Distractions

The Lead - Distractions

One of the platforms I’m committed to investing in is LinkedIn. I see it becoming more and more a place where people in the property management industry are spending time, and seeking information/engagement.

What I see there continues to fascinate me. I don’t claim to understand the algorithm and how it works. But my assumption is the nature of what I post about, leads to my feed being populated with sales gurus sharing the dos and don’ts of sales. I get a lot of SaaS bros, which is a sub-culture of it’s own. I’ll save that rant for another day.

I continue to be amazed at the dissection of small details people want to provide perspective on. Things like the effectiveness of subject lines, cold call scripts, and email sending tools. I don’t want to discredit the importance of the minutiae. I think it matters.

The other popular conversation taking place is there is around AI. No, I don’t have any hot takes around where it’s going and how it’s going to impact sales. It will have an impact and people a lot smarter than me have a better idea of what that looks like. It’s certainly interesting.

As sales people, I think it’s good for us to continually be learning and finding ways to get better. What I find as I scroll the myriad of posts from all sorts of self-proclaimed sales pros on LI, is a reminder that there is still a profound need for narrowed focus on what matters most.

Being in sales is about solving problems. We talk to people, we seek to understand, we listen. The best outcomes arrive when we’re able to connect a meaningful solution to a person/company’s area of need. Providing something that’s actually going to make a difference for them.

This sounds self-explanatory right? The point I want to make to you is that the greatest levers for improving your game are right in front of you. A new subject line or content strategy is helpful and very well may yield results. But it’s not what’s going to make you successful in sales.

That desire to improve and get better is great, but sometimes it leads us down a path that ultimately distracts us from getting the outcome we really desire. I fall victim to this too. A new and interesting way of doing things presents me with this opportunity that could transform my results. It’s exciting and full of hope.

Can I tell you where I’ve seen the biggest meaningful impact to my ability to sell? Asking questions, listening better, being empathetic.

Maybe we skim over these types of things because we want to believe we already do them well and hopefully we do. But there’s always room for improvement. I think they’re important because at the end of the day what matters is the ability to connect problems to solutions. Everything else you do will have a disappointing result if that connection doesn’t happen.

I’ll leave you with this - one of my favorite things I get to do each week is lead a sales training for a team of BDMs. We’ve been doing this for nearly 12 weeks now, and so last week I was interested to hear from the group what they felt like was working for them.

One of them who is only about 6 months into the role shared that at the end of his discovery calls, he’s been asking his prospects “Where should we go from here?”. He’s noticed a profound difference in his ability to get next steps established and move the conversation forward.

These subtle changes to the ways we engage with people seem simple, yet you won’t be surprised to know that too many sales people are focused on the wrong things. Don’t let yourself be distracted by things that aren’t going to make a real difference for the people you want to work with. Learn how to serve them better, and you will ultimately get better yourself.

Introducing Elevate Sales Kick Off

I’ve told a few people this, but before I launched BrightReach one of my goals for the business was to host a sales kick off event live in-person for the property management industry. I’m proud to say that idea is already in flight.

To me sales kick off is the best way to launch a new year. To get focused on the things that matter, get clear about what my goals are and feel energized to go accomplish them. Ask any person who’s ever worked at Second Nature about SKO and you’ll hear the impact.

I’m hosting this alongside my friends Kristen and Kandise at PM Pathbuilders in Nashville, TN, January 26th to 28th, 2026. More details and registration will be live in the next few weeks. For now, get your name on the list so you’re kept up to date when that stuff goes live. We have a lot of cool stuff we’re working on for this, I’m pumped.

Learn More