ElyseArcher041118.mp3
Broadcasting live from the business radio studios in Atlanta Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta business radio spotlighting the city’s best businesses and the people who lead them.
We can’t tour here with stone Pateman our producer Katie Gelli mother upset of Atlanta business radio and stone this will be a fun one.
Hey this is going to be a lot of fun. First up in Atlanta business radio this morning. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast. Professional sales coach with South-Western consulting. Ms. Elise. Archer
Good morning. Good morning thanks for having me guys.
Well Elise can you talk a little bit about being a professional sales coach. How’s that work.
I certainly can.
I think most people when I say that think that I’m unemployed is that church consultant and employee that translates to unemployed. But no we actually have.
So the company that I work with is actually the oldest Sales Trading Company in the United States. They’ve been around for 160 years now since before the lightbulb kind of crazy that we’re selling light bulbs probably.
Yes somebody needed one.
But so basically what it means is my colleagues and I we partner with business owners sales professionals to help them achieve their goals in life. So that’s what I’m really passionate about is just helping people break belief barriers about what’s possible for them. And for some people it’s they want to make more money. For some people it’s they want to make more money and have more time back in their day. For some it’s they want to get really confident and closing and kind of overcome that fear. And anxiety that a lot of people feel around selling and closing and so we help with all of that.
So now do you find that people. Anybody can be taught the sellers is something like I’m a born salesman or I don’t. So
Yeah I love that question. I think so many people think well you have to be born that way and they kind of envision a natural born salesperson is kind of the cheesy slick used car salesman type of buy. But actually I find that anybody if they have the right mindset. Can be an amazing sales professional selling whatever they need to sell and I think actually we are all in sales. At the end of the day right whether you’re leading a business and you have to sell your ideas to your employees whether you are a true quote unquote sales professional. Maybe you’re an H.R. and you have to sell your ideas to the rest of the train. But I think we’re big believers in something called servent selling which basically means that sales has nothing to do with you. It simply has to do with helping other people get what they want. And I think if we can have that mindset and then learn the right techniques like riding a bike the first time you did it you probably sucked at it. The second time you probably weren’t that great either. But the more that you try and learn the right techniques the more it just becomes second nature. So we’re really big leaders and helping people have that right mindset the servant selling mindset and then applying the right tools. To use to help serve more people. And when you have that
Mindset about serving and helping you’re not really trying to sell you’re just trying to see if it’s the right fit at that point right.
Exactly yeah. So we have a quote that it’s hard to be nervous when your heart is on service
And so like. Right. That’s right.
This is my drive in this morning I heard it’s your mind your own biscuits life will be gravy.
I think I like yours better. I’m going to steal it right away. Now like you mentioned. More and more people are having to sell
And their world like we run into a lot of attorneys and CPA people who maybe historically they were job was just to be lawyers and CPA people and do accounting. But now they are charged with kind of having a book a business as well. So there. Even if it’s an existing client and they have to kind of penetrate that organization and get work around it. Everybody is wearing a sales hat. Nowadays you find that.
Absolutely yeah. And I think a lot of people resist it and they’re like No I’m just going to talk to the people I already know are good to just do this. Yeah and having like that fixed mindset if you’re familiar with Carol Dweck the fixed versus versus growth mindset people who have a growth mindset and are open to the idea that even if historically this has not been something I’ve felt like I was good at. I can learn anything if I apply myself to it. Those are the people who tend to excel and exceed in life and I think sales is no different. In that we just have to be open to the idea that. We could do it
If we wanted to. And when you are really serving people. Don’t you want to help more people. Right. Like if you really believe you’re. Doing. Kind of good work and important work don’t you want. To do more and more for more people.
Yes exactly. And I think having that mindset is so key and so critical to being successful in sales is just realizing it has nothing to do with you and when you can just remove yourself from that outcome and say hey a yes is great. No it’s fine. The only thing that. Doesn’t serve anybody is maybe it’s like my job and that quote we consider closing just helping somebody get from point A. Which is where they are right now. To point B which is where they want to be faster. That is our only job in selling and sometimes that’s going to mean they should partner with you. Sometimes that’s going to mean they should partner with your competitor. Sometimes it’s going when they should do nothing. And that’s OK. But it’s just our job to help guide them safely
To that right decision for them. Now how did you find South-Western helping. How did that come about.
Yes. So I think like all good stories it starts with a story deep seated and personal insecurity so in a household of very. Accomplished academic. Sessional. So my mom and dad were both very academically accomplished. My sister really smart too. So I grew up feeling very secure that I wasn’t good enough. Like a lot of us can probably relate to. And it wasn’t until I discovered sails around the age of 16 I think I found some super shady but I found some Craigslist for selling vitamins so I wasn’t chilled in the process which was good but I started my first sales role and I found that I was actually this was something where I was and a team of like 10 people doing this and it was actually very easy for me to do it and do very well and so I found something that I was actually really good at. And that started this kind of passion and excitement for wow I found something where I can. Eat the best and so. I went into like I went to college for journalism. But I went immediately out and went right back into sales.
And I went into advertising sales at the time and. Sure enough. In my sales career after college I continued to be at the top of the ranks of the group and did really well. But I’ll tell you. It was all about me. And it was all about trying to prove myself to other people so that my early 20s I made a lot of money. I had like the nice house the nice car everything that I thought I needed for validation. But. I’ll tell you. Like on the inside. I was super empty and I was. Hurting and had a lot of just negative people in my life. At the time I was like I don’t know why these people are in my life but really they were just a reflection of me and who I was at the time and so about six years in. To that. That point in my life I had just kind of like one of those. Hit. Rock bottom moments where you look up and you like what am I doing. And you’re like you know I’m not even 30 not even 30.
Yeah I was I was an overachiever I hit rock bottom early but for wife there yeah exactly. Exactly.
But it was funny because around that time I started listening to podcasts and I never really listened before but I didn’t like being alone with my thoughts. And so. I would always try to fill the space with just something to distract me. And I came across this podcast by a guy named Rory Vaden and in the podcast he actually talked about. This concept of servent selling and I was like huh. I’d never realized that sales maybe wasn’t about me proving myself for feeling good about myself maybe it’s just about helping other people. And I started just really like. Eating up everything he had to say and following him online and reading his books and in the period of a year I radically transformed my life and not only by doing what he said Did I grow my income 48 percent and I think I got more time back in my day but it was like. Who I was as a person. I finally came back to who I really can grow with. How are you. Exactly exactly. Yeah and so. That was such an amazing experience for me that about a year and a half after that I actually left my corporate job to join Rory and his team at South-Western Consulting Group to try to help other sales professionals have some of those same. Life changes and lightbulb moment. Rorys the co-founder of South-Western consulting and somebody who I get to work with now and
It was your mentor here in Atlanta as well he’s in Nashville.
So we’re based out of Nashville. I just moved to Atlanta about nine months ago so kind of new to the area from North Carolina. But we all work remotely
So and then. But you’re. Part of Southwestern. The consultancies here. You’re running the Atlanta portion of a model that works. Are you an independent person.
Yeah. So we have a couple of coaches here in the Atlanta area all of which are amazing. We’re all independent so we can kind of work wherever we want which is cool we have coaches in Estonia we have coaches in South America Lithuania all over the place it’s neat UK.
So you have a specialty in industry you work with bike are you are or you’re a CPA person or you’re the manufacturing person.
Yeah. So I worked with a really broad range of sales professionals but I’ve kind of. Stumbled into the financial wholesale world which is very random very specific very specific.
I did nothing about it. They called me and said Can you help. I don’t know what you do but I could figure it out.
But so I’ve ended up doing a lot of work with either wholesalers or with financial advisers and I find with a lot of them like they really want to serve their clients and they’re typically very good at what they do from a money management side. But. They’re really oftentimes scared to market themselves or they don’t know how to talk about what they’re doing and they just kind of like the sales that. We talked about for anybody can learn to do this. But a lot of those are. Just sales strategies and tips and techniques. They’re not comfortable with that. So it’s about helping them. Serve more people and get in front of more potential clients. I want to I want to hear more about this whole fear thing but what is it you think that is causing them to be. Fearful or are they. Worried
Maybe too much about what other people think or what’s at the core of this.
Yeah well I think it’s something that holds all of us back if we let it. Right. I mean it’s it’s self-preservation it’s built and I think fear could be a healthy mechanism to alert you if you’re about to be run over by a car or a bus can be very good that gets you. But unfortunately our brain has a hard time differentiating between that type of fear versus the fear of. Picking up the phone and am I going to be rejected. Right. And like. Even in this moment like when we do something that’s outside of our comfort zone like if I think about myself in this moment I’m going to feel fear I’m going to feel nervous because I’m about myself. It’s all self-preservation. But if we can get out of that headspace and think instead about. Somebody else like. Solving somebody else’s problems or what somebody else is struggling with. Then. Try it you’ll realize that you actually can’t physically feel fear and be thinking about helping somebody else. It’s really interesting so I don’t think it’s that fear ever goes away. I think it’s built into who we are but I think it’s. How do you learn to manage it. And can you use it for something good right to motivate you. But do keep you safe. But also. How do you let it not control you and that’s what a lot of our clients need help with and I’m really passionate about helping people overcome that. Now when you’re working with a new client and they are maybe in. A state of in their own head and they feel a lot of fear and maybe their
Their motivations are pure but maybe their technique is not as polished as it would be after talking with you for a while. How do you move them through this process like how do you help them kind of. Align. Their objectives really with kind of. Have a Say the words. Yeah well I think
The first thing is a lot of people have never really thought about what they want. And so people will find themselves in a sales role or sales leadership role but. It’s been maybe since the past year or since five years or 10 years since they really stopped and thought about like what are my objectives here like if I could have anything I wanted. What would that actually look like. And so I love just had I call it visionary like. Thinking with clients about. I truly believe we create our own reality like we create our own outcomes in life and if you can have anything that you wanted in your life what would that look like. And then oftentimes they’ll. They’ll say something like well I could never have that or I’d be too afraid to do that. And so. I find that a really healthy exercise to do with clients is to just walk them through logically. What that fear looks like because so many times we feel fear about something like You may feel fear about picking up the phone. But then you never think beyond it. To realize what would actually happen like what’s the worst case scenario that would happen here. And so we stop ourselves because we feel this fear but we don’t logically think through what it actually means and so we might do an exercise. Where we say OK so if you pick up the phone what’s the worst thing that could happen. And they’ll say oh the person will yell at me. You’ll say. Oh ok well. What’s the worst thing that can happen then. And the like well I’ll. Feel bad and I’ll be scared. It’s like OK what’s the worst that could happen then.
I don’t know. I’ll go run out of the office which I’ve never heard before. Three questions and they’re out right that hour. But it’s just realizing that the really the worst that will happen is
You’re exactly the same as you were before.
You didn’t have that client before. You still don’t have a.
No they don’t just find this fascinating because I’ll tell you as you’re probably beginning to experience Lee is really good at this. He’s good at drawing people out and. Giving them the platform to share their story and talk about what they do and
How they serve people. But I think one of the big reasons is because when you put those headphones on you’re invested. In Elise. You’re not. You don’t you’re not in your own head about you. And I know like sometimes with our client host. I think they run into the same thing she’s describing don’t you they’re worried about how they’re going to sound or how they’re going to. Tell me there’s really strong parallels in our work in this.
Now do you find that because you you have your own podcast right.
Yeah I do actually yeah. We had one previously that I stepped off of recently looking into sales and then we just launched a new one for our company. The younger wiser leader podcast’s which launched last week it just started.
So do you find that skill as an interviewer is similar to that of a coach and that you are putting the spotlight on the other person and trying to help them.
Yes absolutely and I will tell you when I first started interviewing people I would sweat bullets.
So there was that part of it was because my cohost A.J. is amazing at what she does and it’s like I got to bring it.
But again it was. I was thinking about myself and I wasn’t thinking about the person on the other end. That’s such an important life skill in general that helps us navigate life really well if we can learn to just have empathy and think about what the other person is going through. And what they’re thinking we realize. Nobody’s really thinking about us at all.
