Don’t mention the words ‘used car salesman’ to Abbie White. She has fought against that perception of sales all her working life. Instead, try the words mindset, emotional intelligence, and authenticity. Then you will come to understand why she is regarded as a visionary in her field.
“My passion is about redefining people’s perception of sales and breaking down the barriers,” says Abbie, whose energetic, no-nonsense approach has delivered her more than $500 million in sales across many multi-national industries and built her a reputation as a leadership powerhouse.
“I genuinely believe that the number one place to start when we’re having a sales conversation is around mindset. If you think sales is yuck, then you’re not going to do it.”
But sales is how businesses grow. It is the lifeblood of any business. And for the last fifteen years Abbie has been showing businesses, big and small, how to supercharge their performance and profits by shifting perceptions. Her sales consultancy company, Sales Redefined, does exactly what its name says it does.
“I like providing people with ways that they can approach sales and still feel true to themselves, true to their brand,” she says. “And one of the things I love most about what we do is when people come up to me and say ‘I had an aversion to sales and didn’t feel I could do it. But now I feel empowered’. And they start seeing amazing results. It’s that aha moment when there’s a mindset shift.”
Besides many other qualifications, Abbie holds a diploma in Positive Psychology and that shines out in everything she does. Before founding Sales Redefined, she was National Sales Manager at IBM. Her positive approach catapulted the ANZ region from being the lowest performing area globally to the highest.
These days, there’s not much that she doesn’t know about innovation in sales. Like recognising the importance of client experience, for example. “If you look at all of the research from the top performing sales organisations globally, they’re now being measured from client experience, as opposed to traditional measures of sales and revenue.
“And this leads into the emotional intelligence part that I think is a real opportunity for sales teams right now. The question for sales is how are we supporting our customers during this time, which will buy us huge amounts of loyalty?”
Looking out for opportunity and silver linings is everything in sales. Through the pandemic, Abbie has watched some businesses excel, while others have floundered. “Again, it comes back to mindset. Some people have really embraced this period of change and gone ‘How do we pivot?’. I think gyms are a great example. Some gyms just closed, others said ‘Awesome’. We know a gym in our network that’s done better through COVID, by providing an online course.
Her own business has expanded too. “We’ve just started working with a client in the UK because we’re all working on Zoom now. No-one actually cares where you are now, so there’s no reason why we can’t operate globally. We’re helping a lot of people with webinars. And so it’s just a question of challenging your own thinking.
“Mindset is what’s going to translate your business into the business that you want it to be. Sometimes you’ve just got to get out of your own way.”
To hear Abbie speak more on this topic, check out her interview on Julie Hyde’s Making It Count podcast below.