Ep. 206 - Brent Haldiman (Head of Sales @ GTM Lead)

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:19):
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of
Your Intention Matters thePodcast.
Thank you very much for beinghere.
My name is Palmad.
Today we have Brent Haldeman,owner operator of GTM Dart
Velocity Sales coming to us fromthe Mile High, Denver.
Brand, go Broncos, right?

SPEAKER_01 (00:35):
Heck yeah.
Let's go, Broncos.
Um, we are a team sport uh statehere in Colorado.
Everything from the Avalanche,which I know that you're in
Canada, so you might not like usso much.

SPEAKER_00 (00:47):
No, I love the Aves.
McKinnon.
I love McKinnon.

SPEAKER_01 (00:51):
Yeah, we're going on a nice run this year.
So we just swept.
Um, we also have the nuggets.
So yeah, we're a little bit of asports area of expertise here.

SPEAKER_00 (01:01):
Nice.
Well, nice to have you on thepodcast.
Thanks for making the time.
Uh, provide a quick intro, ifyou would.

SPEAKER_01 (01:06):
Yeah, absolutely.
Appreciate that, Paul.
Um, my name's Brent.
Um, I like to say I've been uhin sales my entire career.
I've been uh competing againstone thing the entire time I've
been in sales.
I like to call that status quo,traditional ways of doing
things.
Um, and what we do here um asfar as GTM Dart, and and what I

(01:29):
do is I'm the head and owneroperator of GTM Dart, as you
mentioned.
We focus on one core problempredictable pipeline.
Um, we realize that most teamskind of chase activity and not
outcomes.
Um, that's why I built GTM Dartto bring precision and then um
conversions, quality, and andreal revenue discipline into

(01:52):
outbound, using that kind ofexperience from competing
against status quo my entirecareer to execute that.

SPEAKER_00 (02:01):
So, Brent, how did you get into sales from ASU?
Because I'm sure that's not whatyou went into school for.

SPEAKER_01 (02:08):
No, I actually played soccer um for ASU and a
little bit in in high school, Iwas really good at my
extracurrent activities versuswhat was going on at school.
Um, if you've ever been to uhScottsdale, Arizona or Tempe,
you kind of know what I'mtalking about.
It's a lot of fun, sometimes toomuch fun.

(02:29):
Um, so I was always kind of goodwith the gift of gab.
My first real sales job wasactually selling coupon books
door to door from my soccer teamto raise money.
And uh yeah, I remember thatpitch to this day, funny enough.
But we were very successful.
Um, and I just had a knack forkind of finding the pitch.

(02:52):
From there, I just fell in lovewith sales.
I moved to Colorado and startedwith a marketing company and
building um teams and actuallywas a junior partner at a
marketing company.
There you go.
That's how I got started.

SPEAKER_00 (03:06):
Gotcha.
You know, I appreciate yourcomment regarding the coupon
sales because I'm old enough toremember them as well.
So yeah, exactly.
That was everybody's thing.
Some of the audience is not, Imight have to Google what we're
talking about here, but that'sall right.
Yeah, and so you know, Brent,again, thanks for being here.
You know, as we were talkingabout uh the podcast and uh
getting grounded before I hitrecord, and we're talking about

(03:27):
sales and sales training and soon.
And so I have a belief when itcomes to overachieving in the
world of sales, it takes astrong mindset.
Like it just does, in that uh anorganization can provide their
salespeople with every tool andthe toolkit to go dominate.
They can give them producttraining and systems training

(03:47):
and competitive intel andmarketing collaterals, and they
can give them inbound leads, butif they don't have the right
mindset going into it, in myopinion, they're not likely to
get the results they're lookingfor because it can't just be the
tactics.
And I'd love your thoughts onthat as well.

SPEAKER_01 (04:05):
Yeah, I love that take on it.
If you for me, mindset's aboutcontrol.
I don't know if you take that atall.
Um, controlling the inputs,controlling the standards,
controlling yourself, notletting short-term kind of noise
dictate things.
Um, so when I talk aboutmindset, I I talk about it like

(04:29):
a motivation um in this sense,right?
It's your ability to operatewith clarity when revolt results
aren't always there.
That's kind of the mindset youhave to have.
So I have the mindset of justreally the authority in the
room, is kind of the way I lookat it in the sense.

(04:50):
I'm doing them a favor becauseI've done the research.
I know that this is important.
That's my mindset.
Uh, I'm I know I'm gonna getrejection, I know I'm gonna get
ambiguity, um, delayed feedback,but my mindset is anchored
around control, knowing things.
I know that there's a law ofaverage I must maintain.

(05:10):
I know that I have to have thatpositive mental attitude, but
that really lies in mymotivation.
My motivation is solvingproblems for people and
connecting.
So that's how I really try andoperate.
Uh, my mindset is just showingup with purpose.
And especially with outbound,you're dealing with some pretty
tough things, right?

(05:31):
Yeah.
And, you know, hopefully you getto have some confidence when you
get to understand the science ofthings, like the law of average
and how to overcome some ofthese things.

SPEAKER_00 (05:43):
Brad, how long has it been since you've been
working since college?
When did you graduate?
Ooh, 2001.

SPEAKER_01 (05:50):
So I cut all the gray hair off so you can't see
it.

SPEAKER_00 (05:54):
So 20, 25 years now, we've kind of been in this uh
this work mode, so to speak,post-college, post-education,
and so on.
Yeah.
And so if you think if you thinkabout your various careers over
the past 25 years, anything popout in terms of a situation that
required you to dig in mentallyfrom that perspective?

SPEAKER_01 (06:14):
All the time, right?
There's failures around everycorner.
So, you know, I think it's I canuse even an organization based
in Canada that I recently workedwith, um, where I came in,
they're a traditional Rolodexcompany.
They didn't really have anyautomation, they didn't have any
outbound process, they didn'thave it, and they were slowing
down all over the place.

(06:36):
And it was really just umstarting to understand back in
the day what really got thingsacross the finish line.
And that was a lot of hard work,right?
Not waiting for things to cometo me.
Um, so understanding theoutcomes first.
How do we get to an outcome?
We execute.

(06:56):
So let's just take an evenfurther step back.
Creating um really scalable teamwith a repeatable process.
That is something that they justdidn't have.
So took a step back, sat in thesales seat as a player coach
with the entire team.
Starting with picking up thephone, making calls with the

(07:16):
team, building out new valuepropositions that are pain-led
with the challenger-ledapproach, doing reframing, using
chat to help us speed up some ofthese processes, relearning and
rewiring some of these SDRs andmid-market reps' brains.
So, really, what I did is becomea student again.

(07:37):
Um, and let everybody followalong with me as I was learning
my process.
Sitting in that seat and doingit with discipline and not
over-reaction and understanding.
Guess what?
A few months later, everybodyhit their quota.
We actually doubled in pipeline.
We hired two new AEs and weactually started selling to our

(08:00):
ICP.
We slowed down our discoveryprocess, asked better questions.
Right now, um, that organizationis on pace to have their best
year since the last 10 years.

SPEAKER_00 (08:12):
Congratulations.
Yeah.
Brent, I'm curious about youryour decision to start uh GTM as
an example.
So, you know, my background insales is uh I gained my pedigree
at Xerox.

SPEAKER_01 (08:30):
Yeah, I loved it.

SPEAKER_00 (08:31):
And and I worked for Xerox for about 10 years, and I
was in kind of sales across theboard sales rep, product
specialist, sales manager,production specialist, and so
on.
I was in sales training as wellthere for about a three-year
stint and so on.
And when I left Xerox, nobodywas kicking, nobody was kicking
me out the door.
But I just kind of I kind of hadan itch for enablement and

(08:53):
training and coaching andlearning and development.
And even though I had done thatjob internally, I didn't want to
keep doing that.
I wanted to kind of push myselfand get out there on my own.
So when I left, that's what Idecided to do.
But at the time, I was in mymid-30s, single, no
relationship, no kids.
Not to say that it was easy, butcompared to where I am today,

(09:14):
married, two kids, uh like adifferent responsibility.
It was an easier choice for me,but it was one that took me a
while to kind of get to.
It took me almost a year beforeI let go of that kind of
corporate America brand, so tospeak.
And I'm curious about yourdecision to kind of start your
own business as well.
What prompted that?
What was the driver?

SPEAKER_01 (09:33):
Yeah, I love that story.
Um, and your you know,fearlessness to go get it.
So nice work.

SPEAKER_00 (09:40):
Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 (09:40):
Mine was not that in any way.
Mine was actually, I got mydream job about five years ago.
My dream job was a companycalled We Love No Code, it's a
low-code no code technologycompany that builds applications
inside a bubble.
That's a lot of words.
Um, but most importantly, it wasa marketplace to build and scale

(10:02):
applications that sat inside ofa small country we all
definitely have heard of now,which is called Ukraine.
Unfortunately, there was a warthat started, and I actually
brought in all of my favoritepeople from my career, my best
account executives, my bestmarketing people to join me out.
We love no code.

(10:22):
Well, that all literally andfiguratively blew up in my face.
I was lucky that um Toppdolbought that company, but I had a
bunch of things in my hands, ina sense.
Um, and those things that I hadin my hands were my people.
And um, I just took them fromorganizations and promised them,

(10:44):
you know, um, the moon at my newplace.
So I felt really obligated to mypeople.
So I started GTM Dart so I cangive them a place to go.
Um, I started working with someof the partners that we created,
uh, We Love No Code.
I started giving my accountexecutives roles and
opportunities inside of that.
And then I started to reflect onthe first time I really failed

(11:06):
at something at a job, and thatwas at a company called Full
Contact.
I had a big marine as my boss.
And uh the day I started, hehanded me a black baseball bat
and he said, Here's your first90 days.
I need you to go break down thedoor of a bunch of companies and
close$100,000 in business.

(11:30):
Here you go.
Here's your bat in your your uhcomputer.
He didn't give me any direction,he didn't give me any training,
he didn't give me anywherewithal, didn't tell me
where to go, who to call, ortell me about the product that I
was about to go sell.
And I never wanted to be in thatposition again.
So I created GTM Dart to doenablement, to do training, to
do Outbound the right way withpain-led statements, to help my

(11:54):
people, and to really cutthrough the noise of these
agencies that are out there thattalk about delivering top funnel
revenue, that they really justdeliver noise.

SPEAKER_00 (12:08):
How long did that take, if you recall, from your
from your from your mentaldecision of I gotta do something
different to it actuallyhappening?

SPEAKER_01 (12:16):
A lot of iterations, lots.
I would say like two years worthof hard work, understanding what
the market really wanted to, butalso trying to get um the
repeatable process in place forwhat works.
Because if you talk aboutembedding or outsourcing or you
know bringing in a consultant,immediately your cackles kind of

(12:40):
go up, right?
If you're a business owner,because you feel like you're
giving something away, and thenyou don't want to be a disruptor
inside of that organizationeither.
So there's all these misnotions,and then every story I have is a
CEO, a founder, a sales leaderbeing burned by the last person.

(13:01):
So, how do I overcome all ofthis negativity and then build
this?
So there's lots to do, and tookabout two years to get it right.
Luckily for me, I was successfulin the first few, but um, I can
confidently say now that we haveone of the best solutions in
this market.

SPEAKER_00 (13:20):
Well, congrats on sticking it through because uh
I'm not putting words in yourmouth, I hope, here, but I gotta
believe at some point along theway there might have been some
doubts during those two yearswhere it was not such a yellow
brick road the entire way,right?

SPEAKER_01 (13:33):
Yeah, I think we've all been in those places where
doubts creep in.
Um, and I had to go back to mymentality, which is what are my
law of averages?
What am I missing?
Am I working hard enough?
Because honestly, I think we canall ask ourselves or tell
ourselves that we're workinghard, but we can always work a

(13:54):
little bit harder.
We can always do a little bitmore, and that's really where I
found the fun at pushing myself,solving a bit harder problems,
getting really bigger logos, um,and creating some really fun
partnerships with some of thebiggest B2B organizations and G2

(14:14):
members on the planet.
So it's been really fun.

SPEAKER_00 (14:16):
Well, you know, congrats on all your success to
this point.
Uh, as we as we are getting tolearn here, is obviously was not
just the easiest road of nohiccups or or pivots along the
way.
And so congrats on all yoursuccess.
You know, Brent, I always liketo close the podcast giving you
an opportunity as you thinkabout your your career and your
life over the past 25 years inin business post-college and so

(14:39):
on.
You know, anything come to mindregarding a best practice or a
thought or an approach that hasserved you well over the years?

SPEAKER_01 (14:47):
Yeah, I was great question.
Um I think the biggest thing forme that served me is separating
effort from outcomes in the hardstuff.
Building systems around inputs.
So, you know, understanding whatyour goals are from the start,

(15:12):
and then understanding how we'regonna get clarity to get to that
goal, and also knowing that weneed to take it one step at a
time, precision and thenconsistency always followed by
execution.
So keeping my routine tight,early mornings, focus work, less

(15:36):
noise, and just being reallydisciplined.
I think that's gonna be thebiggest differentiator for
anybody.
If you're not disciplined inthis, it's gonna be tough.

SPEAKER_00 (15:45):
I love it.
Productive, not just busy.

SPEAKER_01 (15:48):
Always, right?
I actually say that almostdaily, right?
Like, what can I do today to beproductive?
Because everybody with all thetools that are out there right
now, all the AI, everything isnoise until you understand it
better.
So that's where we're at.

SPEAKER_00 (16:05):
Well said, Brett, thanks so much for being here.

SPEAKER_01 (16:08):
Yeah, absolutely, Paul.
I really appreciate it, andthanks for taking the time and
giving me the opportunity.

SPEAKER_00 (16:13):
Absolutely.
Thanks again for being here.
All right, everybody, we'regonna wrap up this episode right
now.
Remember, your intentionmatters.
Why?
Because that's the result you'lltend to get.
We'll see you on the nextepisode.