#75: Sales as Business Therapy with Jim Speredelozzi

Lead the People

Jim currently leads the revenue team for The Predictive Index (PI), a firm focused on the Talent Optimization discipline. Before joining PI, Jim built and ran the velocity sales team at Black Duck Software, an application security company. Jim has been in software sales for longer than he cares to talk about. In his spare time he is raising three children and a cat. When he is allowed out of the house, Jim likes to hike, snowboard and pursue his passion for the Onewheel.

Top 3 Takeaways

1. Choose wisely. After experiencing an excruciating level of voluntary turnover, Jim examined and redefined his philosophy. Now, he’s able to tap into a larger talent pool and boost retention in the process.
2. Mind your mindset. When sellers and any other workers feel too tied to the outcomes they produce, they’re walking along a slippery slope. Raise attention to the wholeness of being a successful human and watch the results follow.
3. Leaders listen. The active listening skills Jim teaches his sellers are the same that make for effective leaders. Rather than push ideas and solutions onto others, quiet down and ask insightful questions that lead you both to the right outcome.

From Our Sponsor

The Predictive Index (PI) is an award-winning talent optimization platform that aligns business strategy with people strategy for optimal business results. More than 60 years of proven science, software, and a curriculum of insightful management workshops make PI the solution for any company looking to design great teams and culture, make objective hiring decisions, foster engagement, and inspire greatness in their people anywhere in the world. More than 10,000 clients and 480+ partners use PI—including Nissan, Citizens Bank, Subway, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Omni Hotels—across 90+ countries. Learn more at predictiveindex.com.

From the Source

“In sales, you often tend to hire extroverts. And there's nothing wrong with being extroverted, but extroversion does tend to lead to a behavior that looks like talking a lot. And at least in my view, sales is better if there's a mix between listening and talking.”

“A lot of salespeople actually come to the table with the exact wrong mindset and belief system. And while they may still get results, they're not as optimal as they could be if they would shift gears.”

“It's much like the difference between going to see a therapist and feeling like that therapist is pushing their ideas on you and going to a therapist and feeling like ‘This therapist is listening to me. They're hearing about my concerns. They're letting me do the talking. And together we come up with a plan of attack for whatever problem or challenge I face.’ And so the mindset is becoming ‘I'm not a salesperson, I'm a business therapist.’”

“Leaders need to focus on developing mastery, allowing autonomy, and the sense of purpose that comes with being a part of your organization and being on your team or representing your product line. What is that sense of purpose and how do you connect your people to it?”

“The 1-to-1 is sacred time for the person being led, the employee. It's their sacred time to be heard, to be listened to, for you to understand what their pain is, for them to communicate up to you what is making their job harder. And then your job is to listen.”

“We weren't experiencing anywhere near the level of people quitting because they weren't the right fit for what we were trying to do. Instead we were able to grow a team of nine inside sellers to about 150 inside sellers going from mostly a lead gen team to a team that was generating half of the net new ACV or annual contract value that the company was building.”

Connect with Jim

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/speredelozzi/

Website: http://www.predictiveindex.com