What I Wish I'd Known About Sales with Nia Secker

Speaker A: Foreign. And welcome to what I Wish I'd Known About Sales. The show where we learn all about the highs, lows and lessons from the front lines of selling. I'm Martin from Leap Forensics and today I'm joined by Nia Seka. Nia's built a name for herself on LinkedIn, sharing everything from live cold calls to skits about SDR life. And she's become a standout voice on the platform. She's the SDR manager at uh, my M Sales Coach, a company that's on a mission to make sales a little less tough through expert one to one coaching. So whether you're just starting out or managing a team, Nia brings real relatable advice that will help you grow faster and sell better. Uh, so welcome to the show.

Speaker B: Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here.

Speaker A: Good stuff. So um, just to get us started, what do you wish someone had told you before you made the leap into your first sales role?

Speaker B: So I was so lucky to land straight on my feet with my first sales role, my first tech sales role. It was an incredible company, a really great role, really inspirational and supportive leaders. But I was the lucky one there and I know that a lot of people aren't as lucky. So I wish I'd known what to look for when I was applying for uh, my first role. I wish I'd looked into um, what sort of questions to ask, questions about culture and development. And I went through a recruitment company and like I said, I landed totally on my feet but it could have really easily gone the other way and I'd ended up in a company that wasn't like that. And I think a lot of people get put off sales from their first sales role. They either sink or swim and that's generally because of the company that they apply for. So it's, if anybody was to ask what they should go out and do, I'd be like, you want a list of questions that's going to uncover how great the company is and how supportive they're going to be? Because I would hate somebody to have a bad experience and then just leave the world of sales for good.

Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. I think that's a, that's an absolutely great answer. Um, so obviously a lot of people, ah, uh, listening to this, watching the clips will know you from LinkedIn and your like, you know, your, your kind of funny videos. You do a lot of stuff with Tom Boston as well. So um, you shared that you were once terrified to post anything on LinkedIn. So um, what changed so it was

Speaker B: actually a conversation with Tom. I was getting married. Well, I've had three weddings to the same person in the past couple of years.

Speaker A: Why?

Speaker B: Why get married once when you can get married three times? And he was like, near. You should be posting about this all the time on LinkedIn. And I was like, really? Um, he was like, absolutely. And I think what I'd had in my head was that maybe old school M mentality of, um, leave that for Facebook. That was the thing. This isn't Facebook. When I first joined LinkedIn and then I started deep in it, and I was like, what sort of content do I love watching and which creators do I follow? And it's the ones that I feel like I know personally, even though I've never met them. And you sort of follow them through their journey of work and milestones in life. And my philosophy is to be authentic online. And the one thing that was missing was that glimpse into my personal life, because that truly makes me who I am today as well. So I just started dabbling with it, posting a little bit here and there and shock. Then my top performer performing posts like, people want to see that. And of course, you'll still have the naysayers, but I'm like, embrace that as well. If they're coming in saying, this should be for Facebook, it's gonna improve your reach.

Speaker A: Absolutely. Great point. So embrace the haters.

Speaker B: Oh, absolutely.

Speaker A: Fair enough. Um, so there is an interesting thing there, isn't it? There's kind of like this. I think it's called parasocial bonds. It's like people. You kind of feel like, you know, even though you don't really know them 100%. Um, yeah. So how is your content helped you to open doors with prospects?

Speaker B: Oh, it's genuinely changed my life. So I worked. Like I said, I worked in sales straight after uni. I was always encouraged to post online, but I had a little voice in my head saying, like, oh, you've decided sales. Like, who's going to listen to you? Why would they care? Which is unlike me. Like, an M imposter syndrome is not something that I'm familiar with, but it was. It has to have been there. And even when I look back at the videos that I did post, I was a quiet little mouse. Like, it's just not me. And I've never been like that. It's actually crazy to look back on. And then I joined, uh, my sales coach after returning to sales from day zero when I was like, I need to make things happen very swiftly. We didn't have a brand. We were fresh in the market. So I was like, right, we're going to document this whole process. And, and like I said, it's been life changing from everything from inbound leads to pretty much all of the opportunities that I bought come from people who engage with my content or have maybe viewed my profile. Um, and. And that's from like a personal perspective. From. From a brand perspective as well. Personal brands help people connect brands with people. And there's a reason that more people. I always use this example, but I don't know how much it resonates. More people follow like Kim Kard than the Kardashians brand page. And that's because people resonate with her specifically and they connect with her. So that is why people sort of associate specific faces with companies and people reference it on sales calls. And it'll never not be wild to me. But yeah, the opportunities are endless from growing your own personal brand.

Speaker A: Yeah. And that's quite interesting, the bit about sort of documenting the process and I suppose, because if you maybe didn't have much like to share, documenting the processes is a really good place to start, Right?

Speaker B: Exactly. And it's.

Speaker A: But also a scary place to start.

Speaker B: I guess so, yeah. Because it's like you've got nowhere to hide and you're documenting the highs, the lows, the wins, the losses. But that's where people trust you. Because when you're talking about your failures as alongside your successes, it's more authentic than all of the success that we see sort of splattered over LinkedIn that people can't necessarily resonate with.

Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. Um, so how has building your personal brand affected your kind of confidence or success as a salesperson and leader?

Speaker B: So it has a million percent improved my success from a salesperson perspective. It's just way easier to generate pipeline and trust with your prospects when they see you as a thought leader or somebody who has expertise in your sector. Um, and also I am a leader who likes to lead from the front. I would never ask my team to do something that I wouldn't do myself. And I'm hoping that seeing what you can do with social and personal brands really inspires the team to, to do the same. Um, and in terms of my own confidence, again, like I said, it's massively increased it. I've had opportunities that I would never have put myself forward for. So I'll give you an example. I used to be terrified of public speaking and I've never really understood that because I'm really Confident person. But if you get me in front of a crowd, I'd just crumble a little bit. And the anxiety before, it would be like, crippling. So I'd probably just never put myself forward. But then because people would ask me to do things like that, I'd be like, do you know what? I'm going to take these opportunities that have presented themselves to me, um, and I'm going to get over this. And I feel like if I didn't have that, then maybe I would still have that fear and would just hide behind it and not necessarily actively look for those opportunities and put myself in that uncomfortable space. So when I actually deep it, it's massively helped with my confidence.

Speaker A: Yeah. And I suppose it's kind of pushing yourself out of the comfort zone, isn't it?

Speaker B: Totally. Yeah.

Speaker A: Which is also kind of brings us back to if, you know, what would you say to a rep who's, you know, watching content but thinking, oh, I couldn't do that? Like, I suppose it's just take the plunge.

Speaker B: Well, yes. And I hear that all the time. I do hear all the time, like, oh, that's great for you. I could never do that from, like, a coaching mindset. I'd want to know why. What. What's going on that makes you feel like you can't do that. Um, and I feel like I never asked myself those questions way back when. And. And that's the start. Ask yourself why you feel like you can't achieve that. And if you're looking to go from zero, follow zero content creation to going viral every post, then that, um, we need to, we need to analyze that, we need to go on that journey because that just doesn't happen. But also, I would say if you feel like creating a funny video makes you want to shrivel up and vomit, then don't do it. But that being said, I believe content creation is for everyone. It's just finding what works for you. Like, there's some really amazing creators who have an incredible reach, who only ever do text posts, and that's great for them. Whereas I love the creativity of doing videos, of doing text posts, of carousels. I'm. I'm basically dabbling in marketing, let's be honest. And I love it. So it's finding what you enjoy, what you resonate with and what works, and then continue making that rather than putting yourself in a box where you don't want to be.

Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. And your content follows a strategy. So it's kind of balancing education, the funny stuff, personal stories, how do you think that mix in particular helps salespeople connect better with prospects or just their

Speaker B: audience, so it casts a wide net. That's, that's the theory behind the, the strategy. Um, selfishly, it's what I enjoy doing as well. But there'll be people who are on LinkedIn or socials because they want to learn something, or not even necessarily because they want to learn something, because they find it interesting. Like, I don't know about you, Marty, but when I'm scrolling tick tock and somebody starts like, like telling you how to make an ice skate or something, I'm, um, here. Yeah, yeah, it's never gonna make an ice skate, but I'm so interested in it. And then there's the funny ones again. People don't think, okay, today I'm gonna go in on LinkedIn because I want to laugh. Like they don't, but actually content. That makes them smile. I'll be like, oh, actually that's really funny. I can totally resonate with that. It's sort of an accidental thing. And then people start following you and again casts a wide in the hat. So ultimately you, you sort of segmenting it for different people and what they're looking for. And, and the third one that you mentioned was that, was that personal stuff as well. Again, people don't think, oh, today I want to learn about Nia's life. But actually seeing, oh, Nia got married last week. That's really nice. I'm getting married in a couple of weeks time. I'm gonna comment and say like, oh, how was it? Congrat. I'm getting married soon. It's connecting personal and professional life. So I would say to other people, find your mix and stick to it. But things that work really well. Is that education piece something that makes your prospect smile and something about you personally?

Speaker A: Yeah, brilliant. Um, I also, I read that your video, uh, DMs are your second best, uh, prospecting channel.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: So what makes great video message? Um, what would you tell, uh, people who maybe haven't done one before? Like, what are your top tips for that?

Speaker B: Top tips. So people absolutely agonize over the length of video dms and I'm just like, oh, just send it. If people like, it's got to be under 60 seconds. I'm like, says who? Literally says who? Yes. We don't want five minute videos. Like no one's ever gonna watch it. I'm a type A gal. I am efficient. I'll watch everything on 2x' speed. Anyway, so, um, try your best to keep it under 90 seconds. But don't agonize over length of time because people will end up re recording about 45 times and then never end up sending it. Um, so that takes me to the second point. Just record and send it. It's those imperfections that make you not AI and make you human and people don't care. Just like if you called somebody, if you, um, tripped on your words, nobody cares. Lead with challenges, don't speak about your product or your service. And then a low friction call to action. If you're asking for 30 minutes in somebody's calendar, they're going to be like, I don't have 30 minutes. Whereas if you ask for, wondered whether you'd be open to connecting to learn ideas that you might not have considered before. Low friction. And they're getting something from that call. And whilst it probably still will be a 30 minute call, it's that psychology of not thinking about the time commitment.

Speaker A: Yep, that's really good advice. Um, you've said sales is tough and number one way, uh, to make it less tough is coaching. So, um, what's something you wish your first sales manager had done differently to support you? Although you did say that you got on pretty well from the start. So, so what the typical, you know, sales manager, what, what would they, what's the best advice that they can give to someone just starting out?

Speaker B: So yeah, you're so right. I had an incredible head of sales, um, who was super supportive. What the question that you're asking, is it what advice would you say sales manager should give to their yes rep?

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, okay.

Speaker B: There's quite a few. But I would say trust the process. Like there's a process in place that's there for a reason. It's going to be repeatable. Be curious. I think one thing that I definitely didn't do and it was called out to me when I started, I didn't ask enough questions because I thought that meant that I came across, I didn't know what I was doing. When actually the top forming reps that I work with ask millions of questions and, and, and that's how they learn and that's what you should expect. Um, and I also say look to top performers, what are they doing differently and take aspects of that, but then make it your own. I always tried to just copy what some of my colleagues were saying. Um, but I was fresh out of uni and they were like 10 years older than me and it sounded ridiculous when I tried to use verbatim what they were saying. So take aspects of what they're saying, but make it your own.

Speaker A: So here's a question. Do top performers, are they always keen to share what works for them? How can you, how can you get the uh, like the golden uh, advice from them?

Speaker B: Well, that's where culture comes into play and that's what I was talking about having and making sure that you're working in a company that has that growth culture, the team mindset. Of course everybody has their own target, but you would want that the wealth to be shared. And something that you can do is literally go in the CRM and you can listen to their calls. Like companies should be recording their sales conversations. So just go in and listen to them. Um, but also have that sort of, um, give, take relationship. If it's an AE who's a top performer, like you can work with them to support them with great pipeline and great opportunities. Why would they then not want to share, um, those tips and tricks with you? Because it's going to help everybody out. But yeah, like I said, the main thing there is culture and it's a red flag if people don't want to share that information with you.

