Field Sales Leadership Guide
Welcome to the Field Sales Leadership Guide Podcast, your resource for mastering the art of outside sales leadership.
Each episode dives into different strategies and tactics from top sales leaders to drive greater success in the field.
Tune in and learn to harness your CRM data, grow territories, and uncover better opportunities.
Whether you want to improve team performance, streamline sales processes, or stay ahead of trends, this is the show for you.
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Field Sales Leadership Guide
2. Hyperlocal Field Sales Territory Planning with Johnstone Supply
In this episode, learn how Johnstone Supply manages the on and off seasons of their business and how they serve their customers during these times. Find out how this young leader is walking beside his sales team to deliver value to their customers.
Know your customer and create a relationship with them so strong that they can’t live without you. This is how Johnstone Supply has dominated the HVAC world. A hyperlocal field sales team allows them to really know their customers and be partners in service excellence. David Sioma, Regional Area Manager at Johnstone Supply Balsan Group explains their growth strategy and his approach to servant leadership with this team.
“I am doing everything I possibly can to keep my reps in one to two adjacent counties. I want them to be that hyperlocal. I want them to see their contractors at their grocery store,” David Sioma, Johnstone Supply.
00:00 - Introduction
06:20 - Johnstone company culture
08:42 - Getting hired and David’s leadership style
11:15 - Johnstone business is booming
13:13 - Hyperlocalization
22:31 - F.A.T. kids
23:26 - Managing the on and off season
29:26 - Sales leadership without data
35:42 - Our sponsor Map My Customers
Johnstone Supply https://www.johnstonesupply.com/
Follow JT Rimbey on LinkedIn or send a message: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jtrimbey/
Follow David Sioma on LinkedIn or send a message: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siomasays/
About the Podcast
We've lined up for you some of the smartest movers and shakers in sales leadership to share their formulas for success and the tricks of the trade. The Field Sales Leadership Guide podcast discusses with experienced and successful sales leaders what works and what doesn't in the sales profession. Listen in as we tap into high performing sales leaders and their passion for field sales. Join us as we pull back the curtain giving you actionable insights and strategies that you can use with your sales team.
About the Sponsor
Traditional CRM aren’t designed with outside sales reps in mind. They're too cumbersome, complex and time consuming and lack mobile-friendly options. Use Map My Customers as the CRM of record or as the tip of the spear for your existing CRM. Designed specifically for outside sales reps, Map My Customers is a mobile-first platform that strategically segments accounts, provides optimized routing and mapping tools, activity logging and much more. Get a free hands-on tour at https://smarturl.it/mmc-trial.
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Level-up your field sales strategy at mapmycustomers.com
JT Rimbey 00:01
Welcome to the field sales leadership guide podcast where we discuss with experienced and successful sales leaders what works and what doesn't in the sales professionals. Join us as we tap into high performing sales leaders and their passion for field sales. We've lined up for you some of the smartest movers and shakers in sales leadership to share their formulas for success and the tricks of the trade. Join us as we pull back the curtain giving you actionable insights and strategies that you can use with your sales team.
Hello, everyone, it is my pleasure to be here with you today for a new episode of the podcast. I am JT Rimbey. Thanks for hanging out with us. We appreciate that you're taking time to stay curious about sales leadership, and learn from the guests that we invite here to share with us. I do hope you tuned in to the last episode of the podcast, Joe McDonald from Jasper Engines, VP of Sales, was here and wow what a system he has in place. If you didn't catch it, go back and listen to their tried and tested territory groups and sales plans. He has his finger on the pulse of the Jasper customer and the secret sauce for Field Sales Rep success. The conversation was fascinating. And I learned so much about sales leadership from Joe. Be sure to check it out.
Today we get to chat with David Sioma. David is the regional area manager with the Johnstone Balsan group in the Philly area. The Balsan group is the number one region in sales and is the fastest growing team at Johnstone with over a 50% year over year growth rate just last year, and David will tell you, they're slated to do that again this year. While it will be difficult for you guys to tell on the podcast, what you will not be able to see is just how young David is. But do not be fooled. He's a seasoned pro already. He's well respected in the industry. He's got big aspirations for his career, and he's gonna go far. He's also not afraid to ask for what he wants. He's a born sales and servant leader married to an awesome wife, and about to welcome his third little one into the world in just a few short months. He's got a tremendous perspective on the market and the Johnstone long term vision. David, it's an absolute pleasure to have you on the podcast today. Thanks for joining,
David Sioma 02:22
Man JT I'm a huge fan of you, and I can't wait to do this together.
JT Rimbey 02:26
You have a unique story as to how you got into sales. David, you started working for your church, right?
David Sioma 02:33
Yeah, I started working for a church after finishing my undergrad at Eastern University outside of Philadelphia, and I had this amazing mentor who created a position as they often do for the next generation. And he invited me to come alongside and, and learn what it looks like to live and serve vocationally with the church. So it was an incredibly powerful, and I was there for several years, almost a decade. And he taught me so much on how to engage with people personally, professionally, financially, spiritually. And after that, it was time for us to move on. And I entered the sales world, I was looking for a place that would be incredibly engaging relationally, but outside of the day to day vocational life of the church. And so I ended up looking for the best fortune 500 company that was in the King of Prussia, Pennsylvania region, who would be able to provide training. That's what was recommended to me by several of the elders of the church and Carmax did that. I came in and I was introduced to Fortune 500 sales and sales training sales methodology. And again, I was granted another amazing mentor who helped me walk through that process, who knew my background was familiar with the church, but was able to help me sell cars. It's not the greatest thing to sell. But I'm a car guy. And it really helped me transition from going from the church into the secular sales world.
JT Rimbey 04:08
So if I tell you I drive a 2013 Camry, you're gonna be pretty disappointed in me.
David Sioma 04:15
No, I, I've taken several cars over 200,000 miles. I'm passionate about long term cars. And that's a great car.
JT Rimbey 04:23
Good answer. Good answer. You've been fortunate to have great mentors along the way. What did you take away from those relationships?
David Sioma 04:32
Yeah, these guys taught me a phrase years ago to lovingly engage upon another's reality. And those guys live that phrase out that in order to provide the best customer service possible, you truly have to listen to someone. You have to hear their narrative. Each is unique to their scenario and to their life. And if you do that, well, it leads to successful growth in the church. To at least a successful sales, and it's fun, you get to hear the story of someone else, you get to be a part of their narrative, whether it's in a car, whether it's in heating and air conditioning, or it's living out what it looks like to be a neighbor and a community, there's nothing more than that I want in life and to live arm-in-arm linked together and live life out as neighbors.
JT Rimbey 05:26
That is absolutely awesome. I, I've got a feeling that we're going to hear more around your actual sales leadership style foreshadowed with what you just shared there. I will also say A plus B ultimately leads to C if you're listening and you caring that ultimately builds trust, the more trust you build, sales and revenue follows. So that's fantastic. Let's go into you leave the position at the church, you get early mentoring in the sales world, having early success as an individual contributor. What prompted you to want to move into sales leadership at such a young age? And truth be told very clearly put, I hear all the time from older man, older women saying you're giving up freedom and flexibility from the individual contributor role into sales leadership. So I'm curious, just just speak a little bit to what went into that.
David Sioma 06:20
Yeah, it was named Team of the Year, two years ago, and my peers are incredible. Most of them had been with the company for five years plus, and that's unheard of in sales roles, that all 12 have done that and for multiple years, I was able to partner with my local branch and, and when that accolade of best TM of our entire company. But I got to the point where I actually had too many contractors, I had too much out relationally. And I saw that and taking a step and leadership would shrink that core back down. I work best with 12 people. And right now I'm managing 12. And certainly I will give up freedom, I'll give a success today I looked at do they all have the right insurance policies on their cars. Certainly things that I don't wake up inspired to do. But I know that if they have the right insurance, God forbid they get into an accident going to a customer they're taken care of. And whoever they hit is taken care of. But I want to lead and live with those 12 guys, and I don't want my book or my customer list to be too big.
JT Rimbey 07:26
So you just touched all around culture there. I will say I get to speak with sales leaders, executives, just about every single day, all day every day, really. And it is unheard of, to come anywhere near the rep retention numbers that you just shared. Did you mention that the average tenure is five years?
David Sioma 07:49
Everyone is five years plus on my team?
JT Rimbey 07:53
All 12? That's absolutely unheard of. Speak to the culture, then I'm getting it from you. But from a sales leadership perspective, your leaders, your executives, just overall culture of the Boston group?
David Sioma 08:06
Yeah, it certainly hasn't. From what I've been told, I've been with the company about that amount of time and they went through issues. And I think the thing that inspires me about this podcast is that they've empowered the next generation, they found the key kids, and they've grown up and a lot of these guys have grown their sales careers, and see it as a place where they can be successful for the long haul. And each of them have the support of the executive team. My owner called me today in anticipation for this interview, and talked about how excited he is for it.
JT Rimbey 08:42
That's fantastic. Honestly, this next topic, I think will actually identify and illuminate the culture at the Balsan group that you have there within the Johnstone family. You referenced me several months back when you were interviewing for this sales leadership position. You had gotten the question, Where would you like to be in 10 years? Talk through a remind everybody who asked that question to you and share your response.
David Sioma 09:11
Yeah, our group is owned by a father and a son duo. And in that interview, it was the son who asked this. He's older, of course. And I said I would like your position in 10 years. And he said, Are you sure? And I said, I think so today, but I want your position. And the way he responded is, is amazing. He said if it's the right fit for you, let's grow you so that you'd have the skills and ability to do
JT Rimbey 09:38
That's awesome. I can confidently state that there are a lot of people out there, sadly, that would find that threatening. And they might react perhaps a bit negatively as just a really, really awesome story to me that that response was embraced like it was and he felt comfortable enough to actually share it, which is awesome. That's swag.
David Sioma 10:01
Yeah, I do know a little bit outside of work and knew him beforehand. And so I kind of knew some of his disposition on it. And the more that I'm, I've climbed the ladder here, I don't know if I want it anymore. But I am so thankful that he is there to empower me to be as successful, whether it's for his company, or if it's just for the business world in general.
JT Rimbey 10:23
So you've slightly touched on this already, but you've gone from really successful individual contributor, leading your team of 12. Right now, as a still a young new leader. How do you want to lead? How do you define your management style?
David Sioma 10:39
I think that the guys who are under me, quote, unquote, are the most talented group I could possibly lead at this point. They have skills and abilities that are far beyond any technical realm, any business acumen that there could be, and what can I do in my role, to empower them to be creative, impactful salesmen in their day to day, and that's what I want to do for my leadership. I want to empower those guys to go out into the market, close deals, be neighbors and do it for the long haul.
JT Rimbey 11:15
Johnstone has had tremendous growth and a lot of changes in the last year. What has that been like for your team? Sure,
David Sioma 11:24
Johnstone was acquired in the last year. And you know that when you are acquired, it means that your growth numbers are there, the venture capital firms are looking for those. And in that acquisition, it shows corporately, and across the 400 Plus stores. We're growing, specifically of those 400 stores and about 100 ownership groups. We were recently awarded the number one ownership group in growth last year, it was 54% is insane, across 100 groups of wildly passionate, incredibly strong leadership. And yet our group came and rose to the top for quarter one of this year, we are currently at 55%. on pace to do it again. It's incredible, it feels like a rocket ship to see that growth numbers. And in a market that was historically low double digits. I don't know what the rest of the year is gonna hold. We're about to come into our busy season. You know, we sell heating and air conditioning, it's about to get hot. And I can't wait to see how we can respond to it. One of the ways that I really am excited about partnering with Johnston from this is I guess a little bit more nitty gritty is we partner with all of the vendors and several of those vendors. We're the largest in the country, Goodman Dyken, we're the largest vendor for them. Honeywell, the largest vendor for them. Everyone listening, the Honeywell thermostat probably came from us that's on your wall right now. Together, we have this incredible strength across the country with buying power, yet locally, we're able to remain nimble, have the local ownership and empowers each franchise to respond specifically to their market. And so it seems to be the best of both worlds incredible buying power while being locally nimble.
JT Rimbey 13:13
There's a Honeywell thermostat about 10 feet down the hall from me right now. You're welcome. Yep, there you go. I'm here for you. So David, a few conversations ago, you had made reference to the phrase hyperlocal service. Just take that and run with it a little bit and explain it a bit for the listeners.
David Sioma 13:34
Most of the guys that I deal with their last name is on their truck. If I had a truck, it would be Smiths services. Now I could never do what a lot of these contractors do day in and day out. But I'm inspired by what they do. They show up to people's homes. Man, I could go off on this. The show opens up people's filth. They show up to people's success. They show up into people's happy place. A lot of through COVID they were the only visitors to people's homes for several years. They physically showed up and together, they turn the wrenches they installed the actual product. It can't be done through zoom. It can't be done online. It requires them to be in person with a physical presence serving their actual neighbors with their name on their truck. It's amazing that they run around town with their actual last name and HVAC or service or mechanicals empowering their neighborhood to be more comfortable. Man If only we showed up like that with both conversations and with our friends lives. Anyways, I digress.
JT Rimbey 14:37
That's fantastic. You talk about reputation, character, identity, presence. That's awesome. In the age of acquisitions, good grief, you guys are continuing to grow like gangbusters. Part of that growth model is through acquisitions. One of the biggest challenges as a sales leader is bringing together cultures, different goals. Go to market strategies, good grief if you acquire a company that doesn't have that same hyperlocal service mentality that you just just eloquently rattled off, because you're passionate about it, and that's the culture of the Balsan group that can really be disruptive.
David Sioma 15:16
This is one of the things that keeps me up at night is who's gonna get acquired and when and am I in a position to respond appropriately. It's been amazing watching these guys, over the couple years I've been here, acquire, and then change the name and realize that was the wrong strategy across the country. So these large venture capital firms that are coming in to acquire contractors are now leaving their names, because it has a reputation and has a meaning. And so how does my sales team position themselves that when a venture capital firm comes in and purchases that contractor, that we're ready to respond, and that we don't lose it to what I think is Johnson's biggest weaknesses is the lack of a national coordinator, and a national group. I think it's our strongest strength. It's but done on a hyperlocal leadership within our ownership group. But I think our biggest weaknesses is that they're going to look for the names that they can Google. And you can't always necessarily Google each of our 100 franchises around the country at the same time, so that's on the contractor side on our side, our ownership group is ready to buy out and take over warehouses and places that have been strongholds in different markets. It's incredible to see them go out and passionately walk like literally the streets or walk the warehouses and to see their ebbs and flows and talk to the local contractors. Several of our massive contractors have actually asked, Would you be willing to buy someone out in the city? What an amazing question to be asked by your contractor. Hey, we're looking to move here. Are you looking to move here? JT, I want to move to Philadelphia, would you be willing to move to Philadelphia to continue our friendship?
JT Rimbey 17:00
Yeah, that's a great substantiation that you're, you're doing something right there. Okay, getting into some tactical things really quickly, just define for the audience. Who is your buyer? And what are they looking to solve?
David Sioma 17:12
Our contractors have had to learn to pivot, the ways where they used to buy one color, that used to be a blue symbol, like a Ford truck, they can't just be a Ford man anymore. They have to learn and have to be able to open themselves up. One of the phrases that we've been really pursuing is dual lining. Every contractor in America should be looking at dual line two different brands made on two different continents so that they can consistently surf out these waves of craziness that's happening. And so are our contractors looking to solve? Can they install equipment tomorrow? Are they buying in such ways that they can turn around and be there for their customers when they need it? The hard thing also is that, yes, we talked about equipment, and that's the great sexy thing of the HVAC is slinging equipment. A lot of our contractors are also trying to prepare themselves for what we're calling in a recession is going to be a service age. Have they set themselves up to have the skills and talents to respond no matter what the product is? And with multiple lines? Do they have multiple OEMs? Do they have multiple part products and universals, it's pretty amazing to see them adapt so quickly.
JT Rimbey 18:33
That connected the dots for me. I hope it did for our listeners. But essentially, let me take a swipe at summarizing this. The Balsan group is responsible for purchasing all necessary equipment systems units to have on hand for when a contractor goes to install at the Rimbey household. What I think I heard you say is speed and delivery matters from the contractor. So if they can get their hands on the unit that needs to be installed at the Rimbey household and the trusted sources, the Balsan group because you have it on hand ready to rock that has solidified the relationship. With Johnstone, it's trusted. You guys follow through on what you say you're going to do, and you have the product available.
David Sioma 19:18
We live in an age of instant gratification. Our contractors have to be able to respond to that. And you as the consumer are expecting that not knowing shipping container ETAs and so is Johnstone ready to respond to a contractor who needs it instantly for a homeowner like yourself.
JT Rimbey 19:37
Perfect. So let's go into maybe this isn't even the right phrase for it. But what does the sales process look like from somebody on your team actively engaging a contractor to develop that relationship? Just speak to the sales process.
David Sioma 19:54
My sales team, I really want us to identify first that we live in an age of judgment. Can we walk into a contractor trying to erase that judgment profile before we even walk in before we've googled them? Before we've reviewed them before we looked at their website, and then sit down at the table and or walk the warehouse, or a lot of my guys on a job site? Can we individually and this is my phrase, engage upon that contractor specific reality, identify how unique it is, find ways of his issues or her issues, and then look to the Johnston cooperative across the country on how to solve that, who to partner with, with to respond uniquely to them. And whether it's a one truck guy, or a 200 truck guy, or one of our customers a 10,000 truck guy. I think that that approach works for all contractors.
JT Rimbey 20:51
It does, you're giving me flashbacks to my days as a class A member of the PGA, there was specific training around moments of truth. So you call it the age of judgment that's accurate. But in the PGA terms, a moment of truth is anytime you have a significant option to engage in a relationship that is going to form opinions for the positive or for the negative. And ultimately, my guess is in this age of judgment that you're referencing. If your reps are going in there, and they're listening, and they're caring, they're going to come out with a significant moment of truth impact with that contractor.
David Sioma 21:32
Their only opinion should be can I help this contractor be more successful? Can I help this contractor achieve his goals? When he does that? They're book does that, our organization does that.
JT Rimbey 21:44
So this might be a really dumb question. But as a rep, they go into a contractor, are they physically selling an HVAC unit? When they walk in there?
David Sioma 21:58
Sometimes, sometimes, it's all around timing. If anything, it's a brand. We're in such a funny brand specific world. What brand shoes are you wearing? It still seems to matter. The car brand that you make, even though like the dirty secret and the HVAC world is that very few of those manufacturers actually manufacture it. If you look if you look through where the product comes from, and so it's a brand sale. And that's where the Johnstone, where the Johnstone vision works. We try and sell the Johnstone brand across the country.
JT Rimbey 22:31
What makes a good rep in your mind? What are the character traits that you're looking for? To either hire in a new rep or to nurture or help an existing rep grow into
David Sioma 22:44
You and I've joked about this before, but I'm looking for that FAT kid. I want him to be faithful, available, teachable. It's a phrase that we use in our church. It's a phrase that I'm not sure where it comes from. It sounds like it was used at your own wedding, right, JT.
JT Rimbey 23:00
It was. I still sometimes begrudgingly look back because I follow that charge faithfully just to use that word. But I was I was charged to be faithful, accountable and teachable by Chris Fluoro. And that stuck with me to be 15 years here in June. So yes, I am. I was charged to be FAT at my own wedding.
David Sioma 23:21
So I'm looking for those. And then I'm looking for a creative relational way to live that out.
JT Rimbey 23:26
Awesome. So relationally, much of the Map My Customer base, deploy a very relationship driven sales cycle. It's consistent face to face meetings, it is nurturing of relationships, it's following up and following through on what you said you were going to do, versus me popping in and knowing that you need a widget selling the widget never seen you again. It sounds like that's very similar. Walk me through what actually happens on a visit rep walks in? What goes down?
David Sioma 24:01
Man, I wish I could standardize this. As much as I'm a sales guy. There's a little bit of operations in me, man. It really depends. So much of the product isn't a daily cycle. Our guys have to be reactionary, like we talked about earlier to do that instant gratification. However, sometimes in responding to that immediate need, we identify something we should be working on. We can be identifying how to improve those efficiencies, how to improve their truck stock, how to improve their operations, their warehouse, their procurement path, their own procurement path. And sometimes that takes six months to end if what I'm finding is any project we work on over six months, it falls apart. And we're in the shoulder season for the HVAC industry. And so if it doesn't happen in March, it won't happen again until September. And so our guys have to set up themselves up now for a successful summer, and then again in September for a successful winter. And so that's that six month max sale cycle. Now some of I'm at a meeting yesterday with a plumbing company that has just started their HVAC division, the things we talked about, will go through the summer, as we use the phrase stumble forward, fall forward through it, because it's going to be messy. And we recognize that, and we specifically noted that, but we know that we are working towards cleaning up that process for the fall. And we're going to try a couple things out very, very gently, as we try and get through the summer.
JT Rimbey 25:37
But you use the phrase of taking trucks stock, the equipment, or the parts that somebody has, or contractor has in their stock. And you mentioned the service age earlier, is it accurate to connect those two dots?
David Sioma 25:52
For most companies, they're separate divisions have an install division and a Service Division.
JT Rimbey 25:56
Got it. But the service needs to have their trucks stocked as well. Correct. So are your reps walking through the trucks to make sure that they have all the necessary inventory?
David Sioma 26:08
Every installed truck is going to have a specific set of tools, and parts and pieces. Now some of that is on a much smaller level be on service trucks and the service trucks. Contractors don't want to walk away from service because service are the strongest highest yielding lead generation for their company. How much money do they spend on acquiring new business? Attracting that homeowner? Isn't it easier if you've been servicing that guy for 10 years? And you say, hey, JT, I've known you for 10 years, I think it's time we've been talking about it. These are the issues I've addressed them. You've paid me lots of money in between. But together, I'd like to really recommend that it's time for you to get a new system.
JT Rimbey 26:56
The division of your territories, are they covering our individual reps covering a wide swath of mileage? And I think we had chatted before that they're responsible for approximately 30 accounts each. Is that accurate?
David Sioma 27:10
Yeah, for sure. And then I am doing everything I possibly can to keep my current reps in one to two counties, adjacent counties, I want them to be that hyperlocal. I want them to see their contractors at their grocery store. Several other guys go to Wawa, welcome to Philadelphia, you know, we love our hoagies I hear them say Oh, I ran into so and so at a Wawa. And so I want them to be in the same space as their contractors down the road, I envisioned that we'll have someone a little bit more corporately as some of these larger accounts come and are covering multiple states. But right now we're doing that for management. So I have both Pennsylvania and Maryland and Delaware under me.
JT Rimbey 27:51
So 30 accounts. That's it. That is a small number of accounts, I've realized that they drive a lot of revenue from those accounts, are they responsible for finding new business?
David Sioma 28:03
We really encourage them to do that. We have a separate, like kind of pay scale for new business. I'm sure lots of other people are gonna come on this podcast and talk about NEAC and new existing attrition and churn customers. And we know that the growth as much as it's hyperlocal, and our branches have been in the locations for several years. There are always new contractors, there are always new businesses. We live in America, right? Age of capitalism, there are guys out there who have worked for these large institutions who are looking for someone to partner with. And our market is incredibly competitive. Yesterday, when I was on this meeting, I looked out across the street to another contractor and I said to the local team, I said Who's that? I don't know that name. And he said, he told me the story. And I'm like, so quick pull up my phone. I'm like they did $0 with us. And we're two minutes from the branch. What happened? And of course, there's a narrative to it, but I want that guy to go there tomorrow. And he better. Let me know what's going on? Is there an opportunity for us to partner? How are your current relationships? How are your current distributors, there will never not be more contractors out there to do business with there will never not be more opportunities. We do not grow at 54% without new accounts.
JT Rimbey 29:26
So let's talk about that real quickly. I chuckle and I laugh, remember I come from salesforce.com World's Largest CRM, where I've had many sales leaders over the years. They use phrases like if it's not in Salesforce, it didn't happen. If it's not in the CRM, it didn't happen. So I chuckle because there was just a month or so ago, you and I connected I think you were freshly coming back from Vegas with the Balsan group coming out as the number one division of Johnstone dealers and the vast majority of Johnstones they operate with spreadsheets and head sheets. That's the data coming out of me. But head sheets, notes in a sales reps head, like that's not scalable, you're still seeing rapid growth. But does data matter? And how do you lead? Without that type of data?
David Sioma 30:21
Is it embarrassing that you gave me goosebumps when you started talking about data, because part of that conversation with you and I was that you drew a map, and you said, Who's that contractor, and I didn't know. And I'm paid to know who's in every county, who's doing business, that data is not being utilized. I think that a lot of us in sales have these like, I'm from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, you know, you have these blinders, these horse blinders. And we're so focused that we often miss the people that are right on this same road we've been traveling. And so as I talked to not only Johnstones, but all of our competitors CRMs are not used. In the last several years, we have Service Titan, the fastest growing highest valued CRM in the service industry. And they've dominated the competition, almost every account that was purchased this year had to be on Service Titan, to in order to show their KPIs. So not only is it on the distributor end of lack of CRM, but it's on the local contractor. And then you see that you see the largest CRM sourcing, not being able to fully integrate with a single distributor well across the country. Our number one online, customer suppliers.com still hasn't integrated with Service Titan, the data is there. And we're catching we're playing such a catch up strategy. Some of my territory managers have said, my partner doesn't even get on their ERP, they only get on their CRM. And I think that that's the future of where CRMs are going to happen is yes, we have to have an ERP that does the data that does the warehouse receiving shipping product placement. But is it corresponding to the customer? And is it showing accurate data within the region? JT, that's why I'm so excited and honored to be working with you. Because I think that you get that you understand how important that data is in the decision making? How do we evaluate without data? How do we forecast without data? How do we sit in a parking lot, the contractor across the street doesn't shop with us? And I didn't know about it. I want to highlight that for my sales managers and say, Hey, this is the region this is the people. Have you checked yourself in your blind spots?
JT Rimbey 32:36
David, I appreciate specifically the importance of data. And I'm going to transition that data comment into really our last question and how we wrap up our meeting today. There is a whole slew of there's no easy way to put this but aging sales leaders leading outside field sales teams, not only throughout this country, but the world. And there's a lot of those companies that don't have data as to what has driven the success of the organization over the last 15, 25, 35 years. And they're going to be caught flat footed. So as I dive into the last question and advice that you might have for existing executives that are going to have this massive tidal wave of sales leader replacement, I want to end with this and just do a quick plug for a guy that I follow regularly and routinely on LinkedIn. His name is Brian Burns, he hosts the Brutal Truth podcast. He does a series of sadly, really truthful, sales realities, in the most humorous way possible. And what he highlights is, is what you look for in the next generation of sales leaders look at the individual contributors that hit their numbers, but yet routinely make time to help others hit their numbers without being asked. I love that reality of the way that he highlights that. So after that plug for Brian Burns, David, what would you coach C suite executives right now what to look for in the replacement of these, these older sales leaders?
David Sioma 34:19
I think every single person listening to this podcast is doing it on a smartphone. My generation grew up with the Apple iPod. I'm literally a product of big data. My generation is so acutely aware that data is being taken at every single time. And so data, as big as it's been, has been influencing these huge organizations to grow to leaps and bounds beyond where we're like. We're struggling socially and politically on how to handle that. And they're making decisions. And so the next generation of leaders is going to be looking for that data. They know that that data has been successful for Google, Facebook, these large institutions. And so look at your employee list. Who are your FAT kids that are intrinsically faithful, available and teachable? Are you seeing those characteristics in them? I hope that my President saw that in me. And that he also recognized and I want to recognize as well is that I'm young. I'm young in my wisdom, but I hope that I can make it up in my creativity and energy alongside them.
JT Rimbey 35:29
David, thank you so much for joining us today. It's an absolute pleasure learning from you connecting with you.
David Sioma 35:36
JT, I'm so excited to be a part of anything you're doing.
JT Rimbey 35:42
Thank you for listening today. And thank you to our sponsor, Map My Customers. Traditional CRMs, they were never designed with outside sales reps in mind. They're too cumbersome, too complex and too time consuming. Along with a glaring lack of mobile friendly options. Half of our customers use Map My Customers as the CRM of record, and the other half uses Map My Customers as the tip of the spear for their existing CRM. Designed specifically for outside sales reps, a mobile first platform helping to strategically segment accounts, routing and mapping, activity logging and much more. Remember, ease of use drives adoption. Adoption delivers data, and data delivers insights. Visit MapMyCustomers.me for more info.
Be sure to subscribe to the Field Sales Leadership Guide podcast, share with your friends, colleagues, and even family members. If you do have additional questions or comments for David or myself, send us a message. We'd love to answer your questions and hear what you think about the episode. Tune into the next episode as we bring on Paul Greenberg from Sonic Healthcare. Thanks a bunch for listening today.
