EP006 - Why professional athletes make great salespeople with Alex Opacic

Teaching Startups To Fish

In the sprint of startups, catch phrases like resilience, tenacity and rebound are brandished as the crowning qualities for success. But who personifies these better than athletes? Immersed in a world of discipline, diligence and constant iterations to improve, they bring in a fierce wave of value into the business landscape. Join us in this episode of Teaching Startups To Fish, where we dive deep into the potency of this ground-breaking synergy.

Chartering this exciting territory with Mladen Jovanovic is no other than Alex Opacic, the brains behind Athlete2Business and a former professional basketball player. Opacic opens up about his personal transformation from athletic stardom to stupendous success in sales, inspiring the establishment of Athlete2Business. Join us to explore how athletes channel their indomitable spirit into pushing groundbreaking strides in sales roles, emerging as true game-changers in the corporate field.

Timestamps

1. Introduction and Background (00:00:15 - 00:04:56): Introduction to the episode, welcoming Alex Opacic, providing a quick introduction about his professional background, his origins, journey to professional basketball, and the transition to sales.

2. Life After Basketball and Beginning in Sales (00:04:56 - 00:09:33): Rehabilitation, interest in PR jobs, transferable skills from professional athlete to sales, and Alex's successful start in sales.

3. Sales Skills and Experiences (00:09:33 - 00:16:18): Keys to successful salespeople, learning through failure, the importance of commercial awareness, and introduction to Athlete2Business.

4. Athletes in Business (00:16:18 - 00:20:49): What sports produce successful salespeople, sectors where athletes excel, business and athletes.

5. Evaluating Skills and Hiring (00:20:49 - 00:34:41): Evaluating various skills such as communication, humble confidence, emotional intelligence, commercial awareness, tips for hiring salespeople, the difficulty of hiring salespeople, interviewing and understanding personal values, changes in the recruitment process, the three stages of interviews, and roleplay in sales interviews.

6. Sales and Recruitment Future Outlook (00:34:41 - 00:41:06): Importance of the discovery call, future predictions about the world of sales, evolution of recruitment and sales roles, discussing technology's potential and limitations, automation in the sales process, the role of humans in sales in the future, final thoughts and wrapping up the discussion, and Alex's contact information and concluding remarks.

Here’s how to get in touch with Alex Opacic:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexopacic