Tyzer Evans is the regional vice president for ParetoHealth, a top-performing salesperson who has been fast-tracked to manage and lead multiple sales teams. He has earned a reputation for being a “fixer” for businesses.
Tyzer shares his insights on winning sales deals by creating value for customers on an ongoing basis.
Some topics we discussed include:
- How Tyzer earned his reputation of being a fixer
- Why do salespeople struggle to demonstrate value to potential future customers
- What does real value look like even though many companies say they provide value
- How do you really understand value from the perspective of a customer
- How to go about creating value for customers
- Does value need to address four kinds of needs: functional, emotional, life-changing, and social impact
- Why Tyzer recommends using power questions to determine the best ways to go about creating value for customers
- Implications of creating value for customers on sales teams
- The best ways to hire salespeople to drive predictable business growth
- The winning factor that makes Tyzer able to drive growth predictably
- and much more …
Vinay Koshy 0:00
Tyzer if I could think of one of the most commonly shared pieces of advice in the marketing and sales space, it would be to share value. Now that sounds simple, and basically yet, it's true. In fact, any communication we tend to put out there is not just an expression of our brand, it's part of our ongoing battle for attention. And to win that battle, you had better provide extraordinary value. The challenge, I believe lies in whether you can define precisely how you add value. Now, most companies would say that they offer educational material, white papers, free trials, etc. Yet, if I understand what you was saying, when we were talking before, you seem to be saying that there is more to it than just that Why?
Tyzer Evans 0:47
Well, kind of what you're talking about, right? If you're in especially b2b sales, and you're talking about value, and if a company is already putting out white papers, and they're staying up to date, then if you're going to sell them on why your product service or good is a necessity, then you better come up with some insight that goes beyond the value, because they've already done their homework. So you're not bringing anything new. So a lot of reps, they're going and they're doing usually one of two things are providing value, which isn't valued, because you're reiterating things that they already know. Or they're asking the person, what pain points are they experiencing and asking them to basically do their job for them as a salesperson. Both things aren't going to get you any closer to the sale.
Vinay Koshy 1:29
Hi, and welcome to the predictable b2b success podcast, overnight coaching. On this podcast, we interview people behind b2b brands who aren't necessarily famous, but do work in the trenches, and share their strategies and secrets as they progress along their journey of expanding their influence, and making their businesses grow predictably. Now, let's dive into the podcast for listeners. And with taser, Evans, taser, you, as I understand it have had over 15 years of sales experience and been a top performer and being fast tracked to manage and lead multiple teams as well. Is that is that right?
Tyzer Evans 2:06
Yeah. So I've been fortunate or unfortunate, however you want to look at it. Where I've worked, I've worked for three fortune 500 companies. And all three of them. I've was a top performing sales rep. And all three have been a top performing sales manager as well.
Vinay Koshy 2:20
Excellent. And I was wondering if you could tell us how you've come to be known as a fixer for listeners, I'm using air quotes here. But yeah, could you tell us a bit about that?
Tyzer Evans 2:32
Yeah, it was interesting, I just kind of fell into it. It just, it was happenstance, going back to college, I got put in a in a in a store as we're going to surf industry. And the store and historically always been the worst performing store. And I done really well there and got promoted several times. And so they put me in charge of their hiring. And I knew that was what was kind of be the linchpin is turning around culture and getting the right people. And so I just saw that was a kind of a beta test at 21 was going, you know, having a staff of 45 people and, and then managing for managers that were much older than me and right, it was a $10 million operation. At the time, it seemed like a lot of money to me now it's you know, probably not as, as big and in some people's eyes. And so then as I kind of progressed to my rear career, and I go into the corporate world, I just had a knack for one sales. But I've been really good at taking a very complex problem and breaking it down to be very simple, which has made me an effective salesperson. But it's also made me an effective leader, because I can translate the information to reps easily and quickly. And in one of the things that I think that sales managers do a lot when it comes to looking at how to build culture, or building the right sales team is one making sure that someone is the right cultural fit. And that doesn't mean they have to be like you, but making sure that they're going to be a great team player. So you all start to come together as a family and people feed off each other. And you know, success breeds success. And so that's just one of the things that I've done well be able to break down information and deliver that information and then build a team kind of around my ideals and thoughts while at the same time letting them breathe in and let them have a lot of their own autonomy. I'm not a micromanager by any bit. I treat everybody like an adult like they should be. Right.
Vinay Koshy 4:16
It could be a new experience for some. I'm curious though, what would you say is your personal area of strength?
Tyzer Evans 4:24
Mine as a salesperson and one of the things that I try to teach people I feel like I have my calm superpowers two superpowers. One as I listened very well. And two, I have a high emotional EQ. I may be actually three. And the third one is I'm a good storyteller.
Vinay Koshy 4:39
Excellent. And in those areas of strength, what would you say is something that businesses don't know butt should?
Tyzer Evans 4:48
What most businesses don't know how to tell a compelling story, right? It's you know, anybody who's been in sales long enough, you got to understand that people don't buy with logic. You may think that your product or service is very logical and makes all the sense in the world and it's gonna save them money, but they're not bought in because it doesn't, they don't quite understand how it's still going to fit their needs. And the best way to do that is by telling a story and putting them in a position where they can really see themselves using your product or service. And that's usually not taught to sales reps, it's usually not even taught to them how to listen? Well, you know, I really tried to, I listened in a lot of calls with my sales reps, either in person or recordings, and I give them constant feedback, especially if I'm doing that live like Quiet, quiet, you know, quiet, let there be some awkward pauses some silence, it'll force the person to keep asking the only thing that you should be doing is asking great questions.
Vinay Koshy 5:40
And we talked about the quandary that salespeople face in terms of being able to demonstrate or give value to their customers. What would you say is a solution to that to that problem? And I'm saying this, because I'm sure that many sales folk are aware at some level of the fact that they aren't really demonstrating anything of particular value to a potential client. And yet, they are hamstrung by the marketing department within the organization or in their sales leaders. What do they do? How would you recommend they go that extra mile to show value?
Tyzer Evans 6:22
Yeah, that's a great question. So you know, it's interesting, I did a short video today, I have my content schedule, all listed out here. And the thing I was talking about was always coming from your perspective, the client don't come from a perspective of a salesperson, you got to come from your perspective, the client, so the more that you can put yourself in their shoes, what they're experiencing, it gives you a different perspective of what you should be talking to them about, we come from our own perspective. You know, it's I always tell people, they don't think with your own wallets, right, like you may think, did selling a million dollar, you know, policy or contracts a big deal. But as someone who makes $50 million a year, it's not a big deal. So so that's one of the ways and I think that the better that you can get incoming from their perspective, you can look, especially if you're working in one particular vertical, you can find gaps and holes in their business. And that's what I really look for. You know, for me, I'm in commercial health insurance. And you know, there's this kind of this this, it's kind of a Mystique that here in the states that if you're on what we call a PPO plan, right, you're getting discounts through one of the big carriers. And we'll, we'll leave them nameless, but people realize that there are discounts, they're still paying 241% of Medicare, which is kind of like our socialized medicine here in the States. So Medicare patient pays $100 for a procedure and you on your discounted PPO product would be paying $241. Right, so so what I we have a with our company, we have an innovative product where we we pay a percentage of Medicare that's less than the traditional network costs, but it's a slightly above Medicare. Right? So it's a little bit more in the middle. And so then I go and I talked to people about that, you know, have you heard of this, it's very forward thinking, not a lot of people have heard of it. So I'm able to provide insight value, I'm able to teach them something, my goal to help to teach their clients something, but we're also able to provide a lot of value, because we're able to cut out a certain part of the margin that you would typically see as a discount and healthcare. And with that margin, they're able to put back into their business. And we've seen through COVID, how many businesses needed that extra 20 3040 $50,000 to stay afloat for the last three to four months. And that trickles all the way down to the employees, instead of taking a 10% haircut on your salary, you get to keep it. So it's those types of things, trying to put in perspective, what's really going to help? Where are they missing, and that's just being a true expert, professional, and knowing every nook and cranny of your vertical,
Vinay Koshy 8:48
Certainly, I'm trying to think of how it would apply perhaps in more competitive spaces where there isn't as much innovation, I'm thinking of perhaps the telecommunication space where, you know, you have people selling cable, internet connections and things of that nature, or even mobile solutions, which are pretty much stock standard in in, in in amongst all the players in a particular space. In such instances, other than perhaps coming out with the latest phone, or you know, or technological device that might pique people's interest. Is there anything else we could do in terms of putting together a package that would suit and I just wonder if you could talk us through because yes, different businesses have different needs. Sure, but and and like you were saying, you know, a retail store chain would have different needs as compared to say a corporate enterprise that has a certain key locations across the country. One thing to tailor the needs to the tailor solution to the needs of those companies. But when pretty much every other telcos doing the same, what can we do to add value?
Tyzer Evans 10:09
What do you got to know before? You know how to differentiate yourself to start with? You know, what do you do that's uniquely different than all of your competitors? And I don't think enough companies really spend enough time asking this question. Because it's sometimes it is hard, you know, you get lost in the noise. And if you're looking at Verizon, Sprint, and at&t, what makes all three of them different? And you should know, right? There should there should be data on that, that the, the higher ups are giving down to people in and you know, on the front lines, and if they're not, you know, so I teach salespeople, salespeople, this is like running your own business, you got to take ownership in it. So if you're not getting the information, then again, it goes back to if someone walks into my store, and they're looking at buying a phone for me or plan for me, the question is why? Okay, well, why? Right? So why are you here today? And then, you know, maybe it's a, they need a better data plan, whatever it could be, instead of looking at it, you know, I think so often to people get caught up in not giving enough information about long term. So for me, I would start to look at, okay, well, how many people you know, the kids going to be college soon as their data going to increase is the roaming gonna be different? You know, it's really starting to enter the workings of why that person is truly shopping, and then present them with a long term solution. You know, again, it's not always about just spam a quick hit, get them in and out, get them the bag. Because if that's the case, you haven't made a connection with him, you haven't provided any type of insight or value or showing them, hey, here's how this may help you over the next 24 months or three years, how much money even just saving $50 a month, what's that compounded with staying with us for the next three years versus where you're at? You know, show them $1 figure, you know, if you they're going to be shopping again, in 12 months, you know, you got to be thinking about the other side of the coin, a coin, you know, that you have to start to create the the brand name loyalty as well. And so that's that's a very competitive space. But I would, I would think about, you know, why do most people come in and shop and it's usually to save money. But it's not always about money. So how am I providing values a data plan? What are their individual particular needs? If it is savings? How can I show them more savings than just $50 a month? Because our $10 a month that doesn't always quantify to a lot of people. But if you show them I did this in auto insurance, because people switch on a dime for $30 for the year. But what is that $30 or $5, or $10 a month compounded if you stayed with us over five years, right? Instead of a different type of value. But yeah, it's really going to come down to every company, you should have a true understanding of what your differentiator is. And if you don't have one, then that's something to bring up to the ladder ASAP, because you're probably going to go out of business.
Vinay Koshy 12:51
Yep. So if I understand this correctly, it really you should be asking the right questions. And listener? Is there something that you teach your salespeople or teams, Barrett, asking the right questions and listening? But even though it sounds like common sense, isn't isn't that common,
Tyzer Evans 13:15
yeah, no, totally. So listen, you can call it the 80/20 rule. 70/30 rule, somewhere in that neighborhood where you should be talking 30% to 20% of the time, and you should be listening 70% to 80% of time, if you stick by that you're going to be totally fine. You know, that always, you know, saying that everybody's favorite word, which is their name. So constantly referring to your prospect by their first name, again, helps to establish little bit of credibility and rapport, you know, subconsciously. It and so I'm sorry, when you go over the question one more time.
Vinay Koshy 13:46
Yeah, it was just saying that it's, it's Is there something in particular that you would help your sales people with? In terms of asking questions and listening? Even? Yeah, so common, common sense.
Tyzer Evans 14:00
Yeah, I apologize. I just got off on this tangent about listening. But the other thing that we do is we I have all my reps have 10 to 15, what I call power questions. So we have power questions already listed out that aren't going to be yes or no, or they're not going to be standard questions you would use in your industry. So I was kind of talking to a bit before about, you know, we're real b2b. And so I work with insurance brokers. So one of my favorite questions to ask an insurance broker is how do you differentiate yourself from your competition. And that always kind of throws them for a little bit of a loop. And then I just sit back, and I listen. And usually through that listing, I'll find out that they don't actually differentiate themselves any differently than all the other, you know, 200 300 guys I talked to before then they say that I'm a consultant and I give great customer service. Everybody is a customer service gives great you know, as a consultant, and if you don't get customer service, you don't really have much of a business. So then it allows us to then come in and start to show how using our product or your product or service strategically, can be a differentiator. Enter within your space.
Vinay Koshy 15:01
Nice. And with this idea of asking power questions or just thinking, you talked about giving feedback to your team members on certain calls? Do you do peer reviews as well?
Tyzer Evans 15:15
Yeah, so it's interesting. Yeah, we were forced to do peer evaluations, I think large companies do those, right. But one of the things that I I've done with my team and this kind of, you know, I should have included this, when we're talking about how I've been a fixture, because I've fixed seven sales teams over the last nine years, 19 years, anywhere from 20% to the most recently 100% growth margins. And one of the things I do at the beginning of every year is I sit down, and I have every single person on my team, whether an admin or their salesperson, come up with three to five professional and personal goals. And then I sit down with them at the beginning of the year, and we draw a roadmap on how they're going to accomplish those goals. And then every month, I hold a one on one, which is anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes. And we talked about obviously review prior month struggles things they've done well, but then I always break out their goal sheet, and we revisit are you tracking well. And that's really impactful to a lot of people, a lot of people want, most people don't do goal setting. To do goal setting. Most people don't write out a roadmap on how to accomplish your goals set up the right type of targets. So yeah, just shows that your team again, the more they're invested in you as a leader, the better they're going to perform across the board.
Vinay Koshy 16:29
That's interesting, you say that, it's great to hear, but I was thinking more in terms of peer reviews as in having, sorry, your colleagues, listening to your phone calls or recordings of your phone calls, and then provide honest feedback.
Tyzer Evans 16:45
Sure, yeah, absolutely. So that's something we do with all of our rookie reps, I had them always sit and the shadow, all of my top reps in the office generally, for the first six months, it's a very interactive process. Along with me sitting in there, I always have them contact. And this is something that it's always been a staple practice for myself, anytime I've gone to a new company, is reach out to the top five people within the organization and ask to buy them lunch or dinner, if they're in a different state, you know, ask them for 30 minutes of their time. So no $15 gift card to Starbucks, you know, for the time, and ask them the questions that you need to know in order to be really proficient at your job. And then again, I have a sales meeting every single day, every single day, I have a sales meeting from eight to 830. And we don't always go over just sales information or go over industry trends and stuff like that. But I would say every other week, we do role playing. And so that it's not just me doing the peer review, it's I have everybody else in the room, go ahead and grade them and give them their feedback. So they're getting a multiple different perspectives other than just mine, some,
Vinay Koshy 17:50
So definitely investing in continual improvement. Which in my mind brings up the question - What sort of metrics are you looking for in order to ensure that people are tracking towards getting better at this whole thing of asking questions and listening?
Tyzer Evans 18:08
Sure, that's going to come was gonna come down to a little bit of a combo, right? What's the company goal, right? And then what's your personal goal. And a lot of times, you know, for me, I like to really push people out of their comfort zone, when it comes to goal setting. And so we base usually their targets a little bit more based on a stretch goal. Okay, so I really encourage people. So you know, the metrics are gonna fall basically where their goal is, but I get really granular, you know, so again, I'm an insurance so I can, it's easier for me to talk just from that perspective, shouldn't say if, if a rep wants to write $5 million in written premium this year, then what we do is we go, we break out the whole sales cycle, what it takes from the original call to get in an RFP until all the other stairs about four steps. And then we quantify the conversion ratio of every single step. And then we have that broke out, I do for the company. So you can see and then for the top rep, so we can kind of see like, here's what a mediocre rep does. As far as conversion ratios, here's where our top reps are doing. Here's where you're at, here are the steps and targets we need to get in order to get you where you want to be. So if it turns out that for rapping, I was making 50 calls, and that's going to a day and that that target is going to get him to be mediocre. Okay, well, then let's just wait let's rock it up. 1015 more calls a day, right? And understanding those metrics, then it's just an easy plug and play with the numbers and what you need to do as far as your daily activities. And suddenly,
Vinay Koshy 19:31
I just tried to go back a little bit in terms of being able to scale a business from a sales perspective, because I think a lot of businesses try to hire a salesperson or two, and then hopefully they they meet their quotas or expand their quotas, and then you add more people. And then finally you bring in a manager and it sort of entails an ad hoc taper. would you suggest that that that would be the best way to go? Or is there a more purposeful, intentional growth strategy that you would recommend to businesses that are perhaps wanting to get past their founder selling and shift to a more of a sales team or customer success team that would also do sales? Yeah, I
Tyzer Evans 20:23
mean, that's, that's good. Ask this question. Quite a bit. And it's, it's always hard because the biggest linchpin is the hiring, right? You really have to have really solid hiring practices put into place to make sure when you're trying to make that transition from going founder, CEO president as Yeah, CFO, you're wearing all the hats, right? Yeah, CTO, you're doing everything and you're like, hey, I need help. And I got to scale and I got to grow. It's making sure that you're, you're definitely doing personality tests, and reading books on different personalities, you know, the challenger sales, a great book by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson, it'll break down the different types of five sales reps that are out there, and what you should be looking for. And there's all kinds of great personality tests, they'll put you in quadrants. And you can kind of read up on what would be the best fit for a salesperson. So I start there, you know, make sure that on paper, it looks like they're going to be a great fit. Obviously, having a little bit of experience helps, but it's not necessary. But that's going to come down to us spending the time to make sure that they are a mini you, isn't just hiring a salesperson and expecting them to understand and to be used, never going to work. So again, that's why I do the sales training every single day. So the sales training should be at every single day, whether you're doing or not, you just have to make the time for it until they get proficient and you feel comfortable with them. There's got to be a lot of accountability and babysitting in the beginning, until you feel that they're up to speed once they're up to speed. And for me like this good example, when I came, I took over this office that I'm currently in right now we're last in the country. In 2019. And 2020, we were we were number one, we grew grew the business was $10 million. year over year, we went from 15 million to 25 million. And the way I did that was I just do I talked about one I had scaled my hiring, but I was ruthless with who I hired anybody that was on the team that didn't want to be part of my program and fit culturally, I had to fire because I didn't want any type of cancer spreading. So that's the first thing I did, knocked out some people right away, got some people on board, I kept selling. To show them I knew what I was doing. And so I would and then I babysat them, for the first time, all of my new new hires for the first three to six months until I felt they were comfortable. And they had earned the right to go out and sell on their own. And then the culture just starts to breed. Right now I've created little mini me's. So as I bring on more people, they start to do the Coltrane and mentoring a bit more than I have to talking about, you know, the feedback and sitting with the other reps, I felt comfortable. And so that that process just grows and grows organically. But it really comes down to the hiring to begin with.
Vinay Koshy 22:49
My takeaway from that would be that you'd be better off getting a proven sales manager to start with, as opposed to a sales rep, in order to build out the processes and the systems required. Because the founder would probably bring in the culture aspect of it, which you could sort of during the hiring process of the sales manager to ensure there is a good fit. But really the sales manager would bring in the training the the process of hiring the minimes, as you put it, yeah, into place, would that be a fair? takeaway?
Tyzer Evans 23:24
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Or at least hire a rep that you think has leadership potential. So that, you know, I think that everybody you hire, at some level should have some type of leadership qualities on their own. Right, because sales is so much as you know, I call them hunters, you know, like, you got to go out and be a hunter. And you know, if the if the hunters, someone who's more customer service focused, you know, that's gonna, it's gonna, it's gonna be tough to scale with people that are like that.
Vinay Koshy 23:52
So like, you talked about being a hunter. And yet you also put out a fair bit of content yourself. Talk to us about the relationship between sales and putting out content, as opposed to just lead me to the marketing department.
Tyzer Evans 24:10
Yeah, so you know, I think that one, it establishes credibility, that you're a true professional, and that you own your craft, you know, in and that says, I think that, you know, how are you like this, you know, 10x I'm a huge fan of Grant Cardone. And it's just, it's his 10x everything in your life. And so it's interesting, I sat in on a meeting with one of my reps, I usually let them take point and I'm just kind of there to make sure I think goes sideways. And the one of the brokers we were speaking with, she goes, Hey, Kevin, I saw that a blog post that she put out there on how to I think it was on how to leave a voicemail, how to leave a proper voicemail. And she goes, it was super helpful. We've been doing it all wrong. I totally see the value in it. And he stopped he goes, Yeah, that's my boss. He's right here. You wrote it. And she was like, Oh my god, you know, I didn't realize that was you loved it. I went through other blogs, you know, it's gonna really help us. And, and so I think it gets shine a different light for me being a content creator as well. So on what I just enjoyed the process, and I like that I like helping people. But it also gives me a different type of credibility with the people I work with. Because there's lots of people that come to me for sales advice that I that I our clients. Yeah, and and so that helps in a in a whole in a totally different way to solidify our relationship.
Vinay Koshy 25:26
Is this something that you'd recommend for most sales folk, though, developing content in and around their space?
Tyzer Evans 25:33
Yeah, I think it's important, you know, have that Gary Vee mentality of developing a personal brand, I really do. I think that it's easier, you know, it's 74% of people research the buyers before they buy from them, or the sellers before they buy from them, excuse me. And so if you know that to 74% of the people that are out there are going to look you up. And if you don't have a built out LinkedIn profile, you're not visible online, it may kind of shake them or they may not want to do business with you. For with me, they can come say, hey, this guy, got a podcast, got a blog, work for some really good companies got all the sales awards, looks like a guy want to work with, you know, I'm building a character profile by making the content as well. And it's not for everybody. But I think if you could just even write a little bit, you know, once a week on your LinkedIn or engage with people within your community, and, and you know, just great posts, enjoy that. That's something right, you don't have to pay to go and do what I do or what you do. But being visible, I think really helps.
Vinay Koshy 26:33
Talk to me about this idea of putting out content consistently, as opposed to kennix content, or teknicks content that kind of blows people away because of the depth and detail that you provide.
Tyzer Evans 26:51
Yeah, I mean, consistency is everything. You know, I think that you know, people want to put out content, usually I tell them, I said, Hey, you know, pick a channel, when you feel comfortable with and where you know, your audience is going to be, you know, that's a really great place to start. So if you're like, you know, b2b sales, you know, I probably picked LinkedIn. And that's probably where I would live. You know, if you're more of the Gen Z, and you know, you're in a digital marketing space, Hey, man, you probably should be on tik tok on Instagram, you know, and use that as your digital platform. Now you want to 10 exit, and you want to go on the president, you know, and that's, and that's what I think that you'll have the most impact. And people may disagree with me on this. But for me, like, personally, you know, I'm on tik tok, I'm on YouTube, I'm on Facebook, I'm on Instagram, you know, I'm on Twitter, I'm on Tumblr, like, you're gonna find me everywhere. Because I want my message to be everywhere. And it requires a lot more effort, and a lot more energy and a lot more time. So if you don't mind doing that, you're going to get a lot more hits than not because you're reaching a lot more people, but it's not necessary to be effective.
Vinay Koshy 27:54
Okay, so you're saying that start with one channel, perhaps. And if you're starting out, start with one builds a comfort level with that consistency before you want to go omni channel?
Tyzer Evans 28:08
Yeah, I think I think it's important to feel comfortable, and create a community, you know, want to create a community where your community is. So again, if your people predominantly reside, there's been depends on the different demographics, you know, it's like, my kids will think that Facebook is for old people. Right? So, so that's not a time that's not going to spend time there. But they're also not people that I would be working with anyway, so I'm not going to spend the majority of my time there. So, you know, again, it's just finding where your audiences and and building a community around that. And the way you build a community is by consistently showing up and providing value like we've been talking about,
Vinay Koshy 28:42
Certainly, value as seen through the lens of perhaps Maslow's hierarchy, how, how much of the process of creating value needs to address those hierarchies or put it in the put in to put it another way, being functional, emotional, life changing, and then creating social impact?
Tyzer Evans 29:06
Yeah, I think it's important to hit a lot of different pillars, as you'll see people that get on there. And, again, everyone's gonna have their own perspective, this is just mine. Where I think that they do a great job of creating a very professional profile. But like today, I don't know, on my Instagram, I'll show you guys real fast. I made a post that was not not characteristic of me. They can see here, I made a post of my dog yet right on my own Instagram. And most people follow me on here for sales information. And so it's like, why would you post a picture of your dog? Right, but what it does is it humanizes me or I'm just not a salesperson. I'm a dog lover. I'm a father. I'm a husband. You know, I love craft beer. You know, I'm an avid ferocious reader. I love books. So I again, I think it like to your point if you create different layers that I lay it all out So I kind of have a game plan in case you can see here too, since we're on camera. So every day of the week I have, I have a different a different piece of content that I put out. And it's not always going to be just focus. That's it, honestly, but my podcast grinds elevate about grind is about motivation. Sound is about selling. and elevate is about life optimization. Okay. And so I was very strategic about those three buckets, because those are the things I care about. And I wanted to be not just about sales, I want to be about how do I keep people driven? But how so can I bring in my wife's a holistic nutritionist? How can we talk about you know, I post a lot about going to the gym supplements, I take food at it, right? So just, it builds a different type of character profile, and people get more bought into me, the more they know me, they feel like they know me, then the more they want to do business with me.
Vinay Koshy 30:42
Okay. So that would address I guess, more of the functional the emotional aspects of of a person's needs? Do you? Or have you seen examples where value has gotten the stage where it could be life changing, or allowing a client to make a significant social impact?
Unknown Speaker 31:10
I guess I need a little bit more clarification on the question.
Vinay Koshy 31:14
In talking about yourself, and you know, humanizing your brand or a company's brand, you really be aiming for the functional and emotional levels in the hierarchy, right? Are there examples where in you able to speak to the life changing aspects or the life changing needs of a person or a client, or even the social impact, which is, I guess, the apex of the pyramid? allowing them to, to make that impact through the things that they do?
Tyzer Evans 31:47
Yeah, so. So Thanks for clarifying vignette. So yeah, one of the things that I try to do, whether it's on social media, or I'm talking to prospective clients, or I'm dealing with my internal people, is it's, it's a, I don't know why it's just this huge thing. I'm really passionate about financial literacy. Okay. And, and so one of the, you know, if you look at it from the business perspective, I'm constantly talking about, like, this is a great example of COVID. You know, we're kind of mentioned that looking at how can I really help people stay afloat, you know, even even a business owner is not always going to be impacted the way their employees are, when we get into times of recession, obviously, a pandemic. And so going down to that level, we start talking to a business owner about what we're doing is going to impact whether or not one of his employees can pay a child's tuition, if they can make a car payment, if they can pay for their insurance, if they can buy groceries. So you know, from a social hierarchy perspective, like that's really important, you know, the happier they can make their employees, right, and the better retention they have. And the same thing with my people internally, I make sure that I am completely involved to the extent that people want me to with helping people set up their Make sure to scepter for one case, make sure they set up a Roth 401k. Right, you know, make sure they helped him look at different ways that they can always get tax tax free money, when they go to get older self instead of Roth IRAs and things we have here in the state, as financial vehicles, help them with their benefits. And then I'm online, I do that a little Well, I talk a lot about financial literacy. And a lot of people have a bad relationship with money. So I talk a lot about it's, you should want to make a lot of money, like, stop being selfish and selfish not to want to make a lot of money. Right. And so I started trying to change people's perspective on that. So for me, that's one of the things that I do that I'm just really passionate about that i think it kind of goes across all channels, whether I'm making content or dealing with a business owner, or dealing with my people work.
Vinay Koshy 33:41
And that's excellent. And great points you make there. Which leads me to the question, do you really see your teams as sales teams or more of a customer success team?
Tyzer Evans 33:55
Yeah, no, definitely customer success team. You know, it's, it's all about the, you know, making sure that people are happy, you know, the things that they tell every rep to do. You put a follow up call 90 days out from when you sold somebody and make sure they're experiencing exactly what you told them, they're going to write. Oh, always super, super important. But definitely, you know, I, I don't say, jokingly, that people I work with are my family. And I think this is the way it should be whether you're an organization of 10 or 10,000 or more people are bought into a common mission and believe in the mission, and you create a family, like feel of culture. And you know, it's it's unlimited potential for what you can do with your business. Okay.
Vinay Koshy 34:44
You talked about storytelling earlier on. Is there a process whereby you bring new people in your team up to scratch in terms of stories that they could share with potential for customers about successes that similar clients would have, have faced, or the successes that they've come to realize as a result of using your products or solutions that you're advocating.
Tyzer Evans 35:15
Yeah, absolutely. So we read a couple storybooks, that the one that was most notable last year was stories that stick by Kendra Hall. She's an exceptional writer, it was a really phenomenal book. And so through that process, you know, I make sure that when new reps come on board that they have stories they can borrow, is it is it is most impactful. And we go through the exercise at least once a quarter where we talk about our stories, and I have the reps literally write them out. And we use some of Kendra's. Once we read it perfect. She has a specific formula for different types of stories. So that was really helpful kind of 123, here's how to write it out. Here's how to think about it, depending on your situation. And I think it's really important for the reps to have that in their arsenal, do they have their you know, three to four, go to stories. And then if you're new, of course, you're not going to have this success. So it's totally acceptable to borrow? And you absolutely should be borrowing a story from the people.
Vinay Koshy 36:08
Yeah, do you have new people coming onto the team? Get in touch with existing customers?
Tyzer Evans 36:19
So you know, yes, and no, it really, there's got to be a little bit of a ramp up period. So for me, you know, we go through the whole training, and then I kind of give them a call sheets and wit, and I let them go at it with people who necessarily wouldn't always do business with us. You know, it's kind of like that one in 1000 chance. And the reason I do that is, so you can't really screw anything up. But you start to get comfortable on the phones. And then you know, once I feel like they're getting proficient, and then we start to give them you know, better quality of leads. And there's going to be, again, a lot of different difference of opinion on that some people might plug in right away, but I was looking at it, if you plug a new person in right away, that's too green, there's a good chance you're going to lose a customer, because they're going to think that you put in competent people on the phone or out to meet people. So I think you can get a little bloodied and bruised in your first month or two in a new sales role if you need to do that.
Vinay Koshy 37:16
Okay, is there a process that you go through in terms of ensuring that you're continuing to create value by looking to the future? And do look at sources outside of your company to fuel that?
Tyzer Evans 37:34
Oh, definitely. So on LinkedIn, I follow all kinds of trends journals, and we get, we get mailed to the office as well, constantly trying to see you know, it's really hard in health insurance, because so much is, is predicated on legislation, and, you know, you got Trump want to do something different, Biden comes in and wants to do something different. So it makes it, you got to stay on top of it. If you don't, like, you know, you're gonna be saying something you're not supposed to. So it's, it's really important to, you know, and again, I kind of went back to my post, I was talking about coming from a client's perspective. And kind of in addition to that, what I talked about is, don't wait for management, or the company or your VP, to filter down the information to you, like, be advantageous and go out and get it in search for it, and be up to date and bring it to them if need be. Right, you should always be ahead of the curve. You know, like the Gretzky quote, I never played where the puck was, I was always playing where the puck was going to be. If you take that mindset to business, it'll help you scale faster, have better results faster. And you'll stay ahead of your competition.
Vinay Koshy 38:38
Excellent. ties, I think we've covered a fair bit around this idea of creating value. Is there an aspect that we haven't covered or haven't quite given fair, a fair voice to that you feel is important?
Tyzer Evans 38:55
No, I think we, we hit it right on the head. And he asked a lot of great questions. I guess, again, the most important thing is when you're thinking of value, think outside of what your customer already knows, if you're just regurgitating information, that is everybody within that particular vertical noses that value. You want to be able to come up and understand creative insight to them, that shows that you're an expert, you're professional, that you're showing them blind spots in their business that they don't even know existed, the more that you can do that, the more you hear somebody say, never thought about it that way before. So, oh, you know, that's an indication that you're on the right track with providing real actual value.
Vinay Koshy 39:36
Excellent. Tyzer, if listeners are curious and wanted to find out more connect with you, where would you recommend they had to?
Unknown Speaker 39:44
Well, we talked about that I am omnipresent. So you can find me at pretty much any social media at Tyzer Evans, you can find me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, anything like that or on my website - tyzerevans.com - so just my name.
Vinay Koshy 40:01
sure, excellent. We will include the links to that in the show notes. tiser. Thanks so much for doing this.
Tyzer Evans 40:07
Yeah, thanks so much for having me. That's very insightful and wonderful questions. So thank you.
Vinay Koshy 40:11
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Related links and resources
- Check out Tyzer’s site
- Listen to the Grind, Sell, Elevate podcast
- Listen to my interview with Robert Cutler – How to Include These Sales Manager Strategies to Boost Growth For a Killer Year
- Get more inspiration from Mark Welch – How to Craft an Action Plan to Improve Sales Performance
- Learn from Jeff Bajorek – 10 Critical Functions of Sales Management That Drive Business Growth
- Learn from Stan Rymkiewicz – 5 Tips to Refine Your Outbound Sales Techniques and Drive Growth
- Listen in to my interview with Thomas Williams – What is B2B Sales and How to Create a Successful Sales Process
- Listen to my interview with Dan Pfister – Customer Win-Back Strategies: 5 Easy Ways to Win-Back Lapsed Customers and Boost Sales
- Discover a few more valuable insights from Simone Vincenzi – How to Build a Personal Selling Process That Boosts Sales: 7 Steps
- Discover more insights from Gianni Cara – What is a Sales Funnel? How to Create a Sales Funnel Model with Examples
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