TSE 779: Sales From The Street-“Personal Invite”

Not getting the results you’re looking for? Are your activities not getting a lot of turnout? 

In today’s episode, I share about how my involvement as a bishop in our congregation has taught me to personalize my message, my struggles, and how this non-traditional sales situation has helped me in my career as a sales professional.

ROLES OF A LEADER IN AN ORGANIZATION

As a leader in any organization, you have to grow your organization. Sell the concept. Continue to bring people back and keep them inside your organization.

Send emails to different groups. Invite them to activities.

BUT WHAT MAKES THE BIGGEST IMPACT?

• Personal invitation – Send personal text messages to individuals and not to multiples. Make personal phone calls. Take the opportunity to know each individual.
• Role assignment – Get people involved in your activities. Say for example in a sales demonstration, have them invite other people.

THE POWER IN PERSONALIZING YOUR MESSAGE

Figure out a way to capitalize on personalization. Drop a personal email when it’s someone’s birthday. Share something valuable when someone gets promoted.

Notice a greater increase in your activities’ attendance. Get bigger results!

Episode Resources:

The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Morgan and Michael Lennington

Check out the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

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TSE BLOG 020: 6 Sales and Entrepreneur Lessons I Learn From The Greatest Showman

If you haven’t seen “The Greatest Showman,” consider this: it’s much more than a movie or musical. As an entrepreneur and a seller, I took away many great principles.

The movie has many more lessons in entrepreneurship; a how-to guide for those looking to grow their careers; a study in sales, and the things that will help us succeed.

Watch for these 6 lessons when you see the movie:

1. Identify your “why.”

P.T. Barnum came from nothing. His wife hailed from a wealthy family, and Barnum wanted to provide the kind of life she had always known. He also wanted to prove himself to her father, who doubted his abilities. Proving himself became his “why.”

My own family was without a home for a period when I was in high school, so we stayed with friends and family. I watched my mom scrape money together to buy the things we needed, and that experience created in me a drive to succeed. I’m no millionaire, but the desire to provide for my family pushes me to work hard every day.

What gets you out of bed every morning? Knowing your “why” will help you persevere when challenges arise. As an entrepreneur this is critical.

2. Work beyond “no.”

Barnum was repeatedly rejected but he found creative ways to work around it. When he was fired from his job because his company’s fleet of ships sank into the sea, he took the deed from one of those sunken ships and used it as collateral to secure a business loan.

Be ethical, but be creative. When one opportunity dies, work to find another option.

Barnum’s daughter suggested his idea for a wax museum might work better if it featured live people, and his idea for a circus was born.

As an entrepreneur, do you allow rejection to derail your plans or do you find creative ways to work around it?

3. Determine how much is enough.

Barnum was obsessed with the idea of being the best in the world. He allowed it to consume his life to the exclusion of everything else.

The drive to improve is a good thing, but you must maintain your priorities. Don’t allow your drive for success, sabotage your relationships.

Have a number in your mind that represents “enough” and be willing to stop striving when you reach it. If you believe there will never be enough, ensure that your drive to achieve doesn’t cost you your family.

Consider delegating tasks. Work smarter, not harder.

How much is enough for you?

4. Add value.

P.T. Barnum encountered a young man who was dwarf and asked him to join the emerging circus. The young man refused because he didn’t want to be laughed at. Barnum pointed out that people were already laughing at him; at least this way he would be earning money.

Barnum was so focused on his own agenda that he failed to see what the young man wanted. No one wants to be ridiculed no matter how much money he or she will get.

Sales professionals make this mistake all the time. We sell customers what we want them to have instead of creating value for them.

Eventually, Barnum realized the young man wanted to be respected and admired instead of ridiculed. He discovered that the young man wanted to be a soldier, so Barnum offered him a chance to lead the circus on horseback, dressed like a soldier, wielding a sword.

Suddenly, the young man was engaged because Barnum offered something he wanted.

What matters most to your customers? How can you add value to them?

5. Never lose focus.

Distractions surround us. Anything that doesn’t move us toward our goals can be considered a distraction.

At one point, Barnum became so focused on gaining acceptance from the aristocrats that he neglected his family.

It happens to all of us, but when we recognize it, we can move back on track.

What distractions are interfering with your goals? As a seller or entrepreneur, how are you handling the shiny object syndrome?

6. Lead more often than you sell.

Barnum recruited people that society rejected; people whose differences made them “freaks.”

Barnum initially failed to realize that he had created a family for them. They were finally accepted by people because of their entertainment value. He made them part of something bigger than themselves. He inspired them.

If you find yourself focusing on numbers, look at the people around you. Find out what they need or want most. Share your vision. Develop followers.

Are you inspiring people to take action and become part of a cause bigger than themselves?

Barnum’s lessons are timeless, and they apply to all industries and experience levels. He chased his dream and learned from his mistakes.

Set goals and do everything in your power to achieve them. Refuse to be diverted from your path and inspire others along the way.

As an entrepreneur or seller, strive to be better every day and be intentional about the things you do.

Above all, do big things.

PS, check out my podcast on the topic as well.

TSE 778: Why and How You Need to Develop Bravery as a Seller

As a sales professional, one of your biggest hurdles is how to be brave especially in the face of rejection.

During this episode, Emily Ann Peterson shares with us how she tackled her obstacles as a musician and how she used her creativity as an instrument to build her business.

Listen and learn how you can be creatively courageous as a salesperson as well.

HERE ARE THE HIGHLIGHTS OF MY CONVERSATION WITH EMILY:

HOW TO BE BRAVE AND STEP UP TO THE NEXT LEVEL

• Bravery starts really small. Oftentimes, you don’t see or acknowledge that that was bravery. Practice or enforce those mindsets and choices and they will become bigger.
• The bravery that you see in others is the result of years of building on it. You learn how to be brave as early as childhood if you foster an environment for it to be practiced.
• Your emotional well-being greatly affects your ability to close the sale. You are not your emotions. You can choose the way you’re feeling. Acknowledge which parts of your situation you can control.

HOW TO DEVELOP BRAVERY AS A SALES PROFESSIONAL

• You have to experience failure. Acknowledge important pieces of information, like why a client said “No.” Learn from those mistakes.
• If you just met a customer for the first time, start from ground zero. Listen to them. Don’t jam your product down their throat.
• Respect the boundaries that exist especially if they’re not your own.

HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO HAVE MENTORS

• Mentors encourage you and acknowledge your skills.
• Hold on to and access these pieces of encouragement every time you face rejection.

HOW SONGWRITERS AND ENTREPRENEURS ARE ALIKE

• Songwriters boil down a story to 3 minutes and bring a listener in from ground zero. It’s all about the story and the ability to communicate with the audience.
• Songwriters choose to leave out names, add extra colors of words or add textures of instruments to empower that story. You have to do the same thing as marketers and communicate to your market in an effective way.

EMILY’S MAJOR TAKEAWAY:

3 main ingredients of bravery

• Vulnerability – Start from a place of honesty. Acknowledge what’s at stake. Don’t hold those emotions back.
• Imagination
• Improvisation

Episode Resources:

emilyannpeterson.com

@emilyannpete on Instagram

Barenaked Bravery: How to be Creatively Courageous by Emily Ann Peterson

Check out the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

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TSE 777: Don’t Lets Your Fears Keep You Stuck

Are you afraid of cold calling? Are you afraid of reaching out a new customer? Or are you scared to try out a new position in your organization? How about following up on a customer who hung up on you?

Today, I talk about some fears that could be holding you back and how you can hopefully overcome them.

What is FEAR?

Fear is this belief that someone or something that is likely to cause us harm or pain. We have these feelings in our hearts and minds that we conjure up with our imagination that causes us to have fear.

Phobias come in many forms and they’re basically irrational fears.

Personally, I had this fear of riding elevators because I was afraid of getting stuck in a small place. It’s because of a show I watched where someone got stuck in the elevator. And that just kept going in my mind.

The way fear works is we tend to focus on the negative side of things.

Overcoming Fear

I learned to get over my fear of riding elevators when I went to a debate tournament in New York City in 2000 and I pushed myself to ride the biggest elevator at the World Trade Center.

The result: Nothing happened. We got to the top and the view was amazing.

Case in point: Your fear isn’t really founded on anything. Usually, what you fear of the most doesn’t actually really happen!

Phobias as Sales Professionals

Sure, you could be scared of the thought of being yelled at or rejected, but what’s the worst thing that can really happen?

You can focus on the negative but you can also focus on the POSSIBILITIES!

What if the deal could actually happen? What if they’re actually interested in your product/solution or that you land an appointment. You take the management role. See, the opportunities are endless.

Episode Resources:

The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Morgan and Michael Lennington

Check out the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

Facebook group The Sales Evangelizers

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TSE 776: What Should I Know When Coaching My Top Performers?

We all need coaching. Sometimes we don’t do the things or put the processes in place to get the coaching that we need.

In today’s episode, Shimon Lazaro shares with us the struggles top performers deal with and how to coach these strong personalities.

Here are the highlights of my conversation with Shimon:

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND WHEN COACHING TOP PERFORMERS

• Research shows that top performers are always improving.
• The key to this improvement is finding the coach that resonates with you who can help make your strengths more pronounced.
• It’s not easy to find the right one since every coach is also different.

DEFINITION OF COACHING

• Coaching is tailored to the individual vs. regular training. It understands what you’re good at and where your challenges are. Coaching is much more personalized.
• Coaching is also cross-functional. Clients have issues with many different things and when you solve these issues together, it boosts performance. It helps you become a leader.
• Coaching dives deeper and understands those areas of opportunity. Research shows that coaching makes employees more productive and happier and also reduces turnover.

THINGS TOP PERFORMERS STRUGGLE WITH

• You tend to think that your approach works and you have all the answers. The better your results are, the harder it is to change.
• Some things that you’ve been doing for years aren’t necessarily working.
• Always try new and different things. Go out of your comfort zone!

HOW TO COACH SOMEBODY WITH A STRONG PERSONALITY

• Two types of people who succeed:
• Open to change and learn
• Resistant to learn
• Understand what motivates them. Once you discover that, it’s easy to work with that person. A good coach will know how to spot these personality traits.
• There is no single formula as long as you can convince someone to be open to change. Small improvements can build up over time.

HOW LIFECOACH CAN HELP YOU

• You tell us what you want to work on and our algorithm matches you with many coaches that have helped similar people in the past.
• We let you work with them for free for 7 days and get their different approaches.
• We also have different technologies that can support you with your needs and goals.

Shimon’s Major Takeaway:

No matter how good you are, you can always be better. You can always improve. Life can be so much better than what it currently is, no matter how successful you are.

Episode Resources:

Check out the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

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TSE 775-TSE Hustler’s League-“The Science Of Who To Sell To”

If you and your team feel that you need to do better or increase your closing rate but don’t quite know how to do so, check out TSE Hustler’s League where we give you coaching to help you perform better as sales professionals.

In today’s episode I discuss the importance of finding solutions and knowing your ideal customer.

WHY YOU SHOULD FOCUS ON FINDING SOLUTIONS  

Don’t find prospects for your product but solve problems for your prospects. If you focus on their challenges, you will have a much better outlook, more opportunities to close deals and develop business opportunities.

You don’t need to be smart or intelligent, you just need to follow a simple blueprint and go after those ideal customers.

HOW TO FIND YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER

List all the products.

Look at the problem we solve for them.

Figure out which one gives the best bang for the buck. Focus on this.

Episode Resources:

Check out the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

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TSE 774: Sales From The Street-“I Felt Unproductive As Well”

As part of the Latter Day Saints, I have learned so much from my missionary service. In today’s episode, I’m sharing with the lessons I’ve learned from that experience that we can relevantly apply to sales to increase your productivity.

Plan some time for things that don’t necessarily work out.

If you don’t have something planned, every single hour and minute of the day, there are probably still some things that you’re not able to get done.

Plan Effectively

Time blocking

• This means putting the most important things in first and set enough time to those that are the most effective.

For example:

Set aside time to do 10 calls before 10am. Put that time period and make it as a sacred time. Do all you can to not deviate from it.

Buffer

• Put some time in as a buffer. Place some empty spots during your day so you’re able to shift things around and you have some room.
• Those are not dead times, instead, it’s something you can use if anything comes up in the day.
• Leave some room for error during your day. Leaving some empty spots during the day can make you feel more productive at the end of the day.

For example: 

Put a 30-minute block in between one activity and another since there may be some things you need to do in between.

Episode Resources:

The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Morgan and Michael Lennington

15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management by Kevin Kruse

Check out the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

Facebook group The Sales Evangelizers

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TSE 773: TSE Weekly FB LIVE- Hiring, Prospecting and Gatekeepers

Today, I’m going to share thoughts and insights that you can help propel your sales to the right direction. We’re taking in questions from Facebook and share the answers here with you.

What to Look for in Salespersons:

• Experience
• Good attitude
• Willing to learn continuously – Make sure their experience is not hindering them to learn more and progress.

How to Work with a Gatekeeper:

• Look for ways you can work with the gatekeeper.
• Take advantage of social media to reach out to your gatekeepers and prospects.
• Send them physically in the mail.
• Make calls early in the morning.
• Start building habits and do 10×10 (make 10 calls before 10 AM)

Territory Mangement Strategies:

• Focus you energy on where your prospects are and where you can have the biggest impact.
• If you’re brand new in your area, look for those your competitors are also focusing on.
• Always work on how you can grab your customer’s attention.

Episode Resources:

The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Morgan and Michael Lennington

Check out the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android,

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TSE 772: How Can I Improve My Listening Skills?

Ideally, as sellers, we should only talk 30% of the time during a sales conversation and let the prospect or customer talk about 60% to 70% of the time. You want to make sales? Then you have to improve your listening skills!

However, in the real world, I find that many salespeople talk and talk without even listening to their prospects.

Without properly listening to your prospects, you might miss on what’s really important for them. And that means missing your sales deal.

Strategies for Improving Your Listening Skills:

1. Know what you’re listening for.

Go into the first conversation and figure out what can make them buy. Identify the top four drivers why people purchase. Listen for those and poke at those. Know what to listen for so you don’t just talk or be random.

2. Ask meaningful questions.

Instead of the yes or no questions, ask the open-ended questions like what, when, where, why, or how.

3. Follow up.

Don’t be afraid to ask a followup question. Try to really dig deeper into uncovering their real pain point. Use Toyota’s five whys where you keep on asking your prospects why until you get to the fifth why and you will notice you’ve uncovered their real problem. Try to do this exercise even in other areas of your life.

Episode Resources:

The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Morgan and Michael Lennington

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

Check out the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

Facebook group The Sales Evangelizers

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TSE 771: Jeffrey Gitomer – Setting Goals & Developing a Sales Mindset

During this episode, I was able to bring back on our VERY first guest, Mr. Jeffrey Giomer. He shared with us thought about effective planning, goal setting, and motivation. Listen to it and see how it can apply to you and your business.

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TSE 770: TSE Hustler’s League-“4 Common Sales Challenges”

As you know, TSE Hustler’s League is an online group sales coaching program. We have sellers from all levels and from a variety of industries.

During this episode, I highlight some of the top challenges I see sellers face. Listen up and let me know if any of them apply to you.

There are four main challenges that I see in sellers when they join the TSE Hustler’s League.

1. Fear of rejection

This also ties into the idea of being afraid that you’re going to look stupid to your prospects. This comes at any point in the process, whether during your initial conversation or you’re afraid they’re going to get mad if you ask questions. Don’t reject yourself even before the person can say no. Don’t shut your prospect down before you even have the chance to hear what they say. Ask and you shall receive.

Because of that idea you’re inferior to the prospect, you’re afraid of asking. Instead, ask and they will respect you more for having the confidence to talk to them. Go for deep level questioning.

2. Lack of process

Don’t assume anything and create a process. There’s no room for error. Figure out the best way to grab a prospect’s attention. Don’t even try to reinvent the wheel. With a process, scalability becomes easier. Sit down with your team. Look at the last five deals you closed, and what you did to close that. Then standardize those processes.

3. Don’t know how to express value

As a business owner, your job is to understand the prospect’s business and how they make money. Then tie your product/solution to that. How can it make them more money?

4. Don’t know how to followup or ask for the sale

Some people may reject you just because it’s not the right time yet. Don’t be afraid to follow up again. Try different avenues – social media, email, phoen call, text messaging, snail mail, or even knock on their doors. There are many ways, but you have to follow up. Follow up until you hear them say no. Assume the sale!

Episode Resources:

The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Morgan and Michael Lennington

The Science of Selling by David Hoffeld

Check out the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

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TSE 769-6 Sales Principles I Took Away From The Greatest Showman (Part 2)

Today’s episode is a continuation of the other day’s episode where I’m sharing the other three sales principles that I took away from the movie, The Greatest Showman, and which you can apply into your career in life.

Working Beyond the NO!

Find ways to work around the “no.” The character, P.T. Barnum didn’t take no for an answer. No matter how many times he failed, he just kept hustling and going. Be creative to find a way to get around the challenges. Find out ways to make things happen.

Build Value

Give people not what you want, but what they want. Treat others they like to be treated, not the way you want to be treated. Give them value.

Never Leave Focus

Sure it’s nice to go after your goal but don’t lose track. And if you do lose track, step back and make sure you get back on track.

Inspiring People

As Deb Calvert explains back in TSE episode 763, she talks about being the expert. Lead them down the path and the thing they want the most. Help them to recognize you as the person they need to follow and to listen to. Give people something more than just money. Do things to inspire people to take action. Have a bigger cause than yourself!

Episode Resources:

The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Morgan and Michael Lennington

TSE episode 763

Check out the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

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TSE 768: How To Develop An Effective Brand Personality That Sells

As a business owner, you have to create a business brand. A personality that resonates well with your customers.

During this episode, Fabian Geyrhalter shares with us just how to do so and offers some valuable insights from his book, Bigger Than This: How to Turn Any Venture Into an Admired Brand.

Listen and learn how you can improve your personal brand as a salesperson as well.

Here are the highlights of my conversation with Fabian:

The Power of Brand Personality

It’s an understanding of who the company is as a brand. This defines the tone, the voice, the visuals around the brand. It has to be something brands can utilize and share with the sales team. You have to make sure it resonates well in the other end.

Why Build Personality in Your Brand

It makes a product easy to understand provided you also have to have a super simple message.

Keep it simple. Don’t complicate things. Otherwise, you lose sales.

Branding is not just fluff. You don’t want to bombard people with different stories when they don’t really understand what you’re doing and the value they get out of it. Nevertheless, brand stories can create extraordinary value.

How to Give Life to a Company

1. Figure out what is bigger than your product and why.

Why would the consumer deeply care about your offering? How do you tell a bigger, relatable, and sustainable story around an offering that can turn into a beloved brand?

2. Write a memorial speech for your brand.

Write down a speech 10-20 years in the future. Strange, sure. But you actually write it as if you would be in front of an audience, talk about what people are now missing.

This is not value-based but all about emotions and feelings.

Figure out the emotional parts that you can trigger with your product.

Examples of Traits in Building Brand Personality

• Heritage
• Radical transparency
• Stories

Fabian’s Major Takeaway:

If you can find a way to connect with your target audience and you can tell a story that really resonates with them because it’s based on shared values, you don’t need a huge marketing budget. Branding is the new advertising. It’s about stories and people trust stories. So you need to gain their trust by telling the right stories and move products based on this.

Episode Resources:

Find out more about Fabian on www.biggerthanthis.com.

Bigger Than This: How to Turn Any Venture Into an Admired Brand by Fabian Geyrhalter

The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Morgan and Michael Lennington

Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller

Check out the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

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TSE 767: 6 Sales Principles I Took Away From The Greatest Showman (Part 1)

This past weekend, we watched The Greatest Showman. Over two episodes, I will share with you what I learned from The Greatest Showman as a business owner and valuable sales principles you can take and apply to your life. Check it out and let me know your thoughts.

My coach, Linda Yates, has watched the movie two times so it got me curious what actually makes the movie so great.

So there I watched it and looked for the entrepreneurial/sales aspect of it.

The First Three Sales Principles from The Greatest Showman

Setting Goals

In the movie, P.T. Barnum started from scratch and he wanted to prove to his father-in-law who said he couldn’t make it, wrong. He wanted to make himself something in the society. Third, he wanted to be respected by the higher classes.

While this gave him a lot of drive, there is also a flaw here. You can’t base your success on somebody else. You have to do it for yourself.

I was raised by my single mom and when when to the point that we were homeless. From then on, I promised myself I would never go broke again. At that age, it gave me the desire to earn my income. It gave me the drive that I will never allow my family to be in that situation like that again.

Working Beyond the No

You’ve got to hustle. The only person that’s stopping you from getting that big deal is yourself. Don’t let that stop you!

When Is Enough, Enough?

There comes a time where you will be achieving your goals. But is this going to push you beyond the things that matter the most? At one point, P.T. did.  And when you allow this to take over your whole life, then you will have a problem. You must have an idea of when is enough, enough. It’s okay if you always have that goal but make sure you don’t put that stuff in front of your family. Never neglect your family. Spend some time with them. Don’t let money come before you and your family. So have that number in your mind.

Episode Resources:

The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Morgan and Michael Lennington

Check out the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

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TSE 766: Developing an Effective Sales Plan

Karim El Gammal is a sales leader who knows how to develop an effective sales plan. He likes to help software companies develop innovative sales strategies and maximize channel-profitability.

He managed to achieve $3M in recurring revenue at Vodafone, in 18 months. Karim also grew the Cambridge Education Group sales team from 1 to 10 people, remotely from Boston, and was one of the key players in creating the Stafford House digital brand.

Currently, Karim is building a sales team in NY, at STRV – software development company.

As an entrepreneur, Karim was featured on Gimlet Media Startup-Podcast after being on the winning NY StartupBus in 2017. He is currently building Phishly to help large companies detect social engineering attacks and avoid getting phished in the future.

Here are the highlights of my conversation with Karim:

The Power of Having Clear Goal and Plan

• A team should follow a clear path. There should be clear direction and strategic planning. Otherwise, an organization can’t function properly.
• This should be team collaboration mindset.
• Give your sales reps full ownership so they can have a clear picture of the bigger plans.

3 Major Pitfalls Why Sales Plans Fail

1. Bad Data

IBM estimates $3.1 trillion of the yearly cost of poor quality data

When data is transferred from one department to another, it could burn thousands of dollars on running the wrong campaigns or wrong target audience.

2. Aligning the Company’s Objectives Across the Board

The company has to have a mindset as a company of having the right data and apply best practices across different departments.

Generate better inbound leads by talking to your marketing team. Then figure out a plan together. Share feedback, best practices, and align goals together to make it easier for everyone.

3. Tracking

Take time to step back and analyze the data on a monthly basis. Figure out what you’ve done wrong and what to do better next time. Then track that data to reach the higher level.

Elements of an Effective Sales Plan

1. Pick a niche market and build traction.

When you track to create something to everyone, you end up creating something for no one. Think about how big is the market, what products are sold, value proposition, and competitive advantages.

2. Target customer

Who’s your target customer and why? Consider your geographic information, target channels, budget and measuring the budget. All these info will help you create your customer profile that will qualify your leads and manage your funnel more effectively.

3. Conversion versus customer fallout.

Think about your competitive advantages or are you missing on important features? Sales reps must report every single feedback in the CRM. The seniors should verify questions and analyze data before sharing the feedback with the product and marketing teams. Transferring the right data at the right time is also crucial.

Karim’s Major Takeaway:

Understand your value within the organization or wherever you go. It’s essential to grow your career.

Episode Resources:

Connect with Karim on LinkedIn and Instagram or reach out to him thru karim@strv.com.

STRV

Check out the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

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TSE 765: TSE Hustler’s League-“How Do I Ask?”

Are you open to getting referrals from clients? Do you ask for referrals?

“Who do you know will benefit from what we offer?”

This is actually the most common question people ask when asking for referrals. But there’s a better, more effective way of doing this.

I have come to recognize that many salespeople do not ask for referrals because they don’t know how to ask for referrals. During this episode, I will share with you how to easily ask for referrals.

Be specific.

Make it easy for your prospects to give you a referral.

Follow up and be grateful to them even if you’re weren’t able to close the deal with them.

Tell your prospect once you’ve connected with their referred person and even if you weren’t able to close, be sure to still thank them.

Strategies When Asking for Referrals:

1. Use LinkedIn

Try to check a person’s connections on LinkedIn and see who are other business owners of the same size who may be a good fit for you.

2. Ask Your Prospect

Mention to them how this person is connected with the specific person who can be a potential customer for your company.Then ask them if they can introduce you to that specific person.

3. Create an email template.

The key here is to eliminate as much as the nuances or difficulties as possible for your prospect. So when you ask them to give the referral an introductory email, offer them a template introduction email they can use which they can use and tweak as they please.

4. Give a referral.

Sometimes, the best way to get a referral is to give them a referral for a service or product they may use. This increase the trust factor and they would naturally want to help you in return by finding people they can refer to you.

Episode Resources:

Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller

Check out the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

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TSE 764-Sales From The Street-“Don’t Make Them Feel Stupid”

As a seller, our job is to ensure we make our prospects feel comfortable with us.

During this episode, I share why and how we should help our prospects feel comfortable.

In a Perfect World

As a new sales professional, you want to get a templated script and be able to follow along. You want to know exactly what to say, when to say it, how to say it.

You just want everything laid out so you only have to follow it, thinking it’s going to work in every perfect situation.

In reality, it doesn’t work like that.

You need to have intelligent business conversations.

One of the major challenges I had when I was starting out was that I was being robotic as a sales professional.

Scripts are not bad per se, but it’s bad when you’re just reading the script and going without emotions, without connecting or understanding the person you’re talking to.

Strategies to Make Your Prospects Feel Comfortable

Don’t make your customers feel confused or look stupid.

When you’re just reading off the script and you have no emotion built into it, that would make them think you’re stupid.

Have a business conversation.

Don’t just ask rogue questions to the customers that don’t necessarily make sense to the customer because you didn’t do research on them.

First, understand how your customers are making money. What are the challenges that cause them to not make money?

Try to research on their industry to get a better understanding. That way, you’d know how to move the needle and have a business conversation with them.

Educate your customers and have meaningful conversations. As Donald Miller says, “A confused customer will never buy.”

Episode Resources:

Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller

Check out the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

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TSE 763: Stop Selling & Start Leading Movement

Are you just selling or are you leading? During this interview, Deb Calvert shares with us why the movement of becoming leaders in the eyes of our prospects is so critical. Listen and learn why and how we should do this.

Deb is an activist in the sales arena, specifically around the idea that we have to stop selling, and start leading. Today, she lays out the blueprint if you want to be successful in selling.

Here are the highlights of my conversation with Deb:

What is the Stop Selling and Start Leading Movement?

Leadership behaviors get you in the door. They make you stand out to buyers. They help you close more sales.

Bad Selling Habits:

They tend to adopt behaviors that make them seem pushy and obnoxious. It makes them seem selfish,  greedy, and money-motivated exclusively. It also makes them seem that they don’t listen well.

Leaders influence, inspire, and guide people to an exciting new place full of possibilities.

5 Practices of Exemplary Leadership

1. Model the Way

You set the example. You’re credible.  You know what you’re values are. And you align your actions accordingly with your values. You are consistent and predictable because people know what you stand for and they believe in you.

2. Inspire Shared Vision

Leaders breathe life into a vision. But it’s not only their own vision, it’s shared. It’s something that others have participated in. They struggle to make that vision into a reality because they believe in it so powerfully.

3. Challenge the Process

This means being restless. Leaders always ask what’s new, what’s next. They’re afraid to innovate and experiment and take some risks. They challenge themselves and others to look at things in different ways. They look at the bigger picture and not just getting mired in the status quo.

4. Enable Others to Act

Leaders collaborate with people. They dignify their decisions and listen really well to make sure they’re together and understand what they’re looking to do. Leaders allow people to contribute. They don’t just do work by themselves.

5. Encourage the Heart

Leaders pour courage into someone’s heart. They celebrate and share the victories and values they recognize. And when the going gets tough, they’re right there to support and encourage.

