Sales Expert Shelby Sapp: The Simple Sales Framework You Can Use in Work, Money, and Relationships (Follow THIS Method to FINALLY Get The Life You Deserve)
In this episode of On Purpose, Jay Shetty and Shelby Sapp discuss how sales skills apply far beyond traditional sales roles. The conversation explores how techniques like relationship-building, effective communication, and question-based selling can enhance career development, improve personal relationships, and create financial opportunities. Sapp shares insights from her journey from door-to-door sales to online entrepreneurship.
Through real-world examples and practical advice, Sapp and Shetty examine how sales skills can help anyone become more valuable in their career, handle rejection more effectively, and develop an abundance mindset. The discussion covers specific techniques for understanding customer needs, communicating value, and handling objections—skills that can be applied to pursuing promotions, building side businesses, or improving daily interactions.
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1-Page Summary
The Applicability of Sales Skills Beyond Sales Jobs
In this conversation, Shelby Sapp and Jay Shetty explore how sales skills extend far beyond traditional sales roles, impacting various aspects of life and career development.
Sales Skills Are Key for Success in any Field
Sapp explains that sales skills encompass more than just selling products—they're about building relationships and improving self-talk. Jay Shetty agrees, noting that he regularly uses sales techniques like pitching and communicating ideas in his non-sales career. To illustrate this point, Shetty shares the story of Markel Washington, who transformed his routine job at Subway by singing to customers, demonstrating how sales-style connection-making can enhance any role.
Sales Skills Foster Financial Independence and Security
Sapp describes how mastering sales skills can create diverse income streams and enable transitions to online entrepreneurship, sharing her own journey from door-to-door sales to developing an online movement. She emphasizes that sales skills can lead to financial control and abundance, particularly through "side hustle type jobs" that don't require significant initial investment.
Sales Mindset & Skills: Confidence, Rejection, Learning
Both Sapp and Shetty stress the importance of resilience in sales, viewing rejection as a learning opportunity rather than a personal failure. Sapp advocates for maintaining positive expectations despite setbacks and emphasizes the value of continuous learning through mentorship and training resources. She points to her practice of reviewing sales calls as crucial for ongoing development, while Shetty shares his commitment to mastering new platforms like social media.
Sales Techniques: Questioning, Value Building, Objection Handling
Sapp outlines several key sales techniques, including question-based selling to understand customer needs and pain points. She emphasizes the importance of focusing on transformative benefits rather than features, demonstrating this by discussing how a product like a pen could boost productivity. When handling objections, Sapp recommends maintaining a calm and collaborative mindset, viewing concerns as opportunities to provide value.
Transformative Impact of Sales Skills on Career, Finances, and Life
The discussion reveals how sales skills can make someone an indispensable asset in their career. Shetty notes that having high-income skills makes an employee valuable to their employer, while Sapp explains how these skills can be leveraged for promotions and raises. Beyond career benefits, both hosts discuss how sales techniques enhance personal communication, negotiation, and foster an abundance mindset that leads to better financial control.
1-Page Summary
Additional Materials
Counterarguments
- While sales skills can be beneficial in many roles, not all jobs require the same level of sales acumen, and some may prioritize other skill sets such as technical expertise or creative ability.
- Building relationships and improving self-talk are important, but they are not exclusive to sales skills and can be developed through various other professional and personal experiences.
- The use of sales techniques in non-sales careers can be helpful, but it may not always be appropriate or welcomed in certain professional settings where direct sales tactics might be seen as aggressive or out of place.
- Enhancing performance in routine jobs through sales-style connection-making is valuable, but it may not align with every individual's personality or the expectations of certain professions.
- Creating diverse income streams and transitioning to online entrepreneurship are positive outcomes of sales skills, but they also require a range of other abilities, including digital literacy, marketing knowledge, and financial management.
- Viewing rejection as a learning opportunity is a healthy approach, but it's also important to acknowledge that constant rejection can have a negative impact on mental health and self-esteem, which requires additional coping strategies.
- Continuous learning is essential, but not all individuals have equal access to mentorship, training resources, or the time to review sales calls, which can create disparities in skill development.
- While mastering new platforms like social media is beneficial, it's also important to consider the potential downsides, such as privacy concerns and the impact of social media on mental health.
- Question-based selling is effective, but it may not be suitable for all types of products or services, and some customers may prefer a more direct or consultative approach.
- Focusing on transformative benefits rather than features is a common sales strategy, but it's also important to be transparent about the limitations of a product to maintain trust and credibility.
- Handling objections with a calm mindset is ideal, but it's also crucial to recognize when a product or service may not be the right fit for a customer, rather than trying to overcome every objection.
- Being an indispensable asset to an employer is valuable, but overemphasizing one's worth can sometimes lead to a lack of team collaboration or an over-reliance on individual performance.
- Leveraging sales skills for career advancement is strategic, but it's also important to consider the role of other factors such as networking, job performance, and company culture.
- Improving personal communication and negotiation through sales techniques is useful, but these skills can also be developed through other means such as education, therapy, or conflict resolution training.
- An abundance mindset is positive, but it's also important to balance this with realistic financial planning and awareness of economic conditions that may affect financial security.
Actionables
- You can practice relationship-building by initiating a "connection challenge" where you reach out to one new person each day for a month, aiming to learn about their interests and share your own, rather than making any sales pitch. This could be through social media, local community groups, or professional networks, and the goal is to develop genuine connections that could later translate into career opportunities or collaborations.
- Enhance your self-talk by creating a "rejection diary" where you document each time you face a setback, noting what you learned and how you can improve next time. This isn't just for sales scenarios but for any situation where you face a no, such as job applications or personal goals. The diary serves as a tool to transform negative experiences into constructive lessons, fostering resilience.
- Develop your questioning skills by volunteering to help a local non-profit with fundraising. This will give you a real-world context to practice understanding the needs and pain points of potential donors. You'll learn how to ask the right questions that uncover what motivates people to give, which is a transferable skill that can improve your ability to sell products, ideas, or yourself in various settings.
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The Applicability of Sales Skills Beyond Sales Jobs
Shelby Sapp and Jay Shetty discuss the relevance of sales skills across various settings, not just professional sales roles.
Sales Skills Are Key for Success in any Field
Sales Training: Applying Communication, Persuasion, and Relationship-Building Skills To Life and Work
Shelby Sapp articulates the idea that sales is more than a job; it's a valuable skill set that includes fostering better relationships and improvement in self-talk. Jay Shetty concurs, adding that he constantly uses sales skills, like pitching and communicating ideas, despite not being in a sales occupation. Sapp goes on to discuss how these skills are integral for emotional leadership and in personal scenarios such as job interviews, as it's all about convincing others and believing in your own value.
Shelby explains the importance of changing oneself to be approachable, leading to life-changing connections. She draws a parallel between being open to conversations and building relationships, akin to networking skills acquired in sales.
Jay Shetty shares the story of Markel Washington, who sang to customers at Subway, using his passion to enliven a routine task and exemplifying effective communication and connection-making with others.
Sales Skills Foster Financial Independence and Security
Mastering Sales Unlocks New Income and Career Opportunities Beyond one's Job
Shelby Sapp champions the notion that mastering sales skills can create diverse income streams and enable transitions to online entrepreneurship. She discusses her own journey from door-to-door sales to developing an online movement that empowers others with tangible sales skills.
Sales Skills Enable Control Over Financial Futures and Abundance
Sapp stresses the importance of acquiring high-income skills, such as sales, to provide value in the marketplace and achieve financial rewards. She presents the idea of earning substantial income through "side hustle type jobs," emphasizing the range of sales-related opportunities available without the need for heavy invest ...
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The Applicability of Sales Skills Beyond Sales Jobs
Additional Materials
Clarifications
- Self-talk improvement refers to the practice of consciously changing the way you talk to yourself to build confidence and reduce negative thoughts. In sales, positive self-talk helps maintain motivation and resilience when facing rejection or challenges. It reinforces belief in your value and abilities, which is crucial for persuading others. This mindset shift enhances overall communication and relationship-building skills.
- Emotional leadership in sales means understanding and managing your own emotions and those of others to build trust and influence decisions. It involves empathy, active listening, and responding to emotional cues to connect deeply with clients. This skill helps salespeople motivate and inspire others, creating stronger relationships. Ultimately, it enhances persuasion by aligning emotional needs with the sales message.
- Markel Washington used singing as a unique way to engage customers, making their experience memorable and positive. This approach demonstrates how personal passion can enhance communication and connection in sales. It highlights creativity in building rapport, which is a key sales skill. His example shows that sales is not just about products but about creating meaningful interactions.
- "High-income skills" are abilities that can generate significant earnings due to their demand and impact on business success. Sales is categorized as a high-income skill because it directly drives revenue by convincing customers to buy products or services. These skills often require persuasion, negotiation, and communication expertise, which are valuable across industries. Mastering such skills can lead to financial independence and career flexibility.
- "Side hustle type jobs" are part-time or freelance work done outside a main job to earn extra income. In sales, these can include activities like affiliate marketing, direct selling, or freelance sales consulting. They often require minimal upfront investment and flexible hours, making them accessible for many people. These jobs leverage sales skills to generate additional revenue streams without quitting a primary job.
- A "figure-it-out mentality" means being resourceful and persistent when facing challenges. In sales, it helps individuals adapt to rejection or obstacles by finding new strategies rather than giving up. This mindset encourages continuous learning and problem-solving, which are crucial for long-term success. It builds resilience, enabling salespeople to maintain confidence and motivation.
- Freelance sales involves working independently to sell products or services, often on a commission basis, without being tied to a single employer. Unlike traditional sales jobs, freelancers manage their own schedules, client relationships, and business operations. They may work with multiple companies or clients simultaneously, offering greater flexibility and control. This model requires self-motivation and entrepreneurial skills to succeed.
- Sales skills help individuals identify customer needs and effectively present solu ...
Counterarguments
- While sales skills can be beneficial in many areas of life, not all professions require the same level of sales acumen, and some may prioritize other skill sets such as technical expertise or creative ability.
- The effectiveness of sales skills in non-sales roles can vary depending on the industry, company culture, and specific job requirements; they are not universally the key to success in every field.
- Emotional leadership and personal scenarios like job interviews may benefit from sales skills, but they also require a deep understanding of emotional intelligence and specialized knowledge that goes beyond sales techniques.
- Networking and relationship-building are important, but they are not solely derived from sales experience; other experiences and personality traits can contribute significantly to one's ability to network effectively.
- Passion and effective communication are important, but not all roles will provide the opportunity or environment to express passion in the same way as the example provided, and not all customers or clients may respond positively to such approaches.
- While mastering sales skills can lead to diverse income streams, it is not the only path to financial independence; there are many careers and entrepreneurial ventures that do not rely on sales skills.
- The idea that sales skills alone can lead to financial security may overlook other important factors such as market conditions, economic trends, and personal circumstances.
- Side hustles and freelance sales can provide income, but they also come with risks and challenges, such as income instability and the need for self-motivation and discipline.
- A positive attitude toward rejec ...
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Sales Mindset & Skills: Confidence, Rejection, Learning
Shelby Sapp and Jay Shetty discuss the value of resilience, learning from experience, and the critical importance of embracing challenges to develop essential sales skills.
Fostering Growth Mindset and Embracing Challenges Develop Skills
Shelby Sapp points to her own pathway from door-to-door sales to an online presence as a journey punctuated with resilience and learning from practical experiences. Jay Shetty provides complementary insight, drawing on his experience of cold calling and confronting rejection, which he views as a critical learning opportunity.
Embracing Failures and Rejections As Growth Opportunities
Both Sapp and Shetty emphasize that a critical aspect of sales is to take action and persist through rejection. Sapp acknowledges that not every rejection implies a failure or a personal defect. Rejections should rather be seen as intrinsic to the sales process, sometimes referring to unqualified buyers rather than personal inadequacy. Both Sapp and Shetty agree that overcoming rejection can contribute positively to one's sales experience, fostering growth and confidence. They suggest that practitioners should interpret rejection and failure as potential positive stories for the future.
Maintaining a Positive, Persistent, Resilient Attitude in Setbacks
Shelby Sapp mentions that keeping a positive expectation for every conversation is vital, despite previous rejections. She and Shetty recognize that maintaining a positive, persistent, and resilient attitude in the face of setbacks is crucial. Sapp advises that acknowledging the difficulties and rejections early on is half the battle, stressing the significance of persisting through initial challenges.
Essential Skill Development For Sales Success
Seeking Mentorship, Training, and Opportunities to Refine Sales Techniques
Sapp and Shetty both highlight the necessity of skill refinement in sales. Sapp points to free resources, including her content on social media, as means for mentorship and extensive self-training. She suggests that personal develo ...
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Sales Mindset & Skills: Confidence, Rejection, Learning
Additional Materials
Counterarguments
- While resilience is important, it's also crucial to recognize when a particular sales strategy or market is not viable, to avoid wasting time and resources.
- Persistence through rejection is valuable, but there should also be a focus on analyzing the reasons for rejection to improve the sales approach.
- Not all rejections are due to unqualified buyers; sometimes, they may indicate a mismatch between the product and the market or shortcomings in the sales pitch.
- Overcoming rejection can foster growth, but it can also lead to burnout if not managed with self-care and realistic expectations.
- Interpreting rejection as a positive story for the future can be motivational, but it's also important to maintain a balanced perspective and learn from mistakes.
- A positive attitude is beneficial, but it should be coupled with strategic thinking and adaptability to changing market conditions.
- Early acknowledgment of difficulties is important, but so is having a clear strategy for overcoming those challenges.
- Mentorship and training are valuable, but they should be complemented with hands-on experience and real-world application.
- Personal development is key, but networking and building relationships can also provid ...
Actionables
- Create a "Rejection Resume" to document and reflect on each sales rejection you encounter. This resume should include the date, the client, the product or service you were selling, and any feedback received. Use this document to track patterns, improve your approach, and remind yourself of how far you've come when you do make a sale.
- Start a peer-to-peer sales practice group with friends or colleagues where you role-play different sales scenarios, including rejections. This will help you get comfortable with various objections and learn how to navigate them in a low-stakes environment. Rotate roles so each person gets the chance to be the salesperson, the rejecting customer, and an observer providing constructive feedback.
- Develop a personal "Sales Gr ...
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Sales Techniques: Questioning, Value Building, Objection Handling, Clear Value Proposition
Shelby Sapp and Jay Shetty outline various effective sales techniques, focusing on the importance of questioning for understanding, value building for long-term relationships, handling objections with a solutions-oriented approach, and establishing a clear value proposition.
Sales Strategies: Understanding Customer Needs and Pain Points Through Questions
Asking Questions to Uncover Customer's Motivations and Challenges
Shelby Sapp discusses the importance of knowing a customer's leverage or pain points to discover what motivates a customer to make a buying decision. She emphasizes question-based selling to figure out someone's challenges and what made them want to seek a solution. Sapp uses Jay’s motivations and challenges to address the product's benefits (energy without crashes), asking questions like "What would you even use a pen for?" to uncover needs.
Building Trust and Rapport Through Empathic Listening
Sapp also emphasizes not making assumptions, but instead asking questions to understand problems and determining if a solution can be offered to change their life. These techniques help in building true rapport with the customer, which is part of a well-funneled sale.
Creating Customer Value For Sales and Long-Term Relationships
Emphasizing Transformative Benefits Over Features
Shelby Sapp advises focusing on selling the transformative benefits of a product such as how it will change the customer's day-to-day life to build value around people's pain points. For example, she describes a car sales rep who suggested how a pink G-Wagon could be used for content, personalizing the value proposition.
Creating a Clear, Compelling, Personalized Value Proposition That Resonates
By emphasizing the transformative benefits, such as preventing energy crashes or bringing peace of mind, Sapp shows how to create a value proposition tied directly to the customer’s life. She also demonstrates how to communicate this proposition in scenarios like job interviews, suggesting that candidates show how they can contribute to the company's goals and success.
Handling Objections and Resistance With a Solutions-Oriented Approach
Acknowledging Customer Concerns As Opportunities to Provide Value
According to Shelby, salespeople should reframe customer objections by considering the long-term cost of not solving an issue and asking good questions to display knowledge, which shows understanding. Objections can be seen as opportunities rather than barriers. For example, if a customer isn't usually using pens, salespeople can suggest the boost in productivity noted when having a reliable pen at hand.
Calm, Confident, Collaborative Mindset For Addressin ...
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Sales Techniques: Questioning, Value Building, Objection Handling, Clear Value Proposition
Additional Materials
Counterarguments
- While questioning is important, it can sometimes be perceived as intrusive or overwhelming if not done tactfully, leading to customer discomfort.
- Building value around transformative benefits assumes that customers are always motivated by long-term changes, which might not be the case for more transactional or immediate needs.
- The effectiveness of a personalized value proposition can vary depending on the customer's decision-making process, which may not always be influenced by personalized sales tactics.
- Not all objections can be reframed as opportunities; some may indicate genuine deal-breakers that cannot be overcome by sales techniques.
- A calm and confident approach to objection handling is ideal but may not always be sufficient in the face of highly skeptical or confrontational customers.
- Anticipating objections is useful, but over-preparation can lead to a scripted interaction that lacks authenticity.
- The "sincere close" and other techniques to keep the conversation going may not always be effective, especially if the customer feels pressured or manipulated.
- Emphasizing the long-term cost of not solving a p ...
Actionables
- You can practice empathic listening by summarizing what someone tells you in your own words and asking for confirmation. This technique, often used in counseling, ensures you've understood the speaker correctly and shows them you're engaged. For example, after a friend describes their day, you might say, "It sounds like you had a challenging day at work because of the new software implementation. Is that right?"
- Develop a habit of asking open-ended questions in everyday conversations to uncover deeper insights. Instead of asking yes-or-no questions, prompt people to share more about their experiences and feelings. For instance, instead of asking "Did you like the movie?" ask "What did you think about the movie's portrayal of its characters?"
- Create a personal value proposition for yourself when seeking new opportunities, such as a job or ...
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Transformative Impact of Sales Skills on Career, Finances, and Life
Sales skills are not just for salespeople. Kaya Henderson, Myles E. Johnson, Shelby Sapp, and Jay Shetty discuss how mastering sales skills can positively impact your career trajectory, financial security, and personal life.
Boosting Career and Earnings Through Sales Skills
Becoming an Indispensable Asset By Consistently Delivering Value
The discussion implies that mastering sales techniques makes one an indispensable asset. Shelby highlights that being exceptional at one's job and delivering consistent value is akin to a sales skill that makes you indispensable. This approach may not pay off immediately, but it can yield dividends in the future, positioning someone as valuable in the eyes of others. Showing dedication to a long-term vision and readiness to go above and beyond, particularly during a job interview, illustrates an understanding of delivering value and the potential to become an indispensable asset.
Positioning For Promotions, Raises, and High-Income Opportunities
Sales skills also position individuals for promotions, raises, and high-income opportunities. Jay Shetty states that even for an employee, having a high income skill matters because it makes the person indispensable to their employer, leading to continued investment in their capabilities. Showing potential employers the revenue growth achieved at their previous company can help secure better offers. Shelby suggests using the value provided to a current employer as leverage when applying to other companies, and even comparing offers from competitors to demonstrate your worth. Advising to sell the vision of long-term commitment to an employer, Shelby emphasizes that this strategy can encourage investments and higher income opportunities. Additionally, Sapp discusses various sales industries and opportunities that offer potential for upward mobility and advises how to strategically ask for a raise by leveraging past performance and comparing offers.
Applying Sales Skills To Personal Life Improves Relationships, Financial Security
Sales Techniques for Personal Communication, Negotiation, and Persuasion
Sales skills enhance personal communication, negotiation, and persuasion. Sapp mentions that skills honed in sales environments, such as handling rejection and showcasing personal branding, can be beneficial to personal relationships and confidence in personal interactions. The skills acquired from sales seep into aspects like dating, friendships, and self-talk. Understanding sales techniques influences how one reacts to sales situations, improving decision-making. These skills help convey one's worth effectively in various situations, including negotiating a raise or relatably presenting one's strengths, imp ...
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Transformative Impact of Sales Skills on Career, Finances, and Life
Additional Materials
Clarifications
- Being an "indispensable asset" means someone is so valuable to an organization that their absence would significantly impact operations or success. Sales skills contribute by enabling individuals to effectively communicate value, build strong relationships, and solve problems, making them critical to business growth. These skills also help anticipate client or employer needs, ensuring consistent delivery of results. This reliability and proactive value creation make the person hard to replace.
- "Selling a vision of long-term commitment" means clearly communicating to an employer that you plan to grow and contribute to the company over time. It involves demonstrating your goals align with the company's future and showing willingness to invest effort beyond immediate tasks. Practically, this can be done by discussing career plans, expressing enthusiasm for the company's mission, and highlighting past examples of loyalty or sustained performance. This approach builds employer confidence in your reliability and potential value, increasing chances for investment and advancement.
- To quantify measurable revenue growth, calculate the increase in sales or income your efforts directly influenced, using percentages or dollar amounts. Present this by comparing revenue figures before and after your involvement, highlighting your specific role. Use clear metrics like sales volume, client acquisition, or market expansion tied to your actions. Support claims with data from reports, CRM systems, or financial statements to ensure credibility.
- Leveraging competitor offers in salary negotiations involves presenting a job offer from another company to your current or prospective employer to demonstrate your market value. This strategy shows that other employers recognize your skills and are willing to pay more, encouraging your employer to match or exceed that offer. It requires careful communication to avoid appearing threatening, focusing instead on your desire to grow and be fairly compensated. Timing and professionalism are key to maintaining positive relationships during this process.
- An abundance mindset in sales means believing there are always enough opportunities and customers to succeed, reducing fear of rejection or scarcity. This mindset encourages focusing on quality prospects and continuous growth rather than desperation. It helps salespeople stay motivated and resilient, leading to better financial control through diverse income streams. Ultimately, it shifts thinking from competition over limited resources to collaboration and long-term success.
- Personal branding in non-sales environments means presenting yourself consistently to highlight your strengths and values. Sales skills teach you how to communicate your unique value clearly and persuasively. This helps build a positive reputation and trust with others, influencing how they perceive and support you. Effective personal branding can open opportunities and strengthen relationships beyond formal sales roles.
- Sales techniques teach you to analyze situations, understand others' needs, and anticipate objections, which sharpens your judgment. This skill helps you evaluate options more critically and choose the best course of action. It also improves your ability to communicate clearly and persuade effectively, influencing outcomes positively. Ultimately, these abilities lea ...
Counterarguments
- Sales skills alone may not make an individual indispensable; other factors like technical expertise, leadership, and teamwork are also critical for career advancement.
- Dedication and going above and beyond are important, but they must be paired with effective communication and recognition by management to lead to career progression.
- While sales skills can help in negotiations for raises and promotions, they are not the only determinant; organizational budgets, internal policies, and economic conditions also play significant roles.
- Demonstrating revenue growth is beneficial, but it may not always translate to better job offers if the growth is not aligned with the potential employer's goals or industry.
- Leveraging value to a current employer and comparing offers can be a strong negotiation tactic, but it may also strain relationships with current employers or be viewed negatively by potential employers as overly aggressive.
- Selling a vision of long-term commitment can be advantageous, but employers may also value adaptability and the ability to pivot in response to changing market conditions.
- While sales industries may offer upward mobility, they can also be highly competitive and stressful, which may not suit everyone's career aspirations or work-life balance.
- Improving personal communication and negotiation skills is beneficial, but not all principles from sales will apply effectively in personal relationships, which are often more complex and emotionally driven. ...
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