Use Your CRM Data as a Learning Tool – “When a client is asking something, what are they really asking for?” asks John Maczynski, CRO for CXperts. John is the master of cutting the fluff out of sales and focusing on the basics – real people talking to other people about what they need.
John’s start in sales came during a relocation. His wife started med school, and he found himself in a new part of the country, and in a new part of his company. But he thrived in a sales environment, because he had been a buyer in his previous role. He knew from the get-go what buyers want, which is authenticity, a solutions-based approach, and frank conversations about what the selling company can really provide — and what they can’t. John doesn’t see himself as a sales person, he sees himself as a consultant, and a problem solver. “In that case,” John says, “you are going to be a trusted ally, not an adversary.”
In terms of CRM implementation, John’s focus is on actionable implementation of your data. You want your data to be able to solve your problems in the future, not just report on the past. Being able to use your data as a learning tool to identify the difference between your wins and your losses is a huge asset for any organization.
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Transcript:
Fri, 1/29 1:00PM • 56:38
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
crm, client, salesperson, understand, people, important, deal, sales, company, figure, standpoint, absolutely, focus, process, worked, key, organization, terms, drive, seller
Speakers of Discussion about Use Your CRM Data as a Learning Tool
John Maczynski, Christopher Smith
Intro
Welcome to the Sales Lead Dog Podcast hosted by CRM technology and sales process expert Christopher Smith, talking with sales leaders that have separated themselves from the rest of the pack. Listen to find out how the best of the best achieve success with their team and CRM technology. And remember, unless you are the lead dog, the view never changes.
Christopher Smith
Welcome to Sales Lead Dog. Today we have joining us John Maczynski. John, welcome to Sales Lead Dog.
John Maczynski
Thanks so much, Chris. Great to be here.
Christopher Smith
It’s great to have you on. John, tell us about your current role and your company.
John Maczynski
Perfect. Well, I am the Chief Revenue Officer for a company called CXperts, which is a subsidiary of Nearsol. And I’ve been with the company now for about four months, and it’s just been an exciting time as we’ve been launching into a lot of new areas as an organization. So it’s a company that if you’re in the right circles, you know a whole lot about it and if you’re not, you’ve probably never heard of them. But it’s a 15 year old BPO organization, so business process outsourcing, and where the emphasis of the company has been is in building out new locations, site acquisition, build, operate transfer type models for a number of clients in the BPO space and for any clients overall. And if you take a look at what we’ve been doing here more often here lately, it’s going to be just more full service type BPO. So what that means is that we’ve been working with our clients to not only just provide them with the infrastructure and the people but now we’re focusing on doing everything. So from that standpoint where we’re really known as an organization is, is providing a really strong culture. So we’ve prioritized that, you know, it means that you know if you take a look at what we’ve done for our employees here, it’s been really building up a strong employee satisfaction to be able to go along with customer satisfaction ultimately. And the problem is, you know, when you deal with culture, it’s a, it’s a cliche. So you know you’ve got everybody who’s a people company, you know, people are everybody’s strongest assets, but if you really take a look at things and you really drive down to the core, there’s really only just a few companies that really really focus on that. So you know I was interviewing somebody a couple weeks ago where one of the reasons that he wanted to talk to me in the first place because he’d gone online and checked out our Glassdoor scores, and, you know, typically that’s not something that you want to have advise clients to do is go, go check us out, you know, because that’s where people tend to air their dirty laundry and that’s where you find out the other bad stuff about a company, you know, in this particular case, I decided to go check us out ourselves and what I found actually was that, you know, among the 30 companies that, that I found within our industry, we were, we were top 10%. So one of the top three companies that are there. So it really emphasized to me just, just how much you know when we, when we talk about culture, how it really translates into employees thinking the same thing.
Christopher Smith
Oh I love that. Culture is so important. If you don’t have that, if you’re not taking care of your people and really having them participate and be part of the company, not just work there but part of it, you’re missing out. So, that’s great.
John Maczynski
And in our case, you know the the chief service that we provide is, you know, customer service and, and dialogues with our customers’ customers. And so from that standpoint, the single most important driver to a great customer experience is being able to treat your employees well.
Christopher Smith
Oh yeah, yeah. Oh, you think about how bad that could go if you were doing the office. Oh my. Just be horrible. Yeah, John, tell us about the three things that you think have really contributed to your success.
John Maczynski
Yeah, well I would say you know there’s some advice that somebody had given me once upon a time when talking about, you know, when you look at sales, you know, and really trying to be able to figure out you know those things are going to be important when trying to, to work with you with your clients, you know that the most important thing that I’ve never forgotten here is that it always boils down to the same thing, which is people working with people. So despite all the bells and whistles, despite all the things you might be able to bring to the table, if you forget that at the end of the day it’s going to be your ability to connect with that person on the other side of the table and be able to provide them with what they need, that’s going to be the thing that’s going to make you successful or not. You know, the second thing is, you know, never be afraid to drive the bus, you know, so there are so many so many times where what you try to do is to stay within your lane you know so this is somebody else’s job or somebody else’s focus, I can come back and I can tell everybody why we didn’t get the deal. But if you can, if you can take ownership of being able to drive the bus and go figure out the kinds of things that need to happen in order to be able to secure, not only this sale, but to help your environment for that next deal that’s down the road, you know so learn from your mistakes in this one and figure out, you know, not only in terms of my own ownership in the process, but how can I drive the bus overall to be able to make sure that we’re helping ourselves to be able to get that next deal. And then the third thing that is help the client, see past the shiny thing. You know, there’s so many times where the emphasis from somebody else is to focus on this, this new thing that’s out there, and you really lose sight of what’s important, what are the key things that that are going to be ideal for you as a buyer, then you’re just focused on that thing that ultimately, you know, could be a flash in the pan. So if you, if you can just make sure that you have them keep their eye on the ball and not go try to figure out, you know what that latest and greatest thing is that everybody’s talking about, you know that’s gonna help you overall. You know so if you think about it, it’s it’s, you know, from the perspective for instance if you’re going to be driving, you know, cross country, you know, in a car, you know you can figure out what kind of a car you’re going to want to want to drive in, you know. So if your options are a Chrysler, you know, that, you know, you get a lot of, you know, opportunity to be able to you know to drive comfortably, to try to be able to get across dependently, you know all that, or a Yugo, who comes out with you know some new cupholders, you know, and you know looks very appealing here as a result of that, I mean, which of those two things you’re really going to want, but Yugo now with the extra cupholders, you know, or the Chrysler that you can depend on.
Christopher Smith
I haven’t heard the name Yugo in forever.
John Maczynski
I think I’m showing my age.
Christopher Smith
Mine too. That’s awesome. How’d you get your start in sales?
John Maczynski
You know actually accidentally. So you know from, from my standpoint it also lends itself a little bit to what I think is important for for sales guys overall. You know I never done sales until you know the last 20 to 25 years of my career. Prior to that, all of my time had been spent in operations and client services, running PnL’s, and really understanding the business, you know, and from there I had become a client, and being on the client side then for five years, I understood things from a from a buyer’s perspective, you know. And then from there, I was in a situation where I needed to relocate, I had a wife who had finished medical school and starting a residency, so she went across country and I went along with her. And, and became a free agent, and one of the companies that I had worked with had sought me out then to become a salesperson for the team, you know, and so I end up being the second salesperson for that organization. You know they saw some traits they thought were going to be interesting. And, and I was I was pretty successful from the onset. And I gotta tell you the thing that I that was, I think, important for me was the fact that I really understood the business, you know, so I was on the other side, so I ran everything, clearly understood the product, knew what was right, what was wrong. And then I was again, I was a buyer, so I clearly understood at that point, you know everything that, that hopefully I needed to know, at least going into it in terms of what does a buyer look for, what is going to be important. And then from there I was able to customize the craft to be able to make sure that, you know, I was not only able to put myself in the client’s shoes, but on top of that, the other part is that I was also able to then use my years of experience to be able to understand, you know when a client is asking for something, what are they, what are they really asking for, and then sometimes, whether to talk them out of it, you know, because you know you’ve got clients sometimes that are out trying to seek a thing, versus a solution. And when you really peel back the onion and try to figure out what they’re trying to do, you can you can figure out that, know what they’re actually looking for isn’t exactly what they thought they were looking for.
Christopher Smith
I see that my world, all the time. So I bet that really helped you, that coming from that perspective helped you be incredibly authentic as well.
John Maczynski
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and that’s that’s a key thing. Again when you’re when you’re selling to people, they can understand you know when you know you understand the business and when you don’t. And when the product that you’ve got at the table here is something that you’re selling from, you know, a slide or really selling, because you understand, you know, what’s what’s behind everything. So it’s it’s helped me to be able to again be consultative, you know, with with my clients, you know, so you’re not just selling a widget but you’re selling a solution.
Christopher Smith
Right.
John Maczynski
And again, focus on their needs.
Christopher Smith
Yeah, and you’re really helping them. Especially when you’re saying, “Hey you know what, I know you really think you want to go this direction, but trust me, you don’t. I’m gonna save you a whole lot of pain.” That’s huge. That’s absolutely huge.
John Maczynski
Absolutely, you know, and so from a consultative selling standpoint I can’t tell you how many times you know you you really take a look at what you’re presenting, and it, most slides that you’ll see from anybody out there are all about me, me, me. You know, we’re so cool look at us, you know look at the cool things that we do, where what you don’t really do is you customize the whole thing to focus on what the client is really going to be looking for. So how much are you really trying to focus on the client’s problems and having what you do solve their problems, versus just putting the spotlight on yourself saying you know again we’re so cool.
Christopher Smith
Oh yeah, yeah. So thinking back when you had that first job and getting that started in sales. And we all go into things knowing or thinking we know more than we really do. What do you know now that you wish you knew back then?
John Maczynski
Yeah, I would say, you know, if you take a look at, you know, the, the, the advice that I would give to salespeople. You know it was one, again don’t be a seller, you know, don’t ever think of yourself as a salesperson, you know, think of yourself as a consultant, as a problem solver, somebody whose job it is is to make somebody else’s life better. So if you just think about, you know, from that person who’s sitting across the table, you know, are they actually, you know, going through this process, to be able to just kick the tires, you know, or are you really there to be able to help them solve one of solve one of life’s grest problems in their eyes So, is it, is it a cost saving exercise, is it a customer experience exercise. Once you know what the actual problem is, you can help to solve that problem and once they stop seeing you as a seller and instead see you as a problem solver, in that, in that case you know you’re going to be a trusted ally, you’re not going to be somebody who’s an adversary through that whole process. And the second thing then too I would say that is, you know, as you’re going through that process that as well I guess I don’t know how many times I’ve seen somebody that that latches on to a really cool thing, and they’ve got a solution in search of a problem, instead of first going out again and trying to figure out the problem, and then finding the right solution.
Christopher Smith
That’s right. That’s right. Tell me about your decision to transition into sales leadership.
John Maczynski
Yeah, so that was, that was again something that that I did, you know, somewhat you know accidentally as well I think, you know, it certainly wasn’t a job that I had applied for, you know, once upon a time, but it’s something that, that it evolved for me. So it started out with, with mentoring, you know, so as, as I’m doing something right and you get a deal and you close that deal and other people notice, well they certainly are going to be trying to have other people try to emulate what you’re doing. So, so from that point I started out doing that. It also then turned into, you know, what am I doing right, can I document this, can I, can I, can I do things to be able to help other people. And then, and then from that standpoint, eventually then migrated into having a couple folks under me and eventually I had as many as, you know, 16 direct reports underneath it as well. So the key thing for all that then is you know as a sales leader, the, the most important thing to me has always been how can I be a mentor, you know, to other people? So how can I try to translate my success into others, you know, and if I’m doing well, can I turn that into four or five or six or 10, other people, you know also doing well? So, so it’s worked out great you know in terms of you know the the focus on on the people side of things, and being a leader truly by trying to lead and engage and being part of people’s business and trying to be able to make them be better. And that eventually turned into again, a role as a sales leader
Christopher Smith
What were some of the big mistakes you made early on as a sales leader?
John Maczynski
Well, I would say one is assuming that everybody had the same skill sets as me, you know. So, from that standpoint, you know, one of the challenges is you want to turn everybody into a mini me, you know, and that just is not going to work. So you’ve got different people that have different strengths, they’ve got different things they bring to the table. And you got some folks that are very strong relationship sellers, you’ve got other people that, that are great at being able to sell the product, you know and be able to instill confidence and really understanding this thing, and being able to show how this thing is going to make your life so good. You got, you’ve got other people that that are great at at other things that as well I mean in terms of, of people that are just very strong at process. One of the greatest sales guys that I had working for me was, was somebody that did a great job because he understood what it took to get from point A to point B at the various points of the the whole sales process. So getting from, you know, the initial prospecting phase and really understanding the client and being able to go into that call very knowledgeably and then secondly, transitioning from that into into the proposal process and being able to put out just a really solid proposal based on everything that he learned in that first phase. And then from there, getting to that next phase, you know, which is bringing the client on site and having him do a site visit and understanding about us and seeing everything for real and knowing everything that it took to be able to execute that. And he was just rock solid in terms of process, but this is not also somebody that was a huge relationship seller. This was also not somebody that, you know, really understood the product inside and out like like some of those other people ,but he he knew how to sell in his way and it absolutely worked. So once you can get past the point of just trying to be able to turn everybody into you or turn everybody into a clone of somebody that that’s really well and really trying to be able to leverage their strengths, you really find that there’s room for everybody at the table.
Christopher Smith
That’s awesome. That’s awesome. What’s the first thing you like to do when you step into a new leadership role?
John Maczynski
Yeah, I would say that the key thing is, is understanding the metrics of the position to really, really be able to then use data as your friend to figure out then, you know, when you can identify where something’s going right and something’s going wrong. You know, and it also helps you understand those things maybe that are that are noise versus those things that are real, you know. So, for instance, you know one of the things that I’ve found is that, you know, the, the the strongest sales guys aren’t necessarily those who spend the most time dotting the i’s and crossing the T’s you know in their CRM tool and in the reports and everything else, you know. It’s, it’s generally frankly the opposite, it’s it’s the guys that are, you know, have the least results that show the most activity, you know, and it’s because they’re trying to be able to justify that yeah, they do have something going on. So I think you need to be able to differentiate between activity and results, and then understanding those things that are meaningful, in terms of the data that you can gather through that process to be able to figure out whether or not you’re on track. So it’s important to, to understand, you know the warning signs, you know, but I like to be able to make sure that I give the salespeople enough room to be able to do what they need to do, and understand that they truly own the deal. So you’re not looking over their shoulder, but you are trying to be able to then figure out, you know how to stay close enough to be able to do some course correction as needed. So, as Ronald Reagan used to say, you know, “trust but verify.”
Christopher Smith
Right. How do you get that balance though for like your top producers where they’re not really leveraging CRM that much and then they hit a slump? And now, you really don’t have anything to look back on within from a data perspective to leverage to figure out okay, this is you know what’s changed, what’s new, what if, what were you doing before that worked, what can we try that’s new, you don’t have that data now. How do you how do you approach that problem?
John Maczynski
Yeah, don’t get me wrong, I think there is still the minimum expectation, you should have already all of your people to be able to to document the things that they’re doing. And I think again that’s, that’s part of the, the focus on knowing those metrics that are going to be important for you to understand when something’s going right and something’s going wrong. So as you’ve got again some of your, your other producers that may use that as a crutch, you know, being able to over document and take a look at the fact that I’ve left voicemails for this guy five days in a row, so clearly I’m taking active steps to be able to show activity and that I’m trying really hard. But that still doesn’t excuse poor performance, so for the other guys, you’ll notice that the focus is not necessarily as much on being able to justify, you know, the, what they’re doing here through that type of activity. But you absolutely need to be able to make sure that the key milestones and the key metrics that are going to be important for you absolutely are in there.
Christopher Smith
Yeah. So what, you know, revenue obviously is a big indicator of success for a team, and for CRM. What other measures do you use to track success or define success?
John Maczynski
Yeah revenue is clearly going to be the big, the big thing there, you know. So you’re really looking at, just like in baseball, you know, two things: how many at bats are you getting, you know, and then how many hits are you getting at your at bats, you know. So, with that, you know, that means, at the very top of the funnel, you need to be able to show activity, you know, so you need to be able to have enough deals that are there that will eventually progress into other things. And then once you can make sure that you’ve got enough deals there, then you’ve got to figure out where they’re falling out and why they’re falling out. Alright, so from that standpoint, you, you again track things just every step of the way. So as you are at the top of the funnel with your leads and they turn into something else, how many of those are not going anywhere, so have you not nurtured those enough to be able to turn it into an active opportunity. And then at the opportunity stages, you know, along that, along the way there, you’re going to have those various milestones where you should be progressing into something else. So again, it’s a matter of figuring out how many deals you’ve got in the pipeline. And then from there, are they progressing along, you know, along the way here to be able to get you the conversions that you’re looking for. And again, you’re gonna find that you know you’ve got individuals that have great success or not so great success along the way or you may find you got process issues overall where everybody’s stumbling at a certain, certain point then too.
Christopher Smith
Right. So what about when the deal’s won. Now, we’ve got a new client we need to onboard. What about that part of the deal? Do you, are you guys pushing into that part of the world with data and process as well?
John Maczynski
Well yeah, absolutely. You know, so from a salesperson’s perspective, you know it’s always a little bit of a challenge you know at least in the business where we are where we don’t sell a thing and then be able to walk away and go sell somebody else that thing, you know from our standpoint, usually it’s going to be getting a certain share a wallet from your client. You know, so at the start, you’ll, you’ll get some kind of a test you know or you’ll get some portion of the business. If you do well, you get more, and if you do well, you get even more. And then from there, there’s other parts of the business you might be able to get into perhaps that weren’t in scope in the original engagement. So absolutely, you know, we we want to be able to make sure that our team that’s running the business makes sure that they keep the information that’s in that CRM up to date. And then based upon that, it’ll give the, the salesperson some idea about whether or not we’re growing at the rate that we expect, and, you know, are there other opportunities in there then as well. So are we building what we should be, or are we realizing the revenues that we should be, are we going in the direction that we should? And then the salesperson will stay engaged or not engaged, depending upon whether or not you know we’re seeing what we expect out of there.
Christopher Smith
Right. Before we start talking about CRM, do you have a funny or crazy sales story you can share with us?
John Maczynski
Oh my goodness. Well there there certainly several I think I could, I can pick from. The one that always comes to mind for me actually is, you know, when I, when I, it’s an international company, I’ve usually worked for international companies. And I remember the first time that we closed a deal in Mexico, and I had my CEO for Mexico that every time that we, we had a new client that came down, he would always take him to his favorite restaurant. It was called the Cat’s Arenas, it was in Monterrey, Mexico. And, and he’d take the clients out for just a great dinner, you know, and so I never understood this until you know I actually went through this, but you know before dinner you know we’d have, of course you’re in Mexico and you’re celebrating, so you’ve got plenty of tequila that’s being, you know, you know tossed around as well. So that comes with the territory. But we had a great time doing that and you get to actual dinner he’s like alright, so now you know I would like to be able to introduce to everybody to this wonderful feast. You’re going to be having a whole plethora of pre-Columbian delicacies. And so you’re thinking, oh this ought to be great until, until you break that down, and then you realize okay pre-Columbian, so this is what people were eating before Columbus came over. So it’s certainly not going to be fillet and crab legs. So instead of that, you know the the clients and the rest of us ended up eating fried crickets. We had fried corn worms. And, you know, the coup d’etat there we also had, you know, I guess poor man’s caviar and eggs.
Christopher Smith
Oh my God.
John Maczynski
What I found out is that you know you could put, you know, anything on a tortilla with enough sauce, you know it could be shoe laces, a bicycle part, it all tastes okay going down. But yeah, I just I felt for the, the client there in the back you know who you know just is midway through the meal’s like, “Can I get a hamburger?”
Christopher Smith
Oh yeah.
John Maczynski
Yeah, so you always have to kind of know what you’re in for when you got other parts of the world.
Christopher Smith
Oh my, that I could just like just see them, or just picture the faces and, you know, people think yeah they’re going to get a filet or crab like, here’s your plate of crickets.
John Maczynski
That’s exactly. I’m sure now I understand why we got so much tequila I guess going into the meal.
Christopher Smith
Alright. That’s awesome, great way to transition into talking about CRM. CRM, do you love it, or do you hate it?
John Maczynski
Well, you know, I think, CRM can be a necessary evil. So I can tell you that if you’re a sales leader, it’s absolutely your friend. And if you know how to be able to use it, you know, then then you’ll get you know what you need out of there, if you’ve got the right tool. If you’re a salesperson, I haven’t met a salesperson yet who who loved their CRM, you know unless you’re just a truly organized person that loved to be able to use that as a means of being able to track everything they’re doing, keep themselves in check. So I would say, yes, if you’re able to use a CRM in a way which doesn’t require the salesperson to feel like they’re spending half their day on the tool, and then secondly, if the outputs that you’re getting as a sales leader and other people in the organization that are going to benefit from it, if they’re able to see what they intend to see and truly get actionable information out of that tool, then I’d say it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Christopher Smith
Yeah, I agree. You know you mentioned the people that you know that it’s not a burden on the sales team, that is so important. But there is a balance there with the amount of data you collect, because if you ask salespeople what you should put in there, they’re like, nothing. I don’t put anything in CRM. But that’s obviously not realistic. I was talking to one salesperson once, and he said something that stuck with me forever that, you know he had hit a down period. And so what he decided to do was go back to CRM, pull everything out, every deal that he’d done in the last year, looked at all the wins, looked at all the losses. But he really focused on the losses, comparing them to the ones he won to see what was different, you know, what really moved the needle in those deals that won that I wasn’t doing in the deals I lost. So if you’re not capturing enough information about those losses, you’re not going to be able to do that kind of retrospective. So coming from that perspective, what’s your opinion about that proper balance or using that tool to, really as a, as a learning tool for your sales team.
John Maczynski
Yeah, absolutely. I think, I think part of it is being, having them involved in the process, not just for the inputs, but also for the outputs, so they can understand how it’s used, they see the reports that come out of it, they’ve got access to being able to look at the data to also be able to figure that out. So how are my results, you know, not just in terms of overall revenue, I’m sure that’s, that’s shared. But what about the various other steps of the way? So how many deals do I have going on as compared to everybody else that’s out there? What are the size of the deals, how far along are they, where am I losing you know my deals as compared to everybody else, you know, what are the outputs out of this that are going to help me get better as an individual? And if I also understand the things that everybody in the organization truly is going to be looking at, so what are the hot buttons, what are the key things that, you know, people are going to react to, positively or negatively. But once you understand that, it helps you to understand those things you ought to be focusing your attentions on within the CRM so therefore, you know, what are the must-haves and what are the like-to-haves.
Christopher Smith
Yeah, so we had talked about in our pre-show interview that you guys, your firm is transitioning to a new CRM. We’re not going to mention any names here, but when companies are going through that process of hey, we need a new CRM, and we’re having these issues or whatever and we, we need a better platform, you mentioned earlier it’s very easy to focus in on those shiny objects of, oh, this is so cool or this little feature so cool. How do you avoid that when you’re going through a selection process for something as important to CRM?
John Maczynski
Yeah, I think, I think before you begin the process, I think you need to figure out what are those things that are compelling you to potentially go in and make a change. So figure out the pain points that you’ve got here right now, those things you wish you had, maybe not necessarily even those things you don’t even know exist, you know, that will come through the process. But figure out the things you wish you had, and then map this thing out appropriately so you understand those important things. And if down the road, you’re then able to find a supplier that can give you all of those things that you’re looking for, then at that point is when you can start looking for those extras, those shiny things.
Christopher Smith
Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. I, when I talk to people about this that it’s, don’t even think about technology. Just put it out of your mind. Look at your processes, look at your pain points, look at opportunities. Find those opportunities where, where can we make it better, where can we really move the needle for the organization. Focus on all that first, get that all figured out. Then start looking at your technology of what technology platform really is going to help us in those areas and really move that needle. So many people focus in on the technology first, like oh, I used this at my last company and I really liked it or, you know, this one’s got the great shiny objects, they put out a great demo or whatever. And they end up very dissatisfied. Have you ever been in a bad CRM implementation in your career?
John Maczynski
Yeah, well let me see I’ve gone from bad CRMs to other CRMs that worked better. So I understand the difference between bad and good I think, you know, just, you know, early days of CRM is where you know really,
Christopher Smith
Oh yeah.
John Maczynski
You know there were there were there were nothing there. You know, and then, and then from there, you know the the flavor of CRM that we’re using here today as an example is just another case where I know we want to make a change. And fortunately, I’ve had the opportunity to be able to see good in the past, compared to not so good here right now, you know, and some of that perhaps you know could be, you know, into the you know the influence of familiarity so, so, go do what you’re used to. However, you know there’s there’s other stuff that that’s here where, you know, again the shiny thing or whatever, you’ve got a lot of things that look really nice, as you’re, you know viewing the CRM, you know, in terms of, you know, here’s the logo here’s this and wow, it’s got great visuals on there. However, really at the end of the day, you take a peek at that and you figure out okay is it really usable, or is it, does it just look good. And unfortunately, it seems to be more the latter than the former in this case, and so I really you know, like to have something where, you know, the the press of a couple buttons, I can, I can generate some reports that, that you know for me are going to give me the data that I need overall.
