Vince Burruano - Thinking Outside of the Box Wendy Dickinson, Catalytic Conversation$

Show Notes written by Vince Burruano, VP of Sales for the Commercial Division of JK Moving and Wendy Dickinson, Catalytic Conversation$.

IBGR.Network - PROFIT Radio. Everything a business owner needs to start, grow or exit a business. GROW WITH US.

Introduction:  Vince Burruano, 30 years of Leadership & Sales Wisdom
​
Vince is currently the Vice President of Sales for the Commercial Division of JK Moving Services.  He has held this position for more than 6 years and leads a team of 20 people.  He focuses on the personal and professional development of his team to ensure consistent achievement of both individual and company goals.  He is an avid reader and strongly believes in continuous learning and leadership development.

Vince has been in sales and sales management for nearly 30 years with experience selling both products and services to businesses and the government.  He has held leadership positions with Ricoh-USA, IKON, and Oce.  Originally from the New York area he moved to Virginia with his wife, Elizabeth, and son, Michael, about 23 years ago.  Vince has a bachelor’s in philosophy from The Catholic University of America and an MBA from The George Washington University.

SHOW OBJECTIVES: THE WHY
I’m currently working with several companies dealing with sales team crises.  One company has had three hires for the sales team without any success.  Another has had a sales manager who was successful pre-COVID and finds the current business landscape so difficult, he’s no longer able to lead.

I invited Vince to give us a snapshot of his innovative approaches to building a successful sales team.  Vince is a lifelong learner who is a student of leadership.  This was a valuable hour for picking up new ideas. 

You are all here to learn.  A lot of you, like my clients, learn best by first hand experience.  Is it really necessary?  Vince is here to help you learn about the importance of sales leadership in growing your business.
 
Today you have the chance to learn through another leader’s experiences – saving you time, money, and energy.  I’m always happy to learn from someone else’s examples, aren’t you?

KEY ISSUES: Problems You May Encounter:
In this part of our conversation, I shared with Vince this case study:
This client has had a lot of challenges around building a sales team. The company has hired 3 different sales people who, on paper, had everything they wanted and needed.  None of these hires worked out. In this case the owner/founders are acting as both the leadership and the sales team.  As a result there is a gap between the business strategies put in place, and the desired results which hinge on the ability to grow revenue.

Vince shared these common problems:

• Responsible for both running the business and being the Chief Sales and Revenue Officer.  Should you add a professional sales manager to the team?
• Limited time to coach and mentor current sales staff – talent recruitment and development is critical.  
• Driving profitable revenue growth.
• Expand your current business – new markets and/or business lines.
• Getting the sales, and overall, culture right.  

What You Need To Know - THE WHAT:
Vince and I discussed the struggle some of my clients have to create companies that are viable assets.  A lot of owners come to me with the mentality that there isn’t time, energy or money to make changes.  What they can’t see at first, is that hiring people to keep the hamster wheel going isn’t adding value to the business. 

How can leadership bridge the gap between the reality of today, mired in day to day operations, and the vision (for a viable asset) of tomorrow?

Vince and I acknowledge that owners and their management teams struggle to find the formula for success – what it takes for them to increase profits, reduce costs, hire to retain and nurture talent.  
I see owners who get to a level of success that may be way beyond their initial vision, and then, get stuck.  They continue to do what brought them to that point, and stop innovating.  

Here are Vince’s points for you to consider:

1. You cannot do it all – evaluate your business and see if adding a sales leadership position (manager) makes sense.  How else can you empower and delegate responsibilities while still achieving the results you expect?
2. Your people are the key to business growth and success – are you giving them the tools to do their best work?  How are you developing them?  Are they creating the client experience you want?
3. Do you have a defined and written sales process?  Have you identified the best way to engage prospects and help them through the buying journey to realize profitable revenue for your business?

What You Need To Do - THE HOW
Cast Study:
I have a client (4th gen company) who has had the same sales manager for a long time.  The company has suffered a great deal during COVID.  Investors are pressuring the company to meet certain revenue thresholds.  The sales manager has refused to discuss ways to get to those goals.  He believes it’s impossible and has offered a number of suggestions to cut costs instead.  The sales manager was hired by the previous generation and has a long standing, close relationship with the owner of the company. The owner feels terrible.  The owner is torn between the relationship and company survival.  

Vince acknowledged the difficulty of the owner’s situation.  As we all can see, hurting the one person (sales manager) and risking the wellbeing of all of the employees and their families is a tough situation.  There are no easy answers here.

Vince outlined a number of steps to consider taking when evaluating your business talent needs:

• Perform an honest assessment of your business.  Ask a trusted associate to help ensure you are seeing the world as it really is, and not how you think it is or should be.
  • Business culture and performance overall.  How is the customer experience?  Are you able to differentiate your offering from other competitors?  Do you create a positive memorable experience for those clients that engage your business?

• Your sales organization.  Is it an asset or a liability?
  • Skills.  How good are they at the basics?  Are they growing professionally?  Can they develop organic business, or do they rely on leads from the firm?
  • Is there a defined and written sales process that incorporates best practices?  Is it continuously evaluated and tweaked for maximum impact and results?
  • Accountability.  Are goals clearly defined, measured, and areas needing improvement addressed?  Does everyone understand their mission and how it fits into the overall business?
  • Leadership.  Would a dedicated sales manager add value?  Could they drive your business to the next level while you focus on the big picture?
  • Development and Continuous Improvement.  Is everyone getting better each day?
  • Results.  Is your sales team creating profitable revenue?  Could they do even better with the right focus and support?

• Are you the leader you need to be?
  • Manager vs. Leader – Managers do things right while leaders focus on doing the right things well.
  • Are you inspiring others to be their best?  Is your why believable?
  • Are you developing new leaders in your company?  Leaders are always in short supply and they are the cornerstone of all future growth.

Resources:

1. Dan Dominguez, The WHY Institute, contact Dan at dan@whyinstitute.com.
2. Work The Bugs Out: Practices To Work In, & On, Your Business, by Wendy Dickinson, Publish: TBD.  Excerpt: Free Downloadable PDFs to work through.
3. Built To Last: Successful Habits By Visionary Companies, by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, William Collins Publisher, 1994. 
4. Good To Great: Why Some Companies Make The Leap and Others Don’t, by Jim Collins, Harper Business Publishers, 2001. 

You can connect with Wendy Dickinson on FB, LinkedIn, and Instagram.


​

E3.05.4NA