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EPISODE 163: WSB’s John Ryder Verbalizes How to Sell Speaker Services from George Bush, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Jack Nicklaus

JOHN’S FINAL TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: “I have never regretted thinking Big. Thinking of these goals that far surpass where I was last year, where I’d like to be and never been daunted by what I need to do to get there. Just believe in yourself and ask others and constantly improve, focus on winning and I guarantee you will.”

John Ryder is the VP of Global Sales at the Washington Speakers Bureau, also known as WSB.

Prior to coming to WSB, he held sales leadership positions in the telecom space at AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint.

We also interviewed Sandy Lutton, the former Chief Revenue Officer at WSB. You  can find her show here.

Find John on LinkedIn!

Fred Diamond: Why don’t you tell us a little more about you that we need to know?

John Ryder: Thanks, Fred. I’m privileged today to be working for the Washington Speakers Bureau, we represent talent that spans everything from astronauts, authors, former professional athletes, world leaders and business visionaries. Our sales agents pair those folks with customers for things like keynote speeches at annual events, board meetings and any kind of gather where they need to make an impactful statement. It’s an exciting industry to be in and I really love what I’m doing with the team here.

Fred Diamond: Tell us a little more about what you sell today and tell us what excites you about that.

John Ryder: Speakers are what we sell but more importantly we sell the experience. We look at the requirements of a customer or ask the customer, “When you walk away from this event, what do you want your people to be thinking differently? What do you want them to maybe be charged to go do?” That platform that we provide gives that experience that can really only be had through speech, probably one of the oldest and tried as truest ways of people learning.

Fred Diamond: What does it look like, what do you actually sell? Is it a one-time keynote speech for tens of thousands of dollars, is it a three day thing, is it a yearlong contract?

John Ryder: That’s a great question. We like it when it’s many, but it could be a package that could span a multi-day engagement for several speakers, it could be one that perhaps does an intimate dinner, does a keynote the next day and does moderated Q&A so really all of the above. We’re also looking at alternate revenue streams to do things over teleconferencing and other mediums.

Fred Diamond: Before we get into your story a little bit, who exactly do you sell to? Is it event planners, CEO’s, Chief of Marketing Officers?

John Ryder: Ideally it is a top level floor, someone who’s an executive that wants to make sure that message is delivered to their employees. Functionally, day in and day out could be a meeting planner, could be a business leader in a sales department who wants to promote change that’s going through their organization. It’s a variety of decision makers which is part of what makes it a lot of fun and also interesting and challenging at the same time.

Fred Diamond: Just before we get to your story, are there any people that we would know or people that you guys sell as speakers? Why don’t you tell us some of the names that people would come to the WSB to engage?

John Ryder: President Bush, Colin Powell, Platon, a famous photographer and authors like Doris Kearns Goodwin, athletes like Jack Nicklaus. It really does span the gamut.

Fred Diamond: If a customer comes to you and says, “We really need to motivate our people to sell more” you guys have a whole plethora of options of motivational speakers, past leaders, I wouldn’t mind sitting in the room with Jack Nicklaus for an hour.

John Ryder: Fascinating, really. Our speakers are very versatile, the message or how you want to deliver that message, that’s what we work closely with our client to make sure that that comes across just as they need.

Fred Diamond: Tell us a little more about your background. Again, you came from the Telecom space and now you’re selling speaker services. Tell us about that transition, but first tell us about how you first got into sales as a career.

John Ryder: I graduated college and was living in the New England area where the economy was really soft. I started out looking for work and found that I was really selling myself to get work, and noticed that I actually enjoyed the process of doing that. Reading a book, What Color is your Parachute you might have seen many years back, it all pointed towards I should be looking at something in sales. Took that advice and ran with it, through a series of interviews was finally able to land my first sales job which ended up being in technology. The reason why I was attracted to it is that I saw an opportunity here for what would eventually become a commodity but then was a business tool that only very wealthy or high level folks within corporations had access to that I knew would scale. I could tell at some point everyone would have one of these so I can get in the bottom floor and took that risk.

Fred Diamond: How did you make the move from selling telecom products to selling speakers?

John Ryder: That spans a couple of decades, a couple of large corporations which you named earlier where I have been grateful to have received a lot of mentorship and leadership training and experience. This opportunity presented itself through a contact that I had and it had me paused. I’ve made different shifts in my career, I did move at one point to selling more telephony over to IT and I thought the skill set that I have is definitely transferable and this looked like a unique opportunity and was local to where I lived. Meeting with the team here I thought, “These are people that I can help build something great with.”

Fred Diamond: When you first moved into sales, what were some of the key lessons that you learned that have stuck with you till today? 

John Ryder: There’s this one instance I can think of when I was trying to get into sales that really stuck with me. I keep on going back to it throughout my career. I probably had had a half a dozen interviews and I can paint the picture of around this time in the Boston area where the weather is terrible and I’m in a dingy hotel room meeting with somebody who really didn’t look like they were all that enthusiastic about talking to me or anyone, for that matter.

Towards the end of that interview and why I tell you this story, I decided to shift. I failed like I was failing these interviews and shift the conversations when he said, “Do you have any more questions?” I didn’t do the standard, “No, I hope you consider me, but thank you for your time” sort of thing. I said, “I do. In your opinion, what can I do to make sure that I get a job like this?” and I was really surprised by the reaction. The gentleman sat back in this chair, his eyes opened very wide and he said, “Don’t give up. Mainly don’t give up on yourself, you’re going to get there.”

I walked out of that interview, didn’t get a job but I learned a couple of things. The first one was to really listen to what people are saying and don’t just answer to reply but really to understand, and then you’ll develop a natural sense in all of us, a trust. That trust is the foundation for a relationship that you can leverage and with that, I took that forward and took those learnings and have applied them to this day, the listening and not giving up.

Fred Diamond: We’ve learned so much from the interviews we’ve done with the Sales Game Changers over the years and are continuing to do. Three key words keep permeating most of the interviews. One is mindset, you’ve got to have the right mindset, secondly is listen so I want to follow up on that, and third is persistence. You mentioned that with that lesson you learned to become a better listener, that comes up not infrequently, John. Tell us some things that you do for the audience listening to this podcast that they can become better listeners, which will then of course help them in their sales career.

John Ryder: I think for me, the best way that I can exercise my listening skills is to do a little bit of research. Also, you probably hear quite a bit of that but it’s really the type of questions that you ask and it’s the follow on questioning more importantly that clarifies the understanding of what the individual you’re talking about has conveyed and really shows empathy. It really shows that you’re aligning as if you’re on their team to solve their issue or their problem or their concern. Unless you get that connection to where they are and you go to where they are then you can take them where you want to take them, but if you’re just answering their questions or asking questions just to get to where you want to go I think it falters in the kind of connection you can make. I’ve found great success and have seen others do as well.

Fred Diamond: Before we ask you about your specific area of expertise and area of brilliance again I’m curious. I’ve been saying telecom but you said telephony, what were some of the differences that you found now that you’re selling speaker services versus selling telephony related products?

John Ryder: That’s a good one. There’s certainly a lot of commonality, some of these systems and services that I was selling in telecommunications didn’t necessarily reach to the highest levels or the core value of the company, they were either commodities or a means to an end. The messages that these speakers are delivering to corporations tie in right into their value system, they tie into change, they tie into a called action for employees. I think when I worked in telecom or IT often times we try to latch onto those values, sometimes we would but most times we won’t, it would default to what I’d mentioned earlier. This, if it’s done right, it’s a home run inside here.

Fred Diamond: It’s interesting, I’m thinking back as we’re talking here. I worked for Apple Computer for a long time and we had access to great speakers I’m thinking about right now, Ty Boyd is a tremendous speaker, a guy named Ira Hayes. I haven’t seen this guy in 30 somewhat years but these people, I remember specifically the things that they said in those types of settings and how your services can definitely impact you for your whole career. It’s pretty remarkable, do you feel that when you’re selling these services?

John Ryder: Definitely. If you’re able to attend and go onsite at an event there’s nothing quite like being there in person and seeing the actual body language and attitude shift and the people that are listening particularly usually during Q&A I see a lot of that. Just the gratitude at the highest levels of the side of these companies when our speaker has delivered that message and gotten them where probably they couldn’t have gotten on their own.

Fred Diamond: Tell us a little more about you, tell us a little more about your specific area of brilliance.

John Ryder: Area of brilliance, I can tell you an area that I’m very passionate about. I’ve had the luxury and privilege of being able to work in a couple of different corporations that we mentioned earlier in building teams and in taking teams through change, turbulent times and getting to a place where folks feel like they can succeed and that they have the resources they need and more importantly that they believe in their own success and their team’s success. I think of many examples of that even more recently where I think some folks are daunted by the idea of maybe a turbulent environment, I actually think that’s where I thrive. I like the complicated challenge and I love the result.

Fred Diamond: John, before you came to the WSB again you mentioned AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, some of the most successful companies in the history of telephony, telecom and IT for that matter so you must have worked for some great people. Why don’t you tell us about a mentor or two and how they impacted your career?

John Ryder: I definitely had more than one, gratefully. I can think it spans over quite a bit of time. There was one gentleman in particular, his name is Frank Iovino who I worked for who really gave me a model of a sales process which sometimes that word “process” makes a salesperson cringe a little bit. The fact is we all need it in the end and how you define it with that person so that it’s literally tailored to exactly what drives them and then they’re fulfilled and you could ask them to actually step up a little bit and contribute a whole lot more for themselves and the organization.

He also taught me conflict resolution and how to speak to a client to make good on promises that have dividends back to the client long after you’ve deployed some kind of a solution.

That’s one in particular, another one that I would point to gave me some really great advice. She said, “You’re real strong tactically, strategically. The one thing I would tell you to do is find the couple of things that you can’t stand doing and you need to be experts in them.” I used to be a little frustrated with some operational items and things of that nature and now I find flash forward 15 years later it’s actually one of the things I like to do the most. I probably limited myself so I think it’s that open-mindedness, she was definitely a proponent of diversity inclusion so she had me leverage things that I never knew I’d had inside me or in others.

Fred Diamond: John, what are two of the biggest challenges you face today as a sales leader?

John Ryder: Definitely in this great economy, attracting and retaining talent. We have an incredible product line of speakers and experience that attracts the right people, but in this work force there are so many options and folks want things to happen very quickly. Keeping them here, keeping them directed and feeling like they have a career path is something that’s my highest focus.

Fred Diamond: Do you have a second one as well?

John Ryder: I’d say inside that it would be to sustain success for people that also are veterans to make sure that we’re respecting their institutional knowledge and building on that keeping it fresh for the folks that are coming in and for themselves to continue to feel valued and developed.

Fred Diamond: Talking about that, we’ve learned that so many times through all the interviews that the mission of the Institute for Excellence in Sales – which is the primary sponsor of the Sales Game Changers podcast – has become to help sales leaders acquire, retain, motivate and elevate top tier talent. You’re not the first guest that we’ve had that’s said that’s the biggest challenge.

John Ryder: I would imagine not.

Fred Diamond: Give us a little bit of insight into what are some of the traits that make a great sales professional in this space, in the speaker space or related event type services.

John Ryder: I think it’s a maniacal focus on the customer and that probably applies in most industries, but because the message that will come from our speaker and the experience is so personal and so important to that company. Folks need to really understand our portfolio as well as they can to make sure that that pairing or that matching is as best as possible. There is the knowledge of product but also it’s being extremely responsive and sensitive to the exact needs of that corporation because it will be tied to their values. If you don’t get that right, that could be tricky but most of the time we’ve got some really adept people that do get it right and it’s very rewarding. I think people who are able to stay true to that and then follow on and ask for more business do really well.

Fred Diamond: What might be some of the background, someone who’s in sales? Would it be having sold professional services? You made the move from selling telephony, what college degree for example might somebody have to sell this type of a service to be successful?

John Ryder: I’ve seen folks that are successful that have a wide array. I personally have a Bachelor’s, we have folks that have that IT background, sales background similar to mine, we have folks that started here from an associate level sales support. For me to say that it’s specific to any one type of a background, I’d say it’s probably not. I think it’s all about what you want to make of it.

Fred Diamond: I guess you have to love listening to speakers as well and reading and learning.

John Ryder: I think that yearning for being constantly in the know for current events is huge, and then keeping the pulse. It’s important to corporations either very specific to their industry also certainly is helpful, that constant thirst really.

Fred Diamond: John, take us back to the #1 specific sales success or win from your career that you’re most proud of. Take us back to that moment.

John Ryder: This goes back a little ways and it’s definitely not the largest one that I’ve ever sold. We’ve got a little bit of a complicated backstory. I was the youngest national account manager that was hired at Sprint back when they launched Sprint PCS Print Spectrum which you may remember if you’re from this particular area. The VP had a little bit of question if I was the right person for the job, so he said, “I set up an appointment for us. I want you to go on it with me.” “Great, sounds good to me.” Flew out there, landed, got to the office and in that appointment it was pretty intimidating, it was a panel type setup and the VP I was with basically, “Your meeting, turn it onto me.”

Ripe old age at 24, I’m staring at people probably about twice my age and looked at it and said, “Tell me a little bit about your business. I know a little bit but I want to know what your pains are.” Very typical stuff and then quickly I noticed just in a second that I was connecting with one particular executive and I got that executive talking. I got them talking about their business, started down the path of laying out a plan for increasing efficiency and basically they stopped the meeting and then my VP said, “This guy is my friend and I was testing you, nice job.” I did turn around and actually sell that company a pretty large deployment at that time and also pass the test of proving myself as a younger buck in that situation.

Fred Diamond: We’ve heard some stories along the way as well with some Sales Game Changers about that type of an example where the VP has been taking the Sales Game Changer around and then one day the VP said, “I’m not going to make today’s meeting, but it’s at 3 o’clock at” wherever it might be. The people that we interview have had 10, 15, 20, 30 years’ career of success, being thrown into the deep end and having to figure it out pretty quickly. How did you feel after that?

John Ryder: I felt great. I’d always felt confident on my feet, but in that situation it felt good to actually prove it at another level. It gave me this sort of confidence that I think any sales professional should be able to talk to any level and be confident and believe in what they’re talking about. Once you establish that I think the sky’s the limit.

Fred Diamond: I like what you also said too is that you connected with somebody but you let them talk. We talked about listening before, but there’s so much an urge especially for the young people. We have young sales professionals listening around the globe to the podcast and a lot of them are on the phone in the first couple jobs now, you feel this need to be talking but the reality is you want to let your customer do the talking. What are some things that you do – again you talked about preparation, you talked about great questions – when you see that with your younger people? What’s some of the coaching that you do?

John Ryder: I would say that we all go into these conversations believing that we have a mapped out step A, step B, C, D and you hope to achieve something out of a phone call. Maybe it’s an appointment, maybe it’s an advance in the sale cycle, something in that nature. Step away from that, don’t confine yourself to that, someone could mention something on that call or in that meeting that could trigger a much larger opportunity. It’s earning that trust to be able to have that individual feel like you want to be on their team with that project. You’re not convincing them so much as you’re letting them talk to expose the sort of things that you can offer and align with, if that makes any sense at all.

Fred Diamond: Did you ever question being in sales? It sounds like you got into sales pretty early in your career, what did you say your college major was?

John Ryder: Psychology.

Fred Diamond: We also talked before the show you’re a bass player, you’ve played rock and roll. Here you are in sales, a nice, great career, you’ve worked for some blue chip companies. Now you’re working for the premier speaker bureau in the country, the Washington Speakers Bureau. Did you ever question being in sales? Did you ever think to yourself at some point, “It’s too hard, it’s really just not for me”?

John Ryder: There have been some external factors like in 2008 when the economy started tanking where it had been about a 13 year run when I had never missed my quota. That hit pretty hard, I think that hits the soul of anybody who is in sales, just not hitting your number even if it’s for a month. That made me think, “Am I insulating myself?” But whenever I ever go near anything like that, I remind myself to never give up and just realize you just need to talk to more people. You need to find another target, keep moving, keep it fresh, look at it from a new perspective. If you’re having a bad day, the best thing that you can do is go see your customer.

Fred Diamond: John, what’s the most important thing you want to get across to the selling professionals listening to today’s podcast around the globe?

John Ryder: I think I’ve said most of it throughout this discussion and I keep it that simple, it’s just being maniacally focused on your customer. We talked about the importance of listening, if your customer has something going on in their industry that’s important to them, challenging to them or an important opportunity, or it’s change or it’s turbulence, any of those things are a great way to partner up with a customer and to get on their team to get them to come to understand your solutions and adopt them.

Fred Diamond: John, give us an idea for the people listening on the podcast today. Probably few of them have sold speaker related services before, tell us what a home run is. What would be for one of your salespeople, what does a great deal look like? Is it getting Colin Powell to go speak somewhere in Hawaii or is it a year-long thing? Just give us an idea of what looks like a great hit for your team.

John Ryder: I think that it would start with the partnering and the planning to getting to the highest level you can within an organization to understanding exactly what they’re trying to get out of these sessions. Again, is it a call to action? Is it going through change, is it increasing efficiency, productivity? There’s a number of them. Then having them have the faith in you to where they do turn around and say, “You did such a great job in this suggestion” and maybe it was a speaker that they didn’t go in wanting. Often times we have an alternate that we talk to them about that they’re even more pleased with, “We want you to handle all of our series for the year.” That’s definitely a home run. Revenue behind that of course, we want to sell the more expensive ones but I’d say it’s earning that trust and being able to be looked at as adviser for all of their business.

Fred Diamond: Just curiously, are people coming to you for a specific speaker or is it the other way around where they’re coming to you, “We want to motivate our people” or, “We just need someone to talk to our executive staff”?

John Ryder: It’s all of the above. Often times as I mentioned earlier they will come wanting a specific speaker, the fee range might not be exactly aligned with theirs or the availability of the speaker might not be there so we look at alternatives for them or they could come with a message. They could come with a forum that could come early in the process, that could come really late in the process and say, “We put this off, we’re in a jam, can you help us out?” It makes every day a little different.

Fred Diamond: Just curiously, do you represent hundreds or thousands or dozens? How many speakers do you guys represent?

John Ryder: Hundreds exclusively, but we have access to a plethora of more of them that are not exclusive to us but like working with the Washington Speakers Bureau.

Fred Diamond: What are some things you do to sharpen your saw and stay fresh?

John Ryder: I spend an awful lot of time on LinkedIn reading articles. I go to your site, I’ll tell you I find it very handy and for me hearing other sales professionals’ or even other business professionals’ challenges and successes and sharing that information is really what keeps me freshest.

Fred Diamond: Why don’t you tell us about a major initiative you’re working on today to ensure your continued success?

John Ryder: One of the things that we pride ourselves at WSB is our world-class service onsite and a world-class service from the time we’re contacted with a customer to the time an event is played to debriefing afterwards and ensuring that continued success. I’m maniacally focused at the moment on making sure that our support around our sales staff and our customers is top notch, looking at ways to bring that to a new level.

Fred Diamond: I’ve got to imagine if you’re an event director and you have some big name person coming and you’ve advertised it, that’s got to be the most stressful thing. Making sure until that person is in the building or off the plane, wherever it might be. How do you work with your customers to make sure that, “He’s definitely coming” or, “She’s definitely going to be here, nothing to worry about, we’ve got you covered”? I imagine it’s like a soup to nuts service, it’s not just, “We’re going to get this great author to come speak” but, “His flight is flight number United 1422, we have the whatever it is set up.” Do you guys do all of those things as well?

John Ryder: We have a group speaker relations that has an event management team which is just world-class and some of them are dedicated to some of the speakers and some of them are dedicated to these events. They ensure a large part of that along with a lot of our agents make the time to be on site to perhaps hand off a speaker to a top level executive and to really make sure that all that customer has to worry about is their event and how great it’s going to go, not things like flights and other things you mentioned.

Fred Diamond: Last thing before we ask you for one more tip: do you also manage speakers as well or are they all good, first class, world-class athletes? They’re ready to go, “Just tell me where to be and who the customer is” or is it also part of what your team does is preparing the speakers? Working on tips, training, social media potentially.

John Ryder: I would say that the bulk of our speakers are highly flexible to meet any kind of requirement and we support them around events and things that I mentioned, and making sure that their calendars are full with engagements. By a large, these folks come ready to roll.

Fred Diamond: John, sales is hard. You’ve worked in some interesting places, you worked for AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and now of course you’re the VP of Global Sales for the Washington Speakers Bureau. You’ve given us some great insights here, but sales is hard. You talked about 2008, you get these macro related things where all of a sudden people aren’t having events if something, god forbid, happens. Hopefully not, but people don’t return your phone calls, they don’t return your emails, they probably think in your space that they could just find the speakers themselves and that’s always a problem because of all the service that you guys provide. What is it about sales as a career that has kept you going?

John Ryder: I have always looked at sales like having my own company without necessarily the overhead or the tax ID. For me, it’s what you want to make of it. Every day, every year, every plan that you have constantly can be adjusted and revised and it’s up to you to drive it and in the end the reward is so great.

Fred Diamond: Why don’t you give us a final thought to inspire our listeners today?

John Ryder: If I could leave with any final thought, I have never regretted thinking big. Thinking of these goals that far surpass where I was last year, where I’d like to be and never been daunted by what I need to do to get there. Just believe in yourself and ask others and constantly improve, focus on winning and I guarantee you will.

Transcribed by Mariana Badillo
Produced by Rosario Suarez

The post EPISODE 163: WSB’s John Ryder Verbalizes How to Sell Speaker Services from George Bush, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Jack Nicklaus first appeared on Sales Game Changers Podcast.

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EPISODE 065: Sandy Lutton Sells Speaker Services But Says Effective Listening is the Key to Sales Success

Sandy Lutton is the Chief Revenue Officer at the Washington Speakers Bureau. Sandy’s responsible for developing the company’s revenue strategy and ensuring the strategy aligns with the corporate vision.

In addition, she’s responsible for all revenue generating processes in the organization and focuses on driving strategic alignment across all corporate function. Her key focus areas include sales and marketing as well as customer and speaker relations and logistics.

Prior to the Washington Speakers Bureau, Sandy held the position of National Director of Sales and Operations at Grant Thornton. In her life-long sales career, she has held just about everything you can imagine. Her clients have ranged from early stage startups to Fortune 500 and everything in between.

Find Sandy on LinkedIN!

Fred Diamond: Why don’t you tell us a little bit about what you sell today and tell us what excites you about that.

Sandy Lutton: At the Washington Speakers Bureau it’s interesting because with the title, name, Washington Speakers Bureau folks are confused. They’re like, “What is that?” and they think it’s government, it’s Washington’s Bureau. Really, we’re a talent agency and in my opinion we are the platform for really connecting audiences and amazing speakers who have inspirational stories to tell.

Fred Diamond: Who do you sell to? Who are the types of people who purchase speaker services?

Sandy Lutton: It’s really anyone looking for a key note and beyond for an audience, it’s colleges and universities, it’s associations, it’s Fortune 500 companies, it’s big for accounting firms, law firms, anyone who is going to be putting on an event and who needs a really compelling speaker to tell a story and to move an audience.

Fred Diamond: Tell us a little more about what people physically buy from you. Is it a one-time key note, is it yearlong series, is it training? How do you position what you offer?

Sandy Lutton: It can be a variety of things. Typically, it’s a one-time keynote. Sometimes it can be consulting. We work with a lot of subject matter experts and companies are looking to bring in that expertise so we can help set up those opportunities as well.

Fred Diamond: For the people listening in, just to give them an idea of some of your star power, tell us some of the big names that you represent or maybe some of the more inspirational names.

Sandy Lutton: We represent President Bush and other world leaders like David Cameron, George Osborne. We’ve actually represented every prime minister since Margaret Thatcher, so that’s been really interesting.

As a matter of fact, Ronald Reagan is kind of who put us on the map when he had worked with every Hollywood agency out there and when he came out of office he said, “I don’t want to work with a Hollywood agency. I want to work with this small bureau in Washington.” and he was great friends with Margaret Thatcher and we developed a great relationship. It really soared from there, so now today we represent Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. We represent Terry Bradshaw, sports figures, Lou Holtz and Coach K.

We represent people like Joanna Coles who was the editor in chief of Cosmopolitan Magazine for ten years and now she’s the first person to ever hold the title of chief content officer for Hers Magazines. We have a variety of people, our portfolio is so broad in who we represent and we really look for people who just have a powerful, inspiring message to deliver. One of my favorites is actually Anthony Robles who was born with one leg but yet he went on to overcome what life dealt him and became the NCAA champion in wrestling, so he changed the world of wrestling. To me, if you ever hear his story or get an opportunity, he is one of the most inspiring people I’ve ever met.

Fred Diamond: Do you get a chance to spend time with these people as well, in your role?

Sandy Lutton: We do. I’m a big proponent to have my entire team getting out there and being in the audience when our speakers are speaking because it’s hard to sell them if you’ve never experienced them. You’ve got to have that experience, you’ve got to feel the goosebumps that you get when you’re truly inspired and motivated by someone and it’s really about moving an audience. If you haven’t experienced that, it’s going to be a little tough for you to sell it.

Fred Diamond: Who are the types of people, you mentioned associations, incorporations and universities, but who is the person or team that physically makes a decision to purchase a speaker?

Sandy Lutton: Our typical buyer can be anywhere from an event planner from a big company who’s being tasked to put on an event and find that key note speaker. It also is usually in conjunction with a C suite, the chief marketing officer, the chief learning officer. It’s really about who’s in the audience and what they’re trying to accomplish and that’s who the buyer becomes.

Fred Diamond: Just to give our people listening in as well as, what is the range the people would typically pay for a key note speaker?

Sandy Lutton: That’s an interesting question. It varies, but it can be anywhere from 5 thousand dollars to a half a million dollars.

Fred Diamond: Is there a chance that Colin Powell is going to be walking around today when we do the interview?

Sandy Lutton: Probably not today but he has been in the office and surprised us, so you never know around here who’s going to walk through the door.

Fred Diamond: For the people listening to today’s podcast, you really can feel the inspiration doing today’s podcast from the offices of the Washington Speakers Bureau. How did you first get into sales as a career?

Sandy Lutton: It actually all started for me when I was 14 years old and my parents said, “If you want to go buy these things and spend money, you’re going to have to make your own money.” so I found a job that would actually hire me at 14 and I went out door to door selling newspaper subscriptions for the local newspaper in my town.

Fred Diamond: Good for you. Pounding the pavement, selling newspaper subscriptions. What are some of the key lessons you learned from doing that that have stuck with you today?

Sandy Lutton: I would say don’t take rejection personally. We really got to listen to what people want and then either you can give them that or you can’t, depending on what you’re selling. Knowing that it’s really about what the customer wants ultimately. I also would say don’t oversell. I feel like we often get so focused on trying to sell the product and maybe we’re not doing enough listening to the customer and what their needs are.

Fred Diamond: How much outbound selling do you do versus in bound where people contact the Speaker Bureau for someone to come speak versus your people calling a university or calling an event manager?

Sandy Lutton: A lot of out bound. It’s a little of both but mostly out bound. It really depends on the speaker, a lot of speakers bring their own demand to the table or if they’re just new on the speaking circuit, they’re hot at that moment, they’re trending, we have to do less out bound, but over time they’ve got to stay relevant and we’ve got to help position their relevance.

It really requires us from a marketing standpoint to position them and their message and what the experience is to have them on your stage, and we’ve got to get on the phone and talk to customers about it, get in front of customers, understand what they’re looking for, who their audience is and what it is that they’re trying to achieve with that audience. It really requires us to be out bound in a proactive understanding what they need and be part of that planning process with them.

Fred Diamond: Interesting. For the people listening in, tell us a little more about the speaker business. Do you exclusively represent the speakers and you’re pitching them, or can anybody sell Colin Powell as a speaker?

Sandy Lutton: It’s a combination. We represent 230 speakers exclusively. Colin Powell is one of those that if you want him on your stage, you’re going to have to go through us to get him. There’s also hundreds and hundreds of other speakers that we also represent that other bureaus do as well. It’s really them looking for multiple outlets in order to get their message across.

Fred Diamond: Tell us what you are specifically an expert in. Tell us a little more about your area of brilliance.

Sandy Lutton: I would say that I’m a really good listener and I’m really focused on asking the right questions and trying to get as much out of my buyer, my customer as I possibly can. That’s the one thing I feel I do extremely well. I always tell my team, “We should be doing less talking. Ask questions and let them do the talking and really listen, and then figure out what is it that we can provide to deliver what they need.”

Fred Diamond: When someone’s looking for a speaker, give us a little insight into if you were listening to someone, what are they looking for? Is it someone just to motivate for an hour? I’m sure it’s across the board, but what typically do people want when they’re looking to pay a lot of money for a speaker?

Sandy Lutton: It’s an experience. You really need to understand what experience they want the audience to have, you want to understand who’s in the audience. Is it your investors? Is it your employees? Are you trying to grow the company, are you trying to change a culture and you need someone who can talk about culture change and the positives and the negatives? It’s so important to hear what people have done well but it’s also more important to hear where they have failed and why it’s OK to fail and what you learn. It really comes around to the audience and what you’re trying to move them to do.

Fred Diamond: How many of your customers call and say, “I need someone who can speak on culture change” as compared to – I keep referring to Colin Powell, but, “I want Colin Powell.”?

Sandy Lutton: Right. Often people do call and say, “I just want a name, a figurehead on stage.” But we really try to drill down deeper into that and try to understand, because not every speaker is always available so it’s best for us to understand what is it that you’re trying to accomplish, and it can be something as simple as culture change. It could be, “I’ve got to grow the company and I need my entire employee base to become sales people and to someone who can motivate that.” Also could just be a pick-me-up, a feel-good, “We’ve had a great year and we want to celebrate and I want to reward my team.”

Fred Diamond: Take us back into your career and tell us about an impactful sales career mentor and how they impacted your career.

Sandy Lutton: Back in my telecom days, I had a sales leader who really in her own right had already been super successful in telecom. She was kind of just an icon in the telecom world, she had been there, done that, sold, she had led teams and was constantly successful. The main thing that she really taught me was you get a goal every year. You need to know what your plan is for how you’re going to achieve that goal. Where’s the revenue going to come from and execute on it. It’s as simple as that, and she really taught me that you’ve got to track it, you’ve got to continue to evaluate how well you’re doing towards your goal and if what you’re doing isn’t working then you’ve got to change.

Constantly looking at that, staying focused on that goal I’d say is the #1 thing she taught me and I’ve been able to use that throughout my selling, throughout my sales leadership and really teaching my team it’s all about having that plan, knowing the plan, tracking the plan and then continuing to execute on it.

Fred Diamond: You mentioned as a sales leader you also impart that upon the people on your team. Tell us a little more about how you direct them to plan. What are some of the things that you have them focus on so that they can be successful?

Sandy Lutton: It’s territory and account planning. Every year we go through that process of, “Here’s your goal, here are your top clients, where’s the revenue going to come from? Where are the clients that have the growth potential?” It’s really about prioritizing your time. As sales people we can get so caught up in the administrative side of the things that we do and suddenly your business development efforts are put on hold. I think that’s one of the biggest traps we all fall into, and that’s a great opportunity for us to just have a plan and again, it goes back to staying focused.

Fred Diamond: Tell us what would go into being a great sales professional in the type of service that you sell. You mentioned one of your areas of brilliance is that you’re a great listener – what are some of the things that make up some of the best-selling professionals that work in your organization?

Sandy Lutton: It amazes me how knowledgeable our team is with our product, and I say product, but talent. We represent so many people it’s just amazing to me the amount of knowledge they have about each and every one of these speakers that we represent and it’s because they’ve been out there with them on site, they get to know the speakers, they develop a relationship with them, they hear their message and those thinks stick with you.

I would say my team is brilliant at really understanding what the customer wants and finding – I always say the magic moment for us is when you have found the perfect pair. Like the person you’ve put on that stage that has achieved what the customer wanted the experience, the customer wanted the audience to have and that’s when everyone becomes a hero. That event planner who put that person on the stage or that chief marketing officer is now that hero because they have achieved that.

Fred Diamond: What are two of the biggest challenges that you face as a sales leader today?

Sandy Lutton: I would say it’s probably the same as most sales leaders but it’s finding growth especially in these uncertain times when things are continuously going up and down. I feel like sales and revenue comes in waves so it’s finding growth and I think a lot of that has to do with having your plan and knowing where your growth is going to come from. The other piece is you’re transforming a sales organization. We are a high volume operation where we do over 3000 events a year and that number continues to grow year over year, so it’s easy for our sales force, we don’t have an enormous sales force.

We have about 40 people total and for our sales force you can get really caught up in the transaction side of it, and really getting the team to be more focused in taking a consultative approach and being part of that planning process. I guess that we all get caught up in the administrative side and there’s all the contracting and things that you have to do, but being able to carve out that time I think, making that transformation and getting the team to see that and really creating that methodology for making sure you’ve prioritized your time properly and you’ve really continued to be consultative to that customer as well.

Fred Diamond: Do you spread out your sales people by industries as well, or does it really not matter in this industry?

Sandy Lutton: We do, I think it’s really important especially with colleges and universities that you have people who know and understand that business. The contracting needs are different, I think it’s important from financial services to know who’s really relevant and who’s resonating with those audiences. We do have people who cross over some industries but mostly focus on key industries.

Fred Diamond: We also mentioned in the introduction that you handle logistics as well. Is that something what your sales people are also responsible for? If they book a speaker at a university, do they also have to go soup to nuts to finding the opportunity to ensuring that the speaker shows up and the whole thing goes through or do you kind of drop off at some point?

Sandy Lutton: At the time of booking, they’ve negotiated a lot of that in the terms and conditions but we do have a hand off to our event logistics team. They’re the ones who really become that conduit between the customer and the speaker and take away that pain point for the customer because if you can imagine me an event planner and all the things that are happening leading up to an event and day of, the one thing you don’t want to have to worry about, “Is my speaker going to show up, are they going to be on time?”

We handle all of that. We handle all of the travel, we ensure that they’ve been put in the car in the time that they should be, that they walk through the door when they should and that they are on the stage when they should. We take all of that away so that’s an opportunity for us to take it to a whole other level from a service stand point.

Fred Diamond: Is that the biggest concern, a snow storm?

Sandy Lutton: [Laughs] it’s interesting, our event managers, we say that job is 24/7 because if there’s a snow storm in Chicago or if there’s a snow storm in Paris, we need to know. We need to know what’s going on and who that’s going to impact so the first thing they do when they hear this is, “Who are my speakers, where are they travelling to and are they going to be impacted by this?”

Fred Diamond: All these little things have to go in, the lighting, the speaker probably has some demands, I guess, so that they’re crisp and ready to go and they knock it out of the park?

Sandy Lutton: Absolutely. We’ve got stories of not being able to get a speaker there and let’s say it’s DC, it’s a snow storm, the speaker can’t get out, the event’s in Chicago. The first thing we do is pick up the phone and call every single person, every one of our speakers that we know that’s in Chicago, “Can you go do this?” We’ve done this numerous times, it’s not unusual for us.

We’ve had people drive our speakers to an event because a plane couldn’t take off. It’s just numerous stories about that, we will go above and beyond and out of our way to ensure that that speaker gets there, it’s that important. When you’re putting on an event, there’s nothing more important than making sure that the people you need there show up.

Fred Diamond: Absolutely, that empty stage would be the worst thing.

Sandy Lutton: Yes.

Fred Diamond: Tell us about the #1 specific sale success or win from your career that you’re most proud of. Take us back to that moment.

Sandy Lutton: I chased a client or prospective client for quite some time when I was at my time at Grant Thornton and I continued to talk with him and develop a relationship and as work came, we would bid on certain opportunities but for an accounting firm, the audit is what you ultimately want.

This company was the Motley Fool, they had historically only worked with Big Four firms, especially for the audit, and they had decided to take a look, take it out for bid and see if there’s a better solution out there and I found out about it. They let me know. They did a formal RFP process so I knew I had to get a proposal over to them and how was I going to make my proposal stand out? The one thing I knew is I had the right team who could do the work.

I felt very confident that we could do and deliver what they needed. It was now, “How do I get their attention so they can see me beyond the Big Four firms?” And so we put a beautiful proposal together. As a matter of fact, in the team bio we had the head shots and we put just our hats on all of them. Again, just to resonate with them and let them know, “Hey, we understand who you are, we understand what you stand for, we appreciate your culture” and really try to stand out.

Then I had someone deliver the proposal in a jester costume and so that was a big hit and that went over really well. Then, we got called in for the meeting with the audit committee and the executive team and that was a big opportunity. This was our opportunity to shine to get in front of their team, get our team in front of their team and really prove to them that we were the right fit.

The interesting part about this was I was actually in the late stages of my first pregnancy and I was sitting next to the CFO. Someone on my team made a joke that we hope Sandy doesn’t go into labor during this meeting, so I think it freaked everyone out a little. We went through the meeting, it was a two hour meeting. I was drinking a lot of water, at one point I excused myself to go to the bathroom and everyone thought, “This is it! She’s going into labor!” The CFO escorted me to the bathroom like, “Really, I’m fine.” Halted the whole meeting, came back, had a great meeting, it was wonderful.

Then 24 hours later I was literally in labor. It was a very memorable moment for me and I actually found out a week later that we won so it was worth all the effort in the time. I would say with that one it was so memorable to me because I knew we had the right team for them. I knew that we could deliver what they needed and we just needed that opportunity to be able to show it and prove it and shine and I felt like we did that brilliantly. We won the work, and that for me was just a really exciting win.

Fred Diamond: Very good. How long did you pursue them? You said you were very persistent.

Sandy Lutton: It was a couple of years.

Fred Diamond: Couple of years, yeah. Did you name your child Motley to secure…

Sandy Lutton: I did not, no.

Fred Diamond: Fool?

Sandy Lutton: Just Jack. [Laughs]

Fred Diamond: Sandy, you’ve had a great career in sales, you’ve told us some great stories. Did you ever question being in sales? Was there ever a moment where you thought to yourself, “It’s too hard, it’s just not for me.”

Sandy Lutton: I can’t think of a moment where I wasn’t in sales but I can definitely think of moments where I questioned why am I doing this. Typically it was in one of those years where I was struggling to hit my sales goal, it was a lot tougher than I felt it should be, my earnings were down because when you’re not selling, your earnings are impacted it. I asked the question, “Do I really want to be on this roller coaster?” and at the end of the day it really came back to, “Yeah, I really want to be on this roller coaster.” I loved it, it was for me.

Fred Diamond: Sandy, what’s the most important thing you want to get across to junior selling professionals to help them improve their career?

Sandy Lutton: I would say stay focused, know where your revenue’s coming from, have a plan and execute on that plan, and continue to evaluate your plan. Is this continuing to work for me? If it’s not, evolve that plan but the key is to stay focused on that plan.

Fred Diamond: What are some of the things that you do to sharpen your saw and stay fresh?

Sandy Lutton: Get out in the field. Nothing excites me more than when I get in front of a customer and have that client meeting. It’s really fun for me and it reminds me that I do enjoy this and I want to be part of it. You always work towards things you enjoy. The other thing is I talk to my peers, I find out especially when we’re struggling and having hard times, “What are you doing differently? What have you seen? What’s happening out there?” and get that advice.

I also still take sales courses, get refresher courses, I enjoy that. You don’t always learn something new and mind blowing but it’s always good to have that refresher, “Oh, yeah. I forgot I should be doing more of this” or “I should be doing less of that” and to me that’s a big way of doing it. I also try to read who’s out there in sales and listen to podcasts like this.

Fred Diamond: I’m just curious, when you listen to a speaker can you just listen as a listener and be inspired or are you – being in the trade – are you kind of critical of, “How come he didn’t shift there” or something like that? I’m just curious how you listen to your products.

Sandy Lutton: I can be a little bit critical and I try to turn that off because I think what’s most important is really the message and the people we represent just have such powerful messages, but yes. I find myself being critical at times, I see them reading cards or things like that and I’m like, “Oh, you don’t need to do that, you know what you’re talking about.” So yes, I can be a bit critical sometimes.

Fred Diamond: What’s a major initiative you’re working on today to ensure your continued success?

Sandy Lutton: We have a lot of initiatives. We’ve been in this business for over 30 years and we’ve seen a tremendous amount of success. I think one thing that we sometimes forget to do is invest back in the company and so right now we’re going through a whole re-branding, new website, new look and feel. We are doing a sales force realignment where we’ve even better aligned our sales teams to verticals.

We focus on territory and account planning and really honing those and making that a huge party – again, it goes back to that focus. We’re looking at not just the sales force but sales marketing automation and what can we do from a brand and marketing stand point to continue to generate leads. It’s about generating demand for our speakers and keeping them relevant, and that involves our speaker relations team, it involves a marketing team and our sales team.

Fred Diamond: Sandy, sales is hard. We talked about some of the challenges that people face along the way today. People don’t return your phone calls, they don’t return your emails. Why have you continued? What is it about sales as a career that keeps you going?

Sandy Lutton: It comes down to being able to satisfy a need of a customer. For me, it’s really understanding what they need and being able to deliver that, especially when you know that you’ve got exactly what they need and it’s – I don’t want to call it a game, but it’s that opportunity for you to shine and be able to prove. It’s a challenge, I need to prove to you that I have what you need once I know that that is true.

Fred Diamond: Sandy, why don’t you give us a final thought to share with the Sales Game Changers listening to the podcast today?

Sandy Lutton: Listen to your customer, be inquisitive about their business and we can be much more effective sales people when we listen versus trying to sell what we have to sell.

Fred Diamond: Interesting. You’re in the business of speaking yet you’re suggesting to the sales professionals listening today to be more effective at listening.

Sandy Lutton: Listening is the key.

Transcribed by Mariana Badillo
Produced by Rosario Suarez

The post EPISODE 065: Sandy Lutton Sells Speaker Services But Says Effective Listening is the Key to Sales Success first appeared on Sales Game Changers Podcast.