In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews sales consultant and CEO of Sales for Startups, James Kerr-Reid. James shares a personal story of overcoming childhood deafness, highlighting how a sudden academic breakthrough boosted his confidence and set the stage for his business success. He emphasizes that sales mastery requires self‑directed study and practice, warning that few will train you adequately. For startups, he advises clarifying a clear value proposition and defining the ideal customer, ensuring the two are aligned. He recommends young professionals focus on building skills and seeking inspirational mentors rather than chasing job titles. James outlines his view of happiness as a balance between present contentment and pursuing a long‑term vision. He cites "Rich Dad Poor Dad" as his favorite book, noting its cash‑flow quadrant framework and the importance of creating assets to generate income. His favorite quote, "A paso corto, vista larga" (small steps, long vision), underscores the need for incremental progress over instant gratification, especially for tech CEOs. The episode concludes with his contact information: LinkedIn profile and the Sales for Startups website.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by WagsMedia. WagsMedia provides you with everything you need to generate more customers and grow your brand. Head on over to wagsmedia.com, W-A-G-S-M-E-D-I-A dot com, to enter a contest where you can win a free, done-for-you custom website valued at $2,500 for a limited time only. Now let's jump into the episode.
All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have James Kharid with us. He is a sales consultant and sales hacker and CEO of Sales for Startups. Which is a consultancy for B2B tech companies that want to rapidly increase their sales revenue. So welcome to the show, man.
Thanks a lot, Tyler. Great to be here.
Of course, man. Great to have you here. We'll dive into it. The first question I have for you, James, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Wow, what a good question to open. So for me, as a young kid, I had multiple health challenges. I was actually deaf until I was age 11, and for me, the big lesson is that from being bottom of the class for so many years at school, and then one year, age 11, I came top of the year in French. My point here is that from a point of despair, life can change in an instance, and ultimately success breeds confidence. So after that point of coming top of the year, my academic and then latter-day business career just went from strength to strength, and I just felt, you know, utterly confident I could achieve my goals.
And what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Yeah, this is one that often is not said by many in the sales industry, and that is that no one will truly train or support you in sales. If you want to become great at sales, you have to study and analyze it. It's this kind of commitment to study and application that drives great results. You know, one of my mentors often said to me, stop waiting for the white knight to take you to the next level in your sales career.
And what is your best piece of overall business advice? So maybe we could tailor it towards maybe like startups or tech companies. Like if somebody was just getting started, like they're they want to start a startup, like what would you tell them like first thing?
Yeah, I think the first thing is get your value proposition clear and what actually you are going to provide in value terms to that customer. And the second thing would be who is your ideal customer? What does that profile look like? And make sure that you marry the two in terms of value prop and obviously you're speaking to the right customer consistently.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
For me, it would be to build skills first and work for some inspirational bosses. I think when you're young, the job role is often what people choose. You know, they look at the job spec and they think, wow, this is a great role. But actually, the environment is often more important and it steepens your learning curve. And ultimately, if you work with some great people, they make you better as a result too.
And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Wow. Yeah, big question there. I think for me it's twofold really. One is that you have a sense of contentment in the now and in the present. And also secondly, you're going after a bigger long-term vision. So it's kind of like this balance between the left and the right hand in life. You have to have both in balance in order to be happy.
And what's the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
Yeah, I've read a lot of books in my time, some terrible, some great, but I would say that Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki is probably the best book I've read. The main reason there is that no one really teaches you about finance— sorry, financial education when you're young. And he really breaks it down into what he calls the cash flow quadrant, which is looking at income, expenditure, assets, liabilities. And you can apply that to a business context as well, in that income follows assets. So when you're creating a new strategy, a new way of doing things, piece of software, that kind of IP is really, really valuable. The more you create assets, the more income you will create.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
Yeah, I won't bring out one from Winston Churchill, as many have heard it already, but for me, I quite like one that I heard recently. It was, uh, "A paso corto, vista larga." It's by Pitbull. It means small steps, long vision. I say that because so many people, you know, under the age of 40 especially, like, you know, tech CEOs that we deal with, is a sense of like instant gratification is not the answer to your success. Like, stop chasing the shiny things and start focusing on those like small steps and, you know, those tiny incremental improvements that have a massive gain in the long term.
Yes, man. Dude, that's awesome. I love that quote. Thank you so much for coming on, man. The last question I have for you before we let you go is, where is the best place for people to find you online?
Yeah, thanks a lot, Tyler, for this. It's been great to connect. So best place is linkedin.com/in/jameskerrid. James Kerr Reid. It's quite an unusual name. You'll find me there. And then alternatively, our website, which is salesforstartups.co.uk. So it's salesforstartups.co.uk.
Perfect, man. Thanks again for hopping on. We appreciate it.
Yeah, thanks a lot, Tyler. Cheers. Bye for now.
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