Sales Xceleration:

Jeff Walter (00:00)

Hi, welcome back to the podcast. I’m Jeff Walter. My guest today is Susan Cashin. Susan is an outsourced vice president of sales at Sales Acceleration. As an accomplished fractional outsourced sales executive, she excels at transforming companies into world-class sales organizations by optimizing talent.

 

the sales process and improving the customer experience. Susan, welcome to the podcast.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(00:24)

Thank you. Thank you so much. I’m happy to be here.

 

Jeff Walter (00:28)

So first thing I always love to know how people ended up where they’re at. And in this case, what is a fractional sales executive? think that’s a term that most people probably haven’t heard of before. And how did you get there?

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(00:39)

So,

 

yeah. Well, I started my career actually over 30 years ago. And I would say it was probably the best paid job, if you will. It the best paid education, I’m sorry. I learned from the best. I went to work for a Fortune 50 company. It was a consumer package goods company. We had both a direct and…

 

a broker sales team. And, you know, it really, I would say laid the foundation for my career in sales. The thought process at the company was like, hey, you’re either up or out. And I ended up spending 10 years at that company. It was a Minneapolis based food company. And as I said, it was the the best paid education I could have ever had.

 

So I started carrying a sales bag in the territory in Los Angeles, California. And then a couple of years later, I had been promoted to an account executive and then a district sales manager. And then they announced a potential sale to another very large manufacturer, Consumer Package Goods Company. And they said, you know, a lot of people actually were

 

Jeff Walter (01:44)

Mm-hmm.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(01:51)

were flying the coop at the time. They were just like, I know I’m going to lose my job or I don’t want to have to move to Minnesota, so I’m leaving, right? And they offered me a retention bonus. And I learned so much during the last 18 months to two years at that company, helping them to integrate the sales teams between the two sales organizations, the company that purchased us and then our team. So that was a lot of fun. And I got a call from a recruiter.

 

very well known recruiter in the CPG industry. And they said, Hey, do you want to lead a startup sales team? And I said, no, you know, I don’t want to work for startup. I want to work for kind of an A company, know, fortune 50 company. And the recruiter was so good with the way they handled the conversation because I

 

needed to humble myself. And she said, you know, this is really an opportunity for you to elevate your career and take it to the next level. Everything that you learned for the last 10 years in that great paid education can be transferable skills into building out a new sales organization for company. So I was one of four leaders. It was in the optical healthcare business, and we were creating a sales team that called on doctors. And so that

 

Jeff Walter (03:03)

Mm-hmm.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(03:05)

led to the next 14 years of my career. held seven different roles throughout that 14 years. ⁓ Yeah. So I had the distinct opportunity to actually start up the company, see double and triple digit growth over the first seven, eight years. And then we had the economic decline. And so I was asked to help lead a turnaround initiative within the sales organization.

 

Jeff Walter (03:13)

wow.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(03:31)

And little did I know, but I was priming the company for actual sale a couple of years later. So over a 14 year period, I say, I started it up, I turned it around and I helped them position for a very profitable exit. And then, yeah, so that’s really, mean, kind of a little bit about my background and my entire career having been in sales or sales leadership and designing world-class sales organizations.

 

Jeff Walter (03:31)

Mm-hmm.

 

And so how does that lead to sales? Like what is sales acceleration and what is a fractional sales executive?

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(04:04)

Yeah, so great question. Well, I’ll take you back, say, almost 10 years ago, I had an almost fatal car accident. And it was a very humbling time of my life ⁓ and one that provoked a lot of thought. And I was like, I’ve always worked for companies, but you you’ve really never done anything and taken that risk. You’ve worked for that comfortable paycheck company. And it really

 

helped me that time really helped me to understand with whom I wanted to co-author the rest of my career with. And it was no longer in corporate America. ⁓ My pedigree was always people before profit for the first 24 years. And then while I was on this business trip and in this car accident working with a field salesperson, the company really didn’t handle the circumstances well at all.

 

Jeff Walter (04:41)

Hmm.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(04:56)

And I started to feel like a number, like it was profit before people. And so while I was taking care and during my initial recovery, I just made that decision. I want to be an interim executive. So it is an individual that is a 1099 employee on a leadership team for a company that has a team that is underperforming, a sales team that’s underperforming.

 

And so ideally that’s what I do is I design high performing sales team and I fix sales problems.

 

Jeff Walter (05:29)

And, and on the fractional side, is, is it, you know, like you go into one and then another and another, or is it a portfolio of, of clients and you’re, you know, 10 hours this week on these guys, you know, like, is it like, is it, is that it or is it, or is it

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(05:42)

for.

 

Great question.

 

Yeah, you you can do it either way. In the very beginning, when I first started being more of a consultant, business advisor, I was all in with a company. So it was as though I was a W2 employee. I dedicated, you know, 50, 60 hours a week to that one business, right? And then I pivoted my strategy about three years ago and decided that I wanted to work

 

with small to mid-sized businesses where I felt I could add the most value. And at that time, relinquishing my minimum 40 to 50 hours a week with one client, it opened up freed up time where I could just have two, three, four, five clients depending on their needs. on a fractional basis, I am their outsource sales leader.

 

Jeff Walter (06:14)

Okay.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(06:36)

And I will work for really small sales teams, four hours a week, up to two days a week. It just depends on the amount of time and the level of project work that I’m working on, the scope of work and how big the team is. So that really determines the time dedication. But yes, it’s like three to five clients at any given time now. Whereas I used to be interim.

 

Jeff Walter (06:57)

Hmm.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(07:02)

And that’s the term they use when you’re all in with one client. It’s interim and now it’s fractional or outsourced.

 

Jeff Walter (07:08)

Okay. So very, very, that is a very interesting career. Cause as I’m listening to you, I’m like, okay, you had, it’s like, it’s like you got opposite ends of the spectrum and ended up in the middle. Like, you know, you started with the, the fortune 50, you know, so big organization, lots of great knowledge and processes and obviously very successful cause it’s a large organization. Uh,

 

And you kind of get that foundation. And then you go from that to other end of the spectrum, which is, you know, a startup and you could be like, then it’s like, no process, nothing, no institutional knowledge. It’s just a blank slate. which is, which a lot of people, ⁓ don’t realize the opportunity that you have there because every startup or every small company that’s needs.

 

You can wear as many hats as you want because there is such a need. So there’s a really opportunity to stretch your, your breath. Right. But then, and then from after that, you go, okay. that was fun. These are both fun. think I’m going to shoot for that small growth, small to middle size growing and, and build a portfolio. And, ⁓ and, and, and, and, and, it like share a lot of great knowledge.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(08:02)

Mm-hmm.

 

Yep.

 

Jeff Walter (08:25)

And then, and then have fun because it sounds to me like, and what I mean by have fun, just listening to you, I get the sense that you really enjoy building the sales machine, the process and the people that operate the process. ⁓ and, the, and then putting in place the, the underlying technology, like just having that.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(08:43)

Yes.

 

Jeff Walter (08:50)

creating that whole mechanism. ⁓ that middle market is a perfect place to optimize that. really, it’s very, very, very cool. So one of the things that I was hoping to focus on, you know, I’m doing this workshop ⁓ at the end of the month over at the IFA on scaling. one, you the biggest part of scaling is sales, but

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(08:53)

Mm-hmm.

 

Jeff Walter (09:16)

You know, there’s a lot of other pieces too. So, so when you’re looking at those middle market, you know, like not the startup, not looking for their first dollar of revenue, but you know, it’s like, Hey, they’ve got something going. It’s, it’s, it’s a proven business concept, but now we want to add a zero to it. Right. So that might be the a hundred thousand to a million million to 10 million getting that sweet spot at 10, 20 million middle market company.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(09:18)

Mm-hmm.

 

Jeff Walter (09:41)

it, given all that experience, cause you just got this breath. Like it’s really cool. where would you like, so how do you do that? Like where would you start? Or, or when somebody brings you in and says, help, like, where do you, where do you, where do you start? Like, cause there’s so many different ways things you can do, right? You can build internal sales forces, external, can build, you can partners.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(09:45)

Yeah. Thank you.

 

Right.

 

Jeff Walter (10:03)

In a franchise space you’re talking about franchisees, like where do you do you where do you start? It just seems like I I don’t know where to start

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(10:13)

Yeah. Well, you know, it starts really with a very thoughtful conversation. ⁓ and usually it’s, it’s one more of like a therapy session, to be honest with you. I’m either introduced to a potential client, a hundred percent referral based business. And so the conversation with that individual generally starts with maybe some Intel like, yeah, their sales are declining or the

 

owner is going through a divorce and wants, needs to sell the business or it’s not where it needs to be right now, where they have an underperforming sales team and they’ve never worked so hard in their life and they just don’t know why it’s not working, you know, like it used to, right? And so those are some of the soundbites that I’ll hear coming into it or sometimes are shared during that first thoughtful conversation.

 

I generally start with a sales discovery. So you’re diagnosed, I’m like a doctor and I’m just diagnosing what are the problems? Because oftentimes they’ll think they know what the problem is, but it’s not, right? So you ask deeper questions, tell me a little bit more about that. And then I also have a very preliminary 10 question assessment that I like.

 

Jeff Walter (11:07)

Okay.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(11:28)

prospective clients to take and it provides them with a blueprint. Kind of a, you were to do this on your own, here’s recommendations for improvement. So that also really helps to facilitate that thoughtful conversation. So I’ll refer back to that. So you took the sales assessment. It looks at trigger points in four different areas.

 

Jeff Walter (11:38)

Mm-hmm.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(11:50)

⁓ sales management and leadership, know, sales organization, sales process and sales strategy. And so I’ll identify it. It’ll help me to identify because a lot of times they don’t know what’s going on in their business and they don’t know what they don’t know. So that really helps. then if they are interested in having, you know, deepening the conversation, then I will send them another assessment.

 

48 question assessment if they want me to do a deeper dive discovery. And so I can engage with a client and just say, hey, I know what the challenges are. Here’s the scope of work. I will build out your solid sales foundation. It will take three to four months.

 

And if you’re interested, we can get started. If they’re not interested in, well, you know, I need to know a little bit more. We’ll do a deeper dive sales discovery, right? And I will literally provide them with a document that analyzes those four key areas. I’ve interviewed people in their organization, but that is kind of a short project in and of itself. So that could be just a one month project. So that’s really where you start.

 

Jeff Walter (12:42)

you

 

Right, right.

 

you

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(13:04)

And then it’s like a roadmap. You know exactly what needs to be done. You align on priorities with the business owner. And obviously the more pressing ones that are tied directly to revenue are the ones that you want to fix first. And sometimes that might include hiring people. So that might, know, doing sales compensation plans and job descriptions and.

 

Identifying sales competencies, like what’s the talent look like that we want to attract that might be at the front of the scope of work. And then, ⁓ that way you can do a job posting or hire a recruiter, which is what I like to do, to help us find that talent. Why I’m then building out all the elements of their sales function or foundation that are underperforming, you know,

 

Jeff Walter (13:33)

Mm-hmm.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(13:53)

What I find is that business owners think of sales as a byproduct of the awesome product or service that they offer or sell instead of the revenue generating engine of your business. Right?

 

Jeff Walter (13:59)

Mm-hmm.

 

Right,

 

right. It’s more like field of dreams, right? Like if I build it, they will come.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(14:10)

Exactly. So, and that’s actually what I coach owners, business owners and founders to do on the more on the startup side that can’t necessarily. Well, it’s too premature to build out a sales function, right? I always counsel and say, go find your first 10 customers, right? Bring some revenue in the door, post some wins. And then we need to start building in the people.

 

process and performance metrics to get you to the next level.

 

Jeff Walter (14:35)

And when, when you’re looking at that, as I’m listening to you, so you’re going, okay, if I’ve, if I’ve, if I’ve gotten those, you know, I’m out of the startup phase, you know, like I’m thinking of like the, the, emerging franchisers, right? Like they got a concept. Usually it’s somebody very passionate about the concept. They got, you know, a handful, maybe half a dozen or so company owned stores there or, and they might have a one or two Z franchisers, franchisees up and running.

 

you know, kind of the true believers, in the, in the concept, but now they want to, to, to scale or, or, or referral network. And, and it would seem like there, is this too simple? I’m listening to it. Is this too simplistic a way of looking like it would seem like there’s two, there’d be like two cat, two major categories. Am I getting enough leads or how do get more leads and how do I close more leads?

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(15:29)

Mm-hmm.

 

Jeff Walter (15:29)

Or

 

is that, is that like, is that too simplistic a way to look at it? Or, is that, I mean, I know there’s a lot of detail. I know, I know when you drill down, there’s, know, performance, motivation, management, systems, processes, technology, but is it at the, the, at the, at the 10,000 foot view, or I guess the question I would have is what do you find is the biggest challenge in, in, getting that from that? I’ve got something going.

 

You got a bunch of true believers and now I want to scale it up. What’s the biggest challenge there? Actually, that’s the question is what’s the biggest challenge that you see usually?

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(16:01)

Mm-hmm.

 

Yeah.

 

Yeah. So, it’s a lack of process, not having a well-defined ideal client profile. You know, after you’ve sold your product to your first 10 customers, it’s important to take a look at and evaluate, is this the same ideal client profile, ICP, who target audience who’s buying our product?

 

that I thought it would be, right? Is it the same, right? So you’ll want to optimize that and make sure that you refresh that if it’s not, or through that process of finding your first-hand customers, there might be some in different verticals or another vertical opportunity, right? So you are identifying all of that and then putting that into your sales strategy, creating some sales stories, some case studies, some…

 

you know, things that like, are proof reason to believe why you’re going to be able to continue to sell, right? So success stories with clients and then put all of that into a sales process and as well as your strategy. And I like to pull it all together in a sales playbook, right? So there’s, it’s your defined strategy who your UVP, your universal value proposition, your ICP, your ideal client profile, all these acronyms.

 

Jeff Walter (17:16)

Mm-hmm.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(17:26)

on the strategy side with the case studies and the proof points, on who you are, you know, what, what you do and like who your audience is and then, and why people should buy from you. And then you take that to the next level, which is identifying your sales process. Right. And it’s, know, really a, it’s from top of sales funnel.

 

Jeff Walter (17:43)

Okay.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(17:48)

And there’s generally five or six stages in a traditional sales process or sales cycle. And that is from lead generation. And sometimes it comes from lead lists. Sometimes it comes from trade shows. Sometimes if you’re a direct to consumer, it’s website hits and SEO and things like that. Right. So how are you attracting your leads? And I help to define depending on the type of business where the top of funnel comes from.

 

Jeff Walter (18:16)

Mm-hmm.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(18:17)

align with different partners to make sure that that is a bulletproof strategy. Cause if you don’t have the leads coming in or feet on the street reps out in the field knocking on doors or a customer, not customer service, but an inside sales team making outreach calls, then how do people find you? Right? You know, so got to define that and then take them through the sales funnel, take your customers through the sales funnel. And I always say,

 

Jeff Walter (18:36)

⁓

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(18:44)

The least friction, the better, the faster the close. So throughout that sales process are things like sales enablement tools and demos and things. Every business is different, right? So if it’s tech or if it’s med device, you’re probably gonna have a demo somewhere in your sales process, but more transactional businesses are different.

 

Jeff Walter (18:57)

Mm-hmm.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(19:07)

that will determine what your sales process is. And ultimately, it’s either closed one or closed lost at the bottom. And then you map that sales process into the document, your sales playbook, but also into your CRM. And it needs to be a sales-oriented CRM, not just any CRM, but a CRM that can map that customer journey through the sales process.

 

Jeff Walter (19:30)

So let me see if I understand by playing back what I think I heard and you tell me where I’m off. Cause that’s, there’s a high probability of that. okay. So there were a lot of acronyms. don’t remember them, but there’s so ICP, ICP is okay. So this is the person or the organization that is the, you know, my, my, the,

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(19:44)

ICP, UV, yeah, I do find profile.

 

that you’re selling to.

 

Jeff Walter (19:56)

targeted customer. This is the client that is ideal for my product or service. And so I fleshed that out and give it as much detail as I can in terms of thinking who that is, you know, consumer or B2B. All right. Then what was the, I, was the other one?

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(20:00)

you

 

Yes.

 

you

 

Mm-hmm.

 

UVP, which is your universal value proposition. That’s your selling story. That’s your differentiator. Why people buy from you.

 

Jeff Walter (20:21)

So, okay.

 

Okay. Why you and not the competition. You know, okay. And so it’s like, this is who I want to sell to. This is who can ideally best best for my products and services. And this is why my products and services are best fit for that ICP. So they kind of go hand in hand. Then armed with that, how do

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(20:28)

Mm-hmm.

 

Jeff Walter (20:45)

There were a lot of things in terms of how do I, if I’m building.

 

A network like a VAR network or a reseller network or a franchise network. Where do I go from there? Or I guess I got to build an ICP and a…

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(20:50)

Mm-hmm.

 

UVP. So that’s where you start. That’s your sales strategy, right? And you know who your customer is. And then you say, how do we reach that customer? Is it D to C, direct to consumer, right? Or is it a B to B type of a sale? And then depending on which one it is, we’ll determine where the leads are coming in at the top of the sales process or sales funnel.

 

Jeff Walter (21:01)

I was going to say IVP, but I thought I got it wrong. ⁓

 

Right, right.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(21:29)

how to attract those leads or attract those customers. And it’s different based on the channel that you’re selling to, B2B or B2C.

 

Jeff Walter (21:39)

Yeah. So

 

if I, if I put my franchise or hat on, let’s say I’m an emerging French, you know, going back to that example, it, if I, if I apply that, it sounds like I’ve got to do that twice. Right? Like there’s the, as a, as a brand, this is who I’m selling to. And therefore what’s my ideal client for my brand product and service and, and what’s the value proposition to them. But then.

 

I’m selling through as a partner, a franchisee. And then I, it sounds like I probably got to do the same thing with that. What’s my ideal franchisee and what’s my value proposition or part, yeah, or, or from doing resellers or VARs, what’s my ideal VAR and what’s my value proposition to the VAR so that they can turn around and rinse and repeat on my ideal customer profile and my,

 

Ideal. Am I value proposition to them? Is that, would that be a good way? Is that a good way of thinking of it? If you’re building a channel.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(22:37)

Yeah,

 

absolutely. I would say franchisers definitely, I mean, if you’re selling franchises, your role is to identify who your ideal client or target audience is, your ideal customer, who would want to buy this franchise. So, which may be a little bit different. It might be the burned out

 

corporate executive that’s looking to get out of corporate and buy a franchise that’s aligned with their hobbies, right? Maybe it’s a fitness studio, maybe it’s a yoga studio, maybe it’s a chiropractic practice, you know, a chain of chiropractors, maybe it’s a yogurt store, whatever, right?

 

Jeff Walter (23:10)

Right, right.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(23:22)

there’s obviously an entry point or an, you know, a reason why somebody wants to buy that kind of franchise. So yeah, the franchisor is gonna have to say, am I selling to, right?

 

Jeff Walter (23:36)

Right. And then I guess it would be, I guess the same if you’re looking at resellers or VARs, you know, and then what’s my value added to them. then, but then I also, since they’re going to be selling my products and services, I’ve got to, I have to define that endpoint and customer, right? So that’s interesting. That’s interesting. All right. So, so when you, you,

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(23:56)

Mm-hmm. Yep.

 

Jeff Walter (24:05)

When you’re building that, as you’re going along that process, in your experience, just where have been the biggest stumbling blocks or the biggest blind spots for those entrepreneurs or those small medium sized businesses, the SMBs? We talked to one of them was like, there’s a little, if you build it, they will come type of mentality. Is that the biggest stumbling block or?

 

What’s some of the other stumbling blocks you see or challenges that you have to overcome to get into the mindset to get them starting to rock it up?

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(24:36)

I like to work with clients that are hungry, humble, and smart. They’re hungry for growth. They’re humble enough to say, I don’t have all the answers. And quite frankly, I’ve never worked so hard in my life. And what I did yesterday is no longer working today and smart enough to ask for help. Okay. So it starts with a mindset and sometimes that ego or their mindset is well,

 

Jeff Walter (24:41)

Okay.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(25:04)

I’m kind of still in bootstrap mode and they don’t want to get out of that and admit that they got to start building a team of people. It usually starts on a fractional level because the business doesn’t command a VP of sales full time, right? A lot of the work that you do is actually building out the teams and hiring. And so it’s that ability to get out of their own way and humble enough to say, I need help.

 

Jeff Walter (25:19)

Right.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(25:32)

And I know that I can’t solve for this. I’ve been able to solve for everything up to this point in my business, but I now need to bring in experts in different departments in order to take me to the next level. So that is definitely a stumbling walk. ⁓ Another one is time, because a lot of these entrepreneurs, small business owners, are wearing 10 hats, right? And so…

 

They’re not really focused just on their business. They’re in their business in the weeds every day. So being able to get them to dedicate the time to work on their business, it’s kind of upside down. It’s like 80 % of the time they’re in their business and 20 % they’re working on it needs to be flipped the other way, right? It needs to be 80 % you’re working on it. So being able to, you know,

 

Hold them captive long enough to be able to go through this and understand what the challenges are so that you can put a scope of work in front of them and diagnose what their problems are and provide the solution is also another stumbling block.

 

Jeff Walter (26:35)

Do you find that in those, in the SMBs that, that, that, that founder tends to be, or do they tend to be the, the rainmaker and they’re just getting, or, and, and, and then they built a team around them to do the delivery and they’re just basically getting to the point where one person can’t make it rain enough?

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(26:56)

Yeah.

 

So I would say in probably 40 % of my engagements, it’s been a founder led out sales effort, right? And so, and even still, even though they have people that they might have brought in one, two, three people to sell for them, they still have this legacy, this relationship.

 

Jeff Walter (27:09)

Right.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(27:21)

that they’ve created over time with these house accounts. And they’re in the weeds still with those accounts because they are emotionally attached to them. But it goes two ways. Customers are attached to them just as much as they’re attached to the customers. So yeah, I do see probably 40 % of them, they’re not willing to relinquish and turn over the accounts to a sales team member. Yeah.

 

Jeff Walter (27:46)

Is it, is it the ego thing or is it the, the management thing?

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(27:46)

Yeah. It’s a little,

 

it’s a little bit of both. you know, a lot of it is the ego from the standpoint that they’re like, no one can do it as best as I can because I started this business. It’s my baby. Right. and then, you know, sometimes it’s, I don’t, I don’t want to relinquish this. I’m not.

 

I’m not willing or ready right now emotionally to cut ties. And there’s a little bit of fear there too, that if I do, then will the customer stay with me? And so that’s I’ll come in and I will put together kind of a succession plan and a transition plan. And it’s not just like a light switch.

 

but rather you’re hiring the right person that can speak the same language and has the same level of confidence and passion for the product. And has been hanging around the hoop maybe in the industry, but not worked for that company before, but understands enough about the product to be able to carry that same passion with them. And then once that confidence level with your customer is there,

 

that’s when you kind of let go of the reins. so it’s not like the light switch. It’s a very over time transition that I like to see with some of those. And another thing I see too is, fact, I just had a proposal meeting, a discovery meeting, and then presented a proposal on what needed to be fixed with a potential client.

 

earlier this week and I couldn’t believe it, they literally have one customer and they lost that customer and now they’re freaking out. They’re like a $6 million business overnight, they went to like $500,000 because they have a little tiny business, right?

 

Jeff Walter (29:30)

Uh-huh.

 

my gosh.

 

Yeah,

 

95 % of the revenue was one customer.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(29:47)

And, you know, as I am working with a lot of companies to help them prepare for exits, is one of the two worst things. One, it’s a founder led sales effort. And two, you’ve got a customer concentration issue tied up. And if any one customer is more than 10 % of your revenue, it’s going to look bad.

 

Jeff Walter (30:00)

Yes.

 

Right. Yes. Well, way back in the day when we started, we might’ve been more on that side of the friends back in, I think we had a concentration of like 70 % of our revenue and one customer, not the case anymore for us, but ⁓ yes, that’s one egg and you guard it very jealously. ⁓ And, but, yes, that’s, yeah, I’m glad I’m not back in those days. You know.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(30:14)

Thank

 

Yeah.

 

Jeff Walter (30:32)

It was lot of sleep when that client sneezes, right? Yeah, exactly. And so, okay, so I think that starts to lay things out. Do you notice any particular challenges when you’re trying to build an external sales channel or a partner channel versus say internal?

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(30:36)

Yep, absolutely. Yep. Fire drills.

 

Jeff Walter (30:55)

⁓ What do see as the differences, the challenges there?

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(30:58)

Yeah, so you got to do what’s right for both the business economically, right? And so when I have hired resellers or not my own feet on the street, my own direct sales team, and I’ve actually hired other people to sell for us, it is a result of either economics or a lack of product knowledge and industry expertise.

 

Jeff Walter (31:04)

Mm-hmm.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(31:23)

that you’re only gonna get by selling through like a VAR, right? Yeah. And so those are really kind of the reasons why I have decided to go that route versus working, you know, having a W employee, you know, one of my clients is like, hey, I need to scale my businesses down $4 million and I need reps.

 

Jeff Walter (31:28)

Okay.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(31:48)

And so, but I can’t afford to hire reps. And so we went the 1099 route. It’s not really a bar or reseller, but that’s an example of a time when economically the company was not in a good place to be able to do their own sales team. and then, you know, I, I worked for a car manufacturer that, that made seats and they wanted to get into new verticals. And so they decided.

 

Jeff Walter (32:02)

Mm-hmm.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(32:15)

Okay, well, we don’t have expertise in those verticals, but let’s sell through resellers that do and already have those established relationships. So it’s really access to your buyer that really becomes part of the primary decision when you go that route and you hire a VAR.

 

Jeff Walter (32:33)

Oh, OK. So if I’m looking at building that network, I’m going back to that SMB.

 

In my ideal customer profile, you know, as you know, I probably built a nice book of business around that. Maybe it’s founder led, maybe I’ve got a couple of salespeople working for me. I’ve, you know, I’ve got a nice thing going and I understand that niche and how my product fits and I can, internally we’ve developed the processes to be able to sell that. But then as I start looking at the adjacent niche and these other niches, it’s like, to your point, like.

 

Well, I don’t know that I’m going into, you know, baby products, you know, like the seat, like your seat manufacturer, right? Like I know how to make car seats. I can say, take that same skill set and manufacturing capability. I can make, you know, baby carriages, let’s say, or baby seats. but I know nothing about selling baby seats or what would make a good bit. Like I know I can make a good one, but I don’t know how to move it through the channel.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(33:31)

Yeah.

 

Jeff Walter (33:33)

It’s

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(33:33)

Yeah.

 

Jeff Walter (33:33)

a completely different channel. In your experience, one good leverage of building up that channel is to move into markets that you have no expertise in. I would assume that would also include international. You might be very strong domestically, but you want to get into Germany and you know nothing about the German market, let’s say.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(33:59)

Yeah. Yep. Exactly. So actually I had a client that was overseas and want to get into the U S market and you know, they wanted to walk before they could run. And so in order to post those wins, find your first 10 customers, the easiest way to get from A to C is by hiring or going through a bar and getting them to

 

Jeff Walter (34:00)

Yeah, so, okay.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(34:24)

that they already have those established relationships, the industry knowledge, they, and it’s, it’s access to your buyer. It’s, it’s, you know, what is the shortest trip to getting an order? And a lot of times it’s really just the, relationships that are established throughout different channels. So this automotive company, you know, made seats, but wanted to do like,

 

the John Deere, you know, seats on treasurers and, you know, think about all the applications for seats, right? So it’s not automotive. So they were getting into a different channel. So that’s the reason why we ended up hiring salespeople through a different, through a VAR versus going direct.

 

Jeff Walter (35:10)

Now, when you’re doing that, how do you as, and, and, and, know, what kind of good thing to cut it. When you’re doing that, how do you become attractive to those VARs? Right. Cause I’d mentioned there’s, know, you and 16 other people want access to those markets. You know, take your, take your seat guys. They want to go to John Deere or they want to go Marine. Right. They want to make the so.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(35:24)

Mm-hmm.

 

Jeff Walter (35:36)

What, what, what, what are some good tips we could give some folks, in terms of your, if you’re looking at that, how do you make yourself attractive to those bars? Right. You’ve done your homework. You know that these are the folks you want to do. You know, you, got, you know, you know, the application at the end point, but how do you differentiate yourself from, you know, the other 16 people that want to use them as well.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(35:59)

Yeah, so I would say the brands that are winning in that space are those that make the reseller more money and are the least effort, right? And so I want to be top of mind with these salespeople in these, you know, these VARs, right? So you have to define the right partner profile. Who is that?

 

Jeff Walter (36:12)

Okay.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(36:23)

Do they have established relationships within the channel that I want to get into? And do they have knowledge? Or is this complimentary to maybe their products that they’re currently offering? So how easy is it going to be if I align with this VAR for them to just pick up and run with it, right? So the product fit’s got to be right.

 

Jeff Walter (36:43)

Mm-hmm.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(36:47)

you’ve got to make it easy to sell. And that’s where the sales playbook comes in. You got to motivate them to sell too. So you got the sales enablement tools, the ICP, the UVP are very important, a very simple sales process, and then the compensation or the commission plan, right? They’ve got to make money. They’re in this.

 

to make money. Another thing I think is really important is you’re not looking at them as just a distribution channel. You’re looking at them as part of your business. Really, they are your sales arm, right? And they are the revenue generating engine. So you have to give them the same respect and access of your time, your communication and such. That’s very, very important. So building the tools, the very light training, you can’t command a lot of their time because they want to be out.

 

Jeff Walter (37:15)

Right.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(37:35)

selling, but you got to give them the tools that they’re going to need. So I would say they’ve got to have economic upside, they’ve got to have the confidence and the ability to sell your products that comes through sales enablement tools, and then you have to truly partner with them and be communicative and responsive. And when they’re giving you feedback, you need to fix those things that they’re asking you for.

 

Jeff Walter (37:57)

if somebody wants to get ahold of you or your organization, you know,

 

What’s the best way for them to get ahold of you or sales accelerator, acceleration?

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(38:05)

Yeah.

 

So I’m under Susan Cashin on LinkedIn. and then my website is growthwiseconsultinginc.com and my email is scashin at salesacceleration.com, that’s kind of a mouthful. so I would LinkedIn on my website.

 

Jeff Walter (38:25)

Okay. And cash in that C-A-S-H-I-O-N. Yes. Passion with the C. All right. Susan, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. I think this was really enlightening for myself. So I appreciate that. I always love learning new stuff here and just appreciate you spending some time with me. Thank you.

 

Susan Cashion of Sales Xceleration(38:29)

Yeah, it’s like fashion with a scene, yes. ⁓

 

Yeah,

 

well, this is a great opportunity for me too. So I really appreciate the time and enjoyed having a conversation with you today.

 

Jeff Walter (38:53)

Thank you. And to everybody out there, thanks for joining us and we’ll see you next time.