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”Unless you are the lead dog, your view never changes.” On the Sales Lead Dog podcast, CRM technology and sales process expert Christopher Smith talks with exceptional sales leaders that have separated themselves from the rest and achieved a sales leadership role in their organization. Hear what they did to become the alpha, lead their pack, and how they leverage CRM technology to drive sales for their organization. If your goal is to rise higher in your sales career or you currently are the alpha, this podcast gives you useful insight on how the best-of-the-best achieve success with their team and CRM technology.
Episodes
Monday Apr 26, 2021
Monday Apr 26, 2021
Owning his self-development was the key to Robert Merritt's success. His eagerness to learn as much as he could and hone is craft and remain accountable for himself is what he attributes to where he is today, as High5's Chief Revenue Officer.
Robert breaks down the type of culture that every marketing leader should be aspiring to create in the episode. He talks about building good repertoire with his coworkers and being open to feedback as a way to stay approachable and accessible.
Tune into this week's episode to learn attainable leadership tools that apply to anyone working in a collaborative environment.
Quotes
"Feedback should always start with asking for it. So someone always needs to be very proactive and asking for it. Ideally, the leader." (34:55-35:02)
"Everybody on that team has to have kind of I guess a growth mindset…people that get people that really devote themselves to trying to learn and understand their craft." (32:03-32:39)
"I really owned my own development, my own self development was my responsibility. It was not my employer's responsibility. And something happened to where I just got hooked on learning education, trying to, you know, understand my craft trying to understand my customers trying to create a knowledge base in business that would allow me to extend beyond the script." (15:50-16:13)
Links
Thursday Apr 22, 2021
Thursday Apr 22, 2021
“Go deep” says Greg Grand, founder and CEO of G-Squared Advisors. Greg consults for businesses that want to scale up by revamping their sales process, strategy, and execution. In this episode of Sales Lead Dog, host Chris Smith is talking with Greg about what it really means to support sales growth, from training to CRM and beyond.
Greg is used to diving in and offering practical tips, and that’s exactly what he does in this episode. He talks about adopting a “servant leader” mindset, and investing in both group and individual training for everyone on your team, even top performers. He talks about balancing business and personal goal setting, how to interview so you actually get to know someone before you hire them, and what CRM can do for your employees on an individual level--not just for the company.
This episode is jam packed with tips for everyone on your sales team, from the rookie seller to the CEO. You won’t want to miss it!
Quotes
- "...you need a sales leader who's been doing this, has interviewed hundreds of salespeople, to really figure it out because salespeople are salespeople they're going to be great on their interviews." (12:09-12:18)
- "When they see that you're investing your time in them and you care and you really want to see them succeed, it tends to create some pretty good loyalty." (24:14-24:22)
- "A sales leader should be in the servant leader mindset.”
- “I believe that a sales leader really should be putting themselves in a servant leader mindset. That almost in essence you work for the sales team.” (6:52-7:00)
Links
https://www.linkedin.com/in/greggrand/
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing
Wednesday Apr 21, 2021
Wednesday Apr 21, 2021
“You have to own your own results,” says Erik Norman, Senior Vice President of Bolger Printing Minneapolis, MN. As the leader of an international printing company that works with major financial institutions, luxury retail and health care organizations, Erik has clearly seen a lot of success. But in this episode of Sales Lead Dog, he’s talking with Chris Smith about the other side of sales: failure, and the need to be resilient.
When asked what he wished he had known about sales, Erik was frank. He wished he had known how much failure he’d have to face in those early days. So often, people want to get into sales because it seems glamorous, and lucrative. But to be successful in sales, you have to cope with a lot of rejection and failure. Erik talks with Chris about how he built up resilience, and how he learned to become “the president of Erik Norman Inc.” and take accountability for his own sales journey.
Tune in this week to hear about resilience, and how Erik feels about his own “lukewarm” feelings about CRM in this episode of Sales Lead Dog.
Quotes:
- “You need to learn resiliency and how to move forward against all sorts of obstacles.” (13:25-13:31)
- “I had a house, one time, where my wife and I wanted to re landscape and we had all these Juniper bushes these low growing Juniper bushes, you know, and the roots are literally everywhere. So you think I can just pull this little thing up you pull it up and what you realize is, you never get all the roots. So, and when you start tugging on something and it's got these long roots it's difficult to move. And so, you know, that then kind of describes some of the challenges you have to be then careful and methodical and respectful in how you're going to drive change, while also balancing the urgency that the organization wants…” (26:53-27:32)
Links
Bolger • Minnesota's Print and Digital Technology Company (bolgerinc.com)
Bolger Printing | LinkedIn
Erik Norman: LinkedIn
Empellor CRM Website
Empellor CRM LinkedIn
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing
https://meetfireside.com/podcast-production-service/
Thursday Apr 15, 2021
Thursday Apr 15, 2021
Chemist turned sales coach, Wesleyne Greer has a clear idea of what contributed to her sales success: people, process, and profit... and in that order. Wesleyne explains that her work in a lab just wasn’t getting her the face-to-face interaction she craved. She turned to sales as a profession because it fulfilled her constant curiosity and played to her listening skills and problem-solving strengths. Once she entered a sales role, Wesleyne quickly realized that this profession was the job she had always dreamed of.
Wesleyne’s passion and drive resulted in a rapid ascent from individual contributor to international sales manager. However, when she reached this new stage on the sales ladder, she was surprised by a striking deficit in available resources. While she had received plenty of guidance in her entry role, there just weren’t the same support systems in place at the managerial level. This experience inspired Weslyne to start her own business that focuses on helping sales managers transform into empowered leaders, who can effectively guide their teams to consistent success.
Tune into this week’s episode of Sales Lead Dog to learn more about Wesleyne’s perspective on how sales managers can establish a balance between authority and individualized support for each and every team member. How should a sales manager approach top performers? How do you balance pressure from your boss with adding lasting value to your sales team? What integral role does your CRM play in your team’s success? Wesleyne and host Chris Smith will explore these questions in-depth during this week’s episode, “The Three P’s: People, Process, and Profit.”
Quotes:
- “It’s all about the three P’s: People, Process and Profit. In that order.”
- “I say it's all about the three P's and its people, process and profit. And I put profit at the end, and people at the beginning because essentially without the right people in place, you're not going to be profitable and building a process without having the right people in place, you won't ensure that you have profit.” (4:48-5:12)
- “I tell people that when I got into sales, I finally figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up.” (6:31-6:37)
- “I always always tell sales managers and sales leaders it’s about solid sales skills….You can teach them your products, your services, you can teach them the technology. But what you can’t teach somebody is really solid sales skills.” (9:49-10:06)
- “You build your sales process not based on what the corporate office wants it to be or what your boss wants it to be. You make your sales process off of what’s working in the field. And the way you figure out what’s working in the field is you talk to the top performers.” (15:48-16:03)
- “When I ask a sales leader, ‘Who is your salesperson or who are your top salespeople?’, they always give me the one who’s hitting quota. But to me, it’s more about consistency. Sometimes people can have a really great year, and then they can be duds for the next two years. So a definition of success is consistency.” (20:50-21:14)
- “You have to do a postmortem because it’s ok to lose a deal, but it’s not ok to lose a deal the same way twice.” (28:10-28:18)
Links
Website: https://www.transformedsales.com/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesleynegreer/
Linkedin Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/transformedsales
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing
Monday Apr 12, 2021
Monday Apr 12, 2021
For Matt Green, Chief Revenue Officer at Sales Assembly, it’s all about the individual. Sales Assembly helps B2B technology organizations across the country “scale smarter,” with a people-focused approach. In this episode of Sales Lead Dog, Matt shares his philosophy of building the best sales team: hiring slow and as a team across the organization.
For Matt, motivating your team means motivating the individual. He believes that taking the time to focus on individual needs can make all the difference in the success of your entire team - because as he says, in a team of four, “if three of them are a yes, and one of them is a no, then [the whole team is] a no.” And when it comes to motivating your team to use CRM… the key is to find both your carrot and your stick.
Tune in this week to Sales Lead Dog to hear Matt’s insights on hiring, and find out what the best salesperson he ever hired said in the interview that made all the difference.
Quotes
- “…it's really tough, especially when you're hiring salespeople because if there's one thing about, you know, even not that great of a salesperson, he or she is probably halfway decent at selling themselves.” (22:31-22:43)
- “…setting up a hiring committee that you know consists of you as … the leader, consists of maybe a peer in a different department, consists of a peer that this person may not be working for but maybe working alongside… let's say of four people. And if three of them are, right, yes and one of them is a no, then it's a no.” (22:54-23:46)
- “It's important not to focus on motivating the team I think it's important to focus on how you motivate the individuals within the team.” (31:05-31:15)
Links
https://www.salesassembly.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/sales-assembly/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewcorneliusgreen/
Empellor CRM Website
https://www.empellorcrm.com
Empellor CRM LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/empellorcrm
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing
https://meetfireside.com/podcast-production-service/
Thursday Apr 08, 2021
Thursday Apr 08, 2021
“Your deal gets won or lost in discovery,” says Ashley Welsh, Somersault Innovation and co-author of the book Naked Sales. In this energizing interview with host Christopher Smith, Ashley talks about Somersault Innovation’s approach to sales -- which is all about co-creating, collaborating, empathizing, and curiosity.
Ashley’s training is definitely not your standard sales approach. She believes wholeheartedly that story-telling and empathy are the roots of a good sales relationship, and that you need to embrace vulnerability to find success. She tells the story of a $3 million bus ride that one of her clients took in order to understand the real pain points of Greyhound drivers. Going out and experiencing a product is, for Ashley, the best way to prove to a customer that you understand them -- and what their customers need, too.
Tune in to hear about an uncommon approach to selling that centers our humanity; and some amazing success stories that prove it really works.
Quotes
- “You are also a problem finder. Not just a problem solver.”
- “And the other thing we talked about in discovery is this idea of you are becoming a problem finder not just a problem solver like you're looking for more problems that may even be outside the range of what you can solve for because if you can understand the whole landscape of your customer and their customers. Then you put yourself in the position of trusted advisor.” (7:33-7:53)
Links
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/awelch1/
Website: https://www.somersaultinnovation.com/
Empellor CRM Website
https://www.empellorcrm.com
Empellor CRM LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/empellorcrm
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing
https://meetfireside.com/podcast-production-service/
Monday Apr 05, 2021
Monday Apr 05, 2021
“Failure is important. The reality is that a winner has to be somebody who is willing to fail. That’s all it comes down to….You can’t win without being at risk of failure.” explains Rich Van Doorn, Chief Revenue Officer & President at AVASO Technology Solutions. As a manager for multiple sales reps, Rich explains that it is always difficult to watch his people fail. However, while ignorance (or the lack of knowledge about a given topic) is easily remedied, stupidity is a more difficult problem to solve, as this quality suggests a lack of drive and an unwillingness to learn.
This outlook on failure as a learning tool aligns well with Rich’s personal beliefs about success. Rich explains that the key contributors to his own success were perseverance, mentorship, and personal marketing. It was these traits that ultimately propelled Rich to his current role as CRO at AVASO, a global IT outsourcing provider that serves a total of 190 countries! Rich urges listeners to consider not only how to market for a given product, but also how to market themselves as competent and valuable assets for their companies.
Tune into this week’s episode of Sales Lead Dog to learn more about Rich’s journey from salesperson to sales leader. From the importance of long-term sales relationships to lessons about failure to (of course!) the pros and cons of CRMs, Rich Van Doorn and host Christopher Smith explore what it takes to make the sales process not only efficient, but also human.
Quotes:
- “A winner has to be somebody who is willing to fail.” (28:12)
- “Marketing isn’t just about who you’re working for, it’s about finding a way to market yourself. We forget that we’re a product, and we always think that what we have to market is something else in front of us, and we’ve gotta be careful and recognize that we’re one of those things.” (6:50-7:10)
- “A lot of sales folks don’t understand who’s truly the real decision maker….so who to go after when you’re trying to get a referral. We think it’s procurement, we think it’s finance, but the people who are really making the decisions aren’t often who you think they are. And when you find out who it is, you can tune the dial pretty fast and hone in on it, and then the business really starts coming in. And that’s where you can really start driving exponential value in your organization.” (15:35-16:10)
- “One of the things my grandad said is, ‘You got two ears and one mouth, and God gave you them in proportion for a reason.’” (18:30-18:35)
- “Are you willing to give up a sale for the relationship? And that’ll really tell me whether or not you are in it for the customer.” (21:18-21:29)
- “Failure is important. The reality is that a winner has to be somebody who is willing to fail. That’s all it comes down to….You can’t win without being at risk of failure.” (28:12-28:29)
Links
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rvandoorn/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/avaso-technology-solutions/
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing
Monday Mar 29, 2021
Monday Mar 29, 2021
“I’m still a work in progress,” says Kayleb Bowes, Vice President of Sales at Nationwide Laboratory Services. Throughout his career, Kayleb has been committed to learning and growing. And for him, that all comes down to knowing his why.
