Gabe Larsen, on the TR Show: Whatever It Takes

Gabe Larsen, the VP of XANT Labs, was invited on the TR show last week, hosted by Tom Alaimo, and Ryan Warner. He spoke about how his career took off at Goldman Sachs, and how he made it to closing a $10m deal in Saudi Arabia, despite being alone in a foreign land and not speaking the languages. Gabe also walked us through the “whatever it takes attitude” that he uses to get ahead in the sales game.

He recounts being sent to Saudi Arabia as a representative for Gallup, and having to adapt to the new country and habits. “I’ve never been the one to take the path of least resistante. I’ve also learned that the harder path is sometimes the path that has the greater rewards, and so it’s another thing if I can kind of keep in the back of my mind, like, I’m going because the harder it is, often, the better the prize at the end,” recounts Gabe.

Gabe Larsen on the TR show - Whatever It Takes Attitude

Great Salespeople Do Whatever It Takes to Succeed

During the TR show, Gabe made a list of most important tips and best practices that should guide a salesman in his journey. He calls this the “Whatever It Takes” mindset, and he’s got it!

“We were able to close a $1 million deal with Toyota in Saudi Arabia, and by no means did I do that alone. I mean, any time you’re closing big deals, it’s always a team effort, but there’s a couple tried and true principles,” said Gabe, on the show.

Be The Expert in the Room

The first tip he shared with the audience is – to make sure and be respected as the expert in your field, whatever you do.

“Number one, you’ve got to stay the expert in the room, right? Although you build a team, you’ve got to make sure that you kind of stay ‘the person’, says Gabe.

Persistence and Resilience is Key

At one point, being the expert on your field, whatever that is, means that you need to start reading and learning continuously, and even working long hours. You need to put in a lot of effort.

“With me being on site and the rest of the team being not on site, it really helped just push me to a level of ‘There is nobody to do this for you. You’ve got to do it yourself.’ We started small, but we got that first $1.2 million deal (…). That was a huge deal for me, but with that kind of momentum, we took it to the next level in Saudi Arabia and some of the surrounding countries,” recalls Gabe

“It’s just about being consistent. I’m a person who believes number one, if you’re consistent, you’re going to be great,” he added.

Remember Why You Are here

Sales is rarely an easy career, and there are moments when you feel like giving up. What helps is to have drive and motivation and remember what your final purpose is.

“In those moments were it was like I just wanted to curl up in ball and cry, I tried to go back to that moment of, I remember this is something that I knew, I knew it was right for me. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Right and easy are not always in the same sentence,” said Gabe.

Outwork Everybody in Your Company

If you’re going to be better than anyone else, you need to outwork everybody, added Gabe – this means sometimes you need to sacrifice your personal time.

“I’m a little later in my career, I have three kids. (…) I’m the guy who, as soon as 10 p.m. comes around, I’m back to work. One of my most productive times is about 10 to 1 a.m., and that’s where I’m going to double-down. I’m going to beat everybody because I’m going to outwork them,” added Gabe.

Keep Up to Date With The Industry

The sales industry is constantly changing, and salespeople need to consume training courses if they are to succeed. In order to stay on top of the pack, you need to continuously learn and empower yourself.

“A lot of people are like, “How did you learn about the industry?” 10 to 1 a.m., man. I mean, I read this stuff. I got 60 articles every single day, whether I’m driving, I’m on the pot, I’m walking around, I’m flashing different types of articles or things. Just 10 minutes a day I read to make sure that I’m on top of my game when it comes to sales,” adds Gabe.

Quality and Quantity in Sales

Sales is always a numbers game, however you should make sure to keep the quality of your conversations high.

“Sales comes down to two things, you guys. Quantity and quality. You either do it better, or you do more of it,” said Gabe, on the podcast.

The Three By Three Sales Model

As far as best practices go, Gabe suggests that sales reps use the ‘Three by Three’ model, which means you should split your lead outreach efforts by communication media.

“We call it the three-by-three-by-three-by-three model, that’s four threes if you couldn’t count with me. It’s just a great place to start. So, three phone calls, three voice messages, three emails, and three social touches. It’s a basic cadence, and that typically is over about a two to four-week period,” says Gabe.

Direct Mail Campaigns

Direct mail campaigns are great for animating a classic email or phone call outreach campaign.

“High-impact mailers, you guys, wow! If you haven’t checked it out, go to my LinkedIn. We just did one called the Coffee Play – it killed it. Sent it to almost 50 people. We got 37 out of 42 meetings, $700,000 in pipe. We closed a couple hundred thousand in revenue using a high-impact mailer as part of your cadence. We’ve also done some fun things with text messaging. A lot of people are like, “Hey, isn’t there problems with text messaging, TCPA compliance?” Yeah, there is, but you’ve got to be creative, jump out of the box a little bit,” concluded Gabe Larsen.

You can listen to the podcast with Gabe Larsen here.

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