Episode #21: Increasing Sales 70% in a Year While Working Remotely from 18 Countries and Closing Deals in a Moroccan Bowling Alley with Sean Tierney.

Episode Summary

Sean Tierney shares his background as a musician, kite surfer, entrepreneur, podcast host, digital nomad and, since 2015, the Director of Sales at Pagely. Tasked with selling B-to-B to Fortune 500 companies, he explains the techniques he used to increase Pagely’s sales by 70% in a single year while traveling the world with Remote Year, living in 18 countries, and closing his single largest deal from a Moroccan bowling alley. Sean then breaks down the sales systems he developed into 7 steps but emphasizes the importance of establishing product-market-fit before attempting any scaling techniques. Post-product-market-fit, he explains the importance of starting with “flow mapping” the lead experience. He then shares the next step of measuring metrics and KPIs. Next he explains how to build a sales “process”. Then he explains his concept of “Flintstoning” and why it is so important. After that he explains how to start “delegating”, and eventually to start “automating”. And finally, he talks about the more advanced technique of “Scaling Personal Attention”, and discusses the “Choose Your Own Adventure” interactive video experience he developed or Pagely. We then move on to talk about Sean’s world travel adventures and his experience hosting The Nomad Podcast. He then explains the scope of his “Nomad Prep Academy” that he created as a course for helping people get into the digital nomad lifestyle. And finally he shares his vision of the future of the remote work and how the digital nomad ecosystem is evolving, and he explains why he thinks people deserve to lead extraordinary lives and how nomadic travel can help them to do so.

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About the Guest

Sean Tierney

Sean Tierney is the Director of Sales for Pagely, a managed WordPress hosting provider, that serves clients such as Disney, Warner Brothers, Comcast and many others you would surely know. And he does it while working remotely from some of the most epic locations around the world. In Sean’s first year of being a digital nomad, he increased Pagely’s annual revenue by 70% Year over year, and he did it all while travelling the world on the Remote Year program and living in 18 different countries on 4 continents that year. In the last 3 years, Sean’s sales expertise helped Pagely to grow from 8 to 38 employees and HE has subsequently gotten international media attention and speaking engagements around the world for the sales systems and processes he has built, including his concept of flintstoning, his automation philosophy on scaling personal attention, and the “Choose your own adventure” video consultation experience he designed and implemented at Pagely. Sean is also the host of the Nomad Podcast and the founder of NomadPrep Academy, an online training course to help more people transition into the nomadic lifestyle.

What You'll Learn

How to Build a Location-Independent Sales Department from Scratch by Systematizing, Delegating and Automating
How to Scale Personal Attention and Create an Interactive Video Sales Consultation
Why We Were Meant to Live Extraordinary Lives and the Importance of Personal Growth Through Travel

Links From the Episode

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SEAN’S COURSE

Nomad Prep Academy (Use Discount Code “MAVERICK” to get 20% Off)

WINE SHARED DURING THE INTERVIEW

Chilean Carmenere

BOOK SEAN RECOMMENDS

WORK-TRAVEL PROGRAMS AND NOMAD EVENTS MENTIONED

Remote Year (Get $100 discount using our link)
Nomad Cruise

PEOPLE MENTIONED

RESOURCES MENTIONED

OTHER MAVERICK SHOW INTERVIEW MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

TRAVEL-SIZE FITNESS SYSTEM SEAN RECOMMENDS

TRX Suspension Trainer

CONTENT THAT SEAN READS

Hacker News

LOCATION WHERE THE EPISODE WAS RECORDED

Brazil

SEAN’S TOP 3 TRAVEL DESTINATIONS

SEAN’S TOP 3 BUCKET LIST TRAVEL DESTINATIONS

OTHER DESTINATIONS MENTIONED

Check Flight Prices to Any of These Destinations

TOP 5 FAVORITE HIP HOP ARTIST OF ALL TIME

FOLLOW SEAN

Instagram

Time Stamped Show Notes

[02:41] MATT AND SEAN SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCE TOGETHER IN BRAZIL

Describing the Beach Towns
What Sean loves about Kite Surfing
Sean’s Song and Guitar Performance in Brazilian Portuguese
Caipirinha Street in Jericoacoara
Rooftop Nightclubs Open Only During Happy Hour

[17:24] THE PRODUCT/SERVICE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

Reducing Risk When Building a Startup
Focus on Finding Product-Market Fit

[20:21] SCALING A SALES DEPARTMENT

Mapping Out Your “Flows” of Information
Mapping Out Your Customer Lifecycle

[23:09] TRACKING METRICS AND KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

The Difference Between ‘Metrics’ and ‘KPIs”
The Importance of Measurements
Using Data to Optimizing Micro-Conversion Points

[26:03] ESTABLISHING A SALES PROCESS

Establish a Pipeline with “Stages” Relevant to You
Move Leads Through the Funnel
Track High Level Data First
Get More Granular Over Time

[28:03] FLINTSTONING

Do Everything Manually First.
Don’t Automate the Wrong Things Too Early

[29:15] DELEGATING AND AUTOMATING

Hire Other People to Run the Systems You Built
Create Machine Automation for Other Systems You Built
Understanding Which Systems to Automate vs. Delegate

[35:36] SCALING PERSONAL ATTENTION

How to Deliver a Boutique Experience at Scale
Pagely’s “Choose Your Own Adventure” Video Sales Consultation
Auto-Tagging Prospects for Segmented Drip-Marketing Follow Up
Increasing Closing Percentages by Humanizing Yourself Through Video First
How to Build an Interactive Video Sales Consultation

[49:53] HOW TO EXTRACT MORE VALUE OUT OF EXISTING LEAD TRAFFIC

IP lookup of website visitors to create B-to-B stakeholder outreach targets
Cascading personalized outreach to the 5 key stakeholders in a company

[55:45] RUNNING THE SALES DEPARTMENT REMOTELY

Closing Pagely’s largest sale in a Moroccan bowling alley

[57:03] THE BEGINNING OF SEAN’S WORLD TRAVEL

Sean’s Study Abroad Experience in Ecuador during college
Climbing South America’s Largest Active Volcano…And Falling Over the Edge
Spending the Night Huddled with 6 People in an Ecuadorian ATM Booth

[1:03:56] SEAN’S CHOICE TO BECOME A FULL-TIME DIGITAL NOMAD

How Sean Found and Chose to Participate in the Remote Year Program
Explaining the Remote Year Program Experience
The Value of the Remote Year Alumni Network
The Depth of Connection and Community that Forms on the Remote Year Program

[1:15:27] SEAN’S PERSONAL GROWTH THROUGH WORLD TRAVEL

Sean’s #1 Reflection and Takeaway from this Travel Experience
Why Travel Makes Us All Better People
Why Sean Believes We Are Meant to Lead Extraordinary Lives
The Power of Travel to Revitalize Us and Shock Us Back to Life

[1:20:00] THE FUTURE OF REMOTE WORK AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE NOMAD LIFESTYLE

Why Sean Sees Remote Work Increasing into the Future and The Benefits of It
How Sean Sees the Digital Nomad Eco-System Evolving

[1:21:50] SEAN’S COURSE: NOMAD PROP ACADEMY

Why Sean Created Nomad Prep Academy
Sean’s Motive in Creating The Best Course on Transitioning into the Nomad Lifestyle
Overview of the Content of Nomad Prep Academy
How to Overcome Financial and Logistical Obstacles to Entering the Nomad Lifestyle
How to Convince Your Employer to Let You Work Remotely
The Mindset Required to Become a Digital Nomad

[1:31:47] SEAN’S NOMAD PODCAST