by Nancy Calabrese | Jun 6, 2024 | Podcast
About Usman Sheikh: Usman Sheikh is the visionary founder and CEO of xiQ, an award-winning B2B sales and marketing platform. With the fusion of generative AI (x GPT), behavioral science, and a curated up-to-the-minute business corpus, xiQ is revolutionizing the industry with its groundbreaking personality-driven sales approach. As a futurist and design thinker, Usman aims to humanize B2B sales and marketing by harnessing the power of generative AI and psychology. Through xiQ, sellers gain the ability to understand the mindset of prospective buyers, facilitating hyper-personalized engagement throughout the sales cycle. Usman strongly believes in achieving excellence through disciplined and relentless execution. Check out the latest episode of our Conversational Selling podcast to learn more about Usman.
In this episode, Nancy and Usman discuss the following:
- The transformative power of AI in B2B sales and marketing
- xiQ’s use of generative AI, behavioral science, and chat GPT to personalize sales approaches
- The evolution from pre-internet to the internet era and now to the AI era
- How AI simplifies tasks, saves time, and enhances productivity
- The importance of understanding personality-driven sales
Key Takeaways:
- AI made it so much simpler, gives one that information in seconds, and saves hours that would have been spent.
- What used to take me six hours out of my day has now been reduced to 30 minutes.
- We need to master AI. We need to make it work for us.
“And we use AI to help you formulate these kinds of capabilities, bringing them into sales to personalize the sales engagement. Nobody wants to talk to somebody who doesn’t know who you are, doesn’t understand your problems, and cannot empathize with or relate to your actions. They’re just in there to sell, and nobody’s interested in that, especially in high-ticket sales. So, it becomes increasingly important to be able to find the sweet spots of the person within their personality and cater to them so you can have a better chance of winning.” – USMAN
“We’re not a plug-in to LinkedIn, although I think we get a lot of data from LinkedIn. Think of our platform as an independent search engine; we throw a very wide net out there to collect information. So, you type in the name of a person in their company and start looking for them. You find the person by clicking on them if there is more than one. And it goes, fetches information, analyzes it, and makes a prediction call. All of it, less than three seconds.” – USMAN
“So, we were living in the pre-internet era. Would that be correct? I was. I saw the internet come. You did, right? And everything was paper-based. If you needed to look up a person or do some research, you had to use Encyclopedia Britannica or one of those, right? There was no Google. It was a different world. And the big brands that were there were those serving Yellow Pages and all that stuff. Those were the brands. But then came the internet age, Google and Yahoo, and now ZoomInfo and Salesforce, and all of these became tools that people used, right? And the old Yellow Pages and so on didn’t translate into becoming the ZoomInfo of the business world. It was like the Yellow Pages of the business world in the pre-internet days, right? And so, two things happened. The way we did business changed. Secondly, the players that provided the technology changed as well, and the solutions changed as well. Now, we’re entering the AI era. It’s a big leap. So, if the internet was a thousand to the paper-based era, then AI is a hundred million to the thousand. That’s the big leap, okay? Because it can crunch out this big data and make sense of it in microseconds, right? And so, it can crunch a lot of data to do that, right? Pretty much the whole internet, right? And then some. So, but you know, we as humans need to be able to access that data, that much data in a consumable manner to be interesting.” – USMAN
“I think not to be afraid of AI. AI provides a lot of new opportunities. So, if the audience is in sales or any business, use AI to discover new opportunities. Everybody who’s going to use AI will realize that it can create a lot of new worlds. As a matter of fact, what McKinsey is quoting in terms of generative AI creating net new value for sales is $1.4 trillion a year in sales productivity. That’s a lot, right? That’s a huge amount. So, that’s the opportunity. And as a result of that, Nancy, the way we used to sell, traditional sellers used to create fear, uncertainty, and doubt. And here we have a chance to move away from that selling into more selling hope and opportunity because there’s a lot of hope and opportunity with what we can do with AI.” – USMAN
Connect with Usman Sheikh:
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:
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 Usman Sheikh, the visionary founder and CEO of XIQ, an award -winning B2B sales and marketing platform. Through the fusion of generative AI, behavioral science, and chat GPT, XIQ is revolutionizing the industry with its personality -driven sales approach. As a futurist and design thinker, Ustman aims to humanize B2B sales and marketing by leveraging generative AI and psychology. And with XIQ, selle rs can understand the mindset of prospective buyers and hyper -personalize engagement at every stage of the sales cycle. Well, AI is the buzzword of the year this year, and I’m sure for many years. Welcome to the show, Ousmane.
Usman Sheikh: Thank you, Nancy. Great to be here and I love talking about AI and how it’s transforming B2B selling and marketing. [1:30]
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah, I mean, why is it like, why is it all of us? What makes AI exciting?
