Dec 25, 2018
Special Holiday Episode
Sponsor
- Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Dec 18, 2018
Takeaways
- 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.
Full Notes
Book Recommendations
- The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
- Drown by Junot Diaz
- BUYology by Martin Lindstrom
Sponsor
- Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Dec 11, 2018
Takeaways
- 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.
Full Notes
Book Recommendation
- Barking Up the Wrong Tree by Eric Barker
Sponsors
- Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Dec 4, 2018
Takeaways
- 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?
Full Notes
Book Recommendation
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
Sponsor
- Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Nov 27, 2018
Takeaways:
- 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.
Full notes
Book Recommendation
- Top of Mind by John Hall
Sponsor
- Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Nov 20, 2018
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.
Full Notes
Sponsor
- Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Nov 13, 2018
Takeaways
- 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
Full notes
Sponsor
- Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Nov 6, 2018
Takeaways
- 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
Full Notes
Book Recommendations
- Hamlet by William Shakespeare
- The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt
- Never Split The Difference by Chris Voss
Sponsor
- Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Nov 1, 2018
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.
Full Notes
Book Recommendation
- The Law of Success by Napoleon Hill
Sponsor
- Costello – What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Oct 23, 2018
Takeaways
- 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.
Full Notes
Book Recommendations
- James Bond Series by Ian Fleming
- Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Sponsor
- Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Oct 16, 2018
Takeaways
- 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.
Full Notes
Book Recommendation
- Getting More by Stuart Diamond
Sponsor
- Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Oct 9, 2018
Takeaways
- 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.
Full Notes
Book Recommendation
- The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
Sponsor
- Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Oct 2, 2018
Takeaways
- 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.
Full Notes
Book Recommendation
- The Wizard of Ads by Roy H. Williams
Sponsor
- Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Sep 25, 2018
Takeaways
- 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.
Full Notes
Book Recommendation
- The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon
Sponsor
- Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Sep 18, 2018
Takeaways
- 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.
Full Notes
Book Recommendations
- How Remarkable Women Lead by Joanna Barsh
- The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr
Sponsor
- Costello – What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Sep 11, 2018
Takeaways
- 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.
Full Notes
Book Recommendation
- What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshall Goldsmith
Sponsor
- Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Sep 4, 2018
Takeaways
- 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.
Full Notes
Book Recommendation
Sponsor
- Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Aug 28, 2018
Takeaways
- 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.
Full Notes
Book Recommendation
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
Sponsor
- Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Aug 21, 2018
Takeaways
- 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.
Full Notes
Book Recommendation
- Secrets of Question-Based Selling by Thomas Freese
Sponsor
- Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Aug 14, 2018
Takeaways
- 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?
Full Notes
Book Recommendations
- The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
- Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
Sponsor
- Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Aug 7, 2018
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...
Full Notes
Book Recommendation
- Influence by Robert B. Cialdini
Sponsor
- Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Jul 31, 2018
Full Notes
Book Recommendations
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
- Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin
- Barking Up the Wrong Tree by Eric Barker
- Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins
- First Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham
- The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson
- You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero
- Think Like A Freak by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Sponsor
- Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Jul 24, 2018
Takeaways
- 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.
Full Notes
Book Recommendation
- Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight
Sponsor
- Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Jul 17, 2018
Takeaways
- 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.
Full Notes
Book Recommendation
Sponsor
- Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Jul 10, 2018
Takeaways
- 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.
Full Notes
Book Recommendations
- No Easy Day by Mark Owen
- Sell with a Story: How to Capture Attention, Build Trust, and Close the Sale by Paul Smith
Sponsors
- Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
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