Tom Slocum, Founder and CEO of The SD Lab, joins the Howdy Partner posse to discuss how sellers can move to a proactive mindset and take advantage of partner plays to increase sales.
They discuss the state of selling and why cold outreach isn't working like it used to.
Tom shares how the sellers can use partnerships to outperform their peers using the 3 Is of Nearbound.
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Highlights:
- Introduction to the podcast. 0:03
- The state of sales in this economy today.
- How the narrative has changed in sales.
- Being smarter with what you’re doing. 4:50
- Being smarter with what you're doing.
- How Tom is engaging with companies today.
- What kept the company afloat. 7:26
- The evolution of gemstones. Sales and marketing.
- The importance of partnerships.
- Bassett's approach to partner education and updates.
- How to get hot leads from partners.
- Pushing the idea of partnerships to leadership. 11:26
- The future of partnerships in real estate.
- Partnerships are an exchange of value on both sides.
- Partnering up with a real estate agent.
- Fulfilling the needs of the partner.
- Seller’s playbook on engaging with partners. 15:31
- The mentality for salespeople to have when it comes to partnerships.
- No true seller's playbook on partner lead gross.
- Empowering sales reps with affiliate marketing.
- Top priorities outside of the sales process.
- The power of partnerships. 19:15
- Partnership partnerships and the power of partnerships.
- How sales can get more involved with partnerships.
- Partners are your partner. They are not taking food away from you.
- Partners and sales work together in unison to bring in more revenue.
- Leveraging the three different eyes of outreach. 24:56
- Scott Barker's unique role at outreach.
- Leveraging the three eyes to get partner-based revenue.
- Nurturing and collaborating with partners to drive event registration.
- Collaboration between SDR and partner.
- How to be proactive in your partnerships. 28:46
- One SDR on the team who hit quota every month.
- One tactical tip for selling today.
- Moving to a proactive mindset in sales.
- How to connect with other AEs.
Transcript:
Will Taylor 0:03
Howdy partners, and welcome to the howdy partners podcast, where we give you actionable insights so that you can generate revenue in this crazy economy, we're joined by a guest that, I would say although I don't think I've said it directly, I would call him a friend. So we've known each other for a good amount of time. He is a wonderful sales influencer. He's got a lot of good things to say a lot of tactical insights as well. So we figured he would be great for this podcast. And when we dive into it, he has an interesting story about partnerships and his experience with it. We are joined by Tom Slocum, and he is the founder of the SD lab. Tom, how's it going?
Tom Slocum 0:43
Ah, thank you, sir. And I would call you a friend right back. It has been a pleasure following your journey, calling you friend collaborating in so many settings, meeting you in person for the first time ever at Sastra last year, which was phenomenal. But yeah, great to be here. Founder, like you said, the SD lab, top of funnel outbound kind of go to market strategy agency, helping companies deploy those motions, because it's what I love to do. And yeah, I have a fun little partnership story, some updated versions of it as well, that I can't wait to talk about. But you know, me, I think partnerships are the way the world it's helping folks. It's it's working together, versus killing each other in each other's throats. You know, it's better to go together than a little.
Will Taylor 1:31
I love it. So we know that you are in the midst of all things sales. And so you probably have a lot of context about what it's like to sell in this economy today. So I did want to start there. And I'll preface this with there's definitely a narrative in the partnership space where, you know, cold, calling cold outreach is not as easy as it once was. Still got to do it. But there's another way and that's partnerships. But you tell us what is the state of selling like these days? You know, cold outreach, what's your perspective on the state of sales in this economy?
Tom Slocum 2:07
Great question. Yeah, being deep in it right now, I feel like I'm in the matrix all the time. Because I'm very tapped in. And thanks to the LinkedIn community and the places that I am, and obviously, my clients, right, I get to see this firsthand in the trenches, as they say, and it's hard, let's be real, I don't want to bring the fluff, I don't want to mess around like it's hard. But it's also winning, it's succeeding, it's it, there's still a lot of buzz and progress and happy. But the narrative has changed the days of old dog, new dog, which I think is a plus, for me a superpower, I started in oh seven, you know, 16 years doing this now. And I was a way of the old way to spray and pray, just mass amount of value, and not really worry about quality. But then also seeing people back in that time also focus on quality. So it was like 5050, whoever you are going to be. And now you know, in this new pre world kind of sales world we're in, it's all quality. I think right? Now, a couple pillars that like I'm trying to help companies understand and get reps in their reach out to understand is that one, you need to be a need, not a nice to have, like, companies or some to my second point companies are really trying to do or they should be looking inward and their business not outward. The answer is not always more, you know, and right now there is a little bit of scarcity, there is an abundance of booming going on. So how do you maximize what's already inside? Right? So they're looking at upsells cross sells evolution of their products, you know, doing different things to get a yes from somebody who's already put their credit card with you. It's much easier to do that than going to get net new, right and so then having your reps go to market and you know, pitching as a nice need, understanding your your pains of your buyers. And so that's the third point is now we're getting into the Samantha McKenna way the show me you know, me the ability to lead with empathy, understanding, it's as your people on the other side of these interactions, because prospects in this day and age don't need you to call them and tell them what they need anymore. Like it was in the 90s. Right? I see this a lot like in the 90s we live by our phones. And that's how you got your information, cold calls marketers everything going on. And a news papers. Nowadays, I don't need you to call me to tell me to look at a tool more often than not like and I have all the resources and data points I need. I need to build a relationship with somebody I need to understand like, why you over anything else and you know, what, can you actually help me do?
Tom Burgess 4:50
I feel like it's indicative of just being smarter with what you're doing and like. So I mean, it's so funny because I admire organization, I feel like we're, we're kind of stretching when Alana came into it, and there was a lot of tech. And it's kind of like the excitement of like, Hey, we're a fast growing company. So like, what see what's out there to help us. And I think that just snowballed into something that is now almost an issue, where we've got SalesLoft, you've got chili Piper, we have, we have other things that just completely complement each other. And so you break you, you brought up a really good point, which is like, it's, you know, like, and I'm sure we'll get into, like the idea of the idea of nearby and what we're talking about in a lot of these episodes, but you have to be close to your prospects and customers in a way that you've never had to before. And it's like the understanding of like, and we I can't remember who we talked to a couple weeks ago, well, but it's like, it's almost like the idea of like your, as a salesperson, you shouldn't be going out there to sell anything, like go out there to help. And then the sale will come like that relationship, the trust, like the bonding around what your product can do to help serve, will will ultimately come. And so if I think there's Jason, Jason is just like, You know what, like, I'm doing these coffee talks. And I'm just here to build a community and network and talk to people of like minds, and not when like, knowing that there's going to be opportunity there. But I'm not trying to sell something upfront, I'm trying to establish relationships, and that goes on both sales, and clearly in partnership. So interesting points.
Will Taylor 6:27
Yeah. And so Tom, I alluded to earlier alluded to the story that you have for partnerships. And so tell us about, you know, the that compelling story of how it impacted the organization you worked with. And I'm curious about you mentioned, you know, how it's evolved today and how you're engaging with companies. I would love to hear about that. Cuz I don't think I've heard that before. But yeah, let's, let's hear your story, as it relates to, you know, engaging with partnerships and driving revenue.
Tom Slocum 6:54
Yeah. And just one caveat, to follow up with Tom is, I always say, if you're selling, you're doing it wrong. Just a simple, no need to force a square in a circle, it shouldn't come to that a few are, that's clearly an indicator. Now, when it comes to partnerships, and again, being resourceful Tom, and finding out entirely what we could do to maximize things and expand, that's when he's partnerships come in, I had an order that I was out in 2015 2016, that he worked in the SMB space. And we had a fleet sales floor, where we had pods of STRS, where at one point, we were all one massive pot, all the STRS on one side, and we live transferred and passed off calls to our AES in real time that sat next to us. Right. And then we moved into Team departments. So then they assigned us all to a group of a team. And then we split that way. So you have five teams, five STR teams working internal with gemstones, AES, where before we were just round robin, this or working in that space? Well, it's so crazy to me all the time. Because their partnerships teams single handedly accounted for 92 Let's just go soft numbers 80 to 90% of their, their, their our our on month to month basis. Like that's where the business stayed afloat more than anything outside of the SDR and 18, which wasn't perfect, right. So what kept them afloat was these partners. And it's such a crazy story too, because it's the best partnership program I've ever seen kind of ran. And what they did was, they had a partnership team, they had reps, good friends of mine, they only work partnerships on the other side of the floor. And they reach out to folks right and get new partners. And if the AES found somebody they could activate, they pass that lead over, right? Hey, we'll I've got Tom, I think you'd be a phenomenal partner for us. He's in this world, you know, where the conversation so they get leads on top of new net stuff that would come in just like a sales seat, right, a new lead source. They would amplify these partners to go work new markets, they would deploy them in new markets to get their brand awareness before the AES and sells less would begin nurturing that area or that territory. I have partners already lived there. They were already local to the local businesses, the boards, you could land knows you got way more net new coming from a customer word of mouth now ties into word of mouth and social proof. And like I said, Well, we're kind of updated now because you see this at scale and social. But Bassett, they activated this and then every month they hosted a conference where they would bring their partners in and they would educate them, let them see where the numbers were what the there were literally employees of the company, right but they were out doing their own thing but they like lived and breathed as if they needed the updates like us to came into our Salesforce seeing the AEC they were partnered with and meeting us all but that being in these rooms learning stuff about the product and updates getting their thoughts, and then they got caught and paid and all they had to do was call their partner contact and say about Five people that need a conversation with you, I closed them, they're getting set up, right, and they white label, then they got the white label the product of their own, if they'd like to that was a special tear of the product, right? So they could just sell and get a cut. And so yeah, led to 80 90% of the revenue on a month a month, half the team very afloat, the reps would get hot leads from those partners, right, they got to make those relationships and get free leads monthly, because they were working with these partners, and then add a partner manager, right to handle the kind of the relationship. And I thought it was the best thing I've ever seen, I thought it was impressive, I thought it was very great the way they approached it, and how they made these people feel like they actually worked, they came to our QBR, they came to ourselves for meetings, or at least had the right to, they could come into the company floor as much as an employee, right. And now leading to an updated version and kind of seeing how companies are activating this is the same thing. And in creating this ecosystem of people to go to market for you. Like I'm doing that now for SD lab, like I have more boots on the ground in places I can't be that I'll have to work as 10x hot, like will prime example me and will I'm in a room for will wills in a room for me sometimes, like if it comes up, he's like, Oh, hey, I got somebody for you. Or, you know, we've thought about this. And he knows how I work my values and news, learned my model, whatever. And same vice versa. So now I got 1015 agents on the ground in these markets that I don't have to work for. And all I do is give them a cut, and they're good.
Tom Burgess 11:26
Yeah, it's so funny when you think about it in that context is that, you know, especially for people that maybe you're struggling to kind of push the idea of partnerships to leadership, or whatever it may be, like, just simply put it into context that like, I can save headcount by bringing partners, you know, like it's they are an extension of your team, their their contract, essentially contract employees, it's making a cut of deals. And when you focus on that relationship, the dividends pay off exponentially. And I see your it's like the future of partnerships before I mean, even in 2015 2016, yeah, HubSpot, Salesforce are kind of like dabbling in that space, they were established, but like, there wasn't this tech boom, where there's, you know, 10,000 different pieces of technology that are just like immersing you every day, we're now partnerships is becoming a thing, but it's still like the, the cup still holds water in terms of how partnerships can effectively drive and scale your businesses. And I, that's awesome. I love having businesses, when they see partners as value not just as like, like, they're kind of a headache, they, you know, like they, they complain more than not because it's just not true. Like, they it's you put in the amount of effort into partnerships, and you will be rewarded. And you won't see partners as a problem, you'll see partners as the most valuable tool to your organization,
Tom Slocum 12:48
when they give you feedback, right firsthand. Like, again, if you sell a Roofing Service, but you can get with conch like with like a realtor, right, your net new your business is going to be fine, because you partner with three, four realtors that buy properties. Now you don't have to get a real estate license, you don't have to add all this headache to your business, you just work these relationships. And every time they get a call, they're like yo got another property you started this week, right? And you build a book of business through partners, to where you're working together, collectively, there is an exchange of value on both sides. Because again, that religion doesn't know roofing, they didn't go to school, they don't have that capability. They can't trust online reviews of all these relationships like blah, blah, blah, blah. So they can work with somebody they trust and say, oh my god, we could work together. You just do this, I give you a cut and I'll pay that bill but like and then you do this for me, then that religion or you know, both by first or exchanging leads into the realtor fights people they're not building houses right now are building houses Michigan that the property's got a great roofer got. Right, all of that stuff. Thanks. So it's silly that you don't use it enough. I also think another angle to partnerships is fulfilling those needs that unite might not be able to, you know, do like he said, with with tech work together. Holy crap, everybody's trying to create their own version of something and go cut out this person, or all this stuff like, dude, do less work, like what do you like man partner together and find a way where our tools can solve the needs of one another and versus cannibalizing each other? Right? Like, maybe we could go to market in a way that that works for both of us, or I can white label what you do and is still putting my offering it, you're just getting another revenue stream every month, with no harm, no foul, right? More logos together, more brands together that we can penetrate like because you improve my line. I know I approve your line item, right? We could do things. So I just don't understand where the hesitation is from it. I think you do need to make it its own entity and department and give it its resources. Again, treat them as like they work for you. And you need to empower them with everything they need to kind of be you know, a we would bring our partners in what we landed a new one, they actually went to our sales training. So they had to come in with the bid, they had their own trading, right, like a four week onboarding that they would go through, it was discussed that this is a commitment. But then again, we had partners make a two to 3 million a year, from our company, they got paid 3 million a year to work with our company, right, because of the amount of traffic they brought, and the cuts of the deals. And, you know, the more they went up, the bigger their cut was, because the company would double down on it right and want more, and it was just wild. Wild.
Will Taylor 15:31
That that's awesome. So let's let's get into it, then. Let's dive a bit further in for the seller, or you know, the partner manager who might be engaging with their sellers. What mentality should salespeople have? When it comes to partnerships? You know, we have our own narrative where selling is hard. So you know, if you want to get in front of your prospect, and fast track a deal, go through partners, but what is that for? For you, in your mind? Like, if you were a seller, SDR, BDR AE today? What would you tell your younger self in that position, to start engaging with partnerships. And the reason I want to like really zero in on this is like, I don't see too many. Or rather, I see no sales influencers, talking about engaging with partners, or even just like, how to co sell or how to lean in with partners. And I know that you know, the other content is still working and is safer, but like, what would you say to the seller who's struggling doing those traditional things and wants to partner? How can they think about it and maybe even start, like, what would you advise them on?
Tom Slocum 16:44
Well, a couple of things, right? Like, first and foremost, you're absolutely right, you don't see folks talking about it, you're probably my only voice on it on the topic. And in my network, right. Which is great, because it gives you your niche and your ability. But you're right, people don't talk about it. The second point is, I believe it's just limitations by the company in the org itself with these reps. So a seller is not even empowered to do so. So why why go that route? Right? And then third, a product idea for you is building a playbook to do so I don't believe there is a true seller's playbook on partner lead, gross, right? Like it's org related or building a separate department out and doing that that's all fine and dandy a marketer knows how to like they can build that function. But if I don't want to do that, and I want to empower the sales reps that are in front of me right now that are full sales cycle, or you know, getting low value from their STRS, because our products kind of stalled right now, what could they be doing to tee up these partners or be on the lookout for? There's a book for that right? Or a direction for that per se? And so if I was in that boat, right? It's asking those questions, like, have you ever asked your prospect if they would like to be an affiliate? So never crossed your mind? Hey, I know it didn't work out for us or you closed a deal. And you're he brings it in, maybe you were the 80 follow back up with that customer and say, hey, I want to introduce you to an affiliate program with us and start there, started powering that right little bites it just see how they do on their I just being initiative. If some people take it very seriously and get you some business. Now you start building the program. Oh my god, a year later, you have a partner program and your affiliates are boots on the ground, you've got your 10% that are killing it. And your AES are driving that conversation because they need to ask, I'll tell you, there's a lot of marketers, there's a lot of buyer personas that would absolutely love a cup to their pocket. They're just never asked. They're just never, you know, maybe they have some but you just don't know. I just think that sellers just, that's what they should be exploring is how to be proactive, activate these relationships, when you can kind of go beyond the sell, write down, stop looking at just pushing the sale all the time. And looking at how to help this prospect. What do you go through? What are some top priorities, you know, outside of this one that we talked about today? Maybe I could be of support to you? Are there any other things that you know you are looking to drive on? Because I have some referrals? And I know how those are a lot more effective than you just go in and do a Google search. What's top of mind? Right, that's how you can close your call as you're getting your own meeting, right?
Tom Burgess 19:15
Yeah. And well, it's so funny, because we'll and I will I bought when we were both working at Vinyard. And he actually like even backing up like, I could see the AES that I was working with. And there are there are, there are so like, to Will's point on, there's not a lot of sales, thought leadership that talk about partnership, partnerships and the value or the power of partnerships in the space enough and I guess that's like, kind of like tooting our own horn because we should probably be talking about sales more but I you know, like it's, it's the catch 22 of it, but, but there are I it's so funny because there's so many AES that whether I was on the partner side or, you know, working in the partnerships at that organization, they got it they and it's like, you know, you can talk about partners, right? sieving, 20%. Commission we'll does that. Does that cut an AES commission down? Hopefully not. Because there's still like the margins on a product, you can make it such where both get credited because I've seen a EES come in and be like, holy crap, these partner referred, leads will close 10x faster and the partner has already done the demo, I'm literally just coming in and providing it so like it that's not that is a pipe dream, understand that listeners like that is a pipe dream. But if your organization is bullish enough, you can easily maneuver into that pipe dream, like it's not off the table. And like I said that the amount of AES that I've seen that, that understand, once again, we were talking about like, hey, couldn't we just cut down and not have a procedure team and just go through our partners, it's like, we could cut down on the work, we're doing well, and he knows they can cut down on the sales work that they're doing by by working with partners and referred leads, like it's, it's, it's a lot easier when you see it happen. And I would assume that a lot of sales organizations, you know, once they're there, they're people see, kind of like the proof in the pudding. They're like, okay, we can do this. And that kind of leads like this follow up point, which is, you know, like, what was asking you about how can sales get more involved with partnerships, but I would almost reverse it, which is like, if you have a partnerships team, from like a sales standpoint, what would make it very easy for you to say, Okay, I'm bought into like, partnerships working, kind of having that cross collaboration in the sales process and getting the A's bought in because partners are going to drive hot leads, like what do you guys want to see in here? To then say, Yes, we will take these leads, and close them and, like, help you out with your process, and you're going to help us out with ours, white guy kinda want to get a taste of what that that looks like.
Tom Slocum 21:48
And we know it's like con stuff, right and clearly getting into that. So it's just like SDR is where you'll see comp structures where if you actually sourced the deal cold, this is your rate and payout, if it's a demo request, this is your payout, right, and they don't count towards your quota, per se, or you see them break the department from BD over to str. They've got inbound, outbound and all that great stuff, right? So it's just the same structure is, Listen, you're at 80, you've got a $1.2 million goal this year, you have a third coming from your STRS, you have a third from Marketing, and that you split your last third between you and your partners. Now the partner deals will be at a different coporate. Alfred is credited to the partner, we know that you work with your partner, but again, do you want to hit quota or not hit quota? Do you want to at least get a paycheck or no paycheck? The more you look at just like an SCR II partnership as the partnership. Look at the same way as your partner literally the name they are your partner, they are not taking food away from you. They are helping you bring more in collectively. They're gonna make you intros shit, they might not ever want to do the sales part. They want you to do it. They're like, listen, I just talked to John last night. He's bought in I told him how I'm using you guys. He likes it. He wants to demo Goku that bad boy yeah, like, let him know. And I gave him kind of a rundown of what I did. Great, I'll invite you to the call if you want, like jump on it. Like, again, activating them. And you're right breathing, partnerships and sales, more in unison, like mighty ease at that job I told you about. They love their partners. They were all like going on to be ours together. They were going out on work events together. Like nobody was mad at it. It was just cool. You saved my job. You're keeping me fed like cool, man. Like, and you're like, How can I help you? What do you need for me? Do you need collateral? Hey, we're running this campaign? Did you know are we gonna let our partners know about this campaign? All of that, and partners are doing the same thing like, hey, because technically the partners were the partnership people over top weren't necessarily like managing the relationship or creating net new or sorry, they weren't creating net new, they were like the partnership managers to the AE, right. So a us bringing in partners, we would flag it as STRS. If we got that in conversation, it was part of the qualification that would you be interested to learn more about our affiliate program or partner program, just let you know, the AE know you talked to him, we think you'd be a great fit, then you could pitch that and then if it closed, so they started bringing that conversation together. Then they brought in partnership manager for that book of business, right. And collectively, the three of us work together. And it was a smooth sailing machine outside of our net knew that we were going cold. So it's just that calm structure, looking at that relationship as a partnership. Not a better than me or like you said, Dude, it's less work, man. Like, yeah, come in here. What do I need to do for you? I could go cold call these people blindly trying to get in here, where you're telling me you have a poker party with them on Friday night at your house like dude, you do it. Cool. Go talk to a man let me know what comes through. Why wouldn't you want that like versus now? I don't want that man. I don't want you talk about me at that party. No, don't even bring me up. I will handle that. I'm gonna call him over here. Don't you get involved? What now? Oh, thank you.
Will Taylor 24:56
Yeah. Tom that made me think of how Scott Barker, when he was at Outreach, he had a very unique role. He was I don't, I won't get the actual name of the role specific to what it was. But he basically would look at the strategic opportunities, and then go to every exec in the outreach organization, every person that was an advisor on the board influencers they were connected to. And they would go to those people and say, Do you have any relationship with any of these accounts or any of these people in these accounts, and then, you know, it doesn't matter if it's the CEOs, wife's best friend works at, you know, this company, they would then gather three different things. And this is a narrative that we've been pushing out where it's the three eyes of of near bound, you can get an introduction from that person, you can get intel from that person, or you can at least drive influence to that person. And, you know, mention what the seller is actually trying to sell to them to that person so that they at least take a look at it when the email comes through. How do you think your organization when you were working with that team that got the 80 to 90%? Partner source revenue? How do you think they were leveraging the three different eyes? Do you think they were getting mostly introductions? Were they getting Intel? And sharing that? Were they driving influence? What's your take on the direct impact that the team had? Like was, were they submitting deals? And it was, you know, they were doing demos? And so maybe it's more of an introduction? Or was there this collaboration between the sales team and the partner, they had a relationship, and they would at least talk about an account to get more context, tell me more about what was driving, you know, all that revenue, because there may be, you know, unattributed revenue at that point.
Tom Slocum 26:50
Mainly, you know, these partners, what they did in these relationships is they handled, nurturing them, equipping them having a collaboration with that partner, that external source, that was their go to, they onboard them, they went through everything with them, they kept them updated. And they were their point of contact, after they had worked with the AE. So customer success style, right? They were there to ensure that drive event registration, kind of just nurture that they weren't necessarily doing anything, like a net new, but it also was net new because they were talking and also driver, you referrals off their partners to get other partners, not just to close one, right? Like, do you know anybody else, or we're talking with folks, you know, today, but you don't want to be a part of this, right? So they'd say, Hey, John wants to come in board and support you guys, you know, he's got this kind of business, this is where he could help, that partner would then go make that outreach, or potentially pass it to the eight. But again, it was, it was truly all collaboration. It was SDR Ag, and partner, all collaborative, you know, work together in some way. Now more so the ag and the partner. But the STR was bringing into that self, like I said, just kind of giving a heads up if there was a partner lead, or they saw something and telling the ad to pitch that, right. And then it would move over to the ad and apart. And then that partner was just sure to educate, hold those events, you know, once a quarter, they would come in and walk them through things. And they did do demos, they had to be fully equipped to to know how to do a demo. Even our partners were demo certified. Right? We put them to a demo. So again, you had to let them know like our messaging, our positioning, how do we go against competitors, like I told you, they were treated like a sales rep, whose partners were sales reps, and they went out and then work these relationships, right. It was all collaborative. They had things set up with the commission structure on the side, like I talked about AES, you know, those deals were different. But it was incredible. I had one SDR on my team who hit quota every month, and did maybe 10%, an SDR and we booked five to seven meetings a day at the shop. We were booking and pushing over five to seven leads a day per SDR to the team. This dude didn't have to. He had built such a network in the org and which is a use that he that he would give him the partner gives him the partner leads to go follow up and initiate the combo and they'd like me his whole team from partner to AE to him. They were balling out at the top of the leaderboard and hammered it he didn't have to do nothing. He had to do nothing. He was aggressive just gravy Yeah, I got like three today for like this lead list but not my partner's got me man. Or guess what end of the month would come around. You know, everybody called out at the end of the month to come clutch numbers. My buddy and his partnerships. They'd be like do what partners got leads and you'd like let me rip through them real quick. He called the partners and say Hey, it's me checking in got any leads for the month and you're like yeah, about this guy, this guy and he flipped 5020 in the day just from the partners and then you know if those overtures AE and they're off to the races, it was unreal.
Will Taylor 29:51
That is such a golden nugget. That's what we were searching for which I'm glad we got there. But great to dangle the carrot because I think we could even talk about that story on another episode, we're coming up on time. We love to leave our audience with one tactical tip. So what is that tactical tip that you would give to sellers for how they can engage in partnerships? Today, let's say whether they have a partner team or not, what is the thing that they should be thinking about? And the thing and or the thing that they can do? Tomorrow?
Tom Slocum 30:32
It's very simple move to a proactive mindset and pick your ears, you know up more and start trying to find a way to put these stocks into your sales process? Because they're not there today, probably. So how can you start looking at it and being like, Man, how can I put my ears to the ground with the prospects I'm engaging with? Or the deals that I'm closing? And asking not enough? It's just a fancy way of referrals, right? Just get the conversation going. Ask people, have you ever thought of doing this, you know, it's something you're such an advocate of our product, Go call your best customers in your book of business as an AE, and go talk to him? Hey, I'm trying something out, do you think you know, you have a connect to other folks in the industry that, you know, you might be able to bring some leads, or you want to book a call and we can go through each other's LinkedIn and maybe see if there's any, like bridges that we can share? I just wanted to see if there's some way we can, you know, share the great testimony that you always give us right or whatever. So that's my tip, just pique your ears start being proactive in the thought process of how to like join forces not closed off doors, you know, and shut things off. Right? I joined forces collaborate with folks, what do you get an ad mindset? Those things will start appearing to you and you'll start kind of secretly beating your other AES because they're like, dude, how are you getting business? And it's like, man, I've got three people that have just kind of been over here working with me, you know, I've tapped into them. They've got a great industry that they're in and leads on leads and I'm doing okay, and then you have to do less work. do
Will Taylor 31:57
less work sellers. I love it. Thank you, Tom, for joining us. We will have you on to tell that story of that SDR another time. But thank you, everyone for listening. That was another episode of The howdy partners podcast.
