Janice Porter: Jean. Hello everyone, and welcome to this
week's episode of relationships rule. My guest this week is Jean
Wright, and Jean and I have had a chance to visit a couple of
times, and I'm quite excited to share with you Jean's knowledge
and wisdom around selling, and not just selling, but selling
with confidence, and selling your confidence. And a little
bit also about Jean is that she is a well, let me just read a
little bit about her on her bio before I bring her to the table.
Jean is now a sales confidence builder, and as a speaker, is on
a mission to empower women's groups and solopreneurs alike,
showing them how to tap into their unique strengths and
become more confident in their sales abilities. She coaches
female entrepreneurs who are new to selling or feel stuck when it
comes to asking for the business. That's a big one. I
think Jean creates impact by transforming their mindset
around selling, empowering them to develop authentic
relationship, building skills, and helping them approach sales
with greater confidence. There is a lot more to Jean to Jean,
and I'm going to get into that with her. So welcome to the
show, Jean.
Jean Wright: Thanks so much Janice for inviting me, and I'm
looking forward to our conversation. Absolutely, I'm
Janice Porter: going to show the audience. I'm not well show the
audience. I'm going to show it for my purposes. I'm not on
video. But Jean has written this book called selling your
confidence forging a successful sales career from mint cookies
to martinis. And I love that which kind of spills the beans
about when you first started selling, because I remember
those Girl Guide cookies. And in fact, I just bought some of
those mint cookies last week from a Girl Guide locally.
Those, we call those here the American cookies, because we
didn't used to have them here. We only had the the chocolate
and vanilla basic cookies. Do you do you get those two or no?
Oh, there
Jean Wright: are. There's a variety of choices, and the mint
is probably one of the most favorite. Yeah, my favorite of
all the cookies. Yeah.
Janice Porter: So I want to start Jean by reading a little
quote from the from the preface of your book, because this is
what grabbed me. What I found is that selling is not about being
aggressive or shifty like a used car scammer. It's all about
having confidence in your ability to make connections with
your customer and sell well. And really making connections and
building relationships is what I'm all about. And so that just
sort of, you know, speak, it sings to me when I hear that,
because selling hasn't always really been that way. And I
wondered, after reading your book and and talking to you, I
wondered if, if selling was more in that, in your terminology,
aggressive, when it was more transactional, and some people
are still that way, but now it has shifted and it is more
relational. So I want to know your talk, your take on that.
Jean Wright: I think that our culture, unfortunately has
cultivated throughout the decades the image of the
aggressive salesperson, and usually it's a man that we have
the image of a lot of women I know carry the baggage of the
experience they've had with the salesman or the salesperson who
was forcing them to make a decision they weren't ready to
make. They intimidated them because they had them feel like
they knew more than they did. So yeah, who am I to not buy this?
Because I don't understand it, so I'll just go with what they
tell me, and then now they're going to take my money. So there
is an unfortunate image that remains in our psyche about the
salesperson. And when women tell me, I am not a salesperson,
that's what they're thinking of. They're thinking of the sales
person. They've had the experience went with that was,
unfortunately, a bad and we're being sold to all the time, but
when we make the big ticket item purchase, or we're just not sure
about the product and what it's offering us, and we feel we're
being forced into a decision, then we get that, oh, that's a
salesperson. They're forcing me to do something. And women don't
have to be that way, and most likely, they're not. They're not
using those personality traits that they think they they're
really not that person, but they think they have to adopt those
traits to be a salesperson, and so that's where they have that
fear of, I'm not. A salesperson. I can't do this, and it's that
turns into a negative instead of a positive experience,
Janice Porter: for sure. It makes me think back to the the
door to door sales people and the I mean, they're in your
home, but they kind of have you can't leave, right? So how much
that intimidation and so forth goes on back in the day? I'll
never forget this. This is kind of an aside, but when I was
young, newly married, and very mad at my husband, and it was my
starter marriage, not the one I'm in now, I um, a vacuum
cleaner salesman came to my door, and I was so mad at my
husband that I bought the vacuum cleaner. Like, that's how, you
know, like, they they were so, like, overpriced in those days,
but it was just one of those things. I'll never forget that.
Anyway, that's an aside. Okay, so you describe yourself as a
confidence builder, share a little bit about your journey,
because your book talks all about the different sales roles
that you've had, and how each one of them really has a played
a role in building your confidence. And so now you teach
other women, mostly, I think, to although I know you do sales
teams, and there may be men on there too as well, right? But
you teach them how to boost their confidence,
Jean Wright: right? And I don't think that sales as a profession
has a the reputation as being a noble type of career because of
that image of the salesperson. So when I was in college and I
was learning about getting into the field, I wanted to get into,
which, in my case, was communications and the media.
You know, it was all about, let's train you to be on the
air. Let's train you to be in production, all that. But guess
what? There are people out there that are selling advertising so
that they'll pay your salary. And so there wasn't the
description of all the options to all the career paths to go
into in a sales realm. So I kind of found myself in it by
accident, you know, working with people who are looking for a
sales rep, well, what's a sales rep or marketing rep? That was
like the term. We want you to go out and talk to people in the
neighborhood or in the city and tell them about our services and
bring them on as a client. And you have to know that we are the
best product ever, and we're going to change their lives. And
it's going to be, we're we're going to compete with everybody
else, but you're going to tell them we're number one. And you
know where I had that first opportunity to do that, in
Washington, DC, in the biggest town I've ever worked in at the
time, it was one of my first jobs, and I was sent out on the
street, and there I was knocking on doors, presenting myself, and
what I realized was the reason I was hired was whenever the man
who owned the business said to me, eventually, I said, so Why
don't you hire me? Because I came from out of town. I was
just looking for a job to get started. He said, You know what?
You dressed for success. You and in that town, in the town that I
that I was in Washington town, the city, it's a very
conservative and very dressy business place. And so I, I
adopted that look because I knew that's what they're looking for.
So the dress for success stayed with me, and I felt
professional. I felt like I was representing his brand the way
he wanted me to, and I was speaking the way he had. They
had trained me to speak about the business. So that confidence
I was given, kind of an approval on how I presented myself, and
then I took it from there to present my confidence in the
business that I was representing. So I felt good
about myself. I got that little bit of approval that helped me
walk out the door, and then I had to knock on those doors to
talk to the people about the business. And the more
experience I had opening the door and presenting myself and
talking about the business and telling them why we were the
best in town, was how I just developed my style, why people
like me. There were things that I just took through my career as
to why people wanted to work with me. I didn't really know
what it was, but it was something about how I presented
myself, my knowledge, my warmth and that I care. About building
the relationship so that we could work together. Made the
difference. Okay? So I
Janice Porter: wanted to break that down a little bit, because
my um perception of sales has always been, well, in one
aspect, there's I have my own experience in another model of
selling. But this, I'm thinking traditional. And I'm thinking,
if you want to make money, this is my head, if you want to make
money, get into sales, because you're you're not limited, as
you are, in a salaried position. But some companies it's salary
anyway, and some companies it's salary plus commission, and some
is just commission. But the real sales people are on commission.
They only have themselves to answer, you know, like, right,
right? It's all related to how much they do and and the sky's
the limit, and that's where the money is. That's my perception
that going along the years and and so you have to be confident
in yourself and in what you can do to be able to be successful
in that now, when you were doing that particular job, and it was
you early in your career, were you probably on on salary,
probably not on commission at that point,
Jean Wright: right? We received a salary plus commission on on
our accounts, okay, but the
Janice Porter: thing that I'm quite I'm going to ask you is,
were you that early on, were you not attached to the outcome? Did
you learn that early on? Because to also be a good salesperson, I
believe you have to not be attached to the outcome,
otherwise it can bring you down. And then you you know, like I
knew someone once who was selling. I think it was life
insurance. And he'd make a sale, and then he'd go celebrate as if
it was a like, you know, a big deal. Well, that's his job. He
was supposed to be selling. So you don't stop and celebrate and
then do nothing for another month, you know? Yeah,
Jean Wright: right, right. Well, I was the first time, but
interesting lately enough, I said to this boss I had, it was
a husband and a wife who owned this big this company, and I was
so proud of myself that I was bringing a new business. And I
said to him, Wow, isn't it great, you've got some new
clients that I brought in. He said, That's what I hired you to
do exactly. Now continue doing that exactly, and then I kind of
set the bar, because he appreciated it, but said, Well,
yeah, that's what I expected. And and I was so excited,
because, of course, this is exciting. I bring in business.
So the next level was after I established my accounts, and
after I was doing well, we have another office. We're going to
open. We want you to go and run that office right? Do I have a
choice? No, we have a lot of confidence in you that you can
do this for us, and we're going to send you there now. And so
the next, the next level of the bar was set. And you know, it's
almost like Be careful what you're doing, you're asking for
the next challenge. But I wanted that, and that's what turned
into be I love the thrill of the hunt, and I also like the next
challenge. So it was bring in more. I really love getting, you
know, bringing in the new clients. But I wanted more
responsibility, and I wanted to test my skills to lead people,
to manage a staff and to conquer a new territory. How exciting
was that I conquered that other one, and now I'm moving on to
the next one. So that was really wonderful to feel that way in a
doing this new and I never sold like that before, being
successful and getting the confirmation from the employer
that I can even do more, because they saw that in me. They saw
something in me that they knew I couldn't help them achieve more
for the company, of course, they want to make money, of course,
and I wanted to branch out and and see what I could do with
that. So I was grateful for the opportunity that they offered
me.
Janice Porter: Do you see today in the I'm sure you're you come
across a lot of younger people that you're training or that
you're meeting and that you're speaking, do you see anything
specific that's different in them today than when you and I
were younger and when you were first starting out? Do you see
anything major that's different? Yeah.
Jean Wright: I see and the younger women that I talk to,
they have they don't always have the support from like how they
were brought up to feel good about themselves in what they're
doing to promote themselves, present themselves. They need a
little more help with that. I was very fortunate, because my
mother had a business mind, and she was always telling me how to
dress and look professional, speak the right way, so that
people understand you're intelligent. And there are women
that don't get a lot of that really, or just from well, some
of the ones that I work with, and not that they're not
professional on how they are now in their career. But we need
help from every what, every area you know. We need mentors,
people that we work with. But we also need that basic because I
can sometimes look at somebody and think to myself, why did you
walk out the door looking like that today. I would not, I would
not present myself today looking that way if you were going to a
meeting. And I don't know if they don't think about it in
those terms of the professional look. I don't mean to wear a
jack suit jacket. I know what you mean, representing your
brand, or, you know, kind of understanding that we're not
always casual. We need to look the parts, and I find that the
hardest thing to face with some younger people right now. Well,
Janice Porter: that's interesting, because I wouldn't
have thought that being that prevalent, but because style is
different today, for sure, as what is, yeah,
Jean Wright: there's professional casual style too.
Yes, okay, yes,
Janice Porter: for sure. And I mean, first impressions, right?
First impressions,
Jean Wright: that's the thing. That's the thing. And if they're
saying I'm not getting respect in the meeting, or they don't
seem to want to refer me to anybody, they're not taking me
seriously. And I think to myself, you're just not looking
the part. Yeah, so let's that's up. That's up at a bit. And it's
not because you're a woman, it's, I think men and women, I
have to be aware of that. But I'm talking to women about
confidence, and I think if you can feel good about yourself and
how you look, that's just the first step, for sure.
Janice Porter: I also think, I also think it's different in the
east to the west.
Jean Wright: We're very different. Yes, we're
Janice Porter: laid back over on the West Coast, you know, we, we
don't like Vancouver, but we're kind of like Hollywood north.
We, we look at, you know, we're west coast, outdoorsy, you know,
casual. We're not like Washington, DC and New York and
Montreal, right? I agree with you, different, yeah, but, but
it's just, and then also you look at, you know, the the likes
of Steve Jobs and what he presented and and, yes, now that
kind of the the Silicon Valley. Look, you know what I mean?
Yeah, well,
Jean Wright: yeah, but, well, I think what I'm getting at is
more the confidence in no idea how you feel about yourself. But
I do agree with you, because I did work on the West Coast. I
worked in LA for one of my jobs, for a year in Hollywood,
actually. And there I was coming from Washington, DC, all
buttoned up a few decades ago, but, and I'm looking at this
executive that I'm speaking with, and she's just a whole
different style and a look. And of course, it's the
entertainment industry, yeah. But it was shocking and it was
different. And then I had to adjust myself into, okay, this
is how I'm going to dress myself. And it was so
professional, but it was a different style. Yeah, totally,
Janice Porter: yeah. That's why they call them the suits, right?
Because the executives are the only do that in, right, right.
Okay, so confidence and trust go hand in hand. How do you help
people foster genuine trust in relationships, whether personal
or professional and and what tips do you have for maintaining
trust over time?
Jean Wright: I think trust occurs with Okay? In an
interaction when you're speaking to somebody, and you, first of
all, if you're representing a product or a service, you have
to believe in it, and you have to understand how it works, so
that you know what it is that you're presenting to them is
going to help them and it's going to solve their problem.
Okay, so right away, when I'm being open and honest about
that, not thinking, Oh, I'm going to make a commission off
of this, and I better get through this quickly, because I
just want them to buy it. That's not the way you want to come
across. You want to you want to be able to listen first to what
their problems are. Are how you can solve that with the products
or services you're offering. And that, I think, is the beginning
of developing the trust and explaining to people that you
have clients that have found your product to help them as
well. And you know, talk about the story that you can relate
to, who you've helped, how they've improved their life, or
whatever it is that you're offering that's going to make a
difference. And having that one on one and that direct. And then
here's another thing about just being in person is that eye
contact and showing people that if I'm talking to someone and
they're not looking at me and they're looking down and they're
trying to convince me to do something, it's just really hard
for me to trust them and being sincere. And I think women have
the ability to have that sincerity and empathy, and they
should use it to their advantage to pull people in, so that you
can start developing that trust and that relationship that bonds
people together, and they feel that okay, they've explained
everything to me. They're looking at me. They're, they're,
they're feeling my pain, and I think I'm going to trust the
fact that they're going to help me. And there's a lot of body
language involved too. So, yeah,
Janice Porter: totally. But if you're not in person, then it's
your voice and your influence. Yeah,
Jean Wright: exactly right. Yes. It's
Janice Porter: funny. I went to my husband, I went to a store
the other day to I have to get new tires for my car. And we
went to this place that was he'd been to a few places to check
out or he called to get pricing. And then we went to this place
that was close by, and the woman that helped us at the service
desk, young woman, and she started telling us the
difference between the different tires and what she recommended.
And I loved her confidence in what her and she knew her
products, that that's what convinced me, that that's where
I wanted to bring my car. And yeah, and you know, in that
environment, she was a woman, which was unusual, and she, she
really knew her stuff. So I, when I phoned to make the
appointment, I made sure that I talked to her again, and I asked
her a couple other questions and and what she, you know, I just,
I was impressed with that confidence.
Jean Wright: Because, number one, you didn't expect in that
industry, right, there would be a woman who was so knowledgeable
about that, and I have talked to women who own businesses. They
they are businesses that you would not be traditionally,
yeah, be run by a woman, or work there. And they do have and then
those women, sometimes, you know, they come from a diverse
background, and then that's another thing that's not in
their favor. When they're trying to talk to people and be like, I
know my stuff. I am knowledgeable. And really you
have to look past my you know, my color, or that I'm a woman,
my gender, you know, and that is very difficult for many women
today, who are owned businesses that are unconventional for a
female to be part of, and it's, it's a bit of a struggle, but
they're the ones that I know that that do these businesses,
that run these businesses. They are straw. They are women that
have a purpose, and they're just going to keep you know, showing
that they they are confident about what they know about their
product, and that they're going to help you, and that you know,
you don't have to think about the fact that a woman is, you
know, and it's a non traditional role, right, right? There's a
lot of things people overcome today that's an issue, but I see
some confident women out there that are very successful. And I
I'm just like, you. I'm like, yay. This is great.
Janice Porter: That's really good. I remember few years ago,
several years ago, I did some teaching up at an extension
program up at the local college, and it was an entrepreneur group
of people, and one of the I was asked to come in and talk about
networking. And I'll never forget this, because I had the
the class break out into groups. This is in person. And you know,
as if they were at a networking event, and I would go around and
sort of talk to each group and see what they were up to. And
there was a woman in this small group of people who kind of
stood back a little bit, and. She was from Iran. I think it
was. And so there's a lot of Iranians that had moved to
Vancouver. A lot of them had come from Uganda and whatever at
this later times. And so they were here, and she was, she, I
said something to her about, you know, not taking part, and she
wasn't. It was a cultural thing that she that I hadn't learned
about at that point, and I realized how strong it was for
her, and that she had to be behind the men, she had to be
deaf, deferential. Is that the word Yeah, yeah to them, and to
be in North America and learn those customs is hard and
difficult and brand new for women in that that come from
those kinds of cultures. So that was a real eye opener for me
back then, that you know, that woman could be a real confident
woman in certain areas, but she'd never been able to be that
way. So when they come here, it's very interesting, I think,
to see so many women. In particular, I have this thing
about when, you know, when in Rome do as the Romans do, but
it's very hard for a lot of them to do that, because they go home
to to their family, in their home in, you know, Vancouver, or
wherever they are, and it's still traditional cultural so
they don't, yeah, so do you ever come across that today, even
with women from other cultures, because they're everywhere. So I
just wonder,
Jean Wright: well, yeah, I know a woman who is from South
America, and she worked in a construction she came up to the
United States and started like in Florida, and then she kept
going north, but she talked about working in an office in a
construction kind of business. And then she got to really
understand the inner workings of how the construction business
is. And she felt very confident that she could maybe go out on
her own and build a business of her own. And so she, she did
that. And so she had to overcome those stereotypes first that,
yeah, she she had a, you know, she has an accent. She's from
that country. So right away, a lot of people just think maybe
you're not educated, and that's not the case at all. And then
that she was a woman, and what did she know? And she really
felt like there was a lot to overcome as an immigrant and
then as a woman, and then in the construction industry. So wow,
Unknown: a lot of No, yeah,
Jean Wright: there's a lot. There's a lot. So I've seen
Janice Porter: that in the automotive industry too, where
women right? Just yeah. So you must speak to, do you talk to,
like the sales managers? Do you talk to the business owners who
are looking to help their teams increase?
Jean Wright: I focus more on entrepreneurial women, okay,
because I find they wear so many hats. They have a passion for
their product, and they're really excited about it in the
market, putting it in the marketplace, and then they say,
oh, but I've got to sell it. And that's where we get that fear of
I don't have time to be a salesperson. I don't have money
to hire somebody to sell for me, but I have to do it, and I have
to figure out a way to sell, and it's frustrating to them. So
it's a little bit sorry.
Janice Porter: I'm sorry. I
Jean Wright: know that's fine about this,
Janice Porter: because, um, if it's their own business or their
own service, their own product, you would think that they were,
they're certainly passionate enough about it that they would
that that would come naturally. But I guess it doesn't.
Jean Wright: They don't want to ask for the money. They don't
that's the worth. Am I worth it? How much do I charge for this?
There are a lot of women out there who coach. There are a lot
of women who have businesses that are service oriented. They
have to set pricing. They don't know for sure. If it's where am
I in the marketplace? Maybe I'll just start them out for free
first and see where it goes. I mean, we all like to give
something. Oh, you're so right. You're so right, yeah, okay. And
I think it's how we grow up, like, don't ask for money for
that. Like, what do you know? You don't have all that
education that you should feel worthy to ask for that. And I
think even when we're doing our our life dream you think, Oh, I
know so much. I just give it. I'll just give my knowledge away
for free. And that's not fair. Think of how much your knowledge
and experience is worth.
Janice Porter: I actually experienced this yesterday. I
had been referred a client, a prospect, had been referred to
me, who owns he's a doctor, and he. He, He owns a clinic, a
couple of clinics, and we were talking about LinkedIn, and what
I could do for him to help him with this LinkedIn, because of a
project that was going on. And I said, this is what it would cost
to do my to do your profile. And he, he said, he, said, What did
he say? He said something about, oh, that's a little high, or
something like that. And I said, I said, really. I said, I tell
you what. I said, I am not the the lowest price, but I'm not
the highest price either. And I said, I think you'll get great
value out of what I will do for you. And I think you'll, you
know, whatever, but that, that's the long time coming for me,
because couple of years ago, if he'd said that to me, I might
have said, well, let's do it for such and such instead, I could
bring my price down, right? But it I didn't. And then he said to
me, he said, I'm from Nigeria, and I have to, I have to say
that. He said they're taught
Jean Wright: to do that, barter, negotiate, that's the thing.
Janice Porter: And I said, Thank you for sharing that. I said,
but I think that you'll find that it's worth it. And that's
all I said. So I have not job yet, but we'll see. You know
Jean Wright: that's like when people say that's too expensive,
well, but what? What were you expecting? How? What is
expensive to you? Because, and there are also people with
preconceived notions about when I was selling advertising for
television and then also advertising for print, and a
client that I'd been working with for print and then I
switched jobs, they'd say, Oh, I'm never gonna be able to
afford you. I can't pay for television. Do you even know how
much it costs? Well, I just know it's gonna be expensive. So
let's just talk, and it's educate you about what it is
that you're getting for the money you're spending. And
expensive to you, maybe 10s of 1000s of dollars. And that's
really what it was. They were thinking 1000s of dollars more
than it actually costs. And you need to have a conversation,
absolutely. Let's get down to what this is that we're
offering, and then what it's the value that you're going to
receive for that.
Janice Porter: And I love that, though, that that's a big issue
for women and their confidence is knowing what to charge and
being and standing in their power, yes, standing in their
car and asking for the sale. Yes.
Jean Wright: And you know, I'm happy to negotiate a bit on a
price point, but I don't want to devalue my product, because it
comes to a point where once I give it away, then what value is
left? Well, they're not. They're just getting a deal. And there's
Janice Porter: always benefiting you, and there's always that,
that thing, like yesterday, I had a little toddler, my
granddaughter's bike, her old bike has been sitting in the
garage at my house, and I said, we have to sell it. Let's get it
out of here. So I sold two of them, but the second one I was
saving because this guy said I'm coming next Saturday to get the
bike. I said, fine, no problem. Then he tells me his old girl
didn't want that color. So I put it up on Facebook marketplace
yesterday. In half an hour, I had six people that wanted the
bike, and this first one, the woman said, I'm coming to get
it. I'll be there in 20 minutes. I said, Fine. And it was like 50
bucks. And then when she came, gave me the $50 never even
looked much at the bike, other than my son already has a red
one. He'll love this red bike. And I thought, could I have sold
it for more? Like, you know, it's so
Jean Wright: funny when you go through and high so that when
you have to go down, it's you're still making, yeah, you know,
bit of a profit. I was just happy that it was
Janice Porter: going to a good home. But don't get me wrong,
but, but the thing is that you start to question, right? You
start to question yourself. Yeah,
Jean Wright: that was too easy. Wow, did I devalue that really
quickly. But, yeah, I think it just depends on your
circumstance. But I always feel that you can never go up, you
can always go down. And then you know how low you can go before
you have to say, That's my final, you know, call. So, yeah,
it's, it gets to be a little tricky sometimes. But the value
is, you definitely have to remember there is value
Janice Porter: so do you. Can you recall a story that one of
your clients went from non confident to confident and
shared with you something that was a big aha moment for them.
Does anything come to mind with one of your, your recent
clients,
Jean Wright: oh, I have some, someone I'm working with who was
transitioning from a job that thought you were
Janice Porter: gonna say, transitioning from male to
female. Oh, no, no, no. She
Jean Wright: was transitioning, which is fine. Yeah, that a job
that was uh. Uh, not going the direction she wanted to, and it
was a smaller practice, and she felt like it was a little more
male dominated, and she was being seen for who she was. And
she's young, but she has her credentials, and she has
opportunities that she was exploring. And she said to me,
you know, we talked about, how do you feel about yourself when
you're presenting yourself and standing up to people who are
should be treating you at their level, at the level you deserve,
and speak up about it. And she started doing that with the
person she was working for, and then she had an opportunity to
look into another position for a bigger company that would give
her more opportunity to show that her worth and to be on that
level that she needs to be. And I even helped her with her
resume, to to really just help her shine more, because she
needed that to present to the interviewer, and she just said,
I have to be honest with you, I don't get and this is the thing
about the support network that she needed to talk to, people
that loved her, that weren't there for her, you know, like
people that she Were in her family, she needed to look out
elsewhere to find some type of mentor that has been out there
doing things in the business world, like me. And it was I was
just doing what I felt was going to be helpful to her in every
way, to stand up to people, to show her value, because she has
value and to pump up her herself, but she talks about
herself and her resume and how she appears, even on LinkedIn.
We talked a little bit about that, and she just told me how
much everything that she learned from me and my book was so
helpful to her, and I just feel I'm doing it's good when you
have someone outside the box looking in, and I feel like I
did what I could that she asked me to do, and I did give her
what she needed, but to her, it was like a million dollars that
I gave her To help her feel more confident.
Janice Porter: So, yeah, that's the special kind of work that
you do, yeah.
Jean Wright: So I think the whole thing about selling is, I
encourage people to take a course on the basics of sales,
you know, networking, prospecting, present, presenting
a product, closing, asking for the money, follow up, customer
service, all that. But what they don't tell you. When you take
this training classes, and I've took many, taken many of them,
wherever I've worked, everybody has their way that they want you
to sell, right? But how do you really feel about it? You know,
it's a it's a lonely sport, I feel that whenever I've been on
a sales team, we're all in our we're on a team, but we're doing
our individual thing, and it's good. You're out there, yeah,
you're out there in the territory, or you're making the
calls, or you do but it's you have to motivate yourself. Yeah,
you have you get those days where you're not getting
anywhere, and you have to, you're constantly thinking and
doing that introspection of, what did I do right today? What
did I do right? How did would this have gone better? And
that's good, but you do have to work it on, it yourself a lot.
It's a lot of self motivation. And you know that you have to
report in you have quotas, you have team, Team contests, you
have all those things, but in the end, it's you that has to
produce. And how do you feel? And sometimes I speak with women
who look from the outside, they have it all together. They have
a professional feel about them. They seem to be successful in
their businesses, and then they tell me, you know, I really have
trouble asking for the money. It is the worst part of my job. And
I'm thinking, Well, you seem like you know what you're doing.
Yeah, not this inner thing. Or I can't do follow up very well.
I'm afraid to call people back. How long do I wait? Are they
ghosting me? Forever? Will I be able to close it's just and
nobody's really helping them with that, especially if they're
on their own and they have their own business, or they're one of
just maybe a couple people in an office that's small business. No
one's there to really train them and explain to them. Well, this
is how it works. This is what happens sometimes with people.
This is how you should think about it. And here are some tips
for doing some follow ups, and how to reach people and maybe
get an answer faster because you're asking the right
questions. So you know, those are the things that people need
help with.
Janice Porter: Yes, and it may seem really Elementary to you or
I, in some of those cases, I remember when I learned that and
I didn't formally learn how to be a salesperson. I did those
things that you did. I've taken a couple of sales courses, and
I've, you know, I've tried to learn, but it one was about I
mentioned earlier about not being attached to the outcome,
and the other one is, don't leave a meeting without booking
the next meeting, because it takes a while to the sales cycle
in different things is, is, you know, longer or shorter, and
with different people, it's longer or shorter, depending on
who's making the decisions. So, yeah, the follow ups easier if
you book the next meeting. I
Jean Wright: always say, once they walk out that door, they
may be gone forever, because you either did not set a mutual time
to reconnect, you didn't have a, you know, an idea of where you
stood in the process with them, and they're gone, or I'm just
going to take this I used to do some home based business
selling, and there would be women that would come to the
event, this is many years ago, but they would sit there and
say, um, I'm not ready to place an order, but I'm going to take
the catalog Home, and I'll call you. And I knew that was it.
They weren't going to I was probably never going to hear
from them again. I could call them and I would, but that was
their non committal. I don't think I can. I don't know what
their reasons were. They either couldn't afford it, they
couldn't decide, or they had a question about something that,
if I could answer it would help them make a decision. Yeah. So
there's so many reasons why people don't make a decision or
walk out the door, but you may never see them again. That's so
true. That's what I always say. Have that mutual agreement to
reconnect? Absolutely, one of the best tips I can provide.
Like you said,
Janice Porter: yeah, exactly. Well, this has been great. I
have one, two more questions for you. One is, what advice? What's
your biggest piece of advice? What's the one thing that you
love to share with people who struggle with self doubt and its
impact on their ability to market themselves or or sell and
build me meaningful business relationships. What's the one
thing for you? So this
Jean Wright: is just like a few sentences that I can tell you
that all kind of mean the same thing, but it's all about
understanding that you're selling every day, and just feel
positive that your sales skills are good, and just let go of
those sales images that are negative and holding you back.
And so as long as you're authentic and know that you're
the expert about what it is you have to offer that helps build a
more confident mindset, it's all about just talking to yourself
that you are the expert you you're selling every day,
whether you know it or not, and your persuasive skills will, in
the end, be helpful to you to get an answer make the sale. Use
that ability as a woman to be empathetic and and solve
people's problems. It's you have it and use it. It's there.
Janice Porter: Thank you. Okay. Last question, um, I love the
word curiosity. I think um, Curiosity can be the backbone of
good sales can be. I'm not saying it's the only or has to
be, but my question for you is, do you believe that curiosity is
innate or learned? And part two is, what are you most curious
about these days?
Jean Wright: Well, I think we all can be curious, but I don't
always think I am curious enough. I I've always interested
in learning, if that's being curious. I guess inquisitive is
another word for that. Just kind of wanting to know a little bit
more about something that I've heard about, or I love listening
to podcasts, so I want to I delve into, I really enjoy sales
podcast, believe it or not, and I like to learn more to help me
feel even more confident about what I'm telling people. Because
if I can get something I'm curious about, like, how do they
feel about this one particular aspect of selling? And I try to
match it and see if I'm also on that same wavelength, because we
all need a little bit of confirmation that what we're
talking about is true and it's also valid. Validates. Valid.
The more curious I am about well, how do they feel about it?
And there are some people that are writing books about this
too, where they're speaking about it, and I want to be sure
that I feel. Validated and also curious about their thoughts. So
I'd like hearing what people I love opinions. So I like hearing
other people's opinions so I can form my own opinion or change my
mind about something. So that's where my curiosity comes in.
Okay, in those areas,
Janice Porter: do you think it's innate or learned?
Jean Wright: I think it's more learned. I think you have to
work on it a little bit. Okay, that's
Janice Porter: cool. All right. So thank you again for being
here. Thank you to my audience. I'm going to put your book up
again for those who actually will see this, and for those who
don't. Jean's book is called selling your confidence, forging
a successful sales career from mink cookies to martinis. And I
would, I will put the link in the in the show notes so people
can buy it. It's worth it. It's a quick read, and it's
enjoyable, and it's really tells Jean story of how she learned to
be a great salesperson and and teach others how to do the same.
By the way, one last thing, I was at the grocery store the
other day, and there were two girls, they are selling mint
cookies, Girl Guide cookies. One was outside and one was just
sort of in the entrance. And I always watch these young girls
to see who's selling and who's just standing there. And it's
really a shame when they're just standing there and not
interacting with people because they haven't had any any advice
or training from their moms or the the leader to not be
aggressive, but show some personality and sell those
cookies so
Jean Wright: well. Yeah, in my opinion, too, I find more girls
seem to be more passionate about the cookies. I always tell
people, I wish we could continue to be 11 year olds as we get
older. For the girls who are just so they have no baggage,
they're just saying, buy those cookies. I love them. You're
going to love them too. How many boxes you want and asking my
favorite Yep, ask my favorite one. Yeah, exactly. So for the
girls that are putting themselves out there, I commend
them for just being themselves, being authentic, and if we could
carry that through our lives, I do meet some women today that
say I hated selling girls got cookies, and that's okay. I
mean, that just wasn't their thing. I guess they didn't get
trained, or they feeling like they had the support. But on the
whole, I do see a lot of excitement and enthusiasm from
the girls, and I feel that they need to bottle that and keep
that because in 20 years, they're going to need that
energy again, exactly,
Janice Porter: exactly, well, this has been delightful. Thank
you, Jean. Thank you again. And to my audience, if you like,
what you heard, let us know and remember to stay connected and
be remembered. You.