Mastering Authentic Selling with Kendrick Shope

In this episode, we’re digging into the world of authentic selling. What is it and how can you hone this in a salesperson? How do you know when you’re selling authentically? How do you know when you’re not? 

Helping Dani explore what authentic selling is all about is Kendrick Shope, CEO at Authentic Selling 

Kendrick has so many awesome insights, such as: 

• If any part of your sales process feels “icky” or “gross,” then you’re probably not making organic decisions 
• Why it’s important to create raving fans without being a door mat 
• And how asking yourself the question, “How can I be of service” can lead to the most authentic sales relationships 

Links:

Kendrick Shope:
linkedin.com/in/kendrickshope/

Dani Buckley:
linkedin.com/in/daniobuckley/

LeadG2:
leadg2.thecenterforsalesstrategy.com/

TIMESTAMPS:
(02:13) Kendrick has been studying selling for over half of her life
(04:20) Selling without doing things that feel icky, sleazy, slimy, gross, crusty, musty, rusty, dusty
(06:23) The opposite of authentic selling
(08:22) Create raving fans, but don't be a doormat
(09:48) Follow up is a must.
(13:19) How can I be of service?
(15:26) What should sales leaders know to support this approach to selling?
(17:13) "Always be closing," is the worst advice ever

Transcript

Dani Buckley: (00:15)
Welcome to Sell Smarter, sell Faster, a podcast dedicated to helping sales organizations grow. Each week, we discuss proven sales enablement strategies and real life examples with experts and thought leaders from across industries. I'm your host, Dani Buckley, vice President and General Manager at LeadG2, a sales performance agency.

Dani Buckley: (00:41)
In this episode, we're digging into the world of authentic selling. What is it? And how can you hone this in as a salesperson? How do you know when you're selling authentically? How do you know when you're not helping me explore what authentic selling is all about is Kendrick Shope, CEO at Authentic Selling. Kendrick has so many awesome insights. Here's some of the things we touched on. If any part of your sales process feels icky or gross, then you're probably not making organic decisions. And here's how to spot them, why it's important to create raving fans without being a doormat. And how asking yourself the question, how can I be of service, can actually lead to the most authentic sales relationships. All right, welcome, Kendrick. I'm so happy to have you here today. How are you doing?

Kendrick Shope: (01:28)
Hi. Thank you for having me. I am doing well. I hope you are, hope you're doing well today. I

Dani Buckley: (01:33)
Am, I am. I just got back from vacation, so I'm doing really great , feeling good. Excited to talk to you, feeling refreshed, all the stuff. I

Kendrick Shope: (01:40)
Love it. I love it. I love it. Well, I am, I'm honored to be here. Thank you for having me.

Dani Buckley: (01:44)
Yeah, I'm, I'm really excited to talk about, um, authentic selling and, and lots of just different, uh, kind of best practices and tips that you have for those listening, which is predominantly sales leaders and salespeople and business leaders. So I think everyone's gonna really enjoy this topic today. So let's just kind of get started. Tell us a little bit about your background and kind of your story with sales, how you got to where you are today, really helping entrepreneurs exceed in sales.

Kendrick Shope: (02:09)
I feel like I've been, no, I feel like it's true. , I've been studying selling for over half my life. So I worked for three Fortune 500 companies out of college. Uh, I worked, I sold lumber originally for Georgia Pacific, and then transitioned into, uh, two, two sales jobs with pharmaceutical sales company. I was a top, uh, top earner, top top sales performer at all. Three Fortune 500 companies. Loved my jobs. And then after I had my daughter, he was now 14, I realized that the, the, the magic word in our house is belief. And so I would tell her when she was a little girl, you can be anything you wanna be in this world, but you got it all starts with belief. And I realized one day she's gonna understand what those words mean. And she's gonna say, mommy, did you wanna sell drugs for a living? Now the legal kind, obviously, cause I was a farmer rep , but I was gonna say, no, all that belief stuff works for you and not for me. So I quit my pharma job much to the dismay of my husband, and went on this mission to figure out what I wanted to do. And that was 12 years ago. So I created authentic selling 11 years ago and have been teaching people how to sell for the past decade or so.

Dani Buckley: (03:23)
Awesome. I love it. I'm really excited to hear your take on this. So, um, yeah, I know, I know. Authentic selling is what you talk about. That's your brand. So just so we're all on the same page, tell us what does that mean to you? Like how do you define that and why is it so important?

Kendrick Shope: (03:38)
When I was interviewing for a job with Eli Lilly, and, gosh, this would've been 20 years ago, probably, the, the regional manager said to me, if I could bottle what you have and give it to all my reps, we would be the most successful team in history. And I remember thinking, I don't know what he's talking about. Like, I'm, I, I don't know what that means, but if, if there's something that I do, I wanna know what it is. They were already the number one team in the freaking, in the freaking region. So, uh, for him to notice that, it, it really, I, I thought, okay, great. I I gotta figure out what this is. Um, what I have come to learn is that, and, and what was the basis or the foundation for authentic excelling is, uh, it's selling without doing things that feel icky, sleazy, slimy, gross, crusty, musty, rusty, dusty.

Kendrick Shope: (04:26)
It's sort of become this funny saying that we say, but too often people are uncomfortable with selling and they read a sales book, or they mm-hmm.  hear their managers say, this is how we have to do it. And while there are some absolutes, you know, and yeah, we always need to follow up after a sales call, that's an absolute, if you're doing something that feels gross to you or feels pushy or feels sleazy, probably not gonna get the result you want. So authentic selling at its core is just basically figuring out how to sell people, how the exchange of money for a product or service without doing things that feel icky, sleazy, slimy, gross. And the cool thing about it is everybody has a different thermometer or barometer or measuring stick there, right? What may feel completely icky to you might make me wanna crawl over in a corner. And so it allow, authentic selling is really unique cause it allows us to sort of adjust based on what our own comfort level is.

Dani Buckley: (05:23)
Yeah, that makes sense. You know, I, I look back at my career and it started in marketing, and then I really quickly moved into advertising sales. And I remember, you know, in my twenties being like, wait, like, do I wanna be a salesperson? Like I, there was things about it that felt icky and some that were just part of sales, some that I thought I was supposed to do. Right. You know, and, and, and I think what you're saying really resonates because the way I've become a sales leader and a successful salesperson in many cases is that I don't do things that don't feel right. I really touch base with my integrity and remember the fact that I'm actually here to help people and help businesses, and I have something to offer. It's not about like trying to manipulate or trick someone. Um, so I love that you kind of taking out the icky, sleazy, all that stuff. Um, so one of my questions is like, what is the opposite of authentic selling? But I think you kind of said that, you know, I'm, I'm curious maybe you have any examples to share, like of, of what authentic selling might look like compared to what others might think sales looks like?

Kendrick Shope: (06:21)
Yeah. I think that the opposite on, on a broad term, the opposite of authentic selling is, and I think this is what makes it really special, is anything that feels out of integrity to use your word to you, right? So it doesn't mean necessarily that there is a blanket, this is inauthentic or unauthentic or whatever it, it really is u use your baseline or, or use your comfort level as a baseline. However, are there things that I think across the board are icky, sl slimy, gross? Yes. Yeah. Uh, I, I got pitched, I, I, I used this example a lot, but I got pitched recently and we've all been pitched like this on, on LinkedIn or I don't know, Facebook. It was a direct message. And basically the gentleman said, Hey, you wanna, you wanna, you wanna sell your first a thousand dollars online? I can help you.

Kendrick Shope: (07:08)
And I'm like, dude, do your research. Yeah. I mean, you know, like, I don't need a cold pitch or, or telling people, I, I find this really gross. I know it works, but telling people, you know, well, if it was really important to you, you'd give up your Starbucks coffee or whatever, take your hands off my Starbucks. Like, my money is none of your business. So I, I feel like that's pretty gross myself personally. But at a bare minimum, doing these blanket pitches, when you don't take the time to get to know anything about the person you're selling, that, that is the opposite of authentic selling.

Dani Buckley: (07:39)
Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. Um, yeah, kinda like when they're, I think, yeah, when you start to just have this really blanket approach and you're not taking the human in mind is kind of what I'm hearing, so, yeah,

Kendrick Shope: (07:49)
Absolutely.

Dani Buckley: (07:49)
Yeah. So let's switch over to some best practices. What are some things that you wanna be sure that, um, those listening, you know, sales leaders, salespeople, business leaders that maybe have to sell but aren't necessarily salespeople, right. Um, what do you think are the things that they absolutely need to be aware of and practicing in your opinion? Like what feels most important?

Kendrick Shope: (08:07)
Yeah. So I, there's some foundations of authentic selling that some are gonna feel, uh, not like rocket science. I mean, they're gonna be like, okay, great. And then some are gonna gonna be a new way of looking at something that perhaps you've heard before. I think the first one is create a raving fan with every interaction, but don't be a doormat. So the world, especially in the last few years has, you know, gotten to a place where we have all these keyboard warriors who are just taking out their frustrations online. And I'm all for the customer is normally right, but, but I'm not for, you know, taking abuse. So a create a raving fan with every interaction, even when you're ticked off, you get an email, it ticks you off. Figure out is there a way to turn this person into a raving fan without being a doormat?

Kendrick Shope: (08:48)
That's number one. I think number two is, you know, belief, but it's not just just belief in the product or service. Like every sales book is gonna tell you, you gotta believe in what you're selling. But I think you've gotta believe in your ability to be able to do it in a way that isn't integrity. You know, you have to believe that there's a better way that it doesn't have to be done in a way that makes you, uh, you know, wanna feel like you need to take a shower afterwards. So belief in the product or service, but will belief in your ability to do it in a way that is within integrity. Um, and you know, there's just two more I'll cover really quickly. The, the kind of the, the golden rule of thumb with authentic selling is if it's icky, sleazy, slimy gross.

Kendrick Shope: (09:29)
If you're feeling that way, find a better way. And what most people fail to do is, if it feels gross, I'm just not gonna do it. I'm gonna cut it out. I'm not gonna do it. And, and what I'm saying is, no, let's find a better way to accomplish the same outcome without it feeling icky. Which leads to the fourth thing, which is follow up is a must. Everybody's selling anything knows that the statistics about follow up, you cannot ignore. You know, you, you, the, the more you follow up, the more likely you are to close the sale. It's been proven over and over and over. Uh, and, and I have a lot of people say, well, what a follow up feels icky. Great. Then we need to find a way to follow up that doesn't feel icky. Yeah. So, so, so those are kind of four things that come to mind.

Dani Buckley: (10:11)
I love that the follow up is, I mean, and really I would even expand on that. It's like, it's the approach even, right? Like just, it's like consistency, frequency, and like you're saying, find a way that it doesn't feel like you're harassing someone, but you're being of value. Um, are there any specific kind of like tricks you have to helping people do that right. To, to make it not feel icky?

Kendrick Shope: (10:32)
Yeah. So one of the first things is, again, this is not rocket science, but ask yourself if the situation was reversed. Yeah. How would you wanna be followed up with? So I'll give you an example. That same person that I e interviewed with, with Eli Lilly, I did not take the job. I was at GlaxoSmith Kline. I, I stayed at GlaxoSmith Kline for three years. Not exaggerating. That man followed up with me. Hmm. He would say, Hey, I heard you won an award. Hey, I heard you were a top sales rep flag, so hey, you and your husband are new to the area. Can my wife and I take you out to dinner? He followed up. Sometimes it was personal, sometimes it was professional. And the minute I was ready to make a leap, he of course was top of mind. So I think asking yourself, you know, how can I be of service by following up?

Kendrick Shope: (11:13)
Can I add value to the conversation? Uh, how would I wanna be followed up with? And then you hit the nail on the head, which I think we overlook so often in sales, uh, which is consistency and frequency. Like, it, it, it, it, you know, it, the, the, the study show that consistency equals trust. Trust equals buying. But one of the things that I hated and I saw misunderstood as a sales rep was our frequency goal. Mm-hmm. . And so, you know, like any sales rep, you have a, you have a, you know, a quota, whether it's market share or sales, whatever. And then you have a frequency goal. And frequency goal is just the number of times you see a given prospect. And, and, and reps, all of the reps, reps I worked with hated those. They, so what's the point? Like, I wanna have quality conversations.

Kendrick Shope: (11:57)
It's not about the number of times what we missed was they're not expecting every one of those times to be a quality conversation. They're expecting there to be consistency. Yeah. Your frequency goal is like saying, Hey, the lights are on. We're open for business. We've got this product. Come in when you're ready. Right? Rather than knock, knock, knock, knock, knock. I'm being annoying. It, it, so I think when you, you change how you look at frequency, it makes a huge difference. It's just about saying, Hey, I'm here. I'm ready to help you when you're ready. And so quantity and quality both matter. Uh, and I, I think that we don't think about that as reps a lot.

Dani Buckley: (12:37)
Yeah. Love it. Love it. So yeah, we're talking about a lot of best practices, talking about what authentic selling is and isn't. Um, are there any other, anything that we haven't touched on? Any other big mistakes that you're seeing folks make in the sales process that you wanna point out that really should be looking out for? And and they might be obvious, but we know they still happen .

Kendrick Shope: (12:55)
Yeah. So I, you know, I think that if, if you start to feel like, let's say that you are a, you know, a sales rep, whether it's on the phone, whether it's face to face, and you start to feel like, I have no reason to make this call. I have no reason to go in here. I was just in here last week, I don't know what to say. Nothing's changed. Okay. That is a situation that can feel really, really icky, right? I've been there myself. So a great thing to ask yourself is how can I be of service? Right? How can I turn this into helping? Yes, you have a, you have a job to do to talk about how your product is going to help someone, but how can I also be of service? Is there something I can do to turn this into, uh, a more targeted reason other than, Hey, I need to sell you something. And I think sometimes just changing the framework allows people to say, oh, yeah, okay. It doesn't feel so gross to go in. I think the biggest mistake people make is they don't believe the, the statistics and the numbers about follow up and they fail to do it. Yeah. And you're just leaving money on the table.

Dani Buckley: (13:52)
Yeah. Yeah. And I like that you mentioned, you know, just like, yeah, what, what is actually bringing value now in that touchpoint? Um, and I can't, I can't help but mention this on our podcast because we are an inbound marketing agency, that this is where content really makes a difference. Having stuff that you can share, that, that is a way to have value, right? Yes. Share an article you recently wrote, or, or, and maybe you didn't create it, maybe it's not even from your business, but hey, here's a cool video I watched and I thought you might like, because this is in relation to your industry. Or, you know, content is such a great, um, I think way to make something like a touchpoint feel valuable, but not too pushy. But you're, you're, you're providing something and maybe starting a conversation.

Kendrick Shope: (14:30)
Yeah. And, and, and, and that's one of the things too. I mean, it's a, it's a, who doesn't want to get an email that says, Hey, I, I, you know, I was thinking about you. I know that you shared you were struggling with X, Y, Z I found this article that I thought might be helpful and wanted to pass it along. Yeah. I mean, okay. Yeah. That's great. It does so much for you. It says that, that you're going above and beyond you took the time to think about them. Uh, you've really heard their problem. You're trying to help them solve their problem, even if they're not your customer yet. And it gives you a reason to reach back out. Yeah. Like, we use content as one of our examples all the time as a way to reach back out. Yeah. It just helps you continue the conversation.

Dani Buckley: (15:08)
Yep. Love it. Um, great. So a lot of, a lot of our listeners are sales leaders, right? Mm-hmm. , so they mm-hmm. , they are sales coaches or mentors and, and they're there to really help their salespeople thrive. Um, and I know that's what you do, right? So I'm curious if you have any, anything that you want sales leaders who are also coaching, mentoring their salespeople, what, what should they know or maybe be doing, um, to support this, you know, approach to selling?

Kendrick Shope: (15:32)
Yeah. I think that there are a couple of things. I think that, you know, oftentimes, uh, sales people who are really good at selling get promoted to being in charge of sales teams. And one of the biggest things that I saw as a sales rep is I may not do it your way. Right? Like, you may have had success doing it, a, B, and C, and I may do it 1, 2, 3, and, and I think you wanna give me a chance to do it that way. I'll give you an example. When I, when I first started working for GlaxoSmith Klein, I went in and I didn't take a detail aid in, I didn't take anything in, and my manager was just incensed said, what are you doing? And I said, listen, I haven't earned the right to sell these people. I'm gonna go in, I'm gonna, I'm going, they're gonna get to know my name.

Kendrick Shope: (16:16)
I'm gonna get to know them. And in two years when the government starts kicking reps outta offices, I'm gonna be the one they let in. Well, it wasn't two years later, it was six months later when people started closing their offices. Yet I had such good relationships that I still got to go back. And so I think that, you know, it's okay. Rome is not built, was not built in a day. And I think one of the biggest mistakes we make, uh, as leaders and as sales reps, but as leaders demanding of our sales rep is to go through the whole sales process in, in, in, in, in one sitting. And, and the way that I like to think about this is every interaction, especially in an industry like pharma sales, but let's say you're calling on a customer regularly, every interaction should move the conversation forward, right? People say, always be closing A, B, C. No, that's bad advice because there's not always a time to close. I know. You

Dani Buckley: (17:11)
Know, it's the worst advice, .

Kendrick Shope: (17:13)
It's the worst advice ever. Leave with a piece of information that you didn't have before, that's your goal. Ask a question, leave with a piece of information, and if there's an opportunity to sell, great. But I think that, you know, realizing that really good salespeople have a series of conversations. It's not going from a to F on a detail aid, it's asking the right questions. It's saying, great, I'll follow up on that next time. It's being respectful of someone's time. And so I think that managers can help reps really drill down on, okay, great, it's your first call in the office. What's one thing you need to know today? Great. So you learned that thing. When you go back the second time, what's the next thing you need to know? Great. What's the third thing? And those questions might be, you know, what's your experience with our product? Who do you buy from? If you leave with a piece of information that you didn't have before, you're well on your way to being able to sell them.

Dani Buckley: (18:06)
Yeah. Great. I love it. Um, I could sit and talk about this stuff all day, which is why I have this podcast, but I am gonna kind of wrap us up. And so, you know, I'm curious, we've covered a lot, we covered a lot really quickly. Um, what authentic selling is, why it works, you know, how to make sales not feel so icky or, or manipulative or whatever it might be that people feel about sales, um, what not to do, how sales leaders can coach. So I'm curious, is there anything else you wanna be sure you leave our listeners with today? Um, yeah. That just can help them go out tomorrow and do better

Kendrick Shope: (18:38)
. Yeah. I think that, you know, the one thing that I wish I had known when I was a sales rep for two decades, uh, is that to have a little grace with yourself. Hmm. There're gonna be days when, you know, even if you're as extroverted as, as I am, it, it feels really hard to get out and go have conversations. And so to realize that every day is not a, to use a really ridiculous, clean, cliche slam dunk, or you don't knock it out of the park every day. And also to realize that your goal is not necessarily to knock it outta the park every day. Some days we're just moving the conversation forward. And so I, I think that, and then also to realize that as sales reps, we change the world. I mean, we are the people that put products in, in people's hands that, that change their lives, that change everything about the way they, they, they, they do life, the way they treat people, all the things. And so it's not just about the sales call, it's about so much more than that. And don't let that be lost on you.

Dani Buckley: (19:41)
Yeah. I love that. That's great, great takeaway. Well, Kendrick, thank you so much for your time today. I'm really glad that you could join us. Yeah, yeah.

Kendrick Shope: (19:49)
Thanks for having me.

Dani Buckley: (19:50)
Yeah, this was great. And for those listening, um, you can definitely find Kendrick's information in our show notes, um, contact information mine as well. Kendrick, I imagine you're welcome to people reaching out to you and asking questions. Of

Kendrick Shope: (20:03)
Course. Great. Absolutely.

Dani Buckley: (20:04)
Me too. Um, so we hope to hear from some of you and looking forward to all of you listening to the next episode of Sell Smarter. Sell Faster. And until then, happy selling everyone. Thanks.

Kendrick Shope: (20:14)
Bye.

Dani Buckley: (20:20)
Thanks for joining us on Sell Smarter. Sell Faster. If you like what you've heard, click that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. Be sure to visit our website, sell Smarter, sell faster.com where you can find even more helpful sales enablement resources.