• 33:22
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Sales mindset, sales process, sales technology, sales culture, sales retention, sales training, sales leadership, sales book, sales reset, sales challenges, sales strategy, sales performance, sales tools, sales team, sales improvement.
SPEAKERS
Damon Pistulka, Wesleyne Greer
Damon Pistulka 00:01
Alright, everyone, it is Friday, and you know what that means? It is time for stop being the best kept secret. I am one of the co host, Damon Pistulka, and I am just extremely excited. Well, Kurt Anderson couldn’t be here today, but we have Wesleyan with transform sales here. And I am so excited because Wesleyan is a sales master, and we’re going to be talking a little bit about her new book called The Sales reset. We’re going to be talking about mindset and some other things, the importance of sales. Wesleyan, thanks so much for being here.
Wesleyne Greer 00:36
Thanks so much for having me. Always a pleasure. Damon,
Damon Pistulka 00:39
ah, it’s awesome. It’s awesome. So Wesleyan, before we get started, let’s talk a little bit about your sales journey, because there’s not many people with a background like you that are out helping people in sales right now.
Wesleyne Greer 00:53
Yes. So I started my career as a failure analysis chemist, so I actually was in the lab looking like broken parts, broken plastic parts were breaking in the field. One of the my favorite stories that I like to share from that time is we had a customer that made, I’ll just say, coolers. And what was happening was the inside of the coolers, they were cracking. Then they didn’t understand why they were cracking sometimes and other times they weren’t. So got these broken coolers, and I had to run all this testing, and what I was able to tell that customer is it’s based on the temperature. So when you put when the cooler gets to a certain temperature, and you drop soda cans in there, it’s going to crack. And what they had to do is they had to change the recommendations for that particular cooler. So I have always been in this place of seeing a customer problem and really focusing in on the why, like, why is this happening? What is going through the customer’s brain, and how can we get to a solution that helps them? So that’s how I started my career. And then I moved to the other side of the aisle, where I was actually the one out in front of customers, and I got to say, Hey, these are this is how we can help you diagnose these problems internally a little bit better. Yeah.
Damon Pistulka 02:21
So good, so good. So, Wesleyan, so you’ve been helping people, sales leaders, sales teams, for quite a while now. So what are some of the things that you see common across the board, when someone says, Hey, Wesleyan, can you come in and take a look at what we’re doing?
Wesleyne Greer 02:41
Goodness gracious. There’s so many things, right? So I think the biggest thing is the lack of process. It’s the lack of technology that actually helps the sales team sell, and it’s also a lack of the culture within the organization. So I would say those are the big three things that I’ve been seeing over the past couple years. That is that are the glue that connects all of these companies together.
Damon Pistulka 03:12
Yes, I love how I thought you might say process, because I think that’s one of them that that is really important, especially when you have a diverse sales team, and you want to make sure that we’re consistently trying to follow the same process to to have the best results.
Wesleyne Greer 03:28
Yes, absolutely. And you know, I think that what the problem with process is that people don’t even realize and so I work with a lot of companies, manufacturing, distribution, construction, right? Heavy industrial companies. And the thing about these type of companies is they have process, they have ISO standards, they have SOPs for everything in their business but sales. So they don’t and they don’t even realize that they need to have standards and processes and documentation, and so it’s really not that hard to convince them, because they have it for every other area of their business. Yeah. So what we do is we just, we sit with them and we extract, okay, what are you doing? How are you doing that? I had this kickoff conversation with a sales leader at a company recently, and I he was telling me. He was like, Wesleyan, I just get out there and I just talk to him, like, I just, you know, I just shoot, yeah. And I was like, I don’t, I don’t know why it works, but I’m this is how we’re closing business. And I said, Oh, that’s called building rapport. So let’s break down. How do you do that? Tell me, what are the things you ask? How do you pull How do you go here, how do you go there, right? And then that’s the framework for how we start building out process. Because if everything is in the top salesperson’s brain, then a company can never scale. They can’t grow, because no one is actually able to follow what the top people are doing.
Damon Pistulka 04:59
Yeah. That’s a great point. And the level of detail that you were talking about, what do we do to build rapport? What are the kind of questions we ask? What are the important things that we want to understand about the customers? Is, is a level of detail that many people think, well, that’s a salesperson knows what to do, but it we don’t all think of things the same way. And I think it’s really good when you get to a a fairly detailed level, because then you can ensure that the critical questions are getting answered.
Wesleyne Greer 05:26
Yes, yes, yes, yeah. And I think that, you know, a lot of times we don’t realize that most people just don’t know what to do, and they’re struggling. They’re not hitting their numbers, not because they’re not good sales people, or not because they don’t even want to, they just don’t know what to do, right? So I think that when we break that process down, and we move from being so dependent on the skill of a good salesperson and really move to Okay, so here’s a process that you can follow, and what that allows us to see is, what are the gaps? What are the things that we missed? What things aren’t making sense or aren’t connecting or translating to the real world when they’re out in front of customers?
Damon Pistulka 06:13
Yeah, that’s a great point, especially when you’re talking about industrial companies like you work with because the sales process usually crosses multiple departments, long sales cycle. There’s a lot of things that happen during that process.
Wesleyne Greer 06:27
Absolutely, you have to get buy in from finance sometimes, because we have these multi million dollar projects, or hundreds of $1,000 a project. So we’re like, Okay, can we extend terms? You’re going, you’re talking operations. What are my what are the the delivery days? How can we execute for this person? Do we have the personnel in the service department that can do installation? So you are essentially the the nucleus of that company to that client, and so you have to get buy in from a lots of different places. And if you aren’t able to sell internally, like if you know that in order to win this job, you have to meet a six week delivery time, but your typical delivery time is eight weeks. You have to be able to sell this to your internal team so they can push you ahead of the line. And if you don’t have those bridges built before the deal comes in. Yeah, always gonna, it’s always gonna fall apart.
Damon Pistulka 07:26
Yes, yes, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. So you talked a little bit about technology too, and I think this is something that’s just like changing so fast now that you know tomorrow is different than it was today and that. So what are some of the major things you’ve seen changing over the last you know, say, five years in sales and people that are really adopting good, solid technology. What are some of the benefits they’re seeing from that? Or what are some of those technologies?
Wesleyne Greer 07:56
So I really think it’s I like to meet people where they are at. So I have a client right now, and they are. They have been running their $30 million business on Google Sheets. And so when we’re when we’re just only using Google Sheets and QuickBooks to invoice, that’s it. Those are the only that’s their text really. And I’m like the fact that you got to $30 million on Google sheets in 12 months, we’re going to be at 60 million when we give you a little bit of technology. So I think the first thing is, where am I? Because you’re moving from a very basic, rudimentary system, you don’t need to go get 10 tools, right? Yeah, the only thing that we’re implementing for them right now is just the CRM. That’s it. No marketing automation, no, just the CRM, right. So I think that one of the things that people do is, when they hire a consultant or they work with a third party company, they’re like, oh my goodness, you guys are in the olden ages. You need these 10 things, and then they implement these 10 things. None of them talk to each other, and nobody knows how to use them. So actually a waste of money. So one of the key things that I think is most important is get what you need for right now and then as you learn that system, then you add something else on. And I’m now working with another company who was moved into that place of getting a whole bunch of tools and technology, and that’s great. They have all of the top names in CRM and marketing automation and lead generation, but nothing talks. So none of your systems talk, and so it is a very manual process. So technology should help you be more efficient. It should help automate things, and if it’s not doing those things, then you need to take a step back and say, okay, so we need a sales ops person. We need somebody who can make our system soft, or we need to use less tools, because sales people won’t use things that feel hard or clunky,
Damon Pistulka 09:56
yep, yep, yeah. You almost. Have to make it happen without any action. Or the lower that, if you can lower the amount of action it takes from a salesperson, you’re better
Wesleyne Greer 10:09
off, right? Yeah, right.
Damon Pistulka 10:13
Because in this, be honest, I used to watch my wife, who was in medical sales, you know, she was placing orders. I mean, we’re talking high, high, highly paid people placing orders for products. Why is a salesperson doing that? That’s, that’s they’re not selling when they’re doing that. And that’s any of these things, like with systems and technology, anytime they have to be setting their typing something in or doing something in a CRM, or whatever system they’re using, they’re not selling. And I think that’s a pretty important thing to remember too,
Wesleyne Greer 10:46
absolutely the things that prevent your sales people from doing their job. And you know, what I find is a lot of top tier sales people, they’re like, but this person we are inside sales isn’t good, or the operations, they always mess this up or do this or do that. And I asked them, I’m like, does your manager know? Yeah, yeah. They know, because I told them two weeks ago this was happening. I’m I always say, if you don’t tell them every time it happens, they don’t know it’s an actual problem, so they can’t fix the problem. And so if you’re spending five hours a week entering orders in manually, when you have an inside team and that five hours is taking away from selling. That’s something that your manager needs to know, because they can’t request new headcount if there’s no justification. But if you’re spending five hours and there are three other people spending five hours, we have justified a new full time employee. So then it makes business sense, yeah, I think that it’s the onus is on the sales person to not just internalize and say, Oh, this is bad, this is hard, this is difficult, but to really, really drill down on, okay, I need to share this. And then the managers have to not say, Oh, well, we don’t have a fix for that. Take note and ask, okay, how can we make this better? Why is it that you’re doing this when we have the person now who can do it? Oh, okay, they mess up 50% of the time. Let’s get them trained up. So we have to really dig, dive deep and think about that root cause analysis of where we are having the issues and moving forward.
Damon Pistulka 12:19
Yeah, yeah, that’s, that’s great. And I love how you said, meet, meet them where they’re at, and just get what we need now, you know, and maybe have an eye on tomorrow, because you don’t want to get something that can only do what you want to do today, but only focus on, you know, implementing what you need today. Because, like you said 10 tools. You’re not going to use nine of them right away. Don’t worry about
Wesleyne Greer 12:44
those. No, don’t. And don’t, like, don’t waste all that money. I think that it’s a sink of money. And then the sales team gets disenfranchised because they’re like, it’s hard, yeah. And if you go from again Google Sheets to I have to enter stuff in here, I got to do this here, I gotta do this there. Then it’s gonna be like, I’m just gonna do nothing. I just won’t use it. My Google sheets were working for me. Why do I have to switch
Damon Pistulka 13:07
it? Yeah? Yeah, that’s a great, great point. And then you talked about culture, I believe was your last point in this. So how does culture really affect the sales performance, I mean, or where do you see that negatively or positively help the sales performance?
Wesleyne Greer 13:25
So the thing about culture is it’s a it really, I talk about it being a retention, right? And so when we have high turnover, when we have a revolving door of salespeople coming in and out, that impacts the business in many ways, every new person that you have to onboard and hire, you have to you have you’re taking a 612, 18 month hit of getting them to the place where they’re producing when you have a salesperson that is disenfranchised, they’re angry. They’re upset. I call them a bad seed, and that bad seed is impacts the rest of the organization, because they’re complaining, they’re saying this and they’re saying that. And so one of the things that I do with my clients, and I have a client that one of his KPIs this year is a retention goal. His goal is to retain 90% of his sales team, because in previous years, he’s turned over 30 or 40% so they’re not hitting their numbers. Yeah, not because they’re not that good, but you have a young sales team. We just can’t do it any we can’t achieve our goals when 50% of our sales team is new. So I specifically am working with them, and I’m helping them understand like you have to see the human. You need to focus on what that person needs, right? It’s not just about them hitting their numbers, and think about the impact of when, because when numbers are low, when we haven’t hit our quota. You’re getting pressure from up above, right? You’re getting pressure from the CEO, from your manager, from whoever. And if you take that stress and directly push it onto your sales people, then they’re like, I am doing the things. It’s not turning anything over, but I’m working really hard. And they’re like, so why should I work hard? If I go out and I have five meetings a day, and I’m starting to see some things turn around, but my manager isn’t recognizing it. I might as well just sit at home and do nothing and answer emails. Yeah, so really ensuring that you have a culture of accountability, a culture where we are focusing on motivating each person on the team and the way they need to be motivated. All of those things impact our ability to hit our revenue targets.
Damon Pistulka 15:45
Yeah, yeah. And you made me think of one thing, because I was, I was talking with a client over the last couple of months, and and the sales teams now, a lot of these people you know are in the office very little, you know, because the remote, remote work has allowed them to a do the zoom thing, or teams, or whatever they’re doing back and forth with the office. If they’re traveling around the region a lot, they may not be in the office much. How is that really affected these kind of things? Because are you seeing that it’s, it’s effective to have like everybody in for a team meeting once a week. Or what are the things that are happening? Because what you just said about someone you know not feeling appreciated, sitting home and just going, Hey, I’m just going to answer emails. I think that could be more prevalent than ever today.
Wesleyne Greer 16:35
Oh yeah, it really is. And when you have field sales teams, when you have people that are out remotely, sometimes you’re not able to bring them all into the office at one time. However, you can have a team meeting by zoom by teams. And the thing is, it’s you have to remember that these team meetings are not only to do pipeline reviews to push KPIs down people’s throat, right? Yes, you can have those kind of meetings, but when I help companies Institute meetings, weekly team meetings, I say, okay, maybe one week a month we do a pipeline review and an update. Another week maybe we’re going to do some product training, but those other two weeks, we have to do skills training. We have to upskill our actual sales people. Maybe focus on a soft skill. Maybe you focus on a hard skill. So maybe we’re talking about prospecting one week, and then the next time, we’re talking about overcoming rejection. So how do you get past all the unanswered emails? How do you get past the people saying no thanks right now, or oh, I’m going to the competitor. And so when you build your team meetings around that so for four weeks in a month, that helps build culture, because people are like, you care enough in me that you’re investing in my learning, you’re investing in how I grow. Awesome.
Damon Pistulka 18:02
That is awesome because I tell you, it is so great. What you just laid out there, because everybody can see the KPIs. Everybody understands, are we doing what we need to do, or am I doing what I need to do if I’ve got a reasonable set of KPIs for my sales people, but the field sales teams, bringing them together like that, just to do training, just to do intentional growth, and sometimes I believe just to talk about, what do we need to be working on to improve our process, our company and everything is like you said, helps to build that culture. I think what you just said there, if somebody was listening to this and they got in late, they need to go back and listen this again, because it’s a huge thing. I believe, as you could, you could just get those sales people like you said, show them that you care. Show them that you’re willing to invest in them, and then you’re it will help your sales eventually,
Wesleyne Greer 18:56
absolutely, absolutely, when you focus on the human and you focus on what that human needs, the numbers will follow. I often look at the lagging indicators. Sales numbers are at the end of the road, right? We have to look at the leading indicators, the inputs, the things that we as leaders can impact, the things that we as leaders can actually pour in to our sales team, and you’ll see this growth. I worked with a team a few years ago, and the leader was disenfranchised. He was ready to leave his division. He actually wanted to demote himself, and he was put on a pip because, you know, they weren’t hitting their numbers. They weren’t they needed to do. And so one of the first questions that I asked him was, what are you running from? And that question was a theme throughout our time together, because he was like, What am I running from? What am I actually running from? And we drilled down, and we got deep, and he was full. So much on the number, he was focused so much on the parts of the business he didn’t enjoy selling, and so he ignored about 60% of the team. He ignored developing his manager to actually coach and work on the people. And so once we started unlocking and pulling back the layers of the things that were impacting him as a leader, the numbers started to follow. We worked together for a few months before we even started doing pipeline review or looking at numbers or looking at process, because it was all mindset. It was all the things in his head. And he went from, I call it, this is one of my favorite stories, he went from PIP to President’s Club in less than eight months, because he really locked in and focused on what the team needed to succeed and how they work together, and what each person on that team needed to get to their level of success. He started holding them accountable, and yes, he did have turnover, because when you start holding people accountable, the weak people will leave. But that turnover allowed him to hire the right people for the right seats.
Damon Pistulka 21:14
That is awesome. That is so awesome because you’re you rolled right into one of the topics I knew we wanted to cover, and that is mindset and sales, and it’s something that you work on. I know you guys have we’ll talk about in a moment. You’ve got a belief assessment on your your website now you you’ve been refining it, working through it. We’re into the fourth quarter. You’re ready to officially launch it to the world. But mindset in sales leaders. Let’s talk about that a little bit, and talk about, you know, what are some of the things that you see that are holding people
Wesleyne Greer 21:47
back? So really, when we talk about mindset, I think a lot of people immediately want to fix the problem, right? They’re like, Okay, this is broken. Let me fix it. But really, the first step, when we’re doing this, this work in breaking through what is holding us back. The very first step is we have to break the barrier. And to break a barrier, you have to identify it, right? And so we have to identify what thing or things are holding us back. So oftentimes, when we sit down and we think about it, it’s like, okay, I really, really don’t like to be rejected. And so we identify that rejection is the barrier that we have to break. So we then have to come up with a, okay, I want to break this thing. So I have to actually acknowledge that I have a fear of rejection, and then once we acknowledge we have a fear of rejection, we have to embrace the hard work that must be done to work through that. How do I move through my fear of rejection? How do I really embrace the growth mindset that I need to work through this thing. And so when we identify the thing that’s holding us back, then we say, I am committed. I am determined to break this then we can embrace growth.
Damon Pistulka 23:12
Yeah, that is, that is great advice. And I love how you you phrase it there. You have to identify what’s holding us back first, and then acknowledge it and then begin the work. So in in your in your work with with sales people, in your belief assessment, what are some of the the key things that that really can change us? I mean, oh, you talked about something with this person you’re working on eight months from PIP to President’s Club. I love that, but the not, and it’s it’s interesting when we talk about mindset, because a lot of people may not, may overlook that in in the sales leaders, because the sales leaders were probably high performers and what they were doing, and then all of a sudden, they may be in a leadership position, or they’re in a leadership position for a long time, they may not look at their mindset as much as they should.
Wesleyne Greer 24:08
Yeah, they don’t, and when I so with the belief assessment, we are really trying to figure out what’s the biggest thing that you need to work on, because multitasking is a whole. Is a myth. Like not actually do five things at a time. We can’t build stronger pipeline, have a great team, reduce term. We can’t do all that at one time. So in the belief assessment, we walk through and we really figure out what is the one big thing that you need to focus on? Sometimes it’s process confusion. Sometimes it’s a lack of mindset. Sometimes it’s just the skills are lacking, right? And so we really want to focus in on the first thing to work on. And when we determine what is happening, what is that big thing that is holding people back? What we find. Mind is okay. So here is it. This is process confusion, right? And so that means people don’t actually know what they need to do. And so our challenge isn’t they don’t know how to prospect it is more so they don’t know the process to get them from I’m sitting at my desk twiddling my fingers. So I’m actually effectively prospecting every single day. So it’s our job to take them on a journey, to help them understand and unlock that process.
Damon Pistulka 25:30
Yeah, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. Well, I just want to encourage anyone that have have not go to your website. Transform sales, and I got the website up here too. It’s, it is transform sales, just like it shows on the screen.com. And check out the belief assessment. I hope I’m not pushing it too early, because it’s, it’s up there. I think people should be doing it,
Wesleyne Greer 25:57
yes. Take it. Take it. Take it. Yes.
Damon Pistulka 26:00
So let’s talk a little bit about the what was the reason? What was the driving factor behind you writing a book, the sales reset.
Wesleyne Greer 26:14
So I wrote this book because when I looked around at the sales books out there. They’re all fantastic. They’re all great, but most of them are not written for field salespeople. And being a field salesperson is very, very different than being someone who is in SAS, for instance, somebody who doesn’t have to do the prospecting and the closing and install right? So as a field salesperson, as we were talking about, sometimes you have to go out there, and you’re hunting, and you looking for what you need to get your meetings. You’re flying across the country, meeting with people. You’re doing your own demos. Then you’re when the PO comes in. Sometimes you might even have to do the training or the installation on the back end, and then you’re doing upsells, you’re doing the whole thing. And so I call Field Sales, oftentimes full cycle sales, because you’re doing everything. And so this book even applies to entrepreneurs who are doing all the full sales cycle and they really don’t know how or what to do. So I wanted to have a manual for people who have to leave their house to go sell. Essentially, that is what a field salesperson does. And what I realized is, yeah, that I can teach the skills, I can teach the tactics, but what I really have to do is help people unlearn the things that have held them back in the past and really step into the new way of thinking, new way of doing things. So the sales reset is all it’s built on the framework that we chatted about, which is called belief selling. And so there is a framework in that book that takes you through the steps that you need to really break through those barriers, then learn the new skills, and then you are executing every single day, and the final step, F and believe is where we know our cycle of learning is complete, which is fueling others, teaching someone else how to do what you just learned.
Damon Pistulka 28:13
That’s awesome. And that is, that is, it’s great because you’re, you’re full cycle sales is a completely different thing than if you get leads handed to you and you’re trying to close, if you’re doing a SaaS thing, that could happen all online, you know, but, but those, those full cycle sales, where you’re out there, you might be a construction company, you’re selling the, you know, we’re going to build this building, blah, blah, blah, or Whatever we’re going to do. And then, like you said, you’re out there full cycle. I got to go through the beginning, I close it, and then we got to complete the project. And I’m out there during that too, and managing, at least, you know, the customer interface aspects of it. But it’s a completely different thing, and someone that’s that’s doing it the way that you know, and just the piece of it. So we’ve got a couple onda, thanks. He said, Greetings, everyone. I sorry I missed your comment earlier. But then Michael, he asked the important question, yeah, how do I access this book? Yes.
Wesleyne Greer 29:14
So this book, we are putting the finishing touches on the book, and it will be available for pre order in the next few weeks. And so I would encourage you to follow me on LinkedIn and send me a note, and because all of the people who are interested, before the book is actually released, I’m going to have a VIP offer for them. So please, please, please, follow me on LinkedIn, send me a message and say I add me to the VIP list. Add me to the VIP list, and you will get a personal note from me on how you can order the book and all of the goodies that come along with being a VIP
Damon Pistulka 29:49
that’s awesome. That’s awesome. And again, your book is going to be called the sales reset, and we have Wesleyan wetter here today, transform sales. Thanks. Just. Man. Wesleyan, it is so great to be able to talk to you about this. So we’re getting to the we just went past the top. Yeah, I want to wind down because you’re really busy. What are some of the things that you’re seeing that really got you excited for sales in the upcoming year?
Wesleyne Greer 30:17
Um, I think the things that are getting me excited? Are I’m seeing a lot more companies embrace AI and technology, and I think we’re at this very magical point where, when you embrace AI and you learn how to I call it humanizing AI. It’s a controversial thing to say, but let it, helping it learn your voice, using it to make your job easier, and realizing it’s not replacing the humans in your company. It’s not replacing what you do. It helps you move faster and stronger. And I also think during this year, it’s been a very tough economic climate. There’s been a lot of change coming down from our government, a lot of things that people are doing. And I really feel like in 2026 we’re going to be settled out of that, so people are going to get back to doing business, right? We’re probably do business a little bit differently, but the fear, the uncertainty in the economy, I truly feel like we’re going to move past that and step into this place where people are confident that they can spend money and not have to worry about interest rates going up and down, government shutting down. This happening or that happening?
Damon Pistulka 31:31
Yeah, yeah. I agree. I love what you said about the humanizing of AI, because it is I’ve it was a while ago I saw something where it said, you know, don’t, don’t. Be afraid of AI. Be afraid of someone that knows how to use AI, because it is. It is such a wonderful tool, if used properly by by people that actually understand how to use it, rather than, you know, just, oh, let ai do it, and then just take what it gives you. It really has to be a tool to help you think differently and work differently.
Wesleyne Greer 32:03
So absolutely awesome.
Damon Pistulka 32:07
Well, Wesleyan, thanks so much for being here today, and I want to I just thank you.
Wesleyne Greer 32:13
Thank you. Thanks so much for having me. It’s always a blast to chat with you.
Damon Pistulka 32:17
Damon, yes, yes. Well, I just wanted to let everyone know. Onda, Michael, thank you for the comments. I want to thank everyone that’s out there watching. We got a lot of people that are out there watching. I can see that numbers on the screen. If you didn’t comment, we appreciate you out there listening. If you got in late and you didn’t hear who has leaned and you want to get a master class in sales in about 30 minutes go back to the beginning and start over, because she covered some incredible things. And also, if you have not already follow Wesleyan sailor, that you want to be a VIP, you want to get her book when it comes out, the pre sale is going to be out later this month. And just thank you again, Wesleyan,
Wesleyne Greer 33:00
thank you. It’s been such a pleasure, and I’m excited about chatting with you sometime soon in the future. Oh, we
Damon Pistulka 33:08
will. We will. Thanks everyone. We’ll be back again next week. We’ll have Kurt Anderson back with us on stop being the guest kept secret, Wesleyan, hang out with me offline, and we’ll finish up.
Wesleyne Greer 33:19
All right. Thanks so much.
