We're revisiting a popular episode: Tech Stack Mastery Secrets to sell across Cloud, Connectivity, and Security. Our guest is long-time partner Steve Davis from NDS. Steve has an amazingly winding backstory as to how he got started in this space, and the theme is that he didn't take no for an answer! Steve, a prior Marine, leveraged what he learned there to start developing his passion for fitness into technology and ultimately found himself face-to-face with enterprise decision-makers. Not only has he done an incredible job crossing over the tech stack, but he's also a newly minted CISSP, so he shares with us that journey and how it's changed his conversations on security and technology more broadly. Don't miss this one!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome to the podcast designed to fuel your success selling
technology solutions. I'm your host Josh Lopresto, SVP
of Sales Engineering at Solaris,and this is Next Level Biztech.
Everybody. Welcome back.
We are wrapping up a track todaywith nobody better than Mr.
(00:21):
Steve Davis of Network Data Solutions.
Steve, welcome on man. How are you?
I'm I'm good, I'm better that you're here.
We, we, we got a lot of cool stuff.
I won't spoil it yet, but for everybody listening out there,
we're talking about tech stack mastery, secrets to sell across
the cloud, Colo connectivity, security, all the things.
(00:41):
So Steve, maybe, maybe just kickus off.
Let's I've, I've known you for awhile, but let's hear your
story. How did you get into this field?
Where did the path start? Windy, crazy stories fill us in.
All right, so I fell backwards into this, which is I, I
constantly reflect on it and, and see how I, I got to this
(01:03):
point in this wonderful field that we're in.
But, you know, did not have any sort of background in technology
whatsoever. And, and, but was fascinated
with it and, you know, wrestled,played football all my life,
typical jock type scenario, you know, got a, a small offer
(01:24):
coming out of high school from Middle Tennessee and, and just
my passion wasn't there for it. And I felt like that it was just
going to potentially be a waste of my time, you know, and wasn't
at that maturity level. I went to school for about 6
months and realized that, hey, I'm not ready for this college
(01:45):
life yet. And my family had had pretty
much been in, in a military typebackground for the most part.
Not everybody, but a good bit ofthem.
And was looking for that sports type challenge and was like,
hey, I'm going to go join the Marine Corps.
You know, we which, which one, which branch am I going to join?
(02:06):
I'm going to join the Marine Corps because I was looking for
that challenge, right? Well, I got the challenge so and
dove head first into it. Went to the recruiting station,
talked to him about it a little bit told him that, you know, I
was looking to do some sort of, you know, special forces type
experience. You know, that was my goal to
(02:26):
get to that level, right? And then you take an ASVAB test
and the, the, the recruiter starts trying to talk you out of
going into the infantry. The only way, you know, the only
way you can get to that is goingto the, to the infantry.
And then, you know, that kind ofdictates where they're going to
place you, if you even get to that.
(02:49):
They tried to talk me out of it.You know, they were, you know,
they were like, hey, you can do anything you want in the
military. You're sure you want to do this.
And I was like, absolutely, you know, this is this is where I'm
going with it. So went, went, went down that
path. It did its job in the fact that
(03:09):
it grew me up very fast. And I was not at that point in
my life, you know, the maturity wasn't there when I reflect back
on it, but it did what it was supposed to do and, and got me
to that level of maturity very fast.
And so on that path, I got pulled out and, and was able to
(03:34):
go through a certain blame that they had and ended up getting a
top secret security clearance and put at Camp David, which was
was very, very interesting. Not this is really the first
time even being in the channel for what is it 1516 years, 17
(03:56):
years. I think that that I've never
really talked about it, never never really thought to talk
about it. Kept the cover well.
I respect it, yeah, yeah. And so, but, but after that, you
know, I, I, I went as far as I could go.
I felt like in that and and I had this entrepreneurial bone in
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me and and it was just, I've needed something more, you know,
and, and there is love our military, love America, love our
armed forces and all that, but there is a thumb on you.
So I felt like there was more out there for me to accomplish.
And so once I got out of that, Istarted a person I knew I wanted
(04:40):
to be an entrepreneur of some kind.
And, and my first passion was, was fitness.
And when I got out of the MarineCorps, I started a, a personal
training business, borrowed $7000 because you're not making
any money in the military, I promise you.
And borrowed $7000 from my parents, started a personal
(05:01):
training business to where I would go into homes and do you
know, top to bottom programs forthem and really enjoyed it.
And one of the only thing about that was I couldn't duplicate
it. I couldn't duplicate my efforts.
I just wasn't, I felt like therewas a better way to, to get
(05:23):
scale of a, of a business and, and I'm not scaling my time
because it was a, a 16 hour grind to where I was going into
homes and all that good stuff. And it just took a lot of time.
And, and I've always been very interested in technology, even
though I did not know a lot about it.
(05:45):
And I had a customer, it's weirdhow things lead to other things.
And I had a customer that was like, you know, what you need to
do, You need to come sell technology for me.
And, and I thought about it and I'd always had that interest in
technology. And so I, I spoke to him about
it, told him I really didn't know anything about technology.
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And he was talking more about the infrastructure side.
So that's not, I'm not going to say it wasn't that hard to
learn, but, you know, easier to learn.
And I could go into businesses and, and try to get pretty much
cabling jobs, right. Cablings moves, ads, changes
things of that nature and ran into a larger banks VP of IT
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operations and he was into triathlons.
And so I started talking with him about potentially being able
to come in and do infrastructurefor Compass Bank is, is the bank
it was for. And, and that led me down the
path of getting into doing triathlons and being able to
kind of commingle my passion with fitness along with the
(06:55):
technology space. And we became close in that
process. And we, we had probably at the
end of that little run, we endedup having about 50 technicians
all over the southeast from Texas to Georgia and Florida
everywhere. They had a branch pretty much.
(07:16):
And we were doing moves, ads, changes, you know, back then it
was, it was taking two pair and swapping 2 pair to another thing
on the 66 block, you know, I mean it.
And so after that, I started really diving into the knowledge
behind technology, and then it just got really even more
(07:37):
interesting on that front. And so with that, Bobby Fabri,
I've got to mention this too. So Bobby Fabri comes to our
office and he, he comes in and he, he was working for pay Tech
(07:58):
at the time. And he's like, hey, you know,
you guys were already out here in the infrastructure space.
Why don't you start selling services?
Why don't you sell some connectivity to these customers?
Well, the light kind of clicked.I'm like, OK, explain this to
me. And then I started working as a
bar with Bobby at Pay Tech just on the side, just just as we, as
(08:21):
we ran into opportunities, I would ask the customer, hey, we
may can get you some Internet connectivity for, for a better
price than you're getting today and continue down that path.
Windstream purchase pay tech andI don't want to say anything
bad. This is one thing, you know, it
(08:43):
is what it is. But Windstream purchase pay tech
and, and, and, and, and I was missing a good bit of
commissions after that. After that happened, that's what
we'll say. And I knew that the model behind
what I was doing, even as a bar in those low commissions, the
model made sense. And you know, I can go out here
(09:05):
and put forth effort and get paid on that effort in
perpetuity as long as this customer's happy, right?
And, and that math made sense tome.
And then, you know, Fast forwardto today and, and you know,
found Telaris through a search and Telaris put me with a
(09:26):
larger, larger group, telco management group.
And I worked under Marilyn Dooley for, for a while and
really started seeing all the services, not just Internet
connectivity, but all the services that could be sold out
there. And when you put a pencil to
paper or pen to paper and you start doing the math, it's
(09:48):
pretty powerful model, probably the most powerful model I've
ever seen in my life. And so I jumped head first into
it and started devouring information.
I mean devouring it. I wanted to be able to sell
every single thing that TS DS had to offer.
And so that knowledge is is whatled me to where we are today.
(10:12):
So as you as you go through thatand and the customers come to
you and talk about. All right, tell us.
Give me the You're at the door. You got 30 seconds.
Give me the NDS elevator pitch. Where do you see?
How do you explain how NDS stands out?
How do we see how NDS stands out?
So usually I'm now anyway, and this has been a progression for
(10:37):
sure throughout the years, but now we're getting that initial
discovery presentation done. This is today.
Early on it was vomiting on people and not oh.
Yeah, yeah, you figured. Out early on, it was just a
vomiting on individuals and saying, hey, we can save you
money on Internet. And so now we're, we're, we're
(10:59):
putting together presentations that allow us to come in and,
and the number one thing I do today is we follow a challenger
sales model, which is was introduced to us through the
TSDS. And I let them know that I'm not
a salesperson. I'm a consultant for you and I'm
not a yes man. We're going to show you what it
(11:21):
looks, what, what it should looklike.
And then you can get these Olacotta services, but we're
going to show you what it shouldlook like if someone asked us
for Internet today, we're going to show them a DIAA direct
Internet access. We're going to show them a coax.
We're going to show them a 5G wireless backup or 4G wireless
backup, whatever along with Starlink that is going to get
(11:45):
connected into some sort of SD Wan managed firewall device for
that redundancy. And it doesn't matter if they
just ask for Internet connectivity.
That's the quote they're seeing from us.
And then when we go in, we're saying this is what it should
look like. If it makes economical sense to
the business, we can sell it a la carte.
(12:07):
But I do let them know that, that, that we're there to show
them what it should look like mainly and, and regardless if
they're needing those services or not.
And then the the solution, the technology solutions map really
lets them see, because these people that you're in front of
or businesses that you're in front of, they can't, they
(12:28):
really can't grasp all that we can do without knowing that.
Exactly. I, I love it.
I, I, I think that is the, that is The funny thing about this
business is surely everybody knows all the things that we can
help them with. And you, you put yourself
empathetically in their shoes and we are just a sliver.
We are 30 minutes in their 12 hour day depending on how much
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time we get right. So they only know what.
So I love the I love the approach of, Hey, you asked for
this. This is how we look at things.
And I think, I mean, that's that's why we wanted you on this
session because this whole storyis about how do you go your your
story is about transitioning in a windy path and, and just
constant progression, progression, progression.
And I think that that'll get us into we're we're going to get to
(13:12):
some more of that, you know, theevolving role in the cross
selling things here in a second.Maybe one, one final thought on
this. I always love asking this
question. Hard won wisdom over the last,
you know, 15 plus years. Something that you learned
really hard yourself. Great lesson from a mentor.
What's what's been your stand out?
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Get rid of your ego immediately.Like when you come into this,
there's no way to be a just a top level expert on all of it.
So listen, you know, listen, go to these events, get rid of your
ego, understand that there's a lot that you do not know in this
industry and, and constantly be listening to others because
(13:56):
they're their path is giving, you know, giving them wisdom
that you may not have another hard one.
Wisdom, you know, don't have allof your eggs in one basket.
We mentioned Compass Bank earlier.
BBVAA Brazilian company came over and bought Compass Bank.
So I went from A50 technician business to hey, we don't have
(14:22):
our one major customer anymore. And it was the first really hard
kick in the gut that I had to get myself up off the floor from
truthfully, because it was, it was, it was devastating at the
time it was. So don't have all your eggs in
one basket for sure. And then as far as other like a
(14:44):
mentor type wisdom that was given was Dan Henderson was also
a, a, as I was making the transition over from in house
personal trainer, fitness guru to the technology world, I was
explaining, you know, I, I developed relationships with all
(15:05):
of my, my, my fitness customers.And, and he was a, you know, the
people that could afford it wereusually CEO type individuals
that, that were bringing me intotheir home.
And so we would have deep personal conversations a lot of
the time while we were doing what we were doing.
And he just, you know, he had, he had, he had mentioned to me
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and he saw my drive and he just said, you know, no matter what
happens to you in life, your word is all that you have.
You know, your, your word is allthat you have and stay true to
that. And I kind of added some stuff,
you know, since then, it's just,you know, say what you mean and
mean what you say. You know, always try to make
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that person in front of you feelbetter than when they first
approached you and in any situation.
And then, you know, another thing is just always do the
right thing when nobody's looking.
You know, no matter what this, this industry, it seems like to
me, there are, there's room for not so good activities, right?
(16:15):
I mean, there's room for that. And, and as long as you can
stick with that no matter what, do the right thing when nobody's
looking, you're always going to be in the clear and and good to
go. So I love it.
Those are great. All right, let's, let's get in.
Let's get into this idea of, youknow, you've got some secrets
(16:36):
here. We're talking about selling
cross-platform, cross technologystack.
So from your perspective, what'sthe what's the right, what's the
effective strategy if I start with cloud and I move to
security or I start with networkand I want to move to cloud?
How are you positioning that overall conversation?
Walk us through some more of that.
So usually when we come in, there is a need.
(16:58):
We, we do a lot of referral based relationships, right?
If we go into a customer and they're happy with what we've
done, I asked for five referralsevery single time.
You know, hey, if you, if you liked what you saw here and we
brought value to the table, pickout five of your peers that you
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would like us to come in front of and do the same exact thing
we did for you over here with them.
And so as far as the transition,for me, it's, it's all about
listening to that customer and, and, and finding out those
needs, asking the questions, making sure they know all that
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you can do. And then the flow, the
information flow will go with that.
You know, if it's, if it's a budget issue, usually we're
coming in saying, hey, you know,if, if we're looking at
cybersecurity less and you don'thave the budget for what's
needed on cybersecurity, let us look at the network piece, the
(18:02):
UCAS piece. Let's create some budget so that
you can spend on the cybersecurity needs and or cloud
needs that are there that you know, you have to have, but
there's a budget issue. So you know, let us create that
budget for you or at least look into it and and potentially take
that. But you know the budget savings
and spend it over here where youwhere your must haves are is
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that. When you do that, I mean it to
me, it seems so simplistic, but I don't think a lot of customers
think like this. I mean, what's the reaction when
you think like when you get the customer thinking down that
path? The reaction, I, I would say
that there's not a whole lot of,of businesses out there that
truly understand what we do. You know, I mean, it's, we come
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in, we, we, we explain to them, hey, they, they're looking at
you as that salesperson. And and I constantly reiterate
to those customers, not a salesperson, I'm not here
selling widgets, OK, This is a non transactional experience.
