WomLEAD Magazine

“I have a lot of respect for people who’- step into the fire, who don’t give up, who don’t back down, who don’t make excuses,” says Catherine Kerr, CEO and Corporate Warrior Coach at Kerrageous Inc., an advanced performance training and consulting firm that aims to cultivate a warrior mentality in corporate leaders and sales teams so they may confront challenges and thrive in turbulent times.

Offering her perspective on the determination of those who grapple with difficulties head-on, she emphasizes, “these are people who have that ability to reach in, find that inner drive and motivation when times are tough because that’s when your warrior mentality shows up.”

Kerr empowers her clients’ sales teams by cultivating attributes and traits that enable them to thrive in adversity. She believes that challenging times, such as market turmoil, declining sales, setbacks, and self-doubt, bring out a leader’s inner warrior, demonstrating tenacity and resilience. By adopting a warrior mindset, individuals can become more tactical, strategic, focused, and productive.

Her background uniquely qualifies her to coach sales teams to excel. She has been involved in sales from a young age, selling various products such as books and kitchen knives door-to-door. By the age of 16, she was selling window washing fluid to car garages over the phone; at 17, she found herself working for a real estate developer showing condos to prospective buyers and closing million-dollar deals, and by 18, she was selling imported fashion jewelry through interactive “shopping network” style demonstrations in major shopping centers Kerr shares, “I have been in sales my whole life. It’s what I know.”

Twenty-five years ago, she began boxing to cope while caring for her terminally ill mother, battling an aggressive form of cancer. Working out in the boxing ring helped her manage stress during what she calls the most difficult part of her life.

Having honed her skills in the ring, she developed a deep-rooted resilience that extended far beyond the sport. She attributes her ability to conquer any obstacle, not only as a corporate warrior coach but also as a woman and an individual, to the lessons she learned through boxing. This valuable lesson has been a guiding principle throughout her life. In fact, it was her experience as a boxer that inspired her to create the highly successful Warrior Sales training program.

Catherine Kerr’s educational background is in the field of Education, with a focus on counseling psychology, where she specialized in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). She discovered that by applying psychology to her sales strategy, she became highly effective, “once I started applying some psychology to the game, I was on fire.”

With hands-on experience in sales, training in psychology, and a passionate energy rooted in her boxing background, Kerr brings a comprehensive and holistic approach to the table. Her diverse skill set is a unique package she applies to her work.

Catherine Kerr’s core service involves delivering high-level performance training to sales teams. Her intended audience is typically sales executives, directors, and CEOs who are looking to elevate the skills of their teams,

“I’m training them and their leaders to think and act more like warriors so that they can conquer any challenge, and I do mean any.”

Her approach to leadership development is based on a partnership model, ideal for those committed to creating sustained behavior change in their teams rather than short-term fixes. Kerr’s teaching focuses on courageous leadership, essential in a world with increasingly sophisticated customers.

In her sessions, she expertly weaves together instruction, exercises, and in-the-moment coaching through role-playing, all while encouraging her clients to ask courageous questions. This powerful approach fosters a high level of experiential learning, widely acknowledged as the most effective way to acquire a new skill.

As a warrior coach, she adeptly operates in the sweet spot between challenge and support, thus, establishing herself as an expert in experiential learning. She is particularly effective with leaders who welcome someone who can come in and challenge their teams.

In addition to her coaching sessions, Kerr provides every participant with a warrior development plan, a battle plan of sorts, that outlines the skills learned and ways to refine and develop them. She aims to add value by developing innovative solutions that drive business growth.

Utilizing her D.R.I.V.E.™ model and content, she assists leaders with their training needs by focusing on specific skill gaps and addressing the challenges unique to their company. Her approach provides targeted solutions that lead to the best results. Even after the training concludes, she remains committed to supporting her clients with “boot camps” meant to reinforce the key learnings and continuous skill development D.R.I.V.E.™ is an acronym she created – to encapsulate her offering in a powerful yet simplistic way, focusing on driving strategic conversations. The acronym stands for Disarm objections, reflect and Restate experiences, share Insights that add value, – Verify needs, and Energy rituals to drive and sustain high performance. By applying these five tactics, individuals can add value, differentiate themselves, and, ultimately, increase sales.

Everyone can benefit from a warrior sales approach regardless of the industry. The key is to step it up with grit, resilience, and strategic thinking, armed with a solid battle plan to ensure success.

Her repertoire includes her flagship program called How to Drive Strategic Conversations, tailored for advanced sales professionals. The program’s primary focus is to elevate already successful salespeople to the next level by incorporating critical sales skills with global warrior concepts and research on high performance.

Informed by her background in psychology, she conducts extensive research on the concepts she teaches, such as demonstrating deep empathy and remaining relevant, to ensure that her training is evidence-based and effective.

Her sessions include a critical element: personal performance statements. Drawing inspiration from her work with Olympic athletes, she believes it’s essential to identify the actions and behaviors required to achieve daily success and the benefits they bring. To stay motivated and inspired toward your goals, such as developing deeper relationships with customers, hitting targets, or getting promotions, -, you need to establish a visceral connection with your daily actions. This connection becomes your driving force, helping you maintain the momentum necessary to succeed.

Catherine Kerr offers clients remote and on-site training and consulting services worldwide, focusing on mid-sized to large companies. While her primary customer base is in Canada and the US, she has also worked with businesses in Brazil, Chile, China, India, and the UK.

Having accumulated more than two decades of industry expertise, she prefers to collaborate with companies that understand what they’re investing in, “if you want someone who’s going to guarantee that your team will be able to conquer challenges, drive strategic conversations and drive revenue…if you are looking for someone to disrupt your team and take them out of their comfort zone, then let’s talk, lets partner together… let’s DO THIS!”