Episode 102: Hitting Life’s Bullseye with Adobe’s David Schwartz

Scott welcomes to the show his close friend, David Schwartz. David is a top Senior Account Executive at Abode, the global leader in digital media and digital marketing solutions. David is an accomplished Sales Executive with nearly ten years of experience in the Digital Marketing landscape. He is an intelligent, highly motivated, and aggressive team player who takes great pride in developing successful solutions for his clients. Over the course of his career, David has had the opportunity to partner with companies of all sizes, including Fortune 500 companies, closing a number of complex, multi-year deals.

In this episode, David takes the audience through his sales career trajectory, from his time at Bizo to his current role at Adobe. David reflects back on a pivotal moment of his career, one in which his company was acquired and incoming management required him to learn a new form of marketing for the first time ever. David speaks to the three things he attributes to his success, including active listening, placing the client’s needs first, and leveraging his larger ecosystem to help him become a better seller. He details his daily routines, habits, and how the current global pandemic has impacted how he approaches work-life balance.

David and Scott converse about the value they both place on LinkedIn as a tool and David expounds on the unique ways he utilizes this platform. David provides advice and best practices for making an impactful LinkedIn profile, including the importance of nurture your network by publishing meaningful content. Finally, David issues two actionable challenges to the audience. He urges you to practice meditation every day for the next two weeks. In David’s experience, doing so will help to achieve sharper mental acuity and clarity. Second, he suggests recording your activities over the next two weeks, reflecting on them, and identifying what you can eliminate to work smarter, not harder.

What We Covered:

00:01 – Scott thanks the sponsors of today’s episode, Alyce, Terryberry, and Vidyard
00:40 – Scott welcomes today’s guest, David Schwartz
01:07 – The top three attributes that David attributes to his success
01:18 – Number 1: Active listening
01:56 – Number 2: Having a problem-solving mentality and going into client meetings understanding the needs of their business
02:32 – Number 3: Leveraging his larger ecosystem
03:03 – David explains his role at Adobe
04:27 – David quantifies his sales results
07:42 – Adapting sales strategies and approaches in the time of Covid-19
09:36 – Scott takes a moment to thank one of today’s sponsors, Alyce
12:01 – David opens up about a deal he recently worked on
13:46 – David’s sales origin story
16:15 – David highlights the major differences from selling advertising and selling software
18:04 – How David adapted to this transition and found success
20:55 – David tells the story of a pivotal moment in his career
27:03 – Scott takes a moment to promote the upcoming 2020 Sales Success Summit
28:59 – Scott takes a moment to thank another sponsor of today’s episode, Vidyard
29:50 – What David would do differently in his career if given the chance
32:28 – David recalls the story of how he met Scott
35:07 – David describes a typical day in the life
39:00 – How David has discovered a newfound work-life balance amidst this global pandemic
42:12 – Scott takes a moment to thank the final sponsor of today’s episode, Terryberry
43:04 – The importance of self-awareness and David’s experience with Imposter Syndrome
46:16 – The books, news, podcasts, and trade information that Jonathan consumes
52:04 – David opens up about two transformational events in his life
54:06 – The value that David and Scott place on LinkedIn as a tool and unique ways David utilizes this platform
58:53 – Other tools and apps that are essential to David’s success
1:01:28 – What drives and motivates David
1:11:13 – One of David’s beliefs that the average sales professional would think is crazy
1:13:15 – One of David’s past beliefs that he now thinks is crazy
1:14:21 – Advice David would give to an upstart salesperson
1:15:49 – Advice David would give to a middle-of-the-pack salesperson looking for a breakthrough
1:22:27 – What David would like to learn about top sellers in other industries
1:24:25 – David’s actionable challenges to the audience
1:26:40 – David encourages listeners to perform acts of kindness to honor the memory of those lost on 9/11/01

Tweetables:

“I bring that up because I think not being able to get in front of clients has added six to eight weeks easily to our sales cycles.” (07:43)

“What I learned from all that was that it’s ok to make mistakes, but you gotta take something away.” (24:10)

“I think an MBA opens up doors for me that may not have been open generally, but it doesn’t pigeonhole me.” (31:00)

“All of this [Covid-19 and quarantine] has given me a very different perspective on work and life and what’s important. And, I don’t think that’s a bad thing to be totally honest with you.” (38:26)

“I think what motivates me now is I really enjoy seeing customers be satisfied. I love seeing us solve really challenging problems and seeing it in real life.” (1:02:34)

“I think if you don’t take the risk at some point, you end up thinking, ‘What could have been?’” (1:09:59)

Links Mentioned:

[email protected]
Sales Success Stories Podcast
2020 Sales Success Summit
David Schwartz on LinkedIn
Conversations with Top Enterprise Sales Professionals

What We Covered:

Tweetables:

Links Mentioned:

Sponsors Mentioned:

Books Mentioned:

Tools Mentioned: