Great. So um as mentioned, my um topic today is why a role in sales is essential to your career attack. Uh And I apologize for the airplane noise. It's fantastic to hear people going places and getting out and about.Um but I am under the Heathrow runway so it sounds like you need to duck. So I'm Jody R Wilson and I am currently a global digital transformation manager that is a fancy way of saying sales. And there is a number of ways that you can communicate that you're in the sales profession that could be uh specifically saying sales manager, sales leader, sales team lead. But now there's all sorts of ways that people are engaging with the role and the title. So this is an example um as well as uh customer success manager or customer engagement manager is also really popular business development. Um Basically, the difference between sales and business development. Sales is a known entity with a known client that you're doing a transaction.

Business development is going to develop the business to interest your client into what you have to offer and entice them to have that conversation and to eventually get to a transaction. So it's a much longer cycle and it's more, um, prospecting and hunting for net new versus sales where it's transactional and things are happening because you've got what they want and they're looking at what you want. So, as mentioned, uh, I love this profession. It is a, it is a serious profession. It is a skilled profession and the skills that you learn within this profession will carry you through the rest of your career and set yourself up yourself up for success. It is absolutely a recognized skill set and recognized way of thinking that business leaders are looking for and business leaders are looking for diversity in that sales skill set. So for women in technology, um this is a, this is a great time and great opportunity for us to get more engaged and more involved in sales. So I am looking to educate, educate you uh and promote ourselves as women as being great sales leaders, great sales professionals, mentor and lead more women to enter and excel in sales. And I, I also wanna demystify it where it has had a bad rap in the past.

Um It's come a long way and unfortunately, the word sales doesn't really sound um serious enough or legitimate enough. And I, I wanna share with you how you can reframe that for yourself, but also why companies are still so um the sales team and the sales that results are so necessary to their business that it is going to be around. Um never say forever. But I, I think for a very long time, so a little bit more about me. Um I have a bachelor of kinesiology which uh has nothing to do with where I am today. So didn't know what I wanted to take in school. I was a strong athlete. Um I took a communications minor which helpfully uh hope held my grades up. Um But essentially, it's the science of human movement. Uh And so kinesiology was my first degree when I entered the energy sector in Canada. So I'm Canadian um and I was born and raised in Alberta, been in the Canadian energy sector for 15 years. Um We married uh I married an Australian and so we have connections to Australia. We lived in the US for three years and now we've moved to the UK. So right now I am sitting in Chiswick in London, UK and um have done my sales profession throughout the vertical industry of energy in all of these countries.

So my MB A actually is an MB A in global energy. And I took that right before leaving Canada and um that was a master's in business administration specific to the energy sector. So right now, my role is um selling enterprise software. So enterprise is a fancy way of saying your your entire um environment and all the business units need pieces of the software. So it, it threads through the entire business uh in South Europe, which uh the Mediterranean fantastic, the best territory in the world that I couldn't get to for the last year. Um But as of July 1st, I'm actually moving to the UK and Ireland Renewables Generation team. So I'm with ATTACH A DB. And the reason the bar stool is there is because my desire for sales started with my dad who I was probably eight or nine years old and he came home from work early. It was 233 o'clock. I was already home from school. And I said, dad, why are you home already? And he said, oh, I had to pick up some bar stools and bring them back to the house. I said, but you, you have a job. My mom was a nurse, um, and she worked for the municipality. And so she clocked in at 730 clocked out at 430. Like that was a regimented structure. And he said, well, I, I'm, I've got my numbers. I, uh, I can do whatever I want. My time is mine.

And right then that was when I'm like, wow, I want a job where I can bring bar stools home at two in the afternoon. So I don't know if your story of where you ended up is quite as exciting as that. But that is why the barstool is there. So the session takeaways that I just cut and pasted from the website. Um This is essentially the agenda for the rest of the session. So we'll go through each of these line items. Um And let's just jump right into it. So sales is got hardly anything to do with selling. So I want you to think about that for a second because it's that selling piece that everyone gets a little uncomfortable with. But nowadays, that's only 10% of what you do in order to do business to business sales. So I should also clarify. So we are talking about B to B sales where you're a corporation and organization selling and receiving goods from a corporate, another corporation and organization. We are not doing B to C which is business to consumer, the consumer being buying a TV or buying a car. That's not what we're talking about. Business to business sales involves all of these, what they're considered as soft skills, but communication skills, um conversational skills, asking those questions that tease out what it is that they're actually trying to solve and and what it is that is going on now that's making them finally say, oh my God, we gotta fix this.

So I just want to share with you that again, sales has hardly anything to do with selling. And when you look at this list of what sales actually is, who is fantastic at all of these skills, women, women make amazing sales people because the core 90% of what you're doing in a sales engagement is these elements of, of the job. And so we are head and shoulders above already ready to do a sales role based on knowing how to do these things. Um The commercial financial transaction is only 10% of the job. So that's the selling part where you're maybe signing off the contract, you're actually doing the transaction. The rest of it is, is building up to that ending. So I also started this topic and started thinking about what this really means by um this book, Shelly Aramba, who um is somebody that I couldn't really relate to? Because she had a goal to be CEO that she had had in her head at, at 16 years old. Um I'm 40 years past that and still not really sure what I'm supposed to do. So, uh I enjoyed the story. I thought that how she laid out her life and her milestones was impressive.

But one of the things that she had said in her book, that tweaked me was that when she was searching to be CEO and she landed at IBM versus Xerox tech companies that all the IBM currents and CEO S and executives, all of them started in sales. And so that got me thinking, why is that? Why are sales professionals so highly regarded and so well suited to ambition and, and uh career trajectories that lead you up to the top of our, our spheres of influence. And here's what I've come up with in a smattering of, of reading my own experience. Um So there is no research here whatsoever but, but there could be, and there may be um I just hadn't found it in time, but this is, this is why this is fundamental sales roles are fundamental to your career. Number one cash flow. So the balance sheet is the basis of shareholder value and the litmus test or the the the benchmark of companies between each other as competitive companies or the market that they're in, that's their, they live and breathe by the balance sheet. Sales people are directly inputting cash flow to that top line. So revenue earning uh a healthy balance sheet, top performing sales drive the company's growth because with more cash, they can do more things, they can invest, they can grow.

So th this is the the main piece of sales without a healthy influx of, of revenue and cash, that company is precariously uh unsustainable. So a healthy sales force and a healthy respect for sales and the role that they're performing is usually also really well rewarded by cash flow for you as the salesperson. So there is an equal respect and equal necessity for that top line growth, connecting with your customers.

This one is especially important in the tech sector because we've got all sorts of people who love to build really cool stuff and code really pretty and design um this really interlaced and and interlayer uh system of are they gonna buy it? Do the customers actually want that?

So the sales people act as that bridge and that go between between what the company is in business to provide and what the customer actually will pay for and buy. So your sales people in a tech world are hugely hugely important to act as that bridge and that liaison. And when I say be bilingual, I mean, take what the client says, make it understandable to the developers so that they can build what that is and vice versa. Hey, we're building and coding this piece of software to do this piece of functionality. Does this resonate with your client? And will they be able to care that it's being built? So that's where that skill set will always serve you to be able to connect with who is ultimately paying your bills, paying your salary, paying, you know, feeding into that top line revenue. And then the last one is I am wholeheartedly agree that it, it does set you up for career success. Because of the two previous mentioned, you are an invaluable asset, especially if you're doing your job well, if you're not doing your job very well, you will be punted. But in my experience, women make the best sales performers. They're much better in a sales team, much more collaborative with the customers. They're not necessarily out to compete. They're out to collaborate.

So there's i it's, it's a different mindset and it's much more suited to the way that customers are expecting to buy. Because if they have an interest in something they can go on the internet and get 80% of the stuff that sales people used to just spew out. They don't need it from us anymore. Now they need, how does this impact my business? What does this do to my top line and bottom line? Um What is this going to solve? And how future proof is it? So, those are the questions that you can engage in a conversation and, and ask, and then I also believe it's a great entry point. Sales is a great entry point. When I finished my bachelor of kinesiology degree, I took my resume to a headhunter who was a friend of mine who worked at the windsurfing shop and said, you know, he was, well, what do you want to do? Um II I don't really know. He's, well, what do you think you'd be good at? I said, well, my dad was in sales. Maybe I would be good in sales. Don't know. He goes great. I'm gonna put you in the office equipment industry. We're gonna give you a couple of years, see how you do. And if you do, well, I can move you pretty much anywhere if you don't do well, you know, that sales is not the right thing for you. That sounds pretty good. All right.

So I cleaned up and did so well. And was he moved me again and I was poached. I was recruited by my clients. You're always gonna be in demand as a salesperson. And obviously, with diversity, the diversity in sales needs to also be increased as it does across the board in, in many different roles in many different industries. So, yes, job security. I always feel and know that I will land on my feet and the sales that I've learned are absolutely used every day in work and life. So even if you become a tax accountant in three years, that role in sales, you will use those skills to influence your tax accounting team, your tax accounting process, your tax accounting auditors, that those skills will always be used. So who thrives in sales? Uh The type of people who thrive in sales, there isn't a one size fits all. I think everybody can do it. There will be strengths and people who have areas that they're not as strong in. But are you curious, are you interested in people? Are you interested in businesses? Are you interested in? How does that work? It does take a lot of creativity actually to be in sales? You wouldn't think so.

But you're trying to, you have to imagine how your solution and offerings fit their business needs and objectives and it doesn't just automatically go like this. It kinda, you kinda got massage things here. Take this bit away. Let's add this. It's so it's, it's, it is a creative process. Are you inspirational and influential? Do you enjoy making people feel like you've left an imprint on them? And, and that's they feel uplifted after having chatted with you collaborative communicative. We've talked about that already.

This huge, huge strength in women because dudes wanna compete, women wanna collaborate. That's, that's such a great way to um simply and succinctly separate. Why we are so uh I'm not gonna say much better, but why are we, we are so well suited to sales and then adaptable. You, you know, you've got to kind of think on your feet change with the markets change with your clients, self-aware. You are presenting, you're representing yourself and you're representing your company in front of a client. Are you self-aware enough to switch, not switch but like to be authentic, credible, but still notice that this something over here is not working. I may need to change my approach to do it this way over there and, and really be fluid and are you a storyteller? So do you like to say, you know, read stories and tell stories? Because that's what sales is. A great salesperson will tell you a story and you get it and you get the value and you get why you want to have this conversation. And then, I mean, this is like any job, I don't think this is exclusive to sales roles. But can you manage your time? Can you manage conflict? Can you manage stress? Can you manage expectations? So, expectations, internal, about meeting a customer's deadline, customers expectations about them getting what they want stress? I mean, that's in any job, I think nowadays conflict, you know, can you diffuse situations that may be, you know, escalating. Um And time, of course, that's my favorite part.

You know, you, you do the job and you can manage the rest of your time. So the other uh topic that I thought I'd touch on today is the importance of mindset in sales because that I think is also a barrier to why people maybe don't wanna do sales and they're a little hesitant and they think that it's maybe not for them. So I wanna give you some reframing and some, some ways to show up in front of that client and know that how you think and what your mindset is will come across and therefore be a, a positive experience for both of you. So for me, I, I really truly do enjoy people and I, I, I've never had any stranger danger and, and I can talk to anyone and everyone and I, and I approach them with the same mindset. You're just somebody I haven't met yet. But I, I think you're probably gonna be cool and I think that we're probably gonna have a truth of shit about something and great, like I'm I'm genuinely interested in meeting new people. So I've hung my hat on prospecting, which is the ability to hunt for net new business uh as my kind of secret sauce and, and superpower because that's my mindset and it's genuinely how I feel about talking to somebody I've never met and picking up the phone or what, whichever so other successful sales mindsets again where women are really strong is collaborative.

How may I serve? How can I help? And so if you show up and, and know that I am requesting to, I know that I have something that can help you, you know, how may I serve that comes across? And that client is now like, oh finally, this is a question, you know, this is a challenge I've had forever. And now I have somebody who's going to help me. This is fantastic credible. How may I educate? So I, you know, I'm not gonna waste your time with a bunch of small talk. Yes, we need to build rapport, but I don't really care about how often you've sailed in the last 12 months and that's disingenuous. So let's actually cut to the chase and I'm gonna save you time with my expertise and industry insight because you have this particular piece that I've already researched and prepared for this call to discuss. And I would like to share with you my credible expertise on the on the topic that will open so many doors uh again, because they're finally, somebody's here who's not talking BS and can point me in the right direction and then confidence, confidence is universally attractive and interesting to engage.

So even if you are not, you may not know everything that you feel like you need to know. So you're, you're maybe feeling a little shaky on your credibility and you're not quite sure how you can help. If you show up confident, you can also confidently say, how is this conversation going to benefit you? What can I do? Like people will respond to that and will respond to the question and respond to the confidence that you portray of. I know that there's value in having this conversation. Let's find out what that value is together. So that mindset always is a beautiful way of doing business and a really fun way to do your job. So that is it for me. Um I wanna thank you for joining. I'm not sure how many people I'll stop sharing and see. Um I'd like to open it up for Q and A. I'm assuming we can do that or maybe it's in the chat. I also wanna throw out there. I put my linkedin on there. Um Any mentorship that anyone is seeking, I wanna put my money where my mouth is in regards to promoting and, and um exciting new people to join the sales industry. So if you have any sort of um kind of percolating on a sales role or are new or trying to put your foot in the door somewhere and wondering if sales is for you or you just would like to have other career mentorship.

Um I'm gonna open up my uh calendar to between three and five folks to, to have chats and discuss what this means to you and, and how I can help and, and how I can maybe share or create, help you craft a mindset that says, yeah, let's give this a bash. I think this would be good. So I'm gonna stop sharing. And where did everybody go? Yeah. Oh, there we go. Hello, everybody. Yes, Halo mentioned selling to everyone around us. Absolutely. Yeah. And right now I'm selling my 12 year old on how not to be on screens for six hours a night. Thank you, Shell. Thank you, Jen. Great. So it looks, thanks Collette looks like we had I think 15 people or I don't know what the one of nine versus 15 is, but that sounds great. Enjoy the rest of the conference you guys and we'll uh hopefully cross paths again. 0, 19. Great. Thanks Shell. I don't know how to do that. Thanks, Kendra. Thanks Efa.

It sounds like you got sent off your player. Uh for no count.

We got one question here. What is your favorite part of sales? Oh, I guess I don't need to type it. Um Prospecting. So prospecting is the art of finding new clients for whatever business you're representing. And the reason I chose to hang my hat on that. And I, I found out early that I was really good at this and, and it is a part of sales where you have to usually account manage, which is called farming, um maybe 60 to 80% of what your territory is. And then you need to go out and find, you know, 10 to 20% of new customers to bring in that new cash flow. So when I was in office equipment, I had a downtown territory and I would take a bunch of business carts and a bunch of brochures and I'd go to the top of the building and I'd work my way down and I would prospect I would cold call the entire building. My favorite was when they had do not solicit on the outside of the office window. And I would say, hey, I see your sign and I don't want to bother you. Can you just let me know when your photocopier or your mailing machine is expiring? Your lease is expiring and I will come back and, and I'd love to chat. Is that ok with you? Absolutely. Then they start bringing out everything right then and there, like I, I walked away with a couple of three days of administration but deals and business.

So the, that, you know, when, when I shared that with the success of that team or that group. They said that that's weird, Jody, people don't normally like doing that. So knowing that that was my differentiator as a sales professional, that's what I focused on. So for my next role, I will be looking for net new renewable generation departments within existing clients, net new contacts so that we can get net new business and then we start feeding that top line again. Thank you for the question. Um The link to book your calendar. I'm not sure what that means, Halo. But uh thanks Jody. How do you usually involve tech experts products? That's a great question. And one of my favorite roles was when I was um I was actually director of Innovation at uh a shop that was trying to kind of integrate six products, lots of developers, lots of software engineers. And I this is where the speaking bilingual came to me where I come back. And I say this is what they want and it doesn't, it doesn't compute so to have somebody who is technical background, but then can accompany you to those calls. I find doing anything in tandem is much better because you've got two different perspectives. It's why diversity is so important and why diversity is, is being pushed because it's better performing.

And so when you go to those meetings, um I always like to take a tech person with me and then we can kinda deconstruct what did that client actually mean by that. And how does that actually relate to a product or a piece of fun functionality that we need to co to build ourselves or code or develop? So that's how the, the tech, our Hitachi A DB, I've got to say is fantastic with our technical and sales um collaborations, um product managers, yes, product managers, very similar, but they seem to almost be too late. So um I don't know how to fix that because they are essentially driving the road map for products. But um they're, they're not connected to the client enough to have that road map reflect what the market is asking for. So that is a great question. And one that I think is a ponderous one for many companies. I don't think it's just our problem or problems in the companies I've worked for before. I think it's a, it's a challenge across the board. Um Yeah, for mentorship purposes, just send me a note on um linkedin. So my linkedin is just Jody Red Wilson.

If you search for me, you'll find me and um jump in that with that, you can just send me a note and I'll, and we'll, we'll chat about that. Um how to get into a sales job as a mid career transition. Excellent question. So sales is always in demand and what the best way to transition into sales is to take what you've already done so far and take a look at, you know, there's a bunch of different things you need to know. So let's pretend that you've got four different learning curves. You've got the who are the clients learning curve? You've got the project, the the who are you representing learning curve? So the business in the company itself, you've got the sales role or sales professional learning curve and then you've got the industry knowledge or industry insight knowledge learning curve. So say you've already been in an industry, say it's Pharma, say you've already been in uh Pharma or you've already been in um aviation because I hear another plane go by. That's industry. You can say, OK, I score an eight out of 10 on that learning curve. Sales never done it before. But I've done a little bit of marketing and you know, this and that. So let's say that I've done um I'm gonna put, put myself into four. Then this learning curve over here with the clients.

Actually, I've already done business with 70% of these clients. Let's give myself a seven and then the portfolio that you'd be representing. I know of it. I used it. I've, I've looked at that and so, ok, let's give me a five, but I know I'd have to jump up and learn a little bit of that top, you know, the next five points. So when you break it down into the things that you already know, sell yourself to that business as listen, here's here are the things that I already know about your product or your business or your industry or your clients and sell yourself as a ready to just, you know, jump in and, and do rip in pillage as much of this content as you want to say, sales is not about the transaction.

This is the sales, this is 90% of what you're doing. I am excellent at all of these skills, feel free to, to use whatever you need from, from this to share with that potential employer that you've, you've got some value to add here and your game for a sales position. And let me take a run at it and let me know how I can help too. Good luck. Uh Excellent, excellent, thanks. Lean Yes, good luck. Let me know how things go. So I think we're a couple of minutes over. So I think we're done. This has been really interesting. I've never done speaking engagement like this before. So uh so thank you all for your time and attention. Great questions. Best of luck, everyone. Um Ping me on linkedin whenever you get a chance and just mention that y saw your uh presentation and would love to, to touch base and um I'll continue to support you guys however I can. So thanks everyone. Take care. Bye.