Speaker 1: 0:00

The Surviving Outside Sales Podcast hosted by Mike O'Kelley, presented by Sales Builder Academy, the goal is to survive and thrive all phases of outside sales, whether you're getting in, dominating or getting out. Surviving Outside Sales podcast, I'm your host, Mike O'Kelley.

Speaker 2: 0:35

I realize it has been a little bit and I wanted to share a couple things that are very fascinating and very interesting, and that is, while I've tried back in November to record more episodes and I did several and I tried to make it a routine thing the amount of things that I had on my plate for the business world and consulting and coaching it was just too overwhelming, and sometimes I felt like there was an avalanche of things that I had to do daily tasks, emails, people to respond to, people reaching out and it was a little overwhelming, especially with the holidays coming up and there was a lot of things going on in our family, um, that I was, you know, trying to deal with. But everything has kind of uh, I won't say slowed down, but kind of realized that sometimes in life you have to do and I've mentioned this before in other episodes and I highly recommend this to all people that are listening, but also my coaching clients specifically is dumping out your bucket and dumping out your bag Every six months. Dump out your bag and what that is is, symbolically, you're just investigating your business through fresh eyes and a fresh lens, and every about six months you should do this and maybe even three months, until you really start to hone on what you're trying to do and the essence of who you are as a sales professional. How is your business operating and is it built with a strong foundation? Do you have the big three? Do you have the habits, processes and systems that are going to allow your business to scale and to grow? And if not, it's a great time to give a self-examination and to really look at what you're doing and is it the best version of what you can be doing? And, quite frankly, sometimes you can't see the forest through the trees.

Speaker 2: 2:25

It happens to everyone and a couple of things that I noticed just from the podcast world is every week I still get hundreds of downloads of one particular episode and it's shocking to me because when I see every week I get the email from my podcasting site, even though I haven't released a podcast since November and even though, since I kind of took away to kind of build the Restore Hyper Wellness business, which is coming up in about a year and a half, I've only released a handful of episodes, the downloads show that people are still seeking and searching and the amount of people that still reach out to me just because of the podcast. I have not been promoting it on LinkedIn. I have not been doing anything on YouTube. I've not been doing anything on Instagram. I have been a ghost, except for the fact that my podcast episodes, the surviving outside sales episodes, are living evergreen on Spotify or iTunes I'm sorry, not iTunes, apple podcasts and that is the importance of putting content out there. So that's a I don't know, I wouldn't say a tip or a strategy, but that's the importance of putting content out there and letting the world see something.

Speaker 2: 3:47

I'm not actively engaging in it every single day I'm. I'm working behind the scenes diligently. The things that I was doing a year and a half ago, they don't work today efficiently. When I had my full time to sit down and work 50 to 50 to 60 hours per week on my coaching business content podcast, I could do things that were inefficient. But now I have a truncated schedule and a smaller allotment of time, so I have to be more efficient. So I have to change no-transcript comprehension of your buyers, issues and problems and it's going to fall flat and you're going to be exposed. And the worst thing you can do is to build yourself up and then to get exposed by a buyer, when you really don't know how to handle situations.

Speaker 2: 5:14

But what's interesting, and I kind of got off track, but I'll get back on track what I noticed was episode one oh shoot, I wish I had written it down. I think it's episode 136, right, had 400 downloads a couple of weeks ago. Just that one episode had 400 downloads and that episode was from almost three years ago and I can't remember the title and I probably should have again. I did not prepare fully. I thought I had remembered what the title was but it has escaped me. But it was something like episode one 32 or one 36. And it kept popping up on the top downloads per week for about eight weeks. And I started and I went back and I listened to that episode again and it nothing to me sounds any different than anything else. And it's one of those things that you don't fully understand why your buyers sometimes reach out. You don't understand why people say yes to you, but there is just something that happens and you sometimes can't explain it. I won't say that the episode went quote unquote, viral, because several hundred downloads of an episode isn't earth shattering, but it is interesting that that episode kept popping up. And I went back and I looked. It's not connected to a LinkedIn post, so it's still going to be a mystery. Unfortunately, we still don't know why, but that's one of the things that when I started self-examining and I start thinking about my business and this will correlate in a second to yours.

Speaker 2: 6:56

It is just allowing people in the market to know you're around and know you exist is extremely important, and it's one of the things that I talk about in the sales builder Academy, specifically the. The sales builder accelerator is um, using technology and putting yourself out there so that your buyers can consume your content when you're not there. And that is speaking one to many, not just one-to-one. If you're trying to grow your business one-to-one, unfortunately it's going to be a very long, tough road ahead. You can't do that, especially now, in 2025, you have got to find a way to speak one-to-many, and there's a lot of different avenues.

Speaker 2: 7:49

One of the best sales professionals and there's a lot of different avenues. One of the best sales professionals my buddy Justin that I know he is not what you would call an extrovert. People might even say he's an introvert but he has the three things that are down to be a top sales professional his habits, his processes and his systems. He knows exactly what he's doing on every single call. And when you start getting to that point where you know exactly what you're doing on every single call, that is when you're going to see your sales explode. And it really is.

Speaker 2: 8:22

It's tried and true, like there is no denying that if you get those three things down, it doesn't matter what you sell, it doesn't matter who you are, you will be successful. But it takes work, it's not. It's simple, but it's not easy. And the simple part is people say, oh yeah, there's nothing flashy about habits, processes and systems, but the difficult part is actually building those and actually understanding what type of habits do you need to have? How do you solidify those habits? What processes should you use? What type of system are you going to implement within your business that allows you to scale and build that one to many? But it was interesting to me.

Speaker 2: 9:00

I kept telling my wife every time I'd get the email, the weekly email, from Buzzsprout and that's the platform that I use for my podcast and I said, huh. I said there was another. You know 270 downloads of this episode and there were 400 downloads of that episode and it just it boggles my mind. It boggles like I really have no idea why that one episode that's almost three years old that is something like episode one, is either one 62 or one 68 or one 63. Um, I have no idea why that one has become so popular and but I still have people that reach out because of that episode and I have a coaching clients that have DM to me on LinkedIn and just said hey, I've listened to your podcast, I really appreciate it. I want to get on a call and then we discuss, um, what their issues are and some, some people I can't help, some people I can't help, some people I can't help and some people are willing to take that help and take that leap. So I really enjoy you know, as a side note, I really enjoy helping outside sales professionals professionals.

Speaker 2: 10:13

Outside sales has a series of challenges that I still don't see a lot of people addressing. In fact, one of my um, one of the recent people that I spoke with, uh told me that there's not a lot of people out there talking about outside sales. Everybody's talking about sales and mindset and you know, but specifically this niche of outside sales, I'm one of the few people that's actually talking about it and I enjoy it. I've I've invested a lot of money in sharing the stories and sharing the expertise and the things that I have learned, and I always tell people right off the bat I didn't walk out a fully formed product. I had lots of great managers, I had lots of great mentors, I've hired a lot of great coaches to help me and it's I've invested in my knowledge, I've invested in my business. I've invested in everything here trying to get better. I've been to conferences trying to learn how to expand, and because I am willing to share and I am willing to use my voice every single day.

Speaker 2: 11:16

There are some people that just aren't willing to do that. They're not willing to invest the time. They're having self-doubt. That's one thing that I don't have is self-doubt. I don't believe that I'm the best at everything, but what I am probably the best at is just doing things and trying things. There's nothing that I won't try. Um, and there's no idea that if somebody came to me and said you should, I think you should do this and this is why I'd say, great, I'll do it. There is no ego when it comes to getting better.

Speaker 2: 11:45

My goal and the thing that I always tell my employees and the thing that I always tell the students that I coach and anybody that I run through is the quest for perfection is what you're striving for. You're never going to reach perfection, but it's the quest for perfection, being the best version of yourself every single day, every single quarter, every single year, realizing you're never going to reach perfection, but it's that chase, it's that striving for it that is the most important. If you're not doing that, you're lagging behind. Why Every quarter is different. Every year is different.

Speaker 2: 12:24

Right now, we're in Q2 of 2025. Drastically different world than we were're in Q2 of 2025, drastically different world than we were in in Q2 of 2024, especially 2023. There's a lot of geopolitical factors going on. Right now. Everybody's talking tariff, tariff, tariff. It's making goods and services a little bit more expensive. Buyers might be apprehensive. You still have to overcome.

Speaker 2: 12:50

There's always going to be dips in the economy. There's always going to be things. You know we've got the crash of 2008. You're going to have taxes are going to go up and down. There's going to be things. You can't control. The only thing you control it goes back to the same three things your habits, your processes and your systems, and also your general attitude and mindset, but those big three things, those are the things you can control.

Speaker 2: 13:17

And so, as we continue on Q2 of 2025, I'm going to try to get back to my habits, because everybody falls short sometimes, okay, so don't beat yourself up. Just pivot, put your foot in the ground and say I'm not going in that direction anymore, I'm going this direction. That is what you can do for yourself today, and if you know of anybody who needs to hear this message, share the episode with them. That's the only thing that I ask from the audience is just share this episode, like it. You know, give, give a review, five-star review, or whatever you want to. If you want to give it a one-star, I did have somebody give a one-star review on Spotify. I don't know why it's anonymous, but that's how you can help other sales professionals is share it with your friends. Talk about how to build the habits, processes and systems and, if you want to, I offer this to anybody who's listening. If you want to have a free consultation, a free 30 minute call, shoot me a DM on LinkedIn.

Speaker 2: 14:21

I am creating a whole new system behind the scenes and it's gone very slow because of my limited bandwidth, but I'm creating a whole new system behind the scenes, and it's gone very slow because of my limited bandwidth, but I'm creating a whole new system behind the scenes, whole new platform to where everything is going to be housed. Right now it's through my website, michaelkellycom, and, uh, I have liked it, except for um. There's certain things behind the scenes that I think are super inefficient. Um, it's no fault to. It's no fault to Wix, where my website is hosted. The online courses are on Wix. There's just some things that I have found something new. I've invested in something different that somebody recommended to me, and actually everything is housed in one thing, which I really like. It's a lot simpler of a software to use, and so I'm going to be shifting everything over there.

Speaker 2: 15:12

But I think that's one of the things that when I speak to people, they do appreciate, and I hope that it comes across as being genuine. But I'm always looking to get better. I'm always looking to. I have that mindset of always growing, always increasing, always looking to get better. I'm always looking to. You know, I have that mindset of always growing, always increasing, always trying to get better, and I recommend that. That's the one thing that check your ego at the door and it doesn't matter.

Speaker 2: 15:38

I've met a lot of sales professionals who were number one at their previous company and they came to the company that I worked for and they really struggled and it was because they might've had like the best product in their market at the time. And then they came to, you know, the company I was working for and their product wasn't as strong. They had to do more work. In other words, it wasn't just show up and you just take orders Like anybody can do that. Anybody can have a product, you know.

Speaker 2: 16:04

I remember I remember in the pharmaceutical world I ran into a guy who really struggled at a company that I went to work for. He really struggled at the company and then he went on to another company where his product was free at a $0 copay and he shot up and was like number three or four in the company. But he was at the bottom 5% at the company that I was working for and it's because anybody can sell free, like, what are you? What are you selling? At that point, you know the products that we had were close to $50, $50 copay per prescription, which is a lot in the pharmaceutical world, and he went to a company where it was free.

Speaker 2: 16:41

So there's not a lot of, there's not a lot of selling, there's not a lot of um, you know issues at the pharmacy level.

Speaker 2: 16:46

There's no surprises at the backend, and so it's one of those things where sometimes in the sales world, your, your success, can mask some inefficiencies in your, in your backend and how you run your business.

Speaker 2: 17:00

And so it's really even even people who were the top of the food chain I know of a lot of sales professionals who they've worked at companies and they were winning awards and they were at the top, and they're always looking to get better. They're never satisfied with the status quo, because your buyer is never satisfied with the status quo. I can tell you that the person that you're trying to sell to, no matter what you sell in this world, the person you're trying to sell to is never going to be satisfied with where they are today. They're always going to be looking to get better, and so should you, if you want some help, reach out to me, dm me on LinkedIn, say hey, mike, I'd love to. You know, pick your brain. I'd love to chat for 30 minutes and see if there's something that I might be able to help with. So, uh, thank you so much for listening. I really do appreciate it and, um, this has been surviving.