Integrity and Motivation in B2B Sales with Pete Murphy
For this episode of Essential B2B, Joe was joined by Pete Murphy, Global Sales Director for Nebula Global Services Pete gives some really thoughtful answers to the Essential B2B questions on the subjects of integrity and motivation.
Related Podcasts
Transcript
Hello and welcome to the Essential B2B podcast brought to you, as ever, by Lead Forensics. I am your host, Joe Ducarreaux. For this episode I was joined by Pete Murphy, Global Services Director for Nebula Global Services. Pete is soon to be on the B2B Sales Playbook Podcast so I wanted to get to know him a little bit better as a person.
Keep an eye out on the B2B Sales Playbook Podcast feed by the way for the conversation I had with him about effective communications with a buyer.
But for now without further ado here is Pete Murphy on the Essential B2B podcast.
Joe: Pete, how are you doing today?
Pete: Very well thanks Joe how are you?
Joe: I’m very good thank you, looking forward to getting your answers to my Essential B2B almost questionnaire, I suppose we could call it at this point.
Pete: Yeah I’m intrigued I’ve got no idea what’s coming.
Joe: It’s nothing scary I promise you. Let’s begin with this one then. What do you love about your industry Pete and is there anything you would change about it?
Pete: Yeah I’ve been in my industry for about 13 years so I’ve seen a lot of change and development and the thing that I genuinely love is the relationships that spill over into friendships. So I’ve got some great contacts that I call sometimes just to be made to smile or to check in with or if I’ve got a bad day. I treat them as closely as my personal friends because of the rapport that we’ve built over the years and the exciting projects we worked on together.
When you come into our industry, it starts out as a job and a career and then over time you really build a strength and a bond with people that you class as your personal friends. So that’s a big thing for me.
The other thing is the fast-paced nature of the industry and how fast technology moves. We’re in the era of automation and artificial intelligence and I’m really genuinely interested about where technology is taking us as a society and what I can learn about it to take into my role at Nebula.
Yeah, just the ever-changing state of play, the new stuff that you have to learn about, the different ways that you can disrupt our industry and changing the way that you do things, that’s really exciting and a big part of what I love to do.
Joe: Who inspires you, Pete?
Pete: Wow. There’s a few answers to that. I guess it all depends on the context, but as this is a business-to-business podcast we’ll keep it business-related. I’ve got an unbelievable business partner, Ross Teague, who’s the CEO of Nebula Global Services.
As much as I’ve been in the industry for 13 years, I’ve been at Nebula for about 10 months. What I’ve learned from that chap is incredible. So he inspires me because of his entrepreneurship and the time and the guidance that he gives me, as well as running the business and keeping all the plates spinning, that is amazing for me.
I always look up or try to learn what I can from other people that have been and done it because I’m a sponge. As an individual, I’m a sponge and I never admit to knowing everything and I do what comes naturally and what’s right in my guts. In terms of people that inspire me, Ross is a big one for me.
Joe: I always really appreciate it when people do say, because it comes up quite a lot, their business partner for that inspiration because that partnership can be so effective. If you’re being spurred on constantly by someone else that you’re very closely working with, that’s fantastic. Do you have a favourite sales book at all?
Pete: I’ve got a few books that I’ve read that don’t necessarily fit my personal style, but they’re entertaining. So there’s guys like Gary Vaynerchuk and Grant Cardone that are very high energy and ruthlessness. I like books by those sorts of guys because they’ve got an element of what I don’t have, which I wish I did have. I’m a guy from the north of England who is trying to be a nice guy and do the right thing whereas these guys have just got that tenaciousness ruthlessness. I think I’m learning that. I’ve definitely picked it up in the last few years, certainly since I’ve become a shareholder of Nebula. It’s given me just that gravitas personally to own it and learn what I can from those around me that have been and done it, like I say. Just looking at different styles and reading about different styles.
I’m a big audiobook and podcast listener as well, so Stephen Bartlett and those sort of people too. As much as they aren’t necessarily sales driven, there’s a lot you can pick up about communicating and how to approach different scenarios and it makes you think a bit more about who you want to be and who you are as a person as well. As I’m listening, it makes me think, what is my view on that? Or what’s my moral compass on that? So that’s what I usually use books and podcasts for is personal development.
Joe: 100%, particularly with Stephen Bartlett is someone who I’ve looked up to for a long time. One day, hopefully, maybe I’ll be sitting across from him in the same way that we are now. But as you say, it’s not necessarily sales or anything that he talks about, but he is extremely fascinated with emotional intelligence as well as critical thinking, that sort of thing. He seems to be really pursuing it, almost like a guru who’s just trying to get as much knowledge as possible.
Pete: Yeah, but you look at how he has those conversations, there’s a blueprint right there. And he gets some bulletproof guests on his show that he has in tears because he’s got under the bonnet and he’s really got them thinking and that’s what I love and I think there’s a lot to take from that as a skill. Which he’s honed over many years, he’s where he is because of that.
Joe: 100% what really motivates you Pete? At the start of the day, the start of your week, what gets you out of bed every day?
Pete: My family. Not even a second thought. I’m expecting my first child, a little girl on the way, recently married and we’re very close with my mum and my sisters. Just everything is about making them proud and aspiring to the highest heights that I can get to to give them the life that I think they deserve and work allows for options to be able to do that. I’ve learned really hard in the last few years about work-life balance. I am a workaholic, self-confessed and people around me that know me will tell you that I’m obsessed with work. But I’ve really learned to balance that with time with my family and it’s been really good for my personal health as well, making sure that I have that time.
I think there’s a place for both for sure, but it’s hard when you’re running a startup business that you’re getting off the ground. You can’t afford to clock off at five o’clock some days, so it is a tough one. But I’ve got my wife keeping me on the straight and narrow.
Joe: Let me tell you, that time that you have right now, that’s going to diminish in roughly a couple of months’ time.
Pete: I’m very aware. Yeah, I’ve been told many times.
Joe: You’ve rather brilliantly pre-empted my next question, which was going to be, how do you decompress from work and how important is that work-life balance for you? What other activities do you engage in?
Pete: I’m a football nut or soccer for our American listeners. I’m getting on a bit now. I’ve thrown myself back into Sunday football and seeing lads that are only five or six years younger than me whizzing past me has given me a real shock to the system. But I think it’s important for me to keep my hand in because I want to play for as long as I can. So that’s really important. I do go to the gym and I’ve done a couple of sort of half marathons and 10k runs and that sort of thing to keep me motivated.
I love being entertained, I love going to the theatre or concert, things like that. The time spent away from work and I’m being entertained and I’m with a friend or family, that’s a really good way for me to decompress and just switch up from thinking about work for that half an hour or an hour.
Joe: I’m going to ask you one final question, Pete. If you had one top tip that you’d like to give to the listeners of Essential B2B Podcasts, based on the conversation we just had today, what is that top tip?
Pete: I think to do everything with integrity and if you can go to bed at night looking back on the day you’ve just had and genuinely feel at ease and proud of how you’ve greeted every single individual that you came across. Whether you’re buying something from a shop or you’re talking to a customer or you’re checking on your parents or your family and just do everything with the right intent. I think that there’s a lot said for peace of mind and mental wellness to act in that way. I’m no guru but that would be what I’d say.
Joe: Fantastic stuff. Pete Murphy, thank you so much for joining me for the Essential B2B podcast. My pleasure, Joe, and look forward to speaking to you again soon, my friends.
Well, there you go, Pete Murphy on the Essential B2B podcast. Remember to subscribe to Essential B2B wherever you get your pods and give us a five-star rating where possible. I’ll be back next week with another excellent edition of the Essential B2B podcast.
