IAM2640 – Founder Helps Small Teams and Entrepreneurs Make Sales Repeatable

Transcription:

The full transcription is only available to CBNation Library Members. Sign up today!

John Hill Teaser 00:00
So we're trying to give people a process. We customize CRMs to match that process. So that way, less ramp up time, less gaps between producers. And for the entrepreneur who hasn't really hired any person, anybody yet, the ability to take what's in your head, that instinctual thing that you're doing in your sales conversations, but you're not really sure how to pass that on to someone else.

We drag that out and put it into a process that when you're ready to hire, it's a little bit easier.

Intro 00:25
Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:50
Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Jon Hill of Adaptive Growth.
John, it's awesome to have you on the show.

John Hill 01:00
Thanks for having me. I'm so happy to be here.

Gresham Harkless 01:02
No problem. Super excited to have you on. And what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about John so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. And after helping build a website design agency with a partner, he went out on his own to start Adaptive Growth. They help small teams and entrepreneurs use technology and processes to make sales repeatable.

He is also one of the hosts on a new sales podcast called Sales Throwdown. They talk about how to get past your nature to be more successful in sales. And he also has a business called Clutch Closer. John, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

John Hill 01:33
I am.

Gresham Harkless 01:35
Awesome. Let's do it. So to kick everything off. I wanted to hear a little bit more about your CEO story and what led you to start your businesses.

John Hill 01:41
So I got pretty lucky. I've been in sales for a very long time and a friend of mine gave me a shot in a B2B world, which was brand new to me was selling medical devices. And, it was hard. It was really, really hard.

I mean, it's one of the most competitive industries on the planet. And that led to me actually talking a lot in business with my business partner at the website design company.

So when I decided to leave medical devices, because kind of burnt out, um, you know, doctors are hard to maintain relationships with. He invited me to come in and help him grow this website design company.

And those two guys taking shots on me really set me on this path that I'm on now. If it wasn't for those two guys, I would not be even capable of thinking about running a business or starting down that path.

So it's really up to those two guys and taking shots on me, which I'm incredibly thankful for.

Gresham Harkless 02:34
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And a lot of times, you know, you just need those doors that kind of peek open a little bit, and then allows us the opportunity to kind of run through them.

And then it's funny, you were just mentioning about how hard it was, I feel like and definitely correct me if I'm wrong, that sometimes when you have those difficult jobs, or difficult experiences, whatever that might be, it sets you up to where everything else that follows it is not as difficult.

So it becomes a lot easier to kind of manage those things, because you've done some of the harder things in the forefront.

John Hill 03:01
Yeah, I agree. If I hadn't gone through that period of struggle, I would not have ever gotten coachable around being a sales guy. Because that's mostly what I do. All my stuff is around sales.

I think it's one of the most important skills you can have. And I know that many people struggle with it. So if I hadn't had those struggles, I wouldn't have gotten to that level of like, I got to fix this. Like it can't continue this way.

And that's what led me to seeking out, you know, help and coaches and certain books and really putting in the work, you know, to get to that 10,000 hours.

Gresham Harkless 03:36
Absolutely. And Malcolm Gladwell would definitely be proud of that. And then I think that, you know, and I appreciate you not just learning, you know, how to get past that, but also helping to reach and help other people get past that, you know, with your podcast and everything that you're doing. So I wanted to hear a little bit more about that.

Can you tell us about, you know, everything you're doing to help these people develop those sales skills and get back, you know, one of the hardest things that sometimes people have to work on?

John Hill 03:59
Yeah, you know, the podcast is just really mostly about, there's different personality types, right? And there's kind of four corners, you know, depending upon what kind of assessment you're using. One of the ones that's very popular in sales is called DISC, D-I-S-C. So I'm a super high C, we have a high D, a high I, and a high S.

And it came about because We were at a sales conference and I was trying to role play the conversation with my friend who's the D and it wasn't working. He's like, man, you can't say that to me. And I was like, what do you mean? This works.

And he's like, not to people like me. And sure enough, the I who was also there as part of that conversation was like, oh, I don't see any problem with that. And we got to have this really cool conversation about you got to meet people in the middle, right? I mean, sales is about building rapport and building trust.

And if you can't do that with your prospect, it's going to be a lot harder. know who yourself is, right? Because that's the first thing. And then you can start to slide towards the other people that you're talking to, right?

Are they detail-oriented? Are they people-oriented, right? Are they gut-driven? Are they fact-driven?

And knowing that kind of stuff allows you to pivot very, very easy or easier in a sales conversation. And then, so that's the podcast. With adaptive growth, we're trying to put process behind this thing. Many, many, many salespeople wing it, right?

They just fling it against the wall and hope it sticks and hope it ends up with some revenue. And that's not repeatable. And when you look at sales teams like Salesforce and the big names in tech, all their people are saying the same things on the first call, second call, and they're using that to make it a data-based problem, right?

Because if you got 15 people all saying the same things, You got a lot of numbers and big sample size, and then you can look through and see what's working and make small changes.

It's not that far from digital marketing, honestly. So we're trying to give people a process. We customize CRMs to match that process. So that way, less ramp-up time, less gaps between producers.

And for the entrepreneur who hasn't really hired any person, anybody yet, the ability to take what's in your head, that instinctual thing that you're doing in your sales conversations, but you're not really sure how to pass that on to someone else, we drag that out and put it into a process. That way, when you're ready to hire, it's a little bit easier.

Gresham Harkless 06:05
Right. Absolutely. Yeah. Cause I think when you peel back the onion, everything's, you know, those repeatable processes and tasks.

And sometimes when you're able to do that, you can start to make better decisions because you have a whole team.

John Hill 06:16
Yeah. If you're not selling, then you don't have clients coming in. So, you know, customer service can't help them. There's no one to invoice, right?

Like, like this is the front line of this thing. And. When you're the entrepreneur, like make no mistake, you are in a sales role. And so you hire someone else to do it.

And even then you still have to convince and sell those salespeople that they need to go sell. Right. It never ever stops. Right.

So, there's a great book. It's called to sell as human by Dan Pink. And he talks about this topic that most people don't want to be in a sales role, but most people admit that their role requires them to persuade and influence people to do something that they don't want to do. That's all sales is, man, if I'm being really honest about it.

John Hill 06:52
So how can we do the best job of that? You know, and how can we take it away from our gut and to where, you know, if you get seven nos in a row, you're kind of expecting that eighth no, right? So how do you get past that? How do you fix your mindsets?

That way you still want to go have those conversations. So that's a lot of what we talk about on the podcast itself. And then adaptive growth is about giving people a process that way they can follow.

You know, you need to qualify for, you know, um, you know, how they want to work and how much they want to pay and, you know, what a good working relationship is and cover those in every single conversation.

You know, you don't have to make it up as you go.

Gresham Harkless 07:27
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And like you said, you know, sales is definitely everywhere.

They said, you know, I think there's a story where it goes, if you don't believe that sales is everywhere, ask your like son or daughter to go to bed earlier and realize how much you have to sell them to do that.

John Hill 07:39
So literally, I hear that all the time. You know, And you know, she comes in and I have to set expectations with her just like I would with prospects, you know. You have to be so much better too sometimes.

You talk about doing homework before you get the cookie. Why are you in here asking for the cookie? I'm a little bit confused.

Gresham Harkless 07:57
Exactly, exactly. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce and this could be for you or for your businesses and your podcast, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

John Hill 08:08
So it's, it's a couple of things, if I'm being really honest. Um, one of them is. Accountability, right? I have two accountability calls per week with different people.

And one of them is around adaptive growth stuff and just making sure that I'm on, I'm on my path about doing my behaviors and following up and bringing in new clients and doing all that stuff. And then the other accountability call is just like me as like a person on my self-development path, you know, am I doing the things that I know were necessary for me to be in a good head space? Right. Am I getting good sleep?

Am I working out? Am I doing these things so that way I'm in the best position possible to do the deep work that is required to be successful and move things forward? Accountability is the first one. Accountability has got to come from someone who you share accountability with.

I share accountability with these other people, and we're genuinely concerned about making sure the other one succeeds. It's not lording over each other. It's I want to see you crush this thing, man. And then the other one's process, which is super boring to the other four corners of the people that I like talk to normally.

But if you put it into a process, then it's just this thing that you're doing. You don't have to create it as you're going along. And that gives you brain power for other hard decisions later on. You know, we talk about Steve Jobs and how he wore the uniform because that's one less decision he had to make.

You're running processes all day, every day. That's not, those aren't decisions you have to make in crunch time. You're just running a process and that gives you brain power for the other stuff that is hard to do.

So process and accountability. Can't talk about it enough.

Gresham Harkless 09:37
Nice, I definitely appreciate that. And I think, you know, definitely what you talked about, you know, with Steve Jobs, and I think there's seems to be like an increase in the number of decisions we have to make, because we have so many options to do literally anything we can kind of want to do, that you do want to make sure that you're directing that brainpower towards whatever is, I guess, in alignment with your goal.

So to not make sure you're trying to figure out what shirt to wear that day versus whether or not you want to make this decision or that decision with your company.

John Hill 10:02
Absolutely. For sure. My, my daughter is going to a new school this year and they have uniforms and I'm excited by this. I'm trying to talk to her about Steve Jobs when she's seven years old and how it isn't really landing very well. Later on, but we'll see what happens.

Gresham Harkless 10:19
All right, John, thank you so much. And what I wanted to do was switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hacks. And this might be an app, a book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

John Hill 10:29
So two that I have that I wouldn't be efficient at all without these two things, and they're talked about a lot, but the first one is live and die by your calendar. Everything goes on my calendar, even stuff for my household.

So things with my daughter and things with my partner, it's all on the calendar. The other one is being super onboard with using some kind of to do app.

You know, I used to do this. I like it a lot. There are different categories for the different businesses and podcasts and for the household as well. I get chores or have to go to the store.

So it took me a while because I love to be able to hold all that stuff in my head. And I got a lot of personal gratification around. Oh, I can remember everything. But it was making me nervous and anxious and my sleep was terrible and things like this.

John Hill 11:12
And the minute I started saying, everything goes in here, I don't care how simple it is, if it's, you know, I got to run a check to, you know, the store or, you know, something along those lines, even menial tasks get added in there. So Those

Gresham Harkless 11:25
two things really kind of keep me above board. Absolutely. Absolutely. That, makes perfect sense.

And so now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget, and this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice, or if you can hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

John Hill 11:38
Slow down, right? And enjoy it. You know, I get very, I don't like change a lot. It's part of my personality type.

And so in moments where like things feel chaotic, I go back to who I am, right? Which is like, what's the process? What are the rules? How do I get through this thing?

And to give myself some advice, it would be to slow down and just realize that nothing is built in a day. You look at these companies that have got huge amounts of marketing and great inbound leads and everything else, and you see that and you're like, Oh, I want that. I want it right now. they didn't have it when they started.

It's a process. So, you know, work the process, trust in it, and then adjust as necessary to make sure that it's leading you to where you want it to go.

Gresham Harkless 12:17
So that would ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So John, what does being a CEO mean to you?

John Hill 12:27
For me personally, this recently changed. So I'm sitting at a sales conference a couple of years ago, or I'm sorry, a couple of months ago, and they had this Zig Ziglar quote up on screen. And it says, you can be anything you want.

If you help enough other people be what they want, or you can have anything you want. And in that moment is very, very weird. And I'll never forget it. I'm sitting there because before that, I was just going to run a very small consultant.

And then all of a sudden, I see that quote, and I'm thinking about it, and I'm thinking about these two guys who took pretty big shots on me. And in that
moment, I decided, I want to be able to do that for other people. I want people to come in. I want you to have a side hustle, but come work for me. I can help you.

Let's get you on that path.” And then my genuine goal is that you come in in a couple of years and be like, you know what? I'm making way more money doing this than I am working with you. I need to go do that. I want to help build people to that place.

So anyone who works for me, it's mandatory. You got to have a side hustle. And I want you to talk to me about it. I can probably help.

And I just want to put people on that path. to me, like, that's why I'm doing these things.

Gresham Harkless 13:31
That makes perfect sense. And a lot of times when you are in alignment with who you are, just as you said, you start to attract the right people, the people that want to, you know, have a side hustle and do want to work with somebody else.

A lot of times you're like, Oh, I can't do this at this company or that company. But then all of a sudden, you know, there's a great opportunity that aligns perfectly with what they're doing.

So I think that's goes back to like, what you've been saying is just making sure you're in alignment with who you are and staying true to that as a whole. All right, John, thank you so much for your time.

What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know, and then of course, how best they can get a hold of you.

John Hill 14:05
Awesome. Yeah. First thing is the podcast. This should be out at about the same time that we're going to be launching. So follow us on social media at salesthrowdown on pretty much all the platforms, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. the site is being built, you should be able to get to the mailing list.

We're going to have some really cool giveaways around some of the books that have helped us get to where we are and some other things. So that is one.

For Adaptive Growth, if you're struggling with gaps in your sales team, if you're frustrated with not being able to forecast the future of your business through your sales pipeline, or if you just want to have a little bit more oversight, give your reps more along the way, then reach out to me.

We can have a conversation, see if it makes sense to move forward from there. at Adaptive Growth, AdaptiveGrowth.com, pretty much all over the place.

Gresham Harkless 14:50
Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, thank you so much again, John. I truly appreciate your time. And we'll have those links in the show notes as well. And I hope you have a great rest of the day. Thanks so much for having me on. I really appreciate it.

Outro 15:00
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO podcast powered by CB Nation and 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. Check out the latest and greatest apps, books, and habits to level up your business at CEOHacks.co.

This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.