An exclusive interview with Scott Allan. Founder of Sallan Global. He is a Social Sales, Business Development, Outsourcing & Online Marketing Expert.
Scott Allan is the author of a new book called 7 Figure Sales Skills and an Award-Winning Digital Product Creator. He has over 25 years experience in a wide variety of sales and operational roles including running multiple on and offline businesses.
Scott Allan new company, Sallan Global helps individuals and companies through software solutions, sales and marketing automation and sales training to communicate with “the modern customer” wherever they are in the customer lifecycle.
Tell us about yourself?
I’m a huge football fan and a lifelong Liverpool supporter. If you’re a Manchester United fan, I’ll let it slide for now.
However, you’ll have to pick up the tab at the pub next time. I’ve been involved in sales and business development for over 25+ years across a range of industries with the last 15 spent predominantly in the outsourcing and customer management space.
During my career, I have been fortunate enough to generate over $500 million in sales for the businesses I have worked for and have trained over 1,000 people in varying stages of their sales and customer service career to great success.
I have also devised award-winning sales training and marketing videos and have sold over 3,000 products online in the last 10 years.
What makes your organization different than your competitors?
In the last few years, there has been a notable shift in the way salespeople are winning business and some of the methods that worked in the past no longer work with the same effectiveness.
To this end, I have combined my own experience, as well as studying the winners in the new “experience economy” to transform not only my own sales processes and practices but many others through white papers, books, webinars and training programs.
I firmly believe to win in the quest for the “modern customer” we need to be flexible, agile and offer genuine commercial insight to our customers. That needs to come from data-driven automation solutions and well-trained salespeople.
A combination of social/digital sales techniques, combined with the right storytelling and strategic frameworks will allow the next generation of salespeople to connect and engage with their prospects on levels never experienced before.
How much potential market share can you achieve in the next 3 years?
My niche is highly competitive, with many individuals offering either high ticket sales training, such as Grant Cardone and Dan Lok, or companies offering software solutions. Sallan Global’s goal is to create sales training and software automation that compliments each other. This is sales training and software solutions made by salespeople, for salespeople to communicate with “the modern customer” With that said our companies’ goal is purely to serve our customer…market share will then take care of itself.
What was the best book or series that you’ve ever read?
Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff, & Combo Prospecting by Tony Hughes
What are the best and worst purchases you’ve ever made?
Best: My first house
Worst: Kirby Vacuum Cleaner, long story 😊
What takes up too much of your time?
I wouldn’t say “too” much, but as a father of 4 very busy kids who are quite active in sport and music that takes up a lot of my time.
What three pieces of advice would you give to college students/new startup business owners who want to become entrepreneurs?
Number one is to put your customers at the forefront of every decision you make. When you do that, you will be surprised how quickly you will generate momentum.
Number two is don’t follow what I call “the soundbite crew” Those “influencers” (and I use the term loosely) who drop the most generic words of wisdom that they have likely copied from someone else. Look for mentors who speak to your values and offer you genuine actionable insight.
Number three is its hard work. If you think you will gain real traction in business following the generic “soundbite crew” you may have some initial success, but if you are looking for longevity you need to put in the hard work.
Who has impressed you most with what they’ve accomplished?
Jamie Oliver is someone I admire. I know he has had some financial difficulties recently but the fact that he decided to use his celebrity to try and change the poor eating culture in the UK and US as well as pumping in millions of his own money (rather than investors money) when all signs said he needed to close his restaurants said to me he walks the talk. Some business people would say that is foolish, and maybe it is, but the fact that he was prepared to not only back himself but with his own money says a lot to me. I like that in a leader.
Tell us about something you are proud of – about your greatest challenge.
I am proud my children are good human beings first and foremost. I am a father before anything else. Professionally, I am proud of multiple things. I have closed multi-million dollar deals on a number of occasions, I have won awards for my digital product training, I have seen my customers thrive personally, professionally and financially after working with me and the companies I have worked for on too many occasions to count.
As for my greatest challenge, it is outlined in my new book, but the beauty is it led me to where I am today and the sales training methodology I went on to develop. The short version is this:
After almost 15 years of sales and account management experience, across a range of industries, I decided to branch out on my own and start my own business.
My business partner and I started a wholesale company importing cleaning supplies from China, which we would sell to other wholesalers and end-users.
I’d get on the phone and cold call everyone I could, sales is a numbers game I would tell myself and the more people I spoke with, the better. I’d be disingenuous if I said we weren’t successful those first few years. I was able to win several major accounts, and we had taken the business from zero in sales to millions in revenue in the first two years. But… there was a storm brewing… The perfect storm was the global financial crisis of 2008.
Being located in Australia, we sold our goods in Australian Dollars and paid for them in U.S. Dollars. The Australian Dollar dropped from 0.96 to 0.62 almost overnight.
This drop had increased our expenses by nearly $500,000. Needless to say, we had to shut the doors not long after. It got to a point where I was selling my household furniture just to feed my family.
I’d never felt so low. I could see the world had changed, and the Internet and social media in particular as a business tool was still in its infancy, but I knew it was the future. And after testing my new social selling methodology, that is how my PACER Method was conceived which has led to the success I have today.
How people should connect with you?
You can reach me at [email protected]