Build Deeper Sales Relationships – Russell Brown

 

 

Transcript:

Tue, Apr 26, 2022

SUMMARY KEYWORDS 
people , customer , sales , organization , leaders , crm , team , business , tool , understand , early , success , learn , bit , career , build , difficult , lead , helped , point

SPEAKERS
Russell Brown & 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 I have joining me, Russell Brown. Russell, welcome to sales lead dog.

Russell Brown
Thank you, Chris. Thanks for having me.

Christopher Smith
Russell is the Vice President of Sales for computers. Russell, tell me a bit about your current role in your company.

Russell Brown
Yeah, absolutely. Pleasure. So, computer centers and IT services company. We really work with a large corporate and public sector organizations. And I think it to boil it right down. What we do is we help customers source technology; we help with the transformation of their existing infrastructure. And then we help manage parts of their infrastructure on their behalf. And we do that from the edge to workplace network all the way through to the core in the data center.

Christopher Smith
And you guys are, you’re not just us based you guys are movable, correct?

Russell Brown
Yeah, global organization. We are listed on the UK footsie. We’re about 18,000 people across the globe.

Christopher Smith
And your current role is vice president of sales. Can you talk to us about that?

Russell Brown
Yeah, sure. So, I’ve been at computer center, 20 years. Fantastic. 20 years I started; you can probably guess in the UK. You know, my, I’m not I’m not native from America. I spent my early years coming through the inside sales route, became an account manager. I then moved up into client directorship where I had a team of people working on a portfolio of accounts, which in the UK was very, very much verticalized. And then I moved to a group role. And I was responsible for the outsourcing business and managed service business in computer center looking at driving international growth. And I actually located myself in Paris, with the family. So, I was there for a number of years, and then took a responsibility to run part of the sales business in the French organization. So, I was there for five years in total. And then an opportunity came out for the US to run the Southwest business. And clearly the sun was a huge draw, not to mention the types of customers that operate in the southwest. Yeah, that’s tremendous. Yeah, I’ve been here 18 months now in total.

Christopher Smith
Yeah. And that’s one of the reasons we wanted to have heavy on sales lead dogs. Your tenure is highly unusual. So, we’ll get into that in a minute. But I want to start off the way I start off every episode with sales, lead dialing, and what are the three things that have really driven your success at computer center?

Russell Brown
Success and development? I guess, first of all, if people you know, I’m hugely indebted to a lot of people that have helped support me, you know, over my career, and you know, that that ranges from people just giving me time, so that I could listen, ask questions and learn, afford me space to make mistakes and learn from those people that have given me physical opportunity, you know, to progress my career. And there’s people externally, you know, I’ve had a number of mentors over the years that have helped guide me, helped develop me, and not to mention customers that have pushed me provided honest feedback. You know, we’ve had a partnership, you know, that’s how I’ve always gone into my engagements with customers. So, you know, hugely indebted to a lot of people. Secondly, I’d say that I’m very curious. I’ve got, I think, you know, Carol Dweck would probably say, growth mindset, you know, I try and act like a sponge. So, I seek out learning in lots of things, lots of areas, whether it’s physical books, whether it’s listening and learning off people, the good and the bad. And I try and put that into action. And probably the third element, I’d say, planning and preparation. So whether it is, you know, in the early years developing an account plan for how I was going to engage with a customer, whether it was building a campaign on a specific opportunity, whether it was the development of my career, or even my personal life, you know, I kind of start with the end in mind, you know, the old classic, you know, Jim Collins, try and get a picture of what my vision looks like, where I am today, what I need to work on, how do I prioritize it? I think I think the planning and preparation has been instrumental over the years.

Christopher Smith
It’s tremendous. I like to first answer people a lot of the 70 some episodes we’ve done. I’ve had a lot of people name someone or say a mentor, but not people like so broadly. Is that perspective really guided you? You know, having such a broad perspective and focus on people in general really guided how you Approach your job and your role?

Russell Brown
I think so, I mean, sales is a people business anyway. So, you know, I’ve definitely evolved and changed over the years, you know, I think when I started off, my view was that I was there to serve the customer. And so, I didn’t really need to share or build a necessarily a personal connection with them, because they didn’t really need any value from me in that sense. Actually, I realized later that that’s a big misconception. You know, as soon as I started to give more of myself, I felt that I built deeper relationships. And I think that’s, you know, if I look at my career, and the hundreds of people that have that have helped me progress and develop, it’s building up that connection, that personal connection. So, you know, I’m understanding a little bit more about how they operate on a deeper level, they understand how I operate. And it’s getting a broad range of connections. It’s not just, you know, in that sales division, that it’s getting people in operational, it’s getting people outside of the business, you know, I’ve worked for a period as a non-exec director, and it’s actually working with the Chief Exec of that organization, understanding how she operates, understanding how my skills are different to her skills and how we can both learn. You know, I learned a lot in that in that two-year period, for sure.

Christopher Smith
Yeah, I often think about you hear people that have achieved a lot of success. And I think from the outside, it’s easy, just assume they did the vast majority of that on their own. But the reality is, there’s a whole bunch of people helping that person along the way you look at any star athlete, they’ve had trainers, they’ve had coaches, parents, family, supporting them, driving them where they needed to be when they were young, whatever that that is, nobody does it alone.

Russell Brown
No, no, you need you need that network of people around you for sure.

Christopher Smith
Yeah, that’s tremendous. Was sales, something you wanted to get into right? out of the gate? When you were younger? Was that your vision? Or did you want to do something else?

Russell Brown
Does anyone want to get into sales with Chris, I wanted to be a professional rugby player. That was that was my goal. And I realized that I probably wasn’t going to make a career out of it. You know, it was early door, it was very early into the professional era when I was coming through. And I wasn’t good enough to be able to make the type of living that I felt I wanted. So, I had an entry into computer center. In fact, my mother worked for computer center. And so, I had early exposure into the organization. And I thought I quite like this, it’s a people business, if you work hard, there’s an opportunity to learn, and you can have a lot of fun. And I thought, yeah, this, this is pretty good.

Christopher Smith
Yeah, was that those early days looking back, was that a difficult adjustment for you did you just kind of you know, were able to adjust into it somewhat easily.

Russell Brown
It was a fairly good transition; I actually came through the computer center business development program. So, it was a structured program to introduce me into the organization. So, I came from university. And then was brought through the organization in a in a really good way. You know, I had full exposure, the organization, we got to meet different people in different parts of the business, build up relationships, I felt very privileged to be able to be on that journey. And I think if you could then you know, after 18 months, I could look around other people that were entering the organization, not on the same program, I could see how I had an advantage in terms of learning, relationships, understanding of the organization. It was a good introductory way to join a big company.

Christopher Smith
And, you know, that’s one of the things that when I was younger, it started out, I knew I was never able to partake in something like that. But I knew a lot of people that did, and all those people that had that opportunity ended up having tremendous careers, because they had that early foundation such a strong foundation early on, then the rest of us that were forced to kind of learn it on our own or cobbled it together through just falling on our face a lot. In terms of supporting your trajectory over your career, do you think that was the difference maker? Was there something else that really helped drive your success?

Russell Brown
I don’t think it was the difference. Sorry, I don’t think it was the only factor. I think it was definitely a contributing factor. It was it’s a great structure. It’s a great program. I think early on, I met a lot of people that had a lot of influence on my career. And you know, when you come out of university, you’re very malleable, you know, you can go, and you can be molded. You know, I worked with a coach within the organization that I would believe was ahead of his time. You know, he learned from failure and built-in processes to how do you build an account plan, for example, something that we consider to be fairly basic now, but it was quite sophisticated at the time, you know, how do you understand decision making processes? How can you define authority and influence? You know, even things like mirroring. So, you know, don’t turn up to a customer wearing that type of suit when the customer was, you know, that type of suits, you know, sorry, it made me very aware really early on. And, in fact, I didn’t think anything different, I just believe that was just always the way. And he was big on personal development. He was big on coaching, learning, reading, you know, so things like Mahan, kalsa, let’s get real, helping clients succeed, that just became my default, you know, so I became a very consultative in my approach, you know, understanding the customer had a genuine intent to make them successful, look for win wins, stop at yellow lights, anything that I’ve that was a potential blocker, instead of just putting your head down and hoping it went away, you address the issue there. And then. So all of these factors, I think, early on, were highly influenced by, by, by a coach, and it was instilled within the organization, it was part of the practice day to day, you know, all the way from the chief exec all the way down to, you know, me as a Business Development Executive, they were commonplace, common practice common processes, and even now, it’s still through the organization. So, I think maybe if I hadn’t have joined that organization, maybe I wouldn’t have been that consultative in my approach. And I think that is probably the success, you know, my genuine intent is to help the customer be successful. My job is to understand their, their business, as well, as they do is to ask the right questions to help them understand the process in their organization to get things signed off, to try and quantify the benefit of the solution we’re bringing. That’s what I consider to be my job. And if they win, well, then hey, you know, I’m sure at some point, I’ll win as well, and that that will materialize in financial benefit, but I’m not engaging with that customer to sell something. I’m trying to understand.

Christopher Smith
Is there anything you wish you would have been taught back then? It sounds like you’ve never really had a good introductory to sales. But was there anything that was maybe missing from that time?

Russell Brown
I was taught this a few years in, but, you know, the highs are never as high. And they don’t last, and the lows are is never as low and they don’t last. And so, I think that balance, you know, I think at one point in your career, you feel that you’re invincible. And then ultimately, we all have a setback. And then we feel that that setback is then going to define the rest of our lives. But in effect, the world moves on you move on. So, I eventually learned that failure is actually a good thing. And you can dive into failure, and you can understand, what can you learn from that process? What can you learn to take forward tomorrow to be a little bit better? But at the time, that really hurts. And you start to develop an ego and I think that’s probably the biggest thing is how do you check your ego, as a salesperson, when things are going so well? And try and be humble?

Christopher Smith
Knowing that there’s a full come in at some point, it’s just a matter of time.

Russell Brown
Yeah, for sure. I remember a sales leader telling me at one point, you know, saying, look, you know, rusted, there’s peaks and troughs. And I remember sitting there thinking, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I mean, I’m pretty much invincible. And then, you know, funny enough, 12 months later, you’re sitting at a trough and that’s when you need good people around you to put your arm around, you know, the same, the same leader at the time, put his arm around me and said, hey, look, come on, you know, we’ll get through this. It’s not a problem. It’s not as bad as what you think we can work through this together. And that’s where you need the people, you know, not just to give you the advice, but it’s going to pick you up once you haven’t listened to their advice.

Christopher Smith
What was behind your desire or the switch to sales leadership?

Russell Brown
I’m not sure it’s something you wake up one day and think, hey, I want to become a sales leader. I think it’s something that you naturally evolve into doing. I mean, I think we all have the ability to be leaders, no matter what job, but actually a sales leadership job, I think I was selling more and more and delivering more and more complex solutions for customers. You know, there was like 100 200 people that were involved in delivering a service or a solution to the customer and naturally you are leading. So, whilst they might not be direct reports to me, you know, I’m virtually leading a team, I’m setting the vision, I’m setting the strategy and I really enjoyed that. And then equally, I was starting to coach people. And I really enjoyed and took great pride in, in helping to nurture those people that in the same way that I’d been nurtured in the past. And I think over time, maybe it’s children, I don’t know, but your priorities change. And, you know, my desire for self-monetary recognition kind of faded away, and, and the priority became, how do I help people be successful? How can I create environments where people can really fulfill their potential? And in some cases, you can see potential in people that they can’t necessarily see themselves. And you think, Oh, if we could just work on these couple of elements, you know, if we could really focus on some of the strengths that you’ve got, you know, day by day, you could be so, you know, you could be up here you’d be flying, and that, helping them realize that helping them achieve that see that that gave me more passionate enthusiasm than being an individual contributor, and just looking after the money, if I’m honest.

Christopher Smith
Does anybody ever any of your leaders talk with you about why they ultimately selected you for that first leadership role?

Russell Brown
I think General behaviors, you know, that we will focus on the DNA of a person in computer center, you know, and so, I think if you’re doing the right things consistently, your intent is there, then I, it’s not just me, if I look across the whole of the organization, people over the years, that are in leadership positions have all got that in common. You know, we all care about other people. We care about the organization; we care about people’s development. We want to nurture talent, we want to help promote people develop people, I think lots of people have that within them, you know, clearly, they’ve shown a level of success in their, in their past. In fact, I think that the real the first real leadership role I was given was on the back of one of my crippling losses, which I think tells you a lot about the organization. I’d lost probably one of the largest customers that that we had at that point in time. And yet the net result was I was promoted. Because they weren’t necessarily looking at the result, they were looking at the performance. And that is something that is probably embedded within me right now. It’s, it’s focusing on the performance, not necessarily the result, because if you consistently do the right thing, you are you’ll get the result. It’s just a point in time.

Christopher Smith
Can we dive into that a little bit more in terms of how you’re tapping into potential future leaders for your company? What are you looking for? In that area? Are there any specific things that you can share with us?

Russell Brown
I mean, ultimately, is a growth mindset. You know, you come across all people in, in business, and for me, they’re, they’ve either got a fixed mindset, or they’ve got a growth mindset. You know, they’re either a rock or a sponge. I think those people that are willing to learn, they are prepared to try some things might not necessarily always succeed, but we’ll look for the learning in those experiences, that for me, it’s got to be the foundation. So, you know, they’re open to learning. They believe that that we can be better tomorrow than we are today. It’s not a complete revolution. It’s just an evolution day by day. I think that’s the starting point. If I don’t think you’ll get many successful leaders, in my view, that have got a fixed mindset.

Christopher Smith
No, I agree with that. And that’s if I look at a lot of organizations that are struggling, and peel back those layers, and you’ll probably find some fixed mindsets at the top of the ranks, the organizational ranks there.

Russell Brown
Yeah. And I think coupled with short term thinking, that’s exactly the other thing. So, if people aren’t planning and preparing for more than midterm, then I think you’re going to struggle. You know, I genuinely believe in that infinite mindset that we never win or lose, we’re just continually evolving. And so again, by focusing on performance, as opposed to the results, because you can’t, we can’t win or lose in an infinite mindset. So, all you’re trying to do is make sure that you’re focused on the core things that you can either control or influence within your business that’s going to deliver improvement, growth, sustainability. So, once you’ve boiled those factors down, they’re the factors that you should really be focusing on from a performance perspective. And then I think you can then measure them, you monitor them, you track them. And again, it’s not revolution. It’s just small evolution across each of those points, and we’re not looking for perfection. We’re just looking for a little bit better today or tomorrow, and it’s people that can recognize that it’s people that can lean into that that aren’t necessarily just focused on what’s my sales number? And how do I achieve that this quarter? I think you need all those factors to come together and have that more infinite mindset.

Christopher Smith
So, you’ve been in your current role for 18 months. Talk to me about your first 90 days in this role, what was your focus? What were you trying to get done in those 90 days?

Russell Brown
is really difficult, crispy good. We had a conversation just before, you know, I moved across the country to computer center us during the height of the pandemic. So, it was really difficult to build up the connection. I mean, typically, what I would expect, as a sales leader is for someone to come in, and just listen and learn, you know, ask questions. You know, ultimately, what I’m looking to try and do is get a sense of the present. So, what’s happening today in the organization, what’s going well, what’s not going so? Well? I’m trying to get a sense of what’s the level of excitement within the team, you know, what gets them up every day? What motivates them as individuals? What is it that they like about the organization and a sense of belonging? You know, are they proud to work at the organization? Do they feel confident, they trust their team? So, for me, typically, it would be, I’m trying to work across those three senses, and I’m just listening and learning. And in doing that, and asking questions, you know, side by side, not as a manager, or you know, I’m more of a coach or trying to understand, then you can start to build a connection. And, you know, it takes time to build trust, but you start that journey. And then I think you’ve come, you’ve ultimately come confronted the brutal facts of the situation of what you’ve inherited, what you’ve got, you know, what’s good, what’s bad, then you can develop a sense of the future. So, at the end of my 90 days, typically, I’m kind of looking at okay, so where are we going as a team, and it needs to be a team activity, we all need to be invested in the discussion, the engagement, what are the things that we believe are going to break down into performance? So, what are those elements? You know, for me today, there are 12 elements that run my business that I measure and monitor on a daily basis. So, what are they that we all agree and sign up to? That’s what we’re going to track not the result, we’re going to track that performance, and then how we’re going to measure and manage the worth and value of us working as a team. So, what are those things that we are going to adhere to as a unit? You know, what are our rules that we’re going to abide by? How are we going to celebrate success as a team? And how are we going to constructively give it give feedback, you know, good and bad. So, once we have those principles, for me, that’s kind of a 90-day plan maybe a little bit longer. That’s how I would typically run a business, you know, coming in as a new leader into that organization. Because then I think you can build a vision, you’ve got clarity on how you’re going to deliver the vision through those performance metrics and how you’re going to operate as a cohesive unit behavior as a team. And its collective, you can then gain followership, people will believe in that vision collectively, and you’re all behind it. I think it’s been a lot harder, quite truthfully coming in during this period, because it’s really difficult to build that connection and trust in a virtual is so, so hard. And at points during my initial engagement, I was in France, so you know, I had an eight-hour time difference. So, it was really difficult to build up a connection. And as a new leader coming in, you know, from the group, you know, I’ve represented change, and for some people change is really difficult.

Christopher Smith
Some people would change is incredibly difficult. And then you layer in the fact that it’s virtual, you’re doing everything over zoom, or whatever forum you’re using to connect with people remotely. over some of the were there any things that really worked well, for you to help address that remoteness? Or things that you tried that you found, hey, this seems to really help with that situation?

Russell Brown
I mean, it probably like most leaders have tried, you know, virtual drinks, happy hours in some description, quizzes, whatever it might be to try and break down some of the work barriers. I think we all got fatigue, pretty early on, you know, from doing that. And then we ended up in a world of back-to-back teams meeting. So, I would say even after 18 months, I’m still working through that, to be honest, Chris. You know, we’re starting to open up a little bit, we’re able to have some sessions face to face. You know, ideally, I like my team, to be part of, you know, as I’ve said, developing the future plan. So it was only in January that we got together in a room where I kind of said look, this is what this is how we’re operating and Here’s the parameters from one extreme to the other. I need you guys to come and help me fill in the gaps, you know, how do you want this to run? And so, I think it’s sessions where the team are included, that you can then start to build a level of trust. But it’s taken time, I’ll be honest, you know, it’s really difficult. I don’t envy people coming up into new sales, leadership roles, certainly moving organizations, and having to try and, you know, establish this connection, build this alignment, build this kinship, in this virtual world really difficult.

Christopher Smith
Listening to it sounds like being vulnerable to your team is a big part of your approach. Can you talk about vulnerability as a leader?

Russell Brown
Yeah, you know, I’ve got strengths, I’ve got some really good strengths. And I’ve also got a few weaknesses, Chris, I’ll be honest. And I’ve tried to share that with the team. You know, there’s various forms that we do it. I’ve done some strengths testing, you know, the Gallup strength finder, I think that personally, I use that I use it with my team. I’ve shared the results with the team, I’ve said, look, this is what really turns me on, this is what I really liked doing. And so, when you come to me with something that looks and feels like this are man, you know, it sparks energy in me, these things over here. It doesn’t turn me on, I find it really difficult. So, if you happen to get a reaction from me, don’t take it personally, this is just you know, my innate behavior is the way I’m geared, you know, I’m trying to do I’m trying to work on it. But I’m certainly not perfect. And I’m trying to develop and learn. So, I’ve done that with the team, you know, I’ve shared some of the successes, I’ve certainly shared a lot more of my failures, because I think there’s a lot of success to be gained from learning from failure. So, you know, I try and do that. I’m sure I could do more. I certainly feel like I’m leaning more into that now than I did 234 years ago, I think just a natural confidence in in yourself gives you that age gives you that experience gives you that so I’m definitely trying to do more. And remain genuine and authentic.

Christopher Smith
Do you use retrospectives? You know, on those deals that you’ve lost with your team, as a tool, do anything like that?

Russell Brown
Yeah. So just within the organization, just general governance, we have lost reviews. So, you know, for those big deals that we’ve lost, we’ll go out and interview a customer and when equally, and we’ll listen to their feedback will gain an understanding and what did we do? What was their feeling? What was the decision-making process? We do that I survey my customers annually. Because I think that’s the greatest source of of, of feedback is from listening to the customers understanding what it’s like to work with us as individuals and as a company. So yeah, it’s something that’s, that’s fully embedded.

Christopher Smith
I love that. That’s something that I was just part of. I was at an event last week, where they had a bunch of panelists up there, and they were asking them about, you know, the things that they do to be successful in the companies that they run. Not one of them mentioned that they talk to their customers and get that feedback from their customers. I was really surprised by that. Because I really am, I’m like you, I’m in your organization. I’m a huge believer. And if you’re not having that feedback loop, you’re running blind, you don’t know what walls are in front of you. And eventually, that’s gonna get you so I’m, that’s great that you guys are doing that. Let’s transition a bit and talk about CRM. Do you love it? Or do you hate it?

Russell Brown
Oh, it’s a bit like Marmite? I guess I like it. I like it. When we try and break that down a little bit, you know. So, through our conversation, you’ve probably figured out you know, I like performance metrics, I like to measure key underpinning activities that really drive the performance of the business. And so, CRM is part of that. Absolutely. It gives me the ability to draw real time data. It gives me the ability to aggregate lots of different types of information, I’m able to run analytics, I’m able to have reports, I’m able to make sure that the whole teams that are working on these complex solutions for a customer have a single view of the world. So, I do like it for all of those things. Now, how effective it can be, is really down to the adoption, I would say that I would say is mixed across all businesses that I’ve worked in, you know, it’s what you put in ultimately is what you get out. How can you influence what you put in Well, I think is leaders You know, I need to be asking my team to share information with me? There’s in CRM, I mean, how often do I say to my team? Can you just send me a quick opportunity? Overview of it? Can you put it in PowerPoint, it’s like, you know, I shouldn’t be drawing it straight from the source to reinforce the adoption of the tool? And that’s where I see the breakdown. If I’m honest with CRM, CRM, I mean, there’s so many different systems out there, they all probably do the same thing. The difference is the level of adoption.

Christopher Smith
100% agree and, and you and I do this for a living and in the things that I see when it comes to driving adoption is really giving people a compelling why this tool is a benefit to them, not just the organization. And I think that’s where a lot of leaders fail or struggle, is trying to come up with that compelling reason. Because a lot of frankly, a lot of leaders, they put CRM in place, because they want insight into what’s going into the sales team, you know, and to measure, and, but not really set it up from the outset as a tool to help your salespeople or whoever’s using it, you know, make their lives easier and make them better at what they do. What are your thoughts around that in terms of how you use CRM as a tool rather than aesthetic?

Russell Brown
I think it just needs to be the day to day, it needs to be my source as a leader, my go to, to then instigate a conversation with the team. So if I’m talking about the opportunity, I need to be in the tool, I need to make sure that that tool is customized to align to the performance metrics that we have set as a team, and that we’re using that tool as a common focal point, I think the moment we move outside of the tool and start referring to different reports, you know, sharing documents outside of CRM, I think we lose the focus on that tool. So, it’s really easy. And I hear so many sales leaders say our you know, our CRM implementation is not a success, because our sales, people aren’t using it. Actually, I think it’s sales leaders that need to lean into that. And we need to be using the tool. Because then if we’re, we’re adopting it, and we’re using it, and we’re configuring it for the teams to enable them to get the insights they need, then it becomes something that they’re going to use. But if it’s hard for the salesperson to use the tool, they’re not going to use the tool, because let’s be fair sales is a hard job. And you’ve got so many priorities, especially when you’re engaged with lots of customers, that having to manage at all, just as a function, that someone’s checking up on you. It’s not going to be your priority. So, it’s within us to embed it in our day to day underpins the performance, and it underpins the success of what we’re all working towards. And it needs, it’s on me to enable it to happen.

Christopher Smith
I also believe it’s a great tool to support like the last reviews, we were talking about showing, you know, if unless that data really good data is being captured around what you’re doing as part of that deal. It’s going to make those last reviews very tough and not have near the value they otherwise should have.

Russell Brown
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, for us, the CRM is the single vision for that customer single view. So not just the customer relationships and the live quotations that we’re working on and what we’ve sold, you know, I can cut that by business unit by where we’ve sold it to what service or solution we’ve delivered to that customer, but it also contains, as you said, you know, the deals that we’ve lost, it contains information on customer satisfaction, feedback, you know, it means that we are more succinct with the customer is the single view that if you’re a sales specialist, or a service manager or an account manager working on that customer, that is the single point of truth.

Christopher Smith
Yeah, and that’s, that’s a common thing that when we are start working with a customer is that simple question is, you know, is CRM your single source of truth? If it’s not, you know, that’s what you need to work on. You know, that, that if you have to go outside to spreadsheets or other data sources, whatever to figure out what’s going on in your customer shoes. So, Russ, we’re coming up on our time here with sales lead dog appreciate you coming on the show. If people want to reach out and connect with you talk more maybe about what you do and what your company does, what’s the best way for them to do that?

Russell Brown
You can contact me through LinkedIn. Chris, that’s probably the best way. I think you’re gonna put my LinkedIn details.

Christopher Smith
Yep, we’ll have that all in the show notes. So, if you want to reach out and connect with Ross, we’ll have that information for you there. So be sure to check us out on all the on our aspiring August sponsors website excuse me, polar crm.com forward slash Sales Lead Dog. You check out the podcast there. And Russ. Thanks again for coming on sales lead dog.

Russell Brown
Thank you. It’s been it’s been a pleasure. Thanks.

Christopher Smith
Thanks for walking to the back. Thank you.

Outro
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Quotes

Links

Russell Brown LinkedIn
Computacenter US LinkedIn
Computacenter Website

Empellor CRM LinkedIn
Empellor CRM Website
Empellor CRM Twitter