- CEO Story: Glenn went to school for electronics and was recruited by the Canadian Gov’t. to work as an electronic technician on weather stations in the Arctic area to fix the electronics and monitor the weather. Then he shifted into sales selling electronic products. He decided to start his business and co-founded the company with a cellphone product, which ended up being acquired by another company. And so he started Gap wireless in 2007, sold it last Feb. 2022, and agreed to stay for 3-4 years to run the business.
- Business Service: Business-to-business company. Buy businesses from around the world and sell them to North America. Selling high-end tech items.
- Secret Sauce: People buy from people. Showing up face-to-face doing the sales call effectively is still the most successful way to approach your client.
- CEO Hack: For the CEOs, always have a good sales margin. For positions below CEO, give extra tiny effort to power mode when you are at work especially when you’re with your superior. You only get forever to get another impression.
- CEO Nugget: Get good people, hire them and do what is more important in your business – focus on ten million dollars in diamonds story.
- CEO Defined: A leader, who makes decisions in a confident manner. Guide the team that those were the right decisions. Strong leader with a strong leader, people will follow you.
Website: glennpoulos.com
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Transcription
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00:28 – Intro
Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.
00:56 – 01:06
Gresham Harkless: Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Glenn Poulos of Gap Wireless Inc. Glenn, super excited to have you on the show.
01:06 – 01:08
Glenn Poulos: Thanks, thanks to be here, Gresham.
01:08 – 01:33
Gresham Harkless: Yes, excited to have you on and talk about all the awesome things you've been working on and doing. And before we jumped into that, I want to read a little bit more about Glenn so you can hear about some of those awesome things. And Glenn is the co-founder, vice president, and general manager of Gap Wireless, Inc. A leading distributor for the mobile broadband infrastructure market. With over 3 decades of experience in sales, he has developed a successful belief and strategy system by spending thousands of hours in the field or on the phone with customers working with
01:33 – 01:47
Gresham Harkless: salespeople and several successful companies. He is also the author of Never Sit in the Lobby, 57 Winning Sales Factors to Grow a Business and Build a Career in Selling. Glenn, excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the IMCO community?
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01:47 – 01:50
Glenn Poulos: I sure am. Thanks a lot again for having me.
01:50 – 01:57
Gresham Harkless: Absolutely. Well, let's get it started then. So I know I touched on it a little bit when I read your bio, but I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit more on how you got started.
01:57 – 02:31
Glenn Poulos: Well, it's fun. Yeah, the story. I'll try to give you the short 1 just to keep it tight. I went to school for electronics and I got recruited by the Canadian government. I live in Canada and they wanted an electronic technician to go to the Arctic and work on weather stations fixing all the electronics up there and also monitor the weather. So they sent me to school, they trained me about weather, they trained me about the electronics and shipped me to the Arctic. And yeah, I ended up living on a weather station for a year with
02:31 – 03:00
Glenn Poulos: 5 other people. And, yes, kind of, kind of, it was definitely, it was more than cool, it was cold actually. Yes. Then I landed a gig with them at their head office. And I worked for the guy, the manager of the departments, he said, you know, Glenn, you're, you're not in the right job. You should probably get a job in sales. And I never, you know, I never really figured out why he said that or, you know, what have you, maybe I just talked too much. I don't know. But I took his, I took his advice.
03:00 – 03:31
Glenn Poulos: I applied for a job. And so I worked for the government for like 3 years, then I applied for the 1 sales job, flipped open the paper, looked for technical sales, and applied to this job, got the interview. And as the story goes, and There's snippets of the story in the book as well. I went for the interview. Then that afternoon, I followed up and called the guy and said, did I get the job? And he's like, no, not yet. I'm still doing candidates. I'm like, okay. So I called the next day in the morning and
03:31 – 04:08
Glenn Poulos: got the secretary and she's like, no, he's busy. And I said, well, did you hire anyone yet? No. And so I called that afternoon. And then I called the next day twice. And after about 10 phone calls, he says, we're sending you to Montreal to visit the other partners.” And I said, oh, okay, great. I'd been used to working for the government. And as the story goes, I drove these in the 80s. I drove these Chevy Chevette cars. They had rolling windows, no air conditioning, no radio. It was government green. It was the crappiest car in
04:08 – 04:40
Glenn Poulos: the world you can imagine to get from point A to point B. That's what they gave me for work. So I get picked up in Montreal by the owner, second owner of the company. And he's driving a BMW 750, right? And I'm like, oh, I really like this sales job, right? And he takes me to the office and there was actually 4 owners to this business. And the 3 of them were in Quebec and in Montreal. And they had matching BMW 750s. The license plates were 1 digit apart. And I'm like, oh, I'm definitely getting a
04:40 – 05:06
Glenn Poulos: job in sales. Definitely. Right. And so They interviewed me, they liked me, they sent me back and the guy in Toronto hired me. And then, you know, my first day or 2, he brings me and he goes, you know, we didn't want to hire, like, I didn't want to hire you. You weren't, you weren't my choice. That wasn't what you and I'm like, well, why'd you hire me then? Right. And he's like, well, dude, you're the only 1 that followed up 10 times. And I'm like, okay. And he's like, I figured, hey, if you'll call 10
05:06 – 05:39
Glenn Poulos: times to get a job, you'll probably call 10 times to keep a job. Right. So that's where I learned the importance of following up. Right. And so I got a job in sales. I worked there 5 years. And I approached them about doing a similar business, selling electronic products to tech, the tech industry, but in this newfangled space, which I'll explain in a second. And they said, Oh, that'll never work. And so I ended up quitting the next day to start this business. And I was chasing this, you know, pie in the sky technology called the
05:39 – 06:16
Glenn Poulos: cell phone. And as we all know, that never went anywhere, right? And That industry never, that never panned out right? Exactly. And so, yeah, I started a business and it was just before I turned 30. And it was my goal to sort of spin off and, and do that before I turned 30, like check that box off. And so I did, and I ended up getting a couple partners and we ran that business for a number of years and after about 13 and a half years a public company came along and acquired us And I ended
06:16 – 06:50
Glenn Poulos: up with millions of dollars worth of shares. And unfortunately, I learned a harsh lesson that I know a lot about selling, a lot about running the business, but I don't know a lot about public markets and reverse takeovers. And the company we bought was, you know, it was probably not the best choice. And ultimately, they ended up closing down our division. And ultimately, they ran their business into the ground. And the shares they had given me, the $5 million worth of shares, ended up becoming worthless. And so after 15 years, I had to start over. And
06:50 – 07:26
Glenn Poulos: of course, I'd only ever applied for 1 job, which was the job where I called 10 times. And so I thought, you know what, it's easier to start another company. And so I started Gap wireless in 2007. And 15 years later, in February of 2022, a few months ago, I actually sold the business again. This time, I sold it to a very reputable company from Washington of private equity. And this time, it was all cash, not stock. And I agreed to stay with them for 3 to 4 years, running the business. And so, yeah, so now
07:26 – 08:01
Glenn Poulos: I'm, Gap Wireless is based on my name, GP, right? And the A is not my initial middle initial, my middle initial is J, but JIP wireless didn't sound very good. So I bought a vowel and created GAP wireless. But Now I'm running it for these new owners in Washington. But it was a great experience and I was able to build 2 companies for 15 years and sell them both. Now the second time around, I'm hoping I'm doing it better
08:01 – 08:02
Gresham Harkless: though. And
08:02 – 08:04
Glenn Poulos: that's how I got here.
08:04 – 08:16
Gresham Harkless: Nice. Well, I appreciate you telling your full story. And I know you touched a little bit upon how you're working with your clients, how you're serving them. Was there anything you didn't kind of touch on that would be super helpful to know? And I would love to hear more about your book as well too.
08:16 – 08:17
Glenn Poulos: Yeah.
08:17 – 08:18
Gresham Harkless: What we can find there.
08:18 – 08:51
Glenn Poulos: So, so we're, we're, a business to business company, right? We buy from businesses around the world. We sell it in North America. And so we're, our job is to go and visit the customers. It's a face to face. It's not social selling. It's not digital selling. It's not software as a service. We're selling, it's not all very expensive, but high end tech items like base station antennas, there's thousands of dollars each. But we'd always been about how to make sales calls. And the book, the beginning of the book, I'll relate in a minute, but it's all
08:51 – 09:28
Glenn Poulos: about getting in that door and making those calls, right? Don't be, as we like to say, all the chairs at GapWires are comfortable except for the ones for the salesmen and they have nails on the bottom. Fortunately, the carriers still had to build the network to support. That's where the business really grew. Now we are back in front of customers. And, you know, and for us, it's really important to position our technology face to face. And so yeah, that's where you know, 1 of the 1 of the rules that we always say people joke around here,
09:28 – 09:32
Glenn Poulos: because it's in the book, but it's always show up with something in your hand, and something in your mind.
09:33 – 09:56
Gresham Harkless: That makes a lot of sense. Now, I absolutely love that. And, you know, I love that you've been able to kind of package all those lessons into the book as well, too. And I almost wonder if this is, you know, part of your secret sauce, which is could be for you, the business or yourself and, you know, what makes you unique. But is it your I feel like in a world where so many people are trying to get away from like having those conversations being in front of people, do you feel like that's what sets you
09:56 – 10:01
Gresham Harkless: apart? Is that ability to not just do it, but do it effectively in a way that you can excel at it?
10:01 – 10:30
Glenn Poulos: It is, it is. And 1 of the guys, there's a chapter in there called, My Mentor Made Me Do It. 1 of the people I work with where I brought him from working as a person in a warehouse driving a tow motor. And now he's a senior salesperson for a tech company, right? And he didn't even graduate high school, right? And I mentored him through the whole process on how he became, how he could learn the skill of selling and become a high, high paid individual as a result. Right. And he was sharing with me some
10:30 – 11:01
Glenn Poulos: of the way he puts the rules in practice and shares them with other people. And he was like, a lot of times with your rules, you only have to do a little bit more than the next guy to stand out. Right. The reality is, is that people buy from people still, right. And they really do. And, if you're not spending any time with the customer, you're probably being outsold by your competitor. And reality is if you're actually a salesperson, and you end up enjoying the business or whatever, the best time is when you're actually there. Like
11:01 – 11:10
Glenn Poulos: that is the best part of your day. It is part of the success is showing up and you know and that makes a difference. It really does.
11:10 – 11:32
Gresham Harkless: Yeah absolutely and kind of reminded me of the quote is never you know crowded along the extra mile so those things that you're doing just going a little bit farther like you mentioned because so many people aren't actually doing that. So I love it. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or something from your book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?
11:33 – 12:03
Glenn Poulos: The CEO level of my hack is always the, you know, is focused on the margin, right? And check for margin. If there's no gross margin, you don't have a company. And it all margin is what pays for everything, right? Oh, I got a million dollar sale, but yeah, but it was only at 5 points. So that's only 50 grand. That won't pay barely pay the pay phone bill for this company, right? I have a better hack for people just below, you know, everyone that reports to the CEO and below, which is, it's a funny saying that
12:03 – 12:31
Glenn Poulos: I made up and it's called, you only get forever to make another impression. And so when, you know, in the story I tell them, the book is, you know, when you hear your car, your, you know, the CEO's a Jaguar pull into the parking lot with that roar of that engine or whatever. And you say, Hey, that's the boss's car. Or you hear his footsteps or, you know, you know, they're in your vicinity immediately changed to power mode, right? Like make sure you're not alt tabbing from Instagram and Facebook over to the sales force. And, you
12:31 – 12:54
Glenn Poulos: know, cause he's going to cat, he's going to see that you were not working, right? And, and whenever the whenever people above you are related that have your career in their hands are in your vicinity, you have to be at 110%. And it only takes them it only takes a tiny bit of extra effort. Even if you're in a bit of a lull or whatever, just go into Power Remote for a few minutes.
12:54 – 13:12
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, I love both of those hacks. So what would you consider to be a CEO nugget? You definitely gave us a lot of these, but there's something else that you think of that might be a little bit more word of wisdom or piece of advice. I usually say something you would tell your younger business self if you hopped into a time machine or something that you might tell your favorite client or somebody that read the book.
13:13 – 13:41
Glenn Poulos: The other 1, I'll pull 1 from the book, which is called $10 million in diamonds. And so this little nugget was the, you know, I'll tell the story quickly, you know, in the interest of time, but basically the guy was a watchmaker. He was an expert. He was my mentor when I was a kid, I worked in a jewelry store as a teenager and he opened a jewelry store and I came back to see him 10 years later. Italian guy from the 50s, he had polio. So he was in a wheelchair and he, you know, he
13:41 – 14:12
Glenn Poulos: was disabled, but he still like lived an incredible life. Like he was out all the time. I said to him, I said, Oh, how's it going? I haven't seen you in 10 years. How's the store? And he's like, Oh, you know, Glenn, I couldn't be making a $10 million in the diamonds, but I'm a soul busy fixing all these watches. And I started wondering to myself, what's what the hell I like higher watchmaker. You know, and and so that's the golden nugget that. And we say we in my in this business here, we said that saying
14:13 – 14:49
Glenn Poulos: we just say 10000000 dollars in diamonds that that That relates to the whole story, which is like bringing good people to do good jobs. And so you can be busy doing the better good job. When you're busy, you know, I'm solving problems, I'm fixing this line of code, or I'm fixing this whatever. It feels like you're doing something important and you are busy and it can be fun, but if you're the CEO, that's not what you're paid to do. You're paid to be a leader and make decisions and deliver the decisions in a confident manner and
14:49 – 15:16
Glenn Poulos: then guide the team that those were the right decisions. Show them someone to follow. Like, I'm sorry, we had a layoff, we had to lay off 5 people, but this is our plan going forward where we've never been more committed. Just please line up behind me and support me in this. And, you know, and as long as you're a strong leader and you make strong decisions, the people will follow you because that's what most people want is to, is to know, Hey, who's in charge? What's the decision? Where are we going? How are we getting there?
15:16 – 15:20
Glenn Poulos: Right. And, And that's the job of the CEO.
15:21 – 15:25
Gresham Harkless: Is that how you would define like being a CEO? Is being able to kind of make sure that you're
15:25 – 15:40
Glenn Poulos: a strong leader, Glenn? Yeah. Yes. It's, you know, I boil it down to your job is actually to make the decisions and be the decision maker and be that leader. That's the CEO's job.
15:40 – 15:55
Gresham Harkless: Glenn, truly appreciate that definition. Of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people get a hold of you find about all the awesome things your team are working on. And of course, get a copy of your
15:55 – 16:16
Glenn Poulos: book. I do welcome people to, you know, to get a copy of it. And You can get it anywhere books are sold and you can just go to my website, GlenPoulos.com and you can link to, I have free resources on doing presentations and other things. And then you can link over to the book and, and what have you. And yeah, it's been, it's been Awesome. Thank you.
16:16 – 16:23
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate you for, of course, sharing so much today. We will have the links and information in the show notes. Thank you so much, my friend, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the
16:23 – 16:23
Intro: day.
16:23 – 16:25
Glenn Poulos: Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.
16:25 – Outro
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.
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