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Sales Tuners

SalesTuners is a weekly podcast where I talk with great sales leaders and high performing individual salespeople about the attitude, actions, and abilities that have led to their success.
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Now displaying: September, 2018
Sep 25, 2018

Takeaways

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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

Sponsor

  • Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Sep 18, 2018

  

Takeaways

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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

Sponsor

  • Costello – What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Sep 11, 2018

Takeaways

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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

Sponsor

  • Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Sep 4, 2018

Takeaways

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
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