---
title: Funnel Vision Podcast - Episode 3 - Kyle Gollins
description: CRM systems have failed salespeople. RepData's Kyle Gollins tells us what features can make them more effective in today's evolving sales landscape.
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FUNNEL VISION PODCAST - EPISODE 3
# how crm systems lost salespeople...and what to build to get them back
> 
>
> Kyle Gollins
>
> SVP, Sales
> RepData
[mailto:kgollins@repdata.com](mailto:kgollins@repdata.com)
[SUBSCRIBE →](https://www.johnsteeleconsulting.com/funnel-vision-podcast/episode-3-kyle-gollins-rep-data#subscribe)
Today's guest is RepData Senior VP of Sales Kyle Gollins. Kyle has watched sales transform from a rolodex and a stack of business cards to hyper-targeted email sequences and Zoom calls, only to return to business lunches and in-office coffee chats. And in that time, he says, CRMs have become a nuisance. In this conversation, we explore how systems built for sales lost salespeople, the patchwork of tools they use now, and what he'd build into a new CRM to win them back.
Check out the video below and, if you want more, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
funnel vision newsletter
Every 2 weeks, we'll be reviewing a trend in automation, AI and marketing technology. We'll then be sharing the Workflow To Watch - an integration, toolset or workflow that you can implement to improve your business today. Subscribe below.
[SUBSCRIBE →](https://www.johnsteeleconsulting.com/funnel-vision-podcast/episode-3-kyle-gollins-rep-data#subscribe)
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# read the transcript
### host intro
Hey, welcome back to the show. This is John Steele. You're watching the Funnel Vision Podcast, episode three. And in today's episode, we're going to be talking to Kyle Gollings. He is the senior vice president of sales at Rep Data. Rep Data is a sample research and execution company founded in 2000. And they do a lot of work with quantitative data, quantitative research. They help companies source good quantitative data from across over 200 sources.
Kyle has been in sales in market research data for a while now. We worked together at a company called Polefish, and then he left to go to another company of this type, he's with Rep Data now. So got a lot of experience in this area. But I really want to talk to him about sales technology. Sales technology has changed an awful lot. There's a survey, which I'll get into on the call today, that shows that salespeople have really moved away from CRM systems.
These systems are really at the center of companies, they started with sales, started with managing contact data, started with, you know, managing the information that salespeople need to contact with their clients, connect with their clients, make meaningful connections, get to them at the right time, et cetera, to push deals forward. And it seems that CRMs have really gotten away from that and become a source of headache and busy work for salespeople. And salespeople, frankly, are using other tools to to connect and to communicate.
And the CRMs haven't really kept up. So I wanted to talk to Kyle about that survey and talk to him about how sales has changed over time, how running a sales team today is different from being just a salesperson and sort of what the differences are and how technology can bridge that gap. So I'm really excited to get into this conversation with him. I think it'll be really interesting to talk about how AI has come to that. And we're gonna get into that conversation.
### interview
John Steele (02:00)
Kyle Gollins, welcome to the show.
Kyle Gollins (02:01)
Thanks, John. Happy to be here. Appreciate you having me.
John Steele (02:03)
All right. So I wanted to talk to you today because you've been in sales a long time. You've worked in sales on your own. And then you've also worked with sales teams. And sort of I I I've seen over that time that sales technology has sort of changed, the approach to sales has sort of changed. And I wanted to talk through a little bit about those technological changes, sort of how you're sort of seeing that, sort of how you approach sales today versus in the past, and then sort of talk about some of the existing technology and why that may no longer serve salespeople.
But first I wanted to start with just the basics. So what does rep data do and how do you sell it? Yep.
Kyle Gollins (02:37)
Yeah, so rep data is in the market research industry. We are a data collection and services and provider. So our focus is providing access to human survey respondents, you know, which is it's it is weird to say human respondents, but with you know AI and everything like that, that's that's an important distinction. And on top of that, we're really focused on data quality. so data quality has become an issue in our industry.
there's rampant fraud and people trying to, you know, kind of access and take surveys. So we have a lot of technology that's kind of built around our offering that prevents that fraud and gives a lot of insight and information to researchers to filter that out. So it's all about, you know, high quality, easy access to data to inform decisions. So really making a frictionless process for our clients.
John Steele (03:28)
Mm-hmm. And what's the process like for selling that? I mean, do you do you find that you take a, you know, a more traditional approach or are you, you know, sort of using technology to forward your connections a lot more often?
Kyle Gollins (03:41)
Yeah, we're certainly using technology, but I'd say it's it's somewhat of a traditional process. So it's still very much relationship driven. you know, it is it's a lot of one-to-one communication. you know, we we still believe in in-person meetings and and calls and kind of building that trust and relationship, you know, over the long term. The in the market research industry is also, you know, it's it's it's very kind of tight knit. So, you know, there's a lot of
relationships that, you know, I have that span, you know, decades. You know, so those people I've worked with, they've moved they've moved on to different companies. I've moved on, but we've kind of retained that relationship. So I think technology also enables those connections to stay intact. And you know, things like link
John Steele (04:25)
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, I know that a lot of salespeople, you know, are willing to do cold calling, get on the phone, talk to a human being, those more direct one-to-one relationship building processes that I think a lot of millennials in and certainly some Gen Z, you know, would like rather die than get on a phone call. I know that could be challenging. I think a lot of technology we have these days is sort of seems designed almost exactly for that purpose.
You know, when I think about like ordering DoorDash or something like that, it's like I could call the restaurant, but I can just click a button and here it comes. So I don't have to talk to anybody. So if you're selling into, you know, increasingly, you know, millennials that may feel that way, you know, are making purchase decisions. So if you're sort of you know, if sales technology and sales tactics are sort of around, you know, those more direct connections, how do you keep making direct connections like that with people that are maybe not receptive to them?
Kyle Gollins (05:21)
Yeah, I mean for me it's it's using, you know, multiple modes, you know, and and really kind of seeing what fits. I mean, everything is much more personal, you know, these days. So it's giving, you know, it's kind of meeting them where they are. So whether it's, you know, kind of sending LinkedIn messages, you know, doing it that way, you know, email still works, but you know, it's harder and harder to kind of break through the clutter of inboxes. I do think, you know, virtual calls have have kind of made it a little more comfortable. Easier able to see someone's face, react to them.
through those nonverbal communications, you know, as well. But yeah, the old school cold call, you know, pick up the phone, you know, dial for dollars, you know, break through, interrupt someone's day, like that's harder than ever. I don't think anyone ever loved it on either side. But you know, at some point in time, if you need to get a hold of someone, you might have to go that route. But the other thing too is text. You know, I think text messaging I think was become much more acceptable. Mm-hmm. You know, as well. Especially once you establish a relationship.
Right. It's quick. It's easy. Once we also are working with clients, the other thing we use for technology integration is we'll create Slack channels, you know, with our with our clients. That then allows that immediacy. You know, it's you can ask a quick question. It doesn't need to be a scheduled thirty minute call. much more responsive. so that's another way too that we've used it.
John Steele (06:43)
Right. So yeah, so there there still are sort of channels that feel more personal. May not be the phone, but it does feel like a more direct kind of one to one, even if it's not getting to somebody's secretary and and trying to get them on the phone like it used to be. Exactly. So the the impetus for you know having you on I think came from this story that I had seen. So in twenty twenty one, Forbes released an article at the headline forty eight percent of sales leaders say
their CRM system doesn't meet their needs. And the good news is this is fixable. And then just in April in 2026, a Bain Capital released or Bain, Bain and Company released a report that shows that 70% of sales leaders now say that their CRM systems have inaccurate data, that it's led to missing growth goals and it's causing problems within their company because of like data hygiene issues and things like that. So
You know, why do you think these tools that were built for salespeople initially, have really not kept up with the way sales is done and have sort of seen salespeople pulling away?
Kyle Gollins (07:47)
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think in one case, you know, some some especially the the long, you know, kind of tenured platforms, they haven't changed much over the years. You know, they look the same today as they they did when I first started using them in you know, the early two thousands. I think they're also especially the big ones, like they're designed for for so many different kind of sales functions and organizations that it's like they they they're designed to solve for everybody, but
then really doesn't deliver promises to, you know, those anyone really. It's almost too big, too, too broad. Mm-hmm that you're you you can literally do anything with it, but it takes so much work to personalize it and customize it for your business that I think you just, you know, you're probably only using a fraction of the percent of like what it really is it can do. Right. You know, I think the other side you talked about is like the data hygiene side. I'd say any sales renovation I've been in, you know, it's heavily reliant on
on on manual data entry from a salesperson, you know, which salespeople are the worst admin people out there, you know, I'd say I think that's a pretty, you know, I don't think that's a shocking statement. so when you're putting that responsibility, you know, into the hands of salespeople, I don't think it should be surprising that then the results results aren't great. Mm-hmm. I think there needs to be s you know, kind of probably a more systematic way in which the data is, you know, populated consistently, refreshed, you know, kind of you know, cleaned over time.
You know, any company I've been at, they struggle with duplication. There's always duplicate accounts, duplicate contacts. Mm-hmm. If it's if you're not the owner of that account, it may be impossible to make a change. Mm-hmm. So then you have to run back to a system administrator. And once you start doing that, you just give up.
John Steele (09:33)
Yeah, folks in some of these surveys have referenced side systems, you know, side like I have my own Google Doc that I use and maintain, or I've got shadow data files that that that never make it into the CRM. And, you know, they sort of use the tools that benefit them. Yeah. You know, do do you think CRMs have a problem with, you know, providing the benefit of this data to salespeople?
Kyle Gollins (10:00)
Yeah. I think that's one of the big issues is that it can be not always, but at least it it's often helpful in providing information upwards with an organization. So you know, when I've led sales teams, it is helpful for me to get, you know, data across the whole team. You know, I can see activity if it's entered properly, you know, pipeline conversion, you know, revenue against target, all that type of stuff. it's not always helpful the other way. So, you know.
The the if the individual salesperson is getting value from the time and the energy it takes to put the data in, then they're more likely to do it. One thing I've done in the past is I've always created some different kind of tasks or, you know, kind of regular you know, kind of activities for the team that require data from the CRM that would then make it easier for them to, you know, kind of fulfill. So an example of that is, you know, we would do kind of like a weekly activity roundup.
you know, across the team. And my big thing was I don't need you to just list out what meetings you have. I already know that. I already have that. But what I do want is I want the context. You know, I want to I want some tell me something I'm not going to see in the CRM. But for a starting, if they didn't enter that information come the end of the week, it's going to be a r it's going to be a bear for them to go back and figure out who did I meet with. They're going to literally have to open up their calendar, start looking through it.
you know, the CRM can kinda help them. So I would give them some sort of task that kind of encouraged the data entry to then make their life easier on the other side. You know, but you know, even now with AI, like even something like that is becoming antiquated, you know, because there's better ways to do it.
John Steele (11:37)
Yeah, so so let's talk about some of those better ways. So what are some tools that you've seen sort of come out that you think have sort of changed the game for people or or you're sort of there was some relief when you saw the feature set? Like, okay, here we go. This this is sort of fits with our with the way we do business and it'll sort of it you know, either it either it really helps me get my workflow better or like it'll get the company off my back about the data stuff, you know, whichever you you prefer there.
Kyle Gollins (12:06)
Yeah, what I love is a lot of the AI notation tools. So, you know, the ability to not just record a meeting, but you know, also to then get, you know, insights, an AI summary, you know, clearly defined next steps, you know, and and a record that a salesperson can look back on. you know, I've I've explained myself as a I'm an active listener. You know, I need to be, you know, fully engaged with the conversation. Once I start taking notes.
I'm lost. So I prefer you know, I have a pen here, but I don't know why. I'm not going to use it. So, you know, the ability to kind of, you know, have all that, you know, information, you know, captured, but I'm still allowed to be attentive, present, you know, and and listening, as well as, you know, kind of communicating, you know, with my clients is important. So I think something like that has a direct benefit to the individual salesperson.
You know, they don't have to have extensive notes. They don't have, you know, notebooks that they lose. And then organizationally, you know, once you have a whole organization using these tools, you're then able to get some knowledge sharing going on. You know, you're able to have people seeing, well, what's what's resonating? You know, where are the barriers? You know, if you're rolling on new product, how are how are prospects reacting? What do they like? What do they dislike? As a sales leader, you can also see, is my team presenting our latest capability?
You know, are we using the right pitch? Are we using the brand name? You know, all those, all those things are going to be, you know, measured at scale and and with ease. It's a great training mechanism as well. You know, I'm currently, you know, in a new role. So I'm I'm just starting out a new organization. You know, I need to learn the pitch. I need to learn the vernacular everyone uses. The traditional way is, you know, I'd literally have to get people to invite me to their sales calls and be just, you know, the guy in the corner listening in, shadowing people. You know, now I don't have to do that.
Now I can, you know, on on my schedule without interrupting anyone else, I can go back and look at those calls. You know, I can do queries. I can see how do CPG agencies react compared to market research companies and kind of do those comparisons, you know, on the fly. And you know, even go a step further with platforms like, you know, like Gong, for example, is one that we use. We can then tie that right into developing a sales strategy, battle cards, you know, email content, you know, you name it.
Kyle Gollins (14:22)
you know, we can we can leverage all of that from this, you know, massive depository of of of conversations.
John Steele (14:29)
Okay. So yeah, you mentioned platforms there that sort of act as a layer to where they'll sort of help you record calls, videos, video calls, things like that to sort of ingest all of that data, maybe structure it for you, maybe surface, give you some of those benefits to the individual salespeople that you might not otherwise have. There's a name that the consultants have come up with for that. as you know, I'm I'm doing some consulting now. So
I keep up with these consultants a little bit. And I mentioned Bain earlier, one of their competitors, Boston Consulting Group, coined this term bionic selling for the companies and technologies that support them that sort of are looking to do just that, where they basically divorce the act of a salesperson's workflow from that data layer and sort of find ways to to get around that, usually with some sort of AI component tied to it. And so I'm curious, you know.
Are you using AI platforms yourself or are you using AI that's sort of baked into that some of these tools that you guys are using?
Kyle Gollins (15:35)
Yeah, I'm doing both. So I'm definitely using AI, you know, on my own. So using, you know, Claude and Gemini and and those things. you know, I'm still like I I think we all are still kinda, you know, early early days with it all, but I've used it for, you know, meeting prep. I've used it to develop develop sales strategies and business development plans. big thing I've done is, you know, try to identify prospective clients that I've never heard of before.
you know, like disruptor brands or things like that. You know, like we all know we all know PNG buys a lot of research, but, you know, everyone's knocking on P and G's door. So how do I find, you other, you know, kind of less competitive areas of opportunity and AI helps me uncover that. It's also then can tie right into, you know, developing some of the communication that I'll put together. I always use it as a blueprint. I never just copy and paste. You know, I always, you know, kind of make some modifications and make sure it's my own voice. But it it
it ensures that you're not starting from just a, you know, a blank a blank page. And also like when I've been doing this for so long, selling s a very similar product for so long, I mean, honestly like I bore myself sometimes with what I write. So it's like I need something fresh and a different perspective. And and so and that usually like breaks my writer's block, you know, if you will.
John Steele (16:58)
Yeah, yeah. That's a that's an interesting take on it. So I'm curious about the sort of the anxiety around AI that a lot of people seem to have. So we mentioned before, you know, sales is is much more of a a one-to-one sort of direct networking and sort of much more human, you know, by design, you know, you want humans interacting with each other, you know, sort of reacting to each other's needs, that kind of a thing. It's a very it's of the
business practices out there. It's a very human sort of practice. So I'm curious if the AI anxiety is is similar among salespeople or if you guys are a little bit more insulated from it because it it can be so person to person driven. You know, you can sort of use your own human qualities to sort of further it. And maybe that's something that that AI can't really compete with. Do you think you feel yeah do you think salespeople feel less anxiety, I guess would be my question.
around this stuff or or is it the same?
Kyle Gollins (17:57)
My hunch is my hunch is less anxiety. I think for the reasons you said that, you know, there is a personal aspect to it. But I think that, you know, there are a lot of salespeople that have have moved away from some of those, you know, kind of human interactions, less business travel, less face to face, you know, all that stuff. So I've always done this and and you know, here at Rep Data we do it is we're we're very much about, you know, spending time with our clients. Mm-hmm. That's I think how you protect against that, you know, kind of, you know.
you know, AI takeover of sales. Yeah. Yeah. I you know, at least now I don't know how AI would take a client to a lunch. Maybe that'll happen sometime, but
John Steele (18:36)
Trade shows, conferences. How how are they gonna do that, you know?
Kyle Gollins (18:38)
Right, right. And you know, frankly, that's oftentimes one of the more enjoyable parts of sales, you know, is being able to, you know, know your clients as not just clients, but as people, you know, and really get to know them. And that's where that relationship gets built. And that's how you have it, you know, kind of last, you know, over time and, you know, across, you know, different organizations. So to me, that's the fun part. I think that AI is, I think because salespeople don't want to be bothered with a lot of the admin, whenever AI can
take over that admin, we're like, great, do it. Like we didn't want to do it in the first place. We weren't doing it the first place. So you're not taking our job. You're you're you're doing the thing we were ignoring anyway. Right. so I think some of the bad habits of salespeople, you know, can can get covered, you know, and and filled by some AI solutions and salespeople would be receptive to that.
John Steele (19:30)
You you mentioned earlier that, you know, a part of rep data's role is to figure out if people are real. And that part of your job as a salesperson, even, is to prove to someone that you're you're a real person, that you're not, you know, some bot just just spewing out messages to them on some timeline or something like that and and making that feel real. You know, obviously there's this huge authenticity deficit online where, you know, nobody seems to know.
what's real or who's who's real or anything, you know, especially since AI's sort of come in, but even sort of before that. And I think like there's a broader thing there with, you know, sort of the way we're sort of fit with parasocial relationships. You know, we get connected with like creators and things that they think we'll like. And then we sort of, you know, are connected with people online, but they're not necessarily real like connections. They're not necessarily real. We don't ever see them in real life. I mean, there are a lot of people that I feel like I know online, but that I don't ever
I've never met them in person. Do you find that people are maybe more receptive to a traditional sales approach because of this? Do you do you think that that might have anything to do with it? Have you seen any evidence of that? That that people now are are maybe more receptive to meeting you in person, meeting you for lunch or something than maybe they were they were before.
Kyle Gollins (20:47)
Yeah, and I think, you know, I think, you know, COVID kinda had a whole role to play here too. You know, we we all went into that kind of lockdown period and w even when we came out of it, there was still that reluctance to I think get back face to face. Not because of like fear of illness or anything. I think just complacency. You know, you were comfortable. You were, you know, at home, you're in your, you know, sweatpants, whatever it might be. But then you've had that disconnect feeling. And I think that, you know,
You know, we were my sales team was one of I think an early to really kind of like be a little bit forceful on that of like, you know, hey, like you know, let's meet at a coffee shop, let's have lunch. Even if you're not going into the office and I'm not in an office, we can still find, you know, a mutual spot to get together. And, you know, now with, you know, return to work, you know, happening, you know, offices coming, you know, kind of back and fold, or even companies that are mandating, you know, a return to an office.
Well, now they're almost welcome saying, All right, well, if they're in the office, I might as well have a purpose to be there. And if you're coming into the office, like you help validate that for me. And it doesn't hurt if you bring lunch along as well. But you know, like that's so I think there is that receptiveness to it. And I think, you know, you do get tired of looking at a screen too. Even yeah, as good as video calls can be. Yeah. It's nice to see someone in three D.
John Steele (22:04)
Yeah, that fatigue. That fatigue is real. So you mentioned, you know, these platforms being able to record calls and and have this data synthesis that AI can contribute to. But I'm curious about the data that you are using and sort of what what becomes important and what's sort of for someone else. So, you know, you want eye to surface like things that are valuable to you. Ha has it changed at all? Like what you need to prepare for a call, the type of data, the type of information you you
you need this a a a must have versus sort of nice to have or even maybe just overkill for what you need it for. has that sort of changed? Do you do you feel like you need more data or less now? Like what's the what what are you trying to do before a call that you you sort of need?
Kyle Gollins (22:49)
Yeah, I mean I I have seen with AI that it becomes a little bit overkill sometimes. If you you know put in certain prompts, you know, they'll they'll give you the entire history of, you know, PepsiCo. you know, I don't I don't I don't need that. Right. You know, going in to to see if we feel the survey or not. So I think it's, you know, probably like just doing training, even myself on what those prompts are, how do you get it to be focused on the purpose of the meeting? You know, I I think that you know, still what I see in a lot of the CRMs is that the
Prompts are somewhat generic, you know, still. You know, it's just, you know, I I logged an activity so it it's gonna then populate a follow up email, you know, or you know, I just booked a meeting with a new client and the the CRM wants me to send a reminder for that meeting right away. If I just follow that instruction, my client will think I like lost my mind. It's like we just booked it, why are you reminding me about it? So right there's you know, the the automation is there.
the intelligence isn't always there. So there's a lot of things that you're I'm just muting and ignoring because it's not relevant to the situation. So maybe that's a setup thing, you know, maybe it's, you know, advanced, you know, AI along the lines, it'll get smarter and better at that. But there's still quite a few things that, you know, it's just you just ignore. And you'll probably look in anyone's CRM and see a bunch of past due tasks that just didn't mean anything in the first place. That's why they never were acted on.
John Steele (24:16)
Right. Right. Yeah. It must be, you know, since since sales is so results focused, it must be pretty easy at times to just be like, Yeah, I mean, that's not necessary because I'm getting the results without it. So why you know, why change up? Right. That's that's so interesting. And it goes back to what you were saying about not seeing the direct impact of everything that the CRM is having you do. So then, you know, for your personal sort of workflow, it it may not make a lot of sense. And I think that's where, you know.
we sort of need to think about modifying these tools. So, you know, I gotta ask, like if if you were going to sort of start to design a s a new kind of CRM for twenty twenty six that could actually appeal to salespeople, re-engage some of them, bring them back, where would you start? Like what what kind of features would you focus on? What kind of sort of motion, what what do you think in in these platforms is is really necessary that sort of hasn't been maybe done yet or or needs to be incorporated in a better way, you know?
How would you how would you start on a project like that?
Kyle Gollins (25:17)
Yeah, I mean, you know, I I I in my professional life, I live within LinkedIn. You know, I am in there nonstop all day long. So to me, it's like some way to have better integration. You know, to me like LinkedIn is the best like, you know, B2B database out there. But nothing really I haven't seen anything that ties into it to, you know, to then, you know, keep your CRM, you know, updated when someone changed jobs or anything like that. So there's always a big disconnect between what I use the most.
you know, versus where all of of my data is stored. And, you know, that's a Microsoft owned. So understandable that, you know, they're not going to be fully integrated with, you know, every tool out there. But, you know, for me, that's where I'd like to see is like is, you know, I'm doing my work really outside the CRM. And then I have to take what's done outside and put it in. So some seamless way for me to, you know, kind of get that data entered without me I'm st you know, even today I'm still typing in someone's name into a field.
Because certain integrations don't work the way they're supposed to work. And I think the other is, you know, I think more automation around, you know, data hygiene. I feel like I feel like any CRM I know, you have to go buy something else or hire someone else to, you know, go and do a data cleanse or or or whatever it might be. None of it seems to be happening dynamically, you know, and automatically. Like there should be a way that
It sees that this account's been entered three different times. It's the same account. We're merging it, you know. You know, those those things don't seem to be there. And then I think just like proactivity, you know, like that it's it's prompting you with a suggestion. You know, this and and again, this could be just how it's set up, but you know, this account hasn't been touched in three days or thirty days or whatever it might be, or you haven't updated, you know, any data, you know, on these four accounts, you know, in the last quarter.
That way it's bringing stuff to your attention 'cause there's just, you know, you you you become overwhelmed with, you know, what's in there and you kinda can't, you know, see the forest through the trees if you will.
John Steele (27:22)
Sure, sure. So I ask this question to every guest that we have on, and I think it's a way of sort of understanding your workflow and sort of how they might be able to, you know, build something similar to themselves. I really hope people tune into this stuff, you know, as far as our newsletter is concerned, as far as these videos are concerned, and trying to build things that can improve their productivity. So I always ask all of our guests.
tell us one workflow automation integration or tool that you can't live without or that's really, you know, improving your your workflow day to day.
Kyle Gollins (27:55)
Day. Yeah, that's a good one. I'm I'm gonna have to go with what I just said. LinkedIn sales navigator. you know, I if I go way back, I think I already mentioned it, but like, you know, way back in my career, like LinkedIn didn't exist. And, you know, you you you you had the you know, a Rolodex, I mean, I'll give a visual. I still have stacks of business cards for whatever reason. But, you know, if LinkedIn went away, I'd probably I'd probably quit sales. I'd probably go into some other profession.
Yeah. because I just I just live in there. It's the best way to find, you know, the right people that I want to talk to. I still get really good response from, you know, communicating through the platform. It's how you and I reconnected. Yeah. Right. So it and it's, you know, I may be old school, but it's the also the only like so and so so called social media platform that I'm on. You know, I'm not on Instagram, I'm not on Facebook. So I I live and die by by LinkedIn.
John Steele (28:38)
That's
John Steele (28:52)
Does sales navigator sort of have it siphoned off to where you're it's only showing you like the contacts that you want to be like that are connected to you? Or do you have sort of everything mixed in? I know a lot of people, myself included, have a ton of people in LinkedIn that they they just accepted a connection from someone that's maybe prospecting or something like that. How do you how do you keep it trimmed up in LinkedIn to to make it a a good contributor to a sales function?
Kyle Gollins (29:19)
Well, I don't have it trimmed up. I have over ten thousand connections. so I I am like guilty of that. But what I what I find helpful of of navigator specifically is that it will it gives me the full view of an organization. Whereas other databases or like Zoom Info, for example, it's only ever gonna give you a partial view. You're not seeing everyone that works there. So, you know, I'm I'm kind of you're kind of blinded. So I like to be able to see everyone in the organization.
Really do pinpoint searches to find exactly who is, you know, the the people I want to get in touch with. And then I can do filtering. I can then see who's a first degree, second degree connection, you know, what mutual connections might we have. And that just gets back to that personalization, you know, relationship building, you know, kind of that that that sales approach that I think provides that authenticity of, you know, you're a real person. So I've I've any any place I've been that's if if it if we
If the company didn't have navigators, the first thing I purchase and kind of integrate into the sales the sales stack.
John Steele (30:21)
Absolutely. Just one final thing on that. So you mentioned you know LinkedIn is really the best database out there and sort of needing to have the CRM sort of be better at enriching data. Obviously, LinkedIn is very protective of their API. They sort of have really strict rules around scraping and things like that. You can violate their terms of service really easily. have you seen any tools that sort of bridge that gap for for salespeople? I know Apollo has tried to.
pull in LinkedIn as data as much as possible. Clay is one that I hear talked about a lot. Are are those tools that like data enrichment tools that sort of can bridge that gap for you using
Kyle Gollins (30:59)
I've used a bunch. The one that I do like is called Seamless. I think it's dot seamless.io, I believe. And it's not scraping off LinkedIn, but what it's doing is it allows you to identify the person and then match it up with, you know, relevant contact info. And then with a with one more click, I can then get that person entered into the CRM. So then that provides consistency and data entry and it provides ease of flow for the salesperson. So they're not
So they don't have to type. They can, you know, just they don't have to touch their keyboard and they can get a contact entered.
John Steele (31:34)
Kyle Gollins, thank you for joining me today. I really appreciate it. This is a really helpful conversation. And I hope all of our viewers you know, enjoy checking out some of these new sales tools and maybe trying them for themselves. And if you can write in and tell us about any of the experiments that you're running or any of the things that you've tried, that would be really helpful. Kyle, thanks again for coming.
Kyle Gollins (31:53)
Yeah, thanks, John. Appreciate it. All right.
John Steele (31:55)
Talk to you soon. Bye bye.
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