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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: October, 2018
Oct 23, 2018

Takeaways

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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

Sponsor

  • Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Oct 16, 2018

Takeaways

  1. 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?
  2. 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.
  3. 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

Sponsor

  • Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Oct 9, 2018

Takeaways

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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

Sponsor

  • Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
Oct 2, 2018

Takeaways

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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

Sponsor

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