Episode 104: Top Enterprise Sales Performer at Salesforce - Ian Koniak: Focus on the Journey, not the Destination

Ian Koniak is a Strategic Account Director at Salesforce, a customer success platform that helps companies connect with customers, partners, and employees in entirely new ways through social and mobile technologies, including their flagship sales, service, and CRM applications. Ian is a sales leader, content creator, and coach with eighteen years of experience in B2B technology sales. Throughout his time with Ricoh and, more recently, Salesforce, Ian has acted as an individual contributor, sales manager, and Director of Sales, with over one hundred million in career sales and numerous finishes at #1 nationally.

In this episode, Ian shares his unorthodox sales origin story, one that started with him teaching in Venezuela and led to three consistent years of exceeding his quota plan by well over one hundred percent. As is the case with many success stories, Ian’s story was not one linear path to success. Ian opens up and shares the incredibly trying road he traveled to get here, one that included heartbreak, addiction, and hitting rock bottom. Today, Ian has a beautiful family, is tremendously successful at his job, and has worked to cultivate a work-life balance that fits his goals and lifestyle.

Ian takes the audience through a typical day in the life, from his structured morning routine, to how he maps out his workday, to the time he sets aside each and every day for his family. For Ian, self-care and self-development are key to both his professional and personal success. Ian understands the value of time spent fulfilling his physical, mental, and emotional needs which is why he never sacrifices his exercise or family time for work. Ian’s work is still incredibly important to him which is why he spends his time wisely on revenue-generating activities. Most of the time, Ian is either setting meetings, participating meetings, or following up on meetings to ensure he is crushing his goal. Finally, Ian leaves the audience with an actionable two-week challenge. He urges you to write down something that brings you joy and fulfillment every day, It could be playing with your kids, going on a run, journaling, meditating, cooking, praying, etc. Carve out time to do that activity for two weeks straight and see how you feel at the end of two weeks. Ian is positive that you’ll feel happier, more grounded and those feelings will translate into success with your clients and overall business success.

What We Covered:

00:01 – Scott takes a moment to promote the 2020 Sales Success Summit, which is brought to you free thanks to the support of sponsors Outreach, Sales Hacker, Terryberry, Vidyard, Alyce, and Gong
00:56 – Scott welcomes today’s guest, Ian Koniak
01:08 – The top three attributes that Ian attributes to his success
01:25 – Number 1: Focus
03:18 – Number 2: Spending time with VP-level or C-Suite executives
04:18 – Number 3: Having an outward focus
06:25 – Ian’s personalized approach to C-Suite Executives
10:33 – Ian explains his role at Salesforce
12:34 – Ian expounds on what it has taken to reach his sales results
14:14 – Ian quantifies his sales results
15:34 – Ian’s sales origin story
19:55 – Ian opens up about an extremely trying time in his life and career and what he would do differently in his career if given the chance
23:39 – The most powerful lesson Ian learned about goal-setting and personal values
26:42 – Scott reminds listeners to sign up for the Sales Success Summit
27:30 – Ian expounds on the evolution of his sales process
31:46 – The process of shifting your mindset
35:55 – Ian describes a typical day in the life
42:45 – How Ian approaches work-life balance
44:26 – Scott takes another moment to urge listeners to sign up for the Sales Success Summit and includes a quick audio preview
45:20 – Specific activities that Ian outsources
51:20 – Other habits and routines that are core to Ian’s success
59:06 – Ian shares insights and best practices for truly connecting with clients
1:05:08 – How Ian got involved with the Mastermind Program
1:16:46 – The books, news, podcasts, and trade information that Ian consumes
1:23:46 – One of Ian’s beliefs that the average sales professional would think is crazy
1:26:24 – An average sales professional’s belief that Ian thinks is crazy
1:32:26 – Advice Ian would give to an upstart salesperson
1:35:01 – Advice Ian would give to a middle-of-the-pack salesperson looking for a breakthrough
1:39:39 – What Ian would like to learn about top sellers in other industries
1:41:56 – Ian invites listeners to subscribe to his YouTube Channel and newsletter if they’d like to learn more about the work he does
1:43:06 – Ian’s actionable challenges to the audience

Tweetables:

“It’s really about spending time listening to what they [clients] are saying.” (08:33)

“I think, in general, my first job was in the School of Hard Knocks. It taught me that activity yields pipeline, yields results.” (20:16)

“If your goals are short-term, then when you get there you’re gonna feel unfulfilled. You’ll feel great for a short period of time and then you’ll say, ‘What next?’ But, when the goals are long-term and they’re deeply internal in terms of the type of person you want to be, the type of father or husband you want to be, the impact you want to leave on the world, then you’re constantly, on a daily basis, pursuing the best version of yourself.” (24:01)

“Helping clients get what they want has enabled me to get what I want in spades.” (30:30)

“For me, it’s making sure that the time that I spend during the day is on impactful activities: service-oriented activities, deals that move the needle, things that matter.” (43:49)

“Working on yourself is equally as important as working on your business.” (54:53)

“The importance of saying, ‘No’ throughout the day is what enables you to say, ‘Yes’ to what you really need to do.” (58:06)

“I think it’s crazy to think you’re only as worthy as your income, as your W2. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be teachers, there wouldn’t be social workers, there wouldn’t be politicians and there wouldn’t be police officers.” (1:27:36)

Episode 104: Top Enterprise Sales Performer at Salesforce – Ian Koniak: Focus on the Journey, not the Destination

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