[E270] From Vacuums to IT sales, with Grandpa Stork (Part 2)

Jason: All right, welcome back to the sales experience podcast. My name again is Jason Cutter. This is going to be part two of my conversation with Anthony Hall, AKA Grandpa Stark. I know last time I said Grandpa Stark, AKA Anthony Hall. I just know him as Grandpa Stork. He is a fun character. We had a really good time in this conversation. It was definitely different than a lot of the conversations I have with sales leaders or people with lots of experience because it's just so real and so authentic. So here you go, part two, and I will catch you at the end. Grandpa: So treating people as human beings and as honoring that time, then for me, ultimately it's a win. If you're able to make a connection and. Find someplace way to even grow beyond that. And I think that's, for me, has been the most rewarding part of kind of my sales career. Jason: What I like about what you said. Is the story about this sitting around having a pint after the conference, just chatting. The people who I know that are most successful, and this is why I focus on this for salespeople and teams in general is obviously my authentic persuasion kind of methodology and focus. Is that authentic piece, right? It's being who you are always not, okay, there's me in sales mode and I've got to act a certain way. And then after work, I'm totally different because then it's tough to keep up that act. And I think that's, it's so funny cause I'd never thought about this, but you're talking about this after hours, after a conference, just chatting with people. So much more gets done and so much deeper relationships get formed in those situations. And I think a lot of times it's because people put their guard down. They're just being real. They're just being normal instead of trying to be professional version. And that's what people are gravitated to. They want to have relationships with real people. And they're totally willing to buy from real people. A lot of times in sales people are worried like if they know who I really am. They're not going to want to buy from me because they're not going to like me. It's like the opposite is true. It's like nobody likes to fake you for very long. Grandpa: You're so right about that. And so being our authentic selves and not being afraid to, not necessarily wearing our emotions on our sleeve, but being just. It's a kind of human transparency about we know that, we hopefully will get some business done. We'll do some business together, but that's not what all life is about as well. And so segwaying into it, talk about your family connections or experiences and they add richness and also sometimes can add context and reveal. Certain things that might make that journey towards hopefully closing the deal. It can hopefully move it down a lot. Jason: Now, if we look at your sales career, right? So you've been doing sales for quite some time, as you mentioned, one of your first roles in a company was 1992. So may put you a little bit ahead or older than the people this thing. What have you seen that has changed in either the way that sales is done or the way that prospects act or buy? Like over this career, 20 plus, 30 plus years, like what changes have you seen where people operate different now? Sales people and Buyers versus then. Grandpa: That's a good question. Ultimately, the buyer is a lot better educated now, for one thing, which is a great thing, but then there's also things to distract them and to pull the perspective buyer. And so salespeople and the tool that salespeople have. Back then we were using an app, goldmine. Some of these old and now with Salesforce and all these customer relationship management programs and sales programs, the tools sometimes end up, I think it all depends on how the you, cause I've looked to Salesforce and act and gold mine. It was great for keeping track of everything, but I've also worked in organizations where we're using those tools, but let me go back. I've always been used to being a part of the whole process of the sale. Whether, initial contact and prospect and customer service and just, having really a hands on part of sales because that's how you understand what the process is. And, but then I worked for a couple of companies where a lot of that was separated. I was just only doing one part. You contact all the top on base resellers and make sure we get them in for a meeting and someone else was going to do the follow up. Someone else was going to invite. And for me, that was hard. how to compartmentalize that, how not to be part of that whole process. Being able to drill down and make these second and third connections and be able to Leverage linkedin and find have all these meetings set up and so forth But they can also sometimes get in the way from having meaningful Conversations and a lot of the sales that I was involved in and the strategic relationship with partners Jason: One thing I've seen is that salespeople worry about only being able to win if they use manipulation, tricks, tactics, and hard closes, so they end up struggling to close deals, make their quota, or earn the kind of money that they want to make. If this sounds like your current situation, or maybe you want to make more money in sales without feeling like you're selling, then my upcoming book called Selling with Authentic Persuasion will help. In it, I'm going to take you on a journey to transform from order taker to quota breaker. If you're ready to become an authentic persuader, crush your goals and create success in your sales career, then go to jasoncutter. com. Again, that's jasoncutter. com and pre order the book today. I think this is important for people to pick up. Again, whether it's a manager or owner listening to this or a salesperson is it's always good to understand your relationship style. And if you're short term, if you're long term, if you want to be involved, if you don't want to be involved, like where you want your piece to be and there's no right or wrong, right? It's not about if you're going to be in sales, it's all about long term and relationships. And it's about being married, not just dating. No, it doesn't have to be about a long term commitment for everybody. Some people will. That's not their thing. They like to sell. They like to hand it off to the account managers, to customer service, to fulfillment, and then move on and find somebody else. So you've had this long career, right? You're doing various things throughout your career. And now you're in. Three different sectors, three different business selling roles, right? And so the three things that you're selling, because I made some notes on this just to keep track of my head, because I know the main one that I see you on LinkedIn, and then there's the other two, which almost seem like side projects, but they're not, is a cyber security technology, space tourism education, and then your dragon egg inspirational fitness program. Which those are short headlines for all three, right? That's not enough details. So the thing that I find fascinating, and this is what I want to talk about, what I want to hear more of and share with people is there, is to me, those three things and the target audience for all three of those things are all three different groups. And so it requires wearing several different hats and Probably your sales strategy might stay the same, but then there's the parts of it that are going to differ because of what you're selling and who you're selling to. So where do you, like across those three things and everything that you're doing, what parts of your sales process do you keep the same? Grandpa: Now and making connections as I travel and then just listening, what are people looking for? What are some of the areas that would benefit them and who do I know? So it's always really about. As I travel, I have all these cyber security in my back pocket, I have game based learning in my back pocket, I have robotics and aerospace education, training, all these, what I see are really just components of this enterprise, which we know as TRAIL, the Roads of Education organization, as we view it. Be a leader and a pioneer in education, entertainment, exploration, as a space tourism industry, and how will these industries and these disciplines, how does cybersecurity affect space technology and space exploration and, asteroid mining and colonization, what kind of game and sports will humanity play in space? How to answer those are questions that to go into your question about how does the sales process change? For me, that means I had to learn what I don't know. I didn't know what I didn't know. And so I had to do a lot of learning and reaching out to people and find myself and not being afraid to say, Hey, I don't know. But. It came to a point where I realized that I needed a tribe of people, I needed connections that I could go to for answers and people that I could, even people who are younger than me, have become mentors of mine and senseis as it were. One of the things that I have recognized about myself that being an entrepreneur and taking more of this kind of style of meeting directly with people, going in and this fully kind of informal type of way of developing is partnerships where I just, Go to a country. I have an idea of who Jason: I'm going to meet with. There's three things. One is the openness of feedback, of not knowing everything, of wanting to learn, wanting to grow. You've been at this game for such a long time, potentially longer. In sales, then some of the people probably listening to the podcast have been alive and you're curious and you're asking questions and then it's about having systems so you can keep track of things if you want to operate and win at a bigger level, then you can't play pickup basketball at the YMCA, right? Like you've got to have a different process. So no, I appreciate all of that. So Grandpa Stork, where's the best place for people to find you, what you're working on? People listening to this, how can they connect with you? The kind of stuff you're doing. Grandpa: Oh, I will. Can the best place right now is a LinkedIn. I, the Rose of education has its own, a LinkedIn open group, but I've been doing a lot of posting of information, not only cyber security training, but more specifically, some of the dragons, fire, flying, a exercise of dragon flying game and working on right now is putting together a program for an orphanage here in Tanzania. And so we're looking to put through a program in August, we're going to get. Coconuts so the kids can make their own dragons age so they can learn the superhero game. And what it's really about is not about flying, but about really our conquering, our fear of falling and then failing and discovering our talents. And so LinkedIn is a great place, and actually we're having a little fundraiser. We're trying to raise $150 so that we can buy 60 coconuts, have them cut, get some paint and paint brushes for the 60 students. And then we'll do a whole month long project. And so we wanna invite people to. donate 5, 10, 20. It goes a long ways and we'll have much impact, much like the five day camp we did in Nairobi last year, where we had 120 kids. Yes, it was mayhem, beautiful mayhem, but That's the type of impact we're looking to have. We invite people to share and contribute. And we invite you too, Jason, to, give a little bit to the cause. People can donate by, paypal. me, paypal. me forward slash grandpa store. And, that's going, but so LinkedIn is a great place to connect. Facebook as well. We invite people to follow along and it's really living the dream and it's been amazing and really it's, it was my background and in sales and all the mentors and those people believed in me and just pushed me along that have led to where I am now. And so I'm really grateful for that. And having the time of my life at 61 years old and, Hey, you know what? I can't imagine doing anything else. Jason: There you go. So I'll put your link for LinkedIn in the show notes, but it's really easy. If anyone wants go in LinkedIn, just search Grandpa Stork, right? Sure. It'll be, it'll come up. Anthony Hall, grandpa Stork, just search Grandpa Stork. He's the only one in there. It's easy to find. Grandpa, thanks for joining me on the podcast today. I appreciate it. Grandpa: Hey Jason, thank you. Really appreciate. All the best and stay safe. Jason: Stay warm, brother. We'll do thanks. All right. That's it for the end of this conversation. That's it for part two Please make sure to get in contact follow Grandpa stork with what he's doing because again, it's just really cool different stuff. It will definitely Improve your feed donate to his charity if you can just support anything that he's doing It's that kind of positive stuff out there in the world that we all need more of And I will catch you on the next episode of the sales experience podcast. That's it for another episode of the sales experience podcast. Thank you so much for listening. If you find yourself on iTunes, can you leave the show a rating and a review? It helps other salespeople and sales leaders find the show. And please subscribe to the show and share episodes you find valuable with anyone you know in sales. Help me on my mission of changing the way. Sales is done. And if you're ready to work together, go to Jason cutter. com. Again, that's Jason cutter. com to find out how I can help you or your company create scalable sales success. I will see you on the next sales experience podcast episode, and keep in mind that everything in life is sales and people will remember the experience you gave them.