Karl's Appearance on the Trailblazing for Success: Inspiring Leaders Podcast

It was the day before Karl had a Zoom meeting scheduled with a salesman who wanted some individual coaching. Karl opened his inbox to find that the man had sent him a detailed PDF as well as a video of himself speaking. Both shared what Karl would consider a “value statement.” It shared information about the salesman, the company he worked for, what problems they aimed to solve, and how they approached solving them.

It was an incredibly professional video and PDF, but it was also incredibly curated. It felt like the salesman was reading from a script, and Karl finished watching the video not feeling like he knew anything more about who the man was or how he (and the company he worked for) would provide value.

In their meeting the next day, the first thing Karl told the salesman to do was to pretend they were just two old friends grabbing a beer.

“Let’s pretend I’m your college roommate who you haven’t spoken to in a while. We’re catching up at the bar and I ask what you’re up to now. How would you respond to that?”

Thank goodness the session was recorded, because the result was the salesman nailing it. He didn’t even pause to think before diving into his answer.

“You know, sometimes businesses have challenges, and the CEO isn’t totally in tune with what they are. As companies get bigger, they’re pretty far removed from the day-to-day. But the problems that are going on still need to be solved.” He went on to explain that he sells technology and services that can free up a lot of time, giving bandwidth back to the employees so they can focus more on their jobs. “It benefits the employees most,” he said with a little shrug. “The goal is really to give them a resource that helps them focus on what matters the most to the company.”

Many salespeople, especially younger salespeople without a lot of experience under their belt, rely too heavily on the beautifully curated elevator pitches that marketing creates, and while they have their purposes, it’s not necessarily what works best in a casual conversation. In fact, as Karl shared with the young man, anytime you feel like you’re memorizing a script instead of improvising an interaction, you have a problem.

​In the Building a Strong Foundation for Sales Success on the Trailblazing for Success: Inspiring Leaders podcast, Karl shares what is most regularly missing in sales teams today, why being a lifelong learner is crucial to sales success, and how to show up with confidence and authenticity. Listen now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts