Taking Back Monday
Welcome to "Taking Back Monday," the podcast designed for the go-getters, the visionaries, and the trailblazers who are ready to say "goodbye" to the Sunday Scaries and lead the way in creating meaningful work.
We talk about building high-performance teams, enhancing leadership skills, and creating impactful customer relationships.
It's time to say "goodbye" to the Sunday Scaries.
Taking Back Monday
Sales with Soul: Building Real Connections that Drive Success feat. Dionne Mejer
In this Taking Back Monday episode, Alyssa Nolte talks with Dionne Mejer about what it means to sell with integrity in the modern workplace. Dionne introduces her "Sales with Soul" methodology, which prioritizes building real connections and leaving behind the "numbers at all costs" mindset. Alyssa and Dionne dive into the friction that often arises between sales and customer success teams, emphasizing the need for alignment and shared goals across departments. They discuss the importance of leadership, setting a clear vision, and fostering resilience in a fast-changing business world.
Tune in to hear their honest take on creating a people-centered approach to sales, staying adaptable, and making Mondays something to look forward to. Whether you're in sales or any customer-facing role, this episode will challenge you to think about how you bring purpose and humanity into your work.
Key Takeaways:
- Sales Should Be Human-to-Human, Not Just Business-to-Business: Dionne’s “Sales with Soul” approach highlights the need to build real connections with customers, balancing profitability with humanity. It’s about meaningful relationships rather than just pushing numbers.
- Alignment Across Teams Prevents Tension: Sales and customer success often clash due to misaligned goals. A shared vision, starting with leadership, can bridge this gap and ensure that both teams work toward sustainable customer success instead of short-term wins.
- Adaptability and Resilience Are Essential: In today’s business world, adaptability isn’t optional. Alyssa and Dionne underscore that staying open to feedback, refining approaches, and fostering resilience are key to thriving in any customer-facing role.
Key Moments:
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:14 Introducing Sales with Soul
01:10 Challenges in Sales and Customer Success
02:01 Balancing Sales Goals and Human Approach
06:09 Leadership and Creating a Positive Environment
11:57 Personal Stories and Overcoming Challenges
19:42 Origin of Sales with Soul
22:05 Conclusion and Contact Information
Share your thoughts - send us a text
It's time to say "goodbye" to the Sunday Scaries.
Connect with Alyssa
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyssanolte/
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Follow the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TakingBackMondayPod
Follow the show on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@takingbackmondaypod
Hey everyone. Welcome back to taking back Monday. I am so excited that you decided to say goodbye to the Sunday scaries and hello to the future of work. And I have an incredible guest for you today. Welcome to the show, Dion.
Dionne Mejer:Hi. Thank you so much. I'm happy to be here.
Alyssa Nolte:So one of the things that really caught my eye about your profile is getting ready to chat with you. You have something called sales with soul. And as a recovering seller myself, I want to hear more about what is this? What is sales with soul?
Dionne Mejer:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, thank you for asking. And thank you for, you know, the kind of the pre call planning and love that. I know I looked at your, your information as well. To me, sales with soul is a methodology that takes our B2B motion and makes it human to human, the whole age to age. I didn't trademark that. I've been around for a while. Um, sales with soul is marrying the fact that most companies, if you're for profit exist to, to actually make a profit, um, and generate revenue. It's marrying that drive with the humanity behind it and getting rid of the number at all costs. So we're not dragging crappy deals across the finish line that our customer service team hates
Alyssa Nolte:Um, a thousand percent. I was actually on a customer success meetup last night, a digital meetup where all those people who work in customer success roles were getting together and someone made a joke about like, Oh, the question was, if you could have a superpower, what would it be in customer onboarding? And someone made a joke of like, I would have the power to hit the reset button so that whatever crap sales sold that wasn't correct, we could just reset and reset the customer's approach. And then someone made a joke of like, what? Sales selling something that doesn't exist? Never. And there was definitely like a tone of like, sales is always screwing our customer service motions over, which is not true, right? We're all trying to do our jobs. But.
Dionne Mejer:Yeah.
Alyssa Nolte:Where are you seeing that? Like how, if I'm a sales leader and I want to make sure that I'm taking care of my people and the people who are adjacent to me, like other teams, where am I going to go with that? How do I make sure that I'm, I'm getting the deal, I'm getting the profit, I'm leading with what businesses are here to do, which is make money, but I'm doing it in a way that has a human approach.
Dionne Mejer:Yep, absolutely. It's really for me, the Franklin Covey, right? Start with the end in mind at the end of the day. And, and that also starts with your onboarding and your ever boarding and your, your cross pollination at the end of the day. So if, if you don't have a motion in your organization where everybody's up in one seat to the left, do that immediately. Because, um, If you're an organization that wants to grow and do well and have cohesion, everybody in the same boat rowing in the same direction, start with the end in mind.
Alyssa Nolte:I think it's important to recognize that the, the best companies who do this better than anyone else. Really have that mindset because you can be a great company that blows up and grows overnight. But if you can't sustain and retain your customers or your employees, then you will not make it the long haul.
Dionne Mejer:Yeah, Alyson, that's a really good point too, right? Is, is we're all human at the end of the day. So when we think about sales with soul and we think about making our number, we have to have people at the table that remind us that we are in a people business,
Alyssa Nolte:Yeah.
Dionne Mejer:always in a people business. Because if, if, if people don't like us as a leader, like if we're not a great leader or our company is sacrificing, keeping the person who doesn't walk our walk and talk our talk when it comes to our values, because they make their number, we're just sending the wrong message at the end of the day. And we can only grow as far as our weakest link and our behavior takes us.
Alyssa Nolte:A hundred percent. One of the things that was just rattling around in my brain as you were talking and talking about making your number. I actually have an article like sitting in my drafts right now that I've been too nervous to publish, but I guess I'll, I'll talk about it here. I came across, um, in a situation where Basically, the, the salesperson, it wasn't me, I was an auxiliary to the, to the process, but the salesperson did a bunch of things that I was like super icked out by, basically did a huge, huge markup for the customer. And I'm sitting there knowing that the customer is going to pay seven times more than they really need to, uh, for what the product is. And I'm just sitting here thinking like, why is it that some people and some sellers have this idea that for, for me to win as a seller, my customer has to lose? Right? And that it's this competitive game. And I just got the immediate, like, I'm still icked out about it. It's been months. Right? Um, and I think that there are people out there who give sellers It's a bad rap and, and those people deserve that, that feeling, that vitriol that we have around salespeople. Because I don't believe that for sales to win, the customer has to lose or for sales to win, the other rest of the company has to lose. I think we can all win if we think about it as a human to human relationship and not just dollars and cents.
Dionne Mejer:Yeah. And that's a really good point to Alyssa. Again, I think the crux is sales is the only profession that if you don't make your number, you're at risk of losing your job. And I can't think of another role where if you don't do what you signed up to do. You lose your job. You know what I mean? So we're balancing that tension of I'm going to get fired. I have to go find a new job. I can't feed my family, right? All that good stuff. I can't pay my bills or whatever the case may be. I'm being a little extreme. So we're balancing that. I have to make my number, which is a today problem. With I want to, I want to have great relationships to do to ask for referrals or expand the account, right? So it's that healthy tension between achievement for today, making my number for today and the balance of the far term horizon. And that's where the tension comes into play. And that's where leadership company values, things of that nature really, really help ease that tension.
Alyssa Nolte:Let's, let's talk about leadership. Let's pivot into that. You know, I, I work with a lot of sales leaders who are incredible, right? They do a great job of setting the environment. If I want to be a great sales leader, what is the first thing that I should do to create an environment where I'm H2H instead of just B2B?
Dionne Mejer:Yeah. Alyssa, that is fantastic. I love that question. And Leaders that are even asking that question are going in the right direction. So one of the things that I always did when I was a practitioner for my teams and now I do with my clients in from the sales and lead with soul methodology we have is we create a leader playbook. And the reason behind that is we want to have super clear lines on the road, super clear expectations. Super clear shared vision and outcome. And we can't do that if we can't articulate it. And we can only go as far as our vocabulary allows us to go. So what first thing is absolutely 100 percent create your leader playbook. Um, and I actually have a free recording for people that if you're interested, I'll make sure I get you the link. A listen, people can take a listen to that. It's a super quick 20 minute recording with an example table of contents for your leader playbook.
Alyssa Nolte:I love that. My, my question to you would be, Is it enough to just have the playbook? Like, should you share it with your team? Should you share it with your peers? How do you bring everyone into that shared vision? Because one of my biggest challenges as a leader is I, I know where I want to go, but I just can't quite get it articulated. And one of my problems is like, I know when I see it and I know that's not it, but how do I, how do I tell you where I'm trying to go? How can I articulate that and share with my team?
Dionne Mejer:Yeah. Definitely. To your point. And we've all been there. We've all done it. Right. And, and so, um, a couple of things, one, I did, um, a show, we have a show called rev shots and Matt Millen and I did a show. I'll make sure you've got access to that as well. Um, and that helps with this question of how do I articulate it? So one is simply get, get with yourself and give yourself. Your, I call it the, your CEO hour, right? Like give yourself the time and the space to think it through. Um, and then the, you know, the, the, um, recording I have and the leader playbook and stuff, and there's a few other nuggets in there that help kind of prompt this conversation. So number one, sit and just give yourself time, um, and to absolutely create it. And to your point, a lot of what we do talk about is how do we roll it out? How do I share this with my team?
Alyssa Nolte:Yeah, I've gotten really good at taking my, what I'm going to call my CEO hours. Um, it's beautiful weather here in Iowa right now as we're recording this. And I have a high energy dog who needs to be walked pretty regularly. I've discovered. When I leave my house and I can't, like, look at my phone and scroll because I gotta make sure he's not trying to murder every squirrel we walk by, um, I have to pay attention. But I've discovered, like, my brain just kind of whirs in the background and all of a sudden I, I'm, I probably look like a crazy person, I'm pulling out my phone and I'm talking into a voice note and then I'm putting it back and I've gotten really good at doing voice notes because that's when, if I tried to just do a sit in my office CEO hour, I get distracted by all the things that are bothering me.
Dionne Mejer:hundred percent. Yes. You have, I love that. Switch your environment up for sure. And I think the other part is like, get outside in nature. There's so much research out there that tells us get outside, be surrounded by nature, whether you're mountain beach, desert, doesn't matter. Just get out. And that's the other thing I talk with folks about is like, and part of what we do in our coaching is write it down. And let it marinate. So I'm a huge fan of working in groups of three and nine times out of 10 or stream of consciousness is spot on and but like, oh, I need to say that it may be a little bit better. That was a little rough around the edges, whatever the case may be. Right? And so stream of consciousness, write your personal professional purpose statement, write out your expectations for your team. Just get it down or do your to your point. Like, do a voice note, leave it for a day. Then you're going to go back and revisit it. And you're like, okay, that makes sense. And then the third step is, okay, how do I roll this out to my team? And I'm a Midwesterner, Alyssa. I grew up outside of Chicago. I live in Southern California, blue collar, Midwest military family. There was not a lot of woo, woo, sit, think, meditate. There was a lot of rubbed dirt on it and keep going. So, um, so I share that as context for my next statement, which is, Part three is as you're sitting there with your leader playbook, with your expectations, how you're going to roll it out, literally think through and do a visualization exercise of yourself rolling this out to your team, your leader playbook, how you work, um, what are the expectations, visualize the conversation with your team. Talk about questions, all that good stuff, and then visualize what it looks like a month, six months, nine months from now as you and your team are walking that walk and talking that talk. Very powerful to do visualization exercises. Yeah,
Alyssa Nolte:to, to not just think about the execution of it, right? Because I, I'm very much like a big picture thinker, but I work with people who are executioners, right? They want to sit there and be like, get it done. And like, don't put the plan into place. I had this conversation with someone recently. Let's not do the plan until we agree on the big vision. Like, let's not start worrying about the nuts and bolts and the nitty gritty until we've like, this is where we are. This is where we want to go. This is the general path that we think we're going to take. Let's agree on that before we worry and get down too much into the weeds.
Dionne Mejer:absolutely. Set the vision. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. Otherwise it's easy. You just start. You're a duck on a pond at that point if you don't.
Alyssa Nolte:I think it's something that I want to cover with you specifically is I've seen a lot of, of a lot of young sellers who Are intentionally emotionally detaching from their work, right? They're trying to create like a barrier to, to their, like their heart and soul or whatever, what would you say to someone who's either getting into sales or, or young in career and just feels like they haven't quite found that organizational fit that, that brings humanity to the forefront,
Dionne Mejer:Yeah, that's a really good question. I think to your to what you just said, I would ask why, why do we feel the need to do that?
Alyssa Nolte:right?
Dionne Mejer:I would start there. I'm always a fan of that. Um, you know, before we went live, we were talking about kind of, you know, being a recovering seller and stuff. And one of the things that I share with folks is I'm a recovering perfectionist and people pleaser. And I kept myself separate for a very long time in corporate America as well. I'm a Gen X or a little bit different timeframe, maybe, I don't know, right. Whatever perceptions, reality. Right. And my very first roll out of college, I worked for, uh, A technology trade association in Chicago and, you know, I'm 23 years old and we had a board of like 30 and they were all men and literally I was in a meeting one time. Our executive director of the association couldn't be there. She and I had gone over previous talk notes and we're going through some. So she and I had gone through previous talk notes, I'm in this meeting as myself and another individual talking with these board members about whatever issue we were talking about, I think it was some membership components. And literally, this gentleman says to me, who do you think you are? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And I was like, I'm the one that had the authority by the executive director to have this conversation
Alyssa Nolte:Wow.
Dionne Mejer:right now. It threw me back and I was like, I'm sorry, I didn't I didn't know how to respond. Because I was a 23 year old in a corporate environment and I had just come out of college, right, a little bit ago and I'm thinking, great, I'm going to go into corporate America. It's going to be amazing, right? There's rules, there's structure, people are going to behave better than they do at a college bar. Yeah, no, that wasn't the case.
Alyssa Nolte:No, it's basically just like a little bit older, a little bit more money and a little bit, uh, and even bigger egos and attitude.
Dionne Mejer:It very well can be. And I think that's the disappointing piece. So I know for me, that was why I really kept myself separate. And it drove a lot of my perfectionist hiding tendencies.
Alyssa Nolte:Yeah.
Dionne Mejer:And so the question I would have back to people that, you know, for all of us that were kind of hiding and masking is why number one, and then number two, I had to get really clear on what I was looking for in a role. And I interviewed people as much as they interviewed me. Cause then I had a policy where it's like, I'm not going to work for a jerk. I've got three brothers at home and a dad, right? Like I, my, like, come on now, I don't need to work for my brother. You know what I mean? And that, that very, um, masculine energy for lack of a better term environment. Right? So the question I would have, or the feedback I would give to people and myself included, you know, as far as masking and kind of finding the right spot is why are you doing it? And then identify what's most important to you because male or female, it doesn't really matter. I think we all have a tendency to be a jerk and a bad leader. What works well for us, like, really identify what works well for you. What do you need in an environment? And it kind of goes back to what we were saying about a leader playbook, because whether you're a leader by title or deed, you're still leading. Like, I lead myself every day. My kids lead themselves every day. You lead yourself every day. Part of that is writing your own user manual. And so we talk a little bit about, it sounds really formal, but we keep it kind of loose and stuff and just say, hey, you know, what are, what are the top three words you would use to describe yourself? How do you like to communicate? What works best for you? Walk me through your approach. So, and there's a ton of research out there that talks about that, but it's really being able to articulate answers to those questions and being able to share those with somebody that gets you what is most important to you and sets you up to be successful. Does that make sense?
Alyssa Nolte:A hundred. Yeah. A hundred percent. I was thinking about, um, you know, my own, like when I first got started in my career, right. So I joined a pre revenue startup, no money. Um, and my job was sales and marketing and to basically do all the prospecting, all the lead generation, all the everything, basically everything. Um, and I was a hundred percent commissioned, so I only got paid if the company got paid, right? So a lot of motivation. And I remember being so excited. I had finally like booked a deal. Like we were going to get a deal. It's going to be my first ever paycheck. And I was so excited. I had done everything, did the discovery, wrote the proposal, made the plan for some consulting services. And then we got to like the final little piece where it came time to talk money. And the client on the other side refused to talk to me about it. He wanted to talk to my my company owner who was an older white guy and I was just like Oh my god, I'm doing all of this work and he won't even talk to me about the monies. I have a distinct memory of sitting in the office on like, old school telephone because it was still, you know, phone time. And my, my coworker is talking into the phone and I'm writing furiously like, the pricing because he has no clue, you know, about that pricing stuff. And I found myself hiding behind the idea of like, well, I think I was probably about the same age, early, early twenties. And being like, well, I guess I can't be the one to do the money stuff. And I projected a lot of that one client's opinion of me onto future clients. And I held myself back because I thought, well, I, I, they don't want to deal with me on the money. And I hid behind that for a long time until I stepped down and said, no, this is my thing. This is my job and I'm the one who knows. And that's okay.
Dionne Mejer:Mm hmm. Alyssa, what a powerful story. And it's so interesting. One, I'm sorry you went through that because that just stinks. And two, congratulations for shedding that though, too, because it's really easy to take that with us and carry it forward. And we don't realize it.
Alyssa Nolte:Yeah. Oh yeah, for
Dionne Mejer:You know what I mean? And then so it's like that, that mental toughness and the, the self awareness that says, you know what, what you think of me as none of my business, here's what we're going to do. And if you don't like it, I'm okay with that because I've got a ton of people that this works with. And so it's, again, it's the human to human element. That means it's. Yes, we're not jerks, but it doesn't also mean I have to be a pushover. And it also means that I get to call you on your BS. Right. And so sometimes though, I, you know, I look at people, I'm like, listen, man, I got two kids and two dogs. I don't need this. If I wanted to have this goofiness going on, I would go,
Alyssa Nolte:it from somewhere else.
Dionne Mejer:but again, it's just, you know, I think you said it earlier as how do we give grace to each other? How do we give grace to ourselves? How do we have a level of self awareness and maintain confidence within our own ability and who we are and stay centered in that to have these conversations? Because we know we're not going to get along with everybody. And that's just a given. But we can treat everybody, including ourselves, with respect. And I think that would go a long way. And that's the human element of it. It's just, you don't have to be best friends with everybody. But we should try to get along.
Alyssa Nolte:Absolutely. The kindergarten playground rules, right?
Dionne Mejer:Just keep it simple. Keep it simple.
Alyssa Nolte:So when you were thinking about getting started with, uh, your sales with Soul, did you have like an origin story or a moment when you realized it was time to do this?
Dionne Mejer:Yeah. Well, uh, yes. So I've been doing what I've been doing for a long time. And the origin story is I wanted to make the world a better place one sales team at a time. That is my personal professional purpose statement. And when I went to market nine years ago, the world was very different than it is today.
Alyssa Nolte:Five years ago, the world was very different.
Dionne Mejer:had years ago,
Alyssa Nolte:evolution of our world has gone exponentially faster.
Dionne Mejer:hundred percent. And so a lot of, you know, what we're talking about, like a lot of the verbiage that I went to market with worked, but it doesn't work now. So I'm like, man alive. I know what I do is good. What, what, where am I missing the mark? And now the world we live in, right, is soundbite driven for lack of a better term. And so, and people want to sit, they want a methodology. They want something they can kind of, it's easy to remember and easy to kind of snap onto. And so I had to really One, again, aligned to my purpose. And then to think about how would I, what would, what would people feel good saying they're taking their, they're a part of right. And sales with soul isn't for everybody. So that's kind of the origin story is I went to market, it worked, didn't work, re swizzle, go to market. And then people that really want to dive into sales with soul are the ones that care about being a sales professional and their clients. It's not for everyone.
Alyssa Nolte:I think it's, it's important to recognize though that you don't have to be for everyone. You have to be for the right people, right? And you will, you can put yourself out. Someone said this to me once is that you're going to put yourself out into the universe. And some people you're not going to be for some people. And the ones who need you will find you if you just keep putting yourself out there. And I think that's really important for everyone to hear. Cause yeah, it's hard when you're putting stuff out in the market, having worked for a startup. And. crickets, right? And nobody seems to want what you have. Um, so really being resilient, but also adaptable, making sure that you're responding to what you're hearing in the feedback.
Dionne Mejer:Yeah.
Alyssa Nolte:tell us in your opinion, who is really taking back Monday? Who else should we be talking to?
Dionne Mejer:You know, um, I think the people taking back Monday, I'm going to talk about it from a thematic standpoint. I think the people taking back Mondays are the ones that wake up and want to be successful. The people that wake up and want to be a better version of themselves. I know that might sound a little hokey for some people, but for us in a customer facing role. And even just wherever you're at in a season of life, like some days it's like, Oh man, I'm going to go back to bed and pull the covers over my head because I am not fit for human consumption. And the resiliency to get up and say, all right, you know what, maybe last week it didn't go as well as I wanted it to, but you know what, today's a new day and I've got an amazing horizon that I am blank slate that I can be better. I think that's who's taking back Mondays. I love Mondays for that very reason. And yeah, so that's what I think is taken back Mondays.
Alyssa Nolte:So if someone is really connecting with you, they, they are ready for some sales with soul or anything else that we talked about today, where can they find you online?
Dionne Mejer:Yeah. Um, if people want to talk a little bit more, best place is get with me on LinkedIn Dion major. I might be the only one. I don't know. Um, and so definitely connect with me there. You can take a look at our company page revenue by design on LinkedIn as well. You can subscribe there, follow us for our show rev shots. Um, you can also check out our website at revenue hyphen by design. com.
Alyssa Nolte:Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being on Taking Back Monday. This was great.
Dionne Mejer:Thank you for having me. It was a great, great, great format. Thank you. Great conversation.
