Clip from Episode 32: Ryan Alvord – Top Sales Professional at Paychex:

I would say my sales philosophy can probably be most closely identified with story based selling. I tend to always tell stories about other companies that are brought on board to help bring other companies on board. So I think it’s much more powerful to explain to a client reasons that another company came on board. That may have been in the same position as them rather than just talking about their issues in particular and telling them that we can fix their issues really showing them that hey there’s another company down the street that was in the same position as you and we were able to fix this issue and this is how we were able to do it. I don’t really ask as many open ended questions as a lot of people do in those cases I really lead them down that path and I say you know what this particular you are a restaurant there’s another restaurant with 25 locations headquartered down the street from here. And they came on board for these particular reasons. Can you identify with any of these and they without fail can typically identify with half those reasons and the reasons that they probably wouldn’t have given for reasons that they would have made a switch anyway. So it’s really just suggesting those those types of things through story based selling.

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Clip from Episode 32: Ryan Alvord – Top Sales Professional at Paychex:

You know getting these partners within my organization or outside my organization is probably the most relatable type of example I can give. Because instead of reaching out manually to these companies and calling or emailing them. If you can build up a good enough relationship with these other people they’ll essentially be bringing you business right. So they’re going to be referring you business they’re going to be letting you know companies that are looking to make a switch. And you don’t need to be constantly staying in touch with those companies. So if you can build up a handful those relationships. really you can you can you can you know generate a lot of a lot of business from that. So let’s let’s talk more about that. How are you. Kind of establishing those relationships how are you maintaining them in such a way that they do lead to consistent new opportunities.

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Clip from Episode 32: Ryan Alvord – Top Sales Professional at Paychex:

So I don’t usually show this part, but typically the first thing I do I when I get up is I put on headphones. I have these big Bose wireless headphones I put on and I put music on really loudly on them. So it’s nothing in particular but just like music that’s going to pump me up for the day basically. So you know EDM music or just top 50 Global Top 50 music is something like that. So I put those on and then I make a list for the day a goal list for the day. So this is before checking email. This is before having breakfast anything like that. I get out a sheet of paper you know nothing fancy, no apps or anything like that but I get out a piece of paper and I write down on that paper what it is I want to accomplish for the day. And this is not just business things. These are you know these are professional things if want to read something in particular that day if I want to you know make sure I go to the gym or whatever I’m putting everything on that list. But certainly a lot of work related items as well. And you know that’s number one that’s really what I do first thing in the morning and then after that I mean I’m…

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Clip from Episode 32: Ryan Alvord – Top Sales Professional at Paychex:

The first few times especially presenting to companies of more than a few people that I was meeting with was very very difficult for me. But I think getting over that fear was accomplished by just a lot of practice. Just again meeting with a huge volume of companies. You know ironically enough I guess when I when I finish number one last year and I had to present at our Presidents Club in front of 1000 people. I was less nervous probably for that than I was in the beginning when I had to present in front of a few people you know early on so that was probably the biggest challenge for me over the years.

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Clip from Episode 32: Ryan Alvord – Top Sales Professional at Paychex:

There was a company. Again this was this was back in that first year. There was a company that was calling on every month. And again I was really focusing on those bigger companies within my territory. This one was probably you know at least a hundred times my average sized client. Right. So this is a very very big client and this company I called them once a month for about six months and on the sixth month calling my point of contact there the lady kind of laughed and said: What can I do so you’ll stop calling me? And I said if he’ll give me 15 minutes to come and meet with you I’ll stop calling you. And She said deal and we scheduled a meeting and I went in and we had a 15 minute meeting and I went through why my clients come on board with with our services. And she said I can’t believe I’m saying this but I’d be open to taking a look at a demonstration. So I came back and I did a demonstration for her and her team. You know I don’t know 10 or 12 people or so. And she kind of said the same thing at the end of that meeting she said. Again I can’t believe I’m saying this but let’s look at pricing so we came back and we talked about pricing and and she made a decision. Long story short she made a decision to come on board and get started and they were clients for many many years with us. And I always like that story because if I would have stopped after that fifth call I don’t get that deal. It’s that sixth call and a lot of people do a lot of you will stop after two calls or three calls. But if I would have stopped after 5 again I don’t get that deal. By making that sixth call I got the appointment I got in. And you know just to kind of give you an estimate for I mean that that commission on that deal I mean more than allowed me to pay cash for a brand new Audi that year. I mean so you know just one more call made such a difference. In addition to that I mean the client was a great reference for us. She helped me bring on you know at least probably 10 other clients just by being a reference for me so you know just making those calls. A lot of times it just seems like it’s not going to be successful but you just keep pushing through and it will pay off.

