Sales Tuners

Takeaways

Make Planned Calls, Not Random Calls: For many people it doesn’t take long to realize that quality over quantity matters. For example, sometimes it’s not about how many calls you make. It’s about making planned calls that target specific prospects. Instead of working your way through a list and starting over at the beginning, make calls to the same two or three prospects in the same account on the same day. It’s Hard to Say No to Someone Personally: Face to face communication is huge and while you may not be able to personally meet all of your prospects at conferences, you can introduce yourself by video. It’s friendly and personal and offers you a different way to open up conversations. It’s really hard to say no to somebody when you see their face and they are more humanized. Ditch the Buzzwords and Generalities: Quit trying to make everything scale. Paul Graham wrote a great blog post all about intentionally doing things that don’t scale. When you try to stuff a script with all the features and benefits of your product while combining that with every possible use cases you solve, you end up appealing to no one. Try to bucket your prospects into groups of known challenges and then speak directly to them in the phrases they use to describe the problem needing solved.

https://www.salestuners.com/lauren-wadsworth/

Takeaways

https://www.salestuners.com/scott-cramer/

Takeaways

Figure Out a Growth Trajectory: One of the first challenges I see a lot of salespeople struggle with is their quota or actual goal. Regardless of what the number is, going from zero to that number can seem daunting. Instead of focusing on the end, find the unit of growth that makes your sales process work and then do the backwards math to develop your daily game plan. You’ll find this activity to be a lot more manageable. Quit Being Afraid of Cold Calls: It’s so much easier to send out a quick batch of emails, but the simple (and harsh) truth is cold calling works. A personal conversation is more memorable, not to mention more open-ended, than the 100th email you prospect receives in a given day. First thing first, you can’t sound like every other salesperson on the planet. Instead of trying to get them to say yes, be skeptical and determine if they even have the problems your product or service can help. Second, create equal business stature -- tell them you’re only going to take 30 seconds of their time and then they get to decide if you should keep talking. And last, realize the whole point of a cold call is to set up a meeting, NOT immediately sell them something. Find the Right Clients to Call: Ask yourself the following questions: Who are my acceptable clients? Who are my typical clients? Who are my ideal clients? Look at the demographics for the niche you’re in. Group potential clients by location, years in business, revenue, industry, employees, or whatever you can to narrow down the scope. Then, overlay that with the top reasons your last 3-5 customers bought from you. Being able to tell similar stories makes the conversation more fluid. Write Emails that Get Responses: Your subject line is the most important piece with the sole goal of getting the recipient to open the email. A few of the things I’ve seen work include using three words or less, not capitalizing the first word, asking a question and using the prospect's first name. But getting a response is another story. The body of the email should be short and NOT about you. You prospects don’t care about you because they don’t know you. Instead, focus on what you think they’re problem could be and how others have solved a similar challenge.

https://www.salestuners.com/jim-brown/

Takeaways

Nurture Wins: Nurture campaigns are an investment, but they can pay huge dividends in the long-term. In general, no one will ever buy less because you care more. Finding ways to engage with prospects at another level than simply making a phone call or sending an email makes a significant difference these days. What can you send a prospect to differentiate yourself and show them you really care? Push Your Tone to the Limit: On a scale of one to ten, with one being beloved Fred Rogers and ten being brutally honest Joan Rivers, where do you fall? Being nice is nice and all, but sometimes it helps to step outside your comfort zone. Understanding where you fall on this tonal scale is important, but more important is finding the line of where your prospects sit. What can you say to move them to the edge of emotion and stand out in their inbox? If you upset some people along the way, so be it. It doesn’t make sense to dwell on the one or two people you may have shocked when you see the increased pipeline you’re able to build. Understand the Curse of Knowledge: You know what they say about making assumptions, right? Don’t do it. Why? Because aside from the obvious negative consequences, the knowledge in your head may be harder for others to comprehend than you think. It’s easy to assume that because you have domain knowledge, everyone does. Unfortunately, that’s simply not the case. It’s always better to start fresh and build upon a mutual understanding than to assume you’re already on the same page.

https://www.salestuners.com/todd-muffley/

Takeaways

Everybody is in Sales: Personality can only take you so far. Introvert or extrovert doesn’t matter and doesn’t define you as a sales person. What does is how you sell. No matter what you end up doing, you are in sales. Whether that means selling your ideas to your boss, selling co-workers on a new approach to a problem, or directly selling a service to a customer -- everything starts with sales. Break the Silence: I’ve been in a enough sales rooms to tell you the silence is absolutely deafening today. On one end, you’ve got a whole bunch of brand new salespeople with no business acumen and hole bunch of “tools” in their hands they have to try to figure out. On the other end you’ve got more experienced reps going into conference rooms to “make their calls.” All of this has got to stop. Let’s work together, out loud, to move the needle. Go For No: It’s one thing to know you’re going to hear “no” a lot. It’s something else entirely how you approach it. Instead of making a goal to set five appointments, make a goal to get 100 people to tell you no. Now, even if you get to your goal of five appointments, you have to keep going, because you haven’t gotten your 100 no’s. Want to see the immediate impact of this? For the next week, try to get 20 no’s a day in your personal life. Ask for your coffee for free. Ask for a discount on your lunch. Ask your cable provider if they can lower your bill. You’ll be surprised what happens when you just start asking.

https://www.salestuners.com/david-dulany/

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/keenan/

It’s Not About Learning: It’s about applying what you love and who you are to what you do. While you need to understand your product, It’s more important to know how to sell than it is to know all the technical features and benefits of your offering. Comparing sales to fitness… you can educate yourself all you want about what it takes to get a perfect six pack, but none of that matters until you start applying that knowledge. Application and execution are the most important part of the puzzle. Be You: It’s okay to be inspired by successful salespeople, that likely why so many people listen to this show, but at the end of the day, you have be you. Everyone is different and what works for one person might not have the same impact on someone else. Whatever gives you energy, whatever makes you passionate, whatever gets you going in the morning - use that to build the YOU that you want to be. You have the power to make the choices that will empower you in the long run, so choose to be you from the start and you won’t let yourself down. Compete With Yourself First: Success in sales comes from a burning desire to be the best. That doesn’t by default mean you have to aggressively beat other people, it just means that you are uncomfortable staying where you are. As a result, you put in the work it takes to push yourself in order to move, grow and advance. That has to come from within or nothing is going to change.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/matt-millen/

You Get What You Give: The quality of what you put into a sale is the quality of what you get back. Success is in itself a habit and there are rituals that go into creating success. The numbers play a role and the tools available are important, but ultimately it’s what you put into a sale that matters. It’s who you are, what you have to offer and how you offer it that closes a sale. Believe in Something: It’s different for everyone, but one tried and true belief system focuses on the importance of having a story, being active and having a positive mindset. Great sales reps live and breathe their business. They tell a story with a passion, conviction and soul. They are active in conversations and they believe in their heart that their product, that their business, is going to help whoever they are selling to. Learn From What Works: Trusting the process matters. If there’s a process, run the process. Learn the script. Don’t reinvent the wheel unnecessarily when something is working. Once you master what’s in place, then you can look for new ways to learn and engage. Most importantly, understand that hard work defines what you do. It may not always be easy, but sometimes you just need to put pen to paper and do the work. There are no shortcuts for success.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/mary-browning/

It All Starts With Data (But It Doesn’t End There): Data is the list of people you’re going to call and the industry or demographics of companies you’re looking at. Taking those numbers to the next level focuses on the people behind the numbers. What are their common needs? How can you help meet them? When you consider the current marketplace, and the ins and outs of each organization, part of being a successful salesperson is understanding and meeting clients where they are at. Make Your Message Matter: It isn’t just about the numbers. What is the customer’s pain? You need to make it your job to find out, and quick! One of the biggest challenges in prospecting is that you generally have 30 seconds or less to uncover someone’s pain. That’s why it is so important to develop succinct ways to communicate a solution to that pain. Make it count. Consider Your Cadence: Most importantly, how a message is delivered should be diverse. It needs to be communicated through a mix of channels, including phone calls, emails, social media, direct mail or whatever other methods you see fit for your business. Staggering different types of communication throughout a period of time, like two weeks for example, is one of the best ways to reach someone in the long run. In most cases, a phone call or two just won’t cut it. Qualification Matters: What’s a scenario where a prospect probably isn’t going to move to a next step for you? Understanding that from the first time you take a meeting, allows you to really learn from the conversations you’re having and improve the overall conversation rate. If a meeting is disqualified, use that as an opportunity to grow by digging into why it didn’t work. From there you can structure qualifying questions to ask future prospects making you more knowledgeable and efficient in the process.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/bob-perkins/

Be Selfish In a Good Way: Top sales reps are usually at the top for a reason. They’re driven, focused and selfish - in a good way. They’re also not that concerned with the welfare of those around them. They need that time and space to focus on their accounts, run their sales process the way they know works, are dedicated to improving themselves all along the way. Embrace the Digital Transformation: The role technology plays in sales isn’t going away. You can easily schedule meetings with apps like Calendly or completely automate it with services like X.ai. You can streamline the workflow for creating proposals with apps like our sponsor Octiv or simplify your outbound prospecting with tools like SalesLoft. There’s even a new product I recently demoed that brings better transparency and consistency to the discovery call process called Costello that you should check out. Keep Sales Personal: Time to contradict myself a bit. Even though I believe we have to embrace the digital transformation, understand we are at the risk of de-personalizing sales. All the tools, data, and analytics should be leveraged when appropriate, but at the end of the day, people buy from people they like. Differentiate yourself from the both the AI movement as well as average sales person by showing your personality. Flip on the switch for your webcam and ask your prospect to do the same. Write emails like a human being. Truly participate in the “social” part of social media.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/damian-thompson/

All Interest Is Self Interest: Knowing your prospects is a good place to start, but often it helps to dig deeper. It helps to understand what motivates people and what makes them tick. It helps to remember that all interest is self interest. What does that mean for you? People buy emotionally and then rationalize their purchase intellectually after the fact. You have to get them excited or upset about something to truly move them. Question Everything: As soon as something becomes an accepted and widely used “best practice,” chances are its shelf life has already expired. For example, all the cute subject lines or cold email template you find, were awesome the first five times a prospect saw them. What are you doing today? What are you testing right now? Even if everything is going great and you’re beating quota, what should you be questioning to see if you could get even better? Niche Down Until it Hurts: It’s NOT possible to serve too small of a niche. If you really want to find success in sales, become the X for Y guy (i.e. CRM for dog groomers in hot weather states). While that may be an exaggeration, finding the common characteristics of the people that buy from you also you to become so good and so understood in a the space that it become easy to replicate.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/joe-caprio/

Play By The Numbers: Ask not what the numbers can do for you but what you can do with your numbers. If you have tools available for tracking, do more than use them. Make them work for you by analyzing what they mean for your business. You know what you do every day so don’t just accept it and move on. Keep track of it and use the data to improve your process. Work Harder AND Smarter: Instead of debating whether to work harder or smarter, do both. There are those who will say there is no substitute for hard work, efficiency and high conversion rates. But why not work smarter as well? Once you’ve learned how to be efficient, don’t stop there. Instead, be smart. Put your knowledge and experience to work for you by doing more of what works and less of what doesn’t work. Stay on your toes by mixing it up regularly, and whatever you do don’t stop growing. Treat Prospects Like Your Aunt or Uncle: Doing so creates a built in level of respect. You’re not going to upset them or step on their toes. That said, you’re allowed to disagree with your family, right? So, if you create the same dynamic with your prospects, you can respectfully tell them they’re wrong and educate them based on the perspective you have.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/kai-yu-hsiung/

Be Unconventional: If something isn’t working, consider your options. Instead of trying the same thing again, get creative and find a way to approach the situation differently. How else could you work the sale? In what other venue? Would a conversational tweet open the door? What about a cocktail party to help break the ice? Thinking about different ways to sell your product is one of the best ways to react to the inevitable “no” situations you will encounter. Think Like an Entrepreneur: Whether you’re working for a big company or a startup, a sales career is your own business to run. You may have certain constraints or expectations placed on you by your employer, but you don't have constraints put on you in terms of how you approach the situation. As you learn the art of the rejection, should be able to firmly own and manage your career trajectory. No (Sales)Person is an Island: No matter how it might feel at any given moment, you’re not in this alone. In fact, it’s better that way. Why? The more you can surround yourself with quality resources that are genuinely interested in seeing you succeed, the better. You may be great at a single job,, but if you’re truly dedicated to scaling your business, you need partners to help along the way. Identify those people and figure out the win/win scenarios.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/marylou-tyler/

Know When to Walk Away: Most of us are eternally hopeful, but it’s often more prudent to be realistic. If you have a strong pipeline, work it. Don’t be afraid to push back, but also recognize when something isn’t working. If it’s not a good fit, the square peg will not fit into a round hole over time. Have a set list or set of criteria you look for in initial meetings, and if the client doesn’t fit, move on. While everybody may be a prospect, not everyone is a good prospect. Recognize the difference as early as you can. Trade Discipline for Habit: Think of prospecting like you would brushing your teeth. It’s different than being disciplined, it’s habit. It’s something you do every day without thinking. There’s a good reason people lose weight, then gain it and lose it and gain it again. They can have all the discipline in the world, but if working out and making healthy choices is not a habit for them, the discipline is for naught. Incorporate prospecting into your daily routine prevents the peaks and valleys. The habit become so ingrained into your mind that it would feel weird if you missed it. Become a Student of the Game: Talking to the right people at the right time in the right role at the right stage of the pipeline is a magical formula for success, but how do the stars align so beautifully to facilitate such perfection? The key here is studying your process and knowing your numbers. As each sales cycle unfolds, what patterns can you identify? Are there common stalls or objections? Finding repeatable solutions can put at the top of the leaderboard in no time.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/steve-richard/

Failure Is Part of the Process: No one remembers the deals they win; they remember the deals they lost. There is a psychological reason for this that is rooted in the scientific makeup of the mind. When emotions are extremely high or there is a high level of anxiety, our brains are essentially programed to make us remember those moments. Instead of letting those moments haunt you, turn them into opportunity. Once you accept that mistakes happen and move on, it’s easier to choose to learn something from almost any sticky situation. You Determine How Successful You Become: It is much more common to fail at the start than it is to become the next overnight success story. What you do with that knowledge determines the path you will take. It’s up to you to decide. You own your own development. If you fail, own it because if you don’t fail, you’re never going to learn. Focus on One Thing at a Time: Make time to review calls either on your own or as a team. Instead of repeating the same mistakes over and over and expecting different results, review your calls, find out what works, and focus on one thing at a time and put it into practice.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/raquel-richardson/

Remember It’s Not About You: Hearing “no” in sales is a given, but that doesn’t make it any less trying. Regardless of the circumstances surrounding how exactly you are shot down, there is no more important personality strength than the ability to bounce back. Sales is so much easier when you can remove yourself from the process and remember one simple truth: it’s not about you. It’s not a personal attack. You are doing your job, and it might be challenging right at this moment, but “no” is not the end of the line for you unless you let it be. Document and Share What Works: Raquel brought up her concept of a “WinWire,” but what could you do for the closed won or even the closed lost deals at your company. Before a “case study” is even relevant, how could you capture the details of why a customer bought from you? What was the business situation? What were they struggling with? Were they replacing anything? Did they pick you over another solution? What was the size of the deal? Capturing these details, win or lose, and sharing them with your team may spark some unforeseen opportunities. Don’t Make Assumptions: I believe the single biggest challenge most salespeople have is their inability or unwillingness to listen. More often than not, I find that when they’re quiet, all they’re really doing is waiting for their next turn to talk. Doing this forces you to start making assumptions and disregarding the chance to gain real clarity. Both can be detrimental to your sales cycle.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/morgan-j-ingram/

Think Big Even If You Start Small: Anyone who’s either lived it before or is living it now knows the truth about being a sales development representative: it’s tough. SDRs are pushed hard, work long hours and go into work every single day knowing they’re going to get rejected over and over again. But, if you can master the art of opening up new opportunities, your career will open up in ways you may never have imagined. The mental toughness of those who persevere, those who thrive, those who live to tell the tale are prepared for anything. Understand Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy: Prospecting is simple, but it’s not easy. The tasks of calling, emailing, and connecting on social media are simple enough on their own. But the actual work and grind of it all is tough. It requires endurance. It means not taking no for an answer. Pushing back when you meet resistance is hard, but you should never be afraid to challenge a person. Dig a little deeper, ask a follow-up question they can’t not answer and stay the course. Break the Pattern: Stop and think for a minute. When is the last time you answered that “how are you” question honestly? The thought is there, but the question is stale. Instead, break the pattern by asking “what did I catch you in the middle of?” Whether you’re making calls, you can’t sound like every other salesperson on the planet. Disarm them by coming out of the gate with a strong question, mirroring their tone and taking the time to have a real conversation.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/jonathan-parrott/

Focus on Discovery: It’s not in the end zone that sales are lost, but rather at the start of the game. Your goal as a salesperson at the simplest level is to connect what you have with what a person is trying to accomplish. A lot of that starts early in the relationship as you seek to discover what it is that is driving that person. What is it they want to do? How can you help them do it? Learning as much as possible about a potential client on the front end pays dividends as you work toward closing the sale. Engage Where Your Prospect Is: E-mail has its place, but anyone who has ever accidentally hit “reply all” or inaccurately interpreted someone’s written tone can testify. E-mail is not the most conducive setting for building a strong, lasting relationship with someone. Since sales is rooted in working with humans, finding ways to engage with prospects is often more successful using other methods than e-mail. Whether that means picking up the phone, scheduling an in-person meeting or even striking up a conversation online about a relevant blog post, finding ways to personalize and humanize yourself will set you apart from the crowd. The best thing to keep in mind is to engage in real conversations with real people despite the platform you use to do it. Stay the Course: Everyone loses a sale from time to time. What matters is that you get back on the horse. What matters is what you learn from that experience. Instead of feeling stuck in a rut, try to focus on how it feels to be successful. Try to keep your eyes on the prize by staying level-headed amid the stressful times and you will persevere. Because there will be mountains and hurdles. There will be tough quarters or months. Staying the course amid those trying times will make you a stronger, wiser salesperson in the long run.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/jeb-blount/

Protect the Golden Hours: Setting a structure in place for making sales calls has the potential to make or break your business. Make time for what matters, by including blocks of time to make sales calls on your calendar, preferably during the golden hours. Use voicemail blocks to call late in the day when you know you’re not going to reach most people. Plant a seed by leaving a voicemail, but then follow up in an outbound call block the following day. That way, the number is recognized or the call is returned. The same method can be utilized with e-mail as well. It may only take 15 minutes to accomplish something amazingly powerful. Remember the 30-Day Rule: The 30-day rule is a simple formula that comes into play regularly for most B2B salespeople. Generally speaking, any prospecting you do in a 30-day period of time has the tendency to pay off over the next 90 days. Yet this is where the anatomy of a sales slump lays its foundation. This is where a lack of prospecting can lead to no pipeline, which leads to no closed sales. This is where confidence gets shaken. It’s ultimately the decision to stay focused and remember the end game that gets you through. Put the Sales Person Hack to Use: The bane of existence for most salespeople is the gatekeeper. So think about ways to get around them. Instead, leverage your likeness to others like you. Be persistent and talk to someone who understands. Have you ever called on a salesperson in another company? That call is always going to get answered! And guess what? They know your pain. Engage with them. Tell them what happened when their gatekeeper told you no. Why? Because they’ll get it. And they’ll get you where you need to be.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/25-sales-leaders/

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https://www.salestuners.com/sam-mckenna/

Be Polite: Prospects are more than just a number on a sales chart. He or she is a person with a whole life outside the office just like your own. Remembering that in meetings, phone calls and email outreach can make all the difference when it comes down to cultivating a relationship and ultimately making the sale. Get Prospects Become Storytellers: Sales is not a pitch. It’s a conversation. How can you structure your questioning to get a prospect comfortable enough to just open up and tell you a story? Sure, you could tell them a million things about your solution, but what does their world really look like? Show the Cost of Inaction: Sometimes it’s not about what they think they have. It’s about what they are losing. Showing your prospects the cost of inaction can often times be more effective than anything else. How much is it costing them to maintain the status quo? How can your product or service make their life easier? How can your offering keep them out from being embarrassed in their next meeting their boss?

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/matt-amundson/

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https://www.salestuners.com/patrick-giusti/

Know the Key Players: Get to know who you are selling to before you meet them. Technology offers you a valuable resource of information about a person based on their professional networks, profiles and even published work. Seize the opportunity to know more than your competition by getting to know a person’s interests, passions and business practices prior to meeting them. The Biggest Play of the Game (Happens First): You know the saying, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression.” In sales, the biggest play of the game is often the very first one. That starts with getting to know who you’re talking to and who you’re selling to, but it digs deeper than that. It means knocking it out of the park on the first try by coming prepared with the product knowledge and insights necessary to do so. Play to the Audience: Understanding the role your prospect plays in the whole game is crucial to sales success. It’s one thing to sell an idea, product or service to the decision-makers in an organization. It’s something else entirely whether that idea, product or service resonates with the them. Figuring out the incentives each player has in a decision is another way to ensure a lasting victory for everyone involved.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/moore/

It Is What You Know: Everyone is familiar with the inherent value in networking, but what you know can be equally as important to closing a sale. A successful sales team needs to first understand a company’s core mission and beliefs, but it can’t stop there. Sales representatives must also know the ins and outs of what they are trying to sell. If not, a challenge exists where a confused seller is trying to sell to a confused buyer and even though everybody wants to pretend they know what’s happening, they don’t. An educated seller is a prepared seller. Swipe Right for Success: Ultimately, sales is about people and people change their minds daily. Never before has information been as accessible as it is, but on the flip side of the coin people are busier than ever before. Because of that, the sales process has been highly compressed, prompting the need to differentiate your business and its products quickly. Despite the ability to easily swipe right, people are inherently distrustful about things they do not fully understand. That’s why it’s more necessary than ever before to focus on the sale after the sale. A first date is great, but is it a good match? The answer to that question can define the long-term success to a sale. Always Seek Candor: Being authentic and real with people will take you farther than you dreamed possible. Former chairman and chief executive officer of General Electric and esteemed American business executive Jack Welch, Jr. once said “the higher you get in an organization the more you get lied to.” Rising above that albeit honest truth can make or break your sales career. Developing a personal philosophy to speak to people in a candid and understandable way is one of the best fundamental first steps you can take on your journey to sales success.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/keene/

Adopt a CEO Mentality: The perception of who you are matters a lot. Instead of just doing everything you’re supposed to do, think bigger -- if it were your company, what would you do differently? How would you dress? How would you talk to customers? Would you hold others accountable? These ideas will get you thinking more broadly about the business as opposed to just your role in sales. Leverage Your Network: The easiest way to get into a new prospect is through referral, right? Once you figure out who’s connected to the people you want to talk to, what information can you arm them with to make an introduction on your behalf? Act Like a Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Think about how you communicate with the most important people in your life (family, close friends, etc.). When you call or text them, if they don’t respond right away, you likely give them some time knowing they’re probably busy. But after a few days or weeks, you don’t just give up, your frequency of calls and texts increases. When you apply that to prospecting, most people know that a salesperson will go away if you just ignore them. Flipping the script to give them space and then ramping up the frequency might just get you in the door.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/20/

Steve’s playbook starts with reading a book a day, thrives on pushing the limits and commits to winning every single time. And now, he has extended a special offer for SalesTuners listeners: Get a LIFETIME Membership for only $250! (regularly $1499) and you'll get 10 free ANNUAL Memberships to give away to friends, colleagues, and clients (regularly $299 each). 

Learn by Reading: If knowledge is power, books are the proverbial light switch. Professional development in sales begins deep within the pages of carefully penned thoughts and ideas of those who have gone before you. Respecting the insight from those who have been there in your shoes is one of the most valuable investments you can make in yourself, and ultimately in your business. Learn by Failing: This should be a mantra in any and every college course for future sales professionals. Because, guess what? In sales, you will fail. It’s inevitable. It’s going to happen. Understanding that out of the gate is not only a proactive psychological move, but it’s one that will help you put it all into perspective. Nothing is worthless, nothing is a true failure, if something can be learned from it. Learn by Doing: Sometimes it’s true what the great and powerful “they” say about best laid plans. They often go awry, and it’s how you handle the change in course that makes all the difference. When in doubt, just give it a try. Don’t be afraid. You might be surprised by the positive results. Learn by Breaking the Rules: In the day and age of social media marketing and content planning and sales quotas and all the things, just stop. Do something unconventional. Try something new. Push the limits and challenge the boundaries. You may end up accidentally stumbling across an exciting new path you didn’t even know was waiting for you all along.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/bertuzzi/

Own the Space: Your passion, or lack thereof, is infectious. As a salesperson, you know more about your product or service than your prospect and need to own the sales process. Know what your competitors are saying, know what your analysts are saying, truly understand the problem that needs to be solved and guide your prospect through the conversation. Arouse Curiosity: Buyers are busier than ever before. You don’t have to get the whole message out when prospecting. Instead, learn to communicate more succinctly and offer information in sound bytes that will both develop the relationship and provide value. This should make buyers curious enough to respond or come back to you in the future. Change is Constant: Content is the new SPAM. Many large companies are getting rid of voicemail. E-mails are read on mobile devices more often than not. Everything is in motion and changing rapidly. What worked for you last year may be less efficient now, so be mindful and observant in patterns of change you are seeing.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/zuzic/

Understand DISC Profiles: Understanding how a person thinks, and then communicating with them how they want to be communicated with, is key. One method to help identify how to most efficiently communicate with others is to learn about the personality traits that drive them using a tool like the (DISC) Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Conscientiousness Personality Test. Keep Your Energy Level Up: You have the answer to the tough questions, so sell with that in mind. Think outside the box. Ask the tough questions and run through walls in the process because you are confident in the answers you have to provide. Most importantly, do all of it with your head held high. The ability to stay positive amid the challenges you face will define who you become as a salesperson. Don’t be Single Threaded: In a hunt for whales, the bigger picture is essential in the road map to sales success. There is no single thread in larger organizations, where multiple decision makers are involved in sales decisions. Remembering to leave an impact on all the key players will help set you apart from the crowd.

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Auto Ask - Figure out how to consistently get in front of your audience with a unique fresh message. Eventually they’ll either meet with you, tell you they’ll meet with you a later date, or tell you to go away, but the persistence will ultimately pay off once they see your commitment. Don’t Reinvent the Wheel - Look around you. Talk to other reps in a similar role. Talk to your competitors or at least reps that sell into the same type of prospect profile you. What is working for them or what has worked for others? DIY Before Outsourcing - Unless you know the intricate details of a process, it may not be in your best interest to outsource it. Do it yourself first. Figure out the tiny details and draft a standard operating procedure. Doing so allows you to monitor the outsourcing and determine very quickly what’s working and what’s not.

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Have a Process - This one should have been obvious from the episode title, but here’s the thing — if you don’t have a process, you have to adapt to your buyers process and they don’t know how to buy. As you define the individual steps in your process and what the exit criteria is for each, it becomes much easier to qualify, plan, and close opportunities. Ask for Referrals - You’ll never get anything in life you don’t ask for, and referrals are no exception. Make it a habit… actually, make it part of your process to ask everyone you come in contact with for one referral. If you’re able to describe to them the problems you solve, see if they know one person that might be having the same problem and could benefit from your solution. Act Like an Entrepreneur - It’s easy to play Tuesday Morning Quarterback, but until you really start to understand all the mechanics of RUNNING a business, you’ll never grasp why certain decision are made or not made. Until then, being resourceful and knowing which corners to cut or which risks to take can have a big impact on your career.

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It’s Not Your Money: This remains a challenge for most people in sales, but you have to realize, the amount of money you’re asking a person for has no correlation to your own wallet or your perception of “a lot of money” is. Just because you couldn’t afford to buy something, or just because you’ve never done what you’re asking the buyer to do, doesn’t mean they can’t or shouldn’t. Overcome the Default Objection: How many times have you walked into a store with a specific intention to buy something and when the store clerk asked if they could help you with anything your default response was, “no thank, I’m just looking.” Pretty much every time, right? Buyers of your product are doing the same thing by saying “they’re good” or “they already have someone.” What are follow up questions you can ask to break through that initial objection in your world. Quit Thinking, Start Doing: It was General George Patton that said “a good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed at some indefinite time in the future.” to break that down, simply GET OUT of your own way. Pick up the phone, send the email, just start doing something.

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Ask For More: If you want to be great at what you do, ask for more. Self-attitude, self-belief and confidence only comes when you take action. People tend to stop themselves from achieving all they can because they get caught up in self doubt and distractions. It’s Not About You: Forget about your website. Forget about your business cards. Forget about your PowerPoint deck. At the end of the day, all of those things are irrelevant. Find your prospects true pain and watch the solution present itself. Leverage Trade Shows: Walk up to the salesmen in the booth sand just start asking questions. Ask them what they have been seeing in the market? What kind of feedback are they getting from customers? What do they think people should be excited about? What are some of the trends people are talking about? As you start to see common themes, you’re likely to craft a better pitch or discovery question set.

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Find Your Champion: When prospecting pursue multiple players inside the organization. Don't just stop at the person who you think is the right person, by reaching out to multiple people you’re more likely to find someone who will at least pick up the phone and hear what you have to say. Turning them into your champion on the inside. Don’t Go it Alone: Let other people assist you wherever possible. Jack talked about the idea of always wanting to be the dumbest person in the right room. Doing so pushes him and makes him look at and think about things differently. Find the Real Pain: Whether you’re prospecting or right in the middle of sales cycle — what your product or service does is irrelevant. You have to understand and focus on the actual pain the prospect has and use their words to build a business case.

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Know the Vice: In today’s world where people may have 10-15 different inboxes, figure out the best way to communicate with prospects individually. Whether its email, Snapchat, Twitter, LinkedIn, or phone etc. don’t rely on just one channel. Be Found: If people can’t find you online, they can’t learn from you, and if they can’t learn from you, they can’t decide to buy from you. Invest time in building your social presence to grow your visibility and perceived thought leadership. Comparison is the Thief of Joy: While competition is good, don’t let comparing yourself to others steal your success. Salespeople today spend too much time thinking “if I fail, it’s because of this” instead of “when I win, it’s in spite of this.”

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Be Professionally Curious: The things you don’t know in sales won’t kill you… it’s the things you do know, that just aren’t so, that will. Don’t skip past the ‘what’ cycle of questioning. Starting basic can help gain key understandings to build a strong foundation before digging deeper. Provide Context to Content: There is a ton of information available to prospects. The job of the salesperson is not to provide information, but rather context. Prospects have access to more content than ever before, but sales people have more context in their area of expertise than a prospect should or could ever develop. Sharing the context is essential. Understand People: Learn how to adjust yourself to address the person you’re selling to. There are many indicators in every conversation that illuminate the personality type of the person you’re communicating with. Is their preferred communication style visual, auditory, or kinesthetic? What is their DISC profile? Unlocking these concepts can drastically improve your sales process.

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Confidence is Key: Once you realize you know more about your product than the person on the other end of the call, the whole world opens up to you. Stress levels go down, better questions are asked and that feeling of awkwardness and intimidation starts to fade. Quit Being a Rule Follower: While it’s important to know the rules of the game, more often than not, it’s so that you know which one’s to break and when. Don’t just imitate those around you, challenge the status quo and find your voice. Keep it Conversational: Be logical and intentional in your questions by focusing on the purpose of where the answer should take you. As you start to better understand your flow, people will continue to engage without realizing how long they have been talking to you and open up all kinds of opportunity you might never have got to.

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Get a Prospect Moving: Ask good questions to establish credibility and trust. Your questions should be centered on moving a prospect from a neutral position to one where they’re willing to make a change. Stay the Course: Put in the work every single day. The close may not come right away, but take the time to continually deliver value filled messages and touches to stay top of mind. Maximize Your Time: Instead of making four hours of work look like 10, focus on maximizing your eight hours to hit your goals.

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Lifestyle Creep: Even when you hit your sales goals and bring home a commission check, be careful to not splurge. Avoid the yo-yo effect and focus on achieving your financial goals by hitting your sales goals. Be Present: Know your stuff, but beyond the presentation know your audience and acknowledge the moment — not just your agenda. Personal Responsibility: Take responsibility for both the wins and the losses. Then learn from the no’s in order to better communicate your value.

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Prospecting: By simply picking up the phone you open up a world of new opportunities. Prospecting helps solves a lot of problems while developing you faster. Time: Time is the most valuable asset any of us have. When reaching out to a prospect be clear on the value by doing research, asking good questions, sharing insights, and testing out different approaches. Goals: Goal setting is one of the most important things any sales rep can do in their career, whether it’s daily weekly, monthly, or annually. The act requires you to ask yourself questions in preparation for prospecting meetings and help you to proactively address objections. Objection handling: Feel, Felt, Found - I totally understand how you feel, other people have felt the same way, what I’ve found is...

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Takeaways

Candor: Prior to kicking off a sales call, set the ground rules for the meeting. Practice: Stepping into the “batter’s box” helps great hitters hone their craft. The same is true for even the best salespeople. Be Proactive: Salespeople often lose control of the sales process when they get ahead of themselves in answering questions.

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Your Network is your Net Worth: Spend the time necessary to grow your relationships both inside your organization and outside of it. Coaching High Performers: Before starting the conversation use a simple three-part question, Do you want me to listen? Do you want me to fix? Or do you want me to coach? Enablement is Ongoing: Simply put, enablement is not a single event, it’s getting the right people in the right conversations at the right time with the right information and it can’t start early enough.

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Share: Even if what you share is unrelated to what you’re trying to sell, doing so allows you to show you care, which drives future opportunities. Focus on the Customer: Know the buyer from every angle at the company and personal level. Provide Value: Constantly consume and share content that will be relevant to your buyers.

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SalesTuners is a weekly interview where I talk with great sales leaders and high performing individual salespeople about the Behaviors, Attitudes, and Techniques that have made them great. 

This episode is my introduction and my why. Learn more at SalesTuners.com!

Understand How Your Prospect Makes Money: You already know how your company makes money and you already know how you make money once your company makes money. During the sales process, if you really dig in and figure out how your prospects make money, then you can sync your offering with their real incentives. It truly doesn’t matter what you sell if you can figure out how your offering impacts their revenue engine. That’s the key. Put Yourself Out There: Your network is not just going to build itself. You have to commit time in a given week or month outside your organization. Think about it just like you would building your pipeline. Who are the top 3-5 people you’d like to know? Reach out to them and ask for coffee or for lunch. Be genuine in your reasoning and figure out how you can provide reciprocal value. This effort you put in now will pay off in spades for a long time to come. Own Your Day: It’s been mentioned a few times on this show but understanding your own process and the things that make an impact or crucial to real success. Get organized and plan your day intentionally. Block on time on your calendar to do the things you know need to get done and don’t let the 5-10 minutes between meetings get wasted with goofing off because you can’t get any “real work” done in that short of time. Also, at the end of each day, recap the day and plan for what is going to happen the following.

In the last 5-7 years, there has seemingly been an explosion in the number of companies, both tech startups as well as more traditional businesses, that require salespeople. Unfortunately, in that same period of time there hasn’t been any magical creation of new sales talent.

That misalignment has led companies to over-recruit, under-train, and honestly… just hope reps “figure it out." I’ve had some sales leaders tell me they’ll hire 10 reps knowing full well only 4 will work out. What in the world is going on?

Most sales reps actually know what to do — that has been drilled into them over and over. They need help understanding the why (and even the how) behind the what. Today, I’m talking with Vendition’s Ashleigh Early about this exact challenge and what both reps and leaders can do to fill the void with context and personalization.  

Takeaways

Become a Subject Matter Expert: There have been many conversations on this show that have talked about the need to truly understand who your buyer is. Jess took that even a step farther by suggesting that she actually become a licensed health benefits consultant. Think about that. Are there certifications in your industry that could help you better relate to the knowledge your prospects have? Yes, you can learn these things at a high level likely through your companies sales enablement, but what would it take to be able to truly walk in your customers' shoes? Your Questions Prove Your Credibility: Deals are won or lost in discovery. If the questions you are asking can easily be answered, you’re not asking the right questions. You want your prospect to actually think about what is being asked and that means showing you know their world. Use the words their peers use. Explain what you’ve seen other people like them go through. Then ask a question that makes them shift a bit in their seat. When they start showing emotion, you know you’re actually on to something. Listen: Simply stated, but not easy to execute. Think about your last discovery call. Were you listening to understand what your prospect was trying to tell you or were you really just waiting for them to stop talking so you could advance the conversation. What does it mean to actively listen? It’s the idea of reading between the lines. You hear the words that are coming out of their mouth but know there is a deeper meaning. When that’s the case, repeat some of what you just heard, and ask them to elaborate. Remember, people love to talk about themselves. Let them.

In our first ever episode of READefined, we’re taking a look at Robert Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

Today, we are all becoming overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information at our disposal AND the choice that comes with that for even the most mundane topics. While it would be nice to think our prospects consider all the information available to them before they decide whether to say “yes” or “no,” you know from your own day-to-day experience that reality is quite different.

The truth is, we need shortcuts. We need rules of thumb to help us filter through the noise. And guess what… there’s a science to it. And, that science is the evidence-based research Cialdini presents in this book on the psychology of persuasion with six overarching principles.

Takeaways

Speak a Common Language: As Greg was learning to sell, he was taught baseball idioms like ‘batting 1.000,’ ‘drop the ball,’ ‘be in the ballpark,’ and of course, ‘touch base.’ But to many of you listening, these phrases no longer have anything to do with the game because they’ve been so ingrained into our normal lexicon. What words or phrases might you be using that make no sense to your prospect? Greg gave the example of the literal translation of ‘How are you?’, a throwaway phrase we use in America that would make an Eastern European tell you all about their life. Get Your Prospect to Come to Their Own Conclusion: Think about the last time you felt like you were sold something. I’m not talking about when you last bought something, but truly felt sold. How long did it take for buyer’s remorse to set in? In every sales cycle, you should make it your goal for your prospect to find your value prop on their own terms. I like to do this by turning my statements into questions, where the answer from the prospect becomes what I wanted to say. Make the Sales Process as Simple as Possible: Regardless of the sales methodology you use, whether it be SPIN or Challenger or Customer Centric, it’s important to make the process itself as simple as you can for both you and your prospect. As you adapt the methodology to find your own selling style, you should be able to determine which parts come naturally to you and what needs to be adjusted or

Takeaways

Observe the Actions of Others: You may not have the confidence or even opportunity to approach others to ask them about how or why they do what they do, but you can definitely observe their actions. Break down how they speak, how they hold themselves, how they treat customers, and what they do that’s different than you. And these don’t have to just be people in your office. With unfiltered broadband access, these observations can be people you admire online, TED speakers, or even public CEOs by way of their earnings calls and annual reports. Find Gaps in Your Own Skills: It’s hard for people to just tell you everything they know with general questions like “how can I get better?” As you think about the next step in your career, write down the traits or responsibilities you think that role would entail. Then take a good look at your performance and see where you can improve and ask specific questions. In addition, you must be willing to hear and accept their feedback. You may not agree with it, but if you get defensive or act like you know it all, well, that's a surefire way to damage the relationship. Be Transparent: Ready for a truth bomb? No one has all the answers. When you don’t know something, be honest about it. Whether it’s with a coworker, a leader, or even your prospects. Yes, I’ve heard the mantra, “fake it until you make it,” but I’ve found that having a genuine level of vulnerability and mixing that with an insatiable appetite for curiosity leads to the right coaching, quicker career progress, and better relationships.

Takeaways

Ask the Next Question: By this point, we should all be used to hearing the word “no.” However, it’s what you do after hearing it that defines you as a salesperson. The word could be a stoplight and completely shut you down. Or, it could be a challenge to you to dig a little deeper and understand the context in which that specific prospecting is using it. What aren’t they interested in? How could the get budget if the found value? When does their current contract with a competitor end? Build Your Own Following: In today’s world, it seems as if there are influencers popping all over the place. I mean, if I see another person at a sacred monument with a selfie stick, I might lose it. But, the reality is, there’s an opportunity for every salesperson to build the community they need to sell into. Whether it be as simple as sharing helpful articles and industry research or recording videos and sharing them on LinkedIn, it’s time to move beyond the seeing social platforms as just for your personal use and leveraging them to build your pipeline. Figure Out What Makes You Tick: All the tips and tricks may help you with some short term gains, but if you want to survive the grind of sales, you have to figure out the ‘why’ that’s bigger than the day-to-day. What’s going to cause you to pick up the phone one more time? What’s going to help you shake off losing a six-figure deal that you were given a verbal yes to? There’s a reason why most New Year’s Resolutions fail within the first month of the year — the change a person is seeking isn’t connected to something big enough to drive the required continuous action.

Takeaways

Successful Customers Trumps Revenue: The goal of sales should not be revenue at all costs. It’s our job to find people we can make successful through the value prop we’re pitching. Rather than focusing solely on the signed contract and commission check, make sure the customers you close are going to find value in what they bought 90 days later. Buyers Don’t Have to Talk to Salespeople: 20 to 30 years ago, every buyer had to talk to a salesperson. Today, buyers can watch demos, compare and research alternative products, and even get ballpark pricing online, all before reaching out to talk to a salesperson. In the shifting world of buyer empowerment, you have to provide value in each interaction with a prospective customer. Live Your Buyer’s Job: What does your prospect’s daily job look like? What’s their role in their company? What are their goals? How do they quantify it? What happens if they don’t achieve it? It’s not enough to just ask those questions. When looking at things through their lens, you can really dig into what they’re thinking before they even look to buy.

Share: Even if what you share is unrelated to what you’re trying to sell, doing so allows you to show you care, which drives future opportunities. Focus on the Customer: Know the buyer from every angle at the company and personal level. Provide Value: Constantly consume and share content that will be relevant to your buyers.

Takeaways

Take Advantage of Opportunity: There is a short window of time to take advantage of every opportunity. If you wait until an opportunity presents itself, it’s already too late. Seek out chances to learn, be more efficient, and give 100 percent from the get-go so you’re never in a position to wonder what might have been. Doors open on a daily basis, but oftentimes they are short and they are small. It’s crucial to take advantage of them when they’re there. Preparation and Repetition Always Win: You know what you need to do. You’ve spent time role playing real scenarios. You’ve paid attention in training and during your one-on-one’s. With that, don’t think that your sales manager knows something you don’t. You’re the one facing live fire every time you get on a call. Make sure you’re taking the time to prepare and let the repetition of muscle memory take control. Don’t Wait Until The End: The earlier you ask hard questions, the better. For instance, if you wait until the negotiation stage to start discussing budget, you’ve already lost. You need to be able to tie your value to real business problems without it looking like you’re now just trying to close a deal. Figure out how to show your prospect they’re better off with you, than without you by going deep in the beginning.

Takeaways

Learn From Others: Everyone learns from failure, but you don’t have to learn from your own failure. Whether it’s your peers, other professionals in your network, books, blogs, or even podcasts like this. You owe it to yourself to seek out knowledge both positive and negative from others. But be careful, you want to learn from the best, not just your buddy or some random stranger. Pride Will Kill You: The stubbornness of pride locks you into your own thoughts. We have a cognitive bias around consistency that once we’ve formulated an idea that we can’t be inconsistent with that or flip flop our position. However, this is ridiculously dumb and short sighted. Be willing to listen to others and study the data that may challenge your worldview. Good Things Come to Those Who Practice: One thing that continues to amaze me is salespeople not practicing their craft. How much time do you prepare for each call? Showing up to work and running sales calls is not practicing. The biggest personal example I have of this is spending 10 hours on a Saturday preparing for a 30 minute call the following Tuesday. Yes, 10 hours for 30 minutes. That’s doing the work.

It’s Not About Learning: It’s about applying what you love and who you are to what you do. While you need to understand your product, It’s more important to know how to sell than it is to know all the technical features and benefits of your offering. Comparing sales to fitness… you can educate yourself all you want about what it takes to get a perfect six pack, but none of that matters until you start applying that knowledge. Application and execution are the most important part of the puzzle. Be You: It’s okay to be inspired by successful salespeople, that likely why so many people listen to this show, but at the end of the day, you have be you. Everyone is different and what works for one person might not have the same impact on someone else. Whatever gives you energy, whatever makes you passionate, whatever gets you going in the morning – use that to build the YOU that you want to be. You have the power to make the choices that will empower you in the long run, so choose to be you from the start and you won’t let yourself down. Compete With Yourself First: Success in sales comes from a burning desire to be the best. That doesn’t by default mean you have to aggressively beat other people, it just means that you are uncomfortable staying where you are. As a result, you put in the work it takes to push yourself in order to move, grow and advance. That has to come from within or nothing is going to change.

Be Responsive and Get Shit Done: When you’re working at a company that is really going somewhere, everybody has a hundred things on their plate and constantly shifting priorities. If you want to stand out, be the person that volunteers for new projects and make sure to follow through. Once you say you’ve got it, don’t be the person that someone else has to follow-up with or check-in on. This exposure is what will make you great in the future. Hone in on Your Top Segments: The simplest definition of a segment is a group of people who can be reached with the same go-to-market strategy combined with the same product. This will not only help define territories by way of geography, industry, or company size but really it will help create repeatability in your messaging — making your product easier to sell at a lower cost-per-acquisition. This focus doesn’t mean you can’t go after other segments later, it just keeps you on target with your limited resources. Generate Interest First: When you’re doing outbound sales, realize you’re connecting with suspects — not leads. This should start to change your thinking a bit about how you talk to them. Starting with the right market segment, your first job is to find out whether or not they even have a problem you can solve or if there is an opportunity to improve something in their business. Then, and only then, are you able to generate interest and deliver your pitch.

Takeaways

Remember It’s Not About You: Hearing “no” in sales is a given, but that doesn’t make it any less trying. Regardless of the circumstances surrounding how exactly you are shot down, there is no more important personality strength than the ability to bounce back. Sales is so much easier when you can remove yourself from the process and remember one simple truth: it’s not about you. It’s not a personal attack. You are doing your job, and it might be challenging right at this moment, but “no” is not the end of the line for you unless you let it be. Document and Share What Works: Raquel brought up her concept of a “WinWire,” but what could you do for the closed won or even the closed lost deals at your company. Before a “case study” is even relevant, how could you capture the details of why a customer bought from you? What was the business situation? What were they struggling with? Were they replacing anything? Did they pick you over another solution? What was the size of the deal? Capturing these details, win or lose, and sharing them with your team may spark some unforeseen opportunities. Don’t Make Assumptions: I believe the single biggest challenge most salespeople have is their inability or unwillingness to listen. More often than not, I find that when they’re quiet, all they’re really doing is waiting for their next turn to talk. Doing this forces you to start making assumptions and disregarding the chance to gain real clarity. Both can be detrimental to your sales cycle.

Words are Powerful: Your mastery of language and results driven communication is paramount to your success in sales. It’s one thing to be good, but becoming a student of linguistics and really understanding the nuance between conscious and subconscious states can take you to an entirely different level. Think about the notion of associated and dissociated language — such as using the royal “we” when you really mean “I.” Learning different communication styles can help you not only influence others but also yourself. Act Despite Your Feelings: Knowing yourself enough to realize there are times you don’t want to do certain things is totally okay. However, you still need to do them. Look, I get it — there are absolutely moments in a day or week that I don’t want to take a meeting, do a task, or even have a conversation. Give yourself the permission to have the feeling, but then figure out how to get over it and take the action you know needs to be taken. Learning how to overcome those emotions will change your life and put you in complete control of your career success. And once that idea came about my life changed and started being able to not be a victim of my emotions anymore being control of my life and being able to do things even if I didn’t feel like Your Job is Not to be Liked: Way too many sales reps I talk to want prospects to like them. They believe that if they say anything to challenge the person they’re talking to they will lose the opportunity. Neither of those things are true. You must realize, you do not have to sell to every prospect. Respectfully push back and tell them that while they may treat other vendors a certain way, for you to become a true partner to them, you have to better understand their current situation. This includes following up — if you’ve had a positive interaction with a prospect, it’s your duty to continue to reach back out even if that means pissing off a few people.

Takeaways

Pleasantly Persistent: Keep pursuing your prospect using personalized messaging while communicating value. Overtime, the relationship will unfold so that you spend your time on qualified and interested buyers. Make it Personal: Although tempting, don’t just use the templated email that you know won’t get opened. Spend the time to identify details about the person you’re emailing and get creative with it. Email Subject Lines: Using anonymous data across all clients, SalesLoft has determined the top subject lines had three things in common – they were three words or less, they contained some sort of mail merge data, and they contained a question mark. Discounting: While obviously wanting to maximize contract values, there are four appropriate situations where you can provide a discount. Can you get your prospect to sign a longer term commitment? Are they buying the highest version or package of the service? Can they buy higher quantity of the package or service? Are they able to buy today or pay cash upfront for the entire order?

Takeaways

Master the First 20 Seconds: We all get defensive when we receive an unexpected call from someone we don’t know. Don’t take it personal as it’s a cultural issue. However, it is your job to dissolve that defensiveness very quickly. First thing first — remove iffy language. Don’t tell them you’re “just calling” as if you have nothing better to do. Also, don’t ask them how they are. Not only is that a tell tale sign that you’re a salesperson, but when a stranger asks about your health, you get even more defensive. You need to quickly get to the reason for your call and then immediately show them how the call is relevant to them. Notice, this has nothing to do with you. Prepare to Think on Your Feet: I get it. Email is easier because you have time to both think and edit. On the phone, you clearly don’t get that luxury. So, be prepared. Obviously you need to have a couple of open ended questions ready to go, but you also need to know what the 3-4 typical responses are that you’re likely to get from the prospect. As you prepare for those responses, now you just need to ask your question and truly listen to the response. And remember, the sound of the human voice contains so much information you’re losing by relying on text based communication. Help Prospects Make Decisions: I’ve gone against the grain a bit with the notion of decision fatigue from a personal standpoint, but from the point of the prospect I get it. Instead of leaving everything up to them, prompt them by giving them the “next best step.” I’ve found that if I just ask them what to do next, I get delay after delay  It usually sounds like, “me think about it” or “let me talk to so and so,” but when I give them the next step most people take or the one I believe is right for them, I can move a deal along a lot faster. Realize, you’ve sold your solution dozens if not hundreds of times, yet this is the first time they’ve gone through a sales process for your solution.

Takeaways

Invest Time Building the Right List: Knowing who your ideal prospect is, is only the beginning of a good outreach plan. Don’t take for granted the amount of work that goes into identifying exactly who those people are and trying to acquire their contact information. If you’re doing this manually, it’s a lot of work, and even if you’re paying for data sources, it still takes a lot of preparation to do it right. After you identify the right people, next spend some time trying to hypothesize what problems each of these companies uniquely face and what messaging you can use to address them on an individual level. Build Discipline Into Your Calendar: As a sales professional, it’s almost a given we have some level of ADD and the unique ability to find every squirrel there is in our day to day. That said, when you’re to take your game to the next level, blocking time on your calendar for all important activities is the first step to ensuring that success. Sure, you may believe you can multitask, or you may believe you have superhuman powers to just be able to will everything into getting done, but you could also just schedule the activities and make commitments to yourself. I use this technique to even schedule in time to learn about new things. Giving myself that permission ensures I don’t feel guilty about not doing something else high on my priority list. Learn to Reset Everyday: Look, I’m a gambler and always find it humorous when I go to Vegas and see previous outcomes of the roulette wheel displayed. Why? Because they literally have nothing to do with the independent event of the next spin, yet some people let them guide their bets. Whether you just closed a one million dollar deal or heard “no” 47 times, yesterday is in the past and should have no bearing on what you do today. In sales we have really high highs and just as low of lows, you have to force yourself to manage that energy and see each day just like the roulette wheel—an independent event.

Plan Your Target Accounts: Too many sales reps take the shotgun approach when it comes to prospecting. To me, it feels like that’s the reason we get so many shitty emails and generic LinkedIn connection requests. Take the time to plan out who you’re going to target over the next 90 days. Whether that’s 100 accounts or just 30, you’ll be able to actually customize your outreach to each person individually, or better, work to find a common connection to make an introduction. Role Play with Your Companies Executives: Think about who in your company has served in the role of your target buyer. Whether that is by title or just responsibility, they have likely faced the same issues you’re trying to sell into. Practicing your cold call or pitch with them could provide great insight that you wouldn’t be able to get from a prospect. Gain Mutual Feedback on Losses: You all know how passionate I am about coaching — I mean, it is how I make a living after all. But, I can’t tell you how important it is to be able to first coach yourself. If you’re not willing to take the time to breakdown a call or a meeting and tell me the top three things you think you did wrong or what could be improved, well, the reality is, you’re not going to listen to anything anyone else has to say about it either.

Systematize Your Follow-up: I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “persistence pays” many times. Well, I hope they were talking about sales, because it couldn’t be more true. I’ve read startling stats that say on average, a sales rep will only reach out to a prospect two times before giving up. That just seems ludicrous to me. Even if your company doesn’t invest in software for you and regardless of whether they’re an active opportunity, a warm lead, or a brand new cold prospect—find a way to build a process around your follow-up. After every touch you have, immediately schedule the next touch. If you use Salesforce, Hubsport, or even PipeDrive, you can run a report to show you any contacts that don’t have a next activity associated with them. Don’t lose deals because you simply didn’t follow up. Understand the Emotion Associated with the Problem: Will asked the great question, “How can I be empathic, when I never even get emotion from a prospect?” In order to be able to either elicit an emotional response from a prospect or pick up on their pain, you have to fully understand the emotion that typically surrounds a problem they’re trying to solve. You may hear them say they spend 15 hours looking at a spreadsheet, and yes, knowing that’s a trigger, it’s your responsibility NOT to just get the point, but dig deeper. Don’t ask them what they’re going to do about it, ask them what else they would be spending that 15 hours on if they didn’t have to use it staring at a spreadsheet. This understanding will allow you to build a real relationship with your prospects because they’ll feel like you get them as a person. Build the Business Case: If you sell in a known competitive environment, why not do some of the work for your prospect and build the business case for them? Most likely, they will have gone through a sales cycle for your product or service only once, whereas, you go through it 10 times a week or more. You know the common issues, you’re familiar with your competitors and their offerings, and you’ve heard your prospect’s specific challenges. Document all the requirements, show them their options, point out potential roadblocks—both with your product and your competitors—and then back up the data with reviews or client references. Taking the weight off their shoulders and providing the grading rubric can give you more influence over the deal.

Make Planned Calls, Not Random Calls: For many people it doesn’t take long to realize that quality over quantity matters. For example, sometimes it’s not about how many calls you make. It’s about making planned calls that target specific prospects. Instead of working your way through a list and starting over at the beginning, make calls to the same two or three prospects in the same account on the same day. It’s Hard to Say No to Someone Personally: Face to face communication is huge and while you may not be able to personally meet all of your prospects at conferences, you can introduce yourself by video. It’s friendly and personal and offers you a different way to open up conversations. It’s really hard to say no to somebody when you see their face and they are more humanized. Ditch the Buzzwords and Generalities: Quit trying to make everything scale. Paul Graham wrote a great blog post all about intentionally doing things that don’t scale. When you try to stuff a script with all the features and benefits of your product while combining that with every possible use cases you solve, you end up appealing to no one. Try to bucket your prospects into groups of known challenges and then speak directly to them in the phrases they use to describe the problem needing solved.

Disqualify Early: If you want to save both yourself and your prospect time, then it’s your job to disqualify them as early as possible. Now, if you have a weak pipeline or don’t like prospecting, I know you will hang on to every opportunity like it’s a bar of gold, but it’s likely costing you. Instead of trying to figure out every possible way your product could work for them, focus in on the two or three things that would make it not a fit, and be transparent about it. Doing this will allow you to spend more time working deals that can actually retire your quota and earn you a commission instead of promising your VP that the deal will come in. Pick Your Path: If you are a star in sales and find yourself regularly hitting or even exceeding quota, don’t think that the only next step for you is to become a manager or even VP of sales. The skills you need to train, manage, and get the best out of other reps is completely different than the skills you’ve worked hard on developing. Additionally, more often than not, you’ll also take a pay cut in order to get those new found responsibilities. You Don’t Have to Be the Best: In the 80’s, the car rental company Avis rolled out a brilliant ad campaign claiming to be #2 behind Hertz and claiming “we try harder.” How many times have you claimed your product or service to have the best this or the greatest that? Here’s the deal, it’s annoying as hell and is often met with an eye roll you can’t see. Plus, how do you know? Because your marketing department told you so? Instead of leading with arrogance, acknowledge that there are other solutions out there and your goal in the conversation is to determine the reals needs of the prospect and promise them you’ll try harder.

Differentiation is Key: Most of us want to believe we’re not selling a commodity, but having been on the buyer's side of the table for several SaaS platforms lately, I assure you, each demo starts to blur together because the features are all so similar. Figure out how you can differentiate yourself from your competitors not only in what you sell but how you sell. Unless you’re the founder of the company, I know you don’t have control over the product itself, but tailoring your pitch to only the things your prospects care about is one easy thing that will help you stand out above the rest. Harness Your Fear: Fear comes from not knowing what’s on the other side of a situation. But the last thing I want for you is to be afraid and not even know why. Think about all the situations that have, or continue to, limit you on a daily basis. What is it that you’re actually afraid of? Write it down. Then, think through the different ways you can mitigate that outcome. What can you do to remove those vulnerabilities by preparing for each obstacle? Tell Your Prospects What You’re Doing: People don’t want to be manipulated or even feel like they may be. In sales, it’s very easy to be perceived this way. Corn called it social engineering, but it’s all the same. Let your prospects know you’ve done your homework and will be using the information you’ve found about them to add value to the sales process. With all the privacy headlines in the news right now, being forthright about what you know can actually relieve potential anxiety that you just consider par for the course.

Special Holiday Episode

Ask Direct Questions About the Sales Process: Buyers that are interested and want to actually buy are more forthright with information than you may think. They want you to know what has to happen, but it’s your responsibility to ask, and you need to be direct about it. For instance, the last time you bought something like this, what did that process look like? Did you buy alone or were other people involved? How long did it take? Knowing these details can help you understand not only what’s real, but also how to accurately forecast your pipeline. Arm Your Buyers to Help Them Buy: No, I don’t mean white papers or any collateral that marketing has put together. I mean, understanding what problems they are actually trying to solve, use cases they’re thinking about, or concerns they have about selling internally. Then, connect them with customers who have bought from you in the past. From a prospecting standpoint, you may even be able to host a dinner or event where you can get multiple buyers in the salesroom that have similar problems and let them talk about it with each other. Building these relationships when you’re not trying to sell them anything is even better long-term. Know Your Funnel Math Equation: This still ceases to amaze me, how many people don’t know the math behind their quota or pipeline. So much, that I actually created a workbook for it that you can get at SalesTuners.com/roadmap. It’s quite simple. What is your average contract value? How many of those deals will it take to meet your quota, whether monthly, annually or quarterly? What’s your winning percentage on the opportunities you create? How many prospects do you have to talk to in order to create one opportunity? Once you know this formula, you put together a plan to 2X or even 3X your output.

Empathy Saves Time: I know it sounds counterintuitive, but slowing down a sales process can often times speed up the deal. If you lean into your prospect and get a good emotional intelligence read, the empathy you show gets them to open up about their actual concerns. Get to “No": When you are leading your prospect to say “yes," they get worried about what they are committing to and anxiety creates confusion. But, when you get them to say “no,” they feel protected and they have the illusion of control. Once a person says “no,” they’ll likely give you implementable context to move the deal forward. There’s Always a Favorite and a Fool: If you can’t get the scope of your prospect's problem, you need to realize they never envisioned you in that solution. In every deal, there’s a favorite and a fool. The fool is often used to drive down the price on the favorite and expose their weaknesses. Thus, you should be looking for proof of life in every opportunity.

It Doesn’t Matter What You Want: There's nothing that frustrates buyers more than getting cold messages that are all about you. You know the ones I’m talking about… where every paragraph, or maybe even every sentence, starts with “I.” I hope, I just, I wanted, I think, I, I, I, I. Again, it doesn’t matter what you want. Take two minutes to find something personal about the person you’re reaching out to. If for some reason, you can’t find anything, make the message about their situation without making a request of their time. Try asking a question that could start a conversation, instead. There’s No Cookie-Cutter Approach: Similar to Ryan, I’ve studied the majority of different sales methodologies out there. I tend to favor some over others, but I’ve pulled something out of everything I’ve learned and applied it to the relevant situations. I very much liked Ryan’s notion of knowing different methodologies being similar to being able to speak multiple languages. That way, whether you’re prospecting, opening up discovery, doing a demo, or negotiating an enterprise deal, you have the right framework for every step in the process. Mirror Your Customer: How many times has a prospect tried to cut you off in the discovery and said, “just show me the product?” It happens, I get it. My biggest piece of advice for you here is to understand where your lead came from. If it was inbound, understand there may be something specific they’re looking for. Earn the right to ask questions by giving them chunks of content that build a story. If they were an outbound appointment set, realize you still have to get them interested. Maybe that does mean that you have to share more upfront before digging into their needs because they may not fully understand why they’re talking to you. Go the Extra Mile: For the most part, salespeople only do what they’re incentivized to do. If you get paid for hunting new logos, why would you spend your time farming existing clients? Well, to show your buyer you care. While not mandatory, what would happen if you started sitting in the kickoff call with your client success team to be their advocate and making sure they didn’t have to answer all the same questions again? Do you think they’d make introductions to their friends for you? If they left their current company and went somewhere else, do you think they might call you again? Could you imagine retiring your quota without having to do any prospecting?

Use the Information You Get: Every salesperson has been told they need to ask great questions, but here’s the deal, if you don’t actually listen to the buyer and use the information they give you, what was the point to begin with? Yes, you have to uncover some kind of pain and tie it to a compelling event, but how many times have you made your prospect feel like they’ve wasted their time with you by asking questions they’ve already answered either to you or to an SDR who set the meeting for you? I understand you have an agenda you want to get through, but as Amy says, you have #TwoEarsOneMouth for a reason. Connect the Dots: Salesforce is a place for data, not a place for reps to be successful. I know you have sales stages to update, but forget about them for just a minute. Go ask the last five customers who bought from you what they liked about their sales experience with you. What didn’t they like? Where did they feel there was friction? As you start to understand what your buyers actually want, you can rebuild your sales process to take advantage of the moments they found delightful. Combine that with the first takeaway, and you’re on the verge of getting the keys to the castle. There are No Hacks: It seems like everyone wants and expects immediate success in today's worlds. Yet, I’ve met very few sales reps early in their career that want to actually put in the work. Here’s the reality, if you want to stay in sales for the long haul, you’ve got to realize there aren’t any hacks. You can create efficiencies, but those come from actually doing the work and understanding what you should do more of and what you should abandon. With so much information available to you these days, including podcasts like this, it’s easy to think you know everything. But to truly connect the dots, you need to spend time in the trenches talking to your customers.

Here I am.

Halfway around the world, living what most would consider the “experience of a lifetime.” Yet, I’m spending my time thinking about all the things YOU get to do on a daily basis.

Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t trade this time for anything, but living in a constant state of change does start to wear on you.

As we look to celebrate Thanksgiving this week, I recorded a special solo show about what it means to be happy and what I’m thankful for.

Change Your Mindset: It is my strong belief that the next generation of great sellers will be subject matter experts that have been taught how to sell, rather than salespeople who learn about a portfolio of products. With information being readily accessible and buyers expecting more every day, you owe it to yourself to become an industry expert. Not in sales, but in the industry you’re selling to. You need to know your buyers' world just as well as they do to be able to communicate why your solution could help solve their problem. Learn the Local Language: Yes, this episode was specific to languages spoken in different countries, but if you think about it, your buyers speak a different language as well. This goes back to the first takeaway, how do they want to be spoken to? What are their expectations for cold outreach? What motivates them? Is there seasonality in their business or their industry? I’m not saying you have to change the way you sell, I’m just saying that if you’re aware of these things it will give you a huge advantage. Build Relationships with Partners: What better way to become an industry expert and learn the “local” language than by building strong relationships with other partners in the space? Think about who else is already successfully selling into your target customer base. What do they know that you don’t? Who could they make introductions to if they trusted you? In my world, I call this a “power circle” and I’m always looking to align with four other companies or sales reps that sell non-competing products into the same market

Figure Out the Why First: Nearly everyone you come across knows ‘what’ to do, but do they know ‘why’ to do it? If they know, do you? As you work through building a hook that resonates with your target audience, it’s critical you understand their why. Then, and only then, you can deliver your what in a bite-sized manner they can understand. Your goal is to get them to hear it and say, “hmmm… that’s interesting, tell me more” or “hmmm… how do you do that?” Numbers Only Support a Decision that’s Already Been Made: If you’re using statistics early in your sales process, please stop. Nobody buys things because of the numbers. This may even sound crazy, but nobody even remembers the numbers or statistics you cite. They do, however, remember the way the numbers made them feel. We’ve talked a lot on this show about how the brain works, but it bears repeating, human beings do not make decisions logically. They make them emotionally and then use rationality to justify their decision Determine the One Hill Your Customer is Willing to Die On: What is the deep human need that if not solved will cause your buyer to give up in frustration? Figure it out and make that the bad guy in your sales story. It’s not a competitor. No one really hates another company so much they’re willing to go to war over. It’s something bigger inside of them they know could be better. That’s your job - to identify that desire, where it’s coming from, and why it matters right now

Takeaways

Think Big Even If You Start Small: Anyone who’s either lived it before or is living it now knows the truth about being a sales development representative: it’s tough. SDRs are pushed hard, work long hours and go into work every single day knowing they’re going to get rejected over and over again. But, if you can master the art of opening up new opportunities, your career will open up in ways you may never have imagined. The mental toughness of those who persevere, those who thrive, those who live to tell the tale are prepared for anything. Understand Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy: Prospecting is simple, but it’s not easy. The tasks of calling, emailing, and connecting on social media are simple enough on their own. But the actual work and grind of it all is tough. It requires endurance. It means not taking no for an answer. Pushing back when you meet resistance is hard, but you should never be afraid to challenge a person. Dig a little deeper, ask a follow-up question they can’t answer and stay the course. Break the Pattern: Stop and think for a minute. When is the last time you answered that “how are you” question honestly? The thought is there, but the question is stale. Instead, break the pattern by asking “what did I catch you in the middle of?” Whether you’re making calls, you can’t sound like every other salesperson on the planet. Disarm them by coming out of the gate with a strong question, mirroring their tone and taking the time to have a real conversation.

Become an Advocate: As a seller, you will never benefit if a prospect goes down a path that isn’t going to benefit them. We’ve talked a lot on this show about the need to truly listen to your buyer, and it’s true — you have to understand what factors they’re facing internally and externally, what deadlines they're up against, and what investments they may have already made. Once you’ve done that, then you can align your resources from content to people to offer the best solution that’s unique to them. Make Quality Touches: Who benefits from messages that are “just checking in?” If you said “nobody,” you’re right. Every outreach you make needs to provide value to your prospect. Think about how you can use business journals, social media, or another news platforms to encourage conversations and show that you’ve heard your buyer and understand their challenge. Do not mistake what I’m saying — by no means am I telling you to never go for the sale, I’m just telling you that, done right, building a relationship based on the value you add outside of your product can make a big difference. Quit Focusing on the End Result: Building on both the previous takeaways, understand that I know you have a quota to hit. But, by always focusing on the end result, the thing you want most (a signed contract), you could be pushing your prospect farther and farther away. Start thinking about what is the best possible next step. Want to secure a meeting with the Vice President? Maybe you should talk to 2-3 of her direct reports first and learn what matters. Want to close the deal by end of quarter? Maybe you should have an alignment meeting to understand both the internal resources they’ll need and what other projects they’ll be working on at the same time.

Relationships Begin With Intent: You don’t need me to tell you this, but buyers can sniff a hard sell coming from a mile away. The long-term relationship you’ll build begins with the first conversation you have. Find a way to align your goals with their needs. And no, that does not mean you have to sell them something. Steven Covey said it best, “Seek First to Understand.” I know you have a quota, but if your first intention is to better understand your buyer's world, you may actually discover a way to help them that doesn’t include your service. Now, what do you think will happen when they do need what you’re offering? Realize You’re Selling to an Individual: My guess is if you’re listening to this podcast you’ve either been given ideal customer profiles or you’ve built your own persona of what a typical customer should be. While commonalities do exist, you have to understand each person you come in contact with has their own map of the world. The lens they see the world through guides how they receive the information you share. Understanding how they think should be your most important objective. Emotions are Always Attached: Within the context of your conversation, it’s important to look for the specific emotions your buyer is exuding. How they’re interpreting or speaking about something and what they’re attaching that emotion to will tee you up for being able to move them. You’ll first want to attempt to remove the attachment with something helpful or reassign the emotion to something else allowing you to work collaboratively toward a particular goal. Remember, as humans, emotions guide our decision while logic allows us to rationalize after the fact.

Prove the Concept: If you’re rolling out a new product or service you know can solve a problem, but no one can vouch for it, consider giving it away to seed the market. Think about the last time you were in the food court at a mall. Several of the restaurants had a person standing outside their area handing out free samples. After trying a small nibble of something good, you proceed to pay full price for the product. The same is true with pilots and limited engagements of your service. Getting companies to put their name on the line early allows them to be references for you as you expand. Let Tenure Help You: Going against the trend of sales reps bouncing from company to company every year and a half for a 10% raise in base salary, I want to encourage you to find a good company and stay put. I have several friends and clients who have W-2 earnings of over $1-million per year. I’m not exaggerating. These individuals have been with their respective companies for 5-10 years and have seen some of their buyers move to two or even three different companies, each time immediately bringing their salesperson into their new role. Think about that — this is much better than your regular inbound lead, this is someone who has actually bought from you and seen success. Additionally, the notion of survivorship bias starts to creep in. The company you’re with knows you know more about the product than anyone else, so they trust you to work on the largest opportunities. Verbal Yeses are Garbage: Look, I love Ruth’s Chris steaks, but not once have I ever been able to pay for one with the commission check from a verbal yes. I see and hear so many reps getting “happy ears” about some prospect giving them a verbal yes and then being absolutely shocked when two months go by and either the deal is still not closed or they find out they went with another solution. Until you have dry ink on a piece of paper, you’ve got nothing. Start thinking through every possible scenario that could cause your opportunity not to close and then work diligently to line up the resources needed to overcome each and every one.

Never Assume: You’ve likely heard the saying about that when you assume, all you do is make an ass out of you and me. Well, it’s true, especially in sales. Wes talked about what he saw selling mobile homes — where his colleagues would see someone show up in a Mercedes and they’d jump all over the chance to sell that person. But, when “Bubba” showed up in an old pickup truck, dirty boots, and lip full of Copenhagen, they had no interest. They were assuming that person didn’t have any money. Think about times when you’ve assumed (right or wrong) about a prospect and then saw your assumption get shattered. Routines Eliminate Fear: How many times have you seen a basketball player spin the ball and dribble before taking a free-throw? Or what about baseball players adjusting their batting gloves and helmet before stepping into the box to face the pitcher? These routines create muscle memory so they don’t have to think about the actual action. The same is true with your sales process. If you try to wing it or recreate the wheel on each sales call, there’s no way for you to get in the flow. Don’t Sound Like Your Competition: We are all buyers in some capacity. And in that role, we don’t want to be sold, or tricked, or “closed,” but we do want to buy. Think about that the next time you’re with a prospect. If you’re trying to differentiate from your competitors and you’re pulling out all the same techniques and sounding just like they do, how do you expect your buyer to know the difference? You could be the reason they’re forcing the conversation to be about price.

Act as a Resource: With more information than ever readily available for prospects, we need to become good stewards of context. What are your prospects likely not thinking about? What are the real challenges they should be worried about? Figure out how to get ahead of their search patterns and provide them real-time resources. This could be upcoming changes in the industry, it could be potential competitive information, or it could just be research you’ve done into the problems facing people in similar roles. Have a Bias Toward Action: From the timing to resources, or even fear, there will always be reasons you can use to talk yourself out of doing something. Nike may have been the first to say it, but I’m here to repeat it, “just do it.” There is nothing wrong with being prepared, but when it starts to hold you back from advancement, that’s when I have an issue. I’ve read a lot about Jeff Bezos “regret minimization theory” where he talks about the concept of looking forward 10 years and thinking about which decision he will regret if he fails to act and then choosing that path. Read: Yep, simple I know. You’ve heard me offer free books from Audible. You’ve heard me offer free book summaries from ReadItFor.me. But something Lucy said in our conversation really stood out to me. She said reading helped her get her speech down better as well as have topics to open conversations with people. I had honestly never thought about it that way. I already read a ton, but I’m going to start being intentional about capturing the ideas of the books I read and find ways to share them naturally with prospects and clients.

It All Starts With Data (But It Doesn’t End There): Data is the list of people you’re going to call and the industry or demographics of companies you’re looking at. Taking those numbers to the next level focuses on the people behind the numbers. What are their common needs? How can you help meet them? When you consider the current marketplace, and the ins and outs of each organization, part of being a successful salesperson is understanding and meeting clients where they are at. Make Your Message Matter: It isn’t just about the numbers. What is the customer’s pain? You need to make it your job to find out, and quick! One of the biggest challenges in prospecting is that you generally have 30 seconds or less to uncover someone’s pain. That’s why it is so important to develop succinct ways to communicate a solution to that pain. Make it count. Consider Your Cadence: Most importantly, how a message is delivered should be diverse. It needs to be communicated through a mix of channels, including phone calls, emails, social media, direct mail or whatever other methods you see fit for your business. Staggering different types of communication throughout a period of time, like two weeks, for example, is one of the best ways to reach someone in the long run. In most cases, a phone call or two just won’t cut it. Qualification Matters: What’s a scenario where a prospect probably isn’t going to move to the next step for you? Understanding that from the first time you take a meeting, allows you to really learn from the conversations you’re having and improve the overall conversion rate. If a meeting is disqualified, use that as an opportunity to grow by digging into why it didn’t work. From there you can structure qualifying questions to ask future prospects making you more knowledgeable and efficient in the process.

Build Connections: Careers are long. If you start thinking about the sales you’re going to make over the next 20-30 years, it will become apparent just how important your network is. Both internally and externally, you need to be able to call upon people when you need help but to do so, not only do you have to build the connections in the first place, you have to give first before you can expect to receive. Become a Trusted Advisor: We’ve all heard the mantra, “people buy from people they know, like, and trust.” While I don’t fully subscribe to the “like” part, the trust part is paramount. So how do you build that trust? The first thing is to know what you’re talking about. By studying your industry and the buyers in that industry, you should be able to discover the question you need to ask to make them think. That will open the door for good conversations, but then you have to prove to them that you will have their back after the sale is made. Remember, careers are long. The Grass Isn’t Always Greener: Whether you’re in a startup or an established company, SMB or enterprise, inside or outside, it can always seem like someone else has it more comfortable than you. And maybe it’s true, but so long as you’re in your current role, you need to focus on the objective in front of you. Comparing yourself to others is a recipe for disaster and will lead you to continue chasing the mouse.

Lock in on the Verbs: If you’ve ever been anxious on a sales call, thinking too far ahead or worrying about what your next question is going to be, stop! Your prospect will lay out the entire roadmap if you let them. As you listen to them, focus on the verbs they use. For instance, “we’re trying,” “we’re evaluating,” or “we’re thinking about.” When they use these verbs, seek clarity as to what they mean. Ms. Prospect, you mentioned you were thinking about X, what did you mean by that? What exactly have you tried? What are you still planning to try? How has it gone so far? What were you hoping would happen? If you pick up on the repetition of their patterns, you can remove all the stress from your call. Understand the Incentives: What’s driving your prospects' decision? And with that question, I don’t just mean the first person you talk to. I mean every person that you come in contact with at the account. Each person has their own set of incentives in an opportunity to either do a deal or not do a deal. It’s your job to get past the surface level responses, figure out who is incentivized by what and what is the real impact of that decision is for them. I promise you, price is never the real factor if you get to their motivations. Slow Down: It seems counterintuitive, I know. In the age of efficiency, we’re all looking for ways to cut time out of our sales cycle. However, slowing your process down may actually have the effect you’re looking for. Instead of immediately going in for the kill at the first sign of a problem you can solve, dig deeper. Has your prospect been looking at competitive solutions and just wants to see a demo, ask them what was good about what they’ve already seen — and ask them what they wish they had seen, but didn’t. Do they want you to send them a proposal? Ask them what things would prevent them from signing it. I work hard to prevent buyer complacency by transitioning their request with a question to build more context.

Give Your Prospect What they Need: Notice, I did not say “give your prospect what they want,” there is a difference. No longer are salespeople the gatekeeper to information. It is our job to facilitate the best buying experience we can for prospects. In that mutual exchange, it’s important to listen to your buyer and decipher the difference between what they need and what they want. Are they asking to see certain features? Guess what? They’ve probably done their homework and need to see that to determine if they want to engage in a full sales cycle with you. Forcing your process on them to start from the beginning could kill a real opportunity. Evangelize What You’re Great At: I don’t believe it’s possible for a product or service to be the best in literally every category. Yet, every day I hear reps talking about how they’re the best this and best that. Although you may not think so, I assure you this is a turn off to prospective buyers. That said, I absolutely want you to tell the world about the things you’re great at or do really well. This is especially true at the beginning of the buying process. I like to see reps handle objections by accurately responding and then pivoting the message to highlight how the prospect could add additional value by considering something they may not have seen. Don’t Shy Away From Brutally Honest Feedback: If you haven’t read the book Radical Candor, it’s one I definitely recommend. The gist of it aligns with what Hector was saying with the notion of not only being open to direct honest feedback in yourself but also building that clarity of communication in the relationship you have with buyers. Depending on how you were raised, the directness could be a challenge in the beginning, but if you keep working at it, you’ll see just how appreciated it is.

Remind Prospects of Their Priorities: When you’re talking with a prospect and seem to be slipping or losing ground, it’s your responsibility to remind them of why they’re even in the conversation to begin with. Ask them questions that harken back to the pains they’ve divulged, the goals they’ve shared, and try to dig into the emotional side of their brain. Remember, they are the ones that have the problem, not you. Email Should Not Look Automated: With nearly everyone trying to use some sort of automation these days, it’s very important to humanize your outreach. By that, I mean you should make it to the point that with every email you send, literally no one else could have been sent the same message. Some of the things Gabe mentioned and that I’ve seen work as well are: all lowercase subject lines, super short messages that get right to the point, any kind of personalization, and yes, even misspellings from time to time. Tailor Your Words, Tone, and Body Language: How people interpret you is guided by their social environment and background. What you think a word means could be received completely different by someone who grew up in another part of the country. Additionally, tone, the way you say something, can also change the meaning behind the words you say. It some circumstances it can even change heart rate and body language. These are things to keep an eye on while having conversations with prospects to make sure what you’re meaning to do is received how you’re expecting it.

Use Social for Call Prep: While doing research on prospects, it’s obvious you need to look at the company website and blog to see what their initiatives are, but it’s just as important to look at social channels like LinkedIn and Twitter to see what’s important to the person your going to be speaking with beyond their work life. Use this information to connect with them on a human level. Set Aside Time for Social Prospecting: It can be distracting to always have social platforms present while you’re working, trust me, that’s coming from someone who’s looking at Twitter right now. But, by setting aside time to specifically prospect via social, you can add a lot of leverage into your day. Take 30 minutes to scour your LinkedIn contacts looking for job changes. Set up searches on Sales Navigator for your ideal customer profile so you can be alerted with they post something. Set up TweetDeck to look for keywords and phrases that you can respond to in real time. And lastly, set a goal for yourself so you can measure the activity. Focus on Doing Great Work: I remember being “busy” early in my career and looking at those who had kids and wondering how in the world they did it. Then I had a kid of my own. Now, this is not advice just for parents, but the lesson learned can be greatly impactful for your career. Take an honest look at your day. How much of it are you wasting in-between meetings, having mindless banter with coworkers, or checking your fantasy sports scores? What if you had to get all of your work down between 9 and 5 and weren’t allowed to open your laptop later at night? What would you cut out? What would you be intentional about focusing on?

Takeaways

Prospecting: By simply picking up the phone you open up a world of new opportunities. Prospecting helps solves a lot of problems while developing you faster. Time: Time is the most valuable asset any of us have. When reaching out to a prospect be clear on the value by doing research, asking good questions, sharing insights, and testing out different approaches. Goals: Goal setting is one of the most important things any sales rep can do in their career, whether it’s daily weekly, monthly, or annually. The act requires you to ask yourself questions in preparation for prospecting meetings and help you to proactively address objections. Objection handling: Feel, Felt, Found - I totally understand how you feel, other people have felt the same way, what I’ve found is...

Be Real: Sales calls should be mutually beneficial. If you’re just talking at prospects, naturally their guard is going to be up. Yes, I know you have required fields and boxes you have to check on each call, but what would happen if you worked with the prospect and said “hey, I understand what you’re trying to accomplish, here are the couple of things I need to be able to get out of the call as well.” If you’re real with them, they’ll understand you have a job to do as well and this track will disarm them. Don’t Let It Go to Your Head: The rollercoaster of emotions in sales is real. Once you start seeing some success and you find a lot of your time is being spent closing deals, realize the only way to close any deal is to open it in the first place. Make sure you’re balancing the time needed with new prospects. On the flip side, if you find yourself stringing together a bad few weeks, don’t lose your confidence. Focus on the things right in front of you and continue doing the activities you know drive success. Understand the Consequences of Inaction: If you lose a deal, it’s not like it just happens in an instant. The reality is, you lost it much earlier in the process, you just happened to find out when the prospect told you. As you’re running any sales cycle, you must understand what happens if certain things don’t take place. I mean that on both the prospects end as well as yours. If they don’t solve their problem, what happens? If you make the wrong assumptions, what happens? Minimize inaction and you’ll start seeing many more closes.

Don’t Be Afraid to Work Hard: Just like the quote at the beginning said, winners embrace the need to work hard, where losers see it as punishment. If you want to be great at something, you have to be willing to sacrifice. Just showing up and running through the motions is not going to make you better. Sure, you may have some short-term success, but it’s one of those things where in 10 years, you won’t have 10 years of experience; you’ll have one year of experience 10 times. It’s Okay to Ask for Help: You don’t have to know everything. Today’s culture seems to be one of needing to memorize answers instead of developing a perpetual curiosity. Don’t fall into that trap. Ask your peers how they do things. Invite colleagues who aren’t in sales to lunch to understand how they impact the business. Ask your customers what really matters to them. Get the notion of “I know” out of your head and start asking others. Know What Customers Say: Once a company has bought your offering, whether from you or someone else on your team, dive in to understand their perspective. Why did they buy any solution? Why did they decide on your product? What are they hoping to solve? Don’t conflate this with what you do, find out in their words what was important to them.

Set Daily Goals: I know most of you listening to this are the type that set a really big vision for your year. Unfortunately, it’s too hard to see that far into the future. Break down that annual goal and know exactly what goes into it. What do you have to accomplish this quarter? What about this month? What about this week? What about today? The more incremental your goal is, the better chance you have of iterating on what works and achieving the overarching metrics. The last thing you want is to get too far down the road and realize you have no chance of success. You Have the Right to Call Prospects: Unless you’re day one at your company, the reality is, you’ve had more conversations about your product and solution than any of your prospects. What does that mean? It means you have a right to call and reach out to prospects you believe have the problem your company solves. I believe if what you’re offering truly does solve the problem you’re calling about, not only do you have the right, you have the duty to help them. Let Prospects Save You: This is one of my favorite tactics in sales. From cold calls all the way through the sales cycle, the notion of intentionally playing dumb can work to your advantage. Notice, I did NOT say, “be dumb,” I said, “play dumb.” Even when I know the answer to a question, I will find a way to ask it — even going so far as saying, “help me out here, what does X mean” or “how does Y happen.” Your prospects will save you… if you let them.

Takeaways

Manufacture Urgency: Pushing a prospect across the finish line is one of the biggest questions I get day to day. That said, without fully understanding what a company has to gain or lose with any decision will leave you standing alone at the finish line. Let me be very clear, I am not a fan of end of the month or end of the quarter discounts; however, Sean’s notion of “exploding offers” really intrigued me. If you know you’re in a competitive situation and you can get a prospect to show you their current bill or current contract, that would be worth making a deal. Don’t Position Yourself as the Best: Unless an analyst or third-party researcher has literally labeled your offering as “the best,” don’t talk like you are. Doing so will make you look foolish to any sophisticated buyer. Understand, I’m not saying you shouldn’t believe in your product. If you dig in and understand the competitive landscape - what capabilities each company has as well as the pros and cons of the different offerings - you’ll be able to have a better conversation with prospects. You’ll be able to break down their specific needs and align those to things you do well. Maybe more than anything, don’t disparage your competition. It may work in the short run, but long term, you’ll be the one looking like a fool. Use Pilots to Close Deals: At this point, it seems every buyer has had an experience of being duped by a salesperson or buying something that had a less than successful rollout. If you have a cautious prospect, but you know your product will help them, offer a pilot. Making it a paid pilot ensures your contact is one that can go obtain budget. Before fully rolling it out, set expectations on both ends. You want to understand, and even suggest, how the prospect will use the product during the pilot period. Lastly, you want to set the acceptance criteria up front to deem what success means.

Takeaways

Understand How Your Prospect Makes Money: You already know how your company makes money and you already know how you make money once your company makes money. During the sales process, if you really dig in and figure out how your prospects make money, then you can sync your offering with their real incentives. It truly doesn’t matter what you sell if you can figure out how your offering impacts their revenue engine. That’s the key. Put Yourself Out There: Your network is not just going to build itself. You have to commit time in a given week or month outside your organization. Think about it just like you would building your pipeline. Who are the top 3-5 people you’d like to know? Reach out to them and ask for coffee or for lunch. Be genuine in your reasoning and figure out how you can provide reciprocal value. This effort you put in now will pay off in spades for a long time to come. Own Your Day: It’s been mentioned a few times on this show but understanding your own process and the things that make an impact or crucial to real success. Get organized and plan your day intentionally. Block on time on your calendar to do the things you know need to get done and don’t let the 5-10 minutes between meetings get wasted with goofing off because you can’t get any “real work” done in that short of time. Also, at the end of each day, recap the day and plan for what is going to happen the following.

Accomplish More With a System: I liked Bob’s personal definition of a system as simply the process of predictably achieving a goal based on a logical and specific set of how-to principles with the key being predictability. What I’ve seen is that pretty much anything we want to do has likely already been done. So, if we will put in the work and do the research to find the processes that worked for those that came before us, we can attain our desired results in less time. Don’t Have Money Be Your Target: If you set out on any venture with money being your main driver, you’re going to take some shortcuts that could do long-term harm. Your target should be serving others. Now understand, that when you hit the target, you'll get a reward that comes in the form of money. And you can do with that money whatever you choose. Another way to think of it is, there are always two profits: the buyer profits and the seller profits because both parties come away better off afterward than they were beforehand. Pull Instead of Push: Influence is simply the ability to move a person or persons to a desired action. But the essence of influence is to pull them as opposed to push them. Great influencers attract people to themselves first and then to their idea. You’ll notice this also takes the pressure off of you. When you focus on the other person, you’ll gain more confidence because all you’ll care about is figuring out how the other person succeeds.

Executives are Like Everyone Else: Having senior level conversations is no different than conversations with anyone else, they just want you to get to the point a bit quicker. They want to know specifically why what you’re bringing them is important to them and what value it will add. The best way to show this value is to start with the why behind it. Research Matters in the Enterprise: We’ve talked a lot on this show about how much you should research before you start an outbound initiative, but in the enterprise, it’s imperative. You need to know not only the industry challenges but also specifically the business priorities of the individual company you’re trying to get into. If they’re public, read their investor documents and regulatory filings. If they’re private search for any presentations they have online or try to find who their investors are and research their investment thesis to open up the critical components of a conversation. The Only Thing You Can Control is You: While you can’t control every situation you find yourself in, you can absolutely affect the outcome. The only unknown variable is your reaction and/or your response to the situation. If you look around and blame everyone else for your predicament, realize you’re giving up all of your power. Our biggest problem looks at us every day in the mirror and we must stay true to who it is we aspire to be.

Sell From a Place of Pain: There’s been a lot of debate lately, even on this show, about whether pain based selling still works. I’ll forever be in the pain camp as the way to go because basically, human psychology sees us trying to move away from pain more often, and with greater rigor than we do toward gain. That said, I like how Paige tied the pain concept to the greater “why.” Regardless of your opinion, digging deep enough to understand why a prospect wants to make a change will always put you in the driver's seat. Turn Chaos into Calm: Take a look at the immediate world around you. I’m talking about your daily calendar, your personal sales process, and heck even the notifications on your phone. Living in a constant state of chaos and distraction is a heavy mental burden and it’s exhausting. If you find yourself scatterbrained and never having enough time, stop what you’re doing and write down three things you can do to change your environment. Then actually do it. Make the Main Thing the Main Thing: I’m not a proponent of multitasking. In fact, I’ve read all the studies that prove that it’s actually not possible. As you look at all the things on your plate, what’s the main thing you need to get accomplished this week? What’s the main thing you have to get accomplished today? What’s the main thing you have to accomplish in the next hour? Focus on that. The rest will sort itself out.