Takeaways Raise Your Business Acumen: Selling into the C-Suite of enterprise companies is more education than pain-based. They know the problems they have and they’re looking for salespeople to rethink what’s possible. This has nothing to do with your product features and benefits and everything to do with their business. You need to be able to quickly identify your value and show a direct correlation to their pressing issues. Define the Trigger Moments of Custom Success: When it comes to custom...
Apr 17, 2018•41 min
Takeaways Learn How to Learn: When tackling any new topic or initiative the first question you have to ask yourself is “why.” The second question should be “how.” Using the notion of synthesis, take all the artifacts, insights, and data points you can find from a variety of sources and then apply it to your own situation. This should help you determine at least one hypothesis as a starting point. And for crying out loud, pick up a book and start reading. Remember Who the Credibility Belongs To: ...
Apr 10, 2018•37 min
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, yo...
Apr 03, 2018•52 min
Takeaways Buyers Can be Miseducated: While a lot of research can be, and is being, done prior to your first conversation with a buyer, it doesn’t mean they know exactly what they’ve made the right assumptions. While they’re clearly looking for something, it’s your job to be a helpful expert and advisor to the process. Dig Deeper: It’s very important to understand the existing state of a prospect’s business. Where are they? What do they already have to work with? What can you leverage? Buyers are...
Mar 27, 2018•33 min
Takeaways Do the Boring Work: The best salespeople I’ve ever met run the same process every single time. I know how boring that sounds to most of you, but the truth is you don’t have to get fancy in sales to win. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Focus on the little things — those foundational elements that you know actually move the needle. Control the Signal vs the Noise: With the volume of email being sent by sales reps today, combined with the number of calls being logged, you have to stand ...
Mar 20, 2018•35 min
Takeaways People are Creatures of Habit: Quit spending your mental energy trying to figure out when your prospects are more apt to respond or engage with you. Just like you have a routine, so do they. They likely get out of bed around the same time, commute into the office at the same time, and guess what — respond to emails and phone calls at the same time of day. Look for those patterns and learn to strike while the iron is hot. Practice Genuine Empathy: A lot of people talk about empathy, but...
Mar 13, 2018•33 min
Takeaways Know What to do Next: You just made the investment in acquiring data, hashing out your target accounts and cold prospecting, but what happens when you actually get someone on the phone? Make sure you build out at least the basic infrastructure to know how to handle responses both positive and negative. If your goal is a meeting, make sure you’re not getting stuck in a 20-message email thread or look silly when your prospect ends up on your website talking to your chatbot. Put Your Hand...
Mar 06, 2018•32 min
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 a...
Feb 27, 2018•43 min
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 ...
Feb 20, 2018•36 min
Takeaways Outsource List Building: While you need to own the process of creating and validating your ideal customer profile, you can and should outsource the data gathering. Using the idea of virtual assistants from countries like the Philippines, building targeted lists of prospects can be done quick and cheap. Build Outbound to Create Inbound: Instead of blasting inboxes with requests for 15 minute conversations, leverage your outbound messaging to deliver information that entices prospects to...
Feb 13, 2018•32 min
Takeaways Open and Close Shop : Airline pilots go through a checklist before taking off. Restaurant managers have a standard operating procedure for each shift. I have check downs for the conversations on this podcast. The point I’m trying to make is that you should have a routine each and every day that helps you begin and end your work session. Being intentional about the time you have creates your opportunity for success. Be Confident in Execution : To be good in sales, you need to have confi...
Feb 06, 2018•37 min
Takeaways Frameworks are Better than Scripts: When you try to straight up copy someone else’s style or words, it quickly becomes clear it’s a script and/or inauthentic. You need to develop frameworks of how to handle situations and have the confidence to make it your own. If not, you’re no better than a robot or a recording and I don’t see either of those having much success in sales today. Create Check-down Lists: Most of you listening probably have “required fields” or something similar in you...
Jan 30, 2018•30 min
Takeaways Get Something in Return : Whether it references, case studies, access to your C-suite, or proof-of-concepts, there are only so many things we have in our bag as sales reps. So, before you give away the farm for customer requests, make sure you’re getting something in return for each ask. Overwhelm the Prospect's Request : Once you decide it’s time to send over references, overwhelm them with your approach. If they ask for two, give them four and do it as fast as possible. This shows th...
Jan 23, 2018•26 min
Takeaways Put in the Work : Trong talked about how he views sales as a craft. As any artist or athlete knows, you have to put in the time to become great. I see too many reps today think that showing up to sales calls is all the practice they need. I hate to tell you this, but you’re not going to rise to the occasion under pressure. If you want to become truly great, you’ve got to put in the work when no one else is looking or expecting you to do it. Get Comfortable Sharing Challenging Informati...
Jan 16, 2018•33 min
Takeaways Blaze a Different Path: I’m a big proponent of starting outreach as high as you can in an organization. However, when you can’t reach that person, you have to try a different approach. Figure out who the direct reports are for the person you ultimately want to connect with and try to build a relationship with them. Doing this correctly could help you gain valuable insight on initiatives, priorities, communication preferences and even the decision making process. Don’t Rely on Others: Y...
Jan 09, 2018•33 min
Takeaways Understand Time to Proficiency: Prior to joining a new sales team, find out the average time it takes a rep there to become proficient. This is usually talked about as time to fully-ramped quota, but whether it’s three, six, or nine months, you need to embrace this time to learn. I know sales people are competitive and typically think they know everything, but make sure you’re using all available resources during this time to map out the sales process. Map Out the Sales Process: Sales ...
Jan 02, 2018•38 min
Special Holiday Episode https://www.salestuners.com/12-days-christmas/ Sponsors What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do. The pipeline-centric system is strategically built on a proven selling methodology that keeps teams focused on the only thing they can control in sales – actions that push deals to close....
Dec 26, 2017•11 min
Takeaways Break the Mold: What do you believe is expected in your specific industry? What are all the other reps doing to call on similar prospects? If you want to stand out and be seen, you’ve got to do something different. Could you actually walk in your prospect's office? Could you mail them something that gets their attention? Could you write an article about a topic they’re interested in and use them for a quote or reference? Quit following all the “best practices” and use some creativity t...
Dec 19, 2017•32 min
Takeaways Trial and Error: In the absence of data in the early days, you have to lean on good selling principles. What does that mean? The only thing prospects care about are their problems — not yours. You have to work diligently to understand your buyer and figure out how they talk about their pain points. Doing so will allow you to test different positioning statements and align your features not only to their pain points but also to your own price points. Qualify with Goals and Challenges: Q...
Dec 12, 2017•33 min
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 ill...
Dec 05, 2017•45 min
Takeaways Develop your Persona/Pain/Feature Content Matrix: Think through each persona you sell to. What pain or pains do you solve for that specific type of person or company? Then list out the features of your product that directly correlate to that pain and that person. Lastly, determine what content and stories you have that match all of the above. Don’t Conflate Sales Training with Sales Coaching: A good sales trainer can teach you what to do. A great sales coach can help you understand how...
Nov 28, 2017•32 min
Takeaways Attitude is Everything: A trend that I see becoming more and more prevalent every day is new grads thinking they should be able to jump from Sales Development Rep to Chief Revenue Officer. I’ll admit, I too thought I knew everything at 22, and 25, and 30, but the more I learned the more I realized there was to learn. Carrying a learning attitude combined with a personal “why” will help you climb the rungs quickly. Build Your Own Tools: It’s easy to look to your manager or even the comp...
Nov 21, 2017•29 min
Takeaways Sales is Change Management: This is especially true when we’re selling disruptive products, but it’s our job as salespeople to change how our prospects view the world and show them how we can help them achieve their desires. Anything else, Mark says, is narcissistic or even psychopathic. Saving Money and Saving Time are the Two Worst Value Props: Both concepts are limited value propositions. The limiting factor of saving money is taking what a prospect is currently spending and lowerin...
Nov 14, 2017•41 min
Takeaways Create Visibility to Buy Time: To many, it seems like sales boils down to have you closed a deal or not. Most people don’t see or care about all the elements that go into a deal prior to a signature event happening. In order for you to have the time to execute, you must create systems that allow your CEO to see those incremental steps you’re taking. That information also allows you to have potentially difficult or challenging conversations. Learn How to Win Graciously: I used to have a...
Nov 07, 2017•29 min
Takeaways Call Executives Early: There’s been so many great takeaways on this show, that I’m surprised this has never come up. When you call on busy people, they are just that — busy. During the day they are serving the people in their organization. If you want to connect with them, do it before or after everyone else is in the office. I can personally tell you that I get more email response before 8am, than I do the rest of the day. I’ve also been able to connect directly with my prospects on t...
Oct 31, 2017•36 min
Takeaways Create Replicable Processes: The best ways I’ve learned to master a concept are to first write it down, and then second is to teach it. Doing both of those naturally forces the ability for the process to be replicable. Once it can be replicated, it can be measured, and once it can be measured, it can be improved. Add Value in Every Outreach: If your calls, emails or social posts aren’t adding value to a prospect's life, why even do it? Put yourself in there shoes assuming they’re inund...
Oct 24, 2017•27 min
Takeaways Selling Your Friends is Not Traction: When launching a new product (or company for that matter), it’s easy to immediately to your friends for your first sales. The problem is, they have a vested interest in liking you and wanting to support you. Thus, you don’t have to overcome skepticism. You have to quickly learn the challenges non-affiliated prospects are going to raise and figure out how to sell to that in order to grow. You’ll Never Sell Anything While You are Talking: I know it a...
Oct 17, 2017•33 min
Takeaways Be Human: There’s a myth being perpetuated that buyers don’t have time for small talk anymore. This is just simply not true. Buyers want to connect with you on a human level, they’ve just had so many bad experiences with sellers that they turn off at the slightest hint of inauthenticity. Ask Killer Questions: Coming up with two to three anchor questions that spur conversation as it relates to your product or service should be the highest priority in your organization. Yes, even higher ...
Oct 10, 2017•39 min
Takeaways Playbooks are Living Documents : Cold call scripts, prospect email templates, ideal customer profiles, objection handling, competitive differentiation — whatever you choose to include in your sales playbook should never be written in pen. Either quarterly or, at worst, monthly you need to revisit the elements to see what remains true and what needs to be changed. Anyone participating in the sales process should get a voice in the matter as they may have perspective you’re not privy to....
Oct 03, 2017•28 min
Takeaways Intellect vs Emotion : People don’t buy for intellectual reasons. They buy emotionally and then rationalize their decision after the fact. Rather than doing a feature/benefit vomit, get to know the person you’re attempting to sell to and understand what is motivating their desire to change. Define the Theme of the Opportunity : If you’re able to define the top 2-3 business drivers of an opportunity (I’m talking real pain, not just indicators of pain) you should be able to define an ove...
Sep 26, 2017•38 min
