130: A Three Hundred Percent Performer with Sales Gravy's Brooke Holt

0:00 Scott Ingram: Brooke, this is like the fastest interview I've done in my life. You are very succinct.

0:05 Brooke Holt: I have a call block to get to.

0:07 Scott Ingram: This episode is brought to you thanks to all of the amazing companies who supported this year's Sales Success Summit. You can learn more about Proposify, Outreach, Gong, Vidyard, Skipio, QuotaPath, and Revenue Grid, and get access to all of the videos from this year's summit for free for a limited time at top1summit.com. I appreciate you supporting these companies who support this community. You're listening to the Sales Success Stories podcast, where we deconstruct world-class sales performers to provide insights and strategies to help you improve. To learn more, visit us at top1.fm. Here's your host, Scott Ingram. Today on the Sales Success Stories podcast, my guest is Brooke Holt. Brooke is the top seller at Sales Gravy, and when I heard Jeb Blount give her a giant shout out from the stage at Outbound for doing over 300% of her number in the middle of a pandemic last year, I knew we had to have her on. Welcome to the show, Brooke.

1:15 Brooke Holt: Thank you. Pleasure to be here.

1:17 Scott Ingram: So let's kick things off like we always do with some immediate value and talk about the top 3 things that you believe have contributed the most to your success in sales.

1:26 Brooke Holt: So I would definitely have to list Jeb Blount and the Sales Gravy team as my number one. The library of curriculum that we have here at Sales Gravy covers everything from sales leadership, account management, and customer experience. So having that large variety of content has definitely been a part of my success. Dedication, I would say, is huge. Being able to be disciplined, having self-control and persistence throughout my day-to-day activities, and also being confident. You definitely have to believe in what you're selling in order to sell it to your customers. Knowing that I believe in the products that we offer here at Sales Gravy, that definitely allows me to be confident each day as I'm talking to prospects.

2:06 Scott Ingram: Perfect. And I'm sure we'll talk about this some more, but clearly your first and your third go together, right? You're, you're using your product, it's helping you to succeed, and that gives you more confidence in being able to sell that to other folks.

2:17 Brooke Holt: Certainly.

2:18 Scott Ingram: So talk about your second point was around dedication and discipline. What does that look like? What are the kind of core things that you think about and focus on when you're working on your self-control?

2:28 Brooke Holt: I think having goals each day as to what you want to accomplish. Obviously, having overall goals for the year is important, but then breaking those down into smaller goals so that you have something that you want to accomplish not only day to day but monthly and quarterly. Having a set structure and being disciplined and knowing when to, when to prioritize your tasks, how to prioritize them, starting your day with call blocks and knowing what you want to achieve at the end of the day.

2:53 Scott Ingram: Nice, nice. Well, we will dig into more of that as well, but your role is, is a little bit unique, a little bit of a player-coach type type of a role. Why don't you talk about exactly what that is and, and how you got to, how you got to number 1?

3:06 Brooke Holt: Certainly. So I do have a dual role here at Sales Gravy. I am responsible for primarily bringing in new business, maintaining my existing customers, but also managing and coaching our inside sales team players as well. Started my career here at Sales Gravy in 2013 as an account manager, transitioned into a sales rep role in 2015. And then promoted to sales management in 2017. So it's definitely been progress along the way. The sales management tasks, I would say, have definitely increased over the past year. So it is a bit of a struggle sometimes to manage the primary role of selling and also coaching our team along the way from the sales department.

3:47 Scott Ingram: You seem to be doing it well, and maybe you can kind of talk about the specifics of some of your results. What have you done?

3:53 Brooke Holt: Well, obviously I've exceeded all of my sales goals over the past couple of years. The structure that I have with my day definitely plays a big part in that. Also being able to work with a team that is very focused on making sure that we support each and every one. We all, to some degree, coach each other along the way. Having that push and motivation definitely helps as far as driving the results.

4:18 Scott Ingram: Now, what's your origin story? How did you get into sales in the first place?

4:21 Brooke Holt: So I've had a little bit of sales-related duties at some of the previous organizations that I've worked for, but never really had, I guess, the urge to become a salesperson until I come to work for Sales Gravy. And I would definitely say that Jeb Blount, Carrie Martinez, and Brad Adams continued to push me along the way. They knew that I had the ability to become a top performer. So I definitely owe much of my success to the 3 of them. Without having them to encourage me early on, I don't know that I would be where I am today.

4:50 Scott Ingram: That's great. Now, what was it that brought you to Sales Gravy in the beginning?

4:53 Brooke Holt: Just a change of, change of scenery. I applied for an account management role back in 2013. It was a remote position to work from home. Sounded really enticing as far as having the flexibility. So that, that's what led me to the change there and then just grew from there.

5:12 Scott Ingram: Very nice. Now, if you were starting over today, knowing what you know now and knowing the skills that you've developed, with Sales Gravy? Is there anything you would have done differently from a career perspective?

5:22 Brooke Holt: Honestly, I don't think so. Obviously, I didn't have the desire or thought to become a salesperson, but once I started my career here and having the ability to work with a team of such amazing people, I really would not make any changes.

5:35 Scott Ingram: Awesome. I call the show Sales Success Stories, and it feels only right that we talk about a specific sale. Do you have a story that comes to mind when you think about maybe a big win that you had, or maybe one that you lost and you learned something from it?

5:49 Brooke Holt: Yeah. So oftentimes I'm asked this question and I'll have to say that probably my favorite time I was working on a deal for quite some time, it didn't really seem to be going anywhere. And one day my boss told me, Brooke, you really need to let this one go. You're spending too much time on it for it not to be closing. If you were going to close it, you would have done so by now. I agreed with that in terms of the amount of time that I had spent with the prospect, but still felt inside the drive and the need to close this particular deal. Definitely did not want to give up. I'd spent a lot of time on it, but also the competitive drive within me. There was a side of me that wanted to prove my boss wrong as well. So kept pushing. 3 days later, ended up with a signed agreement from the client and able… was able to announce the success story at our company traction meeting. So that was definitely a, a story that I love to tell.

6:40 Scott Ingram: Yeah. What changed at the end of that, right? Because I mean, we've all had those deals that we work on for a really long time, but then something Maybe a flip got switched or a switch got flipped as you were able to bring that in in kind of short order after that conversation.

6:55 Brooke Holt: So it was more or less a soft takeaway. I think part of it was my contact had been super busy. They had some internal initiatives that they were working on, and I kind of just did the soft takeaway of, hey, if this isn't something that is so top of mind at the top of your, your to-do list, let me know. I certainly don't want to be a bother to you. And I think for them that was a light bulb to go off of, hey, she's been in contact with us for quite some time, let me get things going.

7:23 Scott Ingram: I like it, I like it. So you've had a lot of success. Last year was great. I know that's continuing this year. What are you most proud of?

7:30 Brooke Holt: I would have to say just overall the accomplished things in life from both a professional and personal standpoint since starting my career. I've been a single mom during most of my career and being able to juggle the kids and a full-time sales career definitely hasn't been easy, but I feel like I've crushed it.

7:47 Scott Ingram: I know those challenges continue. It took us a little while to connect because you were, you were busy moving.

7:51 Brooke Holt: I was. I just purchased a new home. So it's that on top of tons of other things. They never stop.

7:57 Scott Ingram: That's right. Well, congrats on the new place.

7:59 Brooke Holt: Thank you.

8:00 Scott Ingram: So what's the flip side? What's the hardest part? What do you find to be the most challenging part of your role?

8:05 Brooke Holt: I think now from a current state is definitely managing the dual role and knowing where that fine line is of ensuring that I meet my personal sales goals, but also meeting the expectations of the coaching and the mentoring of my teammates.

8:21 Scott Ingram: Which do you like best? Do you lean more towards the coaching and mentoring, or do you most enjoy kind of the personal production side?

8:28 Brooke Holt: I don't think I have a best out of the two. I enjoy both of them, which again makes the struggle a little bit different. I enjoy selling. I enjoy seeing my numbers increase, but I also enjoy seeing other people succeed. So there's definitely a balance there that you have to juggle and, and knowing how much time to spend on each task.

8:48 Scott Ingram: Yeah, yeah. Let's dig into some of the specifics of the way that you are organizing your, your day and kind of structuring things. And the way I like to ask this is, the alarm goes off, what time does that happen? And, and give us kind of the blow-by-blow through a typical day until your head hits the pillow.

9:04 Brooke Holt: So normally, I definitely usually start my day pretty early, around 5:30 AM. Don't start any day without coffee. Getting the kiddos ready for school and then heading off to the office to start my day. Most always I make sure that I have a call block first thing in the morning so that if there are other activities throughout the day that cause me distraction or any customer fires that need to be put out, I can at least end the day knowing that I did have some sort of prospecting efforts take place. Whether it's as much as I would normally do or like to do, there's at least some activity there. Finishing off usually at the office around 5 or 5:30, I'm heading home. That never ends as far as leaving the office. There's usually still other work that remains in the afternoon. It's usually around 6:30, 7:30, I'm trying to wrap things up for the day and, and get ready for my next day.

9:57 Scott Ingram: Excellent. Now, how long is that initial call block typically?

10:00 Brooke Holt: I usually do at least 1 hour in the morning. Outside of that, I try to chunk it up to 30-minute call blocks, but at least knocking out 1 hour first thing in the morning.

10:10 Scott Ingram: Gotcha. And then you mentioned, you know, a lot of your discipline is, is around kind of the priorities and the goals. When are you going through that process? What does that look like?

10:19 Brooke Holt: So normally I take an overall look at my annual year, what my annual goals are, and then I break that into quarterly goals as to what I need to accomplish in terms of the number of deals that I need to move through my pipeline in order to meet that goal at the end of the year. And then making sure that I prioritize and time block each day to have those micro goals completed throughout the year.

10:42 Scott Ingram: Gotcha. And are there any other kind of habits and routines that are really core to your success and your approach?

10:48 Brooke Holt: I would say time blocking definitely plays a huge part of that, prioritizing my tasks. I used to struggle often with knowing which tasks to complete first or starting multiple tasks, and then at the end of the day having a list of things that I'd started but not completed. So once I was able to prioritize tasks, block my schedule throughout the day, and that made a huge difference in terms of what I was able to accomplish each day.

11:12 Scott Ingram: Excellent. And tell me about kind of the specifics of your information diet. I'm sure it's very Sales Gravy-centric, but what else are you kind of listening, watching, and, and reading? And when does that typically happen?

11:25 Brooke Holt: Usually that happens either to and from work, sometimes on a lunch break, but definitely as far as the content goes, it would Most definitely be Sales Gravy content, just because there's, there's so much new content being rolled out each week. Currently Jeb has 13 books published, so there's always something new to listen to, whether it be audiobooks or new training content on Sales Gravy University.

11:46 Scott Ingram: Excellent. He's got some great, great stuff. What about the tools and apps? What are the things from a tech perspective that you just can't live without?

11:54 Brooke Holt: I would say the only thing that I absolutely cannot function without would be the CRM. It's definitely critical for success. A lot of salespeople struggle with using the CRM. I don't. I prefer to use a CRM, probably enter more information than your average salesperson. So definitely for me, the CRM is critical. Now, after the pandemic, video messaging has turned to be a huge success. So having that along with some sort of video messaging app is definitely success.

12:23 Scott Ingram: Perfect. And then do you subscribe to a particular sales philosophy other than Sales Gravy?

12:29 Brooke Holt: Of course I don't, outside of Jeb's content.

12:32 Scott Ingram: And within the Sales Gravy philosophy, I mean, maybe you can kind of outline that, that for us and then talk about, you know, what, what's your style? What's your approach within that framework?

12:41 Brooke Holt: So I definitely would say that as far as my style, I'm definitely an introverted salesperson. I enjoy listening to other people talk. And as you know, that's critical in sales. You have to be an effective listener in order to be successful. So I think that that plays a huge part in my success.

12:57 Scott Ingram: Excellent. And then what about the motivation side of things? Like, how do you think about motivation? What is it that drives you?

13:03 Brooke Holt: Definitely my family, my children. I'm very money motivated, so I think all of those in mind, that's what keeps me going day to day and, and able to accomplish the goals that I set for myself.

13:14 Scott Ingram: Is there something you believe that the average sales professional would think is crazy?

13:19 Brooke Holt: Yes. So if I had to pick one thing, I would definitely say the average sales rep would think that making 100 dials a day is crazy.

13:28 Scott Ingram: And is that your, is that your typical? What is a typical number of dials for you in an ordinary day?

13:33 Brooke Holt: It is. So that's definitely our goal here at Sales Gravy is to make 100 dials a day. Obviously, that, that doesn't take place every day, but we certainly strive to do the best that we can to hit that number each day.

13:44 Scott Ingram: Excellent. And then what about the flip side? Is there something the typical sales professional believes that you think is crazy?

13:51 Brooke Holt: We often hear a lot of people say that their prospects are just not answering the phone, so why make 100 dials a day? And as Jeb always says, people don't answer a phone that doesn't ring.

14:02 Scott Ingram: I love it. I love it. As you have, you know, gone through this career and this journey, what have been the most important decisions you've made or lessons you had to learn to really get to the level that you're at today?

14:15 Brooke Holt: I think for me, I'm learning to accept constructive criticism early on in my career. It was certainly not an easy task for me, but once I learned how to be okay with it, it's definitely been life-changing for me.

14:26 Scott Ingram: What does that look like? Can you give an example of how that's happened for you?

14:30 Brooke Holt: So, as I mentioned, the team, the team here at Sales Gravy has played a huge part in my success early on in transitioning from the customer service account management role that I was so accustomed to, being able to accept the constructive criticism on ways that I could improve from a sales perspective, knowing that there was no harm intended with the feedback that I was given. And being able to take that, turn it into a positive, and improve within myself.

15:00 Scott Ingram: Awesome. Awesome. What advice would you give to somebody that is just starting out in their sales career today?

15:07 Brooke Holt: I would most definitely lean to ensuring that you have discipline, taking initiative, and driving yourself to success. If you're disciplined, you certainly will knock out your call block each morning. Being proactive instead of reactive. When you take initiative, And just pushing yourself to the finish line when you tie in all of those things.

15:28 Scott Ingram: And what about somebody that's a little bit further into their career and maybe they're doing well, but they haven't gotten to that, they haven't gotten to the top, right? There's definitely another gear. What's your advice for them?

15:38 Brooke Holt: Definitely finding a mentor that can coach you. You'd be surprised at what an outsider looking in can provide insight on. I think it's always important to, we know within ourselves what our challenges are. But definitely having someone else that can mentor you, provide suggestions on how to deal with some of the challenges that you're faced with, I think is definitely huge.

15:59 Scott Ingram: And you mentioned that, you know, you're a big fan of listening to other people. What would you want to know about the top sellers in other organizations?

16:08 Brooke Holt: I'm definitely always interested in any tips and tricks that allow them to become successful.

16:13 Scott Ingram: The last thing I always like to ask is, you know, we talked about a lot of different things, but if you were to issue a challenge to the person listening to this right now, What would you challenge them to do over the course of the next one or two weeks to improve themselves and improve their results?

16:28 Brooke Holt: I would definitely say prioritizing time blocking, starting your day with a call block, and just starting each day with eating the frog, getting the worst part of your day out of the way, and that's prospecting.

16:40 Scott Ingram: Thanks for listening to the Sales Success Stories podcast. To be sure you never miss an episode, and for an invitation to our Sales Success Community. Powered by Influitive, subscribe to our newsletter at top1.fm.