“I think mentorship is huge and communicating with the people that you work with and just trying to be creative to understand.” – Shannon Hall in today’s Tip 1628
How do you deal with an untenable territory?
Join the conversation below and learn more about Shannon!
SentinelOne
Shannon Hall on LinkedIn
Shannon Hall on Sales Success Stories Interview
2023 Sales Success Summit
Submit a Sales Tip
Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]
Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today I’ve got a clip from my most recent interview on the Sales Success Stories podcast with Shannon Hall, the top performer at SentinelOne. Listen to this:
Scott Ingram: How did you work through that situation when it’s like, I’m doing everything, but it’s just not here?
Shannon Hall: It was hard. It was really hard. I remember my manager at the time, him and I went over to start this new opportunity, and also amazing sales rep. We were so eager, so excited to get this going. It was hard. I remember taking walks around the block with him and just trying to dissect everything like, Are we missing something? And really being open with our leadership on what was happening. The funny thing is at the end of it, our chief operating officer at the time, he really recognized that, and he ended up making a move to a new organization that I ended up following too. He was like, I’m really sorry that this had happened. It was pretty cool. I think that was maybe the first time I went through something like that, and it ended up being validated from the organization that like, Yeah, actually, this isn’t really the direction that we’re trying to go. Sorry, you’re in this position. I think that’s where I had to lean in on, I don’t know, self-discovery a little bit and to be like, Okay, wait, am I going to stay in a position where I continue to bang my head around the wall? And then I’m seeing this around my peers, too. There might be that one lucky outlier, but I’m also realizing when it’s time to rip off the Band-Aid and not being scared to make a change. Even though I was so hopeful and optimistic that this was going to go well, just being uncomfortable and thinking like, Okay, like, this is not meant to be, and I got to make a change that’s going to better my life and my family. But it just was hard. It was just a difficult time.
Scott Ingram: Yeah. I mean, you’ve mentioned mentors a number of times in this. I wonder if you leaned on them because it feels like when you’re in it, when you’re in these situations, it’s like, Am I crazy? Because I think the challenge is getting to the truth of, Is it me? Am I responsible for this? Is there something that I’m missing that I can do that there’s a way that I can turn this away or turn this around and own it? Or is it just like, this is out of my control and I’m just in an untenable situation and I need to work through that, whether that’s I work with leadership when we find some type of a solution or I just have to go.
Shannon Hall: Yeah, I think mentorship is huge and communicating with the people that you work with and just trying to be creative to understand like, Oh, yeah, is this me or no? No, it’s not. And it is validating to even my engineer at the time. Such a great relationship. He was so amazing. I’m like, Oh, my gosh. If we are not putting this together as rapidly as we would like, when I think I was calling outside forces and just that introspective look to be like, Okay, actually, this is out of my control. Now I’m bringing this home, and I’m very unhappy, and it’s now affecting my family life. It’s, of course, affecting my paycheck. Just knowing with conversations with my friends that I know this isn’t probably where I’m meant to be. This is a great run. And we did make a lot of impact in the first year. This growth, and I’ve outgrown the other positions here, so it’s time to move on. It’s time to try something new and to have that belief in myself that you’re going to go and you’re going to have success again. This was a unique situation where it was humbling. They’re like, Well, wait a second. Normally, I’m going to figure this out, but it just wasn’t meant to be.
Scott Ingram: Yeah, I think that’s so important, and just having that support system, having a network, having a community that you can lean into, one, just to help you see it for what it is. And if you do need help to get out and do something else because there’s not another opportunity there, you’re making sure that you have those kinds of resources as well.
Scott Ingram: For a link to my full interview with Shannon and to connect with her directly, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1628. On that page, you’ll also find a link to get your ticket to this year’s Sales Success Summit where Shannon will be joining us and you can surround yourself with some of the best of the best in sales. Once you’ve done that, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!