Building Relationships and Creating Customer Value in Sales

Summary
In this episode, Martin Ravinsky interviews Kurt Tueffert, the VP of Sales Development at DXP Enterprises. Kurt shares his journey in sales and management, from starting as a computer programmer to becoming a renowned speaker and author. He also discusses the leadership academy he created at DXP Enterprises and the impact it's making. Kurt emphasizes the importance of building relationships with customers and adapting to changes in the sales industry. He also shares advice on doing the right thing and being present in every interaction.

Keywords
sales, leadership, journey, sales development, leadership academy, customer value, relationship, AI, technology, legacy, advice

Takeaways

• Kurt Tueffert has had a remarkable career in sales and management, starting as a computer programmer and becoming a renowned speaker and author.
• He created a leadership academy at DXP Enterprises, which is making a significant impact in developing leaders within the company.
• Building relationships with customers and understanding their needs is crucial in creating customer value and maintaining strong customer relationships.
• While AI and technology may automate certain aspects of sales, the human element of face-to-face interactions and emotional intelligence will always be important.
• Kurt emphasizes the importance of doing the right thing and being present in every interaction, whether it's in sales, leadership, or personal relationships.

Sound Bites

• "I get to play in my sandbox every day"
• "I'm actually working on after my 20th week article finishes publishing, I'm going to be working on exactly that, which is a workshop. And then at the end of the workshop, they got to present for eight to 10 minutes."
• "That's amazing. And you're doing this obviously internally at DXP for DXP employees."

Chapters

00:00
Introduction and Kurt Tueffert's Background

04:38
Creating a Leadership Academy at DXP Enterprises

08:26
Building Relationships and Creating Customer Value

14:47
Kurt Tueffert's Experience as a Teacher

19:57
Defining Professional Identity and Leaving a Legacy

23:25
Trends in the Sales Industry and Adapting to Changes

26:11
Fun Facts and Dinner with a Historical Figure

29:01
Closing Remarks and Contact Information

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Transcript

0:00

Welcome to another episode of Boardsi Leadership Talks, where we dive deep into the journeys and insights of today's most dynamic leaders. I'm your host, Martin Rowinski and today we have a very special guest, Curt Tueffert Curt is the VP of Sales Development at DXP Enterprises, a renowned speaker and trainer and the author of multiple books. Known as the professional duck herder, Salesforce Power Pioneer and Selling Skills Sherpa among other impressive titles. Curt has over four decades of experience in sales and sales management. His innovative leadership academy at DXP is shaping the leaders of tomorrow. Curt, welcome to the show. Hey Martin, it's good to be here. Thank you very much for having me. I'm excited. I haven't really had anybody that's that deep in sales and with 40 years of it. So I'm excited to hear your point here. You bet. Fire away. Awesome. So to get started, let's start with your journey. You've had a remarkable career, obviously spending over 40 years in sales and management. Can you share with us how it all began and what led you to your current role at DXP Enterprises? You bet. It all began when I graduated college. I wanted to do something in the world of computer science and I got a degree in computer science and I ended up not getting into a sales career at first. I was actually a computer programmer. And as I was computer programming, they saw me as more of a disruptor because computer programming back then were quiet kind of analytical people and I'm this big personality. So the team said, why don't you train all of the people on the software that you're writing? So then I got to the front of the classroom and from there, the sales journey just took a life of its own. I heard a speaker when I was in college, John Neiberg, a seven time Olympic gold medalist in the US swimming side. And I rushed the stage and I just wanted to be just like John Neiberg. And he told me, you know, he's got seven Olympic gold medals. What do I have? And I got nothing. So I went back to college and changed and I got a degree in speech communication and in computer science, started my journey in my twenties into a sales career speaking and then just kind of use that sales to speak, speak to sell, and then moved my way in through my thirties to many, many startup companies, one of those serial entrepreneurs and had my own business for a while and did a lot of professional speaking across the United States and internationally. And then just decided it was time for me to find some stability. And this company, DXP, saw my gifts, saw my skills, and brought me aboard to manage their Houston -based sales team. From there, I grew that position into the whole VP of Sales Development. And we're now a $1 .7 billion publicly traded company with over 350 outside and inside sales pros. So the journey has been nothing short of just a dream for me. and I get to play in my sandbox every day, Martin, and it's just been fun. when I play golf, I don't like to play in the sandbox, just FYI. Some people do that on purpose because they can control the shot getting out, but not me. Yeah, no, not me either. It's funny that you said computer science, because I actually, most people don't know. I started in college in computer science too, and after year one, I was like, this is boring. I'm going to blow my brains out. It wasn't for me. So I ended up switching to CIS with a marketing option. Still kind of computer related, but even that, to be honest with you, was not for me. So here I am. Yeah, many years later, but it seemed like you're in front of the camera doing a lot more of that people connection business. Yeah, I do love that. I love meeting people and exploring that. So living my dream, living in my sandbox, as you said. So at DXP, and obviously, I mean, it's a publicly traded company, over a billion dollars, you guys are huge. But you have developed a leadership academy that's making a significant impact. Can you tell us more about the leadership academy and what inspired you to create it? Absolutely, Martin. That is absolute passion of mine. It started four years ago. The person who created it, Leroy Sell, he wanted something to generate some leadership within the manufacturing side of our business. We heard about it because it was kind of a Skunk Works, kind of a quiet little project. It wasn't actually sponsored in a corporate environment. I heard about it and I enrolled in the class in the 2023 -2024. 2022, 2023 class. And I went through it as a student. And then I told Leroy, I said, hey, I think this thing can scale. So we went to the corporate senior management team. We shared with them our vision of scaling this leadership academy throughout the entire corporation. And they said, okay, we'll see where that goes. So because I'm a sales guy and I'm highly competitive, we graduated the second class back in at the... at the end of 2022 -ish, 23, with 12 people. We enrolled 62 people for this current flight, if you will. And so we've got three sessions. We have a Tuesday session, a Thursday session, and then I kept the door open for all the late people who wanted to jump in, and I scheduled a third session. So for the listeners, let me just share with you, it's one year. It's a different leadership module once per month. It's a Zoom -based call, two hours. There's homework. There are some assignments. And we take people through a leadership journey for modules one through 11, which includes the disc profile, the emotional intelligence quotient, high impact communications, budgeting, finance, change management, a little bit on hiring and firing, stress management. And then in module number 10, we talk about branding. Module number 11, we talk about how to craft a presentation. And then all of the students have to do a Ted talk, some type of a 10 minute talk in Zoom format where you articulate three ideas or three principles you generated or got from the class and how you've applied them in your business or personal life. And so as we, you and I are... recording this, we are going to launch this at the end of June where all of these students will be going through this. And so I have two classes, Leroy has one. It's caused such a tremendous buzz within our organization that when we open up enrollment for the 2024, 2025 class, we're probably getting another 60. And it is a monetized class, meaning that if you want to... enter into the class, we do charge a dollar amount, even though in a public company, it's passing money from one general ledger code to another, but there's still some skin in the game there so that there's value because I buy a bunch of product and we distribute the product. They get a leather binder and then they get a notebook. Then they get the assessments and they contribute through SharePoint. It's been nothing but wildly successful. That's amazing. And before I go to the next question, I'd like to touch base a couple of things. I mean, everything you said, and it's a one year class, which is awesome. You're not trying to obviously rush through anything. I mean, I write articles about literally everything you mentioned. I've been very focused on branding because it's something we actually launched for all of our executive members at Boardsi. And I know how powerful branding is. I was actually surprised to hear you say that you guys have that as a class part of leadership and then making them do a Ted talk. So it's funny that you said all those things because I'm actually working on after my 20th week article finishes publishing, I'm going to be working on exactly that, which is a workshop. And then at the end of the workshop, they got to present for eight to 10 minutes. So, at least I know I'm in good company with your expertise, Martin. Well, if you need a guest speaker, let me know. I'll come in and say a couple of words. But yeah, that's incredible. And you're doing this obviously internally at DXP for DXP employees. That is correct. What we've tried to do is we've tried to find people in a mid -level management position or a younger potential that we want to promote into a management position. So we say, look, we could pick a lot of other people for this leadership academy. We're picking you and we're bringing you in. So we have four post -college graduates. They come to us, they've been with us, and we've accelerated them through this because we know that these new college graduates, need to hit the ground running with a challenge. So we've asked them to audit the class as if they were managing people or processes. And we have a very aggressive portion of our company we call Supply Chain Management. And we take these young college graduates, we move them into positions of authority, whether they're authority over a site or people, quickly. And we try to develop them to see what their metal is. We kind of test them in the field. That's amazing. And I mean, I know for a fact, if they go through this course, their career trajectory will change. I mean, becoming an authority is and branding, obviously, along with that, thought leadership, all those things play so big because your upper people will look at that person differently. Am I right? We are definitely in fact, part of the marketing and promotion as you well know is when these people do their Ted talks at the end of this month, I've invited all senior management. I've invited some specific managers who may want to send their people to the next leadership class. So the tent is open. These students who are graduating will probably have 15, maybe 30 different non-leadership people watching them in the Zoom call because they want to see. just what Leroy Sell and I have produced. Is this a quality product? Is it enough that I want to get my people behind it? And I think they'll find this is going to be highly successful. Awesome. So happy to hear that. Big companies are actually focused on that lower level and getting them promoted, getting them excited about their career. That's good to hear. Specifically about you though, obviously every leader faces challenges in their life. What is one major challenge you've encountered in your career and how did you overcome it? Well, right, you know, the challenges in my career, a lot of it is selling up the organization. I'm in charge of developing sales training for our sales people so they can go out there and sell all of our products and services. I still have to sell my ideas upwardly. And it was as recent as 18 months ago, we were launching an idea, another gentleman, one of my peers. We thought it was great. We did all of our research. We submitted it to the. president and the senior management team and we presented it in a professional manner and we were shot down. And I thought, wow, that hurt. However, I realized it wasn't so much my idea, which a bad idea, it was the timing. At the same time that we were launching this great idea, I was in charge of launching a CRM rollout within our sales force. And talk about a career challenge. When you're taking a piece of software into the industrial distribution market. And we don't typically use automated software in this market. It was very, very difficult to get the adoption from the field. And it fell right on my shoulders. It was my responsibility. And so I would say one of the career challenges was how do I maintain facial positivity? How do I maintain my mental acuteness when I'm pushing a rock uphill here and I'm feeling a lot of resistance from the field. And again, my reputation, being with the company 20 years, is on this rollout. And so I had a lot of pressure and there was some difficult times in that market. Well, here you are, though. Well, yeah, I think my resiliency finally kicked in and I'm like, look, you know, I got to realize where my, where I stand here and what we can do and pick my battles, pick the battles. I know that I've got a higher success of winning. And then, you know, every day, just go home, shake it off and come back. It's it, if you, if you just take it home with you and carry it like some kind of a pet project, it could eat you alive. And I think that's just something we need to not do anymore. Yeah, absolutely. Correct me if I'm wrong, but in addition to your work at DXP, you also teach sales and business communication at University of Houston. Yes, sir. I used to teach a lot more during the week. The University of Houston here in Houston, Texas, went through a metamorphosis on their business side to getting their master's program. And I was working teaching at the graduate level, and I had the fortunate opportunity for three years to teach at the graduate level there. And then they went through a re-accreditation. And so they had to scrub some of their professors that didn't have all the degrees behind their name. I had the... 30 years of experience, but not the degree. So I stayed in the undergraduate and I teach in the summers. I teach a sales and marketing class. It's four, eight