Episodes
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If you had one chance to build trust with someone, would you choose the path of sharing your competency or seeking to understand their point of view?
Common sense would dictate that most will choose “seeking their point of view,” but why then during conversations does it so often switch? How many times have you caught yourself telling the other person what they should do, or sharing your expertise and experience hoping they adhere to your advice?
This snippet revisits Dan’s conversation with Kent Grayson, an associate professor and researcher at the Kellogg School of Management and an expert on trust and authenticity in the marketplace. Kent and Dan unpack an analogy that demonstrates why competence in and of itself is not enough to build trust. To hear the full episode, scroll back to episode 96: Evolving Trust with Kent Grayson. -
It’s no secret: many salespeople dread participating in RFPs (request for proposals). Many feel they are unfair, unclear, inefficient, and otherwise difficult. However, with more businesses adopting RFPs as part of their decision-making process, it’s crucial that sales professionals know how to approach them.
More importantly, the problem may be less about the process and more about your mindset.
In this episode of Breaking Sales, Dan and Pam discuss adopting a mindset that will help you to disrupt RFPs, and what tools and tactics can be used to help organizations in their decision-making during the RFP process.
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Missing episodes?
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While control provides us with a sense of comfort and security, it doesn’t benefit us to keep an iron grip on every aspect of our lives. If you want to create something new, different, or special in your life, you’ll have to learn to embrace things that you can’t control and trust what you can.
In this episode of Breaking Sales, Kristie and I discuss different perspectives on control, and how to develop a healthy mindset around it. The conversation also explores how trying to control too much can cloud our judgment and prevent us from making good objective decisions.
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How do we make sure we remain accountable to ourselves and our commitments when faced with discomfort?
Continually evolving ourselves and our mindset is essential to propelling our lives, careers, and businesses forward. Sustainable change requires a steady adherence to processes and principles that may sometimes be uncomfortable, but encourage long-term personal growth.
In this episode of Breaking Sales, Pam and Kristie explore what it takes to be accountable to oneself, and why this practice is one of the most important contributors to high performance.
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Language is one of the single most important factors in shaping human behavior and psychology. The words we choose dictate how we think, how we behave, and what experiences we have, positive or negative. How do we use our words to control our own thoughts and approach new situations with clarity and confidence?
In this episode of Breaking Sales, Dan continues his discussion with Dr. George S. Everly Jr., a highly accomplished psychologist, researcher, and author. We discuss the relationship between language and psychology: How self-talk helps us find courage and strengthen our tolerance for rejection or failure. We also discuss how questions help build trust and create new possibilities.
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High performers often cite their routines and sleep habits as essential ingredients to improving cognitive ability, productivity, and other aspects of performance. It’s no different when we think of having meaningful conversations as leaders, teammates, or sales professionals. Powerful communication is no accident, and it can be learned.
In this episode of Breaking Sales, Dan continues his conversation with Dr. George S. Everly, Jr., a prolific researcher and author. George and Dan discuss how we can maximize our conversations and interactions with strong cognitive function through routine, sleep, exercise, and support.
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Have you ever wondered what it would take to add some cognitive and behavioral horsepower to your routines and activities? Or what really influences the choices that you make?
In this episode of Breaking Sales, Dan sits down with Dr. George S. Everly, Jr., a highly accomplished psychologist, researcher, and author whose work spans multiple scientific disciplines. The conversation explores the neuroscience behind decision-making, reframing your mindset to be more conducive to what you want to achieve, and what you can do to maximize your cognitive power.
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How has honest but difficult feedback helped shape the individual members of the Lappin180 coaching team for the better? In this behind-the-scenes episode, Dan, Pam, and Kristie share the stories behind the toughest feedback they have ever received, and how it has helped them learn, grow, and achieve better outcomes. This conversation highlights why feedback is so essential to personal and professional growth at all stages of life.
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Our innate instinct to label things as bad may have worked to protect us 20,000 years ago, but it often works against us in today’s modern world. How are people that work in the most high-stakes roles able to keep their composure despite the elevated sense of urgency?
In this episode of Breaking Sales, Dan shares how his recent conversations with pediatricians treating the sickest children have continued to shape his thinking around the power of detachment.
Dan and Pam discuss how these extreme examples of using detachment can be very useful in helping us stay calm and poised in difficult conversations. They also examine why we label potential threats through the lens of evolutionary psychology, and why this runs counter to the demands of today’s conversations and experiences.
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How can you be certain that your day-to-day activities are helping you achieve your goals? Additionally, how do you identify opportunities that you may have missed, so you can capture them the next time around?
In this snippet, Pam shares why metrics are fundamental to knowing whether or not you are growing in your business, and what metrics you need to understand whether or not you are making progress.
To hear the full episode, scroll back to Episode 71: You Can’t Grow Until You Measure. -
High-performance is heavily influenced by your choices. There are studies that suggest that those who seek immediate gratification are less successful than those who delay gratification.
Do you sacrifice the present for the future? Or do you give up the future to indulge in the present? This is not an easy question.
Join Dan and Pam as they explore how our choices either promote or hinder our routines, commitments, and sense of fulfillment. In this episode, you’ll hear some interesting perspectives on the relationship between commitment and choices that will help you frame your thinking and decide what viewpoints you do and don’t agree with.
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Your prospects are constantly being sold to, and as a result, they have developed a series of biases that help them filter out what conversations are going to be helpful or harmful to them. This reaction is primal, based on instinct that dates back tens of thousands of years. Even a referral from a trusted source may not be enough for them to let down their guard. What can sales professionals do to ease the prospect’s initial uncertainty and innate lack of trust?
In this episode of Breaking Sales, Dan and Pam explore how you can level the playing field with your prospects and clients so that both parties can enter the conversation with more courage and curiosity. They’ll explore the psychology behind the beginning of human interactions and what you can do to make a positive early impact.
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Get to know the Lappin180 team in this bonus episode of Breaking Sales. In this candid conversation, you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at coaching and gain insights on how teams operate and build relationships over time. Dan, Pam, and Kristie share their journeys to becoming coaches, the dynamics that allow them to function as a team, and reminisce about some of the successes and challenges they’ve faced together along the way.
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Sharing your credentials with prospects may seem like a strong way to demonstrate your value, but in reality, leaning on your past accomplishments to convey your worth stems from insecurity and scarcity. Worse, while your prospective clients may be able to gain a lot from your experience and expertise, putting it at the forefront of your conversations to prove your capability and worth may actually have a negative effect.
In this snippet, Dan explores why credentialing is a common pitfall for professionals, and how pitching your solution or expertise can unintentionally trigger the wrong reaction from your prospect. To hear the full conversation, scroll back to Episode 69,” Sharing Your Credentials Can Damage Your Credibility.”
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Assertiveness and persistence can add value to a conversation, but only if aligned with helping the other person assess their circumstances more honestly. Neither should be practiced to advance your agenda. How do you know when it is time to slow down and assert?
In this episode of Breaking Sales, Dan continues his conversation with management consultant Kirsten Markley, to explore how curiosity, assertiveness, slowing down, and persistence all work together to create conversations that build trust and differentiate.
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It’s human nature to revert to our routines when under pressure. If you’ve been taught to sell or position value, then you’ve grown accustomed to defaulting to your expertise when pressured by the prospect. You lead with competency in hopes the prospect will eventually “get” your point. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work as often as we’d like, and it often leaves us feeling disconnected and chasing the prospect for a decision.
On this episode of Breaking Sales, Dan sits down with management consultant veteran Kirsten Markley to explore how she uses curiosity to learn and build trust, and take share of wallet away from the better well known competitors in her space. -
Explaining why your product, service, or expertise is a better alternative isn’t enough. Decisions are not made based on benefits alone. There might be many “pros” in your prospect choosing to do business with you, but it’s the perceived risks, discomfort, and hurdles that will hold them back.
In this episode of Breaking Sales, Dan and Pam continue their exploration into the psychology of decision-making. They share some personal experiences that have helped them better understand why it’s human nature to rationalize and avoid change, and provide examples of questions you can ask to slice through your prospect’s decision biases. -
The purpose of any traditional sales conversation is to help the prospect objectively assess and debate how or if they should make a change to your product, service, or expertise. This requires enough self-awareness to minimize their biases, identify their attachments, and control their fears. Does your current conversation process and strategy account for this?
In this episode of Breaking Sales, Dan and Pam discuss the psychology behind decision-making and explore how human beings approach and debate difficult choices. We’ll explore how facts alone are rarely enough to form a decision, and that it’s most often the relationship between perceived risks and gains that determine your fate. -
In a world filled with endless distractions, willpower is our first line of defense against procrastination, and one of the greatest tools we have to accomplish our goals. But is willpower a finite resource, or one that we can learn to manage, grow, and expand?
In this snippet, Pam shares how she uses willpower to manage distraction, and offers an approach to discipline that you can use to stay focused and achieve your goals. To hear the full episode, scroll back to Episode 78: “Stress or Freedom—the Many Perspectives of Discipline.”
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What you achieve, create, or experience in your professional and personal journey is reflective of your mindset. When decoding the world around you - your thoughts follow a thinking pattern. This routine dictates the actions you take, or don’t take. So if you want to achieve, create, or experience something more or different - strengthen your mindset. Gratitude is a simple and powerful place to start.
In the final part of my conversation with Chris Schembra, a gratitude expert and the author of Wall Street Journal bestseller Gratitude Through Hard Times, we explore the connection between gratitude and how we think and the actions we take. As well as the impact of negative biographical experiences, and how to shift them to positive.
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