Michele Marshall is the top seller and a player-coach at Experis. In this dual capacity, she is dedicated to delivering direct-hire, project teams, staffing services, and workforce solutions that enable Boise based-companies to achieve their digital transformation objectives. Michele is an intelligent and empathetic leader who leads with patience. She believes in leading by example and being an intentional contributor, whether you are a sales professional with thirty years of experience, or an upstart professional embarking on your first sales job. Michele has had a long and circuitous journey throughout her career that brought her from the Bay Area to the Boise, Idaho and she wouldn’t change a thing.
In this episode, Michele expounds on her sales journey and the process of rebuilding her career at every new opportunity. She speaks in-depth about how COVID-19 has impacted how she approaches both her professional and personal lives. She shares the three components that she attributes to her success, with include leading with curiosity, meeting people where they are and creating a flexible framework. These three have been absolutely critical amidst the ongoing global pandemic. Michele also speaks to her role as a player-coach and why she decided to take on this challenge. She details specific strategies she employs as a coach which aid her mentees in finding sustained success.
Michele continues by sharing her favorite sales stories and proudest accomplishments. Chief among these accomplishments are her ability to provide for her family, giving back to her community and finding success in a highly competitive field. Michele opens up about her sales philosophy, which reflects the great Simon Sinek’s Start with Why. She also shares her sales style, which can best be described as being a servant leader. Michele truly has lived this concept of servant leadership as she is constantly finding new ways for her to give back to her family, friends, mentees, managers and clients. Finally, Michele charges the audience with an actionable challenge. She urges you to look at how you’re spending your day and really pay attention to if you are truly focused on completing the things that are necessary to fill the sales funnel. Once you’ve identified that, get together with your sales leader to ask what you did well this past year, what you could have improved on, and leverage this information to start 2021 the best possible way you can.
What We Covered:
00:01 – Scott thanks the sponsors of today’s episode, Terryberry, Vidyard, and Alyce
00:38 – Scott welcomes today’s guest, Michele Marshall
01:20 – The top three attributes that Michele attributes to her success
01:33 – Number 1: Leading with curiosity
02:07 – Number 2: Really meeting people where they are
02:31 – Number 3: Creating a flexible framework for goalsetting
02:50 – Michele talks through her goal-setting process
03:53 – Michele expounds on her role at Experis
08:02 – Michele quantifies her sales results
10:35 – Scott takes a moment to thank one of today’s sponsors, Terryberry
11:13 – How Michele balances her work as a top seller and a player-coach
15:35 – Scott takes a moment to thank another one of today’s sponsors, Vidyard
16:22 – Michele talks about the keys to a successful player-coach relationship
19:07 – Michele speaks to how she’s able to take on dual roles at Experis
21:39 – The importance of having a supportive manager
22:37 – Michele’s sales origin story
25:04 – Michele talks about her most recent career transition
29:09 – Scott thanks the final sponsor of today’s episode, Alyce
29:45 – What Michele would do differently if given the chance
32:55 – Michele provides her definition of success and why she decided to tackle a sales leadership role
39:18 – Michele’s favorite sales success story
45:43 – Michele’s proudest accomplishment
49:33 – Biggest challenges and obstacles from Michele’s career
59:01 – Michele opens up about how she’s reinventing her plans during this current global crisis
1:03:11 – Michele takes the audience through a typical day in the life
1:06:01 – How Michele structures her workweeks
1:09:54 – The books, news, podcasts, and trade information that Michele consumes
1:12:53 – Michele shares her connection in the Sales Success Community
1:15:38 – Scott speaks to what makes the Sales Success Summit so special and let’s listeners know how they can learn more
1:20:02 – Michele’s sales philosophy and style
1:23:48 – What motivates and drives Michele
1:25:24 – One of Michele’s beliefs that the average sales professional would think is crazy
1:25:47 – An average sales professional’s belief that Michele thinks is crazy
1:28:34 – Advice Michele would give to an upstart sales professional
1:31:29 – Advice Michele would give to struggling sales professionals
1:32:56 – Michele’s actionable challenge to the audience
Read the full transcript & show notes →
Tweetables:
“At the end of the day, Experis – as a man-powered company – we are people providing people to people.” (04:23)
“As we come into 2020, I’m not gonna bemoan the obvious – election year, pandemic, social injustice, murder hornets. I’m just gonna share that part of the role is building something up and handing it off.” (28:04)
“I think success is embracing what you enjoy most and how that manifests through compensation, through health, through purpose, through serving others.” (34:26)
“I’ve found I’ve been a better time manager of those things that offer the most return on investment and structure because that allows for reactive interrupt-driven crises.” (1:05:00)
“I’ve been working from home since March 17th, seven forty-five to six. March 17th to November 20th. Wow. I said, ‘This togetherness is either going to make or break us as a couple.” (1:08:19)
“What I like about it [LinkedIn] is it’s a central repository like the hub. And the spoke are it gets you to the Harvard Business Review. It gets you to the Wall Street Journal. It gets you to The Economist. It gets you to Scott Ingram. It gets you to meet, know, and learn from the top sales stars of LinkedIn.” (1:11:57)
“What motivates me are the micro moves and disciplines that are gonna help me get to those big milestones. And that’s how I operate now.” (1:24:36)
Links Mentioned:
[email protected]
Sales Success Stories Podcast Website
2020 Sales Success Summit
Michele Marshall on LinkedIn
Boise Metro Chamber Facebook Group
Boise Valley Economic Partnership
Sponsors Mentioned:
Books Mentioned:
Good to Great
SPIN Selling
Start with Why
Strategic Selling