“We are a nation of terrible listeners,” says Bob Paradiso, President of Durasein Solid Surface. For Bob, the best salespeople are really listening to their customers, and working hard to identify and solve the problems of their customer. On this episode of Sales Lead Dog, host Chris Smith talks with Bob about his forty year career in sales, and what he’s learned along the way and how to listen effectively.
But for Bob, sales wasn’t really on the radar. In fact, he got into sales when his boss called him into his office one day and offered him a sales role in San Francisco. Bob had never considered sales before — and despite his wife’s skepticism, he eventually persuaded her that life in San Francisco would be a nice change. That moment, where he took a leap into sales, has defined his life.
What has Bob learned as he moved from sales to sales leadership and beyond? First and foremost, he highlights the power of listening, and solving problems. If you can really solve their problem, he says, the customer will always find value in your business. He also discovered that sales leadership is about more than just customers. It’s about striking the balance between customer needs and company needs — and finding creative solutions so everyone leaves the meeting satisfied.
For more on transitioning into sales leadership, creative problem solving, and the power of getting to know not just your customer but also your team, tune in this week to Sales Lead Dog.
Watch or listen to this episode about How to listen effectively
Transcript
Wed, 12/30 12:56PM • 50:31
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
sales, crm, customer, salespeople, sales team, distributor, company, bob, pandemic, business, quote, humanizing, transition, talk, people, asked, how to listen effectively, questions, empathy, career
Speakers of the discussion how to listen effectively
Bob Paradiso, 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 00:25
Welcome to Sales Lead Dog Podcast. Today, excited to have as my guest, Bob Paradiso. Bob, welcome to Sales Lead Dog.
Bob Paradiso 00:46
Well thank you for having me on.
Christopher Smith 00:49
Bob, tell us a little bit about yourself and your company.
Bob Paradiso 01:23
Well, I’ve been in the surfacing business, interior surfacing material, I’m dating myself here for over 40 years in various components, but mostly in sales. And then, currently, my company produces solid surface material, and we’re an international company located, offices all around the world, about $50 million, and probably, dynamic in the fact that the market, changing quickly, due to a number of different factors, so being agile and recognizing what the marketplace needs and what your customer needs and putting that together is the challenge that really gets me going.
Christopher Smith 05:41
That’s great. I love having manufacturing shows on the show because I just, it’s, you know, from my old days of doing ERP implementations, I just love manufacturing so I’m really happy to have you on here. About, tell me if you had to think back over your career, what are the three things that have really contributed to your success?
Bob Paradiso 06:35
First is that I’ve been lucky enough to have good mentors that I could learn from some of them had a very tough reputation. But they were fair. So I mean, having them and I, I really again, I’ve been fortunate that I never had one boss that I know I just didn’t learn anything from. They were all providing valuable contributions to my success, my career. The second one is that I got to get involved in a lot of different cultures, as far as sales go. I’ve had some international assignments and looking at what they would use for tooling and expectations and service requirements, versus what you know we do here in the States, and how you meld the two together if it’s even possible. And I was lucky enough to put those together, again helped my career. And the third is just working with a lot of individuals who had a passion for sales. I mean, it wasn’t the money. It was, it was just the fact that they wanted to do something for their customers, they were passionate about that, and they would never take no for an answer, and trying to corral that enthusiasm, to the point of success is, has been good from my overall career because it kept me guided.
Christopher Smith 09:51
That’s awesome. Do you have a crazy funny sales story from your career?
Bob Paradiso 09:58
Probably how I got into sales. I was in customer service, and one day the boss walks in and says, “Hey, I need to talk to you after work.” And I’m thinking, “What did I do wrong here?” You know, I came to work on time, I answer the phone all right. I didn’t curse or anything I mean I’ve just, all these things going through my head. So after work, I go in his office, sit down. He says, “We have a sales position for, opening for you in San Francisco we’d like you to take.” And I had never asked to be in sales, you know, in fact, quite honestly I thought salespeople were pretty lazy. They woke up, you know in Pinewood, take someone to lunch and that was the start of their day. Sales, and then San Francisco, I said you know for an initial sales job I never asked for, San Francisco is sounding like a nice place to go to.
Christopher Smith 10:57
Oh yeah.
Bob Paradiso 10:58
So I said, “Well, let me talk to my wife about it.” Got home, talk to her she says, “What? Is your company crazy? You couldn’t sell your way out of a paper bag. They want you to be in sales?” So I talked her into, because she had just gotten a job of, that she wanted to, but I talked her into saying let’s move to San Francisco, I’ll get into sales, and we’ll go for it. And that’s how I got involved in that, that was really the best decision I made in my life, probably.
Christopher Smith 11:28
That’s awesome. And it’s also, it’s also great to have that response from your spouse, where like, “Are you kidding me?” That’s awesome. That’s awesome. So, thinking back to when you got that start in sales, what do you wish, you know, knowing what you know now over 40 years, what do you wish you had been taught back then?
Bob Paradiso 11:53
Oh, good question. Again my expectation was, you know, what is sales all about. I didn’t really know, just like I said my, in customer service when I was located in Atlanta in the distribution center, I got to interact with the salespeople, but I didn’t really know what they did. And then once I got in the sales, you know, I wish I had some more experience or some more insight into, okay, how do you make up and conclude, and close a sale? You know what’s all the components of it? Who do you need to talk to, what do you need to do to prepare yourself for it? It’s not taking someone to lunch. I mean, you know, so that’s what I really had to do just on my own. With the fact that the other thing I like about sales is you’re constantly measured, you know, what you sell today okay, but that’s that’s today, tomorrow, there’s a new measurement. Yeah, that’s part of the passion I like about sales, because you Yuki always measured every day.
Christopher Smith 13:08
That’s awesome. Do you remember the first big sale you ever closed?
Bob Paradiso 13:14
Um, yes I do. Yes, it…
Christopher Smith 13:17
What do you take away from that?
Bob Paradiso 13:20
It was having the, I wouldn’t say foresight because I really didn’t have the foresight, but we had a distribution problem. And the distributor we had in a certain area, you know, I looked at that and they were a longtime distributor. But being new, I had no preconceptions of it. But, observing that, I found they’re doing a lousy job, and I need to find another distributor. So, went out, found another distributor, close them on it. And that was my first big sale really, getting that distributor onboard and in a major city. So that was, that’s when I knew that I made the right decision to get into sales.
Christopher Smith 14:10
Right. That’s awesome. Tell me about your decision to transition from pure sales to sales leadership, what was behind that transition?
Bob Paradiso 14:21
Again, it wasn’t anything that I asked for. We went through some territorial changes and we had regions at the time, and then we, the regions were so big that it was decided to, well let’s divide the regions a little bit more. So when they did that, management did that they said, “Listen, you’ve been successful where you are in sales, we’d like you to be the regional manager of this area, and would you be interested?” I said, “Well, sure, I mean, yeah, why not.” And so, with that invitation, I got into sales leadership, which was a, was a revelation in itself because I remember going to the first meeting where, again I’m the regional manager now.
Christopher Smith 15:11
Right.
Bob Paradiso 15:12
And so we’re at this in this big conference room with a distributor, and we’re talking about this issue. And finally someone says, “Well Bob, what are we going to do?” You know, it’s always like, oh, I have to make this decision now. And it’s like, oh the buck stops with me. Okay, this is what we’re gonna do. And I’ll and, that was again a revelation and it was taking what the distributor wanted to do, what our salesperson wanted to do, trying to put that together to make the right decision.
Christopher Smith 15:47
Right. The transition for a lot of people into sales leadership can be very difficult, because it is so different as you said, you know, now the buck it stops with you, you’re the person making that decision. What advice do you have for someone who’s making that transition or considering making that transition into sales leadership?
Bob Paradiso 16:12
Well, you have to look at it as, alright, when you’re a salesperson, quite frankly, the emphasis is more on the customer, what that customer wants. And then when you get into sales leadership, now you’re talking about leading individuals on the sales team. Alright, knowing their strengths and weaknesses, alright, maximizing their strengths so that they contribute to what is best for the company. So to me, the focus shifts to alright, okay, what is best for the customer. But equally now, truly equally, what is best for the company? And coming up with, you know, the win-win you hear so much about, that’s really true. And that’s the most difficult thing.
Christopher Smith 17:00
Yeah. How do you instill that in your sales team, you know, to really shoot for that win-win?
Bob Paradiso 17:07
Well, at times, at least in my own experience, the, the salespeople, it’s almost like, well what is whatever is best for me is best for the company. And that’s not necessarily true.
Christopher Smith 17:25
Right.
Bob Paradiso 17:25
And that’s why sometimes a salesperson when you bring him into sales leadership is not quite successful because they keep that same mentality. And that that does not work, at least in my own experience.
Christopher Smith 17:40
Right.
Bob Paradiso 17:40
So it’s one of, okay, alright, so they come out and they say, “Hey, you know so and so didn’t do their job” and great example, “We need more material in this place.” Well, you know, that’s fine but that’s not the ultimate answer that’s best for the company. Alright, and you got to get with the overall picture here, salesperson. See that okay yeah to you, it might be we need more material here, but can the distributor pay for it? Can we afford it as a manufacturer to do that? Is there a known solution? And having the, giving them the guidance to look at it, not just from their individual silo. But a bigger overall company perspective.
Christopher Smith 18:33
Right. You, your company as you said you sell globally. What has it been like for you managing a global sales team in a pandemic?
Bob Paradiso 18:45
Well I don’t manage the global sales team.
Christopher Smith 18:48
Okay.
Bob Paradiso 18:48
I just manage the North American, North America, my apologies.
Christopher Smith 18:50
Oh what’s that like for, in the pandemic?
Bob Paradiso 18:55
Well, the pandemic has changed things, particularly in our industry, dramatically. And I say dramatically, but it’s really focused on communication. How we communicate with our customers these days is totally different than a year ago. You know people working from home, you know, Zoom meetings now. You know, we call on architects and designers a lot, but now you know they don’t have people in their offices. So how do you connect with them when they’re working at home. So it really has challenged the sales team to, alright, how do I now keep that communication going when there’s all these restrictions there. Because, in the past, a lot of it was built on relationships.
Christopher Smith 19:46
Right.
Bob Paradiso 19:48
Now those relationships are strained and as far as new relationships coming along, how do I break the code there to get to them, so I can, you know, find out what that customer needs, what does individual really keeps them up at night that I can solve for them?
Christopher Smith 20:03
Yeah. What, do you think it’s been more humanizing, the transition to where everybody’s on Zoom now, and working out of their home or bedroom or wherever?
Bob Paradiso 20:18
No I don’t, I don’t think it has been humanizing at all. And the reason I say that is work, working from home has enabled certain individuals to put up a wall, right, that you know they’re inaccessible. And that, that’s good for them, I mean, in certain ways. But as far as, you know, developing the relationship and humanizing it, I think that what that that loses contact. And, again, that, that’s just, that has not been good for building relationships.
Christopher Smith 21:00
Yeah. So what do you, what are you guys doing, what is your team doing to counteract that those wall builders?
Bob Paradiso 21:07
Well, we’re making more appointments than we ever have. We are using Zoom, of course. But, you know, within that contest, asking, “When can we get together, face to face? Alright, neutral site, whatever is good for you, we can work that out,” and trying to, again get some more human interaction face to face that we can talk, and not have to rely strictly on Zoom or telephone or emails and all that.
Christopher Smith 21:47
Right, right.
