Summary:
In this episode of Sales Development Podcast, David interviews Brandon Compher, Sales Development Manager atChannelAdvisor. Brandon shares his journey from pursuing coaching and sports management to diving head-on into sales as a sales development representative or SDR.
With no prior sales experience, Brandon discovered quickly the value of asking for help. He also learned what it means to lean on one’s support and how how one must fight for balance in a profession that has such a high, burnout rate. Tune-in to gain these valuable insights and so much more.
3 Key Points:
1.A minimum effort on your behalf will yield you minimum results.
2.Acknowledge your need for help; then, go out and ask for it!
3.The more passionate you are about the work and company, the more energy you’ll bring.
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 00:58 – Introduction to the Sales Development Podcast
- 01:04 – Introducing Brandon to the show
- 01:40 – Brandon has a Masters of Science in Sports Management and now works as a sales development manager
- 02:08 – He went to East Carolina University and started out as a manager for the basketball team
- 02:29 – He’s always been in coaching
- 03:02 – Later on, coaching became laborious for Brandon and he couldn’t see where he really wanted to go
- 03:18 – He took a semester off
- 03:34 – Brandon did an internship in game operations at Duke University
- 04:00 – He got burnt-out and ended up taking another job at Denison University, in Ohio
- 04:09 – He discovered athletics aren’t really for him
- 04:16 – He helped in their family business for awhile
- 04:35 – His friends and former classmates told him he had an outgoing personality and should go into sales
- 04:51 – Brandon worked in a small company taking hundreds of calls every day
- 05:09 – He transferred into sales development and he took off as an account executive
- 05:32 – Because of his coaching mentality, he felt he could really provide more by helping others reach their goals
- 06:19 – Coaching does not come naturally to everyone
- 07:28 – Brandon believes telling stories is very impactful
- 07:35 – When Brandon started out as an SDR, he didn’t have any sales experience
- 07:47 – He didn’t hit his numbers for the first 2 months
- 08:15 – If you do the minimum, you’ll get minimum results
- 08:58 – You have to start going the extra mile
- 09:20 – If you want to make a career, invest in yourself
- 09:50 – Ask for help and seek out advice
- 10:44 – Be careful about what company you’ll work for
- 11:08 – The more passionate you are, the more energy you’ll bring to the table
- 11:31 – David is currently reading The 10X Rule
- 12:03 – You’re estimates to success are wrong – it’s probably 10X the numbers you have
- 12:46 – Brandon had a late start – his first SDR job was at 29
- 13:06 – His wife was a full-time nurse
- 13:29 – Brandon finally decided to start putting more effort into prospecting
- 13:47 – He took his team leader’s advice about going the extra mile
- 14:18 – He realized he could turn things around
- 14:41 – “There’s gotta be something in your life that can drive you”
- 15:48 – Balance is still a very important factor to consider
- 16:34 – “Sales development is a role that can really burn people out”
- 17:18 – An SDR role is a great way to start out in a company
- 18:25 – For Brandon, he felt he really needed help, so he asked for it
- 19:46 – His stress level was to the roof and it took him one month to realize he needed help
- 20:15 – Brandon was surrounded with quality colleagues, family, and friends
- 21:15 – If he didn’t have this great group of people with him, it would have been really tough for him
- 21:23 – “I highly encourage people to talk to coworkers”
- 22:19 – You have to talk about your problems with somebody
- 23:20 – Sharing your problems with someone to gain outside perspective is paramount
- 24:41 – Swallow your pride and ask for help because you will definitely get something back
- 26:20 – Brandon realized that their connect rate at ChannelAdvisor was relatively constant
- 26:39 – The team had been focusing on the quality of the call
- 27:31 – They created a grading system for their reps
- 27:50 – They made the work more fun and competitive by creating a spiff (incentive for a sale)
- 28:42 – The spiff created a culture of quality for their reps
- 28:54 – Call quality drastically improved for ChannelAdvisor
- 29:17 – It’s great to see how much their reps pushed to improve
- 30:29 – David mentions his interview with Steve Richard where they talked about how to make calls better with systems and processes in place
- 31:32 – A point-to-point needs analysis
- 32:49 – “You definitely have to empower the reps”
- 33:13 – From a management perspective: come in, take ownership, direct people, but don’t forget to listen
- 34:20 – David shares about an article in LinkedIn of a company that does 40K calls/week and how they analyze the data
- 36:11 – Own your personality when you’re taking calls
- 38:01 – “Call blitz” is not as relevant anymore
- 38:45 – Long drawn-out emails are unsuccessful as well
- 40:20 – People are used to reacting now – use it to make them respond
- 41:37 – Brandon sees himself in a leadership role at a sales development organization
- 42:42 – David is a huge advocate for growing your career
- 43:39 – End of podcast
Resources Mentioned:
- ChannelAdvisor – Company where Brandon works for as sales development manager
- East Carolina University – University where Brandon worked as a basketball team manager
- Duke University – University where Brandon had an internship in game operations
- Denison University – University where Brandon took another job at before working in their family business
- The 10X Rule – Book that David recommends
Credits
- Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives