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Welcome to the Sales Lead Dog podcast hosted by CRM technology and sales process expert Christopher Smith.
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Talking with sales leaders that have separated themselves from the rest of the pack.
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Listen to find out how the best of the best achieved success with their team and CRM technology.
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And remember, unless you were the lead dog, the view never changes.
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Welcome to sales lead Dog.
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Today on this episode, I have Jeff Phallus of GO Forms.
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Jeff is the senior director, head of sales and customer success at GO Forms.
0:37
Jeff, welcome to Sales Lead Dog.
0:40
Hey, Chris, Thanks for having me.
0:41
It’s really good to have you here.
0:42
Jeff.
0:43
Jeff, tell me a little bit about your current role in GO Forms.
0:47
Yeah, Yeah, I appreciate it.
0:49
Yeah.
0:49
So as you mentioned, I’m the head of sales and customer success.
0:53
Go Forms is a digital forms data capture company.
0:57
So we’re focused on digital transformation across, you know, all different sizes, size of organizations, SMB to to enterprise.
1:07
We have a SAS based solution that we have customers utilizing all over the world, you know, ranging from Turner Construction to the Ohio Department of Transmission to Baker Hughes, you name it.
1:20
So some of the main verticals and and markets that we we focus on or construction, manufacturing, retail, a lot of field service work that that we’re, you know, currently utilizing that are utilizing go forms in that in that capacity.
1:35
That’s really cool.
1:36
I love that you mentioned digital transformation.
1:39
That’s a huge topic for so many companies.
1:43
Yeah, it really is.
1:45
You’d be surprised how many, you know, enterprise companies are still, you know, kind of living in the 1990s to right.
1:54
So it’s been a big topic and you know, for the, you know, the, the time that I’ve been at go forms, you know, have some really great interaction with individuals who, you know, are looking at kind of the, the wave of the future customers that are, you know, have initiatives around kind of the worker of the future, right?
2:12
So it’s been pretty cool to be a part of and, and kind of see what’s happening in the space.
2:17
That’s cool.
2:19
So when you look back over your career, Jeff, what are the three things that have really driven and contributed to your success?
2:30
I would say #1 mentorship.
2:32
I’ve had, you know, I’ve been really fortunate throughout my career to have a few really strong mentors, individuals who I’ve, you know, formed really good friendships with and relationships with that I’ve never been colleagues or maybe former bosses, you know, individuals that that I’ve learned a ton from along the way.
2:52
You know, I would say the other one would be just, you know, kind of as I’ve gone through my career and kind of how I’ve, I’ve gone about it is, you know, I’ve always kind of had the mentality of just never comparing myself right to anybody and kind of just trying to carve out my own path.
3:10
You know, being a little bit trying to be as unique as possible in my own way, but also being a sponge, taking, you know, just intangibles and little snippets from everybody I’ve worked with, right, including those mentors and, you know, kind of creating my own thing.
3:27
So that’s, that’s certainly has been huge for me.
3:30
And I think last but not least, just work ethic, you know, you know, kind of my upbringing and just, you know, kind of it was always instilled, you know, in me early on, you know, the harder you work, the luckier you get.
3:42
So, you know, just kind of carrying that through throughout my career.
3:45
And, you know, just trying to work harder than the next guy is really something that, you know, I, I firmly believe in.
3:52
And I think there’s something to be said about that.
3:54
Did that come from your parents?
3:57
Yeah.
3:57
No doubt.
3:58
Yeah.
3:59
Yeah.
3:59
My dad, for sure.
4:02
Yeah.
4:02
He was a big influence for me in my life.
4:05
And, you know, just kind of seeing him and, you know, kind of how he went about it.
4:10
There was there was a lot, you know, that that I learned from him for sure that, you know, I still, you know, use today.
4:18
Right.
4:19
So when you’re growing up, did you want to be the senior director, head of sales?
4:22
And customers said no, it’s a great Yeah, right.
4:28
Not the first person to ask me that.
4:30
No, actually I wanted to be like my dad.
4:32
I wanted to be an an attorney, Right.
4:34
Ironically, I almost went down that path.
4:38
You know, actually when I was coming out of college was pretty close to to pursuing that.
4:45
I had a really great mentor in college.
4:47
I was a, you know, student athlete, I played football and I got pretty close with our athletic director there.
4:53
And yeah, he kind of started steering me towards athletics and that’s a direction that I was headed.
5:00
And you know, it’s kind of like AI.
5:03
I’ve talked to a lot of people about this, right?
5:05
You kind of this sales is something you kind of fall into, right?
5:08
Something that just naturally you gravitate towards.
5:12
So when when I was finishing up school, you know, you know, kind of took a good and hard look in the mirror and try to figure out what the heck I wanted to do.
5:21
I grew up back in the Midwest and then decided, you know, I think I want to move West.
5:27
I want to, you know, kind of explore a different part of the world, different part of the country.
5:31
And I took a job actually with the Arizona Phoenix Coyotes as a NHL hockey team selling tickets, right.
5:41
So always say, you know, if you can sell hockey tickets in the desert, you can sell anything, right?
5:49
And so I, I took this job, first sales gig.
5:54
And yeah, it was it.
5:56
It’s kind of just led me towards the path of sales.
5:58
And, you know, here I am.
6:00
That’s wild.
6:01
Yeah.
6:01
I love that.
6:02
If you can sell hockey tickets in Arizona, you’re doing pretty well.
6:05
Totally.
6:06
Yeah.
6:06
Ironically, the the team just moved to Utah, so no longer no longer there.
6:12
Really.
6:13
They missed you selling tickets?
6:14
I’m guessing?
6:14
I think so.
6:15
I think so.
6:16
Right.
6:18
Yeah.
6:18
Yeah.
6:18
You know, and then from there, I just, you know, it was what, 2007 going on 2008, you know, obviously the the tech world was really booming.
6:30
And being in Arizona, I decided, you know, I don’t know if I like the heat.
6:34
So I decided to move to San Diego and I took a job with a, a tech company here.
6:40
And, you know, it got, really got my, my feet wet and started to dive into tech sales.
6:46
And, you know, that’s really kind of where I, I, I launched my tech sales career with, with that role.
6:52
Yeah, that’s pretty cool.
6:54
What were the lessons that you learned in those early roles that you still draw upon today?
7:02
You know, there’s, there’s a lot, trust me.
7:04
You know, it’s definitely, you know, when you’re you’re, you’re young, you’re thinking about, you think you know everything you don’t, right?
7:12
You know, you think you kind of got, you know, everything figured out.
7:17
There’s definitely something to be said about that, right?
7:20
As you get older, you know, I think just learning to adapt, being adaptable and also, you know, understanding, you know, that you don’t know everything.
7:30
I mean, I think it’s, it’s, it’s very true when people say that, you know, I, there’s, there’s definitely times where you reflect quite a bit on your career and you look back.
7:41
But, you know, I think for the most part, I was very fortunate that again, I had some some pretty great mentors early on who kept me on the right path and who I learned a lot from.
7:51
That’s great, That’s great.
7:53
So what drove you into into leadership that first role as a sales leader?
8:00
That’s kind of a natural thing to be honest with you.
8:03
You know, I had, I had success as a as a individual contributor early on.
8:10
You know, it’s something that I think a lot of people probably go back and forth with, you know, to be honest with you.
8:18
Do I like, you know, kind of maintaining my own, I think schedule and my own world and that sort of thing?
8:25
Do I like controlling my own destiny and keeping control of that?
8:30
Or do I like working with people, right.
8:33
And do I like, you know, that kind of coaching aspect of it?
8:38
And so, you know, for me, I get having that sports background, you know, I think that was a natural thing for me.
8:44
I had some awesome coaches, you know, when I was playing and you know, a few that really, you know, you know, made a huge impression on me.
8:54
And I think that’s kind of always where what I draw from, you know, especially now today, right, as you know, my career goes on and, you know, the, the, the pressure gets more and the teams get bigger and there’s a lot of things, right?
9:08
I always kind of draw from that, that that that coaching mentality of getting everybody to kind of rally around and work together and, you know, for one common goal.
9:19
Right.
9:20
Yep.
9:21
Yeah.
9:22
What what advice would you give to someone who’s doing that back and forth as you described, but trying to figure out should I or shouldn’t I?
9:31
What advice do you have for them?
9:35
You know, I think everybody’s different.
9:39
I think, you know, again, it’s do you if, if you decide to go down that path, you know, you got to be unselfish.
9:49
You know, you got to put the people first because those are the people that really are making things happen, you know, to be honest with you.
9:57
So if you have that mindset, if you have that mentality, if you’re able to do that, then you know, I think that you know that the leadership is something that, you know, it can be very rewarding to be honest with you.
10:11
It can be something that you, you know, you see your team seen success and you see the things that they’re doing and applying the things that you’re teaching them right or they’re absorbing from you.
10:24
And that is the best thing.
10:26
You know, I think the best compliment you can have right when when those things happen.
10:32
So you have to have a shift in mindset from an intro individual contributor to now I’m leader responsible for a team.
10:41
Was that a difficult transition for you or did you find that to be relatively easy?
10:48
It’s definitely a transition.
10:50
It’s definitely a transition transition, no doubt, right?
10:53
Because not everybody thinks that way, right?
10:56
So, you know, and especially when you’re leading the team, you got all sorts of different personalities.
11:02
So I always say, you know, to, you know, people who I have spoken with or might be considering management or who are interested in management, right?
11:14
You know, the first thing you got to think about is, right, the individual and how the individuals make up the collection of the team, right?
11:21
So how do you manage that individual to their strengths, weaknesses, And then, you know, how does that I think gel, right?
11:29
How do those personalities, how do those mindsets all gel to make, you know, a team, a makeup of a team that all are, you know, obviously trying to achieve a goal?
11:38
Yeah.
11:39
Yeah.
11:40
No.
11:41
What was the hardest lesson you had to learn as a leader?
11:52
Sometimes I think, you know, you’re, you’re hesitant and maybe bringing bad news, right?
11:59
And you know, I think probably one of the things I think quite often about is, you know, the last what, what was it been four or five years, right?
12:11
When, when COVID hit, you know, that was probably the hardest part of my career in a lot of people’s, you know, just general life, right?
12:17
And you’re going through this, you know, just everything that’s happening around you and, you know, unfortunately you have to think about the personal side of things, right?
12:26
So how people are impacted and how people are affected from a professional and personal level and just navigating that.
12:34
So, you know, there’s, there’s experiences that you know, like that, that, you know, give you pause and that you think about, you know, because there is a personal side to this, right?
12:43
And I always tell people that this is a job, right?
12:47
At the end of the day, there’s, you know, there’s things on the outside of this and there’s life, right?
12:53
So you got to find that balance to find, you know, kind of the areas to disconnect because life goes on, right?
13:02
And there’s lots of things that that happen outside of just work.
13:05
No.
13:05
So you’ve mentioned sports a few times as we’ve been talking.
13:09
How have your experience as young man playing sports, How’s that influenced your style as a leader and just developing how you interact and lead your team?
13:22
Yeah, I think the way I go about it, the way I build teams, the way I assess right, it’s everybody plays a role.
13:29
It’s kind of like, you know, when you look at your infield, you know, who’s your shortstop, who’s your first baseman, right, who’s your leader, who’s your catcher, right?
13:39
You know, so you kind of look at those personalities and you look at each individual and how they, you know, can impact, you know, positive or negative.
13:47
And again, like, you know, there’s there’s something to be said about that, right?
13:51
When it, when you do use those types of analogy, you know, I’ve, I’ve got a team right now.
13:56
I kind of part of them I call the starting five, right?
13:58
So I always kind of use analogies around, you know, sports because I think there is such a strong correlation between sales business and sports, right?
14:10
And so, you know, when you’re tasked with a, a goal, right, winning a game, you know, you got a rival or you got whatever.
14:21
There’s a mindset to this.
14:22
And that mindset is staying focused on the objective.
14:27
That’s that’s staying balanced.
14:29
Don’t be afraid to fail, you know, because if you go out there and you play the game afraid to fail, you’re going to fail, right?
14:36
It’s, it’s all in your head.
14:37
So and then there’s also kind of the preparation aspect to it as well.
14:42
So you know, when you think about it, you know, there’s practice, it’s you’re constantly practicing your craft, right to get better.
14:52
There’s repetition that goes into it.
14:54
So consistency is key and in sports and and in sales and business.
15:01
And I think a lot of those concepts go hand in hand.
15:04
And those are things that, you know, I definitely, you know, focus in on and, you know, continue to to talk to, you know, my team about and, you know, teams that I’ve managed in the past.
15:17
Yeah, it’s, you know, you look at sports and, and the term the GOAT behind the GOAT is just countless hours of, of hard, hard work, you know, Kobe, LeBron, Tom Brady, the list goes on and on and on.
15:32
Those guys work their tails off to get good at what they do.
15:37
You know, they’re not just good to be great and and truly become the Goats.
15:43
Oh, no question.
15:44
Absolutely.
15:46
It’s always like there.
15:48
What is that saying?
15:49
You know, you know, the, the, the guy you know, behind you is, is working harder is the next guy or whatever.
15:56
And I can’t remember the saying, but there’s, there’s that saying that, you know, the, the next guy’s always working just as hard, right?
16:02
So it is it, it’s definitely true.
16:06
Like, you know, you mentioned those names, but it, it goes hand in hand with, you know, your ability, you know, to really stay focused and just stay disciplined, right, is ultimately going to be the result of your success.
16:21
And you know, sales, there’s, there’s, it’s just a constant thing, right?
16:27
We’re, we’re about to end our quarter and the next one starts right after that.
16:32
There’s no, there’s no pause, right?
16:35
There’s no day off.
16:36
It’s just a constant.
16:37
So being able to have that mindset and being able to go into it and knowing like, are you driven that way?
16:44
Does that motivate you?
16:45
Are you, you know, you know that that there’s, I think that that is a result of very successful athletes and sales people and business people, right.
16:56
So, yeah, for sure.
16:57
Every day’s a Super Bowl, right?
17:00
Exactly, exactly.
17:02
Yeah.
17:04
You can’t always win.
17:05
You can’t win every game.
17:06
You can’t win every sale of failures.
17:09
It’s it’s a huge part of of the life of anyone who’s involved in sales.
17:14
How do you leverage failure as a leader?
17:20
It’s, there’s always something to be learned from failure and success.
17:27
You know, I, I think the key to anything is, you know, when you go through your process and you, you know, you reflect on maybe a lost deal or a lost opportunity if you’re not applying it to the next one, if you’re not applying, you know, hey, maybe I can try something different or maybe there’s something I missed, right?
17:50
Maybe there’s a question I just didn’t ask.
17:52
Things like that.
17:54
You know, then you’re not getting better, you’re not evolving.
17:58
If you keep doing the same thing over and over again, you keep losing.
18:01
Well, there’s a reason, right?
18:02
So, you know, you got to learn from those losses just as much as you’re celebrating the wins.
18:12
What’s your favorite thing about being a sales leader?
18:19
Well, I would say the, the, the rush, you know, the rush of winning or the rush of, you know, working in a team atmosphere, because that’s what it takes, right?
18:34
If there’s, there’s that camaraderie aspect to it, it’s kind of like winning a game.
18:39
You know, everything you’ve done leading up to it in preparation, everything you’ve done up until that point.
18:47
And when you finally, you know, get that win, there’s no better feeling than that because you’ve done your job right.
18:57
And you know, if you can take that to the next one and the next one, you know, that’s, that’s a pretty cool thing, right?
19:05
And I think again, when you, when you look at yourself and you look at your team, you know, it’s important to understand those motivations, like what’s motivating you?
19:15
I, I don’t think everybody sits there and says I’m going to be in sales.
19:17
Like I said before, right?
19:18
It’s not something a lot of people set out to, to do for a living.
19:23
They kind of just gradually fall into it.
19:25
But I think sales has evolved so much over time, especially in the B2B world, right?
19:32
There’s a lot of noise out there.
19:34
There’s, you know, a lot of things in terms of offerings and companies, right, that come in and out startups, etcetera.
19:43
But I think with the one thing that stays consistent are people and relationships.
19:47
And it’s just having a conversation just like you and I are right now.
19:52
It’s you know, they’re they’re buying from you, right?
19:56
It’s that kind of one-on-one thing that that that almost always happens at some point during the sales cycle that ultimately gets them, that individual, that buyer to the point to say.
20:08
You know, yeah, let’s do this.
20:10
And so, you know, your ability to lead them to that and guide them along the way and create trust.
20:18
You know, there’s there’s no better feeling than that.
20:21
And I think that’s one of the things I want to continue to do it.
20:24
Yep.
20:25
Competition’s a big part of sports, is a big part of sales.
20:29
How do you assess, when you’re building your team, how competitive a prospect, you know, a candidate is and where they’re going to fit, you know, what role they’re going to play in their team in relation to that, that competitive spirit that they need to have?
20:43
Yeah.
20:43
I mean, I always want to know, you know, a little bit more about them and their background.
20:49
And I think adversity is a key to that.
20:52
You know, tell me a story about how you overcame adversity with something that you know, something that you failed at, right, that you learn from, because that’s a part of it.
21:01
You know, you want to know how they handle that, you know, situational things that you know, that they’ve had to overcome or they’ve had to go through that, you know, that they’re going to experience in a sales role, no question about it.
21:19
How do they keep A level head?
21:20
How do they stay composed?
21:21
Things like that.
21:22
I think that’s that’s definitely, you know, something that I try to hone in on, you know, from, you know, candidate, you know, potential higher standpoint.
21:31
Yeah.
21:32
So now in your role, shift the topics, you’ll hear a little bit.
21:36
You have sales, but you also have customer success.
21:40
It it’s not uncommon for a lot of organizations where the sales team, hey, we’re selling, we sold it now we won the deal to your now you got to deliver.
21:49
And it’s it’s almost an over the wall mentality.
21:53
How do you manage that in your role to where not only you’re responsible for selling, but you’re also responsible for delivery and making sure that customers happy long term?
22:02
Yeah, the sale never ends.
22:03
You know, that’s what I tell the team.
22:05
It’s an ongoing thing and it’s, you know, it’s, it’s obviously, you know, somewhat of a, a different approach and different conversations, but you’re constantly, you should be constantly selling yourself, your team, your products, you know, they’ve invested in you, they’ve invested in the product.
22:24
You want to make sure that you know, it’s worthwhile.
22:26
So huge believer in that customer success mentality to ensure that you know, on boarding and certain aspects of, you know, what I call the customer journey.
22:39
The, the, the three, the first, you know, 36912 months are, are going smoothly.
22:47
They’re getting out of it what they expected.
22:50
Setting expectations accordingly is certainly key there because once you get that signature and once you know, you know, everything starts, right, you’re on to the, you know, whether or not you’re going to renew or not, right?
23:06
So are you going to secure that renewal?
23:09
And I think, you know, statistics might show that that renewal decision is made within the first three months, right?
23:15
So whether or not that experience that they have with your product, with your team, with your services, you know, that’s a huge reflection on, you know, whether or not going to retain that business or not.
23:27
That’s really great.
23:28
I, I love that that first 90 days.
23:29
I, I big believer in that, that the hand off from sales to success.
23:34
It it’s you, you nailed it when you said suddenly never stops.
23:38
You know that it’s like we want customers for life.
23:41
You spent so much money to get a customer, so much time and effort to not really.
23:47
And that’s just this, you know, hopefully this much of the relationship, you know, 20 percent, 80% of it hopefully is, you know, a long term relationship.
23:57
So you got to put in the effort and have that focus.
24:01
Otherwise, like, what’s the point, right?
24:03
You’re always starting from zero every quarter you’re starting new, no doubt.
24:07
Yeah, yeah, it’s probably, you know, just as hard if not harder to retain a customer than it is to get a, a new customer, right.
24:18
So the investment that that we’ve made at Go forms, you know, in our customer success team, our support team, you know, I that, that, that definitely is something we are big believers in.
24:31
And we’ll continue to, you know, invest there, you know, to ensure that, right, our customers are, are getting the most out of, you know, what they intended to do.
24:41
Did you have any trepidation about taking on that responsibility in this role?
24:47
None, no, none whatsoever.
24:49
Because I’m a huge believer in that cohesion between sales and support.
24:56
You know, I, I talked to the team quite, you know, quite often about what I call the feedback loop, right?
25:04
You know, what I learned early on when I first, you know, got into leadership is that you got to sell as much internally as you do externally.
25:12
And for me, it’s always been about establishing relationships across, across departments.
25:18
So, you know, getting to know what a day in the life of our engineers are and our product team and what they’re going through.
