Episode 367: Balancing AI Efficiency with Human Connection in Sales

Intro

0:00:18 – (Bob Woods): Welcome to the Making Sales Social podcast featuring the top voices in sales, marketing, and business. Join Brynnee Tillman, and me, Bob Woods, as we each bring you the best tips and strategies our guests teach their clients so you can leverage them for your own virtual and social selling. This episode of the Making Sales Social podcast is brought to you by Social Sales Link, the company that helps you start more trust-based conversations without being salesy through the power of LinkedIn and AI. Start your journey for free by joining our resource library. Welcome to the show.

00:00:41:24 – (Brynne Tillman): Welcome back to Making Sales Social. I am beyond thrilled to have Rina Dhanota join me today. She is a renowned sales leader known for transforming sales teams and smashing revenue targets. Who does not love that? Rina brings a wealth of experience in empowering teams, building confidence, and fostering environments where sales professionals can truly excel. Rina, thank you so much for being here. Welcome to the show.

00:01:11:04 –  (Rina Dhanota): Thank you so much for having me. Very excited to be here. 

00:01:14:30 – (Brynne Tillman): I am too. I am so excited to jump into some of your magic. But before we do that, we ask all of our guests. The first question is what does making sales social mean to you? 

00:01:26:60 – (Rina Dhanota): Yeah, that’s a great question. Okay. So making sales social for me just really is about building genuine connections and genuine relationships.

00:01:35:07 – (Rina Dhanota): I think relationship building and data-driven strategy like creating more connected human processes is what it’s about speaking out to me as. And as a sales leader and especially as a business owner. It’s really just about fostering that trust, right? That transparency and relevance really in every interaction, turning sales from a transactional type of sale, which, you know, back in the days it used to be more of a partnership that involves like real problems for clients and real conversations and really just understanding. In the social world today, especially like all LinkedIn and Twitter media, whatever everybody is using a strong network really is one of the most valuable assets I have this year.

00:02:19:08 – (Rina Dhanota): I spent a lot of time on growth and building my network, and so it really showed me the true value of having a strong network. I think for me just really just allows my team and myself to just stay in tune with everything that’s going on with it in the industry. Right? any shifts, positioning ourselves as distracted advisers rather than just sellers.

00:02:42:12 – (Rina Dhanota): And so by leveraging social platforms which help us make sales social, that’s a tricky one and we’re able to manufacture. Yeah, we’re really just sharing insights, right, and talking about real-time things and just being raw in it. 

00:03:00:90 – (Brynne Tillman): So I love that. It’s really and the interesting thing is I think there’s not much difference between real-life social and social media if you do it right, Right?

00:03:13:17 – (Brynne Tillman): It’s a valuable report. So I love that a great answer. So, you know, one of the things when learning about you is, you know, I noticed how instrumental you are in turning around sales teams and significantly boosting performance. Can you share a little bit about kind of some of the first steps that you take when you start working with a team that’s struggling a little bit and what you do and just get started and transform those teams?

00:03:45:00 – (Rina Dhanota): Yeah, absolutely. I think my first priority is always going to be understanding the unique dynamics of the team itself, right? Everybody starts from different sections, but just that true understanding of what’s happening. You should spend a lot of your time observing, just understanding what the overall goals of the teams are, of the companies and see if they’re aligning.

00:04:06:12 – (Rina Dhanota): But I really just start with a deep dive into what’s working and what’s not working right by listening to each team member reviewing processes, going through data sets, like just analyzing performance data. And with that and that foundation, I can quickly just identify quick wins that can build confidence and boost a lot of basic motivation. And then this approach just I think for me, it brings the team together to just under like one shared vision of empowering them to be successful and then just really creating the culture where each person sees themselves as an essential part of the team.

00:04:43:17 – (Brynne Tillman): So I love that culture is part of this, right? I think it’s so important that people feel connected and culture is a big piece of that. You know, I’m curious if you have any stories or, you know, of either a salesperson or a team that you’ve helped exceed their revenue or culture was kind of a part of that.

00:05:08:15 – (Rina Dhanota): Yeah, that’s a that’s something that’s kind of near and dear to me. I think I really pride myself on the ability to like coach my team, not to just their numbers, right, but just to exceed their own goals that they never did not, thought was possible. Right? Like owning a new, a new house or things like that. So I’ll never forget like one one of my reps who was incredibly talented or is incredibly talented or truly felt stuck.

00:05:36:01 – (Rina Dhanota): He focused a lot on like just redefining their approach and like getting to the root of what was holding them back. In this case confidence, it was really tackling their high stakes like tackling the confidence was a big thing for us and a lot of of my coaching just surrounded that and we outlined a tailored plan that if you role plays it, get done a little bit more confident, tackled objections head on.

00:06:03:01 – (Rina Dhanota): It’s really exciting because that quarter they not only hit but they surpassed their revenue goals and so the success was just really just unlocking their belief in themselves and seeing them move beyond what they thought was possible. So that’s exciting.

00:06:16:90 – (Brynne Tillman): Yeah, I really love that. And, you know, we can teach sales techniques and sales skills all day long, but I love that you really help them to believe in their own ability that is forever lasting, right?

00:06:32:12 – (Brynne Tillman): That is not I taught them a thing, but you’ve helped them to really see their potential. And I think that could be some of the most powerful teachings that anyone can offer a sales professional or any professional for that matter. So thank you for that. I love that story. You know, talk a little bit about, you know, if you’re looking ahead.

00:06:59:04 – (Brynne Tillman): Right. And we know that sales and sales leadership is evolving right between AI and tools, which are great in some ways because it can help investment in technology, but it can also make sales reps lazy in other places. So talk to me a little bit about what you’re seeing. And I hate to use the word prediction, but based on your experience where do you think kind of that market dynamic is moving?

00:07:30:27 – (Rina Dhanota): Yeah,

00:07:31:18 – (Rina Dhanota): AI is going to AI is going to be here. You have to make sure that you’re using AI in just different ways, but also just putting your personal spin on everything. Right. AI is not going to replace the human. I think everybody keeps talking about it. They think they can. I mean, look at Tesla with this new robot, but really just learning how to like balance using AI.

00:07:55:17 – (Rina Dhanota): Right. But just keeping your own human connection is going to be where everybody wins. 

00:08:02:00 – (Brynne Tillman): So I agree with that. I think everyone needs to adopt AI and leverage it. And one of the things, you know, I think about a lot is, you know, there is a lot of non-customer facing things that we can take some shortcuts on it know as long as we’re getting the right output, helping us to draft some emails, as long as we have parameters, right, like and examples of other emails so that it’s in our company voice and all those things.

00:08:38:09 – (Brynne Tillman): I truly, deeply believe that nothing will ever replace the relationship. It’s just there’s nothing that can replace the relationship.

00:08:48:05 – (Brynne Tillman): So I think the sales folks that will truly succeed are the ones that optimize their time with AI but still invest their relationship rapport building time with the human beings.

00:09:04:13 – (Rina Dhanota): Yeah, I 100% agree. Yeah. So.

00:09:07:20 – (Brynne Tillman): So that’s awesome. You know, there are a lot of barriers that prevent sales professionals from reaching kind of their full potential. One of them you talked about already is kind of that mindset. What are some of the other challenges that you’re seeing from reps that just simply get them stuck, right? They plateau somewhere or they even might have been doing well and now they’re in a wall.

00:09:33:10 – (Brynne Tillman): What are some of those challenges? And so what are some of the things that you teach them that can help them kind of overcome those barriers? 

00:09:42:37 – (Rina Dhanota): Yeah, I mean, you kind of mentioned it earlier. I think there’s two ones that like two big barriers I think that come to mind the first one is going to be that mindset that you’re talking about, right?

00:09:51:15 – (Rina Dhanota): The lack of confidence or self-belief can really just hinder someone even the most professional person or skilled person. And so just focusing on empowering that environment. The other piece of it is just around. Sometimes people are just unsure of how to use the resources available to them and to do that effectively, right? And for me, I’m a big resource hog.

00:10:14:27 – (Rina Dhanota): I really believe and like people with different resources to understand how we can win in certain scenarios and win as a village. And so when you are able to

00:10:25:00 – (Rina Dhanota): be a good sales leader, I think, you know, your role, part of your role is really just identifying those gaps and ensuring that the team has what they need to feel prepared.

00:10:34:08 – (Rina Dhanota): Right? And so feel prepared feeling get engaged, feel inspired, whatever the case may be. I think this is kind of like a shout-out that I want to give to Roderick, who I met you through, which is really awesome. He’s fabulous. Yeah, he’s a good friend and he’s just an awesome person. But his book is something that I have read multiple times or listened to for me.

00:10:56:26 – (Rina Dhanota): Actually, I love listening to it, but he’s just awesome. Yeah, he really just talks about like how it it really just helps your approach to overcoming those challenges, right? Especially around like empowering teams and building a strong foundation for growth and things like that. What he talks about there is super, super influential and, and I love it.

00:11:23:14 – (Rina Dhanota): One of the things that he says is one of the best lessons I’ve learned from, you know

00:11:28:23 – (Rina Dhanota): from hit with not many things, he says. But one of the things I like to say is one of the best things I learned from my friend Roderick is just the importance on really focusing on building sustainable practices that really help their reps reach their full potential.

00:11:45:01 – (Brynne Tillman): So I think that’s awesome. Now I know that you’ve helped build sales teams in larger companies and you also help companies build their small, smaller startup from a CEO that’s a salesperson becoming a sales leader. When would you tell a CEO that, you know, it’s time for you to focus on being the CEO and stop being your number one salesperson and let’s bring in the salesperson to help their work? Yeah, yeah. When does that happen? 

00:12:16:79 – (Rina Dhanota): I mean, for me, I’m just always persistent. So for me, naturally it just happens that way because I’ve always been helpful like I always want to help people and the way that I can. I had a great mentor previously. Before that, I think everything they did for me was just like everything I try to do for everybody else now, but really when the time to just say, Hey, let me buckle down, let me get that role right, and let’s find a new sales sales objectives.

00:12:45:08 – (Rina Dhanota): When you start to become that face of the customer. I think for me, a lot of the time people are initially in the startup phase, bringing in the CEO, bringing different executives. But I came to a point in the previous company where it was always just a tap on my shoulder, people coming over to me. And now that was taking a lot of time for me, right?

00:13:10:01 – (Rina Dhanota): My business fell and people were coming to me. The engineering team is coming to me and I’m like, knock, knock, knock. I think it’s my time. Yeah. 

00:13:21:00 – (Brynne Tillman): So that’s that’s awesome. What would you say to a business leader? I mean, this is what I hear, right? Like, I’m the only one that can do this. It’s not true.

00:13:32:26 – (Brynne Tillman): But they make it right, I guess they’re like, kind of micromanaging it. And how did you move them from the mindset of I am the salesperson to I am the sales leader? 

00:13:44:26 – (Rina Dhanota): Yeah, that’s a great question. I would say

00:13:50:01 – (Rina Dhanota): I mean, micromanaging is a tough thing to deal with, right? And so 

00:13:55:08 – (Brynne Tillman): I know that you can go you go in and you’ll help people do that, right?

00:13:58:17 – (Brynne Tillman): Make that transition. And am I right? Yeah, Yeah. So, when you sit down with that CEO and you just you’re just like, okay, here’s the here’s how to rethink your role as a sales leader versus as the front line salesperson, what are you talking to them about? How do you get them to make the mindset shift that you’re telling me?

00:14:25:10 – (Brynne Tillman): Right? So you’re moving it, you’re hiring an AE, right? You’re saying Mr. or Mrs. or Ms. CEO, you’ve been selling this whole time and now you need to move into a sales leadership role and have someone doing the grunt work, right? How do you get to them? Okay, so that’s where I am. So I’m asking this question, right?

00:14:51:02 – (Brynne Tillman): Like, I think, okay, I’m really the only one that sells. I mean, I have great team members, but they’re not salespeople. So much of my time is selling where it should be doing. So what would you say to me to say, get out of your head and lead a team not just be the team? 

00:15:11:69 – (Rina Dhanota): Yeah, I think I would just ask them to trust the process, right?

00:15:15:29 – (Rina Dhanota): I think what they did was they hired you or for a reason, and you need to be able to let go and be able to trust that your team is going to take care of you. Right. A lot of the time it’s, you know, the CEOs, they don’t realize and I’m a business owner myself, and I have people under me, but they don’t realize that or I like I haven’t realized that, you know, it’s okay to trust.

00:15:38:15 – (Rina Dhanota): And I brought this person on because I trust that ability, their ability to do what I typically even do. And so just really letting go of that piece and I think

00:15:48:16 – (Rina Dhanota): somehow getting them to trust that people in place are capable. 

00:15:54:96 – (Brynne Tillman): Yeah, Yeah. And you know, it’s interesting, it’s an interesting situation because there’s no way a business leader can scale if they are doing it all the time.

00:16:07:22 – (Brynne Tillman): You Right, right, right. So the scale of business, you have to be able to give that over. So is that where you come in and help and you come to tell me? I guess let’s move into how do you help your clients. Let’s ask that. 

