The Brandon Bornancin Show: Recent Episodes
Brandon Bornancin
So the question is this, how do entrepreneurial sales people like us, who have traditionally sold alone and used gut and intuition to hit their number, take their innate talents and begin selling using science, technology, and the secrets of thousands who have done it before---to crush their quota and change the world. That is the question and this podcast provides the answers.
Customers are king and nowhere is that more apparent than in the casino and gaming industry. The retention and treatment of a customer can make or break a company. In this episode, managing partner Cory Morowitz talks about his experience consulting companies on the importance of the customer in the gaming industry.
Transparency is a buzzword but it’s still important. Great companies have figured out a way to be transparent but also be private. Transparency doesn’t mean telling everything but it does mean open and honestly. In this episode, David Karp talks about transparency and how great companies use this tool to be successful.
Account management has been around a long time but it’s changing every day. There are emerging trends that are forcing leaders of account management to change the way they do their job and it’s a good thing. In this episode, Suneal Rao talks about trends in account management and the secrets great companies are following to win with this important sales function.
Inside sales is growing at incredible rates and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. Many companies struggle to figure out how to change their typical outside sales motion to an inside sales motion. In this episode, Jeff Knowlton from Softchoice talks to us about how to effectively scale an inside sales team.
Change is hard. Nobody likes it but it is something that we all have to deal with every day in sales. In this episode, Sharlene Dozois from Cision talks about her experiences with change and how she’s managed teams through that change to be successful.
Why do sales reps always want to talk about themselves? It’s because they are comfortable with that. It’s hard to learn about the customer, their problems, and their industry but that’s exactly what great salespeople do. They spend more time on the customer then they do themselves. In this episode, Chief Business Development Officer Lori Langholz talks to us about her discoveries of moving from a question-based sales to an insight based sale.
We've all sold for a long time but many of us have not taken the time to step back and think about what are the principles that make us successful in our day-to-day selling. In this episode, Joe Haynie from JCI talks to us about three enduring sales principles that have shaped his career and help to make him a successful sales leader
Pre-call planning is one of most important tasks we overlook in sales. Many sales reps want to simply get on the phone and do their thing, but more and more reps are finding that shoot from the hip approach is not working. In this episode, we dive into how Jeff Boyle from Cision coaches his team to think about pre-call planning:
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Research the contact & their company
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Check your CRM system
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Explore on LinkedIn (Contact & Company Page)
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Competitor overview
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Plan for the call
There are a lot of salespeople in the world but not every salesperson really wants it. To win at sales, you have to dive deep into yourself and really decided if you want to really get better at what you do or not. Don’t talk the talk if you’re not ready to walk the walk. In this episode, we talk about how some of the greatest salespeople in the world are successful.
Front-line managers are oft-forgotten and they shouldn't be. In this episode, Natalie Bering from Service now talks about how to support managers by coaching them, maximizing your 1:1 time with them, and focusing on their professional development.
September 11th was a terrible time for many people and the US as a whole. For many people, it was a day they will never forget as it changes their lives forever. In this special episode, we talk to inside sales executive Jim Donovan about his experience on 9/11 and how his life was transformed.
If you don't hire and retain you will wither and die in today's market. The problem most people don't know how to do this. In this episode, we discuss how to select candidates, on-boarding, and training.
We need to change the way we sell. We can't sell our products anymore. There are two many products but there are not enough solutions. Buyers have problems and they need solutions but not in the way you think you need them. We need to change the message in sales to get buyers to change vendors/product. Salespeople tend to focus on the gain by asserting to the customer that they will save $x money (but this isn’t the best way to create change or motive a buyer to take a risk, i.e. buy your product). Salespeople should shift focus to the loss, which motivates people to be more risk-seeking/risk-taking to improve their situation. So rather than claiming (A) “we can save you 10% (framed as a gain), you should claim (B) “you are spending 10% more than you should be (framed as a loss).
In this episode, we talk about prospect theory and how it can help you move from product selling to solution selling.
Sales Operations is a known function for many organizations but it is often underutilized. In this episode, we discuss how sales operations can be most effectively utilized by using big data, understanding the customer lifetime value, and collaborating with other parts of the organization.
Sales Development is an important role in many companies but many teams still struggle to figure out how to coach and train reps to be successful. In this episode we discuss the importance of sales development and the top three skills needed to be successful.
Conversation starter Lead Management Qualified lead/opp transfer to sales
Let me guess, your sales pipeline isn't moving as you'd like it? Nobodies is. The question is how do you get it unstuck? Most people think you need to run fancy reports and have hours of conversations and although those are important things the most important thing about talking to customers is often overlooked. In this episode, we dive into the importance of talking with customers when trying to understand why your pipeline is not moving.
Everybody knows relationships make or break the sale but how do you build relationships to be a successful salesperson. In this episode, Sr Managing Director at JLL, Steve Steinmeyer talks about the power of relationship selling and how you can start to build relationships to help you sell more.
In this episode, Gabe talks about using text messaging in your day to day sales activities to help you sell more.
There are multiple ways to communicate with prospects and potential buyers. As salespeople, we often get comfortable with the methods we know best which are phone and email. The problem with this is, if you're using those methods probably everybody else is as well. What can you do differently? What methods will help you stand out from your competition? In this episode, Thomas Parb from SMS Magic joins us to talk about texting and how you can best use it to optimize the sales cycle.
There are a lot of reasons why companies win and lose. Some of the reasons are simple and some are complex but either way, it's never easy to become a great company. In this episode, Gabe breaks down some of his experience consulting other companies and he gives his advice as to why some companies win and some companies lose.
Acquiring new leads, moving them down the funnel, and closing the deal; this is the life-blood of any company. However, the complicated nature of strategy and execution often makes it the most broken process of an organization. How do you optimize this process in order to get the most out of your sales funnel and strike a balance between innovation and consistency? In this episode, Gabe Larsen talks about the nuts and the bolts of getting your process right, top to bottom.
Account-based marketing is a buzz word but how do you actually do it and should you do it? In this episode, Gabe breaks down the term account-based marketing into a three simple step process to start doing this motion correctly.
Video in sales is all the rage but does it really work and should you use it? In this episode, Gabe Larsen talks about the secrets to using video and how, if done right, video can be a game-changing technology for you to use in your sales prospecting efforts.
I have nearly 1000 connection requests in my LinkedIn inbox (990). I'm not popular I'm just months behind because I promised myself I would do a personalized note for every response. I just looked at 990 requests and found that 142 of them had a note for a total of 14%. 14% of connection requests have a personalized note. . . hmmm interesting
Should we or should we not personalize connection requests on LinkedIn? The answer should be yes. In this episode, I dive into why connection requests are personalized and why you should take the time to personalize every connection you make.
Everybody needs the formula to sell more and sell better. The problem is that is exactly what people lack.
Everyday people get confused with the term account-based and what it means for them. No matter what you call it, strategically prospecting to your target accounts is an important part of marketing and sales and if you do it right, you can sell more. In this episode, Gabe Larsen talks about account-based marketing and the three steps you should focus on to be successful with this hot trend.
Every sales person has conversations but not every sales person has mastered the art of the conversation. Most sales people don't even have the ability to listen to their own phone calls let alone analyze and break them down. That's now changing. With the introduction of conversational intelligence companies are now able to have systems record calls and analyze them for you. In this episode, Roy Raanani, CEO of Chorus.ai, talks about conversational intelligence and how companies are using phone calls to increase sales.
You might think the handoff between sales and sales development is working, right? I mean it might have a few problems but overall it's okay right? Wrong. It's totally broken and if it needs to be fixed ASAP. Sadly, there is no magic potion but there are a few things you can do to make it better. In today's episode, Gabe Larsen talks about the Discovery Score and how you can use it to make the discovery call better for your organization.
The art of mapping accounts is just that, an art. It's something that sales people have done for decades and it's not an easy task. In this episode, SVP of sales at Lucid, Dan Cook, talks to us about how companies are mapping accounts to improve their pursuit strategies and ultimately their sales.
Chat is a so hot right now it's crazy. The problem is most people are jumping on the bandwagon and buying chat problems but nobody knows what to do with them or how they are impacting the way we sell. In this episode, Billy Bateman from ChatFunnels talks to us about how chatbots are changing the way we sell and how you can success with them.
- How to deploy a bot and not lose your sales team.
- How to approach the continuous optimization of a chatbot.
- How to measure the success of a chatbot.
Most sales and marketing leaders struggle to understand what ABM is and how they can do it effectively in their organization. In this episode, Shari Johnston talks about her ABM experience and the secrets every leader needs to master in order to win with ABM
Every SDR team makes mistakes. Some make more than others. However, there are three mistakes almost every SDR team makes and they are killing the productivity and capability of SDR departments all over the world. In this episode, Becc Holland talks about these three mistakes and gives tips for companies to overcome them.
Everybody wants to hire better people but most people don't spend the time to really think through a strategy on how they can hire better. In the recent months, we've sat down and built our own hiring model on a shoe-string budget. In this episode, we dive into that strategy and some of the early results.
Everybody needs to hire great sales people but not everybody can. Sales hiring is not just about the art of sales it's also about the science of selling and great leaders understand they need a balance of both. In this episode, Brett Morris, CEO of PerceptionPredict discusses the how you can make your hiring process more objective to ensure you successfully hire super stars.
How can inside sales leaders be better, faster, and cheaper to help their companies transform and successfully go-to-market? What is the next generation of sales organization bringing to the table to facilitate the ever-changing landscape?
In this episode, Philip Andersen, Partner & Managing Director at BCG, discusses how sales teams can build an integrated sales & marketing engine using inside sales techniques and processes.
If you’re in sales, it’s only a matter of time before someone tells you to “work harder” or “we need more activities (dials, emails, voicemails, social, mailers, etc).” But is this really the silver bullet to hitting your number in sales? Just work harder?
If every sales reps works harder, will they crush their quota and hit their number? Or should sales work smarter by doing more research and having more insights on every lead they contact?
Brandon Bornancin, Founder of Seamless.ai, and Gabe Larsen, VP of Growth at InsideSales.com, discuss whether sales should work harder or work smarter to improve their contact rates. Gabe and Brandon will go over tips, tricks, and techniques, on how sales can effectively prioritize their leads to improve their selling motion.
Commitments are hard in every part of life and sales is no different. Committing people in the right way can make or break a deal so taking this principle lightly is a bad idea. In this episode, Michael Tuso talks about why commitments are not working and how they can.
Every sales rep is looking to have more meaningful conversations. Whether it’s with a new lead they’re hoping to get in touch with, or with a potential buyer who has gone cold. There is a plethora of strategies on how to acquire more conversations. With terms such as: cadence, sequence, follow-up, and outreach being thrown around like a chopped salad, it’s difficult to know what methodologies actually deliver results.
After reviewing 479,140 sales activities, we discovered the four laws that will increase your connect rates as well as conversations.
Join Gabe Larsen, VP of Growth at InsideSales.com, as he discusses these four laws. Showing you how to build a cadence that delivers real results.
Learn:
The four laws to build a successful sales cadence
Tips and tricks on building cadences for different sales situations
What 1,456 different sales cadences tell us about conversation rates
What is AI and why is it important? Today there is a lot of talk about artificial intelligence but many people still struggle figure out how it can benefit their sales team. In this episode, we'll be addressing the mistrust in AI, how is AI being used in sales today, and what are real life examples of how it's benefitting us.
- Demystifying the AI Black Box
Not sure how to tell your story? Look no further than this podcast episode. In today's episode, Amiet Director of Business Development at Digital Brew talks about how to tell your story using proven principles and best practices with v
Sales technology continues to advance and leaders are looking for the next thing that will provide the growth for their organizations. Some sales technology will become commoditized in the future but the thing that will differentiate tools is data. Data provides a differentiator but not just any data. Collective intelligence is data fueled by all all users for the greater good of the group. This type of data will be key in sales and marketing to continue to fuel the data economy.
Sales Development is one of the biggest trends in sales and it is here to stay. To win at sales development you need to master five plays according to Dan Gottlieb from TOPO. Those plays are developing a repeatable and prescriptive live call framework, focus SDRs on multi-threading within target accounts, design SDR onboarding activities for their role, leverage sales engagement filters for time management, and try an offer that is 100% valuable to the prospect.
We all know how to build an inside sales team right? Well maybe but not when it comes to running an inside sales team in EMEA. Do the same rules apply as they do in the US? Can reps prospect just like they do in in the US? What about GDPR? How does it work between countries? These are all good questions and topics we covered with Christian in this podcast about unique aspects of inside sales in EMEA.
Sales activity consistently spikes at the end of the month, but what managers don’t know is that this is costing them money. While sales reps stuff any opportunity, no matter how bad in the pipeline at the end of the month, win rates drop over 51% (from InsideSales.com research). But how do you manage pipeline hygiene and wean sales reps off of bad behaviors like opportunity stuffing or sandbagging?
Enter Artificial intelligence (AI) for forecasting and pipeline management tools.
AI can quickly scan and analyze billions of data points on CRM transactions and their outcomes, as well as external data to come up with predictions that are 30% more accurate than regular pipeline reviews.
This makes it much easier to produce realistic revenue projections that are based on hard data, and seamlessly navigate weekly pipeline review calls.
Don't pay your sales reps commission? You've got to be crazy! Well that's exactly what Mitch Little has been teaching and practicing for years and the funny thing is, he's seeing some pretty powerful results. Mitch has taken a non-traditional approach to sales by not paying his reps commissions but rather paying them a high base salary and letting the numbers take care of the rest. Although, somewhat controversial Mitch explains his ideas on the podcast and makes a case for everyone else to consider.
When it comes to sales, most sales people think if they don't drop their price they won' win the deal. In this episode, we talk about sales differentiation and the 19 easy-to-implement concepts to help salespeople win deals while protecting margin.
AI is here in full force and a lot of companies are talking about it but is it real and what can it do to help sales people sell more? In this episode, we talk about how AI is disrupting sales, how sales is being automated, and why sales people should care.
- How AI is disrupting sales – the age of implementation of new technologies
- Sales is being automated, but not as much as we think – the human element of AI
- Data, analytics, correlations: The importance of CRM systems and sales data hygiene
- What is a Data Scientist anyway? Why modern sales organizations need a Data Strategy person
Not every sales leader has the luxury of picking who he or she get's to work with and that can make things really difficult. If you inherit a sales team what should you do and how can you best perform? In this episode, we dive into how great leaders manage to be successful when they inherit a sales team that may or may not be the best.
Sales is not going anywhere but it is changing. What does the future of sales look like and how can you get ahead of it? In this episode, we talk about the next generation of sales people and how they can be successful.
Experiments are a must in sales. You can't guess and expect to be right all the time. In sales testing is the new normal and great sales reps and managers find a way to successfully test everything they are doing to find optimal ways to be successful. In this episode, we dive into the concept of experimenting and talk about how great reps find a way to test their way to success.
https://blog.insidesales.com/sales-productivity/sales-experiments-importance/
Salesforce has become a special company and every once and awhile they will open the doors and let us understand their secrets of success. In this episode, we dive into how to build a sales development team the Salesforce way.
Sales technology is a must for every sales organization but that doesn't mean it's easy to know what technology you should and shouldn't use. In this episode, we discuss how companies are building and optimizing their marketing and sales technology stack.
Everybody has a model but does a model really make a company successful? In this episode, we discuss how models and mindsets work together to drive success in organizations.
Sales prospecting is never easy. One aspect of sales prospecting that is particularly difficult is finding the right contact information for your target contacts. Phone numbers seem like they would be easy to find but they are not. That doesn't mean it's impossible to find direct dial phone numbers you just need to know some of the secrets of the trade. In this episode, we talk about some of the tips and tricks to finding direct dial phone numbers.
Catch the blog here:
https://blog.insidesales.com/dialer/how-to-find-direct-dial-phone-numbers-when-prospecting/
Trends come and go and some stick and others don't. I sat down this Jan and wrote down 50 trends every leader needs to know about. Dave Elkington, CEO of InsideSales.com, and I decided to sit down and discuss some of these trends and get his take on which trends will mean the most as we jump into 2019.
This is the coolest thing we've done at InsideSales.com. We did a study to figure out what sales reps BELIEVE they do in an outbound sales cadences, versus what reps ACTUALLY do and the results were fascinating!
You can see the results here: https://blog.insidesales.com/sales-development/outbound-sales-cadence/
We examined the pillars of a cadence, attempts, media, duration, spacing, and content. Here is what we found:
ATTEMPTS:
-Believed: 15.1
-Actual: 3.5
-Optimal: 7
MEDIA:
-Believed: 4 types
-Actual: 2 types
-Optimal: 3+ types
DURATION:
-Believed: 28 days
-Actual: 24.6 days
-Optimal: 6-8 days
SPACING:
-Believed:1.9 days
-Actual: 10.4 days
-Optimal: 1-2 days
CONTENT:
-See the data
Millennials are tough no matter how you slice it. The way they expect to work and they way they expect to sell is different than any generation before them. Nobody knows this better than Craig Parrish from McAfee. He's been doing inside sales for almost 20 years and he's battled training and coaching for a variety if different generational sales people. In this episode, Craig takes us through some of his experiences in transforming the culture of McAfee.
Trends are a funny thing. Some die and some survive. Unfortunately, we don't know which ones will be most impactful for our businesses so it's important to know what trends are out there and begin thinking how they will affect your business.
In this episode, I dive further into our list of top 50 trends for 2019 and discuss the evolution of the sales model and well as what's going on with the technology landscape.
Every year, people write their top trend list so this year I thought I'd write mine. I usually think their lists are pretty weak and I can do better so I thought I'd take a stab. I was surprise that I came up with 50 trends in a really short amount of time. Most people thought I was crazy to say there was 50 trends happening in 2019 and maybe they are right. Maybe you should not call them trends but either way, these are things I think you'll see happen in 2019 so you'll want to watch them carefully.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Top Trends Blog
- Social Fight about AI and Sales
- Subscribe to Gabe's Content
Every year, people write their top trend list so this year I thought I'd write mine. I usually think their lists are pretty weak and I can do better so I thought I'd take a stab. I was surprise that I came up with 50 trends in a really short amount of time. Most people thought I was crazy to say there was 50 trends happening in 2019 and maybe they are right. Maybe you should not call them trends but either way, these are things I think you'll see happen in 2019 so you'll want to watch them carefully.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Top Trends Blog
- Social Fight about AI and Sales
- Subscribe to Gabe's Content
Most people think they are great but they are not. There are top performers in every industry and segment who are truly pushing the boundaries and achieving new heights. Who are these people and what are they doing to be so successful? In this episode, Brad Jung, talks about how to 3x your sales results by following how the top 10% say on top.
There is something we all do in sales and I'm not sure it really works but because everybody does it, we think we should do it. It's this idea that if we call somebody up, we should ask them twenty questions and then push them towards a demo or a discovery call. The problem with this is, we expect to get before we give and it's not working yet we keep trying it. In this episode, I take you through the powerful principle of giving before you get in sales.
Scaling a business is never easy but technology can help. In order for technology to be successful, process have to be in place. Technology makes bad processes worse and good processes better. In this episode Christopher Fago talks about his experience growing a sales team and using technology to do it.
Sometimes it's hard to win when you sell to small business. They grow and then they shrink. Other parts of the business may be more profitable, such as your enterprise or large business unit. Managing a profitable house account strategy can be difficult and at times may not seem to be worth your time and effort. In this episode, Jen Tadin, talks about why it's important to have a house account strategy and how you can win doing so.
We have the www.salesdevelopmentsummit.com coming up on Dec 12th and 13th and it's going to be an awesome event. We're expecting more than 5,000 people to attend for the what will be the largest event ever for sales development reps and managers. A lot of people ask me, what is a virtual event and why did we pioneer them? The answer is easy, pipeline. These virtual summits are one of our best pipeline gen tools that we do all year. Sadly, most marketing and sales orgs don't know what a virtual event is and how they can do one. That needs to change so in this episode, I jump into the details as to what is a virtual event and how your company can start doing one to help you build pipeline.
Coaching is the one of the most important things managers and leaders can to for their teams. The problem is most managers and leaders don't know how to coach and they've never been given to tools to do so. In this episode, Jason Smith lays out his philosophy on coaching and discusses how others can be successful doing so.
Strengths is an important word in selling. Sales people can't be the best at everything but great managers find what they are good at and they ensure they do more of that. In this episode, Paul Allen, CEO of Soar talks about the strengths-based selling movement and how strengths can and should play a role in every sales organization.
Sales enablement is here to stay but do you know enough about it. In this episode, two titans of sales enablement, Tamara Schenk @CSO Insights & Scott Santucci @Growth Enablement Ecosystems, discuss what sales enablement is and how companies can succeed with this emerging function in sales.
Everything requires data right? Well, the sales process isn't any different. Most leaders know they need data but they don't know how to structure or really use it. In this episode, Justin Jarus, talks about data and how you can improve the sales process through reporting an analytics.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How do you get started? Picking KPIs and Supporting Metrics/Reports, Crawl; Walk; Run
- What do you measure? What behaviors matter, how those impact KPIs, and reporting
- How do you find insights? Measuring, benchmarking, validating, conversations with top performers to better understand why/how they are doing things the way they are, talking to poor performers
- What pitfalls are there? Paralysis by analysis. Data Quality/Governance(Garbage in Garbage out). Lack of Data. Reportable Data. Boiling the Ocean.
Most people recognize that one of the biggest problems in sales is leads. If you give sales reps more leads, often times they figure out how to close those leads. But the problem is not often more leads, it's ringing the value out of your current leads. In this episode, founder of KPI Analytics, C.J. Hauptmeier, talks about his perspective on leads and how companies can start focusing on not wasting the leads they are already have.
Getting a company to grow is not easy but it can be done. Startups have a lot to figure out to make sure their message is heard and their product is then purchased. There is no secret to success to but there are principles that have led different companies to be successful. In this episode, Sean Higgins, Entrepreneur in Residence at Techstars talks about his experience working with startups to make them successful.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Sean's LinkedIn
- Why Plays Are Better Than Cadences
- Subscribe to Gabe's Content
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The three questions you need to nail to win in your market:
- Why anything
- Why us
- Why
Plays are a tricky thing but they can make all the difference in sales. Sadly, most sales reps don't use plays to win in sales, they simply rely on gut and intuition and so instead of having a repeatable process, sales is often a game of luck. The Brevet group is out to change that. In this episode, two partners at the Brevet Group, Ralph and Brian talk about the importance of plays and how reps can change the way they do sales with them.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Brevet Group
- Why Plays Are Better Than Cadences
- Subscribe to Gabe's Content
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What is a sales play
- When you should use a play
- Tips to creating optimal sales plays
Most people focus on weaknesses to help people be stronger and and better. Many people think if you focus on what you are not good at, you can become a more-well balanced person. Although there is some truth in that, great leaders focus on what is best with their sales people and try to make that huge rather than focusing on what they are not good at. This approach is called a strengths-based approach and it's the model that Bojana Bowermon has used to create a successful career in sales leadership. In this episode, Bonjana talks through her principles and how focusing on strengths has led to more successful sales teams.
Empathy is something most sales reps know about but not many sales people are good at. Empathy is the ability to put yourself in the situation of your prospect. With empathy you can listen better and consult better because of the understanding you have. In this episode, speaker and author, Daryl Fletcher talks about how to better improve your sales conversation mastering this concept of empathy.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How to improve sales conversation
- Techniques to build rapport quickly
- How to implement new strategies that increase connection, performances and profits
- How to increase account longevity and increase client retention.
People often talk about how to get more leads which is important but what about the leads you already have? What can you do with those? Are you even thinking about them? Madeleine has dedicated her career to helping companies see the power of doing what with what you have rather than always looking for something new and better. In this episode, you'll learn how Madeleine has helped hundreds of companies make more money with the leads they have.
A lot of sales people have a sports background. You might even say, it's a stereotype to assume a salesperson was an athlete at some point in their life. Even if that were true, not many sales people ever reached professional levels in their careers. It is a rare occasion to meet someone who has advanced to a level of 'professional' but that's exactly where Kevin Gergel found himself in his not so recent past. Kevin was a professional baseball player and although he didn't have a long career he stayed long enough to experience and learn many lessons that not only helped him in life but also helped him sell better. In this episode, Kevin dives into his sports background and shares lessons he learned playing baseball but perfect in sales.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Kevin's LinkedIn
- InsideSales.com
- Subscribe to Gabe's Content
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Why baseball is like sales
- Lessons learned from Kevin's experience in baseball
- How to be a great sales person
The days of running your business off gut and intuition are gone. Sales leaders now must look for competitive advantages using data and science to sell more. In this episode, Michael Coscetta from Square talks about the need for a scientific approach to sales and what organizations can do right now to move in the right direction.
Some people consider employee engagement as a soft strategy that doesn't really move the needle in sales. Ryan Joswick, VP of sales at Heartland Payment Systems is not one of those people. In this episode, Ryan talks about why employee engagement matters, what it means to coach on strengths, and how hiring the right people can make all the difference between winning and losing.
Everybody does sales training but not everybody does improv but maybe they should. Robert M. Peterson is a professor of sales at the University of Northern Illinois and he has used improv as an effective method to training his students to become experts in sales. In this episode, Dr Peterson discusses improv and gives real tips on how companies can use this method to improve sales.
Do you ever feel like you're a small fish in a big pond? Well, a lot of inside sales people feel that way because outside sales, in many organizations, still dominates. Inside sales is sometimes looked down upon or treated differently than the field organization and that can hurt. In this episode we discuss how to be successful with inside sales in a field sales dominated organization.
As sales pipeline continues to be the biggest problem in sales, marketing and sales leaders search for answers to some of the biggest questions in sales. . .
Where is their untapped value?
Who is most likely to buy from me?
What is the next best action to take?
In the sea of sameness, little progress is being made as companies scramble to compete with little to no improvement.
Do you have a sales development team? Yes and so does everybody else
Do you have marketing and sales technology? Yes and so does everybody else
Are you running an account-based sales model? Yes and so is everybody else
If you’re doing the same thing but just trying to do it better or just doing what everyone else is doing how do you expect to win? That’s sounds like the definition of insanity.
The answer to the above questions and the solution to the biggest problem in sales is not the more of the same. The solution is breaking open the black box of predictive and and successfully operationalizing artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is the next big thing for sales and marketing and although AI will not replace marketing or sales, marketing and sales leaders who use artificial intelligence will replace those who don’t.
If you're looking to have more conversations with the right people, persistence is key. Data shows that most sales reps today stop at sending an email or placing one phone call. The best sales professionals will not give up so fast. They create a sales cadence with multiple touch points, including a variety of sales communication channels: calls, texts, email, social media, voicemail, event direct mail and video.
At InsideSales.com, we've tracked and analyzed thousands of sales interactions with machine learning algorithms and found there really is a formula for success. When executed correctly, the right sales cadence can double your contact rates.
There's an ideal duration, spacing, attempts, media, and messaging for each sales cadence during prospecting, and we're about to tell you what it is.
Gabe Larsen, VP of Growth for InsideSales.com, and Michael Pedone, founder and CEO of SalesBuzz, are going to show you the winning formula for sales prospecting.
Culture is not just important it is imperative to win. Some leaders pass culture off as something soft and not important and those leaders unfortunately have to learn the hard way. Great leaders recognize the value of their people and put them first. The problem is most leaders don't the best way to build a culture and so they find themselves struggling to create an environment where people want to be. In this episode, Tom Whalen, Dir of Inside Sales at McKesson, talks about his secrets to building culture and what he found works.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Tom's LinkedIn
- Tom's LinkedIn Article on Culture
- Subscribe to Gabe's Content
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How to collaborate with team members to develop culture
- Why it's important to lead by example
- How to coach from an attitude of “team”.
- Why company culture is is essential, not just a nice-to-have
Let me guess, you’ve heard of AI? Everybody is talking about it but nobody seems to be effectively using it, until now. AI is meant is not meant to eliminate humans but enable humans and sales is a great place to start. In this session, Gabe Larsen VP of Growth at InsideSales.com, will take you through what AI is and how companies are winning using this cutting-edge science.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Video of Presentation
- Subscribe to Gabe's Content
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What is AI?
- What is the difference between real and fake AI?
- Where in the sales process can AI enable sales reps?
- How can AI be used right now to build pipeline and increase sales?
Change is hard no matter who you are or what company you've worked at but nobody knows that better than Mike Katz EVP of Sales at T-Mobile for Business. Mike has been with the organization 20 years and he's seen bad times and good times but through it all Mike and team have learned some important lessons about change management. In this episode, Mike takes us through his journey and how he and T-mobile have successfully navigated change.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Mike's LinkedIn
- Mike's Article on Culture
- Subscribe to Gabe's Content
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What makes change so difficult
- Lessons learned through change at T-Mobile
- Best practice change management tips from Mike
Do you even care about AI? Maybe you should. Mark Gorenberg is the founder of Zetta Venture Partners, an investment group focused on companies who lead the world in analytics and artificial intelligence. Mark has seen just about everything there is when it comes to AI and in this episode we sit down and talk about the trend of AI, what makes AI companies successful, and what sales leaders must know about it to win.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Mark's LinkedIn
- The State of Artificial Intelligence
- Subscribe to Gabe's Content
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What is artificial intelligence
- What are some of the top trends in the space
- Why are some companies growing in the AI marketing
- What sales leaders should be thinking about in regards to AI
Have you heard about diversity? Have you heard it's important? The answer to that is probably yes and yes but do you know how to get a more diverse sales team? Maybe not. Diversity has become more and more important and many studies show diversity can be beneficial to organizations but many organizations lack the ability to make it happen. In this episode, Gabriel Moncayo CEO of AlwaysHired, talks about his own journey and how's discovered the benefits of diversity and what that can mean to an organization.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Gabriel's LinkedIn
- State of Sales Development Infographic
- Subscribe to Gabe's Content
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What is diversity and why is it important
- Tactical things organizations can do to make their team more diverse
- The responsibility of leaders to drive diversity
One of the secrets of a good sales team is its DNA or team make up. Not many sales leaders focus on it but the ones who do often have a special team and special results. The reason many leaders don't focus on designing the optimal team is because they don't know how to do it. David Belden, regional sales leader for Google Cloud and his colleagues at Google have sought to change that. An Inc magazine article depicts the research and tests Google has conducted to try and determine how to design the optimal team and the results are fascinating. In this episode, David breaks down the article and talks about the steps sales teams need to take to create winning teams.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- David's LinkedIn Profile
- Google Article
- Subscribe to Gabe's Content
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What are the characteristics of a successful team
- What elements are most important for a sales team
- How can companies start building a team based on the principles of successful sales teams
Why do we not have a data driven hiring approach in sales? It's embarrassing we are still looking for people who are nice or positive, isn't it? When do we move past that and get to the data? When do we combine the art of hiring with the science of hiring? For some people that time is now and there is better expert on the topic of data driven hiring than Dr. Chris Croner from Sales Drive Test. In this episode, Chris lays it all on the line and talks about why people haven't gotten to a data-driven hiring model and how they can.
Customer service teams are often a mess. They are often overlooked and understaffed so David Schotz, Sr. Direct at Centrica decided to do something about it. Rather than have a tier one customer service team, David had his sales reps be the tier one support and sales soared. The test wasn't without bumps and bruises but the creative idea and the subsequent test paid off. In this episode, David talks about his journey and his thoughts on why companies should think about making money when customers call for help.
Everybody says buyers are half way into their buying process before they talk to a sales person, is that true and if it is true what is the data source for this claim? One way to determine where people are in the sales process is how they engage with content and nobody does that better than DocSend. In this episode, Dave Koslow, COO at DocSend talks about the power of content and what it means for your company.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Dave's LinkedIn Profile
- State of Sales Development Infographic
- Subscribe to Gabe's Content
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How can content be used in the sales process
- What research is there about content and what it is doing in the sales process
- What content works best to push the sales process forward
Compensation matters across all of sales but it really matters for sales development reps. SDRs need more guidence when managers can't be around and bad comp plans can lead to bad results. Most people don't have an answer for compensation but experience can teach you a lot. In this episode, Alex Hudzik, from Nasuni, talks about his experience and lessons learned about building an optimal SDR comp plan.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Alex's LinkedIn Profile
- State of Sales Development Infographic
- Subscribe to Gabe's Content
In This Episode You'll Learn:
An SDR compensation plan is incredibly important. It should provide the guideposts and direction for the 90% of the day when the manager is not directly working with the team. Too often organizations mess this up by:
- Preferring simplicity over KPIs that really matter to the business
- Not weighting things in a way that eliminates luck and levels the playing field for all, creating unfair wealth distribution amongst the team
- Coaching on best practices, but not incentivizing reps to actually perform them through compensation
- Paying SDRs in a way where they don't have enough control over achieving it or not - i.e. reliant upon their field rep, or marketing leads
- Incentivizing SDRs to achieve objectives that don't align with your business objectives (i.e. paying on meetings scheduled - without other requirements).
Are great leaders born or is it something that is learned? I sat down with CEO of InsideSales.com Dave Elkington and had him give me his top five leadership traits. How do you rate on each one? Where are your strengths and weaknesses? What can you do to become a more well balanced leader? Listen to this podcast and find out how good of a leaders you are.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Dave Elkington's Leadership Trait Article
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The five leadership traits you need to know about
- What each of the leadership traits are
- How you should thinking about becoming a well balanced leader
Sales and marketing are fighting STILL and sometimes I think they will never stop fighting. But, great organizations have figured out a way to make sales and marketing work and it makes a big difference in the bottom line of their organizations. What's the secrets and how can other organizations make it work? In this episode, sales expert Jeff Davis, talks about his experience and his goal of brining sales and marketing together once and for all.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Jeff Davis LinkedIn
- ABM Best Practices
- State of Sales Research
- Subscribe to Gabe's Content
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How communication is key to winning the sales and marketing battle
- Why data is one of the first steps organizations must take to succeed
- How to think about mapping your sales process according to your buyers
A lot of people talk about how the buying process has changed but it's hard to find where that information came from. To change that Jim and team decided to interview 500 business buyers (with deal sizes over 10K and not in procurement) to understand what really happens during the buying cycle. The findings were fascinating as the top was not a sales person, in fact, a sales person was 9th on the list. Tune into this episode to learn more about this research and how decision makers really make decisions.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Jim's LinkedIn
- Understanding Buyer Behavior White Paper
- State of Sales Research
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What 500 business buyers think about buying
- Why sales reps don't make the list and how they can
- What research says is real reason decision makers buy
Artificial Intelligence is here to stay and one place it's making a lot of noise in is conversations. Conversations may be the most important metric in sales. If you don't have conversations, you can't progress the sale forward. In this episode,
Udi Ledergor from Gong.io talks about the power of conversations and how organizations can turn them into incredible coaching through science.
Every sales rep wants to move up in his or her career and every sales reps expects that to happen at their current company when they first join. Sadly, career progression at many organizations and for many sales development reps is tough to come by. Nobody knows that better than Ryan from Seal Software. As an expert in inside sales and sales development, Ryan has seen many examples of poorly run sales development teams. In this episode, Ryan flips it over and talks about how he's done things differently to make sure reps move forward in the organization.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Ryan's LinkedIn
- State of Sales Development
- State of Sales Research
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How to create career progression for sales development reps
- How money plays a role in career progression
- How recognition plays a role in keeping sales development reps happy
- How title plays a role in strong sales development rep programs
Every company wants to know how to GROW but growth is not an easy task. To learn more about this topic, DiscoverOrg surveyed leaders in sales and marketing on growth at their companies and factors accelerating it or inhibiting it. Survey questions delved into team structure, budgets, strategies, technologies stack, and more with the objective to uncover current trends leading to high growth success.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- DiscoverOrg Research
- Katie's LinkedIn
- State of Sales Research
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Is cold calling dead? Or, is it alive?
- How many hours of training does a sales team need each week?
- Should I focus marketing investment on inbound or outbound lead generation?
- What attributes of my sales team are undermining growth?
- What are the most important strengths to have in a marketing team?
Yeah I know, you've heard the term account-based but like the rest of us, you're still trying to figure it out what it is and how to be successful doing it. Don't worry, you're not alone but that doesn't mean you can give up. In this episode, two experts of account-based strategies lend their support and their tips to help marketing and sales professionals win using account-based principles.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Kathy's LinkedIn
- Trish's LinkedIn
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What is account-based revenue
- What has chanced in recent years to make account-based more impactful
- Who should run an account-based strategy
- What strategies should you ask before you run an account-based strategy
Campaigns are tough and getting your top prospects to respond to your message is sometime a combination of luck and timing but there are principles that make some marketers shine above the rest. In this episode, Ryan O'Hara, VP of Marketing & Growth at LeadIQ talks about building killer campaigns and how he's seen success being creative in his campaigns.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- The Coffee Campaign
- Campaign Ideas
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- I'll talk about how Campaign Based Prospecting fits in Account Based Selling.
- I'll share a few examples of things you can do, and rehash the foundations of what makes effective outreach.
- How to fit this concept into things you may do in your current sales flow, and use cadences to promote your tactic.
Everybody worries about prospecting and they should be they often believe things that cause them to fail. Prospecting will always be a combination of art and science but what is most important is what drives results. In this episode, Gord and Dan from the RainGroup talk about myths of prospecting and what you can do right now to start effectively building your pipeline.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- The Five Myths White Paper
- The State of Sales Development
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Exactly when buyers want to talk to sellers in the buying process
- Whether or not buyers find sales meetings valuable
- How C-level buyers prefer to be contacted by sellers
- 6 ways sellers can influence buyers to connect with them
- Whether or not the capabilities pitch is dead
- 5 strong influences on buyer purchase decisions
Are you ready for this? The fight of the century! In the last month, there have been more than 100,000 video views and thousands of comments on LinkedIn debating how sales leaders can best build pipeline with different prospecting methods. Is the phone really dead? Has buyer behavior changed? Is LinkedIn the answer? Can email still be effective? All of these questions plague sales reps and leaders and are debated daily on sales floors across the globe. What is the answer and more importantly what will bring results to solve the biggest challenge in sales – building quality pipeline?
Gabe Larsen, VP of Growth at InsideSales.com has taken the stance that the phone is not dead and reps and companies should continue to use it as a tool in their prospecting arsenal. Mario Martinez Jr, CEO at Vengreso argued the phone has its place but using social tools such as LinkedIn must be included. Is one right and the other wrong? Are they both right or both wrong? The answer must be decided and the winner defined and the only way to do it is battle it out. One expert to another, face-to-face, mano-a-mano.
In this virtual battle, sales leaders will learn:
The seven methods that must be considered in every prospecting situation How leaders can maximize each prospecting method to win a digital sales cadence designed to build pipeline and close more deals
If you’re not using Analytics and AI in your sales tech stack today, you’re falling behind the times and behind your competition. Most high-performing companies are already using advanced analytics for lead scoring, forecasting, and amazing productivity increases. To truly harness the power of predictive analytics in sales, companies need to focus on the areas where they can create the most value, and implement it wisely. In this session, Maria Valdivieso from McKinsey & Company joins us to talk about her learnings and experience with advanced analytics.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- AI Case Study
- Maria's LinkedIn
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How predictive sales software helps you target right customers
- Why software can be better than people at people management
- How analytics reduces churn and maximizes customer lifetime value
- How you can effectively implement advanced analytics
Cold calling? You probably don’t get very far into your call when you hear your first objection. At this point in the conversation, the prospect starts to blow you off for a variety of reasons: not enough time, not enough interest, not enough money, etc.
Most people think you need a different answer for each objection, but that’s not true. All you need is a plan or strategy to overcome customer objections, and it’s actually very simple to create it.
In this session, Jason McElhone, Director of Inside Sales at MarketSource and VP of Growth at InsideSales, Gabe Larsen, discuss the power of cold calling and the best methods for overcoming objections.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Cold Calling Webinar Part Two
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The number one method for overcoming objections on a cold call
- The strategic points of a cold call and how reps are using them to win
- What makes for a good cold call and why great reps realize cold calling is not dead
Sales can learn a lot from other industries and principles. It turns out that improving sales productivity is very much like a six sigma, lean manufacturing process. In Six Sigma there is a framework called DMAIC that is very applicable in sales as well. The D stands for Define - First define and normalize your sales process. The M stands for Measure - Then measure and benchmark each step of your sales process in multiple dimensions. The A stands for Analyze. Analyze - Then find the root-cause of any performance gaps by talking to people on the front line and by listening to their calls. The I stands for Improve - Implement improvements through technology, training, and coaching. Lastly, the C stands for Control - Control the change by monitoring the data and iterating over time. In this episode, Dominique Levin, Partner at Winning by Design talks about her experience and how sales and learn from lean manufacturing.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Winning by Design
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What sales can learn from six sigma
- A structure for thinking about sales transformation
- What DMAIC means and how sales can use it
Let me guess, you’ve heard cold-calling is dead, right? I’ll tell you right now, the people saying that are not the people who are actually cold calling. Cold-calling is alive and well and we can prove it. We looked at nearly 1 million phone calls and the ability for a sales rep to convert a call to a conversation is above 10%.
Not bad. But how can you do it better?
Look no further than Jason McElhone, Director of Inside Sales and cold-calling expert at MarketSource. Jason has spent the last 27 years cold-calling and his results are out-of-this-world.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Cold Calling Webinar
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Why cold-calling isn't dead if you do it right
- How experts execute a cold call to win
- Cold calling tips to be successful on your first call
Gone are the days of the simple sale. CRMs, like Salesforce, allow you to document and log key sales information in a world full of complex deal cycles. But you often lack the essential tools to see the big picture, build effective account plans, and operate strategically.
To succeed in sales today, you need to understand hierarchical and political relationships, identify influencers, and decide whom to contact. You need to be able to quickly and effectively show this information in deal reviews and 1:1s. The fastest, easiest way to get an overview of your accounts is to work visually. Influence maps and account maps are visual references that can help you find the fastest path to sale and close your deals faster.
In this podcast, Lucidchart’s SVP of Sales, Dan Cook, will show you how to successfully map your accounts and key contacts and how to use that map to strategize more effectively. With a clear view of your accounts, you’ll be prepared to accelerate the sales cycle and close bigger deals.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Visualize Summit
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What is account mapping
- Why should organizations be thinking about mapping accounts during the sales process
- Tips to map accounts effectively and how to use that information effectively
Everybody get's a cold-call but not everybody handles it like Ralph Barsi at ServiceNow. Ralph has made a lot of phone calls in his day and rather than giving sales people a hard time, he takes the time to provide coaching. Recently, Ralph received a cold call after an event he visited and the result was a positive conversation about sales reps can best follow up after an event.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Sales Leadership Summit
- The Definitive Guide to Sales Cadence
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Ralph's experience on the phone
- What you should be thinking about for event follow-up
- How you should approach a cold call
Sales reps are taught a lot of things but they are not often taught about how to approach senior level executives. Why? Most people don't know how. In this episode, Matt Conway, founder of MattConway.com talks about the skills needed to prospect to CEOs and why companies can't seem to figure it out.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Sales Leadership Summit
- The Definitive Guide to Sales Cadence
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Why it's so important to go 'high' when prospecting
- Why companies don't go high enough and how they can
- What are some of the skills needed to prospect to CEOs
There are a lot of challenges in sales but there is one that trumps them all. That challenge is building enough quality pipeline. The problem is leaders know it but they don't know how to solve it. They often think it's a people challenge so they hire more people but the numbers don't improve. This makes for an interesting dilema among leaders and one that doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon. In this episode, CEO and Founder of InsideSales.com, Dave Elkington talks about the biggest challenge in sales and how an AI system of growth can play a role in solving it.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Sales Leadership Summit
- The Definitive Guide to Sales Cadence
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What data and research prove is the biggest challenge in sales
- What role AI has in solving sales challenges
- What is an AI system of growth
Times are changing and companies need to change with it. In the modern era of selling customers are buying different and sales reps are selling different. For companies to win they need to understand the latest selling trends and modernize their sales team to compete in an era of constant change and disruption. In this session Alli, Amy, Katie, and Jim discuss digital sales strategies and discuss how organizations win and lose with or without them.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Sales Leadership Summit
- The Definitive Guide to Sales Cadence
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The buying experience has changed, how does that make you change the selling experience?
- Digital is often a word associated with marketing not sales but great digital sales teams work closely with marketing. How have you partnered with marketing to be successful?
- How have you designed your sales team around this new digital experience?
Your sales process doesn't have to be broken. Data can be used to drive the sales process forward and predict the result of the sales process. In this episode, Ed Garry talks about the importance of gathering the right data and making sure it is accurate. In addition, Ed hits on the pitfalls of sales management and data and why reps should be data-driven.
Inside Sales is here to stay but not many people know how to build a killer team. Well, Sid Kumar from CA technologies does. Sid joined CA Technologies with the specific purpose of building a flourishing inside sales team and he did just that. Sid went from 0-300 reps in 30 months and in this episode, Sid talks about his secrets to success.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Sales Leadership Summit
- The Definitive Guide to Sales Cadence
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The importance of modernizing your sales team
- Why you should map your customer journey with your sales process
- Key learnings across people, process, and technology
Not everybody has a sales operations team but every leader still needs to manage their business based on numbers. When sales leaders are left alone there are basic ways they can still run their team using numbers but it does take work and determination. In this episode, Debra Senra, VP of sals at Harris, talks about how she coaches companies to use data to mange their business - especially if sales leaders are going at it alone.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Debra's LinkedIn
- Sales Leadership Summit
- The Definitive Guide to Sales Cadence
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Why it's important to run your business based on numbers
- What numbers are important to be thinking about
- How numbers can be used to coach and push your people
There are a lot of things that can derail sales reps time. Time management is one of the most important things a sales rep can do. In large deals, the ability to figure out if a deal is good or not can mean a lot to the company's sales numbers. Caroline Robinson is the Director of Sandler Training in Cambridge and knows a thing or two about sales. In this episode, she talks about how reps get lost in the deal process through the three areas of client issues, sales team issues, and financial issues.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Caroline's LinkedIn
- Sales Leadership Summit
- The Definitive Guide to Sales Cadence
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How sales reps waste time with client issues
- How sales reps waste their time on sales team issues
- How sales reps waste their time on financial issues
There are always debates. One that is starting to pick up more speed is whether or not sales reps should respond to inbound leads. I took the time to put down my top ten secrets to responding to inbound leads and it's a solid list.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Top Ten Secrets Webinar
- Lead Response Tips
- The Definitive Guide to Sales Cadence
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Don’t Break the Law of Immediacy
- Balance speed and score Don’t Starve
- Your Sales Team Be pleasantly persistent
- Avoid Sales Reps
- Account-Based… Engagement equals response
- Yes, You Need a Chat Bot
- Don’t Be Afraid People Want You to Respond
- Fix Your Process
Should every sales person be a thought leaders? What role should content play in sales? Will Barron leads the Salesman podcast, the largest B2B sales podcast in the world and he's one who has mastered the idea of content. In this episode, Will discusses his rise to fame and how he thinks sales people should think about giving value to progress the sales process.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Will Barron on LinkedIn
- Salesman Podcast
- The Definitive Guide to Sales Cadence
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How can content help a sales rep become a thought leader
- The purpose of giving value to get value when selling
- Key learnings when creating content to help you sell
What is a sales playbook and how should companies think about it? The answer may seem easy but it's not. In this episode, Daniel Baunds, CEO of Vendas B2B Academy, talks about his experiences with sales playbooks. He highlights the importance of making them custom centric and having them follow a methodology that can be scaled to fit your business.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- AI System of Growth Case Study
- State of Sales Infographic
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The importance of a buyer-centric playbook
- The power of closing early
- Why you need to make it scalable
- The importance of mapping out your methodology
- Implementation hacks
You can't replace in the human in selling, it's just not possible. Authenticity goes a long way and it just can't be faked. In this episode, Shari Levitin, founder of the Levitin Group discusses the human interaction and how important it is in training and coaching.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- AI System of Growth Case Study
- State of Sales Infographic
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Why the book Heart and Sell was created
- How do you structure a training program so it produces ROI
- How do you know if your training methodology is effective
- What's the best way to scale a training program
Every organization changes but not every organization handles change the right way. Kat Andruha is the director of sales development at Apttus and she's experienced her share of change. In her own words, Kat takes us through lessons learned and ways she's found toe successfully manage changing in the organization you're in.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Sales Development Summit
- State of Sales Report
- InsideSales Labs Best Practice Training
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How to think about change in your organization
- Best practices in communication for change
- Tips on how to mange top down and bottom up
GlassDoor changed the way employees pick companies and online review shops are changing the way customers are buying. In the B2C space it's obvious. As consumers we go online to review and buy and now B2B is following suite. In addition, rather than gathering information from typical customer satisfaction surveys, companies are finding these review portals to be authentic accurate representation of what customers really think of them. In this episode, Olivier L'Abbé , VP of Sales at G2Crowd, talks about the power of reviews and how customer buying behavior has changed.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- InsideSales.com on G2Crowd
- Olivier L'Abbé on LinkedIn
- InsideSales.com Labs
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How customers are buying today in B2B
- The power of customer reviews in marketing, sales, and product
- What you can do to start influencing the real way customers buy
Garbage in and garbage out. That's true every where and it is especially true in sales. Even if you're the best sales rep, if you don't have good data, you're toast. In this episode, Noah Spirakus, CEO at Prospectify talks about data, the importance of getting clean data, and how companies are winning with strong data strategies.
- Sales Development Summit
- State of Sales Report
- InsideSales Labs Best Practice Training
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Why companies should be concerned about their data hygiene
- What does good data mean for your sales team
- Tactics and strategies you can use now to make your data work for you
We recently did a research study and asked 721 sales people how they spend their time. The results were really surprising. They spend 35.2% of their time selling and 65% on everything else, but not selling. The next question is why and what can companies do to change this. In this episode, we dive into the research and talk about the problem and the solution.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- LinkedIn Post with Infographic
- Time Management Study
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The research on how sales reps spend their time
- Why sales reps are spending so little time selling
- The two things companies can do to improve the time spend selling
We all want to get more sales but that is hard to do if you're not targeting the right accounts, in the right way, and the right time. Matt Amundson, VP of marketing and sales development at EverString knows a few things about account targeting and on this episode Matt dives into the need to find your optimal customer profile and explains the importance of prioritizing your best accounts as part of your sales strategy.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Sales Development Summit
- State of Sales Report
- InsideSales Labs Best Practice Training
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How to determine your which prospects you should target
- The importance of good data and the role it plays in the sales process
- The power of prioritization and how companies can do it
Life is short so why not learn from the experts. Jake Reni, is a master when it comes to helping companies, including Adobe, think through a strategic go-to-market approach for building an optimizing sales and sales development teams. In this episode, Jake and I debate and discuss some of the trends and debates around what is need to get to a winning state for your sales teams.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Sales Development Summit
- State of Sales Report
- InsideSales Labs Best Practice Training
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How teams should be thinking about building segmentation and structure for their business
- What technology stack you should or shouldn't be considering
- Is account-based sales for you or not
We all talk about sales cadence but that doesn't mean we know what it is. We've talked about sales cadence on this show before but this is different. We recently completed additional research on sales cadence where we analyzed 1.5 million activities across nearly 500,000 different cadences - all focused on outbound selling. In this episode we dive into the research and discuss what companies need to be thinking about to be successful in building pipeline and winning with their sales cadences.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- The Definitive Guide to Sales Cadence
- Sales Cadence Webinar
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What is the definition of a cadence
- What are the five pillars of a cadence
- How can companies build a cadence to increase pipeline
We can talk about leadership all we want but it's not easy. Great leaders are born and developed. If you think you can't be a great leader, you're lying to yourself, anybody can be a great leader but it takes work like everything else. In this episode, Dionne Mischler, tells us some of the secrets to being a great leader and provides some real advice on how leaders are developed.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Time Management Article
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How great leaders leads
- Are leaders developed or born
- How you can develop leadership qualities today
Building a global sales organization is no easy task but Gideon Fourie, VP of strategy and sales operations at First Data, knows how to do it. Gideon oversees operations in 34 countries with an extremely complex sales motion. In this episode, Gideon explains some of the challenges of managing a global sales operations function and explains his recipe for succeeding despite the complexities that are involved.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Time Management Article
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The challenges faced when building a global sales organization
- Thoughts and strategies on optimizing a sales structure
- Key strategies used to succeed supporting and enabling an organization across 34 countries
Most people don't know the difference between training and coaching and even if they do, they don't know how to coach. In this episode, Shimon Lazarov, CEO of LiveCoach, talks about the importance of coaching, how people should coach, and why you might want a coachLinks and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- AI System of Growth Case Study
- State of Sales Infographic
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The difference between training and coaching
- Why everybody needs a coach
- The power of coaching
Let's face it, CRM sucks to use, especially if you're a sales rep. But, we use it because we have to. I promise that statements like that won't last though. Something has to happen to make CRM valuable and I'm not talking about SMART CRM as that is more of the same. We need to not just give to CRM we need to get from CRM. The next evolution of CRM is a system of growth and it combines CRM with AI and sales technologies to help sales teams sell more.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- LinkedIn Post
- AI System of Growth Case Study
- State of Sales Infographic
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The truth about where reps are spending their time
- How CRM is not living up to it's promised benefits
- What is an AI System of Growth and the future of selling
Top trends are something that anybody can put out there but they are not always right or interesting but that's not the case with Gaetano, VP of marketing at SalesHacker. Gaetano wrote a guest post on the InsideSales.com blog and he killed it. He outlined some of the top trends for 2018 and if you haven't seen it, you need to as it will help you prepare for 2018.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Gaetano LinkedIn
- Top Trends Blog Post
- State of Sales Infographic
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What trends you must be watching in 2018
- What trends you should prioritize to make you stand out in the crowd
- How you can take these trends and put them into action
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the new buzzword du jour. It seems everyone has “AI” software or services that promise to help your wildest dreams come true. But you run a sales team. And you have to deliver solid sales results this quarter and next and next. You don’t have time for marketing hype or sales software solutions that over promise and under deliver.
When implemented correctly, Artificial Intelligence can help businesses increase revenue up to 30 percent and take your business to the next level.
Here’s a simple way to think about how to build AI into your sales growth strategy simply and easily, without risk.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- NeuralScan
- Webinar Version of This Recording
- Case Study of Real AI
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What Artificial Intelligence can do for business revenue growth
- The four steps of AI implementation in a sales organization
- The pitfalls of AI implementation and common issues to watch out for
Sales is changing for some odd reason the education of sales people is staying the same...well mostly. There is one pocket of people doing things different and that is happening at the University of Houston. For years now, Joel Le Bon, has been leading a sales program, ranked top in the country, to help students succeed in sales-and it's working. In this episode, Joel talks about the program he's created and the success it's been having.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Sales Development Summit
- State of Sales Development Research
- State of Sales Infographic
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Why schools don't teach sales
- What the University of Houston is doing to make sales people succecssful
- What you can do to help push the profession of sales forward
If you don't know how to communicate your story then nobody on your team does. Your elevator pitch and the importance of having everybody at your company understand and know it by heart, is crucial for success. J.J Peterson is the Chief of Staff at StoryBrand, a company that focuses on clarifying companies' messages so customers engage.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Sales Development Summit
- State of Sales Development Research
- State of Sales Infographic
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What is a story and what makes a great story
- The elements of great stories
- Why companies should spend time building their stories
Leaders are not born, they learn through experience. Vinay Bhagat is a serial entrepreneur who has started and run multiple successful companies. In this episode, he talks about his leadership success principles and details how companies can start thinking about customer advocacy and how great companies are proactive in their approach.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Vinay's secret to great leadership
- Why companies shouldn't just trust analysts but should also trust their customer opinions
- How companies can start building a customer advocacy program today
It's fun to talk and hear from thought leaders but it's also fun to see how people really do it. Jim Debald is one of those guys who really does it. He's transformed the sales team at CoreDial by focusing on people, systems, and process. Jim's focus on numbers and persistence in testing helped create an amazing culture and results during his tenure at CoreDial.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Sales Development Summit
- State of Sales Development Research
- State of Sales Infographic
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How a real business leader thinks about transforming his company
- The importance of the sales process and why you need to figure out what works for you
- Technology and a focus on numbers are both key in making companies great
This guy is the real deal and if you haven't seen him you'll need to check it out. Morgan Ingram runs the popular #TheSDRChronicles Youtube shows that highlight the life of a sales development rep. Morgan has been an SDR and manages SDR teams, so when he speakes he knows it from experience. In this episode, Morgan and I debate some tough topics around SDRs, like will SDRs survive the AI movement? Where should SDRs report into? And what makes SDR successful. . . .
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Sales Development Summit
- State of Sales Development Research
- State of Sales Infographic
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The future of sales development
- How AI will effect sales development
- What sales development reps need to do to be successful NOW
Carrie runs a multi-million dollar business by outsourcing prospecting work for companies. When it comes to prospecting strategies Carries knows all the tricks of the trades and when you talk to her you get it straight - no B.S. In this episode, Carrie talks about sales development trends, puts to rest the cold calling debate, and enlightens us with best practices for sales development leaders.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Sales Development Summit
- State of Sales Development Research
- State of Sales Infographic
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Key to managing a sales development team
- When you should think about outsourcing your prospecting strategies
- Why cold calling is not and will never be dead
The end of the year is a time of reflection both personally and professionally. Most companies work with their sales reps to nail this time period and make a strong plan to achieve quota going into the next year, while other companies fail. In this episode, Annie Matthews VP of Sales at TechTarget, talks about her strategies for the end of the year and the lessons she's learned over her sales career.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- State of Sales
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What you should be thinking about for the end of the year
- Lessons learned for end of year sales planning
- What reps should do to plan for appropriately for the next year
53% of sales reps don’t hit quota and most sales leaders don’t know what to do about that. At the end of the year there is a conversation between a manager and a rep and that conversation is summed up usually as “do better.” That doesn’t work and sales leaders know it but what can they do differently? Some leaders turn to their CRM and try to determine why some reps achieve quota while others don’t but the exercise typically brings minimal benefits. To solve this challenge, sales leaders need REAL visibility into what their reps are doing and not doing to build pipeline and close deals and that’s where we come in. InsideSales.com has recently created an assessment called the Sales Effectiveness Quadrant™ (SEQ). The SEQ is a prescriptive assessment that turns your bottom performers into top performers by analyzing and segmenting your sellers on characteristics that lead to pipeline creation and more closed deals.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Get a Free SEQ Assessment
- The State of Sales Development Report
- Vote for the Sales Development Thought Leader
In This Episode You'll Learn:
Industry benchmarks for pipeline management
What behaviors may be leading to low quota attainment
What companies are doing to solve the quota challenge
What is the Sales Effectiveness Quadrant™ and how can it help sellers
Sales development is a tough role but it's an important role and one of the most innovative roles to emerge from sales in the last decade. The problem is, the research has been weak and so has the best practices. That ends today. InsideSales.com in partnership with a half-dozen companies have produced the largest study ever on sales development. The study focuses on Structure, Systems, People, and Pipeline.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Sales Development Summit
- State of Sales Report
- InsideSales Labs Best Practice Training
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What is sales development
- How 1000+ companies are building and executing successful sales development teams
- The structure, systems, people, and pipeline of successful sales development teams
Inbound leads are what they are. The question is, what should you do with them? In a rebuttal to an article questioning if companies should respond to inbound leads, yours truly, lays out a handful of reasons you might want to think about responding quickly to inbound leads at your company.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- LinkedIn article
- 2017 Lead Response Study
- Sales Hacker Article
- Time Management Article
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Respond to High Priority Leads in Under Five Minutes ... Unless You're an Idiot
- Find the Balance Between Speed and Score
- Don't Ever Reach Out and Start Your Conversation With 'May I Help You'
- Know This: People Who Download Your Content Will Most Likely NEVER Read It
- Prospects Rarely if Ever Want to Talk to a Sales Person
- Prospects Are Impressed with Hustle
- If You're Going to Reach Out, Do It Immediately-Don't Wait Multiple Days
- Account-Based Doesn't Have to Equal Slow Response
What good is hiring great people if you don't train them? Sales onboarding is still broken and many companies think they can solve the problem simply by having one rep shadow another. That's not going to work and it doesn't work. In this episode, Ryan Reisert, Lead Instructor at Sales Bootcamp, talks about what he's learned about onboarding sales reps and shares his secrets to success.
You can't forget the customer. The customer experience should trump everything but for some reason it doesn't and it is often the reason that companies fail. Companies get focused on themselves and why and how they are winning and they lose sight of their customers. B2C has an advantage sometimes because they can map the user experience and see the data but that's not a good enough excuse for B2B leaders. In this episode, Chad Sanderson, Managing Partner at Value Prime Solutions talks about the importance of the customer experience and why companies need to focus on it to win.
It's never easy to find the right leader. What complicates it even more is where companies are at in their revenue journey. Different types of leaders excel at different times. Sometimes you need tactical leaders other times you need leaders who can close big deals or operationally get things in order. In this episode, Doug Landis, Growth Partner at Emergence Capital shares his secrets of hiring and discusses how start-ups must find the right leader at the right time in order to succeed.
AI is the thing but InsideSales.com knows a thing or two about it. What do I mean by that, well we've been doing AI for the past ten years and we have the world's largest database of sales interactions with over 110 billion. That's a lot of data. So, yes we know a thing or two about data but most people don't. In this episode, we talk AI, what the definition is and three ways you can start thinking about using it to be successful in your business.
We go to trade shows and we are constantly asked, "what do you do?" Sadly, the answer to that questions turns out to be a 5-35 min rant by most people instead of a clear and concise one-liner. An elevator pitch needs to be short, clear, and direct to the point. In this episode, we talk about why one-liners are important and how you can begin crafting your own.
Great companies realize that to be successful, generating inbound inquires is key. Great companies also realize that to get big fish, they need to have a targeted outbound or account-based strategy. In this episode, Fes Askari talks about his work as a strategic consultant helping organizations set up and optimize full funnel strategic sales.
We've been talking about being a #Playmaker for a few months now and a lot of people have asked me, "What is a Playmaker?" With Dreamforce here we decided to formally launch Playmakers and let you in on how we came up with the idea of playmakers and some of the fun things we hope to do with the idea over the coming weeks and months.
AI is having an impact on sales productivity and it's here to stay but few people know what AI is or how it works. In this episode, Dave Boyce, Chief Strategy Officer at InsideSales.com discusses what leaders need to know about AI and how they can get started without going in the wrong direction.
I'm a big believer in using direct mail in prospecting strategies but it doesn't mean I always get it right. Partnering with Joey Wood from InsideSales.com we ran a test with one of our direct mail campaigns and it completely failed.
We called it the Magic Eight Ball Play
I know, I know, we've talked a lot about direct mail but this is different. Rather than hearing some expert, we did some research and asked 325 B2B associates what they think of the topic. Rather than focus on one specific thing, we decided to understand the opinions of those that may send or receive direct mail. Interesting results, check them out!
Direct mailers are a hot commodity nobody knows more about them than John Coe, founder of B2B marketing.com. In this episode John talks about his experience with direct mailers and principles he's learned and taught others to be successful.
If you want big fish you have to go outbound, end of story. The question is how do you build that. Some people start with an outsourced model but eventually companies typically bring that back in house. Every company is different but there are tried and true principles to creating and building an outbound machine. In this episode, Aaron Ross, author of Predictable Revenue discusses his experiences creating prospecting machines for companies and his lessons learned.
Sales Development isn't going anywhere but what should you do them? Many sales development reps are just a fancy marketing automation system using templates and pressing buttons so do we really need them? Marketo works fine and in many cases it's better a sales development rep. In this episode, John Barrows, founder of JBarrows Training discusses the role of sales development and how sales development reps need to start acting in order to be successful. In addition, John hits on AI and the relationship of sales and marketing.
Trouble comes in many formats and as good as LinkedIn in it still doesn't quite hit the spot when it comes to trigger events. Kyle Morris, founder of SifData talks about the importance of staying on top of key events and receiving real-time notifications about your buyers.
Some things are popular and then they fade out and come back again. High impact mailers are back. For some they are back in style and for others they are new. High impact mailers are physical items mailed to a prospect or customer to initiate a conversation or build a relationship. There are different types of mailers and different use cases. Valerie Sklar, president at Corporate Specialties, is an expert in mailers and has been in the business of working with companies on such initiatives for years. In this episode, Valerie expounds on what mailers are and how companies should start thinking about them.
The message isn't all bad. Enterprise companies are behind the times and some of that is our fault and some of that is their fault. The good thing is they know it and they are actively doing "stuff" to change it. InsideSales.com Labs did a study with nearly 1200 companies and it revealed how companies are winning using structure, systems, and people.
Content used to work but it doesn't because everybody creates content. Every sales rep used to send plane text emails and it worked but it doesn't work anymore. Everybody used to require a form to get leads but nobody wants to fill out a form anymore. Things seem to be changing but companies are not changing with it. In this episode, David Cancel, CEO of Drift, talks about the old trends and discusses about how they are broken and if companies want to win they'll have to move to channels that are working for content and they will have to provide the ability for real time-conversations via chat bots on websites.
The buyer has changed. It doesn't matter what stat you believe, the fact is customers are more educated and are further down the buying journey before they talk with a sales rep. This isn't a problem, it's an opportunity. Sales is still about segmenting the market, how you target you ideal buyers, and how do you go after them. In this episode, Victor Antonio founder of Sellinger Group, talks about how great B2B sellers move to education and consulting and recognize buyers need more support than they ever had before.
InsideSales.com, in partnership with the AA-ISP, Top Sales World, and APS did a research report on the State of Sales. The report covered three areas of structure, people, and systems. In this episode, Denise Bryant, Managing Director at APS joins the Playmaker podcast to discuss the state of sales and provides insights and analysis as to why the US and Europe differ on many key attributes in regards to sales.
Customer reviews are common place in B2C but they have made their way to B2B and whether you like it or not you need to get in the review game. In this episode, Derek Levine from Trust Radius takes us through the importance of reviews and discusses on sales people can use them to make more money.
In this episode you'll learn:
- How reviews are common place in B2C but have made the transition to B2B
- How B2B software is sold, not bought
- How I personally use our own TrustRadius reviews/content in my sales process
LinkedIn is always changing and so should you. Video is now on LinkedIn and it's available and ready to use. To some it's annoying and to others it's even more annoying. But, is there a way that you can effectively use it. Should you even use it? In this episode, Teddy Burriss, an expert in social media consulting, especially LinkedIn breaks down the good, the bad, and the ugly of LinkedIn video and other social media trends.
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- The power of LinkedIn
- How to use LinkedIn video
- Social media trends
In the old days we'd just buy a list, call top to bottom and call it good. That doesn't work anymore and you know it. Jake Shaffren is the Director of Sales Development at DiscoverOrg, and he's a master about thinking through how reps can find, identify, and quality their leads and target contacts. It's all about the leads. If reps are spending a lot of time trying to figure out who to pursue, they'll lose. Companies need human verified data to know that their target audience has the right information to contact and qualify them.
We all want big deals right? Big deal have better margins, they stick around longer, and they become better partners. With all the good there is some bad. Big deals are hard to win and they often take a lot longer than smaller deals. There is no secret to win big deals but there are best practices - often learned from the school of hard knocks. Introduce Jason Krieger - an expert when it comes to chasing and winning big deals.In this episode, Jason talks about his sales career and how he's learned to be a Playmker winning big deals when others couldn't.
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- Preparation and targeting: know enough about your client to ensure that your initial pitch for a meeting is steeped in opportunities to improve or add value to current initiatives. Then target the right function. Have a laser focus on knowing who in the organization is your buyer and where coaches will come from
- Get internal alignment and set realistic expectations on the resources needed and time needed to invest in relationship building and consultative selling to win this deal. Wherever possible use this time as a way to eliminate rfp activity
- Have clear value add material based on your research of the company and industry and clear next steps you will ask for post first meeting; which should almost always with a big deal be in person. You can't sell big deals without being present.
- You know the steps in the process you need to take to get to a close, but you need to get an internal champion who can help you navigate the buyers politics.
- Once you have hit critical buy in across functions that have input in the decision, close the business don't let things linger in evaluation land too long.
- Along the way get to know your stakeholders as people. Building trust throughout the process is the difference between avoiding and going to an RFP.
Video, video, video. It's the talk of the town and if you're not using it, you probably should. KPCB says by 2017, online video will account for 74% of all online traffic. That's a lot. No matter how you try and explain it, video is here to stay. The question is, how do you best utilize it? Sati Hillyer, is the founder and CEO of OneMob, a leading video engagement platform. Sati jumped on the Playmaker podcast to discuss video in general, the top trends around videos, and how sales people are using it to crush their quotas.
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- Why is video such a hot topic
- What are video engagement platforms and how do they work
- How can video best be used in the sales process
Sharing content with your network is a big part of the social selling process. Sharing content can help build your brand, create trust, provide value, and help create a following. But, what content is the right content? Should you be creating your own or curating others content? The answer is both. Sales today is about creating value and if you want to do that, you have to learn to create and curate. You have good ideas in your respective profession and you need an outlet for those thoughts and experience. On the other side, you need to realize you and your company don't have all the good ideas. To stay relevant you need to curate content from a wide range of sources. Mastering these two concepts puts you in the drivers seat of social selling and puts you on the track to success.
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
Why content curation is an important part of the sales process
What tactics reps take to successfully share relevant content
Top strategies to curate and create content for your network
Sales Development is here to stay but it's always changing. David Dulany is the founder and CEO of Tenbound, a company focused on bringing together the sales development community. David discusses trends and problems facing the sales development space and what managers and leaders need to know to stay ahead of the curve.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What to expect from the one and only Sales Development Conference
- Top trends faced by sales development teams
- Top problems faced by sales development teams
- What sales development teams can do today to start winning
Dan McGinn is the author of Psyched Up: How the Science of Mental Preparation Can Help You Succeed. The book focuses on the topic of science and mental preparation. Stress can effect everybody and people in sales are certainly not immune. Unlike athletes, sales leaders often do little mental preparation before big meetings or events but there is a lot of research suggesting that people who engage in certain behaviors before stressful activities or high-stakes performances perform better. The book highlights such activities as listening to motivational songs, having a routine, or performing a certain set of actions as great ways to get psyched up.
People always find different ways to communicate to get what they want. Using the phone might be preferred for some while others prefer email and others texting messaging. Chat has become a mainstream method used between companies and their prospects and clients. Although chat has not found it's way into the mainstream sales process, it has become an often used and often preferred method for prospects to communicate with companies. Chat allows prospects to not have to pick up the phone and have a long drawn out conversation but it allows the instant gratification of potentially getting answers quick. As Chat continues to become more and more utilized as part of the sales process, we sat down with Johnny Everett, founder of The Chat Shop to talk about how companies are using chat and how chat will continue to disrupt the sales process in the coming years.
The solar eclipse happened and it was a good thing. A lot of people across the globe gathered and enjoyed the celestial event. I for one was dragged to Idaho to watch the actual event close to the area of totality, where apparently you could get the best view possible. It was fun and the family and I enjoyed the whole experience. Now, leading up to the event there were a handful of publications who tried to estimate how much productivity would be lost due to the event. Being data-driven junkies like we are, we decided to look at our Neuralytics data set and see how what happened to sales teams during the solar eclipse.
WARNING We report this data in fun, we enjoyed the eclipse as much as anybody else.
Many sales people find themselves on an island. They run their business with little support and little interference from the corporate office. This can be a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is that sales reps are empowered to do what they need for their territories but the bad thing is, they often overlook critical elements that would make their lives a lot easier. One of those things is the power of story telling, especially from the eyes of customers. Stories help prospects see how transformational products and services can help change their lives and when these stories are told from real people who experience real results, the impact can be lasting. Sadly, most organizations don't see this and most sales reps can't do it on their own. Great customer stories therefore never get shared and never are fully utilized. In this episode, James O'Gara, CEO and Founder of On Message and StoryDimensions, talks about the importance of stories and how organizations should start thinking about building and sharing important customer stories.
Texting is here to stay. Busy decision makers are using texting to respond to people in and out of the work place and sales reps are starting to see the benefits of getting mobile numbers. How will this continue to play out? In this episode, Mike Vandenbos, Entrepreneur in Residence at Zipwhip, talks about the state of sales and discusses where texting is being best utilized. In addition, Mike points out some of the rules and regulations regarding texting and advises on how people should start thinking about brining texting into their day-to-day sales activities.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- History of texting in business?
- What is going on with texting in general?
- What is going on with texting in the sales space?
- How can sales reps get more mobile numbers?
- What are best practices for texting?
Every sales representative executes a ‘cadence’ when they reach out via email, phone, or using social media to initiate a conversation with a potential prospect. The art of a cadence is determined based on a myriad of factors, fueled primarily by sales reps’ intuition regarding the company and contact being pursued. Because of the subjective nature of this exercise many cadences go south and lead disastrous results. Because of this InsideSales Labs decided to study the art of sales cadences and determine what companies are actually doing. Labs studied more than 14K cadences across nearly 9K companies.
In baseball you can't have a good batting average unless you have at bats. At bats are opportunities to succeed in baseball but without them you're not even in the game. Sales is similar to baseball in this regard. Many sales people are talented but they never get the chance or the 'at bats' to prove it. If sales people can get enough at bats they find themselves improving their overall game to where they can become Allstars. The question is, how can sales people get more at bats in sales? Tibor Shanto, is an expert in sales and is a proclaimed CDO or chief door opener. He specializes in helping sales reps get more opportunities. In this episode, Tibor teaches us some of the tried and true principles of getting more at bats.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Things you to consider before the call
- Changing the narrative to change results
- Role of dynamics in calling success
- Executing the complete call
- Common mistakes to avoid
Steven Broudy, a senior sales leader posted on LinkedIn telling sales reps to step up and use the phone instead of spamming him with what we all know are automated emails. I didn't say it, he did. Mr. Broudy caused quite a stir with his post, but is it true? Should sales reps really use that ugly thing we call the phone?
Are you getting tired of social selling? We've decided to speak our mind about the truth of social selling and ask industry experts to explain the who, the what, and the why of social selling. In this episode, we debate the fundamentals of social selling with Larry Levine, founder of Social Sales Academy and put Larry on the spot with tough questions such as, "Why is there so much data lacking about social selling results?", "What should reps do to be successful when social selling?" and "What does social selling even mean?"
We live in a world of inside out marketing. We're guessing at who we are talking to. We are guessing at what we should say to them. We need to rethink how we are engaging with the marketplace. Chief Customer Officer at Big Willow, Neil Passero poses the question, how many deals are you missing out on? Many of your buyers will not be in your CRM, they are not responding to your marketing program but they are out on the web searching for you, searching for services, or searching for competitors. This is the power of data and particularly intent and behavioral data and if you can use this data effectively you can grow your sales pipeline significantly.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The missing link in the sales process and why companies are missing out on a lot of sales deals
- The power of data and how it can help you sell more
- What is behavioral and intent data and how you can use it in your business
The science of decision making is complex but important. Tim Riesterer, Chief Strategy and Research Officer at Corporate Visions, is the master of explaining the hidden forces that shape why and how choices are made. Many sales reps chase after traditional sales approaches only to see them fail time and time again. Reps need something new. They need to start using data and science. They need to realize they can take their power back by understanding the science of why people do what they do and changing their behavior accordingly.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Create Value - The differentiation conversation - how do you create more opportunities and start putting distance between you and your competitors
- Evaluate Value - The justification conversation - Why most sales reps are not ready to have executive level conversations and how you can start talking about what executives want to talk about
- Capture Value - The maximization conversation - How you can move from negotiation to understanding the balance of power and move to a value-based sales approach
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- 114: Next Era Selling: Key Strategies to Make Your Business Unstoppable w/Britton Manasco @Visible Impact
- 113: The Truth About Social Selling w/Koka Sexton @Hootsuite
- 110: Unraveling the Sales Technology Stack w/Lauren Chacon @ConstantContact, Deron Frye @PGi, & Jeff Skousen @Domo
No one can argue the world in which we live is a digital world. But, what does that mean for sales? Many people have interpreted digital sales to mean social selling and have argued social selling is and will be the only way to sell. Mario Martinez, CEO of Vengreso, argues that digital sales is more than just social selling, it's understanding where the customer is and meeting them there. Digital sales is a combination of all the tools sales reps have in their hands on. In this episode, Mario settles the debate on social selling and opens the listener's mind to new possibilities for selling in a digital world.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The truth about social selling
- What is digital sales
- Statistics about how digital sales has changed the way we do business
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- 113: The Truth About Social Selling w/Koka Sexton @Hootsuite
- 103: The Number One Thing That Drives Results With Social w/Cameron Brain @EveryoneSocial
- 97: Is Social Selling Dead?
