You need to be willing to get out of your comfort zone and leave mediocrity behind. You have to be willing to try things that might not work. You have to do all of this with the goal of doing your best work.

Jordana Zeldin is a sales coach, facilitator, speaker, and co-founder of The Practice Lab- the first-ever sales training program for B2B Account Executives ready to develop their skills like athletes, musicians and performers do theirs.

A key component of learning to #SellLikeYou is redefining selling for yourself so that you can feel good about doing it. The reframe is crucial. It gets you out of someone else’s ideas, and into a position where you can really do your best work.

Of course, a critical component of selling is the sales call. While in the shower the other day, this hit me straight upside the head.

On today’s episode, I’m digging a little deeper into the concept of transparency in sales leadership after last week’s interview with Todd Caponi.

Todd Caponi is the author of The Transparency Sale and The Transparent Sales Leader. He’s speaker, a sales trainer, and someone I wholeheartedly refer to as a sibling in sales. He’s also a total nerd for sales history, and uses the wisdom of the past to reflect on current events.

There’s a lot of talk about introverts and extroverts in sales. It’s commonly believed that most salespeople are extroverts, but in my experience, the very best sellers I’ve ever worked with are introverted.

Jason Bay is a sales trainer and coach and the founder of Outbound Squad. He helps sales reps turn complete strangers into paying customers. He also happens to be a great friend and one of my favorite people in the world.

Every stereotype comes from somewhere, but it’s about time you think about whether stereotypes in sales are helping you or holding you back. You don’t have to try and fit into a mold that just doesn’t feel right.

Selling is not an instruction manual to be followed, it’s a problem to be solved. When you embrace your own strengths, talents, and expertise, you’re capable of doing your very best work.

Leslie Venetz is a consultant and advisor that helps build commercial teams that can meet the needs of the modern B2B buyer. She spent 15 years selling to the C-Suite in enterprise sales and has been Head of Sales 3 times. 

Leslie is also fiercely passionate about DEIB initiatives, and we touch on that a little bit in our conversation today. She also hosts a business book club on Patreon, where I’ll be her guest in October.

You know those people who tell great stories? They’re magnetic and captivating. They hold the attention of an entire room and make time stand still. Those are special people, and you don’t have to be one to tell great stories.

I used to think that I wasn’t a good storyteller, and then a couple of people told me exactly the opposite, and I started thinking differently about the concept.

Ravi Rajani helps B2B sales teams captivate their customers, build trust, and sell more by unlocking the power of story. Ravi is here to help you craft stories that sell and deliver sales presentations that convert.

Most salespeople have terrible definitions of what it means to succeed and what it means to fail. The lack of perspective sets the bar way too high for most people to see exactly how well they’re actually doing.

Harriet Mellor is a sales coach for small to medium sized businesses and individuals. She’s also the host of the Sell Like You Podcast.

Selling is necessarily not a tangible “thing.” There are so many right ways to do it, that what is wrong for someone might be perfect for someone else.

The sales process is rigid, as I’ve mentioned before. That’s the science of selling. Your sales methods are fluid, and they represent the artistry behind what we do. Art is subjective, therefore so is selling.

I want you to stop trying to follow the rules, and realize that you can make them up.

The classic hunter/farmer dichotomy among sellers is a bit overplayed to me. Why do they need to be so distinct? I’ve been selling for almost two decades now, and I can definitively say that the best salespeople hunt for great places to farm.

While some people are going to be better suited for one role than the other, is this a problem of fit or just a lack of accountability in the sales culture? Insisting on winning net-new business at the expense of nurturing some of your best customers is a mistake. The lack of perspective is hurting a lot of companies, so allow me to provide you with a new one.

As I prepare for my 2023 sales kickoff events with clients, I’m noticing a lot of common themes in my recommendations. These are things that should be revisited regularly but are often taken for granted.

If you invest the time (and the thought) in these elements, and if you’re disciplined in your execution, 2023 will likely be the best year you’ve ever had.

I've been seeing more chatter about companies forcing their employees to return to the office (RTO). Most notable is Twitter, as Elon Musk is apparently trying to hot-box his engineers into fixing the platform.

It's too early to tell if the strategy will be successful, but forcing people to work 80+ hour weeks will end spectacularly one way or another.

There have been several moments in my career (and I assume in yours as well) where I have wondered whether or not I should do something.

I've been in discovery calls where I wondered if I should ask a certain question. I've raised my voice in operating rooms and stopped surgeons from proceeding because I saw something I didn't like. I've driven across town to see someone without an appointment because I just had a feeling they might be willing to see me.

I've never been let down by that intuition.

Here's a simple way to leverage gratitude at the end of the year to create new opportunities for your business at the beginning of next year. 

Naturally, as the year comes to a close, you're going to be thinking about gratitude. You're going to want to spend some time and show your appreciation to your best customers and clients. You're gonna want to think about where you've come over the past year, and you're definitely going to want to think about where you're going in the future. 

There are so many misconceptions about qualifying your opportunities. I get that if you chase every potential lead, you’re wasting a lot of time. You need to protect your time and reserve it for the most valuable activities, but the way you make sales is by having sales conversations. You're probably talking yourself out of a lot of those opportunities.

The more time you can speak to potential customers, the better you will be in tune with your marketplace. That expertise will absolutely translate into more sales. 

Here’s where I think most reps go wrong.