Winning the Game
I recently went one on one with Steve Benson, founder and CEO of Badger Maps. We covered a wide range of topics, from leadership to sales to entrepreneurship:
Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?
Steve: Thanks for having me here, Adam. My journey has been nothing short or easy. It was not in my original plans to become an entrepreneur.
9 years ago, I was working in sales at Google. Google was a great work environment and it gave me the opportunity to connect with some of the most accomplished people in the world.
In 2009, they started placing more emphasis on the SaaS business. Though I had never thought about starting my own company, I started seeing a problem that salespeople had with routing and mapping their territories that could be solved with an entirely new kind of software. I wanted to do something innovative and fix this problem, so I started my own company in 2012, Badger Maps, to achieve this vision.
One of the first things I did was to hire the people with the right technical skills to build the product and created the best possible core for the company. My co-founder and I decided to bootstrap our business and quickly realized that we didn’t have the resources to solve this problem that we knew we had the solution to. That was one of the biggest challenges we initially faced because it was a chicken and egg situation. We didn’t have money to make the solution, but the money could only come from selling the solution.
One trick that worked was approaching customers who I knew would greatly benefit from this software and offering them a discounted version of it at first. I gave them a deal, saying that if they took it now, they would pay 1/10th of what it would be worth in a year.
That’s how we started closing our first few big deals and now here we are, almost 10 years later, – a successful company helping thousands of people just like I had visualized years ago!
Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?
Steve: Being an effective leader is more than just organizing a team and analyzing data. Motivating, training, and communicating with your team is extremely important so they always feel supported and are in the loop with what is going on.
It’s important to create value instead of counting value. Be involved with the team and produce quality work, so your team knows you work just as hard as them - if not more - and they can trust you.
Considering the times that we are in right now and the state of the economy, effective leadership is more important than ever. Taking leadership to the next level involves overcoming new challenges, adapting communication, and recruiting the right people.
Always anticipate challenges that may come up so you can be ready if the storm hits. This goes for unforeseen issues as well. What sets a good leader apart is being able to handle problems that come up with quick thinking and problem-solving. It is important to be prepared and adjust to new situations accordingly. This will also help you in adapting communication with your customers.
As the economy shifts, so do the needs and feelings of your customers. Alter messaging on all your channels, such as your website and social media, so they better fit with what the current situation is. Show your customers how your service or product will help them through this specific rough time.
Also, remember to adjust communication with your team. Encourage good company morale by being transparent with them and not leaving them in the dark. This will create healthy communication on both sides so if they need help, they know they can come to you as a leader.
Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of a great sales leader? How can anyone become a better sales leader?
Steve: Throughout my time as a sales leader at Google and as the CEO of Badger Maps, I’ve learned a lot about what it takes to be a great sales leader. It requires a natural knack for certain skills and expertise acquired through years of experience.
One of the most important things is to be your team’s coach, mentor, and teacher. Find places where they need to improve and support their progress in getting better. Praise them in the areas where they are succeeding in and show them that you care about their advancements.
As I mentioned before, there is a big difference between creating value and counting value. Pay notice to the quality of work of your team, rather than the quantity. Get involved in everything that is going on and be a genuine part of your team, supporting and putting in just as much time as them.
Lastly, you should energize and motivate them to work towards the big picture goals. Make innovative plans that line out the details of your vision. This makes it clear to your team what the end-goal is and how they are able to contribute to that vision. Set milestones and responsibilities along the way so you can make sure to lead your team to success. Don’t be afraid to try different things and take safe risks in your strategies. After all, as Jim Rohn said “If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.”
Adam: What are your best tips for sales leaders during a down market?
Steve: During a down market, it is important for sales leaders to realize that successful techniques they used before may not work as well anymore. They need to reassess the situation, confront reality, and, most importantly, be action-oriented. Ask all the hard questions and see what needs to be changed to minimize the impact of a bad economy.
Overall, remember to guide your team to success. If you’re not spending 50% of your time coaching your reps, that’s the first thing that needs to be fixed. Especially in a down market when situations are constantly changing, your team needs to know that they have your support and help.
Take note of what methods are working so you can teach those to your team and replicate it for a favorable outcome. Be responsive to whatever the current situation is and act accordingly.
Finally, if your back is against the wall and you are forced to make layoffs, do it all at once. If you have multiple rounds of layoffs, it can lower company morale and distract employees who may start panicking and looking for other jobs.
Adam: What are your best tips for salespeople and sales leaders on selling in a remote work setting?
Steve: In a remote work setting, most of the selling tends to happen over various online conference apps, with the most popular one during this pandemic being Zoom.
First, think about the kind of product you are selling. Are you selling something that usually would require a demonstration or a showroom? Or are you selling something that doesn’t need much explanation? You want to make sure that your presentation addresses all aspects of the product as it would in a real-life sales pitch, so the customer isn’t left confused.
The best tip is to keep it brief and keep it simple. After about 10 minutes of constant listening, people tend to get bored and lose attention. If your presentation requires more than 10 minutes of content, it is vital to position interactive activities throughout it, so your audience remains engaged. Examples of this include polls, quizzes, asking them for their opinions, and more.
As for the actual slides of your presentation, keep them to the point without too many words or graphics on each of them. Be straightforward and stick to the topic. Otherwise, people will start to lose focus and get distracted from the main points that you want them to leave with.
Don’t depend on your slides and certainly, do not read off of them. Show expert control of the topic and command the material. The prospect does not want to waste their time and they want to listen to someone who is prepared and knows what they are talking about.
Lastly, build a real connection with your audience. This step becomes even more important when the selling is virtual. Your customers want to know that you understand their needs and relate to them. Have good posture, look straight into the camera instead of the screen, and speak with enthusiasm and passion. People are engaged by humor and authenticity and by connecting with them, they will trust you more and be more convinced by your pitch.
Adam: What are your best tips on managing customer relationships in a remote work setting?
Steve: When managing customer relationships remotely, you should first acknowledge that it is harder to build strong relationships virtually compared to in person. Utilize different techniques and put in more effort. Remember though that both you and the customer are in the same boat, so use this to your advantage.
Focus on their well-being before anything else. Customers react to empathy. The more they feel like you care and you can relate to them, the more they are drawn to you. Hearing out their concerns and difficulties and giving them sincere advice to solve their problems will make you seem more human, compared to the ordinary salesman just trying to make a sale. This will strengthen your relationship to the point that, when it is finally time to talk business, they will hear you out and trust what you’re saying.
Even before the pandemic, surveys show that 59% of consumers felt that companies weren’t ‘human enough’ in their customer experience. People have so much interaction with screens and machines now that they want to connect with people on a human level. This is why it is so important to show customers you are genuinely on their side and not just for your own agendas.
Adam: What are your best tips on recruiting in a down economy?
Steve: When recruiting in a bad economy, first think about what skills your business needs to be successful in the current situation. The job description on the application should clearly describe what skills you are seeking in candidates and what duties you expect them to do as a part of their role.
While you are in the process of evaluating them, give them tasks or ask questions that directly pertain to the skills you are looking for. For sales specifically, this could mean asking them to overcome an objection, delivering a pitch, and negotiating with you.
Once you hire your perfect candidate, make sure to onboard them properly on to the team. This will ensure they have a smooth transition and know exactly how to apply their skills specifically for your business, securing positive results. Encourage them to ask questions or ask for help if needed, so they are comfortable with the team and instill trust in you as their leader.
Adam: What trends do you believe are on the horizon in field sales and in sales in general?
Steve: Every Zoom sales rep and every company that has a consulting practice around digital transformation would have you believe that we’re never going to leave our homes again and we’re going to see the death of Field Sales. But if you’re a field sales person, I wouldn’t consider a career change just yet!
Field Sales is not dead. Face-to-face meetings are crucial for certain types of sales, they shorten sales cycles and deepen relationships - and they will always be important to get deals across the finish line.
It’s really hard to replicate the connection made with customers in-person through Zoom or over the phone. Interactions over the internet are clunky and awkward - in-person meetings give salespeople the opportunity to connect and really understand a customer and their problems - people thrive off of social interaction, and in person you tap into that human need for connection and to create real, lasting relationships.
Also, it's definitely easier to read the room for objections and gauge how your customer truly feels in person. Sales cycles get compressed by getting the key people in a room and figuring things out with a face to face conversation.
On the other hand there are a lot of reasons that when all you can do is talk on the phone and use zoom, that sales cycles will extend. The good news there is that as soon as your team can go outside again, a lot of deals will close with the compression. Think about how easy it is to sever a relationship that was just based over the phone and Zoom -- prospects can easily ghost someone they’ve only talked to - they just stop replying to emails and the relationship is done. Which for some reason people are way more comfortable with doing if you’ve never met them in person.
Ultimately the decision maker or CEO doesn't care about making a sales rep drive across town to visit them, they want you to travel to them if it's more convenient or will use their time better or be a better experience than a phone call. And if your company doesn’t have field sales, your competitor likely will, and they’ll get an edge.
I liken in person sales calls to in person dating - In the end Both Dating and Sales may be enhanced by the internet, but the internet will never replace in-person dates or in-person field sales.
Adam: More broadly, what is your best advice on building, leading, and managing teams?
Steve: Building a winning sales team is all about hiring the right people. Think about what kind of team you desire to have, depending on your industry and clientele base. Bring people who are socially intelligent and enthusiastic about sales onboard. Those are the kind of people who will be able to converse well with your customers and important people in the industry.
Also, look for critical thinkers, the ones who are good at identifying problems in your competitor’s products and your own, so the product is always the best version of itself. Make sure you give them some kind of task or test during the interview process that shows you how they would work if hired and so you can be confident, they are the best fit for that role.
In terms of leading and managing teams, there are three tips I believe can help any ordinary sales manager rise to the top.
First, understand that industries are always evolving. In this day and age when there are always new trends occurring, it is important to be on top of your game and adapt to the current tech. Customers tend to gravitate towards these new movements, so it is important to adjust if you don’t want your company to fall behind.
Next, be a good role model for your team. Lead by example, as the saying goes. Don’t just tell them to work hard. Show them what a good leader looks like by working hard beside them and encouraging them. This helps foster trust and loyalty in your team with everyone wanting to work hard and succeed, and not being afraid to ask for assistance if they need it.
Lastly, set goals and truly aspire to be the best in your industry. As Babe Ruth says: “You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.” You want to be that person who never gives up - who when achieves one set of goals, moves on to bigger and bigger milestones. Hustling is key. Make a structured and thought-out plan of how you are going to achieve your goals and have the passion to strive to be at the top. This will ensure you and your company succeed.
Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders?
Steve: Entrepreneurs, executives, and civic leaders very often have long roads ahead of them before they reach success. My number one tip is to first and foremost, always help your team members out. By making sure the people around you know how to perform their responsibilities in the best way possible, you ensure your business is one step closer to triumph. Support and enable them to ask questions or ask for assistance. This way, they are never nervous to contact you and know that you are a leader that they can rely on.
Second, find opportunities where you can gain hands-on experience and learn all about the industry that you want to make an impact on. The best way to do this is to work at smaller companies where you can jump in on different projects and departments. This is highly beneficial and will especially help future entrepreneurs get an idea of how everything is connected and the overall big picture of the inner workings of a business.
Third, remember that it is extremely difficult to start a new business. It is important to anticipate possible failures and think about what could go wrong, so you can fix the issues before they happen. Sales skills and a passion for your business, involving an attitude that doesn’t fall easily to obstacles, are key.
Starting a business was much harder than I imagined. Coming out successfully on the other side though, I can confidently say that creating Badger Maps has been one of the most rewarding experiences in my life. There are no other words to describe the feeling of building a successful company from scratch.
Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?
Steve: I remember when I was working at Google, Mark Flessel – my first Sales Manager – gave me the best piece of advice I have ever received. I still utilize it to this day and forward that advice to my team and company.
He told me that we need to focus on understanding our prospect’s and customer’s business and industry. He then said to take it one step further by understanding what their KPIs and goals are. With that in mind, come up with a solution that helps them accomplish those goals using your product.
I have always kept this piece of advice in mind and using that approach has brought me success. I have found that putting in the time to do ample research on my customer base, asking them the correct questions, and understanding what drives my customer’s business, allows me to take my business one step further than my competitors.
In the end, customers are what bring value to the business. By understanding them, you are one step closer to winning the game.