Episode 120: Sid Nazareth on Sales Success through Curiosity, Support Networks & Giving

Sid Nazareth was the number one salesperson worldwide at Appian for two years in a row before starting his current role as a Strategic Account Manager at Amazon Web Services. During his time at Appian Sid made significant contributions in winning new business and was known as one of the best pre-sales consultants with technical skills, dedication, and work ethic second to none. Today, he works with some of AWS’ largest customers. Sid is the epitome of a thoughtful and intentional sales professional who believes in being compassionate and kind. It is his ability to relate and connect with people – one of his superpowers – that has led to a tremendous amount of success in his profession.

In this episode, Sid talks about his passion for learning and continual growth. Sid is uncomfortable being comfortable and believes that continual growth makes life so much richer. For Sid, it’s all about putting in the time and effort to reach the goals you’ve set out for yourself. Sid and Scott discuss Sid’s sales origin story, his proudest accomplishment, and challenges and obstacles Sid has faced along the way. Sid shares his favorite sales story, one where he leveraged his curiosity, honesty, and transparency to his benefit. Sid lists the three things he attributes to his success. Among them are his insatiable curiosity, networking, and giving back to others. In fact, he and his wife serve as a Resource Family for Generation Hope where they mentor/financially sponsor single teen parents and their children through college and kindergarten, respectively.

Sid takes the audience through a typical day in the life, which starts at 6:30 am with a morning routine that includes taking his children to school, yoga, and mindfulness meditation. From there, Sid likes to borrow from the lessons of Deep Work and blocks off an hour to ninety minutes to get his major tasks accomplished for the day. Then he takes a break for lunch and sometimes a walk to take his mind off work and stops working around five in the evening to play some basketball, spend time with his kids and have dinner. Sid always ends his day by reading to his kids, relaxing for a bit, and doing some light reading before going to sleep and starting the day all over again. Finally, Sid poses an actionable challenge to the audience. He suggests blocking out an hour to ninety minutes every morning to work on your most important project. Look back in two weeks to see the progress you’ve made and see if it works for you like it’s worked for Sid.

What We Covered:

00:01 – Scott thanks the sponsors of today’s episode, Vidyard, Alyce and Proposify
00:37 – Scott welcomes today’s guest, Sid Nazareth
01:25 – The top three attributes that Sid attributes to his success
01:44 – Number 1: Insatiable curiosity
02:18 – Number 2: Building an internal network and support group
03:29 – Number 3: Always giving back
04:49 – Sid speaks to his involvement in The Top Percentile Collective
06:00 – Sid talks about his previous role at Appian and his current role at Amazon Web Services
07:30 – Sid’s sales origin story
13:21 – How Sid viewed sales before he became a sales professional and how he views it today
17:26 – Scott takes a moment to thank one of today’s sponsors, Vidyard
17:53 – What Sid would change about his sales journey if given the chance
19:41 – Sid recalls his favorite sales story
25:02 – Scott pauses to thank another one of today’s sponsors, Alyce
25:28 – The most challenging part of Sid’s sales role today
28:12 – Sid asks Scott about the challenges he’s facing in sales today
30:24 – Sid talks about why he focuses a lot on rest and recuperation
33:41 – Sid’s proudest accomplishment
34:06 – Scott thanks the final sponsor of today’s episode, Proposify
36:28 – Sid talks about his approach to sales
38:10 – Sid takes the audience through a typical day in the life
45:09 – The books, news, podcasts, and trade information that Sid consumes
56:49 – The tools and apps that are critical to Sid’s success
57:48 – Sid’s sales style and philosophy
1:11:25 – Sid expounds on why your sale doesn’t end when the contract is signed
1:18:14 – Sid’s sales process from start to close
1:23:34 – What motivates and drives Sid
1:26:19 – One of Sid’s beliefs that the average sales professional would think is crazy
1:27:33 – An average sales professional’s belief that Sid thinks is crazy
1:28:31 – The most common advice Sid gives to upstart sales professionals
1:33:42 – Sid speaks to what he hopes to learn from conversations with other top sales professionals
1:35:58 – Sid speaks to the cultural superpowers of Appian and Amazon Web Services, respectively
1:43:07 – Final words of wisdom from Sid
1:45:44 – Sid’s actionable challenge to the audience

Tweetables:

“Research points to the most successful salespeople having the strongest networks inside companies.” (02:26)

“Sales is a blend of consulting and problem solving, and it’s about bringing teams together. In many ways, it’s entrepreneurial because an opportunity is like starting a little company, bringing the right people together, delivering the resources you need, and then disbanding onto the next one.” (15:31)

“You have to have patience. You have to put in the work. You have to think about the pipeline development. Sales is not an event, sales is a process.” (19:20)

“We can control our inputs, we can’t always control our outputs.” (37:23)

“It’s a privilege to think about being a top performer and making quota. It’s a privilege to have a roof over our heads and money and food in our bellies when so many people go hungry and don’t have three meals a day. And when days or weeks or months are tough in sales, not making my number, I have to remind myself to be grateful. I’ve found that having perspective and gratefulness have helped me in my sales as well.” (56:03)

“One piece of advice I have for all our listeners is try different experiments and see what works and doesn’t work and iterate.” (1:09:11)

“For me, I always think in terms of learning and growth. And it just makes life so much richer. I’m uncomfortable being comfortable. That’s one of my sayings.” (1:24:02)

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