The Sales Evangelist: Sales Training|Speaking|Business Marketing|Donald Kelly

Diversity and inclusion are important in sales but what do these things mean exactly?  In today’s episode, Stephen Hart and Sharon Manker are joining Donald in talking about what diversity and inclusion mean in sales.  Diversity and inclusion in sales Diversity is being invited to the table and inclusion means having a seat at the table to participate in whatever opportunity there is.  It’s not just about getting the seat at the table but it’s also about having the equity component. We need to break down the unconscious biases that we have. We need to employ true diversity, equity, and inclusion not only in the sales team but also in an organization as a whole.  For the black men and women, what the media portrays of us doesn’t really represent who we are.  Growing up, you may have developed a certain mindset towards people of color and that translates into the workplace. Naturally, you gravitate towards the things that you know and what you’ve been taught.  There are biases that we were brought up with that

In matters of diversity, salespeople can’t help but sometimes ask,’Do Americans have racial bias with who they buy from?’  Kwame Christian has both a law and business background. He understands the issue of whether Americans have a bias from who they buy from, and he is doing bias training to help companies understand the importance of knowing humans on a deep fundamental level.  The existence of bias In truth, everybody has biases. It is a by-product of a naturally functioning brain.  Bias doesn’t make you bad.  It only becomes a problem if you are aware of your biases and you don’t do something about it.  It’s important to raise awareness to help people make better decisions.  Americans have biases with the way they buy. Salespeople need to determine what those biases are and create strategies to try to work around them.  Biases cut both ways - there are positive biases and negative biases.  You are more likely to know, like, and trust people who are like you and people who are represented frequently in th

The sales space is a huge industry but it needs more diversity. In this episode, DeJuan Brown talks about how we remove the barriers to sales for people of color.  Studies show that 78.9% of salespeople in all industries are white, 11.2% are tan, and the remaining percentage is divided into various ethnicities. There is so much success in sales but there are barriers - both visible and not so visible to many.  The barriers in sales Job descriptions can become a barrier, especially for black people. These are individuals who do not have much experience in a specific space. Some jobs need 7-10 years of experience before one can even get a nod for an interview.  There’s also the perception that sellers don’t make money and that a career in sales is just a plan B, C, or D.  In some communities, there’s still a stigma on salespeople. They’re the ones you shut your door to, they are the car dealers, the door-to-door insurance man, and other undesirable roles.  Changing the mindset Sales leaders and professionals

For an organization to succeed, it is important for sales leaders to see the benefits of building a diverse sales team. In this episode, Donald talks about three reasons why diversity and inclusion are important.  The sales statistics The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in 2019 that 86% of sales managers were white and 80% of people in the sales occupation are white as well.  Sales is a great field and a huge one. There is still so much space and room for more people.  Three reasons why diversity and inclusion are important It helps you understand your clients better.  A study of the Harvard Business Review in 2013 showed that organizations with sellers who share the same ethnicity as their clientele were  152% more likely to understand their clients’ needs better.  Putting people of the same culture and ethnicity creates a  connection that would help the sales progress. Clients and prospects are more at ease and relaxed when they speak with sales reps who share their culture.  It improves emplo

In this day and age, how can salespeople schedule appointments when so many people are working from home? Tune in as Maddy Martin talks about prospecting in the modern sales world.  Scheduling appointments in the remote working scene The work-from-home setting has a huge impact on sales especially in website chat messages, missing calls, and others. The impact is also apparent with what your next steps will be for the leads that are coming through.  Every single call and chat is precious. This truth makes you realize that how you do in that first conversation is the most critical step.  It’s important to take that first incoming call or you do something about the first message. Salespeople have to be ready to respond and answer the calls at all times because your follow-up and other efforts will be in vain when you don’t take the first opportunity that prospects present to you.  There is a debate between profit and productivity. There’s a question of whether you can interrupt your day for every inbound new l

Sales reps can’t spend all their time nurturing a prospect. It is difficult, however, to just decide to stop. In that case, you may ask, “How can I tell when it’s time to consider a prospect close-lost?”  Learn more in this episode.  A close-lost deal For Guil, a deal is never lost in the sense that once you start building a relationship with someone, you should keep that relationship alive for as long as it takes.  Some prospects need more work and time than others.  It’s not a closed deal when the prospect has been qualified after you’ve done your discovery call and you’ve seen that there’s a huge opportunity there. It may only mean that the prospect needs more time and push to get converted.  In this case, it means that as a sales leader, it’s your responsibility to take the lead.  Salespeople must be clear of their next steps. It’s not enough to hop on a call with a prospect and just bid them goodbye with a promised email sent to their inbox later on. You need to be clear of what you’re going to do next

Not all deals come to a close, so when a deal doesn’t close, how long should you wait before re-engaging the prospect? David Perry speaks in length about closing in today’s episode.  Re-engaging the prospects David is a big fan of value selling.  Value selling is part of the training that enterprise sellers can go through. It is a value-based approach which is a seemingly simple framework on the surface but with a lot of power behind it.  Looking at frameworks is helpful when conversing with other salespeople or whoever is involved in the deal.  The more you look at the framework, the more you are able to see the things that are taking priority in the organization at a given moment.  There are top three reasons why deals don’t close:  The lack of access to power Timing The lack of articulation of value or tying it to the key master sector business issue Sales reps, however, have a whole array of reasons why deals don’t close.  Value selling is very difficult since every customer has their own view and pers

It’s not uncommon to have unresponsive prospects. In situations such as that, what are the best sales strategy for engaging unresponsive prospects? Engaging unresponsive prospects Fred is a one-call closer and while he could write a book on different strategies, he thinks that unconventional closing is not for him.  Fred suggests for salespeople to relax and stop stressing themselves out looking for the right strategy and method.  He uses the acronym WIIFM or What’s Iin Iit Ffor Mme. This is his magic in selling anything to anybody.  Nobody wants to be sold but everybody wants to buy. You need to first and foremost figure out what your prospect wants.  As salespeople, we need to stop looking at prospects as prospects;, we need to start looking at them as potential friends.  Most salespeople are educators because they we need to show the prospects why the service or product is to their benefit.  People who want what you have won’t run from you.  Every salesperson needs to have an elevator pitch. You have to s

As a salesperson in sales, have you asked other successful salespeople this question, “Is there magic involved in grabbing the attention of your prospects?” If yes, how did they respond? In this episode, Daniel and Eliott talk about how you can grab your prospects’ attention.  Prospecting the right way It’s the basics that help you win the fight and remember that you never train hard enough on the basics.  People use their mailbox the least. Their email inbox, Facebook ad LinkedIn messenger, and their text threads ate all blown up with messages. It’s too crowded.  Sending something to people via their mailbox is an attention-grabbing technique.  Presenting things in a different way disrupts the regular pattern and prompts people to pay attention.  Donald and Elliott sent Donald their book but instead of just a book, it was their book in a box. There was a jiu-jitsu white belt in it, a note, and other information related to the book.  The mailbox is another perfect way to create curiosity. Sending out somethi

We are welcoming the new year with a new podcast entitled, ‘Selling in Color.’ It’s a new podcast designed to help salespeople weather the challenges in the sales world.  Looking back The Sales Evangelist podcast started eight years ago and we’re now at about 1,400 episodes. TSE has also produced about 3.45 million downloads to the podcast.  All these episodes have helped many people, organizations, and families to progress. The podcast is a powerful avenue to share ideas.  Martin Luther King said, ‘Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.’ Sales is difficult because sometimes, people don’t accept the solutions that you offer them or they don’t realize the problem in the first place.  There are so many different opportunities available to us when we come together.  2020 was a tough year: the pandemic happened, George Floyd happened, and others. After Floyd, many people have asked where the black people in sales are.  There are black sales leaders and sales reps out there

LinkedIn is a good place to prospect. In this episode, listen and learn as Brynne Tillman and Donald talk about how to convert your LinkedIn connections into meaningful conversations.  When is LinkedIn ineffective? Back in the early months of 2020, people connected with others and then threw their pitch in. This was ineffective.  Today, salespeople are so desperate that they put their pitches in their connection request message.  Salespeople are becoming more and more desperate that they no longer know how to get other people’s attention.  Brynne calls it  pitch slapping, and it’s not a good approach because  it turns people off.  LinkedIn has become a platform where people are getting all kinds of notifications left and right.  This approach is not only ineffective, it’s also damaging.  We all want to have as many conversations as possible on LinkedIn but what we don’t want to do is sell on LinkedIn.  When connecting with people on LinkedIn, treat them and talk to them as if they’re on the other side of the

Are you one of the many sales reps who suffer from imposter syndrome? If so, how can you keep imposter syndrome from destroying your cold-calling efforts? Join Donald as he talks about the subject.   Defining imposter syndrome  Imposter syndrome is a psychological pattern where an individual doubts his/her own abilities to do something. This then prevents them from acting or doing what they’re supposed to do.  One would usually feel the imposter syndrome when they’re doing a task that’s new to them. For example, if you are new to a selling marketing services role but you have very little experience in sales, you may feel overwhelmed when selling your services to large companies.  You may feel like a fraud when speaking with Chief Marketing Officers and others.  As mentioned, it’s a psychological pattern. It’s a way of thinking that you’re not capable of doing something and that you’ll always be seen as a fraud.  The truth about imposter syndrome Imposter syndrome is a belief.  With imposter syndrome, your

2020 has gone and now we’re making our way into yet another year. In this episode, Donald talks about the 5 trends that you should know about prospecting that we can use to improve our sales game this year.  Know the sales stats 40% of businesses did not meet their revenue targets last year.  81% of non C-suite employees have some influence in the final purchase decision.  Important sales trends about prospecting   #1 - 40% of businesses did not meet their target revenue in 2020.  The implication: 64% of sales leaders who doubled down on remote selling said that they met or exceeded their revenue targets in 2020. The pandemic has helped us move 30 years into the future in the way we perform and operate the business.  The idea of remote working wasn’t a huge thing in the beginning of 2020. The pandemic, however, forced the global workforce to work remotely.  More and more prospects are now working from their homes, and it’s your job as a sales rep to grab their attention.  Showing empathy is even more imp

Salespeople don’t play it safe at all times. You need to take risks, challenge expectations, and do big things to succeed. How do you do that? Listen as Jonathan Diaz shares his thoughts.  Increase your motivation Jonathan and his siblings love Kobe shoes and back in 2010, Kobe wore bright lime green shoes called The Grinch for a big Christmas game they played. Jonathan really wanted to get a pair for himself.  Nike launched their sneaker app and they “dropped” the shoes, which meant you’d need to log in at the time they drop to enter a raffle and have a chance to buy the shoes.   The usual response for this app is a big sorry since somebody else has been selected. It’s really rare to win it.  Even when Jonathan knew that his chances were slim, still he tried to do what he could to win it. He reached out to his friends and family to help him. He did his best to get what he wanted.  His wife told him that his name wasn’t picked and that he wasn’t chosen. But he didn’t stop there. He kept on until he got the s

Salespeople often find themselves asking, “how do I increase my sales motivation?” It’s a common challenge and in today’s episode, Aaron talks about how you can further your sales journey by increasing your motivation. Aaron Conjelado was an account executive for an advertising company in the Philippines. He spent two years in that position and had great success in it. Moving into the US, Aaron didn’t meet with a lot of salespeople, and with the pandemic, he lost touch with his sales skills and got rusty.  Cultivating motivation  Aaron doubted his skills in sales. He was anxious and worried whether people would understand him, especially with his thick accent.  He started doubting himself and his abilities in sales.  It’s important to face reality to be able to find a way to perform better.  Find a mentor to help you overcome your doubts. Discuss your planned course of action.  Listen and learn as much as you can from your coach.  Another key is practicing your pitch.  It’s also effective to practice your sc

