0:01
Welcome to the Sales Lead Dog podcast hosted by CRM technology and sales process expert Christopher Smith.
0:09
Talking with sales leaders that have separated themselves from the rest of the pack.
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Listen to find out how the best of the best achieved success with their team and CRM technology.
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And remember, unless you were the lead dog, the view never changes.
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Welcome to Sales Lead Dog.
0:29
Joining me today for this episode, I have Bill Berger, executive director of Fairbanks Morse Defense.
0:36
Bill, welcome to Sales Lead Dog.
0:38
Thank you, Chris.
0:39
Great to be here with you today.
0:41
Yeah, I’m excited to talk with you today.
0:43
Bill, tell me a bit about Fairbanks Morse Defense.
0:47
Well, Fairbanks Morse Defense has been around for over 150 years now, a little bit of everything out in the Midwest, you know, back when they’re making windmills and everything.
0:57
But over the years it evolved into making medium speed diesel engines for the Navy.
1:04
And about five years ago they were bought by a private equity firm and spun off the private company and they became the flagship company.
1:11
I happened to be working at a company called Ward Leonard at the time, and we were the first big acquisition.
1:17
So over the past five years we’ve made 11 acquisitions.
1:22
So have rapidly changed and brought in, but fundamentally all of those companies are involved in making what’s considered whole mechanical and electrical equipment for the Navy and the Coast Guard.
1:33
So we make engines and motors and controls and valves.
1:37
So all different types of product for the the Navy.
1:41
And I think the unique part about what we have is that we’re focused on not only just making the components, but then servicing them throughout the lifespan.
1:50
Some of these ships last for 50 years.
1:52
So while a lot of companies are hesitant to work with the Department of Defense these days, given all the regulations are being, we’re one of the few companies that are is running towards the Navy and running towards the Coast Guard and saying how can we help you?
2:05
And working with them to make sure that, you know, all of our service members have the best products and that we are maintaining that and keep out of the readiness of the company, the country at its highest level.
2:18
I love that mission.
2:18
That is awesome.
2:19
It makes it easy to go to work every day.
2:22
Oh, I bet, I bet.
2:25
Bill, when you look back over your career, you’ve been doing this for a while.
2:29
If you could boil it down into three things that have really led and driven the success that you’ve achieved, what would those three things be?
2:39
Well, I, I’d say it start, starts off I, it starts off with, I started out after College in the Marine Corps.
2:46
And, you know, so not only the challenge of becoming an officer of Marines, but when you’re in the Marines, you have a mission and you might have a, a table that tells you how many people and how much equipment you have.
2:58
You rarely have all of that, but that’s no excuse not to complete the mission.
3:03
You have to have the creativity, the drive to get that done.
3:06
And I just continue to bring that forward with me.
3:10
You know, throughout my career, I hear see too many people, especially in the commercial space that well, we would have gotten that done, but I didn’t have all the team members or you know, this went wrong.
3:21
That’s meaningful, but it doesn’t stop.
3:25
I mean, you have a job to do, so get it done.
3:29
I think the second one is early on in my sales training and the, the, the primary courses, you know, they sent me through to learn sales, whether, you know, spin or whatever technique you might have.
3:41
And then over the years, all the other things that you might have out there, programs realizing that it’s all about people.
3:48
So whether it’s your team or whether it’s your customer, it’s about you’ve got to be able to reach the person.
3:56
Nobody is going to buy from people they don’t like.
4:02
Maybe product can get you in there sometimes, but if you really want to be the person who can make the consistent sales, you’ve got to find what it is your customer needs.
4:12
And if you’re managing people, what are their needs.
4:15
So just always keeping in mind, put it, put on that other person’s hat before you go talk to them and understand what it is that is going to drive them or make them, you know, want to do stuff.
4:27
And, you know, I think that’ll become a recurrent theme in our conversation is just looking at that.
4:33
And then the last thing is I look back at my first sales job and my wife and I had moved from Virginia up to New York City.