In this emerging era of virtual selling, you can pursue strategies that previously would have been cost prohibitive. You can open up markets that would have proved elusive. You can run experiments that would have been expensive or difficult to run. All this is according to the best-selling book, Next Era Selling, co-authored by Britton Manasco. Britton visits the Playmaker podcast and discusses some of the key strategies outlined in his book that large organizations are executing on to move into the next era of selling.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How to get front office fusion
- What separates the outside from the inside
- The state of specialization
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- 110: Unraveling the Sales Technology Stack w/Lauren Chacon @ConstantContact, Deron Frye @PGi, & Jeff Skousen @Domo
- 14: Using Sales Operations to Drive Growth and Productivity w/Leaders from Apttus, New Relic, Xactly, and Splunk
- 107: How to Grow a Successful Field Sales Team w/Steve Benson @BadgerMapping
We might have had a little fight, Koka and I. Fight might be too strong of a word, a gentleman's disagreement is probably a better term. I started the debate with a post poking the bear declaring that social selling was dead. I felt my argument had some merit. I debated that the word social selling is confusing and the data is lacking to prove the worth of social selling. Koka saw the article and wrote a strong rebuttal and made some strong points. Koka and I started to speak offline and we decided we'd continue the conversation on the #Playmaker podcast. Thankfully, Koka and I came to terms and realized we have more in common than we thought. It's all captured here, check it out.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How can you think about the value of social selling
- How should marketing and sales work together to deliver social selling
- What is the future of social selling
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- 103: The Number One Thing That Drives Results With Social w/Cameron Brain @EveryoneSocial
- 97: Is Social Selling Dead?
- 90: LinkedIn the Sandler Way w/Mike Montague @SandlerTraining
I love being sold. The other day this kid knocks on my door and I swear he could have been 15 but that's beside the point. He starts going into his sales pitch and I have to admit, it was CLEAN. I stood there and simply smiled. He probably thought I was some weird guy just standing there with a big grin on my face while he went on about bug spray, but he never said anything. After a few minutes, I stopped him and said, "Look, I have no interest in your product my man but I'd love to film you doing your pitch." We both decided that was kind of an odd thing so we parted ways with a handshake and left it at that.
I know, I didn't buy the product but I still loved what I heard. It's a great feeling to be sold and it's an even a better feeling to be sold and then have the product or service deliver on its promise. That doesn't happen very often so when it does, you better be happy. When it comes to sales productivity tools, the mantra often seems "over promise and under deliver." Sad, but the truth hurts. Thankfully, some tools are living up to the hype and each one of these have found their way into my daily routine. Since they are helpful to me, I thought they might be helpful to you. Check them out and see for yourself.
We all go through transitions in our lives and the same is true for businesses. Some business grow and some businesses shrink. Stan, Global Business Development Leader at VONQ, joined his company at the perfect time. A time when the business was ready to start thinking more strategically about building a proper inside sales team and Stan was the man for the job. Armed with the latest research and best practices from a myriad of thought leaders, Stand has begun a journey to figure out the best way to optimize an inside sales team by focusing on the three key levers of: People, Process, and Technology.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The importance of people in an inside sales strategy and how companies should look to hire top talent
- How companies should consider structuring their organizations for optimal results
- What role technology should play in the transformation process
Companies have made significant investments to date in tools and technologies to enable sales. Usually, the core of this investment is a CRM system deployed with high expectations of streamlined selling and new insights. Unfortunately, CRM systems are rarely fully utilized and often fall short of these expectations. What is needed beyond the CRM to help sales organizations unleash additional sales growth?
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What organizations need to think about before they buy technology
- What are optimal sales technologies every company should have
- What mistakes do sales leaders make when buying technology
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- 64: The Harmony Theory: A Marketing and Sales Acceleration Formula w/Dan Murdoch @WorkMarket
- 53: Unraveling the Sales Stack: What 600 Sales Leaders Say Are Must-Haves
- 14: Using Sales Operations to Drive Growth and Productivity w/Leaders from Apttus, New Relic, Xactly, and Splunk
Some people talk and other people do and Lee Bartlett is a doer who is a proven entity when it comes to sales. Lee has eat and slept sales for years and now he's taken the time to dump all of his best stuff into his book The Number One Best Seller - a masterclass in professional selling. In this episode, we go rapid fire Q&A with Lee and ask him the toughest questions we could think of. Let us know what you think.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How can reps hit their number
- What is social selling and what is it not
- What does it take to become a number one best seller
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- The Number One Best Seller
- EP 104: The Science of Sales Transformation w/Ken Krogue
- EP 105: Selling to Zebras w/Jeff Koser @SellingToZebras
There is a lot of talk about sales and a lot of that talk is just talk, it doesn't lead to action. Sales reps need advice that is actionable, repeatable, and ultimately they need advice that leads to success. That type of goodness is hard to come by these days so it's a breath of fresh air to hear people talking about what sales reps really need rather than what people think they need. Dianna Geairn & Shawn Sandy host The SellOut Show, a show focused on boots-on-the-ground conversations with real people talking about real results. Dianna and Shawn joined the Playmaker podcast to talk about some of their learnings and must do's for sales reps to be successful.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What is the number one tactical thing sales reps can to do be successful today
- How can sales reps navigate the many sales acceleration systems offered to them
- Top books every sales reps should read
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Shawn's LinkedIn
- Dianna's LinkedIn
- The SellOut Show
- EP 103: The Number One Thing That Drives Results With Social w/Cameron Brain @EveryoneSocial
- EP 102: How to Schedule Your Day And Other Sales Tips w/Michael Pedone @SalesBuzz.coml
What ever happened to field sales? Do companies still utilize it and is it still effective? The answer as always is, it depends. Field sales is a powerful go to market strategy but it is often misunderstood and can therefore lack organization and structure . In this episode, Steve Benson, CEO of Badger Mapping, discusses his expeirence as a field sales rep and some of the top challenges fields reps face when trying to reach their sales goals.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What are the primary responsibilities of a field rep
- What are the biggest challenges of sales reps
- How are organizations solving these problems
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Badger Mapping
- EP: 100 Mind Boxing
- EP: 105 Selling to Zebras
Every company does things differently and success can look different depending on where you are. One thing that stays constant is change and it's probably the thing that companies have the hardest time with. Change unfortunately is one of the fundamental principles of success and if companies can't get this right, they won't succeed. In this episode, Dov Hirsch, chief strategy officer at Prospect Cloud, talks about practical ways companies should be thinking about growing.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What role does change have in growth
- How important is it to start with why
- How to think practically about growing your team or company
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Dov's LinkedIn
- Playmaker Facebook Group
- InsideSales.com
It’s hard to believe, but most companies close only about 15 percent of their sales deals. This means that salespeople spend 85 percent of their time to no avail. What can they do? The answer lies in identifying zebras, prospects that are perfect fits for a salesperson’s deal — not just from a product or service basis but also in terms of corporate values. In this episode, author and CEO, Jeff Koser explains the ideas behind Selling to Zebras and how this concept can change businesses.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What is the idea of selling to zebras
- How can organizations start identifying target accounts
- Why it's important for organizations to sell to zebras
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Selling to Zebras
- Selling to Zebras ebook
- Jeff Koser
Companies spend thousands of dollars on sales acceleration technology and many technology implementations fail. How is that possible? Organizations don't realize that the keys to success revolve around change management and the ability of an organization to create a structure where change can actually happen. In this episode, founder and president of InsideSales.com, Ken Krogue, discusses the five steps to sales transformation.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The importance of executive sponsorship
- How all projects need a governance structure
- Why organizations should focus on engaging their people
- The importance of process mapping
- Leading indicators and how they can help manage a project
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Ken Krogue
- The Sales Acceleration Facebook Group
- InsideSales.com
Using social in selling can be a powerful tool to help sales reps sell more. But, like any tool, it's important to know how exactly to use this tool to make it as effective as possible. In this episode, Cameron Brian, Founder and CEO of Everyone Social, talks about what social selling is and what sales reps are doing to achieve optimal results.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Clearing the Air on Social Selling
- What activities bring results in social selling
- What's a good sales cadence
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Everyone Social
- InsideSales.com
Michael Pedone is a serial entrepreneur who has made a living doing exactly what he preaches. He's mastered the art and the science of selling but he says that sales reps often forget one of the most important parts of selling, time management and the keys to structuring a good day. I know it sounds simple but it sales reps can't manage their time appropriately, they've lost before they've started. In this episode, Michael gives us the keys to time management and discusses other tips sales reps need to master to be become successful.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How to successfully manage a sales reps time
- Key things every sales rep should do every day
- How social selling fits into a sales reps day
- What's a good sales cadence
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Michael Pedone LinkedIn
- SalesBuzz.com
- InsideSales.com
We often talk about sales but we don't talk about customer success. Customer success is in an important trend and a vital part of any sales organization. In this episode, Dave Blake, founder and CEO of Client Success talks about the key elements of building a customer success team and how organizations can avoid the most common pitfalls.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How to build a customer success team
- The optimal compensation strategy
- What successful companies to do structure their teams
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- ClientSuccess
- InsideSales.com
Sales is not only about the closing a deal it's about how you handle the deal. In this episode, Harinder Singh, talks about Mind Boxing, a preparedness process that focuses on mentally preparing for a meeting. effectively executing a meeting, and following through after the meeting.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What is Mind Boxing
- How can you most effectively prepare and properly execute meetings
- The one key thing everyone needs to know to prepare for important meetings
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Mind Boxing
- InsideSales.com
I don't care about account-based marketing, I care about account-based sales. The problem with account-based sales is it's an idea most people have heard about but nobody knows what to actually do. For this reason, effective account-based sales requires sales reps who consider themselves the CEO of their territory and own their number. This is how we do it at at InsideSales.com. If you have a good idea, let's get'er done and that's exactly what Joey Wood and Jack Ballash, two of InsideSales.com's top sales reps, did. Rather than simply use LinkedIn or call their prospects, Joey and team brainstormed an account-based sales campaign that utilized a variety of communication methods to drive some big time results in a short amount of time.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How to run an effective account-based sales campaign
- The results of our account-based sales campaign
- The Dos and Don'ts of account-based sales
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Gabe Larsen LinkedIn Posts
- Joey Wood's LinkedIn
- InsideSales.com Playbooks
Daniel Disney is a master at his craft and has had thousands of views on his social media content. In addition, he runs the TheDailySales blog, a blog focused on great content and hilarious memes. In this episode, Daniel discusses his viral content, his opinion about cold calling, and what sales trends are never going away.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How to create viral content
- Is Cold Calling really dead?
- What sales trends will never go away?
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Gabe Larsen LinkedIn
- The Daily Sales
- InsideSales.com
Well, that got interesting. I wrote an article about Social Selling being dead and then Koka Sexton from Hootsuite, wrote a rebuttal, called Is Social Selling Dead. So, it was only natural that I wrote him back and this was my response. My argument is not that sales reps shouldn't use social tools but we need to be careful about how many activities people do. We want them to sell so let's keep the eye on the prize.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The definition of social selling
- The importance of partnering to build pipeline
- Why social thought leaders need to get to the how rather than just the what
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Gabe Larsen LinkedIn
- The Sales Acceleration Facebook Group
- InsideSales.com
People always wonder how to build a sales teams and they think it's about hiring but it's not. In this episode, Chris Beall, CEO of ConnectAndSell talks about the importance of conversations and how they are the fundamental building blocks of success.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The importance of conversations in building a sales teams
- How social selling should be looked at for real sales teams
- How leaders should build sales teams
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Don Aslett on Amazon
- The Sales Acceleration Facebook Group
- InsideSales.com
Look, haven't we all thought about writing a book at some point in our lives? I know I have. Well, today you're going to learn how exactly to do that. Don Aslett, co-founder of Varsity Cleaning and author of over 40 books including a book called, "How to Write and Publish Your First Book" gives us the secrets to becoming a well-known and accomplished author.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How to get your title write
- The importance of a a good editor
- Tricks to become a famous author
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Chris Beall's LinkedIn
- The Sales Acceleration Facebook Group
- InsideSales.com
One of the most important metrics sales leaders need is the reason why they either won or lost. Sadly, most leaders don't have that metric and never will. In this episode, Spencer Dent, Co-Founder of ClozdInc talks about how the importance of finding the true reason companies don't win deals and how successful companies can do it.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Why the win/loss analysis is so important
- What is the win/loss analysis in sales
- How should companies start to think about monitoring this metric to be successful
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Clozdinc
- The Sales Acceleration Facebook Group
- InsideSales.com
Across organizations, at the end of the month, quarter or year, heroes are made as unachievable quotas are reached by closing last-minute deals. How can these big, quota-saving wins be costing millions? We analyzed 9.8 million sales opportunities and will present what we found along with strategies the best companies are using to solve this problem.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How sales operations can help solve this “hockey stick effect” at the end of a period
- Proven strategies for solving this costly problem
- What companies can do to solve this problem in their organizations
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Time-Based Closing Strategies: The High Cost of Procrastination
- The Sales Acceleration Facebook Group
- InsideSales.com
In 2015, PeopleLinx State of Social Selling report said 26% of respondents reported knowing how to do social selling. The answer is always "we need to train more" but that's a copout and you know it. 74% of people reported not knowing how to do social selling because it's too vague, it doesn't make sense, and it never will. Social Selling is dead.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Why social selling is dead
- What can sales people to do win with social
- Data to confirm that a balanced approach is best
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Evolution of Business Communication Report
- The Sales Acceleration Group
- InsideSales.com
Companies have to have a go-to-market strategy and a big part of that strategy is knowing who you are targeting and who you are not. Companies struggle to determine these important characteristics and then struggle to act accordingly by challenging and adding value to each and every customer interaction. In this episode, David Wallace from BayRidgeConsutlingGroup discusses optimal go-to-market strategies and how customers can start creating a successful one.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Why it's important to have customers identify target customers
- How companies can start thinking about discovering their own target account profile
- How companies build go-to-market strategies to be successful
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- David Wallace LinkedIn
- The Sales Acceleration Group
- InsideSales.com
Mike Montague is the Director of content marketing, at Sandler Training, one of the world's most renown sales training organizations. Over the years, Mike has perfected the art of social selling and he has put his best practices in a book called, "LinkedIn the Sandler Way." The book outlines not only how to optimize your LInkedIn profile but also explains how to start using LinkedIn to make money.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Using your LinkedIn profile to target a specific audience in a compelling way.
- Harnessing LinkedIn to create a powerful, self-updating contact list.
- Leveraging LinkedIn to generate warm referrals from your existing contact network.
- Using LinkedIn to support an efficient, time-sensitive prospecting and selling plan.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- LinkedIn The Sandler Way
- The Sales Acceleration Group
- Gabe Larsen Facebook
Every sales person asks questions. We're trained that way. Some of us don't use the right tone and some of use odd questions but we all try our best. I sat down with Tim Wackel, a genius when it comes to mastering the art of sales and we discussed sales questions.
Are you asking these questions on your sales calls?
What are your goals?
Do you have a budget?
Who is involved in the decision-making process?
What keeps you up at night?
These standard questions don’t stimulate new thinking and ultimately make you sound like ‘the average rep’. Break the mold by learning to craft questions that ignite emotions, discover motivations and compel customers to act.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Recognize and control the urge to pitch prematurely
- Use open questions to close more business
- Ask the “hard” questions in an “easy” way
- Develop your own library of over 50 high-impact questions
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Free Training Offer from Tim
- InsideSales.com Research
- The Sales Acceleration Group
- Gabe Larsen Facebook
Coaching is obviously an important part of what sales leadership do but not everybody knows how to do it effectively. In this episode, Donald Kelly, the Sales Evangelist, discusses why leaders should coach and how they do it the right way.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Lies sales leader tell themselves about coaching
- How to coach effectively
- Mistake we all have made coaching
- Formatting your coaching sessions
- Measuring your sales coaching success
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- The Sales Evangelist
- The Sales Acceleration Group
- Gabe Larsen Facebook
Life gets busy and life gets hard but that doesn't mean we should skip out on vacations. Everybody needs a little R&R but when times get tough vacations are the first thing to go. In this episode, Marco Aguilar, CEO of the Power of Vacations talks about why Americans don't take vacations, the negative effects that has, and why sales people should prioritize time off.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The power and purpose of taking vacations
- Alarming statistics about Americans and vacations
- Why you should use vacation time
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- The Power of Vacations Website
- The Sales Acceleration Group
- Gabe Larsen Facebook
"Your net worth is directly correlated with your network" says Demarr Zimmerman, a self-proclaimed keep in touch strategist. Demarr has spent the last thirteen years helping companies use hand written notes and gifts to get in contact with hard-to-reach prospects and grow relationships with customers. In this episode, Demarr discusses why keep in touch strategies are important and how sales people can begin to execute them.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Why hand written notes and gifts are an important part of sales and marketing
- What is gifting in an account-based sales process
- How sales reps are winning use hand written notes and gifts in the sales process
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Send a Free Gift at AcceleratorCards.com
- Send a Free Card at AcceleratorCards.com
How cool would it be to work at LinkedIn? Can you imagine the access to the data they have? LinkedIn is the most powerful social network on the planet and it's the best lead source there is for sales reps. In this episode, Brain Frank, head of global sales operations at LinkedIn shares some of LinkedIn secrets of how they sell using data.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- LinkedIn's social selling process
- The depth and breadth of the LinkedIn network
- The benefit of selling using social
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- InsideSales.com Research
- The Sales Acceleration Group
- Gabe Larsen Facebook
People keep telling me that an account-based strategy is not fishing with nets but it's fishing with spears and they say it with this weird smirk on their face like I'm supposed to understand that analogy. Fishing with nets and spears? I think I've seen some pictures from the Bible of people fishing with nets and I'm pretty sure I caught some spear fishing in the Disney movie Moana but besides that, I have no clue what they're talking about. My usual response to this odd analogy is, "why the hell would I fish with nets or spears when I could fish with dynamite?" In this episode, we break down what is account-based even mean and why you should start fishing with dynamite rather than spears.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What is an account-based strategy
- Why the typical analogy of fishing with spears in sales doesn't make any sense
- How fishing with dynamite aligns with an account-based strategy
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- LinkedIn Post
- InsideSales.com Research
- The Sales Acceleration Group
- Gabe Larsen Facebook
Every sales rep has conversations, but not every sales rep knows how to have conversations. In this episode, Chris Orlob, Director of Product Marketing at Gong.io, explains what he discovered with his team analyzing over 250,000 sales conversations.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Reps can win more by increasing prospect talk time by 11% on discovery calls
- Keep company overview to two minutes or less to increase win rates
- The importance of listening for competitors mentions early
- How and why to use risk reversal language
- How pushing for 3-4 price mentions increase win rates
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Gong.io Research
- InsideSales.com Research
- The Sales Acceleration Group
- Gabe Larsen Facebook
Imagine with me for a minute, it's the end of your month or quarter and so you want to make sure you give it your all so you tell your sales team to come in Saturday and Sunday. Have you ever done that? I know I have but it is the right thing to do? In this episode, Gabe Larsen, Head of InsideSales Labs discusses research on the closing deals on the weekend compared to weekdays.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The win rate is 73% higher on weekdays than weekends
- Deal size on weekdays is 83% higher than it is on weekends.
- Tuesday is the best day to close a deal
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- LinkedIn Post
- The Sales Acceleration Group
- Gabe Larsen Facebook
A cadence is a sequence of activities that increases contact and qualification rates. In the past there has been four key pillars of a cadence but in an account-based model if you're not using the 5th pillar you've in a bad place. Gifting or sending direct mailers is the 5th pillar and it's a key aspect to winning in an account-based model. In this episode, Braydan Young, co-founder of Sendoso, talks about the idea of gifting and what companies should be thinking about to run this play successfully in an account-based sales approach.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What is the idea of gifting or sending direct mailers as part of the sales process
- What are some of the best gifting ideas in sales and how can you use them
- Where should you use gifts in the sales process
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Sendoso.com
- Braydan's LinkedIn
- The Sales Acceleration Group
- Gabe Larsen Facebook
Every organization struggles with training and on boarding. In this episode, Lauren Bailey, president and founder of Factor8, talks about her three tips to turn inside sales organizations to rockstars.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The importance of cutting your training time in half
- Making sure your training is custom to your situation
- Using call recordings as game film
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Factor8 Youtube Channel
- Lauren's LinkedIn
- The Sales Acceleration Group
- Gabe Larsen Facebook
Wow, there is a lot of hype around AI? Am I right or am I wrong? I'm afraid I'm right. But, there is good reason for it. In 2016, there were 40 acquisitions of companies working to advance artificial intelligence1 and the AI market was worth $644 million2. In 2017, the market value of AI is expected to double and then grow exponentially until it reaches $38.6 billion less than ten years from now3. Inc. Magazine called 20174 the “year of AI” and most every major brand has begun fighting to enter the space. Consumer-driven companies like Google have led the charge with over 11 acquisitions in the AI category to date while business-driven companies like Salesforce, who joined the race late, have quickly begun catching up by acquiring two AI based companies in the last year[5]. AI is here to stay and it’s not just changing the market, it’s shaping the way we live and work.
In this episode, Gabe Larsen, Director of InsideSales Labs discusses the InsideSales.com research report called the State of AI. The report examines trends and perceptions of the US regarding this disruptive technology.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Consumers and AI: It’s Only the Beginning
- It Comes Down to Trust: Trepidation Around AI
- Our AI Future: Peering into the Crystal Ball
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- LinkedIn Post
- The State of AI Study
- The Sales Acceleration Group
- Gabe Larsen Facebook
Every organization has a structure but not many organizations know what structure is optimal to maximize revenue with their unique situation. In this episode, Dan Perry, principal at SBI, discusses research and his learnings regarding optimal organization structures.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The Seven Organizational Design Models
- Designing an Org Model for Your Business
- Emerging Best Practices on Inside Sales Org Models
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Sales Benchmark Index
- InsideSales.com
- Sales Acceleration Facebook Group
- Gabe Larsen on Facebook
In sales you never really know if you're a leader or a follower. Often we want to please everyone which ends up pleasing no one. Yes isn't always the answer. In this episode, Brad Childress, sales expert, discusses how to move from being a sales concierge to a sales leader.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Don't believe the current thinking that the customer is 67% through their buying process when they engage
- Trade, Don't Give
- Win or Lose Early
- Don't confuse "Like" with "Preference"
- Commit to the "Sales Bill of Rights"
Let's talk tools for a minute. I'm not talking about the usual. I know you know those just like I do. I go to a lot of the same events you do and I hear the same message from the same vendor so let's skip the usual and go to something else. I want to talk about random tools. Ones you've never heard of. In fact, that's probably my goal, if by the end of this rant you say to yourself that you've not heard of at least of of these tools then I've done my job. Let's dive in.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Sendoso.com
- KZOInnovations.com
- LetterFriend.com
- FaxPipe.com
Fraser Bullock is currently the Co-Founder of Sorenson Capital. Previous to founding Sorenson, Fraser was asked by Mitt Romney to be the COO of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in SLC. In this episode, Fraser talks about the challenge of overcoming a scandalous Olympic bid and a $400 million dollar deficit and how he and his team turned it into $100 million profit and one of the most successful Olympic games ever.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Washington Post Test
- The importance of product leadership
- How to think about building great teams
- The importance of tools and technology
- Get up and get up quickly
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Fraser Bullock at Sorenson Capital
Most people sell features. A select few sell benefits but Anthony Iannarino teaches companies to sell something greater than that. People don't buy products, people buy people and until sales reps start prescribing to prospects what is required to win, they will never reach their full potential. In this episode, Anthony Iannarino, discusses the secrets of how to sell better starting now.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What you need to do to sell better now
- Your product isn’t enough
- Experience isn’t enough
- ROI and outcomes aren’t enough
- You are not all that different from your competitors
- The direction from which you enter a sale defines you
- How you sell is more important than what you sell
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- The Sales Blog
If you have not heard of the Corporate Executive Board (CEB), you're missing out. CEB is a fantastic research and best practice organization that has revolutionized the way way we think about sales and marketing. One of the leaders at CEB is Matt Dixon, the author of the Challenger Sale. Matt is responsible for authoring a book that has really changed the way people look at sales. In this episode, Matt explains some of his thought around the Challenger Sale - how the book came to be and what companies should should with the information.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What is the Challenger Sale
- How the Challenger Sale was created
- How organizations should start using this information
Whatever you call it – predictive analytics, machine learning, or artificial intelligence, – you need to be doing it or at least say you're doing it. I'm serious, if your product isn't powered by artificial intelligence then get it on the road map and do what everyone else is doing - sell it like you already have it. With recent announcements by large software companies that A.I. is the next big thing, we've officially crossed the metaphoric Geoffrey Moore chasm and A.I. is here to stay. The question is how do you win with A.I.? In this episode, Gabe Larsen, Director of InsideSales.com Labs talks about the secrets to winning with A.I.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Math is the table stakes
- Data is the differentiator
- Application is key
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- LinkedIn Post
- Simple explanation of neural networks
- Dave Elkington's article on What is A.I.
Proposals are an important part of the sales process but wasting time writing proposals for the wrong people or handing the process of proposal writing inappropriately, can cost sales people a lot of time. In this episode, author Colleen Stanley, talks about three key concepts sales people should focus on to make the proposal process a success.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The importance of knowing who you target
- How to stop confusing a the idea of a customer wanting a better price with idea of a customer pain
- How to develop soft skills to be more assertive
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Colleen's LinkedIn
Sales development is a popular term for lead development reps or people who handle the prospecting part of the sales process. In this episode, the master Kraig Kleeman, discusses key trends driving this important role.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Great sellers are not born they are developed
- Onboarding is key
- Cracking the code on the enterprise
- Understanding the limitations of social selling
- Unlocking a lot of cash
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Kraig's LinkedIn
Justin Lindsey is a signal finder. As he explains it, he did not start out that way. he started out as builder. His Dad was a ham radio guy and it’s just the way it was around our home. . . from home construction, to solder, to embedded controllers, to early PC building, to programing, even some early robotics. He just built things.
This building led him to MIT where his building evolved to solving complex things simply, occasionally even elegantly. He spent the 90’s designing and building fast distributed systems and the companies that housed them. He gained fundamental skills in distributed high-speed computation on large data sets. Computational speed became a passion.
Then the world changed on September 11. After which, he was asked to be the CTO for the FBI and my path shifted to applied analytics. What mattered was finding signals that could both explain what had or was happening and to predict what might happen. He began to believe that encoded in the large, diverse, and dynamic data sources of our world were traces of reality or signals that could be decoded or revealed through computing, quantitative methods, and directed efforts. These signals could tell him how to act. In many ways it felt as though they allowed him to speed through and learn from the past, slow down the present, and simultaneously consider many futures. Signal finding was a rush and thread of meaningful impact that defined him. He could see signals.
His quest is to find signals and encapsulate them into operational analytic systems to dramatically increase the impact of analytics on the world.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Select A Target That Matters
- A target gives meaning to signals
- Data is the raw material from which signal is extracted
- Statistical methods, machine learning, and computational techniques are the methods not the END
- With enough samples Human Behavior is probabilistically predictable
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Justin's LinkedIn
Every company wants to sell to the enterprise but not every company knows how. In this episode, Mike Schultz, president of Raingroup, lets us in on some new research about what differentiates top performers in large companies.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What Top Performers in Strategic Account Management do differently than The Rest
- The #1 sales competency across Top Performers, and how the competencies are completely different at less successful organizations
- 6 Strategic Account Management Roles every account team needs
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- echoofhope.org
- Mike's LinkedIn
One of the most common behaviors in sales is the period-ending push, in which reps are pressured to make extra efforts to reach quotas at the end of calendar cycles. Conventional wisdom dictates that the axiomatic jump in period-ending deal closures observed nearly universally is evidence of the effectiveness of these behaviors. Yet our analysis of over 151 anonymized companies and 9.8 million sales transactions demonstrates that this pattern may be costing the companies studied an estimated $98.02 million per year in missed revenue. This number represents a potential increase of 27.21% in revenue per company if properly addressed. Strategies executed at the end of calendar cycles often unnecessarily alienate potential clients with aggressive sales tactics and encourage sales reps to procrastinate activities or pull deals forward. These counterproductive and often unacknowledged practices can be overcome by behavioral coaching, sales skill enhancement, and improvements to pipeline management and forecast strategies.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How InsideSales.com and BYU quantified the 'hockey stick effect' sales teams experience at the end of the month and quarter
- Why companies choose to procrastinate deals until the end of the month or quarter
- What organizations can do to change behavior to stop leaving meaning revenue on the table
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Research Report
- LinkedIn Article
Malcolm Gladwell is the man. He runs a podcast called the The Revisionist History. His 3rd episode talks about why smart people do dumb things and we thought, in sales, smart people do dumb things. The InsideSales Labs team recently released a research report called, " Time-Based Closing Strategies: The High Cost of Procrastination." The report quantifies the age old debate of sales reps closing deals on the last day of the month. In this episode, we discuss why people do dumb things and introduce some of the findings of our research report.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- About Malcolm's Podcast
- What really happens on the last day of the month regarding the number of deals, deal sizes, and win rates
- How much bad behavior at the end of the month is costing companies
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Research Report
- Malcolm's Podcast
- LinkedIn Article
Every company wants to move up stream and catch bigger fish but not every company can. Selling to bigger companies requires a different strategy and mind-set than selling to small companies. In this episode, Leslie Venetz, VP of Sales at Carpathia talks about his experience of selling and winning in the enterprise.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The importance of defining your target companies
- How to not be afraid to pick up the phone and call
- How to effectively deal with gatekeepers
Antiquated systems, processes, data structures, and ideologies plague sales and marketing. If we do not optimize our sales and marketing technology stack to empower a formulaic approach that seamlessly manifests itself as clearly defined business results, we will not create sustainable and predictable growth for our organizations. In this episode, Dan Murdoch Director of Demand Generation, talks about the Harmony Theory and how sales and marketing can work together to drive success.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Defining the assembly line to revenue
- Building the optimized technology stack
- Employing an ABM, Omni-Channel surround sound strategy
- Implementing industry leading sales and marketing operations
- Defining clear divisions of labor to move leads down the funnel
- Employing the Harmony Metric as a means of prioritization for sales action (A weighted avg metric of Lead score + Account Fit score + Contactability score)
Lindsey is a social selling guru. She a practitioner turned consultant because of the success she learned using social tools. Her mission is to now share her secrets and her best practices with the world. In this episode, Lindsey talks about her social selling master class and how she rose to the top mastering key social selling tips, tricks, and tactics.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Proven LinkedIn strategic that work
- How social selling can be an integral part of any selling process
- Key tips and tricks to get you selling
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- 39: Massive Misconceptions of Social Selling w/Jared Fuller @PandaDoc
- 17: Leverage Social Networks to Gain Access to Big Time Decision Makers w/Brynne Tillman @PeopleLinx
Hiring is broken and if you're like most leaders you're not sure how to fix it. Great resumes, well-dressed candidates, and firm handshakes just don't cut it but what does? In this episode, Ross Rich, Managing Principal, Selection Strategies, Inc. shares with us the secrets of his life's work - discovering and using a data-driven approach to hiring sales superstars.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Blending art & science in sales hiring
- Identifying key performance metrics
- Mining for performance data
- Incorporating data-driven attributes into the interview process
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- 59: Your Hiring Process is Broken: Lesson from the Movie MoneyBall
- 15: Creating a Performance-Driven Culture w/Shea Stringert @AdRoll
- LinkedIn Posts
Sales and marketing have always been known as the odd couple but that doesn't mean it's okay. How can you bring two things together that often don't naturally go together? In this episode, Gavin Harris, VP of Sales of SalesFusion, breaks down the relationship of sales and marketing and discusses how these two functional areas can effectively work together to achieve success.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The importance of speed-to-lead
- How great organizations think about scoring leads
- How prioritization drives success
This guy is the real deal. Aaron Ross made his fame and fortune at Salesforce.com where he helped Salesforce scale to 100million dollars. For years his book, Predictable Revenue," was called the bible of "Silicon Valley" and it has helped many companies achieve top success. In this episode, Aaron shares with us some of the genius of his latest writings about how CEOs can break revenue plateaus.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Use your challenges to power change, not avoid it
- Seeds, nets, spears,: which is best for you
- Specialize your people or time
- Practice getting to the painful truth
When you think of the marketing cloud you think of full automation. Lead routing, lead scoring, lead research, lead nurturing. The list goes on and on. In the world of hiring it's different. There is little to no technology and the concept of predictive analytics is non-existent. It's not right but it is the way it is and it's time we recognize it and change it. In this episode, Gabe Larsen, the Director of InsideSales Labs discusses a data-driven approach to hiring using lessons from the movie MoneyBall.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The MoneyBall story - Billy Bean and the Oakland A's
- The concept of using data in the hiring process like the Oakland A's did
- What talent is and how it can be used to objectify the hiring process
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- 15: Creating a Performance-Driven Culture w/Shea Stringert @AdRoll
- 18: How the World’s Top Tech Companies are Killing It with Sales Development w/Leaders from Apttus, Salesforce, Docusign, and Hubspot
- LinkedIn Post
- Accelerate: InsideSales.com's Executive Summit
- Account-Based Virtual Workshop
We all talk about coaching but not many organizations know how to do it and almost nobody knows how to scale it. Coaching is easy with five sales reps but with 50 or 100 reps, it becomes a different game. In this episode, VP of Sales Kevin Dorsey, gives a three stop process to scale an incredible coaching program. in your sales organization.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The importance of building a scorecard
- Holding your reps accountable by effecting their quota
- Not be afraid to iterate through the entire process
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- 57: You Suck At Building Rapport: 3 Steps to Build Trust in Minutes
- 52: How to Master the Art of Selling w/ Author and Speaker Tom Hopkins
Rapport is huge. It's the thing. Sales reps have to do it to sell a deal and they are often terrible at it. People know what rapport building is but they don't know how to do it. In this episode, Gabe Larsen, Director of InsideSales Labs walks through a three-step process to build trust in minutes.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
The three step process to build rapport quickly using the ROI model
- Review . . .the source
- Organize . . .the information
- Ignite . . .the conversation
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- LinkedIn Post
Every year people guess what will happen the following year but this is different. In this episode, Elyse Archer Sales and Leadership Coach, goes deep into her experience to talk about top trends, tools, and wish list items for 2017.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Why and how individual content must be produced by sales people
- Why we need to change the way we look at metrics
- The importance of simplifying the sales process
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Elyse's LinkedIn
Not long ago, a few of us here at the office started debating what was the most popular sales related movie. Surprisingly, there was not a clear winner. I was shocked at some of the movies that people mentioned as I didn’t really considerer them a movie related to sales. After a lot of discussion we decided we'd finalize the debate with a research study. Why not ask a few hundred sales people what their favorite sales related movie was and once and for all see if we couldn’t settle the debate. So we did. We gathered a list of a handful of sales related movies and sent a survey out to a mix of sales positions. We had 433 people respond. The top three sales movies were...you'll have to listen to find out.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What the highest and lowest rated sales movies
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- LinkedIn Post
Should you even have a sales development team? In this episode, experts Sarah Roberts (Salesforce), Richard Harris (Harris Consulting), and Ken Krogue (InsideSales.com), discuss and debate the pros and cons of having a sales development team and the tips, technology, and trends surrounding this sales function.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Should you even have a sales development team
- Best practices sales development teams should follow
- Dos and Don'ts of successful sales development teams.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- 23: Four Keys for Sales & Sales Development to Partner to Achieve Success w/Kristin Agnelli @PGi
- 18: How the World’s Top Tech Companies are Killing It with Sales Development w/Leaders from Apttus, Salesforce, Docusign, and Hubspot
Every new year there are a lot of people who speak out about what technologies they think should be part of the an optimized sales stack. Most of the time those answers are clouded with companies pushing their own products or consultants pushing partner products where they know they will get part of the pie. Needless the say, the conversation get's confusing and it's mostly the end user who suffers. We thought we'd break through the fluff and go right to the source so in 2016 we asked 600 sales leaders across a variety of industries and company sizes, what technologies are needed most to win.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The top ten technologies leaders recommend as part of an optimized tech stack
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Business Growth Index Study
- LinkedIn Article
If you've not heard of Tom Hopkins, you're probably not a great sales person. Tom wrote a revolutionary book in 80's called 'How to Master the Art of Selling'. Since then Tom has revised that book and written another book called 'When Buyers Say No'. In this episode, Tom talks briefly about the importance of communication skills and the proper steps to selling and how to serve your clients well. In addition, Tom talks about the word "No" and how it can be a fork in the road if sales reps treat it right.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The importance of goals
- The most important thing in selling
- How to think about "No" in a different way
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Tom Hopkins LinkedIn
Bob Burg is the coauthor of the international bestseller, The Go-Giver and a much sought-after speaker at sales and leadership conferences. In this episode, Bob discusses his book the Go-Giver and talks about how companies both large and small are not only of much greater value to their customers; they are also significantly more functional, and profitable by using the Go-Giver method.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Five Laws that will bring you both personal effectiveness and professional success.
- The difference between price and value…and why that’s so vitally important to understand.
- One golden nugget of advice from a “drive-by mentor” totally shifted Bob’s perspective and played a big role in his success.
- Why asking if something will make money isn’t a bad question…it’s just a bad “first question.”
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Bob Burg's Website
Qualification is a lost art. Most people try to move too quickly to the presentation so they can talk about themselves and how great they are. In this episode, Mark Hunter, discusses keys to qualification and how reps can win if they qualify the right way.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How to qualify quickly
- The key of asking open ended questions
- The importance of finding a critical need and building on it
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- InsideSales Labs Research
- The Sales Acceleration Show Recognized as Top Podcast
2016 has come and gone and it's time to reflect on what actually happened. Here are some of the highlights: The Olympics were awesome, there were some crazy tech acquisitions, a couple of important sports spells were broken, and of course Donald Trump was elected president. But, that's not all. Some fun things happened with InsideSales Labs and we wanted to tell you about it.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Our highlights from 2016
- Some of the cool things InsideSales Labs has been working on
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- LinkedIn Article with Links
- InsideSales Labs Research
- The Sales Acceleration Show Recognized as Top Podcast
2016 has come and gone and managers and reps are preparing for 2017. The end of the year provides a time to reflect and review on what went well and what can be improved. In this episode, author, speaker, and strategist, Andy Paul, discusses 2017 and what reps and managers should do to make it a success.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Biggest sales challenge facing sales reps
- The importance of understanding the psychology of decision making
- Where deals are won or lost in competitive sales
- Advice for heading into 2017
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- AndyPaul.com
- Inside Sales Top Challenges Study
- Andy Paul Blog: Top Five Sales Books Recommend by Experts
One of the fundamental questions in sales is, “What does my buyer want?” Surprisingly, very few sales people can answer that question correctly. Note, I said, “correctly.” Every sales person thinks they know what their buyer wants but not many reps actually do. In this episode, we review the latest InsideSales.com research on what buyers actually want.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- An objective approach to determining what buyers want
- What the top priorities of key buyers are
- The importance of title level and title function
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- LinkedIn Post
- Inside Sales Top Challenges Study
- 14: Using Sales Operations to Drive Growth and Productivity w/Leaders from Apttus, New Relic, Xactly, and Splunk
We've completed a study for the last the last three years in partnership with the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals. We ask managers and reps a series of questions to understand what's difficult about their job and what challenges they face. In this episode, we dive into the top challenges of manager and discuss the trends from 2015 to 2016.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What are managers biggest challenges
- What managers are going to do about their top challenges
- Trends and analysis regarding inside sales top challenges
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- LinkedIn Post
- Inside Sales Top Challenges Study
- 44: Why Coaching Is So Much Better Than Training w/Rob Jeppsen @XVoyant
Everybody prospects but not everybody really prospects. In this episode, Jeb Blount, CEO of SavyGravy, talks about the secrets of prospecting with the pros.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How important is a manager
- Tips and tricks for prospecting
- How to differentiate yourself on the phone
Training, coaching, skill building, on boarding . . .we hear about them but do we really know the difference and why they are so important? In this episode, founder of XVoyant, Rob Jeppsen, discusses what is coaching and how leaders can take steps to start coaching more effectively.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What is coaching
- What is the business case for coaching
- Difference between training and coaching
- What are the things that a leader can do to be a world class coach
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- 37: What Makes or Breaks A Great Coaching Program w/Tom Lavery @Jiminny
- 31: Creating a Culture of Coaching by Using Call Recordings w/Steve Richard @ExecVision_io
- 43: Top Five Things That Piss Off Inside Sales Reps The Most
We've completed a study for the last the last three years in partnership with the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals. We ask leaders and reps a series of questions to understand what's difficult about their job and what challenges they face. In this episode, we dive into the top challenges of reps and discuss the trends from 2015 to 2016.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What are inside sales reps biggest challenges
- What inside sales reps don't think matters
- Trends and analysis regarding inside sales top challenges
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- LinkedIn Post
- Inside Sales Top Challenges Study
- 31: Creating a Culture of Coaching by Using Call Recordings w/Steve Richard @ExecVision_io
Every company wants to grow, but not every company knows how to do that. In this episode, Jamie Shanks, CEO of Sales For Life, talks about his five step process to help companies achieve rapid and scalable business growth.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How to plan your go-to-market strategy
- Use your people correctly
- Build out an ideal process
- How to thinking about optimizing your tech stack
- How to measure, adjust, and adapt
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- InsideSales.com Sales Acceleration Technology Summit
As 2016 comes and goes, many companies are starting to think about budgets for 2017 and where to spend their precious dollars. In this episode, Matt Heinz, President of Heinz Marketing discusses some of the points companies should consider as they review and decide on their 2017 budgets.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Budget considerations for 2017
- Areas where companies often overlook when it comes to budgeting
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- 37: What Makes or Breaks A Great Coaching Program w/Tom Lavery @Jiminny
- 24: Seven Cadence Templates To Double Your Contact Rates in 20 Days
- 20: How To Do Account-Based Sales. . .NOT
In sales we all have those moments. Moments we can't forget for the rest of our lives and usually it's because those experiences were incredibly embarrassing. In this episode, we talk about our most embarrassing moments and some of the lessons learned.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Some of our most embarrassing moments
- Lessons learned from these experiences
- A few tips to make sure you don't make the same mistakes
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- LinkedIn Post: What Are Your Most Embarrassing Sales Moments? Here Are My Top Two
Everybody does social selling...or do they? Social selling is easy so you should do it...or should you? Social Selling is a buzzword but there are actually a lot of misconceptions about what it is, who it is for, and what it takes to really win. In this episode, Jared Fuller VP of Sales at PandaDoc, dives into the misconceptions of Social Selling and sets the record straight.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The biggest misconceptions with social selling
- What companies and reps can do overcome solve misconceptions
- Why these social selling misconceptions exist
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- 17: Leverage Social Networks to Gain Access to Big Time Decision Makers w/Brynne Tillman @PeopleLinx
- 8: Boost Sales 30% by Integrating Social Selling into Your Traditional Sales Process w/Gabe Villamizar @HireVue
Great leaders can sense what is coming. They know when change is imminent and they usually have an idea on how to handle it. Not this time. If you sit down with a leader, you can see it in their face. They don't have the answer. The topic is Millennials, and the statistic is that Millennials are now the largest generation in the workforce as 1 out of every 3 workers is a Millennial [Pew Research]. In this episode, Gabe discusses common issues how Millennials are changing the way we do business.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Killer statistics about Millennials
- What leaders can do to effectively lead in this new world
- How to change the old mentality of thinking towards Millennials
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- LinkedIn Posts: The One Statistic Every Leader Needs to Hang on Their Wall (Hint: It Involves Millennials)
- 36: A Day In The Life Of A Millennial Sales Rep: Why A.I. Is Causing A Sales Revolution
Coaching is something that people talk about but rarely do. Why? Is it because it's hard? Is there no technology to support coaching activities? In this episode, Tom Lavery CEO of Jiminny, discusses why and how companies can start creating a culture of coaching.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What great organizations do to create a culture of coaching
- Where leaders should spend time coaching
- How to develop sales people in the ways they learn
- How companies are measuring performance
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- 31: Creating a Culture of Coaching by Using Call Recordings w/Steve Richard @ExecVision_io
- 27: The Secret to Selling in the Enterprise: Navigating the Path to Power
- 26: Owning the Sales Conversation w/Josh Harcus @TeamHuify
The workforce is changing. According to a White House report, 33% of the current workforce is a millennial and in 4 years time, millennials will make up over 50% of the entire U.S. workforce. Millennials do things differently and they expect their work life to be like the rest of their life -- supported by technology and A.I. The problem is, it's not. Work is the one area where sales reps do not get much support from A.I. and that trend is changing. A.I. in enterprise sales is at a tipping point and it's a good thing because if you look at the day of a typical millennial sales rep, you'd be shocked at what happens. I know I was. In this episode, Steve and Gabe discuss the power of A.I. in the our personal lives and gap we're experiencing in our work life.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What a day in the life of a millennial sales rep looks like
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- LinkedIn Post: A Day In The Life Of A Millennial Sales Rep: Why A.I. Is Causing A Sales Revolution
- 34: Data + Science = Sales Revolution w/Dave Elkington @InsideSales
Inside Sales is a model that is applicable in any market and any country. In this episode, Diego Wagner, CEO at Meettime discusses recent research regarding Inside Sales in Brazil and how his company is helping push this new model of sales in the emerging country of Brazil.
In This Episode You'll Learn Research & Findings Regarding the first Inside Sales Benchmark in Brazil:
- The role of sales development and how companies are beginning to experiment with this model
- Conversion rates in the sales pipeline and how they are different in Brazil than in the US
- How compensation models are being approach and how that differs with the US
- What technologies are being utilized and what is most popular
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Diego Wagner's LinkedIn
- A Day In The Life Of A Millennial Sales Rep: Why A.I. Is Causing A Sales
Enterprise AI has reached a tipping point with enterprise sales. Whatever you call it – machine learning, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, cognitive computing – this phenomenon is dominating our newsfeeds. In this episode, CEO of InsideSales.com, Dave Elkington presents his thoughts A.I. and how it can effectively be used in the sales process.
In This Episode You'll Learn That Meaningful AI requires Three Crucial Elements:
- Math – Algorithms that look for patterns in data in order to predict future outcomes.
- Data – Information that continually feeds the math, making it smarter and more accurate.
- Applications – Software that turns predictions and prescriptions from the math into improved outcomes by integrating into activities and workflows.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- What Is AI? Setting the Record Straight
- A Day In The Life Of A Millennial Sales Rep: Why A.I. Is Causing A Sales
Most organizations struggle to sell and even more organizations struggle to up-sell and cross-sell. As organizations look to optimize their post-sale interactions, they will need to focus on the right people, systems, and process. In this episode, Richard Harris, owner of the Harris Consulting Group, discusses key points to winning after the initial deal is sold.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How organizations are structuring their post-sales teams
- What companies are thinking about when it comes to compensation and motivation
- Tips needed to win in a up-sell and cross sell environment
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Richard's LinkedIn
- 22: How Client Success Accelerates Sales w/Dean Robison @InsideSales, Dan Steinman @ Gainsight, Jim Steele @InsideSales
- 12: How I Broke the Rules and Doubled Oracles' Inside Sales Revenues w/Dan Freund @InsideSales.com
InsideSales.com Labs has been performing ResponseAudits for over 7 years to determine how quickly and how persistently sales reps respond to inbound web leads. By submitting leads to 4,723 companies’ web forms and tracking calls, voicemails, and emails, we found some pretty interesting results.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How fast or how slow companies are responding to leads
- What companies are doing with personalized versus automated emails
- How persistent companies are in following up with their leads
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Fall 2016 ResponseAudit Report
- Personalization Trumps Automation: Please Stop with the Auto-Response Emails
Game film is a integral part of any football team's activities. Oddly, in sales many don't use game film. With the ability to record calls in an easy-to-use interface companies can create a structure to have managers and reps coaching each other. In this episode, CRO of ExecVision Steve Richard, talks about how companies are creating coaching programs that actually work.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How to capture call recordings in compliance with State and Federal laws
- The one InsideSales.com PowerDialer feature you’re likely not using
- Step-by-step call coaching playbook: why, who, when, how
- How to break call recordings like Jon Gruden breaks down game film on ESPN
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- 26: Owning the Sales Conversation w/Josh Harcus @TeamHuify
- 12: How I Broke the Rules and Doubled Oracles' Inside Sales Revenues w/Dan Freund @InsideSales.com
- Coaching Webinar with Gabe Larsen and Steve Richards
- ExecVision.io
Dreamforce 2016 was an amazing event. We had the pleasure of interviewing representatives from Lessonly, Domo, Paradigm Life, Docusign, OwnBackup.com and Apttus. They shared their perspective on Dreamforce, and what they experienced.
From Lessonly we had Scott Cook and Mike Wendahl.
From Domo we met with Lauren Willman.
From Paradigm Life we met with Daniel Torsak
From OwnBackup we met with Alex Ortiz
From DocuSign we met with Sandy Vaughan
Finally From Apttus, and finishing out the Podcast, we met with Aaron Farley, head of Global Enablement at Apttus.
Peter Caputa joined HubSpot as employee 15. After petitioning to start HubSpot's Agency Partner program, HubSpot's CEO reluctantly let him in 2009. Pete was responsible for the program and the team as recently as January 2016. The program is now responsible for 40% of HubSpot's new customers and cited as a major factor for leading HubSpot through a successful IPO and its accelerated growth rate since going public, not to mention the success of many marketing agencies and their clients.
In This Episode You'll Learn Four Steps to Optimize Your Partner Program:
- Step 1: Think Marketing (Not Sales) When Recruiting Resellers
- Step 2: Solve Your Resellers’ Challenges First, Then Focus on Their Clients’ Challenges
- Step 3: Don’t Sell a Product — Sell a Platform
- Step 4: Keep the Barriers to Entry Low
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- 7 Steps HubSpot Used to Scale It's Channel Sales Program
- 22: How Client Success Accelerates Sales w/Dean Robison @InsideSales, Dan Steinman @ Gainsight, Jim Steele @InsideSales
- More sales advice from Pete Caputa
Inside Sales is an art and a science. In this episode, Steve Bonvissuto, Executive Director of Innovation at MarketSource, explains how only using people, systems, and process can lead a company to sales success.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Training - What MarketSource sees as must haves for training sales people
- Process - What are people typical process problems for sales people
- Technology - Top technology required to optimize your technology stack
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- 5: The Five-Billion Dollar Playbook w/David Rudnitsky @InsideSales.com
David Rudnitsky is enterprise sales. When you talk to him you can't help but think he has been doing enterprise sales his entire life. He eats, drinks, and sleeps it. David Rudnitsky coined a term called 'The Path to Power.' In this episode, Gabe and Steve discuss and debate the concept of the Path to Power and explain why companies should know about it and focus on navigating it correctly.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What is the Path to Power
- Examples of navigating the Path to Power in sales
- Five keys to managing the Path to Power in your s
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- 5: The Five-Billion Dollar Playbook w/David Rudnitsky @InsideSales.com
- Path to Power LinkedIn Article
Reps are not closing, what do you do? Most sales management teams don't realize they are not leaving their team out to dry. In this episode, Josh Harcus discusses how to support your team through a structured pipeline process and how to teach your reps to take control of the conversation and keep it.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Keys to keeping control of the sales conversation and how to do it
- How to own the sales conversation from beginning to end
- Thoughts on supporting your sales team with a formula for pipeline management
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- 15: Creating a Performance-Driven Culture w/Shea Stringert @AdRoll
- 25: Is the Break Up Email Dead?
We've all prospected for a long time. We've tried different tips and tricks. Today we want to discuss the break up email. The email you send when you're ready to give up on a contact. What are best practices? What are good and bad examples? Tune and and find out.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What is a break up email
- What are bad and good examples of break up emails
- The principles of writing a good break up email
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- 17: Leverage Social Networks to Gain Access to Big Time Decision Makers w/Brynne Tillman @PeopleLinx
- 18: How the World’s Top Tech Companies are Killing It with Sales Development w/Leaders from Apttus, Salesforce, Docusign, and Hubspot
- LinkedIn Article on Break Up Emails
Cadence is a buzzword. What does it actually mean and more importantly how do you create a cadence that actually works. In this episode, Gabe Larsen, Director of InsideSales Labs, discusses the importance of a cadence, how to build a cadence, and what makes a great cadence.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The definition of cadence
- The five step process to build a cadence
- Bad examples of cadences
- Great examples of cadences
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Cadence Webinar by Gabe Larsen
- Cadence Templates
- Cadence Video
- LinkedIn Article
We all have sales development teams but we don't all have sales and sales development teams that work well together. In this episode, Kristin Agnelli, Sr. Director of Lead Development at PGI, discusses what's she learned to do to make these teams work successfully together.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- The importance of strategy – Sales is the customer of the sales development team. What does sales need, more volume or better leads? An agreement always needs to be there if you’re building a new team or taking on an existing one.
- The need for alignment - When sales realigns compensation and territories at the beginning of every year it’s best to mirror their set up and change SDR structure/comp if needed.
- The purpose of service level agreements – SLAs make easy for sales to partner with the SDR team, and likewise make it easy for SDRs to get their job done. Set up your backend technology stack to support your deliverable and put some SLAs behind different expectations.
- Why you have to have accountability – Both the SDR team and sales teams are accountable for different activities throughout the process.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- 3: Lessons Learned from Scaling a 100 Person Sales Development Team at Apttus w/ Kent Venook
- The Definition of Sales Development
- Posts by Gabe Larsen on the InsideSales.com Blog
Many people believe sales starts with prospecting and ends with the close of a sale. Great companies think differently. Customer success can be a key part of a holistic approach to obtaining and retaining great customers. In this session, our expert panel of Dean Robinson, Dan Steinman, and Jim Steele discuss the topic of how customer success can accelerate sales.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- How client success can accelerate sales
- What formula great companies are using to connect the customer life-cycle
- How customers are using customer success as a key differentiator
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- The Next Generation of Customer Success
- 12: How I Broke the Rules and Doubled Oracles Inside Sales Revenues w/Dan Freund @InsideSales
- 5: The Five Billion Dollar Playbook w/David Rudnitsky @InsideSales
People can 'talk the talk' but not many can't 'walk the walk'. ZipRecruiter represents a company that has been able to do both. Raising 63M in it's Series A funding, ZipRecruiter has quickly become a 'darling' in the tech space with it's ability to build a high-velocity machine. In this episode, Kevin Gaither, SVP of Sales, explains his three keys to building a killer company.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- Kevin's formula to hire top talent
- Kevin's systematic career progression path
- Kevin's disciplined apporach to lead scoring
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Kevin Gaither's LinkedIn
- Sales In The Cloud: How to Build a High-Velocity Sales Model Webinar
- Episode 19: Top Three Trends in Inside Sales w/Bob Perkins
As a consultant, Gabe has the unique advantage of visiting different companies and seeing their sales motion. Every once and awhile, he visits a company and experiences something less than stellar. A few weeks back, Gabe visited a company who was in the middle of a transition to an account-based approach. Diving into the weeds, Gabe reviewed the process beginning to end and discusses and debates with Steve the lessons learned.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
- What not to do when identifying target accounts
- Issues reps face when identifying target contacts
- How reps can waste time trying to find optimal contact information
- The need to structure your outreach strategy
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- How to do Account-Based Sales . . .Not LinkedIn Post
- Account-Based Everything Webinar w/ Trish Bertuzzi, Matt Heinz, Gabe Larsen
- 16: Leveraging Account-Based Marketing and Account-Based Sales in the Enterprise w/Ken Krogue, Jon Miller, & Rich Neal
If you're not experienced the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals or the AA_ISP, you'll need to take some time to check it out. The Association focuses on all things Inside Sales and the co-founder and chairman, Bob Perkins, joined us to talk about the three biggest trends he sees in the Inside Sales space.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
The three trends in inside sales
- Sales Acceleration technology. How companies are figuring out what's working and what's not.
- People problems. How companies are dealing with hiring, on boarding, and training.
- Shift from outside sales to inside sales. How companies are making this move.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Bob Perkins' LinkedIn
- Sales Development Technology Guide
- Episode 12: How I Broke The Rules and Doubled Oracles Inside Sales Revenue w/Dan Freund
Sales development is one of the hottest sales trends of 2016. In order to capitalize on this movement, companies must understand from A to Z how to set up and optimize this important function. Ever wonder how the world's biggest tech companies run their sales development teams? In this episode Apttus, Salesforce, Docusign, and Hubspot leaders talk about how they've built their SDR teams.
In this episode you'll learn:
- Structure your sales development function
- Hire, train and pay your sales development team
- Optimize your sales development technology stack and build a world-class sales development process
You have a sales team and they are doing fine. You're hearing about social selling techniques and tools but you're not sure what do to or how to coach your people. You buy your team a license to LinkedIn Sales Navigator and nobody seems to be using it. Sound familiar? In this episode Brynne Tillman, social selling guru, talks about the five ways to actually get results social selling.
In this episode you'll learn:
- The purpose of company pages and how to utilize them to sell more
- How to kill it with client referrals using LinkedIn
- The power of strategic alliances in social selling
- The Dos and Don'ts of connecting with new prospects
- How to use the advanced search capabilities in LinkedIn
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Brynne Tillman's LinkedIn Profile
- Episode 8: Boost Sales 30% by Integrating Social Selling into Your Traditional Sales Process w/Gabe Villamizar
- Episode 10: Five Social Selling KPIs Sales Leaders Should Focus On w/Brynne Tillman
- Free eBook: 27 LinkedIn Inside Sales Tips: How to Master Modern Social Selling
High-performing sales development professionals know they can’t rely solely on marketing to cast a wide net and find the perfect buyer. If they want to be successful, sales development professionals must master a more targeted approach and go after the big fish themselves.
In this episode you'll learn:
- How to move beyond the high velocity sales model to account-based selling strategies
- How to build a pipeline of targeted accounts
- What you must do to expand existing relationships quickly
- How you can discover and connect better with more decision makers
- Latest digital sociological research on the interest, attitudes and opinions of account-based sales personas
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
Link to Webinar for Slides
Jon Miller, Founder and CEO of Engagio
Ken Krogue, Founder and Chief Evangelist of InsideSales.com
Rich Neal, Founder and CEO of mPathDiscovery and author of 'Expanding Sentience'
Episode 2: What's All This Talk About Account-Based Sales
Episode 9: Account-Based Everything w/Patrick Schneidau
Episode 5: The Five-Billion Dollar Playbook w/David Rudnitsky
Ever wondered how to create a winning culture based on performance? In this Episode, Shea Stringert, Sr. Director Platform Sales at AdRoll, discusses how he's helped Adroll achieve successful growth by creating a capacity model for hiring, a culture based on performance not politics, and a structured training program to progress reps in their careers.
In this episode you'll learn:
- How to attract and hire the best talent
- Key KPIs you'll need to build a capacity model
- A phased-approach for skills training and milestone achievement
- The importance of systems and tools in your optimization journey
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Shea's LInkedIn Profile
- Episode 3: Lessons Learned From Scaling A 100 Person Sales Development Team
- Episode 14: Using Sales Operations to Drive Productivity
Big data is shaping functions across almost every industry, but if you’re in a sales ops role, or looking to build one at your organization, how can the big data revolution help you? Our panel of experts will leverage their experience and discuss how data and sales ops are driving success at their companies.
In this episode you'll learn:
- Which best practices to follow when applying data to generate insights for the business
- Creative ways to leverage data and data science to drive growth and productivity
- Simple steps you can take now to kick start B2B sales ops
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Webinar Link
- Episode 2: What's All This Talk About Account-Based Sales
- Episode 4: Five Secrets to Closing Seven Figure Deals
- Episode 9: Account-Based Everything w/Patrick Schneidau
Tim Clarke, Director of Product Marketing at Salesforce, joins the Sales Acceleration experts to discuss how Salesforce is helping to drive the sales conversation. We're going to talk about Salesforce's strategy and Tim's lessons learned to win at the top of the funnel with content and live events.
In this episode you'll learn:
- How to run a top of funnel strategy that stays away from product and focuses on best-practices
- Key questions Salesforce asks it self when creating top of funnel content
- Killer ideas on creating a content repository that people will actually consume
- The importance of quality over quantity
- Thinking through how to create a differentiated live event strategy
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
Quotable Blog
Sales Machine Live Event
Episode 12: How I Broke the Rules and Doubled Oracles' Inside Sales Revenues
Episode 8: Boost Sales 30% by Integrating Social Selling into Your Traditional Sales Process
In this episode, Dan Freund SVP of Sales at InsideSales.com explains how he transformed OracleDirect into one of the top Inside Sales organizations in the industry by growing the division from $700M to $1.2B and doubling the organization to 2000+ people.
Dan Freund ran one of the country's largest inside sales teams during his 19 years with Oracle. A true industry champion, Dan's methods, Dan's methods for challenging the rules of sales and innovating the way teams sell innovating the way teams sell boosted OracleDirect's revenues from 700 million to $1.2 billion in just 5 years.
In this session you will learn:
- Three game-changing sales ideas you can apply to your organization
- Dan's innovative models that will transform your inside sales teams
- How to create and implement repeatable processes that will deliver consistent revenue growth
The Sales Acceleration Show
Follow @GabeLarsen and @SteveEror on Twitter
and LinkedIn: Steve Eror - Gabe Larsen
Prospecting has become old and stale. New and innovative ideas are required to keep prospects interested. In this episode Brayden Young, Co-Founder of CoffeeSender, breaks down his experience prospecting and what he's learned starting CoffeeSender.
- Why prospecting has changed over the years
- The most successful outreach strategies
- Biggest mistakes in sales
Promo code: inside sales
Understanding which LinkedIn activities are driving new business is a question that often plagues sales leaders. And, just like any other sales activity, you can’t manage what you can’t measure, so clarity on which KPIs are meaningful is where to begin. In this episode we review Brynne Tillman's webinar with InsideSales.com as she dives into to making visibility into social selling happen.
- Growing the LinkedIn Network with the Right Stakeholders
- Converting New Connections to Conversations
- Sharing Relevant Content
- Engaging on Other’s Activities that Takes it Offline
- Client and Centers of Influence Referrals
LinkedIn KPI Workbook
Account-Based Everything is the talk but how do you actually do it? In this episode Patrick Scheidau talks about lessons learns as CMO of PROS as they've practiced an account-based approach.
- How do you structure an organization where account-based sales can be successful
- What are some different tactics to apply an account-based sales model
- What tools are most effective when applying an account-based approach
The Sales Acceleration Show
Follow @GabeLarsen and @SteveEror on Twitter
and LinkedIn: Steve Eror - Gabe Larsen
Social selling can be misleading. Reps can't just social sell. The best reps have learned to infuse social selling into their day-to-day sales process. In this episode, Gabe Villamizar talks about how he's coached hundreds of companies to use traditional as well as new age social tactics to find, engage, and close more deals.
Is social selling real?
For most companies it is not because they've tried and failed. But, my feeling is they've tried to do it the wrong way.
What is the current state of social selling?
The buyer has changed and the buying cycle has changed.
What is social selling?
Social selling is using social media channels to accelerate the sales process. That means to identity, engage, and close deals as fast as possible.
Which social selling KPIs should companies be measuring?
There are currently not great apps to track social activities so you need customize your CRM to ensure activity metrics are captured.
What are you top social selling apps?
Charlie App is still on top of my list for pre-research. I love Nova.ai for personalized email automation.
The Sales Acceleration Show
Follow @GabeLarsen and @SteveEror on Twitter
and LinkedIn: Steve Eror - Gabe Larsen
Sales people waste a lot of time doing random tasks. Sales reps attempt to manage their time but become overwhelmed by long lists and outside distractions. A lot of companies sign their reps up for time management courses only to have great habits disappear. In this episode, Amanda Holmes, CEO of Chet Holmes International, talks about the book "The Ultimate Sales Machine" and dives deep into time management techniques to boost sales productivity immediately.
Here is the six step process Amanda recommends. As Chet says, "Don’t think about if you’ve heard them before, think about if you are applying the discipline to implement them."
Step One - Touch It Once
How many times have you looked at an email and left it right at the top of your inbox only to come back a few minutes later to do something with it? Don't redo tasks. Touch it once and move on to your next activity.
Step Two: Make Lists
Just by making a list your can dramatically improve your productivity. The key is to find a way to only have six items on your list.
Step Three: Allocate
Take your list of six items and plan how long each item will take. Don't fool yourself. If your activities add up to more than the time you have to work that day then you need to rethink your list.
Step Four: Prioritize
Put your most important items first. Too often we're tempted to check off the small or non-important tasks which leaves no time to accomplish the most important tasks.
Step Four: Prioritize
Put your most important items first. Too often we're tempted to check off the small or non-important tasks leaving the most important items to never be accomplished.
Step Five: Plan Your Day
With a prioritized and manageable list, begin to plan your day by putting activities into time slots. Be sure to remember to plan for items like "gotta minute meetings" and "checking emails". Be proactive about these types of activities instead of reactive.
Step Six: Throw it Away
We want to hold on to everything but we never end up reviewing it. Find a way to dejunk. Either be brave enough to throw things away or create a organizational system that allows you to eliminate "stuff" and not have to look at it again.
The Sales Acceleration Show
Follow @GabeLarsen and @SteveEror on Twitter
and LinkedIn: Steve Eror - Gabe Larsen
Prospecting is one of the toughest jobs in sales and many reps and companies are confused about how to best approach this difficult task. James Carbary and Sweetfish Media have the answer. In this episode, James Carbary discusses his 12-step process to help companies perform targeted prospecting and marketing to achieve revenue goals.
Step 1 - Prospecting
Being creative enough and disciplined enough to generate content is hard. James' approach to this obstacle is to let us others create content for you by allowing guests to choose the topic and share their content.
Step 2 - Outreach
People rarely answer email especially when it's cold. People almost always answer when reaching out and asking people to participate in an industry leading podcast. It's mutually beneficial to you and your prospect. The key is to keep the reach out simple and don't overcomplicate it.
Step 3 - Follow Up
Don't get frustrated if after initial contact you have to reschedule multiple times. People are busy. Find a way to automate your follow-up to ensure you don't drop the ball on your end.
Step 4 - Guest Chooses Topic
Don't send emails back and forth trying to debate and discuss a topic. Simply allow your guest to choose the topic. They are an expert at their craft and normally have many topics they are passionate about.
Step 5 - Schedule
Getting a time on both people's calendar is never easy. Email ping pong sucks. Use a tool like Calendly and it will change your life. You also need to realize you're dealing with busy people so James' recommends keeping your sessions short.
Step 6 - Prep
James' recommends that you don't prep over email but take 5 min before you actually record each interview to have a “pre-call” with your guest. During this session, discuss 3-5 points regarding their topic. This is important as it's better to structure during your interview that just wing it.
Step 7 - Record
There are a lot of programs you could use to record sessions but Skype is your best bet. Keep your interviews short. James' recommends 12-15 minutes.
Step 8 - Schedule
Once complete make sure you take the time to clean up the audio and then upload it to an audio podcast hosting service like Libsyn. Don't forget about show notes!
Step 9 - Notify
Once the episode is live, send the information to your guest so they can share it with their networks. This helps broaden your reach and continue to build your following.
Step 10 - Repurpose
You have great content sitting in an audio file. It would be a shame not to take that audio and repurpose it into a well-formatted blog post or some other medium.
Step 11 - Promote
Promote: Promote, promote, promote! Make sure you get the episode out there with great visuals, quote images, and solid headlines.
Step 12 - Initiate
Now, the most important step. You have to initiate the sales conversation after each episode goes live. You've interacted with this person multiple times over phone and email and now it's time to turn that relationship into revenue.
The Sales Acceleration Show
Follow @GabeLarsen and @SteveEror on Twitter
and LinkedIn: Steve Eror - Gabe Larsen
David Rudnitsky, SVP of Enterprise Sales at InsideSales.com, discusses the principles he's learned over his sales career to close large enterprise deals. Dave's methodology has been honed over the years and was featured in Marc Benioff's book, Behind the Cloud, to describe how Salesforce.com was able to achieve unparalleled success in the enterprise space.
1) Think Big; Have Attitude, Go High
-Thinking BIG and having a winning attitude inspires confidence
-Thinking BIG and having a winning attitude allows you to play high
2) No Deal is Won or Lost Alone
-Enterprise Sales is a team sport, not a spectator sport; it’s a contact sport
3) Connect the Dots: Never Dial for Dollars! Never Cold Call!
-Always call with a plan; social due diligence = never having to cold call
-Always call/connect as high as possible in an organization
4) Focus on "Why Not"
-Find 5 to 6 reasons/red flags why it might not work – always challenge yourself
-WHY’s are table stakes, WHY NOT’s win deals
5) Always Take the Deal Off the Table
-If a deal is ready, close it; increase deal velocity
-Time is the enemy of all deals, work with a sense of urgency
6) Get Your Face in the Place - Walk Their Halls Frequently
-Know your customers better than they know themselves
-Walking the halls, physically or virtually, builds trust and confidence; get badged
7) Fun Fact Build Instant Credibility
-Be a student of our customers’ fun facts
8) Be a Master of Your Business; Be Consultative; Be Prescriptive
-Be a trusted advisor; ensure professional services/consultants are involved
News
Tech Disruptor 50 InsideSales.com is #31 http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/07/insidesalescom-2016-disruptor-50.html
Microsoft Purchase of LinkedIn http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/14/business/dealbook/microsoft-to-buy-linkedin-for-26-2-billion.html
Overview
The latest InsideSales.com research suggests deal sizes have grown more than 5.5 percent, meaning companies are moving upstream and chasing bigger deals. In this new sales environment, applying the same tactics you used before won’t produce success. A different approach, a different process and different systems are all required to hunt whales. After more than 200 sales consultations, Gabe has discovered five secrets to closing bigger deals.
The Business Growth Index
The InsideSales.com Business Growth Index is a comprehensive research report that reveals important indicators of sales confidence, sales priorities and the impact of technology on a company’s sales performance and bottom line.
A key finding from the BGI Study is that companies are going whale hunting (moving up stream)
- Sales cycle 6.4% longer (75 days to 80 days)
- Close rate 2.1% lower
- Deal size 5.5% larger
#1 The Account Based Model
If you're going after seven figure deals you will have to practice an account-based model. As the name implies, account-based sales is a unified strategy to generate revenue by focusing on personalized prospecting initiatives that lead to a value-based sale.
#2 Solidifying your Sales Tech stack
Nearly 1-5 leaders or 18.8% of sales leaders who reported deal size growth in 2015 indicated that predictive tech gave them a boost in driving larger deal sizes. CRM, sales intelligence, sales presentation, data list services top the list as the most widely used sales acceleration technologies.
#3 Managing Pipeline
In order to close deals you must have a structured way of reporting and maintaining these deals. It starts with pipeline management. Here are five ways to optimize your pipeline stages:
- Understand your model – transactional vs relational
- Define stages, milestones, and outcomes
- Ensure stages cover the entire funnel
- Stages should be distinct
- Measure drop-off in conversation rates
#4 Sales Management Cadence
With a pipeline management strategy in place, you next need the ability follow up on important deals through a structured management cadence. This requires annual, semi-annual, quarterly, monthly, and weekly activities to occur. As part of a solid management cadence, a forecast cadence should be established to ensure proper forecasting.
#5 Individual and Team Coaching Program
Every great individual contributor has a coach and so should you. Coaching programs should be run weekly to help reps continually hone their skills and approaches. We discuss what an optimal four week coaching cadence consists of.
The Sales Acceleration Show
Follow @GabeLarsen and @SteveEror on Twitter
and LinkedIn: Steve Eror - Gabe Larsen
Apttus provides quote to cash solutions on the Apttus intelligence cloud. Since it's inception in 2006 Apttus has experienced rapid growth and was valued in 2016 at over one-billion dollars. Bootstrapping in the early days the company started with one and grew to 100 sales development reps in 18 months. Kent Venook, Director of Global Sales Development discusses his six lessons learned from accomplishing this amazing task.
1) Standardization of process
In the early days, reps were each doing their own thing. It was more of a cowboy town than a well-oiled machine. Visualizing the process on a white-board and looking for areas of optimization, the team was able to move to a scalable process that each rep followed.
2) Key KPIs
After a lot of debate, the team standardized on sales accepted opportunities as the primary metric to have sales development reps focus on. Although, Apttus runs an account-based model where sales development reps are closely tied to account executives, Kent decided not to listen to outside sources and pay his reps on ACV or revenue. Kent believes reps should be paid for things they can control and what they can be coached to improve.
3) Continued Training
Kent set up a two-month onboarding program called the Sales Academy. Apttus is a robust product and Kent found he could train his people for a few days and let them try and figure it out for the next six months or train them for two months and them fully ramped by month three.
4) Management Team
When Kent began he hired 60 reps so quickly that everybody reported to him. Looking for key characteristics and top performers, Kent quickly put in a management team that increased engagement and overall productivity for the team.
5) Don't be Afraid to Fail
Testing is the name of the game. Try different things to increase productivity results and have fun with it.
6) Investment
Great people and great teams don't get where they are alone. Realize that to get to an optimized state you will need a powerful sales stack.
There is a lot of buzz in the Sales Acceleration space about Account-Based Sales. In this episode we breakdown why people are even talking about it, what it really means, and who this strategy is right for.
Why Are We Talking About Account-Based Sales?
It's a surprise we're talking about Account-Based Sales but you can't deny it, you have to embrace it.
Breaking Down the Definition of Account-Based Sales Prospecting
Prospecting is the first part of Account-Based Sales. We define it so we can better understand how to execute it.
What Are the Reasons for the Reawakening of Account-Based Strategies?
There are multiple reasons but we narrow it down to three.
**Who Is the Account-Based Model Right For?
This model is not right for everyone and frankly, most organizations need to be open to running multiple types of models.
Who Owns the Account-Based Initiative?
If everybody is owning different parts of the account-based strategy, who ultimately owns it?
The Evolution of the Account-Based Model
You can't start at 60mph, you have to understand where you are and then get a plan to evolve your account-based strategies.
Overview
There are a lot of buzzwords in the sales acceleration space: big data, gamification, social selling, etc. Although we may use these terms not everybody understands what we are referring to. In this episode, we define what Sales Acceleration means and discuss important topics that will be addressed on this show around the areas of Demand Generation, Sales, and Sales Operations.
Definition of Sales Acceleration
Marketing and marketing automation owns the idea of generating leads and lists. CRM’s own the opportunities and the idea of closing deals. Sales Acceleration increases the velocity of your sales process.
Demand Generation
Key topics we'll discuss in this show around demand generation include: Generating leads and lists, building a content strategy, developing offers, scoring prospects, and building campaigns.
Sales
Key topics we'll discuss in this show around sales include: sales structure, hiring, prioritization, cadence, motivation, pipeline management and forecasting
Sales Operations
Key topics we'll discuss in this show around sales include: compensation, sales, process, territory management, sales acceleration technology,