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Prospecting on Purpose is Forbes meets Saturday Night Live - it’s *the* show for everything prospecting, sales, business, and mindset.
As business grows more complex, the biggest opportunities emerge when we learn beyond our own industries. From hospitality and design to technology and travel, this is where professionals come together to exchange ideas, uncover new perspectives, and prospect for business with creativity, authenticity, and intention.
Hosted by Sara Murray, a heart-centric sales champion, each episode helps you raise both your vibes and your game. Sara's playbook is simple - ABAV: Always Be Adding Value. Embrace your authentic self, lean into your unique strengths, and sell the outcome instead of the product or service.
Join Sara each week as she sits down with world-class thought leaders to unpack today's business strategies, mindset shifts, and relationship-driven approaches to growth, giving you practical ideas you can put into action right away.
Connect with Sara: www.saramurray.com IG: @saramurraysales LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/saramurraysales/
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose:
You're listening to Prospecting on
Purpose, where we discuss all things
prospecting, sales, business, and mindset.
I'm your host, Sara Murray, a sales
champion who's here to show you that you
can be a shark in business and still lead
with intentionality and authenticity.
Tune in each week as we dive into methods
to connect with clients, communicate
with confidence, and close the deal.
Hello, and welcome back
to Prospecting on Purpose.
My name is Sara Murray, and
today we're gonna be talking
about one of my favorite topics.
And the reason this area is my favorite
is because this, thing we're gonna be
discussing is one of the biggest tools,
and most powerful tools, that you have in
your toolbox when it comes to business.
And it's an area that we don't always
spend a lot of time on, so that's
why we're doing an episode about it.
We're gonna talk about why
understanding our core values is
going to give us leverage when
it comes to our business actions.
And I know when I do this in my workshop
sometimes, usually the men are a little
bit more grumbly and skeptical about
why are we spending time talking about
our values, but by the end of the day,
the end of the workshop, this ends up
being one of their favorite exercises,
because it is something that helps us
increase our confidence, show up more
authentically, and really be thoughtful
and intentional about how we connect
with others in a business environment.
When people think of values and
principles, oftentimes they relate
it to an organization or a company.
What is the company's values?
it might be a webpage, it
might be something up on the
office, a signage on the office.
I think this is fantastic when
businesses do this, and, in my
experience, a lot of them actually
do work in alignment with their
values , and use it in the right way.
If you don't know your organization's
values or principles, I encourage
you to look it up, and if you don't
have, , values or principles, I encourage
you to create some for your business.
But what I find to be a interesting
differentiator , for success,
and this is what I teach in my
workshops, every single person is
their own individual business unit.
So the way they spend their time, the way
you spend your money, the way you spend
your actions, , all of that is really
business decisions, usually in alignment
with the larger organization's goals.
But if we can start looking at ourselves
as our own individual business unit,
that's gonna help us just really
differentiate ourselves from other
people and give us a competitive edge.
So when we think about starting with our
core values, one caveat I wanna make is
that we're allowed to have values that are
different in different areas of our lives.
So the way that you show up as a
spouse or a parent or a daughter
or a sibling, that might look very
different than how you show up at work.
You might really value loyalty
in your relationship, but loyalty
might not be a core value at work.
And so today, when we're gonna talk
about this, I want you to view everything
we're talking about through the lens of
a business, business lens, work lens.
And there are five really specific
business reasons why understanding
your values is going to help you
get ahead and why this matters.
The first is it clarifies your priorities,
which also helps you clarify where you
spend your time The second, and probably
one of the most important, and we'll talk
about this in a little bit more detail, is
understanding our values basically gives
us a framework for our decision-making.
If we are making decisions that are
out of alignment with our values, that
becomes a clear line in the sand for
us to say, "Oh, this actually isn't
the right action I should be taking."
So it's really important to have
that, have that tool because that's
gonna help us make decisions, but
also be a lot more confident in
the decisions that we make because
they're in alignment with our values.
The next thing, from a business
standpoint, it helps you build trust and
integrity in relationships because you're
showing up representing your values,
and other people feel that and see that.
It's also gonna help you recognize other
people's values, which leads to the
fourth reason why this is important.
Thisâ¦
Understanding our values helps us create
quick connection points with other
people, which is really key in any
business environment, especially sales.
We wanna find connection points.
We wanna build relationships
because that's how we sell things.
That's how we influence
others to wanna work with us.
People work with who they
know, like, and trust.
If we know ourselves, we like
ourselves, we trust ourselves,
that's gonna come through, and
the way we do this is spending
some time understanding ourselves.
And then the fifth piece to this is it
really helps shape your personal brand.
And in 2026, in the world of AI
and digital noise and just all the
messiness that's out there, having
a personal brand is actually a
strategic professional advantage.
And so core values are an
element to your personal brand.
So those are the five reasons.
Clarify priorities, serves as a
framework for decision-making,
build trust and integrity, quickly
create connection points, and
then shape your personal brand.
So I'm gonna go through a list
of values, not a huge list.
I'll probably read about, 12.
But- What I want you to think through
is I want you to understand which
ones are resonating with you more.
So if you hear one, you
think, "Yes, that's me."
If you hear one, you think,
"Nope, I don't care about fame.
I don't care about power," great.
Process of elimination.
That's not one of your core values.
And so that's one, one piece, figure
out what's resonating with you.
The second thing is that I want
you to think about, like with your
personal brand, one definition I use
for that is what do people say about
you when you're not in the room?
And so when I think about my own
personal values at work, I'll share mine.
Professional, fun, creative,
approachable, and intentional.
Those are my five core values at work.
And a lot of times people will
say, "Wow, you're so intentional.
You're really intentional
with your action.
You're intentional with your business."
That's one of the biggest compliments
that someone could pay me because it
means my values are showing up at work.
And so I'm gonna read this list to you.
Again, think what resonates with you, and
think about what you want people to say
about you when you're not in the room.
And just to also caveat, there are
hundreds and hundreds of values.
There is a website.
I found a great list called
scienceofpeople.com/core-values
if you wanna, spend some
time looking at this longer.
But I'm just gonna read off a few
and see which ones stand out more.
Honest, creative, loyal, ethical,
integrity, trust, compassion,
courage, passion, creativity,
leadership, adaptability,
transparency, dependable, innovative.
Okay, how did that feel?
Did anything stand out?
One of the things that I wanna talk a
little bit more about is this concept
of using our values for decision-making.
So I'll share a quick example.
year, one and a half in my business, I
had a client I was working with, and I
didn't love working with them, and there
was nothing bad about them or their
organization, but some of the stuff that
they did just made me feel a little icky.
it just didn't sit right.
And our contract was up, and they wanted
to renew and keep working together,
and I wasn't sure if I wanted to.
So I did what everyone does when
they need to make a hard decision,
and I made a pros and cons list.
And at, at one point, writing
the cons, I just wrote they're
not in alignment with my values.
And as soon as I realized that, as soon
as I put pen to paper and saw that,
it was, like, the clearest no ever.
And so we did not renew the contract, and
I felt really good about it because I used
that as a framework for decision-making.
I see organizations use this a lot, too.
If they can empower their people to
really understand the values of the
business and then act within those
values for the business Any action
they take, they're gonna be backed
up by the company because they were
acting with the company core values.
It's the same for us.
So it serves as a great
decision-making tool.
I use my values all the time as a
gut check to see if it's a yes or
a no, or which path I should take.
And I'll give one more example.
Let's say you have a job
opportunity for a new job, and
you're not sure if you want it.
You're not unhappy with your
current employer, but you had a
headhunter, and you interviewed
anyway, but you got an offer.
Now you have two choices to make.
Do you stay at your current
employer, or do you take the new job?
One thing you could do is look at both
companies' principles, both companies'
values, and compare them to yours.
Which ones feel more in
sync, and which one doesn't?
And that just is another data
point for you in decision-making.
The other piece that I really, really
like about understanding our values is the
ability to build connections with others.
So let's say I prioritize fun or
creativity, and I meet somebody else
who also prioritizes fun and creativity.
Our working relationship is
gonna be super easy because we
already have something in common.
We already have that foundation laid.
But what happens when you don't have
shared values with someone else?
What happens if you're
meeting with someone, and they
don't value what you value?
When we are in a position where
we're selling something or we're
influencing others, one way that
we can use this tool is we can look
at, what does that person stand for?
How are they showing up with
their words and actions?
So I'll share another example.
Early on in my business, I had a
meeting with a company I was trying
to sell a sales training to, and one
of the men in the meeting was very
pointed and direct in his questioning.
And I was a new business, so I
didn't have a ton of social proof
outside of just my own success
and, and some anecdotal success.
But he was just being very,
very direct But respectful.
So even though he was hitting me
with objections, I like objections,
so I wasn't afraid of it, but
he was just kinda coming at me.
But it was kind and respectful and
professional, just very direct.
So I also value professionalism,
and I mirrored back and answered
his questions, and I answered them
respectfully and honestly and direct
because it was very, very obvious to me
that he valued respect and directness.
And what was kinda funny is at
the end of the meeting, he said,
"Well, thank you so much for
letting me ask you all my questions.
I hope you found me respectful."
And it was so funny because I did, and
I figured it out before he told me.
And most of the time people
aren't gonna tell you, but you
can use context clues, right?
And it's funny because once you start to
use these out in the world, you're gonna
find that they show up all the time.
And so as an action item today, I want
you to sit with your core values, visit
a website, ask, ask AI for a list of
values, and pick the top five that
resonate with you the most at work, and
stick them on a Post-It Note and stick
them near your computer and see how
often that shows up during your day.
You will be shocked at
how much you can use it.
So just to recap, our five business
reasons serves as a clarification on
your priorities, it's a framework for
decision-making, it builds trust and
integrity in relationships, it quickly
builds connection points with others,
and it helps shape your personal brand.
I think one of the things that's most
powerful about this is it really helps
us show up with confidence because
when we think about confidence, I like
to marry confidence with authenticity
because if we have self-worth and we
have self-awareness, we have self-love,
that's going to show up as authentic,
which helps us show up as confident.
But if we don't take the time to
build relationships with ourselves
and reflect on ourselves, then
we miss that opportunity to
have that confident advantage.
So I really hope you got
value out of today's episode.
It is a really interesting, area, to
sit with and think about, so I hope
you take the time to sit with it.
And if you enjoyed this
episode, please, leave a review,
subscribe, share, all the things.
Thanks so much for joining,
and I'll see you next week.
Thank you so much for listening to
the Prospecting on Purpose podcast.
If you loved what you heard today,
subscribe to the podcast and
please rate and leave a review.
For more info on me or if you'd
like to work together, feel free to
go to my website, saramurray.com.
On social media, I'm usually
hanging out @saramurraysales.
Thanks again for joining me,
and I'll see you next time.