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Business Insights & Strategies From Experts: Unveiling Simple Truths Behind Success. I’m always grateful for Reviews and remember to Subscribe
Episodes
Saturday Feb 26, 2022
Saturday Feb 26, 2022
"Buying is difficult. It's a salesperson's job to help their buyers navigate complexity," Kevin Dixon spent 20 years at Ericsson and achieved the status of top salesman so many times he got to keep the trophy. One year he hit 1012% of his profit target and was the highest paid person in Ericsson, worldwide.
Founder and CEO of Boxxstep, he's a grizzled old sales veteran with an axe to grind against the insanity of current sales, sales management and sales leadership thinking. We got on like a house on fire!
Kevin says, "Discovery is contrived and biased to get the answers you want". Instead, he advocates in depth buyer discovery, tracking:
- Who else is involved?
- What do they care about?
- What are the dynamics between them?
- How are you tracking the prospect’s business problems?
- How are you tracking needs and criteria?
This stuff is obvious, but too often overlooked, ignored or rushed. Failure in these areas means you don't show up when you need to be, you aren't informed, so you don't bring value. 3 big no-no's that will cut your close rates by as much as 87% are:
- Lack of coverage
- Lack of engagement
- Don’t learn from every engagement
Contact Kevin via linkedin.com/in/kevindixonuk
Website: boxxstep.com (Company Website)
Twitter: boxxstep
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Drop me a line on marcus@laughs-last.com if you are committed to delivering #businesscertainty #buyersafety #salesnobility, you might want to explore joining our #strategicalliance.
Tuesday Feb 22, 2022
Tuesday Feb 22, 2022
Wayne Moloney is the co-author of #TheWentworthProspect, a business novel tracking the seller's journey through her largest opportunity. Her mentor dies and is replaced by a terrible manager. Luckily her mentor left her a playbook on how to do it well.
Wayne and I unpack what's wrong with enterprise selling and what works in the real world. Bristling with usable content including the EDVANCE system.
Contact Wayne via linkedin.com/in/waynemoloney
Websites:
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edvance.sale/ (The Wentworth Prospect)
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waynemoloney.com (Company Website)
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Contact me on marcus@laughs-last.com
Tuesday Feb 15, 2022
Tuesday Feb 15, 2022
Andy Champion is a breath of fresh air in tech sales leadership. Have a listen to understand why. He's not alone. I have been fortunate enough to meet several through #TheInquisitorPodcast. Andy, and leaders like Tom Schodorf, Tom Castley, Gerry Hill, Andy Shaw, Mark Herbert, all carry an air of calm. They exude an air of steady,, reasoned intelligence. You know that their decisions won't be rash or rushed. Neither do they dither. And they are always fair. They love their people. And their people love them because they feel safe and that their backs are covered.
In this episode, Andy explores some common sales leadership blindspots that are creating obscene amounts of unnecessary work, duplication of effort and wasted spend. We focus your attention on the right end of 3 very serious, widespread and persistent problems that you are probably familiar with.
We dig deep into the impacts of underinvestment in management, short term thinking in leadership and investors, lack of focus on moving performance of the mediocre middle, why failing to identify your mobiliser is probably losing you deals. We dive into how quota over-assignment is fuelling #TheGreatResignation. According to a study by TalentLMS, as many at 72 % of employees in the Tech sector will be looking to change roles in 2022 and many looking to leave corporate life and even leave the industry.
We are in for a tumultuous few years ahead. How are we preparing our managers for what's to come?
So much to consider in this episode. Bring a pen and paper and listen a couple of times. Please @tag a friend who would benefit from this.
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Join us at Sales A Force For Good #SAFFG -
Identify YOUR Blindspots
Which widely help beliefs do we as salespeople and management hold that aren't true, and do us harm?
1700-1800 UK - 24th February. Learn more here - https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12530021/
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Andy is growing his team so if you are looking for a kick start to your career in a great company with a fantastic team and leadership that actually has your back, drop Andy a line over Linkedin on linkedin.com/in/andychampion
Website: highspot.com (Company Website)
Twitter: andrewchampion
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Contact me at marcus@laughs-last.com.
Check out my articles on Medium (here's an understated example that fits nicely with the theme of this episode - https://procustomer.medium.com/is-your-leadership-a-bunch-of-horses-arses-7f2c9e1ae0ab)
Saturday Feb 12, 2022
Saturday Feb 12, 2022
What is #HybridSelling? Why should you care? How should we be defining hybrid selling?
How does the E.V.O.L.V.E. framework help you to focus on your highest value activities?
Fred Copestake, founder of Brindis, a growth consultancy, has made his #HybridSellingHealthCheck available for free here https://hybridselling.scoreapp.com/ . How do you stack up?
Fred's new book, "Hybrid Selling" is out now - https://tinyurl.com/HybridSelling
He's also author of "Selling With Partnering Skills"
Contact Fred on linkedin.com/in/fredcopestake
Website: linktr.ee/fredcopestake (Links)
Twitter: FredCopestake
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Contact me on marcus@laughs-last.com if you fancy getting jiggy on your sales operation
Tuesday Feb 08, 2022
Thursday Feb 03, 2022
Thursday Feb 03, 2022
"I'm a product of the Rainbow Revolution. Nelson Mandela spoke to me. He told me I was responsible to make a difference. He inspired me, ... he inspired a nation to see what was possible in an inclusive culture in this great country", says Richard Doherty, founder of ScaleUp Consulting. Caught up in the optimism immediately following the end of apartheid it framed Richard's career.
He helps founders drive predictable scale. We explore some interesting questions that lead to blindspots and missed opportunities.
- Who are your people?
- Who is really on your team?
- What are the crucial conversations your people need to be having?
- Are you leading the people in your ecosystem?
- What is the impact you have on those you lead when you're ambiguous about your purpose?
Contact Richard via linkedin.com/in/rhdoherty
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Get in touch with me on marcus@laughs-last.com
Tuesday Feb 01, 2022
Tuesday Feb 01, 2022
Are you hiring badly, repeatedly? Are you finding hiring reliable, consistent sales producers, tough? Join me and my guest Alan Fendrich, founder of AHS, Advanced Hiring Systems. We both take a robust approach to attraction of candidates, their rigorous qualification building around core values and beliefs. Discover why experience is almost never a real obstacle to whether someone will succeed in a role.
We debate and define a highly developed recruitment process designed to test the real world capability of an individual to do the job for which you are hiring.
If reducing attrition is a priority, start at the source of the problem - how and who you think you want to hire.
To bring Alan and his team in to help you eliminate the single highest hidden cost in any business, wrong hires contact him via linkedin.com/in/alanfendrich
Websites
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advancedhiring.com (Company Website)
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blog.advancedhiring.com (Blog)
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feeds.feedburner.com/SalesHiringSecrets (RSS Feed)
Twitter: alanfendrich
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And if you're repeatedly making bad hires, or you're finding hiring and developing genuine top producers, tough, drop me a line on marcus@laughs-last.com for an alternative approach that delivers rocket fuel to your business
Wednesday Jan 26, 2022
Wednesday Jan 26, 2022
Patrick Joyce is one of a tiny breed of top of the funnel super-producers who think and behave differently to the average. Pat recently booked 30 individual meetings within one critical target account, surrounding the key decision makers, gathering and connecting insights, so that they were well informed and fully prepared when it counted most. From a standing start he grew a pipeline worth $6m in 3 months. He produces more than most teams by breaking every rule, outplanning, out strategising and out-executing his competitors.
Contact Pat via linkedin.com/in/pwilliamjoyce
Website: thejoyce.net (Blog)
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Contact me on marcus@laughs-last.com
Tuesday Jan 25, 2022
Tuesday Jan 25, 2022
Andy Mutton was an accidental salesman who learned to qualify after spending a fortune of his employers' resources on non-opportunities and pipe-dreams.
We discuss solutions to management attachment to outdated practices and beliefs, which lead to blindspots, chasing fictions, disengagement and high levels of turnover, chronic underperformance and ambiguity.
Website: essentialsalesprocess.com
And be sure to ask Andy about the #ESPcards
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Contact me on marcus@laughs-last.com
Pop over to the Podbean or Apple podcast apps and leave an honest review please
Thursday Jan 20, 2022
Thursday Jan 20, 2022
"How can you produce a plan when you have no vision?", asks Lenwood M. Ross. We explore why training fails repeatedly and predictably.
We identify where leadership's attention is focused and why it often results in damaging unintended consequences. We ask the question why L&D isn't the right hand of the Board, spearheading the execution of their strategy.
"The behaviour change is what's important", says Lenwood. By enabling to become operational coaches, your middle management layer, particularly in sales, will release the full creativity of every employee simultaneously. By enabling managers to offer Operational Coaching(TM), you free upwards of 40-60% of an average manager's working day to spend on high value management activities.
Lenwood's core business is delivering digital transformation. The difference is he starts with the people. #Change, #Transformation and #OrganisationalDevelopment programmes are GUARANTEED to fail unless you bring your people on board and help them understand why the better future is worth the upheaval of changing.
Website: accelery.com/ (Business Transformation Firm)
Twitter: lenwood_ross
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Are you looking to create a better future for yourself, your family and your business, and you want to achieve profitable, sustainable scale, email me marcus@laughs-last.com or better, find me on LinkedIn