Bill “PhoneBill” McClain

You can call Gates, Joel, Murray, or Clinton…but only this Bill has the answer 💪 UCaaS Provider - VoIP- ☎️

Pioneering the intersection of AI and business communications as a 3X founder. 

Currently revolutionizing voice technology through UponAI while leading innovative UCaaS and CCaaS solutions at StratusDial, backed by extensive experience at Networking Solutions.

At StratusDial, I've transformed business communications by:
• Implementing cost-saving solutions that reduce operating expenses by up to $9,000
• Developing seamless Office365 integrations and advanced VoIP systems
• Building a 24/7 technical support infrastructure that maintains 99.9% uptime
• Creating custom UCaaS/CCaaS solutions for diverse enterprise needs

Through UponAI, I'm pushing the boundaries of:
• AI-powered voice recognition and natural language processing
• Intelligent call routing and automated customer service solutions
• Machine learning algorithms for enhanced communication efficiency
• Voice-enabled business intelligence and analytics

My entrepreneurial journey spans:
🔹 Advanced Telecommunications
🔹 Enterprise Network Architecture
🔹 Cloud Communications
🔹 AI/ML Implementation
🔹 Business Process Automation

Proud to be recognized by industry leaders, including Eric Hernaez, Founder & President of SkySwitch, for maintaining exceptional service standards and driving continuous innovation in business communications.

Specialties:
#AIVoice #UCaaS #CCaaS #CloudCommunications #NetworkingSolutions #VoIP #BusinessIntelligence #EnterpriseNetworking #ArtificialIntelligence #DigitalTransformation

Looking to connect with:
• Business leaders seeking communication solutions
• Technology innovators in AI and voice tech
• Enterprise clients exploring digital transformation
• Fellow entrepreneurs in the tech space

Let's discuss how AI-powered voice solutions can transform your business communications. Open to partnerships, collaborations, and innovative ventures.


Founder -

Networking Solutions 29 years
StratusDial 13 years
UponAi 2 years

3X Founder - 0X Exits

Founder President & CEO

Does the idea of switching phone providers for your business sound like a permanent migraine? Here’s what’s worse:

Turning your customers away because you’re unable to provide a good phone customer experience because of lousy support from your business phone provider.

When you entrust ☎️PhoneBill (& the team at StratusDial) with your company’s new voice, here’s what you get:

✔️ Pre-installation audit to locate savings (sometimes $9000!) & lower your operating costs
✔️ Take care of allllllllll the prep, installation, routing, testing… everything done-for-you
✔️ Hold your hand through set-up & advise you on phone experience best practices
✔️ Latest phone features for maximum efficiency (hello, Office365 integration!)
✔️ Custom set-up the big providers won’t do (e.g. overhead paging system)
✔️ 60-day and 90-day check-ins to make sure you love your new system
✔️ Eager-to-help technical support, 24/7

As a smaller (but mightier!) provider, we can deliver the type of boutique service that the large competitors wish they could deliver. 😉

Ready to have your business phone system work for you (not against you) in bringing more clients to your business?

Message ☎️PhoneBill on LinkedIn. I’ll sort you out.

Bill (PhoneBill) McClain

Thank you for registering your phone number with the National Do Not Call Registry. 

You successfully registered your phone number ending in 6500 on November 19, 2010. Most telemarketers will be required to stop calling you 31 days from your registration date.  

I remember reading that message and feeling hopeful.  

Peace.  

A quiet phone line.  
Fewer dinnertime interruptions.  

That was the dream.  

Here is the dry truth.  
Registering a phone number with the Do Not Call Registry tells legal telemarketers to remove that number from their call lists.  

It does not stop scammers.  
It does not stop every robocall.  

The Registry gives people a choice.  
People can say no to many sales calls.  
People can gain some control back.  

In my world, voice and AI can help.  

Smarter call routing.  
Better spam detection.  
Clear rules for teams that want to stay trusted.  

Business needs to reach people.  

Respect needs to reach them first.  

Thoughts on how the Registry works for you today?

#PhoneBill ☎️

You can call Gates, Joel, Murray, or Clinton…but only this Bill or AI from UponAi has the answer ☎️🤖

No alternative text description for this image

Last fall, StratusDial brought on two new automotive dealerships running their phone system with another provider.

That sounded like good news we know the NetSapiens system they had inside and out. We’ve been running it for over ten years.

But within minutes on site, we learned how bad things had gotten.

Calls dropping. Delays connecting. Terrible voice quality.

The dealerships had been on the system only about six or seven months and it had been a disaster. 
Multiple tickets opened with the previous provider and their IT support team.
 No resolution.

The buy/sell of those dealerships went through on a Monday. 

My team was onsite immediately to handle the migration and full acquisition of all technology.

As they went desk to desk setting up our complete tech stack, nearly every employee had the same question:

“Can you do something about our phones?”

We were patient and empathetic, but knew the priority 👉 the migration and new tech stack came first. 
My team was absolutely slammed but we were up for the challenge.

I arrived on Tuesday to assist wherever I could. 
Our team leader, Eric asked me to look into the phone issue.

So I called the provider for access to the system. 
And what I found was very disturbing.

Here’s the thing:
 Voice traffic must always come first. 

Browsing, streaming, and file downloads come second.
 That’s called Quality of Service (QoS) - and one of the best ways to achieve it is through a VLAN (Virtual LAN).

Picture your network like a six-lane highway. 
Each type of traffic gets its own lane. 
And guess which one gets the fast lane? 
Voice 👍

Now, remember this is a car dealership. 
A big customer waiting area. 
Customers streaming music, video, and social media on the dealership Guest Wi-Fi.

So what happens when that customer traffic ends up in the same lane as voice traffic? 
Big problems. Dropped calls. 
Bad audio. 
Delayed connections.

Within two hours, I’d confirmed the issue. The network desperately needed a traffic cop.

So I installed one - and called it #PhoneBill 🤣

After implementing QoS, separating traffic with VLANs, and making targeted improvements, voice calls immediately sharpened up.

Dropped calls disappeared. Connections were instant. Quality was crystal clear.

In less than a day, we proved our expertise and earned the client’s trust.

That’s the power of understanding what matters most: 
Voice traffic always gets the fast lane.

Do you need a traffic cop?

#PhoneBill ☎️


Networking Solutions, Inc. 
StratusDial 
UponAI

Most CIOs juggle 3+ phone platforms.

I run them all through one brain…UponAI.

In my world, single-platform purity is rare.  

Real companies grow by merger, region, and vendor.  

Result:  
One team on UCaaS A.  
Another on UCaaS B.  
A contact center on a third CCaaS stack.  

As founder of StratusDial, I learned early that forcing everyone onto one phone system creates risk.  

Vendor outage.  
Contract fight.  
Feature gap.
Buy / Sells.
Equity Investors.  

When all calls live on one platform, one bad day can shut a business down.  

So we built StratusDial around a different model:  

Risk mitigation!

No emotion, just strategy.

Multi-platform UCaaS and CCaaS for resilience and choice.  


Then I added one simple rule from UponAI:  

Many phone systems, one AI brain.  

Here is how it works in practice:  

1. StratusDial supports multiple call platforms for one client  
→ UCaaS from multiple suppliers  
→ CCaaS in a remote center  
→ A legacy PBX still in place in one branch  

2. UponAI connects to all of them through flexible SIP  
→ SIP trunk, for whole-system connection
→ SIP endpoint as a dedicated AI extension  
→ SIP URI for routing only certain calls  

3. The AI voice agent handles the heavy lifting  
→ Answers first, in any language the business needs  
→ Understands intent with natural language  
→ Uses sentiment to adapt tone  
→ Passes full context when a human must step in with a WARM transfer

4. The business keeps one AI playbook  
→ One prompt strategy  
→ One routing logic  
→ One integration into CRM, POS, ticketing systems  

The platforms stay diverse for safety.  
The AI stays unified for simplicity.  

That is how we see up to 60% of calls move from human agents to AI  
without ripping out phone systems  
without new chaos for IT  
without customers feeling lost.  

Many platforms for risk management.  
One AI brain for control.  

Thoughts on running many phone systems under one AI brain?

#PhoneBill ☎️

Unfortunately #PhoneBill will not be attending but Jody & Sean will do a great job 🙌

Make sure you stop by to see and support them 👍

See you at ITExpo! 🎤

Jody is joining the CEO Insights Panel: Agentic Voice AI in the Real World to discuss ROI, Trust, and Scaling.

🗓️ Thursday, February 12, 2026
🕐 1:00 – 1:45 PM
🎯 CEO Insights Panel

Sean will also be on-site to answer questions and chat about our AI voice solutions.

UponAi is at the cutting edge of AI, and we're excited to be back again this year to share what we're building.

Stop by and say hi! 👋

Jody Gonzales Sean Henning Bill (PhoneBill) McClain

#ITExpo #ITExpo2026 #UponAi #VoiceAI #AgenticAI #CEO #AIPanel #ArtificialIntelligence #TechConference

Businesses today don’t just need to communicate-they need to connect smarter.

I see the same pattern in companies of every size.

Teams feel busy.
Phones ring all day.
Costs keep going up.

Yet customers still wait on hold.
Messages still fall through the cracks.
Leaders still lack clear insight.

AI in business communications changes that.

Here is how we set it up at UponAI:

→ Improve communication  
AI voice agents listen, understand, and respond in real time.  
They speak in natural language, stay calm with every caller, and never forget key details from past interactions.

→ Boost efficiency  
AI handles the routine work:  
- Simple questions  
- Balance checks  
- Password resets  
- Status updates  

Your people focus on complex cases and human moments where empathy matters most.

→ Scale without new headcount  
Call volume grows?  
AI does not need more desks or parking spaces.  
You add capacity in the cloud, not on the org chart, while service stays fast and steady.

Under the hood we use:

- AI voice agents  
- Intelligent call routing  
- Analytics that show trends, sentiment, and gaps in your customer experience  

The result is a system that works 24/7, keeps quality consistent, and gives leaders clear data instead of guesswork.

I have spent my career at the crossroads of phones, networks, and now AI. I believe the next big gains for business come from how we connect, not how loud we shout. 

Actually delivering today what others promise in the future.

What is your take on using AI to handle the front line of customer communication?

#PhineBill ☎️

Yes 🙌 another AI post from #PhoneBill ☎️

Is it just me, or did every phone platform suddenly launch their own “AI voice agent”?

Here’s the thing… 
We’ve been building our ecosystem for 3 years - not weeks.

Yes, we can spin up an AI receptionist in 5 minutes. 
But then what?

💡 What if your business needs something more complex? 💡 What if you need a real solution that goes beyond just a “hello”?

Most platforms stop at simple use cases. 
We built one platform that lets you: ✅ Launch simple AI voice agents instantly ✅ Scale seamlessly to advanced, fully customized agents ✅ Integrate with any voice platform

And here’s what we’ve learned from experience -
 The second you deploy a simple solution, your customers will want more.
 We’ve seen it firsthand. We’ve built for it.

That’s why UponAI isn’t just another AI tool -
 It’s the ecosystem that grows with your business into the future.

#PhoneBill ☎️

Helping leaders at early stage tech companies avoid mistakes in all aspects of growing their sales team | Advisor

Kevin has made 1000s of mistakes but that has made him successful. After building, fixing and growing sales teams at 8 startups and 3 liquidity events, he loves sharing these mistakes and learning lessons from over 25 years at pre-IPO tech companies so that you can avoid these mistakes and see faster success.

With KG, you get experience, not inexperienced opinions.

✅ 3 startups I’ve been with have had liquidity events (none fire sales)

✅ Helped build 3 businesses into Inc 500/Deloitte Fast 500 companies (that means fast revenue growth)

✅ Built sales teams at 8 Startups since 1997

✅ Built teams of 30 salespeople - 550 salespeople with GREAT gross margins

✅ Built multiple Inside Sales, SDR/BDR, Account Management and Enterprise Sales teams.

✅ Been in Sales Leadership since 1997

✅ Started 3 of my own businesses (Recruiting, Advising, Real Estate)

✅ Named to the AA-ISP Top 25 Most Influential Inside Sales Professionals 6 years in a row

✅ Made lots and lots of mistakes

Check out the recommendations section below to read what other people have said about me. 👇

Kevin Gaither

I’m 55. I've had 3 successful exits in my sales leadership career & never have to take a W2 job again if I don't want one but... 
 
 ...I still don’t know what the hell I’m doing most of the time. 🤪 
 
Just a reminder that the people you may look up to, so-called "influencers," are still figuring it out. 
 
Life is the trip, there is no destination. 
 
If this resonated with you, you might like my book which is a collection of sales leadership stories of me screwing up and figuring stuff out. 
 
🆓 There's even a free sample to download. 
 
https://lnkd.in/gXftNAaw

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Stock Option Course

Sign up for my free 10-email course here:

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And learn what the Founders aren't telling you about your stock options

77 Questions

Ready to hire A-player salespeople? Our free guide is your secret weapon, packed with 77 sales interview questions to help you crush the competition and build a powerhouse team.

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Hiring Bundle

Learn in one hour what took me 28 years to master. The Sales Leader’s Interviewing & Hiring Bundle (19 guides, templates, and 10 powerful lessons) helps CEOs and Sales Leaders hire top talent with confidence. Only $9.99, instant access. Link 👇🏻

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Book Promo

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VP of Sales Working Out

How to know in 30 days if your VP of Sales will work out....or not

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Mini-Podcast Series

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Avoid the mistakes that almost cost me my sales leadership career.

New Hire Training & Onboarding (not Pentis)

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It Happened on the Sales Floor

For 100 other sales leadership mistakes I've made, check out my book, It Happened On The Sales Floor: 100 Sensational Stories about Sales Leadership Screw-Ups and Big Wins. Link 👇
 
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Mini-Pod

3 raw, 10-min audio lessons from my biggest failures as a sales leader...the kind you’ll never read in a textbook.

Practical. Fast. Real Stories. Real Lessons.

Only $4.99 - instant access, money-back guarantee.

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Podcast Promo

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First 4 lessons are free. No credit card required

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Helping job seekers stop guessing and start getting interviews | Free Trial: The No-BS Job Search Playbook

Old school: Always Be Closing

New school: Always Be Helping

#PeopleHelpingPeople

This is the way

"Let's have this sales candidate do a demo presentation for us at the end of the interview"

Another galactically ridiculous step sales leaders put sales candidate through during the sales interview.

Here's 3 reasons why it's ridiculous for a sales candidate to do a demonstration during an interview:

1. Limited time: Interviews are typically limited in time and may not provide sufficient opportunity for the candidate to fully demonstrate their skills.

2. Lack of context: It may be difficult for the candidate to effectively demonstrate their skills without access to the necessary tools, resources, and information that they would normally have in a sales situation.

3. Unfair expectations: Asking a candidate to demonstrate their skills in a simulated sales situation may not be an accurate reflection of their abilities and may set unrealistic expectations.

Overall, it may be more effective to assess a sales candidate's skills through a combination of resume review, behavioral interviewing, and role-playing exercises rather than expecting them to perform a demonstration during the interview. 

PS: If you want to dramatically improve your chances of making an A-player sales hire, download my Sales Leader's Interviewing and Hiring Bundle for only $9.99.

Learn in one hour what took me 28 years to master. The Sales Leader’s Interviewing & Hiring Bundle (19 guides, templates, and 10 powerful lessons) helps CEOs and Sales Leaders hire top talent with confidence.

https://lnkd.in/gDDmYsJH

*Annual* Performance Reviews should be eliminated for salespeople. Here's 2 reasons why: 
 
- They get "reviewed" monthly or quarterly depending on their quota cycle. "Did you exceed quota or fall below quota?" That's one form of clear, objective performance review and 
 
- They should be getting WEEKLY coaching from their sales manager with fresh, relevant reviews/coaching that point out where they're strong and their areas for improvement. 
 
I eliminated Annual Performance Reviews for my salespeople at my 550 person sales org. 
 
Win-win for everybody involved. 
 
Why wait until the end of the year to review your salespeople?

Here's the good news about being bullied in elementary and high school. I developed thick skin. I was weird then and I'm weird now.

Doing things differently and being weird got me punished back then. But I couldn't stop being weird. And only the truly weird work at start ups.

it's easy to take a job at BigCo. Nobody will judge you for that.

But going to a no name company that has a high chance of failure. Oh there were plenty of people who likely snickered behind my back.

But the thick skin I developed after being bullied for 10 years allowed me to continue on.

Now the joke's on them.

And now, I look back on all of the screw ups in my career and thank heavens that I had the guts to do the cringy stuff that LED ME TO SUCCESS.

Heck, I even wrote a whole cringy book about my screw-ups and failures.

The link is in the first comment.

CEO @ InsideSalesExpert.com Helping sales leaders avoid galactically ridiculous mistakes in all areas of building, fixing & growing their sales teams

If you think Inside Sales people are "less than" outside salespeople you are dead wrong. 
 
If you think the inside sales reps are the red-headed stepchildren of the sales team, you had better wake up. 
 
First, aren't we really ALL in Inside Sales these days? I mean, who is really spending 100% of their time on the road? When was the last time you walked into an office with an order and walked out with a signature? Yeah, never. 
 
Second, inside sales is one of the fastest-growing areas of the sales organization. Statistics suggest that one of the largest growth levers of inside sales is the opportunity it presents a company to be a “first responder”. 
 
✅ An outside sales call costs $308, an inside sales call costs $50 (PointClear) 
 
✅ 37% of high-growth companies use inside sales as primary sales strategy (vs. 27% for field sales, 23% for internet sales, 8% for channel sales) (Pacific Crest) 
 
✅ Outside Sales Reps Now Spend 89% More Time Selling Remotely Than in 2013. 
 
✅ Inside sales are said to be growing 15x faster than outside sales. (SalesLoft) 
 
✅ Three-fourths of buyers prefer not to meet sales agents face-to-face. (SalesLoft) 
 
✅ Ten inside sales representatives are hired for every one outside sales rep. (SalesLoft) 
 
So the next time you think the inside sales team is the baby sales team and the grown ups are on the Outside Sales/Enterprise Sales team, watch out. 
 
We're coming for you.

I saw sales reps get promoted, earn bigger comp & title & a bigger quota only to get fired when they fail to hit this new quota. 
 
But that is a colossal mistake & it tells me that the sales leader failed to have 2 dead-simple components in their performance management plan. 
 
1️⃣ Clearly documented and objective promotion path 
 
This is obvious. If the rep hits X% to goal X times over X period, they get a promotion. NO qualitative garbage! 
 
2️⃣ Clearly documented and objective demotion path. 
 
This is less obvious and I've rarely seen it. If the rep FAILS to hit X% to goal X times over X period, they get a demotion. 
 
What does this result in: 
✅ A bias-free promotion path. Just the numbers please. 
 
✅ A DEmotion path for reps who get promoted but can't cut it. 
 
✅ A bias-free path to termination (you can only get demoted so far) 
 
I never understood why sales leaders would promote a rep, see that rep struggle in the new higher position and then just fire them if they failed to hit that new, higher quota. 
 
🍼 It's like throwing the baby out with the bath water.

They told me to follow the rules. But then they went and hired their buddy.

I spent weeks tweaking my resume like some crazed lunatic.

Is it 1 page or 2? 
What size font?
Should it be an Objective or a Summary?
I even asked several friends to "review my resume."
WTF did they know?

But then I learned some half-baked "internal referral" waltzed into the job with a limp handshake and a slick smile.

That's when I knew:

The whole hiring process is basically rigged.

It’s not about performance.
It's not about the best resume.
It’s about proximity and safety.

The hiring manager and our friends in HR aren't looking for genius.

They’re looking for someone who is safe, won’t screw up and is vouched for by somebody else.
(Bonus points if Susan in Accounting already thinks you're cool)

So I stopped playing the stupid game we think we were taught to play.
No more "one-click" applying through job boards.
No more overthinking the importance of that marketing vehicle we call a resume.

I started learning how to build the only thing that actually moves the needle...the network on the inside.

Real conversations with real people there.
The kind who go, “Hey, you should meet this person,”
and suddenly your name's in a hiring manager's inbox BEFORE the role is even public.

That’s the backdoor.
It’s not a hack. It's not cheating.
It’s the only door that matters.

If you think it's unfair. You're right. It is. But that's the game you're playing whether you like it or not.

Your resume is just a cute little marketing vehicle that you have to have.
But if you do it right, it's merely a receipt stapled to a decision that was already made.

So yeah...follow the rules if you want.
Polish the hell out of your cute little resume.
Pray to the ATS algorithm gods.

Just realize that everyone who gets in walks through the back door, name already on the clipboard.

Keep knocking on the front door if you want. Just know no one's listening.

Or choose to learn how the game works so you can take advantage of it.

Build a relationship with people on the inside.
Skip the line.

Or stay stuck waiting in one where you never even get to see the inside.

🟢 Of course, job seekers really suck at this part and have no idea how to do this. Intuitively they know they need to do it, but they never do.

But it's not their fault. Our education system let them down once again and never taught job seekers how to job search let alone network.

But that's why I created the 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗼-𝗕𝗦 𝗝𝗼𝗯 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸.

I give you exact steps to follow to network your way into that first interview with scripts and templates so you know exactly what to say and what to write.

The link is in the first comment 👇

One of my reps was shooting herself in the foot with her own stupid hangups. Of course, it was all MY fault.

I've learned that sometimes salespeople hesitate to sell the higher-priced option because they wouldn’t buy it themselves.

That thought feels harmless. It’s not.

I talked about this recently after coaching a formerly B-player rep who kept talking herself out of bigger, enterprise deals. Not because the product lacked value. Because she couldn’t see the value from the buyer’s perspective.

Once I coached her on the ROI the customer gets, everything changed. She closed bigger deals, got promoted, make President's Club. Not kidding.

But this isn’t a salesperson problem. It’s a leadership problem. It was my problem. I screwed up.

If sales leaders don’t teach how to think in outcomes, sellers default to their own wallet instead of the customer’s business goals.

I unpack this exact moment, step by step, on a short podcast episode I recorded recently. It’s 16 minutes. No B$. Just a real thought-provoking story (as usual) for sales leaders. 🎧

The link to the short, 16 minute podcast hosted by Stacy Garrett is in the first comment.

VP of Marketing for 💡 Creative 💡 Swag Provider

I've made this mistake and so have you. This is the #1 mistake new sales managers make:

Tolerating Underperformers 📉

I once had a rep on a PIP who worked just hard enough to get off the PIP but then asked me for a promotion. I couldn’t believe it. 🙄

Improving doesn’t mean they’re now a top performer. Effort matters. Improvement matters. But output matters more. 

Too often, new sales leaders unintentionally lower their standards instead of making hard calls. Some reps will improve, but not enough to meet your minimum standards.

😡 And they end up taking more of your time while delivering less than others. 

You don’t have to lower expectations, and you don’t have to give up on them either. Here are two tactics I’ve used to keep standards high: 

1️⃣ Have them self-assess

Ask them to rate their performance in key areas. Then compare their ratings with yours. If they can’t, don't or won't see the gaps, no coaching will work until they do. 

2️⃣ Prioritize your team over individuals

Your time is limited—spending it equally isn’t wise. Ask yourself:

- Would a rockstar rep struggle in the same role? 
- Knowing what you know now, would you rehire them? 

If the answers are no, and you've put in the effort to coach the rep, you need to replace the rep.

If you don't make the move, someone else will make the move for you and likely replace YOU because you're lowering standards on your team not raising them.

Job seekers aren't going to like what I have to say...but it's about time somebody stopped coddling them and told them the truth 👇

#ToughLove

Unpopular Opinion: KO your SKO!

6 reasons why I recommend you DON'T do your Sales Kick-Off in the coming months

Most of you are probably right in the middle Sales Kick-Off (SKO) season.

STOP. Don't do it. Kill it. Here's 6 reasons why:

❌ Expensive! The average cost per SKO attendee is between $2,500-$5,000. If you did ANY layoffs this year, don't even think of wasting this kind of money. How many people could you have saved if you didn't spend #SKO money?

❌ Don't fool yourself, SKOs aren't motivational. Salespeople don't come out of the SKO with any long-term improvement in their motivation. Maybe their tolerance to booze may go up but not their motivation.

❌ It's a company distraction. You're likely pulling in people from other departments to do presentations and participate. That's wasted resources again. Also, why don't we have an Engineering Kick Off or an Accounts Receivable Kick Off. Why is there just a SALES Kick Off?

❌ Usually Product/Feature dump. Your Product team will put a great deck together and talk AT the crowd for an hour or so. Save it for a nice email that people can read at home.

❌ Content Retention: Attendees will forget an average of 90% of what they have learned in a very short time. You're going to spend a bunch of money and then people forget 90% of it in a week or so?

❌ Oh, you're going to do it remotely? Good luck. Time for your attendees to catch up on episodes of Severance while they stare into ANOTHER Zoom meeting or a fun little breakout room in Zoom to "collaborate."

💡 Learning Lesson: Ditch your SKO in favor of longer term, practical and structured training with an assessment plan supported by a strong coaching culture.

People who have worked with me know that I've KO'd the SKO at past companies. Do you have the guts to do it?

Be honest, what percentage of your SKO do you find really valuable over the long term?

Learning that SKOs are a big pain in the butt is just one of 100s of mistakes and learning lessons in my sales leadership career.

I document 100 of them in my book, It Happened on the Sales Floor.

The link is in the first comment.

Especially this time of year when new comp plans and quotas are being rolled out, many sales leaders seem to be deathly afraid of losing their high-performing salespeople.

And they should take it seriously. Make sure you do the right things when rolling out those new comp plans and quotas.

But don't think for a split second that IF you DO lose your #1 salesperson due to the changes that you're making that your entire sales team will collapse as a result.

That's just the threat.

The reality is that it never happens. I've been in sales and sales leadership for over 30 years and I've never heard of situation where a sales team or a company fails completely when the #1 salesperson leaves.

Make no mistake about it, there is a dip. Some bigger than others.

But if you think that dip is going to be extremely severe when you lose your #1 salesperson, then that should be a huge sign to you as a sales leader or CEO.

👉 If you think that your sales team or company will collapse if you lose 1 or 2 high performing salespeople, then you have single points of failure that you need to shore up.

Develop the systems and processes (hiring, onboarding, training, coaching, performance management) that hedge against losing 1 or 2 high performing salesepeople.

If you don't, you'll feel like your #1 salesperson has a lot of control over you and that's not an environment that's conducive for you to make great decisions that's in the best interest of the company.

If you think hiring based solely on sales experience guarantees top performers, you are dead wrong. 👎 
 
Everybody knows that hiring solely based on experience is a fatally flawed strategy but I continue to see this mistake again and again. 
 
And I know why: It feels like it would be a no-brainer to hire the "proven" salesperson rather than the less experienced salesperson. 
 
But don't fall into the trap of overvaluing experience and undervaluing potential. Ever met a seasoned professional stuck in old ways, stubbornly rejecting change? 
 
Or the "experienced" salesperson who won't lift a finger outside of their job description? 
 
💡 Adaptability and Continual Learning outweighs Experience in tech sales. What was successful five years ago might be obsolete today. 
 
👉 Bet on potential. Find the eager learners. Their experience might be less, but their hunger to learn and adapt is priceless. 
 
Redefine 'experience', invest in potential, and you'll find hiring success like I have. 
 
PS: If you want to dramatically improve your chances of making an A-player sales hire, download my Sales Leader's Interviewing and Hiring Bundle for only $9.99.

Learn in one hour what took me 28 years to master. The Sales Leader’s Interviewing & Hiring Bundle (19 guides, templates, and 10 powerful lessons) helps CEOs and Sales Leaders hire top talent with confidence.

https://lnkd.in/gDDmYsJH

I don't know about you but I don't think I stepped foot into the career center in College and I couldn't even tell you we had a career center in High School.

But I can tell you that I learned Spanish in High School and now I'm really good at ordering a beer in Mexico and then asking where the restroom is.

Great success!

👉 In reality, especially after having two kids go through high school and college, I've come to the conclusion that the so called career centers at our schools are useless, if they even exist.

Our education system fails us. The main point of school is to teach you HOW to think. But the secondary point is the promise that if you go to school, work real hard and get decent grades, you'll get a good job.

That couldn't be further from the truth.

I read somewhere that unemployment for college-educated 20-somethings is around 9%.

9%! That's insane...and it's unacceptable.

But it's not their fault. Our education system failed them. Nobody ever taught them how to search for job the right way.

Instead they open-mouth breathe and one-click apply to hundreds of jobs they like while intuitively knowing that they're not going to hear anything back and they won't get that job.

But there IS a better way. It's just that nobody ever taught you.

That's why I created my No-BS Job Search Playbook.

-After nearly 30 years as a hiring manager
-After owning my own recruiting business until I sold it in 2018
-After working at the job board, ZipRecruiter for 8 years
-After coaching countless people to teach them how to get their job

I decided to create a no-fluff job search course.

Here's where you're going:

In less than 10 days, I’m going to help you master the entire job seeking process, position yourself properly to get the interviews you want and quickly find your dream job (and avoid landing in a crappy job) for less than a few orders from DoorDash

And you can get a free trial of my course too. No credit card required. If you don't like what you try, don't pay for the rest.

The link is in the first comment.

“We went in a different direction.” That’s the default rejection email (if you even send one) but there's no feedback to the candidate about how to get better...

Cold. Vague. Useless.

I've sent those myself. Hiring managers, we need to do better.

Every candidate you reject still needs help. Especially the good ones. The ones some liked, others didn't and almost made it to the final round.

And guess what? They remember you. They remember how you made them feel when you kicked them to the curb.

Some of you want to help and give feedback to help them get better but either you can't, won't or HR won't let you.

I get it. I've been there. It's tricky.

But maybe you can do better than merely throwing rejected candidates back into the job market with nothing but a bruised ego and a B$ boilerplate email.

Here’s what you can do instead:

Send them this.

I built a job search course that breaks down how hiring actually works and then shows them:

→ How to network
→ How to write cold outreach
→ What to say in interviews
→ How to negotiate offer letters like a pro

It’s simple. It’s fast. It’s free to get started.

And it shows candidates exactly how to improve for next time...without you needing to lift a finger. Win win.

If you rejected that candidate but still respected their time and talent, this is how you show it.

I’m not asking you to be a coach (your HR team might slap your wrist). I’m asking you to be a better human.

You have a boatload of power as a hiring manager.
How you use it matters.

👀 The link to the No BS Job Seeker Course is in the first comment.

Accounts you assign to your sales reps work are yours. 
 
👉 you decide who works the Accounts and Leads 
 
👉 you decide if you want to reassign the Accounts or Leads to more capable reps. 
 
Your sales reps don't "own" the Accounts, they rent them. 
 
As a sales leader, it's wise to set expectations around that so your reps don't feel entitled to Accounts & Leads you assign to them in perpetuity. 
 
I've made that mistake before and learned my lesson. 
 
If you'd like to read about a few more of my mistakes and learning lessons, check out a free sample of my book here: 
 
https://lnkd.in/gVrxP73k

Experience <> (Expertise, Success & Drive)

Experience just means you've done it for some defined period of time but not necessarily well.

I got fooled by hiring "experienced" Enterprise Sales reps who couldn't close their way out of a paper bag.

And that's MY mistake not theirs.

I got duped.

PS: Hiring salespeople is hard. I know, I’ve screwed it up a ton. 

But that’s why I created the Sales Leader's Interviewing and Hiring Bundle Learn in one hour what took me 28 years to master. The Sales Leader’s Interviewing & Hiring Bundle (19 guides, templates, and 10 powerful lessons) helps CEOs and Sales Leaders hire top talent with confidence. Only $9.99, instant access. 

https://lnkd.in/g-3wryFJ

Often, salespeople interview better FOR the job than actually doing the job. 
 
Said another way: 
 
 
🤡 don't be fooled by the gregarious, good looking salesperson who dresses nicely and has shined their shoes. 
 
They've gotten really good at GETTING sales jobs but often fail to sell.

PS: If you avoid getting tricked by this and want to dramatically improve your chances of making an A-player sales hire, download my Sales Leader's Interviewing and Hiring Bundle for only $9.99.

Learn in one hour what took me 28 years to master. The Sales Leader’s Interviewing & Hiring Bundle (19 guides, templates, and 10 powerful lessons) helps CEOs and Sales Leaders hire top talent with confidence.

https://lnkd.in/gDDmYsJH

I’ve hired over 1000 people.
Unfortunately, I’ve rejected even more.

Most job seekers don’t fail because they aren’t qualified.
They fail because they don’t understand how to 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 conduct their job search from beginning to end.

And I've helped countless others for years and years learn how to do their job search the right way...the way that nobody ever taught them before.

So to help the tons of others that are struggling with their job search...

I built 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗼-𝗕𝗦 𝗝𝗼𝗯 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸.

It walks you through the entire job search...from positioning yourself to interviewing to negotiating the offer...using the exact words hiring managers listen for.

🟢 First 4 lessons are free.🟢

If you’re tired of guessing,
If you're tired of struggling,
If you're tired of the black hole...here’s the system.

The link is in the first comment

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