In our 38th episode of #NutsAboutSales, we heard some amazing sales wisdom from Katie Castillo, a Sales Development Manager at Postal.
Watch this brilliant episode to learn her genius (and delicious) way to get conversations started, understand why it’s essential to use less formal language, and hear about the time she sent a prospect a video of herself sending a gift.
Watch the video or read the transcripts below:
What’s your name and where do you work?
My name is Katie Castillo, and I’m a Sales Development Manager at Postal.
What’s your most embarrassing sales story?
One of my first months as an SDR, I was trying to get in front of a large e-commerce company. I was on his LinkedIn, and there was this beautiful picture of a lake. And my opener was something like, “Wow, your cover photo is beautiful. Is it the Quetico?” And we started a conversation about it, which is great because he’s very high level at this company.
I pitched to him three times. Then, I sent him a gift through Postal, and after that, I sent him a video of me sending the gift.
My commission breath was in full force with this guy, and he never answered me again. So, very, very embarrassing for me.
What was your most genius move to save a deal?
As kind of a side gig, I decorate sugar cookies.
So, I sent personalized sugar cookies out to prospects in order to start those conversations. It’s highly effective when you send someone a cookie with their name on it that they’re going to accept it and set a meeting.
What’s your best sales tip?
Don’t send them an email with calendar times if they’ve already expressed interest. That’s where meetings go to die.
Just send them a calendar invite and follow up with that email that says, “Hey, I just sent over a time. I’m really excited to start the conversation, you can feel free to adjust it if you need to.”
What’s the worst mistake to avoid?
Over-formalizing your language.
I think people want to speak to people. And if you come at them with buzzwords or really formal emails, it’s honestly just going to be background noise or they’re just not going to read it.
Sell me a walnut
Do you like walnuts?
I don’t like oatmeal on its own. But my husband loves oatmeal.
Oatmeal changed for me when he started adding things to it that elevated it. And walnuts are one of those things that when he added it to oatmeal, it made it one of my favorite dishes.
