UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT
Speaker 1 (00:00:01) - In 2007, my husband and I bought a 19 foot sailboat. It was our testing boat to see if we even liked sailing, and my husband had grew up with a small sailboat on a small lake slash pond, so he knew he liked it. So really was about finding out would Sheri really like sailing? And you know, I always loved being on the water, and I trusted that I would probably learn to like it. So we decided, you know, for I think it was $900 we spent on a 19 foot sailboat. We test it out, and I did like it, except for when the boat healed. And healing on a sailboat is when you see those boats leaned way, way over where it looks like they're about to tip over in the water. And trust me, when you're on a small sailboat, it feels like you are going to tip over into the water, and the really small ones are meant to do that. This one was not meant to do that. And my husband kept telling me that, don't worry, we're not going to tip over.
Speaker 1 (00:01:08) - It's, you know, they're made to do this. And I didn't really trust him. And if I'm being totally honest, I really didn't trust my husband's skills. I mean, it had been a long time since he was sailing, and when he did, he was a kid on a much, much smaller sailboat. So I enjoyed it. But we also had this thing that we called the Tom Tom meter, and when the boat began to heal over, I would start screaming out, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. And this became a thing even known in our Marina for the Tom Tom meter. But I did love it. So the next year we upgraded and got a 26 foot sailboat and both of our skills increased and my confidence grew in my skills and in Tom's skills. And it wasn't as bad as being on the 19 foot sailboat, but I still would get nervous when the boat would heel way over, and especially if the winds were higher and the tom tom meter would still go off.
Speaker 1 (00:02:14) - Eventually we moved up and purchased a 31ft sailboat and her name was Dan New, and this was in 2013. And by then we had really spent time learning the nuances of sailing and the nuances of our own boat, and we really learned how she reacted to the wind and the conditions. We knew what her strengths and weaknesses were and our skills had increased. My confidence was stronger, my confidence in Tom was stronger, and my own ability to sail got way better. Like I found I loved being at the helm. And honestly, the tom tom meter rarely went off. Once we got the bigger boat. But here's the really ironic thing and the point of the story of why I'm sharing this with you today is the more that I found out about sailing, the more I realized that healing when you're leaned way, way over can actually decrease a sailboat speed. You see, with each sailboat there is a sweet spot of healing. Now it depends on like when you see the big racing boats and the you know that they're in there, they're meant to do that.
Speaker 1 (00:03:33) - But for the average cruiser, they're not meant to lean way over. We really don't want water on the rail. And we found that out with Dan knew that there was a spot that if we just healed a little bit and we had the sails adjusted right, she could practically sail herself like we had to do very little work because the conditions were right. We knew how to balance her out. We knew how to use her strengths, and we didn't have to heel way over where it was uncomfortable and it wasn't fun. And that was an amazing feeling. That's the feeling that I love about sailing when you're just cutting through the water. And as my husband calls it, she has a bone in her teeth with the wake behind us, it's. Such this great space to be in. And my friend. That's what I want for you. I want you to find the sweet spot in sales. Yes. This is all leading up to sales and not sales as in sale anymore. We're now talking about sales as sales.
Speaker 1 (00:04:45) - You know, when you have to sell something, when you have to go out and create a customer or sell, you have somebody buy your products. And when you know. Your boat and you trust your skills. You're still going to get outside the comfort zone to experience that sweet spot. And the same thing is true for you. When you know your skills or you trust your skills and you know your strengths. In order to be successful and find that sweet spot for you, you do have to be willing to step outside the comfort zone. Now, we're not going to get into comfort zone training today. I'm going to save that for another podcast. But I do want you to start thinking about how you can excel as a sales professional. And here's the thing. I'm going to skip ahead here a minute, because you may be tempted to hang up right now, or to turn this podcast off because you're thinking, well, I'm not in sales. Why do I need to listen to this? And here's the thing we are all in sales.
Speaker 1 (00:06:01) - We all sell something. If you are a solo entrepreneur, if you are a coach, you are selling your services. If you are a small business, you are selling to customers, you're selling to other businesses, and you're selling to your employees all the time. If you're one of my network marketing direct sales consultants, obviously you know you are in sales. Maybe you're insurance, real estate, you sell a boats, cars, anything like that, any product. Maybe you have an Etsy shop, you're selling something. And even if you're a teacher or a nurse, you're selling your students or your patients on taking your advice, on doing their homework, on taking care of themselves. So in essence, we're all selling something. Hey, even if you're married, if you're a wife listening to this, you might sell your husband on taking you out to dinner some night. And hey, husbands, we know what you're trying to sell all the time, so we all are selling something. So basically anyone who wants to attract, retain or build stronger relationships with customers or I would say with anybody.
Speaker 1 (00:07:21) - You're in sales, and the best way to get good at it is by leaning in to your natural strengths. And that's where I want to take you today. Now, before I jump into our little education piece today on selling with strengths, I want to go back a minute and I want to just share a little bit more about myself. Now, some of you listening, I know you have heard my story or over and over and over again, you could probably recite it better than I could, but if you're new to the show, I want to let you know a little bit about my background and why I'm. The person that you might want to listen to for this. So first of all, who am I not? Okay, I am not one of those sales gurus who's going to sit here and tell you how I made $20 million yesterday, and I fly around in my private plane or my yacht? Yes, we've had sales boats and we even just had a 42 foot sailboats, but it wasn't what I would consider a yacht.
Speaker 1 (00:08:19) - It was a 1990 very lovely boat, but not yacht ish. And I'm also not going to teach you how to ten extra business this year, how to have a 6 or 7 figure income. Now, is that possible? If you take the things we're going to talk about today, maybe could be. Some of you might do that. But that's not my story, and that's not what I teach. Now, I have had a lot of success in my past, a lot of success in sales, and I happen to be one of those weird people who loves sales. In fact, I'm going to share with you in a minute how this podcast even came to be, because a lot of it came to be because I miss sales, and I've had 26 years of experience in direct sales now. Prior to that, my husband and I owned a chimney cleaning business, and I was responsible for selling in that as well. But in my direct sales or network marketing days, I spent 22 years of that as a leader, and I worked with my team to get up to the top.
Speaker 1 (00:09:25) - I would say 1% of the company, we reach that pinnacle of success. And yes, I was a Mary Kay and yes, we did earn that pink Cadillac. I've also had personal sales achievements multiple times when I was in with Mary Kay, and as a team and a unit, we sold well over $1 million combined during my last four years as a leader. We did earn or earn multiple free cars, and as I mentioned, that Pink Cadillac was the pinnacle one hundreds of other prizes and bonuses. And here's the other thing. It wasn't all success. I had a lot of years that were what I called the desert valley. Years I struggled years. I was out of balance with work life harmony. I would tend to work 24 over seven and that wasn't healthy. There were years I wanted to quit. There were years that were comeback years. Those were some of my favorite years. And I share this with you because I want you to know, no matter where you are on this journey, whether you're you're in sales now, whether you're thinking about stepping into entrepreneurship, and it's the sales piece that's making you feel icky and stuck, I hear that a lot.
Speaker 1 (00:10:48) - Or maybe you've been in sales for a long time and you're just feeling kind of bored or rusty about it. I know what it feels like. I've been there. Now, today, as you probably know, but maybe not. I am a Gallup certified strengths coach, and I primarily work with entrepreneurs and small business owners, sales teams, and mostly women in career. Transitions is my sweet spot today. But as I already shared, I love sales, I really do. And this morning I was thinking about it because it's June 21st, the day I'm recording this, and June in the Mary Kay world, and I know other companies run the same schedule. Our year was July 1st to June 30th, so June was that month that you just flat out put it all on the line. You were running towards big goals that you had, or if you were way off from your big goal, you were getting set up to get for the next year. so it was always an exciting month. Now it could be stressful at the same time and I don't miss the stress of it, but I miss that exciting energy that we had.
Speaker 1 (00:12:06) - I miss striving for goals. I miss that that season of, you know, you're working hard, but you're also praying really hard that the miracles happen. I miss celebrating with my girlfriends, and I also miss those times that, you know what? Sometimes I needed to be boosted back up again and and or being the one to boost my friends up again. I miss all of that. And if you are one of my Mary Kay friends listening to this, I'm cheering you on. Just know that that I'm sitting here cheering you on. But I digress. So anyway, it made me pull back out my cliftonstrengths selling with strengths or cliftonstrengths. For sales report. And I looked at it and I realized as I was thumbing through it, why I miss selling so much. Now I am still in sales, but I'm not as much into it as I was. And this is what I found. As I looked at my Cliftonstrengths for sales report, I looked at my activator, which is number seven for me in my top ten.
Speaker 1 (00:13:16) - And this was one of the things that said in the report under activator, that you're driven by metrics and want to act immediately to achieve goals. You always have a number in mind your revenue target, the build outs you'll aim for this quarter, etc. these numbers don't discourage you like they might other salespeople. You're at your best when you can transition from thinking about your goal to achieving it. Your metrics inspire progress and are vital to your success. And I paused for a moment when I read that and I thought, oh. This is why I'm not. I don't feel like I'm at my best right now. Today I don't have a number I'm shooting for. I don't have a quota. I don't have a metric. I don't have something I'm working towards high like that. Like I used to. Then I looked at focus. Focus is my number ten theme. It's actually the first executing theme I have. So even take note on that, because sometimes we get mixed up with our talent themes and how much they mean and don't mean.
Speaker 1 (00:14:27) - And I obviously achieved a lot of things. I got a lot of things done. But executing is number ten for me. Doesn't show or doesn't show up until number ten. But that's again a whole nother podcast. So under the focus theme, this was something that I read and it said your quota energizes you and you won't quit until you've reached it with incredible concentration and persistence, you achieve and sometimes surpass your sales goal no matter what obstacles you face along the way. Now. Let me share. As I already said, there were many years I did not hit my sales goal, but there were some. I surpassed it. But the bottom line is the quota energized me and I feel alive and energized when I'm working towards achieving them. And I realized that today that because I don't have them set by a company anymore, because I work for myself, I'm missing that piece for me. And it made me really sit and think about that, that how I need to, as a solopreneur, need to change things.
Speaker 1 (00:15:43) - And I need to have quotas for myself. I need to hold myself accountable. I need to have somebody hold me accountable. And. I need to do that for myself. But I also realize how much I just miss playing and working in that sales arena. And it occurred to me that I don't have to necessarily be the one achieving the sales goal. But what would also excite me is helping somebody else achieve a sales goal, or working with a sales team and helping them figure out what is their unique sales edge. And I'm going to spend the rest of this time today really talking about that, because I want to give you some tips of your listening to this now. And you're like, oh yes, sign me up, Cheri. I need your help. Or maybe you're like, you don't need my help, but you just want to learn some more. You're intrigued, and I want to talk to you about why this Cliftonstrengths for sales report, I think is so exciting and so vital and so needed for anybody that is in sales.
Speaker 1 (00:16:59) - So again, who needs this? As I already shared, if you're a solo entrepreneur, if you're a coach, if you run a small business, if you're in network marketing, if you have an Etsy, you have an Etsy shop. Obviously, if you're selling boats, cars, trains, you know houses, you need it. But anyone who wants to attract, retain and build stronger relationships with customers and I ad with other people. You need this report also. This is essential if you lead a team of sales professionals. Now I want to pause for a minute and I want to ask you a question. And I know it's a podcast, but try to answer this in your head for me. And I have a feeling some of the things you'll think about. Why do you think if you are in a company that does sales training, or maybe you've experienced sales training? Why? Do you think your company sales training might actually be hindering your success? So why might your company's sales training be hindering your success? Or why is it just not working for you? And maybe it's not your company.
Speaker 1 (00:18:18) - Maybe you're an entrepreneur, but you followed people online. Maybe you've bought the course about sales. Why is it not working for you? And here are some of the things that you might be thinking one. It doesn't exist. There isn't one. Or you're thinking, I don't have a sales training. I'm out here all by my lonesome. There's nobody training me, so it's non-existing. You might also be thinking it's outdated. Like what worked back then doesn't work today. Oh, that is so truth. So much truth in that. The other reason it may not be working is it's written from one person's perspective. The person who wrote the sales manual, the person who's doing that training you paid for, that course you paid for, it's how they became successful. So they're sharing it from their perspective and what worked for them, not what works for everyone. And the other thing is, it probably doesn't take into account the individual, individual talents of each salesperson on the team. Again, it's one person's perspective.
Speaker 1 (00:19:34) - And that's where this tool, like the new Cliftonstrengths for sales report, comes in and how it can help you discover your edge over your competitors. And just like we discovered on Danu, our 31ft sailboat. That sweet spot, that spot where the sails were adjusted right where we had just the right angle of healing. And yes, we were pushed a little bit out of our comfort zone. That's your sales edge. But your sales edge comes from looking at your strengths, your top ten cliftonstrengths. And there is a specific report now. So you may have taken the assessment and you have your top five report or your Cliftonstrengths 34 report. But did you know that there are actually three specialty reports that you can download? You have to pay for them. You don't have to take the assessment all over again. But there's one for managers, there's one for leaders, and there's one for sales. And we're talking about the one for sales today. And here's how it can help you get that edge over your competitors.
Speaker 1 (00:20:46) - It's going to help you know what your top ten themes are and what they look like specifically for sales. Sales. It's going to tell you how each theme contributes to your success. It will tell you how that theme might get in the way of your success. That's really valuable to know, and it will actually give you four tangible ways to apply each specific team of your theme of your top ten as a salesperson. So basically, you're going to leave with 40 tips that you could use to become a better salesperson. Now, I don't expect or recommend you try to change 40 things all at once, but for each theme. So all your top ten themes think about this your top ten themes each one is going to get for tangible ways to apply that theme. As a salesperson, that's like gold. And this report also gives you questions at the end of each theme analysis to reflect on so that you can create your plan, your own plan of action. So a customized plan of action. So again your Cliftonstrengths for sales report is going to look at your top ten themes.
Speaker 1 (00:22:07) - It's going to tell you how they each contribute to your success as a salesperson. It will tell you break down and tell you how that theme might get in the way of your success, or might be getting in the way of your success. It will give you four tangible ways to apply that theme as a salesperson to achieve that success, and questions so that you can create your own plan of action. This is a difference maker to find your sales edge. So what happens when you take the time to get this assessment and look at it and study it, and maybe you need some coaching around it. One of my favorite things to do is coach salespeople on this. Here's what will happen afterwards. You will boost your confidence. Like PW like ten times that. I will promise you it'll be like a ten times boost of confidence for you because you're going to know how your talent, what your talents do, how they shine, and you're going to realize that you can do this in your own unique way.
Speaker 1 (00:23:19) - It's going to show you how to work on your skills in a way that complements your strengths, not hinders them. Just like I had to work at my skills as a as a sailor to work, you know, to sail the boat. And then I had to trust the boat. You're going to need to know how to work on your skills so that they work with and not compete against your natural strengths, because confidence plus skills plus strengths equals your edge. I want to repeat that. Confidence plus skills plus strengths equals your edge. And remember your edge is that thing that's going to set you apart from everybody else. It's what's going to help you achieve your goals. It's going to what's going to help you feel energized about your goals. You're also going to get ideas to boost your results and create your own sales process and plan so that you don't need to rely on another course, another company, the company sales plans, trying to do something the way somebody else has told you to do it. That doesn't work.
Speaker 1 (00:24:38) - That was one of the things, the mistakes I used to make in direct sales. We would go to our seminars and our workshops, and you would hear how the number one person in the company achieved that level, and that we would try to go home and do exactly what they did. And it never worked because they were working in their own strengths. And we're 1 in 33,000,000. So our strengths aren't their strengths. So you've got to figure out how to use your own strengths to find success. And I've already mentioned this. You will feel energized with this customized plan, and you're going to be working in a way that feels authentic to you. No more icky sales techniques. Hallelujah for that. Now, if you lead a team and you're listening to this, then we definitely need to talk. Because imagine not just knowing your own strengths as a sales professional, but then knowing the strengths of your sales team and how to support them best. That's so powerful. This is also going to make your business recession proof, because today, more than ever, we don't know what the state of the economy is going to look like a year from now.
Speaker 1 (00:25:57) - I mean, everything's so like up in the air, but when you know your sales at your sweet spot, you know your sales edge, you know how you work best. Even when challenges come, you will stand out from the crowd, and you'll find a way to connect with your clients and see so that they see the value of what you offer in a way that nobody else is showing them. And yes, you may have to work a little harder and see a few more people depending on what happens with the economy, but you're never going to feel icky about it. And when you're working from this place of your strengths, you won't feel like you have to work 24 over seven to find success. You will be able to look and work from a place of service. So in a place where you believe. In your heart and soul. What you offer is worth that client's investment and how it's changing their lives. So it's just going to elevate how you work to the next level. Now, if you're like Sherry, I need more, I want more.
Speaker 1 (00:27:17) - I am going to be running a selling with Strengths workshop at some point this summer. It will probably be the end of July, beginning of August. But if you don't want to wait until then to find out what your sales edge is and to get this report I'm talking about, you could head over to Gallup today. And if you doesn't matter if you've already taken strikes or not, it's 4999. Now, if you've already taken the strengths, you don't have to do the assessment all over again. It'll just automatically just download this new report for you in your Gallup folder. Now, if you're brand new and you've never taken anything from Gallup from Cliftonstrengths, it's still 49.99. And they do throw in your the new top five report as well. So you'll get your top five customized report. And then the Cliftonstrengths for sales report that has your top ten in it. So it's really valuable. And you can figure it all out. You know, take download your reports, read them, spend time working on them.
Speaker 1 (00:28:30) - But if you want somebody to partner with you and to help speed this process along, and I promise you I won't heal the boat too much. So there's no Tomtom effect, but it'll be a little bit more thrilling ride, and you might just be pushed a little bit more to your edge. Which. Lies just outside your comfort zone. But that's also remember where the sweet spot is the sweet spot to successes. So if you're looking for somebody to kind of come alongside and support you and help you really dive into this report and figure out what it all means and how to use it, maybe how to work with your team. I would love to be that partner for you, and it might be in that 90 minute start with strength session. We could turn that into a selling with strength session, or it might be a little bit more in depth. So just, you know, find me on Facebook. I hang out there way too much. You can hit me in the DMs or send me an email at Sherry at Sherry or co com.
Speaker 1 (00:29:30) - And sherry is simple and easy SHERI1R1I and then Sherry miter co com. You can head to my website and send me a message that way as well. And all those links are in the show notes. So again, I miss being in that sales arena. I miss having those goals and I would nothing would make me happier than to champion with you to help you reach your sales goals. Okay, that was a lot and I hope you found this valuable. Let me know. Send me a message and just let me know. Was it valuable or not? Now, next week, coming up on the podcast. Just so if you're a planner ahead, we're going to take a break from the Summer of strengths and we're going to keep this sailing journey going, sailing like on a boat sailing now and get into some mindset mindset stuff. Because I posted a question a couple days ago on Facebook, and it just made me realize how many people are just fearful to take that first step to really make that change, whether it's stepping into a new sales position, whether it is stepping, hitting a big goal, whether it is finding creating your calling.
Speaker 1 (00:30:49) - so I'm going to talk about some minor stuff and really talk about what I call them the danger boys, the sharks and the anchors, the things that are really keeping you stuck. And some of them might surprise you and how to break through those barriers. So we'll do that next week. But thank you, my friends, as always, for listening to the discovery, discovering Don't Forget the ING Discovering Your Calling podcast and I look forward to hearing from you. Let me know if I can support you in any sales goals and or grabbing that. Cliftonstrengths for sales report.