Salespeople today face the same dilemma: ‘how to successfully close an impossible deal during a pandemic.’ This isn’t new to us but we still need all the help we can get. Tune in to this episode as Ariel Telli talks about how to close impossible deals.  Switching to the sales side Ariel is a co-monitor at Siemens Healthineers and he’s assigned to the different states in Argentina.  Ariel is passionate about people and teaching customers. He’s switched from being a bioengineer fixing devices to being a bio-engineer who also does sales.  He has been in the sales position for two and a half years now.  He has built a strong relationship with prospects and prospects trust his product recommendations.  He felt that he could grow in the sales area and it would give him the chance to really learn more about connecting with people.  Facing the challenge It was in the city of Ushuaia where the client, an important clinic in the area, almost closed a deal with the competitor.  Their potential client, however, had a

Today’s guest is Nelson Leitao and he’s going to share important lessons learned about perseverance during a 10-year climb up the customer ladder. In this episode we’ll discuss what that means.  The art of selling Nelson loves his job for two particular reasons: Interacting with people and getting the chance to improve patient experience.  For Nelson, being in the medical sales field, he isn’t only dealing with devices, he is helping people through his products.  Their company’s vision is A day without passion in healthcare is a lost day.  Nelson worked for his company for 25 years already but he’s only been working in sales for 10 of those years.  One hard lesson came from offering the same solution to three different companies. He focused on the sale more than unique customer needs and it cost him two of the three prospects. What Nelson didn’t acknowledge was that there were three different customers, three different processes, and three different needs. Instead of customizing the offer to each company, he

Gary Manske, the Executive Director for Sales and Marketing of Dakota Micro, Inc suggests that salespeople should approach sales as an art and a science instead of a grind, but what exactly does that mean?  It’s a mindset thing  Have the mindset of always being curious and ready to learn something new.  People who are defeated say “it’s not working anymore.” They make excuses and often, the current excuse is COVID.  While that is a legitimate view, you still have to look at things from a different perspective in order to keep going. Instead of your circumstances limiting what you can do, look at it as a new environment and an opportunity to see new ways you can reach out to your prospects.  Regardless of the situation, sales is all about relationships, so find a way to connect with people.  The old school sales approach of getting on the phone, playing the numbers game, and needing to have consistent activity makes the sales process a grind.  Go into sales with a different mindset. Instead of getting caught

Many sellers have sales goals but we must focus on making sales goals a part of your daily activities. Let’s join Joel Malkoff and Donald as they talk more about the importance of organizing these tasks.  Making Sales Goals a part of your daily activities Joel thinks empathy is a priority. It’s a conscious way of selling and it puts the seller in the buyer’s shoes.  Salespeople need to sell with integrity.  Many salespeople set short-term goals and become so engrossed with this list they become very self-centered.  You want to set long-term goals and build long-term relationships because it keeps integrity at the center of these interactions and facilitates trust. Look beyond the one-shot sale. This means being able to walk away from the situation if your product or service doesn’t fit. Don’t just focus on closing the deal.  Maintain focus on your long-term goals.  Transparency and full disclosure are very important in sales.  Maintaining integrity As a salesperson, you want to present your product the bes

In this episode, we get to know The Sales Evangelists team and what they do for TSE as they share with Santa Claus what they want for this Christmas.  From the Philippines to Thailand please!  Mae Mar assists with email support and sends messages to the guests who appear on the show. She also manages some of Donald’s mails and works on lead generation for the sales team.  Mae has been with the TSE team for about four years now. For Christmas, Mae wants to spend some time with her husband who is in Thailand. She wishes to fly from the Philippines to Thailand and surprise her kids on Christmas eve.  You can reach out to Mae via email at [email protected] Let’s Create a Startup Rael Ramirez is in charge of the show notes for all the podcast episodes and also does some content writing for a few of our TSE clients.  Rael is interested in creating a startup company herself and although she knows that can be difficult, she’s got episodes from The Sales Evangelist to help her jump into it. You can reach ou