Prospecting on Purpose® with Sara Murray

Sara recaps a sales pitch competition from a recent conference she attended in New York City, LightFair 2023. The large global architectural and commercial lighting event produced a two-hour session titled "Lighting Sales Stars."

9 contestants (the sellers) 5 judges (the clients) 3 minutes 2 products 1 winning pitch

Sara attended the event and shares an overview of the competition, the feedback from the judges, and her own takeaways from watching nine, back-to-back, 3-minute pitches. Each contestant took a different approach to their pitch and it was interesting to see core themes that worked and surprising actions that did not impress the judges.

It was impressive to see sellers put themselves on stage and open themselves up to feedback from a panel of judges and a room filled of their peers. Everyone did a great job, and this competition served as an opportunity for each individual on stage to stretch and grow, along with the audience members watching, Sara included!

There is no right or wrong way to sell when it comes to our individual styles and our own personal brand of communication. Our authentic selves need to shine through along with practicing the balance of hard skills and soft skills.

And, if you want to continue to practice, save the dates for two upcoming virtual events with Sara:

• Prospecting on Purpose LIVE Free Virtual Workshop: Friday, July 14, 2023, at 9 AM PST
• Half-Time Event: Tues. Wed. Thur. July 25, 26, 27, 2023 at 9 AM PST.

Sign up to receive event details at: https://connect.saramurray.com/

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Today is Memorial Day in the US, a day to remember and honor members of the military who died during service to the United States of America.

Sara shares a personal story about her grandfather, Donald MacDonald, a veteran of the Korean War. His service resulted in a surprise connection point with a client, proving that sometimes dropping our guard just a little bit and embracing our mushier sides gives others permission to do the same.

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In today's episode, Sara is joined by Amanda Frasier, the President of Ratings for Forbes Travel Guide.

With over 19 years of experience at Forbes Travel Guide, Amanda has witnessed firsthand the evolution of the luxury hospitality industry. Through her various roles in the organization and now as President of Ratings, she and her team have been at the forefront of creating the standards and guidelines for delivering a luxury guest experience.

The two discuss Forbes Travel Guide's business model (how do they make money?!) and how the company and its clients quickly pivoted during the pandemic, as tourism and hospitality were among the most impacted industries.

Amanda shares with us how to embrace authenticity to empower teams and connect with clients, ensuring the delivery of a luxury experience at any level. She explains what the future of hospitality looks like—spoiler alert—it's not about fine china and linens. Amanda and the Forbes Travel Guide team prioritize four areas of focus: well-being, environmental responsibility, community, and guest experience.

Additionally, the two discuss how to alleviate intimidation when serving or selling to luxury clientele, with a key piece of advice being not to overthink it!

More from Amanda:

As Forbes Travel Guide's President of Ratings, Amanda Frasier oversees all aspects of the Star Rating system on a global scale. Frasier directs the continual refinement of Forbes Travel Guide's service and facility standards and serves as the chair of the Standards Advisory Committee, which provides valuable industry input on trends in global hospitality. She also leads the production of FTG events such as the Luxury Summit, the official annual celebration of Star Award recipients, and spearheads the by-invitation-only Brand Officials program, connecting thought leaders in luxury goods and services with the Star-Rated community.

www.forbestravelguide.com

Amanda's LinkedIn

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If we can master the art of authentic relationship building and establish that as a foundation for our business efforts, then the business exchange becomes more organic and seamless.

In today's episode, Sara breaks down The Art of Relationship Building in Business. She'll address the baseline requirements for approaching new relationships and give us the framework to bridge the GAP between our prospects and ourselves. Genuine Interest + Authentic Relationship Building = Prized Clients

She'll share examples and tools to unpack the complex topic of relationship building with tangible takeaways. This includes the concept of the Emotional Bank Account, to ensure that we're adding value to our prospects and our clients before we attempt to make a withdrawal and do business with them.

At the end of the day, our competition isn't the competitor's products, but the relationship that the competitor's salesperson has with our ideal clients.

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A foundation of confidence will serve us in whatever we do in life, but especially in our careers. And it is a constant work in progress.

The way we embrace a confident mindset is by understanding our values, our core competencies, the language we use internally and externally, and how we nurture our relationship with ourselves.

In today's episode, Sara reviews the four pillars for a confident mindset. She reviews the common area where we trip ourselves up, ultimately the misunderstanding about the differences between confidence, arrogance, and ego. We discuss how understanding our values and strengths prevents second-guessing.. Second-guessing naturally leads to insecure or doubtful actions and wasted time. We'll review other areas with examples of where unconfident behaviors sneak into our everyday life, and tools to increase awareness and how to overcome them.

Finally, confidence requires a relationship with ourselves first. The only way we can build authentic relationships that serve us in our personal and professional lives is to ensure our relationship with ourselves is solid.

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An understanding of our values in different areas of our lives becomes a framework for ensuring the actions we take are in alignment with our values. This instills a foundation of confidence and drives that forward motion to the goals we're striving to achieve and the lives we building for ourselves.

In today's episode, Sara dives deep into why it's vital to understand our core values. And they can change, depending on which area of life we're discussing: family, romance, career. Using values in our work lives, she'll give some strategies on how to narrow them down, and then what to do with them once they've been identified. She uses her own core business values to illustrate examples of how values lead to decision-making in individual efforts, with our employers, and with our clients. She breaks down her own core values. Additionally, being able to use the value framework in our decision-making, lays the foundation for confidence and the ability to establish greater relationships in business and life.

Extensive Core Values List: https://www.scienceofpeople.com/core-values/

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In today's episode, Sara is joined by Lauren Ashley Smith, a seasoned real estate professional with 20 years of experience in commercial real estate transactions, including investment banking, M&A, capital raising, and strategic advisory. As a founding member of a boutique NYC-based investment bank, Lauren played a crucial role in the third-largest real estate transaction in global history. Now in the renewable energy sector, Lauren serves on the Board of Directors for TVCE Energy, a firm focused on developing solar and other renewable energy power plants in Eastern Europe.

The two discuss Lauren's early career, selling commercial real estate to C-Suite executives in NYC and the ability to find connection points, and confidence, across multiple generations and diverse backgrounds.

Lauren shares tactics to consider when building our world in sales. The people we encounter and the relationships we build is what creates the foundation for a successful and impactful life and career. Interactions provide data points, and the more data points we have to reference, the greater conversations, transactions and opportunities will be afforded to us.

In addition to relational data points, they talk about client motivations, the different types of decision making, how to reframe rejection, and the understanding that generosity propels us all forward, and is often not monetary.

If we understand that sales is everywhere, then embracing it naturally leads to a more enriched life and interesting career.

More from Lauren:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurensmith/ www.feldsmith.com www.tvce.energy

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The final installment of the mini-series, 7 Crucial Skills for Effective Selling brings us to the pivotal moment - closing the deal and generating repeat business.

Up until this point, Sara's addressed the other six crucial skills: prospecting, understanding our client's business model, effective storytelling, overcoming objections, utilizing sales assets, and staying in the driver's seat all the way to closing the deal.

To effectively close sales, we have to balance detachment from the outcome while being direct in asking for the order. To achieve repeat business, we have to ensure we're valuing and adding value to the relationships with our clients.

This episode addresses a closer's mindset, how to overcome fear when asking for the order, and how to STOP asking for the order after the client says, "Yes!"

Once we've closed the deal, the relationship doesn't end. It's significantly easier (and more cost-effective) to keep a customer we already have as opposed to acquiring a new customer. Social capital becomes our greatest asset.

Salesmanship is a craft that requires self-reflection and practice. How do you rate yourself in each of these crucial capabilities? Take the self-assessment skills survey and contribute to ongoing sales market research via Sara's homepage header bar on www.saramurray.com or via link here.

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The sixth crucial skill for effective selling is the ability to remain in the driver's seat throughout the entire sales process.

There are many ways a meeting or a sale can veer off course. We get stuck in loops of answering product questions, the customer hits us with an objection we can't overcome and now the client is driving the meeting.

The ability to maintain control of both individual sales meetings and navigating the entire sales cycle requires INTENTION.

Prospecting on Purpose = Selling with Intention.

Sara reviews how to have an intention and plan for each stage of the sale, so that you're constantly moving the exchange forward to the next stage, ultimately closing the deal and deepening client relationships.

We'll walk through a handful of examples of how to combine intention with the other crucial skills to stay behind the wheel and drive our clients where we need them to go!

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Sara interviews Canva's Global Head of Social; Marketing, Editorial, and Content Strategy, Jai Dattani.

Jai introduces us to the concept of the Attention Economy … We're in a time where all businesses, brands, and people are vying for eyeballs and vying for attention. How do we "stop the scroll" and get prospects and consumers to engage with our brand or product?

Jai's global experience in building brands that become household names makes him an invaluable resource as he shares with us the Four Points to Operate in an Attention Economy.

The two spend their time discussing the overarching brand story we want to leave our consumers with, how to create content that balances data with intuition, and ultimately, how to measure success. Thankfully, it's not fully dependent on "The Algorithm!"

Additionally, Jai leaves us with a very solid argument as to why penguins may, in fact, be the best bird.

More from Jai: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jai-dattani-3247a230/ www.canva.com

Jai's book reference: https://buildingastorybrand.com/

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