Transcription
What percent did you finish at? >> I think in the upwards of almost a thousand% uh was was the actual number. And I'm a huge huge proponent of of constant communication. And if I think if you're just if you're overly and constantly communicating, it's going to make your life easier from a managing up perspective. You need to let that guard down and really sell as a human. you know, you're you really find out who you are as a as a seller and and as a person throughout the process because it it is going to test you uh mentally, physically, and emotionally because you know you do get emotionally invested. How did you get to where you are? And what would you tell people that are maybe younger or aspiring, not an enterprise? Like this is what's required to reach the top from a personal standpoint of like this is what who you need to be or what you need to do and from an activity or focus standpoint.
Welcome everyone to this month's fireside chat. I'm excited to have Brad Harmon with us. And Brad is a top performing enterprise seller at Oracle where he's consistently delivered some of the highest results in the company at multiple levels including mid-market, majors, enterprise. Um, he's been in sales about 15 years and he hit quote a 14 of 15, including closing some of the biggest deals in the company's history, a $75 million transaction, and was recently recognized for AE of the year at Oracle, which is truly remarkable considering how many people they have. Um, he's made life-changing money. Um, has had a great uh track record and has had multiple sevenfigure years and just had his best year ever. We won't say how much, but let's just say it's uh could be considered life-changing money. So, huge congrats on that. But beyond the beyond the numbers, Brad is is known for a human approach, human first approach to selling. Um he thinks his superpowers are trust, accountability, and genuine caring about his customers and his team. And that's the real differentiator. He loves mentoring, helping others. um stays grounded in his faith and he's really designing a life where success at work will never come at the cost of um his mental health, his family or his integrity. And so he aligns with a lot of the values that we teach. And today um he had how old is your your new new baby? >> Uh she is four months as of yesterday I think. >> Four months. >> Yeah. >> So first first child. So his greatest source of motivation now is being a great husband, father and leader. So, a lot shifted when you become a dad. So, um we're gonna we're gonna break down everything that Brad does to to achieve really these crazy numbers and he'll he's an open book. So, we're going to dive in, but I just want to start Brad by congratulating you on your newborn first and foremost, baby girl, but also just having your biggest year ever at Oracle. I'm curious kind of how you feel after that level of achievement and specifically if you feel different you know than
>> Absolutely and and thank you for having me and I I appreciate everybody joining and everyone's time always been a big proponent and follower of what you do to Ian so thanks for having me on but yeah in terms of last year it was just fantastic I mean outside of the the large transaction that you spoke about um I did about 12 other deals as well and and running those deals in parallel while running a a large transformational cycle was was certainly taxing and challenging, but the end result super rewarding. But in terms of how it changes my approach and and how I feel about myself, I I still bring my hard hat and lunch pale on a day-to-day basis, right? I mean, year-over-year success is is earned. It's not given. Um, I certainly never have felt entitled to to anything. um you know like you were mentioning I've worked across a lot of different size markets right so with different size markets whether you're SMB uh mid-market majors enterprise strategic you name it comes with different sense of accounts um but yeah I've always worked all the territories to the best of my extent and and really given it the best from from an effort perspective I think um having a life-changing year like last year was was certainly a gamecher especially in the household but um you know there were some early mornings and some long nights that went into that and then you know obviously any time that there's a couple of commas in a deal. Uh you're going to have a lot of leadership and a lot of a lot of cooks in the kitchen per se, right? And I think being able to manage that um along with the stress levels and the pressures and the needing everything yesterday when you're working at a large corporation certainly came with its challenges. But, you know, being able to navigate through that and persevere and uh, you know, getting the docu signed back uh is always is always such a rewarding feeling.
But >> when did it come back? How late was it in the fiscal before >> It wasn't It wasn't too late. I think we we had a good process where we weren't going to it it wasn't going to go to the 11th hour, which I mean I think represents the good mutual partnership that we showed through throughout the cycle. Um, but yeah, it was it was truly, you know, it it took an army, right? when you're when you're dealing with a a deal of that size and an order of that magnitude, I think um you know you're you really find out who you are as a as a seller and and as a person [laughter] throughout throughout the process because it it is going to test you uh mentally, physically, and emotionally because you know you do get emotionally invested to an extent, right? There's there's just no avoiding that when you're spending sun up to sun down on on something.
But I have like three questions I want to [snorts] follow up. >> Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead. >> So, first, if that deal didn't happen, would you still have hit quota? I'm just curious at the personal >> I Yeah. I still uh it would have been, you know, 100 110% year, but I I think it >> it's so funny because when I closed my biggest deal, I took it out and I and I was going to be around like a little over 100. I'm like, I was more proud of that than >> than I was the deal. It's like, hey, this is like I always say get to get to um quota with singles and doubles. get to like 300% with with triples and home runs. What What percent did you finish at with >> uh I think in the upwards of almost a thousand%s uh was was the actual number and um we didn't have a we didn't have club or anything like that this year but I you know that would all been the midst of when my newborn was coming so that would have been obviously the the biggest priority but yeah >> it is it is pretty wild a thousand%. So yeah, that's I think I think that's because a lot of people like you know they have all their eggs in one basket and then if if it doesn't close their year is like nothing. But you really do need to hedge it and get no matter what with the science of selling the you know the daily work and then in between you know you're you're hunting for for the elephants that will make a huge year like that. So that's I kind of figured you might answer it that way but I wanted to make sure because you mentioned the 12 deals is clearly a pride point besides the big one. Le let's talk a little bit about the big one for for a few minutes because you mentioned pressure and and having the spotlight on you. I'm curious because you're you're you know I'm assuming senior executives were involved and how did you manage that and particularly how did you deal with some of the the pressure of having so many eyeballs on you internally um you know as you were as you were running this deal?
Yeah, you're you're operating under a microscope to a certain extent given all the the eyes, ears, and pillars. And I don't know if everybody's familiar with a with a prime and and co-prime model, but you know, essentially you have, you know, six or seven different individual contributors that are partnering with you and their leadership and and everybody else involved. But I mean, I really am a huge huge proponent of of constant communication. if you're constantly communicating um even if it's one level on up or even the the opposite way down starting at the top and going going going trickle down effects um I think that that's going to make your life a little bit easier as opposed to them always constantly reaching out and saying I need this where's this at where's this been um you know I was putting together almost daily uh recap emails of what the the tasks were for the day and what was able to be completed and what's outstanded, what's outstanding, not just on my side, but on the customer side as well. Um, you know, really just, yeah, I said I had internal cadences that were pretty much daily at at that point. I think if you're just if you're overly and constantly communicating, it's going to make your life easier from a managing up perspective. Um, that was really the the key to survival through throughout that, I would say.
>> And it's almost like project management. Yeah, it it is which I mean you're uh you're the CEO of your territory, you're a project manager, you're a customer success manager, uh you're an office manager in terms of um some of the day-to-day tasks, but you know, like I said, all very rewarding and very fulfilling and and some of the best parts of the job and, you know, some of the parts that some of us don't don't love so much. Um, you know, I'm not the I'm not going to sit here and say that one of my strengths is doing the administrative side of of our job. um that that's always not just been a challenge for me, but I've always thought that I want to be focused on revenue generating activities, not, you know, constantly updating the the CRM and things like that, but you know, we all come we all know that that comes with the territory because everybody has to, you know, create visibility on themselves, right? So, when you're operating under a microscope and you're not, you know, the most organized person at times, it's it's rather difficult, but I was able to uh do the best I could.
And >> what are some of the things you do to like sell as a team? Because it sounds like there's a pretty big team and specifically to um to to enroll your executives in the deal like how how do you bring in executives or uh product leaders or what does that look like for you to ensure that you do have the right level of access?
Um >> yeah, absolutely. I'm I'm big proponent of executive alignment, especially in um you know, deals that have substantial dollar signs and dollar figures to it. I'm sure everybody's well verssed in in what that looks like. And you want to get as high up as possible, not just on your end, but at the customer end as well, so they're constantly communicating and talking. Um
>> do you run the deal or do you have your executives? because I' I've seen people bring in executives and and then their executives are busy both sides and so the execs not really involved. So my approach is always have a direct relationship with the the senior economic buyer and then bring in my execs as support air cover but I still have that onetoone. I'm curious if you if you have that direct relationship with the seauite or if your execs do and you're kind of um coaching them on what to do and say
>> no. Absolutely. You always want to own that relationship as as much as you can or as much leeway as your executive is going to give you, right? I mean, I've been around here for 13 plus years, so I probably have a longer leash than somebody who's been here one or two running a a deal this size because I know how to navigate complexities internally. Um, and I also know how to speak, you know, at an executive level as well. I think I have a great executive presence and, you know, you and I can obviously touch on what that means later. Um, but I, you know, it's it's a partnership approach, right? And at at the end of the day, you know, we're going to you're going to have a laundry list of follow-up tasks to accomplish, but as long as you're updating that executive on, like I was saying, the progress you're making towards, you know, what the end goal is on a regular basis, um, you know, that's that's kind of the best way that I've seen work for for me and the executive linemen and when and how to bring them in. My recommendation would be bring them in early and not late. Um, so that they're well educated and wellversed in the cycle. um and you're not playing catch-up and having to spend, you know, 10 15 internal calls of updating them on, you know, the life cycle of the deal and and who the key players are and, you know, the wide eyes and and everything like that that we become accustomed to. But, you know, executive alignment is is only there to to help you and and make your life easier at the end of the day. It helps you manage up better when you're dealing with a with a large transaction like this, too. So, it can absolutely be used to to your benefit.
>> What level of execs did you bring in for for the $75 million deal? >> Yeah, I I mean I everybody up to, you know, short of our CEO, right? I mean, you want to get whoever you can to to help drive this for you and and become your advocate. I mean, half of our job, depending on how large of a a company you work for, is is selling internally. And if you have the right people on your side and aligned, um, it makes it just it's just going to make your life easier at the end of the day when you're seeking approvals or, you know, going for one-offs and and everything like that or needing product dev support or, you know, further alignment, not just on the sales side, but the engineering side. I mean, like I was saying, the the army that it takes and, you know, doing your best to manage that army to to close a transaction deal of that size, um, is is it could be close to a 100 people, right, as as you know. So, um, yeah, I mean, I'll I'll take it. I'll take anything I can get. And, you know, like I said, it's really it's only helped me at the end of the day. Um, it hasn't been preventative.
I >> think it's a good way to look at it. And again, I'm totally going off script with this because I'm I'm just curious, but for people, so you're kind of like >> the elite. I mean, everyone in our program wants to most people want to get to enterprise, want to make seven figures, multiple years, want to be number one at their company. You're at Oracle, which is, you know, one of the biggest in the world. So, like what does it take? What type of person? What type of, you know, activities? Like how did you get to where you are? And what would you tell people that are maybe younger or aspiring not in enterprise like this is what's required to reach the top you know from a from a personal standpoint of like this is what who you need to be or what you need to do and from an activity or focus standpoint.
Yeah, great great question of course and let me first state by you know kudos to everybody in this call and on Ian's program for being willing to invest in themselves right I think um you know you're already giving yourself a leg up on everybody else who who does what we do by doing a program like Ian's I think it's investing in yourself personally and professionally is the first piece of advice that I would give anybody whether they're young new to tech sales later on in their career, uh, just coming into this role. I think that I think that's a huge part of of your success and and your fulfillment. And my my journey was that of a very standard, basic, and straightforward. I started as a business development rep, was able to I I always made the most calls, which made me get to all of my numbers, which put me on top of the leaderboard. So, at the one-year mark when I was up for a promotion, I was able to get that inside sales role. And then in the inside sales role, same thing. I was the number one in pipeline generation. I was the number one in progress deals. What after that year and a half came up, I was one of the first people to be considered for field roll, which at the time um was mid-market, which was zero to essentially up to a billion and hundreds of accounts. And I was able to prove myself in in that market segment, right? And I I was able to hit my number, I think, you know, most if not all of those years. Um and then, you know, the role evolves over time, right? Market segments change. Everyone goes industry specific. You know, the the territories change. So, you know, you mentioned on the call initially 14 to 15 years. The one year I did miss my number, I had new territory, which happens to all of us. Whether you're dealt the hand that you want or you don't, you know, you can't worry about things that are out of your control. Um, you have to make the most of what you're given. So, I was still able to sell some deals in that territory, but I was also able to create a line of sight into the future, right? So, if I wasn't going to hit my number that first year, you better be damn sure that I was going to hit it that second and third. So, I was creating a pipeline and a line of sight into that. So, I mean, you always have to be looking at your funnel and the transaction volume from a mid-market rep to an enterprise rep to a strategic rep are all very different in terms of how many opportunities you're dealing with and how much your pipeline is and and everything like that. So, you have to be willing to adapt um to that and you have to be willing to, you know, change the way that you sell based on who you're selling to. I will tell you that the CFO of a $50 million company operates much different than the CEO of a $50 billion company, right? I think that's everybody everybody knows that. But I think, you know, being willing to adapt and being willing to change because change is never ending in the technology space, right? whether it's the the latest and greatest technology or whether it's your your sales manager or your territory or anything like that. I think being adaptable and flexible um and always having a great attitude, right? I I've never got down on myself or my team or or anything regardless of what those changes are. I always try to look at the positives. I mean, we're all in we're all in tech sales which has created great lives for our families and ourselves and been very fulfilling professionally. And you know, I know that comes with some downsides at times that we all face, but we're all very fortunate and blessed to be in the industry that we're in, right?
>> Human nature is to, myself very much included, is to focus on what's lacking versus the gratitude for where we're actually at. And so we think about the future, we worry about the past or it's just the way the mind gets wired. Um, but you talked about this like you said, you know, I just focus on what I can control. I do my job. I'm adaptable right now. Um, this is a scary time for a lot of sellers. I mean, we're seeing it in our community. I I spent the better part of the morning thinking about this. Um, the stock market this uh we're recording this February 5th, just in the past um, you know, [clears throat] since 2026, you're seeing uh, billions and billions of dollars wiped away in valuation from software companies. um Salesforce, HubSpot, Service Now, Workday, very strong, stable companies with with solid um economic and a and um metric data. And it's all based on this fear fear right now because it hasn't been proven that AI will make SAS and software not as necessary because people can build things themselves versus buying these expensive offtheshelf. And it's like, okay, well, is that true? And you know, I'm I'm curious because it's it's a constant adapting. If that is true, okay, then how can my community be trained to sell against that objection or concern or, you know, or address that? But I'm I'm curious what you're seeing. Is it harder to sell right now with the proliferation of AI tools and optionality that's available for CIOS and for executives where they don't have to just buy Oracle or SAP, they could build or have some combination thereof. like what are you seeing in terms of your clients and some of the uh objections or or some of the the stalling that you may not have seen in the previous that's my first part are you seeing anything and if so how can sellers now address that to um instead of just trying to ignore it like how do you how do you uh how do you respond to that when that comes up?
>> Yeah. No, that's it's a hot topic these days. I think operationally uh for AI, I think uh companies are learning that it's expensive, right? I think that's where the the initial fear and onset comes um you know from the stock market and what's driving that change. But I think AI in general is no longer complimentary. Um it's it's baseline. It should be standard. It it shouldn't be a separate pitch. It shouldn't be a bolt-on approach. it it should be, you know, baked in within within whatever product you're selling. And it the purpose of it is to make what are traditionally manual and mundane tasks that require, you know, human intervention and everything like that more automated and and less tedious. And I, you know, I think the way the market's going and the the direction that it's taking is that, you know, the strongest AR AI players and there's obviously different types of of AI, right? there's generative there, you know, there's there's your standard um, you know, machine learning capabilities and everything like that. Who's ever going to have the most complete and comprehensive story from the infrastructure, the technology, the database, the application layer? Um, where like I said, it's just baked in. It's not it's not bolted on. I think is is going to come out all this like a shining star. And I think when you have the, you know, the open AIs of the world committing to these large contracts with hyperscalers and everything like that that are not upfront committed and need to still be fulfilled, it does create uncertainty. But you know, at the end of the day, when it comes to our job, our job is to just position our technology for the value proposition that it brings. Um, and that's, you know, whatever you're with whatever you're selling, right? Like I said, this should be just a standard part of the conversation. And I think the the term, you know, I'm not saying is getting played out, but it, you know, it's it's been pretty repetitive over the past couple years and we're not seeing a ton of use cases that are, you know, in production where the massive amount of success that was thought is being returned. But I but I think those days are coming. I think we're we're in a paradigm shift over the course of the next couple years where like I said those who have been a part of the the early strategy and who have been implementing this and adopting it for quite some time um are going to continue to succeed. But when it comes to AI that it it all comes down to the data. If you don't have good data AI is not going to produce anything of value to to any company, right? If your data and every and structures and everything are a mess, then it's not going to produce any type of outputs or automation that that you want to see. So, if you're talking about bolting AI on legacy applications, I mean, my my two cents is is good luck, right? I mean, if you don't have good data, you're not going to get good good use cases. I think the I think the important thing I mean for anyone who might be wondering about this why all these stocks are going down or why you know what's what's going on it's it's this fear that AI can replace traditional SAS because it's easy to build their own but the reality is that the AI like you're saying depends on a system of record or the data so a CRM is still going to need to be there an htm will still need to be there an ERP because that's what's powering the AI applications which which again it's a lot of fear and it's a lot of until we see companies replacing Salesforce with a homegrown AI built tool. There is there is no premise for this which is t typically how the market responds.
But what would you say to sellers specifically to make sure like how do you keep your cool am like uncertainty am like all these things that you can't control? What do you do to like always stay focused on what you can control and not, you know, not not get caught up in in the noise?
Um because you just try you just try and stay educated, right? To to your point, find out why the market is responding like it is and and just investing in yourself, you know, professionally in terms of, you know, taking advantage of whatever tools your your company gives you availability and access to. we have um you know if [snorts] whether that be a generative tool where you can you know have it help you from a prospecting standpoint or everything like that but I would say use AI in your day-to-day tasks if if your company allows it um make yourself that like who who could be more educated than somebody that's using the tool themselves and found success with it. I've I've seen you you sent me a couple prompts um you know after we talked last week and those were just awesome. I mean, if you can figure out a way to use AI to your advantage, you're compete, you're creating a competitive differentiator for yourself.
>> I think it's just a mindset. The most successful people in the world, whether they're sellers or whether they're entrepreneurs or CEOs, they're always staying ahead of what's happening versus being responsive. They're looking and seeing and they're they're keeping themselves relevant. I think that's the important thing. So, for any sellers, again, stay relevant. educate yourself. Make sure you're on top of what's available and bring that relevancy to your clients versus freaking out being reactive and worrying about your job when that's out of your control. You want to protect your your job, protect yourself by staying relevant and informed.
Um, you you talk a lot about caring, too. You said, you know what, I think my differentiator is is I really do care. How does it show up in front of clients? what does that look like in terms of your client engagement and um you know in and your executive engagement as well?
>> Yeah. Yeah. When it comes to the term care, I kind of correlate that with with taking pride in in your work and um you know I think in what we do in in order to be successful. Um you are you're customer focused and you're outcome driven because that's at the end of the day what what your clients are, right? And I think the best relationships are are going to be genuine and authentic. And in order to create those and build those, you have to show and prove over time to your clients and customers that that you do care. And I'm talking in a in a genuine and authentic way, not, you know, the artificial sales hat that sometimes we we've all been known to to put on. You need to let that guard down and really sell as a human, right? And
>> what does that mean to sell as a human? So you >> that's something that's something that in my opinion can't be taught but the best sales are done in person with humanto human interaction and and building genuine and authentic relationships with you know multiple lines of business depending on who and what you're selling right so if your target is is finance getting to that you know VP of finance building your way up having them walk you into the CFO um while still maintaining a strong relationship with with your CIO and and your IT folks. I mean, taking genuine interest in their in their personal life without crossing boundaries and barriers, right? I mean, those are those are clear and th those are up and you don't want to ever take those for granted or take advantage of those. But if you can get on to the point of, you know, where you're texting your client for updates as opposed to emailing or calling, I think that's that makes your life easier at at the end of the day. and when you can find out where your deal sits within the process when you're executing um you know because obviously that should be qualified upfront but we all know that that stuff changes along the way in in an enterprise sale when you have that genuine authentic relationship you know you can find out a lot more in my opinion that's going to help you sell uh whether it be upfront or or down the road I'm I'm
>> I think you're speaking to something so I won't say the person um but I had a a client who lost a deal or it slipped into into this year and um he didn't have that direct line into the decision maker, the economic buyer, right? His executives did, but he didn't. And they weren't on a texting basis. And the coaching was you need to find out what the hell is going on with this client. You need to literally they're pushing and executives saying we're not building anymore. We're going with this company. And then the engineers are all saying yes, we're building. It's like there's no, you know, there there's no communication on what's really going on. And the key to selling big deals is get to the truth and talk to the person in the know who can tell you what's going on. So, I I'm curious how you think about that in terms of like being very direct when when when needed, when things stall, when there's and and what does that look like for you?
>> Yeah, I'm I'm big on the whole mutual success, right? Um because our success is is their success and they're they're absolutely tied together and I don't think that that element is ever is ever going to change in sales. We we're trying to solve business problems with whatever our solution is that we're positioning. Um and and don't take losses as as losses or personal. Sometimes they're great learning lessons, right? To your point, when a deal pushes, slips, you lose you lose to a competitor. Um, you need to find out exactly to your point why why you lost that or why the deal slips and where your blind spots were so that next time you can have all of your bases covered as best as you possibly can. Right? And when you do have those onetoone human relationships and you can find out if something happened personally or whether that there was um a blocker internally that you weren't aware of. I mean, you know, we all we all have heard the term, you know, have a champion, but you need to have multiple champions and you need to build that network from that initial champion that you find that wants to help you sell, right? Um, and if you are so if you're multi-threaded enough, um, you know, like you were saying, you can you can truly get to the bottom of of what happens
>> or what's happening before [clears throat] before it becomes what happened. >> Yeah. So you could stay out in front and then maybe you can leverage a partner's relationship that they have with somebody who who you don't know or co-prime or or something. But you know to your point you always want to be two steps ahead internally but you want to be two steps ahead externally as well. So, we're being proactive as opposed to reactive and you don't have that, oh shoot, moment of, you know, I should have saw that coming and now I'm, you know, three steps behind of where I need to be and we have x amount of days within the quarter, right?
>> So, back back to the human connection, you said you you really want to be close to them. You want to be texting them, but you want to respect the personal boundaries like what what is what kind of relationship do you have with your clients outside of the meeting? you know
>> yeah so sharing sharing goals I think is the is the first one and that's you know applies to professional right or and personal so say you are taking a procurement sourcing contact to launch you find out you know how they're measured in and success what are the savings that you need to see on this contract because we need this to be successful for for both parties right it's just having those difficult conversations but making them more personal in that way so that you know you don't have to wait to ask the hard questions at the end. Um, taking a taking a real interest in their life outside of work. I think that that that goes a long way as well. But, you know, like I said, you have to be genuine and authentic about it. You can't, you know, go too far with it or or anything like that if if if that makes sense, right? I mean, it's just a human to human element and at the end of the day, it makes our job more fulfilling. Um, because when we do get that deal across the line, it you know it it feels good not just for us but for them as well. And then when you see the life cycle of the project and they hit these key milestones and they go live and and you know then that's when you that's when you can really go out and celebrate and take that personal level to the next level because you were able to help each other, right? It's it's at the end of the day it's what can you do for me, what can I do for you, and how do we do this together.
>> I love it. You said you have a strong executive presence and um you also mentioned in the pre-call you don't really pitch to execs like not not a lot of decks more conversations. Can just elaborate on like executive presence specifically how execs talk, how you talk to executives, what what's different about you know working with execs versus maybe um engineers or lower level managers.
>> Yeah, absolutely. If you walk into a seauite meeting with a a 30 slide deck and your manager and a solution engineer, I I guarantee you in the first five minutes, you know, they're not going to walk out, but they could potentially check out, right? So, you need to come to that meeting prepared and prepared to listen, right? The the best salespeople now are are the listeners. There is so much data available to customers that you know has made them such educated buyers that if you work for a larger company I will say they're already educated on who you are what you do your presence in the market where you sit in the gardener quadrant I mean all of that is already that's table stakes right you need to come prepared with a customer story that's relevant to them specific metrics that they were able to obtain with your products um successes and outcomes you know throughout about certain milestones or whatever modules you're selling or something like that. If it can be a competitor, even better that runs your that runs your solution. And it needs to be a five minute potential elevator pitch. And then like I said, you need to spend the rest of your time listening because
>> I I feel like you're you're um in my program even though you're not. [laughter]
>> We just talked about this yesterday. I'm like, don't come with the deck. Come with like your POV, but it's got to be verbal and it's just to get the conversation started. Yeah, the best the best business discussions are are conversational just kind of like kind of like we're having today. And that I think that that segments into the relationship aspect how you can make it more personal like hey this isn't just another salesperson walking in trying to pitch me XYZ trying to close me within the 6 to 12 months their year ends coming up they're going to give me a hot deal. Like that stuff that that doesn't work anymore. Like it just it straight up does not. And I've seen successful people who have kept kept that mentality fail in in today's selling world, right? I mean, you're sounds like you're teaching it and you're preaching it, but this is just things that I've evolved and learned over time and that this is spending personal time with executives. If you take a look at my LinkedIn profile and look at my recommendations, they're all seues who would recommend working with me because I'm a I'm a good person and I am invested in their success and I didn't bail on them after the deal closed. I didn't try and oversell. I I focused on the outcomes, stayed stayed dialed in on that and then executed against that and brought in the right people and the right resources.
>> Okay. So, so, so many people you're you're hitting it and and this is everyone I've come on that's like a top seller, it's they're all kind of saying the same thing and I teach the same thing, but it is really really hard when you have pressure of hitting a quota or you have a manager that's short-sighted trying to get you to close quick deals. it's very hard to like not try to, you know, push them or try and pull in or use some of the because the the clients are uh or not the clients, the companies often are that's the narrative and that's that's the pressure that they're pushing down to reps. And I think um I guess how do you detach from the outcome and attach to service, attach to doing the right thing when when you are measured and you are trying to hit quota at the same time. What do you do for for that? Like what's your philosophy on it?
>> Yeah, I like to I like to call that unnatural acts to try and make a deal close that's not supposed to close yet, right? Um, and there are always certain incentives and and things that you can try and bring forward to try and pull a deal forward and, you know, different cap capex versus opex, you know, type discussions. But at the end of the day, if you build a success plan with a customer upfront and you identify timelines, you need it. You but you have to be flexible when it comes to these when these plans, right? because things happen, things comes up come up personally, professionally or whatever and you have the the you know work backwards of go live and and everything like that and you try and stay course. Um, you know I I I always focus on doing the right thing but ultimately we all do have manager to report up to. Some of us have Wall Street, you know, to report to from a a company standpoint. And you still have to you still have to adhere to what what the uppers above, you know, tell you to do and and say to do, but ultimately I I have to do what's what's right by my customer because I need my customer to see me as the advocate for them because that's how I position myself and and sell myself to them, right? So there's there's a fine line to walk there, but you want to be in the position to be able to ask for that pull forward favor based on the relationship that you have and because of the work you've put in. Um, you deserve a seat at that table. Know that you deserve the seat at the table. You have put hundreds if not thousands of hours of resources into this project and into this sales cycle and you've invested yourself professionally and personally and you know, you know, even made it potentially emotionally. Um, but just know that you're worth um the mutual accountability. It go it works on both sides and you shouldn't have a problem uh when you get to that point asking for it.
>> What does that sound like for you when you ask for something unnatural or calling a favor?
>> Yeah, it's it's essentially just like you and I are having a conversation here and say, you know, Ian, our our quarter ends here in in 3 weeks. I know that based on our mutual success plan, we were planning six weeks. Is there any way that you can get your executives to potentially pull this forward to meet my end of quarter needs? Um, and really help me out like that. At the end of the day, you you're asking for a favor, but you've earned the right to to ask for that favor.
It's >> it's simple, right? You don't have to over complicate it. You don't have to it doesn't have to be long. It doesn't have to be >> just ask. I mean, it's the reality. It's not unnatural. That didn't feel like too much pressure. That didn't feel like pressure. It didn't feel unnatural. And just and just know in anything in a in an upper management meeting, in an executive meeting, less is more. Get to the points, get to the get to the ask and move on. Like there's no reason to sit there and go 20 rounds um over over the same thing. Uh because there's nothing worse than than talking in circles. Our time is valuable, right? I mean, we all have a hourly dollar amount that we've calculated for ourselves. Um, you know, know, like I said, know know your worth and and know you belong there.
>> Uh, the the way that I positioned that and the best person I ever worked for was Dallas Stonus and and he was my RVP and now he's a chief sales officer. The best. He'd go, he'd look him in the eyes, the CFO, the CEO, he's like, "Appreciate this partnership so much. appreciate. We're committed to helping you and just want to kind of level set with where we're at. You know, we're in January and most of our customers know that that's a great time because it's the end of our fiscal year and we're pretty far along and I wanted to find out we're ready to present and we only have a few weeks left and if it's unnatural, no, no problem at all. But if it is possible on your end, if it is doable, what what would be a path where we can make sure that we get this, you know, authorized by you. What would need to happen? And because if you can do it, it's a very um opportunistic time and and it's actually the best time because we could offer some things, but the last thing I want to do is put anything in front of you and say you have to sign by this day. So before I even propose, is that doable if we can, you know, make it work? is are you in a position to even execute on that in in a three-week period? And he would >> and and what do and what do I need to do to make that happen? Right? Are there are there specific levers that that need to be pulled to make to make this unnatural act happen? Kind of like >> we would just ask. We wouldn't even give them the pricing. The last thing you want to do is say, oh, it's expiring the fiscal. You ask first, is this doable on your end? If so, the timing is great. If not, no worries at all. And then it's like you you work backwards.
So this this whole concept of a mutual action plan, it eliminates the need to hard close. So what what does that look like to you when you put that together when you say work backwards from go live? Like what goes into that and how is it positioned to the client?
>> Yeah. So you know to your to your point disqualify early, right? Um you don't want to have that conversation towards the tail end of a quarter because then everybody's going to be scrambling and nobody likes or appreciates that, right? And that that on your end as well.
Sucks. It's the worst.
Yeah. The work, the work backwards plan has to take into account, you know, legal turnaround times, right? What have you, what have you seen with deals of this size? Who has to be involved? Who does this have to be routed to from a signature standpoint? Does this have to go to board approval? Are they private equity owned? I mean, there are just so many factors that have to be built into that plan. Um, including negotiation time, uh, phasing timelines. I mean, go-live milestones. I mean, you have to work with whoever is implementing your technology to kind of collaborate on that mutual success plan because everybody needs to be part of it. This needs to be like a a matrix document that's, you know, an ongoing, you know, living, breathing document for your process. Um, and I think, uh, you know, the the best ones are, like I said, when when they're being followed as closely as they possibly can with some deltas in there, um, that are made collaboratively, but you can also show, hey, we've been at this for 9 months now. And, uh, we're getting towards the tail end to your point. This is when you could start asking for the the unnatural acts or the favors. But, I saw somebody made a quote, by the way, that I must be in your program. I I swear Ian and I did not rehearse this prior to the prior to the discussion and this is just if this is what if this is what he's this is what he's telling you all this is what works and this is what has really worked for me. So I'm I'm I'm really happy to hear that and glad that you're all uh glad that you're all seem to be listening. They [snorts] they do and that's why I like bringing the re the real people on that are that are crushing it because that's that's genuinely um that's genuinely I want to put I'm going to put this in the chat but the mutual success plan, the mutual action plan that that we use um is is one of the best and Isaac, thank you for putting it in and it and it maps to go live. It maps to go live because you don't want to people have a closed plan, a close date. No, you got to bring the implementation [clears throat] part because that's what makes the actual plan have a compelling event is if you want to go live by, you know, June on a six-month implementation, we do need it by December because the implementation partner needs to set up the project, get the resources, you know, etc. So, I think that it's all about their success and when they need to go live and then mapping backwards to a contract date that takes into account the implementation time. That's what makes it so you don't have to pressure them.
Yeah. And just as a as a one-off, uh, celebrate the milestones and the the small wins along the way and and and do something for the customer post go-live so that they can go tell all your other customers um about the go-live and the success that they had with you and how you were with them from start to finish if you can be and and every like. Um, you know, if they if there's a smaller go-live, if it's regional, if it's module, whatever. um celebrate those with with your customers and and have some fun along the way. I mean, business can get dry at times. Um and I think everybody loves to kind of kick back and go out and and have some fun every once in a while, especially when you're talking a project of of a certain magnitude and scale where you know that people not only have to do their day jobs, but they also have to do a project which is essentially doubling their workload. So,
>> project in addition to the day job. So, take them out, send them swag, take them host a host a little dinner, event, happy hour, whatever. Um, we're going to rapid fire because I still have five questions. I want like less than a minute per answer and then I want to open the group for at least 10 minutes. And I always I always hog the time, but I just have so much I want to learn from you. Um, 14 to 15 years, what are the non-negotiable behaviors that you do every single year to make sure you're successful? Non-negotiable behaviors.
>> Uh, focus on your targeted accounts. uh do revenue generating activities. If the pipeline's not full, fill it. Find out who you have to who who has to close and what needs to close within the time frame for you to get to your number. And if it if you're not going to get to it and it's completely unreachable and unattainable, figure out how you're going to do it next year.
>> Amen. Second one, you are not your number. How do you detach your self-worth from your performance? Especially when you're building up six months in a year to these big deals. How do you uh detach your worth from from your your um your self-worth from your from your quota?
>> Yeah, I mean at the end of the day I I still want to just be a good person and contra and contribute um you know do stuff for with the team whether that be you know revenue generating activities by you know sponsoring having somebody partner put together a webinar you know prospecting activities I mean there's always things that you could do to be a better teammate. Um, but you know, figure out a way to make yourself a better person as well. And that just applies to professional, right? Uh, go take a master class, go take a training internally. Um, go further your education, read a book. I mean, there are just there's so many things that you can do to continue to expand your knowledge and your mindset. Um, you know, just keep investing in yourself, which I mean, like I said, all of you do already, which I give you mad kudos for. Um, you know, I never even thought about a coach until I saw Ian's post on on LinkedIn, right? And uh, and you, like I said, just just continue to have a positive mindset and a positive attitude and eventually it'll it'll all pay off for you.
>> Has anything changed since having a baby in terms of how you show up and your motivation?
>> Definitely. Definitely. I I have detachment hours now, right? where I am going to go out and play with my daughter for 30 to 45 minutes when I have a block where I used to be cruising LinkedIn and trying to make connections and try to figure out how I can sell more. Excuse me. I um you know I used to just want to always be at the top of the leaderboard. I wanted the all hands call recognition. I wanted to go to club. I love all these awards that are that are sitting on my desk now. But really now I just want to be I want to be dad of the year and I want to be present for all of her milestones. I want to set her up for success financially in the future. And um you know instead of buying a lakehouse and a Corvettes, I just want to take family trips to to Europe or you know teach her sports. Uh you know there's just endless things now that I am planning and want to do. But it's it's all built on the the successful foundation that I've been able to
>> 100%. It allows you to do some of that stuff. And what's a detachment hour? I've never heard that term.
>> Uh, it's basically you do something for, you know, you do something for yourself. You go to lunch with your significant other. I take the dog for a walk. You go exercise. You rip a peloton. I go, you know, I go play with my daughter. Um, you know, you listen to me, you just listen to music and detach and just really
>> It's actually like one of the keys to productivity is is turning off the mind. That's how you can come back and be focused and efficient is you have to take breaks. And I I just never heard it called that. I took a walk this morning with my wife for didn't start till 9:30 and I was walking with her on the beach and um it was great and it's you know I had something planned from 9930 but it's like well you know this is more important. So
>> absolutely and I and I do think that your your personal relationships will correlate with your professional relationships. If you have your house in order at home it's easier to have your house in order at work too. I I'm a I'm a big proponent of that. They don't necessarily have to always coincide with one another because life events happen and everybody's aware of of what that can mean. But yeah, I think when you're when you're happy at home, you're usually happy at work.
>> Yeah. And if you're miserable at home, you're not going to be able to focus at work and you're just going to be
>> hard to do. But if you figure that one out, you let me know.
>> I haven't seen anyone figure it out yet. What I have seen, it's interesting. I'm meeting with a Mark Rober tonight and he uh I listened to one of his interviews and he said, "You know how many founders I he he went to MIT business school and he said they'd have founders come in who were like retired in their 50s and they had made all this money and been worth $100 million and they had no family and they were miserable and they said don't do what I did." So any advice? We'll kind of leave that as the last question.
>> Being rich wealth.
>> Yeah. Being rich to me is no longer monetary. It's it's having a a healthy healthy wife, healthy baby, and and just being being a family, right? Those those are the most fulfilling goals and and dreams for me. And, you know, like I said, the past 15 years have been have allowed me to kind of have that mindset mentality. I still want to provide. I still want to be a great sales rep and I still want to be at the top of my game, but, you know, at the same time, I need all the other stuff as well. And how does your faith I know I know you have a strong faith. How does that impact the way you think about all this?
>> Yeah, it's going to sound like I'm going to the Super Bowl right now, but all the glory is is to the man above. I I wouldn't be able to do any of this if I wasn't blessed with the the talents that I've been given along the way. Um if you are, you know, blessed with certain talents, it's kind of your job to, you know, reward the Lord, I would say, on giving back. Um, if you're making these big commission checks, ensure that some of that money is going towards a cause that you believe in. Um, you know, I I believe that good things happen to good people and if you do good things that good things are going to happen to you and that's a mindset and mentality that I live by and I I hope to share that message and I hope everybody else agrees.
>> I love that you say that. I mean, it's not accidental, you know, if you're if you're good with people, if you're intelligent, if you're intuitive, if you're um everyone's got gifts, right? It's not accident that we're given these gifts. I I feel the same way. It's like we have an obligation to use our gifts for for service of others, and there's a lot of joy in that. So, it's it's refreshing to hear you say that. I I want to open it up to the group. Um, you know, obviously we have a heavy hitter here and a lot of people in the community, I'm sure, are curious about some of the stuff you said. So, if we can open up to questions uh for the last 10 minutes and and um you guys can ask Brad anything. He's pretty open book. Um, just raise your hand and we'll we'll call on you and we'll we'll uh go for it. Don't be shy, you guys. Or else I'll just keep asking questions. Who wants to go first? Isaac, go ahead. Um, yeah, I have just a question. Did Larry have eyes on your $75 million deal? [laughter]
>> There's, you know, you never know truly, but I um I would I would think that ultimately hopefully something came across the desk, but but truly at the end of the day, I don't know. I mean, Oracle's done so many large transactions over the years. It's just I I don't know. Great question, though. Great question.
>> Jared.
>> Um, yeah, thanks Brad. um great interview and I listen to your other uh podcasts on uh sales success. So um you appreciate you sharing all of your insights and so forth. Um I was wondering if you could touch on mentorship and if mentorship has been a part of your um your growth.
>> Yeah, great question Jared and and first and foremost huge proponent and huge believer in that right. I think early on in my career, I stole from who I thought was was some of the best people from a sales perspective. I would, you know, when I was a fly on the wall on some of these discovery calls and everything like that, I would I would hear things that would resonate. I would see the customer nodding their head and I would be like, I'm going to take that. But at the end of the day, you ultimately have to make it your own, right? You don't want to be a hodgepodge of of who you think the best people are. It still has to be genuine and authentic from yourself. But yes, I've absolutely leveraged mentor programs. I love to mentor, especially, you know, SDRs and inside reps that that want to, you know, get to the field as quickly as possible and share best practices and share what's worked for me. Um, hear about their goals, hear about what's working for them. The the generation coming up has a different mindset than us millennials, which is different from Gen Z, which is it's all different. So, it's always great to hear their perspective. Um, you know, I I wish the younger folks would would would do it more. Candidly, I'm not seeing it as much. I'm not getting the outreach that I once did from younger early career folks. So, I hope I hope that, you know, this stuff like this sparks it. I think it's our job to give back and that that's why I do things like this. So, yeah, big big proponent. Find who you like. Find who you work well with and mold well with. Make sure your goals are are aligned and you know they've been successful and um you know absolutely partner up. Huge fan of that.
>> Thanks Jared.
>> I think for um for mentors, you want to find the person who who uh is in the place you want to be. I think it's really important. So your mentor doesn't need to be at work. If you're the top of your your game at work, you can find other people that um like my mentor right now is Dan Dan Sullivan and his program and it's all about building self-managing company because he's done that helping entrepreneurs not to leave the company by itself, but to free up their time to make the company better and bigger and really align with energy giving activities versus operating activities that are draining. So, it's like you're always progressing to that next level. It's I've had nine years of coaches straight. Um Michael Yeah. Hey Brad, see you buddy.
>> Yeah, good to see you Ian. Uh I know I'm jealous of everyone who who meets with you on a weekly basis now. Um sorry if I miss if you spoke earlier about this. I I I joined a little bit late but obviously a lot of anxiety and noise right now in the market spec specifically the SAS market about AI and how that's disrupting everything. Curious to get your take on that sort of how has that changed at all or is it just continued noise and you know trust the fundamentals? Um, yeah, curious if you can respond.
>> Yeah, I mean, as as you know, throughout our careers, we we've all seen some type of disruption come along the way. I'm I'm kind of just keep my head down and and move forward and, you know, like I said, if be educated on on what the topic is and why it's affecting your day-to-day job, leverage it. Um, be able to position it and sell it as a as a value proposition. Have it add value to to who you are and and what you do. Um, I think that could really help differentiate you, speak to how it's being leveraged internally with some of your internal tools. It's just going to build credibility. Um, you know, I think we're going to see a paradigm shift in the marketplace over the course of the next year or two. I think those who are willing to adapt and learn and adjust on the fly are going to be the ones who really start start separating themselves and, you know, focus on what you can control ultimately, right? I think that's the the best advice that I can give. Um because stuff that's out of your, you know, out of your pay range and everything like that is is going to happen whether you like it or not. Um so like I said, just just stay stay focused on you and your team and your customers and do the best you can and um you know, stay the course.
>> Stay ahead of it, Michael. Stay ahead of it. Okay. I just talked about this. I asked in the first half. I think you came halfway, but the the you have to educate the customer. Your job is to be the expert. So, I just learned in about 30 minutes of research, maybe an hour, what's going on with the market, right? A lot of it's speculation. It's actually not reflected in the numbers of these SAS companies and the performance of these companies that's leading to the decline. It's this fear that AI is going to be able to build and replace traditional SAS. And that's actually not true because AI is dependent on the system of record and the data lying underneath. So if you work for a CRM company, they're still going to need CRM and what they can do with it at that layer, that agentic layer is going to shift, but you're going to say you're still going to need this. You think AI is going to rebuild your whole CRM? You need the data model under it. So fundamentally, you need to stay ahead of it so you can learn how to address, talk, and and and communicate with expertise around what's going on for your clients versus, oh my job's going to be replaced. what am I going to do? Or you can just go to one of these top AI companies. That's [laughter] another option is you can move where the you know a lot of people are doing that too is like going to the companies that are pure play selling AI which I don't I don't blame some people there. I might consider that too but in reality the big companies especially the core um mission critical systems aren't going anywhere because AI hasn't rebuilt ever any of these systems. So when that happens we can start to worry but until then it's just speculation. Uh, Michelle.
>> Yeah, I just had some questions. I mean, I thought it was so interesting to hear about the year that you had. So, thanks for sharing, Brad. Um, I was typing lots of notes as you were as you were speaking, but um, one question I had for you is you mentioned when you were closing the really large deal this year, um, that you know, sometimes you were working the beginning of the morning to the end of the night on something, it's hard not to get emotionally attached. I definitely relate to that. Um, and I'm just curious how you think about work life balance. Like I guess I would say as a sales person like I don't strive for like perfect work life balance. It it certainly doesn't exist for me today and it's an area of improvement for me. But I'm just curious when you want to accomplish really big things in the sales world, you do have to operate differently. And it doesn't mean you always have to work these crazy long hours and there's seasons in the year, I'm sure. But could you just like talk me through like how you think about that? Um if it was like just certain periods where it would be really long hours associated with the deal and coming out of the year if you felt like totally burnt out by this and you could or you felt like it was sustainable enough with the push and pull of busyness that you were actually able to kind of come into this year wanting to have another year like that.
>> So I thought I knew burnout and then I had a child. [laughter] But no, that's that's just a joke. I'm just kidding. That that is a great question. So, if you want to hear how I transitioned from last year to this year, I was actually able to close a $10 million deal in Q1 uh post the the Q4 monster. So, I will tell you that, you know, working on deals in parallel with one another is very fulfilling and very rewarding knowing that there's a line of sight, you know, into more into more deals. you always want to be hungry for more and everything like that. And I will say when I was when I was younger, my work life balance was work all week, party on the weekends and get right back to it. That was essentially my mentality and mindset. But then I met then I met my wife and that you know obviously that changed. I was living in downtown Chicago at the time. Now I live in a boring suburb. But um you know I just the the always be closing mentality is is is there and that's never going to go away. But you know I mentioned those detachment periods and when you feel like you're at your max from a you know emotional perspective then I think that's the you know you should know yourself know your body and know when you've had enough and when you have windows to to step away take advantage of them. um you know the big deal and and everything like that is uh you know like I said very rewarding and very fulfilling but there there were times where it did ultimately consume my life and I had to console and my wife and and everything like that and my support team at home is is the best the best one going which is allows me to be successful at work. Um, but you know, I I'm I'm like we were talking about, you know, we've been fortunate enough to be in this profession and it's our job to work hard and give it all. Um, you know, a lot of us are paid a lot of money to do what we do. Um, so, you know, sometimes that spans outside of the normal 8 to 5, 9 to5, which you need to be accepting, but you have to prioritize, you know, the work from the balance of, you know, making your kids soccer practice or being the coach of something. I mean, you know, you're like I was saying, your your time is just as valuable, if not more valuable than than an executive to yourself. So, treat it accordingly, I guess, is the the best way to put it. But I will tell you, when you hit your number earlier on in the fiscal year, you have a much better work life balance than scrambling towards the end of the year. And I think Ian's smiling right now because he's just like, man, isn't that the truth? But I mean, that's the best the best advice I can give. get to that target, the sooner the better.
>> The way I run my years is Q1 build pipeline, Q2 advance pipeline, Q3 close pipeline. Be in
>> be in your number by the end of October. We had a fiscal year ending in January. And it was like that changes everything and it's all bonus and you can just relax and
>> well and enjoy the enjoy the holidays too when you
>> Yeah. Enjoy the holidays. Enjoy family time. Customers don't like working long hours and over holidays and and things like that either. So get that close plan with set up early and then you know bake in those those deltas.
>> It has it has to do and this is not just for you. It's for everybody watching. You got to set boundaries. You have to set boundaries. Just the act of saying I'm done by 5:30 or 6 and it goes off forces you to work efficiently. Forces you to um work faster. Forces you to work on the right things. So I just find that the work expands to fill the time allotted. So you have to set the boundaries then you work smarter versus working harder. And the second thing is work on the right things. You know it's like if you're working on the right things you don't feel like you need to make up for it at night. You know it's like working on low value busy work. It doesn't it's you just know it when you're doing it. Like this is not the right and best use of my time. So, really be aware of what you're working on and and and you know, if you if you work on crap, you're gonna have to work long hours to get the good stuff and it just totally screws everything else up. So, be be selective with what you choose to work and say no to everything else, including bad deals and bad clients. And then, um, know your body like like Brad said, know usually it comes out it comes out with addictions. It comes out with temperamentalness. It comes out with just the way you feel. It comes out physically like you know when you're at your wits ends. listen to your body, take a break, you know, go on a walk and and bake that stuff into your your your work day, your work week, your work year, bacon, vacations, bacon.
>> And if you're if you're working with an EVP or an SVP on the West Coast, and you know, obviously their calendar is going to be booked from 8 to 8. You know, you're going to have to hop on a late call and and talk through a pricing spreadsheet. So take that 6:00 to 900 p.m. slot and go and go do something, right? Don't obviously be prepared and ensure that you you have your stuff together for that meeting, but you know, take take if you have to work late or work early, take take other blocks to kind of offset that and make up for it. And like Ian said, always always listen to your mental and your physical. I think that's the the best advice he can give because it's it all needs to be operating functionally properly for you to reach your maximum potential. 100%. Brad, you have a hard stop. There's one more and after that we'll take it, but if you have to go, we can we can jump off.
>> No, I'm I'm happy to I'm happy to do one more.
>> Last last question, Kellen, and then and then we'll uh we'll we'll leave it.
>> All right, Brad, thanks so much for sharing here today. I love hearing that you don't love the administrative work because I'd rather be doing something else as well. Um I want to ask you something very tactical given your 14 years. I bet you can speak to this, but you know, spent a lot of time in the program trying to find the right people, developing that point of view, getting a plan in place. So, all of that um is coming easier, but now I'm in a new situation where I have some inbound leads. And so, it's like, you know, you have this 30 minute conversation to determine and the next steps is reverse demo and this and that. And the relationship building, the really getting to the why, all of that is kind of lost in between. So, can you talk to me about situations like that and what you do do to to, you know, better qualify and kind of slow things down and develop those relationships versus just, you know, kind of go fast and transactionally in this?
>> What What is an inbound lead, by the way? Can you explain that? I'm I'm just joking. [laughter]
>> Exactly. Exactly.
>> It's been It's been a while. Um, yeah. So I will tell you um throughout throughout a cycle how how to weave the relationships is when you have the point of having a meeting um you know I would try I try to set up dinners afterwards or try to stay in town an extra day. When I'm in a competitive cycle my my goal is to consume as much time as I possibly can with that customer and fill their c and fill their calendar with with valuedriven activities. Right. um our are our competitive differentiators. I mean, I am I am so hellbent on consuming their time and educating them on my product and my platform. Um and I'm just hoping that they're not doing that doing the same with my competitors. Um, you know, like I said, you kind of find out along the way in that process who your champions are, and you always want to buddy up with with that champion, but you also need to find out who your detractors are and why, whether they have past experience with a different product, um, or a preconceived notion of of your product where there, you know, potentially wasn't success and everything like that. Our our jobs at the end of the day is to do detective work throughout all of that, you know, you know, cycle. uh that you that you were discussing in my opinion and come back and stay out in front and create a perspective and point of view that's going to be value centric and customer-driven and successoriented and you know outcomebased right I mean I know that was a long-winded response um but you know did that sufficiently answer the question
>> yes it did it gives me a lot to think about yes thank you I think it kind of resonates with me at the last mastermind I think somebody shared that they had this mutual action plan and they try to get as much time with the customer like you said get the customer thinking about them completing the action plan like keeping them top of mind so that that
>> yeah put the customer to work make sure they know how to buy and teach them how to buy
>> I love I love master classes watch coach K's if you guys look if you guys and I'm sports driven sports oriented and being a former athlete um the coaches who had winning records and winning mentalities you have to take the same in your business approach and outcome because If you want to get to your number and excel year-over-year, uh, you have to win more than you lose in what we do. Uh, and like I was saying, the the large the smaller your market segment is and the less accounts you have, the less a batch you're going to have. So, the more pressure there is to win those one or two opportunities that you're working on each year. Have a mindset, have a mentality to bring to the table. And, you know, be a good teammate, be a good partner, be good to work with, and and be a good person. And you know, like I said, those positive outcomes will start coming your way. And um you know, sales is a roller coaster. That's that's never going to change. Nobody's perfect. Nobody's always going to execute flawlessly. No one's always going to say the right thing at the right time. But if you're doing your best, that's all that can be asked of you. And um you know, like I said, kudos to all of you for investing in yourselves and with Ian's program and and being willing to to do this. [snorts]
>> Absolutely. Well, thank you, Brad, for coming on and sharing your wisdom. It was a master class in enterprise selling and in big deal selling today for sure. If someone has uh wants to get a hold of you, what's the best way for them to
>> Yeah. Find find me on LinkedIn. Um if you want to have a oneoff side conversation, um you know, I'm I'm still a nineto-5, so I'm always out down to talk outside of work hours, but I love giving back. I love mentoring. I'm always willing and able and happy to assist. I think there's plenty of pieces of the pie for all of us to go around. I want everyone to be successful. Um, and and just know that that's me and that's authentic and that's genuine and that's just not that's not BS. So,
>> careful what you wish for, man. You're going to get bored.
>> I know. If you say you love mentors, I can guarantee you're gonna have people. I can't thank you enough, Ian, for having me on. It's good to see you and talk to you again.
>> Years ago, I think I watched one of your presentations and I was like, this guy's sharp. And here we are three years later.
>> Well, thank you. Thank you for reaching out and sharing your success and congrats on your best year and more importantly, congrats on your new daughter and and family and uh it's been uh really refreshing to talk to you. And again, there's no superhumans. Brad is just like you and me. We're all just doing our best here. Show up every day, do your best, have faith, and let go of the rest. Things are going to work out. Be a good person, serve your clients, and that's all you can do at the end of the day. It's going to work out.
>> Right on. Right on. Sounds like you're teaching all the right stuff, man. So, appreciate you and and thank you everybody for your questions and commentary and follows and everything like that. I I do appreciate it.
>> All right, everyone. Have a great rest of the week. Take care.