The Sales Evangelist

What You Believe Is What You Will Achieve It’s imperative for salespeople to maintain a positive outlook to make it through this season of unforeseen circumstances. Perception and belief is going to play a big part in how we navigate the unknown so believe that success is still achievable. Donald believes it’s possible and shares his thoughts about how to make it happen and what could potentially hold us back. In this episode Donald will be discussing limiting beliefs. These beliefs, ideas, and philosophies can come from many influences including a boss, team members, family, and many others. Sometimes, because we’re listening to all these outside influences, we fail to see that everything we hear here doesn’t always reflect the truth. Your actions may reflect what you’ve been told but they don’t always lead to success. We have to be careful of following so blindly that we are no longer true to ourselves. Let’s go back to the beginning Donald started out his sales career in business development, selling software with zero knowledge about how to sell to corporations. He didn’t know what you weren’t supposed to do. Despite the lack of experience, however, Donald still saw success but there was still so much he needed to learn. Donald’s performance started to decline when he got wrapped up in all the training and advice people were trying to offer him. He was told when to call and when not to call, how he should conduct his business, and on and on. He did what he was told but eventually stopped doing the activity as it rang true for him. Stand for your beliefs Donald shares the story of a gentleman named Cliff Young, a 61 year old Australian farmer. Mr Young accomplished an amazing feat which was winning a 544 mile race. He wasn’t an experienced runner but heard about the marathon and decided he wanted to participate. Leading up to the race, Mr. Young didn't eat the proper diet, he didn't have the proper training, and he didn’t have the right clothing or shoes. Cliff Young just showed up at the marathon looking like the farmer he was and was ready to race. When people asked Mr. Young why he was racing, he told them he’d always wanted to run a race but there had never been a perfect time. That year, at 61 years old, he was finally ready to go. Cliff Young didn’t know that in ultramarathons runners would typically run for 18 hours and then sleep for six hours. When Cliff Young started to run, it was called the Cliff Young shuffle because he literally just shuffled as he ran. While others were taking their breaks, Cliff Young kept on running. He ran for five and a half days straight and won the race. At 61 years of age, he wasn’t tainted by the beliefs and ideas of the “experts.” He did what he thought was the proper way of doing things and took action. This strong mentality helped him win. Roger Bannister showed the same spirit. He didn’t listen to the leading medical experts of his time who said he wouldn’t be able to break the four-minute mile. They all thought that if you ran for four minutes straight, the heart would explode. Roger proved them wrong. Don’t get wrapped up in others’ beliefs We have to be careful that in listening to others, we’re taking on their own limiting beliefs. As a salesperson, it is your job to sift through all the opinions and only take action based on what works for you. Donald’s coach told him he’d get a lot of advice from all the people he would encounter. This group would even include people he loved, respected, and cared about. Despite these relationships, however, the advice offered needed to be treated the same way you’d shop for food at a grocery store. Examine each one and see if it’s something you’re going to put in your own cart. If not, it’s okay to put it back on the shelf. When someone offers advice it’s okay to take the time to see if it’s something that resonates with who you are. If so, use it and apply it. If not, no further action needs to be taken. Do what’s right for you. Do better in sales Oprah Winfrey said, “You don’t become what you want, you get what you believe.” Belief is an important concept. Let’s consider two definitions. First: Belief is an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists. Second: Belief is trust, faith, or confidence in someone or something. Without belief, trust, and confidence in yourself, you can easily be swayed by others. If your belief system determines your success and sales, you need to make absolutely sure that what you are absorbing into your belief system is worthy of your goals. If you see yourself as a sales rep who is never going to hit 100% it is more likely you will consistently fall short. You won’t push yourself for more because you have already limited yourself. On the other hand, if you believe you can do more to increase your commission, you give yourself a better chance of hitting those goals. If you want your actions to be more in line with your goals, consider waking up earlier, reading more books,

Salespeople Have a Love/Hate Relationship With CRMs Almost everyone is using CRM in their businesses for its efficiency in data collection. But truth be told, many salespeople have a love and hate relationship with CRM. CRMs are a great way to hold data but it doesn’t offer solutions on how to utilize this data in a way that reflects real time engagement with customers. Kevin Knieriem is the Chief Revenue Officer at Clari, a revenue platform for companies in Toronto. He’s been with the company for 15 months and he’s had a background in enterprise software for over 25 years. He started his software sales career with Siebel System, the first enterprise CRM and from there, Kevin spent 11 years at SAP and due to an acquisition, also spent time with Oracle. What is a CRM? CRMs are a place for account, contact, and opportunity information to be stored. These are major components to track sales so it has been the primary revenue solution for companies for the last 25 years. Keeping your CRM up to date is important so the organization understands the health of its revenue. Starting with Siebel Systems, Kevin hasn’t seen much change in CRMs. It still has the same basic model for accounting opportunities. It’s a place where sales reps can post information but it doesn’t provide any feedback about how to utilize the data. It takes a lot of maintenance to update a CRM but we use it anyway. Unlike SaaS or subscription, CRM doesn’t allow you to track the continuous journey of the customers. The limitations of CRM Adobe is a company that runs on subscription.Let’s say for example that an Adobe seller is selling a marketing automation solution, Marketo Acquisition. A client who buys the service and wishes to expand will have to get another subscription over time. Even though the data is present, the activity that is involved over the time of a subscription doesn’t get tracked by the CRM. The challenge for reps and the sales leader using the CRM tool is that it doesn’t give you the real-time feedback that is needed to run the business as efficiently or effectively as they could. It turns into a circular problem because the data give no feedback to the sales rep about how to move forward, but when the manager is approached for coaching, they are still looking at the same data with no additional insight. Layers of managers get involved in analyzing the data and by the time a solution is created, the data is from the past and no longer applies. It doesn’t take into account the customer’s journey and sales cycle. You can’t really make good decisions using data that may no longer be relevant. Sales reps are Franchisees Kevin suggests that sellers be looked at as individual franchisees. This positions each sales rep to utilize the resources of their company to best execute the business. Nothing happens unless you make it happen. I think companies need to help arm their sales and revenue organizations with solutions that help them in this modern time of transparency. #SalesHelp Using Clari Clari is a revenue platform. Sales reps need to spend the majority of their time selling and not just inputting data. This is how Clari can help. There are tools now that allow auto-capturing the context of CRM data and combining that context with the database. This means activity around the data can be analyzed and as a result, better decisions and interactions can occur. When an automation process is in place, more critical questions can be answered: How engaged is the customer? Are they engaging with you or with your marketing machine? Is your top-of-funnel nurturing the sales process? Do your ABM campaigns work? The answer to these questions will give you the idea a better understanding of how healthy opportunities really are. The single most important skill for any company to have is its ability to forecast. The forecast directly impacts the operating plan of the company. The single most important function of a company is the ability to sell. Typically, the biggest expense of any company is its sales force. Because of this there has to be a consistent process surrounding sales. Kevin’s job for Clari is to remove barriers, give sales reps the clarity they need for their business, and to help sales reps be as productive as possible. The Challenges Faced by Sales Reps A big challenge sales reps face is meeting with their managers. It can feel more like an interrogation than a coaching session. It’s equally unpleasant for managers who may have a difficult time relaying the opportunities to their team. When a meeting can be used more as a training tool, the whole dynamic can change for both the sales team and the sales leader. The art of selling has changed over the years because of the available data today and the fluidity of a customer’s journey. The sales reps have to evolve as well. For example, sales reps now can make meetings via Zoom. As a result they need to show their faces, they can’t multi-task, and they can’t hide their emotions. The

How BDRS and SDR Should Use LinkedIn During COVID19! The coronavirus pandemic has taken the world by storm. Many industries have been affected, even sales. How do you keep selling at this time? One of the ways is via LinkedIn. This episode will talk about how BDRs and SDRs can use the LinkedIn platform amid Covid-19. Amanda Statton was raised in Virginia Beach and moved to Tampa about a year ago to work for BlueGrace Logistics. She started sales four years ago and she loves it. Jason Behnke is originally from Chicago and came down to Tampa to study at the University of Tampa. Right after college, he worked in sports and event sponsorship and eventually found his way to BlueGrace Logistics. Selling in time of Covid-19 The pandemic has touched every industry. Several manufacturing companies have shut down. People have been working from home for several weeks now but for sales and logistics, an opportunity has been created to transport products and to get help to those in need. While Amanda and Jason are still working the same jobs, how they approach a potential customer has changed. They are focused on building relationships, even more than ever before. These are hard times so they do what they can to reach out, see how they can help and make themselves available. BlueGrace Logistics partners with companies and learns about their supply chain. They look for ways to help them save money and drive out costs within their network. Before Covid-19, Amanda opened a conversation by saying, ‘Hey, I would love to learn more about your supply chain. I want to see if we can help you save money to drive out costs within your network and really get a better understanding of what you’re doing today.’ With Covid-19, the question has changed from wanting to know about a company’s strategies to asking how the company is doing amid the pandemic and how it has impacted their organization. With that information she can then evaluate how her company can help lessen any negative impact. The focus is now helping their current clients ride the road to recovery and offering advice to prospects within the same industry who may be dealing with the same situations. Responding to inquiries People respond to these inquiries in different ways. Some people are very open to having a conversation and understand everyone is in this together. There are others who are frustrated and wonder out loud why they’re still being asked sales questions even under these current circumstances. Prospecting today Salespeople are still prospecting, even today. Amanda and Jason still conduct meetings from phone calls, emails, and LinkedIn outreach. They stick to these basic three because this is how people are still operating. There’s still a need to work on multiple channels to target prospects. Amanda is also getting a number of responses and traffic from the links that she’s sending over email. She’s still seeing activity in clicks-to-links in emails and LinkedIn so these are the people she’ll be reaching out to in the future. People are not as receptive with the direct approach but people are still looking for authenticity. They just want the conversation at a slower pace. This means getting to know the person on a personal level. It’s important for empathy to be the driver from beginning to end and plan to follow up. Make sure you are leaving on a good note. There are various apps that you can use to keep up with the prospects including Sales Navigator but a simple , “Hey, how are you?” works equally well. If you send out a birthday card, include a personal note. Doing this can open a dialogue and will remind the prospects there is a relationship they can look forward to. Sharing content Like other small businesses, BlueGrace Logistics is also sharing content with manufacturing companies who are shipping right now. They are acting as a resource for these companies and put up collated information and content for industries. Their service helps their client evaluate their circumstances and adjust their business strategies as needed. Get into casual conversations People are staying in their homes more so prospects are more open to talking on the phone during odd hours. With most people working at home, it gives sales reps a variety of opportunities to have more casual conversations. We call this an omnichannel approach which means we can be everywhere and can talk to people at different times. Although this has always been the goal, we need to do it even more so today. Facing the objection Not everyone is receptive to a sales call these days and will react negatively to the approach no matter how it’s done. They may wonder why you’re reaching out during a pandemic. Amanda coached her team to honestly tell them the truth when this objection comes up. She reminded them to tell their client they’re interested in knowing how this pandemic has affected them so they can help ease their challenges. BlueGrace Logistics has a very long sales cycle that can take anywh

How To Identify, Recruit, And Train A Diverse Sales Team That Sells Your company’s hiring process must have key steps and criteria for hiring a sales team that will consistently maximize profit. They should be able to identify, recruit and train a diverse sales team that will push the business forward. For the last five years Amos Schwartzfarb has been the managing director at Techstars in Austin, Texas and is now running his fifth program for Techstars. In the mid 90s, prior to his job in Austin, Amos led an early-stage sales organization and just late last year, he published a book called Sell More Faster. Hiring the right people When hiring, Amos believes that many founders and CEOs often look for the characteristics they think a salesperson should have, even before they’re able to answer three important questions. He refers to them as W3: Who is your customer? This identifies the people who are actually buying your products, considering every detail. What is their title? What type of organization do they work for? What is that particular individual’s role? What are they buying from you? What are the exact products they are buying from you? Is it the product itself? The results of the service? Are they trying to create a margin of time? Why does the customer buy that from you? Why are they going to you instead of your competitor? What is it about your brand that causes your customer to choose you? The answers to these three main questions will help you define the profile of the sales people you want to hire. Your future team will have to have an understanding of these elements in order to connect with these customers. The natural salespeopleThere are some people who are born with the natural skills of connecting with prospects and closing with clients. Because it’s innate to them, they can’t articulate it to others. These natural salespeople tend to thrive in a company that looks at the W3. Once they have a clear understanding of their customer they are able to adjust as needed. Looking for the right customers This may sound easy but looking for the right customers can be hard work. What Amos tells his clients is to start with the narrowest and most specific definition of who their ideal customer is. While it’s okay to have a general idea, the more specific the better. It is this niche group that is typically going to purchase from you almost every time. When you identify the attributes of your target customer, it will also be easier for you to spot the potential customers who may still be on the peripheral. You can broaden your base by just replacing one attribute with another. Before you know, you see new potential clients. This can be a hard process but worth it if time and effort are applied. What you’re selling vs what they’re buying As a business owner and sales leader, you need to know the difference between what you sell and what someone is buying. Let’s take Google as an example. Google sells a lot of things including product, advertising, buying leads, and more. Not every customer needs every product or service. Customers purchase from Google based on the product they’re providing specifically for their needs. Amos realized there is a difference in, ‘what you do versus what do you do for me.’ Making that shift is what resonates for most people who are busy taking cold calls/warm calls. The detail is worth the attention. Why do they buy from you The reason a client buys from you may not be obvious to the buyer so you need to ask the right questions in order for them to get to the answer. You do that by giving them a way to measure the value of their purchases. For example, you may discover that they make purchases based on what saves them money. If that’s the case, engage them in a conversation about how your product or service could help them save even more money. Why does it matter to the individual buyer When you find the values that move your customer to make a purchase it’s easier to duplicate what is most important to their purchasing decisions. Treat your potential clients as people, not as transactions, and they’ll treat you the same. #SalesTips Be your company’s first salesperson In a company’s early stages, the founder/CEO should be the first sales person. Regardless of your background, whether you grew up in sales or not, the W3 should resonate with the head of the company before they start looking for other people to help grow the business. Once they’ve seen that the profile of the sales team can be duplicated, then repeatability in the hiring process can be executed. This process creates a competitive sales team. Diversity in the sales team is also a great asset. It helps bring a variety of experiences into the company and the more diverse the environment is, the more your company will be able to maximize the sales potential. Visualize your sales process Before you begin hiring, it is imperative you learn your sales process, map it out and execute well. It might have several steps b

How To Build A Sales Engine That Will Land Massive Deals – Repeatedly Every sales person wants to build a sales engine that will land them improve their business, earn massive deals, and generate future sales. In this episode, we’ll talk about how to move toward these goals. Lisa Magnuson’s whole career has been in sales, specifically in sales management and sales leadership. Sales has always been Lisa’s passion and getting into Clorox, which is used in homes and businesses around the world, is where she experienced closing big deals. The struggles in generating sales There are several struggles companies face when trying to generate sales. During a crisis, the most difficult phase of the sales cycle is prospecting which is hard enough without added pressures. During a time when everyone is already cautious you have to be careful about coming off as self-serving. Just conducting regular business can isolate potential clients. This is a concern that is applicable for both BDRs and SDRs. No one is exempted. Lisa is an expert when it comes to knowing the right strategies you can use to prepare your team to get through a crisis. There are mindsets you can incorporate in your process to make sure you hit the ground running when we get back to the new normal. Building your sales engine Regardless of who you are, we were all left feeling that elements of our lives were cut short. This pandemic has affected all of us and we are trying to figure out how to pivot and thrive amid the challenge. The best way to do that is to serve and offer a hand to someone else. The focus should be to keep the dialogue going. All the stages in the prospecting process are important. The mantra for this time is “lead with your heart, then offer a hand”. That’s how you build your sales engine. That “hand” may look like a valuable idea you got from one of your customers or clients and you’re able to pass it on to others.. You need to keep it simple and interesting for your clients. You can drop a message inviting your prospects to a virtual coffee and talk about the idea that may resonate to them and you go from there. There are also other things that you can do to land opportunities that are worth five times more than your normal contract size. Do more soft prospecting Sending an email template to people you have never met before is hard prospecting. Soft prospecting is sending out emails to the people you know and already have a personal connection with. Take the time to reach out and ask how they’re doing. Once you know the kind of help they need, you can lend a hand by sharing what is working for your other clients. Give them an opportunity to receive this information to see if it resonates with their goals. When soft prospecting, just remember: Lead with your heart Offer a hand Relate to their sales challenges Give them a possible solution Offer to engage in a way that make sense Maintain your sales engine Because of the coronavirus, many sales people are having to deal with the disappointment of cancellation and postponement. We may not be landing the deals we thought we would but this doesn’t mean we should stop the push to find new opportunities. Lisa’s new book, The TOP Sales Leader Playbook: How to Win 5X Deals Repeatedly, talks about sixteen plays to build those 5X deals, many of which can be done right now. Scoring your opportunities You can continue scoring your opportunities without any customer interaction. Decide on the characteristics of your big deals and score them. Gather your account team together and work on a strategy. This is the time to do research. If you want the big deals, there is a need to do more than the usual. Part of the strategy for growth is relationship mapping. Know the key decision makers and players who will be involved in the deal and make soft connections with them. Use LinkedIn and other social media to find the common connections. You can set yourself up for the big deals right now by investing your time in making those connections and building your network. The 4 parts to Lisa’s book include: The sales leader Methodology Execution Culture Sales leader Lisa’s book is primarily for sales leaders and account quarterbacks. Sales leaders take the lead in looking out for the big deals. Big deals can be messy and they don’t follow your normal sales process. A leader and quarterback knows how and when to move forwards and backwards as needed. The sales team needs direction. The sales leader’s role is to tie all the information together to ensure that the message and goal is clear for everyone. Develop your methodology Sales people may have a distaste for methodology and process but these are important resources for a sales team to embrace. Your methodology is your company’s way of going after the big deals and these include: Identifying the deal Scoring the deal Relationship mapping Doing a SWOT analysis Building a strategy Doing a competitive analysis Creating the blocks Your methodology plays a big

I'm Afraid of Losing My Sales Job Everywhere you look, people are affected by circumstances that could not have been foreseen just a couple of months ago. Due to this upheaval, some people are losing their jobs. Is the fear of losing your sales position an added concern for you as well? In this episode, Donald offers some encouragement. Everyone agrees it’s a hard time. This quarantine is unprecedented in most of our lifetimes and The Sales Evangelist is here for you and Donald has been getting a number of questions about what to do in the event of job loss. Sales reps from all over the world are concerned and are afraid of losing their jobs. The harsh reality is that in this season, many will lose their positions while companies rally to stay afloat. Donald has been there. He had just graduated from college and was working for a small company when everyone was called to the conference room by the CEO and the executive team. Once gathered, they were told that the company was closing its doors that day. The reality didn’t sink in for Donald right away. He had a difficult time processing what he was hearing and as he listened, it started to sink in that he had just gotten an apartment and had his own bills to pay. Needless to say, he was freaking out. Life goes on Under these circumstances it’s natural to feel stress and anxiety. It was an unfortunate situation that Donald was in and felt the full weight of it. However, he eventually learned that life goes on. Things got better. They will for you too. There’s going to be a brighter day and things will work out for you and your family. It may be hard to see past this time of isolation and you may worry about how you can earn for your family and loved ones. Don’t overthink things. There will be a path that will make itself clear to you. The circumstances surrounding COVID-19 is new to all of us, but most of us have experienced an unexpected job loss. Stressing about it, worrying about it, and beating yourself up because you lost your job won’t bring the work back. This isn’t your fault. You are awesome Having a job in the first place means you have what it takes to bring value to a company. This illustrates you have something in you that will provide opportunities. Even if that job is put on hold for now, your value remains and the next company will benefit. Hopefully current employers are researching and taking full advantage of the governmental relief that is being offered in order to keep teams together. These opportunities are meant to help us. Another door will open When one door closes, another door opens. It may sound cliche but it’s true. You can expedite that by building your network and community. These relationships tend to look out for one another. When Donald lost his job, he used his free time to build his network. He connected with people on LinkedIn and he brought value to other people. Through his presence on LinkedIn, one of his competitors saw what happened to Donald and reached out. He was told of another opportunity and was able to benefit from that connection. If you are released from your job use the time wisely until the next job. Learn new skills, read more books, and continue to add value to yourself. Be valuable to others by serving them in their needs. Build that network. Connect with people and figure out creative ways you can build value. No matter what happens, you will always have your personal brand. It’s something you can take wherever you are in this world. Make sure you’re ready when things get better. “I'm Afraid of Losing My Sales Job” episode resources Remember you don’t have to carry this burden on your own. There are people out there who are willing to help you and guide you, like Donald. Find them, connect with them, and build value with them. If you are interested in more sales stories, connect with Donald. Reach him via these channels: LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook about any sales concerns. This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Certified Sales Training Program. It’s a course designed to help new and struggling sellers to master the fundamentals of sales and close more deals. It will help them elevate their sales game. Sign up now and get the first two modules for free! You can go and visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals also call us at (561) 570-5077. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes so tune in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, and Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings to every episode you listen to. You can also read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore this huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day free trial. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago |

How To Evaluate The Efficacy of SaaS Programs That Your Sales Team Subscribes To Is your SaaS program effective? Is it making you money or costing you more than your return? Ankesh Kumar is with a company called Let’s Chat and the company focuses on personalization outreach to make sure your dollars are being spent well. Let’s Chat helps a conversation run smoother. It does this by providing a co-extension that identifies LinkedIn topics that are of interest to your clients, it gives suggestions about how to break the ice, and generally makes it easier for sales reps to speak with their prospects in a more personal way. Let’s Chat also looks into social platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and others to identify the person or client sales reps are going to talk to. It’s important for first meetings to be friendly, without crossing the line. Let’s Chat also uses its AI capabilities to prioritize the data based on the time spent on a particular topic, the frequency looking at topics and the topics a client might want to expand on. Evaluating your SaaS program There are various tools that a sales team can use to evaluate their SaaS program, the amount depending on the size of the organization. Ankesh’s company ensures their app works with the company’s current workload. There are many competing platforms like CRM, other sales engagement platforms, and sales outreach. With so many to choose from, there comes an added concern that incorporating all these different platforms may change the workflow of the sales team. You want to make sure that your team isn’t managing so many tools that their time isn’t spent on actual sales. Salesforce slows down the process Ankesh shares how products such as Salesforce can actually slow down the sales process. Salesforce adds data to the system record. It tracks activity so everyone can see how clients are interacting with the information, from receiving the proposal to what executive levels are looking at what was sent. As a result, there can be an imbalance between how much time a sales rep spends on Salesforce data and how much time is spent actually interacting with a client and making a sale. Ankesh’s company uses a plugin tool for LinkedIn because that’s where people are and the most actual interaction can take place. . Maintain your team’s efficiency By Ankesh’s estimation it’s not the cost of the software that can impact a company’s budget but the time a sales rep spends on specific software. The CRM budget can vary but the value of return is the added value the software brings to the workflow process. Ankesh cautions about adding additional software and plugins without regularly checking whether or not this software is benefiting the sales force and ultimately, the company. One thing he suggests, when you’re considering new software, is assigning some of your sales reps to be beta testers before you go company-wide. Be unique By now, almost all sales people and their clients know the process of prospecting by email. Even before a company sends that second or third email, they can almost predict the content of ensuing correspondence. As a sales rep, you need to be unique and stand out from the crowd. Instead of sending 10 predictable touch emails, do something different. Use snail mail and send along a little something they can use, like a $5 Starbucks gift card. Once received, you already have one foot in the door before you connect the second time. Personalization can work but it’s also a lot more time-consuming. Salespeople need to understand that what works now may not work in the next 2-3 years. The industries are changing and our approach to clients and prospects will change too. Emails that work Ankesh says that there are three buckets of personalization that work when writing emails: business, professional, personal. Look for ways to connect in these areas and your customer will know you’ve taken a professional interest to reach out in a personal way. “How To Evaluate The Efficacy of SaaS Programs That Your Sales Team Subscribes To” episode resources Be social when you’re dealing with your customers and clients. Work smart and take the time to personalize your communication. If you are interested in more sales stories, you can talk to Donald about it. Reach him via these channels: LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook about any sales concerns. This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Certified Sales Training Program. It’s a course designed to help new and struggling sellers to master the fundamentals of sales and close more deals. It will help them elevate their sales game. Sign up now and get the first two modules for free! You can go and visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals also call us at (561) 570-5077. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes so tune in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, and Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings to every episode you listen to. You can also read more about sal

How To Build Rapport By Asking Directed, Relevant Questions For many salespeople, building rapport is a skill that needs to be learned. It’s not always easy for sales reps to build relationships with potential or existing clients. Asking direct and relevant questions is a great launch fine-tuning the art of building rapport. In this episode we learn more about how to do this well. Andrew Sletter has been in the same company, the Window and Door Store for 10 years. Their company sells windows and doors with a focus on in-home sales. They work directly with the consumer and are with their customers for every step of the process, including installation. The company’s office is located in Bismarck, North Dakota and they handle the North Dakota and Western Minnesota market. The salesman’s profile Andrew doesn’t see himself as a true salesman. He believes that many salespeople are doing themselves a disservice by trying to fit into a particular profile. Andrew isn’t an influencer or a promoter. Based on his DISC personality profile, he is more of the perfectionist individual. In his career, he’s seen all different types of personalities become successful in sales. Many sales reps feel the pressure to become somebody they’re not but as a sales manager, Andrew knows salespeople just need to be true to who they are and learn the skills needed to have a great career. Though Andrew didn’t set out to become a sales leader, he honed his skills to become successful. Daniel Pink, the author of the book To Sell is Human, writes that surprisingly, the best sales people aren’t the extroverts or the introverts. It's the ambiverts that make it to the top of the chain. Why? The ambiverts tend to have the characteristics of boths and it serves them well. If you aren’t an ambivert, though, take heart. Andrew knows anyone who can hold a conversation with somebody has what it takes to become a great salesperson. Building the trust An important skill that salespeople need to have is the ability to know when and if a product or service is a good fit for a potential client. With direct-to-consumer businesses this is especially important. Building trust and rapport in the early stages of inquiry will help with this evaluation. If done correctly, not only will this prospect become a new client, there is an opportunity to develop the relationship into a life-long customer. Building rapport is about having trust between two people. If a salesperson states their product is the best in the industry, but hasn’t built trust, the consumer can determine very quickly they don’t want to work with that individual. The consumer today is very savvy. They’ve usually done the research even before approaching the salesperson. They already know about the product and the industry and will purchase with the sales rep who aligns with their value system. It is up to the salesperson to uncover those values in order to close the sale. Building Rapport Rapport is more than just value-based selling. For Andrew, it’s also about authentic selling. The number one deciding factor of whether or not a consumer is going to purchase is the credibility of the salesperson. Credibility and rapport first, product or service second. It’s the job of the salesperson to uncover the prospect’s values because if the values aren’t in alignment, the ability to close is greatly diminished. Selling to the modern consumer requires wisdom and discovery. The sales goal has to be secondary to the customer’s needs. The credibility of the salesperson is #1 priority whether or not people buy. #SalesCredibility Discovering the value From the beginning a salesperson needs to have a conversation with the prospect. Allow them to tell their story because it’s their story that needs to be heard. Be ready with a set of questions to ask to every client. Ask directed and relevant questions. What are their fears, concerns, projections? This exchange helps the salesperson determine the client’s motivation and it gives the consumer the confidence their needs are being heard. When values align, the closing rate increases dramatically. Keep building rapport through the pandemic Building rapport is especially critical in the season we’re in, when people are dealing with so much uncertainty. Clients need to feel they’re part of a conversation and a team. As salespeople, we support our families by helping our clients solve their problems. We’re all consumers. Let’s be the people we’d want to purchase from ourselves. “How To Build Rapport By Asking Directed, Relevant Questions” episode resources Don’t rush the process. Too often a salesperson tries to determine the outcome of the sales without first building trust. Put in the time and ask direct and relevant questions. If you are interested in more sales stories, you can talk to Donald about it. Reach him via these channels: LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook about any sales concerns. This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Certified Sales Tra

I'm Succeeding As An SDR But I Don't Think I Will When I Become An AE A change in work setting is a challenging thing since one has to adjust with the new operations and work process. Did you just move from an SDR position to an AE position and you’re feeling lost? Don’t worry. You’ve come to the right podcast episode. This heading is a question Donald saw posted on Reddit by a sales rep who is worried about his change in roles. The idea of becoming an AE scared him because he wasn't confident that he had the skills to become successful and build value. Making the transition This individual has been in the SDR industry for nine months and is concerned that his success isn't because of his sales skills but because of his ability to think outside the box. He thinks he’s terrible on the phone and feels that he lacks the ability to connect with clients. He finds it hard to drive business solutions and when he makes the transition to becoming an AE, he’s concerned his lack of experience and skill will get him into trouble. Although he’s been effective at finding people, building value, and closing skills as an SDR, he didn't see these abilities as a win because he was evaluating himself based on how he rated his interpersonal relationships skills and his ability to generate opportunities.You may have felt like this too. So, how do you make the transition to this new position? The Impostor SyndromeImpostor Syndrome is also known as head trash. These are the things that we tell ourselves until we start believing them, even when those things are not true. The mind isn’t capable of separating reality from fiction so “what the mind conceives, the mind believes.” When we were kids, we could convince ourselves that there was a monster in the closet. The same is true with head trash. When you tell yourself you don’t have certain abilities, traits, or skills, your mind will believe it and you will find yourself acting accordingly. As a result, you may start messing up your phone calls, stop reaching out on LinkedIn, and you’re not going to take action, all because your body has already started believing the lie. Overcoming your head trash Shift your head trash to confidence and self-affirmation. Say positive things to yourself again and again and rewrite the program. Stop telling yourself you’re going to fail. The mind is very powerful. Start telling it exactly how great you are. Your body will follow. This is the first step in doing better. Now, just because you tell yourself that you’re a good sales rep, it doesn’t mean you will become a great sales rep immediately. The next step is to take action by starting to read books, listening to podcasts, going to training, practicing, and studying industry information. The impostor syndrome is a common trait in many salespeople, especially those who are just starting. As a beginner in sales, how do you bring value to the table? You may be better in some aspects than others. You may read more books,be more tech savvy, or have more experience. Holding onto the positives, and seeing good results from your current skill set, will help you get past your head trash. Change your belief system Changing your belief system will help you adjust your actions and the way you perform. People have a certain swagger and confidence when they feel good about themselves and others can see that. They will see that you’re bringing your best to the table. The person we discussed from Reddit has to change his belief system. He thought he didn’t have ample skills to help him become an executive. He forgot one of the most important things a sales rep must learn is how to solve problems and he knows how to do this! He’s already doing the toughest tasks in the sales process, prospecting and closing deals. When a salesperson shifts to an account executive role, he will still have ways to solve problems. A sales rep builds value by learning how to ask effective questions. You don’t even have to be versed on the industry, at least at the beginning. Nobody is versed in every industry when they first start. If you are selling something you don’t have experience with then study and get trade magazines. Learn about some of the content and that your prospects are studying for their business. Once you become versed about the industry, and understand the operations of the business, you will be able to solve problems better. Keep learning and solving problems Spend time learning the business and look at the deals. Figure out the initial reasons why people signed up for your services and products. Review pain points and check out websites to learn more about clients. Doing your part will help you feel more comfortable in moving forward. To move you toward success, listening and asking effective questions is key. A confident problem solver isn’t afraid of digging deep and asking critical questions. He knows how to be direct and to the point without being offensive. For example, instead of letting the client close th

How To Get More Proposals Signed Faster With Pandadoc Have you heard about PandaDoc and how it can help you get more proposals signed faster? If you definitely want to learn more from this podcast. This episode will talk about PandaDoc and how you can use it to improve your sales journey. Nate Gilmore is the chief revenue officer at PandaDoc and his job is to grow the company. It is their goal to help small businesses increase their sales and revenues. He has spent almost 20 years in the small business industry and most of those years were in software. The idea of proposals Salespeople can send out proposals and not get a reply for days or even weeks. This experience is a common challenge for many sales reps. Salespeople need to understand that the entire workflow of the business depends on how well they’ve gotten to know the customer. Having insight into how their organization works, their timeline, and what their needs are will improve the content of what you send and get the right data to send out. PandaDoc makes each stage of getting information to your client much easier. Creating your proposal PandaDoc has created a template that pulls in customer data from your CRM which makes the workflow much more efficient. If you don’t have a CRM, the template will do it for you. With the customer data within the template, you now have a customized proposal that was done in less time. PandaDoc saves you time in creating the proposals since it already has a template that sales reps can work with right away. Sending your proposal When you send your proposal depends on the workflow and process of your company. You may have to send it to someone internally first or you may be able to send it to your client immediately. Once sent, the speed in which your proposal works lies with your customer. The right time to use the proposal Sales reps can use the proposals in two ways: in the pitch or the marketing. When someone receives a proposal that’s been generated through PandaDoc, sales reps can see when the document is opened. The best time to send a proposal is after the discovery phase when the customer has consented to receive the information and is looking for it. At this point, you know someone who is interested and could potentially champion your product in front of decision makers. If possible, embed demos in the proposals to make it more effective and customized. Proposals generated by PandaDoc offer these types of unique features so every client feels they are receiving a document made especially for them. Every step is part of the sales process and it’s the responsibility of each salesperson to do discovery ahead of time in order to make the process as efficient as possible. Discovery should reveal the needs of your customers and let your customer know they are being heard. PandaDoc has your client relationship in mind with their customizable templates. The program revolves around the workflow of a salesperson so they are able to personalize their proposals based on the client’s specific information. Driving the sale through PandaDocs have a number of tools to help sales people make their sales goals. Your proposal is a document you can view at each step of the process. Once sent, sales reps can see who is checking it and when. It helps the rep and the client connect by helping them understand what the client needs. If you see that your client has forwarded the proposal to someone else, you can check where it’s hung up or when they are ready to move forward with the deal. This allows the sales rep to see what’s happening at each stage. Following up with your client is an important part of the sales process. It’s critical to know if you are dealing with the decision maker or with an internal champion. Once you know, you know how to follow up. Look at the length of your sales cycle. If you want to grow the velocity, reduce the steps. #SalesTips How does PandaDocs work? Most of PandaDoc’s clients use the program to reduce the length of the sales cycle in order to drive toward revenue faster. The program simplifies the workflow to move from sign to pay at a higher velocity. “How To Get More Proposals Signed Faster With Pandadoc” episode resources If you want to grow the velocity of your sales cycle and evolve your business, you can try visiting Pandadocs. You can also check out Nate’s LinkedIn. If you are interested in more sales stories, you can talk to Donald about it. Reach him via these channels: LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook about any sales concerns. This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Certified Sales Training Program. It’s a course designed to help new and struggling sellers to master the fundamentals of sales and close more deals. Sign up now and get the first two modules for free! You can also call us at (561) 570-5077. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes so tune in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, and Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and rati

How To Become A Warrior Seller During The Coronavirus Outbreak The world has been taken aback by the coronavirus pandemic. Businesses, regardless of industry, have been affected. As a salesperson, how do you become a warrior during the coronavirus outbreak? Jason Forrest works for a company called FPG which stands for Forrest Performance Group and one of their programs is Warrior Selling. There are four different levels of a sales professional. The first level is the follower. They give all the permission to the customer. The customer dictates what to do, how to act, and tells the salesperson when they’re going to buy. The next level is the helper, who has the sole intention of helping people and serving their customers. Leader is the third level. They are the people you follow to a place you wouldn’t go on your own. The last level is the warrior. The warriors are advocates for the product and service they sell. This salesperson believes, supports, and advocates for their products and services. In addition to that, the warriors protect their customers’ best interest. In today’s market, we need more warriors to protect the customers and the organization. People are afraid and the warriors help protect their customers from fear. Without leaders, fear can overcome customers and it can eventually kill the organization. Warriors know their customers so well they know what is needed. A warrior and con artist may have the same skill set but what sets apart the sales warrior is intention. They protect their customers through their service or product. Knowing the warrior seller A warrior has to get their messaging right for their customer and should be able to answer these questions: Why should people buy from you today? What will your products and services immediately do for them? How will your products and services benefit them at this moment? How will your products and services eliminate their present pain points? Once they find the answer to those questions, they need to be able to share the message with the people they serve. A warrior is defined by me as an advocate for their product and service they sell and at the same time, they're a protector of the customer's best interest. #SalesWarrior Salespeople procrastinate for several reasons. The first is that they’re not clear about what they’re trying to accomplish. The second, is that they don’t know why they’re doing what they do.Their why has to be strong enough to get through tough days. The why has to be greater than the sacrifices they have to make to do the job of a salesperson. Third, once the why is discovered, a salesperson has to figure out how. The how includes your cross pattern strategy. What are you going to say to give them certainty and how do you want them to feel once they get off the phone with you? The last reason why people procrastinate is their “leash mentality,” the restriction in someone’s thoughts that keeps them from doing what needs to be done. Remove your leash A leash is like a dog collar in that it can prevent you from moving forward and can hold you back. The present mind is the best mind because it keeps you focused on the task at hand. In sports, trash talk occurs because it is a means for one player to distract another player. If done well, it can throw that player off their game. However, as a salesperson, the trash talk doesn’t come from other people but from inside their own head. Jason came up with the concept of performance formula: P(erformance) = K(nowledge) - L(eash). Performance is what a person does and what we see them do. Knowledge is what we’ve told them to do. They have a process for making a sale and they have brand knowledge. To get a performance you have to remove the leash from the knowledge. This is the resistance that keeps them from using the knowledge they have, the things that keep them from taking action. Kinds of Leashes Jason addresses four types of leash mentalities in his book: Self-image An example of the self-image leash is the perception the salesperson has of herself that she doesn’t know the right words to say to convince a prospect to buy. In order to remove this leash, you have to have the confidence that you will be able to convey to others why your product or service is valuable. Story The story is anything external from us. It’s when you tell yourself that people are still waiting for things to settle down before they start buying and purchasing again. This is just a story, especially when there’s no evidence to support that claim. Reluctance Reluctance is a situational fear and it may come from not wanting to sound pushy and insensitive. The coronavirus outbreak will impact 2020 projections - it will either lower the sales forecast or be seen as an opportunity to steal market share from the competition. The truth is, if you’re not going to make any changes to get ahead of this, then it could lead to long-term challenges and impede the growth of your company. Taking action now can remove t

What Is The Difference Between An SDR and BDR? The next 20 episodes will focus on the conversations about BDRs and SDRs. We will be talking about tips, strategies, and ideas about how businesses can prospect better and connect with potential clients. Today’s episode will discuss the differences between a BDR and SDR in terms of what they do, how they do it, and how they earn. In the previous episode, Donald was joined by his sales coaching client, Scott Romney. They talked about how businesses can realign and adjust their message to create offers that are irresistible for the prospects, even in a time of crisis. Our level of empathy must increase as we look for ways to understand where people are coming from. Strategies are needed that will help organizations overcome the crisis that many industries are facing in this season. Scott talked about being mindful and sensitive while thinking of opportunities where salespeople can be leaders to their prospects, especially now. Set your goal. How many appointments will you make today? #SalesGoals SDRs and BDRs A BDR is a business development rep and an SDR is a sales development rep. Prior to predictable revenue, their job was to qualify and set appointments for outside sales reps; however, over the past 20 years, the definitions have evolved. Even before these BDRS and SDRs came to exist, there were only sales reps and everyone was responsible for every stage of the selling process. Being a salesman for an organization meant that you were responsible for finding your own leads and nurturing those leads. Your job included going to trade shows and cultivating accounts. Eventually, sales managers realized that if you break down these processes you get to have more functionality and you can have experts in the different parts of the sales process. The inside sales team As a result, the inside sales team was created to do the research, generate lists, and find the people. Their job is to update the CRM and become an assistant to the account executives. Over the years, their job extended to setting the appointment and qualifying the leads. Aaron Ross was working with SalesForce when he realized these functions could be broken down further. There are now inbound people who are responsible for the inbound leads, the leads that are coming in via your websites or those who are calling your business phone number. The outbound team are the people who go after the potential client list and send them emails. They are the ones who are reaching out to clients. BDR and SDR can be used interchangeably but based on the definition given by Salesforce, the BDRs are focused on prospecting for outbound leads while the SDRs are focused on qualifying inbound marketing leads. The SDRs The SDR doesn’t have to do the hard work of finding leads. Instead of looking for people, the SDRs job is to qualify the inbound leads, follow up with them, and make sure they’ve been qualified for an appointment. They may get a little less in commission than the BDRs because BDRs are tasked with looking for cold leads and turning them into warm leads. Some companies start their salespeople as an SDR because it’s easier. This role helps to train sales reps how to ask the right questions and it offers a transition to becoming a BDR and then to an account executive. The BDRs For Donald, the business development role is one of the hardest of the sales roles. It’s their job to look for people and find new business. While they may meet many people, not all of them will convert. Only a few will decide to make a purchase because not everyone is ready. At any given time, only 3% of people are ready to make a purchasing decision. If you look at it from a business perspective, the BDRs role is to look for that 3% wherever they may be and convince them to purchase. Part of the BDRs job is to educate prospects and get them interested in wanting to do business. A talented business development rep builds relationships, connects with people, and shares with enough value so when a client is ready, that prospect will come back. The tenure for a business development rep lasts around 14 months and after that, they usually transition to become an account executive, or take an entirely different route. The same is true for an SDR, who can also get a promotion. Both of these roles have about 14-18 month terms. The length of time is influenced by the depth of training. This is where The Sales Evangelist comes in. We help sales reps ramp quicker and perform much faster. If it takes a sales rep to improve his rate in three month, the TSE training will help you do that in two months. The training will help sales reps become more effective at a much faster rate. The secret to success Like any other sales roles, the secret to success is to think of it like it's your own business. The structure of your day is critical. You need to make sure you understand the purpose of having a plan so you know who you are going after, who your targets

How Do I Sell During The Coronavirus Outbreak? Many industries are affected by the coronavirus pandemic. With that, there are a lot of questions in the sales community about how to move through this season well. How can you sell while everyone is quarantined and practicing social distancing? Scott Romney is a senior account executive at Soci. He loves sales and building relationships. Soci’s goal is to help their clients overcome the challenges that may come from internal alignment or with their local franchise partners. Soci can come in to balance their clients’ social media reviews and do it using just one platform. Facing the challenges Businesses that are sole-ownership need to take special care with protecting their brand. The main challenge that salespeople are facing right now is how to keep doing sales without compromising the health of all involved and their businesses. Most salespeople are now hiding by not calling people or having conversations with their prospects and clients. What these same people need to wake up to, however, is the reality that the economy is not dead. It’s still going and very much alive. We’re not currently in recession and the economy can still pick up once the pandemic is controlled and managed. The economy is not dead. People are still working but they are working differently. #COVID19 Understanding the circumstances is imperative to be able to see the opportunity in times of crisis. We all have defining moments in our careers that can change our mindset. You need to ask yourself what these defining moments mean for you. Looking at the challenge brought about by the coronavirus outbreak, ask yourself how this defining moment can change your outlook as a small business. Look at the efficiency and gaps when implementing new flexible working hours and the critical role that social media plays amid COVID-19. Social media isn’t just all fluff but a real lifeline, especially with staying connected to clients. In every crisis, there’s an opportunity. As salespeople, it’s part of the job to take advantage of the online resources and get to work digitally. This means of communication can help businesses inform, educate, and connect with their clients. Keep working Even with the pandemic, 99% of the world’s population are still working. Salespeople can pick up the phone and build relationships with their prospects despite the change in how we do business. You can connect and build value, helping your clients see you as a thought leader by continuing to offer counsel. There is still an opportunity to help with pain points. It’s time to have a positive side. The nation has faced far greater challenges in the past but they were overcome. As a sales leader, recognize you can come out of this crisis as a leader and not a lagger. Let your prospects know you are working, even in this dire situation, and keep them informed. Make it your goal to build relationships because only a handful of people are currently moving in that direction. Take this as an opportunity to grow the business by leaning into your clients. This is a defining moment you can take advantage of. Just keep working. Change your messaging Before the virus outbreak, Scott called on prospects with the message they were doing a good job but wanted to share information to further improve their standing on social media. The updated message emphasizes that social media is now a lifeline they need to utilize if they aren’t already there. For example, a local fitness gym, All Time Fitness, has jumped into the social media scene. Despite being closed down due to the virus, they are now utilizing social media by sharing some exercise tips people can do at home. They are also using FaceTime and offering a personal coaching session. They realize this is a great time to broaden their client base and have a great opportunity to serve people while they are in quarantine. Businesses can now change their messaging to provide a solution to current pain points. Structure you deal opportunities This is a great time to restructure some of your deals and give clients an enticing deal during this difficult time. Sales leaders may need to look at the red tape and their client’s current pain points to better align with existing needs. Updating agreements may be called for. Some questions you might need to investigate include: Can I offer my clients a different structure? Can I break up payment schedules? Doing this won’t devalue your product. It simply gives you margin to listen to your customers and make adjustments as you’re able. The long-term changes This pandemic will change some companies forever. Businesses will have to make necessary adjustments. The important thing is that you can decide to do something and strategize to gain. “How Do I Sell During The Coronavirus Outbreak? ” episode resources Reach out to Scott Romney via LinkedIn to learn more about Soci, a leading social media management platform to help multi-location businesses. If

How to build a sales engine that will land massive deals – repeatedly A sales engine is a great strategy to increase your number of closed deals. As a sales manager, how do you build a sales engine to land massive deals for your team? Nigel Green works with executive investors and sales leaders of companies to help them scale up faster and smarter. As a sales advisor, he works behind the scenes to ensure that leaders are hitting their targets at the end of the year. Nigel understands that if you don’t relentlessly pursue your craft and coach your team well, you won’t be in the game very long. The revenue harvest Nigel coined the term, Revenue Harvest, in this sales leaders almanac containing the fruits of 15 years of experience. He’s been helping various companies build their sales team faster so investors have a chance to grow their private equity. Sales leaders in this kind of environment need to act fast. When Nigel moved to a farm, an hour outside of the city, he was able to observe the farming community. He realized that leading a sales team was very similar to tending crops. Both can face circumstances that are outside of our control. The farmer knows he’s got to produce a crop but looking at the year, he wonders when it’s going to be too hot or too cold, when it's going to rain, or not. These are elements a farmer can’t control but he can’t be paralyzed by the uncontrollables. He’s got to get to work. In Revenue Harvest, Nigel shows sales leaders how to yield results year-in and year-out that are consistent. Nigel has broken this down into seven principles a sales leader can follow. Create a plan The first principle in the Revenue Harvest helps sales leaders understand what a plan really is and how to do it well. Most sales people don’t have a plan. They’ve been given a plan by their leader but they haven’t pushed back in areas where it’s not realistic. Leaders need buy-in from the influencers on their team and it needs to be implemented in a time period that will be effective, before the first quarter. Sales leaders have a responsibility to not only assign the revenue and targets of the plan to the sales rep, but also to the customers. The plan also has to account for the metrics that are important to the business. Only the sales leader can make sure that everybody on the team is spending their time well and score-carding. The leader needs to incentivize the team in a way that is aligned with the CEO or COO’s goals. Oftentimes, time isn’t a salesperson’s friend but with planning, time can be used more efficiently. Planning for adversity The truth is, most people don’t plan for adversity. We plan the year assuming that everything is going to be perfect. We don’t plan for the person who is going to quit or go on maternity leave and we don’t plan for competitors to launch a new product. Most sales leaders don’t expect adversity but the truth is, it can come when we least expect it. A real plan accounts for adversity. The first step in planning is to ask when the budgest season starts. The budget season is a common language in private equity companies. This season typically falls in September or October. By that time, the heads of the company want to see a completed budget expenses revenue target, if new reps need to be hired, etc.. As a proactive leader, you want to go to the heads of the company to get a sense of what it is they want you to accomplish, what resources they’re going to give you throughout the year, and negotiate if it doesn’t sound feasible. Sales leaders have the responsibility of making sure that adequate resources are in play to hit the numbers. Positioning Positioning is two-fold. Before you finalize the sales plan, identify your sales influencers and run the plan by them. No matter how good a plan seems to be, it’s wise to receive feedback from the members of your sales team who know the climate of the sales team and can offer information about whether or not a plan is viable. No one can predict the future but there are two practices that can help mitigate unforeseen disasters: First, look at what the team has done over the past couple years in detail. If the business is affected by seasonality, it’s important to look at history by weeks, maybe even days. Check the spikes during busy seasons. If you’re in retail, Saturdays and Sundays are huge. Look at what was actually accomplished. You tend to create a better plan when you see the circumstances that have influenced your sales historically. Second, look at the lost selling days. A sales leader needs to figure out how you want to track lost selling days that don’t include national holidays or PTO. An example might be one of your sales team members not being able to meet her customers due to unforeseen circumstances like a snowstorm that shut down all the roads. You need to figure out a mechanism to track these days and start reducing the days you implement into your plan because of these historically lost sales days. Preventing a m

How To Close More Deals Using Videos Throughout The Sales Process Closing deals using videos is now becoming a very effective tool in the sales process. As a salesperson and an entrepreneur, we’ll talk about how you can incorporate videos into your sales goals. Doug Davidoff works with companies in the B2B space around customer acquisition and success programs. They examine a company’s sales structure to figure out how to build it in a way that’s scalable, repeatable, a high probability yield, high-margin, and high-growth. Because of this, a sales team can get more done in less time. The beginning Doug started working for the company when he was just 16 years old, around the same time when he got his driver’s license. Back then, they were focused on traditional sales advisory sales training. For the last seven years, they’ve been looking into the holistic process of customer acquisition. Every three years, they reinvent themselves in an effort to make it easier for companies to work with ease and efficiency. It was difficult when they first started using videos. They were among the first companies who were utilizing this new tech and there were only a handful of examples they could use as reference. Doug came up with the idea of making videos the same way as he made webinars, breaking them down into 3 sections. Next to blogging, it was by far his greatest accidental discovery. If you decide to work with videos, know that it may not yield immediate results. Doug didn’t start with video thinking it would enhance the process. There is a lot of divergence when it comes to what people know about using video, what they are looking for, and what they want to accomplish. Because of this, initial conversations were hard because it was hard to tell a client the specific impact to their sales. Nowadays, with more history, it is easier to see that video is very effective. Creating the videos Doug began creating a 20-minute long video for a presentation and later went to an hour, sometimes longer, as needed. Doug’s colleagues advised that prospects wouldn’t watch videos that were this long but Doug wasn’t to be deterred. As Doug gained a greater skill set and his videos improved, the more the videos were shared among key people within the companies he was targeting. This sharing process enabled Doug’s team to know who the key figures, influencers, and decision makers were within these companies. They began seeing that people were watching their videos even before they got to their kick-off. These prospects were watching and using their videos to socialize and share various ideas. This was how they decided to use their videos in segments that could be dropped in each part of the sales process, from market development to customer acquisition. The video sales process How a customer is moved through the video process largely depends on how the customer finds Doug. The first video is typically post-discovery where they let their prospects watch any number of videos that are connected to solution pages. They’ve also tried running a couple of campaigns where they connect to prospects who are difficult to reach by giving them shorter versions of their videos. They ask these recipients to share their top three biggest challenges and Doug’s team then sends a 2-4 minute video that addresses these challenges. This strategy is used during the pre-discovery and discovery process, needs assessment diagnosis, and so on. Using videos in sales Doug has been told that videos won’t work in sales but he’s proven this isn’t true. If you are a salesperson presenting a topic consistently, you can save time by putting that presentation into a video. If you prefer initial contact to be live, you can still utilize video in the follow-up. Doing a concept video is also encouraged. With great editing, the best thing about video is that you get to be yourself, without mistakes. You can also send the video before the sales call and then ask them what part of the video had the most impact on them. This will give you an idea of what you can do for next steps and you’ll be able to gauge if the video was watched at all. If they did watch the video, the conversation will show you how to prepare for any follow-up conversations. When you offer a video, your prospects are able to watch you at their convenience. It gives them time to think and prepare for your call as well. Prospect conversions using videos Doug doesn’t claim the videos are the only thing that leads to closing a sale but it is a great indicator. Video helps to detect how serious someone is about starting a buying journey. Even when people don’t watch the video, you can do more by investigating further: Maybe they don’t believe the video is working. Maybe their problem isn’t a huge concern. Maybe it’s not a good time/ Maybe they’re in the middle of a crisis that needs to be addressed first. Videos give you information about the buyer. It allows you to gain greater insight and use your time more

How To Find Government Sales Opportunities Without Selling To The Government Salespeople are known for their tenacity and passion to sell but one opportunity that can be overlooked is selling to the government. Jack Siney worked for the Navy on the F18 Fighter Jet Program and after this experience, moved to entrepreneurial companies and tech industries where he worked for public safety agencies. One such agency installed software in laptops that are in police vehicles across the country. Jack may have started in the government but has now been an entrepreneur for the last 25 years helping the government process more efficiently. Challenges in Selling to the Government There is a long list of stereotypes on why doing business with the government isn’t a good idea. Many think that the government is hard to deal with because of all the red tape involved, making the process take a long time. It’s true that in every stereotype, there’s a kernel of truth. However, the government has grown and has modernized. There are now many opportunities that salespeople aren’t taking advantage of because of these misconceoptions. Selling to the government has actually become much more streamlined. Biggest Prospect in the World Government is a great opportunity for salespeople as it’s one of the biggest prospects in the world. Let’s talk about what makes the government a unique prospect. Large and long-lasting contracts Government contracts are typically large and run for multiple years. Putting in the effort in trying to earn a government contract can help stabilize the revenue of your business. The government always pays The government always pays. There’s always a risk in doing business with private companies. There are some who won’t pay for your products or services and will hold up your revenue. However, that’s not true when you sign a contract with the government. Helps recession-proof your business Even when there is a recession, the government will still spend for the things that benefit its citizens. As a result, even if there is a recession, if you have a product that can be used, your company can be better protected. Getting the government contract The government is just like any other prospect. You still need to do the standard prospecting, build relationships, and close deals. Another advantage in working with the government is that there are multiple ways the government makes a purchase. It’s no longer just going over the RFP process, in fact, 80% of the $20 million the government spends per day doesn’t go to an RFP process. Jack helps companies by giving them the data they need to make good decisions about which agencies to pursue and the type of procurement they need to use. As already mentioned, there are nine ways that a government procures things outside the normal bidding process. They are: Sole source. This means that if a company has a patent and can sole source the patent, the government agency can buy the patent. Piggyback. When a company has a government contract, another company/agency can purchase off that contract. Discretionary spending. Every government agency has an amount of money they can spend without having to go through an RFP bidding. It works like a slush fund for an office. P-Card or a purchase card. A lot of people working for the government have a P card (with a limit) assigned to them. When the product or service falls below the P-card limit, then someone can purchase whatever you’re selling up to the limit. Set aside. This is a set aside budget that’s for socio economic classification, regardless of who owns it. It may be a woman-owned, a minority-owned business or an organization for disabled Americans. GSA schedule. General Services Administration State schedule Co-ops Simplified quotes. This is when the government needs an item and they award the contract to the lowest bidder. These are the nine ways a government can make purchases and procurements. The more qualified you are, the more likely you are to avoid the bid via the RFP process. If you qualify on any of the nine ways, the government can just pick your agency and sign the deal with you. What’s the GSA schedule? The GSA at the federal level watches all the government agencies’ purchases. Companies can go through the process of being included in the GSA schedule. For example, several government agencies can purchase computers at different price points despite them being the same model and unit. When this happens, the GSA comes in with a schedule so that new companies with their own pricing can join and offer their products to be put on the schedule. They don’t have to bid an RFP. Get a flagship agency The best way for salespeople to flourish when selling to the government is through a flagship agency. Find out how that agency purchases and then try to work your product into their normal process. Instead of shooting for all agencies, focus on that one that will put in a good word for you to other agencies. In working with the

Rethinking The Way You Do Sales Automation What do you think of sales automation? Is it a go or a no for you? Perhaps it’s time you rethink the way you do sales automation. Gessie Schechinger works for a company called OnCourse, a brand new sales engagement platform. Most of his life, he’d been a professional peddler, jumping from one sales job to another. He started his career in sales with cold calls, went on to a territory sales job, then became an account manager. From there, he got a taste of CRM. Now with his current team, they’re sharing a tool they’ve created that is helpful for salespeople to automate. Their goal is to use the sales professionals’ skill set and automate those skill sets for a more efficient outreach. Selling smart using automation OnCourse is a tool that helps salespeople to automate responsibly. The tool helps to ensure that your emails have accurate presentations, the right address, and all the other information and variables needed for impactful engagement. In addition to that, this tool also looks at when people are going to engage and when they do engage, how long does it take for them to actually engage with the pitch. TAPO is a company that does outreach reporting. They research 280 - 300 large corporations and look at their sales outreach. Using that outreach study report, they can see what methods are effective. Included in the study, is information about how long it takes for a person to engage and from there, how long it takes for them to buy. The report is important especially for service-based businesses and software-based businesses where people tend to communicate in different ways. To figure out the communication channel the clients respond to, you need to make contact in various areas. This is how automation works,as it helps you throw out big nets. The automation is used as a warm-up tool to prepare prospects for engagement and purchase. The automation allows you to create awareness. While your first automated emails are typically deleted, your next emails have a greater chance to get engagement, when they look at your product or services. You have to expect that your first few emails will be deleted. Persistence will put you in a better position down the road. #SalesAutomation LinkedIn outreach The other type of automation is LinkedIn automation. LinkedIn automation and selling is what Gessie refers to as a delicate dance. There are people on LinkedIn who will just connect automatically and immediately throw up their entire value proposition. That may work on some but it’s not typical. People want to use LinkedIn as a networking tool where they can build connections but you have to keep in mind the spirit of the platform, especially if you’re going to use LinkedIn in for sales. It’s true you can speak with your prospects directly and there’s an advantage to seeing titles and experience, but there nuance is needed in the approach. One approach is the 2x2 rule, which means, take two minutes to find two things. Create an interaction and use automation in LinkedIn that will allow you to reach out to 10 - 20 people in a day. Taking the time to learn personal information about your prospects will allow your engagement to have a personal touch. OnCourse against other automation tools There are a number of automation tools available out there that offer many of similar features to one another. OnCourse is unique in the way that it’s built around their clients’ existing successes. The tool takes the business process and amplifies that to make it as configurable as possible. OnCourse is more self-contained than other companies. It has a built-in phone system, a LinkedIn automation, built-in Chrome plugin, built-in texting, and more. The other two reasons that make the tool unique is its ability to niche down and it provides you with outreach education. This tool is especially useful if you have a unique business with solid sales processes. Gessie’s tool allows you to hold information about a client but is also for pipeline management. It studies and understands where you are winning, why and how you can duplicate these efforts. The process is usually: Sending general emails about your company Reach out on LinkedIn Sending follow-up messages Setting up a personal task (i.e. sending a personal message in the middle of email automation) Interact via a phone call “Rethinking The Way You Do Sales Automation” episode resources Learn more about OnCourse or email Gessie Scheginger via his mail [email protected]. If you are interested in more sales stories, you can talk to Donald about it. Reach him via these channels: LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook about any sales concerns. This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Certified Sales Training Program. It’s a course designed to help new and struggling sellers to master the fundamentals of sales and close more deals. Sign up now and get the first two modules for free! You can also call us at (561) 570-5077. We have

Think Like A Large Company CEO Regardless of the size of your company, thinking like the CEO of a larger company will help you better visualize where you are going and how you’re going to get there. Vicki Antonio is a business consultant and life coach. She started working for startup companies when she was just 13 years old. Her experience with startups taught her the pattern of growing pains which she then used when she fell into the real estate industry. Vicki’s work helped her gain a deeper knowledge of the entrepreneurial spirit and gain a business acumen. At one point, she went into upper management and real estate but when the industry came back, she ended up being a business developer for a global real estate franchise. That work allowed her to manage 30 shops where her main role was to develop the shop, make it brand compliant, and develop partnerships with brokers. She was a business coach for these shops and helped these businesses become profitable. All the skills she learned from working came into play. The experience eventually led Vicki to launch her own coaching business. Top problems faced by small businesses FEAR Small businesses must overcome fear. It comes into play when the business has been built to a certain point and then gets stagnant. It can feel like the same fear that parents get when they take their kids to daycare for the first time. There's an apprehension because of the emotional attachment parents have for their child. When a business has to relinquish what it knows, it’s like turning over the reins to someone else. Instead of trusting the people who’ve come to help, these businesses fear them. Even when it’s just a system they need to engage with, fear can be a major hindrance to advancing. CLARITY Entrepreneurs are self-employed salespeople. There are a lot of things that are in play in order for goals to be met. Oftentimes, entrepreneurs don’t have the clarity about what these things are. Sometimes they don’t have enough components to reach the end. Other times, they have too many components and can become confused about which ones to use. Even the best athletes, like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, had coaches. Their coaches gave them a bird’s eye view of the areas that they couldn’t see themselves. Their coaches critiqued them and analyzed what they were doing. They could then help these athletes change little things to help them improve. The same is true in sales. Sales coaches help businesses with the things they need to see. They are the ones who analyze the system they’re currently using, analyze the tools and make sure they are being used correctly. In this stage, it is imperative for the businesses to trust the process. Overcoming fear F.E.A.R. can be seen as an acronym - false evidence appearing real. Sometimes salespeople can get in their own heads. This is the result of not having clarity about the direction they are going or if they are doing things the right way. A lot of times, salespeople are presented and marketed outside of what they know to be right. They are presented with various services that try to rush the process. Trying to rush through, and not developing any real, advancing skill, can keep them from moving forward. Most of Vicki’s clients are already leaders in their fields. They've been accepted by their clients. but they know how difficult the climb has been. It’s when they reach a certain pinnacle that they start to fear: do we trust this new product, this new technique, this new person? Attacking your fear Everyone has a level of fear they aren’t willing to go beyond. There can be a great reward waiting for the risk takers but everyone has to calculate the risk to the place of comfortability and faith. Build the trust The business is an entrepreneur's baby. They’ve put their hearts into it and invested so much. It’s their responsibility to keep it growing and cared for. It gets difficult when someone comes in claiming that they will take care of their business just as well and ensure its growth. Trusting people isn’t an easy thing to do but if you have people who have your same core values, and people who have a successful track record of being able to do what they promised, there’s a better chance to trust when doing business. Getting to know these people and engaging with them will help build trust. It’s important to build relationships, vet who they are, and check their track record. If they were able to do it for themselves and other companies, it is more likely they can do it for you too. Big companies can also prove their credibility to clients with third-party validation in order to encourage use of their services and offerings. Using testimonials and LinkedIn recommendations is another referral opportunity. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to market your services has also proven effective. Clarity Clarity comes with knowing who you’re working with and what they’ve been able to do and it’s also about know

You Can't Sell Value If You Don't Value Yourself Salespeople come from a variety of industries but the one thing they have in common: They all sell value. It can be a challenge, however, to sell something you don’t have yourself. Simply speaking, as salespeople, we can only sell value if we value ourselves. Jenean Merkel Perelstein is a business and sales anthropologist who uses scientific techniques to help salespeople close the cultural gap between them and their prospects, clients, and the organizations they are working with. Her job is to help them understand the cultural approach and take advantage of it. Defining value Value often gets mixed up with values which are the standards or qualities we deem as worthwhile. Value is what we put out into the world, what we offer in exchange. It then becomes part of the larger conversation about money, prosperity, and playing in this market economy. Value becomes part of the interwoven concepts that have to be considered together. When we stand in strength with our values, it means we understand the true qualities and the true standard that we deem worthwhile to offer in the marketplace. If you’re not stepping into that sense of value and you haven’t done the thought process of figuring out what it is in the first place, then you’re basically starting the conversation a little bit behind. Knowing your worth You need to know your beliefs and what’s possible and not possible for you. This includes knowing your attitudes, state of mind, and feelings. All of these things build together into a larger concept of knowing your worth and taking ownership of your work. Doing that will enable you to come forth and articulate the worth and value of whatever you are representing. Regardless of the words you speak, the cultural interactions you have with other people will be part of the underlying conversation. The energy you exchange in your conversation can expose whether or not you are operating from a place of desperation or a lack of confidence. Clients see this right away. If this is you, there is foundational work that needs to take place. People that have been unsuccessful for a long time start to wear an air of desperation. It becomes harder for them to meet another client or go to another meeting. If you are managing this type of person, there’s an opportunity to talk to them about standing in their strength, taking ownership, and changing their direction. Salespeople have to look at the value they offer, not just transactional value, but value as human beings as they bring what makes them unique and special into the conversation. Build your value As an individual, you can start building value by looking at your own personal strength inventory. Look for the red flags that are holding yourself back from being able to understand and articulate your value. Jenean looks at all this through an anthropological lens, the cultural lens. She sees each individual as a culture of one and looks into the attributes of that culture. Starting there helps her client understand their own personal strengths and enables them to build on how to shore up their foundations. Doing this on yourself will then help you to start recognizing the cultural attributes of your prospects, future clients, and the organization that you’re hoping to go deeper with. You’ll be able to see the gaps between your cultural attributes and their cultural attributes. The closer you can close the gaps, the easier the sales conversations will be. Attributes that make up a culture There are four primary attributes that make up a culture: attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, and values. The first, attitudes, can change quickly. Attitudes affect your state of mind and your feelings. The attitude can change based on your mood and outlook. The second attribute, behaviors, needs to be consistently evaluated for opportunities to change based on the needs of the client. Beliefs, the third attribute can be conscious or subconscious. The brain operates within our beliefs to protect us and to keep things normal. Evaluate if it’s these beliefs that are creating a ceiling to your success. The fourth attribute, values, is what could bridge the gap between you and your client. Jenean asks her clients to journal a deep inventory of these attributes around their career, finances, thoughts about their abilities to make money, and how they take care of their relationships. When you have these attributes in common with another person or group, then add on norms and traditions, you have a culture. Every workplace has its own culture. Do an inventory Knowing your value means doing an inventory of what makes you special and unique, and what you may struggle with. Once you do that, you will begin to recognize where you are holding yourself back. You can then identify the work you need to do to get better and articulate your value in future meetings. There are times when the work culture is dominated by someone who is highly regarded. Sales l

Where Sellers Get Stuck Sometimes sellers get stuck but where exactly do they get stuck? Umar Hameed was previously working in Silicon Valley where he worked for high-tech launching companies from Asia, Europe, and the Valley into the U.S. market. He noticed that there were employees in the company who were rockstars in the sales department. Others, however, would invest in training, motivation, coaching, and incentives where they’d only improve a little bit. Still others would improve a lot but for only a short amount of time. Umar saw how the problem wasn’t in the sales training, process, or strategy. The problem was with the people and their mindset. Umar’s work entails looking for ways to give salespeople an owner’s manual for their mindset in order to change their world. Getting the team together This can be applied to the sales team and the whole organization. It’s imperative to change the mindset of individuals because that’s how you shift the entire company and improve its trajectory. Consider: How you can win How you can beat the competition How you can support each other Changing the mindset of the organization can produce a work environment where everyone is enthusiastic and passionate. This, in turn, will boost the morale of your sales team and increase their speed. The author of the comic strip called Pogo wrote this quote: We have met the enemy and the enemy is us. Oftentimes you may think that the enemy is the economy or the competition. The truth is, how you feel about yourself at a subconscious level determines how well you do. The only way to truly improve is to change the mindset. Umar’s job is to give people the tools to do just that. Getting unstuck Umar had a client, Paul, when he first started his career in the mindset space. Paul was a sales rep from the east coast who had been hitting way above the quota but he still approached Umar for coaching an area he was lacking confidence: asking for referrals. The sales rep was an excellent closer but always hit a block when it came to asking his client for the referral. Umar asked Paul to tell him about a time when he asked for a referral badly. Umar says when a client goes back to these memories, the body will offer clues to what happened. As Paul went back to that moment, Umar asked him what he felt at that moment. Paul answered that he felt weird. It was an uncomfortable feeling. Paul then remembered a time when he was a child his father had a friend over. Paul overheard his father tell this friend that real men don’t ask for help. Paul’s hero was his father so little Paul took that statement to heart. As a sales rep, Paul was subconsciously remembering that statement when he thought of asking for a referral. His mindset considered it asking for help and Paul’s subconscious was reminding him of his father’s words. Once Paul realized that, he was able to change his mindset and has been able to ask for referrals comfortably. Changing your core belief You have to let go of the core beliefs instilled in your brain that keep you from becoming more successful. After training, you may change for a week but you’ll revert to old habits if you don’t address the underlying belief that’s keeping you from changing your mindset. You want to be able to show up to your meetings with the consistent confidence that comes from permanent and sustainable change. Many people have a variety of skill sets but there tends to be a tendency to focus on their weaker areas. It keeps them from realizing their strengths and stepping out as their best selves. When you can get to the core reasons why these weaknesses turn up, they can be addressed and conquered. If you don't address the underlying negative belief systems, you'll revert back to those old behaviors and still be stuck. #SalesGoals Launching the NeuroBoosterz App Umar has been helping people find their true potential by providing them with the necessary tools in his app, NeuroBoosterz. He has created audio tracks that use applied neuroscience to take his clients through a thought process that improves their subconscious outlook. It helps people change their mindset exactly when they need it to help them show up as stronger and more powerful individuals in whatever situation needs a boost of confidence. The app comes in several categories including: Sales Mindset Confidence and Motivation Life’s Ups and Downs Health and Wellness Transformation Sleep and Relaxation A free sample on his app is called Mind Movie. When a person goes to a sales meeting, Umar asks them how confident they are that they’re going to do great in their appointment. The Mind Movie will get you to really think about what you want to accomplish in your next meeting. It will get you to think at a much higher level and see how you can improve what you’re about to do. NeuroBoosterz is grounded in a science that helps you learn a technique to take charge of your mind. Sales Success Story with NeuroBoosterz Doug Miller was a successful salesma

Equaling The Playing Field For Women In Sales Sales used to be a man’s world, used to. The same can’t be said now because women have found their place in the sales industry as well. Lorraine Ferguson is one of the great saleswomen. She started her career in the industry in the mid-eighties by working for a startup company. Like many women, she didn’t see herself as a salesperson but her job for the startup company called for it and Lorraine ended up joining a team of salesmen. Lorraine’s challenges Lorraine was young and inexperienced so she did what she could by imitating what she saw the salesmen were doing. With so much pressure sales, the job didn’t seem appealing. Sales were all about making the deal and sharing the benefits and features of the products and services. Lorraine did what she could but the biggest challenge wasn’t selling. It was her gender. Lorraine felt that she wasn’t taken seriously and several times during a negotiation, she was asked to bring in her boss. It wasn’t just her lack of experience and knowledge that became a challenge. She was also conducting herself based on the way she was raised. She was taught that being a good girl meant being accommodating, knowing her place, and waiting her turn. Lorraine didn’t immediately realize that she was carrying all these lessons as she became a sales person. When somebody told her to jump, she’d say, “How high?” She just wasn’t being treated as an equal and she wasn’t acting like one. Women and sales People have developed a negative view towards sales, women included. It’s not a career you immediately want to join or take a part in. This is the mindset that many people have toward sales. Women are also not told encouraged to join sales as a potential career, especially by your guidance counselor. People don’t typically see sales as an option. Another reason why women don’t perceive sales as a possible career is the hiring process. Men are still the favored gender because the majority of the sales leader positions are occupied by men. Women aren’t seen as a fit for sales. A lot of people look at sales as a stepping stone or last resort. It’s the mindset that if you’ve got nothing else to do, then try sales. This, of course, isn’t true. There is so much more to sales and it can be a very profitable career. As a profession, it’s very flexible, and women have many natural strengths that are needed by today’s sales professionals. Convincing the saleswoman in you Women can make a big difference in the sales industry for many reasons. They have the right skillset to become successful in this career. It’s not just knowing about the products and services, it’s also about having the natural ability to connect and understand another person. Consumers today are expecting sales people to know about their businesses as much as they know the products and services they sell. Women have the innate ability to connect the dots when trying to understand a problem and how they might solve it. Women are great listeners and asking the right questions is always a good start in a sales conversation. When women talk to their bestfriend, they give their attention and they listen. They also ask tough questions to help their friends solve the problems themselves. This can also be used in sales. Women in sales are bringing a lot to the table because they tend to be more concerned about others than they are for themselves. It’s their nature to put others first. Women tend to like to help others and this is what sales is all about. Other skills women have is their ability to organize and follow through. A woman who wants flexibility, to make their mark, to be a problem solver, and to work on her own schedule is someone who would fit the sales industry perfectly. Work more, hustle more In a male-dominated industry, women have to work harder to prove themselves to the person they are working for. This can be difficult to do but women’s organizational skills help. The truth is that when most sales people think they have a sales process, the reality is that they either have one that doesn’t work or they don’t really have one to begin with. Women make sure to make a roadmap for their sales process. These questions guide and shape the sales system. What should I do? Where am I trying to go? What’s my end game? Women do things in the right order so they have a high predictability of success. A woman with a process will always win over the salesperson who has no real system. She knows how to start a conversation, gain control, and set expectations. A woman with a sales process understands what it is that she needs to uncover to qualify someone. Women couple their natural skills with their sales process so there’s no pressure. It’s conversational and disarmingly honest. Make the change Lorraine had an awakening in her sales career. It was during the time when men dominated the industry and one day, she got angry about being ignored. She decided to make a change and she had an unc

How To Pair Inbound Leads With Sales Triggers For Higher ROI Are you thinking of ways you can pair inbound leads with sales triggers to get a higher ROI? In this episode, we’ll talk about how to do just that. Tukan is the CEO and co-founder of LeadSift. It is an intent data platform for B2B technology companies. Tukan's company helps them identify which accounts and which contacts within the accounts they should be going after based on signals of intent. What is an inbound lead? For Tukan, an inbound lead is anyone who comes into your website and fills out a form on gated content, requests a demo, or in other ways your website offers engagement. Other inbound leads may have come to you, chatted with you and given you their email address. They could have also downloaded your webinar, your ebook, or another offering. If a person requests some form of information from your company, that is considered an inbound lead. There’s a variety of sales triggers, including internal triggers or first party data triggers. These include: The number of pages that were visited Average time they spent on the site Number of downloaded content from the site Number of webinars attended Times they’ve opened an email from you All these are triggers that can offer you insight about how far along your prospects are on the buying journey. Several marketing automation tools such as HubSpot and Marketo provide this information for entrepreneurs. External sales triggers The second type of triggers are the external sales triggers. These are outside your digital properties, not on your landing page and not on your websites. The reality in sales is that less than 1% of your market is coming from your website. Many companies’ activities happen outside of their digital properties. Inbound leads coming from external sources can be broken down to two categories: the company level growth event and the behavioral intent triggers. The company level growth is when other companies get funding to host certain events. These companies may be hiring specific roles or skills whereby your software and services can be used. As for the behavioral intent triggers, these are triggers coming from other people looking into your products and services. Make note of the people who are looking at your competitors and your industry. Helpful questions include: Are they researching our competitors or another third party web? Have they been engaging with content you can pick up? Have they been talking to competitors? Are they asking questions on blogs? Have they mentioned their needs in forums? Challenges of inbound sales Marketing is typically responsible for generating inbound leads and sales people follow up on the leads to create opportunities. However, not all leads are equal and a lot of times, they don’t fit the profile of your ideal clients. Those are easy to spot. Then there are people who fit your target market but that can be where the challenge is because many salespeople mistakenly think of these as equally valuable leads. Based on stats, only 3% of your target is in the market right now. Without external leads and additional knowledge, the sales development team is just sent on a wild goose chase. It is imperative that they pair these ICP fit inbound leads with some triggers to figure out which ones they need to go after first. As they are able to prioritize, armed with the right information, the contacts become more meaningful. Inbound sales that aren’t ready yet can be put on a nurture track. When salespeople are reaching out to them, they can gauge if the timing is right. Salespeople can then follow up when they’re ready to purchase. Pairing inbound leads with triggers There are a lot of tools that try to solve the nuance of pairing inbound leads with triggers but it all boils down to CRM. This is where you can see most of the information you need as a salesperson. When a lead comes in, it is being captured by your automation system. The lead then syncs with your CRM (Salesforce). When the data is already in your CRM, the marketing automation can log within the lead at the account level. This means that the account marketing can analyze the data and look at the kinds of activities the lead does on the account level. You can then add additional plugins to offer additional information from the base data you got from your CRM. The data includes the activities the lead engaged in on your website, if he attended your event in the last 30 days, if a company has used your tools, hired a new executive in the last 90 days, and more. Salespeople can get all this information without much trouble. If they need to do a follow up, the sales rep can just click on the lead and look at their account within the CRM. They can gauge with better accuracy if the lead is worth pursuing based on the data. It is important for salespeople to be trained on how to use CRM so as to avoid following up with leads that won’t turn into a sale. Always look at the account, and not just

How To Qualify Your Prospects In Under 10 Minutes How can a salesperson qualify a lead in under 10 minutes? Jason Swenk can help. He is a self-proclaimed professional Uber driver for his children, who are 13 and 9 years old, but his main job is to work with agency owners grow and create freedom in their company. The downstream sales process The downstream sales process doesn’t start the conversation by immediately selling to a potential client. Launching a meeting by talking about a product is a tactic many sales reps use but it doesn’t often lead to closing. The downstream sales process is more about taking away the risks and making sure that the transaction works for both parties and ensures both parties have good experiences. Mistakes that people often do Oftentimes, people sell their core services right off the bat, and immediately go to the high ticket item regardless if it meets the client’s need. In this scenario a high commission is the goal by trying to capture a major commitment from a client who doesn’t yet see the value in what you’re offering. You’re trying to sell long term or short-term contracts to people who don’t fit the criteria of your ideal client. For long-term gains, you have to know and find your ideal customer. Knowing the profile of your ideal customers takes a while especially if you are just starting out. You need time to figure out who the ideal client is so you don’t waste time or resources. Conversing with clients who aren’t actually your ideal customers is akin to flirting with someone who you were never meant to have a relationship with. This is caused by both desperation and misplaced optimism, which can be common in sales. Another mistake that salespeople can make is the failure to ask questions. Salespeople tend to keep talking with statements and forget that the most valuable aspects of the conversation will come from the client answering their questions. Asking a prospect questions will reveal their pain points, the impact of the problems on their business, and how these problems make them feel. Identifying the right people It is important to identify what kind of client you want to work with and getting to know what their biggest challenges are. For example, say you’re an agency that wants to work with lawyers. Which lawyers are you really going after? Go for a specific type of lawyer. For example, personal injury attorneys. After that, take it a step further, and decide to work with personal injury lawyers who are doing pay-per-click paid advertising After you have the most specific profile you can get, it’s time to make a call. When you do, don’t offer everything, just offer a sneak peek. Sell it as a foot-in-the-door service. This strategy takes the pressure off of the new sales guy and the prospects as well. This benefits both parties because you’re not asking for more than just a small, simple commitment. You’re giving them a slice of the pie instead of giving them the whole pie without even knowing if they like it or not. To join you, you’re client gets three options: Identify everything you’re doing and lay-out a plan you can execute Lay out a plan, love it, and we will help you out. Hate the plan and we give you your money back so that you have nothing to lose. Fixing the problem A great salesperson thinks two steps ahead. This means that as you are in a meeting, you are already setting up the next one. As you’re walking your potential clients through the front door, help them feel they are already partners in building the plan with you. The next part in the process is fixing the problem through this plan you’re laying out together. Your prospect will already be bought in because they’re helping to create it. When they give the go signal to start the project, everybody on the team should work on it together. This is important in the downstream process because the client is seeing the results. When they start seeing the success from the original plan, the sales person then needs to go back to the client and see what other needs can be taken care of. For example: “Hey! I’m glad you’re getting results. You know, there are a couple of other things that we could do in order to really accelerate this. Are you open to having a conversation about that?” Since you’ve already earned their trust, you now have the opportunity to pitch your year-to-year retainer and they can still cancel anytime. This foot-in-the-door process is effective since clients are 10 times more likely to pay you again if they’ve already had a successful transaction with you. You’re going to close the deal a lot quicker because what you’re offering is less risky since they’ve already gotten to see a positive outcome. You start at entry level and build from there. Know that some organizations won’t change and adopt this foot-in-the-door process. If you’re a sales rep working for one of these organizations you have two options. You may decide to try to change the organization or look for another organ

Best Sellers In History Recap The Best Sellers in History has been a hit and we’ve been doing it for the last few months. We have highlighted individuals and classified them as the best sellers throughout history. Over the course of the series, we’ve talked about: Who they are What made them great at selling What separated them from everyone else How we can take those ideas and apply them to our selling career The Recap In this series, Donald has talked about several individuals who made their mark. They were influential and persuasive people who were able to make a difference in their lifetimes. We’ve talked about Jesus Christ, Oprah Winfrey, Reginald F Lewis, Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, Benjamin Franklin, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Abraham Lincoln. They were amazing sales people even though they weren’t in sales for a living. For example, Abraham Lincoln wasn’t a salesman but he did sell a major idea. Abraham Lincoln - sold the whole country on the idea of unity and the need to abolish slavery. Mother Teresa - sold to the Catholic church the idea of leaving the convent and personally helping the needy to create her own ministry. Mahatma Gandhi - sold to the whole country the idea of a peaceful revolution. Martin Luther King Jr. - sold the idea of civil disobedience. Harriet Tubman - sold to people the idea of running away toward freedom, despite the danger They all had vision All of the individuals we’ve discussed are tied to a vision we are still talking about today. Websters defines vision as a thought, concept or object formed by the imagination. You can have a vision but that doesn’t necessarily mean your vision is going to compel people to take action. For people to join you, your vision must reveal and alleviate the pain. If people understand how your vision can help them, they will want to know more and be more compelled to come alongside. People need to understand why they should sacrifice their time, effort, and resources for your vision. Martin Luther King Jr., illustrated this beautifully in his speech, I Have a Dream. He didn’t offer a detailed plan of execution, Martin Luther King Jr. simply stated his vision and invited our imaginations to join him in a better world. Sell a dream, sell a vision If you want to become a great salesperson, you too must be able to learn to sell a dream. As scripts are recycled, sales reps are saying the same things. How are you going to stand out in the way you communicate with your prospects? By recognizing your clients’ pain points and offering a vision of what life would be like without these challenges. Here’s an example: “60% of what your sales reps are doing today are non-sales related activities and will not generate business for your organization. Based on what you’re paying them, that could cost you anywhere from $2000 to $5000 in wasted resources, not to mention lost opportunities. If we can demonstrate how we have helped other organizations like yourself show their sales reps how to become more productive and increase sales by 30 to 40% per rep. would you be open to learning more about that?” You can do this in the form of a video or a phone call. Regardless of the platform you use, be able to paint a picture for your prospect. Speak about the pain that most sales leaders and other businesses face. Help the culture change within the organization by making them see the problem, quantifying their pain, and helping them see how bad it impacts their business. You are giving them a vision of what life could be like for their organization if they keep going in the same direction. As the sales rep, show up as the solution. It’s a fact that not everyone will buy into your vision, just like the other individuals we’ve talked about in this series. The greatest sales people in history faced opposition but they showed up and they were brave. Be brave. Do not fear the challenge The second lesson from this series is to not fear the challenge of going against the status quo or your own organization. When organizations find themselves in a rut , they can do the same things over and over again even if they’re still not seeing positive results. Disrupt the rhythm by showing how you can provide the opportunity for these systems to get better. When you offer change, be respectful and be ready to show the data. Stand out from other sales reps by being prepared and taking chances. Welcoming the new series The new series will be coming in after the month of March. We will be focusing on SaaS and we’ll be interviewing individuals who are in the SaaS world. This series is called BDR, business development representatives and it’ll be rolling out by April. We’ll be getting on people from Donald’s team. It’s almost like a reality TV show and they are going to talk about their journey and experiences as salespeople and how they were able to become successful. This series may run for six episodes and will be posted and played every Wednesday. “Best Seller In Hi

Selling SaaS To Doctors vs. Selling Traditional SaaS SaaS stands for Software as a Service. In this episode, Justin Welsh will teach us how to sell SaaS to doctors and how the language in these transactions can be applied in other areas of selling. Although Justin Welsh is an accomplished seller, he is also a buyer who makes note of his purchasing experiences. He recalls one such experience, about eighteen months ago, when he went to the Atlantic Center Terminal to buy a new TV. He and his wife had just moved to a new apartment and Justin wanted a large 60” TV so he could enjoy college football. He went to the store and told the salesman exactly what he needed. The salesman, however, had other plans. Justin no sooner had asked about the 60” TV before he was hearing about 65”, 67”, and 72” inches TV. Justin was even taken over to the curved and 3D TVs. Justin admits he was a little intimidated by such an aggressive sales tactic. He’d just wanted to get the TV he was ready to purchase so he and his friends could enjoy the game. He didn’t buy a TV that day. The good salesman Justin, still needing a TV, eventually went back to the store and had a very different experience. A different salesman approached and asked Justin what he needed. Again, Justin said that he was interested in a 60’’ TV. Instead of being shown the selection right away, he was asked a series of questions relevant to what he wanted. How big is your room? What angle do you watch the game from? Where are the windows in your room? How much light do you have in the room? At the end of that conversation, the salesman told him that he didn’t actually need a 60-inch TV, and that a 55-inch TV would work better for the space he had available. The salesman had considered Justin’s needs based on the information given to him and showed Justin he had his best interest at heart. As a result, Justin was able to buy a 55-inch TV that was $300 below his budget. You can bet Justin will be looking for that salesman the next time he’s shopping again. So who is Justin Welsh? Justin Welsh is the Vice-President of Sales at a tech company called Patient Pop where he manages a strategy team of 30 people. In the last couple of years, they have grown about 400% and has become one of the fastest growing software as a service (SaaS) healthcare platforms. They have defined a new category of software called Software Category Practice Growth Platform. It essentially integrates with healthcare professionals to their electronic medical records and practice management systems. Patient Pop’s role is to manage the patient experience from the first impression online until the patient is in the exam room. The software picks up again after treatment. They manage and nurture the patient relationship to ensure that the patient continues to be a customer in the practice. Patient Pop is a tremendous opportunity to redefine and reshape the way that patients experience healthcare today. The basics of SaaS Conducting a pharma sale is different from the usual product selling. In pharma sales, a sales rep goes into a doctor’s office where the doctor is the expert. They are the ones who know how to treat the patients. Pharma sales reps are looking at a healthcare discussion. They meet a doctor, discuss the drug they represent, discuss a treatment plan, the patient profile, and more. Their job is to be an influencer. You’re doing a good job when the doctors think about your product when they see a patient with the profile need that was outlined in the sales meeting. You want them to remember the drug and write the prescription for that drug. Selling software is different. In selling the software, it’s the sales rep who is the expert. They don’t help doctors treat their patients better from a medical perspective. The software addresses the business side of the office. In order to talk to a doctor about his business, you need to be an expert, not just in selling, but about the product itself. Having the right approach As a sales rep with expertise, when Justin approaches his doctors, he doesn’t just reveal the pain points. He makes sure clients are being approached with respect and discusses how his company can add value. He knows that it’s mission critical to do research on potential clients,and study a healthcare provider’s online presence, so he can show up with solutions from that first conversation. For example, Justin’s team wants to talk to Dr. Smith so they do a thorough analysis on his private practice online to see the gaps in his strategies. A sales rep from his team then makes an initial call and says, “Hi, Dr. Smith. I know you’re busy but really quickly, I was doing some research on your practice in terms of your online presence and I came across three specific things that I thought might be interesting to you… This is why I’m calling your practice specifically. What I found is ___, ____, ____. Were you aware of these things? I’m not sure if those three things are impactful to wha

Three Sales Principles I Learned While Visiting Jamaica Donald Kelly, our podcast host, recently traveled back to his home country, Jamaica. The trip was beautiful and an eye-opener. In watching the work ethic and ingenuity of the Jamaican people, Donald learned 3 key principles that can be used by sellers in the U.S. and abroad. His experience in Jamaica can strengthen and help sales professionals to persevere in their roles. Jamaica is a beautiful country. It has beaches and looks to be a people with an easy-going lifestyle. People picture Jamaica as a beautiful country but the way it looks doesn’t tell the whole story. It has its fair share of challenges too, just like any other country. The average salary of an individual is $149,000 (Jamaican dollar). That’s $138.72 in the US. People have to learn how to live off a meager income. While it’s not easy, they are still able to make it work. Parents are still able to send their kids to school to get a great education. Principle 1: Sell lemons Despite its current economic state, Jamaica has a high-quality education system. The challenge is to translate that education into opportunities for the graduates. Many receive their education and leave Jamaica so they have a greater chance to apply their degrees to a career. To do that, they must go to western countries to look for opportunities. Once established in their work, they are able to send money to their families back home. This is the way they can continue to help with their communities even if they aren’t there. There are a few who choose to stay but it’s not guaranteed there will be jobs available for kids who graduate from college. There are many things to do after finishing your education, such as paying a mortgage, bills to pay and more. In Jamaica, though, they know that if life gives you lemons, sell it and buy food. Because of tough conditions, Jamaicans are very creative and crafty. This is the spirit of the Jamaican people. They know how to make the best out of hardship. They are willing to go through the difficulties and have a good time while going through it. They know how to have fun using music. Jamaicans don’t whine about their situation. Whenever a tough situation comes their way, they figure out how to make it better. As a sales professional, there may be times when it feels like your situation is dire but you have options. You can be your greatest catalyst for change. You may feel you don’t have enough leads but the only way around it is to take what you have and make it work. The ability to create something out of nothing is powerful. In the United States, there are lots of opportunities but you have to have grit and be clever. Principle 2: Outwork everyone Donald was partly raised by his aunt when his mother came to the United States looking for opportunities. It wasn’t always easy. They had their fair share of struggles. His aunt went back and forth to the US and Jamaica. She’d buy items and products from the West and brought them back to Jamaica to sell. Donald’s aunt and his cousins would spend the night setting up the shop and watching over the products. They slept outside the marketplace and would take turns selling. They all hustled together. Everyone in the family was part of the business. What Donald saw in his family taught him to outwork everyone else. People who didn’t stay in the market at night didn’t get the prime positions in the morning. They didn’t have the same opportunities to sell because they had taken it easy. As a sales professional, you have to out-hustle everyone else. Most importantly, you need to outrun and out-hustle the person you were yesterday. If you closed $5,000 yesterday, then close at $6,000 today. Sometimes we look at others’ pacing and want to run with them without looking at their experience. We don’t look at their length of service. You become better when you beat your old self, not someone else. That’s how you’re going to be better in the long run. Principle 3: Be happy Learning to be happy and content with who you are is important. A $500 income a month doesn’t go far in Jamaica, and it would certainly be a struggle in the US. No matter how poor people are in Jamaica, however, they know how to be happy and take care of themselves. Whatever happens, at the end of the day, you’re still breathing so take the time to count your blessings: the people in your life, the provision, the shelter, the transportation, the food, running water, and so much more. There are many different things you can look to in life to be grateful for. Successful people didn’t become successes overnight. Their success took years in the making. Moving toward your own success, you can either do it whining and complaining or you can enjoy your life along the way. The latter seems like a better choice. Live life, love life. Be grateful for your family, for your health, for your loved ones. While money is important, it’s not everything. There are far more important things than ma

The Best Sellers in History Series 10 - “Oprah Winfrey” Welcome to yet another episode for the Best Sellers in History series. For this episode, we are featuring one of the most influential individuals in our century. She isn’t only known among the African-American community. Her fame reaches worldwide and this individual is now worth over $3.5 billion. She started from nothing but didn’t let that stop her as she overcame obstacles all the way to success and influence. She is Oprah Winfrey Sales Spotlight - Oprah Winfrey Oprah Winfrey was born on January 29th, 1954 and her parents are Vernita Lee and Vernon Winfrey. She grew up in a humble community where she was raised by her grandmother on a farm. Oprah entertained herself by playing and acting in front of an imaginary audience. She had her first speaking gig in front of the congregation at church, where she spoke about Jesus and how he rose up from the dead on Easter Sunday. It was the beginning of her knowledge that this was something she could do. She’d listen when sisters in the congregation would tell her grandmother how talented and gifted Oprah was. Oprah heard it over and over again and she eventually believed it. Her grandmother was strict and forced her to learn how to read by the time she was three. When she was in kindergarten, she wrote a letter to her teacher telling her why she deserved to be in the first grade. She eventually skipped another grade was in third grade when she had to move to Milwaukee with her mother. Growing up in a difficult environment It was difficult as they lived in some poor and dangerous circumstances; however, being Oprah, she didn’t focus on the negative things. She kept moving, living, and enjoying life. When she turned 12, she moved to Nashville, Tennessee to live with her father. She began writing speeches for social gatherings and churches. At one point, she earned $500 for a speech! It was then Oprah knew that she wanted to become an orator and get paid for speaking. Unfortunately, she had to go back to her mother’s home and the dire circumstances strained the mind of young Oprah. She became disobedient and problematic. At 9, Oprah was being sexually assaulted by men she knew, even family. This eventually led to an early pregnancy and losing a baby. She was around 14 years of age when she was sent back home to her father. Having structure and expectation Oprah’s father was very different from her mom. With her father, Oprah was given structure and the expectation that she would not perform below what she was capable of. She became an excellent student and participated in several school activities. Her track record helped her get a scholarship to Tennessee State University. She was invited to the White House the following year for a youth conference. Oprah would also be crowned Miss Fire Prevention by a local Nashville radio station, WVOL. She didn’t think she’d win because there were other girls that looked more like “typical” pageant girls. At one point, they were asked a question about what they would do if they received $1 million. Oprah’s answer was authentic and from the heart and the judges took notice. Oprah then went on to study journalism and worked for some radio stations. People liked her so she was then brought over to do television and eventually had her own talk show. Through all these experiences, Oprah Winfrey is the woman she is today. Oprah Winfrey was successful because of five key elements: Relatable and knowing how to build relationships Creativity and willingness to act in difficult circumstances Hard worker Thinking big and pushing herself Being selfless Relatable and knew how to build relationships When Oprah first got into the industry, she wanted to be like Barbara Walters. Oprah would imitate Barbara and wanted to be as great at her job. It would take practice. In one situation, she was reporting a story and reading from a script. Oprah was reading the names of places and read Canada as “kah-nay-da.”. On air, she acknowledged her mistake and corrected herself. Oprah was told not to talk about her mistakes on air but Oprah did the opposite. She made fun of herself and made herself vulnerable. She knew that she couldn’t be perfect and there was no point in trying to pretend she was.. She wanted to be real with her audience. Oprah was also empathetic to the people she was asked to interview and chose not to pressure people who were going through a difficult time. Producers were upset because she wasn’t interviewing people like other reporters. She would see them in their humanity, grieving over the loss of a family member or how they’d their homes in a fire. Oprah also didn’t have a fear of embarrassment. Because she didn’t have that fear, she was able to do what she needed to do. She was comfortable with being vulnerable and it made her easy to connect to. People could relate to her and that encouraged people to listen to her, and to talk to her. When her story of abuse was released by

How To Train Salespeople That Aren’t Natural Salespeople Getting training as a salesperson is part of the process and it is especially important for those individuals where selling doesn’t come naturally. How do you shape them to become great salespeople? John Martinez is a sales trainer and has been training salespeople exclusively for about six years. Before that, he’d had a sales career for over 20 years. Working in corporate America training and building sales teams, he eventually decided to leave to start his own sales training company. Becoming a great salesperson With proper training, anyone can learn the skills to get better at their job and sales is no exception. Not all salespeople are born for sales but with the right exposure and training, a skillset can be gained to excel. In these cases, one needs the desire to develop the strategies to help them overcome the inevitable hurdles and challenges that can come with a career in sales. John wasn’t a natural-born salesperson himself. He had a speech problem growing up and the only person who could understand him was his mother. In sixth grade, he was in therapy five days a week. He was also getting bullied at school so for his own safety, he just learned to blend in. How to train salespeople When training new salespeople, great training doesn’t start with sales tactics and strategies. It starts with the belief system. The sales team needs to know why they sell what they sell and do what they do. People are often held back because they don’t want to be pushy. No one wants to be in an uncomfortable situation, whether they are the sales person or the prospect. Unfortunately, most sales processes are taught in a way that puts salespeople in an awkward position and they get stuck in a battle with their discomfort. John starts with the basics and teaches salespeople to believe in what they do. When they’ve built up enough trust in themselves, John teaches them the strategies and tactics that make conversations comfortable again. The training process: John’s sales training is done once a week with teams from around the country. They spend about 45 minutes talking about the why and work toward getting a complete buy-in on the sales strategy. Another 10 minutes is spent on starting to reverse the paradigm. 95% of the sales training is about getting sales reps to understand why they do the things they do and say the things they say. Salespeople can fail to be successful because they don’t understand the reasons behind what they are told to do. Even when others do understand, they still may not completely buy into the concept. The why is more important than the how because the how can always be taught. Becoming a trainer John’s choice of being a sales trainer comes from personal experience. While he was successful in training, there was still a shift that occurred between failing and succeeding in his career. The shift came from learning that he could succeed if he followed a step-by-step process. He learned he didn’t have to be a natural salesperson to excel in what he is doing. John is invested in helping other salespeople find their way. His mission is to give them the process and to help business owners equip their team to become more successful. His training not only helps salespeople find their way but it also helps their prospects get the help they truly need. The need for a compelling reason It is normal to be knocked down and face challenges. Hurdles are expected in sales. Having a compelling reason to keep going helps to keep you grounded and it will propel you forward. This vision is important because it is capable of getting you through the tough times. Without a vision, it is much more difficult to stay motivated. Without a vision and a skillset the chances of bail-out greatly increases. Scripting is part of John’s process. John thinks of sales scripts as training wheels. New salespeople need to start somewhere and scripting is a good introduction. Once the basics are modeled, over time sales people will find their own voice and develop their own conversations. John’s initial scripts help new trainees find their balance. He urges salespeople to read between the lines to find their own way. In John’s training, they script deal-breaker moments that could prevent closing well. Compelling reasons why prospects may hesitate to work with the sales person are also looked at. It’s this information that creates the foundation of questions that can help move through tougher conversations. They prepare six-seven questions that will help connect the dots between the prospect’s problems and finding the answers through the products and services being offered.. John then creates a sales playbook with 10-15 questions that can be used by his clients when working with their customers. Laying the foundations Having a strong foundation helps. If you give new salespeople too much information at one time, it can set them up for failure. Start small and slowly build the

How To Develop An Unstoppable Drive To Sales Success Salespeople and startup entrepreneurs all strive to have an unstoppable drive toward sales success; however, this isn’t an easy feat. There are hurdles to face before that success can be attained. How do you get the unstoppable drive to sales success? Dre Baldwin was a professional basketball player. He graduated from Penn State and played overseas for nine years across eight different countries. He is now an author and speaker. Dre creates programs for both athletes and non-athletes and does coaching and consulting, among his many jobs. He is also considered as an influencer with YouTube views of over 40 million. The beginning of his basketball career Dre started playing basketball at the later age of fourteen. With other players starting out much earlier, many were better than he was and had a greater skill set. With this in mind, he knew the only way for him to get better and earn their respect was to do more than everybody else was doing. He practiced way before others were coming to the court. While people started playing when the sun went down, he started playing between 10 AM to 4 PM, when it was too hot for others to join him. He didn’t have a coach or a mentor so there was no one he could ask for help. He had to drive himself to improve. Dre went on to college and tried out for the basketball team as a walk-on. Fortunately, he had improved enough to be recruited in his freshman year and by summer, he was invited to go to another Penn State branch that was a NCAA division three school. Developing the drive Many success stories have a rags to riches origin story but that wasn’t Dre’s case. He grew up comfortably with both parents. When you’re comfortable, where does the drive come from that pushes you to do better? For Dre, it was seeing the success of people who’d truly had rags to riches stories, like 50 Cent and Jay Z. Dre’s favorite entertainer is the rapper 50 Cent who was shot nine times and almost died. 50 Cent ended up making it big in the industry, working hard to get out of the ghetto and into a glamorous life. Jay Z came from the projects, didn’t know his father, was selling drugs on the streets, and became wildly successful as a rapper. These people grew up in some of the worse situations but they turned their lives around. You might ask yourself how you can have the same success story by finding ways to motivate yourself to do better. Having the force within Many people have to find the drive within themselves to strive for better. You have to force yourself to find inspiration and get motivated. Dre works hard and keeps himself motivated to strive harder. He’s published books on self-discipline and he’s talked about it on podcasts and a variety of other platforms. Knowing that he’s created so much content himself, he realizes that information is available if you’re driven to apply it. How to move into success isn’t a secret. Being successful is more about your willingness to show up and take action over and over again. The lies keeping you from success The most common lie that keeps people from realizing success is I can’t do this because ________ and they fill in the blank with all kinds of reasons. The other lie is I need more information. This is something that we hear a lot. More often than not, people already have the steps and the training but they’re just not sure if they’re doing it correctly. This is especially true if they are looking at other people who are doing it differently. We need to understand that not everything works immediately. Starting the process doesn’t mean immediate success. In the same way that buying an SEO online course doesn’t mean that your website will rank number one within a week. You need to put in the work over and over again. Success is not a matter of what you’ve done or what you’re doing in the moment, it’s a matter of showing up and doing it repeatedly. When you don’t see immediate success you don’t have to question all the information you’ve gathered and go back to information-gathering mode. You must take action and not stop. Taking the leap Dre’s basketball team in college got a new coach and he wanted new players. Dre was kept on the team initially but was eventually let go. He didn’t play basketball the last year and a half he went to school. When he got his degree, he went back home to Philadelphia and his parents asked him what he was doing next .He told them that he was going to play professional basketball. At this point, his parents hadn’t gotten to him play. He was 22 years old with a degree in business but he was choosing to play basketball. It made no sense. When he graduated, Dre had no resume or experience and that became his drive. He went to an exposure camp, where you bring your sports gear and play against other players. This is where you prove your worth in front of coaches, managers, agent scouts, power brokers in eSports, and other power players. Dre got a video from the c

Best Sellers In History Series - "Harriet Tubman" It’s another episode from the Best Sellers in History series. This month, we will be focusing on African American individuals who have been very persuasive. One such individual was Harriet Tubman, also known as the Black Moses. Harriet was born as a slave but managed to escape and rescue more than 300 slaves. In this episode, we’ll focus on why Harriet was so successful in convincing people to leave the life of slavery, even if getting caught meant death. Sales on Spotlight - Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman was born as Emerita Ross in March 1822. The exact date was never known because a slave’s birth date wasn’t recorded. Slaves were considered property and weren’t valued as individuals. She was born in Dorchester County, Maryland and growing up, she was beaten and whipped by her masters. There was one incident Harriet endured when a slave owner threw a heavy metal object at another slave and hit Harriet instead. This injury caused a scar she would wear the rest of her life and she suffered hypersomnia as a result. Harriet had a Methodist upbringing and was deeply religious. That faith helped carry her through the worst times of her life. Harriet escaped to Philadelphia in 1894 and immediately returned to Maryland to rescue her family. She brought slaves out of Maryland, one group at a time, into a life of freedom in Philadelphia. This is how she got the nickname “Moses” from the other slaves. They saw her as bringing people out of slavery and leading them to the promised land. She was a modern-day Moses who used the Underground Railroad to save hundreds of people. Drive to help others When the Fugitive Act was passed in 1850, Harriet could no longer bring escaped slaves to the northern states. This didn’t deter her, however. Instead, she went further north and brought them all the way to Canada. There, she helped them settle as free people and they were able to experience building their own lives. During the Civil War, she became an armed scout and spy. She was actually the first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war. Included in her tasks was to raid a Combahee ferry which liberated over 700 slaves. After the war, she retired to her home in Auburn, New York and cared for her aging parents. Even after her impressive feats during the Civil War, she kept fighting for rights and this time, it was in women's suffrage. She was an impeccable icon for courage and freedom. When Harriet Tubman made a decision she stuck to her guns. Harriet Tubman’s persuasiveness made an impact on history. It was the following five traits that made Harriet Tubman a force to be reckoned with. Vision Cause and bravery Selfless Passion and strong drive Creative Having the Vision Like all the other individuals talked about in this series, Harriet Tubman had a vision. Regardless of what your role is in the sales industry, you need a vision of what you want your life to look like. This vision is the hope that pushes you when things get hard. Harriet didn’t always have a vision for a better life. She was just trying to survive from one day to the next and hold onto hope. Her religious upbringing helped to keep her hope alive. Jesus Christ and God gave them hope that they’d eventually be saved and delivered from slavery, in this life or beyond To fortify one another, the slaves would meet in secret and sing songs to signal one another about where the meeting would be held. At these meetings they started to discuss other slaves who had runaways to the North and were living a free life. They began to hear about the underground railroad. The catalyst of Harriet’s change of vision Harriet only knew the life of a slave, not a life of freedom. She didn’t grow up thinking she could own anything or make choices for her own life. Hearing the stories about freed slaves inspired Harriet and it awakened a vision. At the time, Harriet was married to a free man and when their slave master died, her family had the option of running away or getting sold to another master. With the vision of freedom firmly planted in her mind, Harriet talked to her husband about running away. He opposed the idea and even threatened to tell someone about Harriet wanting to run. Like many people, her husband feared change. Even though he was free, he didn’t feel free. He still had the mindset of a slave. Be the mastermind As a salesperson, you need to protect your mind and only surround yourself with people who are there to elevate your vision. Harriet could have stayed and shut her vision down, but instead, she moved toward people who elevated and encouraged her. She listened to the people who told her stories about freedom in the North. Even when her husband opposed her idea and others told her it was dangerous, she still went. Salespeople need to be the mastermind of their thoughts and actions. Make sure that you have a vision, regardless of what your vision may be. It just has to be something you want to reach for an

Three Things Small Businesses Get Wrong When Marketing Businesses often make mistakes in their marketing campaigns and as a result, don’t maximize their exposure. Let’s discuss how strategic decisions about your online presence can make a bigger impact. Stephen Hart is the host of the Trailblazers.fm podcast and is also a digital brand strategist. Stephen enhances marketing and communications for a global software firm by coaching individuals and businesses to improve their own brand. Through his experience, Stephen is seeing the need for people to address their brand presence and their digital footprint. It’s important for your brand to represent your product well and this is done by your prospects associating your online presence with a reputation of quality.. Digitally sophisticated People today are more digitally sophisticated. Employers and consumers often end up going to Google or asking Alexa and Siri for answers to their questions. The same is true when consumers are looking for products or services. They research and ask relevant questions using social platforms before making a final purchasing decision. People look at company websites, verified reviews online, the company’s social platform, and their customer service and support. People want confirmation online long before they ever speak to their first salesperson. There are many touchpoints that consumers look for and by the time they make the decision to meet a product or service rep, most of them have already made up their minds. Five key areas of branding Branding is critical because it’s a visual representation that lets the consumer know what you and your company are all about. Stephen has five key elements that entrepreneurs should consider to define their personal brand. These 5 elements that will help your digital presence include: Color Font Mood and vibe Logo Voice or the tone of your written content Colors in branding Color is important because it’s one of the elements that offer people the first impressions about your brand presence. Research has shown that people make a judgment within 90 seconds based on color tone alone. This is especially important for salespeople and business professionals with a global touch who are dealing with people from a variety of cultural and religious backgrounds. There are websites that can help you decide what color palette works best with your vision. Think about two or three colors that set the tone, and an additional one or two colors you might use as an accent. The website can help you work out these different combinations. Hex Code The hex code is a hexadecimal code that refers to the specific color that you want to choose. You can use this hex code to have a consistent color for your brand. You can document your six-digit color code throughout different platforms so you’re consistently getting the right color and shade.. This will come in handy when making PowerPoint presentations, images in Canva, and more. Just type in the hex code and your color will automatically appear. Even beyond your website, the colors you should choose should carry into your social media. Use them when you create motivational graphics for your social media posts and other areas you want a digital footprint. You want to create a cohesive visual feel across all platforms. This trains people to think of you when they see your color combinations. Be involved in building your brand While it may be a good idea to have experts and professionals handle the execution of your branding campaign, it is equally important to be involved in building your personal brand. It’s important that the final product accurately and authentically reflects the message you want to portray. Suggest color and tone so you can give the experts a launching pad and a sense of the energy you’re trying to create. Focus on the personality of your brand as well. What kind of message do you want to convey? If it’s hard to see with clarity, consider creating a visual mood board. Similar to a vision board, your mood board will be the place you can put images that capture the tone and the vibe of your business, and you. The more specific your vision is, the easier it will be for your marketing team to put a package together that will make your brand stand out from your competition. Another thing to consider is the tone and the voice in which you write your copy throughout your website, social media, and marketing tools. Is it playful, technical, serious? Make sure you have a consistent voice that reads the same, across the board, to avoid consumer confusion about what they can expect from your business. Branding is the promise you're making to your customer. #PersonalBrand Optimize Your Profiles Your social media accounts are mission critical for your brand. With that in mind, make sure you optimize your profile. Use a profile picture that can be found on all platforms, duplicate your cover photos from your website, and use uniform fonts and colors to show con

Abundance Now: Amplify Your Life & Achieve Prosperity Today We all want to amplify our lives and achieve prosperity. Entrepreneurs want to prosper in their business, but how is that achieved? Sales professionals all have the desire to be successful. The definition of the word can be pretty broad and it may differ from one salesperson to another. Lisa Nichols is a transformational coach and her clients achieve massive succes through her use of education, motivation, and inspiration. Getting to Know Lisa Nichols Lisa Nichols was academically challenged in school. She had a difficult time learning and in her twenties discovered she’s functionally dyslexic. While she gets by, she’s slower than most. C was her highest grade in school and she was told she was the weakest writer her English teacher had ever met. Even her speech teacher said, “Ms. Nichols, I recommend that you never speak in public. Get a desk job.” Education was challenging and when she had her son, she had to get government assistance. She applied for WIC (Women, Infant, Children), an organization that gives out free cheese, pasta, milk, and other necessities. There were a couple of days she had to wrap her infant son in a blanket because she hadn’t had enough money for diapers. Why? There wasn’t enough in her bank account to make a twenty dollar withdrawal. That was her all-time low. She was broke and broken and in that state, she learned a valuable lesson. When you’re broke, you’ve just got to figure out how to make money. But when you’re broken, you have to figure out how to be inspired enough to get up and go do something. The beginning When she hit rock bottom, she made a decision to reinvent every part of her. Lisa was willing to become unfamiliar with every part of her journey so that she could become familiar with everything new. She wanted to explore her potential and know who she could be. That was the beginning of how she became the woman she is today. What is abundance? People tend to look at abundance in just two ways - monetary and assets. These things are part of abundance but it doesn’t show the total pictures. Money and assets fall under wealth and wealth is just a slice of the abundance pie. Abundance is a 360 experience and most people fail to see how abundance differs from wealth until they’ve achieved some level of wealth. When wealth is achieved, they realize they want to have abundance. Abundance is not only having wealth and assets. It’s only fully achieved when you also have good health, great relationships, and a spiritual center. Instead of just going for wealth, you might as well go for abundance. #SalesProsperity Lisa works with wealthy people who are fiscally in the top 1% but she’s not coaching them to achieve wealth. She's helping them to achieve abundance. Many people believe that it can only be achieved because of a particular zip code or nationality but the truth is, abundance is everyone’s birthright. Anyone can achieve abundance. The limiting belief Every so often, we live with a limiting belief that was embedded in us from an early age. It can come down through the generations, come from the gender we live in, start from our geographical origin, come from our cultural origin, or from our spiritual background. Carrying limiting beliefs can hinder your future. Salespeople need to let go of these limiting beliefs. When you move toward a more positive, abundant mindset, you will see your world start to shift for the better. How do we begin? The first thing is to feed yourself with better mental food. This will help you produce a different emotional and physical outcome. Learning something new enables you to do something new and when you are doing something new, you also produce something new. Getting abundance Many think they’re getting a good picture of what they want by repeating what they don’t want. The truth is, the more you spend energy thinking about what you don’t want, the more you’re living a contracted experience. Energy grows where energy goes. You are a creator, an artist. You lead where your energy follows. Ask yourself, how far out are you planning? Think about what you want your future to look like in 5 years. Create a plan then work that plan. Most people are living without having created a plan. Ensure that you are being an abundant thinker and live your life intentionally with a plan in mind. As you look five years ahead, ask yourself these questions: What are you driving? Where are you living? What’s the balance of your bank account on a monthly basis? How many vacations are you taking a year? What does your relationship with your children look like? Your spouse? How many times a week do you engage with your parents? How often are you praying? Be specific about the details. Remember that it may not happen exactly that way, but now you have a plan, even if you have to tweak it along the way. Based on your five-year plan, figure out your three-year plan. You will notice the alignment of your pla

Best Sellers In History Series 8 - "Reginald F. Lewis" This episode of the Best Sellers in History series is different from the other episodes we’ve had. We are going to do an interview not with the person himself, but with his friend, Lin Hart. He wrote a book about a period of Reginald Lewis’ life. As we talk to Lin, we discover how Reginald was able to inspire us to achieve our goals and become great sellers as well. Knowing Lin Hart Lin had a great experience when he was still a customer, back when he first purchased his own computer. His brother had told him to get a computer and with the help of his colleague’s daughter, who was a salesperson with new computer company, was able to decide what computer to buy and make all the purchasing decisions He was reluctant but the young lady was excellent. She came over to his office and explained to him all the things he needed. She also picked out the right package for Lin. The computer came with a lot of instructions and she explained how it worked, and explained the purchase price in detail. Her attitude was great. She called personally, came, and delivered the product herself. The beginning Lin started working for Western Electric, a company that later became AT&T Network Systems. This company manufactured all the telephone equipment for all the telephone companies back when they were still in a monopoly arrangement. Lin left the company in 1995 and decided to work for himself as a professional speaker. With success as a professional speaker, the company expanded into executive coaching. The job allowed him to travel around the country. By 2011, he decided to relax and began to limit his traveling. It was then that Lin was asked to write down his thoughts and record his experience. Lin wasn’t keen to do it until Reginald’s wife and mother personally asked him to write about Reginald. There weren’t many people who were close to Reginald Lewis, as he was an extremely private individual. Being so close to Reginald, he was in the perfect position to write about him and Reginald F Lewis, The young man before the billion-dollar empire was born. Sales on Spotlight - Reginald F Lewis? Reginald Lewis passed away in 1993 and at the time of his death, he was arguably the richest African-American on the planet. He had several business deals including that last one, the International division of Beatrice Foods. It was a company that was doing an excess of $2 billion a business. When he closed a deal, they didn’t realize that he was a young African-American businessman. Reginald was an extraordinarily successful businessman with extraordinary wealth. Unfortunately, he was gone too soon. Linn and Reginald’s relationship started when they were young men growing up in the same Baltimore neighborhood. He lived three blocks away from Lin’s family. They would see each other often and eventually, they became friends and competed against each other in high school sports. While Reginald went to Dunbar High School, Linn went to Edmondson High School. They both won athletic scholarships to attend Virginia State University for football where Linn and Reginald became roommates and close friends. They remained close and would stay connected through their professional careers as well. Attributes of Reginald F Lewis Reginald didn’t come from wealth. He was a man who had sustainable beliefs about the inevitability of his own success. He never doubted for a minute he was going to be successful despite many shortcomings. Regardless of the situation, Reginald didn’t let those things deter him from his path to success. While people talk about how to think in terms of a box, he, on the other hand, never saw a box. He was always upbeat and was able to overcome his lack of money with good grades in school. Every salesperson has the innate ability to survive. This instinct is embedded in their brains. We are all born with a desire to be good at something, whether it’s in sports, speaking, or some other skill. The trick is to find what lights our fire. We have to figure out the drive that propels us to go where we want to go in this life. Discovering what lights our fire requires a certain amount of determination. Reginald was certainly driven and it took him a long way. Ability to think ahead Lin and Reginald started to look for jobs so they decided to apply at a recently opened bowling alley. It didn’t take a long time to note that it was a predominantly white institution. While black people can come in, there were certain lines they didn’t cross. Reginald didn’t see those lines and didn’t want to work under such limitations. After a time, Reginald began getting to school late. Apparently, he’d gotten the job and was running the bowling alley as the night manager! It was extraordinary. Lin was working for AT&T and he had the responsibility for network systems engineering in the Western part of the country. He had a little workgroup of guys who came up with ideas about how to provide the propaga

It’s Time To Transform Our Sales Training 2020 is here and there is an opportunity to update sales strategies. The most common ways to execute sales systems, processes, and training have historically been written by men and for men but how do we get take those same techniques and update to include the natural strengths of women? All about Cynthia Cynthia is a keynote speaker and sales trainer who shows sales professionals how to influence decision-makers through her company, the Barnes Sales Institute. Between her company’s focus on women-centric sales training and her global organization, Women who Sell, there is a focus on empowering female sales professionals in male-dominated industries. Their organization is giving saleswomen a voice to be heard, so they can stand out from the competition, and be counted. Buyer’s journey Salespeople need to realize that 70-80% of the buyers’ journey includes conducting their own research, even before they get in front of the first salesperson. In addition to doing the research, they get recommendations from their friends, make a decision about what they’re going to purchase, and then decide who or where they’re going to buy from. Their minds are pretty much made up before they get in front of an expert. Because consumers do so much research on the product they need, they can have more knowledge than the people selling their products. The truth is, this buyer wants to be sold to by an expert. As consumers, they want to know what the salesperson can tell them that Google couldn’t. If you are the salesperson, you have to figure out how to be their expert. Sales training and programs of today Being a saleswoman in a male-dominated industry is difficult. Most sales training today have men in mind. They expect women to act like the opposite sex to be effecting at their job. The majority of sales programs were created 40 years ago by men for men. It was at a time when men made up most of the sales force. In 2017, women made up to 49.8% of the sales force and there are even more today. However, the model still hasn’t evolved despite the change in demographics. Women have the innate ability to be patient and intuitive in the way they interact with people. Instead of using traditional scripts, they can utilize their natural talents by tapping into their authentic selves and their own communication skills to connect with their prospects. Women control 51% of the wealth and influence over 71% of the household spending. Knowing this, it’s wise to train female salespeople. The alpha male approach doesn’t work for the female brain. Effects of gender in the buying process In male-dominated industries such as logistics and truck brokerage, it’s not as common to have a female salesperson. This means a woman coming in as a sales rep has to know the material frontward and backward. Unlike their male counterparts, they tend to have to prove their expertise. Cynthia had her fair share of working with men and the experience taught her how to play in the field. She learned how to become an expert and it allowed her to go from being a salesperson to a consultant. Her natural ability to build relationships and network helped her talk to men on a deeper level, get to know them and build a friendship. Because she was able to break down initial barriers with her expertise, she even knew her clients’ favorite beer and wives birthdays! Women have strong emotional intelligence, excellent listening skills, and they are natural networkers. These qualities allow them to build strong relationships. They shine when the sales cycle is slow enough to build stronger relationships with their clients. Tweaks that can be done for sales programs today Women’s natural abilities include intuition, patience, and relationship building. Women are also perfectionists, address their own weaknesses, and like to play it safe. It’s wise to tap into this resource but many of the current sales programs are not catered toward women. Saleswomen thrive in an environment they feel safe. It’s important they know they can take risks and make mistakes without the threat of being ridiculed. It works well for women to be given space to learn on their own. Educate them on the desired outcome and give them the opportunity to use their own voice, instead of a script, and you’ll start seeing some great results. Women control the majority of the money in a family so it makes sense to train female salespeople. #Saleswomen “It’s Time To Transform Our Sales Training” episode resources Female salespeople have to feel that internal confidence. Connect with Cynthia for questions or call her at 313-586-SELL. She’s offering access to her pilot program for online training that they’re going to roll out soon. Do you have sales questions? Suggestions? You can also talk to Donald about it via LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for any sales concerns. This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Certified Sales Training Program. It’s a cours

How To Tell A Story That Connects & Sells In this episode, we are going to talk about how to tell a story that connects and sells. We tell stories to inspire others, show empathy, and more. The problem is, we don’t know how to tell stories in a way that consumers will be compelled to buy our products. This is what Jude Charles is going to teach you in this episode. Jude Charles is a story-driven filmmaker, brand strategist, and a speaker who’s been running a video production company for the past 13 years. He’s been helping entrepreneurs tell stories effectively to be able to connect with prospects and clients. What is a story? Stories are universal. There is no difference between a story about your normal day and a story you might tell during a sales meeting. The only difference is the ending and its goal. Stories are about a specific moment in time. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. What happens at the end will make your story impactful. When you’re telling a story in sales, you want the listener to buy into the service you’re selling. This story has to matter in a way that by the end, they will want to buy your product or service. Stories can make a connection. Case Example: Money Heist Storytelling works because it’s relatable. A Netflix show called Money Heist has a story that pulls you in. It includes a group of nine guys that are getting ready to rob a mint in Spain. Although viewers aren’t robbers themselves, as the movie unfolds, the audience begins to relate to these men and become more invested in the characters and the plot. The viewer gets to know these nine guys and sees their reasons for wanting to rob the mint. The same is true in selling. You want to share a story with your client that he/she can relate to. Instead of just selling your products and services outright, or presenting bullet points of the benefits, share a success story instead. Set the scene by beginning with the problem. You’ll then go into the actual journey that leads to solving the problem. As the story unfolds, the client or prospect should be able to picture themselves in the scenario. By the end, they will see themselves as the one rescued from the problem by the solutions you have to offer. The basics of presenting a story When forming a story, think about how you will sit with the client and talk to them about what you’re doing. The number one question in your client’s mind is about who you are and why they should do business with you. It’s during this assessment your story telling should be an integral part of the sales process. It will become part of the conversation you’re having with your client. The basic framework of storytelling is pretty much the same: Start with a problem How you went on the journey of solving the problem Reveal the solution Share the results of the solution Jude keeps a story bank and saves story notes throughout the day, from the biggest details down to the minute ones. It’s these pieces that are used to create a story that is meaningful to the client. Kinds of Stories There are different kinds of stories. When you talk about yourself, then you are telling the Who are you? story. Other stories include Client Success stories. These kinds of stories not only build your credibility but they prove your process has worked for someone else. There are also Closing Stories and Value Stories. These are your core values. Clients like to see integrity and transparency so you can tell a story that illustrates these values. To see examples of great stories, a recommended book is The 10 Great Stories That Leaders Tell by Joseph Lalonde. Raising the stakes Let’s look at Money Heist again. The objective of the movie is for nine robbers to be able to get into the Royal Mint of Spain. The first thing they did was to pose as cops. The story raised the stakes when the police commissioner decided to try to break into the Mint of Spain while the robbers are there. The robbers say they have hostages and that one of them is the daughter of Spain’s ambassador. The police could rescue all the people but the stakes are high because the ambassador’s daughter will die. Raising the stakes is getting to the moment in the story where it looks as though you think the journey is way too hard. A great story will illustrate how the characters overcome. What happens at the end The end is where you become very strategic about your story. It will include the lesson you want the client to learn. Your goal is for the client to understand that they need to be all in. The important factor at the end of the story is how you frame the lesson. What are the results after the solution? That’s a question you need to answer. A great way story lets your client know you have an understanding of who they are, what their problems are, and the solutions they need. You want to set the vision of what the future looks like with, or without, your product or service. Another book called The Story Factor by Annette Simmons also talks about sto

Best Sellers In History Series 7 -" Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This is the seventh episode in the Best Sellers in History series. We celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. day on January 20, a legendary man who was the face and voice behind the civil rights movement. We have freedom today and now have opportunities that weren’t available for many people before him. Martin Luther King Jr. fought a tough battle but he never gave up and his efforts paid off. Through his actions and his character he was able to move people closer to justice and freedom. Today’s episode is about Martin Luther King Jr., one of the best sellers in history. We’re going to focus on the characteristics that made him so persuasive and how he was able to inspire a nation to change its ways. Sales Spotlight - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was originally named Michael King Jr. He was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. He passed away on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. Martin was a Baptist minister and a social activist who led the civil rights movement in the United States from the mid-fifties until he was killed in the sixties. Dr. King’s leadership was fundamental to the success of the civil rights movement. His involvement helped to end segregation in the South and in other parts of the country as well. He rose to prominence as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1964 and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his continued effort to realize equality among his fellow Americans. King was among the youngest individuals to receive this award. His early life Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was 15 when he entered Morehouse College in Atlanta under the special wartime program. It was created to help boost enrollment by admitting promising high school students like King. Before he officially began his college education, he spent his summer on a tobacco farm in Connecticut. It was his first time to be far from home and what he experienced there opened his mind. He saw how people with different races interacted with each other, he saw what life was like without segregation. He was shocked and he wrote about it to his family back home. He wrote about how negroes and the whites went to church together. He never thought people of the same color could share a meal together. That summer deepened his hatred towards racial segregation. His oratorical skills came from his father and the time he spent going to church. It was further honed when he went to Morehouse College, especially when he met the school president, Benjamin Mays, who was also committed to fighting the battle against inequality and racial injustice. Benjamin accused the African-American community of being complacent in the face of oppression. King saw how strong-willed Benjamin was and this was not lost on the mind of a young Martin Luther King Jr. Becoming the face of the movement King furthered his education by going to a Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania and proceeded to Boston University where he got his degree and married his wife Coretta Scott. They got married in 1953 and had four children. King became a pastor at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. A year before, the civil rights movement had already begun when everyone started talking about Rosa Parks. She had refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white female. This small group of social activists approached Martin Luther King Jr. because he was admired in his community, he was charismatic, and he was outgoing. Martin Luther King Jr. had ties in the ministry community so he was thought to be the perfect individual to be the voice for the civil rights movement. This launched his campaign to promote freedom and justice for all people. Martin Luther King Jr. was a great salesperson for 5 reasons: Built relationships well Set a vision He was a great orator Created unconventional solutions to conventional problems Was willing to take action and go into battle for those he lead Building rapport and connecting with individuals Dr. King was new to Montgomery, Alabama. He didn’t know many people but they knew about him. They knew of his stellar reputation and they saw something in him. The small group of activists who approached him were already doing taking action but they knew they needed Dr. King to help. They needed him because of his ability to connect and build rapport. It was a risk that Dr. King was willing to take. Build rapport as a salesperson As a sales representative, people will do business with you only if they trust and like you. The community rallied behind Dr. King because they trusted him. As a salesperson it’s important to build trust with your clients as they get to know you. Show them you’re trustworthy, understand them and you empathize with their problems. Reflect similar behavior and language. They need to see that you are in the same tribe. Start with your LinkedIn profile. Check out your social circle and try to connect

How To Rapidly Grow Your Sales Through An Effective Message & A Powerful Sales Script A message and a powerful sales script are important to rapidly grow your business. These strategies can take your sales game from zero to hero. Matthew Pollard was a customer before he became a game-changer and a rapid growth expert. He was 21 when he met the most unbelievable salesperson he’d ever met. The man was part of the Wine Selector’s club. Matthew grew up in a relatively poor neighborhood so beer, straight vodka or bourbon had been his drink of choice. He wasn’t a wine person but the salesman’s script was so good he bought it. Matt signed up for a club membership and collected wine for 7-8 months before he moved houses. He started drinking wine and has become a huge fan. When Matthew told this salesman he’d purchased the wine because of the sales pitch, he was told the secret was to tell the same story every time. What made it so effective was that because he knew the script so well, he could guarantee a great performance consistently, and was developing better versions of his story each time. That resonated with Matthew. The idea of a sales script was something new for him and he wanted to work on it. What is script sales? A sales script can initially sound robotic and monotone. It’s similar to an actor who is reading a script for the first time. In that first run, there’s no guarantee that it’s going to sound great. What will develop the performance is practice. It’s practice that will give life to the scripted words. Actors can embody their characters so well because they run their lines repeatedly. The same is true in sales. When you’re able to connect with your customer from a script, then you know you’ve practiced enough to make the script a natural part of your pitch. Practice and more practice Practice a sales script until it becomes who you are. Tell the jokes and stories repeatedly, watch what works and doesn’t work, and continue to hone the storytelling until you are getting positive reactions in the places you want your client to react. The story could be as simple as how you met your spouse to how you tried and failed to climb Mount Everest. You will get better about crafting your joke or story so it’s more engaging. It’s going to take time before you get comfortable but once it does, your sales script will be so effective. Famous Australian comedian, Jim Owen, does stand up comedy and his shtick is to riff on topics people want him to talk about or he’ll find random objects in the room. He finds humor in all of it. He admits that it’s a huge amount of work for a comedian to come across as original and authentic in the moment. He also adds that part of what he does is scripted and then he practices and rehearses the script until it makes people laugh. How he prepares is to make sure he thinks of all the variables in the room so he can be ready for any eventuality. The key to sales scripting As comedians practice to hone their craft, so should salespeople sharpen their scripts. There are generally four or five problems when you’re selling a specific product or service. If you’re good at creating a unified message, finding a niche of clients to target, and you’re able to sell, then you have most of the problems solved. The only thing that should vary is how you respond to the problems and questions that come up. Your answer should highlight the benefits that fit their special needs. Salespeople want to get really good about differentiating their products and services from their competition and they need to know the profile of their ideal customer. They need to know what their sales goals. Steps to looking for the right customers You never want to pick a market that your competencies can’t support. You can’t classify yourself as an expert in something you know nothing about. Instead, look for a specific person or group of people that benefit from your offer the most. What is the profile of the client that provides the best revenue? Knowing this will allow you to offer a product or service that is specific and work best for their needs. It makes selling so much easier and helps to alleviate competitions because you’ve already differentiated your niche market. This is the perfect time to present your sales script, when you know the specific group of people will move you to rapid growth. When your script is well-crafted, you have a higher rate of closing. Case example: Beijing Language Academy One of Mattew’s clients was a language institute called Beijing Language Academy. They were having a difficult time charging more than $50-80 for a one-on-one consultation. It was a massive problem for them. Matthew was called in to help and helped them come up with their sales goals and customer avatar. When they looked at their existing clients, they found that they weren’t only giving language lessons but their academy was also teaching their customers how to become successful in China. Hence, China Success Institu

How To Create An Environment Where People Thrive At Work A healthy work environment allows people to thrive and grow. But what can we do to create that environment where people thrive? Kingsley Grant is focused on helping leaders get better results by using a framework of emotional intelligence and leadership. He helps sales leaders create environments that support positive output. Reasons why salespeople don’t thrive at work The research group, Aussie Tanner, interviewed people who left their companies. Based on that research, it showed that people leave because they felt unacknowledged, under-valued, and unimportant. The best way to address these problems is to create an environment that supports employees and allows them to feel they are part of the team. This engagement can be a challenge for many leaders. Another reason why salespeople fail to thrive is they don’t feel safe to share their ideas. There is a fear that sales leaders will use those ideas against them. Sales leaders need to create an environment where their team can share ideas they know will at least be considered. When employees feel they’re in an environment that offers room to experiment and make mistakes, these salespeople grow and thrive. How does thriving look like? A salesperson who is allowed to unleash their talents is a person who thrives. For example, L’Oreal is a huge cosmetics company that wanted their people to thrive with their company. They had some of their salespeople trained in the area of emotional intelligence. The rest of their sales team weren’t given the training. What they found was that their trained personnel and sales staff were able to sell more. Their value increased and their net revenue rose to $2.5 million in just a month. Helping salespeople acquire emotional intelligence can greatly impact the company. Allowing your sales team to learn self-awareness is a powerful tool to build their confidence and increase revenue. Defining emotional intelligence Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize, understand, and regulate your emotions. It is the ability to have a level of awareness of how you feel and manage your relationships around you. Every salesperson is building relationships around them, whether it’s with their team or their customers. Having emotional intelligence provides the ability to manage a variety of relationships. A sales leader plays a huge part in building their sales teams’ emotional intelligence. The leader must be sensitive to the needs of the members of their sales team. This includes an awareness of what their team is going through, what the sales reps need to learn in order to make better sales decisions, and more. When the sales leader is tuned in to the feelings of their sales team it helps them have a feeling of belonging. This helps the sales reps stay motivated, thrive, and bring in more sales. Building a safe environment for salespeople The sales team should be encouraged to share suggestions they think will help the company. Kingsley shares an experience he had at a previous company when he wasn’t supported. He wanted to help the company by sharing an idea he had and brought the idea to his coordinator. When his coordinator didn’t agree, instead of talking to Kingsley, the coordinator went to the vice president of the company. As a result, Kingsley could no longer trust his coordinator. After his idea was received so badly, he didn’t share other ideas he wanted to offer and quit the company six months later. He could no longer work for someone who would shut down his ideas and talk to the executives behind his back. Sales leaders are often focused on the bottom line, only seeing the end results, and they fail to acknowledge the people who are delivering those results. They fail to see their most important resources, the sales team. The way teams are treated can determine whether or not goals are met. Salespeople have to feel safe. They need to know if they don’t make a sale, they won’t be reprimanded but instead, be mentored about how to be more effective next time. It doesn’t mean a sales leader ignores a sales rep who can’t or refuses to learn but unfortunately, sales people leave a company long before the company realizes their true skill set. People don’t leave organizations. They leave bad bosses. When salespeople feel heard, and their ideas matter, they will stay at a company longer and make more money. Win-win! #SalesWin Reprimand at the right time Sales leaders are effective when they praise publicly and reprimand privately. A sales rep should never be embarrassed in front of the team. Tough love isn’t going to work. As a mentor, build an environment where you can watch your sales team interact and help them modify any actions that aren’t working. Help them to overcome and face a variety of situations that may be keeping them from success. You are learning with them and will see some skill sets you didn’t know they had. It’s these very skills that will prove to be

Best Sellers In History Series 6 - "Mary Kay Ash" It’s the sixth episode for out Best Sellers in History series. We’ve talked about Jesus Christ, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Mother Teresa, and Mahatma Gandhi. This time, we’re going to talk about someone who helped get others promoted but was overlooked for promotions herself. She noticed how unfairly she was being treated at her job but instead of begging for a piece of the pie, she went ahead and created her own pie! Let’s talk about Mary Kay Ash and how she built her empire from the strong skill sets she developed as a salesperson. Sales Spotlight - Mary Kay Ash Mary Kay Ash is world-renowned for being the makeup and skincare queen. Her pink Cadillac has become iconic. How did this come from someone who kept getting passed over for promotion? Because she is considered to be one of the best sellers in history. Here are five reasons why: Had a purpose and a why Created a vision or a common cause Had a strong and impressive work ethic Had the desire to create and give rewards Willing to take action Mary Kay Ash was born on May 12, 1918, in Hotwells, Texas. She took care of her sick dad for most of her childhood while her mother did the earning for the family. At 17 years old, Mary Kay married Ben Rogers and had three children with him before Ben went to war in WWII. Their marriage eventually came to an end and Mary Kay was left with three children to take care of. She needed to make money to feed her children so she started working for Stanley Home products in 1939. She’d go into someone’s home and host parties with the sole purpose of encouraging people to buy household items. Mary Kay was great at her job and she became a top seller. By 1952, Mary Kay was hired by World Gifts. After 10 years,however, she quit her job. At that time, the sales force was mostly made up of men and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get ahead because she was a woman. She saw the men she was training were getting promoted, going onto better jobs, and they were getting a much higher wage. Had a purpose and a why With $5000, Mary Kay used the money to build her empire. Mary Kay had a purpose. She was a mother who needed to take care of her kids and a woman who wanted to see other women succeed. Mary Kay also had a vision that helped her achieve her dreams. She had a why. As a salesperson, a vision and purpose can propel you beyond a bad sales day. For many people, a paycheck isn’t enough. There has to be a deeper connection, something bigger. Having a purpose is the motivation that moves you to show up even when things get hard. Have a purpose that pushes you to create an opportunity for the people you care about the most. Mary Kay had a purpose that was even bigger than herself. While she wanted to take care of her family, she also wanted to create something that would help other women. Created a vision and a common cause Every great salesperson in this series had a vision and created a common cause. Mary Kay recognized that women were undervalued in the sales industry and other workplaces. Women were not considered as capable as men. This misconception prompted Mary Kay to build an empire that would give women the opportunity to succeed and do more. Her business opened doors for women to become six-figure earners and as a result, became the breadwinners for their families and they had a community where they were valued. The company grew and by the end of its second year, it was making $1 million in product sales. A salesperson can also achieve greater success if they can communicate a common cause to their clients. Creating a brand message that solves problems and identifying a common struggle can create a unifying purpose. Had a strong and impressive work ethic Mary Kay had an impressive work ethic and worked hard. She got up everyday at 5:00 AM. She said, “If you get up at 5 o’clock three times a week, you’ll gain an extra day. You need to try it a few times because you realize a great feeling of satisfaction at 8:00 in the morning when you’ve already finished what would have taken you six hours to do after 8 o’clock because of the interruptions.” Make it your goal to wake up early, put in the time, start working, and be productive without the distractions. Give yourself an opportunity to practice and challenge yourself as Mary Kay did. Had the desire to create and give rewards According to the Harvard Business Review, the three reasons why people leave their job is because they don’t like their boss, they don’t see an opportunity for promotion, or they were offered a better job. Mary Kay understood this and set up a system with four levels of promotion: Independent beauty consultant Red jacket beauty consultant Independent sales director National sales director As sales people hit their numbers, they would be promoted to the next level,and get different rewards. This motivated people and gave them room to grow. The system made them very successful. The ultimat

5 Ways Exercise Will Help You Become A Better Sales Professional Everybody wants to be better and be the best version of themselves. There are ways to help you become a better sales professional. Austin Rolling is the founder and CEO of a software company based in Houston, Texas called Outfield. It’s a web and mobile-based software application designed for organizations that compete for outside sales, field marketing, and field merchandising activities. They created a platform to help companies acquire the necessary data to be effective in rolling out and executing their field marketing strategies. Austin wrote an article about 5 areas we can become a better sales professional through exercise. To be better, exercise doesn't just refer to physical fitness. Mental health is just as important for someone wanting to be a great salesperson. The 5 areas we’ll be reviewing include: Mental fitness Having various outlets to relieve stress Appearance Energy to make it through the day Self-reflection Mental fitness Sales can be mentally taxing, especially with a challenging sales cycle. They have to be able to show up and be ready to do critical tasks month after month. Because of this they have to be mentally tough. You need to be in the right mental state to remember even the tiniest tasks in order to remain organized. With the hormones released by the body during a physical exercise is one way a clearer mind can be achieved. Have an Outlet to Relieve Stress The second area that can help someone become a better sales professional is to have various outlets to relieve stress. We typically feel better after a great workout. The body releases endorphins that help reduce stress and anxiety. The hormones released by the brain due to exercise helps with mental clarity. For Austin, he relieves his stress with hard-core exercise. He suggests sales people look at a variety of outlets like golf, basketball, art, music, and more. Presentable appearance Appearance and grooming play a vital role for salespeople. In sales, it’s important to maintain a level of confidence and you only have one chance to make a first impression. When you want the value of your presentation to be heard, you need to make sure there are no distractions. An example of a distraction may include a wrinkled shirt or dirty shoes. You want to present yourself in such a way that you appear fit, carry yourself well, and seem confident. Having the right energy Salespeople have to be excited about the value they are going to provide to their customers. You want to go into a meeting with contagious energy so your customers will also get excited about your company’s value proposition. Make them believe in what you’re selling by believing in yourself first. If you want them to believe in the value and the services you’re able to provide show the energy that conveys that. In his book, Social Intelligence by Daniel Goldman, a Harvard Ph.D. graduate, he talks about how our bodies are wired to connect with people. We have mirror neurons that allow us to synchronize with other people based on their emotions. These emotions are also based on the emotions we exude. If we are coming off negative, the client will sense it. Make sure that what you’re sending out is positive energy. Two sales reps can share the exact same message but the one with more passion and excitement will get the deal. Exude a level of energy that’s contagious and believable! If you don’t, your competition will. #SalesMindset Self-reflection Setting aside time for self-reflection is another way to become a better sales professional. Self-reflection allows you to see what mistakes you might have made and gives you time to think about how you can become better. It’s a time to think about your missed opportunities so you can make a note of vulnerable areas and allocate your energy to the right activities next time. Taking the time to do this will enhance and sales professional. Even more important than talent and intelligence, is attitude. Do the things that will move you toward a more positive energy and clients will see that in the work. “5 Ways Exercise Will Help You Become A Better Sales Professional” episode resources Talk to Austin Rolling via [email protected]. He is also on LinkedIn so you can just go check his LinkedIn profile. Do you have sales questions? Suggestions? You can also talk to Donald about it via LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for any sales concerns. This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Certified Sales Training Program. It’s a course designed to help new and struggling sellers to master the fundamentals of sales and close more deals. Sign up now and get the first two modules for free! You can also call us at (561) 570-5077. We have a new semester beginning in January and we would love to have you and your team join us. Follow this link to apply to the program. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes so tune in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast,

The Psychology of Sales Behind the sales process there’s a whole psychology of sales that is part of the interaction between sales reps and customers. What does that entail? As a sales performance consultant and coach, Anita Nielsen answers this question for her clients. She works with sales leaders and salespeople to help them up their game and get them to where they want to go. As a sales coach, Anita does one-on-one training and offers sales enablement services. She is known as a fixer when sales aren’t going smoothly. Anita is also the author of the newly published book, Beat the Bots. In recent years, sales reps have been ringing their hands about how robots are going to take away jobs. Anita’s book was the result of hearing these same fears over and over again. She doesn’t agree. She believes people who are great at customer service and building relationships will always have a job. The AIs won’t be able to learn empathy or trust and they can’t build that human connection. Buyers crave that connection more than ever due to the rise of technology. Customers want to work with people who they feel have their back and want them to succeed. They want sales reps they can trust and interact with. How AIS help the sales force Computer-based programs can do many things. AI can help with jobs that entail just dialing or deal with a template but they will never promote trust or empathy. The complex purchases won’t be handled by AI and technology. When they need specific business outcomes, customers still want a sales rep to help them figure out how to achieve those outcomes. Trust and empathy are two of the biggest factors that keep human connection in the sales force. Buyers want to work with people who can provide both. There are many things that a bot and AI can do. Some of the AIs are helping people to screen phone calls and can determine how long a salesperson spends talking to a customer or the length of time the customers is speaking. The technology won’t take away the jobs of salespeople. Tech is there to make sales people better by supporting their work. It’s not there to replace the valuable things salespeople do for their customers. Value is in the eye of the customer When Anita talks with sales leaders, one of the first things they say is that their sales team doesn't know how to articulate value to the customers. She then asks what they mean by value and Anita has yet to hear the same answers. What she does is break down value in three layers: There’s the basic inherent value, the general value. The general value is the reason why customers are buying. The second one is the company’s value. This value reflects what a company does that sets it apart from its competitors. A customer looks at who you are and what you stand for, and how well you understand your customers. As a company, these need to be brought together to bring personalized value to the customer. What can you offer to make your customers feel better or more successful? For salespeople and companies, the only thing that should matter is your customers’ perception of value and being to articulate how you can support those values. Salespeople’s job As salespeople, it is our job to tap into the emotion behind the purchase and figure out what the customers’ motivations are. This discovery, however, has to come from a place of good intent. Be a salesperson who truly wants to help your customers succeed. People can sense your intention and good intention goes a long way. It is this mindset that will guide your interaction with your customers. High performers are the ones who are instinctively tapping into these driving emotions. Anita was working with a saleswoman a few years back who was selling medical devices. The device was sold to emergency departments and it helped get quicker results with less errors when checking for blood pressure and other stats. Everytime a sale was done, training was provided to show the nurses how the device worked. After once particular sale, Sharon the sales rep was working with a nurse director named Florence ( both names changed) and she wondered why Florence wasn’t scheduling the training for her team. Florence had been living in the States for 20 years but still had a thick Philippine accent. As a result, Florence was insecure and stressed about conducting the training. Sharon understood and so she offered to do the training herself. Six months later, Sharon got a call from six different hospitals. She had gotten referrals through Florence, the nurse she’d helped. Florence was a customer for life and was pointing new customers to Sharon. Be the salesperson who is able to anticipate and address a customer’s problems and challenges. Be good at discovery The first thing you need to learn is to be great at discovery. Learn to ask questions that are going to help evoke emotions. Use high-impact questions. For example, if you’re selling technology, you might ask: Help me understand how you guys are using X technol

Best Sellers In History Series 5 - "Mahatma Gandhi" Depending on who you ask, hearing the name Mahatma Gandhi may bring up the titles of leader, spiritual guide, person of nonviolence, The Father of India, and many more. You may think about the man who defied the British Empire. How did one man make it possible? How was he able to get millions of people to follow his ideals and eventually shape the rest of Western culture? For this episode, we will look at Mahatma Gandhi and explore the traits that made him an influential person. Sales Spotlight - Mahatma Gandhi Mahatma Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, in Pordabander, India. He studied law in London but moved to South Africa in 1893 where he spent 20 years opposing discriminatory legislation against Indians. Gandhi was from a successful family, his father a successful merchant. Gandhi’s experience in working for a law firm in South Africa led him to focus his efforts on helping those who are disenfranchised by society. One particular day, Gandhi was riding on a train in first-class. Being a man of means, he’d the money to pay for the ticket. However, another passenger in first-class didn’t like that an Indian was riding there as well. The conductor tried to encourage Gandhi to move to the lower class but he had paid for the ticket and had broken no laws. He defended himself and was thrown off the train. Gandhi went back to India and supported the home rule movement, where Indians could rule themselves, independent from the British Empire. The British had come into India and raked the country’s resources for 200 years. The British originally talked about how they were going to help the people and the economy, and would create jobs, but it didn’t happen in India’s favor. Most of the money went back to England and English people started to look down on the poorer Indian people. The English people were able to take the whole of India because India wasn’t united. Indian Revolution against Britain The largest rebellion against the British took place in 1857 and it lasted for 18 months. The British called it the Indian Mutiny and it started to spread even though the British downplayed the rebellion and by calling it a mutiny. Both sides had a difficult time but the British eventually won. Many of the Indians were conditioned to think they couldn’t fight against the British despite their huge number. Instead of fighting for their own battle, the Indian army became the backbone of the British empire. The British Viceroy, Lord Curzon said that as long as they ruled India, they would be the greatest power in the world. The Indians, however, wanted their freedom and their own democracy. The lack of unity Imagine the same situation in the B2B world. Suppose a new client has a huge problem? They have tried to fix it in the past but they weren’t able to win against it. As a result, they started to just live with the problem. Within the company there could be groups of people who have great ideas on how to solve the problem but there’s nobody who is unifying them. Every department keeps doing the best they can and everyone just lives with the pain. They need a powerful leader who can recognize there’s a problem, bring all the groups together, and create a solution as a team. Mahatma Gandhi showed that kind of leadership. Going to the masses Unlike other politicians and wealthy people, Mahatma Gandhi spent time with the masses. This was very similar to what Jesus Christ, Mother Teresa, Abraham Lincoln, and the other personalities in this history series did. They wanted to make a lasting impression so they spent most of their time with the masses. If you want to make a massive impact, you need to go to the people. The same is true for Mahatma Gandhi. He went among the people and built relationships with them. He tried to understand what was going on in their everyday lives. This allowed him to see the challenges they were facing as the oppressed people of society. He was able to articulate their problems and speak for the people. He became the unifying voice. Sales reps understand the clients’ pain Much like with Mahatma Gandhi, sales reps need to understand their clients’ pain and see where they’re coming from. You shouldn’t just be a salesperson who comes in trying to get the money and resources. You are a person who should be able to identify with the pain of your clients. Being able to relate to people at that level will earn you their trust. People will respect you and have confidence in you. They don’t give you money for nothing. They give you money because they believe you can solve their problems. Build rapport and talk to your customers regularly. How can you do that? Send them birthday cards and email Send them articles and information you find online Keep in touch with them Touch base with your current customers As a sales rep, it is important to build rapport, understand where they’re coming from, learn about their challenges, and be involved with their lives.

The 3 Foolproof Secrets to Get Rid of Your Head Trash What does it mean to have head trash and how exactly can you get rid of it? Let’s talk about 3 foolproof secrets to get rid of your head trash. Noah St. John is known as The Power Habits Mentor because he has helped thousands of people master their inner game and outer game to help them make more and work less. He works with sales professionals, entrepreneurs, celebrities, CEOs, athletes, and more. Noah helps them get rid of their head trash about money, relationships, and everything else holding them back. He is the author of 15 books and his most recently published book is entitled Power Habits: The New Science for Making Success Automatic. Through his work, Noah and his team have helped entrepreneurs and sales professionals increase their sales to six, seven, and even eight figures by using his methods. Defining head trash Noah discovered the notion of head trash many years ago. Head trash is the negative voice in your head that constantly tells you, “I can’t because … “ It’s the voice that states all the reasons why you can’t do something you want to do. People consistently approach Noah and tell him they want to reach for more and do bigger things but they can’t because they’re too busy or they don’t have money for it. They have so many reasons why they can’t do the things they want to do. When you tell yourself something your mind is going to believe it. When you say you don’t have the time, then your inner self will believe you truly do not have the time. You are going to make that belief true even when it’s a lie. We all have 24 hours a day regardless of who you are. Time is irrelevant so it’s not an excuse that many people think they have. Head trash is damaging because it’s holding people back. Identify your head trash The first step to getting rid of head trash is identifying what it is. For most people it’s repetitive but people fail to realize that it’s the head trash telling you the same lies over and over again. Ideas such as, I’m stupid or I’m not good enough can go through your mind in a loop and you don’t even realize it. Because these lies are repetitive and habitual, many people aren’t even considering the damage it can cause. Identifying your head trash is fairly easy. Write down the negative beliefs you’re carrying about yourself. Most of the negative things we say to ourselves aren’t true. Writing down your negative thoughts will help you become aware of them. Noah has a client who was a sales professional. She was making about $5,000 a month in sales but she knew she was capable of making more. This salesperson spent time and money to train with gurus but for several years was still stuck at $5,000 a month. She attended Noah’s event called Freedom Lifestyle Experience and hired Noah as a coach. Within a year of using Noah’s Power Habit System, her revenue jumped from $5,000/month to $75,000/month! This is proof that understanding your own head trash and being able to overcome the negative noise will lead to good results. You need to look at your inner game in all the different aspects of your life. Knowing your outer game The outer game includes the systems and strategies, the blocking and tackling. These would be all the sales tactics invested in and studied. By working with salespeople for the last two decades, Noah found that success is attained only when someone has mastered both the inner and outer game. Understand that you can change your beliefs The first step to transformation is awareness. It’s only when you are aware of something that you’re able to change. If you want to change your life, you need to change your beliefs - these are your thoughts. The human brain automatically searches to answer the questions you ask it. Noah thought about that and realized can’t just make statements the way we do in affirmations. We don’t believe it. Instead, we need to start asking ourselves questions to put the brain to work. Start asking empowering questions that will lead to phenomenal answers. AfFORmations An affirmation is a statement of something you want to be true. One of the things Noah loves doing during keynote speeches is using the old-school affirmation method. He instructs people to stand up and say, “I am rich.” Immediately after, the attendees start laughing. When Noah asks why, they say, “I’m not actually rich.” This is why affirmations don’t work. You have to believe in the statements for them to work. Noah, realizing affirmations were ineffective, created The Afformation Method. It is the most direct and powerful yet simple method you can use to change your beliefs. This method uses the act of asking the questions that will lead you to look for the answers. Using the Afformation method, you can change the question to change your beliefs, habits, and eventually your life. Getting the correct mindset It’s important to talk about your goals. In regards to goals, Noah has been telling his clients, “We don’t rise to the l

What Is The DISC Assessment Profile And How Can It Help My Sales Team? The DISC Assessment profile is an important training opportunity for any sales team. It is one of the tools many sales reps have started to utilize as its reputation for personality assessment has grown among sales leaders and their companies. So what is the DISC Assessment and how can it help your sales team? Mads Singers is a management coach. He has been in the management field for 15 years and has worked with industry giants such as Xerox, IBM, and more. For more than seven years, Mads has been running his own business. What is DISC? DISC is a behavioral framework similar to Myers-Briggs. It’s a framework to help people understand themselves and other people. The acronym DISC stands for: D: Dominance I: Influence S: Steadiness C: Conscientious Everyone is born unique; however, there are traits that certain groups of people share. If you look at a sales team, for example, you can see that many members have similar personalities. Salespeople, as a whole, tend to be assertive and focused. Typically, they are also comfortable around other people. These are traits that most successful people have so sales managers tend to be drawn to these types of personalities when hiring sales reps. DISC is immensely effective when looking to hire the right people for the right jobs. Many assume that people are motivated by money but the truth is that people are motivated by goals and having the ability to achieve their goals. Facing the challenge There is a challenge when you are selling to someone who is not like you. Salespeople need to understand the different ways other people think. Sales don’t just happen from a meeting. Rapport has to be built and it’s not as easy when the seller and the buyer don’t connect to people in the same way. For instance, people from software and technology companies aren’t your typical salespeople. They don’t talk as much and they want to cut straight to the point. This can be a very abrupt style of communicating for buyers who need more of a relational approach. For such different personality types, it’s harder to build rapport because the style of communication is so different. The salesperson has to be mindful that they will not always get to sell to a client the way they themselves want to be sold to. It’s up to the salesperson to uncover what style is needed for each unique client. Different Personality types There are four personality types reflected in the DISC Assessment: D - Dominance The high D personalities are very driven people. These are the people who don’t usually smile a lot because they’re constantly thinking. They are focused, law-oriented, money-oriented, and power-oriented. They are the people who will do whatever it takes to get whatever they want to get. You will find a lot of these people at the highest level in big organizations because they are willing to do whatever it takes to meet their goals. These personalities push people to the extreme but they are willing to work just as hard or harder. I - Influence High I personalities are typically salespeople. They tend to be loud and talk a lot. They are the storytellers. Sales managers hire these personality types because of their ability to network and talk to strangers. Because of this they usually know a large pool of people. In sales, referrals are essential and high I’s know how to call in favors. They have a very positive mindset and know-how to inspire people to follow them toward their goals. S - Steadiness The high S groups are the moms and uncles of the team. They are the ones who are more focused on others than on themselves. Their happiness comes from drawing out other peoples’ joy and they don’t adapt well to change. High S’s are people-focused but aren’t the ones who are going to start a conversation. They’re in the corner wanting someone to initiate the discussion first C - Conscientious Lastly, the high C personalities are the accountants and financial people. They love learning every minute detail and will ask a lot of technical questions. They are generally shy, however, and prefer not to have verbal communication. They are very detailed and want to know everything about everything. Salespeople who don’t know their product well fail to make a sale with Cs. Hiring the right sales reps Most salespeople are high Ds and high Is. These are the people who have a mix of high drive and are also excellent networkers. One challenge with having an assessment test for salespeople before hiring them is that most people will tell you what they think you want to hear. Some can tweak their tests to have a result similar to what you’re looking for. The other challenge is that people don’t know themselves well enough to give accurate answers. Just realize that natural behaviors do not change. Even when your personality changes, your natural behaviors stay the same. There is hope for people who are hiring. People can learn coping traits. Someone

Best Sellers In History Series 4 - "Benjamin Franklin" This is the fourth episode for the Best Seller in History series. This time around, the sales spotlight is on Benjamin Franklin. Despite Benjamin Franklin only having two years of formal education, his inventions are used to this day. He was a phenomenal writer when he was a teenager and was an inventor throughout his life. Franklin was a statesman, designed a musical instrument used by Mozart and Beethoven, and was an abolitionist in his later years. It’s worth noting he was also a writer, painter, political philosopher, politician, Freemason, diplomat, and so much more, including a phenomenal seller. We will explore five reasons why. Sales Spotlight - Benjamin Franklin One of the founding fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. Due to financial constraints, he wasn’t able to finish his formal education so he worked as an apprentice for his brother who was in the printing industry. When Benjamin was 15 years old, his brother founded a newspaper called The New England Courant. His experience in his brother’s company helped in shaping his skills as a phenomenal seller. There are five reasons why Benjamin Franklin was so effective: 1.Problem-solving skills Curiosity Ability to seek knowledge 4 .Learning from smarter people and masterminding Ability to build a strong rapport Ability to solve problems Benjamin Franklin had extraordinary skills in problem-solving and used this talent throughout his life. James Franklin, his brother, was running a newspaper but he wouldn’t allow Benjamin to write for the publication. He realized the solution was to ghostwrite through anonymous letters, under the guise of being a middle-aged widow. The anonymous letters focused on what was going on in the community so it naturally piqued the interest of the readers. Benjamin would slip the letters under the door of James’ newspaper each night. Each morning, James and his friends would discuss and debate the content of the letter. The letters got published and Benjamin’s alter ego became a popular contributor to the paper. His brother wasn’t happy when he found out that it was Benjamin who was writing the anonymous letters but had no choice but to continue publishing for the readers who loved the anonymous letters. Sometime later, James was thrown in jail after writing something that wasn’t favorable to the government. During his absence, Ben ran the newspaper without major issues. When his brother came back, Ben presented the idea of partnership. When James didn’t agree with Ben’s proposal, Ben decided to leave and went to Philadelphia. Problem-Solving skills as a sales rep There are times when buyers don’t even recognize they have a problem. They are so focused on the status quo and happy with their current system that it doesn’t occur to them to change things. They refuse to learn more or don’t realize there is more to learn. The prospect may even have problems they’re not aware of. Others have identified their problems but they just have a band-aid solution to ease the discomfort. As a sales rep, you need to find a way to actually solve the problem. That’s what Benjamin did. Even when he asked his brother, James said No repeatedly. Ben thought outside the box and he thought of ways to address a problem regardless of the decisions made by James. Your job is to help your clients recognize the problem and present them with a solution, even if they may have objections. Be Curious Benjamin Franklin was curious and was a voracious reader, consuming books and literature. He was always learning. This love of learning led him to create an almanac where he included tips and advice that could be applied to everyday life. As a result, his almanac stood out from the rest of the competition. Benjamin’s curiosity was ever present, even after his retirement in the publishing industry. He made many inventions and even received recognition from the King of France due to his skills as a scientist. Money wasn’t his motivation for inventing things. It was more for satisfying curiosity and creating a better society. Curiosity as a sales rep Sales reps who are curious are the ones who are able to dig deeper and as a result, offer true value. Take for example a sales rep selling a SAS software solution. It is a service that allows you to send mass messages to clients and interact with them. If the sales rep presenting the product jumps directly into the proposal and price offering, he will likely lose the deal. Consider another sales rep who is very curious and wants to figure out why they need the text messaging service. She wants to find out how the client can take advantage of the software. It will be easier for the second sales rep to actually make the sale because she’s gathered more information. She’s able to build more value by asking effective questions. Your curiosity will help you land deals because you’re willing to put in the extra effort. When

10 High-Performance Habits That Lead To Success An article entitled 10 High-Performance Habits that Lead to Success by Justin Su’a is noteworthy. This isn’t a normal article. It talks about 10 specific principles that, if practiced carefully, will help increase one’s performance and mental toughness. Justin Su’a is a former competitive baseball player and despite not having the physical prowess and physical ability like some other players, he was still able to gain success. His family trained him to face any adversity with a positive mindset. Their team also had a sports psychologist who spoke to the players about tools and strategies that were taught to Olympians. The principles taught by the sports psychologist resonated with Justin and ignited a desire for him to follow the same career path. These principles not only work for sports but can be applied by people of all walks to every aspect of life. Here are the 10 high-performance habits that lead to success: Win the morning Do hard things Embrace feedback Learn from failure Choose your attitude Do one more Have a purpose Recommit every single day Be patient Fear no one Win the morning Winning the morning is all about starting strong. People complain they don’t have enough time in the day but the truth is, there’s not enough time because they’re not using the time they have. Instead, they’re wasting it. All you need to do is to start the morning strong by getting up with purpose. Successful people and high-performers are able to do hard things. Sometimes one of these is to wake up early when nobody else does. Move towards your goal by telling your body to get up, even when it wants to sleep. This is you practicing to dominate your body. If you do that over and over again, you are going to be able to train yourself to do difficult things. When you don’t want to pick up the phone to make a sales call, train yourself by telling yourself to pick up the phone anyway. Make that first decision ad it will get easier. Winning the morning is important because it starts your day off with taking control. Tell yourself to do one thing and attack it. Regardless of whether you’re a night person or a morning person, your morning begins when you wake up. Wake up strong by doing it on purpose and with passion. Set up a routine, workout, eat right, fill your mind, and fill your heart. There are two things that people often underestimate when trying to achieve greatness: How long it’s going to take and how hard it’s going to be. Whether you set a personal goal or a professional goal, don’t underestimate how difficult it’s going to be or how long it’s going to take for you to achieve the goals. The danger in doing so is that you’re mentally unprepared when adversity comes. When problems strike, many would-be performers pull the plug and give up. High-performers, on the other hand, have the ability to do hard things because they have acknowledged beforehand that achieving their goals may be hard. They’ve prepared themselves mentally and physically for the hard things. Successful people didn’t realize their achievements overnight. Many hours, days, months, and sometimes years are spent working towards their goals. They win the morning and keep going. Whatever time you wake up, win the morning. Wake up with purpose and attack the day! #SalesTalk Little things matter People tend to seek out the hard actions and don’t realize the tedious detail-oriented things matter just as much. Examples are reading for on-going education and taking notes during training. Great performers don’t take these details for granted. The details that need to be executed will be different from one person to the next. The key is to find the details that apply to your success and whatever they are, do them. Learn from failures The inability to learn from failure is the number one factor that destroys would-be performers. Many professionals from various careers and industries are afraid of failure. It’s not necessarily even the failure in itself, but their interpretation of failure. They perceive that failure means they’re not good enough. These negative phrases that play over and over in someone’s mind lead to feelings of failure but you can train yourself to understand these feelings don’t reflect the truth of the situation. Instead of viewing failure negatively, It can be looked at as an opportunity to learn. Every successful entrepreneur has seen failure and fought against it. They overcome these adversities by using failures as a means to learn from their mistakes and get better. Sarah Blakely, the CEO of Spanx, was asked why she’s so good at her job. She attributed her success to the training that got from her father. Sarah’s father would ask her, “How did you fail today and what did you learn from it?” She grew up learning from failure. Those who are willing to learn from failure will fear it less and those who fear it less are more dangerous because they know how to use it. When you can wake up eve

The Next Wave: Customer-Facing Solutions With the new year, we are all looking towards the next wave in customer-facing solutions available for us. This is important as it helps improve our business and sales strategies. Nicolas Venderberghe is a CEO and entrepreneur. Nicolas is originally from France but has now lived in the U.S. for a good part of his career. He’s been working for tech companies, working at Chilli Piper since 2016. The company’s biggest vision is to improve sales and completely transform the industry by using digital tools. Big companies like SalesForce specialize in back end algorithms and can miss the opportunities on the front end. This is where Nicolas’ company helps its clients thrive. Salespeople used to be technophobes and hated the idea of using technology in their sales process. As new technologies have become available, salespeople now adapt to a variety of tools and have become savvier. Next wave in customer-facing solutions The sales industry tends to move in waves. First, it was about automating internal processes, and that’s why we have CRM. It ensures that everything is recorded so, in any situation, much of the sales cycle happens in the backend. The next generation helps with the interaction and is referred to as customer-facing tools. This is the next wave in customer-facing solutions. An opportunity that Nicolas’ team addresses is in the booking, or scheduling a meeting. In sales, even before the first meeting, an opportunity has to be created to book a time and engage with a prospect. The easiest example would include inbound products, called the concierge. In earlier days, the concierge occurred when prospects visited your site, and let you know they were interested in learning more by filling out a form that provided contact information for the follow-up. Upon clicking the submit button, they’d be brought to a thank you page and told that someone would be in touch. The prospect was left wondering who would get in touch and when. In some cases, there would be no follow up so retention was lost. Many companies are losing more than half their pipeline due to a broken process. Businesses can lose up to 80% of their leads because they don’t act fast enough. Qualifying the prospects Nicolas and his team built an intelligence solution to address this problem. In their version, once the prospect fills out the form for submission, Nicolas’ company uses the information from the form to qualify the prospect right away. They look at the prospect’s company size and the criteria set by their client to qualify. They’re able to do this, and reach out to a salesperson, in real-time. They call the prospect’s number and when they pick up, the prospect is connected immediately to a salesperson. If the sales rep isn’t available, a calendar is made available so the prospect can book a time that works for them, all with one click. Streamlining the front of the sales cycle allows for more direct revenues. Companies that work with Nicolas’ team have seen an increase in revenue and conversation rates between 50-100%. They’ve even seen many companies double their conversion rates. Some companies have even started to work with them with as little as 30-40% conversion, losing 60-70% of their leads. Business to small businesses When a prospect wants to purchase a product or service, the quickest company to reply is typically the one that will get the account. This concept is called business to small businesses, where a bigger company is sending to small businesses. They don’t have an army of people to go through a procurement process. Instead, they’re going to look for a variety of vendors. These are the types of prospects that bigger companies are losing. It’s because they fail to act quickly and respond to their prospects’ needs. For a larger enterprise, the buyer has more time but they’re also going to look at how they are going to be served. The solution to this is called the red carpet. This means showing up, taking the form, and immediately offering the option to talk to somebody. This strategy of being direct is another boost to your conversion rate. As a salesperson, you need to remember that the very beginning of the sales process is to make sure that things end on a very good note. Things don’t go as fast for B2B because of the different teams involved in the sales process. The marketing team is in charge of bringing in traffic to the website. The sales team is in charge of managing the resulting. Each of these teams follows their own processes. The problems can begin when there’s nothing that brings these two teams together. The greater the number of people involved, the more inefficient the process becomes. It takes a long time for people to adapt to the changes. Different teams can have their own incentives and may not be completely aligned with the company’s goals. The breakdown of the decision-making power between the marketing team and the sales team is the reason why B2B may not

Disclaimer: This episode is in no way trying to influence listeners on their religious beliefs. Best Sellers In History Series 3 -"Mother Teresa" The Best Sellers in History series is focused on people who were influential in helping others recognize what was best for their future and motivated them to take action.The first episode focused on the impact of Jesus Christ and the second episode was about the persuasiveness of Abraham Lincoln. In this episode, the spotlight is on Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa wasn’t viewed as a sales rep but she shared a vision and a cause with everyone she spoke to. Her ability to influence and lead others gained such momentum that her impact reaches well beyond her lifetime and the borders of India where she served. The Missionaries of Charity, established by Mother Teresa in 1950 began as a small order of 12 nuns and has now grown to more than 4,500 nuns who are actively working in over 600 missions across 133 countries. Through her efforts, Mother Teresa went on to receive a Nobel Peace Prize. After her death, she was honored as Saint Teresa of Calcutta. Mother Teresa set out to serve others and modeled to others how they could join her. Let’s take a look at the reasons she was so influential and how we can use the same principles in your B2B sales efforts. In this article, we will discuss 5 main points that made Mother Teresa an historical figure of great impact but first, what were her roots? Humble beginnings Mother Teresa was born on August 26, 1910, in Scopia, the capital city of North Macedonia. She eventually left to serve in Ireland and then went on to India where she spent the majority of her life. There, in 1950, Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation. The nuns took the traditional vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience but in addition, they professed to wholeheartedly give their service and strength to the poorest of the poor. Because of her tireless efforts and huge impact around the world, Mother Teresa’s lifetime was filled with awards and recognition, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. How did she go from such humble beginnings to gaining international recognition and worldwide impact? Five reasons: Deep conviction Ability to take action without hesitation Ability to build a strong rapport Ability to teach Drive to push against the status quo Let’s take a look at how these principles can be applied in B2B selling. Deep Conviction A nun is a member of a religious community of women living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. They typically live in a convent or monastery under a life-long calling. Nuns can focus their efforts on various causes such as education and healthcare. Unmarried, they focus on a higher calling. Unlike many missionaries who may commit to a finite amount of time in the mission field, most nuns commit their entire lives to service, like Mother Teresa. She dedicated her entire adult life to serving and helping others, usually the poorest of the poor. She was the epitome of selflessness, committing to what she believed in until she died in 1997. Millions of people around the world believe in God but not everyone has the same conviction to serve others the way Mother Teresa did. Conviction should be important to you as a B2B sales rep because you need to believe in what you do, what you sell, and how you can serve others through your business. If you want to help others by asking them to take action toward change, there has to be a belief in you that will translate to your prospect. Sales reps often jump from one job to another looking for a company that will earn them more money or they go from one industry to another. If this is you, understand that frequent changes can keep you from the commitment to the product or service you’re selling. For buyers, a sales rep who doesn’t stick with a company can translate as someone not dedicated to sticking to what they represent. Buyers can see a salesperson who isn’t willing to be there long-term. OB Smith shared that confidence and enthusiasm are the greatest sales producers in any kind of economy. A sales rep without much confidence and conviction in what he’s selling usually doesn’t get many sales. Sales reps must have conviction and passion. Confidence is contagious and that’s how people perceived Mother Teresa. They saw her confidence and passion and were convinced to work with her and support her cause. When you keep hopping from company to company, you don’t give yourself time to believe in what you’re selling. #SalesFacts Build your confidence You can build your confidence by sticking with a company and product you believe in. If you love CRMs than look for a company that makes you feel confident in their mission and what they’re doing. If you believe in the product you’re selling, and you’re a consumer yourself, you’ll be able to share the value of your product even better. Do your research. Learn about how other customers

How To Grow Sales With Local Networking Events All salespeople have tried to grow sales with local networking events. Many organizations utilize these events to bring awareness and drive sales. It’s a strategy that truly works. Sam Edwards is Chief Marketing Officer of SEO.co. It’s a content marketing and link building agency based in Seattle. He’s been in the digital and marketing space for the past 10 years and now he’s focused on hosting marketing events to get more clients on the sales side. Sam has experience working with TEDx talk and has written for Forbes, Inc, Entrepreneur, and other large publications. Through this work he’s developed his teaching side and helps local communities build their own stories and plans. Sam has a meet-up group with approximately 400 members. Another he’s affiliated with has over 300 and a third has close to a thousand members. Sam’s group has an average attendance of about 50 - 100. They have an upcoming event this February 5th that’s slated for over 120 people. Typically, the idea of going to a networking event right after work isn’t that appealing to people who work 9 to 5 jobs. Sam’s group met that challenge by creating events that are more like fun outings so people were excited to attend, even after a long day. That’s how they were able to obtain and retain the number of people coming month after month. Monetizing networking events Their very first event was agency-sponsored. That agency believed in their idea and wanted to look further into what Sam was doing. They spent $300 for the event and it was focused on an industry-specific topic about how to use the paid SCM data to influence the organic SEO strategy for search marketing. That event cost them $300 but they made eighteen thousand dollars. There are three main things you need to ensure when setting up a networking event. There is no selling at events Focus should be on the quality of the event and the content you’re offering Take the time to build up the group. There is no selling at events People have their guard up when listening to a presenter. It’s after the presentations that everyone lowers their guard, especially when it’s time for the after-party and everyone is going to the bar for drinks. People tend to relax in that environment and it’s then you can start a conversation. When talking to people, just talk, no pitching. People will see what you have to offer through talking with you. If they like what they see, they will want to work with you. Focus on building a relationship using organic means instead of trying focusing on presenting a pitch. Be transparent and honest when you are talking to people coming to your events. If you see the potential client isn’t going to be a good fit early on, be upfront. Don’t take the client just because they’re available. You want to make sure you’re qualifying the people who want to work with you. Make your events free and organize them to grow through invitation. It takes everyone to help for these events to continue to grow, and that includes previous attendees. Understand this is not a one and done quick fix. Even if you only have a handful of people coming to your first event, that shouldn’t deter you from planning another one. It takes time for the actual growth to happen. You will experience growing pains before you’re finally able to identify the kind of event that will attract attendance and growth. Event planning takes time and effort to build. Focus should be on the quality of the event and the content you’re offering Regardless of how long you’ve worked in your industry, your event still needs quality content to be successful. People won’t see the value of your events if they don’t see the benefits they will gain from attending. Sam makes it a point for his events to have specific themes or content so attendees know exactly what to look forward to. The easy part is inviting people to their first event but the challenge is getting them to the events that follow. You do that by ensuring that attendees are presented with quality content. This doesn’t just speak to the presentations. It begins the moment they step into the hall, as you shake their hands, give them their gift bags, and prepare for raffles. A lot of effort goes into a quality event, including everything that is built around the actual presentation. Focus on the details that others may overlook. Whatever industry you are in, try to make your events fun. Create a catchy event title. Sam’s event last October had a presentation entitled, “The Spooky Tell-tale Signs You Need to Fire or Hire Your Search Marketing Agency.” Ken Shankman from bulkcandystore.com was one of their sponsors. They gave him the plugins and suggested that he dress up as Willy Wonka. The event planners made 65 gift bags for the attendees and a golden ticket was put in one of the gift bags. The recipient of the golden ticket won the opportunity to visit his candy warehouse for a tour. It was a fun giveaway and it turned out

How To Plan And Set Goals You Can Achieve In 2020 With the new year comes new goals and resolutions. This episode’s guest offers new ways and suggestions to help you plan and set goals you can achieve in 2020. Many salespeople don’t realize that sales is easy if you follow a basic formula. Typically, however, sales reps have a habit of following the bouncing ball their prospects are throwing despite the many times it can lead to a dead end. Dave Mattson started out as a client at (David) Sandler Training and he’s been with the company for 30 years. He worked his way up the organization and became a partner in 1994. He had an opportunity to work with Dave for six years before David passed away in 1995. Dave purchased the company in 2012 and is currently the Brand Manager and CEO. They have 265 training centers globally and just last year, they trained 31,000 people and streamed their training to 19,000 people. This streamed training is becoming the way of the world, especially with the technology that is currently available. As a result, people in their system are represented by different age groups, different cultures, and different countries. Dave’s company creates content that is accessible in whatever format their clients need. For example, younger clients prefer several 4-minute micro trainings, versus a 45 minute lesson. With that knowledge, Sandler made 2,700 micro-learning lessons and added it to their suite of products and services. Sales strategies keep evolving so Dave and his company must keep up with new trends. With Sandler being one of the longest running companies, many people in the industry may view them as “dinosaurs” but year after year, they win awards for best sales training, management, and coaching. They clearly have the expertise to do it right. Importance of goal setting and planning From a CEO’s perspective, planning is imperative to make sure all the different groups in the organization know where they’re going. The assumption is that you have great salespeople working for you, competent individuals, but you have to make sure they are all heading in the right direction. It is the leader’s responsibility to see all the working parts. Each group needs to be assigned their tasks so everyone ultimately moves toward the organization’s goals. As a leader, you need to set up a strategy on how to plan and set goals you can achieve in 2020. Layout the benchmarks you want your salespeople to achieve and how you intend to get there. Show your team the contingency plans so they can better define daily goals for themselves. When the entire team has accountability, planning becomes a “we” exercise. The more you socialize it, the more people get involved. Dave suggests that for your corporate goal to become successful, each salesperson needs to link their commissions to personal goals that will keep them motivated. A great question is, “If you earn your $250,000 commission, what are you going to do once you have your money?” Being able to visualize something that is meaningful to them, helps to keep up the momentum. There are two reasons why people leave a company. The first is that they don’t feel like they're being stretched. The second is they don’t respect the person they work for. Sales leaders have to think of ways to motivate their sales reps to achieve their goal, not only for the organization but for individual goals as well. When the team doesn’t play their role The most common reason people say they don’t play their role say is they don’t have enough time. There has always been a serious time compression problem in sales. Many magazines claim that the top 3% of all producers are the people who have written down their goals so 97 out of 100 people don’t. This tells you how difficult the job of a sales leader is in an organization. They are in charge of producing revenue from people they can’t control. Sales leaders need to find a way to motivate their people to make the organization’s plan a success. The planning process The first thing you can do to plan and set goals that you can achieve in 2020 is to think about the different buckets of goals. What are the categories that are most important to you? Job promotion? Family? Purchases? Think of the things you want to do in those areas and mind map. Doing this allows you to free your inhibitions and get comfortable with the things you want to do. It’s the fastest way you can brainstorm. Using your dream board or a journal, start putting these buckets in order of priority. As a CEO, Dave usually focuses on no more than five goals. This allows him to really focus. Goals are more achievable when you don’t have a broad list that can serve as a distraction. Have your mind map, narrow your goals to five, and have some plan of action. Break your plans down quarter by quarter, month to month, and day to day. If you can hit your goals for Q1, then you know you’re on track. If not, plan out your contingency and look for the people who can help you