Episode 72: Playing the Long Game with George Penyak

George Penyak is the top national sales executive at Restaurant Technologies, an organization that helps foodservice operators make their kitchens safer, smarter, more efficient and more sustainable through its automated oil storage, handling, filtration monitoring, and disposal management systems. Once a Regional Sales Manager, George has had the unique experience of selling on a micro as well as a macro scale. This has allowed him to acquire a wealth of knowledge that has served him well, enabling him to become a top performer in his field.

As a recurring guest on the Sales Success Stories Podcast, George provides an update on his sales career in this episode. He speaks to the many projects and collaborations he’s been a part of over the last two and a half years as well as the challenges he’s faced along the way. George identifies the top three things he attributes to his success. These include understanding business more holistically, confidence from being viewed as a sales leader, and having high expectations when it comes to serving his clients. This value that George places on customer satisfaction, coupled with his player-coach leadership style, are just a few of the many reasons he’s been successful in both regional and national sales.

George is a firm believer in rounding out your experience in order to have a multi-faceted and multi-dimensional career. He advocates for thinking two to three steps in the future when considering the growth of your career. George is also a proponent of continuous self-education and self-improvement. As he mentions on the show, a big gap George sees in his career is selling internationally. He has made it a point to highlight this potential weakness in order to make every effort to improve. Finally, George and Scott discuss how salespeople can take a more holistic approach to changing the sales culture in order to maintain an outstanding sales record and attain continued success.

What We Covered:

00:24 – Scott takes a moment to thank his sponsor, Go Video
00:41 – Scott Ingram welcomes back to the podcast, George Penyak
02:13 – The top three things George attributes to his success
02:22 – Number 1: Understanding business more holistically
03:25 – Number 2: Confidence from being viewed as a sales leader
03:39 – Number 3: Having high expectation
04:31 – Scott talks about the benefits of Go Video
05:33 – George discusses the transition from management back to sales
07:53 – The difference between regional and national sales
10:02 – George’s sales results
11:14 – What George enjoyed most about his role in regional sales
12:44 – The culture George built in his regional sales team
14:28 – Challenges George faced while working in regional sales
17:01 – The importance of maintaining consistent one-on-one meetings with team members
21:13 – George speaks to his preparation tactics
23:12 – The importance of transparency
26:09 – Scott and George speak to the value of having good managers who help their employees come up with their own solutions
28:28 – Other learnings George has gained from his leadership experience
32:02 – Scott shares his vision for the Sales Success Summit agenda
36:41 – Thinking about your career holistically
37:11 – A big gap George saw in his career
42:00 – Why Restaurant Technologies?
45:15 – The importance of being passion about what you sell
47:42 – George speaks to how his process has changed moving from regional to national sales
51:42 – How George continues his own self-education
54:04 – The importance of managing expectations
57:42 – Scott and George discuss fulfilling and impacting their clients
1:00:10 – What George is looking forward to most at the Sales Success Summit
1:03:31 – The value of face-to-face interactions
1:09:02 – The biggest challenges of George’s sales career
1:12:02 – Scott shares his thoughts on a broken aspect of sales that he has observed
1:16:26 – Scott uses the car buying process to enhance his argument
1:17:31 – A recent deal Scott closed
1:19:31 – Scott and George reinforce the importance of transparency
1:23:37 – The power and value of the customer
1:28:50 – Scott and George ponder how we can look internally to take a more holistic approach to changing the culture

Tweetables:

• “Leaving that regional management role and shifting my mindset from coaching back into selling directly there comes a huge sense of confidence in that.” (03:28)

• “I always think about my own career as two to three moves ahead.” (07:18)

• “I’ve heard a definition of sales is the transference of passion.” (46:16)

• “I wrote a piece on LinkedIn recently that no matter how strong technology gets, nothing will ever trump the face-to-face meeting.” (1:03:31)

• “Now that everyone, literally almost on the planet, has a cell phone, expectations have gone up.” (1:09:37)

Books Mentioned:

Summary of Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

Podcasts Mentioned:

Moving Forward Leadership Podcast

Episode 72: Playing the Long Game with George Penyak

What We Covered:

Tweetables:

Links Mentioned:

Books Mentioned:

Podcasts Mentioned:

Tools Mentioned on the Podcast: