Episode 173: Authenticity, Relentlessness & Patient Persistence with Vance Exstrom

Vance Exstrom is the top producer at Rent Dynamics, where he was number one last year out of over ninety sellers, and did 475% of his annual number. Vance consults multi-family property management companies and RE ownership groups on better serving their residents, creating a smoother operation, and increasing their bottom line with technology solutions consisting of credit/rental assistance, resident experience applications, rent collection optimization, and lead-to-lease applicators.

Today, Scott and Vance discuss the three things Vance attributes to his success. These include: establishing clear and comfortable next steps, in-person connection, and relentless prospecting. Vance recaps his sales origin story, one that involved his faith as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the mission he went on in Argentina. During this mission, he realized he was selling one of the most difficult things ever: religion. But that experience shaped Vance in the most incredible ways and paid dividends in future career successes.

Vance details a day in the life, from his early morning surfing sessions to his blocked out prospecting and pipeline work. Between administrative work, demos, traveling to other people’s offices, and making outbound calls, his day is jam-packed! He closes out each day by going through emails and noting all of his follow-ups before shutting down completely to spend time with his family. Scott and Vance talk about the art of ‘patient persistence,’ and the importance of differentiating yourself from what other sales professionals are doing. Finally, Vance issues an actionable challenge to the audience. He urges them to figure out what you are not doing that a top producer is doing within your organization. Spend thirty minutes with them and pick their brain. Go talk to a top producer and implement what they’re doing in your day-to-day. Dedicate yourself to this and you’ll see the results as long as you are persistent and you put in the work.

What We Covered:

00:01 – Scott thanks today’s sponsor, The Sales Collective
01:01 – Scott welcomes to the show Vance Exstrom
01:20 – The top three things that Vance attributes to his success in banking
01:43 – Number One: Clear and comfortable next steps
04:35 – Number Two: In-person connection
06:28 – Number Three: Relentless prospecting
07:55 – Vance’s prospecting process
10:58 – Vance quantifies his role and results
13:02 – What Vance attributes to his ‘hot start’ to the year
14:49 – Vance’s sales origin story
17:14 – Vance’s unique approach to cold calling
19:59 – What Vance would do differently if given the chance
21:45 – Vance’s all-time favorite Sales story
25:08 – The biggest challenge of Vance’s career
33:51 – The point where Vance realized the importance of giving back
35:22 – Vance takes the audience through a typical day in the life
39:32 – How Vance closes out his day
41:18 – The tranquility that surfing provides
43:08 – Other habits and routines that are critical to Vance’s success
44:11 – Vance’s information diet
46:18 – Vance’s sales philosophy and style
50:35 – Discovery is a lifestyle, not a stage
51:59 – One of Vance’s beliefs that the average sales professional would think is crazy
52:30 – Cold texting, explained
55:34 – An average sales professional’s belief that Vance thinks is crazy
56:00 – The most important lessons of Vance’s career
57:25 – Advice Vance would give to an upstart sales professional
1:00:13 – Advice Vance would give to a struggling sales professional looking to find that next level
1:01:35 – What Vance would love to know about top sellers in other organizations
1:04:22 – Vance issues an actionable challenge to the audience

Read the full transcript & show notes →

Tweetables:

“A lot of what success looks like in Sales is never being satisfied. And with prospecting, this is something that we can one hundred percent control in Sales. The more salespeople grow within their respective industry, the less I feel prospecting gets noticed. There’s just not as much focus on prospecting the more you grow, which I think is a complete oxymoron.” (06:53)

“Historically, cold calls have been done the same way for a long time. It’s all, ‘Hey, I’m Scott Ingram from so-and-so company. Do you have a second to chat?’ It’s that same script and I thought that there’s got to be a better way to do this. When I was cold calling two hundred people a day, I’d pick up the phone and say, ‘Hey Scott, how’ve you been?’ And just that subtle difference made a world of difference. I was able to open conversations just with that small introduction.” (17:41)

“I think the biggest challenge for me is the pursuit of continued excellence.” (26:46)

“When you are a genuine person – and I quote that word ‘person’ – that is what is gonna make all of the difference in the Sales process.” (32:27)

“I think our day and age – the 2020s – there’s just so much depression and anxiety. And a lot of that stems from not being in touch with what’s around us and being in these manufactured, manmade environments.” (43:33)

Books Mentioned:

Gap Selling

Sponsors Mentioned:

The Sales Collective