147: Melissa Palmer – Obsessed with Sales

Guest: Melissa Palmer

 

Guest Bio:

Melissa started her sales career by accident, but quickly learned. She enjoyed connecting a customer with a solution and helping solve their problems and protect their interests. She is very good at building lasting relationships because her intention is always honest. She soon learned the best way to truly protect the customer is to also protect the company she represents; there has to be a win-win scenario, or no one wins in the long run. In management, she can do the greatest good as she works with the sales team to do just that, focusing on creating winning solutions for all. Melissa is also very energetic about what she does, and that energy is contagious.

 

Key Points:

Career Journey into Sales & Manufacturing

Melissa began working in manufacturing while studying elementary education, after passing a tape measure test at a temp agency. She started on the shop floor, moved into office roles, then customer service, sales, management, and technical roles. Melissa wanted a fresh start in sales after over 20 years at her first company, where she was often the "fixer." Within six months, she was promoted to Sales Manager due to her proactive ideas and contributions.

 

Sales Team Development at LS Industries

Melissa feels her biggest win is unified messaging—the entire sales team aligned in language, story, and mission. She took advantage of team turnover to rebuild with aligned, enthusiastic hires. There is strong support from leadership (including the owner) who models the company’s values. Focus on educating the team on purpose, customer-centric values, and collective goals.

 

Sales Philosophy & Leadership

Set clear expectations for customers, build trust, and prevent miscommunication. As a sales manager, Melissa retrains and coaches. Leads by example (e.g., joining calls to demonstrate customer communication). Shows the real-time impact of proper communication. Success in sales depends on trust, not just rapport. Repeat business comes from being dependable.

 

Sales Challenges

Pain points: Reps either say “no” too fast or say “yes” too easily without assessing feasibility and avoiding hard conversations with customers (especially around timelines or product complexity). Melissa’s coaching approach is to educate on the long-term impact of honesty and setting realistic expectations, and emphasize quality and ROI over speed when needed.

 

Team Composition & Structure

Melissa’s current team consists of 12 people, including international, e-commerce, parts, and general sales. She describes her team as mostly “hunters” (actively seeking new business). The “Farmers” exist mainly on the parts team (inbound calls, upselling).

 

Talent Development

Melissa has successfully transitioned shop floor workers into top-performing sales reps based on drive and hustle. People who are eager to grow and win tend to excel, even with little formal experience.

 

CRM Adoption & Usage

The biggest challenge is getting reps to consistently use the CRM. Melissa was initially skeptical, but now sees it as essential for success, organization, and maintaining relationships.  Her approach is to minimize complexity—track only essential data, use automation (autosave communications, recurring tasks), regular reminders, training, and reinforcement, and “Trust but verify” through reporting and light oversight—not micromanagement.

 

Key Sales Leadership Insights

Missing documentation in CRM can cost deals. Frequent retraining, reinforcement, and modeling behavior help build habits. Being transparent and reliable is more effective than always being agreeable.

 

Guest Links:

[phone]

[e-mail]

www.lsindustries.com 

www.winonavannorman.com 

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