March 18, 2025 • 24 mins
Show Notes
- Zach discussed effective strategies for business development, including:
- Disciplined CRM usage and consistent outreach
- Involvement in professional associations
- Leveraging conferences and events for high-quality networking
- Zach shared a story about building a lasting relationship that led to a new job opportunity years later
- Key lessons Zach learned include embracing diversity, change management, and the importance of perseverance
- Zach provided 3 tips for success:
- Be relationship-driven
- Focus on client pain points
- Maintain consistent presence
About Zachary Konopka
Zachary Konopka is a seasoned business development and partnerships leader with over 20 years of experience in the SaaS industry. As the Head of Partnerships and Development at White Label Communications, he specializes in driving revenue and strategic growth across SaaS, ISV, and Enterprise clients.
Known for his ability to build lasting relationships based on trust and mutual success, Zachary has a proven track record of helping businesses scale through innovative technology and strategic partnerships.
Connect with Zachary Konopka:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zkonopka1/
Company Website: https://www.whitelabelcomm.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
Welcome
to Biz Dev Titans,
where we uncover the secrets that make Biz
Dev a game changer.
We are going to cover strategies
and dive into the mindset and tactics
that get you results.
Get ready for conversations that reveal what truly
works
for biz devs like you.
(00:28):
Here is your host,
Barns Lamb.
Welcome to Biz Dev Titans. Today, we are
thrilled to have Secretary Kadokva,
a true powerhouse in business development and partnerships.
With over two decades of experience in SaaS
(00:48):
domain,
Zach has been driven by an entrepreneurial
spirit and a relentless
pursuit of excellence.
As a head of partnerships and development at
White Label Communications,
he drives
revenue across SaaS, ISV,
and enterprise client.
SaaS' career is marked by his ability to
(01:09):
forge lasting partnerships
built on trust and mutual success.
Let's dive into his strategies and insight.
Welcome, Zach. Thank you for joining our show.
How are you doing today? The first time
I've heard two decades of experience out loud,
and it made me feel very old in
that moment.
I will tell you how I am.
(01:31):
Well, thank you for joining the show. I
mean, when I've come across your your profile,
I I said, even I you and I
share something very common, you know. I also
have about two decade of experience in this
dev, and, obviously, we all talk to different
route and different things. And I definitely wanna
learn, what did I do wrong?
(01:52):
What did I do wrong?
So, let's dive into it. Sure.
You have been successful spearheading market entries for
multinational
organizations
into the competitive US market.
What strategy do you find most effective
when navigating such a high stake environments?
I mean, I think there's a few things
(02:12):
that are really important.
There's the always this sort of quality versus
quantity
approach to how we go about sales.
I think it's more
of a and approach versus an or approach.
You have to do both.
So from my perspective, I think there's sort
of three things that I try to do,
at least in my current role, that I
think is really important
(02:33):
around
business development.
One is really being disciplined in terms of
how we leverage our CRM and making sure
that people are hearing from us on a
really regular basis. And I try to ensure
that
the cadence between any of my leads within
my database is no more than thirty days.
I think everyone needs to sort of hear
(02:53):
from me, and I need to sort of
reformat the messaging and just
make sure they know I'm present and I'm
interested,
and I'm doing some new things, and I
wanna share that with you. And frankly, the
first two, three, four emails that may go
out,
I won't get anything. You know, it's just
another delete another something in the inbox.
But over the course of a year, the
(03:14):
likelihood that you're gonna potentially catch them at
the right time if you're consistent in in
your messaging and your outreach,
it's much higher. Right? There's an opportunity there.
Contracts are always coming up for renewal.
New strategies are coming into place.
New tools and technologies
are being requested by clients. And so if
(03:35):
I can be the individual or part of
the organization
that's providing those things, then they need to
know that they're there. So that would be
what I would say is the first part
of it.
The second part is really getting involved in
the professional associations, both on the local and
national level.
The ability to really understand
(03:56):
market challenges,
what's resonating,
what may be messaging of the past, and
what direction
your industry or vertical is going
can really
be accentuated by how actively involved you are
in a professional association. On top of the
fact that you're really able to network with
people
generally
(04:16):
in, I would say,
leadership level
type of roles.
But I would say don't over discount the
associate either or someone who's coming up because
it's important to have decision makers, of course,
right? They're the ones who determine budget and
determine contracts and those sort of things. But
I would also say
some of the best champions you can find
(04:37):
with an organization
are some of the younger professionals
and folks that you have the opportunity to
mentor and share some of the mistakes that
you wish you had learned from sooner in
your career.
And I think that sort of stuff
outside of the business development and the revenue
that in terms of professional satisfaction is
second to none. You know, like at the
end of the day, we should all be
working to help other people be successful because
(04:59):
if we do that, then then we'll ultimately
be more and more successful as well. I
would say that would be the second pillar
of how I look at things. And then
the third, I would say, is really having
a strong conference and event strategy.
I think
the likelihood of you reaching someone on
the old days of dialing for dollars and
(05:20):
cold calling is really, really tough right now,
especially at the enterprise level. I mean, you
run into so many firewalls and sort of
automated call centers
where
the reality of you connecting with the person
you're looking for can be pretty challenging. And
even if you do get to the proper
extension, oftentimes, you're just going to voice mail
anyway.
So not to discount that. I mean, I
certainly the more touch points you have, the
(05:41):
more someone's gonna remember you. Yes. But I
think if you want quality FaceTime,
if you want to
really
do some
high end account based marketing, knowing where people
are going,
knowing that they have a specific intent in
being at a at a specific conference or
event,
and then taking the time to really go
through the mobile application,
(06:04):
understand who's gonna be there, reaching out to
the people
that you wanna connect with, trying to set
times within those mobile applications to meet for
fifteen minutes,
and then ultimately
spending a lot of time not only in
those meetings that you've set,
but really working
those conference
exhibit halls. Right? Like,
(06:24):
I will go up and down every single
aisle, and the reality is
40% plus at every event I go to,
I probably didn't even realize they could be
a client just because I had assumptions in
my head around what their name was or
how they were messaging things on their
within their exhibit booth or whatever it may
be. So taking the time to have those
(06:44):
conversations and understanding
on the back end of what you're doing,
that's actually some of the services we provide.
Let's have a conversation. Let's see if I
can
provide some cost savings for you. Let's see
if I can
enhance the channels you're using or provide additional
ones that may be better ways for you
to do some outreach
to your
customer base.
(07:05):
And part and parcel of what you're doing
before and after is obviously also in the
follow-up. Right? So making sure you're reaching back
out to the folks
that you did connect with, making sure you
reach out to the folks that you maybe
communicated with but didn't get a chance to
connect with, and then still making sure that
you reach out to the people that you
didn't communicate with or connect with, but still
(07:27):
have a common touch point and saying, hey.
We were both there. I my intentions were
to get with you, and, unfortunately,
you know, we both ran out of time
or our schedules were too busy. I still
think there's a lot of synergies, and I
still think there's some great opportunity. Would you
be open for a discussion?
You know, and then reaching out on LinkedIn.
Right? Making sure that you put a face
to a name. I think those sort of
things
(07:47):
those sort of three or three and a
half pillars along with the social media side
of it, whether you're connecting on LinkedIn or
or Twitter,
It's a tool. Right? But that's a that
needs to be part and parcel of the
the strategy you have around some of those
other larger pillars, in my opinion. You know
what, though, guys? The people who are listening,
I can tell you this. I haven't stopped
writing until now. Yeah. So folks, you know,
(08:09):
you wanna learn about how to be successful
in doing this dev and these are the
guys that I just write down notes nonstop
he is talking so and I'm going to
summarize it for everybody
who want to listen to this and I
encourage anyone to reach out to Zac and
get two minutes with him. And
just three minutes with him, I'd already learned
so much that I didn't know about. Honestly,
(08:31):
I didn't.
Anyway,
thank you very much. It was very insightful.
Zach, your career has been
marked by relentless pursuit of excellence and a
passion of building lasting relationship. Can you share
a specific instance
where this drives significant
impact a project or partnership
that you're trying to build? Yeah. It's really
(08:53):
interesting. So I was
pursuing an organization within the help tech space
several years ago,
and
I worked very, very hard to get in
front of
one of their head product people.
And him and
I developed a great relationship. I think
we
connected immediately. We both ultimately, I realized we
(09:16):
thought about the world in very similar ways.
I was able to put some really good
numbers forward in terms of what they were
paying versus the cost savings I would I
could provide. The robustness of our tool was
significantly
better as well.
And I thought I was in, you know,
I was like, saving you hundreds of thousands
of dollars. I got a great relationship with
(09:36):
you. I have some better technology.
And then
after pushing it six months, twelve months,
eighteen months,
didn't really go anywhere.
And the challenge wasn't my contact. It wasn't
my product. It wasn't my price.
The challenge I ran into was
(09:56):
getting on the
software development road map for this organization that
had 25
different priorities, and
they didn't want
to put us anywhere near the top of
the list because they needed to be
ensured
of the revenue that they already had coming
in and and making sure those development priorities
were first. So my team wasn't big enough
(10:17):
to add additional
opportunities to the fold, and ultimately, I never
got that business.
Fast forward
two and a half years later, I'm still
great friends with this product person.
And
he and I touched base, and the organization
he was with ultimately got bought up by
a private equity company, and
(10:39):
they decided to part ways with him. I
think for a while, he may have been
a consultant and then sort of he moved
on to some other bigger and better things.
And
I saw him at a conference and we
were very friendly and we wound up, you
know, having a drink together and chatting. And
then he got back to me several months
later and he said, hey,
I think there's a really good fit for
(11:00):
you. There's an opening at White Label Communications
to lead their partnerships
around their communication platforms as a service. When
the telecom space,
I'd like you to chat with their team.
And I said, this is really interesting. There
was I was transitioning in my
my career as well at the time, and
I thought,
(11:21):
I'm so grateful I developed this relationship with
this gentleman because
you never know know even when one door
seemed closed, what doors will open later
even if it's months or years down the
road.
And so ultimately, I had a great conversation
with the CEO of white label and I
had a great conversation with their chief revenue
officer
(11:41):
and they decided to bring me on board.
And now I'm leading the partnerships team for
a very exciting organization. I think we do
a lot of very unique things on both
the voice side of telecoms as well as
what's going on the digital messaging or digital
channels side of telecoms.
And if it wasn't for my
relationship with this gentleman with whom I was
(12:01):
not able to do business with but still
developed a really friendly rapport,
I wouldn't transitioned into the best professional role
I've had.
Congratulations. This is amazing.
I think that you you just have something
that is very cool critical to any biz
dev roles and strategic management role. Relationship is
key. One part of it that in our
(12:21):
previous question that you, I wasn't kidding, I
was drawing notes.
I think that, for
those of us listening to you,
and I think we heard this before, but
I think the most important things I just
mentioned
is discipline,
network.
And allow you to really understand,
(12:42):
be able to check stuff. But not only
that, it's the way you're approaching the client,
building the long lasting relationship. That's really key.
I'm not just once in a while give
them a call. Hey. Do you have any
business for me? Rather than is to build
that relationship long term. So I really feel
that, yes, this is your your go this
is what I call go to the nuggets.
(13:02):
So with any conversation,
this is the key. Right? So now going
forward a bit,
I think that
we start on your career. What do you
think the most significant achievement,
and what lesson did you learn from it
and continue to apply today?
You know, it's interesting. So
there was two times in my life I
(13:22):
would say that I look back and think,
man, that was really, really critical.
One, when I was going through school, I
was I wound up coaching
high school football, funny enough, while I was
going through my masters.
And
I was able
to be a part of this very diverse
multicultural team.
And
(13:42):
it was unique for me because
regardless of our background and our culture
and
very different
demographics, whether that be income, racial, everything,
we had a common goal. Right? We wanted
to win
this city championship for football. Right? And so,
you know, we went through the season and
(14:04):
they had some rough years in the past,
and we wound up being
one of the best team in the entire
league. But the thing I was most proud
of about that is we had a tutoring
program that I initially tried to get started
over there as well. And out of that
tutoring program, there was eight guys on my
team that probably otherwise wouldn't have went on
to
a collegiate future
(14:24):
without the combination of one, they were great
great football players, but two,
they had the discipline to say, I need
to be in this tutoring program, I need
to prioritize my academics.
And those kids were the first kids in
their colleges, their first kids in their family
that went to college. And I felt like
as a professional
going
through my
higher education,
(14:45):
that was
the lessons I learned about the importance
of embracing diversity,
embracing
challenges that you're not familiar with, really
understanding that change management makes you a better
person if you handle it well Yep. Is
so important.
And so those
kids went on and had a great college
(15:06):
career, and I still probably talk with
25 of those young men now that
are in their own professional lives and their
families, and it was just a great experience.
Fantastic. This is how we talk about earlier
in our questions about building relationship, a long
lasting one. Yeah. And I think that's a
part that I think our audience need to
really
(15:26):
be special. It's one that just think about
BD role like strategic management role, this is
a key components of it. Yeah. So success
without hurdle is impossible.
So during your journey, what are some of
the most challenging
hurdles that you have to overcome
to succeed in who you are today?
Yeah. So when I was finishing up my
(15:48):
master's degree, I decided
I went over to Rome in Italy for
two years. Mhmm. I didn't speak a foreign
language. I didn't
ever I've never had been to Europe. And
so
I was
in Italian class for
nearly a year there,
and
I was in school with
(16:09):
a bunch of gentlemen that had come from
places like Ivory Coast and Cameroon and Mexico
and
a number of
French and Portuguese
and Spanish speaking countries.
And so it was really
challenging when I'd be in my Italian class
because they came from these romance languages,
they picked it up like this. You know
(16:29):
what I mean? Like, going from French to
Italian or Spanish to Italian was, like, very
easy for them and they understood it. And
I've never felt so humbled in my life.
I couldn't get it. I wasn't doing
as well as them, and I've always been
someone in my mind who can be successful
no matter what if I put the effort
in. And
(16:50):
I realized at that moment that
we all have different skill sets, but at
the end of the day, if you're disciplined,
you're consistent, and you're willing to put the
work in,
you ultimately
can be successful regardless of the task or
the industry or the vertical in which you're
working.
Tom Brady had a quote recently and it's
(17:11):
not about
talent, it's about having the will to put
the work in. And
I just think it resonates so so much
so because
there are certainly
many athletes that came into the NFL that
were much more athletic and had more
but if you have the heart and you
have the will to succeed, it doesn't matter
what you're doing professionally. You can do it.
