#3 How to Balance Selling, Managing, and Coaching

ABOUT THE GUEST - RUSS MACUMBER, STRATEGY DIRECTOR AT IMPRESSIVE DIGITAL: 

With a passion for educating businesses large and small, Russ Macumber is recognized as a global Retail eCommerce Leader by SimilarWeb. Having grown up in small businesses, Russ is a business junkie that has been both client side and agency side; he's run his own businesses, been responsible for marketing budgets, thus has a 360-degree view when it comes to business and marketing. 

For the past 15 years Russ has built his marketing career off the back of his ability to make complex digital marketing concepts simple, and strategically connecting business mechanics to digital marketing tactics in a fuss and jargon free manner. As a result, Russ regularly lends his expertise for podcasts and speaking engagements at world-leading events. Outside of his career, Russ is a proud husband and father of 4, NBA and hiphop head, and fitness fanatic. 

You can find Russ and learn more about his great content on LinkedIn at: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/russmacumber/
 

ABOUT THE EPISODE: 

Russ has worked his way up at Impressive from a role as an individual contributor to a quota carrying front line sales manager (Team Lead). In this episode, Russ and I discuss a range of issues around selling, managing, coaching, and the challenges of balancing all three - and doing all three effectively simultaneously. 

(0:57)  A bit about Russ, his background and his work at Impressive Digital 

(2:07)  Russ discusses his take on the natural-born sellers versus those who had to work at it to be good at sales, and how he worked at it with a mentor to bridge the gap in his own career. 

(3:59)  Is the best and/or highest producing salesperson the best choice for a manager and/or coaching role or is there something else you should be looking for? 

(7:00)  How Russ balances selling, coaching, and managing at his current role. 

(10:16)  Being effective as a coach is based on similar principles as being effective as a salesperson. 

(12:21)  How can a salesperson who wants to get into management prepare to be successful in that very different role that often doesn’t get a lot of training and support. 

(14:26)  What is Impressive doing in response to the unique circumstances around Coronavirus, and how coming out of a recession depends on the philosophical and strategic position you take to get through. 

(18:01)  Russ quotes Bill Russell - “When the world changes around you, you can’t stay the same” and how Impressive is adapting to the changes and advising their clients how to do the same. 

(18:49)  How the Coronavirus changed Russ’s plan to move from Australia to lead the US office (it’s just a delay - so look out America, here he comes!) 

(21:03)  How the work from home has forced non-salespeople to get more comfortable with video. 

(21:45)  How to find Russ and to learn more about him and Impressive Digital.