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 Jim Weino.
0:33
Jim is the senior director of channel sales for Transaction Network Services.
0:38
Jim, welcome to Sales Lead Dog.
0:41
Yeah, thanks for having me, Chris.
0:42
I appreciate it.
0:44
Tell me a bit about your company.
0:47
So Transaction Network Services or TNS simply takes care of the problem of getting your phone calls answered for outbound callers.
0:56
All right, issue is you have a contact center, you do an outbound campaign in a in a business to consumer model.
1:05
Well, the phone numbers that you’re dialing now are mobile and mobile suppliers don’t have to present an ANI or a, you know, a name on the phone.
1:17
And so a 10 digit comes across and then if that number is being used in a manner that gets a lower score, it’s going to come over as risk of spam, spoof, robocaller, telemarketer.
1:31
And so we help customers avoid that.
1:34
We brand their name up to 32 characters and we also have a zero trust program for spoof protection.
1:42
Financial services companies are hot on this.
1:45
Healthcare probably will follow soon after, but it it ensures that the number that’s being called comes from the originating source.
1:54
In the contact center world or the UC world, it is possible to change the from number.
2:03
And if the terminating carrier doesn’t check thoroughly, those calls go through.
2:08
And so there can be someone calling like they’re coming from a bank.
2:13
They could say, oh, we saw that you were at the gas station this morning or Starbucks or, and there’s a probability that that happens.
2:20
And they say, Oh yeah, we saw some bad activity on your account.
2:24
So they send a text.
2:26
We want you to click on that text and it looks like your bank and everything.
2:30
And you start adding your info in.
2:32
And guess what?
2:32
They’re running a key logger.
2:34
All of a sudden you have your password login info and they can go to town on your personal information and your bit, your account.
2:42
So we avoid, we help customers with getting phone calls answered, improving those outbound campaigns and we help secure the voice channel for those same enterprises to protect their brand, protect their the consumer, their customers.
2:58
And that’s what we do that’s used that is so huge because these days age the the people that want to do nefarious things are really good at it.
3:09
Yeah.
3:09
And it’s, you know, for the, and I’m I’m 100% channel and for the people who are trying to pick up the phone and start a conversation with someone about new business and new logo, you’re going to get a reaction.
3:21
If you get someone on the phone, you ask them about this product.
3:24
Do you have this problem?
3:25
And they personally have that because no one answers 10 digit dials that are in are not in their contact list and you know, and, and it’s impacting their their overall business.
3:37
It’s also good for upsell cross sell within current accounts.
3:40
So anyway, so there’s so today’s a bit of an unusual episode for sales lead dog because normally I have on sales leaders and we talked about their path into sales leadership.
3:53
Jim, Mr.
3:54
Contrarian here has decided to forgo sales leadership and that’s what we’re going to talk about today.
4:01
So before we get into that, Jim, you got to answer my first question.
4:05
I, I ask everyone, you’re not going to get by that one.
4:08
What are the three things that have really driven and LED to your success?
4:13
And everyone should know Jim is a top, top performer.
4:19
He is really, really good at what he does.
4:21
So with that in mind, Jim, what are the three things that have really driven and LED to your success?
4:27
Well, you know, I can, I can say some cute things like, you know, with my wife, she’ll say no for me is maybe.
4:34
So there’s that.
4:36
I have two speeds, 1 is fast, the others off.
4:39
So I don’t slow down and I don’t stop.
4:42
So tenacity is huge.
4:44
You’ve got to really believe in it.
4:46
And you know, when you get into selling or interacting, rejection should be a good, a good sign something’s happening.
4:56
When the rejection stop, it’s either pens come out or there’s a problem and you have to go back to figure out what the problem is.
5:03
So I, you know, early on, you know, started as a hard worker.
5:11
I was a chef and that’s really where I started.
5:14
And jokingly, when I stepped into sales, which was 1986.
5:18
So I did this around divestiture.
5:20
I always joke that, hey, if the selling thing doesn’t work out, I can always go back to my, my, you know, my trained profession.
5:27
So I could always go back cooking.
5:29
And I always say that every year, but the truth is that you got to work hard.
5:34
You can’t not work hard.
5:35
And in my first sales job, I sold beepers, pagers, you know, hospitals, state police.
5:44
I had flight attendants and, you know, and pilots and they’re all on beepers in the day.
5:49
No one was doing cell phones.
5:50
It was even before the bag phone that came out.
5:53
But my first sales job, they gave me a roll of quarters.
5:57
Yep, I hit the road and it was 40 quarters.
6:01
Those were my outbound dials from pay phones.
6:03
Hopefully they were in decent shape when I made my calls.
6:06
But as I was on the road in between appointments, cold calls, you know, knocking on doors, I was dropping quarters in and using my Yellow Pages or I was using the want ads for, you know, territory specific accounts.
6:20
And, you know, I was looking to get myself into, and I was up in Boston at the time, you know, many of the major companies outside of one 28495 that I was targeting.
6:33
So yeah, that’s awesome.
6:35
And I don’t think I hit 3, but I was just going to remind you, I was going to say hard work.
6:41
You know, rejection is the beginning and not the end.
6:45
And it should be, you know, it should be welcome.
6:51
And you know, you, you never, you never give up.
6:54
And I think there is something else that I laid in to my life that I, I really resonate with.
7:03
And that is you either win or get out quickly.
7:07
Don’t stay in something if it doesn’t seem to be bearing fruit.
7:13
Don’t feel, don’t feel embarrassed like you failed.
7:18
Consider it maybe a warning shot that this is going to not bear fruit and just suck your time.
7:24
So you know, it’s something that if you’re going to win, win quickly.
7:28
Time is the killer.
7:29
You know, time is the changer of all deals or the killer of all deals.
7:33
So speed is, is necessary.
7:36
So Yep, awesome.
7:40
So you, you started in sales.
7:43
What were some of the key lessons or excuse me, you started in sales selling beepers, pagers.
7:49
What were some of the key lessons you took away from that first job?
7:55
Well, be prepared for almost anything.
7:58
You know, you know, I sold, I sold like 2 pagers to a, a tow garage, you know, and you know, and I and back in the day was triplicate forms.
8:07
You know, you got grease all over those forms and hopefully they were legible when I got back.
8:14
But you know, when I started getting into more of the corporate sales, I sold some large hospitals outside of the UMass Memorial footprint.
8:21
Well, Memorial was one of the hospitals, Saint Vincent’s.
8:24
It’s just a, a very big, it’s a very big hospital footprint in the Worcester market.
8:31
And you know, it was becoming polished, professional and getting better at that.
8:37
And I, and I did, and I got into some large accounts, including state police, Cisco Foods.
8:45
I had some large accounts that I and I, and I actually managed all of digital equipment in the day and they were big up till 91117 facilities.
8:57
And I, I managed that whole relationship and that, that actually got my appetite, you know, you know, accelerated for something bigger.
9:10
And after 7 interviews and essentially it was sort of like going into the Secret Service, these exams they would run at AT&T, which were psychological in nature, you know, OK, stop.
9:26
You know, they would the, the, the Proctor would have you stop, go back, go back to question 25, erase your answer, move it to, to the left.
9:36
If you hadn’t gotten a 25, you’re freaking out, I guess.
9:39
So you have to go through this whole process.
9:41
And I got through that and I finally got hired up with AT&T in their commercial markets group, which was a win back group because MCI had, you know, Mcgowan’s company has started making inroads and hit the street.
9:55
And by the first year of selling, I was their number one guy out of 1400.
10:00
And a lot of it came down to, you know, taking what I had learned, you know, in terms of hard work, but also becoming more professional and applying it to a great brand.
10:12
And this was AT&T of the day when it was New Jersey based AT&T, the original AT&T the and we had everything.
10:20
We had long lines.
10:22
We had, you know, I had switched tours.
10:23
I could take people to Bell Labs.
10:25
You know, it was fascinating.
10:26
It was, it was like, wow, this is a Great American company which you know, I watched yet somewhat disassembled as I was there.
10:35
And I ended up, you know, getting myself into AT&T solutions and I was selling managed solutions.
10:42
I opened up their Cisco resale practice.
10:44
I did a massive deal to Thomson Reuters, EMCA large, a large energy network deal, State Street and a variety of others.
10:55
But and I and I I rode with a lot of my counterparts who were in the global steam.
11:01
So yeah.
11:03
So Jim, you said you had to get more polished.
11:07
Was that did someone come up and tell you that or did you realize that on your own?
11:12
So they liked me there and they I was in what was called highly promotable.
11:18
So I was going I was getting gig to go layers above and you know, it meant, you know, I could get classes at Sloan MI TS Business School.
11:30
And it meant that I would have gone to corporate New Jersey and done a, you know, a tour in operations and a tour in manufacturing and a tour in services.
11:40
And I and I and I had a opportunity to become the vice president of one of the large branches.
11:48
And I, I had a moment where I was just having run teams at that point, sales management.
11:57
And I liked my teams and I built good teams.
11:59
But it was clear to me that I could never apply the standards I held to myself to others because it, it failed.
12:08
I, I was too hard on people.
12:10
In some cases it caused me issues and others I decided to tune it back.
12:16
And I felt I used the word I don’t want to move in, I want to move up.
12:20
And it was that pivot that, you know, I went into AT&T solutions, I ended up working in AT&T’s Alliance channel and then I followed a group of professionals over, you know, AT&T solutions people, the outsource team to Global Crossing.
12:40
And unfortunately we landed in there in 2001 when that company fell apart.
12:46
And it, it was a big change for me.
12:49
We, you know, I, I then went off and did some software sales and things like that before I landed at Maeser G Yeah.
12:57
So I, I love what we’re going to talk about here because it’s so different from what we normally talk about here in sales Lead dog.
13:07
We talk about how people they’ve, they’re already established.
13:10
They’ve made it to the top of the leadership totem pole or the hierarchy, whatever you want to call it.
13:17
But you’re a top performer.
13:18
You’ve consistently been a top performer throughout your career.
13:22
So from your perspective, what makes a great sales leader for a top performer?
13:32
It’s a hard one.
13:33
I mean, because you know the, I guess you know you, there’s the 8020 rule and maybe some cases it’s the 1090.
13:40
And so your boss is really relegated to the 90 that they’re really managing.
13:48
And so leave me alone, you know, to some degree, it’s just just let me do my thing and let me let me make you look good.
13:58
But that’s sometimes harder than stated it.
14:01
It could be that someone’s ego is too connected with control and, you know, needing to show up on, you know, the the Happy Gilmore sized check is handed out.
14:12
Got to be there for the handshake and everything and and take credit for things I but I would say that I have had excellent bosses in my career, but what they what they usually have are they have the capability of seeing their universe in segments and if there are those that need development, they’re talked to separately.
14:39
I don’t like team calls where there’s corrective communications going on that are really earmarked for a a very few.
14:50
It is it, it is a waste of time.
14:54
It is time that you will never get back.
14:58
And it’s insulting to me to have that done.
15:02
It it it disturbs me to see that done in front of others.
15:06
And it, it, sometimes it, it, it appears to be punitive and not really inspirational.
15:13
So to use those calls as a, a universal area to air all things is, is a, is a bad idea.
15:25
So I, I love that as an example where I think a lot of sales leader like, oh, I got to treat everybody the same that any leader will tell you absolutely not.
15:34
You’ve got to use saying who the individual is and you need to lead the team, but you need to treat them as individuals because different people need different things at different times.
15:44
And that’s your job as a leader.
15:46
Understand that and engage them that way.
15:49
I mean, look at Jack Welch.
15:50
I mean, he, you know, he was, he was a, you know, a pioneer with Six Sigma.
15:56
And you know, the concept there is that your top 30 are you, you do everything you can to move compensation, clear the path, make it frictionless and, and enable them to do what they, they can do to create more value for this firm.
16:12
The middle is a question mark.
16:14
They’re, they’re to be developed or pushed out.
16:17
And the bottom third, get rid of them.
16:19
And I’m not saying it out of, you know, harshness, but if you want to have, and I, I feel this really strongly that if you have a performance, a paper performance culture or a performance culture, you really need to tend the bottom.
16:35
It’s, it’s meaningful if you allow, if you allow people to hang out, you know, and I’ve heard adages like back in the day when they were hiring freezes, that bad breath was better than no breath.
16:47
I’m like, whatever, like this is this sounds like bad corporate culture, but, you know, leaving them around has has an impact on the rest of the team.
16:57
So what are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve seen sales leaders do not necessary related to you, but just you’ve been doing this a long time.
17:11
You’ve seen a lot.
17:12
What are some of the the common big mistakes you see them lead beyond what we just talked about.
17:20
I think you know, other than, well, you know, off spreadsheet, you know, financing, that’s a problem, you know, getting copies into Chapter 11.
17:30
I mean, I was there.
17:31
I saw I saw IRU swaps going down.
17:33
Don’t want to get into don’t.
17:35
I won’t say who anyway, I will say this.
17:40
The the at the crux of a relationship is trust.
17:46
If, if I’m going to put my heart and soul on the table for a firm that I represent and, and, and, and, and then a boss who is directly, you know, benefiting from this effort.
18:00
I, I’m looking for a, a level of respect and, and protection.
18:08
The umbrella, let’s call it.
18:10
I don’t want it to rain crap on me.
18:13
And it’s their job, if anything is to make my life easier, better, so I can do more for them.
18:21
So when there is either a lack of trust or, or there’s a change in direction with regards to that.
18:31
And you feel like you have a trust model going.
18:35
And you’ve come to find out that you’re being, you know, fed to the wolves on the, you know, on the on the management side or just that they’re not good at that.
18:44
You know, something happens with your pay and they know about it and they don’t tell you, for instance, that’s a big no, no, You can’t.
18:52
You don’t mess with the huge no, no.
18:54
And I, I had one of those happen with a very large Commission check and it was getting loaded into the payment tool.
19:02
And my boss knew a week beforehand.
19:05
And my wife to this day says, well, you’re really hard on him.
19:08
And I had to read, I had to tell her that’s what happened.
19:12
She goes, well, that’s a good reason to have had a problem.
19:16
Yeah.
19:17
No, it’s like you don’t screw up people’s pay.
19:19
That’s the rule number.
19:20
It’s a contract.
19:21
And I and then and then so, you know, and what you have there is then the the tough job about middle management and having been at Global Crossing during a lot of layoffs, I had to lay off 61 people.
19:33
I ended up going over as a sales executive.
19:36
And then my boss at the time didn’t like the man, the VP who was running the region.
19:41
So I got that and then some.
19:43
Excuse me.
19:45
Some other higher level BP had moved on.
19:48
I had 117 people rolling up to me, good people.
19:52
And the pink slips just kept coming.
19:55
And I was doing the, the, the bidding of the business.
19:58
I was not in any way.
20:02
Yeah.
20:02
I, it didn’t matter if I liked it or didn’t like it.
20:04
I had to shove this stuff on people, you know, and it resulted in a lot of anger and a lot of you know.
20:11
Bad feelings and and some death threats and, you know, stuff like that.
20:16
Yeah, that’s brutal.
20:16
It’s just brutal.
20:17
And I’ll just say that, you know, the and then that’s an extreme in this case.
20:21
But when your boss thinks that the, you know, the real reason for their being is to push the, the corporate, you know, edicts onto this, the the sellers, you know, they should check themselves.
20:37
That’s not, that’s not going to inspire, it’s not going going to get your people to do more for you or, or do you even feel good about themselves?
20:46
Because, you know, not a great, great.
20:49
Yeah.
20:50
Yeah.
20:51
So you we, we were talking earlier and you told me you’ve had some excellent bosses in your career.
20:57
Yeah.
20:57
Again, from your perspective as a top performer performer, what was it about them that makes you say they were excellent?
21:05
They left me alone.
21:07
Is that pretty much then leaving you alone ’cause I’m well, they became, well, they, they became friends.
21:14
They’re people I respected, they respected me.
21:18
They, they, they either, they had good business acumen.
21:23
They understood the, the segmenting of the sales team.
21:25
They didn’t drag us through, you know, the, the repetitive, you know, mantras that they had for improvement.
21:35
You know, there must be this in Salesforce.
21:37
There’s there, you know, your your contact rates aren’t high enough.
21:41
I mean, it’s just like, oh God, here we go on, you know, and and you know what you put in for the month or you know, and and you know, and KPIs in general, you know, so if if the KPIs are revenue, yes, that’s what I’m a geared for is selling and getting Commission.
21:56
That’s the KPII care about, you know, so I think a lot of sales leaders, well, I should say a lot, but I think there are sales leaders out there that want to lean on their top performers to help the the segments that maybe aren’t performing as well.
22:18
What’s your opinion on that?
22:20
In your experience with that?
22:22
It can be OK.
22:24
I think it’s that that’s a fair ask of a leader to, you know, if, if it’s done with, you know, a, a, a limited exposure, but I think that’s the key.
22:43
Yeah.
22:44
And I, and I think that I, I, I would, you know, look, I, I, I manage people and I, they had me as, as a, a leader.
22:53
And so I, I got to see how hard it is, but I, I would often give my overall perspective and go to market thinking, which is work hard, get up early.
23:11
Do you know, do your chores and then you know, and do all these things and have fun.
23:16
You know, I and some of why I selected, you know, and non manage it well, I manage, I manage lots of revenue.
23:24
That’s the way I look at it.
23:24
I cross functionally manage.
23:26
I get it.
23:27
You treat them with respect.
23:29
Everybody I work with, regardless if they’re billing operations, you know, shipping, whatever it is.
23:35
I mean they’re people, they have families know that, you know, you treat them well, but you know, it’s so that I have time back in my life.
23:43
I mean, I’m not earning a paycheck and, you know, swinging a a product for the good of the company.
23:51
I’m doing it for the good of gym and I’m doing it for the good of my family.
23:54
But I also want to have time for myself to enjoy my life before, you know, you know, time passes on.
24:00
You do this for 40 years and you’re in your 60s and you know, there’s not as much one way in front of you.
24:06
You better be having fun better.
24:09
It’s, I talk about this all the time that as a leader, you need to understand the why of every individual to really be able to be effective, to motivate them and all that.
24:26
If you ever had bosses come to you and ask you, Jim, what, what’s your why, What’s your motivator?
24:33
Or you know, what’s that been on for you?
24:36
I think you know what?
24:37
I, I here’s, here’s one that I, I haven’t thought of for a while.
24:40
That’s a good question is, you know, are you motivated by the carrot or the fear of the stick?
24:48
You know, and as, as a way to ask that.
24:51
And I, I’m, I’m, I’m a former Catholic, not, not nothing against it, but I, I was, I had nuns.
24:57
They, they, they hovered me, my, I’m one of six kids, you know, in nine years.
25:01
So I, you know, I was in one of those families where, you know, you had to do your chores or else and things had to be in order before you went to school.
25:13
You had to do your homework.
25:16
We played we, you know, we had all kinds of, you know, time to ourselves, but there were there were repercussions for not doing those things you were supposed to do.
25:26
And I think that has played heavy in my mind ever since.
25:33
It’s not something I can UN ingrained, you know, I can UN program entirely.
25:39
I have relaxed more.
25:41
I don’t feel as under the gun, but I do care about finishing first.
25:48
I do like winning.
25:50
I did.
25:52
I’m not exactly Ricky Bobby saying you know #2 is the first loser.
25:56
But let’s just say I care about it.
25:59
You know, There’s been so many good forgot all about that movie, that line.
26:04
That’s so funny.
26:08
A Ricky Bobby, you know, a reference.
26:11
Never, never terrible, never terrible.
26:13
So, but, but I, I think you know, and, and the reward is great.
26:19
But you know, what’s funny is that I, I think I’m, I’m probably insecure enough to say that I need recognition.
26:28
You know, I, I need to be important.
26:32
I care about how people think about me.
26:34
Kind of goes to the golden rule do unto others, but it, it literally has a framework within.
26:43
I really care how people think about me.
26:45
I, it upsets me when we aren’t successful in something and someone’s disappointed.
26:51
I can’t, I can’t solve all those problems because maybe it’s a product we have, but you know, I, I do, you know, if it’s a relationship that’s involved in it, like a, a partner who I’ve been working with and we weren’t successful, we put in an effort that that weighs on me at some level and I and that does motivate.
27:09
So you, you made me think of something as you were talking there about you’d love to be recognized.
27:19
I imagine you can tell when a boss is just blowing smoke versus being truly authentic in how they recognize your achievements.
27:30
Have you had that, you know, people just blowing smoke at you?
27:33
Well, you know, like, come on, you’re just stroking me.
27:37
Well, we’re we’re or they’re not seeing what they get with me or yeah, so I would, you know, are you, what are you looking at?
27:48
You know, I, I have a, a very, at this point in my career, I have a really long deep bench of contacts that I’ve, you know, I’ve sold for many years to with four as a peer of, I mean, hundreds, right.
28:08
And it’s not just how big my LinkedIn is.
28:11
I mean, these are people who let’s just say it’s a good 400 people that are friends, you know, and you develop them.
28:19
So, you know, you know, that’s that’s meaningful and and important in in how we operate because it gets it gets the things done and, and brings about a, an ability to get, you know, get contracts over the line and, or even in a new, in a new venue, the ability to be considered, even though it’s a new product and a new situation.
28:45
It’s gym, right?
28:47
But I’ll say this that those who are authentic set it up front pretty early and you, you know it.
28:56
And it’s more like, I’m really excited to be with you.
29:01
Your success speaks for itself.
29:04
I really appreciate you allowing me to manage you or and and I don’t even think of managing you.
29:11
Please let me know whatever I need, you need from me, let me know.
29:15
And it’s something like that, not complex.
29:19
And then you test it.
29:20
Well, it’s not even you test it.
29:21
You say, hey, I’m having problems with a contractor.
29:23
I’m having problems with this individual and they’ll say, let let me let me lean in on that or whatever.
29:30
So yeah, that’s awesome.
29:32
That’s I think you summed that up pretty well.
29:35
That because again, it goes back to trust and you know, people aren’t stupid.
29:40
They’re like customers.
29:41
If you’re being authentic with the customers know employees are the same way, you know, overall people we can smell when something isn’t right.
29:50
You know, if it’s off, we know yeah, it’s something else.
29:55
I like to say something else along the same lines I like to say is this is no one needs a new sales guy.
30:03
They don’t they, they need a, they need, they need someone who is going to be a consultant, they need a partner, they need a friend.
30:14
Someone’s going to listen.
30:16
And I, you know, and I also like to say that, you know, I’ll just, and I say this to new customers because, you know, if you’re talking them the first time, I say, I’ll bet you, you’re trying to figure out as I’m saying things, what I’m saying is a lie because I’m a sales guy.
30:34
And you know, and I’m not saying I’m lying, but you’re trying to figure out what’s real and what’s not and what you should be keying in on.
30:44
Now, you might have done research on my firm, blah, blah.
30:46
But the net is that there is a level of you’re, you know, you’re being tested and they’re gauging trust if they don’t know you.
30:58
So a lot of what I’ve found in the channel, which which is extremely meaningful, is nail a relationship with somebody you know, and they introduce you your time to get something moving.
31:14
It moves along so much faster because part of a trust circle, you know?
31:19
Yeah, for sure.
31:21
Shifting gears a bit, CRM, do you love it or do you hate it?
31:31
Honestly, I find it for the most part for somebody else, not for me and I’m not and I don’t, I understand its need depending on what kind of company you’re working for.
31:44
It’s a private company wanting to go public.
31:47
They’ve got to be able to monetize.
31:49
They’ve got to be able to say things like how many contacts are going out, how many touch points and you know KPIs that are beyond just revenue.
31:58
But I find that a lot of a lot of what you end up doing is, is repetitive or yeah, or it’s, you know, to be asked.
32:08
For instance, you know, what did you do this week?
32:11
Well, can’t you look in the CRM tool?
32:13
I, you’ve asked me to fill it in.
32:15
And so I, I feel this to be repetitive and, and I did update notes.
32:19
So is it now you don’t trust me?
32:22
I guess.
32:22
So now you’re saying you trust what I So that seems to be what do you want?
32:27
Do you want me to give it to you here, then you put it in or do you want me to tell you?
32:31
So those kind of behaviors around CRM.
32:34
So I’m not sure if it’s a really just like the CRMII think it’s an adherence to how you use the CRM.
32:41
Man, I could not agree more that to me like what you described, that’s like old school CRM.
32:50
It’s not really helping anybody.
32:53
You know, it’s what CRM was 10 years ago, and for far too many companies, it still is.
32:59
They’re not leveraging CRM or they haven’t configured it.
33:02
They haven’t created in a way that’s truly enabling the the sales team as a tool that’s helping them drive business.
33:11
It’s not a status reporting tool.
33:15
If you’re using it to report status, you’ve completely missed the boat.
33:19
Yeah.
33:21
So I I would say that and and I would just say that most of the firms I’ve worked for are in that mode that they have to test that which was put in or they don’t like which was put in.
33:35
So it’s this back and forth.
33:37
And how much of your sales calls talking about the CRM, not talking about sales, I don’t know.
33:41
And it’s like I don’t want to be on this call.
33:44
It’s annoying.
33:46
Maybe you could record it and maybe I’ll listen to it.
33:49
I don’t know.
33:50
Yeah, there you go.
33:52
What advice do you have for a sales leader when it comes to a top performer?
34:00
Like that’s like you let’s like hey, like your serum is not really helping me.
34:03
I’m not going to use it or I’m going to use it at the bare minimum.
34:08
Get him some on that.
34:10
Get him an admin who can do it.
34:11
I had that in mind, you know, I had an admin and we have a 15 minute call and they key in on the stuff that is on the report that’s going to the CEO.
34:23
What do you need?
34:24
And we just have that call and that’s it.
34:26
We’re done.
34:27
Perfect.
34:28
And that’s the way your Serum is set up.
34:30
Get admins for your top performers.
34:32
I love that.
34:33
It’s spot on.
34:34
The right answer.
34:36
The worst thing they could do is take you away from selling.
34:39
It’s the worst, dumbest thing they can do.
34:42
The whole idea is we want you out there selling.
34:44
We don’t want you to be in a data entry clerk where you and then you get hit with listen, until you have an account, it’s not a it’s not a contact, it’s a leak.
34:55
I’m like, uh huh.
34:56
And then they, they give you more explanation.
34:58
And then when it’s an opportunity and it’s A at this percentage level, then we can actually, you know, do blah, blah.
35:04
I’m just like, Oh my God, the rules around, but somehow drives that stuff drives me crazy too.
35:09
Like when it’s this stage, it’s this probability.
35:12
No, it’s not right.
35:14
I know the probability if you’re good, you know the probability right up front.
35:19
You know, it doesn’t change as you go.
35:22
I mean, it might a little bit, but not like the way they set that up where it’s starting at 0, then it goes to 15, then it goes to 30.
35:29
That is so absurd.
35:31
I would just say that, you know, to to frame up with with the CRM that that’s a very specific thing that a leader could do is assist the top people.
35:42
But in general, work on trust with your top people.
35:48
And if you have that, then let them fly.
35:51
Don’t you know, remove friction, remove obstacles, be their advocate, protect them.
35:58
They’re, they’re your most valuable assets and try not to lose them, you know, to the competition and hopefully the business that you’re leading within allows you to do that, you know, both from pay for performance standpoints and, and, and culture.
36:15
And so, well, Jim, we’re at our time here on sales lead dog.
36:20
People want to reach out and connect with you.
36:23
Maybe they want to work with you.
36:25
What’s the best way for them to do that?
36:27
So well, my e-mail for work is Jane Moeno at tnsi.com.
36:35
My mobile number is 978-376-8600.
36:40
Or meet me down in Palm Beach for some fishing sometime or up on, up up on the northeast coast for some tuna.
36:48
But that’s what I do when I’m not, you know, doing the sales thing.
36:53
It’s my right now, Jim.
36:55
It’s my jam outside of the of the sales world.
36:59
I appreciate the time today, Chris.
37:00
I really do.
37:01
Yeah, this has been great.
37:03
If you didn’t catch any of that, don’t worry about it.
37:05
We have it in our show notes.
37:07
You can get that at impellercrm.com/sales Lead Dog where you’ll get not only this episode with Jim, but all our hundred plus episodes of Sales Lead Dog.
37:18
So be sure to check that out.
37:20
Be sure to subscribe so you get all our future episodes as well.
37:23
Jim, thank you so much for coming on the show and welcome to the Sales Lead Dog Pack.
37:29
Thank you, Sir.
37:30
Take care, Chris, as we end this discussion on Sales Lead Dog, be sure to subscribe to catch all our episodes on social media.
37:41
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.
37:54
Sales Lead Dog is supported by Impeller CRM, delivering objectively better CRM for business guaranteed.
