Founder and CEO Helping through Mentorship

Aspiring to inspire others in sales, Susan Walsh has launched her Sales Mentoring Program!

Notes From Mentoring

April 28, 2021

Second-quarter 2021 is all sorts of weird and different. We are perhaps seeing the light at the end of a horrible trip we were all on for way too long with COVID. I recently read in the New York Times that we are all languishing. Many are now vaccinated and feeling a little bit more free than where we were. Thoughts of what we can do next are there but get muted as we even imagine going back to how we used to live. Strange times.

Technology has really taken the position of front and center. Many companies are coming forth with their new developments -mostly cloud-based. What I see consistently across the board is lack of patience in identifying the client base. It takes a little bit of time and consistent marketing. One month is just not enough time to start rolling in clients. In a space of major competition, it takes even longer and I’m going to say it again… you really do need to identify your differentiators. I keep in mind what I read Elon Musk say—keep your head down, keep making the best product you can—and focus on customer service. Forget board rooms and impressing others. Just honker down and keep creating, improving, and automating.

Looking back, I see I wrote a post down below exactly the same day a year ago, April 28, 2020. I wrote “Don’t drown your potential business network with repeated messaging. Break out of being in the “soft lead” category to a meeting category by providing information that will address your potential customers’ pain points.” Some things just never change. I have to say the advise is still relevant! The interesting thing is that I can see where I was a year ago in my own journey and what I was focused on because I keep records and have a data log. Something I encourage everyone to do so that you can assess and measure your own activity and positioning.

February 28, 2021

It’s the last day of February 2021 and time for turning the page and jumping into Spring which is around the corner. I feel we are rushing it a bit but we started Christmas early, as well Valentine’s Day. :)

Changes ahead are exciting. Machine Learning (ML), Data Visualization, Artificial Intelligence (AI) seem to be topics that are coming into their own. We’re familiar with these advances for at least the last 5 years (not that they haven’t been around longer), but the pandemic has emboldened people to be adventurous with technology. I hope we have learned to stay emboldened and not need a pandemic to inspire us. Good friends have referred me to fun documentaries -one is AlphaGo (An awesome documentary on ML).

I’ve also realized that people who drink two glasses of wine a day live longer! Since I’ve been watching YouTube a lot more, I tend to find myself watching programs studied by scientists and this discovery was one of those that I focused on. You can see it on the show 60 minutes “Living into your 90’s”. Go to the liquor store or have the wine delivered, sit back and relax to watch to show.

I also had a chance to learn how to change my brain having watched Dr. Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist, talk about how we can train our brain to do what we want to do rather than procrastinating. Even learned a good breathing exercise that I swear works!.

Last, new exploration has been acupuncture. I had a running injury that tore something in my left leg. I tried traditional remedies but nothing was working to fix it. So alternative medicine was my second go-to. The practice definitely has had an effect and is relieving me of the pain but I am not sure for the long term. I am still skeptical. The practice of acupuncture opens up your meridians as I understand it so there is better blood flow. After my first treatment, I felt like I took speed and it stayed in my system for two days. My brain hurt from being “on” continuously. The speed effect hasn’t come back with follow-on visits so I now am able to focus on the leg and not my head!

All of the changes I am experiencing are I am sure what all of you are going through. It certainly is a strange time but I feel it will be, in the end, all for the good. I feel we are getting to know ourselves better, appreciating our colleagues more, and realizing that we need to be living life to its fullest. Until next time, enjoy the wine!

June 11, 2020

There are some simple explanations of why we ask salespeople to complete their tasks in a CRM. And today with more advanced metrics it is even more important that we ensure all data is kept in the system because we are now being asked for predictive models. Predictive modeling is done with Machine Learning efficiencies and in predicting sales models, it helps customers identify targets and non-targets.

Today I had a discussion with one of our customers about why all activities need to be recorded and why they should not be arbitrarily removed from annotations. Once you start removing information without understanding how it changes the metrics, there may be more damage done where predictive modeling may not include all the facts and therefore lead to wrong decisions.

As mentioned in my opening paragraph, predictive modeling is being sought after today. Helping customers learn early which companies and prospects are their best sales candidates is accomplished by looking at datasets and information collected. The more complete the data, the better the predictions.

So say for example you started to delete Dead Opportunities from your system and no longer had that information. You lose that intel from your analyses. The information about all those companies and contacts that said “NO” to the sale and all the support information is lost. This leaves a big hole in the data that otherwise could have helped identify non-target candidates, for example.

My advice to my customer was to not remove any data from the system. If the purpose or reason for wanting to remove data was so it didn’t show up in reports, the best thing is to just adjust your reports to leave that information out, but do not remove from your CRM/system.

May 9, 2020

Emotional abusers aim to manipulate a person by undermining their self-esteem. That is what I had a discussion about with Jill today. Jill has been with her company for 12 years always very attentive to detail, well-liked, and always willing to do whatever anyone needs, even if it means working beyond the hours she is being paid. She is uncomfortable to tell her direct management line that she needed to work additional hours because she feels they will criticize her for being inefficient. She feels this way because she has been asked. “What are you doing today”, or “This should only take you 15 minutes”. For anyone to say that they know how long something should take, when they are so far removed from ever doing the task that Jill performs is just wrong. This is a form of undermining anothers’ self-esteem. I highly recommend to anyone doing this to others, to consider stopping this because it isn’t helping you and it is corroding your inner working dynamics of your company.

Jill also has had one particular manager undermine her self esteem by referring to her projects as entry level types of work when they are clearly mission critical tasks. Jill is dealing with an insecure and threatened individual whose Mode of Operation is to make everyone else around him look insignificant and feel bad.

Jill is clearly upset about this activity and doubts anything will change. Moreover, the reason we need to find a way for Jill to feel empowered.

We came to agreement that Jill can do a few things to protect herself. First, she started a daily log of work projects documenting the time she is spending on each task. Although she at first felt uncomfortable advising her manager when she would need to work overtime, she has forced herself to do so. Since making this change, she gets paid for the overtime and believes she is better understood by others.

Jill also decided to correct an misinterpreted email put out about her duties. They were being referred to as trivial and Jill decided it needed clarification. So she sent out a followup email and very nicely, reworded the content and used more appropriate descriptions. It made Jill feel better and more empowered.

I add the following: "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." -Dr. Seuss

May 7, 2020

I appreciate colleagues who reach out to talk over a challenge they are having and who want to collaborate on a best approach to the issue. I think it is the next best thing to having a mentor or better yet, a Board of Directors. It is always so hard to think clear when you are smack in the middle of a mess. Getting perspective is good medicine.

Today, my friend Willie phoned me, and he was experiencing what many salespeople will at one time or another. The INQUISITION. The point in time where management lets you know they were expecting something different than what you are delivering. And then there is the discussion about Business Development versus Sales (yes there is a difference) and what were the expectations? What I helped Willie do was to get ready for his next meeting with the inquisitors.

So, we first outlined what Business Developers do that is different from Sales. It is the Business Developers who are creating Strategic Opportunities, Cultivating Partnerships, Identifying Commercial Relationships and New Markets for Products/Services. Outlining these categories first and then plugging in some of Willie’s opportunities completed Step 1. Note. Willie was hired to do Business Development but here we are months into his relationship and management is asking where are sales?

Step 2 was to plot all the relationships Willie developed in each of the categories mentioned above for Business Development. We went ahead and added the positives and negatives for these relationships.

Step 3 was to assign a product or service of Willie’s company that was being discussed with these relations of Willies. Because management mentioned sales during the last meeting with Willie, we decided to put some projections for what projects might generate from these relationships. Along with pricing, we added challenges Willie’s company might have with bringing this business in as a win.

We stood back and looked at the recap of information we went through and Willie felt good because now he had a report of what his time had been involved with and also he put some dollar values on the projects he was cultivating, which could be potential sales. Overall, Willie was able to bring some pipeline sales data to his meeting and he now had confidence that he did his part. However, there are lessons to learn from this experience:

When entering a new relationship having to do with growing a company, get clarity: Are you being asked to do Business Development or Sales? or both? Whichever it is, have a discussion with the management team. They may appreciate understanding the difference and they may never do anything as well!

When it is figured out- what you will be doing, have the discussion up front about how you can realistically help them and the timing it will take to get them to their desired position. Be honest and explain that you are a businessperson not a magician. It takes hard work and persistence to build business. Do a reality check with them and if you are either not confident or expectations are way out of range, you might want to rethink the relationship.

Always monetize. You may not have documented proposals, but you have experience and understanding of your industry and what pricing you can apply to the products/services in your industry. So put a dollar sign on everything you are doing when in any role whether Business Development or Sales, because your discussions, questions, next steps will all become a bit more focused and centered around doing business sooner than later!

Update: As of May 14th, Willie decided to part ways with the company. Before getting involved with another company, he will spend more time upfront in dialogue and in setting expectations. I thinkg this is something we can all learn from.

May 4, 2020

I really like Ginni Rometty, former CEO and President of IBM. Today, I was happy to pass along one of her infamous sayings to a colleague and it was timely. He’s starting a new job and was asking himself if it’s a bad time to stay at his current employer who is laying off (although he was saved for now) or is it better to leave and start with a new company. He chose to start with a new company but he was feeling strange and couldn’t put his finger on it. That’s when I told him about the interview Ms. Rometty had when she said "If you're going to grow as a person, as a leader, you need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable." Geez that really can resonate with someone when making a major decision. The strong and confident will embrace it and take a deep breadth getting ready for the next adventure! Others will need to think about that and see if they can actually work through that terrible feeling and end up never making any change. And that will be ok for many and everything will be ok. These days is any answer right or wrong? So many of us are thinking about our futures with the crisis of Covid-19. Stay strong and do what you can, for yourself, your family and humanity. It may just be a time for recreation of how we live day to day and what our business lives will look like moving forward. Dedicated to my friend RL. Good luck -you have what it takes to be a great leader!

April 28, 2020

Leads are something I have always referred to as “rubies” because I know how hard they are to find considering all the competition around our businesses. So when someone is on the hook, even as a “soft lead”, you want to put all your weapons on the table. This episode I want to share with you is about a client having a bucket of soft leads and what I advised him to do with them.

The idea is that your lead generator finds leads that are potential good business for you. The right title, great company with money and most importantly, they want to connect with you! and they do. But they aren’t ready to buy. So the idea is for sales reps to think beyond the opening email that was already sent to the lead and provide new compelling information. (Because you know who they are, what they do, issues they may be having (based on the type of client they are, trials they are running or any news articles revealing other issues, your operations department can help provide information on what challenges they may be having because other clients in their same classification group were having the issue a month ago.)

But this wasn’t happening with the client I was speaking with. The same messages the lead generator was sending were being sent again by sales. This resulted with many of the leads asking to be taken off the email list.

Don’t drown your potential business network with repeated messaging. Break out of being in the “soft lead” category to a meeting category by providing information that will address your potential customers’ pain points.

March 15, 2020

I had an opportunity to do some sales coaching with 2 separate colleagues yesterday. It felt more like a call with a good friend talking frankly about individual strengths and how not to lose yourself when speaking with CEOs or others that may be interviewing you. Some think you talk their talk and that might be true to a degree. But, be sure to let your beliefs, methods and experiences color your story. Talk to a coach/confidant before heading to the interview to get rid of negative cobwebs.

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