Ep. 115 - Building Repeatable Sales Success in Enterprise B2B with Glenn Poulos - Part 2

In Part 2 of this conversation on Selling the Cloud, Glenn Poulos dives deep into what it really takes to scale a distribution business from startup to successful exit. From growing Gap Wireless from 1 million dollars in revenue to 84 million over 15 years, Glenn shares the strategic decisions, mindset shifts, and leadership disciplines that enabled sustainable growth in the telecom technology sector.Glenn unpacks the importance of franchise vendor relationships, why brand positioning determines sales velocity, and how to structure an organization with the right people in the right seats. He also tackles one of the most critical dynamics in distribution: building trust with manufacturers while managing the real risk of going direct.The episode closes with a practical and grounded perspective on AI in sales. Glenn explains how to use AI as a powerful assistant across departments without sacrificing the human connection that ultimately closes enterprise deals. Plus, stay for the rapid fire segment where he shares hard lessons from selling his first company, advice for his 21 year old self, and the sales habits he still practices today.What You’ll Learn:Scaling from Startup to Exit: The key inflection points that helped grow Gap Wireless from 1 million to 84 million in revenue.Brand Strategy in Distribution: Why representing top tier brands is essential for competitive sales positioning.Right People, Right Seats: How organizational structure and disciplined hiring drive long term growth.Manufacturer Trust Dynamics: Navigating co-selling, exclusivity, and the risk of vendors going direct.AI as an Assistant, Not a Replacement: How to use AI for research, prep, legal review, and financial insights without losing the human edge.Sales Discipline That Compounds: Daily habits that create visibility, opportunity, and long term career growth.Key Topics:Franchise distribution models in telecom and technologyRelationship first selling in enterprise B2BOrganizational design and leadership evolutionManaging vendor partnerships and channel conflictAI in sales operations, finance, marketing, and legalCareer defining mistakes and lessons learnedGuest Spotlight: Glenn PoulosGlenn Poulos is a sales expert, author, and serial entrepreneur with over 40 years of experience in complex B2B selling. He co-founded Gap Wireless and scaled it into a multi million dollar distribution company before its acquisition. Today, Glenn leads ProgUSA and is widely recognized for his thought leadership on sales growth, leadership, and the practical application of AI in business.🎧 Listen now and follow Selling the Cloud for more conversations with leaders shaping the future of enterprise sales.Mark (00:31)So let's move to topic three, scaling a distribution business from startup to exit in the telecom technology sectors, as a whole. So let's talk a little bit about your journey building Gap Wireless. You co-founded it in 2007, hit a million dollars in revenue that first year.Glenn Poulos (00:33)Okay.Sure.Mark (00:51)and I believe it was 15 years later, sold to 10 WS. What were the major inflection points or really what were the decisions that enabled you to scale in the way that you scaled?Glenn Poulos (01:02)So numerous things. at the end, we were 1 million in the first year when we sold it to NWS and we did 84 million in revenue. So over the 15 year period, we grew from 1 to 84 million. And again, we were a small company, right? So I mean, was, you know, and at the, when we exited, there were 44 people.Right. So it was pretty good, pretty good growth. Right. So, in a distribution company or in many, I've been into the distribution my whole life. So really can't comment much on any other kind of company because I've never really experienced them. Right. But, it's the first thing is always focusing on the relationships before the transactions. Right. So that no need to really beat that to death.the people piece is very important. The relationships with the, the customers, the employees and the suppliers is critical, right? when you're a distributor, the key is having the key, the killer brands under your moniker, right? Like you need access, franchise to access.to the key brands, right? And the kind of world that we were in ⁓ and I've been in is one where it's kind of a, we'll call it monogamy based franchise relationship. Meaning I wasn't, I'm not the Rexel or Ingram Micro that has every brand and I'm a trillion dollar corporation, right? That's not what we are, right? We're a multimillion dollar company. And so, the screws, we would only represent this screw company.Right. There were other competitors, but our goal and our job was to get a franchise relationship with ABC screw and sell their screws and their screws only no competitive. Right. And so we would build the market for them. We were approached that company. They were maybe in Italy. They make the best screws in Italy. And we'd say we want an exclusive franchise ...