Inside Sales Coach ®: Recent Episodes
Mark Garrett Hayes
Inside Sales Coach ® is the podcast for Sales Leaders just like you, all over the world. Remote sales. virtual sales, digital sales is all more important than ever before, so which better resource for you than a show dedicated to you. Every week, your host Mark Garrett Hayes brings you clear, practical guidance to help you coach and lead your team Sales Team to profit by uncovering, understanding and unlocking problems with sales performance. Mark and his team help sales professionals, sales managers and sales leaders around the world to grow and develop driven and productive sales teams through virtual sales coaching and online sales training. Short episodes each Thursday address topics such as telesales prospecting, cold calling, digital sales, landing pages, lead-magnets, webinar selling, handling sales objections, working with gatekeepers, creating powerful proposals and effective RFPs, understanding sales psychology and much more. Sales is a tough game. Let’s make it work!
It's the final episode of the SalesCoach podcast. This is episode 222.
After 222 weeks, recording one episode a week, it's time to say goodbye and thank you!
For more than 4 years, I've had the privilege of your company and that of my many guests!
In April 2024, the first of my LinkedIn Learning Courses will go live.
I will also be launching a newsletter. So there is still lots I can serve you with.
Thanks for your listenership, love and loyalty on this journey so far!
My very best to you!
Mark
This week on the Sales Coach Podcast, we welcome Ross McClean. Ross is the Vice President of GTM Enablement at Aiven. With a rich background in software solutions, he's dedicated to boosting performance. Ross brings insights into stakeholder alignment, innovative training methods, and tech use in training. Today, Ross outlines how to create a dynamic enablement ecosystem. This system supports sales team growth and aligns with organizational goals. It makes sales enablement more impactful and efficient. Listen in to learn: * The value of aligning stakeholders in a global program. * Engaging training techniques beyond traditional methods. * Enhancing training with technology.
Ross believes in connecting with the audience in varied ways. "No single method works for everyone. It's about engaging people to want to learn," he says. Get set to redefine your sales strategy. Discover how to use technology for better training. Ross's tips will help create a more effective and engaging learning environment for your team.
Sales leaders and teams can adapt to changing dynamics in enablement and training by embracing a holistic approach that integrates stakeholder alignment, innovative delivery methods, and cutting-edge technology.
My guest this week on the Sales Coach podcast is Gary Broadbent, VP of Global Enablement at JAGGAER.
Gary has over 20 years of experience in implementing and selling software solutions for various business functions and markets. He is also passionate about driving performance improvements across employees, partners, and customers.
In today's episode, Gary shares his insights into stakeholder alignment, innovative training delivery, and the utilisation of technology to provide a comprehensive blueprint for creating a dynamic and effective enablement ecosystem.
This ecosystem not only supports the continuous growth and development of sales teams but also ensures that training initiatives are closely aligned with the strategic goals of the organisation, thereby maximising the impact and efficiency of sales enablement.
Tune in today and you'll learn the following: plus MUCH MORE:
- The importance of stakeholder alignment and transitioning from tactical projects to a cohesive global enablement program
- Techniques for delivering engaging and impactful training sessions that go beyond traditional methods
- How to leverage technology to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of sales training
As Garry says: "My role as a leader is to relate to the end audience as much as possible, and that means providing different mediums and different ways to connect with them in a way tha is going to make them want to engage and help the training stick. But there's no one trick pony or silver bullet to any of this....It's about finding the right opportunities and the right way to be able to drive people to want to take training."
Get ready to discover how to revolutionise your sales enablement strategy, harness the power of technology in training, and create a more engaging and effective learning environment for your team.
Facing another change? Let's explore how this could be your opportunity to excel in sales enablement and leadership.
In this week's episode of the Sales Coach podcast I'm speaking to Jeff Lowndes, Revenue Enablement Leader at Snap.
Jeff has a rich background in various enablement roles and a Master's in Organisational Development.
Today, Jeff shares his invaluable insights into the dynamics of organisational change and the pivotal role of sales enablement in navigating these transformations.
Tune in and you'll learn:
- The essence of organisational change and how it paves the way for growth and adaptation
- The significant difference between change management and transition management
- The importance of addressing the internal transition that individuals experience during change.
- Practical strategies for ensuring that changes not only take place but are embraced and integrated into the organisational culture
By listening to this episode, you'll discover how embracing change can help to drive both your personal advancement and professional achievements. Turning each new challenge into a stepping stone towards greater success.
As Jeff says: "Change management starts with the very first conversation I have with a stakeholder. When I'm scoping out a problem, or a challenge that is going to lead to a bigger project, the questions I ask and the way I frame up the issue itself really sets the stage for the trajectory of the change."
Join us to explore how you can turn the inevitable changes and transitions within your organisation into opportunities for innovation and success.
Are you curious about how understanding people can boost your journey to becoming a top sales leader?
In this week's episode of the Sales Coach podcast I'm speaking with Georgina Beard, Head of Sales Enablement at SEON Fraud Fighters.
Her current role involves being a one-woman team supporting sales and revenue teams globally, focusing on enhancing efficiency and effectiveness across the board.
Tune in today and you'll gain insights into the following, plus MUCH MORE:
- How improving your emotional intelligence can lead to a better understanding and management of your sales team
- The art of persuasive communication: essential for effectively influencing your team's dynamics and your client interactions
- How aligning your personal goals with your professional development can propel you forward in your career, especially when preparing for senior leadership roles.
As Georgina says: "For me, little wins are the things that mean a huge amount to an individual, but not necessarily a huge amount for business. I also think that little wins help drive adoption. If someone can see that enablement, or leadership are supportive and helpful, then ultimately that drives engagement with that person moving forward."
Tune in to uncover how blending empathy with strategy can help you to not only meet your sales targets, but also inspire your team to achieve their best.
Are you struggling to navigate the complex world of enablement, grappling with competencies, coaching, and performance frameworks?
If so, you're not alone. And today's episode is here to help!
My guest this week on the Sales Coach podcast is Rebecca Bell, Senior Director and Head of Global GTM Enablement & Business Operations at Zendesk.
Rebecca prides herself on her ability to build teams and strategies that accelerate business success and create advocacy. She also holds the prestigious title of Founding UK Chapter President of the Revenue Enablement Society.
Tune in and you'll learn the following:
- Discover the importance of defining core competencies while acknowledging the role of individualized coaching in fostering growth
- Uncover the pivotal role of managers in driving success within go-to-market teams
- Learn how to spot coachable individuals from the outset and how to foster a growth-oriented mindset from the hiring process onwards
As Rebecca says: "My definition of coaching probably aligns with being a guide. Essentially, like a Sherpa going up Mount Everest. You know the route and understand the terrain, and you're helping to carry some of the burden for the person you are guiding. But the individual is still taking the steps forward themselves."
Don't miss out. Tune in to gain an invaluable perspective on coaching and enablement.
Stop struggling and start growing in your journey to becoming a better coach and leader.
What is the key to effective enablement and how can you drive maximum impact within your organization?
My guest this week is Brooke Coletti, Senior Scaled Go-To-Market Enablement Manager at Amazon Web Services (AWS).
In this episode, Brooke shares invaluable insights into the world of enablement. She sheds light on key strategies for garnering buy-in, understanding adoption curves, and prioritizing initiatives to drive organizational success.
Tune in today and you'll learn the following, PLUS MUCH MORE:
- The critical role that partnerships play in enablement success
- How to and why you need to build effective relationships with stakeholders outside of the enablement function
- The importance of understanding the learning adoption curve and its impact on organizational change
As Brooke says: "Knowing your stakeholder's motivations will really help you be able to tailor your message and in turn, build that relationship fast."
Tune in now to gain valuable insights and strategies that will help you unlock the full potential of your team and drive maximum impact within your organization.
👢 Sales Kickoffs (SKOs) are pivotal moments in any organisation's calendar.
They offer an opportunity to align teams, inspire individuals, and set the stage for a successful year ahead. But what truly makes an SKO effective? 🤷♂️
What are the hidden strategies and insights that can transform a routine event into a transformative experience?
👉 My guest this week is Lynne Santangelo, MBA, PMP, a seasoned Revenue Enablement Manager at LaunchDarkly.
Lynne orchestrates methodologies and programs aimed at propelling sales performance and fostering scalable growth.
👇 Tune in this week and you'll learn the following:
⚽ The importance of meticulous planning and early preparation for SKOs
⚽How effective communication can streamline event execution and foster attendee engagement
⚽The significance of allowing free time to foster networking opportunities, and mitigate attendee fatigue for an enriching experience
As Lynne says 💬 : "If participants have the freedom to choose how they spend some of their time, I think that can lead to a better positive experience. They are more likely to leave with increased satisfaction for coming to the SKO."
🎧 Listen to the full episode now and equip yourself with the tools and strategies to transform your next sales kickoff into a resounding success.
Have you ever wondered why some sales teams soar to success while others struggle to meet their targets?
The secret might lie in something that's often overlooked but crucial in the sales world: effective coaching and analytics.
My guest this week, Mike Kunkle, Vice President at SPARXiQ, is a seasoned professional in the realm of sales effectiveness services.
His expertise is further solidified by his authorship of the book "The Building Blocks of Sales Enablement," which reflects his deep understanding of the field.
Tune in today and you'll learn the following, plus MUCH MORE:
- The crucial role of analysing results to improve sales skills and strategies
- Understanding the true essence of coaching, differentiating it from mere feedback or advice
- Techniques for effective sales management, including how to utilize analytics for performance improvement
As Mike says: "When I talk about coaching, I always say that the rep has to own their development, and the manager becomes their guide or their sherpa."
Don't miss this opportunity to elevate your sales knowledge and skills.
Tune in to the full episode today and subscribe to get more episodes like this! 🎧
Enabling sales managers is critical for any sales enablement program to succeed ‼️
My guest this week is Amanda Dossey, Head of Sales Enablement at Keyfactor, based in Atlanta.
Keyfactor provides certificates for machine identities to help ensure secure connections.
Amanda runs enablement as a team of one currently and prides herself on being a leader who fosters teamwork. She has been called a thoughtful and empathetic leader and an outstanding enablement leader. 🤗
She believes sales managers, especially first-time managers, need guidance on managing reps instead of doing the job.
Tune in today and you'll learn the following, plus MUCH MORE:
🙌🏻 Ways to support reps in both the short and long term
🙌🏻 How to build trust between enablement and sales leaders
🙌🏻 The importance of focusing on the highest value activities
As Amanda says: “Creating a learning experience that guides people is essential to experiential learning"
Tune in to the full episode today and subscribe to get more episodes like this! 🎧
Ever wondered what it takes to drive success in a start-up's enablement journey?
My guest this week us Emily Isensee, the Senior Director of Global Enablement at Esper.
With a background in leading large teams, Emily took on the challenge of being a team of one. She has since navigated the start-up landscape with resilience and adaptability.
Tune in today and you'll discover the following, plus MUCH MORE:
- How to build a lean enablement team and create a robust strategy.
- The importance of making learning a connected experience
- The significance of working closely with leaders at different levels
As Emily says: "A mindset of constant learning and experimentation is key"
Gain valuable insights on building relationships, fostering experiential learning, and collaborating effectively.
Tune in to the full episode today and subscribe to get more episodes like this! 🎧
🤗 Kindness is sales is something that will always earn you trust if you put that to the front. You'll always get someone to work with you rather than against you. So kindness is vitally important in sales, both internally and externally. Empathy and authenticity are key to bringing human connection into automated sales workflows.
My guest this week is Thomas Crelier, Sales Enablement Manager at Xero.
Thomas helps sales professionals overachieve their targets while becoming confident in themselves. He uses impactful, meaningful and engaging sales training and supportive sales enablement strategies.
He believes the future of sales teams are effective, efficient, engaged, and driven by kindness.
Tune in today and you'll learn the following, plus MUCH MORE:
❤️ How to use kindness to build your relationships
❤️ Why you need to balance revenue focus with relationship building through kindness
❤️ The evolution of enablement in organizations from training to driving revenue
As Thomas says: “You cannot be human and kind to a person if you aren't challenging them to grow."
Tune in to the full episode today and subscribe to get more episodes like this! 🎧
If you are only focusing on the buying journey and not looking at the value journey, you are leaving vast amounts of money on the table. The data is clear, if you invest time in the revenue enablement model you are 80% more likely to hit their revenue targets and 70% more likely to impact your cross sell and upsell targets.
My guest this week is Meganne Brezina, Senior Director of Enablement at Seismic.
Meganne has over a decade of experience serving global B2B SaaS teams, known for empowering individuals and organizations to reach their full potential.
She is an active participant in the Enablement community and is a member of the Revenue Enablement Society and its Indianapolis chapter, as well as a frequent contributor to The Enablement Squad.
Meganne founded and currently leads the Indianapolis chapter of Women in Sales Enablement and serves on the WiSE global board of directors as a global lead, to help make a lasting impact on the professional growth of women in the industry.
In her current role at Seismic she brings together her extensive Enablement knowledge and leadership skills to drive success for internal and external stakeholders alike.
Tune in today and you'll learn the following, plus MUCH MORE:
- What is required before moving into a revenue model.
- Why competencies, processes, and methodology should be viewed through the lens of “field” and not “sales".
- The importance of setting up enablement team structure and skillsets to support a field model.
As Meganne says: “You need to really understand the revenue engine in your company only then are you going to be able to have conversations with senior leadership that they will respect." ‼️
Tune in to the full episode today and subscribe to get more episodes like this! 🎧
💬 There’s a lot of talk about enablement “getting a seat at the leadership table”. What does this really mean and how can it be achieved?
My guest this week is Paul Butterfield, CEO of Revenue Flywheel Group and Executive Board President of the Sales Enablement Society
Paul Butterfield has designed, built and led high impact revenue enablement strategies and teams for Vonage, G.E., NICE InContact, and Instructure. As a consultant he’s coached Go-to-Market leaders from Expedia, ABB. Aspen Media, Orbitz, and Red Wing Shoes in change management and sales methodology adoption.
Paul's passion lies in leading revenue teams through transformation into truly customer-centric organizations that differentiate through how they sell rather than with price or product.
Tune in today and you'll learn the following, plus MUCH MORE:
💥 The importance of revenue centric global enablement programmes
💥 What has changed beyond the name for enablement professionals
💥 What tools you need in order to change your mindset from Enablement to Revenue
As Paul says: “You need to really understand the revenue engine in your company only then are you going to be able to have conversations with senior leadership that they will respect.” ‼️
Tune in to the full episode today and subscribe to get more episodes like this! 🎧
ℹ️ Giving people information is not going to get them anywhere. We need to coach to get transformation.
My guest this week is Professor Stefanie Boyer, Professor of Marketing at Bryant University and Co-Founder and Chief Education officer of RNMKRS.
Stefanie is passionate about elevating the sales profession with research, education, and technology. She teaches and coaches students on various aspects of sales, such as the conversation, social media, analytics, executive presence, and design thinking.
Stefanie also co-authored "The Little Black Book of Social Media" on social media strategies for business, influencers, and personal branding, as well as "9 Ways to Develop Highly Effective Salespeople" designed for sales managers, and an Audible series called "6 Sales Skills Everyone Should Know" partnering with Wondrium, The Great Courses and Audible, an Amazon Company. 📖
In 2018, she co-founded RNMKRS, a ground-breaking platform that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to simulate realistic sales conversations and provide instant feedback and scoring to trainees.
Tune in today and you'll learn the following, plus MUCH MORE:
🔺Why you should invest in self directed learning
🔺The importance of allowing your reps to have some control over their training
🔺Why role play and practice helps close more deals
As Stefanie says: “People need to apply the skills that they are learning. When it comes to practicing conversations we've found it takes about 40 conversations to really have a high level of mastery on that conversation.
Think about how many opportunities your sellers get to practice conversations with feedback.. If they are having one role play a month, how many months is it going to take for that seller to ramp up their conversation skills? What ends up happening is sellers just end up churning through their leads."
Tune in to the full episode today and subscribe to get more episodes like this! 🎧
You have so many distractions from things like your tech stack, right? 😖
Upcoming deadlines, meetings etc never end!
Some in your team can multi-task. But some of your team will naturally have shorter attention spans.
🤔 So, how can you make sure your whole team can stay focused?
This week I'm chatting with Bobbi Jo Frazier, Director of Revenue Enablement at ActivTrak.
Bobbi Jo has a real passion for Enablement and believes in fostering a culture of learning and development among sales and revenue professionals.
Tune in today and you'll learn the following, plus MUCH MORE:
❗️ How to develop Attention Strategies for your team's Enablement Distractions
❗️ How you can use Engaging Enablement Techniques to bring focus back
❗️ The importance of Retention and Reinforcement
As Bobbi Jo says: “Not everyone is going to see things the same way, or will learn things the same way. As much as we like to make things to scale, there has to be some personalisation there too."
Tune in to the full episode today and subscribe to get more episodes like this! 🎧
Many of the people I talk to in enablement land in a position where the infrastructure of a company is already in place. But what do you do if you need to build a function from the ground up?
This week I'm chatting with Matt Cohen, Senior Sales Enablement Manager at Dotmatics.
Matt's passion for alignment is why he is in Enablement. He focus on proactively identifying gaps in the buyer journey and prioritizing solutions that optimize people, processes, and technology.
To advance the Enablement community, Matt sits on the board of the Sales Enablement Society's Boston Chapter and co-founded the San Diego Chapter. He frequently shares thought leadership in various forms, including articles, podcasts, and webinars.
In 2023 Matt was recognized by SalesHood as an Enablement Leader Making It Happen.
Tune in today and you'll learn the following, plus MUCH MORE:
- What enablement should and shouldn't be responsible for
- How you can build a function from scratch
- How you can align to existing priorities when a function already exists or enablement is being done ad hoc
As Matt says: “I think it's really important to keep in mind that you have to align to the priorities of your organisation. Even if that function doesn't exist, even if you are building it from scratch. There needs to be a bit of give and take, and a willingness to expand the function to your vision of what it should and could be.”
Tune in to the full episode today and subscribe to get more episodes like this!
By the very nature of your industry, you are in service. You feel a tendency to say yes to everything. But this causes burn out for you and your team. This is where ruthless prioritisation comes in.
This week I'm chatting with Sheevaun Thatcher, VP of Strategic Enablement at Salesforce.
Sheevaun is a people focused enablement professional and a passionate thought leader.
Sheevaun's playbook includes an infrastructure of proven methods she has developed over the years. Along with tools, systems, metrics and tactics which will help you to increase sales velocity and performance.
Tune in today and you'll learn the following, plus MUCH MORE:
- The importance of Sales Manager Coaching
- Why Strategic Management is a game changer
- How to avoid burn out with ruthless prioritisation
As Sheevaun says: “It’s about recognising who you are. You are not a bartender taking orders as they come in. You are a coach, a part of the team that is in the background making sure that the team on the field are in the best shape of their lives.”
Tune in to the full episode today and subscribe to get more episodes like this one.
It's important that as sales leaders we are providing our reps with the support they need to be successful.
This week I'm chatting with Katie Kentner Swick, Global Sales Enablement Lead at Stripe.
💕 Katie is passionate about helping people and has helped the businesses she has worked for optimize their sales processes, streamline their operations, and increase revenue.
She believes that investing in people is key to achieving business success, and enabling team members to achieve their professional goals.
👉 Tune in today and you'll learn the following, plus MUCH MORE:
🤔 What organisations demand of their enablement teams at different stages
🤔 The role managers can play in enablement and how you can get them involved
🤔 How you can get the most out of a small team
Tune in to the full episode today for insights into coaching, leading through change, and more. 🎧
Revenue enablement seems to be constantly evolving. As an enablement professional you'll know how important it is to stay up-to-date with news, updates and insights from experts in enablement!
🏹 So, this week I'm chatting with Enablement expert, Jerry Pharr, a man with many strings to his bow.
Jerry is the Founding Member & Former Chapter President of the Revenue Enablement Society, Advisor at regie.ai, Playboox, and OneView, and Owner of Sales Excellence Advisors. 🤯
Since 2015 Jerry has been behind the scenes as a sales enablement & sales ops leader, exclusively in venture-backed, high-growth tech startups. He currently leads a team of sales enablement practitioners who are responsible for helping internal sales teams have better conversations.
👉 Tune in today and you'll learn the following, plus MUCH MORE:
🎉 Why measuring behaviour change is superior to measuring learning or business outcomes
🎉 How separate cadences for manager-led coaching can work (and why they typically don't)
🎉 What most sales leaders get wrong about sales stage exit criteria
🎧 Tune in now for industry expert views on the changing landscape of enablement and don't forget to subscribe to get more episodes like this one.
As an enablement professional if you can help deliver and enable to a personalised scale in a simple way the ROI of your programmes will go up!
This week I'm chatting with Laura Wheeler, VP of Revenue Operations & Enablement at Spekit 🐙
🙌 Laura is really passionate about course-correcting Enablement professionals to not be order takers and helping them find their voice.
She has held roles from inside to outside sales, Leadership, Sales Operations, Enablement, and is now VP of Revenue Operations and Enablement.
👉 Tune in today and you'll learn the following, plus MUCH MORE:
💥 The reasons for applying just-in-time learning to your leadership strategy
💥 Why you should use metrics before action
💥 Why challenging and pushing back isn't a bad thing
Tune in now to understand how you can help your sellers learn and how you can quantify impact to your peers, plus lots more.
Don't forget to subscribe to get more episodes like this one.
The world of AI is so fast, it's almost becoming an industrial revolution, so how can we keep up and use AI to our advantage in enablement?!
This week I'm chatting to Ellie Salicetti, Senior Revenue Enablement Manager at Red Sift.
🙌🏻 Ellie has almost a decade of experience within the B2B SaaS hyper-growth realm.
Her passion lies in designing and facilitating training programs that effectively address emerging business challenges, while implementing progressive learning strategies that empower employees and drive revenue.
👉 Tune in today and you'll learn the following, plus MUCH MORE:
🤖 How you can leverage AI to become a more profitable function
🤖 Common enablement use cases you can use in your enablement day-to-day
🤖 How to get started with AI when you feel overwhelmed
Tune in now to learn to learn the real applications of AI and get some actionable advice. Don't forget to subscribe to get more episodes like this one.
Those of us in enablement should be thinking about how we design and build our programs and other deliverables the way that software teams build great products!
This week I'm chatting to Sally Ladrach, Revenue Enablement Manager at ThoughtBot.
🌟 Sally is passionate about helping revenue teams grow and succeed.
She has five years of experience in sales enablement and a proven track record of developing and delivering engaging and impactful learning content and coaching,
👉 Tune in today and you'll learn the following, plus MUCH MORE:
💥 How customer stories can help you uncover cross functional needs of the organization
💥 How to create programs that sales people WANT to adopt
💥 Ways to move from reactive to strategic enablement
Tune in now to learn valuable insights to help you grow as a leader.
If we can provide our sales team with clear, real-life examples of successful strategies and approaches, it will be easier for them to replicate those practices. 🏆
This week I'm chatting to Gail Behun, Director of Revenue Enablement for LivePerson.
🌟 Gail is a results-driven Sales Enablement leader with extensive experience across strategy, planning, and program development.
Her passion lies in coaching and empowering top performers, fostering positive employment cultures that drive success from onboarding to leadership.
👉 Tune in today and you'll learn the following, plus MUCH MORE:
✅ The importance of practice in the sales process
✅ The need for coaching for both for your sales teams and your managers
✅ How to inspire your sales team and help them understand the right path to success
👇
If you're looking for actionable strategies to improve your career, empower your teams, and boost your organization's bottom line this episode is for you. 💥
Tune in now and elevate your leadership and enablement skills. 🎯
How you can leverage coaching frameworks like GROW within qualification methodologies like MEDDPICC? 🤔
Learn how coaching can supercharge your enablement efforts in the latest episode of the Sales Coach podcast! 💥
This week I'm chatting to Malia Di Salvo M.Ed., Senior Manager of Training and Effectiveness at Upwork. Malia is passionate about building and developing revenue enablement programs and methodologies.
👉 Tune in to learn the following, plus MUCH MORE:
🪢 How coaching bridges the gap between training and real-world application
🪢 Ways to ensure your efforts drive results where they matter most
🪢 How the GROW coaching framework can enhance your qualification methodologies
🚀 Ready to transform your coaching approach?
Tune in and subscribe to get more insightful episodes. 🎙️
👉 Imogen McCourt is Head of B2B Sales Transformation and Enablement at The Economist Group. And she is this week’s guest on the SalesCoach podcast!
As you’ll hear, Imogen has been working on rolling out a significant enablement program to the business.
🔥 SalesCoachr is delighted to have played a small part in helping to embed coaching in the sales leadership team. 💥
"There was a big deal that we were trying to land that was across a couple of business units. It had been stuck for ages. After the sales coaching program, one of the sales managers thought about this completely differently and that deal landed 48 hours later..."
🌟 In today’s episode you’ll learn the following, plus MUCH MORE:
🏆 The role of enablement in implementing change management
🏆 How coaching plays a role in helping sales leaders to implement that change
🏆 What some of the outcomes have been from the CCE Sales Coaching Programme
Thanks as always for supporting the SalesCoach podcast!
🙌 Listen to the full episode and subscribe for more episodes like this one.
🏆 In revenue enablement, scrappiness can be a potent asset. Curious to explore this perspective? Then tune in to the latest episode of the Sales Coach podcast
My guest this week is Christian Palmer, Global Revenue Enablement Manager at Riskified. Chris is a enablement pro with a varied background. However, one aspect of his career path has always been consistent; developing people and building relationships.
Tune in today and you'll learn the following, plus much MORE:
🌎 The advantages of start-up vs. global team experience
🌎 The importance to identify ownership and responsibilities early
🌎 Strategic questions to ask to help make impactful transitions
As Christian says: "When you come into a small start-up you have the ability to come in and be a resource, particularly to middle-level management. So, you have to have an all hands on deck attitude, there is no staying in your own lane."
🎧 Don't miss out! Hit play now, and remember to subscribe for more discussions like this one!
❓How can sales leaders continue to reinforce the usage of your tech stack? How do you enhance revenue generation without losing focus on your day-to-day tasks?
If you're struggling to get your teams to use the tech stack effectively and efficiently, then you'll want to check out this episode of the Sales Coach Podcast!
👉 My guest this week is Jenn Glabicky, self confessed results-focused implementer of revenue, enablement, marketing & leadership strategies.
Jenn is a member of the Sales Enablement Collective and a featured speaker with the Revenue Operations Alliance
💡 Today, you'll learn about the following, plus much more:
🖥️ The key pieces of your tech stack to focus on
🖥️ How to utilize a tech stack to enhance the sales process
🖥️ Ways to support your team with the tech stack without losing focus
🎧 Check out the episode now and subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
Did you know that through coaching you can significantly improve your teams' productivity? Want to know how?
Then you'll want to check out this episode of the Sales Coach Podcast ❗️
💥 My guest this week is Celine Grey, Sales Enablement Director at Normative.io, and active member of the Sales Enablement Collective
Celine is passionate about enabling people to be successful on their professional journey and has 25 years of sales, leadership and enablement experience.
At the heart of her enablement practice is a customer-centric approach that supports value-added interactions.
Today, you'll learn about the following, plus much more:
🙌 The ripple effect of building trust
🙌 Embedding a consultative mindset and best practice
🙌 Social learning and the power of enablement communities
Check out the episode now and subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
🤔 Wouldn't you love to create an effective and efficient enablement environment?
The latest Sales Coach Podcast is now LIVE ❗️
My guest this week is Whitney Sieck, Vice President of Revenue Enablement at Demandbase, Community Advisor at The Enablement Squad, and Founder and Principal Consultant of Enablement Enthusiast LLC.
Whitney is a self confessed Enablement Enthusiast, aiming to elevate enablement through coaching, advice and keynote speaking.
Her next speaking engagement will be at the SES Experience in San Diego in October.
👇
Today, you'll learn about the following, plus much more:
- Why enablement has been doing it all wrong
- The focus of the future of enablement
- How to turn managers into program champions
👉 Check out the episode now and subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
How can enablement be viewed as the problem... but always be the solution?
The latest Sales Coach Podcast is now LIVE!
My guest this week is Carolyn Bathauer, Vice President for Product Enablement at SalesForce.
Today, you'll learn about the following, plus much more:
🌟 The importance of understanding how a seller is asked to do their job and their daily life as an AE
🌟 Why Feature / Function to value means nothing without business acumen
🌟 How to manage the balance of soft skills with product knowledge
Check out the episode now and subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
🌟 Tired of sales teams drowning in information overload? Discover how simplifying the sales process can lead to increased results.
👉 The latest Sales Coach Podcast is now LIVE ❗️
My guest this week is Melissa Regan, Director of Global Enablement at Dialpad.
Today, you'll learn about the following, plus much more:
🙌 Why enablement needs to serve as an 'intentional bottleneck'
🙌 Ways to simplify rep interaction with the tech stack
🙌 How to reduce search time for sellers
🎧 Check out the episode now and subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
By acting as a role model for your reps you can help to shape desired skills, behaviours and results in your reps.
The latest Sales Coach Podcast is now LIVE❗️
My guest this week is Jody Geiger, Revenue Enablement Coach at Klue. ⬇️
Today, you'll learn about the following, plus much more:
👍🏻 How to enable learning through shadowing
👍🏻 How to recognize the behaviours and impacts that drive results
👍🏻 Ways to focus on outcomes and coach towards action
🎧 Check out the episode now and subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
Is coaching implemented in everything you do as a manager?
The latest Sales Coach Podcast is now LIVE ❗️
👉 My guest this week is Nikki Schanzer, Senior Leadership Development Sales Performance Consultant at Linkedin.
Today, you'll learn about the following, plus much more:
👍🏻 Why good salespeople don't always make good managers
👍🏻 The 4 core roles of a great manager
👍🏻 What role sales coaching plays in an organisation
🌟 Check out the episode now and subscribe to get more episodes like this one! 👈
Revenue Operating Rhythm (ROR) is a game-changing strategy that can propel your sales leadership skills to new heights.
The latest Sales Coach Podcast is now LIVE❗️
My guest this week is Liz Pulice, Vice President Global GTM Strategy, Operations, and Enablement.
👉 Today, you'll learn about the following, plus much more:
🦁 What is an ROR?
🦁 Why should every organization have one?
🦁 How to use the ROR to drive accountability
🌟 Check out the episode now and subscribe to get more episodes like this one! 👈
Have you ever heard of data driven coaching?
The latest Sales Coach Podcast is now LIVE❗️
My guest this week is Stefan Funk, Global Head Data Driven Coaching Programs at SAP ⬇️
Today, you'll learn about the following, plus much more:
- Why implementing a data-driven approach to your sales coaching practice is effective
- What metrics should be captured in your reports
- Ways to improve adoption of your sales coaching through integration
Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one! 🎧
😵💫 What makes a successful sales leader?
The latest Sales Coach Podcast is now LIVE ❗️
My guest this week is Stacey Justice, Vice President of Revenue Enablement & Productivity at HashiCorp.
👉🏻 Today, you'll learn about the following, plus much more:
✅ The importance of establishing a repeatable and consistent sales coaching cadence
✅ How to use conversational intelligence tools
✅ The impact of role play and peer to peer learning
Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
Search for Sales Coach on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 🎧
😬 When there is a lack of understanding of your audience your enablement delivery is disconnected from reality. So how can it possibly be successful?
The latest Sales Coach Podcast is now LIVE❗️
My guest this week is Tas Hirani, Global Director of Product Marketing & Enablement at Aquant.
👉🏻 Today, you'll learn about the following, plus much more:
💥 The importance of nailing WIIFM
💥 How bite-sized training can have impact
💥 Why context matters
Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
Search for Sales Coach on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 🎧
🧠 How does a Growth Mindset v.s. a Fixed Mindset affect your team's performance, and how can you encourage a Growth Mindset way of thinking in your reps?
The latest Sales Coach Podcast is now LIVE ❗️
My guest this week is Jocelle Sarenpa, Director of Sales Enablement at Field Nation, Founding Ambassador at the Sales Enablement Collective and Mentor with The Enablement Squad.
👉🏻 Today, you'll learn about the following, plus much more:
💭 How to attract, hire, and support coachable employees
💭 What the growth mindset is, and why it's important
💭 Why the Fixed Mindset can be a problem
Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
Search for Sales Coach on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 🎧
How can you make coaching more deeply engrained, show leaders the impact of coaching and speak the right language to align with your CRO?
👉 The latest Sales Coach Podcast is now LIVE
My guest this week is Del Nakhi, Sr. Director at MariaDB.
Del has spent more than 15 years driving revenue growth and business transformation for B2B SaaS and B2C companies.
She has a deep understanding of - and passion for - managing and sustaining behaviour change, and creating a data-driven approach to enable revenue teams to meet customers where they are.
➡️ Today you'll learn about the following, plus much more:
✅ Why it's important to align with your CRO on coaching
✅ The HOW and WHAT of sales coaching
✅ Ways to track progress on leading and lagging indicators
Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
There is hard work to do to obtain a certification, so as a rep, why should they bother? What's in it for them?
👉 The latest Sales Coach Podcast is now LIVE
My guest this week is Maggie Callahan, Director of Global Revenue Enablement at OneTrust.
Maggie is passionate about enablement and believes in the importance of developing people through genuine empathy and a bit of tough love.
➡️ Today you'll learn about the following, plus much more:
✅ The importance of seller certifications
✅ Gaining a new mindset around seller certifications
✅ Ways to manage the inevitable last-minute enablement requests
Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
Enablement is often misunderstood and gets pigeonholed...
Find out how to open your organisation's eyes to what Sales Enablement actually is and why Sales Enablement is essential to help organisations identify areas to inject positive change.
👉 The latest Sales Coach Podcast is now LIVE
My guest this week is Stephanie Middaugh, Founder & CEO at Phoenix GTM Consulting.
Phoenix GTM Consulting group helps teams become more productive and efficient and hit important business goals by building strategies, executing against the strategy, and measuring the impact of the initiatives.
➡️ Today you'll learn about the following, plus much more:
✅ What Sales Enablement is and isn't
✅ How Sales Enablement can help within an organisation
✅ How Sales Enablement can affect change across the company
Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
Turning a 1:1 into an effective coaching session that you can track...it doesn't have to be difficult...
👉 The latest Sales Coach Podcast is now LIVE
My guest this week is Julie Newhouse, Director of Revenue Enablement at Bill.com.
Julie knows what it takes to be successful as a sales professional and has a long and established career in Enablement.
➡️ Today you'll learn about the following, plus much more:
✅ How to transform 1:1s into effective coaching calls
✅ Ways to improve frontline manager adoption
✅ How to track the impact of call coaching
Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
Motivation, Motivation, Motivation! If someone is not motivated to perform, then coaching will be significantly limited in its impact! 😬
➡️ The latest Sales Coach Podcast is now LIVE ❗️
My guest this week is Phil Putnam, Vice President of Sales Enablement at Notify.
Phil is detailed oriented enablement professional with a deep passion for coaching and helping others. Phil is so passionate about coaching in fact he refers to coaching as his treat or dessert. 🍰
Today you'll learn about the following, plus much more:
🏆 The model to discover what motivates someone
🏆 What motivation has to do with performance
🏆 The most common mistake businesses make in motivation
🎧 Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
In sales metrics are super important, but you must never lose sight of what ultimately moves the needle on those metrics....relationships!
➡️ The latest Sales Coach Podcast is now LIVE❗️
My guest this week is Michelle Curtis, Director of Revenue Enablement at Accredible.
Michelle is an enablement professional and is passionate about helping customer-facing folks improve efficiency by creating efficient frameworks and processes which help drive revenue and create a better customer experience.
💡 Today you'll learn about:
🙌 The importance of relationships in sales
🙌 How to review the components of relationship building
🙌 Ways to build powerful and positive relationships
Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
Search for SalesCoachr on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher
Do you believe enabling coaches enables ICs?
➡️ The latest Sales Coach Podcast is now LIVE 🙌
My guest this week is Chelsey (Gates) Geula, Head of Revenue Enablement at Nayya.
👇
Today you'll learn about:
Results and behaviours - why you can only change one
Inspiring thought - the power of coaching
Enabling coaches means enabling ICs
➡️ Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
When is the best time to invest in enablement?
🎧 The latest Sales Coach Podcast is now LIVE
❗️My guest this week is Kristen McCrae McMullan, Senior Director of Revenue Enablement + Learning & Development at GitHub.
🏆 Kristen is a GTM leader with 12 years of professional experience, with a specialty in taking a data-driven, outcome-based, and product management structured approach to enablement work.
She is also the co-founder of Purpose and Pine Retreats, with the mission of bringing women together to recharge, reflect, and connect.
Today you'll learn about:
✊ How you can overcome the stress of being asked to do less with more
✊ The top two causes of turnover of critical talent
✊ Why you should limit the focus to business critical priorities when it comes to ROI
Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
What is managing up and what does it mean to you? By managing up, could you create more value for your business and managers?
My guest this week is Courtney Tucci, Director of Sales Enablement at Mirakl.
Courtney is an accomplished GTM enablement leader and skilled in managing enablement teams to support the scalability of high-growth organizations.
Today you'll learn about:
Ways you can manage up & getting buy-in
How you can build a "lead from the front" culture
How you can become a trusted advisor to stakeholders
As Courtney says: "I was making the mistake of fighting fires in the field before I switched to a leading from the front model. This is where you enable all of your leaders on the initiative that you're pushing for and let them put it out there and have a trickle-down effect."
Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one! Search for SalesCoachr on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher
Will ChatGPT have an impact on the way you coach your teams in the future, and if it does are you prepared to adapt?
My guest this week is Thomas K. Cheriyan, Director of Revenue Enablement at Rattle.
Tom is a proven leader and innovator in the technology sector. He brings to the table years of experience in intellectual property, technology, engineering, thought leadership, strategic marketing, sales and business management.
Today you'll learn:
What AI’s role in the future of sales coaching is
How you can use AI to enhance your sales coaching
Why ChatGPT won’t replace you as a sales coach
As Tom says: "If you are using ChatGPT for sales coaching, but you’re a novice at coaching, ChatGPT may actually hurt you, versus help you, because you still need to do the basics and fundamentals first."
Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
Search for SalesCoachr on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher
Most of the time leaders who are coaching only think that they are coaching, so what do you really need to know to make you a great coach?
My guest this week, Jonathan M Kvarfordt, is a Sales and Enablement Executive with over 15 years of experience in implementing enablement programs for global organizations, Fortune 500 clients, and startups.
Jonathan was also recognized in SEC’s 2023 Enablement Ones to Watch report.
Today you'll learn:
- How you can create a coaching environment
- What can shut down progression in your team
- How to drive behavioural change
As Jonathan says: "A lot of people confuse coaching with counselling, or consulting, or feedback sessions as they’ve never actually experienced a good coach.
In sales what I’ve found is that most managers are unconsciously competent,and speak from a level that their sales person doesn’t get, or use their ‘coaching sessions’ to be corrective, rather than coach."
Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
Search for SalesCoachr on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher
Do you find challenges with coaching, not sure if you are doing it right or have the right tools in your arsenal?
My guest this week is Crystal Nikosey, Voted "One to Watch" 2023 and is a Self confessed Obsessed Strategic Business Driver in transforming revenue enablement into a revenue-outcome.
Today you'll learn:
- The transformations Sales Coaching can achieve
- Why competency driven sales coaching is important
- Aligning competencies to metrics
As Crystal says: "There’s multiple forms of coaching, but I feel that Sales Coaching is when you have a one-to-one session and you focus on the seller, on their skills, and on their behaviours.
You are driven by actual data. This is not an intuition based one-to-one or deal review, this is a guide taking in their seller and looking at their competencies, skills and behaviours and really building them out for the seller."
Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
How can we make our involvement in the day to day running of a sales team frictionless?
My guest this week is Nick Salas, Revenue Enablement Leader at SirionLabs.
Today you'll learn:
The key to being a successful enablement leader
Ways to deal with a disinterest in enablement
How to get a healthy balance between training and coaching
As Nick says: "Having a coachable attitude and personality is crucial for enablement to be successful.
Work with the sales manager and show them how the coaching connects directly to revenue because there is a direct correlation there between upskilling, coaching and bringing in more deals."
Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
Do you struggle to get buy-in when communicating enablement plans to internal stakeholders ⁉️
My guest this week is Mary Beth Hanifer, Sales Enablement Manager with 15 years of Sales Enablement, Marketing, and Cross-Organizational Support experience.
👉 Today you'll learn:
👂Why you need to listen to your community
👂How to understand who you are serving and identify their needs
👂Learn how you can best manage through roadblocks
💡As Mary says: "I think one of those key things in that first conversation that your going to be having, and then in subsequent conversations as a project team is, we need everybody to understand who you're serving, who's the audience and identify needs.
So if we come at it from that perspective I think that changes the direction of the delivery."
Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
Why has performance optimisation never been more important?
My guest this week is Kunal Pandya, Senior Director of Global Revenue Enablement at UserZoom
Today you'll learn:
- Why competency-led coaching is key
- How you can optimise performance in your reps
- Ways to avoid lagging performance correlation in your team
As Kunal says: "I believe at least 50% of a sales manager's role is to coach, and coach frequently. But of course, not enough managers do, or worse, believe that they DO coach when in reality they're running transactional deal reviews.
There are risks to not coaching, there's that disconnection between rep and manager which is where frustration stems from, which leads to disengagement and low productivity."
Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
When your company doesn't see the value of enablement, how can you show its worth and value?
My guest this week is Roderick Jefferson, Bestselling Author, Keynote Speaker and CEO.
Today you'll learn:
How to show what Sales Enablement REALLY does for the business
What Metrics you should use to show your value
How you can unlock Sales Potential
As Roderick says: "Think about an Orchestra, all trying to play the right song, but sometimes they're stepping on top of each other...the same thing happens with companies; we're all trying to do the right thing on behalf of the customer or prospect, but the problem is you don't have the orchestrator.
I believe that Enablement is that, they are that one organisation or individual that steps up taps the stand and all that noise and chaos going on internally becomes a beautiful sheet of music."
Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
Does your company need or have a curriculum strategy and, if so, how can you develop a great one?
My guest this week is Jessica Shyu, Director of Sales Enablement Curriculum and Strategy at Datadog
Today you'll learn:
Why marketing matters when communicating the strategy
How curriculum and sales strategy are linked
What coaching has to do with being a successful sales manager
As Jessica says: "You have to be ok with your coachee sometimes failing a little bit, or doing it their way, in a way that isn't exactly the way. The difference between coaching vs. telling someone what to do and giving direct feedback is that you're creating space for someone to share their own analysis. It's not just being directive."
Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
Do you have a standard process for hiring new started? How do identify if you have a successful onboarding process and get buy in if you need to change your process?
My guest this week is Paz Petraglia, Senior Manager of Sales Enablement & Ops at Uber Eats.
Today you'll learn:
✅ How to overcome onboarding challenges
✅ How to get the support of senior decision makers
✅ 3 practical steps that can help with the onboarding process
"I feel sometimes, especially in tech companies, we forget that we are all humans we're not machines. I think it's important to have groups of people to try to allow everyone to meet others in the company while they're onboarding, because that's when they really get a full grasp of how we work, and then when they go into their own teams they already know ow our culture is and how other teams work. "
Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
Are you a startup ready to scale but aren’t sure how to create an effective team? Especially with a small team, you need to create an enablement strategy that ensures everyone can do their roles as efficiently and confidently as possible.
My guest this week is Stephen Myers, Head of Partner Enablement @ Adobe who has been through a startups three times in his career.
Today you'll learn:
✅ Setting expectations
✅ The maturation of the sales team
✅ Essential messaging elements
"In a startup you're just reacting, there’s not a lot of proactive work. Your dealing with whatever the market is going to hand you. You are never going to grow the organisation if you’re dependent on the founders and senior leadership to be on every sales call."
Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
With so many resources at our fingertips, how can you source the best information to help your customers and reps in their sales journey?
My guest this week is Steffaney Zohrabyan, Sales Enablement Innovation & Insights Leader at Cisco.
Today you'll learn:
Why a service first mentality isn’t helpful for your customers
Why you need a digital adoption platform
Why you need to listen to your reps
"f you're going to have all this data, you really need people who can read it. But with the right people and the right skills on your team, you can start to filter out all the mess and determine what's important."
Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
As a sales leader are you aware of the three As when it comes to sales enablement?
My guest this week is Laura Valerio, Principal Consultant at Highspot.
Today you'll learn:
- What the 3 As are and why they increase productivity
- What stops sales enablement working well
- How you can use the 3 As to show your value
"In order to be successful in enabling sales the most important thing is to understand the life of a sales person and also to understand your customers. ‘What is it that my customers would benefit from?’ ‘Where is the value that I can deliver?’ And then enabling sales to deliver that value."
Check out the episode now! And subscribe to get more episodes like this one!
Are you harming the development of your reps by being 'helpful'?
My guest this week is Scott Sampson, Head of Sales at Omnipresent.
Today you'll learn:
-
Why your reps need to find their lightbulb moment
-
What happens when you stop 'helping'
-
Methods to give your team the opportunity improve themselves
"Unless you as the individual feel the process of coming up with and idea, or executing an idea for the first time, your not creating those neural pathways and emotional pathways to really remember it and sink in...I will literally ask people questions until they come to an answer themselves ."
How often do your sales reps do CPD, are they really as up to date as they could be with industry trends in an ever changing sales environment?
My guest this week is Cindy Kim, Global Revenue Enablement Manager at Inspectorio.
Today you'll learn:
How to approach upskilling your team members
How to ensure your team get what they need, when they need it
Ways you can get the best out of your team
"Career pathing and coaching is what keeps people motivated and keeps talent, but that is needed from the ground up in every single role."
Want more episodes like this? Follow me on LinkedIn to stay up to date on new episodes and insights at https://lnkd.in/dvHFdh-Y.
Do you want to know how to run a deal review and take your reps to new hights?
My guest this week is Mark Kosoglow, Chief Revenue Officer at Catalyst Software.
You'll learn:
- The best way to approach a deal review
- How to get reps to think consistently
- Why outreach is one of your go to tools for enablement
"Deal reviews are so important because it actually helps you pinpoint where the problems are because you're moving the deals through the process."
Want more episodes like this? Follow me on LinkedIn to stay up to date on new episodes and insights at https://www.linkedin.com/in/markgarretthayes/.
What is revenue enablement and should it be something that you need to coach your reps on?
My guest this week is Stephanie White Senior Director of Revenue Enablement at Loopio.
Stephanie is going to explain what the difference is between revenue enablement and sales enablement and touch on why your sales team is bigger than you think.
"Are you leveraging enablement for onboarding? Are you leveraging enablement for ongoing growth for your team? Are you leveraging enablement for mastery growth and development for your team? My guess on that one is probably not for the majority of listeners.
What I mean by that is, if you have somebody who's at 80% attainment and somebody who's at 60% attainment our natural reaction can be 'deal with the problem'.
You are one person and you cannot be all things to all people, so partnering very strategically with your enablement partner to do a 'divide and conquer' for 'growth of both' is a resource you want to make sure you're leveraging in 2023. Your enablement team is part of your direct sales team, and that can take so many forms."
Do you have a well rounded Leadership Development Program?
My guest this week is Kieran Smith, Senior Manager of Revenue Enablement Manager at Andela.
Kieran is going to explain why it's sales enablement who should be involved in shaping the LDP.
"I think one the biggest misses most companies make is they just assume their leaders are going to know what is expected of them.
So you're not really getting developed, you're stuck in the middle.
They need to set an expectation around 'what's the day to day', 'what's your percentage time of joining calls', 'how much time do you want to dedicate to coaching'."
Are your reps as productive as they can be, or do they get distracted by the technology they have to use in their role?
My guest this week is Dr Jeremy Noad, Global Director of Growth Productivity at Linde.
Jeremy is going explain why you should coach around the benefits of focus, to make it as easy for your reps to do their job.
"Technology is something we absolutely need to have. Over time each technology we've bought has been designed to save us time, but as a sales person we have to pursue a lot more opportunities to be successful.
A task may have taken you 15 mins, but in reality it's probably taken you more like 40 mins because we have this thing called attention lag.
If you move around different systems frequently throughout the course of the day, this multi-tasking idea makes you less effective. Therefore you've got to think about what you have to do to with your tech stack and help your people manage this."
How do you provide a better, more thoughtful training and adoption process to your reps?
My guest this week is Annie Johnson, Revenue Enablement Manager at Sayari.
Annie is going explain why it's okay to slow down, or delay a role out, and how this is advantageous to you and your team.
"Maybe there is a change in the business model, and that's big, your people are trying to keep up with their calls and roles in the middle of changes, both big and small.
So, it's very important, even if you have to delay that change a couple days or weeks, to have everything thought through and give your team time to attend the trainings they need.
Slow down, the business will be ok. If your people get flustered then they are not going to feel good, and that is going to translate into your sales and culture."
Where do you coach your team from? Past results, or what's happening in the moment?
My guest this week is Matt Schalsey, Co-founder of The Enablement Squad.
Matt is going to give you reasons why coaching your salespeople from the present is so much more effective than coaching from the past.
"We've all heard the term 'Back in my day', but you're not selling back in the 90s or early 2000, you're selling post COVID in a digital remote world.
I can tell you the way that I sold is hardly relevant to the way I'm selling now.
We need to be present as leaders to jump on and review those calls, score reps, coach them, find ways for them to be able to perfect their craft and live in the future, not in the past anymore."
Do you have a Sales Enablement function? If you do, how can sales leaders get more from the Enablement team?
My guest this week is Ben Purton, Director International Sales Enablement at Ring Central.
Ben is going to give you 3 ways in which you can get more from working with your sales enablement team.
Ben calls Sales Enablement the ‘glue’ of the business.
’We are internal salespeople. So I try to quantify the RoI of key projects. It’s really about understanding and working with the right stakeholders. Those can be Sales or Solutions Engineers, Channel, Partnerships or marketing.
‘My head of international sales will say that we make them fitter as salespeople.
So wherever they sort of have that where they’re coaches as an organization, so not only are we the strategic right hand, so our sales leader will use us as a sounding board will help us with strategic initiatives.’
What are your standards as a leader and do you set them high enough?
Today’s Tip is from Derek Jankowski, VP of Sales at ServiceCore in the US.
In this episode, you'll learn:
️What keeping your standards high really means
Why you need to set your standards at the recruiting stage
Signs you need to look for in your team
As Derek says - "Your job as a leader is to set the standard for the entire team, and if you're soft on this, and you don't hold high standards, the team will degrade.
You will lose the A players because A players want high standards, and they want to be on a team where everybody works towards those standards."
Are your sales team loyal to you as theirs sales leader?
Today’s Tip is from Gus Taleb, Vice President of Sales at Signifyd in the UK.
In this episode, you'll learn:
👇
️⭐️Why you are only as good as your team
️️⭐️Why building loyalty within the team is imperative
️️⭐️What things motivate your sales team
As Gus says - "Any Leader's success is based on their team succeeding.
A team culture that values success, but also uses failure as a team's learning opportunity, creates a sense of belonging.With the right relationships within the team members a Leader can create the perfect recipe for success.
Are you really accessible to your team or do you just think you are?
Today’s Tip is from Mark Davis, Sales Director at Sophos in the UK.
In this episode you'll learn:
Different ways you can share your time with your team
Ways to get the maximum from short conversations with your team
How to get your team to truly open up and share
As Mark says - "People are fundamental to the business's success and it's our responsibility as a leader to make time for them and be there for them.
The team needs you to be there for them to be able to share what's on their mind with you be able to share successes share challenges."
Could you be setting your team up for failure without realising it?
Today’s Tip is from Dave Cohn, Sales Team Leader at Red Hat in America.
In this episode you'll learn:
🟨 How to empower your team members
🟨 Steps to create mutual respect between you and your team
🟨 Ways you can foster an open team environment
As Dave says - "I never refer to the team as MY team. You should always use that verbiage as much as you can as it shows collective ownership over the goals you're trying to achieve.
You have to give the power to your team to make decisions, almost in an entrepreneurial spirit, because you and your team have to drive what you think are the most important goals."
Could you be unknowingly sabotaging your team's opinion of you?
Today’s Tip is from Luc Lammers, VP of Sales at Sendcloud in Amsterdam.
In this episode you'll learn:
🟨 How to truly lead and support your team
🟨 Actions that will help your team trust you
🟨 Ways to help your team make successful sales
As Luc says - "The number one mistake that I see, especially new leaders make, is that you can tend to start focusing on everything else besides your team.
You start having all these strategic meetings with other leaders and, although I think that this is very important to connect with all our stakeholders in your organisation, your number one priority is still your own team."
How can you expect your team to respect and trust you if you're not leading by example?
Today’s Tip for Sales Leaders is from Donnacha Friel who is Vice President of Global Sales at Wrike in Ireland.
In this episode you'll learn:
Actions you can take to gain more respect from your team and peers
How to earn the right to push your team when required
Know when, who, and how to invest in your team, in the right way
As Donnacha says - "As you become a manager, people are watching your every move.
New managers will quite often say 'they' when they're referring to the company that they're working for. But you are now part of the strategy, part of that company.
So it's really important that you're giving the right signals to your team, and that you're conveying that you are a part of the company and you're helping to drive that strategy forward.”
If you don’t assume you're missing something can you truly understand what's going on with an account?
Today’s Tip for Sales Leaders is from Colin Doolan who is VP of Sales & Marketing, at Deciphex in Ireland
In this episode you'll learn how this tip can:
- Give you better quality conversations with your reps
- Save you time
- Gain better insight into the probability of deals closing
As Colin says - "Assume you are missing something, and take the blinkers off.
Because when you think you've missed something, looking at the place you think it's going to be is usually wrong.
It's somebody somewhere that you haven't thought may have an impact that will.
It's more the implicit effect of other people who may involved, that don't see what's in it for them.”
I’ve learnt the key to effective communication.
With the NVC framework you can turn around difficult client conversations to your advantage.
What to know how? Check out the link to the full episode.
Today’s Tip for Sales Leaders is from Callum Henderson who is a Chief Revenue Officer at EngageTec in London.
Callum believes that by getting your team to consider the NVC framework in their role you become infinitely more effective too.
In this episode, he will break down the NVC framework for you, and tell you how you can apply it in your own team.
As Callum says - "I think it really helps to build and cultivate the right kind of culture within a group.
You have a better understanding for some of the emotions that bubble under the surface and you are in a much better position to be able to pick between the lines about what's actually going on in a conversation.”
Check out the rest of today’s episode now, follow the link in the comments!
When looking at your sales KPIs do you look at the inputs as well as the outputs?
If you are just concentrating on one aspect of your team KPIs you are missing the full picture.
Today’s Tip for Sales Leaders is from David Dolan who is a Sales Leader at Greenhouse in Ireland
David believes you need to look under the hood and see where your issues are.
It is only when you start digging into the overall sales process that you can see how you can influence things and fix problems.
In this episode, he will explain to you why this is so important and how, by looking at the whole picture, you can gain a better understanding of your sale KPIs to help solve issues in the team.
As David says - “We know this well in sales that there are a bunch of levers that you can move, looking at the pipeline you build, the close rate, deal size, the margin etc.
When you look at all of those put together, they have a multiplier effect and will determine your outcome.”
Check out the rest of today’s episode now, follow the link in the comments!
When you've targets to meet, there is nothing worse than finding out your team are chasing the wrong deals at year end.
Today’s Tip for Sales Leaders is from Chris Wright who is EWF Leader Solution Sales at ServiceNow in California.
Chris believes you need a mutual plan in place to ensure team members can have a better feel for those upside deals and how they can bring those across.
In this episode, he'll explain how a mutual plan helps his team and what a mutual plan can do for your team and their targets. After all, if you're Q4 heavy, every day counts.
As Chris says - "When you bring the mutual plan in, you're also opening up to other stakeholders early and often.
I think that's super important to understand that.”
Check out the rest of today’s episode now, follow the link in the comments!
Are you wasting time and resources by not ramping up new hires skills quickly enough?
Just because your new hire has been successful before doesn't mean they’ll be as successful in their new role with you.
Today’s Tip for Sales Leaders is from Chris Krystalowich who is a VP of Sales at eGain Corporation in Canada.
Chris believes that it's important to give the people the tools to make them successful, regardless of how senior they are.
In this episode he is will explain to you why this is so important and how this helps to improve your ramp rate.
As Chris says - "Companies think that just because you were over a hundred percent achiever throughout your career, that you can magically come in and make ends meet.
But there's a lot of things that make you successful when you're in a company..”
Check out the rest of today’s episode now, follow the link in the comments!
3 ways to be your biggest ally and become a great leader w/ Annmarie Avery
If you don’t feel confident and empowered yourself, how can you instil those values into your team and lead with greatness?
If they are looking to you to lead by example, and you don’t believe in your own abilities, how can they believe in themselves?
Today’s Tip for Sales Leaders is from Annmarie Avery who is a Senior Manager at DocuSign in Ireland.
When you want to be the person that seems to have all the answers you might find that you start to feel you have no support. There is too much pressure focused on you coming from other people.
This is where you are own mental health can suffer and you may start to doubt your abilities.
Annmarie believes that you can turn that inner critic into a tool that can help you become a great leader.
In this episode she is will explain the tips and methods you can use to be your biggest ally.
As Annmarie says - " It's so easy to focus on other people all the time and neglect our own needs.
When you are in that situation you can endure stress. You can find yourself taken off your plan and focusing on other people's plans.
We forget ourselves, our own needs our own priorities.
We end up helping someone else to the detriment of ourselves.”
Check out the rest of today’s episode now, follow the link in the comments!
Are you runnning a performance review with your sales team soon?
The performance review addresses the totality of your salesperson's performance.
Not just work-related aspects but mindset-related aspects such as:
- How they prioritise their time and activities
- How they are tracking to their personal goals
- How they see themselves developing under your leadership
It's a chance to get 'under the hood' and really get to know the salesperson you are leading.
It's also a chance to practice and improve your listening skills.
So keep an eye on your 'talk-time' ratio!
Great coaches dominate the listening - not the talking.
Click on 'subscribe' or 'follow' to be notified of upcoming episodes!
Do you use LinkedIn as a tool to sell? If not, you could be missing out.
Today’s Tip for Sales Leaders is from Prem Patel who works at Okay in the Austin, Texas.
Prem believes that there is still a huge knowledge gap on what social selling looks like and how to use LinkedIn. But, if used correctly it’s a huge opportunity to help generate pipelines, map out deals and close deals.
Today he’ll be talking to me about how you can use LinkedIn to its full advantage and use it as a social selling tool to your advantage.
As Rich says - "LinkedIn is social in nature and allows sellers to position the challenges that we solve and the companies that we work for in a meaningful way so that buyers can interact with us and build meaningful relationships.
Social Selling is an opportunity for you to present yourself as a human being to your buyers...you're out there to solve a meaningful challenge that they have and share content that resonates with them.”
After 10 months of using LinkedIn as a social selling tool, Prem was able to land a deal with an organisation that was notorious for doing things in-house. Listen to find out how he did this and how you can use social selling to your advantage too.
Check out the rest of today’s episode now, follow the link in the comments!
Do your team members really understand the metrics by which they are measured? How do you make sure everyone on your team is on the same page and understands what is expected of them when they are not in the same space?
Today’s Tip for Sales Leaders is from Rich Belson who is a Sales Development Leader at Reward Gateway in the UK.
You may no longer be in the office every day or having those 5 min check-ins as much. However, your team still needs that visibility to manage their performance. In the post-pandemic world, the structure of how you manage your hybrid team needs to change.
Rich believes that flexible working is such a core component of attracting the right talent for your team.
Today he’ll be talking to me about how you can develop a flexible and hybrid team that fully understands their roles and performance goals.
As Rich says - "Coaching is vital, it’s important to have that culture of coaching and being able to have conversations to give feedback at any time.
With remote teams, it is quite difficult if you need to find time in someone's diary.
But having that culture to be able to give your team member a call, without them feeling concerned they are going to receive a call out of the blue from their manager or team member is important.
They know you are going to have that conversation with them the same way you would in the office, for example over a coffee.”
Check out the rest of today’s episode now, follow the link in the comments!
Today’s Tip for Sales Leaders is from Lee Buckle who is a Sales Leader at Access in Banbury, England.
Do you struggle to empower your team 100%? Would they move mountains for you to get top results?
If you create a positive culture for your team that everyone can buy into, your team will feel valued and want to go the extra mile for you or the business.
Lee Buckle believes in the power of a positive ethos and today he’ll be talking to me about why it works.
As Lee says - "You’ve got to show belief and faith in your team.
They need to know you believe in each one of them, and that they can turn to you for help in the good and the bad.
It’s also important to give your team members the space to be authentic too and share their ideas for an effective team ethos too.
Then the results take care of themselves.
Over two years ago I lead a team in a series of acquisitions where we were all starting from scratch. By giving my team support and confidence, being there for them, and empowering them, we had a great first year and an even better second year!”
Check out the rest of today’s episode now!
Listen more to learn more with Richard Smith
Today’s Tip for Sales Leaders is from Richard Smith who is the VP of Sales EMEA at Allego from Newcastle upon Tyne.
By making the time to listen more to your team’s sales calls than you currently do you will learn more about your teams selling strengths/weaknesses, be able to forecast more accurately, and understand where you are winning/losing deals.
As Richard says - “I think the main reason that people don’t listen to calls is time and secondly people might have never done it before, and so they’ve just managed their sales teams by word-of-mouth and anecdotal soundbites from salespeople.”
“But, you cannot effectively coach your sales team if you cannot listen or see how they are selling in their real-life sales conversations. The key point is, if you can’t prioritise this you need to re-evaluate your priorities.”
Check out the rest of today’s episode now!
How marginal changes make big improvements with Louise Holmes
Today’s Tip for Sales Leaders is from Louise Holmes who is the Regional Sales Director of Slack in Ireland.
Louise will be discussing how to use marginal changes to regularly reflect and incrementally make big improvements to your own, and your team’s, sales performance. You will find the benefits of how by implementing small, easy-to-apply changes, you will start to see real progress in your team’s performance. We’ll also be chatting about some examples of changes you can make and how these can be applied in your team.
As Louise says - “The illusion that you can be a great salesperson within the first year is something that, as an industry, we need to quash.”
“If you’re not open-minded and have that growth mindset around your own skills you’ll NEVER be a top performer. So, it’s understanding the ‘Why’ and then really breaking it down, and this actually makes your life easier because instead of thinking ‘I need to be the best salesperson in the world’ you can think ‘I need to just improve my introduction’ It’s easier to work on that and forget the rest. Knowing you are improving is much better than trying to boil the ocean.”
Check out the rest of today’s episode now
This week’s guest is Alex Manwaring, Director of the Sales Team at Privy in Boston Massachusetts.
Alex believes that sales leaders and managers impress the importance of discovery and personalisation on individuals but that they often forget to do this themselves and end up creating a cookie cutter type approach to their leadership by appraising team members in the same way and assuming everyone wants the same outcomes for themselves and the business.
Alex comments: “You need to take the time to understand how everybody likes to be recognised when they do well, what their career ambitions are and understand that not everybody is going to respond the same way.
It’s up to us, as leaders, to make sure we understand what motivates people so we can keep them engaged, retain them for longer and ultimately have more productive employees long term.”
Listen to the rest of today’s Sales Coach interview with Alex now!
If you’re a sales leader and you want to share your #1 tip to getting the most from your salespeople, I’ll send you a signed copy of my book if you’d like to appear on the show.
This week’s guest is Ruta Sinkeviciute, Inside Sales Manager - Corporate Sales UK&I at British Airways.
Ruta believes that you and your sales team will benefit when you include them in your decision-making
Including your people helps to achieve results and makes for a more inclusive and positive environment people want to contribute
You need to tap into your team's resourcefulness to create a higher performing team as well as an inclusive and positive environment.
Ruta comments: “I’ve been a people manager for almost 12 years and over the years I’ve explored different ways of managing people and I’ve noticed that including people in the decision-making helps to achieve results and also creates a more inclusive environment that people want to be a part of.”
"You will be able to tap into your team's resourcefulness and it will create a co-dependent environment. Results will be achieved faster by creating a high-performing team where people feel part of your organisation.”
Listen to the rest of today’s Sales Coach interview with Ruta now!
If you’re a sales leader and you want to share your #1 tip to getting the most from your salespeople, I’ll send you a signed copy of my book if you’d like to appear on the show.
This week’s guest Ramsey Al Ramahi VP of Sales suggests that you need to coach your team for their future not yours.
“There is a reason why athletes make some of the best sales people out there”
They have the discipline and the self-leadership to hit sales goals and win.
“When you coach your sales people, you are preparing them for (self) leadership”.
Listen to the rest of today’s Sales Coach interview with Ramsey now!
If you’re a sales leader and you want to share your #1 tip to getting the most from your sales people, I’ll send you a signed copy of my book if you’d like to appear on the show.
Today’s Tip for Sales Leaders is from Westlee Tonga who leads an outbound sales development team for CXone, which is a subsidiary of NICE in the USA.
By loving your team, Westlee doesn’t mean being soft or being unclear when someone is not performing or contributing to the team. To Westlee, loving your team means:
Being authentic
Giving them access to your time
Actively listening
Setting clear boundaries and goals
Mutual respect
As Westlee says - People will do things and go greater distances for the things and the people that they love than they will by being afraid or duty-bound.
Check out the rest of today’s episode now!
When your team don’t listen to their calls, they are going to have blindspots. They are going to unaware of what they are saying or not saying to their prospects.
You can give your reps guidance on how to review their own calls and let them reflect on what they have heard.
They then come back with some interesting insight. Even one insight is enough to make this exercise worthwhile.
Sell the meeting not the product
“Many SDRs focus on selling the product too soon.
I think this is one of the key mistakes they make early in their career.
Your SDR has to get the prospect to understand that you are not going to waste their time. You have to focus on the value of the meeting not the features of the product.
If you can get your sales people to shift from selling the product to selling the meeting, you’re going to get better results.”
Trust, Empower and Enable your Sales team
“As a sales leader your job is not to micro-manage but to empower your team members to do their best work.
I find many people thrive on being given ownership.
Your team members were hired by you or other leadership in your company.
“So empower them, guide them and watch your results improve….”
Today’s tip for sales leaders is from Dan Skipp who leads a diverse team of SDRs at Sophos, a security software provider in the UK.
Dan recognizes that it’s hard to detach yourself from all the things that you are proud of about yourself.
Your goals
Your track record
Your view of the world
But - as Dan says- these things can get in the way of you having powerful coaching conversations with your people.
When you can lose your ego, you are to have a much more ‘aware’ and ‘motivated’ bunch of sales people in your team!
Check out the rest of today’s episode now!
You are not the perfect coach. I’ve written a book on the subject of sales coaching and I’m not the perfect coach either.
There is no such thing as the perfect coach and there never will be either.
But none of this should hold you back!
The only way to be better at something is to try it, make mistakes and try harder.
In this week’s episode, you’re going to understand why coaching is a best-effort activity - not a best-every-time activity.
Check it out now!
This week, my new book Sales Coaching Essentials is available to you for purchase.
So thank you for your support and encouragement in making this happen.
I’m making changes to the podcast, the brand and the format of the show.
We’re going to focus on giving you lots more practical tips.
You’re going to hear a lot more from sales managers and sales leaders just like you.
Listen now to find out where I am taking the brand!
At long last, my new book Sales Coaching Essentials is ready for launch!
You can get your hands on a copy at the launch price of $1.29 or £.99p until (and including) May 16th. After that, it goes up to full price!
Mike Weinberg, one of my favourite sales authors has so kindly called it ‘required reading for sales leaders’.
Matt Dixon, author of The Challenger Sale has generously described it as a ‘must-read for any sales leader who is serious about unlocking the performance of their team’.
It has been written to be a practical book so you can prepare for things like deal-review, pipeline reviews, 1-to-1's and more.
In today’s episode, I’m going to give you some insight from the book and what’s coming up!
If you have heard of MEDDIC before, you will know that it is one of the most widely used qualification methodologies.
Jack Napoli, Dick Dunkel and John McMahon come to mind when we think of the people behind MEDDIC / MEDDPICC.
And it’s John McMahon who is my guest on today’s episode.
You’re going to get a MEDDIC masterclass this morning.
What MEDDIC is
Why it was created
What each letter stands for
What you need to be able to master it
LISTEN NOW!
I read an article today in Inc Magazine entitled 13 traits of an outstanding sales person. Hunters mentality, Laziness, Follow Up, Charisma and arrogance.
That last one concerns me actually. I’m all for a bit of exuberance a little bit of let’s say confidence.
But what is far more important to me and should be to you is whether the person you are working with hiring and committing to developing is humble enough to know that they don’t know at all and that they can learn from you and from their team.
That’s coach-ability and it’s extremely important particularly a tiring time
I’m not perfect. You’re not perfect. Nobody is perfect.
Yet it’s surprising how often we look for perfectionism within ourselves.
We expect to make the perfect sales call.
We expect to make the perfect sales presentation.
We expect to write the perfect proposal.
We expect have the perfect meeting.
But you and I both know that there is no such thing as perfect.
Perfect is a defect. It is unattainable.
Simply because perfect to my mind is not the same thing as it is to yours.
We’ll never get there.
When you put pressure on yourself or others to be perfect, it creates a whole bunch of problems.
Your reps are reluctant to try things in case they screw up.
People get stressed that they’ll never attain what is expected of them.
As a sales coach, what I want to see is consistency.
Not perfection - Best effort. Not 100% 24/7.
A healthy attitude towards failure and coach-ability to learn from it.
Listen now!
You now have all the blurbs and audio for the next three sales coach episodes
You also have this week’s (solo) episode and blurb for TB
I will get the Peter Smith recordings fixed!
One of my colleagues recently sent to me that he had the worst day of his professional life – I was gobsmacked.
Had he been fired? Or demoted? Had he lost his best client?
I didn’t know where to begin. It took a couple of hours to get him on the phone.
When he did, he said that he had had a panic attack.
Don’t know if you’ve ever had one before.
I had in 2010 and I will never forget it. It’s really hard to describe a panic attack until you have one and I hope you never have one.
I was under huge pressure to get some leads in a campaign for the Middle East.
This guy next to me called Eamon had 7 leads on the board. I remember sitting there but not being able to think, speak or move.
It was like nothing worked. Even today I can’t even begin to explain how terrifying that is.
I’m not a medical professional but when people describe stress - real stress, I can empathise. I’ve been there.
More importantly for the purposes of today’s episode I can recognise the signs.
For the purposes of today’s episode I wanna talk to you about managing your stress levels. This could save your life.
Sales is a permission based activity between humans.
People humans like to be treated nicely.
It’s not a lot to ask to ask people to remember their manners how to treat people well.
We need cooperation and respect on both sides.
You can think of it like an equation. What I give out is what I get back.
My mother has a wonderful expression:
“You train people how to treat you.”
If you’re okay with people being discourteous, you are training them to continue to treated them this way.
The danger is that people then absorb this behaviour or centre behaviours and reflect them out to your customer base.
Courtesy matters and courtesy really matters among professionals.
Today’s episode we are professional courtesy in sales and how to coach it
If you’ve ever watched your key performers leave your team, you’ll know that it hurts to watch sales talent walk out the door.
But there’s lots that you can do to reduce the chances of this happening in the first place.
My guest today is Ryan McNitzky Sales Director AMER Enterprise Accounts at Redgate Software.
Ryan is going to share how you can retain key sales talent and even get your talent to think twice before leaving.
The grass is definitely not always green on the other side!
Check it out now!
A deal review is your chance to get your rep to walk you through the ‘story’ of a specific opportunity in their pipeline in a conversational manner from beginning to end.
You are sense-checking how they qualified this opportunity as well as their plan to get a win.
Of all the reviews you coach, this is where the rubber meets the road.
You need to get your rep to go through a specific opportunity with you at a granular level.
You want to make sure that your rep has thought through which things might throw a spanner in the works and what the plan is to deal with such issues before they arise.
Coaching the deal review will help you to confirm that they are prospecting, selling, and closing the right way.
Listen now to learn more!
In sales, the worst thing you can hear your customer or prospect say isn’t “no.”
It’s something like ‘leave this with me’” or “I need to think about it.”
It’s a true horror for any professional sales person. We’ve all been there.
We prospect, qualify, make some kind of proposal, then our prospect or economic buyer says those words: ‘I’ll think about it.’
After all that effort!
Today’s guest, Matt Dixon, author of one of the best selling sales books of all time, The Challenger Sale.
Matt’s going to share some revolutionary insights from his new book The Jolt Effect which comes out in September.
What was the motivation to write the book?
What can salespeople do to make prospects decide?
What can you do to reduce your prospects fear of failure?
Check it out now!
You can’t be everywhere and you can’t do everything.
The good news is that you don’t have to.
Effective Sales Leaders are those who focus on the execution of their own priorities in any given moment.
It sounds simple.
But it’s kind of not.. because it also sounds really selfish.
And that’s why so many of us have a hard time doing it.|
You worry about the message it sends out when you put your own tasks first.
You worry how you are perceived in case being ‘selfish’ has the wrong effect.
You believe being a manager means being ‘available’ to solve every problem.
Try thinking of it this way:
You are paid for producing… (and that means reducing).
Reducing the things you say yes to and increasing the things you say no to.
When you do:
You will be more focused
You’ll get the right stuff done
You will probably be a better leader
Check out this week’s episode to make this mindset work for you.
Years ago, in one Wendy’s most famous advertising campaign, Octogenarian Clara Peller asked audiences: ‘Where’s the beef..?’
In sales, it’s a lot like asking your team (where’s the rest of the stuff?’)
The stuff under our noses - the unexplored opportunities
White space analysis helps your team to ‘unlock’ potential within existing accounts or territory.
And it’s a great coaching exercise with teams or individuals.
It opens eyes and minds, and helps your salespeople with ‘big-picture’ thinking.
- Where are you leaving money on the table?
- Where is the competition not offering value?
- How could you align with customer needs?
- What is your revenue potential here?
- What’s your plan to ‘landscape’ the relationships?
- How can I support you to develop your plan?
In this week’s episode, let’s help you to coach your team with White Space Analysis so they come up with ideas and a plan to maximize revenue.
From your perspective as a sales leader, your new hires can’t get ramped up fast enough
Your people are excited to be onboard.
They are anxious to perform and you want them to perform.
Here’s a place to start
Write down the kinds of conversations you want them to have
Write down the roles of people you want them to speak to
Write down the things you want them to learn from asking
Create conditions where people can learn to have great conversations.
Go talk to stakeholders. Make phone calls. Just go and talk to people.
Make this the basis for coaching for at least 30 days.
Then intermittently. 3 days a week, then 2, then 1.
Until they are ready to swim.. in the deep end.
When your new hires have made hundreds of calls without pressure, you can increase your expectations.
Confidence leads to competence.
Learning to have great conversations is a great place to start paddling.
Do you ever get a connection request that makes no sense?
I encounter a lot of salespeople sending out generic emails, leaving generic voicemails, blasting out the same generic LinkedIn connection requests to everyone.
Prospecting and speaking to every prospect the same way with no attempt to personalize.
We live in the age of information which enables customisation and that allows us to sell with personalization.
We need to stand out….
So what stands out?
What stands out.. is someone taking the time to show their prospect that they have put some thought into why they should:
take their call
read their email
make an appointment
take the next step
When salespeople personalize
It shows that they have some idea of the prospect’s situation
It shows that they have given some thought to the needs of the business
It shows that they have taken some time to empathize
In this week’s episode, let’s give you some ideas to get your reps to personalize their communication
To quote the great 20th century philosopher Mary Poppins from the song ‘Spoonful of Sugar’:
‘In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun.
You find the fun and snap, the job’s a game…’
There’s lots of truth in that statement.
Sales is tough - prospecting is tough - calling people we don’t know is tough.
Sending out emails and proposals that risk rejection is tough. Doing it week in week out is tough.
Salespeople are a special breed. Good ones are hard to find and even harder to keep.
What keeps top performers? It’s not just the money. It’s the routines, rituals and rewards that bind your team and give the job a sense of achievement and fun.
The easiest people to lead are those who want to be led by you because you make a tough job that much easier.
When you add fun to the ‘grind’ of prospecting and pipeline-building, your sales people feel better about doing the jobs that need to be done.
As Mary Poppins says
….“and hence they find.. their task is not a grind”
Check out today’s episode now!
When your people are selling a meeting or a proof of concept or demo, or product or subscription etc.
What message do they sell?
Do they sell the ' how it works?
OR
Do they sell the ‘why you should care’?
In other words, do your sales people sell the product or the possibility that the product represents?
There is no shortage of sales people who want to talk product but there is a shortage of salespeople who can talk possibility - particularly to the C-Suite.
These are the salespeople who can sell based on value and connect it to the prospect’s vision.
Improving UX
reducing churn
generating ROMI
Increasing EDITDA
None of the above is product-language.
It’s possibility language.
And it’s the stuff that your reps might want to get comfortable discussing with senior prospects who make buying decisions.
Check out this week’s episode to learn why this really matters!
You have just onboarded 2 sales people
Sam has just started brings a ton of experience. He is progressing pipeline and closing pipeline but not building pipeline.
You also hired Shilpa in the same cohort. This is just Shilpa’s first role but she is soaking everything upShe is making up for any shortfall in experience.
What’s going on ?
Sam is ‘happy’ but Shilpa is ‘hungry’. Shilpa has a stronger WHY.
Shilpa’s why means that she has an inner drive, an intrinsic desire to achieve.
She is self-motivating and self-managing.
And this makes your role as sales leader easier and productive.
Let’s take 15 mins right now to help you find and leverage your salespeople’s ‘why’.
Your team will dramatically their performance.
CLICK on the link right now to get some ideas.
So that’s it, James is leaving your sales team.
He has been with you 22 months but an attractive SDR Manager offer has come up and he is dead set on going.
It’s a pity because you (and the business) have invested considerable time in developing his sales skills.
You see James’s potential developing as part of your team
BUT
James sees his potential developing elsewhere
So what are the pull factors and what are the push factors?
Which ‘pull’ factors make James new role more attractive than being a part of your team?
Which ‘push’ factors make James want to leave?
I’m going to help you figure this out!
There are three simple RULES to make the exit interview a success.
And there are three easy QUESTIONS you can ask to make it a positive, constructive experience for both parties.
Check out the episode now if you want to learn.
It’s that time of the year again. Not Christmas!
I’m taking about your SKO or Sales Kickoff.
A great SKO is going to achieve focus. Everyone will be on the same page and clear about the direction of the business.
Your SKO is a change to reenergize the team and excite them about the year ahead. New products, new features, new campaigns, new ideas, new goals etc.
The SKO is also going to strengthen your leadership and reconnect people to you and each other. It’s a chance to recognize, reward effort and achievement.
In today’s episode:
What is the value of running a sales kick off?
How to make it memorable and powerful
What to do afterwards to make it stick
Check it out now!
How many times have you wondered what the difference is between training and coaching?
I had a conversation just before Christmas with a sales leader about which would make sense in 2022 for her team of approx 160.
The terms are often used interchangeably. It’s time to clarify which is which!
In today’s episode, I am going to share 15 key differences in 20 minutes.
I am giving you a self-assessment this week
This will help you to reflect on how you are applying your skills as a coach to your sales team
I invite you to score yourself on a scale of 1-5
There are 21 questions so have fun and answer them as best you can.
You can then take time to reflect on what you need to do to improve.
Sales makers are action takers so listen now!
It’s that time of the year again!
This week, you’re getting a tour of the highlights from the podcast this year.
We covered loads in 2021 so it’s time to look back and share the good stuff.
Great interviews with sales leaders and coaching tips in this week’s episode!
Thanks for your loyalty and support this year! 🏆
Increasingly you rely on technology to run many aspects of selling.
You’re possibly using at least one tool that uses machine learning to automate part of your sales process
But the heart of selling is still human. The sales business is still a people business.
That’s both upside and a challenge.
It’s upside because humans can use intuition and emotional intelligence in a range of situations that machines can’t yet quite match
It’s a challenge because there is no one type of human. All of your people have different personalities types.
The same is true for your prospects and customers.
The good news is that you overcome this challenge by recognising 4 main personality types and learning to work with them.
In today’s episode
What are the 4 main personality types?
How can your recognize them?
How can you work with them
Why this is a game changer
What a year it’s been. 2021 is nearly over and it’s time to look back.
As a sales professional, it’s the right time of year to take stock of what you have achieved.
In today’s episode, we’re going to consider 10 qualities which make you a quality sales leader.
You’re then going to score them as A, B or C.
When you do this, you will begin to see opportunities to grow as a manager to your sales team.
You can then reflect on these and use them as a basis for creating a successful sales year in 2022.
Your one-to-one coaching conversations can be unstructured ’water-cooler ’moments, casual catchups,
They can also be structured check-ins to follow up on KPIs, meetings, prospecting etc.
The most important thing is to make sure they take place. Why?
They keep you in touch
They keep you informed
They keep your people on track
You can help your team to uncover, understand and unlock their own performance when you make time for regular 1:1 coaching conversation
Not everyone will need the same amount of 1:1 time with you.
New hires often need more than experienced salespeople. But it’s quite subjective.
When you coach your salespeople, you are helping then to think for themselves and to develop a degree of self-reliance and autonomy.
Listen now for more ideas.
Years ago, I worked with a Head of Sales called Rafi who always encouraged me to read each morning.
Business newspapers, blogs, in fact anything that would help me to be better informed.
Many sales people tell me that they have no time for researching because they’ve got calls to make.
But that’s like saying ‘I’m too busy driving to stop for gas’ OR ‘I’m to busy earning to make time for learning’.
How can you sell if you don’t know what you’re solving?
How can you solve if you don’t know what the problem is?
How can you understand the problem if you don’t know who has it and how it impacts them?
We sell to people so we need to:
Keep reading
Keep informed
Keep up to date
That means making time for research, and making sure that your people can leverage it in sales conversations.
Check out today’s episode now!
Kevin - a recently promoted Sales manager - told me: all I ever seem to do these days since I took on this leadership position is either preparing for meetings, attending meetings, or following up on meetings. This isn’t what I signed up for.
People like Kevin are frustrated by the burden of end-to-end meetings and meetings about meetings, and meetings that don’t contribute to results.
Most sales managers would rather do the kinds of things that identify, progress and close sales opportunities than clocking up meeting miles.True?
Let’s look at some ways to get more from your sales meetings through coaching.
To make the territory review / planning session a success, you need to get your reps to engage in strategic thinking (not just tactical thinking).
A coherent territory plan ensures your salespeople are focused on the opportunities that will maximise yield by allocating the appropriate territory, accounts etc. based on their skills and experience.
I like to think of salespeople as having a franchise. So, let’s imagine that you owned the Master Franchise for a region or national territory as part of a fast-food chain.
You would be expected to come up with a plan to generate as much business from that area as possible. You would need to find, onboard, and develop franchiseeswho could maximise revenue opportunities for you, right?
Think of your salespeople as franchisees.
True, your reps are salespeople, but they are also business owners.
That they ‘sit’ on a territory and are expected to come up with a business plan to maximise its yield.
Today, I’m going to give you some ideas and fresh thinking.
I had a conversation with Paul and Aisling, 2 SDR Managers recently
As we approach Q4, they expressed concern that some of their top performers are thinking of brushing off their CVs and crossing street to competition.
Sales people come and go but there are few challenges which cost you more than losing people you:
Don’t want to lose
Can’t afford to lose
Struggle to replace
And your top producers are hard to find and harder to replace than anyone else. Agreed?
In today’s episode:
Who is thinking of leaving your team?
Why might they leave?
What are you going to do about it?
The performance review is usually a formal, pre-scheduled one-to-one conversation that takes place at quarterly / half-yearly intervals.
The main purpose is to review your rep’s results. A secondary purpose is to provide some developmental coaching.
The key thing to keep in mind is that you are there to review the rep’s performancenot the rep her/himself.
I have seen many times well-meaning managers appraise the results of someone on their team, but they do in such a way that the rep feels theyare being reviewed rather than their work.
The consequence? Defensiveness, resistance and sometimes outright hostility.
The first problem is that the performance review is often perceived to be corrective by design. When that is the impression, your rep may clam up and what was meant to be a coaching dialogue becomes an appraisal monologue.
Let’s use today’s episode to look at how you can coach the performance review right!
Last week, I gave you some question sets to use when coaching someone on BANT.
This week, we’ll do the same for MEDDIC
There is any number of ways of asking these kinds of questions
What you will notice is that they are not designed to be easy-to answer and there is no ‘one-way’ to answer them.
I want you to use the questions to help your rep to challenge their own assumptions, spot information gaps and then come up with a plan to close them.
This week, I’m giving you some question sets to use when you’re coaching BANT.
These are simply questions which you can take, tweak and try out.
These are not for your reps to ask your prospects.
These are here to help you coach your rep.
You need to ask these continuously in all kinds of conversations.
You want to see your rep think about how they are using BANT.
Not just gathering facts but using them to qualify in / qualify out quickly.
I ran a workshop recently for a bunch of newly promoted Sales Managers and detected a little bit of apprehension. No surprise.
Many sales professionals - even those in senior positions - baulk at the idea of forecasting. Why is this the case?
Here are three myths that tend to surface:
Forecasting is shrouded in some mathematical mystique which make it difficult
Forecasting is the language of senior managers or those who sit in board meetings
Forecasting has got nothing to do with me…I’m just a (blank)…
Sales forecasting means having confidence in your version of the future and being able to stand over it.
If you’re engaged in activities which have a direct effect on future revenue streams and you are accountable for delivering on those things as a sales person, then forecasting is in your remit one way or another.
Today: How do I coach my sales team to forecast?
Listen now!
The goal of coaching, mentoring, training and all other interventions is to improve the performance of your people, right? No matter which of these you choose, you have to start with an understanding of three things: * What should performance be? * What is performance right now? * What can I do to close performance gaps?
You do this for each individual. This is your basic Performance Audit. The reason we do this is to decide which of the interventions listed above is the appropriate one.Think of this as consultative diagnosis. With the answers to the three questions, you can create a basic coaching plan. Without these answers, you cannot know what to coach, who to coach or why to coach.
How good are you at asking questions?
Do you find yourself leaning more towards asking or telling?
I’m guessing that you are naturally inclined to tell people when you have information, and you are naturally inclined to ask people when you don’t have information.
It’s true, right? I want you to flip this around!
To succeed as a coach, you need to ask questions a lot more often than you currently do. (A lot more).
You need to resist the temptation to give your people answers even when you know the answers.
You need to ask questions to help your people to find their own answers.
This is what makes coaching so powerful.
Today:
What Socratic Questioning is
What ICE questions are
Some Question Dos and Donts
How to go easy on yourself when coaching
Check the episode out now
Do you wonder if you can coach your sales people?
Right now, I am training 4 cohorts of new sales managers to coach.
It’s a program designed to give sales managers the skills, the framework and the tools to coach their sales team
I asked the VP of sales what she thought was preventing managers from coaching in the first place
She gave me some interesting questions that the team raised.
How do you know you can coach your sales people?
I am going to answer that and more in today’s episode
Check it out now!
One of the things that you can do as a manager is create conditions where people want to listen to their own calls so they can derive benefit from past performance.
It concerns me when people say I haven’t got the time to review my own calls. But that’s like saying I’m too busy driving to stop for gas.
In today’s episode we’re going to talk about how we can coach the planning stage or preview of upcoming calls.
We’re also going to look at how we can debrief or review past calls.
When your sales people are clear on the goals of a call and how they will add value on the call, they’re going to have much more productive calls.
It’s truly amazing how many sales people don’t qualify properly.
Even when they have been trained, they post opportunities in the CRM which have no chance of ever being closed.
They hope that opportunities will turn out for the best.
And when your reps go to close unqualified deals, they collapse like a cheap deck chair.
Your role is to coach your reps to uncover gaps and assumptions and ask the hard questions early in the sales process so they save themselves, you and the prospect later down the line.
Anything half-qualified is un-qualified.
Do your team work on opportunities with Sales Engineers or Pre-Sales guys?
Not everyone on your sales team might know / understand or even appreciate the role that Sales Engineers play.
Maybe your guys have been at odds with their SEs. Maybe there’s a skills gap.
How do you get that triad of BDRs / AEs and SEs to work together, give each other feedback, develop pipeline and close opportunities?
My guest today is guest Giulio Magni, Director Sales Enablement over at Bringg in Boston.
Giulio was a Pre-Sales Engineer and before he moved into Sales Enablement. So we’re going to get a qualified perspective from both sides of the fence.
I’ve asked Giulio to give us his take on what SEs do and how your guys can work with them and why to work with them.
Check it out now!
Today, we’re chatting with Bill Parry who runs Sales Enablement for Privitar in Texaas.
I want to findout from Bill how he helps sales people to get up to speed quickly in a start-up environment.
There are many sales qualification frameworks like MEDDIC, VIPP, SCOTSMAN and NUTCASE.
And there are many takes on sales processes: 5-steps, 6-steps, 7-steps and even 9 steps.
But do you need all that?
What do your startups sales people need to build credibility, and get wins under their belt quickly?
What is just enough to get started?
That’s what we’re addressing in the next 30 mins
Thanks for stopping by!
When you began your sales career
You didn’t know very much initially.
You had to fill in information gaps.
You had to talk to people to get a feel for things.
You had to be authentically vulnerable.
You had to be willing to say that you didn’t know something
You had to be willing to say you didn’t understand something or had forgotten something.
If you didn’t, you struggled unnecessarily.
And that’s the point: unnecessarily.
Hopefully you didn’t think like a MacGyver or a Bear Gryllswho acts like s/he needs to figure everything out on their own so they can single-handedly save the day.
You need people who work withinyour team, as part of your team and for your team. That means hiring people who want to help and are willing to ask for help.
In today’s episode:
Coaching questions to ask yourself
Coaching questions to get your sales people to ask for help
Ideas to get your team more open to being helped
Check it out now
Link in comments
Today, I’m talking with Ashton Williams, Revenue Enablement Manager at ADA Inc.
And it’s those two words in Ashton’s title that form the basis for today’s episode: Revenue Enablement.
You might know it as Sales Enablement but even then:
-
You may not have access to Sales Enablement professionals
-
You might know what Revenue Enablement or Sales Enablement is
-
You may not know how to enlist their help
So in today’s episode:
Why do you need Revenue Enablement?
What does Revenue Enablement take care of?
How do you enage with them so they can help you as a Sales Leader
Today, we’re speaking with Kristen Twining, Vice President Of Business Development/Inside Sales at FireMon.
Kristen leads two teams and she’s actively recruiting.
So what is her role?
What role does BD and Inside sales play?
How is Kristin finding and nurturing sales talent
What’s her take on the growth of Digital Sales?
What does it mean to her to be a coach to her team?
All this and more on today’s episode.
Check it out now!
Sales people don’t sell anything.Their stories sell. Their stories do the hard work.
They convince someone to listen to them, to talk to them, to answer questions and to take the next steps with them.
And the reason is that your mind, and those of your customers are hard-wired for stories.
Selling yourself, your brand and your business is inextricably linked with stories
Today:
What stories in sales are
How stories work in the brain
Coaching questions to ask yourself
Some coaching questions to ask your team
Check it out now!
Marianne was working on an opportunity which she desperately needed to close in-quarter in order to hit her goal.
That’s when you discovered a load of holes, assumptions and information gaps and decided to intervene.
You could have approached this in one of two ways:
Hey, Maria. Got 10 minutes? I’ve been reviewing your opportunity. There are whole bunch of things we’re missing if this is to close. Here’s what I need you to do. Grab a pen.
OR
Hey, Maria. I’m glad you asked for 10 minutes of my time to help you with your opportunity. Let’s start with your assessment. Where do you need a different perspective so that you can advance this and hit your goal?
What did you do?
Which approach did you take? Did you direct Maria and tell her what to do or did you invite her to ask for your contribution to her opportunity?
Was this a dialogue? Or was it more of a monologue? Were you doing all the talking or were you helping Marianne to find her own answers?
Be honest. You were tempted to tell her exactly how to open her next follow-up call with her prospect. And you nearly did, right?
A lot of Managers default to directing people rather than developing people.
They a mental block when it comes to coaching. Is this true for you?
Maybe. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
In today’s episode: How do I get over my mental block about coaching?
Last week we looked at the issue of your salespeople not using the CRM and how to coach them to use it.
This week, it’s another behavioral challenge - the issue of your sales people not organizing themselves and how to coach them around this.
You can have brilliantly talented sales people but unless they can translate that talent into sales behaviour that gets sales results, it’s not much good to anyone.
Success in any endeavour begins with personal organization, routine and structure. This matters especially when leading people.
But it’s not your job to organize them. Coaches create the space for people to organize themselves.
I talked before about autonomy It’s difficult to lead people if they can’t manage themselves.
Being able to get your sh*t together is probably about as basic (yet essential) a behaviour as you can expect of your team.
You have to look in the mirror and ask yourself this age-old coaching question: What would the world be if everyone in it was just like me?
In sales terms: What would my team be if everyone in it was organized like me.
To what extent is your team’s self-organization a reflection of yours?
In today’s episode:
Why your team’s ability (or inability) able to organize themselves affects you
Some coaching questions for you to ask yourself
Some coaching questions to ask your rep as part of a coaching session
Susie emailed me two weeks ago:
Hey, Mark! I have inherited a team of 4 AEs and 3 BDRs. They’re not using the CRM.
Thanks, Susie! That’s fairly typical.
Most reps don’t use their CRM e.g. Salesforce, Pipedrive, Dynamics anywhere nearly enough.
CRM adoption (or the lack of it) is a perennial problem.
Wherever I coach, Sales Managers are invariably unhappy with reps forgetting to (or deciding not to) add their notes to the CRM.
There are numerous possible reasons for this.
Perhaps your software is cumbersome (skill issue).
Perhaps your reps don’t know how to navigate all the fields and menus (knowledge issue).
Perhaps your reps just don’t bother (attitude issue)
Or perhaps they are simply not being coached for reinforcement (behavioural issue).
In today’s episode:
Why not using the CRM is a major problem
What you are losing out on when your reps don’t use the CRM
Some coaching questions to ask yourself
Some coaching questions to ask your reps
Tips to prepare for this coaching conversation
Some ideas to get results from your team’s use of the CRM
Check it out!
This week we’re talking to Art Sobczak, author of ‘Smart Calling’ now in it’s 3rd edition.
Mike Weinberg gave this book glowing praise when I spoke with him last year.
Most human beings fear rejection. It’s natural.
Sales people have it toughest of all because we’re told no every day.
In today’s episode:
What’s changed about cold-calling in the 21st century
Which are the most common mistakes people make?
Do we have to use scripts?
How can your reps overcome fear and rejection?
Today, we’re talking with Joe Venuti VP Inside Sales at Sendoso
Joe leads a team of approx 50 ISRs over in Scottsdale AZ and he gave me time out his busy schedule to share how Direct Mail is getting results in a world where so many reps can only think digital when it comes to prospecting and prospect engagement.
In this week’s episode
What does Sendoso do?
What is Joe’s role as VP of InsideSales?
What is the makeup of his sales org?
What role does Inside Sales play in the sales org?
How does he find and nurture talent? (SDR / BDR / XDR?)
What does it mean to Joe to be a coach to his team?
Check it out now
Today, we’re talking with Sindre Halland Founder and CEO of SalesScreen.
You’ve maybe heard of SaleScreen. Several of my clients use it.
SalseScreen is a sales gameification platform - Native to Salesforce
It leverages the science of game theory to motivate sales reps to make more calls, to engage in follow-up activities.
You can create sales competitions to leverage your sales teams innate desire to compete using prizes, bonuses - you can create a shop of rewards and sales people can spend their credits on what they want.
You can create motivational challenges for your sales people in all kinds of contexts.
One that sticks out for me is aiding salesforce adoption!
In today’s episode
What is SalesScreen from a high-level overview?
What is the science behind game theory and gamification
What is a sales competition from the perspective of SalesScreen?
How do sales competitions work? (leaderboards / web Shop / badges etc.)
How does it aid adoption of salesforce?
What kind of dashboards / data does it pull into one place?
How do you get everyone to “play the game”?
Check it out now
Are you doing your sales person’s job? Many managers fall into the trap of doing what the org hires other people to do.
They often end up not doing what the org pays them to do. Does that make sense?
3 Questions for you:
Why are you doing it?
What is it costing you?
What should you be doing instead?
There are no rewards for taking over when someone gets stuck.
If they don’t learn how to get themselves unstuck, they will never learn.
There is clear benefit to you and your team to let them suffer from their own shortcomings and getting them to a point where they can recognise the consequence of mistakes.
What you need to think about is being selfishly productive.
You want the economy of autonomy.
When your people are autonomous, they are more likely to think for themselves.
We talked talent pipeline a few weeks ago - what about the other pipeline - the main pipeline?
Pipeline is a snapshot in time - the volume of opportunities - the value of those opportunities at this moment in time and the velocity with with which we are progressing them from MQL alway the way through to close.
Inevitably things will need to be qualified out / prospects will change their mind / org requirements will change
You want to see activity, motion, consistent filling of the bucket, progression, activity
There is the saying that pipeline cures all problems - this is partially true - pipeline is an output but it’s the product of a mentality
You need your team to understand pipeline and to build pipeline consistently.
So how do you coach on pipeline?
That’s what today is all about
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Daniel Goleman’s book “Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ”
You are more than likely familiar with IQ.
We typically think of ‘hard’ technical skills when we think of IQ.
We might even hire people based on academic performance in subjects which have no bearing on sales ability.
But what about looking for and developing EQ in (Emotional Intelligence a.k.a. Emotional Quotient) and why does it matter in sales?
To paraphrase Captain Obvious, sales is a people business.
As a sales leader, you need people who can connect with people, build empathy, understand personalities and of course manage themselves and their own performance.
Sales needs people with high-levels of EQ can:
- Be self-aware and able to reflect on their own performance so they can get unstuck
- Be better at understanding prospects by making connection and building empathy
- Be better at picking up on signals, cues, feelings that indicate prospects’ true sentiments and values
- Be better team members by understanding and supporting you and their colleagues
- Be better candidates for leadership positions as part of your succession planning
In this week’s episode:
What EQ is and why does it differ from IQ
Why your sales people need emotional intelligence
How to enable your sales team to develop EQ
Listen now (Link in comments)
Did you listen to last week’s episode?
At the time of recording, it’s MHA 2021.
And that’s a really big deal.
Last week, we talked about why sales under current working conditions is big source of stress to many people.
When your people overly-worry, they can become unproductive which means they can’t or don’t play a participative and productive part in your business and when that happens, your business plan goes out the window.
So what is your business plan? It’s the thing that everyone should be working from at all times.
Strangely, there is a pervasive view that the business plan is only for people who design and lead strategy.
But it’s not. The business plan is the blue-print for everyone in the sales org who executes the strategy, whether that’s Managers, BDR, XDR, SDR, AE, Inside Sales, Renewals, PreSales, Customer Success etc.
Furthermore, I like to think that when people are responsible for a slice of your business, that they should have a plan for that slice of your business however small.
It’s not having a business plan that counts.
It’s having a plan for your business that counts.
In this week’s episode:
How to create a simple business plan you can work from
How to use it in conjunction with a Kanban board
Where using tools like Mural or Miro can help
Why getting your team to present a business plan makes sense
Listen now (Link in comments)
Sales is a tough business.
When you think of sales, you might think of ‘grit’, ‘resilience’, ‘crushing it’ and all that language.
We want people who ‘keep on keeping on’.
But we also need people who know when to:
Get off
Walk away
Take a break
Take time out
Reach out
Ask for help
Sadly, many of us don’t.
I lost a sales colleague to stress 14 years ago.
Young guy. 28. Heart attack brought on by stress and no one saw it coming.
Quite a few people I have known have packed sales in and tried careers less demanding. You probably know people like this.
With the pandemic, people are working from home or working under difficult conditions, things are perhaps harder than ever.
It’s May, so it’s mental health awareness month.
It’s the perfect time to talk about the thing many of us would rather not talk about.
In this week’s episode:
- Costs of stress
- Causes of stress
- Signs of stress
- What to do about it
As a sales manager, you know what sales pipeline is but what about talent pipeline? Who are the people who are going to drive your sales pipeline? Where are they going to come from? How are you going to identify them, shortlist them, screen them, interview them, recruit them - listen to that list, all those pieces, those activities and that’s just for one hire?
It gets worse - what happens if you make a good hire but it takes months to achieve TTP - that is a big chunk out of your coverage? What if you make a bad hire - just to get someone in the door, it can take months to recognise you’ve made a bad call - you’ve got to manage that person out and start all over again - that’s if you’ve still got your job!
We never get the sales people we deserve. We get the sales people our talent pipeline (or the lack of a talent pipeline) produces.
It’s the same recipe for sales pipeline - what goes into the funnel is indicative of what comes out of the pipeline and that’s in direct proportion to the volume of what we are putting into that pipeline, the value of what’s in that pipeline, the velocity with which it moves through the pipeline
In this week’s episode:
What we mean by talent pipeline
How to build a talent pipeline
The cost of not having a talent pipeline
Most of your sales team learn that customers don’t buy when it suits the sales person.
Customer buy for their reasons, on their terms, in their timeframe. Right?
So sales depends on a whole bunch of things outside your control, but following up is one things that’s definitely in your control.
You need your sales team to follow up not give up. Highly effective sales people know that ‘no’ does not mean ‘never’, it just means ‘not right now’.
I was reminded of that this last month when I was coaching an AE in Barcelona who was despondent that a highly-valued prospect had postponed an important decision. The AE was trying pressure tactics to reengage but it wasn’t working.
We had a chat and came up with 7 different things he could do to keep top of mind by following up persistently but professionally. One of his ideas yielded results and he got the meeting rebooked. That’s what I mean.
The ‘art of the follow up’ is the art of not giving up and that’s what today is all about
In this week’s episode:
What we mean by follow up
How to personalise your follow up
How automation can help with results
The importance of variety and giving
The essence of keeping on keeping on
How and why to keep adding value
Check out the episode now!
Are you building a #remote sales team - digital sales / virtual sales / hybrid / full-stack?
What kind of structure do you need?
What kind of org structures exist?
What is your strategy to start and build your inside sales functionality?
Today’s guest is Pradeepa kolli who is going to share her tips from starting and running Inside Sales teams at Polaris, Avnet, Infoblox, Xirrus and Nutanix.
Pradeepa is Head of Global SDR/Inside sales over at Workplace from Facebook with responsibility for building Enterprise Inside Sales team.
In this week’s episode:
How Pradeepa has built her teams up in different orgs
What she recommends when hiring new team members
How to develop them and challenge them
Which systems to put in place in each wave of growth
What kinds systems, meetings and structures in your first 6 months
What do you think when you hear the word ‘discount’?
Well that all depends on whether you are a buyer or a seller!
If you are running a sales team, the last thing you want to hear is your sales people discounting without getting something in return.
There are three reasons why sales people discount too quickly:
-
It’s their default position - no creativity
-
they don’t know any better - no training
-
they’re allowed or encouraged to - no discipline
If you discount, you have given me a reason to discount what you say which means that I will never see value in the full price.
If you discount, you have trained me to ask for a discount every time which means that I learn to ask for a price below the full price.
You really don’t want that, do you?
When you get your sales team to come up with real points of value and to put some thought into their negotiating position before they negotiate - they will not have to resort to discounting.
In today’s episode:
Why discounting is usually a bad idea
Why BATNA and ZOPA are important
How you should use a concession sheet
4 positions from which to trade value
Check out the episode now!
#Account Executive #AE #Salestraining #digital sales #inside sales #BDR #Salestips
#salesmanager #saleleaders
Do people recommend you and your business?
Would you like people to recommend you?
How do you get them to recommend you in a way that yields results?
I give a good 20% commission on any sales training / coaching that that closes
It’s a fair chunk but it works and it has to be in both parties interests
2020 recommendations not referrals brought me in 26-28% of sales last year.
2 people in particular recommended the right service to the right people in the right way
A recommendation strategy really works if you make it work and put it to work
In today’s episode:
3 reasons to create a recommendation strategy
The difference between a reference, referral and recommendation
5 steps to leverage recommendations with your team
Check out the episode now!
#Account Executive #AE #Salestraining #digital sales #inside sales #BDR #Salestips
#salesmanager #saleleaders
When you hear the term sales competency framework, what comes to mind?
For most sales people, that sounds like a HR term.
A good competency framework is going to help you to map out the ideal characteristics of the right salesperson.
It’s also going to help you to know when to promote that person and how to review that persons performance.
In today’s episode
The 4 measurements to use
15 characteristics to consider
Three scenarios in which to use the framework
Check out the episode now! (Link in comments)
#Account Executive #AE #Salestraining #digital sales #inside sales #BDR #Salestips
#salesmanager #saleleaders
Last week, we focused on the kinds of questions you can ask in #Pipeline Reviews and #deal reviews.
We emphasised the fact that great sales coaches approach conversations from a position of ‘appreciative enquiry’.
We ask a coaching question because we are genuinely interested in the person and their response.
What you don’t want is your AE / BDR / SDR to feel that this is an interrogation.
You want your salesperson to be involved and that means being both physically and cognitively present.
Today:
10 great coaching questions to ask in a performance review and 10 more you can ask in a call-review.
The secret is to make these questions your own by practicing them until they sound natural so you want to ask them your way.
Check out the episode now! (Link in comments)
#Account Executive #AE #Salestraining #digital sales #inside sales #BDR #Salestips
#salesmanager #saleleaders
I watched a coaching conversation on Teams recently as part of a 9 week program I am running to train sales managers to coach their salespeople.
What was striking was the conversation balance between the manager coaching and the A/E being coached.
Who do you think did most of the talking? It was the Manager when it should have been her A/E.
Maybe she was conscious of the sound of her voice
(Perfectly natural)
Maybe she was conscious of people watching & listening
(Perfectly normal)
Maybe she was struggling to come up with questions to ask
(Perfectly understandable)
But the consequence was that the A/E being coached was almost uninvolved in the conversation.
We need to remind ourselves that the most important quality of great coaches is curiosity and that means asking insightful questions:
Today:
20 powerful questions to ask in pipeline reviews and deal reviews
Check out the episode now! (Link in comments)
#Account Executive #AE #Salestraining #digital sales #inside sales #BDR #Salestips
#salesmanager #saleleaders
What is the modern seller?
Who are they? What do they do? How can you find them?
And if you want to hire them and develop them, how do you do that?
@Brian Signorelli is Senior Director of Sales at Hubspot, the sales, marketing and CRM platform.
Brian has written the book on Inbound Selling with a forword by @brian halligan, CEO of Hubspot.
If anyone knows how to sell like digital natives, it’s the people over at @Hubspot.
Today, we’re going to give you takeaway tips on how to train your team to be modern sellers.
Check out the episode now! (Link in comments)
#Account Executive #AE #Salestraining #digital sales #inside sales #BDR #Salestips
#salesmanager #saleleaders
We’re speaking with @Alejandro García Machuca Regional Sales Enablement Head at @SAP
There is an ever-increasing tech stack for remote sales people to learn.
Unless they are used selectively, tech can become overwhelming.
What’s useful, powerful and practical for your sales team?
Where these tools used internally and externally?
When these tools should be used in the sales process
Today, Alejandro is going to give you 5 tools that his sales teams use to achieve great results
Check out the episode now (LINK IN COMMENTS)
#Account Executive #AE #Salestraining #digital sales #inside sales #BDR #Salestips
#salesmanager #saleleaders
Today, how do I use @Mural to collaborate.
Visual collaboration is a hot topic right now
Your team is remote and your customers are remote
A tool like Mural helps your sales team to
add value to the sales process
engage visually with roadmaps
energise meetings
map out decision-processes
landscape organization structure
Then there are all the other advantages such as
enhancing your people’s involvement
minimizing travel
increasing productivity
connecting people
Today, we have Nick Feeney, AVP Commercial Sales at Mural to give you key use-cases for
visual collaboration using Mural
Check out the episode now
Are you in the middle of 'SKO' season?
What do you want from your Sales-Kick-Off this year?
Do you want it to drive new learning, increased productivity and motivation?
Those that do a great job are often the ones that consult people, include people and focus on people
Putting the sales people at the center of the sales kick-off. That’s the goal.
Back in episode 53 in January, I shared my ideas on why to run one.
Today’s episode is all about how to run one.
We’re talking with Carol Rossi, Senior Director, Global Field Communications, Events and Enablement at NetApp.
Carol has years of experience running offline and online sales events for orgs including CISCO.
How do you plan a great SKO?
Who should be involved?
How do you design and run your Sales Kick Off?
Check out the episode now!
#AccountExecutive #AE #Salestraining #digitalsales #insidesales #BDR #Salestips
#salesmanager #saleleaders #virtualsales
Jonathan Swartz, Director Azure Sales at Microsoft is big on developing outcome-based leaders.
Many people in sales management positions focus on the how (KPIs, sales process, CRM) to the detriment of the why (targets, goals, vision).
Ask yourself which people are more motivated by: Is it the ‘how’ or the ‘why’.
Your sales team are going to be more motivated by the why rather than the how.
Jonathan gives a great analogy where he compares outcome-based leadership to breaking rocks.
If you want people in your quarry to break a large rock:
You can’t tell the team how many swings of the hammer it will take
You can’t know because each rock is different
You have to tell why breaking that rock matters then stand right back
Great leaders create followers who trust them and are trusted by them.
Give them the outcome vision sales goals, set the parameters and process, trust them to get there.
So what will it take to develop outcome-based leaders in your team?
Check out the episode now to learn Jonathan’s ideas for your outcome based leadership.
#Account Executive #AE #Salestraining #digital sales #inside sales #BDR #Salestips
#salesmanager #saleleaders
You want your sales people to be self-accountable
You want your AE’s to be self-reliant.
You want your team to be autonomous
This means being capable of existing independently
It’s a theme that a client of mine is working on in her SKO 21.
In this year’s kick-off, how can she get her sales people to be more autonomous?
How can you get your team to dig themselves out of problems
You want performers who:
Think for themselves
Regulate themselves
Correct themselves
Develop themselves
Lead themselves
Sounds impossible?
But it’s not. It actually starts with you and the leadership you are creating.
In today’s episode, 3 key steps to creating autonomy in your sales team.
According to Gartner only 17% of buyers time is spent speaking directly with suppliers.
Your prospects are gathering information from a range of informal sources.
Top of the list are situations where they have an opportunity to learn from people in their shoes.
People in the same industry
People in the same role
People in the same situation
What if you could facilitate an event where you get to learn exactly what your prospects and their peers are thinking?
A virtual round table is not for your prospects and customers to learn from you
It’s for your prospects to learn from each other and for your sales team to learn from everyone.
When your sales people know what is actually top of mind they’re going to know:
Who to speak to
How to qualify better
How to lead with (real) value
Check out the episode now!
#BDR #SDR #Salestips
Traditionally in sales, we begin the year with a kickoff
We have planned the year ahead
We have lined up resources and allocated them
We have communicated plan and how we’re going to execute it
Kickoff is a fooball term and brings to mind an image of your team in their positions
Everyone knows what their role is
Everyone knows what their play is
Everyone knows what the goal is
In today’s episode
3 questions you should be asking yourself before your kick off
5 reasons to have a sales kickoff
5 key tips to make yours a success
LISTEN NOW (link in comments)
#SDR #SaaS #InsideSales #salescoach
When we’re trying to sell things to everyone, we’re selling to anyone.
And that’s kinda hard because your team aren’t close to the kind of buyers whom they understand.
In sales, we call this having an ICP - Ideal Customer Profile.
This is the person whom we know we can best help, whose problems we can best solve.
We could solve other people’s problems but our ICP is the person / entity / group for whom we do our best work and get our best results
The trouble is that it’s not always obvious who or what our ICP is.
It can take time and the help of sales ops to help us figure it out.
That said, I encourage clients to involve their sales teams in this process.
To really get stuck into to mapping out ICPs and to create them so they use them and own them!
Today, I have Adrian Foley, Global Head of Sales at Teamwork to share how to train on ICPs with your sales team.
Check out the episode now!
#SDR #SaaS #InsideSales #salescoach
Sales is changing fast and sales roles are changing fast.
Field sales is being overtaken by Inside Sales
And Inside Sales is increasingly spinning into virtual sales and digital sales thanks to technology such as AI.
We have moved beyond the realm of analog-selling into the era of data-driven digital sales, where software, data and the internet form an irresistible tri-fecta.
Digital now gives your people the means to sell more, sell better, and gives you the means to coach better too.
So how do you navigate digital?
My guest today is Lori Harmon, Vice President, Global Cloud Sales & Customer Success at NetApp.
Lori heads up a newly formed cloud sales team of 140 new digital natives.
In the next 35 mins, we’re going to reflect on the importance for your team acquiring these digital skills and why it matters for you.
Listen to the episode now!
#SDR #SaaS #InsideSales #salescoach
Diversity is a buzz-word right now.
Many organizations mandate it.
It’s a metric by which many sales leaders are measured.
But what are the business benefits of diversity in a sales environment?
Is diversity linked to customer satisfaction and sales performance?
How do you hire for diversity and how do you coach diversity?
Today’s guest is Amandine le Sergent, Director of Inside Sales EMEA Services at Juniper Networks.
Diversity is very close to Amandines’s heart, as is coaching
This is episode 50 of the Inside Sales Coach podcast.
Check it out now (link in comments)
#SDR #SaaS #InsideSales #salescoach
Coaching is a great idea. It’s often the execution of it that sucks.
I see sales leaders who are convinced that they are coaching.
But they are directing, they’re not engaging and they’re certainly not listening.
You know the expression: Selling isn’t telling. Well that’s true of coaching as well.
Coaching isn’t telling…
And coaching isn’t working …if you’re doing all the talking.
The secret is to coach conversationally.
Just like any conversation, a coaching conversation is a two-way street.
Today, we’re going to walk down that street together and give you some helpful guidelines.
Thanks to Brian for suggesting today’s topic: How do I coach my team conversationally.
Check out the episode now!
Today’s guest is Rakhi Voria Director, IBM Global Digital Sales Development.
She manages a team that is responsible for the strategy, implementation, and revenue of the Digital Sales Development (DSD) function globally.
Rakhi previously worked at Microsoft and served as the Chief of Staff to the Corporate Vice President of Inside Sales, where she helped build the digital sales force for Microsoft, growing the team to 2,000 sellers globally and the business to over $8B in under 3 years.
And it’s the topic of Women in Sales that is especially close to Rakhi's heart.
Today’s conversation addresses the urgent need to attract more women to the sales profession, what the business case is for doing so and gives you some key advice on how to succeed.
Check out the episode now
#SDR #SaaS #InsideSales #salescoach
Most businesses love interns.
Some imagine internships to be sources of cheap labour.
But some realise that they can be a highly effective source of future top performers.
So what’s your take on hiring for sales internships?
Have you hired interns before and have you been an intern too?
Zeeshan Hafeez is Chief Revenue Officer at VeeMed a telehealth solutions provider in California.
He is putting together his Inside Sales org from scratch.
And interns are an important part of that strategy
Listen to today’s posdcast episode as we share how inside sales internships could work for you
#SDR #SaaS #InsideSales #salescoach
Time is a precious commodity for a sales leader
You need one-on-one time and group time.
You have pipeline reviews and deal-reviews.
You have people to develop and people to lead
Finding time with all that’s going on when your people are working WFH isn’t easy.
So, tt’s easy to forget that we need to build people before we can build the team.
Intelligent sales leaders like Tim Wood, Sales Director, US Inside Sales at Intel know this.
Tim uses ‘office hours’ as ‘connection hours’ in order to create a close team who support each other
Listen in as Tim tells you how he makes ‘office hours’ work for his team at Intel.
#SDR #SaaS #InsideSales #salescoach
On a coaching call with a group of BDRs in Miami this week, the topic of Tribal Knowledge surfaced.
Some people thought: ‘Hey..what’s that?’
Their Team Lead who was also on the Zoom call was on mute but she was nodding and smiling enthusiastically.
She said: I’m a a big believer in the knowledge that people bring to the organisation when I hire them.
It’s that plus all the stuff that’s never written down, but my team have to know, to do well in sales.
And she’s right.
Wikipedia defines Tribal Knowledge as 'information that is known inside a tribe but often unknown outside it.'
Today’s guest is Billy Franz Director of Inside Sales and Channel at SADA systems in Austin.
And Billy’s going to share his ideas to help you identify Tribal Knowledge, get key people to share it and leverage it for success.
Check out the episode now
#SDR #SaaS #InsideSales #salescoach
Have you heard of #Revenue Intelligence?
How about the terms Market Intelligence or even Conversation Intelligence ?
The common denominator among these three terms is Artificial Intelligence or AI, and it’s the driving force behind platforms like gong to help upskill your remote sales teams.
The technology allows Inside Sales leaders like you to capture what your reps are doing: * talk/listen ratio * handing objections * adherence to your playbook * asking questions * discussing pricing etc.
When working with remote sales teams, I can leverage tools like Gong to identify coaching touch points quickly Does all that sound super-complex? Fear not. My guest today is @Sheena Badani is Senior Director of Marketing at @gong. And together, we’re going to give you a straightforward understanding of how AI can help you to: * coach better * lead bettter * sell better
Sound good? Check out the episode now
You have a team of #sales peope right now working from home.
Are they qualifying opportunities properly?
Are they asking the right questions of the right people and gathering the right information?
#BDRs and #SDRs use BANT, a 4-step #framework to quickly screen #prospects.
It’s simple to understand and easy to use but it’s not perfect. No system is.
Last week, we covered #MEDDICC which is used by many AEs in #startups
This week, it’s the turn of #BANT.
What is it?
Which kinds of questions work?
How do you coach it?
Check out the episode now
#SDR #SaaS #InsideSales #salescoach
Which activity is critical to your pipeline and forecasts?
Qualification HAS to be at the top of the list.
Spending time on incorrectly qualified prospects is an opportunity cost.
Spending time on incorrectly qualified prospects is inefficient because they often are unlikely to close.
Poorly qualified opportunities are going to screw up forecasts and weaken pipeline, correct?
So using a rigorous, tried-and-tested qualification framework like MEDDIC or MEDDPICC is going to help you to:
Inject rigour and clarity into your qualificaction
Increase volume, value and velocity
Close bigger and better deals more often
That’s what today is all about
Check out the episode now!
Harry Farrell is EMEA North /MEE Faculty Lead at SAP Digital Sales Academy and leads the faculty in enabling and coaching sales performers in mid market.
Your AEs, BDRs and SDRs need financial acumen and business acumen to have consultative sales conversations, particularly in the digital environment.
It’s easier said than done, isn’t it?
Today, we're going to identify what successful sales people like yours need in mid market and how a digital sales academy like SAP’s helps can help your team’s front line performance in mid-market.
Check out the episode now.
#SDR #SaaS #InsideSales #salescoach
Your sales team are in the office.
Maybe not your office OR you are in the office but they are working from home.
If you are checking in with your team, motivating them, enabling them, coaching them, you are using technology.
At it’s simplest, you are using the phone.
At its most complex you are using AI-driven tools to automatically monitor sales conversations and highlight coaching points
It’s easy to go down the rabbit hole and get nerdy on tech.
instead lets’s look at a couple of solutions and how you can use them practically to coach your remote sales team.
This is Episode 40 of the ISC Podcast
Check out the episode now
#SDR #SaaS #InsideSales #salescoach
Today’s guest is Jon Carr, Inside Sales Leader for Axios Systems in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Jon is a seasoned veteran of Inside Sales. He was promoted - almost against his will - as he was doing such a great job as an SDR.
Many years later, Jon has developed a recipe to help him stay close to his team and lead from the front.
Inside Sales people are geared mentally to work at a distance from their prospects.
But working at a distance from your team and doing it from home is a different challenge.
All the more important then that Inside Sales Leader finds ways to stay close to their team.
Jon’s going to give you three ways he makes this work for him!
This is Episode 39 of the ISC Podcast
Check out the episode now
#SDR #SaaS #InsideSales #salescoach
As sales leader, it’s incumbent on you to coach and train your people but should all of the training and all of the coaching come from you?
What about sales managers who report to you? Are they involved? Are they developing their people their direct reports? Better still, are they developing each other through peer-2-peer learning?
In my experience, many teams don’t interoperate, they isolate.
They work in the same sales organization but they don’t share the learning between sales leaders and sales regions.
Today’s guest is John Massey VP EMEA Regional Business Development, Commercial Sales & Channel at SAP
Listen in as John and I discuss his simple but powerful methodology to get sales leaders talking to.. and developing each other
#SDR #SaaS #InsideSales #salescoach
Companies who are lucky to be expanding and taking on new sales people are challenged in the current environment.
Understandably, many inside sales managers are unsure about how to do this and set their new inside sales people up for success.
You have a new member of your sales team, but you have never met them. Maybe you can't because of COVID.
But you have to on-board them virtually, so how do you do that?
Today, 5 steps to onboard your new sales hire virtually and make it work!
This is eps 37 of ISC
Great products sell - but great sales people sell better
What do I mean? It means that people need to buy you before they buy from you, particularly when they can’t see you, don’t know you and don’t yet trust you.
So it’s not a question of always be closing, it’s a question of always be opening.
Opening the door to better, deeper relationship and that means making people feel comfortable - particularly when times are uncomfortable
So today, let’s look at 5 easy ways to make people feel comfortable
Check out the episode now!
#SDR #SaaS #InsideSales #salescoach
Inside sales is fast becoming Digital Sales as teams like yours adopt online channels to prospect, discover, sell and close business.
Many companies now want inside sales people who can do more than make cold-calls. As a result, you need to look for a new breed of sales person with this 21st century skillset.
So how do you lead this digital sales team in the current pandemic? How do you keep in touch with them, train them, coach them and motivate them?
Frank Hattnann, Global Head of Sales at Intertrust and former Director of Digital Sales at Microsoft is your guest today to outline how he leads his remote sales teams in this digital environment.
Check out the episode now
#SDR #SaaS #InsideSales #salescoach
Where’s your Field Sales team?
Right now, sales has gone inside and field sales has largely left the field.
Traditionally, field Sales & Inside Sales are different roles with:
- Different objectives
- Different skillsets
- Different mindsets
For many organisations, Inside Sales looks after:
- lead-generation
- appointment-setting
- renewals
- simple products-selling at a distance.
In contrast, Field Sales team generally looks after:
- larger deals
- multi-stakeholder deals,
- complex-deals
- Face-to-face selling onsite
That playbook has been altered dramatically as the shift to digital / virtual-selling changes the way we do business for a long time to come...
Perhaps indefintiely....
So how do you help your field sales make this transition and adapt to this new reality?
Today, I’m going to give you five suggestions to help you 'convert' your field sales team to inside sales.
Check out the episode now
You want your sales people to follow the sales process or playbook, don’t you?
That means going through each stage in a logical fashion. Stage 1, then stage 2, etc then close.
But is there any merit to coaching the sales process in reverse? It turns out there is and its really useful when getting your sales people unstuck.
Today, you and I are going to explore this together so your sales people can see the light at the end of the funnel!
Check out today's episode now!
We think of sales as a talking game, an information-communication game.
The sales person is required to open the conversation, to qualify, to overcome objections and to close.
We load sales people up with pitches and sequences
We train sales people to talk and talk
We guide sales people through scripts and playbooks
To get someone to engage, to reveal their thoughts and to answer powerful questions requires listening.
Deep, present, empathetic listening.
But what about listening? Is there a playbook for that?
Today, I’m going to give you 5 keys to help your sales reps really listen
Check out the episode now.
Field Sales is now inside sales and one of the things that clients tell me is that a large percentage of field sales people are struggling with getting to grips with generating leads and closing business on Linkedin.
Today, I have Matt Clark from Johannesburg, expert in generating leads through cold outreach via LinkedIn.
We are going to walk you through a learnable 5-step system in just 30 minutes so you and your team can start generating leads.
Check out the episode now!
#SDR #SaaS #InsideSales #salescoach
What many sales people struggle with are actually things which are beyond their control.
Maybe you're worried about the fact that people aren't answering your calls. Is this something you can control?
Maybe you're worried about the fact that peoples priorities have changed in the current climate. Is this something you can control?
To develop an effective mindset, you have to realise that there are things otherwise have no control and never will have control.
It's much better to focus on the things which you can control and these are things which will make your money
I'm going to give you tips on recognising the things in your circle of full control, your circle of some control and all the things in your circle of no control.
Are you clear on what those things are for you?
Check out the episode now!
There is a change coming. Its been coming for a while. It’s called inbound sellling.
When I began in sales, the big deals were done in outside sales and were usually a direct result of outbound selling. But things have changed. Rapidly.
Folllowing the exponential growth of the internet, people have relied more and more on doing their own product discovery.
Which is why we addressed lead-magnets in last week’s episode. Information has lead to a massive shift where content and eductation now set the stage for inbound selling. That’s revolution one.
Since COVID-19 in March, we have seen a second revolution: outside sales has all but been replaced by inside selling. That’s revolution two.
In summary, Inside sales has all but replaced outside sales and Inbound selling is massively disrupting and replacing outbound selling.
This is Eps 29 of the ISC
#SDR #SaaS #InsideSales #salescoach
Have you downloaded anything from a website ever? What made you do it? Was it something that you believed to be useful?
What were you asked for in return? Your email address?
What you downloaded was more than likely a guide or a checklist or a whitepaper or a cheat-sheet or an ebook. right?
From the perspective of the business that created this guide or checklist etc, you downloaded what is called a 'lead-magnet'.
In doing so, you confirmed that you are interested in their solution to a problem or need you have.
And that’s exactly what a lead-magnet does: it confirms prospective interest.
So today, I’m going to give you key tips to create and use lead-magnets to attract prospects for your business.
Check out the episode now!
#SDR #SaaS #InsideSales #salescoach
As part of a coaching session last week, I sat through an Saas (Software as a Service) demo.
The guy did a reasonable job but..
Did it make me want to buy? No
Was there too much information? Yes
Could he have delivered more value ? Yes
Software demos are not software inspections so there’s no need for an information-dump
Software demos are a chance (if properly done) to gain committment for the next step
I figure that there are 7 keys to winning business with a software demo and I’m giving them to you today.
Check out the episode now!
#SDR #SaaS #InsideSales #salescoach
As a professional - as a sales professional, I would be amazed if your profile is not on LinkedIn and if you are not prospecting in some form on LinkedIn.
It’s not true to say that everybody is in LinkedIn on. There are approximately 690M users according to the about page on LinkedIn about.linkedin.com
The story began in Reid Hoffman’s living room in 2002 and officially launched May 5 2003. 17 years. That's a long time in Internet years.
Before COVID all started, I then delivered a 2 day programme in Fort Worth in October. No one had heard of it.
I ran the first remote sales coaching sessions for a new client last week. 1 person had heard of it
Is LinkedIn Sales Navigator one of LinkedIn sales navigators best secrets?
Today, I am going to give you 4 steps to find prospects with LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Check out the episode now
You want your sales team to have strategic conversations with senior decision-makers.
Some sales managers allow newly onboarded SDRs to find their feet, learn the ropes…and when they are deemed ready…shift them up a gear and ask them to hunt at Enterprise level.
But I’ve seen businesses hire fresh graduates and/or SDRs who have very basic sales experience They give them a list and ask them to reach out to the C-Suite and hold a business-centric conversation with them.
Is that fair? Are they ready? The SDR or AE has been given product training and some sales training …but is that enough ? Not really.
So today, I have invited an Enterprise AE who’s on the frontline to share with you what actually works for him ….because this guy, Nick Cegelski is entrusted by his sales leaders to bring in Enterprise business ...a lot of Enterprise business.
Nick and I are going to give you a framework to help your SDRs get up to speed so that they can get themselves ready to hold confident, credible conversations with senior decision-makers. Cool? Great!
Check out the episode right now!
Last week, I had the pleasure of hosting Armand Farrokh on the show. Armand is Director of Sales at Carta and leads a team of SDRs and Managers.
We talked about how Cold Calling is still working but it's more important than ever to do it right …because Cold-Calling has such a bad rep.
But that’s because the name suggests stone-cold, freezing, no prep, no personalization, generic, impersonal, cookie-cutter cr*p!
Does it have to be that way….of course not! You’re a professional Sales Leader. You’re leading a team of people who need to and are paid to reach out to people and get those people to see your people as people who care, who understand and want to help people like them.
There’s no way that is going to succeed if your people aren’t taking the time to personalise what they write in emails, how they connect on LinkedIn, how they open and conduct their voice calls or voice mail.
Today, I’m going to give you specific ways to help your sales team personalise their outreach.
Check out the episode now!
Cold calling is dead. Cold Calling is alive. Cold calling is dead and alive …like Schroedinger’s cat.
Sales commentators have called time on cold-calling in more articles and posts than I can remember.
Dead or alive…cold calling is still working…it doesn’t mean haphazardly calling random people and hoping someone says yes to you.
It does mean giving some thought to whom you’re calling, whats in it for them and how you’re going to shape that call.
Today’s guest Armand Farrokh is Director of Sales at Carta in the San Francisco Bay Area helping companies, investors, law firms, and employees manage equity.
Armand leads a team of 30 SDRs and 3 Managers and as you’ll hear..he pays close attention to coaching his sales people make better cold calls.
Check out today’s episode right now!
Providing feedback to your sales team is part of the competent sales manager’s toolkit.
But providing effective feedback delivers both insight into how a sales person (or a team) is doing as well as providing a degree of direction or advice on how to reach desired levels of performance consistently.
It is a competency where you - as a sales leader - take your questioning skills, your listening skills and your observations and share your reflections with recipients.
So we all need feedback. But we also need people who give feedback, know how to give feedback and want to give feedback.
Do you give feedback? If I spoke to one of your SDRs right now. What woud they say?
Bill Gates said “We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve’
Today, you’re going to get a clear understanding of feedback, when to give and how to give it using a very simple 4-step model. Cool?
Check out the episode now!
I had a chat with some other sales professionals recently via Zoom and in that small group of people, there were differing opinions as to the definition of training and the definition of coaching.
These days, there are so many definitions of training and coaching - or more specifically sales training and sales coaching on the internet.
Does this even matter? I mean, these are just words. What difference does it make whether you use the word training or the word coaching?
Well, it turns out that it does matter because:
1 these are completely different interventions - you need to know the purpose of each
2 the intention and purpose of coaching and training is different - you need to know which is right for your team
3 the outcome of each is very different - you need to know what you are getting for your money
By the end of this episode, you will have a clearer understanding of several of the main differences and where they matter most!
Check out the episode now!
Today's guest is Caroline McCrystal Winner of the 2019 Best Woman in Inside Sales Award and Winner of the Most Distinguished Saleswoman of the Year Award 2019 beating 1000 nominees from 22 countries across a range of categories including FieldSales, Professional Services Sales, Software Sales, Sales Director, Sales Manager, Sales Support, Sales Mentor, Key Account and Business Development…14 categories in all at the European Women In Sales Awards 2019. I am delighted to meet someone who is really putting Inside Sales front and centre where it belongs. Fantastic achievement, Caroline! Check out the episode now! #salescalls #salesteam #salestraining #coachingskills #salestips #salespeople #salescoach #podcast #business #resource #salescoachin
One of the questions that I ask sales teams when working with them for the first time is this: ‘tell me what you sell’. Now, there is any number of directions in which this conversation can go…
Usually…. sales reps’ responses refer to products or services. Sometimes, they go a little deeper and regale me with the advantages and benefits which these same products and services confer on the customer.
That’s the right answer in a sense… but I think that's missing the big picture. I think what your sales team are really selling is not a product or a service….but a promise.
In a philosophical sense, every product and service is simply a promise of an outcome for a customer.
A customer percieves value relative to your business’s ability to deliver a promise. Think about it.
When salespeople break a promise - even unintentionally - that has implications for your business.
This is why it so important that sales people learn the importance of keeping promises…and realise the implications for your business when they don’t.
Check out the episode this Thursday on the Inside Sales Coach Podcast
Mark
p.s. Subscribe to the show now to get the heads-up on new episodes every Thursday!
On more occasions than I can't remember, I have watched a sales team begin their day without any consensus on what to achieve and how it's going to be achieved.
Most sales managers would agree that meetings can be an enormous time suck. They cut into the productivity of the day. Sometimes, they go completely off topic and that's a pity because… if run properly they can be highly productive and help energise your sales team and drive accountability. I am a big advocate of a daily stand-up sales meeting
So today we're going to look at some advantages to correcting this and I'm going to give you five tips to running a highly effective daily sales meeting.
Thanks for listening. Enjoy the show!
Mark
p.s. Subscribe to the show now to get the heads-up on new episodes every Thursday!
It's May 4, 2020. Where did April go? We’re all still locked up or cocooned or working remotely from home offices.
Time flies when you’re having fun (or not having fun). But time is lost when you’re not tracking to goals. So it worries me when people have no goals or say they have no goals.
Whether daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly. Everyone in sales should have goals, both personal and professional. We need sales people to turn up to work with a deep personal sense of why they do what they do.
How-to-do: That’s the job of training. But 'why' your sales team what they do and helping them to connect with that 'why' to drive sales performance, that’s the job of coaching.
So today, we’re going to spend some time helping you to coach goal-setting in your sales team and show you why setting sales goals really, really matters.
Thanks for listening. Enjoy the show!
Mark
p.s. Subscribe to the show now to get the heads-up on new episodes every Thursday! (edited)
Last week in Eps 15, I gave you some tips to set up your first sales coaching session.Today I'm going to give you some tips on how to actually run this first coaching session.A good idea is to get your salesperson to listen to their own sales call (ideally two) in advance of the coaching session. This helps them to prepare mentally and to uncover, understand and unlock the issues.You could point something out a dozen times but when your sales team understand that something needs to change, they are more likely to take ownership of the problem and the resulting solution. 1. The person being coached discovers that something needs to change - they uncover 2. The person being coached realises that they they need to be the agent of that change - they understand 3. The person being coached guides themselves to the point where they take responsibilty for the change and take action - they unlock
When your sales team learn to reflect more on their own performance, they will also be more ‘coachable’ by you.And that's what you want! A coachable, resourceful, self-reliant sales team. Listen to the episode right now https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/training-business-podcast/id1428297027#salescalls #salesteam #salestraining #coachingskills #salestips #salespeople #sales #coach #podcast #business #resource #insidesales (edited)
Have you coached your sales team yet? Are you by now convinced of the benefits of sales coaching?
The powerful and in many cases transformational benefits of great sales coaching include:
- increased productivity
- increased retention
- Increased sales performance
Most sales people get some form of training typically early on in their role.
But I've never heard of anyone getting too much coaching.
In fact, it's the opposite.
Most businesses are beginning to realise that sales coaching isn't just for some people.
It's for all sales people or at least for those people in sales who aspire to be the best at what they do.
Today, I am going to show you how to set up your first sales coaching session the right way, the simple way, the easy way so
you are prepared
you are relaxed
your are confident.
Thanks for listening. Enjoy the episode!
Mark
p.s. subscribe to the show right now for more great episodes to help you increase your sales teams' performance
Have you noticed the incredible rise in focus on sales coaching by managers?
Businesses like yours need managers like you to coach.
You can hire people like me to coach your team. But you also need to be a coach to your team.
It isn’t about wearing a different hat. It’s about transforming the person beneath that hat. (You)
Most salespeople I speak with would love more coaching - get lots of short, directional feedback, often corrective a result of making a mistake.
Many managers I speak with admit they should coach more, but can’t or won’t and don’t.
So today, let’s take a look at how you can go from Boss to Coach here on the Inside Sales Coach Podcast.
Thanks for listening. Enjoy the episode!
Mark
p.s. Subscribe to the show today to get the heads-up on new episodes with tips for inside sales leaders just like you
Are your sales people doing all the right things to get your prospects to move forward? Many salespeople just don’t understand how or why buyers think and act they way they do. They won’t reveal the information you need to qualify them. They don’t see the value in what you offer. They don’t return your calls. The consequence is that they can’t see why they should buy and they don’t buy. In today’s epsiode, you’re going to understand the power of leveraging human psychology in a way that persuades them to take action.
It's crucial that we keep sales teams focused on doing things right as well as doing the right things. Bob Perkins, Founder and CEO of the AA-ISP (American Association of Inside Sales Professional) is my guest today to help you keep your remote sales teams selling.
With the current global situation changing the way you do business, how can you get your team to develop a routine and stick to it?
We're going to give you 7 reasons why your team’s sales proposals stall and what to do about it.
What is the consequence to you and your sales team of poor, corrupt, bad data in your CRM?
In this episode, we’re going to address something quite serious: the causes of the perennial problem of sales-underperformance. You have someone on your team, maybe even a couple of people on your team who are just not performing. But you can’t begin to fix it until you understand what’s behind it. Agreed? Today, I’m giving you 5 reasons for sales underperformance and the kinds of questions you should ask yourself.
Imagine that someone calls you up and tries to sell you a product or a service. Have you got a particular brand in mind? Can you remember the last time someone tried to pitch you something over the phone? Today, I’m going to define what story-telling is, why great stories work in sales, when to use them and how to coach the skill of storytelling with your sales team.
Last week in part 1 we covered 4 ways in which your inside sales team are losing you money. Today we are going to give you 4 more things to address fast!
Getting your sales leaders to properly coach their teams will increase performance and protect your investment!
Getting your team to work with the gatekeeper rather than getting past them is going to pay real dividends!
Once you have ingrained he habit of listening to their input, your sales team are going to have better output!