source: http://voyagedallas.com/interview/meet-tania-cazin-stalwart-sales-training-consulting-uptown/
Today we’d like to introduce you to Tania Cazin.
Tania, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Yes, thank you. I built a newspaper route selling door-to-door when I was just 7 years old. Throughout my childhood, I sold anything and everything I could get my hands on, such as my family’s used lawn mower that I sold to the neighbor for fifty bucks. I sold the bubble gum from my bubble gum machine. I sold my school snacks and the bulk candy my mom brought home from the store, until she found out what I was up to. I broke records in school fundraising (selling wrapping paper and peanuts). I sold so much that the school asked me if I would retire my name from the prizes awarded. I said, “No!” I joined a kid’s sales club before I was 10. I fell in love with finding out what people needed and helping them to get it. Selling continued into my adulthood. Three decades later, I’m still as in love with it as I was when I first started. I started in retail and then went into B2B. I sold cell phones, worked for the family who created GJ Joe, sold to major retailers across the country and overseas, sold print advertising, among other products and services.
When I was 19, I discovered the world of personal development and sales training and since then, have continued my education into human behavior, psychology, personal development, professional salesmanship and learning and understanding why people buy and how to get them to buy. Today, I have thousands and thousands of hours of training where I learned additional tips and techniques that I have not only applied to my own profession but to what I have brought to my students. I have a commission-only and one-call-close background. I brought my career to a 90% closing ratio. People often asked me how I was able to sell so much in such little time, so I started helping them and eventually created my company Stalwart Sales Training and Consulting. I now teach sales professionals from all industries my 12-Step Stalwart Selling System that shows them how to sell more in less time by increasing their closing ratio and shortening their sales cycle.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Define smooth! Entrepreneurship will test you like nothing else. It wasn’t meant to be easy. If it was, everyone would do it. The best motto I can associate entrepreneurship with is “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” I believe the struggles we as entrepreneurs face are primarily in our minds. If we want something bad enough, it’s up to us to make it happen. Creativity and resourcefulness are key. We can’t depend on someone else for our success, we have to go out there and make it happen. My success, as a business owner and in sales, is strictly dependent on me. Anyone with an excuse as to why they can’t do this hasn’t tried hard enough. You hear stories all the time of people who came from nothing who made it big. Entrepreneurship favors the bold and I wouldn’t trade its rewards for anything. I have nearly always been commission based. I became self-employed in 2002 and established my sales training company in 2011. There is little difference from going commission-only to business owner. Just a bit more back-end paperwork: contracts, business plans, etc. Otherwise, the hustle is the same. I did miss having a boss if I had a question but having had mentors by my side since I was a teenager, I always had great help along the way (if you think you can get to the top alone, you are kidding yourself). If something didn’t work for me, I never quit. I went back to the drawing board and tried it a different way.
Stalwart Sales Training and Consulting – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We help companies and sales professionals sell more in less time by teaching them how to increase their closing ratio and shorten their sales cycle. Our 12-Step Stalwart Selling System organizes your sales process and increases revenue. Because the psychology of selling is the same no matter what your offering is, we help companies in all industries, product or service based. i.e. technology, advertising, medical, education, event planning, mortgages, financial, etc. One thing that sets Stalwart Sales Training and Consulting apart from other training companies is that this is my program. I developed it in 1999. We are not a franchise, nor did we buy or license someone else’s program, which is very common. You get first-hand knowledge when partnering with us. We’re not going to send you someone who learned my program to teach it to you. They say those who can’t do, teach. Well, we teach what we do and what we’ve done for decades. I still make cold calls and go on appointments. Because I teach what I’ve done and still do, I know what you and your reps go through, throughout the entire sales process. Telling someone to make a cold call and actually making a cold call are completely different things. My success comes from walking my talk. I recently cold-called a big company to set up an appointment and they told me that out of the last 8-10 trainers they worked with, I was the only one who asked for an appointment to earn their business. I’m a little proud and a lot humbled to be a go-to sales trainer in a male-dominated profession. I’m simply a girl who fell in love with sales, learned as much as I could about it, went out there and did it, got big results, and now help others do the same. My clients are seeing 200%, 300%, 700% growth in a very short time. I am proud of them. Their success is my success.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success to me is the freedom to live the life you imagine for yourself. We all have our own definition of what that looks like. Life’s too short to have it any other way! There is always a financial goal but, as I get older, it becomes more about purpose and fulfillment than anything else. I continue to strive to be the best salesperson and sales trainer, but my success marker is how well my students succeed with the material I teach (my 12-Step Stalwart Selling System). The coolest part of my job, even more than watching them increase their income, is seeing who they become in the process. I love hearing my client’s excitement when they tell me their success stories; how they apply what I teach them and how they are selling more in less time. Knowing they can now afford and experience things they couldn’t before, that is real success.
Contact Info:
Website: StalwartSales.com
Phone: 612-927-2044
Email: Tania@StalwartSales.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taniacazin/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/taniacazin
Twitter: https://twitter.com/taniacazin
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taniacazin