TheInquisitor Podcast with Marcus Cauchi

Lisa Magnuson: How Can You Win Deals That Are 5X Your Average Deal Size?

#LisaMagnuson is author of #TheTopSalesLeaderPlaybook and #TheTopSellerAdvantage. Her expertise is helping tech companies chasing large, #complexenterprisesales win deals that are 5X their average deal size.

We discuss the importance of planning and strategising, rehearsal and role play to iron out problems, preempt obstacles and objections and reduce the probability of chasing deal you cannot or should not win. Have you ever worked out the cost of an enterprise pursuit, win or lose? It can run into the £tens or £hundreds of thousands. If you have a low #winrate or a low order value it can mean you don't see a profit for months, even years. The second highest hidden cost in any business is the hidden cost of sales and one that bites deep into your bottom line.

If you aren't clear about what's the intersection between what the customer wants and needs and your strengths you can find yourself wasting an eye-watering pile of cash, squandering scarce and costly resources and diverting them from high value, high return real business you can and will win.

• Do you know what your win themes need to be?
• Have you agreed clear roles, responsibilities and #accountability in your account teams?
• Do you have #executivesponsorship and involvement from both sides?
• Have you identified the winning plays to win 5X deals?

Lisa and I have a very honest, unvarnished conversation that will help you identify what your team can be doing to raise your enterprise sales game, drive growth and secure the future of your tech business.

Contact Lisa via:

Lisa’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/toplinesalesWebsites

• toplinesales.com  (Company Website)
• toplinesales.com/blog/  (Blog)

 

Twitter: Lisa_magnuson--Register for our newsletter on sales, channel sales and scale ups here: http://eepurl.com/gu2Yd1Listen to my #ScaleupsAndHypergrowthPodcast on: 

Podbean: scaleupsandhypergrowth.podbean.com

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3t0Gge9e5XaB8REaqkiQ6u

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/scaleups-and-hypergrowth-podcast/id1508754065

Never Waste A Good Crisis

Crises don't create weaknesses, they expose them.

The Covid-19 crisis exposed massive deficiencies in many businesses: in their sales approach, their pipeline, in sales management, a lack of vision, lack of preparation, and highlighted serious talent gaps across the global sales profession.

#CarlosGarrido is co-CEO of #SandlerMiami. He is a keen student of the human condition and psychology. In this frank conversation he admits how he had become comfortable, deluding himself into thinking he was doing a great job. When the lockdown hit, he realised that he'd allowed himself to become complacent.

It was the shot in the arm he needed to get back to core principles. Unfazed by the noise, the doomsayers and the competitions' acceptance of their fate, Carlos went on a mission to thrive in the depressed, frightened economy. We discuss how we have both seized this, the BEST OPPORTUNITY almost every professional salesperson WILL EVER HAVE IN THEIR CAREER to get ahead.

He shares real world tactics that are working today. Many of you will find this uncomfortable because it was our intent to hold up the ugly mirror to you and shock you out of your excuses and torpor. Stop blaming the economy, the lockdown, the negative sentiment and grab the bull by the bollocks and wrench. 

You are responsible for your results. You are responsible for making the best of this bad situation. Your families, your company, your team and your customers depend on you to provide leadership and a safe pair of hands to guide and help them out of this.

Nothing happens in the economy until salespeople sell something. We are the engine that will drive recovery. 

"All will be well. We have, I believe, within us the life-strength and guiding light by which the tormented world around us may find the harbour of safety, after a storm-beaten voyage." - Winston Churchill

Carlos’ Profile: linkedin.com/in/carlosgarrido0Website: absolute.sandler.com  (Company Website)

Twitter: GarridoCsg

 

If You Want To Make Enemies, Recommend Change!

Prof #EddieObeng is CEO of #PentacleVirtualBusinessSchool and founder of #Qube. Eddie is the most famous business guru you've never heard of. An expert in facilitating lasting, effective change we tackle critical questions like:

• Should expensive CEOs be replaced by AI?
• Can virtual workplaces produce better results than physical office environments?
• Why do change programmes fail 75-80% of the time?
• How will others respond to the change you implement?
• How do you get your people to come up with the answers?
• How do you bed in new ways of working?
• What do most organisations overlook that lose them their intended competitive advantages?
• Why are your meetings boring and unproductive?
• How do you maximise effectiveness in a virtual business environment?
• Why benchmarking encourages terrible business practices & hides the truth about performance?

Change doesn't happen in isolation. If you change one moving part, it affects other parts of the business, people or your model. Eddie shares his 5 step E.D.D.I.E. model to prevent change programmes from being set up to fail from the start.

Eddie is a powerhouse of ideas, a serial business disruptor and a pioneer in the field of virtual business execution.

Join Eddie and me for an informative and highly engaging conversation about the future of work and how virtual workplaces will allow improved collaboration, greater diversity of thought and improved efficiency

To contact Eddie about #Qube, Pentacle Virtual Business School or have him guide you through a critical change programme that has buy in, beds in and delivers the results you were hoping for:

Eddie’s LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/prof-eddie-obengWebsites

• PentacleTheVBS.com  (Company Website)
• pentaclenewworldtimes.blogspot.com/  (Pentacle: New World Times Blog)
• imagineafish.blogspot.com/  (Blog)

Phone

• +44 (0) 1494678555 (Work)

 

Twitter

• EddieObeng
• PentacleTheVBS
• QUBEcc

Who Is The 1 Constant In All Your Dissatisfying Relationships?

#AmyWoodall is back for the 3rd time discussing why you must own your 50% of every interaction. We explore how to stay out of psychological games is possible if you own your 50. If you let your ego get hooked you will be dragged kicking and screaming into the #Drama Triangle, which describes every f**ked up, broken, dysfunctional relationship you can or will ever have.

We explore what that means for leaders, managers, salespeople and customers.

We delve into the #Winners' Triangle and how being vulnerably assertive can give you power and strength in the face of bullies, victims and micromanagers.

This episode is a tour de force by a genuine master of #TransactionalAnalysis. Listen to Amy and then listen to the world's most famous #ChipDoyle in my interview with him about using #TA in the sale and how to stay unattached and egoless in the sale: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-8wfhf-d90b64

Together these interviews delivers the fundamental principles of #authenticselling and #authenticmanagement and help you take and maintain control over your own response to adversity, conflict or disappointment.

Please COMMENT and SUBSCRIBE. DOWNLOAD this episode to listen at your leisure.

Click the link to receive more in-depth interviews with leaders of Scaleups and Hypergrowth technology disruptors. 

Why Your Attachment Is Hurting Your Sales Results?

If you don't understand the principles and underlying psychology of human interactions, people appear unpredictable, sales will be misunderstood as an art and you will regularly be disappointed. This episode is full of eye popping surprises you can take and apply in your selling, in managing salespeople and in your client relationships. "Selling is a science. It's a process. Sales are predictable. It's predictable just like finance or manufacturing"

#ChipDoyle explains how #TA #TransactionalAnalysis plays out in every sale. We discuss the importance of applied transactional analysis to understand what is happening at every moment in every sale. I learn how to recognise when my child ego state is coming out to play and why it is so important to keep the child under adult supervision to prevent derailing your sale. 

Chip explains how to sell, manage expectations and win referrals by applying TA. It will surprise many of you that Chip says, "I have made more money in the post sell step than any other part of the Sandler submarine". Not the up front contract, not pain, not budget but the #postsell. Learn why?

Join me and Chip in a down and dirty conversation about the deepest recesses of your mind and your prospects' minds. A fascinating expose into human behaviour.

Please COMMENT and SUBSCRIBE. DOWNLOAD this episode to listen at your leisure.

To receive alerts about in-depth interviews with leaders of #Scaleups and #Hypergrowth technology disruptors you can visit my other podcast go to scaleupsandhypergrowth.podbean.com.

Understanding Your Prospects, Your People & New Hires To Scale Up

#DrewDAgostino is CEO and founder of #Crystal. Crystal uses AI to give you insights into the preferred communication and behavioural style through their LinkedIn profile. It's between 80-85% accurate and the best $29 a month you can invest in your sales team.

Drew and I discuss how being better prepared for every conversation you have with prospects and clients can positively impact your results. Understanding people with 

We also explore the challenges and lessons from building 2 scale up businesses. Drew talks about investors and consequences for founders of taking the different types of money:

• Good money
• Dumb money
• Bad money

 

Why You Need To Coach Your Salespeople Properly With Genuine Data

I hope this interview upsets a lot of you. You need a kick up the arse if you are not coaching effectively. Telling is NOT coaching. Coaching is NOT OPTIONAL. NOT, NOT, NOT optional. And now you have no excuse under the corona lockdown because you can't hide behind being stuck in meetings or foreign travel

Coaching is a board level issue. Ignore this fact at your peril.

Visit https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sales-coaching-board-level-discussion-richard-smith if you question this fact.

Dynamic coaching can deliver a 27.6% improvement in win rates for forecasted deals. Even a formal approach to coaching can deliver a 13.5% improvement in win rates. (CSO Insights)

Those sales people who aren’t coached are 27% MORE likely to miss quota than those who are coached.

#RichardSmith is Sales Director at #Refract.ai. Refract record and analyse sales calls and coaching calls to help managers improve their coaching of their salespeople. Their AI analyses the call and helps managers pinpoint teachable moments drawing on the millions of calls from which they have captured. 

What was the talk time balance? Use of verbs and adjectives? How silence was used (or more likely NOT used!)? Emphasis, nuance, when specific topics are brought up in the call e.g. price, competitors, specific objections and how they were handled or neutralised.

Coaching is NOT an option if you want to see performance of your salespeople rise. It is an act of gross negligence by you as the manager to fail to coach your people. It is an act of stupidity, ignorance and idiocy (am I making the point forcefully enough?) and should be seen as an act of gross misconduct.

Leaders, you are not free of blame. Stop over-burdening sales managers, who have the most precarious position in your business with utterly onanistic reporting to feed your bean counters with data that is frankly inaccurate and often potentially harmful to feed your bad decisions. Making investment decisions based on forecasts that a Voodoo soothsayer could do a better job of predicting than your salespeople is utter lunacy.

Have a listen and weep

You can get hold of Richard at:

Richard’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/richard-smith-refractWebsite: refract.ai  (Company Website)Email: richard@refract.aiTwitter: richard_refract

Please COMMENT and SUBSCRIBE to receive more in-depth interviews with sales leaders. DOWNLOAD this episode to listen at your leisure.

Check out my new Podcast #ScaleupsAndHyperGrowth for intimate, in-depth interviews packed with real world lessons from disruptive technology #scaleups who have architected and navigated the turbulent and often terrifying waters of #hypergrowth and made it out the other side without the wheels coming off

ScaleupsAndHyperGrowth or on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3t0Gge9e5XaB8REaqkiQ6u

Can You Really Predict Who, What, When And Why People Will Buy?

#MartinLucas, tells the brutal truth about human behaviour. Irrational is normal. Emotional is normal. We buy emotionally and we justify using reason and logic. His excellent blog on the subject https://www.gapinthematrix.com/blog/irrational is worth reading. 

Martin is CEO of #GapInTheMatrix. He is a #MathematicalPsychologist who advises global brands on what they are doing to prevent customers from buying, staying loyal, and wasting profits on unnecessary and fruitless advertising, marketing or damaging sales conversations.

He has been a multi-award winning salesman, he's established and grown several businesses and today advises multi-$billion brands in consumer and B2B markets on how to stop self-sabotaging their efforts. He teaches sales teams how to stop projecting unconscious messages that hurt their efforts by projecting contradictory or harmful messages to customers that prevent them from buying.

This interview takes a sophisticated message and dissects it into simple to understand elements you can use and apply in your business, large or small. Fascinating to listen to, Martin's work helps companies win customers, rebuild loyalty once customers have lapsed, prevent them from losing faith in your brand in the first place and secure customers from your competition.

You can contact Martin through his LinkedIn profile at linkedin.com/in/behavioral-sciences

Why Is Compromise Harmful To You in Negotiations?

#ToddLCamp is Founder of the Pareto Group and Co-Owner of Camp Negotiation Systems. His father, Jim Camp, wrote the BEST book about negotiation you will ever read, #StartWithNo. Jim was trained by David Sandler and evolved his negotiation system in line with core Sandler principles which is why I am so excited to bring you this interview.

Todd shares real world examples of negotiation that delivers to #mission and #purpose. Mission & purpose are all about the what matter to the customer and how they need us to deliver it. They have nothing to do with you, your company or your needs. If you fall into the trap of delivering your proposal too quickly you do yourself harm.

Great negotiators are willing to slow down to speed up. They usually get everything they want. Average negotiators give away their power, start from a position of fear or subservience and never get more than they are willing to ask for.

Manage each negotiation ONE conversation at a time. Don't take yourself hostage by jumping to conclusions or you will be leaving money on the table. Don't give away your power. Realise you have equal business stature with your counter party.

He crushes the myth of win-win in negotiation. Win-win is not compromise. He shares critical rules that prevent you from performing acts of idiocy and self-sabotage. He answers the question "What is a successful negotiation?"

You can't manage results. You can only manage your behaviour.

This interview is a MUST LISTEN for all CEOs, founders seeking funding, salespeople, channel managers.

You can contact Todd through:

Todd's LinkedIn Profile:linkedin.com/in/todd-l-camp-6903904Websites

• negotiator-pro.com  (Company Website)
• campnegotiationinstitute.com  (Company Website)

Email: tcamp@campnegotiations.com

Channel Sales & Covid-19 With JayMcBain from Forrester

#JayMcBain is Lead Analyst with #Forrester for #Channel, #Alliances, #Partnerships.

He shares his research on how he sees 2020 panning out and the future of the channel during the #CovidCrisis and #postCovid19. The bad news if, of the 600,000 VARs and MSP partners out there in March/April 2020, up to 25% may not be here before the end of Q2. The channel is under extreme pressure because a quarter don't have the cashflow, savings or credit lines to survive, whilst those who may be in a position to survive don't feel they can furlough staff for fear of never getting them back.

He also shares some really important insights for #scaleups, #techhypergrowth companies and #investors. Did you realise that the right #ChannelChief can mean the difference between and IPO at $100m or $1.5m?

We explore Phases 1, 2 and 3 of this crisis, best, most likely and worst case scenarios, when channels can expect a boost to sales and recovery once the movement restrictions are lifted, why this is a perfect storm and what the new normal might look like.

The trifurcation of the channel into transactional, non-transactional and retention models also bears careful consideration whether you are a vendor or a potential partner.

I acknowledge the awful human cost but there is a good deal of hope, and personally, I feel this is the BEST opportunity professional salespeople and A-player channel managers and channel chiefs will EVER have in our working lives to shine, get ahead and establish our personal brands. Have a listen. Please like, comment and share and of course, subscribe

Get in touch with Jay via LinkedIn, his blog, Forrester and Twitter or ping me a DM on LI and I will make a personal introduction once we've spoken