An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Break up emails are the best. You’ll be surprised at how often customers respond stating that they would like to move forward.
As a part of my series about how to be great at closing sales without seeming pushy, obnoxious, or salesy, I had the pleasure of interviewing Austin Rolling.
Austin is the Co-Founder and CEO of Outfield, a web and mobile based CRM that specializes in data driven revenue and efficiency solutions for organizations with an Outside Sales force. Outfield’s League Play app is the first of its kind, bringing together sales and gaming. It is designed for sales reps to showcase their talents in a friendly and competitive way, while ultimately contributing to their company’s main goal: driving revenue performance.
Thank you for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us the “backstory” about what brought you to this career path?
I started Outfield to solve a problem that I had personally experienced working for several different companies as an outside sales person. The tools these companies provided to us were supposed to support our workflow requirements and expectations. However, they did just the opposite. The complex UI/UX arrangement instead made our jobs more difficult and tedious.
Essentially, I believed I knew what a better solution could look like for the specific job function. And when given the opportunity, I sought out to build on my ideas. The rest is history.
Can you share with our readers the most interesting or amusing story that occurred to you in your career so far? Can you share the lesson or takeaway you took out of that story?
Probably the most interesting thing about my career deals in launching Outfield. For the first year and a half I was homeless. I would couch surf and sleep on the floors of various friends and family.
I learned three things from that experience: Focus on your vision. Manage your mental health. And see failure as an opportunity.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
We are working on the Closer’s app, which is going to be the world’s first globalized sales league! It’s set to be launched in the next few weeks.
Based on its focus on enhancing the utilization of CRM, It will help various parties. This includes sales reps, sales managers, and the company in general.
Sales reps can expect more recognition and potential for advanced career opportunities.
Sales Managers can expect better CRM adoption, improved reporting, data entry, data output and less of their CRM budget going to waste.
For companies, once systems are properly adopted and the sales organization is equipped with the appropriate information, they now have the two most important foundations for success in driving revenue.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Manish Patel is a friend and mentor of mine. He is the individual who sold the initial code of Outfield to us and essentially became our first partner and customer in the process. Partnering with him in the beginning is what ultimately led to our sustainability early on.
For the benefit of our readers, can you tell us a bit why you are an authority on the topic of sales?
Why some might consider me an authority in sales would be most likely based on my experience. I’ve worked in sales for over 20 years in various roles. I was a high performing sales person across various industries. As well as a sales manager responsible for leading over 80 sales reps at once. And now I’m co-founder and CEO of Outfield, which is a Gaming CRM and solution to sales professionals around the world. I’ve built a platform that serves thousands of sales people.
Now I’m working to build the world’s first digital sales league where’s sales rep around the world compete for prizes, recognition, and awards.
Ok. Thanks for all that. Let’s now jump to the main core of our interview. As you know, nearly any business a person will enter, will involve some form of sales. At the same time, most people have never received any formal education about how to be effective at selling. Why do you think our education system teaches nearly every other arcane subject, but sales, one of the most useful and versatile topics, is totally ignored?
I’m not really sure why that has been the case. It might be a chicken and an egg type problem. Are universities not offering sales programs due to low demand? I’ve actually never come across someone with a degree in sales. Most people I know just fall into the role of a sales professional.
However, I believe it is changing. I’m seeing more universities offering sales training courses. For example, The University of Houston has a program called the Sales Academy, which teaches college students selling techniques. More specifically, they offer training in SaaS selling. I do not see this trend slowing, as the demand for quality sellers is increasing every day.
This discussion, entitled, “How To Be Great At Sales Without Seeming Salesy”, is making an assumption that seeming salesy or pushy is something to be avoided. Do you agree with this assumption? Whether yes, or no, can you articulate why you feel the way you do?
In all of my career as a sales professional. I never used “being pushy” to close deals. Yes, you want to nudge and suggest respectfully, but at the end of the day I always wanted to be guilt free in any deal that I made. For me that meant articulating value to the best of my ability in a way that addresses the needs of the customer. If I’m unable to do that, then it means it wasn’t the right option or time for the buyer. You can not dwell on a missed opportunity. Move on.
The seven stages of a sales cycle are usually broken down to versions of Prospecting, Preparation, Approach, Presentation, Handling objections, Closing, and Follow-up. Which stage do you feel that you are best at? What is your unique approach, your “secret sauce”, to that particular skill? Can you explain or give a story?
The discovery call is where I’m at my best. That’s primarily because I put the most emphasis on this phase. It’s the most important in my opinion. Everything you learn from the customer at the initial stage will help you convert each of the following sales steps properly, ultimately leading to a sales conversion.
The “secret sauce” to discovery calls is my ability to switch my persona. I choose a different hat to wear. Rather than conducting the call as a sales person, I approach the call as if I was interviewing the person. When you wear the hat of an interviewer you instantly become way more curious, conversational, and exude having less of a sales agenda. As a result, the prospect is less guarded and you wind up learning more valuable information.
Lead generation, or prospecting, is one of the basic steps of the sales cycle. Obviously, every industry will be different, but can you share some of the fundamental strategies you use to generate good, qualified leads?
Our focus has been primarily on leveraging proper SEO practices in order to drive warm leads to us. We also have referral targets that each sales person should hit a month.
Roughly 90% of our leads are generated from inbound marketing efforts and word of mouth.
In my experience, I think the final stages of Handling Objections, Closing, and Follow-up, are the most difficult parts for many people. Why do you think ‘Handling Objections’ is so hard for people? What would you recommend for one to do, to be better at ‘Handling Objections’?’’
Overcoming objections becomes way easier if you conduct a proper discovery call. The reason why so many have challenges in closing is because they don’t really know enough about the customer’s pain points to target them. If you drive the dagger into a pain point deep enough, you’ll get the sales. You just need to know where to target.
Something else I tell my guys is to use both logic and emotion in your proposal delivery. Not only do you target the pain point with a dagger, you make a financial case for your offering. Use numbers as proof.
‘Closing’ is of course the proverbial Holy Grail. Can you suggest 5 things one can do to successfully close a sale without being perceived as pushy? If you can, please share a story or example, ideally from your experience, for each.
Assume the deal will close.
Offer more than one option so that the customer feels like they have some control.
Reiterate the customer’s pain points (use their words as they were communicated to you) at the start of the call. Follow up with how your product or service solves for their pain point.
Remain professional, while being assertive. Do not get bodied by the customer.
Give off the impression that you’re okay with walking away from the deal. Don’t come off as desperate.
Finally, what are your thoughts about ‘Follow up’? Many businesses get leads who might be interested but things never seem to close. What are some good tips for a business leader to successfully follow up and bring things to a conclusion, without appearing overly pushy or overeager?
Break up emails are the best. You’ll be surprised at how often customers respond stating that they would like to move forward.
Sometimes the timing just isn’t right for the customer. In a final email or phone call steer clear of coming off as passive aggressive. This will put a sour taste in the mouth of the prospect and surely ruin any potential deals for the future.
Be respectful and move on.
As you know there are so many modes of communication today. For example, In-person, phone calls, video calls, emails, and text messages. In your opinion, which of these communication methods should be avoided when attempting to close a sale or follow up? Which are the best ones? Can you explain or give a story?
Do not attempt to close a deal via email or text. It’s lazy and will prove to be ineffective. Moreover, tone is oftentimes difficult to sense in these forms of communication.
In-Person and video calls are my favorite. It’s easier to present and have prospects follow along to your business proposal. It also helps with capturing the full attention of a prospective customer. Overcoming objections is easier because you hear tone, vocal inflections, body movement, etc. These are all clues to what the person might be thinking.
Ok, we are nearly done. Here is our final “meaty” question. You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
There needs to be more economic resources driven in the direction of entrepreneurs who come from underserved communities. Oftentimes, minorities are overlooked for investment opportunities even when their ideas are brilliant. Venture Capital, historically, has had a type of face they’ve gravitated to with their resources. Purposely. It’s unfortunate for the groups of people who are left out.
My goal is to eventually become a founder of a VC firm with the focus on serving African American entrepreneurs.
How can our readers follow you online?
Thank you for the interview. We wish you only continued success!
Austin Rolling Of Outfield: How To Be Great At Sales Without Seeming Salesy was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
