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On today’s show, Fred meets with Kevin Reilly, Head of National Business Development at Alliance Technology Group and recipient of the Jay Nussbaum Rising Sales Star Award at this year’s IEPS Annual Sales Excellence Awards. Learn more about the award event here.
Find Kevin on LinkedIn.
KEVIN’S TIP: “Be a student of the game. If you want to grow in sales, you have to constantly learn, stay curious, and look for ways to improve every single day.”
THE PODCAST BEGINS HERE
Fred Diamond: Kevin, every year we’ve given out what we call our Lifetime Achievement Award. Our second recipient ever was a guy named Jay Nussbaum. Jay ran public sector sales for Oracle, for Xerox. He created a company called Agilex, which eventually was purchased by Accenture to represent a large part of their federal organization. He was the godfather of public sector sales, a bigger-than-life person. Unfortunately, we lost him in 2019. In 2020, we created this award in his honor, the Jay Nussbaum Rising Sales Star Award.
It’s actually exciting that you’re going to receive this award, because we’re giving out our first College Sales Educator of the Year. That’s going to be the great Brian Collins with Virginia Tech, the Pamplin School. You were a student, and we said, “This makes so much sense. We’re going to give this award to Brian. Let’s find a student that excelled.” We got some of the people who know that world together and your name rose to the top.
I’m talking today with Kevin Reilly. He will be the sixth Jay Nussbaum Rising Sales Star Award recipient. Kevin, introduce our audience to you. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Tell us where you work now, your title. Then we’ll talk a little bit about your experiences at Virginia Tech.
Kevin Reilly: I work in Alliance Technology Group. They’re a system integrator, managed service provider, been around since ‘97. I started there in 2018, my first job out of college. I manage a sales team. I’ve got four AEs and four BDRs. We sell everything from storage, backup, networking, cybersecurity, managed services. My team focuses primarily on emerging disruptive technologies. It’s a lot in the public safety space.
If you’ve ever heard of a company called Evolv, they’re a concealed weapon detection, AI company. If you’ve gone to a Caps game or a lot of NFL games, they have them there. We’re their largest dealer. In 2021, we started working with them. In the last year, we did probably close to 55 million with Evolv. It’s something that I’m really passionate about, trying to keep people safe. That’s our number one vendor.
We also do things in computer vision, wearable, panic buttons, mass notifications, as well as cloud-managed networking, so fabric networking. Extreme is a big partner of ours, just to name a few.
Fred Diamond: I had mentioned that you were a student at Virginia Tech. A lot of listeners of the Sales Game Changers Podcast know that we do a show called Office Hours – Sales Professors Unplugged, where we interview people like Professor Collins and a lot of the leaders of professional sales departments at universities that are typically part of the University Sales Center Alliance. Go back to your days at school. Were you in Brian’s organization as a student? Was sales your chosen field? Did you know that you were going to go participate in this curriculum with the goal of being in sales upon graduation?
Kevin Reilly: It’s a weird route to where I am. I went all the way through middle school, high school thinking I would go to school for music, oddly enough. Berklee College of Music was my dream school up in Boston, I got in there. But there was a couple of weird things going on. They couldn’t guarantee any housing and it was also really expensive. People that have success at Berklee aren’t necessarily the people that graduate from Berklee. John Mayer went there, Molly Tuttle. The people that do really well get picked up by a record label, or they start touring, build connections, that sort of stuff. It’s not like you graduate with an accounting degree, get your CPA, and you know you’re going to get a job with a good salary. I had a little bit of cold feet about that, and then the housing thing made me essentially defer my acceptance.
I gave Virginia Tech a shot. That’s where my mom went to school. I grew up rooting for Virginia Tech football. It was a comfortable place and it just felt like home when I was there. I basically went there on a trial run. I was totally undecided when I started at Tech. I can’t believe I didn’t take high school super seriously. I was the guy who would show up to class and the guy next to me would say, “Hey, how much did you study for the test? Are you ready for it?” and I would look at him and be like, “What test?”
I really didn’t know what I wanted to do, but Tech does a good job of taking those undecided students, trying to expose them to different areas of the university, and put them in a lane. I picked general business management, because I was a moron at the time. I was like, “I don’t know what I want to do, but I know I don’t want to work for somebody else.” I started taking some of those classes, I enjoyed psychology, I enjoyed economics, so I picked up minors in econ and psych.
Then I took an interview just because it said manager of the Collegiate Times. The school newspaper was interviewing for a business manager position. It was one of those really tough interviews where it’s like 10 people, they’re peppering you with questions. I didn’t get the job, but one of the guys that was interviewing me said, “Hey, have you ever thought about sales?” I took the job and I had some clients, selling advertising, really enjoyed it.
Then I took an internship at memoryBlue, which I found at Business Horizons. That’s where I really decided, “All right, I want to be in sales and I want to sell technology.” I was lucky enough to figure out what I wanted to do at a really young age. I think a lot of people just fall into sales in their mid-20s, early 30s, but I was lucky enough to figure that out at 19, 20. I was like, “How do I make myself the most competitive applicant? What are the things I can get involved in?” That’s how I got in touch with Brian Collins.
I joined the sales team, where we’d compete at different universities, do role plays, things like that. I added the minor in professional sales. What I actually learned at the internship with memoryBlue was, if I want to be in high tech, it would certainly help to get more technical myself. I added another major in business information technology with a concentration in computer-based decision support systems. I learned how to code, learned about networking with fundamentals of IT, cybersecurity. It’s crazy. I came in undecided, and I graduated with two majors and three minors, but I’m really grateful for that time.
I made awesome connections. We sponsor the Virginia Tech sales program. I speak to those students all the time. We’ve hired awesome people from Virginia Tech. I teach a class there probably once or twice a semester, get down there to do their career fairs. I’m a huge proponent of that program.
Fred Diamond: You mentioned music, just curiously, do you play an instrument or do you sing?
Kevin Reilly: Yeah, I sing, play guitar, piano was probably my first instrument. We started a band at Virginia Tech. It’s still going on today. It’s called The Rusty Seesaws. We just put out an album in January.
Fred Diamond: That’s great. Maybe we’ll play something at the award event. What advice do you have for others coming up in sales and sales leadership? Let’s bring the answers a little bit tighter here. What do you recommend for people who are coming out of school with the sales degree or the sales curriculum for them to get successful?
Kevin Reilly: You got to be a student of the game. You’ve got to commit to get better every day. Reading books like How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, is an awesome one. That’s the first thing that I think anyone should read after college. The Challenger Sale, SPIN Selling, Gap Selling by Keenan, I love all those books. There’s also masterclasses you can take. Chris Voss has a really good one, Daniel Pink.
There’s a bunch of classical sales methodologies that you should check out. Sandler, John Costigan, as well as just podcasts. Outbound Squad is a really good one. I listen to Brian Burns, has a good one. Obviously yours, and get involved in the Institute for Effective Professional Selling, is an awesome way to build a network and just be around the community of people that want to sharpen their skills and promote this profession.
Fred Diamond: Let’s talk about networking for a second. Tell us about your network. Tell us a little bit about the people that you interact with and the kinds of people that you associate that you think will help you grow your business. What are your recommendations for other people coming out of school about the need to build such an important personal network?
Kevin Reilly: I think as you get experience and get your feet wet in the job, you’re going to figure out who are the people that can really get things done, who are the pretenders, and who are what I affectionately call the corporate bots. You’re going to naturally gravitate towards the people that you’re going to want to maintain a relationship with, regardless of where they go or where you go.
I think one thing that people don’t do enough these days, with the proliferation of social media, it’s so easy to just write a comment, like a post, send somebody a text. The art of just calling somebody up to say hi, really for no other reason than to catch up and see how you’re doing, ask about them, ask about their family, is so important, and it stands out to people. I would encourage folks, when you see somebody has a job update or a big announcement, as opposed to just writing a comment, give them a call. Give them a call, say congratulations, ask them how they’re doing. It really makes a big difference.
Fred Diamond: I agree with you. One thing we recommend a lot at the Institute for Effective Professional Selling is picking up the phone, touching base, letting people know. Not everything has to be truly intentional with moving business, but it’s amazing once people progress in their careers. I talked to people that I did work with 30 years ago that are now doing something that’s relevant to what I’m doing. Maybe we interfaced then, then they went on their path, I went on my path, and now I see them working on projects at customers that we’re working on. We’re working with companies that are also members of the IEPS.
I’m just curious. Again, you’re going to be the recipient of the Jay Nussbaum Rising Sales Star Award. To be frank with you, Kevin, we considered a lot of people for this. We work, fortunately, at the IEPS, with amazing companies that have great young talent and people who are very motivated. But like I said, you rose to the top. What motivates you, and maybe some of the people in your network that are also listening to podcasts, and that have come out of Virginia Tech and their program? What gets you going every day, to keep going? Because as we all know, sales is hard. It’s the industry that’s most fraught with rejection.
You’re now managing eight people and they all have their diverging ways. We’re doing today’s interview in March of 2026. 2025 is one of the hardest years we’ve ever had in sales, for a whole bunch of different reasons. 2026 is a challenge. There are opportunities for sales professionals to utilize AI more effectively, but it’s also making things a little more challenging. Give us some insights into what gets you going so that you’ve reached such a nice level of success in the early part of your career.
Kevin Reilly: Making an impact. I was lucky enough to figure out where I wanted to be in the industry and I wanted to be in early. I had several offers coming out of college. The ones that I was most seriously considering was Alliance and memoryBlue. I was really wrestling with that decision. I remember I was talking to my mom about it and she said, “What job scares you the most?”
I said, “Well, Alliance scares me the most.”
She said, “Why?”
“Well, I’d be the youngest person there. They typically don’t hire people out of college. If I’m going to be successful, it’s because I figured it out. There’s no blueprint. There’s no template for me to just copy and paste.”
With memoryBlue, there was a lot of younger folks, I knew them. But Alliance, they threw me into the fire, and I think that’s the best way to learn. Get into a difficult situation that you haven’t been in before and fail, make mistakes, learn from them, and get better. That’s what I said to my mom, that Alliance scares me the most. She said, “Well, that’s the job you’ve got to take.”
They’ve invested in me, believed in me. I basically walked into our VP’s office after working there for six months and I said, “I think Alliance is good at a lot of things. We have a lot of great account managers, don’t have a lot of great hunters.” When we hire new AEs, they always say, “I’m going to bring over all these great accounts. I have all these relationships.” Sometimes that works out. Sometimes it doesn’t. I basically said to Bob, “memoryBlue was going to bring me on to manage a team of people that want to break into high tech sales and develop pipeline, do all the training and the BD stuff top of funnel, and then transition them into an AE. Why don’t we in source that here?”
He was crazy enough to let me do it. We ended up getting essentially investors via MDFs, market development funds, from our partners, Extreme, Fortinet, Cohesity, Avaya, and basically, they were paying us to sell on their behalf. That’s how we got it launched.
Fred Diamond: I want to applaud you for having the courage to make that stand. We tell people in sales, one of the ways to grow your career is by coming up with some constructive ideas on how the company can grow, and finding ways to solve them. I worked at a company called Compaq Computer for a number of years, and my boss’s boss was a retired rear admiral in the Navy, and he didn’t mind if you told him things that were wrong, but in the same conversation, you had to tell him how to solve the problem. I remember that very, very clearly, and I applaud you for that.
I just got to ask you one more question about music before I go to our final question. Who’s your go-to? A lot of people who listen to the show know that I bring in musical references. You’re a young man, but who’s your number one music idol that you listen to more often than anybody else?
Kevin Reilly: I’ll give you two, and they’re totally wildly different. One is Green Day. I’m a ridiculous huge Green Day fan, which lines up with my generation. I’ll also give you James Taylor. My parents were huge James Taylor fans, heard it all my life. When I was learning how to play guitar, I really tried to emulate his kind of finger-picking style. If you listen to our band, it makes total sense that that’s who I like.
Fred Diamond: We’re definitely going to play one of the songs at the award event. I’m okay with Green Day. I’ve been listening to more James Taylor recently for some reason, and sometimes when I just go back into my house, I’ll just tell Siri, “Play some James Taylor.” FYI, my big band is Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. We’re definitely going to hear some Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at the award event. One thing I like to joke is that the award event is partially sponsored by music from the ‘70s.
We’re talking with Kevin Reilly today. He’s the Jay Nussbaum Rising Sales Star Award recipient. Kevin, before I ask you for your final action step on how sales professionals can take their career to the next level, again, we’re doing today’s interview in March of 2026, where do you see yourself in five years? Five years is a long time from now, but it’s also a short time. Where do you see yourself in five years ideally?
Kevin Reilly: Hopefully in the same spot. Alliance has been an awesome company for me. They’ve been truly life-changing, the opportunities that they’ve presented to me. I’m very grateful for that. Maybe have a larger team. Last year was a record year for us. We’re averaging 200% growth year over year. Hopefully the same spot, but who knows? I will tell you this, I won’t work for another company. I’ll start my own business. I think that’s what this job has taught me, and we’ve really proven it, is with this framework of BD, the software that we’ve wrapped around it, the training, the sponsorship investment model, we’ve proved to people that we can go from absolute zero to a very profitable business in a relatively short time, six, seven years. That’ll be my next move, is to start my own thing.
Fred Diamond: One thing that’s really cool about today’s interview is I see the passion you have for your company. We talk about that all the time. One of the recipes for success is being proud of where you’re working and being proud of the offerings and being proud of your partnerships. You can’t hide that. Everything really does come down to energy. It’s nice to see how your company has supported you. We talked to some of the leaders at your company to get their confirmation that you should be our recipient of the sixth Jay Nussbaum Rising Sales Star Award. They were all unabashedly in support of it. It’s great to see the connections there.
Congratulations again to you. It’s great to see the great work that Brian Collins and Mark and all the professors have done. We’re really excited to see you at the award event on April 29th. We’ll play some of your music if you get it to me. We’ll be happy to hear what you’re going to say.
We like to end every show with one specific bit of advice. You’ve given us a lot of ideas. Give us one specific thing. I know you have a lot of friends out there. When we announced that you were going to be the recipient, I saw a bunch of people from Virginia Tech, and probably your peers from high school and other places, chimed in about congratulating you, give them a bit of advice on how they can take their sales career to the next level.
Kevin Reilly: You’re probably going to cringe because I’m sure you hear this all the time. We hear about it until we want to throw up. I hate being the guy that says AI, but I really think that is table stakes today, not tomorrow. You need to have AI literacy. I’m not the guy who’s going to say that AI is going to take your job tomorrow, but the sales rep that knows how to use AI better than you will take your job tomorrow. We’ve leaned heavily into it, not just from making investments in software tools to make us more effective, but things like AI parallel dialers, using AI to do account research, prep for your next call.
The other day I was on a site survey for an Evolv system that we were doing, and I knew that the space was going to be tight. On my walk over there, I was just typing in, “Hey, give me the dimensions of an Evolv Gen2 single lane system. I’m going to need the data sheet for that.” I was ready to measure everything up, but also taking that even a step further and using Gemini to overlay an image of what that Evolv system will look like in their facility. I took the pictures of the space that’s going to use that. “Here’s what it will look like once everything’s installed,” and then to be able to use that to create diagrams to show what the flow is going to look like, where are your secondary screening tables, your officers.
I’ve taken courses. I use Coursiv just in my spare time to brush up on this kind of stuff. AI personalization, I think, is going to be huge, especially for outreach. We’ve got a framework that we push out to our BDRs that’s like seven pages of prompts that you’re copying and pasting between ChatGPT Pro and NotebookLM to take that email drip and personalize those first two sentences so that you’re taking something from that company’s earnings report, their 10-K, their any kind of recent news, and tying it back to the content of that drip, but doing it at scale. Because everybody knows there’s nothing worse than spending an hour writing a super-detailed hyper-relevant email to somebody and doing all your research, and then you find out that email went to spam. You’ve got to be able to be relevant, be personalized, but also do it fast. That’s where AI comes in. Everybody needs to be figuring out how they can get better and use these tools.
Fred Diamond: Absolutely. You’ve given us some great ideas there. As a matter of fact, also at the award event, we’re going to be giving out our second AI for Selling Effectiveness Award. It’s an award that we give out to two companies that are using AI effectively in the sales process. Great answer.
Once again, Kevin Reilly, congratulations on being the IEPS Jay Nussbaum Rising Sales Star Award winner for 2026. I hope to see everybody at the award event on April 29th. My name is Fred Diamond, and this is the Sales Game Changers Podcast.
Transcribed by Mariana Badillo