Limitless: A Sales and Marketing Podcast

S3 E6: SDRs Tackling the Q4 and Economic Downtown Double Whammy Ft. Sam McKenna

Episode Summary

Hey listeners! Are you ready for another exciting episode on Limitless? Tune in now for a brand new episode with Sam from Sam Sales Consulting. Samatha McKenna is the founder of SamSalesConsulting and the most sought-after sales influencer. With over 15 sales records on her name, Sam is an exceptional keynote speaker and an award-winning LinkedIn brand ambassador. Follow #SamSales for insightful sales content on LinkedIn.

Episode Notes

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Episode Transcription

Hey all. Welcome to another episode of our Limitless Podcast series. I'm Nisha, a Product Marketer at Hippo Video, and your host. Today we have Sam McKenna. Hey Sam, welcome to Limitless. 

Hello. Thank you so much for having me. 

Thank you so much for being here. It's a pleasure. So a little about Sam before we get started.

Samantha McKenna is the CEO of Sam Sales Consulting, and that's the hashtagSAMSales, which you can go follow on LinkedIn for a best of sales content. And she's an award-winning sales leader, brand ambassador for LinkedIn, angel investor, board member and a highly sought-after speaker. She has broken nearly 15 sales records.

Sam believes great sales are rooted in exceptional manners and consistently looks for opportunities to continue growing the company's philanthropic efforts. Since 2008, Sam has worked for some of the most notable names in the Bay Area, including On24 and LinkedIn. While with these organizations, Sam spent her time as an individual contributor in enterprise sales before moving to scaling teams and revenue as an executive leader.

So, and today's Sam will be sharing our expert views on a topic that I'm pretty sure must be on every salesperson's mind this time of the year, which is Tackling the Q4 and Economic Downtown Double Whammy. Okay, Sam, so can we get started with the questions? 

Of course. Go for it. 

Okay, so here's my first question for you.

So let's start with the elephant and probably every room that a salesperson is in right now, Q4 is well underway, and with the economic downturn, things are definitely not looking good. How can SDRs keep the leads coming in and build a robust pipeline? 

I think my easiest answer to this is the same way that I would tackle sales if I was just starting out.

So I think many people look at sales and think it's a, it's a really tough thing, and it can be a really tough thing. But if you use data and if you use a few smart strategies, I think it can actually be easier than you think. So here's, here's what I would suggest, no matter the size of the company you work for, even if you work for an organization that has three or five employees and 10 clients, you've got something at your fingertips. And that's Relationship Capital. So I want you to think about, who does my boss know who is in the network of our executives? Do we have a board? Do we have advisors? Who do they know?

Who are our five clients and our ten clients? And has anybody previously worked for these companies that now work in organizations that we'd like to get in front of? Have we proactively asked any of these individuals for introductions? And I think when you think of it that way, right, this is one of the smartest strategies that you can use in sales.

Instead of thinking about xold outreach and spamming, you know, a thousand emails a day or whatever it may be. Instead, start to think about this data in a different way. So go to your boss and you can pull this search up so easily if you have something like LinkedIn Sales Navigator. But even if you don't, if you just have regular linkedin.com.

You can pull this up easily. So go into your search, have a look and say connections of, and then look at your boss or look at your board members, or look at your clients who love you, right? And easily see do they know people within the accounts that you are targeting. I think if you even just take that as a strategy and some homework to do, you will find.

Dozens, if not hundreds of leads for your organization to go after. And really smart plays to not only speed up rate of opening those doors, but also speeding up the trust that those people bring to you when they first meet with you. 

Awesome. So the advice here is don't view prospects as just individual dots. Connect all the dots and see the pictures. 

Yeah. Totally right, and think about how smart that is because instead of just going cold and reaching out to people who don't know you, you're using your relationship capital to thread and open doors and then just keep doing that, right? That's the best way to grow your sales pipeline.

Absolutely. Makes a lot of sense. Okay, so here's my next question for you. In the absence of a robust pipeline, right, which I guess must be pretty common right now, how can SDRs, AEs make sure a significant percentage of the leads that are already in the pipeline? 

So I think a couple of things. One, we wanna make sure that those leads are qualified.

And I say that because when we do pipeline inspections or when we help organizations figure out, you know, why aren't they converting? We're finding that a lot of the leads that come in or even a lot of the opportunities that are there are not qualified leads. Meaning the organizations are too small, or we're talking to the wrong person, or in the wrong vertical, et cetera.

So the first thing I would do is just make sure that the leads that we do have are qualified. Second thing I would say is start with the foundations of sales and start with your discovery calls. This is where, again, where we really miss the mark when we get a lead, right? Let's say we get an inbound lead that is so tough to get right.

It is what we're fighting for every single day. For somebody to say, yes, I would like a meeting. I'd like to hear more about Sam sales. I'd like to hear more about Hippo, whatever it may be. When we get that, we have to make sure not to botch it, right? So what I would tell you is make sure your discovery calls are done correctly, and I'll give a little context on that, okay?

What I mean by that, right, is we wanna make sure we show prepared, we wanna make sure we have a point of view and a narrative. We wanna make sure we understand who we're talking to, where they've worked before, all that stuff. But what we wanna do is really ask questions during that discovery call. Now, I never actually call them discovery calls.

I call them initial discussions or initial conversation. Because that's what they are. They're not here for me to pitch to, right? It's not here for me to demo to you. It's for me to say thank you so much for making time for me. I'd love to hear what challenges are currently on your mind, and hopefully I can solve them, but if I can't, I can send you to somebody who can.

So it's just to make sure that we don't mess up that first, that first date, if you will. Somebody said they'd go on a date with us. Let's make sure it's good, a good one. 

I know, right? Like you shouldn't keep talking about yourself on the first date. Obviously that no better way than to put the other person off than doing that.

Yep. Yeah. And I think like, right, and I think it's, it's so, it's so important, and I think it's so obvious, but it's something that we don't frequently inspect because we just think, well, how can they, how can our sellers, how can our BDRs not already know how to do great discovery calls? It's a standard part of sales, but I'd say you'd probably be pretty surprised to find how many people could use a little work and a little fine-tuning.

Awesome. So you mentioned, you know, asking questions as one of the things that SDR should do on the discovery call. Do you have any more tips? 

Yeah, so I think the, I'll, I'll give you one great game changer. So if you can think of anything, if you can, just think of one thing to change that will change the trajectory of your call.

It's this so you show up prepared, you build a little rapport, and then when you jump into the business portion of your call, simply say something like, I could tell you a million things about Sam Sales. However, I'd love to hear from you first, right? I'd love to hear challenges you're facing, the things you're focused on for the next year ahead.

Maybe tell me a little bit about the overall landscape on your side, if that's okay. So you wanna think about the script in a little bit of a different way to, if it's an outbound call, right? If somebody's agreed to give, let's say us at Sam Sales time, they might not have any idea what it is that we do, right?

So I might have to give 'em some pillars. I might have to say something. I could tell you a million things about Sam sales, how we rewrite sequences, how we do this, how we focus on social selling, but I'd love to hear from you first. So let me just pause there. Right. As you can see, I gave them a couple of things that we do.

I gave them some pillars, and some footholds to think about, and then said, but I'd love to hear from you first. Tell me about the team challenges you have, things you're thinking of for the 2023 year ahead as it relates to whatever it is your company does. And then let them talk, because I'll tell you by making it very, very, very broad, right, which I've done instead of narrow, even if it's an inbound lead that specifically asks for something by making it broad I'm looking for information that'll help me solve their business problems, not their product problems. And so with that change, right, you will probably get a 92nd to, I don't know, nine-minute rant about everything that's on their minds. And that is the goal that comes in selling. 

So test does in any way? I'm talking from a product perspective, like increasing product adoption scope. Like, you know, you go in for a certain particular use case, but then you, on the call you discover that there are a lot more use cases that your product could possibly solve. So yes. Okay. 

Yeah, exactly. Because that's what it is.Right? I'll, I'll give you just the silliest example. I have these giant trees in my front yard. They're called holly trees and  they're actually, everybody knows about them at Christmas time. Right? It's a sprig of Holly. Yeah. Very, very holiday in festive. But I've got these huge trees. I filled out a little request online and I said, hello, I need somebody to come and trim the trees for us.

So the owner of the business came to my house and he said, you know, love to love to help you with your trees. Tell me about your overall property challenges you have, things that you're focused on. Tell me about the overall landscape of your but bump-bump landscape. And by asking that, right, he, I said, well, Actually, I do have a bunch of challenges.

This is happening, and this is happening, and this is happening. And then of course, the trees. And so before I knew. I wrote a check for, you know, another God knows how much amount of money because he just, he didn't come to fix the one thing I needed, but he said, tell me about everything else that's going on, and what an amazing opportunity to expand, to learn more, and frankly, just to help individuals.  

Because sometimes they'll share challenges with you that have absolutely nothing to do with you as well. So you can say, I can solve these two things for you. But the other two things you mention they're not in our wheelhouse. But man, do I have a great recommendation for someone who can solve that problem? And now you've become incredibly helpful to them in a variety of ways.

Yep. And they're likely to, you know, recommend their contacts to you in case. 

Yeah, exactly. Right. 

Okay. Yeah, this is a great  thanks for sharing that. And initially you mentioned about like doing research on your prospects before you get on the discovery call. I think that's something called a show. Show me, you know me. I think you're of that . Okay. So could you elaborate a bit more on that? Like what exactly should you know, SDRs research, SDRs or AEs research on their prospects before getting on the discovery call? Like some point. 

I think just a quick, like a quick tear sheet of things that you can look up in advance, is so easy. So and I'll tell you guys, this is something that you're going to wanna do throughout your entire career. So don't think this is just something that's isolated to the start of your career. I as a CEO, do show me, you know me before every call that I get on. So here's what I think about, number one, I think about, I wanna make sure that I can pronounce the name of the company correctly.

And I tell you that because I once sold a deal to a company called Teva Pharmaceuticals, a huge pharmaceutical company here in the States. And when I did that, instead, I called them Tiva because that's what I always knew the shoe brand to be. Tiva shoes are these little strappy sandals. So I said, TIVA, tiva, tiva the entire time.

And then finally when they signed the deal, they said, we have to tell you something. And I was like, oh my goodness. What? And they're like, that's not how you say our name. So learn, learn from my mistakes. Call the, call the front desk at a company. Go online to hear how they're, how the company is set in their, you know, in their earnings reports.

Make sure you understand how to pronounce the company name correctly. Second thing I would. Understand what they do, so what space are they in, what vertical are they in? What do they do for a living? Then make sure that you do show me, you know me on the individuals joining the call, whether it's one person or three people.

Who are they? How long have they worked for that company? Have they worked for people before? Companies before that? Are your current clients? Who do you know that they know? Do you have any connections in common, and where do they. Where are they coming in from and having just some of this information, right?

It's a little bit of research to do, but even if you can mention two or three things at the start of the call, right? You can set yourself up for just a completely different relationship than they're going to have with other people they might be looking at. And I'll give you a good example. We were just on the phone last week with an organization called Emerson.

Um, for those of you who don't know Emerson, they're huge electric and, and lighting  organization, energy organization, and we're on the call with them. And one of the individuals was from Minneapolis, and I've been to Minneapolis, Minnesota many times. There's a place there that I love that has, this incredible food.

And I mention it on the call as a way to connect with the gentleman that was on the call. Just a different way. And I think there were 12 people on the call by the way. So just a different way to connect, to stand out and a good, show me, you know, me, to continue the conversation offline about food, which is exactly what we did.

So think about that little things that they help you stand out. 

Okay, so this all goes into rapport building and trust building probably. Yeah. Making them trust you more. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. So, okay, now let's talk a little about cold outreach. The age old cold email format is, you know, hi, first name personalized through your email automation tool.

What do you do? How you can you know, help your prospects all for x, y, z, followed by the threaded booker meeting CTA. So how can you break out of this mold and send an email that adds value to the prospect and makes them want to engage with you? 

I think is again, what comes down to show me you know me.

So when you think about the individuals you're reaching out to let, let me maybe debunk a myth first. One of the myths that people think about when it comes to sales is that quantity over quality matters, and I could not disagree more. To me, quality over quantity matters more. Even think about tip that I gave at the beginning of the call, right?

Talking about using data your relationships, your connections, things like that. If I can invest a week in doing quality investigation of who knows who, and then also do quality, show me, you know, me and maybe I only send. I don't know, 30 emails that week or 40 emails that week. For some of you, you might shudder and think, how am I gonna hit my KPI of 500 contacts if I only send 40 emails?

But here's the thing, no one in your organization is going to care about how you got the meetings so long as you got the qualified meetings. Nobody cares. And the reason that there are KPIs and those numbers, there is a mechanism to track to make sure that you are doing a process that will lead to proper outcomes.

But if you are getting the proper outcomes in a different way, no one's gonna care. And moreover, they're gonna say, how are you doing that? And how are you beating other people? And you're going to say, it's because I'm doing show me you know me, it's because I'm doing quality outreach. So here's what I want you to think about, how to break through the noise the next time you reach out to somebody that's at a higher level contact.

So let's say at a mid-market or enterprise company, let's say you're reaching out to a director or even a senior manager, I want you to take a minute and I want you to look at the LinkedIn profile of that individual. Is there anything there that we can find about them? Have they recently been on a podcast?

Have they published an article? Have they quoted any, have they been quoted anywhere? Um, is there anything that we can find about the things that they love to do in their about section? And I would encourage you to put some of that as you're showing me, you know, me and the email subject line. The most important parts of getting your email opened are the subject line and the first sentence, barn.

None. So let's think about that. If you were reaching out to me, you could look at my profile and you could say something like Florida State University plus Barefoot Contessa, plus whatever your company name is. Now, all of you listening might think, might say that's outrageous, and it also makes no sense, but it makes sense to me.

So I know what Florida State University is, that's where I went to university, and I know what Barefoot Contessa is. She's my favorite cook, and I talk about her on LinkedIn. So these are ways that you can capture somebody's attention. And then what I would encourage you to do is think about the first sentence.

So in that first sentence, if you typically say hope you had a nice weekend, happy Monday. Hope this finds you're doing well, et cetera. Those are all things we wanna abolish, right? Because what it says is right, we don't really know how to start our email. So instead you can use a crutch like the one we use at SAM Sales, which is to say, hi, Sam.

We've yet to be properly introduced, but I'm give your name and I'm part of the team that is responsible for working with XYZ organization. Then tie a little bit of that. Show me, you know me. So say I see you went to Florida State. I have to tell you, I grew up cheering for the Seminals as a kid, whatever it may be, right?

Think about that. And then how do we capture somebody's attention so that they'll want to respond to our emails? Right? Show me, you know me isn't going to be enough That's going to open the door and say, I actually did my homework, but now. How do we get them to respond? So what I want you to think about is the value proposition of what your product does, what you do, what your service does, whatever it is, what is the value proposition to that person, right?

So if whatever that buyer persona is, whatever that title is, read what you are sending and ask yourself, is it tangible and practical? Do they actually understand what it is that we do, and do I solve a specific challenge for them? So if someone sends me an email and they say, Sam, as the CEO of SAM Sales, I'm sure that increasing pipeline is top of mind for you, and we can help you do that.

Okay. How so? Yes, it is top of mind for me, but I have no idea how, or somebody might say we can help you, you know, get 78% more leads, convert them at a 38% higher rate, and for 42% more revenue, worth a chat. No, because I don't have unlimited time and you're one of 20 people who send me that same email today.

Tell me how you do it. Give me something specific and tangible that I can say. That sounds good in theory, it is applicable to what we're chasing, and now I'd love to hear more to see if it's a fit for us. 

Yeah, makes a lot of sense. Because like some companies, you know, they try keeping what they do a secret for some reason in their first outreach, like Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Never get why they do that. But yeah, this is great advice. Show them value first, like from the very first email or touchpoint. 

Right. And you, you gotta make account. 

Yeah. Okay. So  now let's talk a little about social selling. So you've built this incredible personal brand on LinkedIn through your content and the great job that you do at Sam Sales.

So how important is personal branding for an AE or SDR especially, you know, when selling during tough times like this, when you need to look out for more unconventional methods and how do they build one, how do they build a personal brand? 

I think what I'll do is I'll, I'll take off my thinking about you as a member of your corporation hat, and I will put on my, think about you as a long-term employee and who you are hat and what I mean by that is you will likely not always work for the same company you do now, right? It's very rare to see that these days. So when you think about the time and the investment that you put into building a personal brand on LinkedIn, I want you to think about the payoff for the long term for you, not necessarily the company you work for now.

I think it is wildly important, and here's the thing that I think is great about this. For as much as we preach how important building a personal brand on LinkedIn is, very few people do it as salespeople, as SDRs, et cetera. What you will find is you'll find, you know, a handful of leaders, a handful of SDRs, lots of entrepreneurs, but when it really comes down to salespeople doing it right, you find very few people who do it consistently.

And who teach something valuable. So for you, thinking about how you can stand out, it's not a very crowded market just yet. So what a great time to start building that brand. Now, what I will also say is that a lot of people think about, ugh, what? I have to post on LinkedIn and I have to create content, and that's scary.

And also, I'm 22. Who wants to hear from me and what I have to say. But here's the thing. So number one, if you are super nervous about posting anything on LinkedIn, here's the easiest way to start. Take 15 minutes a day and just add comments to people's content. So think about this too. Look at, look for thought leaders and influencers.

Look, you can come and comment on my posts on LinkedIn and get exposure to a ton of other people who are also commenting on my LinkedIn. So that's one way to easily build a brand. Just comment on the right people's content and just add your thought leadership. So what I mean by that is if I share an article and say, this is what I loved about this article.

Don't just say, cool. Thanks for sharing. Instead, give us your thought, give us your perspective on it. What, what did you think about that article? What a great way to start. Then if you do get the gumption together to make your own posts and you're still worried, well, who cares what I have to say? Here's what I would tell you.

No matter what age and experience level you're at, you have something to teach your peers and probably your leaders. So think about the things that you have recently learned, right? What have you learned? What did you try? What has worked for you? Have you tried show me you know me and it changed the game for you? Um, did you ask a question differently on a call?

Did you help somebody out internally and you wanted to share? You know, the benefit that came from that. There are all kinds of things that you can share on LinkedIn, and I would say it also takes time to build a network and to build engagement. So my biggest tip there for you is, number one, keep it up.

Your audience wants to know that not only are you going to share smart content but that you are going to be around for the long term. What they wanna know is they want to know that if they invest in you and they start to comment on your content that it's going to be worth their while because you're not, you're going to be here for a long time, not just a short time.

And the other thing I would say is consider the views. So your engagement will be low probably for the first six months, right? You're probably gonna get a handful of likes, maybe a few comments, and that's it. But look at the views of your post. Measure your success by that. Know that you've had a 100, 200, 600 people that saw your name and saw your content, and at least read it, right?

So that is a win, final tip I would say, on how to build that. And then I promise I'll stop talking. Um, look at, look at anybody who comments or likes your posts or the comments that you put on other people's posts and connect with them on LinkedIn if you're not already. All you have to say is a simple, thanks so much for liking or engaging with my post.

Wanted to say hello here and stay in touch, and you will build your network overnight. 

Okay. This is great advice and this is something that I'm following myself, and I am slowly starting to see the results, so I know what you mean when you say like, you know, it takes time, but yeah, it's totally worth it.

Totally worth that. 

Okay. And yeah, some of my final questions. Yeah. So what are some skills that every salesperson needs to pick up to sell to the modern buyer? 

I would say social selling first and foremost. I'd tell you the reason the re even just thinking about the very basic of having a great LinkedIn profile, it matters because even if you.

To cut through the noise of somebody's email box, right? And they say, oh, this is interesting. I'll tell you what they're gonna do next. They're more than likely going to look at your LinkedIn profile and they wanna know who do you know? Is it updated? Is 30 minutes spent with you going to be worth my while?

So be mindful of that. I would tell you. If your profile's not in great shape, come over to  website  sam sales consulting.com. On that website, we have tons of articles, and free content, all on how to update your LinkedIn profile, and if you also search for hashtag SAM sales and then also about section on LinkedIn, you'll find a ton of hosts where I give a ton of tips of how to write a great about section, so you'll be in good shape there.

Um, so I think that's one of the things, right, learning how to do that. I think the other thing in terms of being a modern seller is knowing how to run a Zoom call. And I say that in a couple of different ways, right? Even though we've been in, in Covid and a kind of very changing digital selling landscape for, I don't know, two and two and a half years, almost three years now some people still really struggle with how to engage in a digital way.

So I would tell you one, be mindful of your presence on camera but contrarian to how I showed up on camera with you this morning. We wanna make sure, we show up properly dressed, you know, and having a good background and all of that stuff. But think of your demeanor. So are you smiling? Are you enthusiastic?

Are you showing happiness to be there? And I say that because a lot of the calls that I review  reps aren't smiling, right? They have the, their, their face is, is reminiscent of that emoji that has two lines for an eye and a line for mouth. And I'm like, wow. I'm like you, I can tell you're really excited to see me.

Um, So just be mindful of that. The other thing I would say is don't be afraid to talk about things in somebody's background. So if you, somebody joins on their video and they have, let's say, a series of books behind them or pictures of trips they've taken, or you hear a dog barking or a child crying in the background or whatever it is, pick up on that, and you know, you can say something, you know, light like do I hear a dog or, oh, is that a kiddo in your background? Something like that. Right? And engage them on a personal basis because most people won't, right? Or you can say, I love your pictures in the background. Are you a big traveler? Are those pictures you took, right? What a great way to show me, you know, me, and to build some rapport.

So I would say those are, those are two really important modern things. 

Awesome. Helps break, break the eyes at least, you know, like asking them out personal stuff because those initial few minutes are really awkward, right? Like even when we started this call, like yeah, I could feel the awkwardness. So yeah, making small talk really helps.

Totally. Yeah. And so you're a huge advocate for women in sales, right? And you've run like several sessions on how women can kill it in sales. So have you seen any common patterns that women fall back on when selling? Um, you know, like they are generally perceived to be less confident than their male counterparts and they don't speak as much. And this is something that I've experienced myself by, I've seen among my peers as well, my female peers. So what's your advice for all those women sales ninjas out there? 

I think we've got a bunch of things that make us superior to our male counterparts. But here's what I, here's what I will say. So number one, it, the data doesn't lie.

If we look at the data, we see that women in sales outperform our male counterparts year after year, after year. So if nothing else gives you confidence about the fact that we can sell in a great way that data showed. The second thing I would tell you, our ability to empathize is unlike anybody else's. And let me give you a fantastic example of one of my former reps  Rachel.

Um, so Rachel got on a call. She had an impossible-to-book client. She finally got it after two and a half years of trying. Wow. And by the way, yeah, that only came as a result of, you guessed it. Who knows who. So this person gave Rachel a meeting because they came as a favor from a friend, and the person also said, I wanna just be honest.

I have no interest in changing platforms that I'm using. I will take this call though if it just makes you guys get off my back. And we're like, oh, okay. Yes, we'll take it. So Rachel took the call and let me tell you what happened in those first few minutes. In those first few minutes of the call, she introduced herself, you know, they got talking and he said, by the way, I have to apologize.

Um, I'm exhausted. My partner and I just adopted a baby. Um, and we're, you know, we're overwhelmed. So I think a lot of male counterparts would say, oh, congratulations. That's awesome. Yeah, I know how that goes. Anyway, so let, let me ask you a couple of questions and then we'll move on to the sales portion. What Rachel did instead was, oh my God, congratulations.

She was effusive, and then she said, tell me everything. She asked questions. She was empathetic. She offered completely unsolicited parenting advice and talked to him for 28 minutes or so. Wow. She burned the entire discovery call on talking about this. But you know what that resulted in? That resulted in him saying, oh my gosh, I can't believe this call completely got away from us, and we didn't even talk about your platform.

Let's schedule another call. And then it ended up in her closing a record breaking multimillion multiyear deal with this organization. Now that is a superpower that women have, right? Empathize, asking questions, being conversational, asking open-ended active listening questions. That is something we bring to the table that I think we bring in a superior way.

And then the final thing I would say, is being our authentic selves, right? That is something that I find women bring so naturally and men really struggle with often and, and this comes from years and years of talking and coaching, both women and men in sales. So being who you are, being able, being comfortable with sharing a personal story, being comfortable with saying is that a kiddo right here in the background and connecting on that is something that I think we do so well.

So I say this often. But be yourself. Bring your authentic self to the conversation. For me, when I was just starting out in sales, somebody told me that my enthusiasm, my bubbliness and my smiles made me come across as untrustworthy as a junior and, as unprepared. And I remember hearing that advice. I mean, it hit me like a ton of bricks and I thought, well, Who the hell am I supposed to be?

That's who I am. I'm excited. I'm enthusiastic. I smile a lot. It's just me. Um, and I just realized I took that advice and I kicked it straight, straight out the window, and then it just continued being myself and look where it got me. So be yourself. That's one of our superpowers. 

That's great because the corporate advice is usually to be, you know, serious, cut to the chase.

Don't waste time talking about personal stuff. That's the usual advice that's made out. So this. Exactly. Contrary to that, but it's effective. It's so effective. 

Yeah. Okay. So Sam, this is my final question for you. Do you have any podcasts or book recommendations for our listeners? 

Yeah. Um, I would tell you a couple of things. Um, one, there's a great book, actually two great books by a gentleman named Todd Caponi. And the first one is The Transparency Sale, and the second one is the Transparency Leader. And those books are, I think, you know, what I often say is for sales books specifically, there's so much just the same stuff out there, right?

It's everybody's just pitching the same stuff in the same, in a different book. But he is really helpful and teaches you a lot of things. So I would say pick those up. Um, the other one that I love from a leadership perspective, or even for people who are aspiring to be leaders, is Radical Candor. Um, it's by Kim Scott, and she's formerly of Google.

She also has a great podcast called Radical Candor, which is about the same thing of what you read in the book and the little 20-minute segments. And finally, I would recommend the podcast it's the Harvard Business Review. So it's the HBR series called Women at Work. Fantastic podcast. Truly just an amazing download of tips and tricks and things to think about, especially as women in business and women in sales.

What an incredible investment of time. Every single episode teaches you something really fabulous. So recommendations all around. 

Awesome. I'm particularly interested in the last one. I think I should go watch it first. Yes. Awesome. Okay, so Sam, I think that brings us to the end of this episode.

Thank you so much for that incredible session. 

Thank you so much for having me. Pleasure, pleasure to be here. And thank you for your audience for tuning. 

Yeah, and I'm sure you put our listeners minds to ease by, you know, answering any and every question that they might have had in their mind. I'm so glad. Okay. And so thank you listeners for tuning in today.

We'll be doing many more of these podcasts with more such stellar sales leaders from around the globe. So stay tuned to our upcoming episodes. We are on Apple, Spotify, Google, and also Stitcher. Subscribe to get notified when a new episode is. Please leave us a review if you're on Apple. Thanks for listening.

Have a great day and bye. Thank you seven again for this superb session. I really enjoyed it. Thank you. Oh, thanks so much for having me again.