Do you want to know how you can sell more and build relationships while being your most authentic self?
 
Being a woman in sales may be a lot tougher. People expect you to play by the rules or play it safe by selling the way the guys would do it. It doesn’t work that way. Women aren’t meant to follow in a man’s footsteps, even in selling. Grow relationships and embrace authenticity!
 
Alexis Gladstone is the Founder of Intelead, a Chicago-based consulting practice dedicated to aligning people strategies and business results. Intelead designs strategies and programs to help clients develop current and next-generation leaders, increase the effectiveness of individuals in sales, and drive organizational change that delivers results. She has a passion for empowering professional women and helping them succeed. She is a sought-out voice, trainer, and coach on the topics of women and leadership and helping clients recruit, develop, and retain female talent.
 
In this episode, Alexis shares how women in sales usually don’t get the results they want by explaining the causes of it. She also shares her insights on how you can find the true you while selling your product, and ideas.
 
 
What you will learn from this episode:
  • Discover what makes you different from the others
  • Learn about the things you should avoid as a woman in sales
  • Know more about how to stand out without feeling like you are bragging
 
Part of being in sales is selling your product or service and part is selling yourself. It’s really about knowing who you are, and knowing what makes you unique, and knowing how to talk about that comfortably.
Alexis Gladstone
 
 
Valuable Free Resource:
 
Get Alexis’ FREE Ebook, Ten Ways to Stand Out and Be Noticed. Visit: https://bit.ly/374WE8u
 
 
Topics Covered:
 
03:07 – Challenge is selling products, ideas, or yourself while being your most authentic self, a struggle most women face in business today
 
04:16 – More of the boys’ way rather than your own authentic way of selling, a common mistake women make when in sales
 
05:16 – One free and actionable tip you can do to address the challenge in selling: When talking about sales, it’s all about relationships. Relationships are everything.
 
06:50 – One valuable resource to help you stand out and boost your selling tactics: Get Alexis’ FREE Ebook, Ten Ways to Stand Out and Be Noticed. Visit: https://bit.ly/374WE8u
 
 
07:50 – Q: Where do I start? A: You need to know your numbers, and you need to know your product or service, you need to know what you’re selling, but you also need to know what makes you unique.
 
 
Key Takeaways:
 
“If you’re in sales, obviously, you need to know your numbers, and you need to know your product or service, you need to know what you’re selling, but you also need to know what makes you unique. Why are you different? Or why are your product and service different?”
– Alexis Gladstone
 
“The number one place that people should start if they don’t know where to start to look at doing something different with their sales.” – Alexis Gladstone
 
“So building those relationships to let people know who you are, and then people are going to really start listening to you and wanting to do business with you. And ultimately, and what you’re really trying to do when you’re in sales is get referrals.” – Alexis Gladstone
 
 
Ways to Connect with Alexis Gladstone:
 
 
 
Ways to Connect with Sarah E. Brown
 
 
Full Episode Transcript:
 
Sarah E. Brown 0:59
My guest today is Alexis Gladstone. She’s the founder of Intelead, a Chicago-based consulting practice, dedicated to aligning people strategies and business results. Intelead designs strategies and programs to help clients develop current and next-generation leaders increase the effectiveness of individuals in sales and drive organizational change that delivers results. She has a passion for empowering professional women and helping them succeed. She’s a sought-out voice, trainer, and coach on the topics of women and leadership, and helping clients recruit, develop and retain female talent. Alexis has presented, trained, and coached thousands of individuals in public and private companies, higher education, and not-for-profit organizations. These clients are in industries such as financial and legal services, manufacturing, and hospital/medical. Internationally, she has been honored to present and train at a number of financial organizations in Melbourne, Australia, for business and government leaders in Harbin, China, and for corporate leaders in the UK. She’s a frequent podcast guest around the globe, talking about women in leadership and sales, and is co-author of a book, Pure Wealth: 26 Ways to Crazy Profitability. Alexis, thank you for being here today.
 
Alexis Gladstone 2:38
Sarah, I’m so excited to be here. Thank you for having me.
 
Sarah E. Brown 2:43
So what is the biggest challenge you help female leaders face in business today?
 
Alexis Gladstone 2:47
Right now I am spending a lot of time working with women in sales. So yes, I know people are like, “Ooh, sales.” But let’s face it, we are all in sales in some way, shape, or form.
 
Sarah E. Brown 3:04
Right. And what do you see as the biggest challenge that women have in sales? And what might be the symptoms of those challenges?
 
Alexis Gladstone 2:19
Well, I think, first of all, people don’t know how to go ahead and talk about their products and services or even selling themselves. Because even if we’re, you know, even if we’re not in sales as part of our title, so to speak, there is selling ourselves inside organizations, or selling our ideas, or selling different things that need to get done. So the biggest challenges people face, and the women especially, is how do I do it and be my authentic self?
 
Sarah E. Brown 3:11
Mm-hmm. So selling authentically, and what do you see as the biggest mistakes your clients make before working with you in that regard?
 
Alexis Gladstone 3:51
Well, I think if you’re in your true sales, I think a lot of women- they stay on the hamster wheel too long without getting the results that they really want to be getting. So I think a lot of times what they’re trying to do, they may have been taught tactics and skills for selling, or they may have picked up the tactics or skills from watching others who have been selling and a lot of times those others they’re watching or the successful men that are in their
organizations and doing it. But they’re not really figuring out how to do it, like I said, their authentic selves, and they’re not getting the results that they want.
 
Sarah E. Brown 4:28
Do you see that they’re trying to copy the men that they’re observing?
 
Alexis Gladstone 4:30
They’re trying to copy the men and it’s not what women do well. See, the problem is, if they’ve actually been in a sales, some kind of sales training, a lot of the sales training has been created by men and for men. And the tactic, so to speak, that they’re taught, they don’t really resonate with women, and they don’t take into account what things we do really well. Things like building relationships, things like asking questions, things that a lot of women do innately. And some of those sales training that they go through, it’s like, well, but I’ve been through this training, and I’m not getting the results because it’s not using your skills.
 
Sarah E. Brown 5:06
Mm-hmm. I see. So what’s the number one free and actionable tip you can give our listeners today to help them address this challenge now?
 
Alexis Gladstone 5:15
You know, whether we’re talking about business, Sarah, or we’re talking about sales, it’s all about relationships. When you think- I mean, relationships are everything. You know, relationships of where you’re meeting people, we’re building them all the time, and you need to build those relationships before you actually need that. You know, before you’re actually trying to get inside an organization to sell something before you’re trying to meet someone, you want to build those relationships. It’s all about- I like to say it’s all about how people if people know you, they like you and trust you, they’re going to do business with you, right?
 
So building those relationships to let people know who you are, and then people are going to really start listening to you and wanting to do business with you. And ultimately, and what you’re really trying to do when you’re in sales is get referrals.
 
Sarah E. Brown 6:09
Ah, I see. Okay, great. So what’s a valuable free resource you can share with the women who are listening today to help them understand this challenge better?
 
Alexis Gladstone 6:19
Well, part of being in sales is part of selling your product or service or part of selling yourself. It’s really talking about knowing who you are, and knowing what makes you unique, and knowing how to talk about that comfortably. And as women, we’re not always good at that. We were raised not to brag. We were raised in ways that we don’t want to, you know, talk about ourselves. So I actually have come up with a way to- handout, a giveaway that I have and it’s 10 ways that- 10 things that women can do to help them stand out and be noticed, and it’s not feeling like bragging. And a lot of those tips- the tips, they work, whether you’re inside an organization and trying to sell yourself, or whether you’re not inside the organization, you’re actually trying to sell your product or service or selling your own business.
 
Sarah E. Brown 7:07
So that’s 10 ways to stand out without bragging. That’s very cool. Where would our listeners find that?
 
Alexis Gladstone 7:12 I’m going to give you a link for that.
 
Sarah E. Brown 7:15
Great!
 
Alexis Gladstone 7:16 So that you can put that on the link to this podcast. And also, just so people know, I’m actually going to be turning it into an e-book. So if people actually give me their- in order to get the handout, the download, give me their name and email. They’ll also be notified when the e-book comes out!
 
Sarah E. Brown 7:34
Oh, very cool. Okay, great. And that will be posted in the show notes. So Alexis, what’s one question that I should have asked you, that will help our audience to take action to address this challenge now? And then would you please answer the question?
 
Alexis Gladstone 7:48
I think the question that I thought of when I saw that you were going to ask this is, where do I start? If I want to improve in sales, if I want to, you know, get better at this, what should I do first? And I think if you’re in sales, obviously, you need to know your numbers, and you need to know your product or service, you need to know what you’re selling, but you also need to know what makes you unique. Why are you different? Or why are your product and service different? Or how you’re selling your product service, why is that different than all the other competitors that are out there? So being able to articulate that and differentiate yourself from all the other noise that’s out there, I think is the number one place that people should start if they don’t know where to start to look at doing something different with their sales.
 
Sarah E. Brown 8:33
And that involves selling a product or selling yourself as well.
 
Alexis Gladstone 8:37
Absolutely, it works both ways. Because, obviously, if you’re selling a commodity, you know, let’s say you’re in financial service sales, and you’re selling insurance, a lot of insurance brokers out there, a lot of insurance companies are out there, but there’s something about you in how you sell and how you service your clients that makes you different and unique. And you need to be able to identify that, articulate it and show it to the people that you’re doing business with, both your prospects and your clients.
 
Sarah E. Brown 9:04
Alexis, thank you so much. And thanks for being with us today.
 
Alexis Gladstone 9:05
Thank you for having me.

Leave a Reply