Christopher Smith
Yeah, that’s great. The, when it comes to CRM, there is a lot of emphasis around user adoption. What’s your plan or have you gotten that far yet, in terms of thinking about how you’re going to drive user adoption in the new platform?
John Maczynski
Yeah, I would say, you know, again, the key is, fortunately for us, you know, we’re at the the front end of this, so as we go into the new CRM, the key is going to be getting everybody involved in terms of all of this. So, you know, as we make the decision and as we implement, it’s going to be everybody having input about how best to be able to get what we want with minimal effort, you know, and not having additional fields that are superfluous to what we’re looking at overall. So even if you’ve got you know data which is available but we don’t really think we’re going to use, you know, then let’s, let’s you know avoid it, you know, let’s not show it, let’s, let’s not make it mandatory you know and so forth. And so let’s just build what we need versus what we could potentially want. And if we get everybody’s involvement at the front end of this, it’s going to be a whole lot easier to be able to get their, their adoption because they were part of the process, and hopefully they understand what we’re trying to make out of it.
Christopher Smith
Oh yeah, I couldn’t agree more. It’s really important to create that alignment early on, get everybody’s buy-in get everyone rowing in the same direction. It’s a lot easier than if everyone’s, you know, going in different directions and the boat’s just spinning. Yeah. John, it’s been great talking to you, we’re coming up here on our end time here on Sales Lead Dog. If people want to reach out and connect with you, learn more about your company, what’s the best way for them to do that?
John Maczynski
Yeah, absolutely. So, we are undergoing a brand change here. So again, there’s, you know folks that may be able to find us, you know, as per our previous brand that we use for the entire organization so that would be www.Nearsol.us, but for purposes of our full service BPO expertise here, that’s www.CXperts.us, and you’ll be hearing a lot more about that coming up. And then you could always reach out to me directly at [email protected]. And you can reach us via LinkedIn or again on our website or via Facebook.
Christopher Smith
I love the name CXperts. That just speaks right to what you guys do. That’s awesome.
John Maczynski
That’s exactly right. Yeah, so, so I’ve been doing this here for a while now as a sales guy and it’s in your blood or it’s not, and so I really appreciate you having me on the show here today, you know just, you know, one additional thing I’ll say here too that just as a closing note. You know the one thing that I’ve learned then as well in dealing with salespeople is that, you know, salespeople are optimists at heart, you know. And so as a manager, you know, I really learned that it’s important to treat them as optimists. You know, you really need to be able to encourage your sales force. Don’t rain on their parade, you know, and then the other keys that are just be honest, be consistent, you know, and be their ally to clear obstacles and be part of their success. So if there’s just one one other closing comment I’d love to make, it’s just, again be, be the guy that that’s their sunshine, don’t, don’t be raining on your sales people.
Christopher Smith
I love that. That’s great. That’s great advice. You’d be a good guy to work for, John.
John Maczynski
Thanks Chris, I appreciate that. I sure hope so.
Christopher Smith
All right, well thank you again.
John Maczynski
All right. Thanks. Have a great day. Take care.
Outro
As we end this discussion on Sales Lead Dog, be sure to subscribe to catch all our episodes on social media. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Watch the videos on YouTube, and you can also find our episodes on our website at Empellorcrm.com/salesleaddog. Sales Lead Dog is supported by Empellor CRM, delivering objectively better CRM for business guaranteed.
Quotes:
- “The single most important driver to a great customer experience is being able to treat your employees well.” (5:41-5:49)
- “In our case, the chief service that we provide is customer service and dialogue with our customers. And so from that standpoint. The single most important driver to a great customer experience is being able to treat your employees well.” (5:28-5:49)
Links:
CXperts Website
John Maczynski LinkedIn
CXperts LinkedIn
Empellor CRM Website
If you have any question on how Empellor CRM can help you? Contact Christopher Smith
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing