Episode 117: Diane Helbig

Diane Helbig

Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Pretty Powerful Podcast, where powerful women are interviewed every week to share real inspiring stories and incredible insight to help women or anyone break the barriers, be a part of innovation, shatter the glass ceiling, and dominate to the top of their sport, industry, or life's mission.

Join us as we celebrate exceptional women and step into our power. And now here's your host, Angela Gennari.

Angela Gennari: Hello. Welcome to. Another episode of the pretty powerful podcast. My name is Angela Gennari. And today I'm here with Diane Helbig. Hi, Diane. Hi, Angela. How are you? I am wonderful. Thank you. So Diane Helbig is a business and leadership advisor and trainer.

She's an award winning author and speaker and accelerate your business growth podcast host. She is the author of Succeed without selling, [00:01:00] lemonade stand selling, and expert insights. This is going to be a great conversation. I'm excited to talk to you. Me too. So what made you want to get into consulting first?

And did the consulting come before the speaker and the author or how did that all happen?

Diane Helbig: Uh, so life changing moment wanted to do something that had more of an impact in the world. You know, just. I'll call it a midlife crisis, I guess. Yeah. And I decided that I wanted to take all of my experience in business leadership and sales.

And help other people right and so be able to help small business owners, because I was watching them do things that I would just think to myself, this stop like this is nuts, just do that right. Yes. Okay, well, I'll go out there and I'll do it and the consulting did come before I started the business, and part of it [00:02:00] was writing a lot.

So I wrote articles that then turned into a book that then went to speaking and then I'll just sort of float.

Angela Gennari: Okay. Very cool. Yeah. I'm always curious about that because sometimes you have someone who comes up with this great book idea. They put the book out. And then the book leads to speaking engagements and then that leads to consulting.

Others will start with consulting and then take all the knowledge that they've gained and all the experiences and they throw them into a book and then they talk about the book. So it's just curious because, um, I do a little bit of speaking myself, but I'm not an author. Um, but mostly it's, it's. Based on the podcast.

So, uh, so I'm always curious about how, you know, everybody's journey is slightly different.

Diane Helbig: Slightly different. Yes. Yes. But I'm the second person you mentioned.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Very cool. And your niche sounds like it's selling.

Diane Helbig: Yeah, I would say so. Okay.

Angela Gennari: So talk to [00:03:00] me about what makes a great salesperson.

What makes someone a great salesperson? Someone who doesn't sell. Oh, interesting. I know. Okay. Now you've got my attention. Right. I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So talk to me about that because honestly, like I hate to be sold to, if somebody calls me and it sounds like a salesperson, I immediately get just, I tune out.

And so I love that you say somebody who doesn't sell because I think that that's very true. So yeah. Right. Tell me what that means. Okay.

Diane Helbig: So for me, what it means is, um, not doing that thing that for some reason we were trained to do back in the eighties. Yeah.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. All the sales training in the eighties, the exact same thing.

Diane Helbig: Yeah. So it might've worked back then. I'm not convinced that it did, but when the internet started being a thing, Consumers didn't need the salesperson [00:04:00] as much. You know, back then the salesperson was the expert. You needed them to explain their product or service to you. We just, we don't need that anymore.

And no one likes being sold to. Right. So my thing is, um, don't tell and sell, listen and learn.

Angela Gennari: Okay. I like that.

Diane Helbig: Yep. So no selling, asking, listening, really listening, uh huh, learning. And then if it makes sense. Connecting.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. Yeah. I, I like that too, because I don't see myself as a salesperson, but I tend to be one of the strongest salespeople in my company.

And I have multiple salespeople, so it shouldn't be. But the reason is because I don't care to sell to anyone. Right. And I think that's actually what helps me because they know [00:05:00] if I'm calling them, it's generally not to sell them anything. Cause I don't want to be a salesperson. I don't like the sales process.

I don't like to be sold to. So I don't want to do that to anyone else more than anything. I'm just trying to help them solve a problem. And so that is why it connects. I'm just, I'm just calling them to say, okay, tell me what the issue is and let's get to the let's get to the solution. And they trust me.

Because I'm not selling them anything.

Diane Helbig: Right. Because what they know is it's about them. Yes. Not you, not your quota, not your mortgage, not your employee, you know, paying your employees. You know, when salespeople have that, you know, I have to hit quota. I have to sell. I have to, I have to, everyone sees that and feels it.

Right. And their focus is so on themselves. They're not listening. They're, they're usually doing way too much talking and they're, they're not, um, walking [00:06:00] away from the people they should walk away from. Yes. And that's where bad clients come from.

Angela Gennari: Yeah, we

Diane Helbig: have a whole profit problem, right? So it's just bad on every single level.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. And you don't want to force a client because what I have noticed is if I try to force someone in and say, I really want this client, I really want them. And they're beating me over the head about price. And they're beating me over the head about different things. They're going to continue to do that because they're not the right.

client for us and I should just let it go. I don't, you know, we got to get out of the ego, ego of sales and ego

Diane Helbig: involved. Well, and, and if I said to you, every single one of those clients. Is costing you money. Where's your ego fit in that? Exactly. Right. Because you're not doing anybody any favors. They're not going to refer you.

They're never going to be happy. [00:07:00] They're going to drain your energy. They're going to drain your people. You're going to lose money. And it's preventing you from going out and getting those really good clients, the ones who do trust you, who want to do business with you and engage with you. Exactly.

Angela Gennari: Yes, I agree.

So social media has become a big thing, right? So I think one of the reasons when you were saying we don't need salespeople to be the expert, we have the internet. It's so true. We have, we can look up anything we want on the internet. Everybody has a website. I can go to somebody's website and learn all you need, all I need to know about them and I can go to social media.

So how important is social media, um, when it comes to sales?

Diane Helbig: You know, my viewpoint is that social media is marketing. It's not selling. We're not supposed to sell on social media, but it's great for relationship building. It's great, great for research and it's great for [00:08:00] gaining exposure and credibility.

Angela Gennari: Yeah.

Diane Helbig: So, right. So if we look at it that way, then we're going to use it as the marketing vehicle that it is

Both: and

Diane Helbig: and the way that you know, we're not going to be everywhere. You have to be where your perspective audience is. You have to be talking about something that they care about, you know, something that matters to them.

Those people who are selling on social are ruining their reputations. Yes. And they're never going to get that back.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. Well, and it feels so contrived. It feels so forced, you know, when I see all the people who are like, get my three tips for blah, blah, blah. You just have to download my ebook and you have to do this and you have to do this and you have to do this.

And then you have to listen to my 20 minute sales pitch and it's like, you just ruined it for me. Just give me the information. And if I feel like. What you're saying is helpful. I will reach out to you, but don't force feed it to me.

Diane Helbig: Yes. That's what I always say. So, so I say you can't sell anything to [00:09:00] anybody.

Yeah. So let it go. Right. People will buy from you when they have a need. And when they trust you,

Both: the only

Diane Helbig: way they're going to trust you is when they firmly believe that you care more about them than you do about making a sale. Yes. Absolutely. Right. So don't be messaging this over here when you should be over here.

Angela Gennari: I 100 percent agree with you. So how do you show a client that you, that they mean more to you than you mean to you? How do you, how do you do that? Well, what is your strategy?

Diane Helbig: Okay. So the first thing you do is you have a ton of questions that you ask. that have to do with more than whatever the thing is that you solve.

Intro: Okay,

Diane Helbig: so those questions have to do with. You know, what is their timeline, sense of urgency, how do they decision make, have they ever worked with a company like yours before, what was their experience, like you're [00:10:00] just trying to learn as much as you can, and there are certain things we have to know in order to know whether they're a good prospect, you know, that we should be quoting them.

Money is one of them.

Angela Gennari: Yeah.

Diane Helbig: Right. And no one likes to ask budget questions and people will ask them, but then when the prospect doesn't answer it, they move on. You can't move on. You have to know the answer. So for me, it's being genuinely genuinely. I'm interested first in everything that they tell you, listening to learn instead of listening to respond and that and making sure that if they're not giving you the answers that you need, you're probing that.

Both: Yeah,

Diane Helbig: that you're saying, you know, I'm noticing hesitation here, would you mind sharing with me what that's about, because that's a, that's an element of whether I can help you or not. So somehow we're going to have to get to some understanding [00:11:00] of. where you're at with this, what your ceiling is, you know, whatever that is.

So would you mind sharing that with me? So salespeople have to talk less, listen more, but they also have to be able to go there, ask those questions. And you know what, if you don't get the answers that you need, you have to be able to say, yeah, I'm not the right resource for you. And, and I can't give you a proposal because I don't know all the information to be able to accurately do that.

And, and you are perfectly within your right to not share whatever you don't want to share with me. And I know. That, that, that runs the risk of us spending time unnecessarily down the road, right? Be honest, you know your business, you know what you need to know. People respect that. And, and if they're not [00:12:00] going to give you the information, they don't want to work with you.

Yes. Absolutely. Move on.

Angela Gennari: So how important is relationship building? Because like you're talking about having these, these, uh, conversations, but do you do that? Is it the same as it always was where sales is a numbers game sale? You know, they used to say all these things, sales is a numbers game and you know, you just got to.

make so many cold calls every day and you've got to do this and you've got to do that. Does that still work or no?

Diane Helbig: Well, no, it is a numbers game. I will say that, that, you know, you have to be doing consistent prospecting and outreach, right? Relationship building is really what it's all about. So what I say is there's activity and there's productivity.

Activity is making 40 calls a day, right? Productivity is knowing who's in your target. Researching them as much as you can, which these days is almost endless, learning as much as you can about them, [00:13:00] drilling that list down to, you know, getting rid of the ones where it's just, they don't fit your ideal client paradigm.

And then reaching out to the ones that might be, but reaching out to them for a meeting, for a conversation, not for a sale, right? And then taking it from there.

Angela Gennari: Yeah, I am much more standoffish when somebody says, Hey, can I just get 15 minutes of your time? Because to me, I know I have to now listen to a sales pitch for 15 minutes.

That doesn't sound like fun to me. That doesn't sound like something I want to do and add into my day. So my general knee jerk reaction is no, I can't give you 15 minutes of my day. But if they were to say, Hey. Curious how this goes. I'd love to just, if I could just get a few minutes, I want to be able to offer a solution that's tailored to what you actually need.

I would be all in because I don't have to listen. I can speak and tell them what I [00:14:00] need versus them just whatever off the shelf version of they think I need.

Diane Helbig: And you know what? I mean, it's such a great point. And what I always say is the more you're, as a salesperson, the more you're talking, the less people are listening because they don't care, right?

It doesn't mean anything to them. You want to tell them every little thing you do, they don't care. You got to get to what matters to them and then talk about that thing. Yep. So yeah, it's so ridiculous. This is why I say. People, they just have to stop doing these things. They don't work. And then there's all these small business owners and salespeople blaming the prospect.

Angela Gennari: Yes. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. I hear that all the time. Salespeople were like, well, you know, they're just not motivated or they're not this like everybody has their, you, you can convince anyone to do things. You just have to get to what is, what is it that they actually need and stop trying to solve problems for them that they don't have.

Diane Helbig: Right. [00:15:00]

Angela Gennari: Exactly.

Diane Helbig: And that's for the relationship building afterward, right? So when, when you get them as a client, you have to continue to nurture that relationship because they're going to have other needs

Both: or, or,

Diane Helbig: and they may be needs you have that you don't solve, but when you can connect them to someone who does.

You're even more valuable to them, right? And so when that time comes that they do have something else that you can do for them, you're aware of it. You can tell them then what that thing is and how you can help them. And then, you know, you can get more business out of a client.

Angela Gennari: Absolutely. So you say something in your bio that I love, and it's the 32nd sales pitch doesn't work.

Please tell me more about that.

Diane Helbig: Okay,

Angela Gennari: everybody tells you to practice the elevators. Elevator pitch.

Diane Helbig: This drives me out of my mind. I mean, there's a lot obviously you can tell that drives me out of my mind. Because none of [00:16:00] this stuff works and yet we do it. So, that 80s when someone, some brilliant person probably made a ton of money trying to teach people that they had to be able to sell in the time it took to take an elevator trip with someone.

So if you just happen to be in the elevator with the CEO of Walmart, right? What would you say that would get them interested in an elevator ride? It's ridiculous. It's not a pitch. It's not a commercial. You aren't going to sell anything to anybody in that 30 seconds and you don't want to. It should be an introduction.

It should be telling someone, um, the result that you bring and who you bring it to or what you're most passionate about in your business. You're trying to start a conversation. You're not trying to sell because once again, like if we go with my philosophy that You have to [00:17:00] build the relationship. You have to get to know the person you and the company.

You need to figure out whether there's a need and whether you even want to do business with them, right? It could be a total jerk. The only way you're going to know is by having conversations. So why would you try and sell them in 30 seconds when you first meet them?

Angela Gennari: Right, right, right, right.

Diane Helbig: It's, it's just, it doesn't work.

Angela Gennari: Mm hmm. Stop. So, what would work? So, say you are in the elevator with a, with the Walmart CEO, what do you say to them?

Diane Helbig: Ah, I would say, so, tell me your story.

Angela Gennari: Mm

Both: hmm.

Diane Helbig: How'd you get here? Yeah. Once again, I'm more interested in them than I am in them knowing about me. Right. Right? So, when I meet someone at a networking event or in an elevator or whatever, I'm saying, so, tell me about you.

Tell me your story because they're going to tell you whatever they want to tell you, which is going to give you an awful lot of insight into who they are, what [00:18:00] matters to them. It's going to give you the opportunity to have a conversation with them. And then when they say, well, tell me about you, you know, I would say.

You know what I spend most of my time working with small business owners, helping them change their practices. So they get better results. Yeah, I don't go into, you know, all the, and I've been doing it for 20 years. And, you know.

Angela Gennari: cares. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Okay. So, um, yeah, I've thought about that a lot because you know, you do get into those situations where you're like, Hey, this person I've been trying to get in touch with and trying to network with is finally in front of me.

How do I, how do I reign them in? And, uh, but yeah, sometimes it's as simple as, you know, asking, so what problem are you trying to solve today that I can help you with? You know, right, they might say, do you have a good dry cleaner? Like [00:19:00] I can figure that out for you. Right. And so it could be as simple as that and help them solve one problem.

Then they're curious about who you are and how you can help them more.

Diane Helbig: That's exactly right. Right. It's people, right? If you, if you went to a family event where you had not seen your nephew for five years and he's in his early twenties. And he said, so, you know, catch me up. Would you go into a whole pitch thing?

No, you, you would like a human, right? You would say, well, you know what? I, I started this business and this is what I'm doing and whatever. You would just be more natural, more regular English. So, because it's more relational, right? Absolutely. That's what I want people to do. And I agree with you if you say, you know, so, so, you know, what are you working on [00:20:00] today?

You know, what, what's going on with you? I don't even know that I would necessarily say that I can help you with because I'm setting up no alarms that I want to sell them anything. I've even said to people, I'm not trying, I'm not going to try and sell you anything. I just want to have a conversation. If I can help you, I'll tell you.

If I can't, I'll tell you. Now I mean it and they can tell that I mean it. So,

Angela Gennari: and I think there's power in, in the, um, you're not tied to the results. Right. And I agree. So in everything that I've ever read about negotiation, and this is why I think we can be great negotiators as women. Is you can't be tied emotionally to the result of the negotiation and you know, everybody, um, you know, says I have a lack of empathy in, in business and it's not that I have a lack of empathy.

I just can't, I can't, you can't run a business on emotion. And so [00:21:00] by being able to step away and say, this is not personal, this is a business decision and this is what we need to do for the. For the betterment of the business, you start making rational decisions, right? You take that stoic approach to, to business.

And I think that actually is very valuable, but it's the same thing in sales. If you can, if you can remove yourself from the result, you'll be a lot more successful.

Diane Helbig: Oh, absolutely. I love that. It is so in both ways. I love it. It is so true. You, you have to detach from the outcome that way you get the right outcome.

And it may be that you pass on that piece of business because it's not right now, right? It's not right for the time, whatever it is, but totally.

Angela Gennari: So when you, you came into consulting, um, and, and being an author and a speaker with 20 years of managing small businesses, so what were some of the [00:22:00] challenges that you faced, um, managing small businesses?

Diane Helbig: Oh my gosh. Um, that's such an interesting question. Um, I think I probably the biggest was

not, um, how do I want to say this staying focused and making sure everyone stayed focused. So, it's one thing that to manage a small business. Um, when it isn't yours. You run into, you know, small business owners have this, uh, bright, shiny object that they want to do everything and so then they throw it all in constantly and it's too disruptive to everyone else, right?

So I love strategy and systems. And you get them [00:23:00] set and everything's starting to flow and then this torpedo comes in with a whole other idea that that's, I would say, probably like the biggest. It wasn't the people who were doing the work. I found that, you know, if it turned out that this was the wrong place for them, that was a relatively easy conversation to have.

It was. And getting them to buy into the whole culture and concept, that was easy. It really ended up being on the other end of the,

Both: you know,

Diane Helbig: of the map with reining people in and, and getting them to, to not overextend everyone so that then nothing worked.

Angela Gennari: So this is a really interesting answer because I'm in the process right now, almost finished with it.

But have you heard of the book called 10X is easier than 2X?

Diane Helbig: Yes.

Angela Gennari: Okay, so I love that because it goes directly to what you just said. It talks about [00:24:00] in order to get to 2x, you just have to work longer and harder, but to get to 10x, you don't add anything. You take it away. So you have to become hyper focused, which is really small.

It is really difficult as a small business because yes. As a small business, you look at every opportunity as like, oh, that, oh, and that, and that, and that, and we can do this, and this, and this. And you already wear too many hats. You're already not focused. You're already working too many hours. And the whole team is exhausted because you know, ADD management style, and I can say this as a small business owner, uh, so I, you know, I, I really have to try.

It's really, I have to be intentional about it because naturally I want to chase every opportunity, but. Logically, I know that's not possible.

Both: Right.

Angela Gennari: And this 10x book is really teaching me that [00:25:00] by chasing every opportunity, I'm 2x ing my business, but I'm not 10x ing my business.

Diane Helbig: Right.

Angela Gennari: So it's all about stripping it down to what is, what is it that you are really, truly gifted at and how can you use that gift in the most productive way possible and, um, take away all the other.

Right. Shiny objects. You got to just, you got to get narrowly focused.

Diane Helbig: You really do. I tell my clients, you can do anything you want to do. You just can't do it all at the same time. That's right. So let's figure out what we need to do right now. And everything else is going over here on a shelf. Yes. Later we'll reveal it.

Right. Cause later you could decide no, but then we can start doing this, but you're never going to get there if you're trying to do all of these things. It's not possible.

Angela Gennari: Absolutely. So true. So tell me a little bit more about you and you wrote your book. You wrote three books, right? Yes. So how [00:26:00] long does it take you to write a book?

What motivated you and how did you come up with the premise of the book?

Diane Helbig: Oh my gosh. Okay. My first book took about a year. Okay. Um, so when I started my consulting practice, One of the things that I learned is there are different ways of marketing and that writing articles was one of them. I'm like, and I had a lot to say.

So I wrote a lot. That's good. And I would put them out on these directories and through that I met a gentleman. Who had started right then he had started this top sales world organization where he gathered all these sales gurus and he asked me to join that. So I did, and I kept writing and, and hanging out with these people.

And then I had like all of this content and I thought, yeah, you know what? I should put this into a book, right? So I did, but you can't, what I was told, which you can't just take your articles and plop them into a book. You have to write the book. So I did, that [00:27:00] was lemonade stand selling. Okay. So I did that.

Then I felt like a couple of years later, Oh, I got to have another book, but I didn't really have anything in my head. And a friend of mine said, take the 10 most listened to episodes of your podcast. And put them into a book.

Both: Ooh,

Diane Helbig: that's a good, I know, see, I know you could do that. So I did, I got someone to download and transcribe, and then I got an editor to fix up the chapters.

Got them to sign off, you know, the guests to sign off that whatever, and that was expert insights. So it was relatively easy on my part. I didn't have that much to do. Then with Succeed Without Selling, that was my passion project. And that took about a year and a half. Because I really wanted to get out of me everything that I was saying and teaching about selling to every selling audience, direct [00:28:00] sellers, sales managers, you know, you name it.

If they had, and with forms and the whole, you know, listen, here's use this, do this networking, all the different aspects. And I, because I was just. still seeing people doing things that I thought were wrong. And so I was just driven to get something out there. Yeah. And so that one took longer, but, um, and then it published in December of 2020 in the middle of the pandemic.

So,

Angela Gennari: well, was that maybe a good thing? People are at home reading or no.

Diane Helbig: Because, you know, it didn't end up being a bad thing. The bad part was that my publisher couldn't get it in bookstores because there were no bookstores. Yes. So,

Both: yeah,

Diane Helbig: but I had a marketing firm that did a great job of marketing and getting it out there and whatnot.

So, you know, it was fine. Good,

Angela Gennari: good. Very cool. Yeah. And [00:29:00] then the, the books I assume led to more speaking engagements.

Diane Helbig: They do. Yeah. And I had started speaking really pretty much the same time I was writing because that was the other thing I learned that if people can hear me and see me, then they'll know that I know what I'm talking about or they'll decide I'm not their cup of tea, whatever it is.

Right. Yeah. And so, but the books give you that weird credibility thing that organizations and associations want.

Both: And

Diane Helbig: so it does, it, it elevates you a bit. And, and so it's been a lot easier to get different speaking engagements.

Angela Gennari: Very interesting. I love it. So when you decided to come into consulting, what were some of the obstacles that you had to overcome?

Diane Helbig: So I had to overcome, um, I had to learn to be patient,

Both: because

Diane Helbig: I knew I knew [00:30:00] what I was talking about, but I had to learn that other people didn't know that I knew what I was talking about. And so I had to give them time, you know, people time to, I was fortunate that I had a really good network. And so it made sense to my network.

Both: Right.

Diane Helbig: But then there were strangers who had no idea who I was, right? So that was, that was like a big thing for me. The other thing was, um, I did write shiny object, which is a big problem. And I entered into, so I entered into a partnership with a friend of mine and the partnership part was great. But when we launched it, then.

One of the companies we reached out to wanted to meet with us, but for a totally different reason. And we went there instead of saying, well, no, this is why we're here. This is what we want. So we went down this whole rabbit hole with these folks for a couple of years and and it just [00:31:00] wasn't what we should have been doing.

So, you know, it was really learning. Not to partner. I mean, she was fine. Then I partnered with this other guy. It was a disaster. Um, to really patience, you know, and I mean, now that I'm saying it out loud, it really was just being patient with the process and putting the wheels in motion and letting them happen and not getting sidetracked with something that looked like it would be a great opportunity.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. So what advice would you give to your 18 year old self? Oh my gosh,

Diane Helbig: there's so much advice I would give.

I would say, um,

it's so interesting because I never listened to the people who said [00:32:00] no, that I couldn't do things. Um, I think I would tell my 18 year old self to be more patient with other people and uh, to respect that they have a different view of the world. I would tell my 18 year old self to learn to speak more effectively.

and not so emotionally. Yeah. Um, and, um,

to, to, to always try. I mean, I always tried anyway, but there were probably things that I didn't pursue that I could have. You know, things that I probably felt like I wanted to do, but didn't think I could or had the [00:33:00] knowledge, ability, courage, whatever it is. So,

Angela Gennari: yeah, yeah, I can agree with that. I think there were probably a lot of times in my life where, you know, even though I know I work really hard and I give 100%, I probably didn't do things because I just didn't feel like I was qualified.

I didn't feel like I could, you know, I felt like an imposter and then, you know, come to find out. Much later in life, everybody's an imposter. Every single one of us, like there's nobody who's already got it all figured out. Right. There's no harm in trying.

Diane Helbig: Yeah. I think that's huge. I, and I felt the same way.

And you know what? I still do sometimes there there's things that. You know, like speaking opportunities. I'll go, Oh, you know, they're not going to want me. They're going to want someone who's like that, you know?

Angela Gennari: Yeah. And it's a couple of times I got asked to do speaking opportunities. I'm like, Oh, is this a mistake?

Like, are you just trying to fill time? [00:34:00] Like, like I don't possibly have anything to say, but yeah. So interesting. That's Um, very cool. So I always ask on this podcast, um, tell me about a time that you gave your power away. And then another time that you stepped into your power, because as women, I think we just do that by nature a lot.

Both: Sure. Sure.

Angela Gennari: We, we, we actively have to overcome. So can you tell me about a time that you gave your power away? Yeah.

Diane Helbig: Yeah. Um, so when I. I'll give you a prime example. I had this whole idea of a program, a nonprofit program for high school kids to get them off the street and and into learning how to do something that was a value.

And I had the whole thing mapped out, like, you know, and I thought it was a great idea and I was sitting talking to someone who I had just met.

Both: Uh,

Diane Helbig: and we were talking about ideas and when and I light up when I talk about [00:35:00] this thing, because it's just in such a way. And he jumped and he was just like, yeah, that sounds great.

We should work on that, whatever. So we met, we had coffee, whatever next thing, you know, we've partnered on a space where we're going to have an entrepreneur center. And we're going to offer coaching and like I'm going to advise people and he's going to help them find funding and all of a sudden we're doing this whole thing.

And I never once said, wait a minute, this is not at all what I'm talking about over here. Right. Just sort of let it go. And then as it evolved. It was a horrible relationship. I could, I, I was never doing the thing that I was supposed to be doing there. And I just kept rolling with it. And then I got to a point finally, where I said to my husband, I think I need to get out of this.

Like this is, you know, and he said, okay, go ahead. And, and it was [00:36:00] destroying my regular business. I know it was terrible. And so I finally did. I finally just said, you know, this isn't working. Here's how I suggest we part ways. Whatever it is. And and we did end up, thank God, you know, doing that. So I learned a really big lesson with that whole thing.

Um, and you know what, I stepped into my power when I started my business. I had been working as a salesperson, and they kept changing things and setting up, you know, commission structures that just weren't great. And my father passed away. And then so in, in on November 1st, so I went all of November dealing with that was right after hurricane to anyway, so all that then December was visiting my top clients.

So I didn't prospect two months and they had [00:37:00] just changed what it was I was selling. So I'd like no, I had to refer. Whatever I got to someone else in the company, then they said they were going to dock our pay if we didn't hit this ridiculous point system.

Both: Wow.

Diane Helbig: Yeah. So I went to my boss who was the owner and I said.

Can I have three months to ramp up because I don't think this number is possible anyway, but I'm willing to give it a shot. Right. But, but I've been, you know, when you stop prospecting, you stop. And he said, no. Wow. And I thought, okay, time for change. And I had been having this conversation, you know, with my family.

So I wrote up a whole proposal for. Becoming an independent contractor. So I'd still get my commission cause it was residual revenue. Uh, so I could do that while I, but, but I wouldn't be an employee anymore. And, um, and I just held my. [00:38:00] I, I said I was channeling my father. So I would, I just said, you know, when he said no again, I said that I'm gonna have to give you my two week notice.

And he said, okay, hang on, wait a minute. And I only wanted 20 of my clients, not even the 20 best, the 20 I liked the most.

Both: Yeah.

Diane Helbig: And he wasn't paying attention. And I got all of them.

Angela Gennari: Wow. Wow.

Diane Helbig: Hmm. Yeah. Cause I was just, you know, Zen.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. Yeah. I think you had detached yourself from the result.

Diane Helbig: I did. Exactly.

Exactly. That's right.

Angela Gennari: Leverage. When you could detach from the result, it gives you leverage. Cause you're like, I'm going to be fine. You already had talk with your husband. You already knew. You were going to be fine no matter what, and you were able to make the best decision because you, your ego wasn't tied into the result of it.

Diane Helbig: Right.

Angela Gennari: That's amazing. I love it. Very cool. [00:39:00] So, um, give me your top three tips for a salesperson.

Diane Helbig: Oh my gosh. Okay. Ready? You

Angela Gennari: probably have like a hundred. I have.

Diane Helbig: Yeah.

Angela Gennari: Give me your top three. How can I, how can somebody be a successful

Diane Helbig: salesperson? Okay. So the first one is. When you go networking, don't sell quiet and listen, build relationships.

That's build a toolbox around you. The second one is, um, when you're prospecting, seek the meeting, not the sale. Ooh, that's a good one. And the third one is when you are in that sales appointment, do not speak other than asking questions. Like, you know, what I usually say is shut up. I mean, please shut your mouth.

They don't care about what you have to say. So, but you need to ask all your [00:40:00] questions. And then when you're detached from the outcome, you'll have an opportunity to take it wherever it's supposed to go.

Angela Gennari: So how do you then suggest people do presentations? And so I asked this with a specific purpose. So, um, you know, sometimes you'll, you will have already, you know, somebody has already said, Hey, we want you to come in and present about your company.

You already have seen the RFP, right? Yeah, that was your opportunity to come in and tell them about you because they're specifically asking you to tell them about you. You've already submitted a proposal. You've already seen what their RFP is, you know, you know what their needs are. Um, how do you suggest going in there and nailing a great presentation.

Diane Helbig: Yeah, boy, that's a great question. So, the first thing, so I think it has sections. The first one is a summary. Of what you've learned about them, what they're trying to accomplish, right? Yeah. And so because then [00:41:00] part of what you're doing is you're confirming that you were listening, you're confirming that you actually heard and read, you know what it is.

And then from there, at most three bullet points, like, so I could go on and on about presentations, please. No words. Please no words, unless it's like one word, um, because they're going to read faster than you can talk and, and you're going to lose them and you need to keep them and their energy. But you, then you connect your solution to their points, you know, those pain points.

This is how our solution helps with this. This is what we do. And then you can do a, this is what a rollout would look like. Like, this is what an implementation schedule would look like. So you're setting the expectation and preparing them. So they learn, you really know what you're talking about. You have a system in place.

You've listened to them. You've created a strategy [00:42:00] and a solution for them. This is how we handle, uh, um, well, actually, I think there should be something in there about communication, about the expected communication chain, because that's something that gets lost a lot of times, but I would say that and then Q& A.

Angela Gennari: I love it. Okay. Yeah. Cause I, I usually will do, um, very similar. I think, you know, summarizing what is it that you know about that client and how does what you do specifically address what their problems are, you know, and sometimes if they're just being a little tight lipped about it, what I'll do is I'll make a general statement that I know applies to them, but I'm not.

Pointing fingers, for example. Um, so like I know who they're like, I own a security company. So sometimes I know who their security company is and I know what the general impression of this security company is. And [00:43:00] so I may bring up something that's not specifically addressing their security company, right?

It's addressing what one of the things that I know is a general problem in the industry that I know that this security company deals with. Um, and so I think that that's a, it's a good way to do, and then, then usually you'll see them say, mm hmm. I know that.

Diane Helbig: Yeah.

Angela Gennari: So yeah, just try, you know, and sometimes you just, you know, in order to avoid, cause I don't like it when somebody comes in and bashes the competition.

That's not right. Do you definitely want to take more of a neutral stance of like, this is how this is what I know to be a general concern. And I love that.

Diane Helbig: Yeah, exactly. And I would say like things not to do, don't put your whole company resume on there and the, you know, your company history the timeline, whatever.

That's in the [00:44:00] documentation. They can read that, right? We have to think about what can they read, and what do they want to know? And what they want to know is, do I understand their problem, and do I have a solution for it? The other stuff comes later, and then they'll read it, if they really care. No, if someone do their due diligence, right?

So,

Angela Gennari: yep. Well, and I always like to start and end with a powerful slide. Um, if I'm doing a slide presentation. So the first powerful slide has nothing to do with our meeting in particular. It's a general like, um, uh, liability slide, you know, like this is what liability means. And this is, you know, like, it's a general, like, really powerful statement about liability.

about a situation. It was the World Trade Center bombing. And then I'll end with a slide that all it does is has all of our client logos on it.

Diane Helbig: Oh, sweet.

Angela Gennari: It just is a powerful place to [00:45:00] stop because they'll kind of stare at it like, Hmm. Like, okay. And I don't say anything about the slide. Nothing. I just leave it.

And that's what we, that's when we go to q and a is with that one up so that they can see whatever issue you're gonna bring to me. I've already addressed it in, uh,

Diane Helbig: that's powerful. I love that. And you don't need to say anything. It's, you don't even address.

Angela Gennari: I don't even know that it's up. They see it.

Both: And

Angela Gennari: so, um, that way they can, cause you know, one of the questions it's always, you know, the, the questions that people have in their mind when they're being sold to is what is it?

Why does this matter to me? That's why I started liability. And who else have you done business with? Yeah, because they want, they want to know that you're that you're going to bring a problem that you've already addressed a situation similar to theirs.

Both: Exactly.

Angela Gennari: And so those are the two most prevalent questions from clients.

And if you can answer them without answering them, it's even [00:46:00] better.

Diane Helbig: Exactly. Yeah. I love that. Good for you.

Angela Gennari: Yep. So that's, I always, um, I go in there with no, no, uh, no agenda to sell all for information

Both: and

Angela Gennari: that's okay by removing myself from the result. It's okay.

Diane Helbig: So, and you know, not only that, but you're calm.

You're personable, right? You are you, your authentic self, which is what they're going to resonate with or not.

Both: Absolutely. So

Diane Helbig: it's part of the reason not to be in a sales mindset because then you're acting like someone else.

Angela Gennari: Yeah.

Diane Helbig: Yes. Just be you, right? It's easier. It's more natural. A

Angela Gennari: lot easier to be me than to try to be somebody else.

Right. For sure. So, absolutely. Well, this has been a really enjoyable conversation. Um, I just have one more question for you. And what is it that you wish more people knew? [00:47:00]

Diane Helbig: Oh my gosh. I wish more people knew that they Also, uh, had a say in the decision making process with the prospect.

Both: So,

Diane Helbig: you know, we think that we have to, you know, convince or persuade the other person, you know what, We're buying them too.

It's like a marriage.

Both: Mm-hmm .

Diane Helbig: Absolutely. So, right. So we get to have a vote and I wish more people realize that. Mm-hmm .

Angela Gennari: Yeah. Okay. To walk away. So true. Um, yeah. 'cause there are definitely some times where we've taken on clients that were not a good fit and, and you have to fire your client and that's okay.

Yeah. And people have fired us because we weren't the right fit for them. You know, they've sold us on a solution. Uh, you know, it wasn't the right solution. And so they've said, you know what, this is probably just not a good fit. And [00:48:00] that's okay. It's, it's okay to walk away from a relationship that's not working.

Whether, you know, whether it's a work relationship or a personal role, if it's not working, it's not working right. And that's okay. Get your ego out of it and, and make sure that you understand that.

Diane Helbig: Yeah, exactly. And learn from it. Absolutely. There are no failures, every experience. It is positive as long as you learn something from it.

So, yes. For sure. So

Angela Gennari: Diane Helbig, how can people find you?

Diane Helbig: I think the best way is for them to go to my website, HelbigEnterprises. com, because everything is there. Awesome. Awesome.

Angela Gennari: And we can also find Diane on PrettyPowerfulPodcast. com. So thank you again, Diane. It's been a really great conversation.

Diane Helbig: Oh, thank you.

I've enjoyed it

Angela Gennari: immensely. Absolutely. So guys, check us out on another episode of the Pretty Powerful Podcast next time, and I hope everyone has an amazing week. Bye bye.

Intro: Thank you for joining our [00:49:00] guests on the Pretty Powerful Podcast, and we hope you've gained new insight and learned from exceptional women.

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