Episode 118: Jheryn Kenney: From Pink Cadillac to #1 at LinkedIn Sales Solutions

Jheryn Kenney is the top Enterprise Relationship Manager with LinkedIn Sales Solutions and is also Global External Partnerships Lead for LinkedIn’s Diversity Inclusion and Belonging. Throughout her illustrious career, Jheryn has had the privilege of working with talented people at leading enterprises including Pfizer, Abbott (AbbVie), Mary Kay Inc, Grainger, and now LinkedIn. She’s also learned from some of the very best minds in both academic and personal capacities about critical thinking, cause and effect, and problem-solving. Today, she partners with enterprise leaders to think differently, strategically leveraging the LinkedIn ecosystem to help their organizations become smarter and more insightful.

In this episode, Scott and Jheryn talk about the humanity of sales, specifically the understanding that we are all people with concerns, triumphs, hopes, and problems. The key for Jheryn is appreciating that we’re all in this together and approaching sales with authenticity and an open mind and heart. In fact, this is such an important aspect to Jheryn that it is one of the three factors she attributes to her success. The other two are her uncanny ability to discover and develop mobilizers and her deep-seeded expectation of excellence for herself and the people around her. Jheryn speaks to her involvement in the Top Percentile Collective, challenges and obstacles she’s had to overcome throughout her sales career and her goal to eventually move into a People Leadership role at LinkedIn.

Jheryn shares what motivates and drives her, primarily the ability to enjoy the life she’s built with her husband and two beautiful children. Jheryn continues to take the audience through a typical day in the life, which starts with getting up early to get a little bit of work done before she gets her kids ready and off the school. From there, she blocks off an hour every morning, usually from nine to ten, for her ‘Focus Time’ before she begins her meetings. She tries to incorporate ten to fifteen minutes in between meetings as they can sometimes run from eleven in the morning until three in the afternoon. At the end of the day, she tries her best to get some cycling in before dinner and story time with her family.

Finally, Jheryn issues an actionable challenge to the audience. She challenges you to have an honest conversation with yourself and to be brutally honest with yourself in your desire to do better in your career. If you don’t know how, ask your peers to identify your blind spots and make them give you clear and honest feedback. Have real conversations. If you ask enough of the peers you respect, you’ll start to see a common thread that can help you identify ways to improve yourself and your results.

What We Covered:

00:01 – Scott takes a moment to promote the 2021 Sales Success Summit and thanks the sponsors of today’s episode, Outreach, Proposify, and Gong
00:41 – Scott welcomes today’s guest, Jheryn Kenney
01:05 – The top three attributes that Jheryn attributes to his success
01:24 – Number 1: That she’s a real human being and understands that other people are human too
02:04 – Number 2: Discovering and/or developing mobilizers
02:41 – Number 3: Her deep-seeded expectation of excellence for herself and the people around her
03:35 – Jheryn speaks to the humanity of sales
05:19 – Jheryn talks about how she identifies who she wants to work with
06:51 – Converting the ‘blockers’ into ‘champions’
10:57 – Jheryn expounds on her role as Enterprise Relationship Manager at LinkedIn and how she got to the top
12:02 – Jheryn talks about LinkedIn’s Diversity Inclusion and Belonging
16:00 – Scott takes a moment to thank one of today’s sponsors, Gong
16:35 – Jheryn talks about the work she does as Global External Partnerships at LinkedIn
17:43 – The companies and groups that are involved in LinkedIn’s Diversity Inclusion and Belonging program
20:27 – Jheryn’s sales origin story
23:29 – What Jheryn would do differently in her career if given the chance
24:53 – Jheryn shares her goal to move into a People Leadership role at LinkedIn
26:21 – Scott takes a moment to thank another of today’s sponsors, Proposify
26:56 – Jheryn’s favorite sales story
29:42 – Challenges and obstacles Jheryn has had to overcome throughout her sales career
31:51 – The Cycling Club and WOW Wednesdays
35:03 – Jheryn takes the audience through a typical day in the life
40:30 – Scott takes a moment to thank the final sponsor of today’s episode, Outreach
41:03 – Other habits and routines that are critical to Jheryn’s success
42:16 – The books, news, podcasts, and trade information that Jheryn consumes
43:44 – Jheryn talks about her involvement in the exclusive organization, TPC: The Top Percentile Collective
45:31 – Tools and apps that are essential to her success
47:41 – Why Jheryn doesn’t subscribe to a specific sales philosophy
48:50 – Jheryn’s sales style
51:16 – What motivates and drives Jheryn
54:10 – One of Jheryn’s beliefs that the average sales professional would think is crazy
56:09 – An average sales professional’s belief that Jheryn thinks is crazy
58:02 – The difference between a proof of concept and a pilot
1:01:14 – The most important lessons Jheryn has learned throughout her career
1:03:05 – Advice Jheryn would give to an upstart sales professional
1:05:26 – How Jheryn keeps up with the ever-evolving trends in sales
1:07:03 – What Jheryn tries to learn about the top sellers of other organizations
1:09:13 – Final words of wisdom from Jheryn
1:11:36 – Jheryn’s actionable challenge to the audience

Tweetables:

“I think that winning is an awesome output of being excellent.” (02:56)

“I feel like we’re extreme as salespeople. We’re either crazy aggressive and cheesy, or we’re super afraid and bashful. There is a place in between there and I think that’s the most authentic place.” (14:08)

“I think to be a successful salesperson you have to care about people. You have to be curious about people and interested in people.” (21:23)

“When I think about habits or routines that are key to my success, I think being very self-aware is something I’ve been very good with. At least once a week I’ll look back and have a very honest conversation about what went well and what didn’t.” (41:08)

“I really just believe in being authentic and leading with insights or challenging with insights.” (48:08)

“That’s key for me, being honest with yourself about what your gaps are and then going to do what you need to do to get stronger in that space.” (1:02:45)

What We Covered:

Tweetables:

Links Mentioned:

Sponsor Mentioned:

Tools Mentioned:

Books Mentioned: