Larry Levine | Bringing Authenticity and Heart to Sales

by Nancy Calabrese | Dec 7, 2020 | Podcast

Our special guest on this week’s episode of Conversational Selling is Larry Levine, author of the best selling book “Selling From the Heart.” He is the co-founder of Social Sales Academy, a sales coach and practitioner, a keynote speaker, and the co-host of the Selling From the Heart podcast series.

Larry says, “I was really keenly aware of how salespeople were perceived in the marketplace. And I wanted to change people’s perception. I brought caring, respect, heart, sincerity, appreciation to the forefront in an environment where most people weren’t expecting it.”

We discuss changing people’s perception of sales, as well as:

• Old models of dysfunctional sales teams
• Inner HEART work required to do the hard work
• Investing in yourself and investing in your teams
• Core foundations of Sales – Building Relationships
• And more

Listen now…

Mentioned in this episode:

• Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People
• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Larry’s Website

Transcript

Nancy Calabrese: Hi, everybody and welcome to Conversational Selling. It’s the podcast for sales leaders and business experts share what’s going on in sales and marketing today. And it all starts with the human conversation. I’m your host, Nancy Calabrese, and I am beyond excited to welcome Larry Levine, author of the best selling book Selling From the Heart, also the co-founder of the Social Sales Academy, a sales coach and practitioner, a keynote speaker and co-host of the selling from the heart podcast series. Larry, welcome to the show. I know you’re going to be a lot of fun. And by the way, there sure is a lot of heart in what you do.

Larry Levine: Oh, thanks. I look for I’ve been looking forward to this conversation, Nancy. So it’s an honor. Thanks for having me on.

Nancy: Oh, my goodness. Well, thank you. And you know I have to start with the word heart. Where did this come from? What originated selling with a heart or from the heart and why is it so important in sales?

Larry: I’m if it’s okay, I’m gonna take I’m gonna take you and your listeners just down a little quick journey. And I think you’ll you’ll understand why I bring the heart to the forefront in sales. So I grew up in a, I grew up in a household that had all sisters and a vast majority of my cousins were female. I had an overly protective Jewish mom and I grew up in a Jewish household. And I’ll leave it at that. For all your listeners, you’re probably conjuring up in your mind right now, all of us from the east coast, right. But my dad, my dad traveled a lot. And I was raised a lot by my mom and hanging out with my sisters. And I always tell people, Nancy, I’m probably and I’m comfortable in my own skin. But I always tell people I’m probably more female in a male’s body than male in a male’s body. And that’s okay. But that transferred really well to sales. And I grew up in a really happy

Nancy: How so? How so?

Larry: Because it’s that nurturing, loving, caring aspect that I got from my mom, that I carried over into sales because I, I spent my whole entire sales career in one sales channel. I grew up in the office technology channel. So yes, I sold copiers and software my whole life through that channel. But there’s something that I took away from how I was raised, and I started to see it. In the sales channel I spent a lot of time in.

It’s this that they were full of broken promises and busted dreams. There was high sales rep turnover. Yeah. And customers were just leaving, scratching their head going, What is going on? And I was really cognizant of my surroundings. And I started to ask as I developed a little customer base, I started to ask my customers, what do you like, what do you don’t like about salespeople? And I, and I learned something along the way, Nancy, that the laundry list of things they didn’t like, far outweighed what they liked.

But there’s one thing that came across more and more and more as I started to ask, it was this, I just want somebody to care about me Listen to me, and help me do better business in its simplest format. I go, nothing rocket science about that. And I just delivered it. I just did things completely polar opposite. And I brought emotions to the forefront, something that a lot of sales people don’t do, or they fail to do with consistency.

And I always said this is the more comfortable I made somebody feel the more comfortable they were in their conversation, and are willing to share things that are uncomfortable going on in their business. And I always said I wasn’t the smartest sales guy out there. There’s people that would outsell me out, strategize me outwit me, right? Kind of ripping things off from survivor. but you get the point. But I said there was nobody that was going to out care me. And I cared more about my clients in my marketplace than anybody else in sales in my marketplace.

Nancy: Yeah, but didn’t it also make your job more fun and less crappy crest in this role?

Larry: Yeah, it did. Because I, you know, something that and I was harder on myself. And still to this day, I am as well, but I was harder on myself than anybody else was I held myself to a higher degree of standard. But there’s one thing that I became really cognizant of is that perceptions reality. And I was really keenly aware of how sales people were perceived in the marketplace, and I wanted to change people’s faces. perception. And I’m a big believer that that’s why I achieved the level of success. And I’m not here to brag about what I did is just that I brought caring respect heart sincerity, appreciation to the forefront in a in a in an environment where most people weren’t expecting it.

Nancy: Mm-hmm. I’m a big believer in authenticity. I know you open up your book with that first chapter about it, can you just go into it in a little detail share with the audience? The, the content in or the gist of the first chapter?

Larry: Yeah. I’m a massive, massive believer that authenticity is a lifestyle. I think authenticity is ingrained in all of us. But I would like to just share some I don’t have a Ph.D., Nancy, in psychology, human behavior. I didn’t do deep strategic research. When I wrote selling from the heart, it was me, but it was bringing me to life.

Nancy: Mm-hmm.

Larry: But I did earn a Ph.D. from getting the you know, what kicked out of me in sales for almost three decades. And I share that because I always say authenticity is a lifestyle. It’s not a light switch. And when I brought selling from the heart to life, I wrote it in a way that said, Hey, if you can’t do the inner heart work, he AR T the hard work, it becomes difficult to do the harder work. And the first couple chapters, actually, the first three plus chapters of selling from the heart is all about self reflection, self awareness, really getting in tune with who you are. Because here’s what’s interesting. And on our selling from the heart podcast, we always ask people, you know, what’s it mean to you to sell from the heart when guests come on our podcast? And I remember this as plain as day, Nancy, and I think this helps, you know, encapsulate why I wrote the chapters, the way I did, is, we had a guest on the podcast that said, you know, what, it’s hard to sell from the heart, if your heart is broken.

Nancy: Or if your heart isn’t into it. That’s right. Or your

Larry: Heart’s not into it. Yeah, unfortunately, in sales are so many people that are just going through the motions. Yep. And sales is emotional. I know it is. Right. I’ve lived through it. But I learned how to get comfortable in my own skin and who I was and what made me tick. Yeah. And I said, You know what, there wasn’t a I was on so many dysfunctional sales teams have so many dysfunctional managers, in all the coaching and all the training and everything was centered around product knowledge, company knowledge, how to piece a deal together knowledge, and I’m keeping it simple, you know, but I think people get where I’m going with this. I can’t remember one time in my past that any manager ever said, Hey, Larry, how can I help you become the best version of yourself? Yeah. And that’s why I wrote the beginning of selling from the heart that way.

Nancy: Yeah. I also read in one of your posts, you stay, you know, can you imagine a professional athlete operating with a sales reps mindset. And I want to take this to, I meet so many sales professionals, and speak with so many business owners that won’t invest in themselves and or their team for training and coaching, what do you have to say about that?

Larry: I always say this is if and I’ll, I’m gonna say it, if you fail to invest, you’ll never be able to collect. And I and I, and I, and I share this. And I’m pretty direct when I say it, but in a professional way, is if we fit at a leadership level. And I’ll even throw in Nancy, in a management level, is if we fail to invest in our sales team in consistent, small bite sized chunks of coaching. Mm-hmm. You will never be able to collect and reap the benefits that your sales team has. And and here’s what frightens me to death more than anything else is how many times I’ve been on calls with leaders or sales managers. Right. And I go, you know, I get what you’re saying, Larry, but you know, this team isn’t worth investing in. I go well, that’s not my issue. That’s your issue. Right? Why did you hire them?

Nancy: All right, right. Yeah.

Larry: But but it you know, I’ll take this one step farther is if we fail to invest in ourselves, first and foremost, we’ll never be able to collect. And given what we’ve all been going through, you know, throughout most of 2020 This is the time where I’m going to urge leaders, leaders of sales teams and sales people to double down and invest in themselves. Because if you can invest in yourself, how can your clients, your marketplace and your prospects invest in you if you’re not willing to invest in yourself?

Nancy: Right? So what would your suggestions be if somebody is going to listen when somebody listens to this? And they say, Wow, this guy really has it right? What would be some steps they could take to invest in themselves?

Larry: Have read write, is, you know, I always tell people, if you want to earn more, you got to learn more, right? Yes, read, listen to podcasts. There’s gosh, there’s endless, endless, endless webinars being produced right now. And here’s what I always tell people, this tygo hack, if you want to earn a PhD in knowledge, and improve what you do, hang out with your customers hang out with your clients, right? You pick the brain of an executive decision maker, pick the brain of a mid level decision maker, create your own mastermind group and hold each other accountable. There’s so many countless ways to learn these days. There really shouldn’t be an excuse why you can’t learn. It’s there at your fingertips is called Google.

Nancy: Yeah, I Yep. And YouTube, too. Yeah. But Google, definitely. It’s always my go to always. And, you know, like, you would mentioned, I think, in your introduction or chapter that you got into sales pre internet, is that correct?

Larry: Yeah, now I’m dating myself, Nancy.

Nancy: No, I think I could date you even I could date myself even further. But the reason I’m bringing that up, is the tools that are available to all of us sales professionals. Give us no excuse for not investing in ourselves. No, you know, you find it online.

Larry: Yeah, you see, you bring it you bring up a great point. I write about it and selling from the heart of having a no excuse mentality. Yeah. Is You know, so, I mean, it’s just the time how Nancy, you and I were raised right. When I got into sales, the internet was it was probably thought of, but it wasn’t anywhere near what it is today, right? computers were just barely knew I didn’t have my first. I didn’t use my first computer. Till probably the somewhere towards the early 90s. Like 92 ish, 93 ish. It didn’t become a staple until 94 with me, Oh, do

Nancy: You remember how horrified you work? Like? That’s out? How? Yeah, so so file Internet Explorer.

Larry: But there’s but there’s something to be said for adaptability, and you have to adopt and so forth. And that’s why I tell people today, right? Hmm, we’re adaptable, you can adopt to things. And the only reason why I note is look at the advent of the computer, right? Look at the advent of the phone, we all adapt, right? It’s our mindset, it’s our willingness to learn these things. So if we, if we, I think the reason why. And I’m not here to make a generational comment, you know, and say it’s one generation versus another because we can all learn from each other. But in the generations that we grew up in, it was phone and face to face. And that was it. The distractions of today just didn’t exist, right. All right. So if I wanted to do research on your company, or so forth, I had to make a concerted effort. And I had to go to the library, right. And now today, the library’s Google.

But it was those phone conversations and those face to face conversations that allowed us and fostered relationship building. And that became the core foundation. And I one of my favorite books that I read, even in my younger days was Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. Yeah, the whole premise. And that book is forever. I mean, that book will stand the test of time. And now that book, you know, is, is well past 80 years old. And Dale Carnegie was alive and well. And he was listening in on our conversation. He would laugh his backside off because of how much truths in that book. And that book was written in the late 30s. And it’s all about the premise of building relationships and changing the way people think. Yeah, to me, that’s the core foundation in sales, is building relationships and changing the way people think it’s just now today. There’s just so many different tools to accomplish that.

Nancy: Yeah. Yeah, I really want to talk about your social sales Academy, but there was another quote you posted somewhere in your vast wealth of material. successful sales professionals don’t monkey around they use the phone and that is near and dear to me. So can you explain And on that.

Larry: Yeah, I always you know, there’s some people they’re gonna say you can’t use a phone. Nobody answers the phone. Well, to quote my dear good friend Jeb Blunt who wrote Fanatical Prospecting

Nancy: Yeah,

Larry: Jeb goes nobody answers a phone that doesn’t ring.

Nancy: Yeah,

Larry: It’s as simple as that. But but you know the phone still a vital aspect, right? of what we do in sales in I remember this I was petrified Nancy to use the phone as a sales guy. Absolutely. horrifically petrified well into my career. I had to get I had to go through coaching to coach me out of being so scared. But I think today Yeah, you did it. But I did. But I did it. People may not answer the phone at the rate they used to. But to me, there’s there’s different ways of using the phone. Right? It could be a desk phone, which now you know, it’s all a lot of its mobile, right?

Yeah. But we can still you can, the Connect rate to getting somebody on the phone may not be what it used to be. But I always share with people this is if you stink on the phone. You’re gonna stink through other mediums of conversation anyway. Yeah. And now look, and now look at where where we’re at today. Because before we hopped on in, you kicked off our time together, we were talking about how you communicate in this world we are today and you brought up tonality and things like that.

Yeah, it’s the same thing today, whether that be the phone, whether that be a video call, whether that be any kind of video platform, you’re still communicating. I may not I may not call Nancy and Nancy may not pick up her phone. But I can coordinate a video call with her. Right? Yeah. So I think that there’s no excuse why or when why you do or don’t use the phone, you just got to use the phone. And sometimes it may or may be the fastest way to get to somebody. Think about this, right? How many people hide behind email and they send somebody an email 20 times to see if they can coordinate a call I go Have you ever thought about picking up the phone and just calling? Right?

Nancy: I get it, I get it.

Larry: And it’s the same thing, right? It’s the same thing. Now, texting, going back and forth. I just like put it into it, pick up the phone and just call the person or the same when the thing goes back and forth via email. The phone does work. It’s the mental approach to it.

Nancy: Yep, it’s it. You know, I think that’s the key to relationship building. written. words don’t necessarily convey emotion and or convey the right emotion. So connecting over the phone and having that conversation is important. Talk about social sales Academy. When was that developed? And what is that about?

Larry: So, I haven’t talked about this in a while when I saw in 20. So the take everyone back before selling from the heart is what it is right now. I stemmed out of the copier channel. So I’m gonna I’m going to take everyone on a really quick journey, but I’ll speed this up for time sake. At 50 years old, I was relieved of my duties as a corporate major accounts sales rep. Never that happened before ever, right? Yeah. So I found myself without a job at 50 years old spending my whole entire career in one sales channel. And I remember crying for days going, Okay, well, what am I going to do and so forth. And obviously got a great supportive wife and Darryl Amy, who’s near and dear to me, as my podcast partner. I’ve known Darrell for a long time he goes, you know, some Larry, you got to go out, you got to coach sales reps on what you did in the office technology channel, as you build out your brand and how you leverage the power of social selling to grow your business in a really chaotic commoditized highly competitive sales channel, like the office technology channel.

So I said interesting, I flipped the script. And I and we came up with the name social sales Academy. Well, that that’s kind of taken a backburner selling from the heart. We’ve kind of merged them together, Nancy, but there was a bit but because not too many people know this. So for about a year, year and a half. I went I traveled around the US, Canada and parts of Australia, and I was coaching, office technology reps on how to integrate the power of social selling into what they’re doing. And something happened along the way, is about a year, year and a half into it.

I said you know what? There’s a bigger picture out there, I’m starting to uncover things that are a lot more than teaching sales reps social selling. It’s an it’s an absolute, I think it’s a, it’s a, it’s a tool that can help elevate the sales profession. But this is what was happening. social selling was shining a big, shiny light on the sales world saying, hey, salespeople, you can do a whole lot better than you’re doing. You’re struggling to clearly articulate value, you have low business conversation skills, your business acumen is below par, you’re poorly connected to your customers, you’re poorly positioned online. But yet, you all want to learn about social selling, what happens if I flip the script, and I flip the script, and I help sales reps clearly articulate their value, raise their business acumen feel good about themselves. And thus selling from the heart was born through the podcast, Nancy, and then. And then the book came out a year and eight, nine months ago.

And then I decided at that point, that I’m going to take the whole concepts around social and integrate it with selling from the heart and deliver something that’s unique out in the sales world. Because I’m not here to disrespect anybody who coaches people on social selling. But when that’s all you do, it becomes diluted with everybody in their mother who’s out there talking about social selling. Yeah, it’s an it’s an extremely great tool to use. But when I brought selling from the heart to the forefront, I said, you know what I’m going to help sales reps become the best version of themselves, they’re going to learn how to authentically build themselves up on social, they’re going to learn how to authentically connect, how to authentically sell, and how to authentically manage their customers, through selling from the heart, and we’re going to integrate social into it. So that’s why we primarily just run obviously, we built out a really great brand, around song from the heart.

Nancy: It makes a lot of sense, I believe, and having multiple channels of outreach. And so social media is good for branding and getting interest and you know, developing some really good opportunities, but nothing to me, will replace the need for being authentic and being able to exchange conversations and develop new relationships for the right reasons.

Larry: No, I can’t I just gotta say, I gotta layer on top of that, if I can. And I and I think you bring you bring up a key point because there’s multiple channels to communicate in. But there’s one thing that in here’s it, I think it’s more of a mindset issue than anything else. Is I always I love asking people, Nancy, do first impressions matter. And everybody says, Well, of course. I know. First impressions matter, Nancy, because, you know, that’s how you and I connected now, obviously, we connected through a mutual friend. But you did your due diligence on me. I know something about you. Right. And, and we formed an opinion of each other really quick. Now if we made a horrible first impression, you and I are on on your podcast, and I think you would agree with me on that. So if we look at the world that we live in today, we it’s almost hybrid in nature, we got to take the best of what’s worked in sales forever in a day. Mm hmm. You have to integrate that in with some more modern ways of doing things. But the issue is, is there’s too many people out there saying no, it’s this way. No, it’s that way. Do this no do that. And there’s a lot of pontification out there, which is just confused many in sales.

Nancy: Yeah,

Larry: I take the step back and just say, Hey, you know what? It all starts with ourselves. And what was really what was really interesting and I in I see this becoming more and more apparent right now. We had a guest recently on our podcast, and this guest, he wrote the challenger sale. So we have we have the fortunate experience of interviewing Brent Adamson, co author of the challenger sale. And inside Gartner, they do executive level research, right sales and marketing research on large corporations. And what was really interesting is we talked about the concepts of selling from the heart how it integrates into the challenger sale. And what we spoke about spoke about and I start seeing this is a lot of sales people right now are struggling to engage in business level conversations, because some of them lack confidence, lack believability, and lack self worth.

Nancy: Mm-hmm.

Larry: And if we can, that’s why I bring this to the forefront say, Hey, you know what, everything starts with us. It’s doing inner work. And if you feel comfortable if you’re confident, right, you believe in your message, you drive great business conversations with high levels of business acumen. People will take notice of that in two seconds. But I always say we sometimes we we’ve we focus on shiny objects and sales. And the shiny object we all should be chasing is the shiny object that’s looking at us when we stare at ourselves in the mirror. And that’s the hard work. And that’s just, you know, core foundational stuff that we must do in sales, and then integrated in with some more modern ways of doing things.

Nancy: Well, you know, we could go on forever, and I hope to continue this. I definitely. I know my listeners are finding this interesting. What What is the one takeaway you’d like to leave the audience with? Um,

Larry: Can I share a quick story? Do we have time to share a quick story?

Nancy: Yeah.

Larry: So here’s something I’d like it. This was told to me by when it was told to me, she wasn’t my mother in law at the time, okay.

Nancy: Mm hmm.

Larry: So I’ll be happily married 28 years. On August 11. Okay. So I remember I’m going to take your listeners back. But this is when I was dating my wife. Now, my wife’s side of the family, my mother now I’m going to call her my mother in law, but my mother in law’s from Oklahoma. I mean, my mother loves her Mississippi, my father in law’s from Oklahoma. Patch gave me the best life lesson ever. In my beginning of my sales career. There’s, I’d love to share the quick story because I think it plays out in sales today. And still to this day, she calls me boy, with her Southern accent, right? She says, and she I remember, this is plain as day. So now I’m taking everyone back probably almost 30 years ago, okay. And we’re all sitting around the dinner table. And she knew it was kind of getting serious between her daughter and myself.

And I remember her telling me this, Nancy, and I’m not going to do a southern accent because I just can’t do it justice. Okay, he goes, boy, if you can’t do the little things, right, how are you going to do the big things right? Yeah, and then furthermore, she says, Larry, don’t half ass do anything in your career. Yeah, those two things stuck with me like glue. If we bring this to the forefront, by the way, I love hanging out with you. Thank you for having me on your on your podcast, Nancy. But what I what I’d like to leave the listeners with is this if you can’t do the little things, right? With consistency, with discipline with determination. How are you going to do the big things right? And when you all chase the shiny objects, you’re half-assing your job.

Nancy: Wow. Could have come out of my mouth.

Larry: Nancy, I told you before before we decide to record this, you never know what’s gonna come out of my mouth.

Nancy: So I love it. I love it. So how do my listeners find you?

Larry: Oh, they can find me at sellingfromtheheart.net they can find the Selling From the Heart podcast on whatever favorite podcast app they choose to listen to podcasts on. You can find me all over LinkedIn at Larry Levine 1992. You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Nancy: Watch out audience, he’s all over the place. Thank you.

Larry: What a treat.

Nancy: I told you this would be fun. Easy, easy. So until we speak again everyone stay safe. Keep selling.

Christine Schlonski | The Sales Success Mindset

by Nancy Calabrese | Nov 16, 2020 | Podcast

On this week’s episode of Conversational Selling, we sit down with Christine Schlonski, the Queen of the Sales Success Mindset and founder of christineschlonski.com. Christine has over 12 years of successful high ticket event sales in the corporate world, and has built and trained international sales teams, leading them to make millions in revenue. She is also the creator of the online Summit Series, Sales Mentality Makeover Masterclass, and the host of the Heart Sells! Podcast.

Christine says, “I shifted from just thinking about the sale, making it logical and showing up in a way that I thought I had to show up to represent the success that I wanted people to see. When I really shifted into that heart space and I started to talk to a human on the other end of the phone, things just shifted dramatically.”

