Episode 103: Jonathan Greenberg - Overachieving at Hubspot Through Attention to Detail, Fear & Self-Awareness

Jonathan Greenberg is currently a top-seller on the Growth Team at HubSpot, a leading growth platform with thousands of customers around the world. Comprised of Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, and a powerful free CRM, HubSpot gives companies the tools they need to grow better. Jonathan has a wealth of experience and knowledge in a variety of fields, including accounting, finance, operations, and sales. He credits his time working with the Boston Celtics as one of the most powerful influences in his sales career as it’s where he fine-tuned his skills in attention to detail. Jonathan is a personable, responsive, and professional salesperson who is extremely knowledgeable in the field of CRM, and always strives to achieve an outcome that works best for all parties involved.

In this episode, Jonathan talks all about his experiences with HubSpot, including challenges and obstacles he’s had to overcome along the way. Jonathan identifies the three things to which he attributes most of his success. These include strong attention to detail, fear, and, most important of all, self-awareness. Jonathan has leveraged these three attributes in order to achieve tremendous success and yield incredible results. Jonathan shares his thoughts on the concept of disassociating yourself from the outcome in sales. He understands that oftentimes in sales, you must break free from the traditional measurements of success in order to accomplish an even greater goal: satisfaction for your client and your organization.

Jonathan opens up about how he structures his workweek and how he sets out each year to achieve his sales goals. He takes the audience through a typical day in the life, from waking up to take care of his puppy every morning at 5:30 and focusing on mental and physical health, to reading up on his industry, territory, and local news, sorting through his LinkedIn and preparing for prospecting calls. Jonathan even sets aside one day each week (usually Monday) to focus entirely on prospecting and administrative duties. He finds that by doing this, his actions are a lot more intentional and he starts his week off on a productive note. Finally, Jonathan issues an actionable challenge to the audience. He suggests you audit everything, look at trends in the marketplace, and apply those learnings to your sales process and activities every day. By constantly improving and being self-aware, you can prove and validate your sales process as you go.

What We Covered:

00:01 – Scott thanks the sponsors of today’s episode, Alyce, Terryberry, and Vidyard
00:40 – Scott thanks HubSpot – and their Inbound 2020 event – for their generous podcast partnership
00:57 – Scott welcomes today’s guest, Jonathan Greenberg
01:25 – The top three attributes that Jonathan attributes to his success
01:49 – Number 1: Attention to detail
05:19 – Number 2: Fear
07:50 – Scott takes a moment to thank one of today’s sponsors, Alyce
08:39 – Number 3: Self-awareness
11:04 – Jonathan expounds on his role at HubSpot and his sales results
12:00 – Scott takes a moment to thank another sponsor of today’s episode, Terryberry
14:00 – Jonathan’s sales origin story and how basketball played a significant role
20:19 – What Jonathan would do differently if given the chance
22:27 – Jonathan’s favorite sales success story
24:17 – Scott takes a moment to thank the final sponsor of today’s episode, Vidyard
26:54 – Scott and Jonathan analyze the concept of disassociating yourself from the outcome in sales
30:32 – Jonathan talks about the idea of personalization at scale
35:58 – Jonathan’s proudest accomplishment
38:32 – Challenges and obstacles that Jonathan has had to overcome
41:02 – Jonathan describes a typical day in the life
44:00 – How Jonathan structures his work week and maps out his annual sales goals
45:27 – Strategies Jonathan utilizes to manage his mental health
49:19 – What drives and motivates Jonathan
50:53 – Jonathan speaks to the importance he places on self-awareness in sales
54:36 – How Jonathan approaches meaningful sales conversations
1:00:42 – The books, news, podcasts, and trade information that Jonathan consumes
1:03:03 – The specific sales philosophy that Jonathan subscribes to
1:05:21 – Jonathan details his sales process
1:09:07 – One of Jonathan’s beliefs that the average sales professional would think is crazy
1:15:02 – An average sales professional’s belief that Jonathan thinks is crazy
1:21:30 – Advice Jonathan would give to an upstart sales professional
1:29:53 – Advice Jonathan would give to a middle-of-the-pack salesperson looking for a breakthrough
1:34:45 – Jonathan’s actionable challenge to the audience

Tweetables:

“That’s one thing I’ve learned early was salespeople we’ve got to provide value, it’s gotta be relevant.” (06:58)

“You may not know what you want to do in the future – five, ten, fifteen, twenty years from now – what sales provide you is an opportunity to expand that horizon.” (19:06)

“If you want something, sit down, map it out, go after it.” (49:03)

“Most of my conversations I try to keep as unstructured as possible because I really want it to be more of a genuine conversation.” (53:49)

“What are the specific motivators for that individual [client]? How can I help them build out a plan towards that? And then, let’s figure out how this also directly impacts the business. If it’s something that solves for both, you probably have a pretty good opportunity. If it’s one or the other, that’s where some of those red flags pop up.” (55:57)

“There’s no formula or set model. I think a lot of people sadly believe that when they first get started. Lean into your authentic voice and take process and meld that together. That’s the key for me.” (1:17:23)

Episode 103: Jonathan Greenberg – Overachieving at Hubspot Through Attention to Detail, Fear & Self-Awareness

What We Covered:

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