Alex Newmann, Startup Mentor, Founder, Newmann Consulting

JB:How’d you get into sales?

AN: Mom wanted me to be a doctor or lawyer, so I failed there. 

Worked at a restaurant for 4 days as a host- want to use my brain

Got a letter from Vector marketing = Cutco Knives and got my start at 18-19 years old selling knives door to door

Worked my way up, did it through college, came out and stayed 

JB: Talk to me about your door to door sales days, I find there is powerful learning there.

AN: When you have 95% employee churn, need to get something figured out. But they have a good product.

No Quit Mentality. Never quit anything until I figure it out. 

Used to pay me $15 per appt whether you sell anything or not

Figured I would do as many appts as possible

And I found I was working 10X harder than anyone else

Boss- “never seen anybody have this many appointments and never sell anything...going to have to let you go”

Begged and pleaded to stay - and let me LEARN how to actually do this right

If you buy something great if not, OK

Now I see the potential for $$ when I actually sell something, could get up to half of the sale and make some pretty good money

First part, was following a sales process

I wasn’t listening to my manager or my top reps

Wasn’t listening to what the best of the best do - did a lot of  ride alongs, asked a million questions

Game Changing piece for me, I had to understand WHY someone would pay that amount of money for a $200-400 knife -- that was crazy to me at 18-19 years old

Why would the customer buy?  What are the use cases?

Growing up, my parents would NEVER pay that amount of money for knives. But I figured out my pitch. 

Being able to truly articulate the value is what is important. 

Just showing up is a part of it, but that won’t deliver the results you want

Comma checks, you want a check with a comma in it. I was notorious for NOT getting the comma checks. 

Big difference between do you WANT IT or do you Want to want it?

Are you really willing to put in the work to get there?

Lots of wishing, hoping and wanting

JB: You mentioned you parents' perspective on how much they would spend on what you were selling growing up.  Talk to me about the mental side of sales and how your past experiences show up in your day to day selling and leadership:

AN: What you can control, positive and mental health!

Lots of mental health is seen as this reactive, negative thing. 
It can be positive, it can be preventative. 

LIke working out you lift maybe 5-10 more pounds to grow

I actively work on my brain. I use positive self talk. I don’t put myself down. I try my best to not beat myself up. 

Sales is HARD. It’s the hardest job in the world and can be the greatest job in the world.  It’s up to you to choose

You’re going to put in the time. You can choose to put the time in now or in the future. You’re going to put it in regardless.  You can choose to enjoy it.

The people that are 20, 30, 40 years ahead of you, are you in that time. 

Why don’t we enjoy the journey? 

Wake up everyday and get paid to talk!

I’m literally helping you achieve your goals and helping companies grow and people develop skills that they never thought were possible. 

Control what you can control, your attitude, how much time you work, when you’re on and off your notifications on your phone and those things that make people feel bad, sad, negative. 

You get to choose. We need to stop blaming other people.

JB: Gary Vee #1 Mindset is accountability

AN: Social media has made a lot of bright shiny objects. 

A lot of people chase after what you THINK YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO DO or that’s the path that you think you’re supposed to do. 

Then you have people that say F That. 

I got an MBA, not at an ivy league and some people beat me up,  but I fell in love with Colorado and it was a choice that I got to make! 

We built a company, went through Techstars and it was great.

I didn’t want to live in CA/MA/NY

I want to DO IT MY WAY! 

I bet on myself - so far it’s worked for me today, but I don’t think enough people want to bet on themselves, they want to hedge their best with some form of diversification which I understand.

Burn the boats! When you go all-in you will figure it out!

I didn’t take the high paying corporate job and I ate ramen for a few years, but I figured it out. 

JB: Our brains are wired for safety and security. It’s worked for so long to keep ascertain and secure.  To get comfortable with uncertainty and bet on yourself is so empowering and impactful.  For the listeners; what ways can you bet on yourself? Double down on yourself and go all in on You? How do you bounce back?

AN: 

One thing I do is FIGHT.

When someone is trying to punch you in the face, you don’t think about how many emails you have in your inbox or the thing you need to do next. 

Do the physical activity, do what’s right for you. I can’t run 5 miles and get away from work. 

Do the physical activity, walks with wife in the morning through mini-commute, Covid to “walk to work”

I don’t care if you just do 50 jumping jacks or pushups. Something to just move your body

I use the Calm app, could use Headspace...I thought it was all a CROCK, wife is a yogi and into the mental things...I won’t talk bad about something without trying it, I tried a 3 minute breathing technique….I actually felt better …..5 minute….felt better. I do it to MY version and focus on what works for me. 

Now I’m not all in, in the park and pushing for hours, but I do what works for me. 

I EAT, I try to put good things in my body and be conscious about my food. 

Newer for me, SLEEP! I would do 4 hours of sleep and brag about it and it was great...but I ran out of gas and that will happen to you after pushing forever. It may take 5, 10, 15 years but you will RUN out of gas.

I take notifications off my phone, I drown out and I control what I see and want to be interrupted with. 

When we go on walks we don’t bring our phones, there's literally zero way to get a hold of me which gives me really powerful mental freedom

Doing activities with family and friends. 

I used to workout mid-day, you can break up your work day to work the way that you want and if anything try something new

JB: Being able to intentionally construct/control your life is so powerful.  Seth godin, Enrollment was historically what we were signed up for vs. our active choice. In the AltMBA program we need to learn HOW to think vs. traditional schooling that told us WHAT to think. Taking control of your notifications on your phone, your walk to work are all habits to build to help your mind perform at it’s best. 

AN:

You can’t freak out about what you don’t know. If you don’t check your email at 10PM and then lose some sleep, just avoid checking the email. 

It’ll still be there in the morning. 

I test different things. I  get up do 100 pushups every morning, workout and stretch. DO something with my uncle with pushups every morning. 

Everything in the startup/sales world it’s all so unstructured. 

In order to succeed in sales you have to put the structure around you!

Bigger companies, the more structure that’s given to you. 

You can be very successful when you put that structure around you in order to succeed

Something that I’ve just started is this exercise starting with Strengths & Weaknesses replaced with WHAT GIVES ME ENERGY?  WHAT DRAINS MY ENERGY?! 

What can you do in your day to control it? You get to control everything that you do in the day. You get to structure when you have your customer calls, etc. 

Make a list and mark in your day/week when you’re going to do certain things that you’re going to do and delegate that or where on your priority list those things need to happen. 

Maybe making prospecting or cold calls is tough and put that on your calendar when you are the most ON opposed to fearing it all day and pushing it off

Now you are in control of your results, your attitude, your day and feeling empowered. You’re setting yourself up for success vs. the poor me mindset that creates a downward spiral.

JB: Where have you seen most sales leaders struggle in your experience?

AN: 

As a rep, you’re rarely trained or coached so as a manager you are even more rarely trained or coached.

Understand your strengths. I speak with a lot of passion, but there’s a lot of authenticity in it, because I love what I do. I love developing people. In sales I loved the game and I could come up to a prospect and show them what they were dealing with was this big giant pain, and I had a solution and showed them how to use it. 

They loved it and I LOVED that feeling and was obsessed with it. 

Now I do that similarly with sales leaders and founders. Now your team is working in a cohesive unit, the numbers are growing you’re moving in the right direction. That’s what I want and how I do it now. 

If you’re gonna do sales, you might as well sell something you actually enjoy, something you want to talk about and it totally changes the game. 

Sales leaders have to love what they’re doing. The understanding of where you’re at and as a leader your job is to help people sell more. 

When I think of a sales leader’s job, is to help the team sell more.  Doesn't matter if you’re director, manager, VP. Whether it’s process, roadblocks tools. And if you

Too much of the time managers think it’s smooth sailing from there. Startup world managers are working 5-10X harder! 

The key is CARING ABOUT YOUR PEOPLE. I was a customer focused person and I realized, I’m not, I’m an employee focused person! If I’m employee focused, the customers will get their benefits. If I teach the employees correctly and do my job

I care about the people I spend 15 hours a day fighting out there doing everything I can. 

When someone can actually see that and see themselves improve with metrics they’ll never forget you!

I want to leave a legacy that says I want to help, I want to leave this company, team in a better place vs. dude go sell some more stuff!

JB: Bringing the human element in is so important. As a leadership role to help people perform at their best.  A favorite quote from a manger is “My job is to get crap out of your way to help you sell”

You talk about believing in what you sell. How do you maintain confidence in what you sell in the startup world?

AN:

Depends on the stage of your business.  

Pick because of the company, the product or the person (entrepreneur). Someone who can give you the opportunity to achieve more than you ever thought was possible. When you get all three you hit the jackpot. In the beginning I pick the person, similar goals/values/how they treat people are aligned.  I pick people who inspire me and drive me to work harder. 

The other thing is are you curious about that topic?

I find a lot of reps go after the job because it’s the job and a  lot of reps choose it because of the ability to make a lot of money. 

I don’t think there’s enough curiosity. What do you google, what do you look for? Think about the things that are really exciting to you and I think it’s important to go after that! 

Are you actually curious about this?!

JB: What does success mean to you?

AN: Success is being able to do whatever I want with my family and friends and doing it at the highest level possible.

JB: Top 3 qualities in leadership roles?

AN: Coachability, Adaptability, Resourcefulness or Curiousity

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