our new onboarding programme. What’s been your onboarding experience?
Surprisingly positive, honestly. Most of it is remote and online, but it’s been extremely structured.
Coming from a long track record of on-site work – especially in sales training and enablement with classroom-based sessions – I had a few question marks going in. How would this actually land in a fully digital environment?
But the structure and the content together made it genuinely possible to learn everything you need to learn. The range of formats helped: self-study, recorded sessions, live demos, live trainings, manager-led and peer-led sessions, coaching programmes.
There’s a real variety in how it’s been delivered, and the pedagogy behind it has simply been fantastic.
Q: You’re now building your own team in Munich. How would you describe yourself as a manager to someone considering joining?
As a manager and as a person, I’m often seen as very energetic, engaging, and supportive.
You can expect me to be close to you: genuinely present, there when you need support. But at the same time, I’ll give you a lot of autonomy to try things your own way. In sales, we all know there’s no single right methodology – what it really comes down to is your ability to build meaningful relationships with clients.
So whether that means being the first person on the ground in a specific segment or region, you’ll have support from me and from the company, while still having the space to do things your way and make it your own.
Q: So someone who thrives here will have that adaptive attitude – someone who wants supportive coaching but is also ready to take things to market themselves.
Exactly. And I think that’s not just what it takes to succeed at Ideals – it’s what it takes to succeed in a sales role.
You have to approach it as though you’re running your own business, within a bigger context.
Goal-oriented, driven by your own ambitions as much as by company targets – but knowing you have all the support, the structure, and the processes to back you up. The drive to execute still has to come from you.
As Simon puts it, succeeding at Ideals isn’t about where you came from but how you operate.
That accountability piece is fundamental. And the great thing is – like Simon and so many of our newcomers – you don’t need to come from the VDR industry. What you do need is that foundation of skills, the right attitude, and the hunger to grow. The support at Ideals will help you take it from there.
Interested in joining Simon’s team in Munich, or building our presence in Frankfurt and Berlin?
