Campus Series: Semira Amirpour – The Importance of Cultural Intelligence
Sales education is far more nuanced than simply teaching sales. For Semira Amirpour, it requires a commitment to understanding and respecting diverse cultures in the business world and an ability to constantly adapt based on external factors and a rapidly evolving field.
In this episode of the Campus Series podcast, Semira, a Professor of Instruction at the University of Texas at Dallas, discusses the importance of cultural intelligence in sales and marketing education, the challenges and opportunities presented by rapidly evolving technology in this space, and the crucial role adaptation and agility play in her career.
Guest-At-A-Glance
💡 Name: Semira Amirpour
💡What they do: Professor of Instruction
💡Company: University of Texas at Dallas
💡Noteworthy: Experienced in teaching sales and marketing, with a focus on cultural intelligence and technology.
💡 Where to find them: LinkedIn
Key Insights
Cultural Intelligence in Sales Education
Semira Amirpour delves into the importance of cultural intelligence in sales and marketing education. She contrasts the concepts of the “melting pot” and “tossed salad,” highlighting the need to understand and respect diverse cultures in the business world. Semira emphasizes that biases and perceptions can impact business relationships, and she shares an exercise where students identify aspects of their culture that can help or hinder in the business environment. This insight underscores the significance of cultural awareness in today’s globalized business landscape.
Embracing Technology in Sales Education
The episode explores the challenges and opportunities that technology presents in the field of sales education. Semira talks about the rapid changes in technology and how it’s impossible for one person to keep up with all the new apps and tools. She shares examples of students using specific apps for prospecting and starting businesses, and she emphasizes the need for educators to be agile and experimental with assignments. This insight highlights the vital role of technology in modern sales education.
Adaptation and Agility in Teaching Sales
Semira Amirpour shares her 17-year experience in teaching sales and marketing, emphasizing the need for constant adaptation and agility. She discusses how she changes her syllabus every semester to stay relevant and how the Covid-19 pandemic posed unique challenges for faculty who had never taught online before. Semira’s approach to teaching reflects a commitment to innovation, responsiveness to change, and a willingness to experiment with new assignments. Her insights offer valuable lessons for educators in any rapidly evolving field.
Episode Highlights
Introduction and Background of Semira Amirpour
The episode begins with an introduction to Semira Amirpour, her background, and her current role as a professor at the University of Texas at Dallas. The hosts express their excitement about the topics to be covered, including cultural intelligence and Semira’s unique insights into sales education.
“Joining us today is Semira Amirpour, Professor of Instruction and Sales Coach at the University of Texas Dallas. She’s joining us today on the campus of Rollins College. We’re at the conclusion of the Sales Educators Academy.”
The Impact of Culture on Education and Behavior
The discussion explores the impact of culture on education and behavior, particularly in the context of student reactions to failure and authority. Semira shares an anecdote about a student’s emotional response to a situation and reflects on cultural influences.
“He came from a culture where there is a lot of emphasis on education. You don’t question faculty. You don’t question authority. So he thought that was it; it was out of his control.”
Semira’s Connection to Texas and Personal Reflections
Towards the end of the episode, Semira reflects on her personal connection to Texas, calling it home and sharing her love for Dallas. This part of the conversation adds a personal touch to the episode, providing insight into Semira’s life outside of her professional role.
“If I have to choose a place to call home, home is my immediate home right now. Dallas is home. Texas is home. Okay? Texas is a place that I have spent more than half of my life, right? So Texas is home.”
The Agility of Teaching Sales and Marketing Courses
Semira discusses her 17 years of teaching sales and marketing, emphasizing the need to be agile and change quickly. She talks about the constant evolution of her syllabus and the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“You know, 17 total years teaching sales. Sales and marketing courses. Yeah, marketing management. All of those on like chemistry or history, maybe you can just run it back from the previous semester. Right. You’ve gotta, you’ve gotta be agile, you’ve gotta change quickly.”
Transcript:
Chris Corcoran: Hello and welcome to this episode of Tech Sales is for Hustlers, the campus edition.
Joining us today. Is Samira Amir, [00:01:00] poor professor of instruction and sales coach at the University of Texas Dallas. She’s joining us today on the campus of Rollins College. We’re, uh, at the conclusion of the sales educators, uh, association Academy. Thank you. We’re at the Sales Educators Academy. Which is a great, um, annual event where 70 sales professors all congregate and compare notes and share best practices to make sure that their coaching, training and developing the sales professionals of the future.
We have a lot to talk about. We want to talk about your background. There were some, I sat in on your presentation. I’m gonna want you to share with the listeners a little bit of the, of what, what you shared with everyone today. But why don’t we, we start by introducing our listeners to you and your background.
Maybe if you could take. 60 seconds and tell us a little bit about. Who you are and, and your background.
Semira Amirpour: Sure. Thank you so much for having me on. Um, as you said, right now I’m a professor at [00:02:00] UTD, but that is not how I got started. Um, just like many of us my age, we kind of happen to fall into sales and
for me, I started actually as an engineering major in Okay. Uh, and um, that was back in Canada. And then, uh, life has a funny way of changing your path. And I met my husband very early on, got married, moved to Texas. Okay. So the choices for me were limited in terms of school. I could, I could go to, and they didn’t have the engineering.
I wanted it to study and I decided that I just wanted to switch. To business. Okay. Probably one of the best decisions I ever made. Uh, I loved every class I took right now teaching. I love it. Not that it was easy, but I enjoyed the topic quite a bit. So after graduation, again, the issue was I couldn’t leave the city, I couldn’t relocate.
Mm-hmm. And where I was, it was very limited in terms of where you could work.
Chris Corcoran: Was this El Paso? It was in El Paso. Yeah. El Paso, [00:03:00] Texas.
Semira Amirpour: Okay. And this is years and years ago. I’m gonna age myself here. So, uh, my husband had his own business and I started working with him in the family business. And then as the family grew and became more diversified and the family business grew and became more diversified, I kind of took on a whole new role and responsibilities.
I was working in multi-housing, commercial, um, I was kind of a liaison working with. Military housing and they have soldiers coming back. And so it was interesting, I think my last role before I actually started teaching full time, I was kind of the strategist. We would take over, I would redo the management, I would do the hiring, and then redo the um, training and, uh, It was definitely challenging and at the same time as I was doing all these, and then you have to remember, I have two little kids at that time working 12, 14 hours a day, [00:04:00] and then the chair of a department who was my professor when I was doing my graduate work.
She came to me and she said,
we are introducing a new simulation and we want you to teach one of the classes for us. And me
thinking, oh, I have this all covered and I can do it all. So I started teaching part-time and that was the start and part-time
Chris Corcoran: as a mom, as a full-time sales professional. Yes. Just, well, my business partner says, if you ever want to get anything done, Ask a busy mom and she’ll take care of it.
Semira Amirpour: The thing was, and it’s very ironic because I’m like, oh, I’m gonna teach just so as an stress reliever from my work. And uh, and it was fun because I really enjoyed it in terms of being in a classroom, kind of being able to apply the stuff I was doing on a day-to-day basis and teaching the students.
And I did that and as I finished the first semester, they started adding more classes and adding more classes, and I went from one class to three class to five class.
All part time. [00:05:00] All part time,
part time. And it was because, uh, that simulation was kind of new. Many people didn’t wanna teach it, so they would add more classes.
So I teach a simulation and it got to a point that when you’re younger, sometimes you think you can do it all. Mm-hmm.
And it starts taking a toll on your body. So I
decided that I had to make a choice
after I went through a series of, um, sickness and, you know,
surgeries and stuff. I’m like, I, I can’t do this.
I have to make a decision. And I, and I couldn’t spend much time with my kids. Sure. And the thing I liked about my previous job and being in sales and being in management, ’cause the fact that I had a little bit flexibility to
drop off the kids, pick up the kids.
And many times when I talk to my colleagues, even back then, I used to say, it is one thing to be a woman in sales.
It’s another thing to be a mom in sales. Let’s
Chris Corcoran: talk about that.
Semira Amirpour: It’s tough. Oh, it’s tough. I mean, kids still get sick. Yep. Um, you have to [00:06:00] juggle. It’s a lot of juggling. But then I, at the same time, I had that flexibility mm-hmm. That I could, if I had to take a day off to take him, to be with them for a field trip, I could do it.
It was funny because probably
my older daughter was maybe in middle school and somebody asked her if her mom worked, and she said, I think she works. I’m like,
but it
was it. It made me feel better because as a mother you always carry that guilt that, what am I doing enough?
But she didn’t even feel that I was working all those hours. So
that was nice. But. The pressure catches up with you. Mm-hmm. Because, and I think the society puts a lot of pressure on a woman to, to do a lot, be a good mom.
Mm-hmm. Be a good wife, be a good employee, and, um, Someone’s gotta give. Exactly. And I had to
make that tough decision and I was enjoying teaching so, so
much. And then as a woman, as a minority being where [00:07:00] I was, uh, you know, of course being in El Paso teaching at UTEP, that they had a very large Hispanic population.
Uh,
students came to me all the time and they were like, oh, you’re such a great role model.
I, I felt good that I was able to make those, um, differences in their Sure. So I finally had to make that decision. Went to the dean and I said, I need either you have to hire me full-time. Mm-hmm. So I can put somebody in my place, uh, or I can continue doing this, and I probably have to let go of teaching if it is just part-time.
And he said, okay. And that’s how I started teaching.
Chris Corcoran: Wow. So, so ultimatums work is what I’m hearing
was an interesting, um,
Semira Amirpour: again, going back it was matter of fact. Matter of fact, I was very honest and I think even at the time that, I mean, academia is an interesting world because many people have to do a lot of research.
Mm-hmm. We have to put in a lot of service. But as in part-time, many [00:08:00] times you just come in, teach and go right. Anytime they asked me to do any kind of service, if I could do it, I did it right. And it just goes
back to the fact that if you are just solely working for that
paycheck, people would know from a mile away.
Right? But if you are doing your job because you’re enjoying it and you actually wanna help, and you actually go above and beyond,
People also noticed that. So it was one of those things that
I appreciate the fact that the dean at the time appreciated that I was able to do so. I started teaching full-time and it helped because at that time I could choose what classes, or at least they gave me two sets of classes, and I would have that planning guide and having like five different prep work that I had to work on and, and, and do that.
So I did that. So I was at UTEP part-time, full-time for about seven years. Okay. And then, uh, we were planning to move to Dallas and my daughter, my older daughter was a starting high school, so that was the right time for us to move. [00:09:00] Mm-hmm. So I moved to Dallas and didn’t teach for one year that, when that trans transition was happening.
But I went back to do a lot of work behind the scene because when I was working with a family business, I was doing a lot of account management. Okay. And a lot of, um, Just calling on customers, helping, helping. Coach and lead. So I was able to
do some of that plus some consulting with like smaller businesses and
stuff.
But back then it wasn’t, and it’s not long time ago, but for many people, at least for me, I had never worked from home. I always went to the office. Mm-hmm.
And that was an adjustment.
Uh, I realized very quickly that I had very discipline when it came to working from home. So I had to come up with a strategy.
Otherwise, stuff were just piling up and I couldn’t catch up. Right? So I would actually wake up in the morning and change and get my coffee and go to my office and close the door and pretend I was in the office. I would actually focus and accomplish stuff. [00:10:00] And then, uh, I had applied for UTD and the sales position opened up and.
That’s how I joined U T
Chris Corcoran: Is that when it’s been 10 years. 10 years. Uhhuh. Is that when you started teaching sales or did you, you also taught No, I actually taught sales at
Semira Amirpour: UTEP. At UTEP, okay. But
sales has, you know, many universities have sales classes, but how they teach it is different. Mm-hmm. We didn’t have a sales program.
Mm-hmm. Okay. We did have sales. I mean, we teach the concept and the process and
asking questions with that. I see. But it
wasn’t so much the way that we do it right now at all. Right. Not, not nothing like what’s happening right now. Sure. So, yes, I did have that experience. I took a sales class way back when.
Mm-hmm. When I was, that was something like, oh. I have to take this course because it’s part of the requirement for the marketing and it would never dawned on me that any of those concepts I’m gonna be using on a
daily basis. You
Chris Corcoran: talk about
Semira Amirpour: enjoying it and worthwhile work. Mm-hmm. Is there a certain, as you picked up more and more of those classes, there a [00:11:00] time or a certain class that made you realize
Chris Corcoran: that’s what you wanted to do?
Semira Amirpour: Yeah.
Um, I think the more you interact with the students, something I
realized and it took me a long time to actually come to peace with it. As a mom, it was so important for me to be a big part of my children’s lives
and do everything I could do, and it took me a while to figure out that not everybody had the
means or the abilities to do that for their children.
So sometimes I would have students who come to me and I would, I would tell ’em, oh, you’re gonna go for this job interview and make sure you dress properly and this is how you’re supposed to dress. And they would say, Thank you for doing that because nobody has ever taught me how to dress. Mm-hmm. So little stuff, little skills that you take
for granted if you were always exposed to it, or I
would teach my children.
So
it gave me a lot of joy
that he would come to me and actually share that [00:12:00] information
and, and let me know later
- I mean, I’m, I have, it’s kind
of funny because I have two Facebook pages because I, I live away, you know, I’m far away from my family and. But I have one just for my students. Okay. If they wanna connect with me.
And I have students there from 15 years ago, so I have seen them
graduate, change different jobs. Mm-hmm. Get married, have children, and they still stay connected. And every so often they message and those relationships are priceless and, and I really appreciate that.
But then again, as a woman teaching in an environment, Very diverse that many
times, many students, newcomers English is their second language.
Mm-hmm.
Accents, language barriers, cultural barriers.
Just seeing somebody
that could look like them mm-hmm. And sound like them and
still be able to be successful, many of them need
that, need that role model. Mm-hmm. So that has been an extremely [00:13:00] satisfying. Intrinsic reward for me in a sense to keep me going because no job is easy and trust me, teaching is you don’t do teaching for them.
You do the teaching for the love of teaching. Uh, but that has been something that kept me going, um, and I appreciate to have the opportunity to do it.
Chris Corcoran: I want to talk a about culture. Okay. Um, particularly you, your world traveled, Uhhuh born in Iran. Uh, didn’t spend some time in Pakistan. Couple years in Pakistan.
Pakistan, then, then to Canada, then to West Texas. Yes. Then into Dallas, which I’m sure you’ve, you’re taking a little bit along the way from each location and each culture. I mean, share with the listeners about your, uh, What you shared with the audience about, uh, kind of having the Mexican culture?
Yes.
Semira Amirpour: Actually, I have a funnier
story that I didn’t share the other day during the presentation. Um, [00:14:00] culture is very, very exclusive. I mean, you need to be, you need to be very careful when you are not part of a culture. Mm-hmm. Or when you’re
describing another culture and, uh, So teaching at utep, 85% of popular, 85% of my students were probably
Hispanic.
Mm-hmm. And, um, there were times I, I did a lot of my research when I was in graduate, in graduate
school in marketing to Hispanics.
So I was very, very familiar with the culture. Of course, I was living in El Paso for a long time. I lived there for 18 years.
And, uh, so I used to joke and say, Guys, I know I’m not supposed to joke about another
culture, but I look Hispanic.
Mm-hmm. I lived in El Paso.
My sister-in-law’s
Mexican. Do I qualify to joke without you guys being offended? So it was fun, and they would
always say, yes, go for it. Go for it. And then, um,
finally one day I was talking about. This is really funny. We were talking to jalapenos [00:15:00]
and I said, you know, to me jalapeno is just a jalapeno.
And one student raised his hand and he said, professor, up to today, I’ve considered you a Mexican.
But now that you say jalapeno is just a jalapeno, no, you’re not a
Mexican.
And it’s funny because a week later a group of students made me a plaque
that it said I was an honorary Hispanic. Okay.And I belong to thee Mexican subculture and I qualified to talk about it.
So I have it in my office. Oh,
wow. So anytime that somebody talks about it, I say, you know what? I’m
an honorary Hispanic
and I’m an honorary Mexican, so I can actually tell jokes without people being upset. Right. But it’s
those kind connections you. And, uh, yes.
The first time I had Mexican food in my life was in El Paso.
So to me, I don’t know any other Mexican food except for
the northern Mexico. And I’m very passionate about my Mexican food. Well, and that cultural [00:16:00] intelligence, is so important in sales. Absolutely. We talked some yesterday afternoon about this. How have you incorporated into the classroom and to each semester?
So
U T D also is a very
special school in a
sense that we have students from more than a hundred different countries. Wow. There are very few schools that they can say that. And if you
look at our students in the classroom, it’s so diverse, not
just in terms of male, female, you know, racial differences, just just being from religious differences, background differences.
It’s incredible. Now, It’s
beautiful because the students are smart and they’re creative, and you can do all kinds of experiments. But then at the same time, as a, as a professor, people have different
learning abilities,
different learning styles. Mm-hmm. And culture adds to that. So in order for you to be able to
adjust and adapt and, um, and also help understand that, [00:17:00] Every job does not look like these.
Mm-hmm. You, you may go to a job that could be very
homogeneous and you kind of need to understand that. You need to have you, you need to really do your research ahead of time. Say, is this a specific
company or right company for me? Am I gonna feel comfortable? Are they gonna welcome you? What kind of culture and that culture?
I’m not just talking about company culture. There is a whole bunch that goes into company culture. But then also
understanding that many times, misunderstanding happens, not because people really wanna insult each other or misunderstanding just because you really don’t know. Mm-hmm. And the first step to do that is, let’s talk about it.
And I have, um, um, so I have just come up with this activity
and I’m doing it in class. And every semester that I do it, I think it gets better ’cause I know how to deliver it. Mm-hmm. And students give me feedback, so I adjust that. And that’s also something that I have always done every semester. I look back at my students, um, evaluation
at the end of [00:18:00] semester.
I also do, actually, I do a mid-semester evaluation because end of semester they’re gone and there is nothing I can change. Mm-hmm. So mid-semester I tell ’em what’s working, what’s not working, and I don’t promise that I can change stuff, but I can definitely try and adjust if there is something I can do.
So students appreciate that. And then end of semester, I really look at the overall, and I mean, you always have the extremes at either end, but I look at the.
The large group of students,
the responses that they give me as what assignment work, what didn’t work. And
overwhelmingly they love this cultural intelligence
activity.
Um,
And they say keep it
and add to it. The problem is I’m teaching Intro to sales class. Mm-hmm. And there’s a lot of other stuff that I have to teach, so I cannot spend more than one class time at the moment. But we keep coming
back to it as we are doing role plays or looking at different type of buyers or buyer personas and those kind of stuff.
So we keep [00:19:00] adding to it. And just the fact that they have the awareness. And many times we,
because we see the world through our own eyes and our own experiences mm-hmm. And our own
perceptions. Many times, it’s our own biases that causes us to misinterpret stuff. It’s not somebody else’s behavior,
is the way I interpret it, their, that
behavior.
So just talking about it and I’m not perfect at it. I keep reading and I keep, um, As I said, tweaking the assignment and every class is different. Sometimes I get classes that people come from very, very different cultures or from different countries that you would think there is nothing in common.
Mm-hmm. And you’d be surprised how much more in common than countries that are closer to each other. Mm-hmm. So it’s just really interesting. It has been a learning experience for, for
me, um, as well as the students. And I’m just happy that I’m able to do it and the students are enjoying it. Yeah. You
Chris Corcoran: talk about tweaking
Semira Amirpour: You know, 17 total years teaching sales.
Yes. Is that right? [00:20:00] Sales and marketing courses. Yeah, marketing management. Yeah. All, all of those
on like
chemistry or history, maybe you can just run it back from the previous semester. Right. You’ve gotta, you’ve gotta be agile, you’ve gotta change quickly. How often do you change the syllabus and, and what’s the Like Every semester, every semester, every semester at least something gets changed.
And of course, Covid Covid was rough because many students had taken classes online before Covid,
but many of us as faculty had never taught online. So
that was a real challenge, and for me at
semester that we went online, I was teaching Salesforce.
And I didn’t know any other way of teaching
sales except for the one that I had done in the classroom.
So we had to adjust really quick.
So I decided to do, um, my online classes just the same way I do it in class. Okay. I would get up, they would be on, I would have ’em turn on their cameras. It was a lot, like, it [00:21:00] was extremely exhausting because I would create break. I mean, I had, we had to learn technology and we had to learn how to.
Use that technology to be
effective
teachers, and I would create a breakout
rooms, and then I had to go from one breakout rooms to the other, and then sometimes the Zoom would, or.
We were using Microsoft name,
it would kick you out. And then I had to figure out how to go back to my own class. And so,
and it was a challenge, but we made it work and students appreciated it because many faculty did recording of their, mm-hmm.
Lessons and put it up, and then they would do stuff on their own. And during Covid, because many of us didn’t have
really interactions with other people,
they appreciated that they could at least come on Zoom and see other people and talk to real people. So the feedback for that was good, but I hope I never have to teach job.
Any change that you made during Covid that you’ve kept since because you, it went so well? [00:22:00] Yes. Uh, one thing I found, I used to show some videos every often in class. Mm-hmm. I mean, we discuss it, but just like anything else, people would be kinda zoning out, not paying attention. And during Covid I would have ’em watch it just because at the beginning I didn’t figure out how to actually do the video live during class.
So they would watch it ahead of time and then they would go in and
do the discussion board. And those discussions were so much more meaningful when they had to actually type it up, even if it meant two sentences. Mm-hmm. It was meaningful
comments rather than what they did in class. So I kept that. I kept that and um,
and students paid better attention.
That was one of the elements I kept.
Chris Corcoran: Well, you do more than just, uh, coach or, uh, teach in a classroom. Mm-hmm. Right. Yes. I think it’d be helpful for our listeners to know all the other things you do outside of the classroom, the coaching, the sales competitions. Et cetera. And what drew you to, [00:23:00] to do that?
Semira Amirpour: So when
I joined UTD, we already, Dr.
Dover had already started a sales program,
and that was great because the foundation was there, it was a smaller program and we keep adding classes and we started taking on different
sales competition. And these sales
competitions are now everywhere, but we, we cannot be everywhere, so we pick and choose where we go.
Mm-hmm. The beauty
- Taking students to a sales competition, it’s a really transformational experience. Mm-hmm. Many of them have never had the opportunity to do so. Now
on my side there is a lot of coaching and I’m very hands on. I, I like to see everything from start to finish. And that has also been a process because when you do it for work, this is people’s given.
If this is the job, people pay attention to it because their paycheck depends on Sure. When you’re doing it in class, it’s like, [00:24:00] oh, I had to take this class. Now you’re making me do extra work. But
for those who choose to do, We have a process in terms of how students get, uh, selected to do certain, uh, sales competitions, but
when they understand the type of training that they have to go through in order for them to be ready for those sales competitions,
many of them who were excited may say, oh no, maybe I’m not. Mm-hmm. And others are like, this is great. This is,
this is so
much extra work that I have to do. But I like the learning. Oh yeah. So, and then we have added stuff. I mean, I have ’em signed a contract that they tell me exactly what days we are gonna meet, at what time, what are extra stuff that they have to do outside.
That timeframe, if they have to submit a video, how many videos? The first four weeks, you send me a
video a week, we get to the last four weeks. Those are two videos coming in. I watch ’em, the, the
student coach watches them. We give them feedback, we come back to the meeting and we talk about it. So [00:25:00]
there is a lot of learning.
And then to see the first videos in comparison to the last videos is day and
night.
Chris Corcoran: Mm-hmm.
Semira Amirpour: And then we, of course we have our own, these are external. We also have our internal sales competitions that any of our students get to participate. Okay. If they’re part of the class. And, um, we, we practice for those during, during class.
So it’s not extra work. But again, many of them have never done, and we cannot take 200 students to outside sales competitions. Right. But when we have internal, they have all the opportunities and. Many of them up to that point, they don’t even know that they enjoy it as much. Mm-hmm. Or when they get the recognition or they
receive the
feedback from the partners that they
come to judge those events, they’re just so fascinated, so delighted that
they had the ability and they could do it.
Mm-hmm. And um, for many of them, that just [00:26:00] changed the trajectory of their career. Right. And, um, I, I’ve actually started to do something new. I’m printing all the emails that my students are sending me or all the LinkedIn messages that they send me after like three, four years. And they say, oh, do you remember
when you said that we did that
activity in class?
And some of them I don’t even do in class. And they’re like, I’m actually using it every day at work.
Do you remember when you used that word?
I taught that to my manager and now we use it every day. Wow. It’s just so much fun for them to remember. Yeah, and I’ve had, I actually just submitted something for work, and I know that in the past 10 years I’ve had more than 1800 students, so I cannot 1800.
- So I cannot possibly remember every name or every event that happened.
So sometimes I see a name and I’m like, that sounds extremely familiar, but I can remember. And it’s incredible that they can remember such details from [00:27:00] class and conversation. So I started printing them. Maybe I turn it into some sort of books or something.
Chris Corcoran: That’d be great. Well, I, I need to ask, so how does that make you feel? It
Semira Amirpour: makes me feel awesome.
Let’s just, right. It’s a, it’s a humbling. Feeling, I should say I’m, I’m very humbled by it. Mm-hmm. Let’s just put it that way. But at the same
time, I
love my students and I bend backward for them. And I tell them that from the beginning.
And I’m a firm believer that
education does not have to be bullying. So I teach my classes
the same way
I would train somebody at work. We have discussions, they talk about it, we’ll learn from each other and,
um, Something that I have
changed since two years ago. Nobody likes to be part of a
winner loser.
I mean, you like to be a winner, but you don’t like to be part of a loser team. And I have changed that loser term to learner. And uh, so there are days that we are working on a project. There is a [00:28:00] semester long project that we work on is a prospecting
project
and they need guidance and coaching every day on that.
Mm-hmm. In order for them to get better. I mean some, some of them of course, just like anything else, some of them pick it up really quickly. Some need more help. So we talk about it all the time
and then I bring it to class and I’m like, somebody who had success, if you sent five emails and received five responses back, What did you say?
How did you say, who did you, so they learn a lot from each other. Mm-hmm.
If I have somebody who was an overachiever that day, they become the winner. And I’m like, who’s my learner?
Mm-hmm. And now I have the students who actually raise their hand and they say, I’m the learner too. I learned something because if I call ’em loser,
they would never learn.
Right? So
sometimes little things that you do in the classroom that really makes a difference. And I want students to know that they’re in a safe environment, that they can politely and respectfully. Um, [00:29:00] express themselves and learn from each other, and this is a safe place. So that has been the students,
at least based on
the feedback that I received, they really enjoyed it.
Chris Corcoran: That’s great. Well, you’ve totally, uh, by repositioning it to learner versus a loser, People are quick to volunteer. Yeah. That they’re the learners. Yeah. And then the, the entire class gets to benefit and maybe not learn the same lesson For sure. Which is incredibly helpful. I mean,
Semira Amirpour: this past few days that
we’ve been talking about technology, we
know how quickly things change.
Mm-hmm. And there is no
way for one person to be able to catch up with all
the changes that happen. So many times the students come to class and they say,
I’m not familiar with every app that’s out there and some of them are using certain apps and
go, oh, I use this app to do my prospecting. And I was able to
meet this specific
individual and now we are starting a business together.
And I was like, wow. So
it was an app that I never knew [00:30:00] and then we were able to announce it in class and um, for
everybody else to use,
well, let’s talk technology. I know you guys do a lot of new strategies and kind of cutting edge when it comes to technology. It’s been a great week with you all here in, in Orlando, but I feel like at times it’s been a chat GP conference mm-hmm.
Chris Corcoran: Standpoint.
Semira Amirpour: Uh, not much, but actually today that we had our final sessions of creating an assignment, I think I came up with an assignment, which I’m gonna play with. So, one thing I do, I, I, I experimented a lot of different assignments. Again, I have very smart students, but I go to class
and I say, guys, I came up with this new
assignment.
I’m not really sure how it’s gonna work. I’m, I’m, I’m thinking you’re gonna like it, but let’s just play with it. And then you give me feedback, and that’s usually how I fine tune a lot of assignments that I do in class. So now I’m, I’m planning [00:31:00] just because I think this new technology, just like anything else, when it comes at the beginning, it could be scary and many of us think, oh, what are we gonna do?
What’s gonna happen? It’s here and it’s gonna get better and it’s here to stay. So I have to kind
of embrace it and somehow, uh, incorporate it in class. And, and use that to help
students get better at what we are already doing. So that’s my goal. Um, I can let you know by next semester if the assignment’s actually working, but I’m, and I’m planning to actually have them bring their laptop, put stuff into chat, GPT, let’s see what we get, and then compare to what we would’ve done without it
and see how it goes.
Goes
back to that. Yeah. Change quickly and
Chris Corcoran: being agile. Right.
Semira Amirpour: This, I mean,
our students,
they’re fast learners. Mm-hmm. They were, they went through Covid, they were able to pick up. Mm-hmm. Now, COVID also contributed to some other [00:32:00] behaviors. I’m not gonna get into that, but they’re, they are, they’re pretty quick learners, so I think they’re not gonna have a hard time adjusting.
Yeah. Yeah.
Chris Corcoran: So imagine you’re talking to a, a student who’s considering enrolling in a sales program. Mm-hmm. What would you say to that student?
Semira Amirpour: I do those
talks every single day. I’m sure that’s, that’s part of my job. I have students who come to my office, many of them not knowing what they wanna do.
Mm-hmm. And they’re thinking, okay, I like this class. I like the material. And we talk about it. I’m very honest with them. First of all, I ask them, what do you wanna do? Where do you hope to be in the next few years? You know,
what would you like to achieve? And then I’m very honest. Sales, just like any other job is not for everybody.
Mm-hmm. So the sooner you
figure out if this is something you wanna do, the better. But [00:33:00] knowing that
such a large percentage of
marketing majors, business
majors
going, at least their first job is in sale. Mm-hmm. I want ’em to
at least give themselves the opportunity to take classes to be better
prepared.
Mm-hmm. Because the last thing you wanna do is get a job.
Your paycheck depends on it, and you have to start from scratch. Mm-hmm.
Where other people are coming from different programs that they are way ahead of you. They have used technology, they know exactly how to ask question. They know different models and, um, That’s usually how we get the…
I, I never push ’em. I don’t think anybody needs to be pushed
into anything, but if I see, because sometimes they may not necessarily see it in mm-hmm. Themselves. Mm-hmm. It’s also very cultural. I also understand that some people say, oh,
I come from a culture. I come from a culture that either you you became a doctor, you became engineer.
That’s why I chose [00:34:00] engineering.
And they’re like, if my
parents find out that I chose to go into. You’re not gonna be happy.
And I tell him, I’m like, you know, I’m never gonna tell you as a, as a parent, I’m never as, as an outsider, I’m not gonna tell you do something against your parents. Right. You know, wish for you, but
at the same time, you really have to be honest with yourself and say, where do you wanna go?
And you need to understand that B2B sales is very different. The way we are approaching sales is very different than what your perception of sales might be. Mm-hmm. So I think a large portion of any new class for the intro
class, at least I spend the time on kind of overcoming that perception.
’cause people have that image of. And I’m not gonna
disrespect anybody, but maybe some of the salespeople that they have dealt with. They’re not happy, very pushy, hard sell, old style. Mm-hmm. And that is not what [00:35:00] we’re teaching. We’re teaching trust-based selling. We are making sure that, um, they understand
that sales definitely opens up doors for.
Achieving higher
positions, if that’s what they wanna do or if they wanna stay, you know, always in certain position you can, they can certainly do that,
but, uh, definitely. So one of the assignments we do in class, I have them go and actually talk to individuals in the industry. Oh, not necessarily sales industry sales, but I have ’em, whatever they’re
interested in.
And I tell ’em, I said, I promise you, if you talk to many of these people in a position of power,
whether they’re in management
or CEOs, Ask them what was their first job? Many of them, their first job they started and sales opened up the door for them. Mm-hmm. Because sales helps you understand the product, understand the market, understand the customers, understand your competitors, and more than anything, your [00:36:00] interpersonal skills, and those are all transferable skills and knowledge you can take and then take it somewhere else
and or students are pretty young.
I said, you graduate when you are 2021.
You do this for two years, three years. This is not what you wanna do, what you have to do. So you have gained all this knowledge, but it’s also important. I also tell ’em, choose a company that’s right for you. Mm-hmm. Sell a product that’s right for you. Mm-hmm. Because
it is not easy to work for a company that you don’t fit in.
Mm-hmm. It’s not easy to sell a product that you are not,
um, you don’t believe in. Mm-hmm.
Chris Corcoran: When you talk about preparing your students
what’s something that, that you do or you teach now that you’re like, and when I entered the family business years ago, I wish I
knew that a lot of stuff.
Semira Amirpour: Oh my goodness.
First of all, today we were talking about [00:37:00] prospecting and, and somebody says, so when you started, what was. Where did you get your prospects? It was Yellow Pages. Mm-hmm. Trust me, it was Yellow Pages. Mm-hmm. The big, thick one. And then you would sit through and you start making, actually the very, very first time that I used the Yellow Pages and I started calling people I was working for a nonprofit organization at, that’s what we did.
I picked up the phone and I started dialing, and I did that for like three months,
day in and day out. And it was rough. Mm-hmm. Like, it
was very hard. So, I wish some of the technology that’s available right now was available back then, I wish I had, um, more coaching. I wish I was open to the idea that I could end
up in sales because many people say, oh, one day I wanna own my own business.
I’m not going into sales. I’m like, if you
are gonna own your own business,
you are in sales 24 7. There is no escaping. So many people really have that mis [00:38:00]
understanding of what sales is like for them. Many times just selling one product or one service for a big company, and that is not what sales is, and that’s the beauty of it.
There is so many variety of
jobs that you can choose that fits your personality better.
Chris Corcoran: You talk a little bit about technology. I, I want to talk about how you share that with your students. Mm-hmm. Uh, one thing that really impresses me about all the sales programs and all the folks here at the Sales Educators Academy is how it’s constant innovation.
Yeah. Constant innovation and collaboration and comparing notes. And I’d put, uh, UT Dallas at the top of that list. List, what are some of the things that your students get exposed to mm-hmm. When they’re taking your classes and, and how does that prepare them for once they leave the classroom and enter enter into industry.
So
Semira Amirpour: when we teach intro class, Of course, this is a class that’s
a core class for all the marketing [00:39:00] majors,
people from, um, supply chain, finance, global
business. Even, even people. I have students who are biomedical major that are taking
that class because it sounds fun. It’s a sales class. But that said, Many of them don’t know that they’re gonna end up in sales.
Mm-hmm. So I
introduce some tech. I can do everything, but I introduce some technology
that are basic and I make ’em do certain activities. Again, for the same reason that if you happen to get a job in sales, Or even if you get a job in
something else, the
fact that you can
go on LinkedIn Navigator because everybody, uh, we get access to everybody.
You can go on LinkedIn Navigator and
you can look up people and use the filters and really narrow down your list and then send a message and send a good message. Those your skills you can use for so many different things besides sales. Um, We also have them exposed to Salesforce. They can learn how to use [00:40:00] Salesforce.
You’re not gonna be experts after the first class, but at least they have that exposure. Sure. I have ’em do the, uh, the Trailhead modules on their own. Again, these students are very tech savvy in a sense that they are used to doing self-paced modules. Mm-hmm. They get
to do
that. They, uh, For some, for my students that, um, I take ’em back on sales competition.
You know, we use chorus so they can get feedback
immediately. Mm-hmm. Then
Chris Corcoran: I can call coaching
Semira Amirpour: software, uh, some of those. Yeah. Um, not, not
much, but just, just as much as we can. Mm-hmm. So they, when they go
get a job, they are ahead of them. Oh. So,
Chris Corcoran: oh, way ahead. Yeah, way ahead.
Semira Amirpour: We want ’em to be, um, you know, native and at least, you know, navigator and at least being
able to find people and sending those emails and stuff.
So, um, so yeah. And then when they kind of
progress through the program and they
go into advance and they get the full access to. Salesforce [00:41:00] and they really
do become comfortable. Mm-hmm. Using the platform. Now later on, many of them may work for a company that has Salesforce, even if they’re not in sales position even, you know
Sure.
Marketing other areas, or they may use a different variation of A C R M, at least now
they know what it means or what it looks like,
rather than going to a job interview and we say, oh, have you ever had exposure to C R M? And
people don’t even know what that is. Right. So, so, We want ’em to have,
um, all those exposures and then use different technology in different
classes.
But for me, I do the majority of the intro classes, at least for the moment.
Ben Idle: Mm-hmm. You,
you’ve talked a couple times today about being a mom in sales. Uhhuh, I’m a parent. Chris is a parent. The parents that are listening, what have you taken from sales and applied to
parenting?
Semira Amirpour: Process.
Process, asking good
questions and then dealing, overcoming [00:42:00] objections. One thing I learned being a good listener and being okay with silence. I think we, many of us have problem with being okay with silence. So
I have learned that sometimes I say
things when I’m negotiating with, I mean, my kids are now older, but I mean when they were little, when I’m negotiating, I would say things.
And I go silence. And then they knew that was serious and they were not supposed to.
So there are little stuff that you can take, but
um, the other way around in the classroom. I also understand that my students, many of them work. 75% of my students almost, they work, they’re juggling a lot of things.
School
work.
Family. Everybody has something that they’re dealing with and
they also need to know I’m [00:43:00] there to
help.
And I tell them from the beginning, if there is something that I can help you with, just come to me. If
I can help, I will.
If not, there are resources that school has that I can give you.
Again,
many of them being from different cultures, they don’t even know that they can do that.
Mm-hmm. And um, so I make sure that my office is nice and. Cozy enough that they feel comfortable coming in. And, um,
there, there are little things. The other, we talk about, a
little about staying positive because sales, there is a lot of rejection.
It can get tough. There is competition, there is a lot of pressure on you to meet your quota
and then do this and always do
more. So learning
how to deal with. Rejection and
being positive is something that many of us, we never learned. So in class I talk about it and actually
last
two weeks ago, somebody sent me a message and said That day in [00:44:00] class when you said, make sure you sleep, that made a difference for me.
Who
knew? So, and I know I always, especially in the middle of semester that midterms are hitting and they have a lot of stuff that they have to,
it’s, it’s strange to think that they need a reminder to go to sleep because they’re just working, working and, and you need that for your brain to actually shut down a little and relax and so you can energize yourself.
So, so little stuff. Yeah.
Chris Corcoran: So you just, uh, struck a chord, um, with me. How much do you think positivity is cultural?
I don’t have a percentage for that. Right. Or does it, do you think it’s all at all related?
Semira Amirpour: Could be. Depending on how much pressure. Mm-hmm. How we learn how to deal with stuff. I feel [00:45:00] that I need to be very careful in terms of what I say, because these days with all the challenges with mental health mm-hmm.
I’m so happy that we talk about mental health. Mm-hmm. Because it is
important, it’s necessary. There
are situations, um, that people are facing mental health, they’re facing it alone. They don’t know how to seek help,
that they really, really do need professional help. Mm-hmm.
And there are other times that people have just
need to learn how
to deal with
challenges.
It’s not always, life is not always rosy and cherry things are not always
gonna
go your way. Right. And. Understanding the difference that if I’m going
to a really rough patch doesn’t mean that life is
gonna
be like that forever. And how can I do, what can I do? What kind of resources can I
use in order for me to, um, get through this?
And they may come up stronger is important. So sometimes just knowing that they [00:46:00] can come and talk to a faculty and.
Know that faculty
can understand. I had a student, this is just last
semester, I come in, I and I go to work very early morning. They had a major assignment due at the end of
semester, and if they don’t turn it in, they can, they can technically fail the class.
But I
knew something happened the night before with Turnitin,
so some of the papers did not get submitted.
Mm-hmm. I actually sent a
message out and I said something happened with
Turnitin. So if, for those of you who are not able to get the paper
in, it’s okay. I get to the office by seven 30 in the morning.
I have a student who’s sitting behind, off behind my door sobbing. He was shaking so bad because his paper did not go through and he thought he failed the class. And first thing I did, I calmed him down. I gave him a [00:47:00] hug. I said, it’s okay. Like he couldn’t stand
on his feet. That’s how bad he was crying and we talked about
it and he, when he left, he couldn’t understand that I understood.
And, and
I felt bad because I always said in class, it’s okay if
things go wrong, we can fix.
Going back to the cultural
aspects.
Mm-hmm. He came from a culture that there is a lot of emphasis on education. Mm-hmm. You don’t question faculty. Mm-hmm. You don’t qu you don’t question authority. So he thought that was it, it was out of his control. Mm-hmm. So maybe
that has, but again, I haven’t done any kind of research on it.
I haven’t, uh, read anything on it to say that there is a direct correlation. But there are some studies that say some countries are. People are happier and more positive or whatever, but I dunno what they based that on.
Chris Corcoran: Right. Well, one other thing that you shared, uh, this week that I I would love for you to explain to the listeners is the [00:48:00] concept of melting pot versus the tossed salad.
Oh, yeah.
Semira Amirpour: Um, and
it was interesting, like the feedback that I got because, to me, the concept of milk, I think culture is such an enduring factor that. Yes. The more you go through acculturation or the more you travel or the more you get exposure, it can change a little. But there are certain,
like we talked about the core values, some of those core values may never change.
Mm-hmm. Even if you get exposed, you can respect somebody else. You can, um, You can probably just, just close your mouth, not say anything. If you see something that you don’t like, but at the same time, you may not necessarily change your core values or your culture. So sometimes the concept of melting pot, or at least the exposure that I had to, or sometimes the
conversation I had with people is, oh, you’re in this
country.
It is a melting pot. Mm-hmm. You need to become part of this melting pot. But the [00:49:00] point is, Yes, I really want to, and I think it’s important, any country,
not just just, mm-hmm. Say any country that you go to if you are not
from that country, in order for you to be able to
kind of get along with people, get welcome into the actually, Some countries that are more homogeneous and I have gone to those countries that you are an outsider.
Mm-hmm. It’s so much harder to, to become part of mm-hmm. The, the community.
So the,
the quicker
you learn the language, the quicker you learn the custom, the quicker you start maybe dressing the same way, the quicker you start just, just little things that they do in the country and respect that the, the faster people are gonna welcome you in.
And some countries more than others, but here in the US to say, oh, you’re a part of this melting pot. Now you have to forget everything about your culture, or you become these, it’s a little hard to do. So I thought the concept of tossed salad was more realistic in terms of in a tossed salad, you’re [00:50:00] just tossing everything
The lettuce and tomatoes and cucumbers and whatever, and they keep their identity in a way.
Mm-hmm. But as a whole, it becomes a whole new, um, dish by itself. So that kind of resonates more with me than, and people can argue with me all day long and I respect that idea. So it kind
Chris Corcoran: of resonates more. I think it’s great. I think it was great. I think it’s great. Uh, and then I think it would also be helpful.
What advice would you give to a salesperson who is tasked with selling to a different culture? Because the world has become much more international and global and, and there’s gonna be salespeople who are gonna have to sell to a different culture. For sure. And you, you studied marketing, right? So
Semira Amirpour: Yeah.
My, my, actually my master is in international business, so, um, just based on personal experience. Mm-hmm. First thing is being open to the idea of, People
are similar, but [00:51:00] they’re different. Mm-hmm. Let’s understand the similarities. Let’s understand the differences.
But that doesn’t happen easy
because that requires a whole
range of cultural understanding, language understanding.
And that may not happen. I mean, sometimes you’re reaching different territories and in this territory you’re dealing with this culture and then that culture. So it’s kind of hard to become expert in every single one of them being open to it, really going in without any judgment
or assumption, I would say.
Um, Even, even a country that’s within a region that, for
example, all of them could be Spanish speakers, doesn’t mean that specific country speaks Spanish. Maybe they speak Portuguese, maybe speak something else. The same
thing. Don’t make assumptions, learn, really learn. Mm-hmm. And then be open to it and be you.
You still have to be very authentic to yourself. You are who
you are. But also, like I, uh, did that activity, [00:52:00] um, the other day. Many times it’s our own biases that we
are. Thinking of something as right or wrong or mm-hmm. Um, and it’s not the other person is me. Let me figure that and learn. Just, just learn and ask
question.
But you have to ask question
in a right way. Um, we talk about that in class sometimes, and I tell students, one of my pet peeves is when somebody meets me for the first time. Never talked before. The first thing they tell me is, where are you from? Hmm. Now I happen to come from another country, but I can look like these and.
Was born here. Sure. I’d be from here. Yeah. When you ask that question, it’s kind of making an assumption that just because I look like this, I have to be from another, again, it all depends on how you’re asking it, just like in sales. Mm-hmm. It’s all in the delivery, how you ask it.
And um, so I usually don’t [00:53:00] recommend that to be the first question you ask somebody.
Mm-hmm. You meet from another country, give them a chance. Let’s get to know them. Let’s say talk about other stuff and then you can, then maybe that can bring, be brought up.
Chris Corcoran: So, uh, well, I got two things that the first thing I want to ask you is what makes Home, home. And the reason why I ask is you, when you were explaining to me Toronto, you said that’s home.
Yeah. Why is Toronto home based on where you’ve lived and over the course of your life? So all my family lives
Semira Amirpour: in Toronto. So that’s what, so that’s people. That’s home in a
way that’s, um, I miss going to Toronto. Just the same, like I miss going to my parents’ house, okay. For example,
or seeing my sisters.
But
if I have to choose a place to call home, home as my immediate home right now,
Dallas is home. Texas is home. Okay? If I, if I should, Texas is,
A place that I have spent more than half
of my life, right? Mm-hmm. So, so Texas is home. That’s. [00:54:00] Where I have, so like my own adult life memories and so do I see myself living anywhere else?
I’m not sure. Okay. I love Texas. I love Dallas,
Chris Corcoran: so yeah. Very interesting. And then I think it’d be helpful if you would share with the listeners the exercise. You had us walk through about culture, in kind of the, the threes. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. The three to five
things, so in that
Semira Amirpour: activity I have, um, students think about three to
five aspects of their culture that
they think.
Helps them in the business world. Mm-hmm. And then three to five things that could potentially hinder the relationship in the business world. Again, we are looking at the world through our own lenses.
Mm-hmm. Is our own perception. Sometimes I
may think the fact that in my culture there is a lot of [00:55:00] respect for elderly is a good thing, that that should always be a good thing in the business world.
I can see somebody older than me and I’m respecting them and they appreciate it. I actually found it a few times that was a negative thing. Mm-hmm. Because one, I had a hard time, uh, telling them they were wrong. Well, to begin with, I had a hard time calling them by their first name. Sure.
Because they were older. That was not the way I was raised or my culture.
And then second, I couldn’t tell ’em they were wrong. And because I couldn’t say that they assumed. Everything that they were saying I agreed with. So that could, that, that took a little bit
for me to get over. So those are some examples and every culture is different.
And just for you to understand that, oh, so it wasn’t that other person really, it wasn’t their fault. Misinterpretation happened because I gave in so much and I should stopped. So little things [00:56:00] sometimes make a difference. You actually talked about the
fact that. When you were, we were talking about sales and changing that people like to buy people, uh, products or services from people that they like.
Mm-hmm. Now, I think if you like somebody that is not going to guarantee that they’re gonna buy from you, but if you dislike somebody, I promise you,
excuse me, not buy from you. So,
and disliking somebody’s sometimes doesn’t take much. Right. It’s, it’s a little thing, gestures, body language,
stuff that they say that
could make a difference in terms of, Whether I wanna do business with somebody
or not.
So I think it’s important. And we may be in a location that there isn’t much diversity or we don’t have to really deal with that. But that doesn’t mean we are not gonna go work for a company that has diversity. That doesn’t mean you’re not gonna have clients that are very diverse, that we need to understand that.
So
I don’t think there is any escaping the world, I don’t think, um,
it’s gonna get smaller and smaller in a sense. At least that’s my belief. [00:57:00]
Chris Corcoran: Very good. Very good. Well, Semira, this has been fantastic. I mean, we’ve covered a lot today, and I appreciate everything that you do at, uh, university of Texas, Dallas, and all the other members of the Sales Educators Academy who come in and are just constantly innovating and looking at things from a variety of different standpoints, whether it be, uh, technology changes, whether it be cultural impact.
Mm-hmm. Just all across the gamut, all in, um, the advancement of developing. The next generation of sales professional. So I really appreciate you sharing your wisdom with our listeners. This has been a lot of fun. Absolutely.
Semira Amirpour: Yes, I
Chris Corcoran: appreciate it. Very good. Thank you.