Latest / What is Business Development? / Episode 69: BD Book...Top 3 tactics from Aaron Norris' new book "Sales Life"

Transcript

Episode 69: BD Book...Top 3 tactics from Aaron Norris' new book "Sales Life" · What is Business Development?

0:03
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Business Development podcast brought to you by
0:06
Speaker 1: the Global Business Development Association, delivering the strategies and tactics
0:11
Speaker 1: to boost your career and corporate growth.
0:20
Speaker 2: Hello BD Pros, and welcome to the Global Business Development
0:25
Speaker 2: Associations podcast called What is Business Development? So let me
0:31
Speaker 2: ask you. You know, crushing your numbers shouldn't mean crushing
0:36
Speaker 2: your life. Right. You're smart, driven, hungry for more, but
0:41
Speaker 2: stuck in a system that rewards burnout not brilliance. You're
0:45
Speaker 2: hitting quota, yet the promotions don't come, the stress never stops,
0:50
Speaker 2: and every win feels like it costs way too much.
0:55
Speaker 2: What if you could scale your sales and build that
0:59
Speaker 2: career without trading your time, health, and most importantly, your
1:04
Speaker 2: family to accomplish that, wouldn't it be great?
1:07
Speaker 3: Yeah?
1:08
Speaker 2: I bet you're thinking what I'm thinking. That would be great?
1:11
Speaker 2: And hey, before we jump into how to really solve that,
1:16
Speaker 2: why don't you take a chance to boost your career
1:20
Speaker 2: with the Business Development Professional Certification. Get your copy of
1:25
Speaker 2: the Business Development Body of Knowledge on Amazon. That is
1:29
Speaker 2: the core document about everything business development and the things
1:33
Speaker 2: you need to know in order to get your Business
1:35
Speaker 2: Development Professional certification and launch your career and take it
1:38
Speaker 2: to the next level within the business development profession. All right,
1:43
Speaker 2: let's welcome to the show. The author of the book
1:47
Speaker 2: Sales Life, How to Accelerate your sales career without sacrificing
1:53
Speaker 2: your personal life. The author is Aaron Norris, and Aaron
1:59
Speaker 2: has fifteen plus years in the B to B tech industry,
2:03
Speaker 2: leading six seven and even eight figure wins, including work
2:08
Speaker 2: at Amazon. You probably heard of that company, yeah, because
2:11
Speaker 2: I just mentioned it's where to get your fantastic books
2:14
Speaker 2: of the business development Body of Knowledge and Aaron's new
2:17
Speaker 2: book Sales Life. And look, let's face it, complex sales,
2:23
Speaker 2: the difference makers. It's always about product and process. But
2:28
Speaker 2: the shift from selling to thinking like a founder and
2:32
Speaker 2: advising like a partner and leading like a CEO. That's
2:37
Speaker 2: what Aaron Norris teaches his members and that's what brings
2:44
Speaker 2: those top sellers, leaders and founders across the UK, the US,
2:49
Speaker 2: Middle East and APAC to Aaron to really accomplish the
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Speaker 2: success that they seek and land those seven figure, low
3:00
Speaker 2: secure dream rules and build teams that win. Aaron Norris,
3:06
Speaker 2: welcome to the show.
3:08
Speaker 3: Good evening. I think I need to hire you to
3:11
Speaker 3: just do that. Intro for me every single time I
3:14
Speaker 3: meant prospect, every single time that I'm in a coaching call,
3:18
Speaker 3: I was just perfectly delivered.
3:21
Speaker 2: Thank you well, thank you, Erin. I'll give you a
3:24
Speaker 2: video clip of that intro, and then you can just
3:27
Speaker 2: play that as b roll every time you talk to somebody.
3:29
Speaker 2: You can put it on your voicemail too.
3:32
Speaker 3: Every day I wake up in the morning, I'll play
3:34
Speaker 3: it with the kids.
3:39
Speaker 2: There we go. That might be a new business line
3:42
Speaker 2: for me. I can just record intros for people. They're daily,
3:45
Speaker 2: they're daily motivational. All right, well, let's get everybody motivated here, Erin,
3:50
Speaker 2: because I really like your book, and you know, it's
3:55
Speaker 2: the first author I brought to the show that talks
3:58
Speaker 2: about the holistic perspective of being great in sales and
4:02
Speaker 2: business development writ large because you kind of cover not
4:07
Speaker 2: just the fundamentals of being great in the business development
4:11
Speaker 2: from you know, profession and we know about those things.
4:14
Speaker 2: You know, it's the cold calls, it's the engagements, it's
4:17
Speaker 2: the networking, it's all those things we know about, you know,
4:20
Speaker 2: read them out of the business development body of knowledge.
4:24
Speaker 2: But it's also the holistic part. And I often tell
4:27
Speaker 2: people business development is a brain and a body game,
4:32
Speaker 2: and you go into the fitness, and not just the
4:37
Speaker 2: physical fitness, but also the mental fitness of family and
4:43
Speaker 2: that entire support network that you need, that domestic sales team,
4:48
Speaker 2: if you will, that domestic business development team that will
4:51
Speaker 2: carry you through and boost you over the finish line.
4:54
Speaker 2: And that's why I really like this book. Folks, grab
4:57
Speaker 2: your copy of it on Amazon. It's five star rays.
5:00
Speaker 2: And Aaron, I'm so eager to hear how did you
5:04
Speaker 2: get into the profession because so many people enter this
5:08
Speaker 2: profession from different directions. And of course you know the
5:11
Speaker 2: fact that you worked at Amazon. Everybody knows that company.
5:14
Speaker 2: That's pretty impressive. So and you have an impressive lineup
5:18
Speaker 2: of other big logos that you worked out. How did
5:21
Speaker 2: it all start for you?
5:24
Speaker 3: I wasn't actually meant to work in sales. If you'd
5:28
Speaker 3: have asked my parents, what will Aaron do? I think
5:31
Speaker 3: that would be so far down on the list. I
5:35
Speaker 3: was the kid at school. If I knew the answer,
5:39
Speaker 3: I didn't want to put my hand up. I would
5:41
Speaker 3: just even if I knew it was right, I'd go
5:44
Speaker 3: Crimson Red. And you know, through university. Growing up, I
5:49
Speaker 3: always associated sales with you have to be that super
5:54
Speaker 3: extroverted guy or girl. You have to be able to
5:58
Speaker 3: speak to anyone. I have to be able to you know,
6:01
Speaker 3: Jordan Belfort, just sell that pen. I actually have an
6:05
Speaker 3: incredible story of when I was finishing university and going
6:10
Speaker 3: through the process of trying to figure out where do
6:13
Speaker 3: I take this business degree. That was one of the questions,
6:18
Speaker 3: one of the challenges I was handed in one of
6:19
Speaker 3: the very first kind of assessment centers that I went through,
6:24
Speaker 3: and let's just say, I think of twenty young kids
6:28
Speaker 3: that were there trying to get their first job. My
6:30
Speaker 3: effort was just. The reason I can remember it right
6:34
Speaker 3: is because it's so painful and so embarrassing. That was
6:37
Speaker 3: just that was never me. But then I realized as
6:42
Speaker 3: I went into the corporate world, into the technology industry,
6:46
Speaker 3: I actually started off in a junior project management role.
6:50
Speaker 3: And the reason for going into project management was I
6:54
Speaker 3: like projects, I like keeping it fresh. I want to
6:57
Speaker 3: work with lots of different organizations, So let's go into
7:01
Speaker 3: project management. Work with one company, change their world, make
7:05
Speaker 3: everything better, and then move on to the next piece.
7:08
Speaker 3: But I found myself clock watching in that space, and
7:12
Speaker 3: that's when over a couple of coffees in the office.
7:15
Speaker 3: I started to realize, like, who are these people that
7:18
Speaker 3: have got the nice suits, the nice cars, the nice watches,
7:23
Speaker 3: Who are they? Because they look different to everybody else
7:25
Speaker 3: in this tech industry. And I write about this in
7:28
Speaker 3: the book. But I had a conversation with who was
7:31
Speaker 3: now a good friend of mine, a former colleague, and
7:35
Speaker 3: I'd just come out the back of my appraisal where
7:39
Speaker 3: it was positive. My resource manager said to me, if
7:43
Speaker 3: you keep going in this direction, by the time you're forty,
7:48
Speaker 3: you'll learn one hundred grand I was thinking, that's pretty
7:53
Speaker 3: good from where I am right now. And then I
7:56
Speaker 3: relayed this story to who was an account manager at
7:59
Speaker 3: the time. I'm a pretty young account manager, and he
8:03
Speaker 3: just said to me, oh, and you've got this all wrong,
8:05
Speaker 3: like if if money is one of the drivers, and
8:08
Speaker 3: it was at the time I was young, that was
8:10
Speaker 3: important to me. He said, you'll do that by the
8:12
Speaker 3: time you're twenty three, Like why wait until you're forty,
8:16
Speaker 3: And now I was just like, boof, there's this different world.
8:19
Speaker 3: There's this world of running a business within a business relationship,
8:26
Speaker 3: managing and selling into all these different organizations. They in
8:30
Speaker 3: a sense, they are projects. That is, that is variety.
8:34
Speaker 3: That is, you know, you start the sale, you end
8:38
Speaker 3: the sale, you expand the sale, you build the relationship.
8:41
Speaker 3: So that's what turned my head towards a career where
8:45
Speaker 3: I never would have placed myself. And you know, the
8:49
Speaker 3: rest ultimately brings us up to present day.
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Speaker 2: I love that story and there are so many common
8:56
Speaker 2: themes between your story, myself and other business developed. First off,
9:01
Speaker 2: as a fellow introvert, I know the pain that you
9:05
Speaker 2: felt as a kid growing up that way, and you
9:10
Speaker 2: certainly came out of your shell. I can say, fantastic.
9:17
Speaker 3: I think I'm somewhere in the middle ground. Now I wouldn't.
9:19
Speaker 3: I'm definitely not an extrovert. I'm not a massive introvert.
9:23
Speaker 3: I'm somewhere in them. I'm somewhere in the middle, depending.
9:26
Speaker 2: On the day, right, yeah, the safe the safe middle,
9:29
Speaker 2: And I argue I actually posted about this a few
9:31
Speaker 2: weeks ago on LinkedIn that I think introverts actually performed
9:34
Speaker 2: better in business development at least or at least at
9:37
Speaker 2: the same level. And the reason is because we have
9:40
Speaker 2: a tendency to introspectively, think deeper about what people are saying,
9:46
Speaker 2: and not have a tendency to interrupt them and kind
9:50
Speaker 2: of analyze where the discussion is actually going. And I
9:55
Speaker 2: would say questions are are safe word. We love to
9:59
Speaker 2: ask questions. I think think is introverts because it's not
10:02
Speaker 2: us having to describe ourselves or present anything. It's more
10:07
Speaker 2: asking those deep, engaging questions, which ultimately is the key
10:10
Speaker 2: to success in a lot of business development interactions. I
10:13
Speaker 2: also like the fact that your background is former project manager,
10:18
Speaker 2: just like myself, and I run the numbers on this.
10:22
Speaker 2: It's a relatively small sample size, so I don't know
10:24
Speaker 2: if it's statistically significant, but a majority, well, I have
10:31
Speaker 2: to say a significant number. The profession where folks come
10:36
Speaker 2: from and enter into business development is project management, and
10:41
Speaker 2: I think a key reason for that is because success
10:44
Speaker 2: in business development is a large part understanding how to
10:46
Speaker 2: run projects. But also, as a project manager, you have
10:49
Speaker 2: that operational understanding of the business. You're engaging with the
10:52
Speaker 2: customer's day in, day out, you're executing on delivery of
10:57
Speaker 2: solutions to the customers, so you really get that sense
11:01
Speaker 2: of what not only not just the extrinsic requirements of
11:05
Speaker 2: what's trying to be achieved, but the intrinsic, those deep
11:08
Speaker 2: gut feelings that the customer is feeling. You just get them.
11:12
Speaker 2: And so when you roll into business development, you understand
11:15
Speaker 2: in their perspective, you know what it takes to deliver,
11:17
Speaker 2: and I think you have a tendency to be more successful.
11:20
Speaker 2: So really interesting background, and I'd love to jump into
11:23
Speaker 2: why did you write the book?
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Speaker 3: I wrote the book for the same reasons that I
11:29
Speaker 3: transitioned out of the world of corporate sales into becoming
11:35
Speaker 3: a coach, into becoming an advisory a consultant. Because in
11:41
Speaker 3: the early days of my sales career, things were going well.
11:45
Speaker 3: I was winning big deals, working at a strategic and
11:48
Speaker 3: enterprise level, earning good money. But what I saw across
11:54
Speaker 3: the industry was either people that were absolutely killing it
11:58
Speaker 3: at the job, but then maybe they were sacrificing their health.
12:02
Speaker 3: You know, the waistlines expanding, or they are you know,
12:06
Speaker 3: on a one way train to burn out, or maybe
12:10
Speaker 3: you know they're away from home every single day and
12:14
Speaker 3: you know potentially relationships are coming under stress. Or you
12:19
Speaker 3: see the people that walk around the office looking like
12:21
Speaker 3: Arnold Swarzenegger and you're thinking, you know, can you just
12:24
Speaker 3: do your job like you know, you're being paid pretty
12:26
Speaker 3: well here. If you just focused on the day job,
12:30
Speaker 3: then you know, you'd probably get some great outputs from it.
12:33
Speaker 3: But when I looked around, there was no role model
12:35
Speaker 3: that had it all. So I decided I had to
12:38
Speaker 3: become my own role model. I couldn't just follow the
12:42
Speaker 3: status quo until now, since I've discovered people like Brandon
12:46
Speaker 3: Fluharty out in the industry with his whole purposeful performer,
12:50
Speaker 3: and there's various other people that have more of a
12:53
Speaker 3: holistic look after yourself as well as looking after your
12:57
Speaker 3: customers and looking after your team. But back then, I
13:00
Speaker 3: didn't see it. So I had to create it. I
13:02
Speaker 3: had to switch from you know, like that hustle hustle
13:06
Speaker 3: hustle mode through to how do I build in and
13:11
Speaker 3: prioritize looking after my body, eating well, even if I'm
13:16
Speaker 3: on the road, even if i'm you know, flying internationally,
13:20
Speaker 3: even if I'm just in the in the office. How
13:23
Speaker 3: do I build that in and make that a priority.
13:27
Speaker 3: How do I, as I've become a father, ensure that
13:32
Speaker 3: I'm always present. You know, I'm lucky enough. I've got
13:36
Speaker 3: two boys. They are you know, one is seven, one
13:40
Speaker 3: is three. The seven year old now is obsessed with
13:43
Speaker 3: all different sports, especially golf. At the moment, the Ryder
13:45
Speaker 3: Cup is happening this weekend and he's just every thirty
13:48
Speaker 3: seconds doing his golf swing no matter where we are.
13:51
Speaker 3: It could be in the supermarket. And it sounds cliche,
13:55
Speaker 3: but when I became a father for the first time,
13:58
Speaker 3: it was just shortly after the world went into lockdown
14:02
Speaker 3: as a result of COVID, and I firmly believe that
14:06
Speaker 3: that was a silver lining of a terrible time for
14:09
Speaker 3: everybody and impacted many people, you know, severely impacted, and
14:14
Speaker 3: all the negative things that came from that. There was
14:17
Speaker 3: one positive for me that if I hadn't had that
14:21
Speaker 3: lockdown situation, I would have taken a couple of weeks
14:24
Speaker 3: off like everyone does when my youngest was born, and
14:28
Speaker 3: then I'd have gone straight back into doing what I'd
14:30
Speaker 3: always done to make me successful. And I live in
14:34
Speaker 3: the north of the UK, so the heartbeat of technology,
14:37
Speaker 3: the economy in the UK is in London, so that
14:39
Speaker 3: means you've got to be down there, you be, you've
14:41
Speaker 3: got to be away. But I had this pretty much
14:44
Speaker 3: twelve months of seeing my boy every morning, every lunch,
14:49
Speaker 3: every evening and I realized, like, I can never ever
14:54
Speaker 3: walk away from that. So even once the world started
14:57
Speaker 3: to open up, I had to put family first, put
15:01
Speaker 3: my health first, in order to create the version of
15:04
Speaker 3: Aaron that walks into the office, that walks into the
15:08
Speaker 3: virtual room, salesroom, internal meeting room, whatever it is, with
15:13
Speaker 3: the highest of energy and motivation. And I talk about
15:17
Speaker 3: this in the book about developing your drive for me,
15:20
Speaker 3: everything is for them. And what that also kind of
15:25
Speaker 3: gave me was this purpose of if I can do it,
15:29
Speaker 3: I want to help other people do it, which is
15:31
Speaker 3: why even before I became a coach, I would I
15:35
Speaker 3: loved to mentor people. I'd been given so many chances
15:39
Speaker 3: and had so many supporters in my career that I
15:43
Speaker 3: felt obligated but also inspired by people that also had
15:47
Speaker 3: that drive to do it and do it in the
15:50
Speaker 3: right way, you know, without that wave of destruction potentially
15:54
Speaker 3: behind them.
15:56
Speaker 2: Wow, that's so tremendous to have that drive purpose, and
16:05
Speaker 2: it's easy to get burned out in business development. It's
16:08
Speaker 2: high stress. There are a lot of pressures on you,
16:11
Speaker 2: a lot of requirements on you, and it comes from
16:14
Speaker 2: multiple angles. And I often tell people business development is
16:19
Speaker 2: not a sprint, and it's not a marathon either. It's
16:23
Speaker 2: actually a triathlon. There are three components, like to a
16:27
Speaker 2: balance life in business development, and Aaron, I know your
16:30
Speaker 2: book is starts off with three components, the three primary
16:34
Speaker 2: components of a successful strategy to avoid that burnout and
16:38
Speaker 2: be a big success in business development. So let's jump
16:41
Speaker 2: into those top three components of your strategy, can we?
16:45
Speaker 3: Yeah? Absolutely? If you visualize this as a as a
16:49
Speaker 3: ven diagram, I believe. I love the analogy of triathlon.
16:53
Speaker 3: I've participated in a few triathlons and as you say,
16:58
Speaker 3: three very different puttings. You need different mindsets, different strengths.
17:03
Speaker 3: You have to think about them all. You know, if
17:06
Speaker 3: you kick the legs too hard in the swim, then
17:09
Speaker 3: you're going to be terrible on the bike, and then
17:10
Speaker 3: you probably just cramp up and not even finish. You know,
17:13
Speaker 3: you won't close the deal if you go too hard
17:14
Speaker 3: in other areas of the role. But for me, it's
17:17
Speaker 3: all about mastering yourself, mastering your customers, serving your customers.
17:26
Speaker 3: But then importantly to build a fast paced, thriving career,
17:32
Speaker 3: you have to be able to master the internal organization.
17:37
Speaker 3: And what I mean by that is creating those champions
17:40
Speaker 3: and those advocates, so that when you're not in the room,
17:44
Speaker 3: they're talking about Tony as he's the guy to lead
17:47
Speaker 3: this campaign, or who is my successor? I'm the VP
17:52
Speaker 3: of Sales. Who is my successor? It's Tony. Tony doesn't
17:55
Speaker 3: know that's happening. But all the inputs, all the things
17:58
Speaker 3: that you've controlled into of not just it's not playing
18:03
Speaker 3: a game. It's through serving your leadership, serving the company,
18:08
Speaker 3: and then giving back to those people around you as
18:11
Speaker 3: the next generation. That puts you in that frame of
18:15
Speaker 3: this guy or girl isn't just brilliant with their customer
18:19
Speaker 3: and the job that they're in today, they are the
18:21
Speaker 3: future of this company.
18:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, I like that.
18:26
Speaker 1: I like that.
18:26
Speaker 2: So let's let's kick off with mastering Yourself and let's
18:30
Speaker 2: talk about that a little bit if we can. And
18:32
Speaker 2: I'll just quote one section from your book that I
18:36
Speaker 2: thought was very profound to really get to the bottom
18:39
Speaker 2: of all of this mastering yourself and your family. It says,
18:42
Speaker 2: twenty years from now, the only people who will remember
18:45
Speaker 2: that you weren't late are your kids. So that's that's
18:52
Speaker 2: a fantastic quote. So let's let's talk about what do
18:56
Speaker 2: you mean by mastering yourself? What do you what do
18:58
Speaker 2: you mean.
18:58
Speaker 3: They're master in yourself? There's many things I could have written. Well,
19:03
Speaker 3: there's many books on master in yourself. Isn't the The
19:05
Speaker 3: irony of this conversation is now I can hear my kids,
19:08
Speaker 3: my youngest crying in the background. But the beauty of
19:12
Speaker 3: it is the second we finished this podcast, I'll be
19:16
Speaker 3: down there taking them to rugby. And you know that's
19:19
Speaker 3: the balance, that's the harmony. But mastering yourself, it all
19:25
Speaker 3: starts with really understanding where you are going, where do
19:30
Speaker 3: you want to be. Before I decided to launch my
19:33
Speaker 3: own business, go solo, step out of the corporate sales world,
19:39
Speaker 3: which is a great place, I was on a pathway.
19:43
Speaker 3: But what I realized was I was on a pathway
19:46
Speaker 3: that other people were designing for me, other people with
19:50
Speaker 3: the best intentions for both themselves, the company, for me
19:55
Speaker 3: in terms of my progress. That was the track that
19:58
Speaker 3: they were laying out for me, and I was all
19:59
Speaker 3: for it. You know, I was driving down that track.
20:03
Speaker 3: One day I will become a VP. One day I'll
20:06
Speaker 3: become a CRA. One day I'll lead this company that
20:08
Speaker 3: was my mindset and that drove me so far. But
20:12
Speaker 3: what then I realized was that was what other people
20:17
Speaker 3: want for me. What I want is something different and
20:20
Speaker 3: what I encourage all of my clients when we work together.
20:23
Speaker 3: And the exercise is actually in the book right at
20:26
Speaker 3: the end of the book, there's a QR code. It's
20:28
Speaker 3: a real simple tool and it's actually adapted from how
20:32
Speaker 3: Amazon create new products, but actually how Amazon creates new businesses.
20:39
Speaker 3: It's an adaptation of something that Amazon calls working backwards.
20:43
Speaker 3: What that means is working backwards from the customer. What's
20:47
Speaker 3: their problem? What experience do they want? Why is this
20:51
Speaker 3: the most important thing to them? And that's how Amazon
20:54
Speaker 3: has built everything from the e commerce platform to Prime
20:58
Speaker 3: Video to Alexa, everything that is part of our daily
21:00
Speaker 3: lives now. And I've adapted this way of thinking to
21:05
Speaker 3: create it almost a working backwards from your future self
21:09
Speaker 3: in the form of an email. And to break it down,
21:13
Speaker 3: it's all about when it's all said and done at
21:16
Speaker 3: the end of this let's say ten year period, what
21:19
Speaker 3: are the milestones that you really want to have achieved.
21:24
Speaker 3: But importantly, how do you want to have done it?
21:28
Speaker 3: And who for? Because for me, it's all about your family,
21:34
Speaker 3: your friends, but even in your career and your clients
21:37
Speaker 3: and your colleagues, what impact do you want to have
21:41
Speaker 3: had on them. I don't just want to sell someone
21:44
Speaker 3: a piece of software or some cloud technology or some
21:46
Speaker 3: hardware and then find out two years later we didn't
21:50
Speaker 3: use it, it didn't work. That would really hurt me. I
21:53
Speaker 3: want to ensure that we're doing the right thing, We're
21:55
Speaker 3: having an impact, and that customer has been promoted as
22:00
Speaker 3: a result of it, or it's the proudest moment in
22:03
Speaker 3: their career. And what this tool does, what this process
22:07
Speaker 3: does is helps you get really really clear on what
22:10
Speaker 3: this means to you, Like what would those people say
22:14
Speaker 3: about you in ten years time? And when you pull
22:18
Speaker 3: this together, it always starts off everyone's starts off very generic.
22:23
Speaker 3: I want to do the big deals. I want to
22:24
Speaker 3: win loads of money. I want to do this. I
22:25
Speaker 3: want to do that. And then we go through this
22:27
Speaker 3: process and we really get deep and explore what they
22:31
Speaker 3: really want and we really find out who they are,
22:35
Speaker 3: what they are amazing at, what they want to bring
22:38
Speaker 3: into this world, and who they're doing it for. And
22:42
Speaker 3: once they've painted that picture, then the thought of this triathlon.
22:48
Speaker 3: This really tough, complex world of sales, it becomes so
22:53
Speaker 3: much easier to get up in the morning and do
22:56
Speaker 3: the prospecting, so much easier to go and have that
22:59
Speaker 3: really high stakes conversation with the chief commercial officer or
23:05
Speaker 3: the CEO or the director of engineering. It becomes much
23:10
Speaker 3: easier to push yourself to make bolder moves than you've
23:14
Speaker 3: ever made before. And that's what I see with people
23:17
Speaker 3: that go through this exercise and we work with them
23:20
Speaker 3: one on one, is they really gain clarity on what
23:26
Speaker 3: it is that they're looking for, and ultimately that goal
23:29
Speaker 3: becomes about mastering themselves. Really the other two just feed
23:34
Speaker 3: into that as part of their process. And what I
23:36
Speaker 3: found fascinating is that most of the people that do
23:40
Speaker 3: this sales and the corporate world is very rarely the endgame.
23:45
Speaker 3: There's something bigger I can't share. There's very private from
23:48
Speaker 3: all my clients, but there's been some incredible stories from
23:53
Speaker 3: wanting to follow similar footsteps to me into more of
23:57
Speaker 3: a coaching world outside of tech, more life coaching. But
24:01
Speaker 3: then people that have a reason to start their own
24:05
Speaker 3: charitable foundation that will give back to people that have
24:09
Speaker 3: been impact in a way that they've been impacted or
24:11
Speaker 3: their families, and that's why they want the five hundred
24:15
Speaker 3: k commission check for the next three years. Isn't just
24:19
Speaker 3: a brag and go to President's club. Those things come
24:22
Speaker 3: as a result, But there's such a bigger purpose. I
24:26
Speaker 3: think if you look at that ven diagram in the book,
24:29
Speaker 3: that top one, if you get that bit right, if
24:32
Speaker 3: you double down and invest in that piece, everything else
24:36
Speaker 3: you can work through. Everything else is a tactic, a
24:38
Speaker 3: learn skill, you know, a development of the mind as
24:42
Speaker 3: a muscle, or you know, even physically looking after yourself
24:46
Speaker 3: so that you can go again day after day. That's
24:48
Speaker 3: where it all starts and ends. In my opinion. I
24:51
Speaker 3: may be wrong.
24:52
Speaker 2: Oh you're not wrong. It's actually proven by neuroscience. Humans
24:56
Speaker 2: are powered by purpose because purpose is what triggers dopamine.
25:02
Speaker 2: And if you accomplish your purpose a little bit at
25:05
Speaker 2: a day, those people have a tendency to be a
25:07
Speaker 2: lot happier in their lives. And so this is this
25:10
Speaker 2: is wonderful what you're doing. I really like what you
25:14
Speaker 2: talk about in the first section, which is you know,
25:17
Speaker 2: mastering yourself, mastering what drives you every day and what
25:21
Speaker 2: are you trying to accomplish. What's your purpose in life?
25:24
Speaker 2: That's the probably if you ask philosophers, that's the probably
25:29
Speaker 2: the most prominent question all humans ask is what am
25:32
Speaker 2: I on this planet for?
25:34
Speaker 1: Right?
25:34
Speaker 2: And you're getting right into that, that that purpose driven life.
25:38
Speaker 2: And then okay, so let's jump into the next key
25:41
Speaker 2: component here, which is mastering your customers. What do you
25:45
Speaker 2: mean by that? You're not trying to manipulate your customer,
25:48
Speaker 2: You're trying to master them. And I think that's a
25:50
Speaker 2: subtle difference.
25:52
Speaker 3: This is a phrase that I learned through the coaching community,
25:57
Speaker 3: but I think it's such a valuable principle that all
26:01
Speaker 3: sellers can take into their the way they sell, the
26:04
Speaker 3: way that they engage with customers is rather than thinking
26:08
Speaker 3: about selling, because nobody wants to be sell sold, right.
26:12
Speaker 3: We go into the shop. We go into the shop
26:14
Speaker 3: to buy a jacket. We need a jacket, and then
26:17
Speaker 3: that sales assistant walks over and says, hey, do you
26:20
Speaker 3: need help, and we're like no, no, no, just browsing,
26:22
Speaker 3: just browsing, yeah, even and then they walk away and
26:24
Speaker 3: we're struggling with.
26:25
Speaker 2: Trying to fight especially the especially the no, no, no,
26:29
Speaker 2: don't talk to me.
26:30
Speaker 3: Exactly leave me alone. Leave me alone, even though I
26:33
Speaker 3: actually need to be sold to well, I want to
26:36
Speaker 3: be sold too well, but I was still pushed back
26:39
Speaker 3: and repel. So what I like and the idea and
26:42
Speaker 3: the concept from the coaching world is rather than selling,
26:45
Speaker 3: your serving, and as you say, depending on where you
26:49
Speaker 3: are in that process, in the customers buying process, you
26:56
Speaker 3: have to change hats at some point. Maybe you are
27:00
Speaker 3: you know you are the advisor, not just a trusted advisor,
27:04
Speaker 3: as we hear people talk about where they pretend I'm
27:07
Speaker 3: going to give you an insight and then I'm going
27:08
Speaker 3: to tell you why we can solve it and why
27:10
Speaker 3: you should buy our technology, but genuinely giving the advice
27:15
Speaker 3: to your customer if you were them you were desperate
27:19
Speaker 3: for and that advice might be you aren't ready for
27:23
Speaker 3: this technology. Your data isn't in a state where you
27:26
Speaker 3: can leverage our technology. What you have to do first
27:30
Speaker 3: is going talk to this company and these partners, and
27:33
Speaker 3: I will make the introduction. And you saw all of
27:37
Speaker 3: that out. You get to this point and then give
27:39
Speaker 3: me a call. The level of trust that you can
27:42
Speaker 3: build there you crou sales Direct is going to hate
27:45
Speaker 3: me saying this. But if you do that, if you
27:48
Speaker 3: are sincerely serving as opposed to selling, you will very
27:52
Speaker 3: quickly filter out the deals that were never going to happen,
27:56
Speaker 3: and you will find the people that are really ready
27:59
Speaker 3: with that problem to change, to invest, to collaborate on
28:04
Speaker 3: building out that solution, building out that business case with you,
28:08
Speaker 3: and ultimately entering into a partnership with you. Yeah.
28:13
Speaker 2: Wow, folks, if you're listening, you're probably hearing things that
28:17
Speaker 2: resonate with the first few pages of the Business Development
28:20
Speaker 2: Body of Knowledge. It starts with purpose and then we
28:23
Speaker 2: talk about empathy, and that's what I think you're talking about,
28:27
Speaker 2: Aaron here, is having empathy for your prospects, your customers,
28:33
Speaker 2: understanding what their fundamental needs are and then giving them
28:36
Speaker 2: what they need and making sure that you're in alignment
28:40
Speaker 2: with purpose. And then the final thing that you mentioned
28:44
Speaker 2: is truth. And the truth, the tough truth that you
28:50
Speaker 2: just said, well, you know you're not ready for this,
28:53
Speaker 2: mister or missus, prospect and I'm just being honest, I'm
28:57
Speaker 2: being candid. That truth is so hard as a business
29:01
Speaker 2: developer to say, but it's necessary. And my experience is
29:07
Speaker 2: when you do tell your prospects that they actually value
29:09
Speaker 2: you even more because you want that. You want to
29:13
Speaker 2: meet quota, you want that deal. But if they're not
29:16
Speaker 2: the right fit, if you can't help them accomplish their purpose,
29:19
Speaker 2: then have the empathy and the truth to step away
29:23
Speaker 2: and say it's not the right solution. Let me point
29:27
Speaker 2: you in the right direction. I'm happy to do that.
29:28
Speaker 2: That's what I'm here for. I'm here to help you,
29:31
Speaker 2: and so I really like you know, and when you
29:33
Speaker 2: read through the Business Development Body of Knowledge, it's this
29:36
Speaker 2: is all about building trust. Trust is and this is
29:38
Speaker 2: proven by neuroscience. It consists of purpose, empathy, and truth,
29:43
Speaker 2: and those trigger dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and dorphins, the whole
29:48
Speaker 2: dose dose brain chemistry. So this is so powerful what
29:53
Speaker 2: you're talking about, Aaron. Okay, so we have a few
29:57
Speaker 2: more minutes left in the show. I could talk to
29:59
Speaker 2: you for hours about this.
30:01
Speaker 3: We'll do it again, I'm sure.
30:04
Speaker 2: Well, okay, So let's jump into the final component here,
30:09
Speaker 2: that is master your company. What do you mean by that?
30:13
Speaker 3: I'll just pick one element because I think we could
30:16
Speaker 3: talk all about developing executive champions internally, building supporters and
30:23
Speaker 3: lifting up your your own manager and then the giving
30:27
Speaker 3: back piece. I think I've touched on the giving back piece,
30:30
Speaker 3: and I've also talked about developing those advocates when you're
30:35
Speaker 3: not in the room to help accelerate your career. But
30:39
Speaker 3: one thing that I think people miss but it was
30:42
Speaker 3: fundamentally a game changer for me, and this has proven
30:44
Speaker 3: many times over with my clients, is part of your
30:48
Speaker 3: responsibility is you're a team player. You're a team player
30:52
Speaker 3: in your campaign team. So you might work with, you know,
30:55
Speaker 3: an executive sponsor, an se, a customer solutions manager, a
31:00
Speaker 3: sales engineer to win the deal, and your customer is
31:04
Speaker 3: part of your team as well. But what about your
31:07
Speaker 3: sales team, who's led by your first line sales manager
31:12
Speaker 3: or even your skip level manager. Everybody's trying to work
31:17
Speaker 3: towards a common goal. And what if you could just
31:21
Speaker 3: make your sales manager's life that little bit easier. What
31:26
Speaker 3: if you could contribute and take something off their hands
31:30
Speaker 3: that you would be better placed to own. It would
31:34
Speaker 3: free them up, which would then build trust in a
31:37
Speaker 3: relationship between you so that when that next big opportunity
31:42
Speaker 3: comes up, you haven't just built a friendship. And it's like, hey,
31:47
Speaker 3: Aeron's my best pal. Let's give them. Let's give them
31:49
Speaker 3: the role it is. You've delivered on your number, You've
31:52
Speaker 3: done your day job, you're winning the deals, which is
31:55
Speaker 3: contributing towards their goal, but equally, they've got some broader objectives.
32:00
Speaker 3: As a leader, you've stepped up, contributed towards those objectives,
32:07
Speaker 3: but equally then demonstrated as a role model to the
32:10
Speaker 3: broader team. Hey, we should all be doing this, because
32:14
Speaker 3: we know how hard it is as a leader for
32:16
Speaker 3: someone to just stand up and say, hey, you guys
32:18
Speaker 3: should all do this. We always need those people in
32:21
Speaker 3: the team. It's the same with sports, right all the
32:24
Speaker 3: players go out on the field, but if there's no leaders.
32:27
Speaker 3: And I can talk about this at great length because
32:29
Speaker 3: I'm a Manchester United fan and we've missed leaders for
32:32
Speaker 3: the last fifteen years. If you don't have leaders, doesn't
32:35
Speaker 3: matter how much talent you have. The team won't come together,
32:39
Speaker 3: the team won't perform. So therefore your leader will not
32:44
Speaker 3: achieve their outcomes, their goals. Their KPIs if you're not
32:49
Speaker 3: able to help raise your manager up, and it can
32:52
Speaker 3: be small things such as any insights you gain as
32:56
Speaker 3: part of your prospecting or your big deal when you're
32:59
Speaker 3: building now at your point of view, share those things
33:03
Speaker 3: with your manager, but encourage your teammates to do the same,
33:08
Speaker 3: so that when your manager's going into their qbrs and
33:11
Speaker 3: talking to the leadership, they're armed with a complete perspective
33:15
Speaker 3: of the industry. Let's say they're leading a sales sector specific,
33:20
Speaker 3: industry specific team. How powerful is that for them to
33:24
Speaker 3: not have to sit there do all that research themselves.
33:28
Speaker 3: But this is anecdotal and data backed from real conversations
33:34
Speaker 3: with all of our strategic clients. That puts them in
33:37
Speaker 3: a real position of strength. And not only does that
33:40
Speaker 3: build that credibility of you as a leader, that trust
33:44
Speaker 3: that's so important, but it elevates the team. That team
33:49
Speaker 3: will therefore get more investment, potentially more headcount. That will
33:53
Speaker 3: be the growing team, and growth means opportunity. So when
33:58
Speaker 3: I talk about mastering the company, it's definitely not playing
34:03
Speaker 3: a game. It's that whole kind of you know, all
34:06
Speaker 3: boats will rise with a rise in to I've just
34:09
Speaker 3: ruined that quote. Please find the actual quote. That's my
34:13
Speaker 3: Northern British version of that quotation. But everyone understands the principle.
34:19
Speaker 3: Everyone's heard it. But you will always be more successful
34:23
Speaker 3: if you are in a thriving team, just like you
34:26
Speaker 3: will be more successful if you're in a thriving, growing organization.
34:31
Speaker 3: And I just think that's the bit that is quite
34:33
Speaker 3: often missed, is that whole mastering the company and people
34:38
Speaker 3: forget about their manager. I think they're there to check
34:40
Speaker 3: up on them. They can be the most important person
34:43
Speaker 3: in your sales career if you invest in them.
34:49
Speaker 2: Wow. Well, you know everybody loves growth. I think folks
34:53
Speaker 2: automatically think it's growth of their book of business. But
34:56
Speaker 2: what you're talking about is these three fundamental components of
35:02
Speaker 2: growth of yourself by mastering yourself, mastering your purpose, understanding
35:06
Speaker 2: what your life's mission is and how you want to
35:08
Speaker 2: get there and what does it feel like when you
35:10
Speaker 2: get there. The second is mastering your customer from a
35:14
Speaker 2: position of giving, and you give to grow. That's a
35:20
Speaker 2: famous quote from Mo Bunnle. I like to quote his
35:22
Speaker 2: work in the business development profession. And then the final
35:27
Speaker 2: is mastering your company, and it's being that valued team
35:33
Speaker 2: player that's helping everyone grow. Because a rising tide rises
35:39
Speaker 2: all boats. I could say that as a sailor, you
35:41
Speaker 2: nailed it. Aaron in bolks. If you want to nail
35:45
Speaker 2: your numbers, get in touch with Aaron Aaron, how can
35:48
Speaker 2: folks follow your work? Get in touch with you.
35:53
Speaker 3: LinkedIn is the place to find me. You'll find some
35:56
Speaker 3: serious content, you'll find some fun content, and then that's
36:01
Speaker 3: the place to find me. Drop me a connection request,
36:04
Speaker 3: drop me a DM and say hi. That's where I
36:06
Speaker 3: hang out most of the time. If I'm not coaching,
36:09
Speaker 3: I'll probably be on LinkedIn. If I'm not with my family,
36:12
Speaker 3: if I'm not with my boys, if I'm not looking
36:14
Speaker 3: after myself, you know, in the gym, or I'll go
36:17
Speaker 3: in on a run. So that is just the simplest
36:19
Speaker 3: way I teach my clients how to spend less time
36:21
Speaker 3: in email and less time on Slack. So you can
36:25
Speaker 3: email me, but preferences on ping me on the dms.
36:30
Speaker 3: In LinkedIn, we have more of a real live conversation
36:34
Speaker 3: and if it makes sense, you know, maybe we'll hop
36:36
Speaker 3: on a zoom or teams and folks.
36:39
Speaker 2: You could also get a copy of Aaron's book, Sales Life,
36:43
Speaker 2: How to Accelerate your sales career without sacrificing your personal life.
36:47
Speaker 2: It's on Amazon again five star reviews. A wonderful book.
36:52
Speaker 2: I really like how you set up the book with
36:55
Speaker 2: the intro three chapters that talk about those three fundamental components.
36:59
Speaker 2: But then the rest of the book is jam packed
37:02
Speaker 2: with tactics and takeaways that you can implement immediately. And folks,
37:08
Speaker 2: I can't say enough about this great book. So take
37:12
Speaker 2: a look at it and very accessible on Amazon, Kindle
37:16
Speaker 2: and in paperback format, and of course reach out to
37:19
Speaker 2: Aaron as well. Aaron Norris, Sir, thank you so much
37:25
Speaker 2: for joining us on the podcast today and enlightening our
37:30
Speaker 2: entire profession about the fact that bad is a brain
37:34
Speaker 2: and a body. Business. You have to take care of
37:36
Speaker 2: the entire three legs of that triathlon in order to
37:40
Speaker 2: make it over the finish line and achieve your purpose
37:44
Speaker 2: in life. Thank you for joining us, Erin, Thank.
37:48
Speaker 3: You very much. I'm definitely stealing that analogy. I love it.
37:51
Speaker 3: Thank you.
37:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, my pleasure, Erin, and we can't wait to have
37:57
Speaker 2: you back again sometime soon.
38:00
Speaker 3: Being a pleasure. Thank you.
38:03
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38:07
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38:12
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38:17
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