Episode 119: Winning as an Intentional Individual Contributor with Kevin Piket of Ascend Technologies

Kevin Piket is the top Business Development Executive at Ascend Technologies, an organization that enables business growth through innovation and technology. Even though Kevin has just recently started in this role, he very quickly ascended to the top of the leaderboard after his first full quarter at full quota. There are two things Kevin really enjoys in his professional life; he enjoys everything about the sales and marketing profession and he enjoys helping people. Whether it’s coaching sales professionals with skill development or helping customers solve their challenges and achieve their goals, it truly is Kevin’s passion. Kevin believes in using a blend of relationship sales, targeted marketing programs utilizing data, and working through his personal network to generate revenue. Overall, Kevin likes to bring his high energy and positive attitude to any opportunity that he’s involved with.

In this episode, Kevin speaks to his sales origin story, his proudest accomplishments, and some of the work he’s doing as a mentor. Kevin has been extremely fortunate throughout his sales career in having great mentors and, as such, he places a tremendous amount of value on paying it forward. Kevin shares the three things he attributes to his success, including doing what he says he’s going to do when he says he’s going to do it, putting in the work, and being prepared, organized and productive. He talks about lessons he’s learned throughout his career, how he leverages networking, and what he would do differently in his career is given a chance.

Kevin takes the audience through a typical day in the life, which starts with a morning exercise routine, spending time on LinkedIn, and driving his kids to school. From there, he spends his time on revenue-generating activities. Mondays are spent on administrative tasks, while Tuesday through Friday are spent in meetings. Kevin expounds on his sales style and philosophy, which are rooted in discovery. It is Kevin’s belief that if you aren’t doing discovery properly, you’re wasting your time. Finally, Kevin issues an actionable challenge to the audience. He challenges you to track everything you do for the next week and place those activities into two buckets: revenue-generating tasks and non-revenue generating tasks. If you have an honest conversation with yourself and can achieve eighty percent revenue-generating activities, you’ll find yourself being much more productive than ever before.

What We Covered:

00:23 – Scott welcomes today’s guest, Kevin Piket
01:16 – The top three attributes that Kevin attributes to his success
01:28 – Number 1: Doing what he says he’s going to do when he says he’s going to do it
01:58 – Number 2: Putting the work in
02:23 – Number 3: Being prepared, organized, and productive
02:57 – Kevin speaks to his willingness to do the things in sales that others wouldn’t
03:44 – Kevin expounds on his role at Ascend Technologies and how he was able to make it to the top of the leaderboard so quickly
07:24 – Kevin shares why he’s having so much fun in his career right now
09:31 – Kevin quantifies his sales results
10:15 – Kevin’s sales origin story
14:43 – The value Kevin places on his health and what Kevin would do differently in his career if given the chance
17:20 – Kevin speaks to his family of entrepreneurs and salespeople
19:17 – Kevin shares his favorite sales story
23:22 – How Kevin leverages networking
36:21 – Scott and Kevin talk about the Sales Success Summit
37:05 – Kevin’s proudest accomplishment
41:14 – Challenges and obstacles Kevin faces in his career
41:59 – Kevin takes the audience through a typical day in the life
51:13 – The books, news, podcasts, and trade information that Kevin consumes
55:28 – The tools and sales tech stack that are critical to Kevin’s success
56:37 – Kevin’s sales style and philosophy
59:37 – Kevin expounds on his mantra to always be prepared, organized, and productive
1:02:03 – What motivates and drives Kevin
1:03:10 – Kevin speaks to the mentors who have shaped him throughout the years
1:04:39 – One of Kevin’s beliefs that the average sales professional would think is crazy
1:06:11 – An average sales professional’s belief that Kevin thinks is crazy
1:07:09 – The most important lessons Kevin has learned
1:08:06 – The most common advice Kevin gives to the young business professionals he works with
1:10:09 – How Kevin thinks about personal branding
1:13:33 – Advice Kevin would give to a struggling sales professional looking to do better
1:14:45 – What Kevin would want to know about the top sellers of other organizations
1:19:01 – Final words of wisdom from Kevin
1:24:28 – Kevin’s actionable challenge to the audience
1:28:13 – Scott takes a moment to promote the Sales Success Summit

Tweetables:

“I’m having more fun now than I’ve had in my career in a long time. I actually love doing what I’m doing right now. And I hadn’t been able to say that up until this point.” (07:46)

“Never say, ‘No’ until you know what you’re saying, ‘No,’ too.” (20:10)

“One of the things I always do is I always try to help people get a job. I know tons of people who are always looking to hire and I’m always willing to connect with good people. And I do that quite often, and that just builds champions across my network.” (24:52)

“I think we need to do better as sales professionals in helping each other out. I was extremely fortunate to have really good mentors in my sales career. It’s that pay it forward mentality. Anytime somebody reaches out and wants to have a conversation about sales, I’m all for it. I love it.” (38:08)

“You don’t need to work sixty to eighty hours to do well. You just have to be productive during the hours you work.” (46:26)

“For me, I think my sales style is about discovery. If you don’t do discovery well, you’re wasting time.” (57:28)

“My dad has a saying, ‘Don’t get caught up in your long underwear.’ Really the point is that less is more and we basically do a lot of self-inflicted wounds where we get in our own way. One of the things I needed to learn early in my career was to not get in my own way.” (1:07:18)

“If there’s meat on the bone, I’m not gonna stop. A lot of sales reps will quit, but I won’t.” (1:16:23)

Links Mentioned:

[email protected]
2021 Sales Success Summit
816: Don’t Attend Large Internal Meetings – Matt Du Pont
Kevin Piket on LinkedIn
Ascend Technologies Website

What We Covered:

Tweetables:

Links Mentioned:

Tools Mentioned:

Books Mentioned:

Podcasts Mentioned: