Samantha McKenna

Founder @ #samsales l Sales + Cadences + Executive Branding on LinkedIn l Ex-LinkedIn l Keynote Speaker l 13 Sales Records l Early Stage Investor l Overly Enthusiastic l Swiss Dual Citizen l Creator, Show Me You Know Me®

I had my first exposure to competitive "sales" in sixth grade when my school raised money for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society.  Knocking door to door and delivering a pitch was the start of my education; I still have the portable TV that I won for second place, which fuels my competitive spirit.

I’ve spent my career in sales doing a few things – breaking records, putting others first, creating global sales programs, educating through peer interaction, and going to great lengths to make people feel valued.  I’ve launched new verticals, overseen the GTM strategy for some of the most successful initiatives in company history, and put in processes across businesses that redefine how each company works and succeeds.

As the founder of #samsales, I oversee an all-women team of 14 who believe in a manners-first and buyer-first approach. We:

•	Run sales trainings that cover prospecting via your likely under-utilized LI Sales Nav licenses, how to write great email copy, Show Me You Know Me™, perfect discovery calls, etc. all while being sales methodology agnostic

•	Speak at 100+ annual events - keynoting for SKOs, international conferences, and podcasts alike re: sales, social selling, and women in tech/sales/leadership

•	Write the content you have in Outreach.io, etc using our proprietary techniques + the most up-to-date data on what works to drive opens + replies

•	Teach social selling - as an LI influencer, ambassador of Sales Navigator, and former LI leader, I understand how to use the ecosystem to truly SELL. I've personally trained tens of thousands on the platform, ranging from 10-person teams to Fortune 500 brands. 

•	Build brands for C-Suites on LinkedIn.  If you want to build a brand on LI but don't know what to write, don't understand the algorithm, and don't have the time to manage, our full-service strategy will manage it exclusively like we do for some of the most prominent/highly visible execs you see on LI.

As a founder, I have one goal - to make as much positive impact as we can.  Since our inception, we’ve raised over 120K via personal donations + our annual charity events for incredible causes, and have given away hundreds of our trainings to the military and transitioning teachers, free of charge.

When you hire us, you're not just hiring a team, but rather investing in one who constantly puts good into the world.

Who am I, otherwise - 

Philanthropist, investor, dog lover, die hard competitor, writer, former Nickelodeon game show contestant, extrovert, expert in self-deprecating humor, and willing to walk through fire to make you laugh.

Limited Partner

Sign up for our newsletters, webinars, and all our content here www.samsalesconsulting.com 

We just fired off an update to every one of our LinkedIn Executive Branding clients on the changing nature of the algorithm and reach on LinkedIn. A quick snippet from one part of our email, if you're also looking for a bit of reasoning on the changes:

What we're seeing today:

Feed saturation: 20% more daily posts competing for the same space.

Rise of suggested and paid content: now ~35% of all feeds.

Quality filters: comments, saves, and profile clicks now count more than likes.

Audience fatigue: people scroll faster and engage more selectively.

How the Algorithm “Thinks” Now:

LinkedIn now groups every post into topic clusters (AI-based “buckets” like sustainability, leadership, or innovation). The stronger your connection to a clear theme, the more likely your content is to be suggested to new, relevant audiences beyond your followers.

That’s why keywords and consistency of posting matters more than ever. The algorithm looks to your headline, about section, and recent posts to confirm your expertise before deciding who sees your content.

Note, you might still see some posts doing tremendously well and wonder, am I the only one getting hit? One of the downfalls of social: easy to feel great about yourself when your content tanks...

But, it's important to keep in mind that you only see half the story: the engagement and comments, not the impressions. Some of my highest engaged with content gets the lowest views, but some of my most curated-for-my-buyers-thought-leadership gets the lowest engagement and highest sends/saves.

Take yesterday's LI/algo post: 86 likes but 12,000+ impressions and 35 saves and 19 sends on LI. 

Then there's also my Dumb and Dumber GIF with 123 likes and 55,000 impressions so...at least it was shared around? 😏 

But as always, do a quick check on your Dark Social score (impressions/likes) - if you're sailing above 50 on average, you're doing great. Above 70 (like the above) and it means your content is resonating and useful to broad audiences.

****************************************************************

The best I can offer is that this platform is like the gym. We get easy wins when we start but things fluctuate daily, we hit plateaus, and what worked then doesn't work now, but keep at it. I've been posting since 2011 and this platform has done more for me than I could ever pay back to it, even if it's a fickle little creature most days.

#samsales #LIEB

Wesleyne .

Sales Leadership Whisperer & Therapist | Transforming Sales Organizations By Training Sales Teams & Managers Together | Former Chemist Providing Effective, Edgy Sales Strategy | Ring My 🔔 for Sales Leadership Insights

Most CEOs don’t hire me because they need sales training.
They hire me because their sales team is underperforming and no one can explain why.

They’ve replaced leaders.
They’ve invested in tools.
They’ve tried quick wins.

But the numbers are still inconsistent.
Pipeline meetings feel like guesswork.
And only a few reps carry the weight.

That’s not a sales rep problem. It’s a leadership and system problem.

I help CEOs fix what’s actually broken.

We start with the root.
I evaluate your team across 21 core competencies.
We uncover the gaps you can’t see on a dashboard.
Then we rebuild from the inside out.

We coach your sales leaders to lead, not chase.
We align people, process, and performance.
We create a system your team believes in and can execute without micromanagement.

What does that look like in real life?
• A team stuck at 75 percent quota reached 136 percent after we restructured their strategy
• A sales manager ready to resign led an eight million dollar turnaround in sixty days
• A client closed a six-figure deal the day after one mindset session

If you don’t address the root, the cycle repeats.
More turnover. Missed numbers. Burnout at the top.
The cost is hidden, but real.

I work best with CEOs of companies where sales is complex and performance depends on leadership alignment
That includes manufacturing, industrial services, technical field sales, customer experience providers, and companies with long sales cycles and high-value deals

The sales problem won’t solve itself
But with the right system and leadership, it becomes predictable

Book a time to talk — link in the Featured section

The Transformed Sales Podcast Host

There are no comprehensive training programs for sales managers in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Manufacturing fields. Their sales teams are usually composed of technical people who have trouble simplifying complex products for prospects to understand. As a former chemist that transitioned into an international sales manager leading teams of technical sales reps, I understand the challenge of that new role.

I have developed a proprietary 7-step sales leadership blueprint based on my 12 years of experience that identifies the blind spots, gaps and inefficiencies in the process, teams and management of sales in technical fields. My coach like approach allows me to work alongside managers to develop their sales leadership and teaching skills.

Building strong teams starts with hiring the right people. My methodology equips managers with a science-based approach to identify weak links and strong salespeople within the organization. By utilizing an objective sales specific assessment tool, I guarantee candidates that are recommended will be within the top 50% of the sales organization within six months. 

Many new sales managers fail because they lack the framework to coach salespeople into sales superstars. They lean on what they did to become successful at sales and focus on the top 20% of their team that is producing the majority of the revenue. In order to overcome this, sales managers must develop a proactive sales coaching culture instead of providing ad hoc advice.  Working together, we develop a systematic and actionable sales process that any salesperson can use on day one as a roadmap to success. This allows the manager to develop individualized action plans allowing every salesperson on the team to perform at to their max potential, so they hit their monthly quotas. 

If you're a Science, Technology, Engineering or Manufacturing company & want to build a killer sales teams that hits quota monthly? contact me wgreer@transformedsales.com|281-941-7272

Wesleyne Whittaker

The hardest feedback I ever received came disguised as a quiet comment in a tense meeting.

I was leading my sales team through a rough quarter. 
You could feel the frustration settling in. 
Not loud. 
Not obvious. 
Just sitting underneath everything they said and did. 

So I asked, 
“What’s getting in your way?” 

One rep spoke up. 
“We just don’t feel seen.” 

My first instinct was to defend myself. 
To explain. 
To list everything I was doing to support them. 

But something in me said pause. 
So I did. 

And in that quiet moment, I finally heard what I had been missing. 
They didn’t need perfection. 
They needed presence. 

They didn’t want more structure or more direction. 
They wanted a leader who could sit in the truth with them without trying to fix it too fast. 

That meeting reminded me of something I’ve learned again and again. 
People rarely share their real truth first. 
They wait to see if you’re the kind of leader who can handle it. 

Listening isn’t passive. 
It’s leadership. 
It’s giving people the safety to be honest without bracing for your reaction. 

When was the last time you created enough space for someone to tell you what they really needed?

Your Sales Team Isn’t Broken. Your Strategy Is | Sales Struggles Are Strategy Problems. Not People Problems | BELIEF Selling™, the Framework CEOs Use to Drive Consistent Sales Execution

The hardest leadership lesson I learned this week had nothing to do with work. It started with me saying, I’m empty. 

I had a hard conversation with someone this week. 
Not a blow up. 
Not a conflict. 
Just the truth I’ve avoided saying out loud. 

“I’m emotionally tapped out. 
I don’t have anything else to give right now.” 

Those words felt heavy. 
Because I am used to being the strong one. 
The steady one. 
The one who keeps showing up even when my tank is past empty. 

But this week reminded me of something leadership and entrepreneurship have taught me again and again. 
You cannot keep giving from a place you refuse to acknowledge is drained. 

In sales we talk about follow through. 
In leadership we talk about support. 
In entrepreneurship we talk about grit and resilience. 

But we rarely talk about capacity. 
We rarely admit when the weight is too much. 
We rarely say, “I can’t keep carrying this alone.” 

That conversation taught me something important. 
Honesty creates alignment. 
When you name your limits, the right people rise to meet you. 
They decide whether they want to be part of the support or part of the strain. 

Sometimes the bravest thing you can say isn’t yes. 
It’s “I’m empty.” 
Because that’s the moment where real leadership begins. 

When was the last time you told the truth about what you no longer have the capacity to hold?

Seven years ago, I started Transformed Sales with more questions than answers. 
I didn’t have a blueprint. 
I didn’t have a team. 
I just had this quiet conviction that wouldn’t let me go. 

In those early days I kept wondering why talented people weren’t performing at the level they were capable of. 
And then I saw it up close. 
Not in the metrics. 
In the people. 

Most teams don’t struggle because they lack skill. 
They struggle because they don’t believe they can do more than what they’ve always done. 
The root always shows up in the fruit. 

I’ve worked with solopreneurs. 
I’ve worked with publicly traded companies. 
Different worlds. Same pattern. 
People grow first. 
Performance follows. 

The moment I understood that, everything shifted for me. 
My business. 
My leadership. 
My impact. 

I stopped fixing surface problems. 
I started helping leaders see what was happening inside their people. 
That’s when the real transformation happened. 

Seven years later, I’m grateful. 
For the clients who trusted me. 
For the rooms I never imagined I’d walk into. 
For the courage to keep going when it would’ve been easier to stop. 

If there’s one thing these seven years taught me it's 

Your next level won’t come from a new tactic. 
It’ll come from the version of you willing to believe differently about yourself. 

Seven years in. 
And I’m just getting started. 

What’s one belief you had to outgrow to reach your next level?

A client told me no and it forced me to face a truth I didn’t want to see.

I once met with a client I knew I could help. 
I brought the data. 
The results. 
The message I thought would land. 

And they still told me no. 

It stung. 
Not because I lost the opportunity. 
But because I knew I had missed something important. 

So instead of wrapping up and moving on, I asked, 
“What made you decide that?” 

The client looked at me and said, 
“You’re focused on selling the solution. 
You’re not focused on what we’re actually struggling with.” 

That sentence hit harder than the no. 

I went back and rebuilt my discovery process from the ground up. 
Less proving. 
More understanding. 
Less talking. 
More listening. 

Three months later, that same client came back and said yes. 
Not because the offer changed. 
Because I did. 

That’s when I learned no isn’t rejection. 
No is redirection. 
No is feedback. 
No is information. 
No is an invitation to grow. 

What could your last no be trying to teach you?

Here’s why most people struggle in sales

 
❌ They’re pitching on the first call
❌ Selling to everyone
❌ Showing 6–7 offers at once
❌ And creating proposals in a language the buyer doesn’t even use.
 
No wonder closing feels heavy.

One of the simplest frameworks I teach is the Two-Call Sales Process, and while chatting with Kris Ward on the Win the Hour Win the Day Podcast, I broke down exactly why it works and why so many sellers are unintentionally adding friction to the buyer journey.
 
📌 Niche until it hurts.
Stop trying to sell to the world.
The smallest niche you can confidently reach will always convert better than a massive one you can’t.
 
📌 First call is a discovery, NOT a pitch.
Not slides. Not demos. Not information-dumping.
Just connection, curiosity, and understanding your buyer’s world in their own language.
 
📌 Fewer offers equals fewer barriers
Have one clear offer, not five.
Buyers gain confidence when choices are simple.
You don’t need more packages.
 
📌 Proposals should sound like the client wrote them.
Mirror the buyer’s language so they feel seen, heard, and understood.
When buyers read their own language reflected back, they immediately feel alignment.
 
If you’ve been feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or like your sales calls aren’t converting the way they should, this episode will shift the way you think about selling forever.

Listen to the full episode https://lnkd.in/dYuMjFBx

taplio

The Battle

Samantha McKenna

Wesleyne Whittaker

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreSamantha McKenna's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreWesleyne Whittaker's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Samantha McKenna

Wesleyne Whittaker

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Samantha McKenna's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreWesleyne Whittaker's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreSamantha McKenna's LinkedIn Performance