How to Be Credible and Build Trust:

DWYSYWD – Do What You Say You Will Do!

Deb’s DISCOVER Questions:

1. Buyer wants sellers to answer their questions in a timely and relevant manner.

2. Buyers want a two-way dialogue. They want sellers to ask them questions that makes them participate in creating what they want so they can share insights and put their imprint on solutions sellers will later offer.

Deb’s Major Takeaway:

Leadership is not the same as management. It’s not reserved for an exclusive few with certain characteristics.

Leadership is for everybody. It’s nothing more than choosing a certain set of behaviors that help you to be more influential and allows you to guide other people that cause other people to willingly choose to follow you.

Leadership is easy access for anybody who will choose to step into their full potential as a leader and liberate the leader inside themselves.

Episode Resources:

Get to know more about Deb on @PeopleFirstPS and Stop Selling Start Leading.com

Check out her book, Stop Selling, Start Leading

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TSE 762: The Main Reason Why You Feel Your Leads Are Not Qualified!

Qualified leads are some of the most important things to salespeople. However, often times when leads come in, they are not qualified effectively.

Today, I’m sharing some business development concepts to help you get to the next level of success. You will learn my most leads seems they are not qualified. Listen and learn more.

So you get a lead then you think they’re not ready. They have no money, they have no time, or they’re still using other systems. Marketing is giving us all these “leads.” And you see, there’s a misalignment here.

Make Things Clear

First, make sure you define what you’re looking for from the get-go.

Just let your business development rep get you appointments.

That’s just their job. It’s the closer’s job to educate the customers. This way you get to have a more qualified lead.

Again, really define to your business development reps what they’re doing. You need to clearly explain them what kind of leads you want so you get better, more qualified leads

Are you just setting appointments with anyone in your ideal customer profile?

Or are you really qualifying and getting someone a lead on a silver platter?

To get yourself better at getting better leads, check out The Sales Development Playbook if you’re trying to build a pipeline or trying to build some processes in place.

Or if you want to figure out how you can attract qualified companies into your pipeline, check out Donald Miller’s book, Building a Story Brand.

Episode Resources:

The Sales Development Playbook by Trish Bertuzzi

Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller

Check out the TSE Hustler’s League.

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TSE BLOG 019: 2018 Sales Trends to Watch For

Over the course of 2017, we saw a lot of trends. We saw new technologies launched, big company mergers and acquisitions, a greater presence of personal branding through social media, and new terms like Account-Based Sales and Account-Based Marketing become our everyday lingo.

And there is, even more, to watch for in 2018.

Sales is a changing landscape. And if salespeople do not evolve as well, they will become endangered and lose to the competition. Kind of like Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.

So what exactly is a trend and which ones should you be keeping an eye out for in 2018?

Trends and trending are words we see when a hot topic takes over our social media news feeds, thanks to the hashtag (#2018SalesTrends). But really a trend, according to the dictionary, is a pattern of gradual change in a process, or a general tendency of a series of data points to move in a certain direction over time.

Generally, we see an emerging trend and we are skeptical. We even think that there is no way will it become the norm or mainstream. Just think about Uber, Airbnb, and Snapchat. Some of the newest, biggest, and most “disruptive” solutions out there were once seen as a “fad” and are now the social norm.

When does a trend become mainstream?

The law of diffusion of innovation tells us that if you want mass-market success or acceptance, you cannot have it until you achieve the tipping point between 15 and 18 percent market penetration. Simon Sinek spoke of the law of diffusion of innovation in one of his most popular Ted Talks to date, “How Great Leaders Inspire Action.”

 

Trends are important to watch and we typically see a trend launch through early adopters and risk takers before accepting it for ourselves.

Here are some 2018 sales trends to watch for, and even implement into your own strategy if you want to stay ahead of the pack.

Video Marketing

If you haven’t already noticed, video has continued to grow in popularity and won’t be slowing down anytime soon.

Here are a few stats about video marketing that WordStream put together:

• YouTube has over a billion users
• More than 500 million hours of videos are watched on YouTube each day
• 45% of people watch more than an hour of Facebook or YouTube videos a week
• Over half of video content is viewed on mobile
• Over 500 million people are watching video on Facebook every day
• 90% of Twitter video views happen on a mobile device
• Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined
• Video drives a 157% increase in organic traffic from SERPs
• 51% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI

You might have also noticed, that LinkedIn launched the ability to record and post videos directly to your LinkedIn newsfeed.

No longer is video marketing for the big and powerful brands. We will now continue to see more personalized videos be produced by people simply recording themselves from their iPhones.

Now more than ever, it’s a fight to win over a prospect’s time so we will continue to see video prospecting on the rise. Video prospecting gives salespeople the ability to stand out in a sea of content and cold emails. It will require more time to create, but video will be more personalized with a higher ROI rate.

AI and Sales

• How does Netflix know what recommendations to make?
• How does Amazon know what I want to buy?
• How come Facebook keeps showing me puppy videos?

Artificial Intelligence is the reason, and it will continue to penetrate the B2C and B2B sales marketplace.

We can confidently say that Artificial Intelligence is here to stay, but not here to replace. AI is here to support sales and eliminate monotonous tasks.

We have more data than we have ever had before. Sales technology and automation have certainly changed the way sales reps prospect, track, manage, and close deals, but that doesn’t mean the robots are eliminating the need for real live human sales professionals.

What AI does mean is that when implemented and used correctly, sales professionals can optimize their efficiency with the ability to focus more on selling than on administrative tasks.

MIT Sloan Management Review published a study revealing that 76% of early adopters are targeting higher sales growth with machine learning.

Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are enabling sales professionals to be proactive versus reactive. With more insight, sales professionals can optimize every stage of the funnel. We now have more knowledge around our buyer’s “intent” before even speaking with them.

Artificial Intelligence and automation cannot be a sales professional’s only tool. Remember, AI is only helpful if it is moving you to hit your objectives and improving sales productivity. The sales tool is only as good as the sales rep.

In 2018 we should continue to see a balance of both personalized selling and automation.

Account-Based Revenue

Over the last few years, we have heard the buzzwords Account-Based Sales and Account-Based Marketing, but Account-Based Revenue really defines this targeted movement.

Account-Based Revenue bridges the marketing and sales gap that is widely discussed. This term aligns both departments to ultimately drive more revenue.

I first heard this term coined by the brilliant Trish Bertuzzi of The Bridge Group. Account-Based Revenue is to execute a strategic go-to-market approach that personalizes marketing, sales, and customer success efforts to land and expand named accounts.

Rather than focusing purely on a large pipeline, sales professionals can use personalization to target high-value accounts.

Customers expect more from sales and marketing. Now more than ever we have the ability to access and understand what buyers want and expect from us. Decision-makers need relevant and real-time information to help make purchasing decisions.

This isn’t for only new prospects, Account-Based Revenue is a strategy that should be executed with past and current accounts to grow and sustain customer retention.

Once again, personalization will win over generic mass email campaigns.

LinkedIn and One-Line Text-Based Posts

Have you noticed

a lot of those one-line

LinkedIn posts?

No matter how you feel about them, you can count on seeing more of them in 2018.

Even though videos and images are major driving forces in capturing attention, text-based LinkedIn posts are new effective traffic drivers for the platform.

It’s important to note, that these posts may rank higher due to the nature that they don’t have any external links, keeping users on LinkedIn. Therefore, LinkedIn’s algorithm may rank them higher on the newsfeed than posts with external links in them.

Salespeople are working harder than ever to win over a potential customer’s time. And we know that people’s time is pulled in a million directions and we can’t expect to capture it without providing excellent content and value.

Why are one-line posts a new trend?

They are engaging

They are genuine

They are easy to read

They are practical

They are relatable (a personal problem, question, or success)

They follow a storyline format

They ask for feedback

When done correctly, these posts won’t only boost your LinkedIn visibility, it should also boost your other web channels too.

I also recommend adding links in the comment sections of your text-only posts. And yes, it’s okay to like and share your own posts.

See how one of these posts generated 1.8 million views.

 

Hiring and Retaining Top Sales Talent

Recruiting and retaining top sales talent continues to be a top priority and challenge for companies. With unemployment at an all-time low of 4.1%, it’s become a job seeker’s market. Sales professionals have more options to selectively and passively search for their next opportunity.

This means that companies must work hard to attract, recruit, interview, hire, and retain top sales performers.

According to LinkedIn’s Global Recruiting Report, companies are trying to optimize their hiring strategy to reduce candidate attrition due to a lengthy sourcing and interview screening process.

A recent study by Indeed found that 61% of recruiters expect hiring will continue to increase into 2018. About 56% of employers are hiring to support business growth.

Companies should look to increase their applicant conversion rate.

• How many resumes do you screen?
• How many hours are you searching?
• How many candidates make it to the interview stage?
• How many steps are in the interview process?
• How many offers do you extend to acceptance?

Millennials

No more debate around it, millennials are here. According to Pew Research, millennials have surpassed the Gen Xers as the largest generation in the U.S. labor force. More than 2.4 billion people in the world are under the age of 30. They will soon make up over a third of the workforce.

Yes, there may be more discussion on recruiting and coaching millennials, but the fact remains that millennials have become vital members of the workforce. This wave of sales talent is already moving into senior leadership roles. This generation values purpose, technology, work-life balance, learning, and growth. Make sure your talent management initiatives align with millennials.

Millennials bring a lot to the table as technology and the way consumers absorb information has changed.

Millennials have also become one of the largest buying audiences. They make up 21% of consumer discretionary purchases (over $1 trillion in direct buying power). They play a major role in the economy’s growth.

So stop the debate. Millennials are here and you need to harness their knowledge and skill. You also need to understand how to market to them.

Sales Development

Sales Development is the front line of the sales force, and the role has evolved from being strictly measured by call and email volume, to become a more strategic and complex sales approach.

In its early days, Sales Development was viewed as the first step in a sales career. It was about entering leads and building pipeline. SDRs were typically performing tedious and monotonous tasks, passing leads to the inside sales team, until finally they were promoted to a selling/closing role themselves.

The Sales Development role has evolved.

Today with new technologies, streamlined efficiencies, and more informed buyers, more is expected from SDR teams. As a result, there has been a higher demand for qualified and experienced Sales Development Reps who are consultative in nature, making the role appear less “entry-level.”

Expect to see a greater emphasis on sales development training and implementing technology past the automation stage. This role may merge with the traditional full sales cycle role.

For transactional sales, we may see a decrease in SDRs and a rise in chatbots, messaging apps, and Artificial Intelligence.

Online Reviews

Online reviews will continue to play a role in the decision-making process of the buying cycle. Reviews influence buying decisions. Just as referrals are one of the highest-ranking leads for sales, online reviews are a way to magnify your customer satisfaction ratings on a national/global level.

Before making a purchasing decision, almost all buyers are doing their research to make sure the company, product, and service fulfill their needs. Here are a few statistics around online reviews from RevLocal:

• 92% of consumers read online reviews when looking for a local business
• 42% of consumers won’t use a business with less than a three-star rating
• 68% of consumers will form an opinion about your local business after reading just 1-6 online reviews

For businesses, it’s important to note that online reviews affect 13% of your search ranking (how you appear in online searches).

Potential customers are researching products, services, and companies on Facebook and Google as well as growing review sites like Capterra and G2Crowd. Google enables customers to rate and review businesses, becoming a growing review site (63.6% of consumers check Google before visiting a business.)

It all comes down to trust and transparency. It’s become a buyer’s-centric market and buyers have more choices than ever, so how will your company stand out?

What are some other trends you are following?

 

 

Chelsey Canavan Brief Bio:

Chelsey Canavan is the Director of Marketing at Treeline, Inc., a national sales recruiting firm and #1 Best Place to Work. Chelsey runs the marketing department, creating content to help sales professionals land their next sales job, and to help hiring managers find their next top performer.

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TSE 761 – Should I Hire a Content Marketer or a Virtual Assistant?

Don’t know what kind of content marketing to use? Podcast? Blog? Social media? It’s overwhelming, isn’t it? But don’t let these overwhelm you that you end up not doing anything at all. Well, you’ve got to start somewhere.

Oftentimes too, a lot of business owners have a problem being consistent with their content marketing and social media.

How do you start?

Today’s guest is Lyndsay Phillips and she’s passionate about content marketing. She’s going to share with us some valuable, great insights into how to get started with your content marketing to help your business skyrocket this year!

Here are the highlights of my conversation with Lyndsay:

Hiring Virtual Assistants

• Start focusing on your revenue-generating tasks and serving your clients.  
• It’s therefore important to get that support and get a team going so that you can continue to grow so your marketing doesn’t fall to the wayside and you’re not bringing in new leads.
• Get a team so you can get things done faster.

Ways to Find People in Your Support Team:

• Upwork
• Freelance
• It all boils down to what you need to outsource.

1. Know what you need help with.

Think of the things you don’t like doing. Then hire part of that out. Figure out what pieces of the puzzle that you can offload or lighten your load.

Think about your time. If your hourly worth is $200 an hour, then you entering data entry doesn’t make sense when you can outsource that at a much cheaper level.

2. Seek a person or company that excels in that area.

For instance, hire an expert when it comes to the dollars and bookkeeping and strategies when it comes to finances.

When it comes to marketing, there are so many moving pieces as well as video editing.

Hire people that excel in that area so that you don’t have to train anyone. You can rely on their expertise. You can have peace of mind knowing it’s being done and that it’s being done well and that they will look out for you and your company’s wellbeing.

Payment Structures for VAs:

Retainer packages: covering a certain number of hours and tasks per month

Hourly rates: they track their time and bill you at the end of the month

The biggest struggle with content marketing: EXPECTATIONS

Strategies for Finding a Great VA:

• Again, know what you need.
• Another is the match: Make sure their skill sets are a match for you. Interview them and ask for references.
• Make sure that you also “gel” on a personal level. Work with people you have the connection with. You need to understand them on a personal level to make sure you’re in sync.
• Be very clear on your expectations. State what you need to get done, when, and how. Be clear on both sides. Ask what they need from you to be successful to accomplish this goal.
• VA’s or experts need to have a clear understanding of your business’s goals are – the overall big picture.
• Have someone who is proactive. They may even be able to suggest things that can improve your business or process.

Is a Podcast Beneficial for Everyone?

• No. You have to think about who your target market is. If your biggest clients don’t know what a podcast is or are not into it, then why invest your money and time in doing a podcast?
• You can always test it of course. But it doesn’t work then it’s okay to bail.
• Look at your competitors. Look at the influencers in your industry and look at what they’re doing. This would give you an idea of what strategies you can apply to your business.

What About Blogs?

• People get stuck on what to write about. They don’t realize how much information they have in their head.
• Talk about what the top 5 pain points are of your ideal client.
• Then think about a topic that will help them ease that pain a little bit. From there, you can get topics.
• You can also talk into your phone and then there’s an app that can convert that into text. Just tweak it and voila! You’ve got content.
• Hire copywriters. Tell them what they can write about. Once you get the content back, add your some of your stuff to it or your own verbiage. You have now made it your own but at least you writer has given you a starting point. This has saved you a ton of time.

Sales Funnels versus Email Marketing

Sales funnels are more complex since you need to have a product ladder in order to take a person from A to B.

Sample funnel:

• Lead magnet
• Tripwire item – around $12-$20
• Info product a couple hundred bucks
• Membership site for $400
• Event for $1,000
• Mastermind program, costing thousands of dollars per year

Your sales funnel has to match your product ladder. All your funnels and email campaigns have to work together so you’re nurturing, you’re staying top of mind, you’re building a relationship with people, you’re holding them by the hand and giving them that natural progression to where they’re supposed to go next.

Stay in touch of your clients to stay top of mind to make sure they’re aware of what you offer.

Lyndsay’s Major Takeaway:

Get out of that feeling of overwhelm. Plan out what your strategy is for the year. Make sure that you have support, a team behind you, and some help to do these things for you. And start one thing at a time. Start with blogs, get consistent with that. Do some social media. Stay in touch with your emails. Then build out from there. But you have to start somewhere.

Episode Resources:

Get in touch with Lyndsay to know more about the cool things they offer on www.smoothbusinessgrowth.com. Stuck on where to start? Check out the awesome free guide and social media road map on their homepage.

Check out the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

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TSE 760 -TSE Hustler’s League-“Don’t Forget to Ask”

Today’s snippet is taken from one of the training sessions at the TSE Hustler’s League, where we discuss yet another challenge of forgetting to ask for a referral and how you can overcome that!

Steps to Help You to Remember to Ask for a Referral:

Set weekly goals.

Make it a habit to set a goal of asking for three referrals per week.

Have accountability.

Get an accountability partner or ask your boss.

Join a mastermind group or our Facebook group The Sales Evangelizers, and someone’s going to follow up with you on that goal.

Set calendar invites.

Set time of your day focused on this referral project. Then send a calendar invite to your accountability partner and try to spare a few minutes to just check on your progress.

Episode Resources:

Check out the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

Facebook group The Sales Evangelizers

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