Episode 108: Sage Fleischmann – Going The Extra Mile
While getting thrown in the deep end is scary, it can often be the fastest way to learn how to swim. Learning the art of sales is no different. Sage Fleischmann, a business development representative at Qlik, found that simply learning as he went and utilizing every up and down as an opportunity for growth was the best way to develop within his role.
In this episode of Tech Sales is for Hustlers, Sage describes his many experiences with trial and error, reflects on how his hard work in the sales industry has paid off, and discusses how he has learned to embrace his mistakes.
Guest-At-A-Glance
💡 Name: Sage Fleischmann
💡 What he does: He’s a business development representative at Qlik.
💡 Company: Qlik
💡 Noteworthy: Sage used to be a sales development representative at memoryBlue.
💡 Where to find Sage: LinkedIn
Key Insights
⚡ Learning as you go is the best way to learn. Every beginning is hard, especially in sales. You feel overwhelmed all the time, and you feel like you’re lagging. But the trick is to understand that it’s an ongoing learning journey; so, take every chance you get to learn and develop. Sage says, “You’re going to learn as you go. That’s the best way to learn. Because when you get your first couple of conversations, every little bit of research you did is going to go right out of your head when you’re trying to ask the right questions and respond to them in a way that the prospect would like to dig out those pain points in those calls; it’s trial by fire. That’s the best way to explain it.”
⚡ Hard work always pays off. One thing’s for sure; hard work will never go unnoticed. So, roll up your sleeves to accomplish your career goals. Sage explains, “Here at memoryBlue, you can get away with a hundred dials a day. […] That’s what they consider an ideal day, but does that show your client you’re really putting in work? And that’s something James Mc Phillips and I talked about because, obviously, I was pretty upset that they hired them out before I did, and he was like, ‘Give me two months of you trying your hardest, and I will get you hired out.'”
⚡ Embracing mistakes will make you better at your job. Your mistakes are your biggest lessons. So, learn to embrace them. Sage says, “You’re going to learn as you go. Not to be over-prepared and worry about what the phones are going to be like and how you’re going to handle these objections, and what you’re going to say. You just got to go ahead first. And that’s how you learn from your mistakes. You learn from your failures, and that’ll make you a better SDR or BDR at the end of the day.”
Episode Highlights
Don’t be intimidated
“My best advice would probably be don’t be intimidated when you first walk in because you walk into a morning blitz, and there are people standing up talking on the phones, and it can be kind of intimidating, honestly. I was a little intimidated, and so, my best advice would be just try not to be intimidated when you first walk in. You’ll get into your groove and get your team, your manager, and it’ll be fine.”
Beginnings can feel overwhelming
“It was a lot of information to take in at once. And, like I said, that was before I started and got on the phones and everything. So, I was trying to take in as much as I could and try not to freak out so I could feel prepared and everything. But yeah, it was really eye-opening, but everything we learned there, I still use today.”
Always come prepared
“Being prepared is important to me because I don’t [want to] show up and do something and just look bad, I guess. You don’t want to look like you don’t care either, which is something that I feel is important.”
Nothing beats office energy
“On the floor with all your coworkers, it’s a totally different environment. And you love it way more because everyone’s just around listening in, and everyone gets hyped. The energy’s high, and it’s like, let’s get another one. Let’s get right back on the phone and do it again because that feeling is insane.”
Go that extra mile
“My best advice, especially if you want to get hired out, is to go that extra mile. Do that extra work because that’s what’s going to separate you from anybody else.”
Every failure is a chance to grow
“Don’t take it as an opportunity to make excuses and shoot yourself down. Take it as an opportunity to grow, learn more, and get better.”
Try your best
“I don’t think I understood how hard it was going to be. And it’s all about the grind, pretty much. That was part of me realizing I needed to do more as well, as you can’t just come in and work the motions. You’ve got to try your best.”
Transcript:
[00:00:00] Sage Fleischmann: On the floor, I mean, with all your coworkers, it’s a totally different environment. You love it way more ’cause everyone’s just around kind of listening in and everyone gets hyped, the energy’s high, and it’s, like, let’s get another one, let’s get right back on the phones and do it again ’cause that feeling is, like, insane.
[00:00:37] Marc Gonyea: Sage Fleischmann in the house.
[00:00:40] Sage Fleischmann: What’s up, guys? How’s it going?
[00:00:43] Chris Corcoran: Sage, rocking the mustache.
[00:00:46] Sage Fleischmann: Got to, you got to. Got, got an early jump on no shave November, for the mustache at least.
[00:00:51] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, looking good.
[00:00:53] Sage Fleischmann: Thank you, thank you. I appreciate it.
[00:00:56] Marc Gonyea: As the world turns at memoryBlue, I mean, you and I met for the first time.
[00:01:00] Sage Fleischmann: I know, kind of crazy.
[00:01:01] Marc Gonyea: Today.
[00:01:02] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah.
[00:01:02] Marc Gonyea: And why was that?
[00:01:04] Sage Fleischmann: You know, I don’t know, I mean, I was only here for about six months. I was here for, uh, the fireside chat when you came,but that was kind of as I was exiting. So, yeah, I wish it would’ve happened earlier, but.
[00:01:16] Marc Gonyea: Hey, that’s the beauty of the model, we’ll get into that.
[00:01:18] Sage Fleischmann: We’re here now, right?
[00:01:20] Marc Gonyea: Exactly, we’re here now. And you’re in a great place. All right. So, Chris and I, this is a perfect opportunity for us to get to know you a little bit, but also for the people listening. There are people listening, either current SCRs or thinking about being SCRs, and they wanna, like, know about everybody who left and who worked here and what they’re doing now, where they came from, all that stuff. So, it’s a good opportunity for us and for them. So, tell us a little bit about just where are you from? Where’d you grow up?
[00:01:44] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, yeah. So, born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, just kind of grew up there. A little different than most towns I would say, or, or, but lived, like, 15 minutes west of the Strip. So, didn’t really do that much touristy stuff, it was pretty normal, I would say, you know, in that neighborhood, so.
[00:02:01] Marc Gonyea: You didn’t meet a lot of people from Vegas?
[00:02:03] Sage Fleischmann: No, not a lot. I feel like most of the people I went to high school and middle school with kind of stayed around there, um, got into the hotel industry, like, kind of did their thing that way, so, yeah..
[00:02:12] Marc Gonyea: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yeah. What were you like as a kid?
[00:02:14] I had a, I grew up with a little brother.
[00:02:16] Marc Gonyea: Oh, little brother?
[00:02:17] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah. So, it was us, kind of crazy a little bit liked to go out and, uh, you know, when we were kids caused a little bit of trouble here and there, yeah.
[00:02:25] Who is the troublemaker? I would say both of us a little bit. We kinda egg each other on, so.
[00:02:29] Marc Gonyea: All right. And then, when you’re kind of, get into high school. What kind of kid were you like, a sports kid? Were you, did you have a job? Are you a school guy? Are you something else?
[00:02:37] Sage Fleischmann: I was definitely sports, I played football and lacrosse in high school, um, and then,
[00:02:42] Marc Gonyea: They played lacrosse in las Vegas, Nevada?
[00:02:44] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, they do. Not, it wasn’t very popular, you know, your team, you had here and there for a couple of schools, but, you know, traveled to Utah, played in tournaments and that sort of thing, so. Which sport was your choice?
[00:02:57] I grew, I grew up playing football most of my life, and then picked up lacrosse in high school. I would say football, for sure.
[00:03:04] In what position? I was a receiver in a corner.
[00:03:06] Marc Gonyea: Okay.
[00:03:07] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah.
[00:03:07] Marc Gonyea: Corcoran, Sage has some size on him.
[00:03:10] Chris Corcoran: Wingsman.
[00:03:11] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah.
[00:03:11] Marc Gonyea: That’s right. Did you, you, you were a more physical corner with that size?
[00:03:15] Sage Fleischmann: I was, I didn’t have a lot of the size in high school, I mean, yeah, I probably weighed like a 170, a 160, a 170 pounds, so, not, not a very big dude. And then, got into college, started working out a lot.
[00:03:28] Marc Gonyea: Okay. We’ll get the, we’ll get to that part.
[00:03:30] Sage Fleischmann: Sounds good.
[00:03:32] Marc Gonyea: But what I wanna ask you is what do you think you wanted to do when you were in high school?
[00:03:37] Sage Fleischmann: Oh, man, you know, I really, I didn’t have any idea, just kind of, you know, I know you said we get to college, but, I mean, this kind of plays into that, well, when I got into college I changed my major three times, just kind of took a bunch of basic classes to figure out what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to go to college.
[00:03:53] Marc Gonyea: Yes. That’s good.
[00:03:54] Sage Fleischmann: That is good, but I didn’t really know what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, just,
[00:03:58] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, okay. So, you weren’t sure, like, what your parents did or cousins or aunts or uncles or anything? It just, I don’t know what I wanna do.
[00:04:05] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, yeah. So, my dad was a firefighter.
[00:04:07] Marc Gonyea: Okay. Wow.
[00:04:08] Sage Fleischmann: And he always kind of,
[00:04:10] Chris Corcoran: That’s where you get that mustache.
[00:04:12] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, exactly, exactly, it’s, it’s genetic. But,
[00:04:16] Marc Gonyea: His job, right?
[00:04:17] But yeah, he, and he kind of, growing up, you know, I, when I would mention I kind of wanted to be a firefighter when I was younger and do that sort of thing, he kinda, it like instilled it in my mind he’d rather me work kind of with my head, smarts, and stuff than work with my hands all day and, like, labor and that sort of thing.
[00:04:34] Sage Fleischmann: Let me ask you if they go back to Vegas real quick. What generation were Vegas, were your parents from Vegas? So, my dad was born in Long Island, New York. Moved to Vegas when he was, like, 12 ’cause my grandpa was the co-pilot for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
[00:04:48] Marc Gonyea: Okay. He was a pilot?
[00:04:49] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah. He was like a team pilot. So, he would, he would fly ’em around to their games, and it was cheaper to keep the plane in Vegas than it was L.A.
[00:04:55] Marc Gonyea: Interesting. Fascinating.
[00:04:58] And then, my mom is from Colorado. She grew up in Loveland, Colorado, which is like,
[00:05:03] Marc Gonyea: Oh, what a great place to grow up.
[00:05:04] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, yeah. So,
[00:05:05] Marc Gonyea: Probably where learned to ski,
[00:05:06] Sage Fleischmann: Oh, there you go, there you go, yeah. So, about an hour away from here, and she moved to Vegas ’cause she was an archeologist at the time and got a job at this company called Desert Research Institute. So, she was doing that for a while, and, uh, yeah, I met at a tequila party and it’s, I guess, just, we’re here now, so.
[00:05:24] Marc Gonyea: Okay, alright. So, yeah, I was, I was curious about the born and raised in Vegas. So, let’s go back to that. So, your pops like, “Hey, you need to go to college.” And you wanted to go to college, too.
[00:05:32] Sage Fleischmann: Exactly.
[00:05:33] Marc Gonyea: Okay. So, and you didn’t know what you wanted to do? So, where’d you end up going? What’d you consider? Like, you’re, you’re Vegas, you, you’re not from, you’re Nevada. How’d you up in Colorado?
[00:05:43] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah. So, ended up going to CSU, Colorado State. You know, my first couple of semesters took a bunch of classes ’cause I didn’t really know what I wanted.
[00:05:52] Marc Gonyea: Well, what else, what other schools were you considering? You considered staying, stay in Nevada?
[00:05:56] You know, I kind of did, but I kind of wanted to go out and do my own thing. Yeah, I kind of wanted to make a new group of friends, kind of fill it out, out here. To be honest, I was kind of sick of Vegas, really, just being there my whole life, I wanted something new, so.
[00:06:09] Marc Gonyea: Okay, alright, okay, got it. So, you settled at CSU? And tell us about that.
[00:06:14] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah. So, originally, you know, I kind of, my roommate in the dorms was a finance major, and I was like, “Okay, like, I’ll try that out.” Took some classes in the business school, and it’s like, “No way.”
[00:06:24] So, then a lot of my other buddies that were, you know, in my fraternity when I was pledging and stuff like that, they were in construction. So, took construction one-on-one, and I was like, “This isn’t it.” And then, took just kind of a bunch of classes to figure it out, and I took an intro to legal studies class,
[00:06:41] and I was like, “Yep, this is it.” So, declared my major, I was sociology with a concentration in criminology and then a minor in legal studies. And that’s what I got my degree in.
[00:06:53] Marc Gonyea: That you had a degree, and then I noticed when you were on, you know, you had, you were doing that in the summers, right?
[00:06:58] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, yeah. I was, mainly summer going into my senior year, was when I got, like, the internship I really wanted. And, you know, not a lot of places were, were hiring internships at that time, you know, law firms from even here to Denver. So, you know what I did? I applied online, called ’em, and went in and gave them my resume in person, too. Ended up getting that internship, it was at a really small law firm, so.
[00:07:22] Marc Gonyea: But, but you thought you wanted to be an attorney?
[00:07:23] Sage Fleischmann: I did.
[00:07:23] Marc Gonyea: Which we hear that a lot, people who are, end up in sales, like, head of buy, head of sales, he thought he was gonna go to law school. So, keep going. So, you got your internship. But I’m always curious people who think they wanna go to law school and end up in tech sales.
[00:07:35] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, yeah. So, got my internship. It was awesome, I was working for a small criminal defense firm, you know, I was a receptionist, the guy who ran the firm and me. So, it was small, um, so got a lot of experience there, and I was like, “This is what I want to do.”
[00:07:50] And took the LSAT, my senior year of college, and it was, like, one of the hardest things I’d ever done. I, I studied for months, you know, preparing for it and, uh, didn’t do as well as I, I would’ve hoped that I did. So, that was, that was discouraging. And then, you know, after graduating, I was like, “You know, I’m gonna go work at a law firm,” and really, you know, feel it out, like, a different law firm, a bigger one, see kind of what, what’s going on there, and if I’m. So, right after college, went and worked for eight months in a personal injury firm.
[00:08:21] Marc Gonyea: Oh, wow, okay. How’d you get that job?
[00:08:23] Just applied online. Just right outta school. And applied to a couple firms. They got back to me first and, so took, did some interviews and took that job. And some of my buddies were moving to Denver for jobs as well. So, ended up living with them. So, that was a right outta college job,
[00:08:38] Sage Fleischmann: Right outta college.
[00:08:39] Marc Gonyea: for your first job? So, you’re working at a personal injury law firm, and hoping to what? Just to kind of learn, like?
[00:08:44] Sage Fleischmann: Just to, just to learn.
[00:08:45] And help me understand. So, but you, that kind of brought LSAT, which happens to lots of people, but you continued to pursue.
[00:08:52] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, yeah. So, I didn’t want to just, like, kind of give it up right there ’cause I didn’t do well. I really wanted to continue to kind of pursue it, and my plan was to take the LSAT again, study for it, take it again, and, you know, after working in that job and in that environment, I was like, “There’s no way I can do this for, you know, the rest of my life.”
[00:09:13] Marc Gonyea: Tell us why. ‘Cause a lot of people who, I think they wanna be lawyers, it might be good some from the, to hear from you all this.
[00:09:19] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah. So, I feel like a lot of people look at it as like, “I’m gonna be in trial, I’m gonna be doing all these things every day. That’s gonna be exciting.” You know, when I went it was a lot of just kind of mundane work, you know, going through the motions and, you know, I just wasn’t a fan of, I, it might have just been personal injury law, but I wasn’t a fan of, you know, just kind of the way that they interacted with the clients and, um, I was like, “You know what? This isn’t for me.”
[00:09:46] I was kind of unhappy just going through the motions every day, and I was like, “I need something different.”
[00:09:52] Marc Gonyea: Mm-hmm, and you were living in Denver?
[00:09:54] I was living in Thornton, so like, 20 minutes outside.
[00:09:56] Marc Gonyea: Okay. 20, 20 minutes out, so you said, okay, I’m gonna pivot.
[00:09:58] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, exactly.
[00:09:59] Marc Gonyea: Where, and how did you, what’d you wanna pivot to? ‘Cause that’s pretty common for people who chop outta school and realize that’s not what they wanna do, they wanna go to something else. So, walk us through kind of how that happened.
[00:10:10] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah. So, I had no idea where I was gonna go, what I was gonna do. So, I talked to my parents, they were like, “You know what?
[00:10:18] You’re really unhappy, and we can kind of tell.” And they were like, “Well, what are you gonna do?” And I said, “I don’t know.” So, I applied to a bunch of stuff online and ended up working at a pizza restaurant, just till I figure, I didn’t wanna rush into another profession or industry and have to change it again and be like, “I don’t like this.”
[00:10:35] So, yeah, I just ended up working at a pizza restaurant in the Highlands in Denver, and did that for seven months, six, seven months. I was looking for other jobs ’cause it was hard work, you know? Working sometimes 12-hour shifts, working the pizza oven, and yeah, so.
[00:10:53] Marc Gonyea: That’ll give you a perspective on work.
[00:10:55] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah. I’ll probably never work in a kitchen again, but, uh, applied to some other jobs, and my parents, my mom is in real estate, my uncle is in sales, and my grandpa sold IBM.
[00:11:07] Marc Gonyea: Oh, well, dude, you guys back, in the sales background.
[00:11:10] Sage Fleischmann: So, they were like, “Hey, you should consider sales.” And, just, I mean, the week they said that to me, a recruiter reached out to me from memoryBlue, and here we are now, so.
[00:11:21] Marc Gonyea: Which recruiter?
[00:11:22] Sage Fleischmann: Morgan.
[00:11:23] Marc Gonyea: Morgan.
[00:11:23] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah.
[00:11:24] Marc Gonyea: Morgan Curington.
[00:11:25] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, shout out to Morgan.
[00:11:26] Marc Gonyea: Shout out to Morgan. I don’t ring the bell,
[00:11:28] Chris Corcoran: Mo C.
[00:11:30] Sage Fleischmann: I don’t ring the bell for that one, I’m sorry. I got bell, I have bell responsibility today, so I’m playing out position a little bit. Okay, alright.
[00:11:37] Marc Gonyea: So, Morgan reached out to you, right? Keep going.
[00:11:40] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah. So, she reached out to me, and she was like, “This is what we’re about at memoryBlue, and I kind of, you know, saw it as an opportunity to get my foot in the door in the tech sales industry.
[00:11:52] Marc Gonyea: That’s exactly what the opportunity is.
[00:11:53] Sage Fleischmann: Exactly, exactly.
[00:11:54] Marc Gonyea: Recognize that pitch.
[00:11:55] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, exactly, and a lot of my buddies that were around me in Denver were in tech sales, and I saw them doing,
[00:12:02] Marc Gonyea: And people you met here, people from college?
[00:12:04] Sage Fleischmann: People from college. A lot of my buddies from college that were in the Denver area were in tech sales. My roommate at the time was in tech sales, too.
[00:12:12] Marc Gonyea: Okay, oh, excellent.
[00:12:12] Sage Fleischmann: And so, I was like, “You know what? I’m gonna give this a shot.” You know, did the interviews, did all that, and just kind of jumped head first into it.
[00:12:20] Marc Gonyea: Wow, and, alright, so you got some encouragement from your family, and then some of your friends.
[00:12:26] Sage Fleischmann: And then, some of my friends, and my roommate, and I saw, I kind of saw what he was doing ’cause I had, you know, weekdays off at the restaurant, and I would see him, you know, working from home, doing his thing, and I was like, “This looks interesting.” So,
[00:12:38] Marc Gonyea: So, it’s, you give it a shot. Right, this is all coming outta COVID?
[00:12:41] Sage Fleischmann: Right, that’s, yeah.
[00:12:42] Marc Gonyea: Okay, good, and a lot of that skill sets is transferable, some of it I think, I think some of the traits that maybe you thought would be good for you to apply in, in the legal profession, there’s some of those same skill sets you can apply to.
[00:12:55] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, exactly.
[00:12:56] Marc Gonyea: Certainly. All right. What do you remember from the interview process with us? What was that, all that long ago?
[00:13:02] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, yeah. So, I remember, I mean, my main memory from it was, uh, you know, did the interviews, and, uh, it was time for me to come in and do my mock sales pitch.
[00:13:14] Marc Gonyea: Your role-play.
[00:13:15] Sage Fleischmann: My role play, sorry, that.
[00:13:17] Marc Gonyea: That’s okay.
[00:13:18] Sage Fleischmann: But yeah, the role play, and I did it with Joey Plesce, I was shaking, shaking in my boots the whole time, and yeah, nervous, nervous, for sure. But yeah, I knew that I wanted to do this, I just had a gut feeling that this was what I, the right path, you know, and got my offer later that day.
[00:13:37] Marc Gonyea: And did you prep for the role play?
[00:13:38] Sage Fleischmann: I did.
[00:13:39] Marc Gonyea: I always care about the prep.
[00:13:40] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah. Morgan, Morgan helped me out.
[00:13:41] Marc Gonyea: Morgan helped you out, probably too much.
[00:13:44] Sage Fleischmann: Morgan? No.
[00:13:48] Marc Gonyea: All right. Just a little bit.
[00:13:48] Sage Fleischmann: Just a little bit.
[00:13:50] Marc Gonyea: And then, who else did you interview with? You interview with Julia too?
[00:13:52] Sage Fleischmann: I did interview with Julia,. and, um, it was interesting because she, I believe she was at a serving job before she came here.
[00:13:59] Marc Gonyea: She was.