25:25
And their challenge is getting to know, you know, and having a, a Direct Line and, and, and strong relationship with our marketing team.
25:33
You know, sometimes you have that, you know, a, a little bit of, you know, contentious relationship there, which is natural.
25:44
But as long as it’s healthy and as long as you know, there’s solid communication and a, and a strong understanding of what each one is going through, you know, I think that, you know, that that’s, that’s the key, right?
25:59
So for me, taking on, you know, customer success and, and, and support, it just brings that together very naturally, right?
26:09
Because, you know, support understands, you know, the things that we’re doing on the sales side and the goals that we have and vice versa.
26:18
And sales, you know, understands what supports support is going through because as you know, many people know that can be a thankless job.
26:27
You know, they’re on the front lines, they’re taking the brunt of all the issues and the problems.
26:32
And so I think if there’s really good dialogue there, you know, then you again, you create this team camaraderie, you create this relationship internally that, you know, it goes a long way.
26:46
And the same goes for, you know, all the other departments, you know, understanding that as well.
26:52
Yeah, Yeah, that’s great.
26:53
Do you have any, you know, any issues with with, you know, early members or new members to your team, getting them to adopt that mentality that, you know, that it it that we really, truly have that unification between sales and customer success.
27:10
Has that been an issue at all for you guys?
27:14
I think it’s actually been very well received.
27:16
I think people, you know, really gravitate towards that.
27:21
I think that they, you know, sometimes you could be working in silos, sometimes you can be working in a box, right?
27:26
So, you know, from, from my experience, at least from my perspective, what I’ve seen so far, you know, I think, you know, people have welcomed that, you know, positively.
27:39
Do you leverage your customer success team as part of your selling process?
27:45
Absolutely.
27:46
It’s a, it’s a huge talking point.
27:48
Our support team, the resources that we tie to, you know, our sales cycles and there’s, there’s a, there’s a selling A-Team selling aspect to this.
28:00
Again, we’re selling our company, we’re selling our people and there’s credibility that goes into that, right.
28:07
So no question about it.
28:09
That’s a, that’s a big selling talking point for us when we’re talking to prospective buyers.
28:14
I’m surprised that the number of companies that don’t do that, you know, that because you think about it, it’s like customer success is going to own that relationship.
28:23
They’re like you said, they’re on the front lines with that customer for so long.
28:27
Why wouldn’t you say like, look at how great they are?
28:31
You know, you could have loved our team, you know?
28:33
Yeah, I know, right?
28:35
I mean, and from my team’s, the way I have it set up here at Go Forms, our sales people stay involved.
28:44
They’re they’re still involved.
28:45
They’re not going anywhere, right.
28:47
So we’ve got a little bit of a hybrid model from our, our, you know, that’s built into our sales team, right?
28:54
They’re focused on new business, but as well as account management, right?
28:58
So they’re managing a book of business.
28:59
And then we’ve got a, you know, customer success team behind them, underneath them that is also helping support that to alleviate some, some of that bandwidth.
29:07
So it’s it’s working and, you know, we’ll continue to evolve that and build off of that.
29:13
I think, you know, we’ve had some some really good feedback from the team on, you know, ways to improve.
29:19
And, you know, I think it it, it goes a long way.
29:22
Well, that that, that has to be key, don’t we?
29:25
And for a customer, that has to be key for them to knowing that, hey, you’re not just selling me and you’re leaving.
29:32
I’m you’re going to be the person I call if I have a problem.
29:36
That’s got to be huge.
29:38
Absolutely.
29:38
Yeah, we have people all the time in our, you know, in our meetings that, you know, have had horrible experiences with other companies, you know, in that similar capacity where, oh, you guys are just going to, you know, pass me off to the next person sort of thing.
29:54
And that’s not my philosophy.
29:57
That’s not our philosophy.
29:58
We certainly want to maintain that relationship because that’s what’s got us here in the 1st place.
30:05
We, we understand that, right.
30:09
And our our biggest initiative is how do we grow this relationship?
30:13
You know, what can we else can we do with you to help you achieve maybe some goals that that are coming down, you know, the pipe internally.
30:22
So having that dialogue and that familiarity is huge when it comes to growth and when it comes to growing your existing accounts and retaining them.
30:37
CRM, do you love it or do you hate it?
30:44
You know, it depends on the day.
30:45
It’s a necessary evil sometimes, right?
30:49
I’ve had, I’ve had good experiences and, and not so great experiences, but you know, I’ve since I’ve been around as long as I have, I guess I’ve seen quite a few of them.
30:59
You know, it’s, it’s the source of truth.
31:01
There’s no question about that.
31:03
You know, I got a saying here that if it’s not in CRM, it didn’t happen.
31:08
So you know, there’s, there’s definitely a lot of benefits.
31:12
There’s no question about it.
31:15
But it’s about, you know, getting people to buy in, having consistency and kind of the process in place that’s defined, you know, in order for you to get the most out of it.
31:28
Is that the toughest thing for you when it comes to CRM, having the processes around it, or is it adoption or is it data?
31:36
You know, usually I hear a bunch of different things when I engage with a client in terms of what their struggles are.
31:40
What’s your biggest struggle?
31:42
Yeah, I would say it’s a mix between, yeah, the data aspect for sure.
31:47
Trusting that data, knowing that data is, is accurate and up to date, there’s no question, but that also kind of goes hand in hand with getting people to buy in, right?
31:56
And, and utilizing it in the capacity that obviously, you know, leads you to the data conversation.
32:05
What’s your why?
32:05
Do you have a clear why on when it comes to CRM that you know, when you’re having that conversation with that one person who’s just like, you’re constantly like, dude, I need your stuff in CRM.
32:17
Do you have a why that you tell them about?
32:21
Yeah, yeah, I think I, I just said it, it’s, you know, if it didn’t if, if it’s not in there, it didn’t happen, right.
32:31
And not again, right.
32:32
When you’re, you got goals in front of you, right?
32:38
Sometimes you’re not having, you know, the easiest of conversations or you’re trying to figure out where where you’re going next.
32:45
Yeah, absolutely.
32:46
It’s, it’s a must.
32:47
Like, like I said, it’s somewhat of that necessary, you know, unfortunately, try not to make it too tedious or too constricting, right, Because everybody operates differently.
33:00
But at the same time, you know, you know, it it, it’s definitely something that you, you know, you rely on every single day.
33:08
And to be honest, you’re probably staring at every single day.
33:11
Oh, yeah, yeah.
33:12
It’s like if you’re in sales, you’re an outlook and you’re in CRM, you know, like that’s, that’s pretty much it.
33:18
And yeah, no doubt.
33:21
Yeah, it’s like, yeah, I say this all the time.
33:23
People have listened to episodes of this of sales League Dog.
33:26
I’ve heard, you’ve heard me say this many times, that CRM is there to enable the sales team.
33:32
It’s not there to be that 1000 LB anchor behind them, you know, the dragon behind them slowing them down.
33:38
And that’s the toughest thing I think with many companies is that is finding that alignment to truly help, you know, to truly empower and enable the sales team and make it at that tool that’s helping them truly succeed in their role.
33:54
Can’t do the job for him, no way.
33:55
But it should definitely be helping them.
33:58
Yeah.
34:00
Yeah, that’s a great point.
34:01
I love, I love the the word alignment because that’s really what it’s doing.
34:05
Yeah, no question.
34:07
Yeah, for sure.
34:09
Jeff, I really appreciate you coming here, coming on sales lead dog and chatting with me.
34:15
If people want to reach out, connect with you, if they want to learn more about go forms, what’s the best way for them to do that?
34:21
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
34:23
Obviously you can visit our website, goforms.com.
34:27
And you know, as far as myself, I’ll hit me up on LinkedIn.
34:30
Always open, you know, to talk and shop or you know, meeting new people and networking for sure.
34:37
Awesome.
34:38
So if you don’t, if you didn’t get that, just check out our show notes.
34:42
You’ll get you can get the show notes for this episode at impellercrm.com/sales Lead Dog, where you’ll find not only this episode, but all the 100 plus episodes of sales Lead Dog.
34:52
So be sure to check those out and subscribe so you get all the future episodes.
34:58
Jeff, thank you for coming on Sales Lead Dog and welcome to the Sales Lead Dog pack.
35:04
Thanks for having me, Chris.
35:05
Really enjoyed the conversation.
35:09
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35:16
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35:20
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35:29
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