Episode 60: Jeremy Mills – The Boomerang
If some is good, more is better. That was the approach Jeremy Mills used with memoryBlue, and you can’t argue with the results.
Jeremy, now an accomplished Account Development Representative at Fictiv, pulled off a rare feat by getting hired out twice in two tours with memoryBlue. The first time through, he learned the hard way, including more than a few cold call calamities. But he reassessed his methods, sharpened his craft, and used a customer-centric approach to generate impressive results the second time around.
In this episode of Tech Sales is for Hustlers, Jeremy reveals his strategic moves on LinkedIn, what he learned working in the restaurant industry that prepped him for sales, and why thinking like your prospects dramatically changes sales conversations.
Guest-At-A-Glance
Name: Jeremy Mills
What he does: Jeremy is the Account Development Representative at Fictiv
Company: Fictiv
Noteworthy: Jeremy has never liked the idea of sitting behind the desk for 40 hours a week, which is why he ditched cybersecurity in the first place. It is one of the reasons why he enjoyed being in the serving industry, which eventually led him to sales.
Where to find Jeremy: LinkedIn
Key Insights
⚡ Building relationships is the number one thing that applies to all people. Jeremy firmly believes that building relationships with people is one of the most important things in sales and any career. “Being in the restaurant industry, being mobile, working with people every day, building those relationships was something that I really enjoyed doing myself. […] Because as a server, if you can get 20 or 30 regulars coming in once a month, they’re going to tip you better. You get to know them as people. And you make a lot more money that way. So that’s the number one key for me – building relationships a hundred percent.”
⚡ Good leadership matters. According to Jeremy’s experience, whether you’re in sales or any other industry, if you have a leader who cares about their employees and can actually lead them through the process, you will be happy to stay and work for the company. “Having the person that cares about their employees first and then drives them to excellence versus someone who’s just there for a paycheck. If you weren’t doing the things that he wanted to, he’d sit there and yell at you in front of everybody. It was legitimately a lack of leadership skills.[…] I couldn’t do it anymore. Having worked there for three or four years, and seeing that happen, going from great to bad – the straw that broke the camel’s back for sure.”
⚡ Don’t make your LinkedIn profile look like a resume. Jeremy suggests that salespeople should not turn their LinkedIn profile into a resume. That’s because potential customers are more interested in how you can help them instead of your prizes. “If your LinkedIn profile is set up like a resume, I think you’re doing things wrong if you’re in sales. Because I know that when I talk to somebody on the phone and I see them looking at my LinkedIn profile, they don’t care if I won the President’s Club. They don’t care if I closed a million dollars in sales. They want to know what I’m going to do to help them out or what I can do for them.”
Episode Highlights
Going from the Restaurant Industry to Becoming a Successful Salesperson
“The restaurant industry is quick, easy money as long as you’re good at it. It’s even better money when you can build those relationships, and you walk out with cash every single day. So, you can make good money, but you also have to work for it. But it’s a very young man’s game. So that’s when I decided to take a look at something else. […] I ended up being at Fictiv. I worked with them for about two weeks before they offered to hire me out, two, three weeks. […] One person was leaving, and there were rising stars. So, they needed someone to take their place. I came in, and I had zero knowledge about the manufacturing world. So, I did a deep dive into what I needed to learn in order to talk to these people, and again about a week, I didn’t see much out of it, but that was because I was still learning. And then, a week or two later, it took off as soon as I learned what these people were responsible for, what they cared about. The sky was open.”
Understand People – That’s the Most Efficient Thing You Can Ever Do
“Learn to get more efficient in the role you’re in before you take the next step. […] Understanding the role of the people you’re talking to is probably the most important part. And that’s what I was lacking. Anytime I take a new position now, I’ll hop on any of those job recruitment sites and research the roles. I’m going to understand what the responsibilities are, learn what their language is, and learn how to talk to them.
And that creates the efficiency on the backend where you cannot make a hundred calls a day to book two or three meetings. You can make 50 calls and put on the same two or three meetings. I make 25 calls a day, and I can book two meetings out of those 25 calls because you understand what those people say, what they want, what they care about. And I don’t care what the outcome of the cold call is. But I think, as long as you understand what they care about and what you can do to fit into their world to make their life easier is the most efficient thing you can ever do.”
Key Differences Between Inbound and Outbound Sales
“Outbound – you’re more of that hunter-type role. You get to pick who you’re reaching out to, and it’s viewed as tougher, in my opinion. But that’s because I don’t think people put a lot of effort into getting better at it versus inbound, where you don’t have those same options of who you reach out to anymore. You have to take what is coming in. Those are people that actually want to talk to you versus outbound, where most of the time they don’t. So, it tends to be easier to get into conversations, easier to book meetings, or set up the sale, or whatever it is the outcome you’re looking for. But it’s a completely different mentality.”
I Have to Level Up in Order to Be Able to Level Up a Team
“I’m doing a lot of reading, working on myself because I have to level up in order to be able to level up a team. The books that helped me get where I’m at would be Dale Carnegie’s ”How to Win Friends and Influence People” – over a hundred years old, and the information still applies today. Timeless. And then two other ones. One is not exactly a sales book, but I think the mentality applies directly to sales. It’s Bob Burg’s most known book. And then the other one was ”The Greatest Salesman in the World” by Og Mandino.”
Piece of Advice for Those Who Want to Make a Move
“The most important thing that I was looking for was to understand where I’m at now and what they’re expecting of me once I join that company. How much of that transfers over? What do I need to learn to put myself in a position to do that other role? It’s about understanding the expectations because I know a lot of people, especially SDRs, want to make that next move as quickly as possible? But master your current role. And then, once you step into that next one, you’re going to be ten times better than everybody.”
Transcript:
[00:01:24] Marc Gonyea: Jeremy Mills, the consummate professional in the house today. Jeremy, thanks for joining Chris and I.
[00:01:31] Jeremy Mills: My pleasure.
[00:01:32] Chris Corcoran: Good seeing you again, Jeremy.
[00:01:34] Jeremy Mills: It was great seeing you guys as well.
[00:01:37] Marc Gonyea: Where do we start?
[00:01:39] Chris Corcoran: At the beginning.
[00:01:39] Marc Gonyea: At the beginning. Tell us a little about yourself, Jeremy. Tell a little where you grew up, what you were like as a kid? You know, brief little rundown so the audience can get to know you a little bit.
[00:01:49] Jeremy Mills: Yeah. So I was born and raised in California, lived there until I was about nine. Parents in government contracting, so we moved out here after that. Pretty much been in the Centerville Virginia area for mostly my whole life. Went to college, went to ITT Tech. Stopped that after they shut down and then kind of went into the serving industry since I was about 20, 21 or so. Did that for.
[00:02:18] Chris Corcoran: Well, hold on a stage. You covered a lot of ground really quickly. So you went to high school?
[00:02:24] Jeremy Mills: Into high school.
[00:02:24] Chris Corcoran: Graduated high school, and then you went to trade school.
[00:02:28] Jeremy Mills: Yeah, well kind of both. I did Nova for two years, got my associates.
[00:02:33] Chris Corcoran: That’s a community college.
[00:02:35] Jeremy Mills: And then transferred into ITT Tech to do more like computer security, like cyber security, that kind of stuff. Really didn’t like it the whole lot just because I couldn’t see myself sitting behind a desk, behind a computer for 40 hours a week till I was like 65.
[00:02:54] Chris Corcoran: How far through the program did you get?
[00:02:57] Jeremy Mills: Pretty close actually. I think I had maybe a semester, two semesters left.
[00:03:02] Chris Corcoran: Okay.
[00:03:03] Jeremy Mills: And then they shot down. So…
[00:03:04] Chris Corcoran: Why did they shut down?
[00:03:06] Jeremy Mills: A lot of debt issues and stuff. So I looked into transferring into George Mason, see kind of what that transfer was like. And I was gonna lose about 50% of my credits.
[00:03:16] Chris Corcoran: Wow.
[00:03:16] Jeremy Mills: So I said, forget that. I just went back to the restaurant industry, just killing it for several years.
[00:03:24] Chris Corcoran: Where’d you go work?
[00:03:26] Jeremy Mills: All over the place. Anywhere from California Pizza Kitchen, and to one of my favorite places right here in Tysons, Seasons 52. So, left there and then came here to memoryBlue.
[00:03:38] Chris Corcoran: So what were you doing at Seasons 52?
[00:03:41] Jeremy Mills: You name it. I was doing it. Mostly serving, waiting tables, working private events, occasionally bartending a shift leading, which is like their hourly management position. Pretty much the whole gambit, anything front of the house that you can think of I pretty much did it.
[00:04:00] Chris Corcoran: So when you, when you said you couldn’t see yourself sitting in front of a desk, you know, 40 hours a week to 65, was that because you know, you had this great experience waiting tables, you know, kind of the pace of it, or what, like, where did that, where did that come from? I kind of get, getting to know yourself a little bit more and what’s gonna make you happy.
[00:04:17] Jeremy Mills: Yeah, no it, and that’s exactly it. Was the fact that, you know, being in the restaurant industry, being mobile, working with people everyday, building those relationships was something that I really enjoy doing myself. So my picture in my head that I have of working the nine-to-five was sitting at your desk, staring at your computer all day long and then leaving at five, sitting in traffic and coming back.
[00:04:45] Chris Corcoran: That’s pretty much what it is that. Right.
[00:04:47] Jeremy Mills: Nowadays. Absolutely.
[00:04:48] Marc Gonyea: Piece is, he’s joking. The piece, the pieces of that are, and are not when he’s doing cyber stuff, right. As soon as integration work. That’s more really looking at the computer every day versus which we’ll get to…
[00:05:00] Jeremy Mills: Oh, for sure.
[00:05:01] Marc Gonyea: The interaction of this world of sales development and selling which you’re in. All right. So we’ll keep going. So you were saying,
[00:05:08] Jeremy Mills: So I basically said, forget that and went back to the restaurant industry. I mean, it’s quick, easy money as long as you’re good at it. It’s even better money when you can build those relationships and you walk out with cash every single day. So, I mean, you can make good money, but you also have to work for it. Like, it’s grueling work if you’re in a high volume place. So getting, over 30 you can’t do the same things you could do when you’re in your twenties.
[00:05:44] Marc Gonyea: A young man’s game.
[00:05:45] Jeremy Mills: It’s a very, very young man’s game, unless you’re like a bartender and you’ve got your clientele and it’s just regular money coming in. So, that’s when I decided to take a look at something else. And actually memoryBlue wasn’t my first choice. This is actually a great story.
[00:06:01] Marc Gonyea: I just podcast is over.
[00:06:05] Chris Corcoran: Finished.
[00:06:06] Jeremy Mills: I was looking at, I had met a guy at a gas station. He needed money for gas and…
[00:06:13] Chris Corcoran: Obviously.
[00:06:16] Jeremy Mills: He’ve worked at Carfax right down the street, the one at Centerville.
[00:06:19] Chris Corcoran: Why he needed money for gas?
[00:06:20] Jeremy Mills: I don’t know, but we were just sitting there talking, I gave him 10 bucks for gas. He said, “Hey, I want to repay you for this. So here’s my card. If you’re ever looking for a job, come in and interview with us.” I said, “Okay, great.” So I did just that. I think that pay it forward. Karma. So I get through their interview process and I’d say probably within the first interview or so, me and the lady built a really good connection. She was like, “Look like, I really want someone with experience, and you don’t have that. But here’s two companies, one being memoryBlue, one being one of the competitions. That’s obviously sucks.” And I said, “Okay, great.” And had that, sitting up on my wall for about six months. And it was like, “Okay, I’m over at the restaurant industry, give these guys a call.”
[00:07:08] Marc Gonyea: So you paused it for a second. Right. So the Carfax and you went in, you’re like, “Okay, so I’m not ready.” So you still restaurant for another six months and then something we like I need to call these guys?
[00:07:19] Jeremy Mills: Absolutely.
[00:07:20] Marc Gonyea: And the card was sitting on a wall somewhere? Sitting in a?
[00:07:22] Jeremy Mills: Court board, court above my desk.
[00:07:24] Chris Corcoran: Okay. So thank you lovely lady from Carfax for referring us.
[00:07:29] Marc Gonyea: Yes. She’s a shout out.
[00:07:30] Chris Corcoran: Whoever she is.
[00:07:31] Jeremy Mills: She actually gave you guys glowing reviews. She was like, “This is probably one of the best training places you could ever get, you’re training from it.”
[00:07:36] Chris Corcoran: Sweet. That’s all the reputation we needed. Oh, now it’s over. I know. I don’t know. I don’t know who that woman is, but that’s great. So before we move on, so as a server, because we really enjoy hiring servers and have had a lot of great success, what did you learn as a server that helped you when you got into sales?
[00:07:57] Jeremy Mills: I would say probably the number one thing, and this applies to any, any sales or any people position things is just building relationships. Because as a server, if you can get 20 or 30 regulars coming in once a month, that’s, they’re going to tip you better for sure. You get to know them as people as opposed to, “Hey, you’re just the food I’m putting down in front of you.” And you make a lot more money that way, because typically they’re going to tip you better than the 15, 20% that you going to get from anybody else. So I would definitely say building those relationships through the one-on-one dialogues with those people, absolutely, the biggest thing I took away from that here in the sales.
[00:08:43] Marc Gonyea: Wow. All right. That’s gonna be a theme with you that resonates relationships.
[00:08:47] Chris Corcoran: So I’m curious. You give this bum some money for gas, that leads into an interview with Carfax, didn’t have the necessary skills or experience, so you got referred to us. Then six months pass. What happened? What was the straw that broke the camel’s back and said, “You know what, enough’s enough with serving. I’m going to call this business card.” What happened?
[00:09:16] Jeremy Mills: It was actually super easy. The straw that broke the camel’s back was a change of management. So, the first person that I was working with, our general manager, amazing human being, definitely took me under his wing and kind of did more of the mentor kind of thing for me. And he got moved to another location because they needed help to build up that location like he had done ours. The guy that came in after that, you could tell he was there for the paycheck. Didn’t really care. It was legitimately running the restaurant into the ground. And I just, I couldn’t do it anymore. Having worked there for three or four years, and just seeing that happen, going from great to bad, just like you said, the straw that broke the camel’s back for sure.
[00:10:02] Chris Corcoran: And so I’m curious, ’cause you know, if you could talk about leadership, and what was the biggest difference between the two? Like what could you w, what made the second one stand out compared to the first or the first compared to the second?
[00:10:15] Jeremy Mills: I think, like I said, you know, I think having the person that cares about their employees first and then drives them to excellence versus someone who’s just there for a paycheck. It was literally like in your face, if you weren’t doing the things that he wanted to, he’d sit there and yell at you in front of everybody. It was legitimately just a lack of leadership, people skills completely.
[00:10:40] Chris Corcoran: Interesting, is that drove you away really?
[00:10:43] Jeremy Mills: Oh, absolutely.
[00:10:44] Chris Corcoran: Well, thank you to that guy too.
[00:10:46] Marc Gonyea: Call the other guy. The other guy gave him a business card.
[00:10:49] Chris Corcoran: He didn’t have money for gasoline.
[00:10:50] Marc Gonyea: Maybe he is a bum tho, maybe he forgot his wallet. So maybe. I’m just having fun with this. All right. So, talk, walk us through the memoryBlue. So you had it B2B sales. Do you know anything about it or you said, “I’m just calling this place because of the, the nice lady at Carfax said I call these guys.”
[00:11:10] Jeremy Mills: Yeah. Yeah. that’s essentially what it was no B2B background at all. Hadn’t done sales outside of the restaurant industry. Which I wouldn’t even really consider sales ’cause you know, they’re going to buy something anyway, and can absolutely up-sell them. But, you know they’re going to buy something regardless. So in very, very short sales timeline on that one.
[00:11:30] Marc Gonyea: Four years ago, October, 2017, Jeremy started with us. I said that three years ago, four years ago.
[00:11:39] Jeremy Mills: So yeah, I had know nothing. I looked you guys up online, saw good things, applied and it’s legitimately started like deep diving into what the heck this cold calling thing is. Watching YouTube videos before the interview ’cause I knew that one of the parts was going to be cold calling part of it, and didn’t want to screw that up. I didn’t do it perfect. Which is great.
[00:12:03] Marc Gonyea: You’re not supposed to. But just by with some delivery management I think on those, on the role-play coping close. Keep going.
[00:12:10] Jeremy Mills: Yeah. So literally just hopped online, watched some YouTube videos about people doing it, tips and tricks and stuff, and trying to put those into a script. Luckily, “Oh, who did I interview with? I interviewed with Nick and.” Here’s the first one. And then, what was the second one?
[00:12:32] Chris Corcoran: I don’t know.
[00:12:32] Jeremy Mills: I don’t either.
[00:12:34] Marc Gonyea: Memorable. The only, only first person Jeremy can’t remember.
[00:12:38] Jeremy Mills: Now it’s, it’s one of the Joey’s.
[00:12:42] Marc Gonyea: We had Joey Plesce.
[00:12:46] Jeremy Mills: It was Joey Plesce.
[00:12:48] Marc Gonyea: Okay JP. Okay.
[00:12:50] Jeremy Mills: So yeah, that was great. The training was good, a little different than it is now for sure, from what I understand, the new training now is a lot, 10 times better. But we had the 1 on 1 and 1 on 2 back then where each of the delivery managers ran a specific session. So learned a lot there. Was, whose team did I go on originally? I’m blanking on it.
[00:13:18] Chris Corcoran: That’s all right. It’s not as important as, talk to us about easing into the role.
[00:13:23] Jeremy Mills: Butt kicks, for probably the first three or four months.
[00:13:27] Chris Corcoran: That’s, that’s when you know you’re doing it, right.
[00:13:30] Jeremy Mills: Oh, for sure.
[00:13:31] Chris Corcoran: You try it. Yeah.
[00:13:32] Jeremy Mills: Yeah. And I would say that yeah, luckily I had a pretty easy client with, UMUC the first, the first time. So talking to HR people was a, and learning development people, was a lot easier than your typical like cybersecurity client or something like that. So that was good. But yeah, after the first couple of months of getting butt kicked several times daily, you just kind of start building up thick skin and you start understanding what it takes to get more efficient with what you’re doing. Which is in my opinion, one of the biggest takeaways you could take from this is learning to get more efficient, in the role you’re in before you take the next step.
[00:14:13] Marc Gonyea: Two things. We’ll come back to that efficiency thing. What was, what was that you were getting your butt kicked by, like what was kind of holding you back? Was it that efficiency part or it was just something else? Not holding, not holding you back. Sorry, what were you learning? Was it the nature of the cold call? Was it just calm people sit out of the blue in their office and how to open it? Was it, I mean, what was kind of like, man?
[00:14:34] Jeremy Mills: I think it was a combination of everything. So I didn’t understand their role. I didn’t really know what made them tick in their role. I didn’t have the confidence because I wasn’t seeing the success from my cold calls to go into the calls like I would now. But I’d pretty much boil all of it. Like the, the work itself, it making a hundred dollars. That’s the easy part. Like that’s the simple part. But I think understanding the role of the people you’re talking to is probably the most important part. And that’s what I was lacking.
[00:15:07] Marc Gonyea: Got it. Okay. And what’s that efficiency part you were talking about?
[00:15:11] Jeremy Mills: I think it goes ties right into learning their roles. So one thing, anytime I take a new position now I’ll do is I’ll hop on Monster, I’ll hop on any of those job recruitment sites and legitimately like research the roles I’m going to call into. Understand what the responsibilities are, learn what their language is like, learn how to talk to them. And then that creates the efficiency on the backend where you can not make a hundred calls a day to book two or three meetings. Now you can make fifty calls and book the same two or three meetings, or like where I’m at now, I make twenty five calls a day and I, I can book two meetings out of those twenty five calls, if I get four connections easily. Because you understand what those, those people, what they say, what they want, what they care about really. And I don’t care what the outcome is of the cold call. If they tell me to go, take a hike, I’m fine with that.
[00:16:07] Marc Gonyea: Which trail?
[00:16:09] Jeremy Mills: Any of them. Tell me to go kick rocks.
[00:16:12] Marc Gonyea: Exactly.
[00:16:13] Jeremy Mills: But I think as long as you’re understanding what they care about and what you can do to fit into their world, to make their life easier is the most efficient thing you can ever do.
[00:16:25] Marc Gonyea: Hold it now. This is like, this is what I was saying constantly professional. So. But how do you learn that? So did you learn that from just the beatings of the conversation? Did you learn that from book and there’s no forget it on the sales cost, the client reps, was it DM, or was it a combination of things?
[00:16:46] Jeremy Mills: I would say it’s a combination. I think the biggest part of it is getting your teeth kicked in so many times on the cold calls that you just you’re, you’re at, I wouldn’t even say the breaking point, I’d say, “Hey Greg, you’re bending point where you’re gonna breakthrough and understand what you have to do to change something, or you’re going to end up breaking and you’re going to say, I can’t do this anymore”, which I would never say. So it, what led me to do that was legitimately saying, “Okay, I’m sick and tired of having these terrible calls. What can I do, taking that personal responsibility to make this better and leveling up my game from there?”
[00:17:28] Marc Gonyea: You’re not allowed to talk about personal responsibility, Jeremy, come on.
[00:17:31] Jeremy Mills: Sorry.
[00:17:32] Marc Gonyea: All right. The moment of truth. Who else is with you on this journey? Who like, who you’re riding with? Other people you’re on your campaign with you, other people in your on team flash, or, you know, any team you’re on? Like who else were you learned from?
[00:17:48] Jeremy Mills: So, tons of people. So back in the day, Andrew Palmer ended up being my a DM after getting promoted, which has happened a couple of times since then. Richard Gray, one of my best friends.
[00:18:04] Marc Gonyea: That’s right. Richard Gray, over ScienceLogic.
[00:18:08] Chris Corcoran: Cold beer.
[00:18:10] Marc Gonyea: Lost it.
[00:18:12] Jeremy Mills: Yeah.
[00:18:13] Marc Gonyea: Did you know Richard before you worked here?
[00:18:14] Jeremy Mills: Yeah.
[00:18:15] Marc Gonyea: Okay.
[00:18:15] Jeremy Mills: I recommended that.
[00:18:16] Chris Corcoran: Okay. Well thank you for referring Richard.
[00:18:22] Jeremy Mills: Yeah, Absolutely. Towards the end of my first bout here, Kelly Courville was here, now training director. Who else is on the team?
[00:18:31] Marc Gonyea: Who else was really good besides yourself? Besides yourself who’s the best person in the office during your, during your one on one? Actually no one remembers when I went around to so you can live where you think it was.
[00:18:42] Jeremy Mills: I had no one. No, no, no. I, I will say Joey Cohen was huge for me. Him and, why am I blanking now? He was huge. Like, who’s the other one, there was another person that was on the internal sales team here that I would legitimately talk to, like all the time.
[00:18:56] Marc Gonyea: Dude or gal, or gal or guy?
[00:18:58] Jeremy Mills: No, it’s gal and I’m…
[00:19:00] Marc Gonyea: Carley?
[00:19:01] Jeremy Mills: Carley Armentrout.
[00:19:04] Marc Gonyea: She’s strong.
[00:19:05] Jeremy Mills: Super.
[00:19:06] Marc Gonyea: She’ll just do it.
[00:19:07] Jeremy Mills: Anytime I would craft a new email, I would run it by her first and say, “Hey, what do you think of this?” Carley, what don’t you like?
[00:19:14] Chris Corcoran: You’re always welcome back Carley.
[00:19:16] Marc Gonyea: Any time. Doors wide open. You will you, so you went to the people who were experienced, right. ‘Cause Carley and Cohen rescued us for a while. Right. And then just ST. Carley was an ST for a while. We made to do all sorts of things for us. And so you learned from that?
[00:19:31] Jeremy Mills: Yeah, for sure. I mean, no offense to anybody out there, but like, I’m not going to go to a bottom or mid tier SDR to ask for help. That’s not going to work. Like you always have to seek out the best of the best. Otherwise you’re going to get something that’s gonna mislead you somewhere, in my opinion.
[00:19:50] Marc Gonyea: So you’re here. You’re rocking on Fictiv. Right? No, no, I’m sorry.
[00:19:58] Chris Corcoran: You were on UMUC.
[00:20:00] Jeremy Mills: I was on UMUC and then they ended up leaving. Did PPMs for a while. I don’t even remember the clients anymore. Honestly, I probably blocked them out. And then ended up on a PI, the Predictive Index. And that one kind of took me back to where I started at. So that was more talking to HR people and learning and development and some sales leaders. And that one was like amazing. So I’ve already got done all the research from UMUC for it, stepped into that one and just took off. Which was super cool, because that was probably one of the easier clients that I was on. And like I said, all that pre-research that I would normally do is already been done. I already know how to talk to these people. I’ve actually already got these contacts that I could talk to. Because of my experience at UMUC.
[00:20:51] Chris Corcoran: So that’s why it was easier. It wasn’t that it was easier. It was that you had the experience, you had the exposure, you had your teeth kicked in for those many months. That’s why it was easier. There’s this, there’s this myth that there’s things that are easy. I don’t think there’s things that are easy. I think that you get better and because you’re better, it becomes easier.
[00:21:11] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. You were talking about, “I was really bad for three or four months.” And then you told me five minutes later, “It’s because I got my teeth kicked in.” That doesn’t sound easy.
[00:21:21] Jeremy Mills: Oh, there’s nothing easy about it.
[00:21:22] Marc Gonyea: But you just got better at it because you put the time and a lot of people headed for the hills. So maybe we’re taking a little bit longer on a cyber campaign. Maybe. But if you get more relevant, with the how you speak to the persona as well that’s important, then you might be more effective that way too. Like, so I appreciate you saying that it’s easier, but I think you just made it easier.
[00:21:42] Jeremy Mills: Yeah, for sure.
[00:21:43] Chris Corcoran: We have plenty of people who know, there are plenty people out there who don’t make it easy.
[00:21:47] Marc Gonyea: And when so easy, just do it, you got to do it.
[00:21:50] Jeremy Mills: Well, I got smart about it too.
[00:21:51] Marc Gonyea: Yeah.
[00:21:51] Jeremy Mills: So like all the meetings I would book for UMUC, I got on the new client, I reached back out to the same people. Like, you’ve already built a relationship. They already hopefully know who you are. And people that have taken meetings in the past are also more likely to take meetings in the future. So that, that was, that was a good one. And you’re absolutely right. It, we didn’t get easier, I got better. And the foundation was already built. So you could build anything else from there.
[00:22:23] Chris Corcoran: That’s why the lady from Carfax wanted to hire someone with experience. ‘Cause she didn’t want to be the person who had to kind of finance the learning experience, your education.
[00:22:34] Jeremy Mills: No, thanks for her to send me here. It’s been great so far.
[00:22:38] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. So you are a PI doing your thing. Right? And so, as you were kind of figuring this all out, where’d you think you wanted to go with the career now that you’re kinda you’re you’re firmly planted in this high-tech sales world at that point? Not from it but you know service industries memory.
[00:22:55] Jeremy Mills: Yeah.
[00:22:55] Chris Corcoran: So what’d you think you wanted to go do?
[00:22:57] Jeremy Mills: So at this point I had probably been in the SDR role for probably about a year. Honestly, hadn’t really thought about too much outside of that. Thought about being a DM here. Thought about getting hired out by my client. Kind of just depended on, well, let’s, let’s be honest here. It depended on what the offer they made was. And so I wasn’t really sure, the several different routes you can go from an SDR. I could’ve gone into marketing somewhere, but that’s boring. So ended up getting hired out YPI. Their offer was pretty good. And I was already crushing it. So transferring it to their level of stuff was super easy to. Well, it wasn’t easy, I was just better at it ’cause I’d already been doing it. So, was there, was their first outbound SDR.
[00:23:49] Marc Gonyea: I remember, from your house, right? Before work from your house was a trend.
[00:23:54] Jeremy Mills: Yep. Well, yeah, exactly. And being the first of anything in a company is gonna be tough.
[00:24:00] Chris Corcoran: The pioneer takes the arrows.
[00:24:03] Jeremy Mills: Yeah, for sure. They hurt some times. So.
[00:24:06] Chris Corcoran: Sting.
[00:24:07] Jeremy Mills: So that was, that, that was actually, I would say it wasn’t tough. I would say it was fun because I got to legitimately build an outbound program from the ground up. Like, they didn’t even have a CRM. They, well, they had Salesforce, but they didn’t have any dialing programs like SalesLoft or Outreach. So I got to play and experiment on those to see which ones we liked better. And essentially, since they were behavioral analytical software, I did have a role in all the hires they made after that, because they kind of based them off of me, but, or on my profile. But yeah, no super fun, super fun experience there.
[00:24:46] Marc Gonyea: And what did you think to? It’s okay, I’m liking this profession. Did you have any ideas of where you wanted to go? We’ll go next, well, we’ll get there.
[00:24:53] Jeremy Mills: Yeah, no, at that point still had no idea. It was just kind of still in the daily grind. And that was fine.
[00:24:59] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, of course. So then you ended up coming back.
[00:25:03] Jeremy Mills: You know, COVID.
[00:25:05] Marc Gonyea: COVID let’s talk about it.
[00:25:07] Jeremy Mills: So, all right. So at PI, being the first outbound guy. I ended up getting promoted to being one of their inbounds BDRs. And that was fun. Then COVID started.
[00:25:22] Marc Gonyea: I guess, before around.
[00:25:23] Chris Corcoran: Before we move on. Talk about the biggest differences between outbound and inbound.
[00:25:29] Jeremy Mills: Yeah. Night and day. So outbound, you’re more of that hunter type role. You get to pick who you’re reaching out to. And it’s viewed as tougher in my opinion, but that’s just because I don’t think people put a lot of effort into getting better at it. Versus inbound where you don’t really have those same options of who you reach out to anymore. You kind of have to take exactly what is coming in. Granted, those are people that actually want to talk to you versus outbound where most of the time they don’t. So it, it tends to be easier to get into conversations, easier to book meetings out of, or setting up the sale or whatever your outcome you’re looking for is. But it’s a completely different mentality. So you go from the hunter to being more of a gatherer, and focusing more on qualifications, depending on whatever your organization is doing. At the time we were doing more like the Sandler model where we’re doing really, really deep diving pain discussions with them. So, which is a lot more in-depth than we were doing on the outbound side. So completely different thought process there. It was more qualifications based.
[00:26:41] Chris Corcoran: So what’s harder?
[00:26:47] Jeremy Mills: I think honestly equally, they’re equally as hard because like I said, they’re both different mindsets. So outbound, you get to pick your targets of who you’re reaching out to. So if you know that there are targets that fit right into your ICP, then it can be easier if you’re dealing with people that are outside of your ICP that are coming in inbound, but you still have to reach out to them anyway.
[00:27:08] Chris Corcoran: Great. So you, you got promoted from, from outbound SDR to inbound SDR, and then bring some speed about COVID?
[00:27:17] Jeremy Mills: Then COVID happened.
[00:27:18] Chris Corcoran: Yeah.
[00:27:19] Jeremy Mills: So PI did a wonderful job managing it for the first couple months. And then stuff got real. They ended up laying off about 80% of their Salesforce.
[00:27:31] Chris Corcoran: Whoa.
[00:27:32] Jeremy Mills: Myself included. They kept 4 people out of a team of 26. So it might actually be more than 80%.
[00:27:38] Chris Corcoran: Wow.
[00:27:38] Jeremy Mills: Yeah, so that was tough. I personally, it was interviewing to probably 10, 15 places a week, for about five months and just nobody was hiring. Which is understandable, especially with everything going on in the world.
[00:27:54] Chris Corcoran: There’s a lot of uncertainty, right?
[00:27:56] Jeremy Mills: Yeah, absolutely. So…
[00:27:58] Chris Corcoran: That’s all going to turn into a bunch of zombies.
[00:28:01] Jeremy Mills: I was hoping. No, and my favorite meme is like a little stick figure poking the COVID think “Come on, make Zombies.” So during that time, I, I had a couple offers on the table, but they just weren’t the right fit for me. And one of them was working with one of the partners with PI. So essentially stepping right into the same role I was doing except doing a more full cycle, but it was a hundred percent commission-based. And it, just where I was at the time, it was not feasible to do just a hundred percent commission-based, especially when you’re looking at it two to three month sales cycle for these deals. And also had never closing work before ever. So stepping into something like that is probably wasn’t going to work.
So still interviewing, still interviewing, I said, “Okay. I’m gonna take a week off and go to the beach and just kind of de-stress.” We have a friend who had a house out in, at one of the beaches. And, it’s funny. I was still holding interviews while I was there. So I had two interviews set up. One was to take my old position back with PI. Ended up not doing that because it was at a very reduced base. And it was actually quite funny. I’m sitting on the beach, enjoying a pre-made margarita, and Andrew Palmer gives me a call, says, “Hey. I know you’re probably still looking for work. We’re making a new team here at memoryBlue to focus just on PPMs. Like, what do you think? So let’s set up some time to talk.” I said, “Right now, probably not a great time to talk, I’m at the beach, but the margarita is going, but yeah, let’s, let’s set it up.”
So did that, talked with him, talked to Kristen Wisdorf, and, and Max. Talk to both of them, kind of figure it out, the details of it, and knew what I wanted to do and fell in line with that. So I decided to come on back.
[00:30:05] Chris Corcoran: You know, you were a triumphant return.
[00:30:07] Jeremy Mills: Triumphant return, sure.
[00:30:12] Chris Corcoran: I’ve got to ask. So during the search, did you ever contact that woman from CarMax?
[00:30:20] Jeremy Mills: Nope. Carfax.
[00:30:21] Chris Corcoran: Carfax, Carfax. Why? Why not?
[00:30:25] Jeremy Mills: I, it was too far removed, so I completely forgot that I had even applied there to be honest until legitimately, like I brought the story back up to you guys during the prep call.
[00:30:36] Chris Corcoran: Okay.
[00:30:36] Jeremy Mills: Or just now. And it just never, never hit what I was thinking.
[00:30:43] Chris Corcoran: Never crossed, never crossed your mind. Okay.
[00:30:45] Marc Gonyea: So you’re back.
[00:30:48] Chris Corcoran: I guess we’re a little, little bit into COVID. So when you came back and then what I really want to get to is kind of these experiences you’ve had and how it kind of helps you size up opportunities? Because you’ve worked with us. You worked with the different clients, came back and you’re on rapid seven, right? Currently a memoryBlue client, back into the world of cyber, and just walk us through some of those things in. Walk us through like your perspective now. Because you’re coming back and you know, you obviously, you have this great career ahead of you. Like, okay, like what were you thinking? Obviously you had to have an income in those things, but you’re a smart guy you’re thinking ahead. But what was kind of, how were you, what was your perspective on coming back and where did you hope it would lead?
[00:31:31] Jeremy Mills: So coming back in full transparency was about survival. I’ve been off of work for five months. I needed X amount of dollars per month. Coming in to survive, a healthy bank account, but I really didn’t want to touch it because I just worked and saved up all that money. So, it was more survival than anything. Coming back onto the cybersecurity campaigns again, just like I first started out, got my teeth kicked in for the first couple of months.
And then, especially with Rapid7 ’cause that’s cybersecurity. Now you’re in a COVID world trying to sell a new technology to things, and it was rough. With Shujinko I found my stride though, because I figured out some, some of the deeper level pains that these people were going through, and how we could tap into that. So that was like my bread and butter for probably three or four months easily. Like, if they were my only campaign that I was working on, I would have been crushing it. But yeah, it was tough to start out with.
[00:32:40] Chris Corcoran: So there, there’s an expression or saying that, “A man never steps in the same river twice.” The river’s never the same, and the man’s never the same. So I’m curious from your stand point. What was different about memoryBlue upon your return, and what was different with you upon your return?
[00:33:05] Jeremy Mills: A couple of things. I say one of the same things that I came into, like the first time was, I was probably the oldest person in the office outside of like you guys with the senior leadership. Being in my mid-thirties at this point. Coming in, and again being the oldest person. Like you said, it’s, the man’s never the same. I’ve obviously gotten to two and a half years of experience under my belt. So I know what I’m getting myself into.
As far as things different here, I had the opportunity to go through the sales training again, but I felt I didn’t really need to do that. Now I probably would’ve done it just to see what the experience is, to be honest. Even if I learned like two or three new things from it, I think it still would have been valuable, but I chose to just hit the ground running.
So I think I was on the phones day two after coming back, and found out that doing the cybersecurity stuff you could still do well in in. It just took that much more work to get it done than it used to. So I’d say I was probably putting in between two hundred, two hundred fifty phone calls a day, sending an equal amount of emails. Doing that every day. What I’m saying in those seven months that I was working on that campaign was I successful at all? Probably not, but it’s all relative. So…
[00:34:31] Chris Corcoran: You had some success, but limited.
[00:34:33] Jeremy Mills: I’d say it was limited.
[00:34:34] Chris Corcoran: Yeah, it’s hard. Not easy.
[00:34:38] Jeremy Mills: No, definitely not easy.
[00:34:40] Chris Corcoran: Lot of these companies don’t make it, and it’s not because we’re not putting a current meaning for them.
[00:34:45] Jeremy Mills: Yeah, that’s true. But I would say compared to like our top dog in the office at that time, which was Deng.
[00:34:51] Chris Corcoran: Still is.
[00:34:52] Jeremy Mills: Is he still here?
[00:34:53] Chris Corcoran: Yeah, he’s still top dog.
[00:34:54] Jeremy Mills: Okay.
[00:34:55] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. Paint themselves into a corner.
[00:34:57] Jeremy Mills: He was crushing it.
[00:34:58] Marc Gonyea: He still is.
[00:34:59] Chris Corcoran: He still is.
[00:35:00] Jeremy Mills: So. And I would sit down and talk to him and say, “Hey look, like you’re doing X, Y, and Z. I’m not. Help me fill the gap of what you’re doing, what you’re saying.” Kind of, learning from again that top dog, and things got better. So I think I did that for six, seven months or so. And then Max put a meeting on my calendar with him and Kristen and Andrew. And I’m like, “All right. I’ve been through this road before, about to get fired. Is, let it, let’s let, okay. Bring it on. What, what’d you got?”
And I could not be further from the truth. So they had someone leaving a campaign and they needed the very experienced person to step in and kind of help right the ship, so to speak. And that ended up being Fictiv. So, worked with them for about three, two weeks before they offered to hire me out. Two to three weeks.
[00:35:59] Chris Corcoran: Well, before we run to the Fictiv.
[00:36:00] Jeremy Mills: Yeah.
[00:36:01] Chris Corcoran: I’m very curious. What did you hear from Deng that you incorporated to get your results to go up? What did you hear from him?
[00:36:10] Jeremy Mills: So part of it, and this came from being able to listen to his calls, was a more boldness with the cybersecurity people then you would tend to have with anybody else. So, as opposed to…
[00:36:24] Chris Corcoran: Boldness.
[00:36:25] Jeremy Mills: Yeah. I’d say as opposed to rolling into the phone call and asking for permission, just jumping right into it. And just saying, “Hey, this is why I’m calling. I know we can help you do this. What do you think?” And then asking probing questions from there. The second was the amount of activity. So, if you’re only talking to one person making a hundred calls, and you know, it takes three, two or three people to talk to in order to book a meeting, double or triple your activity. That was the other one. ‘Cause he was consistently putting in like 250, 300 dials a day while still booking to one or two meetings a day. And I think that, that right there, I don’t think a lot of people are willing to do it.
[00:37:10] Chris Corcoran: Why do you already know they’re not going to do it? And I’ve got all the data that supports it.
[00:37:16] Jeremy Mills: Yeah, for sure. But I think that’s, that’s the difference between a good or decent salesperson and someone who’s just gonna win. Like your top-tier salespeople, because those top-tier are going to do whatever it takes to make sure that they’re winning.
[00:37:33] Chris Corcoran: Great. Great. So let’s move on to Fictiv.
[00:37:36] Marc Gonyea: So real quick, real quick, real fast. I think it’s great. I’m glad, I’m kind of bummed you thought you were going to get fired. There was no way we’re going to do that, you know, but I like how it worked out. Right?
[00:37:50] Jeremy Mills: Absolutely.
[00:37:51] Marc Gonyea: We were thrilled that you wanted to come back. You could have kept looking for a job and found a job, but that’s why we reached out to you and “Jeremy Mills want to come back and fix those smart guys. Got. And we’re worried about our own COVID, you know, situation. So, so I’m glad that when you sat down with them you’re pleasantly surprised.
[00:38:08] Jeremy Mills: Very much so. Well no, and, and to that point too. I mean, sometimes in society’s view, you have to take a step or two back, to sometimes have those massive leaps forward. So just because you go from making 50, 60, 70 K going down to 40 in society’s view looks like you’re, you’re going backwards. You’re you’re, you’re not being, you’re not successful. Sometimes you have to go through that, to toughen your skin, to then make those leaps forward.
[00:38:39] Marc Gonyea: It’s not linear.
[00:38:40] Jeremy Mills: Nope.
[00:38:40] Marc Gonyea: Everybody has, especially in say high-tech sales, especially in high-tech sales. But this is how it works. You have to get on some trains and ride some roller coasters and see where some of them go. And despite best efforts, they may not go the way you envision it.
[00:38:54] Jeremy Mills: No. Yeah.
[00:38:54] Marc Gonyea: You’ve got to keep going.
[00:38:55] Jeremy Mills: And sometimes you have your ladder leaning against one wall and it’s the wrong wall.
[00:38:59] Marc Gonyea: Right?
[00:38:59] Jeremy Mills: Sorry.
[00:39:00] Marc Gonyea: And stick of you, have you ever had the alleged pride get the better view out, “Oh fuck this, I’m gonna keep looking for another job. I’m not real.” You would have gotten something, but I don’t think you’d be where you are now.
[00:39:09] Jeremy Mills: Nope.
[00:39:10] Marc Gonyea: Let’s let’s talk about that.
[00:39:11] Jeremy Mills: Yeah.
[00:39:12] Marc Gonyea: And how that, how it, how it kind of, it happened quickly.
[00:39:14] So Fictiv wants like, a veteran, a veteran, a cagey vet, cagey veteran. Consummate professionals. So we press you into duty and you gladly accept the role. So what happened? Walk us through it. It sounds like it was kind of like a, a dumpster fire and you came in quickly to control the situation and obviously impressed them within just a couple of weeks. And they wanted to offer you. Walk us through what happened.
[00:39:40] Jeremy Mills: So I wouldn’t say it was a dumpster fire. No, I would say that they were doing pretty well on the campaign because there was three people on it. One person was leaving and was going on Rising Stars. So, they needed someone to take the place. Came in, had zero, like zero knowledge about the manufacturing world, zero knowledge. I know how to buy stuff, but how it got made, no idea. Or the number of iterations to go into making stuff. Zero experience with manufacturing.
So I worked with Quentin, on kind of getting up to speed for about three days, and kind of did a deep dive into kind of what I needed to learn in order to talk to these people. And again, about a week, really didn’t see much out of it, but that was because I was still learning. And then I’d say week two until today, like, it just took off. Like as soon as I learned what these people were responsible for, what, what they cared about, the sky, the sky was open.
[00:40:47] Marc Gonyea: I mean, it’s all over your LinkedIn profile. It’s so, he’s got such great copy on it. It’s very crisp. Speaks directly to the people who I think you’re probably going after, very clear as what we do, it’s very compelling.
[00:41:00] Jeremy Mills: Yeah.
[00:41:01] Marc Gonyea: It’s a part of it. It’s a part of the game?
[00:41:06] Jeremy Mills: Yeah. Like if your LinkedIn profile is set up like a resume, I think you’re doing things wrong if you’re in sales. Because I know that when I talk to somebody on the phone and I see them looking at my LinkedIn profile, they don’t care if I won President’s Club. They don’t care if I closed a million dollars in sales. They want to know what I’m going to do to help them out, or what I can do for them.
[00:41:30] Marc Gonyea: That’s a pearl.
[00:41:31] Chris Corcoran: Just talk, talk about talking about your LinkedIn profile and how you, how you set it up and how you would advise others to set up theirs.
[00:41:38] Jeremy Mills: Speak to your customers in their language. So, I know for mine, I didn’t really know how to set it up the way I wanted it to. So what did I do? When someone’s smarter or not smarter, but has been doing it longer and knows what they’re doing. So I just started following a bunch of marketing and sales leaders at different companies and kind of seeing what they said about it.
And one of them was saying that, you know, “Focus your profile on what your customers want to see. What’s your message to them. What, what can you do to help them out?” So I just looked at the emails I was having, the conversations I was having and took notes from those calls and legitimately wrote out my LinkedIn profile.
[00:42:22] Marc Gonyea: Helping engineers make high quality, tight tolerance, CNC parts quickly. That’s what his LinkedIn thing is. It’s so funny. Not don’t make it look like a resume. But so many sales people make it look like resume. They might have underneath there, “Two times President’s Club Winner, 2020”, you know. Excellent. Okay.
[00:42:48] Chris Corcoran: So what you, you were sharing with the listeners a little bit about the situation that you walked into at Fictiv. But what did you do in those first couple of weeks that impressed them so much and they said, “We’ve got to convert a mailing.”
[00:43:02] Jeremy Mills: So this is going to sound kind of arrogant and it is, but whatever. I knew I was going to go on to be able to step into the role and book meetings for them. That’s a given. I’ve got three years of experience under my belt. I know exactly what I’m doing. I think the biggest thing is building that relationship with the AE. Knowing personal stuff about them that you can ask, what they’re doing, that kind of stuff.
But I think, too, especially under memoryBlue’s model, how well do you know your rep? That’s the communication point between the two companies. Building that relationship with them, because I think while building the relationship with your AEs is great. It’s still kind of falls under the everyday stuff that what you’re supposed to do. But I think taking it to the next level with the reps, asking for feedback, finding out, “Hey, here’s a recording of my call. What do you think? What do you think I could have done better?” Seeking advice. I think all of that stuff leads to building that relationship with them. And that’s one of the contributing factors of why they offered to hire me out so quick because I was figuring out kind of what they were looking for, what their expectations were, and then meeting and exceeding those.
[00:44:24] Chris Corcoran: And that was with the AE?
[00:44:26] Jeremy Mills: That was with the, the rep. The, no, the go-between, between the two companies. So our, the point of, point of contact.
[00:44:34] Chris Corcoran: Very good. So you built a strong relationship with that individual.
[00:44:37] Jeremy Mills: Oh yeah.
[00:44:37] Chris Corcoran: Okay.
[00:44:38] Jeremy Mills: For sure.
[00:44:38] Chris Corcoran: In addition to the relationship with the AEs you’re sporting. Okay. Very good. So this is a couple of weeks and they moved to offer, and you’re, “I’m all in”. What would, walk us through what happened.
[00:44:47] Jeremy Mills: So it’s actually funny ’cause she did it nonchalantly. We had a slack channel for him and she just said, you know, this is in week two. She was like, you know, if you ever want to come work here, just let me know. I’ll start the process for you. And…
[00:45:01] Chris Corcoran: Week two.
[00:45:02] Jeremy Mills: And I was like, “Oh, okay. Yeah, that’s fine.” And then I’d say probably a week later, I got back to her and I said, “Do you know what? I know you guys are only looking for two people to add to the team right now. I don’t want to miss out on an opportunity. So let’s start that process.”
And she was a great individual, super great individual. No longer with the company, but I owe everything to her at the moment, because during the negotiation process of figuring out benefits and pay and all that stuff, I just, I was blunt with her. I’d said, “Hey look, like this is the range I’m looking for. Like, I’m worth this much because of all this experience I’ve had in the past. Over the last couple of weeks, you’ve seen what my work ethic is. So, this is, this is what I’m looking for.” And she said, “You know, it’s actually outside of our range of what we’re looking to pay, but let me see what I can do.”
[00:46:00] Chris Corcoran: And I think this is an important part, at least in my opinion. I believe that you had a stronger negotiating position because she had actually seen you perform for couple of weeks.
[00:46:15] Jeremy Mills: For sure.
[00:46:16] Chris Corcoran: So it wasn’t just talk. She had seen you in action. And so I think that helps you from a negotiation standpoint.
[00:46:22] Jeremy Mills: Absolutely. No, a hundred percent.
[00:46:24] Chris Corcoran: And then what happened?
[00:46:26] Jeremy Mills: They added 5k to the base and the rest is history.
[00:46:30] Chris Corcoran: Just for a, because you asked for it.
[00:46:31] Jeremy Mills: Well, Wayne Gretzky said it best, “You’re going to miss every shot you don’t take.” So, at this point and this good sales negotiation thing, once you know they’re ready to commit, you can pretty much ask for what you want. And if they say no, okay, you have something to fall back to. But if you don’t ask, you’re never going to get it. So.
[00:46:59] Chris Corcoran: And so when did you start with them full time?
[00:47:01] Jeremy Mills: On my birthday, February 11th.
[00:47:02] Chris Corcoran: February 11th. Okay, good. Very good. And so we’ll talk us, talk to us about what you’ve been doing since you landed there?
[00:47:11] Jeremy Mills: A little bit of everything. So still doing the business development, booking meetings. So that’s less and less now just based on our, our, territory strategy. But I am currently still booking meetings here and there. I’m working with all of our first time orders. So the first time they’ve, they have their experience with us and going through and closing the business there. Kind of take a, well, I have taken over a lot of the training and coaching side of things for our team that as people are getting promoted, and we’re hiring new people, kind of being that, that person to lean on, to learn their sales skills, learn their cold call skills, develop scripts, forum, emails, campaigns, and sell, or an outreach. Those kinds of things.
[00:47:59] Chris Corcoran: Until you’re closing deals?
[00:48:01] Jeremy Mills: Closing deals.
[00:48:02] Chris Corcoran: And then you’re still surfacing opportunities. And then your coaching training, onboarding new hires.
[00:48:06] Jeremy Mills: Yep.
[00:48:08] Chris Corcoran: Very good. And what advice would you give to someone who’s considering making a move? What to look for?
[00:48:18] Jeremy Mills: Understanding what the expectations are. So I would say that the most important thing that I was looking for was to understand where I’m at now and what they’re expecting of me once I joined that company or go and do that different role. How much of that transfers over? What do I need to learn now to put myself in a position to do that, kind of that other role?
So understanding the expectations, because I know a lot of people, especially SDRs, want to make that next move as quick as possible. But I would personally caution to wait a little bit. Master your, your current role. And then once you step into that next one, you’re just going to be 10 times better than everybody else.
So, and it goes back to the efficiency thing. So like right now, while I am essentially doing two and a half roles now, it’s because I can take my BDR work that would take a normal brand new SDR, BDR, eight hours to do. I can do all that work in two hours. And then, now I’ve got three hours to do something else, three hours to do something else. Most of it’s learning. What do I need to do for the next role? Like, I want to be, I want to lead our BDR team. So what skills do I need in order to take over that? And that’s one of the reasons I took over the training was because that’s going to be one of those functions. So slowly working myself towards that.
[00:49:48] Marc Gonyea: It’s got to be a great guy to learn the game from.
[00:49:51] Chris Corcoran: No doubt.
[00:49:51] Marc Gonyea: No doubt. Right? You said in our pre-call chat, you think people take the time and met. Do you think people take their time at memoryBlue for granted?
[00:49:59] Jeremy Mills: Oh, yeah.
[00:49:59] Marc Gonyea: Why do you say that?
[00:50:01] Jeremy Mills: Hey, because it’s probably one of the best ecosystems for growth in that role you can have. You’ve got a hundred, two hundred other people in the office with you, or on your team where you can at least turn through Zoom to learn bounce ideas off of people are going through the same exact thing that you’re going through now.
Where in any normal size companies like of small, mid-market you’re going to be either the one there, or on a team of five or six, somewhere in there. And I think here at memoryBlue, you have so many different people on so many different campaigns to learn from that you have more opinions and more people to grab information from than you would at any other company.
[00:50:54] Marc Gonyea: That’s good. What else do you learn about now? Like, how you, so it sounds like you’re on a path maybe being in leadership and management. So how are you developing those skills now? Or what are you, where are you look to? That people you talk to there, are you reading things?
[00:51:11] Jeremy Mills: Lots of reading. I’m a huge Simon Sinek and John Maxwell fan. So I know John Maxwell’s like, quote unquote the leadership guru. And then Simon Sinek is like just an amazing individual.
[00:51:26] Marc Gonyea: He is.
[00:51:27] Jeremy Mills: So a lot of that stuff. I’m doing a lot of reading, working on myself personally, because I have to level up in order to be able to level up a team. And I know when we talked before like, two of the books that helped me get where I’m at would be, Dale Carnegie’s, “How to win friends and influence people.”
[00:51:48] Marc Gonyea: Classic.
[00:51:49] Chris Corcoran: Talk about that.
[00:51:51] Jeremy Mills: Over a hundred years old, and the information still applies today.
[00:51:54] Marc Gonyea: Timeless.
[00:51:55] Jeremy Mills: Yeah. So that’s the number one key for me for building relationships a hundred percent. And then two other ones. One’s a sales book “Go for No!” I wouldn’t even call it a sales book, but I think the mentality applies directly to sales. That one was a great one. And then just because I’m connected and I actually talk with him, but, how was the title, I was just looking at it. Bob, I think it’s Bob Burg’s. No, not the greatest salesman. No, it was something else. But yeah, his book, his most known book, super great. And then the other one was “The Greatest Salesman on Earth.” It’s like set is like a story so to speak. The part one and part two are both phenomenal. I really enjoyed those super quick reads.
[00:52:48] Marc Gonyea: That’s a classic as well.
[00:52:50] Jeremy Mills: Yeah.
[00:52:52] Chris Corcoran: All right, Jeremy. That’s good stuff, man.
[00:52:56] Marc Gonyea: This was good.
[00:52:58] Chris Corcoran: Thanks.
[00:52:58] Jeremy Mills: Thanks for having me.
[00:52:59] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, we appreciate it. There was lots of pearls of wisdom for the listeners.
[00:53:03] Chris Corcoran: That LinkedIn one is huge.
[00:53:04] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. That’s great.
[00:53:05] Chris Corcoran: Their dedication to learning, to talk and describe and share what the prospects are. What’s important. That’s that’s your linchpin, right? And that’s like the staple of your offense. Right there.
[00:53:19] Jeremy Mills: It is the offense.
[00:53:20] Chris Corcoran: It is the offense.
[00:53:21] Jeremy Mills: Is the only thing you need.
[00:53:22] Chris Corcoran: A lot of people don’t realize that. No, that’s so huge. It’s not even funny. So that was good for me to know, because sometimes you forget about those things. Right?
[00:53:33] Jeremy Mills: So that was hard to teach them too. If you’ve been doing them for so long, like it’s just second nature. So you don’t even think about it. It’s like breathing.
[00:53:42] Marc Gonyea: Good. Okay. Let us know if we ever do anything for you, man. I appreciate you joining us.