Discover the Power of Sales Transformation

Guest: Paul Bradberry, graduate of the Systematic Selling Strategies program, with Chris Morley of Unified Micro Systems.

00:00:00 – 00:00:55
If you’re watching this video today, it’s because you want to learn how to become a sales superstar. Succeeding in sales can be achieved by anyone — if I did it, if Paul did it, you can do it too. Paul is a graduate of our Systematic Selling Strategies program, the Fundamentals. A bit about your background, Paul?
I started my career working with the health service in information management in Manchester, UK. Then I moved into cybersecurity, working in IT security for ten years — starting in the Royal Navy in cyber defense, then selling cybersecurity and networking products for a large UK reseller, then moved to Dubai.

00:01:19 – 00:02:05
Now I work with Chris, mostly with existing customers, ensuring they’re getting the most out of their annual maintenance contract, and making sure the company aligns with what the customer requires. This is Chris Morley from Unified Micro Systems. We talk about three pillars in our sales program: mindset, activities, and engagement with clients. What’s one thing about mindset that made an impact on you, Paul?

00:02:05 – 00:02:54
Definitely discipline. Everyone needs to be reminded to be disciplined at every point in life. We talk about traits that guarantee success for a sales professional: courage, humility, and discipline.

00:02:54 – 00:03:14
I could tell I needed the course — there was a point where I needed a strategy in place. Information was coming thick and fast, a lot of lessons to be learned that needed to be put into practice quickly.

00:03:14 – 00:03:34
I invested a lot of time outside of class and working hours, making sure strategies were put in place and tried out, otherwise the results wouldn’t manifest.

00:03:34 – 00:04:03
If you keep doing what you’re doing, you keep getting what you’re getting — unless you change the input, you won’t change the output. Because the world changes fast, if you keep doing the same thing you’ll no longer get the same results, because of competition.

00:04:03 – 00:04:24
As Jim Rohn or Zig Ziglar said: work 40 hours, you work for survival; 60 hours, you work for success. That extra 20 hours isn’t necessarily working the job — it’s working on you.

00:04:24 – 00:04:51
Discipline is critical — week to week you kept the lessons, took a vacation, came back and kept going.

00:04:51 – 00:05:09
Let’s talk about courage — fear stops us from taking action. Tell us about the opportunity you converted where it wasn’t your comfort zone to ask.

00:05:09 – 00:05:30
Asking for a referral — a story that takes into account both courage and humility. Putting your pride aside and asking, “Will you provide me with some more business?” It sounds so simple, but it’s scarily simple. When you build relationships with people, they’re actually very happy to do that for you — they want their peers to experience the success others have felt working with me.

00:05:30 – 00:05:56
Fear is often irrational — F.E.A.R. stands for False Expectation Appearing Real. You make a shadow bigger than the actual thing, a cat looks like a lion, a hand looks like a monster on the wall.

00:05:56 – 00:06:22
Our client — now what we call a “golden goose” — works with the same client base but in a completely different industry, a law firm. He put me in touch with another law firm moving from the US to the Middle East for the first time, struggling with procurement in Dubai.

00:06:42 – 00:07:04
Off the back of one phone call, there was a 100,000 dirham term order — I couldn’t believe I’d closed that amount in less than 30 minutes of explaining who we are and how we operate.

00:07:04 – 00:07:22
As long as I kept my promise, I’d have a future customer as a result. There was also $20,000 worth of upsells later in the sales cycle.

00:07:22 – 00:07:43
One key thing you touch on a lot is keeping regular touch points to build warm relationships with customers — going back at every milestone in the procurement cycle.

00:08:03 – 00:08:25
There was $20,000 worth of upsell just from touching base regularly. It’s five times less expensive to sell to an existing customer than to find a new one.

00:08:25 – 00:09:01
In this case, you went to an existing customer and asked for a referral, and got 100,000 in one conversation — less than 1% of the time this happens, but it happens because you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

00:09:01 – 00:09:28
It’s only when you follow certain steps consistently that this happens — we track activity: how many calls, referral calls, follow-ups, etc. Whatever’s coming out on the outside reflects what’s going on on the inside.

00:09:28 – 00:09:56
Let’s build on the idea of the Aged Account program — tell us what happened when you discovered it, and what happened with one of the customers you practiced this approach on.

00:09:56 – 00:10:25
The Aged Account discussion drove me to go through our entire account book and look at customers I hadn’t spoken to in a while. One customer I hadn’t spoken to in three months — we’d set up their office in Abu Dhabi and just stopped touching base, while we still processed tickets.

00:10:25 – 00:10:50
Their other entity (same company, different location, Dubai) had gotten more care and attention. This company wanted to be regulated by Abu Dhabi Global Market eventually — it’s on their roadmap.

00:10:50 – 00:11:18
We touched base on how much they didn’t have in their maintenance contract compared to what the regulation required, spoke to their IT manager and office manager.

00:11:18 – 00:11:42
One glaring issue: access control systems. If it’s not working, an office manager might just turn it off rather than call an unfamiliar contractor — but there’s risk, and it can affect their ability to get registered with the regulator.

00:11:42 – 00:12:03
Regulated entities look at previous behaviors, not just current ones — whether you’ve rectified past issues. When you’re an office manager with everything to manage, it’s important to come to companies like ours who think in those terms all the time.

00:12:03 – 00:12:22
You had the vision, saw the gap, just by looking at existing accounts. There are acres of diamonds in your own backyard — you’ve just got to go start digging.

00:12:39 – 00:13:03
There was a good uplift in the size of the contract, and we’re providing more services — the access control provision increased actual value in revenue by 20% per month.

00:13:03 – 00:13:24
It also gives them peace of mind that they’re approaching the level of their peers, and know they’re working with someone professional who cares about their interests, not just their own. It’s a win-win — when you win, they win, the relationship wins.

00:13:24 – 00:13:48
Now I can work with them more closely on their roadmap — regulators may require a camera pointing at the server room, and if you don’t have it when they come around, they can revoke your license.

00:13:48 – 00:14:13
People don’t always listen to the right people. Being there enables me to be a trusted advisor and add real value, strengthening a relationship that wasn’t there but should have been.

00:14:13 – 00:14:33
Focusing on aged accounts feels painful to say, but I know we’re going to grow as a company, I’m going to grow as a salesperson, and our customers will grow too.

00:14:58 – 00:15:23
Having gone through this transformation — the layer of mindset, referrals, aged accounts, and other layers — if you go back 10 or 15 years, what would you tell yourself about investing in yourself?

00:15:23 – 00:15:44
Investing in yourself is incredibly important, and people are always a bit scared because it costs money. You invest money, but also invest your time — time spent practicing and disciplining yourself.

00:15:44 – 00:16:10
If I could go back, it would be to never stop being a good listener — the day you tell yourself you’re a good listener is the day you’ve actually stopped listening. It’s important to keep listening and keep telling yourself to keep listening.

00:16:10 – 00:16:33
One way to actively do that: invest in yourself, read books but take on board what they’re telling you, go to courses, find positive mentors, and actually listen to them.

00:16:50 – 00:17:14
There are multiple levels of listening — at the core, level three is active listening, nodding, clarifying, understanding not just what someone says but what they mean.

00:17:14 – 00:17:38
If you find someone who’s listening to you, do you like them more or less? Significantly more — studies have shown it, and we did an exercise to prove it. When someone noticeably stops listening, you just give up.

00:18:20 – 00:18:45
One area you communicated a lot during the course: the more you put into your preparation, the less time you spend in negotiation — because negotiation slows things down and creates friction that can damage a deal or relationship.

00:19:11 – 00:19:33
I’ve been putting internal procedures in place — as soon as a customer asks for something like a laptop, I get back to them quickly with options, so instead of going to three suppliers for one option each, they get three good options from one supplier.

00:20:28 – 00:20:52
Your internal process and team benefit from these ideas — when you teach something to someone else, you get to that next level yourself, and it stays with you.

00:21:13 – 00:21:34
There’s a strong coaching ethos in how the course is delivered — I never felt like I was being told what to do, always asked, getting the best out of me.

00:21:52 – 00:22:11
The one-on-one sessions every other week went into detail on what I was getting out of the course, how I could improve, and what I used that week.

00:22:34 – 00:22:52
A lot of process was fed into the coaching — at first I resisted (“9001, very process driven”), but I started working towards it and we’re doing significantly better as a department.

00:23:09 – 00:23:25
“If your cup is full, we can’t pour more in” — you have to empty your cup and say, “my cup is not that full, please give me some notes.”

00:23:25 – 00:23:50
Any advice for someone considering this course? Always invest in yourself, and in the right people.

00:24:16 – 00:24:35
It’s the right course for any salesperson who wants to add value into the room they step into, into the industry they step into — are you a giver or a taker? Are you adding value, or taking value from your clients?

00:24:35 – 00:24:55
You can take so much, but only after you give enough — you need lots of deposits before you can make withdrawals.

00:24:55 – 00:25:15
What I love about you, Paul, is your humility and your excitement — from sitting at the very back corner on day one to actively participating throughout. What you put in is what you get out.

00:25:37 – 00:25:58
Congratulations, and awarding you your certificate of completion for the program. Looking forward to seeing you in the advanced programs to come.

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