Why Follow-Ups Lead To Sales – Ep. 29

[00:00:00] Dillon Tucker: Yeah, yeah, you know, um, scaling it back to when I was a kid, right? Um, my my grandfather always taught me to, uh, walk up and shake someone's hand, right? Um, so the way the way I grew up on the farm, right, as I was taught to walk up and shake somebody's hand. So, I'd like to think like all the way back since then was my sales experience, right?

[00:00:19] Dillon Tucker: The number one mistake that any SDR or account executive is going to make is not following up properly. It is one of the easiest things to do. Like, it's so simple, especially with the technology we have today. Like, the companies like Outreach, the companies like Apollo, the companies like Salesloft, who whoever, right?

[00:00:39] Dillon Tucker: Well, you know, I turn around, something distracts me, I walk away from the laptop, or one of my colleagues pings me, I change tabs, I forget about that Calendly link, I forget about you, you never reach back out to me. Well, guess what? It's a lost lead for you, right? And it's it's as hot as can be, right, when that lead happens.

[00:00:56] Dillon Tucker: I think the first thing you have to do is take your shoes off and sit on the other side of the desk and put your feet in the shoes of the prospect. Where do they live? What do they think about? What are their pains? You know, I've taken Sandler training, I've taken Challenger Selling, and done all these things, right? And one of the best books I've ever read is called "The Coaching Habit". Go check it out if anyone wants to. It's fantastic. It taught me a lot of things about questions.

[00:01:18] Dillon Tucker: But like, how you're going to stand out now as a BDR, something I call killer questions. When you get in that conversation with someone, sure, you're going to want to pitch a meeting. But you pitching a meeting, you're doing that for you. Sure, you might be doing it for the prospect in the long run, but realistically, you're doing it to try to hit your quota.

[00:01:31] Dillon Tucker: We need to be creative in how we actually try to hit our quota, and we need to be creative in actually caring about the prospect and fixing their problem. So like, if I can get them to understand that I actually care about their pain, then we've got a sale, baby.

[00:01:43] Dillon Tucker: Yeah, yeah, without a question, right? Um, that that one-person company, you know, I would say like a golden ticket organization, you know, is a founder who has meetings on his calendar or her calendar, and they're busy. They don't have time to do follow-ups. They don't have time to focus on actually closing the deals. They don't have time. And like, the big differentiator is, hey, what if I could just do all that for you, and you can focus specifically on getting deals through your door?

[00:02:10] John Karsant: On today's episode of Prospecting Pros, we have Dylan Tucker. Thanks for joining us. Welcome.

[00:02:17] Dillon Tucker: Yeah, thanks thanks for having me, John. Really appreciate it.

[00:02:20] John Karsant: So, what I like to do is to start with every every guest is just give us a little bit of background on your career. Like, where where did you get started in sales, and how did you make your way to where you are today? Walk us through that that journey and and touch on some of those those job experiences you've had along the way.

[00:02:35] Dillon Tucker: Yeah, yeah, you know, um, scaling it back to when I was a kid, right? Um, my my grandfather always taught me to, uh, walk up and shake someone's hand, right? Um, so the way the way I grew up on the farm, right, as I was taught to walk up and shake somebody's hand. So, I'd like to think like all the way back since then was my sales experience, right?

[00:02:55] Dillon Tucker: Um, but you know, once I graduated college, um, got a finance degree and communications, and um, after I I started in the financial field of, you know, getting your Series 6 and mutual funds and selling life and health annuities, insurances, all this jazz. Um, I I had a colleague and and one of my best friends, um, reach out and, you know, bring me into the world of SaaS.

[00:03:18] Dillon Tucker: Um, and since then, it's it's been a it's been a journey, man. Around 10 plus years in in SaaS so far. Started out as a BDR, as as most of you guys and gals do. Um, transitioned into player-coach BDR leadership, transitioned into full BDR leadership, ultimately transitioned into closing deals and account executive leadership as well. Um, with the majority of my experience being BDR, though. Um, with that being said, um, yeah, now now I kind of do some fractional work on the side as well for organizations as a Chief Growth Officer, and um, all in all, come in and build sales processes for organizations. Um, yeah, that's just a super high-level version of of my my journey.

[00:03:58] John Karsant: Okay. Let's talk through some of those. I want to talk about, you know, you starting as a BDR. I think you were at Outreach. Is that your first experience as, like, getting your feet wet as a BDR?

[00:04:08] Dillon Tucker: So, first experience, um, I lived in Florida at the time. At the time, you know, it was 2018 before like the whole work-from-home thing kind of started. So, most tech hubs were Boston, San Francisco, New York. So, my buddy was like, hey, if you want to get in this field, you got to you're going to have to go to one of them. And he lived in Boston.

[00:04:32] Dillon Tucker: Um, so I worked for a It kind of went in tandem with my degree, since I had a finance degree. Um, this company was called Centage, and it's a budgeting software, right? Um, I was driving an hour and a half, two hours to work every day, um, and back, um, just to just to break break even, you know? Shopping at the Dollar Tree for the first six months of me living in Boston.

[00:04:52] Dillon Tucker: Um, blessed and thankful for the experience, um, you know, because it got me kicked off in this career, right? Um, but at the same time, it was it was rough.

[00:05:04] Dillon Tucker: That being said, you know, I realized at that point, uh, you know, just the the Boston experience wasn't necessarily for me, you know? I had lived in the cold my whole life already. I was ready for some warmth in my life. Um, so I made my way back down to Florida, because, you know, I was originally from West Virginia, and I lived up north.

[00:05:22] Dillon Tucker: Um, so I made my way back down to Florida, and that's when I landed Outreach. Outreach was really, really fun because, you know, I was there just over a year and a quarter, and um, I came on as a front-line, lower-level BDR, got promoted within what, three to six months, and um, was more of a corporate-level BDR, and I had the opportunity to work with some really, really great leadership because in that just year and a quarter I was there, we went from 20 to 120 million in ARR, right? It was like super high growth, right? Um, which was just a really fun journey to be a part of.

[00:05:56] Dillon Tucker: And in that, you know, it gave me an opportunity to work with a lot of leadership and determine where I wanted to go. Um, it's kind of where my journey in BDR management, uh, and just management as a whole from a sales perspective started, because they they offered a mentorship program. I wanted to be in that ASAP, right?

[00:06:16] Dillon Tucker: Um, once once I got in the mentorship program, I was mentoring one of these girls who had just started. She was on her second month. She was like, "Dylan, I'm not going to hit quota." I was like, "Let's go on a walk." We went in I was in in the office in Seattle at the time for for like a sales kickoff event and stuff. Um, so we go, we sit down, we talk about it. I let her kind of explain how she feels about the situation and where she's going to be.

[00:06:40] Dillon Tucker: And all in all, um, and this is a good learning experience for a lot of you BDRs out there, is it's a lot of it's mindset, right? Whether you sit there and you're banging out a bunch of dials, or you're sending emails, or you're using LinkedIn, or whatever you're doing to try to get these leads and these opportunities, right? Um, the way you present yourself, the way you show up and and you're standing and you're talking on the phone during the day, right? Um, all of your body language really impacts the impact of you hitting your quota.

[00:07:05] Dillon Tucker: So, um, that's what we kind of discussed, and we shifted her mindset. She went back, and she hit her quota two days later. Um, and that's when I kind of woke up, and I was like, man, the impact that I made on her within just a moment, uh, was was just such a good feeling, right? Um, for for her, right, because she ended up hitting her number, and uh, that just made me so happy. So like, um, yeah, it was a really fun ride at Outreach, and since then, I've worked at a multitude of other organizations as well, scaling out their programs.

[00:07:31] John Karsant: Two things I want to touch on there. One, how did that exactly work? Like, what was in it for you to mentor the other person? Like, did they have some type of, uh, payment? Like, uh, was it kind of like, hey, if you do this, you'll get a taste of what it's like to be in management? Like, how did that how did they spin it to both sides?

[00:07:49] Dillon Tucker: Yeah, so great question. Um, always thought of myself as a go-getter. So, any opportunity that I saw to find my way to my next step in the organization, um, I jumped on it, right? Um, so whether it was me going into management or being an account exec, that mentorship step was still a step to me getting promoted, right?

[00:08:13] Dillon Tucker: Um, so I looked at that as just an opportunity to to to step up the ladder, you know? And um, cool part that came with it is our VP of Sales Development at the time, um, Steve, he uh, he was actually the previous VP of Sales Development at Tony Robbins. So, he had a ton of knowledge. And what, since I was a mentor and I ended up having that experience and decided to go into management, um, I had the opportunity to take management classes with him directly, right?

[00:08:43] Dillon Tucker: And um, that was just such a fun experience, and because of his knowledge was just an absolute wealth. Um, I still interact with him on LinkedIn sporadically today, and like, but my my guy's managed thousands of people, right, BDRs, and Tony Robbins, one of the most high-engine, let alone Outreach, one of the most high-engine, uh, startups ever, right? Um, so like, to answer your question long long-windedly, um, I just wanted that next step.

[00:09:12] John Karsant: Okay. But did they offer anything, or was it just like, hey, this is a, uh, something you have to jump on and be willing to invest your own time and money?

[00:09:19] Dillon Tucker: Invest your own time.

[00:09:21] John Karsant: Yeah. I was curious because, you know, I have a big team of BDRs, and that's one of the things, like, a lot of people want to be promoted, but they don't, unless there's like a financial or something in front of them to do something, they're like, why would I do that? Why not Why I can go I can be making calls during that time. And so, I was just curious how how that program was built out.

[00:09:41] Dillon Tucker: No, I think I think what's important is as as the BDRs learn and grow as as people, right? Like, yes, you can be making calls at that time, but um, once you've been a BDR for so long, you should understand how to manage your day a little bit better, right?

[00:09:57] Dillon Tucker: Um, I remember when I first started as a BDR, sure, I would make 100 calls in a day, right? By the time I was a BDR for two years, I'd make 100 calls in an hour, right? So like, you kind of figure out, um, through your journey as a BDR, to to manage your day in different ways.

[00:10:11] John Karsant: It's funny, earlier you were talking about the the long drives, the commute, going to the dollar store, and it being rough, but also worth it. It's a lot of people I talk to, and and also including myself, have some of these experiences too, is you have these you have these early jobs in your career that kind of suck, but looking back on it, super good experience, and it's like it's pretty rough at the time, but then you look back on it, you're like, wow, that was some of the best experience I could have had to jump that uh, jump-start or or leap my career forward.

[00:10:47] Dillon Tucker: Exactly.

[00:10:48] John Karsant: And so, you know, if anyone anyone out there is listening, um, you know, if you're getting good experience, it might be worth it. It kind of sucks for a year or so, but it's some of the best experience. You know, I I worked I was the first sales hire at a few different startups. It was a mess, right? But you learn so much along the way on how to do certain things, and you're you're wearing so many hats, and you're you have get the opportunity to do things that you wouldn't normally if you're at a bigger organization and you kind of have the guardrails up on what you can and can't do.

[00:11:17] Dillon Tucker: Yeah, it definitely never hurts to get your hands dirty, John. I completely agree. Um, I would say a majority of my experience is actually, uh, teams who didn't have BDRs at all, or had like one account executive or something like that, right? Um, where you just had to come in and build it from the ground up.

[00:11:34] Dillon Tucker: Um, so you may come in as a Head of Sales Development or BDR Manager, but you're actually marketing, BDR, account executive, Head of Sales, all of the above. Um, so that's what makes makes it a really fun journey to to wear all the hats.

[00:11:48] John Karsant: So, so, um, moving on in in your career, like, that was you mentioned Outreach and the mentorship program. What else was it, like, what kind of, uh, did did leadership see in you specifically as, like, hey, Dylan actually, rather than having him continue to be a BDR, he could actually be a really good sales development manager? Like, what was it that they saw in you, or you saw in yourself, that ultimately you're like, hey, this is the this is the fork in the road now I want to go towards towards management?

[00:12:15] Dillon Tucker: Yeah, yeah. So, I think not only that moment that I explained earlier, but I think, um, my desire to help people grow, um, kind of was a realization for me, because I always wanted to do that. Even back when I was waiting tables, right, and giving people food, right, like I'm serving people, giving people things back in the day, right? Like, um, it's a way of helping others in some form of fashion, right?

[00:12:38] Dillon Tucker: Um, so that desire to help others really was a key, um, catalyst for me. Um, but I think also, you know, it goes back to my first week at Outreach when I was doing training in Seattle. And a lot of you people who follow a lot of BDR leaders out there, you might know Ken Amara, right? Um, or Sam Nelson, right? Um, they were direct leadership at Outreach at the time.

[00:13:02] Dillon Tucker: And, um, part of the training program in the beginning was we would do a cold call like session, right? And, um, I like to pride myself on the phones. And, um, I love teaching my reps about the phones because the phones will never be dead. They will always be alive. Um, in some form of way, we may get less connects, but they will still be alive. Um, so like,

[00:13:25] John Karsant: 100% agree.

[00:13:26] Dillon Tucker: Yeah, yeah, no question. Um, so, uh, I ended up winning. Like, we we have a training group of, I don't know how many at the time, um, 10 people, whatever it is. And, um, two of us from Tampa and the other six or eight from from Seattle. And, um, you you pitch your way up until you're pitching the VP. And then I I did the cold call with the VP. They they said they said that I won.

[00:13:53] Dillon Tucker: And, uh, at the time, the the office was in Fremont, uh, which is like near Seattle, outskirts. And downstairs was the Brooks building. I'd never like bought a nice pair of shoes before, like other than like maybe some dress shoes, whatever my grandma might have got me because I was a kid or whatever, right? Um, I they took me downstairs, bought me a nice pair of Brooks. And as you guys know, Brooks are really nice running shoes, like $250 pair of shoes, whatever. I felt so good after that. So like, um, I think where where the journey started, um, was seeing them coach me through that fashion, right?

[00:14:28] Dillon Tucker: And then as I transition and got promoted and moved my way up, um, the real opportunity was understanding the value of I can help other people get out of whatever they're in, whether they're driving Uber, whether they're doing something, whether they're doing nothing, right? What whatever they're doing, and start their career into something awesome very, very quickly, as long as they share that positivity, that drive, and that tenacity that I bring to the table. If they share that, then they're going to bring value into a role like this. So,

[00:15:00] John Karsant: So, moving into when you actually became an STR manager, it looks like you had several several different positions. What are some of the common mistakes you see, whether that be in the past or or in today's world, what are some of the common mistakes that you see SDRs make, and how do you think they can can fix those?

[00:15:16] Dillon Tucker: The number one mistake that any SDR or account executive is going to make is not following up properly. It is one of the easiest things to do. Like, it's so simple, um, especially with the technology we have today. Like, the companies like Outreach, the companies like Apollo, the companies like Salesloft, who whoever, right?

[00:15:43] Dillon Tucker: Um, the technology's built. All you have to do is click the AI button that says "build the follow-up sequence for me" and then plug the leads in after you hold the discovery call, or plug the leads in after the prospect says yes.

[00:15:59] Dillon Tucker: I have a sequence, um, and I'm sure my LinkedIn will will be shared in this, so if you guys want to check it out, right, like it's it's in my my LinkedIn. It's where it's a sequence that gets 100% reply rates. You ask me how, right? Anytime someone tells you yes, what does a typical salesperson do? They go, "Okay, here's my Calendly link." What did I do there? I just put all the pressure and work effort on you, John, to fill out this form, to go do things, right?

[00:16:29] Dillon Tucker: Well, you know, I turn around, something distracts me, I walk away from the laptop, or one of my colleagues pings me, I change tabs, I forget about that Calendly link, I forget about you, you never reach back out to me. Well, guess what? It's a lost lead for you, right? And it's it's as hot as can be, right, when that lead happens.

[00:16:49] Dillon Tucker: Um, my 10-minute follow-up sequence essentially just says, "Hey, you said yes. Let's let's do it." And 100% of the time, it works every time. So, um, yeah, I think the biggest mistake you can do as a BDR is just not properly following up. And I don't mean like harping people. I don't mean like calling them every day. I don't mean, you know, sending an email every other hour, right? I mean doing it in a proper way that doesn't intrude, but also is respectful, and also accomplishes the goal of trying to help someone do their goal.

[00:17:25] John Karsant: Yeah, and and to add on to that is not everyone's just going to be You're not going to catch everybody at the at the perfect time, right? Some people are going to say, "Hey, I'm at a conference this week. Hey, I'm out of town. Hey, I talked to my I have a meeting to discuss something like this next week," right? So, you're going to have to follow up with people anyways. You're just not going to catch everybody and get them on a meeting right away, right?

[00:17:47] John Karsant: So, you have to build a follow-up process. Um, now, whether that's something the org has built out, or you just need to be on top of your own game and create follow-up tasks or follow-up sequences, like, that's that's up to you. But yeah, I mean, you're just not going to catch everybody at the right time. You have to build that out, and people will appreciate when you follow up in like within the terms that they said to, right? If they say, "Follow up in May," you can be like, "Hey, you said to follow up in May," right? If you can repeat their own words back to you, back to them, then they're likely to be like, "Yeah, I did say that, right? Okay, yeah, this is a good time," or "No, this isn't," but uh, yeah, the follow-up's so important.

[00:18:24] Dillon Tucker: Yeah, that's that's how you build pipeline, John. Um, if if you get 10 leads this month, four next month, that's fantastic. Not every lead needs to be a right now. If you if you come in to it's May now, if you come into August and you have 30 leads ready to go, your your job's easy, right?

[00:19:27] Dillon Tucker: And I think one last note to touch on, um, is something I call "let's do this". Right, you can ask any of my previous BDRs, they love this thing. Right, like, if someone's like if let's say your your ask at the end of your email says, "Does Tuesday afternoon work?" but you don't give a specific time, right? Um, a prospect responds, "Yes." "Okay, great, John. Let's do this. I'm going to send an invite to you for 3:00 p.m. You're in New York, right? Okay, 3:00 p.m. Eastern, right? Um, if the time works, just accept the invite so I know it reached you. If not, just click propose new time on the invite, and uh, more than happy to work with your schedule. Sound good?" Um, taking every single inch of lift off the prospect. So, as you go through that journey of follow-up, and as you go through the journey of being a BDR, think about putting yourself in the shoes of the prospect and making their life easy.

[00:20:18] John Karsant: Yeah. I agree. Another one is is just to, one, always talk in their time zone, right? Don't don't make them do the extra work of navigating the different time zones. Offer a few different times plus a Calendly link, right? So, you're giving them the options to select versus also like an option to to click and and choose more. Something I've found to work.

[00:20:39] John Karsant: Um, now, now managing BDRs, SDRs, what has historically been the channel or channels that you've seen convert the best?

[00:20:49] Dillon Tucker: Yeah, you know, I think, um, what's really interesting is, um, multi-channel prospecting is what's key, right? Um, if you're not doing all three, you're not doing it right. Or all four.

[00:21:04] John Karsant: All three being email, LinkedIn, calling?

[00:21:07] Dillon Tucker: Yeah, yeah, I think just to keep it simplistic, right, let's let's keep a basis here of email, LinkedIn, and calling, right? Um, if we want to go real hard, you can think GitHub, you can think all these other possible, uh, routes of getting a hold of people, right? Texting, WhatsApp, whatever, right?

[00:21:23] Dillon Tucker: Um, but I think for simplicity cases, right, I think if if you're not doing those first basic three, um, then you're missing out. Um, now, there's there's so much information and data out there about how to build some of these sequences, and your leadership should help you, right, across the board, right? You shouldn't be building all these things yourselves. But if you're in a position where you have to, um, go go look for resources, right? Like, um, Sam Nelson is a great guy to go to for resources. Um, he has a giant Substack online that's really, really awesome.

[00:22:12] Dillon Tucker: Additionally, I think, um, the phones are always good if you know how to use the phones. But I think now, with email reply rates being 1 to 3% across the board industry-wide, with connect rates on the phones being 1% typically at organizations, like, what do we do?

[00:22:20] Dillon Tucker: Um, in my consulting business, right, like we're we're getting anywhere from a 20 to 30% reply rate on LinkedIn. Now, replies aren't everything, as you guys know, right? Like, you want quality opportunities in the funnel. But either way, 20x the at-bats that you're getting, um, is a heck of a lot better of an opportunity, right? Um, so I think it's about having the balance, but understanding the way the market shifts and moving the balance from one bucket to another as the market moves.

[00:22:45] John Karsant: I 100% agree with the the market shift, right? It's like I think they think things go in cycles, right? There was in the, um, early 2000s, email was working really well, and that has completely gone away. Like, doesn't mean it doesn't work, but it's just much harder. Now, LinkedIn is can be really good, but also it's much more limiting in terms of the outreach you can do. There's a few different other avenues, right? Like, you can do InMails and different things, but generally, you're limited on connections.

[00:23:14] Dillon Tucker: Yep.

[00:23:15] John Karsant: Um, unless you have a big network and you can do first connections, right? There's there's that too, but not everybody has a big network. In fact, most people don't.

[00:23:21] Dillon Tucker: Yep.

[00:23:22] John Karsant: Um, there's the phones, right? Then there's, um, different things like PPC. But yeah, I mean, you notice these these waves of, hey, this is working, and then all of a sudden, everyone follows follows what people say to do, and then all of a sudden, that that channel's crowded, right? And so, you notice these waves, um, you know, or something like PPC, right? If everyone's bidding on the same keyword, well, what's going to happen? The price is going to start going up and up and up, right? So then people are going to move off that channel. Also, you got to think about where are these people, like, where I multi-channel 100%, right? Because you just don't know who's going to respond where, or they might see your phone call or email, but then respond in the other channel. It happens to me all the time. Well, like, well, I will do that. Someone sends me an email, and then I see I get their call, and it kind of registers, oh yeah, yeah, I did see that, and so it's about XYZ.

[00:24:15] John Karsant: Moving on, so you were the Head of Sales Development at Common Room. Tell me about that and that experience.

[00:24:22] Dillon Tucker: Yeah, great experience, you know, um. When I started, there was essentially no BDR team, right? Um, came on, built it from the ground up, hired the BDRs, got the ball rolling. Um, as I mentioned, like most of my experiences, right? It's an interesting one because it's also a very high-scale growth startup right now, right?

[00:24:42] Dillon Tucker: And, um, BDRs, you're oftentimes, if you're in some of these startups, you're you're going to, um, get offers of equity and things like that. Always consider those types of things, um, because, uh, it's it's always well worth your time to at least think about it and talk to your financial advisor. But like, outside of that, I think like the journey at Common Room, I was there like a year and a half or something. The journey was intense in a lot of good ways, right?

[00:25:07] Dillon Tucker: Um, because the tech was moving very fast. When when I joined, we were more of a community platform, because we were selling to developers and and the developer world, in a sense, right? Um, to try to make sure they were able to connect with everyone in their community, right? Something we realized, excuse me, is that a lot of the people who you want to sell to are in the community. Think like Salesforce developer forums. There's hundreds of thousands of people in these forums.

[00:25:37] Dillon Tucker: Salesforce should be the the account executives and BDRs should be looking and getting flags of, hey, you know, like this prospect is actually asking questions, and you're in an active deal cycle with them, right? Or this prospect is actually asking questions, and they're just not getting your email that you're sending them. They're not getting your phone calls. Why are they not getting your phone calls? Like, you as as a BDR can say, "Hey, I'm actually reaching out to you. Let me help you with that," you know? Um, that's what Common Room does.

[00:26:02] Dillon Tucker: I think, going back to our like beginning of our conversation and talking about the different avenues of what people can do, tools like Common Room, who have a free trial, are really, really great tools to to utilize in a sense that say, hey, person is actually asking questions on GitHub or in this forum or in this Slack community or somewhere, and you're actually reaching out to them, you're just not connecting the dots and using the right personalization, because you don't even know what they're thinking about or what their pain is, right? Um, so finding your prospects in the right place is a key, uh, piece of success for people.

[00:26:35] John Karsant: So, what's that like? You know, you're basically getting the department off the ground, and I don't know how much guidance you have, but like, knowing which channels to use, knowing how much to test a particular channel, what's that like, and what's your thought process as you walk into that and trying to get that department off the ground?

[00:26:51] Dillon Tucker: Yeah, so great question. Um, depends on the market, depends on the industry. I think the first thing you have to do is take your shoes off and sit on the other side of the desk and put your feet in the shoes of the prospect. Where do they live? What do they think about? What are their pains? You know, I've taken Sandler training, I've taken Challenger Selling, and done all these things, right?

[00:27:11] Dillon Tucker: And one of the best books I've ever read is called "The Coaching Habit". Go check it out if anyone wants to. It's fantastic. It taught me a lot of things about questions. But like, how you're going to stand out now as a BDR, something I call killer questions. When you get in that conversation with someone, sure, you're going to want to pitch a meeting. But you pitching a meeting, you're doing that for you. Sure, you might be doing it for the prospect in the long run, but realistically, you're doing it to try to hit your quota.

[00:27:31] Dillon Tucker: We need to be creative in how we actually try to hit our quota, and we need to be creative in actually caring about the prospect and fixing their problem. So, hey, you know, like whatever whatever you're selling, right? Let's let's say it's Common Room, right? The problem might be the deals aren't closing fast enough. The problem might be the prospects aren't asking all the questions they need to. The problem might be the AEs aren't asking the right questions they need to, right?

[00:27:52] Dillon Tucker: Okay, so VP of Sales, right, like what are your AEs asking today on these discovery calls to drive the pain out of the prospect, right? Um, all they're asking this and this and this, right? Okay, dig in a little bit more. Okay, dig in just a little bit more, and then you've probably found your golden nugget that you can connect your value to.

[00:28:10] Dillon Tucker: So, I think in the long run, we really want to stand out by asking prospects the right questions. Um, once we ask them the right questions and understand their real pain, then we can connect value and book meetings.

[00:28:22] John Karsant: Yeah, and sometimes it's as simple as rephrasing the same the same question, right? It's like it lands a little bit different, um, but I think your point is, the killer questions is what will lead to people wanting to have the meeting, rather than you just pitching the meeting.

[00:28:37] Dillon Tucker: Yeah, and I think the the value will speak for itself, too, you know? The prospect will connect the dots.

[00:28:43] John Karsant: And take me to where you are today, right? So, you said you're essentially a fractional Chief Growth Officer. How are you getting new clients? And when you do start with a new client, what does that look like?

[00:28:53] Dillon Tucker: Yeah, that's a great question. Through a multitude of ways. It really just depends. You know, I could work with a one-person startup, or I could work with a developer-focused 10-person, or I could work with a 500-person, 50-person sales team, right? Really just depends.

[00:29:07] Dillon Tucker: But like, how do I bring in new clients? Um, oftentimes, it's LinkedIn right now. Um, there's a multitude of ways on LinkedIn, whether it be the project offers that come through, whether it be the, um, just me doing automated LinkedIn outreach from a personalized perspective, whether it be me utilizing my network. I think what's important is that you spread the base of running different campaigns, and don't think of campaigns as a marketing campaign.

[00:29:27] Dillon Tucker: Think of campaigns as, I see this group of people, they're my connections or they're not, right? If they're not, how do I get my foot in the door? Once I get my foot in the door, and I get a 40 to 50 to 60% connect rate with the 500-person list that I've built, what's the next thing that I can ask them to make me make them think that I'm not selling them? Because I'm not.

[00:29:48] John Karsant: Million-dollar question.

[00:29:50] Dillon Tucker: Yeah. Well, here's the thing, man. I'm I'm I want to say I'm genuinely curious about what they're doing, and about like how I can help them, because I've always wanted to help people. So like, if I there's an opportunity for me to actually help you, then that's what I want to do.

[00:30:06] Dillon Tucker: So like, if I can get them to understand that I actually care about their pain, then we've got a sale, baby, because like, it's it's an easy close door, like easy open door to come through and then close one at that point, right? So, I think just going back to thinking about those questions, man, that's that's the golden ticket.

[00:30:22] John Karsant: And I would imagine, based off that company size, it's going to look vastly different on what the what it looks like once you peel, uh, peel the curtains back. Like, that one-person company is going to look completely different than the more established company, right? And so like, I imagine you're going to be used in pulled in different ways.

[00:30:40] Dillon Tucker: Yeah, yeah, without a question, right? Um, that that one-person company, you know, I would say like a golden ticket organization, you know, is a founder who has meetings on his calendar or her calendar, and they're busy. They don't have time to do follow-ups. They don't have time to focus on actually closing the deals. They don't have time.

[00:30:58] Dillon Tucker: And like, the big differentiator is, hey, what if I could just do all that for you, and you can focus specifically on getting deals through your door? They say, "Oh my gosh, like if my sales cycle's 60 days and I can cut it to 30, shoot, that means I'm doubling my sales, essentially, right?" Um, so as long as you can connect that value, um, then that's going to be your your real way to break in.

[00:31:20] John Karsant: Well, Dylan, thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate it. Uh, I enjoyed learning a little bit more about your journey from starting from SDR to management, and then now into fractional Chief Growth Officer.

[00:31:32] Dillon Tucker: Yeah, of course, John.

[00:31:34] John Karsant: Experience. Um, where's the best people to find you? You mentioned LinkedIn, but is there anywhere else, uh, what's the best, you know, if someone hears this and what you're saying really resonates, how can they get in touch with you?

[00:31:43] Dillon Tucker: Yeah, call me. 863-632-7590. Um, you know, otherwise, you can use any of these tools and, uh, find my email address or what have you. But yeah, feel free to reach out any time.

[00:31:54] Dillon Tucker: I love mentorship. I've had so many BDRs over the years just reach out to me after a conversation like this, and um, account executives as well, um, just to ask questions and and chat, and to this day, I have stories and shout out a lot of my my BDRs, right? Um, just a couple come to mind, but like, who reach out to me to this day and say, "Hey, Dylan, what you taught me came up in this today." And I'm like, "Yes." Um, it feels good every time. So, um, I'm always open to conversations with anyone, any time.

[00:32:20] John Karsant: Thanks, Dylan. I appreciate it.

[00:32:21] Dillon Tucker: Yep, thanks, John. Cheers.

[00:32:22] John Karsant: B2B Sales and Growth Strategies. Sponsored by Levelup Leads.