From Cockpit to Close: How Alex Christian's Aviation Experience Ignited His Sales Edge

Celeste Berke [00:00:01]:

Hello. Hello. This is Celeste. I'm here on the sales edge podcast with Alex, we met on LinkedIn.

Alex Christian [00:00:10]:

Yes. We did.

Celeste Berke [00:00:10]:

Where where you meet everybody in a business professional setting these days. And I'm so excited he agreed to come on the podcast, give a little insight into his world. We were chatting earlier, and I will let him introduce himself, but I'm just gonna preface this and say, like, it is not sexy, but it is absolutely needed. The industry that he's in and we're gonna chat about what's unique about his sales story and his sales ad. So Alex from Raleigh, not Raleigh Durham, Raleigh.

Alex Christian [00:00:42]:

Yes. Yes.

Celeste Berke [00:00:42]:

Take it away. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Alex Christian [00:00:45]:

Well, hi. I am a Alex Christian. I'm an account executive, like you said, based out of Raleigh, North Carolina. I am happily married to one of the best women in the world and a dog dad to an absurdly energetic little border collie I like you you kind of mentioned, I come from a very nontraditional sales background. That's actually how we connected. So I grew up in a sales family. Both my parents were in sales, so I swore up down and sideways. I would never get into sales, you know, mom dad. That's not cool. I wanna do something exciting. grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, which is UPS's WorldHub. So everybody's parents flu for UPS. And the really cool dads were the guys who would pull out VHS tapes of their time in the gulf war. and you'd see some real life top gun videos, and the aviation bug hit me hard. So I went to school for aviation, I'm actually a corporate pilot still, but as a commercial pilot, you are just a glorified bus driver of the sky. And so I was down in Tampa, flying these little charter flights to the keys every day. And my wife was back in Raleigh, and I was miserable. I was miserable. And so I said, well, what can I do as a career that I can take what I've enjoyed and transfer those skills? And so I sat down, and I said, what I really love is I love solving complex problems, and I love connecting with people. Oh, no. That's sales. So I started looking around shopping my resume out. I had a a buddy who was in like, ERP sales, working for Oracle and NetSuite. And so I was like, alright. This sounds feasible. and it shot my resume out. I started with a local company here in in Raleigh. They're an SAP bolt on shop. So they tie into SAP and Oracle and JD Edwards, all of these really boring financial c r CMMS Suites and ERPs, you know, maintenance and financial tracking, and they help companies tackle maintenance planning and scheduling and health health and safety permitting. And so I had to learn all of that from scratch. I knew nothing about oil and gas or mining and metals, an ERP in CMS was alphabet soup to me and learned that world very quickly. a master data company was then acquired. And when you said you're stealing my words here, it is not sexy because it's It's talking about how records individual data records are stored in these systems and how do we standardize them and keep them clean. So I that's what I've been doing for the past 3 years. I'm currently in the middle of a transition. I'm actually getting back to some of my roots, which by the time this goes live, I'll have shared more about, but staying in that inventory management and scheduling space. But with my own personal spin on that. So looking forward to the the transition coming up.

Celeste Berke [00:04:09]:

Something that I think it's really important is highlighting, sharing stories from individuals who have, like, an unlikely, you know, background, right? This I I myself, thought when I was 27 and I was leaving the south to move to California, I need to get into sales so someone takes me seriously by the time I was thirty. That's really what I thought. And so looking at this background that you had, I was like, this is a really interesting story to tell. you know, a pilot now turned sales person, but I can see when you're in that inventory space and the timing. I mean, it all kind of correlates to what you'd assume a pilot has massive responsibility for understanding all of the widgets and the gadgets and the inventory of fuel and timing and all of that. So How did you get that first company to --

Alex Christian [00:05:01]:

Yeah.

Celeste Berke [00:05:01]:

-- say, hey. This is totally how we would bring someone on board with this background. What do you think it was at the time?

Alex Christian [00:05:10]:

Well, I had I had bartended through college and waited tables through college. And And what I said is, look, I've got people skills. I have the soft skills. And then when you go to the the commercial flying world, aviation world, now there's this task management, crew management. How can you balance your priorities I likened it to risk management in in aviation because there's a lot of crossover there and how we analyze data analysis in the aviation field? How are you tracking your spare parts for your aircraft? Those are things that are dealt with day in and day out. So if I can understand complex systems, if I can understand how to manage my own tasks and and priorities, And if I can take these transferable soft skills that I've developed over the years, then making some phone calls sending some emails and connecting with people to solve a problem. That sounds like a one to one to me. It you have to add up a bunch of these tiny non integer parts to add to the 1, but it's a one to 1. And they saw that, and they took a chance on me. And so I started out as a BDR. They didn't just bring me in as a senior AE, of course, but That's where I learned and started, cutting my teeth as a BDR.

Celeste Berke [00:06:36]:

And I'm sure that anxiety of not having people's lives in your hands or at stake every single day. Was the woke was a welcome change?

Alex Christian [00:06:44]:

Yeah. So mostly what I had been flying down in in Tampa was cargo. And and that was that was fine by me because, yes, there is this there's a couple books that I really liked. One was called Human Factor's played by Sydney Decker. And the other one is the power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. And those are two books that I read through moving up into the the airlines. And the power of habit talks very explicitly about these human variables that we can control. And so the the mantra that I kind of took was I can control what I can control those are the variables that I have power over. I can influence the things that I can influence. And then there's this third chunk that I just have to accept. Everything else. Right? So I can control some things. I can influence other things. but there's a whole lot of stuff that's outside of your your power. And so, yeah, in in aviation, I can control my own skill set. I can talk to ATC and maybe shorten her out or change an approach. But if a gear decides to just shear off, or if, hydraulic fluid decides to just fail and spray everywhere or if you lose an engine, which has happened to me, Those are things that you just you gotta do the best with it. Compare that to sales, and now it's alright. I can control my outreach. I can control my tone. I can control my intentionality. I can influence champions, work with them, And then I gotta accept all the other variables that are outside of that. So the stakes are a little lower, but it's equally enjoyable.

Celeste Berke [00:08:31]:

So we talk on this podcast about the sales edge, and I think you've alluded to it a little bit where I ask individuals who are on here, guests, you know, what is your sales edge? I'm a firm believer that all of us have that kind of thing. Maybe we've arrived at some point in our career, like, hey, I'm really good at it, or this is a philosophy I stand by or this is kind of my thing or my spin. What is that for you?

Alex Christian [00:08:54]:

Yeah. I I like to steal methodologies from everybody and make them my own. And I think that's something a lot of people do, but I'm open about it. I I think when you are able to take what other people do well and and learn from their mistakes early on. That's that's really great. There's the classic saying that only a fool learns from his own mistakes. And a wise man learns from the of others, well, coming from this nontraditional background where, yes, that's an asset on its own, coming from a world that I I haven't built bad habits but now I'm able to learn from much smarter people co op their strategies take what works and apply that day in and day out. So it's kind of a a cop out in a way, but, you know, taking strategies from spin selling or Todd Caponeys, the transparency sale, or there's that guy Keenan. Yeah. There's an gap selling book or something like that, but taking what works for these people who have done this for 30, 40 years, finding what works and applying it on the first go round has been really helpful for me. So that's it's kind of a cop out answer. I I get it.

Celeste Berke [00:10:14]:

Not at all. I think it's very much in line with. We were talking prior to this about being in that, you know, the research triangle area, right, where there's these schools that are heating, like, heavily when it comes to athletics. And I think we've seen time and time again, especially as technology increases you know, this is really what everybody is doing, especially for athletes. So it's not one way, right? You have a different coach for strength and conditioning and your PT, it's taking all of this knowledge and how do you learn from other people and then kind of put your own 27.

Alex Christian [00:10:50]:

Yeah.

Celeste Berke [00:10:51]:

Yeah. I talked with someone last week who gave some great advice of he encourages his employees, his sales team, to have a board of directors. So look outside of the organization. Who are you going to for prospecting help? Who are you then? Probably women have this, like, more than men. Right? We're like, well, we go to my hair lady and then I go over Peter. I mean, they're all people who are sharing.

Alex Christian [00:11:14]:

I go across the street to my barber, and he will ask me all kinds of questions. I ask him about his life that I I I will be open about it. I'm happy to say I don't know, and I don't know what I don't know as well. So I'm happy to be curious and learned from other people around me. I'm not a Duke fan. I'm not a UNC fan. I make Kentucky wild cat fan. So so I won't use coach k as the analogy, but, like, what Calopari is doing in in Kentucky You're right. These coaches that all initially had, this is the way. This is our structure. This is our now you see wait a second. your system looks a lot like his system, and you might be better rivals. You know? And that's the way I wanna view it is there is no I'm I'm not dogmatic. There is no perfect way. There is no perfect methodology, but there are a lot of great methodologies, and I can I can start borrowing from each of those. So if if one day I write a book, it'll be a hodgepodge. My list of references will be half the book, I think.

Celeste Berke [00:12:25]:

Absolutely. And it, you know, it's interesting. We all do this naturally in life and you take little bits. I think, you know, top performers, people who are constantly challenging themselves and and reading and consuming information because you want to hone and perfect your craft, but also yourself as a person, So it sounds like that has really allowed you to embrace this world of technology, even when it that, you know, not very sexy. Right? But it's necessary. Right? This is all the back

Alex Christian [00:12:55]:

end. Yeah.

Celeste Berke [00:12:55]:

It's all the back end stuff. Nobody thinks about but it's not little robots that are doing it all. Right? People are managing these processes and looking for ways to make improvements. Exactly. -- said coming up through sales, I know you said at one point, you were tapped to be a player coach. Right? You still carried quota. You were now managing a team, often we just get thrown in there. Like, here you go. You're a sales leader. And you're like, I have arrived. And then you're like, oh my gosh. What am I doing? you're learning from others, a lot of times we're giving maybe advice. Maybe we bust a myth. You know, my mom probably still to this day would tell me that we just did this another day. She's like, you need to call your sister. You need to ask her. And I'm like, mom. I can just text her. Like, I have to constantly remind my mother. Like, I don't

Alex Christian [00:13:44]:

There's a quicker way.

Celeste Berke [00:13:45]:

I don't have to call anybody and wait for them to call me back, but she's just, like, convinced. Like, not gonna get an answer unless you call. And we're given that in sales too. Like, this is the way, this is the method. If you do this, this is gonna happen, and there were a lot of movies out there. that said, like, that hardcore pull pen style of sales is the only way. So if you had to say, hey, I, I saw a myth or I wanna bust 1, or I wanna put one out there, what would that be?

Alex Christian [00:14:12]:

I think I wanna get super philosophical for a second. So I even in my own life, you'll you'll wind up hearing me wax philosophically on occasion, but I think Getting to the core of sales, there is this misconception that sales is dirty, where sales is slimy, I think we all have that picture of, like, Danny Davido as the car salesman in Matilda. Hey. Let me steal your money. And and I I think honestly, growing up in a sales family, I I just thought sales was boring, but it wasn't until I started becoming a young adult, an adult myself that I'd I was like, oh, yeah. Sales is slimy. No. It's not. I think I had a little bit of shame in saying I was in sales, like, I would you see it all the time. Sellers will try and, like, hide behind these fancy titles that we've given ourselves to make ourselves sound like it's not sales. And I think, really, the the switch flipped for me after and so I grew up in a a family that it was you read the Bible and then you read how to win friends and influence people. Those were the 22 books. And the modern version of how to win friends and influence people is probably Todd Capone's transparency sale. And he he talks very openly about if you are building trust, it it comes from openness and transparency and honesty, and there's no shame in that. At the end of the day, if I'm solving a problem, then I'm doing you a service and helping you. And that is something that should be admirable, and it should be done with integrity. Right? a lot of people do make sales slimy in the same way that a lot of people would make financial reporting slimy or in the same way that there are slimy doctors and nurses, or there are bad lawyers. There are bad pilots. I've seen a lot. So, you know, I think every profession is what you make of it and who you are, your integrity, you know, who you are when nobody's watching. And fundamentally, sales is like any other profession. It should be around connecting with individuals, solving problems, and doing so ethically. So I think that's my biggest myth that I wanna bust. I am I I was one of those people who would try and say, oh, I don't wanna sell you anything. I I had to switch that real quick because, yeah, I am, but I have no shame in it anymore. So that I think that's my big one.

Celeste Berke [00:16:51]:

I love that. And, unfortunately, we're seeing more of a stigma around the sales profession as technology and AI and automation increases. I'm seeing it. I actually spent about 30 minutes today. Like, given some recommendations to people who had reached out to me, right, with their sales pitch and and me telling them, you know, why this is horrible, why anybody who doesn't need digging is going to realize they're not pre they're not preaching what they're putting out. Right? And it I think we are fighting this uphill battle of when we are -- putting things out at mass quantity because we're trying to make a number. We know the more touches we have with someone, right, the more opportunities We take away this personalization. We are discrediting salespeople who are out there every day grinding and hustling and doing it in an authentic manner. thank you for that. it is rampant, and I think we're gonna see a huge shift because it's it's given a bad names of companies who

Alex Christian [00:17:51]:

And there are still organizations out there that are doing it the right way, and they've always done it the right way. I don't know how many shout outs I'm allowed to give, but the folks over at Lavender are probably industry leaders in personalization and doing things with integrity, but you know, I I think that's I see this as a trend that more and more companies are seeing that and that it doesn't work to just be like Wendy's on Twitter and edgy and pretend to be a brand. It it comes down to each individual on as a part of your organization, how they present themselves. and how they interact. So I see it changing.

Celeste Berke [00:18:30]:

-- that comes from trading and modeling, finding people within the organization that are doing that well. And if you don't have that within your organization, like, take a hard look and and time to clean some house because what we're putting out there, it's really tainting salespeople and and, unfortunately, we still have to bust this myth that all sales people aren't slimy. I

Alex Christian [00:18:50]:

I use all the time. It starts with you and me. It's it's a

Celeste Berke [00:18:54]:

--

Alex Christian [00:18:54]:

I'm not in sales.

Celeste Berke [00:18:55]:

Right? Like, I never thought I was a salesperson and, like, I'm having a conversation. I'm solving a problem. I'm looking for a problem. I'm information sharing. but when we come from a place of desperation, it's usually very stinky for

Alex Christian [00:19:11]:

Yes.

Celeste Berke [00:19:11]:

Well, I've really enjoyed having you on here. I try to keep these short and sweet under 20 minutes. We're right there so that individuals can learn from you, but also some of those book recommendations, which will shout out in the show notes as well. I'm really excited for error date because I think you will have made a transition, and I look forward to keeping up with you and seeing more of your content on LinkedIn and your funny sarcasm, but obviously a very intelligent person who -- Well,

Alex Christian [00:19:40]:

thank you. Thank you.

Celeste Berke [00:19:41]:

No. It's not only I mean, if if I was gonna be in a place and and the pilot, had a heart attack and you were on my plane, like, I want you to fly that plane. So -- Yes.

Alex Christian [00:19:48]:

I I think that's every man's dream is to hear, like, I mean, you you don't want harm on anybody else. Right? But every man's deep down goes, I can land this plane. I can do And and then

Celeste Berke [00:20:01]:

-- Movies are made of it.

Alex Christian [00:20:02]:

So -- it it would be not a it would be a horrifying nightmare, but a dream nonetheless. Right?

Celeste Berke [00:20:09]:

I've got this. No. Truly. I can fly a plane.

Alex Christian [00:20:12]:

Yeah. There's there's a whole

Celeste Berke [00:20:13]:

-- You keep up your license then?

Alex Christian [00:20:15]:

I do. I do. Okay. It's more of a hobby now. Yeah. it's been nice. Sometimes we'll fly out to the outer banks or but I did have one VP at one point say, you know, we could probably expense this. And then I showed him the the average gas prices versus just a a one way flight on Delta. and that that was nixed pretty quick. So and then the other thing you can check out every Wednesday, I've decided that LinkedIn is we need a little upbeat positivity. So I've started sharing hump day recommendations with movies and books and music. Yeah. Yeah. So Not just a pilot. I'm also a big nerd.

Celeste Berke [00:20:53]:

So this is gonna this is gonna come out on a Wednesday, so most likely you will have shared something.

Alex Christian [00:20:58]:

I'll have a podcast recommendation to share now.

Celeste Berke [00:21:01]:

I know. This has been awesome. You're also a podcaster by hobby as well. So, like, multi talented here.

Alex Christian [00:21:08]:

You know, I am the really boring Ryan Gosling of the world. or Justin Timberlake. Like, I sell. I kind of fly on the side. I have a side podcast with 3 buddies that I've known for a decade. And and then I, you know, pop up here.

Celeste Berke [00:21:27]:

-- Spirit line yet. You need an alcoholic beverage backing. You need to get that to, like, really, really, really solidify your stature or car commercial. 1 of those 2. I

Alex Christian [00:21:38]:

it it's time. I'm gonna start calling Carvana and White Claw and whoever answers first. You know, that'll be that'll be our sponsor.

Celeste Berke [00:21:47]:

Awesome. Well, it's been a pleasure. I will end this here. Thank you so much, Alex.

Alex Christian [00:21:53]:

It's been great. Thanks a lot.