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Podcast — AoS #5: Fostering a Culture of Authenticity and Transparency with Tim Denman

Tim explains the keys to intrinsic motivation, mentorship, and fostering great culture.

David Smith

Published in

The Art of Sales

6 min readOct 2, 2017

This podcast is an excellent listen for anyone who:

Believes that problem-solving is the key to sales.
Wants to learn how to intrinsically motivate sales force.
Believes that it’s important to treat your employees as well as you treat your customers.
Wishes to learn the importance of putting others first in the business development pipeline.
Is curious about the importance and effectiveness of mentorship.
Wants to create a culture of authenticity and transparency within their organization.

Visit The Art of Sales on SoundCloud for more.

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In this episode of The Art of Sales Podcast, we chat with Tim Denman, who works in Business Development, Growth Division at Mercer about how he helps companies craft solutions to complex business problems and how he firmly believes that organizations succeed when they foster a culture of authenticity and transparency.

Podcast guest: Tim Denman, Business Development at Mercer.

1:40 The importance of mentorship

Addressing the fact that everyone needs help in their career path.
The importance of finding what you love and pursuing it.
The dangers of self-limiting beliefs and how to get beyond that.

7:20 Finding the path into sales

How economy issues in 2008 led him to try something new.

“I like solving problems, learning about business, I love learning about people and what makes them tick…”

“Don’t chase the money, chase your passion. If you pursue something you’re passion about and good at, you’ll eventually make more money that way over the course of your career anyway.”
Finding our whether sales is right for you and if you are in it for the right reasons.

10:53 Did sales come natural?

Grew up in a competitive family and the lessons learned.

“Sales is the art if influencing or persuading.”

How Tim learned about sales as a small kid, convincing his friends’ parents to let them come out and play for a few more hours.
You have to ask the question if you desire to persuade someone to do something.

13:16 What makes a good salesperson good?

To add value, you must understand the challenges that other people face.
It’s not about you, it’s about them. Your goal should be to make others more effective.
Understanding how you can make impact.

“The problem is that a lot of people in sales assume they understand the problems of the person on the other side of the table.”

15:27 The importance of listening in sales

“The way you get someone talking is by asking solid, open ended questions and establishing rapport and credibility.”
Lead with validated data because your opinion is worth nothing.
Really understand how to talk less, listen more and understand the true source of the problem. If you don’t understand the source of the problem, you can’t solve it.

“If you’re doing more talking than listening, you’re probably losing.”

17:36 Tim’s approach to professional sales development

Understanding your performance and how to improve your results is really important.
Rapport building and common ground is critical to good business relationships.
Remember that people in different regions will have a very different approach to the structure of a sales conversation.
Understand the culture and customs of where you are doing business.

23:00 Tim’s approach for conducting post-meeting briefs and reviews

Reviewing what you do in a meeting and how it goes is critical.
Ensuring that you schedule clear next steps for the conversation to continue.
Understand quickly whether this is a decision maker and whether there is fit. If not, it’s important to understand that and not waste time.
Things that Tim learned in college sports that apply to understanding body language and other implications of a meeting.

28:14 How much did Tim’s MBA teach him about sales?

It was more about understanding business fundamentals and applying that to “speaking their language” in the sales process with C-level.
Sales as a curriculum of education should be taught much more widely.
Negotiation tips and techniques.

29:54 Tim’s top resources for people in sales

Learning to influence, sell for the right reasons, understand people, network and have value.
Learn from other people… mentor and be a mentee. Continuous learning.

32:34 Tim’s work with large corporate trading firms

Identifying distressed assets that can be freed up as cash-like capital.
Executing complicated sales cycle processes in multiple industry verticals.
Keys for closing long 6+ month sales cycle deals.
Closing the 7-digit deals.

36:04 Tim’s role in setting KPIs, structuring a sales process and managing

Identifying core targets and reaching out to them.
Tim’s tips for filling the funnel.
Changes in value proposition when switching roles.
Positioning against major competitors.
“Understanding WHY”.

40:50 Fostering a culture of authenticity and transparency

Making sure the employee experience is top-notch.
Treating your employees as well as you treat your customers.
People are the backbone of organizations.
Consistency is key: in recognition, treatment, expectations, delivery, etc.

43:02 Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivations

You have to find people who are intrinsically motivated by your organization’s sense of mission and purpose.

“Give people a reason to give a damn beyond just receiving a paycheck… but it has to be consistent, otherwise it’s not authentic and long-term you will go out of business.”

VSIRA — Vision, Skills, Incentives, Resources, Action plan — see chart below.
Be authentic in your relationships.

48:08 Quick closing round

What motivates Tim most in life.
What Tim enjoys most about sales.
What Tim hopes others will take away from this podcast.

Background

Tim works in Business Development at Mercer, the world’s largest human resources consulting firm. Headquartered in New York City, Mercer has more than 20,500 employees and is based in more than 40 countries.

Tim helps companies craft solutions to complex business problems, typically through the use of data analytics and technology. He firmly believes that organizations succeed when they foster a culture of authenticity and transparency.

He has 17+ years in sales/business development, project management, and leadership experience. He’s a strategic thinker, intellectually curious, and very analytical.

Tim started in the Air Force as an Officer and has worked in other top companies including Active and Career Builder. He is an enterprise sales leader & trusted advisor to Fortune 1000 C-level executives across multiple industry verticals including technology, media, building materials, higher education.