This Is Us coming in and sittingon your side of the table and
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helping you navigate this humongous knowledge gap that's
out there. And this is, you know, seasoned
CIOCTOS, doesn't matter. They're busy running their
business. And so we're there to stay on
that bleeding edge so that they don't have to.
And so once they see that we're coming in and bringing value and
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we're sitting on their side of the table, that to me, the trick
is to get them to realize that we are a partner with them.
We are not that salesperson trying to get them to buy
everything under the sun. We want to find out what it is
the needs are. And then once we find out those
needs, we can navigate with them, not for them, but with
(19:53):
them down that path. I.
Love it. So want to talk about, you know,
your stories about growth and and kind of where you've come
from, where you started. When we when we got together a
while back, couple years ago, wewe were talking, you know,
obviously we talked a lot about certifications.
We love certifications at Telaris.
(20:14):
You know, we think it's it's helpful in in staying in tune
with what's happening in the industry as we get into
discovery calls all all those reasons that we talk about you
recently. I found out, picked up a pretty
interesting certification and I,I love hearing this and kind of
hearing what your plan is, but walk us through maybe why you
(20:34):
set your sights on that and, andnow really let's talk about, you
know, what drove that and how you plan on leveraging that and
what is this cert? So I did and it was, it was a
very fun, brutal path, I will tell you that.
And, and what made me, it's kindof along the lines with that,
(20:55):
that military experience, right?I went and I was like, OK, I'm
going to join. I'm going to go into the
military. And immediately my mindset is
which one is supposedly, I don'twant to offend anyone in other
branches, but which one is supposedly the hardest, right?
And, and for, you know, the, theopinion is usually that the
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Marine Corps is the hardest. And that's where I've been, I'm
going to the Marine Corps same situation with this.
You know, what's the hardest subject that we deal with?
Being a trusted advisor. To me, it seems to be
cybersecurity. And then immediately asked
myself, what's the hardest certification in cybersecurity
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to get? And the from what I've seen, the
opinion is, is the CISSP, your certified information security
services professional is the toughest 1.
And so I just decided that that's the one that I was going
to go. After.
Why not? Why not?
Yeah, why not? And, and so when I decided that
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of course, I was on Teleris University and trying to take as
much free knowledge that's out there like that as I could
before, I decided to go after the CSSP.
Well, I had done a couple of courses on there and thought,
man, I'm pretty good. You know, I feel pretty good
about this. So I sign up to take this test
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and I go in and I'm sitting down.
Palm scans, you know, they're just all, you know, very strict
on this test and sat down and after that, three hours actually
about 30 minutes in, I thought I'd signed up for the wrong
test. And so once I realized that it
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is that hard and there's so muchmore knowledge involved behind
the aspects of this CIS SP, I was hooked.
I was hooked. So then after that experience,
I, I, I went and then knew I needed to dive in pretty hard
and, and started getting up at, at 4:30 in the morning, studying
from 5:00 to 8:00 a little bit every single day, going to bed,
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reading about it. Where was I, where were the gaps
in my knowledge? I would stick, you know,
strictly on that until I could talk to my wife or others about
it and teach them about it. And if I couldn't do that, I've
read that Common Book of Knowledge four Times Now.
That's what it took for me. Yeah, but but, but it's an
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interesting read. If there's one thing I suggest
to all the partners out there isgo grab a copy of that book and
read it. Because if you're in this
industry, if you never want to try to get that certification,
that Common Book of Knowledge goes over the enterprise complex
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circulatory system right from start to finish.
And it really opened my eyes up to how much more I needed to
learn not only about cybersecurity, not only about
the inner workings of the enterprise, but just as a whole,
how it all fits together. And so that would be a
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suggestion for all partners is hey, go grab a copy of that, go
to Amazon and read that cover tocover one time and it will help
further everything you do with your business discussions.
Love it. Big, big congratulations.
Was super excited to hear that you knocked that one out.
And I think it will, it will pay, it will pay dividends.
(24:31):
And I, you know, I, I guess I don't want to put words in your
mouth, but I'm curious because I've seen how this can be
effective in conversations. But what's your plan like when
you, you, you've mastered this body of knowledge, you feel that
you, you know, I like your example, the enterprise
circulatory system. What's, how does that change
(24:53):
when you go into a discovery conversation with a customer
before and how do you go into a maybe a security conversation
after? What does that change in your
frame up? So before and in a lot of this
and and that that path to get that was about my confidence, my
confidence in that I deserve to be sitting at that table.
(25:18):
I didn't have that. I will be very I'll get
vulnerable about it. I didn't have that I and just
not having the background of technology right.
I was always questioning myself,did I know enough to go have an
enterprise level conversation with C-Suite executives?
And one of the main reasons why I was so dedicated to getting
(25:42):
that is that allowed me to have the confidence to know that I
deserve to have a seat at any table.
And so that was the biggest boost for me.
And I think it will transition over to the business
conversations being had with with C-Suite executives.
You know, there's no more jockeying for, you know, hey,
(26:04):
who knows more about this? Who no more, you know, who knows
more about that, which I see a lot in this industry.
And it's, hey, here, I've got this.
It also allows those C-Suite executives to believe in you and
so that belief helps and just piles on to that confidence and
and it shows in the conversations you have with
(26:25):
these guys. Awesome.
Let's go. Let's go to an example here.
So walk us through a customer that you got brought into maybe
what was the tech stack? I mean, this is about kind of
cross selling, you know, going from different paths.
What was the, what was the environment before and then what
were the problems and kind of how did it look after?
Yep. Am I allowed to mention names?
(26:47):
I guess. If you want, it's up to you.
So, so we've got a large customer, Sarah Automotive
dealership, one of the top ten dealerships in the country and
and when we first went in, you know, it was a Internet
connectivity, right, Internet connectivity.
They needed this. Well, they are running a very
(27:09):
lean IT center I will say and simply asking the questions, you
know, going in with Internet connectivity, we ended up they
hadn't they hadn't looked at their Internet connectivity in
years and we ended up saving them mass amounts of money,
which gave them competent confidence in us to be able to
(27:32):
look at other services. And truthfully, the cross
selling is, is, is every single time we go into a customer, not
only Sarah Automotive, but everysingle one we're asking, you
know, hey, let us look at all ofyour services, not just this
Internet connectivity. Doesn't matter what it is.
(27:53):
You're, you know, where, where do you stand today?
Where are you having issues in your knowledge today on the
services that you have? And most people are just, you
know, minus the minus the large enterprise, they don't have the
money to spend on the IT services side and especially
for, for labor. And so us going in, we are
(28:16):
looking, we and we tell people when we first come in, we want
to see the entire stack. The more you give us, the more
we can put on a spreadsheet for you, the more we can compare
pricing. Even if you don't get it from
us, right, at least you'll have an idea of what it is that's out
there. And when you do need it, you're
going to come back to us. So that's, that's really, I
(28:39):
think the most important thing to me was, was once we realized
and once I realized that that all of these services, services
can and should be facilitated. I get away from the sales word.
People are so against sales, right?
And so I just tell I'm not a sales, I'm an expert
(29:00):
facilitator. I'm going to help you down this
path and, and so asking those questions each and every time,
no matter if it's a one phone doctor's office or a healthcare
organization with 10,000 people,ask the question.
Can I, you know, you like what we've done here, You know, let
us look at your, your other services, whether it's
(29:23):
cybersecurity, what are you doing for your, you know, your
access points. Let's take a look at that, make
sure they're secured properly. What are you doing?
Have you, have you migrated to the cloud yet?
Are you looking to do so? The AI question now, of course,
you know, how are you integrating AI?
(29:43):
Have you integrated AI into yourcustomer experience model or
your your contact center? Just question after question.
You need to have these questionsimprinted into your mind so that
you are asking them every singletime.
I love it. That's the, I was gonna talk
(30:05):
about kind of some of the roadblocks that I see out there,
but I think you kind of called it out in that the, the only
time where we've seen advisors not be successful is just
because they didn't ask or they didn't think that maybe they
didn't know that that was in theportfolio to, to, to have at
their, at their, you know, at their back end call.
They didn't know that that arrowwas in the quiver.
(30:25):
And so I love that you've got this programmatized to just ask
every single time. And, and I, I think if you run
that discipline process and you've got your CRMI, think the,
the worst thing that happens outof all of this is they go, hey,
Steve, you know, that's great. I, I love that you're asking us
about that. Let's work on this one thing
(30:45):
right now. But in, we're stuck in contract
for about 6 or 9 months. Great.
Put it in the CRM, ping them back in six months before
anybody else does. Just keep asking, keep asking,
keep asking. I love you mentioned the
checklist, right? I, I'd envisioned it in the, you
know, door knocking days like that checklist would be
plastered on my cubicle. And just just ask, because if
they don't, if they don't know that you do it, they're never
(31:07):
going to bring it up to you. And and that's one thing it
being that that when I jumped into this, I had zero knowledge,
right? Zero knowledge, scared to death.
And I think that's what happens to partners that aren't asking
the questions. If you ask a question about
contact center right? And it the partner themselves
(31:30):
or, or me, at least, I was scared that they were going to
ask a question back that I wouldn't know, you know, I'm not
going to know this. But in reality, we've got so
many people that are experts in this.
Ask the question. And if they ask you something,
simply say, Hey, I don't know this, but I do have a team of
(31:50):
people that do and and bring them to the table to help help
you out and sell those complex systems.
Final couple thoughts here as weget towards the end.
I mean, if I'm a, if I'm a partner, you, you, I think you
covered this pretty good. But if, if I'm a partner and I'm
going all right, I'm, I'm boughtin, Steve's got me hyped up.
(32:13):
I'm ready. I'm not afraid.
What's the, what's the best advice for partners to, to
continue to identify these and position themselves in that
correctly? I would just put a bow on kind
of some of these thoughts we've talked about.
Won't be funny for a minute, butI think about this and I think
that the majority of partners have that fear of rejection.
(32:38):
I did as well, right? And, and one of the best things
I can tell you to do is start singing karaoke.
So if you can, if you can start singing karaoke and you're not a
good singer. And this is something that I did
because I was deathly afraid to,to speak publicly.
I mean, I was, I was deathly afraid of it.
(33:00):
I don't know why. I was just deathly afraid of it.
And I was talking to somebody and, and, and just said, you
know what, I'm going to start singing karaoke.
And we would go out and I would sing karaoke and was horrible at
it. And if you can make it through
that, then you can, you know, you cannot be afraid to ask
those questions every single time.
But but on a more serious note, for partners themselves, they
(33:23):
need to get engaged with every piece of knowledge aspect out
there so they don't have that fear.
Everything Telaris has to offer,there's AI mean.
I would love to know the value, the quantitative value of that
Telaris University that is a free source of knowledge and
(33:46):
there's so much on there in every aspect of what we sell.
You know, if I, I, I don't know the quantitative amount that
that would be worth, but it's a lot.
And so every event you can go tothat you can afford to go to go
to every single virtual event that you can go to go to, you
(34:09):
have to know the technology or the theory behind the technology
as well as know what's in the portfolio so that you can
translate to your customer of where to go.
And so you need to know that that portfolio backwards and
forwards and get with your, you know, your channel managers that
(34:30):
should know that portfolio backwards and forwards and, and
simply ask. Don't be afraid to ask the
questions and don't be afraid tojump in and snag all of that
that free knowledge that's out there, as much as you can
retain, as much as you physically can do so.
All right, final thoughts. So let's look into Steve's
(34:51):
crystal wall. You got the next 12 to 24
months. What are the innovations in the
market you're looking the most forward to that are just out
there products or just innovations in general?
Innovations in general, quantum computing, quantum computing has
is, is fascinating to me. You know, when, when Google came
out with that Willow chip and did what Frontier it would take
(35:16):
them what I believe it was 10 septillion years and it does it
in 5 minutes, you know, and being that I dove head first
into the cybersecurity realm, where does that leave us in, in
the cybersecurity realm with the, with the cryptographic, you
know, analysis and everything else?
I mean, it's, I'm very interested to see where that
(35:39):
takes us and the evolution of a,you know, how far will it go?
I can't wait to see the the robots that are helping us do
our our everyday task, laundry and cooking and everything else
because it's coming, you know it's coming and it's coming at a
very fast pace. Fair points.
I love it. Well, man, a lot of good stuff.
(36:01):
Lots and lots of good stuff. I appreciate you coming on.
It's been a blast, man. It's been a blast.
Thank you very much. I'm honored to be on here and
and you know, we, we watching this industry grow has been
fascinating. It's taken me a little while
longer to ramp up than I would have liked, but it's it's, it's
happening and it's fun and, and I enjoy it and thank all you
(36:23):
guys. And and oh, by the way too,
thank you for your service. We appreciate.
Oh, absolutely. So.
Yes. All right, everybody, that wraps
us up for this week. As always, remember wherever
you're coming to us from, Apple Music, Spotify, follow subscribe
so you get these as they drop every Wednesday and don't miss
any of them. It has been tech stack mastery
(36:44):
secrets to sell across cloud connectivity and security.
Steve Davis, network data solutions.
I'm your host, Josh La Presto SVP of sales engineering at
Solaris. Until next time.
Thank you this level Biztech hasbeen a production of Solaris
Studio 19. Please visit telaris.com For
more information.
Welcome to the podcast designed to fuel your success selling
technology solutions. I'm your host Josh Lopresto, SVP
of Sales Engineering at Solaris,and this is Next Level Biztech.
Everybody. Welcome back.
We are wrapping up a track todaywith nobody better than Mr.
(00:21):
Steve Davis of Network Data Solutions.
Steve, welcome on man. How are you?
I'm I'm good, I'm better that you're here.
We, we, we got a lot of cool stuff.
I won't spoil it yet, but for everybody listening out there,
we're talking about tech stack mastery, secrets to sell across
the cloud, Colo connectivity, security, all the things.
(00:41):
So Steve, maybe, maybe just kickus off.
Let's I've, I've known you for awhile, but let's hear your
story. How did you get into this field?
Where did the path start? Windy, crazy stories fill us in.
All right, so I fell backwards into this, which is I, I
constantly reflect on it and, and see how I, I got to this
(01:03):
point in this wonderful field that we're in.
But, you know, did not have any sort of background in technology
whatsoever. And, and, but was fascinated
with it and, you know, wrestled,played football all my life,
typical jock type scenario, you know, got a, a small offer
(01:24):
coming out of high school from Middle Tennessee and, and just
my passion wasn't there for it. And I felt like that it was just
going to potentially be a waste of my time, you know, and wasn't
at that maturity level. I went to school for about 6
months and realized that, hey, I'm not ready for this college
(01:45):
life yet. And my family had had pretty
much been in, in a military typebackground for the most part.
Not everybody, but a good bit ofthem.
And was looking for that sports type challenge and was like,
hey, I'm going to go join the Marine Corps.
You know, we which, which one, which branch am I going to join?
(02:06):
I'm going to join the Marine Corps because I was looking for
that challenge, right? Well, I got the challenge so and
dove head first into it. Went to the recruiting station,
talked to him about it a little bit told him that, you know, I
was looking to do some sort of, you know, special forces type
experience. You know, that was my goal to
(02:26):
get to that level, right? And then you take an ASVAB test
and the, the, the recruiter starts trying to talk you out of
going into the infantry. The only way, you know, the only
way you can get to that is goingto the, to the infantry.
And then, you know, that kind ofdictates where they're going to
place you, if you even get to that.
(02:49):
They tried to talk me out of it.You know, they were, you know,
they were like, hey, you can do anything you want in the
military. You're sure you want to do this.
And I was like, absolutely, you know, this is this is where I'm
going with it. So went, went, went down that
path. It did its job in the fact that
(03:09):
it grew me up very fast. And I was not at that point in
my life, you know, the maturity wasn't there when I reflect back
on it, but it did what it was supposed to do and, and got me
to that level of maturity very fast.
And so on that path, I got pulled out and, and was able to
(03:34):
go through a certain blame that they had and ended up getting a
top secret security clearance and put at Camp David, which was
was very, very interesting. Not this is really the first
time even being in the channel for what is it 1516 years, 17
(03:56):
years. I think that that I've never
really talked about it, never never really thought to talk
about it. Kept the cover well.
I respect it, yeah, yeah. And so, but, but after that, you
know, I, I, I went as far as I could go.
I felt like in that and and I had this entrepreneurial bone in
(04:16):
me and and it was just, I've needed something more, you know,
and, and there is love our military, love America, love our
armed forces and all that, but there is a thumb on you.
So I felt like there was more out there for me to accomplish.
And so once I got out of that, Istarted a person I knew I wanted
(04:40):
to be an entrepreneur of some kind.
And, and my first passion was, was fitness.
And when I got out of the MarineCorps, I started a, a personal
training business, borrowed $7000 because you're not making
any money in the military, I promise you.
And borrowed $7000 from my parents, started a personal
(05:01):
training business to where I would go into homes and do you
know, top to bottom programs forthem and really enjoyed it.
And one of the only thing about that was I couldn't duplicate
it. I couldn't duplicate my efforts.
I just wasn't, I felt like therewas a better way to, to get
(05:23):
scale of a, of a business and, and I'm not scaling my time
because it was a, a 16 hour grind to where I was going into
homes and all that good stuff. And it just took a lot of time.
And, and I've always been very interested in technology, even
though I did not know a lot about it.
(05:45):
And I had a customer, it's weirdhow things lead to other things.
And I had a customer that was like, you know, what you need to
do, You need to come sell technology for me.
And, and I thought about it and I'd always had that interest in
technology. And so I, I spoke to him about
it, told him I really didn't know anything about technology.
(06:08):
And he was talking more about the infrastructure side.
So that's not, I'm not going to say it wasn't that hard to
learn, but, you know, easier to learn.
And I could go into businesses and, and try to get pretty much
cabling jobs, right. Cablings moves, ads, changes
things of that nature and ran into a larger banks VP of IT
(06:33):
operations and he was into triathlons.
And so I started talking with him about potentially being able
to come in and do infrastructurefor Compass Bank is, is the bank
it was for. And, and that led me down the
path of getting into doing triathlons and being able to
kind of commingle my passion with fitness along with the
(06:55):
technology space. And we became close in that
process. And we, we had probably at the
end of that little run, we endedup having about 50 technicians
all over the southeast from Texas to Georgia and Florida
everywhere. They had a branch pretty much.
(07:16):
And we were doing moves, ads, changes, you know, back then it
was, it was taking two pair and swapping 2 pair to another thing
on the 66 block, you know, I mean it.
And so after that, I started really diving into the knowledge
behind technology, and then it just got really even more
(07:37):
interesting on that front. And so with that, Bobby Fabri,
I've got to mention this too. So Bobby Fabri comes to our
office and he, he comes in and he, he was working for pay Tech
(07:58):
at the time. And he's like, hey, you know,
you guys were already out here in the infrastructure space.
Why don't you start selling services?
Why don't you sell some connectivity to these customers?
Well, the light kind of clicked.I'm like, OK, explain this to
me. And then I started working as a
bar with Bobby at Pay Tech just on the side, just just as we, as
(08:21):
we ran into opportunities, I would ask the customer, hey, we
may can get you some Internet connectivity for, for a better
price than you're getting today and continue down that path.
Windstream purchase pay tech andI don't want to say anything
bad. This is one thing, you know, it
(08:43):
is what it is. But Windstream purchase pay tech
and, and, and, and, and I was missing a good bit of
commissions after that. After that happened, that's what
we'll say. And I knew that the model behind
what I was doing, even as a bar in those low commissions, the
model made sense. And you know, I can go out here
(09:05):
and put forth effort and get paid on that effort in
perpetuity as long as this customer's happy, right?
And, and that math made sense tome.
And then, you know, Fast forwardto today and, and you know,
found Telaris through a search and Telaris put me with a
(09:26):
larger, larger group, telco management group.
And I worked under Marilyn Dooley for, for a while and
really started seeing all the services, not just Internet
connectivity, but all the services that could be sold out
there. And when you put a pencil to
paper or pen to paper and you start doing the math, it's
(09:48):
pretty powerful model, probably the most powerful model I've
ever seen in my life. And so I jumped head first into
it and started devouring information.
I mean devouring it. I wanted to be able to sell
every single thing that TS DS had to offer.
And so that knowledge is is whatled me to where we are today.
(10:12):
So as you as you go through thatand and the customers come to
you and talk about. All right, tell us.
Give me the You're at the door. You got 30 seconds.
Give me the NDS elevator pitch. Where do you see?
How do you explain how NDS stands out?
How do we see how NDS stands out?
So usually I'm now anyway, and this has been a progression for
(10:37):
sure throughout the years, but now we're getting that initial
discovery presentation done. This is today.
Early on it was vomiting on people and not oh.
Yeah, yeah, you figured. Out early on, it was just a
vomiting on individuals and saying, hey, we can save you
money on Internet. And so now we're, we're, we're
(10:59):
putting together presentations that allow us to come in and,
and the number one thing I do today is we follow a challenger
sales model, which is was introduced to us through the
TSDS. And I let them know that I'm not
a salesperson. I'm a consultant for you and I'm
not a yes man. We're going to show you what it
(11:21):
looks, what, what it should looklike.
And then you can get these Olacotta services, but we're
going to show you what it shouldlook like if someone asked us
for Internet today, we're going to show them a DIAA direct
Internet access. We're going to show them a coax.
We're going to show them a 5G wireless backup or 4G wireless
backup, whatever along with Starlink that is going to get
(11:45):
connected into some sort of SD Wan managed firewall device for
that redundancy. And it doesn't matter if they
just ask for Internet connectivity.
That's the quote they're seeing from us.
And then when we go in, we're saying this is what it should
look like. If it makes economical sense to
the business, we can sell it a la carte.
(12:07):
But I do let them know that, that, that we're there to show
them what it should look like mainly and, and regardless if
they're needing those services or not.
And then the the solution, the technology solutions map really
lets them see, because these people that you're in front of
or businesses that you're in front of, they can't, they
(12:28):
really can't grasp all that we can do without knowing that.
Exactly. I, I love it.
I, I, I think that is the, that is The funny thing about this
business is surely everybody knows all the things that we can
help them with. And you, you put yourself
empathetically in their shoes and we are just a sliver.
We are 30 minutes in their 12 hour day depending on how much
(12:50):
time we get right. So they only know what.
So I love the I love the approach of, Hey, you asked for
this. This is how we look at things.
And I think, I mean, that's that's why we wanted you on this
session because this whole storyis about how do you go your your
story is about transitioning in a windy path and, and just
constant progression, progression, progression.
And I think that that'll get us into we're we're going to get to
(13:12):
some more of that, you know, theevolving role in the cross
selling things here in a second.Maybe one, one final thought on
this. I always love asking this
question. Hard won wisdom over the last,
you know, 15 plus years. Something that you learned
really hard yourself. Great lesson from a mentor.
What's what's been your stand out?
(13:32):
Get rid of your ego immediately.Like when you come into this,
there's no way to be a just a top level expert on all of it.
So listen, you know, listen, go to these events, get rid of your
ego, understand that there's a lot that you do not know in this
industry and, and constantly be listening to others because
(13:56):
they're their path is giving, you know, giving them wisdom
that you may not have another hard one.
Wisdom, you know, don't have allof your eggs in one basket.
We mentioned Compass Bank earlier.
BBVAA Brazilian company came over and bought Compass Bank.
So I went from A50 technician business to hey, we don't have
(14:22):
our one major customer anymore. And it was the first really hard
kick in the gut that I had to get myself up off the floor from
truthfully, because it was, it was, it was devastating at the
time it was. So don't have all your eggs in
one basket for sure. And then as far as other like a
(14:44):
mentor type wisdom that was given was Dan Henderson was also
a, a, as I was making the transition over from in house
personal trainer, fitness guru to the technology world, I was
explaining, you know, I, I developed relationships with all
(15:05):
of my, my, my fitness customers.And, and he was a, you know, the
people that could afford it wereusually CEO type individuals
that, that were bringing me intotheir home.
And so we would have deep personal conversations a lot of
the time while we were doing what we were doing.
And he just, you know, he had, he had, he had mentioned to me
(15:29):
and he saw my drive and he just said, you know, no matter what
happens to you in life, your word is all that you have.
You know, your, your word is allthat you have and stay true to
that. And I kind of added some stuff,
you know, since then, it's just,you know, say what you mean and
mean what you say. You know, always try to make
(15:50):
that person in front of you feelbetter than when they first
approached you and in any situation.
And then, you know, another thing is just always do the
right thing when nobody's looking.
You know, no matter what this, this industry, it seems like to
me, there are, there's room for not so good activities, right?
(16:15):
I mean, there's room for that. And, and as long as you can
stick with that no matter what, do the right thing when nobody's
looking, you're always going to be in the clear and and good to
go. So I love it.
Those are great. All right, let's, let's get in.
Let's get into this idea of, youknow, you've got some secrets
(16:36):
here. We're talking about selling
cross-platform, cross technologystack.
So from your perspective, what'sthe what's the right, what's the
effective strategy if I start with cloud and I move to
security or I start with networkand I want to move to cloud?
How are you positioning that overall conversation?
Walk us through some more of that.
So usually when we come in, there is a need.
(16:58):
We, we do a lot of referral based relationships, right?
If we go into a customer and they're happy with what we've
done, I asked for five referralsevery single time.
You know, hey, if you, if you liked what you saw here and we
brought value to the table, pickout five of your peers that you
(17:20):
would like us to come in front of and do the same exact thing
we did for you over here with them.
And so as far as the transition,for me, it's, it's all about
listening to that customer and, and, and finding out those
needs, asking the questions, making sure they know all that
(17:40):
you can do. And then the flow, the
information flow will go with that.
You know, if it's, if it's a budget issue, usually we're
coming in saying, hey, you know,if, if we're looking at
cybersecurity less and you don'thave the budget for what's
needed on cybersecurity, let us look at the network piece, the
(18:02):
UCAS piece. Let's create some budget so that
you can spend on the cybersecurity needs and or cloud
needs that are there that you know, you have to have, but
there's a budget issue. So you know, let us create that
budget for you or at least look into it and and potentially take
that. But you know the budget savings
and spend it over here where youwhere your must haves are is
(18:25):
that. When you do that, I mean it to
me, it seems so simplistic, but I don't think a lot of customers
think like this. I mean, what's the reaction when
you think like when you get the customer thinking down that
path? The reaction, I, I would say
that there's not a whole lot of,of businesses out there that
truly understand what we do. You know, I mean, it's, we come
(18:48):
in, we, we, we explain to them, hey, they, they're looking at
you as that salesperson. And and I constantly reiterate
to those customers, not a salesperson, I'm not here
selling widgets, OK, This is a non transactional experience.
This Is Us coming in and sittingon your side of the table and
(19:10):
helping you navigate this humongous knowledge gap that's
out there. And this is, you know, seasoned
CIOCTOS, doesn't matter. They're busy running their
business. And so we're there to stay on
that bleeding edge so that they don't have to.
And so once they see that we're coming in and bringing value and
(19:33):
we're sitting on their side of the table, that to me, the trick
is to get them to realize that we are a partner with them.
We are not that salesperson trying to get them to buy
everything under the sun. We want to find out what it is
the needs are. And then once we find out those
needs, we can navigate with them, not for them, but with
(19:53):
them down that path. I.
Love it. So want to talk about, you know,
your stories about growth and and kind of where you've come
from, where you started. When we when we got together a
while back, couple years ago, wewe were talking, you know,
obviously we talked a lot about certifications.
We love certifications at Telaris.
(20:14):
You know, we think it's it's helpful in in staying in tune
with what's happening in the industry as we get into
discovery calls all all those reasons that we talk about you
recently. I found out, picked up a pretty
interesting certification and I,I love hearing this and kind of
hearing what your plan is, but walk us through maybe why you
(20:34):
set your sights on that and, andnow really let's talk about, you
know, what drove that and how you plan on leveraging that and
what is this cert? So I did and it was, it was a
very fun, brutal path, I will tell you that.
And, and what made me, it's kindof along the lines with that,
(20:55):
that military experience, right?I went and I was like, OK, I'm
going to join. I'm going to go into the
military. And immediately my mindset is
which one is supposedly, I don'twant to offend anyone in other
branches, but which one is supposedly the hardest, right?
And, and for, you know, the, theopinion is usually that the
(21:16):
Marine Corps is the hardest. And that's where I've been, I'm
going to the Marine Corps same situation with this.
You know, what's the hardest subject that we deal with?
Being a trusted advisor. To me, it seems to be
cybersecurity. And then immediately asked
myself, what's the hardest certification in cybersecurity
(21:36):
to get? And the from what I've seen, the
opinion is, is the CISSP, your certified information security
services professional is the toughest 1.
And so I just decided that that's the one that I was going
to go. After.
Why not? Why not?
Yeah, why not? And, and so when I decided that
(22:00):
of course, I was on Teleris University and trying to take as
much free knowledge that's out there like that as I could
before, I decided to go after the CSSP.
Well, I had done a couple of courses on there and thought,
man, I'm pretty good. You know, I feel pretty good
about this. So I sign up to take this test
(22:20):
and I go in and I'm sitting down.
Palm scans, you know, they're just all, you know, very strict
on this test and sat down and after that, three hours actually
about 30 minutes in, I thought I'd signed up for the wrong
test. And so once I realized that it
(22:42):
is that hard and there's so muchmore knowledge involved behind
the aspects of this CIS SP, I was hooked.
I was hooked. So then after that experience,
I, I, I went and then knew I needed to dive in pretty hard
and, and started getting up at, at 4:30 in the morning, studying
from 5:00 to 8:00 a little bit every single day, going to bed,
(23:07):
reading about it. Where was I, where were the gaps
in my knowledge? I would stick, you know,
strictly on that until I could talk to my wife or others about
it and teach them about it. And if I couldn't do that, I've
read that Common Book of Knowledge four Times Now.
That's what it took for me. Yeah, but but, but it's an
(23:28):
interesting read. If there's one thing I suggest
to all the partners out there isgo grab a copy of that book and
read it. Because if you're in this
industry, if you never want to try to get that certification,
that Common Book of Knowledge goes over the enterprise complex
(23:48):
circulatory system right from start to finish.
And it really opened my eyes up to how much more I needed to
learn not only about cybersecurity, not only about
the inner workings of the enterprise, but just as a whole,
how it all fits together. And so that would be a
(24:08):
suggestion for all partners is hey, go grab a copy of that, go
to Amazon and read that cover tocover one time and it will help
further everything you do with your business discussions.
Love it. Big, big congratulations.
Was super excited to hear that you knocked that one out.
And I think it will, it will pay, it will pay dividends.
(24:31):
And I, you know, I, I guess I don't want to put words in your
mouth, but I'm curious because I've seen how this can be
effective in conversations. But what's your plan like when
you, you, you've mastered this body of knowledge, you feel that
you, you know, I like your example, the enterprise
circulatory system. What's, how does that change
(24:53):
when you go into a discovery conversation with a customer
before and how do you go into a maybe a security conversation
after? What does that change in your
frame up? So before and in a lot of this
and and that that path to get that was about my confidence, my
confidence in that I deserve to be sitting at that table.
(25:18):
I didn't have that. I will be very I'll get
vulnerable about it. I didn't have that I and just
not having the background of technology right.
I was always questioning myself,did I know enough to go have an
enterprise level conversation with C-Suite executives?
And one of the main reasons why I was so dedicated to getting
(25:42):
that is that allowed me to have the confidence to know that I
deserve to have a seat at any table.
And so that was the biggest boost for me.
And I think it will transition over to the business
conversations being had with with C-Suite executives.
You know, there's no more jockeying for, you know, hey,
(26:04):
who knows more about this? Who no more, you know, who knows
more about that, which I see a lot in this industry.
And it's, hey, here, I've got this.
It also allows those C-Suite executives to believe in you and
so that belief helps and just piles on to that confidence and
and it shows in the conversations you have with
(26:25):
these guys. Awesome.
Let's go. Let's go to an example here.
So walk us through a customer that you got brought into maybe
what was the tech stack? I mean, this is about kind of
cross selling, you know, going from different paths.
What was the, what was the environment before and then what
were the problems and kind of how did it look after?
Yep. Am I allowed to mention names?
(26:47):
I guess. If you want, it's up to you.
So, so we've got a large customer, Sarah Automotive
dealership, one of the top ten dealerships in the country and
and when we first went in, you know, it was a Internet
connectivity, right, Internet connectivity.
They needed this. Well, they are running a very
(27:09):
lean IT center I will say and simply asking the questions, you
know, going in with Internet connectivity, we ended up they
hadn't they hadn't looked at their Internet connectivity in
years and we ended up saving them mass amounts of money,
which gave them competent confidence in us to be able to
(27:32):
look at other services. And truthfully, the cross
selling is, is, is every single time we go into a customer, not
only Sarah Automotive, but everysingle one we're asking, you
know, hey, let us look at all ofyour services, not just this
Internet connectivity. Doesn't matter what it is.
(27:53):
You're, you know, where, where do you stand today?
Where are you having issues in your knowledge today on the
services that you have? And most people are just, you
know, minus the minus the large enterprise, they don't have the
money to spend on the IT services side and especially
for, for labor. And so us going in, we are
(28:16):
looking, we and we tell people when we first come in, we want
to see the entire stack. The more you give us, the more
we can put on a spreadsheet for you, the more we can compare
pricing. Even if you don't get it from
us, right, at least you'll have an idea of what it is that's out
there. And when you do need it, you're
going to come back to us. So that's, that's really, I
(28:39):
think the most important thing to me was, was once we realized
and once I realized that that all of these services, services
can and should be facilitated. I get away from the sales word.
People are so against sales, right?
And so I just tell I'm not a sales, I'm an expert
(29:00):
facilitator. I'm going to help you down this
path and, and so asking those questions each and every time,
no matter if it's a one phone doctor's office or a healthcare
organization with 10,000 people,ask the question.
Can I, you know, you like what we've done here, You know, let
us look at your, your other services, whether it's
(29:23):
cybersecurity, what are you doing for your, you know, your
access points. Let's take a look at that, make
sure they're secured properly. What are you doing?
Have you, have you migrated to the cloud yet?
Are you looking to do so? The AI question now, of course,
you know, how are you integrating AI?
(29:43):
Have you integrated AI into yourcustomer experience model or
your your contact center? Just question after question.
You need to have these questionsimprinted into your mind so that
you are asking them every singletime.
I love it. That's the, I was gonna talk
(30:05):
about kind of some of the roadblocks that I see out there,
but I think you kind of called it out in that the, the only
time where we've seen advisors not be successful is just
because they didn't ask or they didn't think that maybe they
didn't know that that was in theportfolio to, to, to have at
their, at their, you know, at their back end call.
They didn't know that that arrowwas in the quiver.
(30:25):
And so I love that you've got this programmatized to just ask
every single time. And, and I, I think if you run
that discipline process and you've got your CRMI, think the,
the worst thing that happens outof all of this is they go, hey,
Steve, you know, that's great. I, I love that you're asking us
about that. Let's work on this one thing
(30:45):
right now. But in, we're stuck in contract
for about 6 or 9 months. Great.
Put it in the CRM, ping them back in six months before
anybody else does. Just keep asking, keep asking,
keep asking. I love you mentioned the
checklist, right? I, I'd envisioned it in the, you
know, door knocking days like that checklist would be
plastered on my cubicle. And just just ask, because if
they don't, if they don't know that you do it, they're never
(31:07):
going to bring it up to you. And and that's one thing it
being that that when I jumped into this, I had zero knowledge,
right? Zero knowledge, scared to death.
And I think that's what happens to partners that aren't asking
the questions. If you ask a question about
contact center right? And it the partner themselves
(31:30):
or, or me, at least, I was scared that they were going to
ask a question back that I wouldn't know, you know, I'm not
going to know this. But in reality, we've got so
many people that are experts in this.
Ask the question. And if they ask you something,
simply say, Hey, I don't know this, but I do have a team of
(31:50):
people that do and and bring them to the table to help help
you out and sell those complex systems.
Final couple thoughts here as weget towards the end.
I mean, if I'm a, if I'm a partner, you, you, I think you
covered this pretty good. But if, if I'm a partner and I'm
going all right, I'm, I'm boughtin, Steve's got me hyped up.
(32:13):
I'm ready. I'm not afraid.
What's the, what's the best advice for partners to, to
continue to identify these and position themselves in that
correctly? I would just put a bow on kind
of some of these thoughts we've talked about.
Won't be funny for a minute, butI think about this and I think
that the majority of partners have that fear of rejection.
(32:38):
I did as well, right? And, and one of the best things
I can tell you to do is start singing karaoke.
So if you can, if you can start singing karaoke and you're not a
good singer. And this is something that I did
because I was deathly afraid to,to speak publicly.
I mean, I was, I was deathly afraid of it.
(33:00):
I don't know why. I was just deathly afraid of it.
And I was talking to somebody and, and, and just said, you
know what, I'm going to start singing karaoke.
And we would go out and I would sing karaoke and was horrible at
it. And if you can make it through
that, then you can, you know, you cannot be afraid to ask
those questions every single time.
But but on a more serious note, for partners themselves, they
(33:23):
need to get engaged with every piece of knowledge aspect out
there so they don't have that fear.
Everything Telaris has to offer,there's AI mean.
I would love to know the value, the quantitative value of that
Telaris University that is a free source of knowledge and
(33:46):
there's so much on there in every aspect of what we sell.
You know, if I, I, I don't know the quantitative amount that
that would be worth, but it's a lot.
And so every event you can go tothat you can afford to go to go
to every single virtual event that you can go to go to, you
(34:09):
have to know the technology or the theory behind the technology
as well as know what's in the portfolio so that you can
translate to your customer of where to go.
And so you need to know that that portfolio backwards and
forwards and get with your, you know, your channel managers that
(34:30):
should know that portfolio backwards and forwards and, and
simply ask. Don't be afraid to ask the
questions and don't be afraid tojump in and snag all of that
that free knowledge that's out there, as much as you can
retain, as much as you physically can do so.
All right, final thoughts. So let's look into Steve's
(34:51):
crystal wall. You got the next 12 to 24
months. What are the innovations in the
market you're looking the most forward to that are just out
there products or just innovations in general?
Innovations in general, quantum computing, quantum computing has
is, is fascinating to me. You know, when, when Google came
out with that Willow chip and did what Frontier it would take
(35:16):
them what I believe it was 10 septillion years and it does it
in 5 minutes, you know, and being that I dove head first
into the cybersecurity realm, where does that leave us in, in
the cybersecurity realm with the, with the cryptographic, you
know, analysis and everything else?
I mean, it's, I'm very interested to see where that
(35:39):
takes us and the evolution of a,you know, how far will it go?
I can't wait to see the the robots that are helping us do
our our everyday task, laundry and cooking and everything else
because it's coming, you know it's coming and it's coming at a
very fast pace. Fair points.
I love it. Well, man, a lot of good stuff.
(36:01):
Lots and lots of good stuff. I appreciate you coming on.
It's been a blast, man. It's been a blast.
Thank you very much. I'm honored to be on here and
and you know, we, we watching this industry grow has been
fascinating. It's taken me a little while
longer to ramp up than I would have liked, but it's it's, it's
happening and it's fun and, and I enjoy it and thank all you
(36:23):
guys. And and oh, by the way too,
thank you for your service. We appreciate.
Oh, absolutely. So.
Yes. All right, everybody, that wraps
us up for this week. As always, remember wherever
you're coming to us from, Apple Music, Spotify, follow subscribe
so you get these as they drop every Wednesday and don't miss
any of them. It has been tech stack mastery
(36:44):
secrets to sell across cloud connectivity and security.
Steve Davis, network data solutions.
I'm your host, Josh La Presto SVP of sales engineering at
Solaris. Until next time.
Thank you this level Biztech hasbeen a production of Solaris
Studio 19. Please visit telaris.com For
more information.
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