Merchants of Change

00:00:00:15 - 00:00:32:17
Unknown
This week on Merchants of Change. We've got Mari Milano, senior director of sales at Fair Market. Fair Market sales sourcing software to help companies manage their tail spin. Mari was a three sport high school athlete before playing hockey at the University of Delaware. Blue hands. Here she is. Mari Milano I'm J.R. Butler, co-founder of the Chef Group, and you're listening to Merchants of Change.

00:00:32:19 - 00:00:52:15
Unknown
Oh, this is a podcast about transferring the skills and behaviors we acquired as athletes into being a professional technology salesperson. Each week we'll introduce you to a top performer who will help us understand how they became professional merchants of Change.

00:00:56:10 - 00:01:20:11
Unknown
What's up, kid? How are we doing today? Ray Ah, good, man. Good. How are you? Good. John Marie, Good to see you both. Nice to see you, too. Marty, welcome to the show. Thanks for joining us. So quick, quick check on the plan today. We're going to ask a little bit about your sports career and then really dig in, talking about sales and the transition.

00:01:20:11 - 00:01:47:00
Unknown
Is that a good plan for you? Sounds great to me. I know I'm your top athlete. I think you've interviewed a couple of Olympians. So to be put in the same ranks as well. Listen, like, you know, speaking of top athlete, Needham High is like, you know, the team the team USA of of Massachusetts. Right. So you are a three sport fellow three sport athlete need them I the rockets and then you went on to play hockey at University of Delaware.

00:01:47:14 - 00:02:08:03
Unknown
So tell us a little bit about some of your fondest memories of playing sports growing up and in college. Sure. Well, I don't even think for playing three sports, so I played field hockey, ice hockey and lacrosse. And I think it was great for me. I think a lot of athletes, especially in high school, like overuse certain muscles, especially if they play all all year round.

00:02:08:03 - 00:02:30:16
Unknown
And those were three very different sports. So I definitely avoided injury, knock on wood, during that time period. But then I got to play hockey in college and I just loved it. I love being part of a team. I love. I'm ultra competitive, which might come out later in the interview. So for me it was just the marrying of those two things.

00:02:30:16 - 00:03:04:22
Unknown
What, and you were a defense spending hockey. I was. I was not very quick. So. Defenseman help me. I was like a smart player. I could see the ice while I was not afraid to body occasionally when the opportunity presented itself. So a defense was a good position for me. I was left defense and we have a lot of different questions based on your position, my goalies get a whole different side of questioning from us, as they should.

00:03:04:22 - 00:03:28:04
Unknown
I'll say, as somebody who's worked with you before, it does not surprise me at all that you played physically and aggressively. Do you did you have like a favorite partner from from when you played? Uh, I had my favorite partner was maybe in college, a girl, Sarah, who's actually from Boston area to acting box girl. She was very, very strong.

00:03:28:04 - 00:03:48:20
Unknown
She was actually like, bigger than me. So she gave me the confidence to sort of be a little bit more aggressive on the the blue line, which if you if you don't have confidence in your partner, you have to play a little more conservatively. 100%. 100%. Yeah. One one question I have, Marty, is just like, so we love having Massachusetts people, especially public high school.

00:03:48:20 - 00:04:13:17
Unknown
I grew up in Mansfield, Massachusetts on Thomasville High, so we like like the local, local flavor. But can you talk a little bit about your time in Needham and Delaware and just some of the skills you adopted and learned through athletics? Sure. I think the biggest thing for me was a really was really around time management, like being a three sport athlete, managing.

00:04:13:17 - 00:04:32:11
Unknown
You don't have the time to procrastinate. And I was a driven person, but if I had had every afternoon to just go home and do whatever I wanted, I would have procrastinated like the lazy side of me would have come out. So I think that was the biggest thing for me. And at Needham, same thing applied in college.

00:04:32:20 - 00:05:00:23
Unknown
Too much time on your hands in colleges is not a recipe for success. No, definitely not. We'll leave it at that. But yeah, let's just let's just say me and John agree. So tomorrow you get out of University of Delaware. You know, the job market, if I remember correctly, was fairly hot back then. How did you end up in your in your first sales role?

00:05:02:01 - 00:05:26:17
Unknown
So I'm sure that a lot of people watching this, they might not know what they want and I didn't know what I want. I tried three different majors at University of Delaware. I ended up with business and sociology at the time. Yeah, teen sociology. I So right after college I went and waitressed in Nantucket for a summer, saved all my money, and then I spent nine months traveling southeast Asia.

00:05:26:18 - 00:05:41:10
Unknown
I had really never had the chance to travel. My dad would say, you know, Hey, you don't have a mortgage. You don't have, now's the time to go do it. But when I came back from Southeast Asia and I was like, All right, I need to begin my career. I need to make some money. I don't want to live with my parents.

00:05:43:04 - 00:06:01:14
Unknown
My uncle is in sales and he had sort of been encouraging me to get into sales. And his pitch was, get your foot in the door at a company if you absolutely hate it. It's a perfect segue way into marketing. Yes, operations like you're learning the product, you're learning the leadership team. So he kind of pitched me on it.

00:06:01:14 - 00:06:34:01
Unknown
And then and then I liked it. So I think that it's funny how that happens with a lot of our what a lot of our athletes and listeners like. People tend to have somebody in their network. So it was was your uncle like like a mentor? Was that totally just coincidence you spoke with him about it? It was coincidence that he pushed me on it, and then it was coincidence that I ran into someone in Needham at the supermarket who is in the VC space, and he had actually invested in Terminus and he'd invested in this other kind of like athletics focused startup.

00:06:34:01 - 00:06:59:11
Unknown
So he made two introductions for me and between that and my uncle kind of encouraging me, my dad is a recruiter and owns his own company. Recruiting is very much sales, so it's sort of that trifecta experience. Shout out. Shout out to Dave Fischetti, former turbo Gnomic board member. He's an athlete, so it's kind of Turbo was your first your first sales gig?

00:07:00:05 - 00:07:20:21
Unknown
It was Trial by fire, huh? Well, it's funny, I remember in my interview I had literally no sales experience, so I started talking about how I was trying to upsell people on the lobster rolls down in Nantucket. That was my only sales experience at that point. That's legit. That's logic. That's me to encourage people, you know, like you sell something, right?

00:07:20:23 - 00:07:48:00
Unknown
You get it. At some point you're convincing somebody to say yes. I consider that to be sales. Did you talk a little bit more about the transition or the shift over to sales? What was what was some of the challenges right out of the gate? It was certainly a competitive environment in a turbo when I joined. I don't think I think the best part and I keep coming back to this is like structure and organization and being in the office.

00:07:48:09 - 00:08:04:22
Unknown
And I sort of was for a chunk of my day every day, force me to work out in the mornings. And then that was pretty much my life Monday to Friday. And so I do feel bad for people that are starting roles right now, remote, and they really have to create their own structure on a day to day basis.

00:08:05:06 - 00:08:31:09
Unknown
But for me, it was it was a very natural transition. I'd gone from school plus working out to now it was just work plus working out. I didn't have too much. And also I'm freaking competitive. I don't know if J.R. can speak to that, but like being in an environment where every single day, every single metric is measured, like I couldn't stand to be at the bottom was I want to pick on them remote work, because J.R. and I talk about this quite a bit.

00:08:32:16 - 00:08:51:16
Unknown
Elaborate on that. I think I have a similar feeling, but a lot of people are starting today's job, today's job in a remote position or interviewing remote. So you talk a little bit about of I think it would be so tough to start remote, like, how are you I mean, just so many things that you pick up by being in person.

00:08:51:16 - 00:09:16:01
Unknown
You're seeing other. Exactly interact you're seeing other people, other teams. You get to meet other people like knowing people in product. Knowing people in teams is massively helpful in your when you're in sales. We always talk about with my reps, it's not just about building external champions, it's about building internal champions. You're always going to need like, Hey, can you go talk to our CFO about getting flexible on these financing terms?

00:09:16:19 - 00:09:39:16
Unknown
There's just so many elements to be in person that if you want to quickly grow your career, I would encourage she got to start her day Monday through Friday at 7 a.m. seeing my smiling face and huge for a job. So like you know I think this will be that you know what I mean? You go into the office and be tired and then look at his face at 730.

00:09:39:18 - 00:10:08:13
Unknown
Like it just it doesn't matter so much. I'm I'm excited to ask you this question. So, like, as you know, right, we're helping a lot of folks like like you were coming out of school or coming back from Southeast Asia. And typically our candidates are getting multiple offers from different types of companies, you know, and they're looking at things like, you know, whoa, this base is that and that base is this and this is the variable compensation.

00:10:08:13 - 00:10:36:12
Unknown
This is the benefits. You know, unfortunately to John's point, a lot of people are making a decision on, you know, remote versus office based work. What do you think is missing from the list? Like, how would you advise some a young transitioning athlete to evaluate potential employers? Like what are the things that that you think the boxes they need to check the two things that you missed out of that list that come to mind are one, like the leadership team.

00:10:36:12 - 00:11:02:08
Unknown
So that was the first thing I looked at at Terminal. The the leadership team had worked together prior companies. They were phenomenal from it with CFO, CEO, CMO, like just a great team. And that sets the tone for the company. VP of Sales to great media sales. I think the other component that people don't really realize too is and I certainly didn't realize this, is thinking long and hard about the product you're going to sell in the space.

00:11:02:08 - 00:11:20:03
Unknown
You're going to sell into it. If you're going to sell into a CIO every single day versus a CMO, your day to day is going to look a lot different. The things you're going to be reading about, the like they're sort of who you're selling to looks at you as a consultant or looks at you as an industry expert.

00:11:20:03 - 00:11:41:19
Unknown
If you can't get passionate about whatever you're selling or that's BS, it's going to be a lot harder to be successful. Yeah, but I we always I always preach the leadership team. We preach, you know, being able to find the passion, even if it's uncomfortable, like figuring out a way to make the problem that they solve and the type of customers that have that problem.

00:11:41:19 - 00:12:13:08
Unknown
Part of your kind of like your excitement about the opportunity is is huge. So, Larry, obviously, I remember at the beginning of your career very, very intimately, you went from BTR to A in seven months. So question for you. We talk, we work with both like very young, kind of fresh student athletes is also career transition people that were athletes, tried to do something else, didn't love it, missed the competition, missed the teamwork.

00:12:14:04 - 00:12:36:15
Unknown
But both of that, both of those profiles are looking to get into closing roles as fast as possible. So so a two part question what's the right way to approach the job? And if somebody wants to get promoted quickly, what advice would you give to them? So two pieces to it. So one, that's a factor to keep in mind in what company you choose to work for.

00:12:36:15 - 00:12:55:07
Unknown
If you're going to work for a company that only has an enterprise sale where it's 12 plus months sales cycle, then the ramp time for you getting promoted to be a closer is a lot longer. If they have an SMB or a mid-market product, the ability for you to get promoted internally is probably going be a lot faster.

00:12:55:17 - 00:13:13:23
Unknown
The second thing I would caution is when you're interviewing, certainly make it known that you are motivated and that is what your goal is and you have your eye on the prize. But but also make sure you're not sending out any red flags of like if I don't get promoted in six months, like I'm quitting, definitely avoid that.

00:13:14:09 - 00:13:36:09
Unknown
I think the biggest way to to get promoted quickly is and this is not just a closing rule, but like, make your boss's job easy. Make it easy for your VTR manager to say they crush it every single day. They're doing X, Y, Z. They're asking me what else they can be doing. They're listening to calls. They're reaching out to other reps and asking them like, What do you do well and trying to steal what other reps do well.

00:13:36:18 - 00:14:00:04
Unknown
So it's sort of going above and beyond in the current role, making it clear that that's your goal and whether it's your direct manager or other sales leaders. So whoever manages the team getting on their radar really quick, those are some of the things that come to mind. So one thing you said that is interesting, obviously don't be over the top in the interview, like I want to be an A tomorrow.

00:14:01:03 - 00:14:21:12
Unknown
Make it no or make your boss's job easy. I think those are great. Impress your number. But in the beginning you said going to those different types of organizations where, you know, if you're looking at a product that's very complex, it's sophisticated, it may be in a longer sales cycle, it may be harder to make that jump or, you know, go into that right away.

00:14:21:20 - 00:14:40:07
Unknown
So any any thoughts on just this is just kind of my own curiosity on bigger companies versus smaller companies. Does that play into it at all? We get that question a lot. If it's a bigger company, then they're going to have more process internally. And when you ask them in the interview process, you're going to say, What's the promotion path?

00:14:40:13 - 00:14:57:06
Unknown
And they're going to be able to say there's a level one, level two, level three, and here's what you need to do to get to each of those roles. There is not going to be that clarity at a smaller company, but there's probably a more likely chance that you might be able to get promoted sooner if the need opens up or you're going to be working with.

00:14:57:20 - 00:15:21:03
Unknown
I've only worked at smaller, faster growth companies, so you're going to lack the process. But I like it because there's less red tape, there's less some of the internal politics that a lot of people are rolling in that direction these days. Can you talk about going from VTR to a in seven months is awesome. You must have had a good cadence with the AP.

00:15:21:04 - 00:15:41:02
Unknown
Can you talk a little bit about some best practices with the builders working with the sales reps? So for some of the listeners, our newer BTR business development rep, Amy is a county executive. It's essentially business development and sales and they're on the same team trying to do the same demand generation activity. So to talk about that. Mark Sure.

00:15:41:03 - 00:16:01:09
Unknown
There's two things that come to mind. So first with working with Amy's, the biggest thing I remember was just being like a sponge and understanding if I set up a meeting, like why did it or why didn't it go well and what pieces of that could I control? When I was then going and setting up other meetings? So I remember I set up this one meeting.

00:16:01:09 - 00:16:18:23
Unknown
I was so excited about it and I went and talked to the after is like how to go like and you kind of gave me blunt feedback. He's like, And you got a meeting with the university during August. They had nothing better to do with their time. So, you know, being a very quick learner though, of like, what is the you looking for?

00:16:18:23 - 00:16:40:14
Unknown
How high can I get in an account meeting with actual decision makers and being really quick to try and support them with the best meetings? And then the second piece, I remember this from my interview J.R for your team for the east. I think sometimes leaders need to realize like what the business does. I don't know if you recall this, J.R., but like the business problem.

00:16:40:14 - 00:17:08:23
Unknown
So we were we were selling a solution that was application performance management and I was it took me a while to realize like that has an actual impact. If you sell to State Farm and their application goes down, that has a problem for their end users that causes like revenue issues. So really understanding what your solution can do from a business impact, but tie yourself to the biggest business problem, you have a much better chance of getting budget.

00:17:10:01 - 00:17:30:09
Unknown
It was your first day in my role. We had pods at the time, so that was I'm not going to name names on who gave me that feedback. I think I as a Cody, it sounds like something Cody would say it was. Scott Esler And then Brady Linehan tried to no show one of my meetings because he'd just gotten promoted to MIA.

00:17:30:10 - 00:18:02:20
Unknown
So it was like the group of them. A big board, Yeah. So, so Marieme, I'm curious, like, you know, most of the folks that are listening to this are going through that transition. They're looking for an edge, be it in the interview process or, you know, once they get into the BTR role, how do you think, like what are the areas of development that you think athletes specifically can lean into to differentiate themselves from their competitors, people that are interviewing for the same role or people that are leaders all going for a promotion?

00:18:02:21 - 00:18:33:10
Unknown
It's like, what are those skills that are best to focus on? Two things come to mind. Maybe one, just I keep going back to time management and organization, but those are two skills that I don't think really get highlighted. When people are hiring for sales, they typically think like aggressive, go getter, you know, take no for an answer, but sometimes just being like rigidly organized about your sales process and like methodical about the accounts, you're going to go after the process.

00:18:33:10 - 00:18:51:22
Unknown
You're going to go, I have a cadence for my mid-level people. I have this process that I follow to write more quality emails to the sea level. If you can be super methodical and manage your time like that, I think that's one aspect that if you've your if you've been an athlete your whole life, you have to manage your your schedule.

00:18:51:22 - 00:19:20:18
Unknown
So that's one piece that I think could make them stand out as a leader. That's a good point, especially with coming over from a different industry or from athletics and you don't have the experience, you know, you really have to be aware of the time. I just know if I'm my days, like I would talk to peers and they would spend all day trying to load contacts into Salesforce, never talk to anyone and say, you know, before you know, and then they kick back.

00:19:20:18 - 00:19:44:15
Unknown
It's like, That's your day, That's your day. Just go in there and just call those people and then put them in later and figure out a way to get them in later. Like don't don't use their time between eight and five to do things that you can do at 6:00 or something like that. That's a big thing, especially for entry level switch in Real quick over to mentorship.

00:19:44:15 - 00:20:11:16
Unknown
So you mentioned your dad and your uncle. Sometimes it's the coach or another player, just somebody random event. Can you talk a little bit about mentorship and sales and how that's kind of important to you? Sure. Well, for the longest time I was looking for like a female sales leader to try and like, mimic myself after. And I think I realized I don't need just like one role model.

00:20:11:16 - 00:20:28:06
Unknown
So I have like a lot of role models that I try and just steal their best qualities from. So I do talk about my dad a lot and he's certainly helpful from like a business in a career perspective. I'm not going to call him up if I'm saying, Hey, I need to revise the comp plans for my team.

00:20:28:13 - 00:20:53:04
Unknown
So I've tried to just sort of build a network of people that I can rely on for different pieces. So I had some former bosses from Jeff that are good that I call up for certain things I have. I did end up finding like an exact mentor through Pavillion, if you have heard of that organization. So they paired me up with someone who works at a much bigger company and she's been fantastic at providing that lens.

00:20:53:11 - 00:21:13:12
Unknown
But like even working for J.R. and just stealing the best of J.R., like his passion, his work ethic, like trying to steal things from different people, not just having one singular role model. I like that. Yeah. The the best salespeople in the world. They know. They know what to steal and what to like, be self aware of, like not to do.

00:21:13:12 - 00:21:45:15
Unknown
Right. Which I'm sure you got a lot of that from Vito. Maybe one or two things. So I've been obviously since Turbo watching your career from afar and it's been so exciting and watching you move from an individual contributor to sales leadership. Can you like what what are some of the biggest lessons you got from that transition? Mark So because I was at a fast growth company, there was not a lot of process, there was not a lot of training and it was a little bit figured out as you go.

00:21:45:22 - 00:22:04:03
Unknown
So what I just tried to do was steal from my past bosses like what I had liked and not like. And sometimes when you're a sales rep, you can feel like, Hey, I'm the only one pushing for this deal. Internally. I have finance coming down my street about payment terms. I have products saying, Hey, you're selling something that doesn't exist or whatever the case is.

00:22:04:12 - 00:22:34:07
Unknown
And so as a boss, I just try to be like my team's biggest advocate. So there's going to be roadblocks like how can I help them get around those, whether it's me knowing the product inside out, whether I have internal champions. So when I first started at Fair Market as a manager, my key things in the first 30 days was becoming a product matter expert, like learning the business case inside and out, building internal champions from the other departments so that wherever possible I could advocate for my team deals.

00:22:35:07 - 00:23:00:11
Unknown
That's what I've tried to do and if you have deals that are closing, no one's going to be upset. So I've been stealing is a great way to put it too. And I did something similar in my previous role on I was knocking my head against the wall trying to figure out how to sell something at my company, and I just called up the guy that I saw who was number one December one, multiple years in a row.

00:23:00:17 - 00:23:20:00
Unknown
Can I talk to you for a second? I was like, This is what I'm doing. What are you doing? And I still talk to that guy years later. I think it's been 15 years later. I still talk to the guy about what he's doing. And you know, you can learn something from anyone. But if you kind of steal from that the best and think that's where you can really elevate your game.

00:23:21:00 - 00:23:36:23
Unknown
Yeah, for new buyers, there should be some sort of mechanism at the company that shows like this is how we're tracking new meetings being scheduled. So that was my favorite thing to do everyday of just like I got a meeting, I'm going to go look up the email that he sent to get that meeting or John got a meeting.

00:23:36:23 - 00:24:00:15
Unknown
I'm going to go. It looks like he got it off a cold call. I'm just going to Slack John, and say like, Hey, how did you get that? So like, it's a constant thing. And obviously the top performers to reaching out to them. So. So Mari, now that you're in like team building mode, you know, when you're hiring for like obviously a higher level role and then what most of our candidates are going for.

00:24:00:15 - 00:24:21:11
Unknown
But can you talk a little bit about like how are you approaching the interview process? What are you looking for? I mean, I'm looking for specifically why they want to work at my company, not just be in sales, not just sell an enterprise software company. Why do they want to be at my company and why do they think they'll be a good fit?

00:24:21:18 - 00:24:47:13
Unknown
And that's going to be their answers to questions are going to be indicative. How much research have they done? Have they sold into the space before? Have they sold not just into the space of procurement, but do they know, like the landscape that we play in? So ERP space? So that's the first thing I'm looking for. The second thing is, is it sounds cliche, but like adaptability and culture ability.

00:24:47:13 - 00:25:02:20
Unknown
I do work with a lot more senior and tenured professionals. They're going to be good at a lot of things that I'm not good at, but they still have to learn how to sell our particular product. And so are they going to be receptive to feedback? How are they going to get up to speed? Those are two of the things.

00:25:02:20 - 00:25:31:12
Unknown
Also, we have a lean enablement team. So like, are they a self-starter or am I going to have to handle them the first nine months? Yeah, you're self-starter. You're you're in an interesting spot. Mary Similar to myself when I moved into Enterprise at Turbo, where you're typically managing people that are older and more tenured than you do, have you kind of gotten your arms around the best way to to go about that?

00:25:31:12 - 00:25:50:22
Unknown
I think if you're not confident in your role, then you won't be able to get your hands around that. I age and experience is really just a number I know fair markets product inside and out. I have extensive experience selling to the largest companies here, so someone could come knocking on our door and they could have extensive experience, which is great.

00:25:50:22 - 00:26:10:21
Unknown
I want to hire people that know what they're doing, but it comes back to they they don't they haven't sold their market yet. And so there are going to be twists and turns in any deal, especially enterprise deals. We just closed the deal yesterday where it's been legal since May. So just like there's going to be things that come up and I'm very confident that I can help them accelerate things.

00:26:11:03 - 00:26:35:04
Unknown
So I don't really have any qualms about managing people with different backgrounds. What guidance do you have for women who are getting started in sales? Mark The same advice my uncle gave me. Just just get in sales and you'll find your way. And if you're competitive, then you're going to do well and you're going to probably stand out because just the way it is, there's not a ton of sales, but that's a good thing.

00:26:35:18 - 00:26:54:09
Unknown
It's good to stand out, especially if you're doing well. If you're not doing well, well, then you're going to want to hide in the corner and you've probably found a new girl. So. So, John, at one point when Mary was on my team, I had an entire team of female sellers. And guess what? We were the number one team in the company like two years in a row.

00:26:54:09 - 00:27:19:13
Unknown
So that's awesome. We always tell our female candidates, like, if you're a hardworking, you know, passionate female, like, you know, a female over a male, ten out of ten times, all things being equal because of the empathy that comes with the organization. Like there's something to be said. And I think it's really great that we're starting to see an increase in that kind of piece of software sales.

00:27:19:13 - 00:27:42:19
Unknown
We're seeing more and more females over, you know, over 50% of our candidate or is females and people of color. So that diversity is going to be huge as tech tech becomes more important. So so, Mary, two final questions. The first one, we like our guests to highlight one skill that you've developed that makes you an elite seller.

00:27:42:19 - 00:28:06:10
Unknown
What's your like number one top skill, you think? Oh, I think like active listening and just methodical. I think active listening. I saw this on LinkedIn, too today. It's not about listening to someone with the intent of just responding. It's the like listening to someone to hear. I think you might have seen the LinkedIn post, like being active.

00:28:06:10 - 00:28:30:14
Unknown
Listening is such an underrated skill in sales. And then if you're methodical about your follow up organization and especially enterprise sales, like there's so many, there's there can be 40 people involved with a deal. Do you have to be organized? Listening is so tough. Like it kills me sometimes I'm on a call with someone and the prospect is talking and the customer is talking or, you know, the candidates are talking and they're critical.

00:28:30:19 - 00:28:59:16
Unknown
Everybody's trying to talk and nobody's listening. Like nobody's listening to the problem right now, especially in sales, everybody wants to talk listless, listening to understand, Shout out your Time and Matt O'Brien. So maybe this is a little bit of a hockey analogy. You know that the household I grew up in with a hockey coach is a dad. My dad used to preach to us, used to say, Listen, there's a lot of there's a lot of kids that play hockey, but there's not a lot of hockey players.

00:28:59:16 - 00:29:23:00
Unknown
Right. And any and we kind of really understood at a very young age what it meant to be a professional. It's something that I think I carried into my my sales career. And we think that gift group, the highest praise you can give a salesperson, is calling them a sales professional, a pro. Talk a little bit like what does being a pro in this industry, what does it mean to you?

00:29:23:15 - 00:29:41:23
Unknown
I'm going to give you another buzz word, which is when I think of a sales pro, I think of extreme ownership. They own their stuff every single day. They're not walking into the day and saying, Oh, what am I doing today? They have a plan that they're going into the day, into the week with when they're a wrap and they're closing deals, they know their deals inside and out.

00:29:41:23 - 00:30:02:11
Unknown
They know their deals. Companies and the business behind it inside know they know their internal champions inside know they know, hey, I'm running into this issue. I'm going to tag in, J.R., because I think J.R. and this person are going to align like it's just yeah, it's a little bit hard to put into words, but that's how I think about it from my reps.

00:30:02:11 - 00:30:26:16
Unknown
It's own it. Yeah, I get it. And I think it's an awesome answer because it's like it's all the things you talked about, but it's also extreme ownership of your own development, extreme ownership of understanding and self-awareness of your weaknesses and your own strengths and extreme ownership of like, you know, realizing that it's not just you selling the customer, it's your job to surround the whole company with the customer, right?

00:30:26:16 - 00:30:44:22
Unknown
We used to always talk about how as a sales rep, everybody works for you from the CEO down, right? And having the ownership and ability to do that is what makes the pros the pros awesome. Awesome answer. It's also a great book, by the way, Mary, I don't know if you read it. I've met Jakob. Impressive guy. Oh, yeah.

00:30:45:02 - 00:31:07:09
Unknown
Oh, yeah. One of my favorite books. I got a copy for all the the turbo execs at one point. Larry, this was awesome. This is going to be so helpful for our candidates and other people that are early in their career. So thank you so much for spending the time with John and I. We really appreciate it. Was great to meet you, John, and always a pleasure.

00:31:07:10 - 00:31:34:15
Unknown
Bear. Yeah, keep up the great work here. This wraps up this episode of Making some Change. If you enjoyed this episode, the most meaningful way to say thanks is to submit a review wherever you listen to podcasts. If you're interested in working with us, please come find us at WW Dot Chef Group dot I.