They’re all thinking about themselves don’t worry about what other people think about them. Now when you’re working with somebody and you’re helping them kind of develop their personal brand then helping them kind of stand out in the crowd because a lot of your clients are potential clients are kind of in semi commodity industries where there’s a lot of them. Out there and they’re all trying to find their
Place in the world. How do you help them kind of. Do that
Pioneer. Graham. Yeah I think it’s so fun and one of the things that I think is really helpful is just to tap into. What at your core. Do you feel like you were called to do and maybe share an example will help. I had a coaching client named Deseret. And she runs a company out in Washington called Hearts and pearls. And they do headbands for women and girls and they’re just really cool. Unique looking headbands. And she had this personal story that was. Really deep that was attached to it but she’d always been afraid to share it. And so the inspiration for the company came because she was a. Very young mom. She got pregnant when she wasn’t married and she’s a Christian and for her she kind of went through this whole like. Debate of do I abort the baby or not. Like she really she got actually up to. A day before the abortion was scheduled and she was going to do it. And she was at her parents house and she was taking a walk. Just by her parents house and. She ran into an older couple who was walking by her. And they said. They just felt compelled for some reason to share their story. And they told her their story of how they had aborted their child. When they were very young and it was their mission in life now to try to help moms who were going through that. To just. Make the right decision for them but. Choose not to you if possible and so it was just like this. Wow. And. To me it’s like God moment right. And. She decided. To cancel the abortion appointment the next day. And she had her baby. Partly. And just as kind of like a side. Something to do.
Well Hartley was growing up she started making her these cool little headbands and she’d be out and about with Hartly and people would. Stop her and you like like you. That’s amazing. She started getting so much feedback and interest from people that. She was like maybe I’m on to something here. And so she started this online business selling these headbands that she creates and they’re beautiful. And she had never really shared her story about rising above. Pain. And challenges. In order to triumph and so one of the things we started talking about early on in her coaching was just like her personal story and how interwoven that was with her business and what she did. And what she ended up deciding to do was every quarter. Feature a charity. That supports women who are in just tough situations who want help rising above. Their challenges. And she’s now built that into her brand and her business model where every hire she supports them. Yeah and it’s like it’s so in ruins with who she is and what she believes. But I think sometimes. We just need somebody else to realize that. Our story is actually really interesting. I think all of us have an amazing story that we can weave into why we do what we do. A lot of times we don’t think it’s compelling or we don’t think it’s interesting but it always is because it’s the human narrative right. We can all relate to those types of things. And I think it goes to the importance of coaching where. At. Times in your life you do need that kind of third party to say hey you’re you’re good you’re doing the right thing or hey maybe you should do less of this and more this
And you need that kind of independent voice in your head to get out of your own head.
Yes I am such a big believer in coaching and so I’m a big believer that if I’m going to ask people to pay for coaching I better pay for it myself. So I actually as we record this I just got back from a daylong immersion with my personal coach on Saturday where in a day we busted through and I’m going to keep her in business forever.
It’s like how many issues were in the period of a day she worked through some personal challenges I’ve been having for 17 years. It’s like I feel free from stuff that has been
A challenge for me for 17 years. And we did that in a day.
Why and it was because you can get so much done so fast. And as I understand it and I’m not a professional coach but hung around some in my time. A really good coach doesn’t have to have all the answers or even a lot of the answers right. My I have been a coaching client. And what I found was this we did a marvelous job. Just getting to come and talk stuff out with her. Crystalize. Things solidified my thinking clarified my thinking. Has that been your experience.
Yeah absolutely.
It’s not like she gave me the answer and said well you need to go do this.
Yeah I think so much of it you’re exactly right like so much of it is just actually taking the time to talk. And there is a book about coaching that I read a while back just kind of funny like if you’re feeling insecure as a coach do you think that if somebody went and they talked to a. Light post. Like on the side of the road
Every day for 20 minutes just talked about their problems. Do you think they would make progress and figure some stuff out. It’s like. Yeah they probably would. So if you can be just a little better than that your clients are still going to make progress there. I like to think that we are better than we.
But I think it’s really it’s two things. It’s accountability. So when you’re working with a coach you’re usually you’re paying them right. So all of a sudden when we commit money to something our level of commitment goes way up. And then it’s just finally getting some attention to the things that you’ve probably been. Like pushing under the rug or not addressing that or actually holding you back.
All right now it’s time for some coaching maybe for the sales people out there listening. How about some kind of nitty gritty tactics and tips that can help the salesperson make quota or blow out their quota. This low out there when you guys are asking for a lot.
All right let’s see what I can do. The foundation mindset nowadays. Not mechanics. There are things there’s language and all that. I assume you probably have some influence on and can share some of this. Specialized knowledge and expertise but
It’s all hollow without the foundation of the mind set is that I would totally agree with that.
So yes if I were putting myself inside because country what GoDaddy radio disclose the tips and tricks tips and tricks some basic things like you mentioned LinkedIn earlier.
Yes. OK. How do you laggards like say videos new and LinkedIn. How do you leverage video make. So I love video on LinkedIn and I will say if you are a sales professional and you are not producing your own videos and posting them on LinkedIn you are missing out on a huge opportunity right now because LinkedIn native video uploaded directly to LinkedIn right now is getting the types of views that. You used to get if you did it on Facebook a couple of years back before they changed. The algorithm and made it much difficult much more difficult to get exposure so
Linked in video. If you take a video and posted on LinkedIn I do them every day and it gets everyday everyday.
Yeah but you’re just like what are you talking about everyday.
That’s a good question. So one of the things that I think is really helpful for all sales professionals to do is to build their personal brand. And the first thing you need to do is make a brain dump list of what are all the different things that I could talk about related to what I said. And so oftentimes it will be fake cues you’ll think about the things that you’re hearing from your clients all the time the challenges they’re facing right now. I don’t think most people need to do every day. Again
I kind of go all out with self-esteem and OCD first to be a coach. So I think if you did one once a week once every two weeks that’s still better than nothing but
I just keep a running list of what are all the different challenges periodically and just to kind of brain dump.
I’m going to write down hundreds of ideas.
That way you’re not in the morning go ahead. I to do my thing a clock and now I’m scrambling for my idea. You’ve already figured out what your next 10 ideas are.
Exactly. I’ve got a running list and then I batch filming them so I’ll film like five a week on Friday or Saturday morning and just knock them out short like few minutes two minutes or less. Have a call to action at the end don’t make it sales though. But have a that goes up well with callbacks. And I would say like hey guys if you enjoyed this content then please visit me online at my Web site. ELISE ARCHER SWC dot com you can actually sign up for a free video course there are a couple of tips for producers and they know better than that. But yeah. So it’s a call to action. What do you want them to do. Drive them
To what you want them to action. Yeah. And then the batching of it is for your time. That’s another trap for sales people as they don’t manage their time well they get distracted by shiny objects. Yes exactly.
And it could be we have a term we call creative avoidance where it’s like you know sales at the end of the day that thing that is going to make you money is talking to people right. However
I want to give this tip to do videos with a disclaimer that you cannot just do videos.
Otherwise you’ll have going to sit back and wait for the phone. That does not work that way. Yeah that does not work that way so you have to do these in conjunction with you to actually get on the phone and call people and so like
Do all your marketing work outside of business hours. Right. And then during business hours. Pick up the phone and harvest the fruits of your labor. One thing I’ve found with those is I get a fair number of inbound. Requests every day from my ideal. Client who’s a V.P. of sales or sales manager and it’s just like I saw your video and then when you call them like I already know you which in sales is exactly what we want. Actually it makes it so much easier and it’s just a much warmer more fun connection. But you have to do both. So now in sales you
The best kind of I guess inbound would be a referral of some kind. Is there a way to cultivate referrals so you find that it’s effective.
Yeah absolutely. Other than do good work.
That’s a pretty good deal to do good work. Yeah exactly. Yeah I think there’s a million ways to cultivate
Great referrals and that’s something we teach our clients like 15 different ways to get referrals. I think just the first thing is 15 ways.
Did you just say wow there’s probably more than that but there’s I mean there’s a time and the first is do good work. I think another thing that’s important is be a referral giver
As well as receiver so I have a goal every week for not only how many referrals I receive but also how many I give. So if anybody wants a referral to someone they’d call me after the show cause I need to get out referrals.
And I love doing that. But then outside of that again I think LinkedIn is a great tool to use for your clients who are currently. Using you if you have not made we call it a linked and hit list like basically going through their connections. And searching for people who have the title of the type of person that you want to reach out to you and just
Running it by them actually did this yesterday with a client where she had booked a colleague of mine and I are speaking about a couple of months back and we did the event and then I had a call with her yesterday it was like Hey Michelle I wanted to connect with you because I noticed on LinkedIn you’re connected to some people who think I might be able to help and serve. I wanted to get your feedback. Here’s this list. Is there anybody on here who I should definitely reach out to. Is there anybody who I’ll regret for the rest of my life that I’ve reached out to. And then it just getting that warm introduction. She was like yeah there’s three people on here who I can introduce you to. Now I think one other mistake that a lot of sales people make with that is they have someone say y’all introduce you. And then they’re like. Great. Perfect thank you so much. And they leave it in the hands of the other person to do that. And it’s not that the other person doesn’t want to help you. It’s just that they’re busy and they’re probably going to let it. Slip through the cracks and so one of the best things you can do is have a pre typed introduction that somebody could copy and paste. Make it easy make it low key. But just. Like when she said that I was like perfect Michelle I appreciate it. I know that you’re busy. Would it make your life easier if I just sent you something that you could copy and paste and you can change it if you like. You can throw it out and write a new one or you can just use it. Just like. Yes. That is the only reason why I don’t make introductions for people is because I just feel like it takes too much time to figure out what to say. Right. So right if you were in sales or a business owner right now when you’ve not done this write your own. Short sweet pretest intro that people can use. To introduce you and you’ll get a lot more referrals.
That’s the million dollar tip right there. I’m so glad that you asked.
I might know what I’m doing. I think what you’re doing and maybe I am a little too focused on me right now but the other thing I was thinking earlier this been great for me by the way some of the video stuff
Were clearly not video people.
Me and you are a lot of these if they’ve seen our picture right now. Know that right.
But we did our dating site to get the but I just wondered couldn’t we like just get on the roof because we do know some things about leveraging a platform like this to grow your own business. Could we get on knock out two or three. Audios every week. Riff. And then
Could we make a video with maybe we’ll put a picture here. Couldn’t you do me a video but you could have just like your just released the. I mean as a practical matter you guys should be on video.
I don’t think there’s any reason why you should not be on video.
I’m just saying. I mean if that sounds like an endorsement. That’s right. Lisa Archer says get Yeah. You know what I mean.
The idea of just riffing is my word for it. I mean. Together you know we’ve made enough mistakes or we know some stuff we just. So yeah this would be helpful to me.
Now before we let you go how can we help you. So. Take your ideal prospect is out there listening that would be a good fit for you.
Yeah well I appreciate that. Like I said before I do a lot of work in the financial world. So if there’s a financial adviser or a financial wholesaler who wants help for their team or their clients. I love connecting with their team as well not just individual like you can come into an organization and really
Serve the whole organization not just Bob.
Yeah we’ll hope to get that. Do you ever get that directive come on. I need you to fix Bob.
Yeah. You know I think one of the cool things that we do is we actually offer complimentary trainings for sales teams just as a way of
Kind of getting the word out and giving them a feel for what it’s like to work with. Yeah exactly. So they can get a taste of it. So if you’re a sales manager who’s listening to this in the Atlanta area and how you came. Three or more three or more or more Yeah exactly we’ll come in and do a complimentary training and the worst cases your whole team is motivated and leaves with some new ideas. In addition I’m starting a mastermind for women in sales this year which I’m really excited about and passionate about it particularly for women who want to use a portion of their profits for charitable good to make an impact. If there’s a woman listening that resonates with them. We’d love to connect them as well and that that
Is online so that can be anywhere that can be any right. Now you’re working the Atlanta area specifically that’s why you’re here. Your clients are all over my clients.
Actually it’s funny most of my clients are not in Atlanta but now that we’re in Atlanta I’m looking to connect with more of are you. This is where you are go anywhere. Right. But. Definitely I mean it’s certainly it’s easy if somebody is local but I travel wherever I never. So
Yeah anywhere. And then if somebody wanted to learn more about Southwestern consulting or your own personal practice that’s with you it will be absolutely so they can go to my website it’s Elise Archer SWC dot com E-L Y. E R C H R. Estival you see dot com
And you can get that free training course there the Secret Service or you can also connect with me there. But would love to connect with anybody who we can serve. And then South-Western can hoping
That some of us are confirming that Kate is yep absolutely and so you can learn a lot more there as well.
