As business owners, we understand the importance of awards and recognition for our businesses. This type of recognition is an effective way to boost morale, attract new talent, create free publicity and help differentiate yourself from your competitors. But did you know that winning awards can actually result in a 63% increase in income and a 39% increase in sales? Find out more about awards, key decision maker referrals, and how to handle a salesperson in a slump in this episode.
Thanks for listening!
As business owners, we understand the importance of awards and recognition for our businesses. This type of recognition is an effective way to boost morale, attract new talent, create free publicity and help differentiate yourself from your competitors. But did you know that winning awards can actually result in a 63% increase in income and a 39% increase in sales? Find out more about awards, key decision maker referrals, and how to handle a salesperson in a slump in this episode.
Thanks for listening!
Welcome back to the growth show. couldn't be more excited about being with my partners in growth Eric Watkins and low winter. Welcome
Jeff Winters:back.
Scott Scully:Guys ready to bring the heat? Let's do it. Sir. You are listening to the number one resource on the planet. For growth tips, actionable advice, we're just trying to make it a little bit easier for you all out there in your journey to year over year growth. You know, what I love about the show is that we get to kick it off with the sheriff.
Eric Watkins:Oh, the Sheriff of LinkedIn.
Scott Scully:Mr. Winters is combing the pastures finding the goods and pointing out the shit.
Jeff Winters:combing the pastures I like. I'm never gonna, I'm unfamiliar with the pastures. But
Eric Watkins:I've ever been in a pasture and is like to choose
Unknown:your life better than pasture,
Jeff Winters:the segment sweeping the country. People want to be named. And we're gonna name Darren Alpert, for today's first truth. Today we're talking about ote, as the kids call it, we call it on target earnings. It's a fun phrase people use mostly in sales, to talk about how much you can get with your base plus your commission. And Darren says, quote, hard to turn down a roll with $150,000 base and 300k ote question mark? Not really, if no one is hitting quota and Product Market Fit isn't there, you have to do research. Otherwise, you're going to be looking, again for a job in six to nine months. I think this is a material truth. The on target earnings for a salesperson has a lot to do with the product and the company. I think people get suckered in jobs based on big on target earnings promises and end up leaving jobs where they're making a lot of money to make jobs to go to jobs where the promises a lot of money, you better know what you're doing for you take a big on target earnings job, do your research truth.
Scott Scully:I agree. I think that if you're out there looking for a job, and there is base and commission, a lot of times people are talking about the top one or two reps. That's how it's built. And some people fail in building a plan for the middle group of your sales department, which is where most people lie. So I would ask for what the middle third makes. And I'd even ask for some numbers. So you could talk to a couple of salespeople direct and get the facts.
Eric Watkins:Yeah, 150 basis a lot for a lot of people. So maybe not speaking particularly to that. But in just looking at the total income in general, if you're leaving a job to try to go make more money. I agree with Scott, I think I would ask for if a company really wants you They really want you, especially in sales, you have a lot more leverage than you probably think I would say, show me the last month's commission payouts you can block the names. I don't need to see who made what to show me all. Show me all the reps call them rep 1234. See what they're making? Get a feel for it.
Jeff Winters:Yeah, I think the number the base salary, obviously large, it's less about that I think and more about what the actual comp package looks like. And it's as much about probably the the bonus as it is about the ability to be successful. Sure. And stay there and not get put on a performance plan. Don't. I think people when they're in the interview process, they feel like they're almost beneath the interviewer such that they're not going to ask the hard questions that they need to ask like, feel free to ask really hard questions to get the answers you need. Like don't be so anxious to get a job that you're going to overlook. Asking the hard question.
Eric Watkins:Yep. It's good to be back.
Jeff Winters:Next truth, Ally merchant. And I think it's particularly important for for new managers managing sort of greener frontline employees. I made this mistake as a manager. I was careless. Here's what happened. I was using what he calls drive by language example. Can you look into it Nice job ASAP. Should have used deliberate language example. Can you review slide seven and eight? Thank you for adding the timeline. This helps the team can you please send the report by 10am CST today, if you want to get better ask yourself, Am I being specific? Where can I be more specific? How can I be more specific? I see this a lot with newer managers and newer leaders. It's you know, in your head what you want from someone. But when you ask them for it, they are confused and they don't ask you back like, exactly to clarify. So you're at the end of the conversation and it's end of a meeting. It's action items. Oh, can you give me this? And then a week goes by and you get it and it's not what you want it and that's on you. As a manager, you got to be really specific to make sure you're getting what you want and what's in your head isn't necessarily what's being communicated. So you got to be clear. I think this is a good tip for men. pitchers,
Scott Scully:I like it, put it in writing,
Jeff Winters:get a response even better.
Scott Scully:If you want something and you want to be specific, put it in writing and ask people to acknowledge that they received it and ask them for their understanding of your message if you really want to be sure.
Eric Watkins:This is great. This is great feedback for me. And transparently, I'm not very good at this. I've been working with my team directly for on average, about five years, I would say. So I'm lucky to have a team I've been used to for a while. And I think you just get worse and worse at this as you get more and more comfortable with people. But it's you can never be, you know, you can never give too much information about I think it's super important.
Jeff Winters:Good lesson for managers truth, truth, truth, lie. Lie for name and names on this lie. Oh, sometimes we name names of individuals, sometimes we name names of companies. This comes from a company called consensus, which is ironic because on this, they do not have consensus. They say, quote, selling is hard. But buying is harder. Selling is hard buying is harder, what? And then it goes into like a whole diatribe on how hard it is to buy shit these days that I'm the tales from sales guy, I'm not the tails from sales guy because I like tails. Alright, I've interviewed somebody about selling I've been selling since my entire career. People talk about sales as though it is not hard as though it is not difficult as though you are not failing 85% of the time. And that's success. You know, it's not as easy as it sounds. And it sure is shit is not easier than buying something that is within your unilateral control. And I don't care if you're being tongue in cheek or not. Anything that perpetuates the stereotype that selling is easy pisses me off. I think it's a lie. And it bothers me
Scott Scully:is this someone in charge of purchasing?
Jeff Winters:It's a it's a company called consensus.
Scott Scully:Okay, but the person penning this post is not know someone in charge of purchasing?
Eric Watkins:Look, they probably sell a purchasing software. That can
Scott Scully:be that can be a big job. But you're in charge. You're the one spending the money. So as long as you go through a process and you interview multiple companies and ask the right questions, I think you're going to get to the end and pick the right choice. There are so many factors in selling to lie. Sorry to say it's a lie.
Eric Watkins:It makes no sense to me. Just There's nothing. There's nothing more to say other than that. It's really easy to buy things. I'm pretty good at buying things
Jeff Winters:I bought, I buy 100% of the things I want. I sell 10% of the time I want to sell
Scott Scully:you do as a larger organization need to make sure that you buy in the right way. But it's easier to do that than sell the big deal. That's for sure.
Eric Watkins:It's definitely easier to make mistakes buying probably. But that's
Jeff Winters:I suppose it's a lie. Yeah, it's
Scott Scully:all right. Good stuff out on LinkedIn. Are we still build in LinkedIn most wanted list, Jeff. Oh, it's certainly work underway. Have we had anybody reaching out wanting to be one of the truths? Or are people putting themselves out
Jeff Winters:there? No one's lobbying though. I've had a thank you or two. Yeah, yeah. Good, good about that.
Scott Scully:It's just a matter of time. All right, we are to the 50 for 50. Again, today, I want to talk about winning awards. And some awards, you will win. Just by being great people will find you but most of them you have to actually go out go through a process, put a submission together. And this has been really, really big for us. Went out poked around a little bit, found a little organization called The Best Business Awards. And what they suggest is that small businesses that win awards can see as much as 63% increase in income and a 39% increase in sales. If someone that was not in the middle of this kind of process went out and read that they'd probably think oh my god, that's crazy. But this is a best practice for us. And it should be for you. You have employees that work for you that are doing really good work, they're creative, they've got you know, their heads down they're making it happen for you. There's nothing like getting recognized you know whether it's an individual award which we do that our man air, the Titan to my right here is he's a titan one of the top 100 business people in St. Louis, and it's so it's important to do on an individual basis, it's also important to do from a creative perspective. Our man, Neil over here, he's, he has, in his team have won several creative awards for video. You know, he would tell you that that's really important for those folks that put all those hours into putting that really good content together to be recognized as leaders in the in the industry. You know, Jeff, has, you know, he's won several business growth awards, but the man is, he was on the 40, under 40, locally here pointed out is one of the movers and shakers in St. Louis, it makes you feel good, but it makes your business better. You know, there's some significance in in making sure that you're building credibility, differentiating yourself from competitors, you know, boosting morale, you know, attracting new talent, it's free publicity. Look, if you want to get new clients, and keep them, and if you want to get new A players and keep them, you'll get yourself involved in this process, quickly. You know, clients do research before they make a decision. People want to go work at a best places to work. If you're already working somewhere, you want to feel good. And you want to know, you know, things are headed in the right direction. If your current client, you certainly want to know that who you're working with is still being innovative. So this matters more than you know, it's moved mountains for us. What do you guys think?
Eric Watkins:I would say, first off, just one point is that this doesn't happen. Unless you prioritize it as a business, this could very easily fall on the back burner. And I can't remember how many new hire classes I've sat in, and ask them how they ended up at abstract. And they said, Well, I got on Google. And I searched best places to work in St. Louis, or best marketing companies in St. Louis. And that's how I found you. And there's incredible people that have come here, just because of that, just because that award. Well, that award goes out, I think we just got an email the other day about it. And it's easy to have get caught up in the hustle and bustle of your business and not prioritize that. But that's the wrong thing to do. It has a huge, huge impact on our business and no award. Like you said, no publicity, and from an award standpoint is bad publicity. And I just think it continues to add credibility to your organization, something you should do.
Jeff Winters:I remember, when we were first getting started, there was three of us in an office and the Inc Magazine came out with the 5000 fastest growing companies in the country. And we had, you know,$13.50 in revenue and are looking at this list. Boy, you imagine if we could get on this list one day, wouldn't that be amazing. And I remember, we sat there, we looked at each other, we said we're gonna get on this list. We worked and years went by, and we got that magazine we weren't on, we're gonna get on this list, we're gonna get on this list. And then we did get on that list. And it was such a source of pride for everybody in that business. And myself included, and especially awards can have all sorts of positive impacts, get great people, keep people get clients keep clients, but it can be a source of rallying, too. And that's what that Ink Magazine Award was for us.
Scott Scully:You know, I didn't think about this prior to this episode. But you know, we just finished one on putting things in place to hold yourself accountable. This is another perfect way to do that. If if you're shooting to get on a fast growth list, you get on it one year, and then you're gone the next year. That's not so much fun, or if your best places to work one year, and you're not the next. So this is just another thing that you could do get involved in these, you know, regular submissions for some of these awards, where you're on a list, and then you know, the goal is to stay on that list. Another something to think about. Here's the work that I would suggest that you go through. It's super easy. Go Google Best Small Business Awards, Local Business Awards, you'll come you'll see resources, blogs, articles, put your list together, you know what matters. Do I want the Innovation Awards, the growth, the words, what are some of the individual contributor awards that that I can put on the list? Put them on a calendar because there are different parts of the year and try to make this happen every month. We've won over the course of our years, about 120 At this point, and it matters. It really does. Our people are more excited about recruiting going out and getting clients, this matters, make it happen, do that homework, and you'll just be that much closer to consistent growth.
