Marshall Friday, VP of Sales at STARC Systems

There's a specific type of pen called a rapidograph used for architectural drafting. You push the grain of rice into molding clay so it doesn't move, then you literally get ink out of the tip of the pen and write on it freehand. No magnifying glass. The lady who trained me showed me once, said "it's pretty easy," and that was it. Training done. We put the rice in a glass vial with baby oil to preserve the ink, added SeaWorld beads, and sold it as a necklace. Twenty-five cents commission per sale. I was 15 years old and I realized: I can make as much money as I want if I sell things. That was it. I was hooked. 💡 The moment you realize your income is tied to your effort, not a clock, everything changes.

I had convinced four or five of my best friends to come work with me, and four of them were in my wedding. When I got promoted, I had to sit them down and say: outside of this place, nothing changes. But while we're here, you have to hit the number, because I can't show you any favoritism. Other reps are going to walk past my office, see your face in my wedding photo, and wonder why you're still here if you're not at plan. Fortunately, they all hit 100% and helped coach others. But what that transition also taught me is that once you become a leader, your blinders come off. You see the whole team, and you realize: wait, not everyone was working as hard as I was. Getting a new leader to accept that there are ten different ways to skin the cat, and that their way isn't the only way, that's one of the most fun things I get to watch happen. 💡 The hardest part of becoming a leader isn't the new responsibilities. It's unlearning that your way is the only way.

Back at SeaWorld. Our stand was right outside the Shamu show. When the last show of the night ended, every family who had been walking a theme park in 105-degree South Texas heat just wanted to get to the parking lot. So my friend and I would walk out into the middle of the pathway, pretend we had earpieces, and say, "Yeah, yeah, I just got a call from security. They're asking everyone to stay here until the show finishes so they can control traffic." Confusion, frustration, all of it. Then I'd tap the earpiece again and say, "Actually, if you come over and buy your name on a grain of rice, we'll let you go to the parking lot early." Some people cursed at us. Some laughed. But every week there were one or two who said, ah, we did walk by earlier, let's take a look. I was selling a $13 trinket, but I was learning to have zero fear talking to strangers. I think that's why today I can walk into a room with a multi-billion dollar general contractor and say anything. 💡 Build your sales courage early. The reps with no fear in the enterprise started somewhere embarrassing.

Completely intentional. I've been running this persona for about five years now. I'm 6'5" with a beard wearing a Hawaiian shirt, so I'm already hard to miss. But the brand goes beyond the shirt. At trade shows, people walk up to me who I've never met, who aren't in my LinkedIn connections, who have been lurking my content for months without ever liking a post, and they say, "You're the guy that sells walls?" Yes. That's me. And the tagline isn't just LinkedIn. It's the first thing I say when someone asks what I do. "I sell walls." Always leads to a question. Always gets me to the pitch. And honestly, I still feel weird saying "VP of Sales." It feels like title-dropping. I'd rather just tell you what I do and let the conversation go from there. 💡 A sticky personal brand gets you conversations before you ever open your mouth. Build one worth remembering.

In-person is what drives our sales success, but email and phone are what get us there. Our emails are almost entirely educational. We're not asking for anything. We're sending videos of the product working on projects near them, how-to content for customers who already own some of our lines but not all four. Then we track who opened the email five times, who clicked the link ten times, and we make the phone calls to those people. Still not putting them into a sales motion on that call. We're offering a lunch and learn: can we come out, bring the product, show you how it works? The light bulb goes off in person in a way it never does over the phone. Our conversion from lunch and learn to a quotable opportunity is north of 70%. And the goal at the end of every lunch and learn is either: can you think of a project you could use this on, send me the floor plans and I'll quote it, or, is there a project nearby I can just walk with you? 💡 Email educates. Phone qualifies. In person closes. Know which motion you're in at every step.

Three main ones. First: we didn't win the bid. That's mostly out of our control, so the play is to make sure we've bid every contractor competing for that project, so no matter who wins, STARC still wins. Second: your product costs five times more than drywall. We overcome that with reusability. Sure it does, but use it 50 times and it's now 10% of the cost. Third: storage. I love your product but where do I put 200 feet of walls between projects? That one we solved by partnering with Sunbelt Rentals. Now customers can rent instead of buy, the cost comes down, and Sunbelt picks up the walls when the project is done. We've tried to build a system where the objection isn't a dead end, it's a door we've already built a handle for. 💡 The best objection handlers don't think on their feet. They've already built the door before the customer finds the wall.

Be a relentless prospector. That's it. That spans every role I've ever had, from SeaWorld to retail to door-to-door to enterprise to construction. No matter how strong the brand name is, no matter how many leads the company promises you, no successful salesperson gets to where they are without relentlessly prospecting. It's a simple concept. Pick up the phone. Send the email. Go out in the field. Simple concept, not easy to execute, because it's a grind every single day. The ability to close is something some people have naturally, but it can also be taught. Work ethic can't be taught. That's the one thing that makes people successful in sales, and the one thing you have to prove you've got if you want to come sell walls. 💡 Closing can be taught. Work ethic can't. Hire prospectors first, everything else is coachable.