Selling without Selling Your Soul | Susan McVea | 305

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Susan McVea is an award-winning business sales strategist and consultant who specializes in helping ambitious entrepreneurs grow their businesses and boost their income. Throughout her 20 years of corporate sales experience, Susan has built a company from zero to $15 million in just 18 months, and has led high-performance sales teams to over $600 million in revenue.

Susan is also an international speaker and has been featured in renowned media publications, including Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Apartment Therapy. She is currently on a mission to help entrepreneurs find a unique selling style that feels easy, not sleazy.


Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

  • How Susan McVea’s perception of sales changed after taking her first corporate job
  • Susan talks about the challenges she faced on her sales journey and how she sharpened her skills as a salesperson
  • The secret to sales: stop selling and start serving your customers
  • Susan shares the biggest mistakes that salespeople make—and what they should be doing instead
  • How to serve customers during the pandemic (without being sleazy)
  • Susan’s free resource for turning “I can’t afford it” into “Sign me up!”
  • Susan reveals one of her biggest professional role models: Oprah Winfrey
  • How a breakdown led to Susan’s life-changing business breakthrough
  • The three steps to becoming a more effective and authentic salesperson today

In this episode…

If you’re an entrepreneur or business owner, you know that sales are an essential part of running a profitable company. But, has the act of selling—especially during the global pandemic—caused you to feel uncomfortable, awkward, or even sleazy? If so, you may be going into a sale with the wrong mindset.

According to successful sales strategist Susan McVea, sales shouldn’t actually be about selling—instead, it should be about serving and connecting with your customers. As Susan says, every sale starts with one conversation and one authentic relationship. So, how can you start better serving your customers and, in turn, dramatically boost your sales today?

In this episode of Growth to Freedom, Dan Kuschell chats with Susan McVea, business sales strategist and consultant, about how to boost your sales without being sleazy or ingenuine. Susan shares the importance of serving your customers instead of selling to them, the three biggest mistakes salespeople make, and the steps you can take to create a more authentic sales experience today. Stay tuned and start making a greater impact with your sales—right now!

Resources Mentioned in this episode

Sponsor for this episode

Thanks for listening to this episode of growthtofreedom.com.

Are you struggling to get a steady flow of new clients every day? Or maybe hit a plateau or hit a wall in growing your business? Well, let’s help you solve this problem today. Let’s review your business and have a conversation. You can do that for free today at breakthroughstrategycall.com. That’s breakthroughstrategycall.com.

In addition, if you’re looking for a simple way to implement some of what we’ve been talking about in today’s episode, I want to encourage you to get our free small business toolkit. You can get that at activate.breakthrough3x.com. That’s activate.breakthrough3x.com.

If you’d like access to the special resources and all the show notes for this special episode, make sure to visit growthtofreedom.com.

Episode Transcript

Dan Kuschell 0:02

Welcome to growthtofreedom.com, the show that brings you inspiration, transformation and leadership are helping you connect the dots, see the blind spots and get unstuck. So you can go out there and create more sales, more growth, more profitability. More importantly, so you can go out and have a bigger impact, have a bigger reach and make a bigger contribution. Is that what you want? Well, if that’s what you want, you are going to love today’s segment, our segment is all about selling without selling your soul. Right. And we have a unique expert, it definitive expert in this category because she has, you know, walked the talk. In fact, she built a company going from zero to $15 million in business and less than 18 months, and has done over $600 million in corporate sales leadership in a couple decades. She’s also going to share a key unique moment, April 15, 2011. And how it changed and transformed her entire perspective on how to build a business how you can build a business how you can get away from burnout, feeling overwhelmed feeling like oh my gosh, to make sales. I might have to sell my soul. Well guess what you don’t have to. And sales does not have to be a four or five letter dirty word. It can actually be good and it can be healthy. Her name is Susan McVea. Susan, welcome to the show. How are you?

Susan McVea 1:36

I am Great. Thank you so much for having me. Dan, I’m really excited to be here and chatting with you on this topic.

Dan Kuschell 1:43

Absolutely. And I we got to give a quick shout out to Kevin Thompson and Jewels Duncan with their community Tribe for Leadership, which is how we got connected as well. So Kevin, there you go. By the way, if you want to hear our interview with Kevin like it seems like decades ago we did that interview but go to growthtofreedom.com. Look in the episode list search Kevin Thompson. What an amazing interview talking about how to connect with high profile people in a really cool, elegant way you’ll get a lot of insights from that. By the way, if you want to come back to this episode, you can go to growthtofreedom.com/305 that’s growthtofreedom.com/305. If you never want to miss an episode, go to growthtofreedom.com/subscribe. So Susan, I want to I want to dive right into it. You know selling without selling your soul. Let’s talk about this. Like why are you passionate about this topic? Why is it important to you? Why are you doing what you’re doing?

Susan McVea 2:44

Because I’m an the most unlikely salesperson you will ever meet. In fact, I, for most of my childhood, I hated sales. I hated the word sales. I knew that my friends were getting retail jobs as salespeople and they were making a lot of money, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. And although my parents had a grocery store, I mean, they were entrepreneurs, immigrants to Canada. And that’s how I grew up. I never equated selling with what they did. It’s not funny, like yes, clearly as business people they had to be selling in order to make money. But there was a really big disconnect for me. And when I ended up stumbling into a corporate job straight out of college, and I realized, oh, my goodness, I have to sell wait. I thought, No, no, no, no, I thought this was customer service. I this is I thought this was totally different. And because I had rent on the line, I really had no other option and I had to make it work. And so because of my frustrations and my challenges in having myself kind of walk the talk and realizing that sales isn’t something that you do to people. It’s something that you do for people, right. It’s it’s being of service. And that for me is when everything changed the moment when I realized, aha, wait, I’ve done this since I was a little kid. Right? I’ve wanted to help people and I wanted to give them products and services and solutions that could help change their lives could make life even brighter. You know, when we would be putting together like lemonade stands as most little kids do, right? Yep. I yes, the money was fun, but it was more about you’re thirsty. Like I want to give you something to drink. It’s a hot day, made sense right at the time. And so I never connected all these dots of the things that had happened through my life. And I know that for me, because I kept thinking sales. Ooh, and you I mean the movies don’t make it any easier, right? They are is no typical sleazy car salesman types that are just all over you trying to force you to buy something. And then when we think about even the, like the phrase, I could sell ice to an Eskimo, like who do that, that they don’t, you don’t need that. And so of course, all these stereotypes just exacerbate the whole situation. And so I’m out here to change the world that sales is something that is about leadership. It’s about empowerment, it’s about service. And for me, I always encourage my clients to find someone to serve every single day, because I believe that when you do that your products or services are an extension. And when we don’t sell, we’re actually being selfish, because the thing that our clients need is our product and service. And if that’s the case, then we have to sell.

Sales isn't something that you do to people. It's something that you do for people.- Susan McVea Click To Tweet

Dan Kuschell 5:59

And as you’re watching, as you’re listening right now, you know, can you relate to Susan? And this feeling of, you know, sales is, you know, awkward, it’s uncomfortable, etc? And all these things, and then maybe beliefs or false beliefs around it? Or what if you could actually flip a switch and starting today, not only if you’re in sales and already good at it, you could become even better. But if you’re struggling around it, like what if you could make the shift, that you can increase your growth, your income, your impact your reach tenfold, as a result of what soon as Susan is going to share with you Now, before we get into some of the strategy, Susan? And I know you’ve got a lot of it. Now, I mean, $600 million, in a couple decades of business is quite phenomenal. Right? So I want to give some context, can you remember, you know, this place where you felt like it was uncomfortable, it was awkward. And, and then like your lowest point like, like your worst experience, like a failure or rejection or this just isn’t working for me like revaluation, whatever that was for you can remember back and share that. And then also, what our viewers and listeners can learn from your experience as a result. Yeah,

Susan McVea 7:22

I there’s, I mean, there’s so many, right, because our journeys are not a straight line. And I think even now, even with all that success, I still have my moments I I’m not a natural born salesperson, I have to work, I have to work hard at it. And there’s a lot of things that come more naturally to me now. But and people think, well, it’s easy for you, you’re an extra, I’m not an extrovert, I am an introvert, this is something that I’ve had to learn. So sales is a skill. And I thought, while first I wanted to quit my job, about six months in, I thought, well, this is not working for me. My sales targets were running really slowly, I was still technically in the training period. And I just, I was ready to give up the towel. And I thought, hmm, there must be something I’m missing. Right, there must be something that I’m missing. And so I looked at a colleague appear who actually was more experienced, he’d been doing this for not actually not a ton longer than I had maybe six to nine months ahead of me. And yet he constantly had a line out the door. He constantly had clients who are waiting on him. And I thought, Well, okay, let me let me dial this in and see what he’s doing. And I took the time to observe him right to really look at what is it that he was doing. And and that was the first moment that it finally clicked for me that all he was doing was serving people like really serving people he wasn’t trying to sell every single time. He was asking really great questions. He was really connecting the dots for folks. And where appropriate, who was making the suggestion for Hey, this could actually help you address this issue that we’ve just uncovered. I’m going to recommend that you do this. Let me book you an appointment. And you can speak to somebody about this. And I thought, what, that’s so easy. That’s so easy, right? Instead of being you want fries with that you are faced with that you are faced with that. Because we’ve all been in those situations, when you have to meet a quota, you have to hit a target, you need to see a sale coming through the door, you need to sign another client because let’s face it business owners, we got we got bills, we have teams, we have lots of responsibilities on the personal and the business side. And I sat there in that moment. And I realized, well if I just sound like a broken record, nobody’s going to listen to me and I know that there’s some times where when we’re talking to our clients, it kind of feels like we’re repeating ourselves over and over again. And that’s not what I’m talking about, I’m talking about the fact that you actually have not done what’s required in order to hear from the other person, like, actually connect. And so I stopped worrying about selling, I realized that if I just be my best version of me in terms of, I just deeply connect with people really, naturally curious about folks and their stories and the backgrounds, why they do what they do, I just ask them, what’s happening for them and why they’re doing certain things, then it will allow me to get a little bit deeper into what’s showing up for them. And as a result, I’m the expert. I’m trained in all of these different products and services that I can sell. I’m not gonna offer while at the time, gosh, I mean, there were more than 100 different things that I could sell. That’s overwhelming for a client. And, and yet, here I was, you know, she’ll brochure in hand. Let me just show you all all 12 of these options. Of course, nobody wanted to say yes, they literally would back away, back away from the counter. Okay, how much how much longer, How much longer? It was so bad, it was just, I cringe and whether I was doing it in person or over the phone, my biggest blunder have been when I’ve had my own agenda of what I want to happen. And I have stopped serving people. And I’ve stopped really being present to what’s happening in the interaction and treating it more like a transaction. And so when I realized that this is a really human, like, I just have to have a moment with this person to ask really relevant questions, to stop worrying about whether or not I’m going to sell something, and take the time to listen to what they’re telling me. Because some sales, they take time, right? Even if it’s small on so I found for me, it wasn’t the size of the deal. It was really about whether or not there was a need. And so if I hadn’t done a good job of asking those really relevant questions, and then matching that up with my expertise as the expert to say, Okay, I’m going to advise you, I’m the expert, I’m your trusted. I’m your trusted expert, I’m going to give you the information and, and the advice that you need, which is a recommendation for something, then it wouldn’t really matter what I was trying to sell, I was skipping the steps. And so I had to kind of go backwards and realize, wait, there, there is a process to this. There is a rhythm to how we build relationships. And there is a way that people are more open to recommendations, because I’ve done the initial work up front.

Dan Kuschell 12:55

And as you’re listening, or you’re watching right now, can you relate to this a little bit? Right? Where you felt like, golly, I just have to make sales I gotta meet a quote, I gotta hit my commission numbers, I got to do this, you got to do that, to pay the bills, right? On the other hand, like what if actually, you could make more sales have a greater impact, have a greater reach, have a greater contribution by stop selling, and start serving to start Connecting, Connecting deeper? Well, guess what, when we come back, we’re going to take a deeper dive into this psychology, this new way of operating so that you can have a bigger impact, a bigger reach in bigger contribution, so that you can sell more by actually selling less, and stop selling your soul by actually serving, connecting, and a whole lot more with Susan McVea. Right after this, on growthtofreedom.com. Thanks for listening to this episode of growthtofreedom.com. Are you struggling to get a steady flow of new clients every day? Or maybe hit a plateau or hit a wall and growing your business? Well, let’s help you solve this problem today. Let’s review your business and have a conversation. You can do that for free today at breakthroughstrategycall.com. That’s breakthroughstrategycall.com. In addition, if you’re looking for a simple way to implement some of what we’ve been talking about in today’s episode, I want to encourage you to get our free small business toolkit. You can get that at activate.breakthrough3x.com that’s activate.breakthrough3x.com if you’d like access to the special resources and all the show notes for this special episode, make sure to visit growthtofreedom.com. Welcome back to growthtofreedom.com. Now, Susan. You know as you’ve shared your story, right of where you’ve been and you know some of the challenges you’ve had, what are what are some of the big mistakes that you see a lot of people making in their journey of self Selling, maybe there are, you know, new and getting started. And maybe it’s two different, you know, responses to this, or maybe they’ve had some success. But hey, let’s face it, the world has changed, like the world has changed, especially in the last nine months. Like, what mistakes Do you see people making and what can they do to shift it?

