Here’s the full transcript of mindful sales speaker Anis Qizilbash‘s chat with Jane Farnham of Great British Speakers:
00:00:07:31 – 00:00:16:31
Jane Farnham
Hi, I’m Jane Farnham with Great British Speakers, and I’m here today chatting to the inspiring and very mindful sales speaker Anis Qizilbash. Anis thanks so much for joining us today.
00:00:17:00 – 00:00:19:19
Anis Qizilbash
It’s a pleasure. Thanks for asking me and having me here.
00:00:19:42 – 00:00:27:25
Jane Farnham
Oh, it’s I’m so excited about finding out more about you and what you do. So let’s start by finding out a little bit about your life pre speaking days.
00:00:28:21 – 00:00:54:28
Anis Qizilbash
So pre speaking days, I was in a corporate sales role. I’ve worked in technology sales, software sales and media audio sales. So that’s basically my background. I started out telesales cold calling. And then when they let me off the phone, I could go and meet people and do all of that and, oh, you know, and then the deals get bigger and then global sales and so on.
00:00:54:50 – 00:01:17:06
Anis Qizilbash
And in parallel to that, I started exploring mindfulness to deal with my own personal issues. I was depressed. I had I had been suicidal in the past, and all sorts, so I had a lot of personal issues. So I started exploring mindfulness and I started practicing. And it really helped me and it helped me in my work as well.
00:01:17:43 – 00:01:38:31
Anis Qizilbash
And then after leaving the corporate life, I wanted to do something useful with my sales skills. These new powers that I had. And after 2008 startups, there were startups popping up everywhere. Friends would approach me saying, “Hey, you do sales, How do I do this selling thing?” So I started helping people, just the very, very basics of sales.
00:01:38:47 – 00:01:50:33
Anis Qizilbash
But what I found I was doing was teaching them more about their mindset. Their mind was getting in the way of their ability to sell. So that’s how I came up with mindful selling.
00:01:51:41 – 00:02:15:57
Jane Farnham
You just sent shivers down my spine talking about cold calling. I remember those from my student days is like, I hate it, I can’t bear it. But so it’s so lovely that you’ve been able to, you know, grow into your sales role and then obviously create this mindfulness. So we do know you as the mindful selling speaker. Was there one specific moment or experience that opened your eyes to this, or was it just your mindset at the time?
00:02:17:52 – 00:02:39:39
Anis Qizilbash
Yes, there was something that the aha moment was when I was working with this one person and he he was having this issue. Like he said, “I really want to go and sell to these massive corporates” that he would love to work with. And I asked him, why haven’t you approached them? And he started telling me the reasons why he wasn’t approaching them.
00:02:40:13 – 00:03:09:46
Anis Qizilbash
And I’d already that this mindfulness before. And then I told him I started sharing a few mindfulness principles. We actually did it right there and then in that instant a few practices and the light, that’s when the light bulb went off. I was then able to trace back to certain moments in my career where I didn’t realize I was doing the mindfulness, activating the mindfulness principles to help overcome challenges like launching this new product in the Middle East.
00:03:10:03 – 00:03:24:27
Anis Qizilbash
We had this insane target which seemed impossible, and I realized, Oh wow, yes, I implemented this particular principle. So I was then able to look back and think, Yes, I can see how it all helps me in my work, if that makes sense.
00:03:24:43 – 00:03:55:27
Jane Farnham
Yeah, so it’s helping somebody else. So it made you realize that that’s. Now, the common misconception is that anything to do with sales is seen as associated with, you know, car salesmen and double glazing salesmen. How do you debunk that? Because I know whenever. I hate people selling to me, I can see people selling to me a mile off. How do you how did you get past that? Because it’s a very negative mindset that a lot of people find themselves in when they’re being sold to.
00:03:55:57 – 00:04:25:19
Anis Qizilbash
Yes. The fact that you mentioned, you can tell a mile off, is it brilliant? And that’s. Yeah, here’s how the way I feel that you can overcome that because you are selling you can’t, is when you go into a place when you dig into your intention, when your intention is to serve that other person, how when your intention is, how can I make that person successful versus what can I get from that person?
00:04:26:16 – 00:04:46:24
Anis Qizilbash
Even though we’re told in sales, Yes, you help customers. You help customers. But the secret secret secret underneath that is I need to land my sales. I need to hit my target. So you need to be honest with yourself. Be authentic. Do some inner work. How can I actually help this person? Does that make sense? It starts with yourself.
00:04:47:07 – 00:04:55:31
Jane Farnham
That makes total sense. And you do think then the person that you’re selling to can sense that and see that? Is it about honesty and integrity?
00:04:56:19 – 00:05:12:23
Anis Qizilbash
That’s exactly it when you are authentic because when you we have this shield we’re trying to sell, there is this shield and this force. It is not your authentic self. You’re trying to be this smiley, friendly, fake friendly person. And we could tell the fake friendliness, too, can’t we?
00:05:12:32 – 00:05:13:28
Jane Farnham
Yeah, absolutely.
00:05:13:46 – 00:05:31:57
Anis Qizilbash
It’s awful. But when you are your authentic self, that’s when you that’s how mindfulness can help. Because what’s happening is when we don’t realize it, until we try practicing it, when you quiet the noise in your head, that constant chatter that’s there, as soon as we wake up and we start checking our phone is this chatter going on?
00:05:32:15 – 00:05:38:29
Anis Qizilbash
When you can silence that, that’s when you leave space for your authentic selves to come through.
00:05:38:46 – 00:06:28:44
Jane Farnham
Yeah, I get that. It’s funny, you know, I was at a trade show earlier this year and not long ago, in fact. And, you know, obviously when you’re at trade shows, you get the events organizers coming over, and for the last four or five years of that show we’ve had, guys, it’s very clear that all they want to do is I’m not saying, guys as in men, the person whose role that was to sell us the space for the next year. It was very clear from the very beginning what they wanted to do. And this year there was a young lady who was just amazing. And I don’t know, I couldn’t quite work out what her difference was, but it was that she was authentic and she seemed to really want to help. And I ended up I feel quite awful because I ended up not actually buying with her. But I had to say to her, it’s nothing to do with your sales skills because we really we know you are amazing and we think that you’re brilliant. But it is it’s about being authentic, isn’t it?
00:06:29:11 – 00:06:30:28
Anis Qizilbash
And it touches you.
00:06:30:46 – 00:06:41:36
Jane Farnham
I actually wrote a letter to say thank you to her and to her manager and say how brilliant she was, because I just felt that she was she was giving me a service, not trying to sell me something.
00:06:42:05 – 00:07:00:36
Anis Qizilbash
I feel that. And how often do we go and, for example, get even when we go to buy a coffee, the number of times we’re served and it’s the same old, same old. But then every now and then, this one person, they are present. They’re pouring that coffee like it’s the last coffee on this one now. And they hand it over to you and you just feel, wow.
00:07:00:36 – 00:07:20:22
Jane Farnham
Yeah, I get what it is that you hit the nail on the head there? Certainly. But you are the expert in this area now, is there an example when you’ve gone and spoken to a company and then the organization has implemented your concepts and then that’s leveraged a massive benefits, have you seen that in action?
00:07:20:58 – 00:07:51:39
Anis Qizilbash
Yes. Yes. There was an organization they they were. “All right, let me try this mindfulness thing. What do I do?” And and I suggested the just as usual the minute before your meeting. Don’t shuffle through your deck. Don’t shuffle through your your presentation. Just breathe and listen to your breathing. And then he went into the meetings as one specific example went into the meeting and instead of going through the usual patter, this, you receive this insight to ask a specific question.
00:07:51:48 – 00:08:13:04
Anis Qizilbash
And it changed the dynamic of the meeting. That person converted that person into a sale. And another example, attending a networking event. Oh, here we go. You know, being instead of being in your head, just being present and the way they engaged with the person next to them, it completely shifted that person. Also, it turned into a sale as well.
00:08:13:12 – 00:08:20:27
Anis Qizilbash
These small little wins can make our launch into a bigger. You can have an avalanche into big sales everywhere. Yeah.
00:08:21:28 – 00:08:27:43
Jane Farnham
And what gives you the most buzz about speaking when you talk to companies?
00:08:27:43 – 00:08:50:02
Anis Qizilbash
Helping people. I love it when they come up to me. Oh, my goodness, you. It doesn’t have to be. It happened last week. “Oh, that one thing you told me is change it. It doesn’t have to be negative. I know how to turn into a positive” and how it’s just given them tools to choose how they can show up. It’s just the most fulfilling is the whyI do it, to help people.
00:08:50:54 – 00:09:13:08
Jane Farnham
And that’s oozing out of you. You can see you actually love it. Hopefully. Fingers crossed we’re seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. What with lockdowns and the associated toll that that’s taken on our physical and mental health. I mean, it’s just extortionate. The fallout potential from this. So have you been able to respond to organizations looking for more of a positive mental health outlook as well as mindfulness?
00:09:14:27 – 00:09:37:35
Anis Qizilbash
Absolutely. So the mindfulness is this. It’s the buzzword, but essentially I share some tools, some specific tools about choosing how you react to situations. And it encompasses building resilience and so on. But essentially it boils down to your mindset and being aware of it in every moment. I’m not saying to constantly observe what you’re doing all the time.
00:09:37:46 – 00:09:57:21
Anis Qizilbash
But there are some broad sort of frameworks I’ve been able to offer and a way of teaching how to adapt it into your day to day, and then the morning, noon after school and even in your after school, even with your loved ones in the evening. So you could enjoy that rest time and have that rest. If that makes sense.
00:09:57:57 – 00:10:20:18
Jane Farnham
Yeah. Without that rest, we’re good for nothing our way. This past year has been absolutely exhausting in so many ways, even though we’ve probably been doing a lot less than we normally do. Now. I have to say that Steve and I are very big fans of your vlogging sessions, now we’ll feature some more of those on our website in due course and also on your bio page. But tell us about how these came about.
00:10:21:23 – 00:10:40:26
Anis Qizilbash
The vlogging came about. Well, I just wanted to first of all, just I started doing it, before the, way before the pandemic. So I just wanted to hone my skills on camera, just get better at that, because it’s a very different energy than when you’re in person. When you’re in person, you’re constantly feeding off people’s energy. So how do I do it?
00:10:40:39 – 00:11:00:21
Anis Qizilbash
So that was one thing, but most of all, I just wanted to share more. There was so much I wanted to share and how can I do it in little sound bites and little nuggets that they can take away and just bring in more creativity? Because I got all this background. I just started doing improv comedy and I thought, How can I feed some of that into what I do?
00:11:01:12 – 00:11:07:15
Jane Farnham
Oh, wow, the comedy. So you you actually go to it for lessons or do you perform.
00:11:08:04 – 00:11:23:11
Anis Qizilbash
I started with lessons, actually. That’s what I have been. I’ve been training that in during the pandemic. I started trading in improv comedy. I started performing as well on screens and now in person. And now I’ve created a little troupe and I’m looking to just do that more on the side, it’s so much fun.
00:11:23:11 – 00:11:44:25
Jane Farnham
Oh my goodness. I take my hat off to you. You know, you’ve actually made me have goosebumps twice. That’s talking about cold calling and doing comedy and improv. Two of my worst nightmares come true. So well done to you. Anis it’s just been so lovely chatting to you and inspiring. Thank you so much for your time today.
00:11:44:52 – 00:11:46:26
Anis Qizilbash
It’s a real pleasure. Thanks for having me Jane.
00:11:47:09 – 00:11:57:25
Jane Farnham
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