In today’s chat, we interview Larry Long Jr., sales coach and Director of Collegiate Sales at Teamworks.
We talk about:
✅ What mindset block most people have when it comes to sales (and how to overcome it)
✅ How to get sales and marketing to work toward and achieve the same goal
✅ What questions to ask during the sales process
Let’s dive in!
Transcript:
Maeva Cifuentes
Hello, hello, hello and welcome back to the Flying Cat Marketing video interview series. Today I have Larry Long Jr, who is the Director of Sales at Teamworks, which is an athlete engagement software, your brand ambassador, RepVue, you’re sales leader, a coach, and a super duper positive person. And I’m really excited to have you on the show today. How are you?
Larry Long Jr.
How are you Maeva? I’m doing great. I’m feeling blessed this Monday and whatever day your viewers find this, but I’m happy to be here. Thank you.
Maeva Cifuentes
Amazing. So why don’t you tell us a little bit more about you what you do at teamwork. And I know you have some other personal projects going on. So let’s hear about it all.
Larry Long Jr.
Oh, wow. Well, I don’t have enough time for all that. But I’ll give you the cliff notes version. Larry long Jr. passionate about helping people. That’s why I love sale. I had the opportunity to be the director of collegiate sales at Teamworks. We all know teamwork makes the dream work. We sell communication software to elite athletic teams. I’m on the collegiate side colleges, universities, which I love, have the opportunity. I’m a tech geek. I’m a sports fan. And I love to lead a team.
So I get to lead a fabulous team. In addition, I’m a brand ambassador or supporter advisor to a startup called RepVue, we essentially take data and we provide sales reps with insight in the sales organizations, so they can determine if there’s a good fit there or not really giving them that under the hood view into the sales org.
And then in addition, I’m also an angel growth investor, I get the opportunity to put my money where my mouth is, I work for a company that had an exit, they sent me a check and I said, Oh, let me really support startups, entrepreneurs, so that’s been great. And then you mentioned that I’ve also launched my own business. Larry long Jr, LLC really helping folks with motivation, inspiration sales through keynote speaker coaching, training, consulting, really helping all professionals take their game to that next level. So I’m juggling a bunch of balls, and I’m really enjoying life.
Maeva Cifuentes
That sounds phenomenal. So you are deep in the startup world and you deal with a lot of founders. And my question is when you are approached, or when you approach a founder who’s not a salesperson, I know maybe you’re going to tell me “We’re all salespeople,” and I want to talk about that.
But let’s say they don’t consider themselves a salesperson. They’re a technical founder or they’re a marketer, maybe what is the right mindset to to shift to what are the steps that I could take if I’m this kind of technical or marketing founders and other kind of founder to get to the place that I need to be to to sell my business? I love it, my
Larry Long Jr.
But you hit it. You said that magic word, their mindset. So often people look at sales and they’re like, Oh, no, because they have in their mind the used car salesman that doesn’t really care about the prospect. They think about the person at the mall kiosk, when we were allowed to go to the mall, the person who wanted to squirt the lotion in your hand, no, my hands arent ashy. I don’t need any lotion.
You know, the mindset of sales. And when I look at sales, I’d love to know your and your viewers definition of sales. But for me, I look at it as Matchmaker, you’re matching your products, your services, your thoughts, your ideas with someone else’s needs, their wants, their desires, their challenges, their hopes, dreams and aspirations. And if you’re able to make that match you’re selling. So if you’d like to help technical founder if you’d like to help marketing background, if you’d like to help people you’re selling all day, every day.
That’s what I tell my team all the time. Let’s go out and help as many people as we can. Because people have real problems, and a lot of times they don’t even know they have problems. It’s our job to illuminate. Hey, there’s a better way. You don’t have to use that flip phone. You don’t have to go back to the Blackberry. There’s a thing called an iPhone. it’ll, it’ll change your world. Mind blown. That’s selling right there. I don’t know about you, but I got two kids. I gotta sell all day every day. But why, daddy? Why? And I can’t just say because I said, so they used to work.
