Authority Beats Noise When Markets Go Soft | SOS Ep. 381

We unpack why Q4 went soft across industries and how the first week of 2026 exposed a deeper shift in buyer behavior. We share routines, role-play tactics, and a clear plan to move from “rep” to trusted expert with simplicity and authority.

• lean Q4 and the early 2026 surge
• buyers flooded with info and more savvy
• shift from rep to expert with clarity
• routines for weekend and nightly practice
• perfect practice to build confidence
• role playing during drive time
• simplicity and clarity as core edge
• testing new platforms and handling churn
• focusing on clients who value change
• three ways to engage and get coached

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DM me on LinkedIn or email mike@survivingoutsidesales.com. Five stars, share it with a friend, and download any other episode.

Chapters

• 0:00 Fast Start To A Soft Q4
• 1:35 Why Buyers Changed And What It Means
• 3:20 From Rep To Trusted Expert
• 6:00 Weekend Routines That Build Mastery
• 9:20 Practicing Perfect: Reps That Create Confidence
• 12:15 Simplicity And Clarity As Your Edge
• 15:05 Testing New Systems And Handling Change
• 17:45 Building Authority And Letting Go Of Clients

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

The Surviving Outside Sales podcast, hosted by Michael Kelly, presented by Sales Builder Academy. The goal is to survive and thrive at all phases of outside sales, whether you're getting in, dominating, or getting out. Surviving Outside Sales. Now let's go.

SPEAKER_01: 0:35

Man, what a wild first week plus of 2026. It is uh, it always amazes me how quickly the first week of January goes. And a lot of it is the last two weeks are extremely slow because a lot of people are on vacation. Uh, a lot of buyers are on vacation, a lot of businesses kind of have people taking PTO. But man, that first week comes in fast and furious. And the emails, the meetings, the requests, it feels like it is this probably is the fastest and the most busy I think I've ever been in the first week of January. Um, I feel like everybody in December was just taking a pause, and then all of a sudden, you know, my LinkedIn inbox was starting to get flooded, uh, my calendar was starting to get really booked, um, which is a good thing. But it also, I think it kind of is a testament of what's happening in the market as a whole. When I talk to outside sales professionals, it was a very lean Q4 across multiple industries. So if you're sitting there and you're like, man, I really was really struggling in Q4. I feel like, I feel like um, I don't know what to do, et cetera. You were not alone. Okay. It was a very soft Q4 for a lot of people. And I think that the reason why is that uh there's multiple factors, but really when it comes down to it is the buyers are inundated with information, right or wrong. They are inundated with information. And now buyers are much more savvy from the standpoint of knowing where to source information and how to find it. So, as a sales professional, especially if you don't have a retail business or you don't have people coming into your place of business to buy something, you have to go to them. You have to start having deeper conversations. You have to start leveraging your expertise as an expert, as a consultant, not just as a salesperson. Several episodes, I've said this ad nauseum. You can't be a sales rep. The days are gone of being a sales rep. You know, I represent this product. Those days are over. I'm telling you right now, you're not even gonna get by with being just an average sales rep. You have to be a professional, you have to be a sales pro in order to do that. You have to elevate your game. You have to elevate. You're going to have to approach buyers that you know what you're talking about. You have to approach buyers with a plan, a vision, with simplicity and clarity. Simply stated, how is your product or service going to improve their life? And clarity. How are you gonna get there? And look, just so you're aware, this happens to everybody. This is a struggle for all salespeople. And I was talking to a buddy of mine who's in the capital sales world. He sells capital equipment in the medical device world. And he said, I've had to rethink how I'm talking to my doctors and my office managers because everything has changed. And this guy is, you know, president's club. He's been around, he's been uber successful, and he had a soft year. He still hit quota, but like he he he got it like the last week of the year. He got a unit sold in the last week of the year. He barely made it. And normally he he hits quota uh for the year, usually by mid-November. And he's like, Man, I was I was really struggling. I didn't think it was gonna happen. It was a it was a Hail Mary, something that he didn't even think was gonna happen, and it did. And he he he honestly said, I it's changed. He goes, it has changed out there. And I said, Yeah, I said, I know you listen to the podcast, I've been saying it for years. You can't approach every year the exact same. Everything has changed. And the approach for 2026 is gonna have to change. This is the year where if you're listening right now, you gotta become an expert in whatever you do. You have to live it, you have to breathe it. Now, it doesn't mean you have to sit up every night and spend two, three, four hours, but you got to spend some time every night, every day getting better. You're gonna have to sacrifice time on the weekend. What I used to do is I used to try to uh take the biggest bite of the elephant I could first thing Saturday morning. I would wake up, and this is back in my days before I was single, not married, no kids. I'd wake up, I'd go work out first thing, I'd clean my house, do laundry, and then before noon, I would get everything done that I needed it done. My reading, my role playing, my practicing before noon. From noon for the rest of the weekend until Sunday night when I was preparing for the week and reviewing for the week, that was my time to do whatever I wanted. That was my free time. I'd already exercised the mind, I'd already exercised the brain, I'd already uh cleaned uh the clutter out of my condo. By noon on Saturday, I was good. Everything else, could visit with friends, could do whatever I wanted. So Saturday mornings, I'd spend a couple hours working on the business. I would also do it at night, but not as much, you know, 20, 30 minutes. Sometimes I'd go down rabbit holes or I'd get really amped up, I'd be in the zone, and I'd go a couple hours. But it's it doesn't have to necessarily be every night. But in 2026, the game has changed. You have to be the expert. You have to be the authority, not the buyer. I was talking to one of my clients, and um, you know, she's really struggling right now because she doesn't know how to increase her authority with her clients. And I I just straight up asked her. I said, okay, let's let's do some role play. Let's do some role play real quick. Tell me what you're doing. And a lot of the things that she was doing was putting the onus on my time as the buyer was more important than hers. I was the expert, not her. So we worked through how can we get you to be the expert? How can we elevate your status? And then how can how can you back it up? And that's one of the things that we're talking about today is when I am coaching sales professionals, it still boggles my mind that there's not enough expertise out there, there's not enough practice. You're not gonna get great with like with confidence. Okay, you can't just walk in and say, I'm confident. The confidence comes from the repetitions, you have to practice, but you also have to have perfect practice. It can't just be practice for practice sake. You know, perfect practice makes perfect. If I don't know what I'm doing and I just do it a bunch of times, do you think I'm gonna get to the desired result? Probably not. So it's becoming an expert in your field, it's through repetitions. Now, not necessarily repetitions in the field, like just making a bunch of calls, but you've got to do the repetitions. I mentioned before, I used to have long drive times when I was in the field. I would role play with myself, and I still do it to this day. I have I have drives of 30 minutes to an hour routinely. And I will still roleplay. I still roleplay conversations. I still role play. I still am talking to myself about various things, challenging beliefs, ideas. I spend the whole time in thought or role playing. How would I say this? How would I not say this? What is the best, what's the best phrasing? It's not necessarily an obsession, but it's just something, it's just part of my DNA. It's what I do. And I wasn't always like this. I used to be the guy when I started in the sales world, I would immediately get to the car and immediately put on a playlist, you know, rap, RB, metal, uh, hip hop, what have you. I used to play music. Every single moment I was in listening to music. And like, that's all I did. Got in the car, listen to music. Almost like I was a zombie or I just was, I was in a trance, just, you know, that was wasted time. All those hours were wasted time. One of my first mentors told me the first thing you need to do is stop listening to music. Everything in the car that you're doing from the time you leave one appointment to the next, it should be in development, developing your skills, developing your mind, developing your thought. 100%. That's what you should be doing. So listening to podcasts falls under that. And I still listen to podcasts and audible books. I love consuming audible um podcasts, anything that I can get more information. But in 2026, it is about expertise. It is about expertise, and it's not about the volume of calls if you're not doing it right. I've mentioned before I've worked for a lot of companies where the top sales rep was not the one that had the most sales calls. It was the one that was that could communicate, simplify the process, and have complete clarity for the buyer. That was the person. So in order to get in order to get simplicity and clarity, you have to be an expert. You have to be an expert in your product, you have to be an expert in communication, you have to be an expert in your plan, your process, or they're on the buying the buying cycle. You have to be an expert in sales, the art of sales, the business of sales. You have to be an expert at it. You can't just walk around and say, oh, you know, I'm a rep. I just walk in and I just regurgitate what my company told me to say. That's not gonna get you there. That should be your focus in 2026. How do I become an expert? How do I gain expertise? Because that is what's gonna take you to the next level. It's not more budget, it's not a bigger sales territory, um, it's not more ride-alongs from your manager. The onus is on you to become a professional. The good news is you're already listening to this podcast. So you're already one step ahead of a lot of other people. And not necessarily this podcast, but yes, I'm a little biased. This podcast, but also you're listening to podcasts. You're trying to consume as much information as possible. You're trying to learn, you're trying to get better, you're trying to enhance your skills. That is gonna take you a lot further. What also is gonna help, I've mentioned before, I'm testing something new in 2026. I'm testing to see if this is gonna work. I'm testing to see if it's gonna work better than what happened in 2025. I'm gonna give this uh six months. So we'll see. And that's the thing, like not everything happens immediately. I had a client of mine say, Hey, what do you think is gonna happen with your school community? And I said, I'm gonna give it six months and we'll see what happens. Rome wasn't built in the day. Every time you do something that's different, every time you change something, there's going to be some friction. There's going to be some uh difficulties. And it doesn't, it doesn't matter what you do in the sales world. Anytime you change something, you're gonna lose clients. People are people are gonna be upset. I pulled all my coaching programs off of my website, and I had a client who loved it and is upset with me. And I said, I apologize. I'm I'm recreating everything on this other, this other platform. And, you know, you've already got access. You've already got access for everything, but she's not happy with me. On the flip side, I have I have another client who said, Hey, I was really lost. It was really difficult to find the links and get to your stuff. I'm so happy that you moved it over. So for every one upset, there's gonna be one that's happy that change happened. The exact same thing happens with your clients in your market. You're gonna have somebody who's a good buyer, who's a good client, and you change something, your company changes something, and they're not gonna be happy. And sometimes you can salvage the relationship, and sometimes you can't salvage the relationship. And you know what? That's okay. That's okay. You're not gonna have clients for life. The goal is to build clients for life, but you're not gonna have clients for life. And it's okay. It's okay to move on, it's okay to not worry about it, it's okay to not stress out about it. I've I've had I have had so many examples in my career, hundreds of examples, of where the accounts loved the person that I took over for, and hundreds of accounts where the accounts loved me much more than they loved anybody else at the company. So, what you do is you just double down on the people that love you and you expand that. So, as I mentioned, yeah, the school network, I've moved everything over to school. This is what I believe is going to be is it's gonna create simplicity and clarity, the two big things for 2026. Simplicity and clarity. And I believe it's going to help people become those experts. If you're listening right now and you want to go over to school, it is free to join. It's free to join. Join the community. There's some uh free mini courses, there's some free videos, there's some um free cheat sheets. If you want to get access to the courses, there's a couple different memberships you can have. I'm testing those out as well, doing memberships, allowing people to purchase at their free will. They don't have to do a consulting call with me. We'll see how it goes. We'll see how that goes. There's a lot of different opinions in the uh coaching world. And everybody says, no, don't do it, do it, keep doing this, keep doing that. I'm testing it out. I believe what it's gonna do, it's gonna be much more effective to allow people to come and go as they please. It's gonna allow people to consume information on one platform that's easy for them to find, easy for them to get, also has an app. I think this is this is gonna make a sales professional's life so much easier. And as I mentioned, if you are looking for some help, if you're looking for coaching, if you're looking to get out of the grind, if you're struggling, if you feel like you're spinning your wheels, if you feel like you're going nowhere, you don't have a plan, you're just waking up every morning and just driving where the wind takes you. Let's sign up, sign up for one of the coaching memberships. And let's get started on changing your 2026 and changing your future. Let's start today. And if you're confused or I haven't created simplicity or clarity, DM me on LinkedIn and we can have a chat and discuss what options are best for you. I still get lots of DMs by people. That's probably the number one source is DMs on LinkedIn is the number one source of people who are looking to change their future through sales, or shoot me an email, mike at survivingoutsides.com. Whatever is easiest for you. So there's three avenues. You can go to school, you can sign up, you can you can message me, or you can sign up for a membership. You can DM me on LinkedIn and request a consult, or email me, Mike at Surviving Outside Sales. There's three avenues to get in touch. Let's make this the best year of your life. I know we can do it together. I know you've got that that sales, that sales pro, that sales warrior inside of you. Let's develop that together. I can help clear the noise, clear the frustration, and get you on the right path. Thanks for listening. I really do appreciate it. Uh, if you like the episode, uh please like it. Five stars, share it with a friend, and uh download any other episode. And until next time, this has been Surviving Outside Sales. Cheers.