Phillip Gerard - Focus On People, Not Features

“Slow down to speed up,” says Phillip Gerard, Vice President of Americas Electrical Sales at Panduit. In this episode of Sales Lead Dog, Gerard dives into his people-focused sales techniques, and how he learned that pushing forward doesn’t work if you’re leaving your whole team behind. 

Gerard’s career in sales started early. His father was a salesman in the roofing industry, and he often joined his dad on calls. As a teenager, he sold jewelry door-to-door to support a local charity that worked with disabled adults. When he talks about his career, he credits many mentors, who taught him that people are at the heart of not only being a good salesman, but being a good sales leader. 

Host Chris Smith guides Gerard through the many lessons of his career, and how he developed his people-focused and team-focused philosophies on sales. At the heart of their chat is customer relationship management. This technical aspect of the sales process might seem like a straightforward tool, but for Gerard, CRM also has people at its heart. 

“The mistake that people make is that they say, ‘I’m going to put in a CRM because I have a sales problem.’” Gerard says. “And I always say, solve the sales problem first.” 

From learning how to slow down and talk to your team with kindness and compassion to personalizing your CRM to fit your team’s unique sales strategy, Gerard talks frankly about what it means to work in sales today, and how his career in sales has helped him grow not just as a seller, but as an individual. 

Quotes:

• “The same care that you have when speaking to your children – everything you say as a leader is also influential” 5:48-5:54
• “Slow down to speed up” 6:26-6:28
• “Look at the activities you are spending your time on. Are they forwarding your strategy or are they just reactions to things that are happening?”  23:37-23:48
• “The mistake that people make is that they say, ‘I’m going to put in a CRM because I have a sales problem.’ And I always say, solve the sales problem first.” 24:59-25:07

Links:

www.panduit.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/phillipgerard/

Empellor CRM Website

Empellor CRM LinkedIn

Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing