Episode 65

How You Can Strike Gold in Sales Easy with Jon Ferrara

Published on: 13th April, 2022

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Highlights

  • Starting out his career on the shoulders of giants.
  • Dealing with the CRM challenges that salespeople face and where Nimble comes in.
  • How to go about effectively enabling your salespeople.
  • Selling GoldMine and taking a 10-year hiatus before starting Nimble.
  • Why empathy is important in sales leadership.
  • The diverse experiences that made Nimble the amazing CRM that it is today.
  • His pride and passion for family and helping people.

In today’s episode of the Science of Selling STEM, I had a chat with Jon Ferrara, the Founder, and CEO of Nimble, a social sales and marketing CRM company. He is a SaaS entrepreneur and CRM pioneer. He’s mostly known for founding one of the first CRMs, GoldMine, in the 1990s. In 2010, he re-imagined CRM by building Nimble. John’s core values are building products that help others achieve their passion, plan, and purpose, and what drives his success. 

We will discuss how CRMs started and how to get usability and usage. Jon will then teach us how to sell and where to start with our selling. He will share how a big personal challenge he faced after selling GoldMine (His previous company) changed his life forever. And he will explain how Nimble is more than just another CRM solution. Enjoy!

Quotes

“People don’t buy great products, they buy better versions of themselves” - Jon Ferrara

“If you lead with empathy then you’re really leading with listening, and a desire to understand the people that you’re interacting with, and how you can serve them” - Jon Ferrara

“If you really truly get in the trenches with your team, with your customers, and understand their plight, and adjust what you’re doing with each of them in an individualized way, that resonates with people” - Jon Ferrara

“Leading your sales team with empathy really helps for you to better understand the constituency around them, to serve them better, and to produce more” - Jon Ferrara

“The best product comes from your own need, because you’re passionate about it and you understand the problem” - Jon Ferrara

Learn More About Jon in the Links Below:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonvferrara/

Email - Jon@Nimble.com

Website - https://www.nimble.com/

Subscribe to Nimble and Use the Code “JON40” To Get a 40% Discount For The First 3 Months.

Connect with Wesleyne Greer:

  • Wesleyne’s Website - https://transformedsales.com/
  • Wesleyne on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesleynegreer/
  • Wesleyne on Facebook - https://web.facebook.com/wesleynegreer
  • Wesleyne on Twitter - https://twitter.com/wesleynegreer
  • Email Her at wesleyne@transformedsales.com
Transcript
Wesleyne Greer:

As a sales manager, you are judged by the

Wesleyne Greer:

performance of your team, and you're praised when they do

Wesleyne Greer:

well. But one thing that you've not been able to figure out is

Wesleyne Greer:

how to get everyone on your team consistently hitting quota every

Wesleyne Greer:

single month. On the Snack size sales podcast, we discuss the

Wesleyne Greer:

science of selling stem sales leadership in the science,

Wesleyne Greer:

technology, engineering and manufacturing fields is

Wesleyne Greer:

difficult. You will learn from sales managers just like you

Wesleyne Greer:

that will give you actionable insights and tips on how to

Wesleyne Greer:

develop as a leader and achieve your revenue targets every

Wesleyne Greer:

single month. So pop your headphones in and get ready to

Wesleyne Greer:

listen to my guests today. They will give you information and

Wesleyne Greer:

inspiration to ensure that you have actionable insights that

Wesleyne Greer:

you can put into place today. Hello, and welcome to another

Wesleyne Greer:

episode of the science of selling stem today. I am so

Wesleyne Greer:

excited. I have John Ferrara, the CEO of nimble, how are you

Wesleyne Greer:

done?

Jon Ferrara:

I'm good Wesleyan. I'm super excited to be here

Jon Ferrara:

today with you and more importantly, your audience

Jon Ferrara:

because I think that we all grow by helping other people grow.

Jon Ferrara:

And so I hope that our conversation today leaves the

Jon Ferrara:

people listening with some inspiration education that helps

Jon Ferrara:

them to become better, smarter, faster tomorrow.

Wesleyne Greer:

Awesome. I'm excited to dig in with you. Let

Wesleyne Greer:

me tell you guys a little bit more about John. He's a SAS

Wesleyne Greer:

entrepreneur and a CRM pioneer. He's mostly known for founding

Wesleyne Greer:

one of the first CRMs Goldmine in the 1990s in 2010. He

Wesleyne Greer:

reimagined CRM by building nimble, the simple CRM for

Wesleyne Greer:

office 365, and G Suite. John's core values are building

Wesleyne Greer:

products that help others achieve their passion, plan and

Wesleyne Greer:

purpose and what drives his success. So you as my children

Wesleyne Greer:

say, back in the 1900s, they like to share with you a nice to

Wesleyne Greer:

know, in the 1900s, you built a whole CRM and now you're on

Wesleyne Greer:

another one that we want to know how did you start your career?

Wesleyne Greer:

And how did you get to where you are today?

Jon Ferrara:

Well, I think I started my career on the

Jon Ferrara:

shoulders of giants, right? I think that we all are here on

Jon Ferrara:

this planet because of the work that other people did. And it

Jon Ferrara:

was really a blend of my father who was one of the top Lincoln

Jon Ferrara:

Mercury guys in the country in the 50s. And Subaru dealer, one

Jon Ferrara:

of the first ones in California in the 70s. And my uncle John,

Jon Ferrara:

who invented radar and microwave at MIT in the 40s these people

Jon Ferrara:

inspired me to take chances with life to never say shoulda,

Jon Ferrara:

coulda, woulda, and also, I'll attribute the space program

Jon Ferrara:

based out of Texas, the space program really inspired me to

Jon Ferrara:

look towards science as a way to achieve my dreams. And so when I

Jon Ferrara:

when I graduated from high school, I bought my first

Jon Ferrara:

computer in 1978, very few people in my town had a computer

Jon Ferrara:

in those days, I worked my way through combined computer

Jon Ferrara:

science degree at a computer game store. And it was there, I

Jon Ferrara:

saw the adoption of micro computers by businesses at

Jon Ferrara:

scale, and learned about their needs, because I then graduated

Jon Ferrara:

from my degree and went to work in business. And it was there

Jon Ferrara:

working in business that I saw the adoption of PCs and the need

Jon Ferrara:

for software to drive the productivity of those solutions.

Jon Ferrara:

And more importantly, it was at a company in Texas in Dallas

Jon Ferrara:

that I was working at in sales. And they basically there was no

Jon Ferrara:

CRM, there was no contact management outlook and

Jon Ferrara:

Salesforce didn't exist. And it was the days of DOS Disk

Jon Ferrara:

Operating System. So PCs didn't even have a program that

Jon Ferrara:

integrated email contacts and calendar and sales and marketing

Jon Ferrara:

automation. And as a salesperson working as part of a field team.

Jon Ferrara:

I needed something to not only manage my contacts, but to

Jon Ferrara:

collaborate with my team about the contacts that we were

Jon Ferrara:

simultaneously engaging with. And all I had to arm myself was

Jon Ferrara:

scraps of paper that I made notes on my day timer that I put

Jon Ferrara:

my appointments and my contacts on and a spreadsheet that I put

Jon Ferrara:

my forecast on, and I said there's got to be a better way I

Jon Ferrara:

couldn't find it. So I quit my job but I started goldmine.

Wesleyne Greer:

Wow. So how did you find yourself as a computer

Wesleyne Greer:

science major in sales?

Jon Ferrara:

Well, you know, the funny thing is Westland is that

Jon Ferrara:

I never wanted to be my dad and my dad was the consummate

Jon Ferrara:

entrepreneur salesperson. I wanted to be an astronaut. I

Jon Ferrara:

wanted to be more my my uncle who was a pioneer in electrical

Jon Ferrara:

engineering with radar microwaving satellite

Jon Ferrara:

communication. So I bought a computer and I studied computer

Jon Ferrara:

science, but you know, you can't avoid your heritage you you

Jon Ferrara:

become your father or your mother without a choice. And so

Jon Ferrara:

I found that I had to pay for my school and I got this job in a

Jon Ferrara:

computer store and I found out that I was really good at sail.

Jon Ferrara:

But the way I ended up as a computer science major in sales

Jon Ferrara:

is I spent two years at an aerospace company, Hughes

Jon Ferrara:

Aircraft and did systems work, I spent a year at a startup out of

Jon Ferrara:

Boston and did systems engineering, pre and post sales

Jon Ferrara:

work in order to support the salesperson. But I saw that

Jon Ferrara:

really, the opportunity for growth wasn't in the pre or post

Jon Ferrara:

sales role who was in sales, because those are the people

Jon Ferrara:

that are on the point of the customer in action, and the ones

Jon Ferrara:

that get rewarded most. So I had to try my hand at it. And as I

Jon Ferrara:

tried to do sales, I struggled because we're still working in

Jon Ferrara:

the the dark ages of sales automation, which is paper. And

Jon Ferrara:

I knew there had to be a better way to not just arm myself, but

Jon Ferrara:

my team around me. And what I wanted was a tool that

Jon Ferrara:

integrated the contact hours connecting with the

Jon Ferrara:

conversations I was having the activities are his driving and

Jon Ferrara:

of those activities that are driving the pipeline that I'm

Jon Ferrara:

managing. But I wanted to be able to do that not just for

Jon Ferrara:

myself, but my entire team in my district office, but to

Jon Ferrara:

collaborate with the corporate people, because it's not the

Jon Ferrara:

salespeople that touch the customer. It's everybody in the

Jon Ferrara:

whole journey pre and post cycle, including product

Jon Ferrara:

marketing, management, shipping accounting. And so I saw the

Jon Ferrara:

need for not just contact management for a team or CRM for

Jon Ferrara:

a team, but a blend of contact management and sales or

Jon Ferrara:

marketing automation for the whole company. And that's what

Jon Ferrara:

really caused me to go out and pioneer outlook and Salesforce

Jon Ferrara:

before i There existed with goldmine.

Wesleyne Greer:

Wow. And, you know, I think the crazy thing

Wesleyne Greer:

is, it's like you said that that was back in the 80s 90s. When

Wesleyne Greer:

you had that realization,

Jon Ferrara:

it was 1989 when I had that realization,

Wesleyne Greer:

and it's crazy that companies still don't have

Wesleyne Greer:

it figured out today. I mean, 2022, and they still aren't like

Wesleyne Greer:

using paper and doing crazy things. Hallelujah. And

Jon Ferrara:

amen. I'm and I'm going to tell you the history of

Jon Ferrara:

contact management, because contact management is the root

Jon Ferrara:

of SFA, Salesforce, automation and CRM. And it's one of the

Jon Ferrara:

reasons why CRM today is broken as his contact management. So

Jon Ferrara:

let me give you some history and bring us to the present of what

Jon Ferrara:

the problem is. So historically, contact management was a

Jon Ferrara:

Rolodex, it was that thing that you put the business cards in,

Jon Ferrara:

but it didn't enable you to automate that process, because

Jon Ferrara:

it was just a Rolodex of cards. And so somebody smart figured

Jon Ferrara:

out how to build a recall date system with six by nine cards

Jon Ferrara:

and a little metal box. And what you did is you put the name of

Jon Ferrara:

the person, you're outreaching, to the note on the call and the

Jon Ferrara:

recall date of when you said you got to follow up with them. And

Jon Ferrara:

typically in a call, you say, I'm gonna follow up with you in

Jon Ferrara:

two weeks, right? Now, if you don't do what you say in

Jon Ferrara:

business, that's the basics, you don't win games. And so the

Jon Ferrara:

recall date, six by nine index card system was really the root

Jon Ferrara:

of foundation of the idea of goldmine. But more importantly,

Jon Ferrara:

the blending of that recall date system, which is just like your

Jon Ferrara:

pipeline of people, you're calling on to your Rolodex,

Jon Ferrara:

which is your entire network. And imagine you wanted to be

Jon Ferrara:

able to do that for a whole team. And that was the idea of

Jon Ferrara:

Goldmine back in the day, and Outlook didn't exist. So in

Jon Ferrara:

those days, outlook was a Outlook Express, which was an

Jon Ferrara:

inbox it didn't have contacts or email connected. And the funny

Jon Ferrara:

thing about Microsoft is they don't innovate, they iterate,

Jon Ferrara:

they wait for somebody else to build a market, and then come on

Jon Ferrara:

when it's big enough to build something good enough to

Jon Ferrara:

dominate the market, and then use their muscle to dominate,

Jon Ferrara:

which is billions of users and hundreds of 1000s of bars. And

Jon Ferrara:

by the time Microsoft introduced outlook, which was a copy of

Jon Ferrara:

Goldmine, we had already had two to 5 million customers around

Jon Ferrara:

the world using our product. And so Goldmine was not just the

Jon Ferrara:

first CRM, it was the first contact manager for teams. And

Jon Ferrara:

the idea behind that is everybody in the company is

Jon Ferrara:

touching the customer simultaneously pre and post

Jon Ferrara:

sales cycle. And it's not just prospects and customers that you

Jon Ferrara:

need to connect with to grow your business. At nimble. We

Jon Ferrara:

connect to editors, analysts, bloggers, influencers, third

Jon Ferrara:

party developers, investors, advisors, so there's a

Jon Ferrara:

constituency that you need to connect with outside your

Jon Ferrara:

business. And there's a whole team of people within your

Jon Ferrara:

company. And so Goldmine was the contact manager for whole

Jon Ferrara:

companies back in the day when none existed. And when outlook

Jon Ferrara:

introduced contact management Goldmine by that time has

Jon Ferrara:

shifted up into SFA. And CRM SFA is essentially the rifle on the

Jon Ferrara:

map the tools of soldiers, their salespeople need to win wars

Jon Ferrara:

boots on the ground. And then if you think about the CRM, it's

Jon Ferrara:

more of the engine for reporting on the activities of the

Jon Ferrara:

salespeople and the managing of the leaves that you turn into

Jon Ferrara:

customers. And so CRM is really for management. SFAs for

Jon Ferrara:

salespeople. And contact management is for the whole team

Jon Ferrara:

to manage the relationships. And so what happened was outlook

Jon Ferrara:

became the team contact platform. So serums forgot about

Jon Ferrara:

contact management, and they became more SFA and really more

Jon Ferrara:

CRM big Gotta serums don't give you the SFA tools you need like

Jon Ferrara:

the outreach, email template tracking software, the sales

Jon Ferrara:

intelligence. So when you buy a CRM today, you got to buy

Jon Ferrara:

outreach, IO SalesLoft, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator or

Jon Ferrara:

zoominfo, all the above, and then trying to integrate that to

Jon Ferrara:

your CRM and then trying to teach salespeople use it, and

Jon Ferrara:

they don't talk to each other well, and so that's why today,

Jon Ferrara:

contact management is broken. Because today, if you want to do

Jon Ferrara:

contact management for a team, your choice is Google Cloud

Jon Ferrara:

works or workplace, whatever they call it. Now, they keep

Jon Ferrara:

changing the name. It's basically Gmail, and Microsoft

Jon Ferrara:

365. And so if you're a business, you have to choose

Jon Ferrara:

your business operating system, which is email contact calendar.

Jon Ferrara:

And the problem is, is that Microsoft and Google contact,

Jon Ferrara:

don't do good contact management for the team, because every team

Jon Ferrara:

member in your company has separate contact database, and

Jon Ferrara:

the contacts aren't linked to the email calendar, let alone

Jon Ferrara:

the social and so your sales reps don't live in your CRM,

Jon Ferrara:

they live inside of email, and now more and more LinkedIn. And

Jon Ferrara:

so the reason serums fail is lack of use of bad data. And

Jon Ferrara:

that's why they call it Salesforce because that got

Jon Ferrara:

forced salespeople to use it back.

Jon Ferrara:

I love that. The day Goldmine was not just the whole team's

Jon Ferrara:

contact that form but the SFA, the salesperson needed and the

Jon Ferrara:

reporting CRM features that management needed. And today

Jon Ferrara:

that all that's broken, because Google and Microsoft don't

Jon Ferrara:

provide good team contact management and stick around

Jon Ferrara:

don't provide contact management or as of a and so what happens

Jon Ferrara:

is companies buy Salesforce or whatever. And then they buy

Jon Ferrara:

sales off outreach, LinkedIn Sales, navigator zoominfo, but

Jon Ferrara:

then their team doesn't have a good contact platform. So what

Jon Ferrara:

happens is the team uses spreadsheets for relationship

Jon Ferrara:

management. So in closing, there's 225 million global

Jon Ferrara:

businesses less than 1% use any CRM, most people CRM or contact

Jon Ferrara:

platform is spreadsheets, post it notes, and email. And that's

Jon Ferrara:

what nimble fixes.

Wesleyne Greer:

Wow, that was a deep dive into the the

Wesleyne Greer:

challenges with the CRM, you know, from my mind side, what I

Wesleyne Greer:

see is the low adaptability rate of sales people using the CRM,

Wesleyne Greer:

and then sales managers just using it as a punishment tool to

Wesleyne Greer:

beat them over the head, right, just beating

Jon Ferrara:

reports of the CRM until the sales reps not

Jon Ferrara:

performing. And then they go on beat them with the CRM. And so

Jon Ferrara:

the problem is, is serums don't work for the salespeople, they

Jon Ferrara:

work for it and they have to go to get to use it. Imagine if the

Jon Ferrara:

serum worked for you by building itself automatically from the

Jon Ferrara:

contacts, email, calendar and external social data that you

Jon Ferrara:

have. And basically unified the contacts for your entire company

Jon Ferrara:

and team, enrich it with people and company data. So you don't

Jon Ferrara:

have to google them, you nimble them. And this is the history of

Jon Ferrara:

interactions. And then we're lived where you work. We live in

Jon Ferrara:

our inbox, we live inside of social we live on business

Jon Ferrara:

webpages where we're researching people. And imagine if you had a

Jon Ferrara:

serum that was sitting there like a little nudge that would

Jon Ferrara:

basically say, Oh, this is Wesleyne Greer, this is where

Jon Ferrara:

she's from. This is what her business is about this winter

Jon Ferrara:

podcasts about this the history and actions that our team has

Jon Ferrara:

had and enabled me to get the context and insights I need to

Jon Ferrara:

engage. But then more importantly, the ability to log

Jon Ferrara:

the note and schedule the next task wherever I happen to be

Jon Ferrara:

engaging, that would enable salespeople to adopt it more and

Jon Ferrara:

that's why I got back in this business. 10 years ago, I

Jon Ferrara:

started using social saw is going to change the way we work

Jon Ferrara:

play, buy and sell I look for relationship manager that was

Jon Ferrara:

connected to social couldn't find it oh look to conduct

Jon Ferrara:

management CRM saw they're broken. So I said, You know what

Jon Ferrara:

my kids are now all in school, I got time on my hand. I'm gonna

Jon Ferrara:

get back up on that saddle. And I'm gonna ride into the breach

Jon Ferrara:

again.

Wesleyne Greer:

And, you know, I think that you made a lot of

Wesleyne Greer:

good points, right? The biggest challenge with adopting all I

Wesleyne Greer:

mean, the sales SAS tech stack every single day. I mean, it

Wesleyne Greer:

gets bigger and bigger and bigger. I mean, there's so much

Wesleyne Greer:

stuff out there. And one key thing that we have to understand

Wesleyne Greer:

is that our salespeople, our sales managers, they need easy,

Wesleyne Greer:

right? It's like, I have this quota, I have to hit these KPI I

Wesleyne Greer:

have so many things I have to do. I can't log into 10

Wesleyne Greer:

different systems, I can't do all these things. So one thing

Wesleyne Greer:

is make the system soft. Okay, if the systems don't talk,

Wesleyne Greer:

what's the better thing it's to actually have a system that does

Wesleyne Greer:

these things for you. And as somebody who's a sales

Wesleyne Greer:

consultant, and sales trainer, I tried a whole bunch of different

Wesleyne Greer:

CRMs. And so I remember using nimble one of the things that I

Wesleyne Greer:

really liked was as soon as I signed in, I was like, oh, every

Wesleyne Greer:

single person I've ever emailed ever in Outlook is just in there

Wesleyne Greer:

automatically, right? And so I think that when we think about

Wesleyne Greer:

okay, I gotta Get my salespeople using something right. And you

Wesleyne Greer:

mentioned the the big bad wolf. It's called Salesforce because

Wesleyne Greer:

you have to force the people, the salespeople to use it talk

Wesleyne Greer:

to me about, you know, when you see, hey, I made this to really

Wesleyne Greer:

think about how sales people are using a system and to help

Wesleyne Greer:

enable them, what types of things do we need to do, whether

Wesleyne Greer:

it's through software or through our actions to enable our

Wesleyne Greer:

salespeople? Well, let's just

Jon Ferrara:

talk about the job of a salesperson. You know, in

Jon Ferrara:

the old days, the salespeople would build their brand on the

Jon Ferrara:

promises they make and the experience they deliver. And

Jon Ferrara:

people would basically recommend their friends after they bought

Jon Ferrara:

for them, because they provided such a great experience, they

Jon Ferrara:

would not come back and buy again, but they drag their

Jon Ferrara:

friends with them. Today, what we've got is we've got these

Jon Ferrara:

SDRs that are being fed these eyeballs generated by AdWords.

Jon Ferrara:

And they're basically putting them on these automation tools

Jon Ferrara:

to spam them with a bunch of automated emails to try to get

Jon Ferrara:

them into a phone call conversation. And you've seen

Jon Ferrara:

this right?

Wesleyne Greer:

Yes, it is, automation is killing the

Wesleyne Greer:

profession of sales, it is killing us.

Jon Ferrara:

But if you're a sales person, in fact, a

Jon Ferrara:

business professional, because everybody's in sales, listen to

Jon Ferrara:

me today, if you want to get your prospects and customers and

Jon Ferrara:

ideally their influencers, to pick up the phone and call you

Jon Ferrara:

when they need their products and services, and to drag them

Jon Ferrara:

friends with them, then you need to become their trusted advisor,

Jon Ferrara:

which means you've got to stop talking about yourself, stop

Jon Ferrara:

talking about your products, nobody cares. People don't buy

Jon Ferrara:

great products, they buy better versions of themselves. So what

Jon Ferrara:

you want to sell is people that have risen themselves by

Jon Ferrara:

becoming their trusted advisor by giving you knowledge away,

Jon Ferrara:

because you've forgotten more about your products and services

Jon Ferrara:

and your customers will ever know in their lives. And imagine

Jon Ferrara:

if you rather than talking about how great you are your products

Jon Ferrara:

are you talk to your customers about how they can be great by

Jon Ferrara:

sharing content that is inspirational, educational, and

Jon Ferrara:

around the areas of promise your products and services. So how to

Jon Ferrara:

be better, smarter, faster, whatever you sell, even if it's

Jon Ferrara:

talking about the industry itself, or even competitors,

Jon Ferrara:

what you do is you're inspiring educating people on a daily

Jon Ferrara:

basis, you need to do that in the places where your

Jon Ferrara:

constituency has conversations about how to be better, smarter,

Jon Ferrara:

faster. And they do that in places like Twitter, and

Jon Ferrara:

LinkedIn, and Instagram and blogs and LinkedIn groups in a

Jon Ferrara:

lot of different places. So you want to build an identity that

Jon Ferrara:

has a really great avatar where people can see your eyes in your

Jon Ferrara:

face, because that's the heart to your soul. And you want to

Jon Ferrara:

build an identity in these places, and then regularly share

Jon Ferrara:

content. And if you can't write content, and I'm not a writer,

Jon Ferrara:

I'm a math computer science major. I curate content from

Jon Ferrara:

people that inspire me in and around the years are my products

Jon Ferrara:

and services promised and when I curate it, I attribute their

Jon Ferrara:

name and a hashtag to category. And so category might be lb

Jon Ferrara:

social sales or marketing. And then I share that on my

Jon Ferrara:

identities and with different identities. I share different

Jon Ferrara:

amounts on Twitter, you know, maybe five to eight times a day,

Jon Ferrara:

LinkedIn a few times a day. And then I listen and engage not

Jon Ferrara:

with the intent to sell people stuff, but to serve them. And so

Jon Ferrara:

what I try to do is I try to when people connect with me,

Jon Ferrara:

I'll nimble them because nimble lives in my browser, and I can

Jon Ferrara:

hover on it on a Twitter message or LinkedIn message or business

Jon Ferrara:

article or an email and I'll build the record or bring up the

Jon Ferrara:

record if it doesn't exist. And then I will look at their

Jon Ferrara:

background, who are they? What are they about and find ways

Jon Ferrara:

that I might be able to add value and communicate back to

Jon Ferrara:

them in a relevant authentic way? We're I'm blowing wind in

Jon Ferrara:

their sails and just making a connection on how many times is

Jon Ferrara:

people connected with you, and you immediately get this

Jon Ferrara:

message? Hey, Wesleyan, have you thought about using this service

Jon Ferrara:

or doing this thing right now don't sell people don't connect

Jon Ferrara:

and sell, connect and serve service is the new sale. So if

Jon Ferrara:

you build an identity in the places where your constituency

Jon Ferrara:

haven't conversations, you share content to inspire and educate

Jon Ferrara:

them, you listen, engage with the intent to serve, then your

Jon Ferrara:

brand will grow as a trusted adviser when people need you.

Jon Ferrara:

They'll call you and they'll drag their friends with them.

Jon Ferrara:

And I have a recipe for that. It's called the Five E's of

Jon Ferrara:

social business, educate intent, engage, embrace and empower. You

Jon Ferrara:

educate with enchanting content, you engage with the intent to

Jon Ferrara:

grow people, and you embrace people in a way that you're

Jon Ferrara:

adding value to them and growing them. And I think that's why

Jon Ferrara:

we're on this planet. We're on this planet to grow and the best

Jon Ferrara:

way to grow is helping other people grow. Hmm,

Wesleyne Greer:

that's good serve before selling. It's

Wesleyne Greer:

something that I often say and I like how you use nimble as a

Wesleyne Greer:

verb, you nimble them, right? So really understanding who that

Wesleyne Greer:

person is because again, the best salespeople are doing

Wesleyne Greer:

background research on you and they understand who you are.

Wesleyne Greer:

They understand you as a buyer and the things that matter to

Wesleyne Greer:

you. And then instead of just saying, Hey, my name is Wesleyne

Wesleyne Greer:

Come buy from me because I'm amazing. You say Hey, John, I

Wesleyne Greer:

noticed that you have a bachelor's in computer science.

Wesleyne Greer:

I'm a chemist, I'd love to connect, right? It's like, oh,

Wesleyne Greer:

okay, another person in my world

Jon Ferrara:

here stem. And you know, it really is basic. And I

Jon Ferrara:

think the greats already taught us all this stuff. The Zig

Jon Ferrara:

Ziglar is the Dale Carnegie's the Napoleon Hills. And when I

Jon Ferrara:

teach salespeople I say, when you go in somebody's office,

Jon Ferrara:

look at their walls, look at the books, they read the degree of

Jon Ferrara:

the school, they went to the knickknacks they collect. And

Jon Ferrara:

today, you do that digitally, of course, and you do that in order

Jon Ferrara:

to figure out who they are, what they're about to determine your

Jon Ferrara:

areas of commonality. And then you share that in order to earn

Jon Ferrara:

the intimacy and trust and get them to open up to you about

Jon Ferrara:

their business issues, which as a professional, you can either

Jon Ferrara:

solve or introduce them to somebody who could solve them.

Jon Ferrara:

And by doing that you earn trust. And when they do need you

Jon Ferrara:

or their friends need you guess who's going to get the call. And

Jon Ferrara:

so you actually get cold call by your prospects rather than you

Jon Ferrara:

calling them

Wesleyne Greer:

hmm, switch the paradigm, right? So they come to

Wesleyne Greer:

you. So I think one of the greatest honors is when somebody

Wesleyne Greer:

sends me a message and they say, Hey, I see that you do this, can

Wesleyne Greer:

you help me, I'm interested in what you do that shows that one,

Wesleyne Greer:

your personal branding, your branding is on point, you're

Wesleyne Greer:

speaking, as you said to your avatar, speaking to a person,

Wesleyne Greer:

not people, not a company, a person with so many people get

Wesleyne Greer:

wrong, you're speaking to your person, you're understanding

Wesleyne Greer:

what their pain points are, what their problems are, and you're

Wesleyne Greer:

actually helping them to solve them by your engaging content.

Wesleyne Greer:

So before we started recording, you told me that after you saw

Wesleyne Greer:

Goldmine, you had a little hiatus before starting nimble.

Wesleyne Greer:

Tell us about that.

Jon Ferrara:

So I sold Goldmine when I was 40 years old. I'm 62

Jon Ferrara:

today, and I spent 10 years raising three babies. And I'll

Jon Ferrara:

tell you what waistline if you want to grow your soul, become a

Jon Ferrara:

present husband, father, parent, because there's no better way to

Jon Ferrara:

grow than to be a present father or parent, because your kids

Jon Ferrara:

will read, if you're present with them will reflect your

Jon Ferrara:

shift back at you. And if you're willing to see your shit and

Jon Ferrara:

work on it, that's how you grow. And I spent 10 years growing in

Jon Ferrara:

amazing ways. But also I was able to be present for so many

Jon Ferrara:

precious moments that many fathers miss, because we're all

Jon Ferrara:

so busy out there working. And today, both parents work, but

Jon Ferrara:

still the woman in many cases has to continue to take on the

Jon Ferrara:

role. The main role of parenting, which I found is

Jon Ferrara:

really difficult, because if you're present parent, your mind

Jon Ferrara:

goes to mush, because the chaos around you all the kids is

Jon Ferrara:

really taxing. And so in those 10 years, I grew incredibly, as

Jon Ferrara:

a human being my appreciation for the work that women do in

Jon Ferrara:

this world just skyrocketed, and I softened my soul in my heart,

Jon Ferrara:

which I think is important to do as a human being in the brief

Jon Ferrara:

period of time that we're on this planet. And I determine

Jon Ferrara:

what my purpose on this planet is, is to simply grow my soul in

Jon Ferrara:

the brief period of time, but I'm here. And the best way for

Jon Ferrara:

you to grow your soul is now helping other people grow

Jon Ferrara:

theirs. And the best people to do that with is that people you

Jon Ferrara:

love, like your close family. And so I just feel blessed, I

Jon Ferrara:

was able to do that for 10 years.

Wesleyne Greer:

So how that experience that you had spending

Wesleyne Greer:

time with your kids being their primary caregiver for 10 years,

Wesleyne Greer:

how has that translated into the way that you lead? Once you

Wesleyne Greer:

started this new company nimble,

Jon Ferrara:

I think that I definitely lead from a place of

Jon Ferrara:

empathy, a place of empathy for our customers, for our partners,

Jon Ferrara:

and more importantly, our team members. And I think that if you

Jon Ferrara:

lead with empathy, then you're really leading with listening,

Jon Ferrara:

and a desire to understand the people that you're interacting

Jon Ferrara:

with, and how you can serve them. And also you can make

Jon Ferrara:

micro adjustments to the things you do the products you're

Jon Ferrara:

delivering to serve them better. And I think that if you really

Jon Ferrara:

truly get in the trenches, with your team, with your customers,

Jon Ferrara:

and understand their plight, and adjust what you're doing with

Jon Ferrara:

each of them that individualized to that particular person or

Jon Ferrara:

constituency. I think that resonates with people. And I

Jon Ferrara:

think that's one of the reasons why the Nimble brand and maybe

Jon Ferrara:

even myself resonates so well with others.

Wesleyne Greer:

share an example of when you you've been able to

Wesleyne Greer:

really use your empathy to get through a difficult situation

Wesleyne Greer:

with a colleague or an employee. I'm really leaning into that

Wesleyne Greer:

because I think a lot of people don't understand like empathy

Wesleyne Greer:

versus sympathy how, okay, I'm an empathetic person, but in a

Wesleyne Greer:

real life situation, how do you actually use empathy to work

Wesleyne Greer:

through a difficult situation?

Jon Ferrara:

Well, I think that empathy really starts with

Jon Ferrara:

listening, really putting yourself in the other person's

Jon Ferrara:

shoes and understanding where they're coming from, which then

Jon Ferrara:

leads to solutions that you can create solutions that prevent

Jon Ferrara:

roadblocks and blockage from occurring. Imagine if you

Jon Ferrara:

weren't listening to your customer. For your team members,

Jon Ferrara:

or your business partners, and it got to the point where the

Jon Ferrara:

garden had so many weeds in it, that the other person decided to

Jon Ferrara:

rototill the garden rather than actually continuing to invest in

Jon Ferrara:

it. And so I think that relationships are a lot like

Jon Ferrara:

gardens that you need to get out there and attend to them and

Jon Ferrara:

nurture them on a regular basis. And if you do that they produce

Jon Ferrara:

incredible results. If you don't, then you might end up in

Jon Ferrara:

a divorce where you have to rototill the thing. And so I

Jon Ferrara:

think that leading with empathy really helps for you to better

Jon Ferrara:

understand the constituency around them to serve them

Jon Ferrara:

better, and to produce more,

Wesleyne Greer:

hmm, that's good, produce more, serve them

Wesleyne Greer:

better. Where's that all strong leaders should really use so you

Wesleyne Greer:

started your career as a salesperson you had a company so

Wesleyne Greer:

that you then took a sabbatical, if you will, for a few years

Wesleyne Greer:

before starting your new company. So how did all of those

Wesleyne Greer:

diverse experiences make nimble what it is today as this amazing

Wesleyne Greer:

CRM and place that people want to work?

Jon Ferrara:

Well, I think that the best products come from your

Jon Ferrara:

own need, because you're passionate about it, and you

Jon Ferrara:

understand the problem. And my first company Goldmine came from

Jon Ferrara:

my desire to manage my contacts and to collaborate and work as a

Jon Ferrara:

team, both in the district office and the corporate office,

Jon Ferrara:

and to take those contacts and connections that were

Jon Ferrara:

simultaneously building and to apply some sales and marketing

Jon Ferrara:

techniques to drive results from them. And so I couldn't find a

Jon Ferrara:

solution I built it nimble really evolved from my early

Jon Ferrara:

adoption and Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn. So I

Jon Ferrara:

listened to this thing called This Week in tech with Leo

Jon Ferrara:

Laporte and he interviewed the founder of Twitter back in 2008,

Jon Ferrara:

or nine or so. And I listened to and I said, Twitter, really,

Jon Ferrara:

what's that, and I went, looked at it, and basically is a place

Jon Ferrara:

where you can go post words and people interact with. And so I

Jon Ferrara:

sign up for an account and I said, Hello, world. Hello World

Jon Ferrara:

is sort of something that an old like Eliza artificial

Jon Ferrara:

intelligence thing that is just a way to sort of tech geek talk.

Jon Ferrara:

Anyways, I started to use it. And imagine I was a dad for 10

Jon Ferrara:

years at a tech for 10 years, I didn't really have my own brand,

Jon Ferrara:

I was out of network. And I was really out of touch with the

Jon Ferrara:

acronyms and ideas of the age. But as I started to use Twitter,

Jon Ferrara:

I started to interact with people and start conversations

Jon Ferrara:

and begin to rebuild my brand. And then I had shifted that

Jon Ferrara:

conversation into places like LinkedIn, and Facebook. And I

Jon Ferrara:

started to use the social networks in order to start

Jon Ferrara:

conversations and build my brand in and around my passions in

Jon Ferrara:

life, which include many things on a personal level and

Jon Ferrara:

professional level. And by doing that, I saw the immense power of

Jon Ferrara:

communication and conversation and community. And I started to

Jon Ferrara:

build a bigger network and connections, I look for

Jon Ferrara:

something to manage those newfound connections, I found a

Jon Ferrara:

thing called HootSuite would enable me to manage the

Jon Ferrara:

conversations. But it didn't allow me to tie those

Jon Ferrara:

conversations to contacts, I started looking at contact

Jon Ferrara:

management. And in the cloud, it was only Google because

Jon Ferrara:

Microsoft was still on prem servers. And I saw that Google

Jon Ferrara:

Contacts didn't link email and calendar to the contact, let

Jon Ferrara:

alone have context shared by team, let alone connected to

Jon Ferrara:

social. And then I started looking at serum and so they

Jon Ferrara:

weren't even about social, let alone contact management.

Jon Ferrara:

Because conduct management was done an outlook and social was

Jon Ferrara:

done in LinkedIn. In many cases, people weren't even aware of

Jon Ferrara:

LinkedIn yet. So back in these days, people thought Twitter is

Jon Ferrara:

a place where a bunch of Propellerheads had conversations

Jon Ferrara:

about tech, Facebook was a place to hook up with a high school

Jon Ferrara:

sweetheart, and LinkedIn was blazing a job. But I saw that it

Jon Ferrara:

was going to change the way we work, play, buy and sell. And I

Jon Ferrara:

started to reimagining CRM by building a contact manager for

Jon Ferrara:

the whole company that had serum features in it had SFA features

Jon Ferrara:

in it, but integrated social and the email contact calendar of

Jon Ferrara:

Google and I went up to LinkedIn and met with their management

Jon Ferrara:

and convinced them to give me their public and private API's,

Jon Ferrara:

which nobody ever had or had. And I integrated deeply into

Jon Ferrara:

LinkedIn, into Twitter and Facebook and basically pioneered

Jon Ferrara:

the first social CRM and pioneered social selling back in

Jon Ferrara:

2010 11, before people knew that social was going to be

Jon Ferrara:

applicable to business and really rode that wave of the

Jon Ferrara:

early social pioneers. Hmm. Okay,

Wesleyne Greer:

so you again, you just kind of like those

Wesleyne Greer:

diverse experiences. You're like, Hey, I'm trying to rebuild

Wesleyne Greer:

my personal brand. What am I going to do? I'm going to pick

Wesleyne Greer:

up and I'm going to try some things and then you found a

Wesleyne Greer:

problem that needed to be solved. And as salespeople and

Wesleyne Greer:

sales leaders, I think that that's the thing that you have

Wesleyne Greer:

to identify what is the problem that the marketplace has to that

Wesleyne Greer:

needs to be solved? What is your buyer, what are their pain

Wesleyne Greer:

points and speak to those pains speak to those problems, the

Wesleyne Greer:

lack of integration, the lack of things, talking, really leaning

Wesleyne Greer:

into those things to help the marketplace understand what it

Wesleyne Greer:

is that They are doing. So as we wrap up, I'm curious, you've had

Wesleyne Greer:

a very, very amazing career, both professionally and

Wesleyne Greer:

personally, what is one thing that you're most proud of

Wesleyne Greer:

accomplishing?

Jon Ferrara:

I think the thing that I'm most proud of and most

Jon Ferrara:

grateful for is being a present parent and husband, I think that

Jon Ferrara:

we're here to grow. And the best way to grow is by helping other

Jon Ferrara:

people grow. Most important people to help grow are the

Jon Ferrara:

people that are close to you, your family. And if I have been

Jon Ferrara:

able to add to the world, some additional human beings that

Jon Ferrara:

share my philosophy, that life isn't about making money, that

Jon Ferrara:

it's about making memories out of moments where you're truly

Jon Ferrara:

present with others, and leaving this planet in a better place

Jon Ferrara:

than I think I've done a decent job in my life. And it's what

Jon Ferrara:

I'm most proud of, and grateful for.

Wesleyne Greer:

Awesome. That's amazing. Being a present parent,

Wesleyne Greer:

I tell people that you know, the quality of time you spend with

Wesleyne Greer:

your kids is very important. Maybe the quantity isn't that

Wesleyne Greer:

great if you're traveling or you know, you work outside the home,

Wesleyne Greer:

but make those moments impactful. Make that five

Wesleyne Greer:

minutes that 10 minutes, the five hours make it memorable for

Wesleyne Greer:

them. So John, if people want to get in contact with you, what is

Wesleyne Greer:

the one best way?

Jon Ferrara:

Well, you know what, Google me and find a

Jon Ferrara:

channel or identity that is most comfortable for you. In fact,

Jon Ferrara:

I'm going to challenge you Google yourself, because your

Jon Ferrara:

customers, your prospects, and others will Google you. And if

Jon Ferrara:

you don't show up on the first page, in a way you'd like, fix

Jon Ferrara:

it, go create a Wikipedia page about yourself. And basically

Jon Ferrara:

just do it according to the rules, cite your content, put in

Jon Ferrara:

an avatar, and you can actually improve the way people see you.

Jon Ferrara:

But to make it really easy, my email is Jalen and nimble.com.

Jon Ferrara:

Reach out to me and let me know how I might be able to help you

Jon Ferrara:

in some of your passion plan and purpose in life. And if you do

Jon Ferrara:

go try nimble@nimble.com. And you do feel it might add value

Jon Ferrara:

to you use the code John 40 JLN for zero when you become a

Jon Ferrara:

subscriber, and it'll save you 40% off your first three months.

Wesleyne Greer:

Oh, that's awesome. John 40s. So go try

Wesleyne Greer:

nimble. As I said, I've tried it. It is an amazing CRM. And

Wesleyne Greer:

especially if you're somebody who's new to using CRM, and

Wesleyne Greer:

you're moving from paper spreadsheets, it's great. Or if

Wesleyne Greer:

you want to increase the usability with your sales team,

Wesleyne Greer:

thank you so much, John, like to leave

Jon Ferrara:

with your audiences. This CRMs are not

Jon Ferrara:

just for salespeople. And really everybody needs a personal CRM,

Jon Ferrara:

because everybody tells you that your network is your net worth

Jon Ferrara:

your personal brand. Plus your professional network will help

Jon Ferrara:

you achieve your dreams in life. And it's more than just

Jon Ferrara:

salespeople that need to do that any business professional today

Jon Ferrara:

needs to do that. And you should have your own golden Rolodex,

Jon Ferrara:

your own personal CRM, because today most people serum is

Jon Ferrara:

Google Contacts and LinkedIn. And that's not very good,

Jon Ferrara:

because you don't own your Google your contacts and

Jon Ferrara:

LinkedIn. And Google Contacts isn't a really great contact

Jon Ferrara:

manager. So if you are a business professional today who

Jon Ferrara:

wants to build their brand and grow their network, go sign up

Jon Ferrara:

for nimble and start using it in the places where you're

Jon Ferrara:

engaging, even if your company forces you to use some other CRM

Jon Ferrara:

at the office. And if you're a business owner, thinking about

Jon Ferrara:

your company, yes, a typical company of 100 might have five

Jon Ferrara:

salespeople, but the rest of the people in your company are

Jon Ferrara:

engaging with the constituents around your business. And if you

Jon Ferrara:

improve that engagement, then you're going to improve your

Jon Ferrara:

growth. And nimble is the CRM for more than just salespeople.

Jon Ferrara:

And so use nimble for all the people that are enacting at your

Jon Ferrara:

company with the community around your company and it will

Jon Ferrara:

help you grow your business.

Wesleyne Greer:

Awesome. Thank you so much, John, I have

Wesleyne Greer:

thoroughly enjoyed our conversation today. And I'm

Wesleyne Greer:

excited for anybody who wants to try nimble out, send me a

Wesleyne Greer:

message, send John a message and we'll definitely help you get up

Wesleyne Greer:

and running. So that was another episode of the science of

Wesleyne Greer:

selling stem. And thank you so much for joining us today and

Wesleyne Greer:

remember in all that you do transform your sales until next

Wesleyne Greer:

time.

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About the Podcast

Transformed Sales
Transforming Sales Managers to Lead Using Behavior-Based Skills Development
As a sales manager, you are judged by the performance of your team. And you're praised when they do well. But one thing that you've not been able to figure out is how to get everyone on your team consistently hitting quota every single month. Sales leadership is difficult.

The Transformed Sales podcast equips sales leaders with the skills to develop high-performance teams. We provide coaching strategies for improving sales team performance, mentoring developing sellers, and providing ongoing support for best practices. As a result sales leaders can guide, create, and nurture long-term relationships with their teams.

You will learn how to enhance your ability to engage in productive conversations with internal team members, resulting in a collaborative, dynamic environment where sellers feel supported.

Transformed Sales assists businesses in developing and building the culture necessary to build high-performing sales teams. In this leadership coaching program, coaching strategies are offered that can be used to improve the performance of sales teams. These strategies provide ongoing support and reinforcement of best practices