A positive company culture is the key to long-term sustained success. It helps teams feel valued and motivated, which in turn leads to greater engagement and productivity. Learn how we've built an award-winning culture that helps attract and retain team members.
Thanks for listening!
A positive company culture is the key to long-term sustained success. It helps teams feel valued and motivated, which in turn leads to greater engagement and productivity. Learn how we've built an award-winning culture that helps attract and retain team members.
Thanks for listening!
Hey, what's up, grow nation. Welcome back to the growth show. My name is Scott Scully. I'm here with Jeff winters and Eric Watkins. Welcome, gentlemen.
Jeff Winters:Welcome back, Eric.
Eric Watkins:Welcome back, Jeffrey, and welcome back. Scott, welcome
Scott Scully:back. Thank you. Thank you. We have some good stuff to go over today. And this show is all about making it just a little bit easier for you to grow, grow, show stories from the front lines, no textbook, no theory, actual things we've put into action that are helping us grow. And we just want to make a little easier on you in your path. So we love to start with a little section that Jeff calls two truths and a lie. Let's get into it,
Jeff Winters:getting the positive feedback on this. As people keep liking the two truths and a lie from LinkedIn. I'm gratified by it. But it's a lot of pressure. I gotta find this stuff. We got to talk about this stuff. I gotta go first. It's not easy. All right.
Eric Watkins:How about all of your troops not being tourists the past couple of weeks? I think that's good. I think that's good. Yeah. Okay.
Scott Scully:Part of them. Part of them.
Eric Watkins:You're arresting the wrong people. I guess that's what I'm saying.
Jeff Winters:According to you, man. Oh, that's good. I'm never gonna falsely accused falsely
Eric Watkins:accused on LinkedIn. falsework. Yeah, just you're better, you're safer just to not post on LinkedIn. If Jeff's gonna be the sheriff.
Jeff Winters:Johnny, it's a player led team will always be more successful than a coach led team. Once team members take maximum ownership over their own leadership, you have the making of a powerful team that will preserve, I find this to be a universal truth. This is on LinkedIn, I'm going to relate it very specifically to something that we promote here. And I think it's made a huge difference. It's the role of the team captain, I boil this into the role of the team captain. It's one thing when you have a group of people that want to win for their paycheck, or they want to win for their leader, those are good. But when you have a team that wants to win for each other, when you want to win for each other, and things are going bad, and the people on the team, not the leaders, but the people on the team are holding each other accountable, keeping each other positive. Those are the best teams, the player led teams are the best teams truth for me.
Eric Watkins:I think it's the truth as well. I think if you go look back, if you just take like sports, and you go look back at the great teams, you see a lot of coaches that will talk about how so and so star player was the leaders, they lead the team, Michael Jordan ran the team, right. Phil Jackson just made sure all the parts were moving. I think it's a big deal. I think it creates buy in and you get more out of your team when they feel empowered to do that. Truth.
Scott Scully:Thank you for finding it. Yeah, thank
Eric Watkins:you for finding your truth. I know it's tough.
Jeff Winters:Justin Clifford. Right. It's going downhill quote. And I think he's quoting somebody else but don't matter. 99% of unhappy teammates slash workers could be made happy in their exact role if their manager had regular training and coaching 99% of unhappy teammates and workers can be made happy in their exact role if their manager had regular training and coaching. I think maybe not as universal but in my opinion, important and true. Because I think it's very easier for managers to go not a right fit for the role. blame everything up not a right fit for the role bad hire HR didn't find dude, Ba ba ba ba this and that, you know what do this pour into that person, poor in training, poor in coaching poor in growth and vision and where they're going to be poor and given a shit, I bet it's a whole lot more on you, as a manager, why that person's unhappy than it is on them or HR. Don't look at some other direction and point fingers outward. As a leader, you don't it's in your control, coach, pour into people care about them, train them, give them vision for the future, you'll have a way happier team. And you'll be able to turn unhappy team members who you think are not a good fit for the quote, role into top performers.
Eric Watkins:Someone could have done it. Someone could have done, some leader in the building outside of the building in the country in the world would have been on that team and got that person fired up to do the role.
Scott Scully:Always be growing. People want to be a part of something where they feel appreciated, acknowledged, know that they're doing good work, and probably the most important thing that they're always growing. They're developing. They're getting better, getting smarter. It's a truth,
Jeff Winters:truth truths. And now I have a lie. I think it's I think it's spicy. Oh, yeah, spicy lie. And I think there's going to be a lot of people on both sides of this. So you all should feel free. Sahil, who's a frequent poster and a gets a lot of interaction and comments on LinkedIn. This particular guy says this influencer if you An influencer, if you are unable to get on the phone to close a customer or prevent one from turning, you shouldn't be a CEO, I think is the line. And I'm gonna tell you why. And I'll tell you where, where I would differ. You shouldn't be a CEO, if you don't have people on your team who are leaders who are capable of jumping on that call. But let me tell you some, there's plenty of people who founded companies based based on their technical expertise, they are brilliant in some area, whether it be software, whether it be roof design, whether it be cars, whatever it is, like they are in the technical weeds. That is where their sphere of genius is. They don't those people don't need to be expected to get on a call and sell a customer or save a customer. Should they have the best people to fill in the gaps and their weaknesses on their team? Yes. But every CEO don't need to be the same. There's plenty of technical CEOs out there, I think this is a lie.
Scott Scully:During the season. Can Eric and I have one? Get Out of Jail Free card for somebody
Jeff Winters:you think every CEO should be able to close or save a customer?
Scott Scully:Well, so you know, you had just mentioned that there are plenty of people that may start an organization maybe based on technical ability, and they should have somebody else. And I agree, I just feel like that's that entrepreneur at a certain level that gets booted and Mrs. or Mr. CEO comes in to take over. And if you were to look at most of the top successful CEOs, they actually came from sales. And if you don't understand the mind of a customer, I don't think that you can lead a year over year growth successful organization. So if I did have a get out of free card came out, like I'd say
Eric Watkins:he'll I run free. Get him rotten free.
Jeff Winters:says you shouldn't I mean, look this My point isn't that like most can't or shouldn't? My point is like, every single CEO should not be fired. If they're incapable of this. I don't think so. But you do disagree that culture was spicy to get on with the customer and save them or sell them. You don't think they should be able to do that? I think there are some CEOs that should not be fired that cannot save or sell a customer. I personally think okay,
Eric Watkins:naman, get out of here. Great Lie. That's actually the truth. I think
Scott Scully:that you as the sheriff need just a deputy, you think you're clearly now in need of a deputy, Eric,
Jeff Winters:go ahead. You think every CEO should be able to either sell or save a customer?
Eric Watkins:I think we're overcomplicating selling or saving a customer. Just being the CEO and being able to get on a call and talk to a prospect and using your title. You'll close deals. If they can't get on the phone and communicate with somebody. Yeah, I'm a little worried about that. Not communicate you guys. Do they have to be the best sales rep in the building? No. Is that what he's saying?
Jeff Winters:I don't know. I'm gonna ask him. Okay, now that you guys are fanboying him?
Eric Watkins:I think he's, he's out of jail. And he's got one more Get Out of Jail Free card if he ever comes back again. Oh, not a
Jeff Winters:lie. That's an egregious lie. And I apologize on behalf of all the CEOs out there who are being resolute
Scott Scully:there. If there actually is one CEO out there that hasn't talked to our customer. Can you please call Jeff? Tony's one example. He needs one.
Jeff Winters:I think they're I think they're sabotaging me listeners. Don't let him do a drop in the comments.
Scott Scully:I don't think there's gonna be one, we're gonna move on. But if Jeff had actual handcuffs, he'd be in his own handcuffs. So we are in the 50 to 50. And each one of these things just brings back so many memories of when we implemented, why we implement it, and what kind of impact that it had. And this is another big nugget that I recommend you you get involved in. But first I'll go into a little study I found there was research done on 1000 organizations around the country, those 1000 companies that they surveyed, actually, it was made up of 3 million employees. And the companies that were in the top quartile from a company culture perspective, returned 60%, more to shareholders than the middle ground companies, and 200% more than the lower quartile companies, company, culture matters. Everybody talks about growing, but not enough people talk about the culture that is needed to be able to manage that growth. You're gonna have people that are doing maybe more than they were asked to do when they first started in your organization. People are going to be burning the candle at both ends, taking on different roles, helping you with that growth. And if somebody's feeling good, and they're motivated in your company cultures Strong, then you can manage that growth and push forward. If your company culture is not strong, isn't going to happen, I'm sorry. You might do it one year, you're not doing it the next year. So this 5450 is about what we call culture roles. It's literally the pillars of our culture. And these roles are individual contributors that are on teams within our organization. That were the captain had a few well, you know, there's probably a lot of you have probably been in sports, and I'll use my daughter as an example, she was on the high school track team. And she was one of the captains and those captains are people that have been on varsity for three or four years, they understand the practices, they know the meats, they know the workouts, they've been there, they've done that they have good attitudes, and they they help the coaches, pull the team together, unify them, and perform at a higher level, they're helping with development, mindset, all of those things. In our organization, depending on the size of the team, we have a captain for sure, every team has a captain. It's one of the individual contributors that reports to a manager. And then if the team's larger, we've developed other culture roles, like a chief branding officer, or a chief unity officer, or motivational or celebration officer. So all of those things that a manager should be doing on a daily basis, like tracking the most important metrics, firing people up unifying people, we are getting help from individual contributors, we're letting them wear that hat and assist the manager in there, and people enjoy doing something outside of just their daily activities. And this is where we put our strongest people that are good in these areas, to fire up the culture, to assist the manager. And to have a higher level of performance. You know, this is one of those things where you got to be careful, because you have to have the right people in these these Captain roles. But if you do, this is your next layer of folks that are on their way up, or they're your tenured people that are lifetime employees. And they will change your organization. Even the smallest of companies should start doing this. Because then it's a different set of people other than ownership or management, that is thinking about the culture of your organization and dragging you forward. What do you guys think here,
Eric Watkins:I think this is super important for a lot of reasons. One, immediately when you implement this, and you do it, right, employee engagement goes up, almost through the roof, because they feel more empowered. They feel like their job is bigger, and has a bigger impact than just the the daily work that they're doing, because they're a part of a team and a part of that culture. Second thing, I think this is what new managers struggle with most. They struggle with delegation and empowerment to their team. So having a system built in to your culture, teaching them how to do that is a great way for them to learn that skill set as they continue to advance. I think it's a must culture is
Jeff Winters:always a little hard for me, because it's so squishy. And there's probably a lot of people out there like me, who Scott, I know, you mentioned sports. I didn't play any sports. So I was on the newspaper, which is also cool. Shout out to all my newspaper that is, yeah, it's really grown about the people playing sports. I think it's important for people who are super tactical and want like action items like how are you going to contribute to the call, we want all the people to contribute the culture, how this gives you a way to have everyone contribute to the culture that is measurable, that is impactful that you can watch and track over time. That to me is so helpful, because culture can be squishy. And for some people squishy is good, but for for folks like me, and I'm sure a lot of others, I need to see something. And this is one way to do it. It's cool. I'd never been exposed to it before this company. And it's, it's something I do over and over and over again.
Scott Scully:So just keep this in mind. We're this particular individuals helping you celebrate individuals and the success of the organization and clients. They're, they're just helping you spread the vision. unify people on that team, you know, make sure that we're focused on the most important metrics. So, you know, my goal for you would be, you probably start with the captains just kind of depending on the size of your organization, if you're super small, and you're five or six people pick that next person, that's the captain that when you're gone, they're helping plug into these areas. If you're a little bit larger, make sure there's a captain per team. And, you know, most people, like we call that culture roles and some of those roles that I went through, it was hard for people to understand when we, when we all of a sudden said, Captain, we want a captain on each team, pretty much everybody understood that. Okay, I've just got to assist in, you know where the manager needs help in pushing this organization forward. So I'd go out, I assess your organization and look at that layer of people that would appreciate something a little extra that you know, would help you spread your message. And I'd put it into action as fast as you can. And as always, once you do that, let us know how it goes. Don't give up on it, though, because this took two three years to really sink in. Alright. With that said, we're going to get into a little mining growth, coal
Eric Watkins:mining for growth gold. So reminder on this section, what I'm doing is I'm going into our business, who's going to set 100,000 sales appointments this year, through all of our entities, and I'm trying to find the things the biggest mistakes we made along the way, and what we learned from them and what we've put in place. And the biggest tips and tricks that you can use to go get you more leads to get those into your sales process. So for today, this one's very simple, and I couldn't be more passionate about it, stop researching for minutes, and hours and hours, and pick up the phone and call, I'll give you an example. We have two reps. One rep researches every record for 10 minutes, because they want to make that perfect call. And they want all the information about the company before they do it. So they pull up the website before every call, they research for 10 minutes, they find the awards, they've won, etc, etc. The other rep just calls in a day, that rep that just calls is gonna make about four times the amount of dials that the person that researches for 10 minutes. And at the end of that, that means they're gonna get, you know, based on our numbers, typically in a day, they're gonna get the rep that makes the dials without doing the research, it's gonna get about eight people into a conversation, and the person that is doing the research is going to get about two people into a conversation. I don't care what kind of research you're doing, you're not gonna be four times better with these people on the phone, because of it. It's just strictly a numbers game. And the other thing is, there's faster ways to get to the information, use the gatekeeper 95% of the time, you're not going to set an appointment. So use the key decision maker, collect data, but stop research and just pick up the phone, people sit there and want to make this perfect call. It's not going to be perfect, it will be a little bit choppy. But no the problem you solve, know the personas that you're calling and just pick up the phone and make the call.
Scott Scully:You know, the funny thing is, well, it's not funny, but the human brain skews negative. That's why there's so much damn content about mindset and controlling your destiny, you go out and do research, you're really only stacking the deck of all the reasons why you shouldn't call them. Some research may knock them off your list, but you're gonna find that quickly when you call. But for the most part, your research is going to build a story in your mind of why you shouldn't call and I would avoid it, make the calls make that the research, make 135 of them a day 17 an hour. Instead of shitload of appointments.
Jeff Winters:You guys are the experts here on this 100,000 cold call meetings. Correct that per year. That's a insane number. People should be not walking but running to tell their teams. This advice and all the other advice you all give on this subject. You said it to me a million times it's its volume, its tone and its mindset. And none of those things are prep. So
Scott Scully:and by the way, you know when this can't happen if they're not prior episode, run on a playbook and putting things in time buckets. If they're not working their day and time buckets, then they can't be this productive to make that amount of dials. Let's
Jeff Winters:don't you think like prep is a is a fun activity for the cold caller Yeah, go what are you doing? Oh, I'm not. I'm going to make dial in a second but I gotta get through this company's public.
Eric Watkins:Yeah, yeah. Not here's gonna get attacked. I don't want to Yeah, I'm sure people will. But in let me clarify while while the phone is ringing, pull up the website, go to the Services section, get an idea of what they're doing, by all means. But you're just my point is you get so few people on the phone anyway. And from there even fewer into a conversation. You are wasting time researching every company, when you could call talk to the receptionist and say, hey, you know, I reached out I was looking for Jeff because I know that Jeff runs it over there. But you have a company that you're working with right now currently. Yeah. How long have you been working with him? Oh, we've been with him for five years. Okay, and how many About how many people do you have there? Oh, we have about 50 users. Okay, great that that information isn't on their website. Now, when I go call Jeff the next day, I know that they have a company I know who they're working with. And I know how many users are in their environment. You know, that's just like an example of, don't mess around with like, just call them, you'll get better information.
Jeff Winters:100,000 cold call meetings doesn't lie.
Eric Watkins:100k
Scott Scully:Yeah, so there are some of these little nuggets that you are, maybe you're writing them down and putting them into play. This is the one where I'd say, I don't care what you say, you don't set as many meetings as us. We've done it for years and years and years, and we've tried just about everything to land on formulas, and exactly what we need to do to attack the phone. And you need to stop researching, and another three pieces of software aren't going to make you more productive. Sorry, they're not with that, you know, what are we going to do are sitting on 100,000 appointments, how we're going to turn those into sales. Jeffrey,
Jeff Winters:one thing, you know, one thing we're gonna do, Scott, and Eric, on our sales calls, is we're going to stop waiting to talk as a sales rep. And we're going to start listening for the express purpose of being able to dig into areas that are going to be really important for the potential future that sale. Here's what I hear on lots of sales calls, it's prescribed, you know, the salesperson is so ready to talk, in the beginning of the call, they ask a few questions, just to get information, not a dialogue, just give me the information I need. Great, now I'm going to tell you all about our stuff. And then we're going to have a little q&a and pricing. And along the way, there's little, there's little clues, there's little little tracks that you need to follow, or that you could follow to make closing a deal more likely. For instance, I was listening to a great call the other day. And, you know, the prospect was talking to the prospect said, Yeah, you know, we used to work with another company in your, in your industry, we don't anymore, and now we're moving on. And the sales rep had the good sense to go with Oh, interesting, tell me how'd that go? Oh, it didn't go well at all. And that sparked the whole conversation. And and had that that question not been asked had that sales rep not been listening and dug deep? What would have happened was, that would have been a very pleasant call, it would have gone nicely, and that person would have gotten off, and they would have had to have their own internal dialogue and discussion about is this company us different from the other experience that I had? And if so why? And if not, why not. And that had never been addressed on that call. And it was only addressed. Because that sales rep had the good sense to listen to dig in, don't miss your opportunity to dig in to important topics that will have an outsized effect on whether or not a deal closes, know where they are, train on them. Listen for these areas with your team. And as a sales rep. Don't wait to talk. Listen, listen, listen,
Eric Watkins:I think that's great. Scott, you've always trained me on this in the these sales calls should not be this smooth presentation. These should be choppy. And part of what makes them choppy is you actually listening to what the prospects saying? And asking questions and bringing those objections out. Within the call, easiest way to do this, in my opinion. Repeat the last couple words that they just said and ask them in a question. You use another company before. I mean, it's just the the easiest way to do it. And that's an easy way to train reps who struggle with active listening. Obviously, at the sales level, you should be a little bit more advanced, but definitely something in prospecting.
Scott Scully:I believe in this. And that's why when we design our decks, I like coming up with, you know, a thought provoking question or two per slide, you know, asking those questions and then getting the prospect talking. And then so by the end, the clothes should be that much easier, because you should have exactly what you need. We're not saying a new thing, but I don't think it's practiced enough. Like, talk less, listen more, and they'll give you exactly what you need to close.
Jeff Winters:Yeah. And like they're giving you prospects are giving you bullshit surface level answers. And by the way, account managers to like this is fair for you to know, like you're getting surface level bullshit answers, and all you got to do is figure out the right time to ask the right question. Yeah, no, I love your services. It's awesome. You know, I'm having the best time. Oh, that's interesting, because I'm hearing a little tinge in your voice or maybe, I don't know, maybe I'm misreading, but are you saying like, you'd be a customer like, forever? Like 100% Sign up for a lifetime deal? Well, no. Okay. Well, what's the difference between that situation and the situation right now? It's like, you gotta you gotta have that that sixth sense to dig and the best sales reps always do
Scott Scully:I agree more gold, Jeff. Thanks,
Jeff Winters:Eric. Ready? Is it? Anything Scott and I have said this entire episode. No, it's been great.
Scott Scully:He literally is just the whole time doing exactly what you're saying. He's
Eric Watkins:just thinking about don't act like this isn't your favorite part of the he's thinking
Scott Scully:about talking about to do or not?
Eric Watkins:To do or not to do? This is more of a question. What is the acceptable number of days that you can wear? Jeans and or pants, Jeff, because I know you don't ever wear jeans. Without Washington. What is the acceptable number of days?
Scott Scully:So are you wearing them day after day? Or are you saying
Eric Watkins:no, no, no, but no back to backs? Like no, you shouldn't be doing back to backs, but you wear them? hang them up?
Scott Scully:I've got two answers. Let's hear one I'm going to poke fun at myself and expose that on Tuesdays someone does do my laundry. But if they didn't, I don't know three or four, three or four times five times kind of depends too on what where you went? Yeah, what you're doing smoky bar. You know what what happened? But you shouldn't wear him once and wash him smoky. Actually not good
Jeff Winters:at night. Or no fucking smoky bars. Smoky bars are gone. Scott, are you been? Get out.
Scott Scully:I have comments. Smoky bar you don't even remember a smoky bar.
Jeff Winters:It's like federally illegal Yeah. Scott's like, you know, it was a great basketball player now Scottie Pippen guys amazing.
Scott Scully:Including vapes.
Eric Watkins:faves is well
Jeff Winters:All right, first of all, I find jeans reprehensible I think they're disgusting. Despicable. I will wear em I hate why it's terrible. Get to the root of it. Why awful? It never fits the exam. You'd go try them on a store they go they go these fit incredible I get home they're four sizes too big. What is going on? And don't go well you don't have the right denim bullshit. I've tried it with every piece of debt I'm gonna buy you a pair of jeans I gotta go tear plastic they do not fit me I don't have a jeans body that's just who I am doesn't work I don't think I've ever heard that didn't work for me the jeans industry left me behind and you know what there's plenty of my fans in my particular for my fans but too big. No eyes. It's just a different shape. That's number one. Number two is this thing I've ever heard I'm on a back to back with these pants. I don't think if you get dirty I'll go months months without washing pants why there's no that is a lie. I swear to god it's I want to back to back when I wear the same pair of pants back to back days every week at least once without washing. Does that race is
Eric Watkins:what I was what I was worried about no that's why we got to we got to talk about the important topics for listeners because they need to know you don't wear pants
Jeff Winters:back to back
Scott Scully:you I could wear jeans a couple of days in a row
Eric Watkins:I might actually never wear the top yeah
Jeff Winters:I'm on a back to back right now to the same back the same top is a whole different Yeah,
Eric Watkins:no no, no top no same top. Back to backs are fun. But back to back to back. Three days is a little heavy. That's a little heavier in a month. That's too much. Don't think so a month to get 30 Something has happened in that month. You got a little dirty. You should have washed him at one point in a month.
Jeff Winters:Not running through the mud. Not going to smoky bars.
Scott Scully:We hope that you got something out of the episode. We apologize as always for you know, our last section. We are really enjoying the process of reviewing some of these things that have worked for us. We hope you're feeling the same way. If you have any feedback. Is there anything that you want us to dig into a little deeper please let us know. We hope you are out there grinding growing. As always let's grow
Eric Watkins:let's grow let's grow.
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