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S M T W T F S
     
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25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Syndication

Behind the scenes at The Sales Evangelist, we're working to increase organic engagement and interact with our audience, and we've discovered a powerful way to develop new leads through Instagram.

According to Jaeden Schafer, Instagram typically accounts for about 10 percent more organic engagement than Facebook, so it's a great place to gain a new audience and develop new leads.

Who can benefit?

[Tweet "Every business, whether it's B2B or B2C, can benefit from Instagram as long as they know how to use it. #Prospecting"]

When Instagram initially launched, its goal was to share nice looking pictures. If you're following that original idea, your company will likely benefit from it. [02:16]

But what if you're a refrigeration repair company? How do you post compelling pictures of refrigerators? Posting photos of refrigerators all day won't really prompt much growth.

So if, for example, you own a refrigeration company in Miami, post pictures of the area you serve with information about the services you provide. Target people who are the customer persona you're trying to attract.

It basically just needs to be pretty.

Mistakes on Instagram

Many people will offer the same tips for setting up an Instagram account:

  • Choose good photos
  • Find out what your customers want

Then they expect people to just show up.

If the engagement doesn't happen, they just let the page die, which is the worst possible thing you can do on social media. Since social media is about social proof, outdated accounts are worthless. [05:13]

When people want to buy something online, they often check online to make sure that the social media accounts are updated. If they aren't, they might assume you'll be unresponsive.

Plan to post at least once a week if you want to appear actively engaged. If you're trying to grow, you should post every day.

If you find yourself thinking that you don't have the team or the resources to post every single day, remember that there are tools available to help you.

Later.com is a scheduling tool that will let you schedule 30 posts for free. You can schedule a new post every day that will keep you active and growing.

Instagram tactics

Though Instagram is a great place to find new leads, sellers will also want to move those leads from interested to purchasing.

Avoid letting your account just sit. Instead, use your account to find new leads. You can do that with targeted Instagram ads or automation. Better yet, use your account to like and comment on people's posts that are in your target audience. [07:53]

Consider the food truck business that launched an Instagram page and then shared images of the food it would serve. On launch day, the owners went to its main competitors' page and they liked and followed 1,000 of their followers. They repeated that activity every two days for a different food truck.

It grabbed attention because those people would see the business name on their phone as someone who liked their photos and followed their accounts.

It's a phenomenal strategy, especially for companies that are just starting.

Transition

For B2B companies, it's important to understand how the transition will look after you follow new prospects on Instagram. How do you move them to your website or prompt them to download something?

When a user sees that you liked some of his photos and followed him, then he'll likely click on your account name to check out your Instagram account. Your account bio will act a little like a splash page or a sales pitch. [10:34]

Make sure your bio includes your website, and make sure it really clearly outlines what you do and what your call-to-action is. Direct them to your website or your podcast.

Image quality

For sales reps who might be wondering what kind of content to post, let's use an example of The Sales Evangelist to talk about what that might look like.

For a service-based business, people tend to limit their thinking about the kind of images to post. Choose high-quality images that look really good. [11:53]

If you don't have a high-quality camera, it's ok.

Start with websites that offer free, copyright-free images, like unsplash.com. Type in your keyword and find hundreds of high-quality photos related to your niche. High-quality photos will make your account look very professional.

Include your own "flavor" that meshes with the way you pitch, but make sure that the people who follow your account feel like they are getting some kind of value out of it.

Some organizations use inspirational quotes or even tips such as how to care for your a/c unit. Choose information that will give something back to your audience. [13:45]

You can use entire blog posts as an Instagram caption.

In short, be there, post information your customers want, and do it consistently.

Videos

Videos have a much higher likelihood of going viral. Jaeden reports that an account he manages might get 400-700 likes, while a video on the same account might get 1,000-14,000 views. [15:31]

As a result, videos are a really good way to grow your business because videos are more engaging.

Also, though, if the video includes you talking and sharing information, it builds a relationship with your customers because they get to experience your personality in a way that they wouldn't in a photo. It creates trust.

Stories

Many people go to Instagram just for the stories. If you can create a story that captures people's attention, it's a huge new piece of real estate.

When you have a new promotion or a new post, consider using your story to encourage followers to check out your new post. You can promote a podcast, a sale, a deal, or whatever you want people to know.

Once you have 10,000 followers on Instagram, you can put links in your story so people can just swipe up on the story to access your links. [17:44] That's when stories become super powerful because it's a free ad that you can push to everyone who follows you.

Hashtags

Hashtags can be incredibly beneficial or they can be useless, depending on how you use them. Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per photo, and users should take advantage of all 30 of them to be super specific about the content in the photo.

The platform's artificial intelligence scans photos to see what are in them, and if you use a big list of random hashtags, your photo won't perform well. The value of hashtags is that if someone clicks on one, they go to a hashtag page that shows all the images that used that hashtag.

For smaller businesses, use longer hashtags that have fewer people using them, ideally 20,000 to 100,000 uses. [20:04] Be super specific in your hashtags and use those that fit the size of your business.

Success story

Jaeden had great success with a luxury travel company. He set up unique accounts for different geographic locations: one for Maldives resorts, Bora Bora resorts, Greek resorts, and so on.

Each bio directed users back to the main page.

He said it was an easy way to tap into a saturated market that is often expensive to advertise in. [22:00] Within a month, they were getting about 20 percent of their traffic from Instagram.

If you don't have time to go and follow 1,000 users on a single day, consider using tools like Ninjagram or Jarvee to automate your Instagram efforts. You put your account into it and then select your competitors, and the tool does the work for you.

"New Leads Through Instagram" episode resources

Connect with Jaeden at Fiund.com with any questions you may have or to get additional advice or tips.

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. It allows you to set it and forget it. Your prospecting will never ever be the same.

Previously known as TSE Hustler's League, our TSE Certified Sales Program offers modules that you can engage on your own schedule as well as opportunities to engage with other sellers in other industries.

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.

You'll receive real-time alerts anyone opens an email or clicks a link.

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.

Direct download: TSE_996.mp3
Category:Instagram, New Leads -- posted at: 11:22am EDT

Strategic planning isn’t only for entrepreneurs: Shane Spiers says sales reps must know where they are headed and what the team’s common purpose is.

Strategic planning helps sales reps work better as part of a team and achieve more.

Originally from New Zealand, Shane now calls the UK home. It is where his career has grown to what it is today. His record is dominated by leading and scaling 7, 8 and 9-figure rapid growth companies, mostly in real estate, construction, and service-based businesses.

Shane created Summit Leader to help 7-figure entrepreneurs scale with an 8-figure growth model. His focus is helping businesses scale from entrepreneurial to managed growth. [00:29]

Approximately 96% of businesses earn less than $1 million in revenue. Of the 4% that make it past a million, only 10% make it to $10 million.

With only .4% of businesses reaching the $10 million mark, Shane hopes to have an impact by producing more 8-figure businesses. [01:20]

A COMMON GOAL

As a business moves from entrepreneurial to managed growth, the management, leadership, and logistical challenges become quite different.

The startup ways of working can hinder a business rather than advance it.

Shane has been down the path many times before. He understands the importance of including sales reps in the process of strategic planning to grow a company.

Whether you are a business owner, team leader, or part of a team, it is important to understand what the company stands for and what it believes in.

It is important to know the common goal and your purpose in achieving it.

A team without priorities, or with different views, cannot work well together. [02:23]

STRATEGIC THINKING AND EXECUTION

Before you can plan where you will be in the long term, you must make decisions about who you are and what you stand for. Decide how you will differentiate yourself from the competition. In the sales world, particularly, be very clear about who comprises your target market.

Know who your ideal customers are, where they are, and what is important to them.

It starts with upfront thinking.

Know where you want to go and make a plan to get there.

Establish your guiding principles first. Build your core. When businesses fail to clearly define their values, it trickles down into the sales force. [03:35]

Think about your core as the provider of stability, power, and control that will support growth. Without a strong core, you risk instability from cultural challenges, loss of focus, disengagement, and a lack of heart.

An organization or team that is weak will struggle.

The core values are what you will do – and won’t do – to get what you want. They are the timeless, fundamental principles that define a company’s culture.

It is the first step in strategic planning because it sets your purpose. It is the root of your business.

Once you are clear about the Why of your company, you can work on the How. Where do you want to be in two, three or even ten years? What you do want to achieve? [05:50]

A PART OF THE WHOLE

No matter how large or small your role, you are contributing to the larger story.

Consider the time when President Kennedy visited NASA and struck up a conversation with one of the janitors. When asked what he was doing, the janitor replied that he was helping to put a man on the moon. And he certainly was.

 

[08:26]

Strategy follows when you direct your attention and decisions to how you will differentiate yourself from the competition.

Shane believes that decisions about how to best plan and strategize come easier to companies that establish their core principles first.

It is easier to make a decision when you know what you stand for. [09:41]

One common problem among fast-growing organizations is that they simply have too many priorities. In an attempt to cover all their bases, they lose focus.

A long list of objectives combined with a scarcity of time, energy, and resources results in mediocre accomplishments. There is a failure to accomplish what matters most.

If everything is important then nothing is.

Growth and scaling are about taking one significant step at a time, checking the data and adjusting accordingly. [10:40]

ESTABLISH A RHYTHM

Once your core is established and you are clear about your long-term focus, it is time to prioritize. Break the ten-year plan out into a three-year plan, into a one-year plan, a 90-day plan, etc.

Create routine, focus, and discipline. Don’t become overwhelmed by the monumental task of the long-term goal. Set bite-sized goals instead.

Focus on the 3-5 things that will move you forward as a team. Get into the habit of celebrating success every 90 days.

To build and maintain momentum, plan for more meetings or a daily check-in. Discuss administrative and tactical issues, provide updates, and take advantage of unforeseen opportunities. Review progress on a weekly basis.

Use the collective brainpower of your teams to tackle issues before they become problems.

Routines can set you free. Revolve your business around 90-day goals and life becomes more manageable. Take the time to do it properly. [12:41]

When the fundamental beliefs of your company are clear, they will drive your company forward.

The right people will be attracted to your teams.

“STRATEGIC PLANNING” EPISODE RESOURCES

You can reach Shane and check out his many free resources at www.summitleader.com. He also hosts a live webinar every month at www.summitwebinar.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. It’s super easy, it’s helpful, and I recommend that you try it out.

You’ll receive real-time alerts anyone opens an email or clicks a link.

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. It allows you to set it and forget it. Your prospecting will never ever be the same.

Previously known as TSE Hustler’s League, our TSE Certified Sales Program offers modules that you can engage on your own schedule as well as opportunities to engage with other sellers in other industries.

I hope you enjoyed the show today as much as I did. If so, please consider leaving us a rating on Apple PodcastGoogle PodcastStitcher, 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.

Direct download: TSE_995.mp3
Category:Planning -- posted at: 11:14am EDT

Josh Cunningham, founder and CEO of rokrbox,  fast-tracked his entrepreneurial career by helping to solve a recurring problem for real estate clients and learning an important lesson along the way: Don’t trick them.

Josh first stumbled upon the ISA, or Inside Sales Agent, role in real estate while attending seminars with Vyral Marketing founder and CEO Frank Klesitz. Vyral Marketing works with top agents to create content and to get referrals and repeat business.

THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT

Many top professional teams buy real estates leads online, but their agents don’t always do a good job of following up on them.

Like any good entrepreneur, when Josh heard a lot of people complaining about a common frustration, he decided to solve the problem. [00:39]

He started rokrbox.

A rocker box is a gold mining tool used in the 19th century to separate the sand and gravel from the gold. Likewise, rokrbox takes your real estate leads and separates the tire-kickers and time wasters from the motivated buyers and sellers. [01:26]

TAPPING INTO THE STUDENT MARKET

Rokrbox is strategically located directly across from the Texas A&M University campus in College Station, Texas. Many sharp and enthusiastic young professionals go there looking to grow their skills.

Josh provides them with the opportunity to develop real-world sales skills, CRM skills, and pipeline management skills. All of his student-employees typically graduate with multiple job offers from some type of sales professional career. [02:21]

Since starting in 2013, rokrbox has worked over a million internet leads, hired over 250 ISAs, and trained them to move forward in their careers.

Looking back, Josh believes that scalability was his biggest sales-related struggle. He knew he could do the job but wasn’t sure if he could train others to do it. When he first started hiring college students, he realized a lot of the same struggles that most people run into when building any sales team.

SET CLEAR EXPECTATIONS

His first mistake was in not clearly setting expectations for the new hires. The job posting on the Texas A&M website was too vague.

It wasn’t clear that a new hire could expect to make a ton of phone calls a day, could expect to be rejected all day, etc.

It was just too ambiguous.

As a result, a new hire might go through the entire interview process and personality assessment only to quit almost immediately after starting the job.

One young man, in particular, spent over 15 minutes learning the types of calls to make, the technology/scripts/dialogue used and the likelihood of repeated rejection.

He excused himself to use the restroom and never came back. [04:28]

Josh blames himself. He had failed to set expectations and to make clear to potential hires what they were getting into.  He felt as if he had tricked people into taking the job which is not how to start a sales organization on the right foot.

OBSERVATION

As a result, rokrbox implemented observation into the business. Now, they invite promising applicants back to pair up with a senior rep as part of the interview process. They spend a full hour learning what to expect on a shift – from the technology to the daily team huddle, to the reports and the metrics.

They are encouraged to ask questions. It is their chance to interview the business.

At the conclusion of their observation session, applicants are asked to send an email to explain how they would fit into the rokrbox culture.

It has been amazing to see the persuasive essays they receive.  [05:43]

ESSAYS

Josh enjoys hearing people explain why they want to be a part of the organization more than having them sneak away on a bathroom break, never to return.

He highly recommends showing potential hires exactly what they can expect. Show them what it is like to be on the phone or knocking on doors. Be totally straightforward from the very beginning.

 

Josh believes that when building a culture worthy of your organization, it is likely that you will strongly attract the right people and strongly repel the wrong ones.  And certainly, not everyone who attends an observation responds. The work and the pace intimidate some people. [07:30]

But he wouldn’t change a thing.

Rockrbox invests a lot of one-on-one training in every new employee before they are ready to do the job. Twenty hours on the new hire combined with 20 hours of the trainer’s time: Forty hours is a huge investment if someone might either bomb or quit.

TRANSPARENCY

It is definitely better to be transparent and upfront.

Anything less is simply a waste of everyone’s time.

Have a collection of people that are all driven and motivated, in a cohesive unit, and headed in the same direction. A team that supports and enjoys each other becomes a better team because of it. It’s the most harmonious thing you can do with any business.

Know the culture you want to create and then protect it. Invite others to observe whether or not it is right for them. [09:16]

Once you become a leader of others, give them your expectations and the tools to succeed.

Clearly communicate all of it – the good, the bad and the ugly. [11:22]

“DON’T TRICK THEM” EPISODE RESOURCES

To learn more about how rokrbox converts the online leads of top sales professionals in the real estate industry, visit www.rokrbox.com or contact Josh directly at josh@rokrbox.com.

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. It allows you to set it and forget it. Your prospecting will never ever be the same.

Previously known as TSE Hustler’s League, our TSE Certified Sales Program offers modules that you can engage on your own schedule as well as opportunities to engage with other sellers in other industries.

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.

You’ll receive real-time alerts anyone opens an email or clicks a link.

I hope you enjoyed the show today as much as I did. If so, please consider leaving us a rating on Apple PodcastGoogle PodcastStitcher, 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.

Direct download: TSE_994.mp3
Category:Hiring, New Hire -- posted at: 11:10am EDT

Eric Graf, CEO of Flockgen, explains how mid-market businesses can trade relationships with one another to expand service offerings and lower customer acquisition.

As sales reps, we need to make appointments and we need to make sales but often times, we don’t know how to find the best people. Typically, we develop a prospect list and a sales pitch and bring on a marketing team.

It becomes the core business.

Eric cites this as a common problem that negatively affects business with regard to customer acquisition.

At Flockgen, clients are able to increase their bottom line because the cost of customer acquisition is spread among the partners.

Expanding beyond the core

Mid-market companies can expand the conversation with their customers beyond just the core aspects. When they do, they will realize that the prospect of monetizing exists in multiple areas which are often overlooked.

At Flockgen, the cost of customer acquisition is spread across multiple services far beyond what mid-market companies might do in the core.

As an example: There are already a number of partners with great businesses that sell telecom products. Some have had the same product for the past ten years, but their sales reps can’t talk to the customers beyond the core even if they wanted to.

They don’t have anything else to present to those customers. [00:53]

Flockgen offers an alternative solution.

They can drive revenue with those relationships around completely different products and services. Ones that have nothing to do with telecom.

They leverage those relationships to introduce new products and services in a way that doesn’t require a lot of cost because they already have hundreds of partners that offer many different things. [02:46]

Such a partnership allows you to do more in one place instead of finding a partner with many companies on your own.

By focusing on the ways mid-market companies work together to become stronger and build revenue, everybody wins.

Creating a well-oiled referral process

Referrals are a natural part of sales. They drive revenue and create business.

Flockgen partners with people they know and trust.

Using the telecom example again, suppose you have a salesperson selling phone systems all day long. As a partner with Flockgen, the salesperson could also talk with customers about sustainability, controlling costs, or operations. He has a credible way to have that conversation because Eric and his team have provided him with content and talking points.

He doesn't have to be an expert in the field. Instead, he just has to be able to access the interest in the client. [04:16]

The Flockgen Difference

The Flockgen concept developed organically. Eric spent the last ten years working in the energy industry where he saw a lot of disruption. There were many new companies with new services and new products, and declining costs all around.

Previously, Eric was in the telecom world, which he views as a more mature industry in terms of sales and marketing. Everyone knows each other and works with a collaborative spirit despite competition. Actual channels exist that allow people to team up and co-market.

Eric hoped to build similar channels in the energy industry by borrowing the ideas that worked for telecom.

Educating their partners is a key. How does referral marketing work? What are the pros and cons? [05:32]

Rightsizing the program and menu for each of their individual partners is what sets Eric and his team apart. No two businesses are the same, even if they do the same thing. What works for one might not work for the other, or for their sales team.

Matching capabilities

Flockgen matches capabilities in an intelligent way with their partner sales team so that everyone feels comfortable and credible when having conversations. It allows them to drive relationships further. [06:31]

Establishing bilateral relationships with their partners is crucial to the success of every party. Each can refer business to the other by promoting services up and down their respective networks.

One partner could be driving revenue one day and receiving referrals the next day from others in the network who are doing the same thing.

Getting started is easy. It is just a matter of understanding what you do, what a new customer base would mean to you, and what services you offer.

Flockgen makes sure everyone in your organization is on the same page.

[Tweet "You can’t grow a company alone. Sharing a pool of clients is essential. It saves money and time to partner and share opportunities. #ClientAcquisition"]

If you are a large company, then you already have the business development teams and the corporate development teams in place to establish relationships. But it can be difficult to keep those relationships fresh. [09:29]

Eric’s approach is for everyone to meet in the middle to allow collaboration and to set clear terms with one another.

He believes that despite doing well at the start, many businesses that focus on partnering and collaborating will fail because they are not structured correctly. One partner gets the shorter end of the stick, perhaps. [11:37]

Flockgen focuses on healthy partnerships. They maintain the relationships so that you can concentrate on talking to clients and building value.

Transparency = Trust

Providing transparency is critical to the success of the partnerships they create. When both parties understand the terms, it protects the credibility of the relationship. What happens when I refer to you? What happens when you refer to me?

It becomes a matter of trust. It drives behavior. [13:39]

When everyone brings the right attitude, a real willingness to focus on the customer, and is respectful of the initial relationship with the client, value is added to all of the relationships. [15:03]

Flockgen partners only with those who stand by their work. Those they can trust to do good work and who do not hesitate when asked for customer references.

It’s not who you know, it is who you know that you can trust.

The partners utilizing the networks at Flockgen are driving their revenues and driving their commissions. It works because everyone is focused on creating the best customer experience.

There are lots of folks who represent or promote similar services but they don’t backstop and track and monitor, or intervene when necessary, as relationships mature and transactions come together the way Flockgen does. [17:45]

Flockgen levels the playing field.

Mid-market businesses in the US generate 26% of the revenue in the US despite comprising only 1% of the commercial active firms. A large portion of the market is generally overlooked and underserved.

Eric encourages everyone to take those businesses seriously when thinking about who you are selling to and how you are positioning your services and products. [18:26]

Think about how to reach those customers.

"Lower Customer Acquisition Costs" episode resources

The front door is always open at Flockgen. Visit them at www.flockgen.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. It's super easy, it's helpful, and I recommend that you try it out.

You'll receive real-time alerts anyone opens an email or clicks a link.

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. It allows you to set it and forget it. Your prospecting will never ever be the same.

Previously known as TSE Hustler's League, our TSE Certified Sales Program offers modules that you can engage on your own schedule as well as opportunities to engage with other sellers in other industries.

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.

Direct download: TSE_993.mp3
Category:Partnering, New Leads -- posted at: 11:03am EDT

Tracking your performance and setting measurable goals will help you perform better as a sales rep. We can optimize our performance if we calculate our daily output to help us fine-tune our work.

Sales professionals are competitive creatures by nature, whether we're competing against others or against ourselves.

When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of performance accelerates.  

Potential

I participated in a leadership retreat in college and the speaker asked me to participate in a demonstration by jumping as far as I could. She then measured the distance and asked me to jump again to see if I could beat my original effort.

Turns out I did, because I had a measurable goal.

If I hadn't measured my first attempt, I wouldn't have known whether my second attempt was better. As a sales professional, you'll benefit if you measure your activity on a daily basis. [03:42]

Optimization

You're probably already planning some of your work: prospecting, phone calls, LinkedIn contacts, and those efforts are all great. But in order to optimize, now you must measure those efforts.

If you're making phone calls, what are you measuring?

  • Are you measuring the number of calls?
  • Are you measuring the number of appointments you're setting based upon phone calls?

Start writing down and measuring your key indicators. [04:14]

If you're measuring LinkedIn activity, what are you measuring?

  • Are you measuring the number of connections you can make?
  • Are you measuring the people who replay to your conversations?

Develop key indicators or key performance metrics that you can measure on a daily basis.

Trends

When you measure those numbers, you'll begin to notice trends.

You might notice that you set more appointments on Wednesday and Thursday than on Monday and Friday. You may discover that you successfully connect with more people on LinkedIn on Tuesdays. [04:51]

This effort may sound like a lot of work, and some of you may think you can't possibly find the time. Realize that top performers in every industry are measuring and optimizing their efforts. That's how they improve.

Coaching

That's also where coaching comes into play.

Now imagine you're measuring these numbers and your performances while you're being coached. You're going to quickly discover that you're improving quickly.

The problem is that we often get comfortable with our performance level. We settle for an acceptable amount of production and we accept it as our best.

You may recognize this mindset as, "This is how I've prospected for years, so I'm going to stick with this format." [05:57]

Challenge that thinking. Perhaps you'll work with a manager or a sales leader or even the CEO. Accountability will make you even more effective.

Strategy

When I'm collaborating or sharing with someone else, I may discover different strategies that are working for other sellers.

The danger is in thinking that you can't learn from others or believing that you already have all the answers. You won't increase or improve or progress.

When I started writing down day-to-day performance, I wasn't competing against my team. I was competing against my previous performance.

I started closing more deals because I listened to my podcast guests and got beyond my weaknesses. Then, I read books and got better insights. Really, though, I improved simply because I was conscious of my efforts. [08:36]

This year was our best ever, and we haven't even fully optimized our tracking and measuring.

Tracking your performance makes a huge difference.

Planning

Send me an email if you'd like to see what I'm doing and how I'm scheduling my day.

I use a planner and a Gmail calendar. I list tasks and color code them to differentiate different activities. If you're wondering, I use green for money-generating activities.

I use a different color for admin tasks so I can visually see how my day looks.

At the end of the day I ask myself four questions:

  • Did I meet my goals today?
  • What could I have done differently?
  • What was my biggest win today?
  • How will tomorrow look?

I'm no genius, but it's working for me, and I want to challenge you to do it as well.

"Tracking Your Performance" episode resources

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. It allows you to set it and forget it. Your prospecting will never ever be the same.

Previously known as TSE Hustler's League, our TSE Certified Sales Program offers modules that you can engage on your own schedule as well as opportunities to engage with other sellers in other industries.

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.

You'll receive real-time alerts anyone opens an email or clicks a link.

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.

Direct download: TSE_992.mp3
Category:Planning -- posted at: 4:30pm EDT

In this episode of The Sales Evangelist, we talk about how to take advantage of the power of chat when growing your business.

Many organizations have struggled to capitalize on the power of chat, but Amir and Tom share the struggles they’ve had using chat and how we can overcome them.

Tom Jenkins and Amir Reiter help companies scale their workforce without having to get offices, pay insurance and taxes, or worry about hiring and training.

Instead, they offer technology and strategy.

At CloudTask, they provide sales development reps, they manage account executives convenient and they manage the customer success/account reps responsible for renewals and upselling to existing customers.

They comprise one office. If someone wants to hire five sales reps, five account executives or five support reps, they will all be in office and managed so that the customer gets what they want – representation and results.  

By specializing in sales, customer success and customer support, CloudTask is the best of the breed. [00:51]

THE POWER OF CHAT

One of the biggest issues is a lack of clearly defined ownership. If you look at our partners at Drift.com for instance, their ability to work as a bot or as a human can confuse whether chat is owned by marketing or by sales.

Marketing is typically used to drive traffic to forms, to blogs and to sign-ups. As such, marketing tends to prefer automation.

Sales, however, relies on people first, so deciding who owns chat is often a hurdle.

Failure to assign ownership then creates a failure to act or a failure to implement correctly. [02:19]

We manage a lot of cloud chat programs and have noticed that many people view chat as just another tool for the reps to use in addition to calling, emailing, LinkedIn, etc.

Rather, with a high volume of web traffic, chat is a key tool in the generation of qualified leads.

In fact, because chat allows you to respond quickly with the right answers and in the right way, it can be your number one lead generation tool. [03:17]

QUALIFY LEADS

People today want answers now. They expect to be able to go onto a website and to be able to chat. It has worked well in the B2C world but is really moving quickly into the B2B world as well.

We are finding that an MQL (marketing qualified lead) or SQL (sales qualified lead) that chats with a member of the sales team is 2-3 times more likely to close versus one that goes through the process of filling out a form. It makes sense. A form is stationary and available to anybody.

With chat, you are able to quickly let people qualify themselves with a friendly discussion.

For example, suppose someone wants to hire a sales rep. Within a few moments, we can discuss salaries and budgets and determine right away if it is something to pursue, or not. [04:54]

CHAT CONVERSATION

Chat does not replace cold calling or emailing but it does allow the person who visits your website to have a conversation with you and determine for themselves if they want to move forward.

The desire to engage is up to the visitor. As the sales rep, you increase the level of engagement with your replies. Consider “I’m here to help sales leaders every day, how can I help you?” instead of “How are you?”

People want to work with companies that can fix their problems. Target the message to visitors as much as you can in order to increase engagement with them.

You will receive visitors who want to know more about the topic rather than starting from scratch.  

You don’t want to write too much in a chat forum, of course. Start by keeping the conversation focused on the problems you are trying to solve for your prospects. [06:48]

The initial engagement is absolutely key but response time is just as essential. Buyers are conducting research and they want answers.

 

It is imperative to be super sharp and to answer quickly. [08:10]

PIQUE CURIOSITY

When you give visitors the information they want to the questions they ask, they begin to ask the more sales-related questions themselves.

Knowing how to give people the right amount of information so as to pique their curiosity without being overly aggressive is a skill.

For example, the best way to answer many of the questions about a technology product is with a demo. An aggressive tactic might be “this is the best product and it will solve all your problems.”

“We want you to get your eyes on this to see what you think about it” is a better approach, however. It allows the buyer to have ownership in the decision.

Chat also identifies return visitors so that you don’t have to start all over from the beginning each time. [09:42]

SALES OR MARKETING

When Sales and Marketing are aligned as a team with the common goal of getting customers, ownership is less important.

When Sales and Marketing are not aligned, better results occur when chat ownership is with the sales team.  Sales speaks to people and that brings results.

It is really important that everyone involved be 100% clear on which team does what so that each can grow and build expertise. [11:27]

Decide first if you will make your own chatbot or use a company like Drift or Intercom.

Many such companies have partner systems that can help with deployment. They are also set up to support the user and the sales cycle. It can be a big jumpstart toward a successful launch. [13:30]

COMMON MISTAKES

Too much automation. We’ve seen companies who don’t get the results they want right away so they just scrap the whole thing versus A/B testing people.

Everyone wants leads. It is the goal of every company but people make the chatbots and automation too much about themselves.

They try to get contact details and meetings rather than making the initial interactions about web visits. They aim to fulfill their own needs rather than the needs of potential customers. [14:25]

Chat gives buyers the ability to raise their hand, to tell you who they are and where they are in the sales cycle. It gives them the ability to get what they want now instead of going through the standard sales process. [15:28]

SUCCESSES

We have an interesting case now with a client who had used chatbot before but didn’t get the results they had hoped for. They weren’t particularly sold on the idea but were willing to give it another try.  

We were able to successfully implement a program on Drift consisting of a training program, as well as the addition of five sales development reps.

As a result, they realized $3.5 million in opportunity and $1 million in closed within eight months.

They appreciated our complete focus and specialization. We also provided them with quality assurance teams that checked in on the chats, and we worked really well together. [16:17]

We represent your company and do what needs to be done, just like employees.

The main difference is that instead of getting one new employee, our client gets a whole team. We are remote to you, but not remote. It is like having multiple offices or a satellite office.

We check on everything. [18:28]

Don’t blind yourself with the idea that you can’t use chat for enterprises.

Even if your sales process has you on flights to Hong Kong, or spending nine months working a deal, it can still start with a chat.  

Don’t consider chat as a replacement but rather as an extra channel that gives people the ability to communicate with you faster.

It can be such a cool tool to add to your cause, to your social network, and to your social ads.

When used correctly, chat will deliver results. [19:59]

“POWER OF CHAT” EPISODE RESOURCES

Visit Tom and Amir at Cloudtask.com or through their partners at Drift.com.  Allison manages their chat and is always more than happy to help everyone. Experiencing their services first-hand is the best first step.

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.

You’ll receive real-time alerts anyone opens an email or clicks a link.

This episode is also 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. It allows you to set it and forget it. Your prospecting will never ever be the same.

Previously known as TSE Hustler’s League, our TSE Certified Sales Program offers modules that you can engage on your own schedule as well as opportunities to engage with other sellers in other industries.

I hope you enjoyed the show today as much as I did. If so, please consider leaving us a rating on Apple PodcastGoogle PodcastStitcher, 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.

Creative content provided by rasmussenediting@gmail.com.

Direct download: TSE_991.mp3
Category:Chat -- posted at: 8:34am EDT

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.

Direct download: TSE_989.mp3
Category:Sales Process -- posted at: 4:47pm EDT

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.

3

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.

Direct download: TSE_988.mp3
Category:Gen Z -- posted at: 4:42pm EDT

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.

Direct download: TSE_987.mp3
Category:Daily Planning -- posted at: 4:38pm EDT

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.

Direct download: TSE_986.mp3
Category:Planning -- posted at: 4:33pm EDT

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.

Direct download: TSE_985.mp3
Category:Prospecting -- posted at: 4:26pm EDT

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.

And be sure to subscribe to the podcast and share with your friends!

Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.

Direct download: TSE_984.mp3
Category:leads -- posted at: 4:22pm EDT

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.

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.

Direct download: TSE_983.mp3
Category:Website Sales -- posted at: 4:17pm EDT

Today on The Sales Evangelist we’ll talk about planning and setting effective goals.

It’s that time of year again where we find ourselves contemplating our achievements over the past 12 months. Some of us reached our sales goals and some of us did not, but we can all benefit from reflecting on what worked well, and what did not work at all.

HAVE A PLAN

There’s a difference between setting goals by ‘throwing a dart at the goal wall’ versus setting goals based on the experiences that we are guided towards by the people we meet.

It is the difference between having hope and having a plan. [03:27]

A ‘throw a dart’ goal is as simple as choosing a random number – say $80,000 for example – and then setting that as your commission goal.

But why that number? Are you simply hoping to make $80K, or do you have an actual plan in place to achieve it?

I hope I lose 10lbs next year, I hope I win the lottery, I hope we get out of work early… Those are all just hopes because there is no plan in place to accomplish any of it. You have no control over the outcome.

Goals, however, are fact-based. Let’s consider again the idea of earning $80K in commissions. If you made $40K last year and you know you want to push yourself more next year, does doubling your income seem realistic? Or is a goal of $60-65K more reasonable? [04:16]

UNREALISTIC GOALS

The problem with repeatedly setting goals that are not based on fact is the likelihood of failing to meet them. It becomes a vicious cycle. We fall short of our goal, we feel deflated as a result, and we stop trying.

This contradicts Grant Cardone’s 10x Concept but hear me out. Let’s say I went to my manager and told him that I am going to try to get a million dollars in revenue for the year. We put that idea in motion and plan around it despite that, in reality, my highest revenue ever was $50K. It’s just not going to happen because it is an unrealistic goal from the start. [05:10]

So what steps can you take to ensure that your goal is both realistic but also pushes you to achieve more? I have five that I want you to consider. [06:50]

REASONABLE AND ACHIEVABLE GOALS

Learn from the experience of others. Talk with your teammates that have done well or talk with your manager. Find out what goals they set when they were new to the business.  What steps did they take? What is a reasonable goal in their opinion?

Put your goal in writing. Once you have decided on a reasonable goal, write it down and put it where you can see it. Studies have proven that goals that are written down are more likely to be achieved because there is a confidence that comes from taking that first step.

Focus on fewer goals. This may sound counterproductive but do you really have the time and energy to reach your sales goals, be the top seller, get 10 new clients every week, go to the gym every day, travel the world and achieve those lofty 10x goals? Wouldn’t it make more sense to break it down into fewer achievable goals instead?

Your goal needs to be measurable and specific. Suppose, after talking with your teammates, you’ve set a realistic goal of $50K.  The next step in achieving that goal is to decide how, specifically, you will achieve it. Break it down. How many new clients, for example, would you need to achieve the $50K? If gaining eight new clients is possible based on previous experience, then a goal of 10 new clients is not so far-fetched. [09:06] [12:21]

Divide the goal into manageable pieces. The beauty of the book The Twelve Week Year is that it breaks the entire year down into 12-week increments so that you can take your goal and divide it into quarterly goals. How many appointments, how many new clients, how many presentations etc. do you need, on a quarterly basis, to stay on track? Put those calculations into your calendar and work toward them on a regular basis.  

It really helped me to achieve my goals because it is so manageable. I can focus on what I need to do each day or each week to achieve my end goal instead of just hoping that it magically comes together at that end.

A quarterly focus on a realistic goal enables you to turn the process into a habit. Once you have the system down, you can replicate it over and over again. You are going to see measurable and amazing results. [09:57]

We’ve had our best year yet at The Sales Evangelist and I want to make sure you can do the same. I’ve been in your shoes and I really enjoy helping new sellers however I can.

We are already planning for next year by taking a look at what we’ve accomplished this year and what we hope to accomplish moving forward. I hope that today’s podcast will help you do the same.

“GOALS” EPISODE RESOURCES

Get a free download of the Twelve Week Yearas well as a 30-day free trial of the audible version, at audible trial.com/TSE.

Check out our Facebook group, The Sales Evangelizers. It is for sellers all over the world to share insights, ideas, ask questions, and so forth.

If you are not pleased with your CRM or think it could be functioning better, check out Maximizer CRM. Maximizer is a personalized CRM that will give you the confidence to improve your business and increase profits. Go to TheSalesEvangelist.com/maximizer for a free demonstration. [00:43] [14:45]

We are also brought to you by prospect.io/tse.  Do yourself a favor and check them out. Prospect.io is a powerful sales automation platform that allows you to build highly personalized, cold email campaigns. It has changed the way we prospect. [00:43] [13:57]

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

And be sure to subscribe to the podcast and share with your friends!

Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.

Direct download: TSE_982.mp3
Category:Planning -- posted at: 4:46pm EDT

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we’re going to hear from David DeRam, CEO and co-founder of Greenlight Guru, about the “it” factor, and how it can change the culture in any organization.

CULTURE

At Greenlight Guru, David and his team spend a lot of time focusing on culture. He calls the company culture unique, but he says that culture doesn’t fall down on you like rain. You don’t experience culture; you participate in it.

Leaders can think about culture and work to create culture, but leaders can’t execute culture. It’s like a plant that will grow the way that it grows, and if everyone isn’t on board with the culture, the culture won’t grow the way leaders want it to. [4:51]

As a result, David’s team looks to everyone on the team to get involved and participate in the culture.

 

People will work how they feel, and if they feel great, they’ll bring an entirely different energy to their efforts.

PROFESSION

David’s team intentionally calls work your profession. He points to the fact that the leaders in every industry, (think Tiger Woods, Warren Buffet, Jimi Hendrix) have devoted themselves to their work. Their work is their profession. [6:35]

Listeners of this podcast have devoted their lives to sales and it’s their profession. Your profession isn’t just what you do; it’s what you believe. David’s team has worked to bring all of those aspects into the culture.

Companies tend to focus on results, and by focusing on results you can miss the one thing you desire the most, which is the people, culture, and execution.

“IT” FACTOR

David became immediately aware of the “it” factor when he subbed as a coach for a little league baseball team. As soon as he encountered the players on the team, he could tell who the natural athletes were.

They moved naturally. They were confident. The true players were like fish in water.

David took the lessons he learned from that sports experience and moved them into his business. He prioritizes where people aim in order to find leaders.

Setting the bar high for yourself can create a lot of stress, anxiety, and uncertainty. People with the “it” factor know how to set the bar high because they understand that the vision they create is more exciting than the fear they experience as a result of setting it there. [9:46]

You can feel the “it” factor when you meet people. They have reached high levels in everything they’ve done and they have a lot of swagger. They’ve survived a lot of hardship.

ALLIGATOR BLOOD

One of the company’s core values is something it calls “alligator blood,” which refers to those people who are resistant to the endless psychological blows, and competitive enough to keep pounding away on others when they are ahead.

Not everyone is wired that way. You can coach it and build it, but when you find the “it” factor, you’re in the right place.

The people who love the struggle and who set the bar really high for themselves exude an energy that spreads to the people around them. [12:21]

TEACHING CULTURE

David’s team focuses on the medical device industry. It’s a tough industry with a complicated product and a complicated regulatory environment, and the rules are constantly changing.

Instead of spending time talking about how hard the work is, the company focuses on true quality and being great. They take a one-game-at-a-time mentality, knowing that you can’t win the Super Bowl in week 1. [17:09]

Because the team understands that there’s a long way to go, it’s able to focus on execution.

David’s hiring process strives to bring people to the team who naturally fit that culture. Some personalities might work really well in other industries, but not in David’s industry.

It’s not in the company’s DNA to have a bad actor in the company.

The best way to destroy a company is from the inside. The same is true of building it. David’s team measures its success partly by whether the entire team is living the core values.

CULTURE SHIFT

If you discover that your culture isn’t exactly where you’d like it to be, begin inside the organization. [19:50]

People who have had to perform in the past and really put themselves out there for the good of the team (like authors, musicians, and athletes) often make great recruits.

If a person doesn’t fit your core values, no matter how talented he is, you will have to unravel a huge mess if you hire him.

RAISING THE LEVEL OF PLAY

People with the “it” factor have a combination of God-given ability, work ethic, fun, and what David calls bounce. [20:57]

They win battles, they win games, they overcome odds, they win championships, and along the way, they raise the energy and the level of play for the people around them.

The team gets better, and the players respond and get better. When that happens, you’ve got something really special.

“IT FACTOR” EPISODE RESOURCES

David’s team is always hiring people who want to play at the highest level. If you’re interested in figuring out whether you’re a good fit, you can connect with David’s team at www.greenlight.guru on the careers page. [21:55]

You can also connect with David on his LinkedIn page.

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 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 PodcastGoogle PodcastStitcher, 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.

Direct download: TSE_981.mp3
Category:Sales Culture -- posted at: 4:32pm EDT

I received an email the other day from a sales rep that I found so annoying that I am dedicating this entire episode to the ways you can avoid making the same mistakes with your emails.

This episode will give you ideas to make sure your emails grab your prospect’s attention so that he will reply instead of deleting your email.

ANNOYING EMAILS

The annoying email I received began, “Hello there.”

Who is ‘there’? Do they not even know my name? I’ve done 1000+ episodes. 

I’m on Twitter, Facebook, and my name is easy to find. The lack of effort on the part of the sender was evident from the very start. It is almost an insult.

And it didn’t improve from there as the body of the email in no way addressed my type of business or my needs. It was simply an email blast.

It was, quite frankly, a waste of everyone’s time.

The days of sending out crappy emails are long gone. You want your emails to encourage a reply, to start the kind of engaging conversation that will lead to a sale now, or in the future. It needs to open the door for continued discussions. [01:49]

ENGAGING EMAILS

Using the email I received as an example, how easy would it have been for the sales rep to look me up on LinkedIn, or on my website? Or why not call and try to find out the best point of contact for the email?  

Furthermore, nothing about the email had anything to do with sales. At all. It was a vague and generic email that didn’t even refer to me as a person.

There was no personal connection, so why would I want to continue that conversation?  

Here’s what I recommend instead: Make sure the subject line is catchy. It is the first thing they will read and frankly, it might be the last thing they bother to read, so make it good.

“Donald, I saw this on your website and thought it might help” is a fine example. They know my name, they know I have a website, they looked at my website … I am going to open that email. [05:11]

Next, begin your email by immediately referencing the thought contained in the subject line. Don’t tell them your name, or your company name because they don’t need it right now. It can all be found later in the signature block at the end.

Don’t even worry about saying hello – just dive into the issue.

BE DIRECT

“Donald, I noticed on your sales page that it wasn’t loading properly at the end. This could be caused by X or Y. I would love to talk with you about how we’ve helped other podcasters fix it….”

That difference makes all the difference! It is simple and easy to read. It provides insight and ideas, informs me of a potential problem and offers a clear step to solve it.

Instead of the overused and generic “We can help you save money/get more leads,” the email is specific and offers value to the targeted business. [06:41]

Another example of a good email: “I notice you have regular postings for new sales reps and we recently conducted a study with software companies like yours and found three critical reasons that prevent sales reps from succeeding… bullet point 1, 2, 3… Would you care to take a look at the full report?” [07:40]

The goal of that email is to grab the reader’s attention, to focus on their problem of high turnover and to speak specifically to that need.

Now compare that email to one that simply reads “Hey, are you hiring? Check out our new program.”

One email is clearly tailored to the reader and provides relative and pertinent information, while the other certainly does not.

FOCUS ON IDEAL CLIENTS

To be able to personalize your emails, I recommend the age-old principle of creating a list of 50 or 100 dream clients to focus on for a week or two at a time depending on your cadence process.

That focus will allow you the time to do a little research, to learn about their specific industry and to understand typical problems they might have. [09:13]

You might try to connect with them on LinkedIn, engage with them there and later send an email that ties directly to that LinkedIn conversation.

“It was great connecting with you on LinkedIn…” You are now someone the reader is already acquainted with so you’ll increase the likelihood of a favorable response to your email.

THE TSE CERTIFIED SALES TRAINING PROGRAM

These are all core fundamental principles of effective emails that we cover in greater detail in the three main courses of our new TSE Certified Sales Training Program. [10:24]

The first course, Prospect Like an Evangelist, teaches sales reps how to find, attract and engage the ideal customer for their company. We talk about how to use the phone and emails. We also address how to create a flow process and how to utilize social media and mailings to grab their attention.

The second semester focuses on Creating Irresistible Value – the middle of the sales process. How can we master the fundamentals of discovering what matters most to our buyers and how can we turn their interest into an appointment?

We will discuss ways to have deeper discussions with our clients so they can make effective and informed decisions.

The third semester is the Closing Course. We teach sellers how to understand and implement the core principles of closing.

These three courses can be taken as a series or ala carte. We’d love to have you in the next course that begins in January. To learn more and to apply for the program, please visit The Sales Evangelist.com/cstp. [11:41]

I want you to build stronger value. I want you to close more deals. More importantly, I want to challenge you each and every day to do big things. We need to be confident and we need to be determined. We need to be professionals that educate the buyer to save them money, to save their business and to save our bottom line as well.

“LAZY OUTREACH” EPISODE RESOURCES

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.  [12:24]

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 PodcastGoogle PodcastStitcher or wherever you enjoy fine podcasts.

And be sure to subscribe to the podcast and share with your friends!

Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.

Direct download: TSE_980.mp3
Category:Cold Calling -- posted at: 4:29pm EDT

Sales constantly evolves. As technology and tools change, we have new processes and strategies available to us.

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we hear from Alex Glenn about the new world for CRM and mirroring pipeline and how it can help us be more effective in our sales processes.

Alex runs automateddata.af, a place where customers can grab working automations for their businesses. The platform crowdsources solutions and wraps them up into a usable format for those in sales, marketing, and customer success.

DEVELOPING CRM

CRM has seen a bit of a shift over the last few years. Instead of being software that costs thousands of dollars and requires a great deal of training, your CRM must be more agile now. [3:51]

CRM must work with your existing tools as well as the dashboards you regularly use for work. It must be easily accessible and easily connectable.

Most founders are also coming around to the idea that CRM should serve as all-in-one solutions.

It’s very convenient for people to access the information they need without having to lead the dashboard they already work in.

BEST SOFTWARE POSSIBLE

The first issue must be finding the best possible software for each process. [7:46]

You want to conduct outreach — either cold emailing, cold calling or LinkedIn prospecting. Then you want to manage that person or that prospect using CRM.

You’ll need post-conversion like signup, demos, and other options, and you’ll need nurturing touchpoints like email, and phone calls. Then you’ll need post-sale drips and one-to-one messaging.

The problem is that all of that can’t exist in one tool, but several tools are trying to accomplish all or 75 percent of it.

The “all-in-ones” represent themselves that way because they cover most of these activities, though many of the components will be somewhat bare bones. [9:20] There are issues with each of them that limit your capabilities.

AUTOMATION

Customers need to have timely messages that are appropriate for their specific situations. All-in-ones won’t ever be the best solution because they won’t be able to give you everything you need at every step.

Google Apps is global now, and many people in the tech and startup scenes are using it because there’s so much collaboration possible. [11:55]

But if your cold outreach system isn’t talking to your CRM and talking to your website, then you can cause a lot of confusion because you might be messaging someone in LinkedIn while you’re sending emails at the same time. It can make your efforts seem disorganized.

You need a tool that syncs your pipeline stages.

(Click here to access the video of Alex navigating some of these tools.) [17:47]

BENEFITS

This capability allows small organizations to do really effective cold outreach. You may have gotten slapped for cold outreach before because you were sending too many emails or you got blacklisted. That doesn’t mean cold outreach doesn’t work.

That may result because you weren’t using the right platform or because your setup was wrong. The second possibility is that you weren’t doing it well. Perhaps you weren’t nurturing them effectively. [33:18]

If your pipeline stages aren’t in sync through the different outreach systems or the different tools that you’re using, you could create a poor customer experience.

Whether you use a system like this or an all-in-one system together with a cold outreach system, make sure your pipeline stages are clearly outlined.

Know what’s going on at each stage. Make sure each tool is being updated based upon where the customer is and how he interacted with your tools.

“NEW WORLD FOR CRM AND MIRRORING PIPELINE” EPISODE RESOURCES

You can connect with Alex at automated.af and email him at team@automated.af. Automated hopes to build out so that it will offer something for everyone.

Check out the tools Alex mentioned in the episode:

  • persistiq.com for sales engagement with a clean interface
  • user.com for automation software to track customer engagement
  • useorca.com to find and engage new customers.

You can also view the screenshare here.

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 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 PodcastGoogle PodcastStitcher, 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.

Direct download: TSE_979.mp3
Category:CRM -- posted at: 4:26pm EDT

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we’ll talk to serial entrepreneur Justin Hartzman about how we can grow a business and why we should do it with the possibility of an acquisition in mind.

Justin is the CEO and co-founder of Needls.com, the Internet’s first RoboAgency. It is the easiest and most effective way for small businesses to advertise online and bring in more sales.

By answering just six questions, Needls.com knows who you are, who you want to sell to, and what you want to sell. It can create 50-500 ads in real time, deliver them to the network, and show them to your ideal customer. 

THE BOTTOM LINE OF ANY BUSINESS

Some of us seek the independence that comes from being our own boss while others desire flexibility and creative freedom or want to achieve a sense of personal fulfillment. [1:59]

The bottom line of starting any business though, as Justin explains, is to earn the financial freedom to live our lives the way we want. A successful business puts more money in our pockets and allows us the time to enjoy it.

Trying to start a new business, however, is tricky. While there are more people now looking for opportunities to fund, there are also more people competing for those funds.

The common approach is to build the product first. Then you find the money to produce the product next and then sell the product. Justin recommends the complete opposite approach.

IF YOU SELL IT, THEY WILL COME.

Sales are always first.

Find out if people want your product and if they do – sell it to them.  

With the sales lined up and letters of intent in your hand, it becomes much easier to find people to fund your product. [3:19]

For example, Justin’s fiance’ told him that a friend on Facebook was looking for someone to build an iOS app. When that need for an app turned into an immediate $60,000 contract, the light bulb turned on and Needls.com was born.

People always have questions and they will always ask other for answers. Justin and his team created a software program to scan their Facebook feeds for specific words that could lead to other sales. [4:32] They soon realized a 300% increase in their business.

Those sales gave them the funds they needed to takeNeedls.com where it is today.

PLANNING FOR ACQUISITION

Ignore those instances when a fledgling business did well and was acquired without planning for it because those are few and far between.

Instead, Justin firmly believes that you need to be organized and to plan for an eventual acquisition from Day One. [8:02]

Have your data in order from the start because trying to organize it later is not only time-consuming but expensive. Instead, be sure you are incorporated correctly and have a handle on your finances.

Build the processes you need and scale your business at the proper cadence. Make sure your books and contracts are in order, your IP is buttoned up and all the proper NDAs are in place.

Simply put: Expect to be successful and plan accordingly.  

ATTRACT ACQUISITION OFFERS

Justin’s success has come from partnering with other businesses who can help him as he helps them. [9:01] 

It all comes back to sales. Sell yourself first.

Make yourself useful. Find partners who will benefit from what you have to offer and take advantage of the networking opportunities, learning experiences, and industry insight they provide in return.

Then when an acquisition situation arises, you are in place and you are ready.

“GROW A BUSINESS RIPE FOR ACQUISITION” EPISODE RESOURCES

Justin truly believes that making oneself useful to others is the key to success and, as such, he is always happy to chat or answer your questions. He can be reached at JH@needls.comor you can find him on LinkedIn.   

He is also offering 35% off his entire platform for a year via needls.com/salesevan and his team is on standby to answer questions and to help you make the most of it.

Check out our previous episode about why buying your competition might be a good option for your company.

This episode is 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 salesevangelists.com/maximizer.

Click on the link to get a free demo of what Maximizer CRM can do for you. Maximizer is intuitive, simple, and personable. Maximizer integrates your marketing campaign as well as your CRM. It works whether you’re a small organization or a large one. It works throughout the whole organization and it’s customizable to the way you sell.

This episode is also 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.

TSE HUSTLER’S LEAGUE

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. You can implement our training and strategies today to ensure constant flow in your pipeline.

Check out TSE Hustler’s League and apply to see if it’s a good fit.

Leave us a review on Apple PodcastGoogle PodcastStitcher, 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 it with someone else you think might benefit.

Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.

Direct download: TSE_978.mp3
Category:Selling Your Company -- posted at: 4:23pm EDT

Many of the activities in our day don’t actually help us close more deals. We’re busy doing things, but they aren’t moving our deals forward.

Today we’ll talk about the things that distract us as sales reps, and how we can stop unnecessary distractions that are actually hindering our efforts.

DISTRACTIONS

Email is a necessary part of our sales efforts but spending time cleaning up our email isn’t an effective use of our time.

If this were a football game, you wouldn’t be in the locker room trying to learn plays. Once the game starts, you’ll spend your time trying to advance the ball and score.

So why do we spend our time at work doing things that aren’t conducive to closing deals? [4:30]

Very often, we are hesitant to do the things that we really need to do. We don’t want to make cold calls or try to upsell our existing customers.

 

RECORD YOUR ACTIVITY

Spend an entire week writing down all your activity and the amount of time you spend on it. [5:14]

If you go to the kitchen to get a drink, write it down. If you talk with other team members, write that down and record how long it takes.

Record all of your activities: email, updating CRM, creating proposals and attending meetings. Write down how long you spend on planning and social media.

If you get sidetracked by your cell phone, write it down, and write the time next to it.

As you do this over the course of a week, you’ll begin to see trends in your daily activity.

ANALYZE YOUR ACTIVITY

Now look at your activity and figure out which steps actually contribute to your closing deals. [6:46]

Be honest about your activity and look for places that you can use your time better. Could you take a shorter lunch break a couple of days a week to create more time for sales activity?

Score every activity on a scale of 1 to 3: 1’s are things that don’t help you close deals, while 3’s are things that contribute greatly to your closings. You can even use a 1 to 5 scale if that works better for you.

Find the activities that aren’t helping you close deals and pay attention to the amount of time you spend on those activities.

REDIRECT YOUR TIME

Once you’ve identified the things that aren’t helping your efforts, figure out how that time spent cleaning out your email can be better used.

Over time, these small amounts of time add up to hours that we could be using to focus on something productive. [9:13] Instead of checking ESPN, I could reach out to a prospect on LinkedIn.

Eliminate tasks that you don’t need to do. Ask for accountability from your manager or your coworkers. Use apps that prevent you from accessing distracting websites.

Intentionally focus on those activities that scored higher on your list. Outsource those activities that bog you down.

UNCOMPLICATE THINGS

Eliminate things that keep you from being the very best seller you can be. [11:41]

  1. Audit your time to see how you’re spending it.
  2. Rate your activities and eliminate unnecessary tasks.
  3. Hyperfocus on the important activities.

This will change your business and your personal life when you implement it.

“UNNECESSARY DISTRACTIONS” EPISODE RESOURCES

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 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 PodcastGoogle PodcastStitcher, 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.

Direct download: TSE_977.mp3
Category:Focusing -- posted at: 4:18pm EDT

The last thing you want is to have your sales process abandon by your sellers. We will share with you how to prevent this. Listen to how.
Direct download: TSE_976.mp3
Category:Sales Process, Sales Podcast -- posted at: 4:03pm EDT

On today's episode of The Sales Evangelist, we're talking with Curt Rapp about how sellers can benefit from the experiences and knowledge of others, and how that knowledge creates shortcuts.

Curt works as an independent contractor selling luxury outdoor products to consumers. During the holidays, that means Christmas lights and decorations. During the warmer months, he sells outdoor cooling systems and mosquito control.

He has access to marketing collateral like CRM and other resources, but he has to bring purpose and a sense of direction to the process. He has to take ownership in the sales process and get focused.

TSE Hustler's League

Curt took part in our online coaching program, previously called TSE Hustler's League.

He said the most valuable part of the experience was learning from other people's mistakes. Curt calls them shortcuts because he's borrowing knowledge from other people. [03:15]

Learning how other people handle the daily dogfight of sales helps him borrow their knowledge the next time he finds himself in a dogfight of his own.

In TSE Hustler's League, even as the administrator of the course, I learned shortcuts and other tricks from people in other industries.

Silos

Salespeople tend to isolate themselves because they focus on the fact that their industries are different from other industries. The truth is that although the sales industries are very different, people who sell cars can learn from people who sell bicycles.

Curt said it took him several years to understand that he could learn from other people. Early on, he didn't listen to people or their advice, and he ignored shortcuts that could have helped him be more successful. [05:31]

By learning from others, he gets to benefit from new information, and then he gets to share it with other people.

[Tweet "Learning new information and sharing it with others means you learn twice: once when you hear it, and again when you teach it to someone else. There's tremendous value in learning from other people. #sharedexperience"]

Having a plan

Curt said that early in his sales career, he took everything that came his way. He wasn't selective in the choices he made. He saw opportunities all around but he didn't wait for the right opportunities. [07:08]

Many of his past mistakes stemmed from dealing with people incorrectly and failing to intentionally set his expectations.

As a new seller, he got excited about phone calls and appointments because he didn't have the confidence to expect them to happen. Now, he has the confidence to know that he can set appointments and close deals, and it has changed his focus.

Confidence has made everything easier in the sales arena. Also, it's important to be humble enough to acknowledge that you don't have all the answers. Once you do that, you can accept help from other people.

Positioned for the future

Curt learned from his TSE Hustler's League experience that you must always be learning. He came to sales from an IT background, and he didn't know what he was doing.

He had to be humbled, and that happened when he got around other people who were also hungry for knowledge. [10:40]

Group training sessions helped Curt in a variety of ways:

  1. It gave him situational awareness. When an unfamiliar situation cropped up, he could draw on discussions he had heard other people share about the topic.
  2. It improved his skills.
  3. Group training improved his accountability. He learned that he couldn't be the guy sitting quietly in the corner of the group. He had to share and contribute something to the group.

To quote the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, if you aren't sharpening your saw every day, you'll be passed over. Nothing will be handed to you.

Once Curt changed his mindset to understand that he didn't know everything, his situation started to change. The TSE Hustler's League group training helped him shift his mindset to always be learning.

Engage with successful people

Find people who are successful. Use social media. Use online training.

Become aware of all that you can learn and then put yourself in a position to learn something new. Be open to the possibilities. Change your mindset and your mentality. [13:01]

Your future may not look the way you think it will, but it will likely be better than you expected.

"Shortcuts" episode resources

If you'd like to know more about Curt and to find out about the project he's launching in 2019 connect with him at curtisrapp.com and on Instagram @CurtisRapp.

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. It allows you to set it and forget it. Your prospecting will never ever be the same.

Previously known as TSE Hustler's League, our TSE Certified Sales Program offers modules that you can engage on your own schedule as well as opportunities to engage with other sellers in other industries.

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.

You'll receive real-time alerts anyone opens an email or clicks a link.

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.

Direct download: TSE_990.mp3
Category:Mastermind, Group Learning -- posted at: 3:47pm EDT

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, I am introducing our new program – the TSE Certified Sales Program. If you are a sales leader in a company – this program is for you. If you are an executive or business owner of a small firm and your sales reps don’t have a process – […]

The post TSE 975: TSE Certified Sales Program – What Is It? appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_975.mp3
Category:Sales Training -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we talk to Chirag Gupta, founder of NoD Coworking, about documenting processes and how it will help your organization become more efficient and more profitable. Chirag has been an entrepreneur since college, and his coworking space in Dallas has achieved profitability, a goal many startups never achieve, largely as […]

The post TSE 974: Sales From The Street: “Document Everything” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_974.mp3
Category:Chirag Gupta -- posted at: 8:16am EDT

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we talk to content marketing leader Pam Didner about the critical role content plays in sales and the importance of collaborative sales and marketing. Content plays a critical role in educating customers and prospects, making sales enablement a natural extension of content marketing. Pam is the author of Effective […]

The post TSE 973: Achieve Sales Growth Through Collaborative Sales And Marketing appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_973.mp3
Category:Marketing and Sales -- posted at: 9:50am EDT

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we discuss the value of following every step in the sales process, and how you can prevent your sales team from skipping steps in the process. Sales processes aren’t intended to add burdens to your role as a sales leader, but should actually free you and your team […]

The post TSE 972: How To Get Salespeople Not To Skip Steps In The Sales Process appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_972.mp3
Category:Sales Process -- posted at: 10:31pm EDT

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we talk with global sales team leader Michael Wills about how to develop a sales process that works. Many sellers have no real sense of direction, but they expect to be successful despite the lack of a plan. Defining a sales process A sales process provides a way […]

The post TSE 971: How To Develop A Sales Process That Works appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_971.mp3
Category:Personalize -- posted at: 7:58am EDT

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist Hustler’s League, we’re talking about how you can exert influence into the buying process even when you are too late. TSE Hustler’s League is our online group coaching program that brings together sellers from all industries and all abilities to share ideas. Executives I’m reading a book called […]

The post TSE 970: TSE Hustler’s League – “You Are Too Late” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_970.mp3
Category:C-Suite -- posted at: 1:05pm EDT

  On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we talk to John Crowley, author of Knuckle Dragging Sales, about the difficulty of sales and a return to simple ideas about selling. John helps sales professionals build a personal brand so they can increase their visibility and their earnings. Knuckle dragging John said he has gotten a […]

The post TSE 969: Sales From The Street: “Knuckle Dragging Sales” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_969.mp3
Category:Planning -- posted at: 12:17am EDT

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we talk to Kory Angeline about the right questions, and how you can help your customers feel comfortable without feeling pushed. No matter what industry you’re in, you’re probably going to find yourself selling. And truthfully, a lot of us aren’t good at it. Kory offers the idea […]

The post TSE 968: How To Ask A Potential Customer The Right Questions That Make Them Feel Comfortable And Not Pushed appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_968.mp3
Category:Asking Thought Provoking Questions -- posted at: 9:00am EDT

One of our listeners reached out to me the other day about Mark Zuckerberg’s recent quote: “Move fast and break things.” On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we discuss the idea that if you’re not moving fast enough to break things, then you aren’t moving fast enough, and how that statement relates to sales. […]

The post TSE 967: How Does The Statement “Unless You Are Breaking Stuff, You Are Not Moving Fast Enough” Apply To Sales? appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_967.mp3
Category:Sales Training -- posted at: 4:04pm EDT

In this episode of The Sales Evangelist, I had the pleasure of speaking once again with Jeffrey Gitomer, The King of Sales, about the Law of Harmonious Attraction. Jeffrey is an author, speaker, and business trainer who writes and lectures internationally on sales, customer loyalty and personal development.  He also hosts the very popular Sell or […]

The post TSE 966: The Law of Harmonious Attraction appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_966.mp3
Category:Jeffrey Gitomer -- posted at: 12:31pm EDT

  On today’s episode of Sales From The Street, we talk to global entrepreneur Doyle Buehler about monetizing your brand. Doyle helps businesses organize their work and their strategies so they can do good work. Many sellers don’t actually own their own businesses but they operate a business within a business. They are intrapreneurs, and many […]

The post TSE 964 : Sales From The Street: “Selling And Monetizing Your Brand” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_964.mp3
Category:Marketing and Sales -- posted at: 12:19am EDT

In this episode of The Sales Evangelist, I talk to Phil Newton about how we can work smart and accomplish more by doing less. It all began with a “sob story of events” when Phil was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, an intestinal disorder with an array of symptoms that prevent him from doing business the […]

The post TSE 963: How To Help Business Owners And High Performers Hone In On Their Zone Of Genius, Work Smart And Make More Money appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_963.mp3
Category:Ideal Customer -- posted at: 1:08pm EDT

The political and dating industries share a common goal: to narrow your choices down to the one candidate that makes the most sense for what you want. Particularly in the political arena, the ads target those people who would be most likely to support a particular cause or candidate. On today’s episode of The Sales […]

The post TSE 962: What Salespeople Can Learn From The “Political and Dating” Industries appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_962.mp3
Category:Ideal Customer -- posted at: 8:59am EDT

Processes allow us to work a campaign from end to end. They help us know how to follow up and what to say and how to proceed rather than just shooting from the hip. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Forster Perelsztejn of prospect.io talks about the importance of a campaign for purposes of cold […]

The post TSE 961: How Do I Create A Cold Email Outreach Process? appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_961.mp3
Category:Cold Outreach -- posted at: 10:33am EDT

Most startups never reach the $1 million mark. Roughly 95 percent of startups will never achieve that level of revenue. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we visit with Sangram Vajre, “The Accidental Evangelist,” about what he learned from building a company and how to achieve $1 million. Sangram founded a company called Terminus, […]

The post TSE 960: TSE Hustler’s League – “$1 Million” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_960.mp3
Category:Current Customers -- posted at: 8:45am EDT

When I worked for a corporate organization, I had to call executives and convince them to consider our product. I had no direction for the conversation. Until I got sales training, I didn’t know what to stay to get them to the next step. That map is known as a buying process or a sales process, […]

The post TSE 957: Sales Process 101 appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_957.mp3
Category:Sales Process -- posted at: 11:54am EDT

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we’re talking to Ralph Welborn, CEO of CapImpact, about ways you can fire up your business ecosystem and grow explosively. Ralph is a co-author of the book Topple: The End of the Firm-Based Strategy and Rise of New Models for Explosive Growth.  He refers to himself as a moth to a […]

The post TSE 956: How to Fire Up Your Business Ecosystem and Grow Explosively appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_956.mp3
Category:Growth -- posted at: 9:19am EDT

  All of us confront fears that hold us back and prevent us from being really successful at sales. One of the biggest is the fear of rejection, and it’s one of the first lessons we’ll review in The Sales Evangelist Hustler’s League when we begin our new semester in January. On today’s episode, we’ll […]

The post TSE 955: TSE Hustler’s League – “False Truth” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_955.mp3
Category:Fear of Rejection -- posted at: 6:21pm EDT

When you pursue prospects but don’t get responses, it can be intimidating. We don’t want to lose those prospects, but we don’t know why they aren’t responding. On today’s episode of Sales From The Street, we’re talking about loss aversion, and how it can be scary for sales reps to lose prospects, and also what […]

The post TSE 954: Sales From The Street: “Scary Cat” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_954.mp3
Category:Cold Outreach -- posted at: 9:32am EDT

Video is at the forefront of everyone’s mind, including those of us at the Sales Evangelist. We’re launching a YouTube channel called TSE TV and using Instagram as well. On today’s episode, we’ll talk with Deepak Shukla about the 2-minute video pitch that helps generate warm sales calls. Deepak is the founder of the SEO […]

The post TSE 953: The 2-Minute Video Pitch That Helps Me Generate Very Warm Sales Call appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_953.mp3
Category:Sales Pitch -- posted at: 6:59am EDT

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Erroin Martin shares what he has learned about artificial intelligence and how sales professionals can increase sales faster using AI. Martin is the vice president of sales at Conversica, with 20 years of experience in sales. Conversica does conversational artificial intelligence for B2B and B2C. Robots? Artificial intelligence […]

The post TSE 951: How To Increase Sales Faster Using AI appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_951.mp3
Category:AI -- posted at: 9:34am EDT

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Instead, let’s make the wheel more effective. If something already works, try to improve it rather than starting from scratch. It’s so much more difficult to find new customers than it is to sell to people who are right there in front of you. On today’s episode of […]

The post TSE 950: TSE Hustler’s League-“The Upsell” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_950.mp3
Category:Account Management -- posted at: 9:46am EDT

Everyone has the same amount of available time every day. When people lack the time to systemize their businesses or hire and train new people, it’s because they aren’t using their time in the right way. They aren’t prioritizing the things that are important. On today’s episode, serial entrepreneur Carissa Hill shares how to grow […]

The post TSE 949: Sales From The Street – “You Do Have Time” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_949.mp3
Category:Carissa Hill -- posted at: 9:57am EDT

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we talk to Michael Koral about building an empire, and what small businesses need to know about building an empire through effective marketing. Michael is the co-founder of needls.com, a robo-agency that creates targets and optimizes Facebook and Instagram ads for small business owners and entrepreneurs. Small business owner […]

The post TSE 948: What Small Businesses Need To Know About Building An Empire Through Effective Marketing appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_948.mp3
Category:Account-Based Marketing -- posted at: 2:00pm EDT

Bringing a revolutionary new product to market can be difficult, especially if you don’t yet have a community of supporters. Apple did it in 2007 with the iPhone, solving a problem that people weren’t even aware that they had. How can you capture people’s attention if you don’t already have that community? Today on The […]

The post TSE 947: How Do You Help Sell or Bring a Brand New Product to Market? appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_947.mp3
Category:Ideal Customer -- posted at: 8:46am EDT

The buying process has changed, and by the time your prospect gets to you, he has already done a substantial amount of online research. A recent study showed that 68 percent of people in the B2B space believe online information is far more helpful to them than the information they get from salespeople. On today’s episode of […]

The post TSE 946: Three Effective Ways To Create Loyalty appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_946.mp3
Category:Customized Solutions -- posted at: 12:21pm EDT

You cannot oversell to your prospects. We’ve been talking all month about closing, and about what you can do in your closing efforts to give your clients exactly what they want. On today’s episode of TSE Hustler’s League, we’ll discuss how to improve closings and how to avoid overselling. The TSE Hustler’s League is an online […]

The post TSE 945: TSE Hustler’s League-“Overselling” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_945.mp3
Category:Preparation -- posted at: 9:12am EDT

Your prospects are inundated with cold communications every day. Your job is to make sure that your communications don’t wind up in someone’s spam folder. Personal communication is an important part of modern-day sales, and video cold outreach is an important tool. On today’s episode of Sales From The Street, John Simpson, Director of Business […]

The post TSE 944: Sales From The Street: “Video Cold Outreach” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_944.mp3
Category:Cold Outreach -- posted at: 10:10am EDT

Business owners often have to lead their sales teams despite the fact that they don’t always understand exactly how to do it. Often times, they’re simply ignorant about what to do. It’s absolutely true, though, that business owners who don’t like sales can improve sales performance. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we’re talking […]

The post TSE 943: How Business Owners Who Don’t Like Sales Can Improve Sales Performance appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_943.mp3
Category:Alice Heiman -- posted at: 12:46pm EDT

When it comes to closing, you have to be confident. Closing is throughout the sales process and you have to build confidence in what you sell. The buyer must feel your confidence and believe that your product or service is capable of solving her problems and helping her business to succeed. On today’s episode of […]

The post TSE 942: How Confident Are You With Closing? appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_942.mp3
Category:Closing -- posted at: 9:23pm EDT

The process of building value begins early in the buying journey. Sales professionals talk a lot about building value, but the truth is that value looks different to everyone. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we have a candid conversation about value — and why it’s important to build enough value — with Tyler […]

The post TSE 941: Build Enough Value Before You Try To Close appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_941.mp3
Category:Building Value -- posted at: 11:53am EDT

  Most sales reps believe they are good closers, but the truth is that many struggle. It’s difficult to persuade someone to spend thousands of dollars, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, on what you’re offering. Until you build value, you can’t sell. On today’s episode of The Hustler’s League, we’ll talk about why tricking […]

The post TSE 940: TSE Hustler’s League-“We Can’t Sell It Right Now” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_940.mp3
Category:Building Value -- posted at: 11:27pm EDT

The traditional funnel works in a lot of industries for many sellers. It’s always true, though, that no single industry is exactly the same.  In some cases, sellers have to find a different way to operate. Jereshia Hawk had to ditch the funnel. Today on Sales From The Street, Jereshia Hawk shares how she shifted her mindset […]

The post TSE 939: Sales From The Street: “Ditch The Funnel” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_939.mp3
Category:Imposter syndrome -- posted at: 4:16pm EDT

The buying journey has changed, and sellers must change with it. Sellers must address the gap between how people buy and how people sell. We must uncover why it matters that today’s buying journey has changed. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we talk to Martyn Lewis, founder of Market Partners, about how today’s buying […]

The post TSE 938: How Today’s Buying Journey Has Drastically Changed And Why It Matters To You! appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_938.mp3
Category:Buyer's Journey -- posted at: 8:51pm EDT

  Sometimes as sales professionals, we unintentionally erode the trust we have with our clients. The way we pose a question or the way we treat our clients can prevent us from closing a deal. Sometimes the questions you ask are not building trust. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we continue our month-long […]

The post TSE 937: The Questions You Ask Are NOT Building Trust appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_937.mp3
Category:Asking Thought Provoking Questions -- posted at: 11:56pm EDT

About 65 percent of the population learns visually. When you’re engaging with your prospect, are you simply explaining your goods and services or are you showing them your goods and services? Today we’ll discuss the power of using visuals to level up your sales game. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Payman Taei, founder […]

The post TSE 936: Best Practices For Using Visuals To Level Up Your Sales Game appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_936.mp3
Category:Content Marketing -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

  If you’ve been following the show for a while, you know that The Sales Evangelist Hustler’s League is an online group coaching program designed to help sales professionals of all levels. Today we’re discussing the occasional mindset that tells us that closing is too much. On today’s episode of TSE Hustler’s League, I’m going […]

The post TSE 935: TSE Hustler’s League-“Closing Is Too Much” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_935.mp3
Category:Sales Process -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

People are often uncomfortable with the idea of prospecting. Many salespeople struggle with it because they relate it to cold calling, but it isn’t possible to transition to a referral business until you find prospects. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Richard Nongard talks about the role prospecting plays in transitioning to a referral […]

The post TSE 934: Sales From The Street – “Referral Business” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_934.mp3
Category:Prospecting -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

Most sales professionals understand the importance of closing. They also understand that the more prospects they interact with, the greater their odds of closing will be. But sometimes challenging situations arise, which leave us asking, “How do I close the deal?” On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we’ll talk about closing more deals and increasing […]

The post TSE 932: How Do I Close The Deal? appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_932.mp3
Category:Closing -- posted at: 1:44pm EDT

No one wants to discover at the end of a sales process that the prospect isn’t planning to buy. So how can you improve the odds that your prospect follows through? What closing strategies will improve your odds? On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, David Cook, author of How to Be a Great Salesperson… […]

The post TSE 933: Closing Strategies That Can Be Used By People at Any Level In Any Industry appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_933.mp3
Category:Closing -- posted at: 9:45am EDT

LinkedIn is a powerful tool for sales professionals, but you must have a strategy in order to use it well. If you have a plan, you can use LinkedIn for inbound and developing process. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Rebecca Brizi, strategic consultant to small businesses and solopreneurs, talks about using social media to […]

The post TSE 931: How To Use LinkedIn for Inbound and Developing Process appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_931.mp3
Category:LinkedIn -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

          It’s tempting to think that when a lead contacts us first, the transaction should be pretty simple. We’ll ask about the company; about the challenges the company is facing; we’ll try to determine how we can help. But what happens when the conversation goes nowhere? You must make sure you’re […]

The post TSE 930: TSE Hustler’s League-“Storytelling Questions” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_930.mp3
Category:LinkedIn -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

When you tell stories, you capture the attention of the buyer and you build relationships. You also stand out from the competition, who isn’t using stories to grab the buyer’s attention. The key to marketing is helping clients tell their story. On today’s episode of Sales From The Street, Arty Gold from Animus studios talks […]

The post TSE 929: Sales From The Street: “How We Increase Sales By Helping Clients Tell THEIR Story” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_929.mp3
Category:Relationships -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

The process of prospecting constantly changes. It has evolved over the last 5, 10, 15 years, and it continues to evolve today. Buyers are more educated than they used to be, so we’re entering a new era of effective prospecting. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we talk to Ryan O’Hara, VP of marketing […]

The post TSE 928: The New Era of Effective Prospecting appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_928.mp3
Category:Personalize -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

Sales can be a little bit like dating in high school. When relationships go south, it’s tempting to try to hang on. The other person won’t answer your phone calls. It’s like you never existed. The same thing sometimes happens with inbound leads, and in both cases, remember this: don’t be too desperate. On today’s […]

The post TSE 927: Don’t Be Too Desperate appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_927.mp3
Category:Drip campaign -- posted at: 9:33am EDT

Traditional marketing options will always exist for business owners and people in sales. Digital marketing, however, can be a more cost-effective way to grab people’s attention and guide them down a path to purchasing. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Jeet Banerjee discusses how lead generation through digital marketing can help you bring customers into your […]

The post TSE 926: Lead Generation Through Digital Marketing appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_926.mp3
Category:Digital Marketing -- posted at: 10:18am EDT

You’re more than likely listening to this episode because you want to improve as a seller or a marketer. You’re seeking education so you can get an edge on your competition. There’s a tool that many of us are failing to embrace, and it could begin a video revolution. On today’s episode of The Hustler’s […]

The post TSE 925: TSE Hustler’s League-“Video Revolution” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_925.mp3
Category:Outreach -- posted at: 8:16am EDT

    What if you could make more money and get home on time for dinner every night? Sounds impossible, right? The 60-Second Sale might be the answer for sales professionals who want to achieve success without sacrificing their lifestyles. Today on Sales From the Street, we’ll talk to Dave Lorenzo, author of The 60-Second […]

The post TSE 924: Sales From The Street: “The 60 Second Sale” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_924.mp3
Category:Conversations -- posted at: 8:16am EDT

Imagine a world where you don’t have to spend any money on marketing. You have leads pouring in, deals close, and referrals pour in. Imagine being able to grow your sales without spending a dime on marketing. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Jon Ferrara shares the method he recommends to grow your sales […]

The post TSE 923: How To Grow Your Sales Without Spending A Dime On Marketing appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_923.mp3
Category:Influencers -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

Sometimes sales reps neglect their leads. We stop doing the things we know we need to do because we assume things will continue working the way we expect them to. Don’t take your leads for granted. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we’ll talk about the things that sales professionals sometimes neglect and why […]

The post TSE 922: Don’t Take Your Leads For Granted appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_922.mp3
Category:Inbound -- posted at: 10:59am EDT

Whether you’re working a sales campaign or building a fantasy football league, preparation and process will always improve your outcome. You absolutely have to have a sales process to systematize your sales. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we’ll hear from Sean Tierney, Director of Sales for managed WordPress hosting provider Pagely.  Sean will share the […]

The post TSE 921: The 7-Step Approach Pagely Used to Systematize Sales appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_921.mp3
Category:Personalize -- posted at: 9:22am EDT

On Tuesday I told you about a guy named Louis whose job it is to set appointments and find opportunities for an account executive on his team. The problem for Louis is that his CRM stinks, and his database is no good, so he struggled until he stumbled upon Prospect.io. On today’s episode of The […]

The post TSE 920: TSE Hustler’s League-“Prospect.io” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_920.mp3
Category:Prospect.io -- posted at: 5:28pm EDT

The notion of the starving artist has been around for many years, but many entrepreneurs spend a lot of years “starving” as well. For sales professionals, when we don’t have processes in place to keep our funnels full, we can find ourselves “starving” as well. On today’s episode of Sales From the Street, Arty Goldstein […]

The post TSE 919: Sales From The Street:”Starving Artist” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_919.mp3
Category:Sales Mindset -- posted at: 9:29am EDT

Every sales professional understands the importance of generating leads. In addition to those leads, we must focus on using technology to convert leads. Today on The Sales Evangelist, Patrick Shaw will talk to us about using technology to convert leads. If we use technology and software, we can work smarter and not harder. Patrick is […]

The post TSE 918: Using Technology To Convert Leads appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_918.mp3
Category:Inbound Marketing -- posted at: 7:03pm EDT

When your marketing department rounds up good inbound leads for your sales reps, but your sales don’t increase, it can leave you confused. If the leads are highly qualified, it can leave you confused about why your b2b inbound leads are not closing. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we’ll discuss the common reasons […]

The post TSE 917: Why Your B2B Inbound Leads Are Not Closing appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_917.mp3
Category:Cadence -- posted at: 11:50am EDT

Imagine how quickly sales will decline if your sales and marketing teams aren’t communicating well. You must have a marketing message that cuts through the noise and generates inbound leads. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Tom Poland helps us learn more about how to effectively create a marketing message that will guide your […]

The post TSE 916: How To Develop A Marketing Message That Cuts-Through & Brings More Leads appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_916.mp3
Category:Differentiate -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

Early on in The Sales Evangelist, I didn’t have an application process in place to qualify my inbound leads, and it cost me customers. I suspect you could be missing this connection, too. On today’s episode of The Hustler’s League, I’ll share what might have prompted some of my customers to leave my program, and […]

The post TSE 915: TSE Hustler’s League-“Application” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_915.mp3
Category:Qualifying -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

We cannot develop quality inbound leads without a process that nurtures and prepares our customers. As a sales professional, it’s important to know how to handle inbound leads so that you’re working in tandem with your marketing team. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, I’m putting myself in the hot seat to discuss how […]

The post TSE 914: Sales From The Street:”How To Handle Inbound Leads” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_914.mp3
Category:Inbound -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

If you want to take advantage of inbound leads, you must create content for your website that attracts people. It must draw people who are researching and trying to find solutions. We must also avoid common mistakes we make trying to get inbound leads. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Ken Tucker continues our […]

The post TSE 913: Common Mistakes We Make Trying To Get Inbound Leads appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_913.mp3
Category:Inbound Marketing -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

Inbound is a powerful tool for your organization. We all want inbound leads, but we have to work with our teams to make sure our company will be known by the people who are seeking our product or service. What should our sales team know about inbound leads? On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, […]

The post TSE 912: What Should Sales Know About Inbound Leads? appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_912.mp3
Category:Building Value -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

What allows some teams to achieve consistent success? Why are some leaders able to convince their team members to consistently follow? What is the secret formula that allows the elite 1% of leaders to achieve greatness? Today on The Sales Evangelist, Don Barden shares the secret formula that allows leaders to achieve repeatable success, and […]

The post TSE 911: The Secret Formula Of The “Elite 1%” Of Business Leaders appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_911.mp3
Category:Don Barden -- posted at: 12:31am EDT

If you find yourself thinking that your clients just don’t get it, the problem may not be the prospect. It may not even be the product. The problem may be the way you and your company are selling your product. If your sales process is designed all around you, that means your prospects aren’t being […]

The post TSE 910: TSE Hustler’s League-“It’s All Backward” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_910.mp3
Category:Business Development -- posted at: 4:00pm EDT

There’s a difference between having a lifestyle business and having a business that’s truly scaling and growing. In order to grow, you have to have customers. The secret is to buy your competition. On today’s episode of Sales From the Street, Carl Allen talks about how to massively grow your sales by acquiring another business. […]

The post TSE 909: Sales From The Street:”Buy Your Competition” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_909.mp3
Category:Acquisition -- posted at: 10:06am EDT

For sales leaders, improving your team’s numbers isn’t always enough. If you can help your team innovate, engage, build trust, and be purposeful, you’ll lift your team up and improve their lives. Lifter leadership will change your sales team and change your company. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Paresh Shah, author of the […]

The post TSE 908: Lifter Leadership-How To Innovate, Engage, Build Trust And Be Purposeful All At Once! appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_908.mp3
Category:Sales Leader -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

How far are you willing to go to get ahead of the competition? In order to be successful, you must do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. Realize that little things matter the most when you’re leading, and if you adopt them in your own business, you can become a better sales leader. […]

The post TSE 907: The Little Things Matter The Most When You’re Leading appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_907.mp3
Category:Goals -- posted at: 6:49am EDT

Selling is always a challenge. When sellers are confused about what they’re selling or about what their customers want, selling is impossibly hard. Learning to ask questions that sell will absolutely make a difference in your sales process. Paul Cherry talks to The Sales Evangelist audience about identifying the customers’ pain issues and getting them to […]

The post TSE 906: Questions That Sell-The Powerful Process to Discovering What Your Customer Really Wants appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_906.mp3
Category:Asking Thought Provoking Questions -- posted at: 2:57pm EDT

If your sales team focuses only on how many deals are closed, you won’t know much about your sales process. When the numbers drop, is the problem with the prospecting or with marketing? If you’re only focused on results, you won’t know. In order to find the holes in your sales process, you must evaluate […]

The post TSE 905: TSE Hustler’s League-“Holes In Your Sales Process” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_905.mp3
Category:Cold Calling -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

We all understand the importance of building value for the prospect. It’s important to know, too, that it’s an ongoing process. We should focus on building value before, during, and after the meeting. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Josh Smith, author of How to Guarantee Qualified Sales Meetings With Real Decision Makers, explains why building […]

The post TSE 904: Sales From The Street-“Building Value Pre, During & Post Meeting” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_904.mp3
Category:Building Value -- posted at: 12:21pm EDT

Regardless of your industry, you’re probably invested in helping your sales team optimize its performance. Ultimately, we need our teams to hit their quotas and perform at their peak. So how do you help your team get more time back in order to exceed quota? Jason Loh visits The Sales Evangelist podcast today to help […]

The post TSE 903: How To Get More Time Back As A Sales Manager To Exceed Quota appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_903.mp3
Category:Sales Leader -- posted at: 8:43am EDT

Sales numbers won’t tell you much about your sales team. They might tell you who’s struggling and who isn’t, but they won’t tell you where the problems lie. Numbers alone aren’t sufficient to help you coach your sales team. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we’ll discuss the role numbers play in coaching a […]

The post TSE 902: Numbers Alone Can’t Coach appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_902.mp3
Category:Messaging -- posted at: 10:08am EDT

Authentic leadership involves understanding that everyone has a unique journey, and everyone brings some kind of baggage to the office. You don’t have to understand the baggage; you simply have to understand that they have it. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Dr. James Kelley, professor of marketing, talks to us about authentic leadership, […]

The post TSE 901: The Authentic Leader Model and Making Better Leaders appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_901.mp3
Category:Coaching -- posted at: 4:22pm EDT

We have produced 900 podcast episodes! Today on The Sales Evangelist we’ll celebrate our 900th episode and share the impact the podcast has had on our business, as well as some highs and lows. We’ll discuss where we came from and where we are going. It’s humbling to think about. Twenty episodes a month designed […]

The post TSE 900: Where We Came From And Where We Are Going! appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_900.mp3
Category:Podcast -- posted at: 4:03pm EDT

Leadership is difficult. Even when the people you’re leading have something in common, it’s tough to lead a varied group of people. Leading a group of independent, free-thinking employees presents a unique challenge, but it’s one that allows you to leave your mark. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Barth Getto, president of Empowery […]

The post TSE 899: Sales From The Street-“Your Legend” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_899.mp3
Category:Barth Getto -- posted at: 4:08pm EDT

Christie Walters believes that sales is an act of service. She defines coaching as the secret sauce for all top performers. Coaches take on different forms, and Christie believes that the best coaches operate from the performer’s perspective rather than their own. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Christie Walters, co-host of the podcast […]

The post TSE 898: What Role Does A Sales Coach Play In A Growing Organization? appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_898.mp3
Category:Personalize -- posted at: 11:28am EDT

As a sales manager, your focus must rest largely on your sales reps rather than your customer. You must win your sales reps over in order to get them to perform at their peak. Do that asking great sales coaching questions and building strong relationships. On today’s episode, we’ll discuss how to help your sales […]

The post TSE 897: 15 Great Sales Coaching Questions You Should Ask appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_897.mp3
Category:Asking Thought Provoking Questions -- posted at: 9:52am EDT

In order for your organization to operate at its best, the people within must be empowered. The team must feel confident working together and it must believe in the process. But believing in the process begins with the leadership, which is why you must empower yourself before you can empower others. On today’s episode of […]

The post TSE 896: Empower Yourself First Before You Can Empower Others appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_896.mp3
Category:Joe Pardo -- posted at: 10:44am EDT

                  When you’re talking to a prospect, the most important thing you can do is build value into the conversation. Your goal should be to delight them in ways that none of your competitors have. One of the easiest ways to do that is to use their […]

The post TSE 895: TSE Hustler’s League-“Use Their Own Words” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_895.mp3
Category:Conversations -- posted at: 8:27am EDT

          When sales are good, life is good. So what do you do if you’re a brand new business that isn’t making enough money to pay the bills? When larger companies believe you’re too new to trust, you must learn marketing in order to help others get to know your business. […]

The post TSE 894: Sales From The Street-“Learn Marketing” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_894.mp3
Category:Marketing and Sales -- posted at: 10:17am EDT

When your company on-board a new employee, you invest time, effort, and resources into the process. So if you’re going to spend the money, doesn’t it make sense to put energy into making sure the employee is successful? The key is to help new employees feel like they already belong. On today’s episode of The […]

The post TSE 893: How to Make New Employees Feel Like They Already Belong appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Direct download: TSE_893.mp3
Category:Coaching -- posted at: 8:19pm EDT