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Highlights

• B2C to B2B: Her journey in the sales profession (01:06)
• How to be a strong salesperson and sales leader (03:23)
• The power of sales + customer service (05:34)
• Trainee to Manager: How she ended up managing the people who trained her (09:44)
• Building a successful B2B sales team by focusing on the three Is (12:21)
• Emphasizing more on people development versus the KPIs and metrics (17:13)
• Why companies must stop promoting individual contributors into management roles without developing them (24:45)
• Achieving 130% of your target by growing and developing your top salespeople (27:55)
• Inspiring other saleswomen by telling her story in the Heels to Deals book (34:59)

In this episode of the Transformed Sales Podcast, I will have a chat with Shawanda Roberts, the Vice-President of Sales at Frost & Sullivan and one of the co-authors of the Heels to Deals book. She’s an individual contributor and leads a team of talented sales professionals who work to help clients identify, prioritize and implement growth opportunities through research and advisory services.

Along with work and family commitments, Shawanda devotes her time, energy, and passion to outside organizations with a mix of industry and community involvement, where she has several leadership positions. She’s known by others for her passion and being a leader of connection and conviction. She will share her very inspiring journey into sales and give us some incredibly valuable strategies we can employ to succeed in B2B sales. We will also talk about how powerful it is for companies to invest in their salespeople, why there needs to be more diversity in sales, and so much more. Enjoy!

Quotes

“Too many of us as salespeople just jump right on in with the product and solution, and we don’t hear anything about what the real challenge is” - Shawanda Roberts

“Listening is the key to make sure that you’re gonna bring the right value and the right product or solution to the customer” - Shawanda Roberts

“Get the professional development you need to strengthen those weakening areas that you have or just learn new skillsets” - Shawanda Roberts

Resources Mentioned:

• Heels to Deals Book: How Women are Dominating in Business-to-Business Sales

Learn More About Shawanda in the Links Below:

• Shawanda on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawandaroberts/

Connect with Wesleyne Greer:

• Wesleyne’s Website - https://transformedsales.com/
• Wesleyne on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesleynegreer/
• Wesleyne on Facebook - https://web.facebook.com/wesleynegreer
• Wesleyne on Twitter - https://twitter.com/wesleynegreer
• Email Her at wesleyne@transformedsales.com

Hello and welcome to another episode of

the transform sales podcast where we dive deep into the

science of selling today. I am so excited to have Shawanda

Roberts, how are you? Shawanda

I am great. I am great. Thank you so much for

having me.

Thank you so much for being here. Let me tell

you guys a bit about Shawanda. She's the vice president of

sales at Frost and Sullivan and one of the co authors of the

heel two deals book. She's an individual contributor and leads

a team of talented sales professionals who work to help

clients helping them identify, prioritize and implement growth

opportunities through research and advisory services. Along

with work and family commitments. Shawanda devotes

her time, energy and passion to outside organizations with a mix

of industry and community involvement where she has

several leadership positions. She is known by others for her

passionate and a leader of connection and conviction. Oh, I

love that bio. Wonderful intro. So how did you get started? And

how did you become this person full of compassion and

conviction?

Absolutely. So I actually got started back in

2006 was my very first foot in the door to be to be sales or

professional sales. Prior to that I was working at a tier one

financial institution, helping to service and sell consumer

loans. And so it was more b2c type things. And it was more of

them calling me so I knew they had an interest in something and

I just had to walk them through the process. I had a really good

friend at the time that was working at a b2b company that

said, hey, you know, you should look into b2b sales at the time

I had no earthly clue would be to be was even what it emits or

anything. But I went through the interview process got hired on

started working, and I absolutely fell in love with

working with businesses and helping them understand and

figure out growth opportunities to grow their revenue, right.

And so I eventually became an account executive in the role.

And I will tell you, it took me probably a good nine months to

even figure out what I was doing, because I had to learn

everything from what market research was, what consulting

was, and even how to prospect in the word persona. I had no idea

what that even meant. And so there was a lot of learning and

a lot of learning curve. But I grinded and I made it work to

where I knew exactly what I was doing. And then I became one of

the top salespeople from there, I, you know, continue to learn

and grow and learn and grow. And then I became a leader in the

company. And so I was managing and I still am to this day

managing and leading a team of representatives that actually

trained me when I came into the organization. So it is literally

an honor to do that and continue to see them grow just like they

helped me grow. So that's kind of my story of how I got into

b2b sales.

So that's interesting. You went from the

b2c world and you jumped over into the b2b world. So what

lessons learned or what key things that you learned, in your

first sales experience on the consumer side help you today to

really be a strong salesperson and leader?

That is really a good question. And I will tell

you, if you asked me that question, probably a year ago, I

wouldn't have been able to tell you what that was. It was one of

my mentors at my job now that hired me on and I just happened

to ask her Hey, you know, I had no background in b2b sales and

no experience in that industry. Like what made me stand out for

you to hire me. And she said there was one thing she said

your smile was contagious. Number one, and I'm always a big

smiler. And she said number two, your customer service skills. I

knew that with your customer service skills that you had that

it was going to be a very easy transition to get you to learn

the b2b sales part and the product or service or solution

that we were going to be selling that can be taught but she was

like you have that transferable skill that is a lot of times

hard to come by. And so she said that was my number one reasoning

for hiring you on and I never thought about it. And after she

said it, I said you know that makes perfect sense. customer

service skills because in sales we are customer service people

as well as salespeople you we've got to make sure that the client

is satisfied and happy and continuing to come back to us

and you know, having that customer service

focus that kind customer is first, I want to help you

achieve your goals. That key aspect that key facet really

helps salespeople become better. I was working with a team of

salespeople recently, and I told them I said the sale doesn't

end, when you get that purchase order, that is when the sale

begins. That is when your relationship with the client

needs to start. So you as somebody who has this really

strong background in customer service going into sales, how do

you mix those two worlds to ensure that your team gets yes,

we're salespeople, we have quotas, we have numbers, but the

customer service we provide is key.

You know, I think one of the things is and

if you think about different organizations, there are some

organizations where you, you know, you close the deal, and

you're off of it, and then someone else comes into it. But

then there's organizations like mine, where I take it from start

to finish, and I continue to farm the account and try to get

more opportunities out of the account. And so I think the

biggest thing is being able to listen carefully, and come back

and make sure that you understand what those challenges

or problems it is that they're having prior to even going in

and talking about whatever your product service or solution is,

I think too many of us as salespeople just jump right on

in with the product and solution. And we don't hear

anything about what the real challenge is, or we touch on

something else that they never said. And so I think that when

you take those calls, or you're in face to face with them, and

you're really just trying to understand that you make sure

that they understand that you understand exactly what it is

that they're saying their challenge is, and then asking

those questions like, you know, hey, well, in this particular

challenge, if I was able to get you, blah, blah, blah, how would

you feel about that? And a lot of times, it's Oh, yeah, that

actually would make my job a lot easier, or it would be perfect,

you know, I wish there was something out there like that,

right, and then taking time to go away, and then come back to

the conversation with then talking about your, you know,

solution or product or service, whatever it is. But I think

listening is definitely the key to making sure that you're going

to bring the right value in the right product or solution to

them. Right. So that's one, the other one is making sure that

the lines of communication are always open with your clients.

And so a lot of times when I'm talking to my clients, whatever

stage it's at, I make sure that they've got all my contact

information, I make sure that they also know that, hey, if you

have any questions, comments or concerns, I put it out there, I

need you to call me I take all positive and negative whatever

it is, because my goal is to make sure that there are no

challenges that you may have with working with my particular

company or working with me, whatever it may be. So keeping

those lines of communication open. And then also just

building that relationship, really trying to get to know

them know their role, know what their challenges are in their

role. And a lot of times that moves into the personal

relationship where you end up knowing any and everything about

their family and about their outside activities, and you

start getting engaged with what it is they're doing. They're

emailing you for fundraisers that their kids are having or

whatever. And that's always just great to have. So I would say,

you know, those are kind of the keys that I talk to my team

about all the time to weave in that great customer service

relationship building listening skills to where they start to

really trust you. And then there's also that credibility

that's there because you continue to do what you say

you're going to do.

I love it. I love it. I love it. And you know

when we think about because I tell people, I don't really come

from that true SASS or tech background. So I only know about

full cycle salespeople, this whole world of STRS, AES

customer success. It's like I did draw I prospected. I had to

call I do the demo. I had to farm it, if they had issues

afterwards. If it was too technical, I would send it away

to technical support. But a lot of times I was handling myself.

And I think that one thing when people are deciding like which

direction do we go? What is the better setup for our

organization, it seems that the larger the sale, those are

better with those fullcycle salespeople if you're selling a

$10 subscription, or $5 widget or even 20 or $30, the average

customer value lifetime customer value isn't as high right?

Whereas the buyer for them the buyer for the team when they're

done. Yeah, that's it.

You're absolutely right about that.

So you mentioned that you are managing the people

who actually trained you initially. Tell me about that

dynamic. How was it going from being colleague to manager? Yes,

I was absolutely blessed in my

particular role, because even as an AE to a director, I always

had my colleagues cheering me on and telling me, you need to

move, you need to move up, you need to move up, you're too good

to be where you are. And I was always like, Well, no, I don't

think I'm too good. You know, I got a lot more to learn. And I

mean, I'm still learning every day, I'm learning something new

every day. So I still, you know, say that when people are like,

Well, have you thought about looking here, or looking there

or moving to this particular position? And I'm like, you

know, I don't know, you know, because my whole goal and even

before getting into leadership, you know, the purpose. And my

goal was always to do three things inspire and form an

impact. Those are the three biggest things that everything

that I do and that I commit to in life, those are my three

biggest things. And so whatever I can do to help you grow, or

get to that next level, wherever it is you want to be, I'm all

for it. I'm your cheerleader, I'm your motivator. I'm also the

one to tell you, Okay, you may not want to do that. You may not

want to go that route, how about you go this route. And so all of

my colleagues have really always been kind of behind me, cheering

me and pushing me even, you know, my manager at that time

was, you know, Hey, girl, like, I see you in a bigger role, I

see you making a bigger impact with more people. And you know,

a lot of times it takes other people's confidence, or it takes

my confidence, it lags a little bit getting to other people's

confidence of me, including my husband, you know, and it's, you

know, they're telling me that I can do this, but I have to sit

back and say, Well, can I really do it? And it's that self doubt,

right? And I had to learn over the years to basically just say,

You know what, that's it, the quote that says, sometimes the

only transportation you have is a leap of faith. It's true. And

so I had to really kind of lean on that quote, for many years.

And once I started leaning on it, and I started seeing things

happen. I was like, Oh, wow, you know, I give it all I give it

all up. Just tell me what you need me to do. I'm going to go

for it. I'm going to keep learning. And I'm going to keep

going. And so that's what I've done.

So tell us more about those three eyes. You

mentioned your three eyes. I can't remember I remember impact

is the one that stood out to me more. How do you ensure that as

a leader, you are ironclad focused on those things that you

hold most dear to you?

Sure. Thanks. So with my team every year,

well, number one, I am a big motivational quote type person

you probably have seen on on LinkedIn and everything else.

I'm always posting something because that is what energizes

me and gets me going. So one of the things that I initiated a

few years ago was what we call motivational Monday's, because I

understand that Mondays, you know, you may have had a great

weekend. And Monday is like, I gotta go back to work. You know,

I've been there done that sometimes I still have those

days, right. But I instituted a Motivational Monday where I

would send out this quote to everyone, and I started getting

emails back from the team saying, You know what, these are

great. Like, I am literally carrying these all week with me,

and it's really energizing me and lifting me up if I need to

be lifted. So I was like, oh, okay, so it's really doing

something. So I started just doing it every Monday. And then

I started adding more people to the email chain, because word of

mouth was getting around. And people were like, Hey, tell me

about these motivational Monday's you're sending. And

it's just a one or two liner, write it, that's all it takes.

The other thing is, at the beginning of every year, I

always have a one on one with each person on my team. And I

asked them, What are your goals for this year, I want to know

your personal I want to know your spiritual and I want to

know your work career goals, because listen, I'm there all

the way I'm on land, trying to help you whatever it is that I

can help you with. And if you think about it, you know, when

people hit their personal goals, or maybe even their spiritual

goals, you know, it just pumps them up to continue hitting

those goals, right. And so I am there to celebrate those small

wins and the big wins, and to just kind of get them going.

Right. And so that's another thing that I kind of set up, but

then also every quarter. Now at our company, they have biannual

reviews, well, I'm like, No, I'm going to meet with you every

quarter, right? Because there's things that you may feel like

God, it was just a bad quarter for me. And it's like, okay,

well, let's talk about it. How can we change it? Like, what do

you think you need to do? Right? And that's also helped to turn

some things around to turn some ideas and also to turn some

fears around from people. You know, I've had people that were

at one point looking to just move and just get out of the

job. Well, if I had not had that conversation with them, I

wouldn't have known that. I didn't want to wait six months

to hear that or either they're gone in six months and then I'm

like What could I have done. So I always make sure that I keep

the lines of communication open, I always make sure that I'm

patting them on the back virtually or you know, in person

in celebrating every single win that comes through, even if they

get a no, or if they get a you know what, maybe next time, I'm

still pushing them on and just saying, You know what, you got

this, let's do this, let's just keep going, let's talk about,

you know, how we can prioritize the accounts you're looking at,

and move forward from there. So that's my whole goal. And, you

know, the three eyes that you mentioned, is, again, inspire,

you know, inspire them to want to be better and to want to

grow. And it's one of those things where I like to say, it's

not just going through life, but it's growing through life,

right, so inspire you to grow through life, and I do the same

with my kids, hey, you're growing, let's grow through life

together, right in form. So inform those about any and

everything that's out there. Right now, I'm being a huge

advocate, just like, you know, us lean in women in sales and

trying to, you know, make sure that they understand and are

aware that there is a gender gap in b2b sales, and then impact,

you know, how many people can I impact, the more I can impact,

the better it is for me, but even if I'm only impacting one

person, you know what, I'm still happy, because I impacted that

one person. And so, you know, when I think of impact, I always

think of, you know, again, quote comes to mind that, you know, I

can't help everybody, but everybody can help somebody. So

that just kind of sticks in my head, every time I think about

something, and I'm like, You know what, even if I help one

person, I'm happy. And then let them pass it on, let them pay it

for it, hopefully, because I'm paying for it. All of the

goodness that my mentors brought to me all the goodness, my

parents and my family instilled in me, I'm now paying it

forward, you are

doing so many of the right activities in terms of

sitting down with your team and having them realize that this

job is not just about them generating revenue, it is about

them generating that revenue that is going to drive them to

meet that personal or professional goal, whether it's

I want to pay off debt, or I want to become a painter or

whatever it is. Right. And I am curious how you spend your

typical day because it sounds like you spend a lot more time

on people development than you actually do focused on. I won't

give it a bad word. But the Yeah, I was just say the stupid

KPIs in the food. Yes. So tell us how do you spend your days.

So I do. And that brings up another good

point that I'll bring up here in a little bit. But I just love

helping people. I love helping them grow. I love helping them

understand where things may be going wrong, especially when

it's on the job. Yes, we're measured on KPIs and metrics,

and I have those talks with them as well. But I don't spend my

time talking much about that I spend my time talking about how

can we change it. And so when reviews come up, there is

nothing I'm so transparent, that there's nothing new for them. I

mean, they get their review, and they know exactly what I'm going

to say in their review, because we've talked about it several

times prior to the review coming up. So there are no surprises it

also what I was going to bring up is because I am in this

player coach role. And so I've got my own individual

contributor target that I need to be penetrating in and hitting

my target along with developing the people on my team and making

sure that they're hitting target. I've been doing the

player coach role for probably about five or six years. And it

wasn't until you know, the books, of course, will always

tell you oh, there's a conflict of interest. You can't do that.

Because you can't balance it and things like that. I never

thought about it until COVID hit and 2020 COVID hit and 2020. And

I started to feel more concerned about my team hitting target

than me hitting target. I could care less if I hit target. And I

knew that that was a risk because I was saying my God,

I've never not hit target. So what's going to happen if I

don't hit target, and I just moved on with it because I said

the issue is bigger than me. And the way I think of leadership

sometimes is serving others before serving myself. And so I

worked very hard on people development and making sure that

they were mentally okay, that they were physically okay, that

you know, the saying of we're all in the same boat, you know,

it's one of those things were we weren't necessarily all in the

same boat, but we were in the same storm and that's from Mike

Robbins book. And he made a good point that you know, some of us

were at home by ourselves during COVID and had no one to talk to

or work with some of us like myself were at home with three

kids and I had to be a teacher as well as do my job and you

know, work with the dogs and make sure that they were going

outside when they needed to right and so it was total chaos

at one point. So we were all in different boats, but we were all

in the same storm. For the first time going through COVID. And so

it made me think, is this something doing a player coach

role? Is this something I can sustain long term? And it really

truly made me think about do I need to look at just going into

a leadership role only, versus doing individual contributor

only? Well, I decided, You know what, I think I do want to move

towards that leadership role only. But I wasn't in a rush to

do it, because I did not want to just leave my team beside with

someone else. And everything just falls, right. And then I'm

moving on to my own thing. So right now, I think I'm in the

process of just trying to make sure that they're going to be

okay, before I decide if I'm going to make that next move.

And in the meantime, I'm still doing both sides. However, I

will tell you that my passion and more of my time is more on

my team. And like you said, the people development of it,

huh, that's so good. And I can tell based on

the things that drive you that developing people and to sit in

the back of the room and see your whole team on stage getting

their awards for hitting their quota. That means more to you

than you think, Okay, I'm on the stage, but I'm by myself. And I

think that so often, my view of player coach is not necessarily

that you're going to be focused so much on only hitting your

number, or only your team hitting the number or those

things, it is more so that your eyes on two different balls,

right? Because if you're in sales mode, that's having one

part of your brain activated, whereas if you're in a leader

role is having another part of your brain activated. So when I

think about the player culture, those are the things that I

talked to companies about, like when they're first of all, I

asked them why like, why, if this person is so great leaving

why can't they just bring in AI, this is not a self deprecating

term, guys, I really am sorry, but I call them a baby sales rep

or a junior sales rep, like a brand new person that they can

train a mentor to take over their book of business, right?

If they're really that that leading so that those are my

thoughts, if you will, on the whole player coach thing?

Yeah. And it's a great way to look at it, I've

never really looked at it as two balls, right? I've never looked

at it that way. So again, I told you, I learned new things every

day. So this is one of the things that I'm learning is to

change the way or perception that I look at it, that would

make it a lot easier, right for me. And I won't feel down or as

bad if I'm not doing what I need to do as much on one side or the

other. But I still try to make sure that I'm giving enough

attention in order to make sure I'm trying to hit both targets,

right. It's almost kind of like when I hit my target. It's like,

okay, I'm satisfied, which I know, I probably shouldn't be, I

should be, hey, you got to exceed exceeding seat every year

I go above and beyond, right. But what I want to see is I want

to see my team getting to 150% of target and 200% Target,

because when we're at that President's Club dinner, you

know, I mean, just seeing them happy and getting called up

there. And we're reading bios on them. I mean, it's just, it's

amazing to me, it just makes my heart smile. And

sales leadership is not for everyone, people that

think about only themselves being in President's Club, or

only doing this or only doing that I interviewed somebody

recently, and they were like, I actually really like selling I

do like leading to blood, I kind of like selling a little bit

more. And it's a decision you have to make, right? It's not

that one is right and one is wrong. But if you really thrive

on seeing that customer getting that Pio hitting, hitting,

hitting, then you're going to be more focused on being a

salesperson. But if you're like, I love seeing my MINI MES, if

you will, I love seeing them implement the techniques that

I'm teaching them the things that I'm giving them, then

you're more suited to be in leadership,

you are absolutely correct. And I have

been to companies where I have seen it all. And I mean, I have

sales reps, and even just through LinkedIn, people that

don't necessarily work at my company, they work at other

companies, and they're calling me and saying, I need help.

Like, I've got this sales manager, they have a book of

business two, I am not getting any leads. And then I find out

they're getting all the new accounts when a when a sales rep

leaves, they're getting all the big accounts. And eventually

they start to see all of that transpire. And then they're like

whoa, wait a minute, like I'm in competition with my own manager.

It should not be that way. But there are still a lot of

companies where it's like that and I think you have mentioned

it and many people have mentioned it before that a lot

of these people are getting into leadership because they were

such good salespeople and that It is not always the case that

they're going to be a good sales leader. And I don't know what

it's going to take for companies to understand that.

So, you know, yeah, you must have wanted to

open this Pandora's box for me today, you know, I did.

Everything is like those top salespeople, a lot of times,

they're actually not the best salesperson, because they're

very focused on themselves and hitting their targets. And you

have to have that multifaceted view, you do have to have strong

sales skills. But you also need to understand it's not just

about me, and the sales leaders that fail, those ones are like,

oh, there's 18 month turnover with sales managers, it's

because nobody's developing them. And so I like the thing

is, I'm not even mad at the sales person, or the sales

manager, I'm mad at the company, I'm mad at the company for

thinking it's okay to promote an individual contributor into a

management role and not develop them, and then fire them in a

year when they're not doing well. It's the company's fault.

That's the problem.

Bingo. And I see it a lot. I see it a lot, I

hear it a lot. And the only thing that I can say to that,

you know, when someone calls me up and says, you know, they're

trying to put me on a pip. However, I've had no in house

training on what to do, or anything, like, okay, don't wait

for your company, go out and get it on your own. Okay, that means

go out and find if there are free virtual courses out there,

let's say you just can't afford it. Okay, go out there and find

free virtual courses, join groups that have like minded

individuals that can help you with some of this stuff, connect

with people on LinkedIn that you know, are talking about this

thing. But if you have the money for it, invest in yourself, pay

that $100 $1,000, whatever it is, to get the professional

development, you need to strengthen those weakening areas

that you have, or just learning new skill sets. And I guarantee

you, they're going to see that right, and then you're going to

come back. And you know what, don't be afraid to ask the

company. Listen, you're not giving me professional

development here. So I've went out and I've actually found it,

would you be willing to sponsor my professional development and

pay for me to get this stuff because you're not giving it to

me, and I really, really do want to be at this company. However,

if you're not going to invest in me, then maybe I should look

somewhere else. Don't be afraid to have that conversation. And I

know, it takes courage and it takes competence for us to,

especially as women to have that conversation. But it's

definitely necessary. And you may be surprised that your

company is going to back you up. Because they probably know Yeah,

you know what, we're right. We're not doing what we should

be doing from a professional development, we don't want to

lose you, we know that you're good, I will go ahead and pay

what it is that you want to strengthen those skills that

you're wanting to strengthen.

And that being vulnerable, going to your

manager, your leader and saying, I really want this, but I don't

have the tools that I need to actually do this. So I'm asking

for you to invest in me. And I had a client recently that was

out there looking on her own looking for like executive

coaches, or sales, training and all of these different aspects.

And then her leader came to her and said, Hey, we're hiring this

person for you just like oh, my gosh, I've been looking for

this. But she never once told her boss that I'm struggling and

I need support. And it happens all the time. Men, women, it

doesn't matter. They're just they don't want to show that

you've given me a promotion. You trusted me to do this. And I

think I might feel like I'm failing, right. And so that is

the piece that is so integral. And so when I'm working with

people and teams, I talk about this dynamic of managing up a

lot of times we just manage down, we manage our team, but we

have to manage up we have to how do we talk to our boss? How do

we show them that we are doing the things that we need to do to

drive growth not in the team, but strategically for the

company? Because we want to move up in our careers?

You're absolutely right, you are

completely right. I think another thing that leaders don't

really truly think about too much is growing and developing

your top salespeople. I think a lot of times we concentrate on I

don't know the right word to say it. It's the middle class of

sales reps, or the mediocre sales reps, you know, those that

maybe don't hit target every year, they're not consistent

with hitting target or they hit it. They just hit it right on

target. They don't exceed it, right. But then you've got those

that are the top 10% And we're kind of like, they're good.

They're gonna hit target every year. Not gonna worry about

them. They're good. But my question then becomes, okay,

well, how do you grow them right and growing them may be one year

they hit 110% A target but how do we get them to 130% of target

because again, it's still more revenue coming in. to your

company, the more sales they can bring in, the more sales

everyone can bring in and getting them to increase that

percentage, year over year is always a good thing. But we

don't look at that we just kind of concentrate on the 90% and

the 10%. We leave them alone, right? And then when they get

ready to leave a company and they go somewhere else, we're

like, whoa, what did we do? What's going on? Why are they

leaving the company? We've lost a really good sales rep, how are

we going to replace? And then it becomes like, chaotic, and it's

like, are you talking to them? Like, did you know what was

going on in their personal life? Did you know what was going on

that might have changed their perception of the company

they're working for and made them want to go look around.

And the key to those top performers is

sometimes it's the small things, there was a company I was

working with, and they had a new salesperson came in after four

months, they closed the largest sale, it was like $750,000, that

they closed after being there for months. And that person said

to me, he never said thank you. He never said Good job. He never

said I'm so proud of what you accomplished. Literally after

the sale came in. It was like, Okay, that's good, what you got

next. And so it's something just so small, so small as you did a

good job, you did something that we'd have never done in the

company before. And what people don't realize is, yes, those

trips are nice. Yes, the commission is nice. But

sometimes people just want some kind of recognition. So when I'm

showing, I'm like, Okay, let's have a sales meeting. And I'm

working with the leaders. I'm showing them how to have a sales

meeting, we always start with something talking about

gratitude, or what's the word, the word that's on your mind

today? Who do you want to give kudos to like something because

at the end of the day, salespeople are humans to that,

like I probably should change my LinkedIn title to salespeople

are humans, too.

They are. And they like to have fun. They love

to have fun. And so what I have noticed, too, is that, you know,

not just having these weekly pipeline meetings, right? We're

all we're doing is going through numbers. Well, first of all, if

I have a team of 10, I don't want to hear nine other people

going through their pipeline. Because I care less, I'm like,

let me tell you what my pipeline is. And so I can keep it move,

go

find it in in the CRM, that's what I tell

them. This is not what the meeting is for, go look at the

CRM period.

Yeah. And you know what, if you don't have an

accurate CRM, then you know what you tell them, hey, every

certain day of the week, every Monday at two o'clock, I need to

have an email with all your pipelines. And if I have

questions, I'll call you or email you back. But you should

be able to tell me, what we're going to do is we're going to

have what we call a weekly huddle, and we're going to talk

about updates, we're going to talk about kudos, we're going to

actually even have a fun game that we're going to play, it

could be an icebreaker, it could be a puzzle, it could be you

know, I'm gonna ask you a question. And everybody's just

gonna talk about their personal stories, or whatever it is. But

it's really just about having fun and making sure that

everyone feels good, everyone is being recognized for whatever it

is that they're doing. Plus, we're putting all the updates in

that call. So if there's a new product or service, or if

there's something going on, I'm gonna let you know about it

right then and there, you know, and then it's also the

reminders. And so it's weekly on their calendar every week, we

may not meet every week, you know, I might cancel it and say,

Hey, nothing much to meet about this week, guys go out there

happy, prospecting, happy selling, whatever it is, right.

But also just making sure that your team knows, hey, my door is

always open, regardless of what's going on. If you have

anything that you want to talk about, ping me, call me text me,

my team has every single way to get in contact with me if

anything goes on. So again, just having that open communication

and feeling like you know what, she's on my side, she's going to

help me through whatever it is that I have. It's a great

feeling. Because even when I was just an AE, it was a great

feeling to have that I knew that my manager had my back all the

time, regardless of what it is, if I made a mistake, that's

fine. She's still going to have my back. But she's going to tell

me how to correct it going forward and make sure I don't

make a mistake again.

Yes, yes, those are so important, those meetings

where you just have the CRM up and you're going account by

account pipeline. That's an absolute waste of everyone's

time, like no, like you said, the person who's doing nothing

doesn't want to see the number one person with all these deals

in their pipeline. The person who's doing all these things,

doesn't want to hear you beat up on the person that's doing that.

It's just it's a waste of time, you can pull reports CRMs these

days are too strong for you to not be generating your reports,

pull your reports and then like you said, you reach out to the

people one on one, but have your meeting so people understand

like what the outcome is, is that we're going to learn a new

skill today is we're going to do round robin cold calling or I'm

going to pull up an email that somebody sent and we're gonna go

really deep dive on it like what are we going to be working on

because the goal is to build their skills, right? The goal is

not to beat them over the head with the pipeline in the

forecast. That's it. Absolutely it so when you Think about your

career and you are so passionate about developing people and

really helping them grow. What is something or someone you're

most excited about having accomplished, you're done? Oh,

my goodness, I would say right now top of mine

is actually telling my story in the heels to deals book for the

first time ever, I always thought that I didn't have a

story. You know, it was just kind of like, we're just going

through the daily things of going to work, do what I do have

fun at work, hit my target, go home, be a mom, Uber around kids

everywhere, you know, and just have fun. Well, I never knew

when someone finally came to me and said, Listen, you've been in

this industry for a while you've got a story. And I never thought

about it like that. And so as I started thinking, and I started

actually writing that book down, I noticed that you know what, I

do have a story to tail. And it's never too late. Right? It

was one of those things where I personally had been naive to the

gender gap, and b2b sales. I only started really looking at

this and researching it, probably when COVID hit about

two years ago. And so I always tell people that listen, for the

last 14 years, I never knew that there was a gender gap. I was

just going with the flow with everything. I didn't have many

challenges, which I thought I didn't have many challenges, I

thought I was moving up pretty quickly where I wanted to be.

But then as I stopped and started researching and thinking

and talking to other people, I was like, Whoa, I actually have

been kind of, you know, I've had a lot of micro aggressions come

to me that I hadn't. Again, I was naive to it didn't even

realize it, right didn't realize that some of my male

counterparts were making way more money than me didn't

realize it. And it wasn't until I started talking to people and

researching things that my eyes started to open up. And I

started to really say, You know what, I've got to be part of

this solution. I've got to help bring the awareness, I've got to

help, you know, inspire other women to not only get into

sales, but to move up the ladder, right, I've got to also

inform others about the factual data that's out there about

women in sales. And so writing my chapter in the heels to deals

book, after I did that chapter, really, I was like, I am very

happy that I did that, that I decided to do that, that I was

honored that someone came to me and said, I would like for you

to be part of his book and share your story. Because again,

otherwise, if no one had ever asked me, I don't know if I

would ever have shared anything about how I got into sales

unless someone just asked me, and it wouldn't have been that

in depth, it just would have been Oh, I had a friend that

asked me to come in. And that's what happened.

That's it. No, it's so interesting that you say

this, I interviewed another woman of color who's actually in

Texas to industry. And she said she didn't realize it either.

Right. She was just like I had women bosses, I had a team full

of women, I didn't realize that there were things that were

going on around me. And one thing that I say when I'm

speaking and a lot of times I tell this to the managers so

that they can identify these behaviors that as people of

color, underrepresented minorities, were taught to go to

work, put your head down, work hard. Don't ruffle any feathers.

Don't tell your boss that you're doing more than you need to do

your work is going to show and because of that reason, that is

the reason why women are not being retained, and they're not

being promoted. Because they don't know how to use their

voice. They don't know how to show all of the things that

they've done. And so you said that and it just brought it all

back to me full circle. It's because of the way that we're

raised the culture that we've been developed in.

You are absolutely right. Absolutely

right. And, you know, I'm working, I've got three kids,

I've got two daughters and a son. And my oldest daughter is

in high school. I mean, at high school, she's in eighth grade,

getting ready to go to high school, but it's, you know, even

with when her talking to her teachers, you know, she'll come

home and she'll say, Well, Mom, you know, I have a question. And

I'm not sure why the teacher did this, or you know, they didn't

put my grade in. And I know I turned it in. And the first

thing I say is, Well, honey, have you emailed the teacher?

Have you done what you should do? Because you're in eighth

grade. Now you've got to start speaking for yourself, right?

Mommy can always come behind you and do everything. And so it

took her a while to just start emailing the teacher and having

that competence to say I did this assignment. Why did you

grade me that I didn't do it or whatever it was, it took her you

know, a good while to do that. But now she's got that

competence. And every once in a while, she'll come back to me

and she'll say the same thing and I just look at her and she

knows exactly what I'm going to say They, you need to do the

steps that you need to do first and make sure that it's

documented before Mommy and Daddy get put in the mix.

Because when Mommy and Daddy get put in the mix, we want to have

the facts. And we want to know exactly Hey, she emails you

here, here, here. And here. There's no email back what's

going on. And so now she understands the concept. And

it's, you know, my mom and dad taught me the same thing is,

Hey, speak for yourself before we have to get involved. That

way we can say she reached out to you, you didn't respond. So

now you got to deal with Mama and Papa Bear.

Yes. And I can actually see a very big

difference between I have two boys 13 and seven. And the seven

year old was born in the height of my sales career. Like, I tell

people, you know, I was literally in the bed having to

attraction texting people, okay, we got to do that, like in the

height of my sales career. And he is so much more of a self

advocate that even my older son who you know, he when I would

pick them up from school, and we'd go home, and so he didn't

really get as much back. And so now I'm having to instill it

into him later, he's actually an eighth grade too. And we're

going to his night, whatever tonight, actually, that night or

whatever. So you know, even instilling those things in our

kids so that we can change the next generation so that the sale

profession in 510 1520 years does look different. I think

that we have a responsibility to do that.

Yes, absolutely. And it's funny,

because you know, when we pre COVID, you know, the kids

wanted, they wanted a dog. And I was kind of like, Yeah, I'm not

ready for a dog, even though I grew up with dogs, right? My mom

always had a dog for me. I was like, Yeah, I don't know, if I

really want a dog. I'm not ready for it. And I feel bad because I

was like, I grew up with dogs, and they want a dog. So they

actually put a presentation together about the best dog that

we should get. And it was my first time seeing them actually

give me a sales pitch. And although we did not get that

dog, they still want us over because instead of us getting

one dog, we got two dogs.

Double the trouble.

I told those kids, I said, Listen, you know,

y'all should go into sales, right? And they were like, Well,

yeah. And so when you ask them, Well, what is what is sales

mean? And one of them told me that just means meetings? Yeah,

there's gonna be meetings all day, because they're used to me

being on Zoom meetings and everything else. And so I

thought it was so funny. But I said, You guys have had your

first big sales pitch to me, and y'all did a pretty good job. So

I think y'all may need to look at that going forward. So we

always laugh about that. But they close the deal. And they

got more money out of me.

I love it double the trouble? Well, what is the

one best way that people can get in touch with you if they want?

Well, I am very active on LinkedIn. And so

my LinkedIn is open to anyone just I'm under Shawanda.

Roberts, they can reach out to me, the only thing I ask is that

you put a message to the requests, because I get a lot of

requests, where people are just wanting to sell me something.

And you know, I'm in sales myself. And that's just a big no

no for me. So I will decline you if I don't get a message from

you saying why you want to connect with me. So if you could

just let me know where you saw me and where you want to connect

or why you want to connect, that would be great. I am open and

willing to help any and everyone that is looking at a sales

career or that's looking to move into leadership, I am willing to

help anyone. And so it's just time to go out there and be

amazing.

Thank you so much. Shawanda this has been an

amazing, amazing conversation. And I know you guys see that

this one a little bit long, because we're having such a good

time. So thank you so much for your time, your talent, your

expertise and your passion about sales leadership. I've

thoroughly under enjoyed this conversation.

Thank you so much for having me as one of

your guests to and it has been a great time. And I know we went

over time but we can talk all day long. And I'm sorry about

that. But I hope that this inspired some of you all that

are listening and if it did, let me know let Wesleyne know we'll

be happy to hear that. Thanks so

much again. And that was another episode of the

transformed sales podcast remember and all that you do and

everything and every day transform your sales until next