Hans Fuller | StorySlab
HANS FULLER
Founder & CEO of StorySlab, a sales enablement platform for field sales teams that drives customer engagement and increases visibility in how to improve teams.
What Is StorySlab?
StorySlab delivers a process and platform that drives field sales effectiveness and marketing efficiency for consultative selling, up-selling, and cross-selling… better, bigger, and faster.
What Is Your Background? How Did You End Up In This Space.
I’ve been on both sides: sales and marketing. I’ve been in the field as a sales rep and a sales manager, and I’ve equipped sales reps on the marketing side. In many cases, I was trying to do more with less, and technology is an obvious way to get those efficiencies and make the most of the limited resources in many B2B settings. Mobile devices in particular could and should be a salesperson’s best friend in the field.
What Have Been Both Your Favorite And Least-liked Parts Of Your Entrepreneurial Journey? What Have Been Your Most Challenging And Most Exciting Moments For You And The Company?
Creating something that didn’t exist and finding that people are willing to pay for it. That someone is willing to pay for you to solve a problem is hugely satisfying and it’s validation that this product or business concept you had is for real. And with software, you can literally make something out of nothing.
The biggest challenge has been, as the team gets bigger, how do you preserve vision and clarity and continue to be the same partner and resource to customers at scale? How do you grow the business and stay true to why we’re here and what we do and who we do it for?
What Was The Fundraising Process Like For You? Tell Us About Your Investors And What You Use The Money You’ve Raised For.
We were bootstrapped for our first eight years so basically our fundraising looked like this: 1) find out what customers want, 2) work closely with them to deliver it, and 3) get them to pay for it. The formula is pretty simple. Make customers happy and they’ll pay you for it and you’ll continue and survive to fight another day and grow it from there.
However, we got to a point where we felt we had something more scalable that could grow faster, that it was the right time to raise funds. We found investors that agreed with that vision and put forth a growth plan that took us from what we were to a scalable, VC-backed business and proceeded to use the funds to grow. We used the funds on the tech side to some degree, but mostly it’s about how we create a sales process so it’s not a founder-led sale every time.
Anything Exciting That Will Be Launching Soon?
We’ve been around now for 9 years. Conceptually the platform has been pretty true to form since then in terms of how we make sales and marketing teams more efficient and effective in the field. Now we’re leveraging 9 years of data into insights that help sales and marketing leaders make decisions about their sales process and content. It helps them provide coaching opportunities, speed up the sales cycle, make lower performing reps perform like the best. It’s a more and more data-driven approach with actionable insights to help companies succeed. Our twist on it is that we don’t drown the client in data...we distill it and prioritize it so that sales and marketing leaders know exactly what they need to do to have an impact. No guesswork.
What Does Your Typical Day Look Like?
It’s not very exciting and the pandemic seems to have made it even less so. Get up, go to work (at home or in the office). It seems that the pandemic created a second job for most. The first was the job that existed before, the second is all the adjusting and workarounds needed because of the pandemic in order to keep the first job on track. It’s been long days trying to adjust and keep growing and help the rest of our team do the same.
Our team has doubled, so in some ways there are more hands on deck but in other ways, those hands need onboarding and training and coaching so there’s always more to do. I still do a fair amount of selling, too. There’s working with investors and cultivating partnership opportunities and those kinds of things. Then there’s recruiting and interviewing, which can never stop if you’re in growth mode.
How Has COVID-19 Impacted Your Growth and Operation Over The Last Year?
In some ways, COVID has been good for the digitization of sales and marketing. People had to adopt some new technologies, so in that respect, we’re in the right space.
More specifically, though, because our history is equipping outside sales reps, it was a little tricky to find people who wanted to equip outside sales reps when outside sales reps were in effect sidelined. These industries did make adjustments, but it was less strategic, more reactive. Teams were not in a place where they could evaluate what they’d need to do to come out of the pandemic. Many were simply in survival mode.
Regardless, we built systems and processes and got better in terms of division of labor, have a cutting-edge sales stack and lead generation, and brought discipline to how we sell. We now have a pipeline and process we can execute on as the pandemic subsides and the market turns its focus back to selling in the field and/or figuring out a new mix in a post-pandemic world.
How Do You Think Your Industry (Or The World In General) Will Change Post-COVID?
I think some things will get back to the way they were. Some lessons we’ve been taught forever. Everything can be rethought. Systems and processes that seemed untouchable are being touched and there will be winners and losers.
We remain very focused on personal sales conversations whether face-to-face or screen-to-screen. We’ve learned (and are teaching) lessons about how to make in-person time more useful and impactful. An effective sales process is more personal than you’d think and we are all just social animals. Some companies will see the adjustments made during the pandemic as an opportunity to eliminate cost and complexity and others will see returning to the field as a differentiator. We want to help both.
What Was The Inspiration Behind The Company Name?
We’re dealing with outside reps and B2B companies whose stories oftentimes go untold. It tends to be a lot about products and services and less about the underlying story. It reminds both us and our clients that good selling requires a good story. And “slabs,” whether phones or tablets or laptops is our jargon for mobile devices...the way our clients carry those storytelling materials around.
What Are The Top Three Qualities or Skills You Believe Entrepreneurs Need In Order To Be Successful? Also, What Advice Do You Have For Entrepreneurs Who Are Just Starting Out?
1. You have to make decisions quickly and confidently with limited data.
2. You need to be both honest and diplomatic about both good and bad news with employees and customers.
3. You need to balance firefighting with seeing down the road 6 and 12 months and beyond. Those are two very different skills and you need to be able to switch back and forth many times a day.
My main advice to anyone just starting out is make sure somebody will actually pay you money for your product or service. That’s the best way to know if you have a business. Until somebody writes a check, it’s only a hypothetical business. People will always tell you that they will, but until they actually do...
Tell Us A Story Of Something That Happened To You, Something You Heard, Or Something You Saw, That Either Made You Laugh Or Taught You An Important Lesson.
Deciding whether I was going to alter course from my successful corporate career, where I was comfortable and pretty senior and enjoyed all the perks of big company living.
I remember the “aha moment” when I was trying to figure out whether to start StorySlab. Seth Godin is one of the few marketing gurus that I follow and I remember I was at a decision point and he shared a blog about how to know if you’re ready to start a business. I went down the list like “yes, yes, yes.” I got a little choked up and knew it was time to take the plunge.
When you contemplate starting something, always ask yourself “What’s the worst that could happen?” Yes, it’s scary to give up comfort and take a step back in many ways for that chance to take two (or many) steps forward at some point in the future, but I have never felt I was at greater risk starting a company than working in a corporate environment because those gigs aren’t always as stable as they appear. At least in this situation, you’re in control. And as long as you don’t burn bridges, you can always go back to that type of career.
If You Can Have A One-Hour Meeting With Someone Famous Who Is Alive, Who Would It Be And Why?
Seth Godin. I did a startup school with him right as I was kicking this idea off so a lot of the ways I think about differentiating and cementing your value with customers that are built into the business came from him during those formative stages. Having him coach me as I was leaving my corporate job, the timing was perfect. I would jump at the chance to have a refresher with him. He’s a legend and a truly exceptional individual and clear thinker in my book.
Who Is Your Role Model?
Anyone who has a good balance between business and family. Not a specific person but a type of person.
What Do You Do In Your Free Time?
I spend time with my family and try to travel and visit my three college-age kids as much as possible. I like the shot of adrenalin you get from carving on a snowboard or taking corners fast in a car or on a motorcycle. I ride a longboard to the gym where I swim and play volleyball, which is basically our family’s sport. I like tinkering with cars and motorcycles because the rest of my week is so digital and virtual...sometimes you just want to get your hand dirty and fight with a rusted bolt or something like that. I feel like I’ve had enough screen time to last a lifetime, so I try to find ways to get away from them when I can!
What Is Your Favorite Quote And Why Does It Resonate With You?
“The righter we do the wrong thing, the wronger we become.” - Russell Ackoff
I’d like to think I’m a strategic thinker. You can’t just work hard, you have to work smart. I hate wasted effort. So if you have the wrong strategy, it doesn’t matter how hard you work toward it, you end up taking your resources down the wrong path.
What Does Success Mean To You?
It means continuing to grow and learn and mastering what’s next. There’s never an end to it, never a stopping point. If I can embrace the unknown, continually learn and adjust and be at peace with the ambiguity of it all, I call that success and can find happiness in that.
Hans Fuller’s Favorites Stack:
Books:
1. Purple Cow by Seth Godin
2. The Art of War by Sun Tzu
3. Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath
Health & Fitness:
1. Swimming and Cycling
2. Beginner Yoga
3. Snowboarding and Longboarding
Brands:
1. Lululemon pants
2. Aerostich motorcycling gear
3. Asics running shoes
Consumer Products:
1. Pour-over coffee (the process matters more than the beans)
2. Pastabilities (local Syracuse restaurant and defacto company cafeteria)
3. A good Juicy IPA made at the F.X. Matt brewery (a client)
Newsletters & Podcasts:
1. Startups.com
3. Beautiful/Anonymous with Chris Gethard (the earlier episodes in particular)
Upcoming Vacation Spots:
1. Lake Placid, NY (take kid #2 with)
2. Seattle, WA (visit kid #1)
3. Malibu, CA (visit kid #3)
