77: James Christman of Teradata - Networking, Relationships, Mentors & Winning!

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.

0:24 Scott Ingram: This episode is brought to you thanks to the generous support of Vidyard GoVideo. If you're not already familiar with GoVideo, I'll tell you more about it in a few minutes, or you can just go to top1.fm/v where you can get started right away for free. Today on the Sales Success Stories podcast, my guest is James Christman. James is a regular listener and the top-performing new account executive at Teradata and has a really cool story to share about how he got to that position. Welcome to the show, James.

0:55 James Christman: Thanks so much, Scott. Great to be here.

0:57 Scott Ingram: So let's kick things off like we always do with the top 3 things that you believe have contributed most to your Absolutely, absolutely.

1:06 James Christman: And, you know, the top 3 somewhat go without saying, but I want to reiterate and really drive some of their importance, which for me, it's really been a gratitude customer-first motto. And for me, those 2 go together. I don't believe that you can be customer-first without that humility and without the gratitude across the space. And I'll say quite a bit more about that as we go through here. Networking both internally and externally, you know, building your brand both with your customers as well as internally has really shaped my meteoric rise at Teradata. And so we'll talk about that as well. And again, focusing on accretive business value and ROI for the organization. Again, something that I think a lot of AEs, a lot of it, you know, everyone kind of focuses on that and everyone kind of hears that from all the books and the challengers, etc., out there. But I think wrapping that in and really putting numbers behind it and making it tangible and how it impacts the individual you're talking to, I think is, is really important. So we'll talk about that as well.

2:08 Scott Ingram: So James, I'm super excited to dig into these. And one of the things behind the scenes, and I know you were excited about just seeing how the sausage is made in these conversations because you've listened to the podcast for so long. I, I always ask for those top 3 things in advance. It's about the only thing I ask for in advance just to sort of help me prepare. And for those who aren't as worldly as James is, like myself, I had to look up Accretive. I didn't know what accretive was, and it would be an adjective that refers to business deals that result in gradual or incremental growth in value for a company. So great, great word choice. I am now just a little bit smarter. So thanks for bringing that to me.

2:48 James Christman: Happily, this is by far not a vocab session here, Scott. I'm happy to. I'm happy to drop some words.

2:53 Scott Ingram: Now I should say here that James has insisted that this will not be a full regular interview because he wants to reserve that for when he can say he's the. Outright number one seller at Teradata. And so I can certainly respect that goal and that ambition. So we're going to go off script a bit and focus on James's more recent history and path to Teradata, his subsequent quick rise, and how the summit directly empowered his success. So James, maybe we should start by talking about how you and I initially met and your connection to this show and the Sales Success Summit.

3:29 James Christman: Yeah, so thanks, Scott. I mean, that… this, this has been, as you and I have talked for quite some time, it's been a story that has been, again, humbling. And you'll hear that word come out a lot throughout our dialogue here. Just really exciting in terms of how that intention and how, you know, really writing down those goals. A lot of amazing folks that you've had on the podcast, and many names come to mind, talk about that goal setting and things like that. And what really happened was back in early, well, I guess late 2017, early 2018, really started to write down and become intentional about what I wanted my sales career to be. I've been in sales for about 12 years now. And so right in that kind of middle part of the career, as you always talk about on the show, for those AEs that have been in it for a while and, and, you know, have a lot of great success and trying to take that next step. And, and so a friend of mine introduced me to Sales Success Podcast, said, hey, you know, are there, are there great tools out there to, to kind of support your learning and growth and development as a salesperson, as an AE? And, and came across Scott's podcast, started to listen to it from really the first episode on. So guys, start at the beginning and really just learned so much from each individual and ended up reaching out directly to Scott to build a relationship there. Happened to be the first year that they were doing the Sales Success Summit in Austin. Scott, was that April of last year, right?

4:59 Scott Ingram: May of last year.

4:59 James Christman: May of last year, right. So essentially went down to the conference in May of last year, Networked and met some incredible individuals, namely Jeff Bajorek, as well as Kyle Gutzler, who is now at Teradata, both of who I really connected with and many others that you'll hear throughout the show. But they had some familiarity with Teradata. Kyle Gutzler was working there at the time, and Jeff Bajorek also had some great connections there. And so through literally that introduction to Teradata at the summit, That's… I'd never heard of Teradata before, and that's really where I heard about them and got engaged and networked through Kyle Gutzler and Jeff Bajorek's contact. And that was really it. And then, and that over the next probably 2 and a half to 3 months, began interviewing for actually a managerial position at Teradata initially, and then essentially landed in an AE spot and took over customers and things like that. And that was, I can truly say, I would not be sitting in this seat, you would not be hearing my voice, had it not been for the summit last year. And I officially started at Teradata almost to the day, August 21st, 2018, was my first year, was my first 12 months there. And as Scott said, number one rep over that time and been unbelievable and continued to reach out and leverage the network that I met at the summit. And it's just been completely and utterly life-changing.

6:29 Scott Ingram: That's awesome. Now I'm surprised you didn't bring up the story about our first meeting where, cause you had reached out to me through, you'd been listening to the podcast. You reached out, you were in Chicago at the time and had said, hey, you know, and I was going to be there. So I would have figured you would have talked about the torture I put you through and make, I'm like, sure, I'll meet with you, but you have to go on a walk with me and where you're going to meet me at 4:30 in the morning.

6:54 James Christman: Right. Right. And, and, and so, you know, that was, The little nuance, much like the mic nuance here earlier, Scott, you did the one piece you left out about our 5:00 AM meeting in Chicago, which was fantastic, was that I shouldn't actually wear a blazer and put on, you know, actual respectable-looking clothing because you were going to join us in shorts and a t-shirt and running shoes as this was your exercise. So the blisters I still have, Scott. So thank you.

7:27 Scott Ingram: We call those calluses if you have blisters that last. Last that long, right?

7:31 James Christman: I guess that's true. I get it. As you see, now you can teach me some words too.

7:35 Scott Ingram: Awesome. Well, before we talk more about the specifics of how the summit led to James being at Teradata, let me tell you just a bit more about Vidyard GoVideo. I'm gonna guess that you're finding that it's getting harder and harder to get people to reply to your cold emails. Vidyard GoVideo allows you to easily create, send, and track videos inside those emails to significantly increase your response rates. Just go to top1.fm/v and download the free Chrome plugin. From there, you'll be able to create a video of whatever's on your screen. You can even add a little selfie video to the screen or just go all the way with a full video starring yourself. Once you're done recording, you can just drop that into your emails. And the best part is that you'll get a browser notification anytime somebody watches one of your videos. You'll even be able to see how much of the video they It is the ultimate in personalization, and it's free. Click over to top1.fm right now, and you can get started. All right, back to James. James, talk about just more more of the nuance of how the relationships you created at the summit led to the the role at Terra Data. And and I brag on you. I like to tell this story a lot because you've had a lot of success, and and just the direct attribution is is awesome. I also like to talk about the fact that you went from cold, windy Chicago and, and are now hanging out in San Diego, California.

9:02 James Christman: You know, it's, it's not a, it's not a bad shift, Scott. And when I, you know, when I was flying over for the interviews last year and I, I flew from windy, cold Chicago, even in, no kidding, June of last year, when I flew over and you fly over mountains as you get into Southern California and then you swoop around and come in from the beach, oceanside, and then land looking at downtown San Diego, there's just nothing. There's just nothing better. There's just nothing better whatsoever. So it's, that was the close. That was the close right there. No offense, Scott, but that was San Diego was the close.

9:40 Scott Ingram: I bet. I bet. So let's put this in just a bit more context for us as well. Like how, how exactly have you done in this new role?

9:49 James Christman: Yeah. So it's been for me and the summit was just the jumping off point. I can say that. You know, Scott does an incredible job and everyone at the summit, you know, the electricity and the vibrancy of those there, it's that level of individual and that level of sales executive that, you know, there's so many of us out there, but you just kind of feel like you're on an island. And then when you're there, you really feel that energy and the excitement and the innovation and the enthusiasm. And everyone takes that. That's the key, right? Everyone takes that back after the summit and stays in touch. LinkedIn, phone calls, text messages, sharing pictures with those individuals that you really… those AEs that you connected with. And I continue, as Scott mentioned, continue to leverage those individuals to really help shape and mentor me throughout this role at Teradata. And, you know, a meteoric rise for us is really… let's see, it was $2.13 million dollar TCV deals that I did in the first 6 months at Teradata. And then I have probably 3 more in the pipeline that are probably totaling in the $3 to $4 million range TCV between all 3 of those. So it's pretty significant in terms of the ramp that I've been able to have. And I know we talk a lot on this show about the ramp period and what that looks like. So we can certainly get into that. But also it's having the confidence and quite frankly, the foundation of what these individuals like that you meet. That's, you can't, I can't even articulate what that looks like. Because as you get into difficult conversations or you get into that day-to-day grind and the sausage-making, you're thinking, God, I need to, who else has experienced this? And so the conversations at the summit, as well as, you know, again, continued conversations afterward with the great, great close friends that I've made since is, is just incredible.

11:53 Scott Ingram: Well, let's, let's dig into the networking piece a little bit more and then come back to the ramp because I mean, this, this isn't automatic. I mean, I do a lot of work to, to allow the relationships to form just the way that we build that experience. And it's already pretty intimate in terms of it's, it's not a giant. This isn't Dreamforce. There's not 200,000 people there, right? There's 200 people there and it's, it's much more intimate, but you have done, a lot of this work. And I'd love to understand, like, what's, what's your approach and how have you leveraged the network from a, from a mentoring perspective in terms of what you came out of the summit with?

12:31 James Christman: Yeah, so I think, and I'll, and I'll call out Debe Rapson at Sprinklr, who is an absolute, absolute maestro when it comes to networking. So I, I bow in front of Debe and her skills and some of the comments that she's made both at the summit and overall. But I think it really has to do with you know, just approaching, approaching folks in a really authentic way. And I noticed that at the summit, and I've taken that, and you'll see that kind of come through a number of the comments, is that authenticity when you're having those conversations with these other top professionals and top sales folks, that it really, that connection is so key. And then follow-up as well is super important. And that was something that I think was, has been lost and kind of comes back and forth and things like that in sales careers and certainly difficult for sales folks. But, you know, it's reaching out after the summit, connecting on LinkedIn. Hey, do you have 15 minutes for a digital coffee? Would love to ping you on this question or this issue or whatever the case may be. And that's, that's really, really important. I forget which guest that you had on, Scott, that talked about really kind of delivering value back to the mentors that you make, both at the summit and just generally in life, right? I mean, I've, as Scott mentioned, been incredibly fortunate and will continue to leverage a number of the folks that I met at the summit. But it's about always coming in with that idea of, hey, what can I bring back to you? How can I bring back and support the relationship? And Scott, I know in our many dialogues together, I've always tried to have that approach and that culture to say, I can't teach you much, Scott, but, you know, if it's accretive is all I can give you, I'm thankful for it. And I'll try to give back everything I can. And so that's that in the networking side for the summit specifically is really, really important. On the kind of tangible day-to-day side, one of the things that I think is really unique to me and that kind of goes into the challenge that I'll mention a little bit later is, you know, every time that someone gets introduced at Teradata, as long as they're in a customer-facing role or maybe even if not, just a new-to-Teradata, if they're coming across your email as someone you know, being introduced at literally whatever level, people that are on your team, people high, low, below, next, parallel, what have you. Introduce yourself to them. Reach out to them via email. Set up 15 minutes at your company to, to really understand what they do, what their background is, how they prefer to communicate with you. Do they like to be involved in customer-facing communication? Do they like to be more of a backseat in the background? I mean, really have that dialog with them and what can they use? What is their background? How can they help you and partner with you to deliver answers and value for your customers. So that's, that's one piece on, on kind of the day-to-day side from a networking point of view.

15:35 Scott Ingram: Well, and let's peel that back one more level, right? So that makes total sense from an internal perspective, right? You see that, that welcome email go around and it sounds like you're just sort of acting on that. Did you have a, you know, every week I'm going to reach out to 3 people or like what, what was the specifics of, of your model? Because your follow-up has been spectacular. And I know it's not just with me.

15:58 James Christman: Well, Scott, no, it's really just… no, it's been, you know, there's not a… a lot of folks are, and I'm certainly becoming more so. I mean, this very goal-dependent, you know, 3 new introductions. Again, one of your contacts talked about a referral, you know, 2 referral or recommendations on LinkedIn every single week. Those are all great. I just try to stay on top of when those folks are introduced into my accounts. Really just, just reaching out instantly. And then the, the ones that are really going to be different levels of mentor for you or different levels of relationship in your organization, meaning you could have a partnership contact internally that you want to speak with on a cadence of every 2 weeks just to kind of catch up on what's going on in your deals, or externally at some, some other vendors or partners that work with your customers, staying on top of them every month. And so I think the kind of title or role of the person that you're networking with would define how that, how that cadence goes and the frequency of that. So I think, I think that's part of it.

17:05 Scott Ingram: Yeah. I mean, just anecdotally, another thing that I've noticed that you do really well is it's, it's situation dependent, right? As, as you come across a particular challenge or issue, I know you're sort of being mindful about, okay, who do I know that has either dealt with this or might have some great ideas on, on how to deal with this? And it's just kind of real time. In the moment. Like, let's not sit and stew on this. Let's just pick up the phone and have a conversation with, with DeJuan or with Scott or whoever it is.

17:32 James Christman: Yeah, and that, and that's really key. I mean, I get, I get validation on this fact all the time, Scott, and you hit it right on the head, which is reach out and have a conversation, right? I mean, that is both internally and externally. I had a CIO, and this gets into some of the gratitude that I mentioned before, and DeJuan Brown does a does an absolutely terrific job about truly genuinely communicating that element of servitude, which he mentioned in the Sales Success Stories book, as well as on his podcast. And every time you talk to him, whether it's the book club for Jeff Bajorek, all he is, it's so core to who he is. And I think that, you know, that servitude piece that DeJuan talks about is really part and parcel to kind of my success. And what that means is when you're talking to folks and you're networking into your accounts, you have to, you have to really come at it to serve their best interests, whether it's using your solution or not, to be quite honest. And I had a CIO literally reach out to me out of the blue after many unreplied emails, but all saying the same exact thing, 1 or 2 sentence emails about Hey, I just want to help. I just want to help and understand what your challenges and goals are. And he picked up the phone and, and just called me out of the blue and connected with me and said, hey, you know, I really appreciate your persistence, really appreciate your follow-up, and we really need you to come in here. But I want to really share with you some of the challenges that we've had in the past. And so we talked through that in a 15-minute conversation, Scott, and that That open dialogue with the CIO on an out-of-the-blue phone call, that established my biggest deal to date at Teradata. That servitude attitude, not saying, hey, we're the best ever and we're going to solve all your problems, that is really what turned him. He mentioned that a number of times during our conversation is that willingness to just help. And be a partner in whatever shape or form that, that means.

19:42 Scott Ingram: Love that. Great, great, great story. And it was such a… it was probably the most dominant theme in the first summit, right? Just that level of humility, that servant attitude. You know, again, I think that there are so many stereotypes and misconceptions about what really… what it takes to perform in sales at a really high level. And it doesn't take putting one over on people and screwing them and, and doing unnatural things. And it's really the opposite, right? It's, it's just because I, I'm sure the CIO just sort of felt that in, in your messaging and in your persistence and felt comfortable making that call. And, and there was enough level of trust in what you were going to do with the information to just sort of lay it out on the table. And, and now you can begin from this really productive place rather than this adversarial relationship that can happen in sales, right? Where it's, it's us versus them, which just doesn't serve anybody, right?

20:44 James Christman: And it's right, it's that concept of… and I know we've talked about it a number of times… is, you know, really visualizing yourself. And this comes into your, your call preps and, and, you know, kind of your nighttime routines and things like that. Visualizing yourself literally moving from one side of the table to to the other side next to the customer. And I've used that visualization on calls, right? And I've said, hey, Scott, listen, I don't want you to look at me eye to eye. I want you to look next to you. I want us to be shoulder to shoulder to figure out these things. Look at these challenges, work through whatever the case may be that, that we're working on, find the value, figure out issues and iron out process, whatever the case may be. It's that shoulder to shoulder that I'm really trying to, to communicate with that authenticity and genuineness.

21:29 Scott Ingram: Love it. Love it. Let's, let's talk about one more piece on… I'm going to put it in the, in the networking bucket. I'm not sure if it necessarily belongs there entirely, but you've also done a really, really good job of managing up in your organization. Let me just lay that out there and let you talk about that however you want to.

21:48 James Christman: Yeah, no, that, that is, you know, both, both internally and externally, you know, I would say something that, that kind of echoes in my head a number of times is, walk in the front door. Don't walk in the back door or the door that your company typically walks in. Start at the top. It is a challenge for even me constantly. It's every AE in security going up to the C-suite and having that dialogue. That was a really big point for me is to make that step and reach out, again, with with larger goals, larger objectives, and more genuineness and authenticity. And part of that is, is I really, whether it's, whether it's, you know, a board meeting lunch for Teradata that I sat at that no AE, no AE sat at, I was the only one to do so. Whether that is approaching our CEO or CFO after one of our town hall meetings, just introducing myself, asking some smart questions around some of the results or one of the business drivers or whatever the case may be, something that would hit his level and building that confidence both internally with whom you work with at your company, as well as that will just ferry you into a ton of confidence moving to speak to those higher levels at your companies, at your customers, at your prospects that you're working for. So that's, that's been kind of the tangible piece of managing up and the networking side. And also, I'll also say, and everyone on this podcast and everyone at the summit really speaks to this, is around innovation. And thinking outside the box of how you can network into your customers, into your prospects in nontraditional ways, right? Getting away from the phone calls and emails and LinkedIn and try something else, right? I mean, I went to a… I kind of networked actually through someone at the summit into an institutional investor of a customer of mine to have a dialogue around what the kind of strategies and objectives and what their perspective was as an investor in my customer, right? Or you could go a different route and look at some of the partners and some of the tools that your customers are using from a networking perspective. And again, I know Debe Rapson does some great jobs here understanding the full ecosystem so that instead of you as a rep going in and you're on your surfboard hitting in this one wave, you're going in with a whole team of AEs with, with not necessarily coordinated conversation by any means, but you have… you all understand kind of where you're living, where you're playing, where you're adding value and serving your customer, and then, and then kind of working off of each other and collaborating together. I do this quite, quite a bit with, with some of our Microsoft AWS partners as well, as we collaborate quite often on those deals. And a lot of times they will every single time, matter of fact, they will overwhelmingly offer you introductions, partner with you in meetings to approach whoever you're getting into dialogue, go to the business, whatever the case may be. And so networking in, around, to the top in your accounts is, is so, so important.

25:07 Scott Ingram: So I want to go back to this C-suite conversation a little bit because I think there were a lot of really important things you said there. And one thing that I was thinking about was If you're not willing or you're afraid to approach the C-level executives inside your own organization, how the heck are you ever going to have the confidence to do it in a prospect company where you don't know them at all, right? So I think this idea of using it almost as a way to practice and gain that level of confidence and just get to know them and see what they're like and see what their day-to-day is like. And, you know, one of the things I think of value that we bring, because you mentioned that in, in kind of what you bring to your network. When, when you're at that level in an organization, a lot of times you're so far removed from the ground-level conversations that we in sales are having every day, right? So being able to, to surface some of those insights and some of those ideas has a lot of value. So you can't mention, you can't tease us with this, I sat in a board meeting without telling us that whole story. What, what was that about?

26:14 James Christman: Yeah, I mean, there was… there's not a huge story behind it, but essentially there is… our board of directors came in for lunch a couple of months ago, and I was invited to sit there. They put a board member at each table and then top performers in each organization from go-to-market and sales and all the different business units and things like that at Teradata. So it was a large room of about 70 people at our headquarters. I was the only sales guy from, from our team and from our organization. And that literally, Scott, it came out of the blue. I was… so I had networked into the chief of staff of our CEO. We've just had many conversations. I have shared, you know, because I think as an AE, right, as you're, as you're, you know, as well as anyone else, right, this is such a team effort. This is a team sport. And the AE has all the responsibility, comes with a lot of glory. Comes with a lot of trials and tribulations, a lot of mudslinging. But throughout that process, you're really building, really building a coalition around the organization. And through that, just kind of networked into the chief of staff of the CEO. And when, you know, people, you know, well above my pay grade were selecting individuals to sit with the board and to kind of articulate to your point, Scott, what that, what it looks like on the ground, right, from a sales perspective, is most important. They chose me, and I actually sat directly next to, at that meeting, our Chief Revenue Officer, who's brand new to the role and unbelievable mentor already for me at Teradata. And so that was just an incredible experience to get that brand, to get that face time. And, you know, I think as well, brand is when you do all this networking, both internally and externally, and that becomes your brand… someone that can get stuff done… that really empowers you to, to go to a whole different set of levels in terms of resources that you need, exposure that you need, in terms of teams, the processes that need to be improved, or whatever the case may be. You become, you become that, that person, that central point who can communicate the challenges concisely, but then also make recommendations and come up with, with innovative solutions because you've tried stuff that works to get into those customers and make things happen.

28:44 Scott Ingram: Great stuff. Great stuff. All right. So we finally made it back to the, the ramp piece. Talk about how did you set yourself up to have that early success, be in a position that you're closing a couple of million-dollar-plus deals in a very short period of time? I mean, typically, you know, I think the expectation expectation for most salespeople, especially in, in a situation like yours where the sales cycle is, is probably 6 to 12 months, if not more. You know, it takes nearly a year to get to a full level of productivity, and you obviously did it much, much faster. So talk, talk about your process there.

29:17 James Christman: Yeah, yeah. So, so the, so the process, and, and a lot of it has to do with the structure that we have at Teradata and the role that I came into, which was kind of a, of kind of a junior AE role initially for the first maybe 4 or 5 months to understand what the role's like, learn the, learn the products, the sales process. Just as you said, Scott, it's about 12 to 18 months for us on our side, depending upon a whole lot of complexities there. And then really having that confidence to learn from the team for my first 4 to 5 months, I didn't have have… I didn't have a quota, I didn't have customers, so I was really able to, to nurture and just soak up so much information. All that training and things like that that people talk, talk about, I was able to, to really kind of understand that. But, but I'll tell you, as I mentioned with you in the, in the past, Scott, you know, whether it's training modules, whether it's introduction, whether it's, you know, people that you hear on the phone where other AEs are talking to someone that they think was really helpful, introduced. I took that time to build my network, as I've said many times, to understand, you know, if there was a training video that was really insightful, I would call that person that I saw in the video. Hey, I saw you do this video 18 months ago and it was really impactful for me. Tell me a little bit about your role now and how that impacts customers and things like that. And so spent a lot of time building that brand and building that network. The second piece was really visualizing and getting comfortable with the full sales process, from exploring and, and getting leads, making those senior-level connections, mapping out relationships in my account, understanding the industry, business goals, business values, where there's all of those kind of esoteric items that every salesperson has to do. But, you know, that's the heavy lifting part of it. I spent a lot of time understanding that and then taking it Okay, now that you have the first meeting, how are you preparing for the meeting? What does that look like? Getting a cadence with that from a preparation perspective. And again, many, many great guests on the podcast have certainly had some great suggestions on how that works. And then kind of taking it farther in the deal process from shadowing AEs as they are on, as they're on presentations, as they're wrangling individuals and teams internally to get the right resources, sitting with them while they're actually making those calls and, and sitting with the customer and doing the pitch and, and changing the strategy and listening and all those kind of nuts and bolts items that we do as salespeople. And then taking it to that next step as you go through the process of, of, okay, now we have an agreed-upon solution. Let's understand negotiation, procurement. I actually even listened to some procurement podcasts that were, that were focused at procurement. So I kind of get in the mind of what those procurement individuals that I was going to be speaking with and, and, and communicating to kind of how they went about their day, how they built their business, what, how they're, you know, how they're kind of metriced, if you will. And so getting into, to some of that really deep work that you, you've talked a lot about here, and then, and then going into, to the close, right? And just understanding, always bringing it back to, back to the, the fundamentals and back to the basics of You know, what, what does this solution… even, even when you're already down the path, what is this solution doing? What is it empowering you to do from a business perspective? And always drawing it back when you get into those latter stages of negotiation and close processes and things like that. And, and it's really getting a visual and getting comfortable with that full scope ahead of time and getting the confidence so that once you hit the ground running, as I did did right at the beginning of this year, you can really, it's, it's rinse-repeat. It's absolute rinse-repeat. And, and so that's really what, what led to a tremendous amount of success out of the gate.

33:28 Scott Ingram: Awesome. What, what were the procurement podcasts? We'll make sure we put links to those in the, in the show notes.

33:33 James Christman: Yeah, it was a podcast called The Art of Procurement that I listened to. So that's a good one. And I've listened to a number of episodes, episodes there. And it was, there were some There are some interesting things. One of the episodes, he made a comment that he was talking to the procurement person at Google, talking about how they were bringing in an HR software solution. Essentially, they didn't have the bandwidth or resources, and they had the requirements and directives that they couldn't increase headcount because the option for Google, obviously, in an HR software platform is you can build it in-house, which you would think Google would do, or you could outsource. It's the classic 2 questions of any organization. For them, there was a mandate on keeping a headcount at a certain level, and so they couldn't go above that. Then also, it was about… he mentioned on the procurement podcast that it was, for them, looking at a vendor to help them for their engineers and and the folks at Google to focus on really high-value, true ROI-driven development that a vendor can really focus on those things. But it didn't make good financial sense for them to outsource something that didn't drive accretive business value for the organization. An HR solution just didn't do that for them, so they outsourced it. So I learned some really great dialogue and really great kind of communication tools of ways to speak to procurement and kind of what they think about their That's awesome.

35:05 Scott Ingram: We're going to turn like a creative into like some sort of drinking game here in just a minute. So depending on whether you listen to this in the morning or the evening, this may or may not make sense.

35:15 James Christman: Right, right.

35:17 Scott Ingram: So here's what I heard about sort of what, what you described, right? It sounds like a big part of the chord of your ramp was really almost assembling your team, right? Thinking about who are all the people internally that are going to be in a position to potentially help me win in the future. And just building those relationships and making sure that you had access to them and that you had some level of relationship to go do that. And then the second thing I heard, which is a pretty good transition into where I wanted to go next, is digging deeper into the gratitude customer-first piece, right? You already told us a great story with the CIO, but what I heard you talking about was Like you are practicing mega empathy to the point where, hey, I need to go talk to a procurement guy. Let me try and get in the head of this, of a procurement professional, right? I'm going to go listen to podcasts. I'm going to, I'm going to go do this so that I can understand their, their world. Is that, is that fair?

36:16 James Christman: Yeah, absolutely. And so there's a customer of mine when I was listening to their earnings release where, you know, they talked about they talked about cost containment, right? Classic story. Oh, we have no funding, we're trimming OpEx, CapEx, whatever the case may be. And so the nuance that I heard in that earnings release from their CFO was we are capping OpEx for essentially non-revenue generating expenses, but we are increasing OpEx for revenue generating value-add services we are looking to add and increase OpEx spend. Now, this was out to the street and things like that. And so that was something that I took back to other individuals and to the people that I was talking to across an organization, business or IT in our case, and really started to communicate that. So when procurement and others said, ah, no, no budget, OpEx is cut off, we have a mandate, you know, you can really, if you do that really deep research have that empathy to where you really want to help and serve the customer, then you can really go back and say, no, I know that, that OpEx is not capped if you're driving value-added services and you have a business case that drives ROI. We know that that gets approved. And then those conversations become much, much easier when you have that really customer-first approach and when you really are living the world that they're living in, that is, that is absolutely key.

37:44 Scott Ingram: Yeah, great, incredible stuff. So now you put me in this hard spot, right? Because I have to save all of my nitty-gritty detail stuff about how you're managing your day, your information diet, all that other stuff that I typically get into.

37:59 James Christman: I'm, I'm just buying myself another episode, Scott.

38:02 Scott Ingram: That's all. I know, it's, it's brilliant. I love, I love the strategy. So we'll save that until you are without a doubt, no qualifications, right, the number one AE at Teradata. Instead, why don't we talk just a little bit more about the summit? Because I'm really curious about… and this is a conversation I've been having with so many of the folks that are, that are coming to join us just to make sure that the experience is great… what are you most looking forward to at this year's event?

38:29 James Christman: Yeah, I, I would say, I mean, so many, so many things. I mean, seeing everyone all together again is a big one, and, and networking with all the new faces that are there and just continuing to build. And really, for me, for me this year and for this summit is I'm going in with my hands and arms open and just saying, guys, thank you so much for bringing me all the success that you have in this community. And so that's how I'm starting the summit out. From a kind of sales development perspective, it's really understanding you know, how you drive a lot of, you know, how tangibly what you're looking for, how you're working with your teams and resources to get and generate those business dialogues and generate the ROIs. Is that something that, you know, you're doing yourself? Is that something that you're working with other teams to put that content together? Are you pulling that off of industry white papers and things like that and going that direction? How are you building that, that business value and bringing actual numbers that are somewhat defensible to those, to those conversations. I would say that's, that's a big one, but also just little tips and tricks that all the other amazing sales folks that are out there doing. It feels like everyone that, that attends the summit has their own little kind of quirk, the thing that makes them unique, that you… that everyone in, in both the first summit that I went to and this one, every… I found myself every other moment going, huh, that's really smart. And that's, I mean, that's that… the aha moments that just sit so much and, and are just overwhelming at the summit. And, and why that is and why that's so easy is because the networking sessions are the main… that's, that's why they went. And we were all talking, Scott, obviously behind your back in that room, right, in the theater, in that saying, God, we love all this time to network and get to know each other and talk through items where, yes, you're learning, you have the different sessions, and those are incredibly valuable. You're taking notes, reviewing the notes after the summit, all those things that are great. But then there's so much time spent with the networking piece and building the relationships. I just can't wait to go back and do even more of that than I did.

40:52 Scott Ingram: Yeah, love it, love it, love it. So the… I think I think the core content piece, David Weiss is definitely on point to kind of talk about the business case piece. So I think that'll be a good way to begin that conversation. And then to your point, I mean, there's a reason why I have so much networking time built into the calendar, right? I think too often we go to these events and it's just chock-full of session after session after session, and you never have an opportunity to digest, and you never have an opportunity to really build those relationships and talk some this through and get some different perspectives on some of those key things that you're trying to learn. I just did, by the time this episode goes live, I know that this other episode will go live. So, Jeff Bajorek and Christy Walters, great friends, were also at the first summit.

41:41 James Christman: Big fans. Big fans.

41:42 Scott Ingram: Yeah, absolutely. They have their own podcast called The Why and the Buy. And I was just on with them really talking about this upcoming summit and, you know, Well, one of the things Jeff was, I think, was asking about, you know, what's going to be different this year. And the main thing I think that's going to be different is the fact that it's not the first one, right? That there is going to be sort of this alumni factor with folks that we're coming together again. And I expect that there's going to be a lot more hugs than handshakes. And, you know, but we're going to bring a lot more people into that fold, right? So it's one of those, this is, I think it's attitude. In, in nature, right? I mean, going to one is great, but, you know, continuing to go into, continuing to, to build those relationships in that network and, and then be able to come back again. And what did you learn this year? What are you applying? What's been working? You know, just, it's, it's that it's continuing to iterate. I mean, I'm thinking about this today as we record this. So folks who've been following along with my adventures, we're recording on a Sunday. August 25th. I did my triathlon this morning. And so those who were on the newsletter list would have seen that I beat my goal time by a whopping 20 seconds. So we're gonna call that a win. But I'm already looking at… well, we'll see if I've actually signed up or not yet, but there's another race about 5 weeks from today. And I'm like, you know what, I'm already trained at this level. If I, if I continue my training and I spend another 5 weeks What can I do? Right? What what can I do to iterate on on my performance? And I think that's this game, right? It's it's just that that continuing to iterate. This is this is never a point in time. Like hey, that one time I learned that one thing and I do that and I'm good now. You know. So James, what would you? I mean again, you probably more than anybody, you're you're really the poster child. You maximized the opportunity that. The summit represents. What would you recommend that others who are going to be joining us this year do to make the most of the opportunity?

43:49 James Christman: Oh my, that is, that is a massive question, Scott. That is a massive question. I would say, I would say bring in, and, and, you know, it's, it's a couple days of really intense, incredible, you know, sales aptitude in folks that are coming there. So I would just come in with the… put all your tools on the desk, right? Put everything away that you've always done and the way you run your business and basically think of yourself as starting from scratch, right? And look at these, look at everyone and understand how to completely retool, iterate your process. And also, you know, look at… you can certainly prepare and read a lot of the, you know, the Challenger Sales of the world and all the different kind of processes prospecting books and things like that that you want. But I think it's, it's just coming in with a mindset of every single person here wants to be better, wants to be the best, is in many cases already the best. And so you have to really come in there with your… and this is just what I did when I was there, because when I came to the summit, Scott, as you know, I was really, I was really on the market looking for an opportunity. I was looking for a great sales opportunity and a great job. And now I am incredibly blessed and humbled to have one as a complete result of the summit. But I went in there and I walked up to every individual and I sat next to different people in every single session, as you, as you forced everyone to do. And I walked up to every single presenter and talked to them about, about what they presented and how they apply that in their roles. And really just letting all of your guards down. Again, like we said at the beginning, bringing back to that confidence and building and growing, right? Making yourself uncomfortable, which was, I think, a big lesson from the last, the first summit. And I forget who was the MC. I forget.

45:48 Scott Ingram: Tom Singer.

45:49 James Christman: Tom Singer, right? If you follow Tom, like we all do on LinkedIn, you'll see the man is up on stage doing open mic comedy nights, constantly putting himself in these really uncomfortable situations. Kyle Gutzler on his podcast talks a lot about that discomfort. And so I would just tell people, you know, come in with that mindset, right, of you're going to grow in so many positive ways and really be mindful and visualize and do a lot of those things in preparation to get in that focus and to get in that mindset walking in those doors.

46:28 Scott Ingram: Love it, love it. So James, what else? Any parting thoughts before I have you issue our closing challenge?

46:35 James Christman: Yeah, I would, I would say one, one thing, and we talked about kind of accretive business value and ROI. I want to talk to you very quickly about a concept that one of my mentors, Ron Massey, who will also be at the summit here this year, so super excited for him, is really is this idea of hero-making, right? So we talk about business value and ROI. Think of it as I'm really making my customers a hero. And I literally use that language on calls. I say, I say, how can I make you a hero in your role? We know what the… we know what the vision of your leadership is. We know where you're all trying to go. How can I make you a hero to deliver that in the organization? I'm just the guy behind the scenes that makes you look good. And when… and it kind of gets a chuckle and things like that when you, when you deliver it that way. But, but that Hero Maker concept is just, it's just been super important to me. And I'll, and I'll, I'll leave that as kind of a landing and exiting thought here. As a challenge, again, back to some of the gratitude and the networking that we talked about initially, my challenge to you is sign up for the summit. Do it now. Execute. Be the doer. And if you want to buy your first house and completely furnish it as a result of making incredibly substantive change in your career. Go to the summit, go take an open mindset, and absolutely make it everything it can be.

48:01 Scott Ingram: James, this has been fantastic. I love that we got an opportunity to dig into your story. I mean, you really did do the work to maximize the summit last year. I hope there are a lot more folks like you that, that take on the opportunity. And I think you've provided a great, great roadmap to do just that. So thank you for being you, and I will see you here in Austin on October 14th.

48:26 James Christman: Looking forward to it, Scott. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. 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.