684 - Building a Successful Sales Career in Challenging Times, with Larry Long Jr.
Get ready for an electrifying episode of sales transformation featuring the dynamic duo of Collin Mitchell and Larry Long Junior. In this episode, Larry shares his insights on thriving in tough times and achieving outstanding sales results. So grab your pen and paper because this episode is packed with actionable strategies to level up your sales game. Let's dive in and transform the way you sell.
Speaker 2:Today, I've got a special guest with you. He's an energy powerhouse, none other than Larry Long junior. He's an exceptional sales coach behind the Larry Long junior experience. With over 6 years of experience, he'll help you accelerate productivity and achieve outstanding sales results. Get ready for a high voltage episode filled with actionable insights and motivation.
Speaker 2:Larry, welcome to the show. How you doing?
Speaker 3:What's going on, Colin? Happy to be here, man. We're we're talking about sales transformation. I'm in the right place, the right spot, with the right person. Thank you.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man. Is this your second or third time being on the show? I can't even remember. You know, there's a few there's a few people there's a few people like you, Larry, that, you know, tend to to make their way back to the show, many times because you always got something fresh and exciting to talk about. But, you know, what what's new with you?
Speaker 2:And then let's get into the the the topic that we planned out, 30 seconds ago.
Speaker 3:Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. What's what's new with me is, well, I've had the honor and the privilege to step into the podcast world kinda like you, from the other side as a host. I've been a guest extraordinaire, but I'm learning how how challenging it can be and how rewarding it can be to pass the mic to someone else. So I'm I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 3:Today's topic is spot on, and it's so timely. I'm I'm I'm ready to roll.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So today, we're gonna talk about how to thrive in tough times. Right? I think a lot of sellers, a lot of sales organizations, you know, that did well when times were good are realizing that, like, we really aren't as good as we thought we were. What the heck is going on?
Speaker 2:And how do we, you know, still grow and be successful when times aren't as easy as they used to be? So I know you have some thoughts on that, and then we're gonna dig in, and and I'll have some questions
Speaker 3:for you. Man, I got some big thoughts. And and, essentially, I have so many thoughts. I wrote a book about it. And I've had the honor and the privilege of sharing this with sales professionals, business professionals, students, just all around the world.
Speaker 3:And when the going gets tough, Collin, I believe tough people are greater than tough times. But oftentimes, and this was chapter 1 of my book, oftentimes, we tell ourselves a story and we believe the hype. In the words of the great philosophers, public enemy and Flavor Flav, don't believe the hype. We're tell we're telling ourselves a story of fake news. I'll never forget.
Speaker 3:There's a story that I'll tell you. Sonia McBride. She was one of my reps at a company called ChannelAdvisor. Summertime in ecommerce normally gets slow. Well, everyone subscribes to that.
Speaker 3:It's slow. No one hits their goal. I can't have success. Well, guess what? Those people talking that junk, they didn't hit their goals.
Speaker 3:They didn't have success. Sonya said, you know what? I ain't I ain't about that life. I ain't about that BS that y'all are talking about. She said, I'm gonna sniff the opportunity and find my way to having success.
Speaker 3:Well guess what? Auto parts. Auto parts never go out of style. It doesn't matter if it's summertime, wintertime, spring, or fall. She was calling on third party auto part resellers and killing the game.
Speaker 3:Everyone had the opportunity. She seized that opportunity and was able to thrive. So, yes. Are we going through some tough stuff? Yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean, depending on your perspective, is there a ton of, uh-oh, hold on. Someone's at my door calling. I I think that's opportunity knocking. Who's gonna answer the door? Is it you, or you, or you?
Speaker 3:And I'm talking about your listeners, your viewers, who's gonna answer the opportunity? So first things first, what story are we telling ourselves? 2nd thing, and this is another chapter in my book where I talk about this is chapter 6, mastering the basics. When things were going great, we got away from fundamentals, the basic foundations that had us in a position to have success. So I I I think that, hey, what are the ABCs of success in sales as a sales professional, a sales leader, and are we doing those things?
Speaker 3:There's 2 other points. I just want it's a 7 chapter book, but I just wanted to give you give you 4. The next one is strikeouts. They're a part of life. And a lot of times people look at it.
Speaker 3:I I gotta grab my pink baseball bat. People say, oh, no. I don't wanna strike out. Oh, I'm scared to strike out. So they don't even go to bat.
Speaker 3:You gotta go to bat and give it a shot. If you strike out, I'm not saying good, but it's an opportunity for you to learn. We either win or we learn, and I I would say we either win and or learn. I like to win and I also like to learn. If I don't win, I'm gonna learn a lesson.
Speaker 3:The last one is the company that you keep. You are what you consume. You probably heard me say this Collin, if you are what you eat, that must make me a fried chicken sandwich, because what time is it? It's bow time. But what are you consuming?
Speaker 3:Who are you surrounding yourself with? I think you just told me the story about how you've put yourself in a situation where you and your family are surrounded by just some amazing individuals, families that are super supportive. Well, it's the same thing for us in sales, in business, and in life. Are we surrounding ourselves with those folks that empower us, encourage us, challenge us, cheer us on? Hercules.
Speaker 3:Hercules. Or are we around negative Nancy's, negative Nellies, negative Nance? Oh, no.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. Alright.
Speaker 2:There's a lot to unpack there. But I think I think let's let's let's start with where you left off there because I think that it's important to for for sellers to to think, like, what, you know, what are you consuming? What noise are you you know, because when you're not hitting your number, it's very easy to want to gravitate towards everybody who's saying, yeah. Times are tough. It's hard out there.
Speaker 2:You know, nobody's hitting quota. You know, winning 20% of your deals is acceptable today. And so if if you're, you know, if you're constantly feeding yourself, then that is all that's doing is creating this vicious cycle of you being able to justify losing more often than you're winning.
Speaker 3:That's right. That's right. And it it's not. It's within our control. For everyone out there, I encourage you.
Speaker 3:I I I've got 2 things for you. Number 1, take a look in the mirror and ask yourself the tough question. We're in sales, so we should be used to asking the tough questions. I want you to ask this question of yourself and be honest. What's holding you back?
Speaker 3:And you can you can say either what or you can say who. Now I should have been a lawyer because I already know the answer to that. I'm I'm asking questions. I already know the answer. The second part is when are you going to, in the words of the other great philosopher, Luther, when are you gonna move and get out your own way?
Speaker 3:Stop blocking your success with these whack I don't know if HR is listening, but these whack, beep thoughts that aren't real. It's fake news. The opportunity is out there. Are there some real challenges? For sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah. But are there some real opportunities for you to go out there and be successful? For sure, I'm seeing it. I'm talking to folks that are having success. So don't tell me that it's impossible because I am a wordsmith.
Speaker 3:And if you dissect the word impossible, it actually spells out I am possible. True on that. True on that.
Speaker 2:And I think that, you know, the the important thing to realize is that it's it it is possible to to win and be successful in today's environment. It just looks a little different than it used to be. Right? You gotta be sharp. You gotta be on your game.
Speaker 2:You gotta be targeting the right people with the right message, and you gotta be able to build a good business case to be able to get a deal across the finish line. You know? And and and, you know, I've been listening to Andy Paul's new podcast quite a bit lately. You know, there you know, I'm a podcast guy, and and and there's there's few podcasts, out there where I'm just I'm waiting for that next episode to drop. And Andy's new show, the WinRate podcast, is one of those.
Speaker 2:And, you know, you know, it's it's a lot of the recent episodes have been around, you know, the fact that, like, you know, what does it mean to be a top seller? Well, it means winning more than you lose. And if you look in b to b tech and b to b SaaS, you know, most teams are okay with a, you know, 20 to 30% win rate, which means they're losing way more often. Right? And, the, you know, the you know, as you know, Larry, before I joined, you know, here at Ledium, I have a 86% win rate.
Speaker 2:And and before that, when I was the head of sales over at a fast growing tech company, you know, in when times were the toughest, you know, I still managed to eke out a 250 k quarter and build 1,500,000 in pipe when everybody was saying, oh, nobody's buying. So I know it's possible. And, frankly, you know, when you when you when you mentioned people to look in the mirror, if you're looking in the mirror and all that's coming back at you is excuses, then there's a problem.
Speaker 3:Big time. And and I love you sharing your experience with success. I I always attribute this is just me personally, my success to trying to and I haven't mastered it, but really focusing on the basics. I didn't play football, but I think they call it the blocking and the tackling. Playing basketball, it's the dribbling with your head up, both hands, the passing, the shooting form.
Speaker 3:In baseball, which is my jam, it's having that good athletic position. While in sales, in business, and in life, we've gotta be doing the very basics. And for everyone, you should understand what are the basics to filling the funnel, building pipeline. What are the activities that you need to be doing to be successful? I just had a conversation earlier with one of my former colleagues, the bird man.
Speaker 3:What happened to that boy, Nathan Byrd? And he used to rate I'll never forget. He used to grade himself every day on 5 KPIs. Number 1, did he make 50 phone calls? If he did, 20%.
Speaker 3:Did he send 50 emails? If he did, 20%. Was he able to find at least 2 net new prospects to add to the CRM? 20%. Was he able to book one actual scheduled demo?
Speaker 3:20%. And then the kicker is icing on the cake. This is to be a 100% day. Did he deliberately take time out to learn? You just talked about being a connoisseur, a consumer of others podcast.
Speaker 3:That's amazing, Colin, because you're in the podcast game to hear you say that you intensely go out and you listen to specific podcasts to learn that tells me that you've got a growth mindset. Now I also wanna challenge folks to have a growth mindset coupled with an action mindset. My father ran track, my sister ran track. On your mark. Get set.
Speaker 3:Go. We gotta take action. I just came back from a convention over 1100 professional speakers in Orlando, and I took a ton of notes, but Larry, I had to ask myself, Larry, what you gonna do with these notes? How are you gonna put it into action?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. I think that's where a lot of people fall short. Right? Because you can be the mister, hey, I read 5 books a month.
Speaker 2:But if you retain nothing and put nothing into action, reading those books ain't gonna help you. Thanks for tuning in to today's episode. We hope you enjoyed it and that you didn't forget to subscribe and share so that we can help more people transform the way they sell.