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Clip from Episode 32: Ryan Alvord – Top Sales Professional at Paychex:

I just go through those folders and I follow up individually with them. I mean I do do some mail merges here and there but that’s not really that’s not really what works with companies. It really needs to be specific follow-up to them where you can reference something specifically about them and you know it does help that they do need to know your name. They need to know you then you remember talking to you as well just an e-mail will not work.

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Clip from Episode 32: Ryan Alvord – Top Sales Professional at Paychex:

I think it’s a cliche thing to say in sales is that you’re just persist. But I think there’s really really a craft to it. I look at it from this perspective. I assume that at any point in time about 5 percent of my prospects are frustrated with their current vendor. The problem is that this 5 percent is always changing right. So it might be different every week. There might be a different 5 percent that’s interested in looking every week. So from my perspective I really need to make sure that my name was in front of that 5 percent whenever they were ready to look. So it might not be this week it might be you know two years from now but I didn’t want them to forget about me so I really had to find a way to follow up the right way consistently, persistently. And it needs to be done tactfully as well. Right. So you have to follow up in a way that’s pleasant. You can’t come across too pushy. Nobody likes that type of sales rep but you do need to stay top of mind for them so that when they’re ready to make a switch they’re thinking of you they’re going back to an e-mail that they got from you a week ago and just responding to it and say yep you know what we’re ready to look now.

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Clip from Episode 32: Ryan Alvord – Top Sales Professional at Paychex:

Those first few years helped me to really learn a lot about our products and services and it was a big advantage when I went into sales because I already understood what we provide and more importantly I understood what our clients were looking for. In addition to that I really made a conscious effort to learn about my my partner’s products and services. One of the big things I think that helped me was that when a company would bring up a question about another product that the company offers I didn’t have to bring in somebody to answer that question. I knew it on the spot it gave them a lot of confidence in me as a you know as a specialist for them. And it also just was a lot more efficient than than setting up another meeting and bringing other people in. So I think knowing my products really well in addition to knowing my partner’s products within the company was was another big advantage for me.

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Clip from Episode 32: Ryan Alvord – Top Sales Professional at Paychex:

Number one for me was really the hard work that I put in early on in my career. Right. So that first six months first you know six to 12 months was the key for me. What I did was I went through every single prospect in my territory. I called them all. I found out who my contacts were there. And I stayed in touch with those over the course of my career. But more importantly I would meet with anyone and everyone that would meet. So I think one thing that I did differently than a lot of reps that I’ve talked to is I didn’t over qualify who I was meeting with. I agreed to meet with anybody that would sit down and talk with me. And these early introductions really paid off paid off well over time. It also gave me a lot of practice. Right. So meeting with anyone and everyone instead of being very selective about who I was going to sit down with it gave me a lot of practice. It helped me to really you know get better at what my what my conversations would look like with with companies. I also was able to get a lot of business during that time that I probably didn’t expect to get. So some companies that didn’t seemed like they were really in a buying process yet that I agreed to meet with surprised me a lot of times and they would end up they would end up buying and if they didn’t buy then a lot of them would buy later on there’s still companies today that I bring on board you know eight nine years later that I had met with had met with in that first year. And so they remember me and they stay in touch and it really really helped me to you know sell a lot more business over time. So that’s number one. I think one of the biggest keys to my success here.

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