Motivating a Billion Dollar Team with Curt Tueffert

Wesleyne Greer: 00:00:00

As a sales manager, you are judged by the

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

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

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how to get everyone on your team consistently hitting quota every

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

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science of selling stem sales leadership in the science,

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technology, engineering and manufacturing fields is

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difficult. You will learn from sales managers just like you

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that will give you actionable insights and tips on how to

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develop as a leader and achieve your revenue targets every

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

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

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inspiration to ensure that you have actionable insights that

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

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

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excited because I interview people from all over the world

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recently I had somebody on the podcast from London, but today I

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am so excited because I get to interview someone in Houston.

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That doesn't happen that often. So my guest is Kurt toofer How

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are you Kurt?

Curt Tueffert: 00:01:24

I am great. Wesleyne How are you this

Curt Tueffert: 00:01:26

morning?

Wesleyne Greer: 00:01:27

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

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little bit more about Kurt. He is the VP of sales development

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at dxp, a Houston based business that is a $1 billion industrial

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distributor. He is also an adjunct professor at the

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University of Houston teaching sales and marketing as the

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winner of Stevie awards for sales development. Kurt brings

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both high energy and deep content to his audiences and

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students. He is the author of five stones for slaying giants,

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a book designed by a sales professional for people in

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business, customer service, leadership and sales. I mean,

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like how do you even have time to breathe? You're doing so many

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amazing things. Kurt? How did you start your career? And how

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did you get to be a professor, a VP of sales development and

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write books?

Curt Tueffert: 00:02:17

Wow, what a great leading question Wesleyne I

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think I was one of those kids that knew growing up. And if I

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wanted anything, I had to work for it. So I had a very deep and

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rich work ethic moved into sales. After I graduated from

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college, I was a computer programmer, and I found myself

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designing code for the automotive dealerships. And then

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I started training the users on that code. And then one thing

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led to another and I kind of moved into what I thought was

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something a little bit more in my wheelhouse, which was getting

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in front of people and being energetic and having that sales

Curt Tueffert: 00:02:57

idea. I did a lot of that sales. And then from there, I met

Curt Tueffert: 00:03:01

somebody his name was John neighbour, he was an Olympic

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gold medal swimmer. And I thought, Man, I want to be just

Curt Tueffert: 00:03:07

like you. And he said, Well, Kurt, I have seven Olympic gold

Curt Tueffert: 00:03:10

medals, what do you have? And I said, I got nothing. He said,

Curt Tueffert: 00:03:13

well go and get yourself a speech communication degree and

Curt Tueffert: 00:03:17

figure out something that you're passionate about. So I got a

Curt Tueffert: 00:03:20

degree in speech communication, very passionate about the whole

Curt Tueffert: 00:03:23

idea of selling sold a lot of technology as it relates to the

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automotive game, and then the computer game and software, I

Curt Tueffert: 00:03:32

found myself doing a lot of part time professional speaking. And

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then somewhere about 20 years ago, I just completely jumped

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off the deep end. And I started my own business as a

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professional sales trainer, professional speaker. And in

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that small window, it's a publish or perish kind of

Curt Tueffert: 00:03:51

opportunity. So I began writing the five stones for slaying

Curt Tueffert: 00:03:55

giants. And then through a couple of networking events, I

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had the opportunity to meet a couple of people at the

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University of Houston. Then I said, Hey, I'm a sales guy, and

Curt Tueffert: 00:04:05

you guys teach sales classes. I would love to be in front of

Curt Tueffert: 00:04:09

your students. So I came in as a industry expert, which led to

Curt Tueffert: 00:04:13

the opportunity to start teaching there. And I'm still

Curt Tueffert: 00:04:16

teaching today, I teach a sales and marketing class at the

Curt Tueffert: 00:04:20

University of Houston, I guess, teach at the Texas a&m College

Curt Tueffert: 00:04:24

for industrial distribution. And yes, I have a lot of things

Curt Tueffert: 00:04:28

going on. In fact, I've looked at my book five stones for

Curt Tueffert: 00:04:31

slaying giants and it needs a fresh coat of paint. A lot of my

Curt Tueffert: 00:04:34

analogies are a little bit old for a younger audience. So I am

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looking at doing a refresh on that one because I've learned so

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much more about sales and about what works and what doesn't

Curt Tueffert: 00:04:47

work. And I don't want to be an academic guy. I want to be the

Curt Tueffert: 00:04:50

guy in the field with arrows coming out of my chest going

Curt Tueffert: 00:04:53

Hey, guys, this doesn't work. Don't do this at home. This does

Curt Tueffert: 00:04:57

work. Go try this.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:04:59

Hi Love that. So a lot of times when I introduce

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myself, I introduced myself as a recovering chemist. And I think

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:07

that you're a recovering computer programmer. And I

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:11

really enjoy learning about your journey, because so many people,

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you know, if they're trying to dip their toe into sales,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:17

they're like, I don't know how to sell anything. I don't know

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:19

how to do this, or I don't know how to do that. But it's like,

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whatever you did in your past life, like, if you're an

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accountant, you might want to sell accounting software to

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accountants, right? You're a computer programmer. So I'm

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:31

going to start working in this world that I really understand.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:34

And also the fact that you listened to what people told

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you. Somebody said, hey, well, what do you have to show for

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yourself, and you're like, I don't have anything, they said,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:45

go get something, and you did it. And that is how you got to

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:49

where you are today. And then not just sitting back and

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:52

allowing things to happen to you are networking, you are saying,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:55

I want to do this, and I'm gonna go after it. Where did you get

Wesleyne Greer: 00:05:59

that really tenacious spirit that allowed you to say, I see

Wesleyne Greer: 00:06:03

something I want, I'm gonna go after it.

Curt Tueffert: 00:06:05

Great question. That's, that really makes me

Curt Tueffert: 00:06:07

wonder, reflect on, you know, growing up, my parents didn't

Curt Tueffert: 00:06:10

really give me anything, they made me work for it to come from

Curt Tueffert: 00:06:13

a great deep and rich German experience. So it's all about

Curt Tueffert: 00:06:18

working. So in order for me to get what I wanted, I need to go

Curt Tueffert: 00:06:20

out there work for it, whether it was an allowance, or a part

Curt Tueffert: 00:06:23

time job, or self funding, my college, all of that, then I

Curt Tueffert: 00:06:27

started discovering this concept called networking. And it's not

Curt Tueffert: 00:06:31

so much who you know, it's who you are. So I started to attend

Curt Tueffert: 00:06:35

these networking events and learn from people. And through a

Curt Tueffert: 00:06:39

lot of ACA, a lot of athletics growing up, I realized the value

Curt Tueffert: 00:06:43

of coach, and so I just kind of submitted to the authority will

Curt Tueffert: 00:06:47

have people who are smarter than me. And that helped me

Curt Tueffert: 00:06:50

accelerate my career.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:06:51

So coaching, training, you know, these are

Wesleyne Greer: 00:06:56

things that so many times in our world of sales, people just

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:00

throw around, and it's like, I'm a coach, I'm a trainer. I'm

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:02

this, I'm that. And you said about 20 years ago, so not quite

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:08

the 1900s you guys who listen to my podcast know that my my

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:11

children? When I talk about my childhood, they're like, What do

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:14

you mean back in the 1900s? I'm like, sorry, for the stone

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:19

age's. So that's why then, but in the very early 2000s, when

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:23

the world was so different, you set out to really focus on sales

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:27

training. So tell us about how you got started in the world of

Wesleyne Greer: 00:07:32

sales training.

Curt Tueffert: 00:07:33

Well, what I realized was this gentleman,

Curt Tueffert: 00:07:36

John neighbour who told me that I didn't have anything and he

Curt Tueffert: 00:07:39

had several Olympic gold medals. I started hanging out networking

Curt Tueffert: 00:07:43

at a association called National Speakers Association. And I felt

Curt Tueffert: 00:07:47

that I was good at this idea of selling or talking about sales.

Curt Tueffert: 00:07:53

And then when I started to hone that craft as a professional

Curt Tueffert: 00:07:56

speaker, I had a partner His name is Jim Jacobus from

Curt Tueffert: 00:08:00

Sugarland, Texas. And Jim said, hey, the reason we go after

Curt Tueffert: 00:08:04

sales opportunities and being a sales professional and a sales

Curt Tueffert: 00:08:07

trainers, because that's where the money is, why do people rob

Curt Tueffert: 00:08:10

banks, because that's where the money is. And so I'm not a

Curt Tueffert: 00:08:14

recovering chemist, and I'm not a recovering technical person or

Curt Tueffert: 00:08:17

a scientist, how ever I've heard them in TED talks, I've heard

Curt Tueffert: 00:08:21

them in places where they're passionate about what they're

Curt Tueffert: 00:08:24

doing. And if you're passionate about that, and you want to make

Curt Tueffert: 00:08:28

money at that, you can do that you would just need a coach or a

Curt Tueffert: 00:08:32

trainer in the speaking world, and perfect that craft. And

Curt Tueffert: 00:08:36

that's what I did, I got myself a coach. And I started to

Curt Tueffert: 00:08:40

listen. And I started to process the information that led me to

Curt Tueffert: 00:08:44

the academic side to teach it. And now at dxp as the VP of

Curt Tueffert: 00:08:48

sales development, I guess I come to work every day in a

Curt Tueffert: 00:08:51

laboratory. And I get to invent things. And I get to try new

Curt Tueffert: 00:08:54

things in marketing, and go on sales calls and listen to

Curt Tueffert: 00:08:57

customers and scratch my head to figure out what's not working.

Curt Tueffert: 00:09:01

And it's a fascinating business.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:09:03

Awesome. So you started out as a computer

Wesleyne Greer: 00:09:06

programmer, you transitioned you became a speaker, a trainer

Wesleyne Greer: 00:09:11

coach, and then you went back into the world of corporate

Wesleyne Greer: 00:09:15

America. So tell me that transition for you. When you

Wesleyne Greer: 00:09:19

went from really being out there trying to explore and teaching

Wesleyne Greer: 00:09:23

companies how to do this teaching companies what to do to

Wesleyne Greer: 00:09:27

stepping back into that world. Were you the VP of sales when

Wesleyne Greer: 00:09:30

you started? Did you start as the individual contributor? How

Wesleyne Greer: 00:09:33

was that for you?

Curt Tueffert: 00:09:34

Oh, well, not every story is a rainbow and a

Curt Tueffert: 00:09:36

perfect to happy ending. So I was in the throes of

Curt Tueffert: 00:09:40

professional speakers starting a business whether you were

Curt Tueffert: 00:09:44

starting any type of business, you have your ups and downs, you

Curt Tueffert: 00:09:46

have your hills, you've got your valleys, you got your peaks.

Curt Tueffert: 00:09:50

Well, my family was having a hard time with not having a

Curt Tueffert: 00:09:55

consistent income and paying for a lot of different things that

Curt Tueffert: 00:09:58

you would do on a startup And tragically, I went off there and

Curt Tueffert: 00:10:01

I pursued that dream without really taking into

Curt Tueffert: 00:10:04

consideration, what would it take to raise a family, my kids

Curt Tueffert: 00:10:07

were very young at the time. So I realized, I might be a little

Curt Tueffert: 00:10:11

premature. And what I need to do is I need to provide for my

Curt Tueffert: 00:10:14

family consistent income. So off, I went, looking for work.

Curt Tueffert: 00:10:19

And dxp took a shot at me because of my time at the

Curt Tueffert: 00:10:24

University because of my previous experience. And from

Curt Tueffert: 00:10:27

there, I was managing a team and sales guys in the Houston area.

Curt Tueffert: 00:10:32

And for those of us who aren't from Houston, you know, you'll

Curt Tueffert: 00:10:35

understand this, that they're pretty egotistical, and it's

Curt Tueffert: 00:10:40

very much and boy was a tough vote for me. And I got through

Curt Tueffert: 00:10:45

it. And then as we started to expand into where we are today,

Curt Tueffert: 00:10:49

North American company, I went through the process of moving to

Curt Tueffert: 00:10:54

a developmental role. And now I can touch all the 200 Plus

Curt Tueffert: 00:10:57

salespeople within exp, and help them achieve their sales

Curt Tueffert: 00:11:01

success.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:01

I love that it you know, so many times people

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:05

are like, oh, you know, I want to be my own boss, oh, I don't

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:09

want to work for a company. And I know firsthand as an

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:13

entrepreneur, it's not always easy, right? Like, oh,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:17

everybody's taking off for Thanksgiving or Christmas. And

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:20

those are paid holidays. It's like, what is the paid holiday

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:23

when you're you are the CEO, right? It's like, hey, and so I

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:27

really commend you for realizing it. Yes, this is my dream.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:31

However, at this point in my life, I need to do something

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:36

else. And I think so many people instead of catching themselves,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:40

when they see that they need to make a shift change, they just

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:43

keep going down the path. And it doesn't seem that you know,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:46

working for dxp stopped your career path of speaking and

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:50

being a professor and doing those things. So you remember,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:11:53

II really able to manage both,

Curt Tueffert: 00:11:55

you are so spot on, this is a dream job they

Curt Tueffert: 00:11:58

understood, you know, we're not going to contain Kurt, he's

Curt Tueffert: 00:12:01

going to continue. And they said, You know what, we're going

Curt Tueffert: 00:12:04

to get the benefit of Kurt going out there and perfecting his

Curt Tueffert: 00:12:08

craft. And we don't have a problem with him speaking for

Curt Tueffert: 00:12:11

other companies, even for a fee, as long as he's not speaking to

Curt Tueffert: 00:12:15

the competitors. And he's not using up all of his structured

Curt Tueffert: 00:12:19

vacation time, and so on and so forth. So that's been such a

Curt Tueffert: 00:12:23

blessing for me to go out there and to do all these experiments.

Curt Tueffert: 00:12:26

And there's been some great opportunities to bring back

Curt Tueffert: 00:12:29

things that I've learned and share that with these with my

Curt Tueffert: 00:12:32

team here and allow them to get better at what they do.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:35

That is key. I call that your thought

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:38

leadership. So a lot of times people think about thought

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:42

leadership, and you have to be like, the Mark Zuckerberg is or

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:45

the world or the Google CEO or whoever. But no, your thought

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:49

leadership is really Hey, I have a voice, I have a unique

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:52

perspective. And yes, I can exist as this person and still

Wesleyne Greer: 00:12:58

do what I need to do for my company. And I really commend

Wesleyne Greer: 00:13:01

your company for allowing you to continue to hone that. Because

Wesleyne Greer: 00:13:04

at the end of the day, what is it doing? It's like, we have

Wesleyne Greer: 00:13:06

Kurt that works for us. He's great doing all these things. We

Wesleyne Greer: 00:13:10

might actually want to go do something with Kirk's company,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:13:14

we want to see what are they doing behind the scenes of dxp.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:13:17

So you mentioned something that I don't want to step over it,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:13:21

you took over a team, and you said you had 18 salespeople, I

Wesleyne Greer: 00:13:26

don't want to call it the Wild West. But I do know how

Wesleyne Greer: 00:13:29

sometimes wrangling salespeople in our part of the world was as

Wesleyne Greer: 00:13:33

a sales manager to a team. I don't know if you inherited it

Wesleyne Greer: 00:13:37

if it was brand new, what are some of the lessons learned that

Wesleyne Greer: 00:13:41

you would share with the audience? Wow,

Curt Tueffert: 00:13:43

lessons learned? You know, there's a couple of

Curt Tueffert: 00:13:45

things. And again, I learned this from my partner, Jim

Curt Tueffert: 00:13:47

Jacobus, when we were on the speaking circuit together, when

Curt Tueffert: 00:13:50

you think about people and asking them to do something,

Curt Tueffert: 00:13:54

either they don't know how to do it, they can't do it, or they

Curt Tueffert: 00:13:58

won't do it. So there's this teaching opportunity for all of

Curt Tueffert: 00:14:01

us on this call. If you're asking somebody to do something,

Curt Tueffert: 00:14:04

I don't know how to do that, that can be trained, I cannot do

Curt Tueffert: 00:14:09

that, that can be trained, we remove the obstacles. I don't

Curt Tueffert: 00:14:13

want to do it. That's a behavioral issue. And I found

Curt Tueffert: 00:14:16

that in my sales career, whether you're doing Call Reports, or

Curt Tueffert: 00:14:21

ride alongs, or curbside coaching, any of these things

Curt Tueffert: 00:14:26

that you're doing, whether it's a seasoned pro, who's been in

Curt Tueffert: 00:14:28

his territory, or her territory for 20 plus years, are you

Curt Tueffert: 00:14:32

bringing somebody new in, there's going to be a can't do

Curt Tueffert: 00:14:35

won't do don't know how there's going to be one of those three

Curt Tueffert: 00:14:38

things. And so my major takeaway is how do I build enough trust

Curt Tueffert: 00:14:41

and rapport with the individual, manage them as an individual and

Curt Tueffert: 00:14:46

then figure out is this I can't do won't do or don't know how,

Curt Tueffert: 00:14:50

and if they don't know how we can train them. If they can't do

Curt Tueffert: 00:14:53

it, we'll remove the obstacles, and if they won't do it, we have

Curt Tueffert: 00:14:56

issues and welcome to the pandemic. Are all of us on this

Curt Tueffert: 00:15:00

call who are struggling in a sales modality, I can't make a

Curt Tueffert: 00:15:05

sales call because they're all working from home, I don't know

Curt Tueffert: 00:15:08

how to make a sales call, because they're working

Curt Tueffert: 00:15:11

remotely, we can work on that I won't make a call, that's a

Curt Tueffert: 00:15:15

behavioral thing. You can't just sit there and wait for this

Curt Tueffert: 00:15:18

thing to end, we thought it was going to end in April of last

Curt Tueffert: 00:15:22

year. Well, we're now turning the corner into 2022, we still

Curt Tueffert: 00:15:26

have these issues. So the big takeaway is working with people,

Curt Tueffert: 00:15:30

people do things for their own reasons, and they're motivated

Curt Tueffert: 00:15:33

by their own things. And our job as managers is to come alongside

Curt Tueffert: 00:15:37

and, you know, we want to manage things and lead people,

Curt Tueffert: 00:15:41

sometimes we flip that around, and we tend to want to

Curt Tueffert: 00:15:45

tragically, you know, manage these people rather than lead

Curt Tueffert: 00:15:48

them.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:15:48

Hmm. That's so good. I always say that, when

Wesleyne Greer: 00:15:54

I'm talking to people, and I'm like wrestling with, what is

Wesleyne Greer: 00:15:57

your ideal client? What is this? What is that? Yeah, we all have

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:00

our niche or the people that we like to work with. But I say,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:04

for me, it's really one thing, the propensity to change, and

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:08

really what you were saying, It's so true, it's like, if they

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:12

don't know how to do it, okay, I can help you. If they say I need

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:16

help, they're asking for help. But the ones you're like, I'm

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:19

not gonna do it, I'm not going to change. I'm stuck in my ways,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:22

as a sales manager, so many times you are knocking on that

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:26

door, and you're trying to change them and trying to turn

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:29

them in, you're doing everything that you possibly can, but

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:32

nothing is happening. And I think that what you said is key,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:35

it's like, ask them, like, what is the problem? Why helped me

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:40

understand the why behind it, and then develop their

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:43

individualized coaching program so that they can operate in

Wesleyne Greer: 00:16:47

their best selves,

Curt Tueffert: 00:16:49

agreed. And we see this in spades, from the

Curt Tueffert: 00:16:51

Michael Jordan documentary that came out on ESPN and then on

Curt Tueffert: 00:16:55

Netflix, how is Phil Jackson going to manage a Michael

Curt Tueffert: 00:16:58

Jordan, different than a Scottie Pippen different than a Dennis

Curt Tueffert: 00:17:02

Rodman, I mean, you can't manage them all the same. And you've

Curt Tueffert: 00:17:05

got to find your leaders. And so Michael was the leader who

Curt Tueffert: 00:17:08

helped manage the others. And I found people within my sales

Curt Tueffert: 00:17:11

team seasoned sales pros that the other people respected. And

Curt Tueffert: 00:17:15

those are the ones I tried to pour my life into, so that they

Curt Tueffert: 00:17:19

could help me manage now, in every sales group, if you have

Curt Tueffert: 00:17:23

10 people, if you look at the standard 2060 20 of 10 people,

Curt Tueffert: 00:17:27

two will be performers, six of them will be wondering where

Curt Tueffert: 00:17:30

they want to go, and two of them will just not make it and you've

Curt Tueffert: 00:17:33

got to determine do I manage them all the same? Or do I

Curt Tueffert: 00:17:37

somehow manage the ones that are making it and have the potential

Curt Tueffert: 00:17:41

and the ones who won't do it because it's a behavioral thing,

Curt Tueffert: 00:17:44

either cut them loose, or just let them flounder, that's a ugly

Curt Tueffert: 00:17:47

way to manage. But there's just not enough time that day to to

Curt Tueffert: 00:17:50

give everybody a warm blanket and some hot cocoa in the

Curt Tueffert: 00:17:52

wintertime.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:17:54

I love that I have this as I call it a budget

Wesleyne Greer: 00:17:57

effort graph. And I asked sales leaders every quarter, it

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:01

applies for people, right, and the ones that are down in this

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:04

bottom left quarter quadrant, they're low on their quota. And

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:09

they're not putting effort in my question is why are they still

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:12

here? Right? If they're not hitting their numbers, and

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:15

they're not even trying to hit their numbers, they're not

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:17

making phone calls or not updating the CRM, they're not

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:19

doing anything like, why are you here, right. And I think that at

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:24

the end of the day, as a leader, you have to realize that this

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:28

doesn't all fall on you, because you can do everything. And you

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:32

can ensure that you're giving that person exactly what they

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:35

need. But if they don't have the desire within themselves, then

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:39

nothing's going to happen. Well said. And so before we got on

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:43

our call, you told me that you're going through this huge

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:46

implementation of this brand new CRM system, you don't have to

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:50

say what it is. But one thing that I do know is when we get to

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:55

a point within our companies, and we're like, hey, we need to

Wesleyne Greer: 00:18:59

kind of step up our game, whether we're using Excel

Wesleyne Greer: 00:19:01

spreadsheets, or we're using that starter CRM. I'm curious,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:19:04

what are some of the reasons that you found that you needed

Wesleyne Greer: 00:19:07

to make that big upgrade? Well,

Curt Tueffert: 00:19:09

great question. You know, I think there is a

Curt Tueffert: 00:19:12

cliche, what got you here won't get you there. And here we are a

Curt Tueffert: 00:19:17

billion dollar publicly traded company. We started in 1908. And

Curt Tueffert: 00:19:22

we grow through organic growth, as well as through acquisitions.

Curt Tueffert: 00:19:26

But what got us here to a billion dollars with 2500

Curt Tueffert: 00:19:30

employees won't get us to the next level. And the reason it

Curt Tueffert: 00:19:35

won't get us to the next level is because technology as well as

Curt Tueffert: 00:19:39

information information is moving at the speed of of light.

Curt Tueffert: 00:19:43

And we just we need the tool set that helps us because the world

Curt Tueffert: 00:19:48

is so fast. It's so tech savvy. In fact, stem you're talking

Curt Tueffert: 00:19:51

about science, you're talking about technology, engineering,

Curt Tueffert: 00:19:54

you're talking about this amazing I need it. I need it

Curt Tueffert: 00:19:58

yesterday. I need it convenient So this implementation of a CRM

Curt Tueffert: 00:20:02

package, one reason we're doing it is to allow us to be spending

Curt Tueffert: 00:20:07

more intelligent time in front of our customers. And another is

Curt Tueffert: 00:20:10

to help our sales managers manage in the 21st century in a

Curt Tueffert: 00:20:15

way that will allow us to feed this massive hunger that our

Curt Tueffert: 00:20:20

customers and our prospects are having for information, expert

Curt Tueffert: 00:20:24

information, we show ourselves as a technical expert

Curt Tueffert: 00:20:27

distributor, not so much as a commodity, we're not an Amazon,

Curt Tueffert: 00:20:31

we're not those kind of folk, although we compete with that.

Curt Tueffert: 00:20:34

And so the reason we got CRM is to help us move and expand to

Curt Tueffert: 00:20:38

get to 2 billion to get to 3 billion, it requires new tools.

Curt Tueffert: 00:20:42

And so that's the investment. And it's the biggest investment

Curt Tueffert: 00:20:45

we've made in the last 20 years.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:47

Wow. And what I know is that when you whether

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:53

you're a million dollar company, or a billion dollar company,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:55

anytime you're implementing a new, I like to call it sales

Wesleyne Greer: 00:20:59

Technology Package, right? Whether it's a CRM, or it's a

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:03

prospecting tool, or it's any of the above, because there's so

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:07

much out there now, you really have to think about, okay, this

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:10

is where we started, and this is where we want to go, this is

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:13

what's going to help us get there. But also thinking about

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:16

when you roll out something like this, I'm curious as to the plan

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:22

that you have, because you really focus on the sales

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:24

development, the implementation, because we can spend hundreds of

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:28

1000s of dollars on new sales tech stack, but if we don't get

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:32

the sales team to use it, then it's just sitting there. So what

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:36

are the plans that you have to really get everyone to implement

Wesleyne Greer: 00:21:39

it?

Curt Tueffert: 00:21:40

Great question. We struggle with the way to do

Curt Tueffert: 00:21:43

this, this isn't something that you just put under your pillow,

Curt Tueffert: 00:21:45

you wake up the next morning, and you become Salesforce

Curt Tueffert: 00:21:48

literate, or CRM savvy. It's a cadence, and the cadence will be

Curt Tueffert: 00:21:54

a periodic heartbeat of pushing the information out with baby

Curt Tueffert: 00:21:59

steps. And then checking to make sure that people understand it.

Curt Tueffert: 00:22:03

And then later on in the rollout implementation, accelerating

Curt Tueffert: 00:22:07

that cadence just a little bit. And going back and highlighting

Curt Tueffert: 00:22:10

best practices, highlighting some tech calls, maybe we call

Curt Tueffert: 00:22:14

them Tuesday, tech calls where people can call in and go, I am

Curt Tueffert: 00:22:18

so frustrated, because I don't know how to enter a contact, or

Curt Tueffert: 00:22:22

what's the difference between a lead and an opportunity, you

Curt Tueffert: 00:22:25

know, what we're going to show you, we're going to help you

Curt Tueffert: 00:22:28

walk through this. And then eventually, at some point in

Curt Tueffert: 00:22:31

time in the rollout, we'll start measuring metrics and

Curt Tueffert: 00:22:34

quantifiers. To make sure we're getting adoption or getting

Curt Tueffert: 00:22:38

entry, we're reducing garbage in, garbage out. And we're

Curt Tueffert: 00:22:41

trying to just roll them out quietly and slowly, because

Curt Tueffert: 00:22:45

we're a company that makes money when we sell things. So if we

Curt Tueffert: 00:22:49

just decide to stop selling things, so we can get enamored

Curt Tueffert: 00:22:52

by this CRM package, we've lost all forward momentum. So again,

Curt Tueffert: 00:22:58

we've got to continue selling, and continue motivating, and

Curt Tueffert: 00:23:01

then integrating this in as part of the process.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:04

I love it. I love it. One of the companies

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:08

that I worked with a couple years ago, they're probably

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:11

around the similar size as you and the district VP, he's had,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:15

you know, we've invested so much money in the CRM, but nobody

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:18

wants to use it. So I really need you to get the Sales

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:21

Managers You see at Wesleyan. And so I literally sat down with

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:25

the sales managers, and they were like, it's a waste of time.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:27

It's not helping me, it's just something that corporate wants

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:30

us to use, because they want to see what we're doing. And within

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:33

90 days, they're like, oh, okay, I see why. And I always say,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:39

Hey, your CRM is really meant to help you make money, right? It

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:44

is made, so that you can really know everything you need to know

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:51

about that client. And if you get all the information, if you

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:54

have 510 1520 accounts, there's no way you can keep all that in

Wesleyne Greer: 00:23:58

your head. You can't keep it on an Excel spreadsheet. So it

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:00

helps you make money. And once people understand this is

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:04

helping me make money and achieve my goals and become a

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:07

better salesperson, then they start using it. But I really

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:10

like your rollout plan where it's little bits and pieces,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:13

right? It's I'm not throwing it all down your throat. I'm not

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:16

saying everything that you do. As soon as you step out a

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:18

customer, you get your app out and hammer it in, we have to

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:22

sell which is our number one goal because we are a sales

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:25

generating organization, which if you're not nonprofit you are

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:29

and then this helps you This tool helps you so one thing that

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:33

I always like to ask as we kind of wrap this session up is you

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:38

gave me a lot of accomplishments and achievements within your

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:43

career. But if you could think about one of the most notable

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:46

things that you are most passionate about having

Wesleyne Greer: 00:24:50

accomplished within your career, what would that be? Wow,

Curt Tueffert: 00:24:54

I think I go back to when I started in my speaking

Curt Tueffert: 00:24:58

career, there was an opportunity Ready for us? Well, there was a

Curt Tueffert: 00:25:01

call, if you will, from the number one accounting firm. And

Curt Tueffert: 00:25:05

they wanted to roll out some business development training

Curt Tueffert: 00:25:08

for their partners. And of course, if you're talking about

Curt Tueffert: 00:25:11

a large public accounting firm, they don't want to be

Curt Tueffert: 00:25:14

salespeople. And so this was all covered as business development.

Curt Tueffert: 00:25:18

Well, they wanted this to be done through third party

Curt Tueffert: 00:25:21

independent trainers. So there was a call, and I was a part of

Curt Tueffert: 00:25:25

the shortlist. And my partner, Jim Jacobus had the deal

Curt Tueffert: 00:25:28

already, he put a good word in for me, and we all flew to

Curt Tueffert: 00:25:32

Dallas, Texas, and we had a train off, if you will. And we

Curt Tueffert: 00:25:38

would go into separate rooms, and then the people would show

Curt Tueffert: 00:25:40

up, and they would say, Okay, we want you to speak for 20 minutes

Curt Tueffert: 00:25:44

on this particular part of our business development course. And

Curt Tueffert: 00:25:48

I was coached a little bit, not a lot, because he didn't want to

Curt Tueffert: 00:25:51

be biased. And then toward the end, long story short, I got

Curt Tueffert: 00:25:55

that gig. And as a new speaker with young kids, this gave me

Curt Tueffert: 00:26:02

the opportunity for two years worth of contracted income. And

Curt Tueffert: 00:26:06

that gave me enough to pay my bills to pay my insurance and to

Curt Tueffert: 00:26:09

end breathe. And from there I went on, and I would say that

Curt Tueffert: 00:26:12

was the biggest accomplishment, because as I sat at that table

Curt Tueffert: 00:26:16

with all these other professional trainers with

Curt Tueffert: 00:26:19

better pictures and better marketing sites, so much more

Curt Tueffert: 00:26:22

experience, I didn't think I could compete at all. And sure

Curt Tueffert: 00:26:26

enough, I wanted and I wanted for two years, and that was one

Curt Tueffert: 00:26:30

of their most favorite instructors. Because if I go

Curt Tueffert: 00:26:33

back to the kind of person I am, I took every opportunity. I

Curt Tueffert: 00:26:37

said, Look, if you've got somebody who doesn't want this

Curt Tueffert: 00:26:40

date, or that date, or if you got somebody who's sick, and

Curt Tueffert: 00:26:42

they can't go, I don't want to be your first call. And I picked

Curt Tueffert: 00:26:46

up a bunch of opportunities there. And it made everybody

Curt Tueffert: 00:26:49

happy. And that was my my big success.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:26:52

Wow, that just gave me so much. So much pause,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:26:58

right? Because you were able to convince people who were not

Wesleyne Greer: 00:27:03

sales see at all, like, even hearing the word sales properly

Wesleyne Greer: 00:27:07

makes them cringe, right? And you were able to convince them

Wesleyne Greer: 00:27:11

to not only take a chance on you, but to really say yes, we

Wesleyne Greer: 00:27:16

want you not for a month or for two months or for two years. And

Wesleyne Greer: 00:27:19

then you were really I would say you were scrappy. You were like,

Wesleyne Greer: 00:27:23

oh, you can't show up that day. That's fine. Okay, I can meet

Wesleyne Greer: 00:27:25

you the next day. Oh, you Saturday morning, fine. Wherever

Wesleyne Greer: 00:27:28

you need me. I'm there. And so often we forget, as sales people

Wesleyne Greer: 00:27:34

that we are there to serve, right? Like we serve first. And

Wesleyne Greer: 00:27:39

then we sell. And that's really what you did. You're like, I'm

Wesleyne Greer: 00:27:42

here to serve you and to help you become better. And in doing

Wesleyne Greer: 00:27:46

that, it helped you it built your economy said, Hey, I was

Wesleyne Greer: 00:27:50

comfortable. I had my salary. My kids were okay. All my bills

Wesleyne Greer: 00:27:54

were paid. And I think that that is something that is just an

Wesleyne Greer: 00:27:58

amazing accomplishment.

Curt Tueffert: 00:28:00

Well, thank you that, you know, I get back in

Curt Tueffert: 00:28:02

the moment, you know, just thinking about it. It was just,

Curt Tueffert: 00:28:04

it was a wonderful experience, knowing that I got picked. And

Curt Tueffert: 00:28:07

as I flew home, as I took off from the airport and flew back

Curt Tueffert: 00:28:11

to Houston, I was just like, wow, this is a great

Curt Tueffert: 00:28:14

confirmation that I'm in the right place at the right time.

Curt Tueffert: 00:28:17

And I actually have the skills in order to compete

Wesleyne Greer: 00:28:20

at awesome, that is awesome. I thank you so much

Wesleyne Greer: 00:28:24

for sharing your time, your talent, your expertise with us

Wesleyne Greer: 00:28:29

today. It's been such a rich conversation, what is the one

Wesleyne Greer: 00:28:34

best way for people to get in contact with you?

Curt Tueffert: 00:28:36

I'm on social media, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Curt Tueffert: 00:28:38

And that's about it. I'm still thinking about reenergizing the

Curt Tueffert: 00:28:42

websites and things of that nature, but there's only one two

Curt Tueffert: 00:28:45

for TUEFFER T. And it's not that difficult to find me. I

Curt Tueffert: 00:28:50

definitely have a face for radio. So once you see it,

Curt Tueffert: 00:28:53

you'll go yep, that's the guy.

Wesleyne Greer: 00:28:54

Awesome. Awesome. Make sure that you

Wesleyne Greer: 00:28:57

connect with Kurt pick his brain. He is a wealth of

Wesleyne Greer: 00:29:02

information and his diverse experiences will definitely help

Wesleyne Greer: 00:29:07

you achieve your success. So thank you again for your time

Wesleyne Greer: 00:29:10

today, Kurt. You're welcome. Wesleyne And that was another

Wesleyne Greer: 00:29:14

episode of the science of selling Sam. Remember in

Wesleyne Greer: 00:29:18

everything that you do transform your sales. Until next time.

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