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On May 6, 2017, Robert Paylor broke his neck. On national television. During the Rugby collegiate championship game.
Doctors said he would never walk again and would actually be lucky if he could regain any movement below his neck. Yet, almost four years later, Robert is telling an amazing story of recovery, hope, and forgiveness.
I’m super excited about having Robert Paylor as my guest in this episode of The Modern Selling podcast. Robert is an international public speaker and, in his own words, a “quadriplegic on a journey to walk again and inspire others.”
Don’t miss this episode to hear Rob’s story, some amazing life lessons, as well as valuable keys to sales success for leaders and sellers alike.
In the notes below, I’ve included a short video under each key to sales success, so you can watch Rob himself explaining what they mean to him. Plus, I’ve asked some members of Vengreso’s sales team to pitch in with some sales advice.
A very inspiring @GoModernSelling episode w/ @M_3jr and @RobertPaylor5 👉 in his own words, a “quadriplegic on a journey to walk again and inspire others.” Thank you Robert, I will start my mental diet. #Gong #RevenueIntelligence Click To TweetKey to Sales Success #1: Successful Sellers Control Their Mindset
Rob was a rising star in UC Berkeley’s Rugby team, with a bright future in front of him. But it all changed in an instant. The medical prognosis was that he would be paralyzed for the rest of his life. Rob, however, refused to accept that.
Rob’s attitude and mindset after his injury helped him get through the pain and the grueling recovery process.
“Don’t take negativity in,” Rob says. “Don’t listen to hopelessness. You have control of your mindset.”
One of his secrets is to go on a mental diet. Just as with a food diet where you avoid foods that are bad for your body, a mental diet will avoid bad information in your brain.
“Audit your thoughts,” he says. “Decide what is good for you and look for inspiring stories.”
I love how Rob’s advice can be applied to the mindset of a seller. Salespeople hear “no” all the time. Rejection is a constant in their work.
So, as a sales leader, how do you help your team deal with rejection? Through a mental diet where sellers are inspired by the wins of others and negativity is filtered out.
Key to Sales Success #2: Success in Sales Requires Perspective
Another one of Rob’s secrets to stay positive is perspective.
“Perspective is a powerful tool. You can compare yourself to others up or down, to what you’ve accomplished or to what you have failed at.”
Rob recommends that when you are going through a struggle, you ask yourself, “compared to what?” That will allow you to put your problems into perspective and feel empathy for others.
Rob keeps a gratitude journal where he writes down three things he is grateful for every day.
Perspective in selling takes many forms.
“When pursuing a sale, always keep the buyer’s situation in perspective,” says Kurt Shaver, Vengreso’s CSO and Co-Founder. “They may not be on the same timeline as you. They may even be having personal challenges outside of work. Slow or no response from a prospect doesn’t always mean there’s no interest. Sometimes it just means other priorities are more important right now. Don’t risk future business by pushing too hard.”
@RobertPaylor5 shared the importance of perspective to stay positive, and how to apply that to #sales with @M_3jr in this inspiring @GoModernSelling episode #Gong #RevenueIntelligence Click To TweetKey to Sales Success #3: To Succeed in Sales You Must Give It Everything You’ve Got
Compared to Rob’s physical trauma, many of our problems in the sales profession pale in comparison. Still, selling can be hard, especially during these times when remote selling is the new normal and we can’t keep doing business as usual.
Rob’s advice is to give everything we’ve got, no matter the circumstances.
“We have one life,” he says. “Don’t live it as a quitter. Fight and get everything you want.”
Key to Sales Success #4: Find Vision and Purpose if you Want to Be a Successful Seller
His recovery process involves doing physical therapy for three hours every day. But remember that for him, even doing simple things is hard work.
The way he motivates himself to keep going is by turning it around and finding purpose in his recovery journey.
“I don’t do it for myself, but to inspire others. Find the ‘why’ to keep going forward. You must have a vision.”
‘Vision yourself where you want to be in 6 months’ time, 1 year time, and 5 years’ time in your sales career,” says Diego Garcia, Market Development Manager at Vengreso. “Once you find your purpose and ‘the why’ of your goals, you can then reverse engineer your plan into daily, weekly, and monthly habits to get where you want to be!”
Find a vision and a purpose! Well said @RobertPaylor5 there is not better motivation than finding meaning in the journey. Thanks, @M_3jr for this @GoModernSelling episode #Gong #RevenueIntelligence Click To TweetKey to Sales Success #5: Accountability will Skyrocket Your Sales Career
Accountability has also been an important part of Rob’s journey. He works with a mentor (one of the coaches at UC Berkeley) who helps him set goals and is there to support him.
This is an important lesson for us as sales leaders. Our words and coaching are not for our sake, but to help our sellers succeed.
Inspiring, moving, and brilliant. Those are just three of the words used to describe this episode with Rob Paylor, that actually moved me to tears.
Listen to the whole episode to learn about the power of forgiveness, gratitude, and resiliency.
10 thoughts on “15 LinkedIn Profile Optimization Tips to Get Found This 2023”
My LinkedIn account was ranking on the first page for best mommys blog keyword quite a few years back and I didn’t have any idea. While working, I stumbled upon the Analytic section of LinkedIn and saw that most of the visitors are coming from search engine later on I realized that in my profile I’ve used “Mommy’s blog” word a lot of time and that is the reason why it was ranking well on SERP. This is how I came to know about SEO and I was also amazed by the fact that how easy it was to rank for competitive keywords back then. Anyways loved your article and please share more tips on SEO.
Thanks for sharing. The number of times you mention a word or phrase is still a factor for sure.
We love hearing tips as well as questions our reader, so keep them coming!
Should I change keywords overtime based on what’s popular on the internet?
There is a lot of value in this article, especially for those looking to improve their visibility on LinkedIn. My favorite of the fifteen tips shared in this article is number nine. I’ve observed that people with custom profile links, seem to get more attention than those who haven’t customized their LinkedIn profile URL. Interesting article, thank you for taking the time to put it together.
Customizing LinkedIn URLs create more visibility for sure! Thank you, Bret.
I agree with the recommendations, they are a very important part of our strategy on LinkedIn, it can give confidence to potential customers (or leaders when someone is looking for a job).
People shouldn’t underestimate keywords on their LinkedIn profile! This helped potential buyers to find me on LinkedIn more easily when they searched for certain products and/or services. Thanks Viveka!
Thank you for another great blog post. For the alt text and/or naming images, do you mean two to three different keyword phrases as a maximum, like this?
B2B cybersecurity content marketing writer , technical writing cybersecurity content , cybersecurity technical writer , David Geer
Or can you add more keyword phrases than this?
Hey David – I honestly don’t know the efficacy of adding more keywords than that. I would stick with what you have above.
All the information is very helpful which can help us to increase our Profile ranking on LinkedIn. Another big interesting article, this blog is very useful for the Optimization of my LinkedIn profile.
I also get much knowledge from this blog.
thank you keep sharing.