Sales Game Changers | Tips from Successful Sales Leaders

This is episode 473. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. DR. CINDY'S TIP: "Truly ask for what you want today. Whether it's French fries instead of a salad, that you want somebody else to pick up your kids from school versus you do it, ask for what you want. Just try it in those little areas where there's not such a huge impact where it feels like, "Oh my gosh. If I ask for this promotion and I don't get it, the world will fall," but allow yourself to start asking for what you want and give yourself permission to do that. It will become easier and easier over time. I'd love to hear the success stories."

Tips for Sales Career Success. Episode 472. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. ALISON'S TIP: "I invite you to get real in terms of what aren't you doing. What are you missing? In what ways have you not tried to engage with your customer? Are you just going to what's familiar? The opportunity is, what is one new way you could engage with your customer that you haven't? That deep down intuitively you know is something that you should be trying, and maybe something that's holding you back is, "Well, that's going to take a lot of time." Yeah, probably because you haven't done it yet. If we're not challenging ourselves and stretching in a way that brings new insights, you are not going to be able to take new insights to your customers."

Tips for Sales Career Success Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. KEN'S TIP: "Don't forget to keep really good track of your track record because most people are moving on to the next thing, and I query them because I do very detailed interviews about the details of their track record, their deals, their customers, and they don't have it all together. Then the other thing just to make you stand out is positive energy. Put it out there and what goes around, comes around. FRANK'S TIP: "Stand out. Try to get in front of the companies that you're interested in and apply all the principles that Ken pointed out on how to interview for a job. It's a sales job. Just stand out among all the other people that might be having conversations during an interview versus interviewing to win. That's the main takeaway for salespeople.

Episode 470 of the Sales Game Changers Podcast. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. LYNN'S TIP: "Take the time to plan for prospect conversations. I think it all boils down to that. The more you do that, I think you're going to see your close rate and win ratio improve."

This is episode number 469. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. JANE'S TIP: "Resilience is a teachable skill. You may not have learned it, but you can learn it now. Even if it's as simple as failure is an event, not a person. Every time you make a mistake, you remind yourself, failure is an event. It is one thing; you are still a good person. Get over it, move on."

This is episode 468. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. LISA'S TIP: "Noble purpose is both a strategic intent and a methodology. It's based on the research that says salespeople who focus on improving life for customers outperform salespeople focused on targets and quotas. That's really easy to see why. If you had a choice of two salespeople coming to call on you and one sitting in your waiting room, or your virtual waiting room, thinking, "I got to close this deal." The other one's sitting in the virtual waiting room thinking, "How can I help this customer?" You're going to like the second one better." ELIZABETH'S TIP: "Tell a customer impact story. Those stories do so much for your customers, and the ability to describe how you make a difference to others can win them over. They also do a lot for you personally. Talking about how you've made a difference fills you with pride, we release that dopamine, that serotonin, that we know feels so good. People on both sides of the seller relationship are craving that now."

This is episode 467. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. ANDY'S TIP: "Keep reading. As a podcaster you might think I'd say listen to podcasts. I think it's great. Please listen to this podcast, listen to my podcast but I still think reading is the most effective way to learn because you're exposed in a medium where people have to lay out a comprehensive cohesive argument. I think if you want to be influenced to learn new things and adopt new perspectives, that's the best way. Whether it's in sales or whether it's to Fred's point, the one we talked about earlier, it's about the world around us, it's biographies of great people and what they've achieved. I love to read and still read history. Just keep reading and keep learning."

This is episode 466. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. JOHN'S TIP: "We're not going back to normal, so we really have to think about the future. Many, many companies have been innovating during this recession that we've been in and are starting to come out of. Our company now has eight new offerings that we did not have pre-recession. They are either totally new or totally upgraded from an old offering. We're not going back. Think about coming out, when we finally get out, what's the new stuff you've got to offer the new prospects?"

This is episode 465. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. MARC'S TIP: "Figure out your values. When everything changes and all the strategies go away because of a pandemic or something, knowing what your core values are, those become the compass that you can use to orient yourself. For example, "I don't know what's coming up next, but I know how I want to treat my people, how I want to treat my clients." If you Google values inventory, there's millions of them out there. One's at concordleadershipgroup.com/values. You could just figure out what are your top five, and that will help you make smart decisions quickly."

This is episode 464. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. TOM'S TIP: "As we emerge from this pandemic, every piece of data screams what people are desperate for from the salespeople they see – it's human conversation. Enough already with the structure of questions, that's not bad stuff, you're a human being. Things like empathy, attentive listening, premise on your questions, providing reaction, asking clarifying questions, these are the ways human beings interact. Now that none of us have been able to interact, we're dying for it. The door is wide open for you to be the one that does that and be different on that alone."

This is episode 463. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. THOMAS' TIP: "Do an analysis of yourself, do a self-analysis and say, "Where do I need to improve that to get to the next level?" Sit down, write down what your strengths are. What do you need to improve upon in 2022 to get you to the next level? Then immediately find people that can help you get there. Whether that's attending the IES workshops every month, whether that's a podcast, there's so many ways that you can get better, but you first have to identify what is the one thing? Don't write down 10 things, but we can focus on no more than three."

This is episode 462. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. KELLY'S TIP: "What would be game-changing for you? Then make a commitment to putting that into action. Be intentional about it. Because listening to it and being aware of it is the first step. But if you don't put it into action, it's never going to help you. Every little baby step you take counts towards creating something great down the road. Take the action."

This is episode 461. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. TODD'S TIP: "When people say, "Why does authenticity matter?" I go, well, do you want comfort, do you want understanding, do you want rapport? That's the relationship foundation upon which anything else that might happen will happen, and it begins with being a human being who's a little more real, authentic."

This is episode 460. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. WAYNE'S TIP: "Focus on the client's outcome, not on your product. All too often we go in there and all we're trying to do is push the differentiators in our product. The time of feature, function, benefit, not there now, it's about what's the outcome. Go in, do a deep discovery, understand how you can influence positively and deliver value as well as defined by the client, and then talk about your product. Don't do it too early."

This is episode 459. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. COLLEEN'S TIP: "It's time for a new perspective in sales. I believe in teaching both the hard skills, what I've framed up as the sales IQ skills – negotiation skills, value propositions, prospecting, closing – but what was missing for years and is still missing in a lot of sales organizations are coaching and teaching the soft skills, emotional intelligence skills. Emotional intelligence sounds great but how do you actually yield hard sales results? What I'd like to encourage everyone today is for this new perspective, when you're coaching your salespeople, absolutely coach to the hard skills but start including language such as, "Where do you think lack of empathy got in the way of forwarding this opportunity?", "Where did your lack of assertiveness go up?", "How are you playing into instant gratification?" It's not an either/or proposition which often people confuse that when they hear of emotional intelligence.

This is episode 458. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. Meredith's TIP: "Find someone to be an accountability partner with you. Pair up with someone so that you work with another individual to help them and you improve in a particular skill. Because when you make a commitment to someone else and you meet with them on a regular basis, you are going to be more aware of using that skill and applying it in between the times that you meet with your accountability partner. Denny's TIP: "An elite team is a team where everyone on the team, the sales manager as well as the sales reps, all of the people involved are good at listening to each other so that the people, all of them felt understood and respected so that they are forthcoming with what's going on. Also, they help each other solve problems. They stimulate each other to think. It's not just a one-way thing. It's people sharing ideas and they ask for the ideas."

This is episode 457. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. REBECCA'S TIP: "Embrace the new year. Don't be rudderless, develop an account plan, action your plan, be adaptive, agile and flexible to the needs and demands of your customers as the environments are ever-changing." HANNAH KATE'S TIP: "Meet with all of your clients and prospects or as many as you can in the early part of the year and really listen to what their resolutions are, personal and professional. You'll learn about their pain points, their goals, then what motivates them as people. Emotional intelligence is so important in sales so take this opportunity to meet with as many people as you can and really listen to what they have going on."

This is episode 456. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. Julie's TIP: "Everyone needs to watch themselves more on video. Watch a recent recording or record your next interaction and play it back. Time every time you make eye contact with yourself. Every time your on-screen persona makes eye contact with you, the real person, have a stopwatch to time that. Then I want you to add up that time and divide that by the time of the entire call. If it is less than 50%, which for most people it is significantly less than 50%, you got some work to do because you're missing that opportunity to really build that connection. Also, look at what your face is saying. If you're sharing something positive, did your face support that? Is there variety in it? Is it just a blank slate the entire time? Those are good starting points."

This is episode 455. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. Mike's TIP: "Play with more gratitude, more joy, more freedom, more creativity and go deep into that belief that you are more than a sales professional, just like the Steph Curry's are more than just athletes. I think it is something that can be a foundational element of your performance and it's something that's super important. I think if you can leave here and figure out a way to build some legs for you to believe in that and adopt that belief, it's going to take you a long way, and it's going to impact you beyond the sales arena."

This is episode 454. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. Mike is an IES Premier Sales Leaders. Learn more here. Find Mike on LinkedIn. MIKE'S' TIP: "Figure out what your goals are. The goals aren't just, "Make my number." Sometimes the goal is, "I need to be strategically relevant to XYZ customer," "I need to find my own sales process, build my own sales engine." Figure out what your top 2-3 goals are and no more than that. Then work backwards from there. Think, how long is it going to take me and what do I need to do to slowly build up to accomplishing what these goals might be? The buildup needs to be set with marker flags. Marker flags are leading indicators of success."

This is episode 453. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. TIFFANY'S TIP: "Seek mentors. I always encourage people because mentors are a powerful thing to have. They can help you with career advice. They can help you through professional transitions. They can help you get some insider advice into promotions that you want or that are available. I think mentors are such a powerful thing. You could have one or two or build an army of mentors. Maybe it is someone that you meet once a month for coffee, I think that every mentor-mentee relationship is different, but someone that you can reach out to that you trust that can give you advice and that you can maybe perhaps lend some value to when you can as well, is really important. Then once you're in a position where you can mentor somebody else, be a mentor and be a guide." LACEY'S TIP: "Make yourself known outside of your direct team. And just say yes to the next opportunity that's presented to you. Sometimes it means getting out of your comfort zone a little bit. If it's something that maybe scares you a little bit, like speaking up in a meeting, or sharing a new idea that you have, or doing a presentation or public speaking, saying yes to just putting yourself in a different scenario even though it might be scary, it's only going to help you grow as a leader.

This is episode 452. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. Liz's TIP: "Prioritize, figure out who your ideal customer is, figure out what are the most important things you need to do. Take all of those other things that don't matter and put them on the back burner, but do the things that matter. Prioritize the customers that are going to grow, prioritize the ideal customer that's got the shortest sales cycle and the most likelihood of buying and prioritize out those customers that are wasting your time and are never going to buy from you. Prioritize."

This is episode 451. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. Jack's TIP: "I'm a huge believer in mindset. Consultative Selling starts with mindset but mindset is useless unless you do the things and you have the skills to be able to implement that mindset. So A) adopt a mindset but then B) it's all about practice, practice, practice."

This is episode 450. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. Paul's TIP: "Treat storytelling like any other leadership skill that you want to have, leadership and sales skills. Study it. It's not the kind of thing that well, if I'm not born with it I'll just never have it. It's not. You can learn it. Read a book, watch some YouTube videos, take a class. It is something you can learn, and you should. Treat it that way."

This is episode 449. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. Colleen's TIP: "Carve out some time between now and December 31 to really take a good, hard look at what happened this year, analyze the numbers and plan to make some changes. One of the first things I would do is look at what's working even if I don't necessarily like it and then commit to doing more of that in January, including maybe getting a mentor or finding someone in the organization who's been more successful than you and reaching out to figure out what they're doing that was such a success this year. I think that will help you to create some activity, remember that action creates motivation, not the other way around. If you can find someone who has great ideas on what's creating success in your marketplace today right now and you implement them, you're going to be more motivated which is going to help your mindset."

This is episode 448. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. David's TIP: "I'm a huge believer in a concept that I originally learned from the Grateful Dead and that concept can absolutely be applied to sales and many salespeople do, however, a lot don't. That's the idea of giving gifts without any expectation of anything in return. The Grateful Dead allowed concertgoers record their concerts for free as long as they didn't sell them. What does this mean for salespeople? The more helpful you are, the more valuable information you provide, the more that you help people not just by helping them to understand your company and its products but just by creating something valuable or linking to something valuable or sharing a news story that you see that your potential client might be interested in, the more you're seen as being somebody who's providing something or value, the more people will be drawn to you who will become your fans and will more likely want to buy something from you. Note that it's not free if require an email address, That is precisely the wrong thing to do because that's a coercion technique, that's like saying to somebody, "No, you cannot have my white paper unless you give me something first, your email address." That's not a good way to sell in my mind, that's not a good way to build fans in my mind, better to give it away.

This is episode 447. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. Chris' TIP: "One of the things that we've run up against is people always say, "I don't have time, I need to learn time management." No you don't, there's no such thing. You need to learn commitment management. In today's world, we observed people are "over-involved" and under-committed. We've got a gazillion little things going on but they're not necessarily committed to many of them so let's take a step back, go sit down, it only takes you maybe 15, 20 minutes. Make a list of the four, no more than 5 big commitments that you have in your life. Then what you do is you go look at your calendar and match up, "What am I doing with my time to support those commitments?" What you will invariably find is that you've got a lot of stuff that you're doing that's got nothing to do with those five commitments. Simple: quit doing it."

This is episode 446. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. RUSS' TIP: "I think we always forget to do this. Ask for a referral in every sales call. If you get a no on the phone, ask if they know somebody you should talk to. If you're in a sales meeting, ask who else they know in that industry or that market. Ask for referrals, it goes a long way to building your pipeline." PETE'S TIP: "Get out of your own way. 2018 is over, there's a new normal, get on with it. Embrace the change, pick up your game or be left behind. You've got to get going."

This is episode 445. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. Attend the next Institute for Excellence in Sales Women in Sales Leadership Forum starting January 14, 2022. Register here. KATIE'S TIP: "I use the same phrase when people ask me, "I want to be a Blue Angel someday. How do I get there?" I say, "Calm seas don't make a skilled sailor." What I mean by that is it's not the easy times in your life, it's not the calm seas that shape you as a person. It is those hard times. It's the rough seas. It's the failures. It's the adversity that you face. How you deal with that, that will shape you as a person, as a mother, as a spouse, in my case, a Marine, a leader, and now as a businesswoman. That's really what I would say, is adversity is a way to improve yourself. Rather than get down in the dumps about it, use it to polish yourself."

This is episode 444. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. Bob's TIP: "Shifting your focus from getting to giving and when we say giving in this context, we simply mean constantly and consistently providing immense value to others understanding that doing so is not only a more pleasant way of conducting business, it's actually the most financially profitable way as well. When you're that person who is able to take your focus off of yourself and place it onto that other person genuinely and authentically, looking to discover what they need, what they want, what they desire, how you can help make their businesses, their lives better, help bring them closer to happiness, people feel good about you. People want to get to know you, they like you, they trust you, they want to be in relationship with you, do business with you and so forth. They're going to buy from you only because they believe they'll be better off by doing so than by not doing so."

This is episode 443. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. KIM's TIP: "It's okay to fail and fail fast but learn from it. Improve from it, iterate on it, iterate your process, iterate your style. We're all very stylistic in what we do as sales professionals and sales leaders. Last year was a year of resilience, this year is also going to be a year of resilience and that's a key theme in my team, and we see in the market. Grow your clients and yourself through trust, and that's how you're going to grow your success as a sales professional and elevate your game." JEREMY'S TIP: "Be a problem solver. In your first conversation, ask that customer, "Give me a project, give me a task," nothing relatable to having to sell something to solve that problem. Literally, ask for a task, come back and do it better and faster than anyone else and you will automatically earn the right to ask for the next thing, have a seat at the table, and you'll be making a lot of friends when you deliver on that as well."

This is episode 442. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. Brian's TIP: "When we talk about ethically influencing people, there are three keys that have to be present. First is truthfulness. Now, it's not enough to tell the truth, we never hide the truth either, because if we know something will materially impact someone's decision and we withhold it, we're not being ethical. They will not look at us as an ethical influencer if they find that information out after the fact. The second thing is we only use the psychology that we find naturally in the situation. For example, if there's no real scarcity for your product or service, don't claim that there is. Then the third thing that we look to do is create situations that are good for both parties. I like to say, "Good for you, good for me. Then we're good to go." If we can hit all three of those criteria, we can look ourselves in the mirror and say, "You know what? I'm dealing with people in an upright, ethical manner."

This is episode 441. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. JENNIFER'S TIP: "Move forward. You have to keep moving forward. Have that courage to try something new, pivot, change. Just move forward. As long as you keep moving forward, you're going to be okay." CLINT'S TIP: "You succeed only – and I underscore only – when your customers succeed. Pick a customer, sit down with a blank piece of paper and see if you can articulate your customer's top three business priorities. Draw a line and then see if you can articulate the three biggest problems they face to achieve those opportunities. If you can do it, great, you're well on your way to helping your customers solve their hardest problems. If you can't do it, you need to go back and do some more listening and some more investigation about what's important to your customer."

This is episode 440. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. CHRISTA'S TIP: "I always say this, "I can't help a leader who doesn't care about people." You have to generally have a desire that you want to do good, even if maybe you're maybe not achieving that level of good that you want to be doing. Not being in integrity, that is a huge cost. Being honest with yourself like I mentioned with myself, where I wasn't being in integrity. I was saying, "These things are important to me, but I'm living in this way." Being honest, looking at that, and making a commitment to integrity, and yes, people might not like you. When you say no, people might not like you. I can promise you that. You might piss some people off. But what's more important at the end of the day, to be liked or to have integrity? That's just something else to bite off on and think about leaving this conversation.

This is episode 439. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. Tim's TIP: "Turn knowledge into action. As an organization, you know what you're doing isn't working right now. You know that you've got to get on social and you've got to do something about it. Sometimes, that's going to need to you be courageous and stand up, and actually, sometimes disagree with people because there are going to be some people that are going to want to do it like we did it 30 years and 40 years ago. This is a call to action in terms of standing up, being courageous and turning what you know is right into action."

This is episode 438. Read the complete transcription on The Sales Game Changers Podcast website. This show was sponsored by Cox. Learn more at For the Love of Sales. CATS TIP: "Everything that we're talking about has everything to do with marketing and sales. How are you positioning yourself and how are you "convincing" someone that it's time for you to be promoted? The first thing is all about authority. How are you branding yourself? Are you identifying the job that you want? Are you communicating it and are you positioning yourself as an authority? And there's community. Your job, especially in the corporate space, is to make your boss look good. If you want it to work, then start looking at what you're doing and how you're showing up. The third piece is how you Engage. Identify that sponsor, who, and invest in them. This is about giving them value, support them. So many people want to take and they don't give first. Look at what you can do to help them, support them. Find out what are they looking for."

This is episode 437. Read the complete transcription here. BRYNNE'S TIP: "Resonate, curiosity, teach your customers something new. Get them thinking differently about their state and lead them to your solution."

This is episode 436. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. BARRY'S TIP: "I recommend using what I call a process play in email, where you communicate with the customer your understanding of the steps that they have to go through to get to issuing a contract or an order. You don't want to do that after the first call, but after you've spoken to the customer, validating those steps often gives you insight into, wait, there's an additional step or no, we can skip this step because of this size of the purchase. I really recommend putting that to use, a really crisp email, something that somebody can read right on their phone just verifying, here's the steps we're going to work through together to get this completed. MATT'S TIP: "Trust but verify what your customer's telling you. You need to ask them to make sure you understand their full process. Do they have a legal review? Do they have security review? Whether there are approvals and so on, and then hold them accountable to that. Also, stop asking times that your customer is free to schedule a call and instead, just send the meeting request. You can send your email that says whatever information you need to tell, and at the end you say, "I'm sending you a meeting request at this date and time. If it doesn't work, please suggest a new time." It cuts down on that process of going back and forth so many times, and it's been very successful for us."

This is episode 435. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. KRISTI'S TIP: "Learn how to tap into your inner voice or your intuition and taking time every week to be quiet and be still, and self-reflect. There's always a lot of things floating around in our head. Sometimes we're just on a go, go, go habit trail of motion. Being still, unplugging, being quiet, and really focusing on what you want to work through mentally, and having that quiet time is important." MEGHAN'S TIP: "Make sure that you are letting your boss, or your leadership know of your career interests. If you're really good at your role and you're really self-sufficient, they're probably not paying attention to you. They're focused on their problem children. You want to make sure you're staying on their radar, letting them know what you're doing, what you're interested in, so that when opportunities come forward, they think of you."

This is episode 434. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. BOB'S TIP: "Here are three radically authentic discovery questions to ask. (1) What do you think is the biggest priority or challenge your board is discussing? (2) Who is your customer and what's the biggest challenge they need you to solve? (3) Out of your entire job description, what's the one thing your company is counting on you to get done?"

This is episode 433. Join the exclusive Institute for Excellence in Sales. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website JEFFREY'S TIP: "The journey continues. I think for new sellers, we were talking about people who've joined the Institute for Excellence in Sales, people think that they can do something and then be there, they can have arrived and be successful, be a senior salesperson or a sales leader. The journey always continues as things change, what has been made very available to everybody is that embracing change, adapting to change and actually changing to get better is a big part of being a successful salesperson. Stay on a journey for making yourself more valuable to both your organization and your customers' organization, and you'll be well served." BILLY'S TIP: "Figure out the top 10 challenges that each one of your prospects have and how you can provide value. I don't think sales reps do this enough, they sell the product and/or service. Figure out the top 10. For me, the top 10 IT transformational projects at each agency level, that's what I want my AEs focused on and how we can provide value."

This is episode 432. Join the exclusive Institute for Excellence in Sales. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. KATHIE'S TIP: "Have a consistent morning routine. That's where you're connecting with yourself, body, mind and spirit before you let the outside world in. You're putting yourself in the driver's seat before the day takes off. You can walk in with clarity, you can walk in with confidence and then you're able to respond versus react. Then you're going to be able to be present instead of just going adrift through the day. The other thing is centering. The central question that you may want to ask yourself periodically when you're in decision making situations is, what choice can I make or action can I take in this moment to create the greatest net value?"

This is episode 431. Join the exclusive Institute for Excellence in Sales. Read the complete transcription on The Sales Game Changers Podcast website. MICHELLE'S TIP: "Choose an organization, an association that you can reach out to that is not similar to one that you have reached out to before. Whether it's a category of businesses that you've done business with or it's a group of people that you want to get more involved with, choose one and go online. It's not going to take you long. Choose one and then develop your relationships. It starts with one step at a time. One action is go find a different organization, and then start a conversation with someone that you typically wouldn't have had a conversation with before today."

This is episode 430. Join the exclusive Institute for Excellence in Sales. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. This episode is sponsored by Cox. Learn more about their For The Love of Sales Program here! Cox is a great place to start or continue your sales career. ALEASHA'S TIP: "Introverts are often failing at sales because they're trying to pretend they're an extrovert. They feel like they have to put on this weird suit or hat like we were talking about and act like somebody else. Introverts have amazing intuition and give yourself permission to just play up your strengths. You don't have to have a million hours of small talk if you don't like it. Don't force yourself to do it. The other person's going to feel weird too, because they can tell your heart's not in it. Just really being able to lean into your own strengths and obviously, the ideal is the blend of both. If extroverts can learn something from introverts' qualities, that would definitely make them a better salesperson."

This is episode 429. Join the Institute for Excellence in Sales. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. MATT'S TIP FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Be fearless. Don't worry about failing, there's beauty in learning and knowledge, and you will be better at what you do if you go through that. The biggest thing is be the number one resource and asset for your client. You're there to help them, you're an asset and a resource. Be their number one. When they need to call somebody, pick up the phone, send an email, send a text, make sure it's to you. PAUL'S TIP FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "I have a saying, you have two ears and one mouth, listen twice as much as you talk. Don't sell anything, ask big, broad, open-ended questions so that your prospect can give you the answers to the test. Don't ask questions that are yes or no or even directive, let them go limitless. Ask them, if you had a magic wand, what would you celebrate at the end of this year? And you're going to be able to back into a great client needs analysis. If I can leave that with everybody, don't try to respond to or even have anything preset into what you're talking to a client about. Respond to what their needs are, listen twice as much as you talk.

This is episode 428. Join the exclusive Institute for Excellence in Sales. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. Sales professionals struggle with converting leads to business, or at least getting them to move down the sales funnel. A lot of people get stuck somewhere in that sales funnel and a lot of people give up quickly because they feel like they've hit a wall. Take a step back, think about all the resources that you have at your disposal. Take a look at the top five targets on your target list, take a look at how many touch points you've already made with each and what you've done. Really take a good look and ask yourself, have I leveraged every resource possible to move them along the sale cycle and move them down the funnel? If you can't answer that with 100% confidence, my advice would be that if you're relying too heavily on the software that your company is using and the data and you really didn't push yourself in a certain direction where you were humanizing that process. Dig a little deeper and not just take your results for face value. If that means reaching out and clarifying a little bit more, because your buyer's journey, they're all unique. Who influenced them, how have they heard about the different brands that are out there? What kind of research have they done? Then a question that I heard a while ago which I love so much and it applies to anybody in sales, any industry, is tell me about the day that you decided that you had an issue or a problem that you needed to solve."

This is episode 427. Join the exclusive Institute for Excellence in Sales. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. JONATHAN'S TIP FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "All the economists that I speak to and everybody that I listen to that is a so-called financial expert are predicting a boom for the next two, three, four, maybe even five years. Beginning, they suggest, at the end of Q3 this year. If we're going to take advantage of all of this, we've got to be prepared. First of all, we've got to conduct an audit of ourselves, we've got to understand what we need to do to improve because the day we stop improving and the day we stop learning, we might as well pack up and go home, frankly. The next thing we have to do is to understand the people that report to us, and we do have a duty of care to them. We've got to make sure that they fully armed not just to win the occasional skirmish, but to win the war. Then third and probably the most important, think about customers. Get as close as you can to customers. Work across the line, work up, work down, understand their entire commercial objectives, understand their concerns, their fears and just get closer to them because they want you to. Stop selling, start understanding."

This is episode 426. Join the exclusive Institute for Excellence in Sales. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. DAN'S TIP FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "If you've got an iPhone, you've got Reminders. If you've got Google, you've got Google Tasks. Here's my challenge. Go open up your tasks, create a reminder and in just one line, in a sentence, type in "what do you want?" When you set the date, make that reoccurring daily. Set a time that works for you, I like to pick a number that's quirky and weird. Take a number, say reoccurring daily every day at that time that'll pop up an alert on your phone to say, "What do you want?" Often, that little reminder is enough to say, "You know what? I'm doing great" or, "I should go in a different direction." It's something that can make an immediate impact in your life and will. You can do it right now."

This is episode 425. Join the exclusive Institute for Excellence in Sales. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. RITA'S TIP: "Being able to share what you're actually doing to promote women within your company is an important step. That's one thing that I would recommend for companies that are trying to be more open about that. One thing that I've promoted even in our own company is diversity. There's a lot of women in leadership that are white, expanding that to include women of color and really showing people that you're doing these things and it's not just talk. I think that's really key." RACHEL'S TIP: "Just start talking to people. Ask them one on one, what should I do? If you do that they're much more likely to reach out a hand to you and help you along. If you're in a company and you want to move up or you want to move in a different direction, just let your manager know or let the manager of that department know. Say, "This is what I want to do. Here's where I am now. What do I need to do to get where I want to go and can you help me? That makes the difference."

This is episode 424. Join the exclusive Institute for Excellence in Sales. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. MICHAEL'S TIP FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "We talked about the benefits of coaching, that it's an opportunity, it's a game-changer for many of us. If you can, I would suggest get a coach. Go to your organization, potentially, and find out if there are options to be coached and they're receptive. It could even be a game-changer for the organization. Again, I know it's pretty obvious, but getting a coach is an opportunity to develop yourself and become a better person and a better employee. The only other thing I'll repeat is learn to collaborate in your organization, don't forget about selling. It's bringing the organization to bear on a client and I know for myself, if I did not collaborate with people and bring them into the selling process, I would get nowhere."