84: Successful Selling in a Small Company with Kyle Kruse of Global Interconnect

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 episode is sponsored by the 2020 Sales Success Summit that will happen here in Austin on October 12th and 13th. For complete details, click over to top1summit.com. Today on the Sales Success Stories podcast, my guest is Kyle Kruse. Kyle is the top seller at Global Interconnect out of Boston. Welcome to the show, Kyle.

0:44 Kyle Kruse: Scott, thanks so much for having me, man. I'm so pumped to be here.

0:47 Scott Ingram: Yeah, this is going to be a lot of fun. And let's kick things off with some immediate value like we always do and talk about the top 3 things that you believe have contributed the most to your success.

0:57 Kyle Kruse: Oh, heck yeah, Scott. All right, cool, man. I'm really excited to share these with you. First one, handwritten letters. Oh man, I live and die by the handwritten letter, Scott. They're personalized, they're genuine, they're specific. They cut through the noise in, you know, a world where everyone's getting bombarded with emails and phone calls and content and ads left and right. There's nothing better than getting a handwritten letter in the mail that's personalized to you. With a handwritten return address. When you open that up and you see that card and you want to take the time and you want to take a moment to read what's in that card. So, you know, being able to establish rapport and to, you know, really, I think, stand out, handwritten letters have been my go-to.

1:48 Scott Ingram: That's fantastic. At what point do you use those? Do you use it right, right at the beginning as you're establishing that connection or where in the process do the letters fit in?

1:57 Kyle Kruse: Great question. So I actually always always send a handwritten letter before I make a cold call, which is crazy to a number of salespeople, I'm sure, especially from a volume standpoint. How many handwritten letters could you possibly send? But I want to start off with a bang. I want to really impress someone right out the gate. And I only do this really, though, with my top prospects. So I might have anywhere from 50 to 75 top prospects. That I would do this with. And as I continue to find, you know, a new company through my prospecting that might fit the mold as a top prospect, of course they're going to get a handwritten letter as well. But I always do it upfront, cold, to set the stage.

2:44 Scott Ingram: Nice. And, and so 2 more follow-up questions. What is… what does that mean sort of like on a weekly basis? How many letters are you typically sending? And then how does that impact your conversion ratios? How often are you then able to have a conversation based on the, the letter as the first touch?

2:59 Kyle Kruse: Totally. So I would say that when I first started here and I was just getting ramped up, I was doing anywhere from 5 to 7 letters a day, and they might not even have been to a top prospect, but they were to, you know, at least a company that I really thought would, you know, yield at least some sort of conversation from the contact that I was reaching… from the person that I was reaching out to. So what was the second part of the question?

3:28 Scott Ingram: What's the impact on your conversion ratio in terms of actually then being able to have a conversation?

3:32 Kyle Kruse: Yeah, so I would say that probably anywhere from 25 to 30% of the people that I'm reaching out to, sometimes even 50% of my efforts, I get some sort of response. You know, I mean, I'm willing to even get, hey, Kyle, like, no, you know, but just getting that no, getting someone to respond to you, to talk to you, I'm going to call that a win in my book. You know, again, it's… it feels… I mean, I can feel the pain for a bunch of salespeople out there. You know, you're constantly reaching out and cold calling people and to get no response. And when you know you're so passionate and you really think you can help them. But yeah, so I would say definitely, you know, it varies, but I would feel comfortable saying a 25 to 30% improvement on my… on creating engagements and getting, you know, seeing results.

4:24 Scott Ingram: Awesome. So what's the second thing?

4:25 Kyle Kruse: Okay, so creating process. Now I'm in a unique situation here at Global Interconnect where I was able to come in and implement my own processes. But having a cold call process, having a deal process, understanding the marketing processes and how they're working with your sales processes is incredibly important. We leverage… shout out to HubSpot… to help implement these processes, to help us track everything in our pipeline, our activity with our prospects, as well as our marketing efforts. Right. So to get a little more specific on the cold calling process, that's where, you know, we're talking more of maybe like a sequence. So your handwritten letter, then a follow-up call, you know, 5 to 7 business days later with, you know, if you don't get them, it's a voicemail with an immediate email follow-up. And, you know, most of the time, you know, these people, again, they really appreciate that handwritten letter. So it's really cool to see like getting any kind of response or at least getting direct to the right person, what have you. So, you know, implementing that cold call calling process and realizing too, at the beginning it was like, hey, you're trying a bunch of different things, right? So I'm crushing the phones left and right and I'm like, gosh, this is not working. You know, I have to find a more meaningful way to engage with people. So, you know, mastering that cold call process is huge. The deal process, definitely shout out to Chet. He's a sales engineer with the organization and helps in just a variety of areas. But the guy is just like a tech nerd like no other. He's a numbers guy, just totally brilliant. Together we work together, you know, setting up that HubSpot pipeline, that deal process. And it grew so much over the years to where, you know, we don't believe in… we'll never send a quote out, right, without having a Zoom presentation. Right. So that's part of that deal process. We don't want to send that quote to what we call quote abyss, where you never hear back or you just don't know what happened. Right. So having that deal process and being able to march down those stages are so important. So that's pretty much, you know, I think what really again helped me see success and, and get to the top and stay there was making sure that we had the right processes in place.

6:46 Scott Ingram: Awesome. And it sounds like as, as you built out those processes, there's, there's just a lot of evolution and learning and, and realizing, hey, when, when we just send a quote without presenting it to somebody, that goes nowhere. And so now there's, there's a an enforced step in the process so you do it right every time.

7:01 Kyle Kruse: Totally, Scott. It's always changing. It's always improving. So you're exactly right.

7:06 Scott Ingram: Beautiful. So what's the third thing?

7:07 Kyle Kruse: So third thing, super common. You hear it a lot these days, but continuous learning. And I'm not talking about, you know, going out and getting an MBA, which is great. I definitely encourage everyone, if that's what you like to do, go and do it. But, you know, I'm all about just going to industry events, conferences, reading up on blogs, engaging on social media, seeing what other experts in the industry are talking about, especially my prospects, you know, like what are they interested in? That's, that's so important, right? Because it's all about the prospect. So understand what they're interested in and learn about that. So they might be interested in selling more products or services or hiring people or improving and scaling their business or operations. So You know, you want to always be educating yourself on, you know, how your customers might be able to improve. And then, you know, talking to your colleagues is another big piece. You know, I will eventually get to the whole… during our discussion, we might talk about, hint hint, you know, working remotely versus being in an office. But I will say that the opportunity to learn continuously through your colleagues, it's so powerful and it's really how organizations organizations truly, I think, achieve tremendous success and growth at an organization from learning from one another, from learning from different departments, you know. So we're talking, I might talk and meet with the engineering team on occasion, the quality, the procurement, the purchasing, the finance team, really understand kind of like what they're doing in, in their role, right, what they're seeing when working with customers. Also, if I have challenges or problems, I like to bounce it off them. They their feedback and perception. So I call that continuous, continuous learning. It's really easy to do, super important. And then again, you know, certain sales techniques. So, you know, I go to LinkedIn a lot too, and I try to follow a lot of popular sales experts out there that are constantly sharing great quality content to help improve how we engage and communicate with our prospects and how we try to develop business. So yeah, that's, that's pretty much, you know, number 3 for me is continuous learning.

9:25 Scott Ingram: Perfect. Well, I'm going to leverage that and use that point to talk just a bit more about the Sales Success Summit since I'm sponsoring my own episode today. And this year's summit will be the 3rd annual event happening here in Austin on October 12th and 13th. This event is really different from other sales conferences out there because it exclusively features the top performing sales professionals you've heard here on this podcast. And my rule for guests on this podcast is that they have to be active quota-carrying individual contributors who are either the outright number one top seller in their organization, like Kyle, or at least in the top 1% of performers on a very large team. So you won't find the gurus or the quote-unquote sales experts on the stage at this event, only real practitioners. And it's an intimate experience with a max of just under 200 participants where we all get an opportunity to learn from each other. I could go on and on, but the details are available for you at top1summit.com. And the sooner you register, the better your ticket price is because those increase $50 per month until they're sold out. If you, like Kyle, believe in continuous learning and want to learn from the best of the best, then this event is for you. top1summit.com. All right, Kyle, let's provide a little bit of context here. Talk about your role and Global Interconnect just to put things in perspective.

10:50 Kyle Kruse: Okay, great. So I lead our new customer development efforts. And here at Global Interconnect, you know, we're focused on helping manufacturers improve and scale their business through our manufacturing engineering capabilities. Our expertise is in electromechanical assemblies. Some of these are custom extruded or custom molded assemblies, a lot of interconnects, cables, printed circuit boards. So that's kind of what we're getting into here. When I got here, we really didn't have much of a team. In fact, I was at one point the only one on the sales team. I was given a computer, a phone, hardly any marketing material, only 1 or 2 warm leads a year, and we were really only averaging 1 or 2 new customers a year. So we had to figure out, you know, how to improve that. So that allowed me to implement, you know, these certain types of strategies and tactics to develop this new business. So again, you know, going back to those 3 points at the beginning of our conversation, you know, that's kind of really what helped me get to that number 1 role. So now I decided to focus on what I could control in the early stages. So again, that was my cold calling process, how I communicated with people, especially how I made them feel. I also then decided to niche my sell because I knew I could apply what I was learning with other manufacturers and other customers to our… my new prospects and their business, their products, what they were doing over there, I could be seen as a trusted expert. And with that niche, right, when I, when I decided to niche myself, I made sure too that I had 5 top qualifiers if I was going to niche myself. So having those 5 top qualifiers, you know, was incredibly important to keeping me focused on the type of customers that really fit that, that I thought fit our business the best, where I felt like they would also feel the same way. So hopefully, you know, you know, creating that conversation, hoping to land those new opportunities with them, it just helped make that whole experience a lot more successful.

13:03 Scott Ingram: And give an example of like what that qualifier might, might be. I mean, is that size of company and things like that?

13:09 Kyle Kruse: Sure. So first and foremost, they have to have a product, right? Product's number one. Do they have a product that we think we can add value to? Annual revenue and amount raised. So yes, Scott, you were correct on that. Annual revenue is very important. Some companies though are pre-revenue. So then I look at, you know, maybe the amount they've raised. Then it's important that we look at the number of products. If they have a high number of products and kind of a low annual revenue, well, they might not have the volume, right, that might be ideal for our business. Locations is really important. We look factor in their headquarters and their manufacturing locations. You know, ideally it's nice that when they're in the United States, right, headquarters and manufacturing in the United States, it makes it a lot easier to work with the organization. Now, it doesn't mean we can't work with an organization that has a headquarters and manufacturing in other parts of the world. We do it all the time. But again, my top qualifiers, my preference, I want them to be here in the US. And then number of employees that really does, it paints a great picture because a number of employees tells you, you know, how many people do they have, you know, on their global supply chain, on their engineering team, on their quality team. Because if this is an organization that has a small number of employees, then oh my goodness, our resources can be incredibly valued to them. It can save them so much time so they can invest their time and their energy and efforts in other parts of the business where they won't have to get held up on that, you know, foolish cable assembly. You know, why do they want to waste their time there? They don't. So we know that we can add value to companies, you know, with a lower number of employees. So those are the 5 qualifiers: product, annual revenue, number of products, locations, and the number of employees.

15:01 Scott Ingram: Perfect. And you and I started talking a little bit before we hit the record button here about just your role and the way it's evolved over time. Obviously, as a smaller organization, not, not a new organization, but in many ways kind of feels like a startup. And And your role has really evolved into one as a, as a player coach. So talk about as that has evolved, and I think that perspective will be interesting for a lot of folks that are, that are working for smaller organizations where you're wearing a lot of different hats and contributing in different ways beyond just the number. But talk about the number, quantify your results for us the best you can.

15:34 Kyle Kruse: So each salesperson is responsible for closing a certain number of new customers at a certain deal size, you know, each calendar year. So in 2019, I was responsible for closing 5 new customers with a minimum deal size of $50K. Now I did 6 new customers, but it was at an average deal size of $136K. So that's just crushing your number right there, Scott. You know, that's knocking it out of the park. And, and, you know, you mentioned that also at the same time I'm wearing many hats and you're right. I'm working with other salespeople. I'm helping them be successful. I'm working with marketing to help support our efforts and it's a lot, but that's, that's how we're quantifying our results.

16:17 Scott Ingram: Beautiful. Beautiful. So at the end of the day, it sounds like something in the neighborhood of 325% of your annual number, which isn't too bad.

16:24 Kyle Kruse: Heck yeah.

16:26 Scott Ingram: Awesome. So what's your origin story? How did you get into sales in the first place?

16:29 Kyle Kruse: Okay, so this is, this is wild and I'm so excited to share this with you because it totally came from my childhood experiences. And, you know, I obviously you know, can thank my father for this. But now, when I was a young kid, right, when I was about in 4th grade, I'll never forget, you know, my father. He had… he always had this garden, right? So together we would grow vegetables and we would set up a farm stand at the end of the road. And then, you know, it was just me there selling a few cucumbers, some tomatoes and whatnot. But you know what? It just taught me just the meaning of business and what it's like to work so hard and then to, you know, sell something and to receive money for it. You know, as a kid, you're like, wow, you know, this is awesome. You know, it was like the glorified lemonade stand, if you will, you know, but we were doing a farm stand. So a lot, just a lot of work went into that at times. Scott, oh, this is great. So I grew up on Cape Cod and there's the Cape Cod Canal. It's a place where all these tourists go, right? And during the summertime, Back in, let's say, '98, right? There weren't that many stores around the area. So a ton of these tourists were going to the canal. They're riding their bikes, they're rollerblading, they're enjoying the beautiful weather. Right. But there's no way for them to get a beverage. So what did I do? I would slap on the rollerblades. I'd fill the wagon up with water and soda, and I'd go up and down the canal selling them for a buck each. Right. I was just a hustler. And it was something that my dad taught me. And over the years it just continued to evolve. I mean, I started to notice trends in middle school with Pokémon cards and I thought the craze was, you know, it was pretty hilarious if you ask me. I wasn't exactly into it, but my goodness, all my friends were. So what did I do? I took my… all the money that I was making from, you know, the farm stand, the beverage wagon, right? And I'd go out and I'd buy a bunch of decks of Pokémon cards and I'd sift through them and I'd get all the nice holographic ones, the ones that, you know, people were searching for endlessly. And I'd bring them with me to school and on the bus. And here I was pushing Pokémon cards and making $5, $10, $20 a card. It was unbelievable. It was the funniest thing. But I mean, as a kid, it was in my blood to just sell, sell, sell, sell. I absolutely loved it. School fundraisers back in the day, right? So we would sell flowers, magazines, candy, Every year I was getting acknowledged, you know, in front of the school for being a top seller. You know, I won a Huffy bike one year. It was incredible. Right. So it was all these experiences really and truly as a young kid that kind of made me, you know, gain this major appreciation for business and for selling. And, you know, at the end of the day, I was making a ton of money as, you know, a little kid. So it was pretty special. It was, It was really exciting. So, so it was really those experiences that kind of, you know, I think pretty much got me to where I am today. It made me the person I am. You know, I was a, I was a big athlete. I played hockey and lacrosse even throughout college. So I think, you know, the experience I had with, with athletics also molded me into who I am. But, you know, those stories, I was just so excited to share them because they're unique, they're different. And not every kid has had that experience that I had. And I think that's super important for kids to have those experiences. Oh, and shout out, shout out to John Barrows. I know that he's got a book out there that says, I want to be in sales when I grow up. I think that's brilliant. It's just so, it's so refreshing to see a book like that come to the market because, you know, it's an incredible career. It's an incredible opportunity to you know, achieve every goal you've ever dreamt of in life. And so, you know, for kids to really understand the opportunity there is in sales at an early age, I think it's critical to, you know, how they eventually get in sales. So that's my story and just happy to share it.

20:41 Scott Ingram: Awesome. Awesome. So as your career has progressed and you went from the vegetable stand to more professional sales, is there anything if you could start over today that you would have done differently or thought about differently from a career perspective?

20:56 Kyle Kruse: Yeah. So those, those little sales stories and experiences, it made me, you know, this isn't bad, but I was highly motivated by money. Right. And when you get into the real world and you start selling professionally, right, you got to… what you don't realize and what I wish I've done differently or thought about differently was I should have stopped thinking about my darn self. And stop being motivated by money. And don't get me wrong, I love money, but when I sell to make money, it just never works out, right? So I think a lot of, you know, young professionals getting into the sales world, you just, just, you gotta do it for all the right reasons, right? And you gotta do it for, you gotta do it to help people. And when you have that approach, you know, you're more likely to see success a lot sooner.

21:49 Scott Ingram: Great stuff. Great stuff. So what's your favorite? I mean, we call the show Sales Success Stories. What's your favorite sales story, whether you won or lost, and maybe you learned something from that?

22:01 Kyle Kruse: All right. So I got to go with a win here. But, you know, it's just a great story. So it's a California-based manufacturer. And, you know, they fit all my top 5 qualifiers. Right. And I knew where they were at, like with their product lifecycle, where the company was going. You know, their market size and opportunity, I knew it was the perfect time to engage with them. So of course, I started with the handwritten letter. I went right to their CEO because, you know, it was still a small enough size company where I felt like, hey, if I can get the CEO's attention, have a higher level business conversation about the future of their business, where they're going, it might, you know, help set this up, you know, for success. That's exactly what happened. And essentially, I ended up getting you know, introduced to other members of their team. Through those introductions, you know, I ended up having the opportunity to then fly across the country, sit down with these people, meet them, you know, enjoy just, you know, a sandwich together, get to know them, who they are, kind of like what they're passionate about and, you know, learn about their family and stuff. You know, when you get to relate and you connect and build that relationship with people, it goes such a far such a long way. Now again, the problem with… it's not a problem, right? But the thing is with our business in our industry that someone, you know, a company isn't going to just say, hey, yeah, yeah, let's… we're gonna, we're gonna change out our supplier and get you in today. Usually there has to be some sort of project going on, right? So timing is truly everything, right? So I had to be patient because I knew the spend was there through my engagements when I was flying out with these people, seeing how their business worked, how operated, understanding their supply chain, right? You know, sitting down with people in person, it just made everything so clear, right? And then being able to communicate effectively with these people and helping them identify ways to improve their business and not just thinking about myself, right? But showing them so many other options and solutions that really didn't involve me, right? But what that did was that, that garnered their trust. So 2 years of this, right? 2 years. Scott, of probably 3 trips out to the West Coast, right? Having to come back and say to my, you know, executive team and owners, hey guys, listen, this is 100% worth the investment. The spend is there, the opportunity is there. You know, you gotta trust and believe in me. 2 years later, boom, we got that opportunity to put a proposal on the table that truly helped them improve their business. Allowed them to scale their, their operations. And next thing you know, we've got a $500,000 purchase order in our inbox, and that's recurring business that is forecasted to, you know, see some significant growth over the next couple of years. So that was such a huge win for our organization, for myself. And, you know, it just really helped me see the light and understand like, geez, Timing is everything, but you gotta, you gotta have that patience. You know, you gotta be willing to, to do whatever it takes. And, and I did all that and it was hands down, you know, my, my favorite story, the best experience, you know, and probably one of my largest accomplishments here at Global Interconnect.

25:31 Scott Ingram: That's fantastic. What about the flip side? So obviously big win, great accomplishment. What's the biggest challenge you've had to face or maybe even just put us at a time when you were struggling?

25:41 Kyle Kruse: So I had a great-paying, recession-proof type of sales job, you know, earlier in my career. I had the job for about 3 and a half years. And, you know, again, it was a job that, you know, not many people would walk away from, right? But I just really wasn't fully satisfied. I didn't exactly… I wasn't exactly passionate about the sale, you know, and I just wanted a bit more in life. I wanted more responsibility. I didn't want to just be a number. So I said, screw it, I'm leaving. I'm gonna go find something else. And unfortunately, I left for money, right? And I left because I got offered an opportunity to immediately make more money, right? But I wasn't entirely passionate about it. And that's why it didn't take, you know, more than a year for, for it to not work out. Next thing you know, I'm looking for other jobs. I'm working with a startup IT company. Doesn't work. I get fired. And I'm at a point in my life where I'm like, what did I do? Like, I left something good. I thought I wanted more, you know? And I started to doubt myself and I was really getting down on myself. And it got to the point, Scott, where I was making deliveries for Edible Arrangements. Okay? And it was my friend that owned the 2 Edible Arrangements, right? So here she is living it up and I'm like looking at myself like, what am I doing? I'm making deliveries for Edible Arrangements. So I couldn't have been in a lower point in my life, right? And I'm applying to jobs. I get a call from a recruiter, okay, that was hiring for the Global Interconnect position. The recruiter tells me I'm the least qualified person. You know, they appreciate, you know, my application. They'll keep it on file, blah, blah, blah. It just didn't settle well with me. So I said, enough is enough. I personally reached out to the Chief Operating Officer at Global Interconnect in an email, and I explained to him exactly what I was capable of doing and why I wanted to be a part of Global Interconnect and how I could help their organization. Now, a lot of people, after they get turned down by a recruiter and they're in a situation where they're just… they consider themselves a failure, it's really hard to find the courage to obviously go maybe over someone's head, if you will, right? And how's that going to look even with Global Interconnect? What are they going to think of this? But I sent the email anyways. And this was on Christmas Eve. And a couple weeks later, they invited me in for an interview. And just a week after that, they were asking me when I could start. And it was just one of those moments, right? Where you want to talk about being faced with a challenge, I was facing a challenge in my career and I felt lost and I didn't know where to go, but I never stopped believing in myself. And, you know, at a time of difficulty, I knew that I had to be, you know, mentally stronger than ever and I had to keep on, you know, plugging away and just never give up. So, you know, that's kind of a good example, I think, of, you know, when I was struggling and kind of how I overcame that challenge.

29:17 Scott Ingram: That's awesome. And I love that you called out the chasing money in a role. I don't know that I've heard it single story amongst my friends and, and my network where that works out. Right? If, if you can't get passionate about what's on the, on, on the other side, you just, I don't care how good the money looks on paper. It never seems to materialize. And, you know, it's, it's a conversation that turns out Scott Leese, who a lot of folks know from, from LinkedIn, is practically my neighbor. We've been living something like a block and a half from each other for the last, I don't know how many years, and, and just recently connected. And this is something that, that I think he and I are probably gonna be digging into this year around really just the, what's the due diligence process that you should do going into a new opportunity? And we're going to do that both as a seller, but also if you're looking at going into a sales leadership role, that's where the bulk of Scott Leese's experience is. So we're going to dive into a couple of those issues. And the other point that I think is interesting and matches up with, by the time I release this episode, I will probably have already shared this as a tip on the Daily Sales Tips podcast. Is if you're looking for a new sales job, that is a sales job and you have to demonstrate those skills and you have to build a pipeline and you have to be creating opportunities for yourself and then you have to have a process and you have to sell. And if somebody tells you no, does that necessarily mean no? Well, obviously you're a perfect case in point. No, you know, there's always more to be done.

30:47 Kyle Kruse: Yes, exactly, Scott. Totally agree. Yep.

30:50 Scott Ingram: Right. So again, but I always thought it's interesting, right? Because that's the only time that I'm selling something But I only have one, right? I can only sell myself in that scenario one time. So it's a little bit of a different dynamic than what I think we sell day to day, but that's exciting, right? That now you've got scarcity. Now you get in a position where people get to compete for you to have you if you do a good job of running that process and managing the way that you're positioning yourself for that new opportunity throughout that process. So let's now talk about just kind of day in the life kind of stuff. And I like to get really granular with this and talk about, you know, walk us through your day and the routines that make up your day. So the alarm goes off in the morning. What time did that happen? And give us the blow-by-blow from, from that point until your head hits the pillow.

31:44 Kyle Kruse: All right. So I'm definitely not the type that wakes up at, you know, the big 3:30, 4:00 AM wake-up. Pretty, pretty standard, pretty casual 6:30 wake-up. Up, breakfast with the fam. You know, I definitely try to spend time with my wife and daughter in the morning, but I, you know, I'm focused at the same time. I get out the door by 7:45. I don't work remote by choice. I choose to be in the office every day. I think it's the best place to be. So when I get there, I get there around, let's say I get there, I definitely get there by 8:30. I make my rounds. I always go around and I say hi to everyone and I ask people, you know, about their morning and their night. And, you know, again, I'm big on relationship building and just like, you know, we're such a family here at Global Interconnect. So, you know, I just, I love to, to just be involved and I, I make my rounds. Then, you know, around 9 o'clock I'll check my email, I'll get back to, you know, any immediate or outstanding requests or anything like that. Anything that's super, super important I might address in the morning right away. But for the most part, we have a standing team meeting at 9:30 every morning to discuss, you know, our priorities or the projects we're working on, what we need to execute that day. Because sometimes, you know, like I could maybe help out Scott or Megan, they could help out me. Those are just members of the sales team. And then, you know, that meeting typically lasts for, you know, 15 minutes, maybe a half hour tops. Right. So once 10 a.m. hits, you know, we have a plan and not just an individual plan, but a team plan of exactly what we need to do that day. So, you know, that helps us be on, be on the same page. And then at, you know, at noontime, I'm actually almost every day, Monday through Thursday, I work out at noontime. We have a gym in our building and our company totally believes in, you know, physical fitness, taking care of their body. And they just, they offer us this opportunity, amazing opportunity to do private workout classes, spin classes. So I always do that. And it's amazing too, because Okay, yeah, I might take an hour, hour 15 minutes at lunch, right? But I come back so fired up, more focused, more energized than ever in the most positive, you know, mentality. I get to work out any stress, you know, and I love, I love doing that actually in the, you know, right there at lunchtime. I would prefer to do it then. I'm not really, I got enough going on in the morning time. You know, I want to spend it with my family. I want to make sure I'm getting my sleep. Sleep's important to me, right? But workouts at noon. And then, you know, I get back and again, you know, I might have, you know, customer calls. You know, obviously those take priority. But for the most part, I'm always prospecting. I'm always cold calling. And, you know, obviously, yeah, sure, we've got set meetings, you know, throughout the week. Don't get me wrong. And then I'm working right up until about 5, 5:30. And, you know, at the end of my day, I'm always preparing a list essentially on what needs to be done the following day so that when I get there in the morning, I have that list, you know, to reflect on before that 9:30 meeting that I spoke about. So, I mean, that's pretty much it. You know, I'm actually still a big hockey guy. So, you know, my hope is that I can play men's league hockey until my legs don't So, you know, I'm playing, you know, every Tuesday and Wednesday night on top of it. So, you know, that's a big part because also the reason why hockey and, you know, having these routines not just during the business hours but outside the business hours, it's… there's such great opportunities to unwind and just stop, you know, thinking about anything going on, right? You don't… there's… I'm not thinking about anything. I'm living in the moment. I'm on the ice. And, you know, hockey is one of the only things that I can do and play where just there isn't a worry in the world. It doesn't matter what's going on. I'm in that moment. And that is almost like a form of yoga, right? Therapy to me. And so I think everyone should have that. You gotta find something. So, but anyway, so yeah, that's, that's my, my daily routine. And usually, you know, if I don't have hockey, it's bed by 9:30, you know, 10 o'clock. And I might be doing some work on the couch, before bed.

36:26 Scott Ingram: But yeah, very nice, very nice. Now you talked about continuous learning being one of your key success factors. What is your information diet? What are you reading, listening to, and watching? And when does that happen typically?

36:40 Kyle Kruse: So yes, it's definitely… obviously I listen to a ton of podcasts, so those are after hours or usually on the ride into work. I do enjoy listening to you know, How I Built This, TED Talks. I listen to The Wolf's Den. That's always entertaining. And obviously, no doubt, your Sales Success Stories. So I think there's a number of podcasts that I'm listening to. I'm actually leveraging, you know, obviously LinkedIn. Again, Jack Wilson, big shout out to him even for making this possible. He's been on your show, you know, Dale Dupree, John Barrows, Jeremy Leveille. So those are guys that I go to and follow on LinkedIn to, you know, get my Nutritional, you know, sales information, right? Believe it or not, Khan Academy, right? Khan Academy is really interesting because it's this, it's this free online learning platform, K-A-H-N. I don't know if you're familiar with it, Scott, but it's super cool if you want to like quickly try to learn about something that you're just not familiar with, you know, jump on Khan Academy. They have these amazing videos and tutorials all free. So I definitely leverage Khan Academy.

37:54 Scott Ingram: Awesome, awesome, awesome. So is there… I mean, you've talked again a lot about the processes that you set up. Is there a particular sales philosophy that drives a lot of the processes you've set up?

38:07 Kyle Kruse: So I usually… my sales philosophy, Scott, is quality over quantity. No doubt. I think the handwritten letters, obviously, that my type of outreach, how I'm trying to engage with people. You know, I'm obviously looking for high-quality outreach, high-quality conversations. So quality over quantity is, is more of an important philosophy to me. And then, you know, with that, timing is everything, you know, because you need these good quality outreaches. You need to be establishing rapport, creating that relationship so that when the timing is right for the customer, they're gonna bring you in, they're gonna know how you can help their business, and they're gonna… they're gonna essentially ask you to help them, you know. So those are my philosophies.

38:51 Scott Ingram: And how would you describe your style in, in the way that you execute against that philosophy?

38:56 Kyle Kruse: Yeah, total rifle approach. So I like to call it the missile approach. I go by the Kruse Missile Rocket. I might have to trademark that one, Scott, but that's what I'm all about. Yeah, Kruse Missile, you know, it's that Kruse Missile approach. It's a… it's that rifle approach, very direct, But I'm looking to build relationships. I bring the energy. I have a lot of fun. You know, I try to educate whenever I can, you know, without just like just kind of like blah all over the place, you know. And then I want to close that deal. So that's that's my style.

39:30 Scott Ingram: Awesome. So now we're it's the beginning of the year, right? And and we're all thinking about goals and resolutions and habits and and all of this. What motivates you and how do you just think about motivation in general?

39:43 Kyle Kruse: Okay, so hate to sound maybe cliché again, but my family. My family's everything. That's what's motivating me day in, day out, you know. Now aside from that, really it's, it's the number of lives that I'm helping save or improve, right? Because again, I'm working with medical device manufacturers, right? And you know, what are they concerned about? Well, they're concerned about bringing a product to the market You know, that the surgeon is comfortable with and trusts in and is willing to use that product with their patient. And so knowing that what the end result is and the types of, you know, companies or manufacturers that you're working with, knowing and understanding what those products essentially do, you're contributing to helping people improve or save their lives. And it's just, it's incredible. So that's super motivating to me. And then just knowing that my contributions here at Global Interconnect, right, all my sales efforts, everything I do, it directly impacts the growth of our company. And I just love that. I love seeing all of us benefit from that, you know, because it's really my number and, you know, our small sales team, their numbers that are like, you know, determining the future growth of this company. So when you have that much of an impact and it's that noticeable, you know, it's pretty motivating. So yeah, great.

41:12 Scott Ingram: You know, we talked a little bit earlier about some of the elements of, of your sales career and how you set yourself up for the opportunity at Global Interconnect. I'm curious about what advice you might give to somebody that's just getting their start in a sales career today.

41:28 Kyle Kruse: Okay, so you gotta be focused on being the best communicator that you can possibly be. I laugh because I still struggle today. You know, it's something that you can always be better at, but you really want to be the best communicator that you can possibly be. And creating these conversations with people is everything, right? So it's really how people are going to trust you, right? This isn't B2B anymore. It's not B2C. It's P2P. Okay? People to people. Right? So if you're starting out in a sales career, understand that people aren't buying, you know, your company and the company's product or service. They're buying you, right? It's all about… it's you that they're trusting and buying and believing in. So if you can be an amazing communicator and if you can create, you know, amazing conversations, you know, that's everything that's going to lead you down a road of success. So that would be my advice. So if you're starting out, you know, in a sales career today.

42:33 Scott Ingram: Now, Kyle, what about somebody that is a little further into their career and maybe they're, they're struggling? Maybe they just didn't have the best 2019 ever and they're looking to change things around for 2020, or maybe they're good, but they just, they haven't gotten to the top. What's your advice for them?

42:50 Kyle Kruse: Well, that's a great question. And I'm definitely not a therapist, but I can, I can say that, you know, you have to be honest with yourself and figure out, you know, why you're struggling. Or haven't made it to the top just yet, you know, obviously making sure that you're in the right place, that the sell is a good fit for your style. Is the culture supportive? You know, are you selling under high stress or fear? You know, what is your management? You know, what type of pressures are they putting and expectations are they putting on you? Is it reasonable? Right. And if it all is, you know, how are you engaging and communicating with your prospects. You know, I keep on harping on that communication piece, but, you know, it's so important. And you need to remember that it's not about you. It's always about the customer. So, you know, if there's any way that you can, you know, have people sit in with you on your calls, your conversations, look to others for input and support and guidance. You know, you have to be open to hearing other people's advice and opinions, right? So it's really important that you kind of do all of that. And then you, you just need to stay relentless and you need to stay super, you know, driven and just, you can't give up and you can't, you know, slack. And yeah, there's days where the phone gets heavy. You know, there's days where you feel like you can't, you know, do it, but you just, you need to find it in yourself. Salespeople, we are determined. You know, people that just are willing to do whatever it takes, right? So you have to have that mentality.

44:33 Scott Ingram: Nice, nice. Now you hinted at the beginning and you gave me an opening a little bit ago and I didn't take it, but it sounded like you maybe have some opinions about remote work versus working in an office.

44:46 Kyle Kruse: Oh yeah, you know, I think in our instance here at Global Interconnect, you know, being in the office, not working remote, but being in the office, having that ability to just talk to another member on your team, to be a part of all the big wins, you know, with the sales teams or, you know, engineering teams or whatever's going on at the company, to be there to share those experiences is so important. It's motivating, you know, for people. And I just feel like when you're at home, there's so many distractions, or you're working remote, there's so many distractions You know, staying focused, really being a part of that, that culture. It's, it's just so hard to do.

45:28 Scott Ingram: Nice. Well, maybe that'll be controversial. I've been working from home for I don't even know how many years. I don't think I'm capable of working in the office. I mean, for me, I think it's… you have to make the most of the situation that you're in because typically it's not going to change. I'm not going to suddenly start working in the office where my company's headquarters in Minneapolis. I'm going to stay in Austin. It's much better.

45:50 Kyle Kruse: Of course it is.

45:52 Scott Ingram: With apologies to my friends in the far north. But, you know, it's, it's just different things. What you describe distraction that is home for me, I'm just as distracted in the office, right? Because there's all the conversations just by, by the fact that you're there. I feel like you get pulled into a lot of meetings that you may or may not need to be a part of. But at the end of the day, that situation is what it is. You, you probably work from the office the majority of the time, or you work remotely the majority of the time. And I think just have to recognize the, the opportunities and the challenges that each of those situations present and, and make the most of it.

46:28 Kyle Kruse: Scott, you make all great valid points, and, you know, I just, I can't disagree with any of that. And, and like I said, I'm, you know, not exactly here to take, you know, sides or defend that working in an office is better. It was just a… it's just, you know, obviously something that I personally have seen or found more success in with me personally being in an office than outside of the office. So, but hey, I completely see where you're coming from.

46:54 Scott Ingram: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, it's, I mean, it's a good topic for conversation, right? I think it's one that we don't maybe talk about proactively enough. I think the trend over the last number of years certainly has been to more and more remote work, and I think that's probably likely to continue. And again, you just have to sort of recognize what that situation is, what that opportunity is, where you might be challenged in that situation. I mean, there's certainly a lot of folks where, you know, working from home just mentally is, is too tough, right? I mean, if, if you're just that far on the extroversion scale that you need to be around people more, right, is, is perhaps a factor. And again, something, something to consider. Are you in the right… are you in the right spot, not just with the company, but, but your situation, which, which may be for you better working from home or, or better working remotely. So, Kyle, I, I'm always interested in knowing what you would want to know about top sellers in other organizations and the things that they might be doing.

47:55 Kyle Kruse: Okay, so I definitely first want to kind of know a little bit more about just themselves, like who they are, where they come from, what's their upbringing like. Because like I mentioned, you know, I think that there's a lot of things that happen, you know, before you hit your professional career that kind of mold you into who you are But, you know, also, you know, how they kind of got into sales, you know, what motivates them to wake up and sell each day. And especially, you know, I'm such a big process guy. I want to know more about, you know, their type of processes that, you know, they might be implementing or executing in their role. You know, what's their cold calling process look like? You know, how's their deal pipeline work and function? So, you know, those, those are things that I would be most curious about.

48:42 Scott Ingram: Awesome. Awesome. Well, we are recording this, and I think we're both on holiday break right before the end of the year, and I'm kind of eager to get back to my family here for a little bit. So why don't we wrap things up? And what I always like to do in this last question, you know, we've talked about a lot of different things, and that's all well and good, but I really believe that getting better is about action and actually doing something based on what you're learning. So Kyle, what would you recommend that the person listening to this right now do do to improve themselves and improve their results over the course of the next, say, 1 to 2 weeks?

49:20 Kyle Kruse: Okay, so you know where I'm going with this, Scott. I'm all about the handwritten letters, right? Even if you're in a high-volume sell, even if your product, you know, relates to just thousands and thousands of companies that you could possibly work with, take your top prospects. Everyone's got that You know, whatever it is. And I know everyone's work week's different and implementing all of a sudden a new sales strategy and, you know, into their daily routine can be challenging, right? But what I recommend them do is write and mail 4 to 5 cold call handwritten letters each day, right? For those 7 days or 2 weeks. Okay, do that each day. Okay? And then make sure you follow up with those prospects 5 to 7 business days after, or however many manageable you can possibly write during those 2 weeks, but follow up with them 5 to 7 business days after. Leave a voicemail, right? Always leave a voicemail. Send an immediate follow-up email, right? Or a LinkedIn message. Do that little sequence. Okay? You should see anywhere from, again, as I mentioned, a 20% to 30% increase in conversations, right? That should help get the ball rolling. So if there are top prospects that you have just have not been able to connect with, not been able to reach, you send them a darn handwritten letter, make it about them. Okay. And, and have some fun and, and, and see how, you know, see how it works. And when you send that letter, don't use your, you know, business envelopes that are in the closet with your company logo and return address on it. No, no. No, no, write everything and lick that stamp. Don't use the Pitney Bowes. Lick the stamp, slap it on there, and send it out. Okay, you want this real authentic handwritten letter to go into your prospect's hands. So that's my advice, you know, to the people listening today.

51:25 Scott Ingram: I like it. It's, it's great advice. And I, I will tell you, it's funny, I'm working on… I was finishing up a bunch of letters this morning because one of the things we did at the end of the last summit is I had everybody write themselves a And then put that, put that in an envelope, and I was gonna mail it to them right at the end of the year. So I'm, I'm just finishing those up, and, and they had the option to seal them, in which case I would not read them, or to leave them open. And so most folks left them open, and I've, I've, it's been a ton of fun just reading through folks, their biggest takeaways and some of the things that they wanted to make sure that they were acting on and following up on from, from the summit. And so just this opportunity to reinforce that. And so I'm dropping a little personalized note into those that were, that were left open and, and mailing those out today. The other thing that I'll say is, If you wanna practice and you wanna send me a letter, I promise I will return it. I will send a letter back because I know not nearly enough of you will actually do this. I won't have to worry about the quantity because not enough people act, which is too bad. But if you are one of those, you are my people. I would love to hear from you. And at the bottom of every single email that I send, at least every, every one of the newsletter types of emails, if you're on the listener list, if you go to top1.fm, And you drop your name and email address in, in on the form there. Every email that you get from me, my address is on the bottom. So I, I'm not hard to find. Send me a note. I'd be happy to return it. And if that helps you sort of get in that rhythm, that's great. Don't worry about your writing. Nobody cares. They care that you're, you're human. So I love this challenge, Kyle. I think it's a great challenge for the beginning of the year, a great way to stand out because you can't, you can't do hand handwritten letters at scale. And people can tell when you're trying to fake it. You're using some, some other surface. So, so do it, be human, and tell us about the results. Go to top1.fm/kyle-kruse. You'll find all of the show notes for this episode. You'll find all of the links to everything that Scott talked about, including the Khan Academy and John Barrows's book and everything else that's, that's going on. We've got links to all of that for you. There is something else. Why am I sending people to that page?

53:30 Kyle Kruse: Well, and you know, Scott, hey, if anyone obviously had any questions, you know, from me about how I write a handwritten letter, and I'm totally willing to talk to anyone, you know, hit me up on LinkedIn. I'm happy to kind of fill you in on my approach, the details there. I know I kind of, you know, addressed this at a higher level, but yeah, there's, there's definitely more to it. There is a strategy. So I think that's, you know, an incredible offering on your part, Scott. To help all of your listeners who, you know, want to try this out. But at the same time, I'm more than happy and willing, you know, to be a resource to them as well.

54:08 Scott Ingram: Kyle, that's awesome. I love that offer. I love that, you know, virtually everybody that has come on this show is, is so open and willing to help. So connect with Kyle, connect with him on LinkedIn, send him a note if you have questions about the handwritten letters, go check out the show notes page and, and all the links for everything we talked about here. And then keep on coming back. You've got a new tip every single day on the Daily Sales Tips podcast. If you're not already listening to that. And then every week here, every other week, you've got an interview like I just did with Kyle. And in the in-between weeks, I'm either going to continue sharing presentations from the previous Sales Success Summits or sample chapters and sample stories from the Sales Success Stories books. And we've got another one coming up where we're finishing up all of the polishing and details for Sales Success Stories Volume 2, which will be coming out in Q2 sometime this year. So thanks so much for listening, and we will see you next time.

55:05 Kyle Kruse: 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.