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Clip: Getting past being ignored

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Clip from Episode 37: Dayna Leaman, Senior Account Manager at Wiley – Building a Sales Career:

Really take it personally as a challenge when someone puts me off is ignoring me. And we get this in our field a great deal. It is very hard to find the customer. I mean you know the true customers the student but the person who makes a decision is the professor. This was with Tulane University and I was desperate to connect with this woman because I knew she controlled the financial accounting course it was big. I knew I knew everything I could about her. I even sat in on one of her classes. She was a fantastic teacher. And finally I just hunted her down and I told her what is it going to take for us to partner together. I like you. I like how you teach and I see you as a part of Wiley and that just stopped her. She said well let me tell you what it’s going to take. I would need someone to convert my current assignments from this system to your system. I mean she listed almost impossible things and I said yes to every single one of them. I love that and I’m sure the end of this story is they’ve been amazing customer for many years since. Yes yes absolutely. In fact I just recently just last week was there. I always go talk to her first day of classes. Talk about the system we have partnered together she’s created things for us. I think she’s going to be a potential author with us for content. And she really and she told me this recently she said I never would have done the things in my classroom if you wouldn’t have pushed me to.

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Clip: Transitioning from Retail Sales to Professional Sales

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Clip from Episode 37: Dayna Leaman, Senior Account Manager at Wiley – Building a Sales Career:

First thing what I would do is think about what you love and I you know even people I always forge relationships with people where I shop and I’ve seen incredible talent in the retail space whether that’s at like Banana Republic Starbucks I mean incredible. And I urge these people to really look at what is it that they love that they like and begin to contact those companies. So if it is clothing wear maybe it’s on a different space maybe it’s being something for Ralph Lauren or you know you know things that you like if it’s things and translating that. And I actually wish I would have hired a career coach. I think that was something that was not really big when I was looking but looking at you know you know whether it’s reading something or connecting with someone that can help you figure out how to put your talents into something different that you would be interested in.

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Clip: How to build a better foundation for your sales career

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Clip from Episode 37: Dayna Leaman, Senior Account Manager at Wiley – Building a Sales Career:

I think I would have taken more classes whether it’s in management or marketing or sales. And frankly zoned in on people that I wanted to mentor and leaders that I appreciated. I don’t think I did that enough. I don’t think I sought out I think because being in that retail space for so long I don’t think I sought out what other industries where you can make a career and a very successful one at sales. So I wish I would have gotten into more professional sales much sooner than I did for sure.

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Clip: Retail Sales – Prepares you for being uncomfortable

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Clip from Episode 37: Dayna Leaman, Senior Account Manager at Wiley – Building a Sales Career:

My first job was at The Limited and I can remember I was too young to actually. They wouldn’t let me sell. And I was in the back taking you know that you know like the clothes come in a box and I was supposed to hang them on a hanger and I wanted to sell so badly that I said if you give me a shot just tonight it was like a Friday night and I said I can sell this stuff. And I outsold everyone who had been there for years at 14 years old. So it’s it was great. And I knew I felt so comfortable doing it and what I really love about retail. It prepares you for being uncomfortable. It prepares you to make very instant decisions but that they have to be based in always putting the customer first but also protecting your company. And sometimes those can be hard to juggle.

 

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Clip: Learn from the best

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Clip from Episode 37: Dayna Leaman, Senior Account Manager at Wiley – Building a Sales Career:

When I started at Wiley I looked at people who I wanted to be like or emulate in some fashion. I’m really good at looking at. I’d like to take a piece from him on this. Pieces from her on this and sort of blend and marry those together to do the things that I think that will not only fit well for me and be successful.

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Clip: Characteristics of Successful Sales Professionals

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Clip from Episode 37: Dayna Leaman, Senior Account Manager at Wiley – Building a Sales Career:

These three things Scott came out of mentoring and training new reps and I see them as more characteristics of new people that start or just that characteristics of someone in this industry who is successful. So the first one for me. And I think this is so true in our industry right now and for many different companies is being comfortable with the uncomfortable and that could be you know with a sales situation with talking with someone and with your entire industry in general and we can talk more about that later as well and then being intellectually curious. And that is something that is either you have naturally I’ve always been a very curious person and liked to learn. There are times in many of my conversations that I’m not overly interested in what they’re telling me but I can feign that and I’m careful to use the word fake. Now in our world but this could be a little at times if you’re having a bad day. You have to kind of fake it to make it with some of that. But for the most part that you’re an intellectually curious individual. And then lastly and this can sometimes be faked as well. But passion passion and energy go hand in hand. And for me I have a passion for learning. I was a former teacher. So this makes a huge difference. But having passion for your job and how you do it in this can mean many different things but at some days you do have to fake your passion for your customer.

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Clip: Making Sales Career Decisions

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Clip from Episode 36: Camille Clemons – Financial Services Sales Career Transitions:

It’s not about them. It’s a it’s about me. And while I think management teams can make mistakes along the way to lose their top talent whether that’s. I don’t know. Not respecting their opinion or it’s not listening to you know their concerns or whatever case they’re not paying them enough. Whatever the case may be I wouldn’t say that existed where I am today and I do think that that does exist because I have plenty of friends in sales who have some horror stories but that’s not my case. I wouldn’t say that they’ve done anything wrong or that they haven’t tried to keep me. But again at the end of the day this decision was made for me not for them.

If you’d like to share this clip (please do!) you’ll have the most sharing options available on the YouTube clip itself.

More clips from Episode 36: Camille Clemons – Financial Services Sales Career Transitions:

“In order to become a top producer you have a requirement to buy-in”
The things that have allowed Camille to get to the top
Considering a sales career change
“Preparedness is something early in my career I OD’d on”
Not having a set routine, but planning tomorrow today
Making sales travel much easier
“My dress shoes are almost my new Nike’s… I sell in New York”
Having sales tools that work
Assembling your own sales approach
“I don’t think you can fake being genuine”
“I abhor mediocrity”
Don’t give up realizing your goals
Making sales career decisions for yourself: “It’s not about them. It’s about me”
1) Be patient 2) enjoy it 3) You can’t over prepare
“The top is a fallacy. The top of one peak is just the base of the next.”

Clip: Getting to the top in financial services sales

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Clip from Episode 36: Camille Clemons – Financial Services Sales Career Transitions:

I think the things that have allowed me to get to the top of where I am and I think we’re in a really competitive industry and there’s maybe a commoditized approach to what we do. So finding your way to differentiate is really important. And one of the first things I learned is that people are buying you essentially. You’re building relationships. You’re helping problem solve. You’re bringing new ideas to the table. You’re bringing your understanding of the industry. And those are just like we’re reading a lot of different types of books to become the best version of us. I think we have a lot of different aspects that we see where our clients don’t necessarily have that because they’re working for a single firm. So I try to take the lessons that a lot of my clients have learned along the way and help them as my other clients are facing similar issues. So that’s number one is just remembering what you’ve learned and applying it productively to the conversations that you’re having with your clients and remembering that you are the face of the firm. And it’s never you can never think about that too much. How you do anything is how you do everything and I would say that that’s number two for me is I never allow myself to not give 100 percent. Mediocrity is very very dangerous. And sure you can get by, sure you can meet your quota by just doing what is necessary to get the job done. But I do have a firm belief in putting your best foot out there every time you every time you go. I would say number three is my willingness to be open to the possibility of yes. So what that means for me is not being afraid of hearing no but getting really excited about what happens if they say yes. And I think that plays out in a couple of different ways through the course of my career not only in some of the sales successes that I’ve had but just generally and some of the opportunities that have come across my desk.

If you’d like to share this clip (please do!) you’ll have the most sharing options available on the YouTube clip itself.

More clips from Episode 36: Camille Clemons – Financial Services Sales Career Transitions:

“In order to become a top producer you have a requirement to buy-in”
The things that have allowed Camille to get to the top
Considering a sales career change
“Preparedness is something early in my career I OD’d on”
Not having a set routine, but planning tomorrow today
Making sales travel much easier
“My dress shoes are almost my new Nike’s… I sell in New York”
Having sales tools that work
Assembling your own sales approach
“I don’t think you can fake being genuine”
“I abhor mediocrity”
Don’t give up realizing your goals
Making sales career decisions for yourself: “It’s not about them. It’s about me”
1) Be patient 2) enjoy it 3) You can’t over prepare
“The top is a fallacy. The top of one peak is just the base of the next.”

Clip: The Top is a Fallacy

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Clip from Episode 36: Camille Clemons – Financial Services Sales Career Transitions:

OK. So for someone who has been in sales for a little bit I think my advice would be a little different. And I would say just to remember that that top is a fallacy. The top of one peak is really just the base of the next. And just remember to build on your experiences and if what you’ve done already isn’t working try something else. And if that doesn’t work don’t be afraid to ask for help. There are people out there who can help you with whatever your struggles are and maybe now they’re even more accessible than they ever have been. Because it’s super easy to find them. If you want it badly enough you will seek out a way to get it.

If you’d like to share this clip (please do!) you’ll have the most sharing options available on the YouTube clip itself.

More clips from Episode 36: Camille Clemons – Financial Services Sales Career Transitions:

“In order to become a top producer you have a requirement to buy-in”
The things that have allowed Camille to get to the top
Considering a sales career change
“Preparedness is something early in my career I OD’d on”
Not having a set routine, but planning tomorrow today
Making sales travel much easier
“My dress shoes are almost my new Nike’s… I sell in New York”
Having sales tools that work
Assembling your own sales approach
“I don’t think you can fake being genuine”
“I abhor mediocrity”
Don’t give up realizing your goals
Making sales career decisions for yourself: “It’s not about them. It’s about me”
1) Be patient 2) enjoy it 3) You can’t over prepare
“The top is a fallacy. The top of one peak is just the base of the next.”