About Valeria Grunbaum: Valeria helps entrepreneurs excel in sales with a strategy adaptable to every industry. Her program condenses more than 30 years of international sales expertise into a comprehensive training course. From working in multinational corporations and founding her own marketing and sales consulting firm, where she served Fortune 500 companies such as Procter and Gamble, General Motors, Avon, DHL, Nestlé (among many others), to helping many small and medium-sized businesses such as Chambers of Commerce, Franchises, Attorneys, Real Estate professionals, and many more in different industries, diverse markets all over the world, you won’t find more valuable insight to support your sales education journey. Check out the latest episode of our Conversational Selling podcast to learn more about Valeria.
In this episode, Nancy and Valeria discuss the following:
- The belief that no one is born a salesperson, but every business owner should be one.
- How everyone embodies a salesperson in some way.
- Tailoring communication with customers or prospects based on their personality type throughout the sales process.
- Detailed descriptions of various communication styles.
- Unique traits of each DISC personality style.
Key Takeaways:
- The truth is that without sales, there’s no business.
- For those people with a negative emotion towards the word sales, the truth is that sales are nothing more than a communication process.
- We are all different, but we are predictable and different.
- Sales is the heart of the business.
- Make your sales the primary business focus if you want to grow.
“About 28 years ago, I learned to work with DISC, which is a behavioral assessment, where based on your personality style, you have different ways of how you communicate and how you need to receive the communication. And what happened is that I started using DISC within my sales process. I understood very early in my years that I shouldn’t communicate how I want to communicate with people. Instead, I should communicate with people how they need to receive the communication. So, this is the transformation that happened in my business after that. Before I realized I could use this methodology with my sales process, I was closing out of 10 clients or 10 customers; let’s call it customers; I was closing only two clients. But then when I started implementing these techniques, this methodology within my sales process, I was working with 10 clients or customers and closing eight clients.” – VALERIA.
“So, there are four main personality styles; depending on how you behave or think, you will most likely have the four, but you will have one in the driver’s seat. Imagine that you are a car; the car has four seats. So, you have all four, but you have one in the driver’s seat, one on the co-pilot, and then two on the passenger back in the passenger seat. So, based on the one driving the car, you’re going to filter the information that you hear, feel, or see. And then, based on that, is how you will respond or react. So, the driver’s seat is the one that decides how you see the world. ” – VALERIA.
“We have the “D,” the “I,” the “S,” and the “C.” The “D” is that person who is direct, focused on the results that one thinks should be done fast, doesn’t get hooked on the details, and makes things happen. They know that they don’t know how they will make it happen, but they know that they can make it happen, and they do. They are very fast-paced. And then the “I” is people that are focused on people. I mean, the “D” s are focused on the task. The “I’s” are focused on the people. They are great cheerleaders. They are very optimistic. They talk with their arms open. Sometimes, they talk even louder. They want to be noticed. When someone who is a high “I” enters the room, everybody will know that person came. The high “S” are very loyal people; they’re introverted. They are people-oriented but different from the “I” ‘s because the “I” s is more out, and the “S” is more in. What I mean by these is that they love people and want to serve. They want to nurture people. They want to help people. And they are very loyal. They are great employees. 69% of the population are high “S”. The high “C’s” they are detail-oriented. These people want to know the step-by-step; they want to get all the information before they decide, so they take time to make decisions. They are task-oriented like the high “D’s,” but the difference is that the high “D’s” don’t need a step-by-step process; they just make it happen. But “C’s” won’t skip a step, and they need proof before they decide.” – VALERIA.
Connect with Valeria Grunbaum:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valeriagrunbaum/
- Personal Website:https://valeriagrunbaum.com/
Try Our Proven, 3-Step System, Guaranteeing Accountability and Transparency that Drives RESULTS by clicking on this link: https://oneofakindsales.com/call-center-in-a-box/
Connect with Nancy Calabrese:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/oneofakindsales
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/One-Of-A-Kind-Sales-304978633264832/
- Website: https://oneofakindsales.com
- Phone: 908-879-2911
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ncalabrese/
- Email: leads@oneofakindsales.com
Voiceover: You’re listening to The Conversational Selling Podcast with Nancy Calabrese.
Nancy Calabrese: Hi everyone, 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 Valeria Grunbaum, CEO and lead facilitator at the International Business Academy. She provides corporate training, coaching, and consulting services tailored to her clients’ leadership, communication, and sales needs. Valeria is a 30-year sales marketing and leadership veteran recognized for her exceptional ability to speak with clarity, conviction, and insight on a full spectrum of topics about achieving success in the global marketplace. She’s been an internationally renowned trainer, coach, and public speaker for over 20 years. She’s trained and coached specializing in leadership and international sales and marketing strategies to more than 4,000 professionals from more than 40 nationalities. Welcome to the show, Valeria. Let’s get started.
Valeria Grunbaum: Thank you, Nancy. It’s a pleasure to be here with you. [1:29]
Nancy Calabrese: Yes, well, you know, one thing that jumped out to me when I was doing research for this program is what you post on your website. No one is born a salesperson, but every business owner should be one. So, listen, why would you say that?
Valeria Grunbaum: Yes. Well, because we have the false perception or a lot of people have the false perception that a business is about the product, is about the service they do, is about operations, is about admin. But the truth is that without sales, there’s no business.
Nancy Calabrese: Right. That is so true. And we spoke before the podcast, everybody’s a salesperson. They may not want to admit it, but we’re all in the business of getting what we want. Isn’t that true?
Valeria Grunbaum: Since we are kids. I mean, if we think about a kid in the supermarket with his mom saying, hey, I want this candy or I want this cereal, there is a process of negotiation happening there, right? Between the mom and the kid. So, we are in cells since the moment that we are born and we learn that if we cry, we get something in return. So now cells are just a grow-up process of stating what we want and what we offer and getting something in exchange. Actually, I want to say that for those that have, I mean, those people that have kind of a negative emotion towards the word sales, the truth is that sales are nothing more than a communication process. That’s it. [3:26]
Nancy Calabrese: Totally agree with you and that’s a great segue. Another point that you believe in is, how do you communicate with customers or prospects through the sales process based on their personality style. Talk to us about that.
Valeria Grunbaum: Okay, so about 28 years ago, I learned to work with, I don’t know if you know about DISC, which is a behavioral assessment, where based on your personality style, you have different ways on how you communicate and how you need to receive the communication. And what happened is that I started using DISC within my sales process. I understood very early in my years that I shouldn’t communicate with people the way that I want to communicate. Instead, I should be communicating with people the way that they need to receive the communication. So, this is the transformation that happened in my business after that. Before I realized that I could use this, methodology with my sales process, I was closing out of 10 clients or 10 customers, let’s call it customers, I was closing only two clients. But then when I started implementing these techniques, and methodology within my sales process, I was working with 10 clients or customers, and I was closing eight clients. [5:16]
Nancy Calabrese: Wow. Yeah, you know what? Describe this to the audience though, the different communication styles.
Valeria Grunbaum: Okay, so we understand, I want to talk about the person that created this back in the 1920s, that he realized that there were, after the studies, the research that they did, they understood that there were four main personality styles. So, we are all different, but we are predictable and different. So, at that moment, they were doing all these studies about personality styles, but it was not used in business until the 40s and 50s. And then they started using it for human resources to recruit personnel for the companies. But nowadays we use it for communication, for sales, for many other things, for leadership and so on. So, what it is that there are four main personality styles, and depending on how you behave or how you think, you will most likely have four of them, but you will have one that is in the driver’s seat. Let’s put it that way. Imagine that you are a car, the car has four seats. So, you have all four, but you have one in the driver’s seat, one on the co-pilot, and then two on the passenger back in the passenger seat. So based on the one that is driving the car, you’re going to filter the information that you hear, or you feel, or you see. And then based on that is how you are going to respond or react. So, the driver’s seat is the one that decides how you see the world. [7:16]
Nancy Calabrese: Right.
Valeria Grunbaum: The one that is on the co-pilot has a lot of influence on how you see the world. So, when we start thinking, yes, we are a combination of those four, and you and I, we may have the same driver on the driver’s seat, but we may have the other three in different orders, different scales. And based on that, the report, the assessment will give you a report that tells you how you…communicate how you need to receive the communication, even how you sell, because we have one of the assessments specifically for sales. And so how you sell and how you need to communicate with each type of customer, type of customer based on their personality style, when you combine your personality style with your customer personality style. It’s very fascinating, Nancy. To me, almost in every conversation that I have, in my first two or three minutes, I have a goal to understand the personality style of the person. So, asking the right questions, and understanding how the other person thinks and how the other person behaves, help you to predict how the person is going to react when you present the information. [8:40]
Nancy Calabrese: Right. All right. But what are the four communication styles? Let the audience hear from you.
Valeria Grunbaum: Okay, so we have the D, the I, the S, and the C. So I’m not gonna say the names that we put into it because there are three million, if you go to Google, you will find three million different names for each of them. So, I don’t want even to people think about the names. I’m gonna talk about each of these, okay? So the “D” is that person who is direct, who is focused on the results that one thinks to be done fast, who doesn’t get hooked on the details, and who makes things happen. They know that they don’t know how they’re going to make it happen, but they know that they can make it happen and they do. They are very fast-paced. And then the “I” is people that are focused on people. I mean the “D”s are focused on the task. The “I” s are focused on the people and are more about them showing up. They are great cheerleaders. They are very optimistic. They talk with their arms open. Sometimes they talk even louder. They want to be noticed. When you have someone that is a high eye entering the room, everybody will know that person came. And they’re very, very social and they are very influential. And then you have the “S”, the high “S”, which is people that are very loyal, they’re introverted. They are people-oriented, but different from the “I”’s because the I’s is more out, and the “S” is more in. What I mean by these is they love people, and they want to serve. They want to nurture people. They want to help people. And they are very loyal. They are great employees. And they are 69% of the population are high “S”. Now, they are very slow-paced because their biggest fear is certainty. So, if, I should say uncertainty, right? I mean, the change of what they know. [11:14]
Nancy Calabrese: Oh really? Okay.
Valeria Grunbaum: So, they are very stable, they are very steady. Now the high “C”s, are detail-oriented. These people, want to know the step-by-step, they want to get all the information before they decide, so they take time to make decisions. They are task-oriented like they hide these, but the difference is that they hide these, they don’t need a step-by-step process, they just make it happen. The hide “C”s, need the step-by-step. They won’t skip a step, and they need proof before they decide. So, if we take this in cells, like if I’m working with a high-d client, my meeting is going to last 10, 15 minutes is going to be straightforward. Hey, let’s talk about business. If I’m talking with a high “I”, it’s going to be more kind of like “How is your family doing? How are you doing?”. So, I know that a meeting with a high “I” is going to last probably an hour because the high “I”s, we have to touch on a personal level. The high “D”s don’t touch the personal level. It’s kind of like, okay, yeah. But for the high “I”s, you need to touch on the personal level, and you need to let them talk. Right. If I keep interrupting a high “I” and I don’t let them share their story with me, I will break the rapport with them and I will lose them. So, the high “I”s, they are more, they are more about telling the story. And if they to decide, they will, they will call their friends. They will call the family. Sometimes I have high “I”s that they call me and say, hey, you know, because my friend worked with you, I want to work with you. So, they are very, they guide their decisions based on also what other people say. [13:16]
Nancy Calabrese: I’ve read somewhere that most salespeople are an “I”. Is that your experience?
Valeria Grunbaum: No, not really. I mean, high “I”s, are great salespeople because they tell great stories, they are very influential. High “D”s are great people also on sales because they are very straightforward. I mean, high “D”s can be on the phone prospecting with cold calls for hours and they don’t care about rejection. The high “I”s, do care about rejection. The biggest fear of a high “I” is rejection. So, you put a high “I” on the phone and it’s just gonna have a challenge. If high “I”s are great to work with, I will say warm customers, high Ds are great for cold calling or cold customers. Now, if we think about the “S” and the “C”, they are also great salespeople, but each of them is on their level. For example, the high “S”, because they are service-oriented, they are people-oriented, they are great for customer service. They are great to work with hot customers who already know our product, already know our company, because they are great. So, if you’re selling service, having someone who is a high “S” taking care of the customers after they were pre-qualified, is a great decision because that person will take care of that customer until the end. And then the high “C”s, they are great salespeople when you require a lot of information. For example, if you sell technology, if you sell something that has to be with a service or a product that requires something like computers, something that requires a lot of data, the high “C”s are great for doing that. Now, if we see it from the perspective of the customer, the high “C” is the customer that will ask you for information over and over and over and over and repeatedly. Right. And then if you put a high “D” salesperson working with a “C” customer, imagine the challenge that they’re going to have because the “D” wants things fast. The “C” needs information. It may take six months or eight months to make the decision, but the “D” doesn’t have the patient. So, what happens is that the “D” says, oh, this guy is wasting my time and they stop working with the customer. But the thing is the “S” and the “C” customers, take longer to make the decision, but they are very loyal customers. [16:32]
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah, so funny. You know what? I am a “D” in an “I”. And I know when I’m speaking with a “C, I really must remind myself just to be patient and make sure that I pull out all the numbers and the stats. So, like you, I find this completely fascinating. Moving on, what is the biggest gap you’re seeing in businesses today?
Valeria Grunbaum: The lack of understanding that sales is the heart of their business. Period. That’s it. Business is struggling because they are so distracted by 10 million other things, and they are not putting effort into sales. Look, when we started, I remember the first few months of COVID, I remember speaking with some of my clients or clients or contacts, right? Business owners were calling me and saying: “Hey, you know, I just fired part of the company. I just fired these”. I was impressed how in most cases, the first team that they fired was people from their sales team. And I was like: “You’re doing it wrong” [18:00]
Nancy Calabrese: Why would they do that?
Valeria Grunbaum: Right, because if you don’t see sales as the heart of the business, then most likely you won’t have a business.
Nancy Calabrese: You won’t have a business. I totally agree with you. I can’t believe we are out of time, Valeria. You are fascinating. What is the one takeaway you want to leave the audience with?
Valeria Grunbaum: I would say pay attention yes to your process, to your products, to your operations, to your admin but make your sales the main focus of your business if you want to grow and if you want to have everything else operations products all of that will happen when you have sales.
Nancy Calabrese: Awesome. How can my people find you?
Valeria Grunbaum: Well, they can find me on LinkedIn by Valeria Grunbaum or even go to my website valeriagrunbaum.com. But the easiest way, is LinkedIn, I’m there. So, it’s the easiest way to reach out to me. [19:09]
Nancy Calabrese: Yes, spell your last name.
Valeria Grunbaum: Grunbaum is G as in George, R as in Robert, U, N as in Nancy, B as in boy, A as in apple, U, M as in Mari. So, Valeria Grunbaum.
Nancy Calabrese: Awesome. Beautiful name, beautiful name. Hey folks, reach out to her, please. She’s a wealth of knowledge. And you know, remember, no one is born a salesperson, but every business owner should be one. I hope you come back sometime Valeria and make it a great sales day everyone.
Valeria Grunbaum: Thank you. [19:49]
