Meet Matt Nettleton

Since 2003, Matt Nettleton has coached more than 175 companies in a wide variety of industries. He has helped multiple companies grow from $1 million to more than $10 million in annual revenue and has helped clients close more than $3.2 billion in new sales.

Why do you believe sales is an honorable profession? 

People have this idea about sales and sales people and what sales people do and how, but they forget that there is not a company that has ever existed without revenue. And that revenue never shows up magically. And those people that create the relationships and manage the relationships that generate revenue, they're salespeople who are probably the most honest traders out there. Because the salesperson tells people up front, “Hey, listen. I'm here to see if I can get you to buy something from me. You give me money and I give you a product or service.” And the more honest they are, and the more they do the right thing, the more likely they are to succeed.

So why do you believe business is honorable? 

This is kind of an extension of why sales is honorable, but a lot of my clients are family owned businesses, two to 50 million in revenue. And when I talk to them, whether they're first generation, second generation, third generation, one of the things that they'll talk about is the people's lives that they've impacted.

One of my clients was talking about how they hired their third employee right when he graduated from college and here they are 25 years later. They just celebrated that employee's son graduating from college. That business is not just that service that they provide. They actually provide meaning and livelihood for their employees. They provide sustenance for their families. They allow kids to grow up in great homes. They create a fabric and a tapestry of a community. I think we lose sight of the fact that salespeople are doing good work and that companies and business owners are almost what I like to think about is an almost heroic mission to impact their employees, their customers and their communities.

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[00:02:15] Matt Nettleton: Well, thanks for having me, Lori. This, this I'm looking forward to this.

[00:02:25] Matt Nettleton: Well, thank you. But I didn't do the work.

[00:02:30] Matt Nettleton: I kind of helped other people do it, but I didn't do it.

[00:02:38] Matt Nettleton: Well, it's, you know, it's funny. People have this idea about, about sales and sales people and you know, what, what sales people do and how, but they forget that there is not a company that has ever existed without revenue. And that revenue never shows up magically. And those those people that create the relationships and manage the relationships that generate revenue, They're they're salespeople who are probably the most honest traders out there Because the salesperson tells people up front. Hey, listen I'm I'm here to see if I can get you to buy something from me You give me money and I give you a product or service And the more honest they are, and the more they do the right thing, the more likely they are to succeed.

[00:03:32] Matt Nettleton: Well, that's the, that's the other thing, you know, is we always are using our influence abilities to get people to act in a way that complies with what our goals are.

And, and, you know, we do it in our personal lives. You know, yesterday was my 25th wedding anniversary. I could not have been with my wife for 25 years if I was manipulating her and misleading her as a key tenant of our relationship.

[00:04:02] Matt Nettleton: So this is kind of a, an extension of why sales is honorable, but a lot of my clients are family owned businesses, you know, two to 50 million in revenue. And when I talk to them, you know, whether they're first generation, second generation, third generation, one of the things that they'll talk about is the people's lives that they've impacted.

So, you know, one of my clients was talking about how they hired, I think it was their third employee right when he graduated from college and here they are 25 years later, they just celebrated that employee's son graduating from college. Well, that, you know, that business is not just, they don't just provide that service that they provide.

They actually provide meaning and livelihood for their employees. They provide sustenance for their families. They allow kids to grow up in great homes. They create a fabric and a tapestry of a community. And so I, I think, you know, we, we lose sight of the fact that salespeople are doing good work and that companies And and business owners are really on almost what I like to think about is an almost heroic mission to impact their employees, their customers and their communities.

[00:05:28] Matt Nettleton: I mean, it's great. Like, I'm, I don't mean to put down big companies, but big companies don't sponsor little league teams and they don't sponsor soccer leagues and they don't, you know, all the things that make little towns in, in, in middle America work, you know, small business does it.

Yeah, love that. Is there a value in a long term network?

I, see that's the, the amazing thing is the most successful people have the best long term networks. And, and so there's, there's two ways to look at being in a network. And the first way is I'm going to go network to see what I can get out of my network today. And if you've ever been to a A bad networking lunch and been surrounded by three MLM sellers and somebody who's doing essential oils, you've experienced this. I mean, it's terrible. It, it, there's not a lot of value in that type of event because you have people that are trying to accomplish something for themselves first without any consideration of others. But if you look at the most successful people, what you'll find is that they build networks by finding ways to help other people first, and the more value they pour into their network, the more value they get over time out of their network.

And if they play the long game in their patient and they do the right thing, then the the network actually becomes a self-sustaining kind of resource.

I'm, I'm in a networking group that I've been in for a couple of years now. And one of the things that that recently happened is at four o'clock on a Saturday one of the guys that is in the networking group.

sent out a message that said, Hey my water heater just ruptured. The guy that I usually use as a plumber is unavailable. Does anybody else know a good plumber? And within 20 minutes, he had seven recommendations. From people who are not plumbers, but people who he's in a group with, we share knowledge, we, and, and so just having that resource where I'm not sure how to handle this, can you guys help me?

He, he, you know, he had seven people to call and they were all personal recommendations. They weren't like, Oh, well, according to Yelp, I mean, it was really like, I know this guy, you should call this guy right now. And that's the value of a network because it's not just plumbers. It's, it's everything that happens to you. It's good to have resources.

And my first one is to be your true, authentic self, because I very much believe that people can smell fake is the way I like to say it. And, and two, if you are your self, you're going to attract like-minded people. Yep. The second thing I very much believe in is to give first, because that is where you can expedite that trust . So the, the better that you can be, the first to be a giver the sooner you're gonna have that stronger bond with, with the individual you're trying to create a relationship. And the third thing is to actually follow through. So if you make a promise to someone even if it's as little as Hey, i've got a book recommendation. I'll email it to you You know actually do the thing that you said you're gonna do.

[00:09:08] Lori Highby: 100 percent. Took me a while to, to learn about the, the being my true authentic self component, because I think when I started out in the business space, I felt that I was trying to be something that I wasn't, but I was, I didn't know how to like position myself as a professional, you know, it's like, here's the definition of being a professional.

It's like, no, have some personality professional personality or completely different.

[00:09:44] Lori Highby: How do you stay in front of and best nurture your network?

I'll listen to other people presentations and I'll, and I'll just be at events. So, you know, one of the things that certainly over the last couple of years has been tough to watch is as people come into the, to the market as adults, you know, I've got two kids that recently graduated from college. They're not developing the habit of going to live events. But live events are a great way to establish and nurture actual relationships.

[00:11:01] Matt Nettleton: And the other, and so if you can't do events, the other thing is have lunch. Meet for breakfast. Right? So, you know, show up and, and have a conversation. And so that, that would be the second step. The third step is, you know, you can make a phone call and you can actually have a conversation with somebody and just find out what's going on if you haven't talked for a while. So.

[00:11:27] Matt Nettleton: No, they don't. So my, my daughter is 22 and when she was, she was probably a junior in high school, so probably 16, 17 years old, we were driving somewhere and my phone beeped and she was in the backseat and she had texted me. I said, you know, I'm sitting right here. You can just say it out loud. What do you need? And she's like, just read the text and respond. And it was like, you know, there's, there is an element of that, that I understand the efficiency, but there's also like. You got to talk to people every once in a while. That tonality matters.

[00:12:07] Matt Nettleton: So the, the thing that I would tell myself to do more of is really a lesson that, that gets pounded home to me pretty much every day, which is Hey, 20 year old Matt, you can't know everything.

It's not that you don't know everything. It's that even if it was possible, you know, to say that, Hey, I know everything it's just not there. You know, there are, there are people that know more than you about accounting or that know more than you about marketing or that know more than you about how finance is run or that know more about business structure or, you know, and even in the world that I live in there sales, there are people that I learned from about sales. You know, when you're 20, you're pretty sure you're fireproof and indestructible and all knowing. It's just not true.

[00:12:57] Matt Nettleton: So when you started your company what was it that made you start your company rather than working for somebody else?

I mean, today it's called, you know, referred to as digital marketing, but internet marketing, whatever it was back then. And so I was looking for a new job. It was 2008. It was a terrible job market. And then I just decided I would give it a try and do it on my own. And see what happened. And here we are 15 years later and I have a team and clients all across the country and it's fun and exciting and it's been a roller coaster ride.

[00:13:59] Lori Highby: Honestly, it is, That's pretty much what you just said about reflecting back in that you, one, you, you don't have to do it alone, really, it's, it's aligning yourselves with the people that have the right skills to help you get things done the right way but also making sure that you have your network, your circle, people who are your advocates and your cheerleaders, and they're there to, you know, lift you up when you're down and cheer you when you're up and you know, celebrate your wins. I think it's finding that, that group of peers, that, that mentor group, that mastermind group, whatever it is that can be extremely beneficial to lean on when you are in a tough time, but then you're reciprocating and helping someone You know lift their spirits and get them out of whatever their roles are when when they're in a tough time.

[00:15:06] Lori Highby: Yeah, that's huge. So I hear you've got a list an offer for our listeners. You want to talk about that?

And we, we have a guide of essential resources available and that you can get a one year subscription to go in and just kind of see how we think about selling and how we think about knowing when it's time to do the right thing. You go to DTB dot Sandler. com slash sell S E L L. And you can sign up there.

You just have to register and you log on and it'll give you access to. to basically frameworks for thinking about sales. And regardless of what industry you're in, you're going to have to generate revenue from people that are not paying you money currently. And we refer to that as sales. And, and the way that you structure and prepare for that really determines your effectiveness.

Love that. And we will include that information in our show notes. Any final word of wisdom that you'd like to leave with our listeners?

Is an incredibly valuable skill that creates an incredibly valuable asset, but it all it takes to start is a willingness to learn.

[00:16:57] Matt Nettleton: Well, you can find me on LinkedIn at Matt Nettleton. You just my LinkedIn profile header is get Matt. You can see me on Twitter. I've Sandler DTB Indy also Instagram. And if you follow, if you search, if you just type Sandler DTB Indy in Google, you will find a variety of resources specific to me.

Thank you so much for being on the show today, Matt.

[00:17:26] Lori Highby: All right, this wraps up our episode of Social Capital. A huge thank you to Matt for taking the time to connect with us. . If you have a burning marketing or relationship question, just reach out. I'd love to answer it on this show.

And as mentioned before, let's connect on LinkedIn, reach out to me, reach out to Matt. We both love to hear from you. I hope you enjoyed today's show and I encourage you to go out there and get noticed.