September 11, 2023 • 22 mins
Are you sick and tired of being stuck in the same old sales routine?
Craving a winning strategy that will supercharge your sales career? Well, buckle up, because in the latest episode of Surviving Outside Sales, yours truly, Mike O’Kelly, is ready to impart some serious wisdom. I’ll be walking you through the three pivotal phases of a sales professional's career: breaking into the industry, conquering the market, and most importantly, crafting a strategic exit. I'll give you a sneak peek into my group coaching course, packed with tools and resources to help you land that first job and make a name for yourself in the challenging world of sales.
To connect with the show: Subscribe, Download & Share!
Would appreciate a 5-Star Rating if deserved on Spotify & Apple Podcasts!!!
Connect with Mike:
Website: Mike O'Kelly
Mike@survivingoutsidesales.com
LinkedIn: Mike O'Kelly | LinkedIn
IG: Mike O'Kelly - Sales Builder
______________________________________________________________________
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
Mark as Played
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'Kelly, 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 live.
(00:30):
I'm your host, mike O'Kelly.
Today is the first time I'veever done this a live podcast
episode.
Now I know if you're listeningto this later through Spotify or
Apple.
This can be released in 10 daysfrom when it's actually shot,
on Thursday, august 24th.
I know that you're not going toget as excited as you might be,
but this is live so I can takequestions from the audience.
(00:54):
So there are people watchingright now on LinkedIn live from
the business of sales webinarseries so people can ask me
questions if they have any, andwe're going to get started.
So, if you're new to theSurviving Outside Sales world,
if you've been listening for awhile, you know there's three
tenets, there's three legs ofthe stool that I talk about, and
that is every single salesprofessional, no matter who you
(01:16):
are.
There's always three phases ofyour career.
The first is going to begetting in.
You've got to get that firstjob.
You've got to get that firstopportunity in that industry and
you have to start your careersomewhere.
And as you navigate your waythrough, you have to dominate.
Why?
Because sales organizationsreally do not pay people who
don't perform.
(01:37):
It's kind of the little, it'sthe only catch 22 in the sales
world.
You don't perform, you're outof a job.
And then once you dominate andyou can learn as much as you can
, you can be as good in yourcraft as possible.
Every single sales professionalhas to have a plan to get out.
Now, getting out is a lot ofthings to a lot of people.
(01:59):
Getting out could be gettinginto a new role in management,
so you're getting out of thefield.
You could become a trainer.
You could leave the industrytogether.
You could go start a business.
You could start a coachingbusiness.
You could get into somethingcompletely different.
So getting out means a lot ofthings to different people.
(02:21):
But no matter who you are Idon't care if you're 25 years
old or you're 65 years old youcan't be in the sales business
forever unless you own your ownbusiness.
You can't.
At some point you have to getout as you age, as my dad said
when he got close to 60 yearsold he said.
(02:43):
I know that my days arenumbered because there's not a
lot of people out there thatwish to hire a 60-some-year-old
person for a sales role.
He told me outside sales is ayoung person's game.
There's a physicality to itwhere you need to be young, you
need to be able to hop in andout of cars, you need to be on
your feet all day, and there isa physical nature to it.
Trust me, I'm in my mid-40s nowand I started feeling it in my
(03:05):
late 30s, having done it for solong, so I get it.
So I created and started myGetting Out Plan a decade ago
and it took me six to sevenyears to start to put the things
in motion.
But I started working on myplan well before I even got out,
and I recommend you do as well,especially with the current
(03:29):
market.
There are sales organizationsthat are being gutted left and
right.
I mean you name some of the bignames Pfizer Abbey, even
smaller ones.
They're just letting people go.
Bristol-meyer, squibb, I think,had a big layoff.
All these organizations arelaying people off.
(03:49):
What is your backup plan?
I hate when I see the posts onLinkedIn about needing a job and
needing an opportunity.
In my view, you need to pickyourself up, get off the mat.
Like I said, get up from thatloss and get going again and
then create your plan.
Get back on your feet and thencreate a plan to never allow
(04:13):
that happened again.
Happens once, shame on you.
Happens twice, shame on me.
Okay.
So if you're listening rightnow and you've gone through
restructurings and you've gonethrough reorgs and you've lost
your job the first time, ithappens yes, it's unexpected,
it's like a knockout punch thatcomes from out of nowhere.
It happens a second time.
You should have been prepared.
(04:34):
Are you preparing and what isyour plan?
I'm going to roll back to thegetting in part.
So if you're listening right nowand you're wanting to get into
sales, I have a group coachingcourse that meets once a month.
In fact, we're going to haveour first meeting at 1.30 this
afternoon and talk about gettingin, how to find the right role,
(04:57):
get your resume ready, linkedinexcuse me get your LinkedIn
profile, et cetera.
If you are interested in thatinformation, dm me after we're
done here.
If not, you can go to mywebsite.
It is sales entry plan.
That is mycokellycomm-i-k-e-o-k-e-l-l-ycom slash
(05:18):
sales entry plan, and you canget more information about that
and that is a resource for thoselooking to get into the sales
world, looking to get theirfirst job, looking to get into
that industry and they justdon't know what to do and they
need more specificity.
And once you're getting in, thefirst thing you have to do is
you got to get that role, yougot to get that experience, and
(05:39):
then I would bust your tail, doeverything you can Study at
nights, at night, read salesbooks.
I'm going to be creatingresource that has the top books
that I recommend, that I haveread, that have really helped me
throughout my career, so thatyou can kind of have a cheat
sheet or guide on what to do butstart consuming information.
(06:00):
Don't just say I'm going tolisten to Mike okay, you need to
say I'm going to listen to Mikeand I'm going to go listen to
guys like Alex Tremosi, grantCardone, you know, tony Robbins
when it comes to mindset.
I'm going to listen to all.
I'm going to go read all ofthese different books.
I mean, one of the best booksin sales that I've written or
(06:21):
not written that I've read isDaniel Pink to Sell as Human.
In other words, everything wedo in a day is sales Point being
.
I'm going to have a lot moreresources on my website.
Right now, my bandwidth is verytight.
August has been one of thecraziest months of my life.
I'm hoping September will giveme a little bit more time to do
creation, which I love to do.
(06:41):
I love to create.
I love to create courses,pathways, processes, digital
products.
I love to do that and so I'mgoing to have as many resources
as possible there All right.
Now, getting into the dominatepart Now that you've got the job
, you're going to have to scaleyour business, okay, and there
are ways to do it and there'sways not to do it.
(07:01):
A couple of days ago inLinkedIn, I talked about the
sniper approach, or the snipermethod.
You don't want to use theshotgun or the spray and pray.
You don't just want to startshooting everywhere and blindly
and hoping you hit a target.
You want to focus on yourtarget with precision.
That comes with planning andthat comes with education and it
(07:25):
comes with expertise, andthere's a certain way to do that
.
I also, I'm going to bebuilding out courses
specifically to that dominategroup.
And then, of course, Imentioned before the, the
getting out portion, which isthe escape.
Okay, I call it the salesescape plan and I help sales
professionals build their planto get out of sales, to escape
(07:50):
what they're doing or to getinto something much better.
But all of those three phasesand the surviving outside sales
world are going to happen toeveryone and it doesn't matter.
The first thing is having agrowth mindset.
It doesn't matter what phaseyou are in getting in,
(08:10):
dominating or getting out.
You have to have a growthmindset.
You have to be a sponge.
Assume you don't assume youknow nothing.
Treat every conversation youhave with somebody in sales as
if you believe that person knowseverything.
Hang on every word.
Network like crazy.
(08:30):
Meet as many people in thesales world as possible and put
yourself out there, open andavailable to meet other people.
One of the mistakes that I hadfor a few years was I really
closed myself off.
This was almost my year, 30year old to like 33.
(08:50):
There was about a three yearperiod where I really closed
people off.
I woke up, I worked my tail off, I had blinders on, I had that
tunnel vision and I just worked,worked, worked, worked for
about three years and I wassuccessful.
But other people were gettingpromoted.
Other people were growingfaster than I was and I didn't
(09:12):
understand it.
It's because I was notleveraging my network.
I was not leveraging any of theresources or opportunities that
were open to me because Ididn't see them.
I wasn't allowing myself to seethem.
I had a limiting mindset.
Although I was working reallyhard, it was very limiting and
(09:33):
it was very closed off.
Open yourself up, formpartnerships, get to know people
, invest in yourself, find amentor, or two or three.
I have several mentors, I don'tjust have one.
Again, it's about gettingdifferent influences.
Two people could say the exactsame thing and one person it
(09:54):
might sink in the way they saidit, the phrasing they use, the
tone of voice.
So don't just listen to myvoice.
I'm the complete opposite of avery pushy sales coach.
I tell you, hey, I'd love towork with you, but then hire
somebody else, work with morepeople.
(10:14):
Don't just work with one personand think, all right, cool, I'm
good for the next five, 10years.
Constantly invest in yourself.
You're going to have to elevateyour skill set every single
year that you did the previousyear and the previous year and
the previous year.
It's never been easier, becausewith technology, we can now
(10:39):
reach out to more people thanever before.
In fact, one of my salescoaching groups they're based in
South Africa.
One of the guys I talked to,he's based in the Philippines.
That could never.
That wasn't even on my radarthree years ago.
That's the kind of opportunityyou have to be open for, you
(11:02):
have to be willing to invest in,because, in order to dominate,
just showing up is not going tobe enough.
Sales is like being aprofessional athlete.
Professional athletes, theywork on their diet, they train
in the off season, they getadequate sleep, they work on
(11:25):
their nutrition.
I might have already mentionedthat.
They work on their body, theypractice and then they get into
the game.
The game for us in the salesworld is the actual sales calls.
What are you doing currentlythat separates yourself, that
elevates your game right now?
(11:46):
What are you doing on your owntime?
Do you get home from work?
Do you put on Netflix and youwatch TV for four hours and you
binge?
Look, if you need to decompresson one or two nights, I get it,
but if that is your overallmentality, you are really
robbing yourself.
(12:06):
Trust me, I did this for aboutthree years.
This is like.
There's like a gap in my salescareer, which I call it the lost
years.
I would get up early, I wouldwork late, I would get home, I
would crash.
I would have a couple drinks,I'd watch TV until I was so
(12:30):
tired that my eyes just closed.
I'd wake up and I would do itagain.
Rinse and repeat, rinse andrepeat, rinse and repeat.
I was working in my business waytoo hard.
I wasn't working on my business.
There was no future planning.
It was all about short-termeffort.
If I went out that day and Imade 15 sales calls, that's the
(12:52):
only effort I got out of.
It was those 15 sales calls.
I didn't build relationshipsstrong enough with my market.
I did not build enough goodwillwith the people that I was
working with.
I didn't build any super closerelationships.
It was all transactional andthat's not going to get you
anywhere.
(13:13):
Transactional relationships aregreat.
The deal is done, see you later.
Nobody cares.
That's not going to get you towhere you want to go.
You want to build advocates.
You want to build advocatespeople that are wanting to sell
for you.
They're vested in your success.
(13:34):
There's a way to get there.
That is one of the courses thatI'm going to be building out.
It's the sales advocacy methodand I'm going to call it the
sales advocate builder how tobuild advocates that will sell
for you, because the goal insales is not one to one, not one
person, having a conversationwith one person.
(13:56):
Those days are over.
Your competition is not doingone to one, it's one to many.
So if you're out in the fieldand you are having a
conversation with one person,you need to build a network of
people that are talking aboutyou to other prospects,
simultaneously garneringbusiness.
(14:18):
When you're not there.
Some of the most importantdecisions of your life, some of
the most important interactionsyou're ever going to have, some
of the most important thingsthat people are going to say
about you they happen when youare not in the room.
How do you get the best footforward?
(14:42):
You have people in thosedecision making rooms that are
selling you Because, at the endof the day, people do not buy
the best products 90% of thetime.
10% of the time.
Yes, I know I don't.
I never buy the best product.
I buy the product and I buy theperson attached to it.
(15:05):
That, I believe, is going tocreate a better future state
than I currently have today.
I don't care if you're theindustry leader.
I don't care if you've beendoing it 100 years, I don't care
.
And I'm here to tell you thatwhen I've gotten coaching
students, when I've gottencompanies that want to consult
with me, they've never asked mehow long have you been doing
(15:28):
this?
They don't care.
They believe that I will helpguide them to a better future
state, because that's all I talkabout.
Nobody has ever asked me howlong have you been coaching, how
long have you been a corporateconsultant?
Nobody, not one, because itdoesn't matter.
(15:51):
So if you're walking in andyou're talking about we're
number one in the industry andwe're blah blah, nobody gives a
shit.
Okay, excuse my language, Iknow this one over LinkedIn.
I'm probably getting in troublefor that.
I can say that on my podcast,but I don't know if I can on
LinkedIn.
Oops, hey, this is what happenswhen it's live, it's raw and
it's real.
By the way, one of the things ofmy podcast is I don't have a
(16:11):
script.
There's zero script.
I have a topic and then I'mjust pulling things from the
back of my mind.
Two years ago, when my podcaststarted, that was really
difficult.
That was really difficult tojust create stories or create
topics just out of thin air, butI've been doing this.
This will be probably in theepisode three forties, maybe
(16:33):
three, 50 by the time this comesout.
I've been doing this a while.
This has allowed me to getbetter at what I'm doing right
here.
It's allowing me to get betteron camera, which I will tell you
is very difficult, but I willtell you this too.
One of the reasons again goingback to building your own
podcast or being better as avirtual sales professional my
(16:56):
face-to-face human interactionsare strengthened because of how
much better I've gotten oncamera.
When I first started, I washorrendous.
If we're scaling on one to 10,I think I'm probably about a
seven right now.
I think I can even get better.
I was like a two, maybe a oneand a half when I first started.
(17:20):
In fact I'm trying to pull up.
They're in the cloud and I'mhaving difficulty downloading
them but my first zooms when Iwas doing the podcast were
laughable, absolutely laughable.
It's very cringe-worthy when Ilook at it.
Point being, you got to againgoing back to the beginning.
(17:41):
You've got to go all in.
You can't half-ass this.
Okay, no-transcript.
If you want to go all in, let'shave a conversation.
I might be able to help you.
I might not, but it's worth theconversation.
I'm willing to give you 30minutes of my time and if you're
willing to give me 30 minutesof your time, let's see if we
(18:05):
can put you in a better futurestate.
Because if you're working for acompany right now and you
haven't gotten any businesstraining, of course they teach
features and benefits, but I'lltell you this just getting
better at knowing features andbenefits is not going to close
business and you really want todominate.
(18:26):
Seth, I appreciate you beinghere in Nashville, tennessee.
Hope you're still watching thethree phases of sales Doesn't
matter where you are.
You can always get better.
Whether you want to get in,then once you're in, you need to
dominate.
You need to come up with a planto dominate and then, when
(18:47):
you're dominating, you need toplan your exit strategy.
You can't carry a bag andpromote products out in the
field forever.
It's going to come to somepeople earlier and it's going to
come to some people later.
I played minor league baseballfor two years.
One of my roommates in college,he played in the big leagues
(19:10):
for seven seasons.
My baseball career ended at 24.
His baseball career ended at, Ithink, 35.
Just like baseball the salesworld, the outside sales world.
Your end date is going to becompletely different from
somebody else's, so it's time totake action.
(19:34):
What are you going to do todayto make sure you are prepared so
that, if your company ever sayswe got to let you all go, are
you going to be able to buildthe life that you want?
(19:58):
I want to thank everybody.
Thank you so much.
This was actually kind of funto have some live feedback
during the podcast.
Let me know if anybody hasquestions.
I will take a few questions fora few minutes.
There is a little bit of a lagfrom StreamYard to LinkedIn of
(20:21):
about 30 seconds, so I will giveit a couple minutes.
You can go to mikeokellycom.
I've got resources there.
I'm building out new things onthe website every day and I'm a
one man solopreneur, so I'mspending about 15 different
plates.
If you'd like to go check out,this is a cheap plug.
(20:42):
If you'd like to go check outthe store, mikeokellycom, slash
merch you can see some greatproducts here.
Oh, that way, yeah, mugs, beer,steins, tumblers If you're
interested in one of those, helpsupport the show Would
(21:04):
absolutely appreciate that.
All right, no questions rightnow.
So I am going to wrap this up.
I want to thank everybody who'slistening again.
If you got any value out ofthis, please go to Apple or go
to Spotify and rate the showfive stars.
It really helps with thealgorithm, it helps expand this
to other audiences and it helpsthe search.
(21:26):
There might be somebody outthere that's looking for the
Surviving Outside Sales podcast.
They've been searching for itbut they didn't know how to find
it.
You could help them do that,and the higher the ratings, the
more ratings that there are, themore five star ratings, the
more it's going to get exposedto other people.
So thank you so much.
I really do appreciate it.
I hope everybody has afantastic day and we'll see you
(21:50):
next time.
Surviving Outside Sales and thebusiness of Sales Live every
Thursday on LinkedIn at noon.
Eastern Cheers.
The Surviving Outside Sales podcast hosted by Mike
O'Kelly, 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 live.
(00:30):
I'm your host, mike O'Kelly.
Today is the first time I'veever done this a live podcast
episode.
Now I know if you're listeningto this later through Spotify or
Apple.
This can be released in 10 daysfrom when it's actually shot,
on Thursday, august 24th.
I know that you're not going toget as excited as you might be,
but this is live so I can takequestions from the audience.
(00:54):
So there are people watchingright now on LinkedIn live from
the business of sales webinarseries so people can ask me
questions if they have any, andwe're going to get started.
So, if you're new to theSurviving Outside Sales world,
if you've been listening for awhile, you know there's three
tenets, there's three legs ofthe stool that I talk about, and
that is every single salesprofessional, no matter who you
(01:16):
are.
There's always three phases ofyour career.
The first is going to begetting in.
You've got to get that firstjob.
You've got to get that firstopportunity in that industry and
you have to start your careersomewhere.
And as you navigate your waythrough, you have to dominate.
Why?
Because sales organizationsreally do not pay people who
don't perform.
(01:37):
It's kind of the little, it'sthe only catch 22 in the sales
world.
You don't perform, you're outof a job.
And then once you dominate andyou can learn as much as you can
, you can be as good in yourcraft as possible.
Every single sales professionalhas to have a plan to get out.
Now, getting out is a lot ofthings to a lot of people.
(01:59):
Getting out could be gettinginto a new role in management,
so you're getting out of thefield.
You could become a trainer.
You could leave the industrytogether.
You could go start a business.
You could start a coachingbusiness.
You could get into somethingcompletely different.
So getting out means a lot ofthings to different people.
(02:21):
But no matter who you are Idon't care if you're 25 years
old or you're 65 years old youcan't be in the sales business
forever unless you own your ownbusiness.
You can't.
At some point you have to getout as you age, as my dad said
when he got close to 60 yearsold he said.
(02:43):
I know that my days arenumbered because there's not a
lot of people out there thatwish to hire a 60-some-year-old
person for a sales role.
He told me outside sales is ayoung person's game.
There's a physicality to itwhere you need to be young, you
need to be able to hop in andout of cars, you need to be on
your feet all day, and there isa physical nature to it.
Trust me, I'm in my mid-40s nowand I started feeling it in my
(03:05):
late 30s, having done it for solong, so I get it.
So I created and started myGetting Out Plan a decade ago
and it took me six to sevenyears to start to put the things
in motion.
But I started working on myplan well before I even got out,
and I recommend you do as well,especially with the current
(03:29):
market.
There are sales organizationsthat are being gutted left and
right.
I mean you name some of the bignames Pfizer Abbey, even
smaller ones.
They're just letting people go.
Bristol-meyer, squibb, I think,had a big layoff.
All these organizations arelaying people off.
(03:49):
What is your backup plan?
I hate when I see the posts onLinkedIn about needing a job and
needing an opportunity.
In my view, you need to pickyourself up, get off the mat.
Like I said, get up from thatloss and get going again and
then create your plan.
Get back on your feet and thencreate a plan to never allow
(04:13):
that happened again.
Happens once, shame on you.
Happens twice, shame on me.
Okay.
So if you're listening rightnow and you've gone through
restructurings and you've gonethrough reorgs and you've lost
your job the first time, ithappens yes, it's unexpected,
it's like a knockout punch thatcomes from out of nowhere.
It happens a second time.
You should have been prepared.
(04:34):
Are you preparing and what isyour plan?
I'm going to roll back to thegetting in part.
So if you're listening right nowand you're wanting to get into
sales, I have a group coachingcourse that meets once a month.
In fact, we're going to haveour first meeting at 1.30 this
afternoon and talk about gettingin, how to find the right role,
(04:57):
get your resume ready, linkedinexcuse me get your LinkedIn
profile, et cetera.
If you are interested in thatinformation, dm me after we're
done here.
If not, you can go to mywebsite.
It is sales entry plan.
That is mycokellycomm-i-k-e-o-k-e-l-l-ycom slash
(05:18):
sales entry plan, and you canget more information about that
and that is a resource for thoselooking to get into the sales
world, looking to get theirfirst job, looking to get into
that industry and they justdon't know what to do and they
need more specificity.
And once you're getting in, thefirst thing you have to do is
you got to get that role, yougot to get that experience, and
(05:39):
then I would bust your tail, doeverything you can Study at
nights, at night, read salesbooks.
I'm going to be creatingresource that has the top books
that I recommend, that I haveread, that have really helped me
throughout my career, so thatyou can kind of have a cheat
sheet or guide on what to do butstart consuming information.
(06:00):
Don't just say I'm going tolisten to Mike okay, you need to
say I'm going to listen to Mikeand I'm going to go listen to
guys like Alex Tremosi, grantCardone, you know, tony Robbins
when it comes to mindset.
I'm going to listen to all.
I'm going to go read all ofthese different books.
I mean, one of the best booksin sales that I've written or
(06:21):
not written that I've read isDaniel Pink to Sell as Human.
In other words, everything wedo in a day is sales Point being
.
I'm going to have a lot moreresources on my website.
Right now, my bandwidth is verytight.
August has been one of thecraziest months of my life.
I'm hoping September will giveme a little bit more time to do
creation, which I love to do.
(06:41):
I love to create.
I love to create courses,pathways, processes, digital
products.
I love to do that and so I'mgoing to have as many resources
as possible there All right.
Now, getting into the dominatepart Now that you've got the job
, you're going to have to scaleyour business, okay, and there
are ways to do it and there'sways not to do it.
(07:01):
A couple of days ago inLinkedIn, I talked about the
sniper approach, or the snipermethod.
You don't want to use theshotgun or the spray and pray.
You don't just want to startshooting everywhere and blindly
and hoping you hit a target.
You want to focus on yourtarget with precision.
That comes with planning andthat comes with education and it
(07:25):
comes with expertise, andthere's a certain way to do that
.
I also, I'm going to bebuilding out courses
specifically to that dominategroup.
And then, of course, Imentioned before the, the
getting out portion, which isthe escape.
Okay, I call it the salesescape plan and I help sales
professionals build their planto get out of sales, to escape
(07:50):
what they're doing or to getinto something much better.
But all of those three phasesand the surviving outside sales
world are going to happen toeveryone and it doesn't matter.
The first thing is having agrowth mindset.
It doesn't matter what phaseyou are in getting in,
(08:10):
dominating or getting out.
You have to have a growthmindset.
You have to be a sponge.
Assume you don't assume youknow nothing.
Treat every conversation youhave with somebody in sales as
if you believe that person knowseverything.
Hang on every word.
Network like crazy.
(08:30):
Meet as many people in thesales world as possible and put
yourself out there, open andavailable to meet other people.
One of the mistakes that I hadfor a few years was I really
closed myself off.
This was almost my year, 30year old to like 33.
(08:50):
There was about a three yearperiod where I really closed
people off.
I woke up, I worked my tail off, I had blinders on, I had that
tunnel vision and I just worked,worked, worked, worked for
about three years and I wassuccessful.
But other people were gettingpromoted.
Other people were growingfaster than I was and I didn't
(09:12):
understand it.
It's because I was notleveraging my network.
I was not leveraging any of theresources or opportunities that
were open to me because Ididn't see them.
I wasn't allowing myself to seethem.
I had a limiting mindset.
Although I was working reallyhard, it was very limiting and
(09:33):
it was very closed off.
Open yourself up, formpartnerships, get to know people
, invest in yourself, find amentor, or two or three.
I have several mentors, I don'tjust have one.
Again, it's about gettingdifferent influences.
Two people could say the exactsame thing and one person it
(09:54):
might sink in the way they saidit, the phrasing they use, the
tone of voice.
So don't just listen to myvoice.
I'm the complete opposite of avery pushy sales coach.
I tell you, hey, I'd love towork with you, but then hire
somebody else, work with morepeople.
(10:14):
Don't just work with one personand think, all right, cool, I'm
good for the next five, 10years.
Constantly invest in yourself.
You're going to have to elevateyour skill set every single
year that you did the previousyear and the previous year and
the previous year.
It's never been easier, becausewith technology, we can now
(10:39):
reach out to more people thanever before.
In fact, one of my salescoaching groups they're based in
South Africa.
One of the guys I talked to,he's based in the Philippines.
That could never.
That wasn't even on my radarthree years ago.
That's the kind of opportunityyou have to be open for, you
(11:02):
have to be willing to invest in,because, in order to dominate,
just showing up is not going tobe enough.
Sales is like being aprofessional athlete.
Professional athletes, theywork on their diet, they train
in the off season, they getadequate sleep, they work on
(11:25):
their nutrition.
I might have already mentionedthat.
They work on their body, theypractice and then they get into
the game.
The game for us in the salesworld is the actual sales calls.
What are you doing currentlythat separates yourself, that
elevates your game right now?
(11:46):
What are you doing on your owntime?
Do you get home from work?
Do you put on Netflix and youwatch TV for four hours and you
binge?
Look, if you need to decompresson one or two nights, I get it,
but if that is your overallmentality, you are really
robbing yourself.
(12:06):
Trust me, I did this for aboutthree years.
This is like.
There's like a gap in my salescareer, which I call it the lost
years.
I would get up early, I wouldwork late, I would get home, I
would crash.
I would have a couple drinks,I'd watch TV until I was so
(12:30):
tired that my eyes just closed.
I'd wake up and I would do itagain.
Rinse and repeat, rinse andrepeat, rinse and repeat.
I was working in my business waytoo hard.
I wasn't working on my business.
There was no future planning.
It was all about short-termeffort.
If I went out that day and Imade 15 sales calls, that's the
(12:52):
only effort I got out of.
It was those 15 sales calls.
I didn't build relationshipsstrong enough with my market.
I did not build enough goodwillwith the people that I was
working with.
I didn't build any super closerelationships.
It was all transactional andthat's not going to get you
anywhere.
(13:13):
Transactional relationships aregreat.
The deal is done, see you later.
Nobody cares.
That's not going to get you towhere you want to go.
You want to build advocates.
You want to build advocatespeople that are wanting to sell
for you.
They're vested in your success.
(13:34):
There's a way to get there.
That is one of the courses thatI'm going to be building out.
It's the sales advocacy methodand I'm going to call it the
sales advocate builder how tobuild advocates that will sell
for you, because the goal insales is not one to one, not one
person, having a conversationwith one person.
(13:56):
Those days are over.
Your competition is not doingone to one, it's one to many.
So if you're out in the fieldand you are having a
conversation with one person,you need to build a network of
people that are talking aboutyou to other prospects,
simultaneously garneringbusiness.
(14:18):
When you're not there.
Some of the most importantdecisions of your life, some of
the most important interactionsyou're ever going to have, some
of the most important thingsthat people are going to say
about you they happen when youare not in the room.
How do you get the best footforward?
(14:42):
You have people in thosedecision making rooms that are
selling you Because, at the endof the day, people do not buy
the best products 90% of thetime.
10% of the time.
Yes, I know I don't.
I never buy the best product.
I buy the product and I buy theperson attached to it.
(15:05):
That, I believe, is going tocreate a better future state
than I currently have today.
I don't care if you're theindustry leader.
I don't care if you've beendoing it 100 years, I don't care
.
And I'm here to tell you thatwhen I've gotten coaching
students, when I've gottencompanies that want to consult
with me, they've never asked mehow long have you been doing
(15:28):
this?
They don't care.
They believe that I will helpguide them to a better future
state, because that's all I talkabout.
Nobody has ever asked me howlong have you been coaching, how
long have you been a corporateconsultant?
Nobody, not one, because itdoesn't matter.
(15:51):
So if you're walking in andyou're talking about we're
number one in the industry andwe're blah blah, nobody gives a
shit.
Okay, excuse my language, Iknow this one over LinkedIn.
I'm probably getting in troublefor that.
I can say that on my podcast,but I don't know if I can on
LinkedIn.
Oops, hey, this is what happenswhen it's live, it's raw and
it's real.
By the way, one of the things ofmy podcast is I don't have a
(16:11):
script.
There's zero script.
I have a topic and then I'mjust pulling things from the
back of my mind.
Two years ago, when my podcaststarted, that was really
difficult.
That was really difficult tojust create stories or create
topics just out of thin air, butI've been doing this.
This will be probably in theepisode three forties, maybe
(16:33):
three, 50 by the time this comesout.
I've been doing this a while.
This has allowed me to getbetter at what I'm doing right
here.
It's allowing me to get betteron camera, which I will tell you
is very difficult, but I willtell you this too.
One of the reasons again goingback to building your own
podcast or being better as avirtual sales professional my
(16:56):
face-to-face human interactionsare strengthened because of how
much better I've gotten oncamera.
When I first started, I washorrendous.
If we're scaling on one to 10,I think I'm probably about a
seven right now.
I think I can even get better.
I was like a two, maybe a oneand a half when I first started.
(17:20):
In fact I'm trying to pull up.
They're in the cloud and I'mhaving difficulty downloading
them but my first zooms when Iwas doing the podcast were
laughable, absolutely laughable.
It's very cringe-worthy when Ilook at it.
Point being, you got to againgoing back to the beginning.
(17:41):
You've got to go all in.
You can't half-ass this.
Okay, no-transcript.
If you want to go all in, let'shave a conversation.
I might be able to help you.
I might not, but it's worth theconversation.
I'm willing to give you 30minutes of my time and if you're
willing to give me 30 minutesof your time, let's see if we
(18:05):
can put you in a better futurestate.
Because if you're working for acompany right now and you
haven't gotten any businesstraining, of course they teach
features and benefits, but I'lltell you this just getting
better at knowing features andbenefits is not going to close
business and you really want todominate.
(18:26):
Seth, I appreciate you beinghere in Nashville, tennessee.
Hope you're still watching thethree phases of sales Doesn't
matter where you are.
You can always get better.
Whether you want to get in,then once you're in, you need to
dominate.
You need to come up with a planto dominate and then, when
(18:47):
you're dominating, you need toplan your exit strategy.
You can't carry a bag andpromote products out in the
field forever.
It's going to come to somepeople earlier and it's going to
come to some people later.
I played minor league baseballfor two years.
One of my roommates in college,he played in the big leagues
(19:10):
for seven seasons.
My baseball career ended at 24.
His baseball career ended at, Ithink, 35.
Just like baseball the salesworld, the outside sales world.
Your end date is going to becompletely different from
somebody else's, so it's time totake action.
(19:34):
What are you going to do todayto make sure you are prepared so
that, if your company ever sayswe got to let you all go, are
you going to be able to buildthe life that you want?
(19:58):
I want to thank everybody.
Thank you so much.
This was actually kind of funto have some live feedback
during the podcast.
Let me know if anybody hasquestions.
I will take a few questions fora few minutes.
There is a little bit of a lagfrom StreamYard to LinkedIn of
(20:21):
about 30 seconds, so I will giveit a couple minutes.
You can go to mikeokellycom.
I've got resources there.
I'm building out new things onthe website every day and I'm a
one man solopreneur, so I'mspending about 15 different
plates.
If you'd like to go check out,this is a cheap plug.
(20:42):
If you'd like to go check outthe store, mikeokellycom, slash
merch you can see some greatproducts here.
Oh, that way, yeah, mugs, beer,steins, tumblers If you're
interested in one of those, helpsupport the show Would
(21:04):
absolutely appreciate that.
All right, no questions rightnow.
So I am going to wrap this up.
I want to thank everybody who'slistening again.
If you got any value out ofthis, please go to Apple or go
to Spotify and rate the showfive stars.
It really helps with thealgorithm, it helps expand this
to other audiences and it helpsthe search.
(21:26):
There might be somebody outthere that's looking for the
Surviving Outside Sales podcast.
They've been searching for itbut they didn't know how to find
it.
You could help them do that,and the higher the ratings, the
more ratings that there are, themore five star ratings, the
more it's going to get exposedto other people.
So thank you so much.
I really do appreciate it.
I hope everybody has afantastic day and we'll see you
(21:50):
next time.
Surviving Outside Sales and thebusiness of Sales Live every
Thursday on LinkedIn at noon.
Eastern Cheers.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.