1296: Growing During a Downturn (By Focusing on Best-Fit Customers) w/ Avetis Antaplyan

WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.160 --> 00:00:08.869 Welcome back to BB growth. I'm Logan lyles with sweet fish media. I'm 2 00:00:08.910 --> 00:00:12.630 joined today by a Vitas on toply, and he's the founder and CEO over 3 00:00:12.789 --> 00:00:15.310 at higher cloud of DAS. How's it going today? Man, it's going 4 00:00:15.429 --> 00:00:18.629 great. Good to meet your Logan and thanks for taking the time. Absolutely 5 00:00:18.670 --> 00:00:21.859 you and I connected via email recently. I'm really excited to have you on 6 00:00:21.899 --> 00:00:25.140 the show today. We're going to walk through the the pivots that you guys 7 00:00:25.260 --> 00:00:30.059 made responding to the covid pandemic and really, you know, you took this 8 00:00:30.300 --> 00:00:33.060 mentality of we're not just going to survive through this, but we're going to 9 00:00:33.140 --> 00:00:36.049 come out on the other side, whatever the other side looks like, and 10 00:00:36.250 --> 00:00:39.289 we're all tired of this phrase, than new normal, but whatever that looks 11 00:00:39.329 --> 00:00:42.530 like on the other side, we don't want to just survive, we want 12 00:00:42.609 --> 00:00:46.170 to thrive. So, as we get into that story and some lessons learned 13 00:00:46.250 --> 00:00:50.439 that other founders, marketing and sales teams can learn from, tell us a 14 00:00:50.439 --> 00:00:54.200 little bit about where you guys were pre covid December, January, kind of 15 00:00:54.240 --> 00:00:59.320 leading up to everything that's been here in the last couple of months. So 16 00:00:59.479 --> 00:01:00.880 good question. I mean, look for like you know, I think we 17 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:06.629 discussed this, but it in December. We create this huge goals for our 18 00:01:06.750 --> 00:01:11.150 one year goals or three year vision, and it's already aggressive. Right, 19 00:01:11.150 --> 00:01:15.349 it's already aggressive goals and depends on everything going right. Then covid happens. 20 00:01:15.750 --> 00:01:19.099 So we're on our way in January, February, and then things to seem 21 00:01:19.099 --> 00:01:22.219 a little bit off and the next thing you know, you go from that 22 00:01:22.420 --> 00:01:25.859 in two hundred and fifty, you know, different fifty clients, with two 23 00:01:25.859 --> 00:01:29.540 hundred and fifty job wars two, things really slowing down. So again, 24 00:01:29.579 --> 00:01:34.569 instead of sitting around like sitting ducks and seeing orders disappear, we aggressively went 25 00:01:34.689 --> 00:01:37.329 out and I'll past our clients. Hey, how is this going to affect 26 00:01:37.370 --> 00:01:40.209 you? You know, is it's affecting the way you're going to grow your 27 00:01:40.250 --> 00:01:42.129 teams? It's affecting the way you're going to hire? If so, please 28 00:01:42.209 --> 00:01:46.450 tell us down. You know, we didn't want to go two, three, 29 00:01:46.609 --> 00:01:49.879 four weeks working, you know, on the back end, not knowing 30 00:01:49.959 --> 00:01:53.439 what's really going on. So that was great. That was strategy number one. 31 00:01:53.879 --> 00:01:56.280 That worked out for us because what we found is, yes, most 32 00:01:56.280 --> 00:01:59.560 of them were not serious about hiring anymore and they really wanted to slow down. 33 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:01.430 So that that was right off the bat. That was one strategy. 34 00:02:01.469 --> 00:02:06.310 Number two, our strategy was about, yes, it's survival right now. 35 00:02:06.430 --> 00:02:08.669 We're not going to stop growing and we're not going to throw our goals out 36 00:02:08.710 --> 00:02:12.870 the window like you never existed, and we're not going to many minimize our 37 00:02:12.949 --> 00:02:15.740 goals. We understand it's going to be tough for a quarter or two, 38 00:02:15.780 --> 00:02:21.219 possibly three, but you know, the mentality never shifted from growth to survival. 39 00:02:21.419 --> 00:02:24.620 It went from very quick survive and thrive. So one of the things 40 00:02:24.659 --> 00:02:28.460 we did is, I think you and I talked about a great book called 41 00:02:29.180 --> 00:02:31.689 never lose a customer again. Is How do you how do you make sure 42 00:02:31.770 --> 00:02:36.650 that you retain one hundred percent of your your customers, your great clients, 43 00:02:37.490 --> 00:02:39.650 and so when this thing turns around, you are the first and only person 44 00:02:39.729 --> 00:02:43.650 they think of when they're really to open things up. That was the one, 45 00:02:43.969 --> 00:02:46.800 you know, number one thing we did is we sent everybody care package 46 00:02:46.840 --> 00:02:50.159 and stayed in touch with them made sure that they knew look, when I'm 47 00:02:50.159 --> 00:02:53.840 not just calling your texting your email and you because I expect you to give 48 00:02:53.879 --> 00:02:57.159 you business. We understand. Fan where you're at. You don't we don't 49 00:02:57.199 --> 00:03:00.229 expect anything. We're just we just want to say hello, we just want 50 00:03:00.229 --> 00:03:02.110 to send you a little care package, and people were shot by that approach. 51 00:03:02.509 --> 00:03:06.509 I think that's been great and and genuinely it was just something nice we 52 00:03:06.590 --> 00:03:08.310 wanted to give. You know, it's not like we sent them on a 53 00:03:08.430 --> 00:03:12.310 cruise, you know, to Europe or something. It was just a small, 54 00:03:12.830 --> 00:03:15.900 small gesture, and it was a small gesture, like I said. 55 00:03:15.979 --> 00:03:17.340 You know, we had a friend of mine, WHO's a great author a 56 00:03:17.539 --> 00:03:21.860 hand sign a book to each person. We made sure everybody had masks and 57 00:03:21.979 --> 00:03:24.979 gloves so that they stayed safe. So that that was one thing that we 58 00:03:25.099 --> 00:03:29.210 did that was very, very beneficial. Number two, what we did is 59 00:03:29.289 --> 00:03:34.490 less is more right. So again, historically, rather than just chasing business 60 00:03:34.530 --> 00:03:38.530 everywhere, we said, let's just work with the clients that are able to 61 00:03:38.610 --> 00:03:44.800 do well in Covid even post covid and and our worth, our time and 62 00:03:44.840 --> 00:03:46.639 effort and all that. And that's what we did and that's allowed us to 63 00:03:46.840 --> 00:03:52.199 stay afloat and now we're ready to grow. You know where La based a 64 00:03:52.319 --> 00:03:54.830 company. We have an office or, you know, location in San Francisco. 65 00:03:54.870 --> 00:03:59.629 We are now looking to expand into Seattle, Austin and New York. 66 00:04:00.469 --> 00:04:02.550 Phase Two of our growth plan, or face three, I would say, 67 00:04:02.710 --> 00:04:06.990 is is again we're going to take advantage of the great people that are available 68 00:04:06.990 --> 00:04:11.060 out there. We're going to hire some folks for ourselves as well, because 69 00:04:11.060 --> 00:04:14.939 we feel like rarely do you find this many good people that are available. 70 00:04:15.420 --> 00:04:19.860 You know, historically the folks that are looking actively aren't necessarily the best people, 71 00:04:20.139 --> 00:04:25.209 you know, and so codes changed out a little bit. You still 72 00:04:25.209 --> 00:04:28.050 have to be very careful. There's still amount of be players out there that 73 00:04:28.129 --> 00:04:30.370 are floating around them. The only really want ace. That's that's where we're 74 00:04:30.370 --> 00:04:33.649 at right now, is hiring great people, continuing to grow. It is 75 00:04:33.730 --> 00:04:38.600 still risky because you really don't know what's going to happen next, but all 76 00:04:38.680 --> 00:04:41.519 we can do is is is do what we can do, you know, 77 00:04:41.800 --> 00:04:45.279 just keep going. Yeah, absolutely. I love that story about the care 78 00:04:45.399 --> 00:04:48.279 packages going to the folks that you know are going to be coming back to 79 00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:53.709 you once their circumstances change, and just doing something that is that is a 80 00:04:53.790 --> 00:04:57.230 give that, you know, as the old saying goes, making a deposit 81 00:04:57.470 --> 00:05:01.790 into that emotional bank account without any strings attached without any ASP associated with that. 82 00:05:01.990 --> 00:05:04.550 Give. I want to come back to something that you mentioned, to 83 00:05:04.589 --> 00:05:11.060 Vitis. You mentioned looking at kind of your active pipeline and and trying to 84 00:05:11.139 --> 00:05:15.540 qualify out things that that just were not going to see traction so that you 85 00:05:15.620 --> 00:05:23.009 could focus more of your energy and efforts on the most hot that highest likelihood 86 00:05:23.009 --> 00:05:28.329 deals the customers with the most propensity to buy with the least kind of to 87 00:05:28.569 --> 00:05:31.850 lose right now, based on the certain factors, because we've seen some companies 88 00:05:31.930 --> 00:05:35.240 like zoom, you know, for lack of a better term, benefit from 89 00:05:35.240 --> 00:05:39.240 everything that's going on. There's just an increased demand. There's no other way 90 00:05:39.240 --> 00:05:42.519 to say it, right, and so finding those customers that were not getting 91 00:05:42.519 --> 00:05:46.439 hit hardist and and really doubling down there. But I imagine there has to 92 00:05:46.519 --> 00:05:50.629 be some thinking into that approach. Like you didn't just say hey, sales 93 00:05:50.670 --> 00:05:55.149 team, go send an email that says hey, are you serious about buying 94 00:05:55.189 --> 00:05:59.029 right now? Yeah, right, how did you approach that messaging to to 95 00:05:59.230 --> 00:06:02.509 really tactically make that work? Okay, I've got two hundred fifty opportunities. 96 00:06:02.509 --> 00:06:06.300 I want to narrow it to the top so that we can really focus everything 97 00:06:06.379 --> 00:06:11.819 there. But there's some nuance into how you actually execute that. I'd love 98 00:06:11.860 --> 00:06:16.139 to hear how your team sure you know, believe it a logan simplicity. 99 00:06:16.339 --> 00:06:19.970 It was exactly that. What we did is so, although we do a 100 00:06:20.009 --> 00:06:25.089 lot of retained executive search as well, we also have contingent searches. I 101 00:06:25.089 --> 00:06:28.689 don't know if you know the difference, and the executive search world's contingent is 102 00:06:28.970 --> 00:06:31.209 if you hire someone, then that's that's the only time we pay you. 103 00:06:31.370 --> 00:06:36.759 So with two hundred and fifty contingent orders, if you're not careful, you 104 00:06:36.920 --> 00:06:43.199 spend so much time wasting chasing your own tail. So we did just that. 105 00:06:43.399 --> 00:06:46.430 We made phone calls to every single company that we had open orders with 106 00:06:46.709 --> 00:06:50.069 and an emailed them and said hello and to hope you're well. Right, 107 00:06:50.189 --> 00:06:55.149 this is crazy times. First and foremost, how are you doing? Two, 108 00:06:55.230 --> 00:06:58.310 how's Your Business Doing? And three, are you guys still you know? 109 00:06:58.430 --> 00:07:00.740 How is this affecting you? Is it? Do you still have plans 110 00:07:00.779 --> 00:07:04.100 to hire? Seven people? Know? Is it one? Is it to 111 00:07:04.459 --> 00:07:09.060 is it none? Right, and please let us know now so we can 112 00:07:09.100 --> 00:07:13.139 change our strategy. And what we found is very quickly people reacted with because 113 00:07:13.139 --> 00:07:15.529 they're all great people is, yeah, we should probably pause, we definitely 114 00:07:15.569 --> 00:07:18.810 don't need these six, but this one's still urgent, so on and so 115 00:07:18.930 --> 00:07:23.290 forth. So that was one way to Trind the fat, and trim the 116 00:07:23.329 --> 00:07:28.730 fat in the way of our wasted efforts. We cannot waste time because everybody's 117 00:07:28.769 --> 00:07:32.120 getting paid here and if the companies can't pay us, we're in deep trouble 118 00:07:32.240 --> 00:07:35.040 right. So that was one thing we did. Number two thing we did 119 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:39.600 when we went out to go get new business, as you're describing, leads. 120 00:07:39.680 --> 00:07:43.319 Basically, we did try to go after companies that would do either better 121 00:07:43.360 --> 00:07:47.149 because of covid like a zoom, or or did does okay because, one, 122 00:07:47.189 --> 00:07:51.389 they're very well run company, to they're already lead and, three, 123 00:07:53.269 --> 00:07:56.790 they happen to be at a market that's less, less, how do I 124 00:07:56.870 --> 00:08:00.139 say this, less affecting. So one of our clients happens to be in 125 00:08:00.259 --> 00:08:05.459 the telehealth business. Well, not only did they survived, they're doing three 126 00:08:05.540 --> 00:08:09.300 times better than they were before because all of a sudden their clients are buying 127 00:08:09.379 --> 00:08:13.930 not one suite of their software but seven. And you know, they're selling 128 00:08:13.089 --> 00:08:18.810 more existing clients, they're selling more to new clients. So so clients like 129 00:08:18.050 --> 00:08:22.250 that is the ones we went after and re engaged and made sure we were 130 00:08:22.329 --> 00:08:26.399 in front of versus. And we work with massive companies like Uber and Hulu 131 00:08:26.519 --> 00:08:30.759 and tender, but some of those were highly effected, you know, in 132 00:08:30.839 --> 00:08:33.559 a positive, ordinate diative way. It's not always the big brands that we 133 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:37.200 want to focus on. It's about who can do well in this market. 134 00:08:37.320 --> 00:08:41.710 Who was prepared to do this. Some of the companies use this as an 135 00:08:41.710 --> 00:08:46.070 opportunity to honestly get rid of people that they hire that weren't either that great 136 00:08:46.629 --> 00:08:52.470 or, frankly, they didn't need a night of for hied opportunitistically, you 137 00:08:52.509 --> 00:08:56.220 know. So I think there are a number of lessons there. A vitas. 138 00:08:56.259 --> 00:08:58.379 One of the things that I hear you saying is, you know, 139 00:08:58.659 --> 00:09:03.179 as we plan our go to market motions, whether that's, you know, 140 00:09:03.299 --> 00:09:07.899 sales making their target account list or target account list from the marketing side, 141 00:09:07.899 --> 00:09:11.929 if you're going to market with an AV emotion is to look at well, 142 00:09:11.009 --> 00:09:16.970 these are criteria, right, number of number of employees, revenue, you 143 00:09:16.090 --> 00:09:20.889 know, these sectors, without thinking about the nuance of you know, these 144 00:09:22.009 --> 00:09:26.919 companies look exactly the same if you look at head count history, growth sector. 145 00:09:26.279 --> 00:09:30.440 But then when you look at what did they deliver to the market and 146 00:09:30.480 --> 00:09:35.240 then how are the current circumstances impacting them? It's a totally different filter. 147 00:09:35.399 --> 00:09:37.710 But if we don't take time to put that filter on, then we just 148 00:09:37.830 --> 00:09:43.950 keep doing the things that the same way that we've been doing and our message 149 00:09:43.950 --> 00:09:46.470 could be toned af to this one customer, while we're missing opportunity where, 150 00:09:46.710 --> 00:09:50.750 you know, there's a lot, where this this company is probably saying, 151 00:09:50.750 --> 00:09:54.019 Hey, we have more demand for you to help us right now than before. 152 00:09:54.100 --> 00:09:58.139 And so taking taking the time to put that filter on and then letting 153 00:09:58.259 --> 00:10:01.460 that kind of em power the way that you go to market and go after 154 00:10:01.500 --> 00:10:05.340 those target accounts right. I imagine from there then, when you narrow your 155 00:10:05.379 --> 00:10:09.330 focus, were there any changes to your sales methodology? Did you have your 156 00:10:09.370 --> 00:10:13.649 sales team slow down or go a little bit deeper or offer different things that 157 00:10:13.809 --> 00:10:18.769 you might not during the typical sales process because you've got a narrower list, 158 00:10:18.889 --> 00:10:22.879 you know that these are your top priority and you know these are golden eggs 159 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:28.080 you don't want to let go of. So did that change your sales methodology 160 00:10:28.120 --> 00:10:31.480 or any tactics that your team is normally going about in the Daytoday, once 161 00:10:31.559 --> 00:10:35.470 you focused in on this narrow, select group of accounts for the short term. 162 00:10:37.350 --> 00:10:41.789 Not Really. The only thing that changed is we did calls for the 163 00:10:41.870 --> 00:10:46.870 sake of calls. Historically, our clients know where we're at right, so 164 00:10:46.990 --> 00:10:50.980 they know we're necessarily we might send an email and if there's a conversation of 165 00:10:50.220 --> 00:10:54.179 hey, Logan, let's talk, there's always an emphasis on cool. What 166 00:10:54.220 --> 00:10:58.299 are we talking about? Where we don't have any we don't have any business 167 00:10:58.340 --> 00:11:01.779 veil. Right, there's no point to do in that. But right now 168 00:11:01.899 --> 00:11:03.889 it's we're having a lot more conversations up. Hey, man, you want 169 00:11:03.889 --> 00:11:09.409 to just just catch up, share stories, share ideas? You know some 170 00:11:09.490 --> 00:11:13.649 of our visitor clients. You know we're getting ready for PPP money, right. 171 00:11:13.769 --> 00:11:16.570 So there was a lot of sharing of knowledge. Hey, do you 172 00:11:16.610 --> 00:11:20.679 want to get jump on a zoom call and compare notes on making sure you 173 00:11:20.759 --> 00:11:24.000 get PPP money? Hey, let's jump on the phone and help you retain 174 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:30.000 some of the great people you have. Some of it was hey, we're 175 00:11:30.039 --> 00:11:33.389 not hiring. In fact, I just had a layoff of some really wonderful 176 00:11:33.429 --> 00:11:37.629 people. Can you help them? So there was a lot of a lot 177 00:11:37.669 --> 00:11:43.669 of just hey, let's connect like human connection, versus you send an email 178 00:11:43.669 --> 00:11:46.830 in the client comes back and says, Hey, unfortunately, a great to 179 00:11:46.909 --> 00:11:50.299 hear from you, there's nothing right now. Let's touch base in next quarter. 180 00:11:50.860 --> 00:11:52.419 It was more about yeah, let's talk, sure, why not? 181 00:11:54.019 --> 00:11:56.860 You know, it almost slowed the world down a little bit. You know, 182 00:11:56.940 --> 00:12:01.220 it's slowed the world down its slowness a little bit because at one point, 183 00:12:01.970 --> 00:12:03.730 you ever been to a boarders house? I mean there's just if you 184 00:12:03.809 --> 00:12:07.049 try to clean that there, there's too much going on right. So so 185 00:12:07.850 --> 00:12:13.450 we lost focus and we had multiple teams doing things their way and so we 186 00:12:13.889 --> 00:12:18.639 brought it back in retrained. Everybody asked that. Our questions when a little 187 00:12:18.639 --> 00:12:22.159 bit deeper and usually when's a client gives you a new business, you're excited. 188 00:12:22.279 --> 00:12:26.759 You're like yeah, let's do this. We asked a lot deeper questions 189 00:12:26.840 --> 00:12:28.320 about, well, you are you guys still going to be able to grow? 190 00:12:28.399 --> 00:12:31.710 I mean this is a lot of hiring, considering what's going on with 191 00:12:31.830 --> 00:12:35.190 Covid is your business not affected by this? You know, and and some 192 00:12:35.350 --> 00:12:39.149 of it was. We are affected, however, because we sell to you 193 00:12:39.230 --> 00:12:45.580 know, sales organizations are software enables companies to monitor what their cells teams are 194 00:12:45.620 --> 00:12:48.899 going better. So now more than ever, they need us good to know 195 00:12:50.539 --> 00:12:54.179 you know. So these are the kind of conversations we had versus versus, 196 00:12:54.299 --> 00:12:58.409 just like we only connect with you if we want business and you have business. 197 00:12:58.450 --> 00:13:03.809 Yeah, it almost seems that the those two points, the one we 198 00:13:03.970 --> 00:13:07.049 made earlier in this one, or at odds with each other. You know, 199 00:13:07.250 --> 00:13:11.129 only focusing on the is priority that they, as you're saying, not 200 00:13:11.289 --> 00:13:15.720 necessarily only focusing on the calls that have the outcome. You kind of think 201 00:13:15.799 --> 00:13:18.600 like only do the stuff that has the business outcome, but over here we're 202 00:13:18.639 --> 00:13:24.000 saying do the things that foster the connection. But the bridge there is knowing 203 00:13:24.039 --> 00:13:28.909 exactly who you can help and then going all into absolutely. Well, even 204 00:13:28.950 --> 00:13:33.629 if you're offering content, offering advice, swapping notes, just offering to connect, 205 00:13:33.629 --> 00:13:37.389 to meet, you know, an emotional need of a customer or whatever 206 00:13:37.429 --> 00:13:41.580 they can be, you're doing that with a select group of few that you 207 00:13:41.740 --> 00:13:45.620 know you can best serve. So it's not just hey, I have the 208 00:13:45.700 --> 00:13:48.179 people that I can serve and I'm only willing to talk business. It's it's 209 00:13:48.259 --> 00:13:52.340 prioritize. So you're narrowing down, but then you kind of open up the 210 00:13:52.419 --> 00:13:56.769 conversation. So it's really now to have this this visual in my mind of 211 00:13:56.809 --> 00:14:01.570 narrowing down and opening up that you guys went through. Absolutely, but it's 212 00:14:01.610 --> 00:14:05.529 two different lines. Right. You've got you've got businesses that are are we're 213 00:14:05.570 --> 00:14:09.450 saying, are you sure you need us? You know we're here for you, 214 00:14:09.570 --> 00:14:11.399 but do you really need all these all these engineers, or these art 215 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:15.600 for text all these machine learning guys, all these robotics folks? If not, 216 00:14:15.759 --> 00:14:18.799 please let us know, because our time is valuable and we want to 217 00:14:18.840 --> 00:14:22.360 hear them know now, right, we want to hear them know now. 218 00:14:22.279 --> 00:14:24.629 If it's a no, great, Hey, let's let's stay in touch, 219 00:14:24.750 --> 00:14:28.909 let's help you in other ways. But we don't want to. You also 220 00:14:28.950 --> 00:14:33.470 have to remember our products, our inventory, is humans. So it's a 221 00:14:33.750 --> 00:14:39.019 very, very different thing. I can't play with with my candidates emotions when 222 00:14:39.019 --> 00:14:43.779 they're expecting an offer for a CTO role and the company's not going to be 223 00:14:43.860 --> 00:14:48.059 serious about hired. I don't want them to go through six rounds of interviews 224 00:14:48.460 --> 00:14:52.259 just to hear like Hey, man, you understand because of covid work for 225 00:14:52.659 --> 00:14:54.610 when I'm going to be a hi, are you well? Why did you 226 00:14:54.690 --> 00:14:56.730 interview me? So it's a little bit different. Right. It's one thing 227 00:14:56.889 --> 00:15:01.409 to to sell you software and then you go hey, man, actually don't 228 00:15:01.409 --> 00:15:03.929 need it, or hey, I'm going to I'm going to return the the 229 00:15:05.929 --> 00:15:07.679 stuff, you know, the hardware that you send. It's another. This 230 00:15:07.720 --> 00:15:13.240 is a human beings. These people are quitting jobs. They're the best talent 231 00:15:13.360 --> 00:15:16.120 in the world. They're quitting jobs to join a new company. If that 232 00:15:16.200 --> 00:15:20.320 company is not serious, why would they waste time interview with them? Or, 233 00:15:20.399 --> 00:15:24.789 worse, why would they agree to take that job and then find out 234 00:15:24.789 --> 00:15:28.909 two, three, four weeks later, that that that business was not properly 235 00:15:28.429 --> 00:15:35.389 ready for for covid you know, they under under planned, they overpromised and 236 00:15:35.509 --> 00:15:39.019 they had under delivering. And Allison, this guy who's wonderful, this woman 237 00:15:39.059 --> 00:15:43.580 who left a great job, all of a sudden has no jobs, the 238 00:15:43.659 --> 00:15:46.419 worst feeling. So we it was very different. It was like, let's 239 00:15:46.500 --> 00:15:50.289 not waste time and emotions and effort. If the companies aren't serious, we 240 00:15:50.409 --> 00:15:54.649 can still help them, but not in that way. Yeah, I love 241 00:15:54.730 --> 00:15:58.129 what you're saying. They are heard good friends in the recruiting in the in 242 00:15:58.289 --> 00:16:02.529 the staffing space say, you know, I sell the only thing that can 243 00:16:02.610 --> 00:16:07.519 tell the customer no, yeah, because you're dealing with with both sides of 244 00:16:07.600 --> 00:16:11.240 the market when you're in the position of a company like yours at higher cloud. 245 00:16:11.919 --> 00:16:15.200 Let us. We've talked about some lessons learned on focus, I think 246 00:16:15.320 --> 00:16:18.870 in directness and in the way that you went about just saying, Hey, 247 00:16:18.950 --> 00:16:23.110 we want to qualify the situation, not just for our benefit, but we 248 00:16:23.190 --> 00:16:26.389 don't want to waste your time either. One of my lines in the last 249 00:16:26.389 --> 00:16:30.590 twelve years of selling is, look, I want to be persistent, but 250 00:16:30.669 --> 00:16:33.340 I don't want to be a pest. So don't we line is and I'll 251 00:16:33.379 --> 00:16:34.980 stay on the right side, and usually I get a good little chuckle out 252 00:16:36.019 --> 00:16:37.940 of that. And I see the same sort of approach and what you guys 253 00:16:38.299 --> 00:16:42.580 executed here as you are going through your pivots priorities, making sure that those 254 00:16:44.299 --> 00:16:48.009 you you're clear on where you're spending the bulk of your time. And then 255 00:16:48.570 --> 00:16:52.330 when you spend that time, don't just focus it on the business outcomes. 256 00:16:52.370 --> 00:16:56.129 It's about the connection on a human level, because that is going to have 257 00:16:56.889 --> 00:17:03.440 business outcomes. Are CEO and I james just recorded an episode previously on the 258 00:17:03.519 --> 00:17:07.079 show about how to turn prospects and customers into friends. We're big believers here, 259 00:17:07.119 --> 00:17:11.079 as we fish, that we don't use the term friendship enough in business, 260 00:17:11.119 --> 00:17:15.599 especially in be tob will link to that in the show notes. IFYBODY 261 00:17:15.640 --> 00:17:18.109 wants to check that out and kind of dive deeper into some tactical things that 262 00:17:18.470 --> 00:17:22.029 we've unpacked their a vitas. If there's one thing that you want listeners to 263 00:17:22.069 --> 00:17:26.349 take away from this, and especially as they look at leading their teams, 264 00:17:26.430 --> 00:17:32.180 leading their companies forward, what would you say you you'd want that to be, 265 00:17:32.299 --> 00:17:34.940 if they if they're going to have one takeaway from our time together today, 266 00:17:37.140 --> 00:17:41.099 I would say don't, don't, don't be scared. You know, 267 00:17:41.660 --> 00:17:45.170 scary times, but don't be scared. You know, the best people in 268 00:17:45.210 --> 00:17:49.170 the world are bullish and these tough times. You know, I used to 269 00:17:49.210 --> 00:17:53.769 buy a real estate in the recession and people thought I was crazy and I'm 270 00:17:55.009 --> 00:17:59.640 I'm I'm I want our company to grow and my partner, who's brilliant but 271 00:17:59.759 --> 00:18:03.359 he's a lot more conservative than I am, thinks it's crazy that we're all 272 00:18:03.400 --> 00:18:08.559 these people. But to me is is being scared and getting smaller is not 273 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:14.309 not an option. You know, grow or die. So the strategic really 274 00:18:14.470 --> 00:18:17.950 smart, but go for it. You know, you only have one life, 275 00:18:18.109 --> 00:18:22.750 one opportunity. There's not too many of these opportunities that we have to 276 00:18:22.950 --> 00:18:26.259 grow during a recession by being better than anyone. You know, in real 277 00:18:26.339 --> 00:18:32.140 estate, the everybody's a realtory when the market is strong, right, everybody, 278 00:18:32.619 --> 00:18:36.259 your cousin, your neighbor, your friend, you, you know. 279 00:18:36.859 --> 00:18:40.140 And then what happens is eventually, what you know, the market turns and 280 00:18:40.220 --> 00:18:44.690 eighty percent of those people leave because it's hard. Things have change will of 281 00:18:44.769 --> 00:18:47.970 course. So what happened to the top twenty percent? They grow, they 282 00:18:48.049 --> 00:18:51.250 become the top five percent, and that's that's the key. You know, 283 00:18:51.329 --> 00:18:56.000 it's growing during those times. Yeah, absolutely, and if that's high on 284 00:18:56.079 --> 00:19:00.200 your priority list. I had a great conversation we with Tim Reaster, one 285 00:19:00.240 --> 00:19:03.960 of the CO authors of the expansion sale. Made a great conversation. Will 286 00:19:03.960 --> 00:19:07.480 Link to that episode two, because what I really walked away from that is 287 00:19:07.559 --> 00:19:11.349 if you are focusing on serving the people who already buy from you and looking 288 00:19:11.349 --> 00:19:15.829 at how do we expand right, we hear so often that it's less costly 289 00:19:15.990 --> 00:19:21.109 to expand a relationship with an existing customer than it is to land a new 290 00:19:21.150 --> 00:19:22.750 one, but no one really talks about how to go about that. They 291 00:19:22.789 --> 00:19:26.339 have some great data that Tim shared in that episode about how we need to 292 00:19:26.460 --> 00:19:33.099 frame that conversation differently and expansion sale versus a new acquisition sale. So will 293 00:19:33.140 --> 00:19:36.019 link to that, as well as the episode on friendship, which was a 294 00:19:36.099 --> 00:19:38.970 fun chat between James Time of Vida's for next steps for you. If anybody 295 00:19:40.049 --> 00:19:42.690 listening to this has now become a fast fan of yours wants to follow along 296 00:19:42.690 --> 00:19:45.890 with your content or reach out and find out more about what you guys are 297 00:19:45.930 --> 00:19:48.890 doing at higher cloud, what's the best way for them to get in touch? 298 00:19:49.410 --> 00:19:53.920 Sure, infut hardclotcom. If you send an email, we'll get it. 299 00:19:55.240 --> 00:19:59.039 Will respond within twenty four hours. They can find me on Linkedin. 300 00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:02.599 Pretty easy to find them. The only one name to beat us an oppland 301 00:20:02.680 --> 00:20:06.920 on linked in and they can send you send me a connection an email. 302 00:20:07.309 --> 00:20:11.150 I'm always available for a chat, always open minded to hear any where other 303 00:20:11.190 --> 00:20:15.069 people are doing, helping other people grow. It's not all about us, 304 00:20:15.069 --> 00:20:19.230 right, it's all about it. The world feeds itself, but we all 305 00:20:19.349 --> 00:20:22.859 just take good care of ourselves. So absolutely, I vida. Thank you 306 00:20:22.900 --> 00:20:26.619 so much for joining me on the show today. There's you great stay should 307 00:20:26.660 --> 00:20:33.900 my pleasure. Thank you. Hey, everybody, logan with sweet fish here. 308 00:20:33.180 --> 00:20:37.490 If you're a regular listener of BB growth, you know that I'm one 309 00:20:37.529 --> 00:20:40.730 of the cohosts of the show, but you may not know that I also 310 00:20:40.849 --> 00:20:44.170 head up the sales team here at sweetfish. So for those of you in 311 00:20:44.289 --> 00:20:47.930 sales or sales offs, I wanted to take a second to share something that's 312 00:20:47.970 --> 00:20:52.640 made us insanely more efficient lately. Our team has been using lead Iq for 313 00:20:52.720 --> 00:20:56.960 the past few months and what used to take us four hours gathering contact data 314 00:20:56.200 --> 00:21:00.519 now takes us only one. We're seventy five percent more efficient. We're able 315 00:21:00.559 --> 00:21:07.269 to move faster withoutbound prospecting and organizing our campaigns is so much easier than before. 316 00:21:07.750 --> 00:21:11.309 I'd highly suggest you guys check out lead Iq as well. You can 317 00:21:11.349 --> 00:21:19.299 check them out at lead iqcom. That's Elle a d iqcom. One of 318 00:21:19.339 --> 00:21:23.619 the things we've learned about podcast audience growth is that word of mouth works. 319 00:21:25.059 --> 00:21:27.259 It works really, really well actually. So if you love this show, 320 00:21:27.339 --> 00:21:30.980 it would be awesome if you texted a friend to tell them about it and 321 00:21:32.059 --> 00:21:34.210 if you send me a text with a screenshot of the text you sent to 322 00:21:34.250 --> 00:21:37.609 your friend Meta. I know I'll send you a copy of my book, 323 00:21:37.809 --> 00:21:41.289 content based network, how to instantly connect with anyone. You want to know 324 00:21:41.769 --> 00:21:45.769 my cell phone numbers. Four hundred seven, four nine, hundred three and 325 00:21:45.809 --> 00:21:48.839 three, two eight. Happy texting.