203: Stephen Oommen on The Referral Effect, Reputation as Revenue, and Founder-Led Selling

Stephen Oommen has 25 years of go-to-market experience across Microsoft, ADP and Outreach, and he now runs The Referral Effect, coaching sellers and sales leaders on turning relationships into revenue. He left an executive role, and the 70 to 80 hour weeks that came with it, to be a full-time father and build something of his own. That business cleared multiple six figures and turned a profit in its first year, and by his own estimate roughly 98% of the revenue across his entire career has come from relationships and warm referrals.

This is the first Founder Led episode of Sales Success Stories, a new lane for founders who are still doing the selling themselves. Stephen lays out the three things that made the jump work, gets specific about the eight to twelve lead sources he runs and why communities are the most slept-on of them, and takes the story back to growing up as one of the few minorities in his Oklahoma school and later reclaiming the word chameleon as the empathy that now drives his referrals.

Full show notes, the complete transcript and every link from this episode are at top1.fm/203