In today’s episode of ‘Sales Samurai’ podcast, host Sam Capra, who helps marketing leaders in the retail space go beyond the sale/transaction, talks with guest Ashleigh Early, founder of the ‘Other Sales Coaching Consultant’, and the host of the ‘Other Side of Sale’. They talk about Diversity, Equity, Inclusion in Sales. Discussing challenges facing sales professionals with different ethnicity, religious background, race, caste, color, and gender and how as a Sales Leader we can address these things.

Episode Highlights

• 01:44 – Ashleigh shares, her career is building and rebuilding sales teams, and as a part of that she had the joy and pain of working at a lot of different start-ups in the tech space.
• 03:05 – The other side of sales as a podcast and as a blog came into being because of her original co-founder who has since left because she's doing other amazing things.
• 06:50 - We want to make sure that we are equipped as a business to address the total addressable market. 
• 08:02 - We need to make sure we've got diverse opinions so that the people who are doing the work get paid properly, and they're included in the decision-making processes. 
• 10:23 - We need to keep educating ourselves, and this isn't just a black history month or a women's history month thing or Martin Luther King Day. This needs to be a conscious, concerted, and consistent effort at every level. 
• 12:34 – Ashleigh mentions, there was a study that was done she forget who but they found that almost 50% of women leave tack within 10 years.
• 14:30 – Ashleigh points out, some elements are never going to be acceptable, that we're never going to be able to fix, but that we can support the people who are in those situations when they come up. 
• 21:07 – Ashleigh highlights, Madison Butler and Tara Irani, both women of color and LGBTQ, are very open about their experiences and are now helping smaller and medium businesses. 
• 23:44 – Sam highlights, demographics of sales professionals 3.0. 
• 24: 36 – Ashleigh states that if you have to scroll more than twice before you see a person of color, you need to go add a bunch more people of color. 
• 26:58 – Exposing to these other cultures even a little bit makes a big difference just to understand the world is different.
• 28:39 - It's an understanding that there’s not just the cultural difference on a racial or gender level but there’s an economic level too.
• 32:06 – If you do D.E.I. wrong, it's illegal, so, it's also making sure you understand the legal ramifications of having a sexist hiring process.
• 34:00 –You can authentically hire a team that is all white, that's the truth. That's not necessarily a bad thing unless you're telling yourself that the team is also diverse.
• 36:34 - If you cut experience requirements in half, you're going to immediately get a more diverse applicant pool period, says Ashleigh.
• 42:45 - When you're losing diverse talent, you're losing incredible essential talent period.
• 45:05 – Ashleigh points out members of the LGBTQ community are 21% more likely to experience discrimination than any other group. Seven out of 10 women have experienced discrimination at work, versus three out of 10 Men.

 Three Key Points

1. Sometimes the world isn't fair and that sucks, but at least we're here to support you and we're ready to show you how we're going to try and fix things that we can't control.
2. You need to just look at what you're requiring. Do you need 20 years' experience or do you just need some experience? Do you want a sales leader who is only in it for the money? Think through what you need