We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kevin Ascher a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kevin, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Please tell us about starting your own firm and if you’d do anything different knowing what you know now.
After 20 years in media sales, my bank account was full but my soul was empty. The thrill of closing my first deal, my first big deal, crushing quota, etc. was long gone. My focus had been all on results and external validations that I lost sight of myself and why I was on the journey in the first place.
When I realized something had to change, I didn’t know the next step. However, one day while waiting outside my boss’ office, I purchased my first domain name for a vague sales-coaching related concept. Turns out the meeting he scheduled with me was my termination.
Upon hearing the news, my immediate emotion was relief. Years of going through the motions in an industry that was no longer appealing, under a constant rotation of underwhelming bosses peddling a commoditized product were now over. Freedom!
Although I didn’t exactly know what I was going to do yet, I knew I was going to sell a high-quality product I had complete belief in – me!
If you’re going to go out on your own, you must have unwavering belief in your perseverance, fortitude, and motivation.
I set a 6 month deadline to answer these 3 questions:
-Do I like what I’m doing now?
-Do I think I’m good at what I’m doing?
-Do others think I’m good at what I’m doing?
My only regret is that I didn’t pursue a co-founder to share the journey.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
As an Engineering grad, I’ve always been process oriented and was an early Salesforce user in 2000. Salesforce grew rapidly as the buyer expectations fundamentally changed. Modern Sales and Marketing is all about providing value at all stages of the buying cycle. Reps need to be product, industry, and business experts requiring a complete transformation of data collection, analysis, and productivity.
As my business got off the ground, it became abundantly clear that CRM is the foundation upon which customer expectations and Salesforce is by far the market leader.
Fast forward to today, AcousticSelling helps young companies use Salesforce to rocket their growth in sales and customer satisfaction. Since we’re former salespeople, we deliver solutions reps actually love to use. All this is geared towards fast-paced environments with limited resources.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I first tried to be a sales trainer and coach but had to face the brutal truth that I wasn’t connecting with my audiences and therefore was ineffective. Critical feedback stung and I took it to heart, but I knew I had more to offer. That’s when my engineering and technical mind jumped in towards the technology, tools, and process side of sales.
I invested heavily in growing technical skills such as coding, database design, and system integration so I can offer the most robust set of solutions for my customers. I’m still just as motivated to help salespeople, but now I do so indirectly by delivering Salesforce experiences that help them reach their goals.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Our integrity in telling customers what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. Oftentimes Customers think they know what they need built, but in reality they mostly just know what problem they need fixed. It’s our job to diagnose and determine the right course of action. Customers appreciate that constructive pushback because they know our motivation is to build them the most robust solution lasting years.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.acousticselling.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kascher/