B2B Sales Doesn’t Have to Be Scary

About the Guest

Tom Keuten, Senior Vice President at Rightpoint, a global experience company with teams that create digital experiences that connect people and drive meaningful outcomes for organizations, joins Mason to talk about why business-to-business sales don’t have to be scary. If you are curious, interested to help others on their professional journey, and show that when you reach out to their networking, you’ll find people are very receptive to learning more from you. When you work hard to develop expertise starting early in your career, that will help accelerate your ability to convincingly sell someone of your value and what you represent. Tom kind of fell into some of his sales success – take advantage of some of his lessons learned to shape your journey.

Connect with Tom Keuten

Key Takeaways

• Be proactive in finding resources to help hone your craft and accelerate your career. In this day and age, there are always resources available, whether it be podcasts, books, courses, and even networks and organizations to get involved in. 
• When building your network, don’t focus on what you get from others. Instead, focus on what you can provide and how you can help others. This helps you build a foundation of trust with the person, which makes them more receptive to your requests for assistance in the future.
• Digital platform connections are not substitutes for in-person relationship building. Don’t forget to build those real connections.  

Quote

“Projects and programs are the way to change how a business behaves. If you don’t commit to a change and run it through a project of some sort, then you’re just going to keep doing what you’re doing, or it’ll take you a lot longer to get there.” – Tom Keuten

Highlights from the Episode

Can you talk a bit about your role at Rightpoint and also your journey as a sales leader?

Tom went to business school and studied accounting and finance – He did not study sales. After graduating, he went into consulting and thought that he would eventually develop deep expertise in something, but as technology started to take off and play a bigger role in business, he started learning about internet client-server technology. Tom found his true passion when he realized how much fun it could be working with clients face-to-face. He enjoys translating the client’s vision into a plan of success and working with the team to make it happen.

Why is it important to start practicing your craft early on to become an expert? 

Tom stresses the importance of excelling at something you’re naturally inclined to do. By volunteering at the Project Management Institute (PMI) which provides frameworks for improving capabilities and project management, Tom not only started honing his craft but was eventually asked to lead the work. He discusses how businesses have reached out to him to sell them services and says this has helped him accelerate his career.

Why is it important to build a support network to excel?

Why go fast by yourself, when you can go further with others? Networking for life means that when you build relationships with people in your life, you build a broad network of people you can lean on in any situation, and vice versa. Rather than seeking out people who can help him, Tom finds ways to help others and build relationships with them. If they have a need he can provide, he does so and in turn, this helps build a foundation of trust with the person.

Has the process of building a network become easier in a digital-first world with platforms like Linkedin?

Yes and no. LinkedIn is a great tool for professionals to keep in touch with friends and colleagues, but it can be a bit tricky because it’s become saturated with “pitch slapping” and has become a platform that is not very trustworthy. LinkedIn connections are not substitutes for meeting in person, so don’t forget to build those real connections. 

How are you and your organization adapting to the current economic downturn?

The current economic downturn has caused business to slow down. Clients are more thoughtful about spending which has slowed down or even postponed some projects to next year. However, Rightpoint has been adapting to the current economic downturn by maintaining consistency in its service delivery and sharing knowledge with its clients. Tom explains that even when budgets are reduced, they still try to provide ideas for future projects and remind clients that they will be able to come back when money is available.

Is there a book, blog, newsletter, website, or video that you would recommend to our listeners?

• The Hustle Newsletter
• The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon

Shout-outs

John Humphrey – Founder and Chief Connector of Connect for Life 

Chris Crombie – Chief Sales Officer at Voicify

Brian Wilson  – Former Partner Sales Executive, Microsoft