3 Keys to Sales Growth: The Sales Success Triangle | SOS Ep. 371

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.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro to Surviving Outside Sales
• 1:41 Summer Sales: Don't Take a Break
• 3:14 The Three Essential Sales Advisors
• 6:34 Finding the Right Parking Spot
• 12:05 The Competitive Sales Landscape
• 16:00 Accelerating Your Sales Career Success
• 19:30 Finding Your Sales Mentorship Support

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

The Surviving Outside Sales podcast, hosted by Mike O'Kelley, presented by Sales Builder Academy. The goal is to survive and thrive 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 Surviving Outside Sales Podcast. I'm your host, mike O'Kelley. Hope everybody has been doing fantastic out there.

Speaker 1: 0:37

It is the summer months. It's not the time to stop selling. Your buyers are still going to be buying. It's not the time to take a break. So the summer is always where you can make hay. You can always get better. One of the things you can do is by re-educating yourself, retraining, working on your craft, working on your skills, working on your plans, so that if you are taking some time off, or your buyers are taking some time off, you're not going to fall behind once everything is going to be back to as I say, quote unquote normal. And, yes, come around September. Once the kids go back into school, it does get kind of back to normal, but it doesn't mean you just take the summer off.

Speaker 1: 1:15

So thank you everybody who's been listening. I really appreciate everybody who has been reaching out, and one of the things I actually wanted to talk about was something that I had referenced to somebody who recently reached out to me about some advice, and so I really thought about this for several hours and I haven't had anybody reach out to me and ask for advice in a while, just direct advice like what are the three things? And a lot of the advice that I see out there in the sales world is it talks about sales tactics and it talks about mindset. And a lot of the advice that I see out there in the sales world is it talks about sales tactics and it talks about mindset and it talks about working harder than other people, which is great. And if you've been listening to the show for a while or if this is your first time here, I'm a little bit of a contrarian. Now I don't try to go against the grain for the sake of going against the grain. I just think a little different. I think differently than most sales professionals or a lot of the people out there that are the carnival barkers and the people that are screaming from mountaintops about closing and you've got to do this and you've got to do that, and I talk a lot about about mindset, about building a business.

Speaker 1: 2:22

It's not about closing. Closing is important. Yes, don't get me wrong. You have to close in order to obviously earn the business, but there are so many steps that happen way before you actually get to the close, and that is what I saw, or I see there's a lack of actually discussing that.

Speaker 1: 2:40

You could go right now onto YouTube, or maybe even Spotify or Instagram, and you can find, quote unquote sales trainers, people that train you on how to close, how to handle objections, which is important but a lot of times they're obviously I mean, I'm not obviously they are actually moot, because you can't get there. You can't get there and discuss what you need to discuss, because you don't know anything. All you're doing is you're just you're giving a pitch, but you don't know any background, you haven't done any discovery. It's just simply, hey, I got this great product and service and then, oh, they didn't buy. You just move on to the next. So that is not the most efficient possible way to do things.

Speaker 1: 3:25

And it all starts and, as we know, there's a lot more that comes than just closing. There's a lot more and there's also fulfillment. You can sell anybody anything anytime one time, but the people that make careers in sales, they know how to get repeat business, they know how to build referrals and they have staying power. Either it's grit, either it's will, either it's determination. There's something inside sales professionals that allows them to continue to move forward when everybody else quits. When everybody else hits the tough times and trust me, you're going to have some tough times in sales You're going to question why you ever decided to move into sales.

Speaker 1: 4:03

It is not for the faint of heart, but the advice that I would give to people and I actually recently just gave this and it really got me to thinking about it is the advice that I give has nothing to do with closing, it has nothing to do with looking in an industry, et cetera. There are three things, there are three pieces of advice that I believe every single sales professional uh, or I would give that I think every sales professional should really take to heart. Okay, the three things that you need. Number one you always need to have a teacher. Okay, you always need to have somebody that's going to give you the knowledge, somebody to teach you. It's going to give you the knowledge to get you from where you are today, excuse me to where you want to go in the future, and that's kind of the technical competence, but it's also teaching the ropes. But it's not. It's at the beginning.

Speaker 1: 5:01

So think about it as when you get into sales or you're starting with a new company, what do they usually do? They usually quote unquote send you training. And what is the training? The training is simply the um specs. It's whatever the the product or service you're selling. It's what revolves around that specifically. It has nothing to do with all the other things. The market forces, your product, market fit, your competition, what you're walking into. Most companies just teach features and benefits. That's it. Here's a message. Go out there and say that message a thousand times and then business will follow. And that can't be further from the truth, especially in 2025 and beyond. It takes more than just walking out with regurgitated lines like a robot and expecting to grow sales.

Speaker 1: 5:56

So you need to find a teacher, somebody that can teach you the things like you have to have using your tone of voice. You have to have inflection. You have to use your hands, body language, how you stand, words you emphasize words. You don't the words you use. Types of questions that you ask how to enter a room where to sit, how to ask that first question to a gatekeeper, somebody you're just meeting for the first time. If you're walking into a business, it could be an office manager, could be a receptionist.

Speaker 1: 6:28

Where do you park in the parking lot? This is a hot button issue. It still bothers me to this day when I go places and I see obvious salespeople when they're parked right in front of the building. It happens in one of my businesses People will park literally right in front of the building. It happens in one of my businesses People will park literally right in front of the building and they'll walk in and they'll try to pitch something. That spot is not for us as sales pros. That spot is for paying customers. Park as far away as possible for two reasons. Number one, you do not want to take away a spot from a buying customer of the business you're trying to sell something to. And number two, you don't want them to see what you drive.

Speaker 1: 7:14

If you drive a nice car, the business owner is thinking, well, how did they get that nice car? Am I paying too much for my service? Now here's the caveat. If you're in things like real estate or you're in something you're in a luxury brand, yes, I want my real estate. I want my real estate. Um, I'm not my realtor or my agent to drive a nice car. Because then it tells me, because they're commissioned, only they've sold a bunch of houses or they bought a bunch of houses for their clients. They have lots of clients. But if you're in sales and you're trying to get the best deal and you look outside and somebody is driving a Mercedes Benz SUV, you got to kind of wonder how did they afford that? No, yes, I know They've got spouses possibly, so there's dual incomes and they've been doing it for a while. So they have a lot of money saved up. But still, as a business owner, I can tell you it makes me think I used to always park as far away as possible. It was good for the exercise because I was in the car a long time, but it was also I didn't want people to know what I drove. I didn't want extra things to get in the way of me doing my job, which was trying to increase my book of business, to bring on more customers and to sell more. That was my job.

Speaker 1: 8:34

So you need somebody that will teach you the basics of being an outside sales professional, and that is something that is severely lacking in the industry right now. Number two you want to have somebody who can train you on your skill development. You want somebody who's going to put you through the repetitions and make you a better pro. But you need training not just teaching, but training. Teaching is the how. The training is the implementation of what you were just taught. So you've got to go through the reputations, you have to do the role plays, you have to be an expert at your craft. And the third is you need to have a coach or a mentor. So once you have learned the information, once you have been trained on how to utilize the information, you need somebody there as a coach or a mentor to guide you through after you've implemented how you're doing, how to improve.

Speaker 1: 9:51

Think about it from sports you have to have somebody who teaches you. Now, yes, a coach could be the same person, but when I was in high school, I had a hitting instructor. 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'm sorry, how to hit. He taught me how to train.

Speaker 1: 10:26

Then I didn't have a trainer in high school, but I trained. I trained by myself. I wish I actually would have had a trainer. My first uh, my first instructor was kind of both, but not really. He wasn't there with me every day. He wasn't there. It was a different time. It was the it was the nineties, but then you have a. It was a different time, it was the 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 a professional athlete, a big-time professional athlete LeBron James has a team of people. He doesn't show up to the court and JJ JJ Redick, who's his head coach right now. He doesn't just show up and JJ Redick is everything. Lebron James has trainers. Lebron James has people that educate him on various aspects of health, wellness, longevity. He hires and has a team of people that work for him, and he also has coaches, and he has coaches and mentors that help him along the way as well. He's got a coach with the Lakers, but he's also got a private coach.

Speaker 1: 11:43

I highly recommend if you are in sales, if you're getting into sales you're in sales right now or you're looking to go to another level you need to find a teacher, a trainer and a mentor or a coach. You need to find those three types. Here's the fourth piece of advice that person is not the same one. You want to ideally find three people now, at the beginning. If you're just starting out and you don't have the network to find three different people like that 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 do that. I've paid five figures plus to work on my craft to get better. You can find somebody to just get you started and if that person happens to be your teacher, your trainer and your mentor, slash coach at the beginning, great. But quickly look to find other people to fill out those roles, and this is the reason why you want to do that. You do want to get different points of view, but you want to get different ideas from different angles and different situations.

Speaker 1: 13:10

And I'll give you a specific example. I've had clients in the medical device world. Okay, they've called on hospitals. I have never called on hospitals, so I can teach them how to build a business, but if they need to find the specificity of how to get into and engage with hospital administrators. I'm not the guy, and that's why you have to find other people. The person that I referred them out to does not do sales training, but knows how to get into hospitals. That is what he is great at. He knows how to get into hospitals, right.

Speaker 1: 13:54

So you're going to find that you want to find the expert at each In the beginning. You can find a jack of all trades, or you could find an expert that has all three or as close to all three as possible. That's totally acceptable, but you're going to have to do it, especially in 2025 and beyond. The sales world has never been more competitive. In 2025 and beyond, the sales world has never been more competitive. There are more people trying to get into sales, especially the medical sales world. I hear it all the time.

Speaker 1: 14:25

People that I talk to hey, you were in the medical sales world, did you? What do I need to do? What kind of advice would I give you? And I jokingly say, well, do you really want to do like, what's your goal behind that? Do you want to sell medical devices or do you want to make money? And they said, well, what do you mean? I said, well, there's lots of ways to make money. There's less glamorous ways to make money, but I know there's a lot of blue collar companies out there. They're looking for salespeople to 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, a boatload of money. So if you can sell and you sell their services, you're going to make a boatload of money.

Speaker 1: 15:02

I said, but if you're looking to get into the medical sales world because maybe you want to make it a jumpstart into the healthcare, healthcare world, healthcare administration I know some people who started out in devices and then they went back to school, got their PAs or became a PA. They became physician assistants. I know a couple of guys that did that. I know girls that have gone back to nursing school and they became nurse injectors in the aesthetic 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.

Speaker 1: 15:36

So, as opposed to giving specific advice, because it's so multifaceted, but the three things again, it's going to make your life so much easier and what 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 to draft off of the person that has gone through it before so you don't have to make those same mistakes. You're microwaving your experience level by working with a coach, slash mentor, a teacher and a trainer. You're accelerating all of the things 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 this is why I think you should implement this and you can run by. And it's also a soundboard.

Speaker 1: 16:26

So many times in the sales world there are things that we don't know about or there are things we don't know and we just guess. We just stab in the dark because we don't know and we take an educated guess. But speed is what you have to have in the sales world. You can't sit around and wring your hands and wait and wait, and wait and try to have the perfect scenario. Sometimes you just have to act. It takes quick decisions and quick action in order to constantly be ahead of the curve, be ahead of the market and to be successful. Be ahead of the curve, be ahead of the market and to be successful, knowing what pitfalls to avoid how to sidestep those bombs.

Speaker 1: 17:06

That comes with having a mentor, having a coach, somebody who's been there, been through the wars, has the gray hairs, has 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 in the industry that you know. Some of those people are willing to do it for a time, for free. Some of the people cost money. I have some people here locally that I've known for a while. We bounce ideas off each other and it's a give and take. I also have students that that have purchased courses and pay for my time. I can do that as well and, if you, 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 group training starting in August for various topics.

Speaker 1: 18:06

I would love to be able to help you if you're listening on your journey, but I just want you to. I just want you to find it somewhere. So the teach part, and this is what I. I talked to a lot of people. If you want to spend thousands of hours, you can scrape YouTube Shoot. I've got 300 and something episodes of surviving outside sales podcast. If you have got the, you know 1500 hours to listen to every episode. Have at it At some point in time.

Speaker 1: 18:40

Over the last several years I have discussed almost every topic in the sales world and then some. So you can do that. It's out there. But the but again the reason why you engage with somebody is to speed up the curve, to get there faster than you would on your own, without the headache and without the stress. So three pieces of advice find a teacher, find a trainer and find a mentor, slash coach, somebody who has been where you are today and somewhere where you want to get to in the future.

Speaker 1: 19:29

If that sounds like you where you're looking for that, I offer a free 30 minute strategy call where I hear about your situation and I can give you some advice. And if it makes sense that you want to discuss working with sales builder Academy and working with me, fantastic. If I can steer you in the direction which I have before to other people, I would do that. I'll give you an example. If you are just super wanting to get into the medical device world, I have people I can connect you with. That's not me. That's not what I do. I don't do anything with resumes. I can give advice on resumes, but I don't work on resumes. I don't work on interview prep. That's not something that that's not something that I do. That's not something that I focus on, but I know people who do. So if you're listening right now and you want to get into the sales world, I know people who I can connect you with. So if anything resonated with you and you want to get on a complimentary free strategy, call it's 30 minutes.

Speaker 1: 20:38

The link will be in the show notes or you can reach out to me on LinkedIn and connect with me there. I can send you my calendar link. I do this as a give back to the industry. I love chatting with people and I also want to work with as many people in the survive and the um outside sales world, because I absolutely lose it. I absolutely excuse me, love sales and I also love outside sales as well, so click on that link in the show notes. Um. Tell a friend about surviving outside sales. Share this episode. Hopefully this resonated with you and we'll see you next time. Surviving outside sales. Cheers.