Conversational Selling

On this week’s episode of Conversational Selling, we sit down with Christine Schlonski, the Queen of the Sales Success Mindset and founder of christineschlonski.com. Christine has over 12 years of successful high ticket event sales in the corporate world, and has built and trained international sales teams, leading them to make millions in revenue. She is also the creator of the online Summit Series, Sales Mentality Makeover Masterclass, and the host of the Heart Sells! Podcast.

Christine says, “I shifted from just thinking about the sale, making it logical and showing up in a way that I thought I had to show up to represent the success that I wanted people to see. When I really shifted into that heart space and I started to talk to a human on the other end of the phone, things just shifted dramatically.”

We chat about how our hearts help us sell, as well as:

On this week’s episode of Conversational Selling, we’re joined by Colleen Stanley, President of Sales Leadership, Inc., a sales development firm specializing in the integration of emotional intelligence, sales, and sales leadership skills. Salesforce.com named Colleen as one of the top sales influencers of the 21st century, in addition to her being mentioned among the top 50 sales and marketing influencers and the top 30 sales gurus. She is also the author of three fabulous books: Emotional Intelligence for Sales Success, Emotional Intelligence for Sales Leadership, and Growing Great Sales Teams.

“If you've had the luxury and the good fortune of engaging in formal sales training programs, you would teach your team the skills, they could roleplay it in the classroom, and then you might see that the same salespeople that were modeling the right behaviors in a workshop would buckle when they got on a real sales call with a tough prospect. So, what I found is that EQ, the soft skills, actually helped with the consistent execution of the hard skills,” says Colleen.

We chat about the importance of emotional intelligence in selling and sales leadership, as well as: 

On this week’s episode of Conversational Selling, we’re joined by special guest, Judy Hoberman, President of Walking on the Glass Floor and Selling in a Skirt. She is an international trainer, coach, author, and mentor, and her 30 years of business experience has given her both the knowledge and a great sense of humor about how men and women sell, work, and live differently. She is also one of the female pioneers in the insurance world and is the host of the weekly podcast, Selling in a Skirt.  

“Sales today is a little bit more difficult than it was, but it isn’t outrageously difficult. I always say that now is the time to share opportunities and collaborate. It’s the time to find people that you can do things with and make yourself even stronger. In that, you can also be a champion, whether you're male or male or female, you can be a champion for another woman in business that you can open a door up to, or you can collaborate with, or you can show an opportunity to,” says Judy.

We chat about her goal to empower women and give them the tools they need to be successful, as well as: 

On this week’s episode of Conversational Selling, we sit down with Laurel Bernstein, Founder and President of Laurel Bernstein and Associates, a consulting and training firm providing performance and leadership skill training for business professionals. Laurel has an extensive background as a facilitator and trainer and aims to be able to help and advise business owners on their business models and team development.

“I spent the first 25 years of my life as a painfully shy person; in groups I rarely had anything to say. But, I started to study listening skills and learned that you don't have to be born a good listener, it's actually a skill you can learn. So, I became a student of listening, and as a result, I would hear and observe things that people didn't even realize. I realized that I knew a lot more about what was going on in a room than the people who were participating,” says Laurel.

We chat about what sets Laurel apart from others in her field, as well as: 

On this week’s episode of Conversational Selling, we’re joined by Dave Trapani, the CEO of AGT and Associates, an authorized Sandler Training center. Dave has over 25 years of sales, marketing, and management experience, and helps business owners and leaders gain an edge to move their business development efforts to the next level. He firmly believes that many sales challenges can be fixed by attitude, behavior, and technique, and as a longtime client of Dave’s, I can say firsthand that it works. 

“I think the real game-changer is that we do things 180 degrees differently than all other salespeople out there. So most salespeople think we should be headed in a certain direction, or taking certain actions to move a deal forward, but at Sandler, most of the techniques and approaches that we use are actually counterintuitive to what that person thinks they should be doing,” says Dave.

We chat about the Sandler methodology and what makes it unique, as well as:

On this week’s episode of Conversational Selling, we’re joined by special guest, Joe Pici. Joe is the CEO and Co-Founder of Pici & Pici Inc., providing sales teams with skill training, professional speaking training, executive coaching, keynote presentations, and live phone call workshops. He is also currently ranked as the number one sales trainer worldwide by Global Gurus.

“My wife and I were $350,000 in medical debt and we signed up in a part-time direct sales business with no background in sales, but, we could not find good sales training. And so, just by trial and error, we paid off our medical debt on cold calling and we started to develop some skills. Then they started throwing us up on stages around the world, trying to get us to motivate people, and we did that. And then around 2003, I remember walking off stage and I told my wife that there's a big gap in the marketplace and that I wanted to really focus on skill-based training to help people really develop the skills to get in front of their target market. That's how we got started,” says Joe.

We chat about how Joe got his start in sales, as well as:

On this week’s episode of Conversational Selling, we speak with special guest Meridith Elliott Powell. Meridith is an award-winning author, keynote speaker, and business strategist with a background in corporate sales and leadership. She is also an avid podcaster who is passionate about selling. She's currently busy writing her newest book and is obsessed with the word uncertainty.

“If uncertainty always has to be negative, it becomes this thing that we are all waiting for to drop out of the sky, to stop us dead in our tracks from ever succeeding, and it just kept me wondering, why does uncertainty have to be a bad thing? Why does it have to be negative, and what would happen if we flipped the script on that? What if uncertainty was actually the very thing that you needed to be the catalyst that would actually catapult your business to the next level?”, asks Meridith.

We chat more about uncertainty, as well as:

On this week’s episode of Conversational Selling, we sit down with special guest Darryl Praill. Darryl is the Chief Revenue Officer at VanillaSoft, the industry’s most established sales engagement platform, as well as an award-winning marketer, a Sales World Top 50 Keynote Speaker, a Top 10 SaaS Branding Expert, radio broadcaster, podcaster, and social media influencer. He has also raised over $100 million in venture capital.

“I’ve had the success I've had in my career by being incredibly, uncomfortably, awkwardly vulnerable and transparent, which is saying, well, Darryl, you've won these awards, you've raised a lot of money, and that's a lot of power brokers and a lot of rooms— How can you do that by being so vulnerable and transparent? And the reason is that people look at you and say, wow, you’re that vulnerable and transparent and don't mind sharing it, you must be really confident, or you're really relatable,” says Darryl. 

We chat about the key differences between a sales engagement platform and a CRM, as well as:

On this week’s episode of Conversational Selling, we sit down with special guest Matt Heinz. Matt is the President of Heinz Marketing, which focuses on B2B sales and marketing based on buyer insights and market-driven best practices. He is also the host of a weekly podcast, Sales Pipeline Radio. He is also a prolific author, nationally recognized, award-winning blogger, and dynamic speaker, known for his keen insights and actionable takeaways.

“I think, first of all, it's just being willing to write and talk the way that you would if you were in front of someone in a casual format. There's an awful lot of our marketing that, if we look at it and think about it, and if we're honest about it, is us trying to get a message across to a prospect. It’s us trying to say something that we want to say. That is a one-sided conversation, it is technically not a conversation, but it is. I think if you can have a two-way conversation that, if you're the seller, is really focused on what the prospect wants, what the buyer wants, what they're looking for, you're much more likely to get the engagement you want,” says Matt about the nuances of conversational marketing.

We chat about Matt’s podcast and how it has helped his business, as well as:

On this week’s episode of Conversational Selling, we speak with special guest Morris Sims. Morris had a fantastic career at New York Life Insurance, eventually becoming the Chief Learning Officer for sales, and heading a training department responsible for training over 80,000 agents and managers. He has since gone on to become an instructor at The American College and President of Sims Training and Consulting.

“In my opinion, the real impact is on how we communicate with one another. Sitting across the table from each other probably isn't gonna happen as much as it did once, in the olden days, prior to COVID-19, but the sales process itself has not changed, in my opinion. We still have to approach people, we still have to help them figure out what it is they want and need, and then show them solutions for that and help them make a decision. That's the sales process— it always has been and always will be,” says Morris about the pandemic’s impact on the sales process.

We chat about the pandemic’s impact on the sales process, as well as: