Sell By Being Human

In this special episode of The Stories Of Selling Human Podcast we are for the very first time joined by two guests, introducing a new dynamic to the show. Blake Hudson is a Brand Manager at Victory Lap. Victory Lap trains future and current sales leaders through our virtual bootcamps, corporate training programs, and partnerships with educational institutions. They also team up with businesses to...

Megan Bowen is a Chief Customer Officer at Refine Labs, a demand gen accelerator for B2B SaaS companies. Refine Labs help companies increase marketing’s contribution to qualified pipeline and revenue while lowering customer acquisition costs. Embracing a human-first leadership approach, her style is to focus on achieving excellence through empowerment and accountability while leading with empathy,...

Amy Blaschka is a master storyteller and an amazing listener. She is a social media ghostwriter who helps leaders craft their stories and she has made a career offering “stories as a service.”. She is also a leading contributor for Forbes where she covers personal transformation and it's impact on career growth. She runs a newsletter called Illuminate me where she Illuminates nuggets of wisdom on...

In this episode of Stories of Selling Human podcast we put focus on the concept of giving and receiving gratitude. A concept that is sometimes considered a weakness in the world of business and sales. However, the lack of reciprocal gratitude in our lives makes us feel lonely, disconnected and insecure - certainly not the traits of successful sales people. We often forget and underestimate the ben...

Summary: Nicole Miceli was so fun to talk to. She made a round a bout way into office technology sales. She rose up to being a top salesperson by working in her parents warehouse before moving into sales. Her approach is always to approach buyers as letting them decide whats best and never projecting what she thinks they need. She'll help you build your perspective of putting buyers decisions firs...

Summary: Our guests name perfectly describes how talking to her and listening to her speak makes us feel. Joy Hewitt Carvajal is a coach with Sales Rebellion born in New Zealand. She discovered her passion for sales at an early age and has sold everything from batteries, lightbulbs to sales coaching. Her positive attitude and motivational talks have helped thousands of people improve their sales e...

Summary: When you meet James Buckley, you see his smile. He eminates joy, kindess, and curiosity. These traits have taken him from a Publix bag handler to software sales, to Director of Business Development at a leading sales training company, JB Sales Training. We discussed alot in this episode about James's threads in his sales career, what genuine curiosity really is, the power of learning from...

Summary: Do you think that there's a fine line between confidence and arrogance? How can you display confidence in a way that isn;t perceived as icky? It starts with realizing everyone is different and putting yourself in the mindset of the other person. Billy Saleeby is so good at this. His career has spanned making movies, to selling solar, to VP of sales and training, to leading Global Sales En...

Summary: Nick Capozzi knows rapport. Some people manufacture rapport with people by asking "hows the weather were you are". Or, man it's Friday, busy day! Nick takes it a step further and really tries to engage in meaningful conversation and get people to feel like the experience with him was worth their time. Nick did this successfully while selling duty free items on cruise ships and he now coac...

Summary: Michelle Hecht has been in professional sales for over 20 years and she's now found her calling as a sales coach and trainer. Her superpower is her ability to have a deep empathy for people and she strives to bring a human approach to her sales process. She calls it "humanizing the sales process". You'll learn what it means and also how you can break the fear of breaking patterns in your...

Summary: Is love a feeling or is it a skill? Maybe it's a bit of both. Love isn't normally a skill you're taught to develop in your professional life but this conversation will teach you how you can. Matt Tenney defines love as the deep concern for the well being of another. He develops highly effective leaders who serve and inspire greatness in others. We discussed things like how love can show u...

Summary: Bruce Marable is the CEO and Co-Founder of the HR Tech Company, Employee Cycle and also hosts the Employee Cycle podcast. In his words, he is literally selling all day. This was really interesting because we broke down all the different activities he's doing and how he finds success in his approach. The way he approaches sales in business, his personal life, and his podcast are very simil...

