Outside Sales Reset | SOS Ep. 388

We share a candid reset on what’s been happening behind the mic, including a family move, a messy tech breakdown, and why we’re refocusing on sustainable outside sales systems. We also zoom out to what a softer retail market and buyer volatility mean for your pipeline and why clarity is the skill that closes deals right now. 
• summer update and the decision to move from Charlotte to Fort Mill 
• why we care more about sustainable tools than quick wins 
• a real scheduling failure caused by broken connectors between platforms 
• why a full CRM and website tech audit matters for trust and pipeline 
• what retail sales being down signals for fall selling and resistance 
• how inflation and higher interest rates change buyer behavior 
• selling like an investigative reporter through stronger discovery questions 
• creating clarity and calm to reduce uncertainty and prevent stalled deals 
Just email me, mike@survivingoutsides.com, or connect with me on LinkedIn and shoot me a message there. 

Transcript

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Show Mission And Promise

SPEAKER_00 0:00

The Surviving Outlined Sales podcast, hosted by Mike O'Kelly, presented by Sales Builder Academy. The goal is to survive and promise all phases of outside sales. Whether you're getting in, dominating, or getting out. Surviving Outside Sales is on the show.

Summer Hiatus And Big Life Update

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Welcome to the Surviving Outside Sales Podcast. I'm your host, Mike O'Kelly. Hope everybody's had a great summer so far. It has been, I couldn't even believe it's been three months since I recorded the last episode. And it's, I feel as if time is just speeding up. And hope everybody's had a great summer. I know mine has been busier than ever. This has been the busiest summer. I'm not being hyperbolic. I'm not, it's not a euphemism. It literally has been. Business-wise, working with clients. Also, we made a big decision that we're going to make a move to a different state. And I know that a lot of sales professionals out there have had to do the exact same things and they know exactly what it means to uproot your family and go to a different state. Me personally, I've been in Charlotte, North Carolina for half my life. And after 24 years, we're making the move to an area. It's just across the state line. It's about 25, 30 minutes away, called Fort Mill, South Carolina. And it is going to, what we believe is set our family up for success. And it's going to allow us to do more things that we want to do as a family and other goals that we have as well. This has been about a two-month process, and we are moving in about three weeks, two to two to three weeks. And I think from some of my clients and the people that I've talked with, there's a little bit of a lag, a jet lag or an exhaustion when it comes to it. I feel as if it gave a lot of quick wins, but it didn't build anything else sustainable. And that is one of the things that I, that is one of the things that I am focused on is building the right type of tools for sales professionals to excel at their job. Things that I wish I would have had. I'm a big proponent of analytics when it comes to the sales. It's not just knowing your product. It is knowing the buyer, it's knowing the market, it's knowing their intentions, it's the psychology behind it. It's everything. That is what it's going to take to be a great sales professional and excel in sales. And that is currently what I'm what I'm building, what I'm trying to build, what I'm guiding my clients through.

Tech Stack Failures And Missed Meetings

SPEAKER_01 3:02

With that note, I'm a little embarrassed. I had a client that I just took on this week. So shout out to you, Albert, and his fiancé as well, for having him stick with it. I was unaware that he had tried to book several meetings on one of my websites. What I did not know was the connectors, everything, the APIs from website to the other booking sites were not working. And I got an email last week saying such that they weren't working. So he had booked a couple meetings and I no-showed because I didn't, I was unaware. And nothing on my end from Zoom to Calendly and Go High Level, my CRM notified me that there was a meeting. It literally was on his end, he had it. On my end, I did not. So his fiance told him to keep going through. So Dorothy, thank you for pushing Albert to reach out to me on LinkedIn. Andor actually, he he emailed me and I saw the email and responded almost immediately. A little embarrassed being a tech guy, but that kind of stuff happens. And it is, you know, a lot of the tech that we're relying on, you know, your CRM, your email marketing campaigns, a lot of it can fall through. A lot of it can, you know, be disconnected. And I still don't know why it's disconnected. On a flip side, my website provider is switching over, and it says it's switching over to another server. So my websites are gonna be down for two days. And I'm trying to effort what that looks like. So from August 23rd to August 25th. So I know if you're listening to this in the future, uh, this probably doesn't pertain to you, but my websites will be down for two days. And it's basically gonna ask me to delete everything, save it, back it up, and then re-sign up, redo the whole nine yards, which I don't know what that's gonna look like next week. So it's almost if the last 16 months, 16 to 18 months had been fantastic when it comes to the tech world. For me, it's actually been an absolute disaster. I've, if you've listened to some of the episodes, I've switched platforms multiple times. I've been, you know, I was promised something on a platform. It just didn't fit what we were trying to do. So I switched to another platform. And in that switch, it was a lot more effort because I had to do a lot more work myself. There weren't as many things that were turnkey, and it just led to a lot of issues. And so I'm still working through it, you know, still a one-man band. And then I have, you know, marketing side that that helps with some of my marketing, but still a one-man band. But what I want to tell you is that this new move, this move that we're gonna have in about a month or so, is exactly what I need, and it is exactly what is going to help me become more consistent and to become more to get me back on track with what I really love doing. I love doing the podcast. I love interacting with sales professionals around the world. I love, you know, having people reach out, getting to work with some really awesome clients who are in really tough spots because things have not changed. They still remain the exact same. They still do not have the right process, the right system, the right frameworks in place to consistently win in the sales world. That has not changed. And that is what is needed in order to do so. And I had a I had a meeting with a director of sales. Uh this must have been late June, late June. So this is this was a little while ago, but it was after the last episode. And I met for coffee with director of sales, and what he told me was the struggle for finding people that can break through that first know. So, of course, you know, I said, Well, walk me through. What's the process? And he said, Well, we don't really have one because there's just a level, there's a disconnect of competence. And there's just, you know, we talk about, you know, push through and do this and this and this, but they don't. But that's kind of still the exact same plan. And so, even from an executive side, they're still trying to figure out how to systematize, which is wild to me, even now in 2026, that there's still sales organizations and sales professionals that don't have the right systems in place. So, in a nutshell, just giving you a little bit of an update. I hadn't forgotten about the outside sales world. I hadn't forgotten about you all out there who are pounding the pavement in your car right now, listening to this as you're as you're driving to your next appointment, your next meeting, etc. Surviving outside sales is not going anywhere. Okay. Until there is, as long as there is, you know, breath in my lungs, I will continue to talk about outside sales because it is fundamental to a lot of businesses, a lot of people's incomes, a lot of people's livelihoods. And there's still not a lot of resources out there. So good, bad, or indifferent, I'm gonna continue doing this. So, with that said, the best way you can connect with me right now until I do a full audit of all of my back end tech, which by the way, I have about 12 to 15 different platforms that I utilize. I thought I had everything connected properly, but it sounds like I probably did not. So I'm gonna be doing a full audit of all of that stuff. So if you are listening to this right now, regardless of when you're listening to this, you could be listening to this in 2027 or 2020 or beyond. As of right now, the best way to reach out to me is Mike at survivingoutsides.com. Just email me, mike at survivingoutsides.com, or connect with me on LinkedIn and shoot me a message there. Those are the two ways, the easiest ways that you can connect with me if you have any questions or you are interested in taking the next step and you need an advisor, you need a coach, you need somebody to help you. Okay. And that's a majority of the people that reach out to me on LinkedIn. They're just like, I need help. What can you do? We analyze where you where you are, what path we're gonna take, and then we move forward. So that's the best way right now. While I I tried to do that with my just, you know, I tried to do that with my websites and it did not work. So I'm gonna go back to the drawing board and kind of figure out how I can make my workflow a little bit easier. That was supposed to, and for a while it did work very well. Also, unaware to me that the connector was broken almost the entire summer for all of the people that signed up for the newsletter and for the people that sent in their scorecards. I did not see them. So if you're listening right now and you're frustrated, I understand. I will be reaching out to every single person over the next month who signed up for the newsletter. And there was probably about 75 to 80 people who signed up for the newsletter and the scorecards. There was about 30, 35 or 40 scorecards that were sent in. And the connectors did not work. I do apologize. I did also on my end feel like it was a little bit slower of a summer because I looked at the podcast. The podcast downloads were extremely strong, and I was not getting as many reach outs as I normally do. So, which is totally fine. Some of the other clients I took on this summer did not have any issues because the first thing they did was they just reached out on LinkedIn. They did not try to go through any of my tech, they didn't try to go through any of my links or sign up online. So, in a nutshell, just so you know, hey, stuff happens. You move on, and this is the

New Move And A Fresh Setup

SPEAKER_01 10:40

pivot point. And and also, I don't know how many more episodes I'm gonna be shooting from my house. So this I'm in my office, and which is a little, little sad. You know, we've been here for eight and a half plus years. It's been a great time. We absolutely love the house. Wish we could take it with us to Fort Mill, South Carolina, but that's not how it works. But this is where the this is where the podcast started. I've been in the same same room shooting the podcast for five years now, and I am excited at what the new chapter holds. I'm not a very sentimental guy. I believe that change is always good, you know, as long as it's not change for change's sake. But I do believe that this is an upgrade for our family. I do believe this is an upgrade for our life, for the for the freedom that we're gonna have. The setup, I'm gonna have a dedicated office right now. I'm in my kids' bonus room that I've commandeered one of the sides and we've made it work. But I'm gonna have my own dedicated office that has a door that shuts, that I'll have a lot more peace and quiet where I can make it my own. I'm very excited for that. Also very excited for the opportunities to be a lot closer to a lot of my network of business owners and collaborators. You know, the area I'm the area I'm going to, I know four to five directors of sales, VPs of sales, some people that I use as mentors and you know, kind of throw ideas and they they they ask for ideas in return. And it's just great, it's very great and collaborative. It's a little bit of a business community that I surprisingly have not found in Charlotte or have not found as strong in Charlotte for people my age, dads with kids running businesses that are highly successful, that want to push the market, push the envelope. Because that's really, in essence, the whole the whole point of surviving outside sales is to push the industry in a better direction. And I'm hoping that I have done that and I'm hoping that I will continue to do that and assist those people who need help. So, with that said, kind of the you know, the last few minutes I'm gonna spend on this episode is because this is really just an update, but it's also kind of an update on where I see things happening and where I see the market

Retail Slowdown And Buyer Resistance

SPEAKER_01 12:56

going. And right now, retail sales are down across the board. Retail sales are down. Okay. And we're going through a little bit, forget what the stock market is doing. We're going through a little bit of a contraction. All right. And so one of the things that I want to talk about in future episodes of surviving outside sales is I want the, I want the episodes to be more real time, kind of what's happening. I don't want them to be daily. You know, I'm not gonna, I'm not going to respond to the day's events because I feel like that is not evergreen. That's not something that somebody can listen to a year later and be excited to listen to, but it is going to be, there's going to be a story, but then there's going to be a lesson. Like what can we learn from that? What is the big takeaway? And right now, the retail market is retail spending is down. The retail index, you know, I started following a guy on Twitter and he talks about markets and indexes and what's happening on Main Street, not Wall Street. And he had all these, you know, this guy's very smart and he had all these graphs, all these charts, and he said that the retail is down. So, what does that mean for you? Okay. What it means for you is we head into the fall, there might be a little bit more resistance on your prospects, your clients wanting to buy things. And so there's going to be a little bit of a nuance of there kind of was a was a nice bull run a little bit around post-COVID. You know, the the government was giving out money. There was a lot of money and there was a lot of liquidity in the markets. People were thinking that it was going to be the new normal, which it is not. It's gone back to the original. Like not as many people are working from home. And there's more, so the commercial markets have not, the commercial real estate markets have not crashed because everybody's working from home, you know, especially in the banking sector in Charlotte. Most companies now are back to four days a week, including my wife at Wells Fargo. And, you know, most companies are now either four days or five days. So a lot of the cottage industries that were built on people working from home, and a lot of the things that people were doing was they were spending more because why? They're at home, they're on their computers, they have more downtime, they're looking online, everything's great. Ooh, let's buy this, let's buy that. They're more consumer-driven, but now, but people are going back to normal, let's say, like pre-COVID, closer to pre-COVID markets or pre-COVID work environments, they're falling into the exact same patterns. The only thing that's happened, though, is if you take a look at 2019, interest rates have skyrocketed, the inflation has skyrocketed. And so purchasing purchasing power, things are more expensive. So all of those things you have to think about when you're trying to sell to somebody. When you're trying to sell to somebody, you have to understand that the environment every single month, every single quarter is going to be different than what it previously was. You can't just have a set it and forget it plan as far as, well, you know, I'm just going to talk about this, I'm going to talk about features and benefits. No, you can't do that. You have to be an investigative reporter or a detective on every single call. And you can't just assume, well, last month they said they, you know, they had the money and they were going to budget XYZ. You got to find out if the budget has changed. You have to find out if the budget has stayed the same. This is what I would say is we're, from what I've seen, from the people that I've talked to, we're going to have a very fluid market over the next year to two years. And what that means is there's going to be a lot more volatility. And volatility creates uncertainty in buyers' minds. So, more so than ever, we as sales professionals are going to have to create

Selling Through Volatility With Clarity

SPEAKER_01 16:32

clarity and calmness and allow there to be no confusion with our buyers. That is going to be imperative for us to get the deal across the goal line. If that doesn't happen, they're just going to kick the can for the next quarter. And usually when I have not closed a deal, usually it's because I have missed the clarity or the calmness. Really, that's pretty much it. It's the clarity of the calmness. And what I do is I go back and I analyze, okay, did I not create clarity? And I will say it's probably clarity. Clarity is probably the number one reason why people don't buy. There's some kind of disconnect. Did I not ask enough discovery questions? Did I not come from the right angle? Buyers are more, buyers are less impulsive than they were a year ago. Shoot, than they were six months ago. And while the people talking about AI being used as their decisions is less, I believe AI has become the norm. The first thing they do is they go to AI. So they're no more, they're no longer telling people, oh, I just went to chat. It's just, hey, I got this information. It used to be, oh, I Googled this, but then people just said, oh, well, I looked it up. I think the same thing is happening with AI, is they're just they're just using it and they're they're determining a lot of factors because of it. And anything that you say, if it's counter to what they're seeing on AI or ChatGPT or Claude, Perplexity, one of them, if they're not, if if it's not the exact same thing, then that's creating doubt. That's that's not creating clarity. So all that to say that in the future episodes of surviving outside sales, in the next couple episodes, it is going to it is going to be more market driven, more what is happening right now that you need to know about, or my my opinion of what I'm hearing on the street. And I still am very well connected. You know, this summer I had a couple of directors of sales that I knew from my past life in the medical sales world reached out to me and asked if I would dust off the bag and go out into the field, to which I said, absolutely not. I said, I am retired from that world. I'm retired of doing three to four hotel stays a month minimum, or sometimes twice a week. I said, I'm done with that. I'm done getting in my car and driving to Charleston, driving to Wilmington for a day trip. I don't do that anymore. I can't, I don't want to. I've got two young kids. And, you know, just still talking with them, it is it's one of those things where the principles are still needed. The people that can go in and create that clarity for the buyer is still needed. So if you're listening right now, I hope I'm not, I haven't done an episode in a while, so I hope I'm not being too repetitive. But creating clarity is the number one thing that you have to do for your buyers. But understanding the landscape is the only way you can get that clarity.

Q4 Plan And How To Reach Me]

SPEAKER_01 19:48

So that's all for today. Hope everyone is having a great summer or had a great summer. It is typically for most industries a slower time. It's going to rev up. Get your plan ready before we hit Q4 in October. Start today. If you have any doubt or if you have any questions on how to build your Q4 roadmap, your Q4 plan, reach out to me, Mike at Surviving Outside Sales, and let's talk. Thank you, everybody who's been listening. Hope you have a great day. We'll see you next time. Surviving Outside Sales. Cheers.