As a medical sales rep and leader, Kayleb can find part of his why in his company’s mission -- Nationwide is helping doctors diagnose patients and save lives every day. But for him, it goes deeper than that. Beyond the numbers, Kayleb measures his team’s success by company culture. He wants people to feel appreciated, cared for, and to have fun. And having that human-centered approach helps him stay connected to the importance of his work as a sales leader.
This week, hear Kayleb talk about how he motivates his team through wins and losses, and his transformation from CRM hater to CRM lover once he realized just how important CRM technology is to fulfilling your mission.
Quotes
- “So I would say that there's not one way to be successful in a sales career, right. I'm not to go off script, but to be genuine. I think that's something that you can't teach -- to be genuine and to kind of create your own style.” (8:50-9:05)
- “Be Genuine and Create Your Own Style.” (12:30-12:34)
- "I'd rather take somebody that doesn't have the knowledge, so you can train the knowledge but I don't. for me personally I don't think you can train someone to work hard..." (25:06-25-15)
- "I would go back to the three priorities that I told you earlier, right, I can't put the first one on them right because that's not everyone else's priority... again it goes back to, to the why, what is their why?" (26:55-27:06)
Links
Nationwide Laboratory Services (nationwidelabtesting.com)
Nationwide Laboratory Services: Overview | LinkedIn
Empellor CRM Website
Empellor CRM | Customer Relationship Management
Empellor CRM LinkedIn
Empellor CRM : Company Page Admin | LinkedIn
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing
https://meetfireside.com/podcast-production-service/
Monday Mar 22, 2021
Monday Mar 22, 2021
“I’m looking for courage, character, and compassion,” says William Standifird of Access ESP. In this episode of Sales Lead Dog, host Chris Smith talks with William about how he hires, how he uses data, and how it all centers on the needs of his prospects.
Access ESP sells a green technology product to help extract gas and oil from wells -- which means their sales cycle can be a few years long. Because of this, having a balanced team that is using CRM technology in a smart way is pivotal. William talks about the importance of forecasting, how he holds his sales team responsible for their own data, and how he tries to keep his team balanced by focusing on selling personas when he’s hiring.
This week, tune in for a great conversation about building a team and a selling framework that supports the needs of your prospects.
Quotes:
- “Be careful not to have your hands on the steering wheel when you do not have to.”
- “I think that's the biggest thing that new managers and sales leaders, you know, need to avoid so trust your people, you know, ask them what they need, and give them what they need. Be careful not to have your hands on the steering wheel, when you don't need to.” (15:12-15:25)
Links
Company Website https://www.accessesp.com/home/
Company LN https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessesp
William LN www.linkedin.com/in/william-standifird-mba-69085021
Empellor CRM Website
https://www.empellorcrm.com
Empellor CRM LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/empellorcrm
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing
https://meetfireside.com/podcast-production-service/
Monday Mar 15, 2021
Monday Mar 15, 2021
“When a client is asking something, what are they really asking for?” asks John Maczynski, CRO for CXperts. John is the master of cutting the fluff out of sales and focusing on the basics - real people talking to other people about what they need.
John’s start in sales came during a relocation. His wife started med school, and he found himself in a new part of the country, and in a new part of his company. But he thrived in a sales environment, because he had been a buyer in his previous role. He knew from the get-go what buyers want, which is authenticity, a solutions-based approach, and frank conversations about what the selling company can really provide -- and what they can’t. John doesn’t see himself as a sales person, he sees himself as a consultant, and a problem solver. “In that case,” John says, “you are going to be a trusted ally, not an adversary.”
In terms of CRM implementation, John’s focus is on actionable implementation of your data. You want your data to be able to solve your problems in the future, not just report on the past. Being able to use your data as a learning tool to identify the difference between your wins and your losses is a huge asset for any organization.
Quotes:
“The single most important driver to a great customer experience is being able to treat your employees well.” (5:41-5:49)
"And in our case, you know the the chief service that we provide is, you know, customer service and and dialogues with our customers customers. And so from that standpoint. The single most important driver to a great customer experience as being able to treat your employees well." (5:28-5:49)
Links
https://cxperts.us/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/cxpertsus
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmaczynski/
Empellor CRM Website
https://www.empellorcrm.com
Empellor CRM LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/empellorcrm
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing
https://meetfireside.com/podcast-production-service/