How Abdul Jarrar Sells: For the Accidental Sales Guy, It Comes Down to the “Moments You Live For”

Paul Petrone

Breaking through the noise with relevant, insights-based content.

April 1, 2024

How Intel's Abdul Jarrar Sells: For the Accidental Sales Guy, It Comes Down to the “Moments You Live For”

Abdul Jarrar describes himself as an “accidental sales guy.”

He graduated college with a degree in computer engineering and spent the beginning of his career as a software engineer. But slowly, over time, he got closer and closer to the customer.

“As I started engaging with customers as part of my engineering job, I found that to be quite compelling and satisfying,” Abdul said. “That led to me finding a home in sales, because I'm so passionate about helping customers solve their problems and thinking through what's happening in the marketplace.”

While that transition took several years, it’s safe to say Abdul landed in the right place. He now has spent more than 26 years at Intel, with the last 15 primarily in sales leadership roles. Just a few months ago, he started a new job, leading sales for Intel’s software division — one of the company’s biggest strategic bets.

What has Abdul learned, as he’s climbed up the sales ladder? Where does he think the industry is headed? How does he keep his team engaged and inspired? Does he have a favorite leadership book?

We asked him all of that and more in our latest edition of How I Sell:

1. What motivates you each day, even when you aren't feeling it?

For me, it's two things.

To start, it’s delivering outcomes and solving customer challenges. And the second piece is about my team that relies on me for leadership.

I really think of those as the two pillars of what gets me up every day, because I know there's a team that counts on me being there and showing up in full force every day. And then really being part of a team that drives meaningful outcomes to the customer and solving their business challenges.

It’s often hard. We’re in an ever-changing world and it’s very challenging for a lot of customers to adapt to this change. But I think technology can act as a conduit for companies to adopt, to stay resilient, and to accelerate growth.

So that’s at the heart of what gets me motivated each day. Nothing makes me happier then when I sit with a customer and they say, “You helped solve our problem. Thank you, Intel.”

Those are the moments you live for.

2. What's your sales philosophy, in 3 sentences or less?

I’ll give you three pillars of how I think about my sales philosophy.

The first is, when you think about the customer, how do you want to show up?

You want to show up as a thought leader and a trusted partner. That is something I always expect of my team. I’m very passionate that the way you win customer trust and for them to really want to go on a journey with you is by bringing them insights and perspectives that they may not already know.

And that comes through knowledge of the market and where it’s trending, along with trends in technology.

So, bring insights and perspectives to earn being seen as a thought leader.

Second is really focusing on solving the customers challenges, not selling your product. You can’t show up with a bag of parts and try to sell the parts. You must listen. You must be willing to go on a journey with this customer and take a long-term view.

That means understanding their needs, their aspirations, their challenges, and then working your way into solving those challenges for your customers though the capabilities and products that you offer.

The third point is about building a coalition of enduring relationships with your customers, your partners, and your stakeholders. We live in a very complex world where you will likely need multiple parties to deliver something meaningful to your customers.

So, you have to be willing to go and engage in that way and not just think of your own company and your own products. How do you partner? How do you bring ecosystem partners along the journey to really deliver meaningful solutions for the customer?

3. Buying committees are getting larger — and more cautious. What's the key to overcoming that?

This is a key piece of our planning process.

As we think about building an account plan, we need to think about who we want to engage with and in what way. I always coach my team that they need to not just know their customer’s business and about the industry they’re in, but they also need to know who the key decision-makers in that account are and what they care about.

And then, as salespeople, a lot of times we want to sell. But actually, that can be very counterproductive at times.

You really have to take the time to listen. To build trust and then focus again on that big prize, which is solving your customer’s problems.

Because, when you do that, you’ve earned trust. And then, the next time you don’t have to work as hard to earn it, right? Because they’ve felt the value you can deliver.

So, focus on the value that you can deliver and then follow-though and you’ll start to build trust and consensus over time.

Second, we need to broaden our thinking about buying committees in technology. Traditionally, in the past, Intel has been seen as selling primarily to IT. But, honestly, that’s no longer the case.

Let’s take a retailer who is trying to deploy a computer vision solution into their stores to minimize theft or manage inventory more effectively. A range of decision-makers will be involved in the deployment of that solution. It’s the operations technology team, it’s IT, it’s the business units, it’s the data scientists, the finance and operations; and so on.

This has become the new normal. It is no longer good enough to engage with one decision-maker. You have to think about the range of decision-makers involved in deploying a complex solution. And then you need to understand how to talk to each decision-maker in a way that’s relevant to them and gets them engaged, so they want to have follow-up with you.

Those are my high-level guiding principles. For every account review I do with my team, I expect them to have the buying committee mapped out. Sometimes we have gaps, so we have to do additional research.

And we use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to help, which is a fantastic tool that allows us to expand our understanding of those decision-makers and buying committees. So, then we can engage with them intelligently.

4. What excites you most about the future of sales?

It has to be AI and how it’s going to dramatically revolutionize sales.

Today, we see that there's a plethora of tools that already leverage AI. But, in my mind, it goes beyond just the current set of tools that summarize things for you and remind you of follow ups and whatnot.

There's the potential for technology to play a major role throughout the whole sales process and give sellers more time to focus on actual selling. And make the time sellers do spend with customers more impactful.

What really gets me excited is how AI and technology in general can empower sellers with the right insights about the customer before every meeting, right? And then, suggest some impactful follow-up.

In my experience, preparing for the call is half the battle. Imagine what technology can do in terms of getting you prepared in a much shorter time and in a more effective way, so you can really understand what's top-of-mind with your customer.

Or, imagine if AI – if we have our cameras on – is able to read our audience’s reactions and maybe nudge the seller to address specific areas more in-depth or to follow-up on something.

I also think about networking platforms like LinkedIn and LinkedIn Sales Navigator and how it can put more power at the fingertips of the salesperson.

So instead of having to wait and hope for an introduction to a customer or a prospect, you might be able to see immediately who is connected to that person and reach out to them directly.

Honestly, the possibilities are endless.

But, as you know, it’s still an evolving space. So, there is a lot I think we haven't experienced yet and it’s really exciting to see how AI is going to continue to play a big role here.

5. How can a sales leader spur innovation?

First of all, salespeople are at the tip-of-the-spear when it comes to seeing what’s happening in the marketplace and what customers are saying.

It’s a unique position because you think about the typical product person or engineer. They aren’t talking to customers every day, right?

But we are.

So it’s really important to perfect this market-sensing capability within a sales organization and capture that feedback in a timely fashion. We need to distill down the most critical feedback and send to the product team, so they consider it as they build out their product roadmap.

Having that type of mechanism as part of a sales function – where someone owns customer feedback and is accountable for it – is something I instill in every sales organization I run.

I would say the second element to spurring innovation is challenging the status quo.

One thing I’ve seen is many companies tend to run at their own pace, unless pushed by the customer. So, it’s important for the sales team to be the force behind getting the company to move faster. And not just accept the answer, “That’s how it’s been done before.”

So, be persistent.

In fact, I used to ask every customer in my meetings to challenge us. To keep pushing us outside of our comfort zone.

That worked really well with Facebook. They were on the cutting edge of technological advancements, and they would constantly ask us to do more.

It was uncomfortable, but it was actually very beneficial because it kept us building and looking at how we can make things move faster.

Then the last one is to anticipate your customer’s next move. Research their strategies, investments, acquisitions; because the more we anticipate as a salesforce, the more we can take that back into the product units to really spur innovation.

6. How does Sales Navigator fit into your sales process?

I'm a fan.

I’ve been telling my team in all my team meetings to use Sales Navigator. That’s because it’s a powerful tool, and the new updates have made it even more powerful.

For example, I see there are new powerful tools around visualizing the decision-making committee. And that goes back to the question around buying committees expanding.

As deals get more complex, Sales Navigator can play an even bigger role in creating and deepening the understanding of the customer and each decision-maker.

So it’s a fantastic capability.

That’s just one use-case, I see it being beneficial in so many other ways.

7. Is there any habit you have outside of work that you believe helps you perform better?

One of my favorite things to do is ride my mountain bike in the morning. Time isn’t always on my side and so I don’t always get to do that, but I am still in love with mountain biking.

If I don’t have time for that, even a morning walk or a morning jog really helps me. There’s something about the morning air that is just so refreshing and energizing.

And then, the other thing I love to do is read leadership books and articles on leadership. I find that they enrich my perspective on how I should lead and how I should show up as a leader.

I even have a practice with my staff where, when I read a great leadership book, I ask them to read it with me. And then we do a follow-up on what we learned.

Of course, my absolute favorite thing to do in the world is spend time with my family; my wife and two young children.

Follow-up question: Do you have a favorite leadership book?

Good leaders Ask Great Questions.

The reason it's my favorite leadership book is a lot of people come to me and ask what's the secret to my career advancement. I always tell them, and I learned this too late, is that when you show up to a meeting and you’re only wearing your functional hat, people see you as just that.

Sure, you are an expert in your function. But that doesn’t help you be seen as a leader or someone who is contributing in a bigger way to the company.

Instead, if you show up and think like the CEO of your company and you engage in that way by asking questions that go beyond your function, you will be seen differently.

You will be seen not just as someone who is doing their job well, as that’s baseline. Instead, you’ll be seen as someone who is helping the company think about the bigger picture and what needs to be tackled. And asking those types of questions is vitally important to any business.

8. How do you create a culture where people feel valued and inspired?

To me, a basic principle in leadership is to make sure your team understands that you want all voices to be heard. And that you will respect all voices, and that you actually want contrarian voices to be loud.

That’s because usually, in any group meeting, there’s two or three people who are extremely proactive and vocal, there’s another five who might say something some of the time, and there are two or three who will rarely speak.

As a leader, I think it’s important to set the tone that you want to hear from everybody. So, I’ll ask open-ended questions to get people involved and, occasionally, I’ll even call on specific people because I want to hear if they have a different perspective.

And I always want to hear if someone doesn’t agree because my philosophy is I don’t want to be right, I want to do what’s right. And that comes down to creating an environment where everybody feels that their voice is heard and respected.

When appropriate, we will even debate different points of view. That way we can really hash out all the information before deciding.

And we have a culture of Intel called “disagree and commit.” Meaning, we debate issues thoroughly, but when the decision-maker decides. everyone commits.

We might not all agree, but we get the chance to voice our opinion. And then, even if we don’t get our way, we commit to making that decision as successful as possible.

9. What has been your biggest failure in sales and how did that experience transform you?

My biggest failures were all the result of not preparing properly. Almost every time I haven’t prepared properly, it hasn’t gone well.

My advice to sales professionals is to prepare. Because there were several times earlier in my career where I thought to myself, I wish I would’ve done my homework. For example, the customer will bring up something that’s already public and I’ll think to myself, I should’ve already known that.

Preparing means conducting deep research of your customer and having a deep understanding of the market. It means knowing your customers priorities, what challenges your customers are dealing with, what strategies they’re pursuing, and how that fits into the larger industry.

So, to me, my simple advice is to avoid failure, prepare. And then, my second piece of advice is to use failure as a learning moment.

If something doesn’t go great, especially if it involves a group of people, I like to do a retrospective. I’ll get the team back together and we’ll go over what didn’t go well and how we can do it better moving forward.

I think it’s critical to do those retrospectives to get better the next time around.

Follow our How I Sell newsletter for bi-weekly interviews with some of the most innovative sellers going today.