00:16:21:13 – (Rina Dhanota): Yeah, absolutely. For me, if I’m talking about my own company, right, my biggest company itself is an investment real estate investment company, right?

00:16:32:19 – (Rina Dhanota): And so we do a lot of property management. I have different property managers on my team. And so for me, I was, you know, wasting a lot of time going from property or property and meeting different people that are in the market for that. And

00:16:45:22 – (Rina Dhanota): I was wasting a lot of time traveling to try to go around and be that person.

00:16:51:17 – (Rina Dhanota): And so

00:16:52:26  (Rina Dhanota): how I help them is really just to build the confidence in my own team members and just say I’m putting my trust in them. And so you’re going to be in great hands, right? It’s a little bit different coming from a sales like tech side writing or sales space or anything like that. But when being in my company itself, which is just investment, real estate investment, that’s that’s where I stand.

00:17:13:25 – (Brynne Tillman): Okay, great. Awesome. So for our listeners who are aspiring to build their own successful teams the way you have, what advice would you give them to just start off on the right foot?

00:17:25:02 – (Rina Dhanota): Yeah,

00:17:26:00 – (Rina Dhanota): I would just

00:17:27:02 – (Rina Dhanota): say

00:17:28:10 – (Rina Dhanota): invest in the people, the people, the process, the purpose, right? And start by hiring and developing individuals. So you believe in your mission and who are driven to grow?

00:17:38:07 – (Rina Dhanota): Growth is a big thing for me. The structure is really essential. Establishing clear, achievable goals and just having a repeatable process that everyone can really just rally around and then finally keep the purpose at the forefront, right? People have guiding principles nowadays and that is our purpose, right? And their mission. And so when team members know their work matters, it really just motivates them to move beyond the numbers.

00:18:07:22 – (Rina Dhanota): I think also on a personal note, right,

00:18:10:10 – (Rina Dhanota): I am currently exploring and just opened up actively looking for new opportunities. I just want to call that out there to get the W-2 right. And so just this approach is really important. This is what I’m going to be looking for on my next role to bring, you know so that I can achieve the same success that I had previously before.

00:18:32:21 – (Brynne Tillman): It’s awesome. So thank you so much. My last question is, is there a question I should have asked you that I didn’t?

00:18:39:25 – (Rina Dhanota): I think

00:18:40:25 – (Rina Dhanota): I would just say maybe it’s just what initially motivates me. I’m a mom first. And so I like it when people ask a question about me. Everybody likes to talk about themselves, right? Yeah, That’s all right.

00:18:52:18 – (Brynne Tillman): So tell me, what is the number one parenting tip that you have that crosses over into the business world? 

00:19:02:00 – (Rina Dhanota): Oh yeah. Negotiation. That’s more of a joke. But no, it is true. Yeah. Negotiation. The other one is just really understanding your time. Right. And so being able to hold yourself accountable to time spent for being a mom and times that, you know, being a sales leader and an owner and recognizing that, hey, you have to set office hours and you have to be able to have your calendars because I have kids, three kids, they all have different schedules.

00:19:33:06 – (Rina Dhanota): They are different activities. And it sometimes gets overwhelming with my business and as a sales leader. So 

00:19:40:31 – (Brynne Tillman): Yeah, so yeah, I love that. And really you never get that time back. So you’ve got to be able to make sure that you’re bouncing it and you’re not sacrificing one for the other. So. Right. So if our listeners are like Boy, I would love to have a conversation with Rina, how can they get in touch with you?

00:19:59:19 –  (Rina Dhanota): Yeah, they can reach out to me on LinkedIn,

00:20:03:11 –  (Rina Dhanota): Hit Connect, let them know that, you know, coming through brand and listen to the podcast. And I’m happy to have conversations about almost everything. 

00:20:14:58 – (Brynne Tillman): That’s great. Well, thank you so much for your time and your insights, and I know whatever company you land with will be very lucky. So thank you.

00:20:23:27 – (Brynne Tillman): So thank you. And for all our listeners, when you’re out and about, don’t forget to make your sales social.

Outro:

Thanks for watching and join us again for more special guest instructors, bringing you marketing, sales training, and social selling strategies that will set you apart. Hit the subscribe button below to get the latest episodes from the Making Sales Social podcast give this video a thumbs up and comment down below on what you want to hear from us next. You can also listen to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Play. Visit our website, socialsaleslink.com for more information.