63: Tracy Lim - Grit, Adaptability, and Thinking Big

0:08 Scott Ingram: 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. This week on the Sales Success Stories podcast and on the Daily Sales Tips podcast, we're celebrating International Women's Day. With All Women All Week. And my guest today is Tracy Lim. Tracy is the top enterprise account executive at BlueJeans. Welcome to the show, Tracy.

0:40 Tracy Lim: Hi, Scott. Thanks so much for having me. Happy to be here.

0:43 Scott Ingram: Awesome. So glad to have you. And a quick shout out to Greg Remillard for connecting Tracy and I. And a big welcome to our new partner, Dale Carnegie, who is the generous sponsor of this episode. I will be telling you more about one of the special things we'll be doing with Dale Carnegie here in just a little bit. But if you're super impatient like I am sometimes, times and just can't wait to get to that detail, you can go to top1.fm/dale to see what we're working on. All right, Tracy, let's jump right into some immediate value like we always do with the top 3 things that you believe have contributed most to your success at BlueJeans.

1:22 Tracy Lim: Sure, no problem. So, I have been thinking about this, and I think it really comes down to these 3 items. Number one is grit. I'm not sure if your listeners have read Grit by Angela Duckworth, but she talks about how passion and perseverance is really kind of the consistent theme that she sees in top performers in all sorts of industries and various executive leaders. So I'm the type of person that always wants to win. I don't give up easily, and I'm always willing to do the extra one-two touches or activities to make sure that I'm successful and I succeed. The second one is huge, it's adaptability. I think any sales rep that's able to adapt to a new environment, to new technologies, to new products, to new leadership, to new companies, this is something that really makes you resilient, and it's something that also leads into success. And the last one is think like a CEO. This is something that I could probably talk to in multiple different angles, but really when I say think like a CEO, I think any sales rep should really imagine their territory as their business, and everyone that is involved in their business works for them. So what that means is, any of your colleagues, anyone in your company in different departments, you should get to know them. You should really try to understand them as a person, build a relationship, and maybe down the line they will actually help you in any large sort of deals that you might have in place. And this has happened to me multiple times at BlueJeans. From a prospect or customer perspective, I think you should always treat them with respect. You should always be willing to understand the problems and challenges that they want to solve, and always make sure that you follow up with them, return their phone calls and emails, set the right expectations, make sure you deliver, and treat them like a normal human. I see that a lot of sales reps get nervous if they have to speak with a CIO or a CEO, but at the end of the day, just think of them as any normal human being. They have a family, they have friends, they look for their weekends to have fun, and If you kind of break 'em down that way, and then it also helps with your conversations in the future.

3:27 Scott Ingram: Well, and reading between the lines on this, on kind of the think like a CEO and treating, you know, other executives, it's almost like if you have that mindset, then another C-level executive becomes essentially a peer, right? And maybe kind of breaks that down. Is that sort of how you're thinking about it?

3:42 Tracy Lim: Yes, 100%. And for any CEO, again, I've never had CEO experience, but the way that I think of my territory, it's my business. Any CEO, when you're aligned with them, everyone's trying to work towards a common goal. Everyone's looking for a mutually beneficial partnership. So if you kind of have that peer-to-peer mentality, it goes a long way in your sales cycle.

4:03 Scott Ingram: Yeah, great, great stuff. Awesome. So give us some context, talk about your role and really the, you've had a really quick progression through the sales ranks there at BlueJeans. So I'd love to kind of hear that backstory a little bit.

4:15 Tracy Lim: Sure. So When I was actually prior to BlueJeans, I was at Aabar, a value-added reseller, and I started off in their marketing department. This is my first job out of college. Throughout college, I did a bunch of internships around broadcasting and news, so Access Hollywood and Dateline, stuff like that. And after I graduated college, I realized, wow, I don't want to be an assistant and make minimum wage. There's no way that I could live on my own. So what I did was started to apply to a bunch of jobs. That wasn't in the TV and broadcast industry. And I saw this technology company and everything that they listed for the requirements for the marketing role was something I thought that I could do. So fast forward, I ended up working with them for probably a year in that marketing team. And then the VP of sales asked me and said, hey, do you wanna join the sales team? Because I think you're a ballbuster and I think that you would do really well and I'll help you through it. So that's kind of how I got into sales. After about a year, I had a recruiter from BlueJeans reach out to me on LinkedIn, and I just was really compelled with BlueJeans just because it was a hot growing startup, pre-IPO. They had a great culture, and so it's something that I pursued. And as I was going through the interview process, initially they wanted me to join their SMB team and realized that I only had 1 year of selling experience, so they asked me to join the SDR team. At first I was a little apprehensive of doing that just 'cause I figured, you know, this might be a step backwards, but at the end of the day I was so invested in the company and thought it was a great opportunity and I said fine, let's do that. So probably 6 months into the SDR role, I got promoted. And at the time when I was an SDR, we really just focused on closing business overseas 'cause we didn't build, have a built-out APAC and EMEA sales team just yet. So I did really well. I closed a lot of large logos overseas. And when they promoted me, they said, I want you to skip the SMB segment and I wanna move you directly into mid-market. I was a little nervous, but I'm the type of person that loves challenges. There were days that I doubted myself, but I knew with grit, the right activity, and the passion that I could easily be one of the top reps. So fast forward, I got in my mid-market territory. I was covering the Pacific Northwest. I was a little nervous because our previous rep that had the Pacific Northwest territory didn't close any deals. So I thought, okay, maybe it's something wrong with the territory. But I just continued to do my research, sent tailored messaging, did a great job at pitching our product, and I did well. That first year being in mid-market, I had the highest average deal size for the entire sales team. So even including our enterprise team, I consistently hit quota and overexceeded every single quarter, and there wasn't There was only one other rep that was doing that at that time. And then after a year or so of being in the mid-market team, our manager wanted me to jump into the enterprise team. So that also was an exciting moment, but there was a little bit of self-doubt as well. I said, okay, I think I could do this, but I'm not gonna let anyone know that I'm nervous, and I'm just gonna stick to what I know and be consistent, have high activity, continually to have passion and perseverance. And I think that my sales karma will work out and I can overachieve.

7:47 Scott Ingram: Love it. I love the sales karma thing. So how does adaptability kind of play into that and those nervous moments as you're making each of those transitions where it feels a little out of your depth? Yeah.

7:56 Tracy Lim: So adaptability was huge moving from mid-market to enterprise. I think at the time our mid-market team, we just worked up to company sizes with 2,500 employees. And then enterprise, it was 5,000 and above. And so I remember one of my first enterprise meetings with a CIO, it was with a company with over 20,000 employees. And I was nervous. This was probably the first few weeks into the enterprise role, and I told myself, I can't blow this. But again, just going back to, okay, this CIO is just a normal person, and it's really, I'm selling the same exact product, I'm running through the same sales cycle, It just might be a little bit more complicated with additional people to include and having additional steps, but just being able to adapt quickly and just not psych yourself out seemed to help really well.

8:47 Scott Ingram: That's awesome. Now, before we talk more about Tracy's results, let me tell you about the Winning with Relationship Selling course from Dale Carnegie. In this live online instructor-led course, you'll learn how to transition into the new world where collaboration, confidence, and credibility are the common themes for connecting with customers to increase business. Doesn't this sound a little bit familiar with what we were just talking about? It'll take place over the course of 8 2-hour weekly sessions, and they've created an exclusive class just for Sales Success Stories listeners that starts April 26th. I hope you'll join me in this class. Yes, I'm going to be taking this class with you, but hurry because there are only 16 spots available. For all the details and to sign up, go to top1.fm/dale or click the Winning with Relationships relationship selling link in the show notes at top1.fm/63. All right, Tracy, why don't you talk us through your results and kind of put those in perspective for us?

9:51 Tracy Lim: Sure, no problem. So at BlueJeans, every single year that I've been there, and I'm actually coming up on my 6-year mark, which everyone knows is a long time at a fast-growing startup, but every single year I've been at the top of my class and top 1% globally. So that even means when I was an SDR, when I was in the mid-market team, and recently on the enterprise team for the past 3 or 4 years that I've been there.

10:15 Scott Ingram: That's fantastic. Well, congrats on your results. And I'd love to understand, I mean, your transition, it sounds like we're moving in the direction, right? You got involved on a marketing team and then a VP of sales kind of saw you and decided to bring you on. What do you think that leader saw and how did they help you make that transition and kind of see the future in sales?

10:35 Tracy Lim: So what was important to him? I remember the pivotal moment where we had this large end user conference. And as part of the marketing team, what we wanted to do was bring in as many people to this conference. So he saw that I was okay with dialing nonstop and just cold calling, talking to a bunch of people. And I think he understood that I was very comfortable with chatting with strangers and interrupting someone's day and just being able to overcome objections where the other person on the end of the phone just felt comfortable speaking with me. There were also times where he would challenge me and I would push back. And I think it was something that he didn't expect. And I think because of those 2 moments, he realized, wow, you know, she could actually do really well in sales.

11:21 Scott Ingram: That's awesome. And then, I mean, how did you feel kind of going through that and making that transition? And at what point did you kind of get comfortable in your sales skin?

11:30 Tracy Lim: So interesting enough, I remember in college when I was trying to figure out my career and if broadcast journalism was something that I wanted to do, I remember I used to joke with my friends and say, if I could sell something, I think that's a great career path for me. Ever since I was a little kid in elementary school, middle school, and high school, I was always involved in student government. And I always did such a great job at selling random things for the school. I remember we had to sell these bricks that had family names engraved for over $200 in high school. And I was selling them left and right, and it was super easy for me. And so I kind of think back into different moments in my childhood, of where it kind of relates back to sales. So part of me thinks that this was the journey that I'm supposed to be on.

12:18 Scott Ingram: That's awesome. I love that. And I love that you kind of found your place and obviously you are doing extraordinarily well. And now I want to sit down on the floor and settle in for a little bit of storytime. What's your favorite sales story? And I'm… maybe it's related to a deal, whether you won or lost. And then what did you learn from that experience?

12:38 Tracy Lim: Sure, so I have a long story that will actually tie into multiple things. It'll tie into one of the biggest challenges that I overcame. It also ties into the largest deal that I've ever sold. So, and also it ties into cold calling and where I think that prospecting is still vital to any sales organization. So the first year that I jumped onto our enterprise team, I was hyper-focused on prospecting and really trying to get as many businesses out there to chat with us about BlueJeans and how we could really transform businesses with video. So I cold-called into this large pharma company that has over 90,000 employees, and I got ahold of the CIO. The CIO agreed to meet with me over BlueJeans video, and it was a discovery call, but I also wanted to add some value just so that he was okay with a follow-up meeting. And I dove into the challenges that he was having, and he said, look, We have this service in place today, it's not working well, calls drop, our executives are getting upset, and a lot of people in the company are actually losing faith in IT. And based off of the challenges and the technical environment he had in place, I knew deep down that we could save his job and we could implement a great service that'll make everyone happy and IT will be seen as an innovative and integral part of the business. So I had a follow-up meeting with the CIO and he brought in other individuals that work under him. And they thought that the service, BlueJeans, was great, but they just weren't ready for it. So they went dark on me for about 8 months. But what I did, and again, to tie back to, I knew deep down that we could help them. Every single month I would reach out to the team and the CIO and not expect a response back, but would assume that they'd read my messaging. And I would give them tidbits of value or maybe things that are going on in the industry of how we could help them and why I still think that BlueJeans is a service that could really get them to a place that they want to be. And fast forward 8 months later, the CIO finally responded and said, hey Tracy, so sorry you haven't heard from me, but I appreciate your follow-up. I'd actually like to meet you in your headquarters office and arrange a meeting with your executives. And when that happened, I was so excited. I was also very nervous. Again, this is kind of when I was first into the enterprise role. At the time, I had a really awesome sales manager, and I still today think that he's probably one of the best sales reps that I've ever ran into. And we were collaborating on this potential opportunity, and then 2 weeks later, I learned that he was leaving BlueJeans. So I had a sense of panic of, wow, I don't know what I'm gonna do without him. I need his guidance, 'cause this could potentially be the largest deal in BlueJeans history. So fast forward, we had the meeting. I didn't have a new sales manager in place, and I really had to just sit myself down and give myself a pep talk and say, I don't need help from anyone. I know exactly what to do. Again, this is just like running any other small deals, but it's a little bit more complicated. You still have to run through every single step. Don't skip steps in the process, and treat the CIO like a normal human being. So fast forward, we were in the middle of a POC, we had great alignment. I did all sorts of test calls and meetings because they were a global company. I had meetings at 10 PM at night, at 4 in the morning, in the middle of the day. I just dedicated my time and energy to this account because I knew if I could show value, if I could show true partnership, and I know deep down again that this is a solution that'll get them to where they wanna be, this is gonna be a huge win. And by the end of it, I closed a $1.2 million deal that was net new, and it's the largest deal in BlueJeans history, and it's still the largest deal in BlueJeans history. And that was a really proud moment for me, just because going through the challenges of not having really a mentor to coach me through a large deal size like that, but really just the level of commitment and effort and passion and perseverance that I put into this deal. Definitely showed rewards at the end.

16:57 Scott Ingram: Great, great story. So I want to talk about a couple of pieces of that. I want to talk about the darkness and I want to talk about bosses. So in the dark period, right, in those 8 months, can you give us sort of a specific example of one of the types of things that you might send just to essentially stay top of mind for them? It sounds like that's what you're doing.

17:19 Tracy Lim: Yes, sure. So I could be more specific and it might resonate a little bit more with your viewers and listeners, but the customer had Skype for Business in place for the communication and video tool. Skype for Business, if it's not implemented correctly and if you don't have the correct environment, it's not going to be a reliable tool, and that's something that they were facing. So I was doing a lot of research on industry reports. I was reading Wayne House and Gartner, and all of that stuff. And whenever they would have something about Skype for Business or video or collaboration, or maybe CIO Magazine talks about the effectiveness of video, that's something that I would send. So it wouldn't always be my opinion, but I, I tried to use non-biased information to help educate the customer.

18:10 Scott Ingram: Awesome. And then when you finally broke through and you got that response, was there something special about the last thing that you sent, or was it just you, you just had to be patient and wait for the timing to be right?

18:23 Tracy Lim: It was just timing, to be honest. I think because I was top of mind and they liked that I was so persistent, AKA they liked that I kept bugging them. They said, you know what, Tracy's, she's been reaching out to us every single month. We should give her a shot.

18:38 Scott Ingram: Love it. Perfect. And then on the boss side, so how important is that relationship to your success? Because I assume you've had a variety of different bosses in these last 6 years and across these different roles, you know, what, what has been the impact, positive or negative, of different individuals as you've worked with them?

18:57 Tracy Lim: Sure. I think having a boss that you respect and could act like a mentor is critical. Any sales rep that's kind of just starting off. So again, when I first jumped into the enterprise role, I was probably only selling 3 or 4 years into SaaS. And everyone on the team probably had 10, 15, 20 years of experience above me. So in the early years for me, it's huge just because I wanna be able to ask the stupid questions and not feel stupid. I wanna be able to have a great relationship and bounce ideas. But I think as over the past few years, I've been pretty self-sufficient where I don't need too much management help or anything like that. But I think in the early foundational period, of your sales career, it's instrumental to work for someone that you really believe in.

19:52 Scott Ingram: Yeah. So there was something, some part of your story, and I don't remember the language that Kyle used back in the day, but I'm reminded of the conversation I had with Kyle Gutzler when he was at… oh, I can't remember the name of the company, but he sort of decided he had been really reliant on the rest of his team to kind of help him sell. And at a certain point decided, wait a minute, no, I need to take ownership and I need to do this. It sounds like you got a little bit forced in into that direction, but talk a little bit more about the mindset and that shift and just kind of really gaining the confidence that, you know what, I can do this, I've got this.

20:28 Tracy Lim: That's a great question. So, when I was going through the challenge of not having my manager in place and potentially running one of the biggest deals for the company, I was a little nervous, but at the same time, it was that extra added kick and confidence booster that I needed. I was always a very confident rep, but I was the type of rep that also loved to bounce ideas off of my manager and see if we're on the same page and if we both thought that it was the best path moving forward. And when I lost my manager, I kind of got that slap in the face of, you know exactly what you're doing. You need to be confident and just know that you can deliver. So it was actually a blessing in disguise when that happened.

21:10 Scott Ingram: Yeah, that's awesome. So really, really just came down to kind of trusting yourself because you already knew it, right? Yeah. So from an accomplishment perspective, what are you most proud of?

21:19 Tracy Lim: I think I'm the most proud of my adaptability. So running into the different roles and segments at BlueJeans, I think with any high-growth startup, you'll see that throughout the years you'll have a lot of executive change, right? Just because executives that took your company from $0 to $20 million, from $20 to $50, from $50 to $100 million, and so on, you're gonna have to have a different set of leaders. To get that company to the next step. And I've done a great job at adjusting and adapting to that and being resilient and always being able to over-exceed my goals.

21:56 Scott Ingram: Nice. And so with your mindset of being the CEO of your territory, how have you leveraged some of those executive relationships?

22:05 Tracy Lim: Great question. And this kind of goes back to the large deal that I just spoke about, but also any other large deals that I've worked on. I've done a great job at building trust and relationship with our CEOs of the company and our Chief Revenue Officer and Chief Product Officer. And one of my favorite things to do for large strategic deals is create executive alignment with the customer in BlueJeans. So whenever I reach out to my CEO and say, hey, I need your help in this opportunity, this is a role that I want you to play, this is what I'm gonna do, he's always on board. No questions asked. He never says, okay, is this a real opportunity? What do we have to do here? So because I've built the foundation and trust with our internal executives, that's really helped me succeed closing a lot of large strategic deals at BlueJeans.

22:54 Scott Ingram: Love that. Awesome. So what about the flip side? What have you found to be the biggest challenge? Or maybe you want to put us at a time where you felt like you were struggling the most.

23:04 Tracy Lim: Every single day. I just, I never think that I'm doing enough, which is kind of crazy. And I think a lot of sales reps that are in the top spot are always thinking, what more can I do? Every single day, I'm just thinking I should be prospecting more. I could always do one more phone call. I could always research one more company. I could always do one more LinkedIn message. But I think because of having that mentality and also kind of instilling this fear of what if I'm not one of the top reps, it's actually motivation. It's something that kind of pushes you to do better and better every single day.

23:38 Scott Ingram: So let's dig into the motivation piece a little bit more. So I'd be interested in to know just First of all, what motivates you and how do you think about motivation? And then beyond that, like, what's… when you think about these activities and things like that, like, what is the standard that you set for yourself?

23:56 Tracy Lim: Sure. So what motivates me? I think most sales reps, money obviously motivates them. When you think of accelerators and just hitting different spiffs, that's exciting. It's kind of like a game the way that I see it. And so that's something that definitely motivates me. But nevertheless too, even just recognition, I'm okay with mentoring other people. I'm okay with sharing my best practices. I wanna make sure that other people are successful. And so that's something that I've always had kind of in my head since joining BlueJeans. If we have new reps, I'm more than happy to coach them and get them up to speed. In terms of my activity of prospecting, so I haven't cracked down a formula that is repeatable and that works, but I have the mindset of if you're doing activity all the time, that's great. Whether it's your phone calls, it's your emails, or your LinkedIn messages, or sending snail mail, I think if you're always doing something, your sales karma is gonna come back to you. But if any of the listeners here have been coached by John Barrows, I implement a lot of his methodologies into my prospecting. So when I'm reaching out to CIOs or VP of ITs or CEOs, whoever it is, I'm always using tailored messaging so that it's information that resonates with them at that moment in time. And they understand that I know I could solve a challenge that they potentially have.

25:28 Scott Ingram: So it sounds like it's really about, it's not about perfect prospecting. It's consistent processing and knowing that if you do enough, then enough things will stick. And it sounds like you're all… this isn't just… it's not quantity over quality. You're still doing this in a really sort of mindful, tailored way.

25:45 Tracy Lim: Correct.

25:46 Scott Ingram: So talk about what does sales karma mean to you?

25:49 Tracy Lim: So sales karma to me, it's the same just of karma in life, but I'm very much the person, if you're doing the right things all the time, if you have the customer's interest first and you're not being selfish about your motives, but truly trying to help them, if you're helping other people on the team, if you're always positive and you're motivating, you're doing all the right activity, then I think good things will come to you. Someone will actually respond to one of your emails. You'll have a new opportunity that falls into your lap, or you're in a very competitive situation with a deal and it ends up closing. So I think everything that we do every day inside and outside of our work life will contribute to what's going to happen next in your journey.

26:36 Scott Ingram: Yeah. So you also talked about just your willingness to give back and to help other people. And obviously that's the case, or otherwise you wouldn't be talking to me right now. Right.

26:47 Tracy Lim: Right.

26:48 Scott Ingram: I think a lot of people, though, I mean, especially with the success that you've had, right, you're intimidating for somebody that's just coming in and seeing what you've done. What advice do you have for folks to approach the top dog like those that are the best that they can learn a lot from that is going to help them build sort of a meaningful mentoring type of relationship?

27:11 Tracy Lim: Sure, I think it's important to always be humble and always be approachable. It goes back to what I was saying, how you need to treat everyone like a human being. You need to be nice and kind and really have a vested interest in them. And at BlueJeans, if we have new reps on the team, I'll always go out of my way and say, hey, excited for you to be on the team, let me know if you need any help. And it's up to them to take me up on that offer, but when they reach out, then I'm gonna respond. And I'm going to try and help them as much as I can. At the end of the day, we're all employees of a company. We're all employees. For my case, we're all employees of BlueJeans, and everyone's on the same team. We all have the same goals to take the company to the next level. So if I do well, I want to make sure that other people do well because it helps everyone else in the long run.

28:02 Scott Ingram: Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, obviously what you're doing that is kind of special is just making it known that you're available. But I think the key point of what you just said is at the end of the day, it's up to them, right? You have to take ownership. And I talk about this a lot, like, you have to take ownership of your own development. Nobody's going to develop you for you. You have to decide, hey, I want to be better. And a huge part of being better is learning from people that are better than you. And, you know, I think as long as you are… I think humility is a perfect idea, right? If you're just authentic in the way that you reach out to people, if you're looking for help or looking for that kind of relationship, like, nobody says no.

28:40 Tracy Lim: Exactly. And more often than not, people want to help. So it's kind of a fun relationship and dynamic.

28:48 Scott Ingram: Yeah. So yeah, so it just comes down to like, be confident and ask for some help.

28:52 Tracy Lim: Right.

28:53 Scott Ingram: So this is probably my favorite section. Talk us through kind of your routines. And the way I like to think about this is like day in the life, you know, alarm goes off, what time did that happen? And just give us the blow-by-blow from there.

29:07 Tracy Lim: My schedule will vary. So I'll wake up anytime from 5 to 6 or 6:30, depending on what type of meetings I have, or if I have any on-sites and I have to drive from Orange County down to San Diego or LA. But my morning ritual is important because I think it helps me be successful for the day. So I wake up, I hang out with my dog for a little bit, I take care of him, and that's a great way to start your day. You have this animal that loves you and is always so happy to hang out with you. And then after I take care of him, then I'll take care of myself. The morning routine that I've recently been doing over the past few months is I'll drink celery juice every single morning, just because it's good for your health. It helps with a lot of kind of health issues that I've somewhat had. And it also just preps me for the day where I wanna be healthy. After I have my celery juice, I'll make a smoothie that's completely plant-based. I'll add some adaptogens. Anyone that understands adaptogens and mushrooms such as ashwagandha, reishi, cordyceps, these are all kind of herbal supplements that help with stress levels. It helps your immune system. And I'll add a bunch of other stuff like MCT oil, chia seeds, berries, and all that. But when I nail down those 2 things every morning, I am energized for the day. I don't feel stressed out. I want to, for the rest of the day, I wanna have a healthy diet. And I think if you have a healthy diet, it, that leads to having mental clarity, which leads to being very efficient and productive in your work life. And then you just don't have to get as stressed out if you're running into a bunch of challenges with your customers or your prospects.

30:52 Scott Ingram: That's awesome. So my interviews are out of order now, so this won't make any sense, but I just interviewed an Olympic athlete and we had sort of a little bit of nutrition conversation as it relates to sales. And I don't think I've ever asked anybody for this on the show before, but would you send me a smoothie recipe? Smoothie recipe? Is this like a defined thing or you just dump a bunch of different stuff in?

31:13 Tracy Lim: Yes, I will send it to you. I probably put at least 15 different things in there, but I do it every single morning and I haven't really gotten sick in over 2 years since doing it. So I think it's awesome and I will email it to you.

31:27 Scott Ingram: Perfect. So we're going to put the magic potion recipe in the, in the show notes at top1.fm/63. You can, you can find that in there. And then, so once you've gone through that routine, so you've got your dog, you got your celery juice, you've got your, your plant-based food, you got kind of the nutrition taken care of, how do you structure the rest of your workday?

31:47 Tracy Lim: Sure. So the night before, I always like to actually look at my schedule and make either a mental list or write it down if it's a long list, but I need to prioritize everything that I need to accomplish the next day. So whether it's me blocking off time for prospecting, or if I have a lot of deals where, look, it's close to the end of the quarter, I need to make sure that I'm hyper-focused and prioritize these deals to make sure that I'm moving this across the line. So I prioritize it based off of that. I think it's important though, if you're gonna switch around your schedule, just make sure that you're consistent. Let's say for example, Tuesdays I like to dedicate prospecting. But then last minute I have a bunch of onsite meetings and that's okay. I'm going to make sure that I reallocate my prospecting time to maybe Thursday or Friday just because I need to make sure that I'm consistent.

32:42 Scott Ingram: And how much total prospecting time do you try and block out in a given week?

32:47 Tracy Lim: Ideally, I'd like to block out 4 hours total, but I do a great job at prospecting throughout the day. I use some tools like DiscoverOrg and Sales Navigator, and I subscribe to the Business Journal. And the reason being is I want all my content hand-delivered to me. So when I open up my laptop in the morning, it's like me reading my morning newspaper, but it's my morning newspaper of the prospects and companies that are in my territory. And then I know throughout the day or throughout the week, I have the tailored messaging to create to attack any of those companies.

33:25 Scott Ingram: Got it. And then let's keep going on, on the tools and apps. What, what do you use that are sort of central to the way that you operate?

33:31 Tracy Lim: Sure. DiscoverOrg, hands down, is awesome. I think the biggest thing is what I mentioned, how you get your hand-delivered content in the morning. I also find that the information in there is pretty accurate, so you could easily get the CIO's direct number and sometimes even cell phone numbers. So that's something that I live by. And Sales Navigator, it's just another tool where you could create relevant messaging and targeted messaging, and you also get a bunch of InMails that you could use every single month, which most, I think, standard LinkedIn members don't get. So that's also been helpful. And we also used to use Yesware. We recently switched to Outreach, and that's more of a tool for for messaging or mass emailing, but I really liked Yesware in the past just because it tracked emails. So you could see when someone opens up your email. Let's say that you sent a cold email to a CIO and all of a sudden you see it opening from 10 different recipients, then you know that that person is interested, so you should pick up the phone as fast as you can while you have the momentum and prioritize them as an account that you're prospecting into.

34:43 Scott Ingram: Yeah, absolutely. I, I can't live without some type of email open tracking. It's just, I can't do it without it.

34:50 Tracy Lim: I can't imagine. And also when you think about when you're trying to close a deal and it's the 11th hour and they're not responding to you, the fact that you see that they're opening it kind of gives you peace of mind.

35:02 Scott Ingram: Yeah, definitely. In fact, I've started using a tool. It's, it's real inexpensive. I think it's called Mailtrack and it's just a Chrome kind of Gmail plugin. One of the things I like about what it does is in addition to the regular kind of popups as people are opening opening emails and clicking on links, it puts like 2 checkmarks in your inbox. And I think one is just that it was sent and it was tracked. And the second one, you know that they've opened it. So it's… and you can sort by it and do different things. So it's kind of nice to know, okay, well, at least I know that this email has been opened kind of thing. What about your information diet? What are you listening to, reading, watching, those kinds of things?

35:38 Tracy Lim: So there's 2 different types of books and information that I gravitate towards. I'm not a person that likes to read any fictional books. I'm very much the person, I'm gonna read business books, sales-related books, or anything that's self-improvement or even spirituality. So I know a lot of your previous guests talk about The Challenger Sale. That's something that I've read multiple times and I think gives a lot of great advice and perspective when running sales deals. Another one that's opposite spectrum is called Urban Monk, and I'm not sure if you had the opportunity to read about it, but it talks about how we all live in a fast-paced environment overwhelmed with technology. Things are really chaotic, but you kind of have to take a step back and give yourself some time. Give yourself some time to meditate when you're feeling really anxious and you just have so much going on. If you meditate for 5 minutes, you'll realize that it does so much for your body and you have a calm mental state. Or even they talk about how working out is so critical. If you think of a pool of water and it's just stagnant, it gets dirty, it gets infected, and that's kind of like your energy in your body. If you're not releasing your energy and switching it in and out, you're kind of getting stagnant, you're getting sick. So if you're constantly working out and replenishing your body with new energy, that actually helps you to perform a lot better in your career, in your job.

37:09 Scott Ingram: Well, and we didn't talk about your working out. What, what is that and when does that happen?

37:14 Tracy Lim: Sure. So right now I've more consistently been working out after work. I've been at this gym called F45, Functional 45. So it's more of high-intensity workouts within a 45-minute period, and it's awesome. My thing is they only ask for 45 minutes. If I can't give 45 minutes to myself to work out, then there's a big problem. So because I think of that every single day, I'm pretty consistent and committed.

37:41 Scott Ingram: Nice. Nice. I'm going to totally botch this. Was it Gandhi that said you should meditate an hour every day? And if you don't have time for that, you should meditate for 2.

37:49 Tracy Lim: Honestly, I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is Gandhi.

37:52 Scott Ingram: Yeah. And maybe, maybe I'll have to correct that quote in the notes because I'm sure I butchered it. But, you know, obviously the point is like you've got to make time for this stuff somehow. And if you can't, you probably need it even more.

38:04 Tracy Lim: 100%. And even before jumping on to this with you today, Today's our last day of the month and I didn't even realize it and I was chasing deals and I was switching into this and I just felt so kind of not really stressed out but frantic. So before jumping on this call, I actually sat down for 5 minutes and meditated and it completely calmed my nerves and I feel like I could tackle the day now.

38:30 Scott Ingram: Nice. Now, do you have any meditation assistance? Like, are you using an app or anything or you just sit and do it? What's your process?

38:39 Tracy Lim: So when I first started meditating about a couple years ago, I started using Headspace. It's an app that you could download, and I think you get 10 sessions for free. You could choose a length, whether it's 3 minutes, 5 minutes, or 10 minutes. Now I just kind of run my own meditation based off of what I learned from the app and different books that I've read. But what helps me when I first start meditating and I have to do a quick 5-minute, I'll just close my eyes. Have multiple constant deep breaths and just envision myself somewhere outside in nature where I feel completely calm and happy. For me specifically, that's at the beach. So I imagine myself sitting on the beach. I could feel the sand underneath me. I hear the waves crashing. I hear the seagulls. So really putting yourself in that environment and not letting any of the thoughts that cross your mind consume your time, just letting it pass, and just scan your body. And that seems to really help to nail down a quick meditation within 5 minutes.

39:38 Scott Ingram: Nice. Now, you and I come from the same part of the world. So when you say you think of the beach, which beach specifically do you think of?

39:45 Tracy Lim: I think of Newport Beach just in my backyard. I think because it's comfortable and familiar, but I should probably start meditating about Bora Bora or Hawaii or something a little bit more distant and tropical. But yeah, I think of Newport Beach.

40:00 Scott Ingram: That's awesome. So you mentioned Challenger. Do you subscribe to a particular sales philosophy?

40:07 Tracy Lim: I don't, and I, I kind of use bits and pieces of everything. And I know also your previous guests have talked about MEDDIC, and that's a process that I follow, and it's something that I've been following for the past year and a half with our new sales leadership. I think it's instrumental because you don't want to ever skip steps. And if you go through MEDDIC, you're very organized and you know what you need to focus on. I do subscribe to some of the Challenger methodology. And then one of the biggest things I mentioned earlier too is John Barrows. So outside of John Barrows giving you prospecting tips and methods, he also does a good job at, for example, setting expectations. When you have that first call with your prospect, at the end of the call, establish rules and let them know, hey, throughout this sales cycle, if you ever think that we're not a good fit, that's totally fine. Just let me know. And I think just implementing that and always constantly setting expectations with your prospect helps move the deal quite smoothly.

41:08 Scott Ingram: Awesome. Now, how would you describe your style in your multi-type approach?

41:14 Tracy Lim: Yeah, I think my approach is more from an advisor consultant perspective, I think, when I deal with my prospects and customers. And that's probably why I like to take different methods from different sales gurus. But I very much like to work with customers and have them feel like I'm not trying to shove a product down their throat. I want them to get in the mindset of, wow, Tracy actually cares about what I'm dealing with, with my challenges, and she really cares about getting me to my goal. So that's kind of the methodology that I always, or approach that I like to take with my prospects. And it's helped me close a lot of large deals.

41:58 Scott Ingram: Yeah. So I'm curious, are you following MEDDIC predominantly as kind of the process that you're using? What is your process?

42:07 Tracy Lim: Sure. Right now I'm using MEDDIC predominantly because that's what our new sales leadership has us doing in Salesforce. But even before I started practicing MEDDIC, thoroughly every single day. It's something in my mind that I've always… I've already had these steps written in my head of just the entire sales cycle. So whenever I'm in a deal, I always like to put myself in the customer's shoes. So if I were the customer and I'm trying to sell to the customer, what are the things that I need? What do I need to make sure that I feel comfortable with working with Tracy and Tracy's team? What do I need to feel confident about the product that Tracy and my team is selling. So a lot of times I like to put myself in their shoes to really understand how to navigate the sales process. And that even goes with follow-up, right? I don't want to bug them and call them every 30 minutes, but I'm okay with maybe reaching out once a day, maybe a phone call one day, an email another day, but I'm very calculated when I do my follow-ups and my check-ins.

43:15 Scott Ingram: Got it. So, I mean, it sounds like it's, it's really just being mindful of their experience through the entire process. Like, are they going to enjoy this? Are they going to value this? Are they going to appreciate what we're doing and want to keep moving forward?

43:26 Tracy Lim: Right, absolutely.

43:28 Scott Ingram: Awesome. Is there something you believe that the average salesperson would think is crazy?

43:34 Tracy Lim: That's a good question. So when I speak with a lot of our reps and even reps at other companies, they'll ask me, how is it that you're able to get executive alignment? And I'm the type of person that I'm okay with cold calling and reaching out to a CIO or a CEO. And I think there's a lot of sales reps out there that think that's so bizarre. They're like, you would reach out to a CEO about a technology? And I truly believe, at least the product that I'm selling right now, BlueJeans Video, it's, it's a tool that transforms any business from CEO level down. And that's my advice to any, any sales rep that's prospecting. It's don't be afraid to reach out to any executive.

44:16 Scott Ingram: Love that. So connect those dots for us, right? So how, how are you thinking about… and I'm going to guess that you are sort of, okay, let me put myself in the CEO's shoes. What do they care about and how does this connect to kind of their goals? Is that kind of the idea? How do you think about sort of that approach and really what you're trying to accomplish and what's the outcome that you want? So if you are going to reach out to the CEO, what are you hoping then happens?

44:40 Tracy Lim: Sure. So good question. When I reach out to a CEO, I'm definitely thinking about if I were in their shoes, how is this technology gonna help me? So I like to do my research. I like to read mission statements, and I like to learn more about the company. But across the board, what you'll find is a lot of CEOs that wanna grow their company or retain talent, they're really mindful about engaging their employees. And they wanna be able to have anyone within their company feel like that they're part of the company and the culture and success. So when I tailor my messaging around BlueJeans Video, I tell the CEOs that, hey, we have a tool that allows you to have face-to-face conversations with anyone. Any of your remote employees can feel like that they have an opportunity to speak to you face-to-face and ask you the hard questions and see how you react. And oftentimes that resonates really well.

45:33 Scott Ingram: Love it. Love it. Now, what about the flip side? Is there something that the average sales professional believes that you think is crazy?

45:39 Tracy Lim: For me, when I chat with other average sales reps, it kind of… I don't know the best way to say it, but it astonishes me that some reps are okay with just getting by. And what I mean by that, with some reps are okay with not hitting quota, they're okay with making some commission and they're okay with making their base salary. But I think sales is such a competitive sport and it really gravitates rotates towards competitive people. I kind of just want to be like, why don't you want to be the best? Why don't you want to put in the extra time and effort to see if you could make more money or if you could exceed your quota or have that recognition?

46:17 Scott Ingram: Yeah, I… that seems pretty crazy to me too.

46:20 Tracy Lim: Yeah.

46:21 Scott Ingram: So what have been the most important decisions you've made or lessons you had to learn to get where you are today?

46:28 Tracy Lim: The biggest thing for me is you always need to be open to learning. Whether it's to a new sales process, a new sales tool, a new sales manager, and really be a sponge. I'm the type of person that likes to absorb as much information as possible and absorb it, but it doesn't mean you have to actually digest it or even implement it, right? But I like to know other people's perspective. I like to know what people are doing, and I want to factor in if it's something that works for me. And I think that if you have have all this wealth of knowledge, you could pick and choose and figure out what works best for you.

47:06 Scott Ingram: It's so funny that you say that. So I, I just had a big meeting yesterday with Dale Carnegie, with the, with the chief sales officer there. And what really helped us get aligned was in all of these conversations, and, and I… most of the stuff that is in front of me right now and, and the kind of sponsorship opportunities that, that we have, it's a lot of technology. And I went, wait a minute, you know what? The people that are on this show, they rarely reference very many technology tools, right? Instead, I think the gap in a lot of sales, it's really a human gap, right? It's we just need to understand each other better, and I need to be able to be able to communicate better and relate better to to these humans. And that's why I'm I'm so excited about this new partnership. And I I think you I think you hit. It right on the head with why this kind of matters. Like, you get ahead by really digging into that and being willing to continually improve and adapt. You can't stand still. That's why I'm doing the class myself.

48:06 Tracy Lim: Absolutely. I agree with you spot on.

48:10 Scott Ingram: So, what advice would you give to someone that is just starting out in their sales career today?

48:16 Tracy Lim: My advice to anyone starting out in their sales career today is find a company that you're actually excited about. Find a product that you think is awesome and life-changing. I mean, we're fortunately in a time where there's so many different technologies for everything, and there's so many companies that are focused on culture and really growing and fostering individuals that join the company. And the other biggest piece is choose a company where you think that you have a sales leader that would be a good coach and mentor. I think the very first year or 2 is foundational in the success. So I think it's great if you could find someone that'll coach you through it because sales is hard. I mean, you have to be resilient. There's a lot of times where the lows are very low and the highs are very high, but I think that you always have to be kind of steady and even keel. And if you have a mentor that could kind of coach you through it, then you're geared up for success.

49:14 Scott Ingram: Oh, so good. How are you maintaining sort of that even keel? Because we've talked about this a lot on recent shows, just sort of the emotional rollercoaster that is sales? How do you stay sane?

49:24 Tracy Lim: I just don't take anything personal. If I lose a deal and I worked my butt off and I didn't close it, then okay, that's all right. I have to move on to the next. If I close a large substantial deal, I don't try to get too excited about it. It's like, okay, I need to move on to the next. So I always just try to have that steady mind frame. Again, sometimes if I'm just feeling too stressed out or overwhelmed, calmed, a 2-minute meditation will help, or even stepping outside and just getting some fresh air really helps kind of readjust your body.

49:56 Scott Ingram: Yeah, awesome. So let's say that you just broke through to somebody, somebody who was okay with mediocrity before, just made a decision and decided, okay, you know what, I'm better than this, I want to take this to the next level. What advice would you give to them?

50:13 Tracy Lim: I would tell them, make sure that you're a sponge, absorb as much information that you Try to align yourself with some of your top reps or even great sales managers and make sure you read. I think in order for a sales rep to always stay ahead in this ever-changing industry is you have to be reading. You have to understand the latest and greatest in different sales methodologies.

50:36 Scott Ingram: Awesome. So you mentioned 2 books earlier and we'll have those in the show notes. Is there anything else, maybe the best, most impactful book that you've read in the last year or 2 that just stands out?

50:47 Tracy Lim: This… I'm drawing a blank right now. There's a book something about sleep. It just talks about how critical it is for you to sleep and different tips and tricks. But it's kind of crazy, right? If you don't get enough sleep, then your brain isn't really functioning at the capacity that it needs to. So I think that's one aspect. And then the other one that I read maybe about a year ago, and I'm trying to be more consistent, but it's called Fanatical Prospecting. I think for any sales rep to be successful is you have to always be prospecting and finding new business, unless you have a role where you only manage 2 accounts. But I think that's a great book that'll help a lot of sales reps do well.

51:32 Scott Ingram: Yeah, great stuff. So, and we'll, you know, so read a book on sleep, any book on sleep, you probably need more sleep. I need more sleep.

51:40 Tracy Lim: Yeah.

51:42 Scott Ingram: So, Tracy, what would you want to know about the top sellers in other companies?

51:47 Tracy Lim: So I want to take that one step further, and I want to know and really focus on reps that have made over $1 million in commission. I want to know what their everyday is like. I want to understand their sales methodology and their process and understand what makes them unique and different from the reps that aren't hitting over $1 million in commission.

52:08 Scott Ingram: Very interesting question. And I know, just off the top of my head, and I'm probably missing some, I know we will have at least 2 of those on the stage at the Sales Success Summit. I need to do some more calculus because there's probably more. But that's a, that's a really, really, that's a totally valid question. Right. And it's one of the things that I probably don't do a good enough job of on, on this show, mostly out of a respect for privacy. I just, I don't feel like it's really appropriate to ask people to publicly disclose what their W-2 looks like. I don't know if that's right.

52:39 Tracy Lim: That makes sense.

52:41 Scott Ingram: Right. But I do think that behind the scenes, there are some things that we can kind of do to to at least get a better sense of ranges and folks that are there. And yeah, I think that's a totally valid question that I'm happy to go turn around and ask some of these folks kind of their advice specific to that, right? I think part of it is getting into the right position. It's not just performance, but it's being into the right kind of situation because, you know, frankly, the role that I'm in today, if I made that kind of money, I would probably break my company and that would, that would be problem, right?

53:14 Tracy Lim: It would be a problem.

53:16 Scott Ingram: When you work for a professional services company, you sell too much business, you create big, big problems.

53:21 Tracy Lim: So, right. So I would love to hear some follow-up. I just think I want to hear from the best of the best of the best.

53:29 Scott Ingram: Awesome. Well, I will take that as a personal challenge, and we'll continue to, to raise the bar with, with who we're continuing to talk to on the show. And if you know, you're listening to this and you This person is the best of the best of the best. Make an intro. That's how most of these interviews are happening these days… is fans of the show are helping me make some connections, and I'm getting to talk to amazing people like Tracy. And and I hope that you've been inspired by what she's had to share today. And then Tracy, we always try and wrap the show on something actionable, right? Lots of great ideas, lots of inspiration. But now, what is the person listening to this? Go do to improve themselves and improve their results?

54:10 Tracy Lim: I think everyone that's listening, you just need to be honest with yourself and look at your performance and maybe specific deals and see if there's any consistent patterns. I think if you're honest with yourself and you realize, you know what, oftentimes I like to skip a POC just to see if I could get a deal closed a lot faster. But if you look at the outcome, maybe you shouldn't be skipping the POCs. So I think really just Just inspect, understand your process, understand your shortcomings and your strengths as well, and just really focus on that to improve your craft of selling. Fantastic.

54:44 Scott Ingram: Tracy, this has been amazing. Thank you for your time. Thank you for giving us some really, really great ideas. And I look forward to connecting with several of you on the Winning with Relationship Selling course by Dale Carnegie. So be sure to check that out, top1.fm/dale, and we'll be back in a couple of weeks with another incredible episode. Incredible interview. Thanks, Tracy. No problem.

55:04 Tracy Lim: Thanks, Scott, for having me on here.

55:08 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.