Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Welcome to the Sales Transformation Podcast, the definitive stop for leaders driving change in the sales world. Hosted by Collin Mitchell, 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. Collin Mitchell 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!
In this episode, we have a special guest, Kevin Hopp. He's the founder of Hopp Consulting Group and the host of Hopp on Calls. Kevin will be sharing about the challenges of tech in sales and the importance of dedication as he takes us through his journey as a cashier at Dick's Sporting Goods to becoming a successful account executive and now a coach and trainer for SDRs. Let's get right into it. Here's our host, Colin Mitchell.
Collin Mitchell:Very excited to have my good friend, Kevin Hopp back on the show. Kevin, I don't know. This must be, like, your 3rd 3rd ish time on the show, I'd imagine. But, we're gonna get into a little bit of Kevin's background and we're gonna talk about some exciting things. If you don't know Kevin, he is the founder of Hop Consulting Group.
Collin Mitchell:Also has his own show called Hop on Calls and does a lot of exciting stuff in the space around outbound and specifically around cold calling. Kevin, welcome to the show for the 3rd time.
Kevin Hopp:Colin, my man, thank you so much for having me today. I really do appreciate it. Long time listener, 3rd time caller, not first time here. But, I haven't been on in, like, probably over a year. So really excited to to dig dig in today, see what we can share with the audience because I've had a very, interesting time of it so far in sales.
Collin Mitchell:Yeah. I mean, it's with the launch of the 3rd season of the show now. We're going back and, you know, getting some of the most, you know, downloaded episodes of guests that, people obviously enjoyed the most, bringing them back on the show, which is why you're here today. And so just give people, a little bit of background just kinda, like, where you started, how you got into sales, and then how you went through, you know, sort of the transition of, you know, from being in sales, and then we're gonna get into kind of, you know, some of the roles that you had to then now being an entrepreneur, founder yourself.
Kevin Hopp:Yeah. Absolutely. Let's start at the very beginning. My first job, I was a cashier at, Dick's Sporting Goods, which Dick's doesn't exist anymore. Or, it was Trick's Sporting Goods.
Kevin Hopp:Literally, Trick Sporting Goods got bought out by Dick's Sporting Goods. Now there's a lot there's a joke in there, but this isn't a a an adult show. We're not gonna make little kid jokes, But that was where my first job was. Fast forward to when I graduated from college, I, was the first hire at a start up. That was my first job out of college, my first, like, real career job.
Kevin Hopp:And being the first hire at a startup, you do anything and everything. Well, you know, that startup, like 99% of startups did not work out. And in a year and a half, I had to sit down and say, alright. What do I do next? Turns out that if you have an aptitude for talking to people and you're not scared to ask for money, sales might be a really good lucrative path for you.
Kevin Hopp:So I I became an SDR. From there, within 6 months, I was promoted to become an account executive. I was a top producing SDR, and we'll we'll talk a little bit more about that later because it is kind of ironic that that's what I do today is I I coach and train SDRs to do things a bit differently than the way that I did it, but at the same time, there's a lot of synergy there. I I had a a variety of sales roles in the 1st 5 years of my career, changing jobs about once a year, either from a layoff or finding a better opportunity. My salary went up about, what, almost a 100 not 200%.
Kevin Hopp:22 100% in about 4 years. But I had the same problem everywhere I went. Right? The same problem as a seller everywhere I went, and that was pipeline. Pipeline, pipeline, pipeline.
Kevin Hopp:Congratulations, Kevin. I finally got to becoming a senior account executive, about 4 years into my career, and they said, congratulations. Here's your territory. Here's your laptop. Here's your fancy badge to get in the building.
Kevin Hopp:Go generate some pipeline. So that is, that is my, my villain story that led me to to becoming who I am today. It's having a pipeline problem turn me into a pipeline freak? So One way to look at it. I have
Collin Mitchell:a few questions to unpack a few things there in your story. First thing I think probably listeners are super curious to know is getting promoted from SDR to AE in 6 months in your first SDR role.
Kevin Hopp:Mhmm.
Collin Mitchell:How did you make that happen? What are some key things that you think contributed to your success, in that path?
Kevin Hopp:Yeah. Great question. I was super, super motivated. That means that I did not just do one thing. I did not just do what my manager told me to do.
Kevin Hopp:I came in every day and, like, went at it. It was an in the office job, which, you know, a lot of sellers today might be saying, what's an office? What do you mean office? You mean you had to, like, show up every day by a certain time and you couldn't leave until a certain time because, you know, your boss is there in the corner of the room looking at you? Yeah.
Kevin Hopp:It was that
Collin Mitchell:kind of job. That's such a
Kevin Hopp:inconvenience for folks today. Right? I mean, it was inconvenient back then. Trust me. But, I mean, we were I was young.
Kevin Hopp:I was like, what, 23, 20, yeah, 23, 24. And, me and the other SDRs would carpool. You know? We parking downtown San Diego is, like, $200 a month and we know our base salary was like 40 k. We could barely afford, you know, rent.
Kevin Hopp:So we would carpool. 1 of us would pay for parking. We'd all jump in the car every morning. If you missed the car, you had to take an Uber and that was expensive. So, it was a good routine.
Kevin Hopp:But what, I what led me to getting promoted within 6 months was being really dedicated to the job and blowing out my quota. Right? Like, people talk about all sorts of stuff on LinkedIn, and I see it all the time around, like, take time for your mental health and, you know, get really good at this and do social selling and da da da da. Look. At the end of the day, you can't get around being really good at your job as the best way to succeed.
Kevin Hopp:You wanna succeed? Be really, really good at what you're supposed to be doing and blow out your quota. As sellers, if you blow out your quota, 99% of the time, that will lead to really, really good things for you. Right? And now I understand there might be people thinking like, well, I blow out my quota and they change the quota.
Kevin Hopp:That's kinda how it works too, unfortunately. But that's how I got promoted was I blew up my quota.
Collin Mitchell:Yeah. I think that the the the the the thing that's interesting about a lot of people today is, like, generally, I think sellers have gotten soft. I mean
Kevin Hopp:I mean,
Collin Mitchell:not hitting your quota is kind of the norm now and seems to be pretty much okay and acceptable in a lot of sales organizations. It actually blew my mind when I was talking with Andy Paul, like, you know, when he got started in sales, like, you had to close at, like, a 70, 80% of your deals. If you were closing at a 50
Kevin Hopp:80%. If
Collin Mitchell:you were closing 50% of your job, there was a really good chance if you were closing a 50% of your deals at your job, there was a very good chance you would be without a job soon. And it seems like today, most organizations are okay with closing 20 or 30%. If they think if they're closing 30%, they think they're doing fantastic.
Kevin Hopp:Yeah. Yeah. Well so alright. So there's a few things to say about this. Right?
Kevin Hopp:Like, the first thing is the sale the sellers of today are not working their daddy's sales jobs. Okay? What do I mean by that? I mean, getting in touch with people and finding accurate contact information for people and then telling them something they've never heard before or educating them, all every piece of the value chain of sales development and outbound sales is so much harder today than it was 5, 10, 15 years ago. Because now it's so easy for a seller to load up, rip a list out of ZoomInfo, throw it into a sequencing tool and hit go and send 2,000 emails in 5 seconds.
Kevin Hopp:And with all of that inundation of automation and AI coming in, the amount of outreaches people are getting is just through the roof. And finding accurate con contact information for people is really, really difficult because people are constantly leaving, quitting their jobs. We got a recession. We got a we had the pandemic. We had all this stuff.
Kevin Hopp:Right? So it is not the same thing. And when you say sellers are going soft, I tend to agree. And it's because the people that are leading them, you know, the the, you know, white haired types, the older folks that are the VPs and the CROs, they think that the world is the same as it was, you know, when they were a seller. Oh, yeah.
Kevin Hopp:I had Dun and Bradstreet, and they're on my list, on my, you know, clipboard. And I'd call John and call Steve and call Bob, and Bob would pick up. You know? And it was, like, really high pickup rates on the phone, and people responded to emails. And, you know, information was not as accessible to buyers.
Kevin Hopp:Now information is ubiquitous. Right? How many times is a seller actually educating a buyer anymore? Right? Buyers are doing so much self education.
Kevin Hopp:There's so much content out there. There's also selling all this stuff. So it's just a very different selling environment is what I would say.
Collin Mitchell:I think I think I agree with that mostly, but then there's the argument of, like, okay, with technology and data so accessible, shouldn't it be a little easier?
Kevin Hopp:I mean, it's easier to look productive.
Collin Mitchell:Ah. It's
Kevin Hopp:easier to do activity.
Collin Mitchell:A good point. Right? That's a good point.
Kevin Hopp:It's easy activity metrics are easier than ever to hit. Right? I can I can crank numbers all day and emails sent, calls made, and all that? Right? Like, because technology makes that really easy.
Kevin Hopp:But how many actual live conversations are people having? And are they focusing on getting good at having those business conversations? No. That is what they're not focusing on.
Collin Mitchell:That it's a good point because the thing is is the example of you, you know, give giving there before previously how, you know, you know, your conversation ratio would be a lot higher because there wasn't as many people getting information, not as many people calling and so on. It's still possible with the right strategy, the right data, the right tool set, you know, to have that many business conversations, but a lot of sales organizations lack a lot of that stuff. So what what I want to talk about is a little bit of okay. So your transition, you know, from in those roles to then, you know, how long has it been now as, you know, entrepreneur, and what has that been like? What are the same things what are some things that you're maybe proud of that you've done in that time?
Collin Mitchell:What are some things that have been a little bit challenging?
Kevin Hopp:For sure. So I've, spent about as much time now, 5 years as an entrepreneur as I as I did a quota carrying sales rep. So coming on the 10th year of my career here. In the 5 years, I've made pretty much every dollar through Hop Consulting Group, but I did have some times when I would full time dedicate myself to a venture. Right?
Kevin Hopp:Trying to start up companies, trying to start partnerships, trying to start different things. It's been quite the adventure. Right? The whole time I've been focused on outbound sales, mostly on cold calling. One of the first the the first thing I did in the first two years of really starting consulting was, 1, make cold calls for money, which is a hustle if that's what you do all day every day.
Kevin Hopp:And then I taught people how to cold call and manage cold callers and manage the outbound as a service business, very similar to Ledium, competitive to Ledium back in the day. But I did that for for a while, and that was a really, really good experience. Really, really enjoyed that. Learned a lot. Most recently, I I tried out a partnership business and learned that partnerships are really tough.
Kevin Hopp:But I am back to to being on my own here. I have a few different clients. I got my show. And, yeah, that's what I'm doing today.
Collin Mitchell:Yeah. The one thing I would say is consistent in your story even just from, like, as Kevin the seller and as Kevin the entrepreneur is you're a pretty resilient dude. I mean, you don't give up easily. Like, even after, you know, getting laid off many times, you know, getting in unfortunate situations and jobs even though you're showing up kicking ass and doing your job. And then having many iterations of what Hop Consulting does when at a lot of points, it could be, early on, it could be easy to say, dude, sales ain't for me.
Collin Mitchell:This is too much. Or even entrepreneurship, many, opportunities where you could also throw your hands up and say, yeah. I could just go get a sales leadership job and, you know
Kevin Hopp:Yeah. Sit behind a dashboard and And I've done that. So so I I I I think it's really important that I tell this story. Right? Last summer last summer, when was it?
Kevin Hopp:Probably a year ago, right around July, August of 22, I hit a low point in my hop consulting group time where I had a bunch of deals. I had I had a long consulting engagement that was paying me a lot of money that came to an end, came to a natural end, a 6 month deal. And then I had, like, 3 or 4 deals out there. Well, that was the first time about a year ago that CNN talked about a recession coming. And it was like the first, you know, drop in LinkedIn, you know, VC land of this, oh my god.
Kevin Hopp:There's gonna be a recession? What? And all 4 of the deals in my pipeline fell out at the exact same time. As in they all said, hey. We're not gonna move forward.
Kevin Hopp:So I had a I had a month, a month and a half there where I had no work. And I was like, WTF. I had never seen that. I just had it hadn't been a thing. Right?
Kevin Hopp:COVID was kind of a boom for the tech world. So I was drowning in work for a long time, and then it all came to a screeching halt. So what did I do? I went and interviewed for a few jobs. Right?
Kevin Hopp:And I think this is a really important story to tell because I went and interviewed at 3 different companies, right, for 3 different sales management positions. I got really far down the road with 2 of them, and I backed out because more consulting work popped up, and I decided that I wanted to lean into the consulting world still. I I there's a work life balance thing about consulting that is badass. Being your own boss is badass. But that also means that you're responsible for bringing home the bacon, bringing home all the all the deals.
Kevin Hopp:So all 3 of those companies within 6 months had hired somebody, and then all 3 of them did major layoffs and fired, laid off the person that would have been me and their whole team. Like whole teams of people gone. Gone, gone, gone. Because tech's been in an absolute bloodbath this year. Right?
Kevin Hopp:So if I had gotten one of those jobs thinking, okay, cool. Consulting was hard. I'm gonna, like, attach myself to this start up. There is the $100,000,000. It's like the safe harbor.
Kevin Hopp:I'm gonna learn a lot. I'm gonna grow. I would have been laid off. I would've been sitting there 5 months later, just as frustrated as I was before. So when you talk about resiliency, I think that there there absolutely is a ton of resiliency that you need to be your own boss and to be independent.
Kevin Hopp:And I tell that to people who come to me. I have people come to me saying, hey, man. How do I do what you do? I'm like, dude, you just gotta be able to you gotta be able to make business happen. You have to be able to source your own deals, close your own deals, create your own product, service offerings.
Kevin Hopp:But you also gotta have a lot of and, be able to withstand the tough times.
Collin Mitchell:Thanks for tuning in to today's episode. We hope you enjoyed it and that you didn't forget to subscribe and share so that we can help more people transform the way they sell.