Jeff Kirchick is Vice President of Enterprise Sales for Next Caller, a Y-Combinator-backed technology company based out of New York City. In his role at Next Caller, he has helped lead the company by managing the sales team while also selling to some of the largest companies in the world.
What sets Jeff Kirchick apart has been his ability to build authentic relationships with his customers. He has led a successful sales career for over a decade and spends much of his free time mentoring younger sales professionals who are interested in sales as a career, particularly those who come from underrepresented backgrounds in tech sales.
A 2010 graduate of Princeton University, he is an avid writer who hopes to become a screenwriter someday. In his free time, he enjoys Boston sports (primarily the Boston Bruins), running and exercise, collegiate wrestling, meditation, cooking, listening to podcasts, and learning.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you ended up writing a book?
I have something of an atypical background for someone who works in sales because I majored in English with Certificates in Creative Writing and French when I was in college. A lot of times, you see sales professionals with business or marketing backgrounds, or frankly, really anything but an artistic background. I was always a hard worker growing up and that was instilled in me by my parents. They always valued my work ethic over my results. So I think that is actually how I fell into sales because sales is the type of career where you can proverbially “write your own paycheck” by working hard, but it also requires an ability to be thoughtful, to listen, and to communicate well, which I got from my educational background.
This all leads to how I ended up writing a book. I have always been interested in pursuing writing as a career and I hope to become a screenwriter one day. I have steadily been writing more and more alongside my sales career, and I figured that writing a book about the things I have learned about sales would be a great, low-risk way to marry my passion for writing with my career in sales.
Specifically, what put me over the edge to write the book was the feeling that our dialogue (around politics, especially) had become very fractured. I thought to myself that most people do not have much sales acumen to be talking over one another instead of listening and having some empathy. I am not sure if my book will change peoples’ patience levels, but I also knew that doing nothing would definitely not help. I had plenty of free time given that we were in the midst of a global pandemic, so as Nike says, you just do it. In the same way that half the battle with working out is showing up to the gym, I think half the battle with writing a book is just starting to do it. So I did.
What do you hope your readers take away from this book?
The most universal takeaways are that we are all salespeople in some way throughout our lives whether or not we have that in our title in our professional careers. And with that in mind, the best way to sell your ideas to other people throughout your life is actually to reject some of the biological human instinct to protect your own ideas and to assert yourself over others.
People with sales acumen are great listeners; people with sales acumen are empathetic; people with sales acumen routinely have their ideas rejected, and they do not take it personally; people with sales acumen embrace an honest version of themselves when dealing with others. You get the idea. The takeaway is that our intuition can lead us astray.
What are the top three tools you are currently using to write, publish, and promote your books?
I relied on some help from some experts, that is for sure. As a first-time author, I worked with a company that helps people publish books, which was very helpful. Once the book was published, I started working with a PR firm to help me get bylines and interviews like this one and to help me get the word out. I have also used advertisements on Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, and what have you, which have been marginally effective as well.
What were the top mistakes you made writing or publishing your book?
I have a habit of working quickly, and there were probably some times where that backfired on me. A lot of the best feedback I got about the book came after it was already published, since I had kept a relatively small circle of people to help me with it when I was writing it. It has received great reviews, so I am not necessarily regretting it, but obviously, you want to optimize for the best possible results given how much work is involved.
I think another thing too is that people might underestimate how much work is truly involved to market a book successfully, especially if you are not a recognizable figure. I have had decent success in my career but not a lot of people know who I am. If I was famous, the book would sell itself and the content would not really matter. I could write the best book in the world and it would still be a full-time job to market the book if I was in it for the money. Fortunately, I did not write the book for money. But for those who do, need to be prepared to consider it a full-time job.
When will you consider your book a success?
The reason I love writing is that you have an opportunity to touch other peoples’ lives in a meaningful way. With that in mind, I already consider the book a success based on the sheer number of people who have reached out to me personally to say that I moved them in some way. There is no better feeling in the world to feel like you have helped another person. And that is why I wrote the book. I genuinely wanted to make an impact and to leave a positive legacy. I do not know how many copies will be sold when it is said and done, but I encourage authors to think about what they really want at the end of the day and not to measure themselves by some arbitrary numbers.
Can you share a snippet that is not in the blurb or excerpt?
Something I do not mention in the book at all is admiration for celebrity figures like Dennis Rodman and Bernie Sanders. I do not agree with them a lot of the time, but I appreciate that they are authentic and always present honest versions of themselves.
What advice do you have for new authors who want to write and self-publish their first book?
