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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 Mar 21, 2022
Monday Mar 21, 2022
John McDonnell is the Director of Business Development for Signum Displays, before making his transition to Signum he worked at Alexis Exhibits, Inc. for 17 years. Four of those years he worked as the Vice President of Sales- making the decision to move on and start fresh at a new company was ultimately the hardest and simultaneously the easiest for his career.
On today’s episode John covers an important topic- when to make the leap of faith to your next opportunity; Recognizing when you’ve plateaued and the inevitable decisions you’ll make in order to keep leveling up. A part of this process is being aware of your goals and continually evaluating whether you’re still on that journey of growth.
Tune into John McDonnell’s episode to walk through the process of weighing all your options and continually seeking growth in your career.
Quotes:
- “That translates and speaks volumes when you're not trying to wear a mask and be somebody that you're not.” (3:10-3:16)
- “It was a way to kind of start over and start fresh and start from the ground and then build a team, the way that I wanted to build a team.” (8:44-8:50)
- “The hardest part was actually weighing the pros and cons and getting over the unknown- then finally getting there and taking that leap.” (10:40-10:49)
Links:
Monday Mar 07, 2022
Monday Mar 07, 2022
Andy Paul is the author of Sell Without Selling Out, he is also the Founder of The Sales House, a business that helps VP’s and sales managers accelerate their leadership goals. You can also tune into his podcast, Sales Enablement Podcast- the mission of the podcast being to help you exceed customer expectations and close more deals.
On today’s episode you’ll learn from Andy’s expertise as a sales coach and consultant. Get perspective on creating the most effective sales training in order to create a successful sales team. Andy also gives great assessment on sales practices that might be holding you back from accomplishing your sales goals.
Tune into today’s episode to hear Andy’s sales coaching tips as impassioned author of the book, Sell Without Selling Out.
Quotes:
- “Despite all the advantages, the technology that's at our disposal today for marketing and sales purposes, that the data suggests that we're actually performing less well.” (1:06-1:17)
- “Meaning we're doing a less good job of helping our buyers make decisions at a time when in many respects, it should be easier to do that.” (1:17-1:26)
- “It's based on four pillars: connection, curiosity, understanding and generosity, which are innate human behaviors.” (2:58-3:13)
- “That's the reputation that salespeople have in sales are being lazy, shiftless, self-centered, but on one hand, is hugely unfair to the vast majority of people who are in sales.” (6:50-7:02)
Links:
Monday Feb 28, 2022
Monday Feb 28, 2022
Greg Coonley is the VP of Sales for Centerfield Media; Centerfield’s leading platform leads end-to-end customer acquisition for millions of sales each year. Greg’s expertise is in in digital marketing and lead generation.
On today’s episode, Greg breaks down his career in sales and what has made him successful as a sales leader. Greg originally left sales to go into operations but got the itch to go back to sales after working alongside a sales team. Now as a leader in sales he wants to impart some of the skills that have allowed him to be successful.
Tune into the episode to learn about Greg Coonley’s journey into sales after the 2009 recession and how he’s rose to the top of his field and stepped into his leadership role at Centerfield Media.
Quotes:
- “If you don't have the team dynamic set up so that the support you need, or the support you need to give is there, then it doesn't matter, you're not going to be able to achieve your goals- you're not going to put forth a great product to sell.” (5:02-5:21)
- “Leaving the office with a sense that those things are tied up for the day, and that I'm starting tomorrow with the ability to focus on where the focus needs to be.” (8:21-8:33)
- "I did the majority of the legwork there and yet I'm not reaping the salary and commission benefits that my counterparts are.” (13:10-13:21)
Links:
Monday Feb 14, 2022
Monday Feb 14, 2022
Paul Steinmetz is a National Sales Manager for Travel Leaders Corporate, LLC. Travel Leaders Corporate, LLC is founded on innovation- a business travel solutions firm with a focus on customized travel fulfillment, meetings management, and data & analytics.
Paul has been a salesman before he was old enough to drive and has worked his way through some tough jobs and finally found himself in a fulfilling leadership role with Travel Leaders Corporate. This road hasn’t always been easy, in today’s episode he recounts working for some extreme leaders that helped him understand what poor leadership could look like. However, his tenacity in sales has led him to some amazing opportunities which has allowed for his success in his field.
Tune into today’s episode to learn about Paul Steinmetz’s wild twist and turns through the world of sales and some of the difficult circumstances that have molded him into the leader he is today.
Quotes:
- “I think there's a fine line between being a pain in the ass and being really persistent and effective as a salesperson.” (3:44-3:49)
- “Ironically, I found that I learned more from people who were doing it wrong and bad leaders who would throw temper tantrums.” (5:09-5:17)
- “When the FTC raided those companies, they didn't really care who was doing what they assumed everyone. But the training was great.” (9:29-9:54)
Links:
Travel Leaders Corporate, LLC LinkedIn
Travel Leaders Corporate, LLC Website
Monday Jan 31, 2022
Monday Jan 31, 2022
Laura Cavanaugh is the Vice President of Sales for Ambassador Education Solutions. Her company develops, engineers and implements bookstore models and technology solutions to meet the specific financial and operational goals of higher education institutions while supporting the specific academic goals and vision of their students and faculty.
In today’s episode, Laura breaks down the systems and mindset that has helped her succeed as a sales leader. One of the things Laura said that stood out to me was on completing the sales cycle, “I think it was just establishing a workflow and a mindset that when somebody tells me ‘no’, or when somebody tells the sales reps, ‘no’, I look at it as a win. Because we're completing the sale, we're not spinning our wheels anymore, we're moving forward.”
That mindset in sales is incredibly important to sustain as leader for many reasons. So, tune into Laura Cavanaugh’s episode to hear about her perspective on empathetic, successful leading.
Quotes:
- “It's hard to narrow down or to pinpoint I would say, just having the drive to succeed, having a vision of where you want to go, and how you're going to get there.” (4:52-5:13)
- “I think it was just establishing a workflow and a mindset that when somebody tells me ‘no’, or when somebody tells the sales reps, ‘no’, I look at it as a win. Because we're completing the sale, we're not spinning our wheels anymore, we're moving forward.” (8:20-8:37)
- “We're going to look at the scoring system, we're going to look at the comments from the committee, we're going to do that work to see where we fell short, where we could have scored higher.” (28:52-29:02)
- “I'm going to be very transparent, very open, make sure we cross every T, dot every I so that once the deal is closed, and you're a client of ours, that everything that we talked about throughout the entire sales process can come to fruition for you.” (30:35-30:49)
Links:
Ambassador Education Solutions LinkedIn
Ambassador Education Solutions Website
Monday Jan 17, 2022
Monday Jan 17, 2022
Aaron Paul is the Regional Vice President for Advanced Technologies Consultants (ATC), a distributor of name-brand technical training curriculum, equipment, software and furniture. Aaron has worked for ATC for 14 years now and previously worked as a regional sales manager.
One of the biggest hurdles Aaron had to overcome when first starting off in sales was his aversion towards the industry- he had graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering and through connections wound up in sales position after school. While it did take time for him to warm up to his new career after a few years he could finally appreciate that sales was not about sleazy selling schemes but about problem solving and a salesman was born.
In today’s episode, Aaron brings us through his journey in sales and how he’s navigating sales leadership as a fairly new leader. His commitment to honing his craft and ensuring customer satisfaction is an inspiration so tune in to Aaron Paul’s episode and learn about his sales story.
Quotes:
- “I realized that sales at its heart is problem solving. If you've got a good product, then what sales is, is you're taking a person who needs that good product, and you're providing that product to them.” (5:34-5:47)
- “Good things are rarely cheap and cheap, things are rarely good.” (9:45-9:48)
- “Knowing that if I tried to take care of the customer, the rest will take care of itself.” (18:26-18:35)
Links:
Thursday Dec 30, 2021
Thursday Dec 30, 2021
Joel Stevenson is the CEO of Yesware, a company that builds software that helps professionals communicate efficiently and authentically by integrating a powerful set of tools right inside your email inbox.
Some of Joel’s accomplishments have been building a supply chain business from $2MM to $30MM, a B2C eCommerce business from $50MM to $100MM and a B2B business from scratch to several hundred million.
In Today’s episode, Joel talks about his start in sales and how his background in acting has helped him think on his feet from time to time. But, most importantly he discusses how he’s been shaped as a sales leader to be curious and focused in order to accomplish his goals.
Tune in to Joel Stevenson’s episode to learn why you might be cut out for sales and why at the end of the day everyone should know the tricks of selling in order to further their career.
Quotes:
- “The hub of your workflow is going to be in your inbox. We're being deeply integrated into your inbox.” (2:25-2:32)
- “Something I picked up a little bit later in my career was sitting meditation that's really been helpful to me in terms of focus.” (4:38-4:46)
- Well, I got news for you, you're all going into sales, whether you like it or not. If you want to build a skill set that's going to be useful for your whole career, you might think about building a selling skill set.” (7:58-8:01)
- “You have to be a curious person, in order to want to ask the right types of questions.” (13:10-13:15)
Links:
Monday Nov 29, 2021
Monday Nov 29, 2021
Sophia Kim is the Chief Revenue Officer for Centauri Health Solutions, Inc. and a passionate sales leader. Her passion to serve and empower people to get the healthcare benefits they need and deserve is what drives her sales success. She has experience in the implementation of large-scale systems with process re-engineering, integration and custom application development, and user acceptance testing.
In today’s episode, Sophia explains how her mantra, “be like water” was drawn from her experience as an immigrant to the U.S. at 2-years-old and the uphill battles her and her family faced as newcomers to the United States. “One of the things that we have to always do is be flexible and accommodating,” she explained. This mentality shaped her experience and later gave her an appreciation of how water is the substance to emulate in order to be a well-formed leader in sales.
Tune into this week’s episode with Sophia Kim to learn from an incredibly hardworking leader whose life experience has given her tremendous aptitude to lead successful sales teams.
Quotes:
- “We have a passion to serve and empower to solve and so we're out there trying to help people, get the benefits that they deserve.” (3:33-3:41)
- “My phrase is, ‘be like water’ and the reason why I choose that, is because water when you fill it into a container, it takes the form of whatever container is there. Fill the gaps where they need to be filled, be the support, where I need to be the support. Be the nourishment, where I have to provide nourishment.” (4:42-4:51)
- “I think you have to apply a combination of your intuition, combination of a little bit of psychology, and then apply the numbers and see what are ways out?” (27:48-28:01)
Links:
Centauri Health Solutions, Inc. LinkedIn
Centauri Health Solutions, Inc. Website
Monday Nov 22, 2021
Monday Nov 22, 2021
James Koenig, is the National Director of Sales for RTI Control. He is an expert team builder who develops culture around the customer experience to differentiate against the new world of commoditized, me-too products. Utilizes marketing to drive brand and customer loyalty. A detail-oriented sales leader with vision and drive.
In today’s episode, James Koenig tells us what he loves about his job, RTI Control, a leading control and automation systems manufacturer. He also breaks down the important values to live by as a leader and the important messages you need to pass on to your team.
Tune into this episode to hear from sales leader, James Koenig and learn how to fine tune your curbside prep and show up with a plan.
Quotes:
- “We do everything from remote controls up to the automation equipment. But majority of our business is selling whole home automation and business automation.” (2:06-2:15)
- “The one thing he taught me was the value of what he would call the curbside prep and it means showing up with a plan.” (2:50-2:56)
- “When you have a question, you feel like you're overwhelmed- Raise your hand and it's the one simple thing that it's not a call for help. It's not a sign of weakness.” (7:42-7:51)
- “There's two ways to go to business, we can all chase the ball, kick each other in the shin, or we can be strategic and play position.” (22:30-22:37)
Links:
Monday Nov 15, 2021
Monday Nov 15, 2021
Jason Cutter is the CEO and Founder of Cutter Consulting Group. Cutter Consulting Group is a specialized advisory firm focused on inside sales call center operations that offer Business-To-Consumer (B2C) or Business-To-Business (B2B) products and services. The fundamental goal is to help companies achieve a profitable and scalable Cost Per Acquisition through performance improvement of systems that support the sales process.
In today’s episode Jason explains how he eventually landed in sales and the inspiration behind his book, Selling with Authentic Persuasion. Jason graduated with a degree in Marine Biology and worked tagging sharks. He went from there to tech support and then a sales role in a mortgage business. He’s since evolved into a sales consultant, keynote speaker, podcaster, and published author.
Tune into hear why being an authentic and persuasive salesperson is the key to sales success from Jason Cutter!
Quotes
- “It was born out of about 16 years of experience inside a telephone sales room, running both sales and the lead gen side for call centers, mostly business to consumer.” (1:04-1:18)
- “It's building a system and process that you can repeat, almost like a franchise, no matter how many offices no matter how many reps.” (1:31-1:37)
- “I love teaching, I love that light bulb moment that people have when you teach them something, and they use it.” (6:34-6:40)
- “For me, it's both of those parts of the formula, authentic, and persuasion, are what's required to be an effective sales professional.” (7:59-8:08)
- “The persuasion piece is the active pursuit of helping the right people across the finish line and leaving them in a better place.” (10:33-10:41)
Links
Cutter Consulting Group: LinkedIn
Cutter Consulting Group Website