From Humble Beginnings to Million-Dollar Sales with James Sparks #sales #salestips #ai

Perfect. James, great to see you. Appreciate you joining today. Start to tell us a little bit more about your story and some of your journey.

Absolutely. So thanks for having me, by the way. Never done one of these. Forgive me if I, you know, make any mistakes, but I appreciate you having me on. Oh, do you want me to start?

Yeah, no worries.

Yeah, with my story? Yeah, no, absolutely. So James Sparks, I'm a Senior Vice President of Sales at NetJets. I am actually an attorney by trade, which is pretty interesting. I call myself a recovering attorney because that's what we call ourselves. But I worked in sales in college, loved it, did door-to-door sales, sold security systems door-to-door, which if you've never done door-to-door sales, it'll humble you real quick. But had some success there, saw some things that, you know, I was like, hey, this is, this is a good way to get my feet wet with sales. I also realized that's not what I wanted to do with my life is walk around in the heat, the Texas heat. And so I went to school. To be a lawyer. Loved that for about 2.5 seconds or so after I became a lawyer and worked for a large telecom company in town, more on the acquisition side and the lease negotiation side, which is really more of a commission-based role, which I appreciated. And then, met a guy that worked at NetJets and I was a young lawyer that didn't want to be a lawyer and he looked like he was having a lot of fun selling jets. And so, I took him out to lunch and networked with him. And about 3 years after that, they were hiring a second salesperson. And so, So he asked me to come interview for it. And so I did. And that was February of 2020, which is an interesting time to start at a new company because a month later the world shut down. So, and NetJets shut down as well for about a month. And then as soon as people kind of got a little more comfortable, we started flying at record paces and we haven't slowed down since. So that's how I got where I'm at here.

Love it. I don't hear the attorney background as much going into sales. So that's definitely unique. We'll have to dive. deeper into that. And then, okay, so you've been now in NetJets the last 5 or 6 years or so. Tell us a little bit more about your current role. Do you have a team, uh, you know, individual contributor? What, what all are you doing there?

No, absolutely. So I run the Southeast and Arkansas— we split Arkansas— but the Southeast Texas, uh, territory of NetJets. I have a partner, a business partner, that he's my 50/50 partner. His name's Josh, and we split everything in this part of of the country. Um, and then we have a sales consultant that works for us, uh, not really for us, but works on our team. And he's more of our inside sales guy. He's, you know, calling and emailing, blasting emails, trying to help generate leads for us. We also have an account executive on our team, uh, and her name is Erin, and she works for really with our existing customers. Once Josh and I sell a customer, she brings them on and really he takes over that relationship with us. We stay in the relationship, but she helps us with the day-to-day to try to, you know, just keep those relationships good. And then she helps us with renewals. and things like that as well. So there's a team of 4 of us here, uh, and then in Columbus, Ohio, we have a team of management as well that we report to.

Okay, great. And then what does that sales process look like? I would imagine you're probably in with pretty high net worth folks that are leasing out these, these planes and what have you. But is it a short sales cycle, long sales cycle? What does that look like?

Yeah, it definitely varies. And so NetJets The nice part about NetJets is that we are the premier brand in this space. I mean, we are the gold standard of aviation. That's not just me being a sales guy. It's just we've been around since 1964. We are the oldest and largest private aviation company in the world. All of that brings name recognition, which is really, really great for us. I would say that the hard part is that there's about 1,000 small companies out there that the first words out of their mouth are, hey, we're cheaper than NetJets. And so our biggest struggle is, hey, we— I have to convince you to pay a little more sometimes for the best product. And that isn't always the easiest process. And so I'd say sales cycle-wise, I have sales that we've made same day. Typically, that is not normal. I would say the typical sales process is at 3 months to almost a year, even depending on how big the product is. So what we sell, we sell fractional ownership in brand new jets. And so that's what we specialize in. Instead of buying an entire aircraft that you probably don't need, which most people don't, you can buy to your actual need. You can buy as little as 50 hours all the way up to thousands of hours per year on a specific aircraft. We also do leasing, and then we have a jet card. It's more like a prepaid Visa card. You buy a block of hours and you fly them and you're done. And so depending on the product, like a jet card might be a day. Fractional ownership is not typically a day. I'd love for them to be that short, but, you know, I have customers that it took me 3 years to, to close. Some, some large Fortune 100s, it took me 3 years to close. And then I have companies that I've sold in, in less than a week. So it, it, it definitely varies, uh, depending on where they're at in the buying cycle, for sure.

Understood. Makes sense. And then you, you started at an interesting time. You said the beginning of, or right before COVID happened. So what, even in the last 5 years, what What have you seen change in sales? Or I mean, how have you guys had to adapt and do things differently? Because a lot's changed since all that happened. Anything come to mind for you?

Oh, absolutely. I mean, NetJets, you know, I, I will say this, COVID was terrible. We don't want that to ever happen again. But it was very beneficial to the private aviation world just because it— the way that the commercial airlines are, you know, they responded in their mess. It really pushed people to private aviation. The stat that always floated out there was about 10% of people that could afford to fly private actually flew private. I don't know what that number is today, but I promise you it's, you know, 3, 4x of that. And so COVID completely transformed us. We used to do, call it, 400 flights on a normal day, uh, in a week. We're averaging 600 to 800 flights a day right now. I mean, we have completely, just completely blown up. Our fleet has, has doubled probably in the last 6 years. Our sales teams have grown, and that doesn't mean it hasn't brought challenges. We had a lot of challenges several years ago. We didn't shut down anything, but we had to tailor some of our products because the manufacturers actually couldn't make planes fast enough for us. We were selling jets at such a high clip that the manufacturers couldn't keep up. And so that really made us kind of pull back on some other products and focus on others just while we were waiting on them to catch up. The good news is we have great manufacturer partners and they've really caught up and they've done a really good job of meeting our demand now. But we still, today, we're selling— if you came to me and wanted to buy fractional ownership, you can fly immediately, but you'd put a deposit down and you probably wouldn't have a plane available till the end of this year or next year for your actual fractional purchase just because we're so far sold out. But the good news is you can still fly immediately on one of our interim programs. Before COVID you would give me money and your plane would deliver the next week. Now it's— you're 6, 9 months out, uh, and that's not because manufacturers are behind. That is because of how much we're selling.

Sounds like a good problem to have. That's, that's amazing, amazing growth. Uh, so it seems like a pretty unique sale, unique industry, and I'm sure there's certain things that really stand out when you're looking at like the best salespeople you've been around in this industry, or maybe even on your team. What, what separates them from the rest? Is there any traits that stand out with like the best salespeople you've been around?

It's a good question. Now, I've, I've several mentors in, in our company, uh, that are in sales and then outside of our company. But fortunately for me, my father-in-law has been in sales, you know, his entire career, and he's run companies in their sales, and now he's the president of a trade association. But he, he, he has been a great person to rely on from a sales standpoint as well. But, you know, inside the company, I have a couple guys, the The gentleman that brought me onto the company, he's still, uh, and he's still here in Houston as well. But, um, his name's Kurt and he is the king of talk tracks. There is no one on this planet that has better talk tracks than he does. Um, it doesn't, it doesn't always work with everybody's style, but the man sold lots and lots of jets. I mean, he was always top 3 in our company. Um, very fast sales cycle. He wanted you, hey, if you're not buying right now, he kind of is moving on to the next guy. And not to be— not in a rude way, just like he just, he just was a hustler. Uh, he played baseball in college and he just was— he just— that was his personality. And then on the other side of it, you know, our Austin sales guy, he's, he's very different than that. And I lean on him a lot. He's been here for almost 30 years and he is the opposite of, of the, you know, the quick talk tracks. You know, he's the guy that knows everything about this industry. And so he uses his kind of intelligence. To, to make the sales. And he does— I mean, he's a top 3 sales guy every single year in our company as well. And so both of those styles have allowed me to kind of make my own. Like, I have a lot of good talk tracks, and I can be kind of the fast, you know, super fast, uh, sales guy. Then I can also speak to the industry and use that kind of intelligence of, of the, of the aviation market to, to help with sales as well. So both of those guys internally have, have have really helped me kind of get to where I'm at today.

It's great. And I think you don't want to try to replicate those people exactly, right? Because that's not your personality necessarily. So you take, you take some of the best things from, from both sides of it and, and make it your own. And, you know, use the, the lawyer background too, because that's something different that people probably remember. So no, I, I think that's key though, is you gotta learn from all those different people, but Not try to replicate it verbatim.

And you never will be.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. What was the hardest part of that transition though? Going back to the— going from CPA accounting— no, not CPA, but accounting to sales. What— I'm sure you probably made some mistakes out of the gates. It wasn't easy. It was a little awkward. But what was the hardest part of that transition for you going from your original career to sales?

No, I mean, honestly, that part wasn't that hard just because I've been a, I've been a sales type mind. I truly believe that you can't teach sales to someone that doesn't have a sales brain. I teach someone to be a very good salesperson that has a little bit of a sales brain, but there are just people that just their brains do not function the way a salesperson's functions, and mine has always functioned that way. And so that part was easy. I would say the hardest part was just being in this industry. I come from a single-parent home. My mom never made over $50,000 a year. I did not know what a private jet looked like. So, that part was the struggle for me is that, you know, Kurt, he sat me down one time and he said, the biggest thing you have to get over is you have to look someone in the eye and say, hey, this costs $5.5 million, and not apologize for it. It's going to be $5.5 million for purchase and this. I just made that number up, by the way. I don't know what it costs, $5.5 million. But he just said like those big numbers are something that you can't shy away from.

Yeah.

Because the people you're talking to, they're used to those numbers. But growing up in a world that does not— those numbers did not register with me. That, that part was a struggle for me of not, not apologizing for my pricing. And that, that's, that's what he told me. He's like, don't apologize because you, you, you have a product that is worth this much money. Don't apologize for being expensive. And I struggled with that at the beginning. I would, I would say a price and I'd be like, but you know, we could go probably lower, like immediately. That's like when I first started. And he's like, never say that again. Like, you don't wanna be a dick. Discount product. That's what you don't want to be. And there's a lot of that in this industry, and we— NetJets is not, for sure.

That's a great point. It's really showing that, that value over the price and, and not, not apologizing for it. And, and that can be tough, especially if you had a different background, to your point. And, and I'm sure you really believe in the company and the product, so it's much, much easier now as you've been there. Uh, going back a little bit to the sales process, so what— for the longer sales cycles, Where, where do things usually get stuck in the deals? Is it just keeping the momentum? Is it getting the next step? Is it, you know, you send a proposal over, get ghosted, never hear anything back? Like, where do things go off the rails or get stuck on those longer sales cycles?

Yeah, for sure. I think every salesperson, you know, even if it's 5 or 5,000 that listen to this video, will know that getting ghosted is a thing. So we get ghosted in this industry big time too. And it actually amazes me, you know, no matter how wealthy someone is, If they don't want to do it, they're just scared to tell you. And it's not everybody, but like sometimes if someone just calls me and tells me that it's, it's, they're not doing it, it's the best thing ever. I actually thank them for it. I'm like, thank you for just calling me and saying this doesn't interest you or it's not the right time. You'd be surprised how many people I'm talking all the way to the billionaire status, they'll just ignore you because they're just, they just don't, they feel awkward. They don't want to tell you that they don't want to do it. And so, you know, where things get hung up for us is just That communication breaks where they are ghosting for a little bit, but you have to stay on them. And a lot of times, you know, our clients are just super busy and not every salesperson's probably talking to someone that's busy, but then you think about who I'm selling to. I mean, there are some of these people are running Fortune 100 companies and the last thing on their mind right now is answering my email or call. And so, but where things stall is that we, we lose communication and then we aren't following up. enough. And so, and there's a fine line between following up and bugging someone, right? And that's, that's really the tough part about sales. You don't want to be, um, you know, you're not, I don't want to call it an industry because of who's listening, you know, might be listening to this, but there are certain products that like, it's just like a, everything's always on sale. You're always calling and you're, you know, they know that, right? And that's not this industry. And so you have to really be careful how much you're bugging them because you don't want to sound desperate for their business because NetJets is not desperate for their business, but we want their business. Um, but it, it's just a fine line of, of how much can I communicate? So I'd say where it stalls is that we're, we're probably not communicating enough, or we've over, overcommunicated and they've kind of shied off from it. Right. And so, but I've had people, I, I just made a sale last week that they ghosted me. I thought they were ghosting me for 4 or 5 months. And all of a sudden I just got an email that morning because he wasn't ghosting me. He just had other things on his mind and You know, but us staying in touch triggered that brain. A lot of what I do is all timing. Just, I triggered his brain with an email and immediately he was like, oh yeah, I forgot about this. Let's go. So anyways, that's where things stall for sure is not finding that balance of communication. Yeah.

And you made a great point too about people don't like to deliver bad news, whether it's somebody really high net worth or just every day you see in dating or sales. So that's where ghosting is just really, uh, people avoid delivering bad news. But for salespeople, that's not good because then you're chasing deals that are potentially never going to close, and it's like this vicious cycle. So, uh, the sooner you can get that, that news one way or the other, the better. And yeah, totally agree. There's, there's a balance of being persistent, uh, adding value. Maybe some of those emails you're talking about, you're just purely adding value, not asking for anything. Uh, it's— there's an art and a science to that for sure. And, and it's very industry-specific too, based off timing and everything you talked about. Awesome, man. Well, a little bit of a pivot here. I'm sure everyone's excited to hear about AI more. Not that we don't hear about it every day with every part of society, but there's no doubt it can be a little confusing. It's overwhelming, especially in the sales arena where you just hear about it all the time. But If you look at some of the what's going on right now, companies are bringing it in. Sales reps are really hard to change. Some people fight this to the death because they don't want to change what they're doing. But there's no doubt there's areas where it can help potentially. I was just curious, what's been your thoughts so far on AI? Does it help you with anything day to day? Have you been looking at stuff or what's been your perspective?

Oh, AI has been great personally. You know, I would say as a NetJets whole, we haven't implemented it too much yet. And that's mainly from a data security thing. I'm pretty sure that, like, that we, as you can imagine, we handle very, very important data of our customers and things like that. I think that the data security part of it, the more that AI develops, the more secure that we will have, you know, access to. So that side of things hasn't developed Yet, but from a personal side of it, I prospect with it every day. I ask Copilot, you know, give me the, the last 10, the biggest houses that sold in Houston, you know, uh, over the last month. Give me top 10 PE-backed deals that happened, and it pumps out right there for me like, hey, this, this is the— these are the firms that did it. Tell me the next— or tell me the last 10 acquisitions that happened over $100 million in, in Houston. And so I'm typing that in always and trying to get those lists. I've also used it for, you know, a big push for me being a lawyer is that is trying to get into the legal world. And so I'll, you know, law firm ABC, I will go to their website and sometimes it's hard to scroll through all of their— and so I'll throw it into AI just to help me get lists so I can prospect them easier and things like that. And so I've used AI from a prospecting side of things a lot. I would say, um, this, I hope I'm not jumping to another question of yours, but one of, you know, something you and I talked about before this was where people screw up with AI. And I'd say that what I've found is making these, these generic AI emails are like, they're killing you from the first time you send it. Like, that doesn't mean you can't use AI for emails. I absolutely do that to help you with Grammatical errors and things like that. But when I get an email from Joe Blow selling, and it, I could tell in 2 seconds that they didn't write that email. I just, it's deleted. And so, um, so for me, I'm trying to make it so they see that I'm a real person. Even if I'm using AI in the process, I don't want them to think that some AI bot is selling NetJets to them because that's not the case.

Yeah, those are some great use cases. I think if it's anything that's a manual task, right? If you're, if you're a sales leader, salesperson, something manual that takes a ton of time, like list building or doing research or some of the prospecting, that's the stuff that can really bog people down. And next thing you know, you're spending 10 or 20 hours a week doing that. And it feels good because you're like making progress, you're being busy, but is that really— a great use of your time if you could, you know, maybe click a few buttons and get 90% there without having to manually do that. So I think, you know, what is really holding you back the most throughout the week, that manual task that's adding a ton of time that isn't revenue generating. So your example was great about list building research, so fast compared to 4 or 5 years ago, uh, trying to pull that type of stuff. And then you think about preparation and follow-up. There's so many things that go into that. So that's where I think it can provide the most value for sales teams and salespeople to have more time in front of the customer. Because ultimately, like, we're all betting on ourselves that we can close deals, get it to the finish line. The more you deliver, and some of that stuff can hold you back or burn you out too. I mean, I know a lot of people that just get burned out from that side of it, and then they're not their full self when they're in front of the customer. So That's how I try to look at it. What are you thinking over the next 5 years? I mean, it's moving very rapidly. I don't think personally that it's gonna replace salespeople, but I do think the people that know how to use it to their advantage will probably float higher to the top and stay there. What do you think on that part?

And obviously it's industry specific, and I do think AI will replace some things, right? That if it's a very standard product that, you know, you don't really need to consult on it, like, hey, I wanna buy a mattress, here you go. That's not, And there's still some value there with mattress salesmen. But my point is, like, if it's, you know, with NetJets, what, what we— the value we bring is that you'll call in and think you need a 25-hour jet card, and then reality is you need this bigger product. And so, uh, and, and it might not even be on the plane that you think. And so where a NetJets salesperson is going to continue to have to adapt is that you have to use AI to your advantage. Because to your point is you might not get replaced by it, but the guy, the person that will replace you knows how to use AI. And that, that's what's been my motto is like, hey, I don't think AI will ever replace Replace my job because I don't think it can. But I do think that someone that knows how to use AI better could replace my job, you know what I mean? And I think that that is something over the next 5 years that if you, if you just, you know, resist, uh, to these technologies, you're gonna get left behind. Um, now there's still some old school salespeople in our industry and like in my company that will crush it. They still crush it. And it's just because they have a book of business that they know how to call on and they are the very best once you get 'em on the phone. But unfortunately, we might get to a point in this world where people don't want to be on the phone as much and they want to be more, you know, interacting just digitally. And that, that's going to have to be something that you're going to have to adjust to. But, you know, I'd say AI as a whole, it's, I mean, I feel like it came out of nowhere, but it, you know, in 5 years, no telling what it's going to be doing for us. And so hopefully we can use it to our advantage. And I know we will. The nice part about NetJets is that we're always out in front of just advancements with stuff like this. And we, like I said, we already have a team. I'm sure of hundreds of guys up there and girls, uh, working on ways to make NetJets better with whether it's logistics or, you know, our flight planning, things like that. We already have stuff working on that because we're always ahead of things. Even if the salesperson, you know, I'm down the totem pole, even if I don't know about it, I know for a fact that our large Berkshire Hathaway company is, is way ahead of the curve when it comes to trying to adapt to that. So I think over the next 5 years, you'll definitely see it. Just implemented where it just makes everybody better if you know how to use it properly.

Yep, no doubt. Uh, there's a quote, technology is undefeated, basically saying like if you look at all the big examples over time, you at some point you just can't fight it. Like it's gonna, it's gonna happen, so you just have to adapt to it. Like how does it help you? How does it make you better?

Uh, absolutely.

If you keep fighting it, if you're later in your career, you can probably get away with it because it won't matter. But if you're young, earlier in your career, you're probably gonna have to adapt. So Very well said. Well, a couple more questions for you just to round out here. If you had to give yourself a piece of advice to your younger self, you know, breaking into all this stuff, uh, what would that advice be? Or, or any advice that might help younger salespeople in their career?

Yeah, no, I, I was thinking about this. I mean, um, you and I had spoke about that, that question before, and I was, I, I was really thinking on, you know, I started, like I said, I, I did the door-to-door sales. I think that's super important to do some kind of Cutco, like you mentioned, we talked about before, security systems, pest control. I think that that is the best way to— now I'm not saying if you're a 40-year-old in the middle of your career, go do that. That's tough to do, right? But it is. But these commission-only roles that make you grind just turn you into a hustler. And I think that the number one thing to be successful at sales is a hustling mindset. That doesn't mean hustling like you're hustling people. That just means hustling, as in you're working hard and you're always thinking about the next. You have to be thinking about how to grow to the next step. And so, uh, Kurt, the guy that was, you know, my mentor here locally, he, um, he told me that you have 2 choices to make a lot of money in sales. You can sell something small and sell a lot of it, a whole lot of it, uh, you know, like whatever, you know, trinket that we get to sell thousands and hundreds of thousands of them to make a lot of money, or you find one big thing to sell. And so fortunately, that jet's Kind of lets me do both. We sell a lot of a very large thing. But, you know, I think when you're starting at sales, you need to be in a commission-only mindset that you, you need to struggle a little bit. I think a lot of people, they jump into sales and they're like, you know, they, they, they're surprised that they, it's not as easy as it, as it made it sound. I, I've been into companies before, not NetJets, but companies in the past where people resented the salespeople or the negotiators because they made more money. And I'm like, listen. How about you check your— you start year 1 with $0 and then you have to like every, everything that you kill, you eat. It's stressful and it's not a, it's not something that everyone can do. And so I would say a piece of advice for younger salespeople is just that you need to be in those struggle entry-level sales roles to see if you like sales, because not everybody likes sales. There's nothing wrong with having a steady salary. Knowing that when you go home at 5, you're getting paid X dollars no matter what. There's nothing wrong with that. But you know, I read Rich Dad Poor Dad. That really changed my mindset and life. And I'm sure that every salesperson here, if you haven't read it, go read it right now. And it changed my mindset of like, hey, it's okay if you have this 9 to 5 and you're— yeah, but if you have a sales mindset, you need to find a company that doesn't put a ceiling over your head and then go And then go reach whatever heights that you want to reach. And so anyways, that was kind of long-winded, but I would say the biggest advice though is, is you need to have an entry level. If you're early in your career, you need to struggle and you need to see how much it kind of sucks to do commission-only roles like Cutco or security systems, because you will learn so much about yourself and you might learn that you don't want to be in sales. That's okay too. But if you succeed in that, You're gonna make it. And, and then now go find a company that's gonna reward you. Never find a company that punishes you for more sales. That's, that's another advice. If you're in a company that, that caps you or tries to limit you, you need to get out. Take off running tomorrow is what you need to do. You need a company that treasures their sales team, which NetJets does. NetJets, all they do is compliment, you know, how hard we work. And, and, and sales go so much further in NetJets. It goes all the way down to We have sales operations, we have marketing. We really look at sales as an entire kind of company because we all are, we all are selling NetJets. And so if you're in a company that doesn't really treasure salespeople, you need to get out quick.

Totally agree that those commission-only environments can be brutal. They teach you a lot. You learn way more from the tough times than you do the good times. And yeah, the social media, social media society that we're in, it's all glamorized and you see all the good things, but you don't see all the stuff behind the scenes. And it's usually a long game in sales. You're not going to get that instant, uh, short-term wins as often. So, uh, I totally agree. All right, what, uh, closing out here, what's something you're really excited about for the rest of this year? It could be personally, professionally, anything big you're working on or really excited about.

Yeah, no, I think we're, uh, like I mentioned, you know, we're having a good year so far. Um, you know, personally, I just, uh, I want to continue to grow. NetJets is one of those careers that, like, you, you actually can be here your whole career, which is pretty crazy. Like, a lot jobs, you're always looking for the next thing. And that's— I used to be that way. And so NetJets for me is like, I'm just excited to see where we end up. Um, you know, from a professional standpoint, Houston and Texas in general is a great place to be in sales. And so I'm excited to see where we end up. And then from a personal side of things, you know, I, I have 3 young girls, you know, all under 6 years old. And so they keep me on my toes. So. I would say just making it out of the year alive is always an accomplishment on my end of things. But no, I'm excited. We're having a great year and it's a great time to be alive in sales for sure. So we're just, we're excited to keep chugging along.

Awesome, man. Well, I appreciate you joining. For those that want to get in touch with you, what's the best way? LinkedIn or how should they reach out to you?

Yeah, LinkedIn's great. I'm pretty active on LinkedIn. Um, I will say that, you know, the best way to get ahold of me is sending me a nice message and like, hey, saying like why you're connecting, shooting me an invite. And I don't know who you are. It's probably going to get a rejection just because I get a lot of them just randomly. And I'm sure you do too. Everybody does, right? And I never know who's spam and who's a bot. But, you know, if you had sales questions or, you know, questions about NetJets in general, like just, just reach out to me, shoot me a message on LinkedIn. I'd love to talk to anybody.

Awesome, man. Appreciate you joining.

Absolutely, Dustin. Have a great day.