HighlightsFrom playing sports and traveling around California to becoming a sales manager (00:46)Valuable lessons he got from working in retail that he applied in his first sales role (04:39)Why it’s important for salespeople to focus more on bringing value to conversations with customers (06:42)The marathon 8-hour interview that took him from accounting and retail to the telecom industry (08:09)Pros and cons of working for a Fortune 100 company versus a small company (12:01)His quick ascension from individual contributor to sales leader (15:32)Learning to work with people to really succeed in building a great sales team (19:06)In this episode of the Transformed Sales Podcast, I had a chat with Gary Guymon, the VP of Sales at Xfernet. Gary was born in Santa Clara, California and he grew up all over California. He played sports, ran track, played football, and was an editor of a literary magazine. He started a tax firm from the ground up centered all around the California enterprise program until 7 years later when the program was shut down. His business partner wanted to convert the tax firm into a traditional accounting firm which Gary was not interested in so he decided to be bought out by his partner. He then moved to Seattle, took a retail job, and was later contacted by NTT Communications for an inside sales rep job. Gary worked his way up to a global account manager until when he was recruited by Xfernet as a global sales manager and worked his way up to his current position. Gary and I will dive into his interesting sales career and how he went from being a tax firm owner to a sales leader. He will share his wisdom with us around why salespeople should focus more on gaining the trust of their potential customers instead of just talking about their product or service, how to build a fulfilling sales career, and his top strategies for being an effective sales leader. Stay tuned for that and more!Quotes“Most people have an idea of what they want anyway so it’s whether or not they trust you and what you’re selling” - Gary Guymon“To succeed as a sales leader, you have to learn how to work with different people” - Gary GuymonLearn More About Gary in the Links Below:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/garyguymonEmail - garyg@xfernet.comConnect with Wesleyne Greer:Wesleyne’s Website - https://transformedsales.com/Wesleyne on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesleynegreer/Wesleyne on Facebook - https://web.facebook.com/wesleynegreerWesleyne on Twitter - https://twitter.com/wesleynegreerEmail Her at wesleyne@transformedsales.com