(17:33):
And I still have to remind myself that
every day, and I get down on myself
a lot around, you know, not getting some
deals closed or when something does close, you
get real high and real low, and it's
trying to remember to stay consistent with the
highs and lows.
That's well said. This is very important for
anyone carrying a quota.
Yeah. Sure. Yes. Now
(17:54):
you want
to give our audience to say,
fast forward, you know, I will tell. You
wanna get three tips from Zach? This is
what it is. So what are the three
tips that make you successful in what you
do today? I think you gotta be relationship
driven first. Right? You gotta care about the
person you're talking to. That's number one. Really
try to relate on a practical level.
(18:15):
Number two, I would say is it's not
about your product, it's about their pain. Right?
Where are they
coming up short? Where could they
improve upon as an organization? What are the
challenges they're having with potentially the current provider
that you're
displacing?
And then I would say three,
be present. Right? Figure out
(18:37):
what they're doing, where they're doing it, how
they're doing it, and where you can fit
into that equation.
And that's why I think it goes back
to the sort of initial question you asked
me around those three pillars. It's like, you
can be present in their inbox, right? You
can be present at their
professional associations with which they're participating,
and you can be present at the events
and conferences that
(18:58):
they are are going to be at. So
at the end of the day, you can
drive relationships,
you can
understand pain, and you can be present
when you're consistently doing
those sort of activities.
Great. Thank you. This is really good. I
really you know, I'm still joining notes, by
the way, guys. All the listeners out there,
I'm still writing notes. You know, I'm really
(19:20):
similar
experience than with Stack, and I'm still writing
notes. So here you go.
So you accomplished so much, Scott.
What's your goal and aspiration in 2,025
and beyond?
Oh, man. I really want to get my
organization, white label,
on the map with some of these larger
enterprises and organizations with which we're working. We
do something really unique. I think if you're
(19:41):
familiar with the telecom business,
lots and lots of organizations talk about how
they provide what's called programmable voice and really
that's just sort of call forwarding, call switching,
voicemail,
these sort of things. White label took the
time to break down their entire
unified communication as a solution platform,
45, 50 different features. So instead of just
(20:02):
offering these two or three things and calling
it programmable voice, you know, we can offer
all of them via APIs and and webhooks.
And it's really amazing for sales organizations so
you can sort of not be so afraid
of looking at voice
as something they can do for clients as
opposed to being
a data channel. So,
you you know, as a salesperson, I wanna
(20:23):
sell that, but I also wanna be able
to communicate and evangelize around how
different digital communication channels
are simply data streams. Right? That's how you
have to look at it. And if you're
selling a solution,
the more data and information you can provide
your clients regardless of what that channel is,
the more value you're gonna provide them. The
more value you provide them, the stickier you
become, and the harder it is for them
(20:44):
to
get away from you. And so that's really
where my focus is in articulating
and evangelizing
why it's important to provide your clients as
much data as possible
in a very organized way because it makes
them value you so much.
Great. That's great. Fantastic.
(21:04):
I think that is the part that we
have shared a very similar experience as well.
Absolute last questions for the week for our
podcast today.
If you give yourself
tips, what are the tips that you you
learned the last twenty five years to your
younger version of Zach?
Oh, man. I think number one is,
you know,
(21:25):
prioritizing
your
personal life is important, right? For your mental
health and for
your ability to sort of blow off steam.
I think being consumed by your career shouldn't
define you. It should be a part of
who you are. You know, I always love
the saying,
we work to live. We don't live to
work.
And I think
it's very easy, especially as a sales professional,
(21:47):
to let that get away from you and
the stress you have from your
executives and leadership around hitting numbers and quotas
and all these sort of things. At the
end of the day, you can only put
your best effort in. And if you know
you're putting your best effort in and you're
getting results, then you're gonna reap the rewards
of that. And if you're putting your best
effort in and you're not reaping the results
(22:08):
you want,
then
maybe there's organizational issues that are out of
your control. And you just have to keep
that in mind. And you either, depending on
the organization, can be a part of that
change if you have leadership that's receptive to
that sort of feedback,
or you have to be bold enough to
understand that change management is an important part
(22:29):
of my life. And perhaps it's time to
be looking elsewhere for a role that better
suits who I am as a person and
what my personality
requires in in a professional setting.
Fantastic.
Thank you, Zach. It had been a
honor and pleasure having you coming in.
So you wrap up this insightful episode of
(22:49):
Biz Dev Titans. I
want to extend
our heartfelt gratitude to you
for sharing
your wealth of knowledge and experience.
We appreciate that, your strategic vision and leadership,
which are consistently exceed organizations'
goals and fortify lasting, it's a key word,
(23:09):
lasting
partnership.
It builds on trust and mutual success.
Thank you again on behalf of the show.
And, Zach, anytime you want to come back,
I would more than happy to welcome you
because I am learning so much
just to hear you talk about
the fundamental things that, you know, what make
(23:30):
you successful.
Again, I'll be able to show thank you
so much for your time. Appreciate it. Well,
Vons, I hope this is a lasting relationship
between yourself and me. I think you did
a a wonderful job in asking questions and
and understanding
a little bit about who I am, and
I certainly appreciated that very much. You're welcome.
Have a good day. Alrighty. Take care. Bye.
(23:52):
Thank you for listening to the biz dev
titans.
If you enjoyed this episode,
don't forget to subscribe and leave us a
review
so that we get to meet and interview
more amazing leaders like you.
To download the extended show notes with all
the extra tips on the topic we covered
today,
(24:12):
head over to bizdevtitans.com.
Welcome
to Biz Dev Titans,
where we uncover the secrets that make Biz
Dev a game changer.
We are going to cover strategies
and dive into the mindset and tactics
that get you results.
Get ready for conversations that reveal what truly
works
for biz devs like you.
(00:28):
Here is your host,
Barns Lamb.
Welcome to Biz Dev Titans. Today, we are
thrilled to have Secretary Kadokva,
a true powerhouse in business development and partnerships.
With over two decades of experience in SaaS
(00:48):
domain,
Zach has been driven by an entrepreneurial
spirit and a relentless
pursuit of excellence.
As a head of partnerships and development at
White Label Communications,
he drives
revenue across SaaS, ISV,
and enterprise client.
SaaS' career is marked by his ability to
(01:09):
forge lasting partnerships
built on trust and mutual success.
Let's dive into his strategies and insight.
Welcome, Zach. Thank you for joining our show.
How are you doing today? The first time
I've heard two decades of experience out loud,
and it made me feel very old in
that moment.
I will tell you how I am.
(01:31):
Well, thank you for joining the show. I
mean, when I've come across your your profile,
I I said, even I you and I
share something very common, you know. I also
have about two decade of experience in this
dev, and, obviously, we all talk to different
route and different things. And I definitely wanna
learn, what did I do wrong?
(01:52):
What did I do wrong?
So, let's dive into it. Sure.
You have been successful spearheading market entries for
multinational
organizations
into the competitive US market.
What strategy do you find most effective
when navigating such a high stake environments?
I mean, I think there's a few things
(02:12):
that are really important.
There's the always this sort of quality versus
quantity
approach to how we go about sales.
I think it's more
of a and approach versus an or approach.
You have to do both.
So from my perspective, I think there's sort
of three things that I try to do,
at least in my current role, that I
think is really important
(02:33):
around
business development.
One is really being disciplined in terms of
how we leverage our CRM and making sure
that people are hearing from us on a
really regular basis. And I try to ensure
that
the cadence between any of my leads within
my database is no more than thirty days.
I think everyone needs to sort of hear
(02:53):
from me, and I need to sort of
reformat the messaging and just
make sure they know I'm present and I'm
interested,
and I'm doing some new things, and I
wanna share that with you. And frankly, the
first two, three, four emails that may go
out,
I won't get anything. You know, it's just
another delete another something in the inbox.
But over the course of a year, the
(03:14):
likelihood that you're gonna potentially catch them at
the right time if you're consistent in in
your messaging and your outreach,
it's much higher. Right? There's an opportunity there.
Contracts are always coming up for renewal.
New strategies are coming into place.
New tools and technologies
are being requested by clients. And so if
(03:35):
I can be the individual or part of
the organization
that's providing those things, then they need to
know that they're there. So that would be
what I would say is the first part
of it.
The second part is really getting involved in
the professional associations, both on the local and
national level.
The ability to really understand
(03:56):
market challenges,
what's resonating,
what may be messaging of the past, and
what direction
your industry or vertical is going
can really
be accentuated by how actively involved you are
in a professional association. On top of the
fact that you're really able to network with
people
generally
(04:16):
in, I would say,
leadership level
type of roles.
But I would say don't over discount the
associate either or someone who's coming up because
it's important to have decision makers, of course,
right? They're the ones who determine budget and
determine contracts and those sort of things. But
I would also say
some of the best champions you can find
(04:37):
with an organization
are some of the younger professionals
and folks that you have the opportunity to
mentor and share some of the mistakes that
you wish you had learned from sooner in
your career.
And I think that sort of stuff
outside of the business development and the revenue
that in terms of professional satisfaction is
second to none. You know, like at the
end of the day, we should all be
working to help other people be successful because
(04:59):
if we do that, then then we'll ultimately
be more and more successful as well. I
would say that would be the second pillar
of how I look at things. And then
the third, I would say, is really having
a strong conference and event strategy.
I think
the likelihood of you reaching someone on
the old days of dialing for dollars and
(05:20):
cold calling is really, really tough right now,
especially at the enterprise level. I mean, you
run into so many firewalls and sort of
automated call centers
where
the reality of you connecting with the person
you're looking for can be pretty challenging. And
even if you do get to the proper
extension, oftentimes, you're just going to voice mail
anyway.
So not to discount that. I mean, I
certainly the more touch points you have, the
(05:41):
more someone's gonna remember you. Yes. But I
think if you want quality FaceTime,
if you want to
really
do some
high end account based marketing, knowing where people
are going,
knowing that they have a specific intent in
being at a at a specific conference or
event,
and then taking the time to really go
through the mobile application,
(06:04):
understand who's gonna be there, reaching out to
the people
that you wanna connect with, trying to set
times within those mobile applications to meet for
fifteen minutes,
and then ultimately
spending a lot of time not only in
those meetings that you've set,
but really working
those conference
exhibit halls. Right? Like,
(06:24):
I will go up and down every single
aisle, and the reality is
40% plus at every event I go to,
I probably didn't even realize they could be
a client just because I had assumptions in
my head around what their name was or
how they were messaging things on their
within their exhibit booth or whatever it may
be. So taking the time to have those
(06:44):
conversations and understanding
on the back end of what you're doing,
that's actually some of the services we provide.
Let's have a conversation. Let's see if I
can
provide some cost savings for you. Let's see
if I can
enhance the channels you're using or provide additional
ones that may be better ways for you
to do some outreach
to your
customer base.
(07:05):
And part and parcel of what you're doing
before and after is obviously also in the
follow-up. Right? So making sure you're reaching back
out to the folks
that you did connect with, making sure you
reach out to the folks that you maybe
communicated with but didn't get a chance to
connect with, and then still making sure that
you reach out to the people that you
didn't communicate with or connect with, but still
(07:27):
have a common touch point and saying, hey.
We were both there. I my intentions were
to get with you, and, unfortunately,
you know, we both ran out of time
or our schedules were too busy. I still
think there's a lot of synergies, and I
still think there's some great opportunity. Would you
be open for a discussion?
You know, and then reaching out on LinkedIn.
Right? Making sure that you put a face
to a name. I think those sort of
things
(07:47):
those sort of three or three and a
half pillars along with the social media side
of it, whether you're connecting on LinkedIn or
or Twitter,
It's a tool. Right? But that's a that
needs to be part and parcel of the
the strategy you have around some of those
other larger pillars, in my opinion. You know
what, though, guys? The people who are listening,
I can tell you this. I haven't stopped
writing until now. Yeah. So folks, you know,
(08:09):
you wanna learn about how to be successful
in doing this dev and these are the
guys that I just write down notes nonstop
he is talking so and I'm going to
summarize it for everybody
who want to listen to this and I
encourage anyone to reach out to Zac and
get two minutes with him. And
just three minutes with him, I'd already learned
so much that I didn't know about. Honestly,
(08:31):
I didn't.
Anyway,
thank you very much. It was very insightful.
Zach, your career has been
marked by relentless pursuit of excellence and a
passion of building lasting relationship. Can you share
a specific instance
where this drives significant
impact a project or partnership
that you're trying to build? Yeah. It's really
(08:53):
interesting. So I was
pursuing an organization within the help tech space
several years ago,
and
I worked very, very hard to get in
front of
one of their head product people.
And him and
I developed a great relationship. I think
we
connected immediately. We both ultimately, I realized we
(09:16):
thought about the world in very similar ways.
I was able to put some really good
numbers forward in terms of what they were
paying versus the cost savings I would I
could provide. The robustness of our tool was
significantly
better as well.
And I thought I was in, you know,
I was like, saving you hundreds of thousands
of dollars. I got a great relationship with
(09:36):
you. I have some better technology.
And then
after pushing it six months, twelve months,
eighteen months,
didn't really go anywhere.
And the challenge wasn't my contact. It wasn't
my product. It wasn't my price.
The challenge I ran into was
(09:56):
getting on the
software development road map for this organization that
had 25
different priorities, and
they didn't want
to put us anywhere near the top of
the list because they needed to be
ensured
of the revenue that they already had coming
in and and making sure those development priorities
were first. So my team wasn't big enough
(10:17):
to add additional
opportunities to the fold, and ultimately, I never
got that business.
Fast forward
two and a half years later, I'm still
great friends with this product person.
And
he and I touched base, and the organization
he was with ultimately got bought up by
a private equity company, and
(10:39):
they decided to part ways with him. I
think for a while, he may have been
a consultant and then sort of he moved
on to some other bigger and better things.
And
I saw him at a conference and we
were very friendly and we wound up, you
know, having a drink together and chatting. And
then he got back to me several months
later and he said, hey,
I think there's a really good fit for
(11:00):
you. There's an opening at White Label Communications
to lead their partnerships
around their communication platforms as a service. When
the telecom space,
I'd like you to chat with their team.
And I said, this is really interesting. There
was I was transitioning in my
my career as well at the time, and
I thought,
(11:21):
I'm so grateful I developed this relationship with
this gentleman because
you never know know even when one door
seemed closed, what doors will open later
even if it's months or years down the
road.
And so ultimately, I had a great conversation
with the CEO of white label and I
had a great conversation with their chief revenue
officer
(11:41):
and they decided to bring me on board.
And now I'm leading the partnerships team for
a very exciting organization. I think we do
a lot of very unique things on both
the voice side of telecoms as well as
what's going on the digital messaging or digital
channels side of telecoms.
And if it wasn't for my
relationship with this gentleman with whom I was
(12:01):
not able to do business with but still
developed a really friendly rapport,
I wouldn't transitioned into the best professional role
I've had.
Congratulations. This is amazing.
I think that you you just have something
that is very cool critical to any biz
dev roles and strategic management role. Relationship is
key. One part of it that in our
(12:21):
previous question that you, I wasn't kidding, I
was drawing notes.
I think that, for
those of us listening to you,
and I think we heard this before, but
I think the most important things I just
mentioned
is discipline,
network.
And allow you to really understand,
(12:42):
be able to check stuff. But not only
that, it's the way you're approaching the client,
building the long lasting relationship. That's really key.
I'm not just once in a while give
them a call. Hey. Do you have any
business for me? Rather than is to build
that relationship long term. So I really feel
that, yes, this is your your go this
is what I call go to the nuggets.
(13:02):
So with any conversation,
this is the key. Right? So now going
forward a bit,
I think that
we start on your career. What do you
think the most significant achievement,
and what lesson did you learn from it
and continue to apply today?
You know, it's interesting. So
there was two times in my life I
(13:22):
would say that I look back and think,
man, that was really, really critical.
One, when I was going through school, I
was I wound up coaching
high school football, funny enough, while I was
going through my masters.
And
I was able
to be a part of this very diverse
multicultural team.
And
(13:42):
it was unique for me because
regardless of our background and our culture
and
very different
demographics, whether that be income, racial, everything,
we had a common goal. Right? We wanted
to win
this city championship for football. Right? And so,
you know, we went through the season and
(14:04):
they had some rough years in the past,
and we wound up being
one of the best team in the entire
league. But the thing I was most proud
of about that is we had a tutoring
program that I initially tried to get started
over there as well. And out of that
tutoring program, there was eight guys on my
team that probably otherwise wouldn't have went on
to
a collegiate future
(14:24):
without the combination of one, they were great
great football players, but two,
they had the discipline to say, I need
to be in this tutoring program, I need
to prioritize my academics.
And those kids were the first kids in
their colleges, their first kids in their family
that went to college. And I felt like
as a professional
going
through my
higher education,
(14:45):
that was
the lessons I learned about the importance
of embracing diversity,
embracing
challenges that you're not familiar with, really
understanding that change management makes you a better
person if you handle it well Yep. Is
so important.
And so those
kids went on and had a great college
(15:06):
career, and I still probably talk with
25 of those young men now that
are in their own professional lives and their
families, and it was just a great experience.
Fantastic. This is how we talk about earlier
in our questions about building relationship, a long
lasting one. Yeah. And I think that's a
part that I think our audience need to
really
(15:26):
be special. It's one that just think about
BD role like strategic management role, this is
a key components of it. Yeah. So success
without hurdle is impossible.
So during your journey, what are some of
the most challenging
hurdles that you have to overcome
to succeed in who you are today?
Yeah. So when I was finishing up my
(15:48):
master's degree, I decided
I went over to Rome in Italy for
two years. Mhmm. I didn't speak a foreign
language. I didn't
ever I've never had been to Europe. And
so
I was
in Italian class for
nearly a year there,
and
I was in school with
(16:09):
a bunch of gentlemen that had come from
places like Ivory Coast and Cameroon and Mexico
and
a number of
French and Portuguese
and Spanish speaking countries.
And so it was really
challenging when I'd be in my Italian class
because they came from these romance languages,
they picked it up like this. You know
(16:29):
what I mean? Like, going from French to
Italian or Spanish to Italian was, like, very
easy for them and they understood it. And
I've never felt so humbled in my life.
I couldn't get it. I wasn't doing
as well as them, and I've always been
someone in my mind who can be successful
no matter what if I put the effort
in. And
(16:50):
I realized at that moment that
we all have different skill sets, but at
the end of the day, if you're disciplined,
you're consistent, and you're willing to put the
work in,
you ultimately
can be successful regardless of the task or
the industry or the vertical in which you're
working.
Tom Brady had a quote recently and it's
(17:11):
not about
talent, it's about having the will to put
the work in. And
I just think it resonates so so much
so because
there are certainly
many athletes that came into the NFL that
were much more athletic and had more
but if you have the heart and you
have the will to succeed, it doesn't matter
what you're doing professionally. You can do it.
(17:33):
And I still have to remind myself that
every day, and I get down on myself
a lot around, you know, not getting some
deals closed or when something does close, you
get real high and real low, and it's
trying to remember to stay consistent with the
highs and lows.
That's well said. This is very important for
anyone carrying a quota.
Yeah. Sure. Yes. Now
(17:54):
you want
to give our audience to say,
fast forward, you know, I will tell. You
wanna get three tips from Zach? This is
what it is. So what are the three
tips that make you successful in what you
do today? I think you gotta be relationship
driven first. Right? You gotta care about the
person you're talking to. That's number one. Really
try to relate on a practical level.
(18:15):
Number two, I would say is it's not
about your product, it's about their pain. Right?
Where are they
coming up short? Where could they
improve upon as an organization? What are the
challenges they're having with potentially the current provider
that you're
displacing?
And then I would say three,
be present. Right? Figure out
(18:37):
what they're doing, where they're doing it, how
they're doing it, and where you can fit
into that equation.
And that's why I think it goes back
to the sort of initial question you asked
me around those three pillars. It's like, you
can be present in their inbox, right? You
can be present at their
professional associations with which they're participating,
and you can be present at the events
and conferences that
(18:58):
they are are going to be at. So
at the end of the day, you can
drive relationships,
you can
understand pain, and you can be present
when you're consistently doing
those sort of activities.
Great. Thank you. This is really good. I
really you know, I'm still joining notes, by
the way, guys. All the listeners out there,
I'm still writing notes. You know, I'm really
(19:20):
similar
experience than with Stack, and I'm still writing
notes. So here you go.
So you accomplished so much, Scott.
What's your goal and aspiration in 2,025
and beyond?
Oh, man. I really want to get my
organization, white label,
on the map with some of these larger
enterprises and organizations with which we're working. We
do something really unique. I think if you're
(19:41):
familiar with the telecom business,
lots and lots of organizations talk about how
they provide what's called programmable voice and really
that's just sort of call forwarding, call switching,
voicemail,
these sort of things. White label took the
time to break down their entire
unified communication as a solution platform,
45, 50 different features. So instead of just
(20:02):
offering these two or three things and calling
it programmable voice, you know, we can offer
all of them via APIs and and webhooks.
And it's really amazing for sales organizations so
you can sort of not be so afraid
of looking at voice
as something they can do for clients as
opposed to being
a data channel. So,
you you know, as a salesperson, I wanna
(20:23):
sell that, but I also wanna be able
to communicate and evangelize around how
different digital communication channels
are simply data streams. Right? That's how you
have to look at it. And if you're
selling a solution,
the more data and information you can provide
your clients regardless of what that channel is,
the more value you're gonna provide them. The
more value you provide them, the stickier you
become, and the harder it is for them
(20:44):
to
get away from you. And so that's really
where my focus is in articulating
and evangelizing
why it's important to provide your clients as
much data as possible
in a very organized way because it makes
them value you so much.
Great. That's great. Fantastic.
(21:04):
I think that is the part that we
have shared a very similar experience as well.
Absolute last questions for the week for our
podcast today.
If you give yourself
tips, what are the tips that you you
learned the last twenty five years to your
younger version of Zach?
Oh, man. I think number one is,
you know,
(21:25):
prioritizing
your
personal life is important, right? For your mental
health and for
your ability to sort of blow off steam.
I think being consumed by your career shouldn't
define you. It should be a part of
who you are. You know, I always love
the saying,
we work to live. We don't live to
work.
And I think
it's very easy, especially as a sales professional,
(21:47):
to let that get away from you and
the stress you have from your
executives and leadership around hitting numbers and quotas
and all these sort of things. At the
end of the day, you can only put
your best effort in. And if you know
you're putting your best effort in and you're
getting results, then you're gonna reap the rewards
of that. And if you're putting your best
effort in and you're not reaping the results
(22:08):
you want,
then
maybe there's organizational issues that are out of
your control. And you just have to keep
that in mind. And you either, depending on
the organization, can be a part of that
change if you have leadership that's receptive to
that sort of feedback,
or you have to be bold enough to
understand that change management is an important part
(22:29):
of my life. And perhaps it's time to
be looking elsewhere for a role that better
suits who I am as a person and
what my personality
requires in in a professional setting.
Fantastic.
Thank you, Zach. It had been a
honor and pleasure having you coming in.
So you wrap up this insightful episode of
(22:49):
Biz Dev Titans. I
want to extend
our heartfelt gratitude to you
for sharing
your wealth of knowledge and experience.
We appreciate that, your strategic vision and leadership,
which are consistently exceed organizations'
goals and fortify lasting, it's a key word,
(23:09):
lasting
partnership.
It builds on trust and mutual success.
Thank you again on behalf of the show.
And, Zach, anytime you want to come back,
I would more than happy to welcome you
because I am learning so much
just to hear you talk about
the fundamental things that, you know, what make
(23:30):
you successful.
Again, I'll be able to show thank you
so much for your time. Appreciate it. Well,
Vons, I hope this is a lasting relationship
between yourself and me. I think you did
a a wonderful job in asking questions and
and understanding
a little bit about who I am, and
I certainly appreciated that very much. You're welcome.
Have a good day. Alrighty. Take care. Bye.
(23:52):
Thank you for listening to the biz dev
titans.
If you enjoyed this episode,
don't forget to subscribe and leave us a
review
so that we get to meet and interview
more amazing leaders like you.
To download the extended show notes with all
the extra tips on the topic we covered
today,
(24:12):
head over to bizdevtitans.com.
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