E26: Everything is Sales with Darren Rabie

Brian believes that everyone needs to understand sales because ultimately, "everything is sales". What does this mean? Sales expert Darren Rabie joins Brian on this episode of The Unlimited Podcast to help answer that question, and discuss how sales can be applied to more aspects of life than you may think. Darren Rabie was born in Cape Town, South Africa. His father owned successful clothing stores and his mother was a teacher. Along with his two brothers, he lived a wonderful life. But the fears and injustice of Apartheid drove the family to immigrate to Toronto in 1977. In Canada, with no money or connections, Darren’s father started a clothing import business and his mom became a travel agent. He grew up learning from two hard-working, never complaining, dedicated and loving parents who sacrificed for their kids. As a teenager, Darren had lots of jobs but quickly realized that he was more entrepreneur than employee. After graduating from Ivey Business School in 1996, Darren co-founded his first company – The Results Group (TRG) – an outsourced lead-generation firm for B2B businesses. By 2003 Darren realized that many of TRG’s clients lacked the sales leadership, structure and tools to succeed, no matter how many leads were generated for them. So, he sold TRG and founded Focus Sales Management – initially renting himself, then others, out as part-time sales managers for small B2B companies. In 2010 another division was born – Focus CRM – to provide ongoing support and training contracts for companies struggling with salesforce.com. In 2018, Darren decided to make his next life change and sold Focus to his partners in the firm. Brian and Darren discuss human nature, applying sales concepts in your personal life, Darren's "12 C's" (characteristics) of effective (sales)people, and more. If you like what you hear, please don’t hesitate to rate us kindly. And if there are particular topics you’d like covered, please let us know. Timestamps 0:00 Disclaimer & Intro 1:28 Brian's 15 Year Harvard Reunion 5:48 Darren introducing sales courses to Ivey 7:44 Darren's sales background 11:38 Is "sales" a dirty word? 20:13 Sales & human nature 36:59 Applying sales to success in everyday life 49:13 Darren's "12 C's" of successful (sales)people 53:56 How have sales tools changed? 58:24 Is sales a good start to your career? 1:00:52 If Darren could do anything, what would it be? 1:03:36 Outro & disclaimer