In this in-depth conversation, Dr. Jeff D. Standridge, a seasoned expert on sales, leadership, and organizational growth, shares invaluable insights on the art of selling, the psychological aspects of sales leadership, and strategies for sales team management. Leighann hosts this enlightening discussion, exploring topics from overcoming call reluctance to optimizing sales performance through internal processes. They delve into how effective sales teams are led, the critical balance of results and relationships, and the...
In this in-depth conversation, Dr. Jeff D. Standridge, a seasoned expert on sales, leadership, and organizational growth, shares invaluable insights on the art of selling, the psychological aspects of sales leadership, and strategies for sales team management. Leighann hosts this enlightening discussion, exploring topics from overcoming call reluctance to optimizing sales performance through internal processes. They delve into how effective sales teams are led, the critical balance of results and relationships, and the impact of organizational support on sales success. Dr. Standridge also discusses the significance of educational background versus actionable behavior in distinguishing top performers. This episode offers a comprehensive guide for sales professionals and leaders aiming to enhance their strategies and drive growth.
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Leighann Lovely: Welcome to another episode of Love Your Sales. I am so thrilled today. I have Dr. Jeff D. Standridge, who helps organizations and their leaders generate sustained results in the areas of innovation, strategy, profit growth, organizational transformation, and leadership.
Jeff is an instrument rated pilot in both single engine and multi engine aircrafts, formerly a vice president of Axiom Corporation. He has led, [00:02:00] established, and operated And start up business units in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Jeff serve is serves as the managing director for conductor as well as innovation junkies.
That also has a podcast where you are the co host. That's right. That's awesome. He is the co founder and managing partner of Kedron capital partners and teaches in the college of business at the university of central Arkansas. He is also. Retired from the U S army, Arkansas army, national guard, where he was recognized in 2000 as the soldier of the year. This is quite a resume.
I am so thrilled. You're also a speaker, trainer, consultant for numerous companies, organizations. You're an author of three books. So why don't you jump in Jeff fill in any of the blanks that I missed. I'm so thrilled to have you.
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: Well, [00:03:00] I am so honored and pleased to be here. And I will tell you that really the only person who calls me Dr.
Standridge is my wife. And she only does it when I do something really, really stupid. And she'll say way to go, Dr. Standridge. And so, um, so I get to hear Dr. Standridge quite often because I'm, I'm pretty prone to doing goofy things. So, you know, it is really a pleasure to be here. I'm, I'm excited to visit with you about, about sales and, and, and all things, sales and sales leadership.
Leighann Lovely: Yeah, you, I mean, and, and you've written three, right? Three books? No, five. Oh, no. Three. Okay. Three. Three
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: books. Yep.
Leighann Lovely: So first tell me a little bit about, you know, the first book that you wrote and what inspired you to do that?
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: Yeah. Technically there are four. Uh, three in recent times. The, the, the first one I wrote back in 2005 with a, with actually a pastor friend of mine.
Uh, it's called the abundance principle, five keys to extraordinary living. And we wanted to look at, uh, the, the, the Christian scriptures, but also the, um, the, uh, [00:04:00] uh, just religious texts. And we wanted to look at what were some guidelines there in terms of how we should be living our lives in order to experience the greater degree of fulfillment in the here and now.
And, uh, and then in 2018, uh, wrote a book called the innovators field guide. Follow that up in 19 with the top performers field guide. Much of my doctoral research back in the day was in studying the differences in top performers and average performers in, in the healthcare field, ironically, at that time.
Uh, and then over time started expanding that research into software developers and database administrators and salespeople and, and, uh, marketing professionals and others. And then, um, The work that I do with the conductor Is really more of a social enterprise focus on helping entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs in Arkansas, the state where I live, uh, with my coauthor, Jeff Amoran, who runs an organization up in Northwest [00:05:00] Arkansas called Startup Junkies and our Startup Junkie is the name of the organization.
And, and he has a podcast called Startup Junkies podcast. Um, and, and we're really focused on helping start and grow companies in Arkansas. And, and, and, and, And we feel like that Arkansas is kind of an unexpected place because most of the venture capital is really on the coast. And, uh, we feel like that the, that pretty much all over the heartland inclusion, inclusive of Milwaukee and others are unex.
Expected places. And we just wanted to share in that book, creating startup junkies, building sustainable venture ecosystems in unexpected places is the subtitle. We wanted to share some of the things we've learned about the cultivation of what we call the four pillars of entrepreneurial ecosystem, building talent, culture, community engagement, and access to capital.
Leighann Lovely: Wow. And you hit on, you hit on so many different things when you were talking there, obviously, you know, mentoring, coaching, and, and, you know, and, and you also talked about studying, you know, what [00:06:00] makes, you know, okay. I don't know.
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: Top performers versus average performers. Yeah.
Leighann Lovely: Okay. Average versus top performers.
And throughout your study, was there an underlying like, thing in every industry or was it different as you were looking at different industries?
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: Well, there's certain, there's certain nuances within each industry or within each job role within industries, but the thing that kind of crosses all industries, all job roles really boils down to the degree to which one is able to balance results and relationships.
So I think about the kind of the legal scales, right? Where you have one and so with the, with an R on each side of results for one and relationships for the other. If I focus on results at the expense of relationships, I will be wildly successful very, very quickly. That is until I alienate everyone around me.
Who's responsible for helping me maintain those results. If on the other hand, I am really heavily result, uh, relationship [00:07:00] focused at the expense of results. People will love me. Until they lose respect for me because I can't deliver the results that I, I am accountable for. And then, and then I lose them both.
And so, uh, you know, it really, uh, success in every endeavor really boils down because we all have a bias. We're, we're all kind of tendency toward one or the other. Uh, but the one who can really balance the two begin to recognize when they're, they're favoring one over the other and bring themselves back to that balance.
Tight rope, so to speak, are the ones who really differentiate themselves. So another reason that I don't put a lot of stock in, in, you know, just being doctor standards is because academic credentials don't matter. Professional certifications don't matter. Uh, college degrees don't matter. Grade point averages don't matter.
It's about behavior. That's what differentiates top performers. Now, do all of those things Give us a foundation upon which to behave better, uh, education and [00:08:00] credentials and what have you, of course, but they're threshold competencies. They're not what I call differentiating competencies.
Leighann Lovely: Interesting. Very, very,
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: take a sales example.
I'll give you a sales example, right? I have not been able. So, so the, the, the top performing salespeople and the average performing salespeople. All experience what we call call reluctance to the same degree. We can all find reasons why we, we can't go out and cold call or prospect or what have you. Oh, I got to get these invoices out.
Oh, I've got to get these proposals out. Oh, I've got to do more research. Top performers and average performers experience call reluctance to the same degree. The differentiating behavior is those top performers put it on their calendar and they do, they prospect religiously because they know the. The activity or inactivity in this 30 days will come home to roost in the next 60 to 90 days.
Leighann Lovely: Right. Wow. Yeah. I feel like you're in my brain. I'm like, Oh my gosh. [00:09:00] And, and I preached that because what you do and I, and I work with my clients on that, what you do today is going to be, you know, seen in that 30, 60, 90 day time period. And I, and I work with my clients on the, you have to do time blocking.
If you're not doing time blocking, you will find every excuse in the world to not do the work, to not make
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: the
Leighann Lovely: calls. Thanks.
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: You're doing good work. Then that's because I could not agree with you more.
Leighann Lovely: Yeah. And so throughout those studies, you found that education, all of that is not necessarily the determining factor.
It, it ultimately comes down to the balance between relationship and results.
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: Yeah. And, and, you know, uh, Stephen Covey talked about that in the seven habits of highly effective people. If you know that book that was written in the nineties was, was predicated on about 200 years of success literature.
Right. And, and he talked about the personal [00:10:00] victory and the public victory, right? Uh, his son, Stephen M. R. Covey, uh, wrote the speed of trust. And he talked about character incompetence, character. Relationships, competence, results, personal victory results, public victory relationships. So, you know, what my research found was not drastically different.
I just kind of call it something different, but it's something that's that has manifest itself year after year after year, decade after decade that. You know, I, I certainly, uh, my life, my family tree was transformed by the education that I received. So I don't want to denigrate a formal education, but, but it, it, it, it gave me the, the, the, the MIPS between my ears to be able to understand and recognize that standing on a degree or standing on a credential or standing on, you know, uh, it's not going to really differentiate my success.
It's going to be what I do with that information.
Leighann Lovely: Right. [00:11:00] Correct. And people can be highly, highly educated, but not have the ability. And here's a defining differentiator between you can be so unbelievably book smart, but have zero, um, street smarts.
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: Absolutely. Completely agree.
Leighann Lovely: And with, and when I say street smart, it's more like that.
I used to joke all the time with, you know, people who are highly intelligent, like, great, you have all, and I'm, I'm not picking on them. At all. But if you were to drop them in the desert, they would sit down and go, Oh my God, I don't know what to do. Like, I don't know how to. The odds are against
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: me. The odds are against me.
So therefore I can't really counteract the odds.
Leighann Lovely: But you would drop somebody that has high, high, you know, intuition, high street smarts, high, and you drop them in the same place and they'd be like, okay, let's figure out what I'm surrounded by. How do I get to water? How? And they would be. [00:12:00] Very scrappy, very like figure it out, you know, and that's, it's again, those both of those are great.
Having both of those is a wildly powerful thing.
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: Completely agree. You know,
Leighann Lovely: there are people out there that just, they, they have one or the other and you can, you can gain both.
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: Absolutely. But yeah, my, my whole interest in this topic became, so my, so before I got into the business world, I was a paramedic and a respiratory therapist.
That was my formal training at the undergraduate. It's why I tell people I crammed a four year degree into six years is because, um, I, I worked full time through college as a paramedic and, and, uh, was I, what was a professor at the University of Arkansas for medical sciences teaching in a cardiopulmonary.
Respiratory therapy program, and I began to observe that some of my students who made straight A's from day one all the way to graduation couldn't hold a job. And then I had some people who were [00:13:00] struggling to graduate with a C average who were wildly successful. And I began to say, well, what am I doing here?
Right. We favor those who, who jumped through all the hoops and make all of the academic credentials. We jumped through hoops to, to, to, to really favor those, but they're not the ones who are making a difference necessarily. Right. Um, and, and so then we have these others who are struggling and, and, and they can be just as successful.
So what is the differentiator? And that's kind of where my research interest came in that regard.
Leighann Lovely: Right. And that's, and sometimes it comes down to this person has a wild ability to memorize and regurgitate information that doesn't necessarily mean high, you know, intellectual, that's right. Um, you know, high, you know, some of those disc assessments, all those, you know, it's, it's doesn't necessarily mean success, like high education.
And again, we can, Digress down to this, you know, I have [00:14:00] wild opinions on, you know, higher education. I believe education is important, but I also believe that testing needs to be less important.
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: And that, so, so I have to comment on that. Right. So completely agree. So I teach an entrepreneurial finance class to upper level undergraduates and, uh, MBA students.
And we have no tests. I make them negotiate a contract with me at the very first two weeks of class for the grade of A, B, or C, which however much effort they want to put in, because those are all passing grades. I create a draft contract for the grade of A, B, and C, give it to them. And I say, you or your parents spent 1, 200 for you to be in this class in the next three to five years.
You need to get, uh, you know, five to seven to 10 times your value out of this class for it to, to be a good return on investment. So take this con, this draft contract. Mark it up in track changes. Send it back to me. I will accept [00:15:00] some of your elements. I will counter propose other elements and we'll go back and forth and we will sign a contract by the second week of class and that will you'll get a copy.
I'll get a copy and that'll be your grade for the semester as long as you do everything that's in the contract. That that you've contracted for, if you fail to deliver the terms of your contract, you don't get the next lower grade, you fail the course. And so if you can negotiate, you can renegotiate with me anytime up until the week before finals.
So anyway, kind of off topic for here, but it's, but I agree with you. We are so aligned.
Leighann Lovely: That's awesome. And that is not off topic because in sales, that's, we negotiate constantly. And, and I am of the, the, I am of the mind that everybody is in sales. We are constantly negotiating, whether it be with ourselves, our spouse, our parents, our, our.
Whomever, whether it be for a piece of candy or for 20 bucks, so I can go to see a movie. [00:16:00] We are constantly negotiating. What we don't see is colleges, high schools saying that, hey, sales can be a job. For you. It can be a career for you. We're only teaching. We're only, you know, really selling our, our students are young on the accountant doctor, you know, those, those hard skills.
We need to start teaching better on what you just said. That is a, that's a, not only is it a hard skill, it's a soft skill as well, because now we're actually using a different part of our brain that allows us to be creative. Yes. Mm hmm. That's right. And, and that is, that, that's creativity. It allows people to go, Oh, okay, wait, I, I have the ability to, but now you're holding them accountable, you know, and they have to hold themselves accountable.
That's right. To do what they said they're going to do in a contract that they've negotiated themselves. [00:17:00]
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: That's
Leighann Lovely: right. That's so wildly valuable. I mean, and, and from, if, if that was me, I'd be like, okay, I get to negotiate. Like, I don't want to put in a lot of effort. Hey, B is a. Passing.
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: Yeah. And, and, and it kind of freaks them out the first, the first day of class when I lay that out to them.
But, but by the end of the semester, I yeah, I've been doing that kind of teaching for 25 plus years and, and they all come back to me or they don't all come back. I have people who come back to me periodically over the years to say, I learned more about life in that class than, than in any other scenario.
Leighann Lovely: Right. And that's, that's the most important thing because. We need to set our college students up for life.
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: That's right.
Leighann Lovely: Not just for, memorize this book, give me, pass this class, you know, or pass this test. Because when you go into a real world working situation, [00:18:00] you're not taking a test.
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: Well, it's like I said, when I was a paramedic that, you know, I had to take certain proficiency exams, both written knowledge exams and practical skill proficiency exams in order to become a paramedic.
But class started the first time you're in the back of an ambulance with a patient by yourself. That's when school really starts. And so, you know, They're the same thing with flying, right? So I have to take a written exam and a practical exam for every rating that I have. And I have to demonstrate proficiency every couple of years in those areas.
But that makes that's, that's just to make sure I have the base level of safety and knowledge and skill, not You know, to be basically safe, not necessarily ultimately proficient.
Leighann Lovely: Right. Well, and if you think you're, you're a military, you're a veteran, [00:19:00] when you went into basic training, there was no class, well, yes, there's a little bit of classroom training in here, but everything was, you know, You're going to do it.
You're going to live it. You're going to go through physically you're doing. There was no classroom of you're just thrown in, right? You're there training you every second of every day to do exactly what you need to do to survive. If you're in a combat situation,
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: that's right. And it starts the moment you step off of the bus.
If you've ever watched officer and a gentleman or any of the combat movies with a moment, you step up, step off the bus. And there are 10 to 30 of you standing there at attention with, uh, you know, uh, a dozen drill sergeants circulating in and around and through yelling, screaming at you, screaming at you.
Leighann Lovely: And it's, it's complete chaos. And you're like, what did I do? And then six, eight weeks, depending on, you know, what you're in, what you [00:20:00] signed up for 12 weeks, 16 weeks. All of a sudden you're, you're a soldier. That's right. Right. So let's talk a little bit more pointed, you know, with a pointed direction here, you know, you, you've taught a little bit about, um, or you've done some coaching with, you know, leadership and development.
And so what I really would love to dive into is we kind of talked a little bit before we hit the record button on, you know, helping organizations understand, you know, or not understand, but. Helping them with leadership and development training. And one of the things that intrigues me is that organizations struggle sometimes to lead sales teams, especially large sales teams.
And so I'd love to get your, your take on the difference between leading You know, just a team and leading a sales
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: team. Yeah, that's a great [00:21:00] question. You know, you said something a few moments ago that I think is pivotal, pivotal in this discussion. And that is that everyone is in sales. And you know, um, I always say that nothing happens until someone sells something and if you are in a delivery function or a customer service function, or you are in accounting or you are in facilities.
You have a role in impacting the sales organization. And so I think for organizations to lead sales teams, they have to start by leading non sales teams. They have to start by helping everyone understand that everything that they do has an impact on the selling process. And they need to be constantly sensitive and aware to whether they are adding to the selling process or they're taking away from the selling process.
And so I think that's kind of. Numero uno, right? Uh, number two is the easiest thing to measure is [00:22:00] the sales activity and the sales output. Uh, it's, it's easier than any other function in the business other than maybe the finance function. Um, but, uh, because it's the easiest thing to measure, it can sometimes be a little more difficult to lead it differently than the other functions.
Leighann Lovely: But
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: because it's easier to measure, it does in fact have to be led differently than the other functions. You know, in, in, In some of those more abstract functions where it's difficult for them to see the direct correlation between their daily activity and the business results, we have to point them toward a vision, point them toward a direction, inspire them to move forward toward where the company's going, and build it.
Functional goals, functional, you know, we have, we have to, we have to bridge that gap of that abstract gap. We have to bridge it with guidance and [00:23:00] direction and what have you.
The sales organization, it's a little different because if, if you've hired salespeople correctly, if you've onboarded them correctly, if you've trained them correctly, et cetera, you have been relentless in helping them understand the correlation between their activity and their accomplishment and their, the, the, the outputs that they, that they generate.
And so in, in, if, if, if they are the right people in the sales function, which we will assume that they all are, then really all you need is a framework. You need a direction, you know, we, we give them sales targets. We give them sales quotas or we, and, or we give them a commission plan. That may be more of an absolute plan where it's, you know, tied directly to the amount of revenue they generate versus a quota.
So it's either we put them on an absolute plan or a relative plan and we give them kind of a target, so to speak. And then we say, go forth and prosper. Here are the [00:24:00] boundaries. Where you need to seek additional guidance or get approvals or what have you. And we're going to make those boundaries as few and far between as possible because we don't want to create sales friction.
Um, and I'm here to help you, whatever that means I'm here to help you. So you call on me at any point and I will touch base with you on a regular basis. I will see if there's coaching that I can give you. Uh, I will observe your activity and the correlation between that activity and the accomplishment.
And, and I will engage myself to help you where I see, and you engage me to help you where you see the need.
Leighann Lovely: And I love that. I love the, the concept of just building out the framework because so often when I talk to sales individuals. Of decided to leave organizations, it's, you know, that when they've been there for, you know, even whether they've been there for, you know, six months and they're like, yeah, I was out of there.
And I'm like, why did you, you know, why, what, what happened? And they're like, I just, I don't see myself [00:25:00] being successful because, and it always comes down to, you know, my boss just, you know, pushing me. micromanager. And I just, they want me to do it this way and only this way. Yeah. And I'm like, okay, you know, you don't think you can be successful that way.
And they're like, well, no, I, that's not the way I sell. Like, well, have you been successful doing it your way? And yeah, I mean, I've always had wild success and I'm like, okay. And, and. Then I've had other people who are like, Oh yeah, management changed. And now, you know, they're calling me every single day saying, what were your numbers today?
How many phone calls did you make? How many? And, and salespeople get overwhelmed by managers who have the best of intentions. But all of a sudden, these salespeople feel like they can't breathe, like the life is being squeezed out of them [00:26:00] by a manager who has the best intentions, but doesn't understand that most salespeople put the bar much higher for themselves than anybody else.
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: Yeah. Yeah. And I should say most great salespeople. They're the best salespeople. That's right. There are a couple of things I want to talk about there that you just, you, you spurred a thought in me. One is, um, we have this thing called Salesforce automation tools and Salesforce automation systems. And one of my pet peeves is that all of the workflows and all of the outputs and all, everything in that Salesforce, it's, it's, we tell the salespeople that it's built to help them be successful, but it's really built to help the managers understand whether or not they're doing the activity.
Right. And, and so, you know, let's get that straight. And, and I do a lot of coaching with, with sales people all over the country. And that is probably one of the greatest impediments that I see. Is they sell a Salesforce automation system. Um, and they sell it to their, to their [00:27:00] teams as this is to help you be successful when in reality, all the workflows and all the functionalities about help about monitoring, it's literally about monitoring for the sales managers.
So getting that right is important. The other thing I think is, is important. You know, I always start with the end result and I tell my sales folks, look. If, if you demonstrate to me that you are progressing against your, the expected outcomes, right? Because even if I put you on an, on an absolute target where you're paid a percentage of revenue, I have to plan on about how much you're going to deliver because I have to have delivery resources and manage the expenses to deliver that revenue.
So if, if you're hitting your, you know, monthly, quarterly. Revenue goals, revenue targets that we've mutually agreed then, and you're not stepping outside the framework. Great. If you're not hitting your goals, then I'm going to step back one more like, and I'm going to look at your pipeline. Well, okay. Tell me what your pipeline looks like.[00:28:00]
If you're not hitting your goals and your pipeline is weak, then and only then am I going to really look at your activity and if you're. Not hitting your goals and your pipelines week, and you're not hitting your activity. Well, that's when I'm probably going to invite you to pursue, to, to pursue opportunities in someone else's company.
Um, because you, you have to understand
Leighann Lovely: that.
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: Yeah. So, so you have to understand the connection between the two, but good salespeople. And good sales leaders, good sales managers, in my opinion, go to the end and manage against the end and only then kind of back into the remediation of a salesperson if, if the other building blocks are non existent.
Leighann Lovely: And a great sales manager is, you know, if you have a solid team in place, the majority of the conversations that you should be having with your team are, how are you doing today? What can I do to help you? That's right. And, ends. Pretty much just lifting them up and reminding them that they're [00:29:00] doing a great job.
Like, are there any and working on the weaknesses and leaving, leaving the. The strengths alone, they're already
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: moving in, removing the organizational, uh, obstacles, right? I was leading a fairly large sales organization in a publicly traded company, and I started hearing, as I was asking that question, what can I do to help?
What can I do? What do you need from me? What's getting in your way? What keeps you awake, you know, et cetera. I was hearing about just the administrivia, just the, the, the paperwork burden, the, the delivery function burden. And so. Uh, so I, I actually had my team do what I call the sales velocity study and just said, look, I want you to track your time for two weeks and I want to put an additional burden on you, but I want to understand where you're spending your time.
So they came back and collectively across, I don't know, 30 or 40 salespeople. They, they gave me kind of two weeks worth of time. And, and I quantified how much time they were [00:30:00] spending on, uh, on non selling related activity. And it led me to do two things. Number one, I created a new role calling it called an associate account executive, and it was a junior level person who came into the organization.
I paired them up with three or four salespeople and basically gave them a small bonus that was tied to the. Like the success of those four salespeople, and they were responsible for taking anything off of their plate. That wasn't direct sales related activities. So chasing paper, chasing a contract, chasing the scope of work, you know, getting signatures from clients, all of those kinds of things.
That was number one. The other thing that I did is I sat with, with my, with my peer across the organization who ran the delivery function, and we prioritize the list of delivery tasks that they were having to get involved in, and we And figured out how to streamline his organization in order to help the salespeople.
It paid huge dividends. I mean, into the tunes of millions of dollars of, of better sales performance. [00:31:00]
Leighann Lovely: And nine times out of 10 being a sales professional throughout my entire career, nine times out of 10, whenever a manager would come to me and be like, what is your frustration? It would be the. The process to onboard or chasing down a client to get X, Y, Z, getting them to sign a contract.
It's all, every time I talk to a sales, what is your least favorite function of your job paperwork? Why? Because great salespeople. They don't want, they don't want to be sitting at their desk, filling out paperwork. They want to be out there making connections, making phone calls, having meetings that that's where they're most of them.
I don't want to say all of them, but that's where most of them, that's their working genius. That's their area of, you know, true mind blowing like expertise is having those conversations and really Bringing in new business for sure, [00:32:00] they get bogged down and when we, when we're not working in our area of genius, it takes us longer to do what we have to do because we just, we're not great at it.
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: That's right.
Leighann Lovely: And so what normally would take probably somebody who enjoys that, 15 minutes, takes the other person an hour.
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: And everyone suffers when that happens.
Leighann Lovely: Correct.
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: Because nothing happens until somebody sells something. And if the people who are selling, who are bringing the revenue into the company are facing obstacles at every turn, guess what?
That affects everyone downstream.
Leighann Lovely: So what is your advice? To sales leaders and how do you help sales leaders become better?
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: First and foremost is I, I try to drive that philosophy that if, if they've, if they've moved into being a sales [00:33:00] leader from leading other functions, that it's different and, and help them understand the philosophy behind everyone is a salesperson.
Uh, number two is to, to, to have them talk to their salespeople, to ask some open ended questions versus are you doing okay? Many salespeople say, yeah, sure. Um, but to ask what can I do to help? What's getting in your way? Where are you spending your time? If you had a magic wand and you could wave it, what one thing would you change about the way this organization supports you?
Because you ask that across enough salespeople, you're going to start hearing some themes. And then your job as the sales leader, your number one job as the sales leader, is to remove obstacles from the salesperson's path so that they can do what they do best. They can stay in their zone of genius. So helping them understand that, and then the other thing that I do is helping them understand the framework, kind of the boundaries and [00:34:00] the frameworks that they need to put in place to help manage those salespeople, uh, lead those salespeople better than manage them.
You know, I, number one, I tell them, which is like, I tell my own salespeople, I'm not going to micromanage you. If I have to micromanage you, you are in the wrong role or in the wrong organization. So, um, you know, I'm going to look at the outputs that I'm going to look at the pipeline, that I'm going to look at the activity.
And when you're a new salesperson and you're building your pipeline and your sales, your sales outputs for the first time, then we're going to focus on activity. There's going to be activity you need to do every single week. And you're going to need to report on that activity. But my hope is once you start getting the taste of sales, we will then move to focusing more on your pipeline.
Then when you get that, we'll focus on more on the output.
Leighann Lovely: That's awesome. Now I had so many, I had another topic that I wanted to discuss with you, but. We are coming to time. This has been such an amazing, like engaging conversation. [00:35:00] So before we, you know, get, I give everybody their, their 30 second shameless pitch to, you know, promote themselves.
So Jeff, why don't you take the opportunity to do that?
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: Sure. Where I spend the most of my time today is with, uh, Innovation Junkie. Innovation Junkie is an organization that's focused on, uh, helping, helping companies create sustained strategic growth. Um, and, uh, we do that through a variety of mechanisms.
We have what we call our growth diagnostic, uh, which, uh, gives them and their leadership teams, the opportunity to 70 some odd best practices in the areas of revenue velocity. Uh, leadership effectiveness, organizational operational effectiveness, digital readiness, innovation, readiness, and financial disciplines.
And then from that, we help them put together a plan to remediate those deficiencies in order to help their organization grow. So, uh, that's where I spend the majority of my time today. And I'm very active on LinkedIn. I'd love to connect with any of your listeners that want to just connect and talk.[00:36:00]
Leighann Lovely: That's amazing. And all of your websites, all of your information is going to be in the show notes. So if somebody wants to reach out to Jeff, you can find that in the show notes. Um, Jeff, I am so excited and grateful to have the privilege to talk with you today. I really appreciate it. It's been an awesome conversation.
Dr. Jeff D. Standridge: Well, it has been an honor and a privilege for me and, and, uh, you're doing the Lord's work. So keep it up.
