When was the last time you took the time to re-hone your sales skills? As a sales leader, have you done the work to ensure that your sales team is constantly learning the new skills and information needed to not only launch their own growth, but also the success of the team as a whole? In order to implement these changes, you need to start at a personal level, or as today’s guest says, “start with the heart”.
What can organizations be doing to ensure that they build a sales team that operates as a cohesive force and not as separate entities?
It’s all about creating a culture that promotes high-quality performance. With that in mind, there’s no better co-pilot than NYT Best Selling Author and Hall of Fame speaker, Waldo Waldman, to assist you in mastering the sales leadership skills you need to ensure that your sales team is reaching new heights.
In this episode of Evolved Sales Live, host Jonathan Fischer sits down with Waldo to discuss breaking performance barriers, overcoming obstacles, and building cultures of collaboration, courage, and trust.
Don't forget to follow us on LinkedIn for more engaging sales insights and discussions! Happy watching!
Meet Waldo:
Waldo Waldman, known as “The Wingman” is an Air Force Academy graduate, MBA, combat decorated Air Force F-16 fighter pilot turned sales manager, performance consultant, executive coach and motivational keynote speaker. As a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author and Hall of Fame speaker, Waldo delivers keynotes and seminars, executive coaching, and sales & leadership programs to small entrepreneurial firms to the largest companies in the world. Waldo helps leaders & teams adapt to massive change and grow through collaborative courage, resilience and mutual support.
Check out the transcription of this webinar episode below!
Jonathan Fischer 0:05
It's time once again for evolve sales live. Welcome back. I'm Jonathan Fisher. One of the best ways to improve any organization is to learn from other successful organizations. Well, arguably one of the best run outfits in the world is the United States Air Force. And here with us today to help us glean some great lessons for business and sales is retired United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Waldo Waldman, while the overcame massive claustrophobia, and even a fear of heights to become a decorated fighter pilot, with over 65 combat missions, 2650 flight hours and serving in deployments all around the world. Waldo led combat missions in Iraq, Southeast Asia, Kosovo, during Operation Allied Force, Waldo followed up his stellar Airforce career by earning an MBA and going on to achieve nationally recognized levels of success leading sales teams for several cutting edge technology and consulting firms. Today, Waldo is known as an award winning speaker, Best Selling Author of the book never fly solo. And he's a highly sought after leadership expert who has been featured on Fox and Friends CNN, MSNBC, the Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, BusinessWeek, and many, many others. While there was also the founder and president of the wing man Foundation, a 501 c three whose mission is to raise funds and awareness for soldiers, veterans and their families in need. What a Waldman, what a pleasure to have you with us today, sir.
Waldo Waldman 1:30
Great to be here, Jonathan. Happy Friday.
Jonathan Fischer 1:33
Yeah, Happy Friday to you. So if you would just in a nutshell, share with our guests, what keeps you busy every single day, you've got a passion for success in business and you do a lot of things, take a look at your website. And I couldn't even count them all. Would you help our audience know, what's what's got you most involved right now.
Waldo Waldman 1:51
So I help ultimately, people in organizations have the courage to take action despite change, right? You look at the world today, the precarious nature of business, the volatility of the economy, COVID combat, as well as any standard challenges in business that are being shot across the front end of that craft, your ability to act, despite those fears, to have the courage to make tough decisions to step out of your comfort zone. That's what I love helping people to do. I don't care if it's an entrepreneur and real estate or tech salesperson are a leader of a fortune 500 company, it's always about stepping out of your comfort zone and being better than you were yesterday. And I use the analogy of being a wing man, you know, a trusted partner. That's what a wing man, a wing man is somebody that you ultimately can go to for help. And when you're able to ask somebody for help with confidence, knowing that they'll have your back and have you as a leader, as a salesperson, in any niche of business, have that confidence that you are competent, and others coming to you for help, because you have the integrity, you have the courage, the skills, the back end work that allows you to build that confidence, then, hey, that's what builds great teams. And we're not flying solo, we always have teammates, who are on our on our teams to help us win. So that's kind of a broad brushstroke of the concept that I do it through keynotes, workshop workshops, and also through executive and entrepreneurial coaching. That's fantastic. This sounds like really great lessons for business and for life out of your military career. I wondering if we're focusing in here and we're we're kind of mixing the services a little bit, we talked about Top Gun skills, obviously, that's Navy, not Air Force. But all all military fliers have a lot of things in common. And among them is they have a real focus on some core skill areas that are constantly improving on if I could begin with the question, where are some skill deficits that you currently see in sales teams, broadly speaking? I think people show up, fly by the seat of their pants, many times they think the relationships gonna be enough. They think the fact that they had the client said yes, six months ago, last year, last week is enough. They don't leverage the tools in their cockpit and I'm gonna show a little photo of a little f 16 cockpit there. They fly by the seat of their pants and women never wing it trusted partners are always showing up prepared and they use that as a as a differentiator to D commoditize. themselves in a commoditized wall. If you look at Tech sales, you can't bring doughnuts to a briefing, right? You know, you need to show value. And part of that value is really understanding the broad base of your value proposition that you may not know about. But your application specialists, your sales engineer, somebody that may not be front facing or customer facing. He or she may be able to give you the insight and tool to help you prepare. And God forbid you say the three most important words in business and life which Do I need help? Or I don't know, you could pick up the phone with competence because you built that wing man, a wing man relationship with your teammate and say, Hey, I've got a missile here, I've got a sales objection, I got a challenge I didn't prepare for it's unexpected helped me. And they'll invest their time, give you the assets, an acumen and competency go back to that prospect or, or customer and say, here's the solution, and we're going to come back with an answer. And so that kind of advances the sale. You can't know it all. Technology is too changing, it's too volatile, and to walk in there as a Top Gun in every niche of your of your value propositions very difficult. But when you got a wing man, check in just six that you can call out on. You can feel more competent, specially in the volatile, complicated technology space that many of us operate in. Yeah, well, it's easy for an outsider to think of flying is all about stick and rudder, but you really emphasize again and again, how it's much more about team and coordinating with each other to get a maximum result. And as you're pointing out, that seems to be a real, a missed opportunity in many organizations. Why do you think there is not better team play inside of so many sales groups and teams, because I think we failed to connect with each other as human beings. First, you got to marinate the sake of that relationship. I think if you look at sales meetings,
many which were done virtually this past year, many of that is still done virtual, I think you can get a lot out of a zoom or teams call right? Connecting one on one, you know, looking at this camera, loving it and smiling and sharing a little bit about your life and who you are as a person. But unless you invest the time in understanding the value proposition of the person that you're working with, what's important to them? How can you be a better partner to them? What are they fighting for and learn about their kids, maybe it's a single mom or dad, maybe they're on the you know, the latter part of their career, they're, you know, kind of becoming a little bit complacent, they have the money to buy the island, they're getting the Commission's that kind of on that last leg. And maybe they need to be inspired and feel good about coaching you to mentoring you to showing you the stick and rudder and the tactics. So taking the time before you need the help. And establishing that internal rapport with your teammates, who at eight o'clock in the morning, on a Saturday, you need them sending out a proposal to India or to the UK or whatever, you've got to get this project out the door. They're gonna say, You know what, Joe, Lisa, we built a relationship before and I like you, you respect me as a person, I'll get that I'll get my butt out of bed. I'll spend some time with you and invest, and helping you advance the sale and being better teammates. So only way you do that is by connecting and building that collaborative culture, which we could talk about a little bit. But it's all it all starts with the heart. And you know, the heart before the hand and the hand is about performance. But the heart more than ever can't be commoditized. That's great. Well, I'd like to take that as a segue. And let's start to unpack that a bit further than what should organizations be doing if they want to build a team that can actually operate as a team where everyone does have their own individual skill sets, at hopefully the sharpest possible point, but they're also coordinating at maximum levels? What are some first steps? You know, it's luck. If you look at Idea ideally, you want to get the top of the funnel you know, the when you're hiring and bringing on talent, making sure you're asking the right questions assessing the resilience and mindset, courage and work ethic of these men and women who in this war for talent world, you know, need to be nurtured a little bit more, you need to find those, those unsung heroes, those hidden gems, those top guns who are kinda behind the scenes, and I think many HR professionals, even sales professionals don't do the best job and assessing, they get, they get fooled a little bit, you know, somebody shows them a resume. And that's an actual fired up and energize on a sales call. But guess what,
you can't be all thrust and no vector, meaning you can't be all fired up and hyped up as a salesperson. But at the end of the day, you're not making the calls, you're not, you know, fill in the pipeline, you're not putting in the hours, the flight time, you know, the things necessary before you jump into this jet to build that confidence. So you've got to do due diligence on the front end. And then last and then the next is also onboarding, making sure that the standards, the processes, the procedures are critical. When you look at a fighter squadron, one of the things that makes it very effective as we weed out the best and bring them in it's hard to get that as a 33% attrition and every training program, but then we put them through what's called Mission qualification training and QT. You go through N Qt then your mission ready unit instantly flying that jet and I don't think a salesperson should be instilled
The selling, you made the first criteria now it's up to the teammates, the wing of the coach and mentor at the spend time, you know, leading them through the the challenges and the processes and putting them through the wringer. And what I mean by that is, you want to make the mistakes on the ground and training in a simulator in a simulated cockpit before you're in the air getting your butt shot at or in front of a client messing up an objection and losing in a multimillion dollar deal. So during the onboarding process, and throughout the life of any sales leader in the sales team, get together, challenge ask questions, embarrassed the living heck out of each other, on the ground, you know, maybe a beer or two maybe involved maybe up an award, maybe it's, it's fun. But if people aren't afraid to make make a mistake in front of their peers, if they don't understand that pressure environment, if they don't practice under pressure, guess what, they're not going to be able to practice under pressure or perform under pressure. So you fight like you train, you put in the time, you push your people to the max extent possible, and you prepare them. So by the time they're in that cockpit, they have competence. They know the processes, and they ultimately know the contingencies those what ifs. So if they're panicking, they're like, Okay, I went through this with Joe and Joanne, my senior VP, my Regional Sales Rep. My, my buddy who was practicing with me, I know exactly what to do an a practicing it. And I'm competent and executing it because I practice it with my team. So practice under pressure, push, push up the throttle, and you're training and hold your team to a higher standard. And those are some fundamentals. We could talk about that for a while. Yeah, those are some really good pieces there.
Jonathan Fischer 11:48
A brief pause to remind our audience, this is a live experience. And we have some great questions that are starting to come in on the comments. I thank you for that. Keep them coming. When we get to the half hour at the close of the quote, unquote, official show itself, we will have some q&a with Colonel Waldman. And so we look forward to having that, we'll get to that time bring those questions on everybody. So well, though, to go deeper on what you were just sharing, I'm hearing an awful lot of preparation and intentional effort around this area of training. That seems pretty intense. And frankly, not an inexperienced guy myself, way more intense than I would have seen in typical organizations, right? Training usually has a very small team, if there is a team, maybe it's more like an assistant to the sales manager if there's even that, right. And there might be a notebook that exists someplace. You're what you what you're describing does not sound like that at all. It sounds like something it's a whole lot more involved would involve more people. A more of a structured laid out approach is Am I on point for that? And if that's true, what what what should that look like for organization?
Waldo Waldman 12:54
I'm going to show you something real quick. Any three seconds? Okay.
Jonathan Fischer 13:02
Yeah, the metaphor between actual aeronautics and business are pretty uncanny. There's a lot there, but it's better systems and better skills. Right? Yeah.
Waldo Waldman 13:11
And aeronautics is fine. You know, there's, there's a lot of different aviation professionals that you know, the firepot world I know, I'm a cocky Air Force guy, right? Look, that's the pinnacle, you don't do your job, you're dead, you're getting shot down. Right. And, you know, not every aviator has that perspective. And although many do, and if you've been an aviator, and haven't been in combat and don't know what it's like to have a missile shot at you or come back and your buddy was shot down and captured, or killed, those are differentiated just like in sales and different technologies groups or whatever. There's a lot to differentiate pilots from from, you know, average pilots from the ones who've been there, done that. And you need that experience, I think at the end of the day, but I respect my peers. There's some great folks that I flew with who haven't been in combat, but I guarantee if they did, they kicked some serious ass. Okay, so this is a this is my, this is my briefing book.
If you looked at my last LinkedIn posts, I talked about briefing and setting a standard. And if you see, first off, we saw it with the 79th fighter squadron standards, right? It's tidied, we have standards of operation, when we show up, how long are the briefings? What's the standard route of departure? procedures in emergencies, etc. You know, always the what ifs and the contingencies. And then the briefings are very, very detail. I know it's tight here, but tons of tons of notes and pictures and just, yeah, very, very minutiae. Because when you're briefing complicated processes, you can't remember it all. Ultimately, right. You may remember a lot but you may not remember it all. So we use checklists, we use our briefing guides and we go through it with discipline.
And so discipline, consistency, high standards, leveraging media, notebooks, checklists, whatever it is, are an important part of a training culture that performs to excellent standards. So you got to ask yourself, you know, what checklists Am I using? What am I protocols and processes? Am I documenting them? Am I leveraging my CRM, which is an important tool and your cockpit, it's your radar, or you're winging it, or flying by the seat of your pants to sell by the seat of your pants, so So I love the briefing. And there's also debriefing as well, because you learn from your sales, victories and losses. But stay true to the standards, discipline yourself. And even if it's you selling on your own, hey, I'm going through checks that two sales calls today, among them research and I'm going to LinkedIn, I'm studying a little bit. So by the time they're on that Zoom call, I'm staring back at them. I'm building rapport. I'm confident I did the due diligence I put a little sweat equity in. Those are things I think that are fundamental, but often taken for granted. And can kind of give you that upper edge.
Jonathan Fischer 16:11
Yeah, for sure. What are some of the ways that somebody who is let's say that they're a sales manager, and maybe they don't have, you know, sea level authority, but they have a team? And they want to start to implement on what you've been talking about here? Waldo? Could you recommend some initial steps? Can they kind of do a self assessment and begin to see, you know, where do I need checklists where I need to tighten up my training.
Waldo Waldman 16:34
So it's a great system. And by the way, I after I got out of the military active duty and went to business school, and I was in tech sales for those that a one on I was working for an Israeli high tech defense contracting firm, simulation systems, virtual training on a computer was really cool. And then I went into mergers and acquisitions, b2b, high level commission only sales if I didn't sell I didn't need a lot of my clients don't know this. I carved my sales experience in real world sales, not just from the cockpit. So I practice what I preach, and have the sales scars and PTSD, the post traumatic sales disorder to prove it like most of us who are watching this. So let me share a little bit that's my term PTSD, post traumatic sales disorder, we actually Chris Mark Waldman.
But not to discount our top guns who are out there, the men and women who are suffering through that because we need to lift them up and encourage them through their PTSD. So yes, sales managers, you're now leading people, and teams, not just closing deals and advancing from initial prospecting, to contract and follow up and service. Here's a philosophy that I'll share with you. And it's just a small niche. The tendency for sales managers is to get involved in the sale too soon, they take over the sale, and they don't give that young man or woman the new hire, perhaps that associate the airtime to know what it's like to dodge in their soul to take out a target, to deal with an objection to lead a meeting, to ask questions during a product launch, etc. So, here's some advice to you.
In the fighter pilot world, we have what's called an engaged fighter, and a supporting fighter. The engaged fighter is the one who's rolling in on the target who's dealing with the adversary. They are the ones who are turning and burning, taken out that target, they are the ones trying to close the deal. The supporting fighter is the one monitoring him or her. I'm about to show my hands on the thing you're monitoring him are looking out for adversaries and threats and taking over if they need to. Here's the deal that the engaged fighter is normally the the young wing man or wing man, they may be inexperienced, they may not have the situational awareness, the big picture but they know the tactics pretty well. The supporting fighter is the leader, the manager with much more hours who could probably kick the living heck out of the enemy very quickly. But they have to build the big picture they need to see other adversaries and the environment that's that's going on. So as a sales manager your job is to build the big picture for that teammate that engaged fighter support him or her feed them intelligence and courage them and know the entire 360 degree scope of that sale. The competitors the timeline, where are we at in the sales process? How do I support when do they we may need to bail out right or I may not even need to take over there is a time in combat where the engaged fighter is now the leader the manager right and saying hey to your off come off right ones in determining the right time to take over his key so so far
If you'll be careful getting too involved in the sale too early, prep your teammate support build the picture. Because your your your your broader perspective is beyond just that initial sale, it may be a bigger as you look at your your quarter, your year, the strategic initiatives of your division, etc. Okay.
Jonathan Fischer 20:23
I love that. And what are some ways that you would you would have them to map out the earlier training, you alluded earlier to not putting salespeople actually into selling too quickly? What are some recommended prior steps? If you could unpack that first? So you know, roleplay probably pops to mind. What's that? Things like that?
Waldo Waldman 20:42
Well, playing you said, you mentioned roleplay earlier, I'm sure that'd be one element. Yeah, what else would you like fighter pilots have this term in any pilot does it it's called chair flying sitting in a chair, a simulator a cockpit and, and looking at the, the instrument panel, you know, looking over your shoulder at the blind spots of your wingman, right? Doing all the different things necessary as you prepare the mission. So we cheer, fly and rehearse on our own. But then, as I inferred before, now you want to rehearse and share fly with your teammates. And so I would challenge the salesperson, you know that to come up with a scenario that say, Okay, tomorrow, we're meeting the, the VP of procurement for so and so and we've got to, you know, sell them this, this tech system, our, our, you know, virtual this or that, or our cloud based XYZ or our, you know, whatever. And so we're meeting with this company 8am, tomorrow, I want, we're gonna come in at seven o'clock, and we're gonna rehearse and I want to see what you're gonna do. I want to assess the mindset and the skill set of these top guys. I don't want to tell them what to do I want I don't want to tell him how to do things, I just tell him, I want to tell him what to do. And see how they can come up with creativity and prepare him for that program. And so, so watch being a micromanager. Now, there is a time to be a micromanager and a micro trainer but throw it out there and they get the team together. And then let's say it's 7am. You say okay, guys and gals, how did you prepare for this?
Ask them what they're doing to prepare, give you advice on some ways to to kind of reinforce and strengthen them. And now put them in the simulated cockpit, okay, you're on the sales call, we're doing a zoom call, or you're at the meeting, or this is the initial prospect call, or now we're at contract that we need to, you know, we're in final negotiation for this $2 million deal. So figure out the scenario, etc. And then start asking them questions. And see how they respond and play the part of the prospect or the buyer. And kind of go through with their teammates, each one of them, either solo or with a couple of teammates, and then and then just drill them and once again, embarrassed empathy to kinda make them feel a little frayed, a little pressure, and then coach them and or have the teammates, coach them. Because many times the answer doesn't always come from the sales manager or the sales leader, they come from the peers, maybe Joe Elisa, you know, is bringing some great ideas from the previous company, they were just then let's get her involved, let's solicit the advice, the feedback that may be right or wrong from the teammates. So so a lot of times, you know, a great sales manager or sales leader is able to solicit the advice, the Intel and the acumen and ideas from the other teammates. And if you're not willing to be embarrassed, even as a sales leader to have your ego bruised. If you're not willing to be told you're wrong, or here's a new idea, maybe we can consider this then you're not built to be a sales leader. So because sometimes, that new hire may have ideas and skill sets to reduce sales cycles to minimize turnover of personnel to advance the sale to leverage a new tool with be an investment that you may not be aware of. So always be open and approachable and coachable as a leader. being approachable and coachable is critical, especially in sales where there's too much volatility and change going on.
Jonathan Fischer 24:29
Yeah, for sure. Well, that's a really really good actionable insight you shared here, Waldo What a fantastic conversations flown by quickly, I'm wondering if you could let our audience know how they can pursue you further. You have so much more to offer and a lot of great inspirational material along with nuts and bolts insights like we enjoyed today. At Work your audience go to take things to the next level with Waldo
Waldo Waldman 24:51
number one if you want to do the simple thing google google Waldo Walden, I'm all over Instagram. LinkedIn, that's the best place is to connect with me on LinkedIn. Do a content once a week or so at Waldo Waldman, Twitter, etc, etc. So that's the best way. Also, my website is your wing man.com, your wing man.com. Also, I want to give everybody just before we forget a copy of my AUDIO BOOK never fly, so I'm gonna put it on the screen now he can't really see it, but I'm sure we'll get some follow on. Can you see the Can you see the QR code on that QR code? Because I can't see it in mine. It's a little narrow. So yeah, go to that QR code, take your phones out or go to your wind down.com forward slash NFS. That is my audiobook to never fly solo. And that's seven minutes a day, listen to my New York accent when you're on the road. And then you'll get a resilience challenge a couple of videos on dealing with change etc. You will also be able to connect with me via social media on those links and also participate in my ace Academy which is a performance standpoint, those are some quick ways to get in touch and pass on some of the goodies to your teammates.
Jonathan Fischer 26:11
That's great. Well thanks Waldo the very generous of you and I actually just use the QR code and I just downloaded my audio awesome. John, it's gonna be awesome man of action. Way to be. Well, just a quick reminder, our show today is sponsored by overpass.com Are you looking to hire a team of ready to work remote sales professionals fast through a 1000s of highly qualified sales reps waiting for you on the overpass talent marketplace. As the world's leading solution for hiring pre vetted talent. Overpass makes building an unstoppable Sales Team quick and easy filter by industry and experience, interview, hire and begin your onboarding process in as little as two days. create your free account today@overpass.com.
All right, well, let's open it up for q&a, we have a few questions that have already come in from our audience. So I'm just going to kind of in no particular order. Waldo will go through some of these. So from Andrew, he asked, Do you recommend the sales teams be compensated as a team. I like that I like the team approach. It forces accountability, it forces standards, it kind of weeds out some of the weak, you know, a sales team is only as good as its weakest player. And so if you're going to have a sales team, and you're going to be compensated, make sure, make sure that they understand how they'll be compensated, and don't create some haphazard processes.
Waldo Waldman 27:37
Okay. Because as a sales manager, I think it's important to kind of to nurture that and sustain it. Now, here's the deal, I think there should be some sales steps, you know, some, some, some some categories, because if you're the one that's selling the most, and you're the one that's coaching and mentoring the most and putting in the time, then I believe that that person should be compensated a little bit more. If it's all flat across and everybody's getting an equal piece of the pie as a sales team. I think that could foster some resentment. You don't want the top salesperson to be so over over compensated that they're, they're, you know, they're going to want to the rest of them are going to want to kick off the team or, you know, poison their coffee. But I do think that the top gun should be the one that's that's rewarded. Now, here's the thing, it doesn't always have to be in a cash reward. The most important award that I have in my room is my as my flight leader, the quarter award, when I was chosen to be the top top pilot, my combat wingman wanted to fly with. We didn't get we don't get gold watches or commission checks when you're rated high. So if you're an organization look at to sustain the performance and elevate the standards and pride of your top guns. Recognize them, reward them. And it doesn't have to be with cash, a little cash helps, let's not let's be honest. But there's a lot of non monetary things that you could do to give this person pride and also enable them and motivate them to help out their teammates as well. Because your top gun, the one that's leading you want him or her to to be coaching and mentoring. I showed you this picture a year before you know, Coach those ones and a great leader lifts up the folks that are having problems. The best salesperson the best teammate may not be the one who's always out front closing the deals. But he or she if they're supporting they're available on the weekends they're providing the support man, they should be recognized to so that's why I think if you go to the best sales meetings, they're rewarding that unsung hero, the one who's in the trenches, turning the wrenches, right that the application engineer that the customer service representative or the inside salesperson who's supporting so sure compensated as a team He makes sure the standards are known. But make sure everyone who's really putting in the time is recognized and rewarded and given a pat on the back, because that'll sustain the culture of a high performing team more than just cash or incentives.
Jonathan Fischer 30:18
That makes a lot of sense. I think when a good sister digs question, that's a great follow up. He's asking, do you recommend commission based or salary based compensation?
Waldo Waldman 30:28
Sales, and I will always, always push for a commission only based, I think, sometimes have a little stake in this, you know, stake in the game, maybe a draw is okay. But if your salespeople especially when you're hiring, and aren't willing to put in and put their money where their mouth is, and they're not willing to go commission, they are leading with fear instead of courage and productivity and competence. And I would, I would, I would be afraid, I want a seven figure business. I when I was in sales, I did very well, I got sales scars, Donald damage like the rest of us, but there should be no cap on the commission of that best seller. They should be incentivized and pushed. And if they want to work 16 hours a day, seven days a week, because that's where they are in their life. Maybe they that's their priority, then don't cap them. But I know that that's a that's a tricky subject. And there's a lot of different compensation plans to provide. But I think at least some type of commission based criteria should be made. If you truly want to lead a top gun sales team. I'm not a fan of flat salary. But that's just because I'm a type A retentive fighter pilot.
Jonathan Fischer 31:48
Yeah, that's great. Well, it makes a lot of sense to so I think at that point, Rob's question comes in to another follow up. He's asking how can you help your management to do more in onboarding instead of just leaving it to other sales members to get the team and shapes this is maybe a counterbalance to what you said earlier? Obviously, there's lessons to be gleaned from colleagues, or you know, people that maybe that just ahead of you, what can be done to kind of get the message up? It's a very challenging question. Because if you look at that, you know, there's bureaucracy in any organization that HP are in the 79 fighter squadron, or if you're in a, you know, a small tech company.
Waldo Waldman 32:27
First and foremost, I want the sales manager as a sales leader, as a CEO, as a VPS, regional directors to listen to this, because you once again, you've got to be approachable. And part of it always should be, you know, when you're briefing and debriefing missions or sharing ideas, you know, an annual sales meeting, by the way, it should just be annual sales meeting, should be maybe once a month, or you know, touching base for the team sharing some ideas. Don't wait for the annual meeting just to incentivize reward your top guns, maybe there's monthly rewards, etc. But your finger should always be on the pulse, saying how can we improve? What do you got? How do we get better? And so you should be soliciting and asking for that feedback. And then being careful on how you respond because we're, you know, some of us get their egos get in the way or we become defensive. So number one, you've got to be working with a leader who's approachable, who's coachable, who listens, not just to the prospect, but listens to you. So you've got to navigate that terrain as as a new hire or as a as a as a, you know, somebody who's working for a leader and say, Sir, Ma'am, you know, Can Can I sit down with you for 10 minutes and share some ideas that I have? About how to onboard our sales team, I read some interesting article, or I came from a company who was really good at this or I got a buddy, man, he's so awesome at this, can we invest 20 minutes of his or her time with us? Maybe on a zoom call to share some ideas? Absolutely. Let's schedule it. Let's let's make it happen. And, and, and once again, if your sales leader is not listening to you guess what sales leader, their resume is out, and they're going to the next company because people fire leaders, not companies. So it's your responsibility as a mentee as a lower wing man, a wing, ma'am, on that sales, rank hierarchy to approach and you'd be surprised if you ask with honor, and with respect, and at the right time, most good leaders who are you know, especially in top consoles, they'll listen to you, but come with your flight plan, come with an idea come with some beef and minimize the complaints. You can complain but then share a solution. No one wants to hear a complaint unless you've done some due diligence and said, Hey, here's an idea I have based on this faux pa that we did. And you know, here's three solutions. Here are some things we could think about. So take the initiative young sales wing man, a wing man, it's up to you know, sometimes the sales leaders are dodged at some The Nestle's they may. They may just may not they may forget to to keep you on their radar as well.
Jonathan Fischer 35:08
Yeah, that makes sense. Joey asked, What do you do to keep your team motivated when they're having a bad month, and then keep them hungry when they're happy.
Waldo Waldman 35:15
I was just telling this to a buddy of mine, of having a really good, good month, you know, close lots of deals, whatever. And I know what it's like to have a bad month to be hurt. In sales, you don't want to get too hyped up and amped up when you win. And you don't want to get too pissed off and negative when you lose. There's a time to celebrate, and you have a big win. You know, when the win, bring the beer Bell, celebrate, jump up, you know, do whatever it is, but then get back in and say next. Next rejection, I'm not stopping until I get a yes. Next, yes, I'm keeping it going. And I'm not becoming complacent in my passion and drive for the win. By the way, if you don't get more pissed off, when you lose, then you get excited when you win. That that potentially is a is a is a notation of of a crazy salesperson i i expect to win. Because I'm prepared. I know what I'm doing. I know my competition when a lot of sales call, I'm expecting to win. And if you're approaching it with fear, guess what? You're not prepared or you haven't earned the right to be on that call. Or you may get lucky. I've gotten lucky too. So when I lose, I'm like, Man, I'm pissed off, right. But sometimes when you lose, you're like, Man, I deserved it. I lost a deal recently with a major Fortune 100, high tech guy health care company. And it's because I talked too much. And I shared some information that I didn't need to share. And I think I'll just leave it at that. And if I didn't share that information, I probably would have gotten the sale, I told my assistant Jesse was awesome. I said, Jesse, I deserve to lose that deal. This is a very large deal. And an international company was going to be over in Spain. Sometimes when you lose a, it's okay to lose man and honor that loss and learn from it. So, so when you're looking at your wins and losses, just keep keep that in mind. But motivating your team when they're being hunted down, just just go back and review. Your last couple of wins.
I have a saying and it's in my ace Academy, look back to leap forward. Look back at your success. It's okay to look back on the quarter the year, you can't always be looking forward, look back at the distance you've traveled. Look back at the that the progress you made the calls you've made, the sales you've made, look back at your wins. You know, let them fill you with juice and say I've been there and done that I'm I'm using them as fodder and fuel to push me forward. And so don't don't forget to kind of pat yourself on the back. And also to reach out to others who see your greatness and see the best in us. Sometimes we get in our own dungeon of doubt, and call up a buddy maybe in and out of your company or a wingman in your life and give them the opportunity to lift you up. Sometimes we need that when we're when we're when we're a little afraid. And then finally, when you win, share the wind with somebody good. And then find a way to help somebody out. Right? Find a way if somebody helped. I'm like, I'm going to help Joanne I'm going to invest some time I'm going to inconvenience myself from my agenda and help somebody else wind. And so pay it forward in your team pay it forward in your life. I always give gifts to my clients who have watched who have hired me and some of them may be watching this right now. Man, I'd like to stay in touch with those folks who believed in the you said yes, who wrote the contract who wrote the check to me. Thank him I live in gratitude. And if you're not gracious and have gratitude for the winds in your life, man, I think that's gonna that's gonna hold you back when you are people want to help out somebody who appreciates and stays in touch which is hard these days. But make it part of your regimen especially when you kick an ass.
Jonathan Fischer 39:11
I love it. Well, Waldo Waldman, you've helped us learn some ways we can kick some more ass out there. And I want to thank you on behalf of a whole lot of our whole audience for adding so much value in
Waldo Waldman 39:19
you got it wherever you're going red.com forward slash f s, it's on the screen. You could send that out there. Share it with your teammates and share with your kids do this a lot about overcoming fear. I talk a lot about that in my book. But Jonathan, you're a professional. Thanks for holding the standard. We had a sound problem in the beginning and you were gracious and kind and I needed to show up four minutes earlier. So we didn't talk through our butts. So I'm going to take the hit on that and learn from a professional like you
Jonathan Fischer 39:47
are good my friend. Thanks again for being here and welcome to come back anytime in the near future. You want to be on our show. You've got a standing invitation. And for everybody here at Overpass, thanks so much for being on evolve sales live everybody go make a fantastic weekend bye everybody
