Although we are at the end of #WomensHistoryMonth, Women Sales Pros will continue to promote our experts so you can learn more about them. Watch for our posts on LinkedIn and reach out to any who have been featured. For the rest of our experts, go to our directory
Amy Franko, Columbus, Ohio
Sales Strategy | Sales Training | Board Director
Women Sales Pro Member since 2017
Named a LinkedIn Top Sales Voice
Amy’s Leadership Tips:
- Invest in yourself. Investing in your self-growth is essential as a sales leader. It will help you boost your confidence, build on your strengths, and create important connections.
- Create a vision. Modern sales leaders are always thinking of the big picture, and they can see beyond any ambiguity, chaos and disruption that the organization, industry, or world is experiencing.
- Practice agility. The most successful sales leaders showcase agility. They can filter through information and extract critical intelligence for their organization, team, prospects and clients. Another hallmark of agility is to reframe failure.
- Be willing step out of the spotlight. As part of the transition to sales leadership, former sales rockstars need to learn help their team members cultivate the skills to thrive and shine.
About Amy:
Amy Franko helps organizations transform sales culture, ignite sales growth, and build high-impact leaders through her strategic selling programs. Recognized as a LinkedIn Top Sales Voice, Amy is the leading expert in modern sales strategies—including in-demand sales training programs, sales strategy, and as a sales keynote speaker and leadership keynote speaker. She guides growth-oriented organizations to significantly improve their results through B2B sales strategy and sales team skill development.
As a sales leader, Amy Franko built a successful and lucrative B2B sales career with global tech giants IBM and Lenovo. She then took a pivot into entrepreneurship in 2007, launching Amy Franko Associates, with a specific focus on sales consulting, sales training, and sales leadership excellence.
She has built her organization from the bottom up, from her very first client to today, with the hundreds of Fortune 1000 clients she has served over the years. She has created significant growth and success, consistently selling major engagements with repeat business and loyal clients.
Amy has been interviewed on numerous high-profile sales and leadership podcasts. Her book, The Modern Seller, is an Amazon Best Seller. It was named a top sales book by Top Sales World and a “highly recommended read” by Selling Power.
Connect with Amy:
www.twitter.com/amyfranko amyfranko.com
Wesleyne Whittaker
- Rather than just making connections, build relationships. The ability to build relationships with your team and clients is one of the most important aspects of leadership. Female leaders can tap into their natural empathy and connect with others to foster strong relationships that can ultimately improve business results. Listen to your team members' concerns, offer support, and show genuine interest in what they're doing. You'll build a deeper, more loyal relationship with clients if you show them you care about their goals and challenges.
- Leverage your unique strengths. The strengths women bring to leadership roles are often different from those of men. Studies indicate that women are more collaborative, communicative, and empathic than men. These traits can be incredibly valuable in leadership and sales, so don't shy away from using them to your advantage. Focus on developing and leveraging your unique strengths to stand out as a leader and drive success for your team.
- Consider taking calculated risks. A successful leader takes risks, but not recklessly. By using data and insights, you can make informed decisions based on weighing the potential outcomes. By taking this approach, you can make bold moves that maximize growth while minimizing the risk of failure.
- Embrace technology. The importance of technology in today's fast-paced business world cannot be overstated. Keeping your team competitive requires staying up-to-date with the latest tools and trends. You can leverage technology to work smarter, not harder, whether it's leveraging AI to streamline processes or utilizing social media to build your brand.
- Prioritize self-care. The role of leader can be incredibly rewarding, but it can also be extremely stressful and draining. Women in leadership roles should prioritize self-care to avoid burnout and maintain mental and physical health. By taking breaks throughout the day, delegating tasks to others, or simply setting boundaries, you can ensure that work does not consume every waking moment.
To excel in leadership and sales roles, women can use a variety of strategies. You can make a meaningful impact in your organization by building strong relationships, leveraging unique strengths, taking calculated risks, embracing technology, and prioritizing self-care.
Hi, I'm Wesleyne Whittaker – a former chemist turned top international salesperson and founder of Transformed Sales. I'm on a mission to help aspiring sales leaders achieve their goals through coaching, speaking engagements, and an online course. When I'm not changing lives in the world of sales, I'm adventuring with my family, exploring nature, and devouring books.
Nancy Calabrese, Jacksonville, FL
Founder and CEO, One of a Kind Sales
Women Sales Pro Member since 2021
Nancy’s Leadership Tips:
- Human conversation always wins! When interacting with a prospect, the initial objective is to create a relationship. This is not something that an automated call can achieve. Prospects can tell when they are dealing with an automated call and having a real person who is truly interested what they are saying on the other end of the line is a huge differentiator.
- Never underestimate the power of your voice. There is data supporting that your tone of voice is directly tied to the successful outcome of your cold call, and I’ve seen this in my experience managing a team of experienced cold callers. Projecting confidence, engaging in active listening and matching your prospect’s tone can help you obtain a positive outcome that can move the business forward.
- Cold calling is not dead! There’s a misperception that businesspeople don’t engage with Cold Callers. My cold callers routinely reach decision makers by phone to set up appointments. And statistics from Crunchbase indicate that 69% of buyers have accepted Cold Calls and that more than half of C-Suite buyers actually prefer to be contacted by phone. For this reason alone, cold calling should be a part of any robust lead generation campaign.
Nancy works with company owners, and sales leaders who are focused on driving the growth of their sales pipeline by generating qualified leads. As founder of One of a Kind Sales, Nancy and her team provide support for companies at every step of the sales process, but they have a particular strength in one of the most difficult areas of sales: cold calling. Nancy and her team use cold calling to qualify leads and set appointments for sales calls on behalf of their clients. These appointments are with decision makers who have an expressed need for the solutions her clients offer.
Nancy has found that experienced salespeople dislike cold calling and often make excuses avoid doing it. But these salespeople love meeting with qualified prospects and have a high degree of success closing these prospects. By outsourcing cold calling, businesses utilize the skills of their sales team where they are best deployed – closing new business.
In addition to providing cold calling services, Nancy works with companies that have existing inside sales teams to strengthen their skills and productivity. She understands the training, tools, and analytics which must be in place to make cold calling work for a business.
Nancy is the host of the Conversational Selling Podcast which was recently included in SalesHacker.com’s list of 120 Sales Podcasts for Hungry Sales Professionals: 2023 Edition. In addition, Nancy routinely offers selling tips on LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube through two different series: “Nancy Knows” sharing her wealth of experience as a lifelong salesperson; and “Sell Something Now” focused on providing insights on Sandler Selling rules in four minutes or less. Nancy is well-versed in the Sandler Selling Method, a consultative selling approach which is ideal for business-to-business sales interactions. She and her team engage in ongoing Sandler training to provide the best results for their clients.
Nancy is known for her love of Paul McCartney!
Connect with Nancy:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ncalabrese/
