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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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Joining me for today’s episode, I have Wendy Herbs.
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Wendy, welcome to sales lead dog.
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Happy to be here, Chris.
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Awesome.
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Wendy, before we were hit the record button, you’re telling me you’re down in Jacksonville and and made it through the big storm that’s blowing through.
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I’m glad that happened.
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You can join us here today.
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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We were relatively unscathed here in Jacksonville Beach.
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And, you know, certainly thoughts and prayers for those who were more heavily impacted than we were up here.
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Yeah.
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It’s always got to be crazy time.
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Crazy time, Always interesting.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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So, Wendy, let’s jump right in.
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When you look back over your career, you’ve had a lot of success.
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How would you or what what would be the three items that you would pick to really summarize or describe the success you’ve had in your career?
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Sure.
1:23
Yeah.
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It’s it’s been a wild ride for sure.
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And I can look back and say a career I’ve truly, truly enjoyed been a lot of places, done a lot of things, you know, experiences and places I never imagined.
1:35
So I’m truly grateful for my career so far and what’s yet to come.
1:40
But three things I would say.
1:41
And really, you know, the answer for me, for a lot of things.
1:44
The very first thing is people.
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And when I say that, I mean, you know, I think back of all the people that I learned from the customers that I get to learn about that what they do and what makes what allows them to make their decisions.
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The people that I work with that have taught me along the way.
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And then as I’ve moved into leadership and executive roles, the teams that work for me and was humbled by what they’re willing to do, the sacrifices that they make in their time and their family.
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I’m gonna just have learned and never ever take that for granted.
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And then also mentors true again or again, truly, truly grateful for having, you know, more than a handful of really fantastic people that there’s that saying of they saw more in you than you saw in yourself.
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And again, really grateful to have had those people in my life that have helped foster my career and and developing skills.
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So certainly people is top of mind for me.
2:42
And then secondly, I would say emotional intelligence and you know, concept to being that, you know, as your emotions come up and when we’re doing things that matter and important and we have a passionate career that happens and making sure that we don’t let our intelligence come down.
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And I kind of equate that to the ability to stay calm.
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And particularly when you get into leadership roles that you know, one, when you’re calm, you’re just going to be able to make better decisions.
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And then when you’re calm, like I said, in leadership positions, everybody else stays calm, right?
3:17
If you even say the word panic, anybody who didn’t imagine panic is now panicked.
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So just keep people out of that environment.
3:24
So you know, the category there of emotional intelligence.
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And like I said, just being calm.
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I’m in a skill that I’ve had to, you know, one, recognize was important.
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And then really over my career, but it’s definitely been been critical to to getting where I am today.
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And then third, I would say is focus.
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So I think back being early in my career and one of is a big multitasker and you’re just hungry, right?
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So stay hungry certainly throughout your career, but you really want to try to do everything.
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And then, you know, as you mature and progress in your career, you’ve learned that, you know, you’re looking at strengths and weaknesses and there’s a time in your life, in your career to really focus on those weaknesses and how you can improve on those.
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And making sure you understand what’s the end game?
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You know, having looked two and three steps ahead and say, what do I really need to improve?
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You know, what I need to make sure I capitalize on from the strengths perspective.
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And then what do I need to strengthen so that I can really get, you know, to the next step and really where I want to go within my career and within my life.
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And then you get to a point within your career where you say diminishing returns, I’m just really good at a handful of things and I’m going to delegate the rest.
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And I’m going to stay focused on what I’m really good at and why I can make the most impact.
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And knowing that you’ve you’re in a leadership position, so you have people on your team, but those things you’re not so good at, they’re really good at.
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And you get to give them the trust and credibility to hand those things to them and let them excel at what they’re good at as well.
4:54
So people, emotion intelligence and focus are kind of the categories.
5:00
I, I love that.
5:01
And it’s also, I think that your answers to me, they’re all very interconnected because you know, people, to be good with people, you have to have very strong, very high level of emotional intelligence, especially in sales.
5:14
It especially, you know, if you’re doing high pressure sales or, you know, anything like that, man, you better be able to have empathy and vulnerability and, and like, as you’re saying, stay calm because it, it’s a lot harder.
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If you don’t have that, you’re going to struggle.
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You’re doing nothing but making it more difficult.
5:35
Oh, yeah, yeah, without a doubt, without a doubt.
5:40
She from a marketing background.
5:42
Tell, tell me about that.
5:44
Sure.
5:45
So I, I did, I, you know, came out of school and I had an emphasis within school on the marketing side.
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And that really was fostered from some professors that I had that really just, you know, kind of sparked that within me.
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And I really thought that was the direction that I wanted to take my career.
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I did start in direct sales and it was again, thinking two and three steps ahead where I thought I wanted to pursue a marketing career, but knowing how valuable it was to have been on the front lines first to have sold, how can you market a product that you’ve never sold?
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We don’t understand the challenges of what the sales people face, the questions that they get ultimately, which is what your customer needs.
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So started there and then I just, I loved looking at the, the marketing side of things, the the idea of taking, you know, any type of industry, right, and saying, how’s it structured?
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What are the markets like?
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What are the segments within it?
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What would be our target segments within that?
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What does the value chain look like?
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And then you start to understand that a value chain is truly that there’s dollars tied to it.
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So you have to look at where does everybody make money?
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Because the only time value chains fall apart is when somebody stops making money.
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Unless everybody’s making money, it doesn’t work.
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So really digging in and understanding what is the structure, how does it work and where can I bring value was just really fun to me and really exciting.
7:10
And then just sort of just in doing that work.
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And then you take it, you know, a little bit of a just being, you know, totally straightforward, naive kid coming out of college that you do that work because it’s fun and exciting.
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And then you take it and you realize the impact that it can make when your company has that knowledge that you really can define the value that your company and your products, your services that you have today or you have the ability to create can bring to those customers.
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So it was just, you know, really my my love for that.
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And then, you know, continue to do those things.
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You know, as I said, it just it ended up being really a really valuable skill to have.
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And it was, you know, serendipity for me that the how much I enjoyed doing that work as well.
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And then really, really fantastic foundation for what I’ve now found myself and my career on the the business management and an executive side of things.
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To truly understand that work, its value and how it contributes to developing strategy that ultimately leads to having the proper organization, the proper sales process, the proper metrics and the organization that drives that strategy forward.
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What brought you back into sales?
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One of those fantastic mentors.
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Yeah.
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So it was, you know, a couple of people along my career.
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So I can look back and say, like they said, you know, really fortunate to have had different leaders say, Are you sure you want to keep going down this marketing?
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Because I think maybe, you know, you might want to pivot this way.
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And I always had that in the back of my mind.
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And it really was my passion for the marketing side of things that kept me on that path on the strategic marketing side.
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And then, you know, you come to different forks in the road and one of those came up and it was one of those mentors, and I’ll repeat it again, that they saw in me what I could not see in myself and said, you’re going to do this, you’re going to be great at it.
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And I’m so grateful for that because as much as I thought I loved the marketing and I did, I still do.
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I went to the sales and the business management side of things and really, you know, really the commercial execution piece.
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And I found my place in the world, shall they say.
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And I’m so grateful for that mentor that said, this is where you’re going to go.
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And there was that opportunity and you know, I didn’t want to disappoint him.
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So what is just really grateful?
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Did he ever tell you what it was that he saw in you that said you have to do this?
9:48
So I asked that question because I was interested.
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Why?
9:53
You know, because it’s one of those things, again, as you return your career, you say I’m grateful.
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I want to be able to do this for others.
10:00
So how do you, you know, study that so you can recognize it and recognize it in others and do that for others.
10:07
And it was so, you know, he said a couple of things, which one was mental toughness that you know, marketing is the softer side of the commercial, commercial organization, shall we say.
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And then the the sales side some more conviction maybe in in making decisions, etcetera.
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It’s like you have the mental toughness to do this and just a natural leadership ability really was the other piece that you come with data, you’re very thoughtful and people recognize that and they want to follow that.
10:42
So you’re just you’re better suited to make an impact in this type of role.
10:48
That’s interesting.
10:49
Were you scared to make that leap?
10:52
Terrified.
10:53
Yeah, absolutely.
10:54
It was like, you know, and exactly the exact quote I said to him, Chris, was it’s equal parts terrifying and exciting.
11:03
And I meant every word of that.
11:04
And that’s exactly what it was.
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And it was the, you know, how do you let the exciting take over the terrifying?
11:12
Right.
11:12
And it was his confidence in me.
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There’s just no way I was going to disappoint him.
11:18
He had given me the and he saw this motivates you more.
11:23
The excitement part of it or the terror part?
11:27
Fantastic question.
11:28
Like I said, I say equal parts for a reason.
11:32
I it is the combination that is that, right?
11:36
If it was just exciting, you know what might happen.
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If it was just terrifying, I shudder to think what might happen, right?
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But that combination of exciting and terrifying is that’s where the magic happens.
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What motivates you today making an impact, I guess Simply put.
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And then, you know, we’ve, you know, talked about in a career transition at this point and I’ve thought a lot about that.
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And it is that what do I want to do next?
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I want to help, I want to be valuable.
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I want to create value.
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I want to go where I can make an impact and I’ve learned within my career that to look back and reflect and recognize when that’s happened in my career.
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And it’s when I was the happiest when I was doing something that I was so interested in that I love doing that.
12:27
I love talking about that he felt passion for because it just makes you want to dig in and and really learn and you know, it’s not work anymore, right?
12:37
It’s just more learning and so to to, to, to just get to that place where you’re making that impact and feel passionate about what you’re doing.
12:48
Yeah.
12:48
So as you mentioned, you’re currently in between opportunities which everybody faces in, you know, at different times in your career.
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And it could be terrifying and exciting just like you described earlier.
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You know that that it’s equal elements because you don’t know what’s coming.
13:09
How do you evaluate these opportunities to find out as you describe, this is going to be a good fit for you and give you those things that motivate you?
13:18
Sure.
13:18
And I, I look at you know, so I work within the product equity space, right?
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And I learned and I’ve been in it for a lot of years, more than I care to admit.
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And I learned a long time ago that you have to embrace the transitions because they’re just part of the game.
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And it’s literally critical to how it works that the the end game is always and exits.
13:40
And that will mean some sort of transition.
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And that could be any number of things.
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And you don’t know what it is.
13:46
And you have to go into that environment with excitement of of what it can become.
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And so if I come back, then, you know, and looking at what I want to do next, I’ll reiterate some things that we’ve discussed already.
14:01
And it’s, you know, understanding what makes you tick, what makes you happy, where can you make an impact?
14:07
And having thought those two and three steps ahead and ultimately, you know, start with the end in mind.
14:13
Where do I want to get to and what’s the next step to get there?
14:18
And like I said, they go hand in hand of when you think about that, what’s the next step that ultimately gets me where to where I want to be?
14:28
It is doing the things that make you the happiest, doing the things that you feel passionate about.
14:33
So stop, reflect a career transition is truly an exciting time.
14:40
It is a time to really take a look at everything that you’ve done and say, how can I best apply this?
14:45
What do I want to do next?
14:47
What do I want to look like that to look like and really just create the next dream situation that you’re into.
14:55
And if you’re someone that believes in continuous improvement and I do, and when you get to this point in your career, you have to, it means that the next thing you do will be the best work you’ve ever done.
15:09
And you get to take all of the experience and all of the background of everything you’ve done in your career and apply that.
15:15
And that is a very exciting thing.
15:17
And I think that’s the the very first step in evaluating those things is one, get to that headspace.
15:22
This is exciting.
15:23
And I get to really shape my career and shape the next step of what that looks like and find the place, find the company, find the people, find the team where I can make an impact and have fun doing it.
15:38
Yeah.
15:40
We also partner with private equity.
15:42
And the thing that I love about working with private equity is when they acquire a company, the clock is ticking.
15:52
There’s a defined window where they’re driving that business to the next level.
15:59
A lot of the business we come with that aren’t related to private equity, they’re they’re maybe not as driven.
16:09
Yeah, it would really depends every business saying, but I’ve I’ve found that for change, true change to happen, you have to have some kind of external force driving that change.
16:18
And with portfolio companies that that external forces, hey, we need to grow to get to this point in a defined period of time.
16:27
That’s a lot of pressure for a leadership team.
16:32
And so when you’re coming into those roles and evaluating those opportunities, you know, obviously you strike me as someone you want to succeed.
16:40
Everybody does.
16:41
When they go into a new role, how do you gauge that?
16:45
How do you gauge that ability like that you’re the right person for that role to where you can drive that success?
16:52
Well, and you know, and again, I talked about people before and you know, there’s themes for me and you know, another one that’s, you know, a response to a lot of questions, it’s curiosity.
17:04
So ask a lot of questions.
17:07
And you know, for me, it comes down to two things.
17:12
And then, you know, kind of a caveat to those two things is do they have a defined strategy?
17:17
And as someone who’s an expert in determining that strategy, the answer can be no.
17:22
And I’m OK with that.
17:23
I love that because it gives me a chance to come in and do it.
17:26
But if they do, what is it?
17:28
Do I believe in that?
17:29
Do I understand it?
17:31
And what’s the culture, right?
17:33
And then just saying, you know, is this a place where the skills, the background, the experience that I have, I can make an impact.
17:41
I can help drive that strategy forward or help develop that strategy and then build whatever is necessary to drive that forward.
17:48
And then a culture that you can thrive within, you know, really understand what do they do on a day-to-day basis?
17:55
Think about what’s important to you from, you know, in your personal life and, and in your career, and then assess, you know, how does that fit in and, and making sure that those two components are there.
18:07
And then when I said, you know, kind of the caveat to that, it’s also, look, am I running towards it, right?
18:15
Anything, any situation we’re in today?
18:18
And you know, if we talk about career transitions in general, right, it can be you’re at a company and you’re deciding to leave.
18:24
There’s a reason for that.
18:27
You’re, you have to make a move to a different location.
18:29
There’s a reason for that, you know, on and on, right?
18:32
And you can apply this in anything, right?
18:34
Relationships, etcetera.
18:36
And sometimes, you know, we’ve seen this a lot over the last year, right, where there are, you know, layoffs and people end up in this situation, they don’t want to be in it.
18:45
And so then you’re leaving an unemployment situation.
18:47
So regardless, you’re in a situation and when you’re those next opportunities are going to go back to an exciting positive experience from a career transition perspective, make sure you’re running towards what you’re going to.
19:01
It’s not about running away from the situation that you’re in, but that you’re running towards.
19:07
And if you just sit for a minute by yourself and just reflect on that alone, it will tell you a lot if it’s the right next opportunity for you.
19:16
Yeah, I love that because that that’s a good gut check.
19:21
You know, it’s like, am I really running towards this or I’m just accepting it because it’s what’s in front of me?
19:27
Exactly.
19:28
Yeah, Don’t let those.
19:29
And I, I don’t, you know, don’t discount that there can be pressures in that situation.
19:33
Everybody has their own right.
19:35
They can be for me on social, financial, whatever the case might be.
19:39
I mean, but to set those aside for a second, because ultimately, you know, taking that next opportunity, are you going to be happy there because that’s going to impact your financials, how you interact with your family and, and, and all the things.
19:52
So really look at that of am I just trying to get out of this or am I running towards that?
19:58
And you’re exactly right.
20:00
Gut check is, is the best, best way to say that when I hire that I’m looking for that I’m those are the things that I am evaluating.
20:08
Are they?
20:08
Do they for their culture?
20:10
Do they bring skills, background, assets, ideas, whatever the case may be, whatever I’ve determined is important to drive the strategy forward and making sure I’m clear on what that is.
20:19
And are they running towards my company working for me for this role?
20:24
Does it advance what they want to do next in their career?
20:27
So I look for the same things that I, you know, practice when I preach here, right?
