Tony Lenhart is a partner at Sales Empowerment Group (SEG). With a degree in Selling & Sales Management, he has worked on honing the art and science of sales through direct sales, sales leadership, and entrepreneurship. He spent the first decade of his career in various sales and leadership roles and the last ten years scaling a successful sales consulting and staffing organization. Since founding SEG, Tony has worked alongside over 200 small and mid-sized organizations and 1,000+ salespeople to help build or rebuild their sales cultures.  He maintains a monthly newsletter, Sales Drummer, which lays out his learnings over the years.

Mentioned in this Episode: 

Timecodes:

(2:48) – What is Sales Empowerment Group?
(4:00) – Tony’s origin story.
(4:51) – What makes a good salesperson?
(6:15) – Is there a difference in traits based on industry or type of sales?
(7:22) – How would someone know whether to hire one sales style over another in their company?
(9:15) – Do you see companies looking for the wrong traits in their salespeople?
(11:28) – What are good leaders doing to get the most out of their entire sales team?
(14:41) – Onboarding rookies vs. seasoned salespeople.
(20:32) – Why veteran salespeople struggle at new jobs.
(23:01) – When the client’s team turns over.
(24:46) – Is it the salesperson’s responsibility to be organized & structured or the company’s?
(27:25) – How should companies deal with different personalities when it comes to basic organization requirements?
(29:45) – Do you see companies managing the wrong metrics?
(34:17) – Collaborative sales environments.
(39:20) – Accountability vs. Micromanagement: what is proper sales accountability?
(41:47) – What are the first things a new sales leader should do when taking over a team?
(43:40) – Where do sales leaders go wrong?
(48:47) – Why do companies change sales compensation so much?
(50:59) – What really motivates salespeople?
(56:22) – O’Brien’s origin story at Lockton.
(59:19) – What are you sick of talking about?
(59:46) – What are you most excited to be talking about?
(1:00:19) – Thoughts on automated sales cadence.
(1:02:11) – What is the purpose of business?