Summary: I knew I wanted to have Bryan Elsesser on as soon as someone told me, you gotta interview this guy. He's a former opera singer turned salesperson. If that isn't a more unique profile for a salesperson, I don't know what is. This is certainly a road that few people travel so I needed to talk to Bryan about how that happened. Bryan also happens to be a father of 3, a volunteer firefighter,...

Summary: Elena Valentine helps organizations capture more of the humanity of their workplaces through stories that matter. She runs a company with her co-founder Abby Cheesman that seeks to help companies sell their job opportunities. But they're not using standard things like bulleted requirements, responsibilities, and about us sections. They bring workplaces to life through the power of film an...

Summary: We sometimes think that you should always let other people talk about themselves and that's true but that doesn't mean it's at the expense of you not letting people know you. Amy Quick originally came from customer service and she made a living letting her clients new she was a real person trying to solve their very real problems. This episode we talk about how her parents influenced her...

Summary: Some people may hear the term "Bring Your Human" to something and not clearly understand what it means and how can it applies to sales. Erica Keswin had this aha moment of someone being human with her when her local Starbucks was out of her daughters favorite, pumpkin scones. Because their barista Ashley created a longstanding relationship with them, she knew that was their favorite and s...

Summary: The best way to describe Dejuan Brown's sales style is that he speaks fluent human, there's not a sales robot bone in his body. Dejuan has been in professional sales for 20 years most recently as a director of sales at the software company Seismic. He counts his first sales job at working at a restaurant. Not as a server but as a busboy. You can out what he learned about sales as working...

Summary: It seems pretty easy to do this but we usually don't take enough time with new people we meet. I had on Ramon Basie, who works in HR outsourcing for small businesses. He brings a great perspective of a sales acumen and a caring sales personality to his sales approach. If you really want to learn what separates the good from great salespeople, it's that the great salespeople come across to...

Summary: Jeff Bajorek is a consultant, author, and podcast host. He's taken his passion for how the human body works from a career as an athletic trainer turned medical device salesman turned business owner and sales trainer. He will say he stumbled into sales but as an athletic trainer he always had a heart for how he could help improve someone's life. When he sold surgical devices, he could lite...

Summary: So pleased to introduce you to my friend, Reagan Smoker. Reagan has been a retail and hospitality manager for over a decade. She's worked from brands like Jos A. Bank, Lacoste, Calypso St Barth. Noe she's the GM of a quaint inn and restaurant in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. I wanted to bring Reagan on to talk about her perspective on being a great human and how that applies to selling people...

Summary: The art of sales requires deep thought and curiosity about how people reach decisions. We all hate pushy salespeople yet we all like buying certain things. You can probably think of a delightful experience buying something. Those delightful experiences and why we make those decisions is what we break down on this episode with David Premier. You'll learn simple frameworks in our business a...

Summary: Being present is an essential part of not only understanding ourselves better but it can actually help you in sales. Jay Abbasi has had an extremely vibrant career path. He was a sales training manager for Tesla supporting over 550 employees in 24 states. He realized that his calling was in going out on his own to help sales people and organizations become more productive. He uses mindful...

Summary: Jules White is an award winning international sales consultant with over 30 years of business and sales experience. Working in many different sectors selling everything from baby products to stainless steel to Yellow Pages she has also experienced every job role within sales, from telesales through to Sales Director and has a wonderful breadth of knowledge and experience to bring to her w...

Summary: Adam Wilber is a master magician, best selling author, entrepreneur, 3X time TedX speaker, and he's appeared on numerous TV shows to perform magic. His most famous appearance was on stage with the show Penn and Teller "Fool Us" where he successfully fooled magicians Penn and Teller. We talk about how great magicians are really leading their audience through a story much like salespeople a...

Summary: This is a little shorter one this week but you get to meet Evan Carlton. His parents knew he'd be destined for a career in sales when he started a business up selling kids in his cafeteria for extra lunch tickets. So he's had to talk his way out of the principals office at times. That same skill has helped him develop a really successful career as a Sales Development rep in Silicon Valley...