hour Saturdays. So the challenge I have is how do I keep 50 to 60 students challenged in the summer on a Saturday in a subject that some of them want to take and others just need it to get out of that university system. So again, it's a full -time sales job. when you're being a teacher. Yeah, and obviously for you to do that, you find it rewarding. I absolutely do. I think I have a heart of a teacher. I think I could have chosen a career in just carrying a bag and being a sales guy and crushing quotas, but I became a manager and a mentor. That's, I think that's where my gifts lie. I do a lot of sales facilitation, so I have the ability to assimilate a lot of different information and then try to bring it back out in easy bite -sized chunks. So I know that's what I'm passionate about. So why not do what I love rather than what I hate? Yeah, absolutely. And obviously you already mentioned that, but you're a well -known speaker and an author of several books. How has public speaking and writing contributed to your professional development and leadership style on top of that? That's a great question. You know, when I had my own company and I was paid to be a professional speaker, you have to be very good at what you do because it's a crowded field. I don't have a name that people would understand or know. I don't, I'm not an athlete or I'm not Matthew McConaughey or something of that nature. I'm not Zig Ziglar or Tony Robbins. So I had to pick the areas where I could get really, really good. And I picked a few niches. where my sales expertise could be articulated. I had a partner, Jim Jacobus, and we both knew that to set yourself apart in public speaking is you've got to be an author. So I took the concepts of my keynote and I made it into a book. And then I used that book and I could use it for sales or leadership or customer service. And that was a back of the room sales product ties, kind of a speaking engagement or a bundle, you know, maybe. you know, to get a better price, I could bundle in the books or I could reduce my upfront fee in order to sell back of the room. And it was a phenomenal journey. I've used every tool to get well in front of the camera or in front of a large audience. I use one of them in a small audience. So if I'm speaking to 2000 people on a keynote, or if I'm speaking to eight people in a sales training, one is 35 to 60 minutes of flash, big keynote. Something else is eight hours of taking a concept, breaking it down, applying it to the person, having them understand it, them trying and testing it, being accepted of it, and then moving to the next concept and the next concept. So I have felt that has caused me to be extremely well -rounded. Awesome. So I've heard that you've been referred to as customer engagement whisperer. What do you believe are the key elements to creating customer value and maintain strong customer relationship? I think the first thing the customer has to understand is that, or we have to understand the customer has to buy us. I've got to buy Martin. You come across on the screen, you're strong, you're confident. I think you can light up the room when you enter it. I bought you. I think a customer has to buy the sales pro and then we have to have integrity. We have to listen with both ears and only talk when we need to. Asking open -ended questions. drawing people into the conversation, really trying to be curious about what it is that the customer is seeking from us, and then try to use empathy to understand, is there a solution that I might be able to provide once I fully understand the challenge or the problem? And here at DXP, we use the impact sales process. And one of the great images is looking at a tree where you've got the tree top, you've got the green leaves, then you've got the trunk of the tree, then you've got the roots. And sometimes we think about the customer's needs as those green leaves at the top of the tree. If you're looking at my screen, you can see behind me, lots of green leaves on the top of the tree. Those are the surface level needs. Underneath that, underneath the dirt, if you will, are the roots. That's the wants. What is it that the customer really wants? And then when we really feel that we have a relationship, why? Why is it that you want that? If I can get to the why, I've got a relationship and I can perhaps help that customer beyond your price or beyond the delivery or beyond the I've got three vendors, why do I need a fourth one? It's helping people get to that point. Yeah. And speaking of being busy, you're a teacher, obviously a VP. You got the leadership going. I mean, you got a lot of different titles and different hats you're wearing. How do you define your professional identity and what legacy do you hope to leave behind in the world of sales and leadership? Wow, we could be here all day unpacking that one. I could call you Dr. Martin, you're my counselor. You touch on legacy and you touch on identity. And I think especially for people who are in a career, for myself, when you start hitting certain age milestones, our identity is what we do. When we go to a party, people ask us, what do you do? And so we have to identify with, I'm an insurance, I'm a... I'm a sales guy, I'm an accountant. And we wrap our identity around a label of what we do. I want to be somebody that gets away from that and says, you know, that's what I do. But what I really am is that motivational person. I want to be able to be the connector. I really believe that there's a lot more to be done if we're in a connector. Hey, I know a guy in leadership, his name is Martin. He's doing this thing. Why don't we connect with him or I need somebody that's looking for something, a connector. And then the job that we have is just the skin that we put on when we do what we need to do. And it's easy to say, but it's hard to unbuckle yourself, if you will, from your identity. And some of us on this call might be thinking of retiring in the next one, two, five years. And what happens when you don't do what you do? What happens when you don't report to a desk or a terminal or a cubicle anymore? Can you live outside the identity of the title of the job that you have? And that's where leadership comes in because we, you and I, we need to lead people through this journey to be more than just the title or whatever it says in their computer payroll system. We need to move them into kind of a full-fledged human being rather than a human doing. I so strongly agree. It's hard for me to imagine ever retiring because I don't think I ever will. My wife always says, entrepreneurs never retire. So apparently I'm not. me retirement from what to what. So, so I may not do this J O B, but I'm sure I'll be selling or doing sales training or, you know, when I talk, when I go to universities, there's a, there's one university close to us here in Houston, Texas, A They've got some of the brightest professors in their early seventies teaching because there's no tenure in teaching at that university level. And so you're getting. somebody who's got maybe five or six decades of experience teaching you physics, mathematics, engineering, sales, business. Where are you going to get that kind of amazing tribal knowledge? So I don't think people need to hit the R or the ripcord of retirement unless that's something that they choose to do because they want to spend their life adventuring, RVing, loving grandkids, you know. I'm all for that. We have one giant planet and I don't think we're going to be able to touch it all. So let's see how much we can touch before we have to say goodbye. Love it. Focusing a little bit back on sales, what trends do you foresee in the sales industry and how should professionals prepare to adapt to those changes? That's a great question. When you think sales, Martin, you think AI, generative AI, it's going to take my job away. I don't think so. Not in our lifetime, because selling is a face -to -face game, and we can see micro-expressions on people's faces that maybe an AI chat box can't see. What I see is we got to get away from being that information spewer. and being more of the relationship. I still think the world is complicated that a sales professional can navigate somebody through the technicalities of answering their questions, solving their problem, exceeding their challenges. Where I see the shift is where the tools of AI and technology will be in the order processing, repeat order development. I mean, it wasn't that long ago, Martin, before you and I used to enter. a bank or enter a grocery store. Now came the pandemic and now I can online shop, I can drive to the number six in the parking lot, pop my trunk and other human beings will come and fill my trunk with all of my groceries. Well, that's kind of where I see the commoditization of some part of the sales process is using technology to fulfill the repeat orders, but I still think you're going to need people to ask the tough questions to help them really get that initial technology done. And then once it's done and it gets to the repeat, then automation is going to come in. So we've got to be on the top of our relationship game. absolutely. I agree. And you know, there's been a lot of talk about and fear from people AI and refine, you know, taking my job. I mean, it's nothing. It's not the first time we've been around, right? I mean, when automotive industry went through the whole automation, you know, those people were fearing it too. And yet here we are. And there's plenty people working in those factories making the cars. So I don't see anything different. I think it actually created a lot of jobs. People just have to accept it, learn it, and utilize it to do their job better. But yeah, it's not going to replace emotions or have empathy. So. Not in our lifetime, though, we may get some scary things in the future, but that's going to create a whole new set of job skills. And then somebody is going to have to sell the robot to the Burger King. Somebody is going to have to sell the robot to the dispensing counter. And then that's a wholesale process again. Yeah, absolutely. Well, to kind of slow things down and have some fun, I got a couple of fun questions. What's a little known fact about you that might surprise our audience? that I tend to wear blue on Mondays. Only on Mondays? Every Monday I always wear blue. It's just, I've been doing that for 35 years. So I don't know why that's a weird trendy thing, but that's a little known fact of me. Yeah. That's funny. If you could have dinner with any historical figure, who would it be and why? Well, you know, top of mind, historical figure, I want to have dinner with Tony Robbins. And not because of the motivational side, but how did he decide that he wanted to feed a billion people? I mean, what caused that? I mean, I've heard the story about Thanksgiving and the knock on the door, but it sustained him for his entire life. And again, I don't know very many people who have a goal in their teens and then they execute it in their sixties. I mean, that's... That's who I want to have dinner with, amongst so many other people, but boy, that wouldn't be a bad historical figure, sure. That would be pretty awesome actually. I shook his hand once. He's a big guy, by the way. He's a big guy, surprising. What's the best piece of advice you've ever received? Yeah, I think, and I've used it to the point of where, you know, do the right thing next and the next thing right. So you get a little bit of that in the, in the recovery groups, do the right next thing, but it's been turned around to do the right thing next, which means whatever it is that you're about to do, make sure you're doing it right. And make sure that it is the right thing that you're doing. So in sales, do the right thing next, follow up and do the next thing right. be very good at follow up. Don't call and say, hey, man, I'm just touching base or hey, man, I just want to find out how that quotes looking. That's not doing it right. That's just being an amateur. But it's that little cyclical do the right thing next, whether it's sales management in your relationship, do the right thing next, what would that would be. And then when you do that, make sure you do it right. Be present. That's the right thing you need to do. But be present. Don't have your cell phone with you to be present. Be present and do it right and listen with both ears in one mouth. Curt, that was awesome. Love that message. It's been a pleasure having you on the show, but before we wrap up, is there anything else you'd like to share with our listeners? How can they get hold of you? Anything. You bet. You know, I love to pay it forward. I'm on LinkedIn. I'm on Facebook. I mean, there's only one Curt Two Fert and you can find me there. Yeah. Easy to find me. You know, I might, I have a Gmail address. So it's my first initial C with my last name Two Fert at gmail .com shoot me, hit me up. I have all sorts of different things that I could share. I'm not here to solicit. It's really my chance to give back to you and your listeners. And from there, we both grow. That's awesome. I think you're on an awesome journey and I love the fact that you love giving back. I feel that for sure. So thank you so much, Curt. And yeah, and to our listeners, thank you for joining us on Boards Eye Leadership Talks and make sure to subscribe for more insightful conversations with inspiring leaders like Curt. Until next time.