We were lucky to catch up with Dr. Donna Smith Bellinger recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Dr. Donna Smith thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a time you helped a customer really get an amazing result through their work with you.
A woman in mechanical engineering contacted me regarding a program I offered for women who wanted a better work-life balance. Her thoughts were that she was not valued in her life and career. After completing the short program she had registered for we began working privately. While working together, we refined her communication style and her listening, coupling that with improved sales skills because regardless of who writes the check, we are all in business for ourselves. Over the course of 16 months together, she went from being a team member to being a project and team leader. And was able to negotiate her dream job. All told, we were able to increase her earnings by 30%. Sidebar, she is now in a beautiful relationship with a partner and her family.
Dr. Donna Smith, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I discovered years ago that sales is my natural language. In high school, I made cold calls and sold magazines over the telephone. After a car accident, I was told that I couldn’t work for at least six months, so what I decided to do was go back to school and study computer operations. After investigating one school, I was encouraged to take computer programming, which I did not want. My response to the admissions director was, “I’m so sorry I wasted your time. I’ll take me and my financial aid elsewhere. That evening, I received a phone call from the admissions director stating that he would be pleased to invite me to take the course I had requested and that he would like me to come and work for him because, as he put it, nobody ever tells me no. At my graduation from the program, it was announced that I was the school’s 1st assistant admissions director. I have remained in vocational education for over a decade. While in that role, I worked for several schools, created award-winning sales teams, and eventually moved to the corporate side of sales and sales training.
Now that I’m in my middle earlies, my focus is helping others shorten their learning curve from their natural language or skill set to build a business that serves them. I work with everyone from solopreneurs to Fortune 500 companies. I serve people who only eat what they kill. The mission statement for my business is “The work that I do must affect more than the bottom line because it’s not the transaction; it’s the testimony.”
My services include workshops, group programs, executive coaching, and speaking to professional organizations. All of my services are designed to meet the client where they are so that they don’t have to wait six months to have their burning questions answered.
The secret sauce to my success is my ability to simplify the complex. My style is straightforward and outcomes-driven.
A few of my most popular workshops include: “Sales are Not About the Wait and See,” “Embracing No: How Successful Entrepreneurs Turn Rejection into Revenue,” and “Me Myself and I, TheOne-person Sales Team.”
In addition, I have three books, and I serve as an adjunct in business and entrepreneurship. I am also on the advisory board for a Chicago Area Community College.
Have you ever had to pivot?
I shifted my career from vocational education to corporate sales, and during that period, I had a very steep learning curve. Although I have a technical background, there were a lot of innovations I Had a very tough manager who, while listening to me on the phone with the prospect one day, said to me on the telephone, “You sound ignorant and unsophisticated. Of course, I was taken aback, but as I analyzed the situation, which is my style, I realized I had a huge skill gap. To address that challenge I took it upon myself to learn as much as possible in our classrooms and to observe what was working and what was not working for our clients. At the end of my first 12 months, I was the first woman to achieve senior account manager status and the only person of color to do so. This gave me confidence and served as a success story I would share regularly later with my teams and my audiences to remember that Perception equals reality. To be perceived as a professional, you must learn to consistently communicate your value to your audience with confidence, not arrogance.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
The most potent tool I possess is building relationships and valuing differences. In addition, I am a lifelong learner and extremely outcomes-driven. No lie in sales. It’s essential to connect with your prospects quickly, listen to them, and determine their desired outcome. Whether they attended the networking event to increase their visibility or to seek out new clients. In my first book, “You Lost Me at Hello”, I focused on foundational training for effective business networking. In the opening chapter, I state that not everyone will like you, and you don’t want them to because it’s too time-consuming. The people who know me and have worked with me, me for me, or hired me know me as a person of integrity. Always giving my best and if a request is made that I cannot fulfill I don’t pretend that I can do it I tell them this is not in my skill set but I will help you to find someone who can help you fill that need. Being outcomes-driven. I trademarked the term “Yestimonials ™. The formula for “Yestimonials ™, is a part of my training. Looking at my LinkedIn profile, you will see over 40 recommendations that have better results driven and demonstrate the value I have brought to those I have served.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.askdsb.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/askdsb
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnasmithbellinger/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DonnaBellinger