Harrison Ryder, Founder and President of Elevation Sales Group, powered by Sales Xceleration

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those show hosts. Thank you for choosing

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W FOURCY Radio. Churchill said,
those who failed to learn from history are

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condemned to repeat it. Kevin Helen
m believes that certainly applies to business.

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Welcome to Winning Business Radio here at
W four CY Radio. That's W four

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cy dot com and now your host, Kevin Helena. Thanks everybody for joining

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in today once again. I'm Kevin
Hallanan and welcome back to Winning Business TV

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and Radio on W four cy dot
com. We are streaming live on talkfor

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tv dot com, and of course
we're on Facebook live at Winning Business Radio

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and as you know as well,
we'll be available in podcasts after today's show

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on tons of platforms including YouTube,
iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple, pretty much

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wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts
were there. The mission of Winning Business

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radio and TV, as regular listeners
know, is to offer insights and advice

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to help people avoid the mistakes of
others. Right. I always say,

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the best practices, the how tos, the what toos, the what not

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tos to be challenged and certainly and
hopefully to be inspired by the successes of

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others. But you know, virtually
every successful person that I've ever had a

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chance to talk to has had some
form of failure in their lives and careers.

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So listen, I always say,
well, we all have to get

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our knee skinned once in a while. I'm driven to keep those scrapes from

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needing major surgery. Let's endeavor to
learn from history so we don't repeat it

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today. My guest is Harrison Ryder, founder and President of Elevation Sales Group

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powered by Sales Acceleration, a sales
management consulting firm. Here's his bio as

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founder and president of Elevation Sales Group
Sales Group excuse me, Harrison leverages his

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thirty five years of successful sales and
sales management experience to help small and medium

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sized companies exceed their revenue targets.
Having worked with startups and Fortune five hundred

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companies managed national and international sales organizations, Harrison now partners with owners, CEOs,

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and presidents to create high performing sales
teams that deliver that consistently deliver breakthrough

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sales results. By aligning corporate goals, installing the proper sales processes and procedures,

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mentoring existing sales talent, and executing
on effective sales strategies, Harrison helps

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create an accountable, professional, results
oriented sales culture within his client companies.

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Prior to founding Elevation Sales Group,
he worked as vice president of sales for

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several companies offering enterprise software solutions to
the insure currants, legal healthcare compliance,

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and manufacturing markets. Most recently,
Harrison served as VP of Sales for Flagship

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Services Group, a leading medicare and
medicaid compliance company. He was responsible for

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managing a sales team that sold professional
services and SaaS software solutions to property and

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casualty insurance carriers, workers, comp
insurance carriers, third party administrators, and

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the alternative risk markets. Flagship Services
Group helped those organizations mitigate their non compliance

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risks protect their financial resources and improve
their financial excuse me their operating efficiencies in

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the processing of Medicare claims. Prior
to Flagship Services Group, Harrison was vice

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president of sales for David Corporation,
a leading provider of risk management software solutions

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to the alternative risk and specialty,
property and casualty markets. He managed a

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sales team that sold SaaS software solutions
that helped clients identify and manage their overall

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cost of risk, re used claim
costs, improve operational efficiencies, and in

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CRE's reporting capabilities to better manage overall
business operations. Harrison holds a Bachelor of

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Science and Business Administration from West Virginia
University and a master's degree a Master's of

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Business Administration from Bentley University. When
not working, he enjoys spending time with

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his wife and children. He enjoys
running, fly fishing, and mountain biking.

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He's married to Wendy and they reside
in Millville, Massachusetts. They have

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three grown children. Harry's thirty,
Hollis's twenty seven, Trenton is twenty seven?

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Did I get that right now?
I got one of those ages is

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wrong? I think it's a typo. You'll fix it in the second Harrison,

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and they have two dogs, Knox
and Sadie Harrison. Welcome to Winning

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Business Radio and TV. Appreciate you, Thank you very much for having me

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Kevin. They're twins, we get
that, all Oh, I got that,

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all right, So you know it's
funny. As I typed that,

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I didn't notice I was type of
the same year twice. Twins. That's

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cool. The other interesting part is
they were born at Valentine Stay. Oh

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awesome. The way my wife and
I celebrate Valentine's State is very different.

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We still party, but not in
the same way. That's awesome. That's

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awesome. I didn't catch that even
as I was doing it. So tell

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us about Wendy. Does she work? What does she do? She does?

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She's quite the entrepreneur. She has
her own business cool where she contracts

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with the organizations like home Depot and
Costco. And she she orbjays, I

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should say, and she sets up
Christmas trees. I like to say that

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in the season, she sets up
small forests. It's not uncommon for her

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to set up over twenty five hundred
Christmas trees. Wow. Wow, sounds

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like she's been doing that for a
while. Yes, all right, tell

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us about your kids. I noticed
that you're the third. Is Harry the

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fourth? He is, Yes,
it's not right, so carry on the

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tradition. So tell us about Harry. So he's married. He lives down

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north of Austin, Texas, and
he's in the military. He's a first

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lieutenant and he flies apatche helicopter.
Oh that's very cool. Uh. We

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have a fellow provisors member who flew
helicopters who I don't know if you've met

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or not, but I'll introduce it
to him at some point if you haven't,

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and thanks for his service. Tell
him Matt. I have a son

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who served in the Marine Corps too, and Hollis Hollis and Trent hollis Is.

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She Answers has the master's in theology
and she teaches at a Christian school.

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And my other son, Trenton.
He's a serial entrepreneur. He he

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has a number twenty seven. He
has a number of companies that he is

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that he is involved in. Uh. He's quite the equestrian and recently purchased

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the naming rights to the oldest saddle
manufacturer in the United States. So he

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is he's thinking of launching a line
of horse tack equipment through that name.

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Wow, that's awesome. I'll talk
to you about My kids went to South

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Shore Christian Academy in Weymouth, and
we have friends at various you know that

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are either teaching or administrators at various
schools too. So all right, where

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did you grow up? Looked like
Pittsburgh when I wasn't one hundred percent sure.

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Just south of Pittsburgh a town called
Upper Saint Clair, Pennsylvania. And

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what was it like to grow up
in that town? Described the town and

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tell folks what it was like to
grow up there. Yeah, it was

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a great town, you know,
a suburb of Pittsburgh. You know,

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it was the it was the time
that I grew up that you know,

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you literally could leave at eight o'clock
in the morning and not come home until

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seven o'clock at night, and your
parents would think you were completely safe,

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and we would be playing with friends
in the neighborhood and those types of things.

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So a great, great neighborhood to
grow up in. Pittsburgh. Sports

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fans, I am, yes,
I'm I'm a Steeler fan, and I

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am a Pirate fan, although I
do believe the Pirates are a major League

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farm club. Unfortunately, yeah,
and I'm also a Penguins fan. Cool.

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We took in a so my wife
and I and another couple are doing

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the ballpark tour. Oh, we're
not quite at twenty yet, so we're

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doing two a year for now.
We did Pittsburgh either last year the year

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before. That's that's a cool,
cool park right on the water there.

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What were your early interests growing up? Growing up, I was interested in

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the martial arts, and in fact
started I was actually involved in a skateboard

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accident where I fractured my skull and
so that was that put my football career

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on hold. My football career,
i should say, and as a result

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got involved in the martial arts,
which really concerned my doctor at the time

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because he was like, you know, you can't take headshots at least at

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that time. But had worked that
through high school, worked that summers at

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college, and and really a great
experience because what it did is it gave

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me the opportunity to teach people at
all age ranges. It also gave me

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the aspect of introduction into business and
actually settling belt programs. So that was

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a great experience in terms of an
intro into sales. That's cool discipline probably

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as well, very much so.
Yeah, all right, So you chose

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West Virginia University and you majored in
business administration. What was behind those two

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decisions? West Virginia had a good
business program. It was roughly about an

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hour and a half south of Pittsburgh, and so it was far enough away

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to be on my own, but
yet close enough to be able to come

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home when I wanted to do so. I really enjoyed my experience at West

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Virginia. Obviously, in a big
school it can be overwhelming. However,

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once you start to get into your
major classes, then it really you know,

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starts to narrow down in terms of
the size of the classes and the

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people that you're exposed to. Good
football, and depending on the year,

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good based basketball too, right,
yes, very much so, Yeah,

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that's cool. Later, so it
looked to be about five years after your

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undergrad you got your MBA with a
focus and again business administration. What drove

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the decision to do that and the
timing Really, the decision was just to

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broaden my business skills. I was
doing sales at the time and just felt

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that the idea of being able to
get my master's degree and do it in

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the evenings was something that was very
appealing, you know, literally being able

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to apply course material to your work
environment, which was great. And was

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it difficult to allocate the time you're
doing at night? How long did it

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take and what was that discipline?
Like? Yeah, I did it in

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a little over two years and it
was great. My wife worked retailing at

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the time, so she was working
Saturdays and Saturdays were my study days,

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so worked out great. Cool.
So from that experience achieving your master's degree

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at night, what was your most
important lesson learned that you want to share?

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What would you think the answer to
that would be just focus and hard

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work and the idea the just the
continual learning is so important and and and

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that was just as I mentioned,
just a good experience going through that the

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idea of you know, being able
to accomplish it. I was one that

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really wanted to make sure that I
maximized the number of courses that I took

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each semester. And and what I
found is that is if you challenge yourself,

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you can truly rise to the occasion. That's good. Love it and

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it's have you always worked in sales
or have you had other than you know,

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younger as you said, it's kind
of selling. But professionally, have

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you always been in sales? I
have, Yeah, and so me too.

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By the way, what drew you
to that? I you know,

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my undergraduate I, you know,
had a minor concentration in marketing. And

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what I realized is that just that
combination of marketing kind of a broad business

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background. I like the challenge of
sales. I like being able to bring

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that knowledge base to a client in
the situation that I would be selling.

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And just the idea of being able
to convince somebody to go along with a

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thought that I had or a product
or service that I offered, as long

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as it truly met their needs and
offered value. And I tend to be

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a pretty competitive person, and I
like the idea of if you will,

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And what I found is that it's
not all about me, but it's all

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about satisfying customers and meeting their needs
and winning through that absolutely. And as

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you know, I know you believe
in this philosophy. If it's good for

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them, you know it's good for
us, and that you know, sales

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done well is about helping people.
It's not just about selling them stuff air

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quotes, right, Yeah, what
would you say, perhaps to younger folks

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considering a career in sales, it's
it's a wonderful career in terms of being

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exposed to all aspects of business.
It's one that is not for the feint

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of heart. True, It's very
true. You've probably heard the expression that

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it can be the hardest hind pay
job you've ever had or the easiest lowing,

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low paying job you've ever had,
and that is so true. Like

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any type of sports activity, their
need to be disciplined. There needs to

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be consistent behavior that happens. And
if that happens, if that is put

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in place, people can do very
well in sales. Agreed, And I

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would add, just from my experience, you probably would agree that, you

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know, many salespeople don't have the
opportunity to be mentored professionally or well,

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many of them don't don't get training, many of them don't meet somebody like

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you or somebody like me. So
the other the other advice that I would

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offer is find an organization that believes
in investing in their people, you know

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very much. So, yeah,
And I think one of the you know,

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one of the attributes that makes the
salesperson very successful is a natural curiosity,

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the idea of wanting to find things
out and wanting to ask questions.

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That's really good, wanting to learn, and that's how truly they meet their

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customers' needs. Excellent. All right, we're going to take our first break

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right here. We'll be right back
about one minute, everybody with Harrison Writer.

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You're listening to Winning Business Radio with
Kevin Helene on W four CY Radio.

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And now back to Winning Business Radio
with Kevin Helenan presenting exciting topics and

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expert guests with one goal in mind, help you succeed in business. Here

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once again is Kevin Helenet. We
are back with Harrison Ryder. He's founder

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and president of Elevation Sales Group powered
by Sales Acceleration, a sales management consulting

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firm. Tell us about those two
companies. One is yours, one is

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a franchise organization. Sales Acceleration is
one of the larger outsourced VP of sales

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firms out there. They have roughly
two hundred advisors throughout the US and also

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internationally. It's a company like I've
never experienced before in terms of they truly

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have a desire of wanting all of
their advisors to succeed, and the community

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is extremely supportive in helping one another. There are a number of advisors in

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the markets that I participate, and
truly we really don't run into each other

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much, and if we do,
oftentimes will will jointly work with a client

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to offer exceptional value at the price
of one particular advisor. So willing to

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help one another out as we serve
the business community outstanding And we'll get more

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into that in a moment, but
I wanted just to clear that up for

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those that are watching and listening.
So you've had successful, several, by

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the way, successful positions in sales
leadership. You've worked for and with startups

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like we heard in the Bio Fortune
five hundred nal and international sales organizations.

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In your opinion, what factors made
you successful in those roles? Really understanding

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the markets that we serve, Understanding
the client's needs, and understanding, in

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this case the safas or enterprise software
applications, that either I was marketing early

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on, or that I was managing
a team that was marketing and truly understanding

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what clients wanted to achieve through that
software. The other piece that was so

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critical is because it was a long
term, high dollar amount or long term

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sales cycle and the dollar amount was
hi the purchase amount, it was important

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to not only identify who the decision
maker was, but also to go very

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wide within an organization to understand your
champions and how you were going to make

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those other people successful with the applications
excellent and for I think most people probably

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know, but I still get the
question. Tell people what the SaaS is

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software as a service, so therefore
it's not downloaded on their servers or desktops

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laptops, but it resides in the
cloud. Sure, Sure, And the

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advantage is what advantages from a cost
standpoint it's not quite as expensive. Upgrades

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can be done very relatively quickly,
and there isn't that ownership cost of the

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software. Well done. All right, So, in the fall of twenty

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twenty, judging from faith your LinkedIn
profile, you just decided to start your

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own company and a partner with Sales
Acceleration. Take us really through that decision

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making process. Where were you in
your career that seemed right to do that?

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How did you then choose? So
this will be a long answer,

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but how did you choose Sales Acceleration? Sure, I came across Sales Acceleration.

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It was a job ad that was
listed and just intrigued me about the

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outsourced VP of sales. I've heard
about the fractional market or the outsource market

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really around it or even like a
CFO service, but never around sales,

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and so ordered the conversation with Sales
Acceleration. Met the founders of the company

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at that time and went through their
process and an extensive process in terms of

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evaluating their advisors, because truly they
want to put good people in the in

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the markets that we serve. And
what was interesting is we went through that

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whole process. One of the founders, Mark Thacker asked me, you know,

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Harrison, we want you. Are
you ready to pull the trigger?

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And I said no. I said, I feel like I've got to do

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one more corporate gig and He's like
okay. And so I went to work

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for a company out of Cork,
Ireland. It was a company. It

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was a SaaS company that did regulatory
compliance and roughly about a thirteen million dollar

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company. And I was in Ireland
for two months as we did an onboarding

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process. And as I got there, as I mentioned thirteen million dollars,

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and as I got there, three
of the C suites were fractional and I

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thought, this is crazy. The
thirteen million dollar company. You can afford

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full time resources. But the way
I saw that these fractional resources were deployed

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was just incredible in terms of what
we were able to accomplish. As part

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of you know, training a team
that came on board, they also brought

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in a local Sandler sales trainer to
work with some of the sales folks.

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And he was a former IBM person. I think I know. And literally

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after a day of training, I
would sit with this gentleman and I would

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say, so tell me again,
why did you leave IBM to start your

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own company, and just really picked
his brain. And so then after that

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gig finished, I reached back out
to sales Acceleration and I did it on

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the ground floor, responded to an
ad. I wasn't sure that there was

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the need in the marketplace, and
sure enough I got flagged right away.

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I got a call from Mark Thacker
and he said, Harrison, what are

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you doing? I said, Mark, you know I want to go through

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your process again. I think this
could work. And he said no,

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and I said, and he said, Harrison, you know we want you.

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That has never changed. You went
through our process. We determine you're

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a great fit. Do you want
us? And I said, I do.

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I think this could really work.
And so now I'm leveraging my thirty

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five years of sales and sales management
experience in helping small to medium sized companies

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really at the CEO owner level.
And again I'm amazed at what can be

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accomplished when you take that knowledge base, that skill set and laser focus that

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to solve a sales challenge or a
sales problem. It's incredible what can be

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accomplished. All right, I just
one or two more, actually two more

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questions about the process of you joining
How did you weigh the risk reward in

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joining sales acceleration. I had really
reached the point in my career where I

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was really evaluating the second half of
my career. Some people like to say

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the back nine, which I like
to think. I don't like that is

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longer, right, right? So
I want a career here, and just

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really what I wanted to do,
what I wanted to give back. I

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spent a lot of time on planes, a lot of time away from home,

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and I liked the idea of working
more regional, less travel, and

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still being able to help my clients. I had a situation one time where

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I was out to dinner with my
wife and some people walk by the table

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and she said hi to them,
and I looked at her and I'm like,

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how do you know these people?
And she said, Oh, there's

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you know so and so in our
community. And I thought to myself at

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that time, Wow, I really
feel like I know the people at restaurants

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or whatever hotel I was staying at. Is As there was more of a

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sales push in a particular city,
and I thought, this has to change.

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That's good, that's really good.
What was the biggest lenge to you

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00:24:00.799 --> 00:24:07.000
getting started. I utilize a method
in terms of working with clients, and

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that's really leveraging referral partner arrangements or
strategic partner trusted advisor arrangements. And I've

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never done that before. I've always, you know, when I was actively

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selling, I was always reaching out
the prospects directly, and early on I

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found myself questioning the proven process that
sales acceleration provides in terms of establishing good

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quality referral partners, and I found
myself thinking, I need to talk to

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somebody who can buy my product for
my service, as opposed to somebody that

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can make an introduction for me.
But over time, what I realized is

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that the quality introductions were just fantastic. And when I am introduced to a

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prospect or somebody else's client, it's
not a sales y conversation at all.

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It's really a conversation about there's a
sales problem, what is that problem,

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00:25:00.559 --> 00:25:04.119
what are the consequences if you don't
fix that problem? And how motivated are

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you to fix that problem? And
am I the right resource to help you

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00:25:08.480 --> 00:25:12.799
do that? If I'm not.
Oftentimes I'll make introductions for people that can

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help them. But again it's not
a sales not a sales y conversation by

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any means. You and I for
the audience, You and I are both

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members of an organization called Provisors,
and that's exactly what we do, is

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we leverage relationships for our own business
development. But i'd say more often in

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terms of events, we're referring others. Yes, right, so yeah,

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how did you find Provisors? By
the way, I was looking for a

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high caliber networking organization, and what
I mean by high caliber is just the

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quality of people, but also the
clients, the level of clients, the

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quality of clients that somebody would work
with who is a member of Provisors,

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00:25:57.960 --> 00:26:03.480
And I found that it was just
wonderful fit. Like you mentioned early on,

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and probably more often, I've used
the resources that are available through Provisors

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00:26:07.839 --> 00:26:14.839
to help my clients out through making
introductions. I'm a big one on at

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00:26:14.839 --> 00:26:18.920
some point, even if we're delivering
results in our lane, we are going

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00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:23.400
to be viewed as a vendor,
and it's easy for an organization to replace

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a vendor, but if we're adding
value in the lanes that we're serving in

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for my case, it's the sales
organization I need to be constantly inquiring with

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my CEOs or my owners. How
is that impacting? How are the results

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00:26:38.799 --> 00:26:45.200
the increase in sales impacting HR?
How is it impacting manufacturing? How is

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it impacting finance? Not that I
can solve those problems, but I can

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make introductions to people who can solve
those problems. And what I find is

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that at that point, I not
only become somebody who's delivering results, become

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00:27:00.400 --> 00:27:06.000
a trusted advisors to my owners or
CEOs. That's not only is it the

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00:27:06.079 --> 00:27:08.559
right thing to do, it makes
us more valuable as you Sure, yeah,

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all right, I want to start
you walking us, start having you

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walk us through some of the things
you mentioned. That'll take us up to

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00:27:18.440 --> 00:27:23.200
the bottom of the hour and a
second commercial break here. So take us

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through. I'll give you a list, one at a time. Aligning corporate

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goals is one of the ways that
you help your clients. Talk about that.

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Sure, what's so important is that
a sales organization, their goals,

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their objectives be aligned with the corporate
goals and objectives. And what I mean

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by that is that if a company
is looking to grow revenue by a certain

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dollar amount or a certain percentage,
that that then gets broken out into quotas,

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individual quotas for the sales team.
And if the focus is on generating

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new logos or new business as opposed
to generating business exclusively from existing customers,

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a sales compensation plan has to reflect
that. I'm a big one on that.

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Salespeople will do behaviors that they're measured
on, and they will also engage

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in behaviors that they're compensated for.
Any good salesperson is going to look at

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their compensation plan and figure out how
are they going to maximize the dollar amount

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or the income that they're going to
generate from that plan. And so if

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those plans aren't written in line with
what the corporate goals and objectives are,

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there's going to be that disconnect or
problem. I'll get to this after the

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break. We'll take it in a
second here, and the question will be,

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can you discuss the complexity or simplicity
of a compensation plan? Because I've

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seen I mean, I remember one
of the companies I worked at, and

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that was a great company. Loved
being there, did really well, made

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good money, still have friends from
there. You never could figure out the

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comp plan until about two paychecks in
two commission checks in I should say not

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two paychecks. Who it was so
complicated, all right, So let's take

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our second break. We'll be back
in about another minute with Harrison Ryder of

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00:29:06.400 --> 00:29:15.079
Elevation Sales Group. You're listening to
Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene on W

356
00:29:15.240 --> 00:29:21.000
four CY Radio. That's W fourcy
dot com. Don't go away. More

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00:29:21.039 --> 00:29:26.960
helpful information is coming right up right
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Winning Business Radio with Kevin helenan presenting exciting

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00:30:04.640 --> 00:30:11.039
topics and expert guests with one goal
in mind to help you succeed in business.

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00:30:11.240 --> 00:30:22.200
Here once again is Kevin Helena.
Welcome back, and we are of

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00:30:22.200 --> 00:30:26.079
course with Harrison Ryder, founder and
president of Elevation Sales Group. I love

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00:30:26.079 --> 00:30:30.799
the way you say this powered by
sales Acceleration. All right, so let's

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00:30:30.799 --> 00:30:34.079
talk about a comp plan for a
minute. What do you and just principles.

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You don't have to get into the
nuts and bolts. But we know

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that good salespeople quote follow the money, right. They figure out how to

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how the company wants them to behave
so that they get paid. Opening opportunities,

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00:30:47.440 --> 00:30:51.880
you know, some some are just
appointment centers, qualified appointments, others

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00:30:52.039 --> 00:30:56.799
are closing, et cetera. So
talk us through the elements that you would

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00:30:57.519 --> 00:31:03.720
recommend or write into to a good
complan. Yeah, a good complan has

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00:31:03.799 --> 00:31:08.759
to drive the behaviors and the results
that a company is looking for. So

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00:31:08.839 --> 00:31:15.000
it's important to understand the behaviors that
need to take place for a salesperson to

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00:31:15.039 --> 00:31:18.000
be successful. And as I mentioned, they truly have to be in line

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00:31:18.160 --> 00:31:25.119
with the company goals and objectives and
compensated accordingly. I think a compensation plan

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00:31:25.160 --> 00:31:29.599
should be relatively straightforward. I'm not
a huge one on you know, a

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00:31:29.640 --> 00:31:36.480
ten or fifteen page document or spreadsheets. Yeah, exactly exactly. I think

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00:31:36.519 --> 00:31:41.079
it needs to be straightforward. That
being said, it needs to spell out

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00:31:41.119 --> 00:31:45.319
what the expectations are, and salespeople
need to sign those compensation plans so they

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00:31:45.359 --> 00:31:52.400
truly understand what's involved. I had
a situation with a client where one of

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00:31:52.440 --> 00:31:57.119
the salespeople would make their quota and
stop, and I kept saying to him,

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you know, it's great that you're
meeting your mond quota, but you

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00:32:00.720 --> 00:32:05.240
know, trust the process that we're
putting in place. Don't sandbag anything.

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00:32:05.359 --> 00:32:08.279
I want you to just blow things
out for each month and trust that next

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00:32:08.319 --> 00:32:13.680
month is going to take care of
itself. What I also realized is that

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00:32:13.759 --> 00:32:19.799
this individual is motivated by money like
a lot of salespeople, and in aligning

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00:32:19.839 --> 00:32:23.039
the corporate goals and objectives, I
was able to put together a quarterly bonus

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00:32:23.559 --> 00:32:29.920
which really was a stretch, as
well as an annual bonus. And one

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00:32:29.960 --> 00:32:34.440
of the things that I like to
say is this individual trusted the process and

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00:32:34.599 --> 00:32:40.400
truly blew away not only their monthly
quota, but their quarterly quotas and ultimately

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00:32:40.400 --> 00:32:46.039
their annual quota. And a gentleman
with a young family ended up buying a

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00:32:46.079 --> 00:32:52.079
house in a probably high market,
so much more than he probably should have

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00:32:52.559 --> 00:32:57.400
for that house. But that was
incredibly rewarding to be part of that.

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00:32:57.400 --> 00:33:00.440
That's one of those success stories that
you know, brings us out to my

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00:33:00.519 --> 00:33:05.000
face. I love to share with
my wife just how you know how wonderful

402
00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:07.720
that was to be part of that. Yeah, I enjoy those successes too.

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00:33:09.039 --> 00:33:15.079
How would you recommend or how would
you yourself motivate, coach, mentor

404
00:33:15.279 --> 00:33:22.240
lead someone who's not money motivated?
Really tapping into what drives somebody to succeed,

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00:33:22.880 --> 00:33:28.400
what is somebody looking for, and
then really really highlight those areas in

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00:33:28.480 --> 00:33:30.960
terms of any type of coaching that
I'm doing, any type of mentoring that

407
00:33:31.000 --> 00:33:37.839
I'm doing. I had a situation
where, you know, I'm probably going

408
00:33:37.920 --> 00:33:43.880
to use some terms. I don't
have a counseling background by any means,

409
00:33:44.559 --> 00:33:49.680
but just through kind of trialing and
error, I worked with a particular woman

410
00:33:50.119 --> 00:33:57.240
who needed permission to succeed. You
know, oftentimes she would sabotage her own

411
00:33:57.359 --> 00:34:01.200
success for various reasons, various situations
that she had in her life. But

412
00:34:01.359 --> 00:34:07.800
when I gave her and ultimately she
gave herself permission to succeed. It was

413
00:34:07.920 --> 00:34:13.800
incredible what she could accomplish in terms
of achieving her goals and objectives. And

414
00:34:13.840 --> 00:34:17.119
some of that was money, but
in other cases it was status that she

415
00:34:17.280 --> 00:34:22.800
was looking for. It was,
you know, those types of areas and

416
00:34:22.159 --> 00:34:27.599
truly just needed to kind of work
through some of the issues that she was

417
00:34:27.679 --> 00:34:30.920
dealing with. That's really good.
That's really good. All right. The

418
00:34:30.960 --> 00:34:36.480
next bullet is installing the proper processes
and procedures. Talk to that. Sure,

419
00:34:37.480 --> 00:34:40.480
there's a number of things that in
order to build a high performing sales

420
00:34:40.519 --> 00:34:45.719
team need to be in place,
and that's things like a sales strategy,

421
00:34:45.880 --> 00:34:52.840
a sales methodology, sales analytics,
the sales team itself, and those are

422
00:34:52.880 --> 00:34:58.800
all those four areas are areas that
we tend to look at in terms of

423
00:34:58.880 --> 00:35:02.880
making sure what as an organization have
in place and really doing a deep analysis,

424
00:35:04.480 --> 00:35:07.920
usually during the first month of an
engagement, where we figure out what

425
00:35:07.239 --> 00:35:12.400
is in place and what needs to
be put in place in order to build

426
00:35:12.440 --> 00:35:15.039
a high performing sales team. Is
that the agility assessment, the sales agility

427
00:35:15.079 --> 00:35:19.800
assessment, It is very much so. And what is it? What's a

428
00:35:19.840 --> 00:35:23.719
client required to do to complete that
or do you do that by observation or

429
00:35:23.719 --> 00:35:27.599
how does that look? What does
that look like? I use an assessment

430
00:35:27.679 --> 00:35:32.079
tool that allows and in fact I
have the management team take that. I

431
00:35:32.119 --> 00:35:37.400
also have all of the sales people
take that. I also look at three

432
00:35:37.480 --> 00:35:46.960
years of performance reviews, sales pipeline
reports, close reports, customer reports,

433
00:35:47.320 --> 00:35:52.639
all of those things to identify what's
going on within an organization. Again,

434
00:35:52.679 --> 00:35:58.320
I look at the sales compensation plans
and then conduct one on one interviews with

435
00:35:58.440 --> 00:36:01.559
individuals to really get sense of what's
going on, what's in place, what's

436
00:36:01.599 --> 00:36:08.239
missing. Oftentimes things will come out
like the unique value proposition and an owner

437
00:36:08.280 --> 00:36:13.840
will say this is what this is
the reason that we're selling. Salespeople will

438
00:36:13.840 --> 00:36:17.639
say this is the reason we're selling, and customer interviews will produce a completely

439
00:36:17.679 --> 00:36:22.760
different reason for why things are selling. Part of that process also is mapping

440
00:36:22.760 --> 00:36:25.599
out what does it look like from
when a lead comes into the door,

441
00:36:27.039 --> 00:36:30.920
the various steps that need to happen
to when an order is closed and hand

442
00:36:30.920 --> 00:36:37.719
it off for implementation to an implementation
team or an onboarding team. And it's

443
00:36:37.000 --> 00:36:43.360
it's identifying what needs to happen in
each particular stage and what needs to happen

444
00:36:43.519 --> 00:36:47.840
for that particular deal to move to
the next stage, and also factoring in

445
00:36:47.960 --> 00:36:52.719
not only the way you sell your
product, but factoring in how customers buy

446
00:36:52.760 --> 00:36:58.960
the products, because if that's not
built into that sales process, there's going

447
00:36:59.000 --> 00:37:06.800
to be conflicts. That's good.
Next is mentoring existing sales talent. Yeah,

448
00:37:06.840 --> 00:37:12.960
I'm a huge one on producing lasting
behavioral change. Is doing that coaching

449
00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:16.960
and mentoring that one on one,
that role playing. I'm a huge one

450
00:37:17.000 --> 00:37:24.599
on planning out sales calls, debriefing
after sales calls, and strategizing with individual

451
00:37:24.679 --> 00:37:29.760
sales reps on what needs to happen
as we move the sales forward. You

452
00:37:29.800 --> 00:37:34.079
know, what's our game plan for
the next meeting that we have. And

453
00:37:34.119 --> 00:37:39.239
I find that that truly produces the
lasting behavior. Now, obviously that's supplemented

454
00:37:39.280 --> 00:37:45.679
with sales training, and that's so
important to provide that kind of individual or

455
00:37:45.880 --> 00:37:51.079
unique sales training that needs to happen
for the weaknesses in the sales teams.

456
00:37:51.880 --> 00:37:58.159
Excellent, and executing. The last
bullet is executing on effective sales strategies.

457
00:38:00.079 --> 00:38:05.519
Know, execution is so key,
and that's really a function of creating that

458
00:38:05.639 --> 00:38:10.880
culture. I'm probably sharing my age
here, but I've realized that or maybe

459
00:38:10.920 --> 00:38:16.239
I missed it on you know,
when accountability became such a bad thing.

460
00:38:17.000 --> 00:38:22.679
I'm with you on that. I
personally believe that people want to be held

461
00:38:22.679 --> 00:38:27.360
accountable. They first of all want
to understand what they're responsible for. I'm

462
00:38:27.360 --> 00:38:31.000
a big one on we need to
give people a measurement that they can say

463
00:38:31.039 --> 00:38:34.719
at the end of the day,
I had a good day today. I

464
00:38:34.800 --> 00:38:37.280
moved the ball forward and this is
how I did it. And if that's

465
00:38:37.360 --> 00:38:43.519
not happening, there's a lot to
disconnect within an organization. I'm also a

466
00:38:43.559 --> 00:38:46.920
big one on regardless of the age, people want to be part They want

467
00:38:46.960 --> 00:38:52.239
to be part of something bigger than
themselves, and that's where it's so critical

468
00:38:52.320 --> 00:39:00.280
to have a growing in developing sales
organization. You know. I like to

469
00:39:00.320 --> 00:39:07.800
say people come to work, people
leave on Friday happier than when they came

470
00:39:07.840 --> 00:39:09.719
to work on Monday. And it's
not just because they have the weekend,

471
00:39:10.119 --> 00:39:15.880
but it's truly because they've seen they're
part of an organization that is growing.

472
00:39:15.079 --> 00:39:20.679
And others within the company tend to
view that sales isn't something done in the

473
00:39:20.719 --> 00:39:24.559
back room someplace, but it's visible
and people are speaking the same language.

474
00:39:24.599 --> 00:39:30.280
And anybody who touches that sales cycle
at one point can look at a CRM

475
00:39:30.400 --> 00:39:35.159
system and see my involvement is coming
up. So there aren't those surprises,

476
00:39:35.239 --> 00:39:38.920
and again people are part of something
that's much bigger than themselves. Yeah,

477
00:39:38.960 --> 00:39:43.559
that's good. That's really good.
And it sounds like you've done what I've

478
00:39:43.559 --> 00:39:46.960
tried to do, and that's elevate
the profession of selling from what it's characterized

479
00:39:46.960 --> 00:39:51.440
that has typically to you know,
guys like you and me and plenty of

480
00:39:51.480 --> 00:39:54.000
others like us who are honest,
good people who are really trying to do

481
00:39:54.039 --> 00:39:57.480
something good. And hey, we
can make money because it's, as you

482
00:39:57.480 --> 00:40:00.400
said, it's a hard, high
paying job. You know, when I

483
00:40:00.480 --> 00:40:06.239
left quote the corporate world, you
know, it was a transition to not

484
00:40:06.280 --> 00:40:09.519
have a salary. I don't want
a salary anymore, right, because I

485
00:40:09.559 --> 00:40:13.679
think salary holds you back. Now
that's not everybody, right, that's a

486
00:40:13.760 --> 00:40:16.079
unique mindset, but I think you
get it and other high performers get it

487
00:40:16.119 --> 00:40:20.400
as well. So I'm with you
on that. I'm a true believer that

488
00:40:20.599 --> 00:40:25.360
good salespeople are wonderful problem solvers.
Yeah, because they understand the problems the

489
00:40:25.480 --> 00:40:30.440
challenges that their customers or their prospects
are facing, and then they can tailor

490
00:40:30.519 --> 00:40:36.719
a solution. Whether it's a software
package that they're offering or a service that

491
00:40:36.760 --> 00:40:40.719
they're offering, they can tailor that
to meet their clients or prospects needs.

492
00:40:42.280 --> 00:40:47.280
Absolutely all right, outsourced VP of
sales is what you've referenced. How many

493
00:40:47.320 --> 00:40:52.519
hours per month does that look like? It could probably vary, but kind

494
00:40:52.519 --> 00:40:54.639
of give us an idea of what
that might look like. Sure, it

495
00:40:54.679 --> 00:41:00.800
really depends on the type of engagement. Oftentimes, if the if the focus

496
00:41:00.880 --> 00:41:06.880
is just building out a sales infrastructure
and not necessarily responsible for managing a sales

497
00:41:06.920 --> 00:41:10.880
team, that can be a dedicated
four to eight hours on a weekly basis.

498
00:41:13.039 --> 00:41:19.639
And again it's incredible what can be
accomplished with laser focusing on a particular

499
00:41:19.719 --> 00:41:24.159
challenge. What is a typical engagement
now, so again it can vary,

500
00:41:24.320 --> 00:41:30.199
so give us a range there,
but so a typical engagement where it's well,

501
00:41:30.239 --> 00:41:35.119
I'll let you answer, I don't
even editorialize length, sure, et

502
00:41:35.199 --> 00:41:40.760
cetera. Frequency. I guess there's
really three flavors of offering. One is

503
00:41:40.880 --> 00:41:47.440
kind of that sales infrastructure and again, the focus is understanding what a company

504
00:41:47.480 --> 00:41:52.880
is missing and laying that foundation that
needs to be put in place. I'd

505
00:41:52.920 --> 00:41:58.639
like to say fixing broken sales processes, and that can take anywhere from four

506
00:41:58.679 --> 00:42:01.320
to six months, depending on the
length or the size of the sales team,

507
00:42:01.679 --> 00:42:07.559
the complexity of the organization, whether
hiring is involved. And then as

508
00:42:07.599 --> 00:42:10.639
we execute on those plans, if
it makes sense for me to manage the

509
00:42:10.679 --> 00:42:15.800
sales team for a certain amount of
time, I'll assume that VP of Sales

510
00:42:15.920 --> 00:42:19.719
role and sit in on the management
meeting, so be part of the management

511
00:42:19.760 --> 00:42:27.199
team. And those engagements go anywhere
from twelve months to eighteen months as we

512
00:42:27.320 --> 00:42:30.440
execute on the plans, and I'm
always at the end of those engagements looking

513
00:42:30.440 --> 00:42:36.480
to either promote my replacement, or
hire my replacement, or hand over a

514
00:42:36.599 --> 00:42:43.679
fully functional and executing sales organization back
over to an owner or CEO. The

515
00:42:43.679 --> 00:42:51.039
third flavor is a relatively new offering
that Sales Acceleration has offered. In the

516
00:42:51.079 --> 00:42:54.719
previous two, I really view myself
as a builder of actually doing the work,

517
00:42:55.320 --> 00:43:00.840
as an outsourced VP of sales doing
that heavy lifting in the other model

518
00:43:00.960 --> 00:43:06.639
or third. The third offering is
really more of a framework offering. So

519
00:43:06.679 --> 00:43:10.880
they might have a very confident,
competent VP of sales in place and a

520
00:43:10.920 --> 00:43:15.320
sales team that's executing, but they
never really got to the point where they

521
00:43:15.320 --> 00:43:23.800
were laying that true sales foundation.
They never really identified and documented their ideal

522
00:43:23.840 --> 00:43:31.280
customer profile or their unique value proposition, or really outlined fine tuned their sales

523
00:43:31.360 --> 00:43:36.880
process. And that typically is an
engagement that will go a year, year

524
00:43:36.920 --> 00:43:42.079
and a half, and the cadence
is meeting on a quarterly basis and really

525
00:43:42.280 --> 00:43:47.000
outlaying or outlining what needs to be
accomplished, and then the client organization is

526
00:43:47.079 --> 00:43:52.079
actually doing the work. So I
like to say, in that framework example,

527
00:43:52.159 --> 00:43:57.400
I function more as an architect as
opposed to a builder, more like

528
00:43:57.800 --> 00:44:00.480
for those that are familiar with the
term a EOS model, very much so.

529
00:44:01.320 --> 00:44:07.280
And in fact, similar cadence has
followed in terms of the quarterly meetings

530
00:44:07.320 --> 00:44:12.719
and the annual meetings. Now do
you ever get into helping to adjust or

531
00:44:13.039 --> 00:44:20.440
create culture sales culture, you know, sales versus culture? Sometimes I do

532
00:44:20.599 --> 00:44:23.519
really as a reflection of the work
that I do. It's not something that

533
00:44:23.599 --> 00:44:28.159
I necessarily come on board and say
we're going to create a sales culture.

534
00:44:28.719 --> 00:44:31.599
But what I do is in terms
of the work, the terminology that's used,

535
00:44:31.599 --> 00:44:37.880
the processes that are put in place, that's really an outcome that happens

536
00:44:37.880 --> 00:44:42.320
with the work that's done within a
sales organization. And part of that is

537
00:44:42.320 --> 00:44:47.239
an account is a culture of accountability
and execution. You know, people understand

538
00:44:47.280 --> 00:44:52.719
what they're signing up for and they
understand the behaviors that need to happen for

539
00:44:52.800 --> 00:44:55.840
them to be able to reach their
goals and objectives. All right, So

540
00:44:55.880 --> 00:45:00.000
in terms of your it's an overused
term. I'm not going to get into

541
00:45:00.119 --> 00:45:02.679
it the way most people do that
quote ideal client, does location matter?

542
00:45:04.079 --> 00:45:07.159
What industries do you specialize in or
are there any you stay away from?

543
00:45:08.760 --> 00:45:14.880
You know, coming from an enterprise
software application background, I really thought my

544
00:45:14.960 --> 00:45:19.719
practice would be in southern New England
and I'd be working with small SaaS companies.

545
00:45:19.760 --> 00:45:23.360
And although I have done that,
I've also been exposed to other industries.

546
00:45:23.840 --> 00:45:28.440
I like to say, quite frankly, it's customers or clients that are

547
00:45:28.519 --> 00:45:31.519
roughly about three million dollars in revenue
all the way up to fifty million dollars

548
00:45:31.599 --> 00:45:37.320
in revenue, and it's customers that
are clients or prospects that are facing some

549
00:45:37.519 --> 00:45:44.440
type of sales challenge, some type
of problem. Usually it manifests itself in

550
00:45:44.559 --> 00:45:47.440
terms of top line revenue. Maybe
the companies had a number of years where

551
00:45:47.480 --> 00:45:52.760
revenue has just been stagnant or in
some cases revenue who has been declining,

552
00:45:52.480 --> 00:45:58.400
or in some cases revenue who's been
spiking, and those organizations realize that they

553
00:45:58.440 --> 00:46:04.920
can't continue that growth unless they have
that solid sales infrastructure or foundation in place.

554
00:46:05.639 --> 00:46:10.159
Can you say, COVID right,
how many right? You'd be surprised

555
00:46:10.239 --> 00:46:19.480
that, even in kind of those
crazy times, just how well my practice

556
00:46:19.519 --> 00:46:24.079
went. And part of that is
organizations still need to deliver top line revenue

557
00:46:24.119 --> 00:46:30.559
growth. And regardless of whether times
are good or times are bad, true

558
00:46:30.599 --> 00:46:35.639
salespeople, good salespeople can execute in
those times. They can pivot when they

559
00:46:35.679 --> 00:46:38.960
need to pivot and do well.
I mean, one of the biggest challenges

560
00:46:39.199 --> 00:46:45.280
was the idea of you know,
no longer we closing business over dinners or

561
00:46:45.360 --> 00:46:50.119
lunches breakfasts, but we're closing deals
over zoom. And how does somebody show

562
00:46:50.199 --> 00:46:55.360
up to zoom and effectively manage that? And organizations that could pivot and adapt

563
00:46:55.360 --> 00:47:01.480
to that did very well, very
good. What what makes a quote good

564
00:47:01.480 --> 00:47:08.760
client in your mind? Somebody who
has their sales problem also obviously, but

565
00:47:08.920 --> 00:47:16.159
one that is is truthful in terms
of wanting to solve that problem. Actually,

566
00:47:17.079 --> 00:47:21.880
you know, I had a situation
where early on one of my initial

567
00:47:21.920 --> 00:47:27.840
clients they wanted I was introduced by
a fractional CFO and the owner said,

568
00:47:27.840 --> 00:47:30.920
I want to grow revenue. And
my response was great, you know,

569
00:47:30.960 --> 00:47:34.440
if we grow it over one thousand
dollars last year over last year, is

570
00:47:34.440 --> 00:47:38.000
that a success? And he said
no, And so we just kept going

571
00:47:38.079 --> 00:47:43.960
and just going and asking questions and
talking, and ultimately what came out was

572
00:47:44.000 --> 00:47:47.360
that in five years he wants to
exit the business, and uh, he

573
00:47:47.440 --> 00:47:52.760
needs all of the in this particular
division, all of the numbers trending in

574
00:47:52.800 --> 00:47:55.159
the right direction to be able to
maximize the value that he could get for

575
00:47:55.239 --> 00:47:59.960
his company. And all of a
sudden that becomes a very different conversation.

576
00:48:00.039 --> 00:48:01.960
And then I just want to grow
revenue, and so when I connect with

577
00:48:02.000 --> 00:48:07.559
my clients on that level, it's
amazing on what can be accomplished. That's

578
00:48:07.599 --> 00:48:14.159
excellent, all right. He's Harrison
Rider Sales Acceleration Email h Rider at sales

579
00:48:14.480 --> 00:48:21.239
eceleration. No E, no,
c's it's acceleration. Who in the viewing

580
00:48:21.280 --> 00:48:25.280
and listening audiences should reach out to
you? And why really? Any I'm

581
00:48:25.280 --> 00:48:30.079
a profess sales gee, I'll say
that I love every aspect about sales.

582
00:48:30.320 --> 00:48:35.880
I love the cold calling, I
love the prospecting, I love the strategy

583
00:48:35.960 --> 00:48:39.239
around sales. I love the execution
around sales. So if you're facing a

584
00:48:39.280 --> 00:48:44.920
sales challenge, I would welcome reaching
out and having a conversation with you.

585
00:48:45.679 --> 00:48:50.519
Oftentimes I literally had referral partners say
to me, I had a meeting with

586
00:48:50.559 --> 00:48:52.599
a client and I'm not sure how
it went, And I'll say, let's

587
00:48:52.599 --> 00:48:57.480
get on a call, let's get
through that, or what's the next step.

588
00:48:57.599 --> 00:49:01.400
Let's talk through those things. And
if I can't help, then oftentimes

589
00:49:01.480 --> 00:49:06.320
I can make introductions to people who
can help. Excellent. We are,

590
00:49:06.760 --> 00:49:08.920
believe it or not. That's fifty
minutes right there. We're out of time.

591
00:49:09.199 --> 00:49:13.800
Thank you so much for taking the
time to being here, for being

592
00:49:13.800 --> 00:49:15.440
here, and I really appreciate it. It's been fun, Kevin, this

593
00:49:15.559 --> 00:49:19.480
is great. Thank you so much, my pleasure. I will see you

594
00:49:19.519 --> 00:49:22.440
soon. Thanks everybody for watching and
for listening. This is a show about

595
00:49:22.440 --> 00:49:27.639
business and business challenges. You just
heard Harrison talk about the kinds of challenges

596
00:49:27.679 --> 00:49:31.360
he solves and he knows well,
and that's why he referred to Sander.

597
00:49:31.360 --> 00:49:36.679
We're part of Sandler Training, our
company and me we develop sales teams into

598
00:49:36.719 --> 00:49:40.960
high achievers and sales leaders into true
coaches and mentors. Thank you to producer

599
00:49:42.000 --> 00:49:45.519
and engineer one for another job well
done. Next week's Memorial Day, so

600
00:49:45.519 --> 00:49:49.159
we're going to be airing a previous
episode. Be sure to join us though

601
00:49:49.199 --> 00:49:52.159
the following week. That'll be Monday, June third. My guest will be

602
00:49:52.239 --> 00:49:55.480
Kim Calvey. She's the founder and
owner of Boston Edits. Until then,

603
00:49:55.519 --> 00:50:01.199
this is Kevin Hallanan. You've been
listening to Winning Business Radio with your host,

604
00:50:01.280 --> 00:50:06.159
Kevin Halenan. If you missed any
part of this episode, The podcast

605
00:50:06.199 --> 00:50:12.039
is available on Talk for Podcasting and
iHeartRadio. For more information and questions,

606
00:50:12.119 --> 00:50:15.559
go to Winning Business Radio dot com
or check us out on social media.

607
00:50:15.679 --> 00:50:20.280
Tune in again next week and every
Monday at four pm Eastern Time to listen

608
00:50:20.400 --> 00:50:25.480
live to Winning Business Radio on W
four CY Radio W four cy dot com.

609
00:50:25.599 --> 00:50:30.440
Until then, let's succeed where others
have failed and win in business with

610
00:50:30.599 --> 00:50:34.159
Kevin Haleanan and winning Business radio