Usman Sheikh: Yeah, it’s simplification at the end of the day. It’s made my life a lot easier in being able to access just basic decision support data. And not only just decision support data, but this decision also already crafted for me that I just need to qualify and utilize. And it’s made that very, very simple. So, in the traditional days, and when I say traditional days, that’s the Google internet search. You had to ask Google something, and then it would recommend certain websites. Then you had to go into those websites. You had to check out what’s written in those websites, and then come back and analyze and put your own answer together. And that was very time consuming. What AI has done, and specifically generative AI and tools like XIQ, it’s become conversational. I simply ask, tell me about Nancy. What would be her top motivation? And out comes this is how you know, Nancy functions, these will be her growth opportunities. It’s made it so much simpler and it’s giving me that information in seconds and saving me hours of time that I would have spent. So, at the core of it, it’s the ease of use and the simplicity and the world is still discovering the places where that simplicity can be applied to make things a lot easier. And whereas the data are going to come from that will help support those decisions. Right? So that’s why I think it’s exciting. They’ve made it so easy anybody, a six-year-old can pretty much use charge GPT, for example, right? And get really, good answers out of that. [3:21]
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah. My daughter was shocked that I even knew about it. I love it. You know, actually it helps me write my blogs and it does make it very simple. But what do you mean by personality driven sales approach?
Usman Sheikh: Yes, so I’ll explain it two ways. So, first of all, all of us have unique personalities, just like unique fingerprints. And for sellers and buyers to meaningfully collect at the human, as you said as well, it’s all about the human connection. So for buyers and sellers to connect at a human level, it’s very, very essential that the seller understand the mental makeup of who they’re talking to. All of us are different, right? Some of us are more dominating. Some of us are more influencing personalities. So behavioral science was created about 100 years ago. And one of the methodologies in Myers -Briggs is very popular. And another methodology is the disk methodology, which is what XAQ uses. And these used to be those personality assessment tests that one had to take. What XAQ has done is we’ve kind of cracked the code where you don’t need to take the test based on your digital footprint in social media and across the internet, we can analyze enough to, with a very high degree of accuracy, predict what kind of personality and mental makeup is of that person. And then we take that, and we can help companies and salespeople craft custom tailored sales and marketing strategies. So, for example, if I’m writing an email to a personality that is more on the dominant side, the same email will sound very different, will have a different subject name, maybe just three bullet points, very short and concise. But if I were to send the same topic, same email to a conscientious person, maybe I need to write a little longer email, provide some additive content, provide some attachments, because they like to do the personality type is alike. This becomes very essential and is the fabric of how human relationships work. And we use AI to help you formulate this kind of capabilities to be able to bring that into the sales and really help personalize that sales engagement because you know nobody wants to talk to somebody who doesn’t know who you are doesn’t know your problem cannot empathize with you cannot relate to what you’re doing and they’re just in there to sell nobody’s interested in that at all especially at the high ticket sale so it becomes increasingly important to be able to find the sweet spots of your the person within the personalities and cater to them so you can have a better chance of winning. [6:06]
Nancy Calabrese: Now, is your platform a plugin to LinkedIn? Is that how they you can assess the personalities?
Usman Sheikh: So no, we are not a plug -in. We’re not a plug -in to LinkedIn, although I think we do get a lot of data out of LinkedIn. Think of our platform like an independent search engine, and we throw a very wide net out there, collect information. So, you type in the name of a person, their company, start looking for them. If there are more than one, you find the person by clicking on them. And it goes, fetches information, analyzes it, and makes a prediction call. All of it, less than three seconds. [6:45]
Nancy Calabrese: Wow, that’s amazing. I don’t know if you’ve seen this, there’s a commercial on TV about AI and how it’s pretty much taking over the world. And there’s a woman that’s being interviewed. And what she says, she loves AI because AI makes her feel loved. And I thought, isn’t that weird? How can AI make you feel loved?
Usman Sheikh: That’s very interesting, but you know, there are multiple ways that could have happened. So, one way is that it has helped freed her up from doing whatever she was doing at her job, which was taking her 40 minutes, now can take four seconds, right? And it can come back with better answers, better calibration, better research than any human or team of humans would be able to do, right? So that in turn starts reducing my stress significantly. Look, I got to get my emails out and I want to personalize emails to everybody. At best, you know, if you really, good people who can write emails, take them 50 to 20 to 30 minutes to custom craft an email. Imagine if I must do custom crafting emails to five customers, six people per customer, that’s a heavy load. But then you take a platform like ours and the AI we provide, and it helps you write very well research, thought through, clearly articulated emails in seconds. Right? And so, what used to now take me six hours out of my day has now been reduced to 30 minutes. And I can go home, I can get my rest, I can, you know, and the quality of the email is better, I’m going to get a better response rate. My stress is significantly reduced, so I have more time to get lunch. I don’t know if that makes sense, but that’s one way of why she probably feels how AI is making you feel loved. [8:58]
Nancy Calabrese: I don’t know. Now I’ve read somewhere when you were at SAP, you asked yourself, why do only 3 % of sales reps achieve platinum status? What was failing in the sales process? Can you expand on that?
Usman Sheikh: Yeah, absolutely. So, if you look at the top 5%, top 1 % of the performers, what they have is they have very well-established networks, information networks, right? People that they talk to, integrators if they’re selling software, change management companies that are putting in the platforms and training people, etc. They have very good vast networks and they’re constant and then they know the customer, they know the industry, they’ve been around there. So, they can actually serve as a conduit of great information to their clients and that makes them stand out, right? I know who you are, Nancy, this is somebody that can help you, let me connect the dots, let me introduce you somewhere over there. Then you start trusting me, right? And that’s really the, you know the table stakes, right, these days. You need to be able to help your clients in large ticket sales. And SAP was large ticket sales, right? So therefore, that’s what’s hindering them. The less experienced and the rest of the 95 % struggle to get information on companies, what’s happening within those companies, who are the decision makers, how to write to them, to appeal to them, what to talk to them about and about the industry in general. So, there’s a lot of workload placed on these people to onboard into a new company and then you have the dilemma of these 12 different solutions they have to you know from CRM to the contact information to marketing automation to analytics to social media applications on average the sales person today needs to go through 12 to 16 different user experiences in their sales journey right that’s a lot. [11:12]
Nancy Calabrese: Really? What do you mean 12 to 16? So, give me some examples.
Usman Sheikh: So I’ll start off by prospecting and I’ll probably go to somebody like ZoomInfo or RocketReach to find out or LinkedIn to find out, you know, who are the people that have the jobs that would be my ideal company profile. From there, I’ll extract their emails. Then I’ll have to build a list and go to my marketing email marketing automation and write my emails. Then I’ll have to send those emails out from there and then calibrate that, calibrate them into some analytical database. And that could be yet another user interface. Then I have to go put this information in CRM, yet another solution. From the CRM, I need to be able to go into my Outlook and write that yet another, you know, then I have collaborative rooms where I must talk to my colleagues, then there’s some research information coming. So, by the time you are all said and done in the different tasks you need to perform, you’ve consumed 12 to 15 different solutions. That’s what’s open on a salesperson’s screen these days. Right? And then I must do my research, which means now I must go out to Google, I must go to the corporate website, I have to go to the finance website, I have to go somewhere out there to connect more information about that. So, I’m lost in the sauce. I’m not doing what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m not formulating a sales strategy. I’m not formulating a way to better engage somebody. What I’m doing is researching and running around like a chicken with a head cut off trying to find out, you know, which side is up. [12:43]
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah.
Usman Sheikh: And that’s what was happening with the 95%, right? They were spending a lot of time doing things that did not add into the sales process, didn’t add value to their selling process. And so, what we’ve done is we’ve reduced it, we brought all this information under one roof. You don’t get ads, you don’t get sidetracked, you go look up a company, everything is there. It alerts you about the companies you subscribe to. It alerts you about the people that you’re following. It gives you the emotional resonance on how to write to those people, right? So, it totally changes the game. It brings down those capabilities that the best practices of the 1%, the elite 1%, it basically democratizes those practices and codifies them with the AI engine to help the rest of the 95%. I hope that helps and this explain. [13:38]
Nancy Calabrese: Well, it’s very strategic. Yeah, but you know what, in listening to you, it’s very strategic what’s going on with AI, right? I mean, it’s giving you access to information that was very difficult to find in the past. So, shouldn’t salespeople be closing more deals with the use of, like say your platform?
Usman Sheikh: Absolutely, and they are, and we’ve been calibrating that those people that are using our platform are closing four times more deals than those sales reps that are not using these cracks. So that’s a pretty big, big affirmation to this. There is still a lot about four times more, right? But in the entire Nancy, we’re in the like the baby stage, the pre -crawl stage of AI. [14:30]
Nancy Calabrese: Wow. How many times? I didn’t hear.
Usman Sheikh: There’s less than 9 % at this point of people in selling, in large ticket selling, they’re utilizing AI. And they’re using it for really, really, like, tell me something about my pipeline. There’s very, very little usage. And that’s what our company aims to change, is we want to become, so, you know, let me just explain this to you in a slightly different way. There are three eras that I think I can track, you can track. So we were living in the pre -internet era, would that be correct to say? I was. I saw internet come. You did, right? And everything was paper -based. If you must look up a person, you know, you had to go or if you needed to do some research, Encyclopedia Britannica or one of those, right? There was no Google. It’s a different word. And the big brands that were there. Those are the brands serving Yellow Pages and all that kind of stuff. Those are the brands. But then came along the internet age and Google and Yahoo and now ZoomInfo and Salesforce and all of these became tools that people used, right? And the old Yellow Pages and so on didn’t really translate into becoming the ZoomInfo of the business world. Like it was the Yellow Pages of the business world in the pre -internet days, right? And so, two things happened. The way we did business changed. And secondly, the players that provided the technology changed as well, or the solutions, the solutions changed as well. Now we’re entering the AI era, right? It’s a big, so if the internet was a thousand to the paper -based era, then AI is a hundred million to the thousand. That’s the big leap, okay? because it can crunch out this big data and make sense out of that in microseconds, right? And so, and it can crunch out a lot of data to do that, right? Pretty much the whole internet, right? And then some. So, but you know, we as humans need to be able to access that data, that much data in a consumable manner to be interesting, right? [16:50]
Nancy Calabrese: Yep.
Usman Sheikh: I can’t come and keep talking to you about the baseball game all the time or the weather or what kind of car you drive, right? I need to talk to you about work and how to improve your work. That’s the difference between the guy who’s going to win the business and our kind of platform helps you do that. So, the players that were playing in the internet field are not necessarily going to transition to the AI field. And that’s a very, very important thing. There’s going to be businesses that will fall off because they continue. You know, let’s take another good example is the video industry, right? And we don’t have video. Everything is on demand. So, all those video rental agencies or companies are no longer existing, right? But film does exist. Movies still come, right? [17:45]
Nancy Calabrese: That’s true.
Usman Sheikh: So, sales will continue to happen and just move into a different platform. And secondly, the vendors that were big players. I’m forgetting the name, if you can remind me, bad memory, of the video rental company started with the blue. Blockbusters, yeah, blockbusters, right? So, blockbusters could have bought, I think, Netflix for peanuts, right? They had the offer on that they refused to do that, right? and look at Netflix now. Right? And so, technology is irreversible. We’re going to take AI, AI is going to come, and we need to master AI. We need to make it work for us. We need not get intimidated and not spread rumors, negative rumors around. [18:32]
Nancy Calabrese: Right. How long has AI been around?
Usman Sheikh: Yeah, it’s been around for quite some time. It has been around for at least 10 years or maybe even longer. As a matter of fact, if you remember, what was it, 2001, Space Odyssey, hell was AI. So, they were talking in Star Trek, you know, the Starship Enterprise was being run by AI, right? So, if you think about it, the concept has existed. But I think we at XAQ are one of the pioneers of introducing this to B2B. We introduced this in 2018. And then I think the big breakthrough moment where it came out in a big way was November 22 with Chad GPT. [19:23]
Nancy Calabrese: Okay. I can’t believe that we’re up in time. This is such an interesting conversation. What is the one takeaway you’d like to leave the audience with?
Usman Sheikh: Yeah, I think not to be afraid of AI. AI provides a lot of new opportunities. So if the audience is in sales or in any business, use AI to discover new opportunities. Everybody who’s going to use AI will realize that it can create a lot of new words. As a matter of fact, what McKinsey is quoting in terms of generative AI creating net new value for sales is $1 .4 trillion a year in sales productivity. That’s a lot, right? That’s a huge amount. So that’s the opportunity. And as a result of that, Nancy, the way we used to sell, traditional sellers used to create fear, uncertainty, and doubt. And here we have a chance to move away from that kind of selling into more selling hope and opportunity because there’s a lot of hope and opportunity with what we can do with API, AI. [20:36]
Nancy Calabrese: Wow, amazing, amazing. How can my people find you?
Usman Sheikh: So, I’m on LinkedIn, it’s U -S -A -N, last name is Sheik, S -H -E -I -K -H, and the company can be found as X -I -Q. You can follow us, you can send me a connection request, and I will honor that. [20:58]
Nancy Calabrese: That’s wonderful. Thank you so much for spending some time with us this morning. And it’s morning for you, but afternoon for me. And I highly encourage everyone to reach out to Usman. I think your platform is fascinating. And when we finish this, I want to continue to talk to you about it. Usman again, thank you and for everyone out there, make it an awesome sales day. [21:32]
by Nancy Calabrese | May 29, 2024 | Podcast
About Kelly Lichtenberger: Kelly Lichtenberger has a strong background in sales and marketing, with experience in various leadership roles. From 2021 onwards, she has worked as the Global Head of Sales Development at Avanan. Before this, she worked at The InsideOut Technologies Company as a Principal, focusing on building and optimizing Inside Sales teams. From 2017 to 2019, Kelly held multiple roles at Razberi Technologies, including Vice President of Marketing and Inside Sales. She was key in delivering network video recording, cyber security, and remote health management solutions during her time there. Before that, Kelly was the President of Consulting Services Group (CSG), where they provided superior customer experience and implemented top talent and technologies for business success. Kelly was also involved in building high-performance sales teams and instituting best-selling processes at Carousel Industries as the Vice President of Inside Sales. Overall, Kelly Lichtenberger has a wealth of experience in sales development, marketing, and team management and has consistently demonstrated success in driving revenue growth and achieving results. Check out the latest episode of our Conversational Selling podcast to learn more about Kelly.
In this episode, Nancy and Kelly discuss the following:
- Value of the human element in sales despite advancements in AI
- Overcoming fear of rejection in cold calling
- Differing views on the use of scripts in sales calls
- Building and maintaining successful inside sales teams
- Role of emotional intelligence (EQ) in prospecting and sales
- Benefits of emotional intelligence for women in sales
Key Takeaways:
- You can have a script, but knowing how to play within that keeps the human element there.
- Women do phenomenally at sales.
- The worst answer in sales is “maybe.”
- We all have a mutual benefit for everybody, being happy and wanting to stay.
“I still very much believe in the human element. We hear a lot about AI and tools, what these tools can do, and what this system can do. We miss a big part of the sales cycle when we leave out the human element. I talk to my team often about this, and I think what happens is it comes down to skill set. There are a lot of people who don’t have the skill set to use the phone as a selling device appropriately. So, it’s easier to say it doesn’t work and it’s dead. The more people say that, the more it helps me and my teams because it opens the doors. Fewer people are calling, so I’ll get through.” – KELLY
“So, when you think about emotional intelligence, it’s the same as EQ. People have heard of IQ, which is knowing how. EQ is knowing you. Emotional intelligence encompasses self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. It’s really about adding the human element into sales. When working with a team, I tell them, “We’re not going in to sell on step one of the first conversation. We’re looking at how to build a relationship, even in your personal life. It’s about being you.” One of the things that people forget to do often is to focus so much on the product know-how and forget that there’s an actual person on the other end. Do we understand their role? Their pain points? What would be helpful to them in their position? If you’re facing rejections, know how to handle it, pivot, and not get upset if you have a day where there are many hang-ups or didn’t get through and set up the demo. Knowing that motivation, if you’re not doing those things again, how do you turn something like cold calling into a skill set and not just give up because it’s not working for you? Many people do. Then again, they want to say, “This didn’t work.” Well, maybe it’s that you didn’t work on that one.” – KELLY
“So, active listening is a big part of emotional intelligence, which comes in a few places. It’s going to come into social skills. It will come into self-awareness, but really, the social skills of understanding. Knowing when to let somebody speak and actively listening to have it be heard allows you to respond appropriately. When we call someone, I must remind them that they may not always love our product or think that everyone on the planet needs it, but not everybody does, or maybe they don’t see it. So, how do we have conversations to open up what they need? And if we fit, great. If we don’t, then at least know how to build that relationship because, down the road, there might be something new added into your line of products that they could need.” – KELLY
Connect with Kelly Lichtenberger:
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:
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 Kelly Lichtenberger, a global head of sales development at Checkpoint, a company that protects cloud email and collaboration suites from cyber-attacks. With over 20 years of experience in sales development, marketing, leadership, and inside sales development, she has a diverse background in building revenue -driven inside sales teams within high growth, high tech organizations. She’s a winner of the AAISP Most Influential Sales Professionals Award and a noted expert on training, building, and growing exceptional teams. Welcome to the show, Kelly. This conversation is right up my alley.
Kelly Lichtenberger: Well, thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here. [1:20]
Nancy Calabrese: Oh my goodness. Yeah. So, um, why don’t we start with this? You and I, um, are big fans of cold calling. I don’t often get to interview or speak to many people that believe in it the way you and I both. So why do you believe it’s such an effective marketing tool to add to any organization?
Kelly Lichtenberger: Because I still very much believe in the human element. I think the world, we hear a lot about AI and tools and what this tool can do and what this system can do. And when we start just leaving out the human element, we’re missing a big part of the sales cycle. I talk to my team often about this. And I think what happens is it really comes down to skill set. And there’s a lot of people that just don’t have a skill set in how to appropriately use the phone as a selling device. So, it’s easier to say, it doesn’t work and it’s dead. And the more people that say that it actually helps me and my teams because it opens the doors, less people are calling. So, I’ll get through. [2:36]
Nancy Calabrese: I love it. It’s so true. You know, when you think about it, and when I speak with many professionals, they love networking. They love going out to all of these events. And I look at cold calling as phone networking. It’s targeted, right? You’re way more efficient. You don’t have to travel to and from. And it’s the same thing when you go to a networking event. You’re meeting strangers. Well, same thing over the phone. I just don’t get why people have this fear of picking up the phone.
Kelly Lichtenberger: And I think it comes down to a lot of it is rejection if they hang up. But what they don’t understand is if you look at all of your numbers for your success and how many touches it takes to get to a prospect, you’re still getting quote unquote hung up on with your emails. People just aren’t responding. So, it’s the same thing. But for some reason people get nervous, but they don’t see you and that’s okay. Maybe your approach needs to be worked on. You’re not going to get 100 % of anything that you do. So why not try something that gets you to start building your relationship that much quicker? [3:54]
Nancy Calabrese: I agree. Now, do you believe in scripting?
Kelly Lichtenberger: So, I am not a big fan of scripts to read off of. I am a fan to at least get your thoughts down. Like anything, I think you need to practice and understand in role playing what could happen so you’re ready. So, when you get on the phone, anything that comes your way, you have a response. And that helps as well. But people to do the actual script, no, I’m not one that does that because again, I want it to be a natural conversation like you and I are having today, wherever this takes us and be present. [4:38]
Nancy Calabrese: Right. Well, I’m going to have to politely disagree with you on that, because I do believe in scripting, but scripting is a tool that you start with. And the way I make sense of it is, you know, when you see actors, Leo DiCaprio in a movie, it all started with the script, right? But he makes it his own. So we use a technique here so that the scripts are pretty much the same and what we try to do in our scripting is identify pain points to get the people on the other end of the phone emotional and if you know we have a saying here if there’s no pain there’s no sale you want to move forward.
Kelly Lichtenberger: Agreed.
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah, the script is a starting point, but they wind up internalizing it, and maybe that’s what you’re saying too.
Kelly Lichtenberger: Yes, I think so. What happens a lot of times where I find that people, they take a script, if they sound scripted, that’s not natural. So that’s where I say, I like to have script as your starting point, where again, I have my teams do a lot of role-playing activities and play out what could happen. And once they get on the phone, though, not sounding so scripted and being so scripted that they can’t move away from what’s on the paper. And again, that’s the skill set that I really like to work on is how to take the initial of what you do but go in and lead with how you can be interested in what they have to say and not interesting. Meaning you’re not just talking over the person, you’re trying to find out and get to, because I believe in exactly what you said, to the pain. If there is no pain, personal life or professional, you’re not changing anything. So, there is no such thing as if you have budget or not. If the pain’s great enough, again, personal, or professional, you will find the budget. So, it’s how you get there. So, a lot of times, if the person has their guard up when you’re just calling in, again, there’s no script for that. You must work around it. So yes, you can have a script, but knowing how to play within that, and again, keep the human element there. [6:59]
Nancy Calabrese: Right. So, you have a lot of experience building inside sales teams. That’s not an easy thing to do. So, what qualities do you look for when you go to hire and bring someone on board as an inside sales rep?
Kelly Lichtenberger: I am looking for someone that wants to get to sales, wants to have a chance. I don’t always look for this many years with phone experience or a certain technology. I just must know they’re going to be ambitious. They understand that they are going to face rejection all day. Their job is repetitive. But if they stick with it and become skilled and train and train and train, they’re going to be amazing. So, it’s a great place to start and learn and really get your feet in and understand the buying cycle. And I think it’s a skill that really people that have been in the actual field for a long time when pandemic kit and things like that, for them to go back and must even pick up a phone themselves, they had no idea what to do. So, it’s an amazing skill set to start with, to bring to the field. [8:26]
Nancy Calabrese: Wow. So, you know, I want to congratulate you on the award that you won for most influential sales professionals. What did you do to earn that?
Kelly Lichtenberger: Thank you. Thank you so much. So AISP is now a company in Blaze. And they every year they’re an amazing company. And they open it up to partners that they work with and all kinds of things. I’ve been very involved with them. They do a lot of science backed information and trainings. And I had always been involved and when I was coming up as a salesperson, again, I wanted to learn as much as possible. And I started my career as an SDR and stayed all these years within the industry because I love it. So, you know, I just happened to work with them enough and had enough people go through the program that they saw it working. And so, I was able to win and I’m very fortunate for it. [9:28]
Nancy Calabrese: Oh, awesome. So, let’s pivot to emotional intelligence. I know that’s a hot topic for you. Let’s talk about emotional intelligence in prospecting. What’s important there?
Kelly Lichtenberger: Mm -hmm. It really.. So when you think about emotional intelligence and emotional intelligence, same as EQ. So, people have heard of IQ. So, IQ is knowing how. EQ is knowing you. So emotional intelligence is self -awareness, self -regulation, motivation, empathy, social skills. It’s really, again, adding the human element into sales. So, when I’m working with a team, I even tell them, we’re not going in to sell on step one on the first conversation. We’re looking to, how do you build a relationship even in your personal life? And it’s, again, being you. So, one of the things that people forget to do a lot of times, again, is if we go back to even talking about the script, is they end up wanting to get so focused on the product know -how and to do. But forgetting on the other end is an actual person that do we understand what their role is? Do we understand what their pain points could be? Do we understand the things that are really going to be helpful to them in their position? Yes, they work for a company. Yes, they must buy their own things. But everyone has their own set of requirements that’s going to get them to speak with you longer or not, and then introduce you to those that you should, or you shouldn’t be speaking with within the company. So, within the emotional intelligence, you must understand self -awareness too. So, if you’re getting rejections, how to handle it, how to pivot, not get upset if you have a day where a lot of hang-ups have happened, or you didn’t get through and get the demo set up. Knowing that motivation, if you’re not doing those things again, how do you make something a skill set like the cold call and not just give up because it’s not working for you? And a lot of people do. And then again, they want to say, well, this didn’t work. Well, maybe it’s you didn’t work on that one. [11:55]
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah, yeah. You also state, and this is really interesting to me, that EI helps women be 11 % more successful in sales. Please expand on that.
Kelly Lichtenberger: Absolutely. And you know, I’m on a mission to get more women into sales. They do phenomenal at sales. Now, here’s where they do well, is using that emotional intelligence. And though a lot of times they don’t know that they are, they’re just being themselves. And it has to do sometimes with not having all of the confidence in the world when they get into sales and not feeling that they have the experience with a certain technology. So, when you take those out of it, the only thing left in your bag of tricks is to be authentically yourself. And so, when women start asking questions because they want to naturally learn more and they’re more empathetic and they are more willing to learn new skills when it becomes a new technology again because they’re doubting themselves and then there’s imposter syndrome. But some of those things make them really well positioned in sales to be that much more successful. [13:12]
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah, wow. And where does active listening come into play here?
Kelly Lichtenberger: Absolutely. So active listening is a big part of emotional intelligence, and it comes into a few places. It’s going to come into social skills. It’s going to come into self -awareness, but really the social skills of understanding. When again to let somebody speak and you learn from and you actively listen to have it be heard where you could say back to them, ask additional questions about what they just said. Not all the time when we call someone, I must remind people, we may love our product, we may think that every single person on the planet needs it, but not everybody does, or maybe they don’t see it. So how do we have conversations to really open what they do need? And if we fit, great, if we don’t, then at least still how to build that relationship because down the road there might be something new added into your line of products that they could need. [14:22]
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah, yep. You know, we hear, we take a no as a not now. And we look at a no as a positive because we’re getting closer to our yes.
Kelly Lichtenberger: Absolutely. There are three potential answers. Yes, no, and maybe. “Yes” is obviously fantastic. “No” is great too, because you know where you stand. The worst answer is “maybe”. That’s where you’re falling down in sales. [14:50]
Nancy Calabrese: Right. You got it. Yeah. And, you know, I feel sorry for salespeople that take a maybe as yes, you know, and then they continue to follow up. But maybe I would go right back to them and kind of politely challenge them. You know, if this is your way to, you know, politely get me off the phone, that’s okay. But I’d really push for the yes or the no, you know.
Kelly Lichtenberger: Absolutely. Absolutely. Pipelines are built on maybes and then sales reps get to the end and go, but I thought they really liked what I had. So that’s why I have it in the pipeline. Well, liking it and actually needing it are two different things. [15:29]
Nancy Calabrese: You got it. So how do you keep your team motivated day in and day out?
Kelly Lichtenberger: So, with sales development, with inside sales, again with the repetitive, we must add some fun. And so, what I like to do is different contests. We do things that we compete as a team. So yes, you’re in sales. So, you still have a stack rank, but we like to do it together. So, we’ll do additional blitz days where there’s prizes. We’ll do things where we’re creating new email content or new ways to get into somebody on the phone. And the first one that their new way to try and get somebody works, they win. Anything that we can do to keep it interesting and exciting. Otherwise, it is, it’s too repetitive and you can get lost in it. [16:28]
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah, we here, you know, we use Microsoft Teams, and everybody checks in. My people are all over the world. And when somebody gets, you know, an appointment, we all post stupid GIFs, you know, to celebrate them. Yeah. Isn’t that cool? I love it too. You know, no, no, go, go.
Kelly Lichtenberger: Yes, we do too. I love that. That’s fun. And again because you’re in, oh, sorry. I was gonna say because you’re in different areas all over the world, it connects people, and the laughter gets everybody on the team to know each other a little bit more. [17:05]
Nancy Calabrese: Yep, it’s fun and I’m very lucky. Turnover inside sales reps. What’s your experience with that?
Kelly Lichtenberger: It can be huge. I, on the other hand, I will say it’s one of the things I pride myself on. I do not have large turnover. And I think because how I lead is you must know your team. So, I, the same way I’m trying to build relationships with prospects, I’m going to build it with my team first. Not every single person on the team wants the same thing. So, I must know what every single employee, what they’re motivated by. And then I’m going to work with them on that. Some are more vacation time. Some it’s more pay. Some it’s, you know, more opportunity within the company. But you must find out. And I want to know my staff. And I want to make sure what I say to them is what they see that I’m doing to help them in their career and to get to where they want to go. And that’s how you keep them is showing up every day as the leader that is behind them. [18:10]
Nancy Calabrese: Yep. I’m lucky also. And I think it’s recognizing, acknowledging them and being appreciative because without them, I have no business.
Kelly Lichtenberger: Absolutely. And again, it’s hard work. And I want people to be with me. I want to build my team, my portion of the company together with the same group and see them do fantastic. If they’re not achieving their goals as the leader, I’m not achieving mine. It’s that simple, which means the company is not going to get to theirs. So, we all have a mutual benefit to everybody being happy and wanting to stay. [18:54]
Nancy Calabrese: Yep, no cancers, no cancers in the company. Yeah, I can’t believe we’re up in time. This is such an engaging conversation, Kelly. Oh yeah, what is something, what is the one takeaway you want to leave the audience with?
Kelly Lichtenberger: Correct. Yes. that I want to see more people get into sales again. It’s not used car. There are so many benefits to getting into sales. And if you’ve ever thought about it and never been, starting with inside sales, learning a new technology, there’s so many things that that’s where the AI can help us. Come give it a try. Come look for some of those mentors and have yourself a fantastic career. [19:42]
Nancy Calabrese: I love it. I love your passion. How can my people reach you if they want to be in touch with you?
Kelly Lichtenberger: Absolutely. So, they can reach out to me at my email address, which I have kelly@prospectlikeagirl.com, which is the best way now to reach me for all the latest in training. [20:06]
Nancy Calabrese: Prospect like a girl. I love it. I can’t believe it. Listen, folks, you’ve been listening to an expert. She’s passionate about what she does. She has a lot of good experience. She has great management experience. Take advantage of her expertise and be sure to reach out. Kelly, we’re going to have to do this again because it was just too short. We have so much in common and I’m really appreciated that you spent time with us this morning.
Kelly Lichtenberger: Thank you so much for having me. I would be honored to be a guest at any time. Yes, we have so much in common. So, I have followed you and I just love this conversation. So, I look forward to coming back soon.
Nancy Calabrese: Awesome. And everyone out there, pick up the phone. Pick up the phone. It is your friend, not your foe. Make it a great sales day. Yeah. All right. Have a good one. [21:06]
Kelly Lichtenberger: I agree! Thank you.
by Marta Malyk | May 28, 2024 | Cold Calling, Cold Calling Success, Cold Calling Tips, Sales, Sales Prospecting, Sales Tips
Understanding human psychology can be a game-changer in sales. Sales is not just about pitching a product or service; it’s about connecting with people on a deeper level and influencing their decisions. By applying principles of psychology to sales techniques, professionals can enhance their effectiveness and build stronger relationships with clients. Let’s explore some important psychological concepts and how they can be applied in sales.
First, establishing rapport is essential in sales. People are likelier to buy from someone they trust and feel comfortable with. Building rapport involves active listening, empathy, and mirroring the client’s behavior and language. Psychologically, this creates a sense of familiarity and likability, making the client more receptive to the sales pitch.
Understanding the psychology of persuasion is crucial. Robert Cialdini’s six principles of influence – reciprocity, scarcity, authority, consistency, liking, and consensus – provide valuable insights into how people are persuaded to say “yes.” By aligning sales strategies with these principles, professionals can ethically nudge prospects toward making favorable decisions.
And finally, emotional intelligence is crucial in sales. Empathizing with clients’ needs and concerns allows salespeople to tailor their approach effectively. Recognizing and addressing emotional triggers will create a more meaningful connection and guide the client toward a positive outcome.
Here at One of a Kind Sales, we apply psychology to all of our sales techniques. Our proven methodology leads us to success and great results. To find out more, give us a call at 908-879-2911.
by Nancy Calabrese | May 23, 2024 | Podcast
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:
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:
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]
by Marta Malyk | May 13, 2024 | Sales process, Sales Prospecting, Sales Tips
In the dynamic world of sales, success is often determined by a combination of strategy, skill, and ethical conduct. While there are countless approaches to selling, not all methods are created equal. Some practices can yield positive results in the short term but may harm relationships and reputations in the long run. Let’s explore the fine line between acceptable and unacceptable sales practices.
OK Practices:
Honesty and Transparency: Building trust is essential in sales. Being honest about product capabilities, pricing, and potential outcomes establishes a solid foundation for lasting customer relationships.
Active Listening: Understanding the needs and concerns of customers is crucial. Active listening allows sales professionals to tailor their approach to address specific pain points and offer meaningful solutions.
Value Proposition: Highlighting the value proposition of a product or service demonstrates its relevance to the customer’s needs. Focusing on benefits rather than features helps prospects envision the impact on their lives or businesses.
Relationship Building: Successful salespeople invest time in nurturing relationships with customers. This involves maintaining regular communication, providing support after the sale, and demonstrating a genuine interest in the client’s success.
Continuous Learning: The sales landscape is constantly evolving. Embracing a continuous learning mindset enables sales professionals to stay updated on industry trends, refine their skills, and adapt to changing market dynamics.
Not OK Practices:
Misrepresentation: Exaggerating product capabilities or making false promises to close a sale is unethical. While it may result in short-term gains, it damages credibility and can lead to negative word-of-mouth and potential legal consequences.
High-pressure Tactics: Pressuring customers into purchasing aggressive tactics or false scarcity creates a sense of distrust and can tarnish the reputation of both the salesperson and the company.
Ignoring Feedback: Disregarding customer feedback or failing to address complaints can alienate clients and damage relationships. Listening to concerns and taking proactive steps to resolve issues demonstrates a commitment to customer satisfaction.
Lack of Transparency: Hiding important information, such as hidden fees or contract terms, breeds mistrust. Transparency fosters open communication and ensures that customers make informed decisions.
Neglecting Ethics: Engaging in unethical behavior, such as bribery or kickbacks, undermines the integrity of the sales process. Upholding ethical standards is essential for maintaining trust and credibility in the eyes of customers and stakeholders.
While the sales profession is inherently competitive, ethical conduct should always remain a top priority. By adhering to honesty, transparency, and customer-centricity principles, sales professionals can build strong relationships, foster loyalty, and achieve long-term success.
