#22 Excellence in Sales - 4 key elements for success with Donald C Kelly.

Introduction

Welcome to episode 22 of the Enterprise Excellence Podcast. I am so pleased to have Mr Donald C Kelly on the show today. Donald has focused his career on learning and sharing best practices in sales. He is the host of the popular Sales Evangelist Podcast that focuses on all topics relevant to sales excellence. Donald is genuinely focused on helping people create a better future by engaging and helping their customers. Let's get into the episode. 

If a salesperson does not have a purpose, Donald believes they cannot achieve excellence in sales. Most sellers just wing it. Having a forward-thinking goal is critical for every salesperson and should be greater than just hitting this year's quota. It needs to go further. He gives the example of not only making the Olympics but winning a gold medal at the Olympics. In sales, the goal may be to surpass my quota and help my clients to have success. 

Donald has been doing a lot of work on salesperson mindset. The thoughts we feed (which wolf) is what will create our reality. Donald mentioned cognitive bias and the fact that our mind will start to seek out ideas that support our thoughts. This process feeds our prejudice and our attitude, which ultimately impacts our behaviour and results. It is essential to feed the right mindset, the right thoughts, like focusing on our goals and our capabilities. The whole organisation should be running like a lean, mean running machine. It is not just sales alone; the ultimate outcome for everyone in an organisation is to generate profit. 

Unfortunately, sales experts are often elevated into management. Often these leaders are expected to sell as well as lead, motivate and inspire their team. Donald mentions Magic Johnson, who was a fantastic basketballer, but not an effective coach. 

Successful sales leaders need to develop the right mindset: deeply understand their purpose and help their team build their vision and goals. They do not continue to sell at a high level themselves but inspire and motivate their sellers to achieve their goals. They provide one on one coaching to help salespeople grow. An effective sales team will have a game plan and process that they practice and follow to achieve greatness. 

Donald is currently finalising a book "Sell Like A mango" covering many of these topics. 

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/donaldckelly

Website: thesalesevangelist.com  (Personal Website) - you can download information and guides here.

1.     Challenging vision and goal

2.     Mindset – which wolf do you feed?

3.     Process & leadership coaching

So, thank you Donald for helping us to create a better future through your knowledge in sales and business in general. 

11.21min a person trying to do excellence in sales is not like, "I want to take my quota". "I want to surpass my quota and help clients have great success", so going beyond that.

17:10min you're going to have good days; you're going to have bad days. And I personally feel that sales is so psychological. Like so much of this thing, it's, like, mental.

24:35min sometimes a leader doesn't have to be a great seller. And in that capacity, that they just need to be able to understand how to inspire and motivate the seller to accomplish the seller's goal, not necessarily just the organisation's goals.

29:48min It goes to show that any organisation with the right leadership, with the right processe

To learn more about what we do, visit www.enterpriseexcellenceacademy.com.
Thanks for your time, and thanks for helping to create a better future.