Crack The Sales Code: Andrew Miller Reveals How Founders Win Big (#430)

430 Andrew Miller
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Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] Andrew Miller is a seasoned business leader with over 30 years of experience in sales leadership and general management across four continents. Throughout his career, Andrew has consistently driven significant enterprise revenue growth, leading high performing teams and delivering success for both global startups.

As the leader of Vendux, Andrew specializes in placing highly successful sales leaders into companies to drive growth, achieve transformative results, and unlock their full potential. With expertise spanning staffing, executive search, professional services, SaaS, and fintech, Andrew combines his global consultative approach with a deep understanding of what businesses need to thrive in today's competitive landscape. 

And before we start the episode, a quick word from our sponsor, Deep Wealth and the Deep Wealth Mastery Program. Here's Sanjay, a graduate of Deep Wealth Mastery, and he says, the investment I made in the Deep Wealth Mastery Program, it's a rounding error compared to the value created today [00:01:00] and the future value I'll receive.

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Deep Wealth Nation, welcome to another episode of the Deep Wealth Podcast, and I love rhetorical questions. Here's one for [00:03:00] you, Deep Wealth Nation. You probably believe that you have the best mousetrap in town, but are you the world's best kept secret? Would you love to increase your sales, increase your profits and growth, and even create a market disruption?

And of course, you're saying, yes, Jeffrey, all around to all those questions. Well, if you're asking those questions, stop your search. You've come to the right place. You heard the official introduction. We have a very special guest in the house of Deep Wealth today. Andrew, welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast.

Such a pleasure to have you with us. I'm very excited for our conversation today. Let's go back to the beginning though, because there's always a story behind the story. So Andrew, what's your story? What got you from where you were to where you are today?

Andrew Miller: Jeffrey, thank you very much. I'm really excited to be here and thanks for having me. What started me in this business of sales and professional services it's really the household that I grew up in my father's side of the family were all shoe dogs many people [00:04:00] will know that expression or have been in retail and, you know, shoe dog means they were manufacturing, they were doing import exports, they were involved with hides and tanning and leathers and that was my father's business and his father It's very extensive in the family from as I say, the factories up in Maine, the hand sewn shoes my father, when I was growing up, he was constantly on the road traveling to Eastern Europe and Italy and South America and all over the world involved in the shoe business and mostly, I remember that he used to be able to take a two week vacation every year, but it was only right around the July 4th holiday when the factories were closed and No matter what was going on out there in the world, good times, bad times, tough times, dad would always say, oh, the business of [00:05:00] retail is so tough.

Times are tough. Business is tough. So He was a workaholic and one of my great mentors in, in the business of sales and relationships. He had friends and relationships. All over the world, people would come to see him in New York and he would travel and sometimes he would bring us on trips to Italy and Europe and South America as well.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Love that story. My goodness, as you're talking about that, so many memories of my childhood, Andrew, growing up with my grandfather, who was a consummate salesman on the road. Instead of shoes, it was clothes or they would say the "schmata" business back in the day and traveling around and there wasn't the super highways that we have today and in his car and away from his family and all of those memories are flooding back.

So you saw that growing up. It must have left an impression in you because there must be another story behind the story with [00:06:00] Vendux, this is your company. So for starters, the name, what's the story behind the name? Where'd that come from?

Andrew Miller: it's a Latin name Ven is sales and Dux is leadership.

Jeffrey Feldberg: I

love that. And, that is the core business now almost six years in business. it's a very simple business with a ton of detail and a fair amount of complexity, which takes place in the background, but the simplicity of the business is that we run a, two sided coin, or a marketplace, if you will, on one side, Our supply side, at the moment, there's almost a thousand highly vetted, highly experienced sales leaders on our roster.

Andrew Miller: It takes approximately two hours for one individual to go through an onboarding process to get onto the roster. And then on the demand side, Our clients range from, oh, approximately high six figures, low seven figures in revenue to approximately 75, [00:07:00] 80 million in revenue. And these are companies across every imaginable industry.

We work with CEOs, entrepreneurs, business owners. And no matter the industry, The pain points are always similar, there's absolutely a rhyme to the kinds of sales challenges that every company has, and we, we often see maybe 20, 25, 30 different kinds of problems, quote unquote problems, which are consistent across every company, whether it's transitioning from a founder led sales environment, whether To a sales led sales environment or hiring a first head of sales or a replacement or launching a new division or a product cetera, or building a team, for example.

So these are the kinds of things we see regularly.

Jeffrey Feldberg: so from the Latin, Vendux, sales leadership, absolutely love that. So six years ago, you started [00:08:00] this, but I'm wondering, was there an aha moment? Was there a pivotal moment with whatever you're doing, it just stopped in your tracks and said, okay, I am going to start Vendux, I'm going to make a difference out there.

I'm going to launch this, get this out there and really make a difference for companies.

Andrew Miller: Well, yes, the aha moment was when founders of the company are we've left corporate jobs. Which we've had for years and years, you know, the, the classic climbing the corporate ladder kind of role and wanting to change our lives and the lives of others, and we're, we have our own clients and we see many, many, many other senior executives who have extensive and deep experience in their domain areas, their functional areas.

And they. are available, they want to work they may not want to work full time and 60 hours a week. So we see [00:09:00] tremendous expertise and talent on the supply side, and we see on the demand side a changing marketplace where skills and expertise are increasingly available on demand.

this is exacerbated by COVID, but it's not just a COVID thing it's a changing landscape out there where companies, especially early stage companies have become in a position to find talent. as needed during times that they need it. Whether it's fractional legal expertise, or marketing, or HR or fractional financial, or CFO services.

So it's the same kind of industry, and The lane that we carved out for ourselves is sales leadership.

Jeffrey Feldberg: It's incredible. And we're going to get to that sales leadership in just a moment. If you look at the market disruption the technology has created with [00:10:00] fractional, and we say fractional and for many people it can mean different things. For me though, when we say fractional. Look at what the internet, the technology, the high speed bandwidth has done.

Nobody owns movies. We now lease our movies. Nobody owns back in the day record albums anymore or CDs anymore. It's now we're leasing all of that from various music platforms, music services that are out there. And the same thing in business. Actually, this morning with a family member, we're having this conversation.

Back in the day when Embanet was just going and we're getting out there, the thought of telling a customer, I'm not going to fly out to you. Let's have this over the phone. Now there wasn't video back in the day, but let's have a phone call. You were considered impolite. You were considered rude. You probably wouldn't get the business.

Whereas today, everyone prefers, for the most part, yeah, let's hop on a virtual call like you and I are doing right now, Andrew. So the market disruption, and particularly COVID, accelerated all of that. But to me, and you can share with me, [00:11:00] Jeffrey, your on base or off base, what hasn't changed despite the technology and everything else, it's human nature.

And that is. Me, having the ability to sell my company out there, to grow it, to get new customers, do what I do really well, but have other people in the company, the superstars, get out there and really sell the services, the goods or the products. It still seems to be a challenge for so many companies and would love some of your insights on that.

Have things really changed or has that been more or less the same, just different technology? Where are we on that?

Andrew Miller: You are definitely not off base. The challenges are more complex. The dynamics of the need for entrepreneurs, young companies to get out there and sell their services and get exposure and find clients remains. But the complexity of the landscape, the market has changed dramatically, as you allude, so one thing that [00:12:00] we can all leverage now is the technology, the means to get out there, whether it's the campaigns, the email, the social media, LinkedIn, the platforms, the, you know.

Ease to which we can connect with others, for example, through Zoom and Teams. So it has become incredibly easy on the one hand to leverage tools and technology. But what does that mean on the other hand? On the other hand, it means there's an incredible amount of noise out there. So the barriers in a way, The technology has facilitated our ability to get out there.

But, on the other hand, there are many, many, many more hurdles to get to the people that we want to get to, that we think would want to hear our story, because we're all in the same boat. level. is incredibly high, so it has made getting to the [00:13:00] right person much more difficult.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Andrew, I couldn't agree more. And I may date myself with my next comment, observation, and question. I'm going to share it with you anyways. During my e learning company, when we were getting up and out there, we did not have social media. So Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, you name the social platform and whatever is going to be ahead for us.

All of that did not exist. And believe it or not, we were using good old fashioned, a printed letter or an email, which people for decades has been saying, Oh, it's not going to last. It's going to go out. But we were using that. And when I look at what's going on today with social media and I speak with marketers and I have entrepreneurs and founders coming onto the Deep Wealth Podcast, my observation has been, Social media has blurred the ability to sell.

People are so inundated and it's all about likes and clicks and reactions and comments, but that doesn't pay the bills in my books. I will take five likes but 100 percent sales on a fewer number of prospects than having a million likes and no [00:14:00] sales. And so, from my perspective, it really feels and seems as though the ability to sell, the ability to get through to the decision maker, it's really not on social media, for the most part, if we're talking particularly business to business, and we're talking really higher end kinds of things, that it's still the good old fashioned human contact and that leadership that is, So, really, so much needed, but is missing out there.

Where are you on that? What are you seeing?

Andrew Miller: Well, so, media platforms, we Need to choose choose them carefully. LinkedIn is a social media platform. But we use LinkedIn in very different ways than one would use Snapchat or Reddit, for example. So, there are hundreds of potential social media platforms to leverage. And, I do believe that we have no choice at the moment to do that. [00:15:00] To not leverage social media platforms and social selling. we don't have a choice. so then challenge is, what platform are we going to use? What is appropriate? And each platform has its own dynamics and protocols and standards. Around communication and the length of our communication and the style of our communication. They all allow us to do so for example, in our world, LinkedIn is the key social media platform. are tools and best practices and protocols to be able to leverage LinkedIn effectively.

And to get to the people that we want to get to. We just have to be able to do our homework around the classic targeting. Who is it that we want to get to? Why would they want to hear from us?

Jeffrey Feldberg: Mm

Andrew Miller: What do we need to [00:16:00] put into words as simply and directly as possible to that target audience in order for them to come back and say, Ha!

Interesting. Let's have a conversation. And You know, in the days when we did direct mail and postcards, you know, we, we had the same challenges and the same dynamics. And today we have to leverage In our business world LinkedIn for that purpose. And I know many businesses are now leveraging Instagram and TikTok, for example, as as key social media platforms too.

But those are a little bit more. In the world of B2C, Instagram is, I am seeing a lot of B2B activity on Instagram, but I don't think we're quite there yet.

Jeffrey Feldberg: hmm. Okay. And so, social selling. What does social selling mean for you, Andrew?

Andrew Miller: Social selling [00:17:00] is a highly hyper targeted communication approach to my target audience. In a way that is relevant to them, and establishes credibility for me, as somebody that they want to be, that they should be talking to, or want to talk to. it's the establishment of credibility, it's hyper personalization, and it is providing a very clear, unique, reason for the other side to want to have that conversation.

Jeffrey Feldberg: It is, as opposed to you know, generic messaging that you send out the same basic message to hundreds or thousands of people. It's very specific, hyper personalized. And it's research driven. It's knowing who the other side is and delivering a message that resonates with that person. And it's also having the, the, the [00:18:00] testimony, the testimonials of others that can corroborate who you are, what you do, and what you can do.


So, with all that said, you've done a terrific job of putting out the foundation there. So, from a very high level. With the question I'm going to ask, Andrew, you'd be Completely right to say, well, Jeffrey, every company is different. Their journey, where they're at, where they're not at, it's hard to answer.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And I get that. But back of the envelope, when a prospective customer comes to you, Andrew, I have problem A, B, and C. Are you seeing that same problem? Is it one, two, maybe three problems that you're seeing consistently across different companies, different industries, that there's some general patterns that most companies are facing? And if you are, what will those be?

Andrew Miller: Yes, for sure. there are consistent patterns over the ages with companies, the only difference is the size, the scale the number of zeros attached to a problem or a challenge, and industry [00:19:00] language. Every single company on the planet. is the same at two basic levels.

Every company makes something and sells that something. There are two functions or two processes that bind, whether it's Boeing or Apple on the one hand, or the corner bakery on the other. We make stuff and we sell stuff and every other function. Every other process in every company is built around supporting these two processes, making stuff and selling stuff and getting it out to the customer.

So That's, that's my perspective, is my experience at the highest level. So when you then, you come, that's the 60, 000 foot view, and then you bring it down to the, the 20 or 30, 000 foot view. There, when it comes to the [00:20:00] selling process, every company has the same essential set of challenges. Who is my customer?

What problem am I solving with that customer? What problem do they have that I can solve uniquely, you know, what is the message that I am communicating to that prospective customer that's going to get that customer to listen to me and give me a slice of their time understand how I can potentially solve their problem.

That's it.

those are the common themes among. every company that we talk to.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so with that in mind, so you've identified what's going on and I love how you took what could otherwise be a very complex area and you say, well, actually, Geoffrey, you know, Here's really what you need to know. It's very basic. Every company is doing one of two things, no matter the size of startup, a gazillion dollar company.

So with that said, what is Vendex doing when you're coming onto the scene? What does that look like with the talent pool that you have and your [00:21:00] experience and insights? Walk me through that.

Andrew Miller: Sure. so Vendux is the matchmaker between the two sides that I described, one, the supply side of those nearly thousand executives on our roster and the demand side. Companies in the, approximately between a million in revenue and about 75, 80 million in revenue. So we're in the middle. We are driven by the demand side. Those are our clients, our prospects. We deeply understand Every single client's issues, challenges, objectives, aspirations, in a consultative way. So, we would have a 30 minute discovery call to get to know each other. After that discovery call, if both sides feel that it's warranted to, to follow up, we will have another 30 to 45 minute deep dive scoping call, where we are understanding the challenges of that client and coming out of that, coming out of [00:22:00] the, the scoping call, we will then, assuming that turns into a mandate and an assignment, then we're going into the roster and leveraging some very sophisticated algorithms that we've built to find the best match for that client's problems. And nine times out of ten, when we are bringing one executive to the table, that's the right person for the role and the challenge. it's a very consultative deep dive. Process to find the best match for a particular set of issues with one client.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so with that said, again, you can share, Jeffrey, your on base or off base. Here is what I'm hearing you tell me. Jeffrey, we're not like every other recruiter out there. We only specialize in top rank talent in the sales area, hence our name, Vendux Sales Leadership. So unlike a general recruiter who, yeah, we're doing sales, but we're doing all these other things.

We are just sales leader. It's done on a fractional basis. And given your [00:23:00] algorithm, if I can use that word, given your algorithm, I'm not going to send you five or six or seven, even 10 candidates. I will usually get it right in the first one or two. And I'm providing to you world class talent and probably talent on your own you likely wouldn't have the budget for, but because they work with us and it's fractional, we can spread that cost across different companies.

Yes, you now have the budget for that and you're getting the best of the best in terms of sales talent specifically. How am I doing with that?

Andrew Miller: You're doing great, but you hit on a number of different salient points, but yes, at most fundamental level we're a hybrid recruiter, sales consultancy, executive search firm, all in one. And with the main focus of bringing The, the exact right sales leadership talent to the table for every unique client set of requirements.

And the vast majority of [00:24:00] assignments are fractional, so a, young company can leverage a senior sales and business development and leadership talent for one day, two days, three days a

On a month to month basis, it's like, you know, a subscription service for sales leadership. And it may be a three month project where it's relevant to bring a certain kind of expertise to the table. And once that project, or once those objectives are achieved, then it may be time for a different.

Kind of person to then take, for example, an assessment, a three month assessment, and then put wheels into motion. So a company can say, all right, well, now starting month four, I need a different person. We're going to switch horses. So that's also something that we can easily help with in in our model.

But yes, and it is, it's exclusively focused on sales and business development leadership.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so I can [00:25:00] see what's in it for me as a customer. I'm coming to you, and I can now access world class talent. Maybe if I was a bigger corporation, I would likely have the budget to do that. But as a smaller business, that's just not on the cards, and that talent probably wouldn't be as attracted to me as a much larger company.

So you're filling that gap. On the flip side, Andrew, what has changed in the workplace dynamic that these sales leaders? Who are really five stars across the board in just about every area that they're changing their narrative to say, you know what? I don't have to be at a company full time. I can be at multiple companies and I don't even have to be physically in the office doing that.

What's going on with that?

Andrew Miller: Well, the, labor market is such now that the very senior people with extensive experience who have the luxury to be able to choose how and when and where want to work or not, you know. Services and platforms like Vendux allow these executives to [00:26:00] be on the roster and, in a way, wait to be called to then be able to decide yes, they have time their calendar, they have 20 30 percent of their time available, and the particular Opportunity that we're bringing to them is right in in their sweet spot.

So they say, yes, that's a perfect opportunity for me. It's great timing. I do have time available on my calendar. Yes. They can also say, Oh, no I'm taking the next three months off. my first grandchild was just born. So the timing is not right. there's so much qualified.

Talent out there in certainly in our world sales leadership that we're able to leverage that talent and bring it to the table as appropriate with clients that need and want that at that time.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Got it. Okay. And so Andrew, what does this look like? I come to you. Hey Andrew, heard you're on the Deep Wealth Podcast. Yes, I want to really increase our sales outreach [00:27:00] and our effectiveness. I'm now going to work through you. What does that look like in terms of how long does it take? What do you need?

Dollars and cents, perhaps, of where that could take me. What does that look like?

Andrew Miller: Well, It's a methodical process that really involves a discovery call. it's a 30 minute discovery call with a prospective client, followed up by a deep dive scoping call. From that scoping call, we draft a two to three page document. We call it the assignment scope.

we do all of that work. We send it to the client. help us cross the T's, dot the I's, finalize that document. That's our working blueprint for the search. Then we go to work. We find the right One or two people for that particular assignment. And. After the intro call between the client and the executive, more often than not, both sides say yes, this is perfect, let's do it.

We're involved in the negotiation, [00:28:00] the structuring, and that all happens within days. Four, five, six, seven, eight business days. It definitely, it does not take weeks and months. we have a process, we have a methodology, and of course, We leverage our thousand person roster.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay. So really you're playing the good old fashioned matchmaker in a modern way, but specifically on the sales side. Exactly. 

I know for my next question, you can say, well, Jeffrey, it really depends on the company, the leadership, the culture, how effective or ineffective they are. But generally speaking, what do you see?

So once you plug in one of the sales leaders that's come from Vendox, what does that look like in the company that you've placed that sales professional in terms of results, timing, what should I expect to see?

Andrew Miller: It really depends. It's so dependent on the scope and what's going on within that company. So I'll just give you two, two examples. So let's say you're a, a 50, [00:29:00] 60 million revenue company. You have a team of 10, 15 salespeople and your sales leader has just left. You now need somebody today. You need somebody yesterday while you're going to go through a new recruitment process, which you know may take several months to get a new permanent sales leader.

So you need at least an interim Chief Revenue Officer. So that's a senior management. role that comes in, takes care of the day to day, manages salespeople, manages information, manages strategic clients, and essentially runs the operation, steps in from day one, runs the existing operation. that's one scenario.

And another scenario is a company just got funded, they just got their first round, and they've hit now a million dollars in ARR, they got funding, their next [00:30:00] milestone is a three million ARR. And part of the funding is going to go to hiring their first sales leader to help the company transition from a founder led sales environment to a sales led sales environment so that sales leader is going to come in and.

Really take over from the CEO and the business owner build playbooks he or she will be both a strategic individual as well as a roll up the sleeves, hands on implementation and execution individual and drive a methodical, systematic approach to creating infrastructure to allow the company to scale.

With more repeatable processes from a million ARR to get to three million. Those are two very different kinds of scenarios but in both situations, the, you know, common dynamics is that the, Vendux executive is on the [00:31:00] inside of the client environment. They are there with access to the systems, the tools, the CRM, the email.

They are on Zoom meetings every day, every week. They're doing what's necessary as though They're an insider.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So interesting. So really it's a done for you sales leadership solution. If you find yourself in a time crunch, something happened, who knows someone on the sales team, one of your leaders left, and you need to fill the gap while you look for a much longer term solution, or you have a new opportunity that comes up, but you've got to act fast because the marketplace waits for no one, Andrew, you, your system, your team of a thousand plus sales leaders, you're there.

To helicopter in very quickly, stable things out, get things going in the right direction so the company can figure out next steps. How am I doing with that?

Andrew Miller: Yes, perfect. And the reason that we're able to move so quickly is, [00:32:00] again we have our own roster, these are highly vetted individuals we have a sophisticated set of algorithms our matching system that allow us to get A lot of information about every executive on the roster. So, we can put in keywords, narratives descriptive terms, illustrative terms, quantitative terms.

We can put that in our matching engine, hit the return key, and we get a list of executives who are deemed the best match for that particular situation, and we see exactly why with all those illustrative and quantitative terms.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Andrew, let me ask you this, and I find myself nodding my head what, what I'm about to say, because I hear this from entrepreneurs all the time, and as an entrepreneur myself with my own startups, with my own established businesses, same issues happen with me. And the one common complaint I hear from entrepreneurs, Jeffrey, when it comes to sales, you know, I've never been able to figure it out.

The salesperson does the best sales [00:33:00] job in the interview itself. I bring them on board and it's all downhill from there. I've wasted countless time, effort, and money, and I find that happens again and again and again, Andrew. So what are you doing in your vetting process? How do you know you really have that superstar versus someone who talks the talk, but there's really not a lot behind that? 

Andrew Miller: that's a great point we have been there, done that, we understand that game so well, and we screen out for hyperbole as best as we can, we do, but those are flags that we look for on the supply side, and we screen out. As appropriate. On the demand side with our entrepreneurs and early stage CEOs who don't come from a sales marketing front office environment, these are engineers, they're product people, [00:34:00] they're domain experts, they've built a better mousetrap.

we do coach them in a way, we advise, we coach around best practices and what to look for and how to best leverage their sales leader. That they're going to get from us. So that's part of the business around coaching and advisory and consulting.

Jeffrey Feldberg: so it's really behind the scenes. It's your tried and true experience, your insights, the technology with the algorithms, and I suspect some intuition along the way to throw into that mix. That's really for you guys making the difference in terms of, okay, Jeffrey, here is the one or two candidates that I feel are going to be the best fit for you.

And come out of that, Hey, Andrew, absolutely. You're right. Couldn't have done any better ourselves. That's some of the secret sauce behind what you're doing.

Andrew Miller: Yes. We're doing a lot of table setting, a lot of communication on both [00:35:00] sides in the prep work, The vetting, the interviewing, the screening the clarification and the reiteration of expectations and style and chemistry and, you know, the good, the bad, the ugly, so that when the two sides finally meet for the first time, the business owner and the prospective fractional executive Our intention is that they will already feel like they've met, they know each other, and they're, they're coming in to the first meeting having been warmed up.

And we try to take all surprises off the table from the beginning assuming after that initial meeting, both sides say, yes, let's do this. Then all of the work around expectations and budgets and timing and scope have already been taken care of. And then it's, a quick [00:36:00] closure to get the relationship off the ground.

Jeffrey Feldberg: What a terrific way of addressing such an opportunity. If we miss the opportunity, there may not be a company because again, the best solution, service or product, if people don't know about it, if people aren't purchasing it, there's no company. And yet the right person with the right vision, the leadership, the experience has the ability to take that out to the marketplace, do the right things, work with the team that can make all the difference.

And Andrew, let me ask you this, before we go into wrap up mode, earlier we were talking about technology and social platforms and social norms and how everything has changed. AI has now come onto the scene. And I've heard rumblings, I'm not going to need a Salesforce anymore, I'm going to have all these AI bots that are going to do phone calls or they're going to be online bots speaking to people, you won't be able to tell the difference, look at all the time, money, and effort that I've saved.

So all of that said Where we sit today, and I know it can change tomorrow or by the time this podcast comes out, [00:37:00] things will have likely changed again, where do you see sales being if you quit a year from now, three years from now, five years from now?

Andrew Miller: That's a big question and I throw it back at, at anybody that, asks the question because I think we're all in the same boat. It depends who we are, what we're looking for, what we're buying, and how we want to engage with companies. There will be times And there are times now when we all want to deal with humans. We want personalized service, we want attention, we want that human touch. Based on the certain kinds of products and services that we're interested in. There are other times when we don't want to deal with humans. Humans get in the way. Humans are just added friction. So we want to be able to find exactly what we want, order it, and engage with companies.

[00:38:00] I just had a For the first time, and I'm so surprised that it was from a Chinese restaurant in downtown San Francisco, I was astonished at their AI voice system when I called to make a reservation. It is the most advanced AI voice system. capability that I have experienced to date among any company.

And I couldn't believe it was a Chinese restaurant, but this, this AI agent introduced herself, whatever the name is, hi, I'm Annabelle and I'm here to help you just tell me what you'd like. And essentially I'm engaging in a conversation to reserve a table for eight people for a Sunday brunch. And it was extremely accurate, it was highly effective, and it was all done with an AI agent within a 90 second call.

In the, [00:39:00] she had the most polite, interactive intelligent voice that helped me instantly Book that table for eight. She took my phone number. She took my email address. Within seconds, I had a text message that the table was confirmed for this exact time and And it was all done through AI.

Jeffrey Feldberg: I'm hearing you rave about this. As opposed to, well, yeah, it was AI, but not so great or would have been better with a human on the phone. So you went through that. It was a positive experience for you. You are in the business of the sales business. So, Andrew, what does that mean? What would be a best guess or insight based on, yeah, it's a data point of one.

It was one experience, but likely where things are heading. What are your thoughts?

Andrew Miller: Things are heading to hyper personalization. AI tools are allowing, from a company point of view, to be able to target thousands of people [00:40:00] instantly with bots and agents, AI. If I've, I give my LLM a thousand different names, a thousand CEOs, the name and the company, and these agents will go out instantly.

And get all available public information about these CEOs and then come back to me with profiles of everything that they've done, written, speeches that they've given, articles that they've commented on, podcasts that they've been on. And then my LLM will be able to write.

Hyper personalized individual messages to each of the thousand CEOs for me, to be able to market to them and send a message to them in a hyper personalized way so when those thousand people are receiving my message, they're going to feel like they I have [00:41:00] sat down and taken the time to craft each message individually, uniquely, and highly personalized.

That's where we're going.

Jeffrey Feldberg: It's exciting. And again, you can say Jeffrey, on base or off base, as great as AI is and the amazing things that it's doing now and is yet to do, but it will do. But I'm also hearing, and I see this for myself, yes, we can leverage AI, we can do things much better today with AI than we could yesterday, or even the year before, or certainly five years ago.

The right person, in the right position, in a particular company, you're still going to need that, that leadership, that vision. After all, a tool is only as good as what is deployed to do. If you have the wrong vision or the wrong leadership, then it's all for naught. And so perhaps, maybe at the lower level, sales jobs, AI will have a role to play.

But certainly as we move up that scale and as we move up the value chain, the dollar [00:42:00] amounts, AI can perhaps supplement. There is going to be a need and a role for that human input, that sales leadership to really make the difference. Thoughts on that? How am I doing? What

Andrew Miller: absolutely. No, I'm not suggesting that, agentic AI is going to replace salespeople and run the sales process. No, no, no. The, the example that I was just giving you is to be able. To message people in a hyper personalized way, at scale, for the purpose of engaging with those people. So that 10, 20, 30 percent of those thousand people are going to come back and say, Oh, Jeffrey, thank you very much for your message.

Yes, let's have a conversation. that's the intention of the podcast. Kind of the examples that I'm giving and then, you know, then you can take it to the next level. You can also [00:43:00] engage ai to then send a follow up message with a calendar link, for example. It doesn't have to be a manual process, but the whole point, certainly in the business of, of B2B professional services, the, the example that I'm giving is only for the purpose of engaging.

With a percentage of those thousand people. But yes, in the end. It will be, I think at least in our lifetime, it will still continue to be a person to type of business relationship that in the end closes the deal.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Well, some exciting times ahead, we'll have to see where all that goes. One comfort is Andrew, you, the Vendux team, you're there to help with that transition, to bring the right sales leadership in. After all, it's in the company name, Vendux, from the Latin, sales and leadership, but you're really there to make things right, to help me get off to the best possible start and even finish line with that, which is really refreshing to see.

So, on that positive note, it's [00:44:00] actually a perfect segue into our wrap up. And here on the Deep Wealth Podcast, Andrew, it's our tradition, it's really my privilege, my honor. Where every single guest, I ask the same question. It's a really fun one. Let me set this up for you. When you think of the movie Back to the Future, you have that magical DeLorean car that can take you to any point in time.

So, Andrew, the fun part is tomorrow morning, you look outside your window and not only is the DeLorean car curbside, the door is open, it's waiting for you to hop on in, which you do, and you're now going to go back to any point in your life. Andrew, as a young child, a teenager, whatever point in time it would be, What would you tell your younger self in terms of life lessons or life wisdom, or hey Andrew, do this, but don't do that.

What would that sound like?

Andrew Miller: That's such a wonderful question. I do remember the DeLorean car. probably don't know, but I was in college I had the extraordinary opportunity to go on an exchange program with China. So this is now in 1981 was a [00:45:00] freshman in college, I signed up to be one of the first group of American undergraduate students to go on an exchange program with China.

And we, we did that. I learned Chinese, I spent. Quite a bit of time in, China. I started a company in China and it, it was a transformative time in my life. So from the earliest part of my career, I was an entrepreneur thrown into the deep end in a, in a completely new foreign, unique environment.

And. It was one of the most special times in my life. So my advice to my young self and to any others would be keep an open mind, be flexible roll with the punches, be as deliberate as possible on the one hand. With respect to [00:46:00] what you want to do, what you like to do, what you're good at doing, But on the other hand, life throws curve balls every day at us.

So don't be dogmatic. Roll with the punches. Be flexible, be resilient, and embrace opportunities and doors that open in front of you.

Jeffrey Feldberg: I love that. Roll with the punches. Be flexible, be resilient, so you can embrace and welcome those opportunities that perhaps you never planned for, but it's there. It's showing up. Walk through that door, perhaps you otherwise wouldn't have. It's absolutely terrific advice. And Andrew, before it's an official wrap up, a listener, they have a question, they want to speak with you, the team, they have an assignment for you, where would be the best place online for someone to reach you?

Andrew Miller: Andrew Dot Miller at Ven, V-E-N-D-U-X.

Please I welcome any and all outreach, and [00:47:00] ideally, just mention the Deep Wealth Podcast, and you will get a special place in line.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Andrew, a true sales professional, forget the socials, here's my email, just email me and I'll be right in touch with you. That's how it's done. You are in style, my friend, absolutely love that, and Deep Wealth Nation, it doesn't get any easier. Everything is in the show notes. It's a point and click. Well, Andrew, it's official.

This is a wrap. Congratulations. And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe. Thank you so much.

Andrew Miller: Jeffrey, thanks a million. It's been such a pleasure. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: So there you have it, Deep Wealth Nation. What did you think? 

So with all that said and as we wrap it up, I have another question for you.

Actually, it's more of a personal favor. 

Did you find this episode helpful? 

Have you found other episodes of the Deep Wealth Podcast empowering and a game changer for your journey? 

And if you said yes, and I really hope you did, I have a small but really meaningful way that you can actually help us out and keep these episodes coming [00:48:00] to you.

Are you ready for it? 

The dramatic pause. I'll just wait a moment. Drumroll, please. Subscribe. Please subscribe to the Deep Wealth podcast on your favorite podcast channel. When you subscribe to the Deep Wealth Podcast, you're saving yourself time. Every episode automatically comes to you, and I want you to know that we meticulously craft Every one of our episodes to have impactful strategies, stories, expert insights that are designed to help you grow your profits, increase the value of your business, and yes, even optimize your post exit life and your life right now, whatever you want that to look like.

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So all that said. Thank you so much for listening. And remember your wealth isn't just about the money in the bank. It's about the depth of your journey and the impact that you're creating. So let's continue this journey together. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for listening to this episode.

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Thank you so much. 

God bless.