The Desire to Win – Ellis Lowe

Transcript:

Wed, Sep 21, 2022 ·

SUMMARY KEYWORDS 

sales , crm , deals , people , sport , salesperson , continue , partners , day , business , organization , stack , athlete , understand , conversations , team , perspective , play , hiring process , core values

SPEAKERS

Ellis Lowe & Christopher Smith

Intro

Welcome to the Sales Lead Dog podcast hosted by CRM technology and sales process expert Christopher Smith, talking with sales leaders that have separated themselves from the rest of the pack. Listen to find out how the best of the best achieve success with their team and CRM technology. And remember, unless you are the lead dog, the view never changes.

Christopher Smith

Welcome to sales lead dog today on sales lead dog with Ellis Lowe. Ellis, welcome to sales lead dog.

Ellis Lowe

Thanks, Chris. Happy to be here. Thanks so much.

Christopher Smith

Great. Great to have you Ellis, tell me a bit about your current role with Stack Sports.

Ellis Lowe

Yeah, so I’m the vice president of revenue and growth at Stack. And that encompasses a few different hats as sales leaders often do. The first component of primary role I have is really cross functional sales across our lines of business. So, at stack, we have about 20 different products sets and 20 different 20 Different software tools that we have and provide value our customers with. And my job is to bring and cross collaborate with those tools, how we best bring the most value to our partnerships through a variety of software solutions, that could be one software solution, that could be 10 Software Solutions. At the end of the day, we want to meet our customers where they’re at, and provide the most value that makes sense to them. And then the really the second component of my role is strategic partnerships in alignment. So outside of our own and operated products, aligning ourselves with businesses that also bring value to our core partnerships as well.

Christopher Smith

That’s awesome. You guys have some pretty impressive numbers. When I was researching you for coming on the show 50,000 customers, I had no idea there were that many organizations out there in this video. But when I think about it, well, it does make sense. But you guys really own that space, it seems like

Ellis Lowe

yeah, you know, you sports, I’ve been working in sports, my whole career, and you sports is a huge business and kids and kids are getting involved early now and sticking with it, you know, for a long time. And that’s, that’s one of the great things we do at stack sports. And something we pride ourselves on our whole mission, Chris is really to increase participation and transport transform that sport experience for the athlete for the parent for the organization, whether that, you know, athlete journey, as we like to call it is, you know, one year long, or whether that athlete journey is 25 years long, and they go on to play professional sports. And we want to have a software solution that is with them along their journey the whole time. And we really achieved that through four pillars of our business. The first of which is really grassroots and community engagement, getting kids involved with sport, as early as two years old. This could be with things like after school programming, right? You know, middle of the week daycare mom and dad have to go to work and you got to drop them off at a sport camp. And we do this through a program called Skyhawks, we have tons of franchises throughout the country, we partner with facility operators, we partner with professional sports organizations, to help engage local communities and get kids involved in sport early on. That second pathway is really participation growth. So, if they’re sticking with sport, and they want to continue to play, you know, past 234 years old, how are we tracking their lifecycle of their sport journey, we do that really through our core product set, which is sports Kinect, Game Day, which is our international product and stack T map. And these are really the core pillars of our registration and data management products that allow us to provide important data back to our partners that show them hey, here’s when little Johnny or little Susie got involved in playing baseball. And they went on and played at the college level. And we’re able to check track the duration of that lifecycle. The third pillar is what we consider recruiting pathways. So, as they go on to play more competitively, at the high school level, at the college level, at the professional level, what resources are we providing that athlete to allow them to get seen? Well, the first one is Captain u, which is a free to use recruiting software tool that connects high school aged athletes with college level coaches, right and we marry the two so you can really think about it like a LinkedIn style product. It’s free for everyone to get on and use and then businesses and organizations and companies are able to connect and network and so that’s what we do with Captain you. And then we provide through experiential on field camps and clinics do things like area code baseball, elite 11, combine the final five combine these are elite level combine and events that allow those athletes to actually get seen by scouts and college coaches. And then that fourth pillar is really elite player development. So, when they are playing at that next level, what tools and resources can we provide them to be able to scout to be able to perhaps video breakdown to study hitters to study pitchers offices and defenses? And really that core product is called games. Plan. And game plan allows mobile distribution for videos and documents. It’s used by partners like the Baltimore Ravens, the LA Rams FC Bayern Munich, all the way down to the collegiate level as well. So, when you think about our bread, the product set, it’s pretty vast, but we really think about it in those four different pillars. And then, you know, I think everything that drives us here at stack sports, really centers back and goes back to our four values, the first of which is running in our customers shoes. So, when we think about, you know, what’s important to us here at stack sports is, hey, a lot of us that work here, our coaches have coached or have played a level of sport, and so how can we put ourselves in that organization shoes to help solve their problems? The second core value is play to win. Look, at the end of the day, you know, we’re here to be the best in the industry and provide the most value back to our partners. So how can we play to win? And how can we bring the most most value to everybody that we work with. The third is just be a team player. So internally at stack, we pride ourselves on being able to cross collaborate, which again, goes back to one of my main responsibilities here at the company is, you know, be a team player, you just because your side of the business is thriving, how can we also bring in other components of our business to grow internally, but then just provide value back to the customer. And then the fourth is going to be on the solution? Look, I mean, at the end of the day, problems are going to arise. And we want people on our team that are going to own that solution, come up with a quick fix something that is going to make the customer happy, and make it a priority to get the solution done in a timely manner. And so, for us, it all goes back to those core values. And it all goes back to those four pillars of our business and how we track that athlete journey.

Christopher Smith

We’re definitely going to dive back into those core values. And when we talk about sales leadership, but right now I want to know, what are the three things that have led you to the six successes that you’ve had in your career so far?

Ellis Lowe

Yeah, that’s a great question. You know, when I think about that, I think the first thing that sticks out to me is, you know, just the desire to win. And it’s, it sounds a little cliche, but when I say desire to win, you know, I don’t just mean dollars and cents, when we think about sales, I really mean desire to win in every facet of life. So I think it’s all relevant, you know, desire to win, you know, with my relationships, desire to win with, you know, just my routine day in and day out, I think, from a personal development perspective, from my relationships with my, with my kids with my spouse, I think are all super relevant, and going back to having success in your work life. And so, I would flag that as the number one thing that’s helped me in my career. Number two, I think is just having a clear vision for where I want to go professionally. You know, that dates back to over a decade ago, when I got my start in sales, just really understanding where I wanted to be from a sales leadership perspective, and helping an organization fulfill propel, for from a growth and revenue side of things. And being outspoken about that, right, understanding that you’re not just gonna fall into a sales leadership role, you have to go out and prove yourself, but also being outspoken at the same time with my leaders and my mentors about where I wanted to be down the road, I think was super important for me. And then number three is just Performance and Results, right? At the end of the day. As I’ve progressed, in my career, I think having the results to lean back on and say, hey, here’s what I’ve been able to do throughout my sales career is very important. But you really, you don’t get the third one without the first two. So, you don’t get performance a you don’t get results without desire to win and having a clear path and, and having an expectation of yourself every day that’s going to allow you to get there. And you don’t get there without a clear vision for where you want to be long term.

Christopher Smith

When you were in college, did you envision yourself going into sales?

Ellis Lowe

It’s a great question. When I was in college, I wanted to go play professional baseball.

Christopher Smith

Second one second guessed that had that career path.

Ellis Lowe

Yeah, I mean, I fortunately. So, I did play college baseball, and got a little bit of an opportunity to play independent ball after college and had tons of friends and buddies who went on to play and a lot of which are still playing today. And so, like a lot of us, that was the dream. You know, for me, I saw the writing on the wall and saw an opportunity that, you know, to retire from, quote unquote, professional baseball in the independent leagues, and pursue career opportunity in sport. When I first got my start with BSN sports over a decade ago, and that was exciting to me to be able to continue to talk with coaches and talk with people in sport. If I was not going to be playing baseball, at least I got to interact with people that were you know, I could relate to.

Christopher Smith

Right. So, what were those early days like for you as a salesperson?

Ellis Lowe

Yeah, I would I would imagine similar to you know, a lot of the listeners experiences as well which is, you know, high volume of calls and It’s grinded. And from a prospecting perspective, you know, I can remember that first sales job I got, you know, I was thrilled with it again, it was in sport, but it was a territory of the caught five plus states with an expectation of, you know, really 75 200 cold calls a day with a CRM system that was sending me leads or not leads that gave me contact information to call out and, you know, I was pumping out calls day in and day out, running my own sales spiffs and specials to try to get people to call me back and, and so I think everyone, quite frankly, should have that experience to the grind of, you know, prospecting on your own the grind of drumming up your own business. But the great part about that was when when I had wins, and I did continue, and when I did start to see success over the course of the 12 and 18 months, it was exciting, you know, because the payoff of that was great. And it was exciting. And I think it’s something as an athlete, the harder you work, and the more you put in, the more you get out of it. It’s the same, and it’s no different in sales.

Christopher Smith

No. Was it the, when you look back on those days? Were you like, when you went into it thinking like, hey, this is gonna be great, or did you go into think it was gonna be suck? And then how much did your viewpoint change over those first 18 months?

Ellis Lowe

Yeah, great question. I think at times, it was a grind. And it was just, yeah, there’s days where, yeah, this sucks. And you know, what do I want to be doing this for my whole career. But I always went back to, hey, if you perform, and you be a top performer in sales within that division, and you’re outspoken, and you know, clear about where you want to go, there’s going to be opportunity to grow within an organization. And so that’s really what I kind of always went back to was, I’d always put my name in the hat for a new opportunity to jump into a new division, a new opportunity to start a new division, that may be a little bit of a risk that I knew that I had the skill set to kind of take it and run with it. And so that’s, that’s where I did make my next leap was a new division that’s involved, and I threw my name in and I said, hey, I’m gonna give it a shot and ended up having some success there. So certainly days where I questioned if that type of sales grind was something I wanted. But then again, always just went back to I know that I’ll get out of it, what I put into it, which is, I think, in large part, how I got to kind of where I am today,

Christopher Smith

what were some of the lightbulb moments or epiphanies you had in those early years in sales?

Ellis Lowe

Yeah, I mean, a couple of things, just from a learning perspective. It’s just a process, you know, I think, you know, you don’t know what you don’t know. And yeah, I was a confident and still am confident athlete, you know, coming out of college and, and so I thought I had the ability to do, you know, go close, every single deal that came across my desk. And that reality is, is that’s just not the case, sales is a numbers game. And I understood that I had to be diligent in my process, in sales, to see success. And, and so I think, you know, over the course of probably the first 12 months, in that particular job, I start to understood understand that, you know, in order for me to see success and continue to see success, I needed to be diligent in my process. And I had several sales mentors and people that I would lean on. And, you know, I would just be a fly on the wall and listen and absorb as much as I could from superiors and senior leadership and executives within that office, that allowed me to understand how they interact, what they’re doing day in and day out. And so, I’d say I would say that was the biggest thing for me in that first year. And the epiphany was, hey, let’s go emulate what people that are having success at a higher level than me are doing, and then go put it to work on my day to day and I think for me that did a lot.

Christopher Smith

Was there any sage advice or feedback that you were given from some of those mentors that you could share with us?

Ellis Lowe

Yeah, I think, you know, for me, it was you know, a lot of positive reinforcement and and, you know, continue to do what you’re doing which was great, right? From senior leadership within an organization Hey, love what you’re doing continue to do what you’re doing. For me that was just affirmation that I was on the right path. And you’re not always going to get positive affirmation, but for me that continued to lift my spirits in that hey, you know, I am doing right things I am doing the right things, the baby steps that are going to get me to either get me to just be an ultra-high performing salesperson person or long-term get me to the kind of a leadership level I was hoping to get to. And so, you know, people like you know, that she can chief executives within, you know, the C suite, if you will, within this organization that would just pick their brain go in their office, knock on the door, we had sort of an open-door policy. Talk to them have small talk conversations and just to get kind of some of these positive affirmations and so hope you all Troy helpful to me, you know, that’s not everybody’s experience. And not everyone has those types of relationships within their business. But I think the more that you can, you know, get in front of pick the brain of senior leadership, people that are, you know, have done what you’re looking to do, the better off, you’re gonna be long term. And it certainly was a case for me.

Christopher Smith

What drove you into your path to leadership in a sales role?

Ellis Lowe

Yeah, I think it’s just a combo of wanting to help people be the best version of themselves wanting to help people to go on to be successful. But there’s a big part of me that loves the player coach type of environment. And when I say that, I mean, the one of the things I love most about my position today is I’m very much so still involved in a lot of specific sales deals. And so, I understand one, the grind that my team goes through, and the things that they’re hearing from an objection perspective or issues that they’re running into, because I too, am running into the same thing. So being able to collaborate and take their advice sometimes, but then also mentor them. You know, as you know, when scenarios arise, I think, is the thing I love the most, it’s a team environment. And so, the ability to be this player coach within the sales world, is something I love. And look, I always say, I would, I’m still really young in my sales career, in the grand scheme of things. And so, I’m continuing to evolve and learn. And I’m continuing to learn from people on my team, that have been in the sales game longer than me. And so, I still take that same perspective. And I still try to approach it that same way I did over a decade ago, when I was just getting my start. Because I feel like that’s the only way you’re going to continue to evolve and get better is if you’re you wake up every day, knowing that you don’t know everything, and you want to learn and get better. I think that’s the best way to approach it. And that’s the way I like to approach it with me and my team as well.

Christopher Smith

10:33:12

How do you manage that fine line between player and coach? You know, when it’s really not, I imagine it’s really not your role to be the lead on those deals. But how do you manage that line? I know that can be a struggle for some people?

Ellis Lowe

Yeah, it is. And I would say, I think the biggest struggle for a lot of people, and even me to quite frankly, is, you know, especially for first time sales leaders and managers, it’s letting go pride of having control over specific deals. And I think that’s something I’ve had to learn over time, too, is that, hey, when you have good people on your team, being able to trust them, right with that sales process, let them continue to build their pipeline, go out there, chase the deals, close the deals. And if you’re doing the right things, as a sales leader, those guys and those gals on your team are going to continue to see success and see results without me feeling like or the sales leader feeling like they have to have control over every deal. And so again, that’s a learning process as a sales leader that you go through. When you and I think the epiphany and the light bulb goes off, when one day you look at your or not maybe just not just one day, but over the course of maybe a quarter, you look at your email, you’re going man, I just I can’t catch up. I’m, you know, we’re bogged down. I feel like I’m trying to be involved in too many of these meetings. And yet, at the end of the day, I’m even more behind. Well, you know, I think that, to me, is an indication that you don’t have your team structured in a way that you can delegate where things need to be delegated, and that you’re really focused on what you need to be focused on as a leader.

Christopher Smith

That’s, that’s a great indicator that you’re becoming a bottleneck instead of that enabler. Yep. What How did you manage that transition? You know, when you when you have that recognition, to say, hey, look, I’m probably doing too much. How did you start managing yourself out of that situation?

Ellis Lowe

Yeah, I think getting what’s always helpful, and I still do this today, you know, as our team continues to grow, is, have a shadow I do I have a lot of people involved in, you know, and that’s how we’ve built trust internally as Hey, be part of my conversations and what the conversation conversations I’m having on from a deal perspective, to understand how these conversations go, how we want to approach the strategy we take behind how we’re having partnership conversation, and then you know, then put your own twist on it. Right, you know, you don’t have to do everything the way I do it, or the way he does it, or, you know, everyone’s unique in the way they approach things. But I think understanding kind of the playbook, so to speak on how, as a company holistically how we want to go about having these sorts of conversations with our partners is super valuable. And so for me, that’s what that’s been the most helpful and you know, transition He thinks the members of my team is, hey, let’s do some of this stuff together different types of conversations, different types of sales scenarios, so that you know, when you’re doing it on your own, and I know that you know exactly how to handle a specific situation confidently, and that we can you continue to maximize all of our time moving forward.

Christopher Smith

Have you talked about your core values of the company’s core values earlier? How do you leverage those core values during your hiring process when you’re trying to find new members for your sales team?

Ellis Lowe

Yeah, it’s a great question. I think the hiring process is it’s a key one for any sales organization. Right, getting it right is, is a tough one. Sometimes. For me, you know, one of the biggest things I always look for, when I’m hiring new salespeople, it’s just the ability to have these types of conversations interact naturally, without being forced, right. I for me, I think we’ve got we’ve pivoted away, in my opinion, you know, over the last several years in the old school sales, you know, mentality. And we’ve gone more towards a just strictly a relationship, building trust, having natural organic conversation. And so that’s what I look for in the in the interview in the hiring process. And then, you know, the ability to have, you know, these core values as part of the individual’s personality is, is ultra-important as well, right, obviously, you know, if they’ve been a part of a team, if they’ve played sport, if they have that competitiveness to them, if they’re able to, you know, talk about some scenarios in which they were able to own a solution, these are all things that we talk through, that are indicators for me and our team that, hey, you have lived it, you have run into adversity, you have shown the ability, your ability to go out and win deals, you have shown your ability to go out and be empathetic with your customer and what they’re going through. And so, all those things are super important for us in the hiring process. Because again, you know, you get that wrong, and all of us have got it wrong in the past that ends up hurt. Yeah, because you just gotta go back to the drawing board, it takes away from your time, which is your most valuable asset. And, and so it’s ultra important for us here at stack that we make sure that anyone we bring on board super aligned with our with our with our values.

Christopher Smith

So running in our customers shoes, to me, the core component of that is empathy, that you have to be able to put yourself in the position of your customers teams. Can you talk a bit about empathy in your role as a salesperson? And then how you work to transfer that into empathy for the customer? With your team?

Ellis Lowe

Yeah, definitely. Look, I think from a leadership perspective, having empathy internally is, is important understanding that, you know, not every day, not every week, not every quarter is maybe going to align with exactly how you envision that going. But understanding that, hey, as long as we are, you know, again, I always go back to as long as we are waking up every day and doing the things that we know, are going to yield success long term. From the sales perspective, we can be empathetic towards, you know, our team and internally towards our staff when things don’t always go our way, right? Because I’ve been there too. I’ve walked in their shoes. And so, I understand the scenario that you’re facing. And so how can we together? Let’s brainstorm on this, and how can we together overcome that right together and move forward. And then from a customer perspective, which I think is an ultra important one for us is that we work with league administrators, we work with volunteer parents, board members and staffs, coaches. I mean, a lot of these people have full time jobs and everything else that they’re doing. And they’re doing this out of the goodness of their heart, because it’s their son or daughter. And so, we have to understand that they have a lot going on to win, right? So, every anything we can do to make their lives easier from a from a technology perspective and in various ways that we partner we want to do we understand that we’re not only you know, things aren’t always going to be perfect. And we understand that people are tackling a lot of stuff in their day-to-day lives. And we certainly are cognizant of that. When we’re when we’re working with him.

Christopher Smith

I think he did tell me, you know, what, about the feelings you had the best deal you ever closed and contrast that with the Phillies you had with the biggest deal you ever lost? And your takeaways from both?

Ellis Lowe

Yeah, it’s funny. I know when we were chatting a little bit ago, you know, it’s kind of a funny one is you know, we talked a little bit about my entry into sales and kind of the grind of that early on in I actually got one of the biggest deals I’ve ever closed through just prospecting and I think that goes to show going back to you know, Getting involved and actually working through that grind of building your pipeline, you know, high level call volume, I landed on a deal that was significant in value to the company, and, you know, call it a, you know, the quarter million dollar deal at the time. And that was one that was not projected, it wasn’t part of the plan. And it happened, you know, fairly rapidly. And look, at the end of the day, I called the right person at the right time. And, you know, two weeks later, we got the deal. And I’m looking up going, wow, I don’t think anybody in this organization is ever, you know, in this division is closed the deal that big? And how did I get on that one. And so those are, you know, diamonds in the rough, right? Those don’t happen, you know, every year or every, you know, every few years, maybe even. But it was really cool to have that experience and go, hey, wow, those deals are out there. And when you’re putting in the work, and following the process, you’re gonna have deals that happen like that, right? All the while you’re cultivating and moving your other deals along through the pipeline. But in the same breath, I’ve certainly had deals of that value or larger, that have just fallen through the cracks. And if, for whatever reason, not got over the line, and those hurt, too. And I think, you know, if you’re going to be long term successful in sales, you have to understand that look, that the key to the game is not relying on those big whales, right? The key to the game is everything in between. And when you get the big whales, that’s great, I think you should think about those as gravy. And when you lose them don’t get too low, right? It’s kind of going back to that whole concept is never get too high, never get too low, you kind of want to be somewhere in the middle. Well, to me, you know, your sales pipeline should be everything in the middle, the vast majority of it, because we know that, you know, a lot of what you close is going to be those mid-tier level deals, those lower level those mid-tier value deals. And then when we go get the Well, that’s great. Yeah.

Christopher Smith

Is there a central tenet or core belief that you have when it comes to sales?

Ellis Lowe

You know, I think for me, it’s, I wouldn’t say a core belief, that’s kind of my mantra, necessarily, I think, you know, for me, it’s just understanding and know, and having a belief in myself, that, you know, I am going to play to win, right, and it goes back to our core value. And I think everyone that we bring onto our team has to have that, you know, that mentality that, hey, we’re gonna play to win. And we understand losses will be a part of it. But I think if you wake up every day playing to win, and plan to close deals and plan to partner and provide value to our partnership, you know, I think at the end of the day, it’s going to work out. And what I’ll say to Chris is, what I’ve always found is that if you focus more in sales on you know, the value, you’re bringing partners and the good that you’re doing to your partnership, and not just on the dollars and cents, things end up working out better, right? If all you do as a salesperson is worry about the commission you’re making are worried about hitting the number and you’re stressed out about that all the time. That tends to affect the performance. But if you wake up very mission driven around what we can do for our partners, how we can help them grow, how we can, you know, communicate with them every day to help their organization. Things just end up working out. I don’t know how Yeah, yeah. Sometimes it’s hard to put into words how that happens. But, uh, you know, I guess the thing my old coach used to say in college is good things happen to good people. Well, if we continue to be good people, to our partners, I’m a true believer that good things happen.

Christopher Smith

I can, I still believe that I really do. It’s like a billboard. You call it karma, calm, whatever you want. If you’re out there doing good, you’re trying to help people and in just be genuinely a good person. I really believe that people want to help you. You know, and, and that stuff, you know, otherwise, I’ve been telling my that to my kids for years. Just be that person, be nice to everybody. People will go out of their way to help you. And all of a sudden, all this good stuffs happening for you.

Ellis Lowe

Yeah, no doubt more and more times than not, it comes back full circle. When you’re just living the right way. And you’re being a good person, things tend to work out more often than not.

Christopher Smith

So that’s so I just that’s a core belief of mine. Let’s shift our conversation to CRM. Do you love it? Or do you hate it?

Ellis Lowe

Yeah, Greg, tricky one. I think I, to me, I think it’s a necessity from the sales perspective. In terms of managing your sales pipeline, however, I’ll tell you that, you know, in my experience, the vast majority of sales teams and organizations under leverage and underutilize it and don’t utilize it the right way. And I you know, I’m just as guilty as anybody of that and that it’s still to this day, we find ourselves sometimes going well, you know, you know, coming up on monthly reviews, like guys, how updated is our CRM? Where are we at in progressing deals to that pipeline, because I think oftentimes the salespeople Well, we get so caught up in taking notes here doing this have set follow ups on your calendar without continuing to consolidate everything in your sales funnel through your CRM. And I think that’s vital. Long term, right? We can be successful being a little disjointed from our CRM. But I think if you want to maximize success, I think a CRM tool is certainly vital. And certainly, certainly something that me and our team are continuing to grow at. Because I know for a fact that a lot of sales teams under utilizing

Christopher Smith

those people are keeping me in business, by the way, so thank you. Why do you think it’s so hard for sales teams to integrate CRM into their daily routine?

Ellis Lowe

Yeah, I think it’s, you know, from at least in my experience, I think it’s you’ve got, so you’re so focused on the next call the next deal, you know, you get your you’ve got to deal at 90%, it’s about to close, and you just want to focus on that, I think it’s, you feel like you’ve got a really good pulse on the funnel, and the next step and the next conversation. And, you know, I’ve got 100 deals in the pipeline, and there, you know, I, you know, X alum X amount, or at 25% to close X amount are at 90%. But then the reality is, when you look at that pipeline, and it’s not as up to date as it could be, you really don’t have a good look and a good view at what your sales funnel is. And so I think, for me, in my experiences, people just get so caught up in each specific deal, that they don’t go back at the end of the day or the beginning of the day, they just don’t have a good process as to how much time they’re spending on, you know, their particular CRM. Like, to me, that’s the way to drive success with the CRM is go ahead and make it a point to set time on your calendar daily that says, for this hour, every day, I’m gonna update every single deal, I’m going to go back and figure out where I need to follow up and set those appointments and set reminders for the next day. That to me is a way you can ensure that you’re continuing to show improvement with your CRM is just making an appointment to carve out time every day to do

Christopher Smith

yep, I don’t even go further than that. You know, when we engage with sales teams are meant to use a sports analogy, it’s like setting up for your golf swing, there are certain things you have to do every time when you’re setting up to swing the golf club, you have to do the same thing with your CRM, it needs to become part of your routine. And when you’re able to do that, and make it just part of your so if I’m sending an email, I’m doing that it’s sending an email the same way and one of those steps is I’m going to sync that into our CRM, I’m sending out a missing up a meeting or if I’m making a phone call, part of that process. Part of that setup, is syncing that to CRM and doing it in the moment, because and then saving that time having that time on your calendar carved out to do the big stuff that you have to do when you’re going in, they’re just going to take more time. If you’re not doing that, and making that part of your routine, waiting until the end of the week, to catch up, forget it, your CRM is going to suck, you’re going to be in the in the group of people that hate CRM, because then you’re going back, it’s painful to sit there and try to recreate your week. I mean, my memory sucks. I can’t remember what I did for lunch, let alone what I did on Monday, when it’s Friday. You know, and, and so but if you can set up that routine, where it’s just becomes part of your routine, and you do it the same way every time. It’s like hitting that good. Golf ball right down the middle. The way you get there is you have a process. You have a routine, you do it the same way every time.

Ellis Lowe

Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. I think you’re spot on when you when you look back on a Friday and you hadn’t updated it. And it’s just becomes a becomes more of a chore and it shouldn’t be a chore. And so yeah, I think he hit the nail on the head for sure on that. Oh, yeah,

Christopher Smith

no, I thought when we do training, I learned this early on, like, Hey, if you’re in that group that’s waiting until the end of the week, you’re gonna hate to doesn’t matter what we do with CRM to make it better for you, you’re still going to hate it, it’s still not going to be a tool that’s helping you. Because it’s now part of your daily life. It’s not part of your routine. And that’s all CRM is it’s a tool. It’s not the be all it’s not going to make you a better salesperson on its own. It’s not going to fix any problems you might be having. But whether it’s set up correctly, and it becomes part of your routine, it can make your life a heck of a lot easier.

Ellis Lowe

Yep, no doubt about it. Totally agree. Now.

Christopher Smith

We’re coming up on our time here on sales lead dog, Ellis, I really appreciate you coming on the show. If people want to reach out connect with you if they want to learn more about stack sports. What’s the best way for them to do that?

Ellis Lowe

Yeah, sure. Thanks, Chris. This has been great. Yeah, feel free to shoot me an email at LS dot low at stack sports.com. If you’re interested in learning more about the business and what we do here at stack where you can find me on LinkedIn pretty easy to find my profile and happy to connect on LinkedIn and shoot me a message and I would be thrilled to connect with you guess

Christopher Smith

that’s awesome. And if you didn’t get that email. We will have all that information in our show notes. You can get that at impeller crm.com forward slash sales lead dog you’ll find not only this episode and get those show notes, but you’ll find all our other episodes. So be sure to check that out and follow us and catch all our sales lead dog episodes. ls thanks again for coming on sales lead dog and welcome to the pack.

Ellis Lowe

Thanks so much Chris every great one.

Outro

Thank you. As we end this discussion on sales lead dog, be sure to subscribe to catch all our episodes on social media. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Watch the videos on YouTube. And you can also find our episodes on our website at empeller crm.com/salesleaddog. Sales Lead Dog is supported by Empeller CRM, delivering objectively better CRM for business guaranteed.

 

Quotes

• “Our whole mission is to increase participation and transform that sport experience for the athlete, for the parent, for the organization, whether that, athlete journey is one year long, or whether that athlete journey is 25 years long, and they go on to play professional sports.” (2:15-2:35)
• “The first one is Captain u, which is a free to use recruiting software tool that connects high school aged athletes with college level coaches and we marry the two so you can really think about it like a LinkedIn style product.” (4:05-4:17)
• “You don’t get performance and you don’t get results without the desire to win and having a clear path and having an expectation of yourself every day that’s going to allow you to get there.” (8:32-8:41)
• “I think the more that you can get in front of, pick the brain of senior leadership, people that have done what you’re looking to do, the better off, you’re going to be long term.” (15:08-15:19)

Links

Ellis Lowe LinkedIn
Stack Sports LinkedIn
Stack Sports Website

Empellor CRM LinkedIn
Empellor CRM Website
Empellor CRM Twitter