Terri is joined by James Reid, Director of Commercial Sales at The M.K. Morse Companies. Together, they talk about the intersection of sales and marketing, focusing on effective communication, digital marketing, and building customer relationships online. James discusses his reliance on his marketing team for product development, treating them as a crucial part of the product team. They also discuss the significant change in buying behavior, particularly with younger buyers favoring web-based interactions and quick access to information.
The episode also touches on the collaborative efforts between sales and marketing to leverage social media to engage with younger buyers. James shares insights on using Salesforce as a CRM tool and the challenges of inputting information while balancing active sales calls. The conversation concludes on a lighter note with personal stories, favorite trips, music preferences, and book recommendations.
To connect with James, you can find him on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-reid-356891175/
To learn more about Marketing Refresh, visit: https://MarketingRefresh.com
Key Topics Discussed:
- Challenges in sales and marketing
- The evolving role of digital marketing Importance of a company’s website
- Changing dynamics in decision-making and buying behavior
- Use of Salesforce as a CRM tool Collaboration between sales
- Marketing Social media engagement with younger buyers
Full Episode Transcript
Terri Hoffman [00:00:00]:
This is B2B Marketing Methods. I’m your host, Terri Hoffman, and I’m the CEO of Marketing Refresh. Let’s face it. Embracing digital marketing is daunting. This podcast was created to make it more approachable. Join us as we talk to CEOs, sales leaders, and revenue growth experts who will share lessons learned and tips from their own journeys. Hello, everybody. Hello, and welcome to B2B Marketing Methods.
Today, I’m very excited about our guest. I’m going to introduce him in a second, but I first wanna tell you a little bit about his background. So our guest today is James Reid. James has been in very a whole variety of sales and business development leadership roles for companies that specialize in tools and hardware and other supplies for the construction industry. So he has been all over the country. He has probably been beat up and beat down by just about everybody who purchase purchases construction equipment across the country. And the main reason I was really curious to have him on today and very excited about it is I wanna talk to him about the things that we’re gonna cover, what we’re gonna talk about our challenges in kind of blending sales and marketing together, how those two areas can work together. We’re gonna talk about how salespeople use CRM, which, you know, is about as exciting as watching paint dry, but very necessary and a very important part of the forecasting and revenue projection function.
We’re gonna talk about some of his background in the Army, which I think is probably got, from my perspective, a huge tie to his success in the business world. And so we’re gonna cover those topics and probably a whole lot more than I can’t even anticipate because that’s what it’s like to talk to James Reid. You never totally know where that conversation is going, and that’s what’s fun. So, James, welcome to B2B Marketing Methods. I’m really, really pleased you could take some time to talk with me today.
James Reid [00:01:56]:
Thanks for having me, Terri. I’m pumped to be here. I’ve been looking forward to it.
Terri Hoffman [00:01:59]:
Okay. Good. Good. I know. You’re all hooked up with all the technology. I know. We’re all set.
James Reid [00:02:05]:
You’re working for me today. Headphones.
Terri Hoffman [00:02:08]:
Oh my god. This will be awesome. Okay.
James Reid [00:02:10]:
This could be awesome.
Terri Hoffman [00:02:10]:
Well, you know, the first thing I wanna do before we dive into topics is just help our audience get to know you a little bit better. I think one of the most intriguing parts about your background starts really before your professional career in the business world started. So talk, and I I’m gonna take us back here. Talk to me about your career in the military. And because I know you personally, I know your career in the military actually started way back at probably age 13 or 14.
James Reid [00:02:37]:
13.
Terri Hoffman [00:02:37]:
Go ahead. That’s right. 13. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So talk to us about your background. Tell us how you, you know, kinda took that path and what led you there.
James Reid [00:02:46]:
Yeah. I was in 8th grade, and I had this dream that I was gonna be an Army General at one point in my life. So I told my parents at age 13 that I wanted to go to military high school, and I think they about fell out of their chairs. Because what 13-year-old kid goes to their parents and says, I wanna go to military high school? No kid says that. So, they were obviously open to the idea. 1 of my grandfathers had gone to this military high school in, in Central Virginia. So we went and toured the school. I loved it.
Fell in love with it immediately. Spent 4 years going to military high school, and I loved it, which is probably not the typical case. And then I went to the Virginia Military Institute for college, which is about an hour away from where I went to high school. So I went to 4 years of military college and, loved that as well. Quite the experience. Different college experience. So I spent, you know, 4 years in military high school, 4 years in military college, and straight into the Army. And I was an Army Officer for about seven and a half years between active duty and reserves.
And so so from age 13 until I think I got out of the Army, and I was late-twenties. So it was a long experience.
Terri Hoffman [00:03:57]:
Yeah. And, I mean so anytime I spend times time with James, I probably drive him crazy because all I do is ask him questions about that experience because I just find it so interesting. I don’t have any experience being in the military, and I always just wanna learn more about what people go through and what type of training they get and how they think it has prepared them. So I pepper James with questions constantly about his his time in the military just because I find it so interesting. But, I mean, James, talk a little bit more about some of the specialized training you went through in the Army because, I mean, it was rigorous.
James Reid [00:04:33]:
Yeah. You know, I was a pretty believe it or not, and this will blow your mind there, I was a pretty shy person in high school school and college. I really was. I was not I know. I was not an outgoing person at all. Okay. So I decided when I got into the Army, I was going to you know, it’s the army slogan of the nineties, be all you can be, and I was gonna be all I could be. So I decided to go through as much training as humanly possible, do as cray you know, as much as crazy things, jumping out of airplanes, rappelling out of helicopters, anything I could possibly think of just to get me out of my shell.
And I think I even took it to the extreme where by the time I ended up getting out of the Army, I was, like, just a wild man.
Terri Hoffman [00:05:10]:
Crazy wild man.
James Reid [00:05:11]:
But I, you know, I honestly attribute that to 7 years as an Army Officer. I attribute and that you know, look. And it wasn’t always succeeding in the Army. Like, if I failed a school, I went back and did it again. If I failed it again, I went back and did it again. So I you know, it I made myself get out of my shell and turn into who I am now, and I think that I attribute just about all of that to the way I am and now my professional career in sales. So I would not be doing well in sales if I had not done that 7 years as an Army Officer for sure.
Terri Hoffman [00:05:43]:
Well, so that must because you’re in leadership and management roles in sales for the past several years, that must also be a tool that you can take in your coaching and training and development of people who report to you and work for you. Because I think one of the things that frustrates me about how salespeople are defined is that everyone thinks, oh, only certain types of people, you know, can be in sales. Now, of course, there are things that may might make you more immediately successful than other personality traits, but, like, what’s your perspective on that? How do you take what you learned from that trading you put yourself through and force yourself through to coaching your own team now?
James Reid [00:06:22]:
And that I’m glad you asked that because that’s actually up for the probably for the first time in my professional career, that’s applicable now. So I am you know, I’m 48 years old, and now I’m starting to have, you know, ladies and gentlemen, reports to me that they’re in their early to mid- twenties. Right? So and I’m, you know, I started struggling with the okay. Well, they didn’t they failed once, and now they’re, like, down in the dumps. Right? They just wanna stop. Right? And I have to pick the and my initial reaction is like, hey. Get off the ground and go back to work, and let’s go back after this. Right? And but then I have to okay.
That’s there’s a different way to coach them. You know? In my mindset, okay. In the Army, if I failed and failed and failed, I just kept doing it till I eventually passed, or someone just got sick of me and just said I passed. Right? So I tried to take these I tried to take these this younger generation that’s well, they’re extremely talented. Like, they have talents that I will never have, and I think, you know, my generation in sales leadership needs to look at them and be like, okay. Let’s find those talents that we wish we had had at their age, which is what I’m trying to do now, and it’s a lot of them. And then I just give them guidance like, guys, you’re gonna fail. You’re when you fail, we’re gonna get right back up.
We’re gonna go do it again. So I to me, the biggest trait taken away from the Army is when you fail, you’re gonna do it again. If you fail again, try again. And just trying to teach this younger generation that it’s okay to fail. Like, I think what it took Thomas Edison 300 some odd times to invent the light bulb, like, you know, I that’s that’s the type of mentality we have to have in sales because you’re gonna get the door slammed in your face. And, you know, if you’re 22 years old, brand new to sales, they you know, they’re like, oh god. I can’t handle that. Well, yeah, you can’t because the sun’s gonna come up tomorrow.
Terri Hoffman [00:07:58]:
Right. Oh, that is it’s brutal. I mean, it does take a lot of persistence and then just like an inner confidence that you can eventually figure it out. I and, really, without coaching and somebody guiding you through that, I think it’s hard to figure out on your own. Right? It is. It is. Yeah. Yes.
Terri Hoffman [00:08:15]:
That’s pretty pretty challenging. It is. What are some of the, like, in terms of the younger generation and some of the talents that you see there, what are some of the strengths that you see that maybe weren’t part of yours and my generation necessarily?
James Reid [00:08:31]:
That’s that’s a good question. Two things. The first one that comes to mind is they’re willing to think outside the box more than I was at their age. Like, I think it was the sales world was much more regimented back when I got into it in 2004. Like, it was, you know, we’re gonna we’re gonna give you a pager, and you’re gonna someone’s gonna someone’s gonna page you, and you’re gonna pull over. You try to call your customer from a pay phone. Right? And then if you earn a cell phone, we’ll give you one in a couple years. And there was a reg like, you had a sales book that was probably that thick. Right?
Terri Hoffman [00:09:01]:
Yeah.
James Reid [00:09:01]:
Customer says, no. Turn to page 642, paragraph 6, section 3 on how to respond. Right? That’s that’s basically what it was because that’s how we did it in the seventies and the eighties, and it’s gonna work in the nineties and 2000. Right? Today’s generation, like, they are quick on their feet, And they’re like, okay. Well, that didn’t work. Let’s just try this. I’ve I’ve been thinking about this last night, James. Some of my guys and guys will text me in the middle of the night.
James, I came up with this great idea last night. We got this new customer prospect in Salt Lake City, and I think he likes this. We’re gonna go after this. That’s you know? And and I’m like I revert back to the, you know, 4 inch manual. I’m like, I don’t remember that page of the manual. But the Yeah. These kids are quick. Like, they’re they’re quick to come up with solutions.
And then the second thing I love about them is their attitude for social media and social media marketing. Like, I would have never had any kind of any kind of mind for that whatsoever.
Terri Hoffman [00:09:55]:
Oh my gosh. Okay. Well, you just set up 2 great areas that I wanna go into more for sure. Because I do so as a marketer and someone who, you know, tends to first look at things from a marketing perspective, One thing that I’m always thinking about is how buying has changed. Right? How has decision-making changed? It’s way more complicated than it used to be, and I think that’s one of the reasons that that kind of book that you’re referring to jokingly, you know, that those moves won’t always work anymore because the way people go about buying has changed Yeah. So dramatically. How have you seen, like, what would your comment be on that about how decision-making and buying has changed?
James Reid [00:10:35]:
Yeah. It is night and day. And, you know, this is my 21st year as a sales professional, and it has changed, I would say, over the last 3 years the most dramatically. So the buying the buyers are younger now. Right? So the buyers, a lot of times, are in their mid to late twenties, early thirties. They relate more to okay. I need to the some of their questions now. Like, I would always approach and say, you know, let me download your pricing.
Let’s go over your price. No. Just just show me where I can click on a link and go to it. I’m like, oh, that’s right. Okay. You you would prefer. There’s less. Right? I’m the old generation.
It’s like, let’s go off a steak. Let’s go do 18 rounds of golf, and then we’ll discuss how we’re gonna set your program up. Right? And they’re like, no. Just give me a click. You could send me a coupon for Applebee’s and just send me a link where I can click on to go look at my pricing, and then we’ll call it today. Like, it’s much more computer and web-based now than purchasing, and that’s something that I’ve had to wrap my head around because I’m still you know, to me, it’s always lead with a relationship, which it still happens. Right? It’s I’m not saying it’s dead, but the generation now that’s buying, it’s it’s click on a link, download my pricing, let me look at my min’s and max’s, I’ll compare your pricing against someone else, and I’ll call you back.
Terri Hoffman [00:11:45]:
Okay. Yeah. Well and I mean, I think in a perfect world, if your company has a great value proposition, you can blend that into the relationship and not just make it about price. Right? It’s you have to blend those two together for sure.
James Reid [00:12:00]:
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I still to this day, I I will always lead with relationship. To me, that’s people buy off people that they like being around or people buy off people they like. That’s just and that that I don’t think that will ever change.
James Reid [00:12:14]:
So as long as you can still have that relationship and give them all the web-based applications that they’re looking for as, you know, as the secondary tier, then I think it’s a win-win for sure.
Terri Hoffman [00:12:24]:
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Well, let’s talk about your market that you’re selling into a little bit more too. So you primarily sell to construction companies and then contractors who are well, hold on. Let me back up even further than that. Tell us who you work for now. Talk to me.
Introduce your company. Yeah. Because I guess I lost over that. I don’t understand.
James Reid [00:12:46]:
That’s good. No. That’s fine. I work the company work is the MK Morse company. They’re based out of Canton, Ohio. It’s a family-owned manufacturer of cutting tools. So we make anything from a 100-foot, you know, industrial bandsaw blades that are 3 inches thick to cut, you know, steel beams down to anything as a blade about that big and everything in between. And we’re a true manufacturer, so, you know, we import raw materials, and then we build it from the ground up.
So it’s it’s a it’s a great company to work for. This is actually my second stent with them, so, it felt good to come home. Cannot speak highly enough about them.
Terri Hoffman [00:13:21]:
Yeah. So one thing that I love too as a marketer is any, first of all, go follow them on LinkedIn, the company, because they post the most awesome videos showing how their blades cut through different pieces of material, and it’s pretty entertaining. I think it’s it’s very entertaining. I think that’s an awesome way to demo your products and kinda blend that those tech tools and web app tools into the relationship-building that you guys are doing. I love that strategy. I love that whole video series that you guys do.
James Reid [00:13:51]:
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Terri Hoffman [00:13:52]:
It’s pretty cool. Yeah. It is cool. When you guys go to conferences and events, do you set up something similar to that in your booth? Do you guys do any of that live?
James Reid [00:14:01]:
No. There’s a couple industrial conferences like ISA that will allow larger stuff in the booth. But most of my conferences are with marketing or buying groups, and there may be some little scattered material on the table. But it’s mainly, hey. You know, thank you for your business. How are we getting to the next step? And then let’s go have a steak. That’s typically what the buying group conference are. But there are some larger industrial, especially, so we’re a worldwide manufacturer, so we have warehouses all across the world, Asia, Europe.
So especially some conferences, some larger industrial conferences in Europe and Asia, we will have larger material out where we’re doing demos and stuff. But in the States, not not as much.
Terri Hoffman [00:14:44]:
Yeah. And so who tell me a little bit about the team who works for you. How many different what do you call the job role of, like, the people who are in sales roles? Are they account managers or account reps?
James Reid [00:14:55]:
Account managers, territory account managers. Yep.
Terri Hoffman [00:14:58]:
Okay.
James Reid [00:14:58]:
Yep. And we, you know, we have we have coverage. So I manage North America, so I have Canada and, the US. So we have account. And we use a hybrid approach, so we’ll have direct employees, direct sales, and then we also have manufacturers rep agencies that work for us. So they’re basically 1099 employees that will, you know, call our customers. And with there’s a mix throughout all of North America, but we have all 50 states covered in in all nine provinces in Canada.
Terri Hoffman [00:15:23]:
Okay. And your job is to oversee the that revenue growth for Correct. Basically all of North America. Wow. Yeah. That’s a lot. And with all the construction going on There’s a lot. A lot of construction happening in the country right now. Right?
James Reid [00:15:35]:
Yes. Absolutely.
Terri Hoffman [00:15:37]:
Yeah. What are some of the the hot markets that you guys are looking to grow in right now or that are growing?
James Reid [00:15:45]:
I mean, they’re some of the hot markets right now are, and it’s it’s kind of a shift that you see going on in the United States right now. There’s a lot of people moving from the West Coast to the Southeast. There’s a lot of people from the Northern States, New York, Illinois, Ohio moving down to the South. So, in all honesty, some of the hottest the hottest market in the US right now is Nashville, Tennessee, hands down. That market is unbelievably hot. And then, Florida will always the markets every major metropolitan area in Florida will continue to be hot. It just it’s just the way it is. The major markets in Texas, whether it’s, you know, Dallas, Fort Worth, Galveston’s hot, Austin’s extremely hot.
That’s a big market for us. And then, you know, you’re gonna have the whole other markets that will always, you know, just sheer volume. You know, LA, Chicago, New York. Right? Those are just sheer volumes. But there are some areas that we’re weaker in that, you know, you wouldn’t think this is, like, something we would wanna chase immediately. But, you know, like the Great Plains area, that’s something that we’re working on. Hawaii, believe it or not. I mean, we had almost no market share in Hawaii.
That’s been a a hot market for us. We are currently in discussions with the largest distributor in the state of Alaska, working with them. So they’re, right now, I’m more on the, let’s fill in some of the missing pieces. You know, we’re trying to maintain the hot markets, but we’re also going after a couple of little little missing pieces.
Terri Hoffman [00:17:05]:
Okay. Well so it sounds like you probably have to recruit some people to be in those account manager roles. Are what what kinds of things do you look for that would make for, like, I wanna if you were gonna pitch to somebody who wanted to come to work for you, what would you tell them? Like, what are you looking for, and why should they work for you?
James Reid [00:17:26]:
I would okay. First of all, what am I looking for? And I’ve been this way since I started as a sales manager back in 04, but I don’t care if you know the product. I really don’t care because I could teach you the product. Right? All I care about is what your drive is. What’s your level of drive? Do you get up in the morning, and are you ready to roll? Are you ready to rock? You’re ready to crush it. Like, you domination 101. Like, that’s all I care about. And I can tell immediately within 30 minutes of talking to someone whether they had that mentality or not.
And it doesn’t matter the age. You know? This person could be 18. This person could be 80. Right? It doesn’t I don’t care. If you have that drive, I’ll teach you everything else. You don’t need to know my CRM system. You don’t need to know my product. You don’t need to know how to make a basic sales call.
Right? I just need you to wanna have drive, energy, enthusiasm, everything else I can teach you. Yep. And then as far as the second part, why come work for us? It’s the it’s the reason I came back to MK Morris. It’s you know, you’re you’re part of a family. I mean, we’re 467 strong, and it’s all family. Like, we’re just one giant family. No matter what, I can call the president. I can call him on a Saturday and say, hey.
I got an issue. Or I have a, you know, I have a personal problem. Can I talk to you? And that goes from the president all the way down to, you know, the shop the shop foreman and the shop leaders. Like, it’s it’s all the way in between. It’s just it’s a great organization to be part of. We make an an amazing product made in America in the Rust Belt, and that’s you know, you can hang your head on that too. It’s something to be proud of.
Terri Hoffman [00:18:53]:
Oh, for sure. Yeah. I love that you knew the exact employee count too because that actually to me, that speaks volumes. You’re not saying it’s, like, 4 or 500 people. That the fact that you knew exactly how many employees kinda said it’s how important it was for us to do.
James Reid [00:19:08]:
We just had a meeting with HR about conducting day interviews, and I saw I knew the number.
Terri Hoffman [00:19:14]:
Okay. Well, then good. Kudos because now you could tell your boss you’re paying attention to that meeting.
James Reid [00:19:18]:
Exactly. Exactly. Yep. That’s right.
Terri Hoffman [00:19:21]:
That’s hilarious. Well, so let’s let’s shift gears and talk about CRM. You just mentioned it a couple couple minutes ago. So using CRM when you’re in a sales role is important, but also, like, a pain. Right? Talk to me about how you prioritize that, how much importance you place on it. And I I know, like, if you wanna talk about the specific one you’re using, great. That’s not needed, but I think it’s just the use of a CRM in general.
James Reid [00:19:50]:
Yeah. No. I’ve no so we we currently use Salesforce, which is probably the largest CRM currently being used in the US. Yeah. So I have used, in some of the other previous, companies I work, we had used Salesforce before. And it’s Salesforce is a great tool. It really is. I think it’s one of the better CRMs personally.
The issue is, and you just you just stated it, How do I rate the importance level of my people, you know, inputting information versus actually going out and making sales calls? Right? How much time do I want them to spend in their hotel room or on their couch typing in all the information? So and that this is funny you bring this up. We meet weekly as a company with sales management to discuss, okay, what is that, you know, what is that fine point? Right. You know? So some of our senior leadership feels like it should be inputted every 32 seconds. Some of our sales leadership is like, well, you know, we can wait till the end of the week. And it literally, as a company, we went back and forth for months over this, like, how to properly what so finally, I said, guys, just give me a deadline. Like, every Monday at noon, my entire team needs to have their Salesforce or their CRM updated from the week prior. And, you know, as long as my team has an expectation, they know the deadline, they know what the expectation is, then they can hit it. Before, it was, we’ll do it when you can.
Well, what’s your version of I can’t? Is it right now, or is it I can do it in a month? Right? So Right. Yeah. It this has been going on for quite a while right now, and I’m a firm believer in the tool and the fact that if if someone leaves the company, right, they can come back after that person’s gone, whoever the new hire and we can go for this year and find all the information that we need. It’s not you know, back in the old day when the sales manual, you know, the person would leave, they turn in their truck, their car keys, and their book, and that you know, some written notes, and that’s all we had. So now you’re starting from scratch. With the CRM Right. You know, we can go back in and find all the missing information, the pertinent information. I don’t like other organizations have tend to use it as a tracking tool for salespeople, which I do not agree with.
I mean, I, like, I know whether my people are working or not. I mean, first of all, I can open up and look at their numbers. That’s that’s a big telltale side there. Right? But if it’s used properly, it’s a powerful tool. And it is just you have to find in your company the level point that, you know, how much time do I spend inputting versus how much time am I actually making calls. And we just agreed on one time, one date every week, spend that day updating it from the prior week, and it seems to be working.
Terri Hoffman [00:22:20]:
Oh, that’s that is a really good solution. I and the thing that I like is that you guys actually talked about it as a leadership team and got on the same page about it. I mean, I can’t tell you how many companies we see that spend all the money to implement it. They roll it out. They go through all the training, and then it doesn’t get used.
James Reid [00:22:36]:
Yeah. And then they dump it.
Terri Hoffman [00:22:37]:
And then they dump it. And it’s it’s such a giant waste of, like, money and time.
James Reid [00:22:43]:
Yes.
Terri Hoffman [00:22:43]:
And I think it also speaks when that happens, it kinda reveals maybe a weakness in the leadership of that company. Right? Like, if you’re gonna invest in it, let’s make it let’s make it work, and let’s figure out how to make it successful. Agree. Yeah.
James Reid [00:23:00]:
Yep. It’s tough.
Terri Hoffman [00:23:02]:
It, yeah, I mean, we use it too, and it’s hard it’s hard within our company. And we see that struggle in almost every single client that we work with Is they all have it doesn’t matter if it’s HubSpot, Salesforce, SugarCM. It does not matter. Every single company struggles with that. Do you guys have marketing campaigns and initiatives that generate leads and, kind of activity into the Salesforce system that your salespeople follow-up on? Or would you say you have target accounts that you’re kinda going after?
James Reid [00:23:34]:
Yes. Okay. Yep. Yep. So in my professional selling career, I’ve it’s basically split between two companies, and we both had CRMs. Neither one of the companies did we lean on the marketing department to provide any type of leads. What we do, and this holds true today, is I will work with marketing. We usually meet well, I’m we meet with the marketing team every week, but, on a quarterly basis, we will list the targets for that quarter.
So we just listed Q2’s, targets. We’ll sit down with marketing just so marketing knows, okay. These are our targets. And then I put under each target, here’s a list of what we need from the marketing department to make sure we hit that target. And we we both hold ourselves equally responsible if we don’t hit that target. You know? So marketing holds themselves, but I hold my team responsible because it’s really a collaboration. Right? So there’s no way we’re closing a target with 10 different items that I need without marketing’s help. Right? And there’s you know? And marketing’s not going out making sales calls, so they need us to, you know, to do that portion of it.
James Reid [00:24:36]:
So, yeah, we we do a quarterly basis. It seems to be working pretty well. I mean, do we hit all of our targets? No. Does anyone? Probably not. Right?
Terri Hoffman [00:24:43]:
Yeah. Okay. Well, that no. That’s another area where it sounds like you have a system worked out that you’re following. And, I mean, just like anything, if you’re not measuring it, you can’t improve it. If you’re measuring it, you can start improving it, and it sounds like that’s what you’re doing. You know, you’ve got a way to see, is this working? And if it’s not, how do we adjust? How do we make it better and and work better together? But, really, the main thing is you are working together. You don’t have a wall up between your 2 groups. Yeah.
James Reid [00:25:10]:
No. And you I mean, you know. I mean, there’s always been that adage in sales and marketing hate each other, and it’s it’s the constant battle. Right? That and and all honestly, look. I mean, I I’m an open book. When I was previously with MK Morris, my first tenure, that’s how it was. Right? We had an adverse relationship between sales and marketing. Today is, and it’s a lot.
You know, it just first of all, it started with senior leadership saying we’re not gonna have that relationship. And then the people we put in place, I mean, we just all linked together immediately. And to the point now where we have a group text chain with marketing and sales on it, and we text each other all the time, like, through the weekends. Like, I mean, there’ll be pictures on there. Like, people will look at my boat or I went fishing or, you know, here’s me here’s me on a roller coaster. Like, it’s that’s how close the sales and marketing team are. And then marketing will put text, you know, posts on there that, hey. You know, what do you guys think of this new packaging, Or what do you think of this? What are this new art design? And, you know, and you’ll see the guys respond for us.
So it’s it’s been extremely helpful.
Terri Hoffman [00:26:07]:
That is. I mean, it’s almost like you’re viewing that relationship between your teams the same as, like, a relationship with a client or a customer. Right? You have to you have to build that. Yeah. Yeah.
James Reid [00:26:18]:
No difference. Absolutely.
Terri Hoffman [00:26:20]:
That’s fun. What about do you guys do have you ever heard of the term sales enablement? Like, the way that a marketing department might crossover with sales. There’s kind of this crossover that a lot of companies call sales enablement. Do you guys have a lot of first of all, do you know that term? And if you don’t mind that term.
Okay. So let me explain what I mean by it first. So the way that those roles are evolving and you kinda hit it on it at the beginning with, like, you looking for this younger generation of salespeople and account managers. They’ve gotta know how to use social media. Right? They have to know how to build use that as a tool to build a relationship and to build their credibility. So sales enablement is how do we cross over? You know, does marketing write those posts for a salesperson on LinkedIn? Does marketing write the content about the proficiency of our blades and why they’re engineered and manufactured the way that they’re manufactured? Like, how does that crossover happen? Because it’s becoming much less clear what the role of a salesperson is and what the role of the marketing team is. That’s all kind of blending together. Right? Okay.
I can tell you how the answer to this.
James Reid [00:27:35]:
No. No. It is. You’re right. No. It is. Yeah. So what and we discussed this with the marketing department.
You know? So first of all, they came to the sales team and said, okay. How do we get more posts on social media, whether it be LinkedIn or whatever? Right? So and we responded. You know? So our our initial thought was, well, why aren’t you putting more posts on LinkedIn? Right. And they’re like and their response is, well, where do we get the material from? Right? We get it. The sales team’s gotta send us pictures or something. Right? So what we do now is we will use that group text chain, and our we have a person internally that handles all of our social media, and we will just send her pictures and a quick couple bullet write up, and then she’ll post it. If it’s something simple like that now if it’s something where we wanna target a specific customer, then I’ll have the sales team write it up and then have the the marketing team approve it just to make sure we didn’t write some stupid sales guy stuff in there. Right? So Yeah.
You always wanna have someone double check it, especially when sales guys are involved. So if it’s tailored if it’s pinpointed at a customer, we’ll usually do it on the sales side. But, I mean, we can bombard our internal social media person all day long with pictures and a couple hey. Post this. Post this. Post this. Post this. So and that’s and it seems to be working pretty well, and we don’t really there’s never not once have I seen an issue where we had an issue or someone was like, oh, we shouldn’t have posted that, or did someone approve that? Did someone check that? Where did that come from? We haven’t had an issue with that yet.
So it seems to be working.
Terri Hoffman [00:28:59]:
I mean, I would think if people are working in your company culture and they know
James Reid [00:29:03]:
Yeah.
Terri Hoffman [00:29:03]:
You know, they’re gonna know the line on what should be posted and what shouldn’t.
James Reid [00:29:07]:
Absolutely.
Terri Hoffman [00:29:07]:
Posted if you’ve trained them. Yeah. Absolutely. But that’s great. I I feel like so what you described at the beginning with the interaction of the marketer saying, hey. We need to post more. What do we do? And the salesperson saying, well, get to it then. Yeah.
Terri Hoffman [00:29:23]:
Right. Post more.
James Reid [00:29:24]:
Post more.
Terri Hoffman [00:29:26]:
So do you know that in most of the companies I see, that’s where things break down? They never make it past they never make it past that conversation because people are like, what? We don’t know what to do. We don’t know what the next step should be. And you just have to you just have to get creative and start. So So I think the way that you guys have have gone about it is is a huge thumbs up. It’s a plus. You know, I’m sure there are many more ways you could kind of expand upon that. But
James Reid [00:29:53]:
Oh, yeah.
Terri Hoffman [00:29:54]:
Right now, you know, that you made it past where most companies get stuck is they get stuck in that frustration, or they try to make it something bigger right out of the gate instead of just starting with something simple. Like, just get it going.
James Reid [00:30:09]:
Just get it going. Absolutely.
Terri Hoffman [00:30:11]:
Going. Progress over perfection.
James Reid [00:30:13]:
Yes. Yes. Yeah. And, you know, I quantity now. So when I was my first first time with MK Morse, you know, it’s it was social media. What’s that? Right? Like, we’re not putting any posts on Facebook. I’m like, well, it’s not just Facebook. So so now we’re at the point now where, you know, we you’ll probably see if anyone follows us on link I use LinkedIn.
So if anyone follows on LinkedIn, you’ll mostly I mean, there’s probably a minimum two posts a day from our company, which is unbelievable compared to where we were 10 years ago.
Terri Hoffman [00:30:45]:
Yeah. It’s a lot.
James Reid [00:30:46]:
Years ago.
Terri Hoffman [00:30:47]:
Do you Yeah. Do you hear back from your customers or your prospects that they’re noticing that? Like, do they see it?
James Reid [00:30:54]:
Now and then. Yeah. You know, if I do a customer-specific post, I’m always checking to see, did the customer read it? Because if the customer reads it, then they’re gonna respond. And what really gets me jazzed up is when I write something for just, you know, one of our larger customers, and they have their own internal social media department, and they’ll respond, oh, you know, thanks, James. Hashtag love them game awards. Love it. That’s, like, that’s really cool. That gets you I guess you jazzed up.
You know? Again, 5 years ago, I was like, what? Like, what do I need that for? Right? But now it’s, like, pretty cool.
Terri Hoffman [00:31:23]:
No. It makes a big difference, and it ties back to what you said. The buyers are younger. Right? The buyers are twenties, thirties, probably into their forties, but, like, any anywhere in that age range, they grew up on the Internet. They’re used to using it.
James Reid [00:31:37]:
Yes.
Terri Hoffman [00:31:38]:
They’re used to using that as a tool to engage, and they’re not just meeting it on the golf course or having a steak. Like Right. That’s definitely important.
James Reid [00:31:46]:
Yes.
Terri Hoffman [00:31:47]:
Yeah.
James Reid [00:31:48]:
Yeah.
Terri Hoffman [00:31:48]:
It that’ll and I agree with you. Like, that’ll never stop being important. It’s how these things blend together and how they evolve. And using social media to connect is really pretty important. It has to happen.
James Reid [00:32:00]:
Yes. It has to happen. And I was not a huge advocate of it when I first got into this profession, but now I’m a gigantic advocate of it. I I think it’s immensely important, especially like you said, as the buyers get younger, as our customers get younger, you know, they they expect to see more stuff like that. And it’s it’s kinda fun too.
Terri Hoffman [00:32:18]:
Yeah. Yeah. What are I mean, I feel like we’ve talked about some of the maybe some of the challenges or roadblocks you’ve had to get through. When it comes to sales and marketing, have you have you run into other challenges that have made it hard to get from, like, Point A to Point B, whatever you’re trying to accomplish? We’ve kinda talked about CRM. We talked about how sales and marketing interact. Are there other challenges you’ve run into that have, like, in your mind, maybe held back your ability to sell or for your team to be effective?
James Reid [00:32:48]:
Yeah. No. I what my philosophy is communication, and I know that’s probably shocking to you. Right? Right? So if there’s ever an issue, like, with marketing and it’s not they’re not issues. It’s just something pops up. As opposed to writing emails and texts, like, I you know, I can call the head of marketing, our our marketing director, and say, look. Here’s what I’m thinking. You know, what do you think? Let’s bounce on it.
And I’m not always right. Right? And they’re not always right. So if we can find some kind of middle ground and I don’t know if this is the case in a lot of companies, but our marketing department also leads up our product development department. So our product development guys report to the marketing people. And in all honesty, I lean them it’s probably, like, 70, 30. I lean on them 70% of the time for product development. And it’s, you know, product testing, new product ideas, packaging, artwork, pricing, promotions, launch packets, training. Like, I lean on them for that probably 70% of the time, and they’re impeccable when it comes to that.
Like, it’s they’re just geniuses, and I think they work on it, like, 24/7. So, you know, the other 30% of the time is and we’re not really we’re not really a promotion-based company. Like, we’re kinda getting away from that. I’m not a firm believer. Like, buying sending out promotions tends to cause buying habits. Right? And I don’t wanna cause buying habits. I don’t want people to wait for promotions for marketing to buy because then, you know, you’re like, you’re copying yourself at the end of every quarter. Well, we had a promo last quarter.
You know, how are we gonna copy and sell? Like, I don’t I don’t want I don’t want my sales team to have that mentality, and I don’t want my buyers to have that mentality. I want them to buy when they need to. So we really lean on new product, great pricing, and incredible availability. And so that’s why I lean on our marketing department probably 7% of the time on as far as just looking them as a product team.
Terri Hoffman [00:34:32]:
Yeah. No. I think that’s pretty common with manufacturing companies is to and I think I think the opportunity as digital marketing becomes a more important part of building relationships with customers is not just confining the marketing team to 70% product marketing. It’s like, how do we how do we add on to that and think about, like, other ways the marketing team can help us build relationships online because, you know, people you you have to build a relationship with them in person, but they’re also going to their phone and going to their computer and searching. You know?
James Reid [00:35:06]:
They’re yeah.
Terri Hoffman [00:35:07]:
They’re not just thinking, like, this is the only people we buy from. Right? Like, how do we compare this against other options and and make sure that we’re still getting the best value all the time? They’re gonna be out there further doing research and looking to make sure that they’re getting the best deal they can do.
James Reid [00:35:23]:
Absolutely. I mean, you know, first, if I meet a customer for the first time, first they’re gonna do is look at our website. That’s the very first thing they’re gonna do. Right?
Terri Hoffman [00:35:30]:
Yeah.
James Reid [00:35:31]:
And then they’re gonna see what kind of products we offer, and then the second thing is, okay. Well, let’s discuss pricing, availability, so on and so on. So but, yeah, I mean, that if I have never met anyone, I handed a business card. They’re not looking at my name. They’re looking to see my website is, and they wanna go click on it as fastly fast as possible.
Terri Hoffman [00:35:46]:
Yeah. I mean, a lot of times, I bet that happens when you’re sitting there in their office
James Reid [00:35:50]:
Oh, yeah.
Terri Hoffman [00:35:50]:
Or on-site with them. And they’re Yeah. They’re looking at it and beating you up about it or saying whatever you need to say
James Reid [00:35:55]:
Yep.
Terri Hoffman [00:35:56]:
About it. Yeah. Yeah. That’s that’s really Okay. Then I have fun questions left. So my first question is, what is your favorite trip you’ve ever taken?
James Reid [00:36:12]:
Wow. Favorite trip. Wow. I
Terri Hoffman [00:36:17]:
To Fruita, Colorado. To Fruita, Colorado. Probably
James Reid [00:36:19]:
No. Recently, as far as the timeline, like, I’d say right out of the dumpster, the 3 weeks we did in Fruita were amazing. I mean, they were so fun. Awesome. I mean, to sit in the camper and work all day and then come out of the camper and go have a cocktail at your counter Yes. And just vent on how the day went. Like, you can’t beat that. You know?
Terri Hoffman [00:36:43]:
That was pretty fun.
James Reid [00:36:44]:
That was pretty fun. That was awesome.
Terri Hoffman [00:36:45]:
By the way, I guess I guess for our listeners, we should say, James and our family
James Reid [00:36:49]:
Yes.
Terri Hoffman [00:36:50]:
We had our spouses involved in this. Yep. And we did we had an awesome time. That makes me really happy to hear that was one of your favorite trips.
James Reid [00:36:58]:
It was a blast. Yeah. Yeah. It’s so fun. Sandy and I still talk about it to this day. It was awesome.
Terri Hoffman [00:37:03]:
Next next question. This I know how much you love music. You’re gonna have so much fun with this one. Uh-oh. If there’s any musical artist or group, dead or alive, that you could see, who would it be?
James Reid [00:37:15]:
Wow. Any group. Honestly, I think Lone Star.
Terri Hoffman [00:37:20]:
Oh,
James Reid [00:37:21]:
okay. Yeah. I think Lone Star. Yeah. Alright. Yeah. Yeah. I I’m thinking about one of the songs that I’m in the shower in the car, and I’m, like, singing to myself.
James Reid [00:37:29]:
Like, it’s a lot of Lone Star.
Terri Hoffman [00:37:33]:
So you’re you spent some time in Texas. It’s coming out now.
James Reid [00:37:36]:
It is coming out.
Terri Hoffman [00:37:37]:
El Paso days are coming out.
James Reid [00:37:38]:
That’s right. Exactly. And now we’re in Tennessee, so it’s the same thing.
Terri Hoffman [00:37:42]:
Yeah. Exactly. Yep. What’s, like, a book that you find yourself recommending to people? It might be the people that work for you. It could be something that’s just for personal enjoyment. Like, do you find a book that you recommend?
James Reid [00:37:54]:
Are you familiar with Bill O’Reilly? Yeah. K. So Bill O’Reilly, most people don’t know, you know, they see him as a talking head on, you know, whatever news channel. Usually, Fox News. But he’s also a historian, and he has a series. It’s called Killing whoever. Right? So Killing Reagan, Killing Kennedy, Killing Lincoln. Right? That series is the best series I’ve ever read in my entire life.
I would highly recommend. I think, honestly, the best one was probably Killing Lincoln. And it’s not it’s not about, you know, going to kill Abraham Lincoln. It’s the background behind it and the amount of research his team does and the way he writes it is and and and killing Reagan sounds weird because, you know, no one killed Reagan. I mean but it’s about, you know, how the end of his term, he’s, you know, searched, showed signs of dementia and so on and so on. But that series as a whole is absolutely incredible, and I would recommend it to anyone.
Terri Hoffman [00:38:46]:
Anyone. It sounds pretty interesting. So does he weave in, like, the history of what was going on? Oh, yeah.
James Reid [00:38:52]:
Oh, they’re extremely well done, and they’re quick reads too. I’d say they’re, you know, 200 pages maybe. Yeah. They’re not they’re not long.
Terri Hoffman [00:38:59]:
Oh, man. Ralph would love that.
James Reid [00:39:00]:
Yeah. They’re awesome.
Terri Hoffman [00:39:01]:
Tell him about that. Yeah. And then my last question is, what is the best job you’ve ever had?
James Reid [00:39:07]:
Oh, wow. It would be a tie between being a brand new platoon leader in the army as a brand new second lieutenant because you are 21 years old, and you’re in charge of 33 men, you know, half of them being in their mid-thirties. Wow. To act like you know what you’re doing, and, that was a fun job, because I learned a lot, and it’s just fun. And second would be the job I’m in now. Like, I feel like I get to mentor and train and help people when they need it. You know, my sales team we have a, you know, we have a pretty significantly large sales team. So working with them, traveling out to work with them is probably my favorite thing.
Like, you know, getting off the airplane, they’re picking me up, and we have a whole agenda. We know what we’re doing. And, you know, and we if we win, we’re high fiving and hugs, and it’s it’s very rewarding. And if we lose, then we, you know, we still go have a stake and play 18 holes, and we still figure out a way to go back and then.
Terri Hoffman [00:39:59]:
Yeah. That well, that goes back to what you said at the beginning. You gotta get back up.
James Reid [00:40:03]:
That’s right.
Terri Hoffman [00:40:03]:
Pick yourself up and go after it again. Never take no
James Reid [00:40:06]:
you know, I tell my team every day, A B C, always be closing. And if you don’t get the C, then go back. You can start all over. Persistence. Persistence is key.
Terri Hoffman [00:40:18]:
Yep. Yeah. Well, thank you so much, James. I Ireally appreciate your time. I think you talked about a lot of things that I think a lot of other people in sales leadership roles are gonna be able to relate to, and hopefully take something away from the ways that you’ve been able to solve and maneuver different challenges you’ve run into. So thank you for sharing everything and being open. I appreciate it.
James Reid [00:40:37]:
Thanks for having me, Terri. This I’ve been excited all week. This is, like, the highlight of my week for sure.
Terri Hoffman [00:40:42]:
Good. Good. Alright. Well, take care. And, oh, wait. One final thing. If somebody wanted to follow you or get in touch with you, what would you recommend they do?
James Reid [00:40:52]:
I’m on LinkedIn. You know, just James Reid, R E I D, under MK Morse on LinkedIn. So that’s probably the easiest way.
Terri Hoffman [00:40:59]:
Okay. Great. Great. Well, thank you, James. Have a good rest of your afternoon.
James Reid [00:41:03]:
Thanks, Terri. Appreciate it.
Terri Hoffman [00:41:07]:
Thanks for listening. Please be sure to follow us on your favorite podcast channel and leave us a review. We’d love to hear from you. You can connect with me on LinkedIn or visit our website at marketingrefresh.com.
