On today's episode of The Sales Evangelist, we talk with Kris Nelson, head of sales for CoSchedule.com, about how businesses can move from "click, try, buy" to having a full-fledged sales team.

CoSchedule is a SaaS-based marketing platform that helps marketers to stay organized through a combination of content calendar, a product, project management solutions and execution via social campaigns and email campaigns.

CoSchedule took the time to focus on true growth and the company has seen tremendous results. Prior to reaching that point, however, the business, which began as a "click, try and buy," didn’t even have a sales team.

When "click, try, and buy" works

Initially, they released the product as a straightforward "click, try and buy," product because it made sense at the time. They also designed it for small teams and individuals. The level of product and the price point didn’t really dictate a need for a dedicated sales team. [01:26]

As the product progressed and became more complicated, however, it became apparent that they needed a sales team to help the clients really understand how CoSchedule could benefit them.

It was simply a natural progression to establish a sales force as the product grew and the price point increased, especially with some of the advanced plans. They moved away from the "click, try and buy," and toward a professional marketing team and into a standard sales cycle. [03:17]

Bringing whiskey to a Kool-Aid party

I’ve always thought it was a waste of time and resources to have the sales reps focus on low-end sales, think $15 a month kind of stuff because customers don’t need help making a decision at the price point.

Higher end products are different. Companies who ask customers to pay more become more concerned with the quality of the product, and that's when you need a sales team.

It is truly an overkill to engage someone in a formalized, professional sales cycle at some of the lower price points. At the higher price points, it makes total sense.

You have to be sure you are asking the right questions of the organization to make sure your product is a fit. The sale is nice but long-term happy customers are the true goal. [04:25]

Move toward a sales force

Kris credits CEO and co-founder of CoSchedule, Garrett Moon, as the person who helped take the company where it is today.

It began with a series of phone calls to prospects to see if the market was viable and to see if it made sense to move the price point. Once that was established as true, Moon hired more people, including Kris, and the sales process was on its way. [05:58]

Kris says that CoSchedule is still an extremely heavy inbound model. They still decide the best fit for each client, whether that be the "click, try and buy," model for the lower level plans, or working with a sales rep for the higher level plans.

Kris really had to learn and understand the buying process of the companies that use CoSchedule to determine how many real touch points would be needed from a sales standpoint to be effective.  

Three-call process

CoSchedule has a three-call process in place now.

The first, known as the discovery call, allows the sales team to learn more about the client’s business, teach them about CoSchedule and then try to determine at a really high level if there is a potential business fit. If everything matches from a budget standpoint and a use case standpoint, they move forward with the second call.

The second call is a full-scale demonstration of the product. It provides a great chance for the client to invite all their team members who might use the tool.

Kris and his team go through the product with a fine-toothed comb and answer any questions. During this timeframe, they give the potential clients access to a free trial of CoSchedule; a chance to kick the tires. If the team is still checking the right boxes by the end they move into the pricing discussion. [07:28]

CoSchedule provides a great tool for marketing organizations and other small organizations to all get on the same page. Their customers often refer to CoSchedule as the single source of truth for all their marketing efforts.

Whether it's a social media campaign, or a large trade show event, or a podcast, CoSchedule acts as the organization hub for everything. [08:55]

Although they designed CoSchedule with a marketing focus, Kris believes it is also beneficial from an internal project management standpoint. It puts a formal process in place.

All the checklist items and all the behind-the-scenes items that go into a large-scale effort are put into a central location with CoSchedule. It unites everyone involved with the effort on the same page.  

Everyone can see what works well, what needs more work, and where the team must focus to get the product out the door. [09:53]

Building a sales team

Growing a sales team, of course, presents a challenge because there are as many different ways that salespeople sell and lots of ways that people sell effectively.

Kris works to understand how his team sells best and to accelerate that process and help them get better every day. He scales the number of reps on his sales team based on demand.

The number of sales calls, for example, on a rep's calendar really does determine the growth of that team. Kris says they rely on the marketers to continually charge forward with fresh, hot leads so that they can then continue to add more in sales. [11:26]

Kris uses his personal experiences as a way to motivate his sales team.

In the past, he worked for a large banking finance and software company where it didn't matter so much whether he hit his sales goals. With a smaller company like CoSchedule, however, every single sale matters. Every dollar matters to everyone involved.  

As a smaller company, Kris is able to focus on the people who work for him as individuals.

Kris expects that the CoSchedule will continue to add to their sales team. He hopes to continually increase the level of sophistication used to deploy that team.

[Tweet "When moving from an inbound model to a sales-driven model, you need to jump on the phone. See if the market is there before you hire people. #salesdriven"]

Know if there is validity to your product first. You'll be surprised to learn what your product can do.

"Full-Fledged Sales Team" episode resources

If you would like to reach out with questions or comments for Kris, he can be reached via email at Kris.nelson@coschedule.com

This episode is brought to you in part by mailtag.io, a Chrome browser extension for Gmail that allows you to track and schedule your emails. Use automated outreach to schedule your contacts and keep you from getting distracted.

This episode is brought to you in part by prospect.io, a powerful sales automation platform that allows you to build highly personalized, cold email campaigns. To learn more, go to prospect.io/tse. You can expand your outreach and set it and forget it. Your prospecting will never ever be the same.

We'll use prospect.io in the upcoming semester of TSE Hustler's League to focus on prospecting. We'll give you insights and tools that will help you gain new customers. In addition, we'll provide training and strategies that you can implement today to ensure constant flow in your pipeline.

I hope you enjoyed the show today as much as I did. If so, please consider leaving us a rating on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or wherever you consume this content and share it with someone else who might benefit from our message. It helps others find our message and improves our visibility.

If you haven't already done so, subscribe to the podcast so you won't miss a single episode, and share with your friends!

Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.

On today's episode of The Sales Evangelist, we're talking to Kathleen Hessert and Krista Jasso about the newest generation and how to adjust your sales process when selling Gen Z.

Kathleen launched a project called We R Gen Z because she saw a lack of information about the newest generation because the marketplace was completely focused on millennials. Her organization conducts original research with a bank of 1,000 teens on a monthly basis to understand Gen Z.

Krista -- a member of Gen Z herself -- works as the social media coordinator and intern coordinator for We R Gen Z and she believes that her generation will take the world by storm.

Massive spending

Gen Z spends $44 billion a year in the U.S. and influences $600 billion when it comes to household spending.

It's vital for the marketplace to understand that Gen Z will make up 40 percent of the U.S. population and 37 percent of the global population by the year 2020. [3;47]

Organizations that exclude them will be behind in their sales efforts, and they may never catch up.

Mistakes selling Gen Z

Sellers often talk down to Gen Z and the generation sees it. Gen Z has what Krista calls a "strong BS filter," and they see right through lack of authenticity.

The generation values authentic, genuine behavior. Gen Z is turned off by fake, flashy marketing, instead choosing brands that are transparent about what they value and believe. [6:50]

Gen Z cares about who is behind the product as well as the product or service itself. They care about what top executives are saying about topics such as politics and the environment.

They include countless outside factors in their decision-making and if a brand doesn't match what they are looking for, they won't support it.

Gen Z trends

We R Gen Z hosts a trends panel that evaluates what's hot and what's not for the generation.

Organizations should understand that Gen Z are the next creators and innovators. Those companies need the young people of Gen Z more than the young people need their products or services.

They will buy or shun organizations based on their values and their passion. When Nike included Colin Kaepernick in its commercials, one member of We R Gen Z put all his Adidas clothes away and wore only Nike for two weeks to honor the decision made by the company. [10:19]

The founder of Tom's Shoes gave $5 million to anti-gun-violence in response to a school shooting in California, marking the largest corporate donation ever to this particular issue.  The decision resonated with Gen Z.

Business is more than money, especially for Gen Z. Older marketers can miss this if they try throwing more money at the marketing effort.

Instead, marketers should look at the lifetime value of a Gen Z customer, which is a lot higher than the lifetime value of an older customer who has been with the company for a number of years. [12:13]

Digital natives

Managers must remember that Gen Z asks why. Previous generations were taught not to question authority, but Gen Z asks why, not to be disrespectful, but to understand the reasoning behind decisions.

The generation is curious and they want to understand motivations.

Gen Z is also the first generation to be true digital natives. They grew up in a world where the Internet was prolific. When they seek information, their first source is Google and their second is Instagram. [14:29]

They tend to seek a wide range of different perspectives on a topic. If someone tells them one thing, Gen Z tends to seek other voices before making decisions because they are used to this expansive focus.

Gen Z and video

Gen Z responds better to video than past generations. Primarily, the generation watches YouTube and Netflix more than they watch regular television. Many of them learn new things like how to play instruments simply by watching YouTube videos. [16:39]

Companies can't take traditional routes when selling Gen Z.

We R Gen Z's research shows that 48 percent of respondents said that social media influences their purchases most. Big sales are next because the generation is more frugal than its predecessors and they are watching their dollars more carefully.

Companies have to be on social media, present it in an awesome way, and be there for the right reasons at the right time.

They've seen all kinds of incredible creativity and they expect it cool and different and new each time they interact with a brand. [20:45]

Reaching Gen Z

Brands must actually engage with this generation on social media. Consumers are looking to see that brands are liking comments and responding to comments. They must show that they are authentic and real.

They must also understand that 64 percent of Gen Z will buy things via smartphones. Most of Gen Z will look to reviews before buying and that they will sometimes buy a product because their friends vouch for it. That suggestion will carry more weight than any marketing campaign. [24:41]

Other findings are that 65 percent won't use voice tech such as Siri and Alexa to buy, though they will use them to accomplish tasks like making lists.

Spending habits

Krista told the story of one of their panelists who loved the idea of the Nintendo Switch so much that it motivated him to get a job. He hadn't had a job prior to that, but the new system motivated him to save his paychecks to purchase it.

Gen Z is willing to save for a few months to buy a certain product, but if the product is overly expensive, they fear it will be irrelevant by the time they save for it, so they won't likely purchase it. [27:51]

Gen Z has also learned from millennials that they don't want to be burdened with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. Their frugality is based upon the things they've seen. they want a different future for themselves.

As an aside, clothes, gift cards, and tech are the hottest items for Christmas when you're shopping for Gen Z. They also really appreciate making gifts for the people they care about.

Marketing

Look at your marketing and your brand. Look at how you're reaching Gen Z and think outside the box. It's a creative group of people and you have to stay a step ahead of them to gain their loyalty. [31:36]

Think about accessibility. They want brands to be easily accessible and to make their lives easier and faster. Speed has become their standard, and they want easy.

Brands that don't make it easy to access products and services don't stand a chance.

"Selling Gen Z" episode resources

Follow Kathleen and Krista atWe R Gen Z and find them on social media. If you're a brand seeking custom research, email them at askus@wergenz.com. You can also find Kathleen on LinkedIn or @kathleenhessert on social media.

On today's episode of The Sales Evangelist, we discuss time management and how daily planning can help you be more effective in your role as a seller.

It seems like there is never enough time in the day to get things done. We need an extra day in the week or at least an extra hour a day.  I was always so busy that it felt like I didn’t even have time to sit down to read a book. Even knowing how important personal development was, I always managed to put it off.

Then, I took a vacation.

It is amazing how much you can do when you are in the air for five hours with limited distraction.

So what changed? What happened? The amount of time I had certainly didn’t change. My focus did.

The concept of daily planning

How many times have you been told to try daily planning? Now, how many times have you actually done it?  [02:04]

If you are the modern seller that I know you are, you are distracted. Reading proposals, talking to customers, going to meetings, checking email ... These are all distractions. Every time an email pings your phone, you are pulled in a different direction.

Everyone - from internal teams to clients to prospects to friends - is vying for your time and attention. As a result, important things fall through the cracks. You finish at the end of each day and find yourself wondering if you accomplished anything at all.

It all goes back to the very powerful principle of being acted upon as opposed to acting. [02:59]

Essentialism

Thinking back to a previous episode when we spoke to Greg McKeown about his book Essentialism, I’m reminded that we can’t have priorities.  The plural of the word ‘priority’ shouldn’t even exist. There can only be one priority.

Essentialism means to focus on the essentials. As a seller, your most important task is to bring in new customers and close deals. So, what activities will lead you to that result?

Until you understand what you need to do as a seller, you will not be able to stay focused. You will always be acted upon. Sure, there will always be important distractions but oftentimes they are not the activities that you need to do to accomplish your goal. [04:46]

To help you stay focused and have the time to do the things that matter the most, I want you to think about these three questions:

1. Will the activity move me toward my essential goal of helping people make a decision and close a deal?
2. Do I have to do it? Is this a task that no one else can do?
3. Does it have to be done right now?

If the activity doesn’t tie into your goal or responsibility, don’t do it.

Set your focus

Let’s suppose you’ve set a goal to prospect for 30 minutes a day. It is certainly a step towards achieving your goal, so it needs to be done. But do you have to do it yourself? Or could you pass some of it off to an internal sales team? Or to someone on Fiverr.com?

Suppose you get a call from your boss and she needs a report. Does she need it right now? Is there someone on your team that can take care of it for you? If you are the only one who can do it, can you move it to the end of the day so as not to take away from your prime working time?

When you focus on the essential things, the distractions fall away. The things that used to pull you away move out of focus. [05:41]

I recommend taking an hour each week to plan for the upcoming week. Be sure you are fully vetted and ready so that you can avoid those distractions. What are the important tasks ahead? Schedule everything out. Set time for social media, time for prospecting, time for appointments ... You can even set time to receive emails using Boomerang, or Google, so that you aren’t pinged throughout the entire day.  [08:46]

You are acting rather than being acted upon.

Once you have the weekly focus set, spend a few minutes at the end of each day to make any necessary adjustments. You will already know what you will do the next day as soon as you arrive at the office. This makes life so much more productive!

Plan your day

Taking the time to plan your day will save you time. Forget about your friends' Instagram posts. Focus instead on the things that will help you grow your business, grow your pipeline and have a killer year. [11:45]

Make the effort.

If it sounds like too much work, then by all means - go back to winging it. But if you do, promise me that you will compare your results to the person who is not winging it.

How much more productive are they? Are they hitting their goals? Are they working with less stress, fewer headaches, and less frustration? Probably.

I share this with you because I’ve been there. I know it works and I’ve seen the huge difference it can make. Try it. Give it a month. I don’t think you will regret it.

"Daily Planning" episode resources

If you have additional questions or want more insight, email me at donald@thesalesevangelist.com. I may not answer it right away (because I'm scheduling my time) but I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

This episode is brought to you in part by mailtag.io, a Chrome browser extension for Gmail that allows you to track and schedule your emails. It's automated outreach that will help you schedule your contacts and it can help keep you from getting distracted.

This episode is brought to you in part by prospect.io, a powerful sales automation platform that allows you to build highly personalized, cold email campaigns. To learn more, go to prospect.io/tse. It will help you with your outbound to expand your outreach and it allows you to set it and forget it. Your prospecting will never ever be the same.

We'll use prospect.io in the upcoming semester of TSE Hustler's League to focus on prospecting. We'll give you insights and tools that will help you gain new customers. In addition, we'll provide training and strategies that you can implement today to ensure constant flow in your pipeline.

I hope you enjoyed the show today as much as I did. If so, please consider leaving us a rating on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or wherever you consume this content and share it with someone else who might benefit from our message. It helps others find our message and improves our visibility.

If you haven't already done so, subscribe to the podcast so you won't miss a single episode, and share with your friends!

Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.

Today we talk to Meridith Powell about driving sales in the 4th quarter and how organizations can drive success from the selling side as well as the leadership side.

Meridith was voted one of the top 15 business growth experts to watch, largely because she is passionate about helping clients learn strategies to succeed in any economy.

4th quarter complications

Meridith calls the 4th quarter of the year her favorite because typically organizations have relaxed a bit and let their guards down. That presents an opportunity for other organizations to put on what she calls a full-court press while everyone else has relaxed.

Everyone takes their foot off the gas at the end of the year. They've been working hard all year, and they have achieved decent numbers, so they aren't worried about driving sales in the 4th quarter.

They are tired, and when Thanksgiving rolls around, it's followed soon after by Christmas. The cold weather makes it an easy time to be a bit lazier. She calls it the perfect storm of sales laziness.

You must keep selling during the 4th quarter to keep that quarter strong. Additionally, though, sales has a lag time. The sales you make in the 4th quarter will determine how well your 1st quarter goes. If you don't invest energy into 4th quarter sales, you'll establish a self-fulfilling prophecy for the 1st quarter and you'll be behind all year long.

Begin in October

It's never too late to salvage the 4th quarter.

[Tweet "Embrace the 4th quarter as an opportunity. Shift your paradigm and recognize that this isn't the time to stop selling; it's the time to start selling. #4thquartersales"]

Proceed carefully, though. There's a lot happening in the 4th quarter and your clients and prospects have to-do lists of their own.

Establish a plan, and identify a sales leader who will focus on driving sales in the 4th quarter. Even if you don't have one, determine who you need to connect with during the 4th quarter. List your top clients, your best prospects, and those who could be doing more business with you.

Once you have that list, design the touches. Focus on thanking them for an amazing year and let them know you'll get in touch with them at the first of the year to establish a plan for the next year.

Plan for sales in January

If you want your January to be productive, you must lay the groundwork in December by booking appointments.

By connecting with people at the end of the year and again in January, you keep yourself visible with your most important customers. As a bonus, you're likely to find organizations that need to dump money before the end of the year to avoid paying taxes.

For those customers who haven't yet committed, you've taken one more step to move forward at a time when everyone else is resting.

4th quarter trouble

If you haven't hit your numbers by the start of the 4th quarter, you're likely in trouble. Desperation sets in and you make decisions you wouldn't otherwise make.

Meridith said that when she consults teams, she often finds that 4th quarter is their greatest struggle. She insists that buyers can smell desperation and they aren't interested in working with desperate sellers.

When your 4th quarter strategy focuses on thanking them for their business and coordinating for the 1st quarter of the following year, you lose the smell of desperation and you end up making deals.

You're also setting yourself up strong for the new year so that next year's 4th quarter won't end badly.

Give up the day

If you're listening to this episode and you haven't hit your numbers for the year, let it go. Think of it as cheating on a diet and realize that you'll do better next time.

If you push hard to make your numbers now, you may get there, but you'll likely drive your customers away. Instead, focus on staying visible and starting 2019 really strong.

You'll maintain your credibility and you'll keep your focus on the buyer instead of focusing on yourself. You can't play basketball by focusing entirely on the scoreboard.

You have to look at the ball. You must keep your focus on the prospect.

Take responsibility

The reality for sales leaders is the same for sellers. If your team hasn't hit its goal by the 4th quarter, you don't want to give up the lifetime cycle of a client in an effort to make last-minute sales.

Take responsibility for the fact that your team didn't hit the goals. As a leader, you have total responsibility for those goals. You must give them the strategy, the plan, and the accountability to achieve their numbers in the next year.

Begin with an autopsy of the things that prevented you from hitting your numbers. Resolve to learn from your mistakes, and do it as a team.

Determine the things you did really well, and try to identify where you lost deals.

Meridith calls it seeds, weeds, and needs.

Seeds are those things we need to keep doing in order to drive growth. Weeds are the things that weigh us down and get in our way. Needs are the things we need to be doing that we aren't currently doing.

Make sure to include a plan for how you'll measure your success and how you'll stay accountable. Learn from each other.

Make it safe to fail

If someone on your team loses a deal to a competitor, make it safe for your team to evaluate what happened with the deal and to coach each other toward success in the future.

If you have discipline issues, keep those separate from the coaching environment.

You must make it safe for your team to share what is working and what isn't working. Help your team develop those skill sets to succeed.

Fill a dry pipeline fast

If you find yourself in the 4th quarter without the numbers you need, Meridith has a few ideas to help you fill a dry pipeline fast.

Before you try them, commit to keep yourself out of this situation in the future, but use these for emergency situations.

Make a list of your 10 best customers and do a holiday check-in. During the call, ask about their goals moving forward.

You can find the rest of the ideas in Meridith's blog here, but use these sparingly, and refuse to put yourself in this situation again next year.

The fourth quarter is a major opportunity. Don't treat it as a time to take your foot off the gas.

"Driving Sales in the 4th Quarter" episode resources

You can find Meridith's blog at valuespeaker.com, where you can also access free tools and resources. Find Meridith on the social networking sites, but most often on LinkedIn.

This episode is brought to you in part by prospect.io, a powerful sales automation platform that allows you to build highly personalized, cold email campaigns. To learn more, go to prospect.io/tse. It will help you with your outbound to expand your outreach and it allows you to set it and forget it. Your prospecting will never ever be the same.

We'll use prospect.io in the upcoming semester of TSE Hustler's League to focus on prospecting. We'll give you insights and tools that will help you gain new customers. In addition, we'll provide training and strategies that you can implement today to ensure constant flow in your pipeline.

Check out our new semester of The Sales Evangelist Hustler's League. We're taking applications for the semester beginning in January, and we can only take a limited number of people.

This episode is brought to you in part by mailtag.io, a Chrome browser extension for Gmail that allows you to track and schedule your emails. It's super easy, it's helpful, and I recommend that you try it out.

I hope you enjoyed the show today as much as I did. If so, please consider leaving us a rating on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or wherever you consume this content and share it with someone else who might benefit from our message. It helps others find our message and improves our visibility.

If you haven't already done so, subscribe to the podcast so you won't miss a single episode, and share with your friends!

Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.

oday on The Sales Evangelist, we're going to talk about the fear of prospecting, how your coworkers often contribute to it, and how you can overcome your fear of rejection.

Fear of rejection often keeps salespeople from going after potential deals, but it doesn't have to be this way.

Intimidation

If you're a new rep and your teammates warn you to stay away from a certain account, it can cause you to fear to reach out at all.

In our case, a seller named Rick found himself in this exact situation. He believed so strongly in what he had to offer that he actually went to visit the client. [3:07]

He spoke to the prospect's receptionist and he left information with her that she could pass on to the VP of the company.

Several days passed and he didn't hear from the receptionist or the VP. Fortunately, his confidence outweighed his fear of rejection.

He called the prospect at 7:30 a.m. and was able to talk to the exec because the receptionist wasn't there yet.

Eventually, he closed the deal that his coworkers said couldn't be closed.

His co-workers could have solved the problem as well, but they allowed the warnings and stories to intimidate. They never reached out to him.

TSE Certified Sales Training

In our TSE Certified Sales Training program, the first lesson we teach is how to prospect like an evangelist. The first thing we discuss is how to overcome the fear of rejection. [4:58]

Fear results when we believe that someone is going to cause us harm or pain.

But how does that belief come into existence? Because we were taught or coached to be fearful of the word no.

When we were kids, we didn't fear being told no. But as we got older, we became conditioned to the idea that no is bad.

Knowing the problems

Rick did believe that he could be rejected, but he had a greater belief that he could solve a problem for the prospect. In many cases, because we don't understand what the prospect's challenges are, we have little confidence in our ability to solve problems for him. [6:57]

To overcome fear, you must develop confidence in what you have to offer. The more times you successfully solve problems for comp0anies, the more confident you'll become.

[Tweet "That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not because the nature of the thing changes, but our ability to do it changes. #BuildConfidence"]

If you make enough calls, speak with enough prospects, and solve enough problems, you can become more confident.

Getting better

If you could listen to your very first cold call, you'd probably cringe because it sounds so awful. But imagine if you gave up after that very first cold call. Imagine if you gave up the first time someone yelled at you. [8:14]

You'd never be where you are right now.

Instead, because you kept doing it, you became confident.

If you listen to the very first episodes of this podcast,  you might think I should have gotten more training before I started. Now, 985 episodes later, we're still creating episodes.

Imagine all the money we've generated, the business opportunities we've created, and the salespeople we've helped over the years.

You must have a belief that is stronger than fear. [9:30] Gain that by doing things over and over again. Also, gather as much intel as you possibly can about your prospect's problem.

"Fear of Prospecting" episode resources

If this episode was helpful to you, share it with someone else who can benefit from it. Help them overcome their fear of rejection.

The TSE Certified Sales Training program targets new and struggling salespeople working for small to midsize companies.

The sales training course will help you plan your day, understand prospecting, build value, and convert more customers.

You can work through the course alone or as part of a group of 25 people. Click here to learn more or to register for the next course.

This episode is brought to you in part by mailtag.io, a Chrome browser extension for Gmail that allows you to track and schedule your emails. It's super easy, it's helpful, and I recommend that you try it out.

This episode is brought to you in part by prospect.io, a powerful sales automation platform that allows you to build highly personalized, cold email campaigns. To learn more, go to prospect.io/tse. It will help you with your outbound to expand your outreach and it allows you to set it and forget it. Your prospecting will never ever be the same.

We'll use prospect.io in the upcoming semester of TSE Hustler's League to focus on prospecting. We'll give you insights and tools that will help you gain new customers. In addition, we'll provide training and strategies that you can implement today to ensure constant flow in your pipeline.

Check out our new semester of The Sales Evangelist Hustler's League. We're taking applications for the semester beginning in January, and we can only take a limited number of people.

I hope you enjoyed the show today as much as I did. If so, please consider leaving us a rating on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or wherever you consume this content and share it with someone else who might benefit from our message. It helps others find our message and improves our visibility.

If you haven't already done so, subscribe to the podcast so you won't miss a single episode, and share with your friends!

Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.

On today's episode of The Sales Evangelist, we talk to Matt Hernandez about the changes in the marketplace, and how the ability to find local partners has helped him drive more revenue for the businesses he serves.

In his work with small-to-medium businesses, Matt has worked to figure out new ways to deal with leads because people have become more resistant to cold calling.

He believes that, although cold-calling can work, it must exist in the right circumstances. The key is better lead intelligence.

Hire the right people

Matt doesn't struggle with recruiting or interviewing salespeople.  The key, he says, is to be very upfront about the challenges of the role and hire the right type of people.

Hire open-minded people who aren't super particular about their activities and who often aren't as needy. [7:15] They'll be more coachable.

Also be very honest about the type of role you're hiring for, the challenges it will present, but also the benefits of the role as well.

Moving away from cold leads

In the past, sellers would have a name and a phone number and they could attack each cold lead with different opens or different hooks. Now, he says, people are numb to that approach.

Instead, his company looked to generate inbound leads and lukewarm leads.

Matt's company uses a program called "Local Partners" that pays contractors to feed them warm or hot leads from local areas. He pointed out that using pure commission models doesn't change your cost structure. [9:14]

He does acknowledge that you must make sure the payment is in line with the revenue goals. You must make sure your customer acquisition costs aren't too high.

Big revenue increases

Matt's company has seen strong results from the move away from cold calling. He estimates that the effort now accounts for 5 to 15 percent of their deals.

He predicts that this kind of effort would likely work in a variety of industries.

Companies just have to be creative to figure out how to scale in a cost-effective way. Buying leads can be very expensive, but a pay-for-results model can work if the infrastructure is set up properly. [11:10]

Partnerships model

Begin by listing as on Craigslist in the cities you're interested in. State what you're offering and decide ahead of time how much you can afford to pay.

Decide how much you'd be willing to pay someone if they were to generate meetings or contracts. For longer sales cycles, you might have to pay per demo. [12:09]

In shorter sales cycles, you pay based upon generating contracts.

In your ad, provide a range of income that interested parties could generate per month.

Then you could interview over the phone or in person or over video.

The effort is super cheap, super easy and really scrappy.

Be willing to pivot

Be creative. Sales requires consistency and training and the right effort for the right amount of time. Without it, you'll never see meaningful results or data you can measure. [14:54]

Seek objective advice and make sure you're giving your new ideas time to work.

If things aren't going the way you want despite your effort, don't be afraid to pivot and try new approaches. Be willing to try something different.

The marketplace changes rapidly, and technology does, too. You have to be willing to adapt.

Fivestars

Local businesses are the best candidates to benefit from Fivestars because they are traditionally underserved in their marketing efforts. They often face huge competition from groups of businesses that pool their resources. [15:59]

Think of a small coffee shop competing against Starbucks, who has millions of dollars to spend on advertising.

Fivestars has created a software that costs pennies on the dollar because the cost is spread across 10,000 merchants. It's an incredible solution for anyone who owns a local business with a physical location.

"Find Local Partners" episode resources

Connect with Matt via email at matthew.hernandez@fivestars.com. If you need a way to get more customers in the door, Fivestars works with more than 40 million consumers who use the platform.

This episode is brought to you in part by Maximizer CRM, a personalized and robust CRM with the capability to organize your company and effectively line up not only your sales but your client’s success. Go to TheSalesEvangelist.com/maximizer for a free demonstration.  

We are also brought to you by prospect.io, a powerful sales automation platform that allows you to build highly personalized, cold email campaigns. It has changed the way we prospect.

Take advantage of the risk-free trial they offer specifically for the TSE community. First three months at half-price? You can’t beat that! To learn more, go to prospect.io/tse. Your prospecting will never ever be the same. 

I hope you enjoyed the show today as much as I did. If so, please consider leaving us a rating on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher or wherever you enjoy fine podcasts.

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Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.

n today's episode of The Sales Evangelist, I talk to Todd Earwood about the adage that we need not reinvent the wheel, but Todd is doing just that.

Todd famously cold-called the CEO of a billion dollar company for 43 straight days until he finally got the interview, and then the job.

He began his career in software. It wasn’t until he was making the rounds to thank investors for the success of his latest software endeavor that he realized that marketing was his real niche.  

As Todd explains it, one of the investors simply asked Todd what his future plans were, which seemed like such a silly question at the question. Software was all he had ever done. But the investor went on to say that marketing and sales were really the special skills he saw in Todd.

Todd reluctantly agreed and MoneyPath began.  [00:54]

Clear the path to purchases through quality marketing

AtMoneyPath, Todd and his group of marketers ‘clear the path to purchases.’ It is their tagline because they are dedicated to helping sales. In the marketing world of pretty pictures and shiny objects, the reality is that without the lifeblood of qualified leads coming into the sales team, good things are not going to happen. Budgets will be cut and people will lose their jobs.

But if you can master the marketing side of things, then the company grows. Everybody is happy and everybody wins. In the software environment, Todd was willing to experiment and fail. He looked beyond the traditional social channels, the paid media and the heavy use of emails.

To begin, Todd and his team did an email research project where they opted into the funnels of the top 300 SAS software companies to see what those companies would do with a cold lead. The number one email topic returned to Todd’s team was about content. The second topic was webinars and that is when things really began to change.

Now instead of writing six blog posts a week, Todd and his team create one great webinar every 15 days. Before long, they had created a massive educational series with more and more content.

Reinventing the webinar to keep listeners engaged

The old model is clearly broken because nobody really gets excited about ‘this week’s webinar’. People sign up but they don’t attend. Todd and his team wanted to change that. [03:38]

There is a poor functionality with the current webinar system. It fails to keep the listeners engaged. Even when the topic sounds interesting, we never get around to actually listening to it, or to listening to it wholeheartedly. Todd realized that the engagement model needed to change. It needed to become interesting and engaging.

There is just too much information and too many ways to deliver it. As a marketer, you are vying for the attention of the clients so you have to do something different.

As Todd explains, unless you hire Kevin Hart or Adele, it is too hard for one person to carry 30-60-90 minutes of content. So at Webinar Works, they always have at least two speakers: a host and a thought leader.

Bringing in leads

The host facilitates all the basics and keeps it moving. The host will almost immediately facilitate a poll to grab people’s attention and get them actively participating with the webinar.

Todd has seen up to 60% of the attendees join in because their webinars break the expectation of ‘another crappy webinar’ from the very start.

The thought leader for each webinar is the expert on the subject. They aren’t there to read their own bio or tell the listeners how great they are. The thought leaders are there to educate and to share their wisdom. [06:44]

The ultimate purpose of the webinar, aside from providing information to the listeners, is to obtain information from those listeners at the end in the form of a segmentation poll which generates qualified, high intent leads. This could be something as simple as asking the listeners to select the one issue addressed in the webinar that best fits their organization.

With that information, the sales rep now has a tracking mechanism that tells him which listeners actually listened to the entire webinar, as well as which listeners requested assistance.

That is way better than cold calling 2,000 people. [10:21]

Leads delivered by the webinar

The Webinar was interesting but I want to do more research.

This is not a hot lead. It is a cool lead that needs some nurturing before it goes to the sales team.

I really enjoyed the webinar but I need to refer any decision to my colleague.

With this response, the sales rep knows the problem is there and the interest is there but that more research is needed to move into the right part of the organization.

I want to learn more!

This is the hot lead button that should be flagged as a real person with interest. [11:11]

Beginning of the sales process

The live webinar event may be over but the sales work is not done. As a marketer, Todd can help you divide that 42-minute webinar into three or five smaller clips so when a listener has a problem or a question, you will be able to easily find and deliver the information they need. [14:43]

There is certainly a lot of preparation that goes into creating a webinar. Decide where you want to insert the polls. If you are creating content that educates the prospects and making statements that they haven’t heard before, you should expect and plan for questions. Your content should drive the questions, and those questions will increase engagement. [17:10]

People will register for a webinar with a good hook.

• • Choose three to five points and dedicate 10-12 minutes to present each point.

• • Know what problem you want to solve and walk the listener through that scenario.

• Present listeners with the options they need to solve that problem.

If you do it right, the listener will naturally determine, for themselves, that you have the answer he needs. [18:54]

Webinar trends and tactics

As far as the words people use - webinar vs masterclass, Todd has seen a trend in that most blog posts titles tie directly to a webinar.  For example, ‘Top Five Ways to Do X’ or ‘Old Method vs New Method’.

Todd believes that the content should appeal to a narrow persona so that it draws only those people that will benefit from the content of your webinar. Webinars can break through all the noise and the clutter that other marketing is trying to do. Speak to your listeners as individuals and tailor your tactics to their needs.

"Webinar Model" episode resources

Check out WebinarWorks.io/salesevangelist for free resources, to grade yourself against great webinars and to find out if Webinar Works is a good fit for you.

This episode is brought to you in part by prospect.io, a powerful sales automation platform that allows you to build highly personalized, cold email campaigns. To learn more, go to prospect.io/tse. It will help you with your outbound to expand your outreach and it allows you to set it and forget it. Your prospecting will never ever be the same.

We'll use prospect.io in the upcoming semester of TSE Hustler's League to focus on prospecting. We'll give you insights and tools that will help you gain new customers. In addition, we'll provide training and strategies that you can implement today to ensure constant flow in your pipeline.

TSE Hustler's League

Check out our new semester of The Sales Evangelist Hustler's League. We're taking applications for the semester beginning in January, and we can only take a limited number of people.

This episode is also brought to you in part by Maximizer CRM, personalized CRM that gives you the confidence to improve your business and increase profits. To get a demonstration of maximizer, go to the sales evangelists.com/maximizer.

Click on the link to get a free demo of what Maximizer CRM can do for you. It integrates your marketing campaign as well as your CRM, and it works whether you're a small organization or a large one.

I hope you enjoyed the show today as much as I did. If so, please consider leaving us a rating on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or wherever you consume this content and share it with someone else who might benefit from our message. It helps others find our message and improves our visibility.

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Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.