Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Don't tell anyone that I actually am running a sales podcast, because if you went back into my, my former sales life, the people that I used to work for would be laughing hysterically if they knew that I finally figured it out, actually got really, really good at it, and now teach other people how to sell. And, and that is no joke. When I started in sales, way back in the day and I was selling computers, I will tell you that I was a reluctant seller. As a matter of fact, I really cared more about collecting a check than I did helping anybody with computer technology. I, I, as a matter of fact, I cared so little about computer technology that I started to train people instead of actually selling to them, which is actually how I got into training.
[00:00:58] So it was a good path for me. But in actuality, I was a horrible salesperson.
[00:01:04] Like, I didn't really care about the numbers. I didn't care about making phone calls. If you were to come in and ask for something, I would write you up and I would know how to do it. But I never really got super excited about selling people computers. It felt somewhat unauthentic to me. And I didn't care to get better. I'm going to be honest, I had the job for over a year and I didn't care to get better. I mean, I'm sure it was so frustrating to my sales manager. And I actually learned how to make money in addition to my base pay by getting recommendation letters. You know, he put this, this program in place where if you got recommendation letters which they would use to put on their wall, you would get a hundred dollars per recommendation letter. Because I valued connection, because I valued relationships, because I valued supporting people and taking them on a journey, and because I spent so much time making sure that they actually knew how to use their computers, not just sell it and drop it off, but, like, I would sit there and train them.
[00:02:16] I could get reference letters like nobody's business.
[00:02:20] And this largely funded my early career, much to the dismay of my sales manager, who passionately and very kindly tried to tell me, I don't think you really like selling. To which I lied and was like, I do, because I needed that base pay.
[00:02:39] Now, I will tell you, what I ended up doing was finding the thing I loved, which was training people, which was connecting with, with them, which was helping them.
[00:02:50] But I'm telling you this because so many people land in a sales job and they don't really love what they're selling. They don't love how they sell. They don't love the Scripts, the processes. They might not even love the people that they're selling to, or the product or the service.
[00:03:09] It's literally just about money.
[00:03:11] It's literally just about money or the fantasy associated with having success in the particular field, even though you're really not passionate about it. And I can relate. I can relate. If you're sitting out there and thinking, you know what? Either I've lost that loving feeling, I've never felt that loving feeling, or I really do need to learn how to do this. I just don't want to be pushy about it. And if that's you, welcome.
[00:03:40] And if you're new around here, welcome to Fix this. Grow fast. My name is Genevieve Skori. I'm a former C Suite executive for a $350 million brand. And I have talked to, sold to, I have spoken to, I have coached thousands and thousands of women over my decades of success in both sales strategy, sales training, and also being an entrepreneur myself.
[00:04:11] And I will tell you that everything changed for me when I found my passion around what I wanted to sell.
[00:04:21] And right now, and I'm telling you I do, I wake up excited, and I am energized by what I do, because what I really want for families is to have the flexibility that we had. I want people to have the financial success that we've had. I want people to learn how to sell in a way that feels like them and feels good and rewarding and creates impact and therefore creates income so that you can have self sufficiency. I'm all about. Listen to me. Listen, Linda. It's all about self sufficiency. Nobody, nobody is coming. Nobody's coming to help you.
[00:05:10] You have it within you to make this work. You might have to make a few adjustments, and you can, if you're passionate and your values align with what you're doing. You see, I really, truly believe that good people, good people need to have more money.
[00:05:30] I truly believe that having your own business levels the playing field on so many levels. So if you are at a place where you started something and you were somewhat fantasizing about, like, hey, this could change everything for us, and you're now at a place where you're like, I just don't know. Maybe it's too late, I'm not sure, or I'm stuck, or maybe you're doing great and you're wondering how to get to your next level, I want you to know your gut instincts are right.
[00:05:57] Having your own business, even a little one that pays for just the extras in your Life levels the playing field because it levels your satisfaction. Like, it gives you a level of satisfaction that you can't have when you're all stressed. I also believe that when you have your own business, whether you make any a little bit or you make a lot, that you now enter into a group of people that can use their money to grow more money. In other words, you learn to invest your money and do financially responsible things with income that maybe you didn't have before. And I will tell you, I was not, like, I was not into being an entrepreneur. And it really wasn't until I started in skin care and I started a skincare business that I felt compelled to start sharing with people. You know, I had learned about this product, I'd learned about this company, and I was like, oh, my gosh, do you know what you're putting on your skin? Do you know that we've all been, you know, And I just felt, like, super passionate because. And I wasn't even a skincare girly at the time. Honestly, like, it's so funny to me when I look at where I've ended up. And based on where I started, these were not intentional moves for me, but it was what was revealed to me as I kept stepping forward.
[00:07:25] So I felt that passion for the first time in skincare. I felt that passion grow even further as people started to talk and train and mentor me, and I started to be around other people who shared the same passion. And I think it's really important, because if you really want to get to a level of proficiency and excellence, you need to do a couple of things. You need to work on your mindset, and you need to surround yourself with people who unequivocally want the same level of success that you do.
[00:08:11] And for me, it was this skincare company that the light bulb went on for me. I didn't know.
[00:08:18] I didn't know. And I can tell you, the exact moment it happened was when I earned a trip to a really swanky resort, the kind of resort that I would never have considered going to. As a matter of fact, up until I actually arrived, my reference point for nice places to vacation was, like, the Ramada Inn. And I thought, oh, so it'll be like a Ramada Inn on the beach. Big deal. Until, like, I show up and it's like the Atlantis Resort, which was amazing for a young mom who never, ever, ever went anywhere.
[00:08:55] And my eyes were really opened to, wow. If I actually take this with some degree of seriousness, if I actually invest in learning the way some of these other women have. If I actually put my ego aside, take the advice and try some things. One of those things, by the way, was always spend time learning yourself.
[00:09:22] Spend time learning yourself.
[00:09:26] Every thing changed. The job became more fun, things became lighter. I wanted to wake up and do this every single day.
[00:09:38] And I will tell you, it is worth you asking yourself, well, how committed am I?
[00:09:45] And I don't just mean like intellectually.
[00:09:48] I invite you to look at your calendar. I invite you to look at your calendar and ask yourself, how much time do you spend on your business?
[00:09:58] How much? And I don't mean talking about it. I don't mean.
[00:10:01] Because I've been through that stage too where it was like, let me call my girlfriend and we're going to talk about business and I'm going to count that as business time.
[00:10:10] That is not business time.
[00:10:12] When you're actually in your business, either talking to, introducing your product or service to new people, meeting new people for the purpose of introducing your product or service, networking for the, and then following up with people and having closing sales conversations. Those are all the things that I'm talking about.
[00:10:31] If you're struggling, if you're struggling to have those conversations, you need to check whether you really value what you do and at which level are you having problems.
[00:10:45] We'll talk about that more in another episode. But the thing I want to focus on here, and this is the easiest thing to fix, is to really have a conversation, a heart to heart conversation with your own heart about how you really feel about sales.
[00:11:03] Because when I look at the thousands of women that I have had the honor of working with and studying, creating programs for and coaching and speaking with, people typically fall into one of four categories.
[00:11:17] The first category, and this is where I started, is the reluctant resistor. The reluctant resistor.
[00:11:27] You're the overthinker.
[00:11:29] You're the person hiding behind. I'm just not ready.
[00:11:35] It at your core, your self limiting belief is selling is pushy. Like, I don't, like, I don't want to do that. Like you're so focused on not being pushy that you do everything except actually sell.
[00:11:53] And I remember that. I remember like I don't want to be called a salesperson. I don't want to tell people I'm a salesperson. I still think that that word itself ignites like sales trauma in people.
[00:12:07] But you have to in your heart know that the job that you're doing is indeed selling.
[00:12:14] And if you're struggling with this, I invite you to go back to episode One where I talk about the actual empowering view of selling and how it's the transference of inspiration and it's not a transaction.
[00:12:29] But when you are a reluctant resistor, you discount a lot.
[00:12:34] Your calls to action are very vague. You're not really sure what you're doing. But because you actually really aren't invested in getting better because you have a self limiting belief that it's the selling that is pushy.
[00:12:53] Now the work that needs to get done here is to really reframe that selling is pushy to selling is service, that I'm actually helping people, which have been so much of what the last few episodes have been about.
[00:13:11] But I think it's really important that you have an honest conversation with yourself about how many people have I reached out to?
[00:13:21] How many conversations or calls or reach outs do I actually have scheduled? Do I have scheduled time to work my business?
[00:13:30] If those things are all very difficult for you to wake up and do or to do regularly and on a regular basis, chances are pretty good you are stuck in the reluctant resistor, the second group of people. And thank goodness I traverse this really quick because I couldn't even bear to follow scripts. But it's the scripted pitcher.
[00:13:55] It's. It's somebody who's like I'm going to pitch, but I need a script and I need a script and I need to say it word for word because if I say the right words, they're going to buy. If I say the wrong words, they're not going to buy. And typically these people are very robotic. They do the selling exactly as it's written. They do a lot of over explaining.
[00:14:21] They're not comfortable establishing relationships because they're focusing on what the scripts.
[00:14:29] And they also rush to oop, the dogs are going crazy. They also rush to close instead of taking their time.
[00:14:41] So their blind spot is that they leverage scripts over connections and they don't actually make the prospect feel like they were seen.
[00:14:53] So what needs to happen here, just as a quick switch is you really need to focus more on connection you want to think about. I have three questions that I always ask.
[00:15:06] Bullet point them, they do not need to be scripted. And then make sure that each of your scripts are like small conversations. And again, we spent a lot of time in the last few episodes talking about scripts, which can help you tremendously.
[00:15:23] But you know you're stuck here if you're really focused on being perfect.
[00:15:30] The third type of seller is the consultative guide. Now this is something that I leveraged. I loved being the Consultant. And I loved being the consultant. And, and this was when I actually had my own training company. I remember actually thinking that I had, you know, coined the phrase consultative selling. And this is how I would compete with people. I, with these big, big companies. I would say, listen, you can go get like the buffet from these big boys or we can customize this for you. We can partner together and I will consult you on all the best practices and give you little snippets of what you need instead of putting you through like the meat grinder.
[00:16:16] It's about being calm and curious and it's very service forward, which I loved because I felt like I was selling with them and I didn't feel like I was selling at them.
[00:16:32] My core belief here was that clarity, clarity would create the selling, clarity created the conversions.
[00:16:42] Now I will tell you, it was really great for learning and prescribing and putting custom programs together.
[00:16:50] But this too has a blind spot.
[00:16:53] And I can attest to this. Like, I got so good at consulting and I actually hid behind the consulting that a lot of times I struggled with asking for the sale. I struggled with asking for the next step. And then I was in a place where I had to go circle back around and you know, was this price okay, how did this feel? But it was better than the crazy script mama and also the reluctant resistor.
[00:17:22] Now I finally worked myself up to a place that felt good but also created results.
[00:17:29] And that is the magnetic rainmaker. The, the world class seller. The savvy seller is what I call it. The savvy seller. The savvy and authentic seller, where the vibe was more authority.
[00:17:47] The vibe was, this is more effortless. I'm not pushing, I'm receiving.
[00:17:53] It was about genuine genuineness, authenticity and warmth. And whenever I could, I created systems where I could pre sell the people. So in some of these other options, especially the first two, it was kind of like a buckshot approach. It was kind of like, I'm just going to say this to as many people as possible and then I'll be good. Well, that wasn't fun and it didn't actually really work.
[00:18:20] But when you get to the savvy and authentic seller, your viewpoint is, I'm going to sell to people who want to be sold to. I'm going to sell, look for people who are looking for me, which means I'm okay with people saying no, because I'm only looking for people who are looking for me.
[00:18:39] And it's this sense of selling as leadership. I'm going to take you through the process. I'm going to lead you on a journey.
[00:18:48] And that is when everything changed. This I believe, when you can step into like the savvy, authentic seller within yourself.
[00:18:58] This is when you ask yourself question questions like, how can I get better?
[00:19:03] How can I get better? Like it actually becomes a game and you want to get better. You'll use data, you'll listen to podcasts like this one, you'll read books, you'll take notes, you'll measure to make sure that you are making progress.
[00:19:24] And I have to tell you, when you get to this level, when you're in this category, you meet other people who find you magnetic. You meet other people that will say little things that will help you every single day.
[00:19:43] And when every single day you're learning something new that adds up for yourself.
[00:19:50] And I have to tell you, I will never regret becoming the kind of person that wants to learn how to be the best that I can in the work that I'm currently doing.
[00:20:05] And I'm telling you this because you either need to decide, I'm all in and I'm gonna be a rainmaker or I'm gonna be happy with what I have.
[00:20:18] And I really believe that the opposite of success isn't failure. The opposite of success is settling.
[00:20:26] And so I just wanted to take some time today to go through these four categories. Have you decide which category you're in and ask yourself the question, how can I become more savvy and authentic? And I will tell you, it starts with just 15 to 30 minutes every single day, putting yourself in front of information that helps you with the areas of selling that you're struggling with.
[00:20:57] Now, if you don't know that I offer a coaching program, please make sure. Pardon me. That you get on our email list. It's called the Shift. It's where we highlight one topic each week that relates to selling so that in a year from now, you will have learned 52 things, 52 different things that make selling better for you. And because you stayed all the way to the end of this podcast, go ahead and check the show notes for the sales conversion cheat sheet. So if you're the kind of person that likes formulas and you'd like a little bit more help and detail on how to have follow up conversations and discovery calls that feel like, I feel like connection, this is going to be incredible for you.
[00:21:45] So I just want to make sure that you are all leaning in to the fact that curiosity closes more deals than charisma. And authority is a habit.
[00:21:59] Authority is a habit built on little moments of success consistently produced over time.
[00:22:08] You are at this place, at this time right now to be the best version of yourself. And there is, in my opinion, never been a better time than now to double down on making your business work. So thanks for being here for Fix this grow fast, and I look forward to talking to you next week.