Now my son is 10. He’s like, Nah, Google it. It ain’t because you said so why do I have to do that Daddy, I’m like, man, how do I match up? He’s asking me the tough questions. And that’s a key part of sales, asking the tough questions to get the tough answers, and then to listen. It’s kind of like being a doctor and I look at it as sales is really about being surgical. When you go to the doctor, the doctor doesn’t say hey, Larry, thanks for coming in. We’re going to do surgery on your ankle. No, doc, you didn’t listen to me. You didn’t ask me the question about my shoulder.
If you ask me the question and you dig in. I think doctors do a SOAP note: subjective, objective assessment and plan. It’s the same thing with sales. I should be subjective. Why? Why are you here, Maeva? Why are we talking? What’s going on? Let me dig in. Let me do an MRI on your business. And it’s funny, you mentioned that I’m going to be talking to two startup founders in the next week to do a diagnosis.
I’m now Dr. Long. Imagine that Larry Long Jr, MD. Sales MD, to dig into their business, understand what’s going on, give them an assessment, and then I’m going to have to write the prescription. Hey, he goes to plan and that plan is going to be three doses very long during your I can help you.
Maeva Cifuentes
It’s amazing that you say that because I personally perceive marketing to do the same task. Marketing to me is also helping the user. And maybe the approach is a little bit different because sales is when you’re I mean, sales is after marketing, but in the end, and also the product people that people developing the product, they’re also doing the same thing.
They’re also helping the user. And in the end, all of business is really just trying to help people solve problems, right. So what is what is the challenge that you see most often? You’ve talked to a lot of different startups. And what’s the one thing where you’re like, Man, I wish everybody has says the same thing. How do I get through to them?
Larry Long Jr.
Yeah, there’s a lot of challenges, but I can tell you the one that I see most often it’s this 500 pound phone Maevathis. This thing gets me to reach out and touch somebody. It sounds so simple, but executing and actually doing it. I mean, it sounds so simple. Hey, Larry, if you want to lose weight, stop eating fried foods, but I just had fried chicken over the weekend, what you’re talking about Willis, why I want to grow my business.
I want to increase my sales. sounds so simple reach out and touch someone. But it’s amazing how many founders are afraid to pick up the phone and talk to someone to ask them the questions of what’s going on in your situation. What are your goals, your dreams, your aspirations? What’s holding you back? And where can I really help you? So I would say it’s this 500 pound phone. So many times we rely on email. We now have social media, we rely on LinkedIn and Twitter and Instagram. Those are all great handwritten notes. T
hat’s how you differentiate yourself. But also pick up the phone. There’s a saying, I learned this from Steve Nudelberg. He’s a sales trainer, a sales coach down in Florida. He said Larry, my 30 years of selling what I learned is the difference between contacts people you know, and contracts people you work with is the letter R. Maeva, that letter or is relationships, true genuine relationships? And he said, hey, it’s not what you know. It’s not even who you know, it’s who knows you! And who trusts you, and who believes in you.
And you’ll see my shirt say yes to you, it’s about you, but it’s about you serving other people that really makes things happen.
So I encourage, pick up the phone, reach out and touch someone start those relationships. It’s like planting seeds, you got to water them. You got to make sure they get sunlight, you got to nurture them. Sometimes you might have to roll up your sleeves and put a little manure and really make sure that it’s it’s right to grow. It’s amazing.
Maeva Cifuentes
Yeah, so are you referring right now to cold calling?
Larry Long Jr.
Yes. Be especially in b2b. My focus is really on b2b sales, and b2b. Some people might say that means business to business. I’m going to change that up b2b is body to body, you better you better get belly to belly with somebody if we’re going to be doing b2b sales.
There’s none of this from afar. No, we’re not on the other side of the table world. We’re both on the same side. And yes, you got to get in there. You got to stretch your your Comfort Zone. That’s really where the most growth comes from.
When you get outside of your comfort zone. It’s easy to send an email when I’m gonna be a keyboard gangster, I’m gonna hide behind email. No, pick up this phone. And essentially how do you make your in marketing? How do you make an ice cold call a little lukewarm. Help me out. You talked about marketing. I need you. You talked about product. I need you, this is a team sport!
Maeva Cifuentes
Absolutely. I mean, to me, I was thinking I’m always I’m into inbound. So I do inbound marketing. So that’s how I like to attract people. That’s how I like to get them to call me. So I’m also a little hesitant just like the other founders to get on the phone. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten on the phone and done a cold call. I have done some cold emails.
So what I would propose to warm people up is actually to connect with them elsewhere first, I don’t know to, to create content that helps them to figure out who your ICP is your ideal customer profile to get to know them on a really, really deep level. Maybe? I don’t know. Yeah, I guess you could call them for some market research and then you call them another time, but that wouldn’t be a cold call anymore. What? So I would love for you to tell me how you turn an ice cold call into a lukewarm call.
Larry Long Jr.
Because there’s so many there’s so many different ways, so many different channels, you talked about it, but for me, I’m, I guess you could say I’m a little impatient. I want to make it happen right now and help as many people as I can. And really, it’s that mindset of if I don’t reach out and call someone, if I don’t send them a handwritten note.
If I don’t send them a message on on LinkedIn or the social channels. I’m doing a disservice to them, because they don’t even know. So people say no all the time. But I believe No, me K-N-O-W, you just don’t know enough. You’re not open minded to see if you have a one track mind. And you don’t have a growth mindset that, hey, there could be a better way. This is the way I do it today. And I’ll tell you, in most sales that I’ve seen the number one competitor is essentially apathy. If that person in the mirror, I’m good, Larry, thanks for the call. But I’m good. Go ahead with your bad self. So I don’t need you.
Hey, what’s holding you back from being great? Come and talk to me. I think we can take you from good. It’s kind of like the book, Jim Collins, Good to Great. Let’s not settle with being good. Let’s take it to that next level. We can help you accomplish your goals and get you to places that you never would have even imagined.
So I believe that cold calls are so important, because it sets in there’s so many times where we’ve worked with people that have said “Where have you been? Wow, I’ve been looking for a solution like yours didn’t even know if I just picked up the phone two years ago.” They would have known and they wouldn’t have had to struggle, struggle doing the hard rowing, doing it manually. It’s like, wow, imagine that I can surf the web on the phone. No, I don’t have to go to my Almanac. To find the information. I can just I can actually say, hey Siri, and get all the information I need. Imagine that. This is exciting stuff.
Maeva Cifuentes
It is. So the mindset shift has really just, I am doing this person a disservice if I don’t call them. I’m doing a favor, because I’m helping their business because here we’re talking b2b. So their business would be better. If I can help them and you know that you have to be confident in that.
Larry Long Jr.
You’ve got it. You’ve got to be number one. There’s two C’s, you’ve got to be curious. So I’m curious about how you do things. Why you do it that way. Who does it. It’s kind of like being an investigator. I’m just digging in curious, but I’m also confident if I listened to you, and we’ve all been blessed with two ears and one mouth for a reason. We should be listening more than we talk, which I struggle with.
But essentially that confidence that hey, I know that I have a solution that can benefit you. I’ve worked with others that are similar to you, not just like you, because everyone thinks they’re unique. Ah, you understand we’re different. Okay, I’ll give you that. But I can still help you. So essentially, it’s having that curiosity, which didn’t kill the cat, the Flying Cat, as well as having that that confidence. You see what I did there?
Maeva Cifuentes
Yeah, that’s true. I mean, curiosity is so important. And everything that you are saying right now, I feel like the exact same message will work in marketing. I mean, you need to be curious. You need to listen. And in marketing, it kind of feels sometimes like we’re talking more than we’re listening just because we’re putting content out there.
But it’s not just about putting content out there. It is mostly about listening. And then the content that you create is, is a demonstration of that listening, right? It’s showing, okay, I listened, here’s a solution for you. So how in sales let’s say I’m on a cold call and say you got your list of people, I’m gonna call. I don’t know how many people you call them today, but let’s say you call 50 people or something.
And I’m going to show every single one of these prospects that I care about them individually, not bulk care about them, but I actually care about each person and their business. How do you show that kind of empathy?
Larry Long Jr.
Yeah, that’s great. And actions speak so loud, I can’t hear what you’re saying. So I’m going to do my research I’m gonna be prepared. My but when I hop on to know that you have a background parlez-vous francais, you have a background in France.
I know that you’re in Spain right now. Espanya que pasa loca to show you that I’ve taken the time to really research where you’re at. I’m going to be curious, I’m going to ask you some questions, as well as I’m going to share, there’s a term that I love.
And it’s not being a storyteller. It’s called story selling. So I’m going to share stories about how others that I’ve worked with have been in a similar situation. And I’m going to paint that crystal clear picture of this is where they were, this is what we did. And here goes the result. Are you interested? I’m going to be crystal clear of why I’m calling you and why I’m calling you right now. Because essentially, that’s all people want to know when they wake up. You pretty much want to know I don’t know if you’re familiar with this radio station, but it’s my favorite. It’s WIIFM.
Maeva Cifuentes
What’s in it for me?
Larry Long Jr.
Wow, you are spot on. You are good. And I’m gonna make sure that I explain to you exactly what’s in it for you. I’m not a me, monster. The people that we reach out to are pretty bright. They can they can smell BS Some people call it commission breath. It doesn’t smell good, where it’s like, hey, you’re all about yourself. You’re not about me.
Sweet Georgia Brown, you can Google her. She said it best. “Ain’t nobody got time for that.” We’re all busy. If you don’t have something that can help me with what’s important in my mind in my world, then I just don’t have time. Yeah, but if you can come correct, you’ve done your research, you know what you’re talking about, and you know where I’m at or where I might be, then I can give you a little bit of time.
And at that point, we’ve got to earn more and more time. I’m going to ask you for permission. I’m going to state exactly why I’m calling you why you why you now I’m going to get into the value prop and now I have a crystal clear call to action. What do you what do you what what do you want me to do? You gave me all this great information. You did your research, but what now? I’m glad you asked. Glad you asked here goes where we go from here.
Maeva Cifuentes
That’s That’s fantastic. And it makes me think of a question that I have I’m always asking and I’m always trying to answer myself. But I’m always like I mentioned before just getting a marketer’s perspective on it. So I would love to kind of flip the table around and see what the sales perspective of it. And that question is how to align marketing and sales.
So, you guys at teamworks, you have a rich, super active blog, your huge company already have Series C funding. So how does the content that you guys create how does that help you, as a salesperson provide more value to the person that you’re calling? How do you use the content? And how could marketing teams improve this process to help you more?
Larry Long Jr.
I love it. We meet every week, we actually had our meeting. I’m letting all the goodies out of the bag. We had our meeting earlier today to make sure we stay in alignment, because it’s so easy to work in silos. Marketing is running down this path. Sales is running down this path, and it’s like we’re blowing through each other in the wind. We don’t know what the heck we’re doing. So for us, we meet constantly once a week officially.
But throughout the week, we’re talking about what content is coming up.
How is the current content working?
Are we getting engagement? Or what what are some of the topics that should be coming up?
I mean, for us right now, in the world of athletics, it’s the return to sports. So I know in Europe, the English Premier League, they’re back, but there’s no fans in the stands. Essentially, the safety the hell. Those are some of the things that are on our ICP, that’s on their mind. How do you return college athletes back to campus safely and securely?
How do we establish that thought leadership? How do we ensure that folks know when they can see that not only are we doing it ourselves, but we’re working with other leaders within the space? And then how do we share those success stories so that we can now story sell instead of just storytell? So many people, it’s kind of like being from the state of Missouri, the show me state show What you’re working with, I want you to talk.
Talk is cheap. Once again, your actions speak so loud, I can’t hear what you’re saying. So not only do we have a blog, but we’ve got a webinar series, we have some video content that we put out to really show that, hey, we’re not just talking. We’re actually backing it up. And you can check the Carfax your goes, this story would do basketball.
Here it goes this story with Oregon women’s basketball, I got a story to tell. And I’m going to make sure that you understand that. So you’re absolutely right sales and marketing, we must be married.
And we’ve got to be working in conjunction with each other to make sure that there’s that feedback loop to make sure that there’s that planning in advance so that we’re getting ahead of what’s to come not just three months out, but also Q4 of this year, what should we be talking about in January of 2021. And how can we make sure that we’ve got that that great alignment where we’re working together, and we’re not we’re not going in separately? Actually, which happens.
Maeva Cifuentes
It happens all the time. I see that I see that a lot. And it’s really important to have that communication. I think it’s so great that you guys meet on a weekly basis and that you’re both talking to each other. Because it’s not only the marketing that needs to help sales, it’s actually the sales that needs to help marketing there, they should be dependent on one another, in my opinion.
Larry Long Jr.
Right And one thing I will say is the alignment of goals. So often you see the marketing goals are over here. It’s how many people do we deliver?
Well, how many quality people did you deliver? But when those goals are aligned, when you’ve got everyone driving for revenue, and everyone is supporting and you’ve got marketing digging in, hey, we were able to provide 100 what we thought were were hot, they were super hot leads what happened with them. Now you’ve got that checks and balances.
You’ve got folks holding each other accountable. Hey, you told us that you were going to deliver hot leads, 100 leads and all that 30 that were lukewarm. What’s up with that? And what can we do together to make sure we’re driving for growth? We’re driving for revenue.
We’re driving for planting those seeds that are going to allow us to have success, not just short term, but even long term in the long run. So those are the things that we’re working on. And it’s a constant challenge. Yeah, I’d be lying if I said we had it all figured out. But that’s the exciting part of it is that every day, every week, it’s a new challenge.
Maeva Cifuentes
You have so many acronyms. That’s amazing. have some I was just about to ask you something that that slipped my mind about what you’re saying. Now, I can’t remember anymore. But um, I will. I will just move it to one last question that I saw a video that you had done on YouTube about three sips of advice.
And you were talking about the never ending “maybe”, which I thought was very interesting. How do you get to yes. And you talked about setting expectations. And this kind of goes back to our last point about this content that you’re creating that can that can help in the sales process. So what? How tough do we need to get in like, asking these questions not only in the sales process, but before the sales process in the content creation process? What are your guys’s process for this?
Larry Long Jr.
Yeah, I mean, Tony Robbins says it best he says the most successful people are the ones who asked the toughest questions, because they’re going to get the right answers. So I want to know from a prospect, are you serious about evaluating and possibly making a change? Or are you good with being good? And if you’re good with being good, let’s call a spade a spade. That’s cool.
But you and I don’t need to be talking right now. And we all know that timing is everything. What’s going on? On and the time just might not be right. But essentially, it’s super important for all of us to ask those tough questions on the front end. I want to know now when we’re just getting started versus learning on the on the five yard line that, hey, this isn’t a bad, it’s a great time.
This isn’t a priority. It’s like, wow, I just invested this much time and energy. And if I just asked the question 60 days ago, 30 days ago, where my marketing team and helped me to filter out those I call them suspects, their suspects, put them over there. I want to talk to prospects. I want to talk to folks that are about that life, and are at least open to making a change.
We all know change is tough by a VA whatever your routine is. That’s your routine. We’re we’re creatures of habit. So essentially, I’m good with that. I don’t know if I really want to shake it up in change. Well, essentially, it’s my job to at least ask you are you open to change, if it’ll make your life better? If it will make your business better save you time, make you more money make you more efficient. Are you at least open to that? And if you’re open to it, let’s go to work.
I’m going to give you my all. But if you’re not open to it, sorry, I’m going to fire myself. I’m going to hang up on myself and say, I’m fired. Yeah, you call me when something changes, which we all know in this world. We’re in it right now with the pandemic. No one could have predicted it. But are you ready? If you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready. Absolutely ready. That’s my question. That’s my question to you. Are you ready? For the unknown?
Maeva Cifuentes
It’s a tough question. Because in the end, you’re holding a mirror up to somebody. You’re saying, Well, I’m about to trigger you. Are you ready to deal with it? Like you’re gonna have to deal with this thing? And not everybody wants to? So that’s, that’s a very good question to ask. Well, I’m gonna leave it off there because I know you have to go on another call. And I just thank you so much for spending this time with me. It’s been a wonderful experience talking to you.