About Isabelle Fortin: Isabelle Fortin is a standout mindset facilitator, entrepreneur, and public speaker. Her journey is marked by determination and creativity. Through Izzy Fortin Coaching, she uses her experiences and insights to help others grow professionally and personally. Isabelle faced a significant challenge when she was just five years old: she lost her mother. Being the youngest of three siblings, she had to learn how to be strong and resilient early on, and these qualities have guided her throughout her life. Isabelle’s career path is wide-ranging and impressive. She served in the Canadian Air Force, an experience that taught her discipline and structure. Afterward, she spent 23 years as a devoted massage therapist, improving her ability to heal and care for others. Check out the latest episode of our Conversational Selling podcast to learn more about Isabelle.
In this episode, Nancy and Isabelle discuss the following:
- Isabelle’s transition from military to sales
- Definition of a rebel and the importance of rebels in sales
- Strategy: “Make friends before you make clients.”
- Value of honesty and authenticity in sales
- Aligning company culture with sales team needs
- Impact of military experience on sales approach
- Turning rebellious salespeople into rock stars
Key Takeaways:
- You can’t go against who you are
- Make friends before you make clients
- If you give the rebels the tools that they need, they will become rock stars
- Always quit a toxic relationship
“I think that most sales rebels are extremely people-oriented. They’re extremely community- and relationship-minded. And it is truly for them about cultivating relationships more than anything else. They make friends before they make clients. Of course, you know, the business that you are in has to give you that opportunity. I mean, if you’re a salesperson in a store, maybe, you know, that’s a little bit less, especially if it’s a chain store, it’s a little bit less of that. But even then, how many great people do we find or quite the opposite? You go to a store, and the person, you know, won’t look at you, engage with you, or ask anything. Well, we are less likely to go back, right? So, I think that that’s in their nature—to build relationships—and it is about selling who they are first.” – ISABELLE
“I believe that, of anybody, but especially when it comes to salespeople, thrive when the culture of the company that they work for understands that they cannot be treated like every other employee because they are different. And I find that you know, sales managers—only 6% of them get training in management. And yeah, only 6%. The stats are scary. Very often, I believe that either the company took their top salesman and decided to make them the manager, or worse yet, they took somebody from another department and decided, “Hey, you’re a good manager. So, you can now lead the sales team.” Sales is a different kind of species. And if you treat them the same as everybody else, they’re going to underperform, and they’re going to look for a job very quickly. And I think that that is the biggest mistake that most companies do—is deal with their salespeople the “wrong” way.” – ISABELLE
“The connection that I brought to my personal life from the military was you can work well with somebody you don’t like and don’t need to. I hear coaches say that very often—find the commonality, find, you know, if that person likes ballet or bowling or whatever, and you like that too, then you know, that’s something to base the relationship on. And I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. Sometimes, the commonality is that you’re both humans living on this planet. So, you don’t have to share a passion with somebody to get along with them. And that’s where I got that from the military because in service, you literally, like a firefighter the same way. Police officers are the same way. You don’t have to like someone. You need to recognize that that person is doing their best with the hand they’ve been dealt. And so that’s what I bring from my military career to my consulting company now.” – ISABELLE
Connect with Isabelle Fortin:
- LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/isabellemfortin/
- Izzy Fortin: https://izzyfortin.com
Try Our Proven, 3-Step System, Guaranteeing Accountability and Transparency that Drives RESULTS by clicking on this link: https://oneofakindsales.com/call-center-in-a-box/
Connect with Nancy Calabrese:
- Twitter:https://twitter.com/oneofakindsales
- Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/One-Of-A-Kind-Sales-304978633264832/
- Website:https://oneofakindsales.com
- Phone: 908-879-2911
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ncalabrese/
- Email: leads@oneofakindsales.com
Voiceover: You’re listening to The Conversational Selling Podcast with Nancy Calabrese.
Nancy Calabrese: Hi, it’s Nancy Calabrese, and it’s time again for Conversational selling – the podcast where sales leaders and business experts share what’s going on in sales and marketing today and it always starts with the human conversation. Today we’re speaking with Isabelle Fortin, owner of Rebel Sales Consulting and speaking at Izzy Fortin Coaching. Isabelle spent 10 years in the military. When she was putting her life into someone else’s hands, she learned to respect others despite their differences. And after the military, she entered into the world of sales, but she was, in a word, unmanageable. Then she created her own coaching company focused on mindset, managed her own sales force using her rebel sales strategies. She knows how to deal with rebels because she is one. Welcome to the show, Isabelle. So happy to have you on.
Isabelle Fortin: Thank you, Nancy, so kind of you. [1:16]
Nancy Calabrese: Oh, my goodness, all right. Why are you a rebel?
Isabelle Fortin: Oh, oh my God, just because that’s my nature. It’s it is as easy as that. You can’t go against who you are. So, you know, you have to some people are rebels and some people work better inside the lines and I don’t fit in a box. I’m too tall. [1:39]
Nancy Calabrese: Hahaha, too tall? Oh, okay. Well, okay. We can’t tell via the podcast, but okay, that’s a nice height. But you know, and then you say all salespeople are rebels. And if not, they should become one. Why is that?
Isabelle Fortin: Yes, I’m five foot ten. No, exactly. Yeah. I think that most salespeople are really, they have an entrepreneur mind, and they just work for somebody else. And so, they, they, they don’t want to be confined. They don’t want to be, they don’t want to be at the office from Monday to Friday from eight to four. They don’t, they want to be free. They want to do their thing. Don’t ask him where they were on a Tuesday at two 14. They were at the movies. They don’t want to tell you. So, I think that most of them at all of the ones that I met that were extremely good at it were all rebels. [2:43]
Nancy Calabrese: Really interesting. I never thought of myself as a rebel, but I know I’ve never liked anyone to tell me what to do. So, I guess I am a rebel, right?
Isabelle Fortin: And that’s a rebellious mind, isn’t it? I was just saying that. Yeah, that’s the nature of a rebellious mind.
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah, I guess so. I never realized. No wonder my parents had a hard time with me. So, what are some of your skill strategies for Rebels?
Isabelle Fortin: Oh, I bet you were a great kid. I think that most sales rebels are extremely people oriented. They’re extremely community and relationship minded. And it is truly for them about cultivating relationships more than anything else. And they make friends before they make clients. Of course, you know, the business that you are in must has to give you that opportunity. I mean, if you’re a salesperson in a store, maybe, you know, that’s a little bit less, especially if it’s a chain store, it’s a little bit less of that. But even then, you know, like how many great people do we find or quite the opposite. You go to a store and the person, you know, won’t look at you or won’t engage or won’t ask anything. Well, we are less likely to go back, right? So, I think that that’s in their nature is to build relationships and it is about selling who they are first. [4:33]
Nancy Calabrese: Right. True.
Isabelle Fortin: And then once the person trusts you, they’re going to buy anything you must sell once they trust you. [4:43]
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah. So, talk about what is your unique idea that’s different and sets you apart?
Isabelle Fortin: Make friends before you make clients. It is, yeah, that’s one of my mottos is show up with the real true intention to help the other person and not crunching your numbers. So, when it is truly about showing up for the other person and how you can be there and help that person, then that’s, for me, that’s what works the best. [5:30]
Nancy Calabrese: So, can you give us some examples of how you would make a friend? Say you’re walking up to me and what would you ask me or do?
Isabelle Fortin: I would make the entire conversation about you. So, you know, give real human interest. So, one of the things that I tell my client all the time is, it doesn’t really matter what kind of questions you ask, as long as you truly care about the answer you’re going to get. So, it’s not, for me, it’s not so much like the technique or the strategy, it’s more care about the answer and listen to the answer without having a preconceived, either notion or preconceived script as to what you’re going to say after that. So, it’s about truly listening for real to the human. And I have a real-life example. 17 billion years ago when I was you know selling for somebody else, I went to this company and the supplier they had for this specific item was an extremely good company that they had good service, they had good prices. And to be honest, then see, as far as pricing was concerned, we truly couldn’t beat them. We couldn’t, it was, they were unbeatable. And what happened is, you know, I met with the with the buyer and we started talking and, and I said, do you mind me asking who you’re dealing with right now? And he said, you know, company so and so and I said, oh, I don’t want to waste your time. I can’t beat their prices. And he was so shocked by my answer, but I was honest. Said, listen, I know most of the folks that work there, they give great customer service. They are good. Their product is good. Their prices are unbeatable. You know, you are extremely well served. So, you know, it was a great pleasure meeting you. And if you have any other needs for any other, you know, packaging, because it was in the packaging industry, then you can, you know, give me a chance to, to, to submit, you know, pricing, but you know, you’re extremely well served. And that person referred to me to at least 50 % of my clients afterwards, because I was honest. I was honest. I told them the truth. The person that you’re dealing with right now, I can’t beat that. I really can’t. So, I made a friend and I’m still that was 28 years ago now, which, you know, I disagree with but it worked and I do, I didn’t do it to get the results I got, I did it because it was the right thing to do in that moment. [8:44]
Nancy Calabrese: Sure. Are you still in touch with this person?
Isabelle Fortin: I am. He’s retired now, but yeah, we stayed connected for all these years. Yeah.
Nancy Calabrese: I wonder if there’s an opportunity at his firm now that he’s retired. You know what? The mind of a salesperson, right? Stop pushing forward. Is there anything in particular you want me to spotlight?
Isabelle Fortin: Hey, maybe. Oh, I think that real good salespeople thrive better if they’re in the environment. Well, I believe that of anybody, but especially when it comes to salespeople thrive when the culture of the company that they work for understands that they cannot be treated like every other employee because they are different. And I find that, you know, sales managers, there’s only 6 % of them that get training in manager. And yeah, only 6 % the stats are scary. And very often. Very often it’s my belief that either the company took their top salesman and or salesperson, excuse me, and decided to make them the manager or worse yet, they took somebody from another department and decided, Hey, you’re, you’re a good manager. So, you can now lead the sales team. Sales is a different kind of species. And if you treat them the same as everybody else, they’re going to underperform and they’re going to look for a job very quickly. And I think that that is the biggest mistake that most companies do is deal with their salespeople the quote unquote wrong way. [10:58]
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah. And you know, I’m curious, did your military experience have anything to do with you wanting to go into sales? Was there a connection?
Isabelle Fortin: Um, there, the connection that, that is between the two is that what I brought to my personal life and my professional life from the military was you can work well with somebody you don’t like. And, um, you don’t need, I hear coaches say that very often know, find the commonality, find, you know, if that person likes ballet or bowling or whatever, and you like that too, then you know, that’s something to base the relationship on. And it’s, it’s, I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. I’m saying sometimes the commonality is just the fact that you’re both humans living on this planet. So, it doesn’t have to be like you don’t have to share a passion with somebody to get along with them. And that’s where I got that from the military because in service you literally like firefighter the same way. Police officers are the same way. Military. You don’t have to like someone. You just need to recognize that that person is doing the best that they can with the hand that they’ve been dealt. And so that’s, that’s what I bring from my military career to my consulting company now. [12:45]
Nancy Calabrese: Interesting. So how do you turn rebels into rock stars?
Isabelle Fortin: By helping the managers understand and how to deal with the salespeople. So, you don’t micromanage, you set clear expectations. And you know, I say that to my clients all the time. You don’t need, if you’re dealing with real salespeople, you don’t even need to set high expectations or high goals as to as far as their sales numbers are concerned because I’ll bet you anything that their targets are higher than yours because they’re working for themselves. They are self-motivated. They want the new toy and the new shiny car and it’s in their go getters. They are naturally going getters. If you help, if I help and I do help the managers understand how to individually tap into the unique abilities of every single member of their teams, then the sky’s the limit. That’s how you turn a rebel into a rock star. Because if you give that person the tool, if you give the rebel the tools that they need, they will become rock stars. [14:17]
Nancy Calabrese: So, you give them all the tools, but they’re not becoming a rock star. What do you do next?
Isabelle Fortin: Find out why. Because there’s a reason the company culture is not aligned, although maybe your communication style isn’t aligned with the way that they understand the world. You find why because there’s always a why there’s always if you tap into the true motivation of somebody there, they are going to. Become rock stars, it’s inevitable. [14:54]
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah. So, tell me a fun fact about you.
Isabelle Fortin: Make sense? I’m a ballroom dancer.
Nancy Calabrese: You are! Cool!
Isabelle Fortin: I wasn’t expecting that question. I don’t think you were expecting that answer. Yeah, I’ve been dancing since 1998. And, and that is how I recharge my batteries is by going dancing.
Nancy Calabrese: Wow. I love it. What does it do? Does it make you just forget about everything?
Isabelle Fortin: It makes me connect to another human being in a whole different way because it’s about truly paying attention to your partner, and it is about 100 % being in the moment. And that’s for me, that’s the greatest escape from my life and from my mind, because we’re all in each in our own way, right? We’re all humans and that’s part of the human experience, I think. And that’s the way for me to take a break from my mind is to go dancing. And a good night, Nancy, a good night of dancing, which I had two days ago. Saturday night I went dancing and I left the dance floor. My feet were bleeding and I thought, ah, that was a good night. [16:24]
Nancy Calabrese: Oh really? All right, well, we’ll take a sidebar on that one. I don’t know about bleeding feet is where you want to go. Tell me something. Yes, it does. I don’t know. Tell me something true that almost nobody agrees with you on.
Isabelle Fortin: It sounds masochistic, doesn’t it? Yes. Oh wow, oh that’s a great question. Oh my, oh, I wasn’t prepared for that question. Don’t hang on to, regardless of the nature of the relationship, if it’s toxic for you, then don’t hang out. And I take that to a whole new level. I will cut ties with my siblings if they become toxic. I find that people in general offer, other people more than the relationship, not the people, but the relationship is worth. [17:35]
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah. By the way, I totally agree with you.
Isabelle Fortin: And I… Well, thank you, but I get a lot of pushbacks. Do you?
Nancy Calabrese: Well, I have walked away from certain people because it was toxic. And yes, I do get pushback, but I stand firm on it. It makes me sick. It’s not for me to be around.
Isabelle Fortin: Yeah, yeah. But I find that we, I, you know, I was raised Catholic. I, you know, I grew up with the, you know, but yeah, but they give that person a chance or, you know, they didn’t do anything wrong to you or blah, blah, blah. And and you push yourself in a corner and you hang on to people and we do the same thing with our mistakes by the way. We hold on to mistakes because we’ve been doing them for so long. Well, if it doesn’t work for you, move on, take the lesson and leave. [18:37]
Nancy Calabrese: I totally, totally agree with you on. You know, we’re, we’re, I can’t believe, I told you this was going to go by fast. Last two questions. What is the one takeaway you’d like to leave the audience with?
Isabelle Fortin: Let yourself, if you’re a salesperson, if you’re any human, but especially for sales, because this is the topic, if you’re in an environment that is not aligned or is not letting you be who you are and celebrate the way that you do things, find another place. If I’m speaking in front of 200 people and 200 people boo me, it’s not there’s something wrong with my message. It’s because I’m in the wrong crowd. So, find a better crowd. [19:35]
Nancy Calabrese: wrong crowd. You know, I love that. That’s a really healthy way to think about things. How can my people find you?
Isabelle Fortin: Oh, LinkedIn is pretty much where I hang out all the time. I have a YouTube channel, but I’m it doesn’t have a lot of subscribers. Yeah. So, hey, maybe that’s a great place to for them to go check out my stuff. But LinkedIn is where I spend most of my time. Yeah. [20:04]
Nancy Calabrese: Okay, so it’s Isabelle, I -S -A -B -E -L -L -E, Fortin, F -O -R -T -I -N. They will come speak you out and I so appreciate you taking the time to speak with me and share your rebelliousness with our audience. You’re great and everyone out there, you know, if you’re not a rebel, you need to be a rebel, especially if you’re in sales. So make it a great rebellious sales day and we’ll see you next time. [20:41]
