Sales Mastery with Janko Brlecic: Tools, Tips, and Tactics

Eric (00:04.174)
I'm Eric Melcher and if you want to know how some of the most innovative B2B marketers are scaling their business, then this is the show for you. Today I'm chatting with Janko Birelecic. Janko, for those who don't know you, can you tell us who you are and why should people listen to you?

Janko Brlecic (00:14.382)
Hi Eric, thanks for having me on the show. Well, yeah, for the last three, almost three and a half years, I've been running my own company called Lighthouse Advisory. And we are basically specializing in sales workshops and marketing services for in B2B sector, but mostly with tech companies and startups. So a lot of things to discuss here.

Eric (00:26.606)
you

Eric (00:44.366)
Okay, well I was going to ask, what stage of a company do you mostly work with? Is it just pre -seed?

Janko Brlecic (00:48.174)
No, well, it depends on the on the company. Basically, what we are focusing on is on the companies that have, you know, they've made some sales. They are out of the phase in which only the founders are working and are covering all the bases. So we are talking with companies and working with companies in which they start to comprehend that they need to formalize their processes within the company. So they understand that.

the sales process is not, you know, I'm grabbing this guy for the hand. I've talked to this guy on the street or that guy on the, on the conference, that it has to be a process that has a beginning and an end and that we follow up everything that's happening, that we have a, a clear picture. so it doesn't really relate to in which stage of financing they are per se, but yeah, not only.

We're somewhere between scrappy bootstrapped phase and more, you know, hundred and plus people teams.

Eric (01:56.846)
Gotcha, gotcha. Now we all want more sales, those of us who are running businesses. So can you tell us, is there a magic pill that can increase your sales 10 times in like 10 days, Yonko?

Janko Brlecic (02:07.086)
Well, if there would be, I probably wouldn't be talking to you here today. But there are, it's one of those snake oil people that are pushing that all around the internet and promising you whatever. What I would say is a magic pill is that you just have to keep on going. And that once you get some traction, the...

Eric (02:13.582)
Yeah.

Janko Brlecic (02:33.742)
The answer to that is that it's not going to magically increase 10x in, you know, 10 days, 20 days or whatever, but you just have to keep doing what's working and then eliminating what's not working. And that's your magic pill if you're looking for one.

Eric (02:50.222)
Okay, for sales companies that you primarily work with or the clients that you work with who they're trying to sell to, on average, how many decision makers are involved in the sales process, Young?

Janko Brlecic (02:59.406)
Well, that really depends, but what we have seen in the last couple of years is that there are more and more people involved into the decision process. So it started, you know, maybe 15, 20 years ago, you'd be talking to one guy and then or lady or whatever, and you get to a point in which, yeah, we have this good idea. We have this mutual understanding that this is a product that the company needs.

Eric (03:19.566)
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Janko Brlecic (03:28.014)
But that has gradually changed because there are different needs that you're

Janko Brlecic (03:35.182)
this from a seller's perspective. You have to satisfy different needs, you have to satisfy different criteria, not only the price, but the needs, everything that's related to that product. So what I've been recently looking at is that you're probably looking on the other side, at least four to five people that you have to talk to. You will not probably be talking to each one of them in person, but those are the people that are within the company. So the people that you talk to,

Eric (03:40.718)
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Janko Brlecic (04:05.262)
will need to have answers for that people within their organization.

Eric (04:13.998)
Okay, now you do sales and workshops and what are some of the things like what are one or two key things that people take away from from your workshops? There was like eye -opening for them.

Janko Brlecic (04:23.534)
Well, we try to develop each workshop for the company that we work with. So I don't think that we've ever run a workshop that was, you know, similar 100 % or identical 100 % to another one. And they range from workshops that are only one to three hours, maybe for the C level to understand what's going on and what are the things that they have to do up to

Eric (04:39.95)
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Janko Brlecic (04:51.95)
trainings that involve 30, 40 hours of training for their SDR or BDR or account executives and stuff like that. But the one thing that definitely sticks out is that they have to usually communicate better between them. So even if we come into a company that has great inner...

Eric (04:53.088)
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Eric (04:58.894)
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you

you

Janko Brlecic (05:20.334)
communication that has inner, you know, they're working what they would say in a company that doesn't have any communication problems within. Still, when we are talking about sales and marketing processes, they need to share information that's maybe not related to, you know, what I was doing last weekend. But, you know, like, what did this guy that we've been on a call, what was his issue, you know, are we talking here about money? Are we talking here about timing on their side? What are the things that are.

intricate to that company versus having just a good vibe within the team. So making sure that they share the information on each level that's required for that next step.

Eric (06:05.422)
Okay, so let's talk about how they do that. Are there any different tools out there that you recommend or suggest? We've got, I know there's HubSpot, there's PipeDrive, there's Salesforce, there may even be other tools, but what are some of your favorites that do a good job in terms of facilitating that collaboration and communication among the sales teams?

Janko Brlecic (06:13.614)
you

Janko Brlecic (06:21.23)
Well, I've worked with all of those tools that you mentioned and I couldn't pick a favorite out of them because each of them has its own strengths and disadvantages. It basically comes down to a tool that the company will actually use. What I've seen is that a lot of companies are investing a lot of money in different tools and they're saying like, yeah, we're using...

Eric (06:29.632)
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Janko Brlecic (06:45.582)
I don't know, I'm away for our scheduling processes. We're using, you know, window for this and then you have all of this tools, but they're just, you know, it's basically clutter. So what we are usually doing with them is that we are deconstructing their CRM process. So the tools that we have really good, you know,

feedback from is HubSpot, is Pipe Drive and Salesforce to a certain extent, because Salesforce can get, because it's the biggest one, it can get it a little bit complicated and complex. But once we get to the point in which all of the team members are comfortable in using that primary CRM tool, then we can move forward and then we can implement other tools that are going to help them within that process. But

Until they are comfortable with using that thing, we don't see any, unless it's something that's, you know, you absolutely need like, I don't know, Google Google suit of apps or something like that. Everything else could be and usually is clutter.

Eric (07:48.3)
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Eric (08:04.014)
Okay. In terms of like the tactics, cause when I think of sales, I always think of the phone call, but that may not necessarily be the case in your workshops. Are you also teaching sales tactics and strategies like for code emails and other, and other, and other means like maybe social selling too.

Janko Brlecic (08:18.606)
Yes, well, the thing is it all boils down to what kind of a company it is. So once we get to, you know, their ideal customer profile, and once we look where those people are, when we understand where they are, and when we understand what are the things that they need at certain point of selling stage, then we can implement different tactics and different approaches. So what we are

Eric (08:30.456)
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Janko Brlecic (08:47.15)
definitely telling them to use is LinkedIn to be present out there to build their authority. So it's one of the things that are very, very important. You know, when people, you know, the first thing that anyone does is Google you. And then if it comes up your, I don't know, little leak 20 years ago result, it doesn't make that much sense. But if you get a credible business profile, which says that you're doing this, you're doing that, you're engaged with the

broader community or your company is doing some stuff. That's really important. And then when we come to tactics like cold email or cold calling, they definitely have their place in it, but it also depends in which stage we're talking to. So to give you an example, if we're talking about cold calling, cold calling is effective in certain situations in which, let's say you and I were talking and we agreed,

via email to have a call. And then I didn't reply for three, four weeks. And you have my phone number in my email signature. And then you give me a call and say, hey, it's Eric. We've been talking over the email for a couple of weeks ago. Is it a good time? And then we take it from there. So there is definitely a place for every single of those approaches in the salesperson's skill set.

Eric (10:12.992)
All right, give us a client use case, a company that you worked with and they just had great results from attending one of your workshops or consultations.

Janko Brlecic (10:20.462)
you

Janko Brlecic (10:25.23)
Yeah, well, I recently finished a series of workshops with a startup that's based here in Zagreb. They are developing software and hardware for sports sciences. And so what we did is basically reshape their approach. So what they started is, you know, they've been following all of the different devices that they can get online, which is...

Eric (10:31.47)
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Janko Brlecic (10:54.734)
not usually wrong or anything, you know, there's nothing bad with it. It's just the thing of putting pieces of puzzle into a bigger picture. And so we started, you know, and then we put different team members into different roles. So to give you an example, their CEO is being a CEO. So he's talking about the business, but he's also talking about broader things that are happening within that.

Eric (10:55.05)
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Thank you.

Janko Brlecic (11:23.342)
within that industry, he's engaging with other leaders within that. But then they have a chief scientist position, which is, I would say 80 -20 on the science side. So he's a guy that talks only or mostly about science. And the feedback that we got is like, this is exactly what their potential clients were looking for because they also have scientists on their teams.

So they have sports scientists that were looking for data like this. And so that's the first step of engagement. They get into contact, they start talking, and then they build this relationship. They build authority so that you know that they're not selling something that's mumbo jumbo. It's actually science. And then they move them forward to sales team, which then closes the deal. I believe their closure percentages are way above average.

Eric (11:55.676)
you

Janko Brlecic (12:21.902)
in the last couple of months.

Eric (12:26.382)
Okay, and are you mostly regional working in central and eastern Europe or do you expand your services all across Europe?

Janko Brlecic (12:33.614)
No, I used to live in the States, so I had some contacts there as well. And, you know, with this day and age, I really don't have any regional or local constraints. Of course, for the workshops, it's easier to have them in person. They're much more personal. But we've also run online workshops with clients overseas in the US, in Western Europe. So,

Eric (13:01.696)
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Janko Brlecic (13:03.342)
You know, it's as long as it's not like, you know, unreachable via internet. we're, we're again.

Eric (13:15.086)
Alright, alright. And I understand you recently launched a newsletter and why should people check it out, Yanko?

Janko Brlecic (13:21.166)
Yeah, well, I launched a newsletter because, you know, I'm, I'm talking to some of my previous clients. I'm talking to some prospects, you know, all of those different, people and they're, you know, like, what's the thing that you last read, you know, what do you think about this? What do you think about that? And stuff like that. So I basically said, all right, I don't have that much content to write every single day. or every single, you know, it would just be spam basically, which I hate.

Eric (13:42.606)
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Janko Brlecic (13:50.862)
as probably everyone else. So I launched a newsletter that I'm calling Three Under Three. It's basically three facts that are gonna help you sell and that you can read under three minutes. So you open it up on your phone, you have three minutes while you're waiting elevator, while you're in the queue for public transport and whatever, just check it out. And there are things like, all right, how can I increase their different statistics, their different insights, different articles.

Eric (13:52.782)
Hehehe.

Janko Brlecic (14:20.238)
all of those things that I'm keeping an eye on because I have to, and then slowly moving them your way.

Eric (14:26.446)
Okay, okay. What's a good tip for somebody like me, business owner just starting out, don't really have any sort of staff, but I am responsible for bringing in new business and I'm not using any of those tools like, you know, pipe drive or HubSpot. I'm basically just using Notion and Google Sheets and you know, of course on LinkedIn, any recommendations for somebody like me?

Janko Brlecic (14:37.518)
Yeah, that's... I would say that's probably a very good start because as I said, people usually tend to expand their own work by implementing tools that...

Eric (14:56.54)
you

Janko Brlecic (15:04.59)
you know, they were playing around with and they have a feeling that they're actually working. But what's happening in the end is, is, you know, you didn't do anything substantial, you know, by downloading the latest Apple for, for whatever. so what I think that the most important thing is understanding who your customer is and where they are. So once you get to that point, you can definitely work from there. So, and, and you have to be really,

Eric (15:18.094)
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you

Eric (15:32.988)
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Janko Brlecic (15:34.638)
conservative about that. You cannot be everything to everybody. And there are a lot of times in which, and I know that from my personal experience, in which you are afraid to say no, like I'm just starting and I need this, you know, income or I need this client for the reference or whatever. And you're eager to say yes, but deep down there, you know that they're not a good fit. And what's happening with that is that you are

Eric (15:39.048)
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Eric (15:55.854)
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Janko Brlecic (16:03.758)
You're expanding your own resources, your time, your energy, your focus. And then deep down, you understand that that's probably not a good idea. So I would say for the first beginning months or a year or whatever, it's just getting down to the bottom of that, who is your ideal customer? And then where they are, if they're hanging out, I don't know, on a baseball field.

Eric (16:15.136)
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Janko Brlecic (16:33.294)
Whatever, just go there, talk to them. And the most important thing out of all of that is being persistent. You have to set up goals and then saying, all right, I want to, I don't know, close X amount of clients in X amount of time. And then if you do that, great. If you don't do that, then think back and look why that didn't happen.

Eric (17:01.998)
Okay, good advice, good advice. Alright, I've got some rapid fire questions for you. Are you ready, Yonko?

Janko Brlecic (17:04.814)
All right, shoot.

Eric (17:08.974)
Okay? Alright, first one. How do you think Reddit's IPO is going to go?

Janko Brlecic (17:13.102)
I think it's going to go reasonably well because they do operate with a loss, but I've been using ready for years. It's a great source of information and I don't see that much of a downside to it, except that they're losing a lot of money.

Eric (17:29.454)
you

Eric (17:37.198)
Yeah, yeah. Okay, next question for you. While doing a triathlon, the one thing I hated most was blank. Fill in the blank.

Janko Brlecic (17:42.542)
Mm -hmm.

Janko Brlecic (17:46.83)
I'm not sure if I'm going to pronounce that right, but but chafing So my I had I had a What suit that was doing like this? For I don't know how much time and on some other places on my body, which wouldn't be Not good to show at this point but it's

Eric (18:00.878)
Yeah.

Eric (18:10.67)
I know what you're talking about. I didn't. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I remember doing the triathlon and buying cream specifically for that. I remember. Yeah. Okay. Next question for you. What is.

Janko Brlecic (18:14.798)
Good fun.

Janko Brlecic (18:21.55)
Yeah, I bought the cream as well, but...

Janko Brlecic (18:29.134)
Didn't work out. Yeah, I didn't apply enough

Eric (18:30.19)
It didn't work out so well, huh?

Okay, what's the most interesting thing you did in the last 26 days?

Janko Brlecic (18:53.678)
I know there was a...

Janko Brlecic (18:58.35)
That's a good question. I didn't... well...