Joining Hosts Craig Rosenberg and Matt Amundson is John Barrows, the CEO of JB Sales and Author of I Want To Be In Sales When I Grow Up. John outlines what led to the current poor performance amongst sales reps and what leaders can do about it to increase performance today and in the long run. They also get into why buyers dread demos, whether marketers should control all of the messaging from sales, and how smart sellers will approach incorporating AI into their workflows.

Also, Craig tells a story about sending around a slide deck and Matt showcases the latest improvement to the production value of the show: the Clapper.

Takeaways:

Sales success is more achievable through repeatable processes than through unreliable shortcuts.
Encourage personalized and relevant outreach: Teach sales reps to conduct thorough research before outreach, making every interaction as relevant and personalized as possible.
Highlight the importance of business understanding: Sales reps must develop a deeper grasp of the customer's business landscape, priorities, and challenges for more effective positioning of solutions.
Use AI to augment human efforts in sales, especially for research and personalization, but don’t try to automate humans out of the process. Augmenting > Automating

Chapters:

00:00 - Matt Applauds Today’s Guest
02:59 - The Golden Age of Sales and Its Pitfalls
10:38 - The Role of Hard Work in Sales Success
22:56 - Fixing The Crisis in Sales
31:32 - Applying Design Thinking to Sales
36:59 - Demystifying the Dreaded Demo
44:29 - The Impact of Research and Preparation
47:24 - The Role of Experience and Empathy in Sales
51:37 - Addressing the Generational Shift in Sales Practices

Quote of the Show:

“The quantity game is over” - John Barrows

Sponsor:

Ringmaster Conversational Marketing - The Transaction is sponsored and produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through Branded podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/

Connect with John Barrows:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbarrows/
Website: https://www.jbarrows.com/
Sell Better Website: https://sellbetter.xyz/
I Want To Be In Sales When I Grow Up: https://www.iwanttobeinsaleswhenigrowup.com/

Shoutouts:

Sam Jacobs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samfjacobs/
Ashley Welch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/awelch1/
Naked Sales: https://a.co/d/1oJjOc2
Becc Holland: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beccholland-flipthescript/
Dan Waldschmidt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielwaldschmidt/

Follow the Show:

Craig’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigrosenberg/
Matt’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-amundson-91657236/
Substack: https://thetransaction.substack.com/

Ways to Tune In:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3i3r3WLacRZiSa7dOaOgDz
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-transaction/id1734518309
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheTransaction?sub_confirmation=1

Off Panel #7: Reinventing an Icon with Alex Segura