Ep 34 – Coaching and training program for female sales professionals and entrepreneurs – Elyse Archer

Elyse: Hi, Gabriel. I’m doing wonderful. Thank you so much for having me. Gabriel: It’s a pleasure. So can you tell us a little bit about She Sells ? Elyse: Absolutely. So, She Sells was really inspired by years and years and years of sales experience on my end do you know ? First in corporate, and then going off as an entrepreneur. But finding that many of the things that were taught in terms of sales strategy and sales approach from the very traditional, almost old school sales training I had when I first got into sales, didn’t quite feel aligned to me as a woman. And it’s not to say that there wasn’t some good in there because there really was. But I found that for myself and for so many of the women who I worked with sold alongside. There were things that just didn’t quite feel right where we almost felt like we had to fit into a box that was never made for us to be successful. And so that was really what prompted me to be inspired, to go out and create the She Sells community. And we’re a coaching and training program for female sales professionals and entrepreneurs. We focus specifically on helping women break past the six and seven figure earning mark, and helping them learn to sell and create success in a way that feels really authentic to who they are. Gabriel: That’s great. And we will discuss more about this subject. And before we go there, can you tell us a fun fact about your career or your life ? Elyse: Well, I’m always someone who is, I like to take risks. And I think for everyone who’s great in sales, we probably all have a bit of that element to us, right ? We’re we’re okay at taking risks. And so something I would say is a risk I took once is I felt inspired to go skydiving. And actually, it was one of the first dates that when my husband and I were dating, he had mentioned he wanted to do it. And I thought, oh, I’ll impress this guy by taking him on a skydiving date. And most people say « oh, I went skydiving and it was great ». I was so scared to jump out of the plane, but I just couldn’t stop going after I went. What I would say is I would never do it again. I mean, it’s good to be able to say that you’ve done. We lived, we survived, but I didn’t have that euphoric « I’m floating » type of space experience and feeling. So feet firmly planted on the ground now and I can say I’ve done it, but I don’t think I’m going back. Gabriel: Okay, sure. We are into the virtual selling podcast and I want to ask you the question, and to have a discussion with you about virtual selling and women. Because as you said, your training company is dedicated to women and to address the difference they have in sales and traditional men, I would say. And what are the difference you could have using virtual selling as a way to connect using virtual selling? Elyse : It’s a great question. I’ll just share, from my own experience and perspective, I think there’s a lot of similarities for men and women in terms of how we sell virtually. But I also think there’s some differences and I’ll say, you know, one of the things now, like as I’m a relatively new mom, and I know we also have a lot of dads working at home. So I wanna give a shout out to everybody to say, this is not just specific to women. Right? We’re all kind of in this together, it is likely gonna skew more women in this situation. Right ? But iit’s like, I wanna acknowledge everyone is, dealing with this, my husband and I both work well. He’s studying for school right now. So I’m the breadwinner of our family, and I’m the one who works. But we’re both at home, during the day. And we’ve got a two year old son who’s also at home with us during the day. And so for me, one of the biggest things that I’ve had to kind of navigate and learn is « How can I be so flexible with what I do to really make my work fit [00:05:00] within the container of also taking care of our son? » And so, I think we all have to be conscious of how are we gonna shift our schedules to do things. But for me, like one of the things I’ve been doing that a lot of the women I work with have also said, like this actually makes a big difference is I get up. I honestly knock out a lot of the main work for the day before my son gets up. And then the next few hours of the day have usually spent, you know, being a mom. And then jumping back into work midday or, early afternoon. And that was a challenge for me at first, because I was so used to such a kind of strict, you know, nine to five schedule. And there was actually a part of me that felt wrong and felt guilty for it. Cause I thought, you know, it’s 10:00 AM, I should be working. But what I really had to look at is what really moves the needle. And I think we all have to really look at this today in everything we do, including how we sell virtually, what is really gonna move the needle. What am I doing? Just because I always thought I was supposed to do it, but it’s not really making a difference anymore, versus what’s really impactful. So I aim to get the most impactful high leverage activities done early in the day. Now, obviously I’m not texting clients early in the day, but I am think doing things like what can I do if I wanna put together ? An email campaign. Can I get that done earlier in the day, if I need to do some marketing, can I get that done earlier in the day so that all those high leverage things are done. And then I just strategically scheduled time for client outreach and sales calls, you know, when everybody else is working. But I think giving yourself a lot of grace to say, the old schedule may not be what works for me anymore, but I could actually be more successful, make more sales, make more money by holding in on the things that really matter. And making my own rules to whatever extent I can in this new environment. Gabriel: Yeah, that’s great. It’s a lot of flexibility and it offers also the opportunity to work with the world. We are having this podcast, I’m in Paris in France and, and you are in the us and it’s feasible now, and it was not feasible some years ago. And what is the training that you offer to your customers that is different to a traditional training ? Related to virtual setting, but all together to, to sales also. Elyse : A training after my client sits different than traditional. So, one of the things that I tend to work on with my clients is the inner work that it takes to be super successful in sales. And so, one of the things that I saw, the biggest missing gap that I saw in traditional sales training was that there were three core missing components that when I learned these and when I learned how to integrate them in my own life and my own career. I went from being stuck at the same income level for 10 years to in literally six weeks I 10X my income and had insane results. And I teach these things to my clients now to have the same quantum leaps. But it’s these three things that are more geared towards our inner game and the inner work. So one is. How to rewire your subconscious belief system to align with your goals? Cuz that’s actually, I mean, you’re an engineer, you know, about programming that is inner programming that creates 95 to 98% of our results, according to neuroscientists. The second is getting a healthy relationship with money. We don’t realize how many money hang-ups we all have. And in sales we’re dealing with the money. I mean, we’re all dealing with money all day long, but in sales we’re really dealing with it. And so a lot of my clients come to me and they don’t realize initially how kind of messed up their relationship is with money. And when they learn how to heal for lack of a better word, that relationship they’re actually able to go on and make way more. Cause they don’t have these hidden blocks to it. And then for the women who I serve, the third area is leaning into how they’re wired as a woman. So as a woman, our productivity cycles are different. How we build relationships is different. And so we, I really help them learn that and to integrate and be more successful, leveraging those areas. Come naturally to them. So it’s three core areas we still do. You know, I would say really really high level, sales training and tactical strategic training. But when you layer that on top of an incredibly solid foundation of those three core areas, our clients are coming in and just having quantum leaps and incredible results. Gabriel: Yeah. It’s always very useful to work also on the psychological aspect and only on the technique. Because, a lot of thing is related to your own boundaries and pain that you have inside. And you need to release them before being totally efficient. Elyse : For sure. Gabriel : And in term of creating relationships, what would be the difference between men and women ? And [00:10:00] does those difference express themself in a virtual environment or not really ? Elyse : That’s a great question. Well, and again, I don’t want to stereotype, so everyone is gonna have their own approach to things regardless of what gender they are. So I wanna start off by saying that in general. So I’m just gonna say in generalities. In general, men tend to be more destination driven. So it’s like what’s the end result, right ? Let me get to the end result, which is closing the deal. Women tend to be more journey driven. So it’s like we wanna close the deal, but we also want to have a great journey on the way there. And for many women that looks like, how can I build deeper relationships ? How can I, you know, how can I enjoy the process too ? That’s actually something, a lot of times women don’t stop and ask themselves, but I believe we’ve gotta enjoy. The journey for the destination to be worth it at all. And so I think it’s really oftentimes what I find for women specifically is they think they have to show up like a man in how they sell and that can be virtual or that can be in person, but it’s almost like we feel like we’ve gotta cut past the relationship building part to be successful. Or the alternative is we love the relationship building part and we lean all into that. But we don’t feel comfortable actually closing and asking for the sale. So there’s this integration between the two that when you learn, it’s okay to build a relationship and you wanna learn what are the nuances in building that relationship? When do I lean in, when do I back off ? When is it the right time to ask ? When is it not the right time to ask, but I think for each of us, we can, you know, leverage tools like our intuition and just really like thinking, not following a process, just checking the box because it’s what we’ve always done. But thinking into what does this relationship need right now, what’s gonna help move this deal forward. And so for a lot of the clients I work with, it is about learning to lean into and leverage things like intuition and these relational nuances that are important. But you know, one of the things to just think about, and this would be whether you are woman, man, whatever I don’t care, is would you want to listen to your pitch ? Would the email you’re sending, make you stop and wanna respond to someone if you’re doing any sort of marketing or promotional post ? What you’re putting out there ? Would that stop the scroll or would you just keep scrolling past it ? Like, are you excited for what you’re sending out or are you not? Because if you’re not excited about it, the person on the other end, isn’t gonna be excited about it. So it’s almost, it’s like getting out. Just check the box type of mode which frankly, it could be easier to get into when we’re selling virtually. Because we’re kind of behind our computer screens all day and it can be easier to fall into the trap of just checking the box. And it’s not that you can’t win with things, just being a numbers game, but I really believe if you wanna win and win big. You’ve gotta find a way to make it more relational. And that involves actually putting on your thinking cap about what would speak to me, what would make me say yes. What would make me stop and wanna talk to someone and do that. So I think we just have to be so extra conscious of that right now with how we’re selling and when you do that, you can win even bigger than before with virtual selling. Gabriel: Yeah. It’s much more efficient. And how do you do this job of knowing when you have to lean on and when you have to take some distance in term of relationship during virtual selling, since we are only with two cameras and the small image on your full screen and like we are at the moment. How do you manage this idea of creating relationship with the time constraints that we have also during a virtual setting. Because we don’t have the same times and in person setting where you have to enter in the building to go out of the building, to have some coffee together and stuff like that. At least in France, we have a lot of coffee. Elyse : I love that, just like do my people. Yeah, you know, I think what I would say is there’s so many different ways to build relationships now. And one of the things you never know is who’s building a relationship with you, even though you’re not aware of it. So what I love about your show Gabriel, and also why I host my own podcast is it gives us the ability to create these strong relationships with people when we’re not there. And I can’t tell you, when I look at my company where our sales come from, the number one driver of sales is the podcast. And it’s been that way for a long time because people come in and they say « I feel like I know you », like « They know about my family », « They know about all », And I’m like, I don’t know them yet. And that’s okay. It’s beautiful. Right ? That’s the beauty of this technology. So I would say, you know, you can take that time. Obviously. We’ve also got the one to one approach of building a [00:15:00] relationship with people as we moved farther along the sales process, but you can take some of that same time. That you would be spending, traveling, or doing what you were doing before and lean into building your brand. Whatever that looks like for you, whether that’s podcasting videos, etc. Gabriel : Yes, that’s a great answer that relationship is not only in person relationship and synchronous relationship, but it’s could be also asynchronous using podcast and video and also writing if you write it in a way that creates relationship. Elyse : Exactly. Yeah. You gotta make it work for you, and that’s the beautiful thing. There’s so many technology mediums today that you can pick what works for you, but build your brand strategically give value where actually I’m bumping up my podcast from a weekly to a daily podcast right now. Because I just feel inspired to, and I feel like there’s more I wanna share. And if you got the time which you know many of us do, if we’re not traveling, it’s like, how can you add more value even when you’re not there ? Gabriel : Is it something that you train also your clients to do, using those media and doing podcasts also ? Elyse: Absolutely. Yeah. It’s, it’s different for every client. So, I have different tiers of clients and so like for my private clients, it’s typically a very custom approach. And for a lot of them, it makes sense to launch a podcast. So I absolutely help them with that. I’ve got some group coaching, programs and clients as well, where it’s like, it’s a little higher level, but yeah, I’d say for probably most all of my clients. They’re working on a podcast or they’re working on some sort of a video, you know, a YouTube campaign, something to build their brand, even if they’re in sales working for another organization. Cause you are like, you wanna be thinking entrepreneurialy, right ? Even if you’re working for another company. Gabriel : Great. Yeah. We are arriving at the end of the show and it would be for people that want to know you, what is a good way to contact you and also to share your podcast to the audience. Elyse : Yes, thank you so much for asking. Can I share a free guide that I created ? Gabriel : Yes for sure. Elyse : Okay, amazing. So if you go to elysearcher.com/scripts, that will give you a link to my free guide. And it’s actually got a great video training with it too. On five sales scripts to increase your closing rate, 50% or more. I had a client go through them the other day and she sent me a text. She was like, I literally just closed 31,000 in sales in one afternoon from one little different thing you taught in there. And it was, that was a big number for her. That was exciting, and then the podcast is She Sells Radio, so you can subscribe at, She Sells Radio. If you wanna get more like this, so thank you for that opportunity to share. Gabriel : Perfect Elyse, thanks a lot. And also for me to ask you, because you tried Salesdeck.io just before we record the show, what did you think of the product ? And would it be a great product for you and maybe for your clients also to do more engaging, better prepared and better documented customer meetings ? Elyse: Yeah, I thought it was really neat. I’d never experienced it before. And I shared with you before we hopped on, I tend to be an on the fly type of person. So it’s always helpful to me to have things that help me be more prepared. So I thought it was very cool. And certainly excited to lean in and learn more. Gabriel : Thanks a lot. This episode of the virtual selling podcast is over. Thanks for sticking around. Join us twice a week for a new episode, with new stories and challenges of giants in the field. If you enjoy today’s episode, we are always listening for your feedback. Share the show and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you don’t miss any episode. This episode was brought to you by Salesdeck.io, the virtual selling platform that increase your sales team efficiency and sales readiness, enables remote managements and then sales operational excellence. Book your Salesdeck.io your demo today to discover, so you can close more deal with engaging and better customer meetings. Thanks a lot Elyse. It was really a pleasure to have you. Elyse: Thank you for having me.