#StrongerTogether: Never Stop Innovating – Creativity and Empathy
As we continue to navigate our new normal, it’s important to find success in the little wins. I recently had the opportunity to chat with another Salesforce Trailblazer, Monique Zill, and learn about her career journey. Monique, a general commercial account executive, shared how she recently achieved a successful client outcome. She leveraged her empathy and insights to help a manufacturing client pivot to support its first remote sales team. To better understand Monique’s success, I wanted to learn about her career path and how her past experiences have enabled her to be successful, even during COVID-19. Early Career A lifelong style enthusiast, Monique started her career as an assistant in fashion advertising sales for a major U.S.-based magazine. Her manager’s departure resulted in an opening, so Monique approached the publisher and applied for the position. Clients vouched for her knowledge and value, and as a result she was offered her first sales role as a fashion and beauty manager. From her first sales role, Monique transitioned into a new position at a different magazine but found that she didn’t have the tools she needed to reach her full potential. “My success in my first sales role was the result of mastering our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system,” Monique said. “When I left my second role, it was really important that I worked for a company that had a CRM system in place because it made my job—especially a transition from a new role— much easier. My new position didn’t include a CRM tool, so over the course of my year there, it was challenging to manage client relationships, tasks, and notes with simple spreadsheets.” Early in her career, Monique realized the importance of innovating and creating systems to maximize efficiency. End User to Sales Professional After her role was impacted by layoffs at the magazine’s parent company, Monique began to consider sales roles outside of the fashion industry. “It never occurred to me to work for a technology company, but the layoff created an opportunity I wasn’t expecting,” Monique said. “At the time, I was always rooted heavily in marketing and advertising, especially in the fashion and beauty realm, and I was nervous to leave my comfort zone.” Although a career shift into Software as a Service (SaaS) sales wasn’t originally in her plan, Monique realized she could leverage her experience as an end user and use her story to inspire clients. I found being an end user was really useful through my storytelling, so that’s how I landed at Salesforce.” Interested in exploring a role in SaaS sales? Learn more about sales careers at Salesforce. COVID-19 Client Success Even in these challenging times, Monique has found ways to help her clients be successful. One of her clients manufactures golf cart batteries and, like so many other companies during this pandemic, they experienced a drop in demand. Monique’s client was so accustomed to having its sales team in the office that the idea of a remote workforce came as a brand-new concept. “Especially now when you’re in a sales role,” Monique shared, “it’s about listening to our clients more than ever and being empathetic in how you respond to them.” By leveraging her empathic listening, she learned three things: (1) that her client had to rethink their approach to prospecting to keep the sales team moving; (2) that it was necessary to reevaluate the spend, and that reevaluation determined that supporting the sales team was a critical spend for fiscal year 2020; and (3) that forecast transparency and management were critical to success. As a result, Monique was able to help her client pivot. She found a solution to invest in technology to help prepare for future global expansion by using historical data to predict future sales. As a part of her approach, Monique suggested bringing the chief information officer (CIO) to the table because Salesforce’s Manufacturing Cloud resonated with his focus on global transformations. The Salesforce Manufacturing cloud keeps account and operation teams on the same page for manufacturers and speaks to the kind of forecasting and needs of clients who live and breathe the manufacturing space. Q&A with Monique: Making the Shift to Tech Sales After learning about her career trajectory and success selling in the current climate, I asked Monique to tell me more about her shift into SaaS sales. Cherilynn:What advice would you give to other women looking to make the shift into tech sales? Monique: It sounds cliché, but you definitely need to believe you can do it, and nine times out of ten, you absolutely can. In those moments when you feel like you can’t, reach out to your network. Lean on others who are your mentors, your cheerleaders, because we all need a little pep talk now and again. Especially now during these times, you don’t need to do it alone, and no one expects you to be doing it alone. For example, my manager Seanté Baker, RVP Commercial Sales and Manufacturing at Salesforce, is one of my biggest career advocates. She frequently asks, “What do you need from me? How can I help you? How can I coach you? What’s the best way for us to work together moving forward?” Recently I responded, “I think I need to get out of my Salesforce bubble,” meaning I need to network with other women and other companies. I need to be a part of a larger conversation. Seanté connected me with Sistas In Sales. If you’re looking to change industries, just believe in yourself and definitely ask for help because it’s there, and people really want to help you because they’ve all been there too. Cherilynn:In your experience, what does it take to succeed in this space? Monique: Salesforce has a learning environment. It doesn’t encourage you to fail. But if you do fail, do it quickly. You’re always going to learn something from it. Be persistent. It’s grit that gets you through day to day.” Cherilynn:Any final advice or words of wisdom? Monique: Be your own advocate but don’t do it
Honing Your Secret Weapon: The Importance of a Killer Pitch
Every professional woman needs to have a pitch. Now, more than ever, whether you’re looking for a new job, building your business, or trying to manage the job you already have, it’s important to have your pitch ready. You may be pitching to HR about why you need a permanent work-from-home assignment or why you need to work remotely; pitching to your boss to take on a long-term assignment or new responsibilities as part of departmental restructuring; or learning how to make a case as to why your department, in danger of being cut in a reduction-in-force concern, needs to be saved and why you need to be saved. Regardless of your situation, you need to have a pitch ready. Whether you’re asking for a promotion, a raise, to work remotely, or just to lobby to keep your job, everyone needs to have a pitch. The August 20th Webinar, Visibility Trumps Ability: Sharpen Your Competitive Edge in the Time of COVID-19 is for any professional woman who wants to make sure she is prepared for the current moment and ready to return to work. It’s always a good idea to keep a solid pitch in your back pocket! A Compelling Personal Value Proposition A personal value proposition helps you differentiate yourself from other job seekers. Right now, the market is flooded with well-crafted résumés and stellar LinkedIn profiles. It’s helpful to make sure that once you get that phone interview or screening, you stand out from the pack. With a solid personal pitch in place, you bring your résumé to life. You animate your LinkedIn profile and help the hiring manager understand why they picked your résumé out of the pile. Side Hustle Pitching If you’re focusing on being a “Sidepreneur,” then what you’re trying to do is make sure your product, service, or whatever it is you’re presenting to folks is highly compelling. Just like being a professional saleswoman, whether you’re looking for new customers, Kickstarter funding, resources, retail space, someone to carry your product, or just to get in front of new folks—you want to help people understand why what you’re doing is valuable and why they should continue to support you, whether it’s your customer base, your funders, or your vendors. I’m a professional saleswoman. I’m out there knocking on doors (or dialing and smiling, as the case may be today) and selling. I’ve got amazing sales sheets, and I have everything I need. Still—why do I need a value story? Why do I need a pitch? Fill a Need Theodore Levitt said, “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill; they want a quarter-inch hole.” Your pitch and your value story connect the importance of the item you’re selling with the need of your client. Remember that you can have the most wonderful solution on the market, but if you can’t explain to your client why this solution does the job for them or for their customers, you’re not going to be able to get them to sign that contract. You need to be able to pitch your product and explain to your client how it meets their needs, especially now, when there is a lot going on and a lot of change. Adapt your pitch and adapt your value story to meet the specific needs of your client in this present environment. You can refine your pitch. You can make it stronger. Now’s a great opportunity to do that. Folks are returning to work, and things are reopening. Now is your opportunity to get in front of new clients and sell them on why your solution is the best. Join me and Precious Williams (the 13-time national elevator pitch champion) for a Sistas In Sales August 20th webinar to learn how to take your pitch to the next level! Being visible and getting in front of your audience is incredibly important, now more than ever. This webinar will enable you to be incredibly forward-thinking: it will get you thinking about future opportunities, about how the current environment is shaping future markets, and about how you can make sure you’re best positioned to take advantage of it. Finally, pitching helps you address your prospect’s needs, desires, and pain points by helping you empathically tailor your approach to meet those specific needs. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to understanding your audience. Make sure you tailor your pitch and approach. This webinar will give you the skills you need to do that tailoring and to meet the specific goals of your audience. Here’s to Selling Mastery, Cherilynn Head of Education and Growth, Sistas In Sales Cherilynn Castleman, Sales Trainer/Executive Coach, has been a sales executive for 20+ years. With her natural talent for teaching and a drive to sell, Cherilynn uses her skills to coach and train other executives and sales professionals.
#StrongerTogether: Using Your Skills to Put Customers First
As our nation reckons with the legacy of systemic racism in the U.S., Sistas In Sales remains dedicated to supporting and amplifying the voices of Black women. We are proud to continue advocating for change and cultivating safe spaces for Black women to advance their careers and grow in community with each other. Even in the most challenging times, our sisterhood is a powerful resource to support one another and learn from each other as we continue developing our careers as professional saleswomen. With that in mind, I’d like to share the story of Frednise Shields. As a former Account Executive, Frednise knows how to build relationships and puts her customers first in order to succeed in the world of sales. Meet Frednise Shields, Associate Solution Engineer – Healthcare Life Sciences at Salesforce Frednise, a Salesforce trailblazer, took time out of her busy day as a new mom to share her career journey. Immediately after graduating from Georgia State University in 2012, Frednise started in a leadership program at AT&T in Atlanta. She then relocated to New York City, where she earned several promotions over the course of four years with AT&T and managed progressively larger teams. Frednise shared, “I learned so much about leadership, managing a company, and business acumen.” Ever curious about technology and innovation, Frednise began broadening her technical skills by utilizing Trailhead, Salesforce’s training platform, to become a certified Salesforce Administrator. She reported being “really, really fascinated with Salesforce,” and its innovative solutions to give customers a competitive advantage. Understanding the power of networking, Frednise attended a Salesforce World Tour, where she connected with several Salesforce professionals including Stephanie Glenn, who told her to stay in touch. Stephanie was one of the many people who served as a resource for Frednise throughout the Salesforce account executive interview, offer, hire, and onboarding process, providing insight and support along the way. “Stephanie helped me find clarity on my career pursuits and encouraged me to seek opportunities that would be most beneficial to my career long-term,” Frednise shared. Today, as an Associate Solution Engineer in the Healthcare Life Sciences (HLS) vertical at Salesforce, Frednise combines her technical sales expertise with her interest in STEM. “I’ve always been fascinated by science and technology,” she shared. “I completed the pre-medical track in college along with my business degree and it was during that period that I realized the important role technology plays in the healthcare industry. I’m happy that in my current role I’m able to help healthcare professionals come up with solutions by leveraging Salesforce’s technology.” Frednise believes Salesforce is an excellent fit for her for three reasons: Sense of Belonging: When Frednise arrived at Salesforce, she soon learned about BOLDforce, the Black Organization for Leadership and Development. BOLDforce is one of 12 Employee Resource Groups, or Equality Groups as the company calls them. Employee-led and employee-organized, the groups build community, educate allies, and drive equality. Through BOLDforce, Frednise has made lasting and meaningful connections with leaders and peers across different business units. “The connections helped me open doors to new opportunities.” Inclusive Benefits: As Frednise’s career advanced, she wanted to join a company where she could bring her true self to work. “I felt that [Salesforce] integrated with my life.” As a new mom, Frednise raved about Salesforce’s generous parental leave policy. “It helped me perform at a higher level at my job because at the end of the six months I knew I’d be ready to go back to work and give it my all.” Frednise was impressed with the thoughtful benefits available to new parents. “Salesforce offers guides and support for things like sleep training that helped ease my transition back to work and connected me with other new moms every single step of the way. It’s incredible that we have these options.” Volunteering in the Community: At Salesforce, all employees receive 56 paid volunteer hours per year, which Frednise uses to give back to her community and create positive social change. “I enjoy volunteering with America Needs You (ANY), an organization that provides intensive career development and mentorship to low-income high school students who are the first in their families to pursue college,” Frednise shared. “I was the first in my immediate family to attend college in the U.S. because my parents immigrated from Haiti when they were in their 30s. Consequently, I was able to relate to my former ANY mentees on a personal level.” This is part of the company’s 1-1-1 Philanthropic Model: Salesforce donates 1 percent of its time, 1 percent of its product, and 1 percent of its financial resources to the community. Best Career Advice Ever Received “The best advice I received, and also realized early on, is that sometimes in your career, you’re not going to be going up a ladder. There are so many different turns that your career can take, but that doesn’t mean that you’re failing or not succeeding. I think any step that you’re taking in your career, whether a step back from a title perspective or pay, is a success if it’s helping you get to the end goal that you have for yourself. Even if you’re taking a step back right now, it enables you to take multiple steps forward in your future.” Initially, Frednise made a lateral move to join Salesforce, but she looks back now and sees that it was the best decision she could have made Learning From Frednise’s Success What can you learn from Frednise’s story? No matter what’s going on in the world, there are valuable lessons you can apply to your own sales career right now. 1.Focus on Customer Success and Your Own Success Will Follow “A lot of my success as an AE was listening to the client, building a relationship with them, and showing them that I have their best interests in mind. The solutions I can provide address the real challenges they’re facing,” Frednise said. 2.Build Relationships “One thing I’ve done to connect with clients is getting to know them personally.
Rise to the Occasion: Partnering Through Challenging Times
As any sales professional can tell you, our industry is constantly in flux. There are good and better quarters, moments when new accounts are coming in hand over fist and others when we have to roll up our sleeves and get creative in order to make an impact. In the sales world, we are familiar with fluctuation and change. We know how to innovate in response to what’s happening and now is the time to put those adaptive skills to good use. While the coronavirus pandemic has fundamentally changed the pace and pattern of daily life, as professional saleswomen we have the skills and expertise needed to navigate this challenging time. I want to share with you the story of another trailblazer, Tamara Scarlett, an Account Executive at Salesforce. Tamara was recognized by Salesforce sales leadership as Rookie of the Year. Tamara began her professional life as a recruiter, a position she credits with teaching her to understand how large organizations work and to pinpoint their needs. In her previous roles at AOL and Oracle Data Cloud, she learned the value of understanding and using data to drive growth, and made the transition from recruitment to sales. “I wanted to have a better understanding of data overall,” Tamara recalls. “I wanted to understand how consumers interact, how they respond, what excites them, how to motivate them and how to use this information to make strategic buying decisions for the brands.” With Tamara, data is the key to her success in sales — it transforms her work to show her clients evidence of how she can help them succeed. Smart data drives successful partnerships. Today, Tamara works at Salesforce, where she leverages her deep understanding of media as a unique area of expertise for the company. In her first year, she was named Salesforce Rookie of the Year, a major achievement in a company with so many different technologies to learn while working with customers. Tamara consistently networks and builds relationships both with peers and mentors who have supported her growth in sales, including Seanté Baker, the Regional VP of Commercial Sales at Salesforce, and a trailblazer in her own right. For Tamara, this mentorship relationship with another Black woman was key. “She really helped me sit down with the customer and take time with them to assess their needs, and create a really great relationship,” Tamara says. “I think that it’s really important to identify a couple of key mentors to help guide you through the inevitably challenging times in your career. As much as there are positive things inside of your sales career, you need someone who encourages you to be vulnerable.” Tamara also works with Seanté on the Executive Leadership Council, a handpicked group of women and men of color designed to further open channels of opportunity for the development of Black executives. The importance of mentorship in Tamara’s journey is clear, and it’s valuable for all women of color as they progress in their careers. In the Diversity Best Practices (DBP) 2017 Inclusion Index, 76% of companies offer formal mentoring opportunities, however, only 15% of employees who participated were women. With such an incredible start to her career at Salesforce, it’s clear the Tamara Scarlett is poised for success in sales and beyond. Connect with the team at Salesforce to learn more about sales positions and the Salesforce vision. Learning from Tamara’s Success What can you learn from Tamara’s story? No matter what’s going on in the world, there are important lessons you can apply to your own sales career right now: It’s All About Creating Partnerships! The best sales professionals know that this work is all about people. In challenging times like these, it’s important to reach out to each other with understanding and lead with compassion. With uncertainty on the horizon, the best way to weather this storm professionally is to be there for your customers, anticipating their needs and finding creative solutions to their current problems. 3 Tips to Partner With Clients Right Now 1. Hustle—With Empathy Yes, you’re going to have to hustle to keep going in this economy. Everyone is. But that doesn’t mean choosing opportunism over empathy. As you reach out to current and potential customers, be a problem-solver working in their best interests. Take the time to do your research, diving deep into their current problems so you can demonstrate your alignment with their needs. That extra effort will build your credibility in this crisis—and that won’t soon be forgotten. 2. Acknowledge Time and Place You can’t get anywhere with your clients without starting with their financial situation. Are they in the hard-hit travel industry, or are they in tech and possibly seeing growth? Whether you’re working to soften a blow or speed growth, use your insight into your clients’ current finances to position your value story and build trust. 3. Brush Up on Financial Fluency If you’re unsure of the economic impact of coronavirus on your client’s needs, you have homework to do! Study up on 10-K reports to see where you can provide solutions and drive strategic decision-making. You’ll also want to immerse yourself in your customer’s industry as it stands right now so you can speak their language when you reach out. Want to dive deeper on how financial insights can improve your sales outcomes? Sign up for our Financial Fluency Masterclass here! Your job won’t be easy in the coming months, but there is an opportunity to make a real difference for your clients during this time. Seize this moment to learn about their new needs and find timely solutions, and you’ll build partnerships that will last long after this crisis has passed. Here’s to selling Mastery, -Cherilynn Head of Education and Growth Cherilynn Castleman, Sales Trainer/Executive Coach, has been a sales executive for 20+ years. With a natural talent for teaching and a drive to sell, Cherilynn uses her skills to coach and train other sales professionals. Sistas in Sales, LLC (SIS) is a community for women of color sales professionals to network, advance their careers and most importantly, find sisterhood – offering events, thriving Slack community with companies hiring now,
Network of Trailblazing Women in Sales
When I think about trailblazers, I think about women of color who have forged new paths in fields that have previously been off-limits to them. Trailblazing women are among the first in their fields to try something new or take risks to pave the way for those coming behind them. This Women’s History Month, I want to share with you the story of a changemaker. I hope her story will inspire you to continue building your network and breaking new ground as a trailblazing woman in sales. A Salesforce trailblazer, Seanté began her career as a clinical researcher before discovering her passion for sales. After completing her undergraduate coursework with a pre-med focus, she started working as a Clinical Research Coordinator at the UCSF Headache Center in San Francisco. When asked to tackle the clinic’s lack of research trials, Seanté’s interest in sales was piqued. The leadership team was impressed with Seanté’s ambition and innovative approach to the project. Although she hadn’t taken any business classes, Seanté led her career with a growth mindset and a fearless spirit. A Fearless and Agile Force A quick learner and self-taught, she leveraged internet research, networked with clinical trial scientists and doctors, and built a team that executed on her vision and business plan. When she started at the UCSF Headache Center, there were no clinical trials. By the time she left, they were running six industry-sponsored studies (pharma and med device companies) and five investigator initiated studies. She hired a team and pitched contract research organizations and pharmaceutical companies on her team’s ability to find and enroll qualified patients. Seanté’s efforts generated ~$700,000 in revenue with a 95% patient retention rate and 100% patient enrollment. Seanté was so engaged with her new project, she realized that studying for the MCATs was the last thing on her mind. The clinical trial project unveiled her passion for helping others, not through medicine, but through providing solutions. From the headache clinic, Seanté transitioned to pharmaceutical sales and then to medical device sales. Although this new career path allowed her to combine both of her passions, patient care and solutions, she struggled with an ethical decision. Building her sales pipeline meant finding people for the operating table, and this was a hard reality to face. Living in San Francisco, Seanté saw the Salesforce logo everywhere. She looked up at a Salesforce sign one day and said to herself, “I’m going to work there someday!” Four months later, Seanté joined Salesforce as a Small Business Account Executive. With her curious spirit and can-do attitude, she sought out numerous opportunities to blaze trails. Seanté recalls spending her first month at Salesforce in October 2014 sitting with a solutions engineer because she had no idea what an API was. Application Programming Interface (API) is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. If you use an app to send an instant message, order a meal, or check the weather on your phone, you’re using an API. Despite having no technical background, no personal brand in NYC, and no established network on the east coast, she did not let this stop her career growth. How to Succeed in a Leadership role Here’s Seanté’s advice on how to succeed in a leadership role in a new market, for a new technology company: Seanté started with no technical background, but after two years as a Core Account Executive, she moved to the Heroku team in New York City. Now, this is no small feat. Heroku is one of the most technical products Salesforce has to offer. It’s a cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS) for developers to integrate their applications in several programming languages. After five and one half years of demonstrating leadership and bringing innovative solutions to the table, she is now the Sales Regional Vice President for Commercial Sales, Manufacturing. “I am proud of what I have accomplished”, Seanté shares. “I’ve worked and continue to work hard. I’ve always been ambitious and will always have goals. But that being said, I also had some guilt that came with the ‘success’. I was given adequate access and resources throughout my life that many women of color are not provided. I was well prepared for life in the corporate world. That’s why I am so passionate about helping the generations behind me – I feel that it’s my duty to give back and to show other women of color that it is possible to not only reach these positions but also to excel in them.” Seanté’s final piece of advice for starting a new role is, “Don’t overthink it…People are people – we have feelings, wants, and needs, and we all bring something of value to the table. If you come to work with empathy and you can see the perspective of others, you will be successful. If you can step outside of your comfort zone you will go far in life. That’s what gets deals done, that’s what makes the big sales happen.” To learn more about Seanté’s impactful work and what it takes to become a trailblazing saleswoman at Salesforce click here. In the spirit of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, here are five ideas to keep us successfully blazing trails: Five Ideas to Keep us Successfully Blazing Trails You have what it takes to be a trailblazer, to succeed as a professional saleswoman in your company both on your team and as an individual. Words to remember: build a community and network to ensure that you’re not the last. Lift as you rise. You have the power to create lasting change. Here’s to selling Mastery, Cherilynn Head of Education and Growth Cherilynn Castleman, Sales Trainer/Executive Coach, has been a sales executive for 20+ years, a natural talent for teaching and a drive to sell, Cherilynn uses her skills to coach and train other sales professionals. Sistas in Sales, LLC (SIS) is a community for women of color sales professionals to network, advance their careers and most importantly, find sisterhood – offering events, thriving Slack community with
Salesprenuership: How to get an idea launched using your professional sales skillset
Hey Sis! You may know me as the operational head behind the brand, Sistas In Sales, the event lead, the social media admin, the sales lead and the CEO. I’m writing this piece to discuss how your practical sales skills can help you launch a successful business and brand. Within one year, Sistas In Sales had secured over 20 sponsors (Google, Salesforce, Bobbi Brown, and BuzzFeed) just to name a few, launched a website/blog, a Slack channel and hosts quarterly events. Allow me to share with you how we got to this place, and what you can do to get your side hustle off the ground using your current sales skills! 1. Business Plan – As sales professionals, we have a good understanding of what our company’s business plan is from listening to the All Hands, attending company wide meetings or simply asking your manager where they think the company is trending towards. Use that same ambition to sit down and create your plan, there are dozens of templates online you can use to get you going, starting with this one. 2. Data is King – You need a database of information from your prospects, customers to successfully scale your brand. Larger companies typically invest in CRM systems like Salesforce. Sis, we can use good old fashioned Google Sheets to create a simple spreadsheet of names, phone numbers, roles, LinkedIn profiles and email addresses. 3. Elevator Pitch – If you’ve ever cold called (like my earlier days), then you know the value of truncating your value proposition into 20 seconds. Practice on your friends, and use this formula to come up with it. “My name is A, and I am B, I work with C to help them to D.” My name is Chantel George, and I am a professional digital media saleswoman, as well as CEO of Sistas in Sales. I work with women of color in sales and business to help them connect with other women of color saleswomen, provide an authentic sisterhood in an industry that lacks diversity, expose them to networking opportunities, senior black saleswomen in sales/business, and educational opportunities to perfect our craft. 4. Create content – Content can take different forms, social media posts, website pages or blog posts. I’m agnostic! Test all avenues and see what you can keep up consistently. The biggest tip here is to be consistent! 5. Tell your friends and family – Then tell them again. You never know who knows someone who can help you. My Bobbi Brown sponsorship came from my cousin who was interning there at the time, next thing you knew we had full size BB makeup in our first swag bag. 6. Create an LLC only IF you need to! Are you planning on opening another business account, make contracts under your business name or do you foresee suing people? If so, then create it knowing that this can be a costly venture. More information here. We hope these tips serve as a reminder of how to use your already amazing sales skills to launch your side hustle!
Realizing Your Self-Worth Both Personally & Professionally
By Sidney Garcia & Myrna L. Datilus Self-worth is an important topic that many tend to emphasize in reference to their personal lives but rarely mention in reference to their professional lives. Sidney Garcia, our last SIS interviewee, has collaborated with me on this blog post to discuss how to realize your self-worth within your sales career. I will explore her essay, “Self-worth as it relates to Sales & Success,” and I’ll add my insight below. In this post, we’re going to explore self-worth, why it’s hard to build, and how we can get over the challenges to developing it and owning it. Sidney mentions how we are forced to think about what self-worth really is it, and what does it have to do with our sales careers? It seems like everyone is talking about self-worth and self-love, but even with all the good reading out there and positive stories circulating the internet, the idea of deep-seated self-love is still a tough one to fully embody. Now, no matter who you are or where you come from, we all struggle with it to a degree, particularly women of color in the sales industry, but how do we really define self-worth? A sense of self-worth is like a personal thermostat around one’s comfort level with receiving. That could mean receiving respect, opportunity, promotions, love, pay, abuse, abundance, freedom…you name it. It’s both something you can feel and something you embody with behavior; you feel a certain level of worthiness, and how you feel will directly determine how you behave outwardly in the world. Those feelings become projected through our actions and behavior, and then people react to that behavior, like a mirror. It is similar to the Law of Attraction concept which is the ability to attract into our lives whatever we are focusing on. The main difference is that with self-worth you must not only believe in what you are attracting, but be in a position to receive it as well; this is something I personally struggle with when it comes to love, but that is for another blog post on a different platform. Wherever our thermostat rests is how we project our behavior onto the world regularly, and how we act then prompts people to respond to us in a similar way. This means so much in a career like sales when we are constantly interacting with other people. What we believe about ourselves is subconsciously picked up on by our customers, our colleagues, our internal resources, our managers, etc. It’s picked up on by how we show up to our meetings, negotiations, and strategy calls. Someone who is confident about their voice owns the room differently and isn’t afraid to share their opinions, expertise or ask questions, and others will reflect that back and listen. Someone who respects their own time will have different boundaries that other people respect when it comes to setting up meetings or sending an agenda ahead of time. Someone who believes in their value to the company will be more likely to receive a promotion because people will notice that sense of self-worth and then see it for themselves too. We generally have the power to attract certain people, promotions or pay into our lives by how we project ourselves into the world. It all comes down to our beliefs. Sidney gives us this example around money, one that blocked her from receiving the pay she deserved until she corrected it. Sidney’s parents are from Mexico and mine from Haiti, so it was very common to hear our parents complain about having to work very hard with over-time in order to make more money. On a subconscious level, this turned into the beliefs you have to work hard for money, money means my parents spend less time with me because they’re working, and the classic one my mom used to say, money doesn’t grow on trees. The hard-wiring events in our lives are so powerful on a very subconscious level, that I wouldn’t want to receive money because I don’t want the pain that’s associated to come with it. I might say on the outside “I want tons of money,” but my projected behavior and how I portray myself won’t be in congruence with that statement. Instead, I might complain about money, I might get nervous when it comes to paying the bills or I might not go after the promotion as hard because a deeper part of me doesn’t want to violate the value of being able to spend time with my friends & family…see the problem? There’s literally biochemistry happening in the brain that is working against the goals I say I want; it’s like an instinct. Negative or “incongruent” beliefs like this also exist when it comes to how we feel about ourselves, and they get in the way of our ability to receive respect, pay, love, or freedom every day. This is exactly why embodying something we “say” we want can be a lot more challenging than it sounds. Biochemistry is a powerful force of nature. I, like many women, am very dialed into my emotions, and yet- I never once let on to anyone that beliefs and insecurities like these were a part of my reality and on a deep level holding me back. That’s because I didn’t understand them. The good news is that you are so much more powerful than beliefs and biochemistry and once you’re aware of what they are, you can begin to change them. Over the next several weeks, Sidney will be deep-diving into how that self-worth directly affects our sales results and careers when it comes to showing up fully as ourselves, communicating with our customers, getting the promotions, and not depleting our energy — all challenges women seemingly have to face to a greater degree. She will be doing this through her business, The Blum Business Academy via her Facebook group, The Mastery of Relationship Sales. In this series, Sidney’s greatest wish is for women is to begin to understand their true potential that lies in their sense of self-worth. Her hope is that we can
Vision Statements: A SIStas Guide to Visualizing Your Future Successes
While the New Year is swiftly approaching, everyone is trying to figure out what their resolutions will be, how to become a better version of themselves in the New Year, and how to ring in 2019. This may be overwhelming for some if they have not given their New Year any thought, but for others, it may be more exciting since they have an exact idea of how they would like the New Year to pan out for them. My best friend and I have been discussing our New Years and now have officially planned how to ring it in since we want 2019 to be the best year ever for us. Since I will be spending it in DC with her, I brought up the idea of us creating vision boards together, but then she introduced me to something even more powerful; a vision statement. I have never heard of such a concept before therefore she directed me to an article featured on Medium by NYTimes Best-Selling Author, Luvvie Ajayi. After reading this amazing article I MUST write a vision statement and I cannot wait to see how everything comes into fruition for me and my best friend! As a SISta, whether you are planning your New Year alone, with your friends, or with your family, we want you to be able to plan out your new year in the best way possible. With that said, take the time to read the 5 key takeaways along with my elaborations on what I have learned after reading this mind altering article by Luvvie. I hope this serves as a reminder that it is important to write your visions down! Nevertheless, I hope everyone rings in the New Year in the best way possible and that everything you wite down comes to fruition. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year, SIStas!!
Happy Birthday SISta Edition: Our Founder & CEO, Chantel N. George!
Chantel Nicole George was born in the Bronx, NY to Dominican (Do-mee-NEE-can) parents who taught her at an early age to be a strong and assertive woman. The strength they taught her would help her cope when she lost her mother to breast cancer when she was only 9 years old. This experience would help shape Chantel into the bold, strong-willed entrepreneur she is today. In honor of keeping her mother’s legacy alive, and to bring more awareness to cancer in the Caribbean, in 2013 Chantel volunteered in Dominica for The North-South Breast Cancer Initiative Workshop. As an advocate for change, it was, and still is very important to Chantel to be a part of a mission that helps to bring exposure to not only breast cancer but all the cancers that have attacked loved ones in the Caribbean. Chantel volunteering in Dominica at The North-South Breast Cancer Initiative Workshop in 2013. Outside of Ms. George being a change agent, in 2011, Chantel created her first business called, “Chantel’s Hair Creations.” This business venture opened doors within the fashion industry, and with her keen eye for opportunity, she was able to experience Fashion Week in NYC as a hairstylist! After being bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, Chantel realized that she can do anything she puts her mind to. After a few years of working in the fashion & beauty industry, Chantel decided to put her hairstyling business on hold and venture into the sales industry as a successful sales professional. Over the past 5 years, she has worked for companies such as Yelp, Justworks, and currently, Dataminr as an Enterprise Account Executive. While working in sales, Chantel noticed a deficiency when it came to women of color in professional sales positions, therefore she decided to alter the industry by creating “Sistas in Sales” (SIS) at the beginning of 2018. Chantel states, “Ever since I was young, I’ve always been selling, but I never predicted I would end up being a professional salesperson. From selling piano lessons to the neighborhood kids, to movie tickets as a teen, to now technology to the Fortune 500.” Chantel has come a long way! She did not settle for but instead chose to disrupt the sales culture and narrative surrounding women of color in the sales industry. Ms. George is a woman that does not let any of life’s challenges hold her back from accomplishing any of her God-given dreams but instead forges towards them with a vengeance. One of the many things I love about Chantel is that she wants to take people along with her on her journey towards success. She is not selfish with her knowledge but very selfless, and when she puts her mind to something, no matter what the obstacles faced, she will get it done! Chantel truly believes in the power of sisterhood! She has built a community filled with women from across the country in the profession of sales. These women now have a resource to rely on and connect with. Due to being raised in a single parent household as the only child, Chantel has been determined to never have another woman walk alone in their journey towards success as she had to do at the beginning of her career. She now has many SIStas she can reach out to through SIS. Outside of being a sales Superwoman, Chantel loves to cook, wine & dine at nice restaurants, travel, and spend quality time with her family, friends, and boyfriend. To learn more about her adventures with SIS, follower her using the handle @sistasinsales, and to follow her and her travel adventures, use the handle @chantelmedia. Chantel, keep up the amazing work you are doing. You are leaving an amazing footprint in this world and it is so inspiring to watch your growth. I am blessed to call you not only my friend but my Sista!