Mastering Sales with Customer-Centric Strategies

Love Your Sales

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Mastering Sales with Customer-Centric Strategies

On this episode of 'Love Your Sales,' host Leighann Lovely engages in a dynamic discussion with global sales expert William Gilchrist, founder and CEO of Konsyg. They delve into the intricacies of effective sales strategies, particularly emphasizing the importance of understanding customer needs over mere product details. William shares enlightening anecdotes, illustrating how listening and aligning value propositions with client necessities can turn conversations into conversions. The conversation also tackles the oft-overlooked challenges faced by sales professionals and the misconceptions stakeholders have about the sales process. Wrapping up with invaluable tips and experiences, this episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to excel in sales and business development.

Contact - William
LinkedIN - https://sg.linkedin.com/in/williamgilchristkonsyg

Wedsite - www.konsyg.com
Email - [e-mail]

Special Thank you to our Sponsors – Genhead – www.genhead.com and Sales Rescue – www.rescuemysales.com

Robb Conlon – Intro and outro – Westport Studio - https://www.westportstudiosllc.com/

The Brave Ones – Instrumental Version Song by Jan Sanejko - https://artlist.io/royalty-free-music/song/the-brave-ones/119489

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Leighann Lovely: I am joined today by William Gilchrist.

He's an individual with an amazing, background, a career spanning over 15 years in technology sales across North America, Europe, the Middle East, uh, and Asia Pacific . William stands as a global authority in his field currently as a visionary founder of Konsyg, William oversees comprehensive sales processes for enterprises [00:02:00] and SMEs on a global scale. William, I am so thrilled to have you join me today.

William Gilchrist: And thanks so much for having me.

Leighann Lovely: Yes. And right now it is morning for me and it is evening for you because you are actually recording with me from Singapore.

William Gilchrist: Absolutely. It's a normal occurrence when I'm talking to my fellow country people that I'm always getting the short end of the stick of the hours every time. Night 2, 3 a. m. 10 p. m. It's, it's never, uh, in reverse.

Leighann Lovely: Yes. So why don't we dive right in? Why don't you tell me a little bit more about who you are, what you do and, um, yeah, we'll start talking about some fun, fun stories of, of sales and, and learn more about your, your background.

And, you know, I, I'm going to say that, you know, sales on a global level is not for the faint of [00:03:00] heart.

William Gilchrist: Absolutely. I mean, I guess who I am and what we do, uh, well, I am the founder and CEO of Consig headquartered in Singapore, , which effectively means I'm a glorified janitor. , that's really what it is.

I always tell people I run custodial services for Consig pretty much, uh, putting out fires, you know, cleaning the toilets and things like that. And we're really just, Managing the entire sales organization. And what Consig is, is a sales organization, more commonly known these days, which I'm really proud of as sales mercenaries.

So we're a mercenary group of salespeople that effectively takes contracts with, with large businesses, um, enterprises, even some governments, and what we do is we build revenue for them by being there on demand sales team globally. So that could be used for go to market strategies in the new markets or helping people that aren't necessarily that successful in their home markets or really at the end of the day [00:04:00] just competing with their current sales team sometimes if they have them just to see how their current sales team is measuring up.

So we kind of cover all different angles of the sales process end to end. And that's what we've been doing for the last eight years.

Leighann Lovely: That is amazing. I love that. , my audience knows that, you know, we, I, I play in that same space. And so I'm going to ask you a question that I've been asked, um, you know, a million and 10 times, how do you all of the sudden just take on, you know, becoming a sales person for.

a new company and learn their process and you know, how do you do that? Um, you, got to be able to wear so many different hats and learn processes and learn products. And so explain how that works.

William Gilchrist: There's so many layers to that. I mean, one, when it comes down to, selling a product, ultimately [00:05:00] sales is a value proposition and that's universal across all industries and all human beings, right?

It is a human interaction, whether it's a dill pickles. cheeseburgers or a VCR that's outdated. It's all based on what the value proposition is. And are you actually applying that value proposition to a person who needs it? The key part of that sentence is need. Um, so often people think that sales is like this voodoo stuff and just go out there and create deals for me.

Well, if that was the case, um, anybody could do it. It's more about, you know, Finding the right people who might have a need for a value proposition that our clients have, and then us having very educated business conversations to be able to attach that need to the value proposition. And a lot of that is just outreach.

And really being smart about the market to be able to know who to speak to who would actually care about [00:06:00] this value proposition and then moving it through the pipe that can go for cyber security, e commerce, med tech, mark tech, crypto after that, then you get to the complexities. One of the most common questions that our new clients always ask us or even prospects.

It's number one on our FAQ we put it up there on purpose. Are. Products or our service is so unique and so niche that it takes people's years to understand it. There's no way you'll be able to sell that. Well, you know, we've sold space tech before. I mean, we've sold a lot of different things that were out of our purview, but a lot of it is, do we understand the value proposition and why people need it in the market?

From there, growth happens. And this is something that people don't. Also factor in, which is as we're selling, we're constantly critiquing and getting better and understanding more about the pains in the market and how to attach that value proposition to those pains. We're not [00:07:00] engineers, but we are conversationalists.

We are pipeline managers. We know how to do outreach. We know how to have real conversations. And we know the one ultimate truth that nobody wants to admit to themselves, which is, Nobody cares about your product. They never did. And they probably never will, unless there's someone who's able to attach that value proposition to something that they actually need directly, then it sells.

Leighann Lovely: And that's, and I've said this before, to um, you know, to people that, you know, they're like, well, how are you going to sell my product? You're not an expert on it. And I'm like, I don't, I don't need to be an expert on how every intricate detail works in your product. I just have to understand the problem it solves for the people who are going to buy it.

And then everything else is going to fall into place. Like I need to be able to [00:08:00] go. know who to talk to that you already covered that know who your audience is know the problem that it solves and then be able to talk to that person on a high level on the value that the value proposit the value it brings to that person when it comes to all of the all of those fine details it's unlikely that even the client cares exactly how it Works down to that Minuscule detail they don't they don't care at the end of the day.

They want to know that if they're gonna hand over 10 100 100, 000 that it's gonna fix the problem they have and people are like, well, no, no, no, no No, you can't sell my you know Customized blah blah blah blah blah because you don't you don't get it I don't need to get it. I just need to be [00:09:00] able to present it in a way that is solving the pain points, the problems that the person experiencing them have.

And then the solution, you know, give them the solution and the results that they're going to get at the end of the day. I mean, and you said that just beautifully because we as salespeople, you know, we're I don't, need an engineer to walk me into the back and go, okay, here's all the pieces. This is why it worked.

William Gilchrist: The engineers I've seen kill deals.

Leighann Lovely: Yes.

William Gilchrist: Perfectly good deal. A lot of it's because What a lot of people don't realize is that yes, your company has a narrative. Yes. Your company has a voice. The salesperson is a bridge. It's not only the voice of you. It's also the voice of the people. So yes, if you don't necessarily get the technical details, that's good because the prospect doesn't either.

And what [00:10:00] you're going to do is to be able to translate. The complexities of the coding and the intricacies and how revolutionary it is into something real for someone that might be interested in it, even if they're in your industry, right? Oh, well, these people are highly technical individuals. Still, at the end of the day, I can have enough of a technical conversation as a salesperson to be able to get to the point.

And what people also tend to overlook. Is that in the sales process, if you have an experienced salesperson and somebody who's really good at, um, you know, getting deals on the table, as soon as someone's getting in over, like, as soon as we're over our head in a technical conversation, that's a great point to say, you know what, I think we're getting off just well here.

We need to get. Some of our technical people didn't answer those. But before I do that, if we solve these things, can you tell me a little bit why that's so important for you? Because that information is part of the sales process and part of the value proposition and part [00:11:00] of the need versus value proposition connection, which makes a deal happen.

This is commonly overlooked by so many business owners, by so many founders, even large companies, because. Even Cary Institute did a study. 92 percent of all founders have never seen a sales floor. They've never done a cold call. Right. And most initial deals that happen are usually from referrals or networks.

So they believe their sales cycles are really fast because, you know, their cousin bought it within two weeks. You know, you have the cold approach outbound sellers out there like us. They're like, most people probably don't care. In fact, most people won't even pick up the phone or you're fighting for two months to even get on their calendar.

You know, since this is a reality of the outbound seller that it gets overlooked very often when you are an individual with a product and believing that the product is going to like solve all problems in the world, which it probably could, but in order for that to happen. [00:12:00] people would actually need to see you and actually care and hear about it, which that's the sales process that people don't see.

Leighann Lovely: Right. And, and you bring up the founders that typically the founder is so into their product that they become sometimes their own worst enemy. I could sit here, you and I could sit here and talk about how, you know, as founders, we could sit here and talk about how great our service offering is over and over until we're blue in the face and be like, yeah, it's so perfect.

It's so great. You know, my, I'm trying to find something on my desk that's like, Oh, this stapler, you know, this stapler is the greatest stapler in the world because I created it and it does this and it does that. And people are like, I don't care. Does it, does it make paper stay together? And, and those founders don't, they, they get so stuck in their head, you know, and, and I'm sure you've had million client stories where they're like, I made it.

And now that I, it's, it's like, you know, [00:13:00] build it and they will come. The whole idea of, you know, the 1980s movie of Field of Dreams, you know, if, if you build it, they will, was that the 80s? Dating myself. Um, but you know, if you, if you build it, they will come. Well, no, that's not necessarily true. true if you don't know how to explain it to people at a level in which they care and a level in which they understand.

And those founders typically are not like you and I, where we're like, yeah, it's a beautiful field. You can come here and have fun with your friends and family versus here's how I did it. I took my, you know, tractor and I plowed down. I

William Gilchrist: don't, nobody's even looking at that. Right. And ultimately that's the result too of, um, yes, it's, it's a good thing that founders have a love for their product.

However, um, and there's a place

Leighann Lovely: [00:14:00] for that story too, for

William Gilchrist: that story, exactly. But also at the same time, they. A lot of people, they don't have enough respect for what sales is. There's no degree in sales. You can't get a degree in it. You need to get a degree in marketing. You get a degree in this and all, and all that stuff, but it's not like degree in sales, right?

It's a very, underappreciated kind of trade. In fact, it's not really seen as a trade. A lot of people think that it's personality and coffee and being funny here and there, and then just talking a lot, right? A lot of people believe that they don't understand the science behind it all. And it's not. The pitch, right?

We get a, we

Leighann Lovely: get a bad rap or is that what you're saying?

William Gilchrist: Oh, oh, we're considered scum. We're scum. We're absolute scum, right? You know, and, and, and the concept of a salesperson is go out there and make a sell happen. I mean, wow. That's amazing. Like, how do you force somebody to pull out their wallet? I couldn't even do that.

I was in Google for five years. Right. And like so many people would book me just so that they can get the [00:15:00] free lunch and a t shirt. But they want spending after that, you know, they just want to have an opportunity to go to the office. So people didn't even care about that. And that's Google. They don't even care about those products.

So ultimately it all comes down to just how well can you position a value prop? It, in that gets confused with how well can you position the product? And that is not the same thing, right? If you look at, um, a company like zero, for instance, well, zero. Yes, we can go into how it does invoicing, how it does bookkeeping, but it's, but that, that's not really the value proposition.

What it's doing is it's automating your back office. It's, it's, it's helping your back office. And do you have people in your back office that are doing a lot of paperwork, right? These type of things, that's the value proposition versus, Oh, wow. You know, we, we have set up an amazing invoicing system that sends auto reminders and then also at the same [00:16:00] time, yeah, yeah, that's great.

But how does. That actually helped me again, and they might not even realize that the value proposition is just totally what they need, right? That's where I think, um, the respect for sales gets removed because people don't realize that just because you got a great product and just because you love it so much does not mean that you're qualified to be able to have a sales conversation about it because you have to weaponize it with sales.

Leighann Lovely: Right. And, and to that point, I remember, um, like in my career, , I, I was selling a sales solution and my boss at that time wanted to partner with partner me with somebody who could do the demo. And I, you know, I can do my own demos. And I remember the first time I went out with somebody to, to do this.

And as we were sitting in the room, I'm watching all of, there's like four people in this demo, and I'm, I'm watching all of their eyes just kind of roll into the back of their head. And I'm going, this [00:17:00] is hor, even I was like, this is, I mean, it, it went from showing them like at a high level to Like almost a training session.

And I'm like, what are we doing? But this is where it goes, you know, where you go, I'm a salesperson too. This is a non salesperson who doesn't understand. Like the difference between let's just see the high level bells and whistles to diving into like the system and actually like going line for line.

Well, this is what this means. And I remember coming back to the office and saying and going to my boss and saying, I'm not taking. this person on any more demos. And she's like, well, why? And I'm like, because we sat there for an hour, basically doing a training session and they're never going to buy from us.

Now the sale is, is sunk. And I was the one who got in trouble because I was being [00:18:00] rude or I was being, and I'm like, why? Because I'm not considered the expert in the product. And so I'm the one who's, you know, being shunned for speaking up and they're like, well, you don't know what. What? Did

William Gilchrist: the deal happen?

Leighann Lovely: No. No. Well, well,

William Gilchrist: clearly the salesperson would be the expert if the deal actually didn't happen. Right. It's like, I'll tell you why. Right.

Leighann Lovely: But again, and that was, this was so many years ago, you know, I was early in my career, but, and it's like, I understand what you're trying to do. You want somebody who can answer those really high level questions, but to the point that you're making is that.

The sales conversation is a completely different conversation than the person who usually goes in and trains afterwards. And they don't have that same mindset. They, they're, they're in that you need to understand all of the nuances of the system, not [00:19:00] I want to sell you the system. I want you to, , you know, I want you to buy it.

They're, designed to be able to go in and train people on how to use it.

William Gilchrist: Well, you know, where they get mixed up here is why are you answering questions that weren't asked?

Leighann Lovely: Correct. Why are you, , why are you trying to, you know, give them information that they don't need right now.

William Gilchrist: Or maybe they do let them ask for it.

Right. And that's the key thing. If it hasn't come up, you know, my whole thing is that if there's ever a demo or any kind of real pitch, you should be talking 30 percent of the time and the person should be talking 70 percent of the time. And how do you do that? You can textualize every line, maybe ask questions.

In fact, we're Be Socratic for the first 20 minutes of the demo. If it's, if it's in an hour, be Socratic for the first 20 minutes and just simply ask questions. Right. Talk a little bit more about your, your area. How, how are you guys covering [00:20:00] this? Do you guys already have something like this? Maybe do, um, a fall on your own blade play, which is, you know, there's a good chance you might not need this at all.

Out of curiosity, what are you doing in this particular area? Right. You guys already have these systems? I mean, these are tactics of sales that would surprise, let's say, a founder. You told them that you might not need this. It's like, oh, don't worry. Once we get into what this is, we'll know whether or not that's true.

Because we want to see effectively how This person currently handles their systems. And maybe this is something that could make that one push of a button. And that's called a value proposition. That's contextualized to what they're doing and not talking about how amazing your products are. And, you know, unfortunately, I make it for your listeners.

We, let's try to clarify that it doesn't mean salespeople are not. knowledgeable about products, but they're knowledgeable for the purposes of a sales conversation, not for the purposes of implementation and [00:21:00] technicalities, right? It's really about the business component of things. And being an engineer does not mean you're a business person and being a salesperson doesn't make you an engineer.

People accept that one, but they don't accept the other way. And that's where things get a little bit confused.

Leighann Lovely: Right. No, absolutely. And, and here's, here's the funniest, some of the, the best and the greatest sales that I've ever had. I went in and. barely ever spoke. Barely, especially, especially just a couple of years ago, right after the pandemic and things started to open up again and everybody had been cramped up and no, no personal in person meetings had been happening.

Um, and I was meet during that time, I was meeting with a lot of HR people. And so I'd find, I'd go in and I'd sit down and it was an hour long of this HR. individual just talking, literally just finally having the [00:22:00] opportunity to be in the room with another human and just, you know, talking about like all of the stuff that had just happened and venting.

And then they, you know, at the end, you know, the hour would be approaching and I'd go, okay, so are we, are we good to go? You, you want to sign? Oh yeah, I'll sign that real quick and we can get started. And I'm like, great. Like, I mean, because sometimes that's what people need is just, They just want to vent.

They want to be heard. They want to, and then just, you know, and again, I'm not saying for every, some products are obviously highly more technical. I was selling, you know, at that time I was doing staffing services. There was no upfront fee, much easier sale. You go and you get a signature, you start working on it, you get paid.

You know, after doesn't work the same way when you're selling a product that you have to drop 130, 000 before you actually get started. But there, you know, there were times where it was, I would just go on and I'd, [00:23:00] Talk maybe 5 percent of the time just to let him know I was listening and it was like, Oh, okay.

All right, great. We'll get started on that for you.

William Gilchrist: Absolutely. I mean, you know, I was at a pitch one time where, , and it was in the Middle East and, and it was an hour meeting and the guy went, I timed it, he went 52 minutes. of explaining why he absolutely does not need this. I don't need this. We have this.

We have that. And I'm amazing. And you know, you see my car outside and blah, blah, blah. He went 52 minutes. I was looking at my watch the whole time, just like watching him talk. And then right when we got around the 52 minute mark, I said, okay, well, great. Um, well, you know, I'm sure you got it all figured out.

Everything sounds perfect. If you could change like three things, What would it be? And those three things ended up being the only thing I focused on for the final eight minutes, and we got a deal. You know, we went from all that [00:24:00] hot air to, okay, well, let's get down to a need. Are you saying there's nothing you would want to change?

What is one thing, even one? I said name three, but give me one thing you would want to change if you could, if you had all the money in the world and just the utopia, just humor me because I know I'm leaving and I know you need all this and I understand you got a Bentley outside. I, I get it. I get it. I don't have a Bentley outside but you do and you're so busy I understand, but if you could just humor me.

If there's one thing you could change what would it be. And the conversation changed pretty quickly, right? And it went, well, if you could, you know, the ego, well, if you could change this, then I'll do a contract with you. I'm like, well, that was actually the first thing I was going to tell you that we actually do.

And if you're saying that that matters to you, well, look, that's what it would cost. And then we can sign a contract. We were good to go, you know, and these type of things happen, which is the point of, I could very easily have been an engineer there and say, no, no, no, but that's not true. No, no, no, but this is not [00:25:00] true.

You know, when you said that, well, we're better than this. Even though you said that you're happy with this, but we're better than those are horrible sales tactics. Let's get into what you don't have. Let's get into what you need to change. Let's get into an actual need based value prop that always a reality check for all sales.

Leighann Lovely: Right. And that's, and that's the thing about salespeople is that we turn around and we validate people. We don't argue with. You know, I'm not, I'm not there to try to argue with what you already believe to be true in your head. I want to, I want to validate you. I want to find out where your pain points are.

I then want to guide you to how we can assist you. And if that matches, you know, if all of those things align and match great, but you're right, engineers, highly technical people, they're, they're going to challenge. Because that's their, that is their. personality. That's, that's what they do. That's what they're supposed to [00:26:00] do.

Otherwise, they wouldn't be good at their job if they're constantly just like, Yeah, okay, we can go with that. Well, that's, that's not the kind of engineer, you know, it's, it's not the kind of guy that I want, you know, doing any fixing work at my house, or any type of, I want to make sure that he's challenging everything and making sure that it gets fixed.

I don't want somebody who's just gonna go, Oh, this looks good.

William Gilchrist: Well, you know, I always say like, you know, if you have a prospect that is currently shopping on I'm right. com, just let them go with it, you know, just let them keep shopping on I'm right. com and let's figure out, you know, what item is not on that store.

And let's talk about the item that's not on I'm right. That comp, right. And then from there we can actually shop on another site, which is your product. Right. Yeah. Um, those are things that, you know, I think are most important in terms of understanding a sales narrative and what I call weaponizing a product, weaponizing it for a sales space, you're able to actually [00:27:00] have real conversations and it changes.

Because you're dealing with different personalities, different buying structures, also different power distances, like the way companies make decisions. You might have an individual, which is the most common, that absolutely needs your product, but the person that they report to just is absent, not very engaged, or doesn't care, doesn't really have a vested interest in things.

So now you're doing a multiple sale. Now you're doing multiple value proposition moments. And the product. is not going to cut it. It's not going to go through all those different layers because you have to sell need based value propositions across multiple titles, and then good luck in procurement. If you can, you can, right?

So all of that is, uh, part of the game that gets overlooked.

Leighann Lovely: And isn't that the most frustrating thing when you go in, you do your presentation, you meet with everybody, and then you find out that you're not sitting in front of the person that is actually going to be making the decision, or the person who's going to be signing off on everything, and you go, [00:28:00] what?

William Gilchrist: Oh, you mean Wednesday morning? I'm sorry, but every day,

Leighann Lovely: right? It's like, wait, wait, I'm sorry. You, and I've been led to believe in multiple situations where, oh yeah, I'm, I'm the decision maker. I'm going to be the one that's making the final decision. You are, is there anybody else in part of your team who needs to be part of this?

No, no. Okay, great. And then come to find out, okay, we're going to review this with the rest of the team.

William Gilchrist: Yep.

Leighann Lovely: I'm sorry. Making this decision. So you're going to go now sell my product to the rest of your team to make this decision.

William Gilchrist: That's one of the most common scenarios or people gathering a bunch of proposals, wasting all your time and then disappearing.

Right. And yeah, they're reselling it internally. And that's due to the fact that Um, a lot of companies aren't structured very well. That's something that, you know, and it's not that individual's fault, they just can't get things through. And [00:29:00] it's very difficult to be able to, they have to keep championing and then magically the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain doesn't want to meet with the salesperson, doesn't want to meet with you, but they want a proposal.

Everybody wants a proposal, wants figures and all that and be able to. Connect their own dots without actually knowing much about it. That's why companies struggle is because the real connections and communications are starting to fade a bit. And that's due to, you know, phone trees it's due to spam boxes.

It's due to all this stuff to keep. Salespeople from having sales conversations with the right people. All those walls are coming up and what you're finding is, and you're seeing it in the news that companies are slowly failing because one, either they're not adopting new products or they're not even really innovative enough because they haven't been exposed to new things and they're just keep.

They just keep working with what they have and using archaic systems, archaic blogs and things like that. [00:30:00] They have their internal sales structure and all that. I always find that to be adorable. Like what methodology are you guys using today? Right. And all of that is really fascinating because. That's what's hurting a lot of these businesses.

Leighann Lovely: Middle management.

William Gilchrist: I play middle management.

Leighann Lovely: Middle management. That's the worst place to be. Get it from the top. Get it from the bottom. Squished in the middle.

William Gilchrist: Then they don't take action. They don't take it.

Leighann Lovely: No, but how do you, and that's a whole nother conversation. Okay.

William Gilchrist: actually you do something that works, even though it might not have been the most popular decision.

You do something that works. And then from there, everybody wants to take credit for it. Or they're like, you know what? We always believed in you. We, knew it. We knew when we brought you on, we knew you were the one you brought that you brought that in here and it, wow. But nobody wants to take that risk.

Leighann Lovely: Right. And so everything stays consistently stagnant.

William Gilchrist: Absolutely. People have invented roles. I mean, I've seen people, clients [00:31:00] who've dealt with large companies and like, there are people from random departments that just have invented a role in our process. Like, hey, look, I want to look at. Specifically the duration.

I'm from, I'm from the tech team. And, uh, I want to look at the specific duration of the phone call rate, like upon hang up to pick up again, to dial. I want to know specifically. And I'm like, what middle manager you're reporting to the, you need to impress because this is not a thing. Like these are metrics that no one's looking at that.

Like You really think that's going to get you a deal if we increase it by, or we decreased the rate by a half a millisecond, that's going to bring IBM in here. Do you really think that's what's going to do it? Like, you know, so a lot of these companies, I mean, I've seen it all, right? So a lot of these companies, you're just kind of like, I cannot take any of you seriously.

And of course you're not going to be able to take my proposal and sell it internally because I've seen how [00:32:00] other companies operate and it's amazing the analysis paralysis is there.

Leighann Lovely: Yeah. Yes. The, yes. Analysis paralysis is a real, real thing with, yeah, absolutely. So okay. It

William Gilchrist: gives people a job. It gives people a job.

And that's it. People who tend to veer things into analysis paralysis, it justifies their position to where they don't need to look at the reality, which is our sales happening. They can always say sales are not, or is not happening. Not because I don't understand it, or not because the product might have some gaps.

It's because the milliseconds of the call rates weren't at 1. 3, and they should be based on a blog I read at 0. 3. And if they're point eight, that will make the sales go up, you know, Leighann, I don't know if you know this, if you got really quickly and you pick up the phone again, and you dial the same number, [00:33:00] if you do it just that, much sooner, that person that didn't pick up before, probably is going to pick up the second time.

It's, it's, it's amazing. Right,

Leighann Lovely: right. It's, it's, it's awesome. It's amazing. So William, tell me when and how did you start your business? And you know, what was that vision?

William Gilchrist: Not much of a vision, more spite. Um, it was kind of

Leighann Lovely: like that answer.

William Gilchrist: Yeah. Yeah. It was out of spite. I'm, I'm a much more balanced person now, but it was, it was kind of started out of, out of anger, um, or maybe a little bit of frustration.

So it wasn't frustration at Google. I was in Google. So let me just clear that up on the podcast that it was not frustration at Google at all. When I was in Google, I had an amazing time. I worked there. I loved it. I learned so much. I call it like my MBA pretty much. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And then.

Leaving there, I went into the startup space and some of the same sales gaps that I saw in the larger companies, I was [00:34:00] seeing in the startups as well. And even as I'm seeing just patterns and some of the patterns that I've highlighted here, right. And I seen those patterns and I'm saying, okay, well, this isn't necessarily a company size issue.

This is just a sales issue. People don't know how to set up their sales systems properly. And You have different personalities that are sitting in the sales orgs and they're all usually the same type. There's the data type person. There's the, the more charismatic person who's terrible. There's CRM that, you know, there's all these different people that sit there and how do you kind of, I've seen, I've seen these consistencies.

So I was doing some work in the startup space and then I went to a company which is off my LinkedIn by the way. Um, so anybody's looking at my LinkedIn, don't worry, that company I'm about to refer to, I, they're, they're not there. , I worked for this one company that effectively just produced all the worst practices ever.

They were, they were [00:35:00] just, Their opinion of sales was you get in and three hours later a deal needs to come in Yelling at you all the time Monday morning stand up meetings at 8 a. m If you're a minute late, you are this and that and just a horrible culture really toxic place and um When I left there, I was so incredibly frustrated With not only the fact that I was seeing these gaps in the sales process, but then seeing a really, really, really bad version of it.

And keep in mind, these individuals were not necessarily successful people. They were just people who had started a business. So one thing I learned by leaving the business was, wow, you don't really have to be that smart to start a company. That, that was one of the things I got to thank them for. I was like, wow, you actually, you don't need to, I thought you had to be like this really brilliant person.

And after dealing with them, I was like, Well, you don't really need to be that bright. So all right. That's that's okay. Check. Right. Okay. I know I'm smarter than them. I'm not saying that [00:36:00] I'm the smartest person, but I know for a fact. I know for a fact I'm smarter than them. So, okay, check. I got that. And then I started to realize that, you know, a lot of it is just boldness to be able to do it.

So, out of that frustration and out of seeing just no one really understanding the sales process and seeing companies go down, seeing companies miss targets consistently, large companies, missing targets through ego, like we don't need any external advice here. We are who we are. It's like. Well, you know, I hate to say it, but like, I mean, I'm sure Netscape said the same thing in the nineties.

Right. You know, like, and, and, and this happens all the time. You see companies go under due to their own kind of ego. So I said, well, look, you know, one of the biggest problems in sales organizations is one middle management being afraid of the upper pressures, but also trying to manage the below. How about having something that is separate from the business.

It doesn't have to [00:37:00] report to the company. It just reports directly to the CEO or upper management or directly to a VP of sales or a marketing EMO, right? We have our own bylaws internally. We have our own incentives. We have everything. There's nothing that the company can do internally to sabotage the ability of the sales org.

So I kind of came up with this concept, like a sales kind of. sanctuary, like a, like a safe haven. So salespeople can be salespeople and do the work and then had to go out there and sell it. Uh, so I took my little pink logo and my weird name that's called Consig and, kept knocking on doors saying, Hey, you know, I could do some sales for you.

Leighann Lovely: And, and that's so similar to the same, you know, concept that, you know, I, I was blindsided when I was let go of my last position and in 24 hours, I had two job offers on the table. Neither one of them were a previous salary. And I went, you know what? I'll just take both of them. [00:38:00] And Ended up working as a W 2 and a contractor for another company which was able to get me where I needed to be and then all of the sudden I had a business because I was frustrated, the same as you, at how many companies as a salesperson did I walk into, they're like, okay, great, you're a salesperson, just go do your thing and sell and I went, oh, wait, okay, wait, you have no structure here.

You didn't give me like, I mean, at least give me an idea of what your contracts look like. Do you have any media? Do you have any? And then it's the same problem happens so frequently at companies of the push and pull of sales and operations. I was at, I was at a company that I flat out had operations go, we hate salespeople.

And I wanted to turn around and go, if I don't exist, you don't exist. I bring in the business, you execute on it. If my job, my role is not [00:39:00] here, you don't exist. Your job is not here. Now, I'm, I'm not one of those people.

William Gilchrist: I would just ask them why, like, if someone says that they hate salespeople, they'd be like, well, that's a very common thing.

I mean, I don't know if I like them myself. Uh, you know, like, that's a good talking point. I mean, I'm not sure if I like salespeople myself.

Leighann Lovely: But it's, why is there such a disconnect between sales and operations and why? Does marketing and sales not work together because they go hand in hand.

William Gilchrist: There's a disconnect between sales and everybody.

Because movies like Wolf of Wall Street, Glenn, Gary, Glenn Ross, people believe boiler room, like people believe that sales is just getting on a phone and then work your magic. I think it was work your magic. No. So when operations and marketing, what marketing is usually a worst scenario because marketing likes to manage the sales data, marketing that they're not being measured really by, like, so they're not [00:40:00] measured by conversions.

We're measured by conversions and they want to measure version. So it's kind of an interesting, like human shield. It's like, let's put the sales in front of us, but when it comes to operations, They get a bit of a pass. Marketers, I think, you know, for all the marketers out there, I'm going to call it out, you know, no, you guys use the shields, but for operations, they get a bit of a pass.

Cause I would say you just don't know what you're saying. It's simply that they say if an operations person or an engineer says that they don't like salespeople, I understand exactly why you feel that way, because you just have no idea what salespeople is.

Leighann Lovely: Right. And I, and I had somebody once say to me, well, you get to go out and have all the fun while I'm stuck here in the office.

And I wanted to go, do you think that it's always fun for me to be out until nine o'clock at night at networking meetings and then have to come back in here in the office by eight or nine o'clock in the morning and then to miss my daughter's event because I'm [00:41:00] out networking or I'm out like there are days that I am that are weeks that I am working 70 hours a week but you clock in At eight, and you leave at five, like

William Gilchrist: what is even worse than that?

If someone's saying that, right, ultimately, I mean, it's styles. I like to lean in. It's like, no, absolutely. I am having all the fun. I also have to carry a target every quarter. What what what was your target the last two quarters? Because if I don't deliver something

Leighann Lovely: right, I could

William Gilchrist: I could be out of here.

Leighann Lovely: That's the other thing.

William Gilchrist: What what are you measured by? You're measured by a project. So our worlds are different. I'm supposed to go out and get new revenue. Thus, I mean, I made a comment. Uh, to a friend of mine that in the last, you know, 15, 16 years, I've never not had some sales target ever in my life, ever in my life.

So [00:42:00] every birthday, everything in my whole adult life, I've always had something I needed to deliver financially for some company, even my own single quarter.

Leighann Lovely: Yeah.

William Gilchrist: And that in itself is a reality that operations wouldn't understand. That's why I said they, they don't know that. Right. Right. The sip of wine at dinner or whatever is something fun.

Yeah, it is to drown away my tears.

Leighann Lovely: To get through the fact that, Oh my gosh, I might be, you know, 50, 000 short of. The, you know, the target that I'm supposed to meet, you know, right now, anyway, we are coming to time,

William Gilchrist: which my boss threw the target out of thin air. Right, right, right. And

Leighann Lovely: by the way, you know, your, your revenue is really short this quarter.

Are you going to make that up in the next three days? Um, oh, oh, yeah, sure. Like, where did it come from again? Right. Where, when did, when did, [00:43:00] did you increase that? Oh, I just increased it three days ago. So you better get out there.

William Gilchrist: Cause we wanted it because we believe that our product is so good that I can just say, I want 10 million this year.

Right. Right.

Leighann Lovely: Right. So we're coming to time because my gosh, I, it got away from me. This has been such an amazing conversation, William, but before we wrap up, I give everybody 30 seconds for a shameless pitch. So please go ahead, and pitch away.

William Gilchrist: Absolutely. We'll check out our website, consig. com.

That's K O N S Y G. com. We are cool characters, very serious about sales. We're also very nerdy on sales as well. Um, very personable people, I guess, I guess we have to be considering our profession and, always, you know, always open to conversations, not just about our value in terms of what we do for businesses, but also any kind of.

No consultations or even just a chat. I'm always [00:44:00] open for that as well. We're pretty accessible.

Leighann Lovely: That's amazing. And your website and, LinkedIn will be on the show notes. So if somebody wants to reach out to you, they can find you there. But again, William, this has been such an amazing conversation. I truly, and I'm a nerd just like you.

I love talking about sales and, and business. And so I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much.

William Gilchrist: Thanks for having me on.

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