IN THIS EPISODE, KARAN FERRELL-RHODES INTERVIEWS ADAM LANDSMAN.

Adam discusses Sharebite’s seamless HR integrations, commitment to employee satisfaction, and innovative approach to enhancing corporate dining solutions. Join us for an exclusive look into Adam’s strategic vision!

Adam Landsman is the SVP and Head of Growth at Sharebite, the foremost meal benefits platform designed for today’s workforce. Trusted by leading global companies, Sharebite revolutionizes employee meal programs.

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SDL Media Team

WHAT TO LISTEN FOR:

  1. What is the role of problem-solving in keeping your sales team motivated?
  2. What are effective strategies for approaching new customers?
  3. How does a strong company culture contribute to business success?
  4. What strategies can companies use to retain talent in a competitive job market?
  5. How can leaders empower their teams through knowledge and support?
  6. What is the importance of setting clear goals in leadership?
  7. How can sales teams ensure they don’t miss out on potential opportunities?
  8. Why must sales teams focus on both current and future opportunities?

Sales is really about the satisfaction of solving problems.”

Adam Landsman

SVP, Head of Growth at Sharebite

FEATURED TIMESTAMPS:

[03:29] Adam’s Life Beyond the Office

[04:34] The Role of a Head of Growth

[05:42] Adapting Meal Benefits for Hybrid and Remote Workforces

[06:58] How Sharebite’s Platform Connects with HR Systems to Streamline Meal Benefits

[08:07] Sharebite’s Revenue Streams

[09:45] Motivation Through Problem-Solving and Customer Focus

[12:17] Signature Segment: Adam‘s entry into the LATTOYG Playbook: Strategies for Successfully Approaching New Customers

[14:47] Employee Engagement Through Meal Benefits

[17:16] Tech Companies Leveraging Meal Stipends to Attract and Retain Talent

[18:38] The Power of Culture

[21:03] Retaining Talent in a Job Market of Opportunities

[23:16] The Role of an Educator and Trusted Advisor in Sales

[25:05] Balancing Today’s Wins with Tomorrow’s Opportunities in Sales

[26:45] Embracing Opportunities and Responsiveness in Sales

[28:02] Signature Segment: Adam’s LATTOYG Tactic of Choice: Leading with Strategic Decision Making

ABOUT ADAM LANDSMAN:

Adam Landsman is a seasoned executive with 20+ years in the SaaS and food-tech sectors. As former Head of Corporate Sales at Seamless (Grubhub), his work helped to facilitate its merger with Grubhub in 2013. Most recently, Adam led strategic partnerships and enterprise sales efforts at CLEAR, contributing to its 2021 IPO.

Currently, as SVP and Head of Growth at Sharebite, Adam spearheads growth initiatives for the mission-driven corporate meal benefits platform. His expertise spans startup scaling, partnership development, organizational leadership, and market expansion.

LINKS FOR ADAM:

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FOR YOU:

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Episode Sponsor

This podcast episode is sponsored by Shockingly Different Leadership (SDL), the leader in on-demand People, Talent Development & Organizational Effectiveness professional services that up-level leader capability and optimize workforces to do their best work.

SDL is the go-to firm companies trust when needing to:

  • supplement their in-house HR teams with contract or interim HR experts
  • implement leadership development programs that demonstrate an immediate ROI and impact on the business

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Episode 87 | Aspects of Culture That Unlock Sales Growth with Adam Landsman

Adam Landsman  00:00

As everyone knows, sales is typically the tip of the spear, right? We are the people that are on the frontlines, we hear what our customers like, what they don’t like, how much they will pay for something, what’s too much. And so we are tasked with both educating the prospects educating the market. And then when there is a fit, obviously going through the rest of that sales cycle to make sure that they are able to use the product that they’re continuously happy that they remain a customer for a long period of time, but also dealing with the rejection. And quite frankly, I look at that as an opportunity to deal to understand what did they not like? Where did we fail? What didn’t we do? Is there another product or service in the market that is doing something that we’re not that feedback that we can then share internally with our product team is critical.

 

Voiceover  00:05

Welcome to the “Lead at the Top of Your Game” podcast, where we equip you to more effectively lead your seat at any employer, business, or industry in which you choose to play. Each week, we help you sharpen your leadership acumen by cracking open the playbooks of dynamic leaders who are doing big things in their professional endeavors. And now, your host, leadership tactics, and organizational development expert, Karan Ferrell-Rhodes.

 

Karan Rhodes  00:37

Welcome back to the podcast everyone. And thanks for joining another episode designed to help you better lead at the top of your game, guys, you know for season three. Each month we’re featuring leaders who have fascinating roles in a particular profession or industry. Today’s episode is part of our special series featuring leaders who focus on an aspect of sales performance. And now enjoy the show. Hello, my superstars. This is Karen and welcome to another episode of the leader the top of your game podcast. On today’s show, I am just tremendously pleased to have a fellow executive who focuses on revenue and growth and sales. And as you know, we’re featuring leaders in this space. And you’re going to learn a ton today as how he thinks about leadership in the very competitive and if you I would say so myself a very competitive and driven area, if you will, of the company, which is sales and revenue growth. We’re pleased to have on today’s show Adam Landsman, who is the SVP and Head of Growth at Sharbite. Now, shear bite is a leading meal benefits platform that’s designed for the modern workforce. They help the world’s best companies elevate employee engagement by feeding their in office and remote employees, the food they want from the restaurants they love. And I was sharing with Adam right before we started, that was a wonderful sales pitch from whoever who came up with it, because it makes me even want to learn more about share by myself. So, welcome to the podcast. Adam.

 

Adam Landsman  02:20

Thanks so much really a pleasure to be here.

 

Karan Rhodes  02:22

We’re so happy to have you. Well, you know, as I mentioned, we really want to dig into some of your thoughts about leadership and learn even more about share, buy it in your role there. But before we do so, for just as much as you feel comfortable, would you mind giving us a sneak peek into your life outside of work?

 

Adam Landsman  02:41

Sure. I live in New York City with my wife and two daughters, we spend a lot of our time outside focused on really great experiences that the city and the surroundings have to offer. I’ve been in tech sales and growth for my entire career, so excited to talk to you today about leadership and excited about what I’m doing at Sharebite. Sounds

 

Karan Rhodes  03:02

awesome. Well, I think we made that connection when we spoke earlier, because as you know, came from almost 14 years at Microsoft and our company helps support a lot of technology company. So I have a super passion for tech. I’m a power user, I can’t say I can code or anything like that. But I do appreciate all the dynamics that go into a tech organizations to help make their sliver of the world’s better. So I’m really excited about speaking to you about it. But let’s start out with what you’re doing now at Sharebite. So can you share a little bit about what a true head of growth is all about?

 

Adam Landsman  03:46

Sure. So in my current role, and quite frankly, many others that I’ve had throughout my career, which have been similar, I’m responsible for sales and marketing. And so today share by we are partnering with corporate companies that provide a meal benefits platform to their employees. So those folks that have taken the the decision that culture and company engagement is critical. And leveraging food is a great way to do that. So I oversee our sales and marketing team. And we talk to companies and their employees all day every day and see if we can provide a solution that works for them to accomplish their goals.

 

Karan Rhodes  04:19

Very interesting. That you know, obviously you all are thriving, I had a chance to take a look at the website and some of the PR releases and materials out there. So there’s a definitely a demand. I’m just curious and being you know, could lead over sales. Have you seen challenges come aboard? As we transitioned is more than half of the world transition to remote and hybrid work. I know you provide remote options, but was there a time where there was a dip while employers were trying to figure out their new DNA?

 

Adam Landsman  04:54

Absolutely. And I know we talked about it before the recording but I spent about nine years at seamless a Earlier in my career, and at the time, everyone was working five days a week in the office. And so all of the platforms that provided a meal platform, they were specific to food that was delivered to the office location. In fact, you really couldn’t change the delivery address and get food provided home, the concept of your employer, paying for a meal while you weren’t at the office was unheard of that has obviously changed a lot in a post pandemic. And so you’re by actually built and has launched a separate product that allows folks to order food from any restaurant, essentially in the world. And if the employer allows it, you know, build that meal within certain allowances and boundaries to the company. So that solves the issue of an employer that has a hybrid or even fully remote workforce, because they now have a solution through SharePoint that can enforce their company’s rules and parameters for all employees, regardless of whether they’re in or office anywhere in the world.

 

Karan Rhodes  05:54

That is absolutely amazing. Now, does your platform integrate with companies like hrs systems or this? Or is it a standalone that they, you know, sign in and authorize certain deliveries? How does it work?

 

Adam Landsman  06:10

It does integrate. And essentially, we have a platform, which is, if I were to simplify it, it’s a list of restaurants and caterers that would deliver to that employers locations, and then the employees can log into this website, they can see the food. And that’s available, they can essentially add items to their food cart, and checkout. And then obviously, the restaurants prepare the food and it gets delivered through it through an efficient delivery provider. But the company gets analytics and reporting and one central invoice right, so the company can pay, Sharebite for all the food that’s ordered by all their employees. And then we take care of paying each individual restaurant and caterer, their allotment that information along with the employees because employees change, right? Some come, some go, some move departments, that information can be integrated to their HR system so that we’re constantly getting an updated feed. And we know who should have have access to the system and who you shouldn’t anymore.

 

Karan Rhodes  07:01

Oh, that is amazing. That sounds like an absolutely awesome business model. One last question about the business model, and then we’ll move on to talking to something else. But how does a Sharebite generate revenue? Is it from the partners? Is it the employers paying for the service? How do you all thrive?

 

Adam Landsman  07:19

It’s both. So with our restaurant partners, we are essentially an extension of their sales and marketing efforts. Right, we are taking their menu and putting it in front of all of the companies that provide food for their employees. So for us driving business to them, you know, we make a small margin, and then separately to provide this organized, and there’s multiple ways to do it, but to provide this organized method of ordering, right, whether it’s for employees in the office, or for those folks who are remote or a combination. For all of that we charge a transaction fee to the employer, typically that’s paid by the employer, not the employee.

 

Karan Rhodes  07:52

Nice, nice. That makes a ton of sense. I was about the given analogy, believe it or not, I don’t want to spin you housing to say that you are maybe the Instacart for corporate bills, programs, but maybe that’s not the right analogy, but I did get the business model. So thank you for sharing. So let’s switch a little bit and talk about some of your perspectives on leading sales and revenue team sales marketing revenue teams, because I haven’t supported them throughout my entire career. And I came from corporate America, all of my experience were when the fortune one hundreds and most in the Fortune 50s it’s a heavy responsibility. When you’re on a Salesforce, it’s hard to, you know, what we call carry a bag, you know, which is your quotas, and really pushing and driving. And sometimes it’s really, really hard leading such team. So I’m just curious, from your perspective, what is your approach to managing sales and marketing teams? And how do you keep them motivated, even when revenue times are tough?

