Episode 119: Brian Ball – Prospecting Never Ends

Entering the professional world isn’t easy. But that doesn’t mean you can’t take the transition by storm. Anyone can succeed right from the start if they develop a strong confidence from within, possess a strong discernment of what they are and aren’t interested in, and practice a flexible mindset.

In this episode of Tech Sales is for Hustlers, our hosts Marc and Chris welcome Brian Ball, an Account Executive at Simpplr. Brian relives his start at memoryBlue, explains how it motivated him to pursue his dreams, and unpacks what he would want to tell his younger self now that he’s reached success as an Account Executive.

Guest-At-A-Glance

💡 Name: Brian Ball

💡 What he does: Brian is an account executive at Simpplr.

💡 Company: Simpplr, an AI-powered employee experience platform designed to streamline the remote work experience.

💡 Noteworthy: Brian is a former memoryBlue team member and a successful SDR turned AE. He is passionate about sales but primarily about building a genuine, long-term partnership with everyone involved in the sales cycle. 

💡 Where to find Brian: LinkedIn

Key Insights

⚡Every professional beginning is hard. It catches you off guard no matter how well you think you have prepared. But remember, everyone in your office has been where you are now. What made them stick around was persistence. ”I remember how hard it was getting ready to call. You’re calling people who don’t know who you are. You’re calling them out of the blue; it’s awkward. You gotta fight off the nerves. But once you get going, you become numb to it. […] After someone tells you no or hangs up on you for the 50th time, you’re like, ‘All right, what am I going to lose? I have nothing to lose. What’s the worst thing that’s going to happen if they say no? Are they going to say something rude? I’m going to call them back three weeks later; they’re not even going to remember me.”’

⚡Determine what you don’t want to do. You’ll narrow down your interests and have more time, energy, and motivation to pursue your true calling. ”I knew I didn’t want to be in marketing. I wanted to be an account executive, but I was also open to management because, with my coaching background, I always felt I would be a good leader. […] I wanted to be a closer. I was looking at people’s lifestyles — who closed — they’re like, ‘Hey, man, I’m gonna make 250 grand this year.’ To me, that’s an astronomical amount of money. I liked the chase and being challenged. So that’s what I wanted to do.”

⚡You have the right to change your mind regarding your career’s direction. Nothing is set in stone, and someone else’s path doesn’t have to be yours. Of course, specific steps are required to transition from one position to another, but once you get there, you don’t close the door to other opportunities. ”Whenever I talk to my SDRs about, like, ‘Hey, Brian, I wanna grow.’ If they’re asking me for advice, I’m like, ‘Be yourself. Work hard, don’t cut any corners, and be respectful to everyone; be genuine. The rest will take care of itself.’ But also, when you’re an SDR and you want to become a manager versus an AE, it doesn’t matter. It all comes around in the same way. The doors don’t close. When you’re an SDR, you think you can become an account executive but want to be a manager later. That’s entirely possible. There’s this feeling where people who become managers think they’re never going to become closers or the other way around. No, the doors are open.”

Episode Highlights

Brian’s Recollection of His First Day at memoryBlue

”I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I knew that memoryBlue helps salespeople generate opportunities. But I didn’t know it was going to be such a ride.

I remember my first day at memoryBlue. I walked in and was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is crazy.’ It was all young kids; they were doing the same thing that I was doing. They were out of college and hungry, looking to make their path. And I was like, ‘This is perfect; this is what I want.”’

The Benefits of Interacting In-Person

”I always thought I was good at calling people; the phones were the strongest aspect. But I also loved going to events. […] I did that with my client Paxata. […] When you meet someone in person, it’s so much more of a genuine connection. They trust you more; they’re willing to give you the benefit of the doubt because they know you. So that was huge.”

An Enterprise SDR: the Scope of Responsibilities

”Not only are you sourcing opportunities, but you’re doing a lot of legwork to bring the opportunities to a competitive stage. […] In an enterprise, the sales cycles are so much different. They’re so much longer, and so many more people are involved. You have internal politics that you have to deal with because you have one person that wants to get the solution and the other department, like, no. So you gotta navigate all that stuff. […]

I had three AEs I was supporting, and we would connect twice a week: once on Monday, once on Friday. I’d be like, ‘Hey, this is what I want.’ And then on Friday, I’d be like, ‘What’d you get me?’ And every time I’d source an opportunity after the meeting, I’d have to go out and get a couple of other people involved in the accounts. So in that, we got credit for not only sourcing accounts but moving business down the pipeline.”

Prospecting Never Goes Away

”If you’re a great SDR, you’ll be an even better AE as long as you don’t start saying, ‘Now that I’m an AE, I don’t need to prospect anymore.’ That’s the number one thing that’s going to hold you back. That’s the difference between hitting your quota, doing 200% of your number, and going to the winner circle.

You gotta be willing to prospect always. […] When you’re closing a business brought in by your marketing team, you’re expected to close that, but you are not expected to go out and find things on your own. But if you can bring in half your number through outbound, you’re going to be good no matter where you go or what you’re selling.”

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Brian Ball: Focus on yourself, do what you’re supposed to do, believe in yourself, no one believes in themselves anymore, everyone’s always asking for, like, an external validation, it’s like, what do you need that for? Look yourself in the mirror and say, “I respect you, I believe in you, we’re gonna get this done.” ​

[00:00:35] Marc Gonyea: Brian Ball paying us a visit, Christopher.

[00:00:38] Chris Corcoran: Flying Brian.

[00:00:39] Brian Ball: Yeah, I’m here in the flesh. 

[00:00:42] Marc Gonyea: You’re a little hobbled, though. 

[00:00:43] Brian Ball: Oh, man. 

[00:00:44] Chris Corcoran: Playing hurt.

[00:00:44] Brian Ball: January 2nd where my Achilles tend to playing ball.

[00:00:48] Marc Gonyea: Great way to start off the year, you know?

[00:00:50] Chris Corcoran: Man, lots of resolutions up in flames.

[00:00:54] Brian Ball: Absolutely, yeah. 

[00:00:55] Marc Gonyea: But that won’t stop you from closing work this year, so we, we’ll get, but we’ll get into that.

[00:00:59] Brian Ball: Absolutely not, no.

[00:01:00] Marc Gonyea: You still work the phone, the computer, and play the sympathy card. 

[00:01:04] Brian Ball: Yeah, exactly. I, oh, I use it all the time.

[00:01:07] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, I figured you already had that mastered. 

[00:01:09] Brian Ball: Absolutely. 

[00:01:10] Marc Gonyea: All right. B-Ball, let’s go from the jump, and the jump is educate, share with Chris and I, we know some of, a decent amount about the Balls, but like, for the people listening and they educate, gimme some new stuff, where you’re from. 

[00:01:22] Brian Ball: Sure. Right.

[00:01:23] Marc Gonyea: Growing up. 

[00:01:24] Brian Ball: Yeah. So, I grew up in Montgomery County, originally grew up in Almy area, and then my parents moved to Rockville when I was, like, eight years old. So, Rockville’s pretty much where I grew up, you know, I went to Earl B. Wood Middle School and Rockville High School.

[00:01:40] Marc Gonyea: Siblings?

[00:01:40] Brian Ball: Oh, yeah. I have four older siblings, um, they actually all went to Magruder, which is a little bit down the road down. 

[00:01:45] Marc Gonyea: You’re the youngest? 

[00:01:46] Brian Ball: Youngest of five, youngest of five, yeah. 

[00:01:49] Marc Gonyea: What, most talented athletically?

[00:01:50] Brian Ball: That’s right, yeah. 

[00:01:51] Marc Gonyea: Best looking, tallest?

[00:01:52] Brian Ball: Best looking, tall, well, they see, they say save the best for last.

[00:01:54] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, that’s right.

[00:01:58] Brian Ball: But yeah, I was, uh, I played basketball every day growing up. I wanted to play every single sport, my dad was not having it. I actually, my freshman year, I actually forged his signature to play football, and he found out, he was pissed, he came down to school, he was like, “You’re not doing this, you know, you’re playing basketball year-round,

[00:02:15] you don’t have time for any other sports, like, you’re gonna play in college, it’s gonna help you pay for your school,” and all that. So, um,I was fine with it, I mean, basketball was my favorite sport, but 

[00:02:23] Marc Gonyea: Basketball is your favorite sport? 

[00:02:25] Brian Ball: Yeah, hands down, I mean, I love the sport, it’s great, and I did end up playing in college, so, you know, it paid off in the long run, but I would’ve liked to play, you know, maybe football or baseball or something else, too, but basketball was my love, so.

[00:02:36] What position? In high school, I really played like a, like small forward position, then when I went to college, I was a shooting guard, but I was really all about, you know, defense and, and shooting the ball. So, that’s why I played, that’s why I was always on the court. Coach loves guys to play defense. 

[00:02:52] Marc Gonyea: That’s right. What did you think you wanted to do when you grew up, when you were in high school? 

[00:02:57] Brian Ball: I had no idea. I knew I really liked working, like, you know, with sports, I like working with, you know, youth sports leagues and doing stuff like that. So, I was, like, coaching,

[00:03:05] and I actually, when I first went to college, my first year I was studying to become a teacher, and, uh, I got a, I got an athletic scholarship, but the school that I went to is, like, 60 grand in tuition, and I got like, you know, like 40 grand in academic grant, but really it was, you know, athletic grant. 

[00:03:21] Brian Ball: So, uh, I had to pay everything out of pocket, you know, if my folks live in paycheck to paycheck and I was like, I kind of looked at myself at the end of the year, I got great marks in college, I mean, I was, you know, 3.5 or above student, but after my freshman year of college, I was like, all right, I’m already 20 grand in debt,

[00:03:35] I’m studying to become a teacher, if I keep on going the path I’m, you know, going on now, I’ll be roughly $80,000 in debt, I’ll be having to pay that off in a teacher’s salary, like, I don’t think I wanna do that. So, I actually transferred to Montgomery College after my freshman year.

[00:03:48] I got my AA, and then I really didn’t know what I wanted to do, you know, I, I had met a mentor, in my neighborhood, there was a financial services guru. He was actually if you’ve ever heard of Primerica, it’s a huge MLM, Insurance Financial Services Corporation. He was, like, the biggest rep in the entire state of Maryland, and he just so happened to be, you know, one of our family friends. 

[00:04:08] So, he brings me under his wing, you know, at this time I’m, I’m in Montgomery College, I’m waiting tables at Urban Bar-B-Que at the time, coaching kids, actually got certified to become a referee as well. So, I was just doing anything I can, working as much as I can to make money.

[00:04:22] You know, I learned a little bit about him, I learned, I learned about his background, and like, passive income and how to become free and all that kind of stuff. And that became really interesting to me. But it’s a long game, insurance is a long game, you gotta commit to it, you gotta know that’s what you wanna do for your career.

[00:04:37] Brian Ball: And, uh, I just couldn’t do it, you know, I was going door-to-door and knocking on people’s doors, gentleman like yourself, you know, a young kid, “Hey, let me tell you how you’re not spending your money the right way.” Because you’re not gonna take a kid seriously like that, you know? 

[00:04:50] So, it was very difficult, and I realized it just wasn’t for me, but at this time, I had a good amount of serious experience, I had sold a good amount of insurance policies, set up a couple mutual funds, things like that. So, I thought it could translate, uh, you know, translate well into tech sales, and Jeanne, Jeanne Ball.

[00:05:03] Marc Gonyea: Jeanne Ball.

[00:05:04] Chris Corcoran: Jeanne Ball. 

[00:05:05] Brian Ball: Legend.

[00:05:07] Marc Gonyea: Recently married.

[00:05:08] Brian Ball: Recently married, yeah, recently married, she’s doing well, she hit me up about

[00:05:12] Marc Gonyea: Jeanne’s your sister?

[00:05:13] Brian Ball: Jeanne’s my sister. 

[00:05:14] Marc Gonyea: Where, where was she in the one to five food chain? 

[00:05:16] Brian Ball: So, she is number four. 

[00:05:18] Marc Gonyea: Okay, no, she’s next closest to you? 

[00:05:20] Brian Ball: Yeah, she’s the next closest to me, she’s six years older than me, so. She just turned 32. But yeah, you know, I was, I was doing all that, and I was kind of just running around in circles, I didn’t have, like, a clear vision on what I wanted to do, and 

[00:05:30] Marc Gonyea: Was your sister working for us? 

[00:05:32] Brian Ball: Working, yeah, she was working, but she was in the, she had just moved to California office, so she was out there pioneering the California office and a little bit later, after I knew what memoryBlue was, I was like, “Can you gimme, like, can you give me, like, an interview there?” She was like, “Ah, I don’t know, like, maybe, I’ll see what I can do.” And I just kind of, you know?

[00:05:49] Marc Gonyea: You did Primerica for two, over two years?

[00:05:51] Brian Ball: Yeah, I was, I was doing it for a while. I learned a lot, I learned a lot from my mentor, he’s fantastic, you know, I used to take notes every time he talked, it was great. Uh, I took that experience, and Jeanne was like, “Yeah, you know, I can get you an interview.” And I interviewed for memoryBlue and Okta, for the two companies.

[00:06:05] And I actually got offers from both companies, I got interviewed, I got offers from Okta and memoryBlue, and Jeanne was like, “Go with memoryBlue, like, you’re gonna have more fun, you’re gonna learn more, like, you’re gonna get way more experience out of it, you’re gonna be able to travel to California, like, if you’re willing to go.”

[00:06:24] Which was, that was the big thing for me, right, it was, there was no openings in Virginia at this time, so the opening was in the San Jose office at the time, and I was like, “You know what?”

[00:06:33] Marc Gonyea: This is the summer of 2018? 

[00:06:34] Brian Ball: Yep, yeah, and I was like, “You know what? Let’s do it.” And Bailey Esparza was, was my recruiter.

[00:06:41] Marc Gonyea: Bailey Wheels. 

[00:06:42] Brian Ball: Wheels, yeah, Bailey, Bailey was awesome, and she just, she made the position sound really interesting, and I was really excited and, you know, I, I really, at this time, I had nothing to lose, right, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, knew I wanted to make money, but didn’t know how I was gonna make it,

[00:06:57] and she was like, “Hey, you know, if you want the job, it’s yours, but you gotta go to San Jose.” So, I took it verbally, and I went and told my mom that I was moving to California, she cried, and, uh, a couple days later, I was packing my bags.

[00:07:10] Marc Gonyea: Well, how much did you have to think about that? You were like, there’s no, there’s no-brainer? 

[00:07:15] Brian Ball: No brainer for me. I was ready for something different, I had a lot of, I was kind of just hanging around with the wrong crowd, and I was working so much that I didn’t really, like, I didn’t really see my life, like, growing, I didn’t see any growth in my life, and I was kind of looking at Jeanne, and I was like, okay, she seems like she’s on the right path, always had a lot of respect for Jeanne and her work ethic. So, I was like, you know what, you know, let’s get in my Camry, let’s drive from the East Coast to the West Coast.

[00:07:39] Marc Gonyea: And in the Cam, in the T-Cam?

[00:07:40] Brian Ball: Yeah, man, 2013 Camry, still got it, all paid off now. 

[00:07:45] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, there you go, yeah. So, you drove out to California?

[00:07:47] Brian Ball: Drove out to California.

[00:07:48] Marc Gonyea: Did you kind of know what the SDR role was? 

[00:07:51] I had no idea, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I knew that memoryBlue, essentially, you know, help salespeople generate opportunities, I mean, that, that’s the extent of my knowledge into business.

[00:08:05] I didn’t know it was gonna be such a ride. I remember my first day at memoryBlue, I walked in, and I was like, “Oh, my God, like, this is, this is crazy.” I didn’t, you know, it was all young kids, you know, they were doing the same thing that I was doing, they were just outta college, they were looking, they’re all hungry, you know, kind of looking to make their own path.

[00:08:22] Brian Ball: And I was like, this is perfect, this is exactly what I want. So, uh, it was great, yeah, man, this, it was a long drive, though, I don’t know if you’ve ever driven from the East Coast to the West Coast, I’ve done it 

[00:08:32] Marc Gonyea: You did by yourself?

[00:08:32] Brian Ball: Yeah, I’ve done it six times by myself. 

[00:08:35] Marc Gonyea: Really? Lot of time for some self-reflection.

[00:08:37] Brian Ball: Lots of time for some self-reflection, lots of time for, uh, yeah, just to kind of, you know, driving through Kansas was probably the craziest part ’cause you, you drive through Kansas and Nebraska, states like that, actually pulled over on the highway and looked at the wheat fields and it was like looking into ocean of just corn and wheat from miles.

[00:08:54] Marc Gonyea: As far as the eye can see. 

[00:08:56] Brian Ball: Yeah, it was pretty crazy. I think it was, like, a three days of driving, but I was stopping along the way, I think my, I think my start date was, uh, August, think it was August 28th or something like that, and I had left beginning of August, so.

[00:09:10] Marc Gonyea: Okay. Wow. Tell us about the first or the early days. Did you, do you remember your client? 

[00:09:15] Brian Ball: Yeah, oh yeah. My client was Paxata, which has since been acquired by DataRobot. It was a great tool, but they couldn’t get, I don’t think they could go, I don’t think they could get, like, the federal ramp, like security purposes, but they had a great product.

[00:09:27] It was, like, data cleansing product, like, data cleansing. I was on there for six months, first was at outbound for, like, three months, then they really wanted to kind of hire me out. So, they started giving me all their, their MQLs, and that’s when I really started smashing quota. But yeah, that was a great client, um, worked 

[00:09:42] Marc Gonyea: Smashing quota, the Hulk. 

[00:09:45] Brian Ball: I worked every Monday, Dan Yorkey was my manager and

[00:09:48] Marc Gonyea: Oh!

[00:09:50] Brian Ball: Dan Yorkey, man, I actually, my first two weeks, I was so overwhelmed. Of course, it’s a lot.

[00:09:54] Brian Ball: I was like, “Dan, I don’t think I can do this, man.” I was like, “I don’t think this is for me, like.”

[00:09:59] Marc Gonyea: Why’d you think that? 

[00:10:00] Brian Ball: Because my entire life I was like, I’m never gonna work for a corporation, like, I’m gonna write, you know, young kid, I’m gonna, I’m gonna be the, you know, the captain of my own destiny, whatever.

[00:10:10] Marc Gonyea: This faceless company, memoryBlue. 

[00:10:12] Brian Ball: I’m gonna be my own boss. So, it really, in the first two weeks for any SDR, I guess when you’re starting at memoryBlue, is a little overwhelming, but it was a great experience, I mean, I remember how hard it was just getting ready to call, like, you’re calling people that, that, they don’t know who you are, obviously, you know, you’re calling them out of the blue, and it’s just, it’s awkward, you gotta fight off the nerves, but once you get going, it’s like, you become numb to it, right?

[00:10:37] After someone tells you no, or hangs up on you for the 50th time, you’re like, all right, what am I gonna lose? Like, I got nothing to lose, like, what, the worst thing’s gonna happen is they’re gonna say no, are they gonna say something rude? I’m gonna call ’em back three weeks later, they’re not even gonna remember me, right? 

[00:10:51] So, but yeah, Dan did a great job of kind of just being like, “Listen, Brian, like, I went through this, everyone goes through this when they first, you know, transition to the workforce, like, you’re a grown man now, you can handle this, just stay with me, all I’m asking for is six months, just gimme six months, that’s all I need.”

[00:11:08] Marc Gonyea: With his raspy voice, breaking it all down for you.

[00:11:12] Brian Ball: Yeah, we love Dan, and he just, he was right, you know, six months into it, I was, uh, probably, you know, as happy as I can be, I was doing well, I had worked my way up, uh, you know, the commission, so I was making a little bit more coin and was getting a little bit more comfortable and it was a great experience.

[00:11:27] What did you get good at? I mean, I always thought I was good at just calling people, I thought the phones were the strongest aspect, but I also loved going to events, especially in San Jose, that’s where I got a lot of my leads, especially was on, when I was on the SDE team.

[00:11:40] I would love going to events and meeting people, I always thought I was way better in a person, like, than over the phone. So, I love doing that, I did that with my client Paxata, too. I would go to, like, data analytics conferences, like, popups all over the place in the day, and SF, and that was great ’cause I feel like when you meet someone in person, there’s just so much more, you know, it’s just so much more of a genuine connection,

[00:12:02] they trust you more, you know, they’re, they’re willing to kind of give you the benefit of the doubt ’cause they know you. So, that, that was huge. But I also didn’t really care, man, I, I, um, at some point I started leaving voicemails, they were, like, 40 seconds long, and Yorkey was like, “Why are you doing that, man,

[00:12:15] why are you leaving voicemails?” I’m like, “It works. It’s gonna work, trust me, they’re gonna, you read this voicemail, they’re gonna be like, or listen to it, ‘Hey, you know, this guy, he thought about it, he thought about what he was gonna say.'” So, I thought I was strong on the phones, my email game was weak when I first started memoryBlue

[00:12:28] ’cause I had never really sent emails before. So, Dan helped me out a lot with that, he really worked on, you know, this is how you wanna say it, you wanna make sure you’re, you’re sounding like you’re, you know, a professional, trying not to be too casual when you’re sending out cold emails. And then, actually, it flip-flopped,

[00:12:44] I got so good at writing emails that I was like, like, I don’t need to use the phones anymore, like, I’m so good at using emails, and then that kind of hurt me for a little bit. But then when I got back on Tommy’s team, you know, you had no choice, you had to get back on the phone, so. But yeah, the first six months in memoryBlue has definitely changed my life, gave me clarity, you know, vision for what I wanted in the future. I saw how many, you know, how successful all these alumni were, it’s like, damn, you know, these people go through this rigorous, you know, experience six months, and now they’re all crushing it, you know, they look so happy, they’re making all this money, you know, they’re high-profile companies. So, I was excited, you know, I was excited after six months for what the future had in store. 

[00:13:21] Marc Gonyea: Who, who were you with? Who was there, else was out there when you were there? Like, like, who’d you learn from? 

[00:13:26] Brian Ball: Who’d I learn from? From an SDR perspective, Brandon Gip. 

[00:13:31] Marc Gonyea: Oh, Gip. 

[00:13:31] Brian Ball: I used to listen to Gips calls all the time when I first got there, he was, he was always tough on the

[00:13:35] Marc Gonyea: He’s a pro.

[00:13:36] Brian Ball: When I got there, him and Austin Kroll, too. 

[00:13:39] Marc Gonyea: Oh yeah. Okay. 

[00:13:39] Brian Ball: Yeah, they were, they were good. I think Jeanne and I worked together for two weeks, and we would role-play all the time together, and she would just be as mean as possible, like, I had cold-called Jeanne, and she’d just hang up on me, and I’d be like, “Come on, you know?” But, uh, Joe Reeves was the MD, so I had gotten there just when Mish was 

[00:13:58] leaving, right when Joe was stepping into the, the MD role, Dan, you know, Dan was the other manager, Jeanne was just leaving. So, uh, yeah, that, that was, I mean, the other SDRs that I, that I was there with, Becky Rangel was there, Abby Bull-Windham, those are 

[00:14:15] Marc Gonyea: AB W.

[00:14:16] Brian Ball: Those are, AB Dubs, yeah, those are like my homies. We sat right next to each other, so we were always there for each other. But I, I was, I feel like I was at memoryBlue

[00:14:24] California office in a weird time, there was, like, lots of in and out. When I went there, the entire office was there, it was like gone, like, two weeks later. So, I felt like I was the new guy, and then all of a sudden I was like, you know, the vet, and I was only there for, like, a month, so I was like, ah,

[00:14:39] that was kind of weird, but yeah, it was, there was a lot of great SDRs when I was working there. London Miller, uh, Trevor Shannon,

[00:14:46] Marc Gonyea: Miller T-Shan.

[00:14:48] Chris Corcoran: T-Shan’s my boy, I talk to him all the time, he’s one of my best friends. Yeah, I mean there’s, there’s a lot of killers. Victor Mata was always really cool on the phones, he had a really hard client, though. That’s what everybody says. 

[00:14:59] Marc Gonyea: Everybody remembers it, more difficult that was, but yeah, there are some things, some more cha, say challenging. 

[00:15:06] Brian Ball: I think it was way harder calling for memoryBlue than any other ’cause I was on a co, I, I used to do PPM dials and some, I had another account Uptech that I was on for, like, two months, you remember Uptech? That was a mess. Yeah, those guys, man, oh my gosh. But I don’t even know where they’re at now, I, I know the sales guy that worked for them was a consultant. He wasn’t actually an internal Uptech employee at the time, he was really cool. 

[00:15:26] Marc Gonyea: That’s a good son. 

[00:15:27] Brian Ball: Yeah. 

[00:15:27] Marc Gonyea: That’s a good son.

[00:15:28] Brian Ball: Yeah, of course. 

[00:15:28] Marc Gonyea: Let me ask you, let me ask you a question. When you were getting into this tech, I don’t know if you compare it to, I mean, what did you think about living in the Bay Area? It’s like the epicenter of technology.

[00:15:40] Brian Ball: It was crazy, man. 

[00:15:41] Marc Gonyea: You drive around, and every building 

[00:15:44] Brian Ball: Yeah, instead of playing punch buggy, you know, no punch backs, they play Tesla out there, you know, which is, it was a culture shock for sure, I mean, not too much different from Montgomery County, Montgomery County’s pretty affluent area, but it was wild, man. Everyone there, you know, it just seemed like they didn’t have time, they always had their iPods in or their, you know, wireless iPods,

[00:16:03] when that came out, everyone had ’em, I was like, damn, I need to get rid of these wires, like, I’m gonna get, you know, ostracized for having these wires on me. But yeah, it was, it was a crazy experience, especially in San Pedro market, it’s such a cool area, you know, being able to go out there and kind of just network, have lunch with all your team.

[00:16:19] But, you know, really high-profile area, almost every time I went to a networking event, I was like, wow, this room is probably worth, like, a billion dollars, the people in this room, you know, especially when you go to, like, finserv conferences, I mean, you know, it’s a lot of money, a lot of power.

[00:16:33] Marc Gonyea: But so, so, when you’re there, doing your thing, what did you think you wanted to do as you kind of got your legs on from, you know, I…

[00:16:40] Brian Ball: I knew I didn’t want to be in marketing. I wanted to be an account executive eventually, but I was open to management as well ’cause I, I, you know, with my coaching background, I always felt like I would be a really good leader.

[00:16:53] So, I wanted to do that, I was really open to do everything, but I wanted to be a closer ’cause, you know, that’s, I was looking at the OTs, just kind of looking at people’s lifestyle, who closed, they’re like, “Hey, man, you know, I’m gonna make 250 grand this year.” Like, to me, that’s just an astronomical amount of money.

[00:17:08] So, I wanted to close, I thought it was, I liked the chase, I like the challenge of it, you know, I like being challenged, so that’s what I wanted to do. Tommy, I remember the SD position became available, and it was up for grabs, and I applied, I think, like, an hour later, as soon it was ready, and Tommy gave me a call, and, uh,15 minutes later, I get a call from Jeanne and Jeanne’s like, “Yo, Tommy just called me and was like, ‘Hey, your brother kind of just, like, knocked my socks off.

[00:17:35] Like, he told me he would come back to Virginia to train and all this stuff.'” So, when I got the SD role, I had to get back in my Camry, drive back to Northern Virginia, and I was staying at my mom’s house, you know, I had to drive from, from Rockville to, uh, Northern Virginia every morning, which was just a great drive, you know, it was fantastic, loving it

[00:17:53] Marc Gonyea: It was scenic? 

[00:17:53] Brian Ball: Oh, my god, so scenic, so quick, too. No, that was, that was rough. Trained hard for three months, I was hitting the phones pretty hard, and then that team was great, that team was great, uh, Matt Gloger was there, Kevin was there, Helena Schanz, Carley Armentrout, just, Carly was just great. 

[00:18:11] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, she’s killer. 

[00:18:11] Brian Ball: Um,Joey Cohen, you know, that, that whole team was great, that was a Dynamo team. I was probably the least successful member at that team at that time, and then Caroline Sullivan came, she was a killer, too. Yeah, and then

[00:18:25] Marc Gonyea: We’re sitting in a conference room named after her.

[00:18:27] Brian Ball: Yeah, yeah, she’s, she was awesome, she’s an absolute monster. And I went back, went back to California and started kind of, you know, trying to generate leads for the California office, and I wanted to get, I, I felt like when I got into memoryBlue, I was gonna eventually go work for a different company that had, you know, more of a technical aspect to it.

[00:18:44] So, I wanted to go sell something that was, like, technical, and I talked to Tommy, and I was like, “Hey, man, like, I think it’s time for me to, like, spread my wings, I think it’s time for me to pursue other opportunities.” I was very, very transparent about everything with him, he actually helped me, you know, gave me, touched on my resume, gave me recommendations, and I left for a company in March 2020.

[00:19:05] Marc Gonyea: Uh, oh. 

[00:19:06] Brian Ball: Qubole, it was a data engineering technology, it was a great tech, they were competing with Databricks, and, uh, I saw an opportunity to do something really great there. So, I left, and, like, three weeks later, my boss was like, “Hey, no one can come to the office anymore,” and I was like, “What do you mean?”

[00:19:24] Chris Corcoran: Right? 

[00:19:24] Brian Ball: And, um, couple months after that, they were like, “Hey, we’re firing our entire sales team.” But actually, they kept me on because I was doing well. So, it was kind of an ISR gig, but I was bringing in a lot of opportunities for them. So, they actually fired their entire marketing team, their entire sales team, most of their account executives, and they’re like, “Brian, we wanna keep you on as a contractor, like, indefinitely.” Right? And then, so I did that for a couple more months, then August 2020 comes, I’m at Ocean City with my family, you know, we do Ocean City every year. 

[00:19:55] Chris Corcoran: The Ball beach week.

[00:19:56] Brian Ball: Yes, Ball beach week, yep, and I get a call from my boss, I get a call from my boss and, uh, he was just like, “Listen, Brian, I’ll tell you it’s your last day, like the, and next week’s my last week, like, this thing’s done.” They got acquired by a private equity company, hopefully, they’re doing better now, but yeah, everything changed for them. The majority of their customers were in enterprise job. So, I mean, when COVID happened, they, they lost millions in revenue. 

[00:20:24] Marc Gonyea: That’s a tough place to be. 

[00:20:25] Brian Ball: Yeah. So, um, I was thinking about, you know, in August, I was like, okay, you know, what do I do now? You know, I, I don’t have a job, I really don’t have that much money, I’m young, I don’t have that much experience,

[00:20:35] only a couple years of tech experience outta my belt at this time, a little bit of ISR experience, and the SD position was great ’cause it was, you know, we did some closing-ish a little bit there as well. So, you know, I had enough to kind of bullshit my way into an interview for an ISR gig if I wanted to,

[00:20:50] but I was like, you know what? That’s just not the right thing to do, like, let me go back and start from square one again. So, I actually reached out back to memoryBlue for, you know, put me in the placement program, but I ended up connecting with someone randomly on LinkedIn that was, you know, Simpplr, Simpplr was hiring, and I connected with, uh, with Jason Li who, who works there, he’s the SDR manager there now, but 

[00:21:10] Marc Gonyea: Beyond a doubt, you are a well-trained SDR

[00:21:13] Brian Ball: At that time, yeah. 

[00:21:13] Marc Gonyea: Right, I mean, there’s no doubt about that. 

[00:21:15] Brian Ball: Right. So, I was like, you know what? I’ll just go back there, I’ll crush it as an SDR again for however long I need to, to get elevated. And I joined Simpplr the perfect time. Again, I think they were around, like, 42 employees or something like that when I joined. I was an SDR for, uh, six months, I was an outbound SDR for six months, I did, I did well, I had quote almost every month there.

[00:21:35] Marc Gonyea: Over 400 employees now. 

[00:21:37] Brian Ball: Yeah, doing well now, yeah, lots of growth. Then I was in enterprise for six months. 

[00:21:42] Marc Gonyea: Enterprise SDR? 

[00:21:43] Brian Ball: Enterprise SDR.

[00:21:44] Marc Gonyea: How is that different than the?

[00:21:46] Brian Ball: It’s different because not only are you sourcing opportunities, but you’re doing a lot of legwork to bring the opportunities to like a, you know, a competitive stage instead of just kind of like, hey, this is fluff,

[00:21:54] we got someone at their company that’s interested in having a conversation, move it along, figure out, you know, hey, is there actually budget, or do you guys have the resources to do this project? Is a timeline looking like, like do we have any executive sponsorship? That kind of stuff because in enterprise, I mean, the sales cycles are so much different.

[00:22:12] They’re so much longer, so many more people are involved, you got, you know, internal politics that you have to deal with because you got one person that wants to get the solution and the other departments like, no. So, you gotta navigate all that stuff. So, BDR, they call it the enterprise BDR position, actually.

[00:22:27] Marc Gonyea: Okay. Did you have a set of accounts you were going after, like, or a vertical? 

[00:22:31] Brian Ball: It was pretty wide open. I had three AEs I was supporting, and we would connect, you know, twice a week, once on Monday, once on Friday, I’d be like, “Hey, this is what I want.” And then, Friday, I’d be like, “What’d you get me?” You know, and every time I source an opportunity after the meeting, I’d have to go out, go get a couple other people involved in the accounts

[00:22:50] in that we got credit for not only sourcing accounts but moving, moving business down the pipeline as well. Yeah, I did that for about six months, and then I got a call, actually in the middle of me cold calling, I got a call from our VP of Sales, and I noticed it was a Denver number, and so I started talking about the Nuggets right away, he’s like, hey, he’s like, “I didn’t talk, I didn’t call to talk to you about the Nuggets, man.” 

[00:23:12] Marc Gonyea: Okay, let’s, let’s talk pronto.

[00:23:15] Brian Ball: Let’s, yeah, he was like, “I, you know, I called to, to offer you the closing position.” So, very humbly accepted it, and year and a half later, you know, here I am. 

[00:23:26] Marc Gonyea: How’d you position yourself for that role?

[00:23:28] I made it very clear that I wanted to be a closer, you know, and actually got lucky because one of the closers that was in the position that I replaced just decided to leave the company, apparently he was having problems with leadership or whatever, and I already knew the game, like, because of memoryBlue,

[00:23:43] Brian Ball: I was like, listen, startups, it’s not a machine, like, quotas are gonna be different, they might change on you at the middle, you know, middle of nowhere, processes aren’t in place, you know, you’re the guinea pig pretty much. I knew that well and good, so I knew what, what I was getting myself into, and I think they understood that. 

[00:23:59] Marc Gonyea: And you were comfortable with that?

[00:24:01] Brian Ball: I was comfortable.

[00:24:01] Marc Gonyea: In a good way, because you experienced before, but you also just wanted the opportunity. 

[00:24:04] Brian Ball: Exactly, yeah. 

[00:24:05] Marc Gonyea: Right? You wanted, 

[00:24:06] Brian Ball: More so.

[00:24:06] Marc Gonyea: you wanted the opportunity to close, I don’t really care what my quota is, or just gimme a shot.

[00:24:10] Brian Ball: Yeah, exactly. 

[00:24:11] Marc Gonyea: Put me in coach. 

[00:24:12] Brian Ball: Put me in coach, yeah, and I learned really the hard way. My first two quarters, uh, as an AE, I was giving out discounts, out. 

[00:24:21] Marc Gonyea: Dude, Tommy taught you that, right?

[00:24:23] Brian Ball: Oh, my gosh, man, I, and it was crazy because I had missed my quota about, like, this much, like 2017.

[00:24:30] Marc Gonyea: All your discounts. 

[00:24:31] Brian Ball: Yeah, and I was like, “Damn!” You know, all my business quota away, I gave my quota away, yeah, you know, I brought in a, a bunch of logos, brought in more logos than anyone else, but I didn’t hit my quota, which is just crazy to me, right, so

[00:24:42] Marc Gonyea: School was in session?

[00:24:43] Brian Ball: School was in session, I was learning the hard way, and then I, I had made it a focal point for last year, had a crazy year last year, closed over a million dollars in business last year. I learned the hard way, I was like, I’m not giving any discounts unless the expiration date’s on the order form, and it’s, like, a 10% discount, and that bode well for me, that did really well last year, so.

[00:25:03] Marc Gonyea: That’s, that, that was your learn, your lesson learned from 2021? 

[00:25:07] Brian Ball: Yeah, don’t give discounts, especially not 25% discounts. Ridiculous, right? It’s so ridiculous looking back on it, you know, you’re like

[00:25:15] Marc Gonyea: That does, didn’t need approval?

[00:25:16] Brian Ball: Well, they did, but, you know, when, when you’re a startup and they’re great logos that I was bringing in, so it’s, of course, they’re, you know, they’re looking at it, like, I guess you know, here it is, like, they promised they’re gonna sign. 

[00:25:28] Marc Gonyea: Did your VP ever call you? 

[00:25:30] Brian Ball: Couple times.

[00:25:30] Marc Gonyea: “Ball, dude, come on, brother.”

[00:25:32] Brian Ball: Couple times, he never called me on the phone, but there was some emails sent from my RVP that was like, “Hey, you know, this isn’t pretty, substantial discount.” But I mean, at the end of the day, I think it was

[00:25:42] Marc Gonyea: So, you gotta learn.

[00:25:43] Brian Ball: Yeah, I mean, yeah, and when you’re a, you know, startup, it’s growth at all costs, right? So, you’re just trying to get as many logos as you can, as many users as you can, but yeah, man, that was a great learning experience for me, and, and for any AE that’s just starting out, that’s listening to this now, stand firm, you can be in control of your deals,

[00:25:59] you don’t have to be an order taker. You are the expert, right? These people that are buying, they’re not the expert, the only thing they know is maybe they’ve rolled out a couple softwares in the past, and maybe they can look at a couple Forrester, Gartner reviews. But at the end of the day, you know the inside of the, out of the product, you know the in and out of the space, and you have power, you know, don’t feel like you don’t have power, so. What else did you learn kind of make of that transition? From, SDR, you know, uh, an experienced SDR, the closing, like, when you say mid-market deals, like, you close also some good logo of deals, like, what other muscles did you have to develop? 

[00:27:28] I would say the biggest thing I learned, the transition is that prospecting never goes away, you know, don’t think, again, if you’re listening to this and you’re an SDR now, if you’re a great SDR, you’ll be an even better AE as long as you don’t, you know, start saying, “Oh, now that I’m an AE, I don’t need to prospect anymore.” Right? That’s the number one thing that’s gonna hold you back, I mean, that’s the difference between hitting your quota and doing 200% of your number and, and going on winner circle, right,

[00:27:54] Brian Ball: is, you gotta be willing to prospect always, and, you know, that’s one thing that I learned, that I’m learning now, especially, like, you can just make so much more money. And I mean, at the end of the day, when you’re closing business that’s brought in from your marketing team, like, you’re expected to close that business,

[00:28:12] you know, but you are not expected to go out and find things on your own, you bring in 50% of your number by yourself, typically I’d say it’s about 25% that you’re expected, I would say is, you know, the average. But if you can bring in half your number through outbound, I mean, you’re gonna, you’re gonna be good no matter where you go, no matter what you’re selling.

[00:28:29] Marc Gonyea: Why do you think there’s reluctance to keep doing that?

[00:28:33] Uh, I think it’s hard, I think it’s hard, and I think it’s a challenge every day, it doesn’t matter if you’re cold calling a hundred times a day, you know, for a year, every day is difficult, every day is a challenge, it’s like going to the gym,

[00:28:44] Brian Ball: it’s the same thing, it’s like, you know, yeah, you know how to do it, and, you know, you get results from it, but it doesn’t become less of a challenge. And then, I think there’s also a sense of entitlement that when you get promoted to an account executive, you’re like, “Okay, you know, SDRs are working for me now.” That’s not the case at all, in my opinion,

[00:29:01] I’ve realized that account executives actually really have to kiss the SDRs’ ass more so than the other way around because they’re the ones giving you leads, right, don’t bite the hand that feeds you, you know, and I just, when you’re an AE, like, you can’t be like, “Okay, I’m an AE now,

[00:29:16] like I, I deserve this, right?” It’s like, no, that’s when it begins, that’s when your sales career really can take off, that’s when you can choose to again be, you know, just fly under the radar and close your deals, or hey, you can take advantage of the opportunity you have in tech here and just blow your number outta the water, so.

[00:29:35] Chris Corcoran: What do you tell those SDRs you work with? What type of advice do you give them? 

[00:29:39] Brian Ball: I mean, I, I tell ’em to, again, the same thing I said to the people who wanna be in AE, it’s just like, you have power in these deals, like, they’re coming to us for a reason, you have the knowledge,

[00:29:50] but if you want to be an AE, don’t shoot yourself short, like, you can take care of your customers, you can take care of yourself, you can take care of the people you work with, all you have to do is just do the right thing. I mean, I, whenever I talk to my SDRs about like, “Hey, Brian, you know, I wanna grow,

[00:30:05] Brian Ball: like,” if they’re asking me for advice, I’m like, “Just be yourself, work hard, don’t cut any corners, and be respectful to everyone, be genuine and, you know, the rest will kind of take care of itself.” I mean, but also, when you’re an SDR, and you want to become a manager versus an AE, it doesn’t really matter.

[00:30:24] Like, it’s, it all comes around in the same way, like, the doors don’t close, whether you, you know, when you’re an SDR, you think you can become an account executive, you want to go be a manager later, that’s entirely possible. There’s this feeling where people who become SDRs who become managers think they’re never gonna become closers, or the other way around, it’s like, the doors are open, man.

[00:30:44] Marc Gonyea: So, you worked at memoryBlue, you had some clients at memoryBlue, you worked at Qubole, now you have Simpplr. What, someone comes to you, says they’re looking for an opportunity, and when I say come, comes to you, maybe they’re an SDR looking to leave memoryBlue, right?

[00:30:58] And people chase base, you know, do they, or they, or, or, I see people leave memoryBlue early all the time, and then I’m like, why are you leaving yet? 

[00:31:08] Brian Ball: For 5,000 extra dollars, which after taxes is really like a hundred bucks a month, or something like that. 

[00:31:13] Marc Gonyea: What advice would you give someone who’s, you know, they’re looking to, to keep progressing their career, and what do you look at in an opportunity at a company?

[00:31:20] Brian Ball: Yeah. So, I think the best part about memoryBlue is not what you get out of it, but it’s who you become, right, and, and my mentor, one of my idols growing up, was Kobe Bryant, and Kobe always used to say, “It’s not about the results, it’s about the journey.” Right? It’s not about what you get at the end of the day, it’s about who you become at the end of the day.

[00:31:39] And you can make a little bit extra coin, again, a couple hundred bucks extra by leaving memoryBlue early, or, you know, go in a different way, but when you come to memoryBlue, you have a sense of camaraderie, you’re learning from people that, you know, they’re all different kinds of wa, like, you guys, you know, the MDs in every office,

[00:31:57] most of them have done a lot of different things in sales, and you just get so much more out of the experience, you get to feed off other people’s energies that are similar to, you know, where you are in your life, probably similar to who you are as a person, just because, you know, the vetting process and memoryBlue.

[00:32:12] So, I say it’s about the journey, man, and it’s like, if you really want to grow as a person, and not just, you know, all about the money, then I would go work at memoryBlue versus, you know, any tech company out there. The training you get, the experiences you get, the opportunity to go to TOPS Trip twice a year, you know, just being able to, again, being able to feed off the energy that’s in the offices, it’s, it’s a, it’s an experience that, you know, I’ll have for the rest of my life. 

[00:32:35] Marc Gonyea: And what about the type of, let’s say for some reason you were, you were looking for a job, you’re not, yeah, but you were, like, how important is the technology versus how important is the manager?

[00:32:45] Like how, like a client, for example?

[00:32:46] Marc Gonyea: No, no, like, you’re, you’re an SDR, you’re leaving, you’re trying to crack into an AE role or you’re a junior-level AE, finally left memoryBlue, you’re an AE for a couple years, you’re looking for your next thing, I mean, is it tech more important than who your manager is? Is the manager more important than the tech you’re selling?

[00:33:01] Brian Ball: I would say people are always more important. One of the biggest reasons I went to Simpplr is because they treat people with respect, right? They know that human beings are human beings, it’s, you know, Chris does this all the time, it’s all about the people, right?

[00:33:14] And I, every time I went to TOPS Trips, I was like, “Man, you guys put something special here together,” and just like, it’s, it’s just the people, man, it’s all about the people. So, you know, it’s about who you’re gonna be working with, what kind of person is your manager? Is he a genuine person?

[00:33:26] You know, what’s his background, his or her background, like, way more important than the technology you’re selling. You can make money selling anything, if you’re a good rep, you know, methodology, you know how to treat people, you’re a timely person, you can outsell people that have better tech than you. So, it’s all about the people, definitely.

[00:33:43] Marc Gonyea: What advice would you give to someone who’s just starting as an SDR? 

[00:33:48] Don’t be scared, I would say, you know, especially a lot of people who are just started as an SDR, a lot of them don’t really know what they want to do, and SDR gives you a great chance to cast a wide net, um, you’re gonna have exposure to a lot of different things.

[00:34:01] Brian Ball: So, I would say, don’t be scared, you know, go at it full force, don’t doubt yourself, don’t sell yourself short, there’s a reason you’re there, there’s a reason that you were hired and, and, and offered the position, and just remember that, you know, when you’re two months in, you haven’t gotten a book yet, three months in, haven’t gotten a book yet, and your manager’s like, “Oh, my God, is this a bad hire?”

[00:34:19] It’s like, don’t worry about it, it’s just noise, man, all that is just noise, like, focus on yourself, do what you’re supposed to do, believe in yourself, no one believes in themselves anymore, everyone’s always asking for, like, an external validation, it’s like, what do you need that for? Look yourself in the mirror and say, I respect you, I believe in you, we’re gonna get this done. That’s what I’d say. 

[00:34:39] Marc Gonyea: You should, you should write a book.

[00:34:43] Brian Ball: Yeah, I don’t know, man. People need to believe in themselves nowadays, especially with what everyone just went through, you know, we’re all isolated, we’re away from each other. So, we’re all looking at our screens, and they’re putting these just ridiculous 

[00:34:56] images of what you’re supposed to be doing and how you’re, what you’re supposed to have and what you’re supposed to look like, again, it’s all noise, just, like, you don’t need me, you know, you don’t need any external validation, believe in yourself and go do the work.

[00:35:10] Marc Gonyea: So, Brian, where do you see your kind of career progressing, do you like being an individual contributor, you wanna keep doing that for a while, worry about hitting your quota, making your clients happy, making your sales manager happy, work with team environment or, talk about that a little bit.

[00:35:23] Yeah, so, I definitely wanna stay in tech, I like technology, I love the technology I’m selling now ’cause it’s a technology-centered around people, technology that

[00:35:32] Marc Gonyea: But yeah, tell us what Simpplr does. 

[00:35:34] So, for the longest time, a company portal has really been ignored by corporations, right? Having a place to go to centralize all your information, place where all your employees can kind of visually interact with each other, for the longest time that’s basically been, you know, a SharePoint or a Confluence that IT has to update to make it look pretty, it’s never really worked, it’s been ignored by executives for forever.

[00:35:56] Brian Ball: So, when COVID happened, all of that changed, and people realized how important having a digital environment was. So, what’s Simpplr is it’s like, a virtual headquarters, you know, employee experience platform. So, it’s a place where you can come in, you can figure out, okay, what’s going on with my company,

[00:36:11] do we hire any new executives, do we open up a new office location, win any new deals, take care of all your housekeeping items, is there new benefits, do we have, you know, security compliance review that we need to do, whatever. Then you can also start your workday so you can click on all the apps you use to get your job done.

[00:36:26] So, kind of just streamlines so, you know, the remote work experience and also gives you a place to engage with people. Everyone has a profile on Simpplr, so you can kind of see, you know, who the people you work with are, what are their skillsets, what is their background, especially at a growing company, like, Simpplr it’s growing so fast, I feel like there’s new hires in every day. Just quickly go to their profile and say, okay, cool, like, this person, this is what they’re all about, this is

[00:36:47] Marc Gonyea: Who do you sell to? 

[00:36:48] Brian Ball: You know, because the internet touches every employee, every company it’s different. Sometimes it’s the CEO, sometimes, it’s IT, oftentimes it’s internal communications, HR,

[00:37:00] marketing, but personas are all over the place. When I’m prospecting, I look and I just, I go after the leadership team, doesn’t matter what department they’re in because they’re likely using it one way or another, and they’re likely dis, dissatisfied ’cause more often than not, you know, I mean, there’s a lot of things that Simpplr has, gamification, recognition, batting system, so it ties together a lot of different things, you know, it’s, it’s a cross-department technology.

[00:37:25] Marc Gonyea: How long do your deals typically take? 

[00:37:28] Brian Ball: It depends the size. If it’s a, so SMB deal, I say our average deal size is right around 30,000 ARR. That probably takes about anywhere from, you know, one to three months on average, I’d say, you know, about 45 days.

[00:37:43] Longer, you know, bigger opportunities that are rolling into the 1,000 employees, 2,000 employees type organizations, that takes a while, you know, that takes a couple quarters usually, but it, it varies, but I would say on average about 45 days right now. 

[00:37:56] Marc Gonyea: Okay, and how many are you trying to close out a month? Is that 45-day cycle quarterly? 

[00:38:02] Brian Ball: Um,yeah, I mean, I’m looking to close, if I can close 25 deals at an average deal cycle this year, I’ll have my number. 

[00:38:07] Marc Gonyea: Okay, so two a month? 

[00:38:09] Brian Ball: Yeah, two or three a month, but I wanna close five a month. 

[00:38:12] Marc Gonyea: Okay, why are you selling yourself short? 

[00:38:17] Brian Ball: Yeah, I mean, the reality is like, every single deal is different.

[00:38:22] Marc Gonyea: Do you have a territory, or is it by geo, or?

[00:38:25] Brian Ball: No, not yet, we’re working on that. So, we’re building out a global presence now, we just opened up an office in Brighton, so in, in the UK. We’re gonna have an EMEA section there that’s gonna be handled by a great rep at Semperis is fantastic,

[00:38:36] it’s one of the best reps I’ve actually ever worked. And I’m not sure if they’re gonna change things for my segment or commercial, but enterprise definitely gonna have regional sections for sure, I think they already do that, it’s east and west. 

[00:38:49] Chris Corcoran: And what do, do you want to keep moving up the food chain?

[00:38:52] Brian Ball: Yeah, I want, eventually, I wanna be selling, you know, multimillion-dollar deals, but those sales cycles are, they’re wars, you know, I’m fighting battles right now, but hopefully I’ll get to the wars eventually. Yeah, I mean, those reps, they’re making a lot of coin, you know, and they’re, and they’re having a huge impact, which is a lots of these organizations that are, you know, in the 50,000, 60,000 employees, they’re using legacy technologies, man, no one’s happy.

[00:39:16] The demographics are shifting at these companies, younger people coming in that are expecting, you know, enterprise-grade technology they’re just not getting. So, you’re making a huge impact, you know, kind of brightening the, the culture for these organizations. So, I’m really excited, but I also know it’s a slow play, right?

[00:39:33] Like, any tech company, right? Most of these organizations, they keep most of their sensitive data, all of their infrastructure on legacy technologies for many different reasons. With the way that the cloud, you know, security is kind of evolving over the years, lots of it has shifted, lots of CIOs and leadership teams feel more comfortable moving to cloud infrastructure.

[00:39:51] So, it’s a slow play, definitely for enterprise, but if I stay with Simpplr for, you know, for a while, the space is gonna get hot, and these, these big-time organizations are gonna make these changes, so.

[00:40:04] Marc Gonyea: So, knowing what you know now, but you’re driving out to California, what advice would you have given that, I mean, how old were you when you started working for us? 

[00:40:12] Brian Ball: I was like 21, 22 years old.

[00:40:14] Marc Gonyea: What would you give, what advice would you have for you 21? 

[00:40:17] Brian Ball: Stay away from the keg in the office, no, I’m kidding. I would tell myself that you don’t have to be the first one in every morning, but be the last one to go.

[00:40:26] Marc Gonyea: Why is that important? 

[00:40:27] Brian Ball: Networking, it’s all about network. I could have been even closer with the people that I work with, and back then, we were all on the same level, you know, but when you’re at memoryBlue, you never know who’s gonna be a VP of sales one day, you know, who, you never, who know who’s gonna be a CEO,

[00:40:43] maybe he’ll give you a job, right? So, you wanna get as close as you can with everyone in that office, learn their client, see if you can brainstorm with them, see if you can, you know, it doesn’t have to be on your team, just connect with as many people as you can. And I think that’s the one thing I regret.

[00:40:57] I kind of had a crew that I felt really comfortable with, and I would’ve really extended my hands more out and tried to try to network with everybody in the office ’cause you never know who’s gonna be the boss one day. 

[00:41:07] Marc Gonyea: No, you don’t. And then, so you’re, you’re working remote now? 

[00:41:10] Brian Ball: Yes, I’m working remote, yeah.

[00:41:12] Marc Gonyea: Uh, how’s that, what’s that like, as a, as a, you know, someone who’s kind of still early in their closing career?

[00:41:17] Brian Ball: So, it was great when I had a proper office, like, I told you about the, the, the house that I just bought in Deep Creek, I didn’t think it was gonna get rented out as much as it has been, right, and I had a legit office, I had my own room, double monitor set up, nice chair, all that. Now, now, I’m living in my folks’ house, working off of one monitor, it’s tough, I miss being able to go to the office.

[00:41:38] I miss having, you know, a, a true work environment, but, you know, all I have to do is go to Micro Center and buy a couple things, and I’ll be back, but I haven’t been there for that long, so, but I am starting to get bored with the remote work. I miss going to the office, I miss dressing up, you know, now I just put, like, jeans and a collared t-shirt on, and I’m, I’m dressed for work, you know, I miss kind of putting my shiny shoes on, putting my watch on, spraying some colon on, you know, just dressing, dressing for the party and going into the office. 

[00:42:05] Marc Gonyea: So, how do you structure your day? 

[00:42:07] Brian Ball: Usually I wake up around, I mean, it really depends on how much work I have for that day. Like, I know if I have a huge day, I’m gonna wake up really early hours, probably right around when the sun comes up, just to kind of drink some water, you know, eat some food,

[00:42:20] get myself ready for, to do three or four demos. Uh, if I don’t have much calls, I’ll probably wake up around eight or nine, you know, chilling, look, go to backyard, I start my day every day on Simpplr’s technology, and see, hey, what’s new at the company. But I always leave myself about two hours a day for prospecting,

[00:42:38] whether I have a big pipeline or not, I’ve always done that. So, and that’s, usually, I do that around midday, I think that’s the best time to call. Afternoon, people are, they don’t want to hear it, you know, first thing in the morning, they don’t want to hear it, right around 10:00 to, like, 1:00 PM, I feel like that’s a sweet spot.

[00:42:53] Marc Gonyea: Really?

[00:42:53] Brian Ball: Yeah, that’s when people are, um, they’re, they’re, catching ’em off guard, they’re focused so they’re actually listening to what you’re saying on the phones. Catch someone at the end of the day, they’re like, “Who is, you know, what is this? I’m getting ready to go home, like, I don’t got time for this.”

[00:43:04] You call somebody the first thing in the morning, and they’re like, still waking up, you know, they’re like, “Ah, I don’t know.” Unless it’s a CEO, you can call CEO. 

[00:43:11] Marc Gonyea: How big does your pipeline have to be?

[00:43:13] Brian Ball: When you say four X quota. 

[00:43:15] Marc Gonyea: Four, four X your quota? 

[00:43:16] Brian Ball: Yeah. 

[00:43:17] Marc Gonyea: And what’s considered pipeline? 

[00:43:19] Brian Ball: Anything that’s engaged technically, so 

[00:43:22] Marc Gonyea: Sold after a first meeting? 

[00:43:23] Brian Ball: Yeah.

[00:43:24] Marc Gonyea: Okay. So, whatever, your pipeline’s a hundred, you gotta have 400K and pass the first meeting?

[00:43:29] Brian Ball: Yeah. 

[00:43:30] Marc Gonyea: Okay, got it. The best way to fill that is out, outbound?

[00:43:35] Brian Ball: Definitely, I mean, it’s becoming more difficult now, right, because so many people are getting so many calls, right, because the SDR position, when memoryBlue started, no one knew what an SDR was. Like, you guys were the first ones pretty much to the game to do it properly. Now, every single company is trying to copy the memoryBlue playbook, they’re all trying to do what you guys do now.

[00:43:55] So, you know, buyers are getting blown up, lots of them are blocking spam numbers automatically if you call from a dialer, and you’re calling, like, someone’s work phone, they’re blocking it automatically, right? So, phones will always work, they’ll never die, but it’s becoming less and less, it’s becoming harder to get a, a CWP, basically, it, it’s becoming harder to get a C whip

[00:44:15] Marc Gonyea: C whip, man. 

[00:44:16] Brian Ball: That’s what you call ’em, right? 

[00:44:17] Marc Gonyea: C whips. 

[00:44:17] Brian Ball: We call ’em

[00:44:18] Chris Corcoran: C dubs. 

[00:44:18] Brian Ball: CWS, we call ’em C dubs, yeah. In, in California, that’s what they called ’em, C dubs, and then I got to the Virginia office, and they were like C whips, and I was like, the hell is a C whip?

[00:44:26] Marc Gonyea: It was Christmas, a C whip for Christmas once, or for Halloween. 

[00:44:29] Chris Corcoran: Yeah, Halloween. 

[00:44:30] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, but I think that sales need to, if you wanna be an AE for the rest of your life, considering that the changes are to come with artificial, you know, intelligence and tech just becoming extremely advanced, there’s a couple things you gotta do. Let’s go.

[00:44:42] Brian Ball: You gotta become your own marketer, you gotta be able to leverage events, maybe create your own events, whether it’s just like, “Hey, we’re doing a happy hour, everyone’s gonna get a $20 gift card, whatever.” You gotta get the registration list out there.

[00:44:54] So, you gotta know how to build a registration list, a link that people can RSVP to and fill it out yourself. And then you gotta be a little bit of a solutions consultant as well, right? Because if, you know, as, as time goes on, these sales processes, they’re gonna become, you know, harder to compete with technology.

[00:45:10] So, you gotta know your product in and out, you gotta be a little bit of a solutions engineer, and a little bit of a marketer. And then, lastly, you gotta just make sure you know a methodology, stay up to date on the most com, you know, ’cause every methodology, doesn’t matter how good it is, it’s gonna get played out,

[00:45:24] buyers are gonna recognize the habits and they’re gonna be like, this ain’t working anymore, like, I already know what this guy’s about to hit me with. So, just keep your ears open, always make sure you’re, you know, staying up to date with the people that are killing it in the industry and see what they’re using, they’re using a different methodology than you are, learn that, but yeah, methodology, marketing, and product knowledge if you wanna be great. 

[00:45:43] Marc Gonyea: I like it, Brian, it’s good to see you. 

[00:45:47] Brian Ball: Oh, great to see you guys, man, I, and Jeanne, uh, Jeanne would love to be here, she was, she said, semipro. 

[00:45:52] Marc Gonyea: Wanna get Jeanne on the podcast very soon?

[00:45:53] Brian Ball: It would’ve been really cool to have both of us here, together, and doing it.

[00:45:56] Chris Corcoran: I think the world would’ve been blown up. 

[00:45:59] Marc Gonyea: The, the, 

[00:46:00] Chris Corcoran: The two Balls in the same room at the same time. 

[00:46:02] Marc Gonyea: Take a nuclear power. 

[00:46:03] Chris Corcoran: All right, right, yeah. 

[00:46:05] Marc Gonyea: That’s why that Ball, that thing’s probably off the chain. 

[00:46:07] Brian Ball: Oh, my gosh, man, ah. 

[00:46:09] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, it’s good to see you’re doing great, man.

[00:46:11] Brian Ball: Yeah, yeah, rocking and rolling.

[00:46:12] Marc Gonyea: You’ve been up to California, a boy came back a man, right? 

[00:46:17] Brian Ball: Yeah.

[00:46:18] Chris Corcoran: Property owner. 

[00:46:18] Brian Ball: That’s what I’m really excited about, I wanna create, so I want build my own house one day, you know?

[00:46:24] Marc Gonyea: Brick by brick?

[00:46:25] Brian Ball: Yeah. So, I’m actually, and I know in order to do that, you can’t really do that if you have a full-time job in tech, just not enough time in the day.

[00:46:32] So, I want to build passive income to the point where I’m making like, five or six Gs a month, then maybe I can lean away from maybe just a full-time job, going to, like, consulting, and I’m gonna study, become an electrician and a plumber as well, and on my weekends, I actually just signed up at a course in Montgomery College to do the, uh, the apprenticeship for electric.

[00:46:51] So, I’ll learn how to do electric and learn how to do plumbing, just have that in my back pocket so when I’m ready to build my house, I’m not a complete idiot, right, and I know at least a couple things, so the contractors just don’t completely take advantage.

[00:47:03] Marc Gonyea: I mean, a, a wife is gonna love someone who’s an electrician, a plumber, a tech salesperson, and is coaching the, the B-Ball team and a real estate mogul. 

[00:47:14] Brian Ball: That’s the goal.

[00:47:14] Marc Gonyea: In Deep Creek. 

[00:47:15] Brian Ball: Yeah, that’s a goal, I’m, we’re ready

[00:47:17] Marc Gonyea: Doing it all. 

[00:47:18] Brian Ball: Yeah, I wanna buy, so my property isn’t waterfront, but it’s really nice, it’s like

[00:47:22] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, I’m sure it is.

[00:47:23] Brian Ball: It’s right on the state park, you can still walk down to the water, it’s right where the boat ramp is, two-minute ride from the boat ramp. But I want to get something right on the water ’cause it’s ridiculous, I mean, we don’t charge that, I can show you the listing after, after the

[00:47:34] Marc Gonyea: All right, well, let’s wrap up the podcast, send it over. 

[00:47:37] Chris Corcoran: Any final words of wisdom for the listeners?

[00:47:40] Brian Ball: Just believe in yourself. 

[00:47:41] Chris Corcoran: Yeah, just believe, baby. 

[00:47:42] Brian Ball: It’s all about belief, believe in yourself. 

[00:47:45] Marc Gonyea: Thank you, Mr. Ball. 

[00:47:46] Brian Ball: You got it.

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