007: Changing the Language Around Sales with Ema Roloff

Written By Danielle OReilly

How do you navigate the transition from a corporate role to owning your own business? How can we encourage more women to enter revenue-generating positions in the insurance industry? How could we alter the parlance pertaining to insurance sales to be more inclusive of alternative methods for closing sales?

In this episode, we’re thrilled to be speaking with Ema Roloff, co-founder and principal consultant of the newly established Roloff Consulting! In conversation with Sandra Lewin, she discusses how she transitioned from teaching into the world of technology, and subsequently insurance, sales. She emphasises the importance of an entrepreneurial mindset when negotiating sales, and the ability to cultivate good business relationships.

 Quote of the Episode

“My clients know that they're my partners, and that I'm not looking at them, as they say, to ‘kill and eat’ so that I can make money. They know that I'm in there for a, a long-standing partnership that's beneficial on both ends. So, I do think that there is some work that we need to do in terms of that perception around sales, and getting more women into these types of roles because they might sell differently, but they can be really good at it.”

Ema suggests that the terminology frequently attributed to the sales process, particularly in financial services, can be profoundly violent or combative. This may contribute to the broader perception of sales positions as cutthroat and uncompromising, which may discourage and alienate many women from considering such roles. Ema herself was initially apprehensive about taking up a sales role before devising her own approach to navigating sales from a more mutually beneficial, relationship-building perspective.

Key Takeaways

Ema highlights persistence, problem-solving, resilience, and relationship-building as the essential tenets of being a good salesperson. She highlights the latter point in particular as being crucial. Even if you may not be able to negotiate a sale with a client at one point in time, establishing and maintaining a good relationship with them could facilitate a sale later down the line.

The aggressive, hunting-oriented language commonly attributed to sales arguably alienates a lot of women from revenue-generating positions, as this isn’t how they see themselves. Neither gender has a greater propensity for closing deals than the other. However, an article from the Harvard Business Review (linked below) notes that women tend to align with the traits needed to be a strong B2B salesperson, more so than their male counterparts. As such, the arguably masculine-oriented language used with regards to sales needs to change in order to encourage more women to consider such roles.

As Mercy Komar argued in a previous episode (Episode 2), a lack of women in commercially minded roles may also be a significant factor preventing women from taking up senior leadership positions. Sales roles provide an opportunity to lead within your company, and the skills that accompany sales positions grant an inherent acumen for leadership, hence why so many board members and CEOs tend to have backgrounds in insurance.

Ema argues that to be a good salesperson, you need to have an entrepreneurial mindset, geared towards how the services or products you are offering can help to address the specific needs of a given prospective client. The same is true of being a business owner. Ultimately, in transitioning from a corporate role to owning her own business, she suggests that the ability to establish and maintain good business relationships is perhaps the most fundamental skill of all, particularly in such a people-facing industry as insurance.

Learning to build good relationships can also afford a wide array of opportunities for you, particularly given the current talent gap facing the industry. In insurance, the opportunities to change roles, to grow into something new, to develop skills and transfer them elsewhere, are endless. Furthermore, Emma highlights that the industry is full of people who are willing to help and guide you in your career, if only you’re willing to say yes.

Best Moments/Key Quotes

“I honestly think of sales, especially in an industry like insurance, where things are so driven by relationships and the sales cycle is so long, that to be successful as a sales rep in this industry, you really have to have an entrepreneurial mindset. You can't rely on other people to hand you leads, you have to be out there cultivating those relationships, and building a reputation as somebody that helps solve your specific problem.”

“That relationship piece is so important. And I think it goes back to what the industry is here for: we're here to make a promise and deliver on that promise. And so that mentality of being true to your word, showing up for people, in good times and in bad flows through the entire insurance ecosystem.”

‘The best choices in life are both exciting and terrifying.’

“I think within the insurance industry, there is specific lingo and technical knowledge that comes with it. And especially when you go to your first insurance event, and you hear people using the acronyms and throwing around these terms, it can feel really intimidating. But behind all of those terms are just standard business practices. We just have different names for them, and different names for our processes.”

Resources

About the Guest

Ema Roloff trained as a high school teacher before transitioning to a career in technology, and later insurance, sales. Based in Wisconsin, USA, she is the co-founder and principal consultant for Roloff Consulting, which helps companies digitally transform the way that they sell.

Ema’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emaroloff/

About the Host

Connect with Sandra on LinkedIn and find out more: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/sandralewin

Danielle OReilly
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