Brian Weathersbee
Senior manager of sales operations and enablement | TireHub LLC | Milton, Ga. | Age: 37
What was your first job in the industry?
My first job was in high school working in the service department at Feyer Ford Lincoln Mercury in eastern North Carolina while also helping out around my granddad's tire shop.
What attracted you to the industry?
I grew up in the industry watching and learning from my granddad. I saw what it meant to his customers to have a trusted place for their vehicle needs. I knew I wanted to play a large role in helping our reps help dealers like my family, which still owns and operates my granddads shop.
What is the biggest challenge you've faced in your career?
COVID-19 was a curveball that I didn't see coming. At the time I was leading our sales training which was either in-person, riding with a rep or leading a class. When that was no longer an option, we had to get creative to reinvent ourselves along with our training and sales process. Our salespeople had to sort of recreate themselves as well.
Who has had the biggest influence on your career?
My granddad was a huge influence for me leading up to my professional career. Along the way I have had many great leaders invest in me and my career development. I owe a lot of credit to Mike Jackson from Charlotte, N.C. for his mentorship.
What is your biggest accomplishment in the industry?
I take pride in many parts of my career, however the thing I am most proud of is creating the sales process that we follow at TireHub. This process is now engrained in our culture, vocabulary, and is a key part of our go-to-market strategy. It brings joy to my heart to not only see our sales reps following our sales process but embracing it as well as seeing it plastered on jackets, laptops, work planners and even dress socks!
Tell us about your current job and responsibilities. How do you spend your workday?
My job is to hit curve balls and anticipate what is coming next. I describe what my team and I do by saying we are the guts of the sales team. Everything we do should be centered around helping our sales team and our customers be more successful. The team and I are responsible for our sales training, CRM functionality and administration, sales reporting platforms, TireHub Now (our B2B site), many of our project roadmaps to improve our systems or processes, and ensuring we stay on budget from a financial perspective as a sales and marketing team.
What's been the biggest surprise of your current job?
Energy is contagious. If I come into the office in a great mood and interact in a meeting with a positive, control what you can control, let's believe attitude, then people react well to that. It may seem silly or cliche, but it works.
Tell us about your family.
I have an incredible wife who is my high school sweetheart. She supports me no matter what. She is a very successful business lady in the healthcare industry. I am super proud and inspired by how she can balance her career, our daughter, our home, and me. Our 10-year-old daughter is a natural sales person and uses her persuasion skills to persuade mom and dad and we know those skills will serve her well in the future. We also have two dogs. We stay very busy!
If you could wake up tomorrow with one new skill, what would you choose?
This is a fun question, so many come to mind. My serious answer would be to speak another language, but I'd also really love to join a pick game of basketball and be able to dunk. To see the shock on everyone's face would be priceless!
In a single word, how would your friends describe you?
Charismatic.
If you could switch jobs for a day, what job/who would you choose to swap with, and why?
I would switch with Daniel "BBQ Snob" Vaughn. He is the editor of the Barbecue Blog at Texas Monthly so he gets to travel all over the U.S. and experience barbecue and then share his experiences with others. What a dream job!
What's the biggest issue facing the tire industry?
Technically you could classify this as an issue or an opportunity, but I am very interested to see how AI impacts our industry and how manufacturers, wholesale distributors and dealers interact with it.
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Entrepreneur,
What goal did you set for yourself this year? Are you on track to reach it?
My goal for this year was to deliver a big technological advancement which would improve our customer experience and make it easier for customers to do business with us. It was a huge project that has taken all year but it should launch soon.
What do you expect to be doing 20 years from now?
Playing a key role in a major part of our industry. I am excited about the future of our industry and where this journey will take me.
