A Ray of Matt Sunshine: Welcome New Member
Matt Sunshine joined EO Dallas last April and has been active in his Forum and has attended in-person events as often as possible.
Matt is managing partner of the Center for Sales Strategy, a 38-year-old sales performance company. CSS works companies the operate in the B2B space and primarily with media companies such as radio and TV broadcasters, Cable operators, outdoor companies, Digital media companies, and digital content providers to grow sales managers into sales leaders and ultimately improve sales performance.
He has one of those stories of I liked the company so much, I bought it. He had been a client for 10 years, then came to work for the company as an executive and then bought the company in 2015. It’s a testimony to the overall service that CSS provides. “Over time, we average 90% renewal rates,” said Matt. “The average client has been with us for 7 years.”
Building on the success of CSS, Matt started two related companies. There is LeadG2, an inbound marketing agency that helps businesses improve thought leadership, strengthen sales – lead generation, and provide best-in class-sales enablement.
The third company officially launched in the last year and is named Up Your Culture. It’s an employee engagement and internal culture consultancy – which is becoming ever more important with teams becoming virtual and geographically distanced.
COVID has not dramatically affected Matt’s business. “CSS has always been somewhat virtual since we send representatives out to clients’ offices,” explained Matt. “Since COVID, however, there are a lot more virtual visits, which is proving to be more effective in many instances.” In fact, the company has hired more than a dozen of their 43 employees in the last year. One of those hires was a big “first.” Even though CSS is a sales performance company, they’ve never before had a sales director. Now they do. The company always previously worked through referrals, but the timing was right to add a sales director.
Now Matt and his team are launching an impact sales leadership system for sales managers to become sales leaders. “We’ve put 1800 hours of into building this system. Good salespeople have been made sales managers without any training or background. So, we broke it down into: process, people, planning and performance. We’re helping people learn about those so they can become the leaders they want and need to be.”
CSS fits with Matt’s personality. He just loves helping people. “I am a give-back person. I feel fortunate I’ve been able to accomplish what I accomplish. I don’t take it for granted. I never knew if I’d be the smartest in the room, but I knew I could and would outwork anyone. A lot of people have helped me in my career. I like to help other people and help them and see their business grow. I want to see results.”
Matt speculates that his company and his industry will not be as travel-intensive ever again. “First of all, the budgets for travel were cut,” he said. “Second, in-person meetings are scheduled 5-6 weeks out. People want help NOW. Online is just faster.” For example, clients used to wait for a half day or full day of meetings with CSS. Now they just get questions answered in just 30 minutes. “Technology is going to play a bigger role.”
On a personal front, Matt met his wife Beth at the University of Missouri. They were married right after graduation. They moved to Dallas because he wanted to live in a big city, and she wanted to live somewhere warm. Wishes granted! They had twin daughters who are now adults. Matt is a fitness enthusiast. He has done an ironman and still likes to run and cycle. They moved from Plano recently to Prosper, choosing their location because it’s connected to 14 miles of trails.
Matt heard about EO from a friend in Austin who was one of the founders of Planet Tan. He had been a client of Matt’s and told Matt he should he join EO. From Gazelles and Scaling Up, Matt is all in with EO. Welcome, Matt!