- Esther
Good morning and welcome to the Monday Morning Marketing podcast I'm Esther, and today I'm being joined by Anna Scheller, author, speaker and, sales queen extraordinaire. Good morning. How are you?
- Anna Scheller
"Laughs"
- Anna Scheller
I'm doing great. Thank you so much for that, rather than that ambitious introduction. I'm glad to be here, though.
- Esther
Well, I'm sure you'll live up to it whenever we've been asking you some questions here all about your sales and your salestraining. But where are you in the world?
- Anna Scheller
I am in Texas. So right now it's very hot. We woke up, I went to go workout at my gym and it was already close to 80 degrees, which I'm not sure what that translates into Celsius, but it was warm and
- Esther
Hot, Hot!
- Anna Scheller
Yeah, very much so. Very much so hot. It's hot no matter what country you're in.
- Esther
Yeah, "laughs" that's great. And were you always a sales queen?
- Anna Scheller
Oh, heavens no.
- Esther
I remember sitting in a car dealership one time looking at all these people hustling, trying to make these sales. And I thought, oh, thank God my business does not depend on sales. And I was in for a rude awakening when I had my business was doing really, really, really, really well. But I had a shift in the market and, to be honest, I'd never gotten any mentorship, never gotten any training. I didn't know what to do.
- Esther
So suddenly we were richer than rich and then we were not getting any income in or very, very little. And that was that was a very scary thing. But I heard something about having multiple streams of income. So I did what anybody listening to that did.
- Anna Scheller
I joined a network marketing company
- Esther
"Laughs" not dissing the network marketing, people out there.
- Anna Scheller
Not at all.
- Anna Scheller
I mean, I'm very grateful because it was through network marketing that I realized that when it came to selling, I had a lot to learn. And so I was coached by my upline and she said, she asked me four really important questions. So the first question was how many appointments have you made? And I'm like, mm
- Esther
hmm "laughs"
- Anna Scheller
And how many people have you talked to? And I'm like, Hmm. And she goes, What books are you reading on sales?
- Anna Scheller
And I go, Hmm. And also on leadership. And this podcast isn't necessarily about leadership, but developing your leadership qualities are also important in sales. So I bought a book called The Psychology of Selling by Brian Tracy, and I learned that sales was a learnable skill. And that was a revelation to me, because most people believe that either you're a good salesman or you're not.
- Esther
Yeah, Yeah!
- Anna Scheller
But, you know, when we look at Olympic athletes, Esther, Olympic athletes, they do not they don't come out running and winning marathons when they're born, they're trained.
- Anna Scheller
And the best ones are trained. They're teachable. They're disciplined. So I began to realize that really sales was in many respects like that, and I could learn those skills. Well, then I came up to the objection handling portion of the book and realized that was probably my biggest fear. I didn't realize I had other problems at that point.
- Anna Scheller
But
- Esther
"Laughs" one problem at a time, one problem at a time.
- Anna Scheller
Right, right.
- Anna Scheller
When you can recognize there's one aspect that you can begin to change, it literally starts to transform your whole process. And so, I actually took a course. There was this guy who was talking. My husband was listening and said, oh, I think my wife would be interested because he knew I was studying sales. So he led me to go into a webinar with this fellow. His name's Eric Waltham. And Eric made it sound so simple to answer objections.
- Anna Scheller
And I thought, well, if he can do it, and he was a sales flop, just like I was. And if he could do it, I could do it. So I signed up for his course and ultimately became one of his trainers. I don't train for him anymore, but I have learned so much about sales. It has literally transformed my life. And it started with a question.
- Esther
And obviously, all of this took place in the space of a month. Right? I mean, it didn't take a long time to learn all about sales or did it?
- Anna Scheller
Ahhh, that is a good question.
- Anna Scheller
it's like everything else. Immediately when I started to implement one small change, I started to see some differences in my sales. But as I started to implement one small change, then I realized other things needed to be changed. So I took the sales training. I started sales training back in 2004. We're in two thousand and twenty.
So I am still learning. Still implementing. Still practicing. New and learning new things about sales, I'm open to anything that will help me to be better and really to serve the people that I'm here to serve.
- Esther
So basically, those who are natural-born salespeople are not naturally born. They're trained.
- Anna Scheller
They really are. The good ones are the good ones are.
- Esther
We'll come to a few stories in a minute, don't worry "Laughs"
- Anna Scheller
Yes, yes, yes, yes. They're fun stories.
- Esther
But what's so important about getting sales training? I mean, you explained a little bit there, but why like in-depth training, can we not just go and pick the bits that we like?
- Anna Scheller
Well, you can, but it depends on how important you believe sales are, so sales are so important because how are you going to get revenue into your business? Now, a lot of people like to use word of mouth referrals because it's a warm lead. It's somebody who already knows something and it's usually a pretty easy sale. But if you're going to grow and scale a business or you are not content with just barely making enough or maybe not making enough, then you need sales training because you want to have a process that you can rely on to help you get predictable results. Now, let's take a look again. Let's use the athletic. The athletic examples that are out there, there is not an individual who has won an Olympic medal who got there on their own or by reading a book. Most people will say, I can read a book and I can do this. But coaching, it's absolutely an established fact that if you get coaching, you can definitely you can increase your results far faster than if you try to do it on your own, because coaching and training, what they do is, first of all, they can see what you can't see about your process and a good coach will not tear you down, but will help you set up new processes so that you can improve, just like the runner. I mean, there are many people that say, oh, my gosh, he's so fast, he should go to the Olympics, but he's so fast, mister. He's so fast. Needs to find a coach who's going to watch what he does, who's going to help him get more efficient in his running, who's going to look at what he's eating? Who's going to look at how he sleeps? Who's going to look at all of the factors that affect his performance and he's going to tweak them and help that person become better and better. What's the same way with sales. You need somebody who's going to be on the outside looking in, helping you become more efficient, looking at your process, looking at how you view sales, looking at how you're getting leads. Because if you really want if you're really serious about growing your business, you have to be serious about learning how to get more sales and you simply can't do it on your own.
- Esther
Yeah. And is that the same process for products as it is for services? Or is there a different angle that people need to take depending on what they're selling?
- Anna Scheller
Well, there's a basic process that works for everybody. I would call it a universal process. And then each individual, each service, each product, they need to tailor that. They need to tailor that process to that particular customer. So, for example, if you're selling a lot of low-end products, your sales process is going to be similar. But it's not going to be quite the same as if you're selling high-end coaching or you're selling a house or you're selling a car. There are many elements that are similar and can come together, but then there are other things that might be different. So a good coach can help you figure that out. Good things to do. Like if you're in real estate, you want to get somebody that's good in real estate sales, that they could help you with it if it's a product or service or a product excuse me, then, you know, you can probably find it just about any good salesperson or sales coach to help you. So, you know, you wanted that, of course. But, I think the basic process is very, very much the same. You just have to personalize it, if you will, to your product or service.
- Esther
And what would you say to people who would like to outsource their selling? Should they just find the first person that comes along and goes I'll sell something for you? Or should they start by doing it themselves? Or...? What could be one of your top tips for someone who just doesn't like selling at all and shies away from it in fear?
- Anna Scheller
Well, to be honest, my first thing would be to go into why they're so fearful of selling, because that fear will affect everything that they do. I, I do believe that if you don't like selling and you can afford to outsource your selling, that if that works for you, that's great. But you still need to know the sales process. You still need to understand a system, because ultimately it's not going to be the salesperson's fault. If your business isn't working well, it's ultimately your responsibility. So you have to be like a high level supervisor. You have to know the process. You have to know where you want them to take the customer at the end. And believe me, it's not just about the money. It's really about creating a customer experience. And that's something I mean, there's really no black and white answer to that, Esther.
- Esther
Yeah.
- Anna Scheller
I think, a lot of it depends on money, but I think every business person needs to have an understanding of sales and sales process, because sales is not so much about getting people over the line. Sales is about communication and showing value and building relationships. And that's what gets people over the line.
- Esther
Yeah, yeah. And we were talking about this just before we came on air, actually, that your daughter had a strange experience.
- Anna Scheller
Oh my God, she did. So my daughter, a friend of hers, wanted to introduce her to a mutual friend who was selling some kind of weight loss coffee product. There's tons of them out there. So I can't tell you which MLM this was. And I didn't want to know, to be quite honest, because it just...The process. Well, let's just get back to the story that's not even worth trying to figure this out. So anyway, so my daughter contacted, it was through, I think, messenger something. So my daughter contacted the young person selling the product and the conversation started out something along the lines of Hi So-and-so made this connection. I'm I am interested in learning more about what you're selling. So the next comment in the feed was great, and then my as my daughter is typing out her next response. Before she even gets the response finished, Esther. There is message after message after message after message. I don't, didn't count all the messages, but there were at least 10 messages that followed my daughter's "great I'd like to get more information" before she could even get off her next message. And my daughter came to me she said, Mom, I felt assaulted. It just was too much. And to be honest, even though I'm mildly interested in the product, I, I feel really icky and I don't want to buy from this person.
- Esther
Yeah, it can be an instant turnoff just to be bombarded with all this information.
- Anna Scheller
It really is. It can be very painful. But your customer and you know, then it becomes the stereotype of people don't like sales because they associate sales with that, good salespeople don't do that. Probably this young lady is getting started out. She's excited and she has all this information. She wants to make sure my daughter gets all of that information.
- Esther
But what advice would you give that young lady on how she could have done it differently?
- Anna Scheller
Well, first of all, I would have definitely had her ask some questions first, so "tell me what your experience in weight loss has been". So then she gets an idea of what my daughter has done or is doing or is willing to try or has tried. So then, she asks more questions to solicit information about why my daughter is even talking to her, and then she can start to ask more probing questions about what my daughter's looking for in the process. I mean, the very last thing you want to do is overwhelm anybody with information and with the questions. So, questions can be a double-edged sword, used properly. They can get you to get all kinds of information from a client, used improperly and you make your client feel like they're being interrogated. So the key to using good questions is to use open-ended questions that get the client to talk and to listen very carefully. Listen, listen, listen.
- Esther
Yeah, it's like we always say we have two years and just one mouth for a reason. Double the listening half the talking.
- Anna Scheller
Right. Actually, I would say a quarter of the talking because here's the key, Esther. Well a key like for this young lady, if she would stop and ask more questions, she actually ends up controlling the conversation. When she threw all of that information in there, she gave all the control to my daughter. And that's not what she wanted to do. So if she'd just been ready to ask some questions and plus you don't, to be honest, she don't try to get people to buy in a message feed or in a GM or anything like that, you need to get out of that.
- Esther
That's my next question. What I was going to ask, where would you take the conversation? Would you? Well, obviously, right now we can't take it offline very much because we're all still in lockdown. But if and when the time comes that we can go back out for coffee, would you recommend taking it face to face or even on a zoom or there are other platforms available, we are not sponsored by any of them, you know, a video chat or even a messenger chat on FaceTime. What would you recommend?
- Anna Scheller
I recommend that you get them out of the feed and into some kind of face-to-face conversation via video chat or in person, because that's... You have to develop and cultivate that lead and you have to. And here's another key. Try to get them to say yes in three different ways or try to get no first so that you can know how you can move them toward the yes. If this young lady had maybe tried that, she probably actually I think my daughter would have bought from her really, really, really would have bought from her. But it didn't work out that way. So, yeah, you've got to get people out of these social media feeds or text messages or whatever, because until you get a face to face meeting, you really can't have a meaningful relationship. And sales is based on relationships. So you want to do everything you can to cultivate relationship, to build the trust. And that brings me back to my daughter's situation. That young lady, when she did all that, she broke trust with my daughter. My daughter no longer trusted her to put her interests ahead of the salesperson's interests. And people are smart. They're not going to listen to you if you are not attentive to them.
- Esther
That is brilliant. Excellent information. I wish we could talk on for about four inches longer, and I'm sure we'll have you back on some other time on it. You've been amazing. Thank you very much for coming on and being our guest. And you can find Anna online. Her website AnnaScheller.Com. She's also on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. But go through the website and you can find her from there. Thank you very much, Anna, and have a wonderful afternoon, everyone.
Thanks for joining us. And we will be back again next week for more Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. Good bye.