Episode 100: You Can’t Look Up and Down at the Same Time – How Lisa Palmer Embraced Research, Championed for Diversity, and Found Her True North

Lisa Palmer is a Global Business Outcomes partner at Teradata, an organization that leverages pervasive data intelligence to deliver analytics that matter most to businesses. Lisa holds a highly unique role at Teradata, focusing primarily on big enterprise sales discussions. Throughout her career she has also acted as a C Suite advisor, CIO & CMO, thought leader, and business coach. Lisa is a structured problem solver and communicator who crafts recommendations directly supported by facts. Using this approach, she has helped organizations pivot to new business models, fix what’s broken, and create quick and sustainable growth-to-scale. To say she’s well-rounded and ingratiated into the zeitgeist of the sales industry would be a gross understatement.

In this episode, Lisa expounds on her role at Teradata and provides insights as to how she navigated a balance between art and science to success in sales. Lisa shares her thoughts on the politics of sales as well as concepts such as reverse mentoring, that she has implemented throughout her career. Lisa lists three specific attributes she believes have contributed to her success and gives the audience a taste of her secret sauce. This includes her positive high energy attitude, her collaborative sales style, and her client-centric approach. Lisa describes a typical day in the life, from waking up early and reading books and articles about sales and business to time-blocking to ensure she structures her workday appropriately. Lisa is a big believer in energy management and, thus, goes to great lengths to ensure she manages her time and energy efficiently.

Lisa speaks to her specific sales philosophy and style that she utilizes when interacting with clients. Lisa takes a unique approach where she poses questions to her clients to allow them to fully grasp what they truly want and need. This helps them to regain focus and clarity on what they want to achieve for their business, their department, and themselves personally. She lays out a framework for her clients that allows them to dig in further. Finally, Lisa poses an actionable challenge to the audience. First, she suggests focusing specifically on your client. That includes going out and doing the proper research. Secondly, she proposes building the strongest selling team around you that you can possibly build by focusing your networking skills inward. Lastly, she suggests tight team communication and making sure that you have a structure around when and how you are communicating in order to set expectations so that you can best serve the clients you work with.

What We Covered:

00:24 – Scott thanks the sponsors of today’s 100th episode, Terryberry, Vidyard, and Alyce
00:41 – Scott welcomes today’s guest, Lisa Palmer
01:22 – The top three attributes that Lisa attributes to her success
01:44 – Number 1: Focusing on the client
06:01 – Number 2: Building the strongest selling team you can possibly build
12:56 – Number 3: Tight team communication and continually adjusting
15:08 – Lisa speaks to the role that project management plays in sales as well as The Golden Triangle
17:29 – Lisa’s unique role at Teradata
19:21 – Scott takes a moment to thank one of today’s sponsors, Terryberry
20:09 – Lisa quantifies her sales results
20:35 – Lisa shares her personal sales origin story
24:47 – The importance of empathy and communication
26:24 – What Lisa would do differently if given the chance
30:39 – What is resonating with Lisa in the current marketplace
35:52 – Lisa’s favorite sales success story
41:34 – How Lisa manages politics within sales
44:44 – Lisa speaks to the concept of finding your ‘True North’
49:40 – Tools and apps that Lisa uses on a daily basis
51:00 – Scott takes a moment to thank another one of today’s sponsors, Vidyard
53:39 – The books, news, podcasts, and trade information that Lisa consumes
57:33 – Lisa describes a typical day in the life
59:14 – How Lisa structures her workday currently
1:04:45 – The vital role creativity plays in sales
1:06:43 – The specific sales philosophy that Lisa subscribes to
1:08:55 – Lisa’s sales style
1:13:30 – Scott takes a moment to thank another one of today’s sponsors, Alyce
1:14:23 – Lisa expounds on overcoming the challenges of working remotely in sales
1:20:01 – What motivates and drives Lisa
1:22:05 – Scott makes a bold prediction about Lisa’s work and encourages listeners to connect with her
1:23:30 – One of Lisa’s beliefs that the average salesperson would think is crazy
1:26:47 – An average salesperson’s belief that Lisa thinks is crazy
1:28:48 – The metric that Lisa values above all else
1:30:31 – The most important lessons Lisa has learned throughout her career
1:33:31 – Strategies Lisa employs to understand others in order to communicate more effectively
1:34:42 – Advice Lisa would give to an upstart salesperson
1:36:51 – The value of community and, specifically, why Scott continues to build his Sales Success Stories community
1:38:22 – Advice Lisa would give to a struggling, middle-of-the-pack salesperson, especially given the current global pandemic
1:41:44 – Lisa breaks down the concept and value of reverse mentoring
1:46:49 – What Lisa hopes to get out of her experience at the upcoming Sales Success Summit
1:48:29 – Lisa speaks to actions we all can take to be an ally in the fight against sexism in the workplace
1:50:31 – Lisa shares some final thoughts with the audience
1:52:05 – Scott shares some exciting plans for the 2020 and 2021 Sales Success Summits
1:55:07– Lisa’s actionable challenge to the audience

Read the full transcript & show notes →

Tweetables:

“I’m a huge believer in research. And so, I spend a great deal of time researching the company itself, researching their industry, researching the individuals that are potentially prospects, or that have invested in our enterprise relationship. And I bring all of that to the table in conversations with my internal team.” (09:56)

“I really think it’s important to embrace the diversity that is available to us today.” (28:33)

“I’m always looking for content that I can share with the individuals that we serve inside of our clients that will help them to continually shore up from a political perspective why they’re doing what they’re doing.” (49:00)

“I believe in energy management. So, literally thinking about what times of the day is my energy the strongest and when does my energy wane.” (58:06)

“I am a firm believer that it [sales] is art and science. I’m an engineer. I believe in science. It’s grounded my thinking and my way that I approach the world for many years. But I also believe that if you adhere strictly to science you are really missing the nuances that make you a great seller.” (1:05:26)

“It’s about making an investment in others, Scott. And I have had so many people throughout my career be gracious and generous and invest in me. It is the very least I can do.” (1:23:15)

“The more that you can expand and diversify the people that are part of your core network, the quicker you will be successful.” (1:35:41)

Episode 100: You Can’t Look Up and Down at the Same Time – How Lisa Palmer Embraced Research, Championed for Diversity, and Found Her True North

What We Covered:

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