Noob School - Episode 4: David Poe

Episode Date: July 2, 2021

John welcomes David Poe, who once slighted John by selling him a $6 beer. They discuss this fateful transaction and walk through David's life journey together, from tech sales to luxury resort real estate sales and back again to tech sales. David's recollections of time spent in specific sales territories will prove very insightful for any Noobs listening! Follow John on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/johnsterling_ Facebook: facebook.com/johnsterlingsales Twitter: twitter.com/johnsterling_ TikTok: tiktok.com/@johnsterling_

Okay, quick story about our guest, David Poe, today. I met David. He just graduated from Clemson. And as you'll see, cool guy, easy going, very easy interview. He says to me, because, hey, I work for the Greenville Tourism Board. We're doing a little party this weekend downtown. Why don't you just drive by? Drop by and say hello if you're downtown.

I'm like, well, sure, sure. So I went down there. Again, I've only interviewed David, have not offered him a job. I go down there, David's working the beer tent. And I walk up, and he just couldn't be nicer. Oh, I can't believe you came. It's wonderful. I said, great, well, let me have one of them beers.

And so he poured me a nice big beer. And I started to walk off, and he goes, hey, that's going to be $6. And I was like, what? And he goes, listen, I work for this company. I've got to collect my money. And so at that moment, I knew I was going to hire it. I was fully expecting to get that beer for free. But I thought he was going to give it to me.

But he respected the money of the place where he worked. And he had the courage to tell me that I had to pay. So I bless David Puddle. All right, welcome back to Noob School. Noob School is a podcast that's geared towards brand-new salespeople or people who want to be brand new salespeople, I'm only going to interview successful folks, people who started as noobs just like you and who've made it. And we're going to ask him a bunch of questions about what they did right and what they did wrong. So this week I've got

one of my all-time favorites, Mr. David Poe. How you doing, David? I'm doing great. Thanks, John. Awesome, awesome. Well, let's start at the beginning. I told a little story about how we met, how you wouldn't give me that free beer, you know, way back when. But we ended up, we hired you regardless of that slight. And tell me about when you started and what it was like at the beginning of your sales career with us. So I started in the fall of 1996. Yeah. And at that time, we really didn't have a very formal training program. It was like a day and a half of listening to other reps on the phone. And then here's your territory. Here's your Find your own like desk and chair and everything.

Didn't get much help in that regard. Right. But I think that was kind of part of what helped us all be successful. It was, hey, figure it out and figure it out quick. Yeah. Interesting. Okay. What was your first territory?

I do remember that. It was Kentucky, Mississippi, and Alabama. Not considered one of the stronger territories at the time. Not the heart, the heart of manufacturing? No, but I would soon discover Kentucky was surprisingly strong. And then you went to Clemson. What did you major in there? I majored in marketing.

Marketing. And were you sure you wanted to be in sales from the beginning? Or did you think about some other things? No, I knew sales from the beginning. And I think the reason I knew that was both my parents were in sales. And so it's really all I'd ever seen. You know, my dad was in sales for IBM. And my mom was a real estate agent.

And so I just saw how they went about their day, you know, all my life. Yeah. That's kind of all I ever knew. Well, you were good at it. And I wasn't a good enough student to be an engineer, becoming an attorney or doctor or anything like that. Yeah. Well, I know you had a really long run at our company.

I mean, you were with our company until, I mean, how many, is that 10 years before it got sold and then another six years after that? So I was there nine years. Nine years. And I left DataStream about a month before the N4 acquisition. was announced. What happened? Do I do something wrong?

No, that was the most nervous I've ever been in my life was the day I walked in to tell you. I was taking a new opportunity. But you'll recall, I've stumbled across a really unique opportunity. I moved to Mexico. Oh, yes. And sold resort real estate and by Edel Carmen. And you told me, man, that's awesome. He said, it was near the end of a quarter.

He said, don't tell anybody else. I don't want to be else getting any ideas. They're going to go with you. Yeah, yeah. So I didn't tell anybody. Yeah. Yeah, so you had a nine-year run with us, and then during kind of the real estate boom, you got an offer to go to Mexico and so high-end real estate.

And just as a side note, he also made it up to me by inviting me to come down and visit and, you know, paid for everything. That's right. Thank you for that. Right. Well, that's cool. And then you ended up after that, after a couple of years of successfully selling that real estate, you went back into the same kind of business, right?

Right. So I spent three years in the luxury resort real estate industry. Yeah. And that was 2006, seven, and eight. And then it became very apparent with the recession that I needed to get out of that industry. And so I went back to Infor, who had acquired data stream in the meantime. Obviously, I left on good terms, still had a lot of good friends there and made a couple of calls. And it worked out.

and I was back for another six years, so combined 15 years. 10 years. Wow. Before we get into since then, let's talk about the Colby a little bit. Anyone who's watching this podcast knows we were big believers in the Colby numbers, the Colby psychological profile test. And your exact numbers I don't completely remember, but I remember they were within the band of kind of all the people who did very well in our company.

So it's just interesting if you're listening to this, you know, if your numbers match up well for the kind of job you're looking for, it makes things easier. That you naturally will be able to do what someone asks you to do. So I don't know if you noticed that with all the other people you worked with. They were so, they were similar. Right. And I think that's probably while we all got along so well. Yeah. And it stayed in touch for so long.

Yeah. But after reading the book, I've had the idea. Sales for Noobs, absolutely. After reading Sales for Noobes, I've had the idea that maybe I should take the Colby again. And, you know, I'm almost 50 now, and my life has changed. Yeah. And probably my thoughts, and I've evolved as a person. Yeah.

And it might be different results. And it might put me right on track of where I should be for the next 10, 15 years. Well, you can do it. I mean, I remind people, anyone can do it. Colby.com, you know, go there and not very expensive. I'm not really affiliated with them directly, but... Just a big fan. Big fan, and I've taken it again, and my numbers changed a little bit.

Okay. A little bit. I'm just slightly less crazy than I was, you know, 20 years ago. Right. Well, that's cool. That's cool. And then since you left that company, you worked in another company for a number of years that did the same kind of thing.

Correct. Related. Yeah, so you've had a, we talk about this a lot, but in a perfect world, you know, someone finds a profession they're good at, and then they stick to

the area they're selling to for a long period of time and just get better and better at it. Right. That's what you did. I did. Yeah, so after I left in for, which was, you know,

a huge corporation, I went to work for a very small technology firm. Right. But we did consulting services for the same product I sold at Enfor. So it was something I was very comfortable with, had a lot of contacts already. So it made sense, and it was a fun ride.

Well, again, as in terms of lesson learns, David matched up his skill set with the right kind of job and stuck with that same industry for a long period of time, making things easier, right? I mean, it would have been harder if you'd have gone to a completely different industry. Could have done it, but it would have been difficult. So again, since then, David has, you know, he became a manager,

he became a VP, did very well along the way. And now pretty much you're developing real estate, right? Well, not really developing, but my full-time job, if you call it that, is managing my own small portfolio of rental properties. Yeah. And so I'm always trying to find new opportunities and optimize my current portfolio to get it performing better. Okay.

So I take a lot of what I've learned over the years and put it into the real estate. But the real estate's really fun and really interesting for me. And it provides passive income to pay for my lifestyle. Yeah. Wonderful. Wonderful. Cool. And then what are some of the things that you, decisions you made that you'd want to pass along to other people?

We've mentioned a couple, but things specifically that you'd say, hey, youngsters, make sure you do this. Okay. I think as it relates to your job, your corporate life, one that I really like late is bloom where you're planted. And that means if you're in your entry-level job, you're on an inside sales team, just be great at that. Don't be getting distracted by, hey, I want to be a manager. I want to go to the outside team. If you ever just disciplined and show up on time every day, make those calls every day, try to be dressed appropriately. those goals that you have will take care of themselves.

But just wherever you are, be great in that role. And your goals, you know, they'll come around eventually. Bloom where you're planted. Right. Love it. And then what about one that you would not or you tell them not to do? I would say one thing I would caution is just be, be aware and make sure you do a Colby type test, something like that. and as you recommended in the book, Sales for News, many times,

take that test and let that tell you, you know, what fits you and think about yourself at age 30, 40, 50, where you think you want to be and put together a plan to help you get there. In my case, you know, I just kind of got out of school and needed a job and I went and got one. You know, I got the jazz concert show first before I got on at Datastream because I just needed income. And then I just got lucky to land with you guys at Datastream.

stream. But I would say be more intentional about where you see yourself in 20 years and start planning as a young person to get there. I'm going to press you on that one a little bit because you know, how if someone's 20 years old, how do you get them legitimately stopping the presses just for a few minutes and saying what does 30-year-old David look like, 40-year-old David, versus we'll just see what happens. Right. I mean, it's kind of what I did. I saw what happened. That's a very fair question. If I look back at myself at age 20,

probably wasn't going to happen. You know, you couldn't, I wasn't mature enough to look at it that way. But take it from a couple of guys who were that matured that are looking back, and I would encourage, you know, do the Colby or whatever test, you know, make sense. And take advantage of technology it's available today to help guide your future. Yeah. And I would add, because I'm the same as you,

I mean, I would like, I'm happy. We're both happy. We're both happy. Things turned out pretty good. Right. But it could have been easier. It could have maybe been better. Who knows?

But take some time when you're 20 to look into this and think about it. And then you can do it. You don't have to do anything if you don't want to say. If that's what the results tell you, right? Hit the ball. Yeah. If that's your thing. Yeah.

We talked about head trash. So do you have any example of things that like when you were that age, you believe to be true that turned out they weren't? Yes. And one that you mentioned in the book, it really stood out to me was the customer is always right. I think maybe we should change that saying to the customers usually right because they usually are.

But I know I've learned the hard way. You've got a lot of customers that are just really difficult and they complain a lot. And if you know you're doing a good job for them and you're taking good care of them and they're just difficult for no good reason. They complain their dispute invoices. On occasion, it's okay to say, you know what, I'm done with you.

We've done a good job for you, and you're not holding up. You're into the deal. And you can fire a customer. And so the customer is usually right. They're not always right. Nice. That's a good one. That's a great one.

I wish I don't know that sooner. What's your favorite word? Hustle. Hustle. Love it. Love it. Hustle. And I think that's just, you know, come up, show, you know, I feel like I'm certainly not the most talented sales guy that ever come through your organization.

But when I was young, I did do a good job of giving good effort. You know, I was there early every day. And I made a point to try to be there before you. And I knew where you parked, so I'd park in that same area so that you would see your car when you arrived. But with hustle, if you can just give great effort and be disill to be about making those. phone calls, building your pipeline, you know, good things will come. Yeah, let's make the calls. I'm right.

I got it. All right. Well, David, that was fantastic. We really appreciate you being here and passing on these pearls of wisdom to the youngsters. Can I add one thing? Sure, man. You know, things I would recommend to a 20-year-old, you know, I mentioned what I would recommend work-wise, but outside of work, and you did a good job of covering this in the sales

for news. is create that habit of saving and investing very young. Because, and get a basic understanding of the magic of compounding interest because that's a beautiful thing. And when you get to be our age, you see the benefits. So if you can manage to put aside $1,000 a month or $2,000, whatever your, you know, your situation allows, the 40 and 50-year-old version of yourself is going to be very thankful that you put it away consistently every month and you let it gain interest and then the interest gain interest.

And it's pretty powerful over a long time. That's great. And let's keep the conversation on that just for a second because, again, these are things I'm recommending that these youngsters do that I didn't do very good job of when I was that age. But it's not that hard. I mean, you pick that number, 200, 800, 1,200, whatever it is, automatically comes out and goes into some kind of brokerage account. but they can be buying index funds. You don't have to think about anything. I think part of my head trash was,

well, I'm going to start doing this as soon as I figure out which stock to buy. Maybe it'll double. You know, you start thinking, it doesn't have to be that complicated. Right. Or you're going to do it after you get that new car you've always wanted. Get a basic car.

Right after Christmas, right after the house, you know. It's always something. It's head trash. So, David's right. Again, I would encourage you, even if it's $100 a month, set up some kind of automatic way, where it's going into an index fund where you're not going to touch it and it will build up

and you'll be real happy, you know, when you're 30, 40, 50 years old. Can I give you an example? Do it, man. This is something my dad gave me when I was, when I was coming out of college. And it's two scenarios. Example A is starting at age 22 and you contribute $2,000 a year for only 10 years. And we're assuming a 10% annual return on investment. So example A, age 22, 2,000 a year for 10 years, so $20,000 total outlay.

Verse, example B, you start at age 32 and contribute $2,000 a year for 34 years. So a total of $68,000 in that scenario. At age 65, in example A, you'd have $895,000. And that was you only invested $20,000 of your own. In example B, where you put in $68,000, you'd have $540,000. And so what is that, $355,000 less by starting 10 years later. Yeah. So I think that was always pretty powerful to me.

Well, it's wonderful. So I hope if our listeners get one thing out of today, that would be it, is to get that plan started, do it now, and you'll be thankful later. You can put this in a revision two of the book. We'll do it, man. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you.

I appreciate it. Okay.