Full Throttle leaders Podcast- Steve Jow

Hello everybody, Michael Filato again. Another, another episode of Full Throttle Leaders. I'm your host, Michael Filato. Obviously I'm part of Full Throttle Filato Leads, my company. You can see behind, behind me, and we do lead generation and automation and podcasts and roundtables and The reason why we got Steve on the show today is that he's been— how long you been over at TD Synnex?

Gosh, Michael, you know, I've been at TD Synnex longer than anything else, including being married and not including being alive. So I've been with TD Synnex for 35 years. I'm badge number 74, and I think we're somewhere around 22,000 employees. So it's been a long and great journey. And hey, before I do anything else, I should thank you for having me as a guest on here. I really appreciate it. Love your stuff, by the way.

Thank you, my friend. Where'd you start out as at TD? And where are you now?

Okay, so this is my first ever sales job. I started out as a junior inside sales rep. And I progressed up through the ranks, have done many things, always in sales. And so I think I found my jam. My last official sales job was the Executive Vice President of Sales. Through that time, I've led Countless mergers. I was the biggest one being the sales IMO lead between Tech Data and Senex. And so I ended up as the EVP of Sales and managed about $30 billion of the number, give or take. And since then, I've ceded my responsibilities. I've taken on new things and new roles and new exciting perspectives within the company.

And what's the biggest thing you've learned in the last 20 years of something that was really exciting and good, or a lesson learned, hey, I should never have done that?

You know, the lesson I learned is, well, the first lesson I learned is that I love sales because I love people. And the lesson I learned is never to stop learning. So the thing I think is exciting, especially in our industry, is I think it's, it's the greatest wildcat field ever because there's always a wildcat coming up. You constantly have to learn and reinvent yourself, especially in sales. And then now what we're going through with AI and sort of how the sales journey is changing, I'm still learning. So that's what I've learned is never to stop.

But let's get specific, Steve.

Sure.

Let's say I learned something like, hey, you know, I should maybe have gone that route or this route in, in as a tech decision because it put me behind 6 months. Or I made a great decision. Like, for me, okay, I didn't believe in podcasts like this. I'm like, I could do roundtables, hits 40 people at a time. But I, what I felt like, and even though you came to a couple of the roundtables, it's much more one-to-one and personal doing a podcast. One-on-one, and that's how I build a relationship to possibly do business with that person in the future. So I basically learned that podcasts, even though it's, it's, it's one-to-one, it's not as high velocity, the, the quality of the relationship and being able to use that and repurpose it on LinkedIn and YouTube is way different and sometimes better than just doing a roundtable.

So that's a great First thing I should say is, I love your podcasts. They're really interesting. I really enjoyed— thank you for the invite. So I really got a chance to see that in action. So that's a plug for you because I'm a sales guy to sales guy helping you out here. Okay, I'll give you one. So you spoke about LinkedIn. And for those of you that have noticed and follow me. Um, I've got 10,000, over 10,000 followers now. Um, and that is over the course of the last 4 years, because 4 years ago I had zero. In fact, I had no social presence at all.

Oh.

Yeah. Um, and the way it started out is, look, mergers can make for cranky people. They're tough, right? And so, um, at one point The new boss is coming in. He's talking to his people. And it was a tough day. Mergers are tough. And so my team and I are sitting around. I took everybody out for a happy hour. People are cranky. And they go, Steve, you need to do something to rally people around, rally people around the topic, right? Rally people around getting this all done. And just so happened at that point, they suggested, Why don't you use LinkedIn or Instagram or Facebook or whatever was out there? And I had never done that before. And so I told them, never done that before. They said, come on, you're everywhere. People know you. You need a tagline. And so those of you that follow me have probably caught that Best Team Ever tagline. And they said, you're always saying, you know, bringing the 2 companies together, you're creating the best team ever. You need hashtag BTE, that's your tagline. No, go write something. So I wrote something and basically through that I really discovered the power of omnichannel marketing. Basically that ability to give a consistent message internally to rally people around and externally to let people know what we're about. So I would say what I learned over the last and most recent is the power of omnichannel marketing, how these platforms that you just talked about are reaching people and helping guide them along a sales journey, a culture journey, a journey in general. So yeah.

What's, what's some new tech that you like, like whether it be AI or, or just something that you got? Like, I just ran into delfi.ai, which is like a digital twin of me. It's kind of cool. You know, I don't have any like money inside that company or not, but I'm like, hey, someone could ask me, Digital Twin, anything they want 24/7 a day, and that'd be kind of a cool thing to, to be able to do that. And then, and then if I was charging for my time, Digital Twin Mike gets $100 an hour, real Michael gets $500. I haven't done that yet, but for someone like yourself who has built a very high-ranking career, that might be something that might work. But if you ran into anything that you're like, wow, I really love using that piece of tech.

Yeah, you know, I want to be careful because, you know, we have a lot of vendors on our line card. I love them all. So all my vendors that might be listening to this, I love all you guys. How about I'll give you a segment I'm really interested in all of a sudden? Yeah, that'd be better. Studying. Okay. So as I talked to you about, I'm I'm a seller and this is my first ever sales job. And so through that time of 35 years, I've really looked at, developed, and thought about the whole sales process, right? I'm really interested in all these go-to-market AI tools, these ISVs that are out there. You know, people talk about how they're accelerating the sales process, how they're working to basically drive better sales experience for the client and better salespeople. So I've really been fascinated by all the go-to-market AI ISVs out there that are driving a better sales outcome for the seller. It basically drives faster and quicker return on investment when you invest in headcount. It basically makes people sharper in terms of their engagement with clients. And I think all those things are positive. It drives a better customer experience. So if you had to ask me one area that I'm really excited about is studying all these things.

Mm-hmm.

And I will tell you this, I'll tell you a story. So I was just at a conference, I was sitting down with Everett from Clay and we're talking about stuff and kind of talking about the same thing, this whole go-to-market AI ISV space. And he goes, oh yeah, Steve, you know, you were an early adopter. Early adopter? That was 4 years ago. Think about that ramp up to now. So yeah, anyways, how's that? That's— that, that would be what I'm just fascinated by also.

That makes sense. That makes sense. So I guess, where do you see yourself in the next 15 years? Like, do you— like, are you, are you retired in 15 years? Or like, what's your What's your, what's your dream place to end up? Your— not your career, but also just kind of a place to relax. Is it staying in where you live now? Is it going across the world? Or have you visited anything anywhere really? Like, once— your favorite place in the world to go visit?

Well, as you know, I'm a, I'm a road warrior, Michael, so I've, I've seen, uh, I think My daughter and I talked about it. Uh, you know, she had one of those maps that you put the quarters in, and, uh, I've only been not, not to like 4 states in the, uh, in the United States. So I've seen most United States. I love every place for a different reason. Um, one of my favorite places to visit has been— I love going to Spain. I love going to Japan. I, I've enjoyed those trips massively. But if you're asking me for when I expire, my retirement date, I don't know when it stops being fun. In terms of what I want to be doing 15 years from now, to be still active enough to— how about this? I've always wanted to visit the Acropolis. I want to be strong enough to be able to walk to the Acropolis.

So where's that at?

In Greece. So basically, you walk that temple in Greece, you see it. I've always been fascinated by the ancient culture. And so I'd love to see that area. But 15 years from now, and I hope to be still having as much fun as I'm having now.

So what's one sales move that really affected your sales life?

One sales move? Wow. Wow. That's—

I never asked this one on here.

So You know, a lot of times I tell stories on my posts and some of the talks I give about things that just kind of occur, and then I relate it back to a best team ever trait, what I think drives sales. You know, I'm gonna tell you a story.

Okay.

Okay. So I visited a counter of mine with a outside, a field rep, a client rep that had just start— got that role. And so we go to this event that he signed up. We didn't do any business with this customer. We decided to write the check and, you know, throw spaghetti against the wall and see if it worked, right? And they had the dine-around night. And I go, hey, I'm not gonna mention his name because he would kill me. I go, hey man, what dine-around are we doing? And he goes, oh, I didn't sign us up for that. And I go, you didn't sign us up for the dine around? I said, that's the most important event when you sign up for one of these SKOs. You get to know the executive, you get to know the top reps. Um, and he goes, I just didn't know, Steve. And I go, ah, all right, come to dinner with me. So take her out to dinner. What happens is that my competitor walks in with 6 of the execs of this company that I've never really done business with because they had sponsored a dine-around. So I go, hey man, let me teach you a lesson about branding. So I said, pulled the waiter over, I pointed at 6 or 7 items. I said, see these appetizers? Send them over that, that table over there. Appetizers start dropping. They're looking up, they're going, what's going on? Waiter points over at me. That whole table gets up, walks over, starts talking to us and go, what's going on? And I said, uh, hey, we just had these appetizers. They were so tasty, I thought you'd love them. They sat down at the table with us. And oh, by the way, that competitor that originally sponsored that dine-around, she ended up working for me. So lesson in branding. That was one of my funnest sales. How's that? Oh God, would you do that? How about, how about we turn it around? What's, what's your favorite sales?

I think I'd have to beat you up if you did that to me.

I, I, I've seen you. You're, you're a big guy. I think I'd run.

I mean, she got, she got, she got outclassed, that's for sure. You know, I haven't heard of Dine Around. So what is a Dine Around? Is that just taking people out, or, or is it kind of hosting like a little appetizer thing for people to show up at after the conference?

Yeah, it's, it's basically the, the dinner. You get seated with a couple of top salespeople or top execs. You take them to a fancy dinner. Yeah. Um, and look, I, I love eating, but I love meeting people. So I think basically building that connection was the best part of— it's the best part. Why?

That's, that's, that's— I thought I was, uh, I was that one aggressive. That's a good— that's a good one. That's a good one. That's— you, you, you, you're a little devil sometimes, aren't you?

I try, I try. That's good, man.

I, I'm impressed. Um, you know what I'm doing now is taking the, uh, event speakers or people that have the booths because they're looking for, in my case, forever for money, revenue, or look at, um, just are you going to this event and saying, hey, We're going to do a pre-event using a roundtable. So it's kind of like the Diner Round, but it's, it's virtual, right? And then we get people interested in talking to each other, and then we say, hey, let's meet the first night at this Diner Round thing, and we'll basically host you guys. So instead of having to like use the app for that, or you heard, or pass out flyers like the old school. You have that game plan of, I got 20 meetings set up, I have a diner round, and I also have another 15 showing up at my booth. Because you had a game plan using intent data, signal data, and event data. So that's kind of how I do it now. But that's the way you would have to do it back in the day only because, you know, you got to be a hustler. So that's awesome.

Yeah, you know, I gotta tell you, um, and again, I appreciate it when you invited me to your roundtable. The thing I loved about your roundtable was you really fostered that. And I mean, as we all know, this is a big factor of successful salespeople. You really fostered authenticity and openness in your roundtable. I mean, people were open. They talked about, you know, common challenges and things that kind of face all of us revenue sellers and etc. And so I thought that was really good. Um, hey, I, I know Full Throttle's a business, but it's also pretty fun what you do. So just wanted to give you kudos there, man.

I appreciate you. I mean, I, I don't— I used to do like just intros of everybody, and I thought that was way too boring, you know? It's like, no one's gonna sit here for 40 intros. This is what you do, and this is why I'm here. It needs to talk about practices, strategies, tactics, tips, and it needs to be authentic. It can't just be, I do this, I, I, I, we, we, we. No one wants to hear it. So I learned, like, that's the lesson learned for me. It's like, don't make this into a networking event. Make it into tips, tactics, and strategies. You could, you guys could sell each other, do what you want in these roundtables. But put the information in the chat. You guys talk on your own. You guys do your own roundtable. But the roundtables I want to produce is educational, right? And I don't want to be educational where Steve and Michael are talking the whole time and pitching or doing a webinar. I don't think webinars are that great either, to be honest with you, unless they're dying to like look at your software tech. My whole thing is when you're trying to build a top of funnel. Give versus ask. I don't know what you're looking for, so why am I selling, you know, just pitching a webinar? You have no idea who you're talking to or what their problems are. So there's a lot of people doing sales the wrong way. And to me, you give versus ask. And the whole idea of like why we're doing this podcast is that you showed up to my roundtable because I asked you to be a guest. You showed up to be my podcast because I asked you to be a guest. I'm giving you something and not asking. You're giving me your time, I'm giving you my time. So it's like, it's a win-win approach. And that's the only thing in my life that makes sense, you know, is that win-win approach.

Yeah. Why— who—

go ahead.

No, go ahead.

Wait, no, you go ahead.

I was about to say, uh, you know, I was, I was at the, um, I was at an event and they had a speaker that was speaking about authenticity in the sales process, right? And like I said, uh, so it's a pretty interesting stat, um, you know, that buyers, when they self-serve and they will do their own research, they actually gravitate toward reviews that are between 4.2 and 4.5 versus— Yeah, 5 stars.

No, because they think it's ridiculous. I heard that too.

Yeah.

So anyways, you can't have Your worst ones are going to be someone's 5.0 because it looks like someone seeded it or you paid people to do it. I mean, I don't even know what reviews to even count on anymore on half these things that you look at, like Amazon stuff. Um, I, I gotta go with my gut, but it's like, who's— there's companies that do bots and automation, and that's why I don't use automation bots for my stuff. That's that. Makes it look like I'm talking to you, but it's AI. My whole, my whole thing about the automation is just crack the door open and get the discovery call booked or the roundtable booked or the podcast booked. Then you do this. This is called business dating, just like you would if you were dating.

Yeah. Yeah. No, I, I like, like I said, I like your approach. Um, you know, I know you're focused on the top of the funnel. Right.

Um, and for, for, for what I do, but I also, I do the whole thing for me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, all good, all good, man. But you were gonna ask me a question. What's up?

No, I just wanted to see what, what sales philosophy you like the best out of all the years. I mean, I took Miller Heiman and Challenger and all these other ones. Which one? Which— I mean, I never gravitated just to one. I took a little pieces and parts. I think that whole dine-around idea is something that probably came from you and from some sort of, um, maybe training you had over the years. What's, what's a tip or tactic or strategy that you can share that you learned in sales?

Ah, that's a tough question because, um, like you, I've, I've done it too. I've read Miller Heiman, you know, Challenger.

Yeah, Challenger I like too.

Yeah, Challenger, Spicer. I mean, and like you, I They got to be nuanced because they all make sense, by the way, right?

Different parts.

Different parts of it. I think, you know, I think when I think about those sort of sales philosophies, sales rubrics, or whatever you want to call them, there's good things in each of them. And like any— I know you like sports, you know, I like sports too. I'll use poker. I like poker. Okay, and I always think to myself, there's two ways to play poker. There's GTO, which is basically the perfect move and countermove, right? And then there's exploitive, right?

And what's GTO mean?

Game theory optimization. So just like game theory optimization. Okay. So and I'll give you kind of a background on that. In chess, there's a perfect move. for every counter move. And so basically a chess game could go on forever if everybody kind of understands that perfect move.

That's what Brazilian jiu-jitsu is. That's why I do it. It's chess.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's chess. That's right. Um, the second part of it is, um, exploitive. That's the other end of the spectrum where you say like, okay, play the player. What things— what, what mistakes are you going to make that I could— I hate to say it, but exploit, right? And so when I say that, in order to be able to do that, you have to have a whole range of tools in your tool bag to say, oh, this is Michael's move, this is what I'm going to use, you know. So to your point about sales strategies, going back to that, you got to have that. You got to have enough quivers in your arrow, and you got to be savvy enough to know what arrow to pull out to shoot. And they got to be nuanced to you. They got to be authentic. They got to be real. It's got to, it's got to be Oh, I'm not following a Challenger method because that's what it told me. It's gotta be, here's a Challenger method because it feels right for me in this situation. Very situational. Sales are very situational.

Well, Steve, I appreciate your time today. I'm glad that we got to connect on the podcast. Um, how do people get ahold of you? Your email is on the screen here, but who do you want to get ahold of you at this point?

Anybody that wants to do business with TD Synnex, I will tell you that I've taken on a role where I'm helping to drive digital adoption of our tools out there. TD Synnex has great platforms, and it's not just e-com platforms, it's platforms around enablement of the business, it's platforms to help you do everything from marketing as a service all the way to basically learning. we have a suite of services that actually meet you where you live. So basically, you can start accessing our applications within things such as Teams or Zooms or etc., wherever you live without having to swivel chair. So if you want to talk about that, reach out to me at steve.jao@tdcinex.com. We got a great team to help you with that. And man, I appreciate you, Michael. I love being part of Full Throttle Leads here. I love talking to you because I admire you as a salesperson also.

So thanks, brother. I admire you too. Thanks for your time.

Appreciate it.