This week’s guest Harry Maziar. Harry served as President of Zep Manufacturing Company for 27 years and during his tenure, Zep became an international leader in the specialty chemical industry. As a sales representative, Harry was so successful he was named the company’s first director of sales and he led 2,000 salespeople to produce double-digit growth for 25 straight years. Bernie Marcus, co-founder of The Home Depot called Harry one of the greatest salesmen of all time. Harry eventually retired as Chairman of the Chemical Division of National Service, then a publicly traded NYSE company.
Where to follow Harry:
To find Harry’s book, Story Selling, go here.
In this episode we cover the following topics with Harry:
[3:30] minute: What was life like for you growing up and what were the beliefs around money and success that were instilled in you as a child?
[4:20] minute: The idea of “I’m not going to hold your hand, you’ve got to get this done,” that helps make a great salesperson would you agree?
[5:30] minute: How did you get into sales at the start of your career?
[8:00] minute: What was the transition like going from a salesperson yourself to managing a team of 2000 salespeople instead. Was that difficult going from leading yourself to leading others to the same results?
[10:50] minute: What did you see missing from the landscape of selling that you wanted to bring to the conversation with your book?
[13:15] minute: For practitioners turned business owners who feel a little icky about selling, how would you recommend they get comfortable with sales?
[16:00] minute: What tips would you have around how to differentiate yourself in the marketplace when you are selling? When they could get so many similar products, how do you show you are differentiated?
[19:00] minute: I’ve found it valuable to hold back the urge to talk about features and benefits until I’ve asked plenty of questions, any thoughts around that?
[21:00] minute: In your experience in leading such a massive salesforce, what are one or two of the most common pitfalls sales people fall into and how do you avoid that?
[23:00] minute: I know giving back has been very important to you since your retirement, how have those philanthropic efforts played into your sense of fulfillment and what does that mean to you?
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