#248: The 3 Secrets to Selling to The C-suite and How You Can Use Them Today
This first step is finding the people who've walked the path before at the highest level and modeling and repeat it. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. In sales,
Luigi Prestinenzi:there is ultimately a level of competitiveness, not necessarily competing with other people in your team or your company, essentially competing with oneself. Every day, week, month, quarter, year, we have a target to achieve. There are things that we need to do to achieve that target. When you look at people that the high performers from the battlers that are really working hard to achieve their target or the folks that are really struggling to, to meet any of their performance metrics, it's sometimes not necessarily a skill thing. It's not a skill thing that separates the top performers from everybody else.
Luigi Prestinenzi:When I've had the opportunity to interview some really high performers and having been a high performer myself for a number of years in the sales profession, there is a couple of characteristics that really do separate the high performers from everybody else. And that planning, that structure, that focus, that really protecting their time to spend on those high payoff activities, those revenue raising activities is something the high performers do more than anybody else. And as we embark on 2022 and when things aren't as fast paced as normal, it is a great opportunity to start to really look at your calendar, start to really set the rhythm that you know will allow you to achieve the outcomes that you're looking to achieve.
David Fastuca:Just a quick interruption to let you know about a free resource that Luigi and I wanna hand over to you. This resource has helped lift close won rates to over 73% on average. Plus, you'll get our b2b sales newsletter that drops weekly where you can learn what it takes to build a repeatable sales process and creating a pipeline full of qualified deals. To get this resource, just go to growforum.ioforward/newsletter, or click the link in this episode and sign up today.
Luigi Prestinenzi:This week's guest is gonna talk about that. Ian, Cognac is a a sales pro that has spent a number of years working, you know, carrying a quota, and achieving some incredible results, most recently at the Giant Salesforce. And he's gonna talk about the structure. He's gonna talk about the mindset that he brings into the profession that has allowed him to achieve incredible results. And that's what this month's episode or this month's theme is all about, allowing you to have the tools and the frameworks to really create the rhythm that's gonna drive performance.
Luigi Prestinenzi:Because that 15 hours we heard this in from Brandon before Christmas. And if, if you haven't heard the episode, we will put into the show notes. It's an episode I listened to last week again, I think for the 3rd time. It just kept hitting me in the face. That working hard mentality is really important in sales.
Luigi Prestinenzi:But I think, you know, we've heard this before working smarter, not harder, but I think what Brandon shares is there is that unintended consequence that can occur if we push too hard and we can become ineffective and sometimes we can be working more hours and getting less things done. So it's really important as a sales professional that if you have got a certain target that you wanna achieve, if there is a goal that you are really focused on achieving this year, spend the time to really create the right rhythm, spend the time to create the, you know, look at your calendar, look at your high payoff activities, try to, try to get rid of, you know, all the items that are just adding, adding no value and get that laser focused in place so that you can make 2022 the best year yet. Welcome to the show, Ian.
Ian koniak:Great to be here, Luigi. Nice to meet you.
Luigi Prestinenzi:Mate, I'm pretty excited, and I'll tell you why, Ian, because I first come across your your content. I've been coaching a few guys from DocuSign here in Australia for a while, and one of the guys I was coaching asked me. He said, have you heard of, you know, Jim McCourty, an ex Salesforce guy? I'm like, no. Next thing I know, he sends me your LinkedIn profile.
Luigi Prestinenzi:I start checking at your profile, start looking at your content, and, mate, I was incredibly blown away. So I just wanna say, man, this is awesome for me because it the validation that I was that I've received about you from people that I coach is a testament to what you've been doing out in the market for such a long time. So I'm actually sad I didn't get to connect with your content prior to then, but but thanks for coming on our show.
Ian koniak:Thanks for having me, and I I appreciate the kind words. And you can go back. You the nice thing about LinkedIn and YouTube is it's all archived.
Luigi Prestinenzi:All there.
Ian koniak:Go back as long as you want. So Yeah. It's all there.
Luigi Prestinenzi:Well, awesome, man. And and, look, Ian, before we get into today's topic, and I think for any any new seller or any existing seller that's come on the back of the last couple of years, it's been a real challenge. Right? I think not many of us would have predicted the issues and the barriers and the challenges that we've sort of faced and the change, the transformation from working in the office to now a hybrid remote working model. And I think that presents some very unique challenges for salespeople, which we'll talk about in a moment.
Luigi Prestinenzi:But before we get into the whole premise of mindset, do you mind sharing a little bit about your history in this in the tech space and, ultimately, how you put together some large 7 7 figure, you know, 8 figure deals?
Ian koniak:Yeah. My history started in in sales before I got into Salesforce. I was at a more I was at a Japanese manufacturer called Ricoh, and they sell copiers and printers. And I spent 10 years there, and it's all I knew. And we fundamentally did very well.
Ian koniak:I was in their sun Southern California office. I was their top salesperson. I got promoted to manager and then ended up starting with 1 team, getting to 10 teams with 70 AEs under me, and we were doing about $60,000,000. And and it was it was during the great recession. US when all the Lehman Brothers and everything was kinda going backwards.
Ian koniak:And during that time, our our industry, being printing and being kind of a legacy older technology wasn't doing well, but my team was doing very well. And part of the way that we were doing well is I started adopting salesforce dot com. And so I I used it, and I started, you know, creating metrics and really getting better visibility into the activities and the pipeline. And I became a really big believer in the product. And then I I, read an article in Forbes Magazine saying how much money the the account executives were making at Salesforce, and it was actually more than I was making running a $60,000,000 organization with 80 employees.
Ian koniak:I'm like, wait a minute. Maybe I'm playing the wrong sport. Maybe maybe I need to get into SaaS. So I I was determined to get into Salesforce. I I applied 3 times, got rejected.
Ian koniak:Finally, my 4th time around, I I found someone who came from copiers and printers. He gave me a chance, decided, you know, hey. It's the person. It's not the resume. I know you don't have SaaS experience, but we're gonna bring you in.
Ian koniak:He brought me into the enterprise select division of Salesforce, which was the highest position with 0 sales experience in in selling SaaS or strategic selling. So it was a total kind of you know, it was a total shift in in how I was selling. I was selling more transactional. Hey. Activity yields pipeline, yield yields results.
Ian koniak:That's all I knew. It was, like, the grind of selling copiers. And so Yep. I get to Sales Force in this very big role, and I had a a little bit of luck my 1st year. I found a big opportunity, one big my first seven figure deal just through sheer persistence.
Ian koniak:I I sent 15 emails to the CIO of a huge hospital chain. Finally got in the door, and he told me, hey. We wanna rip out Microsoft. So it ends up being this 20,000 license deal, and it got yeah. It it was and I'm like, man.
Ian koniak:I I'm I'm I'm it. Right? I thought it was the hot shit because I come from copiers over to to software and then was one of the only people on my team to to overachieve at that level. And then everything, you know, went south. Right?
Ian koniak:So I I this way of selling before that I was relying on activity and just pure grind, was not working anymore. So I started, unfortunately, missing my number, and and I missed it for a couple years, and then I missed it a 3rd year in a row barely. And that was when I was, like, kinda hit my rock bottom in sales. I started questioning myself. I started doubting myself.
Ian koniak:I beat myself up. I looked in the mirror. I remember that last year, the last day of the fiscal, I screamed. I screamed at the top of my lungs, and I said, fuck. You know?
Ian koniak:I was so I was so upset, and and I had a blistering headache, and I said never ever again. This was January 31, 2017, so almost 5 years ago now. And that's what started my journey to really, you know, personal development, growth, trying to be the best salesperson. I I hired a coach. I joined a mastermind.
Ian koniak:I started reading books. I got a mentor. I found the top people at Salesforce. I started trying to model what they were doing, completely humbled myself. In that year, I finished number 1, sold almost 6,000,000 ACV myself.
Ian koniak:The following year, I sold 4,000,000. So I sold 10,000,000 in 2 years, and then I continued to to overachieve, you know, the past 5 years. My my income's tripled. My sales, you know, to the point where I started teaching it to other people what I was doing, and now I left Salesforce and could do that full time. So it was quite a a a journey kind of having to learn the hard way on how to sell strategic deals coming from that copy or transactional background.
Ian koniak:Yeah.
Luigi Prestinenzi:And I appreciate you sharing that journey with us, Ian, because I think it's easy for people to talk about the wins. Right? It's easy to say, hey. Look at what I've been able to do. These are the results I've been able to achieve, etcetera.
Luigi Prestinenzi:But I think and and I I kinda it resonates with me because I look back at my career, and I go, there was actually a couple of defining moments. Like yourself, one of the defining moments was getting told that after 3 interviews that you're not you're not you're not you can't sell. Right? Go to uni. Do something different, they told me, and I'll never forget this.
Luigi Prestinenzi:And I was gutted. I'm like, mate, I've got no education. I've been selling since I was 17 years old. What am I gonna do? Fast forward a few years, I signed that client into a contract for $4,000,000, so that was kind of my my feel good moment.
Luigi Prestinenzi:But I think what you're saying is absolutely spot on. There are key defining moments that allow us to really think about from a mindset perspective, hey. I've got an opportunity here. I can either go down one path, which is continue to do what I'm doing, expect different results, not get them, and not really grow to another level. Or it's really look yourself in the mirror and say, hey.
Luigi Prestinenzi:Nobody else is gonna help me transform but me. I've gotta make that change. Do you mind sharing with us, yeah, the moment that you had? Because I think there are a lot of sellers right now, Ian, who are sitting there going, they're pulling their hair out. I mean, I think that Gartner has shared some really frightening stats of how many salespeople missed their target these past 18 months.
Luigi Prestinenzi:Right? What what were some of the key actions? So you spoke about you made some changes, but if you could go back and just what were the 2 or 3 things that you did at that point to really make the transformation stick?
Ian koniak:There's I love that you used the word defining moments. I've used that same term before or catalyst for change or rock bottom, whatever you wanna call it, it's it's foundationally, you get to a point where you are fed up with yourself, and you're sick and tired of being sick and tired. And the same thing happened to me before I got sober. The same thing happened to me before I left my old company with the Salesforce. You get to a point where you're just like, this is this is it.
Ian koniak:Same thing happened before I quit my job at Salesforce and started coaching full time. Right? There was a moment when I said, hey. I'm gonna die. If I don't go for it, I'm gonna have a lot of regrets.
Ian koniak:So Yeah. That's really kind of the the starting point for, I'd say, personal transformation is is getting to a place where you are, transformation is is getting to a place where you are, really willing and and humbly admitting that you don't have the all the answers, and you may need to to to to get help. So that's the first step is is getting help. It's enough to be it's not enough to be tired and say I need to change. You have to physically go out and find people who have walked the walk before you and done it very successfully.
Ian koniak:So that's been one of my keys to success as I've aligned myself with you know, at Salesforce that 1st year, I found the top performer, and I was very persistent with him to be my mentor. And I had coffee with him or, you know, at least a phone call every 2 weeks. And I would pick his brain, and I would share deals. And he would help me, and he would ask me for stuff too. It wasn't just one way.
Ian koniak:I mean, we we helped each other. And even in my coaching business, I have a mentor now that we do the same thing with. His name is Marcus Chan. He's fantastic, and he's been helping me. And I help him, and we got to co present together recently at the Salesforce Success Summit, which was awesome because, you know, here we are.
Ian koniak:And so you manifest this. You really do when you go out, and you have to take action. This first step is finding the people who've walked the path before at the highest level and modeling. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. Do you know, learn what they're doing and repeat it.
Ian koniak:That's step 1. Step 2, for me, in terms of how I sold differently, is before I believed, you know, you play at the level and and and you talk to people at the level where you're comfortable. So in order to sell transformational deals, we were talking about this before the interview started, you know, you have to be talking to executives. If I'm gonna change the way they sell or service or market or connect with their customers, which is what Salesforce does, then I need to talk to people who truly care about the long term success of their clients, the growth of their company, the, you know, success of their employees, whatever their challenges are that they're facing, we have solutions that can address those challenges. But if I'm talking to people who are just focused on their department or their their smaller, you know, sphere of influence, then the deals are gonna be much smaller.
Ian koniak:So I made a very, very, you know, specific and targeted effort to go after executives, COOs, CEO, c o c suite executives with with, you know, with with a message that was different than what they were hearing from other, you know, from other vendors or people that were reaching out. So Yeah. Who I targeted and then what I said to them was very different. I took the time to listen to podcasts they had been on. I took the time to read articles and, you know, really understand what they were saying, and this is kind of what I teach other people to do now.
Ian koniak:But when you can hyper personalize your message to a C Suite audience and really connect with what they're saying to how you can help them and really establish that link to your product or service, you know, then approach them with that message that's really tailored and relevant, then often they will take a meeting, and they will respond, and they will engage. And that's when I found myself is once I started aligning myself with the executives and their top initiatives, then it really became much easier to compress the sales cycle and and to get bigger deals. So that was a that was a big part of what I what I did there.
Luigi Prestinenzi:Yeah. Listen, Martin. I've got notes here. Right? I think these are some awesome, you know, fundamental, and, you know, Marcus is fantastic.
Luigi Prestinenzi:He's been on our show. He provides some incredible content as well. But I think you're right. Like, you know, the top athletes in the world have multiple people that coach him across across different disciplines. Right?
Luigi Prestinenzi:Why why are we, as salespeople, any different? And I think this is the whole premise in that anyone can be in sales, but you've got to earn the right to be a professional. Right? And there there is a difference. Yeah?
Luigi Prestinenzi:That sales professional is is a massive difference. And Big time.
Ian koniak:I wanna give you the third thing that shifted. Yeah. The biggest one of all. So besides who I targeted and who helped me, the 3rd fundamental shift is I started to actually care more about the success of my customers than the success of myself. In other words, when I was just chasing commissions, when I was just trying to close deals, right, that then I had commission breath and it it held customers away because they thought I was out for myself.
Ian koniak:But when I really tried to actually help my customers, when I really tried to focus on understanding their business, on slowing down, on really getting to the root cause of how they got to this problem in the first place and, you know, what their organization looked like, and what were these manual processes that they were doing today. And tell me about, you know, your competitive threats and challenges, and why do you need to change and just spent, like, more time up front on understanding their world. And then when I finally pitched and presented, I had a so much of of a more, I'd say, strategic and solution oriented demonstration or proposal or message because I just had that much more insight to their business. So I would I would spend a lot more time on the discovery up front, sometimes months before I got to a pull proposal phase so I got the full picture. And I think in the enterprise world, that's really important because you're up against status quo.
Ian koniak:You're not so much up against competitors. So It is. I I just started to care a lot more. And when you care more, you're gonna take the time to really go deep with your customers during discovery.
Luigi Prestinenzi:This is and this is a really interesting topic, Ian. I reckon this is another podcast, right, because the premise of, you know, we talk I've seen some dialogue out there in the in the world of LinkedIn, right, of why we shouldn't worry about discovery, it's product led growth, blah blah blah. But I think, you know, that is we're not talking about transactional selling here. We're talking about transformation where the biggest competitor is the they don't make any decision. It is we're gonna stay with what we're currently doing.
Luigi Prestinenzi:Even though it hurts us, it's painful. The pain of change is far more painful than staying with what we've got. Right?
Ian koniak:That's what you know. You're right. You're right. Exactly.
Luigi Prestinenzi:You know? And and that and and to some extent, the business case for change is built on a completely an unrecognized need. The client hasn't really got a true understanding of the of the root cause. And then once you make that root cause aware, just like I I use this analogy. I remember, Chicago marathon, 35 k's in, I looked down to my shoe, Ian.
Luigi Prestinenzi:My there was blood in my shoe. I realized I lost a nail. And I didn't realize that it wasn't hurting before then, but for the next 7 k's, for that last leg, man, my foot hurt. I could feel it throbbing. Right?
Luigi Prestinenzi:Because I could see it. And the same thing with their clients. When they identify that something's a problem that they didn't know, all of a sudden, it become it starts to throb, and they can start to see it. So I actually love you. I think what you've just spoke about, but I wanna dive into point 3.
Luigi Prestinenzi:Right? Care more. Because I think there's one thing to care more, but what you've just spoken about is in order to go into the root cause, you've got to, a, understand the problems and the symptoms and the use cases and really understand how your product works in order to help someone fix that problem. So tell us a bit about what what type of education, self education you did to make sure you really understood the power of Salesforce and how and also understood the problems that your your your your prospects were were going through?
Ian koniak:Well, I think from a self education standpoint, the things that most AEs can do before they ever step foot into a customer or approach them is understand the clients that are look alikes to the prospects that you're trying to sell to. So for for me, specifically, you know, I I would look at customer stories very much. I manage some very large accounts for Salesforce. I I managed Activision Blizzard and Berkshire Hathaway Home Services and Jacuzzi and Experian, very, very big brands that were kind of on the forefront of their industry. And there's a couple things that are more important.
Ian koniak:I think more important 1st and foremost, you, of course, you have to know your product. But rather than knowing your product, like the technical pieces of your product, I think it's more important to understand the outcomes that your product delivers to your clients and the problems that it solves. Yep. I always tell my clients, be an expert on the problem you solve. Right?
Ian koniak:And and the way you do that and what I did is I really researched other companies and not just, like, the one page case study online. But I talked to the AEs and say, okay. What were they faced with before? What was their world? Show me your proposal that you gave to them and, like, really understand, you know, how you told the story of transformation.
Ian koniak:I would watch Dreamforce Videos, which is our annual Salesforce's annual sales conference where there was customers presenting their before and after state. Here's where we were before. Here's where we are now. Here's where our journey is. So when you go in, you can share the stories and give people assurance and confidence that, fundamentally, they're not the first.
Ian koniak:Right? And and, hey, when they share a challenge or a problem, you could say, hey. The this other customer had this very similar problem, and here's how they went about solving it. And if you wanna talk to them, feel free. But, you know, before you do that, here's a video where they talk about their journey.
Ian koniak:Right? So I leaned heavily, and and, fortunately, Salesforce did a fantastic job of making those stories public and and making those videos available. So I think that was a big part. I remember when I, first joined Salesforce, even my first year, I I had a YouTube channel, and all I was doing was watching a bunch of customer story videos. And I would identify all the industries in my prospect list and then share those stories out to those industries.
Ian koniak:And I think that self education piece is is really key in in terms of just don't worry about the technical. Don't worry about all of the architecture. Don't worry about the integration. Worry about the problems it solves and the outcomes it delivers, and that's what you leave with because that's what clients care about. Right?
Ian koniak:All the plumbing and all all the you don't wanna sell the seed. You wanna sell the grass. Right? Everybody has a beautiful garden or a beautiful lawn they wanna maintain, but they're not doing it through, you know, buying a bunch of seeds and fertilizing. You know, they have a landscaper for that.
Ian koniak:They have Right. You know? So so that's the same thing for our clients. It's it's it's think about the outcomes that you can help them achieve and the problems that are common that you know you can solve and lead with that, and and and you do that by becoming very, very familiar, intimately familiar with client success stories and kinda how clients evolve to to fully utilize your your product or service.
Luigi Prestinenzi:Yeah. And and I think and that's awesome, I mean, I think that's incredible advice. Right? Because you're right. People don't buy what you do.
Luigi Prestinenzi:They buy the outcome you helped them achieve. Right? They buy that improved result, and then they buy the feeling that comes with that improved result. And I I love what you've spoken about because you've said, hey. I need to understand what are those problems that they're experiencing.
Luigi Prestinenzi:And tell us, you know, obviously, you know, mindset has been an incredibly, important part of your career that's allowed you to get to where where you've got to. Apart from the the items that you've spoken about, talk to us about now that you've got you've kind of made that transformation from, you know, you weren't hitting target, you decided to really think about things differently, It's one thing making the decision to change and then putting in place some new habits, but how do you actually maintain that? Like, what are some of the things that you've done to really maintain those habits, to make sure that mindset was at the top of your, you know, the top of your list of focus?
Ian koniak:Yeah. I'm gonna I'm gonna stall that question for one second because I think there's something in mindset that I wanna since we're talking about it, that I wanna transfer it to the mindset needed to close large deals Yeah. And to really transform sales results. And then I'll talk about mindset for maintaining habits and kinda keeping keeping keeping your perspective. So you just propelled me to remember something really important.
Ian koniak:So what I do right now so my business is doing very well. It's on track for 7 figures. I just started it, and I'm getting booked left and right, which is amazing. I never thought it could be this good. And when I thought about, like, why am I selling so much now?
Ian koniak:Why am I, you know, having this kind of success? I do believe it's because I genuinely want to help clients. And before when I get on a discovery call, when I get a fur on a first call, all I'm trying to do there's no pitch deck. There's no presentation. I'm legitimately am trying to uncover whether or not they need help and whether I would be able to help them.
Ian koniak:And that is fundamentally a mindset shift of versus I'm here to pitch, and I'm here to try and get you to buy something. I I legitimately show up on every first meeting in the qualification process is to see if they need help. And my mindset is one of I if I can help you and I know that you have problems that I can solve Yeah. Then I'm gonna close your ass off. No offense.
Ian koniak:But I am going to close really hard, and I'm gonna be very, very adamant and forthright that we work together. Why? Because I know it's in your best interest. And I think, fundamentally fundamentally, when you know you can help somebody, then it increases your odds so well. And so my first call is when I talk to a company about coming in and training their team, for example.
Ian koniak:I will genuinely wanna know what percentage of their team is over quota right now. Right? How how big are their their average deal size? What's their turnover like? What is their been their experience with training in the past?
Ian koniak:Are their managers giving them, you know, development, coaching, training? You know? What what's the tenure? Like, I'm literally trying to understand their world and where their pain and struggles are. And if it's things that I know I can help through training the team, I'm going to be all over.
Ian koniak:I'm gonna tailor an agenda, a workshop, whatever they need. But I'm not going in with a preconceived notion of what I can do or how I can do it. I'm literally just trying to understand their world. So the mindset of I am here to understand first Mhmm. To determine whether or not I will I will proceed with pitching or proposing you is such a foundational shift to what's taught in sales versus you have to get to a demo.
Ian koniak:You have to, you know, get to the next step. You have to advance. No. I don't want to advance. I would much rather disqualify early Yeah.
Ian koniak:Based on knowing they're all set and they're in a good shape and they don't need me. So I can focus on people who are in pain, who are, you know, fundamentally needing help. And and then and then it's gonna make the rest of the sales cycle so much easier. So I I just feel like that's such an important nuance to mindset of, like, I'm not here to sell anything. I'm here to qualify and determine whether or not I can help you and if you need help and if you want help.
Ian koniak:And if if so, we can kinda go from there. And that that keeps people it it lets people's guards down. It disarms people because the intention and the and the caring will shine through just based on having an authentic real conversation with somebody. So I I've been doing that in my own business, and it's been I mean, I'm probably closing at a 90% rate right now with with when I when I position. I lost my first deal yesterday.
Ian koniak:And so I I do believe that's why. It's because people think I care, and they they believe that I am gonna help them. Yeah.
Luigi Prestinenzi:This is really cool. I and, you know, I've worried I've got 2 2 more topics that I think, you know because I think to demo to not to demo. And, again, I I'm with you on this. Right? I know that people keep saying, well, the customer's now in control of the buying journey and all that sort of stuff.
Luigi Prestinenzi:And, yes, I know that things have changed, but, fundamentally, the customer doesn't know, like, just because it's it could be product led and it's self serve and all that sort of stuff. But, ultimately, if they're coming to us because they've got a problem and they see a particular platform that could fix it, they don't know the nuances and the and and how to fix a particular problem. Right? Because if they did, they wouldn't be looking externally to fix it. So I think there's you know, this is why I love, like, the whole premise of saying, you know, whenever I hear someone talk about that that the sales the salesperson salesperson of yesterday is gone and there's gonna be less salespeople.
Luigi Prestinenzi:And I actually think, you know what? This is the opportunity that we, as a profession, have moving forward. We can either do one of 2 things. We can elevate now and go, right, what you've just spoken about, caring, that mindset, going, you know what? If this is not right for us, I'm not gonna progress this.
Luigi Prestinenzi:That's right. But if it is right for us, I'm gonna do everything in my power to educate you, to provide insight, to enable you to arrive at a point of decision where you choose me over my competition. Right? And I think I think that there is an incredible opportunity that we have right now because, again, the demo, anyone can see a product, but Yeah. It takes a process to allow them to get the most out of it because that's the other thing.
Luigi Prestinenzi:That's one of the challenges that Salesforce had early on was just because people had Salesforce, it didn't mean they were using it. Right?
Ian koniak:For every dollar, Salesforce be built a whole economy around this. For every dollar spent on Salesforce, there's, I think, 4 or $5 spent on implementation consultants, systems integrators. Right? That whole world. There's a IDC white paper about this, which says the Salesforce economy, which talks about how literally thousands of consultancies, ISVs, AppExchange partners, plug ins, software companies have evolved from making Salesforce more customized and tailored to the businesses who use it.
Ian koniak:So the the key what you're speaking upon is the fact that people pay for application, not information. If someone wanted to learn sales and go to my YouTube for free, that's not why they're signed up and trying to pay for my services because they don't know how to apply this for themselves. Watching is not enough. Right? You need to know how to apply this to your world and your situation.
Ian koniak:So you're you're spot on with that.
Luigi Prestinenzi:Yeah. And, look, Ian, I think, you know, we've covered a whole range of things here, and I think look. Personally, I've got a page of notes here because I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna sit back, I'm gonna reflect on this conversation and go, right. What are some what are some changes that I could make here or some pivot some things that I'm doing to make me a better sales professional? But I just wanna just before we kinda get to the end of it today's podcast, I wanna just ask you again.
Luigi Prestinenzi:You made that shift. You mentioned those habits. So how do you, like, how do you actually maintain a daily focus and go, right, these are my nonnegotiables that regardless of what happens, these are the 3 or 4 things that I'm never gonna change every single day? How do you maintain that focus?
Ian koniak:I I love the topic, and I'm gonna kinda go off on a little tangent now, if you don't mind, because this is my favorite topic, yeah, to talk about. So the biggest shift, the reason I was able to triple my income from an average of about 2.50 a year to an average of 7.50 a year from my 1st 5 years to my past 5 years, literally triple it, is because of not only the mindset, but the habits. Mhmm. But the habits are everything. So the the book that I would recommend for for people who wanna really dive into this a little deeper there's a lot of them, but one of them is is called the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Ian koniak:And Yep. That's a framework that Stephen Covey, uses, and I absolutely feel and that's my favorite book of all time. But one of the framework that he uses think of a t, a t quadrant. And then the t, the top left is important and urgent. Yeah.
Ian koniak:The top right is important and not urgent. The bottom left is not important and urgent, and the bottom right is not important and not urgent. So where many people live is they live in the bottom left where everything's urgent, but it's really not important. They could be spending a lot of time doing work that, frankly, doesn't really matter. Yep.
Ian koniak:Or they might live in the bottom right, which is the world of distractions, checking your phone, checking social media. Right? Checking if you're living below the x axis in this case, right, anything that's not important, that's foundationally Yeah. The things you have to identify and you have to eliminate. So for me, you know, there's a lot of things that I did, but there's a concept that I'm teaching now, and I I really fundamentally believe that it's life changing.
Ian koniak:So if you're listening, please think about this. And the concept is is simple. It's called addition by subtraction. Okay? By subtracting the things in our life that don't serve us, we make space and time for the things that do.
Ian koniak:And I'll repeat that one more time. By subtracting the things in our life that don't serve us, we make space and time for the things that that I do. So we're talking about opportunity cost. We're talking about what we're not doing because we're wasting time, because we're focusing on the wrong things. Right?
Ian koniak:So for me, what I did is I put into practice identifying all the things that were time stealers, time wasters, and I started just eliminating those from from my life. So I took social media off my phone. I took the news app off my phone. YouTube, I I saw that I was naturally ADD, procrastinator, you name it, and I really made a pointed effort to make my environment easier. And I read a lot of books, and I did a ton of work on myself to get here, but books like Atomic Habits, book books like, The Power of Habit by by Charles Duhigg, James Clear, the the books like Essentialism.
Ian koniak:Right? I I spent a lot of time. I'm reading Eat That Frog right now by Brian Tracy. So Yeah. For me, this is the key.
Ian koniak:Right? It is the key to success is you actually just focus on the things that matter. So for me, what I do besides just kind of, like, getting rid of the stuff and identifying the stuff that isn't really helping me in life is I add the things that do. So I started running. I'm signed up for my 1st marathon this year.
Ian koniak:So I can join you in the the marathon club. I started praying every day. I have a daily prayer routine where I'm Yeah. You know, it's a gratitude prayer, and I ask for for me. My faith is is important.
Ian koniak:So I wanna keep that connection with my higher power. I also take a cold shower after I exercise. Right? So I'll go for a run or go on my bike, and I'll take a cold shower. So I have these these routines that I do every day that keep me grounded, but I would say one of the most important ones is I schedule my day.
Ian koniak:So at the very beginning of the day, I say, hey. What are the 2 or 3 things that are absolutely critical, must do things? I plug them into my calendar and, you know, there's an old adage. If you want something done, give it to the busiest person you know, and there's a reason because they're organized, they plan, and they execute. And that's that's really where I used to struggle and where I'm extremely efficient now is I actually set my priorities at the beginning of the day.
Ian koniak:I put in my calendar, and I actually do them. Because if I don't do them, I'm gonna feel Yeah. Bad at night. And so I I just and then I and then I draw boundaries. So it's 6 o'clock most nights, not every night, but I'd say the vast majority.
Ian koniak:I am in in the house with my kids, with my wife, cooking dinner, spending time with family. I rarely work weekends. Right? So I'm I'm really trying to keep those boundaries where I can do things that are, you know, healthy and foster connection and love and and and, you know, family to really, you know, fuel my energy so that I can perform my best. Because if I'm just working all the time, other things are gonna fall short.
Ian koniak:So I I built those into my calendars too, my runs, my family time, my vacations. Right? It's all about planning for me to make sure that these things are just part of your routine and part of your life every day, not about a onetime goal that we set at the beginning of the year. So
Luigi Prestinenzi:And I think you know what? That's just the perfect way. That's an amazing what you've just shared with us, again, it's going, hey. These are some nonnegotiables. It's the 80 20 principle.
Luigi Prestinenzi:Right? The the Pareto principle where there are certain things I've gotta do every day, I've gotta schedule it in, and I've gotta hold myself accountable. But what I loved about what you shared is removing the things that are not adding value, stripping them out, being selfish my time. That's right. And I think, again, as sellers, that that distraction piece, what is it?
Luigi Prestinenzi:Sellers are spending 30% of their time selling.
Ian koniak:Right? Which is crazy. It would be crazy. Like, what That's all I'm doing. That's all I'm doing is, like, every morning so I have a follow-up sheet where I have all my deals.
Ian koniak:It's in a spreadsheet. I mean, I'm a one man shop, but I have a spreadsheet, and it's like the most important thing you can do I call them RGAs. Marcus calls them IPAs, but it stands for revenue generating activity. And it's either you're advancing pipeline or you're creating pipeline. Nothing else matters in sales.
Ian koniak:You're either advancing deals. If you don't have the deals, then you're creating new deals. You're prospecting. You're researching. You're personalizing your notes.
Ian koniak:You're reaching out. You're calling, whatever. Like, that's it. There is no other Yeah. There is no other thing that matters, and I feel like we we get so we fool ourselves and just trying to stay busy and thinking we're working, but we're working on what?
Ian koniak:It's it's useless. It so, yeah, you're you're you're spot on once again, Luigi.
Luigi Prestinenzi:Well, this has been awesome, Ian. I just wanna say, mate, the fact that and, Jimmy, I'll I'll put this out to you, mate. Thank you for telling me I need to follow Ian because his content's awesome. I've had we've we I I really wanna say thank you for the content that you're putting out. What you're doing, the contribution you're making to our sales community is fantastic, mate.
Luigi Prestinenzi:We need more people kind of helping elevate our profession because even though there's more people helping elevate, unfortunately, the number of people hitting their target is getting worse. Right? So we need we need to be supporting our profession more and more. Before we wrap up, mate, where can our listeners connect and find more about you?
Ian koniak:I I'm super easy to find. So if you just Google my name, Ian Konjac, you'll see a link to my LinkedIn. That's the number one spot. Just connect with me on LinkedIn. I have a newsletter I send out every week.
Ian koniak:If you connect, you'll get a note with the link to the newsletter. I have a YouTube channel where I have, you know, probably over a 100 videos posted with sales training, mindset training, habit training, all the stuff we talked about. And my website, site, iankoniak.com. Those are the top places. I'm on Instagram, but it's just family stuff there.
Ian koniak:So you won't find any sales training on Instagram.
Luigi Prestinenzi:Well, awesome. We'll put that in the show notes. And for anyone listening, you know, just to repeat, sort of summarize some of the things that Ian spoke about, ultimately, looking in the mirror is one of the most important parts of this whole process and really appreciating, hey. There are things that I'm doing well, but there are things that I can improve, and the only person that's gonna help you make those changes to be the best you can be is you. And taking action is one of the most important parts of the process.
Ian koniak:Thanks for putting this together, and, appreciate you having me on the show.
