June 29, 2025 • 21 mins
Success in outside sales requires more than just closing techniques – it demands a strategic approach that includes finding the right mentors and developing comprehensive skills beyond the traditional sales pitch.
• Summer is not the time to stop selling – use this time to make hay while working on your craft and skills
• Most sales advice focuses only on tactics and mindset but neglects the foundational elements
• Closing is important but there are many crucial steps that happen before you get to that point
• You need three types of guidance to excel: a teacher, a trainer, and a coach/mentor
• A teacher provides knowledge about the technical aspects of selling beyond just features and benefits
• Small details matter – like parking far from the business entrance to leave space for paying customers
• A trainer helps with skill development through repetition and implementation of what you've learned
• A coach/mentor guides you after implementation, helping you improve based on real experience
• Working with experienced professionals accelerates your success by helping you avoid common mistakes
• The sales world is increasingly competitive, making proper guidance more important than ever
• Speed and quick decision-making are essential in sales success
If you're interested in getting on a complimentary 30-minute strategy call, the link is in the show notes, or reach out to me on LinkedIn.
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Connect with Mike:
Website: Mike O'Kelly
Mike@survivingoutsidesales.com
LinkedIn: Mike O'Kelly | LinkedIn
Click to join: Surviving Outside Sales Page on LinkedIn
______________________________________________________________________
If you are in outside sales and have had any of the following:
- New to Outside Sales
- New to an industry, new product, new territory - any type of change
- Experienced, but have lacked training and business development
- Seasoned but feel like you have hit your ceiling and need a reboot
If any of those descriptions sound like you or someone you know,
If you want to have a conversation about:
- Scheduling a strategy call for your next move
- Help building your business or territory
Reach out to me:
Schedule a FREE consultation
or https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-o-kelly-44ba352b/
mike@survivingoutsidesales.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Surviving Outside Sales podcast, hosted by Mike
O'Kelley, presented by SalesBuilder Academy.
The goal is to survive andthrive all phases of outside
sales, whether you're getting in, dominating or getting out.
Surviving Outside Sales.
Now on with the show.
Welcome to the SurvivingOutside Sales Podcast.
(00:35):
I'm your host, mike O'Kelley.
Hope everybody has been doingfantastic out there.
It is the summer months.
It's not the time to stopselling.
Your buyers are still going tobe buying.
It's not the time to take abreak.
So the summer is always whereyou can make hay.
You can always get better.
One of the things you can do isby re-educating yourself,
retraining, working on yourcraft, working on your skills,
working on your plans, so thatif you are taking some time off,
(00:57):
or your buyers are taking sometime off, you're not going to
fall behind once everything isgoing to be back to as I say,
quote unquote normal.
And, yes, come around September.
Once the kids go back intoschool, it does get kind of back
to normal, but it doesn't meanyou just take the summer off.
So thank you everybody who'sbeen listening.
(01:18):
I really appreciate everybodywho has been reaching out, and
one of the things I actuallywanted to talk about was
something that I had referencedto somebody who recently reached
out to me about some advice,and so I really thought about
this for several hours and Ihaven't had anybody reach out to
me and ask for advice in awhile, just direct advice like
(01:39):
what are the three things?
And a lot of the advice that Isee out there in the sales world
is it talks about sales tacticsand it talks about mindset.
And a lot of the advice that Isee out there in the sales world
is it talks about sales tacticsand it talks about mindset and
it talks about working harderthan other people, which is
great.
And if you've been listening tothe show for a while or if this
is your first time here, I'm alittle bit of a contrarian.
Now I don't try to go againstthe grain for the sake of going
(02:01):
against the grain.
I just think a little different.
I think differently than mostsales professionals or a lot of
the people out there that arethe carnival barkers and the
people that are screaming frommountaintops about closing and
you've got to do this and you'vegot to do that, and I talk a
lot about about mindset, aboutbuilding a business.
(02:22):
It's not about closing.
Closing is important.
Yes, don't get me wrong.
You have to close in order toobviously earn the business, but
there are so many steps thathappen way before you actually
get to the close, and that iswhat I saw, or I see there's a
lack of actually discussing that.
You could go right now ontoYouTube, or maybe even Spotify
(02:43):
or Instagram, and you can find,quote unquote sales trainers,
people that train you on how toclose, how to handle objections,
which is important but a lot oftimes they're obviously I mean,
I'm not obviously they areactually moot, because you can't
get there.
You can't get there and discusswhat you need to discuss,
(03:07):
because you don't know anything.
All you're doing is you're justyou're giving a pitch, but you
don't know any background, youhaven't done any discovery.
It's just simply, hey, I gotthis great product and service
and then, oh, they didn't buy.
You just move on to the next.
So that is not the mostefficient possible way to do
things.
And it all starts and, as weknow, there's a lot more that
(03:31):
comes than just closing.
There's a lot more and there'salso fulfillment.
You can sell anybody anythinganytime one time, but the people
that make careers in sales,they know how to get repeat
business, they know how to buildreferrals and they have staying
power.
Either it's grit, either it'swill, either it's determination.
There's something inside salesprofessionals that allows them
(03:52):
to continue to move forward wheneverybody else quits.
When everybody else hits thetough times and trust me, you're
going to have some tough timesin sales You're going to
question why you ever decided tomove into sales.
It is not for the faint of heart, but the advice that I would
give to people and I actuallyrecently just gave this and it
really got me to thinking aboutit is the advice that I give has
(04:15):
nothing to do with closing, ithas nothing to do with looking
in an industry, et cetera.
There are three things, thereare three pieces of advice that
I believe every single salesprofessional uh, or I would give
that I think every salesprofessional should really take
to heart.
Okay, the three things that youneed.
Number one you always need tohave a teacher.
Okay, you always need to havesomebody that's going to give
(04:39):
you the knowledge, somebody toteach you.
It's going to give you theknowledge to get you from where
you are today, excuse me towhere you want to go in the
future, and that's kind of thetechnical competence, but it's
also teaching the ropes.
But it's not.
It's at the beginning.
(05:01):
So think about it as when youget into sales or you're
starting with a new company,what do they usually do?
They usually quote unquote sendyou training.
And what is the training?
The training is simply the umspecs.
It's whatever the the productor service you're selling.
It's what revolves around thatspecifically.
It has nothing to do with allthe other things.
(05:22):
The market forces, your product, market fit, your competition,
what you're walking into.
Most companies just teachfeatures and benefits.
That's it.
Here's a message.
Go out there and say thatmessage a thousand times and
then business will follow.
And that can't be further fromthe truth, especially in 2025
(05:43):
and beyond.
It takes more than just walkingout with regurgitated lines
like a robot and expecting togrow sales.
So you need to find a teacher,somebody that can teach you the
things like you have to haveusing your tone of voice.
You have to have inflection.
You have to use your hands,body language, how you stand,
(06:05):
words you emphasize words.
You don't the words you use.
Types of questions that you askhow to enter a room where to
sit, how to ask that firstquestion to a gatekeeper,
somebody you're just meeting forthe first time.
If you're walking into abusiness, it could be an office
(06:25):
manager, could be a receptionist.
Where do you park in the parkinglot?
This is a hot button issue.
It still bothers me to this daywhen I go places and I see
obvious salespeople when they'reparked right in front of the
building.
It happens in one of mybusinesses People will park
literally right in front of thebuilding.
It happens in one of mybusinesses People will park
literally right in front of thebuilding and they'll walk in and
(06:47):
they'll try to pitch something.
That spot is not for us assales pros.
That spot is for payingcustomers.
Park as far away as possiblefor two reasons.
Number one, you do not want totake away a spot from a buying
customer of the business you'retrying to sell something to.
(07:08):
And number two, you don't wantthem to see what you drive.
If you drive a nice car, thebusiness owner is thinking, well
, how did they get that nice car?
Am I paying too much for myservice?
Now here's the caveat.
If you're in things like realestate or you're in something
you're in a luxury brand, yes, Iwant my real estate.
(07:30):
I want my real estate.
Um, I'm not my realtor or myagent to drive a nice car.
Because then it tells me,because they're commissioned,
only they've sold a bunch ofhouses or they bought a bunch of
houses for their clients.
They have lots of clients.
But if you're in sales andyou're trying to get the best
(07:52):
deal and you look outside andsomebody is driving a Mercedes
Benz SUV, you got to kind ofwonder how did they afford that?
No, yes, I know They've gotspouses possibly, so there's
dual incomes and they've beendoing it for a while.
So they have a lot of moneysaved up.
But still, as a business owner,I can tell you it makes me
think I used to always park asfar away as possible.
(08:12):
It was good for the exercisebecause I was in the car a long
time, but it was also I didn'twant people to know what I drove
.
I didn't want extra things toget in the way of me doing my
job, which was trying toincrease my book of business, to
bring on more customers and tosell more.
That was my job.
(08:34):
So you need somebody that willteach you the basics of being an
outside sales professional, andthat is something that is
severely lacking in the industryright now.
Number two you want to havesomebody who can train you on
your skill development.
You want somebody who's goingto put you through the
(08:58):
repetitions and make you abetter pro.
But you need training not justteaching, but training.
Teaching is the how.
The training is theimplementation of what you were
just taught.
So you've got to go through thereputations, you have to do the
(09:19):
role plays, you have to be anexpert at your craft.
And the third is you need tohave a coach or a mentor.
So once you have learned theinformation, once you have been
trained on how to utilize theinformation, you need somebody
(09:40):
there as a coach or a mentor toguide you through after you've
implemented how you're doing,how to improve.
Think about it from sports youhave to have somebody who
teaches you.
Now, yes, a coach could be thesame person, but when I was in
(10:01):
high school, I had a hittinginstructor.
My junior year in high school,I went to a hitting and a
catching instructor.
What did he do?
He taught me how to catch.
He taught me how to train I'msorry, how to hit.
He taught me how to train.
(10:26):
Then I didn't have a trainer inhigh school, but I trained.
I trained by myself.
I wish I actually would havehad a trainer.
My first uh, my firstinstructor was kind of both, but
not really.
He wasn't there with me everyday.
He wasn't there.
It was a different time.
(10:46):
It was the it was the nineties,but then you have a.
It was a different time, it wasthe 90s, but then you have a
coach or a mentor.
I had my high school coach.
I really didn't have a mentor,but if you think about LeBron
James, or just name aprofessional athlete, a big-time
professional athlete LeBronJames has a team of people.
He doesn't show up to the courtand JJ JJ Redick, who's his
(11:11):
head coach right now.
He doesn't just show up and JJRedick is everything.
Lebron James has trainers.
Lebron James has people thateducate him on various aspects
of health, wellness, longevity.
He hires and has a team ofpeople that work for him, and he
also has coaches, and he hascoaches and mentors that help
(11:34):
him along the way as well.
He's got a coach with theLakers, but he's also got a
private coach.
I highly recommend if you are insales, if you're getting into
sales you're in sales right nowor you're looking to go to
another level you need to find ateacher, a trainer and a mentor
(11:55):
or a coach.
You need to find those threetypes.
Here's the fourth piece ofadvice that person is not the
same one.
You want to ideally find threepeople now, at the beginning.
If you're just starting out andyou don't have the network to
(12:19):
find three different people likethat or the means to pay for
three people like that Cause,yes, a lot of times it costs
money.
I've paid a lot of money to dothat.
I've paid five figures plus towork on my craft to get better.
You can find somebody to justget you started and if that
(12:44):
person happens to be yourteacher, your trainer and your
mentor, slash coach at thebeginning, great.
But quickly look to find otherpeople to fill out those roles,
and this is the reason why youwant to do that.
You do want to get differentpoints of view, but you want to
get different ideas fromdifferent angles and different
(13:06):
situations.
And I'll give you a specificexample.
I've had clients in the medicaldevice world.
Okay, they've called onhospitals.
I have never called onhospitals, so I can teach them
how to build a business, but ifthey need to find the
specificity of how to get intoand engage with hospital
(13:29):
administrators.
I'm not the guy, and that's whyyou have to find other people.
The person that I referred themout to does not do sales
training, but knows how to getinto hospitals.
That is what he is great at.
He knows how to get intohospitals, right.
(13:54):
So you're going to find that youwant to find the expert at each
In the beginning.
You can find a jack of alltrades, or you could find an
expert that has all three or asclose to all three as possible.
That's totally acceptable, butyou're going to have to do it,
especially in 2025 and beyond.
The sales world has never beenmore competitive.
(14:16):
In 2025 and beyond, the salesworld has never been more
competitive.
There are more people trying toget into sales, especially the
medical sales world.
I hear it all the time.
People that I talk to hey, youwere in the medical sales world,
did you?
What do I need to do?
What kind of advice would Igive you?
And I jokingly say, well, doyou really want to do like,
what's your goal behind that?
Do you want to sell medicaldevices or do you want to make
(14:36):
money?
And they said, well, what doyou mean?
I said, well, there's lots ofways to make money.
There's less glamorous ways tomake money, but I know there's a
lot of blue collar companiesout there.
They're looking for salespeopleto sell their services and they
make a lot.
I mean, they're admitted,they're um, they're plumbers and
electricians.
They make a ton of money, aboatload of money.
So if you can sell and you selltheir services, you're going to
(14:59):
make a boatload of money.
I said, but if you're looking toget into the medical sales
world because maybe you want tomake it a jumpstart into the
healthcare, healthcare world,healthcare administration I know
some people who started out indevices and then they went back
to school, got their PAs orbecame a PA.
They became physicianassistants.
I know a couple of guys thatdid that.
I know girls that have goneback to nursing school and they
(15:21):
became nurse injectors in theaesthetic world.
So it really comes down to like, what do you want to do and
where do you want to go?
But I get it a lot.
I get that question.
So, as opposed to givingspecific advice, because it's so
multifaceted, but the threethings again, it's going to make
(15:51):
your life so much easier andwhat it is, it's accelerant.
It's accelerant on your success, it's accelerant on your career
.
It's accelerant on your success.
It's accelerant on your career.
You're going to be able todraft off of the person that has
gone through it before so youdon't have to make those same
mistakes.
You're microwaving yourexperience level by working with
a coach, slash mentor, ateacher and a trainer.
(16:11):
You're accelerating all of thethings that those people did
that failed.
They're going to tell you, hey,this doesn't work and this is
why this was successful and thisis why I think you should
implement this and you can runby.
And it's also a soundboard.
So many times in the sales worldthere are things that we don't
know about or there are thingswe don't know and we just guess.
(16:32):
We just stab in the darkbecause we don't know and we
take an educated guess.
But speed is what you have tohave in the sales world.
You can't sit around and wringyour hands and wait and wait,
and wait and try to have theperfect scenario.
Sometimes you just have to act.
It takes quick decisions andquick action in order to
constantly be ahead of the curve, be ahead of the market and to
(16:54):
be successful.
Be ahead of the curve, be aheadof the market and to be
successful, knowing whatpitfalls to avoid how to
sidestep those bombs.
That comes with having a mentor,having a coach, somebody who's
been there, been through thewars, has the gray hairs, has
(17:21):
the stories, has the examples,and some of those people can be
at the company that you're with.
Some of those people can be inthe industry that you know.
Some of those people arewilling to do it for a time, for
free.
Some of the people cost money.
I have some people here locallythat I've known for a while.
We bounce ideas off each otherand it's a give and take.
I also have students that thathave purchased courses and pay
(17:47):
for my time.
I can do that as well and, ifyou, I'd love to work with as
many people as possible.
I have coaching courses.
I have one-on-one training.
I'm going to be opening grouptraining starting in August for
various topics.
I would love to be able to helpyou if you're listening on your
(18:10):
journey, but I just want you to.
I just want you to find itsomewhere.
So the teach part, and this iswhat I.
I talked to a lot of people.
If you want to spend thousandsof hours, you can scrape YouTube
Shoot.
I've got 300 and somethingepisodes of surviving outside
sales podcast.
If you have got the, you know1500 hours to listen to every
(18:35):
episode.
Have at it At some point intime.
Over the last several years Ihave discussed almost every
topic in the sales world andthen some.
So you can do that.
It's out there.
But the but again the reasonwhy you engage with somebody is
(18:55):
to speed up the curve, to getthere faster than you would on
your own, without the headacheand without the stress.
So three pieces of advice finda teacher, find a trainer and
(19:15):
find a mentor, slash coach,somebody who has been where you
are today and somewhere whereyou want to get to in the future
.
If that sounds like you whereyou're looking for that, I offer
a free 30 minute strategy callwhere I hear about your
(19:38):
situation and I can give yousome advice.
And if it makes sense that youwant to discuss working with
sales builder Academy andworking with me, fantastic.
If I can steer you in thedirection which I have before to
other people, I would do that.
I'll give you an example.
If you are just super wantingto get into the medical device
(20:04):
world, I have people I canconnect you with.
That's not me.
That's not what I do.
I don't do anything withresumes.
I can give advice on resumes,but I don't work on resumes.
I don't work on interview prep.
That's not something thatthat's not something that I do.
That's not something that Ifocus on, but I know people who
do.
So if you're listening rightnow and you want to get into the
(20:26):
sales world, I know people whoI can connect you with.
So if anything resonated withyou and you want to get on a
complimentary free strategy,call it's 30 minutes.
The link will be in the shownotes or you can reach out to me
on LinkedIn and connect with methere.
I can send you my calendar link.
(20:47):
I do this as a give back to theindustry.
I love chatting with people andI also want to work with as
many people in the survive andthe um outside sales world,
because I absolutely lose it.
I absolutely excuse me, lovesales and I also love outside
sales as well, so click on thatlink in the show notes.
(21:07):
Um.
Tell a friend about survivingoutside sales.
Share this episode.
Hopefully this resonated withyou and we'll see you next time.
Surviving outside sales.
Cheers.
The Surviving Outside Sales podcast, hosted by Mike
O'Kelley, presented by SalesBuilder Academy.
The goal is to survive andthrive all phases of outside
sales, whether you're getting in, dominating or getting out.
Surviving Outside Sales.
Now on with the show.
Welcome to the SurvivingOutside Sales Podcast.
(00:35):
I'm your host, mike O'Kelley.
Hope everybody has been doingfantastic out there.
It is the summer months.
It's not the time to stopselling.
Your buyers are still going tobe buying.
It's not the time to take abreak.
So the summer is always whereyou can make hay.
You can always get better.
One of the things you can do isby re-educating yourself,
retraining, working on yourcraft, working on your skills,
working on your plans, so thatif you are taking some time off,
(00:57):
or your buyers are taking sometime off, you're not going to
fall behind once everything isgoing to be back to as I say,
quote unquote normal.
And, yes, come around September.
Once the kids go back intoschool, it does get kind of back
to normal, but it doesn't meanyou just take the summer off.
So thank you everybody who'sbeen listening.
(01:18):
I really appreciate everybodywho has been reaching out, and
one of the things I actuallywanted to talk about was
something that I had referencedto somebody who recently reached
out to me about some advice,and so I really thought about
this for several hours and Ihaven't had anybody reach out to
me and ask for advice in awhile, just direct advice like
(01:39):
what are the three things?
And a lot of the advice that Isee out there in the sales world
is it talks about sales tacticsand it talks about mindset.
And a lot of the advice that Isee out there in the sales world
is it talks about sales tacticsand it talks about mindset and
it talks about working harderthan other people, which is
great.
And if you've been listening tothe show for a while or if this
is your first time here, I'm alittle bit of a contrarian.
Now I don't try to go againstthe grain for the sake of going
(02:01):
against the grain.
I just think a little different.
I think differently than mostsales professionals or a lot of
the people out there that arethe carnival barkers and the
people that are screaming frommountaintops about closing and
you've got to do this and you'vegot to do that, and I talk a
lot about about mindset, aboutbuilding a business.
(02:22):
It's not about closing.
Closing is important.
Yes, don't get me wrong.
You have to close in order toobviously earn the business, but
there are so many steps thathappen way before you actually
get to the close, and that iswhat I saw, or I see there's a
lack of actually discussing that.
You could go right now ontoYouTube, or maybe even Spotify
(02:43):
or Instagram, and you can find,quote unquote sales trainers,
people that train you on how toclose, how to handle objections,
which is important but a lot oftimes they're obviously I mean,
I'm not obviously they areactually moot, because you can't
get there.
You can't get there and discusswhat you need to discuss,
(03:07):
because you don't know anything.
All you're doing is you're justyou're giving a pitch, but you
don't know any background, youhaven't done any discovery.
It's just simply, hey, I gotthis great product and service
and then, oh, they didn't buy.
You just move on to the next.
So that is not the mostefficient possible way to do
things.
And it all starts and, as weknow, there's a lot more that
(03:31):
comes than just closing.
There's a lot more and there'salso fulfillment.
You can sell anybody anythinganytime one time, but the people
that make careers in sales,they know how to get repeat
business, they know how to buildreferrals and they have staying
power.
Either it's grit, either it'swill, either it's determination.
There's something inside salesprofessionals that allows them
(03:52):
to continue to move forward wheneverybody else quits.
When everybody else hits thetough times and trust me, you're
going to have some tough timesin sales You're going to
question why you ever decided tomove into sales.
It is not for the faint of heart, but the advice that I would
give to people and I actuallyrecently just gave this and it
really got me to thinking aboutit is the advice that I give has
(04:15):
nothing to do with closing, ithas nothing to do with looking
in an industry, et cetera.
There are three things, thereare three pieces of advice that
I believe every single salesprofessional uh, or I would give
that I think every salesprofessional should really take
to heart.
Okay, the three things that youneed.
Number one you always need tohave a teacher.
Okay, you always need to havesomebody that's going to give
(04:39):
you the knowledge, somebody toteach you.
It's going to give you theknowledge to get you from where
you are today, excuse me towhere you want to go in the
future, and that's kind of thetechnical competence, but it's
also teaching the ropes.
But it's not.
It's at the beginning.
(05:01):
So think about it as when youget into sales or you're
starting with a new company,what do they usually do?
They usually quote unquote sendyou training.
And what is the training?
The training is simply the umspecs.
It's whatever the the productor service you're selling.
It's what revolves around thatspecifically.
It has nothing to do with allthe other things.
(05:22):
The market forces, your product, market fit, your competition,
what you're walking into.
Most companies just teachfeatures and benefits.
That's it.
Here's a message.
Go out there and say thatmessage a thousand times and
then business will follow.
And that can't be further fromthe truth, especially in 2025
(05:43):
and beyond.
It takes more than just walkingout with regurgitated lines
like a robot and expecting togrow sales.
So you need to find a teacher,somebody that can teach you the
things like you have to haveusing your tone of voice.
You have to have inflection.
You have to use your hands,body language, how you stand,
(06:05):
words you emphasize words.
You don't the words you use.
Types of questions that you askhow to enter a room where to
sit, how to ask that firstquestion to a gatekeeper,
somebody you're just meeting forthe first time.
If you're walking into abusiness, it could be an office
(06:25):
manager, could be a receptionist.
Where do you park in the parkinglot?
This is a hot button issue.
It still bothers me to this daywhen I go places and I see
obvious salespeople when they'reparked right in front of the
building.
It happens in one of mybusinesses People will park
literally right in front of thebuilding.
It happens in one of mybusinesses People will park
literally right in front of thebuilding and they'll walk in and
(06:47):
they'll try to pitch something.
That spot is not for us assales pros.
That spot is for payingcustomers.
Park as far away as possiblefor two reasons.
Number one, you do not want totake away a spot from a buying
customer of the business you'retrying to sell something to.
(07:08):
And number two, you don't wantthem to see what you drive.
If you drive a nice car, thebusiness owner is thinking, well
, how did they get that nice car?
Am I paying too much for myservice?
Now here's the caveat.
If you're in things like realestate or you're in something
you're in a luxury brand, yes, Iwant my real estate.
(07:30):
I want my real estate.
Um, I'm not my realtor or myagent to drive a nice car.
Because then it tells me,because they're commissioned,
only they've sold a bunch ofhouses or they bought a bunch of
houses for their clients.
They have lots of clients.
But if you're in sales andyou're trying to get the best
(07:52):
deal and you look outside andsomebody is driving a Mercedes
Benz SUV, you got to kind ofwonder how did they afford that?
No, yes, I know They've gotspouses possibly, so there's
dual incomes and they've beendoing it for a while.
So they have a lot of moneysaved up.
But still, as a business owner,I can tell you it makes me
think I used to always park asfar away as possible.
(08:12):
It was good for the exercisebecause I was in the car a long
time, but it was also I didn'twant people to know what I drove
.
I didn't want extra things toget in the way of me doing my
job, which was trying toincrease my book of business, to
bring on more customers and tosell more.
That was my job.
(08:34):
So you need somebody that willteach you the basics of being an
outside sales professional, andthat is something that is
severely lacking in the industryright now.
Number two you want to havesomebody who can train you on
your skill development.
You want somebody who's goingto put you through the
(08:58):
repetitions and make you abetter pro.
But you need training not justteaching, but training.
Teaching is the how.
The training is theimplementation of what you were
just taught.
So you've got to go through thereputations, you have to do the
(09:19):
role plays, you have to be anexpert at your craft.
And the third is you need tohave a coach or a mentor.
So once you have learned theinformation, once you have been
trained on how to utilize theinformation, you need somebody
(09:40):
there as a coach or a mentor toguide you through after you've
implemented how you're doing,how to improve.
Think about it from sports youhave to have somebody who
teaches you.
Now, yes, a coach could be thesame person, but when I was in
(10:01):
high school, I had a hittinginstructor.
My junior year in high school,I went to a hitting and a
catching instructor.
What did he do?
He taught me how to catch.
He taught me how to train I'msorry, how to hit.
He taught me how to train.
(10:26):
Then I didn't have a trainer inhigh school, but I trained.
I trained by myself.
I wish I actually would havehad a trainer.
My first uh, my firstinstructor was kind of both, but
not really.
He wasn't there with me everyday.
He wasn't there.
It was a different time.
(10:46):
It was the it was the nineties,but then you have a.
It was a different time, it wasthe 90s, but then you have a
coach or a mentor.
I had my high school coach.
I really didn't have a mentor,but if you think about LeBron
James, or just name aprofessional athlete, a big-time
professional athlete LeBronJames has a team of people.
He doesn't show up to the courtand JJ JJ Redick, who's his
(11:11):
head coach right now.
He doesn't just show up and JJRedick is everything.
Lebron James has trainers.
Lebron James has people thateducate him on various aspects
of health, wellness, longevity.
He hires and has a team ofpeople that work for him, and he
also has coaches, and he hascoaches and mentors that help
(11:34):
him along the way as well.
He's got a coach with theLakers, but he's also got a
private coach.
I highly recommend if you are insales, if you're getting into
sales you're in sales right nowor you're looking to go to
another level you need to find ateacher, a trainer and a mentor
(11:55):
or a coach.
You need to find those threetypes.
Here's the fourth piece ofadvice that person is not the
same one.
You want to ideally find threepeople now, at the beginning.
If you're just starting out andyou don't have the network to
(12:19):
find three different people likethat or the means to pay for
three people like that Cause,yes, a lot of times it costs
money.
I've paid a lot of money to dothat.
I've paid five figures plus towork on my craft to get better.
You can find somebody to justget you started and if that
(12:44):
person happens to be yourteacher, your trainer and your
mentor, slash coach at thebeginning, great.
But quickly look to find otherpeople to fill out those roles,
and this is the reason why youwant to do that.
You do want to get differentpoints of view, but you want to
get different ideas fromdifferent angles and different
(13:06):
situations.
And I'll give you a specificexample.
I've had clients in the medicaldevice world.
Okay, they've called onhospitals.
I have never called onhospitals, so I can teach them
how to build a business, but ifthey need to find the
specificity of how to get intoand engage with hospital
(13:29):
administrators.
I'm not the guy, and that's whyyou have to find other people.
The person that I referred themout to does not do sales
training, but knows how to getinto hospitals.
That is what he is great at.
He knows how to get intohospitals, right.
(13:54):
So you're going to find that youwant to find the expert at each
In the beginning.
You can find a jack of alltrades, or you could find an
expert that has all three or asclose to all three as possible.
That's totally acceptable, butyou're going to have to do it,
especially in 2025 and beyond.
The sales world has never beenmore competitive.
(14:16):
In 2025 and beyond, the salesworld has never been more
competitive.
There are more people trying toget into sales, especially the
medical sales world.
I hear it all the time.
People that I talk to hey, youwere in the medical sales world,
did you?
What do I need to do?
What kind of advice would Igive you?
And I jokingly say, well, doyou really want to do like,
what's your goal behind that?
Do you want to sell medicaldevices or do you want to make
(14:36):
money?
And they said, well, what doyou mean?
I said, well, there's lots ofways to make money.
There's less glamorous ways tomake money, but I know there's a
lot of blue collar companiesout there.
They're looking for salespeopleto sell their services and they
make a lot.
I mean, they're admitted,they're um, they're plumbers and
electricians.
They make a ton of money, aboatload of money.
So if you can sell and you selltheir services, you're going to
(14:59):
make a boatload of money.
I said, but if you're looking toget into the medical sales
world because maybe you want tomake it a jumpstart into the
healthcare, healthcare world,healthcare administration I know
some people who started out indevices and then they went back
to school, got their PAs orbecame a PA.
They became physicianassistants.
I know a couple of guys thatdid that.
I know girls that have goneback to nursing school and they
(15:21):
became nurse injectors in theaesthetic world.
So it really comes down to like, what do you want to do and
where do you want to go?
But I get it a lot.
I get that question.
So, as opposed to givingspecific advice, because it's so
multifaceted, but the threethings again, it's going to make
(15:51):
your life so much easier andwhat it is, it's accelerant.
It's accelerant on your success, it's accelerant on your career
.
It's accelerant on your success.
It's accelerant on your career.
You're going to be able todraft off of the person that has
gone through it before so youdon't have to make those same
mistakes.
You're microwaving yourexperience level by working with
a coach, slash mentor, ateacher and a trainer.
(16:11):
You're accelerating all of thethings that those people did
that failed.
They're going to tell you, hey,this doesn't work and this is
why this was successful and thisis why I think you should
implement this and you can runby.
And it's also a soundboard.
So many times in the sales worldthere are things that we don't
know about or there are thingswe don't know and we just guess.
(16:32):
We just stab in the darkbecause we don't know and we
take an educated guess.
But speed is what you have tohave in the sales world.
You can't sit around and wringyour hands and wait and wait,
and wait and try to have theperfect scenario.
Sometimes you just have to act.
It takes quick decisions andquick action in order to
constantly be ahead of the curve, be ahead of the market and to
(16:54):
be successful.
Be ahead of the curve, be aheadof the market and to be
successful, knowing whatpitfalls to avoid how to
sidestep those bombs.
That comes with having a mentor,having a coach, somebody who's
been there, been through thewars, has the gray hairs, has
(17:21):
the stories, has the examples,and some of those people can be
at the company that you're with.
Some of those people can be inthe industry that you know.
Some of those people arewilling to do it for a time, for
free.
Some of the people cost money.
I have some people here locallythat I've known for a while.
We bounce ideas off each otherand it's a give and take.
I also have students that thathave purchased courses and pay
(17:47):
for my time.
I can do that as well and, ifyou, I'd love to work with as
many people as possible.
I have coaching courses.
I have one-on-one training.
I'm going to be opening grouptraining starting in August for
various topics.
I would love to be able to helpyou if you're listening on your
(18:10):
journey, but I just want you to.
I just want you to find itsomewhere.
So the teach part, and this iswhat I.
I talked to a lot of people.
If you want to spend thousandsof hours, you can scrape YouTube
Shoot.
I've got 300 and somethingepisodes of surviving outside
sales podcast.
If you have got the, you know1500 hours to listen to every
(18:35):
episode.
Have at it At some point intime.
Over the last several years Ihave discussed almost every
topic in the sales world andthen some.
So you can do that.
It's out there.
But the but again the reasonwhy you engage with somebody is
(18:55):
to speed up the curve, to getthere faster than you would on
your own, without the headacheand without the stress.
So three pieces of advice finda teacher, find a trainer and
(19:15):
find a mentor, slash coach,somebody who has been where you
are today and somewhere whereyou want to get to in the future
.
If that sounds like you whereyou're looking for that, I offer
a free 30 minute strategy callwhere I hear about your
(19:38):
situation and I can give yousome advice.
And if it makes sense that youwant to discuss working with
sales builder Academy andworking with me, fantastic.
If I can steer you in thedirection which I have before to
other people, I would do that.
I'll give you an example.
If you are just super wantingto get into the medical device
(20:04):
world, I have people I canconnect you with.
That's not me.
That's not what I do.
I don't do anything withresumes.
I can give advice on resumes,but I don't work on resumes.
I don't work on interview prep.
That's not something thatthat's not something that I do.
That's not something that Ifocus on, but I know people who
do.
So if you're listening rightnow and you want to get into the
(20:26):
sales world, I know people whoI can connect you with.
So if anything resonated withyou and you want to get on a
complimentary free strategy,call it's 30 minutes.
The link will be in the shownotes or you can reach out to me
on LinkedIn and connect with methere.
I can send you my calendar link.
(20:47):
I do this as a give back to theindustry.
I love chatting with people andI also want to work with as
many people in the survive andthe um outside sales world,
because I absolutely lose it.
I absolutely excuse me, lovesales and I also love outside
sales as well, so click on thatlink in the show notes.
(21:07):
Um.
Tell a friend about survivingoutside sales.
Share this episode.
Hopefully this resonated withyou and we'll see you next time.
Surviving outside sales.
Cheers.
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