Susan McVea 15:20

Yeah, absolutely. So I think the biggest mistakes are actually really common between both because at the core, we’re all we’re all human right. And our nature, and our human behavior is very much dialed towards safety and security, right, like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. And as a result, when we’re threatened when we feel like oh, my gosh, my back is against the wall. Because our lizard brains go towards that, like the doomsday predictions, right? Even though it might not be true. It’s like, gosh, you’re kind of staring at 0000. Like, when is a client gonna say yes? When am I going to get that next person? And you automatically jump to worst case scenario, which is, I’m going to be homeless and dead. Right? It’s like, all of a sudden, your brain goes there. And so when we really dial it down, the biggest mistakes I find is that we are not number one is that we don’t follow a process. Hmm, do not follow a process, which means that we have no way to repeat success. And whether you’re the person selling, or you are, perhaps you’ve already had success. And you’re thinking, Okay, great. I’m going to now hire salespeople, because I keep hearing this right now to is okay, like, I’ve done what I need to do I have so many things. I’m going to just hire somebody. And my number one question is always awesome. Do you have a process. And so if you don’t have a process, it’s really hard to create repeatable success. And it’s really hard to benchmark where you need your results to be. So that’s, I would say that that is singularly like the biggest issue that I see across the board. The second piece is that we kind of resign ourselves to the fact that for whatever reason, sales is an area where most folks feel like they can’t get any better. Right? It’s just like, it is how it is Susan, like if I get a 10% or 20%, or maybe a 25% conversion rate, like I’m laughing, that’s, that’s awesome. And I see but I mean, you’re already working so hard with your marketing efforts, and, and maybe some of your other referral partners or joint venture affiliations and things like that, to get that flow in your pipeline into your funnels, like there’s so much focus on more leads, more leads, more leads, and then you’re expecting seals to kind of win the day and all of a sudden bring in this whole rush of business. But that’s not always going to happen. And and yet here, if we could focus more on the quality of the conversion process, again, process, but the conversion, but integrating that with your marketing, right? And so number two would be looking at making sure that you actually are able to increase your results once you get a qualified lead once you get a qualified customer. What happens in order to get the Yes, right. And can you handle objections? Can you? Do you have a process in place for follow up? Like what does that look like? If somebody is not ready, because let’s face it, I would say that for the most part 3% of the market is like hot and ready right now. And yet we’re trying to get the 97% to buy now. Right? And what happens to those 97% if you are able to build a relationship and to make sure that you’re nurturing them appropriately. So when we look at number one, process number two, what is the actual conversion look like? And can we increase in boost those results such that the same number the same quantity of leads you instead of getting 10 or 20%? What if you could get 4050, even 80 or 90%, right? That that is 100% possible. And then the other piece is your sales and your marketing are totally opposite or in congruent or they just don’t talk to each other. And whether you’re the one doing it all or you have teams sales and marketing and customer service, because that is also a piece of this entire end to end sales process from my perspective, then, things feel inconclusive. customer. So it becomes a very jarring sort of experience if your marketing is promising one thing, but then your salesperson, that could be you is not communicating in the same way. And then it’s not also what’s being delivered. That increases your refunds, your customer service issues, like all kinds of things, and it prevents your clients from becoming repeat customers, which really, we all want more repeat customers, because the heavy lifting has already been done. And so if we make sure that all of these pieces really come together in a way that’s cohesive, but also congruent for you, as either the business owner who’s selling, or the salesperson who has to sell for somebody else, then you’re going to see your results become more consistent, and ultimately increase which let’s face it, we all want to do better with less. And why work harder than we need to.

If you don't have a process, it's really hard to create repeatable success. - Susan McVea Click To Tweet

Dan Kuschell 20:56

And as you’re listening or watching right now, like what would happen for you, if you just focused on getting, you know, little incremental improvements, call it 5% improvements in your process 5% improvement in your conversion 5% improvement in the alignment and to end with your sales and your marketing? How would it change the game for you? How would it shift your business? And here’s the more important question. What’s it costing you if you don’t? Right? What’s it costing you and freedom and peace of mind and getting out of the day to day, right? I mean, as a business owner, especially or a founder? Don’t you want to get yourself out of having to be in this role of constantly being the main or only Rainmaker in your business? Well, if you want to make that transition, start focusing on these three things, the process, conversion, alignment, and what what would it do for you know, just imagine being able to bring in a couple talented people because you had a process, because you had a proven conversion method that they could replicate and duplicate, and your marketing and your sales, were in alignment to help them to help bring fuel and you could stay in your sweet spot, you could be at home with your family and or just if you love being in your business, you can spend more of the time in your sweet spot in your genius zone, you know being energized instead of depleted feeling the weight? And why do I say this? I’ve been there been there done that. And you know, it’s no fun to be able to do now, Susan is, as you think about like these pivots, these shifts that have happened over the last, you know, nine months in the world has changed buying behavior has changed buying, you know, decisions are made a lot differently today than they were just nine months ago. And it’s going to likely continue. Like what would you say, you know, one of our themes that we use, you’re just one breakthrough away, right from that next level breakthrough? Like what would be 1 to 3 things that you’ve seen in the shifts over the last few months? Where you go, here’s a couple key things that are going to have immediate results for you to help you get closer to that next level breakthrough? What would those be?

Susan McVea 23:05

Yeah, I would say that right now. There has been no time that I’m like that I’ve been alive, where every single person pretty much around the globe, it has had the same kind of impact. Right? So I know a lot of times where we have to do that market research. And we’re trying to think, like, what is my ideal client? What is my avatar? really thinking? What are they wondering, like? What are they dealing with? What are you struggling so that you can enter the conversation in their mind? Right. And we we struggle with that. Because as the founder as the expert, we are often so far removed. And even if it’s just a couple of steps, we are so we’re out of it. We’ve we’ve jumped forward. It’s kind of like Back to the Future, are you when you dial it back and you forget like and, and life kind of works that way where it all of a sudden goes from. I don’t even remember what it’s like to have that. Whereas when you’re in the moment, it just feels like the sky is falling. It feels like the end of the world. And here we are in a situation where probably most of us could have never imagined. And even when we were here back in March, we thought, well surely this will pass. Surely this will, you know, we’ll turn the corner in a couple weeks. Extended vacation, maybe a month and here we are months later with really kind of no real end in sight. And we have to now figure out our new normal. And, and this and funny enough. I mean I had a very similar situation. You mentioned the the date April 15, 2011. kind of similar to what happened to me like I had this this breakdown moment. And I want us to all remember that right now, our customers are essentially having breakdowns all the time, like all the time, because they’re dealing with so many new things and new stresses that even if they have been around since March, it’s still it’s still new, right? human behavior changes really, really slowly, which is why habits are so hard to implement. And so what I want us to remember is that, and I’ve talked about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs already. I’m going to mention it again. Because I think if we really go back to, what is it that our clients are thinking about right now, it all comes down to safety. Right, every single one of us, if we think about what are the things that are stressing us out, right, now, I’m going to guarantee you across the board, whether it’s related to the pandemic, or spin off of that, it’s going to come down to our basic core needs of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. So go ahead and Google that. But you’re going to see, like, if we can’t, if we can’t address our basic needs, we can’t move into the highest need, which is self actualization like, so you know, becoming your highest self, that’s great. And you can still use it in your marketing and your positioning. But if you aren’t addressing the fact that people are worried about their loved ones who are dying, people are worried about whether or not they can put food on the table. People are worried about whether or not their kids can ever have and see their friends again, because perhaps they’re not able to go to school, or it’s limiting the way that they interact with other fellow human beings. Those are real things that and pressures that we are all as human beings facing right now. And if you don’t, and this is not about like, you know, just tweet like just milking it. That’s, that’s gross, that’s icky. That goes into sleazy territory. But you, you do need to be mindful of it, you do need to kind of just make sure that you address that. And if you don’t, you’re still going to come off as tone deaf. Right. And I think it’s really important that we recognize that, that whether you’re selling business to business or business to consumer, there is a real live human being that is being impacted. And the more that we can just, again, I’m going to go back to connection. And I think sometimes we overcomplicate things with the automations, and the funnels and all the different strategies. And believe you, me, I have not sold millions of dollars without having that in place as well. But at the core of this, it doesn’t matter how fancy all of that is, if it feels like you’re talking at people, like if you’re just talking, talking, talking, and you’re not giving people an opportunity to be heard, to be understood, and to be recognized that this is a different moment in time. And how can I be of service to you? and How could my product still help you. And if right now you’re thinking, gosh, Susan, like I only sell really, really high end, luxury goods or high ticket or a certain dollar value. People are still buying, people are still buying lots of stuff. So don’t use this to be scared of selling, to be scared of building your business. It’s just more about and it’s a subtle nuance. It’s really about making sure that you don’t forget that there’s a human being that is struggling with day to day things. And if your products and services can help improve their lives, which Hello, I know that if you’re listening right now, your stuff does, then you should still be unapologetic about going out and finding people that need those services and talking to those folks. And really making sure that they understand how this can help them in today’s context, right. So we have to place what you do in the current environment, recognizing that right now we are all we’re all kind of making it up as we go along. Yes, we’re all just trying to figure out what is this new normal. And when people are stressed, they make different decisions. So our role as the guide as the expert, as the mentor as the trusted advisor is really to recognize and acknowledge that and make sure that we address how our products, how our services are still relevant, given what’s happening today. And I think that’s important moving forward always. I think sometimes we get so caught up in the shiny objects or a new strategy, new tactic new, you know, brand new thing over here that we get so caught up into into the logistics of how we set These things up inside of our business, that we forget that that that click. And that, you know, PayPal notification, or that new order that came through, is attached to a real life human being.

Whether you're selling business to business or business to consumer, there is a real-life human being that is being impacted. - Susan McVea Click To Tweet

Dan Kuschell 30:12

Yes. And as you’re watching or listening right now, are you connecting with what Susan is sharing with you? Right being a human being being a trusted guide, a mentor and advisor, a trusted advisor that, you know, the ability to realize that this isn’t about automation, this is about one to one personal isation personal communication, again, tuning in to the human beings side of things. Now, Susan, if people want to connect with you, I mean, you’ve got a wealth of resources, a wealth of tools to help people, right, just do better at this and really genuine, authentic sell selling more without selling their soul. So where can they connect with you? Where can they learn more about how to how to reach it?

Susan McVea 30:55

Yeah, absolutely. So I’m across all social medias at Susan McVea. My last name is a little tricky. So it’s MCVEA. I also have my own podcast, Master the Sales Game, and I do weekly episodes on all things, sales, to help you move your business forward and stop getting stuck over or through this thing. But I know that the number one thing that clients come to me with, regardless of where you are in your business, and especially right now, because let’s face it, we just talked about the fact that I don’t know if it’s still okay for me to sell, I feel uncomfortable. And I’ve said, please do please go forward. Please sell, unapologetically and give your service to the world. There’s still maybe that little bit of you that feels like but what if they actually can’t afford it? Right? What if they can’t afford it? I would love to give you my free resource that is all about turning those I can’t afford it into Sign me up. There’s three specific strategies, actual words that you can use, because I know sometimes we stumble over What do I say? How do I say it? Susan, what I’m stuck there in a conversation. And I don’t I don’t want to be pushy. I don’t really want to have that full money conversation either. But how do I still maneuver through in a way that still have service and integrity to who I am. So I would love for you to grab that gift at Susanmcvea.com/growth. And that should be able to help you on your very next conversation. And and if you do use it, please feel free to let me know tag me on social media, I would love to be able to give you a shout out because I love my action takers as well.

Dan Kuschell 32:37

And if you’re looking for a way to sell more without selling your soul to be able to connect to be that guide that mentor that leader, that trusted advisor and do it in a way that’s cool, it’s not sleazy, and it really connects to the human being side of things and that’s works for you. I encourage you go check out what Susan is doing go to SusanMcVea.com, if you want to take advantage of this incredible resource of handling price objections go to SusanMcVea.com/growth, that’s SusanMcVea.com/growth. Oh, and by the way, if you’re driving right now and you’re like, Oh my god, I want to get this you can come back to this episode and all the links will be in the show notes. You could do that at growthtofreedom.com/305, that’s growthtofreedom.com/305. now as we wrap this up, Susan, there’s so many things I want to ask you, but when you were a kid, can you think back to like this place when you were a kid, you’re introverted? Like what was a turning point for you when you kind of thought okay, I’m gonna go this path of business and or selling or what have you, like, Can you remember back to like, a trigger moment? Or somebody who inspired you? Or a book or something? I’m just curious.

Susan McVea 33:48

Yeah, well, Dan, I never wanted to be in business. And I never wanted to be in sales. So I, I have, I stepped into this entrepreneur world completely by accident. And so I will say that for me, the person that and this will sound very cliche. I mean, aside from my parents, because they were extremely good role models for me just in cementing work ethic and what was possible. And giving me a lot of hidden lessons, right in sales and marketing that I didn’t even realize like, as a kid, you just soak everything by osmosis that i i still utilize today. I even just had a realization the other day where I thought, Oh, my gosh, I helped my car, my parents with their pricing strategy when I was a kid, in order to be able to help them make more sales. I never connected the dots. But the the big thing of how I do what I do and why I do what I do is Oprah and I know that may sound really odd and I mentioned her when I was on entrepreneur, but I remember growing up, and because my parents worked all the time, I came home and my grandma helped raise us. And so me, my sisters, we would come home after school, and I would sit at the coffee table, eating my snack, and watching Oprah. And Oprah was a huge teacher in my life for all the things that I wanted to do. And I remember, it was one story in particular, that got me just super fascinated with with wealth with building wealth. And Funny enough, I ended up in a corporate career in finance, without, without ever planning to do that, either. And I remember it was an episode about, I think it was supposed to be on retirement or something. But she had a school teacher on this school teacher had worked for 23 years more. And I was just retiring. But this, this school teacher had never made more than I think it was like 23 $25,000, it wasn’t very much money. Right? It wasn’t very much money. And I know that when I was little, I thought that my parents weren’t super wealthy. In order to have a lot of money, I had to make a lot of money. I had to, you know, work really, really hard, and make a ton of money. And yet here was this school teacher, freshly retired, who had retired a millionaire. And my mind was just like, What do you mean, like she, and she had never made more than $30,000 a year. And yet she had worked hard been really diligent, and done all of these things. And now as a business owner, I realize, well, gosh, I can expedite that. Because if I can do all of the things that she did, but also make more money, goodness, that’s like pouring gas on the fire. And I saw that through my sales career as well. I mean, so. So if you’re a business owner right now, and you’re thinking, gosh, I have to hire a salesperson, I have to pay How much? Without sales, you don’t have a business, that is the lifeblood of our cash flow is the ability to generate sales. And that’s what generates that whole Rainmaker category, right? Yes, I remember thinking, I want to be like Oprah, not in having a show or anything like that. But I want to change people’s lives. I want to teach, I want to serve, I want to help educate, and I want to make sure that what I do is of such quality, that no matter who you are, I can help improve your life, even if it’s just one little bit. And I’m deeply grateful that a breakdown that happened in 2011 completely changed my life. And what I felt was an end. And I was deeply sad. It was devastating at the time. And I know that, Dan, you’ve had a health crisis, that was what spurred mine. I could never have imagined that that would have led to this. And then we’d be having this conversation right now. Because Hey, I like that school teacher. I thought I was going to retire from corporate, I thought I was going to retire, doing something else that I really loved. But doing it for somebody else, and building businesses for somebody else and making a lot of money for someone else. And not having the opportunity to reach now, you know, hundreds of 1000s of people. Like I am overwhelmed. And I’m deeply grateful, because I know that the things that I didn’t even realize, happens to all all my life. They all matter, they all count, they all make a difference. And they all come together in such a beautiful way to now help me help the people that I serve. And I know that somewhere if someone’s listening, like there’s gonna be some moment for you where you don’t even know that it connects right? I think it’s a see the Steve Jobs quote that says Like, you can only connect the dots. looking backwards. You can’t do it, looking forwards. And even still, now, I’m still connecting more dots, because I realize how all of these things are beautifully working together. And yeah, and so it’s just been it’s been quite the ride to realize that that moment when I was a kid watching Oprah, I’m having my own version of my Oprah moment, every single time that I get to help somebody now in the thing that I do,

Dan Kuschell 39:43

and if you want Susan’s help, and I hope you do, and especially as it relates to selling, and especially as it relates to selling in a cool way, go check out what she’s got available at SusanMcVea.com, that’s SusanMcVea.com, if you want to pick up the resource right now, right here, right Now why wouldn’t you write? Do you ever struggle or ever deal with price objections or have your team customer service people service techs, any type of person in your company dealing with price objections, then go get this amazing free tool SusanMcVea.com/growth that’s SusanMcVea.com/growth. Susan, what? What are 1 to 3 action steps that you hope our listeners our viewers take from from our time today?

Susan McVea 40:26

I hope that right now you’re thinking of a way to be able to connect with your audience to connect with your clients, even if that’s just sending out an email saying, how are you? Like, is everything okay today? Because I think, again, if we go back to what I’ve shared earlier, we’re all so overwhelmed with the things that are happening in our lives that people aren’t taking the time to actually reflect and pause and check in. I know that right now you’re thinking, but I have to make sales. I know. But I’m going to tell you that the more that you serve the people, the more that you really focus on building those relationships, and the more that you’re able to really connect the dots for them, and be there for them, that they have an opportunity to be heard and recognize that whether they make a sale with you today or tomorrow or down the road, or they refer you to somebody who needs your products and services, it all starts with one single conversation. And so if you can find someone to serve, so number one, go and find someone to serve right now. And whatever that looks like for you, it could be as simple as sending a text message, an email, picking up the phone, showing up on social media, wherever is going to be the most natural for you. The second piece is to really think about how are you? How is your product or service still relevant for your customer today? And how are you giving context to what you’re doing? Right? And if you do have some automation, can you address and just tweak and it doesn’t mean you have to rewrite the whole funnel or change all the sequence? Not at all. But maybe you just add a couple of things in there saying, Hey, I wanted to check in and just make sure is everything okay? If you ever have a question, you know, just hit reply, and let me know, I’m here, I’m here for you. Right, it could just be adding that one little slice in there. And then the last piece is to make sure that you keep selling as the economy needs it. Right? We’re not out of the woods yet is very important. Again, I mentioned my background is in finance, we’ve gone through these ups and these downs, this too shall pass. It’s just a matter of when. And we have to make sure that if you and your business provides a necessary service, then you have to keep selling you have to keep promoting do it in a different way. Absolutely. But don’t lose sight of the fact that there’s still people buying your service your product and service is here to make a difference. And if you don’t communicate that if you don’t show up if you don’t promote if you don’t market and sell you won’t be around Unfortunately, when things do turn around when we do turn the corner and so I want you to still be consistent in your marketing and sales just evaluate the way that you’re doing it today.

If you and your business provide a necessary service, then you have to keep selling. - Susan McVea Click To Tweet

Dan Kuschell 43:21

She’s Susan McVea. I encourage you go check out her resources right now right here. Go to SusanMcVea.com, that’s SusanMcVea.com. Take advantage of the free tool. The three tips to handle price objections, go to SusanMcVea.com/growth, that’s SusanMcVea.com/growth. Susan, it’s been amazing to have you with us. Amazing.

Susan McVea 43:44

Thank you so much. It’s been so much fun.

Dan Kuschell 43:47

Awesome. So I want to encourage you take action with what Susan is share with you, I’ve got three and a half pages of notes here. Remember that selling is not what you do to someone, it’s what you get a chance to do for someone, what would have to happen for you to show up as a servant leader to show up as a guide as a mentor, as a trusted advisor, as a leader to empower them, to give them deeper service to show up in connection focused on the human being side of thing going even beyond the avatar to really tune in to like where are they? What are they dealing with? What are they worried about? What are their fears? what’s important to them right now, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, safety and security at a base level? What can you do to make the shifts that you need in your languaging and your communication? What can you do applying these three steps that she just shared with you to take action on and a whole lot more so I encourage you to take action and by the way if you know a founder, you know a CEO, you know a business owner, you know someone in sales that could get value from what Susan has shared, guess what? It’s real simple. Just share this episode when you can come back to this episode again at growthtofreedom.com/305, that’s growthtofreedom.com/305. You want to share all our episodes you can do that real easily at growthtofreedom.com/subscribe, that’s growthtofreedom.com/subscribe, are you going to take action with us? Or are you just going to let it sit there and kind of simmer, I encourage you. Results happen by taking action and implementing a whole lot faster, easier and better. If you want to have a bigger impact. You want to have a bigger reach. And also make sure that you’re meeting your needs meeting your security, helping your family most. start selling, start selling and start applying what Susan has shared with you seize the day. Make it a great week. We’ll see you next time on growthtofreedom.com, and thanks for watching. Thanks for listening to this episode of growthtofreedom.com. Are you struggling to get a steady flow of new clients every day? Or maybe you hit a plateau or hit a wall and growing your business? Well, let’s help you solve this problem today. Let’s review your business and have a conversation you do that for free today at breakthroughstrategycall.com, that’s breakthroughstrategycall.com. In addition, if you’re looking for a simple way to implement some of what we’ve been talking about in today’s episode, I want to encourage you to get our free small business toolkit. You can get that at activate.breakthrough3x.com, that’s activate.breakthrough3x.com. If you’d like access to the special resources and all the show notes for this special episode, make sure to visit growthtofreedom.com.

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