Going Long Podcast_SOLO Episode 461_Billy Keels

Mon, Oct 07, 2024 11:24AM • 16:44

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

90 volatile days, corporate career, enterprise software, sales leadership, leveraging time, quarter end, top achiever, sales cycle, buying cycle, client perspective, disconnecting work, ghosted client, corporate goals, personal time, side business

SPEAKERS

Billy Keels

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Billy Keels  00:00

90 volatile days to know your destiny. Today's conversation is sponsored by the Billy keels advisory program. If you want to learn more about how to make your nine to five optional, just go to Billy keels.com. Forward slash advising, once again, that's Billy keels.com. Forward slash advising, 90 volatile days to know your destiny. It's one of these things that, as I reflect on my corporate career, right? One that lasted 26 years was awesome. There's really these 90 volatile days that it comes down to for you to know your destiny. Now this is specifically going to speak to you because you're in the enterprise software sales space or sales leadership space, and even if you're not, this is going to really resonate with you, because this is, like, one of the most important topics in the way that you can think about time and how you're leveraging your time for anyone so although I'm going to talk a lot About the corporate life that I had. If you're interested in making sure that you are leveraging your time to the best of your ability, stick around. It's a brief episode, and you'll definitely get a lot out of the fact that these 90 volatile days to know your destiny are really impacting you. And so one of the things that I think about right, because it's at this point it, and I don't know when you're listening to this, if you're listening to this when it's released. This is a almost three years since I exited corporate life, and as I come to the end of a quarter, which literally just passed, like less than 48 hours ago, I have these memories that come back to me in the way that I was walking through life, and I was living life, and I was chasing certain types of goals that other people set for me, you are more than likely in this same type of space, because that's why you're here. That's why you keep listening. That's why you keep sharing the episodes with other people, because you realize that you're not alone. That's why I share the stories here, because I want you to know that you're not this anomaly. You're not this person that's out there completely by yourself. There's other people like me who have been through what you're going through now. I just went through it years ago, right? Which is why I'm here to share with you, so that you can not waste time, not that I wasted time, but I could have done things that a lot more lot more efficient manner, which is why I want to share that with you. But just like you know, as I think about it, and today, I'm going to share a story, because I used to be this person at the end of a quarter, especially at the end of the third quarter. Now a quarter is three months. So just in case, if you're not in the enterprise software space, or you're not in the sales space. When I say a quarter, that's 123, months, and typically in the sales world, your mind is thinking, especially when it's very high value, strategic type of sales, like in the millions or 10s of millions of dollars, right? Or euros, which is the world that I primarily played in, even hundreds of millions, if you look at it over time. But the deal is, is that, like most people, I was at the end of a quarter, especially going into the last quarter the so think about it on a calendar year, October, November, December, when the large majority of the software sales world, when you are making your end of the year. Some people are on the fiscal year as the calendar year. I don't want to get into too much detail, but let's just imagine the last three months, October, November, December. If you're in enterprise software sales, you know what I'm talking about, right? So, but I consistently wanted to be that person who was a top achiever making big bonus checks. I'm there. I'm part of this exclusive sales group in the company that I used to work for. Some people call it President's Club. Some people call it winner's circle. Some people call it whatever, but it's the top, the best of the best, in terms of a sales organization for these really big companies. And the reality was, I wanted to be there, to be seen, to be recognized. And at the same time, it was really about having this for me, a feeling of being able to consistently perform, to be able to demonstrate that I was someone who was reliable, that I was there in on the side. Yeah, the money part was great, but I just wanted to be seen as reliable that, you know, when Billy says this is coming in, this is coming in, that was the thing that was really most important to me. And so when you start looking at it, one of the things that will happen is you've got this whole 270 days, like 275 days more or less, right, which is the first nine months of the year where you're constantly coming up with plans. You're meeting clients, you're doing all of the things that you need to do to move a a business opportunity forward. You're aligning executives. You're making sure that the legals are done, that you're doing things in a way that is compliant. A lot of things talked a lot about revenue recognition. Are also being able to just make sure that any thing that was sold. Old, the revenue could be recognized. I don't want to go too much into the weeds, but what I want you to stay with is the concept of you've built the first nine months to make sure as much as possible, that you are in line with corporates goals. For you, right? Because you're building someone else's dream, and you want to, you're you're being compensated for that. You have a role description. That role description says you must bring in revenue, and you do that, and you want to do that as quickly as possible, right? And the thing is, because nobody talks about this, but because you want more free time, if you can get your entire year done in the first three months, you know that you have the next nine months to do a whole lot of stuff that you want to be able to do with your time. We're going to come back to that. So just kind of put a pin in that for a second. One of the things that I also wanted to mention is, as I'm in this reflective state, if you if this is the first time that you are here, because this is, like, one of the most important episodes you'll ever listen to. You want to get more insight as to more about my story. You can go back and listen to episode 435, interview did with a great guy named Jerome Myers. He did a phenomenal job, but then that that's something that can bring you back to here. So as you are planning these first 270 days, and you realize things are moving in the right direction, you now have the next 90 days that you know is going to make or break your year. It's really these next 90 volatile days are really going to help you know your destiny, meaning what's going to happen next year? Are you going to be in that big trip, the one that recognized the top achievers in your sales organization? Are you going to be able to kind of be there at the at the table with the top executives from the company that want to be there to recognize you? Or are you going to be frustrated and sitting at home figuring out how you can do it next year. So the thing is, is one of the one of the greatest ways that I started to change the way that I perceived the sales role, was I really started, and this is one of the things I want to share with you, is I started not thinking anymore about the sales cycle. I had this as I was sitting in one of the trainings. It was like the most, biggest, like light bulb moment for me, was to no longer think about the sales cycle and like what I wanted, but it was to think about the buying cycle. Think about the client. Think about what they wanted. Think about what their day to day was. Were they going through a reduction in staff? Were they going through what they call the quote, unquote synergies. So that means that they had less money to do the exact same thing. Were they in a hiring freeze? Were they in a in a in a purchasing freeze, where they had in a moment of increase decrease? Did they have initiatives that needed to happen right away? So thinking about more of the buying cycle from the client's perspective, versus the sales cycle, which was thinking about me and how I could get to Hawaii and how I could get to the big bonus checks, and how I could do all of these types of things. So once I had that, that that, just like light mode moment, things started to change for me. And so for someone like me, who really, really, really enjoyed and enjoys working, they got to a point where you start focusing and you start to obsess, and you really have problems sometimes even being able to disconnect from work, because you really want to help your client so much, and it's hard to disconnect from work. I mean, I did an entire episode on that. You can go to episode 446, listen to what I shared with you in these challenges, challenges with disconnecting from work and some of the different things that you can do so that you're not constantly, like, attached to the job that you're stuck to the matrix. Think about that episode 446, go check it out. Give you some ideas there, because ultimately, and this is what I want to share with you, right? It is when you think about the end of a quarter, and you think about the next 90 days that are coming up to you, like, you've just gone through a really, you could have gone through a really, really tough time like and I've got this buddy of mine, let's call him Jay. And Jay was thinking that he was going to end his third quarter of the year. So I'm thinking about July, September, August, July, August, September, that he was going to be that have the next 90 days that were going to be free. He had his he had his deal ready. He had all of his executive sponsors. And you know what? He even got to the point where the the admin team sent the DocuSign for the client to sign, and he did it the weekend before, like, literally, the Friday before, because this year just ended on a Monday, the quarter ended on a Monday the end of October, and he sent it on Friday. Well, the DocuSign was sent. He was waiting for the client to open the DocuSign, and he asked the admin team, if you open the DocuSign, they never opened it. He was wondering what was happening, but he waited through the weekend. So Monday was he was expecting, because that's what he talked to the client about. Still hadn't opened it. Once he found out that they opened it, they were reviewing it, but nothing was moving forward. And so he figured, hey, listen, let me just send an email. So he sent an email to the client, no response from the client. Now he's starting to get frustrated. His boss is calling. Where's the deal? So he decides to send a text message. Sends a text message, no response from the client. I. Now he's getting nervous because it's late, mid or afternoon Monday, like we talk about this, it's kind of it's stressful, but I'm only sharing you this with you because I lived it, and I know what it's like. It's very frustrating when he didn't get the text message. Well, it was time to go and be a little bit more personally. Decided he wanted to send a WhatsApp, but he was nervous about that. Do I send a WhatsApp? I've already sent an email. He hasn't responded. I already sent a text message, no response. Well, you know what? It's going to get even more personal. So it decides to send a WhatsApp. Well, after the WhatsApp, you know the blue, the blue, the blue check. So he knows that the person read it, no response. If this feels to you like you've been there, like it sucks. I've been there, and it is one of the worst things that can ever happen. You get ghosted by your client, especially when you've talked about the things that were going to happen, we're going to happen. And now you've got your your managers asking you where things are, do you have control? And you looks like you don't know what you're doing. And this is now late at night, on on the Monday, on the on the last day of the of September, and it's like nine o'clock at night, 915 still no response. And so then there's a choice to make, either you get your bosses to call your client contacts, or their bosses. Well, I can just tell you that that night, there was a communication that came at the end of the day that said, Hey, listen, we can't close the deal. We can't sign the deal. Something's come up, and we're not able to close it. Now, if you've been in that position, like I said before, it sucks because now it looks like you don't know what you're doing. You don't have control. The things that you said were going to happen didn't happen. And more importantly, you know now that these next 90 days are really going to be challenging, you've thought about, hey, listen, you already had your plans to go to the big trip. You wanted to be recognized with the with the best of the best salespeople. And now you're you're doubting whether or not that that's even possible. Was the thing that you thought was going to sign in so secure? Was it really secure, or was it just kind of a, a big dream, a pipe dream? So that's the thing that you really want to worry about at the same time. There's other people like Jane, and Jane actually got her deal signed in advance, and she's already planning her trip to be recognized with the best of the best, because it was the deal that got her across the line and into the President's Club, the winner's circle, and so it's kind of like a tale of two cities, like Jay didn't make it, Jane did, but they both have the same problem, and that's the thing that I want to talk to you about, and that's why I say the next 90 days are volatile, because whether you made it or whether you didn't, is the are you going to continue to focus on just The Corporate dreams, the corporate goals, the corporate priorities, or do you have your own right? Because for the first 16 years of my 26 year corporate career, it was just, how could I do more for the company? And there's nothing wrong with that. I've always said, like, when corporate treats you well, treat corporate well. But what's the difference between doing 180% and doing 200% the thing that you're going to invest a lot more of is your time. What's the value that you put on your time? Is there something that you could be doing for yourself, building your own dream, focusing more quality time with family, with friends, building a new skill set, starting that dream business that you've always had, begin to invest in other things that are going to give you more opportunities to create options for yourself, for your life. That's why the next 90 days is super volatile, because once you have the time, whether you close the deal and you're heading for the top trip or you didn't, what are you doing with your time, and how are you leveraging that time so that you are living the best life possible, right? I just wanted to illustrate that, because, you know, it's one of those things, and if you are at a point where you really feel like there's something in your gut that's telling you that you want to be doing something else, like there's an episode that I did, episode 437, in the five sure fire signs that you need a profitable side business. Check that one out. Because if you're feeling these like thoughts and these ideas, and you're at this point in your career, and you're either ready to go to the big trips, or you're not, because you're in you're frustrated because you continue to miss it, because something is things are not aligning, go check that episode out, episode 437, because at the end of the day, what you want to be able to do is best leverage your time for the things that you want with the people that you want to invest it with when you can invest in so I know that depending on when you're listening to this, the next 90 days, you've got a lot of decisions to make, But I want to make it really simple for you. What are you doing with your time? How are you best leveraging your time once you've got your corporate roles and objectives accomplished well over 100% because that's just what you do, because you're a top achiever. But what's the difference between you? 190 and 200% of your target. It's the time that you're using. I'll just give you the answer. So listen, I know the next 90 days are the next 90 volatile days are gonna really give you the insight to know your destiny. I wanted to take a moment here to reflect. I wanted to give a shout out to, like I said, enterprise software sales execs, even if you're not, it's what are you doing with the time once you have already accomplished your corporate goals? That's the question. So listen, take today's episode. Share it with family. Share it with friends after you share it. Most importantly, take the action to get together to talk about the concepts. Figure out what it is that you are going to do to better leverage your time, how you're going to invest it in yourself and your personal care and your self care, moving towards goals and dreams and priorities that you have for your life, you've already built the corporate dreams to the point of almost 200% right? Or 150 180 130 because you're a top achiever,

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15:59

that's just what you do.

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Billy Keels  16:01

But take this theory, make it yours. Put it into practice. Talk to family, talk to friends, and while you're doing that, I'll be here preparing for the next episode. So until then, go out and make it a great day. Thank you very much. Today's conversation was sponsored by the Billy keels advisory program. If you're looking to make your nine to five optional and need some help, just go to Billy keels.com. Forward slash advising. Once again, that's Billy keels.com. Forward slash advising you.

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