Hear the Secrets of World Class Sales Professionals
Jason White – Building a $130M Book of Business in Insurance Sales Through Consistent Persistence
Success lies in repeatable actions performed consistently, every day.
Jason White is the Managing Director of the Professional Executive Group at CRC Swett, a wholesale insurance brokerage firm which provides different services to retail insurance brokers. Continue Reading …
This Women’s Day I hope you’ll help me celebrate the amazing women in sales who have shared their inspiration and wisdom with thousands of other sales professionals through the Sales Success Stories Podcast.
Here are links to their episodes in the order they’re featured in the image above:Continue Reading …
Clip from Episode 37: Dayna Leaman, Senior Account Manager at Wiley – Building a Sales Career:
I think when you reach a point in your job where you can take your skills take the respect that personal brand that I have at Wiley that personal brand exists outside of your work universe. And I think if you can find ways to give that back in other parts of your community. My big thing right now is women empowerment and leadership for young girls. Probably a lot to do with the fact that I was a former high school teacher. And if I can do that I’ve seen myself do it at Wiley and I want to do that on a broader scale in my community as well.
Clip from Episode 37: Dayna Leaman, Senior Account Manager at Wiley – Building a Sales Career:
Treating people with respect. It sounds crazy to say I don’t think people give of themselves enough. I know a lot of great salespeople that are you know lone wolf so to speak and operate on their own and don’t share. I think that’s a crime. There is so much to share and to give to other people. And I find the more I give the better I am at sales without a question because the more confident I am.
Clip from Episode 37: Dayna Leaman, Senior Account Manager at Wiley – Building a Sales Career:
If they want to break through and be great I think they really need to start looking at this question. Is it a job for you or is this your career? And I think that’s a huge question. I decided a long time ago that sales was going to be my career. I think there’s too many people that stay in jobs for too long and say it’s my job. Not that the word job has such a you know bad reference, but I think for some people it’s just a thing that they have that they make money and that they provide for their families or do what they need to do in life. So I think they need to ask themselves if this really is your path. And it’s a career and you want to stick with it. I would suggest for those people to read more get more active maybe join some sort of leadership circle maybe read more connect with people who have that success. And ironically even connect with people outside of their industry I think too long so many people just take on well I talked to so-and-so and they’ve been doing this for so long. But to talk to somebody that might be selling a service instead of a product or vice versa something different that you can gain ideas. And then secondly they might need to ask themselves Scott should I be doing this anymore here. What is it that you think has stopped you from being great and meeting that success. Because maybe you’re not getting to these drivers and maybe you just don’t want to be there anymore.
Clip from Episode 37: Dayna Leaman, Senior Account Manager at Wiley – Building a Sales Career:
I would first tell them to be patient to be extremely hungry and really a big one that I think a lot of people forget about Scott is to be humble and to really look at other people not just where they work but other people that they know whether it’s in a sales job or something else about how they gained their success. And to talk to those people and walk right up to them. That was one of the things I did early on when I started Wiley is I found out who were the leaders and the drivers of sales success in our company. And I walked right up to them and I just said and one of them is Mary Jo Mackesey. She’s absolutely amazing. She’s been with Wiley a long time I said I want to be around you. I want to know what you do and I want to know how you do it. And she was kind enough for many occasions that we’ve had great conversations and were personal friends to this day but to seek those people out even if it’s uncomfortable for you
Clip from Episode 37: Dayna Leaman, Senior Account Manager at Wiley – Building a Sales Career:
I’ve had to learn how to be patient. I think I’ve learned honestly one of the biggest lessons and I’ll share this with you is to really like yourself and like who you are. I think when I started at Wiley I wasn’t sold on me. And I had to be figure out what that profile of what I was going to be like as a sales person. Ironically I didn’t think I would be good at this and at the end of my first year I was actually going to quit and I’ve had amazing leaders and mentors at Wiley a lot of women who have been great examples of leaders and mentors and friends for me. I can’t say enough about Wiley and people that as awesome as Wiley is as a company. I think they’re even better as people. And so that’s the biggest lesson is to really like who I am and that early on when I started Wiley early on. Like you know I guess about five years later my husband was diagnosed with cancer and I went through that with Wiley. He was diagnosed and then died three years later. How I was able to perform professionally and successfully is a testament to me but a testament to Wiley as well. So that was the greatest lesson is to trust myself and know that what I was doing would make a huge difference.
Clip from Episode 37: Dayna Leaman, Senior Account Manager at Wiley – Building a Sales Career:
What motivates me is knowing that I had a hand in their success and whether it’s you know whether it’s you know this might sound goofy but a few years ago and it really hit me it was very emotional because I can be a very emotional person at the right minute. I was at a local community college in New Orleans. DELGADO It’s a great place with a lot of great teachers. And I have a big piece of business there in anatomy and physiology and it’s what students need to go on to determine whether or not they’re going to be nurses or in the allied health field. And I saw these students sitting on the floor of the hallway looking at my book pulling up Wiley Plus which is our technology platform and engaging so much in this content in a happy way not in a angry I can’t believe I have to do this way but using our resources because I know that they’re going to have great potential and that was really materialized. And I I’ll share this link with you. We did a video of a student. Her name is Jonte Ray and she’s absolutely amazing and she is getting ready to graduate from nursing school and we’ve really had a close connection. She used all my materials. She did a lot of videos for us in WileyPLUS that has been the pinnacle moment for me. I was involved in making that video. And I know that what we did has changed her life. She was a single mom. She’s going to nursing school she is going to be a great medical professional. And well you know we have that. That is my motivation is to help any anyone that I can along with my colleagues that they understand that what we do has such an incredible noble purpose.
Clip from Episode 37: Dayna Leaman, Senior Account Manager at Wiley – Building a Sales Career:
For the record I think anyone who’s ever been a cheerleader is awesome. I was not I was always the funny witty commentator on the side and I was the mascot for my high school so I completely appreciate cheering. And I think it’s important because we often don’t do it enough in companies. However with your customers is for somebody to say Dayna you have energy when I don’t have energy. And that is really important. And a lot of people tell me that God you have a lot of energy which is weird because when they say that to me I’m often very tired. It’s just my personality that comes out through that and their and my willingness to do the best job for them that I can.
Clip from Episode 37: Dayna Leaman, Senior Account Manager at Wiley – Building a Sales Career:
I think my style is one of listening and also discovering the issues they never tell you it you know it’s sort of like in a marriage what’s wrong honey you are not yourself Oh it’s nothing I’m fine I’m just aggravated with this. There’s always something off and there’s always something else. And it’s my job to learn. Maybe you know maybe it’s something with them personally that isn’t going well. Maybe they’re facing challenges in the department and there’s going to be some sort of leadership change maybe it’s financial crisis for the school. Those are all burdens on how they teach students. And I think it’s my job to incorporate those into my solution for them.