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My father happened to be, you know, in the same organization.
4:46
So they wanted me away from him.
4:48
And I remember my first vice president, he just said, Bill, you are my perfect candidate for somebody who’s going from the service side over to sales.
4:57
You just married, you just bought a house, your wife’s nine months pregnant.
5:03
You have no choice because I’m giving you no named accounts.
5:06
You have to succeed.
5:08
And I look back at that, and I just recognized that.
5:11
Yeah.
5:12
If you have that hunger, if, you know, and am I challenging myself every day to have that same hunger I had on day one of going to hit the streets of Manhattan trying to figure out how to sell communications equipment back then?
5:26
Oh, man, that.
5:27
I love that.
5:28
That is so true.
5:29
You know, you just bought a house.
5:33
Your wife’s nine months pregnant.
5:35
You got to have a fire in your belly.
5:37
Yep.
5:38
Absolutely.
5:39
Yeah.
5:39
That’s wild.
5:42
So you’re in the Marines.
5:46
Even before you went into the Marines, did you have a vision for what you wanted to be post military career?
5:53
Well, I I figured that I wanted to be something involving technology.
5:57
And, you know, my my father was in sales.
6:00
Early days of technology.
6:02
Talk about back with computers, you know, when they were going from mainframes down to the mini computers and all of that type of stuff, You know, I was the, you know, writing my, you know, science fair experiments about how telecommunications works.
6:21
I remember going to a trade show with him back in my teens, you know, where I was like, how do you know all these people?
6:26
You know, the same 100 people.
6:28
We just change boots every couple of years.
6:30
So I, I was intrigued by sales.
6:33
I was intrigued by the personal interaction you got with people.
6:36
But I’ve always enjoyed all of the, the technology side of things.
6:39
I wanted to sell products that mean something that matter to people that I feel that I can make a difference by selling that product.
6:48
But so I mean, from an early age, I wanted to be in sales and when I came out of the Marines, I understood that I needed to learn the commercial world as well as selling.
6:58
So that’s why for a number of years I was in a program management role for a while.
7:02
I then ran an install group and was some doing some international program management before I then understood the technology, understand understood the market and then felt comfortable to then move into that sales role and started pursuing getting into selling.
7:19
Yeah.
7:19
What was that first job like?
7:21
Was that something you took too easily or did you really have to fall on your face a lot to learn?
7:26
I had to fall on my face a bit to learn, you know, there.
7:29
Well selling communications equipment, you know, there are there are a couple of things and there’s a lot of opportunities and you can go out and look at stuff.
7:36
And so I was going, you know, through the, the fashion District and I was trying to go to Wall Street and I was trying to go to all these places.
7:44
And there’s luckily I was working with a company that, you know, had a name.
7:48
So that helped.
7:49
I had a lot of other people in the office that helped guide me and showed me, you know, where to go.
7:55
But then quickly then being able to pick up that, wow, these financial houses, you know, the, the, all, all of the, the big trading companies, they’re the ones with the money.
8:07
I can go chase all these other people, but these people have a need and my product can make a difference with them.
8:13
So worked with that before.
8:15
I then then moved over to selling to the telephone companies themselves and chasing those companies for a while.
8:23
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8:30
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9:46
OK, let’s get back to this episode of the Sales Lead Dog podcast.
9:52
Are there any two or three lessons learned that you know from those early days and selling that you still leverage today?
10:03
I think that it goes back to, you know, having that hunger and still learning and understanding your, your customers.
10:10
And, and I think it was actually before I left the telecom stuff, I was working, you know, I, I was going to be one of the great millionaires coming off the telecom bubble.
10:22
So left an established company to go work for a couple start-ups.
10:26
You know, that we were going to make our, you know, I was going to make my million plus dollars and, and live happily ever after, but didn’t necessarily learn to read my customers well.
10:37
So I had some great technology and getting out there and made some sales to some of these, some of the big phone companies that were out there at the time.
10:44
I, you know, some of there was a lot of mergers going on and we had moved to San Antonio where they had just set up.
10:49
And you know, one of the, the new companies, which is pretty much the majority of what’s now today AT&T.
10:56
But we, I was successful selling, but then quickly realized that I was successful selling not because they needed my product, they liked my product, but they had known good vendors that they wanted to work with.
11:15
And so I was only a lever for them.
11:18
So my success was short term.
11:21
So learning that you know what, what is the long story?
11:24
What’s the long game in this?
11:27
And I’ve taken on the approach now that I, I think you can be trained, I can probably put anybody out on the street and go get their first sale.
11:35
But it’s about they have to make that 2nd, 3rd, 4th sale.
11:39
So that that’s a lot of what I take forward.
11:41
It’s just understanding what is this going to be like for the long term?
11:44
What’s, what’s the long ride that I’m looking for here?
11:47
Yeah.
11:48
So you mentioned it when I asked you about the three things I’ve really driven your success.
11:52
The one that really seemed to resonate I think the most with you was people.
11:59
And so let’s talk about your philosophy for building a team because again, I think, you know, you can look at any NFL coach, if he doesn’t have great players, doesn’t matter how good of a coach he is, he can only take him so far.
12:16
You you really have to.
12:17
You’re as good as the people you have.
12:21
What’s your philosophy for building your teams?
12:24
I’ve really had to develop, develop that philosophy because I’ve been in where I’m a direct manager as well as number.
12:33
Even the role right now, I’m in far more of a matrix organization that I don’t have in the selling side.
12:41
I have some people who work for me, but they’re on the the corporate side.
12:45
I have to bridge across many boundaries and many different business units and profit loss centers to work with each of these sales teams to help make them be successful.
12:55
But you know, my philosophy, you know, through all of that is get to know them and learn how, like I said it, it’s the personal side.
13:02
Learn how to, you know, communicate with them.
13:04
I, I had a, a boss that really pushed me.
13:08
You know, I, I thought I was interviewing candidates great when I was in my first sales management job and bringing these people in.
13:14
And yeah, I could see the, this person might have a slight concern for this reason or that reason and I could, but I’m a great manager.
13:22
I can out manage their weaknesses or the way that they’re approaching.
13:27
And luckily this boss then said, no, we’re going to start doing personality tests of these people.
13:34
We’re going to understand who they are.
13:35
How are you going to communicate with them?
13:37
Are you going to speak their language?
13:38
Because they don’t all think the same way that Bill Berger does.
13:43
So make sure that they have the motivations.
13:45
You know, so I, I’ve had sales people that work for me that are very, you know, money driven.
13:50
I’ve had some that are not, you know, they, they all have different drivers, They have different approaches.
13:56
So I try to build the team that complements one another, but I also, you know, try to look at well, what is our mission?
14:03
What is our customer expect?
14:06
I, I hired some people when I actually then left telephony and started selling to the Department of Defense.
14:15
I had to learn there that there’s a speed to this.
14:18
This is not fast.
14:19
It is not unusual that I can have a sales process that takes five to six years.
14:26
There are many salespeople that can’t work in that type of environment.
14:29
They need to have that immediate response.
14:32
So understanding that and understanding what they have, but at the same time, you don’t want to, you know, go hire that person that’s not going to have the drive because what you won’t notice their their failures today and their and their failed failure to do due diligence today means that you don’t have a sale in five years and it’s too late to recover.
14:54
Yes, that’s yeah, that hurts fighters down the road.
14:59
That’s kind of a big deal.
15:01
So how does that impact your hiring process?
15:07
A lot of it is about hiring the right people.
15:11
So it it, it really is about learning who they are.
15:18
We do you know if if we can hire a known entity?
15:22
I mean, the, the good part is there’s a lot of cross pollination.
15:27
There’s a lot of things that happen.
15:29
You know, there’s a organization called the Marine Machinery Association that I’ve been a, a member of and actually was a past president of that organization.
15:38
But that organization, you know, has, I think we’re up around about 90 companies right now that sell primarily to the Navy.
15:47
So you can see people that have that skill set, but again, you also want to look at, you know, what, what does your team need?
15:54
Sometimes bringing somebody in that is green to the Defense Department, but you can see that they have the patience.
16:02
They they can give you examples of what they have.
16:04
You know, we’re, we in fact, we just hired somebody recently that’s going to be joining our team that has not sold in the past.
16:14
But he, he, he’s coming out of one of the shipyards.
16:16
He’s been a buyer at the shipyard.
16:17
But when we talked to him, we could really see, you know, he’s, he’s got the patient, he under the patience, he understands the methodology and we can teach him how to sell.
16:26
Right.
16:27
Right.
16:28
Yeah.
16:28
Well, that’s my thing.
16:28
It’s like I try to look for smart people because I can, if they’re smart, if they can learn, I can teach them, you know, And so that’s, that’s one of the things I look for is that because it, it’s hard to teach stupid, you know, not to be crass, but well, and, and I need, you need to have somebody that can be a rule follower, understand, especially selling to the department of there are a lot of rules that we have to live by, but you have to have creativity.
16:56
My, my wife works in the legal field and she always laughs about, you know, the laws in the contracts are to tell you the boundaries.
17:05
So, you know, so you’ve got to understand that.
17:08
So I you know, and, and, and being in sales, it, it is know your boundary and know how, how close can you get to that edge?
17:17
What can you do that’s creative?
17:18
What can we, how can we work with a customer to solve their problem and not just roll over and say, well, we can’t do it because the rules say you can’t do it right?
17:29
Yeah, you know, and that it’s interesting for me too.
17:33
It’s, it’s, it’s not like you’re out there chasing 10,000 customers, you know, no, it’s very different type of selling.
17:42
When they’re right there, they’re right in front of you.
17:47
Well, absolutely.
17:48
In fact, in, you know, in my current job, you know, while I’m, I’m in the corporate side.
17:51
So I, when I was at Ward Leonard, I was the vice president of, of sales marketing there.
17:57
I had a, you know, you had a, it was a finite number, but we had every ship, you know, the, all the shipyards that are selling into the Navy.
18:03
Then there’s a lot of other people because we are selling motors.
18:05
So somebody who’s making a pump or a compressor or something, we could sell to them, but it still is a finite number.
18:11
Once I got pulled up to the corporate level because we were making so many acquisitions, I, I was then put in charge of our largest customer, which is, you know, right, that you know, which is, happens to be Newport News Shipbuilding.
18:24
And then I now have all the Huntington Ingalls companies.
18:26
So I’ve got Newport News Shipbuilding and Ingalls.
18:29
So I’ve got 22 customers, Yeah, no, they are huge.
18:33
I mean, we’re, we’re selling hundreds of millions of dollars to these companies.
18:38
But, and, and, and I’ve got currently what’s now 10 business units, which actually we’re we’re embarking on a new exciting adventure is that we’ve announced, you know, that we’re acquiring Rolls Royce’s propulsion division.
18:55
So here in two weeks, we’re going to have all the propeller business now rolling in, which is going to, you know, it’s going to be the biggest acquisition we’ve made.
19:05
So there there’s a big emphasis on getting it right and building up the relationships that you can with your customer, right, which comes back to people.
19:18
Yes, you know, so let’s talk about on the customer side.
19:24
What does it take in for your opinion to really create those long term, especially a long complex sales process like you have?
19:34
What’s it take to build those relationships to endure through those long sales processes?
19:40
Well, it goes back to that hunger and perseverance that you, you’ve got to continue to be out there and then, you know, so be be at the events that they go to be where they are.
19:52
And then really listen to what it is that they say they need.
19:57
And, and sometimes they may not know what they need, but watch what they’re doing, learn their what they’re learn what they’re doing.
20:05
You know, if I, if I have a day that’s not very busy and I can, you know, convince them to allow me down onto the, you know, to the waterfront where they’re building the ships.
20:16
I’m going to get down there with the construction supervisors.
20:18
I’m going to listen to what what are their?
20:20
What, what issues are they having?
20:22
Or I talked to the other, the sales people from each of the business units that are down there ’cause I have all these people that are out there, you know, working on that.
20:31
And it’s to build up a trust.
20:33
You know, I, I joke that in my, my current role, there’s enough people at Fairbanks Morris that are calling on my 2 customers that I can on any given day, there is somebody that is saying, writing or doing something that is ******* somebody off at one of my customers.
20:49
My, my key job is to find out about it and make sure that it doesn’t blow up and we can go fix that problem or work with it.
20:58
And I think that I, you know, because I’ve shown people I care and I want to be there.
21:03
I don’t want to help those problems.
21:05
My customers will call me.
21:07
You know, I there, there’s a couple customers that I know that if 7:30 in the morning, these people ring me, that my day has now changed.
21:16
Yes, but I’m going to be worried.
21:19
They’re not, they’re not calling me, you know, early in the morning to explain to me how wonderful we’re doing something that is has gone awry.
21:27
And and so now it’s about getting the wheels back on the track and making sure that we’re moving forward and that we’re progressing through how we’re supporting that customer.
21:37
You know, when you look back over your career, I’ve always considered, you know, the the things we lose the the, the deals we lose that we don’t get.
21:48
Those are the best learning.
21:50
Those are the ones we remember way more than the ones we’ve won.
21:54
Could you tell us maybe one deal that you thought you had just but you lost it and it just hurt?
21:59
Can you tell us about that and what you take forward from that or what you took forward from that experience?
22:07
Yeah.
22:07
I think, you know, I, I had mentioned before back in the, the telephony world of while I made the little sale, yeah, I did not win the, the overall telephony network.
22:17
Yeah, I, I had this, you know, whole game plan that we were either going to go public and I was going to make all my money off the stock options I had, or I just sell, you know, once I sell into one central office, it’s going to go everywhere.
22:30
It’ll be gangbusters.
22:32
And, and you know, my commissions are going to, you know, so my, my, my family is going to be set for life.
22:37
And then to find out that no, I didn’t win that long term.
22:41
And, and you know, there’s been others along the way.
22:44
Yeah.
22:44
So I, I’ve at least taken an approach when I look at these, they, they do hurt.
22:50
And selling, you have to put yourself in the best, I guess it’s a, it’s a percentage game.
22:57
You’ve got to play the best role you can, you’ve got to get in there.
23:00
But again, it’s people, you cannot control every aspect of it.
23:04
And you will have to lose.
23:07
So when you lose, there’s an amount of time to learn, to fight, to try to see is it reversible?
23:17
But at the same time, you have an obligation to your company to be generating sales.
23:22
You’ve got to be able to move on, put that behind you, and then go and attack something else.
23:30
Yeah.
23:31
I, I had a boss at one time that, you know, he, he was comparing me to one of my peers.
23:35
He’s like, you know, Bill, you really have to learn how to sandbag better.
23:37
You know, this other guy, he’s, he’s always got something in, you know, behind his, you know, behind what he’s going on.
23:46
And, and I smile and I just, I, I had to say, Chris, do you, do you really believe that?
23:50
Cause I’ve never been under quota and I’ve lost sales.
23:56
So how, how does that happen?
23:57
You know, you may not have known what I had, but always had something else that I could go to or I always turned quickly and developed something in the time that I could.
24:08
Yeah, yeah, sandbag better.
24:13
That’s kind of funny coming from your boss.
24:17
Yes, it is.
24:18
It’s not well, that was another learning experience, you know, because I and actually that was an interesting part in my career because that’s I had been a, you know, gotten up to being AVP of sales and I had gone back to carrying a bag myself.
24:30
I had just said, OK, you know, I’m ready to get back there and fight.
24:35
And, you know, basically the IT, it looked like the right move for me.
24:40
And that’s what then got me into to this.
24:42
So, you know, being back out there, you know, I was approaching the job and how I was dealing with him back as if I was a sales manager, not as the salesperson, you know, So I was trying to be as open and honest with him and make sure the forecast was right on.
24:57
You know, I I knew everything that he needed to do.
24:59
Yeah.
24:59
Yeah.
25:05
What role does empathy play when it comes to managing people and leading people?
25:14
You’ve got to, I mean, you actually have to have some empathy.
25:16
You’ve got, again, that’s part about understanding them and understanding what’s going on with them, But that’s also where you’ve got to then be able to motivate them that whatever’s happening, you know, you can get over that.
25:33
You, you can correct that, but it’s also about, you know, the empathy is a lot of times you, you’ve got to, you might have to dig to actually understand what is that?
25:44
What is the core issue that’s happening?
25:47
You know, I know there’s a lot of, you know, people here in the in, in the States, probably seen all that the ads, you know, for build submarines.com, all that’s a whole talent pipeline program that the, the Navy’s trying to run.
25:59
And a lot of the training that they’re doing on hiring people there is to bother to ask because they talk, you know, they talk about hiring a ship shipyard worker.
26:08
All of a sudden somebody, you know, somebody may not show up at your company just for no reason.
26:14
And, and do you bother to call and find out because those companies that did go and find out, oh, well, my mom is sick or my car broke down or, you know, having that, that’s where you can then start working with them.
26:25
So the, the empathy is to be able to not just be cold and get your job done, but understand that life happens to everybody and they’ve got to have that balance.
26:36
So you’ve got to be able to work with them.
26:40
And then maybe you, you know, maybe it’s the time that you need to step in or perhaps that distraction is too much and, and you’ve maybe have to make some hard decisions at that point about how you’re going to work with this person.
26:52
You know, what, what is best for you and for them in the long run?
26:56
How do you identify people that you think have the potential to become a leader within your organization?
27:05
A lot of it is just how they interact with people.
27:09
You know, they particularly, you know, it’s back to, you know, to your sales one O 1.
27:17
You know, how do you deal with that receptionist when you go through the front deck?
27:21
You know, if well, if there are many companies that have receptionists at their front, I mean, you really can’t make a relationship with that, that kiosk on the wall.
27:31
But but everybody you meet understanding that they’re, they’re doing a job and they’re a person and they want to be seen and they, yeah, so do do the people that we’re we’re working with, you know, how, how does somebody approach this?
27:47
You know, do they create the team?
27:52
Do they, do they accept their failures and then try to figure out how they’re going to avoid repeating that failure, that type of thing.
28:02
So try to really look at, you know, what is that skill set that they’re, they’re going to be able to take on to then help others.
28:10
You know, I, I mean it, it probably comes across as way too high on my ego.
28:17
You know, I’m, I’m pretty confident that I can go out and sell.
28:20
But realistically, I so much love coaching in the sales world and working with others because I look at it, give me 3 or 4 people and look at how many more places I can be because I then arm them to go out and then I back them.
28:38
And I, and I’ve played every role.
28:40
You know, I tell anybody I’m working for you tell me when we went to this meeting, what role you want me to be.
28:46
I’ve gone in and been a sales engineer.
28:48
I’ve, you know, I’ve been a, you know, senior executive, You know what, whatever I have to be to help them move their opportunity forward.
28:56
How do you So I’m looking for that and others.
28:59
I’m looking for who who’s going to go and support their team so that they’re they’re taking their good skills and expanding that out beyond themselves for the the 1st.
29:10
When you look back, the first person that hired you into a leadership role, did they ever tell you what why they picked you?
29:20
Actually, in the end, they did.
29:23
And it was a really intriguing.
29:26
So I was, you know, took the train up to to New York and I sat down and we had a lot of interview and I had to do this, you know, sell me this pencil and all these crazy things that you have to do as a salesperson.
29:40
And Mario talked about all the people that thought that they come could come from technical.
29:48
They saw all the salespeople and Gee, look at all those people.
29:51
They got such an easy job.
29:52
They make all the money.
29:53
Isn’t this wonderful?
29:55
And nobody knew how many times they didn’t see how many times the door got shut in their face, right, And what they want.
30:01
And so at the end of that interview, Mario told me, I can’t believe I’m how disappointed I am in you.
30:10
You know, you came up here.
30:11
I thought you had all the gumption in the world.
30:14
This is just not going to work.
30:17
And so I hopped on the train, and I was sulking, you know, So here I’m going from New York down to DC.
30:24
And about halfway through the right, I said, he just rejected me.
30:28
This is a test.
30:31
so-called him right back as soon as I got home and that’s what he said.
30:34
He said OK, then you you recognize that you bounce back.
30:38
Yeah.
30:39
So that’s funny.
30:40
I was wondering he’s the same like is he just messing with him to see that’s what he was doing?
30:49
That’s pretty bold technique when you’re.
30:51
I mean, because it is, it’s like it’s such a huge part of selling is dealing with rejection and how do I move past that?
30:57
Because it’s often times it’s not the final answer.
31:01
You know, you know, you just have to approach it a different way.
31:04
I was just having a, we recorded a video yesterday with a partner company of ours and we’re talking about that, that, you know, the different things that can come up when you’re selling.
31:15
And often times we look at them as roadblocks.
31:19
And I’m like, you know, it’s just a matter of perspective.
31:22
You know, it may look like a wall, but if I step back a bit, maybe shift over here to the right, oh, you know what, it’s open over on this side.
31:30
Let’s try coming in from this angle and see what we can do, you know, and, and so you just have to be willing to to shift, change direction and let’s see if we can tackle it this way.
31:42
You know, What advice do you have for young leaders that are just starting their journey as a sales leader?
31:56
Try to look for where you can find mentorship.
32:00
You know, there’s a lot you can get from from books.
32:03
You know, I think I mentioned, you know, I’ve been through a slew of different training programs.
32:08
You know, I know when I first got in there, you know, got into selling, they sent me off to a sales training class and I’ve had, you know, multiple times, but bother to understand the, the formulas and the, the techniques it, you know, about developing value.
32:26
So I mean, there’s a lot of different methodologies, but there’s a lot of similarities between all of them.
32:31
You know, if, if you look at the sales, you know, the, you’re supposed to find the, you know, the, the fox or the, the person that is, you know, behind the scenes and all of that, understand the leadership.
32:41
But get out there and understand your market and understand your, how, what the selling techniques are and, and how you can communicate.
32:54
And if you can get yourself into some programs, particularly those that then are doing videos of yourself, there is nothing more realistic than having to then watch yourself in, in a video session.
33:08
And, and so that, that establishes that groundwork and that really that, that good basics of what you have.
33:15
Yeah, that’s awesome CRM.
33:17
Do you love it or do you hate it?
33:21
I love CRM.
33:23
I hate the implementation of CRM.
33:25
Oh, man.
33:26
Amen, brother.
33:27
Yeah.
33:29
Yeah.
33:31
So, you know, we are.
33:35
There are times in my career that CRM was nothing more than a contact database type of thing.
33:41
And that’s all I used it for.
33:44
I’ve learned a lot more over time of, of the value of it.
33:48
We are going through some integration in, in my company right now.
33:53
All these acquisitions are bringing all these different entities in.
33:57
You know, we actually, you know, it started off with merging 2 sales, 2 databases that we had for CRM systems.
34:06
So how we could bring those, you know, together.
34:09
It’s involved, you know it it’s now trying to work with some consultants to help us be better.
34:15
And the fact that we also have different selling techniques.
34:18
I have got some products that you know that are the products that the Department of Navy decides what’s going to go into this ship because it’s for propulsion or the engine or driving energy.
34:29
And then I’ve got other commodity type stuff.
34:31
So it’s a wide range of products.
34:33
So how do you get 1 system to work for everybody?
34:38
But at the same time, because we have all of this and because we’re trying to sell in a unified manner and we have multiple people calling on similar people without ACRM system, you can’t keep that all aligned and you can’t go across the long span that we have are selling if you don’t have that history.
35:02
And then it even carries forward forward for us.
35:05
Like we said, we you know, we try to service the product as well.
35:08
Well, that helps me get the product sold.
35:11
Now that it’s sold, now it we have that whole inventory of what have we sold, we can now be working with our customers to determine when we are likely going to have to come in and service them and when we’re going to have to get involved in that, you know, and so that’s where you know, I’m thrilled with what we’re doing with CRM and what I’m trying to do.
35:35
I’m realist really excited about all that, you know, seeing you had some podcast about AI and the CRM and we’re investigating, you know, how we could do that, what we could do.
35:48
You know, I’m trying to to understand, you know, from both from all the AI stuff and from the CRM.
35:56
How do we keep that organization?
35:58
But then we never forget again, it’s about the people.
36:01
So you can have that tasking and you can have that thing that’s helping you keep things organized.
36:09
But are you using the CRM system and are you, you know, for efficiency?
36:14
Are you using the AI tools that you have again for efficiency?
36:19
And that then should be buying you the time to then be able to then understanding, taking the time to understand how am I impacting my customer?
36:27
What am I doing?
36:28
Yes, it’s all, you know, let’s think when I talk to people with CRM, it’s like, guys, it’s just a tool.
36:34
It’s all it is.
36:35
It’s a tool.
36:36
We just have to make sure we’re building the right tool for the job and we’re not trying to use, you know, a sledgehammer to drive in a little roofie nail or, you know, we have this big old steak and I’m trying to use a mallet to to pound that in.
36:51
You know, it’s, it’s just not going to work.
36:54
You’ve got to make sure you’ve got the right toll for the job.
36:56
No, absolutely.
36:57
And, and then I also think that, you know, you know, I think in your book has the, you know, the 2020 big problems that people have had and it was entertaining going through.
37:08
And I, I think in my career, I’ve experienced at least 13 of them.
37:13
So at different times.
37:15
So you have that and then, you know, there is that uphill battle because so many people have had bad CRM experiences, It’s now winning them over.
37:22
So I currently have some executives in my company that say, I understand the story, I understand what you’re saying, but where, where is the return on investment?
37:33
Because I’ve seen it fail before.
37:37
So trying to then convince them that we have the the right thing.
37:39
And I think you know some of your advice about just like your customers, you know, you have internal customers too, you’ve got to go and understand what their needs are.
37:50
So if you’re convincing them that CR that this is the tool you need, then you’ve got to find what their need is and how are you going to win them over.
37:58
That’s right.
37:59
That’s right.
38:00
Bill, let’s be a great trend with you.
38:02
We’re at our time here for this episode of Sales Elite dog.
38:04
I really appreciate you coming on.
38:07
If people listening to this episode want to reach out, connect with you.
38:10
If they want to learn more about Fairbanks Morse defense, what’s the best way for them to do that?
38:14
Well, we are relatively prolific on LinkedIn.
38:17
So I know that I’m up there.
38:19
So, you know, look me up there or if you want to reach out to me directly, it it is just Bill dot Berger.
38:26
So it’s Berger at fmdefense.com.
38:30
I’m just like I said, go seek out other people.
38:34
I’m more than willing to help talk to people and work, you know, if I can help them in any way, that’s awesome.
38:40
If you didn’t catch that, no worries.
38:41
You can catch that in our show notes at impellercrm.com/sales Lead Dog, where you’ll get not only this episode of Sales Lead Dog, but all our 150 plus episodes.
38:52
Be sure to check that out.
38:53
Be sure to reach on connect with Bill.
38:56
Bill, thank you again for coming on Sales Lead Dog.
38:59
It’s been terrific.
39:00
And welcome to the Sales Lead Dog pack.
39:02
Thank you, Chris.
39:06
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39:13
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39:17
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39:26
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