Network In Action Podcast

How to Handle Sales Rejection Without Losing Confidence
Rejection is part of sales, but it doesn’t have to destroy your confidence.
In this NIA Sales Mastery session, Angelica Owens explores how fear of rejection affects sales behavior, why self-rejection can cost you opportunities before a prospect ever responds, and how to approach sales conversations with greater confidence, curiosity, and authenticity.
Drawing from years of experience in sales, sales enablement, entrepreneurship, and coaching, Angelica explains why overcoming the fear of rejection isn’t about memorizing objection-handling scripts or becoming more aggressive. Instead, it’s about separating your personal worth from a prospect’s decision and learning how to sell in a way that is consultative rather than coercive.
Topics Covered
Recognizing how fear of rejection shows up in your sales behavior
Separating a prospect’s decision from your personal worth
Why avoiding the ask is a form of self-rejection
How fear can lead to delayed follow-up, overexplaining, discounting, and avoiding direct sales conversations
Why you shouldn’t decide what a prospect can afford before they do
Turning a “no” into useful information instead of personal rejection
Understanding whether the real issue is clarity, value, timing, priority, or fit
Why you don’t need to overcome every objection
Respecting a genuine “no”
The difference between consultative selling and manipulative sales tactics
Why people often dislike sales when they feel pressured or manipulated
Using authentic scarcity instead of manufactured urgency
Maintaining persistence without creating pressure
Asking permission to follow up
Seeking alignment instead of focusing only on close ratio
Making more direct sales asks without becoming pushy
Building sales confidence through repetition and experience
A “No” Is Information, Not a Verdict
Angelica challenges the assumption that every lost sale is a pricing problem. Instead, she encourages sales professionals and entrepreneurs to examine whether the offer was clearly communicated, whether the value connected to the prospect’s actual needs, whether the timing was right, and whether the prospect was truly a good fit.
The central mindset shift is simple: a “no” is information. It is not a verdict on your value.
Rather than taking rejection personally, sales professionals can use the response to better understand what happened. Was the value unclear? Was the offer not a priority? Was the timing wrong? Or was the prospect simply not the right fit?
Consultative Selling vs. Sales Pressure
Sales can be an honest exchange of value when the goal is to understand what someone genuinely wants or needs, present a relevant solution, and respect their response.
Angelica explains the important difference between persistence and pressure: persistence keeps the door open; pressure refuses to let someone close it.
Consultative selling is built on curiosity, alignment, and respect—not manipulation. That means asking better questions, listening to the answers, presenting solutions that genuinely fit, and accepting when the answer is no.
Stop Rejecting Yourself Before the Prospect Does
Fear of rejection can quietly influence sales behavior long before a prospect gives an answer. It can cause people to delay follow-ups, avoid asking for the sale, lower their price prematurely, overexplain their value, hesitate to request referrals, or decide that a prospect cannot afford their services before ever presenting the offer.
In each of these situations, the salesperson may be rejecting themselves before the prospect has the opportunity to make a decision.
Angelica encourages professionals to make the ask, allow the prospect to respond, and use the outcome as information rather than as a measure of personal worth.
Build Sales Confidence Through Action
Whether you are an entrepreneur, business owner, salesperson, consultant, coach, or professional who struggles with making the ask, following up, requesting referrals, presenting your price, or hearing “no,” this session provides a practical approach to selling with more confidence and less fear.
Confidence grows through repetition and experience. The more often you have honest sales conversations, make direct asks, listen carefully, and learn from the responses, the easier it becomes to separate your identity from the outcome.
Remember the sales ask you’ve been avoiding. Make the ask, learn from the response, and keep moving forward.
Learn More
Learn more about Angelica Owens:https://www.networkinaction.com/index.php/profile/8625-business-success-consultant-angelica-owens
Find your Network In Action group:https://www.networkinaction.com/index.php/find-a-group
Start your business networking franchise:https://franchise.networkinaction.com/

How Strategic Storytelling Builds Trust, Authority, and Business Opportunities
Discover how strategic storytelling can help you build trust, demonstrate expertise, connect with your audience, and create new business opportunities—without sounding like you are delivering a sales pitch.
In this NIA Speaker Series presentation, international keynote speaker and HR and business strategist April Simpkins shares her practical STORY roadmap for transforming personal and professional experiences into meaningful stories that connect with audiences and inspire action.
The STORY Framework
S – Start with the audience
T – Think about the transformation
O – Organize the story
R – Reveal something real
Y – Your call to action
April explains why effective storytelling begins with understanding what your audience needs to hear rather than simply deciding what you want to say. She demonstrates how the same experience can be positioned differently for business owners, HR professionals, women in leadership, networking contacts, prospective clients, and larger speaking audiences.
How to Organize a Compelling Story
You will also learn how to structure a story using five essential elements:
Setup – Where were you, and what was happening?
Struggle – What problem, obstacle, fear, or decision created tension?
Shift – What realization or turning point changed your perspective?
Solution – What did you do with what you learned?
Significance – Why does the story matter to your audience?
Throughout the session, April draws from her own career, entrepreneurship, speaking experiences, and business challenges to illustrate the difference between simply describing an event and telling a story that creates genuine connection, credibility, and trust.
Authenticity and Vulnerability in Business Storytelling
The presentation also explores the role of authenticity and vulnerability in business storytelling, including how to reveal something real without oversharing—or removing the humanity from your message. April emphasizes that audiences want to understand not only what you learned, but also what it cost you to learn it.
Additional Topics Covered
Turning the common “What do you do?” question into a meaningful conversation
Positioning yourself as a knowledgeable subject matter expert
Using transformation to make your stories more memorable
Creating both short and long versions of your stories
Using storytelling in networking, presentations, media appearances, and business development
Building authority stories that demonstrate why you know what you know
Creating action stories that guide people toward a meaningful next step
Using attraction marketing instead of relying on an abrupt sales pitch
Ending every story with a clear purpose or call to action
Making your stories specific, relatable, authentic, and human
Turn Your Experience Into Stories That Create Connection
Whether you are an entrepreneur, consultant, business owner, speaker, coach, or professional looking to communicate your expertise more effectively, this session provides a practical storytelling framework for turning your experiences into powerful stories that build trust, establish authority, strengthen relationships, and lead audiences toward meaningful action.

How to Prevent Sales Objections Before They Derail the Sale
What if the best way to handle a sales objection is to prevent it from becoming an objection in the first place?
In this NIA Speaker Series presentation, Tim Goering explores resistance mitigation—a proactive approach to sales conversations designed to identify concerns, reduce buyer resistance, and address potential roadblocks before they derail the sale.
Drawing on lessons from his background as a Marine and his experience with the Sandler sales system, Tim compares sales preparation to flight simulation: practice difficult situations before facing them with real prospects and clients.
Tim shares insights from a project he has developed over approximately 20 years, including 93 mapped sales objections, multiple responses for each objection, sources of leverage, buyer negotiation tactics, and practical techniques sales professionals can use to prepare for challenging conversations.
Sales Objection Handling and Resistance Mitigation
A central theme of the presentation is the difference between reacting to objections after they appear and proactively reducing resistance throughout the sales process. By anticipating common concerns and addressing them early, sales professionals can create more productive conversations and avoid unnecessary friction at the close.
Topics Covered
The difference between objection handling and resistance mitigation
Why many sales objections can be addressed proactively
How to prepare for price objections before they happen
What to do when prospects say, “Send me something”
How to respond when someone wants to “think it over”
Why the question a prospect asks may not be the real question
How smokescreen questions can derail a sales conversation
Using clarification questions to uncover what a buyer really means
Why statements can sometimes generate better conversations than questions
How to acknowledge a prospect's concern before responding
The Sandler “soften and reverse” approach
The feel, felt, found technique
Negative reverse selling
Understanding DISC communication styles in sales
How different DISC styles may express resistance differently
Common price and competition objections
Buyer negotiation tactics such as flinching, emotional reactions, invoking authority, and shifting problems to the seller
Using the Sandler Pain Funnel to uncover meaningful business challenges
Aligning expectations early in the sales process
Asking better questions to reduce vulnerability and gain leverage
Why problems with closing often begin much earlier in the sales conversation
Practicing objection responses before using them with live prospects
Why Closing Problems Often Begin at the Start of the Conversation
One of the session's most important ideas is that salespeople struggling with their close rate may actually be struggling with how they open the conversation.