[00:14:00] So, yeah, just kind of was able to relate with her on that front, in the interview, kind of made it a little less intimidating, you know? So, yeah, was able to kind of relate with her in that aspect, so.
[00:14:12] Marc Gonyea: And then, so, you came in, you, they offered, you accepted. And then, what was day one like?
[00:14:17] Sage Fleischmann: Oh, man. So, day one, I guess I wanted to know everything right away, you know, and
[00:14:23] Marc Gonyea: What, what do you mean by that?
[00:14:25] Sage Fleischmann: I wanted to, ’cause I knew I was gonna have to get on the phones, you know, eventually, and I didn’t go to boot camp from the start, I was in, in the office for a week before. Um, so, he just kind of came in, started, and was doing, like, crazy amount of research on the client, you know, research, research.
[00:14:42] And who was your client? Qlik. It’s actually, it’s who I work for now.
[00:14:45] Marc Gonyea: Okay. What, what does Qlik, Qlik do?
[00:14:47] Sage Fleischmann: It’s a data analytics. They do data analytics and data integration. I was on the analytics side, and, and that’s what I’m still doing now.
[00:14:54] Marc Gonyea: Okay. I wouldn’t get to that for sure.
[00:14:55] Sage Fleischmann: All right.
[00:14:56] Marc Gonyea: Right. So, you’re doing your research. And did you have, did you know what you were gonna be, did you have an ideas what the job was? What an SDR does?
[00:15:03] Sage Fleischmann: A little bit, not yet, and, you know, I knew a week, a week or so from that day I was gonna be getting on the phones, and I was like, “I need to know everything.” So, like, if
[00:15:15] Marc Gonyea: Were you freaking out a little bit?
[00:15:16] Sage Fleischmann: I was freaking out a little bit because I, I wanted to, you know, a prospect asked you this question, like, what are you, like, in my head, you know, what are you gonna say next? Like, what, what questions are you gonna ask? You know, and that sort of thing, so.
[00:15:29] Marc Gonyea: What was it like?
[00:15:30] Chris Corcoran: Hey, Mark, we got to, we, we, we got, we got to benefit from, uh, him sitting for an LSAT, yeah, and putting into prep work. So, he put that same prep work into kind of getting ready for his client.
[00:15:40] Sage Fleischmann: Right, right. Tried to, tried to, but yeah, yeah.
[00:15:43] Marc Gonyea: It worked out, you guys,
[00:15:44] Sage Fleischmann: It worked out. It worked out.
[00:15:45] Marc Gonyea: You’re now a lawyer.
[00:15:46] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, right, right, right.
[00:15:48] What was it like coming into the office? ‘Cause that’s, so, this, that was your first office, like, you worked at the law firm, smaller environments. What was it like when you walked into the office?
[00:15:56] Sage Fleischmann: It was a…
[00:15:57] Marc Gonyea: unlike somebody who’s, who’s coming to work at memoryBlue next week, or, you know, next May or June or July. Like, what advice would you have for those people in the office environment?
[00:16:05] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, so, you know, all my interviews were over Zoom, except for the role play
[00:16:09] Marc Gonyea: They were,
[00:16:09] Sage Fleischmann: ’cause it was
[00:16:10] Marc Gonyea: even when you were living here, and the office is here.
[00:16:12] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, yeah. It’s,
[00:16:12] Marc Gonyea: That’s terrible, but keep going.
[00:16:14] Sage Fleischmann: It was, well, it was during COVID and stuff, so,
[00:16:16] Marc Gonyea: Okay, oh, during COVID, okay, that’s probably an excuse, but keep going.
[00:16:19] Anyway, yeah. So, my best advice would be, like, probably don’t be intimidated when you first walk in because you walk in, in morning blitz, and there’s people standing up, talking on the phones, and it can be kind of intimidating, honestly, like I was, yeah, I was a little intimidated, and so, my be, my best advice would just, try not to be intimidated when you first walk in ’cause you’ll get into your groove and, and get, you know, your team, your manager, and, and it’ll be fine, so.
[00:16:49] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, I get it. So, you were here for a week, do it as Chris aptly pointed out, like, your LSAT prep course for Qlik, and then you went to Academy. Tell the people who don’t, you and I, Chris, know what Academy is, tell everybody what Academy is.
[00:17:04] Sage Fleischmann: So, Academy is pretty much Bootcamp, is kind of, you know, what we called it to, or what
[00:17:11] Marc Gonyea: Bootcamp? No, Bootcamp.
[00:17:12] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah.
[00:17:12] Marc Gonyea: I wanna call it what the ACRs call it.
[00:17:14] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah. So, boot camp. So, fly to Virginia, don’t know anybody, and that was, you know, interesting, flying to Virginia, not knowing anybody. I was the only one who was, like, dressed up.
[00:17:24] Marc Gonyea: Of course, just like today.
[00:17:25] Sage Fleischmann: Just like today.
[00:17:26] Marc Gonyea: Good for you.
[00:17:27] Sage Fleischmann: So, yeah, you know, showed up to the airport and I was, it was the day after Halloween, so, um, showed up to the airport, a little tired. And, uh, you know, dressed up and got on the flight, landed and
[00:17:39] Marc Gonyea: So, you were traveling, your grandfather, the pilot, would appreciated that, right? ‘Cause people back in the day would put on suits, but every time they get on an airplane it was a big deal.
[00:17:47] Sage Fleischmann: Right, right. So, yeah, got on a plane, landed, and there were a couple of people out of the Denver office that were going down there. So, you know, reached out to them on whatever Teams, and got together in the airport and just kind of talked and. Okay. So, we landed and, and we had already done all the introductions for the Denver office at least, and you know, took the Uber to the office and got set up there, and Joe, not Joey Plesce,
[00:18:13] Marc Gonyea: Joe Fernbank?
[00:18:14] Sage Fleischmann: Joe Fernback was my roommate.
[00:18:17] Marc Gonyea: Okay. Current State, Current Day DM.
[00:18:19] Sage Fleischmann: Current Day DM.
[00:18:20] Marc Gonyea: He’s roommate at, at Bootcamp?
[00:18:22] Sage Fleischmann: At Bootcamp. Right. Right, right. So, I’m like, we get there, and we’re that,
[00:18:26] Marc Gonyea: I love that.
[00:18:27] Sage Fleischmann: yeah. So, we, we get there and we’re both unpacking our clothes, not really saying anything to each other. Like, just kind of, like, bewildered, like, what’s going on? What’s gonna happen?
[00:18:37] Marc Gonyea: Who is this guy?
[00:18:37] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, right. Who is this guy I’m gonna be sleeping in the same room with?
[00:18:40] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, roommate in college.
[00:18:41] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, yeah. And then we all went out and got dinner. All, everyone of my cohort did that first night.
[00:18:48] Marc Gonyea: Sunday night.
[00:18:49] Sage Fleischmann: Sunday night. All got dinner and, and it was, had some beers and, and got to know everyone and, and from then on, I was like, “All right, this is gonna be a fun and great experience.”
[00:18:58] Marc Gonyea: A great experience.
[00:19:00] Sage Fleischmann: Right, right.
[00:19:00] Marc Gonyea: Man. And what was Academy like, or what was Bootcamp, what was the content like now that you, you’ve been out in the wild. When did you leave the firm? When did you leave memoryBlue?
[00:19:08] Sage Fleischmann: Uh, April.
[00:19:09] Marc Gonyea: April of 2022.
[00:19:11] Sage Fleischmann: Right.
[00:19:11] Marc Gonyea: Okay. So, you know, when you look back on it, it’s been a little while. You were here for six months, you left last April. Tell us about the content we, you learned.
[00:19:20] Sage Fleischmann: So, you, I mean, the biggest takeaway from Academy is you learn a lot quick, very quickly. So, you know, trying to sit there and take notes and, and do the role plays in front of, you know, your cohort, which I was terrified of at first. Getting up and, and doing the objection handling in front of, you know, my whole cohort.
[00:19:39] Marc Gonyea: How many people in your cohort?
[00:19:41] Sage Fleischmann: Oh, man. I think, like, around 15, 20 people.
[00:19:43] Marc Gonyea: Okay. So, 15, 20 people.
[00:19:45] Sage Fleischmann: So, a lot of people.
[00:19:45] Marc Gonyea: So, you’d have to, like, do, participate actively, objection handling in person, in front of everybody.
[00:19:52] Sage Fleischmann: In front of everybody, yeah. We would go up in front of our Academy leader, well, and do it with our Academy leader and,
[00:19:57] Okay. Who was yours? Kelly.
[00:19:58] Marc Gonyea: Awesome. Yeah. Kelly, Kelly still with, I can’t, I can’t, she’s not on, well, I can’t use the bell, dammit. And was that eye, an eye-opening experience? ‘Cause you had, not had any real formal sales training or experience in the past, right?
[00:20:10] Sage Fleischmann: Right. It was, it was a lot of information to take in at once, and, you know, like I said, that was before I started and got on the phones and everything. And so, I was trying to, you know, take in as much as I could, could to, you know, and try not to freak out so I could feel, you know, prepared and everything, but yeah, I mean, it was really eye-opening but, you know, everything we learned there, you know, I still use today.
[00:20:33] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Like what?
[00:20:34] You know, the objection handling, we learn, you know, especially, I’m not the right person to talk to, it’s something I hear, you know, every day, and being a BDR, or, you know, send me an email, we don’t have the budget, I mean, all, all of those, you know, those ways you kind of learn to, to get around those objections
[00:20:51] Sage Fleischmann: and handle them, you know, I still do that, still do role plays here and there, yeah, you got to stay on your toes, and be ready for that first C whip in the morning, you know?
[00:21:02] That’s right. What’s the C whip? Conversation with prosper.
[00:21:04] Marc Gonyea: There you go, there you go.
[00:21:06] So, you seem to, I feel, is coming from you, you like to be prepared.
[00:22:03] Sage Fleischmann: Try to be, yeah.
[00:22:04] Marc Gonyea: You try to be prepared. Why is being prepared so important?
[00:22:07] Sage Fleischmann: You know, it’s important to me ’cause I don’t wanna, you know, show up and do something and just look bad, I guess, yeah, just you don’t want to look like you don’t care either, which is, you know, something that I feel is important.
[00:22:21] Why is caring important? Because, I mean, if you’re gonna do something, you might as well care about it and, and enjoy what you do, you know?
[00:22:28] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, yeah, I know, I mean, I know, but some people, you know, not everybody have used things that way.
[00:22:34] Sage Fleischmann: That’s true. Right.
[00:22:36] Marc Gonyea: So, you’re at Academy, you’re doing it, and then what, anything else about Academy that’d be good Academy experience now that you kind of reflect on it?
[00:22:44] You know, just try not to be, again, I’m gonna use that word again, intimidated. Try not to be intimidated because, you know, everyone’s in the same spot that you’re in, and you might not, you know, think about it that way, you know, going in and meeting everyone and, and that sort of thing, but just, you know, everyone’s in the same position as you, so.
[00:23:02] Marc Gonyea: Did you learn more from, could you learn both, but did you learn more in Academy from the content or more from the people, or the same or less, or about the same of people, like, in the cohort you were with?
[00:23:13] I would say both. It’s kind of like a shared experience with everyone on the cohort, you know, you’re in that group chat and everyone’s like, “Hey, I’m dealing with this.”
[00:23:21] Marc Gonyea: Tell us about the group chat.
[00:23:22] Sage Fleischmann: The group chat?
[00:23:23] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, there just a, you mean, do you use just a group chat with
[00:23:26] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, with everyone in our cohort.
[00:23:27] Marc Gonyea: Okay, got it.
[00:23:28] Sage Fleischmann: It’s like, it was like a teams chat.
[00:23:29] Marc Gonyea: Okay, I got it.
[00:23:30] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, just, just everyone’s kind of rooting for each other, and it’s like, “Hey, I got a book!” And then, everyone’s like, “Let’s go!” You know, that, that sort of mentality, having each other’s backs. So, yeah, just learning from each other is huge. I would say it’s like, 50/50, but yeah, learning from each other, applying the content, you know, every day and, and what you experience is, you know, 50/50.
[00:23:54] Marc Gonyea: That’s great ’cause when people come work, we try and tell ’em about that, and they don’t know what that means until it happens versus some companies, there might be support in the training program, but maybe they’d be one of those competitors,
[00:24:06] I don’t know, but there seems to be something about the shared adversity of doing this job here, but then also the being a colleague and a teammate of the people, like, who you would go have dinner with the first night.
[00:24:17] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, exactly.
[00:24:18] Marc Gonyea: Right?
[00:24:18] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah.
[00:24:19] Marc Gonyea: You didn’t know any of them before. So, you met them at the airport it sounds like.
[00:24:21] Sage Fleischmann: Right. Yeah.
[00:24:23] Marc Gonyea: Okay. So, you ran through Academy, and then you came back, and they had put it at all. Now, you had to go into the burning building, right? Right? The actual live-burning building. Well, what was that like?
[00:24:37] Sage Fleischmann: Oh, man. And I, I think I got on the phones, like the day after I came back to the Academy.
[00:24:43] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. So, we have you guys fly back on Wednesday? So, you’re back in the office on Thursday.
[00:24:47] Sage Fleischmann: So, I think Thursday I met, like, all my account managers
[00:24:51] Marc Gonyea: From Qlik?
[00:24:52] From Qlik, yep. Got my, actually no, it was Friday. That Friday I met all my account managers. And then, funny story, actually it was, it was like, that Halloween weekend, I was a black-eyed pea. So, I was like, I had, like, makeup on and, like, a green shirt on my, and You like Halloween?
[00:25:09] Sage Fleischmann: try, yeah, yeah, yeah, I tried to, here and there. Yeah, so I was wearing my costume, and I remember my account managers was like, we’re like, “Who is this guy?” Just like, you know, in the office with, like, a black eye.
[00:25:20] Marc Gonyea: Oh, okay, right, right, okay.
[00:25:22] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, but yeah, met them, met them, met them, and then, I think it was that following Monday, got on the phones.
[00:25:29] Marc Gonyea: So, just for the people that say, when you said, so you came back to the office, you’re working for memoryBlue, Qlik is your client, and Qlik is data analytics and integration software. And then, the account managers came in, just tell people who may not know who the account manager, what does account managers mean, like.
[00:25:45] Sage Fleischmann: Yes. So, being in SDR, BDR, usually, I mean, with memoryBlue and with Qlik, you’re assigned to an account manager account or account executive.
[00:25:52] Marc Gonyea: What do they do?
[00:25:53] So, they basically are, are in charge of the territory in certain accounts, trying to get those deals.
[00:26:00] Marc Gonyea: They work for the client. They, so they work, you work for memoryBlue, they work for the client. They’re the sales people at the client, yeah, yeah, got it. And then, you’re booking meetings for them?
[00:26:08] So, they, they said, “Hey, we wanna come in and meet our memoryBlue SDR and then you’re dressed up as a black eye pea, right, and the guy who cares about looking professional and looking prepared, so they probably
[00:26:19] Sage Fleischmann: So, I was like, “Oh, this is, I’m, I wasn’t prepared for this.” But, but, uh, and ended up working out.
[00:26:25] Evidently. And then what was calling, talk, tell us about, well, that transition to, like, okay, now you have live fire.
[00:26:31] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah. So, got on, I mean, I’ll never forget my first C whip or conversation on the phone.
[00:26:37] Marc Gonyea: Tell us about your first C whip.
[00:26:38] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah. So, I was standing up,
[00:26:40] Marc Gonyea: Good job.
[00:26:40] Sage Fleischmann: which is something I kind of learned, I don’t really like standing when I’m calling, kind of just like to sit back in my chair ’cause when I stand up, I get, like,
[00:26:48] Marc Gonyea: You get more tense.
[00:26:49] Sage Fleischmann: talk, talk fast, get tense, and, so, the guy answered the phone, and “Hey, this is Sage with Qlik Data Analytics. Did I catch you a bad time?”
[00:26:59] Marc Gonyea: Good, thank you.
[00:27:00] Sage Fleischmann: But it probably came out 10 times faster than that, and, um, I’m sitting there, like, holding the pen in my hands, like, ready, no, like, ready for him to talk, to take notes. And I’m, like, shaking, right? Like, literally, like, shaking, like, my first cold call, I’m like, “Hey, this is Sage with Qlik Data Analytics, um,you know, did I catch you a bad time?” “Yes.” Hang up. That was my first conversation, and I was like, “Hey, you know what? This isn’t that bad.” Took me a couple of days, I mean, obviously, to get
[00:27:36] Marc Gonyea: Chris, well, Chris, what are your thoughts on that?
[00:27:39] Chris Corcoran: Just another day at the office.
[00:27:40] Marc Gonyea: Right? That’s just welcome to the business, Sage, right? That’s just the day at the office.
[00:27:47] Sage Fleischmann: Yep. So, yeah, it took me, you know, four or five days of calling to finally get comfortable with it.
[00:27:54] Marc Gonyea: It’s not that bad.
[00:27:55] Sage Fleischmann: No, it’s not, it’s not, at the end of the day, you’re just talking to another person. So, yeah, it took me a couple of days to get used to it, and I remember, I didn’t get my first book for, I think a week after I started dialing, and I’ll never forget that feeling either.
[00:28:10] Marc Gonyea: Tell us about that one.
[00:28:11] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah. So, I mean, everyone was anticipating it, I’d had a couple long conversations.
[00:28:16] Marc Gonyea: When you say everyone, tell
[00:28:18] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, so
[00:28:19] Marc Gonyea: paint the picture for us.
[00:28:20] Sage Fleischmann: I’ll paint the picture. We’re, we’re in the seventh floor on the swing space. I was on James McPhillip’s team, we’re actually really good friends now, but anyway, um, was on his team, and I think it, it was me, him, Jake Mann, James Doyle.
[00:28:32] I don’t know who’s an alum, who’s not. James Doyle is an alum.
[00:28:35] Marc Gonyea: James Doyle. Oh, that’s a weak one. Who else? Shout out, James.
[00:28:40] Sage Fleischmann: And I think it was just us three, oh, and Joe, Joe Fernback.
[00:28:43] Marc Gonyea: Okay. Mr. Fernback.
[00:28:45] Sage Fleischmann: And Jake Anderson.
[00:28:46] Marc Gonyea: Okay. All right.
[00:28:47] Sage Fleischmann: He’s not alumni, but, uh. Yeah, so, they’re all sitting there, and it was like the, one of the most hype moments of my life ’cause
[00:28:56] Marc Gonyea: Of your life?
[00:28:56] Sage Fleischmann: One, yeah, I would say this, I would say of my life, I, we’re sitting there. I actually have it on video.
[00:29:03] Marc Gonyea: You do?
[00:29:04] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah.
[00:29:04] Marc Gonyea: Can you send to Chris and I after this?
[00:29:05] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, I will.
[00:29:06] Marc Gonyea: Oh, I want that.
[00:29:08] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, I will.
[00:29:08] Marc Gonyea: Okay, alright.
[00:29:09] Chris Corcoran: I will, so We’ll drop it into the show notes.
[00:29:11] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, yeah. I’ll send it to you guys, but
[00:29:13] I think I’ve seen this, actually now, well, keep going. So, I’m sitting there, talking to this guy, talking to this guy, he threw, like, a couple objections at me, I can’t really remember ’cause I was like, “Oh my God, like, I’m about to get my first book,” you know? So, I’m sitting there and, uh, yeah, every, my buddy Jake, Jake Mann got his phone out and started recording me, confirmed a date and time, hung up and just, you know, yelled, I was like, “Let’s go!” And everyone on the team stood up and was clapping and hooting and hollering and woo.
[00:29:48] Chris Corcoran: Hey, hey, uh, say it’s too bad you weren’t working from your house.
[00:29:52] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, right?
[00:29:53] Chris Corcoran: So, uh, what would’ve been like had you been by, working outta your house as opposed to on the floor with all your coworkers?
[00:29:59] Sage Fleischmann: Oh, on the floor, I mean, with all your coworkers, it’s a totally different environment, and I, you know, you love it way more ’cause everyone’s just around kind of listening in, and everyone gets hyped, the energy’s high, and it’s like, let’s get another one, let’s get right back on the phones and do it again ’cause that feeling is, like, insane.
[00:30:19] Marc Gonyea: Why? Why is it such a good feeling?
[00:30:23] I would
[00:30:23] Marc Gonyea: break that, get, get to the core of it, you know, right? Like, I’m not saying hurry up, but like, why is it such an awesome feeling?
[00:30:32] Because most of the time you’re getting hung up on, you’re getting nos, they say for every 10 nos you’re gonna get one, yes, and, you know, usually for, I mean, a good pickup rate is what I mean 10 for every 100 dials. So, you know, you’re used to all day, you know, getting hung up on, and that’s, just like you guys said, part of the job. And then, you finally get one, and it’s, like, you feel so accomplished, and that, I guess that’s the best way to explain it.
[00:30:59] Marc Gonyea: It is, right? ‘Cause it’s not easy.
[00:31:00] Sage Fleischmann: No, it’s not.
[00:31:01] Marc Gonyea: It’s not easy, and think about the kind of what you went through. So, I mean, the way I view it as, your whole journey at the law firms and at the pizza place, I, I’m a little dramatic here, but like, you figuring out what you wanted to do and then coming in, you’re probably doubting, I had doubts when I started, “Is this for me?” Like, and then, that one week of all the damn research, that almost can work against you, right?
[00:31:24] Sage Fleischmann: Seriously. Yeah.
[00:31:24] Marc Gonyea: ‘Cause you’re never gonna know what they’re gonna say or what they’re gonna ask. It’s really, it’s the experience of being on the phones, which is more important than the research, the research is critical.
[00:31:34] Sage Fleischmann: No, no, I, I totally agree, which is kind of what I was gonna go into.
[00:31:37] Marc Gonyea: Go into it.
[00:31:38] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah. So, I mean, the best way I
[00:31:40] Marc Gonyea: Go on then.
[00:31:41] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah. So, if I,
[00:31:42] Marc Gonyea: Chris always says that, too.
[00:31:43] Sage Fleischmann: if I have any advice for people starting out, you’re gonna trial by fire, literally, you’re gonna learn as you go, that’s the best way to learn because when you get your first couple of conversations, every little bit of research you did is gonna go right up, like, right outta your head. You’re, you’re trying to ask the right questions, and respond to them in a way that, you know, the prospect would like to dig out those pain points in those calls, but, you know, it’s trial by fire, that’s the best way to explain it, you gotta go in head first.
[00:32:15] Marc Gonyea: It’s not like taking a test in school where you know the right answer, you’re gonna give the right answer to the project and be like, “Oh yeah. Oh yeah, just have a meeting.” Oh, you got the answer right, it’s, it’s different. And it, I think it’s such a great feeling because all that work you put into kind of get to that point. It takes a lot of skill.
[00:32:33] Sage Fleischmann: It does.
[00:32:33] Marc Gonyea: I mean, sometimes you walk into a meeting, but, but sounds like you were going back and forth with this prospect, right?
[00:32:39] Sage Fleischmann: Oh, and getting ghosted and, you know.
[00:32:41] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. So, like, the pain, but also it takes skill to get on the phone and kind of get them to a point, you’re calling very busy people, interrupting their day. But you have something of value. If you didn’t have something of value, Qlik wouldn’t existed.
[00:32:53] Sage Fleischmann: And, and I think that’s the best way to kind of look at it is you’re trying to help a prospect, and their organization. I think that’s, like, one of the best ways to look at it is you have something valuable that, that they don’t know they want.
[00:33:09] Marc Gonyea: Correct. And it’s your job to kind of educate them. So, you were who you were, who was your DM? James?
[00:33:16] Sage Fleischmann: James.
[00:33:16] James. What was that working relationship like? So, we were, we were kind of, like, really close from the get go. We were pretty similar in age and, I mean everyone kind of is in the office, but both are big deadheads. I love the Grateful Deads, so does he. So, kind of bonded over that a little bit.
[00:33:35] We were very close and he, he coached me a lot, and, you know, my first week or so he was probably like, “How does this guy have so many questions?” But, you know, I was able to use him, you know, as a, as a tool to, to help me, you know?
[00:33:51] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, yeah, okay. And what, as you were doing this job, we’re in a segue into going to work for the client, but what did you get good at in the role? What did you become? Everybody’s got, like, a superpower, right? Everybody’s got some things that they’re, that, that, a strength. What was one of yours, or is one of yours? I mean, you’re still doing the job?
[00:34:09] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, I’m still doing the job. I would say handling objections. And James McPhillips told me when I was, while I was working here, I was one of the strongest closers, ” So, you know, because you said this, because you said you’re dealing with this, let’s go ahead and do this.” Instead of, “Would you maybe want a meeting, or would you like to sit down?”
[00:34:29] You kind of have to be affirmative and, and say, “You know, you said this, so let’s go ahead and set up a call so we can help you with that.”
[00:34:37] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, that’s the strength, closing the strength. So, that’s, like, closing for next steps, did you look at it that way? And what, when you were working, besides you in this Colorado office, who else was, who else had some game? Who’d you learn from? Who said, “Man, that person’s good.”
[00:34:53] Sage Fleischmann: Besides working here?
[00:34:54] Marc Gonyea: No, when you were working here. ‘Cause you learned on the floor, you learned from other people.
[00:34:57] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, yeah. James Doyle, alumni.
[00:35:00] Marc Gonyea: Boom. Thank you, sir.
[00:35:01] Sage Fleischmann: And, uh, Jake Mann, he’s a DM now. Um, hearing them on the phone and, you know, the way that they were asking questions, digging out those pain points, and getting those meetings, really helped me.
[00:35:14] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Yeah. Got it. Okay. All right. So, as you’re working, where’d you think you wanted to go with this?
[00:35:21] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah. So, I knew that I wanted to get hired out pretty quick. Yeah, I knew that I wanted to get hired out pretty quick, I really love, like, loved everyone I worked with at Qlik, still do, and, you know, all the account managers, the head of outbound, my managers now, you know, just really liked the company, liked the way they ran things and, um, you know, I thought that was, you know, the next best step for me.
[00:35:47] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. But it didn’t happen right away, right?
[00:35:49] Sage Fleischmann: No. So, I can get into that a little bit.
[00:35:51] Marc Gonyea: Yes. Talk about it. So, was working with them, you know, worked with them here for six months, and two of my buddies, Nick, he was alumni, James Doyle alumni.
[00:36:02] Yep, already said it once, already hit him once.
[00:36:03] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, you got it.
[00:36:04] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, you can’t, I can’t tell.
[00:36:04] Sage Fleischmann: Okay. Okay. Okay.
[00:36:05] Marc Gonyea: Yeah.
[00:36:06] Sage Fleischmann: So, I’m trying to get you to ring the bell, but, uh, yeah. So, they were on the campaign with me and they got hired out two months before I did.
[00:36:17] Marc Gonyea: And what does that feel like?
[00:36:18] Sage Fleischmann: Oh, it felt so bad, it was hard, that was one of my most defeating moments working here, and, you know, what it came down to was, am I making a hundred dials a day? Yeah. Am I putting in the work? Yeah. And, but it was, am I working hard enough to show the client that they want to hire me out? Is, what it came down to.
[00:36:41] Marc Gonyea: Say that again.
[00:36:42] Sage Fleischmann: Am I working hard enough to show them that I’m, I’ll be valuable?
[00:36:47] Marc Gonyea: What does that mean?
[00:36:48] You know, that means going above your ex, expected metrics, you know, here at memoryBlue, you know, you can, you can get with a hundred dials a day, 10 C webs in a book, you know, that’s what they consider, you know, an ideal perfect day,
[00:37:03] Sage Fleischmann: but does that show your, like, your client that, you know, you’re really putting in work. And, you know, that’s something James McPhillips and I talked about ’cause, obviously, I was pretty upset that they hired them out before I did, and he was like, “Give me two months of you trying your hardest, and I will get you hired out.” And that’s what happened.
[00:37:26] It was days, you know, making, I think my highest dial day was 260. So, coming in and not just working to hit the metric, but I wanted a book, I was hungry for it. I wanted to show them that I, I could do it. So, you know, coming in, making $200 a day, setting a floor dial amount where if I don’t get a book that day, I’m going, like, 150, 160. So, yeah, just, just showing them that I will work hard, and I will work harder than other people.
[00:38:00] Marc Gonyea: Corcoran, I know you like hearing this.
[00:38:02] Chris Corcoran: How bad do you want it?
[00:38:03] Sage Fleischmann: Exactly. And I wanted it bad, like, I was like, stressed out about it, like,
[00:38:09] Marc Gonyea: Well, we don’t even get the, you know,
[00:38:10] Sage Fleischmann: Not, not like, stressed out about it, but like, but not, like, stressed out about it, but like, I want
[00:38:16] Marc Gonyea: You wanted it.
[00:38:16] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, yeah. That’s what, that’s what I meant, you know.
[00:38:19] Marc Gonyea: That’s good. No, I get it. It’s kind of, I don’t know how to put it into words, and you did a better job than I did, you just gotta go, it, it’s a very competitive industry, right? And you’re not just going to be handed, even if you book an occurring meetings, like, we need to see that you’re gonna go the extra mile
[00:38:36] Because they might be able to get somebody else who can book an occur meetings, but maybe not, maybe go, go that extra mile. So, so, something happened, right? And so, let’s, let’s talk about that. So, how, when did, when did the transition occur? Um, were you, were you happy?
[00:38:51] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah. So, it was after they had left, after James and Nick had left, and, you know, for, like, a week or two I was still doing my thing, not really, like, going hard at it, just going through the metrics, doing, making sure I was hitting what I needed to do every day. And I talked to James and I was like, “Dude, like I, I really want to get hired out. I want to be with them over there. I really want this, and, and how can I make it work? How can I do this? And he made, you know, a plan for me, we made a, literally like a hiring plan, pretty much.
[00:39:26] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Wrote it down.
[00:39:27] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, wrote it down, had it in my computer, um, you know, if I’m not making booking this day, this is how many dials I’m gonna get, if I don’t get this many C whips, how many dials I’m gonna get.
[00:39:36] Marc Gonyea: I see.
[00:39:37] So, it was like, you know, a plan that we made, you know, there were days where I was like, “This is a lot of work, I’m tired.” I remember the day that I made 260 dials, I had, like, two bucks that day too, and I was just sitting at, at my desk with my hands in my lap after hell, and I was like, “I don’t even want to drive home right now, like, I’m, I’m exhausted.” But, um, that’s what I took, so.
[00:40:00] Marc Gonyea: What advice would you have for another SDR who might be in a similar situation? Or, you know, somebody who doesn’t even work here yet.
[00:40:07] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah. So, my best advice, I mean, especially if you want to get hired out, is, is, you know, go that extra mile, do that extra work, I mean, ’cause that’s what’s gonna separate you from anybody else, any other Joshua, you know what I mean? So.
[00:40:23] Marc Gonyea: Oh yeah, that’s great. Where do you think
[00:40:26] Chris Corcoran: Say, say, say, and listening to your, uh, how you handled your business, it’s almost like, what if Kobe Bryant was an SDR?
[00:40:33] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, yeah, I like that. Never thought about it that way, but yeah.
[00:40:38] Chris Corcoran: Putting in the work.
[00:40:39] Sage Fleischmann: You got to.Where do you think you want to go now? You know, not, I’m not talking about leaving Qlik, you know, with your career.
[00:40:45] Yeah, I know, I…
[00:40:46] Marc Gonyea: What do your parents think about what you’re doing now, too, right? ‘Cause they recognize, was it too long ago you were working in personal injury law and your parents, we know you’re not happy, like
[00:40:54] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah. They see that I’m happy. I don’t know if my dad necessarily, like, understands what I do, but he knows that I’m happy, and I’m doing a good job at, at my job. So, you know, they’re happy about it, so.
[00:41:08] Marc Gonyea: That’s great, man. And then, what advice would you have for, like, an SDR who might be in the situation now or might, may, may be the same situation you were in about, you know, with the client, or someone else, you know, maybe, you know, somebody else on the team got hired out, then they didn’t, like, what would you tell them if they were sitting here right now?
[00:41:26] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, don’t take it as an opportunity to make excuses and shoot yourself down, take it as an opportunity to grow and, and learn more and get better, you know?
[00:41:37] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. You’re probably better professional for it because you didn’t go first.
[00:41:40] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, honestly, yeah, I mean, it worked out the way, I mean, it was supposed to. I mean, that would be my best advice ’cause, you know, a lot of people in that position could have easily thrown in the towel and be like, “Screw this.” Like, and, you know, I took it as an opportunity to grow and learn and, and, yeah.
[00:41:58] Marc Gonyea: There you go. So, that’s a great answer.
[00:42:00] Chris Corcoran: What’s the biggest misconception you had about being an SDR?
[00:42:07] Sage Fleischmann: That it’s easy, like, easy. I don’t think I understood really how hard it was gonna be, and, you know, it’s all about the grind, pretty much. And that was, you know, part of me realizing I needed to do more as well as, you know, you can’t just come in and work the motions, you gotta try your best.
[00:42:25] Where do you think you want to go? I’m shooting right now, hopefully, for account executive. That’s really where I want to be at, what I want to do, I want to be closing, you know, I want to be working with customers, too. But yeah, that’s my next step, definitely want to stay where I’m at pretty much, and elevate and, and have a solid growth path, so.
[00:42:45] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. And, and what, what do you like the most about being in, in sales?
[00:42:50] Sage Fleischmann: Oh, man, I mean, there’s a lot of things. I would say the most is probably just, it keeps you, like, on your toes, and kind of, like, you know, it’s fast paced, it’s engaging, you know, you can’t just sit there, and you gotta talk to people, talk, I love talking to people, that sort of thing.
[00:43:08] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. It’s important to learn to talk to people, to qualify them and discover, and be, move things along. All right, and kind of, as we wrap things up, we hit, you hit on some of these points, but you can repeat it, or maybe it’s something new.
[00:43:21] If you could go back in time right to the night before you started memoryBlue, not before the night you started before, but knowing where, where, when you started, where you are now, what advice would you have had for yourself?
[00:43:32] Sage Fleischmann: That you’re gonna learn as you go. Not to be over prepared and worry about what the phones are gonna be like, and how you’re gonna handle these objections and what you’re gonna say, just gotta go and head first, and that’s how you, you learn from your mistakes, you learn from your failures and that, that’ll make you a better SDR, BDR at the end of the day, so.
[00:43:54] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, and then you can carry that into your next gig.
[00:43:57] Sage Fleischmann: Exactly.
[00:43:58] Marc Gonyea: Great, uh, that was good.
[00:44:00] Chris Corcoran: Well, Sage, we appreciate you joining us and sharing your wisdom.
[00:44:03] Sage Fleischmann: Absolutely. It was my pleasure.
[00:44:05] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, man. It’s great to meet you.
[00:44:07] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, great to meet you, as well.
[00:44:08] Marc Gonyea: We’ll, we’ll do this again. Now, we got you kind of early. We’re gonna keep track of you as you continue to go down the path.
[00:44:14] Sage Fleischmann: Sounds good to me.
[00:44:15] Marc Gonyea: Right? And get some of these alumni events going in Denver, you know, I’ll, I’ll hit you up, and maybe the, you have the, the stats would be a little longer.
[00:44:21] Sage Fleischmann: A little longer, maybe I’ll have, like, handle bars or something by then, but
[00:44:25] Marc Gonyea: And I appreciate you looking sharp for the, for the podcast.
[00:44:27] Sage Fleischmann: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:44:28] Marc Gonyea: Very well said. All right. There we go.
[00:44:31] Chris Corcoran: Very good, Sage, appreciate the time.