Sales Mindset

How to Elevate Your Sales Career with Larry Levine

February 14, 2024
By Mark Hunter

By embracing gratitude, recognizing our daily impact, and documenting our wins, we set the stage for a year of triumphs.

Step up your sales game with actionable advice and heartfelt wisdom as Mark Hunter and Larry Levine discuss their proven strategies for influencing and impacting customers.

Mark and Larry share insights on being intentional and uncovering your purpose in 2024.

Prefer to listen? Find Episode 166 wherever you stream podcasts.

The following is an AI generated transcript of the conversation between Larry Levine and Mark Hunter on The Sales Hunter Podcast which aired on 1/3/2024.

00:00 – Mark Hunter (Host)
Hey, welcome to this episode of the Sales Hunter podcast. My name is Mark Hunter. What are we talking about today? We’re talking about selling from the heart. Well, that means Larry Levine’s on the show with us and specifically, we’re talking about how does that mindset, how does that internal view that you have, that sense of gratitude, how is that going to affect your attitude as we head into the new year? Let’s get the show going right now with Larry Levine.

00:27
We’re listening to the Sales Hunter podcast with Mark Hunter, where the focus is to help you, as a salesman, sell with confidence and integrity. And now here’s your host. So we’re talking about selling from the heart and how your attitude really affects how you’re going to face the new years. And to help me have that conversation, larry Levine. Larry, welcome to the show. Thank you, oh, it’s my pleasure. Great seeing you again, mark. It is always great to see you. And let’s dive right into this, because we were just talking about this before we went live, about how we were both so optimistic about next year, and I talked to a lot of salespeople and they’re oh, I don’t know. Next year is going to be tough. What drives your attitude? What drives it for you?

01:14 – Larry Levine (Guest)
I think it’s a great question, Mark. I think it’s the way I start my morning every single day. I’m a big believer in this. So you know, whether you’re a sales leader, you’re sales professional, how you start your morning is really specifically how you start. Your first hour of every day is going to dictate, I believe, what happens next. So the question becomes, Mark, how do y’all start your day? And the first word that comes to mind in the minute my feet hit the ground in the morning, I’m intentional. I’m intentional with my morning. I’m a morning person and I go right into a routine and that’s what fuels me for the rest of the day and I think that’s what’s kept me going year over year over year is how I start my morning every single day.

02:01 – Mark Hunter (Host)
Now I love you do it, because I do the same thing, very, very in fact, this morning I had to catch myself because I went to bed last night waiting for an email to come in to respond to a particular issue that I had to get you. So I literally first thing when I woke up had to check my email and it was amazing, it got me out of my sink. Yep, it got me out of my routine, but I find I had to stop and pivot myself back into, but that changes my outlook for the entire day. But here’s the question. Here’s the thing as we start the new year we’re just getting into the new year Are there things people need to do to do that attitude correction, that sense of self-worth to start the new year off?

02:46 – Larry Levine (Guest)
Yeah, I think so. There’s a couple of things that if I could share. There’s a couple of things I would encourage people to start really honing in on. First thing, I’m going to ask you to start thinking about write down your values. What are your core values? What do you stand for? What are the things that are near and dear to you? And then the next thing I’d ask for you to all start doing is uncover your purpose why you do the things you do.

03:12
It’s really interesting is when I uncovered all of this. I read it every single day. I read my core values every single day. I write them down. I write one of my core values down every single day and then I define it. And then I go into reading my purpose and my why, and then I go into three things I’m grateful for. And if salespeople and sales leaders can do this and, by the way, one of the things y’all should be grateful for is that you got clients and you got future clients who wanna talk to you, and those would be the things I would those just three simple things, though they they’re simple, but they’re hard to put into action. But the reason why this is so important, mark, is that.

03:56
Just think about the mental state for many in sales. It’s tough If we can get our mindset right first thing in the morning. This stuff that I just shared this is minor things that are transformational in nature for a lot of us, but you have to be consistent with it. And if you’re consistent with it, watch what happens over time. It’s not something you just flip a light switch on and all of a sudden your mindset’s right. You gotta be intentional, be purposeful and watch what starts to happen.

04:26 – Mark Hunter (Host)
I love that you bring up values and purpose, the V and the P, because I think that’s so true. You know, and it’s amazing. But you think back to what your values were as a kid and it’s amazing how they kind of aligned with your values today. You know, unless you really came from some sort of a a very disruptive childhood, but that whole purpose, it was interesting.

04:49
I had breakfast this week with a gentleman Absolutely frustrated with his job, thinking he needed to leave. I’m not making enough money, I gotta leave, I gotta leave. And because I’m not making enough money for my family and I stopped him. I said have you ever stopped to think about the people that you influence? The job he’s in he touches hundreds of people every day and the same people every day. And I said have you ever thought about the impact that you make? I’ve been around your workplace. There’s not one day that goes by that people aren’t impacted by you. And he said, yeah, and it was amazing. But over a course of about five minutes he changed his whole perspective to having this attitude that he was grateful to have this job because he was really able to influence and impact people. And yeah, he still got the financial concerns and so forth, but it changed his whole attitude and I think that when you change your attitude, it’s amazing how problems just disappear.

05:51 – Larry Levine (Guest)
You know and they do.

05:54
And I wanna go back to these values and these purpose because it does play out in who you associate with, who you get in conversations with, who you start prospecting to and how you start taking care of your clients.

06:08
And I’m a big believer in marketing, I call it value alignment and really the magic starts to happen is when you’re willing to unpack your values, commit to your values, you understand your purpose, but then you bring those out into the open and you start having conversations around those with your clients, with your future clients. And the reason why I bring this up is you’ll be amazed how fast conversations start to get deep when you’re willing to bring this to the forefront. It’s gonna require a little bit of vulnerability, that’s okay, but how many sales leaders and sales professionals out there really understand the values, the purpose and the why of their clients and their future clients and how many of them are willing to go there, mark? And if you’re willing to go there, watch what starts to happen to this word and the words called trust. Watch how fast you all build trust.

07:09 – Mark Hunter (Host)
Wow, what you just said is really powerful. I wanna unpack this whole purpose thing because it’s easy for us to think that our purpose is to achieve our quarterly number, our purpose. But I think our purpose is really what is it that we wanna achieve in life? What is it that we wanna do? Walk the audience through. How do you determine what your purpose is?

07:31 – Larry Levine (Guest)
Yeah. So this is where I did some deep work on this over the past couple years and it was all around unpacking my why and we have a very strategic partnership here at Selling from the Heart with the Why Institute and I spent some time diving into this, as well as everyone on my team, and once I found this out, this is what happened. I understood my purpose. If you allow me to share and it’s going to tie in, it’s going to answer your question is when I found out my why operating system, in other words, why I do the things I do, how I do them then ultimately, what people can expect from me this is when I got clarity on my purpose. To unpack this even more is I believe success happens when I contribute to a greater cause.

08:21
I’m a big contributor you could probably tell because we know each other, mark but conversely, I’m a big clarify guy. How I bring this to the forefront is I’m a guy that’s just filled with curiosity. Things need to be clear with me. They need to be clear, they need to be concise. Then, ultimately, what I bring to the table is trusted relationships. Once I started to unpack all of this, it helped me uncover these are why I do the things I do. I bring this to life. That’s become my purpose.

08:58 – Mark Hunter (Host)
I love the fact that you use the word clarify, because I think that’s something that we just don’t spend enough time really clarifying. What is it that we’re really trying to achieve? You think of what are salespeople about? In order for us to close a deal, we have to clarify something with our customers, because many times our customers are confused. When we talk about clarify, I think it has applications on both sides. I’m going to contend that the majority of salespeople don’t really understand their purpose. They think their purpose is just to achieve their quarterly number. This gentleman I was having breakfast with. He was totally wrapped around. The amount of money he was going to, that was it. That was the only thing he was wrapped around. He was saying it because of a sense of his family. Okay, I get that, I respect that, but it’s more to it than just that.

09:51 – Larry Levine (Guest)
It is. I respect, I mean, that’s just face it. I mean, sales is an outer game to some extent. We got to hit these numbers. We’re benchmarked, we want to achieve these results. Those are all outer results. The things that we’re talking about is the inner work. This is hard for a lot of people because some people just don’t want to go down that road mark. But if they do, if you can do the inner work, watch what happens to how fast you start achieving even greater outer success. The things we’re talking about values, purpose, your mission, why you do the things you do these are all internal things. You got to be willing to open up the cupboard to unpack what’s inside. If you don’t, I believe you’ll be inconsistently consistent with your outer results.

10:42 – Mark Hunter (Host)
I didn’t realize this. We’re actually streaming this live to the YouTube and YouTube right now. The comments come in. This is absolutely terrible.

10:50
This is great. I love this. It’s a good thing we’re keeping the show on the up and up, but then again we have all of our conversations on the up and up, this inward struggle that impacts the outward result, and I think the inward struggle drives far more the outward than salespeople want to give it credit for or salespeople are really willing to accept. Give us a framework for how I if I’m listening to this, I’m watching this should deal with reframing my inward sense.

11:35 – Larry Levine (Guest)
Here’s a couple of things. I’m going to just give you some simple things. I do some of these things as well. Every single day is just start asking yourself just some internal questions. What do I stand for? Who am I? What words would I use to describe me? How do I want to be viewed out in the marketplace? How do I want others to view me?

12:02 – Mark Hunter (Host)
Wow, I’ll tell you what those questions that you just asked. So you know what’s funny is so many salespeople. I’m busy, I got to return this call. I got to return this call and yet I think you and I both subscribers sometimes you just got to stop. You stop for 15 minutes. It kind of it goes back to sharpening your saw. You know Stephen Covey was so keen on this. You know, if I have one hour to cut down this tree, I’m going to spend 55 years sharpening my saw, and we don’t sharpen our saw enough.

12:35 – Larry Levine (Guest)
No, and here’s what happens, again my belief. Here’s what happens. Here’s the three things. I think that happens, mark, when we’re not willing to sharpen our saw, relax confidence. We lack believability, not only believability in ourselves, but believability in our messaging. And then the last thing we start lacking is self-worth. And I want us to think about the day in the life of a sales professional, even a sales leader. Just think about all the things that start to happen to us in a given day. We start our morning off a certain way and it veers off into the right real fast and we can go down a ditch real fast. But if we start working on our self-confidence every day, if we start working on our believability every day, if we start working on our self-worth every day, watch what starts to happen, to the level of conversations you have, how you carry yourself and here’s the last part of this how your clients and your future clients start viewing you.

13:39 – Mark Hunter (Host)
You know, I love the fact that you’re talking future clients because, again, it’s this whole level of confidence that we’re creating and in order for the customer to have confidence in us whether it be a current customer, future customer, whatever we have to be confident, and you use that term self-worth. And there’s something I want to unpack with you because I’m gonna pose a scenario. I feel that too many salespeople put their self-worth in what they sell and not themselves. Unpack why that contrast is so fatal.

14:18 – Larry Levine (Guest)
Because I think so many and I was guilty of this. What I’m about ready to say I was guilty of it as well is we attached our self-worth to how much money we made and do we hit our budget numbers because that’s how we’re benchmarked in sales and over time it’s gonna change. I’m beyond the point where I don’t attach my significance to the monetary part of this. I attach my significance to making a difference. If I can make a difference in everybody I come across, the money just comes in. Now some of y’all are gonna go.

14:56
You know something, larry, I don’t buy into anything you just said. Well, it’s a mindset thing. It’s a mindset and it’s a heart set thing, and this is gonna change over time, because if you were to ask me this question in my 20s, I would’ve given you a totally different answer. But now, as I’m knocking on my later part of my 50s, it’s completely different than it was even in my 40s. So it’s always constantly changing. Therefore, you always gotta be willing to do the inner work and unpack all of this. If you don’t, you’re missing up on growth opportunities like none other.

15:31 – Mark Hunter (Host)
I think, without doubt, what you’re saying is so spot on, because the marketplace has cluttered more than ever before. Every customer’s got options and until we, the salesperson comes in and really spends the time focused on the customer. Yesterday I did a podcast with Carson Heady and we were talking about this and he says you know? I asked him he said what sales process do you subscribe to? And he says I really don’t have one. I subscribe to the sales process of understanding the customer. And you go wow, this is a top performer at Microsoft on believe. And you stop and ask yourself that question am I really focused on the customer? But to be focused on the customer, I have to be willing to let go and I have to be willing to really allow the customer to share. But in order for me to do that, I had to be confident that this could go in a different way, that I want it to go.

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16:28 – Larry Levine (Guest)
Thank you. Yeah, no, I was. You got me thinking just for a second. And this goes back to asking yourself, right, some tough questions. And I’m just going to poke the bear just a little bit, but I want everyone who’s watching or listening to really key in on this. If you are not willing to ask yourself tough questions, these are the internal tough questions. What makes me tick? Why do I do the things I do? How do I want to be perceived? What words would people use to describe me? And these are. They’re simple things, but they’re difficult to really just latch onto. If we have a hard time asking ourselves these questions, mark my word you’re going to have a hard time asking tough questions to your clients and your future clients, and this is where the lack of confidence and believability occurs. You get what I’m saying.

17:25 – Mark Hunter (Host)
Oh, I hear what you’re saying. You know, I’m going to add to that too, because I think many salespeople will answer it. Well, we’ll ask themselves that question, but then the lie to themselves in the answer.

17:35 – Larry Levine (Guest)
Oh, totally, and that’s why I always say the mirror never lies, only the person looking into it lies. Oh, back up, say that again. That was powerful. I just said the mirror never lies, only the person looking into the mirror lies.

17:50 – Mark Hunter (Host)
Okay, audience, stop and chew on that one right there, you know. Think about that. When we’re going into the sales call, what’s the mirror telling us? When we’re coming out of the sales call, what’s the mirror telling us? That is a huge, that’s a mic drop. That was nice. Who’d you steal that from?

18:11 – Larry Levine (Guest)
I came up with that one myself.

18:15 – Mark Hunter (Host)
That’s outstanding. Hey, this is what’s so keen, but it comes back and hey, I’m going to give you all the props in the world. Larry, that was apt, that is a. You got to frame that quote. That is powerful because it has so much visual imagery to it, and what we’ve been talking about here is this whole mindset. So now, if I’m standing on the doorstep of a new year, a new quarter, which we are, what are three things that you think I should be doing to get ready.

18:50 – Larry Levine (Guest)
I would say unpack, just doing a little bit of inner work. Just really unpack your purpose, your mission, your why Okay, purpose, mission and why Love that. And then the second thing is is I would just, every single day, start your morning, lead your whole day with acts of gratitude. I’m going to give you all some things to think about here in a second. And then the last thing I would ask everyone to do if they really want to have a very successful 2024, it’s simple things.

19:27
Every single day, at the end of the day, this would be the last thing you do before you sign off is capture a small win and capture what you learned for the day.

19:41
And if you’re willing to do that, check this out, because the math plays out on this mark. If you’re willing to capture a win and, by the way, a win may not be a sale, a win might be you made a great connection, you had a great conversation, anything as simple as that. But if you capture that every single day and you do this Monday through Sunday, that’s seven days a week, that’s seven wins a week, seven learning moments a week. Multiply that out by a month, multiply that out by a quarter, multiply that out over the year. You have hundreds of wins and hundreds of things you’ve learned. Unpack your mission, your purpose and your why Attitude of gratitude and then capture a small win in a learning moment. Do that, commit, clav yourself, hold yourself accountable, create some discipline around it and then start that January 1st. Hold yourself accountable December 31st 2024,. Watch what happened over the past year with your growth.

20:46 – Mark Hunter (Host)
That is powerful. I’m going to add just one thing to it. Every morning starts your day off creating a list of who are the people who you feel you’re going to influence and impact that day, and you begin to frame them up when you’re thinking that these are customers, these are people who I have the potential to influence and impact. And then, at the end of the day, just like what you said, I reflect and I go thank you that I had the ability to impact and influence these people, because at the other day, sales is not what we sell, it’s the people we get to touch and that’s what absolutely makes a difference. Hey, we’re running out of time here. This is an absolutely great show, absolutely fantastic. Larry, your book Selling from the Heart People if you haven’t read it, read it. Read it. What else is going on with you? How do people find out more about Larry? Because you’ve got a absolutely killer podcast.

21:43 – Larry Levine (Guest)
Oh, no, thanks, Mark. I’ll just speak to the podcast here for a second we podcast. You’ve been a multiple time guest on the podcast. We’re weekly talk about things that we feel need to be talked about. On the Selling from the Heart podcast, with my dear co-host and my dear friend and business partner, Darrell Amy, you can find anything you want to find out about Selling from the Heart. Just go to SellingFromtheHeartnet. I got some things that I’m creeping out into 2024. I will tell you this right now. Book 2 is done. It’s coming out later part of the summer 2024. You’ve had a sneak peek into it, Mark. It’s going to take Selling from the Heart and it’s going to take this to all new level.

22:25 – Mark Hunter (Host)
It is, and we’ve got a great audience. Jbj has, I’m done there, so that’s an interesting joke for some folks.

22:32 – Larry Levine (Guest)
Hey, can I just? I just want to leave your. I just want to leave everyone with something. If they’re willing to do this In fact, they can do this next week that will set themselves up for a great 24. Will you allow me to share something? Yeah, go ahead Before we split. Here’s what I want you to do, because this is the second part of this is. I talked about gratitude, but gratitude is not something you just flip on and flip off. It’s like authenticity is not a lifestyle. I mean, it’s a lifestyle. It’s not a light switch, same with gratitude.

23:05
I’m going to give you a framework. If everyone who’s watching and listening can key in on this, I promise you you will unpack some gold. This is about bringing gratitude and thankfulness to your clients. Start with one, and this is what you all are going to do next week this kind of a lag between Christmas and New Year’s. Find your best customer, and you all know this. You all know who your best customer is. What you’re going to do is you’re going to pick up the phone or you’re going to see them face to face, you’re going to look them in the eye, or you’re going to have phoned it here and you’re going to say. I’m going to use you, mark, as an example.

23:44
Mark, I’m super grateful for the opportunity you have given me over the past year to continue to serve you at ABC Company. I just wanted to say thank you. I look forward to a very successful and healthy 2024. But as we bring 2023 to a close, can I ask you, mark, to put your thinking cap on for just a moment? And the reason why I’m asking you this is I want to take you down memory lane for just a second.

24:19
By the way, mark, I can’t believe we’ve been doing business together for the last three years. It’s been an honor again to serve you, but if I can get you to go back in time, three years ago, did you initially choose to do business with me? And, mark, what keeps you coming back for more? And y’all got to stop. After you say that, and there might be some awkward silence, and that’s okay, but what you unpack from your customer is going to be pure fricking gold. Now, if they pause and they don’t know and there’s awkward silence beyond awkward silence, behind awkward silence here’s what it’s telling you you got opportunities in 2024 to bring gratitude and strengthen the relationship with that customer. So if y’all are willing to do that, take me up on this. Watch what happens.

25:18 – Mark Hunter (Host)
I love that, larry. That is absolutely so key because, again, there’s so much opportunity. There is an unlimited amount of opportunity out there.

25:29
If we approach it with the right attitude of serving the customer first. So with that, I want to say thank you, larry. Your podcast, again, of course, Selling from the Heart podcast, your book, Selling from the Heart.

Hey, with that I want to say thank you for listening to the Sales Hunter Podcast. I want to provide you with the tools to be able to influence and impact people, to help them see and achieve what they didn’t think was possible. That’s really what our goal is with this podcast and that’s what you’ll be able to do with your customers. With that, I want to say thank you very much. I’m Mark Hunter, The Sales Hunter. Thanks for listening.