Prospecting on Purpose

One of the easiest ways to establish this positive connection and influence others quickly is to use people's names! In today's episode, Sara speaks to something near and dear to her heart, and her "secret sauce" to relationship-building, which is the ability to remember and use clients' and colleagues' names. In this episode, she will get into the psychology of remembering names, how we use them...

Sara recaps a sales pitch competition from a recent conference she attended in New York City, LightFair 2023. The large global architectural and commercial lighting event produced a two-hour session titled "Lighting Sales Stars." 9 contestants (the sellers) 5 judges (the clients) 3 minutes 2 products 1 winning pitch Sara attended the event and shares an overview of the competition, the feedback fr...

Today is Memorial Day in the US, a day to remember and honor members of the military who died during service to the United States of America. Sara shares a personal story about her grandfather, Donald MacDonald, a veteran of the Korean War. His service resulted in a surprise connection point with a client, proving that sometimes dropping our guard just a little bit and embracing our mushier sides...

In today's episode, Sara is joined by Amanda Frasier, the President of Ratings for Forbes Travel Guide. With over 19 years of experience at Forbes Travel Guide, Amanda has witnessed firsthand the evolution of the luxury hospitality industry. Through her various roles in the organization and now as President of Ratings, she and her team have been at the forefront of creating the standards and guide...

If we can master the art of authentic relationship building and establish that as a foundation for our business efforts, then the business exchange becomes more organic and seamless. In today's episode, Sara breaks down The Art of Relationship Building in Business. She'll address the baseline requirements for approaching new relationships and give us the framework to bridge the GAP between our pro...

A foundation of confidence will serve us in whatever we do in life, but especially in our careers. And it is a constant work in progress. The way we embrace a confident mindset is by understanding our values, our core competencies, the language we use internally and externally, and how we nurture our relationship with ourselves. In today's episode, Sara reviews the four pillars for a confident min...

An understanding of our values in different areas of our lives becomes a framework for ensuring the actions we take are in alignment with our values. This instills a foundation of confidence and drives that forward motion to the goals we're striving to achieve and the lives we building for ourselves. In today's episode, Sara dives deep into why it's vital to understand our core values. And they ca...

In today's episode, Sara is joined by Lauren Ashley Smith, a seasoned real estate professional with 20 years of experience in commercial real estate transactions, including investment banking, M&A, capital raising, and strategic advisory. As a founding member of a boutique NYC-based investment bank, Lauren played a crucial role in the third-largest real estate transaction in global history. No...

The final installment of the mini-series, 7 Crucial Skills for Effective Selling brings us to the pivotal moment - closing the deal and generating repeat business. Up until this point, Sara's addressed the other six crucial skills: prospecting, understanding our client's business model, effective storytelling, overcoming objections, utilizing sales assets, and staying in the driver's seat all the...

The sixth crucial skill for effective selling is the ability to remain in the driver's seat throughout the entire sales process. There are many ways a meeting or a sale can veer off course. We get stuck in loops of answering product questions, the customer hits us with an objection we can't overcome and now the client is driving the meeting. The ability to maintain control of both individual sales...

Sara interviews Canva's Global Head of Social; Marketing, Editorial, and Content Strategy, Jai Dattani. Jai introduces us to the concept of the Attention Economy … We're in a time where all businesses, brands, and people are vying for eyeballs and vying for attention. How do we "stop the scroll" and get prospects and consumers to engage with our brand or product? Jai's global experience in buildin...

The fifth crucial skill for effective selling is the implementation of sales assets and knowing how and when to use them. Understanding and being prepared with the right assets at the right time is what propels us forward to closing the deal. It keeps our customers on the journey we want them to be on. #varsityteam Sara opens up a can of whoop assets on us in this episode. We'll cover the most com...

The fourth crucial skill for effective selling is the ability to not only handle objections, but turn them into expressions of our expertise. This episode will remove fear from the unknown and will have you loving the game of sales (or any crucial conversation) like it's a fun game of volleyball! Sara reviews six steps to ensure we're ready to receive objections with confidence. She covers how to...

The third crucial skill for effective selling requires us to use storytelling to illustrate solutions as opposed to pushing product. In today's episode, Sara unpacks the evolution of storytelling as the oldest form of communication, how it impacts every part of business, and why it's a crucial skill in sales. Put simply, storytelling connects to the emotional part of the brain. Purchasing decision...

Sara talks to storytelling coach and consultant, Ravi Rajani, in this week's episode of Prospecting on Purpose. In addition to reviewing Ravi's least favorite Disney character, the two discuss the power of story when it comes to effective selling. Storytelling isn't just customer success stories, it is inspiring stories to get a prospect to take action. The two spend their time discussing the vita...

In today's episode, Sara reveals the second Crucial Skill for Effective Selling: Understanding our Client's Business Model. This is one of the most important skills, because if we can understand our client's business, it shifts the relationship from a buyer/seller model to true consultative business parters. Understanding a client's business model is often an overlooked step. And not just by the s...

Sara introduces the 7 crucial skills for effective selling. This is the first episode of a seven part solo "mini-series" where Sara unpacks each of the 7 crutial, critical, vital skills that are required for running a successful sale. Sara will walk us through an overview of these areas of expertise and cover the first crucial skill to master, which - surprise, surprise - is prospecting! We can't...

Sara interviews Self-Employed Business Coach Jeffrey Shaw in this week's episode of Prospecting on Purpose. Jeffrey is the author of the books LINGO and The Self-Employed Life and the host of The Self Employed Life Podcast, which is amongst the top 15% of all podcasts. The two discuss Jeff's first attempt at prospecting, where five minutes of discomfort changed the entire trajectory of his busines...

If our thoughts are the triggers for action, then we have to train ourselves from first thought to propel action through paralysis Sara breaks down the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset with real-life examples. She'll review how fixed mindset thoughts shows up sneakily in our personal and professional lives (it's more common than we think!) She will demonstrate how the though...

Sara talks to tech and media executive, Anne Wallin, in this week's episode of Prospecting on Purpose. They debate early 00's TV shows and spoiler etiquette- Sara doesn't appreciate spoilers while the only spoiler that ever rocked Anne's world was Harry Potter Book 6. The two spend their time talking about defining your values, the future of work, what great leadership looks like, why it's just as...

In today's episode, Sara talks to Joe Welch, the guy who single-handedly changed her attitude towards (dry) Riesling. *Spoiler alert* She loves it now! Joe is CEO and Co-Founder of In Good Taste, a wine company that creates ready to drink wine flights. They discuss his favorite grape varietals and why he thinks Merlot has a bad rep, turning your hobby into your career, the beginning stages of buil...

When most people hear the term icebreakers, they immediately default to cringey and mandatory team building games. It's ruined the term. Put simply, icebreakers start a conversation. In this episode, Sara unpacks the beauty and simplicity of an icebreaker when it comes to networking and prospecting. She categorizes them as "temperature levels" for different icebreaker styles, so there's a fit rega...

Sara is joined today by Kathi Sharpe-Ross, a brand and lifestyle marketing guru who's made a living out of shaping and advising corporations and brands on how to forge their path in the world. ​As the owner of the global brand & marketing agency, THE SHARPE ALLIANCE, Kathi has spent 30 years cultivating brands, businesses, deals, partnerships and personalities in all industries. She is also th...

In my experience I've come to realize that salespeople fall into one of two buckets. The people who answer their phone, and the ones who don't. The people who say, "yes" verses the ones who default to, "no." In this episode, we'll discuss the two types of salespeople; the rockstars.. and the cruisers. We all know people who fall into each bucket. And sometimes, we fall somewhere between the two. J...

Hello! And welcome to the first episode of Prospecting on Purpose. I'm your host, Sara Murray. This is an introduction to me, my professional background and setting the stage for what we're going to dive into on the show. I'm grateful for your support and it's going to be a fun ride! Cheers! Sara www.saramurray.com IG: https://www.instagram.com/saramurraysales/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/i...