High Tech Freedom Sales Podcast

Marissa Schmidt has a long track record of product management and product management leadership with companies like Bay Networks, Nortel, and Citrix.

We get into how top sales professionals engage and leverage the product management team to accelerate and grow sales. 

She has relentless optimism while balancing what's right for the business and being customer-oriented. She has a strong work ethic and the ability to work with cross functional teams. Her specialties in the Product Line Management field are relationship building with partners and customers, data networking - Ethernet switching, routing and load balancing (Application Delivery Controller market) and Web Application Firewall.

You can connect with Marissa through linkedin: linkedin.com/in/marissaschmidt

Enter our monthly drawing for an insulated High Tech Freedom tumbler - www.hightechfreedom.com/mug

Host Contact Information - Chris Freeman

LinkedIn - http://linkedin.com/in/chrisfreeman

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/chris.freeman.9461

Why in the world would you want to create an extra administrative task as a seller?

I probably worked for about 15 years before I went into a company where everyone did a weekly report. It was part of the culture for all departments. For sales, AM did one up to their manager, managers did one to their directors, and directors up to their VP. 

Was it a pain in the but? Definitely, there were some weeks where I was busy. My style is if I am going to do something, I need to do it well. I couldn’t just half ass the work.

I learned a very interesting lesson over the years doing this. 

1. It forced me to slow down once a week and reflect on my business.

What to include?

Upcoming week

• Start with your forecast or quota, how much have you sold, % of forecast

Prior Week

• What did you do on the big rocks last week?

Enter our monthly drawing for an insulated High Tech Freedom tumbler - www.hightechfreedom.com/mug

What does Freedom mean to you?

Check out our webinar:

“How Top Sales Pros Create Passive Income & Achieve Financial Freedom With Hands-Off Real Estate Investing”

Host Contact Information - Chris Freeman

LinkedIn - http://linkedin.com/in/chrisfreeman

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/chris.freeman.9461

Andrew Plato is an experienced CEO, founder, entrepreneur, and cybersecurity expert.  In 1995 Andrew founded one of the first companies dedicated to information security, Anitian.  While CEO of Anitian, Andrew was a pioneer in network security, risk management, and compliance practices.

This culminated in 2016 with the invention of an automated platform that dramatically accelerated the deployment and configuration of security in cloud environments.  Andrew secured venture-backed funding for this technology and led the company through rapid growth.  During this time Andrew also cultivated lucrative strategic partnerships with leading security and cloud companies such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, Trend Micro, Sysdig, Elastic, Qualys, and Sentinel One.

Andrew is currently the CEO/Founder of Zenaciti (www.zenaciti.com) which provides security and cloud advisory services to investors and leaders worldwide.  Andrew is a prolific speaker, author, and industry analyst on matters of cybersecurity, compliance, and leadership.

You can connect with Andrew through linkedin: linkedin.com/in/andrewplato

Enter our monthly drawing for an insulated High Tech Freedom tumbler - www.hightechfreedom.com/mug

What does Freedom mean to you?

Check out our webinar:

“How Top Sales Pros Create Passive Income & Achieve Financial Freedom With Hands-Off Real Estate Investing”

Host Contact Information - Chris Freeman

LinkedIn - http://linkedin.com/in/chrisfreeman

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/chris.freeman.9461

Today’s episode discusses when you should take a job for less money.

I have two different perspectives on this. The early career rep vs. the more experienced rep.

Let’s first look at this from the perspective of someone that is in their first few years of a career. In reality, your starting pay may not be that much so slightly less should be insignificant.

If you are an early career rep, your focus should be more on the experience that you are getting and NOT the pay. When starting off, you are setting the foundation for your entire career. You can build a strong foundation or a weak one. If that base layer structure is poor, you could find yourself actually losing out on a lot more income than any pay increase in the early years.

Enter our monthly drawing for an insulated High Tech Freedom tumbler - www.hightechfreedom.com/mug

Host Contact Information - Chris Freeman

LinkedIn - http://linkedin.com/in/chrisfreeman

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/chris.freeman.9461

Samuel has a highly successful career as a contact Center Artificial Intelligence pre-sales engineer for Avaya, Nuance, Talkdesk, and Avaamo . An award-winning AI engineer and high-performance sales producer thus, he was afforded numerous international travel opportunities for business. He acquired a global perspective, appreciation, and language skills from decades of working remotely for worldwide premier technology companies. 

Outside his technical career, Samuel is an avid traveler who constantly looks to experience the fascinating elements of nature, art, culture, customs, people, language, food, religion, and literature. He has become an amateur photographer that enjoys capturing the essence of many breathtaking landscapes, amazing historical artifacts, and unique artworks. Writing poetry is one of Samuel’s greatest pleasures for written expression and pure relaxation. He considers himself a journeyman of life, taking the paths least taken for love, wisdom, and romance.

Check out the Link to his new book:

Therapy for the Heart: A collection of illustrated poems about love, relationships, inner struggles, and healing | Poetry collection with reflection journal prompts https://a.co/d/7nnDOob

Host Contact Information - Chris Freeman

LinkedIn - http://linkedin.com/in/chrisfreeman

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/chris.freeman.9461

I don’t think so.

It is more challenging as a vehicle for communication than it was before.

A huge part of the issue 1) Volume and 2) Horrible emails with generic topics.

As a tech sales professional, whether you are selling software, hardware, or anything, e-mail should absolutely be a tool that you use as part of your selling process.

Go for quality. Do some research on the person, the company, the competitors. Have an opinion on their business, have an opinion on a possible problem they could be experiencing if they are like your other clients in that same industry or based on your research.

Host Contact Information - Chris Freeman

LinkedIn - http://linkedin.com/in/chrisfreeman

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/chris.freeman.9461

Amit is results oriented business leader with progressive experience in Sales, alliances, client relationships, business development and delivery functions. Have handled roles and delivered results in areas of Infrastructure transformation, SI services, contact centers and voice technology areas. 

He is a leader with global experience and managing teams across geographies driving order book and revenues and partner relationships.

One of his key strengths is to set up new businesses or regional operations and drive growth from a small base.

You can connect with Amit through linkedin: linkedin.com/in/amit-aggarwal-55a8901

Host Contact Information - Chris Freeman

LinkedIn - http://linkedin.com/in/chrisfreeman

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/chris.freeman.9461

Why does this matter if you are a sales professional?

This is one of those areas that if you don’t take ownership of your personal development plan, no one else will. Gone are the days where you worked for a company for a lifetime that may have included a way to manage your overall career progression, personal development, and training.

That is not the world that you, a high tech sales professional, live in today. You will get plenty of training on your product and messaging, but be thankful for ANY sales and personal development training you get while working for a company.

Host Contact Information - Chris Freeman

LinkedIn - http://linkedin.com/in/chrisfreeman

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/chris.freeman.9461

Scott Maurer is the Director of Business Development for Advanta IRA, a nationwide self-directed IRA administrator. Scott has worked for Advanta since 2006, helping thousands of people invest in alternative assets (mainly real estate) using their IRAs and old 401ks. Scott is a frequent speaker and lecturer on the topic of self-directed IRAs and has also appeared on many real estate and investment podcasts. Scott is also an attorney and a member of The Florida Bar, although he does not give legal advice to Advanta clients. 

You can connect with Scott through linkedin: linkedin.com/in/scott-maurer-18998465

Host Contact Information - Chris Freeman

LinkedIn - http://linkedin.com/in/chrisfreeman

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/chris.freeman.9461

It’s possible. Not all territories and account bases are equal.

I do generally challenge this idea or comment. Why is that?

1) Most of the reps that I have heard personally say this have not done deep level due diligence on their territory.

Most of the reps that have said this do not have a well-defined personal sales process. 

This week I share some tips on how to handle a situation where you might have a territory that is a little out of balance (Nice way of saying your territory sucks).

Host Contact Information - Chris Freeman

LinkedIn - http://linkedin.com/in/chrisfreeman

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/chris.freeman.9461