 

Adam Landsman  08:57

As everyone knows, sales is typically the tip of the spear, right? We are the people that are on the frontlines, we hear what our customers like, what they don’t like, how much they will pay for something, what’s too much. And so we are tasked with both educating the prospects educating the market. And then when there is a fit, obviously going through the rest of that sales cycle to make sure that they are able to use the product that they’re continuously happy that they remain a customer for a long period of time, but also dealing with the rejection. And quite frankly, I look at that as an opportunity to deal to understand what did they not like? Where did we fail? What didn’t we do? Is there another product or service in the market that is doing something that we’re not that feedback that we can then share internally with our product team is critical. So to me, that is super exciting. And I’m biased. I live in breed sales and have for my entire career. And so I tend to find that the employees that gravitate to these roles. They’re also excited about that. Sure they want to close to deal with, they want to earn their commission. And that’s probably the number one thing that they they think about. But for me, and something that I try to instill in the people that I hire into these organizations, it’s really about the satisfaction of solving a problem. And so I always say, I couldn’t sell, you know, a piece of junk. Just because someone who pay me a lot of money, that doesn’t give you the same satisfaction, I don’t think I’ve never done it. But the people that are in these roles, get very excited about understanding someone’s challenge. And then being able to say, I got something that could be really great. Let me tell you about it. Right. Our job is almost at this day and age, not even as much salespeople as it is trusted advisors, and educators. And so we try to explain what we have and how we believe it can solve their problem. And if they like that, then they can buy it from us, as opposed to us even selling it to them, same end result. But I think that people get motivated, because they’re focused on solving someone’s problem. And if they do a good job, obviously, they can earn their commission. So that’s that’s typically how I think about filling the organization with the right people who have that right attitude for the job that we’re doing.

 

Karan Rhodes  11:02

That makes a ton of sense. I love how you categorize that. And because you’ve been in sales, you know, you’re not at all but quite a long time considering I’m just curious, I know there’s a lot of people who are curious out there when you were approaching a new customer a new opportunity, how do you get your foot in the door if you didn’t know them before? What is like a couple of tips that you could throw out there for people to grab onto.

 

Adam Landsman  11:29

So this has actually gotten easier and easier as time has gone on? If you would have asked me this question earlier in my career, 20 plus years ago, it would have been, I don’t know, maybe you stop by their office, you send a whole bunch of emails you hope to answer. Today, there’s a ton of information that you can glean on LinkedIn, which is probably one of the main resources that we use, there’s other sales related tools where you can gather buyer intent and qualification information, it is really helpful to not try to contact or get in touch with a company that’s not a fit. For example, if a company does not pay for any of their employees meals, that’s not someone that we should try to talk to you because they’re not going to be interested in the service that we’re offering. And so I think there’s a lot of research you can do ahead of time to narrow down who you should target. And then between LinkedIn and other tools like zoom info, etc, you can obtain contact information, I do think that it is always better to try the warm introduction versus the cold one, you’ll certainly have a lot more success. And so what I focus my teams on doing is going through a referral introduction path, who do you know, who does they know? How can we find a connection where someone can provide a warm introduction, that is going to be a significantly higher conversion rate than any other methods? So we will spend a lot of time understanding the the linkage and understanding how can you get from Adam, you know, through Joe and Bob and Sue, all the way to, to the person that you’re ultimately trying to talk to, and ask them those folks if you can, if they’d be happy to make an introduction on your behalf. And again, the other key there, as I mentioned before, you’re not showing up with a sales pitch, you’re not showing, hey, can you introduce me to Joe because I want to sell him something, right? You want to be able to say I’ve done my research, I understand that there’s a challenge that they’re trying to solve, right? It’s represented here on their company’s website, or etc. Employee engagement is really important. Culture is really important. They pay for meals. So you have the researcher, you’re saying I have something that could be a solve for their challenge. So you use your knowledge about that situation. And you try to make the the warm introduction path.

 

Karan Rhodes  13:32

This is just Karan being curious, Adam. How can you find I mean, I’m familiar. There’s a ton of databases and market research out there in the world. I mean, there’s a ton literally, but how I’ve never heard of any company reporting on whether they pay for meals, I guess that is a niche I just didn’t know about do they really

 

Adam Landsman  13:54

Yes

 

Karan Rhodes  13:55

survey companies about whether they pay for meals?

 

Adam Landsman  13:57

They do. And I’ll tell you why. They’re we live in a world today where your employees are everything. I mean, that’s been forever, but your employees are your most valuable asset at every company. It doesn’t matter what you sell. And so without your your great people, you’re not going to be very successful. And so, especially with either companies trying to get people to come back to the office, we’re trying to support a remote or hybrid environments. They are deeply focused on employee engagement, and culture, and making sure that people are able to know each other and collaborate because that’s ultimately gonna allow their business to be the most successful. And so one of the ways that they do that is through meals, typically through lunch. And so there are companies like Built in, there’s like Built in New York and Built in for the various cities, and they will lift companies and the benefits that they provide to employees. Right. It’s essentially a way for for individuals who are looking for their next opportunity is to narrow down and say what type of company do I want to work for? Is some people are choosing their job, based on the type of benefits just like if a company provided some really great health plans, matching 401k. And access to this, that or the other, like those are all valuable food is absolutely one of those options. And so there’s websites that list companies that provide that. In addition, you can even be creative and use web websites like Glassdoor where employees are leaving reviews, positive and negative about all the things at their current or previous companies. And so you can see where they say I love my company, they provide lunch every day, or Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And so that data, again, which we focus on learning helps us identify the right companies where we could be a better fit.

 

Karan Rhodes  14:31

Ah, that makes sense. You know, and now that you said it, I can see it because it is do we work a lot with private equity backed companies that are in grid to help them with their people, infrastructures. And we work closely with a lot of the major benefit providers, because as they’re going in to, you know, help companies, they’re usually focused on just the benefits piece. And they’re not with the HR piece, but they are one of the first to hear about opportunities. So they partner with us to bring some expertise. And you’re right, they do survey at the time, you know, what all benefits companies have? Now, you’re it sounds like you all mostly work with larger enterprise level firms, and correct me if I’m wrong, but they’re a lot more well documented than maybe your 500 person company

 

Adam Landsman  16:28

I’ll say yes. And there are lots of tech companies that are not necessarily 1000s of employees, maybe they have 150, 200, 500 employees. And they’re using a daily meal stipend as one of their benefits, to attract talent to retain talent to try to extend that employee tenure. And so it doesn’t always have to be the behemoth that have 1000s of employees, because you think that they have money. And look, we’re seeing a shift, if you go to any job board, if you look at a bunch of jobs, where it lists the benefits, you know, back in the day used to just say, you know, health insurance, like, yeah, that’s good. And that’s obviously, at least in this country, that is a critical benefit. But most people, certainly, especially with the younger generations didn’t really interact with their health providers very frequently, maybe once a year or twice, but they eat lunch every day. So companies are recognizing that there’s certain benefits, that they’re going to be utilized a much higher amount. And so those are the ones that they’re focusing on advertising.

 

Karan Rhodes  17:28

Very cool. Very cool. Well, I know, you’re very passionate about the impact that company culture can have on teams and folding that into one’s leadership philosophy. So I’d love to hear more about that. Why do you think or a company culture is so important? And what can happen when it goes wrong?

 

Adam Landsman  17:51

Yeah, I think culture is everything. And I see that because in my experience, I have seen that the best employees are typically the ones that have been there for 2,3,4,5 plus years. And the reason that they’re the better employees is because they’ve learned a lot, they are more experts. And so the only way you get to be an expert is by doing something over and over and over right? Practice makes perfect. And so how do you get your employees to have a larger and longer tenure, it’s by treating them right, making them happy, providing them the benefits that will keep them there. And so food happens to be one of those things. But forget about food for a second. Culture is so important, because if you have poor, let’s look at it from the other side, if you have poor culture, and people don’t love it, they’re they don’t collaborate with their employees. They don’t, they don’t see themselves there in 2,3,4. So there’s very high turnover. When there’s high turnover, you’re restarting the employee collaboration, your customers and your other vendor partners, they’re dealing with new people over and over and over. And so every time you take a step forward, you take a half a step back culture is so critical, because if you look at companies that have good culture, they typically have employees that have stayed for a longer period of time, they can deliver better service to all of our customers, and ultimately, they can be a better company, they can have better results. So it all starts and ends, in my opinion with your people. And culture is the way that people want to work there.

 

Karan Rhodes  19:18

Yeah, you’re right. Because if the culture is does not identify with that particular employee, they’re gonna be looking for greener pastures somewhere else.

 

Adam Landsman  19:26

And today. 20 years ago, people would stay at a job longer, just because that was a little bit more of the norm. Certainly the previous generations, they’d have one or two or three jobs for their entire career. But since then, and likely now going forward, people can switch jobs, like they change the shirt. And so it is even easier. Right now there’s LinkedIn, there’s all these different job boards, someone can essentially be looking for 100 jobs at once. And so employers are certainly looking for that. Right workers and so there’s there’s always some level of hiring for the right people. So it’s really easy to switch a job. It’s harder for a company to provide great benefits to improve the culture so that they keep their employees for longer and ultimately produce a better product.

 

Karan Rhodes  20:16

And you’re spot on on that. And you know, I haven’t come out yet it won’t have by the time your interview comes out. But I just interviewed a fantastic lady who’s part of a major research firm, who I won’t name yet if people have to listen in for the FSA. But they do deep research, you know, in the workplace. And they had broken it down of tenure by generation. And they did really deep studies on it. And she was saying right now, especially for Gen z’s, the average tenure at a company is about I think she said 1.7 years for that. And that does increase as the generations are older. But it’s not nothing is 2030 years anymore, like it was when my parents were in the workplace, you know, that did I think she said the overall average is four years, 4.2 years across all generations. So to your point, but it’s if you don’t have the right culture, by the time somebody walks in the door,

 

Adam Landsman  21:18

They’re already looking to leave.

 

Karan Rhodes  21:19

Finish your onboarding, they’re already out.

 

Adam Landsman  21:21

That’s right. Look, even if the and I’m not suggesting that, by if every company all of a sudden has great culture that that 1.7 is going to go to 10. But right, right, right, because I think people are more curious, there’s more opportunity out there for people. And so there is a natural tendency to to switch and learn more, and that’s fine. But my argument would be, if you’re going to only have someone for 1.7 years, you might as well make them love it up until the very last moment when they’re thinking about leaving, as opposed to like you said before, they’re in it for six months. And already, they’re realizing this is just not the home for me long term. And they spend the next year or whatever period of time, kind of half assing it and looking for the next opportunity.

 

Karan Rhodes  21:59

That’s right, you’re so right. And noting that the as a sales leader, if you had to give advice to new MBA grads that are going into some sort of sales or marketing or growth role. What advice do you have as far as skill sets and mindsets that they would need to enter the profession these days and be successful?

 

Adam Landsman  22:23

So I’ll, I’ll answer it a little bit more from with the sales cap on. Okay, that’d be great alluded to this a little bit before, but it’s adaptable. I don’t think anybody wants to buy from a salesperson anymore. Everyone has Google and every other device out there, they can self educate, they can go to everyone’s website, and they can say, Yeah, I know what you do, I understand it. And so my philosophy is okay, if someone doesn’t want to talk to a salesperson, they don’t really want to be sold, to which I think most people out there would probably shake their head and agree. So then don’t sell to them. Be an expert, and educate them on what options exist out there and allow them to be convinced so that they buy from you. And so in order to do that, people need to be experts. So the advice that I would give is, learn, learn the product, like deeply be able to answer every question, not just the, I don’t know, 50% of questions that you know, you’re gonna get all the time to answer be able to answer any question or almost any question that you might get and answered in a way that is educational, be that trusted adviser. And so if you spend the time to learn your company, your product, the competitive landscape, if you can be honest, and say, to be honest, we’re not actually the best fit, it sounds like you’re looking for XYZ, I think there’s other solutions out there, that will be tremendous for you know, not only for you to be an attractive candidate for a job, because you’re you have that desire to learn and be an expert, as opposed to just put me in coach and ready to sell, sell, sell.

 

Karan Rhodes  23:52

Right,

 

Adam Landsman  23:53

But also, because you will be much more knowledgeable about the product and industry. And so I think that’ll just be a lot better for your career, this job and others in the future.

 

Karan Rhodes  24:02

And in your role. And what keeps you up at night? Like what are some of the challenges that you’re you’re still in that you saw that you’re still trying to solve like that, you know, you’re gonna need to figure something out in the next, you know, 6, 12, 18 months.

 

Adam Landsman  24:17

Yea. Sales is a game that has two goals every day, and you can never really prioritize one over the other one is you have to close the deals that are in front of you to generate the revenue and keep the business going forward. But at the same time, you have to go find new potential opportunities, so to generating pipeline. And it doesn’t matter whether you only have salespeople, or you also have an SDR BDR function. It’s everyone’s responsibility to do two things, essentially, simultaneously, close the deals that you have, but also find new ones for arena for tomorrow and for the future. And so you can’t focus only on one and so a lot of times there’s pressure, we have a goal. We have to hit it everyone focus on closing the deals. Okay, great. Great. Great. Great, let’s say you close all deals and you hit it, but you didn’t generate any pipeline for next month or next quarter. So then you’re gonna fail at that future timeframe. And I always say to people, you can’t close a deal. If it’s not in your pipeline, you have to start with generating pipeline, and then you close those deals, but you can never only focus on one. So I would say, those are the things that keep me up at night. Because even if we’re having a good month or a quarter, Yay, I’m excited. But I’m immediately thinking about how much opportunity to be developed for the next month or the next quarter. And vice versa, if we’ve developed if we spent all of our time building a big pile of a pipeline, yay. But have we spent enough time closing the deals because we have to hit this month or this quarters? Goals anyway. So those are things that I think about that. I don’t know, keep me up sort of my whole career. That’s the game, and it’ll never end?

 

Karan Rhodes  25:47

Well, with such high pressure, you’ve got to take time for yourself at some time. Do you ever turn it off? I know, I can already tell.

 

Adam Landsman  25:57

I will say I don’t think I’ve ever put it out of office on or at least in the last 20 years. Because if someone is interested in talking to us to either learn more about our product, or they want to buy it, I or the people that work with me would be silly to miss that. But yes, look, let’s be honest, people have to take a step away, they have to recharge the batteries. But generally speaking, if someone’s ready to buy, we should be ready to support them.

 

Karan Rhodes  26:24

Absolutely. I totally get that. Oh, boy, Tom has a really fun and we blinked and it’s rounding out on time. But before we let you go, we always ask our signature question to our guest. And as you know, wrote a book on leadership execution. And you are so kind enough to share that leading with strategic decision making really resonated with you. And I seem to understand why now since we are conversation, but for my new listeners out there, the way we define leading with strategic decision making is all about making good decisions yourself, or leading a good decision making process with others in order to make sure you meet or exceed your goals. So curious minds want to know, Adam, why did leading with strategic decision making really resonate with you?

 

Adam Landsman  27:15

I am extremely goal oriented. The way my brain works is, if you and I use this analogy, I’ve said this to many teams for many years, if you get in your car, and I ask you, which way do you turn out of the driveway? You can’t answer that question until you know where you’re going. Otherwise, how could you possibly choose the route to get there. So you have to have a goal. If you don’t have a goal, you’re wandering aimlessly, you’re just driving around the neighborhood, I guess. So it all starts with a goal. And in my role, leading sales and marketing teams, there has to be a goal, that goal is typically farther out than this month or this quarter. Because I need to plan the path and chart the course for us to get there and take all the things into consideration to make the right decisions. So if you’re not strategic in your thinking, and you don’t have the right goals in mind for the appropriate timeframes in the future, then you can’t possibly do the right and efficient job on a day to day basis. So that one’s stuck out to me, because I don’t know, I’m sure there’s lots of great leadership skills. And I would imagine great leaders probably employ multiple or all of them. But that one is foundational for me, because it’s really where I start. If the goal is established, you can be strategic in nature about what you tried to do to accomplish it. You of course, test in something, if something does not go well, great, move away from it or iterate on it to make it better, if it works great, and try to double down on it and do more of it. And so that strategic thinking helps to align everything downstream. What should each individual sales reps goals be? And how are they going to get there? And so that’s the one that stuck out to me.

 

Karan Rhodes  28:53

Oh. Definitely, it definitely makes sense out. And just to be clear, listeners, all seven are equally as important is you just use different approaches at different times based on the situation. Always say like sometimes when you’re if you have to present in front of a board of directors, you know, leading with executive presence might be top of mind for you at the time, but to Adam’s point, you know, when you’re trying to decide what to do next, or trying to define success for you, you got to have a goal, you got to have a path or direction that you’re aiming for. So you might have to pivot along the way. But you got to have know, your Northstar to continue. And then my last question for you. Before we let you go, what does it take for you to lead at the top of your game?

 

Adam Landsman  29:39

Constantly learning I learn every day, I’m still learning. I think that that sharing with the team. I tell them all the time. I’ve told all my team. I’m an overshare. I want to empower them. I want them to understand the why behind the what I want. I think the context is important. And so I want them Make sure that I am passing on as much information as I have learned throughout my career, to make them the best that they can be. I’m one person who cares whether I’m the leader of the team, I work for them, right? They’re the ones closing the deal. And so, you know, servant leadership is a concept that, that I employ all the time, I will do whatever I can to help my team hit their goals, because if they hit their goals, then I’m gonna hit my goals.

 

Karan Rhodes  30:24

Absolutely. And that what this makes you a successful leader, you know, and I can totally appreciate that. Now, before we let you go, Adam, you know, we’re gonna have your information, bio links to share, right? And all that in the show notes. But I always love to give us an opportunity to give voice to where people can find them or their companies. So would you mind sharing how the public can find you?

 

Adam Landsman  30:51

Oh, sure. Easiest way is email. My email is just Adam@sarebite.com That’s probably the best way to get in touch with me. I’m also on LinkedIn, they can find me there and Sharebite’s website. If you have general questions, you can find it at Sharebite.com.

 

Karan Rhodes  31:04

Excellent. Well, thanks again, Anna, for your gift to your time today. You’re absolutely fantastic. We love talking about leadership in general, and specifically with the sales and marketing angle. Oh, I know, I took a ton of notes while we were talking. And I hope the listeners do as well that we really appreciate you.

 

Adam Landsman  31:25

Thank you. Likewise, this was great. I really appreciate it.

 

Karan Rhodes  31:29

Awesome. And thank you to listeners for the gift of your time, because we do know that our there are literally millions of other podcasts you could be listening to. So we do not take your patronage lightly. All that we ask is that you be sure to like and subscribe to the podcast and share with just one friend that that we all can together can get better. Thank you so much. And see you next week. Bye bye. And that’s our show for today. Thank you for listening to the lead at the top of your game podcast, where we help you lead your seat at any employer, business, or industry in which you choose to play. You can check out the show notes, additional episodes, and bonus resources, and also submit guest recommendations on our website at leadyourgamepodcast.com. You can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn by searching for the name Karan Rhodes with Karan being spelled K a r a n. And if you like the show, the greatest gift you can give would be to subscribe and leave a rating on your podcast platform of choice. This podcast has been a production of Shockingly Different Leadership, a global consultancy which helps organizations execute their people, talent development, and organizational effectiveness initiatives on an on-demand, project, or contract basis. Huge thanks to our production and editing team for a job well done. Goodbye for now.

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