Michael Harris is a top Senior Sales ERP at Epicor, an organization that provides flexible, industry-specific software that is designed to meet the precise needs of their customers. Michael has had quite the career trajectory. He went from being a sales trainer to a quota-carrying sales professional – having never sold tech before – and within two years became the top-performing manufacturing salesperson at Epicor. Michael is also the author of Insight Selling and has been published in the Harvard Business Review (HBR). Michael has worked with technology companies over the past decade to deliver insight so that their customers are better able to challenge the status quo and discover the unrecognized value of change.
In this episode, Michael takes the audience through his incredible sales journey, from his work as a sales trainer to the transition to a quota-carrying sales role. Michael speaks to the three specific attributes that have contributed to his success. These include his mindset and intuition, creativity, and being resilient. Michael expounds on his favorite sales story, one that culminated in an open and honest conversation and led to Epicor’s largest deal of the year. Michael is a self-described intuitive seller. He is adept at understanding his customers’ needs and works hard to sell for them rather than to them. This intuitive nature has allowed Michael to help his customers achieve better business outcomes.
Michael continues to quantify his sales results by touching on the habits and routines that have become critical to his success. Staying fit, eating healthy, staying calm, and caring about the customer are all valued components to Michael’s sustained success. Michael places heavy emphasis on achieving a ‘Zen-like’ demeanor which helps to keep him calm, level, and open to helping others. After all, his sales philosophy is centered on helping the customer succeed. Finally, Michael issues an actionable challenge to the audience. He challenges you to go out and speak to ten customers who recently bought your product. Find out why they bought it and ask them about the biggest challenges that your product solved. In doing so, Michael is certain that you’ll have a great real-life example that you can use in your next pitch to strengthen your sales process.
What We Covered:
00:01 – Scott thanks the sponsors of today’s episode, Terryberry, Vidyard, and Alyce
00:38 – Scott welcomes today’s guest, Michael Harris
01:36 – The top three attributes that Michael attributes to his success
01:54 – Number 1: Mindset and Intuition
05:42 – Number 2: Creativity
06:38 – Number 3: Resilience
06:56 – Michael speaks to how he incorporates and leverages video in his sales process
08:40 – Scott takes a moment to thank one of today’s sponsors, Vidyard
09:08 – How Michael’s video strategy has aided in his sales results
10:22 – Michael expounds on his role at Epicor
11:43 – Michael quantifies his sales results
12:05 – The evolution of Michael’s career arc
14:33 – How Michael transitioned from sales trainer to a quota-carrying sales role and how his experience as a trainer aided in his sales success
19:21 – Scott speaks to his thoughts on the Sales Success community
23:00 – Scott thanks another one of today’s sponsors, Terryberry
23:41 – What Michael would do differently if given the chance
26:29 – What motivates and makes Michael happy
30:38 – Michael continues to talk about his prospecting process
31:47 – Michael’s favorite sales success story
36:07 – Michael’s proudest accomplishment
38:05 – The biggest challenge Michael is currently facing and strategies he’s utilizing to combat this challenge
40:18 – How Michael approaches his sales process
43:19 – Michael takes the audience through a typical day in the life
45:19 – Michael’s note-taking discipline
48:56 – Scott thanks the final sponsor of today’s episode, Alyce
49:37 – Other habits and routines that are critical to Michael’s success
51:29 – The books, news, podcasts, and trade information that Michael consumes
53:05 – Michael’s sales philosophy and sales style
57:15 – One of Michael’s beliefs that the average sales professional would think is crazy
58:01 – An average sales professional’s belief that Michael thinks is crazy
1:01:36 – Advice Michael would give to an upstart sales professional
1:04:50 – Michael speaks to the importance of working for the right manager
1:08:20 – Advice Michael would give to struggling sales professionals
1:09:57 – Michael theorizes on how sales professionals can reach that next level
1:14:19 – The importance of balancing customer needs and the bottom line
1:18:10 – Michael talks about developing a level of trust in sales and the evolution of sales training
1:22:46 – Michael’s actionable challenge to the audience
Tweetables:
“I think if I was to do it again, I’d rather do it from kind of a state of being, and being comfortable with myself, and helping the customer achieve their ends and really doing the right thing.” (24:21)
“I think my next book would focus on ‘How can you be calm and how can you happily achieve in sales instead of achieve to be happy?’” (28:16)
“I am a huge note taker and I do have huge files on my customers. That’s a real discipline that I have…I think it [note taking] also helps gel the story in your mind in terms of what you’re looking to do for the customer.” (46:10)
“I’m a big believer that a lot of our decisions are made intuitively.” (52:09)
“You want to listen and be honorable with your customers and you have to do that with your colleagues as well and treat them like people so they’ll want to work with you and do things for you. I think building that social capital is so important.” (1:00:12)
“People don’t leave companies; they leave managers.” (1:04:15)
“I think it’s so important to be able to pivot. I think one of my big skills this year was pivoting. I think pivoting is so important.” (1:13:48)
Links Mentioned:
[email protected]
Sales Success Stories Podcast Website
2020 Sales Success Summit
Michael Harris on LinkedIn
Insight Selling: How to sell value & differentiate your product with Insight Scenarios
When to Sell with Facts and Figures, and When to Appeal to Emotions
Sponsors Mentioned:
Books Mentioned:
Getting Things Done
Deep Work
Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Play
The Challenger Sale