Episode 82: Intentional Selling with Neil Ashford

Neil Ashford is a Strategic Account Executive at Dun & Bradstreet, an information services organization that helps companies improve business performance through data and insights. In this capacity, Neil covers the enterprise and mid-market territories for the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta in Canada. It’s one thing to reach the top once. Neil, however, has finished number one overall, not only in his own territory, but in the entire North American market, reaching over one hundred and sixty percent of his goal the past two years alone. Neil is a passionate salesperson dedicated to improving his skills with every transaction.

In this episode, Neil shares his sales origin story, from the variety of different roles he held, to eventually landing at Dun & Bradstreet. Neil is a firm believer in the importance of understanding where opportunities exist and identifying ways to create your own opportunities. Neil speaks to motivational factors in his career, including his desire to be known as a thought leader and an expert in his field. He identifies three keys that he attributes to his success, including his genuine curiosity and creativity, his approach to differentiation and value, and proactively asking for help. Neil talks about his goals for the future, including his dream to run a sales organization, shaping everything from culture to go-to-market strategy.

Neil places a tremendous amount of value on having patience, especially with regards to client interface/. He prides himself on being an expert in his field of sales and choosing to be intentional and deliberate in everything he does. Neil understands that every business is different and, as such, has different needs they are looking to fill. That is why his sales philosophy mirrors that of the Challenger Sale and his style is rooted in being consultative and curious. Neil takes the audience through a typical day in the life, from curating his list of action items and vital tasks that need to be accomplished to prospecting and customer outreach. Finally, Neil provides advice to both upstart and established salespeople looking to become top performers. He urges them to be intentional in their actions and to ask for help when needed. He suggests proactively reaching out to top performers within their organizations in order to continually learn and find ways to add transformative value. Lastly, Neil challenges the audience to take time to find the differentiated value that you bring to your sales team and organization.

What We Covered:

00:24 – Scott Ingram welcomes today’s guest, Neil Ashford
01:00 – The top three things Neil attributes to his sales success
01:06 – Number 1: Genuine curiosity and creativity
04:24 – Numbers 2: Neil’s approach to differentiation and value
07:01 – Neil’s business superpower
07:47 – Numbers 3: Proactively asking for help
10:40 – How Neil feels about mentors
13:46 – Neil’s role at Dun & Bradstreet
16:27 – Scott takes a moment to promote today’s sponsor, Outreach
17:20 – Neil quantifies his sales results
18:28 – Neil’s sales origin story
22:20 – Shifting from a mindset of being number one to actually becoming number one in sales
28:14 – What Neil would do differently if given the chance
32:47 – Neil’s proudest accomplishment
35:36 – Neil’s future career plans
36:44 – Helpful lessons Neil learned from the Sales Success Summit
39:07 – Challenges Neil has faced throughout his career
41:27 – The value of patience
44:13 – The evolution of a sales career
47:01 – Neil speaks to one of the stories from Scott’s Sales Success Stories book
49:04 – Neil describes a typical day in the life
53:29 – Neil breaks down his prospecting process
56:03 – Other habits and routines that Neil attributes to his success
59:34 – Travelling tips Neil has picked up throughout his career
1:01:20 – Scott shares his best practices for working while traveling
1:02:25 – The books, news, podcasts, and trade information that Neil consumes
1:04:47 – Neil’s journey and experience with Sales Success Stories
1:07:29 – Tools and apps that Neil uses on a daily basis
1:10:36 – The sales philosophy that Neil subscribes to
1:12:46 – Neil’s sales style
1:14:26 – What drives and motivates Neil
1:15:48 – The importance of having a growth mindset
1:16:45 – One of Neil’s beliefs that the average salesperson would think is crazy
1:18:11 – An average sales rep’s belief that Neil believes is crazy
1:21:25 – The most important career decision Neil ever made
1:24:11 – Advice Neil would give to an upstart sales professional
1:27:47 – Neil speaks to people within his own organization that has reached out to him proactively
1:29:34 – Advice Neil would give to an established sales professional looking to make the leap to become a top performer
1:31:31 – Scott discusses the concept of transference
1:33:22 – Neil talks about one book that helped influence his sales career
1:36:29 – Neil leaves the audience with one final thought
1:38:16 – Scott encourages the audience to subscribe to the Sales Success Stories Podcast listener list
1:39:36 – Neil’s actionable challenge to the audience
1:41:43 – Scott thanks Neil for joining the show
1:40:00 – Neil thanks Scott for all the great work he continues to do

Tweetables:

“When you think about the differentiation of your company, the one thing that I really don’t think you can include is price. It’s your capabilities, it’s customer outcomes, it’s how your business approaches problems.” (05:10)
“Asking for help entirely has been transformative for me, cause people will be very supportive of you if you ask for help.” (09:14)
“Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing. And just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try your best.” (22:51)
“In general, I’m proud of where I’ve gotten to. I think I’ve got a long way to go in terms of a career, in terms of building more rigor, more success, moving up the chain internally.” (35:21)
“It’s the fun part of sales to be in front of customers. The challenging part is to do all the catch-up work that happens when you’re in front of them.” (1:00:02)
“If you have those high expectations, you have to have a positive mindset.” (1:15:59)

What We Covered:

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