Today we’d like to introduce you to Matthew Yancy.
Matthew, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I love selling. In my opinion, sales is the most important position in any company, period. I began my sales career almost 20 years ago as a kid selling magazines door to door. From there it progressed to retail, to phone sales, to in-home sales, to b2b sales, and so on. As I progressed in my career, I also obtained positions of leadership. And one of my favorite aspects of being in a leadership capacity was helping develop others. I loved taking people who normally couldn’t make more than $30k a year, and help develop them into someone who was earning well over a six-figure income. Not only were they earning substantially more money, but their quality of life was dramatically better. I’m not saying money bought them happiness, but it definitely helped remove the obstacles that were preventing them from focusing on the things that did make them happy.
Although helping develop my own sales team brought me joy, I knew that if I stayed in that capacity I was limiting my reach. I needed to go bigger. I needed to reach more people. It was at that point that I decided to start my own sales training organization. However, I learned quickly that if I was going to succeed in this market I needed to differentiate myself from the competition.
When I started this company, I took a look at the market and saw a consistent problem. Most sales training organizations market their programs as the best in the industry, but require you to mold your business around their way of selling. Well this creates a problem. As a business owner, one of the ways you establish yourself in the market is differentiating yourself from the competition. Well how can someone separate themselves from the competition if they’re learning the same cookie-cutter sales techniques as their competition? This was my “Aha” moment. I decided that my company would not simply do “Sales Training” but we would actually build Selling Systems for small businesses. A selling system is a systematic sales approach. It’s a step by step set of interactions that a sales professional uses to convert a prospect into a buying customer. Furthering this idea, I ensured that each client we took on board had a fully custom sales process designed 100% around their business model and culture. This means that every client we work with, even if we’ve worked with their competitors, has a selling system that is unique to their company. Today we service a ton of small businesses ranging from all sorts of industries including contractors, marketing companies, insurance, even the healthcare industry! We also now serve several regions including San Diego, Orange County, and Los Angeles.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Smooth road? Ha, no way. A very successful man once told me “The best things in life are the hardest to obtain.” This has been, without a doubt, the hardest thing I’ve done in my entire life. Building your own business, by yourself, with your own money, without any experience is unbelievably challenging. I think one of my biggest struggles in the beginning was just being overwhelmed with how much I didn’t know. The first challenge I had was, how do I turn this idea into a product? Once I solved that it was, who do I know today that I could sell this to? Then it was, how do I make sure this is legal to do?
Once I solved those three things my mindset was “Ok Matt, there’s about 1000 other things you still don’t know but none of it matters unless you can sell this. Get out there and sell something.” Once I finally sold my first order an overwhelming sense of excitement and fear simultaneously hit me. I thought “Yes I can do this!” then it was “Holy crap, I actually need to deliver this.” Once I figured that out then the bigger road blocks started coming like “How do we market?”, and “How do we get more opportunities/leads?”, then it was “How do we ensure our pricing model allows us to scale?”. I think the hardest thing about creating a new niche in an industry is, you have nobody to learn from since nobody has done this before. Success is a very lonely thing.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Game Masters – what should we know?
Game Masters is a sales training organization that specializes in building custom selling systems for small businesses. All the top sales organizations in the world have a selling system. A selling system is a systematic sales approach. It benefits the individual, the leadership, and the company as a whole. For the individual, it’s a step by step set of interactions that a sales person uses to guide a prospect into a buying customer. On a management level, it acts as a playbook that a leader can use to pinpoint precise areas of opportunity to effectively train and coach their team. On a company level it provides a way to replicate success with new hires, as well as an effective way to ensure success as they expand into new markets. The best thing is, we are really the only company that is doing this.
What am I most proud of? Well it’s a fact that most small businesses will go out of businesses within their first three years. I’m proud that are program is helping prevent our clients from becoming another statistic.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
I’ve been blessed to have had the opportunity to learn from so many successful people. However, the one that stands out the most would be my father-in-law. He’s a self-made, very successful businessman who I worked for years ago. Not only is he the best sales person I’ve ever known, but he taught me the value of having a selling system. He was also the hardest person I ever worked for. He demanded excellence, expected greatness, and didn’t tolerate excuses. He helped toughen me up, too. Through 17-hour work days, 7 days a week, driving 200+ miles a day, selling three leads a day, I learned the value of what it took to be successful. As a result, I achieved more financial success in that role than any other role prior. But what I learned the most from him was, if you want to achieve true success, you better be prepared to work your ass off and sacrifice a lot.
Another great mentor of mine was my step-dad. He’s another self-made successful person who taught me the value of consistency and follow-through. He was always there to push me, and not allow myself to get into the mindset of self-pity. You want to stop feeling sorry for yourself? Call him. I’ll never forget calling him telling him how hard things were getting, and he’d let me get it all out and then say (While chuckling) “Well of course it’s hard! If it was easy, everyone would do it”. Of course, I listened to a lot of great achievers like Grant Cardone, Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, anyone who achieved more than me I would open my ears to.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.gamemasterscorp.com
- Phone: 7605754263
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GameMastersCorp
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/GameMastersInc2
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/game-masters-san-marcos-2
Image Credit:
GoBeRewarded
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