We chat about how our hearts help us sell, as well as:

• The Sales Success Mindset
• Teaching entrepreneurs to sell naturally
• Her Sales Mentality Makeover
• The Heart Sells! Podcast
• And more

Listen now…

Mentioned in this episode:

• Christine’s Site
• Heart Sell! Podcast

Transcript

Nancy Calabrese: Hi everybody and welcome to Conversational Selling. It’s the podcast where sales leaders and business experts share what’s going on in sales and marketing today. And it all starts with the human conversation. I’m your host, Nancy Calabrese, and I’m so excited to have Christine Schlonski with me today. She’s the founder of christineschlonski.com and is known as the Queen of the Sales Success Mindset.

She has over 12 years of successful high ticket event sales in the corporate world, has built and trained international sales teams, lead them to success making millions of revenue. She’s the creator of the online Summit Series, Sales Mentality Makeover Masterclass, and host of the podcast, Heart Sells! You know, it’s so funny. I always open my shows saying it starts with the human conversation. But our heart has to be in the right place first, for sure. Welcome to the show, Christine. So happy you can join us.

Christine Schlonski: Yeah, thank you so much, Nancy. I am so excited to be here.

Nancy: Yeah, yeah. Well, for my viewers, Christine and I have gotten to know each other in the past couple of months. And she’s just a wonderful, wonderful person to know, and you are going to enjoy this conversation. So why don’t we start with how do our hearts help us sell?

Christine: Well, I think at the end of the day, right, when you look back on what you have created or what kind of life you have to live, that is a place where you are looking. And that is the place where, you know, we are all aligned and we all come together through our hearts. And I think it’s so important when you create relationships to include your heart and not just make it about a business transaction.

Nancy: Yeah, you know, I mean, why is it so important to our sales success? Or for that matter, any success in general?

The Heart Brings Meaning

Christine: Yeah, I think without heart, it’s meaningless. You will not find the fulfillment, you will not find the happiness because that is created from within. And, you know, that comes from that place of love. I think everybody is looking for, you know, being loved, being recognized, being heard. And that all comes from that desire.

That’s a human desire. So if we go out into the world and we just use our brain and be like, super logical, we don’t find that fulfillment. We might climb a ladder or a mountain and at the top, we figure out that, oh, it doesn’t feel the way I thought it’s going to feel because we forgot to put the heart into place.

Nancy: You know, interesting. I think when most people think of sales, they don’t think of heart, right? When they sales as a profession or part of a role, I think they think stress, panic. What am I going to do? So you bring a good twist to it. I mean, how did you discover selling with the heart?

Christine: Well, when I was working in corporate Germany, and I was cold calling people day in, day out, I just noticed the moment where I discovered self-development, where I started to read certain books where I gave myself permission to be me.

And I shifted from just thinking about the sale, making it logical and showing up in a way that I thought I had to show up to represent the success that I wanted people to see, when I really shifted into that heart space and I started to talk to a human on the other end of the phone, things just shifted dramatically. And I was very successful already before but that helped me to double and triple my revenue that was able to close for the company because I started to really engage with people and to build relationships.

Nancy: So you took the pressure off of yourself not to be someone that you weren’t, but to just have a conversation with a like-minded person. Is that safe to say?

Christine: Yeah. I’ve been taking the pressure off. That had really something to do with it. But I think just feeling good about who I was and who I wanted to be and not, you know, not trying to show up, like how I thought the super successful person had to be calling the other person that already had success because we were only calling like, general managers, owners of companies, CEOs.

So like, taking all that off and just thinking, I’m going to talk to an amazing human being and I have something that they need that helps them to make their life better. So I’m calling a person. And this person is an awesome person, and therefore I can, you know, put my respect, my love, my gratitude, for just talking to that person into the conversation.

Nancy: You’re known as the Queen of the Sales Success Mindset. Tell us more about that.

Christine: Yeah, so everything starts with a sales mindset. And as you mentioned in the intro, a lot of people don’t think that sales if something beautiful, right? We all have these emotions around sales, and they’re pretty bad. So we all have a sales mindset, but for most people, it is something more negative.

And I discovered that sales basically is love. So saying, like sales as love is always a good conversation because people are pretty skeptical when I make this claim. But at the end of the day, if you really have an amazing product or service that helps another person, that makes their life better, then you are just actually sharing your love by helping them to, you know, get on board with whatever you do for them. So yeah, so I changed that to the sales success mindset because you need that success part. You need to know that there is a different way to think about sales.

And by really letting go of your beliefs that are not serving you, and tuning into what serving you, you create that success. So people started to say, Well, this is really the success mindset. This is really what you need in sales. So the sales success mindset was born. And yeah, for some people, they were like, well, you’re so amazing. Like, you are the queen of the sales success mindset. And so yeah, kind of like that.

Nancy: Okay, let’s bow to the queen. I mean, I love your concept. And there you go, you have me talking about love now too. You know, many entrepreneurs find themselves in a sales role that is somewhat new to them, you know? Maybe they’re launching their own business for the first time. And this new role, they sometimes lack the skills and confidence to sell. What are your thoughts on that? And I know you do a lot of work with business owners. How do you get them past that so that selling becomes a natural part of their everyday conversation?

Do You Want a Business or a Hobby?

Christine: Yeah, that’s such a great question, Nancy. So I think if you can’t sell, you don’t have a business. So you have to make the choice. Do you want to have a business or a hobby? And when you say, Well, I do want to have a business, obviously, you are not in the game to have a business that, you know, is just barely supporting you and your dreams.

You are in the business to have a big impact, to make your own dreams come true while you help all these other people. So really getting clear on what is the goal. What do you want to achieve with your business in your life is the first steps I usually take as entrepreneurs. So they have a really clear map and clarity around their own desires.

Because oftentimes, entrepreneurs think, well, I’m really good at this or I have this skill set and I just can go into business for myself and people will show up because I know how to do it and they don’t. But they forgot that they do need that selling part, that sales piece to get people into the door and to support them and to serve them. If they don’t say yes to you, if you don’t make the sale, well, again, you’re back to having a hobby. So we get clear. And with that clarity, I always touch on all of their skills and gifts and talents because what happens so often, and that’s the two of us toon Nancy.

We could talk about sales all day long, right? We would have the best conversation ever. But for other people, that’s a topic like, Oh my goodness, right? They can’t even get to it. So we would talk about sales And we would, you know, be talking about without getting paid. And that’s the same for all these other entrepreneurs. They have something that they love so much, that they would do it without getting paid. And if they haven’t learned that sales piece, well guess what, they don’t get paid because they don’t ask for money.

So really getting clear on your gifts and what they do to support others, what they do in other people’s lives, gives them the understanding of how amazing they are and that they should be charging. And they should be also charging in a way that feels aligned and that they stop underselling and over-delivering, that they create, like a harmony, a balance in their businesses. So they get rewarded for their amazing work while the other person gets what they wanted.

Nancy: Yeah, well, you know, in listening to your description, I always think of sales is just having a conversation. That’s it. It’s a discovery, right? It’s an exchange of information to determine whether or not, you know, the person that I am speaking with, do they have a need? And is the need right now?

Can we solve that problem for them? And I think, you know, adding onto your beliefs about the heart and being so genuine, it’s hard, frankly, I can, I’m sure this is for you, to understand where all of the fear comes in. But having a coach like you to remind them and, you know, the practice and the conversation over time, it becomes so natural, doesn’t it?

Christine: Yeah. And I want to teach people that sales is fun, right? So I love that my clients come and they, you know, I just had like, one of my clients and she started selling her new course. And, you know, we talked about the course and the pricing we picked and I, you know, I challenged her. So she went with her new pricing.

And all of a sudden, like people started to book because the way she expressed it, the way she presented it, and the confidence that came with it just showed her Wow, this was fun. I just offered my next new thing. I knew the person needed it, I knew I was a perfect fit and I knew they’re going to get so much more than what I asked even though I felt uncomfortable with that new pricing. But in the same process, she learned that was a fun conversation.

She got paid in a way she’s never gotten paid before. She feels totally rewarded. Well, guess what, the course is gonna rock because she’s so excited now. And she doesn’t feel like, you know, she’s giving too much and she’s like, missing something in return. That is such a beautiful energy. And with that energy, she goes out, talks to the next person and they said yes and then next person said yes. And all of a sudden, she’s like in total excitement about sales conversations that she was dreading before.

Nancy: Wow, that’s really awesome. Talk a little bit about your Sales Mentality Makeover.

Sales Mentality Makeover

Christine: Mm-hmm. So that’s an online series that I created. And now I run it once a year. And we are just in the process of, you know, setting up the experience to have the replays. But what I do is I invite experts who can teach on mindset sales, money and wealth creation, because that’s like the whole chain, right?

Once you have the mindset in place, you will be able to sell. Once you sell, oh my goodness, you might have some money. What do you do now? And then comes all the money mindset into place and maybe strategies how to not just put all your eggs in one basket, right? But then what do you do then? And then how does it lead to wealth? And what’s wealth? It’s not just money for me. Wealth is like your way of living, the level of fulfillment, your health, your happiness, the, you know, the happiness you can give to others by interacting with them.

So yeah, I have guest teachers that I interview portraying their story to help others to be inspired and to see like wow, some people come from a really, really, really low and unfortunate level and they made it all the way to the top of their mountain by shifting their mindset and by putting strategies in place that really helped them and their business and tons of other people on the way. And so there’s like this teaching moment. And yeah, so I put that out once a year and it’s full of amazing people who have created wonderful businesses in a heart-centered way.

Nancy: Wow. When will the next one come out?

Christine: Well, the next one will come out May 2021.

Nancy: Got it. Alright, well,

Christine: Now we are setting up the experience. So basically, the experience is that you can go and watch like it was live. You get like, your daily content over a certain period of time. And you can just take in all that wisdom and knowledge of these amazing entrepreneurs.

Nancy: Wonderful. They’ll be here before we know it, right? Yeah. Hey, and, you know, I definitely would be remiss not to bring up your very successful podcast, Heart Sells. Tell my audience more about that.

Heart Sells! Podcast

Christine: Thank you so much, Nancy. So Heart Sells Podcast is there to inspire and to motivate entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs in the making, by really showcasing other extraordinary businesspeople who have created amazing companies, by not really starting out with loving sales. And we showcase their success story, what they have accomplished, we talk about the mindset, we talk about the first thing they ever sold, how they overcame, maybe their own fear of selling or rejection or what it took.

So it’s always inspirational interviews. And on Fridays, is where I just teach myself, where I share resources. And yeah, it’s a wonderful podcast that can be listened to in the whole wide world. And I have really, really amazing guests. And I’m so excited because we also had an interview together. And yeah, I just loved it. You gave so much wisdom to the audience. And yeah, it was just wonderful.

Nancy: It was. And I encourage, you know, at the end of our discussion we’ll be able to let people know how to find that and all the other good things that you do. So what is something that is true that almost nobody agrees with you on?

Christine: Well, coming back to sales is love.

Nancy: It sounds like a song, doesn’t it? It reminds me of a Beatles song.

Christine: It does. What’s the Beatles song though?

Nancy: Love is Real? I think love, John Lennon wrote it. Maybe it wasn’t the Beatles. Maybe it was post Beatles but every time I hear you say that I’m thinking of that song.

Christine: Yeah, awesome. Yeah, that’s usually something that people don’t buy it right away because it feels so so not true for so many people because when they hear sales, something within them kind of clicks. And, you know, their tummy tightens, or, I don’t know, the mouth gets dry or the heartbeat goes up. Usually, sales is not a wonderful emotion for people. So, love is, right? When we hear love, like we think of romance of couples, of love hearts, of I don’t know, wonderful vacations, candlelight dinners, like all the good stuff. And bringing that together feels little bit contrary.

Nancy: I mean, how can you not be in a good mood in listening to everything you have to say, Christine? Brings a smile to my face and I’m sure everyone else who’s listening. You know, finally, what is the one takeaway you’d like to leave the audience with?

Allow Yourself to Give Your Gift

Christine: Yeah, really, please get clear about your gifts because everybody on this planet, no matter where you live, what you do, you have a wonderful, beautiful gift. And if you allow yourself to give that gift and if you’re an entrepreneur, to sell that gift, to monetize your gift by supporting so many more people, your life will be like, more than you can imagine right now because you do grow and your dreams grow with you.

So I always say like, create a life beyond your wildest dreams because what’s now your wildest dream might not be next year, right? They might get like, bigger and you grow. So just give yourself the gift of being you and stop buying into who you have to be due to whatever, society, family, I don’t know, just be you. And don’t miss out to live the life you want to live because you only have one.

Nancy: Well said. So how can my audience find you?

Christine: Well, you can just google Heart Sells or you can go to christineschlonski.com. And that’s my page. And, you know, you’ll find the podcast there, you’ll find all the ways to connect on social media. So yeah, that’s the easiest way.

Nancy: Wow. Well, I thank you. I, you know, again, I don’t know how anybody can leave this podcast not being in a good mood and not thinking about love and perfect timing for us, it’s going to be the weekend before we know it. So we go into the weekend feeling great. I thank you, Christine and I can’t wait to have you on again.

Christine: Thank you so, so much, Nancy. It was a pleasure. And, you know, a great podcast always has a great host with awesome questions. And thank you so much for, you know, asking in a way that I never answered those questions before.

Nancy:  Oh, really? Well, I’m glad you enjoyed this. You’ll never forget it, right? Alright, have a good one. Bye, everyone. See you next time.