Fostering Team Growth and Innovation – Yujing Liu, Global VP of Commercial Excellence

Global Vice President of Commercial Excellence Yujing Liu is here to share her compelling journey, insights, and strategies that have led to a distinguished career at Solmax. We engage in a lively discussion about how geosynthetics are revolutionizing sustainable construction, reducing reliance on traditional materials like concrete. Yujing’s story is one of resilience and growth, as she conquered language barriers and self-doubt to excel in her global role. Her experiences provide a roadmap for anyone eager to cultivate confidence and curiosity to achieve professional success. 

Our conversation takes us through the adventurous landscapes of early career transitions, highlighting the unexpected growth that comes from embracing challenges. From moving from Shanghai to France without knowing the language, Yujing exemplifies how viewing mistakes as opportunities can foster personal development. We underline the significance of building trust and human connections in unfamiliar environments, and how blending analytical skills with relationship-building can create a vibrant and cooperative team dynamic. These lessons are crucial for anyone navigating career changes and seeking effective ways to connect with new teams. 

Leadership and CRM systems take center stage as we explore the art of motivating sales teams and transforming perceptions of technology. Balancing ambition with realism, we discuss how empowering team members can unlock their full potential and achieve collective goals. We also address the evolution of CRM systems — once seen as a burden, now a valuable tool for uncovering opportunities and enhancing customer relationships. With insights into improving CRM’s analytical capabilities, this episode offers a comprehensive look at the essential elements driving success in today’s dynamic business environment. Connect with Solmax and tap into additional resources through their website or LinkedIn. 

Yujing Liu is the Global Vice President of Commercial Excellence at Solmax, where she leads strategy, processes, and tools to drive profitable growth across the company’s worldwide operations. She partners with regional and functional leaders to strengthen sales effectiveness, optimize pricing, and enhance customer experience, ensuring commercial teams are equipped to win in competitive markets

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 My guest for today’s episode is Eugene Glue.

0:31 Eugene is the global vice president of commercial excellence for Solmax.

0:36 Eugene, welcome to sales lead dog.

0:39 Hey, Grace, thanks for having me.

0:42 Very excited to have you here on the show.

0:43 Tell me a bit about Solmax.

0:46 Definitely.

0:47 So.

0:48 Solmax is a world leader in sustainable construction solutions for infrastructure.

0:55 So we are the largest producer of geosynthetics in the world and we have manufacturing capabilities and facilities across the world in different regions including North American, Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific.

1:15 And our mission is to build infrastructure better.

1:20 That’s awesome.

1:22 That’s so makes a pretty good sized business.

1:25 Yes, definitely we’re the largest one in the geosynthetic world.

1:31 So geosynthetic is as name has it, is a synthetic material man made with a purpose to replace traditional construction materials like gravel, like steel, like concrete, so that we can build infrastructure with more resilience, but also better performance.

1:52 Yeah.

1:53 I mean, if if you’re not familiar with this, their listeners, the amount of energy it takes to produce concrete is mind blowing.

2:00 Absolutely.

2:01 It it has a huge impact on the environment.

2:05 And I mean, just look around, go anywhere, go for a drive, more likely you’re driving on concrete and it it’s everywhere.

2:15 So the more you can impact that, the I think the better off we’ll all be correct.

2:19 Yeah, absolutely.

2:20 We have been existing in this world for more than 50 years as a material.

2:26 We’re still relatively small in terms of, you know, our size in the construction world.

2:33 Is it because we are applying to all different kind of applications?

2:37 But there’s a long way to go in the future, especially today with the need of resilient infrastructure is higher and higher.

2:47 Definitely.

2:48 Yeah.

2:49 That’s awesome.

2:50 That’s exciting.

2:52 Eugene, when you look back over your career, if you were able to sum it up to just three things, what would the three things be that have really led to your success?

3:03 Yeah, I wouldn’t say I have a big success today, but I’ve learned a ton of things by doing different jobs.

3:11 If I really need to narrow it down to three things, which actually, by the way, I share a newsletter on LinkedIn talking about leadership lessons, and I share those as well.

3:23 So number one, I would say is curiosity, asking why.

3:29 I ask tons of whys.

3:31 And sometimes my colleagues in the room will roll their eyes because I have asked so many.

3:37 But by the end of the day, really I think by asking why and keep asking, it’s really my secret weapon to find a better ways of thing to do things.

3:51 Yeah.

3:51 So that’s number one.

3:53 And the number 2 is really never stop learning.

3:59 It is anything new at any stage of your life.

4:03 If you keep that curiosity and keep learning, keep open mind, it’s where you always feel fresh at your job and at your work and keep that mindset of keep learning and you will never have, you know the, it will.

4:19 It calms my anxiety time from time because I’m learning new things.

4:24 It’s really refreshing.

4:26 And that’s number #2 and I think the last thing I think is very important for me because I’m not an English native speaker and I travel across the world working for different companies.

4:43 Actually, one time I worked for a French company for a long period of time.

4:47 For me, having confidence in yourself, it’s very important.

4:52 And I am a believer that confidence can be learned, can be taught through training, even if you were not born with it.

5:03 I was not a very confident people when I was younger in my career, but I made a focus on it.

5:12 I practice, I train myself, I reflect every occasion.

5:16 I didn’t act confidently.

5:18 I think I have become much more confident today and it does help me a lot because when you’re confident and others will have more confidence on you as well.

5:28 Oh, I couldn’t agree more.

5:30 I’m naturally a very shy person.

5:33 When I grew up, relatives would visit, I would hide in my room all day.

5:38 You know, I like, I just, I was the only people I would talk to are basically my family.

5:43 And you know, as I became an adult, that still is there.

5:47 That core of there is it’s still there, but I can’t be shy and sell, you know, I had to find a way to overcome that.

5:55 So I started watching people that would come into a room and they would just own the room.

6:02 So I started what like what are they doing?

6:04 And I started emulating that and it became a lot more natural.

6:09 It’s still something I have to think about and remind myself to do.

6:13 You know, it doesn’t come naturally per SE.

6:15 Not all the time.

6:16 It’s way more natural than it used to be.

6:18 But I, I agree that you can learn to be confident.

6:22 You know, it doesn’t have to be innate.

6:24 It doesn’t have to just be there.

6:26 You can learn.

6:27 Exactly.

6:28 Yeah.

6:28 It’s something can be nurtured.

6:30 Absolutely.

6:31 Yeah.

6:31 Exactly.

6:32 And and sometimes maybe we don’t feel so confident, you know, when things are going well, but you have to find a way through that.

6:38 I mean, that’s sales, right?

6:40 Yes.

6:41 And it’s a muscle that you practice, right.

6:43 Over time, you really get better on it and it build on, you know, like a small incremental success and you add confidence Over time, it start to become more and more natural.

6:54 It doesn’t mean you have to be unauthentic.

6:57 You can still be a very introvert person, but when you come to your sales show or talk show, you can show the aspect that you’re confident about.

7:08 Oh yeah.

7:09 Now I imagine when you were about to graduate from from college, you weren’t thinking about a career in sales.

7:16 Is that correct?

7:17 What were you pursuing when you when you left college?

7:20 Surely Actually I started as a financial auditor in KBMG for, you know, couple of years as my first job and I did that for about 5 years.

7:31 And then I quit basically and decided I’m going to stop working for a while.

7:37 So that’s when I went to France to study my MBA and everything’s that’s just started my journey of experiment, trying different things.

7:46 I did corporate marketing.

7:48 I did, you know, analytical consulting and different kind of things and then ended up in the commercial room.

7:57 Yeah, indeed.

7:58 That’s awesome.

7:59 But I how is that that as you’re saying, you’re, you’re going to experiment, you’re going to try things.

8:05 How do you think that’s really led to the success that you’ve achieved?

8:08 Because I imagine you said curiosity is probably a big element of that.

8:13 Right, Right.

8:14 Absolutely.

8:15 I mean, always been curious means that you are always willing to accept new challenges.

8:23 And I’m always looking for challenges.

8:26 I mean, for me, set back is what I need to grow and to become better at things I do.

8:33 So the more I can acquire them in the shorter period of time, the faster I can get to my goal.

8:40 So for me, commercial has always been something very interested in.

8:44 I want to understand, you know, how we connect with people and how we make sure that we bring value to the customers, especially being in front of customers understand their pin and pinpoints.

8:59 So for me, I actually I never planned actually was only after 10 years of joining Workforce, I started my first real sales job working for a sales director in Singapore at the time is really you look back, you just realize how life had planned for you is like things start to connect dots.

9:26 Whatever I did in corporate marketing, help me to look into marketing data analysis, what I did in consulting, help me to ask right questions and what I did in financial auditing, give me that aspect of, you know, how we look at numbers.

9:46 So everything, you know, come together to to the point that you know how to leverage them.

9:52 And I do think, you know, people need to experiment to try.

9:57 I’m a big, you know, calling for people to do not settle until you find your passion because I believe people should do what they’re good at and really thrive in, you know, what they’re passionate for.

10:14 If you’re passionate, there’s much bigger chance you’ll be very successful, even maybe not entitle or in, I don’t know, compensation, but you will get more fulfillment out of it.

10:28 Oh, yeah, I agree.

10:29 I agree that, but it’s not always for money.

10:31 I mean, that’s nice.

10:33 Titles are nice, but when it comes right down to it, it’s a lot.

10:37 It’s so much more of the relationships we have, the relationships we’re forming, as you’re saying, the the learning that we’re going through, the experiences that we’re going through.

10:45 That’s what it’s really about.

10:47 Absolutely.

10:48 Hey, we’re taking a quick break to thank you for listening to and supporting the Sales Lead Dog podcast.

10:55 I want to take a moment and tell you about my book, CRM Shouldn’t Suck.

10:59 If your CRM feels more like a black hole for data than something that actually helps your team sell, you’re not alone.

11:08 The book breaks down why CRMS fail for so many businesses and what you can do about it.

11:15 No fluff, just real strategies that work.

11:19 So go to crmshouldntsuck.com to order your free copy right now.

11:26 That’s right, we’re giving it away.

11:28 And while you’re there, take two minutes to check out the CRM Impact Score.

11:34 It’s a quick diagnostic that shows you how your CRM is really performing, where it’s helping you, and where it’s hurting you.

11:44 You’ll get a personalized report with clear, actionable next steps.

11:48 You can start right away to maximize your CRM investment.

11:53 We’ve also got blogs, videos and a bunch of other resources to help you finally get the results you were promised when you bought your Sierra.

12:02 And if you’re watching on YouTube, hit that like button and make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss any future episodes of sales lead dog.

12:11 OK, let’s get back to this episode of the sales lead dog podcast.

12:17 You know when I basically quit my job when I was working in Shanghai and China at the time, I packed the two big bags myself and then just bought the first tickets and I did my study in France.

12:32 And the time I didn’t even speak a word of French.

12:35 And over time, I met some friends and I start to learn the language and the culture and then eventually worked there for five years.

12:45 I mean, the meanwhile, I got married there and had my first son there as well.

12:49 So, you know, life is a full of surprises that you plan for.

12:54 Yeah.

12:54 Oh, I bet.

12:55 I bet.

12:56 So what are some of the lessons learned from that first role in sales that you still leverage today?

13:04 Well, this is something you’re, I mean, if someone’s starting anything new, like how I begin, I assume that is you’re going to make some mistakes.

13:16 I made tons of them.

13:18 And one thing that really has to practice it today is a treat those as gifts, right, Because you really learn the best and most from mistakes, especially it, it kind of hurts you at the moment.

13:33 It kind of, you know, make you feel sometimes even shameful at the moment.

13:37 But then if you can calm yourself down and really think about what you can do better and that’s most effective for.

13:44 So for me is, you know, I went into the cell show.

13:48 Basically I was working in the corporate marketing and was doing quite well and recognized.

13:54 And then they decided this business need help.

13:58 So what they kind of sent me from France to Singapore at the time and what happened is I then came in with my head off.

14:06 You know, this is how we do marketing analysis and everything.

14:10 And with a lot of sales people in the region who were very experienced and experienced in different way, not only in doing data and locate numbers, but I experienced in markets, in customer relationship in how different intricacy of the different parties.

14:27 You have supplier, you have a third party and you have you have distribution, you have all different.

14:34 And I didn’t know all that.

14:35 So I was looking at data.

14:37 I was like, this is very straightforward for me.

14:40 So what I did is I was presenting them a lot of information and trying to think as constructive and as analytical as I can.

14:50 But the first was like total rejection.

14:53 They would say very nice, you know, but guess what, nothing happens after your recommendation and they lost for a couple of months until I really I felt like it.

15:03 I wasn’t doing much adding value.

15:06 And then of course, I was very lucky and I had really good managers and actually that has been true almost throughout my career.

15:15 Those are tremendous fortune for me.

15:18 So basically told me, why don’t you go join them, the salespeople and, and then join them, you know, on their trips and on their, you know, sometimes dinners and conversations and just shadow, you know, do that for a couple of weeks and it was fine.

15:35 Of course, I, I did that.

15:37 Then you realize, you know, relationship building really takes time.

15:41 And what comes out of that is you start to build trust, which does not happen when you just, you know, air job down there.

15:52 And it, it’s taking long.

15:53 It it can take a long time to build trust, But when you start that journey and that’s all curiosity part can be appreciated, right?

16:02 When you ask all these questions and when you try to be helpful, when you try to think outside the box and people will say, hey, maybe that’s something into it, right?

16:11 Let me think about it.

16:13 And then they become an exchange and interactive, you know, you know, bounce back of ideas.

16:19 That’s where I felt like all of a sudden I’m learning a lot more than just, you know, you know, giving out all the information I have.

16:30 And by the end of the day, I think, you know, I learned a lot more that I was planning getting into this job.

16:37 But eventually, you know, what I helped is also to build that kind of analytical way of sinking into our sales force so that basically every week, every month will show with a dashboard and to show the information, it’s a lot more receptive.

16:54 They will say, actually, we’re on track.

16:56 We’re not on track.

16:57 There’s something we’re gonna do right.

16:59 But without that journey of, you know, human connection, somehow it didn’t work.

17:07 So for me, anybody will start there.

17:11 A lot of sales people, if they’re into sales, they’re quite ambitious.

17:15 They want to score the first, you know, deal and get the first.

17:20 That’s, that’s all good.

17:22 But I would, you know, think instead of individual contribution and to think about what I can learn false, you know, from the people around me first.

17:32 Yeah, I think it’s, you know, as I listen to I, I think there’s a common thread that connects a lot of what you’re saying in terms of, you know, curiosity and be willing to ask those questions, those why questions.

17:47 A lot of people don’t like doing that because they’re afraid, you know, they don’t want to look silly.

17:52 They don’t want to, you know, admit that, hey, I don’t, I don’t understand this or I don’t know.

17:57 So I’m going to ask some dumb questions.

17:59 Maybe they’re not dumb to me because I don’t know.

18:03 But you have to be willing to look foolish a little bit to admit, hey, I don’t have all the answers.

18:09 I don’t know, I need to learn.

18:10 I need help.

18:12 So a lot of people aren’t willing to make themselves vulnerable and admit, you know, and, and be willing to ask those questions, but I think you’re taking a huge risk as well by not asking those questions.

18:26 Absolutely.

18:27 You could leave a very important meeting, you know, because you didn’t ask the why questions.

18:33 You’re walking out there with maybe 40 to 50% of the knowledge you need.

18:37 The other 50% was left in the room, surely.

18:41 And as actually, when I think I thought about that actually before as well, it’s it’s my feeling is sometimes it’s more natural to withhold information to, you know, be shy by those fear of being stupid.

18:58 It tends.

18:59 And when I talk to my colleagues on my teams, it tends to be a more natural thing instead of asking.

19:05 It kind of requires some courage, some, you know, bold behavior to do that.

19:11 And then when I reflect on that today as a leader, I think you realize how important good questions are for decision making.

19:20 So what we do today, we encourage all the leader is we can help which by setting the tones when you start the meeting and you will say there’s no stupid question to start with.

19:33 And sometimes even, you know, just pick the people who are the most silent one in the room.

19:39 I said you got to come up with one questions.

19:42 I’m sure you have one.

19:44 I think that you know, really and and they really have to set the ground very clear.

19:48 You know, there’s no stupid questions every, but it’s input will be valued and and actually, you know, a lot of time people surprise themselves, like how good a question that nobody else thought about before.

20:01 So create that kind of environment to make people.

20:04 Feel safe and feel more acceptable to ask whatever.

20:09 And then you get sometimes you really, you know, get the most from the most silent people.

20:15 Oh yeah, in the group for sure.

20:18 I mean, I always the way I tee it up when I do, we do discovery calls for implementing CRM is was I say the same thing.

20:26 Look, we may ask questions that you think are totally silly, but there’s a reason why we’re asking them is we don’t want to make any assumptions.

20:34 We don’t want to come in here with our perspective.

20:37 That may be skewed to your perspective.

20:39 You know, we may be thinking red and you’re thinking yellow.

20:43 You know, it’s we have to be aligned.

20:46 So just bear with us as we ask those questions.

20:50 And also if you have questions, please ask them because I guarantee you if you have that question, there’s probably three other people in the room that have the same question that just haven’t had a chance to ask it yet.

21:01 So you’re helping everybody by asking your questions.

21:04 You know, we want a culture of curiosity, absolutely.

21:08 And if you think about our work every day, right?

21:12 If you if you don’t have questions, if you don’t ask them, it’s like you’re working individually, right?

21:18 Like everybody get into why we come together to have this meeting, this conference of this workshop.

21:24 It’s because we want to solicit everybody’s idea.

21:27 It’s because an individual cannot accomplish this work and we need this group mindset and group, you know, curiosity.

21:34 So it’s really, you know, I think it’s very important leaders really encourage that because everybody has a different personality.

21:43 Somebody can be more timid than the others and you really want to get the best out of everybody.

21:50 That in that was president.

21:53 What was a big mistake that you made?

21:57 If you can share it?

21:58 Sure.

21:58 In your early career in sales that you really learned from?

22:03 I made tons of mistakes.

22:04 I mean like I’m still making these days, but I get more experience working with them and I do reflect a lot.

22:13 And there’s a mistake that you know, I made actually early on, not so long ago.

22:20 It’s when we were working on building the budget for the year, right.

22:25 We’re looking at how team was doing in the last year and look forward for the perspec and pipeline of next year.

22:33 And the the mood at the moment is we didn’t do that well that year.

22:40 We need to do better.

22:41 We always want to do better.

22:43 And so we really want to motivate people, which I’ve done a lot of things to say we, we are do we can do better, we’re capable and we just need to put things together, fix a few issues here and there, but we are.

22:57 So I think that kind of that part worked kind of well.

23:01 So motivation start to increase and that’s when people came in and to say, you know, we’re going to increase this by X percent, We’re going to increase this by X percent because of ABCD and that’s from all from my team.

23:15 And I really love that, you know, like environment because that shows you the ambition that shows you people are driving and they want to achieve things.

23:24 And I was really embracing that and and then really, you know, want to cherish that.

23:30 So what I did is I bought in everything, right?

23:33 And I just say, let’s shoot or the stars.

23:36 What I didn’t do well is I need, you know, when you are committing something, it’s really important that you, you, you deliver that as well because that’s your track record.

23:48 That’s how people will come back to you to say, you know, this person did this before and this team did this.

23:55 What I didn’t really help my team is to get them challenges, get them cross check the triangulized information with outside information with, you know, you know, we we could do that probably in a couple of days.

24:07 Just get different industry perspective and check.

24:12 It doesn’t need to be very detailed or but it needs to be cross checked, which means, you know, if you’re saying there’s growth in this market, we must sit in the Marco perspective.

24:22 We didn’t do that job.

24:24 So it was it was very difficult for me to, you know, at the time to say no to the team.

24:30 We have to be, you know, more realistic.

24:33 So for me that’s big lesson is at the same time you want to motivate and encourage the team, but you must be the gut real also to make sure that you build credibility for your team and you really make sure they win and they succeed.

24:52 They get delivered.

24:53 You know, basically the say and do behavior where you know we demonstrate our capability.

25:00 Yeah, now that’s really important.

25:02 It’s, it’s a balance, right?

25:04 You have as a leader, you truly have to balance things cause ultimately you are held accountable for the end result.

25:10 Yes, absolutely.

25:11 And and then that’s all back to a sales role, right?

25:14 Like or in a commercial world.

25:17 What another lesson I learned is and sales is not a science.

25:23 It it’s a combination of a science and art, right?

25:27 It’s a really use your mind.

25:29 You’re very analytical, but you have to connect with people and make reasonable best guess sometimes, right?

25:39 You have to have the the guts, the instincts to say, you know, this is a risk I’m going to take because this time we’re going to, you know, make it.

25:48 And even if we don’t, we will learn tons of this.

25:52 So that’s really, you know, always a reflection on how we manage the sales leadership.

25:59 Yeah, Yeah.

26:00 How do you personally, how do you like to motivate your team?

26:04 What have you found that for you works?

26:07 You know, that’s a very interesting question because I was a salesperson when I was working for Subway at the previous company and it was a star sales, I even won the CEO award for the sales.

26:19 So individual contributor did really well in terms of numbers and progress, delivered profit and got recognized.

26:27 And then I, I expressed that, OK, I did this well in the individual contribution.

26:33 As an individual contributor, I want to lead A-Team.

26:37 And then we had a really good, you know, HR system at the, at the previous company, they will evaluate you and they will say, yes, it’s a good time for you to try.

26:47 And that’s what they recommend me.

26:49 But they, they told something very, very, very, very good for me at the time.

26:54 It said be mindful because it’s very different as an individual salesperson and as a manager of a team.

27:02 It’s completely different skill set and mindset.

27:07 You wouldn’t want to spread what you do well and let your team to step up and do as well, but you would want everybody to really find their best and perform in the way they do best.

27:22 SO for me, I, I went, I, I shouldn’t think in a way that I’m going to replicate and clone a lot of using in my team.

27:32 That won’t work because everybody’s different, right?

27:35 I’m doing good at this way and the other.

27:37 So what I really need to do is to understand the strengths of my individual people in my team and understand their weakness as well.

27:46 And most importantly, it’s a team work, it’s a team sport, which means you got position, your numbers where they’re the best at certain area and then they can help the others.

28:02 So I’m thinking about that everyday in my daily life where our, you know, people shine.

28:10 Sometimes I am not Ahr person, but actually I think more about our people probably than my daily routine work because it’s really important.

28:20 You want them to achieve beyond and really unleash their potential, especially for people who have ambition to grow.

28:29 And also you want to make sure people, for example, in our organization today, you have people in different stage of their career.

28:38 There are younger people who started not long ago.

28:40 There are people with ton of experience already and they have a different needs giving the stage of they are right.

28:48 You want to really be mindful or conscious about that and position their where they can win, where they’re set up for success.

28:55 Yeah, that’s what I do.

28:57 That was really good advice.

28:58 You got really good because a lot of people have to learn that the hard way by just completely coming in and mucking it up and failing and then somebody pulling them aside and saying, yeah, you really, you can’t create a bunch of clones, right.

29:12 Yeah, you, you have to let people be who they are, but you still have to tease out of them, like you said, their strengths, what is going to work for them and help them focus in that area.

29:23 Like I read this book years ago.

29:24 I was very young in my first leadership role.

29:29 I wish I I had this book still.

29:30 It was a wonderful book.

29:31 But the, it, it, the whole concept was managed through strengths.

29:36 Identify what the strengths are in those individuals and manage them to the strengths.

29:41 And the more you build up their strengths, their weaknesses will follow and, and their weaknesses will actually develop.

29:49 You know, if they’re effectively growing their strengths, they won’t be as as important anymore.

29:54 And I’m always remembering that.

29:57 Yeah, I completely agree with that theory.

30:00 And actually, I’ve used that in myself as well.

30:03 You know, wherever you shine and you read it, that’s what I’m saying.

30:07 You’re going to pursue a passion.

30:09 That’s where you love best, and that’s where you can do.

30:12 And guess what?

30:12 Nobody’s perfect.

30:14 Nobody’s going to have no weakness or no, you know, but you’re going to focus on your strengths and keep practicing.

30:20 Again, you know, I, I get this very interesting question from, you know, some of the people I talk to while I mentor, especially when they were a little bit young earlier in this career, they will come to me and say, you know, should I become a specialist in the area or should I become a generalist?

30:40 Like really try to.

30:42 And, and they were debating, right?

30:44 I, I don’t have answers for that.

30:45 Actually for it’s, it’s really for me.

30:49 You gonna have to find some, find an area that you really fall in love with, and then you say I’m gonna work.

30:56 But at the same time, you still need to surround yourself with curiosity, with information.

31:01 You can’t close your mind because the world is changing faster than ever before.

31:06 And so I think, you know, when you start that it’s good to reflect on that question.

31:11 But it’s also important to say things always change, right?

31:15 Don’t keep a fixed mindset to say, you know, I’m going to be a specialist in this domain.

31:21 That’s all I’m going to do.

31:22 And then they probably miss out opportunities.

31:24 So that’s exactly to me, it’s like you, you want to become an expert in a certain area, but not at the exclusion of everything else, you know?

31:34 To me, you still have to be willing to engage and see what’s around you.

31:39 Because you know my world.

31:41 I could be an expert at COBOL programming, you know, which was dominant when I started my career 40 years ago.

31:48 Nobody’s programming in COBOL anymore, you know, And so if I had gone that route, become an expert, I would be suffering right now.

31:57 Right.

31:58 You make yourself obsolete, and then.

32:00 Yeah.

32:00 Oh, totally.

32:01 Yeah.

32:01 Yeah.

32:02 Usually it’s shifting topics a bit.

32:04 CRM.

32:05 Do you love it or do you hate it?

32:07 Yeah.

32:08 Very interesting question.

32:11 So if you asked me that question about 10 years ago, I would say I hate it, yes.

32:17 But if you ask me today, I love it.

32:19 Yeah, and I give you the reasons.

32:22 What did you hate about it?

32:23 Yeah, because it was forced on me.

32:27 I saw it as administrative waste of the time.

32:31 And people just want to supervise me, watch over me and and control basically, right.

32:37 And I don’t see, I didn’t see the benefit.

32:40 And guess what, who forced it on me is the management at the time.

32:44 And today I am in the management.

32:46 That’s why I love it.

32:49 No, I, I think, you know, today I really see actually, even after, you know, a couple of years in the sales role, as long as you start to really open your mind again, embrace it and take whatever you can benefit from it and you will see the benefits that it gives you.

33:08 As simple as, you know, we have so many opportunities all the time and sometimes we don’t keep track of everyone, But then, you know, once in a while they will say, hey, this project you followed maybe a year ago now it pops up in your screen.

33:23 And guess what?

33:24 That’s that’s something we can, you know, leverage and we should, right?

33:28 We’re in this modern age of technology and with all this AI that’s a minimum, but that’s really a administrative side.

33:36 But today what I think, you know, really useful is to give us us insight so that we can do analysis.

33:42 We can become better at learning customer pain points, even sometimes they don’t share that much with us.

33:49 But also to understand, you know, information or like you said earlier, if a person has a question and most likely there are three other person has the same question.

34:00 So by being able to leverage that in the system in a systematic way, we can identify those opportunity where we have a lot of question on the same area.

34:10 And then we know, OK, this is where we’re going to have to do something and to improve, to fix because that’s the value that, you know, the system.

34:18 Help us identify.

34:21 Yeah, if I gave you a magic wand that could fix one thing with CRM, what would you use your magic wand on?

34:29 So really I would like to have the analytical analysis part be more user friendly and intelligent in the way like today.

34:44 There are different kinds of a system, right?

34:46 The way it boots is take a lot of information from your business activities and then it present in the quite constructive and very organized way.

34:56 But it’s a presentation.

34:59 It’s I wouldn’t you know, really be more beneficial if it’s generate insights, automatic, they generate recommendation.

35:08 It doesn’t mean that I’m going to, you know, but it’s can for reference.

35:12 I think, you know, where it was a technology today, we can do that.

35:15 But with your own, it’s kind of have your own AI for your own your own business, right?

35:22 How powerful that can be.

35:23 Yeah, that’s awesome.

35:25 Usually we’re at our time here on sales Lead dog.

35:28 It always goes by so fast.

35:29 I see that every episode because it does every episode.

35:31 I look at my clock and I’m like, my gosh, it’s already, it’s already time.

35:35 If people want to reach out and connect with you, if they want to learn more about Solmax, what’s the best way for them to do that?

35:42 Yeah, they can definitely go to our website, somax.com.

35:46 They can reach me out directly through LinkedIn.

35:49 And by the way, as I mentioned, I wrote, I write a newsletter on leadership.

35:54 So if you’re interested in leadership stories, feel free to contacts and, you know, exchange welcome all the thoughts.

36:02 That’s awesome.

36:03 If you didn’t catch that, don’t worry about it.

36:05 We will have all that information, including how you can sign up for her newsletter in our show notes.

36:10 You can get that at impellercrm.com/sales Lead Dog, so be sure to check that out.

36:17 Subscribe so you get all our future episodes of Sales Lead Dog.

36:21 We’re pushing 160 episodes now I think, so be sure to check that out.

36:27 Eugene, thank you so much for coming on Sales Lead Dog and welcome to the Sales Lead Dog pack.

36:32 Thank you so much, Chris.

36:34 It was a joy to have this conversation with you.

36:36 Thank you.

36:40 As we end this discussion on Sales Lead Dog, be sure to subscribe to catch all our episodes on social media.

36:47 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.

37:00 Sales Lead Dog is supported by Impeller CRM, delivering objectively better CRM for business guaranteed.


Quotes: 

“Curiosity is my secret weapon; by constantly asking ‘why,’ I’ve found better ways to do things and unlock new opportunities.” 

“Embracing challenges and viewing mistakes as gifts have been pivotal in my career journey. It’s through setbacks that we often learn the most.” 

“Confidence can be nurtured over time. Even if you weren’t born with it, you can cultivate it through practice and self-reflection.” 

“Building trust in unfamiliar environments is crucial. It’s not just about presenting data but about forming human connections.”

Links:  

Yujing’s LinkedIn 

Solmax