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Welcome to Part 2 of our new mini-series, Real Talk with a B2B Sales Leader, a three-part interview series designed to get the perspectives of veteran B2B sales leaders from varying industries. Today's episode features Fitzmark Business Development Team Leader Matt Freel. We're thrilled to have Matt joining us
Matt has spent the last 2+ years serving as running business development at Fitzmark's Indianapolis office, where he and his small team of logistics brokers have helped propel the company to over $70 million dollars in revenue during the last fiscal year.
Our discussion with Matt focuses on the logistics broker perspective in sales leadership -- what it takes to build a great team, keep them motivated and lead with total effectiveness.
Our deepest thanks to Matt for participating in this interview. If you lead a team of logistics brokers, you don’t want to miss this 15 minute interview. Just click the link to listen in.
Matt Freel. Bus. Development Team Leader at Fitzmark
Listen to Full Interview
Interview Topics
1. Matt’s Background with Fitzmark: 0:00 - 0:56.
Synopsis: Fitzmark has been around for 9 years and last year was a $70 million dollar company.
Matt leads a team of 7 brokers in Fitzmark’s Indianapolis office, with the current focus on becoming as efficient as possible, while bringing in hungry, talented new team members to help scale the company’s business development efforts.
2. Desirable Attributes in a Logistics Broker: 0:56 - 2:51
Synopsis: Matt’s biggest thing he looks for is competitiveness - and in particular, how hungry someone stays when they achieve success.
A great insight from Matt’s mentor -- the best logistics brokers are those who not only figure out how to dig through tough times, but can continue to persevere and keep pushing when they see success, rather than slinking back in their chair and enjoying the fruits of their labor.
In essence, Matt is looking for people who are aggressive, competitive, passionate and really driven to do something great and reach long-term personal and professional goals.
3. How Matt Builds Culture: 2:51 - 4:36
Synopsis: Culture-building starts with internal competitions. Matt will challenge his brokers: Who can make the most dials over 1-2 hours? Who can get the most people on the phone? Brief, but effective competitions are a great way to build a high-energy atmosphere.
Matt places a focus on finding wins as often as possible. Short-term competitions are a great way of creating a sense of urgency, so there’s something in the very near future to fight for. Brokers want bragging rights.
Another huge thing is numbers.
Numbers talk, so Fitzmark's business development team are always looking to prove themselves through numbers and what they’re saying. Fitzmark brokers all have goals they’re supposed to be meeting daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly.
According to Matt, that’s an area where Ambition has been hugely helpful, showing progress throughout the day and making it public to the entire office when an individual or the team hits a goal.
4. Recognition and Incentives: 4:36 - 8:13
Synopsis: Matt wants to award people who go above and beyond the call of duty. The company as a whole wants to celebrate people who don’t just hit their standard daily goals, but hit a stretch goal or lead the office.
In terms of incentives, recognition goes across a lot of different realms. For example, Matt's team has a gong in the middle of the sales office, and when brokers hit a sales goal, they get to go to the middle of the sales floor and hit the gong.
Fitzmark also offer a bunch of financial awards and incentives -- there’s always money on the table, and in sales, that’s always one of the biggest motivators.
The company also offer more experiential incentives, like the ability to attend major conferences or huge events, which is another recognition layer.
5. How to Get a Leadership Role: 8:13 - 14:50
Synopsis: Matt's advice: Continue to work hard and focus on beating yourself. If you’re bettering yourself and beating your own goals, that’s a great place to start.
From there, it’s being coachable and showing you can learn from challenging situations out there. It’s frustrating to see someone coaching a broker, only to have the rep shrug it off and continue to struggle in that area.
Another big thing is the servant leadership mindset. Leadership shouldn’t be an ego thing, you should want the role because you really want to help the rest of your team and company succeed.
And even as a leader, you’re not going to be perfect right out of the gate. There’s a learning curve to leadership, too. It’s not like, “I got promoted to manager and now I’m a perfect leader right off the bat.”
6. Final Advice on Leading Logistics Brokers: 8:13 - 14:50
Synopsis: The biggest thing across the board, is listen. Once you think you have a grip on things, it’s easy to fall into this mentality of putting the blinders on and refusing to listen to outside help. I’ve caught myself falling into this, too.
No one is going to be perfect, so you need to be teachable and coachable yourself all the way through. The best way to improve yourself is to listen, be open to outside thoughts and look for new ways to grow.
Part 3 of Real Talk With a B2B Sales Leader
Thanks again to Matt Freel for a phenomenal interview. Check out Part 1 with Solar City Director, Miles Kane. Join us tomorrow when Part 3 of our series goes live and we talk leading a B2B sales team with Staples' Regional Sales Director, Kyle Crisci.
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