Episode Overview
Today’s guest believes the average field sales rep is losing 8 hours of productivity behind the wheel every week. He believes it because he’s lived it.
Steve Benson is the CEO of Badger Maps and he’s here today to discuss the challenges of field sales life and why he started a company from the ground up to combat them. Steve is a big believer in the power of improv and has a lot of insight and wisdom built from experience on the joys and pains of birthing a startup. He’ll also reveal the animal he’s always wanted to be. (hint: it’s NOT a badger)
Steve also has a podcast, Outside Sales Talk. He talks to industry leaders and experts to learn the strategies and tactics that make them successful in Outside Sales.
About Today’s Guest
Steve is the CEO and founder of Badger Maps, the #1 sales route planner in the App Store. After receiving his MBA from Stanford, Steve’s career has been in field sales with companies like IBM, Autonomy, and Google. He became Google Enterprise’s Top Performing Salesperson in the World in 2009. In 2012, Steve started Badger Maps to help today’s outside salespeople be more successful.
On today’s podcast…
0:59 – Steve is here to be gleaned
3:00 – Steve’s background in field sales provided a problem he wanted to solve
7:30 – The post-pain point…pain points
11:10 – The branding behind the badger, choosing the right name for your startup
19:30 – “By the time you build the thing that’s good enough for customers to use and then actually get the customers to engage with it and actually get them to pay you and then get enough of them to pay you that it means anything…it’s probably going to take…” HOW MANY months??
26:09 – What Steve has taken away from his podcast adventure
32:00 – Steve embraces the power of improv
35:50 – Steve’s biggest challenge when his company was a startup and how that’s changed today
40:21 – EVERYONE is selling
45:00 – “It’s hard to be the first woman in the room…”
48:45 – The cultural components of BadgerMaps
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More about Gina
Gina Trimarco is CEO/Founder of Pivot10 Results (training and strategy company) and Carolina Improv Company (comedy club and school). She has 25+ years of experience in marketing, sales, operations and people training. Gina combines street smarts and improv comedy skills with her experience in the corporate and entrepreneurial worlds, which sets her apart from her competition. A true Chicago city girl, her much older father trained her in sales starting at the age of 10, working in flea markets.
More about Rachel
Rachel Tipton is a Mom, Realtor, Author, and Creator of The Closing Curve, a new real estate software focused on enhancing the buyer experience. With a background in show business, her motto is: Entertain. Inform. Inspire. Find Rachel on social media as RachelonRealEstate, at www.rachelonrealestate.com and www.theclosingcurve.com and pick up her book, The Gift of Wreckage on Amazon
More about Keith Walters
As Managing Principal of Walters Dev Group, LLC, Keith currently assists companies via board and advisory roles. Keith has spent more than 30 years using a strong entrepreneurial focus to lead, advise and grow very successful businesses. His focus on operational excellence brings stability into organizations he leads and guides. Through a unique management system focused on company growth and strong culture development Keith helps build businesses that are true talent magnets.
Women Your Mother Warned You About™ is part of the Sell or Die Podcast Network. Check out these other amazing SORD podcasts.
