Episode 115

full
Published on:

26th Oct 2022

3 reasons why former athletes "kill it" in the sales industry | J.R. Butler

JR Butler is the Founder and CEO of Shift Group, a sales recruiting and training firm that specializes in helping college, professional, and Olympic athletes transition into the world of Sales.  

Prior to starting Shift Group, JR was Chief Revenue Officer at Pillir, a fast growth low code software company out of Arizona. Prior to becoming a CRO, JR built and ran multiple sales teams at Turbonomic, helping the company go from a Series A start-up to a $2B acquisition by IBM. 

JR started his career at a value-added reseller in Massachusetts, focused on data center solutions from EMC, Dell, HP, Cisco, and VMware.  His passion for helping athletes prosper is evident as you listen to him speak in this interview.

What we discuss:

  • 4:20 Looking for athletic DNA for business
  • 6:44 Leadership and sales
  • 7:23 Why medical sales?
  • 8:08 JR's big belief
  • 10:24 The 3 biggest traits that athletes have on non-athletes
  • 13:45 The fundamentals are essential
  • 15:50 What negative character trait do you see athletes show that derails them
  • 18:00 Why football players and individual sport athletes have success in sales
  • 22:00 "a good salesperson should be making more than the CEO"
  • 25:54 Going through "training camp" at Shift Group
  • 28:05 A redemption story

Connect with JR:

Let's connect:

**Don't forget to Subscribe, Rate & Review (5 stars are dope)!

Listen for free

Show artwork for The Shark Effect

About the Podcast

The Shark Effect
Helping former elite athletes find their identity and use their influence to create a life of impact.
Welcome to the Shark Effect. The mission of this podcast is to take High Achieving athletes from success in their respective sports to success in life.
I’m your host, Alex Molden. I’m an NFL veteran, now I am an author, leadership & personal development coach, and international speaker. In this podcast, you will learn strategies to get unstuck in life and find your influence. You will hear inspirational & value-packed stories from former & current elite-level athletes, successful entrepreneurs, and experts in the field of personal development. My mission is to help former elite-level athletes find their identity and utilize their influence to create a life of impact.