Like Smiling and Dialing? Then Don't Listen to This Sales Effectiveness Episode Featuring Ralph Beltran

SUMMARY 

In this episode, the importance of continuous learning and improvement for sales reps is discussed, as well as the role mindset plays in sales success. Additionally, Ralph Beltran shares his story of 30 plus years  in sales, including where most sales reps go wrong in their approach.


Ralph's  parents both worked in sales, which inspired him to enter the field.  He began in retail sales before moving on to real estate, where he was very successful, helping over 485 families buy their first homes. This gave him a great feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction, knowing that he had used his skills to help others achieve their goals.


Ralph describes his journey from working in sales to becoming a sales coach and mentor. He talks about how he got into telecommunications and became successful in the industry, winning awards and becoming a top producer. He then talks about how he started coaching and mentoring other sales reps, helping them to improve their own skills and achieve success.


Sales is a difficult job, but if you have the right process in place, it can be a lot easier. Today, Ralph's focus is on helping sales professionals who are struggling with self-doubt and lack of confidence in their abilities. 

TIMESTAMPS 

0:00:00   Sales Effectiveness: Continuous Learning and Improvement

0:01:55   Sales Success Story: How One Man Found His Calling in Sales

0:03:26   Sales Career Development: From B2C to B2B

0:06:13   Sales Success Across Three Sectors: Retail, Real Estate, and B to C

0:08:07   The Power of Sales: Why This Career Path Was Right For Me

0:09:13   The Benefits of a Sales Career

0:10:47   Sales Processes: Inside vs. Outside

0:12:26   The Benefits of Focusing on Outcomes Over Activity in the Workplace

0:14:00   How to Make a Call Script Work for You

0:16:43   The Benefits of a Best Practices Approach to Business

0:18:50   Sales Scripting: What Works Best

0:21:51   The Power of Silence in Sales

0:23:37   Ralph Beltran on the Importance of Scripting, Testing, and Continuous Learning in Sales

Music Credit: Maarten Schellekens - Riviera 

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www.cascadingleadership.com
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Transcript

[00:00:00] Dr. Jim: welcome to today's episode of Cascading Leadership. I am your friendly neighborhood talent strategy nerd, Dr. Jim. Today we have a great episode focused in the area of sales effectiveness. Some of the things that you will take away from this conversation, we're gonna learn why continuous learning and continuous improvement is a critical success factor We're also gonna learn why mindset is important in the sales role and in the sales function. And we're also going to learn, among other things, where most sales reps get it wrong when it comes to approaching their sales process, methodology, and engagement. There's gonna be some heavy, lifting that that is gonna happen in this episode.

[00:00:43] Dr. Jim: And to help us with that lift and are actually lead the lift, we have Ralph Beltran joining us welcome to the show, Ralph. 

[00:00:50] Ralph Beltran: Thank you Jim, for having me on the show. And hello everybody. Just just to get started, tell you a little story about myself and who I am. That way you could get to know a little bit more about [00:01:00] me.

[00:01:00] Ralph Beltran: I'm a founder. Become your best consulting sales trainer coach, and doing sales, teaching sales. This is what I love to do. This is where the passion lies. I've been in sales, so just to tell the story here, I've been in sales for a total of 32 plus years. It all started off with me starting in retail sales as a sales rep, selling shoes and clothing.

[00:01:21] Ralph Beltran: And ever since then, I've always knew that. Working with people, just talking to them, understanding them, helping 'em find solutions. All of that was something that I was meant to do. And I think a lot of this comes stems from my family, my, my parents. My dad was a sales rep in the petroleum company and been in sales.

[00:01:40] Ralph Beltran: So as a little kid I would go with them on a at his work and being there watching him, seeing what he's doing and the sales that he did. So I just opened in my eyes to sales and thought, wow he's a hard working man. 

[00:01:51] Ralph Beltran: And then also I see my mom in the sales industry, she did retails clothing sales. And so seeing them both in sales, I at a young age, I seen what they did. I seen [00:02:00] the hardware they put in, but also I heard all the success stories at the dinner table about new customers they met new engagement, how they met new friends and made new connections and relationships out of just being in sales.

[00:02:12] Ralph Beltran: So I think as a little kid, it drawn me towards sales. And, when, as I got old and I turn old enough to work, my first thing was I need to get into sales. I'm gonna follow my parents' path. So I jump into sales, started off in retail as I learned in retail, all the basic fundamentals of relationship building, working with customers, I found that I could do even more.

[00:02:35] Ralph Beltran: I could help out even more people. I could probably get into business aspect of this. So I got more into real estate. and real estate, once again, it was dealing with people on a one-on-one basis, learning their learning, what their goals and their dreams are as a family, sitting down with them, talking to 'em, asking open-ended questions, finding out how important it is to buy a home.

[00:02:54] Ralph Beltran: And what I did in real estate is I was very successful in that industry. And I placed over [00:03:00] 485 families in their very first home. So this was a great feeling inside. This is in the heart feeling, wow, I got this little, this family, the little boy, the daughter, into a home, and the smiles that they had on their faces.

[00:03:12] Ralph Beltran: So that was my very first feel of success in sales, I would say, where I felt as though I accomplished something and that all my skills and everything that I learned is all coming to fruition, and in everything was coming together within that industry. 

[00:03:26] Ralph Beltran: Once again, I started thinking, okay, how about if I was able to transfer my sales skills into business, working with companies and organizations at enterprise and corporate?

[00:03:36] Ralph Beltran: So I got into telecommunications more of selling voiceover IP selling SaaS communications, and all of the internet fiber optics. And being in business to business was a little bit different than working with b2c, working with customers. It was. Finding out, okay, what's the company's goal? Now I, found out about the people's goal, but what's the company's goal?

[00:03:57] Ralph Beltran: How do I do this? So that required me to do a little [00:04:00] bit more research on company and businesses and, the industry as far as telecommunications and how businesses are succeeding, what they're failing at. So it was a lot more research that I had to do and a lot more education that I had to intake as far as, okay, something new, something different.

[00:04:16] Ralph Beltran: Now let me learn and get to know this. Got into telecommunications. I was in that for about five years. Been very successful in the telecommunications top producer, award winning, and very successful in that industry. In there I grew to be a coach and mentor. I, what happened was, it just happened organically.

[00:04:34] Ralph Beltran: The new reps that would get hired on seen my success and would come to me, say, Ralph, how are you doing this? How are you so successful in reaching customers? How are you so successful in closing sales? And then they would just come to me naturally, and I felt as though, wow someone's coming to me for help.

[00:04:49] Ralph Beltran: I've never done this before. Being that go-to person, being that person of, somebody could go to and ask questions and concerns and trying to start helping others. I started to feel as though, [00:05:00] okay, I could do this. I have already 20 years in sales already. I've been doing this for a very long time.

[00:05:05] Ralph Beltran: I, I felt as though now I could help others. Now let me see what I could do to get people, other sales reps, other professionals on the same page, how could I impact their lives? So I started mentoring on a little one-on-one basis with them teaching a little bit of sales strategies, having them ride along with me, shadow me go with me on calls, listen to a couple of my calls, and then I started seeing impact in their lives.

[00:05:28] Ralph Beltran: I started seeing their numbers increase and, their achievements, and it just started feeling good. I, started to feel as though this was my calling. So what happened was my next job role, I wanted to be either a trainer or a coach. So I went into a company that was looking for a sales coach, and that was a position I took.

[00:05:47] Ralph Beltran: During that time, I took on five teams and I started training from, it could be from 35 to 50 sales reps here. This was peer training and coaching on sales strategies, prospecting, cold calling, [00:06:00] customer relationship, building, outreach. How do you get customers? How do you communicate with customers?

[00:06:05] Ralph Beltran: Everything that I use in the past, I was gonna use in my coaching strategies and processes and systems to teach them what I learned, mainly to do one thing to help them not go through that pain challenge and struggle that I did with their obje. The rejections, the nos, the bad part the, part that everybody's a fearful of sales and thinks, okay, sales is hard.

[00:06:26] Ralph Beltran: So I wanted to say, okay, let me put together something where I could show them that it is hard. Sales is a hard job, but if you put together a process in a system, you could make it a lot easier. And when I started coaching one on one teaching that passion came through the screen, came through my training.

[00:06:44] Ralph Beltran: And then I did that for five years. After that, I decided this, that I wanted to grow even further. I wanted to teach even more people. How could I teach more than 50 people? So I decided to start up my own company, become your best consulting to reach the world, to open up [00:07:00] my training, my consulting, my coaching, mentoring to the world.

[00:07:03] Ralph Beltran: Any sales professional that just is struggling out there. Sales professionals that have self-doubt. Just, they're just not believing in themselves. Their, skill level what they know, what they've learned, and just struggling in sales. So that's where I'm at today. 

[00:07:17] Dr. Jim: For those of you listening or watching this on YouTube when, this is out it's it's pretty cool that you're able to con, condense like 32 years worth of stuff into a handful of minutes. So that's cool. Thanks for giving us that rundown. It, I think one thing that's important to point out is that you're somebody that's had sales success across three different sectors retail real estate, and then B to C across a number of different things, and then you transitioned into coaching.

[00:07:47] Dr. Jim: So that's a, that's an important call out.

[00:07:49] Dr. Jim: Why did you pick sales as a career in, the first place? And I know that you mentioned your parents played a big influence in it aside from I, I guess the earning potential of the [00:08:00] job, what were the biggest things that were important to you in terms of your decision to go into a sales career?

[00:08:07] Ralph Beltran: The, story I'll tell is a, it's a little different, but I, as a child, I seen myself in a vision presenting in front of a stage in front of thousands. So when I seen that vision of myself, I always knew that this is something I was gonna be meant to do to teach others.

[00:08:23] Ralph Beltran: I didn't know what I was gonna be teaching. I didn't know what I was gonna be doing, but I knew that I was in front of an audience, speaking, talking, and sharing. And that right there was a, vision and a dream that. Put in my mind where I said, okay, that's where I'm meant to be. I didn't know at this point what was, what I was gonna be teaching.

[00:08:41] Ralph Beltran: What industry was it people? Was it businesses? But I knew that I was meant to be there teaching, mentoring, or coaching in one aspect. After that, being in sales, I knew that I had more of a flexibility to be able to use my skills. And not only that, but be able to manage my own business. [00:09:00] In sales.

[00:09:00] Ralph Beltran: You're able to say, okay, this is how I'm gonna be successful. You're able to draw out your own game plan, your own strategy. You're able to put your together, your own process and systems on what and how you could become successful. It's scalable you could make it what you want it to be, and you could basically change it if it's not working.

[00:09:19] Ralph Beltran: Where in other industries, I've found it's a little bit harder to do that. You have a lot more control in sales to manage your own schedule one and second to manage your own processing system where that's unique itself, where if something doesn't work, you're able to take it out and implement something new that can work for you.

[00:09:35] Ralph Beltran: So it was the flexibility, your own schedule, your own processes and system. 

[00:09:40] Dr. Jim: It's interesting that you cite flexibility. And the, part that I'm I'm intrigued. about when you mention that is that you'll, oftentimes go into a lot of sales organizations and they have set processes and set scripts and set all sorts of stuff in terms of how you're supposed to do [00:10:00] things I agree that stuff is necessary.

[00:10:02] Dr. Jim: You need a a framework. I'm interested to get your take is you talk about flexibility. And a lot of sales organizations structure their operation to be a sort of cookie cutter model in terms of how you do outreach, in terms of your talk tracks, in terms of all this sort of stuff.

[00:10:20] Dr. Jim: So how do you bridge the gap between an organization that is highly structured and prescriptive? Versus. It sounds like you're somebody that thrives in a flexibility, figure it out sort of mode. So how do you make those two things work together? 

[00:10:35] Ralph Beltran: So a majority of the jobs that I held were outside sales, so it would probably be a little bit different in an inside sales role.

[00:10:43] Ralph Beltran: So most of mine were outside sales, so the flexibility came for, I was controlling my schedule. Usually I would come in eight o'clock and it's usually just to follow up on emails, print out some collateral, and then go out in the field and then do my prospecting. So I would go out there usually 10 to 12, and then I would go to [00:11:00] lunch, go back out from, usually from one to three, go back out prospect, and then come back to the office, do a little bit of follow up, set my schedule.

[00:11:07] Ralph Beltran: So on outside sales is a little bit different. I have done some inside sales where yes, it's a little bit more managed. There is a little bit more of a script you gotta follow. So being with that script and that process, the inside sales role, what I would do is use what I was given. And I would dissect it, review it, practice it, rehearse it, go through the, script, the call script, go through the processing system.

[00:11:31] Ralph Beltran: I would use what I could use and adapt and implement my new strategies and processes that I knew would work. So I would implement a mixture of the company's system and in my own system. Usually what happens is as long as you're, doing the role, as long as you're doing the calls, as long as you're doing the prospecting activity, it doesn't, it didn't really matter to the company on how I was getting it, as long as I was achieving the numbers, the calls, the prospecting, as long as I was doing my email outreach and all of [00:12:00] that.

[00:12:00] Ralph Beltran: So it was using what was there and then implementing what I knew worked and including it into their strategy, their system, and using it. And I've never had a problem doing that as long as once again, the numbers are attained

[00:12:13] Dr. Jim: there's An important discussion to be had there.

[00:12:15] Dr. Jim: I'm glad that you teased that out with, which is a lot of people, and I'm generalizing, a lot of people at the desk level confuse activity with achievement. And you, what you just said is, Hey, I'm paraphrasing. Do what's expected of you, but as long as you're delivering the outcome, nobody's gonna really screw with you In terms of the actual activity and the other part that you said.

[00:12:44] Dr. Jim: Do the activity, but you should have a ridiculous focus on, hey, Is this activity moving the needle? How can I improve this? What else can I add to this that's going to get to the outcome, which is a deal.

[00:12:58] Dr. Jim: And that's, the part, [00:13:00] those are two related things that I don't know if a lot of people actually think about. And in fact, I would argue in highly prescriptive environments where the focus is activity, it actually teaches people not to think you just push buttons. And see what happens.

[00:13:17] Dr. Jim: And, if you've experienced that in the world of work in all the different places that you've engaged with, what are some of the things that somebody at the desk level can and should be doing or thinking about so they don't fall into that trap of running their desk on autopilot.

[00:13:33] Ralph Beltran: A lot of it is just reviewing your numbers. You always have to keep track of what's working and what's not working, and I call that self-reflection time. Sitting back and looking at your calls and looking at how many people you connected with, how many people you scheduled appointments with. And then when you're emailing, how many people did you email?

[00:13:50] Ralph Beltran: How many people responded? If you're looking at your numbers and you're self reflecting on what you did on a daily basis, and a lot of it's. You're not achieving anything out of it. You're not,[00:14:00] like you said, it's not moving the needle in the right direction. This is where you gotta figure something out.

[00:14:05] Ralph Beltran: You gotta self reflect and say, okay, what is it that's not working? If you're just picking up that phone and making a hundred dials and you're using that call script and you're not, it's getting you very little positive output. You're numberwise. You need to change something. I use a call script as a guidance as a roadmap to keep me on track and in the right direction.

