Apr 6, 2021
Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques with Cooper Krauss
Listen to your prospect, understand exactly what their problems are but tell them why you are calling and gain their trust fast. You only have few seconds to grab their attention. Understand the power of No! No is where selling begins. Don't be scared of clients that don't make sense for you business. They will only turn out to be a distraction.
About Cooper:
A highly successful Sales professional, Cooper Krauss has generated over $5M of revenue in just 6 years across various industries. He is now the Global Sales Director at Full Scale, one of the fastest-growing companies in the US with hundreds of employees worldwide.
As a sales leader, Cooper quickly climbed the ranks in Corporate Sales environments. Prior to joining Full Scale, he became the youngest Director-level hire in the history of a $700M Consulting firm.
As a podcaster, Cooper has appeared on multiple podcasts including a 3-Part Sales focused series on The Startup Hustle, a Top 50 Podcast Co-Hosted by Full-Scale Founders Matt DeCoursey and Matt Watson.
Proven record of building New Client Relationships by establishing trust quickly and solving issues practically. Practitioner of radically transparent Cold Outreach. Ability to quick establish Peer-Level Trust with C-Suite and Founders. My team and I secure meetings, facilitate multi-stakeholder discussions, uncover issues and drive revenue. Experience partnering with organizations from Start-Up to C-Suite at Fortune 100. Extremely passionate about implementing and executing a rigorous sales process from initial contact through deal close as well as leading and developing sales professionals.
www.fullscale.io
www.thebusinessofbusinesspodcast.com
Full Transcript Below
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to another episode of the business of business podcast. I'm Roy. Uh, this is a show that we bring a wide range of experts and, um, knowledge base to the solo preneurs entrepreneurs, small businesses to, you know, try to help enlighten us sometimes as small businesses or as entrepreneurs. We may not know exactly what we don't know. And so this is a good, a good forum for us just to talk about different topics that may help you in your business. And then also give you the resources to, uh, you know, make some changes if necessary. Uh, today we're going to talk about sales and that's something we don't talk near enough about, but it's a very dear subject to my heart. I enjoy talking about it a lot and we are, um, uh, we're blessed to have, uh, Cooper Krauss with us. He is the global sales director with full-scale Cooper. Welcome to the show. Thanks for taking time out of your day to be here.
Cooper (01:03):
Absolutely. Thanks for having me. I'm glad to be here. I agree. People don't talk about failed enough, so I love it.
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (01:08):
Yeah. Now, you know, we talk about marketing. Everybody wants to, you know, uh, and not making light of that. We have to have marketing to get to sales. I get that, but, uh, it seemed like everybody's kind of piled in on that marketing space. And so, uh, that's awesome. But if we don't know how to handle the customer, once we get them through the funnel, to the sales, to the sales portion, then, uh, it's all meaningless. So, uh, let's just kinda jump in with, um, a little bit about what are you seeing today. I know there's been a huge environmental change, uh, for a lot of workplaces. Have you seen that it's had an impact or change the way that you do sales? And if you don't mind, tell us a little bit number one about how you got here and full-scale, um, you know, y'all have a developers that you may embed in other company. You can tell us a little bit about, um, what that's all about as well.
Cooper (02:05):
Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, I grew up just North of Kansas city, Missouri, and a town called St. Joe about 70,000 people. Uh, and in 2014 I moved to Kansas city and, uh, getting into sales was a little bit of an accident and it turns out that, that I love it. Um, so what happened was I was serving tables at a bar and grill in downtown Kansas city and was waiting on a group of about 12 people. And when I checked them out, one of the guys that I was waiting on, walks up to me and says, Hey man, you kept that organized. No mistakes went well, good customer service. If you can do that, you can sell insurance. And, um, I was like, absolutely, I'll get off the serving floor and go, you know, sit behind a desk and try to try to build a career that way.
Cooper (02:50):
So, um, studied my insurance for property and casualty, you know, Autohome, uh, studied that for a couple of weeks past that, and eventually was able to sell life and health as well, but, uh, wards for that agent, uh, underneath the farmers for about two years. And it was one of those scenarios where like my second day, um, it was, they dropped a stack of papers on my desk and it was, here's some names, phone, numbers, and addresses. We'll see what you can do. So then you just start burning through as many phone calls you could possibly make. Um, and you're trying to, you're trying to gather quotes for people and you have to get some pretty intimate information about a person to get them an accurate insurance quote. So, um, that was a really good experience to cut my teeth. So I did that for, um, about two years, and then I took a role with them.
Cooper (03:37):
The company called Robert half, which is a five, $5 billion publicly traded staffing firm. Um, so my first role there was, um, in their division called office teams. So we were, you know, we were staffing, um, HR sales, um, customer service, data entry, really, I'm pretty sure lower level roles in terms of how a corporation is generally structured. Uh, so they did that and that was, you know, heavy sales and heavy recruiting, um, did well in that division. So then I got a tap show, a tap on the shoulder and see their accounting and finance division, um, and, and continue to do well then. Um, and then, um, at, uh, after about two years there, uh, okay. Role with a larger consulting firm, um, and, uh, was lucky enough to be hired there, the youngest director and in that company's history. And so that was, uh, a practice where I was, um, in charge of, uh, about a $4 million book of business across the Midwest.
Cooper (04:31):
And, uh, that business there was to help large companies with merger and acquisition transactions and system integrations. So leading that space and it, all that is, is, um, really, uh, those are all, all areas that I just mentioned that I had absolutely no technical knowledge or expertise around. Um, it was just the ability to, to dig in and know enough to be yeah. And no window kinda shut up and listen to your clients. So, um, and then in March of this year, I joined full-scale. So that's kind of the pattern of my career so far, it's about six and a half years. Um, and so join full-scale in March is their first sales hire. So that's where I'm at now. And as you mentioned yet, we've got a team of 200 developers that we, we embed into client teams, um, to support their, their development projects.
Cooper (05:20):
That's, that's the overall overall and primary full-scale business we also have. And I wear it every time I'm on another podcast is, uh, our, our podcast is called startup hustle and that's become a, it's been around for three years, about 500 episodes and it's become a top 25 entrepreneurship podcast. Um, so, uh, uh, yeah, 1.5 million lifetime downloads. So it's turned into a congratulations really sucks. Thank you. Thank you. Now I can't take too much credit. I'm not a part of it. It's our, our CEO and our other co-founder who they bring on other CEOs and CTOs and entrepreneurs five times a week to talk about their experience, but it's gained a lot of attention. And so due to that, uh, we've actually, we're, we're launching a web series about entrepreneurship called startup hustle TV, and just a few weeks. So, um, yeah, that's a little bit about how I got here and full-scale okay. Yeah.
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (06:09):
We'll have to check that out and I'll include that in the show notes too, to help out the entrepreneurs want to give them all kinds of tools, uh, you know, anything to help them out. So, yeah.
Cooper (06:19):
Yeah. I mean, those are the, those are shows where like the second episode is called getting funded sucks. So like, we, we really dig into, we dig into the, the good, the bad and the ugly of entrepreneurship. Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (06:31):
Yeah. Let's do, before we get too far off into the sales, I, you know, you make a, you said you came out of waiting tables, somebody noticed you in, and, you know, I talked to people about that all the time for recruiting is that you have to keep your eyes open no matter where you are, when you find somebody that, uh, can be conversational, talk to people, you know, we can train them usually in the industry, but I can't, I can't teach people really how to be personable. I mean, that's just kind of a quality, a lot of people have, or they don't, you know, whether they're shy or just, don't like to talk. It doesn't, it's not that it's good or bad. It's just, some people are cut out for that sales role and some aren't. So you always have to be, uh, always be on the outlook for somebody that's, uh, you know, good and asking questions that, you know, I think too, also, uh, starting in that insurance, because that's what I talk a lot about is, you know, we have to ask questions.
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (07:28):
I can't just call you and say, Cooper, I'm selling this product are, you know, how many can I sign you up for? And, uh, you know, maybe for low, maybe lower dollar items, we can get away with that. But you know, when we're selling consulting services, high ticket items, you know, I've got to try to solve a prop. Do you even need this? I mean, I, I, I got, I got a great John Deere out here behind the bar, and I'd love to say, but, you know, you may not be in the market or may not even could use a nice big old tractor. So, uh, you know, asking those questions right up front and getting to know your prospect, uh, that, that was a great start.
Cooper (08:05):
Yeah. And it's, but there is kind of like a, always a tug of war, I think, with being in the sales role, because as you mentioned, you want to, um, listen to the client and understand what their problems are, but at the same time, you also have this requirement to tell them exactly why you're calling and gain their attention quickly and respect their time. Um, and so there, there is that, that push and pull of, uh, I've got to get their attention immediately and be direct and honest, like, Hey, here's why we're, here's why I'm calling. Right. Uh, and then she to opened the conversation. So it is a bit of a juggling act.
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (08:40):
Yeah. Yeah. And, and, you know, we talked to a little bit uh pre-show you know, one of your, um, something that you talk a little bit about is the power of no. And so it kinda opens us up to, uh, you know, sometimes salespeople we're scared of no, uh, sometimes we're scared of yes. Just as much. So, you know, I think what, you know, part of this is that we want to get to yes. Or we want to get to know, uh, as quickly as possible, because even if I get to know if you're not client, it gives me a chance to move on.
Cooper (09:15):
Absolutely. And I think there's a two, I think there's two sides to the power of, no, of course the power of know, whenever, as you mentioned, we want to understand whether or not that client is interested in our product or service as soon as possible because we're salespeople and we want to close the deals ultimately. Right. Um, and so that, that's important to get there quickly, but it's also important for us to say no to clients that don't make sense for us. Right. And that's, that's something that I think a lot of people in the sales profession struggle with, because again, we're, we're quota based, we're number driven and anybody who wants to work with us, we want to say yes to, but I've got more than a couple of stories of clients that I should have said no to, and, and up creating more work for me, worked for our billing team or work for the operations team, because we brought on a client that really wasn't that good of a client. So there's kind of a two sides to the power of now.
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (10:10):
Yeah. I mean, we have to be careful with that because it's likely, like you said, sometimes we can try so hard and, uh, you know, I'm this, not that I have this problem, but you know, there are some people that are so good at sales that, you know, they can close just about anybody and then they end up making a poor customer. They're unhappy, your team spends more time messing around with them. So it, it can be a dilemma as well.
Cooper (10:35):
Yeah. And I think that's, I think it's a bit of a PRI a by-product though. Uh, well, at least with, with larger corporations that are like just large sales organizations and they've got huge teams and, uh, you've seen the BDRs and, and their quote, their, their quotas book, this many meetings, you know, closed this many deals, so on and so forth. Right. They're they're so, so number driven and revenue driven that those reps will do just about anything to hit those numbers, to satisfy, satisfy their managers too, who were really, they were passed down those metrics from leadership. That's not even attached to the, to the sales process. Right. And so it's just kind of a, it's kind of a weird trickle-down scenario where, um, those reps are just chasing those numbers and they're going to get them at, at, at any cost, not, not a good approach.
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (11:23):
Yeah. And, uh, I wanna, I wanna touch on goals here. And just one more thing about the power of, no, I think too, the other thing is sometimes we think of like, uh, uh, the, your prospect says, no, so we just hang up. But also before, sometime in between the no, and the hanging up, it also gives us an opportunity to ask why, because maybe, you know, maybe they just purchase whatever we've got. Maybe they can't afford. I mean, you know, there's a lot of reasons, but it also gives us that chance to open some dialogue to, uh, um, you know, maybe try to tell them how we can, you know, maybe they don't know what we do or what it was all about. Don't have a fundamental understanding. So anyway, it just didn't, I didn't want that as much as we want to get to.
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (12:10):
Yes or no, just when somebody says, no, it just doesn't mean that we're done with the conversation necessarily. Now I'm not a hound. And so when somebody says, no, I may ask a couple of followup questions, but you know, I'm not gonna, I'm not one of those that sticks with them till they just slam, slam the phone down. I want to be respectful because just because you're not a customer of mine today doesn't mean that you won't be tomorrow. So that's another balancing act is we have to, you know, sometimes as salespeople, we have to push hard, but we have to push hard and still be respectful where, um, we can hang up the phone or we can end our meeting, uh, on a friendly terms. And give me another shot at you down the road.
Cooper (12:53):
Yeah. There's always a delicate way to handle an objection or, or a straight up. No. Um, and, and I think that one, one way to do that is to something that buyers smell is salesman or sales woman being timid. And if you're being timid, then they're going to eat you alive on that phone call. Right. And so if somebody says, no one thing that, that disrupts the thought process of a lot of buyers is by agreeing, agreeing with them. Cause they're like, wait, what? Like, yeah, no, I assumed you'd say, no, I'm reaching out about next year. I mean, whatever it is, just those little things where you're like, what you, you thought I was going to say no, and you still call me. Okay. Little things like that.
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (13:38):
Right. Right. So, uh, you mentioned goals and, and that's a good thing is that, um, you know, first off, I, I believe I've worked for companies before that really had some good metrics, but in the end they turned out to be a stick that, you know, they used to club employees with had a later date. So I think as we set goals, we have to be mindful of what, what is the accomplishment will and the rehab, uh, and the quality because, um, I will guarantee you, I could line you up 12 phone calls for this afternoon. They are not going to be people who are going to need your services, but I can check that off my quote, Alyssa, I got Cooper 12 causes afternoon. So, you know, it's a waste of time. And I saw this, uh, you know, I, I started out in that, um, cold calling space as well.
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (14:31):
I worked for a brokerage company. And so, you know, when you're new, they give you the list and you sit down and make a hundred, hundred $50 a day. And we had one guy that he was making about $200 a day. He was knocking them out, but the guy never, uh, he never opened up any new accounts and he was struggling. So we got the pull in the, and this was back in the ancient days. We thought we were lucky. We had a phone log where we could see, and, you know, part of his 200 calls was his mother, his sister, his friend, the seven 11 down the street down the, uh, way, you know, because at the end of the day, he can say, I made all these phone calls, but they weren't to people who were going to be his customer. So, you know, I think it's just an important thing to remember when we set objectives, as they need to be in line with where we want to go and we need to, we need to make sure that the, I guess, the results of that are quality.
Cooper (15:29):
Yeah. And I mean, with, with how educated buyers are nowadays, it, the only metric that actually matters is did you generate the revenue with the right client, right. And that's never going to sat and that's never going to satisfy a publicly traded executive. You know, if somebody is on the, you know, somebody in the C suite of a publicly traded company, that's never going to satisfy them, but that's the truth, right? I mean, buyers can figure out really, really quickly on their own without coming to salespeople, what they need and shop themselves. Right. And so, um, yeah, th th the metric is, did you, did you earn a deal with the right client? Um, and even if I made it, I mean, you look at somebody who makes 150 phone calls and they're doing the shotgun approach and they don't know why they're calling anybody.
Cooper (16:24):
And then you look at someone who makes, and they look at someone who makes, you know, 30 calls that day, but before they make each phone call, they look at that person on LinkedIn. They look at that company's website, they look at the latest news releases. And that, that takes, that takes five minutes max. And that probably not even that takes three minutes. And then when you call them, you can have something to talk about. You can make a comment about how many recommendations they've received on LinkedIn, whatever it may be, because if you don't, you can only call them to talk about yourself, which is the quickest way for a deal to die. And you're going to get a higher response rate if you do that. So I'd rather make 30 calls and get 15 responses to then make a hundred calls and get nine. Right.
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (17:08):
Right. Yeah. Sometimes we need to choose quality over quantity for sure. Yep. Uh, yep. So, um, the, I think you bring up a good point by our, our buyers being smarter. Now, I, you know, we kinda, I think we have to keep that in mind to meet them where they're at, uh, you know, uh, makes me feel old sometimes to have to talk like this, but, you know, back in the day, but prior to the internet, you know, if you had a product or service, people may not know about it. So, I mean, it was a genuine lead in like, Hey, let me tell you about this product. Well, now, you know, buyers, that, that's a good point. Yeah, true buyers. They are the internet and they know more about you and your competition, you know, than a lot of sales people that I know. So, uh, I think that, you know, the research on who we're calling, but then also figure out where they're at in this process. And let's, don't start, you know, it's, don't start at the ground floor with everybody. Like nobody knows what this product or service is.
