Meet Michael Vasquez, The Olinger Group’s new Director of Sales.
First things first: For many people, “sales” is almost a dirty word, and “salesman” is worse. Why did you decide to embrace it?
It’s amazing to me that so many people say, ‘I would never be a salesperson,’ when what they really mean is, ‘I could never cold call anyone.’ Most people don’t want to start or end the sales process, but they do everything in the middle all the time.
We use sales in every part of our lives:
- Building relationships
- Giving suggestions
- Offering ideas
We sell every time we try to influence someone.
I have never been afraid of being told no. I have never been afraid of trying something because it might fail. Instead, I am excited to try things because I might succeed. For me, the ‘yes’ greatly outweighs the feeling of ‘no.’
Why is that?
I enjoy helping people learn how they can address their challenges and achieve their goals.
Often, clients can’t take themselves from pain to solution to outcome. They feel this pain and want it to go away, but they are not sure how to do that. It is very satisfying when I can understand their pain well enough to take them on a consultative journey that ends with a tailor-made, perfect-for-them solution.
Even if I am selling the same “product,” it is unique every single time. It is very personal to that individual every single time.
To me, making a sale is like playing sports. (FYI, I am a huge sports fan! If they keep score, I am watching.) It’s fun to win the game. I love the challenge of solving problems, and I play fair and do it the right way.
I am less competitive than I used to be. Now I realize the value of the game, whereas before I only realized the value of the outcome. Before I saw it as a binary between winning and losing. I still want to win, but if don’t, I say: ‘OK, where is the value? Where is the takeaway? There is a lesson here for me.’
Win? Great! I build a relationship.
Lose? Great! I got a relationship, and I got experience.
Why did you want to join TOG?
Two reasons:
- I like having highly intelligent, engaging, and specific conversations with clients about their challenges, problems, and responsibilities. I am not interested in conducting basic transactions. Market research gives me what I am looking for.
- TOG is small and nimble like a startup, but they are not struggling to try and keep the lights on. They are scaling a business with 28 years of experience. They are established but small. Growing but with long-standing relationships. It is a very unique thing. TOG wants to scale, and that is exciting to me. They are exactly where I want to be.
What do you bring to TOG and to our clients?
I am a good salesperson, and I understand products, development, and the getting-to-market process. But I think the one thing I am going to be most valuable with is delivering sales processes that create automation, and that are scalable and repeatable.
There is no reason to reinvent the wheel every time. The sales process should not be hard. Relationships should not be hard. I am going to automate the basics so we can concentrate on the unique.
Going back to my sports analogy, I am going to build my team and coach them through the practice drills, so we can help our clients score big at game time.
Please join us in welcoming Michael to the TOG team.
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