The Sales Evangelist

Gatekeepers: the infamous villains of the sales world. Regardless of industry, most high-level executives employ some type of executive assistant or secretary to serve as a gatekeeper. A necessary part of the professional world, these assistants act as a filter that forces salespeople to maintain high standards and thoughtful targeting to pass. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald interviews Natasha Bowles, founder of Natasha Bowles Professional Staffing Agency, to learn more about how salespeople should interact with gatekeepers for more successful results.  The main priority of an executive assistant: securing the executive’s time.  If Natasha didn’t protect her executive’s time, salespeople (among others) would occupy all their time. That doesn’t mean salespeople are bad. But it does mean she ensures the salespeople she lets pass are prepared and offer a product or service genuinely beneficial to her executive’s company. Executives receive 250-1000 emails every day. She is a necessary filter that helps executives find time to do their jobs.  Therefore, as salespeople, you must convince both the executive and the gatekeeper that you’re worthy of their time. Get past the virtual inbox - Natasha’s tips for email outreach: Natasha automatically discards anything that looks like an email blast- emails containing no information about the company and just discuss the sender’s product. To get to the executive, show initiative, research the target company and show how you can help solve a problem. It’s not just personalizing the email; it’s demonstrating understanding of the target and what you can offer them. It’s basic human decency, but still applicable: be respectful. Gatekeepers will notes a dismissive or demanding salesperson. And, if they need that product or service, the gatekeeper will look elsewhere. In 2018, Natasha was tasked with finding an alarm system, water cooler, and other aspects for a new building. The man she was looking to buy from refused to talk to her, insisting on interacting with her executive at every stage of the buying journey. Natasha ultimately ended the partnership with his company because he refused to work with her, and she found a different supplier. Salespeople have a long-standing perception that they need to speak with the decision-maker. But the decision-maker doesn’t necessarily mean the top-level executive. It’s whoever is in charge of the decision (I know, it’s shocking.) Develop (and maintain) a relationship with the gatekeeper to be effective. Find a balance between demonstrating product knowledge without going over people’s heads. Don’t explain hyper-specific nuances, but emphasize what sets your product apart from the competition. Maintaining a relationship is just as important as the initial sale. Remember, executives meet with 5-15 people each day. And executive assistants interact with dozens more. If you don’t interact with the gatekeeper until it’s time to upsell a year later, that gatekeeper will not remember you.  Maintain the relationship, stay in touch, and develop a personal connection to ensure the gatekeeper reaches out when the time comes. Connect with her on LinkedIn (at natashabeingww) to learn more about her experiences.  This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio. Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real. But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com. This course is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Certified Training Program, designed to help new and struggling sellers master sales fundamentals and close more deals. Help elevate your sales game and sign up now to get the first two modules free! You can visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals or call (561) 570-5077 for more information. We value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings for each episode you listen to!  Read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore their huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day trial. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

Like with any job, your sales performance will be far better with the proper mindset. A focused attitude, combined with a strong feeling of self-worth and knowing who you are as a human being, affects all areas of your life. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by Robert Workman to learn how to empower ourselves to have a mindset conducive to sales success. You need to have confidence in both your work and yourself.   Have confidence that you’ll show up as yourself, regardless of what meeting, event, or circumstance you find yourself in.  Many salespeople lack a strong sense of confidence but finding that confidence empowers you to do whatever you need to do to succeed. How you can be more focused as a sales professional:  Once you’re confident in yourself, you can accomplish what you know is suitable for your career rather than what other people might tell you is correct. Robert’s book Selling - The Most Dangerous Game encourages you to look at the leadership and style of work in your workplace to determine if it is the right environment for you. Have the confidence to acknowledge if this workplace will be conducive to your success rather than forcing something that doesn’t work. To ensure success, take ownership of your time. Eliminating distractions is paramount to the success of a salesperson.  When dealing with adversity, you have to have a total belief in yourself. You have to believe you can walk into a business meeting and accomplish what you need to do. To get in touch with Robert, visit his website, hiredgun.us, for his email, contact information, and links to his books. This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio. Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real. But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com. This course is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Certified Training Program, designed to help new and struggling sellers master sales fundamentals and close more deals. Help elevate your sales game and sign up now to get the first two modules free! You can visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals or call (561) 570-5077 for more information. We value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings for each episode you listen to!  Read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore their huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day trial. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

