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

0:00 The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements radio show, programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability explicit or implies shall be extended to W four cy Radio or it's employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W FOURCY Radio. Churchill said, those who failed to learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Kevin Helen m believes that certainly applies to business. Welcome to Winning Business Radio here at W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com and now your host, Kevin Helena. Thanks everybody for joining in today once again. I'm Kevin Hallanan and welcome back to Winning Business TV and Radio on W four cy dot com. We are streaming live on talkfor tv dot com, and of course we're on Facebook live at Winning Business Radio and as you know as well, we'll be available in podcasts after today's show on tons of platforms including YouTube, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple, pretty much wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts were there. The mission of Winning Business radio and TV, as regular listeners know, is to offer insights and advice to help people avoid the mistakes of others. Right. I always say,

1:30 the best practices, the how tos, the what toos, the what not tos to be challenged and certainly and hopefully to be inspired by the successes of others. But you know, virtually every successful person that I've ever had a chance to talk to has had some form of failure in their lives and careers. So listen, I always say, well, we all have to get our knee skinned once in a while. I'm driven to keep those scrapes from needing major surgery. Let's endeavor to learn from history so we don't repeat it today. My guest is Harrison Ryder, founder and President of Elevation Sales Group powered by Sales Acceleration, a sales management consulting firm. Here's his bio as founder and president of Elevation Sales Group Sales Group excuse me, Harrison leverages his thirty five years of successful sales and sales management experience to help small and medium sized companies exceed their revenue targets. Having worked with startups and Fortune five hundred companies managed national and international sales organizations, Harrison now partners with owners, CEOs, and presidents to create high performing sales teams that deliver that consistently deliver breakthrough sales results. By aligning corporate goals, installing the proper sales processes and procedures, mentoring existing sales talent, and executing on effective sales strategies, Harrison helps create an accountable, professional, results oriented sales culture within his client companies.

2:52 Prior to founding Elevation Sales Group, he worked as vice president of sales for several companies offering enterprise software solutions to the insure currants, legal healthcare compliance, and manufacturing markets. Most recently, Harrison served as VP of Sales for Flagship Services Group, a leading medicare and medicaid compliance company. He was responsible for managing a sales team that sold professional services and SaaS software solutions to property and casualty insurance carriers, workers, comp insurance carriers, third party administrators, and the alternative risk markets. Flagship Services Group helped those organizations mitigate their non compliance risks protect their financial resources and improve their financial excuse me their operating efficiencies in the processing of Medicare claims. Prior to Flagship Services Group, Harrison was vice president of sales for David Corporation, a leading provider of risk management software solutions to the alternative risk and specialty, property and casualty markets. He managed a sales team that sold SaaS software solutions that helped clients identify and manage their overall cost of risk, re used claim costs, improve operational efficiencies, and in CRE's reporting capabilities to better manage overall business operations. Harrison holds a Bachelor of Science and Business Administration from West Virginia University and a master's degree a Master's of Business Administration from Bentley University. When not working, he enjoys spending time with his wife and children. He enjoys running, fly fishing, and mountain biking.

4:17 He's married to Wendy and they reside in Millville, Massachusetts. They have three grown children. Harry's thirty, Hollis's twenty seven, Trenton is twenty seven? Did I get that right now? I got one of those ages is wrong? I think it's a typo. You'll fix it in the second Harrison, and they have two dogs, Knox and Sadie Harrison. Welcome to Winning Business Radio and TV. Appreciate you, Thank you very much for having me Kevin. They're twins, we get that, all Oh, I got that, all right, So you know it's funny. As I typed that, I didn't notice I was type of the same year twice. Twins. That's cool. The other interesting part is they were born at Valentine Stay. Oh awesome. The way my wife and I celebrate Valentine's State is very different. We still party, but not in the same way. That's awesome. That's awesome. I didn't catch that even as I was doing it. So tell us about Wendy. Does she work? What does she do? She does?

5:08 She's quite the entrepreneur. She has her own business cool where she contracts with the organizations like home Depot and Costco. And she she orbjays, I should say, and she sets up Christmas trees. I like to say that in the season, she sets up small forests. It's not uncommon for her to set up over twenty five hundred Christmas trees. Wow. Wow, sounds like she's been doing that for a while. Yes, all right, tell us about your kids. I noticed that you're the third. Is Harry the fourth? He is, Yes, it's not right, so carry on the tradition. So tell us about Harry. So he's married. He lives down north of Austin, Texas, and he's in the military. He's a first lieutenant and he flies apatche helicopter. Oh that's very cool. Uh. We have a fellow provisors member who flew helicopters who I don't know if you've met or not, but I'll introduce it to him at some point if you haven't, and thanks for his service. Tell him Matt. I have a son who served in the Marine Corps too, and Hollis Hollis and Trent hollis Is.

6:20 She Answers has the master's in theology and she teaches at a Christian school. And my other son, Trenton. He's a serial entrepreneur. He he has a number twenty seven. He has a number of companies that he is that he is involved in. Uh. He's quite the equestrian and recently purchased the naming rights to the oldest saddle manufacturer in the United States. So he is he's thinking of launching a line of horse tack equipment through that name. Wow, that's awesome. I'll talk to you about My kids went to South Shore Christian Academy in Weymouth, and we have friends at various you know that are either teaching or administrators at various schools too. So all right, where did you grow up? Looked like Pittsburgh when I wasn't one hundred percent sure.

7:14 Just south of Pittsburgh a town called Upper Saint Clair, Pennsylvania. And what was it like to grow up in that town? Described the town and tell folks what it was like to grow up there. Yeah, it was a great town, you know, a suburb of Pittsburgh. You know, it was the it was the time that I grew up that you know, you literally could leave at eight o'clock in the morning and not come home until seven o'clock at night, and your parents would think you were completely safe, and we would be playing with friends in the neighborhood and those types of things. So a great, great neighborhood to grow up in. Pittsburgh. Sports fans, I am, yes, I'm I'm a Steeler fan, and I am a Pirate fan, although I do believe the Pirates are a major League farm club. Unfortunately, yeah, and I'm also a Penguins fan. Cool.

8:03 We took in a so my wife and I and another couple are doing the ballpark tour. Oh, we're not quite at twenty yet, so we're doing two a year for now. We did Pittsburgh either last year the year before. That's that's a cool, cool park right on the water there. What were your early interests growing up? Growing up, I was interested in the martial arts, and in fact started I was actually involved in a skateboard accident where I fractured my skull and so that was that put my football career on hold. My football career, i should say, and as a result got involved in the martial arts, which really concerned my doctor at the time because he was like, you know, you can't take headshots at least at that time. But had worked that through high school, worked that summers at college, and and really a great experience because what it did is it gave me the opportunity to teach people at all age ranges. It also gave me the aspect of introduction into business and actually settling belt programs. So that was a great experience in terms of an intro into sales. That's cool discipline probably as well, very much so. Yeah, all right, So you chose West Virginia University and you majored in business administration. What was behind those two

9:33 decisions? West Virginia had a good business program. It was roughly about an hour and a half south of Pittsburgh, and so it was far enough away to be on my own, but yet close enough to be able to come home when I wanted to do so. I really enjoyed my experience at West Virginia. Obviously, in a big school it can be overwhelming. However, once you start to get into your major classes, then it really you know, starts to narrow down in terms of the size of the classes and the people that you're exposed to. Good football, and depending on the year, good based basketball too, right, yes, very much so, Yeah, that's cool. Later, so it looked to be about five years after your undergrad you got your MBA with a focus and again business administration. What drove the decision to do that and the timing Really, the decision was just to broaden my business skills. I was doing sales at the time and just felt that the idea of being able to get my master's degree and do it in the evenings was something that was very appealing, you know, literally being able to apply course material to your work environment, which was great. And was it difficult to allocate the time you're doing at night? How long did it take and what was that discipline? Like? Yeah, I did it in a little over two years and it was great. My wife worked retailing at

11:09 the time, so she was working Saturdays and Saturdays were my study days, so worked out great. Cool. So from that experience achieving your master's degree at night, what was your most important lesson learned that you want to share? What would you think the answer to that would be just focus and hard work and the idea the just the continual learning is so important and and and that was just as I mentioned, just a good experience going through that the idea of you know, being able to accomplish it. I was one that really wanted to make sure that I maximized the number of courses that I took each semester. And and what I found is that is if you challenge yourself, you can truly rise to the occasion. That's good. Love it and it's have you always worked in sales or have you had other than you know, younger as you said, it's kind of selling. But professionally, have you always been in sales? I have, Yeah, and so me too.

12:13 By the way, what drew you to that? I you know, my undergraduate I, you know, had a minor concentration in marketing. And what I realized is that just that combination of marketing kind of a broad business background. I like the challenge of sales. I like being able to bring that knowledge base to a client in the situation that I would be selling. And just the idea of being able to convince somebody to go along with a thought that I had or a product or service that I offered, as long as it truly met their needs and offered value. And I tend to be a pretty competitive person, and I like the idea of if you will, And what I found is that it's not all about me, but it's all about satisfying customers and meeting their needs and winning through that absolutely. And as you know, I know you believe in this philosophy. If it's good for them, you know it's good for us, and that you know, sales done well is about helping people. It's not just about selling them stuff air quotes, right, Yeah, what would you say, perhaps to younger folks considering a career in sales, it's it's a wonderful career in terms of being exposed to all aspects of business. It's one that is not for the feint of heart. True, It's very true. You've probably heard the expression that

13:45 it can be the hardest hind pay job you've ever had or the easiest lowing, low paying job you've ever had, and that is so true. Like any type of sports activity, their need to be disciplined. There needs to be consistent behavior that happens. And if that happens, if that is put in place, people can do very well in sales. Agreed, And I would add, just from my experience, you probably would agree that, you know, many salespeople don't have the opportunity to be mentored professionally or well, many of them don't don't get training, many of them don't meet somebody like you or somebody like me. So the other the other advice that I would offer is find an organization that believes in investing in their people, you know very much. So, yeah, And I think one of the you know, one of the attributes that makes the salesperson very successful is a natural curiosity, the idea of wanting to find things out and wanting to ask questions.

14:43 That's really good, wanting to learn, and that's how truly they meet their customers' needs. Excellent. All right, we're going to take our first break right here. We'll be right back about one minute, everybody with Harrison Writer. You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene on W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com. Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up right here on Winning Business Radio. Have you ever dreamt of being on the radio, Well, now it's your chance. Be a radio show guest on the number one ranked internet radio station and promote you and your business for free. Yes you heard it, free business advertising right here on W four cy dot com. Call five six one five zero six four zero three one now to get booked on one of our shows. That's five six one five zero six four zero three one. Get your free advertising now.

15:52 And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helenan presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in mind, help you succeed in business. Here once again is Kevin Helenet. We are back with Harrison Ryder. He's founder and president of Elevation Sales Group powered by Sales Acceleration, a sales management consulting firm. Tell us about those two companies. One is yours, one is a franchise organization. Sales Acceleration is one of the larger outsourced VP of sales firms out there. They have roughly two hundred advisors throughout the US and also internationally. It's a company like I've never experienced before in terms of they truly have a desire of wanting all of their advisors to succeed, and the community is extremely supportive in helping one another. There are a number of advisors in the markets that I participate, and truly we really don't run into each other much, and if we do, oftentimes will will jointly work with a client to offer exceptional value at the price of one particular advisor. So willing to help one another out as we serve the business community outstanding And we'll get more into that in a moment, but I wanted just to clear that up for

17:22 those that are watching and listening. So you've had successful, several, by the way, successful positions in sales leadership. You've worked for and with startups like we heard in the Bio Fortune five hundred nal and international sales organizations. In your opinion, what factors made you successful in those roles? Really understanding the markets that we serve, Understanding the client's needs, and understanding, in this case the safas or enterprise software applications, that either I was marketing early on, or that I was managing a team that was marketing and truly understanding what clients wanted to achieve through that software. The other piece that was so critical is because it was a long term, high dollar amount or long term sales cycle and the dollar amount was hi the purchase amount, it was important to not only identify who the decision maker was, but also to go very wide within an organization to understand your champions and how you were going to make those other people successful with the applications excellent and for I think most people probably know, but I still get the question. Tell people what the SaaS is software as a service, so therefore it's not downloaded on their servers or desktops

18:53 laptops, but it resides in the cloud. Sure, Sure, And the advantage is what advantages from a cost standpoint it's not quite as expensive. Upgrades can be done very relatively quickly, and there isn't that ownership cost of the software. Well done. All right, So, in the fall of twenty twenty, judging from faith your LinkedIn profile, you just decided to start your own company and a partner with Sales Acceleration. Take us really through that decision making process. Where were you in your career that seemed right to do that? How did you then choose? So this will be a long answer, but how did you choose Sales Acceleration? Sure, I came across Sales Acceleration.

19:41 It was a job ad that was listed and just intrigued me about the outsourced VP of sales. I've heard about the fractional market or the outsource market really around it or even like a CFO service, but never around sales, and so ordered the conversation with Sales Acceleration. Met the founders of the company at that time and went through their process and an extensive process in terms of evaluating their advisors, because truly they want to put good people in the in the markets that we serve. And what was interesting is we went through that whole process. One of the founders, Mark Thacker asked me, you know, Harrison, we want you. Are you ready to pull the trigger?

20:30 And I said no. I said, I feel like I've got to do one more corporate gig and He's like okay. And so I went to work for a company out of Cork, Ireland. It was a company. It was a SaaS company that did regulatory compliance and roughly about a thirteen million dollar company. And I was in Ireland for two months as we did an onboarding process. And as I got there, as I mentioned thirteen million dollars, and as I got there, three of the C suites were fractional and I thought, this is crazy. The thirteen million dollar company. You can afford full time resources. But the way I saw that these fractional resources were deployed was just incredible in terms of what we were able to accomplish. As part of you know, training a team that came on board, they also brought in a local Sandler sales trainer to work with some of the sales folks.

21:30 And he was a former IBM person. I think I know. And literally after a day of training, I would sit with this gentleman and I would say, so tell me again, why did you leave IBM to start your own company, and just really picked his brain. And so then after that gig finished, I reached back out to sales Acceleration and I did it on the ground floor, responded to an ad. I wasn't sure that there was the need in the marketplace, and sure enough I got flagged right away. I got a call from Mark Thacker and he said, Harrison, what are you doing? I said, Mark, you know I want to go through your process again. I think this could work. And he said no, and I said, and he said, Harrison, you know we want you.

22:12 That has never changed. You went through our process. We determine you're a great fit. Do you want us? And I said, I do. I think this could really work. And so now I'm leveraging my thirty five years of sales and sales management experience in helping small to medium sized companies really at the CEO owner level. And again I'm amazed at what can be accomplished when you take that knowledge base, that skill set and laser focus that to solve a sales challenge or a sales problem. It's incredible what can be accomplished. All right, I just one or two more, actually two more questions about the process of you joining How did you weigh the risk reward in joining sales acceleration. I had really reached the point in my career where I was really evaluating the second half of my career. Some people like to say the back nine, which I like to think. I don't like that is longer, right, right? So I want a career here, and just really what I wanted to do, what I wanted to give back. I spent a lot of time on planes, a lot of time away from home, and I liked the idea of working more regional, less travel, and still being able to help my clients. I had a situation one time where I was out to dinner with my wife and some people walk by the table and she said hi to them, and I looked at her and I'm like, how do you know these people? And she said, Oh, there's you know so and so in our community. And I thought to myself at that time, Wow, I really feel like I know the people at restaurants

23:45 or whatever hotel I was staying at. Is As there was more of a sales push in a particular city, and I thought, this has to change. That's good, that's really good. What was the biggest lenge to you getting started. I utilize a method in terms of working with clients, and that's really leveraging referral partner arrangements or strategic partner trusted advisor arrangements. And I've never done that before. I've always, you know, when I was actively selling, I was always reaching out the prospects directly, and early on I found myself questioning the proven process that sales acceleration provides in terms of establishing good quality referral partners, and I found myself thinking, I need to talk to somebody who can buy my product for my service, as opposed to somebody that can make an introduction for me. But over time, what I realized is that the quality introductions were just fantastic. And when I am introduced to a prospect or somebody else's client, it's not a sales y conversation at all.

24:53 It's really a conversation about there's a sales problem, what is that problem, what are the consequences if you don't fix that problem? And how motivated are you to fix that problem? And am I the right resource to help you do that? If I'm not. Oftentimes I'll make introductions for people that can help them. But again it's not a sales not a sales y conversation by any means. You and I for the audience, You and I are both members of an organization called Provisors, and that's exactly what we do, is we leverage relationships for our own business development. But i'd say more often in terms of events, we're referring others. Yes, right, so yeah, how did you find Provisors? By the way, I was looking for a high caliber networking organization, and what I mean by high caliber is just the quality of people, but also the clients, the level of clients, the quality of clients that somebody would work with who is a member of Provisors, And I found that it was just wonderful fit. Like you mentioned early on, and probably more often, I've used the resources that are available through Provisors to help my clients out through making introductions. I'm a big one on at some point, even if we're delivering results in our lane, we are going to be viewed as a vendor, and it's easy for an organization to replace a vendor, but if we're adding value in the lanes that we're serving in

26:29 for my case, it's the sales organization I need to be constantly inquiring with my CEOs or my owners. How is that impacting? How are the results the increase in sales impacting HR? How is it impacting manufacturing? How is it impacting finance? Not that I can solve those problems, but I can make introductions to people who can solve those problems. And what I find is that at that point, I not only become somebody who's delivering results, become a trusted advisors to my owners or CEOs. That's not only is it the right thing to do, it makes us more valuable as you Sure, yeah, all right, I want to start you walking us, start having you walk us through some of the things you mentioned. That'll take us up to the bottom of the hour and a second commercial break here. So take us through. I'll give you a list, one at a time. Aligning corporate goals is one of the ways that you help your clients. Talk about that.

27:30 Sure, what's so important is that a sales organization, their goals, their objectives be aligned with the corporate goals and objectives. And what I mean by that is that if a company is looking to grow revenue by a certain dollar amount or a certain percentage, that that then gets broken out into quotas, individual quotas for the sales team. And if the focus is on generating new logos or new business as opposed to generating business exclusively from existing customers, a sales compensation plan has to reflect that. I'm a big one on that. Salespeople will do behaviors that they're measured on, and they will also engage in behaviors that they're compensated for. Any good salesperson is going to look at their compensation plan and figure out how are they going to maximize the dollar amount or the income that they're going to generate from that plan. And so if those plans aren't written in line with what the corporate goals and objectives are, there's going to be that disconnect or problem. I'll get to this after the break. We'll take it in a second here, and the question will be, can you discuss the complexity or simplicity of a compensation plan? Because I've seen I mean, I remember one of the companies I worked at, and that was a great company. Loved being there, did really well, made good money, still have friends from there. You never could figure out the comp plan until about two paychecks in two commission checks in I should say not two paychecks. Who it was so complicated, all right, So let's take

29:02 our second break. We'll be back in about another minute with Harrison Ryder of Elevation Sales Group. You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene on W four CY Radio. That's W fourcy dot com. Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up right here on Winning Business Radio. The yp dot com website is your local search engine. If you're looking for a good restaurant, it can help you find the right one nearby with ratings and reviews. Or if your car breaks down, you can use the YP app to find the closest repair shop. Or maybe you're just looking for something to do on a Friday night. While it has great local coupons for all sorts of things in your area, no matter what, when or where. If you're looking for something, YP local search can help you find it. So go to YP dot com or download the app to search local to find local and save local. And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin helenan presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in mind to help you succeed in business.

30:11 Here once again is Kevin Helena. Welcome back, and we are of course with Harrison Ryder, founder and president of Elevation Sales Group. I love the way you say this powered by sales Acceleration. All right, so let's talk about a comp plan for a minute. What do you and just principles. You don't have to get into the nuts and bolts. But we know that good salespeople quote follow the money, right. They figure out how to how the company wants them to behave so that they get paid. Opening opportunities, you know, some some are just appointment centers, qualified appointments, others are closing, et cetera. So talk us through the elements that you would recommend or write into to a good complan. Yeah, a good complan has to drive the behaviors and the results that a company is looking for. So it's important to understand the behaviors that need to take place for a salesperson to be successful. And as I mentioned, they truly have to be in line with the company goals and objectives and compensated accordingly. I think a compensation plan should be relatively straightforward. I'm not a huge one on you know, a ten or fifteen page document or spreadsheets. Yeah, exactly exactly. I think it needs to be straightforward. That being said, it needs to spell out what the expectations are, and salespeople need to sign those compensation plans so they

31:45 truly understand what's involved. I had a situation with a client where one of the salespeople would make their quota and stop, and I kept saying to him, you know, it's great that you're meeting your mond quota, but you know, trust the process that we're putting in place. Don't sandbag anything. I want you to just blow things out for each month and trust that next month is going to take care of itself. What I also realized is that this individual is motivated by money like a lot of salespeople, and in aligning the corporate goals and objectives, I was able to put together a quarterly bonus which really was a stretch, as well as an annual bonus. And one of the things that I like to say is this individual trusted the process and truly blew away not only their monthly quota, but their quarterly quotas and ultimately their annual quota. And a gentleman with a young family ended up buying a house in a probably high market, so much more than he probably should have for that house. But that was incredibly rewarding to be part of that.

32:57 That's one of those success stories that you know, brings us out to my face. I love to share with my wife just how you know how wonderful that was to be part of that. Yeah, I enjoy those successes too. How would you recommend or how would you yourself motivate, coach, mentor lead someone who's not money motivated? Really tapping into what drives somebody to succeed, what is somebody looking for, and then really really highlight those areas in terms of any type of coaching that I'm doing, any type of mentoring that I'm doing. I had a situation where, you know, I'm probably going to use some terms. I don't have a counseling background by any means, but just through kind of trialing and error, I worked with a particular woman who needed permission to succeed. You know, oftentimes she would sabotage her own success for various reasons, various situations that she had in her life. But when I gave her and ultimately she gave herself permission to succeed. It was incredible what she could accomplish in terms of achieving her goals and objectives. And some of that was money, but in other cases it was status that she was looking for. It was, you know, those types of areas and truly just needed to kind of work through some of the issues that she was

34:27 dealing with. That's really good. That's really good. All right. The next bullet is installing the proper processes and procedures. Talk to that. Sure, there's a number of things that in order to build a high performing sales team need to be in place, and that's things like a sales strategy, a sales methodology, sales analytics, the sales team itself, and those are all those four areas are areas that we tend to look at in terms of making sure what as an organization have in place and really doing a deep analysis, usually during the first month of an engagement, where we figure out what is in place and what needs to be put in place in order to build a high performing sales team. Is that the agility assessment, the sales agility assessment, It is very much so. And what is it? What's a client required to do to complete that or do you do that by observation or how does that look? What does that look like? I use an assessment tool that allows and in fact I have the management team take that. I also have all of the sales people take that. I also look at three years of performance reviews, sales pipeline reports, close reports, customer reports, all of those things to identify what's going on within an organization. Again, I look at the sales compensation plans and then conduct one on one interviews with

35:58 individuals to really get sense of what's going on, what's in place, what's missing. Oftentimes things will come out like the unique value proposition and an owner will say this is what this is the reason that we're selling. Salespeople will say this is the reason we're selling, and customer interviews will produce a completely different reason for why things are selling. Part of that process also is mapping out what does it look like from when a lead comes into the door, the various steps that need to happen to when an order is closed and hand it off for implementation to an implementation team or an onboarding team. And it's it's identifying what needs to happen in each particular stage and what needs to happen for that particular deal to move to the next stage, and also factoring in not only the way you sell your product, but factoring in how customers buy the products, because if that's not built into that sales process, there's going to be conflicts. That's good. Next is mentoring existing sales talent. Yeah, I'm a huge one on producing lasting behavioral change. Is doing that coaching and mentoring that one on one, that role playing. I'm a huge one on planning out sales calls, debriefing after sales calls, and strategizing with individual sales reps on what needs to happen as we move the sales forward. You

37:29 know, what's our game plan for the next meeting that we have. And I find that that truly produces the lasting behavior. Now, obviously that's supplemented with sales training, and that's so important to provide that kind of individual or unique sales training that needs to happen for the weaknesses in the sales teams. Excellent, and executing. The last bullet is executing on effective sales strategies. Know, execution is so key, and that's really a function of creating that culture. I'm probably sharing my age here, but I've realized that or maybe I missed it on you know, when accountability became such a bad thing.

38:17 I'm with you on that. I personally believe that people want to be held accountable. They first of all want to understand what they're responsible for. I'm a big one on we need to give people a measurement that they can say at the end of the day, I had a good day today. I moved the ball forward and this is how I did it. And if that's not happening, there's a lot to disconnect within an organization. I'm also a big one on regardless of the age, people want to be part They want to be part of something bigger than themselves, and that's where it's so critical to have a growing in developing sales organization. You know. I like to say people come to work, people leave on Friday happier than when they came to work on Monday. And it's not just because they have the weekend, but it's truly because they've seen they're part of an organization that is growing.

39:15 And others within the company tend to view that sales isn't something done in the back room someplace, but it's visible and people are speaking the same language. And anybody who touches that sales cycle at one point can look at a CRM system and see my involvement is coming up. So there aren't those surprises, and again people are part of something that's much bigger than themselves. Yeah, that's good. That's really good. And it sounds like you've done what I've tried to do, and that's elevate the profession of selling from what it's characterized that has typically to you know, guys like you and me and plenty of others like us who are honest, good people who are really trying to do something good. And hey, we can make money because it's, as you said, it's a hard, high paying job. You know, when I left quote the corporate world, you know, it was a transition to not have a salary. I don't want a salary anymore, right, because I think salary holds you back. Now that's not everybody, right, that's a unique mindset, but I think you get it and other high performers get it as well. So I'm with you on that. I'm a true believer that good salespeople are wonderful problem solvers. Yeah, because they understand the problems the challenges that their customers or their prospects are facing, and then they can tailor a solution. Whether it's a software package that they're offering or a service that they're offering, they can tailor that to meet their clients or prospects needs.

40:42 Absolutely all right, outsourced VP of sales is what you've referenced. How many hours per month does that look like? It could probably vary, but kind of give us an idea of what that might look like. Sure, it really depends on the type of engagement. Oftentimes, if the if the focus is just building out a sales infrastructure and not necessarily responsible for managing a sales team, that can be a dedicated four to eight hours on a weekly basis. And again it's incredible what can be accomplished with laser focusing on a particular challenge. What is a typical engagement now, so again it can vary, so give us a range there, but so a typical engagement where it's well, I'll let you answer, I don't even editorialize length, sure, et cetera. Frequency. I guess there's really three flavors of offering. One is kind of that sales infrastructure and again, the focus is understanding what a company is missing and laying that foundation that needs to be put in place. I'd like to say fixing broken sales processes, and that can take anywhere from four to six months, depending on the length or the size of the sales team, the complexity of the organization, whether hiring is involved. And then as we execute on those plans, if it makes sense for me to manage the sales team for a certain amount of time, I'll assume that VP of Sales

42:15 role and sit in on the management meeting, so be part of the management team. And those engagements go anywhere from twelve months to eighteen months as we execute on the plans, and I'm always at the end of those engagements looking to either promote my replacement, or hire my replacement, or hand over a fully functional and executing sales organization back over to an owner or CEO. The third flavor is a relatively new offering that Sales Acceleration has offered. In the previous two, I really view myself as a builder of actually doing the work, as an outsourced VP of sales doing that heavy lifting in the other model or third. The third offering is really more of a framework offering. So they might have a very confident, competent VP of sales in place and a sales team that's executing, but they never really got to the point where they were laying that true sales foundation. They never really identified and documented their ideal customer profile or their unique value proposition, or really outlined fine tuned their sales process. And that typically is an engagement that will go a year, year and a half, and the cadence is meeting on a quarterly basis and really outlaying or outlining what needs to be accomplished, and then the client organization is

43:47 actually doing the work. So I like to say, in that framework example, I function more as an architect as opposed to a builder, more like for those that are familiar with the term a EOS model, very much so. And in fact, similar cadence has followed in terms of the quarterly meetings and the annual meetings. Now do you ever get into helping to adjust or create culture sales culture, you know, sales versus culture? Sometimes I do really as a reflection of the work that I do. It's not something that I necessarily come on board and say we're going to create a sales culture.

44:28 But what I do is in terms of the work, the terminology that's used, the processes that are put in place, that's really an outcome that happens with the work that's done within a sales organization. And part of that is an account is a culture of accountability and execution. You know, people understand what they're signing up for and they understand the behaviors that need to happen for them to be able to reach their goals and objectives. All right, So in terms of your it's an overused term. I'm not going to get into it the way most people do that quote ideal client, does location matter? What industries do you specialize in or are there any you stay away from?

45:08 You know, coming from an enterprise software application background, I really thought my practice would be in southern New England and I'd be working with small SaaS companies. And although I have done that, I've also been exposed to other industries. I like to say, quite frankly, it's customers or clients that are roughly about three million dollars in revenue all the way up to fifty million dollars in revenue, and it's customers that are clients or prospects that are facing some type of sales challenge, some type of problem. Usually it manifests itself in terms of top line revenue. Maybe the companies had a number of years where revenue has just been stagnant or in some cases revenue who has been declining, or in some cases revenue who's been spiking, and those organizations realize that they can't continue that growth unless they have that solid sales infrastructure or foundation in place.

46:05 Can you say, COVID right, how many right? You'd be surprised that, even in kind of those crazy times, just how well my practice went. And part of that is organizations still need to deliver top line revenue growth. And regardless of whether times are good or times are bad, true salespeople, good salespeople can execute in those times. They can pivot when they need to pivot and do well. I mean, one of the biggest challenges was the idea of you know, no longer we closing business over dinners or lunches breakfasts, but we're closing deals over zoom. And how does somebody show up to zoom and effectively manage that? And organizations that could pivot and adapt to that did very well, very good. What what makes a quote good client in your mind? Somebody who has their sales problem also obviously, but one that is is truthful in terms of wanting to solve that problem. Actually, you know, I had a situation where early on one of my initial clients they wanted I was introduced by a fractional CFO and the owner said, I want to grow revenue. And my response was great, you know, if we grow it over one thousand dollars last year over last year, is that a success? And he said no, And so we just kept going

47:38 and just going and asking questions and talking, and ultimately what came out was that in five years he wants to exit the business, and uh, he needs all of the in this particular division, all of the numbers trending in the right direction to be able to maximize the value that he could get for his company. And all of a sudden that becomes a very different conversation. And then I just want to grow revenue, and so when I connect with my clients on that level, it's amazing on what can be accomplished. That's excellent, all right. He's Harrison Rider Sales Acceleration Email h Rider at sales eceleration. No E, no, c's it's acceleration. Who in the viewing and listening audiences should reach out to you? And why really? Any I'm a profess sales gee, I'll say that I love every aspect about sales.

48:30 I love the cold calling, I love the prospecting, I love the strategy around sales. I love the execution around sales. So if you're facing a sales challenge, I would welcome reaching out and having a conversation with you. Oftentimes I literally had referral partners say to me, I had a meeting with a client and I'm not sure how it went, And I'll say, let's get on a call, let's get through that, or what's the next step. Let's talk through those things. And if I can't help, then oftentimes I can make introductions to people who can help. Excellent. We are, believe it or not. That's fifty minutes right there. We're out of time. Thank you so much for taking the time to being here, for being here, and I really appreciate it. It's been fun, Kevin, this is great. Thank you so much, my pleasure. I will see you soon. Thanks everybody for watching and for listening. This is a show about business and business challenges. You just heard Harrison talk about the kinds of challenges he solves and he knows well, and that's why he referred to Sander.

49:31 We're part of Sandler Training, our company and me we develop sales teams into high achievers and sales leaders into true coaches and mentors. Thank you to producer and engineer one for another job well done. Next week's Memorial Day, so we're going to be airing a previous episode. Be sure to join us though the following week. That'll be Monday, June third. My guest will be Kim Calvey. She's the founder and owner of Boston Edits. Until then, this is Kevin Hallanan. You've been listening to Winning Business Radio with your host, Kevin Halenan. If you missed any part of this episode, The podcast is available on Talk for Podcasting and iHeartRadio. For more information and questions, go to Winning Business Radio dot com or check us out on social media.

50:15 Tune in again next week and every Monday at four pm Eastern Time to listen live to Winning Business Radio on W four CY Radio W four cy dot com. Until then, let's succeed where others have failed and win in business with Kevin Haleanan and winning Business radio