We were lucky to catch up with Shane Jamison recently and have shared our conversation below.

Shane, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with a fun one – what’s something you believe that most people in your industry (or in general) disagree with?

In popular culture there’s a perception that to be a salesperson, you must be a silver-tongued pitchman who could sell wood to a forest. This is manipulation; convincing someone to do something against their best interest. It leaves people with a feeling of “ick.”

Contrary to popular belief, sales is not about pushing a product or service. It’s about understanding the buyer’s needs and helping them make a decision that aligns with those needs. A skilled sales professional doesn’t just sell; they listen, empathize, and guide the buyer towards a solution that addresses their problem.

This approach provides the needed clarity to take action and make a decision; yes or no.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

When most kids were dreaming about being the next Michael Jordan, I was dreaming about being a businessman. The only thing I knew about business was that you put on a suit and went to a big office building, and you made money. To me, money was freedom. It could provide options that I didn’t have growing up. Then, when I was in college, someone told me that the people in business who make the most money are in sales. So that’s what I decided to do – dive into a sales career.

Luckily, I got a taste of success early on and knew that this career was for me. It felt like there wasn’t a limit to what I could do. I was rewarded for how hard I worked and how good I was at my job. Soon after, I came to another realization – that when I did a good job, it had an impact on people’s lives. It solved painful problems in their business that often impacted their personal lives.

Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to work with many companies, from startups to large corporations, continuing to master the craft of sales and, along the way, learn who I am and how I can have the biggest impact.

About a year ago, it became clear that I could have the biggest impact, by helping others maximize their potential in their sales career. I started working with founders, small business owners, sales leaders and sales people, to help them master their sales skills and build a company, career, and life where they could realize their potential.

Sales skills are not only a business skill, but also a life skill. It makes me proud to be a sales guy!

In my sales coaching and Go-to-market consulting practice, I’m able to share what I’ve learned with a diverse group of companies and people, and see the impact it can have on their life.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

A key moment in my career was when I moved to San Francisco to get involved in the booming tech scene. The environment was electric. Everyone you ran into had an idea and they were doing something about it. Startups were everywhere.

I was working at a soon-to-be acquired company when I met someone, who’s company was acquired by mine, and we were in the same onboarding class. He left shortly a few months later to build an advice platform that would connect entreprenuers with experts in the different aspects of business, marketing, sales, product, etc.

He included me as a sales expert on the platform where I connected with many different entrepreneuers to advise them on how to build a sales organiztion. These “as-needed” conversations turned into longer relationships and eventually turned into longer engagements with these companies.

So when I left the corporate world ten years later, I went right into working with businesses in a fractional sales leader/sales coach role.

I’m a year into doing this full-time and though there have been ups and downs, I’m so fulfilled getting to help thebusinesses build or turnaround their sales motion.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Before starting my business, I invested little to no time engaging on social media. I’m just not a “look at me person”, and that’s what it felt like.

I knew that would have to change if I wanted to make my business a success. The biggest challenge we have to overcome in business is obscurity. Not enough people know who we are and what we do. To change that, you have to put yourself out there because my network and referrals would only take me so far.

I set my sights on mastering LinkedIn since that’s where so many of my ideal clients were. I first started with a goal to increase my connections/followers from 1500 to 5k.

So, I made it a KPI to make 15 new connections each day, reaching out to each person with a personal message that did not contain a pitch.

The second hurdle to overcome was my hesitance to post original content. This was very awkward for me, so I took baby steps. I created a list of people that I was interested in what they had to say, and simply engaged with their content, liking and commenting on what they were saying.

Doing this daily started to build my social media muscle, and soon, I made the commitment to posting daily on LinkedIn.

It’s something that I continue to do and improve daily. There’s no secret, it’s just showing up daily to participate in the conversations that are happening.

This daily exercise plus continuing to make those connections has built momentum and each week more and more people are finding me there and learning more about what I do.

Contact Info:

• Website: shanejamison.com
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/shanejamison