Success in Challenging Sales Environments

Success in Challenging Sales Environments

Mark Donnolo
Welcome to the Rethink Sales Podcast. I’m Mark Donnolo.

Michelle Seger
And I’m Michelle Seger.

Mark Donnolo
And Michelle, we got an exciting topic today because I’m going to be talking about this challenging sales environment, this economy, and how you can be successful as a salesperson and a sales leader within everything that’s going on.

Michelle Seger
I know it, and we’re not going to be talking about sales process or your coverage model or your sales strategy. We’re we’re going to be talking about your most valuable asset, right.

Mark Donnolo
Which is you and how you think. And and, you know, we talk about aspirational account planning and strategy and everybody’s always asking like, what’s the tool? What do I fill out? And it’s not about the tool, it’s not about where you fill out, but it’s how you think. And we’re going to dive deep into that today.

Michelle Seger
That’s right. So I am very excited and privileged to announce our special guest today. Ricky Kalmon is a mindset expert. I have so many questions for you today, Ricky. He is a motivational speaker and celebrity hypnotist, which I am not afraid to say. I’m afraid of the hypnotism piece on that, but we are really happy to have him here today.

Michelle Seger
He is author of the book Leverage Your Mindset Overcome Limiting Beliefs and Amplify Your Life. I started reading the book, and what we’ll find out is it’s really a path and a way to help you change the way that you think you are. He is creator of the Growth Mindset and meditation app titled Ricky Kalmon, and I did start the app today too.

Michelle Seger
And by the way, even though you claim you don’t hypnotize people in that app, I’m beginning to question it because it seems to work. Ricky delivers programs that will change the way you live, work and think. He reveals how our mindset can be the greatest tool in achieving new heights of reducing stress, adapting to change and creating success with a growth mindset.

Michelle Seger
And, you know, over the past few years, Mark, there’s been a lot of stress and a lot of change in this environment. Hasn’t there?

Mark Donnolo
Oh, yeah. And I think it’s almost like we just keep soldiering on and going on and getting through it. And I think this is a great topic because I think so much of it is about being resilient and tenacity and getting connected with, you know, being positive around what you’re doing.

Michelle Seger
That’s right. So Ricky, he also works with Fortune 501 hundred companies, sales teams, leaders, executives and sports teams. And he’s here with us today teaching them how to turn their best of intentions into their greatest accomplishments. His clients range from Pepsi, Disney, Dell, Johnson, Johnson, AT&T, LexisNexis, and even the New York Yankees, which I’m a New Yorker, so we can talk about that.

Michelle Seger
He is a visionary architect in personal growth. And today he’s going to reveal some of the secrets and things that we can learn, simple techniques for how we can change our mindset, potential and prosperity. I am really excited to have you here today. Ricky, Thank you for being with us.

Ricky Kalmon
Thank you. I appreciate.

Mark Donnolo
You joining us.

Ricky Kalmon
That intro was awesome. Thank you so much. I feel awesome.

Michelle Seger
Today.

Mark Donnolo
I just got my own cheerleader. That’s great.

Michelle Seger
Yeah, I know. I’m really excited.

Mark Donnolo
Doing both reading the book and I’m several days into it and into the app. And so I think we’re we’re getting totally into it right now and becoming total converts.

Michelle Seger
All right. So let’s get right to it. We’re talking about salespeople. We’re talking about this challenging environment that we’ve had. I mean, every thing has changed since COVID pre-pandemic. We knew about things like Inside Sales Center of Excellence, you know, post-pandemic. People are working remotely, they’re working from home. Your buyers are not able to connect with the same way.

Michelle Seger
Everything it seems has changed. And now we’ve got things like A.I. that, you know, seemingly threaten the way that salespeople can connect with their clients today. So I would like to talk to you. Let’s start talking about some of the the challenges that you see across sales organizations, the patterns that you see and how people are thinking today and and what their believing.

Michelle Seger
I mean, I know you’re working with salespeople and sales leaders and what’s top of their mind and what are the challenges that they’re seeking to to overcome? Well.

Ricky Kalmon
Great question. And, you know, you really set it up because mindset has it has to do with everything we do, everything we do every single day. Your mindset probably predetermined your outcome before you even start it, whether you start your day, whether you talk to a client, how you talk to other team members, how you lead your organization, your mindset plays out that conversation unconsciously.

Ricky Kalmon
I think most people are more unaware of how unaware they are of their internal programing. So with all that being said, this is nothing new. In my 34 plus years of my career. The questions that I get asked the most now be like, Well, this is something new. Now it’s not really new. We’re all in the for profit business, right?

Ricky Kalmon
We’re there to grow and we’re going to have challenges. But it’s how you think about challenges. What are the challenges? Are challenges frustrating? Are they a roadblock or are they a wall that you don’t think you can get over or get around? Or do you look at challenges as opportunities to grow? So when we talk about mindset, we talk about growth, we talk about sales, we talk about customer service and leadership, We talk about becoming a better version of our self.

Ricky Kalmon
Most people know what to do, what gets in the way, it’s usually ourselves. So whether you’re diving into this idea of mindfulness or whether you’re listening to my program or anything when it comes to self-care and you already set it up, it’s an investment in you. Let’s get out of our comfort zone and embrace the uncomfortable. Yeah, let’s embrace where we’re most uncomfortable and figure out how to become better at things.

Ricky Kalmon
So when it comes to challenging ourselves, let’s challenge ourselves to be more accountable.

Michelle Seger
Why do you think that people are uncomfortable salespeople? Let’s talk about with this idea of, you know, changing your mindset and getting themselves around. Like I know a lot of people that are even saying, well, if it sounds too good to be true that you can change your mindset, you’ll change your life, right? You’ve you’ve said that it is too good to be true.

Michelle Seger
That’s what they’ll say. But what do you have to say to them and the challenge you give them back?

Ricky Kalmon
It’s a great question and I think that you have to step outside. I think we’re human, right? We’re human. We like comfort. We like nice things. We also are programed to well, if it feels good, why fix it if it’s not broken? Right. We like the warm, fuzzy blanket. It makes us feel comfortable. But let’s dive into that.

Ricky Kalmon
The people that we admire in life, the leaders, the sales individuals, the big corporations, whether you’re a small entrepreneur, leading a group of 50 people or 5000, I think these great leaders all have a common trait. They realize that self-discovery never ends and they want to figure out how they can be a better version of themselves every single day.

Ricky Kalmon
I think when we lead within ourselves, we lead other people better and then people follow. So going back to it, when you look at people you admire, what’s the one trait that we admire the most? Is that their resilience, you mentioned their tenacity, their perseverance. Maybe, maybe it’s that one thing that gets them to push themselves harder because we’re going to fail.

Ricky Kalmon
Sometimes we just don’t want to fail twice to figure out how to use that information and capitalize on it. You guys do this every day. You come up with these great plan strategies. You’re taking information about the corporation, things that they are giving you, and then you’re compiling new and I’ll call this software software of the brain, your own internal operating system.

Ricky Kalmon
So when people say to me, Well, change is hard, change is overwhelming, Change is frustrating. You know, I don’t think I can really embrace that. I’m really comfortable with the old way of doing things. So and then my answer is, you’re absolutely right. You said it, you believe it, You you already want to fail. So let’s challenge ourselves to be better.

Mark Donnolo
I mean, you said something. I’ll paraphrase a little bit, but you said it’s an absolute necessity to invest in your mind. And basically, if you don’t, you’re going to repeat the same old patterns and you’re going to have the same results that you’ve always had. Or you said maybe worse. Right. And I think we do that. We go through these patterns of how we think self-talk, just just how we approach life.

Mark Donnolo
But can you talk a little bit about just what some of those maybe typical patterns are and how we could just recognize them? And, and and I just love that idea that and it was just so truthful when I read it that if you don’t change that pattern, it’s just going to pretty much continue the way it’s always been.

Mark Donnolo
It’s not like something magical is going to change unless there’s some huge external factor that you didn’t anticipate, which is unlikely. But that pattern is just going to continue. The results are going to continue.

Ricky Kalmon
I couldn’t have said it any better. I mean, we live life in our our programing, our daily activities. The way we get up in the morning, the way we drive to work, or whether we are making our calls that become patterns in our life. All too often, many of those patterns or programing might have served us at some point and worked really well.

Ricky Kalmon
But are they working as as efficiently as they should be and if we don’t change, nothing changes. So if you’re comfortable with the status quo, if you’re comfortable with, well, you know, listen, this is as good as it’s going to get. And this is the best year I’ve ever had. And I don’t think I’m going to get any better than this.

Ricky Kalmon
Then I’m just going to stay where I am and just stay in my comfort zone. Then you’re absolutely right. But I think we all have a driving need. We like that feeling of success. We like we all like to to feel recognized and appreciated. And you get that recognition of whether it’s not only the the paycheck itself, but it’s the satisfaction of really making a difference.

Ricky Kalmon
So when you become more conscious of the patterns and habits that you have, because we basically live on the last message, we send our brain.

Mark Donnolo
Right, Right.

Ricky Kalmon
And and if you’re okay with that, that’s that’s absolutely fine. I want you to think differently a little bit here today as you listen to this podcast and your listeners really just embrace this. First of all, you’re investing in yourself. I don’t want to give you a lot of fluff here. I want to give you, you know, practical application tools.

Ricky Kalmon
You guys are feeding me information. I want this to be valuable. I want people to, after they’re done going, You know what? That was a good 45 minutes of my time. You know, I don’t want to say too much. I don’t want somebody to say, Jesus, how am I going to get that 45 minutes back? So I want you to think about different elements of this podcast of, okay, we’re talking about investment, We’re talking about investing in our self.

Ricky Kalmon
Because listen, you guys got a great studio here, great office. If something breaks, what do you do? You fix it. You could tend to it right away. You will spend whatever it takes to make sure it’s working. Do we do that for ourselves? Sometimes we put ourselves off. We put ourselves second do we give our families, which all too important, our personal assets are too important?

Ricky Kalmon
I get it. But if we don’t serve ourselves first, we falter. So first thing on this podcast, I want people to really walk away with going, Okay, and you guys have set it up perfectly. Invest in yourself. What does that mean? You’re doing it right now. Pause. We’re going to talk about pausing a little bit. I know where you’re going to set me up for that.

Ricky Kalmon
It really is becoming more present of what we do every single day. As you sit here and we have this conversation, you become present in this moment.

Mark Donnolo
So. So you said the subconscious is the natural purpose of the subconscious is to protect us. Right? And so we may have automatically kind of negative or cautious patterns. You know, watch out for this. Watch out for that. We’re thinking about the negative. And how do you how do you break some of those patterns? Because, you know, I’ve read a lot about motivation and one thing I read that really hit me on motivation was that the biggest motivator is not aspiration or being able to do something great, but it’s avoidance of pain, right?

Mark Donnolo
And so the subconscious is trying to avoid pain. How do we switch that pattern around? Like in a practical sense, day to day is what we’re doing as we’re thinking to kind of switch from the negative, like, I can’t do this. I’ll never be that successful to the positive, like I am that successful. You know, how do we how do we make that shift?

Ricky Kalmon
It’s a gradual shift. It’s a gradual understanding that everything that we put in our brain, that feeling, that response is is engraved because we’ve experienced it and that information is and stored in the bank of our, you know, our head or or our internal hard drive, our operating system. And immediately when something happens, that information is pulled up.

Ricky Kalmon
Right. So if you say, what do I want to do this? And all of a sudden the pain or the fear of failure comes into play, then it’s already telling you, Well, I don’t want to fail. I don’t want to feel pain. Nobody gets in line for pain, right? People get in line for success, right? They want whatever they get in line for.

Ricky Kalmon
They’re getting in line because they want it really bad. Nobody gets in line to fail or feel that pain. So if you change the way you think about things, if you change the way you speak to yourself, the words that you say, I cannot. Well then you’re right. Giving yourself to Rose, the destination. Actually, when you say cannot, you’re just going right towards failure.

Ricky Kalmon
Mm hmm. How do you do that? How do you change it? What becomes repetitive action of daily awareness of concentration, guided imagery, guided thought. Maybe it’s just being present with ourselves, being mindful. And what mindful means to me, it might be different for you, but think about the patterns and habits you have created in your life as a sales individual, as a leader, as a as a, as a significant other.

Ricky Kalmon
Those were created because you’re repeating the same thing over and over. So is it hard to change? Well, you tell me you think it’s hard to change or are you becoming, you know, creatures of this idea that I say it’s hard to change? That’s going to be hard to change? Or do you embrace the change going Well, if that changes my change, could I be a better version of me today than I was yesterday?

Mark Donnolo
Yeah, I mean, you guys are all seen it before it. It’s it’s comfortable to be in your own stuff, right? It’s more uncomfortable very often to go into something that’s unknown. So you kind of have to, like, break out of that. So you want to take that chance again.

Ricky Kalmon
And this is something I hear all the time from in sales individuals. We’ve always done it this way. Why? Why are they throwing us new procedures? Right. You know, I know how to sell. I’ve been selling my whole life. Right now they’re telling me I got to follow this new structure. Well, you have to step back and realize, well, maybe if you look at this with a different perspective, sit in the audience of yourself, listen to what you’re saying, and maybe envision what this new procedure, this new accountability factor, this new plan of action.

Ricky Kalmon
You know, what can this provide me? Versus the first reaction that we just had was, wow, I’ve been doing this my whole life. Why are they telling me how to do it? You’re probably right. You’re going to stay exactly right there. But if you’re really good at what you do and I know that you’re probably really, really good at what you do, what if this helps you grow personally and professionally?

Ricky Kalmon
What would that feel like?

Michelle Seger
So as I talk to sales leaders and salespeople, one of the biggest challenges that we see out there is that they are being asked to change. A lot of times the products and services that they’re selling and they need to engage with their client a different way, and sometimes the buyer is even a different buyer. So I’ll bring up a real practical one that we hear almost every day.

Michelle Seger
I am used to sell. I’m a salesperson, I’m on the top of my game and I sell printers, big printers to multinational companies, and maybe I sell print services. Now we’ve got this hybrid sales force and I’m being asked to sell to the two, enable the hybrid sales force. I’m being asked to sell more managed services, print services, even from the home, for example.

Michelle Seger
We have so many examples of I was used to selling this particular product to now a suite of services. And all too often you’ve got salespeople that same, but I this is what I know and this is what I do and this is what I’m going to keep doing. And at the same time, you have sales leaders that come in to a new a lot of times they’re brought in to lead a transformation.

Michelle Seger
And what I continuously hear as they don’t have the talent, they don’t have the skills, they don’t have the will, they can’t even make the shift. I probably need a whole new team and I want to think about how can we change the mindset? How is there a way that we as consultants even can help them understand and change their mindset?

Michelle Seger
To open it up a little bit? Because I feel like all too often, you know, the verdict is out before the jury gets to really weigh in on those types of of changes. Right. Like people having that opportunity. What would you say about that and what do you observe?

Ricky Kalmon
I have are two different things you got.

Michelle Seger
Yeah, I did. I did.

Ricky Kalmon
That says as an have confidence team.

Michelle Seger
Yes.

Ricky Kalmon
Because great leadership makes great leaders. And then you’ve got a team that doesn’t believe that this change. Right. You know, is a positive change because they’ve all been so comfortable in their I don’t want to say bubble, but with what they know and with what they know, they know it because they repeated it. They got really good at it over time.

Ricky Kalmon
And so when you get really good at something, sometimes we as individuals will repeat it because we assume that’s the best way of doing it. Now, let me give you a quick example. Whether you’re a sports fanatic or not, it’s it’s no different from, let’s say, a pitcher or the batter. You know, if there are having trouble with the mechanics of their what they’re doing, it’s because they’re repeating the same thing over and over again and they haven’t changed their thought process.

Ricky Kalmon
So a great athlete has two coaches, a physical coach on the mechanics of what they’re doing and a mental coach, because what usually gets in the way on both those things you just said is themselves the biggest obstacle in what you just gave me. The example was the leader has a huge obstacle. Yeah, themselves and the team has the obstacle.

Ricky Kalmon
It’s themselves. How do you get out of your own way? Because what you just told me is the leaders already assumed that they’re not qualified. They’re not qualified. So I should just get a new team. Well, if they’re really successful and they are qualified, let’s just retrain them. But they have to have confidence within themselves that they can train them.

Ricky Kalmon
That’s my mindset. Again, you know, it’s just the way I’m looking at this because I’m hearing different things. I’m hearing the obstacles, I’m hearing the problem or I don’t hear is the solution.

Michelle Seger
Right? Yep.

Mark Donnolo
So a person has to be that leader you’re talking about has to be receptive of right to to making change. Right. So you said, you know, they need.

Ricky Kalmon
To hold their hand sometimes. They’re already good, really good at what they do. You know, sometimes it’s a guiding holding hand of of understanding how your actions words are magic to the receptive listener when I say all the time. So what are you saying to yourself as a leader and what are you saying to other people? But I think it starts with the leaders.

Mark Donnolo
So. So if you had say you had a Chief sales officer, Chief revenue officer in a company, and that person had multiple leaders reporting to him or reporting to her, and they wanted to help those leaders to make the kind of change you’re talking about. Is there a way to get those people to come across to be receptive or does it have to be really internally driven?

Mark Donnolo
So if you’ve got resistors in the organization, what do you do about that?

Ricky Kalmon
You’re going to always have resistance. Not everybody’s perfect. Sometimes you’re, you know, are you going to get everybody in the room? You know, maybe, maybe not. You know, I’d like to buy a lottery ticket if you can, but you just continually hone that information. We talk about great, great companies that provide incredible customer service. What do we think of what’s the first names that come into mind?

Mark Donnolo
Oh, maybe like Amazon could be good, although I could never get them on the phone.

Michelle Seger
Okay. Nordstrom, Nordstrom, client service. That’s a good one. Yeah. Who else would you think of? Great client service?

Mark Donnolo
Maybe Apple. Apple care. Yeah.

Ricky Kalmon
Okay. So what they’re offering is a human interaction.

Mark Donnolo
Well, that’s true. Yeah.

Michelle Seger
So that’s.

Ricky Kalmon
Yeah, you know, there’s there’s a lot of different choices. When people go to restaurants, they go on vacation, they purchase things from places. Maybe they can find it cheaper, but usually people buy because of the human factor. And that human factor is the training and the culture within. So when we talk about the apples, that is these the Ritz-Carlton, the Nordstrom’s customer service, where you you just met this person in the store, and all of a sudden they ask for your address and they’re writing you a handwritten note.

Ricky Kalmon
Yeah, if I could be any more service to you in the future. My name is Ricky. Please. Here’s my information. Reach out to me. So, yeah, when you think about that, that’s. That’s a human interaction that makes a difference. AI doesn’t. It? Doesn’t scare me. It excites me. It’s going to give us as humans ways to become better at what we do.

Ricky Kalmon
So when somebody says it’s too scary, it’s going to be overwhelming. Change is going to be difficult. I’m saying, okay, step back, give your mind what it really wants. It wants new tools. We’re we are creatures to grow. We are creatures to learn. I don’t care who you are. How successful you are in life. I truly believe that everything we do can be a stepping stone to being a better version of you.

Ricky Kalmon
And then when you become a better version of you, the people around you want to know what you’re doing. They want to train. They want to beat me up, be my mentor, you know, show me how to do this. How did you get so successful? So again, it goes back to I think it makes great leaders that are accountable to themselves, self accountability, understanding how the brain absorbs that information.

Ricky Kalmon
When you work on that, I think your team starts to build that culture too. I don’t mean to put the blame on not putting blame on leaders. I’m saying leaders are the, you know, the backbone of a corporation and a culture. So when you go to these places like Disney in the Nordstrom’s and the Apple, how are they doing things?

Ricky Kalmon
What are they working on? What are they working on? Their culture? How are they becoming better? Where you the customer becomes the walking billboard?

Michelle Seger
Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

Mark Donnolo
So you talk a lot about words and language and you say basically, you know, words are kind of like objects when we put them together. They’re very powerful.

Ricky Kalmon
Yeah.

Mark Donnolo
And and you have at least two ways that that happens. One is the words that you use, that you say as you’re working with people, talking with people. And the other is your self-talk, what you say to yourself. Could you could you talk about that a little bit and just kind of the importance and maybe some practical tips on how do you change that?

Ricky Kalmon
All right. You’re a sales individual, you’re a leader, you’re in the car. You’re in your car either going to work or going on a call or thinking about something. Okay. Are you talking to yourself?

Mark Donnolo
Oh, yeah.

Michelle Seger
All the time.

Ricky Kalmon
Are you your biggest cheerleader or your worst enemy? It could.

Mark Donnolo
Be both. Could be both.

Ricky Kalmon
And win sometimes. And really setting the tone really sets the tone for how you act and react. Who is who is the winner of those conversations?

Mark Donnolo
I guess sometimes for me, it depends on the kind of mind frame I’m in that day, because sometimes you could approach a situation with fear. So take public speaking as an example, right? If you do a lot of this right, you’re getting up on the stage. Your self-talk is super important before you’re getting up on stage. So you could be saying, Oh, wow, okay, don’t mess this up.

Mark Donnolo
I’ve got to do this, I got to do that. Or you could say I am. I just loved to be here. I’m so excited to be able to connect with people and so it depends, right? It depends what kind of mindframe you get yourself in before you’re doing that thing where you can walk into a sales call or a big meeting.

Ricky Kalmon
Okay, now let’s go with a negative part of this. Ever had have ever have negative self-talk. It’s at your mood. You walk in the office, talk to a friend, talk to somebody and already ready. They’re already saying to you, what’s wrong? What’s what’s going on with you? You seem off. You seem tense, right?

Michelle Seger
Yes.

Ricky Kalmon
So and really strapping everybody. Because if you’re listening, this is you’re in sales here. This is very important. If you really just step back and absorb this, you might get this. You might not. But here’s where I’m saying, If we have two voices in our head, the negative and the positive, who owns both of those voices?

Mark Donnolo
You do.

Ricky Kalmon
That too. So why is it at times that we let the negative look our world and control our present reality and we talk about it like it’s somebody else? Oh, my mind just got the best of me. Whose mind are we talking about? You talk about it like it’s somebody else in the room. Literally was on your back holding you back from being more successful or setting the tone for somebody else.

Ricky Kalmon
So we’re going to have bad days. We’re going to have that self-talk, that voice inside of our heads and that can be negative.

Mark Donnolo
But is it because our our subconscious is automatically doing that? If we’re not consciously taking control, it’s automatically defaulting to protection and negativity?

Ricky Kalmon
Yes, but let’s go one step further with that. We can own it and say, okay, I know that negative voice is there, Right? So when it does happen, what do we usually do? Most people will let that negativity rule their world right? Plain and simple. It sets the tone. Or if you want to really master your mindset, well, step back, pause.

Ricky Kalmon
Hit the pause button for a second. Know that one word pause. And if you have the negativity or somebody acknowledges the negativity, step back and realize you have the remote control to overcome whatever is ruling your world. It make a difference whether you’re in sales leadership, your customer service, you are a truck driver or in the food industry or in the service industry.

Ricky Kalmon
It doesn’t make a difference when negativity comes into play. You do have the remote control to change the channel.

Mark Donnolo
So. So. But. But, okay, everything is raining down on you. You’re having a really tough time. You know, you haven’t closed anything this month, right? And you’re going, okay, I’m going to this next sales call. You know, I’m going to hear the same thing again, the same problems, whatever. But but then you talk about this idea of gratitude and turn it around and say, you know, maybe something like, I’m grateful to be able to have the opportunities to be able to learn how to operate in this tough market and maybe how to adjust and, you know, be more rigorous at what I’m doing or, you know, what what kind of method can you use to

Mark Donnolo
shift that self-talk around when everything’s raining down on you? Negative.

Ricky Kalmon
Again, it’s embracing this idea of self-discovery, saying we will spend so much time learning our products and services, knowing the procedures, looking at the new strategies, looking at the new environment and the culture that we’re doing. But when it comes down to it, it really does reset direction on a daily basis. So when we talk about mindfulness and being more conscious of your unconscious thoughts, is that something you do once a week?

Ricky Kalmon
No. If you were constantly having to look at spreadsheets to understand the environment, the pricing changes, whatever it may be, the inventory changes and lack of whatever it may be, well then set time to understand your self even more. Mindfulness goes beyond just meditation or relaxation or your breath like you picked up on. It’s about what we do every single day between our ears.

Ricky Kalmon
What words are we saying? What are you thinking? Yeah. All right. So you’ve had a you’ve had a bad month, but you know, your biggest problem, your biggest problem could be somebody else’s gift because somebody else might go, My problems are bigger. I’d rather have his problems or her problem. Right. Let’s just reset, redirect. You have an opportunity product you service.

Ricky Kalmon
I’m there to help people. I’m here to provide solutions. And by the way, if they don’t buy today, maybe they’ll buy later because I know I’m the go to person or expert.

Mark Donnolo
Right?

Ricky Kalmon
I’m the person that provides more than what they ever think about. They’re not just buying from me. I built a relationship.

Mark Donnolo
I’m helping.

Ricky Kalmon
Them. Yeah, I’m talking to them. Right? I’m not going through a procedure of sales tech now. I’m really there to helping. I’m there to help you. So when you have a question, come to me.

Mark Donnolo
So one more point or one more question on the self-talk, because I’m just really into this whole self-talk thing. You’re trying to get to a meeting and you’re potentially running late, right? And the self-talk in your head as you’re getting ready, as you’re going down the road, you’re saying, I don’t want to be late, I can’t be late, I don’t want to be late, right?

Mark Donnolo
What’s wrong with that language?

Ricky Kalmon
Or if you’ve repeated the problem over and over, we talked about just a few moments ago, you were we’re again, we’re human creatures of habit. We have a society that does repeat the problem a lot. I mean, how many times you ever seen somebody at the grocery store and they just verbally vomit all the negativity of what’s going on?

Mark Donnolo
Right.

Ricky Kalmon
How often do you see something that’s motivating that says, okay, now this is going on? What? Here’s a great solution. Let’s focus on solutions. And maybe the first solution is not going to be the the all answer to everything you’re doing. So going back to what you said about that’s negative self-talk, you have to really you have to recognize it.

Ricky Kalmon
Again, I said this earlier, but sometimes you have to sit in the audience as though you’re the passenger. Seeing yourself driving and listening to yourself going, what is what is that going to do?

Mark Donnolo
Right, Right.

Ricky Kalmon
What is the constant reinforcement of the problem going to do? For me, I haven’t come up with solutions. I haven’t focused on my presentation. I haven’t focused If I get so excited to finally get a chance to have the opportunity to meet with this client because they’re busy and I have the opportunity, the person next to me or around me, I have the opportunity.

Mark Donnolo
Right, Right.

Ricky Kalmon
Again, it’s just what our brain thinks.

Mark Donnolo
It creates the same thing about I don’t Want to be late could be said in just the opposite, which is I plan to be on time. I’m going to be a few minutes early. Right. And so as I’m racing and I’ve tried that, if I’m thinking I’m going to be on time today, I’ll be a few minutes early.

Mark Donnolo
It totally changes my mindset about the same exact problem.

Ricky Kalmon
So you’re walking in the door, let’s say you’re late. What do you say to your client?

Mark Donnolo
Sorry I’m late. Then I make up an excuse.

Michelle Seger
So.

Ricky Kalmon
And so. Now we’ve just set the tone. Now the conversation go a little.

Mark Donnolo
Bit from digging out of a hole.

Ricky Kalmon
I don’t know, a problem with somebody saying, Sorry I’m late, but even if I’m late, I’m so glad to see you. I’m so excited. Thanks for the opportunity. I can’t wait to talk to you. I’ve been looking forward to this. Meeting changes the whole perspective. Does are so sorry I’m late. Traffic. That accident. By the way. Getting here today normally would have taken me about 25 minutes.

Ricky Kalmon
It took me 50 minutes.

Michelle Seger
Wow.

Ricky Kalmon
Traffic. Whatever it was, it was crazy. I was maneuvering, so I was laughing as you’re saying this to me. You know, what good is it for me to tell you about what I went through? I’m just excited about being here.

Mark Donnolo
Right? Right.

Ricky Kalmon
We’re going to share an experience.

Mark Donnolo
That’s right.

Ricky Kalmon
Was I late? I think I was about three or 4 minutes before time, but I notice.

Michelle Seger
Yeah, I think nobody notice.

Ricky Kalmon
My plan was to be here even earlier. But I wasn’t going to walk in and go. I just sat through 50 minutes to try Oh, that highways, you know. But we do that. We think of, oh, I want to, I want to I’m going to express to you right now and again, some people are listening this going, is this guy just throwing a lot of formations out there?

Ricky Kalmon
And that’s going to change my right, right about this. You know, we’re attracted to positivity, right? We are attracted to fun. We are nobody walks into a room and says, Oh, you guys look so sad. Please give me some of that. So this goes beyond just positive affirmations and thinking. And I might tell you right now, positive affirmations.

Ricky Kalmon
It’s not going to make you a rich person, but I’m going to tell you also that positive affirmations, positive well-being, positive mindset will make it easier to become a rich person than the negativity that will hold you back from achieving more in life.

Michelle Seger
Now. Okay, I’m going to tell a little story first about being late. So first of all, I was sitting here sweating, wondering if Mark was talking about me. But anyway, in in all seriousness, I remember I was heading out to a client and I was a young consultant with Accenture at the time, and it was all the way down.

Michelle Seger
It was ocean spray, cranberries all the way down the coast of Cape Cod. I’m from upstate New York. I hadn’t been back in the fall in a long time. So if you know what the fall looks like up there, the leaves in the colors are just unbelievable. And we get that color here in Atlanta. We’re very lucky to be near the Blue Ridge Mountains and all, but it’s still different up there.

Michelle Seger
So I drove all the way down the Cape. I missed the exit by 45 minutes as I’m admiring and looking at all these stories before I realized right, that I went by the exit. So I turn around, I get in there and I’m going, Oh God, it’s my first day and I’m leading change management. I walked in the door and I just said I had forgotten how beautiful the fall is in New York, you know, in in New York and Cape Cod in the in New England area.

Michelle Seger
And I just got lost. And I’m so sorry. And they all laughed and we just moved on where I could have and, you know, normally would have been like, I am so sorry I missed the exit, you know, but I or whatever it would have been. So I think mindset does make a big difference. What I want to ask you about, you mentioned earlier on, very early in our conversation about people are motivated, you know what, they’re motivated for more and for success and people always talk about the drive of salespeople, and it’s not always that they’re striving for and looking for a monetary reward, although that’s part of it.

Michelle Seger
But salespeople are really excited about just the game, the win. They’re excited and motivated about recognition, whether it’s you know, hey, Mark got the big the big deal of the month or he was able to close that new offer that we put out there, you know, a pat on the back kind of thing. And and I’m thinking about, you know, salespeople, if they how do they in a challenging environment, maybe they’re not getting those closes begin to just change their own mindset where they’re not reliant on that But what is it that they, you know, can be be reliant on to get them through that?

Michelle Seger
BE My first question. Then I got a follow up.

Ricky Kalmon
No quick answer.

Michelle Seger
Yeah.

Ricky Kalmon
But when somebody is maybe having issues and whatever they’re doing, maybe they just aren’t closing sales, maybe their confidence is down. It’s whatever external things that they can’t control. It’s how you perceive and react to those things that I think are important. And maybe it’s giving stepping back and okay, let me give myself a personal audit. What have I been doing?

Ricky Kalmon
So maybe it’s stepping back and saying, okay, I’ve been making these many calls and I’ve been doing these things. If that’s working for you, or is it? It’s not. Because if they’re not closing deals or maybe it’s something they can’t like supply chain or pricing or competitors, what can they control? And we can control how we react to the world around us.

Ricky Kalmon
That is key. So I think it starts with the personal audit, show people on a daily basis that when you give yourself a personal audit, you start to realize what’s working for you, what not working for you, and you change that habit. So in going back almost, you haven’t talked about the book at the very beginning. It’s it’s a plan.

Ricky Kalmon
So everything becomes a plan. You would never buy something to put together without really looking at the plan. You would never build a house without a plan. Software is run because it’s a plan, and over time, the software might change. The structure of the building might change. So we’re going to change the blueprint, maybe whatever we’re doing is going to change so that change, it can be a positive one.

Ricky Kalmon
And so really it’s going back in step the basics of let’s rewrite the software.

Michelle Seger
So you’re answering really my second question. I want to get a little deeper into that. I’m a salesperson. I know that we’re going through a major sales transformation at my company. I’m hearing about it. Coverage model is going to change. Our products are going to change. We got a growth factor, boy, that we haven’t had in a long time, haven’t seen anything like that.

Michelle Seger
And this is a real thing. This is what we come across every day. I’ve decided the salesperson, okay, I’m going to do this. I want to be on board. I want to make this shift. How do I start? And you mentioned this personal audit, and that really resonated with me as like a starting point. And I’d love for you to talk a little bit more about that and how people can begin to understand how they themselves can be, begin to change.

Ricky Kalmon
Well, and pick up where.

Michelle Seger
You you.

Ricky Kalmon
Left off there. And that is you’ve got this new plan. It’s a structure plan. It’s a system in place. Really smart people put this together. It wasn’t like this is thrown together. There’s a system. And if you there’s two types of people, I think there’s people that go, why do I need to follow this? I know what I’m doing.

Ricky Kalmon
Or there’s that person you just said, Well, they must know what they’re doing. I mean, they must because they just developed this plan. So I think it’s a matter of if you spend as much time understanding and learning the plan, you spend just as much time learning the plan of yourself. I think we have to not only memorize and learn the procedures and learn the supply chain and learn the cost and but I think we have to learn more about ourself and how we’re absorbing that information Now the older we get in life.

Ricky Kalmon
Don’t you feel like I wish I would have known that years ago? I wish I would have spent a little bit more time on that, but it’s never too late. I wish your wish is going to keep you’re going to keep wishing. Why not? And it’s a training. It’s a constant training and a cultural way of thinking. And you start to get into that.

Ricky Kalmon
You start to see the results. And it’s funny, people say, you know, I, I stuck with this plan. It’s like the book is 14 days. It’s a 14 day plan. You stop after 14 days. Well, here’s sorry, I’m going to tip the hat a little bit because I talk about the last chapter. No, you don’t end in 14 days that life doesn’t stop.

Ricky Kalmon
In 14 days, you don’t go, I’m done.

Michelle Seger
Forget it.

Ricky Kalmon
No, You start to realize these small little changes that you’ve created now become huge results at the end of the week. Think about it. You’re going to do something most of us in culture, in our culture, look for the big change overnight, right? Sometimes we look for that quick, huge. We want the big result. We want to see that change doesn’t happen all the time like that.

Ricky Kalmon
If we would celebrate the small little changes, small little fractional changes that we make to move forward or at the end of the week you start tallying all those little changes. You’ve got some big changes.

Mark Donnolo
So when you’re changing the software and you’re doing the personal audit, you talk about the practice of doing that daily, setting aside me time, having quiet time, and then also journaling around your goals, can you talk about some of the practicalities on that? Like how do you do that? And obviously you do it with a book, right? So, you know, you go through the process, but what are some of the the things that that a person has to do on that day to day basis?

Ricky Kalmon
If you’re listening to podcasts and you haven’t turned it off yet, here’s something very valuable right now. I’m going to throw something that you and you might think it’s simple, but don’t dismiss the simplicity of this. Set a calendar reminder every single day for five or ten or 15 minutes.

Michelle Seger
Mm hmm.

Ricky Kalmon
I don’t care if it’s in the morning, afternoon, whatever time it may be that you can you can move your calendar reminder, I don’t care. But set or we set reminders for everything else. We are our client calls, whatever it may be, our dinners, our weekends, whatever we are, holidays, we set reminders and little notes, block it off my calendar, and we hold ourselves accountable to it.

Ricky Kalmon
It’s a contract, right? How often do we do that for ourselves? Where do we put it off? Do we put off accountability and relaxation and audit personal audits? How do we put off to reset and redirect our mind? Do we put off, you know, hey, I got to reset because I’m really negative right now. Now I get it on the weekend.

Ricky Kalmon
I got a lot on my plate. I got too much going on. Yeah, me calls give you see my calendar? It’s huge. You know, all those things would work better if you are a little calmer. A little bit more relaxed. Research has shown it’s not rocket science, right? When the individual is relaxed and calmer, what does it do?

Ricky Kalmon
Stress calms your body. You become more clear, more efficient, more productive. It’s not rocket science.

Mark Donnolo
Yeah. It’s hard for us to do like this.

Ricky Kalmon
What? You just said it. You just said the magic word. It’s hard for us to do.

Mark Donnolo
Yeah.

Ricky Kalmon
So when somebody says that. Please don’t get me wrong. I hear that too. It’s hard to do that. Is it? Is it really hard or we just say it’s hard, folks, I’m telling you, if you look at five or 10 minutes every single day, put it on your calendar. Give yourself five or 10 minutes just to pause, reset, redirect, figure out what your destination is, figure out the direction, find the solution.

Ricky Kalmon
Everything else, work your new procedures, your new sales training. Your new customers will appreciate everything when you’re a better version of yourself.

Mark Donnolo
And you talked about, you know, being more positive can make you richer and you said something in your book about most people think when I’m successful, then I’m going to be happy. But then you said, Well, what if it’s actually the other way around? What if I’m happy? And then I’ve been it makes me successful. And how do you flip that around?

Mark Donnolo
How do you get your head around? I’m just going to be happy now.

Ricky Kalmon
Think about what you just said. We don’t we don’t talk about those things because most people are programed to say, well, once I get the deal, I can do what I want. You know, once I can get to that level, I can feel something, then have a choice on things. So appreciate the present moment, be happy and grateful, Be present really who you are and understand that I mean, literally understand this moment of sitting in this chair and or talking to a client or whatever it may be is an opportunity to be grateful, to appreciate life, to embrace happiness.

Ricky Kalmon
Because I said it earlier, your biggest problem, your biggest fear, your biggest frustration, somebody would probably trade places with you because theirs are bigger.

Mark Donnolo
Yeah, that’s a mind bender right there. Just that one thought and it’s so true.

Ricky Kalmon
So I’m going to share with you, if you don’t mind. And you probably already delve it dived into it a little bit because it’s in the book, shared a story the very beginning to set the tone for this conversation about visiting a friend in the hospital. And we’ve all listen, we’ve all the older we get, we’re going to have we’re going to be connected to somebody.

Ricky Kalmon
It’s been a hospital. We’re going to relate to this story. The gentleman I’m referring to as his name is Mike is a very good friend of mine, was dying of lung cancer. I came into the to his room that day and I was young that I thought my world was ending like I had a problem. Whatever it was, I just was in a miserable mood.

Ricky Kalmon
I thought, you know, everything was against me. Here’s Mike in bed, laughing, giggling, making jokes, cracking up. He knows he’s going to die, but he’s living his best life ever. Every single moment I walked out of that day as a young man and said to myself, I think Mike would trade places with me in a heartbeat. And I think my problems are problems.

Mark Donnolo
Know.

Ricky Kalmon
So in essence, sometimes when we step back and we really assess where we are and yes, you could say that’s hard, or you can say, nope, that’s a challenge. That’s not that’s not criticism. It’s a challenge. It’s a challenge to yourself. We train ourselves in school. We train ourselves to go to college. We train ourselves to learn, learn different things from mechanics to science to medicine, to whatever our skill set is.

Ricky Kalmon
Don’t stop in your formidable years of college and high school and training and the once a year certification certify yourself every single day, certify yourself and realize you have an opportunity to grow.

Mark Donnolo
So I so I’m positive going into my customer meeting. Right. I had positive affirmations that I was going to be on time and I was actually a couple of minutes early. Right. I one of the meeting. I’ve got great positive feelings going into the meeting. So now I’m sitting in front of the customer, How do I transfer for that kind of mindset to my customer interactions?

Mark Donnolo
Because my customers a real pain in the butt, right? They’re difficult, they’re negative, everything’s going wrong, whatever it might be. How do I carry that in and actually, you know, help benefit the situation with a better mindset?

Ricky Kalmon
Why are you there? Why are you there? What opportunity? Why did they give you the opportunity to be sitting in front of the customer?

Mark Donnolo
Well, to to help them? Or maybe you know what? Okay, I gave you 15 minutes on my calendar. I didn’t really have time to see you, but I gave you 15 minutes to talk to me. Okay? All of a sudden, I’m in. I’m in a hole.

Ricky Kalmon
Right? When you said something so powerful and that it’s because that’s who you are. If I ask ten people that question, why are you there? I wonder how many would say, Well, I’m there, sell them I product. That’s not what you said, Mark. You said, I’m there to help them, right? Yeah. Even a seasoned veteran in sales, whether you’re in a financial advisor, what’s sure in salesman, medical, whatever, who whatever you do, I think we have to be very careful of what we say to ourselves.

Ricky Kalmon
And in that present moment and you were so conscious or maybe you weren’t. Maybe it just was an unconscious thought there to help them. So much different in your reaction and your interaction with them then saying, Well, I’m there to sell them my product.

Mark Donnolo
Right? Because when I go in to help them, I’m not showing them something that I do. I’m listening to what they’re saying because I want to understand what what the problem is. I need help. So I want.

Ricky Kalmon
To find out what’s going on. Yeah, what’s your problem? Right? Because when you look at it this way in your mindset, what are people what are you there as a sales individual? Again, you can look at this different perspective. So just because it’s a role play role play thing, some people might not agree with this. Are you there to solve a problem?

Ricky Kalmon
I don’t have a problem. Well, maybe the problem is a need. Well, what’s the need to make things work better? Okay. Is that a problem? Nope. It’s just more becoming, more efficiency, more efficient. So I’m there to offer you as many solutions to satisfy a need. Yet when you start to when the customer realize they’re. I need them.

Ricky Kalmon
I need them because they are the solution provider, whether it’s just the practical application of a good and service coming across the world to get you to the destination, solving a problem. So I look at things differently. When I’m talking to clients. I’m there to offer a solution. What’s the problem? Was a problem negative or just a void?

Ricky Kalmon
So I’m thinking about those things on a regular basis. Client calls Mrs. Rickey. We’re having an event. Okay? We heard your mindset. Speaker Friend of mine referred you. Okay, great. Let’s talk about what your event is. What are you looking for? What are your needs? What’s the outcome? What do you want at the end of the event? You want people to walk away just feeling good, or do you want them to be more equipped?

Ricky Kalmon
What tools are you looking for? What are your biggest challenges now? What I usually hear is pretty much the same thing between all companies. Let’s face it, nobody’s going to come to me and say, You know something that I haven’t heard before? Maybe a little bit of a pivot. Okay, let me tell you more about what I do.

Ricky Kalmon
You tell me if this resonates with you as this and we’ll go down that path. I provide a very unique comedy show that breaks the ice, that has a lot of fun with everybody. Yes, I’m a hypnotist, so I’m going to hypnotize people. I have an absolute blast blast and nobody can be embarrassed. It’s not your typical show where people are made to do things.

Ricky Kalmon
People are going to want to do it and by the way, you’re going to have me back. It’s going to be standing ovations are the rule, not the exception. Okay. Now I have their attention. Oh, by the way, I offer another program because now that you just saw my show, I’m going to teach your entire team how to relax, better, reduce stress, feel better about themselves, and overcome the challenges and doubts and fears that come into our house every day.

Ricky Kalmon
What if I can show them how to be a better version of themselves every single day? That’s. Does that sound like this would be the right fit? Well, and then we start going to whole conversation if we have the right fit for both programs. What if we did a hybrid? But you see where I went with it and I could be selling anything right now?

Ricky Kalmon
Mm hmm. I wanted to find out again. This is. You guys know this. It’s common sales, but let’s focus on what we’re there for in our mind when we reset ourselves. Comprehensive self esteem, everything. By that, by the way, if they don’t hire me that time, they’re going to call me back.

Mark Donnolo
Well.

Michelle Seger
Yeah, that’s all about how they’re thinking. So you’re not going in there thinking, Oh my God, here’s my quota. I’ve got to close a sale today. Right? Your mindset is.

Ricky Kalmon
Dominates your mind mindset point if you’re dominating over. Well, if I don’t get this sale, I’m going to be looked at negatively or I can’t pay my bills because I needed that extra commission right. You done again, I don’t mean to overstate this, but hit the pause button. Right. What is going to be the best solution to your interaction right now?

Ricky Kalmon
What does your mind need to hear? If you already know your product and service, you know what you’re capable of doing? You know the compensation plan, you know the price structure, you know the supply chain and you know the issues that you might overcome. You are so versed. And by the way, you have to know that information. But how are you going to react to the information that you’re giving?

Mark Donnolo
So as we finish up here, what one thing could a salesperson do either today or tomorrow morning that would start that change? Okay, They’re already going to Amazon. They’re buying your book. But what one thing could they do to actually start that change?

Ricky Kalmon
I think that there’s there’s so many things that I’m going through. All these different ones. I’ve already told you, it start five or 10 minutes every single day, right? Give yourself a literally give yourself that time. Set that on the calendar. I think that’s really, really key. Or even if you just step back after that, you’ve listened to this embrace the statement, release yourself from the familiar and embrace the unfamiliar.

Ricky Kalmon
Just think about what does that mean for you and figure that out. Analyze that, that statement, analyze what does that mean for you itself and let’s let nature take its right.

Mark Donnolo
Well, Ricky, fascinating conversation. Thank you. How can people learn more about you? How can they connect with you?

Ricky Kalmon
Give me a call now online. Of course it’s Rickie Kelman dot com that’s requi cal moon dot com. I’m on every social media. I am fanatical from every platform. It really is me that responds in the hundreds of emails every single day. They do get weeded down and I do respond and I love talking to clients and figure out how we can make better teams and more profitable organizations with just really tapping into leveraging your mindset.

Mark Donnolo
Awesome. And for people that are listening, you got to check out Ricky’s videos. They are convincing.

Michelle Seger
Oh yeah, they’re very good. Yeah.

Mark Donnolo
Oh yeah. You’ll you’ll love them and you know, you’ll learn a lot.

Ricky Kalmon
So yes, I love what I do and I’m blessed that I get to do this every single day.

Mark Donnolo
Right. Well, Ricky, thanks for joining us.

Michelle Seger
Screen for being here today.