Hi, Sales Leader

My name is Shelley Walters, CEO and founder of The Sales Counsel. My team and I crafted The Ultimate Prospecting Bootcamp because we could see the plight of our country’s salespeople who were battling to secure quality sales meetings, particularly during Covid-19 when face-to-face became impossible.

“80% of your sales team is hitting only 42% of its target.”

Chally Group after interviewing more than 20 000 sales teams.

I think their plight affected me because, as a rookie Sales Manager in 2008 at Kingfisher FM in Nelson Mandela Bay, I went through something similar.

Before I joined, the community radio station was sitting on the edge of a precipice because it scraped by and survived on donations. If you can believe it, they even used to run those old-school-type telethons to raise funds for the station. But it didn’t matter what they tried, it wasn’t enough to keep the station in the black, and they faced the very real prospect of closing down.

It wasn’t a great time. The organisation felt uncertain, insecure, and unmoored.

Then a forward-thinking young leader, Theunis Pienaar, took on the role of Station Manager and, with it signed up for the mission of saving the station from certain closure. He believed things could be done differently and that the station could provide commercial value to the market, which would allow the station to fund its operations through revenue generated through advertising sales.

At this point, he hired a key team to help him turn the station around; I was his selection for Sales Manager. Together our mission was to ensure the station stood on its own two feet. He inspired us to become creative and come up with solutions that would stop us from being dependent on handouts.

But as new managers, we inherited a team that was not used to being managed or to be held accountable for their (lack of) results. Perhaps you’ve seen something similar with some individuals in your sales team:

• They distract themselves with other (non-sales) activities.
• Because they’re used to rejection, they keep on attracting it.
• When you try to give them constructive feedback, they get defensive.
• They’re miserable because they’re last on the scoreboard.
• They’re nervous because they must face you, their leader, empty-handed.
• They’re fearful of keeping their job because they’re bringing in the revenue/

I know that I felt like this, and more.

Then, we overhauled our sales and marketing messaging using the latest findings in Neuroscience, and we got busy PROSPECTING.

Those heady times were exciting and invigorating. And, I have to confess, a bit nerve-wracking. But, driven with purpose, we were on a mission and became scrappy and doggedly determined to succeed.

Within 18 months, we were entirely funded by advertising. Our hard work had paid off, and we became a smashing success.

Whilst all our endeavours helped us plot a path to self-sufficiency, the real reason we achieved our goal was simple. We made innumerable calls and knocked our knuckles raw on more doors than I care to remember. In short, we prospected like there was no tomorrow.

I’ve no doubt that prospecting was the fundamental reason that we succeeded.

To succeed when all the odds are stacked against you, you need direction, focus and tools. The Ultimate Prospecting Bootcamp will give you all of these.

I’m particularly proud of this 21-day intensive programme that goes beyond the old, hackneyed theories that rely purely on dials. In the old days, like when I worked in Office Automation, it was all about dials and door-knocking. It may have worked then, but in a commercial environment where we’re aggressively managing the cost of sales, who can afford outdated and expensive models that essentially use your salespeople as cannon fodder?

Times have changed, and now there’s LinkedIn and your mobile phone – tools only dreamt of a few short years ago.

Outstanding feedback from our delegates

The feedback from our delegates on the support and service levels received during their experience in the programme coupled with using the number one rated technology platform in the world, has led to us receiving an outstanding Net Promoter Score of 78.2.

Passion and Dedication!

I appreciated the passion and dedication from the team!

Delegate, Standard Bank

Ingrid Munsamy, Standard Bank