Bob Paradiso 21:48
It’s not easy because, I mean, because of the pandemic there, you know, social distancing is important.
Christopher Smith 21:56
Yeah.
Bob Paradiso 21:58
But we’re finding now that there is a balance coming where before the balance was no I’m not going anywhere, you know. Now it’s like the balance is shifting and it’s like, okay, well we can meet at so on so place and hold our meeting there. That’s fantastic. So we’re more flexible on where we can go.
Christopher Smith 22:20
Right, that’s great. What role does empathy play in your sales process or your interactions with your sales team?
Bob Paradiso 22:30
Empathy is the number one thing because we don’t know exactly what they’re going through, both from a career or business point of view, and from a personal point of view, you know, they may have family or friends that have been affected by the pandemic that we don’t know about, so we try to put ourselves in their shoes and you know if they’re hesitant to have a meeting, fine. I mean, whatever is good for you, we will work with them, what our customers are asking for. Last thing we want to do is push them into a situation where they’re uncomfortable and they are going to regret that. So, we, we try to just make it as easy as possible on their terms as far as our contact goes.
Christopher Smith 23:19
Right, right. When it comes to being a sales leader, I think one of the key roles for sales leader is cultivating the future leaders. What are you doing or what do you like to do to identify and cultivate those future sales leaders, those that should transition in?
Bob Paradiso 23:39
I look at their their strengths overall, not so much the weaknesses, because I, I’m not sure you can really change that. But if they have these strengths that I would say correspond with what I consider to be a good sales leader, then I’ll cultivate that person, work with them and try to get like what I have three basic tenets to what is a good sales leader. Right. The first I would say is listening, and overall I gotta tell you, we are a nation of terrible listeners. We don’t listen enough. We’re always too concerned about what we want to say, what is the message that, you know, we talk first, and we don’t even listen to the reply and we have, you know, our, our next message going out. So, I look at our salespeople, who really listens to what the customer says and knows how to listen effectively. Right. And that brings me to, alright, does the sales person knows their customer. And what I mean by that is, what business are they in, who are their customers, what are their customers asking this customer to do for them. Alright, doing the homework, so you understand what may be coming in from that customer as far as their needs and expectations. Because just because you have X product doesn’t mean they want X product. So yeah, I can make this, but if nobody wants it, big deal. So, listening, alright, and then knowing their business, and then finally, putting those two together to find the salesperson who can solve the problems of their customer. Figure out what keeps that customer awake at night, you know what issue is burning through them. It’s not always priced. I mean, there’s other issues there that if you listen and you know their, their, their business. Then you can anticipate the problem, you can when you hear it, you can. That is the problem, and then how do I solve that problem for them to get the business. And if you solve that problem for them, you will get the business at the price you need, and that they’re willing to pay for, and the relationship will be much, much stronger, because it’s not based on something as simple as price. It’s based on the fact that, hey, they had my back, they solved the problem for me, I can count on them.
Christopher Smith 26:22
Right.
Bob Paradiso 26:22
So those three attributes are really, when I look at sales leaders of the future. If they have those three, then that’s the people I want to work with the salespeople I want to work with, get them in the future a sales leadership role.
Christopher Smith 26:38
How do you go about that, that initial discussion when you’re sitting down, having like the meeting you had with your first boss or say, “Hey, I need to talk to you,” what’s that conversation like?
Bob Paradiso 26:51
Well, um, I asked them earlier, you know, all of them, you know, what do they want to do. Alright, so they want to get into sales leadership, and they want to get into marketing. They want to own their own business and leave the company at some point time, I mean, what is their expectations, so that I can address them and help them fulfill that, you know. And it’s interesting that, particularly with the younger salespeople, they really want to own their own business. That is, if I asked ten of them, six of them will say some of them will say, I want to own my own business.
Christopher Smith 27:38
Wow.
Bob Paradiso 27:39
You know, but that also really is going to involve, in whatever business they go into, some kind of sales leadership. You don’t have sales, you have no business.
Christopher Smith 27:48
That’s correct.
Bob Paradiso 27:51
You know, so that’s the, I had that discussion a lot earlier, you know, in their career with the company, so I know what to expect what, what, what are they aiming for right and how I can direct that aim to have it fulfilled. And if that fulfills them, that’s gonna help the company as well.
Christopher Smith 28:12
Yeah. Do you remember the deal that the, that you lost that hurt the most, and what changed about you from that experience?
Bob Paradiso 28:24
I’ve lost a few deals, yes.
Christopher Smith 28:31
Well, everybody has one deal that, “Oh that one that just hurts still hurts me today.”
Bob Paradiso 28:37
Well, yeah, this one deal it was a large quote. Alright. And I, there was three people I was working with on this quote. Three customers. And this one customer, he came and said, “You got to give me this price Bob, I mean this this, this is the future of my company at stake here.” And I had a compassion I said, “Okay, you know, here’s the quote.” And he took that quote, he went to competition, and they undercut me, I lost the quote, alright, because I didn’t do my homework. Alright, that’s what that’s, what I got into this, you know, do your homework, know your customer’s business.
Christopher Smith 29:30
Right.
Bob Paradiso 29:31
I was, maybe empathy was too much, but it really I learned a valuable lesson there, and, okay, don’t take everything customer says for granted. Do your homework, know your customer, and then react.
Christopher Smith 29:49
So if that happened today, what would you do differently?
Bob Paradiso 29:52
Well, I would say, okay, I would probably be better prepared, knowing the customers are going to ask me for this quote, and, but I, I’m not gonna say I would touch everybody, so if that comes out of the clear blue, like this one did, I would say, “Okay, well let me do some research here and I’ll get back to you within two hours,” alright or you know the next morning or whatever it is so I could do my homework.
Christopher Smith 30:29
Right.
Bob Paradiso 30:30
I’m not going to make that same mistake twice.
Christopher Smith 30:32
Right. Right.
Bob Paradiso 30:33
You know.
Christopher Smith 30:34
I’m thinking, listening to your story I’m thinking like, “Okay, if I give you that price will you sign now? Like when I give that to will you sign on the bottom line? Let’s close that deal now.” Do, was that an appropriate response, do you think?
Bob Paradiso 30:49
Well, no, because I could give him the price but then he was gonna have to quote this to a third party to get it up. Alright. So yeah, he was, he could sign on the quotem alright, but then he could still take it to, you know, another manufacturer, get a quote to go to the third party. So well, yeah, I signed your quote file but, you know, so and so came in and gave me a better quote for this job, so that that wouldn’t, I mean.
Christopher Smith 31:26
That’s a tough, you live in a tough world.
Bob Paradiso 31:28
Well it’s, I don’t think it’s any tougher than a lot of people play in so.
Christopher Smith 31:32
Right. Right. Do you, how do you use that in how you train and develop your sales staff, how do you use that experience?
Bob Paradiso 31:45
Well the first thing I do is I, when they come to me with these opportunities, whether it’s a new distributor or a program they want to run or a quote even, you know, I ask a lot of questions to see if they’ve done their homework. You know someone who is working in healthcare, which is a big segment, these days, alright, you know, they’re not gonna be, there are certain colors, designs that they go with, you know, so if you come to them without those colors, I mean, even if you have the greatest price in the world, doesn’t mean anything to them.
Christopher Smith 32:23
Right.
Bob Paradiso 32:23
So I asked these questions about you know what’s the marketplace looking for, what’s the customer looking for, you know, how does the two go together? And it’s, I’m sure if you talk to some of the salespeople they’ll say I ask too many questions. But, you know, I do that so that they know what they’re getting into, and how to respond effectively, because they don’t have the answers to all the questions, then we’re not addressing the real issue that the customer needs.
Christopher Smith 32:57
Oh yeah, I think that’s a great way to approach that, that you’re preparing them for the questions that they’re likely to get from the customer, so that that’s great.
