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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
Monday Apr 20, 2020
Monday Apr 20, 2020
#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
Saturday Apr 18, 2020
Saturday Apr 18, 2020
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_refractPlease 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
Tuesday Apr 14, 2020
Tuesday Apr 14, 2020
#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
Saturday Apr 11, 2020
Saturday Apr 11, 2020
#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)
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campnegotiationinstitute.com (Company Website)
Wednesday Apr 08, 2020
Wednesday Apr 08, 2020
#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
Saturday Apr 04, 2020
Saturday Apr 04, 2020
Covid-19 has thrown us all into a state of unwelcome change. The economy has been kicked in the crotch but it's not dead. Now is NOT the time for you or your salespeople to sit back and whimper about the unfairness of the situation. It is the time to seize the good in this crisis.
Many of you will be going through a process identical to grief.
- Denial
- Anger
- Bargaining
- Depression
Your job as a sales manager or sales leader is to help your salespeople reach Acceptance. Managers who coach each salesperson in their team for 3-3.5 hours will help their people be STRONGER through this crisis and help their business THRIVE not just survive.
Business leaders, now is NOT the time to cut back on training. It is the time to double down on SALES training. Product training is NOT sales training. Develop a cadence of training and coaching because your salespeople are critical to the current and future survival of your business. Sales is the lifeblood of your business. EVERY role, your equity, shareholder value all depend on your salespeople performing during this period.
Buyers are easier to get hold of now than they ever have been or will be in your lifetime. We are seeing a 300% increase in access to decision makers. Of course you need to be sensitive to their current situation but if you can help them, you do them a massive disservice by waiting, by not prospecting, by not calling customers and engaging in discussions about their business, their people, their vision, their future.
No punches pulled and some very cold, hard truths in this episode. Last year 56% of salespeople worldwide FAILED to hit quota. That number will plummet this year. 13% of sales teams HIT quota last year. I believe that number will stay more or less the same. Why? Because those teams are being trained and coached by GOOD managers.
This is the time invest in your managers to become great managers.Most sales managers are tapped on the shoulder and told "Congratulations. You are one" without any training or onboarding into the role. Their bosses don't coach them either. That is a massive dereliction of duty as a leader. Get outside help if you don't know how to do this yourself effectively.
Now is the time to remove the salespeople who are not able or willing to change. You hired them so make sure you do everything you can to help them and if you have to cut heads, do it kindly and fairly. It is a kindness to them and good decision for the business.
You can get hold of Dylis and dylisguyan.com
Friday Mar 27, 2020
Friday Mar 27, 2020
My guest is #KurtShaver, Chief Sales Officer at #Vengresso. He is a tech sales veteran of 36 years who moved into digital B2B social selling.
Kurt explains the difference between social marketing and social selling. As a seller, your objective is to get engagement to generate a sales conversation. We explain how to use social selling to drive opportunities forward or out of the funnel, how to identify the players in the buying committee and deliver value to open them up to your offering.
Kurt raises the question about how do you track success in you digital selling? How else can social and digital platforms help your company? Where else can we take this social lark?
Digital technologies like LinkedIn can support your sales, your recruitment and your marketing. Kurt cites an example where a potential heavy hitting new hire that an MSP was hoping to hire, was concerned because their strategy on LinkedIn was weak and it was affecting his decision. We identify a serious gap which presents an important opportunity, which is the recruitment of partners.
We dig into why selfish vendor marketing leaves their partners cold and is a hangover of traditional marketing not adapting to the social era. Social has flattened and democratised content distribution but few vendors or marketers have adapted well. We investigate why too much IT marketing is focused too narrowly on IT, and is missing their real audience in the line of business.
Kurt gives you a beautifully elegant tip to tap into the expertise of your technical leads who suffer the curse of knowledge so they can position themselves as subject matter experts but keep them under control so they don’t sink your sale.
We investigate how to win mindshare in a crowded market with your customers and your partners. Kurt identifies the crucial importance of being timely, to localize your content by putting the power in the hands of the individual salesperson to ensure that the right conversations are coordinated and delivered correctly to the right people with the right buyers. I explain why failure to coordinate effectively will rack up unnecessary and eye-wateringly high, hidden costs of sale. The metrics that used to work in the past, no longer do, because of the current level of complexity, the number of buyers involved, and the increased difficulty.
Contact Kurt:
Kurt’s LinkedIn Profile Websites-
vengreso.com (Digital Sales Transformation)
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bit.ly/Social_Selling_Boot_Camp (Social Selling BootCamp)
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vengreso.com/blog (Digital Sales Blog)
Friday Mar 20, 2020
Friday Mar 20, 2020
#AlexMoscow, CEO of 9mmPR has been working with CEOs for the past 20 years helping them to tell their story through the voice of their customers.
Alex explains why you mustn't sell overtly using PR. You have to speak with the voice of your customer. Do you really know why they bought from you? Why they disqualified your competition? How far you have help them come? If you don't really know what problem you solve, it makes your sales a matter of luck rather than judgement. Understanding "Why?", "So what?", " Who cares?" This is incredibly powerful and missed by so many of your competitors.
Good stories don't make you the hero. Your customer is the hero. You are Sherpa Tensing or Obi Wan. You are not Sir Edmund Hillary or Luke Skywalker, your customer is.
Alex recommends you act out the story which lets them see themselves in your stories. He reminds us that we love to earwig a good conversation. We discuss why it's vital to enter the conversations that your prospects are already having using micro-narratives.
What makes you, your market's perfect partner? In a world where time is a scarce commodity, failing to have a clear answer to this question means you will routinely find yourself in competitive situations. Give a clear answer and you are the only one they speak to.
How do you position yourself as the aspirational choice? What makes people want to be part of the community that grows up around you? Are you using testimonials as powerful micro-narratives that make your clients the hero?
PR lets you borrow the credibility of your customer and the editorial team without blowing your own trumpet.
Alex elevates the why and the impact to help you tell stories that emotionally engage your target audience. If they are triggered emotionally, they will take action and contact you.
Check out the freakonomics podcast for a fresh view on stuff you think you know and the book "The Great Mental Models" by #ShaneParrish
Contact Alex if you want to raise your profile in the press:
Alex’s Profile:linkedin.com/in/alexmoscowWebsite: 9mmpr.com (9MM Public Relations Ltd)Phone: 07967 604 652 (Mobile)Email: alex@9mmpr.comMonday Mar 16, 2020
Monday Mar 16, 2020
#JohnBedwany is a seasoned sales veteran who is the the world's leading expert in #AuthenticRelationshipManagement. What is #ARM? The best salespeople are able to develop peer to peer benchmarks, developing and sharing intelligence about what other comparable decision makers are thinking and worrying about. Positioning yourself as a thought leader and source of valuable executive education and insight allows you to displace incumbents.
A-players stand apart from everyone else because of the authentic relationships they develop through transparent intent. Only very few salespeople do any genuine segmentation. The best identify those accounts they have a high probability of closing because you can improve their business position.
We discuss how to establish control over your sales without being authoritarian, how to stay relevant over the long term & maintain deal velocity by defining personalised roadmaps to yes. We also explore how the salesperson can marshal all the resources, people and milestones to ensure predictability in your pipeline and forecast. You'll understand why winging it is an act of criminal negligence on the part of both salesperson and their manager. We explain why scripts are harmful to the buying experience.
John helps his clients establish deep credibility with their prospects over time using a closed loop prospecting process but he bemoans the fact that lazy and incompetent salespeople blow up well qualified opportunities through lack of preparation. Having a mentoring system, coaching and regular investment in the individuals in the sales team with a personalised training budget will positively impact performance.
I make the point that true trickledown occurs when you train and coach your senior executive team and refer to what #JeffMagee suggested which is that the Chief Learning Officer spends their time coaching and developing the leadership team.
John makes some very interesting author recommendations
You can contact John via:
John’s LinkedIn ProfileWebsite-
dbdept.com.au (Company Website)
Friday Mar 13, 2020
Friday Mar 13, 2020
#KevinBeales is CEO of #Refract.ai. Refract is a canny technology that uses #AI to help managers and salespeople slice and dice sales conversations with prospects and customers.
Imagine being able to break down every second of a call to understand talk time between seller and buyer, the kind of language used to persuade or dissuade a prospect, the verbs and adjectives, the use of silence or the propensity to fill silence with the sound of the seller's voice.
These technologies are potentially incredibly useful for managers who can use the data to coach and deliver predictable performance improvement of individual salespeople.
Kevin shares some of the frequently UNasked questions that CXOs should be asking but aren't. We dissect the gaps in management coaching capability that have led to the shocking statistic that in 2019 on 13% of sales teams worldwide hit quota and only 44% of individual, full time, "professional" salespeople hit their quota.
As we face another downturn, it is more important than ever that managers invest sufficient time, consistently, in helping their salespeople improve. In particular, skills like prospecting, qualification and heading of stalls and put offs are key. But these tools can also help senior executives identify gaps in their management layer.
Contact Kevin via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbeales/