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Speaker Bio
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamielcwatson/
https://www.spoton.com/
everybody welcome back to Spotify teams and tech very excited to introduce against your today Jamie would you like to introduce yourself yeah absolutely my name is Jamie Watson I'm a VP of sales for spot-on we sell we do the point of sales for restaurants mainly for help businesses streamline their business help that with software needs make them more more money essentially and also we do the payment processing and I've been doing this for six going on seven years here at spot-on and I did start out as a account executive at the time and through the years just climb through the ranks promotion over promotion and I hope I hold myself proud on just doing it I'm doing the best to my possibility helping people around me from when I was selling to business owners to my team now and to help them ensure they're successful making money and overall helping the community and the business owners by with helping them with software technology saving them on money and helping them with certain processes and it's been a journey and for many years now top producer in many regards so it's been it hasn't been easy a lot of time blood sweat tears as we say but it's it's been a good time now I'm glad and thank you for sharing that I'd love to dive into a little more about the transition from doing sales yourself to now you know managing the team but real quick introduction for me for those who don't know everybody on the journey from Spotify team for electricity accelerator enterprise teams like Salesforce and P&O loves Spotify because they say they achieve a 10% increase in productivity 11% growth in team engagement 30% uplift on performance year over year and 60% improvement in happiness at work teams work with Spotify coach to look at the issues specific to that team take actions and track improvements left on the month okay so let's dive in this spot on Jamie so can you tell us a little bit more about your team how many folks are on the team are they in person how great remote and on your team you mentioned do you manage managers and yeah what's the structure like yeah absolutely so currently it is I'm the VP of sales of five states so Florida Georgia Mississippi Wisconsin in Minnesota and yes under that umbrella I do have three three managers two team leads so middle management and then a team of accounting executives with about 2046 call it in 65 65 to 70 total reports yeah I got it and what would you say is your overall team leadership philosophy what's your principles what's your gathering principles yeah that's you know that's a that's a really great question well one I would never do something I wouldn't I would never ask someone to do something that I wouldn't do myself that's one that's that's critical to what can be said what can be accomplished in private should never be done in public so far so essentially praise praise in public criticized behind closed doors right that's that's that's one thing into in I accountability right for myself as well so I think that's just absolutely so critical and also just really expecting more out of everyone in a positive way right like a lot of times we have these limit limiting self beliefs where we sell ourselves short or even or even I talked about this on a call Monday I believe it was is some people will actually self affirm against themselves and what I mean by that is like we hear it all the time oh I'm so unlucky or I'm so this so I try to really coach on personal development as well I so I think between the accountability to personal development to to just again praise in public criticized behind closed doors and of course not asking people stuff that I wouldn't want to do and also something that's been critical that I've always lived by instead of just having a meeting to have a meeting I believe it should every meeting should have these three aspects educational motivational inspirational if the meeting isn't evolved around that and it can be a text or an email or a phone call or whatever then there's no point in having a meeting especially as your team gets larger yeah as your team gets larger I mean you know we have calls where there's 50-60 people on if you have a half hour hour call that's a lot of time wasted and sometimes people don't people don't think of that and when I say wasted that's why it has to be valuable it has to be educational motivational inspirational and it has to be real reasoning behind that meeting so I know that was a long-winded answer but yeah no that that's what I'd say that's my answer I appreciate that I'd love to dive into the coaching and a little bit a little bit later but I feel the same way about meetings you know thinking back to when I was in IC and you know really appreciating when folks would just be you know again get the work done get out clear agenda right and just or like they find out hey is it no agenda today okay let's take the time back right so you know I really appreciate that sense there I do want to dive into before we get into the coaching part something we we ask everybody just to learn how everybody does it first how do you measure and then track on team productivity and you know what's your process for driving consistent execution and improvements month of the month that was you asked how do we what was the first question on activity how do you measure and track how the team is doing and how do you improve that month or month I see I see yeah great questions so we do use Salesforce as our CRM as to to as our customer relation management tool so from activity metrics to our current customers and clients our accounts etc that's where everything's from cases that's our where our whole business is managed essentially and then of course we have other types of reporting and data analytics tools and teams etc but and we use things like Excel there's a lot of things that we use sometimes but but I would say that's the key the key thing is that I know that I'm I've personally experienced in and I've learned and grown through and grown through and felt paint on is as as that data is extremely important it's also important not to manage people from the data so so you need to know the data you need to know the data it's critically important but if you're only managing the people through the data that's that's that's a recipe for failure people feel like they're their numbers they feel like they're just a number game I like to emphasize the important to my team and managers the importance of the data because the data tells the real story but it's all about the people people grow the business and it's really about investing that time and energy and sometimes as leaders especially how how busy we get on meetings I mean there's unlimited zooms meetings call you never have time to get everything done that's the reality I've had to also realize but is investing that time right before this call I just spent 30 45 minutes within an AE one-on-one just I'd let just who they are as a person learning about them their goals and that's what I'm the reason I'm kind of going off tangent here that's how I've proven consistent results right is learning what drives the people want I want people to want to run through a wall for me when that you you know like really helping them I know their personal life their their struggles their their kids just checking on who they are as a person right and and also just learning what motivates them and but also at the same time and that's where leaders struggle and it's always a constant struggle and battle in a find that but why you have to balance is they also have to know that you also can mean business as well so if you're just too friendly and I've seen I've seen that in leaders and I've been at fault to that point at times as well and I've had to learn through that is if you're also too personable and that's a and they also need to respect you that's critical setting that bound you have to have those what I call non-negotiables so I have non-negotiables not only for my team but for my personal life and my marriage and non-negotiables are this is what my boundaries are this is what I need done this is what I need accomplished and if you can't do that then you're not a good fit for the role so so right off the bat it's about setting those clear expectations I don't care how you get the job done what but here's what we need done we need A, B and C and D here's the reasoning behind it and the importance of it to the overall company mission and then at that point if you set those clear expectations give them the coaching and training investing the time in them giving them the resources and then if they're not delivering on their side it's not saying you can lead a horse to water right so really that's been the driver of the success is man knowing the data not managing the people to the data and again everything I just just said is I just wanted to elaborate on that I hope that was the answer you were to the question you were asking yeah absolutely I'm curious building off of that scenario let's say you know the data shows one thing and maybe the data shows that someone is not at at expectations let's say but you know maybe they are or or you know around you know the medium and non-negotiable when you are talking about a one-on-one what strategies do you use to help bridge that gap right like or is the data just wrong in some cases right or I love that question because I know exactly where you're going with it and it's exactly exactly what you're saying that data that's why you can't manage to the data because the data it doesn't always tell the whole story right so I got off with an AE where okay the data didn't look right right whatever that means so that they just hey there's some red flags here well it just turns out that a month ago there they had a funeral for someone in their family right so if you just manage the data I mean how would I have came off if I was just the no I'm not saying the average I can't speak on what other people do but imagine if I was a VP of sales and I just went off on this person hey what's going on I see this that and that and I didn't even know that and but because I called them took the time schedule time actually care about them how do I help how do I use that data find what's missing what's the missing key why what's the cause of that data then coaching and also to answer your question sometimes some of these 80s or people in general I could sit there and preach to glue in the face but if they actually see the data and you let them you let them come to the the you let them paint the picture for themselves instead of telling them that's also a huge time and I've also learned also this is a maybe I'll topic but a critical point is I've also learned people don't like to learn unless they're going through pain so I used to be that leader would that I go hey do this do this do this I know it works this is what I've done and then I'm like why don't they do it I don't understand well because something about sometimes it's I don't know I don't know why but it'll go in one ear at the other but what I've learned is I'll let them fail I'll let them mess up and then they're more open to coaching because then they're coming to me going wow I just got this I just got destroyed I lost this deal and if I would have told them hey do this a B and C this won't happen they've their problem they're not gonna listen but then if they if I let them fail or lose that deal and then they come to me and I explained to them they're gonna be receptive because they felt the pain and they're actually open to coaching and feedback and that's been a critical thing and one last thing on onto that is some leaders or it's I call it they are in negotiation some leaders when you want something or you need something or instead of instead of letting trying to control the conversation right off the bat I'll let that AE or that or that individual call me and it's called you can't give someone information when their cup is full so what I mean by that is is I'll let them pour out to me I'll let them talk to me for 10 minutes straight let them pour out everything that's on their mind and then they're more receptive to either feedback or the it's my opportunity to challenge them or let them know what's why they're in the wrong because now they've if I just immediately take over and go hey no you did this wrong this is how should have been blah blah blah no no I let them empty out their cup then they're more respected that new data they can actually store it because their their cups not full I can't remember where I learned that from or where I got that from but it's been a key thing to to what I've experienced so I learned something similar from my managers when I used to work at Microsoft like a decade ago and they call it the freedom to fail and and I oh boy I feel a lot but I would absolutely ask questions and you know what I do you know what happened you know and how would you do this in this case so I really appreciate that autonomy I think that's autonomy working right doing doing autonomy right both you know providing freedom setting the non-negotiable but then the feedback right and checking in the one of us and go okay well and allowing them to pour out to you I did want to since you mentioned Salesforce for our community listening quick shameless applied Salesforce will disqualify with our team coaches they had a lot of challenges you know facing reorgs and restructures and things like that last year but working with the team helped track you know let's say three main issues month over month you know and our coaches provide recommendations and how to work them things like having true clarity you know among the team or you know aligning helping folks understand you know what their roles are and how to work with each other or providing psychological safety on the team things like that and help them improve their productivity engagement and performance and happiness by 20 percent after after you're working with them so as we get to the end of this podcast Jamie I did want to ask you one thing I found very interesting on your profile so I believe you have experienced working US Navy is that is that accurate yes and you spent you know quite some time there and curious what's the story of how you got them to the US Navy and how do you go from there to being a sales professional yeah you know that's a that's a deep question and once I answer you'll understand why because you know I grew up in a small town in New Hampshire and and school was never my thing right and as growing up I always was told basically if you if you don't go to school go to college you'll never be successful right so it was always a battle where I struggled in school almost failed every grade I was ever in and then when my dad passed away when I was in it was either my freshman or saw it was my my ninth-grade year I really struggled in school at that point so then we moved to southern New Hampshire to a different school going into 11th grade and again barely barely barely passed high-graduated high school and then then I went to a vote technical institute right by my in my city drop ended up dropping out or failing you could say so that's why I joined the Navy at that time and then then the Navy taught me a ton taught me so much that I contribute to my success from discipline work ethic like the military is just another level when it comes to strategy being methodical having a strategy of being being on on time on point I I can't I'm not five minutes early I'm late if if I don't you know what you what you say you mean you know so your word is your word is the only thing you have you did you also that whole I see people do all the time they'll sweep around a corner like in the military you can't skip corners we would we would have to stay hours if we if we skipped or cheated something well we're doing our cleaning or work they'll make you stay after work for hours and keep re sweeping every single spot in your assigned territory until and you're out there until 8 p.m. sweeping so you learned not to cut corners and I but I use that a lot of that and I really believe in the success here and then plus I got to travel the world I did four deployments got to go to probably 20 30 different countries so got to see a lot of the lot of the world and experience that so I think I I I grew up earlier than most at my age at 21 22 23 when I was in the military got out at 24 23 24 and then that's when I went to I just I wanted more out of my life and what I mean by that I love the military but it was like I wanted to make a lot of money you know that's the real I wanted to be really successful and you can climb the ranks and it takes you 20 years but again that just was in my cup of tea I just wanted to become more my what I wanted out of my life and my goals nothing wrong with whatever anyone else chooses but that's when I got out yeah I had nothing no plans nothing to do I said I got to make money I have a wife I have a wife and I so I started working at an AC company learn from there that's when I found out I had a nap for selling because you have to sell parts upgrades equipment you can sell them a new system in my first few months I started out selling people that were there for five ten years so people around me were like Jamie like you know you can sell ice to Eskimo's type of deal you should you know maybe look and then it was almost fake coincidence or whatever spot on somehow contact with me or vice versa that's when I think the current role kept promising the promotion and never came or more pay never came that's when spot on came across that's when I went to my job said hey I got this opportunity so I either need to know if I'm gonna get X or I'm gonna put in my two weeks I put in my two weeks they fired me on the spot I called this company back spot on and I said hey I just got fired it's a great we could start you early and then it was one of those things and it was commissioned only job and when I just got out of the military no experience and got that AC role and I had just bought a house with my wife and I was in a position where I had no plan B if I didn't let's go sell and if I didn't figure her way find a way I was gonna fail and not be able to pay my mortgage and I knew if I knew I always you know that's how I grew up and fortunate for my my parents they always taught me like whatever you put your mind to you you won't fail you can accomplish that you could be whatever you want as you just set your mind to it and they would never let me quit anything if I started something you can't quit I we don't care how much you hate it no you you you obel you obligated to something you got to do it so that was my mindset I mean my wife talked and said hey spot on it's gonna be commissioned only she says I believe in you and I said I'm gonna make sure I don't fail I'm gonna do whatever it takes I studied every book you can imagine I found mentors I woke up early I stayed late I splud sweat tears stress when I started slinging deals I would even record myself and inside of doors I had my recorder on and I'd listen to myself at the end of the day okay this is and I'd hear myself pitch and I could speak myself then I just climb to the ranks extremely fast and I always believed work on if you work on people who work on their job they don't find true success if you work on yourself then everything else comes in place on huge interpersonal development I had that's what non-negotiables I make sure I exercise every day I make sure I journal every day I make sure I read something new every day to educate my those I have non-negotiables for myself and and yeah now six years and that's the story and six years later at spot on oh wow that's incredible um so - I dropped out of college twice barely graduated high school no degree oh everyone told me I'd fail my whole life and now you know I won't say the amount but you know VPS sales I've made I've done really well at spot on you know and it's it's in you I was always told you could never do that and never be anybody you know and now now we're doing this so and I got bigger goals than this that are that are coming so I'm excited I'm excited for you as well Jamie thank you so much for speaking with us and everybody thank you so much for listening to us the last last question here is Jamie who should reach out to you and what's the best way to reach you I linked in is great I love connecting with others I love I can learn something I believe we all everyone connects with someone for a reason we all can learn something from everyone I love just collaborating with others so LinkedIn is great is great that's the LinkedIn LinkedIn social media it's just Jamie Watson Facebook Instagram linked in and rocking and rolling awesome and everybody thank you so much for listening to another episode we'll see you all next time thank you Jeremy appreciate you man
