From Order Taker to Order Maker: Sales Strategy for Service Businesses with Alison Mullins

What if the real sales secret isn’t tactics, but trust, time-blocking, and tenacity? Allison Mullins shares the truth.

📌What's Covered in This Episode:

- Why the “one-size-fits-all” sales advice fails most entrepreneurs

- How personalization beats automation—even in the age of AI

- Think expertise equals sales? Here’s why that’s a dangerous myth

- Why success in sales requires time-blocking—not more tactics

- How faith, intuition, and sales can coexist in your entrepreneurial path

Alison Mullins owns Rep Methods LLC and is a highly influential figure in the construction materials industry. Alison is known for her exceptional expertise and extensive global experience. With over 20 years of sales experience, Alison has provided invaluable guidance on luxury residential, commercial, and hospitality projects across North America. 

📚Resources mentioned: 

The Art of Selling: We Make Order Makers, Not Order Takers by Alison L. Mullins

✨New Book✨Beyond Order Makers: Target Marketing, Branding and Business Development For Entrepreneurs by Alison L. Mullins. 

🌐Learn more at www.repmethods.com 

Connect with Alison at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisonmullins/

🌟Join the WAITLIST for The Faithful Founders Collective at https://reinventing-perspectives.kit.com/231f666d82

💛 Thank you for listening in! 😀

P.S. Don’t forget to leave a review! Much appreciated.

Transcript

[00:00:00] She was seven years in business and she talked about trudging in the trenches and that in the first couple of years of business, she trudged and it really felt like her shoes were stuck in the muck and the mud. And it was hard, and it was the days like, you wanna give up, you want to let it all go. But she just kept picking up her feet and putting it down in front of her.

It.

Priscilla (2): Welcome to the Entrepreneur's Kitchen. Today I have a very exciting guest for you. I have Allison Mullins, and Allison has over 20 years of experience in sales. She is the founder of Rep Methods, which assists small business owners to do sales training and business development. Whoa, that's what we need.[00:01:00]

That's what we need right now. Allison, please tell me who you are, what's your mission, how you got started in all of this.

Allison: Sure thing. Priscilla, thank you again for inviting me on. So I think I've always had a little bit of an entrepreneurial spirit for sure. I've been in sales most of my life, even as far back as a child in the bathroom, looking in the mirror and trying to sell shampoo and hairspray to myself.

I got into construction materials. Back in 2010 I had started my career in apparel and fashion, but fast forward many years later, I found myself very good at what I did. So that's working in stone and surfaces for exteriors, interiors, wall clotting, flooring, countertops. Were a big, huge part of my career.

So the kitchen and bath industry, and along that journey. I got some little God nudges, right? [00:02:00] People asking me for help. People saying, can you train my salespeople? I want my people to be able to do what you do. Where did you get all that knowledge? You have so much experience, blah, blah, blah. And I didn't really believe in myself actually, I think for a very long time , that I could teach others.

And, in,, the fall of 2022. I , found myself searching for the next steps and I had been praying a lot to my spiritual advisor and higher power seeking guidance on what are the next steps. And I got the message. And one morning just over coffee, I started writing a business plan and came up with the name instantaneously.

Rep Methods. I've been a sales rep for many years, and. The process began, so here we are, just a few years later. Still very young, but doing quite well.

Priscilla (2): Thank you for that. I [00:03:00] think a lot of people will see themselves in your journey. Sometimes they're wondering, what should I do? And people keep asking you for the same thing over and over again.

Allison: maybe you should do that.

Priscilla (2): maybe you should do that. No, it's easier, when it's somebody else.

When it's yourself, it's harder for you to see things .

Allison: I think we're all guilty of just like being behind the wheel of the car, right? Just driving down the road. And we only see what's in front of us sometimes, and we don't necessarily always look in the rear view. We don't necessarily check our side mirrors and we don't necessarily ask for advice from our peers and our surroundings.

, In my experience, for me, I was really seeking guidance from a spiritual path perspective. How do I continue on this journey in a healthy manner? How do I take away some of my own? Addictions, if you 

Alison: will, so workaholic isms and fixations. And 

Allison: I felt myself being in sales for so long, but in a very frenzy type of manner.

And no amount of money was ever good [00:04:00] enough. I was making really great money and I also didn't really want to. Be on that cycle. I felt like that was a very unhealthy cycle to continue and I wanted to be able to continue to do what I love but in a way that I could also give back to the universe.

And now, topic of conversation, like just today I was actually recording another session with a radio show and I had a client, a coaching client. This all came up. The future generations. Are going to need people like me and people like you and guidance like this because, on this path that we're on with a very computer generated script and a lot of AI and bot sales and just really no human interaction, I think that in just a few short years, people are really gonna start craving.

Old fashioned sales methods and in-person selling and even door-to-door sales, people are [00:05:00] probably going to thrive again because the human race is just going to want that human interaction that we've been missing.

Priscilla (2): It's so interesting that you say that. 'cause even now we're beginning to feel it, especially because we're in the industry. I think we feel it first before everybody else does, and we begin to feel all that overwhelm of the AI and just there's no personal touch. It's just, a computer response to everything.

An automatic generated thing to everything.

Allison: Just in two years I've had to pivot a lot of, even , my coaching conversations and I use AI myself don't get me wrong, like chat, GPT, the invention of this virtual assistant that can do mathematic equations and spreadsheets. For me, in no time at all is a gift.

And as an entrepreneur,

I need an extra hand around here. So I'm not knocking that system, but I've really had to transmit the message about. Personalization and pausing and don't just copy and [00:06:00] paste, and we have to really think about this and refining that message with an ask and with an intention and with a problem to solve.

Priscilla (2): Yeah, I think that's important to say, it's gonna take you ages trying to add everything yourself. You need the calculator, but you also need to know why you're doing what you're doing.

And if it comes to things like your voice and your message and your mission, you wanna be sure that it's in line with who you are. And it's not, some automated generated thing that is being generated for everyone because everyone is using it. So that's a differentiator. It's a very interesting space that we're gonna see, people begin to talk about differently as we go forward.

Now, I know you've got a new book out Beyond Order Makers. What does that mean? Give us the premise.

Allison: my first book was called The Art of Selling. We make order makers not Order takers, and that motto is now trademarked. I am actually patented on that phrase and [00:07:00] my brand is patented there. So the order maker is the person who is a proactive salesperson and who really looks at the.

Bigger picture in how to generate sales. So the beyond order makers, it's not necessarily part two, but it is the entrepreneurial perspective on order making. So beyond order making. When we are business owners, we have to understand branding visual perspectives of our business, target marketing, CRM systems, data processing, the human-centric methods of selling, like time management, and actually giving yourself the space.

To do prospecting and to do sales because when you're an entrepreneur, you're wearing all of the hats. So each section of that book really breaks down the core components in owning a business and wanting to [00:08:00] sell. And a lot of maybe salespeople start businesses, but a lot of business owners and entrepreneurs are people who just have great ideas.

And they aren't necessarily excelling at the sales part. So I feel like I give a lot of nods and tips on how to pull that into a successful package. Oh, and my final chapter, which is Manifesting Sales which I know for a fact is my idea. You can Google manifesting Sales and you will not find any AI articles or things written unless it started

with me and this book, so very proud of that as well.

Priscilla (2): That's really exciting. You really speak to the problem that I see. Like you said, a lot of people are experts in something and. That's wonderful. That's great. That's a great starting point. The problem is they think that just because they're experts, people will come knocking on their door.[00:09:00]

Allison: yes. Exactly, and you know what? You just hit it on , the head with, they think people will come knocking on their door. That's not how sales work.

If you sit around waiting for someone to come to you, listen, maybe if you're Elon Musk or Bill Gates and you've got this miraculous product and it's already well branded and marketed and it's out there and people know it by name, then.

Yeah. People might come and knock on your door, but not from ground zero and not from square one.

Priscilla (2): that's such an important thing sometimes I think, 'cause we coming from corporate, what you do, your expertise speaks for you. Now as an entrepreneur, you've got to go out there and, make the sales to that person who's been sitting around looking at a calendar that has nothing happening on it and is wondering, maybe I should go back to my regular job.

I'm giving this two more months. 'cause I've heard that a lot. I'm giving this two more months and if I don't get a client, I'm going back to my regular job. What would [00:10:00] you say to that person?

Allison: A. read, Beyond Order Makers. I truly believe it will help you tremendously get off the couch and start with a plan. Remember that energy that you had when you had this big idea, and remember how good it felt when you knew. That this big idea of yours was gonna change somebody's life, somebody's world, and you knew that all it would take is for people to find out about this big thing that you had to offer.

If you could package all of that energy up into the actionable steps that it takes to build a pipeline and to go out and get sales, then you'll be successful.

Priscilla (2): So well said Alison. I'm excited for this. You also speak about the magic for building a sustainable business. I wonder for. The person we're talking about before who's okay, I've got to now package this energy and [00:11:00] go out there and get sales.

How am I gonna build a sustainable business? Like just an overview

Allison: I think I would push that question back on you a little bit. In your mind, what do you feel is sustainable?

Priscilla (2): something that doesn't burn you out, something that's not gonna. Take up 110% of your life.

Allison: that's right. So for me. Sustainable business , at my core, I'm a hustler, right? This isn't my only company. I've always had not always, but since 2016, I had a small, ad hoc marketing a la carte, like hustlers, nature of marketing, meaning I'll build a website here, I'll shoot a video over there. I'll do production over here.

Create some flyer over here. So having a little bit of that hustler mentality of take work when it comes and what comes for you and being able to, accept that type of I'll do anything right , to get this going. [00:12:00] But I think even more important than that, it's that long-term mindset. So when I got started early on.

I was listening to a Ted Talk or a podcast. I don't even remember who was the speaker, but what was so memorable for me is that she talked about, she was seven years in business and she talked about trudging in the trenches and that in the first couple of years of business, she trudged and it really felt like her shoes were stuck in the muck and the mud, and it was hard and it was.

The days, like you wanna give up, you want to let it all go, but she just kept picking up her feet and putting it down in front of her. So one step in front of the other. And at that moment for me, when I was getting started, resonated a hundred percent clear. And it was like, okay, commit. Commit to being.

On a [00:13:00] long-term goal, long-term business, , I'm in the long game, right? I am gonna have to do what I have to do today to make ends meet, to keep the roof over my head, to keep paying my mortgage, to keep paying my bills. I've invested this money in this business, but if that means that I have to go out and get a part-time job.

In the interim, while I'm building this thing, then that's what I have to do, right? We don't just turn the lights on with the business and just the money starts pouring in. It doesn't work that way. So for me, sustainable business means long game. Commitment. Being ingrained in the long game and doing what I have to do in the meantime allowed me the chance to let things. Gradually build and grow. And was it an overnight success? Absolutely not. But here I am in year three , people are finding my [00:14:00] business without me having to do crazy door knocking and sales.

Efforts at the same time, it just keeps growing. The muck that I've been stepping in, gets a little shallower and shallower. The longer that I just stay true to my original plan.

Priscilla (2): Thank you for that. Those are such wise words because , that expectation that in three months if this doesn't work out, then it means

Allison: I hate to say you but if that's the mentality that someone has going into entrepreneurialship. Three months ain't gonna cut it, brother or sister, I hate to tell you. But you have to be willing to give yourself two years, if not three, for you to really reap the rewards of what you have going on.

One of the smartest entrepreneurs I ever met was a young lady here in Richmond, Virginia who had a really nice corporate job. A big banking company. Don't need to mention the names, but she was very secure in that salary. [00:15:00] But she had a dream and she had a vision and she worked double down double hard while she stayed employed to start putting the pillars in place before she left that job.

And yes, she had some money to invest and yes, she eventually also found a partner to invest. But all those little baby steps of what she needed to do to prepare those. Began, the stepping stones were put in place long before she quit a corporate job. And for me, in my. Lowly existence.

I happened to have had a great sales career and I had a boatload of savings, so I needed that security and that padding before I could ever launch into something else and build where I was gonna go. And I'm not afraid to admit that. Even with money in the bank, investing in a new business, I was still out waiting tables, helping others in the community.

Volunteering where I could, making money on the side, maybe doing some ad hoc accounting for [00:16:00] a friend or marketing jobs here or there, because that's the hustler's mentality. And I think those of us who are going to survive, we're gonna scrap our way through the tough times and survive.

Priscilla (2): I think that's really gonna help a lot of people because of the way entrepreneurship is marketed today. This course will give you a hundred thousand dollars. And it's giving someone who maybe an outsider into the world of entrepreneurship.

This expectation that this is the solution to everything , I'm not saying the courses are bad, they're good, but it's one step in building you up. You've actually got to build yourself up.

Allison: in fact, the courses and the people who are out there oh, what is the gentleman's name? Gordon, not Gordon Ramsey. I can't even remember, but he talks about , the 10 x, grant Cardone, that's who it is. So Grant Cardone, has these free things that he gives away.

You know what, I used one of Grant Cardone's. Original 10 x courses to write part of my business [00:17:00] plan. It was the brainstorming, the visualization of taking some of those people's courses that helped me get a plan together. But they're not going to make me any money.

and some of those educational resources that are out there, they're there to help you find cracks in your plan.

I would say take. Advice anywhere you can get it. Ask a million people to read your business plan, to read your ideas. Go talk to a banker friend. Go talk to a teacher friend. Go talk to somebody who's in sales, who has been doing this for a while, and ask them about your pricing structure.

There's never enough voices that can help you build better.

Priscilla (2): it's true that seeking out that Wise counsel and I also took one of Grant Cardone's 10 x and let me tell you, it was good.

Allison: It was good

Priscilla (2): It was really good and it helped me to level up in my thinking,

Allison: Yeah. And it helped me to. You said it best with level up, but [00:18:00] think bigger. And think broader perspective. Instead of, again, for me, and maybe I can't speak to everybody, but I'm like the windshield straight ahead driver. I don't always see what's coming from left or right.

I'm also. The person who learns from my mistakes and nine times outta 10, I have to make mistakes before I learn because I'm just that bullheaded. And , so at the same time, be willing to fail a little bit. That was . One of my posts recently on LinkedIn. Failure is nothing but foundation, if you would think about it because it's those little failures or maybe things that didn't work out.

Those are the ones who might actually be showing you the next step that you're supposed to take.

Priscilla (2): That's so true. 'cause in the beginning, I have to tell you, I was so afraid of just oh, this has to work. 'cause I had that, education mindset where it's like you have to get an A and , if you put in the work, it's gotta be an A. That's the mindset that I had. And now only through learning to accept failure, then I'm like, I ask myself, let's try [00:19:00]differently. What if it doesn't work? So what if it doesn't work? Maybe we'll know why it didn't work. And that's really valuable too. And just shifting that to learning from everything. And then it becomes exciting, it becomes exciting and it doesn't become this like really fearful, oh, if I do this and this doesn't work, try it.

Allison: one of my best selling monetization programs that I have is my one-on-one coaching. I already had the workshops. I already had the seminars, and I had the boot camp idea. That was the original three products that I would sell. And I gotta tell you that I had a.

Brand strategy coach. I talk about her , in beyond order Makers and I worked with a company that taught me more about SEO that taught me more about building things from the inside of the website that could help me grow further and monetization packages, and helped me look at the overall revenue stream and the plans [00:20:00] for scaling and like scaling. It's such an overused word right now, like everybody wants to scale. But the truth is that without listening and actually investing in that coach early on, I would never have even gotten to the coaching. Part of my program, and it was by listening to them and someone suggesting like, Hey, you should do this, or you should add this on.

And then turns out that was actually the click and the cog that needed to happen and a huge revenue maker for me.

Priscilla (2): so many things that are good there. The mentor, the the coach, the outside information, and then applying it , actually taking it and applying it to what you're doing. I wonder because I know that a lot of people are gonna tune in once they see sales.

I can't leave them without you giving us some tactical things. 'cause you know how people are about sales. I'm sure you encounter it all the time. They probably ask you, tell me the quickest way to make some sales.

Allison: Yeah again, for your audience, my book number two, beyond Order Makers is [00:21:00] perfect for you. And I would say tip number one. Is being a business owner, you can get caught up in so many things. You have got to. Time block prospecting and target marketing. You have to, you do it now. I don't care what anybody out there might say.

Stop and go look at your calendar and ask yourself in the last week, when did you stop and actually spend two to three hours a week looking for new business? It's not social media. That's not sending emails, but actually refining your approach and looking for new business. So that would be tip number one.

'cause , it is not gonna fall on your lap. You gotta go out there and get it. You gotta start having some conversations. Tip number two. So I heard today from one of my other coaching clients. , I have a lot of coaching calls on Mondays, [00:22:00] but one of my clients said to me, she said, I hate the word follow up. It makes me laugh because, I actually love the word follow up because if you're really into sales, you're not going to let somebody go. Some people might have described me in my old days. As a bulldog in some cases, like once I get ahold of you, I'm not gonna let go. That's not true to a degree.

I will let go. But in the meantime, we've talked about it already, the importance of human connection. Stop sending emails. Thinking that is going to get you somewhere if you don't actually research, find a phone number and be a human and reach out. And then when they don't answer because they think you're spam, actually leave them a voicemail. Let them know you're [00:23:00] human. And that you have something to offer them that solves a problem. And then when they still don't call you back from the voicemail, do it again. Sorry to talk Very childish. I don't mean it in that way, but truthfully in this day and age, I think that people think that once is enough.

I'm gonna reach out to this person one time. And just doesn't work that way. But trust me when I tell you that, when you introduce yourself first in an email, which is fine, follow up with a phone call. You may not get a response, and you follow up again with another phone call a few weeks later.

You're going to get them at some point and they know who you are. At this point, so you might run into that person at a conference, especially if you go to those things and you do networking. You might run into them six months down the road and you might get a sale from all that [00:24:00] effort that you made because trust me, at that point, they know who you are.

Priscilla (2): sometimes when you're prospecting you forget that Yes. You feel like you're prospecting to a lot of people. To them, they're gonna remember you because

Allison: one person.

Priscilla (2): you're just one person.

Allison: That Just one person.

Priscilla (2): That's so good. Tell us a little bit about rep methods and how you help people.

Allison: Absolutely. And I'll also, I have to put this in there. I'm not sure when this is gonna air, and I know you're also in another country, but I have a passion project. It's always been about empowering our youth and bringing up future generations with an in-person touch. The way that I love to sell.

I'm actually having my first ticketed event this September in Richmond, Virginia. And I've also partnered with one of my local school systems, , Riker County. They have a continuing education program. And because I'm in construction materials, which we didn't get a whole lot into, but it's a very male dominated industry, but it's also an [00:25:00]industry where you don't need a college degree.

We are actually, I'm training salespeople from my. Community of surfaces and materials and windows and doors and floors and interior design and kitchen and bath and home remodeling and contractors. All of those people can send their salespeople, but we're also giving a chance for high school students to come for free.

And then we're. Matchmaking them with local companies and getting them into internships where hopefully they can become gainfully employed once they graduate high school. And this is something that I will now be repeating bi-annually, so September and May every year. And then hopefully within two years, the scale for me is to repeat this in other cities and to be able to pull very quickly groups of our same community in, this city or that city, and partner with other school systems and show people how to repeat this in their own [00:26:00] market.

Priscilla (2): Wow. That's exciting. That's

Allison: It is exciting.

Priscilla (2): You just made me think of how I get so impressed every time I meet a teenager who actually looks you in the face and says, good morning or whatever. It's such an odd thing, but I know that what you're teaching them is gonna change the way that. Their future careers and how they are perceived by people.

It's such a lost thing, that human interaction. You pass teenagers everywhere. They don't look at you, they don't talk to you.

Allison: know how to do anything with this.

Priscilla (2): Yes. And you get impressed by a simple look in the face and a good morning. Can you believe that?

Allison: I know and my God, if they shake your hand, you just wanna cry. Well, trust me. I know. I know. , I'm on the cusp of doing this for my community. Regardless, right? I'm doing this no matter what happens in the next five, 10 years, because I do think that we can train people for positions that don't need college degrees and that there's lots of [00:27:00] personalities that we'll be able to start their careers finally, right out of high school and not have to go to a fancy four year school.

Wish me luck.

Priscilla (2): I'm sure it'll be a huge success and we're better to start than with sales, so I think you'll be on the right track. Thank you so much. Allison, I'm so thankful for your time. Please just quickly tell me what are you excited about looking out to the future for yourself personally? You've mentioned this project, and then as you look out into the marketplace, 

Allison: in the marketplace, I don't know if this will resonate with your audience, but I am excited about a resurgence in natural stone in building materials. We had seen a wane towards engineered surfaces for a really long time. And of course those things do still exist, but I still partner with quarries all over the world and I work with a quarry in Italy.

Even despite our tariff situation here in the United States. I do think that we're finally gonna get back on track in the next year or so with building and constructions and real [00:28:00] estate market rates. For me professionally, if I can keep doing what I'm doing with small businesses and then I can also make it direct impact within my local construction materials community, I can die happy.

Priscilla (2): Yeah. Thank you for that, Allison. Please to the audience, if you can go to rep methods.com, you can learn more about Allison and what she's doing there. And also Allison, if you can let me know. , I know you mentioned LinkedIn, is that where you're primarily active?

Allison: I would say I am active in Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and then through my monthly newsletter, so I would love your followers to subscribe. To my monthly newsletter, I only send out one. I will not bombard your email inbox. But you can keep up with other podcasts event details, what we're doing to help workforce development in the construction community.

We have a girls [00:29:00] camp coming up this summer, so I just keep people in the news of what's happening and one a month. So if you can visit www.repmethods.com and it's right there on the homepage to sign up to subscribe to the newsletter.

Priscilla (2): thank you so much, Alison. It's been a pleasure knowing what you're doing and the bigger things that are, coming your way. And it'll be good to catch up again and hear where you are with all of that. So thank you so much for your time.

Allison: Thank you, Priscilla. Have a wonderful day.