Expanding Your Business With A High-Performing Sales Team with Walter Crosby

Walter Crosby: [00:00:00] Are you a work at home rockstar or do you dream of becoming one? Then you found the right podcast. Your host, Tim Milson, talks with successful work at home rock stars to learn their secrets and help you in your journey. Are you ready to rock?

Tim Melanson: Here’s Tim. Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the Work at Home Rockstar podcast.

Very excited for today’s guest. He is the c e O of Felix Sales Development and what he does, he helps, uh, small, medium-sized businesses to fix their sales team with talent. Culture of accountability. Accountability and the systems to make it repeatable. Super excited to be rocking out today with Walter Crosby.

Hey Walter, are you ready to rock?

Walter Crosby: I am Tim. Excited to be here.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. So we always start off on a good note here. So tell me a story of success in your business that we can be inspired by.

Walter Crosby: Um, how about I go back to 1998 and I got, uh, promoted to a. Sales director, international sales director, gig at a, at a Christmas party.

Bosses came and [00:01:00] said, Hey, can you meet us at the bar? And I looked at my wife and I’m like, Hey, this is either gonna be really good or really bad, so grabbed your purse. Um, so went over there, had a drink and they offered me this position. And on the way home I was explaining it to her and, you know, They wanted me to manage five, five guys on the team, um, grow revenue, all the stuff you’re supposed to do as a sales manager.

And she looked at me, she goes, that’s great. Um, you ever managed anybody before? Like you have trouble managing yourself. Um, so she kind of threw a wet blanket on top of it, but she was a hundred percent right. So, and it happens to a lot of sales salespeople, right? If you’re performer, the boss thinks she can take those skills and transfer over here and, and help those, help the other folks on the team.

And, um, I really had no idea what I was gonna do. I had a couple of weeks to try to get, get my legs under me, but it was a journey of about, uh, three or four years of just really studying, [00:02:00] trying to get out there and going, um, figuring out what a sales manager’s supposed to do, how do they create accountability and, and how do they make it fun?

Um, so that, and it, it turned out to be, uh, we grew revenue, uh, 120% over the course of three years. It was, it was good.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Wow. Right on. Yeah. Your wife sounds like mine. Like little dose of, uh, melody,

Walter Crosby: eh? Yeah, she has a, um, she’s really smart. We have to question her judgment by who she married, but she really helps.

Uh, she’s the opposite of me, right? I like to live on the edge and she’s pretty conservative and, um, when it comes to taking risk and money, so, um, it’s a good balance.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I would, I would highly suggest that to any entrepreneur on this call to find a wife like that or or a spouse like that. Yeah. Cause we all tend to be the same, right?

We’re all fly by the seat of our pants entrepreneurs. Right. And you know, you need somebody in your corner that’s gonna be like store. Really, it just helps you to solidify [00:03:00] your

Walter Crosby: idea. It helps you solidify your idea. It it, but they also, I mean, she’s really supportive. Like, you know, you’re crazy, but, you know, if, if you think you can do that, and then she’ll help me discern whether it’s it’s the right direction or the right steps, um, it’s, it’s a, I don’t know.

She’s, she, she brings a different perspective to it and, uh, no matter what it is, right, whether it’s, you know, Raising a daughter or running a business or you know, managing the books. I’m not a finance guy. She’s a c p a auditor, forensic accountant person. So there’s a couple times a month where I get yelled at a lot about like, why’d I do that?

But, um, it’s part of the

Tim Melanson: deal. Thank deal. And I mean, you mentioned another thing too, like, uh, I mean part of the reason why I even started this podcast in the first place is because a lot of people do decide they wanna be self-employed cuz they’re great at what they do. And then they all, they all of a sudden start a business.

And running a business is not the same as doing [00:04:00] what you do. Right. How do you, like, how, how do you, you know, make that comparison? I.

Walter Crosby: Well, um, there, there’s a book out there that’s been around for a long time called The Emith by Michael Gerber, and he describes the crazy people like entrepreneurs who go out and start a business, right?

The, and the one I remember from the book is the, the mechanic who’s a great mechanic, right? Everybody says, you’re, you’re amazing at this. You can hear something and then you just go fix it. Um, and then he opens up a shop and he fails. Not because he is not a great mechanic, but he doesn’t know how to pay the bills.

He doesn’t know how to market the business. He doesn’t know how to manage the flow of cars that are coming in and make too many promises. So it, you know, that technician component, we’re really good at something, but then there’s, we need that help, right? To be able to, to look at the whole picture and, you know, just because you opened a [00:05:00] business, uh, put a sign up, uh, you know, put a, a website up on, on the internet.

Doesn’t guarantee anything.

Tim Melanson: So now imagine if you were talking to somebody who was that mechanic, they were very good at what they do, they wanna start a business. Would you suggest they start a business? And if you did, what would you suggest that they do to make sure that that was gonna be successful?

Walter Crosby: I would, I would ask them if they.

If they understand what running a business is. Right. And, and I, it, it wouldn’t be a discouraging conversation, but it would be a real conversation, right? It, it would be about, you know, do you understand that, you know, you have to pay the rent, you have to, um, you’re gonna have to have people that are answering the phone because if you’re underneath a car or your head’s under a hood and the phone rings and nobody answers it.

How do you get business in the door? So there’s a bunch of things that we don’t think about, [00:06:00] and I’m gonna say we, because, you know, I’m part of that, that you really need to contemplate. And I had a conversation with somebody, um, it was a couple months ago at a, at a party, and they were like, you know, ready to go do this thing full time.

I’m like, awesome. Right. You know, how, how are you gonna get business then? Like, what are you talking about? And I’m like, You gotta go find new people to, to generate the revenue. Right? Oh, well, um, I’ll have a website. Awesome. Like, how do you tell people about it? Right. It, so it’s having that kind of a conversation with somebody that doesn’t deflate their dream, but it like, realize that it’s not a walk in the park.

Um, you know, I’m. I’m unemployable at this point in my life. Um, I just, I couldn’t go work for somebody full-time. Um, I mean, I have many clients that I do different things with, but so I am, I have to have that relationship and be able to communicate. But [00:07:00] going and working for somebody after you’ve done what, what we’ve done for ourselves, it, it, it sort of feels constrained or put in a box.

And I think that if you’re not, we ready to make that leap. Out of, out of the job, then there’s nothing wrong with having a job that you’re happy at and you’re good at.

Tim Melanson: Right? I agree. For sure. And I mean, part of what you might need to do to, um, to make that work is, you know, find maybe some people that you can start the business with that are, that have those skills that you maybe not don’t have.

Because in that mechanic, that’s really awesome what they do. Maybe they do have a great name, but they’re still gonna need somebody to manage things. Right? They’re still gonna need somebody to. Manage the schedules and answer the phones while they’re doing the amazing work that they do. Right? And it’s,

Walter Crosby: it’s, it’s possible to hire that person, um, that has those skills.

But if you don’t know what those skills are, you don’t know what that person’s supposed to do. Um, you know, like [00:08:00] creating a job description and, and listing all the things that they do is, is important. But what do they need to do every day? That’s gonna help you move the needle. How are they supposed to talk to those customers?

How are they supposed to treat ’em? Just because you’re in a bad mood, right? And you come in and you’re upset about something that happened the night before. Those customers don’t care. Um, right. So you gotta be able, that person’s gotta be able to elevate, give a great customer experience. And if, if you haven’t dealt with that before, and we, we’ll often give somebody responsibilities that they’re not it’ss not fair to them.

Yeah. Cause we’re asking ’em to do something that they’re not good at. Um, yeah. You know, asking the g the bass player to go play drums may work out, but. It may not, right? Because it’s a different,

Tim Melanson: different instrument. Well, and, and, uh, yeah, I mean, I’ve been in this situation before looking at businesses and uh, one of the things that I think probably shocks them is I, [00:09:00] I would often say, well, that’s your fault.

It’s not their fault you went and got them to go play. Like you say, you got the drummer to go play bass and, and he totally screwed it up. Fear, blaming the hemp. Like, no, you’re the one putting him on that instrument. That happens oftentimes when you put a person who is maybe that amazing mechanic and now you put them on sales or on customer support, come on, they might not have those, you know, the, the words to be able to speak to the, to the, the customers and the way that the customer wants to be spoken to.

Walter Crosby: Right. Or the patience to deal with that. You know, going from B to B to B to C, right? That’s a whole different. Animal in and of itself. So having the, having those skill sets or, or at least being willing to learn those skill sets and be aware that you need to elevate that part of your, your game. If you’re gonna switch from drums to bass, it’s a, I mean, there’s some commonalities, right?

You gotta have some rhythm and mm-hmm. [00:10:00] Understand where you are and help the rest of the guys in the band stay on, on spot. But, um, I don’t know. It it, you have to be aware, and I, I will tell an entrepreneur at the beginning of a relationship when they’re all excited to go forward, I’ll say something like, you wanna know why this won’t work?

And they’re like, what? What do you, what do you mean? I’m like, let me tell you what will happen here, and I’ll give ’em a story about what was likely to happen in the situation that we’re in and why it’ll fail. And it usually comes down to them. Making a decision about what they do in that moment, either they back the decision to go ahead and, and create some structure or put a process in.

Somebody’s gonna challenge that in the organization. And if, if they’re not prepared to deal with that in advance, it all falls apart and it’s, uh, um, I’ve seen it happen. It’s, it’s tough. So I like to [00:11:00] try to prepare everybody in advance. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: And I think that’s, overall, I think that there’s a lack of understanding of what, uh, what it takes to really run a business.

And I think that that kind of translates to people kind of saying, well, I’m, you know, I’m doing the work. You know, the guy at the bottom’s doing all the work, right? And he feels like he’s being taken advantage of because the guy at the top looks like he’s just sitting at his desk. Right. And you know, you’re sort of going like, what?

Come on, really? How come that guy’s making so much more money than I am when I’m doing all the work? But there really is a lack of understanding of what, you know, there is a fair bit of stuff and you only really get to know that when you try to do it yourself and you realize, oh geez, I’m spending all these plates all at the same time and they’re all falling.

Walter Crosby: Right. I, I think the easy way to explain that to, to that person who realizes, you know, I’m doing all this work, quote unquote, and this guy’s making all the money. Have they ever made payroll in their life? Have they ever had to sweat out [00:12:00] making payroll for a team of people and, and be concerned about that?

There’s a lot of pressure on an entrepreneur to, uh, to, to taking risk. We talked about that a minute ago, right? We’re, we’re really creating a bunch of risk for ourselves and we’re putting our face out front. So, you know, if that person’s not taking that same level of risk, they don’t get the same. You know, share of the profits, right?

They get the value that they’re bringing to the party. Um, I, I tried to explain that to my daughter when she was younger and she, and she got it where her first job, you know, you’re, you’re getting paid. Your service, your smile, your ability to en engage with the customers. That’s what the boss is paying you for.

And you get to take your skills down the street and leave, but while you’re there, you have to provide that person value. And, and it, it comes down to whatever that skill is, whether it’s designing a [00:13:00] website or just the ability to make a, a customer in a restaurant comfortable that they’re waiting an extra five minutes to get a table.

Right. That’s a, it’s a unique skill. And and that’s what they bring to the, to the party. And they don’t get to take 10% off the top of the revenue for the night and get paid what they get paid.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, exactly. So now not everything goes as planned and there are some bad notes that you get hit along the way and you know, can you share with me something that didn’t go as plans then that just kind of blew up in your face and how you recovered?

Walter Crosby: Um, yeah, there’s, I kind of the, the story I just told you about telling a, an entrepreneur at the beginning, how something fails. Um, I, early on when I started the practice, it was, um, you, you kind of take jobs that you maybe wouldn’t take later just cuz you wanna get some, some revenue going. And I, this guy wanted to do training for his sales team.

And that was where [00:14:00] he wanted to start. And I had training, I could do that, I could provide this to the team. And it was, that wasn’t an issue, but I was like, you know, is that where we should start? Like do we have the right people on the team? Are they doing the right things right? Like, are we gonna train them on something?

Cause I just wanted to training, so I did that and it didn’t move the needle. So is that his fault? My fault, the team’s fault? And I think the answer is yes. Um, but it, I look at it as for myself, I shouldn’t have done that. I should have said no. And because I did, we didn’t have success and I don’t have a, a good story there, but there wasn’t a culture there of accountability.

There wasn’t a culture to, for that training to set and have a place to grow. And, you know, so I’m, I’m this weird. Sales training, development guy that doesn’t believe in doing training out of the box, right? So [00:15:00] that it sort of helped me get there and it took me a little bit of a journey. Um, you know, things didn’t go as well.

So now I realize, I know what works. If somebody doesn’t want to do it the way I know it works, then maybe it’s not a good fit. And, and accepting that and moving on is I think the right thing to do for everybody. Yeah, and

Tim Melanson: I, I mean, that’s such a relatable story cuz I, I’ve been in that situation so many times where you take a job that you really shouldn’t be taking.

Not only that, but maybe sometimes you might take a job and actually do something that you wouldn’t normally do because that’s what they want and you feel like it’s like, well, I mean, they’re paying me, so that’s what they want. So that’s what I’ll do. But I don’t think it’s that, right? I mean, we we’re the expert in our field.

So if someone says, I wanna do something and you know it’s not gonna work, or it’s not the right way to do it, or it’s not the way that you would normally do it, it’s your job to kind of stick up and say, no, you know what? If that’s what you wanna do, you can find somebody else. But [00:16:00] if you want success, this is what we do.

Walter Crosby: Right. And, and you have to be willing to have that uncomfortable conversation. And it could be done professionally and politely. We don’t have to call each other names, but at the same time, you have to be able to say, I don’t think your approach is gonna work, and I’d rather not participate in that. So, you know, I wish you well.

And part is as friends and maybe they come back to you later. Um, if you, if you give them the ability to kind of save face. Um, they, you know, sometimes they come back, not always. Sometimes

they

Tim Melanson: come back and say, you might’ve been right. I’ve had a situation or two where they’ve come back afterwards and said, yeah, I’ve realized what’s going on.

Or they might even actually take, I’ve had people who have, I, I just, I’ve refused to do it. For whatever reason. They go off, they hire somebody else. It just falls apart. And then they’re back. Yeah. So, I mean, you know, it takes a while. I mean, sometimes it takes a couple years for that to even spin, but, uh, you know, you gotta stick to [00:17:00] your guns and you, you’ll feel better about it if you do Right.

Walter Crosby: You, you, you feel better as an entrepreneur and then you feel bad about, like, that was x number of dollars that would’ve been nice to have. But I think if you, it’s hard to do at the beginning. But if you stick to your guns and you, and you do, you, you do what you believe is the right thing to do and develop a phrase that I, I’ve been doing this a while and I, I know what works and I know what doesn’t work.

And, and being able to stand by that and not, not fall back or not a give in I think is the right thing to do.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. I almost think I would recommend that people actually do it and make that mistake on their own so they can see, you know, maybe limit, limit the damage. Right.

Walter Crosby: Well, the, I mean the, the, the best lessons are the ones that we get our nose bloodied a little bit.

Right? Those are the, oh, I don’t pick on guys that are six feet, three and 250 pounds when [00:18:00] I’m not. Um, it, it’s. It’s how, it’s somehow, especially with entrepreneurs, sometimes we need the, the tough lesson. Um, but it, yeah, it’s hopefully you don’t lose a ton of dough on that or lose reputation.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, that’s what I was think.

Uh, I’m thinking if there’s something that you, you, you’re probably gonna lose little, you might lose a little bit of money, do it. Cause you’ll, you’ll, you’ll make the mistake. You’ll realize what’s going on. But yeah, don’t. I mean, if it’s a huge project and you’re gonna end up, cuz I mean, there are situations where you can lose a lot of money and you can have to refund.

Like there’s a, a whole load of stuff that could happen that would be bad, right? Yeah. So, uh, you know, but now, so let’s think a little bit about practicing and, and getting good at what you do. Like, do you have any sort of routines, rituals? Like how do you approach staying sharp?

Walter Crosby: Um, I, I think it’s about, Consistency and, and practice.

Um, I’ve been in sales for over [00:19:00] 30 years and the, and, and I don’t think, I mean, things don’t stay the same, right? There’s always a little change to things and how we approach it and modifications because the world changes, but it, but all that being true, we need to practice our craft, whatever it is. So, you know, I think having, having a, a mindset that we’re going to learn and we’re going to consistently have to stay sharp if we don’t have that.

And there’s no way to be successful because you’re gonna get stagnant and not not grow. So if we wanna be a leader in our space, if we want to be a thought leader, if we want to be just really good at what we do, we have to stay sharp. And in some ways to do that, depending upon where you are in sales, it’s everybody hates doing role plays.

Everybody hates doing a [00:20:00] role play of like, all right, you’re the customer and I’m the, the, the prospect and we’re gonna work this out. That’s the safe place to screw up. That’s the place to be able to, um, to work it out, right? Like when, when they go do a Broadway show. They don’t just show up on, on opening night and hope it all win works out.

There’s like lots of work that goes into it. Um, the, the prize fighter who wins the fight, Like, oh, he won the fight in like, you know, six minutes. No, his whole life was around that. Getting there. He practiced. He didn’t see all of the things that, that occurred. So the mindset, I think is the first thing. If you don’t have that mindset, I want to be a, a, a continuous learner.

Um, and then you’re not willing to do the practice, the work. Um, You, you’re, you’re not going to, you’re not gonna get better, and if you gotta make that a habit. Hi, it’s Mark Ney from Natural Born [00:21:00] Coaches, and I wanna give two very big thumbs up to Tim Milson and his Creative Crew agency. I have been using them for a long time and I am 100% happy they get the job done right.

They’re fast and they let me focus on my business. I don’t have to worry about anything. So again, I want to give them two very big thumbs up. I have no problem recommending them. I don’t give testimonials for everyone because my name is attached to it, but I gladly do so for Tim and the Creative Crew Agency.

So use them. You won’t regret it, and good luck.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I agree. Yeah. People don’t see all the work that goes into that one performance. Right. And, uh, and it’s the same for us. And you know what, the world especially now changes super fast. So you might be just, you know, trucking away at something that’s working and then all of a sudden it’s not.

And if you haven’t been kind of near to the ground looking at what’s going on, then you might not notice that. Next thing you [00:22:00] know, you’re behind, right?

Walter Crosby: Oh, a hundred percent. And if you’re not, if you’re not paying attention, um, and just being aware of what’s going on around you, uh, you’re gonna get passed.

It’s a race. And it’s hard and tough. It’s hard. Um, it, it is what it is. If, and if you don’t, you don’t want to. If you don’t want to take that, take on that risk and do that work, then you know, there’s, there’s other roles that, that would be a better fit. Yeah. And

Tim Melanson: I would say that if that makes you excited, like it makes me excited and probably you too.

You’re an entrepreneur and you’ll be fine. I mean, I like that challenge myself and, and I think there’s a lot of people that do so. This is not turning you away, then you’re in the right path. Let’s keep moving. Right? A hundred percent. Now work from home can be a challenge in a lot of ways, but one of those ways is finding a space where you can get your work done and setting up that, I call it a jam room.

So tell me [00:23:00] what, like how do you have your jam room set up and how would you suggest we set ours up? Well,

Walter Crosby: I’m, I don’t know. I’m a little weird. I’ve been working remotely like before Covid. Um, I’ve been, you know, in sales you kinda, you learn to work where you are, whether that’s in your car at a parking lot or a coffee shop or a diner.

Um, so what I’ve done is sort of evolved over the. Over the years, and I’ve set it up so that I’m, I’m away from, um, my house, but I’m still on my property. So I built a, uh, cigar lounge in my pole barn. Right. And I did that years ago just so I had a place to go have a cigar with friends and, you know, listen to music and, and just, you know, have conversations with people.

And when I. When my wife decided she wanted to be [00:24:00] remote and work a little hybrid, um, like being in the same place, like listening to each other’s conversations and you know, it just wasn’t gonna work. Um, so I think having some space that’s quiet and that’s yours. Um, having a desk that is, um, It gives you the ability to do what you need to do, right?

Some of us like paper, some of us like digital, some of us want, um, uh, we need more than one screen, so it’s just having that comfortable space. So I have a desk that goes up and down, so. So I can go up and down. I have multiple screens so I can, I can look at things and have, you know, my, my eyes or uh, just can kind of shift a little bit from one spot to the other.

And I can have conversations with people. I can put my notes. While I’m talking to somebody, um, and having, having cameras at the right level with the right lighting, it, it’s, it’s just setting it up so that you don’t have to worry and [00:25:00] you can be comfortable. And I think that’s the key is to be comfortable.

I agree.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I’ve been working from home for quite a while, too long before Covid and when all the lockdowns happened, and then all of a sudden my wife was working from home. We did try the same office once for a little while. Did not work very long. Uh, you know, polls going on at different times and super distracting, and you can’t just put up a cubicle wall like I I, I don’t even understand how cubicles even work.

In, in the workplace. Uh, but yeah, having a door and having a separate office is definitely a lot more comfortable,

Walter Crosby: you know? For sure. It, it’s, uh, last year we were, um, we were in Florida for a couple of months and the, the condo didn’t have, um, three bedrooms or two bedrooms, right. It was just like a right-sized condo for vacation in Florida.

So we were sitting and we were working. So we’re sitting at the, at the dining room table with her at one [00:26:00] end, and I’m at the other. And it’s not one of those like medieval dining room tables where like, you know, uh, it’s 20 feet long. Yeah, we were, we were right. You know, eight feet apart from each other and Yeah.

Like battleship. Exactly. Um, so, and she’s. She has a lot of meetings where she does a lot of talking. Um, and I do as well. So I was switching from Zoom meetings to phone meetings so I could go outside and. Just walk around and have different, you know, different environments. But, so if you’re not comfortable, you’re not gonna perform as well, depending upon your work, right?

You, you might need some privacy to make the kind of phone calls you need to make, or some deep thinking about, you know, a topic, um, if you’re, you know, if you’re coding or if you’re, um, if you’re just writing, doing something creative. You need the space to, to let your brain go and, and work on it.

Sometimes that’s outside. Sometimes you can go to the [00:27:00] park and kind of do that. Um, but you need a workspace that’s comfortable, that gives you what you need. Um, and it, for me, it just, I, it’s sort of evolved over time.

Tim Melanson: So now, you know, seems like you’ve got a lot of experience, you’ve got a lot of things going on.

However, how did you get there? Did you, did you learn from other people? Did you figure it all out yourself? Like, how did you get to the point where you’re at right now? Uh,

Walter Crosby: I, I have the mindset where like, I, I know very little and I have to keep, keep sharp. So I’ve, I’ve tried to surround myself with.

Mentors, mentors, um, somebody that is better at something than I am, and, and keep that, whether that’s a friend group or a specific mentor about a specific thing that I’m trying to get better at. So I’ve had, as I’ve had people in my life that were able to help me, that coached me, [00:28:00] um, on personal issues.

I’ve had people coach me on professional things. Um, I’m part of groups that, uh, are like-minded. We all entrepreneurs, so we all go our own way and we all do our own thing and we all think we’re right. Um, especially the, I got one group in my mind that there’s 300 of us that do something very similar. Um, but nobody does it the same way.

So it’s a great place to collaborate and learn and take a little kernel of something, um, that that’s, that’s helpful in your business. But I think the biggest thing. That you get from people that do something that you do, especially in the sales world. Sometimes you just need a kick in the ass and somebody just needs to point out, you’re not doing the work you, you didn’t do what you’ve always done.

That’s why you’re not getting the results and hearing it from somebody you respect [00:29:00] is painful, but really, really helpful to get you over the hump. And I, I, I think having that, um, those people may change over time. Right? You, you know, as you grow, you need to grow your mentors. Um, they don’t necessarily go out of your life, but you, you, you need to adapt.

Um, but I’ve always had some, a group of people like that in my life where I could have a conversation, um, about a specific thing. And it’s a give and take. Because if you build that, you should be able to add value to them, um, as well. And, and I just think that’s an important part. I agree a hundred

Tim Melanson: percent.

Like, uh, I think that a lot of us have friends that are super, maybe supportive and they’ll, they’ll just kind of not really wanna tell you. Look, it is. They just wanna make you feel good all the time. And. That’s great, except that it doesn’t [00:30:00] really put you to any boundaries. Cuz if everybody always says that you’re doing great, when you even know that you’re not doing great, then that’s not gonna get you to the next level,

Walter Crosby: right?

Mm, a hundred percent. I I have a, I have a friend from college, um, he’s been a friend for a long time and he’s a sales guy and he’s been a sales guy since he. Graduated like I was, and we, I was, I was struggling a couple of months ago with some things going on in my personal life, but I hadn’t sold something for like six weeks.

I just hadn’t had a, a win. And, um, you know, I, I was talking to him about it and he listened and he says, you know, you’re not asking me for any advice. And I’m like, uh, Yeah, I, I’m just, I’m, I’m, I’m open to whatever you got to say. He’s like, doesn’t matter what, go sell something. Just go get a win. That’s all you need.

You just get a win and you’ll, you’ll break through. [00:31:00] And, you know, I kind of noodled around with that for, uh, the rest of the night and the next day I just started looking at where I had opportunities to go get a win. And I gotta win the next day. Hmm. And it just, it was that little bit of a kick in the pants.

Um, or somebody pointing out the obvious thing that you can’t see

Tim Melanson: and you need sometimes. Yeah. And sometimes you do have, uh, this, this idea of what that win should be. You know, you’re looking for the big fish, right. When sometimes, you know, you’ve gotta work yourself up for the big fish. Right.

Walter Crosby: Or, or you just, in my case, you just, I just needed something to get me over the hump.

And, you know, it, it was like, as soon as that happened, I was like, man, I’m back. And I called my buddy Scott and said it worked. Um, and it, you know, and I think that’s part of it, right? Once you have those people in your life, you need to [00:32:00] loop back when they’ve helped you and give them the feedback, cause that, that’s meaningful to the other side.

If, if somebody’s helped you and, and they, and they did it willingly you, the gratitude is, is their reward. Um, and they feel good because they helped.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I like what you’re saying and, and I mean, it reminds me of, you know, the, the big fish in the little pond versus the little fish in the big pond.

And you know, a lot of people wanna live in a world where they’re the big fish in the little pond and they go find these little ponds where they can be the big fish. Uh, but you don’t grow that way. Right? I mean, you know, it’s probably important to have both ponds where you can go to Yeah. From time to time.

Uh, but you need to always put yourself in a big pond from time to time in order to grow. Right? Well, the

Walter Crosby: ocean’s pretty, pretty big and it’s, there’s various depth and various aspects of it, and I think you need to be able to maneuver through [00:33:00] all of that and be able to, um, Take those challenges and you might not be ready to go take on a great white, but, um, you know, work your way up and if you don’t keep getting better and keep challenging yourself and you don’t keep living that vision as an entrepreneur, you had a vision, right?

And you may change your vision, you may modify it, but if you’re not working towards it, you’re, you’re, you’re gonna get stagnant and you’re gonna lose your passion. And that’s what drives us. Love it. Okay,

Tim Melanson: so it’s time for your guest solo. So tell me what’s exciting in your business right now. Um,

Walter Crosby: um, I’m, I’m really, I’m actually really excited about this.

I’m, I’m doing something that, uh, we call a five day challenge. And what, what it is, it’s free for, uh, business owners and senior sales executives. And what I do is I teach them everything they need to know how to hire sales superstars. So they can hire their first or their next sales superstar, and it’s, [00:34:00] it’s a process that’s repeatable.

Um, it’s different than how they’re doing it. So the premise is that if you’re, if you’re running a business, you’re, if you’re hiring your salespeople the same way you hire an admin or an engineer or somebody manufacturing, you’re making a mistake. Because salespeople, I can say this cuz I am one, we’re weird, we’re different, our job is different.

So when you hire that executive assistant, there’s nobody in your company or there shouldn’t be anybody in your company that’s trying to screw up her success. There’s nobody there that’s, that’s kind of moving papers around and, and telling her to do X and she really should be doing y. Um, in, in, in the outside world, there’s nobody that’s making her life difficult.

There’s nobody coming along telling her, no, there’s nobody [00:35:00] coming along saying that you, you can’t do your job that way. In sales, we, we constantly, Run into resistance. We constantly run into somebody that’s hostile, right? Or we have to get past something. So there’s, there’s a bunch of aspects to that. So I get in there and I, I teach that mindset change, and then we work through what they need to do different to screen and interview people, how they should do it, how there should be some structure to it, take out the bias.

Um, and at the end they have, uh, an opportunity to, To go do something different. I’m around to help them if they want help, but they have the tools to go make a difference and hire better

Tim Melanson: sales talent. Extremely insightful and, and it’s exactly right. And like I’m assuming, so a lot of people that might have be a solopreneur or whatever, we’re doing all the sales on our own.

So is this something that would help somebody who wants to kind of get away from doing [00:36:00] the sales all the by themselves? Maybe they wanna find a sales team in a small or small business.

Walter Crosby: So if, if you’re a solopreneur and you’re the, and you’re the salesperson, right? And you’re, you’re out there, um, this will resonate because, you know, you’re a little weird too as a solopreneur, right?

Because you’re out there on taking risks and you’re telling your story. But often what that person struggles with is taking the story that they do naturally, that they don’t even think about, and then being able to give that to a salesperson or a sales team. Right. So we can help them take that outta their head and put it on, uh, a, a, a good company story, good messaging that, that they can share with the team so the salespeople will follow the same type of story and have similar success.

There’s things that business owners and entrepreneurs can do that salespeople can’t. Right. It’s just, that’s, that’s a fact because [00:37:00] we’re, we’re the. We’re the leader, we’re, we’re out there. We carry a little gravitas. But the, a mistake that entrepreneurs make in that first hire is that, oh, this guy’s really personable.

And he, he, he’s made me feel comfortable. Um, and he assumes that that salesperson knows what to talk about with customers. They assume that that person has it all figured out and they don’t. They, we want some, and they assume that they, if they have experience in my, in my industry, that that will solve all of these problems.

And it won’t because you are different. And if you’re really trying to differentiate from your customers, uh, uh, and, and you’re trying to differentiate from your competitors and you don’t tell the salespeople what that sounds like and what that is, they’re, they’re not gonna know. And they’re gonna stumble around doing what they’ve always done, talking about [00:38:00] product, talking about doing demos, um, and they’re not gonna have success.

And it’s not the salesperson’s fault if we don’t give ’em the tools. We just say, go. And that’s what happens a lot. And it, it’s, there’s no malice involved. This, the entrepreneur thinks that the salesperson’s gonna have it all figured out. And, you know, there’s 6% of all the salespeople on the planet. That are what we would consider elite, right?

That they’re, they’re really good at their craft. They’ve practiced, they have the right mindset and they have all the competencies, um, 6%. So the likelihood of you attracting that person without the right process and right way to talk to them, um, is, is fairly low. And, and 58% of the salespeople are average or worse.

We don’t want ’em on our team. So the odds are against us. You need a little, you need an advantage. Awesome.

Tim Melanson: Okay. So how do we find [00:39:00] out more about, uh, you know, how to get onto this, this

Walter Crosby: program? So I have, uh, the program I’m gonna is start in mid-July. We’re gonna do one in each month. They’ll be sort of in the middle to the end of the month.

Um, they’ll be a, it’s a five day challenge. So they show up once a week for an hour and we just. Give them all the information. We, we help them. It’s not really a fire hose, but it’s, it’s, it’s helping them see that they need to change how they do it. So there’s a, um, I shared a link with you, um, that will, you can, you can share, it’s free for your audience, sign up and they’ll, they’ll, if they miss the first one, they can sign up for the second one.

Um, they can take it more than once if they want. Um, that’s, uh, uh, that’s the plan.

Tim Melanson: I’m excited. I’ll put the link in the show notes for sure. For

Walter Crosby: you. For sure. Awesome. And if they have questions, they can reach out to me on LinkedIn, um, or my website, um, helix sales development.com. And we’re, [00:40:00] we’re happy to answer questions.

Tim Melanson: Love it. And if you’re watching on YouTube, then Helix Sales Development is right on the screen right now. We can see it. Thanks to you. So that’s awesome. Thank you so much for rocking out with me today, Walter. This has been a lot of fun.

Walter Crosby: It was, it was a, Uh, I do a lot of podcasts and I love the ones where we do something like this.

We have a conversation that helps your audience and, and hopefully we did that today.

Tim Melanson: Me too. Awesome. And to the listeners, make sure you subscribe right and comment, and we’ll see you next time on the Work at Home Rockstar podcast.

Walter Crosby: Thanks for listening. To learn how you can become a work at home rockstar or become a better one, head on over to work@homerockstar.com today.