Time is a precious commodity and no one wants to waste it pursuing the wrong client or deal. Join Ian Altman and Meridith Elliott Powell as they discuss what mistakes to avoid and how to know when you're on the right track.
What is the best way to reach out to potential clients? What are the biggest mistakes in cold outreach I'm seeing across the board? On today's episode I'll be discussing cold outreach: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
On today's episode, we are discussing one of the things that often separates the top performers from the people who are just mediocre: attention to detail. Learn what you can do to boost your sales.
Our topic today is how NOT to try to earn attention these days. There's a lot of stuff that people are doing because they don't know any better, that is actually repelling rather than attracting their ideal clients. you need to understand that getting attention is not about you getting attention, it is about you creating value so that people want to take an interest in you.
Top-performing athletes, do you think they practice more or less than the mediocre athletes? And top-performing musicians, do they practice more than the average performers? But, when it comes to sales professionals, they have many, many excuses for why they don't need to practice. Today we are going to talk about why you should practice with your colleges before you get on the phone with your next sales prospect.
We're going to talk about how to make sales conversations productive. I always say that a sales call is a privilege because you have just done one of the hardest things in sales, you have gotten through the door. The last thing you want to do is blow it! Today we're going to show you how to structure a really productive sales call. But we're going to do it in kind of a unique way by showing you what an unproductive sales call looks like.
We're recording this in mid-2021, as people are coming out of the pandemic and things are opening up. Events are starting to happen in person, clients are actually having meetings in person. Meridith and I are going to dive into what are the traps that people are falling into today, that might be similar to traps they fell into as the pandemic was starting, and what can we learn going forward? The problem that you solved before COVID, the problem that you solved during COVID, and the problem tha...
Today, we are talking about a topic that is near and dear to my heart, which is integrating sales and marketing so that they're not seen as two different universes, but instead, kind of one and the same, joined at the hip. Meredith and I talk about the common pitfalls that companies fall into.
What are the biggest mistakes that you see people make when it comes to sales follow-up? They don't. We've all heard the research that the average salesperson gives up after two to three times. It takes a person eight to 10 touches or messages to make a decision. We'll show you the best ways to follow up with potential clients.
Ian Altman and Meredith Elliott-Powell discuss how people are looking at the end of the year, going into the next year as we are coming out of the pandemic. A lot of people are making decisions about how they approach their sales, marketing, and business development. What are some of the big mistakes that you're seeing people make? Then we're going to talk about what people should be doing instead to drive better results.
In the Same Side Selling Academy, one of the popular questions I am seeing is about how to capture attention and network when in person networking events, trade shows, and "let's just grab coffee" are no longer options. So how should you handle networking when the notion of networking has changed dramatically? Find out my tips for what NOT to do, plus a 4 step process to capture the right kind of attention when networking online.
In this episode, I want to talk about the 3 biggest mistakes I'm seeing being made during and coming out of this time of crisis. For many, these past few months have been devastating. You want to emerge from this crisis and drive meaningful results, but there are three big mistakes that I've noticed. If you can avoid these three, then you're likely on the path towards success. Have a listen and you'll find out my suggestions for what works and how to avoid these mistakes.
I'm joined this week by Sean Dailey. Sean is an experienced marketing executive who helps businesses leverage digital marketing and social media ads to grow. I met Sean through a mutual client where he combined his expertise in digital marketing with the principles of Same Side Selling to generate incredible results. I'm certain that you'll be as impressed as I was when you find out how he did this and how simple it was to execute.
We're joined this week by Colleen Stanley, president of the sales development firm Sales Leadership. Colleen is the author of three books, and we're going to be talking about her latest one, Emotional Intelligence for Sales Leadership. Salesforce named Colleen one of the top influential experts of the 21st century. And we're only 20 years into that century. In this episode we talk about the importance of emotional intelligence when looking to grow and train a successful sales team and how combin...
In this episode, I want to talk about time and materials billing versus fixed price billing. Over the last dozen years, I've had the pleasure of working with many companies who sell services to their clients. Most of them have historically priced their services by the hour. I want to suggest why that might not be a great idea for you or your clients. This concept may make you feel a little uncomfortable, but take a listen and you'll see how a change in approach could make all the difference to y...
"So who are my best customers versus the not best and how can I optimize everything I do in the future around making sure that my best customers achieve their goals." - Robbie Kellman Baxter I'm joined this week by bestselling author of The Membership Economy, Robbie Kellman Baxter. We discussed her new book, 'The Forever Transaction: how to build a subscription model so compelling your customers will never want to leave', which was released in April, 2020. She coined the popular business term '...
Lisa Earle McLeod is an expert in motivating and leading organizations. She helps organizations accelerate revenue growth, increase competitive differentiation and ignite emotional engagement with a customer-driven methodology called Noble Purpose. She's the author of several books, my favorite being Selling With Noble Purpose and also Leading With Noble Purpose. Research shows that organizations with a noble purpose bigger than money outperformed the market by over 350%. In fact, salespeople wh...
In this week's I wanted to speak with you about the challenge many people face when your potential client wants you to follow their process for making a purchasing decision. It may be that your client wants you to follow a process that you know won't result in success for either of you. So how do you gain control from the beginning? And if things start to go off track, how can you turn it around? Let me introduce you to a roadmap that will follow a buying process that ensures success, not a craz...
My guest this week is Jason Bay, who together with his wife Sarah, runs Blissful Prospecting. Jason is a returning guest because the great value he's delivered on his prior appearance. He's one of the true same side people I've encountered in the prospecting world and he knows just how to drop the right video or email to prompt a response. We discussed how to prospect successfully both during a crisis and then coming out of a crisis. He also shares a free resource created just for listeners on t...
I'm joined this week by Meridith Elliott Powell and Dr. Mary Kelly. They're the co-authors of the new book 'Who Comes Next: Leadership Succession Made Easy'. Meridith is an award winning author, keynote speaker and business strategist. Mary Kelly is a PhD economist, corporate strategist and leadership development expert and one of the first women to graduate from the Naval Academy. Mary served 21 years as a commission officer on active duty in the Navy. She comments that some of her favorite job...
We're joined this week by technology strategist and futurist, Crystal Washington. Crystal regularly appears on major television networks and in business publications and she's the author of two books, 'One Tech Action' and 'The Social Media Why'. This particular quote I think sums up how valuable this episode is for right now: "I think a lot of people believe that the more technology we utilize, the more we should automate things in our sales processes. I take a very opposite approach. Yes, ther...
This is a solo episode where I talk about competition. Specifically, when you start speaking with a potential client who already has a relationship with another vendor, what's going through your mind? In this episode I give you some strategies and examples on how we can delve way deeper than just price, build trust and help stand out from the competition. I also talk about a tool called the Client Vision Pyramid, which is covered in more detail in the Same Side Selling Academy, and will kelp you...
For 30 years Bob Burg helped companies, sales leaders and their teams to more effectively communicate their value, sell at higher prices with less resistance and grow their businesses. He's best known for his Wall Street Journal and Business Week bestseller, the Go-Giver, which he coauthored with John David Mann. It's been translated into 28 languages. Across the four books in the Go-Giver series they've reached nearly 2 million copies. Bob is an advocate, supporter, and defender of the free ent...
I'm joined this week by Meridith Elliott Powell who is a brilliant sales mind who's written many books, is considered a top sales expert to follow by LinkedIn and happens to be one of my favorite fellow keynote speakers. We're going to discuss how selling in times of crisis is not a bad thing, that it isn't time to stop and how adapting the way we communicate with and show understanding of clients' situations is so important. Listen into our discussion for ideas on how you can adapt not only how...
This is a special solo episode on selling and communicating under stress. I recorded this episode at a time when when we are under siege from a global pandemic. Businesses across the spectrum are closed. Citizens are either literally or essentially under quarantine and at home. So how do you continue to grow your business under these times or how do you survive and do the best you can do? Let me guide you through some examples and some ideas that you could apply yourself.
In this solo episode I talk about getting to the truth in complex selling situations. I often say that effective selling is not about persuasion or coercion. It's about getting to the truth as quickly as possible and sometimes you might find that you have something in your process, in your system, something about your business offering that your client or prospect just says, those don't work for me. If you're looking for a simple way to be not only open in your discussions, but to get decisions ...
I'm joined this week by David Meerman Scott, he's the co-author of the new Wall Street Journal bestselling book 'Fanocracy' which he co-wrote with his daughter, Reiko. He's a multi bestselling author. If you've ever heard the term 'Newsjacking', that's one of his other books. Part of our conversation was around the joy of writing a book in collaboration with his daughter, the experience of becoming best selling authors together, but we also covered so much more from the book that you can apply t...
This week's guest is Michael Bungay Stanier, the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Coaching Habit. He sold about three quarters of a million copies and it's one of a few business books that actually makes you laugh. We're talking about his new book, The Advice Trap, which is out very soon. The book has some really interesting insights about what Michael calls the 'Advice Monster', which hides behind well meaning people who give advice to others who may not want it. We also discuss th...
Our guest this week is Hall of Fame speaker Stephen Shapiro, and we're talking about innovation and solving problems. Stephen led a 20,000 person innovation practice at Accenture. Since then he's written six books on innovation, including 'Best Practices Are Stupid', which was named the best innovation and creativity book of the year. We're talking about his latest book, 'Invisible Solutions, 25 Lenses that Reframe and Help Solve Difficult Business Problems', which launches March 3rd. Stephen sh...
In this solo episode I talk about what information people typically share with clients in proposals and email follow-ups that drive results and why that matters to your client. I introduce the proven model that allows you to ensure you're recording all of the right details from your meetings and then enables you to follow up successfully. If you're looking to improve how you help clients make decisions and create a process for creating effective follow-up emails, then learn in this episode how t...
