Heavy metal mixes with LBM sales
A recent article in the HBSDealer People Edition newsletter featured an announcement that Mike Catalina was hired in an outside sales role at Russin, the upstate New York based building products distributor and manufacturer.
The article revealed that outside of work, Catalina plays guitar for upstate New York’s premier Mötley Crüe Tribute Band. See for yourself:
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Livewire 518, a Motley Crue tribute band. (Photo courtesy Mike Catalina) -
Catalina on guitar (Photo courtesy Mike Catalina) -
Catalina, right, is a Russin salesman by day. -
Mike Catalina in full gear. (Photo by Stephanie J. Bartik, courtesy of Mike Catalina)
HBSDealer reached out to Catalina and asked him to describe the connection between a heavy metal music performance and a business-generating sales call.
“Part of the performance vs. sales is that the adrenaline rush when you have that good prospect you have that good sales call you have that good time with the customer, you leave that meeting or. That dinner and you say man we really connected on some level and you kind of feel that when you play a gig and there’s people changing and singing with you. You just get that energy.”
Catalina is also the author of “Monday’s with Mike,” a Linkedin blog that addresses sales and business and work-life balance. The subject matter includes “things that I see in the industry or just general topics.”
Part of Catalina’s sales philosophy is that the desire to serve and take care of the customer must resonate throughout the entire company in order for a business to maximize growth.
“It feels like in our industry it's more about building a relationship and building trust with your customer,” he said. “And that trust starts with you as a person, your integrity, the customer’s ability to connect with you.”
He also shared the idea that alignment across the organization weighs heavily on sales success.
“I’ve always said that you can take the best sales person and put him in an average company, and they’ll struggle,” he added. “And conversely, you can take an average sales person and put them in a very strong service-oriented company, and they’ll shine.”
Watch the full One-on-One Video interview with Catalina here.
