The Exceptional Sales Leader Podcast

One thing I have learned over my life is the amount of negotiating we do – whether it be negotiating multi million dollar deals in our business, to buying a car or a tv, even negotiating with our partner and children. We are always negotiating. Some of us do this really well, and many of us don’t. In today’s podcast, I share 5 different negotiation styles we must be aware of, as well as a 5 step process to make negotiations easier, and hopefully, more productive.

The vast majority of sustainably successful businesses did not begin their journey with success. There was much hard work, experimentation, challenges and obstacles, not to mention growth pains, and often the founder or CEO of the business poured their blood, sweat and tears into the business, determined to make it a successful venture. And often, despite the best intentions of the CEO or the founder, the business stagnates and does not realise its fullest potential. In today’s episode, I had the pleasure of having a conversation with Madelyn Dunlap, Director of Business Development at The ReWild Group, an organisation that specialises in helping businesses capitalise on their strengths and preparing them for their next stage of growth, creating the platform for sustainable success. To connect with Madelyn & to learn more about rewilding, please go to: LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/madelyn-dunlap/ Website – https://www.rewildgroup.com/

Working in sales for over 20 years, I was staggered at the number of sales managers and teams that would frown upon failure – to the point where sales people would do whatever they could to avoid making mistakes. And in working as a coach & mentor to sales leaders and their teams for the last 7 years, unfortunately nothing much has changed. The pressure to hit the number is all consuming and within the sales environment, the expectation is to convert every opportunity because the forensic investigation if we ‘fail’ is more about apportioning blame, not learning so as to improve. Not a recipe for exceptional performance. Failure is a necessary ingredient to sales success.

If you have been listening to the podcast for a while, you know that I love facilitation – I love helping leaders and their teams unleash their potential. And often when I am facilitating, I am asked the question around preparation, and how much preparation I do. It is an interesting question, and not just limited to facilitation. As a leader, how much preparation do you do for sales meetings, for customer meetings, for negotiations and for 1:1’s. In today’s episode, I explore preparation and how great preparation can create flexibility, and hence confidence.

As John Maxwell says, ‘Leadership is influence, and influence is leadership’. And specifically as sales leaders, we must continue to positively influence our team, to drive exceptional standards, so as to drive sustainable, predictable and replicable results. This influence presupposes that our team trusts us. Does your team trust you? And if the answer is an unequivocal ‘yes’, the follow up question is ‘how do you know?’ Many leaders fall into the trap of leading their team from a positional perspective, rather than earning the right to lead their team and in the process, build trust. We must always remember our people are constantly asking the following questions – Does my leader care about me as a person? Genuinely care. Can my leader help me? Can my leader be trusted? Exceptional leaders understand that their actions are constantly providing answers to those questions, and hence they are intentional with creating an environment where they can be trusted.

Over the last 3 days, I had the privilege of working with a group of phenomenal people who are committed to their professional development, running a 3 day Train The Trainer program. I always love running these programs, especially when the people in the program are so passionate about their craft – we get to jump down rabbit holes and really explore concepts of training and facilitation that many of them never get to experience. And it made me really sit back and reflect, and reinforce this message – that it is so important to never ever underestimate the impact we can have on others.

What legacy are you creating? It is a question that very few people tend to ask themselves, especially when they are caught up in the busyness of ‘doing’. Late last week our family bid farewell to an incredible man – my Uncle Alan. A man who very much lived the words of Abraham Lincoln – ‘In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years’. He passed away at the age of 92 – which by most people’s standards is an incredible innings and yet as we reflected on his life, he seemed to pack significantly more into his than most. He created a phenomenal legacy.

Working full time in professional development and leadership over the last 7 years, I have had the privilege of working with a massive variety of teams and their leaders, across multiple industries and countries. What has always intrigued me is what inspires leaders and their teams to become exceptional. You notice I didn’t say ‘motivates’. Last week was another example – working with some highly engaged, enthusiastic leaders and the topic of motivation came up – as it often does. What was intriguing was the number of leaders who believed a key responsibility they had was to motivate their team. It was well over 50%. For those who felt they had to ‘motivate’ their team to perform I asked them how their stamina was and specifically how the performance of the team was tracking. The answer – both not great. So I asked them a very important question – ‘What inspires you?’ That’s the topic of today’s episode.

As sales leaders, we intrinsically understand the importance of recognising the different personal and behavioural styles of our team, so that we can unleash their potential and drive sustainable results. What has not been as obvious or front of mind is what our own sales leadership style is, where our strengths lie, where risks may exist and where we could develop so that our potential as sales leaders can be unleashed – until now. My friend and colleague, James Cuming, Director at JC Wight & Co, has developed the Prime Sales Leadership Report, a scientific approach to better understanding our sales leadership style from 3 different angles, left brain, right brain and balanced. In today’s episode we discuss the framework and why it is vital for us as sales leaders to understand our strength zones. To connect with James and to learn more about Prime Sales Leadership Development, go to: Website – https://www.jcwightandcompany.com/ LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-cuming-b73a5720/

For years and years, the sales profession has been labelled as a profession suited to extroverts, with the ‘typical’ salesperson being one who has the ability to prospect and knock on doors without the fear of rejection, to be energetic and boisterous, capable of talking to any prospect & any customer, and closing deals. Not many look at sales and introversion and believe those 2 words are a match made in heaven. However, many of the most successful salespeople on the planet are introverted, and in today’s episode, I sit down with Ben Lai, a sales trainer and coach, and self confessed introvert. It is a wonderful conversation where we delve into introversion, ethical selling, pricing & positioning in the marketplace and the power of LinkedIn as part of a successful sales approach. I hope you enjoy listening to the conversation as much as I enjoyed having it. To connect with Ben, please go to: Website – https://salesethos.com.au/ LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-lai/

A fascinating conversation on today’s episode where I had the privilege of speaking with Rene Zamora. Rene is the Founder and Director of Sales Manager Now, a Fractional Sales Management organisation that works with small to medium businesses, and provides part time sales management services. Many smaller businesses struggle with growing their business through dedicated sales people, and possibly do not have the capacity or resources to hire a full time Sales Manager. Providing fractional sales management services enables the business to leverage off the capabilities and experience of a quality Sales Manager, without the significant financial outlay. This is something Rene has been providing for the last 16 years, and we discuss the benefits as well as some of the misconceptions of sales management. To connect with Rene and grab a copy of his book, go to: Website – https://salesmanagernow.com/ LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/renez/

In working with sales leaders and their teams for many years now, I’m staggered at the number of individuals, whether it be sales people, or in some cases, sales leaders, who search for the easy road – the shortcut. Many of them expect instant results and will often only apply ‘token efforts’ to achieve results. And when the ideal results are not forthcoming, they will look to external forces to justify the outcome. No matter what industry you look at, or what role within that industry, both ‘success’ and ‘failure’ leaves clues. And it is the astute individual who will be a student, who will observe and ask curious based questions, who will search for and analyse those clues, and who will tap into the one force which separates exceptional performers from everyone else – excellence.

As a leader, are you playing to your strengths? Can you identify your strengths? If we asked your team to identify your strengths, how would they go? Just finished facilitating a workshop with a great group of leaders, where we explored strengths and how important it is for us as leaders to identify our signature strengths, and then operate according to them. When we do this, the team becomes more functional, genuine results start to flow, and we become happier, and more fulfilled.

You may be thinking what a weird title for a podcast? 🙃 And you may be correct, however, in sales, so many sales leaders and their teams are trying their very hardest to boil the ocean. Putting pressure on themselves to land the big strategic deal. The iconic new logo. The multi million deal. The deal that will change the entire trajectory of their business. And often, salespeople look for opportunities to be involved in these big deals, to be part of the team that wins that major new logo. All the while, there are opportunities left right and centre that are not only going unnoticed, they are not being converted. Why? Because too many are trying to boil the ocean. Big deals will always be there, and whilst they are exciting to be part of, sometimes we need to focus on boiling the kettle first.

As leaders, we can often place ourselves under immense pressure to get things right, and when that doesn’t happen, we can react in highly emotional ways, sometimes losing it! I used to be the poster child for this strategy, reacting to situations in a highly emotional and highly dysfunctional manner, until I realised, thanks to some great mentors, that this approach was not helpful. We must realise that stuff is going to happen, and often this stuff will be beyond our control. We must learn to put things into perspective and begin to focus on the things we do have control over.

Often when we hear the words ‘sales’ & ‘love’, there can be a mix of emotions and a great variety of reactions. Why? Because when you ask the vast majority of people what their perception is about sales, the word ‘love’ very rarely, if ever, comes up. However, when we analyse some of the world’s most successful influencers and salespeople, ‘love’ is very much front and centre in everything they do. On today’s episode, I enjoyed an amazing conversation with Jason Marc Campbell, a fellow podcaster, and author of the book ” Selling With Love – Earn With Integrity & Expand Your Impact”. We explore some of the misconceptions of sales, why sales is such a phenomenal career, and explore the 5 step formula to selling with love. Jason is also offering access to his 5 day challenge, which normally requires a $500 investment, for free, when you mention the podcast when connecting with him on LinkedIn. To connect with Jason, go to https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmarccampbell/

In today’s episode, I had the privilege of speaking with John Foong, a phenomenal sales leader, who is making a big impact. John has worked for some of the world’s biggest organisations, including McKinsey, Google, Uber, and now is the Chief Revenue Officer at Domain Group, Australia’s leading property marketplace. John considers himself an accidental sales leader, but has also discovered that his unconventional pathway to sales leadership has also become one of his key differentiators. We discuss how sales leadership is a prelude to corporate leadership, how sales touches every part of a business, the critical importance of building trusted advisor status, as well as 4 keys to building a robust & high performing sales environment. I trust you enjoy listening to the conversation as much as I enjoyed having the conversation. To connect with John, please go to https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnfoong/

One of the greatest joys I have in what I do is facilitation – working with teams and helping them to think through challenges and problems to arrive at an outcome which will propel them forward. In playing the role of the facilitator, there are a number of skills and attributes to consider, as well as what role that ideally needs to be played. For many, this is not easy, however, if we are able to master these, and become the peaceful warrior, amazing things can happen.

One of the greatest things about sales and sales leadership is that there is no specific required background that guarantees success. I’ve seen very technical people become great sales people. I’ve seen very non technical people become great sales people. Extroverted, introverted, young, old, male, female. It doesn’t matter – I’ve seen people from all walks of life, with all kinds of different backgrounds, become successful in sales, and many have gone on to be successful sales leaders. However there is one common element amongst all of them that can often strike, sometimes at the height of their ‘success’, and often when they least expect it – Imposter Syndrome. Remember – you are an original, you are not an imposter

I love sales and I often say it is the ultimate form of service. Being able to identify a problem that someone has, or an organisation has, and then provide a solution to that problem, is extremely rewarding. I also believe that every single person on the planet is in sales, irrespective of whether you are selling a product, a service, a concept or an idea. The challenge though for the vast majority of people, is dealing with the inevitable rejection that comes as part of the ‘sales’ game. As such, many do not ask the question. We must understand this – no one is interested unless you ask.

I had no intention of continuing a football theme today, however, events of the last 24 hours have changed that. On the back of Geelong winning the 2022 AFL Premiership, their longest serving Captain, Joel Selwood, announced his retirement. What a phenomenal leader & what a phenomenal career. And what an incredible example of a servant leader. I chat about what made Joel such an exceptional servant leader and how we can learn from it.

It has been a few days since the 2022 AFL Grand Final and I have been reflecting on the game and some of the lessons to come out of it. What promised to be an epic Grand Final turned out to be a fizzer, unless of course, you are a Geelong supporter. They were ruthless and uncompromising and their victory was emphatic. As comprehensive as the victory was, what impressed me even more was the humility shown by the players and coaches, as well as the humility and class shown by the Sydney Swans in defeat. That is what I discuss in today’s episode.

If you asked most people what their greatest fear is, odds on many of them would select presenting or public speaking – in fact, there are people out there who say they would rather die than speak in front of a group. This is sad, because presenting, pitching and public speaking can be so rewarding and exhilarating. Yesterday I had the privilege of working with a group of people on their presentation skills and through the process, each of them discovered that confidence can be found in unexpected places.

When it comes to the sales profession, it is quite unusual for someone to utilise the word sales and ethics in the same sentence. Despite sales being one of the oldest & most lucrative professions on the planet, if we conducted a straw poll on how people thought of sales and salespeople, it would not be uncommon for the majority of people to have a negative connotation towards sales, which sometimes is based on personal experience, but more often, based on heresy and opinion. We need to change this. In today’s episode, I had the privilege of speaking with Alex Schlinsky, Founder of Prospecting On Demand and known as The Iron Man of Marketing. Alex’s story is fascinating, and he is on a mission to put ethics back into selling. So much gold shared on today’s episode – hope you enjoy it. To connect with Alex, go to: Website – https://prospectingondemand.com/ LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexschlinsky/

On September 24, the 2022 AFL Grand Final is being played between Geelong and Sydney, 2 teams which are primed at the right end of the season. It promises to be a cracking game, and it is no accident that the 2 best teams of 2022 have made it through to the final game of the year. Huge credit must go to the respective coaches for preparing their players and for implementing a game plan that works. There is much that we as Sales Leaders can learn, and that is what I cover in today’s episode.

Human beings are very complex creatures and can also be quite unpredictable. Some humans even seek to be even more complex and attempt to use big words and complex sentences to ‘impress others’. One of the great habits of highly effective communicators is their ability to turn the complex into simple to understand language and concepts. As a leader, are you aware of your language? The language to self, and the language to others?

Today marks a very proud milestone – the 500th episode of The Exceptional Sales Leader Podcast. It seems a long way from episode #1 in April 2020, and if I was brutally honest, I had no ambitions of getting much further than 100 episodes. In fact, I thought that if I could convert around 85 articles I had written into podcasts I would be doing extremely well. And yet, here we are at episode 500. This is a story of belief, patience and persistence, and today, I am feeling overwhelmingly grateful to have the podcast downloaded in over 70 countries.

If there is one thing that has come out of the last 24 months, it is that the world feels a lot smaller. The sheer volume of news and information being front of mind globally has been almost unlike any other time in history. And with this has come a much sharper focus on leadership. To say that there is a huge void in quality leadership around the world right now would be a massive understatement. For young people with ambitions of leading others in the future, unfortunately they do not have great examples of leaders to emulate. The role models do not model great leadership behaviours. Even more concerning, there is a fear that these young people observe the current leaders and believe that is leadership. It’s not. We need to change the narrative. We need leaders to step up and provide a different and better example of what real leadership is. And it starts with me and it starts with you.

In sales, as in life, a part of being successful is learning to deal with tough situations and difficult customers – it is unavoidable. There are numerous reasons as to why customers may be difficult and if we can understand what they are actually looking for, and what may drive them to be difficult, it can make it a little easier to manage. In today’s episode, I cover 2 key strategies to better manage tough customers, so that we can deliver win-win outcomes.

Being a student of human behaviour, I’m continually fascinated in how people respond and behave in various situations and where they focus their attention. Many people, including leaders, almost go through the day (and life!) in a state of unconsciousness, doing the same thing over and over again, and never questioning what they are doing. It is conditioning. As a leader, we must be more conscious of what we are focused on, because it will determine what our team is focused on.

In 2022, more than ever, there is a relentless focus from business leaders on delivering exceptional results, and as a consequence, many sales leaders and their teams can become quite overwhelmed with all of the expectations, the kpi’s, the priorities, the pressure. Having to effectively deal with multiple stakeholders with multiple agendas can be very challenging, and without a specific approach to this, things can very quickly spiral out of control. In today’s episode, I cover 5 tips that can help a sales leader supercharge their own productivity, as well as their team’s.

Leaders the world over continue to search for the difference that can make all the difference to their team’s performance. Developing a new strategy, implementing innovative tactics, driving disruption. Anything that they believe will move the dial and drive results. Their teams certainly possess talent, and they definitely develop strategies to unleash that talent. However, when analysing these high performing teams and high performing individuals across any industry, and whether in sport or business, there is a simple approach that is employed that makes all the difference. The power of 1 more. Such a simple yet powerful strategy. That’s what I discuss in today’s episode.

In this episode, just wanted to share some thoughts on perspective – I, like many, woke up to the news that Queen Elizabeth II passed away at the age of 96. As leaders, and as humans, we can often get caught up in the drama and issues of day to day business, and unfortunately lose some perspective. The challenge from today’s episode is to reflect on the week, what has worked well and not so well, consider the obstacles and the problems, and put them into perspective, because often when we do this, the challenges and problems are not as big as we thought.

It may sound like a cliché, but culture will eat strategy for breakfast every single day. There is no magic strategy which on its own will deliver exceptional results, despite where many leaders focus their time. These leaders become obsessed with sales strategy, company strategy, and invest the majority of their attention on driving the numbers and the metrics, without becoming equally obsessed with the culture of the team and of the organisation. They may well have the best strategy ever invented, but it will be doomed to deliver the exceptional outcomes they are hoping for if they do not become obsessed with developing an exceptional culture. Culture becomes a multiplier of strategy.

Mindset is incredibly important in sales and especially as a sales leader. We know that challenges are inevitable, and we will have to deal with rejection, objections and sometimes failure. When this happens, our mindset can be the difference between being able to effectively handle the situation and use it as a platform to get better, or be an anchor that holds us back. In today’s episode, I talk about this in detail as well as share a little formula that will help us be more proactive and have greater control over our outcomes. It is fascinating.

Even though sales is a numbers game, many senior leaders within organisations will heap the pressure onto the sales leaders and their teams to perform extraordinary deeds to drive results. These leaders are often also the ones who cannot accept failure and constantly look for someone to blame when deals go sour. ‘Failure’ is inevitable in sales and is actually an essential ingredient to being successful. As a sales leader, it is therefore critically important as to how we approach failure. That’s the topic I discuss in today’s episode.

As a sales leader, are you satisfied with the level of effort and output from your team? Are they making every post a winner, or are there some areas for improvement?vAre they committed to making progress & delivering tangible value to their customers? One thing that many sales leaders either don’t understand or don’t accept, is that the sales team is a direct reflection of them. And this applies to every aspect – whether it be planning, tactics, strategy, behaviour or attitude. So as sales leaders, a simple question that we must ask ourselves constantly is – ‘Am I being the Model of Excellence that I want to see in my team?’ 

I often share with leaders that leadership is not easy and it is not for everyone. And it is certainly not a popularity contest, and yet many leaders attempt to be popular with their team. We all have an innate need to be liked and to belong to something and this can sometimes hamper our ability to effectively lead, because the pull of the tribe can be overwhelming. With leadership comes great responsibility and when I’m working with leaders 1:1, I make sure we hone in on a number of key areas that will enable the leader to develop strong leadership credentials, and not focus on building popularity. This is what I cover in today’s episode.

When it comes to hiring sales people, many organisations take a very logical and measured approach to identifying ideal candidates – does the sales person have a track record of high performance, have they constantly met or exceeded targets, have they remained with previous organisations for a consistent period of time, or have they swapped roles on a regular basis? Do they possess a demonstrated level of technical knowledge & expertise that will allow them to integrate quickly into the organisation? All tangible and relevant areas of focus. When organisations are specifically looking for high performing ‘hunter’ salespeople, there are specific non teachable characteristics which can be identified, that will significantly improve the probability of the sales person being a successful hire. In today’s episode, I am very fortunate to have a conversation with Dr.Christopher Croner, Principal of SalesDrive LLC and creator of The DriveTest® to unpack the 3 essential non teachable traits that successful salespeople possess. To request access to a complimentary DriveTest® assessment, please go to https://salesdrive.info/ To connect with Chris on LinkedIn, please go to https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophercroner/

In sales, as in every walk of life, success leaves clues, as does failure! Many sales leaders are often looking for the secret sauce to propel them to super success, thinking it is some sort of special potion – it very rarely is. Sustainable success is built off strong fundamentals and whilst these fundamentals are not rocket science, if consistency is built around the habits, amazing things can happen. In today’s episode, I suggest 10 habits that can help sales leaders become exceptional.

How connected are you? An interesting question to ask as a sales leader, especially in terms of the connection you have with your sales team as well as key customers and partners. Unfortunately many sales leaders begin to lose connection when they are promoted to the role, as their focus is often on the internal mechanisms of the business, and the expectations placed upon them by senior executives. In this episode I discuss the importance of being connected, especially as it will help create an environment of high performance.

As a sales leader, how predictable are the sales opportunities flowing through your team? Are they highly qualified? Are you laser focused on specific customers and specific opportunities, or throwing mud against the wall hoping it sticks? Are you converting a high percentage of the opportunities? Are the closed opportunities highly profitable? In working with sales leaders, what I find fascinating is how unplanned and unprepared the vast majority are when it comes to sales opportunities. Instead of focusing on a specific problem and developing a strategic solution to that problem, they are heavily influenced by their product or service, and seek to retrofit the product into every opportunity. There is a better way.

In working with sales leaders and their teams, what is intriguing is that many of them do not have a consistent methodology when it comes to sales, and in some cases, no methodology. This often results in them not being able to identify, qualify and then convert significant business opportunities, which has a direct impact on their sales numbers, not to mention the bottom line profitability of their business. There is a better way. As a mentor with Sales Director Central, we work with sales leaders to help them implement a consistent and proven framework that not only significantly increases the competence of the sales team throughout the sales process, it also significantly increases conversions and bottom line revenue. In today’s episode, I provide a high level overview of that framework.

Who are you? On the surface, it may seem like a really obvious and somewhat simple question, and as a leader we can often fall into the trap of responding with our title, where we work etc. Just look at the vast majority of LinkedIn profiles which show the role title in the headline of the profile. As a leader, I want to challenge you to go deeper and really reflect on this question, who are you? That’s what I explore in today’s episode.

As a sales leader overseeing a high performing team – hopefully, an exceptional team, we must continue to develop them. Provide training, mentoring and coaching. Unfortunately though, many sales leaders don’t make this a priority, and instead prioritise measuring performance, and focusing on the numbers. The result is often a plateau in performance. One of the key reasons for this is that the sales leader is not investing in themselves, and not seeking mentoring, coaching and development from others. The question for today’s episode is this – Who’s coaching you? This is a critical question.

Last week I posted about the importance of development and as a leader, becoming a development champion. Over the last few days, I have had the opportunity to reflect on the importance of this development as we celebrated the 2022 season with our female football presentations. What has become very clear is that whilst the success achieved by 2 of our female teams this season has been underpinned by the development of each of the girls, there is another key ingredient – character. And this equally applies to building high performing teams in business.

More and more companies today are tapping into the power of Influencer Marketing to spread the gospel of their products and services, leveraging off the credibility of celebrities, business people, sports people and the like. It is a very effective way to build market credibility and scale, especially in the consumer space. What is less common, yet is just as effective, is B2B Influence Marketing, where organisations can tap into the credibility of industry influencers and leverage this credibility to add value and drive sales. In today’s episode I had a fascinating conversation with Yash Chavan, founder of Saral-Influencer Relationship Management, on supercharging sales through influence marketing.

As leaders, at some point we will need to conduct a challenging or difficult conversation, even though we may want to avoid it, or we do not feel like having it. A core responsibility of a leader is to lean into that conversation, whether it be with a direct report, a peer, a manager, customer, external stakeholder, or even senior executive. Whilst we may never learn to enjoy it, we can develop competence and confidence by following some key principles and a simple framework.

As a sales leader, how important is critical thinking to your team’s success? It is an obvious question and yet many sales leaders do not create the discipline or even know how to become a critical thinker. In today’s episode I uncover some of the key characteristics of a critical thinker, share the 5 different thinking styles we can adopt to help us think more critically, as well as share a simple yet effective process for critical thinking.

If you have been following me for a while, you know that I am an avid fan of John Maxwell and his work. I especially love his core philosophy of ‘adding value to leaders who multiply value to others’ – this is all about servant leadership and underpins how I work with leaders. One of the key responsibilities that we have as leaders is identifying and then developing other leaders, and in today’s episode, I unpack the 3 E’s of developing Sales Leaders.