Larry Satterfield | A Career in Sales

Welcome to Talent Acquired, a Chris Edward Consulting podcast hosted by Chris Nakiso, where we bring you the stories, strategies and the viewpoints of candidates, hiring managers and recruiters.

Going from an operational role into a leadership position is not easy. It takes time to master your craft and get noticed plus a lot of strategic decision-making to rise to the top. In this episode of Talent Acquired, Chris sits with sales legend and sensei, Larry Satterfield, retired Sales Leader at Jazz Networks, to talk about his professional career from the time he was running around calling clients, to becoming the Sales VP for companies like Dell, Tanberg, and Cisco. Join in to listen to Larry’s expert advice on how to be sufficiently driven, process-oriented, and competitive to rise to your dream position.

Jump straight into:

(03:29) - The reason that made Larry discover the sales world - “I noticed the freedom you get as a seller and I noticed the amount of money that you can make because you're getting paid commissions.”

(05:22) - The challenges for young sales professionals - “ Get self-aware and understand how you're going to feel when you get rejected, because in sales if you're good you're going to get rejected three out of every four times.”

(11:35) - Learning the business back in the 80’s - “Back in those days, the sales guy was an engineer, as well as the seller. And so you got out there in front of customers and you had to be able to answer past the first three questions.”

(15:27) - Larry’s jump to sales leadership - “When they came to me and said 'You have helped train the sellers that we have today and we think you can do this' I was doing some of the sales management while I was a seller to help out my teammates, but it didn't feel like a move I needed to make.”

(20:26) - Advice to young professionals looking to get into leadership positions - “Be self-aware, you're really good at what you're doing as a seller and you're having a lot of success. Are you willing to make these kinds of sacrifices?”

(24:55) - The characteristics of a good sales leader - “Do the people that work for me think that I'm looking out for them? That I have their back? That I have their best interest at heart? Do they trust me?”

(31:01) - Larry’s mindset as a sales leader - “I believe that if you can't do a job in a great way, then you should probably look for a different role and not barely making quota or barely missing quota didn't put me as number one in the company.”

(35:09) - Competitiveness and money motivation - “I want sellers to understand that sales is a process and have a good understanding of what their process is, but I also want them to be greedy.”

(40:30) - Moving for business and getting demoted - “If your job is as VP of sales and people don't believe you're doing a good job at it, then instead of demoting you, they should just get rid of you, let you go find something that you can do better.”

(52:12) - Are you suited for sales? - “If you're in the job now, if you're doing well and having success and you enjoy it. But if you're struggling, don't struggle forever.”

(55:05) - The importance of having mentors in your professional career - “There were always people that were around me that challenged my thinking and were great coaches.”

Resources

Connect with Larry through LinkedIn

Jazz Networks

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