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Welcome to the Sales Transformation Podcast, the definitive stop for leaders driving change in the sales world. Hosted by Kevin Warner, we dive deep into the minds of Founders, CEOs, VPs of Sales, and Sales Development Leaders from trailblazing startups to industry-leading public companies.
Our mission is simple: to illuminate the path to extraordinary sales leadership. We explore a broad spectrum of sales territories, from the intricacies of Founder Led Sales and Outbound Sales to the transformative potential of Technology in Sales and Social Selling. Whether it's mastering your CRM, optimizing conversions, scaling sales teams, or engineering a complete Sales Transformation, our conversations are set to challenge the status quo and redefine sales success.
With a new content every day of the week, we bring you unfiltered interviews with the luminaries of sales, people who have not just succeeded but transformed the way we think about sales. Kevin Warner also shares sharp, tactical sales tips every week, packing decades of sales wisdom into bite-sized insights.
So, if you're ready to rewrite the sales rulebook and learn from the best in the business, the Sales Transformation Podcast is your ticket. Write us a review, share the show, and join us on this journey of sales evolution. Let's transform the way we sell, together!
All right. Welcome back to another episode of Sales Transformation brought to
you by Ledium. I'm your host, Collin Mitchell. And today we've got Kate O'Neil
on the show. She's the CEO over at Teeming. Kate, welcome to
the show. Welcome back to the show. What are some of the things
that you saw that were challenging in
Yeah, they'll edit and fix it. So kind
of shifting gears here a little bit. I'm just curious to
know in your experience as a leader, what
were some of the challenges that you had that gave
Sorry, all I heard was for teaming. Oh,
It seems like your internet is maybe struggling a
bit because it's giving me like a little note. It
looks normal to me. Okay. Now you can hear me?
Okay. Of course it's working now. As soon as I ask the question, it's going to start struggling.
Okay. Minute 13. All right. I'll make a note.
They'll fix it. Don't worry about it. So kind of shifting gears here
a little bit. It felt like an appropriate time to
talk about what a lot of people have seen on the internet. It
was very much in line with the topics that we're talking about today. But
what I'm really curious to find out is, what were some of the
challenges you had as a leader that gave you the idea for
Okay, yes. So you know, fast forward 15 years, and
I got to I was promoted from director to
VP. And it was a really unique situation. So
I had was recruited to this company by the
head of marketing to run demand generation. And
so I would be reporting to her. And then I you
know, for lots of reasons that I won't get into here.
She was asked to go run partnerships, basically to leave her role in
marketing. And so I
was promoted, and I, you know, it's
it was it was it was 200 people at its height. So
you know, a decent amount of folks and the CEO would
occasionally, you know, pop in and ask me a question or
he's preparing for a board meeting and wants to know this thing
or whatever, right? There's like little reasons for us to connect
sometimes. And I
didn't realize that was my little job interview of whether
or not this person can be the next head of marketing. And
so when they sat me down to say, hey, here's
what we're thinking, I tried to convince them that I wasn't ready
for the job, which is a learning. Would
not recommend doing that. Thankfully,
they, you know, the CEO and the co founders of the company were like, I think
you're ready. I think you're selling yourself short here. And not every leader is
going to do that. So that would be learning number one. Learning
number two, I just didn't realize all the amount
of change that was going to happen. So I was taking over someone
else's role that was still going to be in the company. I
was going to be managing my former peers. So
that's a weird situation. I would be managing managers for
the first time. And lucky me, they
decided to roll rev ops into marketing at the same time. So
So yeah, I got it was a team of 22 people. And,
and I it was like a weird structure, right? Because it wasn't just marketers, like
the, the sales ops person still needs to
serve sales. But now they're kind of reporting to
me, right. So it was my first situation with a dotted line structure,
if you will. So so much change. And
you really need to take stock of that, I would say, like, if I just sat down
and thought about that for a minute, you know, you
wouldn't necessarily feel so much like you're drinking from the fire hose, like, Oh, this is
new, you know, try to try to anticipate the know
those changes, and then anticipate what what they might feel like, or ask people
like, Hey, this is the first time I'm doing this thing. You know, what's that
like? Um, So those are probably the
changes and mistakes that led me to realizing that this is
a massive job and there really aren't very
many resources to help. So I
was instructed to read management books, which Um,
there are some great ones out there. But the problem with management books
is you read them. And then on Monday morning, you're like, Okay, how
should I apply this to my team? Yeah, right. And
that's really hard. And then, thankfully, it this
job, I was given the opportunity to have actual management
training. It cost, and I think this
is relatively inexpensive, it cost $5,000 for the company to
train me to be a manager. And when you think
about it, I've been managing for 10 years before I got any
training in it. Like, that's absurd. And,
but it is so common. And it's ridiculous, really,
when you think about it, that we don't do this $5,000 is
a lot of money. But to the amount of mistakes you
can make that would cost the company way more
than $5,000. There are many mistakes
you can make as an untrained manager that would cost $5,000. For
instance, if just one of your direct reports quits because
they don't like you, or they can't get along with you, right, that
costs more than $5,000. To me, it is a absolute no
brainer to invest in that. But companies just
can't stomach it because it's not just $5,000, right? It's $5,000 times
all of the managers in the company. And
Still a pretty small price tag to people that
you are entrusting to lead and
manage your people, which are
your most valuable asset as a company.
Yeah. Supposed to be anyway. Um, and, uh,
and so I really wanted to make that coaching more accessible, right.
To, to make the, the cost of entry way
Wow. And what are some like big wins or things
that you can share that teaming has been able to help leaders
Some big wins of teaming. Yeah. Is
that right? Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, big wins
of teaming. One is,
you know, you can take a disk assessment, which is kind of like, it measures
your work style or your communication style at work. And
one thing we learned about our co-founding team is we struggled to
celebrate wins together. We learned that through teaming. So
that's, Right like that it's a
win getting that in there and learning about yourself right sort
of eating our own dog food if you will so
that that's exciting it sounds ridiculous but. Staying
alive through a global pandemic feels. uh,
great. Um, you know, we didn't, we didn't, we
didn't run out of money. We didn't, you know, go out of business. I
do think that's an accomplishment. Um, I think,
uh, you know, from a, from a customer perspective, I,
um, the most meaningful wins to me is when
we get a message or a post or
something that says like, this was invaluable
to me. I learned something about
how to lead better. And I got feedback from my
team about how it's helpful to
them. And it made me a better leader. And
that is like, not only are you impacting the
life of the manager, right in the career of the manager, but
also of their team. So that is like, man,
I just, that makes my day. So like, you
know, over the moon, it's, it's pretty awesome. Um, so
Awesome. Well, it's been awesome having you on
the show again. Really appreciate it. Any final thoughts as we kind of wrap
Um, good question. Uh, final thoughts. Um,
being a manager is really freaking hard. Um, don't,
you know, the stress we have is
a lot, and the value we get is very
little, right, we don't get a lot back. And so and,
by the way, burnout rates of managers are higher than
they have ever been right now. So if
you are feeling that way, one, ask for help.
And two, You know
not everyone needs to be a manager if you if this isn't
for you. you know, it's okay to say, I'd
rather be an expert in something else. And that's, that's
a really positive, awesome realization
to come to. So that would be my final thought. Connect, please
connect with me on LinkedIn. If you're, if you want to check
out teaming, it's at teaming.com, the typical normal
spelling of the word teaming. And, and
Awesome, we'll drop all the links there in the show notes as well as the
link to the last episode that we had Kate on as well. If
you enjoyed today's episode, please write us a review, share the show with your friends,
help us reach more sellers and sales leaders to transform the