Rich Van Doorn, Learning From Failure

“Failure is important. The reality is that a winner has to be somebody who is willing to fail. That’s all it comes down to….You can’t win without being at risk of failure.” explains Rich Van Doorn, Chief Revenue Officer & President at AVASO Technology Solutions. As a manager for multiple sales reps, Rich explains that it is always difficult to watch his people fail. However, while ignorance (or the lack of knowledge about a given topic) is easily remedied, stupidity is a more difficult problem to solve, as this quality suggests a lack of drive and an unwillingness to learn.

This outlook on failure as a learning tool aligns well with Rich’s personal beliefs about success. Rich explains that the key contributors to his own success were perseverance, mentorship, and personal marketing. It was these traits that ultimately propelled Rich to his current role as CRO at AVASO, a global IT outsourcing provider that serves a total of 190 countries! Rich urges listeners to consider not only how to market for a given product, but also how to market themselves as competent and valuable assets for their companies.

Tune into this week’s episode of Sales Lead Dog to learn more about Rich’s journey from salesperson to sales leader. From the importance of long-term sales relationships to lessons about failure to (of course!) the pros and cons of CRMs, Rich Van Doorn and host Christopher Smith explore what it takes to make the sales process not only efficient, but also human. 

Quotes:

• “A winner has to be somebody who is willing to fail.” (28:12)
• “Marketing isn’t just about who you’re working for, it’s about finding a way to market yourself. We forget that we’re a product, and we always think that what we have to market is something else in front of us, and we’ve gotta be careful and recognize that we’re one of those things.” (6:50-7:10)
• “A lot of sales folks don’t understand who’s truly the real decision maker….so who to go after when you’re trying to get a referral. We think it’s procurement, we think it’s finance, but the people who are really making the decisions aren’t often who you think they are. And when you find out who it is, you can tune the dial pretty fast and hone in on it, and then the business really starts coming in. And that’s where you can really start driving exponential value in your organization.” (15:35-16:10)
• “One of the things my grandad said is, ‘You got two ears and one mouth, and God gave you them in proportion for a reason.’” (18:30-18:35)
• “Are you willing to give up a sale for the relationship? And that’ll really tell me whether or not you are in it for the customer.” (21:18-21:29)
• “Failure is important. The reality is that a winner has to be somebody who is willing to fail. That’s all it comes down to….You can’t win without being at risk of failure.” (28:12-28:29)

 

Links

https://www.avasotech.com/ 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rvandoorn/ 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/avaso-technology-solutions/ 

 

Empellor CRM Website

chris.smith@empellorcrm.com

Empellor CRM LinkedIn

 

Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing