Campus Series: Thom Coats – Shaping Sales Superstars
The best educators are those who have had success and real-world exposure to their subject matter. Thom Coats is no exception, with his entrance into sales academia after a successful sales career.
In this episode of the Campus Series Podcast, Thom, a Professor, and Director of the Center for Professional Selling at Middle Tennessee State University, discusses the way his sales education is grounded in experiential learning and networking, and shares his expansive plans for the future of the Center for Professional Selling.
Guest-At-A-Glance
💡 Name: Thom Coats
💡 What he does: Professor of Practice and Director of the Center for Professional Selling
💡 Company: Middle Tennessee State University
💡 Noteworthy: Director of Sales Program at Middle Tennessee State University, former Microsoft VAR.
💡Where to find Thom: LinkedIn
Key Insights
Role Plays and Competitions: The Power of Experiential Learning
Thom Coats emphasizes the importance of experiential learning in sales education. He shares how his students develop SWOT analysis, buyer personas, email campaigns, and sales plans, presenting them in front of a panel of judges. Thom believes in the power of competition as a teaching tool. He also discusses the role of role plays, which, despite being different from actual sales calls, provide a valuable learning experience. The students are evaluated not just on ticking off a checklist but on their ability to connect with the judges as human beings.
Networking: A Key Component of Sales Education
Thom discusses the importance of networking in sales education. He hosts a morning networking event where he invites corporate partners and teaches students how to work a networking event. He shares practical tips, like the best place to stand at a networking event, and emphasizes the importance of building business relationships. Thom believes that knowing who a person is at heart makes one more likely to do business with them.
The Future: Growth and International Expansion
Thom shares his plans for the future of the Center for Professional Selling. The center plans to continue growing, adding an international component and a new professor with a sales background. They also participate in external competitions, including the Global Bilingual Competition, which allows them to compete against universities all over Latin America. Despite not placing, Thom sees the value in the experience and the exposure it provides for the students.
Episode Highlights
From Sales to Academia: Thom Coats’ Journey
Thom Coats shares his transition from being a successful sales professional to becoming the first director of the sales program at Middle Tennessee State University. He recounts the unexpected lunch invitation from the dean, which led to the offer of a full-time position as a professor and director.
“And he presented me with the position of director of the center. And I would be a full professor. Not adjunct, not associate, not assistant. A full professor. And I could be the first director of the program and build something from scratch; I’d have a greenfield.”
Thom Coats: A Glimpse into His Sales Career
Thom provides a glimpse into his sales career, specifically his time as a value-added reseller for Microsoft. He shares a memorable deal with the United Methodist denomination, where all global tithing now flows through the software he sold.
“So he gets up, and he writes on the whiteboard, he draws a beautiful diagram, how all of the different pieces would talk to each other. I mean, he was elegant in the way he described it. It was perfect. He was real English. Great job.”
Networking and Recruitment: Key Aspects of the Sales Program
Thom discusses the importance of networking and recruitment in the sales program. He hosts a networking event each semester, which serves as a great recruiting tool. He also organizes an etiquette dinner, where students learn the practical approach to professional dining. Thom emphasizes the importance of promoting one’s ideas.
“So coach them with that. That’s a great recruiting tool because they get to meet my corporate partners, and they get to meet me. […] And how often do you do these then […] Once a semester.”
Experiential Learning and Competitions: Key Teaching Methods
Thom shares his teaching methods, emphasizing the importance of experiential learning and competitions. He explains how his students develop SWOT analysis, buyer personas, email campaigns, and sales plans, presenting them in front of a panel of judges. Thom believes in the power of competition as a teaching tool.
“In their presentation, they had to develop a SWOT analysis, build a couple of buyer personas. Several of them did email campaign drafts. They had to do a phone script for the sales folks and develop a 30, 60, 90-day sales plan for the nonprofit.”
Transcript:
[00:01:14] Chris Corcoran: Thom Coats, uh, director of the Center of Professional Selling at Middle Tennessee State University. Thank you for joining us on Tech Sales is for hustlers, the campus edition. Wanna welcome you here. Um, wanted to introduce you to a little bit to our listeners. Maybe if you could take 60 seconds or so and give our listeners a little bit of insight into, into your, your background.
[00:01:48] Oh,
[00:01:48] Thom Coats: cool beans. Alright, well first thank you very much. So I get to practice my elevator pitch. There you go. Alright, so my elevator pitch is, my name is Thom Coats. I have the privilege of teaching professional selling at Middle Tennessee State University. Now we are a, a first gen university. Now you and I both know that if students are, are disciplined enough to earn a college degree, then they should make a higher income.
[00:02:14] Mm-hmm. But if I’m able to help teach them to sell, Then I could help them double or even triple that income. And I’m humbled to have the opportunity to help change family trees. Oh wow. That’s who I am. That’s what I get to do. And let’s talk about your, your background now. My background, I have 25 plus years of professional selling.
[00:02:35] I. Uh, I’m a Mississippi State Bulldog. Okay. And, uh, so hail state? Absolutely. I have two cowbells in my office, and, uh, they’re wonderful. They acquired taste apparently. Yeah. Uh, excuse me. Uh, my first sales job. Now out out of college, my wife and I took jobs down in, in Natchez, Mississippi, which is an old, old money town on the river.
[00:03:04] Okay. And we did not enjoy Natchez at all. So I took the first job that got us back home where we were from in Starkville. Okay. Mississippi. And, and that happened to be law enforcement. Interesting. So for six years I was a cop in, in Starkville, Mississippi in college town, in a college town, which is the best training for salespeople.
[00:03:24] Yeah. I mean, seriously, I, I, I had to learn how to explain to people why they should get into my car and let me cuff them rather than beat them up. Yeah. So I, I guess that’s a, a good skill to have. And so I thoroughly enjoy that, but there’s no money in that. Uh, so my first sales job was working for National Federation of Independent Business.
[00:03:46] Okay. Carrying a, a kit, going door to doors, calling on businesses, selling memberships to the lobby. Okay. Okay. Straight commission. Wow. And, uh, straight commission. Straight commission. No base. You walk out of the door in the morning with nothing in your pocket and you had to. Make cells that day. Wow. And it was, but if you could do that, you could do anything.
[00:04:11] It was hysterical. ’cause my very first cell was a, I mean, my very first sales call was a dismal failure. And you gotta remember, I haven’t always been fat and old and, and baldheaded. I was in good shape and I, I was strength from being on the SWAT team. I was, I mean, Just muscle. Yep. And I called, walked in on this, this guy, he was a small business owner about the size of a pencil.
[00:04:38] And he goes, what do you want? And I stood there, my knees buckled, my voice quivered. And it was almost as bad as, you don’t want this, do you? And of course he said no. And at that point I had to have a motivational talk with myself. They said, you know, you left your job. This is what you do. I set a record for that first week of sales for rookie.
[00:05:00] Oh really? Uh, and so from there, I’ve, I’ve sold, um, uh, for over a decade PEO services for a company named Paychex. Sure.
[00:05:09] Chris Corcoran: That’s not an easy
[00:05:10] Thom Coats: sell. Nope. And, uh, Fantastic opportunities there. The last several years I was in technology sales. I’ve, I’ve done everything from carrying a kit, cold calling to multi-year multimillion dollar sales, working in, you know, conference rooms and high rises in Nashville.
[00:05:28] Wow. So I, I have a, a wide spectrum of background to bring to my
[00:05:32] Chris Corcoran: students. That’s great. That’s great. Uh, what’s your favorite sale in the, over the course of your career
[00:05:40] Thom Coats: o other than your wife? Uh, true. So very true. I, I’ve proved how good of a sales guy I am there. Alright, so, The United Methodist denomination is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.
[00:05:53] Okay. And I was working for a Microsoft VAR selling mm-hmm. Um, software.
[00:05:58] Chris Corcoran: What, tell the listeners what a, what A VAR is a
[00:06:01] Thom Coats: value added reseller. Okay. So what we did would we sewed the software that Microsoft developed. I see. And that particular piece of software was a Microsoft dynamic c r m. Oh, okay. Yeah.
[00:06:14] It’s talking to the finance department there with the Methodist. Now the Methodist denomination had, at that time 12 different divisions. They were headquartered in Nashville there on Music Row. Uh, the gentleman that was head of everything at that point was a gentleman by the name of Moses. You just cannot meet those things up.
[00:06:33] Moses. I love that. Well, we’re sitting there. And I have this primary contact with me from the, um, on their team. And it was down to the point of we were just talking details, you know, and I had my tech, and they had their techs in the room, and my tech asked if he could write on the whiteboard, which is a love language for a technologist.
[00:06:57] And I said, well, of course you can. So he gets up and he writes on the whiteboard, he draws a beautiful diagram, how all of the different pieces would talk to each other. I mean, and he elegant in by the way he described it. It was perfect. He was real English. Great job. He sits down, he’s very proud of himself and I’m dying on the inside.
[00:07:16] He had just drawn the star Satan on the whiteboard for the United Methodist denomination. I’m just sitting there. They’re thinking they’re gonna throw us out. Yeah. Fortunately, my primary contact looked up, has this little smile about ’em like. I got you. And he says, that looks like the Chrysler symbol, doesn’t it?
[00:07:36] I said, yes, sir. It sure does. And so we’re, I was able to secure that deal. Uh, so all tithing that Methodists do globally flows through my software.
[00:07:46] Chris Corcoran: Really? Yeah. Wow. That’s kind of cool. That’s very cool. Yeah. What about any deal that got the one that got away? Any deal that haunts you?
[00:07:55] Thom Coats: Oh my goodness. Let’s see.
[00:07:57] The, the, usually the, the ones that you think are just a done deal? Yeah. They’re idiots. If they say no, then those, those are the ones that blow up in your face. Yeah. Now to list them. No, I, I couldn’t list them. Yeah. And that, and I’ll tell you why. Sure. Because I teach my students that some people will say yes, some will say no.
[00:08:22] So what the three S’s? Yep. You cannot carry those, those humps around with you. Right. So they said no to me, but they’re dead to me. I don’t remember who they are. Yeah. Is that arrogant? No. Okay. So I don’t remember them, but I know they happened. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, I, I made a lot of mistakes and I, I learned from those mistakes.
[00:08:44] Wisdom. Yeah. Uh, it is beautiful.
[00:08:48] Chris Corcoran: And so you’ve, you’ve got this decorated sales career. What led you to Middle Tennessee?
[00:08:55] Thom Coats: Alright, so I live in start, um, excuse me, Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Yeah. So I live within 10 minutes or less from the university and I have worked, you know, all over the southeast from that location.
[00:09:09] Okay. Okay. And, um, so I have tons of connections around the Middle Tennessee and beyond. They asked me from the university to come and, and guess lecture for the Ethics of business week. Okay. So I did that, um, for several classes that particular year. We, and we do that every, every spring. We have that, that, that week that we focus on ethics.
[00:09:34] I thoroughly enjoyed it, and apparently I didn’t suck at it because they asked me to come back the following year. Yeah. And matter of fact, they asked me to come back for different events and, and lecture at different times, and eventually I said, you know, guys, I, I really dig this. I, I really enjoy sharing.
[00:09:52] Information with these young people and they really make you feel, you know, appreciated. It’s pretty amazing when I retire I would love to be like an adjunct. Mm-hmm. Okay. So you and I both know, and hopefully the people on your podcast know adjuncts. That’s more or less a hobby job that’s not really, adjuncts don’t make a lot of money.
[00:10:15] So that’s why I said when I retire, right, right, right. It would get me outta the house. Um, probably preserve my life. So, ’cause if I’m under Judy’s feet the whole time, you know, she’d probably kill me. Um, and they, they, and they said, well Tom, do you have your M B A? I said, no. Well, you need at least your M B A to, to teach at the university level.
[00:10:37] I said, okay. So 2017, I went back to school and earned my M B A. I did that in less than a year. Wow. Uh, and ’cause you know, I was in the awkward time in my life of married, grown sons. Mm-hmm. And no grandchildren yet. Ah. So we had time, it was just me, Judy, and the dog. And so, um, earned my M B a I let the university know, hey, When I get close to retirement, we can talk a little bit more.
[00:11:09] Well, one day I, I get this, this, um, message from the dean and he goes, I’d like, let’s, let’s go have lunch. So we went to have lunch and he goes, I have a job I’d like you to consider. And uh, I said, well, I’m not ready to retire yet. He goes, no, this is a, a real job, you know, a full-time real job. I said, mm-hmm.
[00:11:29] Said, okay. And he presented me with a, the position was, um, as director of the center, uh, Uh, and I would be full professor. Mm-hmm. Not adjunct, not associate, not assistant. A full professor. And I could be the first director of the program. Okay. And build something from, I’d have a greenfield. Wow. And so I’m going, man, that, that sounds really cool.
[00:11:57] Now of course we’re talking about state government here, so it took a year and a half from that conversation to actually happen. Right. I’m the first director of this and I’m thinking, yeah, they actually did look at my grades and they hired me anyway, so I guess they were okay. Um, but this is, this is so incredibly humbling now.
[00:12:17] Is it the same money that a, a sales guy makes? No, but you know, I have grown, we have grown children, right. We’re, we’re okay. And it is, um, and it’s so rewarding. I, I thoroughly enjoy it. Absolutely
[00:12:34] Chris Corcoran: enjoy it. So were you brought in to start the program or
[00:12:38] Thom Coats: did you actually The program, the, the, the, it was at the beginning it was called the, um, the Office of Professional Sales.
[00:12:47] Okay. And, um, and I was in my ignorance, I didn’t know that that was not cool. Um, so it existed one year prior to me. Okay. So it had a, um, a couple of folks that kind of were. Babysitting it until they hired a a, a a director. And when did they hire you? Now the classes, um, let’s see, I’m starting my fourth year.
[00:13:10] Okay. Uh, now the classes existed Okay. Prior to me. Like professional selling existed. Advanced selling. The classes existed. What, what, um, um, predates me by, by one year is of the. The office and the, the concentration in professional selling, if you are a marketing student, okay, so you can get, is it a minor?
[00:13:32] No, it’s called concentration. So you have to have a, a marketing degree with concentration in professional selling. So if you take these classes, you can earn that concentration and you earn a beautiful white stole from graduation, right? Mm-hmm. And I remember I told you that through my ignorance, I thought office sounded cool.
[00:13:52] Yeah. And then I found out that in the real world of academia office is kinda like p whatever, you really need to get on the radar. If you need to be a, a center or an institute. A center to me anyway, people can correct me from my ignorance, but to me a center more is community focused and an institute is more research focused.
[00:14:19] Okay. Okay. So we’re a center ’cause we very much support our com, our the selling community in Middle Tennessee and beyond. I see. So we do a lot more than just for educating students. Uh, so now we are the Center for Professional Selling, which matches, um, the branding of the actual classes that we teach.
[00:14:40] I see. And the key to that, it qualified us based on that, that designation and everything else we do for membership in the organization called University Self-Centered Alliance. Mm-hmm. Now, you’re probably familiar with the the Alliance. This is fantastic. It’s a global organization. Currently there’s less than a hundred members.
[00:15:06] Um, what, what’s amazing about this, through that organization, I can certify a student as a professional selling student, okay. Regardless of their degree. So semester before last, I certified a equine science major. Oh. As a professional selling student. Wow. No horsing around
[00:15:26] Chris Corcoran: that. Yeah.
[00:15:28] Thom Coats: Uh, so I, I love that.
[00:15:31] So now you don’t have to just be a marketing student, right? You to earn the concentration. You do. But to have the, the certification I could take you from anywhere on campus. So my concrete management folks. Across the campus. Mm-hmm. You know, that has a designation of, of sales and, um, construction management is their designation.
[00:15:56] Then they can come over and take my classes and actually be certified as a professional salesperson and earn their. Degree in their field. Wow. Which makes them a freaking
[00:16:08] Chris Corcoran: rainmaker. Third degree. Yeah. Pretty powerful combination. Yeah. So you’ve been at it for four years. Yes, sir. And tell me a little bit about the program, the size.
[00:16:16] Thom Coats: Yeah. Uh, we have somewhere between 60 and 70 students in our, our program as far as the, the concentration. Okay. Um, right now, let’s see this, this coming semester we have, um, we have. 30 in, we have two sessions of professional selling, one in advance selling, so we got 30, 30, I currently have 15 advance, and then I have, um, business to business.
[00:16:46] We have another 35 in, in those two sessions of that. So, um, each. So we, we have a decent size. We’re not massive by any means. Right? We have 18 corporate partners that are 18. 18. Is that what you brought in? Yes, you did. Okay. We actually inherited, um, I inherited Enterprise. Okay. And I inherited State Farm with, and both of them are amazing partners and I brought in other amazing partners.
[00:17:13] Um, I, I purposely have recruited folks that do, do a. A wide spectrum of different things and they go to market differently as well. Mm-hmm. Uh, for instance, um, one of the, the, our partners is a company named Novatech. Novatech. Okay. Which is a, obviously a technology company, but they’re, they’re a little bit old school.
[00:17:36] They’re large regional. They go from Texas to the Atlantic and they, they go out and. Talk to people, kill it and bring it home. Old school type of cells. Mm-hmm. But then I have a, um, change healthcare, which is, um, just purchased by eight, uh, never say it right. At P At PM I believe, which is a Fortune four company, and their sales reps never leave in front of a computer.
[00:18:02] Chris Corcoran: Anthem, Anthem. Anthem, is that, is that the one that bought him?
[00:18:05] Thom Coats: I don’t necessarily, I think that’s wrong either. Oh, I see. Which they’ll correct me. I’m in so much trouble. Yikes. It’s okay. They’ll forgive me, I hope. But, but they’re, um, change Healthcare is an amazing partner as well, but they go to business a world differently.
[00:18:21] Mm-hmm. Uh, I have a company named LG l G Live. Good. Feel good. Okay. Which they would like you ’cause they’re custom clothier. Oh, I see. Yeah. That’s a sharp looking blazer. Thank you. And, uh, so they’re, um, their representatives are not employees. They’re 10 99. I see. It’s like Tom James. Yes. They’re red competitor.
[00:18:43] Okay. Uh, these folks are headquartered in Estonia. How cool is that? Yeah. And matter of fact, they have a, a relationship with a university over there and we’re working on a joint sales competition where we’ll connect one of their students with one of my advanced students. Okay. And we’ll do, um, um, a, a sales competition with the teams.
[00:19:05] I see. It’s kind of cool there. Uh, we do a lot of competitions within the the, um, which ones do you go to? No, I’m talking about internal. Oh, internal. Okay. And I, I’ll get to the external, internally, the professional selling class, which is junior level. Mm-hmm. Um, we use the enterprise role play, uh, enterprise fleet management role play throughout the semester to train the kids on students own the, the sales process.
[00:19:34] Okay. At the end of that, that. Semester though, I take the top eight students and they compete in the the enterprise final. And so, and from there, um, there’s only, we recognize the first, second, and third and there’s cash prizes for that. ’cause I’m convicted in the belief that there can only be one winner.
[00:19:56] Yep. And salespeople should get paid. Right. Um, we right after that, we, we go in now that’s B2B. Um, the following week we started in, on the State Farm, um, B2C competition. Okay. And we’re we, um, the judges are again, state Farm agents and we’re trying to sell life insurance to State Farm, and there’s only one winner with that out of all the professional selling students.
[00:20:23] Mm-hmm. And that, which is a really cool event. In the advanced class, we start off, um, with the Novatech sales competition, which is a three round, um, sales competition where the scenario has them speaking with the, the fictitious c i o, then the mm-hmm next round, c e o. Then the final round they’re presenting.
[00:20:45] Uh, the sales proposal to the decision team on a, a virtual meeting. Uh, then we’ll go into that international competition. Wow. Uh, then at the end of the semester, it’s a little bit like a capstone to where we take a local, um, nonprofit. This past semester we did, um, the Walk to End Alzheimer’s. Okay. And all the students had to do a presentation.
[00:21:10] In their presentation, they had to develop a SWOT analysis. Mm-hmm. Um, build a couple of buyer personas. The, um, they had to, several of them did, um, email, um, campaign mm-hmm. Drafts, uh, they had to do a, um, phone script for the sales folks and develop a 30, 60, 90 day sales plan for the. For the, um, nonprofit.
[00:21:37] Wow. And present that in front of a panel of five judges. Okay.
[00:21:41] Chris Corcoran: Winner takes all. Winner takes all. Yeah. So there’s lots of
[00:21:43] Thom Coats: competition. Yeah. Competition’s a great way to teach.
[00:21:48] Chris Corcoran: I was gonna say, and none that, that’s one of the things that we’re to talk about over the next couple of days, but, You’ve got so much experience and sales.
[00:21:56] It’s very, I at least I think it’s very hard to, to teach it because it’s very abstract. And you learn by doing. Yeah. Experiential learning. Experiential learning. How do you, how do you, how do you deal with that? Because, because role plays, role plays are always, in my opinion, different than actual sales calls.
[00:22:15] Yeah. Oh, a hundred percent. And the role plays are normally easier. Yeah.
[00:22:21] Thom Coats: Yes and no. Uh, in the role plays, of course, the, the students know what the rubric is. Yep. And so the risk there is that they’ll treat it like a laundry list or a Gracie Grocery list. Yep. Check the boxes. Yep. When it comes time for our competitions, my judges have never seen the score sheet. Okay. They just take whatever they get and they rank the students from top to bottom.
[00:22:47] I see. And so it’s all about how well do they connect with you as a human being? Okay. That h to hhl cell, that human to human cell. Mm-hmm. Uh, at the beginning of the semester, we, my wife tells me day one that she would drop my class from what I do, but, uh, day one, I give the students a template of five questions to answer as their starter template for their elevator pitch.
[00:23:16] Okay. Then they take those five questions and day one, I have each of them stand up in front of the class and give their elevator pitch. And then at the middle of the semester midterms, uh, we have an elevator pitch competition. Okay. And so, which is Right, kinda like a speed cell. Yeah. Which is right before the job fairs and interviews start.
[00:23:38] Mm-hmm. And the students will come to me and tell me that they’ve used their elevator pitch all day during the job fair. And they’re like I said, yeah. They go, oh, they get it. But part of that beginning of the semester thing with the elevator pitch, then I have them update. And I have a, um, LinkedIn builder.
[00:23:56] Okay. Um, for their, their, um, get their profile up to snuff and then they have to cold call my sales lab and then they have to What’s your sales lab? Uh, the sales lab. Have you ever seen a sales lab before? My, I have. Yeah. Yeah. So Mo the ones that I have seen at other universities, it’s kind of like an office, well, a room with a table.
[00:24:19] Yep. And camera and a. Microphone. Ours is bit different. It’s actually two rooms. Okay. Uh, the first room is, is a receptionist area. Okay? The second room is the executive office. I see my GA sits there in the executive area, I mean the receptionist area. And my GA is only there 20 hours a week. Okay? So I don’t give the students the GA schedule, so they have to just try the door and see if it’s unlocked or not.
[00:24:47] Okay. And so that’s, that’s how they start their semester by cold calling that, that sales lab. Okay. Uh, and then they have to leave me a voicemail. So how many 20 year olds do you know have ever left a voicemail in their life? None. Well, very few. Yeah, very few. And then we wrap that up, that, that exercise up with the Blue Raider Ttts.
[00:25:10] Okay. And so we take all of the students one evening from the professional selling classes, the event selling class B2B mm-hmm. Marketing classes and sports, uh, sports marketing class, up to the press box at the stadium. And we make outbound telephone calls to sell football tickets. Okay. And we are not a, we are D-1 football program mm-hmm.
[00:25:35] But we’re not at SSEC school. Right. So you. That’s a not the easiest sell in the world. Right. Um, and, but our program’s fantastic and the students learn some amazing things. They learn that all phone lists are awful. You know, they leave a ton of voicemails. Yeah. Occasionally a human being will answer the phone and on a rare occasion they’ll say yes.
[00:26:03] Right. And when that human says yes, the student can bring it. Bell. They have those little old school home. Yeah. Those hotel right. Chaing. Yep. And then that’s when I get to go, come into action at the point, because I get to sound like that. Southern auctioneer. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Good cheer and all. Uh, I mentioned our amazing corporate partners.
[00:26:25] Yeah. Uh, they’re there. Okay. Coaching the students during that event. So I’ll have, is it, tell
[00:26:31] Chris Corcoran: me more about, this is up the press boxes. Just one one night? One evening.
[00:26:34] Thom Coats: One evening and uh, for a couple hours. Yeah. Pizza T-shirts. Yeah. Yeah. The whole nine yards. Uh, the, the partners will have, they’ll be there, they’ll be paired up with either two to five or six students.
[00:26:49] So they’re, they’re listening in coaching, helping them through, they get to witness that student’s very first sales call. Yeah. They get to see who adapts to it, who really freezes up. Mm-hmm. You know, just ’cause they freeze up doesn’t mean that they’re not a candidate. Right. I have a, one of my corporate partners hired this young lady that, that they knew that she.
[00:27:14] Really froze up that that event, but they knew that that’s what they needed to work with her on. Mm-hmm. It, it’s still, it’s not a career killer. Right. Um, but it is definitely helps you Sure. Students come out of there by stepping out of their box and cha um, facing a challenge to something they’ve never done before and found out that they didn’t die from the experience.
[00:27:40] What,
[00:27:41] Chris Corcoran: what a great way to get ’em outta their comfort zone. Oh
[00:27:42] Thom Coats: my goodness. It’s amazing. The same day that we do that is, uh, we have a kickoff lunch that they, we have the corporate partners there and I pair each of them with one of our seniors. Okay. And as part of our mentorship program. Mm-hmm. So that’s a, a pretty big day at the beginning of the semester.
[00:28:01] So our partners are engaged with our students throughout the semester. That’s
[00:28:05] Chris Corcoran: great. That’s great. Uh, any memorable sales?
[00:28:09] Thom Coats: Oh, absolutely. This, this one, this one guy. He, um, he’s actually a baseball player. Okay. And we were selling this semester is the, the, um, the fall. So we were selling football. Okay. And we’re selling the week after the first game, my friend, we lost to this team that it was like losing to the Sisters of the Blind School.
[00:28:34] It was, it was awful. We, we should have never lost that bad. It was awful. So this young man picked up the phone called, and this older lady chewed him out for how bad our team had played that, that previous weekend. You guys were awful. That was ter That was embarrassing. And it was, but still, you know, and his response, I, ’cause I was standing right behind him.
[00:29:04] Mm-hmm. ’cause I could see something was going on some, his response was beautiful. His response was, yes, ma’am. You know, truth is I’m actually a baseball player, so I’m a student athlete as well done. I have to tell you that it’s get awfully lonely under those lights during the game, and, uh, the best way that we could show support and help them to improve as being in the stands to support them.
[00:29:34] Can we go ahead and secure these tickets for you this evening? Mm-hmm. How amazing was that? Yeah. I mean, my goodness, I wanted to like hug the kid. It was great. Go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what she said? No. Which is a great thing for him to learn. Yeah. ’cause it doesn’t matter how good you do, some people are gonna say no.
[00:29:57] Right. You get that? Yes. No. Next step. That’s
[00:30:00] Chris Corcoran: right. That’s right. Well, it, it sounds like you have a, a real passion for, for, for teaching. These students? It
[00:30:07] Thom Coats: is. Oh, it’s so
[00:30:08] Chris Corcoran: much fun. Yeah. What, what, what do you like most about it?
[00:30:12] Thom Coats: It’s the success stories of the students. Um, I have this, this one young lady, she now works for one of our corporate partners by the name of Jackson.
[00:30:22] Okay. Jackson. They sell annuities. They’re very much a buttoned up mm-hmm. Organization, very, very corporate type America. And that was her vision of what. A business person would do. Mm-hmm. Now, she learned how to speak Spanish when she was, I mean, English when she was 12. Wow. She worked her way through college selling paint at Home Depot.
[00:30:47] Okay. And now she has her dream job in corporate America. I get this other young man, he, um, he, he’s about to become the first State Farm agent in Middle Tennessee, that’s bilingual. Uh, he worked his way through college. He, he actually came to my class ’cause he wanted to be a clothier. So he was in the entrepreneurship program and he wanted to be a clothier.
[00:31:11] But he knew that if he’s, he’s smart enough to know that he was going to be a solopreneur. He needed to learn how to sell. Mm-hmm. So he took professional selling, which I thought was so smart of him, and he ended up realizing he’s really pretty good at it. Mm-hmm. Now he worked his way through college by laying concrete, pouring concrete for swimming pools with his dad.
[00:31:35] And it was, it was so funny during his, um, event selling class. They have to job shadow for at least half a day. And, um, the folks there were telling ’em how hard their job is. Mm-hmm. And he, he told me he was too polite to tell them. And he said, professor Coats, you know, they were seen how hard their job was.
[00:31:54] And I’m thinking you have air conditioning. Yeah. So in his mind, any job that has air conditioning, that’s easy. Right. Spend, you know, you know, in August afternoon pouring concrete. Right? Tell me what’s hard then. Right? And so, man, that, that kid, and he asked such amazingly beautiful piercing questions and he showed such interest in the answers.
[00:32:19] He, he’s just a, a great kid. Um, I got this, this other kid. Um, he came to me also through the entrepreneurship program. He knew that if he’s gonna be a solopreneur, uh, actually partner with his dad in their business. He needed to know how to sell. Mm-hmm. And so, and that, that kid, he stretched through the door and he is got a smile that is big as all outdoors.
[00:32:45] I mean, just huge smile, just good looking kid, a smart kid. And he, uh, I gave him a referral. Okay. And, um, with a good friend of mine for, um, ’cause they, they, they’re in the same industry. Only she does more enterprise level. Okay. Where his company is more smb, small mid market. Yep. I said, Hey, you know, uh, you may need somebody to, to help these.
[00:33:12] He goes, absolutely. And so I gave him that, that referral and then a few months afterwards I checked back with her and go, how’s he doing? She told me that they are doing amazing and just a great partner for them. Wow. So things like that just makes you happy. Yeah,
[00:33:34] Chris Corcoran: for sure. What do you do to promote your program?
[00:33:37] To get students to take the classes to join the program.
[00:33:40] Thom Coats: Yeah. That’s, uh, that’s not as easy as you would think when Covid was the thing. Yeah. Uh, MTSU. Was not as strict as many universities. Uh, my classes are always live. Okay. But I had to wear a mask. Okay. Now for your podcast people, they don’t know that I have a very large white beard, which is hysterical.
[00:34:03] ’cause I, I wear a normal mask. I’ve looked like I’m trying to eat a rabbit. But I did have a, a, a rather large mass. It covered the beard and had a Viking symbol on the side. Oh, cool. But it, but, uh, it was cool. But, um, Recruiting at that time was difficult. Yeah. But what I do now is, um, a couple of things. We have this program called Ignite and most universities have something like that.
[00:34:30] Okay. What’s Ignite? Where it, it’s, um, promoting professionalism. It’s like one-off classes that a, the students in the Jones College of Business can take. Okay. And so I, I do about three of them on, on LinkedIn. Different, um, aspects of LinkedIn, but also host a morning networking event where I invite in our corporate partners, I have our students in there and I teach them how to work a networking event.
[00:34:57] Mm. And simple common sense stuff like, you know, where is the best place to stand at a networking event? Here’s your big question. Let’s see how good you are.
[00:35:08] Chris Corcoran: I like to stand by the door, get people before they go out. Or by the bar. Or by the bar.
[00:35:14] Thom Coats: Okay. See, I’ll meet you halfway. All right. The best place for me yeah.
[00:35:19] Is between the door and the bar. Okay. Because if you’re there, first thing people do is they hedge for the beverages. Right. Right. And so the room works you rather than you having to work the room. Right. But you have the same
[00:35:32] Chris Corcoran: principle. Yeah. Well, I like to like, uh, CC ’em come in and then hunt ’em down.
[00:35:37] Thom Coats: But that, um, so simple little things like that, you know, how to disengage with somebody that’s not a profitable conversation. Mm-hmm. You know, because, you know, everybody likes to be polite. Sure. But yeah, it’s, it’s your time. Yeah. Um, So coach them with that. That’s a great recruiting tool. ’cause they get to meet how my corporate partners, they get to meet me.
[00:35:57] Is that how I engage the students? And how often do you do these then? Each semester? Just once. One, once a semester, A networking event. Yep. And then we do a etiquette dinner once a semester where I invite 130 of my favorite students, or rather, any student that in the Jones College that signs up for it, all the corporate partners are there and we, we have a, a dinner where, um, it’s not only where to put your neck and what fork to use, but practical approach to professional dining.
[00:36:29] There’s a networking event to go along with that. So that’s actually a great recruiting tool. Mm-hmm. Uh, then the recruiting of the students telling their friends that you should take this class right, is a big way to recruit as well. And your program has how many professors? Let’s see. Um, five.
[00:36:51] Chris Corcoran: Five, okay.
[00:36:52] Wow. Wow.
[00:36:56] Thom Coats: Because I teach both the professional selling and event selling. Then I have, um, actually seven, if you look at it, I have two that, um, or three actually that can teach the B2B. Uh, and then I have, um, the, um, two that teach the, um, sales manager.
[00:37:16] Chris Corcoran: I see. Okay. What would, what would you say to that student who’s on the fence on, on whether or not.
[00:37:23] They wanna take, take, join the sales
[00:37:27] Thom Coats: program. I have no problem whatsoever. Um, at our university, it’s marketing 38 40. Okay. Professional selling, everybody sells. So my task there, it’s not just to teach you how to be a salesperson. Mm-hmm. That’s not my task. My task is to teach you how to promote your ideals.
[00:37:45] Everybody sells either internally or externally. Mm-hmm. I use my oldest son as a prime example of that because he is a mechanical engineer. Okay. So if you look at life as a spectrum as far as your careers on when end, you have mechanical engineers. On the other end of the spectrum, you have salespeople, they, they cannot be further apart.
[00:38:05] Right? Bye. That young man is probably one of the best salespeople I know. Wow. I mean, and he, oh, he would, he, he hates when I say that, but he uses the, the StoryBrand model at presenting his ideals to not only the leadership team there at the, at Chattanooga, but North America and back in Europe as well for Volkswagen.
[00:38:29] Oh, wow. And secures millions upon millions of dollars for his program. And so he’s a good sales guy. He doesn’t think so, but he is. Mm-hmm. He’s an engineer. Mm-hmm. You just need to be able to promote your ideals and explain that properly. How do you handle people when they, they push back? How do you handle that?
[00:38:49] How do you ask questions so that you’re getting to the right point? Those things are skill sets that will help you if you’re doing that internal cell or the external sell.. I see.
[00:39:01] Chris Corcoran: Uh, what about the, this book, the Go-Giver?
[00:39:03] Thom Coats: Oh, man. All right. The Go-Giver is, it’s easy, easy peasy to read. It’s written in a, a parable style.
[00:39:11] Okay. So you can read it in the airport on the way home. Okay. Okay. It’s, it’s, the whole premise of the book is if I help others achieve their goals, I don’t have to worry about my own. Uh, and I, I love that concept. There’s five laws of Stratospheric success to that. And so at graduation, when I’m awarding the, stole to my seniors that are graduating mm-hmm.
[00:39:37] Um, we have the big dinner. They invite their family because they have earned something big. So I want to make sure that they are recognized and I hang their, stole around their neck. And then I ask them to take the True Blue Pledge to follow the five laws of Stratospheric Success. The laws, don’t make me quote them all, but the premise of the law is that if, if I’m more focused on serving you than the dollar amount that’s gonna come from it, that’s a good thing.
[00:40:05] Mm-hmm. If I am more true to myself when I serve you authentically, that’s a good thing. If I care more about, about the success of what we’re doing right now than other things are happening, that’s a good thing I. Then the hardest thing that is the one of the laws that they’re expected of my students, and that’s if I need help, I will ask for it.
[00:40:31] Mm-hmm. That’s, to me personally, that’s, that’s my drawback is you, I don’t, I like doing it myself. I like being the guy in charge. Mm-hmm. And so that’s my personal. Pain point. So, um, but having them follow those five laws and they, they go, I do. And, you know, everybody collabs, you know, it’s pretty cool.
[00:40:55] Chris Corcoran: That’s great. Tell me about, uh, unstuck Business Academy C-Suite. Oh,
[00:41:02] Thom Coats: you did your research. All right. So, or somebody did. Yeah. Okay. So this is several years ago before the university, um, Oh, I grew up in a, a chainsaw dealership in South Mississippi. Okay. That’s what my father did. And as most people in business, you know, solopreneurs, you know, small business guys, they go into something they’re good at that they enjoy doing.
[00:41:28] So their growth goes up, up, up at the, for the beginning and then at some point their hard work and common sense kind of flattens out. Yep. Then they’re stuck. Mm-hmm. Well, I, I sit down with a, some buddies of mine, there’s eight other consultants at the moment, and I, I said, Hey, yeah, I want to do something to help folks like my dad.
[00:41:51] Mm-hmm. And I, I gave that example. One of ’em goes with, sounds like we need to do an unstuck event. I said, yep. Mm-hmm. We’re gonna do an unstuck conference. We did the first one at, um, held at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. Oh, wow. We, um, raised money for the Scott Ton Cares Foundation and so it was really pretty cool.
[00:42:15] Very successful. Had a great time. Um, we did it in a TEDx format. Okay. Uh, and I, I went to the folks afterwards, I said, you know, this is pretty amazing, but. Did you really get to share everything you wanted to? Everybody said, well, no, I said me either. So let’s, let’s take what we want and we’ll compile each of those into a chapter of a book.
[00:42:41] Okay? And so we. Did that and we hired a, um, an, um, an editor to go through, make sure that it was one voice all the way through. And so we launched the Unstuck book and, um, you know, I don’t know if you’ve ever self-published, so mm-hmm. But, The goal there is Amazon will, they’ll do a, a top list, top 100 list every, I think it’s every 15 minutes.
[00:43:10] And your goal is, okay, you have this launch party and you get all of your friends and families to go buy your book during those 15 minutes so you can appear on that list. Yeah, well think about it. There’s nine type A personalities that are loud and obnoxious. Okay. So we did our lunch party. We were number one on the list, but we weren’t a, we were not a, um, just a match that sputters out.
[00:43:39] We stayed number one for a week. Oh, wow. And we were in the top 10 for almost a month. Now, is that, are we really that good? No, we’re just loud and obnoxious, but isn’t that cool? That’s amazing.
[00:43:52] Chris Corcoran: So you turned it into a book? Yeah. And what’s the name of the book for the listeners? Unstuck. Unstuck. And they can get it on Amazon?
[00:43:58] Yeah,
[00:43:58] Thom Coats: they can now. There’s several chapters in there that are really good. Is mine great? No, but the others are really, really good. Yeah, mine is. Okay, I gotcha. Um, yeah, but it, it was a lot of fun. And then we did the conference a couple of more times. Um, but then Covid hit mm-hmm. And Covid, you know, of course we couldn’t do a conference with Covid, those two, those two years.
[00:44:23] And then I had a, the C-Suite was an offshoot of the Unstuck Business Academy. Okay. Where I had a, a networking. Group. I own a networking company. I had up to six chapters in the middle Tennessee market. Like a B&N type thing. Yeah, kinda sorta of only B&N is the lead gen organization where my organization was more relationship, um, building.
[00:44:48] Okay. It was more for the C level. I see then, then the B&N folks being in as a a great organization has a great place. Yeah. Uh, this is the, the program there is really designed, um, the premise of it is you, it’s invitation only. You, um, first 30 minutes go meet new people, but then I assign everybody a table.
[00:45:11] Okay. Uh, there’s five or six professionals per table. And at the appropriate moment, each person at that table will have six minutes to share their story. Okay. And it doesn’t need to be stuffed from your website or marketing slick. I want to know who you are as a person, right? Because I’m convicted in the belief, if I know who you are in your heart, I’m more likely to do business with you.
[00:45:33] Sure. So it’s that relationship, business relationship mm-hmm. Program. And so we’re about to open up one in Memphis, and then Covid hit. I see. Uh, tried to do it on, on, um, On Zoom and did it for a little bit. It just didn’t have the same jazz to it. Uh, and then when Covid started slacking up a little bit, it just, it just didn’t quite work.
[00:45:57] And I was so focused on the university at that time. Right. So it still exists sorta in my mind, maybe. Yeah. But we don’t have meetings anymore.
[00:46:05] Chris Corcoran: I see. Okay. Well, what’s next for the, uh, the Center for Professional? Sales
[00:46:10] Thom Coats: or selling. Yeah. Center for Professional, professional Selling. So what’s what’s next there is we’ll continue to grow the, the organization.
[00:46:19] Um, you know, we’re adding the, uh, international component this semester and we’ll try to do that every semester moving forward. Uh, we’ve just added a, a new professor that has, um, sales background as well, so that that’ll help out a lot. Uh, we do external competitions. Okay. Um, we. One in particular that I really like is the one that the, the guy down at, uh, Florida International dude.
[00:46:47] Okay. Global
[00:46:48] Chris Corcoran: bilingual.
[00:46:49] Thom Coats: Oh, global bilingual. Okay. Oh my goodness. It’s great. And you compete against, you know, universities all over Latin America, Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico really is amazing competition. Um, now did we do great? No. ’cause I don’t speak Spanish. Do a
[00:47:04] Chris Corcoran: lot of your students, are a lot
[00:47:05] Thom Coats: of your students bilingual?
[00:47:06] Yeah, I have quite a few. Okay. And so we did okay, but not, we didn’t place or anything. Uh, and then we also do the, um, state Farm, uh, marketing and sales competition. We do okay there, but we don’t win it. Mm-hmm. Uh, and I, I, I think that’s more my fault than the students. And so I’m, I’m getting closer to figuring that one out.
[00:47:30] Um, so I’m, I’m taking, I’m taking the head on that one. All right. Okay. But then we do the Northeast Intercollegiate sales competition out of, um, Bryant University Bryant. Yep. And, um, so the first time we did that, I had to do that one because the State Farm one did not happen, uh, that semester. This was early on.
[00:47:53] So that first semester, one of my students came in second in the elevator pitch competition. I said, okay, that’s not bad. The next year though, still online, not live, still online, virtual, uh, we came in fifth. Wow. Not too bad. And then last semester we were, um, live there in Rhode Island and, um, I had took five students up there, three of them made semi-finals.
[00:48:22] One of my students came in second in the bilingual, and then one of my students came in number one overall, and our team came in first. Wow. So that was pretty way cool. They do, she does a fabulous competition. Do you do the rainmaker thing? No, I don’t. No, she, no. She’ll hate me for this ’cause she says I’m wrong and, and I’m not gonna deny that I’m.
[00:48:46] That she’s not right. Um, but I’m convinced that that thing does not like Middle Tennessee accents. But she says, yes, it’ll adjust. Go. We’ll see. But yeah, so far it’s not, I don’t think they’ve ever spoken to anybody from Middle Tennessee. Yep. Because there’s, I, I have a draw. Middle Tennessee, we have a twain there.
[00:49:09] That it’s not quite the same. So it, it’s, there’s some difficulty there in translation. Okay. Okay. But it’s a great thing. Yeah. It’s
[00:49:16] Chris Corcoran: really cool. Well, actually, what, what did it feel like to go up there and
[00:49:19] Thom Coats: win? Oh, fantastic. Have the way that they do the final. Okay. My friend is the, it was just the coolest thing ever.
[00:49:29] Tell me about it. So we’re in this, this, this. Um, the, the facility is a two room, um, a two floor facility with a large main room, two, two floor main room. Okay. The walls are, uh, clear on the, the exterior of this main room. And so you have conference rooms on the first and second floor of, of that main room.
[00:49:53] On the wall. On the upper part of the wall in that main area is like a jumbotron. Okay. And so the role plays were projected live on the jumbo jumbotron. Wow. As there’s like a couple of hundred students sitting in that main area watching. And so the students will walk in and they’ll, the student, a student will say something and you hear, Ooh.
[00:50:23] And it is like a, it’s like a sporting event. Wow. When my student comes in, And, um, she, uh, she’s just a rockstar. And, um, and she closed the deal and it was the, the coolest thing. She had the, the, the sales agreement right there in front of her and she just slid the sales agreement over and she smiled. She leaned back, she smiled, she goes, all we need to get started is a couple of signatures right there.
[00:50:53] We’re good to go. Mm-hmm. The folks in front of me were from the sponsor company and they go mic drop. Wow. They go, wow. And the, the crowd actually, the crowd went wild. It’s, it’s a role play and the crowd went, wow. It was so much fun. Wow. She does an amazing competition. That’s great.
[00:51:15] Chris Corcoran: I’m so impressed. Yeah.
[00:51:16] And that’s in the spring? Yep. Uh, it’s in the fall. Oh, it’s in the fall? Yeah. And you’ll be going this year?
[00:51:20] Thom Coats: Yes sir. When is it? November, I think was November. Yeah. Very good.
[00:51:25] Chris Corcoran: Very good. Well, Tom, I really appreciate your wisdom. You know, you’ve, you’ve seen a lot through the being a professional salesperson, and then you’ve taken all that wisdom.
[00:51:34] You bottled it, and now you’re, you’re, you’re sharing it with the next generation and really creating, uh, the sales superstars of tomorrow. So thank you for joining us. I’ve enjoyed it. Thank you very much. Appreciate, absolutely appreciate it. Thank you. Boom.