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How Coaching and Teamwork Drives Sales Leadership – Jean-Sebastien Guy, Chief Commercial Officer

Podcast Episode: How Coaching and Teamwork Drive Sales Leadership with Jean-Sebastien Guy

Learn the secrets of thriving as a sales leader with Jean-Sebastien Guy, Chief Commercial Officer at Micro Logic. You’ll gain invaluable insights into digital sovereignty.

This covers its growing importance in Europe and the challenges international companies face with compliance. Jean-Sebastien’s success comes from three key elements: great coaching, mixing data with intuition, and showing humility in leadership.

We’ll also uncover the vital role of teamwork and the power of acknowledging contributions. As a special treat, hear the heartfelt story behind a hockey stick signed by Mario Lemieux that continues to inspire Jean-Sebastien.

From Sales Roles to Leadership: Key Transitions and Traits

Conversion from a sales role to a leadership position is no small feat. Jean-Sebastien shares his wisdom on the importance of timing, gut instincts, and being a team player. He is one of the best Sales Leadership Coaching guy for you. We will discuss what sets standout salespeople apart. These traits include personality, drive, and that elusive “eye of the tiger.”

We also explore the evolving hiring process. This emphasizes the shared responsibility between individuals and companies for ensuring success. Tough interview questions and a solid onboarding program are crucial. So too is the role of CRM systems in maintaining transparency and organization.

Learn to connect with C-suite executives. Achieve measurable results in your second year of sales leadership. This episode is packed with essential strategies for any sales leader aiming to elevate their game!

Meet Our Guest: Jean-Sebastien Guy, Chief Commercial Officer, Micro Logic

Jean-Sebastien Guy is a high-velocity, forward-thinking executive. He has 20 years of experience in meeting goals and driving steady revenue growth. His background spans large tech companies, scale-up firms, and value-added resellers.

With an in-depth understanding of market positioning and a passion for leveraging talent, he’s driven by excellence. He always keeps in mind the people behind it. He’s currently leading the go-to-market strategy and teams that own the customer journey. One of the best Sales Leadership Coaching Guy.

This ranges from initial brand awareness all the way through value-realization. His responsibilities include Digital Marketing, Business Development, Sales, Pre-Sales, Renewals, and Customer Success. He considers himself an enthusiastic yet humble leader.

He fosters a collaborative culture built on transparency, empathy, frequent communications, and fun!

Key Takeaways You’ll Learn:

> Insights into digital sovereignty, its significance, and international compliance hurdles.

> The pivotal role of coaching, data-driven decisions, and humility in sales leadership.

> The importance of teamwork and acknowledging contributions for sales success.

> Strategies for transitioning from a sales role to a leadership position.

> What sets standout salespeople apart and how to navigate the hiring process.

> The crucial role of CRM systems in maintaining transparency and organization for sales teams.

> How to align with C-suite executives and deliver measurable results in sales leadership.

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.

0:13
Listen to find out how the best of the best achieved success with their team and CRM technology.

0:20
And remember, unless you were the lead dog, the view never changes.

0:26
Welcome to sales Lead Dog.

0:28
Today I have joining me for this episode Jean Sebastian Gee of Micrologic.

0:34
Jean, welcome to Sales Lead Dog.

0:36
Thanks Chris.

0:37
Thanks for having me.

0:39
Looking forward to it.

0:40
Yeah.

0:41
Tell me a little bit about Micrologic.

0:43
Sure.

0:44
So Micrologic is a cloud service provider.

0:47
So we’re a Canadian based business.

0:51
So for the company has been around for like 4 years traditional IT helping out businesses, building out their own data center and their own infrastructure on premise.

1:04
But you know, about 10 years ago, we, we saw the, the big shift to the cloud and we, we really spent those 10 years building a, what we call a sovereign cloud.

1:17
So that’s really a cloud that does not only offer the Canadian data residency, but also that’s, you know, built and maintain, develop, operate by a Canadian.

1:28
So it’s really that notion about digital sovereignty.

1:32
And and that’s really a a concept that’s huge currently in Europe, not so much in in North America for, you know, a number of of good or bad reasons, but the fact remain that, you know, we’re we’re deleting sovereign cloud provider here in Canada.

1:51
Yeah, it’s funny.

1:53
You see, it’s, it’s not a big deal really in the USI think it will be.

1:57
And you guys are way ahead of the curve.

2:02
That’s that, that’s what we we believe.

2:05
And right now you have the, the CEO of NVIDIA that that’s just, you know, invited all across the world and all those conferences and, and the first thing he, he says is, you know, countries and, and legislation all around the world, we need to build their own digital sovereignty.

2:24
And, you know, of course there’s, there’s a piece of that that comes with, you know, countries, you know, doing business with NVIDIA, of course.

2:32
But the, the fact remain that it is important as a society that we maintain that independence of how our data is, is stored and managed and, and, you know, analyze and, and how this will all fuel the, the next AI wave of innovation.

2:51
So really important, it is really important.

2:53
We have clients that they’re based in the US, but they operate internationally and that’s happening more and more and more.

3:02
And so therefore, I mean, you might be in the US, but you have to comply with wherever your customers are.

3:09
Yeah, the GDPR, the GDPR is, is just a good example of, you know, some sort of legislation that even U.S.

3:16
company needs to, you know, comply to.

3:18
So, yeah, yeah, you have to know about it.

3:20
You have to be aware of it.

3:21
And you don’t want to put yourself at risk, correct.

3:25
You need to protect, protect your data.

3:27
Exactly.

3:28
Yeah.

3:31
John, when you look back over your career, I mean, you’re you’re a chief commercial officer, you’ve had quite a bit of success.

3:38
What are the three things that have really driven and LED to your success?

3:42
Yeah, so the first thing’s got to be like great coaching.

3:47
So very early in my career, I was lucky enough to to really have great managers, great coaches that you know, one way or another, they, they pushes you right?

3:59
They, they know your limit, they know your potential and they just know the button to push to, to, you know, make you just do the extra mile because they know you can do it right.

4:08
So not talking about the, the managers, it’s just, you know, using the width to, to, but, but really someone that knows how to, you know, they just know your potential, right?

4:23
And they know you can do better and they really pushes you to the limit.

4:27
So that that’s the first thing.

4:30
Second thing is, you know, as a manager, you have all these trainings across your, your career and, and for some reason they teach you about being data-driven, like you need to make data informed decision.

4:45
You know, you need to use data, you need to use KPI, you know, you need to use all of this.

4:51
But as you’re progressing to your career, you realize that it is, it is very important.

4:57
No, you know, no, no argument there.

5:01
But you come to really appreciate your gut feeling.

5:06
And the thing you learn is the gut feeling, you know, that the stuff that you know you have inside is based on data points.

5:16
In fact, it’s based on millions and millions of observation that we’re making without even knowing it.

5:23
And that’s really what tells you about, you know, do I feel good or not about this?

5:29
Yes, it’s feelings.

5:30
It’s it’s, you know, intangibles.

5:32
But at the end of it, that’s probably the best AI model ever built.

5:37
If it’s there, it’s, it’s free, it’s always up to date and, and it constantly feed with new data, data point and new observations.

5:45
Really like trust your gut feeling.

5:48
Learn to appreciate that the KPIs and data-driven decision, but really trust your, your gut feeling.

5:55
That’s, that’s super important.

5:59
The last thing would be humility.

6:01
So like be humble, be humble for the the the coaches that that you have be able be humble for the managers that invested in you, for the colleagues that you had.

6:15
You know, tell me who’s a great sales guy and I’ll tell you who’s a great pre sales guy, who’s a great, you know, lead architect for this project or this implementation.

6:28
That’s really a team sport here.

6:30
So as, as you get, you know, recognize and as you move up the ladder, you really need to, to be humble and, and get back credit.

6:40
Otherwise it’s hard to to well, and you know, in cells, it’s so easy to get the, the big head right.

6:46
So it’s the humble really important.

6:49
Yeah.

6:50
I got to ask you about the hockey stick on the wall over your shoulder.

6:54
There’s a story there.

6:55
Tell me the story.

6:57
Yeah.

6:57
So that’s that’s actually a hockey stick from Mario Lemieux.

7:04
Like for those who follow hockey just a little bit, you know, they know.

7:10
Yeah.

7:10
You know, that name one of the best player ever.

7:14
And and, you know, it was just, you know, way back then, when the Nordics used to be here playing in Quebec, the Penguins were in town.

7:24
And then, you know, some people, you know, they know someone who know someone who know someone.

7:28
And Mario just gave him like 10 hockey sticks with his autograph on it.

7:34
And I was just lucky enough to put my hands on one of those 10 hockey sticks.

7:39
So yeah, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a pretty cool item to, you know, display on their wall, right.

7:45
So it’s a good example to be nice to people, be nice to everybody because you never know when they’re going to have a hockey stick.

7:51
Exactly.

7:53
Yeah, and you know, funnily enough, you know, you know, I’m in, I’m in the SAS business for the last like 10-15 years.

8:01
And everybody talks about that hockey stick effect, right.

8:04
It’s for 10 years.

8:06
It’s, it’s flat and then boom, it picks up.

8:09
You know, it’s just convenient or just funny that, you know, I, I was always a big fan of, of hockey.

8:16
But anyway, it’s it’s you had a face in the right way.

8:19
It’s a nice subtle indicator when you’re talking and selling over zone to have that over your shoulder.

8:25
It has nice and upwards.

8:27
You know, I would love to say that I did it like with with that thinking in mind, but I didn’t.

8:33
So did you want a career in sales or is it?

8:41
Did you fall into it?

8:42
I I fall into it too.

8:44
It’s, it’s, it’s an accident as with a lot of people, I think in sales.

8:51
I, I studied in GIS and geomatics.

8:54
So I, I was, you know, I was to be a technician or, or a practitioner really.

9:01
And then all of a sudden I had a super, you know, opportunity right after school company called Esri.

9:10
They’re the leading software vendor in the world and, and in that specific area, it’s the second largest private software company in the world after their SAS.

9:21
SAS.

9:23
So huge, huge company.

9:24
And again, they invested a lot in in training and everything.

9:29
And I had kind of a hybrid role between tech support, sales inside sales, customer service, but I was just crushing my numbers quarter after quarter, year after year.

9:42
And I think after two years I got promoted to a like a sales account manager rule.

9:49
And from there I, I never left really the, the business of sales And I just embrace it.

9:55
I love it.

9:56
I think it’s a, it’s a beautiful profession, to be honest.

9:59
I I know there’s a lot of bad things about being in sales, but when it’s correctly done, when the choreography with your customer, it is just, you know, the right balance.

10:15
It’s just just like any other profession, right?

10:18
So, yeah.

10:20
What was the biggest struggle you had in those early years and how do you overcome that struggle?

10:25
Yeah, I think when you’re starting sales is first you have that, you know, eagerness to to just, you know, do it right call customer and and I think the biggest trap and I’m sure other people here on the podcast mention it, but it’s really talking like you’re so eager to talk about your product, talk about the benefits, talk about that, you know, case study with with successful customer ABCD.

10:56
But really the art of sales is, of course, you need to present yourself, introduce yourself, establish credibility.

11:02
But after is ask a couple of great question, shut up and just do the customer do the rest because it’s about them.

11:11
So it it don’t fall into that trap of, you know, just talking and talking and and using the PowerPoints to go through all the slides, just the conversation.

11:23
It’s sales.

11:24
It’s about, you know, people buy from people.

11:26
Yeah.

11:27
So, yeah.

11:33
What are some of the the key takeaways from your role in sales started out the way you did that you think really kind of set you up to where they came to you and said, hey, we want to, you know, we want you to consider a leadership role.

11:51
It’s, you know, sales.

11:53
It’s going back to that hockey stick story is it’s, it’s all about timing right, being at the right place at the right time when there’s the right opportunity that that it’s there for you to to seize.

12:07
And me jumping in sales was really that hey, you know, the CEO grabs you and hey, Chris, you got a minute.

12:17
Then, you know, 5 minutes later you learn that you’ve been volunteered for a leadership role.

12:25
And again, going back to that gut feeling story is sometimes it’s just, does that feel right or not?

12:34
And if that feels right, just just do it right.

12:39
Just don’t think, don’t overthink it, don’t measure the pros and cons.

12:44
Just go with your gut feeling.

12:46
So that’s really how I stepped in.

12:49
What got me there is, is I don’t know that that that’s probably a question for for the CEO back then.

12:57
But I think some of the, the quality I mentioned earlier, like are you a team player?

13:05
Do you have the like the sponsorship from your peer, from, from your colleague?

13:11
Or are you the one that always tried to push for his own stuff and play his own game?

13:17
Or are you the one that trying to, you know, get people together ’cause that’s really what’s leadership about.

13:24
It’s not about your own single contribution, it’s how you can put a team of people together that maybe it doesn’t naturally fit well together.

13:35
And then you create something that’s that’s bigger and better with these peoples.

13:39
So that’s, and of course you can go to school for that and and learn how you know, to practice it and everything.

13:47
But really there’s nothing beats like actually doing it and trying it.

13:51
So yeah, let’s talk about building a team.

13:55
I want you to think about the best person you’ve ever hired personally just crushing it Rockstar.

14:02
What about them is making them a rock star?

14:05
What’s making them stand out from everyone else?

14:09
Hard to .1 single thing, right?

14:12
It’s always it’s usually more than one Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s many little things here and there.

14:18
But again, the the personality being likable in sales.

14:25
It’s I mean, you can’t, you need it, right?

14:28
You you can’t have it if people don’t relate quickly to you all right, it’s hard it’s hard to reinvent, right?

14:38
It’s how to so it’s one of these natural things, you have it or you don’t have it, but really that, you know, go getter attitude.

14:49
Like they wake up in the morning and and they, you know, they’re in the shower, they’re taking up.

14:56
They’re thinking about how they will approach this new client or they will, you know, manage this objection or they will push for the next proposal.

15:06
So they, they, they really think about all the time how how to make it happen, how to make it happen.

15:13
So that attitude, that energy is really to me what distinguish like great people.

15:20
Then after there’s all the like the, the, the hard skills that that you can, you can perfect with time.

15:27
You can have training, you can have coaching like how to ask good question, how to handle objection, how to talk to CEOs, how to build a business case and ROI, how to do this and that.

15:41
And these are all things you know, you can learn with time.

15:45
But to me, the, the soft aspect of it aspect of it is this personality, the drive, the energy, you know, the, the eye of the tiger.

15:56
Really.

15:57
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

15:59
Big time.

16:00
How has your hiring process evolved over your career?

16:05
Because that we all have our stories of like just train wreck hires where you thought they’re going to be great.

16:11
And it’s for whatever reason, it didn’t work out.

16:14
And we have to learn from those mistakes because I, I’m one of those people.

16:17
I believe it’s, it’s really not about the person that couldn’t succeed in the role.

16:22
It’s usually you hired the wrong person for that role that you got to own that and have to learn from that.

16:29
How for you, how have you evolved in your process?

16:36
Again, going back to your early stage career as a manager, You, you, you know, you tend to put the blame on the, the individual very easily and, and rapidly.

16:49
And, and to your point, I think it’s a big mistake.

16:52
It’s, of course, it’s never, you know, black and white or it’s, it’s always a shared responsibility.

17:00
But to some extent as a, as a company, as a corporation, you need to look yourself in the mirror and, and ask, you know, did we really add a great on boarding plan in place?

17:11
Have we put all the efforts to train that person on or processes or tools or the way or methodology or the way we do things?

17:22
And very, you know, very often you realize, hey, you know, maybe we, we missed this or we did wrong with that part.

17:32
Then again, for some reason, you put two or three people that got hired at the same time, that had the same resources at at their disposal, the same colleague, the same, you know, manager, the same coach.

17:46
And you’ll find that one person out of three that they, they did it right, They, they had success.

17:54
So that’s why it’s never a a, you know, 1 and 0.

17:58
It’s always a shared responsibility to, to, to your point.

18:02
But when you hire people later on in your career, it’s, it’s, it’s the same in sales, right?

18:09
It’s asking the tough question early on, had so many people having interviews, sending their resume and you look at it and you’re like, my God, that’s that’s a great, great, great candidate.

18:23
Like perfect fit.

18:25
Then you ask for example, Hey, simple question.

18:29
Have you ever carried A quota?

18:32
Well, not really.

18:34
It was a shared team quota, blah, blah, blah.

18:37
But so that that’s that’s how you recognize, and I’m not saying that if you never had a quote on your head, you won’t be making a great salesperson.

18:47
That’s not the point.

18:48
But is you need to ask sometimes those hard question early on if it even if it’s heartbreaking, you need to ask them.

18:58
That’s a lesson I had to learn.

19:00
I used to think like, oh, I need to convince them to come work for us and I need to sell them.

19:07
And I saved those hard questions to the end only to find out I just wasted an hour talking to someone I’m not going to hire.

19:16
And it’s been a game changer for me.

19:19
Like I, I want to ask all the questions that’s going to eliminate them as a candidate right up front.

19:27
And because I’m, I’m doing them a favor.

19:29
I’m not wasting their time.

19:30
I’m not wasting my time.

19:32
And so I do that initial like screening interview, all the toughest questions I’ve got.

19:39
If you make it through that, then yeah.

19:40
Now I’ll give you an hour.

19:41
Yeah, you’re right.

19:42
That’s, that’s actually a good practice right to to put in place.

19:47
So totally, yeah, totally.

19:49
Yeah.

19:52
What I mean, would you think, look at your sales team, what are you looking for in terms of attributes for?

20:01
Leadership roles, people you want to move into into a leadership role yeah again, going back to my own, let’s say story when and you know throughout my career, I had the the opportunity to promote people right because you know it was just the right thing to do because.

20:22
And again, you know it with your gut, you know it, you know it because you know, every year this is the kind of employee that gets, you know, we, we had this, this thing like the annual award, right?

20:37
Like any sports league where you have the the MVP, the best scorer, the best defenseman, the best goal or whatever, or the best pitcher, the best.

20:46
SO when some of the names, they just come back every quarter, every year this person is being nominated by his peer for then, you know, you know, that that person is not exceptionally good at what they do, but they also have the like people just follow them.

21:11
They have this natural leadership and and leadership.

21:15
Sometimes it’s about being good at, you know, great delivering great speech or, or inspiring people, whatever.

21:23
Sometimes it’s just, you know, you’re, you’re that kind of silent leader, but that’s what the team asked for.

21:30
So in sales, of course, we’re used to have, you know, talkative leaders, right?

21:35
It’s, that’s the nature of, of who we are in the business of sales.

21:40
But if you work with a, a technology team like product engineering, a service professional service team, they may not be so inspired by that person that’s super talkative.

21:52
Maybe they’re more inspired by someone that know their stuff and they’re the best at what they do and that’s the person they follow through.

22:00
So also, and I’ll just, you know, position myself over and above sales and leadership is just not just in sales, but it’s really understanding what the team or the line of business ask for.

22:17
So, and then, and then you have a better sense of what kind of leaders I need for, for, for those teams and that line of business when you came into your current role and you maybe if you don’t, if you can’t talk about your current role, maybe it’s a previous role.

22:35
How do you like to approach that first 90 days when you’re in a new role?

22:40
Yeah, the, the, the 306090 days plan, right.

22:44
So culture, it’s super important to just embrace the culture, learn the culture, all the intangibles.

22:55
Of course you have all those, Hey, you know, this is the process for, you know, you know, process a process BS, the sales process, the pre sales process, your, your expense report process, whatever, right, all, all the fundamentals, but truly come to appreciate the business and better understand, you know, where they’ve been to, to picture yourself, where where they need to be is you need to, to just immerse yourself in the, in the culture, the values of the, of the company.

23:31
Talk to, you know, everybody like from HR to, to the, the, the finance team, to the legal team, to the technology team, no matter which position you have.

23:44
But it’s, you need to understand the dynamics between the departments and everything.

23:49
And of course, you need to build report with your own team, whether it’s it’s, you have, you know, 10/12/20 people, maybe it’s your peer too.

23:59
So if you’re part of the, the management team or the exec team, try to build report with your peer because that’s your team.

24:09
If you’re a sales VP, for example, of course you’re going to manage a bunch of, you know, territory manager, account executive, whatever, but that’s your direct report.

24:20
The team that you belongs to is the the exec team or the, the the management team and those are the people you need to build.

24:29
Report to it.

24:30
So yeah, I’m a big believer in that.

24:36
Contrast that with maybe you’re in the role a year now.

24:39
I’m just starting into my second year.

24:42
How does your, you know, role evolve or, you know, how would you like to tackle that?

24:50
You know, you’ve got a full year under your belt now it’s year 2.

24:54
What are you focused on that second year?

24:56
Yeah, second year is really about immersing yourself with where do you need to be?

25:03
Where, where do you need to bring the company 12/24/30, six months from now?

25:10
Need to get alignment with the, the CEO or the CEO or whatever, all, all the C-Suite and make sure that you really understand the, the strategic plan, like the three-year strategic plan.

25:24
Make sure you come up with your own plan for how your business unit is going to contribute toward those, those corporate objectives.

25:35
And that’s why in, in the first couple of months and quarters, that’s why you need to build report with the CFO or the CIO, whatever, just to make sure that whatever you’re going to design on your on your table is, is relevant and makes sense and fit in the overall grand scheme of things.

25:54
Otherwise it, it again, creates just forces that don’t, you know, plug together and don’t contribute to the same corporate objective.

26:06
So second year is like start of your second year or complete year is really execution, right?

26:14
The first year is about immersing yourself and, and the culture, the people learning the, what’s the, especially in sales is learning the value prop, the differentiator.

26:24
But then the second year is you need, you need to act.

26:27
You need to act now, you need to get going, you need to deliver results, you need to produce.

26:33
So, so it’s really about execution.

26:36
No, I love that.

26:37
Cause ultimately that’s what you’re measured on.

26:41
Well, and I’m, I’m glad you bring it up is, that’s the first thing you need to understand is what you’re being measured on is, is ’cause you know, in sales, of course we all know it’s, you know, the monthly closing, the ARR, the whatever, whatever the metric you’re being measured on.

27:01
Then it varies from one business to another.

27:05
That’s they don’t use the same KPI, they don’t use the same metric.

27:09
So it’s super, super important to understand that ’cause the last thing you want is, again, hey, Chris, you know, we’re glad you did this and that and, you know, thanks.

27:20
But by the way, this is not contributing, right?

27:24
So we’re like, Oh my God, you never told me.

27:27
Well, you never asked, so ask for it.

27:31
Yeah, yeah.

27:31
You better know what you’re there for and how you’re being measured.

27:36
The failure is a big part of sales.

27:41
It’s not even failure, but it’s like you can’t win them all.

27:44
We all lose deals.

27:45
Yeah.

27:47
How do you leverage that as part of your culture?

27:53
You know, we all love to celebrate the wins, but you also have to deal with the losses, right?

27:58
Yeah, You’re, you’re absolutely right.

28:00
And again, when you start in your career facing objection and rejection, it’s tough, especially as you’re learning like even the best baseball player hit for 300, right?

28:15
So it’s in sales.

28:17
If you have a closing rate of, you know, thirty 4050% that you know, that could be super great.

28:25
So realize this, like learn that you won’t close 100% of your deals.

28:31
But then it’s it’s really about understanding what happened.

28:37
And again, due to to great coaching in my career, I learned that probably, I don’t know, like 8090% of the time is you had just not a good qualification process.

28:52
You, you, you got too excited about the bells and whistles, the features, the, the, the idea that you had the best solution to propose to the customer and you forgot to ask the tough question early on in the qualification process.

29:08
And then you realize that you’ve, you’ve concentrated all your effort and energy and resources toward that single deal, only to realize that the customer never really had any intention of going with you.

29:22
And, and that’s heartbreaking.

29:25
Like the first couple of times that happens, it’s heartbreaking, but then you realize, like, what’s the sphere of influence was I, you know, talking with, with the decision maker, with, you know, did I had a champion?

29:40
Did I have?

29:41
And just the basic question, like, what was their budget?

29:44
Where do you stand from a competition standpoint?

29:47
What, what’s their timeline?

29:50
What was driving the urgency to and what was the cost of status quo?

29:55
Like could they continue to operate the way they’ve always been or so?

30:01
And then after 23455 times you just improve.

30:09
So in my first leadership role in sales, that’s really the whole sales cycle that we designed and implemented was very, very big on the qualification step because we we needed to just invest our resources very, very smartly, if I can say in instead of, you know, trying to boil down the ocean all at once.

30:36
So we need to be super laser focused with the right opportunity and, and sales is, you know, we’ve all seen this somewheres you’re not really to be in sales if you’re not ready to walk away from a deal.

30:52
So learn to say no to customer.

30:56
I know it’s counterintuitive, but it’s that’s the way it is.

31:00
It’s truly about success.

31:02
And if you’re chasing deals you have no chance of getting or God forbid you get them and you find out we’re not the right vendor for them or we don’t have the right to misalignment, that’s even worse in my opinion, because now you’ve got a potential negative referral or negative perception out there from that customer, and that’s the last thing you want.

31:24
Yeah, and, and again through through the years, I found out that there’s no, there’s no shame of, of saying no to a customer.

31:34
Hey, you know what Mr.

31:35
Smith is, you know what, after looking at your requirements and, and you know, we’re not in a position really to, to have that successful launch together.

31:46
So we’re you know, we’re, we’re retiring from the process.

31:50
We wish you nothing but but the best for for the but it’s we’re not the best fit.

31:56
So that’s it that’s it No hard feelings Yeah, exactly.

32:01
CRM do you love it or do you hate it?

32:04
I love it awesome.

32:07
I, I, I loved it as a salesperson.

32:12
I, I loved it as a sales manager and now as a kind of more of a executive.

32:19
I, I still love it and for all different reasons, right.

32:23
So as a salesperson, that’s the system that kept me honest.

32:30
It kept me organized every morning, every week.

32:34
I know exactly, you know, hey, I need to call this guy.

32:39
I need to follow up on that deal, send this proposal, follow up on that objection, send a referral letter for this.

32:48
I mean, everything was in there.

32:52
The, the forecast accuracy was, was, you know, super good at that time.

32:58
So again, I, I know for a lot of salespeople, they just hate it.

33:02
But, but I, I, I loved it, to be honest, as a sales leader, it was more of a, you know, putting in place all those TP is trying to understand where we, we failed at execution.

33:17
So it’s about understanding if I don’t know you, you lose 50% of your pipeline between Step 2 and three.

33:27
Why there there’s, there’s got to be a problem there in terms of big execution.

33:32
If your sales cycle is, I don’t know, like 200 days, it’s it’s way too long.

33:38
It’s how can you shorten that and where in the, in the journey, in the steps, you can shorten it.

33:46
And then as a more exec, it’s really about just having predictability on revenue, cash flow for the business, trying to, you know, balance the, the scorecard.

33:59
So it, but it’s, it’s super important.

34:01
It’s to me, it’s you, you can’t be in sales and not having ACRM.

34:08
It’s, it’s a big mistake.

34:09
Big mistake is one of the questions I always ask people when I’m talking about CRM is what’s your why behind the CRM?

34:17
So if you’re trying to talk to, you know, frontline salesperson, you have a why for them, but then you also have a why for the CEO about why CRM is important to to him as the business overall.

34:32
What’s your why message for your business?

34:37
I don’t think there’s one why message and and the reason I’m I’m saying this is every business is different and, but, but I would revert the question or or change it slightly if you, if you permit, but is who’s, who’s the CRM serving?

35:01
That’s the question you need to ask yourself in your business.

35:05
Because to your point, if right now the, the, the CRM is serving finance, for example, I’m sure you have a really hard time having adoption from the sales team.

35:18
And if your CRM is only serving the sales team and it’s very, you know, scrappy and there’s not much in there, you’re doing it wrong too.

35:28
But so, so you just need to figure out your why To your point is who’s the, of course, there’s always going to be the end user, which is the sales team, but you need to understand who else need to have access free sales, marketing, whatever, who’s plugging who’s, you know, retrieving data from there to plug into other system finance operation.

35:55
And that’s when things can get complicated.

35:59
But, you know, I went through to ACRM implementation in my, in my career and we nailed it both comes like we never had complaints from the sales team, from, from the, the surrounding team, just because we kept things simple.

36:19
We, we and not try to diverge too much from the out-of-the-box ’cause then afterward it’s just a nightmare to maintain the solution and everything for, for, you know, obvious reasons.

36:33
So really it’s ask yourself, like, why, Who’s the end user, what they need to achieve?

36:40
So just just like any, any project, right?

36:44
But, but to me, ACRM is really its core to a business.

36:48
It’s you can’t, you can’t just avoid it.

36:51
It’s impossible.

36:52
Yeah.

36:53
What’s your biggest struggle with CRM?

36:58
That’s what we just talked about.

37:00
Yeah.

37:02
Sometimes trying to reconcile all those requirements and business needs.

37:08
It’s when you change something here on the left, it the the right pieces just, you know, crumble apart.

37:17
And then if you try to build up this piece, then whoop, this piece crumbled.

37:21
So trying to keep the balance all the time between all those requirements, like everybody needs to just, you know, put some some, you know, water in their in their glass of wine.

37:34
Yeah, yeah, I like that.

37:39
John.

37:39
We’re at our time here on sales lead.

37:40
Doug, I really appreciate you coming on.

37:43
If people want to reach out, connect with you, if they want to learn more about Micrologic, what’s the best way for them to do that?

37:49
LinkedIn that’s that’s, you know, very active on LinkedIn.

37:54
So the website, if people want to reach out by e-mail, just, you know, they can contact me on LinkedIn and, and you know, we’ll exchange e-mail addresses.

38:06
So, but yeah, very active on, on that platform.

38:10
So I’m, I’m there.

38:12
That’s awesome.

38:14
We’ll have that information on our show notes.

38:16
So you can get that in pellercrn.com/sales Lead Dog where you’ll get not only show notes for this episode, but all our hundred plus episodes of sales lead dogs.

38:29
Be sure to check that out and subscribe so you get all our future episodes as well.

38:33
John, really appreciate you coming on.

38:35
It’s been great talking to you and and welcome to the sales league Dog Pack.

38:41
Thanks.

38:42
Thanks, Chris.

38:43
Thanks for having me.

38:44
It was it was fun.

38:45
It was fun doing it, prepping for it and I hope people enjoy the the episode.

38:53
As we end this discussion on Sales Lead Dog, be sure to subscribe to catch all our episodes on social media.

39:01
Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, watch the videos on YouTube and you can also find our episodes on our website at impellercrm.com/sales Lead Dog.

39:14
Sales Lead Dog is supported by Impeller CRM, delivering objectively better CRM for business guaranteed.

Quotes:

“Digital sovereignty is not just a concept; it’s a crucial aspect of data management and compliance, especially in Europe. It’s about having control over your data, ensuring it’s stored, processed, and protected within the country’s borders…Countries and legislation around the world need to build their own digital sovereignty to fuel the next wave of AI innovation.” 

“Great coaching is the foundation of success. It’s about having mentors who know your potential and push you to go the extra mile.” 

“While data-driven decisions are important, never underestimate the power of your gut feeling. Your intuition is based on countless data points and observations, making it a powerful tool in decision-making.” 

Links: 

Jean-Sebastien’s LinkedIn 

Micro Logic Website  

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