SBC CEO and Founder, Rasmus Sojmark, was joined by Steve Schrier, CEO of Sales Tribe, for the debut episode of the Double Espresso Show to delve into building a successful sales approach in the information age.
Schrier, who also authored Build Your Sales Tribe, or the ‘bible’ of sales according to Sojmark, outlined how the industry has evolved since his entry into the sector in 2002.
During the conversation, he warned that, for a lot of people, the reality of sales does not live up to the dream depicted in popular culture.
“Sales has completely changed,” he noted. “This whole ‘Wolf of Wall Street’, it’s all fun and out-there playing Glengarry Glen Ross but it’s not the reality of things. This is about developing truly valuable relationships with people, not exploitation, and over time, really being part of people’s businesses and generating success. I really wanted to get that out there.”
Explaining the motivation behind putting pen to paper on his book, which was published earlier in February, Schrier added that the misconceptions surrounding the sector and the poor structural frame of a firm are two of the key issues tackled in among the pages.
He continued: “Everything changed from my previous sales experience when we became part of a start-up company that needed to make its way in this business.
“It’s a real problem, I think, today for management and I’ve seen this problem get worse as my career has developed. Basically, it’s very difficult to find good sales people; people call them sales, business development or deal makers in general, whatever you want to call them.
“I think it’s actually a problem for management more than the actual sales people themselves because, as far as I can see, people aren’t actually structuring the businesses in order to succeed in that process. My book is about structuring an environment for people to succeed in that and that’s exactly what I wanted to get across.”
When asked how the world of sales has adapted and changed over the course of the last half-a-decade and if the aforementioned changes have been ‘amplified’ by the pandemic, he responded that making the industry work is ‘all about nuance’.
“We’re talking about a complex ecosystem and bringing together lots of different things to make it work well. The pandemic has accelerated that and there’s some other things happening in our industry that are also making that are also making that quite interesting. For example, the regulation of the US market, which is the largest regulation of a market or set of markets we’ll probably see in our careers.
“People talk about things in our industry in very simplistic terms but actually, making them work is all about nuance, and bringing those things to bear and navigating complex areas.
“For example, in the US market today, there’s a lot of people looking for platforms and services, etc. That’s a very complex thing because every supplier out there is trying to show that they’re the one to go for, and it’s a very competitive space. A lot of people are driving those conversations to try and make a decision but as a buyer, or as someone who might not be fully educated or have the benefit of experience we’ve had, that means there’s a massive pressure on them to make decisions.
“The way people should be presenting themselves as deal makers in this environment is navigators of the market.”
The Double Espresso Show, made in collaboration with GamblingTV, will focus on expert advice and key information from leading industry experts in an interview with our CEO Rasmus Sojmark. Over the coming weeks and months, more great interviews will follow this one.
The Double Espresso Show aims to deliver a strong message (hence Espresso) and a much needed energy boost (aka Double Shot of Caffeine) with the aim to give stakeholders in the industry a more educated view of what’s going on in the wider industry and what opportunities exist now and in the future.
