Episode 155: Leon Baumann is a True Client Champion at Dell Technologies

Leon Baumann is a Senior Account Executive and Client Champion at Dell Technologies. Leon’s focus at Dell Technologies and his career are both centered around being a Champion for his Clients. He is a firm believer in investing heavily in himself, as evidenced by the numerous training programs he’s taken part in at Wharton, Kellogg, and the Professional Selling and Sales Management program from Harvard. As a result of these efforts, and his relentless pursuit to serve his customers with relationships built on a foundation of trust, he is an Authenticated Client Champion.

Today, Leon joins the show to engage in a meaningful dialogue centered on deep work, the importance of trust, and how he is engaging his clients through Slack. Leon speaks to the three things he attributes most to his success, all of which involve focus: focusing on his customers, focusing on his team, and focusing on himself. Leon speaks to the concept of leading without authority, the value he places on preparedness, and the beauty of the ‘purpose benefit check.

Leon continues by discussing how he approaches sales as a craft and what he believes should be in every sales curriculum. He shares his favorite sales story, his proudest accomplishment, and the emphasis he places on balancing work with his home life. Leon speaks to the importance of making a lasting impression, whether that’s with a customer or a colleague. Leon takes the audience through a typical day in the life, from creativity and big-picture strategies to the preparation he puts into his meetings, calls, and deep work. Leon and Scott dive into best practices for managing complex Sales dynamics and the power of competence and credibility. Finally, Leon issues an actionable challenge to the audience. He challenges you to take some time each day to really sit down and think about what you’re doing today and what you need to be doing differently going forward. From there, create an action plan and see what results these adjustments yield.

What We Covered:

00:24 – Scott introduces today’s guest, Leon Baumann
00:46 – Scott takes a quick moment to give a shoutout to John Westman who introduced Scott to Leon
00:59 – The top three things Leon attributes to his success
01:17 – Number One: Focusing on putting the customer first
01:30 – Number Two: Focusing on his team
01:43 – Number Three: Focusing on getting the best out of himself
02:20 – Focusing on the customer
06:50 – Focusing on the team
08:35 – Focusing on yourself
12:07 – Leon expounds on his role at Dell and quantifies his sales results
16:51 – Leading Without Authority
20:02 – Leon’s sales origin story
24:10 – Sales as a craft
26:19 – Building a sales curriculum
32:07 – Scott invites anyone listening who has finished #1 in the past year or two to reach out
34:22 – Leon’s favorite sales story
35:40 – Leon’s proudest accomplishment
37:17 – Balancing work and home life
39:13 – Leon takes the audience through a typical day in the life
42:49 – Leon tells a quick story about preparedness
47:18 – Leon explains the concept of a purpose benefit check
49:59 – Other habits and routines that are critical to Leon’s success
51:41 – How Leon makes a lasting impression
53:41 – The books, news, podcasts, and trade information that Leon consumes
56:54 – The importance of trust
58:20 – Leon’s tech stack
59:36 – How Leon is engaging with his customers through their Slack
1:02:44 – Leon’s sales philosophy and leadership style
1:07:44 – How Leon is motivating his team and what keeps him motivated
1:10:38 – Leon shares his thoughts on challenges and overcoming adversity
1:12:18 – Creativity and Big Picture Strategy
1:15:36 – Managing complex Sales dynamics
1:22:01 – The power of competence and credibility
1:24:54 – One of Leon’s beliefs that the average sales professional would think is crazy
1:26:09 – An average sales professional’s belief that Leon thinks is crazy
1:28:23 – The most important lesson Leon has ever learned
1:31:03 – Three simple questions
1:32:03 – Leon’s favorite failure
1:37:46 – Advice Leon would give to an upstart sales professional
1:39:40 – Advice Leon would give to a struggling sales professional trying to reach the next level
1:41:07 – What Leon wants to know about other top sellers
1:43:43 – Leon issues an actionable challenge to the audience

Tweetables:

“I have found success through putting focus on my customers’ success over my own and looking for every possible way to personalize that focus on success within my customer.” (02:54)

“Every year you start over again at zero. I think it was a Babe Ruth quote that said, ‘Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.’ So, we always need to be thinking about what to do next and how to better support our customer and deliver something for our customer.” (16:03)

“Within selling, you’ve gotta find what it is that’s special about you that’s going to appeal to your ability for your customers to want to do business with you. It’s a true understanding of yourself so that you can understand how to use what’s best about you to work with other people. In sales, it’s very much a personal relationship and if you’re not in sales to help people then you’re not going to be in it for very long.” (26:57)

“When you start with the purpose of us meeting and, ultimately, the benefit of going through this process, and then asking for validation from the customer by asking, ‘Is this the purpose that you have? Are these the benefits that you’re looking for?’ it certainly gets the meetings set in the right direction.” (47:56)

“I feel that, especially in this people-to-people world that we’re involved in B2B sales, you need to take the time to be hyper-prepared to make a lasting impression. People talk about first impressions. I think more about a lasting impression.” (50:44)

“Being organized and coming into any type of relationship, whether internal or external, with the focus on communication and collaboration is probably how I describe my sales style. Focus with a focus on helping, energy, optimism, and organization.” (1:07:25)

“If you’re not going to prepare, you’re probably going to fail.” (1:24:18)

Book Mentioned:

Leading Without Authority
Give and Take
The Challenger Sale
Play Nice but Win
Dare to Lead
Never Eat Alone
Mindset
Competing In the New World of Work
The SPEED of Trust
Trust and Inspire

Podcasts Mentioned:

Sales Success Stories
Daily Sales Tips
WorkLife with Adam Grant
Winning the Challenger Sale
A Bit of Optimism

What We Covered:

Tweetables:

Links Mentioned:

Book Mentioned:

Podcasts Mentioned: