Perspective is everything, and nobody knows that more than todayâs guest, Jason Walker. Thatâs because Jason recently went from Presidentâs Club to being let go by his company, an event that would rock most peopleâs worlds. Instead of letting it get him down, Jason took this moment as an opportunity to pursue an idea that heâs had for a very long time. Hence, Jasonâs self-described title of âAccidental Entrepreneur.â
Jason is a sales leader and tech founder who is commercially astute and vision-driven. He has over ten years of sales pipeline management, and operational strategy experience across a breadth of sectors â from renewables & environment through computer software, to e-learning. Jason is widely regarded for his propensity in leading business growth solutions, and today he joins the show to share his sales origin story, his journey to entrepreneurship, and challenges he anticipates facing as a first-time founder. Jason shares the top three things he attributes to his sales success, including gaining customer trust in a sincere way, understanding that context is king, and knowing the most about his product.
Jason gets specific, answering audience questions about how he thinks about crafting his pitch, what he thinks about developing competence and expertise, and what drove him to go âall-inâ on his idea. Jason speaks to navigating the sales process during product development, knowing when to share pricing with customers, and strategies for co-selling. Finally, Jason talks about the competitive landscape, the intentionality of spending more time with collaborators, and what has resonated with Jason the most throughout his time at the Sales Success Summit.
What We Covered:
00:24 â Scott introduces todayâs guest, Jason Walker, who joins the show to share his unique journey from Sales to Entrepreneurship
07:20 â The top three things Jason attributes to his success
07:37 â Number One: Time to transparency – Gaining customer trust in a sincere way
08:06 â Number Two: Context is King
09:05 â Number Three: Know more about your product better than anyone else does
10:05 â Jason details his journey to entrepreneurship
12:17 â The process of getting to trust quickly
13:39 â The inflection point that led Jason to launch Keepsake
14:51 â Challenges Jason anticipates as a first-time founder
16:25 â How Jason thinks about crafting his pitch
18:01 â Developing competence and expertise
19:06 â What drove Jason to go âall-inâ on launching his own company
21:17 â Navigating the sales process during product development
22:46 â Knowing when to share pricing
23:38 â Jasonâs sales origin story
25:18 â Healing, experience and challenges
26:25 â Strategies Jason employs to minimize the time to transparency
27:20 â The co-selling process, explained
28:40 â Choosing to spend more time with collaborators
30:16 â Understanding the competitive landscape
31:36 â Jasonâs mindset going from Presidentâs Club to being let go
33:19 â Why curiosity is the most important trait to have
34:53 â What has resonated the most with Jason throughout his time at the Sales Success Summit
35:29 â Scott encourages listeners to subscribe to the podcast for his follow-up interview with Jason Walker
Tweetables:
âIâve been a âSales Guyâ my whole life. I had no intentions of being an entrepreneur in any way, shape, or form. But, ideas happen and, if youâre like me, Iâm a thinker, and sometimes ideas donât leave. And if they donât leave, they can turn into something different.â (03:27)
âContext is a full-circle thing. Context is understanding the problem well enough to be able to solve that problem in a meaningful way, but also making sure youâre explaining your things in a certain way.â (08:37)
âIf you can come in as an expert – someone who knows this way better than them – you have the ability to provoke new thoughts, new lines of thinking, and new ways of thinking about the problem, which allows you to position your product in a much more unique and strategic way.â (09:17)
âOne of the most powerful things you can do is own what youâre not. And own it, because either A.) youâre trying to sell to the wrong customer, or B.) theyâre the right customer and they donât care what you donât do. Roadmap selling, future selling is just a disaster.â (21:50)
âSo, going through these challenges and being forced to look in the mirror and understand who you are, and what youâre about, and really what lights you on fire, itâs a byproduct of that. . Once youâve taken the time to understand the learnings youâve gained from that, how strong you are, and what youâre capable of, if I fail at this, who cares? We have skills, as salespeople, where we will never not have a job in my opinion.â (25:53)
Links Mentioned:
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Keepsake
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Keepsake on LinkedIn