Building a Strong Sales Team with Pete Tonsager

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:03

Hello and welcome to another episode of

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:05

the Snack size sales Podcast. Today my guest is Pete Ponte

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:12

Sager. Did I say that right? Pete?

Pete Tonsager: 00:00:14

Yes, you sure did.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:15

Awesome. How are you?

Pete Tonsager: 00:00:17

I'm fantastic about you.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:19

I'm doing a lovely. Let me tell you guys a

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:23

little bit about Pete. He is the youngest of nine, he worked

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:27

several jobs while putting himself through college. His

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:30

early work involves working in a research laboratory for

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:33

composite building products serving as a springboard to his

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:37

career as a sales manager in specialty chemicals, and

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:40

composite products. He is customer focus, and a value

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:44

obsessed director of sales. I love it. I love it. I love it.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:49

So tell me, how did you start your career? And how did you get

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:52

to where you are today?

Pete Tonsager: 00:00:54

Yeah, I'm sort of interesting. You know, I never

Pete Tonsager: 00:00:57

wanted to be a salesperson. Like, so many people out there

Pete Tonsager: 00:01:02

sort of thought. That's sort of not where I wanted to go. But in

Pete Tonsager: 00:01:06

college, I was working in a research lab, it was my work

Pete Tonsager: 00:01:09

study job. And it was a composite wood laboratory. And

Pete Tonsager: 00:01:13

so I started interacting with different people who were

Pete Tonsager: 00:01:15

bringing ideas into our lab, and got it got a job running a

Pete Tonsager: 00:01:21

composite slab for a startup business in Minnesota. And we

Pete Tonsager: 00:01:26

were a small startup. And so as the head of the lab, and it was

Pete Tonsager: 00:01:29

a technical product, I started getting brought out in front of

Pete Tonsager: 00:01:33

customers. And it really started with me seeing my myself as

Pete Tonsager: 00:01:38

educating customers not selling them. And that's really the

Pete Tonsager: 00:01:42

approach I've taken since then it's about helping the customer

Pete Tonsager: 00:01:45

and bringing value.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:01:49

Oh, helping the customer in bringing value. So

Wesleyne Greer: 00:01:52

when you think about those two things, helping the customer and

Wesleyne Greer: 00:01:56

bringing value, a lot of times I hear salespeople or sales

Wesleyne Greer: 00:02:00

managers saying you can't do both, if because when they think

Wesleyne Greer: 00:02:04

about bringing value, they're always thinking about being so

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product centric, and like thinking about their products.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:02:09

So tell me, how do you balance those two things, right. And

Pete Tonsager: 00:02:13

that's where so many people I think, go wrong,

Pete Tonsager: 00:02:15

they think about it as product, right. And so I look at the

Pete Tonsager: 00:02:20

individual that I'm talking to, you've got to start there, we

Pete Tonsager: 00:02:23

all bring our personal lives, we all bring our public selves and

Pete Tonsager: 00:02:27

our business selves to work every day. And so it's relating

Pete Tonsager: 00:02:31

to that person. And then you've got to do research ahead of time

Pete Tonsager: 00:02:34

to and understand, if it's a large corporation, the division

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there in the corporate goals, you really need to do your work

Pete Tonsager: 00:02:42

ahead of time. Because what I've learned is, a lot of times the

Pete Tonsager: 00:02:46

value you bring has nothing to do with your product. I always

Pete Tonsager: 00:02:51

tell my team if it's the perfect product with the perfect

Pete Tonsager: 00:02:54

company, the perfect quality, perfect supply chain, we don't

Pete Tonsager: 00:02:57

need salespeople, right, it's going to sell itself. And so

Pete Tonsager: 00:03:02

understanding and I'll use current examples right now,

Pete Tonsager: 00:03:06

global shipping is a mess. And so I now work for a global

Pete Tonsager: 00:03:10

corporation. And so for some of our smaller accounts, I put them

Pete Tonsager: 00:03:14

in touch with our global stuff, the global team that does

Pete Tonsager: 00:03:17

shipping and receiving. And they can help them understand how to

Pete Tonsager: 00:03:21

get a product. That's not a product, it's not me it but it

Pete Tonsager: 00:03:25

brings value to that customer. It's something that someone

Pete Tonsager: 00:03:28

selling the same product at a lower price can't offer. And so

Pete Tonsager: 00:03:33

that's what I always coach my team on understanding that it's

Pete Tonsager: 00:03:37

not always product, it hardly ever is product, it really is.

Pete Tonsager: 00:03:40

How can I help this customer?

Wesleyne Greer: 00:03:44

I love that one thing that I often say is serve,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:03:47

don't sell, right. And sometimes when you're in a situation with

Wesleyne Greer: 00:03:52

a prospect with an existing client, they don't need what

Wesleyne Greer: 00:03:56

you're offering right now. But you have a somebody in your

Wesleyne Greer: 00:03:59

ecosystem, somebody that you know, who can help them, and you

Wesleyne Greer: 00:04:02

help them with their problem today. And that brings you more

Wesleyne Greer: 00:04:06

business tomorrow. So as a individual contributor, I know

Wesleyne Greer: 00:04:10

that it's it's easy to have your marched to the beat of your own

Wesleyne Greer: 00:04:13

job focused on the customer centric and the value. And you

Wesleyne Greer: 00:04:16

mentioned coaching your team? How do you ensure that you're

Wesleyne Greer: 00:04:20

incorporating this into the fabric of your sales team?

Pete Tonsager: 00:04:24

So with my team, we talk about meetings, pretty

Pete Tonsager: 00:04:28

much beforehand, we want to know what our objective is from the

Pete Tonsager: 00:04:31

meeting. And with that we really test each other. We really go

Pete Tonsager: 00:04:36

back and forth, not so much role playing but really understanding

Pete Tonsager: 00:04:39

what are you trying to do and how do you think you're going to

Pete Tonsager: 00:04:42

get there? Because you can't lead the customer there. But you

Pete Tonsager: 00:04:46

need to be knowing what your objective is to understand how

Pete Tonsager: 00:04:50

to get there at the end. And again, it's more about

Pete Tonsager: 00:04:53

uncovering what are the pain points, what are the

Pete Tonsager: 00:04:55

bottlenecks, what are the problems that I can help solve

Pete Tonsager: 00:04:59

and that That's how we do it. And then afterwards saying, how

Pete Tonsager: 00:05:02

do you think we did, um, because let's face it, having the best

Pete Tonsager: 00:05:06

laid plan, you can walk into a meeting and get thrown sideways,

Pete Tonsager: 00:05:10

until you're not always going to hit your objective. But if you

Pete Tonsager: 00:05:13

provided a glimpse to that customer, the value you bring,

Pete Tonsager: 00:05:16

it's still a success. I love

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:19

that. So, so many sales managers and sales

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:22

teams, they hear roleplay and they're like, Hey, go play. It's

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:26

the worst ever. But I found that, you know, when you role

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:31

play, what you're doing is you're allowing the sales people

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:34

to mess up in a safe space. And so even if they cringe, or they

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:38

don't like it, this is how they practice. And so when they get

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:41

out there in the real world, they've already got all the

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:43

jitters out, they've already perfected their pitch, they're

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:47

questioning, so it helps them. So how do you one, get your team

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:52

to enjoy roleplay? And to what are some tips that sales

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:57

managers could use to make their roleplay sessions better?

Pete Tonsager: 00:06:00

Yeah, I think what I found in past and role

Pete Tonsager: 00:06:02

playing, because honestly, I don't like role playing either.

Pete Tonsager: 00:06:05

It is so uncomfortable. And one of the reasons is, I think a lot

Pete Tonsager: 00:06:09

of times, when trainers come in, they set up profiles and things

Pete Tonsager: 00:06:14

that maybe have nothing to do with the customer. And I always

Pete Tonsager: 00:06:17

bring it back to I start with with the customer. And I say

Pete Tonsager: 00:06:21

what problems are they facing? So if it's procurement, they're

Pete Tonsager: 00:06:24

going to have specific problems, marketing, it'll be different

Pete Tonsager: 00:06:27

set of problems, and then say, how do they create a win for

Pete Tonsager: 00:06:31

themselves in the business? And so that's, that's really what I

Pete Tonsager: 00:06:35

asked to set up a roleplay is, what are we trying to achieve?

Pete Tonsager: 00:06:38

And how can we realistically help them get there? And that's,

Pete Tonsager: 00:06:43

that's where you have to make it personal to me. And so for role

Pete Tonsager: 00:06:47

playing, that's what gets my team comfortable with with going

Pete Tonsager: 00:06:50

through this scenario.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:06:51

I love that it's starting with the end in mind,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:06:55

right? Like, what are the goals that we're trying to achieve?

Wesleyne Greer: 00:06:58

What do we need to what is the outcome of this meeting? Right.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:02

And one thing that I like to tell people when I'm working

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:05

with them coaching them, is whenever you do a ride along

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:08

with your salespeople, you set the objective before the

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:11

meeting, you add you are quiet in the meeting, because it's not

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:15

about you, nobody gets back to you. It's all about salesperson.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:17

And then after the meeting, you have to debrief right, you have

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:20

to say you did this right, you did that? Right. Okay, these are

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:23

the goals that we set, do you think that we achieved our

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:25

goals? And again, when you're able to do that in a safe space,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:28

I think that's really what helps build the trust within a team.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:32

And when they get out there in the field, they perform better?

Pete Tonsager: 00:07:35

Correct? Yeah, it's just immensely helpful. And

Pete Tonsager: 00:07:38

I also try to remind my team that, you know, I've coached

Pete Tonsager: 00:07:43

older folks that have been selling for a long time. And in

Pete Tonsager: 00:07:48

the current industry, I'm in it's long term accounts that

Pete Tonsager: 00:07:51

you've been selling to for 40 years. And so what's relevant 40

Pete Tonsager: 00:07:55

years ago, is still relevant today, as far as some of the

Pete Tonsager: 00:07:58

knowledge, but I always remind them, I said, Any relationship

Pete Tonsager: 00:08:01

you've ever had, whether you're married, whether you're not even

Pete Tonsager: 00:08:05

your relationship with with your parents, right? Think about when

Pete Tonsager: 00:08:09

you first started that relationship, and what was

Pete Tonsager: 00:08:11

important to you in them then? And what's important now, you

Pete Tonsager: 00:08:15

know, new couples starting out, it's finding a place to live

Pete Tonsager: 00:08:18

together. What do we agree upon all of that. And once you've

Pete Tonsager: 00:08:22

been married 20 years, it's different. So you can't assume

Pete Tonsager: 00:08:25

that what you knew about an account 20 years ago, or two

Pete Tonsager: 00:08:28

years ago is true today. So tell me about those.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:08:33

Those salespeople that you have that

Wesleyne Greer: 00:08:35

are probably towards the end of their career, and they've been

Wesleyne Greer: 00:08:38

doing the same thing for 1020 30 years. For you as a sales

Wesleyne Greer: 00:08:43

manager? How do you ensure that you're giving the brand new

Wesleyne Greer: 00:08:49

people on the team, the same type of support as those more

Wesleyne Greer: 00:08:53

seasoned salespeople?

Pete Tonsager: 00:08:54

Yeah, and what I tried to do there is praise and

Pete Tonsager: 00:09:00

understand those those workers that have been in the in the

Pete Tonsager: 00:09:03

position a long time, they're doing a great job, they're the

Pete Tonsager: 00:09:06

best coach, they're the best example for the newer members of

Pete Tonsager: 00:09:09

the team. So get them to work together to understand each

Pete Tonsager: 00:09:13

other, and, and even to share accounts. I've done that some

Pete Tonsager: 00:09:19

salespeople really hate it, I'll admit, because they're very

Pete Tonsager: 00:09:22

competitive, and they want to win on their own. But if you

Pete Tonsager: 00:09:24

make them understand that winning together, that's truly

Pete Tonsager: 00:09:27

what a team is about. And what I also tried to do is, I tried to

Pete Tonsager: 00:09:32

stay away from my account that my this my that, I always remind

Pete Tonsager: 00:09:37

them, we're stewards, they're the company's accounts. And so

Pete Tonsager: 00:09:41

if I can get them to buy into that and believe in that, that's

Pete Tonsager: 00:09:45

also a big asset to training.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:09:47

So I touched on something that is so, so big

Wesleyne Greer: 00:09:53

with sales teams, it's really like we're not competing against

Wesleyne Greer: 00:09:57

each other. We're competing against external forces. So

Wesleyne Greer: 00:10:00

really having within your sales team them working on accounts

Wesleyne Greer: 00:10:04

together and sharing knowledge and I won here, you can do this,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:10:08

you can do that. And give us some tips tell us how you were

Wesleyne Greer: 00:10:11

able to develop that culture within your team.

Pete Tonsager: 00:10:15

So with the team, I it's really a celebrating

Pete Tonsager: 00:10:18

individual victories. And also acknowledging the challenges and

Pete Tonsager: 00:10:21

sharing those as a as a group, again, that that safe space that

Pete Tonsager: 00:10:24

you talk about, owning up to everyone has a bad day, right.

Pete Tonsager: 00:10:30

And the other thing I've done is I get to Team comfortable with

Pete Tonsager: 00:10:34

the fact that we're not all the right cup of tea for each other.

Pete Tonsager: 00:10:39

And so you are going to have a country feel there's nothing

Pete Tonsager: 00:10:42

there, we've got everything we can get. And so getting people

Pete Tonsager: 00:10:46

comfortable with swapping out accounts, to bring it and I'm

Pete Tonsager: 00:10:50

sort of the intermediary to make sure you're not dumping your

Pete Tonsager: 00:10:52

worst accounts on someone, but really getting people to

Pete Tonsager: 00:10:55

understand and it's, it's been miraculous, because accounts

Pete Tonsager: 00:11:00

also respect that, that you respect them enough to say, All

Pete Tonsager: 00:11:04

right, you know, it didn't work out with this salesperson. This

Pete Tonsager: 00:11:08

is another person, right? And this is why I selected them for

Pete Tonsager: 00:11:12

you, this is what I expect to get out of it. Because I want

Pete Tonsager: 00:11:15

the accounts to understand too, that they also play a role in

Pete Tonsager: 00:11:17

this. If they're going to be Prickly, with every single

Pete Tonsager: 00:11:21

account manager that gets in front of them. That's that's not

Pete Tonsager: 00:11:24

an account that we want to spend a lot of time with. It's not

Pete Tonsager: 00:11:27

rewarding for anyone. So I sort of also expect respect from the

Pete Tonsager: 00:11:31

accounts for what we're trying to do if we're truly bringing

Pete Tonsager: 00:11:34

them value, they would understand that.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:37

I love that. I love that, you know, because

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:40

sometimes I find that sales managers, or salespeople,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:44

they're like, oh, yeah, that person doesn't like me. So we're

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:47

just not going to do business with them. But you take a

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:50

different stance that maybe that sales person doesn't veg with

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:53

their personality. So let me try somebody else. And if I try

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:56

three or four people, then yeah, it's the customer. It's got my

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:59

salespeople, right. So at some point, it's not making excuses,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:03

it's really aligning the outside influence with the inside

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:07

influence. So within this last year, we've been in, I call them

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:12

a new normal. So we've transitioned to mainly virtual,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:15

we've done a lot of things differently, what were some of

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:18

the challenges that you guys experienced? And how did you

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:21

overcome them.

Pete Tonsager: 00:12:22

So the challenges, as you can imagine,

Pete Tonsager: 00:12:25

we're not an inside sales team. We're an outside sales team

Pete Tonsager: 00:12:28

here. And it's international. And so to overcome some of the

Pete Tonsager: 00:12:32

cultural differences, other things, it just makes more sense

Pete Tonsager: 00:12:35

to be face to face as much as possible. And not being able to

Pete Tonsager: 00:12:39

do that was very challenging. We adapted very quickly to having

Pete Tonsager: 00:12:43

teams meetings or Zoom meetings, that wasn't an issue. But the

Pete Tonsager: 00:12:47

body language, the rest of it was really a challenge. And so

Pete Tonsager: 00:12:52

for the team, a big thing we did is, for large meetings, I'm

Pete Tonsager: 00:12:57

okay, if someone's not talking, not really primary to the

Pete Tonsager: 00:13:00

meeting, camera can be off, not a big deal. But if you're

Pete Tonsager: 00:13:03

speaking, and especially if your salesperson your camera needs to

Pete Tonsager: 00:13:06

be on, you need to be interacting in that way, because

Pete Tonsager: 00:13:11

that is the best thing we can do. And so that was one thing

Pete Tonsager: 00:13:14

that we did. And like you said, we really, we had to almost

Pete Tonsager: 00:13:20

become therapists, because when people were working from home, I

Pete Tonsager: 00:13:23

found that there were more of their personal lives that

Pete Tonsager: 00:13:26

interfered with work than when they're in their office. And so

Pete Tonsager: 00:13:31

just understanding sometimes that you're that you can see a

Pete Tonsager: 00:13:34

little kid that's coming up and tugging on dad or mom shirt, and

Pete Tonsager: 00:13:38

wanting some attention saying, hey, you know, do you need a 10

Pete Tonsager: 00:13:40

minute break? Or should we reschedule, people really

Pete Tonsager: 00:13:44

respected that and understood that. So it was being aware of

Pete Tonsager: 00:13:48

these different cues that we obviously in a business setting

Pete Tonsager: 00:13:51

when you're in a conference room, you don't have to be aware

Pete Tonsager: 00:13:53

of? So that was that was our challenges, and I think we

Pete Tonsager: 00:13:56

tackled them very well.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:13:58

I love that because you know, one thing that

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:00

I say is, would you get in the room with a customer with your

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:04

sales manager, your colleagues with a bag on your head? Why are

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:09

we in a Zoom meeting, and I'm just looking at a black box and

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:11

I poke fun I can I can talk to your black box today. I get it,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:15

you know, you just don't want to be on camera. But it's weird,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:18

talking just a name. And I think that, you know, humanizing,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:23

because sales people are people too, right? Like, I really like

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:27

to say that because a lot of times, salespeople get this

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:30

stigma of being sleazy or self centered, like all of these

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:34

things, but at the end of the day, they're human, right? And

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:37

so yes, they have families, they have animals, they have kids,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:40

they have spouses, they have things that are happening. And

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:43

really within this past year, there were so many things that

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:45

were out of our control. So I'm curious, do you see what do you

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:51

see I guess for the next 12 months or so for for the

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:54

business. Are the reps going to be back in the field are you

Wesleyne Greer: 00:14:57

going to do in person conferences virtual All

Wesleyne Greer: 00:15:00

conferences, what are you going to be doing to incorporate the

Wesleyne Greer: 00:15:03

old and the neat.

Pete Tonsager: 00:15:05

So for us, it's been pretty interesting. We deal

Pete Tonsager: 00:15:09

with very small companies, but also a very, very large

Pete Tonsager: 00:15:12

corporations. And we've been trying to be polite and

Pete Tonsager: 00:15:16

cognizant of where they're at. Some are coming back into the

Pete Tonsager: 00:15:20

office on a part time basis, but not allowing for, you know, face

Pete Tonsager: 00:15:23

to face meetings. Others are, and so we're getting in front of

Pete Tonsager: 00:15:26

those that are ready to accept us. And honestly, with others,

Pete Tonsager: 00:15:30

what we found is they want to meet as well. And so if their

Pete Tonsager: 00:15:35

company is not allowing people into the building to meet, we're

Pete Tonsager: 00:15:38

actually flying out and meeting in an outdoor coffee shop, if

Pete Tonsager: 00:15:41

that's acceptable, just having them check. But again, it's it's

Pete Tonsager: 00:15:45

part of that value equation, again, you have to value where

Pete Tonsager: 00:15:48

they're at what they're comfortable with, while still

Pete Tonsager: 00:15:52

maintaining a great relationship. And so we're

Pete Tonsager: 00:15:55

really doing a mixed bag of still doing some online, some

Pete Tonsager: 00:15:58

face to face some getting into a corporate boardroom and talking

Pete Tonsager: 00:16:01

to folks, whatever is acceptable to them, and they're comfortable

Pete Tonsager: 00:16:05

with.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:06

I love that back in the olden days, as my kids

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:09

call it when I was first in sales, I can remember one of the

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:13

things that I would do when I got a new lead or prospect, I

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:16

would ask them, How do you like to communicate phone in person,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:20

email, subconsciously like email, and like I sold things

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:24

100% through email, this is way before the days of Skype or zoom

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:27

or selling that way. But like I corresponded 100% through email,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:30

they sent a purchase order, we never spoke on the phone,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:33

sometimes they would want to see face to face, like they would

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:37

not do business with you, unless they're like, no, come meet me.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:40

And then you're like, Okay, well, can I send you the quote

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:42

or put nope, nope, coming in, right, and you do what the

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:45

customer wants. And I think that that goes back to being customer

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:48

centric, which is what you said, it's like, focus on what the

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:51

customer wants, I can't go on site. But I do think that we

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:54

need a connection and you want to see me let's go to a coffee

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:57

shop, I'll take you to lunch, right. And I think that is

Wesleyne Greer: 00:17:00

really what helps to build these strong sales teams. Right? So I

Wesleyne Greer: 00:17:06

would love for you to tell me Give me a success story. Tell me

Wesleyne Greer: 00:17:09

about a salesperson that you have that was an underdog. That

Wesleyne Greer: 00:17:13

was the comeback kid that was like a written off and you were

Wesleyne Greer: 00:17:17

able to redeem them, or a team or a project, something that

Wesleyne Greer: 00:17:20

you're really especially proud of,

Pete Tonsager: 00:17:23

you know, I've got quite a few folks that I

Pete Tonsager: 00:17:26

just feel personality wise, professionally, they were at one

Pete Tonsager: 00:17:30

point and just getting them to a new point has been remarkable.

Pete Tonsager: 00:17:35

And I had a person who was a new immigrant to the United States,

Pete Tonsager: 00:17:40

and really felt uncomfortable with their language skills felt

Pete Tonsager: 00:17:43

uncomfortable with the way they interacted, it just culturally

Pete Tonsager: 00:17:47

was a different environment for them. And so I work with that

Pete Tonsager: 00:17:51

person, and help them to understand that bringing their

Pete Tonsager: 00:17:55

culture out. And sort of bringing it with them, instead

Pete Tonsager: 00:17:59

of being ashamed of it or trying to minimize it was actually to

Pete Tonsager: 00:18:03

their advantage. Because it made the conversation more

Pete Tonsager: 00:18:08

interesting. It made it more of a learning experience for both

Pete Tonsager: 00:18:11

sides. And this person just had had a heart like you wouldn't

Pete Tonsager: 00:18:15

believe. And I remember after two years ago, I was at a trade

Pete Tonsager: 00:18:19

show. And this was a female, she wasn't in the trade show booth.

Pete Tonsager: 00:18:23

And one of her customers came in and said is Lisa here and I, I

Pete Tonsager: 00:18:28

have a dry sense of humor. So I made some sarcastic remark about

Pete Tonsager: 00:18:32

oh, you know, she, you know, Lisa, she showed up and now

Pete Tonsager: 00:18:35

she's gone. And this customer got defensive on Lisa's behalf

Pete Tonsager: 00:18:41

and defended her and it was then I realized, this is who she is.

Pete Tonsager: 00:18:46

And to this customer. She wasn't a salesperson, she was a member

Pete Tonsager: 00:18:50

of their team. And it just made me so proud of the steps that

Pete Tonsager: 00:18:55

she had taken to really overcome, you know, what she

Pete Tonsager: 00:18:59

felt was something that set her back. And she was able to turn

Pete Tonsager: 00:19:03

it around and really use it to her advantage to be more human

Pete Tonsager: 00:19:06

as a sales, like you said as a salesperson, right?

Wesleyne Greer: 00:19:09

Oh my goodness, I absolutely love that story. A

Wesleyne Greer: 00:19:13

lot of times in these this technical field that we're in we

Wesleyne Greer: 00:19:16

have a lot of people who English isn't their first language. And

Wesleyne Greer: 00:19:19

a lot of times they shy away from getting into sales because

Wesleyne Greer: 00:19:22

they're like, I have to talk to people. And I don't feel like I

Wesleyne Greer: 00:19:25

can communicate clearly but for you as a sales manager to say

Wesleyne Greer: 00:19:29

hey, it's okay. You know, your differences are accepted and

Wesleyne Greer: 00:19:34

respected and I'm going to work with you and lean on the things

Wesleyne Greer: 00:19:37

that you're good at that relationship building that

Wesleyne Greer: 00:19:39

developing that rapport and really when you have a customer

Wesleyne Greer: 00:19:43

who's defending your boss, maybe like that is like the Holy

Wesleyne Greer: 00:19:49

Grail. So kudos to Lisa I hope she listens to this wherever she

Wesleyne Greer: 00:19:53

is in life and really knows and understands how great of a

Wesleyne Greer: 00:19:57

salesperson she is to have her Boston Finding her, I mean her

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:01

customer defending awesome. So Pete, we have had an amazing

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:08

conversation and I know there gonna be be people out there who

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:12

want to get in contact with you what is the one best way for

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:14

them to reach out?

Pete Tonsager: 00:20:16

Probably through LinkedIn. Um, I know it's a

Pete Tonsager: 00:20:18

tough last name. But on LinkedIn, it's Pete last name is

Pete Tonsager: 00:20:22

Tom Tiger. Isn't Thomas o n is an anti s ag er, just ping me on

Pete Tonsager: 00:20:28

LinkedIn. I'll sure be sure to get back to you. I love meeting

Pete Tonsager: 00:20:32

and connecting with people on LinkedIn.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:34

Awesome, thank you so much for talking to us

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:38

about building value and having a customer centric sales

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:42

organization and really how you take your sales leadership, your

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:47

sales management to a whole different level by really

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:50

coaching your team to their strengths and their weaknesses.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:52

Thank you so much, Pete.

Pete Tonsager: 00:20:54

Thank you for a great podcast. I love listening

Pete Tonsager: 00:20:56

to it. It's been fantastic.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:59

Awesome. Thank you guys so much for listening

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:02

to another episode of the snack sized sales podcast. Be sure to

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:07

check us out rate and review this episode and in everything

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:10

you do. Remember to transform your sales