Sales Game Changers | Tips from Successful Sales Leaders

This is episode 364. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. DOUG'S TIP FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "People ask me this all the time, how often should I follow up? The answer is until they tell you to stop. As long as you're following up with relevant, interesting things for them, they're not going to view that as a day that oh, my gosh, this person is harassing me or something like that. So if, for example, we were talking about a couple of things. Hey, Fred, I was thinking about you today. I was thinking about that comment you said about Vern, and I just saw this quote that Vern put out. I thought you might like it. That's something relevant that you and I could share."

This is episode 363. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. GIL'S TIP FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Do the time and task analysis. Log what you're doing every 15 minutes of the day for five days. Then after those five days have expired, tabulate your time into two categories: sales time, non-sales time. What can we do to compress or remove non-sales activities from your calendar, and enhance your available sales time? If you do nothing else, you'll improve your revenue."

This is episode 362. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. BRIAN'S TIP FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "For a technology like AI, salespeople need to find the "angel in the sale." The angel is the person that wears the halo and represents the halo effect of the technology in the environment. If you could find that angel and say, "I'm working with so-and-so over here on their specific problem, but I want you to also be aware that we're looking forward to the results in how much happier your people are when they start using our technology and how it impacts their morale." Finding the angel and thinking about that halo impact, can really help to differentiate the way we're thinking about working with that customer, not just selling to them." VANEET'S TIP FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Now more than ever, we have tremendous channels available to us to connect and get our messages out. We tend, as sellers, to take that for granted. We have a unique perspective to offer, we see problems in and out at various companies, different industries, various verticals. Leverage that, build a brand for yourself as an expert on LinkedIn and Twitter. Start to post content. Make it so that your prospect has heard of you. They're going to want some degree to impart that knowledge because AI is such an interesting and net new space to some degree in terms of how it's being applied."

This is episode 361. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. ERIN'S TIP FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Reach out to someone you haven't talked to recently. Right now. However you prefer to connect. Whether that's a friend from college that you haven't talked to in a while, or a colleague that you used to work with and you don't anymore. I know I did this before, but something happened during the pandemic where I found those conversations to be so meaningful to me. Find someone outside of your normal tribe to bounce ideas off of and just listen to them. See what kind of struggle they're having and finding out that oh, my gosh, it's so similar to mine, even though our paths have not crossed in so long." KRISTEN'S TIP FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Do something for yourself personally, or professionally. Whether it's joining the cohort, such at the IES Women in Sales Leadership Forum or just joining a different group. I think it's really easy. Sometimes it's good to step outside of the traditional things that you do. Take a class, join a group, join the cohort to invest back in yourself. It's something that I need to remind myself and it can really be life changing."

This is episode 360. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Gamea Changers Podcast website. JANET'S TIP FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "When you're selling, 72% of the people will Google you before they have a conversation with you, both Twitter and LinkedIn pay money to come up to the top of Google. So if you post 3-5 times a week on LinkedIn, all you have to do is share an article and then just use the same post on Twitter just shortened, you will show up on the first page in Google and Twitter. If you have a really common name like John Smith, you're going to want to use a middle initial or use some kind of a John Killer-Seller Smith or whatever you want to use for that moniker, but you will come up first. You can't buy that, it would cost you too much money, LinkedIn and Twitter bought that for you. As a seller, understand that that's the behavior that buyers are having now and use it to your advantage. Get found and you will get sales."

This is episode 359. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. KD'S TIP FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "This might be too blunt, but truthfully, I feel most reps don't actually take their careers as serious as they could and should. Most salespeople - and this applies to vets and new reps, put more time and dedication to their high school sport, band or hobby than they have their sales career, period. Point blank, I'm going to call it out. Whatever it is that they're selling, they're selling to HR, they're selling to finance, they don't immerse themselves into where their prospects live. What are the forums the prospects are in? What are the magazines the prospect subscribes to? What are the Google Alerts that would make the prospect's world better? Who are the thought leaders of the prospects? They don't take it seriously. That is where I think most sales reps go wrong. They don't treat it like the career and the gift that it is. Sales is such a gift, I truly believe it's one of the best careers you can have. What other career out there could someone like myself have and to make the money that I make and have the impact that I have other than sales?"

This is episode 358. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. ANGELA'S TIP FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Salespeople solve problems for people. If you don't believe in it, and it doesn't fit with your values and what you believe in, your success is going to be hard found. When I find myself being defensive or denying the importance of something, I know something's up. If I start getting defensive, something's wrong that I probably caused. Maybe I need to up my game and get back out there and push a little harder. The defensiveness is my key, that's when I stop and ask myself what's going on. I think you can use that with a team too. If you've got a teammate that you ask about how did the call go, and they get all defensive, when it went bad, they start blaming everybody else. Hey, who owned the call? Let's start figuring out what's going on. That was one of the tricks that I'd kind of come up with, and it's held true for a few years now."

This is episode 357. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. MARGIE'S TIP FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Just write down a list right now the names of 10 people that you would love to have a conversation with. Maybe it's a direct sales conversation, maybe it's a relationship you'd like to nurture, maybe you've been wavering on, "I don't know if I should." Just write down your idea list of 10 people that you would really love a conversation with. Then make a point over the next 10 days to reach out to every one of them. The sooner the better, at least one in the next 24 hours and just make that commitment. At the end of the day it's a little bit of a numbers game here, you've got to be in it to win it and you've got to risk the rejection. Put that out there. Obviously 100 would be even better, but I'm just trying to go with something that's doable."

This is episode 356. Read the complete transcription on The Sales Game Changers Podcast website. RODERICK'S TIP FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "First, get away from being viewed as the fixers of broken things. Sales Enablement is not the junk drawer where you've got a thimble and a spoon, a paper clip and a dirty sock. You have to put together a charter that outlines and defines specifically what your organization is responsible for and what it's not responsible for, and that doesn't mean this is NOT what we do. What it means is this is not the highest level of value that we will bring to the organization. You've got to have that charter, otherwise, you become the fixers of broken things and that junk drawer. Lastly, you cannot HOPE that this is going to work, you can't hope that Sales sees the value. You can't hope that you're going to get the results that you're going to need. You can't hope that you're going to be able to right size your organization and you can't hope that you're going to be viewed as an integral partner internally. Because as my hashtag goes, #HopeIsNotAStrategy.

This is episode 355. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. CAROLINE'S TIP FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "I really think it gets down to the person on the other end of the phone always wants to be heard. We as salespeople come armed with a deck and want to bulldoze over them. Take the time just to listen to the other person, let them feel heard, let them feel like you understand where they're coming from. Don't be afraid to be that thought leader and push them into a new direction, push them to what other companies are doing that you deem as the best that are out there. That is the best steward you can be for the company of changing mindset and how you all can support them." NICOLE'S TIP FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Ask your leader and your customer what your reputation is, how are you perceived? That can be a simple one, but it's a hard one. Be ready for the response and have an open heart when you ask it. Go to your leader right now and ask what your reputation is in the company. Go to your top customers right now and ask what your reputation is. Or say, "Why are you still doing business with me?" I think that is probably some of the most valuable information you'll ever get. Feedback is a gift, and if we create that as part of our culture, make it open, make it as a very positive thing in your culture and your team, I think you can really get yourself to the next level."