Speaker A: Yeah. Um, so you now um, help lead a team where coaching is central. So what is a small coaching habit you'd recommend every new SDR manager adopt absolutely immediately.

Speaker B: They should have weekly one to ones with every single rep and um, they should separate KPI reviews from actual coaching. And a lot of uh, managers think that it should be on them to coach the reps. Whereas actually it should be reversed. It should be that, uh, sales reps want to be coached and therefore I say that one to ones are reps responsibilities and they should be prepared for them. So I would recommend saying to their reps for your one to ones, this is the agenda. This is solely for you to learn and develop. Bring one thing for us to listen to, one thing for us to read and one thing that you've struggled with this week. Um, and from there you can review a call that's going to tick the box of call coaching. You can listen to what's working and what needs improving. It could be a LinkedIn DM or an email, something to read again, you're improving that, uh, sort of written comms and then something that you're struggling with. This is really helpful because if you're speaking with every single rep, some of them will be similar and then you can group them together and do a group coaching session. So yeah, don't put all the onus on you for coaching. It's more about reps taking accountability for their own learning.

Speaker A: That is really, that is really good. And I suppose you can see if there's a, if there's a barrier and it's affecting loads of different people, you can kind of figure out how you remove that barrier. Um, so you've posted about coaching not getting enough airtime. What's the real thing that's stopping good coaching from happening consistently, do you think?

Speaker B: It's two main things. Um, the first one is time. Sales leaders are uh, being encouraged to do more with less resource, so less funding, less tools, sometimes less people. They're having to dive into deals and support their reps. And um, they still need to do pipeline reviews, deal reviews, forecast, some of them need to attend board meetings. They are timestrapped. So the unfortunate truth is that coaching can be the first thing to slip off the priority list or get moved in the calendar. So that's number one. Number two, a lot of sales managers were once top performing sales reps who got promoted and they've never ever been taught how to be a great coach. And that is sort of a universal challenge. So actually looking at sales managers and seeing how they can upskill in their own coaching skills is going to help the whole team.

Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Um, you've also been open about um, kind uh, of navigating a male dominated space in sales. So what's, or tradition male dominated space, should we say? What's one thing you wish more leaders or your peers understood about that experience?

Speaker B: Yeah, I'm really glad you asked this. And um, yeah, I mean it still is a male dominated space. Um, I think a lot of focus is on treating everybody the same and I get the sentiment behind that. However, if you treat uh, male salespeople and female salespeople the same, it's actually unfair. We need to focus on equity. And that's because there are challenges and barriers in place that women face every single day that men don't. And therefore it's actively looking to remove those obstacles that make it equal and you achieve that equity. Um, so for example, women are less likely to ask for promotions than men until they, I think the stats were, but don't quote me on this, they reach maybe 70 to 80% of the criteria needed for a promotion. So from a manager's perspective, it's understanding that that culturally happens and encouraging their uh, female salespeople to go for their promotions, to support them and develop them so that they, they tick those um, that criteria and they're opening doors for them. It's Steps like that, that make you an ally and you achieve that equity, rather than just saying, we're going to treat everyone the same.

Speaker A: Yeah, very good. Um, so, um, when you think about your early days as an sdr, what do you wish you'd worried less about? Were you a warrior ever? Or is that just not on a.

Speaker B: I wasn't a worrier, but I probably put things off. So I said no to opportunities. I said no to promotions. So probably, yeah, I probably was a worry. I was worried about what would happen if I did something, if I. I was worried about failure, um, as many people are. But I feel like some people just go for it. I feel like I should have taken on more opportunities, even if they scared me and really, like, understood why they terrified me so much and maybe spoke about it because, like I said, I had an incredible manager, but, like, they're not mind readers. Do you know what I mean? And, um, when you're blessed with having really great leaders, you should capitalize on that. And if something is troubling you or there's a reason that you're not doing something, bringing those things to your one to ones will progress your career. I'm super fortunate now that I still have really great leaders, but I also have my own coaches that I can speak about these things with. And I actively put myself in those, like, uncomfortable zones because that's where sort of learning and progression happens. And so I guess that's something that I really wish I knew back then.

Speaker A: So was. Is there a moment or like, what changed for you to if from one day you kind of not doing that stuff and then you're like, you know what? I'm just gonna. I'm just gonna go for it.

Speaker B: Yeah, I think it was. I left the world of sales to train to be a physio and then rejoined the world of sales. And I realized then that this was absolutely the career for me. And I think your heart's got to be totally in it. I don't think if you're like, m. Maybe on the edge of being like, o. I don't know if this is necessarily for me, I maybe should be doing something else, then you're probably not going to be motivated to put yourself in that uncomfortable space and you might just cruise a little bit. Whereas I was like, no, we're making stuff happen. This company is going to be successful, I'm going to get promoted, and this is my career. That means that, uh, you're going to start making those changes. So if you're not motivated to do Those things, then it's time to really unpack that and see why that is. Because otherwise you'll probably just stay the same.

Speaker A: Yeah. Right. Now for some quick fire questions. So, favorite objection to handle.

Speaker B: I mean, nobody likes objections, but I'll go for budget.

Speaker A: Okay. And what. What do you come back with on that one generally?

Speaker B: So, I mean, I hear that all the time. I would never. I don't think I've ever called anybody who's got a budget set aside for this. I mean, typically when I hear budget, it means one of two things. The first one is that, uh, there is a total spending freeze across the business, so there's no point reopening any conversations or continuing conversations. Whereas others say, actually there's a title on the purse strings, but if it makes sense and there's a strong business case together, then it could potentially make sense. Have another conversation. To what extent are you in either of those categories? From there, we'll learn if it's the first one. Well, there's no point. We're just going to be pushing a rock up a hill, and it's never going to go anywhere. If it's the latter, then that's totally fine. That's what we're used to. We need to talk about business cases. We need to talk about ROI and actually, that's when we go for the soft close. We're not going to bring an order form to the next conversation. This is to share a few ideas that you might not have considered before. Um, and then there we can go and have a combo. It's simple.

Speaker A: Very good. Um, one sales book that's worth reading more than once.

Speaker B: I'm going to do a shameless plug and go for deconstructing discovery.

Speaker A: Okay. Plug away.

Speaker B: Plugged away. Read it.

Speaker A: Okay, fair enough. Um, what's something about salespeople that only other salespeople understand?

Speaker B: That our job is to help people.

Speaker A: Interesting. And you think that other people don't necessarily see it that way?

Speaker B: No, I don't. Like, my grandma thought I was a crook.

Speaker A: That's perfect. Um, a tool you can't live without.

Speaker B: Oh, I'm a. I'm m. A sales manager. I'm gonna have to say the CRM and be boring.

Speaker A: Yep, fair enough. Um, one sales cliche you never use

Speaker B: on a sales call. I would never say. Hey, it's Nia from my sales coach. How are you doing today?

Speaker A: Fair. Um, best cold call opener.

Speaker B: Um, Martin, it's Nia from my sales coach. We haven't spoken before, so wouldn't expect the names ring a bell and your heart may well sink because this is a cold call. But wondered if I could take 35 seconds to explain why I chose to pick up the phone.

Speaker A: Very good. You don't go with, uh, hi, it's Nia. Uh, you may have seen me on LinkedIn.

Speaker B: Oh, God, if I do like, I'm gonna have to quit, because that is correct.

Speaker A: Thanks so much for joining us today. Uh, for everyone listening, go and follow NIA on LinkedIn if you haven't already. Uh, that's it for today's episode of what I Wish I'd Known About Sales. Don't forget to share this with the rep on your team who really needs to hear it. And thanks for joining us today.

Speaker B: Thanks so much for having me, Sam.