IAM1242 – CEO and Author Helps Business Owners on How to Sell like Jesus

Deb Brown Maher is a sales coach, author, and speaker who helps business owners and solo entrepreneurs change the way they sell from convincing a prospect to buy to being of service and looking for a win-win. She is passionate about helping people sell from a position of integrity and shares her methods in her book and video training course called “Sell Like Jesus: 7 Characteristics of Christ for Ethical Sales”.

• CEO Story: After working in the corporate world, with a sales script that contradicts her inner principle and that’s why ‘Sell Like Jesus' was born.
• Business Service: Her book teaches selling as a form of service to people – servant leadership like Jesus did.
• Secret Sauce: Understanding the client. Insight – understanding the business essence. Listening and asking questions.
• CEO Hack: Always reading. 1 Book for Business, 1 book for spiritual, each month.
• CEO Nugget: Mistakenly, before, I used to think about myself, but now, it's about others – how you can impact other people one at a time.
• CEO Defined: Making rules for the business. Create, adjust, and execute the path.

Website: debbrownsales.com

Check out one of our favorite CEO Hack’s Audible. Get your free audiobook and check out more of our favorite CEO Hacks HERE

Transcription

The full transcription is only available to CBNation Library Members. Sign up today!

Please Note: Our team is using the AI CEO Hacks: Exemplary AI and Otter.ai to support our podcast transcription. While we know it's improving there may be some inaccuracies, we are updating and improving them. Please contact us if you notice any issues, you can also test out Exemplary AI here.

00:10 – Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:37 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Deb Brown Mar of debbrownsales.com. Deb is super excited to have you on the show.

00:48 – Deb Brown Maher

I'm really excited to be here. Thanks. Gresh.

00:51 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, I'm excited as well too. And before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Deb so you can hear about some of the awesome things that she's doing. Deb is a sales coach, author, and speaker who helps business owners and solo entrepreneurs change the way they sell. From convincing a prospect to buy to being of service and looking for a win-win. She is passionate about helping people sell from the position of integrity and shares her methods in her book and video training course called Select Jesus Seven Characteristics of Christ for Ethical Sales. Deb, super excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

[restrict paid=”true”]

01:23 – Deb Brown Maher

I am ready.

01:25 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Let's make it happen then. So, to kind of kick everything off, I want us to rewind the clock a little bit here, a little bit more on what I like to call your CEO story. What led you to get started with all the awesome work you're doing?

01:34 – Deb Brown Maher

So I, as a child, was what my mother called a very busy child. I needed stuff to do, and at age seven or eight, of course, crafts projects were the thing. Well, I ended up making all these little loopy potholders, like 30-some, and mom couldn't use that many in the kitchen. So I got the brilliant idea to go around the neighborhood to the neighbor ladies and see if they would buy potholders. And lo and behold, they did. I couldn't believe it. And so when the entrepreneur was born, I sold Girl Scout cookies, I did babysitting, I sold newspapers. So I just really enjoyed the thrill of earning money.

02:19 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. Well, I absolutely love that. It's so funny. I started a family newspaper when I was about ten years old.

02:25 – Deb Brown Maher

Family newspaper?

02:27 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, family newspaper. I wish I would have known you. I would have had you sell it to some of my family members, but I did sell some subscriptions. But I will say this like I, what you said, you know, being a very busy kid, I was definitely that person as well, too. So I love to kind of hear those seeds have been planted into all the awesome work you're doing now.

02:41 – Deb Brown Maher

Yeah, definitely. So after that, I went to. Well, I graduated high school. I went to college. I got a four-year degree. But it really did equip me to do much in the marketplace except for customer service and sales work. So that's where I ended up. And I found at that time, I was being taught high-pressure sales. So as a kid, I just did my own thing. Right. But now I had to adhere to the standards of the company that had hired me. And Gresh, I could not talk to people the way I was supposed to.

According to the sales script, I didn't last long at that first job because of that. And through the years, I kept ending up back in sales roles. So it was really important to me to find a way to sell that was congruent with my Christian values. And that's how to sell like Jesus was born. Let's face it, if we didn't learn anything else in the last couple of years, we have all learned we have to be able to shift and just think differently because things don't stay the same. Things that we never thought would change have changed. So if we apply that creative process, it keeps us from getting despondent, and stale.

04:07 – Gresham Harkless

Quitting, ultimately, yeah, absolutely. And that's what a lot of times happens when that level of frustration, when you're trying to change something, where the waves are, the path is completely different. The game, the script, or whatever has completely changed as well. But what I love that you have, it sounds like done that related to sales in your book and everything that you're creating. So I wanted to hear and drill down a little bit more, to hear a little bit more about your book, a little bit more about all the awesome things you're doing to help people look at sales differently. But, of course, it sounds like being able to kind of sell a lot more, too.

04:37 – Deb Brown Maher

Yes, because selling is important. Right. Just applying our values to sales doesn't do us any good if we're not making money. Right. We need both. So what I discovered is that the principles of communication that Jesus applied can overlay the sales process beautifully. If you think about it, there are a lot of books written about Jesus as the ultimate leader, servant, and leader. Well, sales is really a form of service. It's a form of servant leadership. When the salesperson takes control of the process, not the content.

The principle that Jesus applied, one of them is to serve, to approach people from the standpoint that you want to hear them out first before you try to tell them anything about your product, services, features, benefits, stuff. They don't care about your stuff until they know you care about them. It really does build trust, and that's what we all want and need. It's refreshing when you're in front of a salesperson. Go figure. Who really wants to hear what you have to say before they tell you anything? What I tried to do in the book was give examples and action steps. Every chapter ends with action steps so you can take the principles and apply them in your world.

06:23 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I love that, especially, you know, the group, you know, training aspect. But I love to like, you know, not just quote-unquote, like reading the book, but actually, you know, taking action with the book, trying to treat it like kind of like a workbook. So would you consider that to be what I like to call your secret sauce? This could be for yourself individually, the business, or a combination of both. But do you feel it's, that is your ability to kind of take these, you know, these kingdom principles, this insight, this knowledge, and be able to kind of distill it down so that people can not just hear it and read it, but also to kind of have it actionable in their life?

06:52 – Deb Brown Maher

Absolutely. Well, there are maybe three things that contribute to my secret sauce. That's one of them where I can help people put things into action quickly because I can understand them and the challenge they're facing and help them figure out the best course of action. So now it's their idea, with me tweaking and helping them with phrases, with timing. So it makes it much easier to actually do it. A couple of other things contribute. One is a God-given gift of insight.

It's coupled with probably 40 years of business experience, and I've worked with people in all different industries, so I can understand the essence of the challenge someone's trying to overcome very quickly. I can also see very quickly whether I'm going to be able to help that person or not and guide them accordingly because I also have a huge network of professionals that I stay in touch with because I'm a connector. The other secret sauce has to do with the most important technique for communicating in general, and that is listening and asking questions. So there are just some things I raise people's awareness about.

That can help fine-tune their listening skills. And listening is critical because how do you know what's the best question to ask if you haven't really listened? Questioning skills in a sales environment, or it actually works with kids, spouses, and family members. Wherever you're trying to solve a problem, you have to get to the essence of how people view that problem before you can solve it. So I teach a questioning method that guarantees that you can get to the root cause within three to five questions.

09:01 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, no, I appreciate you sharing each of those aspects of the secret sauce. I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

09:15 – Deb Brown Maher

I am always reading one book that is focused on business and one book that is focused on things spiritual to deepen my walk with the Lord. And that's each month. So I basically read two books a month, sometimes more. Every vacation, I probably end up reading five or six books. There's so much information that can be gleaned that can augment what you already know, that can just fine-tune the things that you do know and practice. So I would say read in your field and read things you're interested in. I even read books on quantum physics. You'd be surprised how much it applies to so many things.

