How a French Sales Leader Rebuilt His Life Through Training in Dubai

Guest: Mark Menard, graduate of The Academy for Sales Excellence and up-and-coming partner.

00:00:00 – 00:00:46
What would you do if someone asked you to do something you don’t believe in? That’s what we’re discussing today. I have the privilege of Mark Menard — a dear friend, a student, a graduate of the academy, and up-and-coming partner with the Academy for Sales Excellence. Let’s begin with who you are, where you grew up, and your story.

00:00:46 – 00:01:41
I grew up in southwest France. My dad was in special forces in the military, then France Telecom — a telecoms company. My mum was more of an artist, so I was between these two worlds: discipline on one side, creativity on the other. That brought me to travel the world — Europe, Asia, the Middle East — learning to be a person who adds value to others in my sales journeys and everything I was doing.

00:01:41 – 00:02:21
I did business school in France, but I was really bad at English — one of the last in my class. I ended up doing an MBA in Australia because it was the only university that didn’t require an English test. Then I started my career in Hong Kong, looking for a job while finishing my third trimester in 2008 — the financial crisis. Banks were collapsing, so no way to get into finance.

00:02:21 – 00:02:57
I pushed myself to attend an event organized by the French Chamber of Commerce, even though I wasn’t invited — I insisted until they let me in.

00:02:57 – 00:03:18
I met a gentleman there who liked how I approached him, gave me his business card, and I got to see the CEO the next day and apply for a job in an insurance brokerage firm — I had no idea about insurance, but it was about sales, and that’s how my career started.

00:03:44 – 00:04:05
Health insurance. This was one of the most challenging experiences — coming from a French culture to Hong Kong, the way of working is totally different. The 35-hour week in France doesn’t exist — it’s 50 or 60 hours.

00:04:05 – 00:04:26
Management was really intense and tough — long hours. The owner was French, but the company was Hong Kong-based. Every challenge in life brought good things, so at the time I didn’t see I was struggling.

00:04:50 – 00:05:11
I was barely sleeping for months, and something big happened: at only 27 years old, I had a near-death experience — a heart attack.

00:05:11 – 00:05:35
It was acute myocarditis — inflammation of the heart muscle, exactly like a heart attack. I collapsed while traveling in Thailand after a beach day, exhausted from all the pressure and intensity of work.

00:05:35 – 00:06:01
I was letting management push me around, not putting boundaries in place, and ended up in a hospital bed in Bangkok, Thailand. I had an amazing experience.

00:06:01 – 00:06:31
I’d been living on and off, not sleeping, doing a lot of sports — that’s why I survived the heart attack. I was also running a salsa association, teaching people how to dance, just to get clients, since in sales you need to find ways to attract people.

00:06:56 – 00:07:14
I had a huge argument with my boss just before going to Thailand — the anger created so much cortisol in my body that it triggered the heart attack.

00:07:40 – 00:08:03
I realized in life everything happens for a reason — was it my boss? The work environment? Too much pressure? No — it was because of me. We never put boundaries on ourselves or others. So I said, enough — now I will put boundaries. Respect is number one for me.

00:08:39 – 00:08:59
It was a blessing to get that wake-up call — I realized I’d been accepting everything, a “yes man” for everything. I’m still a yes man for opportunities, but not for people getting my attention and sucking my energy away.

00:09:21 – 00:09:54
A key factor: my boss asked me, last minute, to prepare many insurance quotations in less than two hours, while I was also going to a client meeting I’d promised.

00:09:54 – 00:10:14
He was very insistent, pushing me. I felt like a slave. My anger went up to the roof — I told him if he wasn’t going to help me, I’d smash it all and not do anything.

00:10:37 – 00:10:58
The general manager helped me prepare some quotations, then I had to go to my meeting — a signature client, an important sale, with pressure to close.

00:10:58 – 00:11:14
I went to the client an hour later than planned, gave him everything, and he asked about an insurance I hadn’t had time to prepare, because I didn’t have that information either.

00:11:34 – 00:11:56
This is where I exploded — I told my boss, “Now it’s enough. You treat me like shit. I don’t want you to talk to me like that anymore. Do your own quotation.” And I left.

00:11:56 – 00:12:20
All the layers of frustration, hate, and anger from months of lack of sleep had accumulated. Then when I went to Thailand with one of my best friends…

00:12:20 – 00:12:43
On the last day, driving from Koh Samui to Bangkok, four hours in a minibus, I had a strong heart pain on my chest, headache, couldn’t breathe, was sweating like crazy, losing my sight.

00:12:43 – 00:13:02
I asked my friend to hold my hands because I felt like I was collapsing — and I knew it was my heart. That’s when I went to the hospital.

00:13:02 – 00:13:18
They took me into the emergency room, and for a couple of minutes I went to the other side. I knew it wasn’t my time — I have too many things left to do on this planet.

00:13:18 – 00:13:46
I explained that in a book I wrote, called All For a Purpose, which I’m currently refurbishing to add my Lebanese and Colombian experiences, to help people with similar situations understand that every challenge is actually a gift.

00:13:46 – 00:14:09
Why? Because we learn, we experience, we feel. Once we understand we are much more than a human being having a human experience — we are souls, and helping others, adding value to people’s lives, is where we feel fulfilled.

00:14:09 – 00:14:31
I wanted to create these books not to make money, but first as therapy for myself to release this, and to share it because a lot of people go through similar experiences but don’t put words to their emotions and feelings.

00:14:54 – 00:15:23
Everything happens for a reason, or for you — sad things don’t happen to you, they happen for you, they form you and the way you interpret them. Step one was respect — what were the other rules and boundaries you put in place from that moment?

00:15:23 – 00:15:46
First was boundaries, starting with respecting myself — because if you want others to respect you, you first have to respect yourself. That’s where I went into discipline mode.

00:15:46 – 00:16:17
If you want to keep being healthy and achieve a lot in life, you must take care of your temple — your body, mind, emotions, and physical body. I started meditation, breathing exercises, regular exercise, because if you don’t feel good in your body, how can you function?

00:16:17 – 00:16:47
If you want to be an example for your family, friends, and kids, you must be in such a way that people relate to you not by your words, but by your actions — actions talk, words depend on what you do with them.

00:16:47 – 00:17:20
Once you know disrespect is not part of your vocabulary, every interaction becomes clear — you’ll react right away and say, “sir, don’t disrespect me, or I’m leaving.” By doing this, people realize everyone needs boundaries, needs rules, to function.

00:17:20 – 00:17:49
In sales, we often feel we need to chase every single deal — but there’s something called the Ideal Customer Profile: commonalities in demographics, psychographics, values and goals that help you find the clients you’re actually a good match for.

00:17:49 – 00:18:18
Those are great relationships to serve, as opposed to clients who feel that because they’re giving you business, you have to work for them — it has to be win-win, equal, as opposed to being a slave.

00:18:18 – 00:18:44
This “walk away power” isn’t arrogant — it comes from knowing who you are, and if a customer won’t recognize who you are to them, that crosses a line.

00:18:44 – 00:19:09
Great sales professionals take care of themselves — if you’re not taking care of yourself, who’s going to?

00:19:09 – 00:19:30
What happened next: after my heart attack, I was approached by a company wanting to set up their own insurance brokerage firm in Hong Kong. Things happen for a reason — it all depended on one answer to one question, before my heart attack.

00:19:30 – 00:19:48
My general manager asked me to replace him at a meeting at the Mandarin Oriental with an important British client, 15 minutes’ notice. I said, of course.

00:19:48 – 00:20:16
During that meeting, it turned out this person was looking for someone to set up his own firm in Hong Kong, in the passport business. We had a two-hour conversation, not about a job, but about insurance — and he recruited me based on all those questions, introduced me to his business partner.

00:20:16 – 00:20:40
They offered me the opportunity to set up my own subsidiary Hong Kong insurance brokerage firm at 27 years old.

00:20:40 – 00:21:05
I started this company on my own with shareholder financing — selling during the day and doing paperwork at night, essentially a one-man band.

00:21:35 – 00:21:58
I told the shareholders I know Hong Kong, trust me — they trusted me, gave me flexibility to do everything I wanted to bring the business together. After a year, I told them I needed an assistant to focus purely on sales.

00:22:27 – 00:22:49
Once I got an assistant, sales skyrocketed — more individual and corporate clients — until I got the opportunity to move to another venture in Lebanon and decided to sell the business.

00:22:50 – 00:23:13
I lived in Lebanon for six years.

00:23:13 – 00:23:38
After selling the Hong Kong business, I got the opportunity to set up a subsidiary in the passport business — immigration and securing second passports for high-net-worth individuals, because of the situation at the time (end of 2015, war in Syria) — a lot of people were looking for a Plan B.

00:24:02 – 00:24:34
Every time you arrive in another country, what you know means nothing — you learn like a child again. We need to not judge others or other cultures, because what we think is true isn’t necessarily true elsewhere.

00:24:34 – 00:25:12
A lot of what’s happening in the world right now is because we don’t listen to each other, don’t try to understand who the other person is, don’t try to adapt.

00:25:12 – 00:25:43
Sales is all about identity — how you present yourself, how you understand the other person’s needs. Values change from one country to another. Life itself is all about selling yourself — whether finding a partner or selling a car, you need to understand what the other person needs, not what they want.

00:26:18 – 00:26:44
We met about a year and three months ago, January 2024. What made you want to invest in the sales training program at a point when you were already quite successful?

00:27:17 – 00:27:37
I realized we never stop learning — people who think they know everything don’t. We always need to improve, especially with the world we live in today; if you know everything today, it changes tomorrow.

00:27:55 – 00:28:21
I liked the synergy, and after living in Lebanon for six years I understood the Lebanese culture — I said I could fine-tune my sales techniques, because I knew I was good in sales but didn’t know why.

00:28:21 – 00:28:52
Once you know the “why” of what you’re doing, once you put consciousness into it, you can build a systematic plan. Most of the time in life, everything is automatic, a habit, on autopilot.

00:28:52 – 00:29:16
The program opened my eyes to what I was doing right and wrong, and how to structure things step by step to help my clients.

00:29:16 – 00:29:39
Sometimes “sales” is a bad word to people — I say I’m not a sales guy, I’m an advisor. I’m here to help you decide what’s best for you, and to do that I need to discover needs you don’t even know you have.

00:29:39 – 00:30:02
Something in the program that took my mind: the pain and gain questions. Powerful. Asking what the consequences would be of not having a second passport or residency for you and your children.

00:30:31 – 00:30:56
I have three Plan B’s myself, three different residency permits — because I want to anticipate. Asking pain and gain questions reveals what’s important for the client’s needs.

00:30:56 – 00:31:22
Then the client does the sales on my behalf, explaining why they need it — and based on their answers, I know which programs to recommend.

00:31:22 – 00:31:44
You told me that, right? These programs will be best suited — then I come back and confirm this is exactly what they need. This is how you build trust.

00:32:13 – 00:32:33
Deliberate practice — like tennis serve, you break down the process into specific parts you can practice. That’s exactly what we do for people: going from just driving a car to becoming a Formula One driver.

00:32:58 – 00:33:18
The biggest thing people still mess up on: needs analysis — really understanding, rather than jumping to offer a solution the moment a customer says what they want.

00:33:18 – 00:33:37
Let me ask you a few quick questions to make sure it’s going to help you achieve what you want — that’s the way to do it.

00:34:38 – 00:35:11
What could be two things anyone can keep in mind to improve their game, if you were starting again from zero?

00:35:11 – 00:35:33
My mistake starting this business: I talked too much, wanting to show the client why something was good for them — but I was missing the fundamental rule of sales: listening.

00:36:05 – 00:36:36
My first advice: ask questions first, and listen. Then ask deeper questions. The client will appreciate that you really care and are trying to find out why they need your service.

00:36:36 – 00:37:04
Once you care for someone from the heart, it’s heart-to-heart, and they know you want the best for them.

00:37:04 – 00:38:03
A live practice example: asking why someone would want a second passport, then digging into their family situation, kids’ ages, and future plans, revealing that education access and a good economy matter most, which leads to recommending specific programs like a Malta EU passport for freedom of movement.

00:39:30 – 00:39:57
Sometimes people say “send me a quote” and then go silent — hesitant, resistant to change.

00:39:57 – 00:40:24
They don’t know what they don’t know — afraid to be out of their comfort zone. It’s human nature; we have a survival brain that feels comfortable with what we know rather than facing our fears, doubts, and weaknesses.

00:40:24 – 00:40:49
If you don’t change by your own decision, life itself will push external events onto you — and it’s harder that way.

00:41:12 – 00:41:30
I was bullied as a kid, my self-esteem was really low — I had to repeat a school year.

00:41:51 – 00:42:08
I was really bad at mathematics, and people would laugh when I went to the board. On the first day of repeating the year, the teacher asked for a volunteer to go to the board — I raised my hand, even though I had no idea how to do the exercise.

00:43:02 – 00:43:24
I did a bit of acting, pretended I forgot, and the teacher said, “At least you tried.” I did it on purpose, knowing I couldn’t do it, just to show up.

00:43:40 – 00:44:14
My confidence started to rise because I understood that showing up to something challenging teaches you so much, and your self-esteem grows.

00:44:14 – 00:44:34
Showing up is half the battle. If you don’t show up, you’ve already lost.

00:44:34 – 00:44:53
Like being afraid to make phone calls selling knives — facing fear with action. Once I started confronting my fears, the phone no longer had teeth.

00:44:53 – 00:45:21
Asking a client for a referral no longer became an obstacle — it became a source of opportunities. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

00:45:45 – 00:46:08
You’re now living in Malta after 17 years outside your home country, France.

00:46:08 – 00:46:35
I saw an opportunity teaching people how to sell and present. When I did the training with you, I saw amazing value in it — and even my own company staff started asking me to teach and train them.

00:46:35 – 00:46:54
I met very young entrepreneurs, 22 or 25 years old, and realized most of us don’t know how to present ourselves and talk. That’s where I want to participate — adding value to people’s lives, not only through sales but through mindset.

00:47:12 – 00:47:32
The opportunity in Europe is huge, and with my international experience and French language, we can reach the French and African markets too.

00:52:20 – 00:52:38
If your team is French-speaking and you want education, inspiration, or motivation, reach out to the Academy for Sales and see how we can support you.

00:53:02 – 00:53:30
When I decided to invest my own several thousand dollars in this, I knew I must have structure — some companies want to save money, but how can you tell someone in sales to go and sell without the knowledge? You can’t ask Elon Musk’s team to build a rocket without the basics of physics.

00:54:12 – 00:54:42
Brian Tracy says: in order to earn more, you’ve got to learn more — add the letter L to the word “earn.”

00:54:42 – 00:55:12
I recently spoke to a leadership team of 12 individuals about sales capability building. I asked: how does a golfer get better? Practice the swing. How does an airline pilot practice flying? Not by flying — he goes into a simulator.

00:55:34 – 00:55:57
We do the same thing in selling — our AI Sales Coach allows salespeople to practice selling skills in a safe environment and get live feedback.

00:55:57 – 00:56:22
Mind-blowing experience — you’re face to face on Zoom, but never recorded before. Now with the AI, you converse, and it can tell you where you can improve because it’s parameterized with how a sales conversation should go.

00:57:05 – 00:57:22
There’s a difference between rituals and habits — a ritual is something you purposely do on a regular basis, a habit is something you do unconsciously.

00:57:22 – 00:57:57
If you want to implement something, make it a ritual first, push it until it becomes a habit that’s automatic. Set exactly what you want and train your mind first.

00:58:20 – 00:58:48
Activities bring you results — what activities, what focus, what calls, which products, who you’re talking to. Do enough of them, and everything else happens.

00:58:48 – 00:59:12
A famous company had a ritual: every Friday, the sales team recorded a sales role-play, sent it to head office in Europe, and got feedback the following week — that ritual created champions.

00:59:12 – 00:59:37
Today, with AI, we bring the same rigor even when managers don’t have the bandwidth to watch every individual — your team will thank you for it.

01:00:00 – 01:00:20
It’s an honor to give you this certificate to remind you of the sacrifice, discipline, perseverance, and the person you are to inspire others — we’re inspiring one more together.

01:01:05 – 01:01:13
Thank you so much. It’s a pleasure. Until next time — sell more, sell faster and profitably.

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