019: Value of Industry Expertise and Leveraging Video as a Sales Rep with Nathan Leary
Nathan Leary is an IT & Cybersecurity Sales Pro based in Austin, Texas. He is the host of “Security + Brews Chat”, which is a video series focused on his IT buyers; topics include the problems they face, stories from the field, and how procuring different technology solutions impact their jobs.
His guests are real IT and cybersecurity practitioners and…you guessed it: they casually chat over coffee or beer. This approach allows Nathan to ask thoughtful questions. Then, he shares the video content that he creates, which helps his selling process by positioning him as an industry expert.
On episode 019 of the #podcast, we discuss his early sales career, how he accidentally fell into IT (and loved it), plus how he thinks about video and personal branding. We also talk about giving buyers useful resources during the sales cycle, which is best done when sales partners with marketing.
Listen to the episode on iTunes here.
Show highlights:
05:00 – How Nathan got started in Sales and what was his initial interest. Nathan selling Cutco knives as first sales job to haphazardly applying for SDR jobs after college, looking for a job at a start up, which landed him accidentally ended up in IT sales.
08:00 – How Nathan came to know and love cybersecurity and information technology without a background in it. He learned from talking to customers about their problems and listening.
13:00 – Story of starting the “Security and Brews Chat”. Nathan discusses leveraging his own content in his sales process. We also touch on personal branding for him to build his credibility. Nathan’s goal is to entertain and be a valuable resource for existing and prospective buyers.
20:00 – Nathan shares his favorite resources to getting started with trending sales, marketing, and prospecting tactics like using video. Find frameworks to make your content, then sales reps can plug and chug versus reinventing the wheel. He mentions Dave Gerhardt and the team at Drift Conversational Marketing’s “Insider” resource.
22:00 – How sales can approach marketing and brand managers to do bottoms-up messaging, versus waiting for it to trickle down. Nathan recommends Jake Dunlap for messaging about enabling sales to be digital brand ambassadors.
25:00 – Nathan on personal branding. He suggests to find a company or leaders that allow you take an idea and run with it, especially as a sales rep if you’re already taking content that marketing made and make it digestible.
28:00 – Frequency of posting content in 2019 and concerns of diluting your message. How do you balance it with your job? It’s okay, if you have a full time job, not to scale your brand too fast. Slow and steady!
Find Nathan online:
Send him a message on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-h-leary/