10:06 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I love that. So I want to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this is a little bit more of a word of wisdom or piece of advice. It might be something in your book, something you might tell your favorite client, or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

10:23 – Deb Brown Maher

I'm going to talk to my younger business self. I used to think, mistakenly, that life was all about me. It's not. It's about others. And as long as I was focused inwardly and selfishly, things did not go well. When I realized that was pretty self-destructive and I got some healing for some hurts that were plaguing me, I was then able to let go of the baggage of the past and focus on the person who was in front of me.

So my big goal, which probably can never technically be accomplished, I want to change the world one relationship at a time. So I start with the one that's in front of me. And today you gave me the pleasure and the privilege of reaching a lot of ones through your podcast. Gresh. So I'm really grateful for that.

11:25 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, absolutely. I'm grateful for all the work that you do. Sometimes we can forget about others, and we do that in ways we're not even aware of or why we're actually doing it. I love how, in the business world, we understand that life is about others and having empathy. This understanding is crucial in all conversations, whether they involve sales or not. Sometimes we may not even realize that we're selling, but it's important to grasp this concept.

I once learned in a networking group that everyone is tuned in to the same radio station, WIIFM (What's In It For Me). So once you understand that, and once you kind of realize that, you start to try to tune into that, you start to really listen, start to do a lot of the things that we kind of talked about, you know, through this, so that at the end of the day, you can have a really strong relationship and you can make that impact. One person, one spirit, one mind at a time.

12:15 – Deb Brown Maher

Yes.

12:16 – Gresham Harkless

Now, my absolute favorite question is the definition of what it means to be a CEO, and we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEO's on the show. So, Deb, what does being a CEO mean to you?

12:25 – Deb Brown Maher

Being a CEO means that I can make the rules of how I do business. I don't have to mold my behavior after someone else's idea of what I should be doing. I get to create the path, execute the path, and adjust the path as needed. And it's not easy for your listeners. I'm not going to pretend it was easy many a time because I spent 20 years in the industry working for others and 20 years working for myself. So there are pros and cons of both environments. Nowadays, nobody pays me vacation pay or holiday pay, right? Okay.

13:13 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah.

13:14 – Deb Brown Maher

So go work for a company if that's what you want. But for me, the rewards far outweighed anything that I felt I was missing because of that ability to create. It's much more important to me. And let's face it, God wired me as the tip of a spear. I'm not happy following way behind. I like being out in front. I like trying new things first. So if you're that kind of person, being the CEO of your own company is a great place to be. And some people are also wired to bring others along, and some are not, either one is okay. It just changes the structure of the company that you create. So there's just so much flexibility in running your own business.

14:09 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Yeah. I often say if you run your own race, you can't lose. One of my favorite parables, is parables of the talent, because a lot of times we're giving unique and different talents. To be able to lean into those and lean into, like, what those gifts might be to make the world a better place, to make that impact is something that God definitely wants us to do. And I think if we are reminded that your race might be completely different from my race to whoever's listening to this, we lean into that.

That's when we truly, I think, reach a phenomenal impact that we can have on society and even beyond for people that might be listening to this, what I wanted to do is just pass you the mic again, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and of course, how best they can get a hold of you. Get a copy of the book, and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

14:47 – Deb Brown Maher

Well, thanks for that. The best way to get hold of me is my website, which is debbrownsales.com. and everything that you want to find out about me is out there. And I would say, you know, on my website, there is a link to my calendar. I mean it when I say call. Let's chat. And the first half hour is completely free, no strings attached. I just want to hear your story, help in any way that I can, and help you along your way, because I really do believe that in giving, I'm going to receive everything that I need. And it may not be from the person I'm talking to, but I'll still get what I need. So I make that offer with all sincerity.

15:42 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. I truly appreciate your sincerity. Of course, your time and your knowledge as well. To make it even easier, we're going to have the links and information in the show notes as well, too, so that everybody can take advantage of that opportunity and that offer that you have. But I think so much comes from having conversations and getting knowledge and information. I don't think we all know everything. We all have that opportunity to kind of sharpen the saw or the sphere as we kind of talked about as well, too. So I appreciate you so much and providing a way that we can do that. Deb and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:09 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

[/restrict]