Bob Paradiso 33:06
Yes.
Christopher Smith 33:07
So let’s transition and talk about CRM, I always start this off the same way with CRM, or when it comes to CRM, do you love it or do you hate it?
Bob Paradiso 33:17
Wow. Used to hate it. But, you know, as I’ve been saying here, knowing your customers and their business, you can’t keep it in your head.
Christopher Smith 33:34
No.
Bob Paradiso 33:35
And so the CRM, I used to just try to avoid at all costs but it came finally, the board hit me in the head, and it was like, wait a minute, I can use the CRM to put all these, the answers to these questions, document them, so I have someplace I can refer to them and not have to rely on my memory, which is not going to happen at all. I’ll forget half of it, if not more. So that’s when I really went from hating the CRM, or maybe disliking, to really putting my arms around CRM and making sure the salespeople who, again it’s I gotta put it in CRM, you know, in that, but hey if you do it, and yeah, it takes some time, but you have a basis of knowledge that you can keep referring to, aright, that you can add to. That again you can find out what keeps that customer up at night, solve that problem for them, and get the business.
Christopher Smith 34:30
Yeah.
Bob Paradiso 34:30
That’s what the CRM is for. So today it’s become a very valuable tool for us. And still not implementing, using it enough, but we’re gaining on it.
Christopher Smith 34:40
That’s awesome. How do you transfer that love of CRM to the sales guys, the frontline people, really a lot of them are resistant to anything that they perceive is slowing them down or has limited, limited benefit to them, how do you get them to embrace it the way you did?
Bob Paradiso 34:58
Well, I, I go back to all the questions I ask them. Alright. I said, “Listen, the CRM can take all these questions and you can just send it to me.” “Here’s my, here’s the information you’re looking for a Bob right here it’s in the CRM.” Alright, so it’s already got, we don’t have to go through this exercise anymore.
Christopher Smith 35:22
Right.
Bob Paradiso 35:22
Yeah, it takes some time, but not only will it enable you to move faster down the road, but again, it’s a basis of knowledge that you as an individual without it cannot put your hands around all that information completely and remember it all.
Christopher Smith 35:36
Right.
Bob Paradiso 35:37
Yeah, because you’re right, they, “Oh, you know, I got to do that as slowing me down.” But if they use the system, what it’s designed for, alright, and it will give them, they’ll see the benefit of it. That’s what it’s like. Use the system, you’ll see the benefit. And I, you know, they come up with some very creative excuses about one of them. And it’s like, no, I have no empathy for that, you know.
Christopher Smith 36:09
Right.
Bob Paradiso 36:09
But put it in. Alright, that’s, that’s you know basics to get up in the morning and go into work. That’s part of the deal.
Christopher Smith 36:17
Right.
Bob Paradiso 36:18
And so, even the diehards have are coming around or have come around on that. We have a way to go to fully maximize the potential of CRM.
Christopher Smith 36:34
What do you think is the, the struggle there? A lot of companies, I hear that a lot. What do you think the struggle is, or what’s behind that struggle with being able to maximize the benefits of CRM?
Bob Paradiso 36:47
Well I think sometimes it’s not fully embraced as far as or fully explained on what the CRM can do for them. You know it’s become, sometimes well you need to fill this out and use the CRM, alright. And you must do it after every call and so, it’s like, do all this, but then the result of that is never fully explained. All they all the salesperson sees is you know, it’s almost like punching a time clock, I gotta do this is what I need to do or else my sales manager yells at me. Alright.
Christopher Smith 37:33
Right.
Bob Paradiso 37:33
If you can show them the result of their actions and what CRM can do for them, then, alright, yeah, the time I spend putting the information in, alright, I can benefit down the road from that. And that’s what I try to, you know, in getting them to utilize the CRM more is focus on the result. Not the action of it.
Christopher Smith 38:00
Yeah, one of the things that we, you know, I personally in our team when we are embracing with the sales team, sales team and talking about the benefits there, one of the great ones I love to pull out of my pocket and share is that ability to look at your results longitudinally over time to compare you know, “Okay I’ve got all these wins. And I’ve got my losses. What’s different about those?” you know, “What can I learn from those losses, what patterns am I seeing on those deals that I lost versus the ones I won?” If that data is not in your CRM you can’t do that, you’re taking away that opportunity to learn and get better.
Bob Paradiso 38:44
Oh, that’s a great point, yes.
Christopher Smith 38:46
Yeah, I think that’s huge for really you know transitioning that thought that look this is not a short term thing that you’re doing just for this deal, you’re doing this to you know for the long term, you know, to and it really, if you approach it that way, it really can drive a lot of value for that frontline salesperson.
Bob Paradiso 39:08
No, that’s a great point. When you look at it, particularly from, you know, I just said it, the successes and the failures, alright, so what’s the component of successes? Alright, what’s the components of the failures? Alright. And again, if you’re doing your homework, then you can use that informations in the CRM, okay, to say okay, that’s a snapshot of what happened, well pro and con. Alright, and learn from that. Alright, for the next episode which is coming right down the road here.
Christopher Smith 39:43
Yeah. And it’s great when you hit those tough times and everybody does, every salesperson hits those tough times, if you’re at least, capturing that information in what you’re doing in CRM, you at least have something to demonstrate to your boss that, “Hey look, I’m doing everything I think I should be doing. I’m still not getting the result I want. What you know, can you help me?” And now you’ve got the information you can look at what they’re doing and say, “Well I see you’re doing this, have you thought about at this point engaging this way?” or whatever. You know, it’s another way that if you get that data in CRM, you’re giving everyone else insight into what’s happening.
Bob Paradiso 40:24
That’s a good point as well. And an example, one of the things that the CRM has done is in reviewing the situation. I can see who they’re talking to at the firm. Like, “Hey, is this really the decision maker?” Is it someone else there that you should be talking to, alright, because this person cannot make the decision, they’re gonna bump it up to someone else in their own terms? And those terms are not going to be favorable for you. So right, so you’re talking to these two people, or this person, you know, who else is, you think is involved in decision making? And just getting them to look at it from, you know, a bigger picture of who’s on this team that I need to talk to versus the one individual I am talking to is, is a huge win. Right. You bet. You bet. Bob, we’re coming up on our time, our, you know, we’ve hit our 30 minutes here for Sales Lead Dog. I really appreciate you coming on, it’s been great listening to you. If people want to reach out and connect with you, Bob, and learn, you know, talk to you about your company and what you guys do, what’s the best way for them to contact you? Email at [email protected].
Christopher Smith 41:45
Awesome.
Bob Paradiso 41:46
And I answer all my emails. So yeah just, anytime.
Christopher Smith 41:53
You’re on LinkedIn as well, correct? On LinkedIn as well, yes. Yep. And what’s your company’s website, if you want to share that for everyone?
Bob Paradiso 42:02
Sure. It is duraseinusa.com.
Christopher Smith 42:05
Awesome. Bob, thank you again for coming on Sales Lead Dog
Bob Paradiso 42:08
Thank you for having me. It’s been great.
Christopher Smith 42:10
It’s been great talking with you. It’s been awesome. So thank you again.
Bob Paradiso 50:26
Alright. Thank you.
Outro
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 Empellorcrm.com/salesleaddog. Sales Lead Dog is supported by Empellor CRM, delivering objectively better CRM for business guaranteed.
Quotes:
- “We are a nation of terrible listeners. We don’t listen enough. We are always too concerned about what we want to say … we talk first, and we don’t even listen to the reply.” (22:28-22:54)
Links:
Durasein Website
Durasein LinkedIn
Empellor CRM Website
If you have any question on how Empellor CRM can help you? Contact Christopher Smith
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing
