Transitioning from a Technical Career into Sales Leadership with Eva O’Keefe

Eva O'Keefe: 00:00:00

As a sales manager, you are judged by the

Eva O'Keefe: 00:00:03

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

Eva O'Keefe: 00:00:06

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

Eva O'Keefe: 00:00:10

how to get everyone on your team consistently hitting quota every

Eva O'Keefe: 00:00:16

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

Eva O'Keefe: 00:00:22

science of selling stem sales leadership in the science,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:00:26

technology, engineering and manufacturing fields is

Eva O'Keefe: 00:00:30

difficult. You will learn from sales managers just like you

Eva O'Keefe: 00:00:35

that will give you actionable insights and tips on how to

Eva O'Keefe: 00:00:39

develop as a leader and achieve your revenue targets every

Eva O'Keefe: 00:00:43

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

Eva O'Keefe: 00:00:47

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

Eva O'Keefe: 00:00:52

inspiration to ensure that you have actionable insights that

Eva O'Keefe: 00:00:57

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

Eva O'Keefe: 00:01:02

episode of the Snack size sales podcast today. I am so excited

Eva O'Keefe: 00:01:07

that I have the pleasure of interviewing Eva O'Keefe. How

Eva O'Keefe: 00:01:12

are you?

Eva O'Keefe: 00:01:13

I'm doing great. Thank you for having me.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:01:15

Some let me tell you guys a little bit more about Eva. She

Eva O'Keefe: 00:01:19

graduated from the University of Florida with dual degrees in

Eva O'Keefe: 00:01:22

Industrial and Systems Engineering. Later, she attended

Eva O'Keefe: 00:01:26

the Graziadio School of Business at Pepperdine University, where

Eva O'Keefe: 00:01:30

she earned her MBA. She is currently the VP of sales at

Eva O'Keefe: 00:01:35

azelis. So tell us, how did you go from two degrees to becoming

Eva O'Keefe: 00:01:40

the VP of sales? Yeah, so

Eva O'Keefe: 00:01:43

obviously didn't happen overnight. You know, I started

Eva O'Keefe: 00:01:47

my career, actually my degrees in industrial and systems

Eva O'Keefe: 00:01:50

engineering. And my first job was actually working for Exxon.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:01:56

And I was actually doing hard core computer programming. I

Eva O'Keefe: 00:02:02

have spent of my first year at the basement of the Exxon

Eva O'Keefe: 00:02:05

building, programming C++ and doing all these things. I was 22

Eva O'Keefe: 00:02:10

years old. And I was like, Okay, this is not for me, I am a

Eva O'Keefe: 00:02:14

people person, I would go to the supermarket and I would start

Eva O'Keefe: 00:02:17

chatting with a cash register lady and things. So a friend of

Eva O'Keefe: 00:02:22

mine asked me, Hey, there is a job in chemical sales. I was

Eva O'Keefe: 00:02:27

living at that time in the Houston area. So I am like, I

Eva O'Keefe: 00:02:31

don't know much about chemical sales. I did take some chemistry

Eva O'Keefe: 00:02:33

classes during college, but I think I want to get into sales.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:02:39

So I started in sales. And I did that for a couple of years in

Eva O'Keefe: 00:02:44

the pulp and paper industry. Then I moved to chemical sales

Eva O'Keefe: 00:02:49

in selling for more like paint companies, then actually, I was

Eva O'Keefe: 00:02:53

born and raised in Venezuela. So I speak Spanish, the opportunity

Eva O'Keefe: 00:02:58

came to work for Angus, which then became Tao as an Latin

Eva O'Keefe: 00:03:02

American sales manager. So I did that for a couple of years, I

Eva O'Keefe: 00:03:06

actually traveled all over Latin America to actually learn

Eva O'Keefe: 00:03:11

Portuguese, even though I don't speak that much Portuguese

Eva O'Keefe: 00:03:13

anymore. So I went to, you know, the smallest countries, El

Eva O'Keefe: 00:03:18

Salvador, Costa Rica, to the big places like Brazil and Colombia.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:03:24

Then I had some family changes, I got married, I had children.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:03:29

And I actually went to work for another chemical manufacturer

Eva O'Keefe: 00:03:34

for a couple years, and my territory was very large. I had

Eva O'Keefe: 00:03:37

12 western states, Western Canada, sometimes Mexico. So

Eva O'Keefe: 00:03:43

after starting a family, you know, I decided, okay, let me go

Eva O'Keefe: 00:03:46

something smaller. So I went into chemical distribution. And

Eva O'Keefe: 00:03:50

at the same time, actually, I decided to get my MBA. So I was

Eva O'Keefe: 00:03:55

trying to do it all, you know, having a family getting my MBA,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:03:59

traveling. And so I got into chemical distribution, chemical

Eva O'Keefe: 00:04:03

distribution is different because you have a smaller

Eva O'Keefe: 00:04:06

geographical area, a lot more accounts. And I started

Eva O'Keefe: 00:04:11

basically, as an account manager, and quickly I was

Eva O'Keefe: 00:04:14

promoted as sales manager. And I manage a team and I did that for

Eva O'Keefe: 00:04:19

a couple of years. Then I went to work for a competitor. And I

Eva O'Keefe: 00:04:23

was actually vice president of true strategic accounts, which I

Eva O'Keefe: 00:04:26

was giving them one very, very, very large account. Then my

Eva O'Keefe: 00:04:31

company was sold. And then I went to work for actually the

Eva O'Keefe: 00:04:34

same company that I work 10 years ago, and in actually 15

Eva O'Keefe: 00:04:39

years ago in 2005. And my original role here was actually

Eva O'Keefe: 00:04:44

vice president for Latin America, which I did for a few

Eva O'Keefe: 00:04:48

months. And then they said, You know what, I think your skill

Eva O'Keefe: 00:04:51

set is better suited to manage a territory so I'm now Vice

Eva O'Keefe: 00:04:54

President of Sales for the western region, which covers

Eva O'Keefe: 00:04:58

what 12 Western states. So that's that's kind of my career

Eva O'Keefe: 00:05:03

in a nutshell.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:05:04

So you had a such a dynamic career because you went from

Eva O'Keefe: 00:05:08

being just a traditional engineer to something completely

Eva O'Keefe: 00:05:12

different of chemical sales. And then you kept on that path of

Eva O'Keefe: 00:05:17

doing something different by getting into distribution, which

Eva O'Keefe: 00:05:20

I always say distribution sales is a world unto its own, because

Eva O'Keefe: 00:05:23

you're managing someone else that's not under your tutelage.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:05:27

And they're managing the customers. So what are the

Eva O'Keefe: 00:05:30

things that you think that really set you up for success

Eva O'Keefe: 00:05:34

going from being a engineer working in a basement to and the

Eva O'Keefe: 00:05:39

skills that you've been able to translate into your leadership

Eva O'Keefe: 00:05:42

position?

Eva O'Keefe: 00:05:43

Yeah, I think a lot of it is, I understood early on that this

Eva O'Keefe: 00:05:48

was not my right path, you know. So I think understanding

Eva O'Keefe: 00:05:53

yourself, you know, and taking that risk, you know, just

Eva O'Keefe: 00:05:58

saying, you know, what, I'm comfortable here, but this is

Eva O'Keefe: 00:06:01

not what I want. So I think that's one of the things hard

Eva O'Keefe: 00:06:04

work. I mean, they're, you know, I'm, I have kids right now, I

Eva O'Keefe: 00:06:08

have a 16 year old and unknown, almost 19 year old, and they

Eva O'Keefe: 00:06:12

think that they are just going to walk in and be the vice

Eva O'Keefe: 00:06:14

president of sales. And we're like, No, it just kind of

Eva O'Keefe: 00:06:16

doesn't work like that. You know, it just sheer spending the

Eva O'Keefe: 00:06:22

time getting my MBA, I think my I, again, my training as an

Eva O'Keefe: 00:06:27

engineer, I knew, you know, processes and things like that.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:06:31

But in reality, unless you're working for Tesla, or SpaceX, or

Eva O'Keefe: 00:06:37

something like that, you're dealing in business with

Eva O'Keefe: 00:06:40

customers, profits, p&l, and things like so, I think my MBA,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:06:47

you know, was critical in basically teaching me how to

Eva O'Keefe: 00:06:50

think, you know, in teaching me about strategy, and teaching me

Eva O'Keefe: 00:06:56

is like, Okay, do I want to be the Neiman Marcus selling a

Eva O'Keefe: 00:07:01

couple of things that are very high margin? Or do I want to be

Eva O'Keefe: 00:07:04

Walmart? Or do I want to be somewhere in between all those

Eva O'Keefe: 00:07:09

things I learned on my MBA, so I personally, I know, they're kind

Eva O'Keefe: 00:07:14

of, you know, not as viewed as favorable anymore. But for a

Eva O'Keefe: 00:07:17

technical person. And I tell the young people under me, if you

Eva O'Keefe: 00:07:21

have the time, your company's paying for it, do it, it was a

Eva O'Keefe: 00:07:26

very big sacrifice. Like I said, I had, oh, you know, already one

Eva O'Keefe: 00:07:30

child expecting the other. But I felt that it was very much worth

Eva O'Keefe: 00:07:35

it. And, you know, I think continuing your skills, I just

Eva O'Keefe: 00:07:40

finished a leadership course, at Cornell, you know, talking about

Eva O'Keefe: 00:07:44

women in leadership. You know, I listen to a lot of podcasts, you

Eva O'Keefe: 00:07:49

know, how I built this, my son is starting at Northwestern, I

Eva O'Keefe: 00:07:54

found some very interesting podcasts there. So just don't

Eva O'Keefe: 00:07:59

think that you're you're ever done learning, if you consider

Eva O'Keefe: 00:08:04

yourself a lifelong learner, in every interaction, you know, in

Eva O'Keefe: 00:08:09

my company, even though I'm in sales, I have to deal with

Eva O'Keefe: 00:08:12

supply chain, I have to deal with customer service. And every

Eva O'Keefe: 00:08:17

interaction, if I learn about their business and how they do

Eva O'Keefe: 00:08:21

their job, it helps me do my job better. interpersonal

Eva O'Keefe: 00:08:27

connections, I think that's very important. I think in my

Eva O'Keefe: 00:08:30

industry, you know, I think people will hopefully view me as

Eva O'Keefe: 00:08:34

someone that is very generous, very, you know, generous with

Eva O'Keefe: 00:08:37

her time I invite people into my home, I, you know, back when we

Eva O'Keefe: 00:08:43

were entertaining a lot more, I did a lot of entertaining, a lot

Eva O'Keefe: 00:08:47

of socializing, building, not just the business. You know, I

Eva O'Keefe: 00:08:51

have a mentor. His name is Syriac Alexander. He's very well

Eva O'Keefe: 00:08:54

known in our industry. And he always said, you know, companies

Eva O'Keefe: 00:08:58

do business with people, not companies, with companies. So

Eva O'Keefe: 00:09:03

developing those personal relationships early on, and I

Eva O'Keefe: 00:09:06

still have relationships that I've kept for almost 30 years in

Eva O'Keefe: 00:09:11

this industry. I think that's very important.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:09:14

That's awesome. You talked a lot about personal and professional

Eva O'Keefe: 00:09:18

development. And I think a lot of times as leaders, that's not

Eva O'Keefe: 00:09:21

something that we value as much because we're going going going

Eva O'Keefe: 00:09:26

as a sales leader. We're like, Okay, I got to hit this number.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:09:29

I got to get the team doing this. I got this. I got that.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:09:32

But really taking time to slow down and do that development. It

Eva O'Keefe: 00:09:35

seems like it's really played Messrs for you in your career.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:09:38

So I'm curious when we think about your team and the people

Eva O'Keefe: 00:09:42

that you work with, how is that development, that growth that

Eva O'Keefe: 00:09:47

you have so inherent within you? How does that help you lead your

Eva O'Keefe: 00:09:51

team better? Yeah, I

Eva O'Keefe: 00:09:52

mean, again, I think I'm a firm believer for example, I belong

Eva O'Keefe: 00:09:56

to the Los Angeles Society of coatings technology. I'm on the

Eva O'Keefe: 00:09:59

board. have given them a six year commitment. Anyone that

Eva O'Keefe: 00:10:03

goes under me, you know, it's like, okay, you are you are

Eva O'Keefe: 00:10:07

joining the LSVT. And you are becoming a board member, you

Eva O'Keefe: 00:10:12

know, and at the LSVT, for example, every single month, we

Eva O'Keefe: 00:10:16

have technical talks that we learn. So, again, to me, that is

Eva O'Keefe: 00:10:22

very important. And it's very important for the people that

Eva O'Keefe: 00:10:25

work for me to have that mindset to have that mindset about

Eva O'Keefe: 00:10:30

learning if someone is, for example, I do get some people

Eva O'Keefe: 00:10:33

that work for me that various technical levels, I will get

Eva O'Keefe: 00:10:36

someone with an engineering degree, and I will get someone

Eva O'Keefe: 00:10:39

with a marketing degree, you know, the guy with a marketing

Eva O'Keefe: 00:10:42

degree, he knows how to sell well, but maybe not is not as

Eva O'Keefe: 00:10:45

versed in the technical aspect, you know, so, again, send them

Eva O'Keefe: 00:10:50

to lab where he spends a week and Merce in, you know, in

Eva O'Keefe: 00:10:54

technical training and understanding, I think that

Eva O'Keefe: 00:10:57

people should always recognize what are their weaknesses, and,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:11:02

you know, go and try to improve that is the person with a

Eva O'Keefe: 00:11:07

marketing degree going to be as technically proficient as the

Eva O'Keefe: 00:11:11

guy that's been, you know, 10 years in a manufacturing plant,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:11:15

creating polymers, no, but it doesn't matter, you know, and

Eva O'Keefe: 00:11:19

also understanding that there are resources available, none of

Eva O'Keefe: 00:11:23

us work in a vacuum, that if you're weak in one area, you

Eva O'Keefe: 00:11:28

bury yourself up with someone that is not weak in that area,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:11:32

you know, and having that collaboration, I think makes the

Eva O'Keefe: 00:11:36

team a lot stronger.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:11:37

I love that I always when I'm working with people, one thing

Eva O'Keefe: 00:11:42

that we do is we come up with an onboarding plan. And when we're

Eva O'Keefe: 00:11:44

working in these technical fields, it's there always two

Eva O'Keefe: 00:11:47

tracks, there's a technical track, and then there's the

Eva O'Keefe: 00:11:50

sales or the business track, because depending on your

Eva O'Keefe: 00:11:52

background, sometimes like you said, you need to go in the lab,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:11:55

and you need to say, Hey, let me present this to someone, let me

Eva O'Keefe: 00:11:59

go out and get my hands dirty, I always like to say, getting my

Eva O'Keefe: 00:12:02

hands dirty, like go out on the plant floor, go in the lab and

Eva O'Keefe: 00:12:05

really learn the process, because you're strong in sales.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:12:08

So we don't need to develop those skills as much. Whereas if

Eva O'Keefe: 00:12:11

you're a technical person by nature, then we do need to hone

Eva O'Keefe: 00:12:15

those sales skills, you need to be cold calling and talking to

Eva O'Keefe: 00:12:19

customers and doing all of those things. And so, really what you

Eva O'Keefe: 00:12:23

said, I love the way that your individualizing the development

Eva O'Keefe: 00:12:28

for your sales people. What are some of the challenges that

Eva O'Keefe: 00:12:31

you've had throughout your your leadership career? Well,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:12:36

early on, you know, I would say, How do I put it this politely,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:12:42

you know, I was traveling to Latin America, as a young female

Eva O'Keefe: 00:12:46

29 years old, as a manager, you know, and they were basically,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:12:52

you know, I was not being accepted, you know, and many

Eva O'Keefe: 00:12:56

times, if, you know, some of the distributors there would say,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:13:00

Hey, I do not want to spend time with you, or, you know, or bring

Eva O'Keefe: 00:13:05

your boss or something like that. So, I think that that was

Eva O'Keefe: 00:13:10

pretty challenging, you know, and I felt that I had to prove

Eva O'Keefe: 00:13:14

myself quite a bit, you know, the other challenges is, is, I

Eva O'Keefe: 00:13:20

think, you know, mentoring people to the point that they

Eva O'Keefe: 00:13:24

want to stay, but the grass is always greener on the other

Eva O'Keefe: 00:13:28

side, you know, in spending time with someone's spending, you

Eva O'Keefe: 00:13:32

know, love and attention and care, and then, you know, they

Eva O'Keefe: 00:13:36

get a better offer. And you, you know, you say, Okay, this is

Eva O'Keefe: 00:13:39

business, I don't want to take it personal, but you do take it

Eva O'Keefe: 00:13:42

personal and you feel is like, what happened, what did I do

Eva O'Keefe: 00:13:46

wrong? What, you know, Why couldn't this person stay with

Eva O'Keefe: 00:13:50

me? So I think some of those, you know, in the environment, I

Eva O'Keefe: 00:13:54

mean, the last couple of the last year for everyone, we had

Eva O'Keefe: 00:13:57

to learn completely how to work in a different way, you know, I

Eva O'Keefe: 00:14:01

was used to, every week getting on a plane and travel and you

Eva O'Keefe: 00:14:06

know, and now we're home, you know, and we're like, okay, but

Eva O'Keefe: 00:14:10

I think we've learned quite a bit. And we've learned that

Eva O'Keefe: 00:14:13

also, there is a lot more collaboration and efficiency,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:14:17

you know, that you can immediately get the person in

Eva O'Keefe: 00:14:20

New Jersey, you know, the person in Argentina and the person in

Eva O'Keefe: 00:14:24

California and old, you know, beat together at once, things

Eva O'Keefe: 00:14:28

that a year ago, before the pandemic, you just didn't do

Eva O'Keefe: 00:14:31

that it was not normal. So, you know, in challenges also, I

Eva O'Keefe: 00:14:37

think that as my personal and professional development is

Eva O'Keefe: 00:14:40

like, Okay, I've been doing this for almost 30 years. It's like,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:14:43

what do I do when I grew up? You know, where do I want to go? You

Eva O'Keefe: 00:14:47

know, I think you have to ask yourself those type of questions

Eva O'Keefe: 00:14:51

over and over again. Mm hmm.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:14:53

Those are some good but real life challenges right being a

Eva O'Keefe: 00:14:57

woman in this very technical Chemical sales type realm,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:15:01

especially when you're traveling to other countries, I think in

Eva O'Keefe: 00:15:05

different countries, there are different perceptions. And as

Eva O'Keefe: 00:15:07

you said, that we have to think about the closer of things. So

Eva O'Keefe: 00:15:10

when you're traveling to Latin America, it's culturally like,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:15:13

no, no, no, no, this is not what we do. And then having that

Eva O'Keefe: 00:15:16

turnover, especially in these days where, I mean, if you're a

Eva O'Keefe: 00:15:21

good salesperson, you're like a hot commodity, everybody's

Eva O'Keefe: 00:15:24

trying to steal you. And it's when you get to a salesperson,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:15:28

and they leave for 5000, or 10,000, or three or 4%. More

Eva O'Keefe: 00:15:31

commission, like you said, What did I do? Did I do something

Eva O'Keefe: 00:15:35

wrong? Why Why are you leaving? And then really thinking about

Eva O'Keefe: 00:15:39

this virtual world? Okay, yeah, it's very different. But these

Eva O'Keefe: 00:15:43

are the ways that we can actually build our business

Eva O'Keefe: 00:15:46

faster, we can meet with people quicker, we can be on back to

Eva O'Keefe: 00:15:49

back to back zoom calls, like I can start my day in London, and

Eva O'Keefe: 00:15:52

I can end my day California, right. And I think those things,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:15:56

you know, what you really said is, it's like, yeah, these are

Eva O'Keefe: 00:16:00

challenges, but they're all things that I overcame, and

Eva O'Keefe: 00:16:03

they've made me stronger.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:16:04

Absolutely. Actually, I have a little funny example. I was

Eva O'Keefe: 00:16:07

talking to this gentleman that I've talked to him a couple

Eva O'Keefe: 00:16:09

times. And all of a sudden, he mentioned something about being

Eva O'Keefe: 00:16:13

in Argentina. And I'm like, wait a minute, you are in Argentina,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:16:16

I had no idea. I thought that he was in Charlotte, North Carolina

Eva O'Keefe: 00:16:20

or something like that. So I love

Eva O'Keefe: 00:16:23

it. I love it. I mean, the world that we're living in today, it's

Eva O'Keefe: 00:16:27

a global world. But it seems like we're so much tighter knit.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:16:31

Like in this past week, I've talked to somebody in London,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:16:34

I've talked to somebody in Lebanon, I've talked to somebody

Eva O'Keefe: 00:16:36

in Norway, and I want to talk to somebody right here in Texas,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:16:39

all on Zoom. Right? And so I think that being able to embrace

Eva O'Keefe: 00:16:43

what I like to call sales technology, and helping our

Eva O'Keefe: 00:16:46

sales people really upskill right. So it's yes, we can do it

Eva O'Keefe: 00:16:51

as leaders, but are we showing our sales people how they can

Eva O'Keefe: 00:16:54

actually use this to build their business? Correct. So it's give

Eva O'Keefe: 00:16:58

me a success story, whether it's in your current position, or in

Eva O'Keefe: 00:17:01

a previous position that you had on something that you're really

Eva O'Keefe: 00:17:06

excited about a person a sale? Anything that you're really

Eva O'Keefe: 00:17:10

excited about?

Eva O'Keefe: 00:17:11

Well, I would I would, I can actually start I will go back to

Eva O'Keefe: 00:17:16

when I first started in sales in my career, you know, I was mid

Eva O'Keefe: 00:17:21

20s, okay. And the product that I was selling over, I was

Eva O'Keefe: 00:17:26

actually selling one specific product, then when I came over

Eva O'Keefe: 00:17:29

here, we had very, very, very little market share, I would

Eva O'Keefe: 00:17:33

say, I don't know, 5% market share. So basically, the way

Eva O'Keefe: 00:17:38

this product worked it, do you know what pH is the pH works at

Eva O'Keefe: 00:17:43

a higher pH, the product that was in the market worked at a

Eva O'Keefe: 00:17:47

lower pH. So I would actually go into Home Depot and buy paint,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:17:53

and I would send it to my lab, and I would have it analyzed.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:17:57

And I would go to all these major corporations making paint

Eva O'Keefe: 00:18:00

and I would say, do you think your product is protected? And

Eva O'Keefe: 00:18:03

they would say, of course it is, you know, I've been using, you

Eva O'Keefe: 00:18:06

know, this product, and I you know, so I would actually go and

Eva O'Keefe: 00:18:09

show them the data is like, hey, no, your product is really not

Eva O'Keefe: 00:18:13

protected. You, you know, and when the homeowner opens his can

Eva O'Keefe: 00:18:16

of paint and I you know, a year later puts it in the garage and

Eva O'Keefe: 00:18:20

wants to paint again, is not going to be protected. So I went

Eva O'Keefe: 00:18:24

and I methodically went to all these companies pitching the

Eva O'Keefe: 00:18:28

message over and over and over again. And by the time in two,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:18:34

three years, I went from like 5% market share to probably I don't

Eva O'Keefe: 00:18:39

know, 7075 in 20 years later, okay. A lot of these companies

Eva O'Keefe: 00:18:46

are still using the product that I recommended, you know, and are

Eva O'Keefe: 00:18:50

still basically my recommendations kind of, you

Eva O'Keefe: 00:18:54

know, shaped that industry. And, you know, I was I think I was

Eva O'Keefe: 00:18:59

young and naive. And a lot of the times I remember one

Eva O'Keefe: 00:19:02

gentleman said, What makes you think that you're going to gain

Eva O'Keefe: 00:19:06

my business. I've been doing business with this large company

Eva O'Keefe: 00:19:10

for all these years. We played golf with, you know, but I think

Eva O'Keefe: 00:19:14

that my young age and my naivete basically said, I don't care.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:19:20

You know, another time again, talking about developing the

Eva O'Keefe: 00:19:24

personal relationships. I believe in the personal

Eva O'Keefe: 00:19:27

relationship, this same gentleman, which basically

Eva O'Keefe: 00:19:30

brushed me off and you know, I got his business at the end. He

Eva O'Keefe: 00:19:34

asked me he said that he was sponsoring a race instead the

Eva O'Keefe: 00:19:39

juvenile diabetes foundation we did it for paint for the paint,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:19:43

you know, foundation, but it was for diabetics. And he's like,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:19:46

Okay, I hear that you run is uh, yeah, I do. He's like, Okay, I

Eva O'Keefe: 00:19:50

want I can you run this race for me and I said, you know, his

Eva O'Keefe: 00:19:54

name is was Marty to Marty. I don't know if I can run this

Eva O'Keefe: 00:19:58

race. And he's like, why? He said, well, because if I run the

Eva O'Keefe: 00:20:01

race, I want to win it, you know? And he said, Oh, right,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:20:06

okay, come on, come on, you know, so I go run the race. And

Eva O'Keefe: 00:20:10

I went in, I won the race, you know? So he was like, Okay, this

Eva O'Keefe: 00:20:14

lady is serious. And after God, you know, he was so happy that I

Eva O'Keefe: 00:20:19

won the race. You know, I developed my personal

Eva O'Keefe: 00:20:22

relationship with him, I raised a bunch of money for his

Eva O'Keefe: 00:20:25

charity. And eventually, I got his his business, my product was

Eva O'Keefe: 00:20:29

superior. And like I said, to this day, they're using this

Eva O'Keefe: 00:20:33

product. But you know, it took persistence, it took, you know,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:20:39

basically, sometimes you you think, Well, someone has done it

Eva O'Keefe: 00:20:43

already. And they fail. Well, that was them. That's not me.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:20:47

You know, just because they fail doesn't mean that I'm going to

Eva O'Keefe: 00:20:50

fail. I'm going to look at a different angle, I'm going to

Eva O'Keefe: 00:20:53

find another way. So yeah, so I think early on in my career, you

Eva O'Keefe: 00:20:58

know, I had a lot of success, by just chipping away little by

Eva O'Keefe: 00:21:02

little

Eva O'Keefe: 00:21:03

tenacity, I love, love, love that story. Where if you really

Eva O'Keefe: 00:21:09

were thinking outside the box, right, you're like, I'm just

Eva O'Keefe: 00:21:11

going to Home Depot, and I'm gonna buy all their stuff up.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:21:14

And hey, send it off. And to me, the results I can remember is my

Eva O'Keefe: 00:21:18

first year in sales, I was like, I don't know what to do. They

Eva O'Keefe: 00:21:20

didn't give me a framework. So I would load up my car. And I

Eva O'Keefe: 00:21:23

would literally, like fly to Colorado, and I'd be driving all

Eva O'Keefe: 00:21:26

over the Midwest, and then I'd hop up to North Dakota. And I

Eva O'Keefe: 00:21:29

was just doing lunch and learns, right. And so I would literally

Eva O'Keefe: 00:21:32

have like a whole week of luncheon, learn scheduled at

Eva O'Keefe: 00:21:34

universities at client sites. And that's how the momentum got

Eva O'Keefe: 00:21:37

going. Right? And is that, like you said, it's the tenacity.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:21:40

It's not that they're gonna buy tomorrow. But it's the fact

Eva O'Keefe: 00:21:43

that, hey, I'm staying with it. And then I love your story about

Eva O'Keefe: 00:21:49

the charity, because what you did was, and I tell salespeople

Eva O'Keefe: 00:21:52

all the time you served before you sold, right? You served him,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:21:57

this is important to you, so I can make it important to me. And

Eva O'Keefe: 00:22:01

again, he didn't. And it wasn't just because you had such a

Eva O'Keefe: 00:22:05

great relationship, you solve a problem that he had with your

Eva O'Keefe: 00:22:10

item with your product. And then and the relationship was there.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:22:14

And so I think a lot of times, salespeople, they think that

Eva O'Keefe: 00:22:17

they can only live on the relationship. But know, what is

Eva O'Keefe: 00:22:20

the problem the customers having, right? Like those two

Eva O'Keefe: 00:22:22

have to be aligned in order for you to build that relationship.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:22:27

I love it. I love it. I love it. Well, so tell us how can people

Eva O'Keefe: 00:22:32

get in contact with you? If they want to have a quick chat with

Eva O'Keefe: 00:22:36

you or learn more about what you do?

Eva O'Keefe: 00:22:39

Sure. I mean, I'm on LinkedIn, I would say that would be the

Eva O'Keefe: 00:22:43

preferred method under Eva O'Keefe, you know, so I mean,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:22:47

social media, too. I think Twitter, I'm like, Vita 1209 or

Eva O'Keefe: 00:22:52

something like that. But I think LinkedIn would be the preferred

Eva O'Keefe: 00:22:55

method.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:22:56

Awesome, awesome. Ava, thank you so much for joining us today,

Eva O'Keefe: 00:23:01

and sharing your pearls and your wisdom and really helping us

Eva O'Keefe: 00:23:04

understand how you have gone from working in the basement in

Eva O'Keefe: 00:23:08

that ExxonMobil hearing that you sit for where I am you being

Eva O'Keefe: 00:23:13

this wonderful VP of sales. Thanks so much for your time.

Eva O'Keefe: 00:23:16

Thank you. Thank you for interviewing me. Thanks for the

Eva O'Keefe: 00:23:19

time. And that

Eva O'Keefe: 00:23:20

was another episode of the Snack size sales podcast remember, and

Eva O'Keefe: 00:23:25

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

Unknown: 00:23:30

Thank you for joining us today on the snack sized

Unknown: 00:23:33

sales podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and

Unknown: 00:23:38

leave us a review. Learn how to continue increasing your bottom

Unknown: 00:23:42

line by getting simplified sales strategies delivered to your

Unknown: 00:23:45

inbox weekly by going to www dot snack sized sales.com. Trust me,

Unknown: 00:23:52

your bank account will grow and love you