Interview with Dave momper
FOUNDER OF THRIVAL CONCEPTS
Can you tell me a little bit about your business? Your scope of work?
Thrival Concepts is a leadership communication consulting firm that focuses on helping executives, teams of executives, and sales professionals learn to build high performing relationships. I teach them how to build trust, confidence, and productivity in all of their interactions using Listening Intelligence and ECHO.
What type of clients do you work with?
Not so much an industry type or company size, though there is value in narrowing that down and being intentional about that. I work with growth minded and purpose driven companies. That’s who I tend to see this resonate with.
What sales and marketing techniques have you found to be the most effective for selling the importance of listening in your practice?
For 3 years, 80% of my sales and marketing have been leveraging the existing social capital I’ve built throughout my entire career in sales. I haven’t done an aggressive outbound marketing campaign of any sort. I started by aggregating my network into a CRM. In that, I identified my “Champions,” those who are rooting me on no matter what. Then I identified the people most likely to have the right mindset to value ECHO, and then also the people who could give me critical feedback. Then I went on a roadshow and through email and LinkedIn, I connected with everyone I could think of. I did a little bit of everything—countless lunches and phone calls. I jumped at the opportunity to speak in front of numerous groups to share the big idea of Listening Intelligence and putting listening first in all of our interactions. I fostered dialogue as a sales tactic by publishing and also posting to LinkedIn. You have to facilitate discussion around this topic. And you definitely have to go out and meet face-to-face, make the calls, send the emails. There’s no hack.
Selling ECHO into clients can be a learning curve. Sometimes it's really slow to start until you find the right messaging. What didn’t work initially? What messaging has been most impactful to secure client engagements?
The biggest thing I had to overcome was owning the amount of value I was creating and having the courage to ask questions like “Do you have a dedicated budget for this?” Once I started seeing opportunities and asking those kinds of questions, then all of the sudden, I had a real business and had people converting to sales. It was a snowball effect after the first 18 months or so.
What’s funny is that the ECHO Listening Model is all about listening, and yet when you’re trying to sell something, especially when it’s a fresh concept, in order to do that you ironically feel that you have to do a lot of talking. But I would encourage anyone trying to sell this to walk the walk, which is to listen even more. It’s easy for me to say that now. I remember a few times early on trying to sell by telling them about ECHO and Listening Intelligence. That’s not how you sell ECHO. You sell it by understanding the same things as any successful sales professional does--understanding their problems and challenges. Once I saw that and started being intentional about who I was meeting and talking with, I would go in confidently knowing this is a unique tool. It is powerful and transformative and I can really take care of them and add value for them. The way I landed my biggest deal was by truly listening and connecting to their values, strategic initiatives, problems, challenges, and obstacles. Then I drew connections to how ECHO and my work would enhance and embody their values. I listened for the slam dunk that ECHO solves the problem for.
What is the greatest lesson you’ve learned throughout this process?
You literally have to do what ECHO teaches us to do. The more you embody the power of listening and Listening Intelligence, the faster it will be to get to these critical junctures. The more you do that, the faster you’ll build momentum. But you do have to connect business priorities to the assessment and to new behaviors. That is my big takeaway.
Thrival Concepts is a leadership communication consulting firm that focuses on helping executives, teams of executives, and sales professionals learn to build high performing relationships. I teach them how to build trust, confidence, and productivity in all of their interactions using Listening Intelligence and ECHO.
What type of clients do you work with?
Not so much an industry type or company size, though there is value in narrowing that down and being intentional about that. I work with growth minded and purpose driven companies. That’s who I tend to see this resonate with.
What sales and marketing techniques have you found to be the most effective for selling the importance of listening in your practice?
For 3 years, 80% of my sales and marketing have been leveraging the existing social capital I’ve built throughout my entire career in sales. I haven’t done an aggressive outbound marketing campaign of any sort. I started by aggregating my network into a CRM. In that, I identified my “Champions,” those who are rooting me on no matter what. Then I identified the people most likely to have the right mindset to value ECHO, and then also the people who could give me critical feedback. Then I went on a roadshow and through email and LinkedIn, I connected with everyone I could think of. I did a little bit of everything—countless lunches and phone calls. I jumped at the opportunity to speak in front of numerous groups to share the big idea of Listening Intelligence and putting listening first in all of our interactions. I fostered dialogue as a sales tactic by publishing and also posting to LinkedIn. You have to facilitate discussion around this topic. And you definitely have to go out and meet face-to-face, make the calls, send the emails. There’s no hack.
Selling ECHO into clients can be a learning curve. Sometimes it's really slow to start until you find the right messaging. What didn’t work initially? What messaging has been most impactful to secure client engagements?
The biggest thing I had to overcome was owning the amount of value I was creating and having the courage to ask questions like “Do you have a dedicated budget for this?” Once I started seeing opportunities and asking those kinds of questions, then all of the sudden, I had a real business and had people converting to sales. It was a snowball effect after the first 18 months or so.
What’s funny is that the ECHO Listening Model is all about listening, and yet when you’re trying to sell something, especially when it’s a fresh concept, in order to do that you ironically feel that you have to do a lot of talking. But I would encourage anyone trying to sell this to walk the walk, which is to listen even more. It’s easy for me to say that now. I remember a few times early on trying to sell by telling them about ECHO and Listening Intelligence. That’s not how you sell ECHO. You sell it by understanding the same things as any successful sales professional does--understanding their problems and challenges. Once I saw that and started being intentional about who I was meeting and talking with, I would go in confidently knowing this is a unique tool. It is powerful and transformative and I can really take care of them and add value for them. The way I landed my biggest deal was by truly listening and connecting to their values, strategic initiatives, problems, challenges, and obstacles. Then I drew connections to how ECHO and my work would enhance and embody their values. I listened for the slam dunk that ECHO solves the problem for.
What is the greatest lesson you’ve learned throughout this process?
You literally have to do what ECHO teaches us to do. The more you embody the power of listening and Listening Intelligence, the faster it will be to get to these critical junctures. The more you do that, the faster you’ll build momentum. But you do have to connect business priorities to the assessment and to new behaviors. That is my big takeaway.