[00:14:26] Ralph Beltran: But I never use it verbatim. I never use it as this is what I have to do, because if it's not working, it's just not working. You could do it for six months and a year, and if you're still not seeing results, then something needs to change. I always say that if somebody put together that call script, if somebody put together this system and this way of doing it, and if it's not working, maybe something needs to change.

[00:14:47] Ralph Beltran: And if multiple people are not achieving, then maybe something needs to change overall with the script itself. And this is where as a team, you would have to talk and say, you know what? Can we look at this call script and maybe change something [00:15:00] up here? Can we look at this strategy that we're using?

[00:15:03] Ralph Beltran: And maybe change it as a team. You could always have a voice when something's not working. So I always keep track of my own numbers and then talk to my coworkers. Is this working for you? Are these, is this. Call script even. Is it getting you responses? Are you even getting emails back? And so self-reflection with myself, but with the team, so that way we could collaborate together and say, Hey, wait a minute, this is not working.

[00:15:25] Ralph Beltran: If it is not working for me, myself, that's where I would implement a little bit of my own flavor into that call script. Use some of it because once again, it's there. Use part of it, but also implement my own little, me to make it my, to make it my voice and to make it authentic to me, that's the main thing.

[00:15:42] Ralph Beltran: When you're reading a call script or you got a certain, a strategy that they want you to follow, you gotta make sure that it sounds right coming out of you. So it's, if hearing yourself, if you're making calls, list record yourself. Go back and listen to yourself and see how you sound. [00:16:00] How are you coming across to the other people on the other side?

[00:16:02] Ralph Beltran: Does it sound authentic? Does it sound rushed? Do you sound, are you stumbling? What's going on with your calls? And then if, it doesn't sound right, Get that call script, rehearse it, practice it, make it your own make, yourself comfortable with hearing your own voice, but also hearing your own words that you're speaking.

[00:16:19] Ralph Beltran: And if something in that script doesn't sound right, change it to a word that you can use. And it sounds more authentic to you to use that word.

[00:16:27] Dr. Jim: A lot of times when people hear the word script, they think, oh it's, somebody that's just saying some monotone things and there isn't deviation. And, one of the things that I always say is think of it in terms of a framework.

[00:16:39] Dr. Jim: What is the framework that you're gonna build to have a conversation with somebody? And you mentioned three elements from a best practices perspective that people should be doing. You should be executing what you have. You should be evaluating what is the outcome that's coming from that execution.

[00:16:56] Dr. Jim: You should tweak certain elements that aren't working [00:17:00] to test if this leads to different outcomes but most importantly, you should own it from an end to end perspective and make it yours.

[00:17:08] Dr. Jim: You should be continuously working across all four of those things so they become yours. Just because it's handed to you doesn't mean that's what you have to deliver. And I think that the, one area where I might have a little bit of an argument with you is that I'm not gonna fri ask anybody if what I'm doing isn't working.

[00:17:26] Dr. Jim: I'm gonna see, okay, is it this line? Let me try this other line. That's not moving the needle. We'll keep that. Is it This, line, and I'll go through the entire thing. And if Noma, if I change every line and it's not working, I'm gonna come up with something else and don't wait to ask for permission.

[00:17:43] Dr. Jim: You should. And I think you'd agree. So it's not a big argument that you and I are having. I think you'd agree that hey, if you find out that it's not, whatever you've been given isn't working build something that does work for you and constantly test it and then report back.[00:18:00]

[00:18:00] Ralph Beltran: Yeah. I definitely go and change it my own. I think a lot of what asking the team is just clarification, for my own self. Am I, is it just me experiencing this?

[00:18:09] Ralph Beltran: And to see if this, the team experiencing the same thing. But usually, yeah it's, usually on my own thing. I make sure that I'm comfortable with it. And then if anybody, I think a lot of the reasons why you ask if, it, if I change it up and it works for me and I start seeing results, I'd be happy to give the others that.

[00:18:25] Ralph Beltran: To have them use it to see, because I was always in that coaching, mentoring mentality where they would always come to me. So I would say, okay, are you experiencing this? And I find the people that are struggling with it, and then I know who I could help. If I need to pass on that new call script to you and say, okay, here, try this out.

[00:18:41] Ralph Beltran: This is working. I change it up a little bit, give it a try, practice it, rehearse it, and see if it works for you. So it was more of the clarification, but definitely it's all me. I'm gonna, I'm gonna draft it, I'm gonna put it together, I'm gonna use it, and I'm gonna make sure it works, and then I'd be happy to share it.

[00:18:54] Dr. Jim: You've been more of an outside sales guy than an inside sales guy, but regardless of what [00:19:00] what. That looks like, what are some of the things that you've seen from a scripting perspective in terms of its elements that works best for you when it comes to generating conversations?

[00:19:12] Ralph Beltran: The first thing I would say is to have open ended questions involved, and this is what this is gonna do, is it's gonna help you draw out. More information from the prospect, from the customer.

[00:19:22] Ralph Beltran: So it's gonna have them deep dig a little deeper into what their, thoughts are, what their process is, what they're filling deep inside. What happens is a lot of times sales reps will go out there and start talking about the features and the functions. This is who I am, but also this is what I'm trying to do for you.

[00:19:39] Ralph Beltran: This is the reason why I'm reaching. We have done this in the past for this company. You don't really know yet if you could even help this prospect or customer at this point. You're just starting. You're just trying to reach them and contact them. So the best way to do this is to ask an open ended question instead of saying, this is how I've helped other companies.

[00:19:57] Ralph Beltran: Are you experiencing these type of difficulties in [00:20:00] your business? Is this is something that you're experiencing in your. What happens is it starts to pique their interest and starts to them to think about whether or not they are. Is that something that they're even experiencing? If it is, they're gonna want to communicate with you.

[00:20:13] Ralph Beltran: If it's not, at least you know that it's nothing of their interest, what you're trying to even present. It's not even a matter to them. It's not a concern to 'em at this point. So you're narrowing it down to your icp, your ideal prospect, right? The customer that you wanna work with. So by asking open-ended questions, it's gonna draw out that true pain point, that challenge, that struggle, and that's what you're looking for.

[00:20:32] Ralph Beltran: Finding out whether or not this is even a person that you could help a lot of times by asking a question first instead of blurting something out, has gotten me more responses on that end, whether it be on a phone call and in person's, even better, you're able to ask questions to understand them better.

[00:20:47] Ralph Beltran: You're able to sit down with somebody and instead of just telling the telling about what your company does, who you are at this point, they really, they don't really care. It doesn't really matter at this point. First they wanna find out. [00:21:00] Okay, who is this person first off? And I believe that asking those open ended questions will allow them to open up themself a little more.

[00:21:07] Ralph Beltran: So you'll uncover who they are, but then it also gives you opportunity to share a little bit about who you are by engaging back and forth. Now, after that, you know you are able to move from that point because you're able to, ask these questions. You're, able to gather your notes, you're knowing what's going on, and you know that's the customer that you could help with your product or service.

[00:21:24] Ralph Beltran: So always ask open-ended questions after that, I would say to, to use your active listening skills. Once you ask these questions, wait eight to 10 seconds. Let them think about what you ask, the question that you ask. Because what happens is, in our human mind we, need time to think about what did they ask? 

[00:21:43] Ralph Beltran: How am I gonna say it and how do I respond? You give them a little bit of time to think about what they're gonna say and give your true answer. It's gonna be a more, an authentic, true response to your question, not just a rushed out. This is what it is. The mistake that I see made a lot is [00:22:00] when you ask an open ended question or even a question in general, that silence that's there for those few seconds, as a sales professional, you want to naturally ask another question.

[00:22:10] Ralph Beltran: You don't want that silence there because it feels uncomfortable on both ends. So you think, let me just ask another question, or let me rephrase it. They're thinking in their mind what they want to say. They just need some time to dissect it, figure it out, and then be able to respond back in the right manner.

[00:22:25] Ralph Beltran: I would say those are the two things, 

[00:22:26] Dr. Jim: actually, I counted three. One is focus on asking questions versus making statements. Two is active listening, so we're on the same page, but three is leverage the power of silence, which is, it's like hell on earth for sales people to just, it is shut the hell up.

[00:22:46] Dr. Jim: The number one thing that we as sales professionals need to do is get people to talk to us. And if you're just telling people how great you are, or what your widget is and all the cool stuff it does, nobody cares. Nobody cares about you. Nobody cares about your [00:23:00] company. They care about themselves. And any interaction with anybody else is revolving around the question of what can this person that I'm interacting with do for me to help advance my interests and my business?

[00:23:13] Dr. Jim: So if you're not engaging at that level, and again, Demonstrating your knowledge of the problem versus your knowledge of your solution. Cuz nobody cares about your solution right now. A guy on a podcast talking about the power of silence. I think I, think all of that context that you laid out all of the different things that you should be doing from a scripting perspective, but especially the ownership part and the testing part is, really great advice.

[00:23:37] Dr. Jim: Now the other thing that I'm curious about is when you look at the role of continuous learning as it relates to sales success you can be great in terms of scripting. You could have the greatest product in the world. You can be prepared and, all of this sort of stuff that, that can all be great, but you can still screw stuff up and not be good.

[00:23:59] Dr. Jim: So [00:24:00] where does that, investment in in self-learning and continuous improvement, and where does mindset all fit into that recipe for sales? 

[00:24:09] Ralph Beltran: Anytime that I coach and mentor somebody, I always talk about, always be learning. No matter where you're at in life as far as your sales career, your manager, sales manager, if you're account executive, bdr, sdr, any type of role that you're to always be learning.

[00:24:24] Ralph Beltran: As we know, times change, things change, people change. So that's the same way you gotta think about your skill set. You always need to change it up. You always gotta be, have something new that you're learning and always have something new to offer. So that's only that. That can only happen by you continuing to learn, continuing to sharpening your sales skills, but continuing to learn and develop your mindset, always knowing that no matter what and what level you're at, that you should always have a growth mindset.

[00:24:53] Ralph Beltran: And that would be that you could continue to learn. Even if you are already a sales champion, even if you're at the top of your [00:25:00] leaderboard, there's always something new for you to learn. And there's always new levels that you could get at. There's always director positions, sales, training, and coaching that you could look forward toward the future.

[00:25:08] Ralph Beltran: So to never stop to just learning and say, okay, I'm comfortable here with where I'm at, because that's when you start thinking, okay, I can't learn anything new. Everything out there's, nothing for me to learn. I'm good. I'm already at the top. I don't need any, no, you gotta always continue to learn.

[00:25:24] Ralph Beltran: So even though I'm 30 plus years, I'm still reading books, I'm still watching videos, I'm still listening to podcasts because I believe that you could always still learn something new and then whatever I learn. I'm able to, provide that or give that out to somebody else. And if I'm not learning, I can't give out anything new.

[00:25:43] Ralph Beltran: So if there was some, and then if not only that, if there's something out there that's new that's happening in the sales world and I'm stuck back with only learning 30 years, but not continue to learn, I may not know that new system. I may not even know that new strategy. So I have to be on top of my game.

[00:25:59] Ralph Beltran: And I think everybody [00:26:00] else should be the same way. To know that your competitor is doing the same thing. They may be learning you the, company's growing, the company's doing new things. So the more that you can learn, the more knowledge experience, and the more that you could hone in on your skill set and level, the more comfortable you're gonna be at sales, the more confident you're gonna be 

[00:26:17] Ethan: Tune in next time for the conclusion of our conversation with Ralph Beltran