What Would Thurgood Marshall Do: Lessons In Selling, Leadership, and Diversity with Nikki Ivey, Part 1

Peak Performance Selling

In this first part of a five-piece episode of the Peak Performance Selling Podcast, our host Jordan Benjamin talks to sales culture subject matter expert Nikki Ivey about her own sales journey. From selling cars to software, Nikki talks about the importance of knowing how to sell not just for the sake of revenue, making sales as inclusive as ever, the struggles of a Black American while dining with us, as well as the wellbeing of the wider community in general.

HIGHLIGHTS

• How Nikki landed her first sales job
• Studying communication and applying it to sales
• From car sales to tech sales
• Lessons learned from Thurgood Marshall

QUOTES

Why Nikki stopped selling cars: "Culturally though, in terms of the working conditions in the environment in each of the car sales and retail sales environments that I was in, it wasn't the most conducive to mental health. It wasn't the most conducive to having a family, which I do. So I had to figure something else out. And that's another reason why I decided to go back to school."

What Nikki learned once she got hired at OutboundEngine: "I got to see great leadership up close, and I got to find parts of myself that either were holding me back or could stand to be developed even bigger to take me forward."

What Nikki learned about selling ideas, from Thurgood Marshall: "You didn't do it because you know, they already agreed with you when you were preaching to a choir. You did it because you articulated the value in changing. You help them see the danger in not changing and what they could gain from changing. Essentially. That's what I saw Thurgood Marshall doing in the way that he argued cases and the way that he approached his job. And for him, the stakes were really high. It's important to get those ideas sold."

You can connect with Nikki in the links below:

• Sales for the Culture Website: https://salesfortheculture.com/
• SDRDefenders Website: https://www.sdrdefenders.com/
• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikki-ivey/
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/knownikkiivey/
• ​​Twitter - https://twitter.com/knownikkiivey

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• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanbenjamin/
• Website - http://mycoreos.com/
• Podcast - https://www.mycoreos.com/podcast
• Email - [email protected]
• Twitter - https://twitter.com/jbenj09