Noob School - Episode 16: Kevin Price

Episode Date: September 24, 2021

Today we have one of John’s favorite people, Kevin Price. John watched him start out as a skinny little Noob—and today, he’s in charge of strategy for a company that just sold for 2.6 BILLION dollars. (Yes, billion.) Buckle in, Noobs: this is one guest you really want to learn from. Follow John on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/johnsterling_ Facebook: facebook.com/johnsterlingsales Twitter: twitter.com/johnsterling_ TikTok: tiktok.com/@johnsterling_

Hey, welcome back to Noob School. This is where you come if you want to hear me interview folks that have made it. Folks that have gotten really good at your craft, great at sales, and it just kind of wind it back and hear how they started. Many of these folks I know so we can tell humorous anecdotes. But anyway, today I have one of my favorite people. I remember when he started with us, how many years ago? 24, 25. I was going to say 20. 24, 25 years ago.

Kevin Price. Kevin now, you know, he started as a noob. I was there. I saw him, right? I did. Skinny little noob. And now he's just in charge of strategy for a company that just sold for $2.6 billion dollars right here in Greenfield. Right?

Am I right? Billion. Billion. Billion. I didn't say million. So anyway, he started as a noob like we all did. and now 24 years later, had a strategy for a company that just successfully sold for $2.6 billion. What do you call that company now?

Hexagon. Hexagon. Is that the acquiring company? That is the acquiring company. Okay. All right. Well, just real quick, let's give them a little flavor for what that means to be head of strategy for a company that size. Then we can back it back down to Noobtown.

So they call our group the tip of the sphere. Okay. And when we're thinking about what we're going to do with the portfolio, what we're going to develop, how we're going to enable the team, where we're going to go with analysts, where we're going to go with geography, we're going to go with position, we want to make sure we're doing the right things. So we develop a strategy on how to do that. And that strategy ends up sometimes on, you know, no development effort. We can go into this particular vertical. It's a great fit. All we need to do is just do some education on our sales team, on our marketing team.

Maybe we need to do some partner work. So is this like product during? direction? All the above. It's a complete portfolio solution. Okay. So we're, they bought us and intend to apply us to everything that they have worldwide. They have close to probably 20,000 employees and they're going to be using us in every aspect.

So, but your particular job had a strategy for this company, and this touches sales everywhere. Everything. This means, you know, where's the product going, where all the vertical is going to be, how do we position the company, how to be position with the stock? and the rock analysts and the foresters and people like that. As it applies to EAM. As it applies to EAM. Enterprise Ascent Management. That's right.

Okay. It's just so crazy. I mean, this little company we're talking about, I mean, I remember it when it was five people. That's right. Five people right here in Greenville. That's right. We were just kind of... Not far from here, as a matter of fact.

Not far from here. Still there. This building is still there. And here you are. Had a strategy for it. And now it's $2.6 billion. I want to read. It's $2.75.

2.75, sorry. And again, that means for the noobs out there, because you're in this job and it's nothing to you, it's normal for you. But you could be in Zurich next week giving a talk about EAM or could be in Sweden or you could be anywhere in North America, Latin America, right? That's right. It's just a global company. Completely. Yeah. Cool.

They're the number one in many different things. They're the number one in some GPS and GIS stuff. Yeah. They do a lot of autonomous work. They have mining is a big vertical for them, which fits really nice to EAM. They have one mine that has over 600 different trucks that are driving with no drivers at all. It's completely autonomous and it goes through. So when you think about EAM, we can be able to understand the condition of those trucks as they go around,

and we can know that one of needs some maintenance done to it. So we can actually, through the system, flag it to come off, go into a bay, have a guy with the right tools, the right parts, and the right education, fix it, get it back in the field. So we fit really naturally. So you said there's a mine with 600 big-ass trucks. Big-ass trucks. And there's no one driving them. That's right. And they're not hitting each other at all.

Is there someone like up in a control tower? Like moving around? No, no, no. It's not like tonka toys, but the size of real life. Censors. These are all sensors that are built in. They have some software that keeps from collisions. They have software that they can even predict when they pull away dirt and sediment from the mine.

where it's going to fail, where it's not, how long it's going to be, where they should dig, they can do all that stuff. And they don't have an asset management system, and that's just one area. They have another division that does infrastructure, so roads and highways. They have another division that does manufacturing. They do scans on vehicles. So this is a hexagon, the company that bought you. That's right.

Okay. That's right. Well, that's cool. It's very interesting. I wanted to give them a flavor for what you're doing now and how cool it is. I mean, it's a great job. It's a great, great job. And I remember you from working with you that you were always in product development, product management,

and you were working with the salespeople to close deals. You would go out with us and be kind of the product side of things. That's right. And so you've always kind of been helping the salespeople. But for their sake, let's back it back to college of Charleston days. Thanks. Right? Yeah.

That was when? When did you graduate? I graduated in 97. 97. Okay. And as I recall, you measured in divinity. That's my master. Am I right?

No, that's my master. So the undergraduate was international business and foreign language. Okay. All right. Which language? Spanish. Spanish. Yeah.

Not as good as Michael Pace. Yeah. Michael Pace. He couldn't speak Spanish either. Well, maybe as good as Michael Pace. He learned a lot once we send him down in Mexico. Yeah. So international studies.

Yeah. International business. That's right. Okay, well, that makes perfect sense for what you're doing now. It does. It is amazing. Yeah. And then you are interested in divinity also, and so you've got a master's in that,

and you also do some of that, right? Yeah. I did things for my church. I did some supply preaching. Married a few people. Buried one. Did you say married a few people? Yeah.

Okay. You didn't personally marry it. No, no, no. I was officiated, I guess, is a better way to be able to put it down. Okay. But I did some work there. And then I also did a funeral for somebody. So the presentation skills that I get out of what I do now is really important.

As an example, recording, this is my third recording this week. Second one with lights. I have to do recordings probably five to seven times a week. And that's for your job, right? Yeah. Because you're always doing podcasts. Always. Always.

And it's fine. I want to go back to the point, though, about traveling with sales. Yeah. And the reason why is because I still do that today. And it's not really a common thing for my role. But my point has always been if you don't meet where the rubber meets the road and that's in that sales process, you can't understand how to do anything else. I think it's great. Yeah.

I'm sure the size deal has gone up significantly. Sure. Sure. Just. You're not going out for some small deal anymore. Sure. Well, that's cool. And so just for their sake, you know, they're trying to figure out what their next 20, 24 years is going to be like.

You've got a strong interest in divinity and ministry and stuff like that. But you didn't go all the way in there. You said, I'm going to do this as a part-time thing. That's right. And you're going to, you know, do this. The international business thing is your main thing. That's right. I mean, hobby is not a good.

I don't think I want to use that word for, I'm so serious. is divinity, but, you know, I play a saxophone as a hobby. You know, it's just kind of fun. I'm not going to make my living doing that. Yeah, I get it. They don't play preachers, at least the ones that I follow. They don't pay them as much as you'd like to be able to maintain a family and whatnot. Right, right.

It's something I want to return to, but I'm really enjoying what I'm doing now. Good. And I really enjoyed where I came up from. So it's always something I wanted to go to school when I got fortunate to be with an organization that let me go take those classes at the school. same time. Yeah. So here's an important thing. So you international business, College of Charleston, you got out, did you look at some other people besides our company? I hated to say, John, but you were, data stream was one of the last two on my list.

All right. We're done here. We can go on. That's all right. That's all right. Let me give you a little bit. What happened? So College of Charleston, like any other school, you have an academic advisor. And when you're finishing up, they'll say, go by the academic services group and make sure you put in your resume. They'll help you create one. They'll be all right. So I did. And I didn't think of anything about it and left. And went back home.

My wife now, girlfriend at the time, was about to graduate and I wanted to ask her to marry me. So I had to get a haircut. I had to get a real job. So I had the hair downs of the belly button. I still got a picture I think you've seen. but I'll share it to you later if you haven't. And I went home back to Greenville. And back then is when you still had a suitcase that you carried around.

So I carried around. No wheels. Exactly. There wasn't anything built in. So I went and got, did my interviews, went to, you know, the big names in Greenville at the time, the Michelins, the Lockheed Martin's. They went around to a bunch of those and they were okay. And came home was kind of frustrated and got a call from Datastream saying that. that they got my resume from the career services at college Charleston.

I was like, really? Really? You real? Are you? They was like, yeah, this is what we do. I said, okay, no problem. So I went in, took the Colby, and I don't remember what I got, but I know what J.B. was working for you at time. He turned his head and said they wanted you to come interview, so I did. And I went through the circuit. So I went by a guy named Jamie Welch. and he asked me technical questions. My dad, he worked for Unisys, and when I grew up, I didn't have the Atari and all that other kind of stuff.

I had to build my own computer in the garage with parts that he brought back from work, and I had to write my own stuff at home through Fortran and Coble. So it was kind of a fun thing for me. It was never really anything that I really was interested in pursuing. But because of that,

that conversation with Jamie Welch when he tried to get technical with me was good. And we went through. And then I went on to the next person. I spoke with Clevey, with Larry Clevenstein. And that went, I thought that went well. And then I went to Chris Beard. And Chris Beard was the last one before I came back to J.B. And he didn't say anything.

He didn't ask any questions. And I was like, what is, you know, do you want to ask my background or where I want to go? forward. He said, no. And then he was talking to time his computer. I looked up and he had a lost boys picture, poster on his wall and a sidearm poster. And we talked about lost boys, the movie, back in the 80s movies. For the longest time, I said, no questions about work. He said, no, I'm just here to find out if you're cool enough to work with. And I was like, good. So we're good? He said, yeah, go talk to Shabee. Someone talks to J.B. And he said, he said it come in a Monday. and I started working in

and I didn't have a background for sales hadn't any attention to go into sales but ended up and that was the best decision ever made. Yeah, nice. By far. Nice. And so the other companies,

I mean, if you say Lockheed, Michigan, you'd think, you know, in college, that's international business because they're selling all the way around the world but probably, you probably still be waiting for an answer. Yeah. You know, I mean, they do hire people, but it's slower to move.

Like you're right, you're right, but I think like you said in the prior podcast and what you said, I think of the book, where it's the grandma job. It's the job that you're proud to tell your grandma. And that's where I was wanting to go to one of those places where I could start. And I could do it. And I would be solid. I can go back and ask my girlfriend to marry me and I can go all this other steps. He's got a job with Lucky.

And then I got in with these guys. And I was like, man, this could be fun. I don't know where I'm going, but they do. And maybe I can learn from them. So it was, it seemed like a. better fit all around. Such an interesting point you made about Chris, Beard, is, you know, you went college Charleston, you got a degree, no experience in sales, no experience in maintenance, no experience

really in software. But Chris said, this is the kind of people we want. You pass to Colby, right? You see your test scores looked in generally right for what we're looking for, but then kind of the cool factor. And, you know, you sure you walk in the door and you fit. right in because that's the kind of people we were hiring. Which at the time, you know, I was really nervous and really scared about all the other interviews. I wasn't with this one. Right. With this one,

it was just calm. This is kind of where I should be. So here's the point for the noobs. And we did talk about this in the book too, is when you're looking for companies and you're interviewing, you know, you do, you want to be the best version of yourself, but you want to be yourself. You want to be honest. And I don't mean you're, you're, you're interviewing. You know, you do, you want to be the best version of yourself, but you want to be yourself. And I don't mean whole self because we'd probably get arrested for that, but you know, be the best for, be a good version of yourself and just see whether that fits or not with this company. I believe it or not, I interviewed with Michelin when I was coming out of college. And, you know, because my dad or someone got me interview with like some big wig there. And by the end of the interview,

he looks at me and he goes, doesn't sound like you would want to work here. And I'm like, no, I don't want to move to Dubuque, Iowa and, you know, sell tires, a non-commission plan. I mean, that was the offer basically move and there's no commission plan. So anyway, I think it's a really good point. I wasn't expecting that, that, you know, you obviously were yourself, you talked about the poster, the Lost Voice poster, you know, and Chris is like, yeah, yeah, he'll fit right in. So we had an interesting culture. It was at the time. I mean, I really got familiar with J.B. and we talked about firm men, we talked about soccer,

we talked about other things like that. Jamie went deep. Clevy talked more about sales process and sales background and things like that. And then I just got stuck with Chris. And I just, I mean, it was the last interview of four. And I was just tired. I didn't know what to do. We get out of there.

I was like, am I done? Am I, am I okay? What's going on? And that's when he just kind of, you know, just make sure we can get along with you. So you, again, for the nobs, you made sure that you're interested in the international business. That's why you majored it. That's right. You found a company in Greenville that was a business

company. It was technically an international business company, but not a lot of international business at time, probably 10% at that time, or maybe even 5%, but it sure became one. It did. And it fits your culture. It did. And then here's the key thing, I say. You stuck with it. All right, you stuck with it. Well, you didn't get head of strategy, you know, by the time you were 26, years old. You were like for a long time. You were just hitting the analyst, traveling with salespeople. I remember what your title was. What was it? It was like the one I had been in for was technical product evangelist. But that was what we'll keep going back though. Go back to like age 25. I had a product manager before that. I had a account rep. I've had a bunch of different types of things.

But John, that's I've always contended again back to the honesty factor. Whenever I introduce myself today, today, I said, my name is Kevin Price and I'm EAM. I'm here to help. I'm EAM. That's it. Yeah. And what does that mean? Well, what are you, what's going on in your life with EAM?

So I try to understand more about them. And I think that discovery process that I enjoy the most is because of the sales background. It's because I want to understand what they're looking for and what makes them tick. But, I mean, I don't ever introduce myself with the title because I think it's kind of silly to pay attention to the title. I do too. I think it backfires every time. I think you said, I'm the senior VP. No need.

It would be like, there's no need. It puts back, right? So you're very good at that. And I'll also say for the Noob School people, you know, just because you're starting in sales, it's not a long-term commitment to be a sales rep, right? Most of the people we know became managers. They moved into marketing.

They moved into management. they, you know, Scott Millwood became CEO, Marty, you know, the people like that. So it's, but it's something for your skill stack that aren't you thankful you have it? It's the exact foundation to build a house on. Yeah. It teaches you how to act professional. It teaches you when to listen. It teaches you when to speak. It teaches the things to focus on because you have to focus on certain things in order to close a deal. You have to focus on certain things to be able to build a deal.

You have to focus on things to build a relationship. It teaches you never to burn a bridge. It teaches you to be able to use your network. It teaches you everything so that you can be able to have those options in the future. These options that I started seeing was because of that foundation and because of that work that we set down a long time ago and through taping sessions and understand how to do things better and do all the different things that we used to have to go through.

That was the foundation for everything. So, yeah. Point being it's a great thing to go through, even if it's two or three years before you move to something else. But if you want to stick with it, we also know people of Nate Barr's of the world that are like, I'll be happy to stale sales rep and close $10 million deals. And let me go back to that point. So Nate Barr was on the people I used to shadow.

When I was going, you had me shadow all the different people, right? So I shadowed, shadowed Nate, shadowed brightings, shadowed clavvy, shattered tap haley, shadowed a bunch of other ones. And I always wanted to pick out things that they did well. that I would write down and I would work on at home. I would work on the way that they spoke. I would work on the way that they introduced themselves. I would work on the way that they called upon people.

What time they called on people. How they called it on people. Because each of them had a different nuance. And it was based also regionally where they would call into. Because sometimes they would call into certain industries. And yeah, you've got to hit them about 10 o'clock. Or this guy, now, no, no. You've got to get there at 7.30 in the morning on the dot.

And it took me a while to be able to gather all those. but it was guys like that through the shadowing session. So, I mean, when you go into this, it's so important to take notes, and it's so important to hear feedback and take constructive criticism because it's the foundation for everything that you're going to do going forward. Strong. Well, let me switch gears a little bit and ask you something. When you were going through school and before you got this first job in sales,

is there something that you thought in your head about sales, like about salespeople or the process in general that turned out to be really wrong? In school, it was a sales job is not what I went to school for, number one. Number two is when I went into sales, I always understood it was going to be the easy job. And it was far from easy. It was far from easy. I came into it just thinking, yeah, you know, you come in, you make your calls, you do your quantity. wasn't thinking about quality,

was thinking about quantity and trying to hit it as fast as I can. Wasn't thinking that there was a different formula for me that was different from somebody else that was different on who I called on, which region I called on, just thought it was come in, make your calls, and it just happens.

And that was demystified quickly as I started to learn. And I developed out my own approach. I developed my own strategy, paid my cousin, who's now 34, 40, something like that, to come in with me on Saturday. And on the third floor of the day stream building, we had four different fax machines. And I paid her 20 bucks. I taught her how to use the fax machine.

And she would go to each one and just go around in circles and do fax out my own promo. Yeah. Because we did promos from them. We did our own. Remember the fax splits? We did our own fax splits. but I wanted to do something that was unique to make me stand out. So I made my own handwritten one, and I would sign the bottom of it individually for each one.

And I did that all the night before, and then I paid her $20, and she was probably 10 years old. But I brought her in, and we went around in circles, and she did them all, and then I let that sit. And then I would call them on Monday morning, hey, did you get the fax that I sent you? You know, we're doing this promo, but this is something I found just for you. And it worked. It built out. But I did that at the beginning of the quarter. so that I could be able to roll into the quarter as it started to build through. But again, the point is, is I have to figure out a way to succeed.

Yeah. You have to believe that you're going to get there. And you've got to keep trying. You can't give up. Because for me, again, my wife was about to graduate from school. I was going to, at the time, girlfriend, I was going to ask you to marry her. I was living with my mom and dad while I was waiting on her. I went in my own place.

I was not going to fail. I was going to figure out some way to do it. So I figured out you have to be creative. got to believe in yourself for sure. Well, yeah, and a great, a great lesson there. And again, this is, I probably say this too much. But, you know, when you're faced with this situation where you're trying to either be a real successful salesperson or just okay or lose your job. I mean, those are kind of your three choices. It's up to you. Yeah. And if you're at number, if you're in the middle or toward the bottom, it's easy to say, well, this is the wrong job.

Or if these people don't know what they're doing or Sterling, I mean, why is he, you know, charge. You know, he's no much, hardly any older than I am. You know, and you could make up all these things. Or you can say, what can I do to try to win? And for me, that was a taping sessions. The tape session has drove me crazy. Yeah. Because we'd have to go through them and it was so painful. So for the nubes, the taping session, it kind of dates us a little bit. Because you would use your phone now, right? Record it. But they would record themselves on a cassette tape making an actual call and then we would listen to it together and we'd critique it. And it is a brutal way to do training, but it's so fast.

But it took me a while to appreciate them. I was always thinking, again, negatively. I hate John. I was like, damn, I got to go up this and do this shit again with John. I was like, I got to go back up again. And I was trying to find ways so I'm on a call, whatever. I couldn't make an excuse because that wasn't going to work. You had to show up and do it.

So it's been, I mean, it made me. do more calls. It made me focus on quality to get the good one. And then when I bring up the good one, there was always something else that was built in. So it was, it was, I was going to win at this taping session. I was going to win at this taping session. And then it took me the longest time to realize you can't win. The reason why you can't win is because there's always going to be a place to improve on it. And it's not a negative thing. It was all constructive criticism on where to grow and how to build in. But it was up to you to take that constructively. And it took me a Wow, to appreciate that. Once I got at them, I was okay. And I think also, again, to the point

of laying the foundation, going on now, I thrive on feedback. I have to have it. And to the extent that it'll drive some of my coworkers nuts. Because I like, I love to collaborate. I love to get just the good, the bad, the ugly all at one shot. And they only want to, some of them just want to hear the good stuff. I'm like, that's not, if I knew the good stuff, then I wouldn't ask you. I want to know what's good, but I also want to know where I can approve. Well, that's good. That's a good message in itself. It's a good habit to get into. I wish I was more like that. I mean, I like to hear the good stuff. It's great to hear, but. Yeah, so every now and then. So, let me look. Give me, give me, give me some of the things that you did in your career.

You ended up, at least at this point in your career, at a very good place. Give me just a couple of things, decisions you made that might be helpful to the folks starting out. One of the most difficult decisions I made, but it ended up being a good one, was the decision to leave sales. And the reason why I say that is because there was an opportunity to go into product management. And we were getting money from Microsoft in a couple of original places to launch new products. Who lured you over there? I can't remember. That's Michael Callahan.

Callahan. Callahan. I went to Michael Callahan. He was great. And then I got working with him and I worked with Scott Mellzer and Joe Brunay and a couple of other people. And Michael Callahan was like, yeah, so I'm going to go to California. I was like, well, that's cool. Are you like you back next week or what?

He said, no, no, I'm moving. I'm leaving. I was like, oh, shit. Like the main reason I went over there because I was looking for you to be a mentor to help me grow in this position. And then he just took off. So we were kind of stuck again trying to be a way. to figure it out in her own. But it was difficult for me because I really was enjoying what I was doing in sales. I got a pipeline rhythm. I got a rhythm on doing my own demand gen. I got a rhythm

on doing other types of things, but I wanted to be able to scale it and it's something else. And we just had an opportunity to change the market on what we went after. And we're still doing that today, as a matter of fact. So that's when I kind of left it. So did you get his job when he left? No, because we kind of broke it up into a bunch of different places. I stayed in touch with him, by the way. I'm sure you did. I went out and saw him in Dallas a few times. I haven't seen him in years. Yeah. He's still a handsome rascal. I'm sure he is smart to you too. Yeah, he is. Well. So that was a good decision, and I'll grant you that, you know. You got your sales in and you were ready to move into something, you know, more global. But you're all.

You're always selling, John. You're always selling. It doesn't matter. I'm selling my kids to hang out with me. I'm selling my wife to go out to dinner with me. You're always going through. It doesn't matter what you're doing. It's a foundation for everything.

I agree with you. So give us something, you know, in terms of, like we're talking about negative feedback. What did you do that slows you down? What decision that you make that you're like, oh, maybe I shouldn't have done that. As an example, in the sales process. I learned that I applied to the product management role. One of the taping sessions was two ears, one mouth. That was the feedback.

We were doing a session together. I think Bubbo is in the room because I remember you're saying, you got the best name for your region. Don't ever change your name. Anyway, that's the Bubba story. So this one, though, was I wouldn't stop in to listen fast enough. I wasn't stopping to listen to what the customer was saying. and I've seen myself get back into that mode all the time.

Sometimes. Especially with people that work for me because I already know how to fix what they've gone through. And I already know the outcome. I've seen this movie. I know where it goes. And it's because of the experience that's built into it. And just like your kids, you know what's going to happen. Damn, they got to wreck their bike.

They got a crash. They got it. They got to burn. They got to build from it. And it's hard for me to shut up and just let it go. and then have them learn and go through it. You do a great job of that. I've never done well of that.

I wish I'd develop that into my daily, but I try with that all the time. It's better to listen and find out and then react. Yeah. Cetious. Seek first to understand. That's right. That's right.

Okay, well, let me ask you this. This is really important. What's your favorite word? Believe. Believe. Believe. Oh, I love that. I use that.

I use that for a lot of things. I've used it even as passwords before. But the reason for believe is if you don't believe in yourself, no one else is going on. Like I said, I believed I could produce my own demand gen by getting my cousin to come in to go through. I believed I could take the product that we have now and build it into something else. I believe that I could change the mind of Gardner and make us the number one in the magic quadrant. I did that. I believe that we could be able to take a product that we have in a portfolio that we

I'd make it the number one in the world and we did that. I believe that we could sell it for $2.75 billion and we could do that. You don't know unless you try and you can't try if you don't believe in yourself. Right. So the number one thing for me is always just been believe. Believe in yourself. Because again, if you don't believe, ain't nobody else going to do it for you. Well, that is a strong way to finish because the noobs can take that word, take it with them, you know, believe. You know, pick your path.

prepare for it like you did with your with your degree find a company and you stuck with that company now for 24 years and look and look where you are and it's not over yet now take a moment there you said you said prepare for it I believe that I'm going to do something but I'm going to make for damn sure that I'm more ready than you are right I'm going to put my work and I'm going to make sure I put more work than you are for it right I'm going to make sure that when we come to that meeting or we come to that whatever I'm going to know my background I'm going to know my tech. I'm going to know everything about what's going on before we come in

because I know that I'm going to win that. But it's like from sales, I learned that from sales is it's hard work. It's hard work. You have to really put in the hours. You have to put in the time. You have to be intention with everything that you do. But if you put the time and if you put the effort in, you put the work in, you'll get a lot more confidence in yourself.

You can be able to make it go where you want it to go. Yeah. Well, thanks everyone. for tuning in this week. Really went well, man. I love that. I believe. I do too. Kevin, thank you, man.

Thank you, brother. Appreciate it. It's always good to see it. All right, take care. Thanks, everybody.