Eric Watkins:One, one story I forgot on that is, in addition to all that, the people you meet, and you kind of know what businesses are doing what I remember, we were at an award ceremony and sapper was there. And we were like when we saw their growth, and it was like 1,000% growth or something crazy. We're like, damn, what's he got going on over there? It couldn't be one of the things that led to us, you know, maybe we would have acquired sapper. And either way, but
Jeff Winters:that was one I remember this. And like, it was one of those where you could buy a table. And we didn't have that much money. So we bought like two seats. And you guys had like four tables. But I don't know Keno is like, so I but when we got there, I was like, I was like, Hey, guys, how you doing? And so I was like talking to the people at the table trying to make you all think that that was my table that I had purchased. But literally, we just bought a seat. It was just me. And I was like, Hey, guys, when I when my name gets called, make sure you clap.
Eric Watkins:Always got to be bigger than your Hey, always, always thanking team perception
Scott Scully:is reality. I have been so excited about the things that you've been sharing in mind for growth goal. I just think today, as selling gets harder. People are kind of stuck. And they're just thinking, some people are just throwing their their arms up and said it's just, it's just too hard, layoffs are happening, the economy's down, my sales are just gonna suck. But guess what we're setting records here in this climate, doing some of these exact things that you're talking about. So what do you have to share today? In mining for growth? Gold?
Eric Watkins:Yeah, I have. So we're, we're looking at email for this one. And this is a quick one, but super, super important. So if you're doing outbound emailing right now, at scale, what you're going to get is a lot of no matter how good your targeting is, you're going to get a lot of, well, you actually need to talk to so and so. Are so and so handles this. And what, what mistake a lot of people make, as soon as they're referred to that other party, is they'll reach out and say, Hey, I was directed your way. I was told so and so and so told me that you make the decisions for that, is that correct? And they'll get into this, like big, long conversation, just close the appointment and use the person that that sent you over to them. Hey, Jeff, I actually reached out to Scott and he told me that you were in charge of the sales over there. And that he thought it would make sense for us to meet and talk about our solutions, just assumptive really close the appointment with the referral. And you'll get way we get a ton of meetings, what we call referral meetings, from this just by assumptive ly closing and going into it. And then as always, with any email, have your templates. So you can send it as quick as possible, add your flavor and, and call them and hit him from both ways. I'm going to email the referral and I'm going to call them right away. But just a simple thing, you can do anybody instead of looking at that as like, oh, we just landed on the wrong person. Use it as a way to close another opportunity.
Jeff Winters:And when you set it at the end, you snuck it in. I want to I want to bring it to the top because it's so important email and call. Yep, email and call. Every everything today isn't about how great can email or how great can you call? Or how great can you social, it's about which channel works for which people and it's going to be different based on the person just because Person A responded to an email. Maybe Person B never checks their email, so you know what, email, and then call and then call and then call just to make sure you're having a multi channel experience for as many prospects as you can because we were just telling a story before the show. We were talking about a super successful CEO hasn't checked his email since 2009. Fine, we'll get you on social we'll we'll connect with you via the phone. But but don't assume that people are going to read or open your email just because somebody else that that company did. Make sure it's a multi channel experience. Make sure you're communicating with people in the channel that they're most receptive to. It's why we
Scott Scully:came together, right? Yeah, we were good at calls and you were good at email. And now together, both solutions we put into the marketplace serve better offerings for our customers. Awesome. More gold, Eric,
Eric Watkins:thank you. Pretty simple, but very effective.
Scott Scully:Now our our Grow nation is sitting on a pile of leads. Jeff, how do we close sales from sales,
Jeff Winters:sales from sales. My tale today is about mindset. And never perhaps in the history of most sellers of this generation that forever but if this generation has mindset been so important, be Because what I'm hearing is that in certain industries, sales cycles are taken longer. What I'm hearing is more decision makers. What I'm hearing is deadlines missed what I'm hearing is commitments broken. And that takes a toll on the salesperson in sales. It's interesting, if you're only losing 75% of the time, you're an amazing seller. If you're close to 25% of the deals, you pitch your hall of fame. And so that's a that's a lot of opportunities that you're not winning. And in tougher economic climates, in certain cases, though, that your loss rate could go up. And what I want to focus on today is a like continuing to have the mental perseverance to push through rejection. But more than that, to have the knowledge that you're not competing against a number, you are competing against a perfect sales call. And the perfect sales call that you had two months ago, is probably not different than the perfect sales call you can make today. But what I see is salespeople who have a month of a slump, or 90 days of a slump and they want to change everything about their approach. Don't do it. Your mindset has to be let me go back. Listen to the sales calls I was having when I was uber successful, which by the way is 1215 18%. And let me make sure I'm doing that exact same thing. Because I know if I produce a great sales call as my leading indicator, the deals will follow. Don't go change and stuff up. Greatness before is in all likelihood greatness now, you didn't change in 45 days. be resilient.
Scott Scully:Another great tale from sale. It's been incredible episode. More growth goodies. Growth nuggets for the grown nation. Any parting thoughts? Advice?
Jeff Winters:Yeah, what parting thoughts or advice might you have?
Eric Watkins:Well, first, we have an important section to do before we wrap this thing up to do did I try to skip over to try to skip over it? Yeah, come on this but they listen for this what the people want. We gotta give them what they want. Okay, today. This is controversial. Okay, this is I don't want you all, you know, fighting, etc. Today, I'm gonna give you a situation. And you're gonna tell me if you would rather have a hot dog or a hamburger? That's what we're going to do. That's what we're gonna to do or not to do. We're gonna to do a hot dog or hamburger. First up. Baseball game. Jeff,
Jeff Winters:that's easy. It's a hot dog. All day, Scott.
Scott Scully:What stadium?
Eric Watkins:Busch Stadium? Just kidding. Hot dog. Okay, okay, we're on the same page. All right, next. Wedding wedding. You're at your wedding. Yeah, and you're at an I O wedding.
Jeff Winters:Eric's gonna get married.
Eric Watkins:I know you're you're at a what? You're at what you're at a high wedding and there's only someone to grill and it's hot dog or hamburger What are you doing?
Jeff Winters:I'm hot dog for the to ensure that my my clothes although at this particular wedding, I don't know what the the attire is. But I don't want my clothes to get messed up. So I'm happy
Eric Watkins:to Okay, hamburger, Lou. All right. If you're grilling What do you eat? You eaten hot dogs or hamburgers?
Jeff Winters:I don't want to say I don't I hate to do this. I'm having another hot dog. You can't screw up grill and a hot dog I screw up grill and everything else I'm grilling a hot dog but you know maybe.
Scott Scully:Did you just admit that you screw up on
Jeff Winters:the grill? Oh, constant. Come on. No. Hamburger
Eric Watkins:hamburger. I think every situation where I trust who's cooking I'm going hamburger every other situation. I'm going hot dog. I think that's what it is for me. So Jeff had probably your hot dog too.
Jeff Winters:Thank you. Yeah.
Scott Scully:Do you like brats? I hot dog or brats? Hot dog. 100% of the time?
Jeff Winters:Yeah, probably.
Eric Watkins:Yeah, sometime. Yeah, I think broths though. I think Brad's sometimes broads tastes weird though. There's something about him. They're like the texture. They're too chewy. Yeah,
Scott Scully:riveting content about hamburgers and hot dogs. I think we would like to hear though. Hot dogs or hamburgers? Are you going to tell him where give them an event? Okay, gotta tell us how Fourth of
Eric Watkins:July 4 of July you could get both. I mean I've had both you know and but you gotta pick one quintessential barbecue holiday whoever is grilling has got the mid calf socks on they got the dad shoes and they got an apron on so that's that's all the facts I'm giving you as are all the facts dad shoes and an apron choosing an apron and the high socks multiple you know device you know that? Yeah, you know they mean business. Oh, All right, grow nation.
Scott Scully:We want to hear from you. Hot dogs or hamburgers. And then tell us which one of these tips you're going to put into play this month. We'd love to hear that and hear how it's gone. As always, let's grow. Let's grow.
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