Cooper (18:12):
Yeah. That's a really good point. I hadn't thought about that. Um, in terms of, I mean, yeah, there definitely was a time where when you called somebody, it was, it could potentially be the first they'd ever heard of, of a product or a service like, like that. So that is a genuine, that is a genuine outrage. You don't, we don't really have that. That's probably, I would say that's probably the only luxury that modern salespeople don't have. Um, but just about everything else is, is dramatically enhanced in terms of our ability to go find prospects that make sense for us,
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (18:47):
Right? Yeah. Yeah. The internet has been, uh, you know, it's a great tool. I know there's a lot of get us in trouble as well, but there's a lot of great tools out there if we just, uh, you know, know what to do and what to look for, it's in kind of speed gun and kind of going in that vein, I guess we could talk about, uh, something that you mentioned or, you know, in, uh, um, at the sauce at the guest on one of your sites was dish, this functional selling. And, uh, could you explain that a little bit?
Cooper (19:20):
Yeah. Um, have you ever heard of a, of an author named Mohan CALSA?
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (19:26):
No.
Cooper (19:28):
So he wrote a book, um, he wrote a book that was called, um, Oh, what was it? I'm blanking now. Um, you know, it's funny because I have it right here. Sorry to do that. So it's, it's, uh, it's, uh, let's get real or let's not play. And so the whole concept is kind of, um, to put, to bed the desk that you put this bed, dysfunctional selling, and again, dysfunctional selling kind of going back to sales, people, reaching out to say, Hey, we've got this great product, this great service. We know you need it just sat down. And let me tell you how it's going to work like that. That is how sales was approached for a really long time. And to your point, sometimes that actually made sense because that buyer might actually not know anything about that, that lane. Right. Um, but with, with where we're at now, I mean, the truth is that there, there are definitely products and services out there that have unique, uh, nuances and tweaks, but not a whole lot of ideas are completely original anymore.
Cooper (20:42):
Um, so a lot of markets are saturated. And so, um, the idea then with, with Mon calls, his book is to, um, check your ego at the door as a salesperson, right? So really like for, for a given about what it is that you want, because if you forget about what you want, which is to close the deal and make money, if you forget about that, you'll end up closing more deals and making more money. Right. Because you're, you're not like it's kinda like, well, one of my mentors, um, whenever I was at Robert half hit, one of his first lines was that the less that you, the less that you think about making money, the more you have in your pocket. And, and as soon as, as soon as the sales person can kind of grasp that, uh, then, then their success level in terms of deals close and money earned it, it really changes because they're, they're not being selfish. I mean, who makes money being selfish. Right,
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (21:36):
Right, right. Yeah. And sometimes they just get so anxious, you know, I've known a few like that, that they just couldn't, they couldn't even give away a glass of water in a desert because they were so anxious. And when they went in, I mean, they made the client anxious. They, it was just, it was not a good situation, but, you know, having them calm down and just say, look, you can't be worrying about the future. You know, like I said earlier, sometimes they were scared of getting a yes. It'd be like, Oh my gosh, what if they said, yeah, I'll take it then what
Cooper (22:10):
Th they were, they were anxious because they were thinking about that themselves. Exactly, exactly. It's kinda like, it's kinda like, uh, like speaking in front of a group of people, some good advices is just remember that it's, it's for it's for them. Like, you're, you're talking for them, not for you. Right. And it kinda, it can kind of relieve some pressure. So as a salesperson, if you've got, I mean, and to be honest with you, I'm a great example of that. Because before I was going to make my first sales call at a farmers, when I first started, I had to go to the bathroom before and gather myself because I was having a, like a mini panic attack. Cause I was sitting in, it was my, it was my first sales job. We're just sitting in a small office. Um, so both of the agents that I've worked for could hear me and the other salesperson who had been there for three or four years, I mean, we're all tight knit. And so, you know, I was like, I'm going to butcher this and they're going to hear every single word of it. Um, and then you just kinda, I went in there and gathered myself, came back out and did, and then, and now I've got, you know, uh, very comfortable making cold calls to people that have no idea who we are round. So it can definitely, they can definitely be overcome for sure. It's just a matter of focusing on the right thing.
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (23:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You just have to focus on your customer and, uh, you know, you have to trust yourself to a lot of times we don't trust ourselves that we have the answer and that's another thing, you know, we sometimes as salespeople, we feel like we have to have the answer for every possible question that comes. And as the customer, I have more respect for the guy that says, I don't know. I mean, but I can sure. Find out for you, you know, sometimes it's like when people have the answer to everything, you might start quiet unless they're very experienced you. Sometimes I start questioning, are they just making stuff up as they're going, you know, just where they have an answer to throw at me.
Cooper (24:01):
Yeah. Something to keep in mind as a modern salesperson is just like, you're looking up your customer on LinkedIn. If you're doing your job the right way. Right. They might be looking you up too. And so if you're, if you're in a, so for example, like I, I'm not technical, um, by trade at all, like I can't write a line of code and I, and I sell software development services. So when I'm speaking with chief and all of the officers at recently funded, you know, innovative startups, uh, I can't, I can't be asking them for one second because they know, they know when someone knows software development and you know, I've, I've been here nine months, so I I've gained some knowledge and I understand how to uncover issues, but when it gets technical too technical, I mean, I just I'm like, Hey, that's, that's over my head. I've got a development manager. You can, you can talk to, but this is, this is where it stops for me. And, and, and they get that.
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (24:54):
There's no shame in that. I mean, you know, sometimes we are tasked to be sales because we're good at sales, not because we're good at code development. And I think that's something to think about in the hiring process when we look at, you know, people's resumes, just because they may be the very best at the job that doesn't necessarily translate into, uh, that they will make a good manager or that they would make a good sales person for the project product.
Cooper (25:21):
Oh my gosh. That's uh, yeah, that's, that is incredibly accurate. And that's something that that's another, I would say another fault of really large sales organizations is they have a tendency to promote the person who's closing the most deals. Um, but there, there might be a reason why they're closing the most deals. They, they, they, their, their sweet spot might be, Hey, individual contributor. And, and they want to focus on their book of business and the person with, you know, maybe mediocre sales, but that, that leadership charisma is probably the way to go, but bigger companies, they just want to, they see that person that's made all that money and they want to reward them like that. Yeah. Yeah.
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (25:59):
Yeah. And sometimes it's a huge mistake and I worked, it wasn't a sales organization, but, you know, I worked for a major corporation back in the day and our promotion process was who wants the job, or who's been here the longest. I mean, it's almost like a battlefield promotion that you survived the last five years. So now you're, you're going to be the manager of this boat and that it was disastrous. And, you know, we, sometimes we can't get out of our own way, but you know, there's a lot of tools out there. Do you use any specific tools for hiring
Cooper (26:35):
For hiring? Um, when it comes to hiring salespeople, the first place I'm always going to go relationship-based so I won't even go to LinkedIn. I won't go to indeed because sales sales is a really popular profession. A lot of people do it. And to be honest with you, a lot of the, a lot of the processes and the approaches are really simple. Like my, I always say my revolutionary advice is that no advice is revolutionary. Like sales has been, sales has been sales for the longest time. Like we, we don't need to try to rewrite it. I mean, there are, there are differences now, obviously between now and 30 years ago, but at the end of the day, it's still the same. And so I like to connect with people that I know to see if they know of anybody who is like, Hey, like let's cut through the resume stuff.
Cooper (27:27):
Let's cut through their education. Are they going to be an effective and ethical salesperson? Yeah. I mean, that's the approach that I'll take. And then, and then secondly, I'm going to go to, to LinkedIn. I'm probably not to be honest for sales, I'm probably not going to do indeed or any of those more traditional job boards because, um, you know, on LinkedIn you might be able to identify kind of how they communicate by their interactions on LinkedIn. Um, and that tells me much more about what I need to know, opposed to what their resume looks like. I mean, to be honest, a resume means very little to me at this point. Um, yeah, it's just, it's a different, it's, it's a little bit different than, than, than looking at, um, you know, have people check the boxes of what's supposed to be good on a resume.
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (28:17):
Exactly. Yeah. And, uh, a lot of times people can, uh, make a resume look, uh, they can make it look like whatever you want it to look like too. So, you know, and I think that another thing about hiring and, you know, and I think we have to approach that, like we do, um, Mo like we do sell in our product, we have to market for talent. We, can't just, uh, I'm not a big fan, you know, to me, recruiting is not putting up an indeed post. I think that we have to have that personal knowledge and relationship and, you know, we have to have, I kind of think of it as we have to have people on the bench that are either calling us w you know, wanting to know that we got an opening yet, or who we've identified that, you know, the next opening I have, because of things, like you said, how we see them interact in public, or at other functions, if they're in the same industry or, you know, what they post on LinkedIn, a lot of different things like that, that we need to take into account.
Cooper (29:18):
Yeah. And sometimes it's helpful to join networks that are related to your profession. So for example, uh, I joined, uh, a, uh, sales leadership network called revenue collective, and there's about 4,000 members across the globe. And so automatically any, you know, the next time I'm hiring for a salesperson that that's the network that I'm going to trust, right. Is I'm going to say, Hey, either, either I'm going to hire somebody who's actually in the network or talk to, uh, a leader in that network about, Hey, here's what I'm looking for. Do you know of anybody? I mean, so that's another way to, to kind of cut through the noise. Right.
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (29:54):
Right. Exactly. So, um, what about managing, do you, uh, first off, I assume that you have, uh, managers or a sales force under you, but, uh, you know, what about managing in this environment that we're in, where people are working from home? You know, we're not all in the same office anymore where you can stand up and look out the glass wall and see, you know, who's sleeping and who's dialing in, you know, what's going on. Uh, so how are you doing any, what are you doing to, I guess, man, is that process?
Cooper (30:34):
I think it's wonderful. Honestly, I think it led to a lot of it led a lot of companies know that we don't need to be in the office for people to be productive. And regardless of whether you're in the office or you're working from home, the numbers tell us everything. So again, you know, not being, you're not being cold call obsessed or setting appointments obsessed, but at the end of the month or quarter or whatever your, your quad looks like if the, if the numbers are there, I, I do not care where you work at. I, that's not, you know, as long as you and I can maintain a relationship, um, you know, via zoom and, you know, consequently vacation over Slack. And then, you know, we can safely get together every once in a while as a team or individual meetings. Um, you know, that that's been the general approach.
Cooper (31:20):
Um, you know, we, we've got, uh, we've got a pretty small squad of six. Um, but you know, we got together a week and a half ago at our new office. Um, and we were able to, you know, stay six feet and, and go through our 20, 21 go to market strategy. Um, and so, but, but really, I mean, ultimately to me, it's, it's great for people who have always felt like we have to have the salespeople in the office, you know, to, to, to manage them. The only, I would say that there is a potential downside, and it depends on the type of salesperson you are. And then also probably depends on inherently on, uh, what type of product you're selling and just that, that industry, because there is something to be said for the positive energy and momentum that you can get from being in a bullpen of salespeople. I mean, that is something that, that I know I miss since I'm at the time, and I know a lot of salespeople do. Um, but you know, you can, you can try to cultivate that in other ways on, on virtual meetings and virtual contests and things like that.
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (32:28):
Yeah. And I'm kind of the opposite, I think, uh, you know, not being in once I got out, because I, there was a time, like I had to put a chair in front of the door of my office, just because from eight to five, it was like, uh, you know, just a steady stream of people coming in. Then I could get my work done after six or seven o'clock at night after everybody went home. So, you know, I like, uh, you know, not having the commute and then also, uh, I don't know, just not having the distractions sometimes. Maybe I'm just, uh, I'm like a squirrel, you know, some bright, shiny object distracts me. So, uh, you know, being at home, I tend to be much, much more focused.
Cooper (33:07):
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the time back in the commute is nice. Uh, I mean, if you can get really granular on time, back on the commute, less wear and tear on the car, uh, you know, less gas money. I mean, there are definitely some benefits to that, for sure. Yeah.
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (33:21):
And I think one drawback is if, uh, you know, if it's something that you're selling where you need to be in front of customers, I think that's made it a little more difficult. And I personally, that's what I like to be out, you know, and, uh, you know, the phones are okay, but I'd much rather be in front of people I seem to, you know, kind of do better there. So that, that has definitely, would definitely be a drawback depending on what you're selling.
Cooper (33:48):
Yeah. I mean, there's, there's no doubt that it's easier to build relationships with high value clients when you get to sit down with them and shake their hand. Especially if you're, we talked about this a little bit, just the difference between a transactional maybe, you know, low investment sale versus something that's going to be, you know, six figures, million, $2 million. I mean, the transactional sale that that's something that's still going to be able to be cultivated because there's no that client isn't trusting you with 1,000,005. Yeah. But those more solution-focused sales where you might be, um, try. And if it's a new relationship, you're trying to establish with somebody that you can't meet and you eventually want to sell them on a $1.5 million system implementation over the course of 18 months. That's going to be, that's going to be a challenge. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Definitely. Well, Cooper,
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (34:40):
I appreciate you taking time out of your day. It's been an awesome conversation. Uh, so what is a tool that you use in your daily life? Either a professional personal, it could be a habit or just, uh, you know, something that you do every day that you feel contributes to your success that you just don't think you could do without.
Cooper (35:02):
I will give a two, I'll give two, if I, if I can. Okay. Um, so one is not related to technology. One is just something that I do, um, in the morning. Uh, so I've got, I've got this little notebook here and it's got, um, it's got my kind of core virtue of the core values, my purpose and my success. So kind of have that defined. So I like to review that. And then, um, I've got, you know, my monthly goals. So this is like December and they're broken down in terms of professional personal and okay. Um, so I like to look at that every day so that that's not some technology based, but I feel like it kinda just keeps me focused. Exactly. And then the one that's technology technology-based is a seamless.ai. Uh, it's a, it's an artificial artificial intelligence tool that can gather contact intelligence, like nothing I've ever seen.
Cooper (35:59):
So, and with a lot of accuracy. So, um, I mean, you can, you can get, you can find out the phone number, um, as creepy as it may sound the, the, the home, the work, the cell email, um, uh, that it'll give you all their social media pages. It'll give you the size of their company, uh, uh, Crunchbase news, New York stock exchange. I mean, it's just a full thing of contact intelligence and you get it in a matter of seconds. So it plugs into LinkedIn. Um, and so it would just add like, uh, next to each person's profile, it has a little plugin that says fine. You click on find, and it just scattered across the internet and gathers everything in can. And it's insane. I mean, it's, it, it saves me hours and hours and hours at a time. Yeah.
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (36:48):
I'll definitely check that one out. That sounds interesting. All right. So, uh, tell people, you know, who is your client? What can you do for them? And of course, how they could reach out and get ahold of you.
Cooper (37:01):
Yeah, thank you very much. I appreciate that. So our, our ideal client is a startup or a small business with around or less than a hundred employees that has, uh, in-house technical leadership. So a CTO or a leader of engineering. And that way they understand kind of how to lead developers, um, to, you know, through a complex developer on the project. So that that's really what we look for. And so are we really, what we do is we help those companies build development teams quickly and affordably. So as I mentioned, we've got 200 engineers. Each of them have at least five years of experience and they're permanent employees, the full-scale background check times to actually, um, they, they get salary, PTO benefits, insurance, all of that stuff. So they're not, w we're not waiting on clients and say, Hey, I need a developer. And then we can go try to find some people we don't know. We've got people on the bench all the time, uh, that we're, we're ready to go. And they, they just come with a flat monthly fee for, and it's a, full-time the full-time resource for a flat monthly fee. They sit in Subu city, Philippines. So there's significant cost savings. Uh, but there's not really a difference in the quality of development. If you look at that, you know, versus versus a developer in the U S so that's the, that's the rundown with FullScale.
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (38:19):
Okay. And how could they reach out and get ahold of you?
Cooper (38:24):
Uh, they can come to our website and there, you can book a call with me directly on our website, or you can reach out to me, uh, Cooper@fullscale.IO.
Roy - The Business of Business Podcast - Want To Take Your Sales To The Next Level? Listen To These Awesome Sales Techniques (38:32):
Okay. Awesome. Well, Cooper, thanks again. I appreciate it. And I appreciate everybody listening. This again, has been another episode of the business of business podcast. You can find us www.thebusinessofbusinesspodcast.com. Of course, we're on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, and also all the major, uh, um, podcast, plat forms, iTunes, Google play, Stitcher, Spotify. And if we're not on one that you use regularly, reach out, let me know, and I'll be glad to had for you until next time, take care of each other.
www.fullscale.io
www.thebusinessofbusinesspodcast.com