Believe in yourself. We all have imposter syndrome around things we have never done before. The thing is, people who have done the things you want to do – there was a time when they had never done those things. They took some initiative at some point in time to change that. You need to believe you are capable.
What is the one thing you wish you knew before publishing your first book?
To be honest, I wish I knew how bad a deal you get publishing on Amazon! I wish I had a better understanding of how to make the book available through other channels. Again, you need to make it a full-time job to execute such a plan, so it’s not easy, which is why Amazon can probably get away with the types of royalties they take.
Can you share some of the marketing techniques that have worked for you when promoting your book?
This will probably be a disappointing answer but it very much aligns with my philosophy about how to sell effectively – you sell the idea passively. And what I mean by that is that I have had the most success promoting the book when I do not even mean to promote the book. For example, if I speak to a group of young aspiring salespeople, they naturally become excited about the book if they naturally become excited about whatever it is that I am teaching them.
I have had the most success just by putting out good content on my feeds and trying to provide value to people. They find out about the book on their own, and they are encouraged to buy it because they feel I have something worth learning about. I call this idea “Inception” in the book, where you plant the idea in someone’s mind.
A lot of marketing is about beating an idea down someone’s throat. People like to come up with ideas on their own. If you put good content out there, over time, people will want to consume more of your content.
If you had the chance to start your career over again what would you do differently?
I would have invested more in my professional development. I think it was to my detriment that I had all these accolades going into my sales career. I graduated from an elite private high school and subsequently from Princeton University.
In my first job, I felt like I hustled more than anyone else. Long story short, I think I developed too much self-confidence and did not seek to improve myself. I am happy to have outgrown that and to recognize these days that where you go to school matters very little, or that what you have accomplished in the past is just a measurement of self from a specific time and place.
You need to constantly be investing in your professional development. You need to know that there is always more to learn. You need to know that you are not the best. You need to be humble. I was never cocky and arrogant when I was younger, I was just naïve about the idea of doing anything beyond what I was already doing from 9-5 in my office.
Can you recommend a book, a podcast, and a course for entrepreneurs and why?
The book I would recommend would be The Humble Inquiry by Edgar Schein. It is a great book about the importance of asking questions and the importance of acting in good faith when you do ask questions. I think many entrepreneurs have some sort of idea that gives them great conviction and they might have the instinct to tell others why they have invented something so great. But really, entrepreneurs would get so much more by asking questions, listening, and receiving feedback.
I took Scott Galloway’s Section 4 course last summer. Scott is an NYU Stern School of Business Professor and an author in his own right. It was a great way to understand how to evaluate how companies function and how they appeal to consumer interests.
Lastly, my podcast choice is a little cliché but I do enjoy listening to Joe Rogan. He brings on a wide array of people, and some of the conversations are incredibly deep and fascinating. I think you can learn a lot about the human psyche by listening.
What helps you stay driven and motivated to finish writing your book?
When I was in college, I quit the wrestling team. Even though I was a walk-on and not a very good wrestler anyway, quitting the team has stuck with me ever since. I guess you could say that now I have to finish whatever I start. I learned from that experience that quitting at anything does not sit well with me. Anything that I say I will do, I cannot rest at night until I do it. That was the motivation.
What’s a productivity tip you swear by?
I put everything on my calendar, all the way down to cooking meals. It holds me accountable for getting things done by certain times. Of course, there is some flexibility therein and I do not live a super regimented lifestyle. But any detail I might possibly forget, it goes on there to make sure that I don’t.
What are you learning now? Why is that important?
In two weeks, I am going to start taking a screenwriting course. It is important because that is my long-term goal for myself. The book taught me that if I set my mind to something, I can do it. Now it is time to take the next leap.
If you only had 1000 dollars to promote a new book, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
Not a very sexy answer here, but the targeted advertisements on Amazon seem to work pretty well. I would probably put the cash into that because there is a solid return on investment for doing so.
What is your favorite quote?
You miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take.
– Wayne Gretzky
A lot of people – especially those with a fixed mindset – are really worried about failure, so they do not even set out to try to do a lot of things because they just do not want to deal with rejection. The thing is, you are in the same place as you would be if you got rejected when you do nothing. You will never get anywhere in life until you decide to take some shots.
Who should we interview next and why?
You should interview my older brother, Jamie. He is a journalist and author and I kind of followed in his footsteps throughout my life. He has a lot better tips than I do about publishing books!
How can we get in touch with you?
The best way to reach me is by e-mail at jeff.kirchick@gmail.com. I hope to hear from some people! and you can find my book Authentic Selling on Amazon.
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