By identifying concerns earlier, clarifying expectations, understanding the prospect's real business challenges, and preparing for predictable resistance, sales professionals can reduce surprises and create a stronger foundation for the buying decision.
Ask Better Questions and Listen for the Real Issue
Tim explains why a prospect's first question or objection may not reveal the real concern. Smokescreens, vague responses, and surface-level questions can easily send a sales conversation in the wrong direction.
Instead of immediately answering, sales professionals can use clarification questions, careful listening, and acknowledgment to uncover what the buyer actually means and respond to the underlying issue.
Communicate the Way Your Prospect Prefers
The session also emphasizes the fundamentals of effective sales communication: acknowledging people, asking thoughtful questions, listening carefully, and adapting your communication style to the other person.
By understanding DISC communication styles and recognizing how different buyers may express concerns or resistance, sales professionals can communicate more effectively and build greater trust throughout the sales process.
Become More Prepared for Buyer Resistance
Whether you are a business owner, entrepreneur, salesperson, sales leader, or professional responsible for generating revenue, this session offers practical sales strategies for becoming more prepared, confident, and intentional when buyers resist.
Rather than relying on clever responses at the end of the sales process, Tim encourages sales professionals to prepare in advance, anticipate predictable objections, uncover meaningful problems, and address resistance before it becomes a barrier to the sale.
How to Prevent Sales Objections Before They Derail the Sale
What if the best way to handle a sales objection is to prevent it from becoming an objection in the first place?
In this NIA Speaker Series presentation, Tim Goering explores resistance mitigation—a proactive approach to sales conversations designed to identify concerns, reduce buyer resistance, and address potential roadblocks before they derail the sale.
Drawing on lessons from his background as a Marine and his experience with the Sandler sales system, Tim compares sales preparation to flight simulation: practice difficult situations before facing them with real prospects and clients.
Tim shares insights from a project he has developed over approximately 20 years, including 93 mapped sales objections, multiple responses for each objection, sources of leverage, buyer negotiation tactics, and practical techniques sales professionals can use to prepare for challenging conversations.
Sales Objection Handling and Resistance Mitigation
A central theme of the presentation is the difference between reacting to objections after they appear and proactively reducing resistance throughout the sales process. By anticipating common concerns and addressing them early, sales professionals can create more productive conversations and avoid unnecessary friction at the close.
Topics Covered
The difference between objection handling and resistance mitigation
Why many sales objections can be addressed proactively
How to prepare for price objections before they happen
What to do when prospects say, “Send me something”
How to respond when someone wants to “think it over”
Why the question a prospect asks may not be the real question
How smokescreen questions can derail a sales conversation
Using clarification questions to uncover what a buyer really means
Why statements can sometimes generate better conversations than questions
How to acknowledge a prospect's concern before responding
The Sandler “soften and reverse” approach
The feel, felt, found technique
Negative reverse selling
Understanding DISC communication styles in sales
How different DISC styles may express resistance differently
Common price and competition objections
Buyer negotiation tactics such as flinching, emotional reactions, invoking authority, and shifting problems to the seller
Using the Sandler Pain Funnel to uncover meaningful business challenges
Aligning expectations early in the sales process
Asking better questions to reduce vulnerability and gain leverage
Why problems with closing often begin much earlier in the sales conversation
Practicing objection responses before using them with live prospects
Why Closing Problems Often Begin at the Start of the Conversation
One of the session's most important ideas is that salespeople struggling with their close rate may actually be struggling with how they open the conversation.
By identifying concerns earlier, clarifying expectations, understanding the prospect's real business challenges, and preparing for predictable resistance, sales professionals can reduce surprises and create a stronger foundation for the buying decision.
Ask Better Questions and Listen for the Real Issue
Tim explains why a prospect's first question or objection may not reveal the real concern. Smokescreens, vague responses, and surface-level questions can easily send a sales conversation in the wrong direction.
Instead of immediately answering, sales professionals can use clarification questions, careful listening, and acknowledgment to uncover what the buyer actually means and respond to the underlying issue.
Communicate the Way Your Prospect Prefers
The session also emphasizes the fundamentals of effective sales communication: acknowledging people, asking thoughtful questions, listening carefully, and adapting your communication style to the other person.
By understanding DISC communication styles and recognizing how different buyers may express concerns or resistance, sales professionals can communicate more effectively and build greater trust throughout the sales process.
Become More Prepared for Buyer Resistance
Whether you are a business owner, entrepreneur, salesperson, sales leader, or professional responsible for generating revenue, this session offers practical sales strategies for becoming more prepared, confident, and intentional when buyers resist.
Rather than relying on clever responses at the end of the sales process, Tim encourages sales professionals to prepare in advance, anticipate predictable objections, uncover meaningful problems, and address resistance before it becomes a barrier to the sale.

Stop Competing, Move Upmarket, and Become the Obvious Choice
Discover how to elevate your business, attract better clients, increase profitability, and create greater freedom—without simply working harder.
In this interactive Network in Action presentation, strategic business growth consultant Ann Cardin shares her proven business elevation strategy for achieving stronger growth and building a more profitable, valuable company.
Instead of chasing more activity, more customers, and more revenue at the same level, Ann shows business owners how to elevate first, then expand. This approach focuses on positioning your company at the top of the market, increasing the value of what you already provide, and avoiding the race to the bottom caused by price-based competition.
Topics Covered
Why experienced business owners should never compete on price
The difference between simply growing more and elevating first
How to move upmarket and win better business
How to turn your existing value into greater revenue
How to build premium services into your business
How to attract better clients and improve profit margins
How to create stronger positioning in any market or industry
Why you should treat your business as a wealth-building asset
How to identify hidden growth opportunities within your current business
How to reduce the grind while creating more profit and freedom
Ann also shares real-world examples from professional services, plumbing, auto repair, retail, and other industries to demonstrate how stronger positioning and premium business models can transform the trajectory of a company.
Who Should Attend?
This session is designed for entrepreneurs, consultants, service providers, and established business owners who are great at what they do but still feel stuck competing, constantly proving their value, or working too hard for the results they receive.
Presented by Ann Cardin, CEO of A. Cardin Incorporated and founder of Expert in You, a brand, influence marketing, and media agency.

Is Your Sales Process Helping Your Business Grow?
Or is it keeping you buried in follow-ups, scattered leads, stalled proposals, and unclear next steps?
In this interactive Network in Action session, Kelsey of The Virtual Integrator—a fractional COO and business systems strategist—shares a practical, four-part audit for evaluating and improving your sales system.
The Four-Part Sales Process Audit
What’s right: The strategies and systems that are already working
What’s wrong: The parts of your sales process that are clearly broken
What’s confusing: The activities producing inconsistent or unclear results
What’s missing: The essential steps, tools, or systems your current process lacks
Common Sales Challenges Covered
The discussion explores the sales and lead-management challenges many growing business owners face, including:
Inconsistent lead follow-up
Stalled proposals and missed opportunities
Unclear sales messaging
Disorganized lead tracking
Ineffective referral processes
Unfocused social media strategies
Inconsistent customer nurturing
Difficulty identifying which sales activities produce results
What You’ll Learn
You’ll learn how to:
Identify bottlenecks in your sales process
Close communication loops with prospects and customers
Create clear and consistent next steps
Track lead sources more effectively
Use sales data to make better business decisions
Build repeatable sales systems that support sustainable growth
By creating greater clarity, consistency, and structure, you can spend less time managing scattered details and more time focusing on the bigger vision for your business.
Who Should Attend?
This session is ideal for entrepreneurs, founders, service providers, and small-business owners who feel overwhelmed by the details of their sales process and want a more organized, dependable system for generating and managing opportunities.
Presented by: Kelsey of The Virtual IntegratorIntroduced by: Lisa Rosenfeld, Network in Action franchise owner in Houston, Texas

Use AI and LinkedIn Strategically to Build Stronger Business Relationships
Discover how to use AI and LinkedIn more strategically to build stronger business relationships, stay top of mind, and create more opportunities through networking.
In this session, Joe Apfelbaum, founder of the AI-powered LinkedIn assistant EvyAI, shares a practical framework for using LinkedIn with more clarity, consistency, and purpose. Joe explains why every business owner needs a written LinkedIn strategy, how to identify ideal clients and centers of influence, and how AI can help save time while supporting more authentic engagement.
The presentation covers Joe’s nine-step approach to LinkedIn success:
Build a clear business, marketing, and LinkedIn strategy
Define your ideal client profile and centers of influence
Clarify the promise behind your offer
Use stories to build trust and connection
Optimize your LinkedIn profile and digital footprint
Create systems, templates, and repeatable processes
Increase exposure through consistent posting and engagement
Build credibility with valuable content and conversations
Use AI tools to support outreach, research, comments, and content creation
Joe also demonstrates how AI can help generate LinkedIn posts, research prospects, identify conversation starters, respond to comments, organize contacts, and support business development workflows. He emphasizes that LinkedIn success comes from strategy, accountability, relationship-building, and staying top of mind with the right people.
This session is ideal for entrepreneurs, business owners, sales professionals, networkers, consultants, and anyone who wants to use LinkedIn more effectively to grow relationships, generate leads, and create more business opportunities.
Topics Covered
Why LinkedIn requires a written strategy
How to define your ideal client profile
The role of centers of influence in referral marketing
How to stay top of mind on LinkedIn
Why stories are more effective than sales pitches
How AI can support authentic LinkedIn engagement
How to create posts and comments faster with AI
How to use LinkedIn for relationship-driven business growth
Why accountability improves consistency
How networking and LinkedIn work together
 

Build a Clearer Marketing System That Turns Interest Into a Faster “Yes”
Learn how to build a clearer marketing system that turns visibility, relationships, follow-ups, and discovery calls into a faster “yes.”
In this session, Jessica DeFeo, founder of JMT Creative Consulting, shares how women entrepreneurs and small business owners can stop guessing with their marketing and start identifying where potential clients may be falling off in the sales process.
Jessica breaks down the Conversion Web, a practical framework for improving every step of the client journey:
Attract the right people, not just more people
Connect through clear, specific messaging
Clarify the client’s problem and your solution
Validate trust with proof, FAQs, and credibility
Invite prospects into the next step with clear calls to action
You’ll also learn how to audit your own marketing system, track lead flow and close rates, strengthen follow-up, improve discovery call conversions, and create a referral process that brings in more ideal clients.
This conversation is especially helpful for service-based business owners, entrepreneurs, consultants, coaches, and small business owners who want more clarity, stronger messaging, better conversion rates, and a marketing system that supports sustainable growth.
Topics Covered
Why marketing is not just about visibility
How to reduce uncertainty in the buying process
How to identify conversion leaks
Why clear messaging builds trust faster
How website bounce rate can reveal messaging problems
Why discovery calls should be structured as fit calls
How to improve proposal follow-up
How to ask clients for better referrals
How niching down can make your marketing more effective

Network in Action Speaker Series: Unlocking Influence with the B.A.N.K. Methodology
In this Network in Action Speaker Series, Cheri Tree introduces the powerful B.A.N.K. methodology, a science-based framework designed to decode human behavior and dramatically improve sales, communication, and influence.
As a globally recognized expert in influence intelligence and founder of Codebreaker Technology, Cheri explains how understanding personality-driven buying behaviors can transform the way you connect, communicate, and convert prospects into clients.
Rethinking Sales: From Numbers to People
This session challenges traditional sales thinking by shifting the focus from volume and rejection to human behavior and alignment.
Instead of relying on outdated strategies, Cheri demonstrates that aligning your communication style with a buyer’s personality can:
Increase closing rates
Reduce friction in conversations
Create stronger, more authentic connections
Key Insight: Sales is not a numbers game—it’s a people game.
The Four B.A.N.K. Personality Types
Cheri introduces four distinct personality types that drive decision-making:
Blueprint – Structured, detail-oriented, and risk-averse
Action – Fast-paced, results-driven, and competitive
Nurturing – Relationship-focused, empathetic, and collaborative
Knowledge – Analytical, data-driven, and logical
Understanding these types allows you to tailor your message for maximum impact.
Why Personality Alignment Matters
One of the most powerful insights shared in this session is the impact of personality alignment on sales outcomes:
18% success rate when personalities are mismatched
82% success rate when communication is aligned
This dramatic difference highlights the importance of speaking your customer’s “language”.
Influence Over Sales
Cheri emphasizes a modern approach to business:
Replace “selling” with “influencing.”
By focusing on influence, professionals can:
Build trust faster
Create meaningful conversations
Drive decisions without pressure or manipulation
Cracking the Code in 90 Seconds
The B.A.N.K. system enables you to identify a customer’s personality code in under 90 seconds, allowing you to:
Adjust your communication in real time
Increase engagement instantly
Improve conversion rates with minimal effort
Real-World Applications
This methodology extends far beyond sales and can be applied to:
Networking – Build stronger, faster connections
Referrals – Improve quality and conversion
Client Relationships – Deepen trust and retention
Hiring – Identify the right fit for roles
Marketing – Personalize messaging at scale
Leadership – Communicate effectively with teams
Leveraging AI for Scalable Influence
Cheri also highlights how AI and digital tools can amplify the B.A.N.K. system by enabling:
Personalized communication at scale
Automated personality insights
Data-driven decision-making
This combination of human psychology and technology creates a powerful advantage in today’s AI-driven world.
From Struggle to Success
Cheri shares her personal journey from a struggling sales professional to a multi-million dollar earner, proving that:
Mastering human behavior—not just sales tactics—is the key to exponential growth.
Who Should Attend?
This session is ideal for:
Entrepreneurs
Sales professionals
Business owners
Leaders and executives
Anyone looking to increase conversions, build stronger relationships, and future-proof their success will benefit from this powerful framework.
Learn how to crack the code of influence and turn every interaction into an opportunity.

In this Network in Action Sales Mastery session, Rob Ficken shares practical insights on how to take control of the sales process using the Sandler methodology.
Drawing from his journey from oil and gas engineer to trusted advisor for major organizations, Rob breaks down the common pitfalls sales professionals face and explains how traditional selling approaches often lead to stalled deals and lost opportunities.
Through interactive exercises and real-world examples, this session explores the critical differences between buyer and seller behaviors, revealing why many sales conversations result in ghosting or indecision. Rob introduces a structured, system-driven approach to selling that emphasizes qualification, trust-building, and clear communication to improve outcomes.
Key Topics Covered
Understanding the buyer-seller dynamic and why buyers often control the process
Identifying and overcoming common sales challenges, including objections and ghosting
The importance of a structured sales system for consistency and efficiency
How premature presentations lead to lost deals and free consulting
The role of emotional drivers and pain in decision-making
Implementing the Sandler framework, including upfront contracts and deep qualification
Strategies to improve prospecting, close rates, and long-term client relationships
This session is ideal for sales professionals, business owners, and anyone looking to refine their sales strategy, eliminate inefficiencies, and build a more predictable and effective sales process.
Learn how to qualify hard, close easy, and transform the way you approach every sales conversation.
Learn more about Robert here:https://www.networkinaction.com/index.php/profile/10299-sandler-sales-training-robert-ficken
Find your Network In Action group here:https://www.networkinaction.com/index.php/find-a-group
Start your business networking franchise here:https://franchise.networkinaction.com/

How AI Is Transforming Business Operations & Driving Growth
Discover how entrepreneurs, developers, and business owners are leveraging AI tools to automate operations, increase efficiency, and scale their businesses faster than ever before. This discussion highlights real-world use cases of AI-powered workflows that are reshaping how modern businesses operate.
Real-World Applications of AI
Explore how AI is being used to streamline and optimize key business functions, including:
Marketing automation for faster, more targeted campaigns
SEO optimization to improve visibility and rankings
Sales systems that nurture and convert leads automatically
Custom-built dashboards for real-time business insights
AI Tools Powering Modern Workflows
Learn how platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, and emerging AI solutions are transforming everyday business tasks, such as:
Content creation at scale
Customer communication and support
Lead generation and qualification
Automated follow-ups and engagement
Hear firsthand experiences from professionals who are replacing manual processes, reducing operational costs, and building AI-driven systems that function like digital employees.
AI Strategies for Beginners & Non-Technical Users
This session also provides practical, easy-to-implement strategies for those without a technical background. Learn how to apply AI without coding skills and still achieve powerful results.
AI governance and responsible implementation
Business transformation through automation
Measuring automation ROI
Staying competitive in a rapidly evolving digital landscape
Whether you're a small business owner, marketer, or tech professional, this conversation offers valuable insights into how AI is reshaping the future of work and unlocking new opportunities for growth.
Get Connected & Take the Next Step
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