Abel Lomas, the top account executive at TrustRadius, a trusted review site for business and technology, serving both buyers and vendors. Their mission is to bring transparency to the world of enterprise technology by providing efficiencies to both the buying and selling process. Abel is a true believer in paying it forward and practices an empathetic approach to all of his business dealings. In fact, Abel attributes much of his business success to this mentality.
In this episode, Scott and Abel talk all about his role at TrustRadius. Abel provides an inside look at his sales background and discusses his quantifiable sales success at TrustRadius and what he has enjoyed most about working there. He also shares his proudest accomplishment: seeing the growth of the people around him, seeing their success bring them happiness and contributing to those people’s success stories. Scott and Abel discuss the culture of sales and the importance of building a strong foundation of relationships in order to be successful in this field.
We hear from Abel about how he originally got into a career in sales, and the things he would change about his career trajectory if given the opportunity. He talks about the importance of recognizing the different types of buyers and how their needs have evolved over the years. Abel has dedicated himself to adapting to these buyers’ needs and educating his team on the nuances of sales.
Scott and Abel talk about their individual pillars of value and define what success means to both of them. For Abel, it’s being happy with his work, his family and his life. Abel identifies the three things he attributes to his success, which include bringing positive energy to every single day, creating value for both buyers and his team, and being human. Abel takes listeners through his typical day, from his daily stop at Starbucks to how he maps out the day ahead. Abel is constantly looking at what he can do differently to make today better than yesterday. Finally, Abel provides listeners with parting words of advice. He encourages them to practice empathy, to take risks and to learn from failure. Abel leaves the audience with one final exercise that can help them achieve these goals.
What We Covered:
00:24 – Scott Ingram welcomes to the podcast, Abel Lomas
00:39 – Scott promotes the 2019 Sales Success Summit
01:01 – The three things Abel attributes to his success
01:35 – Number 1: Bringing positive energy to every single day
02:36 – Number 2: Creating value for buyers and the team
04:10 – Number 3: Be human
05:10 – Abel discusses about his first impressions of the Sales Success Stories Podcast
07:23 – Abel discusses his role at TrustRadius and how he became a top performer
10:32 – Abel quantifies his sales results and shares what it takes to be successful at Trust Radius
11:23 – What Abel attributes his sales success to
13:01 – The moment Abel realized his sales success potential
15:43 – Abel talks about the back channels he had to work in order to be successful
18:04 – The relationship between Abel and those he works with
22:28 – How Abel found himself in a sales career
24:36 – What Abel would do differently in his career if given the chance
25:28 – Abel shares his favorite sales story
28:53 – Abel discusses the grieving process after losing a big deal
34:22 – Scott promotes the 2019 Sales Success Summit
36:05 – The accomplishment Abel is most proud of
38:06 – How Abel handles the extreme emotional impact of a sales career
42:38 – Mitigating the short-lived high points of sales
44:21 – Abel describes a typical day in the life
47:29 – Abel’s playbook on how he structures his research prior to meetings
51:28 – How Abel utilizes his nights to spend quality time with his family
54:50 – The industry trades, news, podcasts and books that Abel consumes
58:22 – Tools and apps that Abel uses on a daily basis
1:02:08 – The sales philosophy that Abel subscribes to
1:04:40 – Abel speaks to building around common interests to rally people around
1:07:00 – Advice Abel would give to an upstart sales professional
1:07:52 – Advice Abel would give to struggling, middle-of-the-pack salespeople
1:09:34 – Scott teases a personal story he shares in the book, Sales Success Stories – 60 Stories from 20 Top 1% Sales Professionals, and encourages the audience to read it
1:10:25 – What Abel would want to know about a top performer in another organization
1:11:17 – The value Abel places on happiness
1:13:05 – Abel’s ‘Why’ and where he gets his motivation
1:15:01 – Scott remembers a conversation he had in a previous episode with Tony Rhine
1:17:10 – Abel’s challenge to the Sales Success Stories Podcast audience
1:19:43 – Scott urges the audience to register for the 2019 Sales Success Summit
1:19:56 – Scott encourages the audience to share with him who finished as the top performer of 2018 in their respective organizations
Tweetables:
“Yes, we all have to close. It’s an important part of our job. But, it should be ‘Always be helping,’ because if you’re always helping, then people are gonna want to work with you. And that’s bringing value to their day.” (03:55)
“You can be a leader without being in a leadership role. And, to me, that’s really what it’s all about. Making an impact to help some of these other amazing people optimize their career, optimize their role, whether it’s sales or another department.” (37:10)
“Those relationships, they still matter. Even if you can’t sell them something, there’s still of material interest to your life.” (1:00:10)
“I tend to be the happiest guy in any room that I’m in, and possibly to the point of being annoying from time to time.” (1:11:54)
Links Mentioned:
Sales Success Summit
Abel’s LinkedIn Profile
Sales Success Stories Book
TrustRadius’ Website
Episode 33 of Sales Success Stories with Tony Rhine
Books Mentioned on the Podcast:
The Challenger Customer: Selling to the Hidden Influencer Who Can Multiply Your Results
Million Dollar Consulting
Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose