Episode 90: Winning at Business and Life with Dan Wilson

This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.

Hey Pete, thanks for having me on. My name is Dan Wilson and I work for InMode. We are a medtech company in the aesthetic space. We're the fastest growing IPO in medtech in 2019. I know you're from the aesthetic space, so you probably have heard of us. And my job here is I oversee sales for the eastern half of the US. I've got a sales team of around 75 people.

Dan, it's so great to have you on the show. Question number 2: What's the best thing about working in your industry?

Well, there are a lot of good things. Absolutely love what I do. I've done this for over a decade. Um, if I had to say the best thing, because you're making me pick one, I would probably say the pace. Like, we, we move very quickly, and that's the industry as a whole. That's the salespeople, the marketing, The innovation, things change daily, often. And for someone like me and a lot of those very successful reps, this is perfect. We like new challenges to overcome. We like to, you know, go a different direction every day. But what's, what's interesting, what I've learned is that a lot of the super analytical salespeople, some of them that are excellent, don't necessarily do well here. In this space because they don't like that pace. So if you're the right type of person, I think that's absolutely— this is the best place to be.

Just having that right fit for the industry.

Sure.

That's excellent. Question number 3: I have a book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?

Can I pick 2?

Sure.

Okay, since it's your book and it says under your name that you're a stress relief expert, And we're in sales. I would say that everyone should read your chapter on stress relief and/or just have conversations with you with that to hear that very soothing voice of yours. But the other chapter that I think all business people should read is taking care of your people, taking care of your employees. And that, you know, there's a lot of different ways to do that. Rolling up the sleeves and getting dirty with them in the field Being empathetic to the plight of the salesperson. It's a very challenging job. We move very fast, as I said, so that's often a great thing, but it's also— it's tough to manage that. So, so, you know, having the empathy and just forming a relationship with your people. You know, I've got a really big team of 75, but I do feel like I know all of them, and the ones that are new that I don't know well, I'm getting to know. And I genuinely like them, and I think that they mostly genuinely like me, and that helps us because we want to work hard for each other.

I love that. And, you know, when there's that relationship, that strong relationship, that you're going to know that they have your back, you have their back, and I assume that they'll be more loyal and productive that way, correct?

Yeah, you know, that's from the top down too, Pete. Like, we, during COVID very tough times for every company in every industry. We had no layoffs. We took care of our reps and they're very loyal to us because we're very loyal to them.

Love it. Question number 4: Other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?

My advice— look, there's a lot of different things that make— and I read a lot and I talk to a lot of successful people. There's a lot of different things that make it work and make the successful people kill it, right? And do well, and no matter what the challenge is, overcome it. But I just always come back to management and the top people, the executives can't just be the type that sit in the ivory tower and, you know, shoot out emails or bark out commands. You've gotta be, you've gotta prove that you know your stuff, that you are living it with the, 'cause salespeople have a very difficult job and it's not 9 to 5, certainly not in our industry or in most sales jobs, right? Like it's a 24/7 thing. And if you're the sales manager that just sits home or sits in an office somewhere expecting the results to come in and you're just checking on the pipeline, I don't think that's going to work. You've got to like prove your value every day and be willing to do the little things.

It's very well said. I love that insight. It's so true because people have to have an appreciation— management has to have an appreciation of how hard the job of sales is. When they don't, when they think it's just an easy thing, you're just sitting back and taking orders, it's ridiculous. You're going to lose the respect of the field that way.

Yeah, and I think some managers forget how hard they worked coming up, you know, but I'll give you an example. We, during quarantine with COVID we had to adapt quickly, right? Because all of a sudden it went like overnight, every office was closed. We had no more customers to call on. So we had to on the fly devise something to do every day to get better. And we ended up like many people on Zoom, like you and I are on right now, but our sales directors and myself and the other VPs, like we were on these calls 4 or 5 hours a day putting in the same work. So it wasn't like we just said, hey, do this and this and call me in 6 weeks. You know, we were grinding with them and I think it was appreciated.

That's great. You just have to stay productive. It's what the good people do. It's in good times and bad. Question number 5, what other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?

I thought about this, you know, and I've gone back and forth because I've— there's tons of people that I've worked with in the past and currently that I think would be excellent, but I kind of want to go a different direction and have a non-sales, uh, aesthetic salesperson. So I'm going to give you 3 of my closest friends, okay, or, uh, from my, you know, from before I got into this industry. One, um, is a medical device rep who is just shifting into management now. Super smart guy that I learn a lot from every day. Chris Graff, and I can connect you to these guys later. Another is a college teammate of mine and a very good friend who is a financial analyst, Brian Moles. And the third, who I think you'll really enjoy if you can track him down, is Jason Sobosinski. He is a, like, a serial restaurateur who, uh, an entrepreneur, and he buys houses, and he, you know, he's got a huge team where restaurants and they make cheese and he's got food trucks and he has a brewery and a bar. So if you can get those 3 people, I think it would be fun.

That's awesome. Thank you for those referrals. I appreciate it. And our final question, question number 6, please tell me about your first job.

This is another one I put a little thought into because, um, you know, my first job was mowing lawns and there's just not a whole lot I can say about that. So I'm going to tell you about my first sales job. And it wasn't until I was 28— I got a late start— so, uh, as a 28-year-old, I got an entry-level sales job at a Fortune 500 company, like one of those key account manager jobs where I was calling on big bucks. And, you know, the, uh, the difference in compensation between number 1 and number 100 was like $800. There was very little dollar incentive to work hard, but What I think I picked up back then, 12 years ago now, and what I put into place in my own career, and then now as I've progressed into more managerial positions, is the competitiveness in how using little things to contests and awards and rankings and all of that stuff. Because for me back then, even though it might have only been a couple hundred bucks difference at the end of the year, I cared so much about being in the top 10 versus the bottom 10. And a lot of my friends just didn't care. They were like, why am I going to work, put in the extra hours to make that little bit extra money? So, um, my first job, I won't say the company, you can find it on LinkedIn, but compensation wasn't really there. But, you know, I learned a lot. I met some great people that I'm still friends with now. And that was my only real sales job. I did it for 2 years and then I transitioned to my to my first aesthetic device company and then to InMode.

It's a great story though, because I love how, you know, it's not just about that difference in $800 between, you know, the number 1 and number 100, but it's— you want to feel the satisfaction of being in the top 10 as opposed to the bottom 10. You know, that's— it just shows, you know, that there's more than just a few bucks that makes the difference in terms of being able to—

Yeah, you know what it is? I think most people are motivated, not all, most people are motivated by recognition in front of their peers.

Absolutely.

I learned then that I was. I thought money was it, that's the— I'm in this to make a buck, and of course that motivates me too, but it was really having my name in the all sales email, getting the award, going on stage, that kind of thing.

Love it. Dan, thank you so much for being on the show. How could people find you?

I'm easy to track down. I'm on LinkedIn. Tag me in this post. You can find me on Instagram as well. I'm easy.

Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. For more insights and ideas, please go to LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, or iTunes and search for the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.