Whether or not you and your business utilize account-based selling, you won’t obtain the sales figures you want without the right messaging and communication. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by sales consultant and strategic advisor Scott Leese to learn how salespeople can ensure they’re using messaging that delivers results. How can a salesperson ensure solid messaging? Have the client explain and describe what problems and challenges they have. During the first interaction with a potential client, some businesses will try to talk about themselves. Don’t do that. Selling is more than convincing the prospect to buy your product. The first step is simply to pique their interest. The traditional mass-email strategy is no longer effective. People are inundated with vague email pitches.  While this was once a good strategy, the pendulum has now swung in the opposite direction, and the number of importance is no longer volume; it’s conversions. We have to be thoughtful, customer-focused, and targeted. How to create thoughtful messaging: Find out more about your target. Research the individual and the company, find one or two key points and then reach out. Most importantly: Understand you won’t hit a home run every time. Don’t spend hours researching one prospect. Instead, find something to have a simple but thoughtful conversation. If you put yourself out there in a casual, thoughtful, authentic way, that puts people at ease. And that ease allows them to pass that onto somebody else. Scott’s main takeaway is: Be sincere, be human, and be thoughtful. Don’t overthink or try to get an A+; college is over. To get in touch with Scott, connect with him on LinkedIn, and check him out on Thursday Night Sales, the longest-running virtual sales happy hour. You can also tune in to his podcast, The Surf & Sales Podcast. This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio. Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real. But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com. This course is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Certified Training Program, designed to help new and struggling sellers master sales fundamentals and close more deals. Help elevate your sales game and sign up now to get the first two modules free! You can visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals or call (561) 570-5077 for more information. We value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings for each episode you listen to!  Read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore their huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day trial. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

Every salesperson has been in this situation at some point: marketing delivers a handful of leads, only for nobody to respond after you initiate contact. While frustrating, that’s an unfortunate downfall of the lead-based selling model, and a great reason why pivoting to an account-based sales model could be beneficial for you. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald explains what account-based selling is and how you can implement it into your approach.  Account-based selling is an excellent approach for many businesses. Rather than utilize a traditional lead-based model, an account-based approach focuses on the ideal client account of your company and how you can attract similar clients to them. An account-based strategy will keep your marketing and sales departments unified and focused on the same target, generating more touchpoints and communications with the ideal client most likely to purchase. How to start using an account-based approach: First, make a list of the people most likely to buy from you. This list should be a series of criteria that only a select group will fit. Second, discover companies that fit these descriptions. Finally, multithread. Don’t reach out to just one person at the company; find three to five people you might want to interact with. What is the benefit of account-based selling? Marketing and sales will continue their typical outreach: the white papers, the events, and the webinars.  Only now, it’ll come with a focus and a mission that is aligned with the ideal account most beneficial to the salespeople. Account-based targeting allows you to create content specifically for your ideal client. While the reach might be smaller, the likelihood of moving those ideal clients through the funnel is much more significant. It takes time and work to develop the playbook to make this process run seamlessly. But once the plan is in place, you’ll find opportunities for more growth and more sales. Join our Facebook group, The Sales Evangelizers, to share your sales story and join a community of people dedicated to growing their profession. This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio. Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real. But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com. This course is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Certified Training Program, designed to help new and struggling sellers master sales fundamentals and close more deals. Help elevate your sales game and sign up now to get the first two modules free! You can visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals or call (561) 570-5077 for more information. We value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings for each episode you listen to!  Read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore their huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day trial. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

Embracing the technological capabilities of the modern-day isn’t just a good idea; it’s a necessity. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by Peter Kazanjy, the founder of Atrium and Modern Sales Pros (the nation’s largest sales, operations and leadership peer-education community.) As an author on early-stage sales excellent (Founding Sales), Peter is a sales expert who knows why you need to become a data-driven sales seller. What does it mean to be a data-driven seller? It’s very similar to the innovation we’ve seen in athletics and high-end professions: someone utilizes every available advantage.  Especially with people working from home, there’s an opportunity to use new information to improve rep and team performance. If you don’t utilize these new technological innovations to make data-informed decisions, you’re going to be in a bad spot. How do you sell embracing technology to managers? There are two historical reasons sales managers are typically blocked from a data-driven perspective: their ability and enablement, or the available tooling. Simple deal inspection is a standard management style, but it’s no longer the most effective. Enabling managers to manage metrics and goals is necessary to close the number of deals needed to stay viable.  Transitioning to a data-driven framework, especially as a manager, only benefits the team and brings in more money, making it a practical adjustment when given the proper resources. How can I go about starting if I don’t have management support? Start paying attention to the important precursors. There's a conversion rate for the total number of accounts you interact with and the number of opportunities you create. Similarly, there will be a correlation between outreach efforts and movement through a conversion funnel. It’s like doing your daily pushups - consistency is key. Even if you don’t have the support of those around you, tracking simple metrics yourself will significantly help your own sales goals. What metrics should we tackle first? The further upstream you can get, the better. Ensure you are meeting not just the quantity threshold you need, but one of quantity. Don’t email a few people; spread your portfolio. Who are you engaging with? Are you doing a good job, indicated by the response rate and opportunities created? Peter’s major takeaway: Understand the importance of data-driven sales management. Whether that’s investing in highly specialized software or just keeping track on a whiteboard in your living room, using data to make decisions will provide critical opportunities for growth in your organization. To get in touch with Peter, connect with him on LinkedIn. His company Atrium is offering special deals on various resources (and even coffee mugs) for listeners of The Sales Evangelist, which you can access at atriumhq.com/tse. This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio. Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real. But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com. This course is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Certified Training Program, designed to help new and struggling sellers master sales fundamentals and close more deals. Help elevate your sales game and sign up now to get the first two modules free! You can visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals or call (561) 570-5077 for more information. We value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings for each episode you listen to!  Read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore their huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day trial. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

To own or not to own, that is the question. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by Mike Farrell, who specializes in outsourcing SDR work so their clients can focus on other tasks. Should you and your company use an external SDR team, or should you invest in and develop a team yourself? Find out in today’s episode. With 18 years in the SDR world, Mike knows when to outsource versus invest in a team yourself. The answer? It all depends on where your company is in its maturation process. Startups and recently created companies likely don’t have the tools, people, or finances in place to develop their own team successfully (and should therefore outsource.) On the other hand, after receiving two or three rounds of investment, it might be wise to create your own team with a more in-depth understanding of what your company offers. What even is “outsourcing”? Mike’s company has two different outsourcing methods: they use their own software, systems and people to perform the tasks themselves. This means the SDR team can be rapidly deployed, but a third-party organization still owns it. This is a common model for startups. The other model is a pay-per-appointment method, reserved more for companies that have enterprise companies as clients. How to determine if you should outsource your team’s SDR work: Work backward: First, decide on your final sales goals and objectives.  Look at how many deals you made in a time frame and the win rate of the prospects you contacted. Total the number of prospects you interacted with across all mediums, and determine if you have the number of staff required to reach your goals based on your win rate. If the answer is no, you need to hire an external vendor to augment that (or staff up your internal SDR organization.) To get in contact with Mike, visit his company website at Greenleads.com or email him at mike.farrell@greenleads.com. This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio. Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real. But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com. This course is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Certified Training Program, designed to help new and struggling sellers master sales fundamentals and close more deals. Help elevate your sales game and sign up now to get the first two modules free! You can visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals or call (561) 570-5077 for more information. We value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings for each episode you listen to!  Read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore their huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day trial. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

