We've learned multiple perspectives in our series over forecasting that help create a more accurate and beneficial forecast. But how can you take your efforts to the next level? In this episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by the Director of Enterprise Sales at Envoy, Sarah Lash, to discuss proper forecasting techniques from both a selling and management perspective. 

There are significant forecasting issues:

• Some people rely too much on the map and aren’t listening to what’s happening in the business.
• On the flip, some people listen too much to intuition without diving deep enough.
• From a management perspective, sales reps might provide you with a shadow pipeline (data entered into an incorrect pipeline), forcing you to identify those issues.
• There is also the problem of the intraquarter revenue - opportunities that open and close in the same quarter. How should we factor those into forecasting?
• Whether you’re a rep or a manager, lack of communication will distinguish the most accurate forecasting.

Don’t just focus on the data; focus on the right data:

• The “I need X amount of pipeline to get to this number” mentality has positive and negative effects.
• Similarly, a purely cause and effect mentality does not do justice to the nuances of selling.
• Instead of waiting for a prospect to say a specific phrase to indicate the likelihood of purchase, integrate information beyond your personal experiences with the selling process.

Have a mutual action plan:

• Creating an example that establishes a “good’ reference point is essential for sellers to understand what actions result in the most buy-ins.
• When creating a mutual action plan, start backward. For example, what is the timeline the prospect would like something to be implemented? 
• Then, ask what steps need to be taken before that date to reach the end result?
• Remember, it’s not just evaluating pricing but determining if there are technical, legal, or security issues that need solving. 
• Create a calendar based on these milestones, and as a seller, you can use this to gain information.
• Finally, determine what could go wrong and establish how to address those.

Forecasting involves a balance of data and intuition: 

• It’s a combination of 50/50, but it’s never so explicitly balanced. The beauty is the combination of the two, in whatever capacity each deal necessitates.
• To practice intuition with her team, Sarah conducts a large-deal review call with her organization each week to hear sellers talk about deals to learn and grow with one another.
• When interacting with a prospect, set expectations from the beginning. For example, ask someone if you can ask multiple questions.
• Disarm the prospect as much as possible. You want to understand why milestones, behaviors, and expectations are the way they are.

Sarah’s final takeaway for sellers? Be confident you know your craft because confidence is your ability to be the partner your customer needs. To find more content and information from Sarah, connect with her on LinkedIn or visit Envoy’s website to learn more about what they do.

This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

The Great Resignation has become the Great Reshuffle, meaning it can be difficult for sales professionals like you to find leads and close deals. Luckily, Sales Navigator from LinkedIn is here for you!

Sales Navigator from LinkedIn is the only tool that uses real-time alerts and up-to-date insights to help you know when prospects are ready to buy. And, with over 30 advanced filters, sales professionals can quickly find genuine leads with the intent to purchase.

Gain the advantage of accurate, quality lead generation data from LinkedIn Sales Navigator. You can get a 60-day free trial of Sales Navigator at www.LinkedIn.com/TSE. 

This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio.

Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real.

But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com.

This course is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Certified Training Program, designed to help new and struggling sellers master sales fundamentals and close more deals. Help elevate your sales game and sign up now to get the first two modules free! You can visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals or call (561) 570-5077 for more information. We value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey.

We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings for each episode you listen to! 

Read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore their huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day trial.

Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

Forecasting (and really all parts of selling) grows more successful when you communicate value. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by Tom “The ROI Guy” Pisello. As an entrepreneur, speaker, and author of the book Evolved Selling™: Optimizing Sales Enablement in the Age of Frugalnomics, Tom specializes in value to get the most out of your efforts. 

Three big trends characterize the post-pandemic era of sales:

• First, there’s a tremendous amount of sales turnover. While the Great Resignation is not news, sales will struggle to retain top sellers in favor of faster-growing companies. 
• Second, the buyer is changing. They’re in control of the buying process, cautious of the seller, and more economically focused than ever - it’s the decision by risk aversion.
• Third, we’re in an environment where sales is understaffed, you need engagement, the buyer is more challenging to sell to, and predictable revenue is decreasing.

How do we find (and retain) great talent?

• Growing a team will be challenging. Of course, throwing money and benefits at it is part of the equation, but you also must provide intangible benefits like career development to make your position seem worthwhile.
• What is the purpose of your organization or group? And more importantly, how can you include new personnel to feel that they actively work towards that purpose?
• Create an atmosphere of authenticity that suits your personnel to retain talent.
• It’s not just a long game for selling; it’s a long game for hiring.

Overcoming the ice-cold buyers:

• Buyers have incredible access to resources and information than ever, even compared to a few years ago. Sellers used to be in control, but now it's the opposite.
• In that, they have information overload. And great salespeople guide prospects through this challenge. 
• The curated content a salesperson supply is an excellent direction for the next generation of salespeople.
• If you can show that pain is worth addressing (and that you provide a uniquely differentiating solution), you demonstrate a fiscal reason to make a decision.

Tackling the issue of predictability:

• The old way of leveraging spreadsheets and expert resources within the organization no longer works - only 17% approach forecasting scientifically.
• We now have systems that track multiple criteria, but they act in silos. Aggregating data points to develop a more comprehensive and data-driven forecast will yield more accurate results.
• Know what “good” looks like so you know what to focus on. What works to close a deal, and what are the associated steps?
• Visualize patterns to prioritize to understand the correlations and next best actions.

Episode Resources:

• For more great content from Tom, connect with him on LinkedIn or visit evolvedselling.com.
• Listen to Tom’s podcast, The Evolver’s Podcast, and read his book, Evolved Selling, on Amazon.
• Check out his past episode on The Sales Evangelist here: Episode 1076.

This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

The Great Resignation has become the Great Reshuffle, meaning it can be difficult for sales professionals like you to find leads and close deals. Luckily, Sales Navigator from LinkedIn is here for you!

Sales Navigator from LinkedIn is the only tool that uses real-time alerts and up-to-date insights to help you know when prospects are ready to buy. And, with over 30 advanced filters, sales professionals can quickly find genuine leads with the intent to purchase.

Gain the advantage of accurate, quality lead generation data from LinkedIn Sales Navigator. You can get a 60-day free trial of Sales Navigator at www.LinkedIn.com/TSE. 

This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio.

Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real.

But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com.

This course is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Certified Training Program, designed to help new and struggling sellers master sales fundamentals and close more deals. Help elevate your sales game and sign up now to get the first two modules free! You can visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals or call (561) 570-5077 for more information. We value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey.

We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings for each episode you listen to! 

Read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore their huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day trial.

Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

Creating a valuable and accurate sales forecast is dependent on your ability to anticipate the success of sales. So how does the founder and CEO of forma.ai Nabeil Alazzam motivate and drive his team to maintain momentum? Through sales incentives! Using sales incentives and data-driven forecasting, Nabeil encourages his salespeople to reach specific and measurable objectives.

How Nabeil defines sales forecasting:

• It depends on whether the forecast is for a team leader or a representative. As a leader, it’s taking data across the team and using it to aggregate results.
• On the rep level, accuracy is critical. If you’re confident which accounts close, you can better visualize what else is needed to do to hit a target number.

Common forecasting mistakes:

• Being overconfident with deals without a data-driven element to justify the belief.
• Instead, utilize checkpoints throughout the sales process to know if a prospect will move forward.
• Another common mistake is that a lack of nuanced checkpoints leads to overprioritizing a fast-cycle sales prospect.
• As a sales rep, use data to allocate time free of bias towards the accounts most likely to close (without taking the speed of the sales cycle into account.)

Segmentation and forecasting go hand-in-hand.

• Use data when thinking about an audience cluster. A checklist sales reps have for different groups of people can and should look different depending on the best likely outcome for each group. 
• For managers, don’t think of data points as averages across the board.
• Understand your different customer segments and establish guidelines within each audience as data points.

Start data-driven forecasting:

• Forecasting is a crawl, walk, run approach.
• When running, you can automate the segmenting approach. In the crawl, it’s simply acknowledging that people buy differently and may need different buying propositions.
• Think about the types of clients you serve and what success looks like with each of those groups, segmenting by sector, growth stage, and the number of employees.
• Think about the forecasting method and sales practice you should apply to each (and create data points based on these audiences.)

How can incentives help our forecasting?

• Incentives drive behavior. And, ideally, better salespeople get paid more. If you can’t set forecasting successfully, you can’t allocate the proper incentives to the right salespeople.
• If you start to novice a prospecting segment is beginning to lag, you can be specific in your incentive to correct your trajectory.
• The goal should be to design incentive structures so the rep understands how much time they should allocate to that goal without detracting from the overall performance.

Connect with Nabeil on forma.ai and reach out on LinkedIn.

This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

The Great Resignation has become the Great Reshuffle, meaning it can be difficult for sales professionals like you to find leads and close deals. Luckily, Sales Navigator from LinkedIn is here for you!

Sales Navigator from LinkedIn is the only tool that uses real-time alerts and up-to-date insights to help you know when prospects are ready to buy. And, with over 30 advanced filters, sales professionals can quickly find genuine leads with the intent to purchase.

Gain the advantage of accurate, quality lead generation data from LinkedIn Sales Navigator. You can get a 60-day free trial of Sales Navigator at www.LinkedIn.com/TSE. 

This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio.

Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real.

But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com.

This episode is brought to you in part by mParticle.

Are you tired of wading through thousands of open sales positions to find the one perfect for you? Well, look no further. mParticle is one of the leading independent customer data platforms out there, and they’re looking for motivated remote sellers (just like yourself.) 

With top-name clients from Spotify and Burger King to Airbnb, we don’t want you to let this opportunity go to waste! For more information and to view open positions, go to https://www.mparticle.com/careers/.

This course is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Certified Training Program, designed to help new and struggling sellers master sales fundamentals and close more deals. Help elevate your sales game and sign up now to get the first two modules free! You can visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals or call (561) 570-5077 for more information. We value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey.

We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings for each episode you listen to! 

Read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore their huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day trial.

Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

Today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist launches a new series on forecasting! When it comes to forecasting, there are a ton of strategies and tactics you can use to develop a solid background on it. In this episode, Donald discusses the three things you must know about forecasting before starting.

But first, what is forecasting? 

• In essence, it’s your ability to predict what will happen in the future.
• As a sales professional (and especially as a sales manager), you must be able to estimate how your team will perform throughout the week, month, and quarter. 
• Without forecasting, you’ll have no idea if you’ll achieve your sales goals!

Know your data.

• How many calls lead to a conversation, a demo, and, ultimately, a sale? 
• Understanding your sales figures and statistics leads to an accurate forecast.
• Your pipeline is tied directly to your forecast, and if you put inadequate or insufficient data into a forecast, you’ll get bad predictions in the outcome.

Respect the process.

• Some prospects might want to skip conversations and move directly into a demo, a proposal, or a review.
• But are they even worthy of a demo, or will the sale benefit them? If they don’t fit the criteria of a client for your company, you’ll be wasting valuable time.
• Don’t do the demos just because someone is interested; use data-driven forecasting to identify the indicators you need to make that decision. 

You need more than you think you need.

• Even if you’ve done everything perfectly throughout the sales process, a deal still might not close.
• If the data tells you to close forty deals to meet a target, put sixty in your pipeline. Because while they might all close, you can’t guarantee it. 
• The takeaway? You need more prospects and a more robust pipeline than you might initially think. Put extra in now to avoid scrambling at the end of the quarter.

This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

The Great Resignation has become the Great Reshuffle, meaning it can be difficult for sales professionals like you to find leads and close deals. Luckily, Sales Navigator from LinkedIn is here for you!

Sales Navigator from LinkedIn is the only tool that uses real-time alerts and up-to-date insights to help you know when prospects are ready to buy. And, with over 30 advanced filters, sales professionals can quickly find genuine leads with the intent to purchase.

Gain the advantage of accurate, quality lead generation data from LinkedIn Sales Navigator. You can get a 60-day free trial of Sales Navigator at www.LinkedIn.com/TSE. 

This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio.

Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real.

But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com.

This episode is brought to you in part by mParticle.

Are you tired of wading through thousands of open sales positions to find the one perfect for you? Well, look no further. mParticle is one of the leading independent customer data platforms out there, and they’re looking for motivated remote sellers (just like yourself.) 

With top-name clients from Spotify and Burger King to Airbnb, we don’t want you to let this opportunity go to waste! For more information and to view open positions, go to https://www.mparticle.com/careers/.

This course is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Certified Training Program, designed to help new and struggling sellers master sales fundamentals and close more deals. Help elevate your sales game and sign up now to get the first two modules free! You can visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals or call (561) 570-5077 for more information. We value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey.

We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings for each episode you listen to! 

Read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore their huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day trial.

Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

While mastering closing is critical, understanding how to open with a data-driven approach is a powerful component to help find and complete more deals. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by author and founder of Win BIG Media Phillip Stutts to discuss the proper ways to begin prospecting. 

The average American sees up to 10,000 ads every day. 

• Ipso facto, how is your messaging breaking out of the clutter?
• The correct entry point for salespeople is to create a deeper connection with the prospect and understand what moves them.
• Whether it’s a B2B or B2C company, Phillip makes each of his clients dive into their customer base to understand more about them and their values.
• The point isn’t to manipulate; it’s to use that understanding to create a deeper connection that closes more deals.

What can a sales rep start to gain that understanding?

• Phillip partners with a major data analytics company to create custom data reports. If you have $7500-10000 to spare, this is high-quality data for a few audience segments that matter.
• If that’s a little out of your price range, just figure out more data on what’s going on. That could be surveys sent to your clients or running small ad campaigns on Google or Facebook.

Phillip’s five steps to using that data:

• What moves them? You’ve done this by collecting data about your audience.
• Build out a sales plan. Before jumping into tactics, build a plan that integrates your collected data.
• Create the brand. The key point - this happens after determining what moves your audience and creating a sales plan.
• Testing your messaging and branding to refine for your audience.
• Finally, sell, pitch, or market (because you’ve now eliminated all the risks.)

Phillip’s major takeaway? This is the most disruptive moment in human history, and the best companies are the ones that stand out and think differently. To get in contact with Phillip, visit his website, phillipstutts.com. Or, to start the conversation on what data analytics might look like for your company, visit phillipstutts.com/insights. Check out his book, The Undefeated Marketing System, on Amazon.

This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

The Great Resignation has become the Great Reshuffle, meaning it can be difficult for sales professionals like you to find leads and close deals. Luckily, Sales Navigator from LinkedIn is here for you!

Sales Navigator from LinkedIn is the only tool that uses real-time alerts and up-to-date insights to help you know when prospects are ready to buy. And, with over 30 advanced filters, sales professionals can quickly find genuine leads with the intent to purchase.

Gain the advantage of accurate, quality lead generation data from LinkedIn Sales Navigator. You can get a 60-day free trial of Sales Navigator at www.LinkedIn.com/TSE. 

This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio.

Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real.

But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com.

This episode is brought to you in part by mParticle.

Are you tired of wading through thousands of open sales positions to find the one perfect for you? Well, look no further. mParticle is one of the leading independent customer data platforms out there, and they’re looking for motivated remote sellers (just like yourself.) 

With top-name clients from Spotify and Burger King to Airbnb, we don’t want you to let this opportunity go to waste! For more information and to view open positions, go to https://www.mparticle.com/careers/.

This course is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Certified Training Program, designed to help new and struggling sellers master sales fundamentals and close more deals. Help elevate your sales game and sign up now to get the first two modules free! You can visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals or call (561) 570-5077 for more information. We value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey.

We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings for each episode you listen to! 

Read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore their huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day trial.

Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

The best way to have a great discovery call is by mentally preparing for the call beforehand. But what’s the best way to do this? In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by sales and mindset coach Isaac Ho to discuss his strategies and tricks to prepare for a successful discovery call. 

Mental preparation can be the difference between an okay and a great call. 

• People often make decisions that fuel a latent belief they’re not even aware they have.
• Sales is just a transfer of energy. If you’re unprepared for a call or meeting, you transfer the wrong energy to the prospect or client.
• If you’ve done no research or prep about a company before a meeting, you must spend time and energy learning about the org rather than come to the meeting with thoughts to the table.
• When you enter a meeting, be curious. While a prospect will give you an understanding of their problem, they could be missing something that completely changes the situation.

How does Isaac mentally prepare for a discovery call?

• Be clear about what’s going on inside of yourself. What is your intention with the call? It’s not just to sell something, it’s to be curious and learn what the client needs.
• Don’t talk to people to just match them to a particular solution; that ignores the prospect's thoughts about the situation.
• People buy from a salesperson when they understand their problems better than anyone else. 

How to come mentally prepared to your next discovery call:

• Especially if you sell your own product or service, leave your baggage at the door. Don’t take responses personally. You’ll start responding to rejections as they argue directly with you.
• Accept that you can do everything right, and some people still won’t move. So stop making someone’s decision about you. 
• Understand the difference between a shadow (when you suppress something about yourself and then project that into the call) and a trigger (when you overreact to a problem not yet dealt with.)

To get in touch with Isaac, visit his website, isaachocoaching.com, or connect with him on LinkedIn.

This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

The Great Resignation has become the Great Reshuffle, meaning it can be difficult for sales professionals like you to find leads and close deals. Luckily, Sales Navigator from LinkedIn is here for you!

Sales Navigator from LinkedIn is the only tool that uses real-time alerts and up-to-date insights to help you know when prospects are ready to buy. And, with over 30 advanced filters, sales professionals can quickly find genuine leads with the intent to purchase.

Gain the advantage of accurate, quality lead generation data from LinkedIn Sales Navigator. You can get a 60-day free trial of Sales Navigator at www.LinkedIn.com/TSE. 

This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio.

Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real.

But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com.

This episode is brought to you in part by mParticle.

Are you tired of wading through thousands of open sales positions to find the one perfect for you? Well, look no further. mParticle is one of the leading independent customer data platforms out there, and they’re looking for motivated remote sellers (just like yourself.) 

With top-name clients from Spotify and Burger King to Airbnb, we don’t want you to let this opportunity go to waste! For more information and to view open positions, go to https://www.mparticle.com/careers/.

This course is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Certified Training Program, designed to help new and struggling sellers master sales fundamentals and close more deals. Help elevate your sales game and sign up now to get the first two modules free! You can visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals or call (561) 570-5077 for more information. We value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey.

We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings for each episode you listen to! 

Read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore their huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day trial.

Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

Discovery calls are thought to be a challenging element for almost any salesperson. But what if we were to tell you there’s a way to see more success with them? In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by the founder of 7th Level Jeremy Miner to discuss discovery call techniques that don’t scare away your prospect (because we don’t want that, trust me.)

What makes a bad discovery?

• Sellers are taught the selling “ABC’s - Always Be Closing. But with today’s cautious buyers, this strategy doesn’t always come across well.
• To be great at sales, skip the C and learn the ABD’s of selling - Always Be Disarming.

What triggers a prospect to buy or not to buy?

• Salespeople trigger behaviors by what they’re asking (and, more importantly, what they aren’t asking.)
• Salespeople frequently come across as too enthusiastic, talking about their solution too early in the conversation. 
• While you should be excited about what you sell, it shouldn’t be the point that it comes across as fake. Keep the joy internal. 
• According to behavioral science, prospects subconsciously pick up on nonverbal cues in the first 7-12 seconds of conversation.
• If you come across as aggressive, needy, or attached and don’t know the right questions, it triggers the brain to get rid of you.

It’s not them; it’s you.

• Come across as neutral, unbiased, and calm. Ask the right questions at the right time to encourage a prospect to open up to you.
• Don’t focus on making the sale. Instead, focus on determining if your solution can help.
• Jeremy’s advice? Never start a conversation by asking someone how they’re doing - it’s a disingenuous greeting. 
• Instead, start the meeting and get to business. Spend the first meeting determining if their organization is even a company that fits what you’re able to do.
• If you enter the conversation assuring them that you’re going to solve their problem, you’ll never find out if that’s true. Stay unbiased.

Learn the right questions that trigger people to be pulled in.

• When Jeremy first started sales, he struggled. It took practice and time learning to understand how to perform well.
• Most objections you get are triggered by you, the salesperson.
• When the conversation starts, you need to determine their current state and where they want to go. As a salesperson, you need to show prospects the gap between where they are and where they want to go and reveal that gap.

Selling is all about change. But human beings don’t like change (even though we say we do.) To learn more about what Jeremy does, join Jeremy’s Facebook sales group (with over 15,000 members) to receive free training, resources and more.

This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

The Great Resignation has become the Great Reshuffle, meaning it can be difficult for sales professionals like you to find leads and close deals. Luckily, Sales Navigator from LinkedIn is here for you!

Sales Navigator from LinkedIn is the only tool that uses real-time alerts and up-to-date insights to help you know when prospects are ready to buy. And, with over 30 advanced filters, sales professionals can quickly find genuine leads with the intent to purchase.

Gain the advantage of accurate, quality lead generation data from LinkedIn Sales Navigator. You can get a 60-day free trial of Sales Navigator at www.LinkedIn.com/TSE. 

This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio.

Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real.

But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com.

This episode is brought to you in part by mParticle.

Are you tired of wading through thousands of open sales positions to find the one perfect for you? Well, look no further. mParticle is one of the leading independent customer data platforms out there, and they’re looking for motivated remote sellers (just like yourself.) 

With top-name clients from Spotify and Burger King to Airbnb, we don’t want you to let this opportunity go to waste! For more information and to view open positions, go to https://www.mparticle.com/careers/.

This course is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Certified Training Program, designed to help new and struggling sellers master sales fundamentals and close more deals. Help elevate your sales game and sign up now to get the first two modules free! You can visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals or call (561) 570-5077 for more information. We value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey.

We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings for each episode you listen to! 

Read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore their huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day trial.

Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

While setting up discovery calls is the first half of the battle, the other half is getting the prospect to show up. And a great solution to drive attendance is by using a text message. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by founder and CEO of Salesmsg Chris Brisson to talk about how you can use text messaging to increase meeting show rates. 

SMS can be used for anything, from lead generation to conversion and engagement.

• Sales is a three-step process: sign up, show up, and pay up. 
• Creating a multichannel approach is the best way to drive attendance. A simple text message offers a simple last-minute reminder shortly before meetings.
• We are a conversational society, so short messages with an understandable motive won't’ be considered spammy or annoying.

Implementing SMS software into your business:

• If you want to test SMS messaging without a monetary investment, manually send a standard text message an hour before the meeting.
• But to scale this process, a system is necessary.
• With Salesmsg, you’ll have a way to respond to those messages if someone responds.
• Remember, it’s not a general broadcast message - it’s conversational. 
• SMS can also be the channel for micro-questions that need answering and lead to more meaningful discussions. 
• To start a conversation with a prospect, ask simple questions that ease them into a conversation.

What are some ways to get the phone number of people?

• Start today. And, depending on your business, the way you gather phone numbers might be different. 
• You need an opt-in! Don’t just import a list and send mass text messages. (It isn’t legal.)
• Include the proper language and start the conversation.
• Providing your number first can help break the apprehension someone might have about supplying their number.

For access to case studies showing the advantage of SMS messaging for business, visit  customers.salesmessage.com. The SaaS Academy case study is particularly helpful to see how people can use SMS to make more money. Use this link for free access to Salesmsg’s Text Size Your Business PDF, and head over to salesmsg.com to start a free 14-day trial to get introduced to the platform. (They’re the #1 integration on HubSpot.) For more content from Chris, connect with him on LinkedIn.

This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

The Great Resignation has become the Great Reshuffle, meaning it can be difficult for sales professionals like you to find leads and close deals. Luckily, Sales Navigator from LinkedIn is here for you!

Sales Navigator from LinkedIn is the only tool that uses real-time alerts and up-to-date insights to help you know when prospects are ready to buy. And, with over 30 advanced filters, sales professionals can quickly find genuine leads with the intent to purchase.

Gain the advantage of accurate, quality lead generation data from LinkedIn Sales Navigator. You can get a 60-day free trial of Sales Navigator at www.LinkedIn.com/TSE. 

This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio.

Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real.

But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com.

This episode is brought to you in part by mParticle.

Are you tired of wading through thousands of open sales positions to find the one perfect for you? Well, look no further. mParticle is one of the leading independent customer data platforms out there, and they’re looking for motivated remote sellers (just like yourself.) 

With top-name clients from Spotify and Burger King to Airbnb, we don’t want you to let this opportunity go to waste! For more information and to view open positions, go to https://www.mparticle.com/careers/.

This course is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Certified Training Program, designed to help new and struggling sellers master sales fundamentals and close more deals. Help elevate your sales game and sign up now to get the first two modules free! You can visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals or call (561) 570-5077 for more information. We value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey.

We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings for each episode you listen to! 

Read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore their huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day trial.

Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.