Beyond the Click Episode 6: Kathleen Donohue

[00:00:00] Rob: All right. On this episode of Beyond the Click, we’ll talk to Kathleen Donohue, business performance strategist. You’ll hear her most interesting client story and favorite advice for growing your business. Welcome, Kathleen. 

[00:00:20] Kathleen: Hey, Rob. Thanks for having me . 

[00:00:22] Rob: Sure. So tell all the people that tune into our show. Who are you and what exactly do you do? 

[00:00:31] Kathleen: Great. Awesome. So my name is Kathleen Donahue and as Rob mentioned, I am a business performance strategist. And you think, what does that mean? Well, what I do is I work with mid-size and small organizations as a fractional sales manager. So if you have a gap, in your business where your sales team reports directly to a president or a C-level, and you don’t have someone in that middle spot, motivating and keeping your sales folks accountable.

[00:01:05] Kathleen: That’s how I, how I help organizations. I help keep that president and that C-level working on the business and turn their sales folks into automatic sellers. 

[00:01:19] Rob: Excellent. That sounds fantastic. Yeah. So if you’re a small to medium sized business and you need some help getting your sales team in order, Kathleen is the person to talk to. Kathleen. So, let’s see, I’m curious your favorite thing to do when you’re not working. 

[00:01:38] Kathleen: okay. So I have so many hobbies that I absolutely love, but I probably would say my favorite would be, To be outside and I’m an avid gardener and I like to garden really from soup to nuts. Right? From garlic underground to herbs and I like to do them in containers and different things that I can repurpose from my home. And I consider myself an amateur chef, so I like to take recipes and ingredients. As they are and go, what do I have? What is that flavor? What can I duplicate? What can I substitute? So I really like to play around with that. 

[00:02:21] Rob: Tell us your most interesting client story. 

[00:02:26] Kathleen: So many. So many. So I have a 30 year career as a sales professional, a top 1% or so. I’ve had a lot of client stories. I had a client recently where I was doing ridealongs with, and I was assessing for the company his skills. 

[00:02:46] Rob: For those that are in our audience that aren’t very sales oriented, what’s a RideAlong? 

[00:02:54] Kathleen: So basically I went into the field, his work where he was calling on customers. So in his vehicle. And we went and cold called. And I went on several appointments with him, so that’s a ride along. I guess we could do it on a bike if we wanted, but we did it in a car. 

[00:03:13] Rob: Right. And what was, what was interesting about that?

[00:03:17] Kathleen: So this individual I later discovered probably was in the wrong role. He was not, he was in a hunter role. Versus a farmer role. Those are two techniques or two categories they use to identify salespeople. Someone that goes out and hunts and gets new business. Someone that cultivates relationship. Think a farmer. Existing relationships. Well, he had a lot of fear about walking into places, so he would just run in and get a business card and run back out. And I said, what did you accomplish there? And he was so afraid to engage with anybody. So I had to show him. So I did the next one and I had to do some little bits to say, okay, try this next. Ask them this. So that was a lot of fun. And I did recommend to the organization that he would be better off in more of a farming type position because he didn’t like that cold interaction. It wasn’t comfortable to him, so we would’ve been coaching really uphill. Versus what his natural abilities were. Yeah. 

[00:04:35] Rob: That is interesting. Yeah. What’s your favorite advice for growing your business? 

[00:04:41] Kathleen: Well, that is actually, can really be attached to that experience. Is what I explained to him was I want you to sit and be curious about every person you talk with. So when you’re walking through that door, you are not thinking. Oh, I need to tell them this. I need to give this kind of information. I must know this. Just be curious enough to ask questions. That possibly lead to your whatever product or service you’re selling. So I would encourage you to come up with some pre-questions, 10 or less.

[00:05:24] Kathleen: That you’re comfortable with asking and always have three in your pocket. In your pocket, in your back pocket. Have three questions. Okay. And be curious. So if you stay, think about when you’re talking to someone, a friend, or you’re talking about something you like, gardening, sports, whatever.

[00:05:43] Kathleen: Politics, something you’re, when you’re curious, the conversation goes so much smoother and you can gather so much more information. Again, that comes with some prep work. But if you stay curious like Rob is being now, right. It helps. It really helps. It helps with authentic presentation and communication

[00:06:09] Rob: it, it definitely does. And I had an example of that. You know, I. We attend the same networking group in the mornings and and I was talking with another member today and. She mentioned, you know, I mentioned that I like to cook outdoors, and you and I have talked about some about that before too. And she said that her husband likes to cook outdoors, but they’re limited because they live in a multi-floor dwelling and, and you know, you can’t have fire on the third floor patio in there where they live. And I said, well, did you know For those that are interested. You know, Blackstone, Blackstone makes these these devices that you cook outside on that it’s like it’s like being at a a Japanese restaurant of large griddle. And what they do is now is that they make electric ones that you can cook indoors with, and it’s the same metal. In or out. But you can cook inside with electricity and, and so I offer that as a possible gift idea in the future for her husband as a way to cook something a little different. And, and so, yeah, you’re right. You know, that wouldn’t have come up unless we’d had that. Really authentic sort of conversation

[00:07:37] Kathleen: Unless you were being curious.

[00:07:39] Rob: Yeah. Being curious. 

[00:07:40] Kathleen: And then she shared something you had a recommendation. I love it. I love it. More of that, please, Rob. 

[00:07:47] Rob: Okay. We’ll definitely get our team on that for sure.

[00:07:51] Kathleen: I love it. I love it. 

[00:07:52] Rob: You know, We’re kind of at time for our time here today. On "Beyond the Click", what’s one question I didn’t ask you, and how would you answer?

[00:08:05] Kathleen: I guess as it relates to the business and helping mid-size business something that I’m pretty passionate about is a cadence or a process. So that is one of my secret sauce. Probably not, no, not very secret after this, Rob. But putting together a process or a cadence, right? 

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“Beyond The Click” is produced by Why People Click your business growth partner. Listen to the podcast on Apple, Google, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Find out more about our marketing services at www.whypeopleclick.com.