Branding is way more than the marketing or the marketing team - it’s establishing and helping people realize you’re an authority. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by branding expert Marc Gutman to learn why businesses that invest in branding win out over those that don’t. Marc’s branding journey started because of the power of storytelling: Marc worked in the movie business, working with award-winning director Oliver Stone. It was in this field where he learned what the power of storytelling could do for an organization. He moved to branding after moving to Colorado, where he discovered a fantastic community of startup entrepreneurs. Marc started his own business (which he ended up selling) and then started his branding agency, Wild Story. A brand has one job: Get people to buy more stuff for more years at a higher price.  There are two ways for an organization to increase its margins: lower costs or increase the price of goods or services.  To raise the price without reducing transactions, you must increase the product’s perceived value so people are more willing to pay more. Everyone has a brand, even as an individual: Whether you like it or not, people want to know about you if they’re going to work with you. And because people no longer work in the same career or organization their entire life,  you always need to be building a brand reputation for your future. There’s only room for one person to be the cheapest in the market. For everyone else, there is branding to emphasize what you bring to the table. What can an organization do to develop a brand? Become a thought leader and make content. Whether that’s video, podcasts, or blogs, pick a medium that you like and start creating! A brand is not your logo, tagline, or website. It’s the words and underlying DNA behind your organization. People have a gut feeling about your products and service, and you influence that through your words. A brand should become repetitive to you internally, but it should never feel repetitive externally.  Check him out on Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit his website at wildstory.com. This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio. Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real. But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com. This course is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Certified Training Program, designed to help new and struggling sellers master sales fundamentals and close more deals. Help elevate your sales game and sign up now to get the first two modules free! You can visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals or call (561) 570-5077 for more information. We value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings for each episode you listen to!  Read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore their huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day trial. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

It’s time to celebrate The Sales Evangelist’s 1500th episode! To celebrate this milestone, today’s episode is a little different. Rather than bringing in a guest, Donald looks back at past episodes to discuss five sales principles that have been important to him as a salesman, businessman, and just throughout his life. Just getting started Listening to the first TSE episode is...rough. But there’s an important takeaway: don’t judge your “episode one” to someone else’s episode 1500.  As a new seller, don’t compare yourself to a veteran seller with years of experience. Nobody is great at something initially. So, just start, and don’t compare yourself to the quality of others. The principles of selling are the same. This podcast has interviewed all types of people, from authors and sellers to industry experts.  According to Jeb in a previous episode, the selling process has not evolved because salespeople still go through similar processes, connect with people, and solve problems. What has changed are the tools and information available and the buyers’ expectations. Winning the morning Episode seven of the podcast was about something critical: time management.  According to the guest from that episode, Justin Su’a, winning the morning means starting strong. The problem isn’t that there aren’t enough hours in the day; the problem is that we don’t take advantage of the time available. Winning the day doesn’t mean you have to wake up at three or four in the morning (necessarily); just put the most pressing tasks and high-priority items first. Learning to be agile According to the one and only Jill Conrad, salespeople need to find a way to stay agile. Agile selling is getting up to speed on sales practices as soon as possible.  Learning these new practices makes salespeople more relevant and helpful to their prospects. To become a more agile seller, set aside a portion of your day to read, study, and understand new sales techniques and practices. Your net worth will directly tie into your network. People connect LinkedIn connections like Pokemon. (Which we can guarantee you isn’t the best practice.) Don’t just add people and never respond. Instead, make genuine connections with people! Create a stronger relationship that will provide help and support later down the line. A great intro to reach out to someone on LinkedIn? Share your favorite episode of The Sales Evangelist or Donald’s article in Success Magazine! (It might be a shameless plug on our end, but can you blame us?) This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio. Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real. But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com. This course is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Certified Training Program, designed to help new and struggling sellers master sales fundamentals and close more deals. Help elevate your sales game and sign up now to get the first two modules free! You can visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals or call (561) 570-5077 for more information. We value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings for each episode you listen to!  Read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore their huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day trial. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

A common problem for salespeople is interacting solely with just one stakeholder. But in reality, involving multiple people is the perfect strategy to help deals go through (and make more people excited about them.) In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by Amy Hrehovcik to discuss her strategy to apply multi-threading throughout your sales process. Amy’s sales experience is extensive. After selling for nearly a decade, Amy finished at Thomson Reuters before transitioning to marketing consulting (eventually working in a startup as the Chief of Customer Value.) She later pivoted to sales enablement, realizing she had a passion for teaching sellers and empowering sales leaders. Amy now hosts the podcast Revenue Real Hotline, where she discusses uncomfortable conversations in sales. Why did she start the podcast? She wrote an article (Mental Health, The Greatest Competitive Advantage That You’ll Ever Know), and it was viewed by the great Andy Paul. He invited her onto his show, and participating in that made her realize the importance of podcasting in sales. (Check out Donald’s guest appearance on her show.) Today’s topic: Multi-threading Multi-threading describes liaising with multiple stakeholders and executive sponsors throughout an organization.  The average number of buyers involved in the buying motion was 6.7. Since that time, it has increased. Because her main selling vertical was big law, Amy realized the importance of proactively engaging with multiple stakeholders early on to minimize the objections buyers would have when moving the deal forward. Why should you consider this selling approach? Not to sound cliche (but we will anyway), it’s the same reason you don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Amy began to hold off on doing deep-dive demos until at least three executive sponsors were in the room because it diversified the risk for the individuals involved.  They were no longer the sole advocate for a product (assuming they like it), thus limiting the amount of blame and buyer’s remorse people might feel after implementation. Because the buying process is getting longer, executives will invariably drop out of the acquisition process. But when you have two or three other executives who want to see the deal move forward, it is much more likely to move through. How can you begin to develop this approach? Communicate with the original executive sponsor that you want to help them make the right decision, and you can do that by demonstrating the business case on your behalf.  Ask permission to have conversations with others or other departments to learn how others reach a particular goal. The Heath Brothers wrote in one of their books (Made to Stick) the idea of bright spots. Because of the relationships she developed throughout this discovery phase, she could return to her original executive sponsor and deliver a detailed report that helped both of their causes. One major takeaway from multithreading? Just do it. It’s like anything else- you might not be good at it at first. But with practice, you’ll begin to see success. To contact Amy, connect with her on LinkedIn to learn more about her process with multithreading. This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio. Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real. But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com. This course is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Certified Training Program, designed to help new and struggling sellers master sales fundamentals and close more deals. Help elevate your sales game and sign up now to get the first two modules free! You can visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals or call (561) 570-5077 for more information. We value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings for each episode you listen to!  Read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore their huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day trial. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

It’s the golden rule of life: treat others the way you want to be treated. As sales professionals, you do this by playing the long game, building relationships rather than focusing on the sale. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald interviews David Henzel to learn David’s approach and strategy to being customer-centric in modern selling.  What does it mean to be customer-centric? In essence, a customer-centric salesperson sets customers up for success.  It’s helping your customers succeed (or positioning them to be successful) instead of worrying purely about making a sale. Selling out of fear only provides mediocre results. If you sell to make a commission, the customer’s problem might not be solved, and they might not want to be your advocate as readily. A happy customer tells their friend, but an unhappy customer tells the world. To close customer success gaps, you can either write copy on your website to inform potential buyers (as a facet of content marketing) or partner with a sales coach to teach proper outbound messaging. To understand your client’s needs, you must play the long game.  Don’t give the customer what you think they want; find out what they need and give them that. You’ll naturally get referrals if you sell what the customer needs instead of what you want them to need. People won’t typically brag about a platform or service they use, but they will brag about material things.  Try giving gifts to your clients to generate more referrals and word-of-mouth marketing. The key, however, is to give stuff people will use. Otherwise, it’ll end up in someone’s closet (or trash can.) If your rapport with the customer is strong enough, simply ask! David’s major piece of advice: act out of love, not fear. It’ll change not just your professional relationships but your personal ones as well. For more great content from David, check out his podcast  How We Solve. The questionnaire on Understanding the jungle that will help understand your customer better. You can also learn more about his portfolio companies on his personal website https://www.davidhenzel.com/, and connect with him on LinkedIn to stay updated on everything he’s doing! (And be sure to mention you came from The Sales Evangelist.) This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio. Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real. But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com. This course is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Certified Training Program, designed to help new and struggling sellers master sales fundamentals and close more deals. Help elevate your sales game and sign up now to get the first two modules free! You can visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals or call (561) 570-5077 for more information. We value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings for each episode you listen to!  Read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore their huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day trial. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com