20:32
The same things I’m looking for, I’m looking for when I’m hiring as well.
20:36
That’s really important.
20:38
What are the the red flags people should be looking out for when they’re in this same position you’re in now?
20:48
I mean, Simply put, I guess kind of the opposite of that of, you know, where things don’t listen to your gut, right?
21:00
If something doesn’t feel right, there’s a reason for that.
21:04
And then to have really done that work to evaluate and said, you know, these are the must haves that that I want.
21:11
And then really, really understand your ability and willingness to compromise on those things.
21:19
And if they exist, it’s just it’s experience tells me it’s not going to work out.
21:24
So you just just don’t want to go down that road.
21:27
And then also pay attention through the process on it’s not always everything down to like what happens, how it happens, because how that process is for you.
21:41
You know, any interaction you have with people, with companies, it tells you something about how it’s going to be when you’re there.
21:49
And if you didn’t like something about that, you really have to think about was it a one off or is it a red flag?
21:56
And is it something that I really need to consider?
22:00
And again, go back to that gut check and say, you know, is am I going to, I don’t like this thing and am I going to continue to experience that if I go forward?
22:08
And, and how do I feel about that?
22:10
You know, it’s like any when you’re selling, you have to be able to identify those deals that are the right fit for your business.
22:19
It’s the same thing, you know, like it’s like you want to have success and, and it whether you’re selling and hey, look, I can’t just sell to them because they want to buy.
22:29
I want to make sure from some of them it’s a win, win for both sides.
22:33
Same thing when you’re evaluating these opportunities, right?
22:36
Absolutely.
22:37
I, I, I say that all the time of like get to the know.
22:41
And when I talk to my team, you know how I describe it is in anything we do, there is a success ratio, right?
22:50
There’s a, there’s a hit factor and we, we don’t ever know what that number is, right?
22:55
And you know, I know we’ll talk about CRM, but we can start to define some tools that help us get to kind of what some of those success percentages are, but we don’t always know what they are.
23:05
But if we just use the example, and like I said, you can really apply this to anything when I’m talking with my team.
23:10
So a lot of times it’s about innovation.
23:12
So not every idea is a good one.
23:14
When you think about commercial viability and financial impact might be really cool and a lot of fun and a really neat thing, but we can’t make any money and we don’t have a buyer, so it doesn’t matter.
23:26
So when you’re, when you’re thinking about those things, like I said, you can apply it to anything.
23:29
Let’s just say for example, sake, that we’re going to hit 10% of the time.
23:35
Well, that means that there’s one out of 10.
23:38
So that means there’s nine Nos to get to the yes.
23:41
And you don’t know what order they’re coming in.
23:44
So it’s a numbers game.
23:45
So you just got to keep going and you have to be tracking things and you have to be really listening.
23:52
You have to be very curious because if it’s a no and it’s inevitable, now you have to get there as quickly as possible because it’s keeping you from the yeses.
24:02
Yeah, exactly.
24:04
Like I said, you can apply it to so many things.
24:06
And certainly you’re looking for opportunities within your career.
24:10
Yeah, for sure.
24:13
Let’s say you found that opportunity, like, yeah, this is it.
24:15
This is the one I’m going to do.
24:17
What do you do to prepare, you know, before the things you’re doing, before you show up for the for day one?
24:25
Well, I’d say, you know, it depends on the position.
24:29
And, you know, there’s some of the things that OK, if you once you know, in this example, right, If you’ve determined that that is a thing, you’ve done a lot of work up to that point, right?
24:38
Because you’ve figured out what do I know?
24:40
What do I, what do I not know so that I can ask those questions so I can learn about that.
24:46
And then it’s, you know, what’s the position, what have what’s been described as the most.
24:51
And one of the really critical questions you want to ask is what do we need to do first?
24:56
What, how can I make the biggest impact the fastest?
25:00
And then certainly once you’re under the tent, you got to get in there and find out if you agree with what you’ve been told, but you’re coming with with some information and then, you know, so the the steps that you would take for whatever those things are.
25:17
And then, you know, when I look at, you know, the types of positions that I’m looking at, so executive positions, you know, for private equity backed companies.
25:25
And like I said, I’ll come in with a, a lot of information and it’s, you know, just really understanding, you know, in terms of preparation of going and really understanding what is the situation where we’re at.
25:36
Because there’s always going to be as soon as you get started, you know, particularly in the executive position, there’s going to be that observation period where you just need to build trust and you need to get get to know people and let them get to know you, which is a critical part that I think people forget about sometimes, myself included, you know, have made that mistake in the past.
25:58
So making those plans to, you know, to really come in and do that and understand what, where do we need to start and what should we leave alone because don’t fix what’s not broken and give wins to the organization where they’ve been successful.
26:19
Make sure that we leave those things alone and give them credit where credit is due on what has been done well and keep that foundation for what you can build on to, to grow because that’s what we’re all there for.
26:34
Oh yeah.
26:34
So is that observation period, What’s the typical duration for you?
26:38
And I imagine it varies by opportunity, but what, what do you typically see for that?
26:45
Sure.
26:45
And you’re, you’re exactly right.
26:46
It depends on the company, it depends on the acuteness of what needs to be done, the role, etcetera.
26:53
But I kind of think of it in kind of a 306090.
26:56
So there’s like observation, planning, execution, right?
27:00
So, you know, so kind of typical, I’d say 30 days and then that’ll flex right up or down depending on a lot of factors.
27:08
We just talked size of organization and cuteness.
27:11
What’s the goal?
27:12
What’s the timeline, particularly in private equity?
27:14
So, but I was that’s kind of the typical time frame, yeah.
27:19
How do you build rapport with a new leadership team when you’re coming in?
27:23
What are some things you do to build rapport and trust?
27:27
Just be people.
27:28
You know, we’re all there.
27:29
I get really Simply put, we’re all there to accomplish a goal.
27:33
And you know, we all understand what the this past at hand is right, that we want to grow company in private equity.
27:40
It’s always an exit.
27:42
But when I say just be people, it’s get to know them that, you know, forget what they do on their role and their their career and their their background.
27:51
But there’s there’s so much value in understanding people and what makes them tick.
27:56
And let’s face it, the things that make us tick are typically outside of our role, right?
28:01
We have families, we have hobbies, we have life goals that always revolve around, you know, people and places in our lives.
28:10
So understanding who they are and what makes them tick and in any way that you can, how you can help them get there and how what we’re doing together as a team helps them advance that goal for themselves as well.
28:27
Yeah, that’s awesome.
28:32
When you come in, a big part of your job, any leader is I got to build my team.
28:37
And you’ve you’ve mentioned some of the things you like to do to build your team, but could you expand a little bit more around your philosophy around what is your strategy to build that really winning team that can execute?
28:49
Sure.
28:50
So it’s, and like you said, we, we talked about a few of these things and it’s, but if I come back on some of the details of that, as I mentioned, strategy and culture, right?
28:59
So in order to determine when you’re building the team, do they bring skills and abilities that advance that strategy and do they fit the culture, you have to have a very clear understanding of what is that strategy and what is that culture, right.
29:15
So, you know, and maybe the easier part, right, is, is strategy and it’s to say where are we today and where do we want to be and what are what are the steps we have to take to get there?
29:28
And do we have actual viable executable plans to get there?
29:35
And then, you know, we work back backwards from there on what are the resources, what’s the human capital that we need in order to get there and the timing in which we need them.
29:45
And then, like I said, you know, culture is it’s so critical, right?
29:50
The most critical thing, the what’s the saying culture aid strategy for breakfast.
29:55
I think.
29:56
And I believe that that it’s it’s so important.
30:01
And you know, so I go back to you have to have created that.
30:05
So as part of an executive team, have sat down and looked each other in the face and said, what do we want people to say about this company?
30:13
What do we want them to go home and tell their families and their spouses is about how their day was And you know, what happens kind of on a daily basis, how they’re spending their days away from them.
30:26
And then make sure that we understand that we embody that as a leadership team so that we can then, you know, utilize that to assess whether or not people are fit for that.
30:37
And one of the things that’s critical for me and that because it can mean a lot of different things of different companies, again, size, what are we doing?
30:45
What’s the timelines?
30:47
But at the end of the day, it kind of comes down to, you know, one thing you can always count on is do the right thing in every situation for your customer, for your employees, for the communities that you’re working.
31:00
I’ve always worked in manufacturing environments and it’s really critical there of just being a good steward within the community.
31:06
So are we doing the right thing?
31:09
And then that that Sunday night factor of do you do, do you enjoy your Sunday nights because you’re, because you’ve had a nice weekend and you’re ready to get back at it on Monday?
31:21
Or do you have some anxiety about where you’re coming to work?
31:24
And if that’s the situation, then as a leadership team, we haven’t done our job.
31:30
Yeah, yeah.
31:34
I love that you’re bringing up strategies.
31:35
We’ve talked, we’ve mentioned that quite a bit here.
31:37
And it’s one of the things that I’ve learned, you know, back in the days you used to implement ERP and now we do CRM.
31:46
And I talk about this all the time that for technology platforms to work and really be effective, they have to be aligned and connected to your strategy.
31:59
And if you don’t have that clear strategy, if you don’t know where you going to be 3 years from now or where you want to be 3 years from now.
32:07
And then also, as you were saying, have really defined achievable executable plans to get there.
32:17
You’re going to struggle.
32:19
You know, it’s all interconnected.
32:20
You’ve got to have the right team, you got to have the right technology.
32:24
So thinking of that, when you think of CRM, do you love it or do you hate it?
32:29
So Chris, I will answer it this way.
32:32
I could give you any number of names of salespeople at really any of my previous companies and you could call them and say, how does Wendy feel about CRM And their response would be if it’s not in CRM, it doesn’t exist.
32:50
I have said that I don’t know countless times in my career.
32:55
So driving home the point of I’m a fan, I’m a big fan.
32:59
It’s a it’s a critical tool.
33:02
I’ve implemented it in a number of times within my career, been the administrator of CRM, brought them into organizations, created positions to the sales operations type positions where you are.
33:16
They’re owning that because junk in, junk out.
33:19
Don’t maintain the data.
33:21
Now you’ve lost your data integrity and, and, and right, I can continue to go on.
33:27
It is it’s a critical tool for any company in in my view.
33:34
What do you find to be the biggest struggle with CRM that you’ve experienced in the recent past?
33:40
So I would say two things, you know, one kind of more strategic and one more tactical.
33:45
So the more tactical is tool versus chore.
33:50
So making it a tool for the sales team, right?
33:54
That if they’re using it, maybe not as as much as they should or not using it and now you’re implementing it, introducing it as it as a way for them to advance their book of business, right?
34:07
Whatever that means, which I’ll come back to to that on the strategic side of things.
34:11
But that’s exactly what it is.
34:13
It is a tool for them to figure out when they need to follow up again, to look at their metrics to figure out how am I doing against the goals that help me earn my bonus or my Commission that lets me do the things I want to do in my spare time and with my family and make it that for them.
34:31
As opposed to we now like you to start taking time on entering these things.
34:36
Don’t make it administrative chore.
34:39
It’s a sales tool and unfortunately breaks my heart that we’re, you know, in 2024 and we still talk about that, that that’s a challenge, but that is a challenge that I’ve experienced throughout my career.
34:52
And then so that’s kind of on the tactical side.
34:53
And then on the strategic side is whether you’re implementing it, you’re changing it, you’re wanting to make it more value ultimately, right?
35:02
So you can get more data and use that data to drive decisions within the business.
35:06
It is, again, start with the end in mind.
35:09
So thinking about what reporting do we want to get out of this?
35:13
What decisions do we want to drive?
35:16
What information do I want my finance department to get it?
35:21
Do I want my sales people to have, how do I make it this tool?
35:25
And then working backwards from that so that you get the setup properly when you first introduce the tool, when you’re making any changes, when you’re importing data from an ERP or from other systems, that you’re making those decisions based on the most valuable input output from that.
35:45
Yeah.
35:45
Yeah.
35:45
One thing that I love to preach too, is that, you know, I’ll ask people like, hey, what are these key initiatives you have or these key plans that you have to try and execute against?
35:59
And it could be, hey, we want to grow, you know, sales in this particular market segment that I’m like, what?
36:04
How’s your data structured in Serum that’s going to support that.
36:08
Does your sales team have the data that’s helping them drive that?
36:12
Or are they spend a whole bunch of time in spreadsheets trying to cobble things together, knit things together just to figure out who are we going to target?
36:21
You’re not going to succeed or you’re, it’s going to be a lot harder to succeed because you’re, you’re, you’re technology’s not aligned with executing on your strategies.
36:32
And I, you know, that’s one of my particular frustrations why so many companies struggle with CRM is because they’re doing a great job of figuring out, hey, this is what we’re going to do to, to really drive against our goals.
36:45
But they’re not spending that time to figure out, you know, what do we need to do with our data, with our technology to make sure it’s actually supporting that.
36:54
I, I completely agree.
36:56
And, and you talked about strategy there and goes back to what you had talked about before of really making sure you understand that strategy.
37:01
And this is part of it, right?
37:04
Because really there’s so much, so much information that, that can and is contained within ACRM and the data that you can create from that, like I talked to my teams about of taking data and making an insightful, now really the insight is what drives the decision.
37:21
So making that part of your strategy and if you don’t, you’re, you’re just, you’re really missing a major component.
37:27
I would equate it to getting into your car blindfold, right?
37:30
You’d never be that you’d never make that decision, but that’s what you’re doing every day.
37:35
If you’re, you’re not clear on your strategy and you’re not measuring it and then making sure that you are using that data to then drive those decisions.
37:43
You know where you’re going, you know where the start button is, you know where the shifter is.
37:48
How are you going to get there when you can’t see?
37:51
Oh, no, you can’t.
37:52
It’s that’s when it becomes a chore instead of a tool, because now you’re putting this onus on your sales team to become data analysts or, you know, data clerks, whatever you want to call it, instead of selling.
38:08
And that’s when you’re going to get all the pushback.
38:10
You’re like, screw this.
38:11
This is not helping me.
38:11
I’m just going to do it my way.
38:13
And and it just starts, you know, falling apart from there.
38:18
Yeah, I completely agree.
38:19
And again, how I say it is appeal to their greed.
38:23
The sales people are really good at what they do.
38:25
They’ve got a little bit of greediness, right?
38:27
And you kind of that in a in a really good salesperson.
38:30
So appeal to that and tell them that, you know, you really want to, you know, out earn this bonus.
38:36
You really want to outperform.
38:38
Well, here’s how you do it.
38:40
Yeah.
38:41
And we’re going to help you.
38:42
We’re having this great tool.
38:43
It’s going to just it’s going to make it easier for you.
38:45
Absolutely.
38:46
That’s what everybody wants to hear.
38:49
Yeah.
38:49
Word or time here?
38:50
Wendy, I really appreciate you coming on sales Lead Dog.
38:53
It’s been great talking with.
38:54
I wish we could talk longer.
38:56
If people want to reach out and connect with you, what’s the best way for them to do that?
39:00
Yeah, I’m pretty active on LinkedIn.
39:02
That’s really the best way.
39:03
So if they just want to find me there, that’s great.
39:05
Awesome.
39:06
So we will have Wendy’s LinkedIn profile link in our show notes.
39:11
You can find that at impellercrm.com/sales Lead Dog.
39:15
So be sure to check out the the show notes there and you’ll also find our hundred plus episodes of Sales Lead Dog.
39:23
Be sure to check those all out.
39:25
Subscribe so you get our future episodes.
39:28
Wendy, thank you again for coming on Sales Lead Dog and welcome to the sales Lead Dog pack.
39:34
Chris, I am honored and humbled.
39:36
Thank you.
39:40
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39:47
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40:00
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