222.8K
Downloads
567
Episodes
Business Insights & Strategies From Experts: Unveiling Simple Truths Behind Success.
I’m always grateful for Reviews and remember to Subscribe
Episodes
Thursday Apr 28, 2022
Thursday Apr 28, 2022
Alex McNaughten and his partner Scott Freeman founded #Apprento.io to help salespeople enter the #SalesProfession, get trained well, and placed in good companies with good bosses. Alex and I explore a range of topics from good and bad management, technology, culture, better questioning to developing your people.
Alex's approach is refreshing, inclusive and highly effective because people get to think, grow, be highly engaged. Make sure you follow Alex on LinkedIn. His content is great.
Contact Alex via linkedin.com/in/alexmcnaughten
Websites:
-
salesleaders.tech (Company Website)
-
apprento.io (Company Website)
Phone: +6421955570 (Mobile)
--
Contact me on marcus@laughs-last.com
Tuesday Apr 26, 2022
Tuesday Apr 26, 2022
"Maybe 3% of your market is in the market to buy what you have to offer today. There's 40% that have problems you can fix that have no idea you exist or that they have the problems you fix. Your job is to get to speak to them"
Pat Joyce is back. We unpick how he penetrates accounts and builds big pipeline, fast. It's messy and requires you to put in a LOT of HARD WORK. And it pays massive dividends. And it's predictable and reliable. Pat has repeated his success multiple times applying what we discuss in this episode.
Oh, and what he does is ugly too. If you like pretty, formal, perfect, this is scrappy, short, has typos, and more importantly, it works. If you are OK with response rates below 12% off your marketing campaigns, carry on doing what you are doing. If you want to deliver results, listen with a notepad and pen.
After all, the outcomes we're after are additional sales revenue growth and a fat, overstocked pipeline brimming with prospects in our ideal persona who are receptive to a conversation with us now or scheduled for when the conditions are clearly right to engage again.
Why do marketing and sales exist?
To help customers make the best decision they can for their business now and for the future. To do that quickly you need to speak to many people, deep and wide, across the organisation in quick succession. Learn how Pat does this and helps his clients build solid pipeline quickly.
Contact Pat via linkedin.com/in/pwilliamjoyce
Website: thejoyce.net (Blog)
Phone: +1-206-591-3367 (Mobile)
Other platforms:
Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eFeZUAwk
Podbean: https://lnkd.in/eJQRRPCa
Apple: https://lnkd.in/eQQvvA8B
ListenNotes: https://lnkd.in/ef3k9eex
Amazon: https://lnkd.in/e24iH7-f
--
Contact marcus@laughs-last.com to talk about your plans for expansion, turnaround or recovery.
Thursday Apr 21, 2022
Thursday Apr 21, 2022
Simon Severino talks to me about building velocity and resilience to thrive in times of high inflation and high uncertainty. Simon says "Never correlate goals with metrics and incentives". He is a design thinker applying the scientific method to his business, his systems and sprints.
Simon shares how he's mitigating his exposure and maximising his potential upside in his personal investment portfolio. We dig into how he's refocusing his costs in preparation for what's to come. We are in for a tough ride. We are also being presented with a number of rare or unique opportunities as we come out of Covid and head into what looks like a very deep recession. Digitisation has been advanced 10 years in the first year of lockdown.
Simon is a master of cooperation and collaboration through strategic alliances allowing him immense reach and revenues for a tiny core operational team.
Contact Simon on linkedin.com/in/simonseverino
Website: strategysprints.com (Company Website)
Twitter: simonseverino
--
Contact me on marcus@laughs-last.com. Ask me how you can increase your close rate to 8:10 or higher
Tuesday Apr 19, 2022
Tuesday Apr 19, 2022
"You must go looking for bad news. That's how you eliminate surprises."
Steve Barnhurst is Enterprise Sales Director at Ebsta. "My job has always been to create the conditions where other people can be successful." Steve brings his wide range of experience as a sales leader through start ups to major PE backed corporates to bear as we explore why tracking engagement is such a critical indicator or deal and pipeline health.
"More time, more fun, enjoy work more, get more done, do better work. We're trying to maximise collaboration. We must get rid of the Lone Wolf syndrome in sales. Enterprise sales are won by teams not individuals. Lack of predictability and consistency leads to a loss of trust. You know something is awry when your salespeople are having to sell their deals as hard internally as they are to their prospects." How many management blindspots come from salespeople seeing through rose tinted spectacles? (or plain lying to cover their backs - my words )
Uncertainty in the pipeline leads to an erosion of trust in the Sales Director, who passes the bad news up the chain of command to the CEO and the Board who get a nasty awakening from the investors if it was a surprise. The consequences of that conversation can be painful.
Steve offers suggestions for building certainty and predictabliity, creating the conditions where discretionary effort is everyone's best effort.
Contact Steve via linkedin.com/in/stevebarnhurst. He's hiring as of 19 April 2022.
Website: ebsta.com (Company Website)
--
Contact me on marcus@laughs-last.com
Thursday Apr 14, 2022
Thursday Apr 14, 2022
Eric Steeves is someone who has really impressed me. In the past 2 weeks he has opened my eyes to the future of #SalesManagement and #RevenueOperations. His approach is one I find deeply refreshing. Listen and you'll understand why. He is measured, humble and committed to helping others succeed. Hear how differently he approaches sales, how he involves others, his diagnosis of the true problems his customers need to addess. Listen to his approach towards competition, cooperation and partnering.
Eric is a deep thinker who spends time patiently understanding the problem and the intended outcome to create elegant solutions that deliver the intended result, are widely adopted with minimal friction, and sustain the ravages of time and use.
And if you ever wondered how to create a fair compensation plan that rewards all those who contributed to the successful execution of the sale all the way through to the customer reporting they have accomplished their intended outcome, bring a pen and notepad. We may just have cracked the compensation problem!
Contact Eric via linkedin.com/in/eric-steeves
Websites
-
trailblazer.me/id/esteeves (Salesforce Trailblazer Profile)
-
trailblazers.salesforce.com/_ui/core/userprofile/UserProfilePage?u=0053A00000FVGyK&tab=sfdc.ProfilePlatformFeed (Salesforce Community Profile)
Spotify: https://lnkd.in/dW6kPwaQ
Apple: https://lnkd.in/dXxF5vBB
ListenNotes: https://lnkd.in/dTsbprp6
Amazon: https://lnkd.in/dwniAAbB
--
We'd love your thoughts. Please comment and tag someone who needs to hear this episode. Get in touch with either of us with questions. Share and please do subscribe to #TheInquisitor podcast
If you want to get hold of me marcus@laughs-last.com
Tuesday Apr 12, 2022
Tuesday Apr 12, 2022
Johan Taft is half Swedish-English-Belgian. He left school at 16, and after a couple of years in the navy, he left and worked his way up the fast food industry. At the age of 19 was managing the world's busiest restaurant. In this high pressure, fast, paced environment he developed his management approach. Deeply spiritual and a martial artist, Johan's thinking is disciplined, humane and is focused on building people up, helping them meet their true potential.
Contact Johan linkedin.com/in/magnifyyourgreatness
Websites
-
magnifyyourgreatness.com (Company Website)
-
sportingmindmastery.com/ (Company Website)
--
Contact me on marcus@laughs-last.com
--
Get in touch if you are looking want to talk about how sales is going to evolve in the future, you think you'd be a good guest or you've read a really good book you think our audience would like to learn about
Thursday Apr 07, 2022
Thursday Apr 07, 2022
Patrick Boucousis is a veteran salesman, sales manager and sales leader. He's been in the trenches and managed from the front. And he has led from behind creating the conditions for many moving parts to work in unison, and many people to thrive, grow and do their best work towards common purpose.
We explore his mistakes and lessons learned selling locally, nationally and internationally from selling farm equipment to farmers through to complex strategic investments by global multinationals. And we dig into the importance of building a well developed, emotionally evolved management layer operating an inquiry led management style.
This is a robust and frank discussion that points to so many of the most common blindspots and frequently unasked questions that are holding back the vast majority of salespeople from meeting their full potential.
Contact Pat via linkedin.com/in/value-selling-coach
Websites
-
salesroad.com (SalesRoad B2B CRM)
-
thesalesnatural.com (Sales Training)
--
Contact me on marcus@laughs-last.com
Thursday Mar 24, 2022
Thursday Mar 24, 2022
Rahul Chauhan says you have to, "Only 1 in 200 start ups become scale up. Start by defining your market fit. Who is the customer you are intending to serve? How do you know whether you have uncovered your true market fit? Do what you do better. Innovate with purpose"
Rahul is Group MD at Foresight Digital, a digital consultancy for scale ups and challenger brands. He explains why you need to be thinking Now - New - Next
- Is your product fit for now? (70%)
- Is your product able to innovate with purpose? (20)
- Are you testing entirely new products? (10)
Rahul warns, if you don't keep one eye on the horizon you quickly become irrelevant. He reminds founders on the need to keep their feet on the ground and remember the price of vanity and ego. Knowing what you shouldn't do is more than half the battle.
What is your value exchange with your customer - 1. price, 2. social currency, education (smarter), 3. speed (core problem relates to lack of time), 4. Do you fit within an ecosystem or package (sticky, easy to connect, complement)
Have you iterated your product? Is it future proof? What's its shelf life?
Rahul says, "Focus on scale. Turn funds into actionable growth. Structure your people and roles for growth. Make sure your team is ready to support scale because when you scale, customers expect delivery at speed - if your services are not delivered at the pace they want, you're creating the conditions for churn."
Contact Rahul on linkedin.com/in/rahulchauhan1
Websites
-
foresightdigital.com.au (Company Website)
--
Contact me on marcus@aughs-last.com.
Ever wondered if there is a better way to sell than selling cold? Imagine a 14-18x higher close ratio. Contact me via email or DM me on Linkedin
Tuesday Mar 22, 2022
Tuesday Mar 22, 2022
"Prospecting is an opportunity to have a profound engagement on both sides", says Denis Champagne, former multidisciplinary international sportsman, practicing Buddhist and founder of #LotusCommunications. Having made hundreds of thousands of #coldcalls, Denis is more qualified than most to talk on the subject. Prospecting by phone is alive and well.
Companies buy sales training to improve results. Mostly, they're disappointed. The needle might jump for a couple of weeks and then almost everything reverts back to how it was before, almost as if the training never happened. Denis discusses his TEAMMS sales framework and the critical importance of #reinforcement, #PRACTICE and #COACHING.
Kindred spirit, Denis is frustrated with the training industry for considering such an outcome as acceptable. He's been prospecting on behalf of clients on the phones since 2006. He works with individuals and teams in Spanish, French and English to help them become competent and consistent prospectors.
We dig into the psychology of refusal vs rejection, leaderships' inability to see a perspective that is not their own, challenges with retention and recruitment, management blindspots, the misguided reliance on the wrong metrics, selling tactics, and what good training and coaching should be. A fun, irreverent interview with one of the greats. No fluff, no faff, just straight talking.
Contact Denis on linkedin.com/in/denis-champagne
Websites:
-
lotuscomm.com (Company Website)
-
theculturemaker.com/ (Company Website)
Twitter: Sprinter14
--
Contact Marcus@Laughs-Last.com or DM me on LinkedIn if you want to talk about how to grow your sales by selling through #Ecosystems, #StrategicAlliances, #OperationalCoaching, #MicroCoaching, #PredictiveHiring, #ManagementEnablement, #MicroPractice #EmployeeEngagement, #ScaleUp, #Marketing and #Sales #ForceMultipliers.
Thursday Mar 17, 2022
Thursday Mar 17, 2022
You are in for a treat. My guest is Majid Zafer. He's one of the next generation of business leaders that is ambitious, competitive and love to win but without the sting in the tail.
Listen to how he has created an ecosystem of trusted partners which produces a steady flow of hot, inbound customers for his business and his partners' businesses. There is a healthy volume of reciprocation which means that a good proportion of everyone's business comes from within the ecosystem.
This creates intimacy and high performance standards between partner; clients value the relationship for the steady stream of disruptive thinking, innovative ideas and insightful discussion. They feel safer having Majid on their buying journey than they do without him. And he is OK whether they buy from him or not. His philosophy is that his role is to help the customer reach the best decision for themselves, for now and the future, whether they buy from him or not. When you learn about the volume of sales generated you might start questioning whether if makes sense to worry so much about the competition, and start wondering "What if we work together?"
Majid's selflessness gives him the right to engage in high support/high challenge relationships with customers and partners alike. They know he only has their best interests at heart and every senior buyer wants someone as a reliable sanity and vanity check. That is a beautiful place to earn for yourself, as your customer's ally, and a true partner.
An inspiring and uplifting episode because the formula is simple. Executing it is harder because you have to overcome your fundamental greed, selfishness, entitlement, attachment and fragile ego. But as my pal Keith says, "Ee-by-gum, but it's worth it!.
Contact Majid on LinkedIn via linkedin.com/in/majidzafer
--
Get in touch with me on marcus@laughs-last.com if you reckon you'd be a great guest, or you want me to guest on your podcast (did that hit you between the eyes like a diamond bullet with its subtlety?)