The Sales Evangelist

As we kick off our latest series on the importance of differentiation from competition in the sales process, Donald is joined by Tim Pollard to learn more about message building. As the CEO of Oratium, he’s learned the importance of messaging that delivers results and makes an impact on its audience. The most common messaging problems: There is no differentiation. Differentiation has to be embedded somewhere. Otherwise, you will not be memorable. Three toxic mistakes characterize the way we structure messaging: We pack too much into messaging. Forty-slide decks are overwhelming, and nobody pays attention to them. Most modern sales messaging is too confusing or has an unclear value proposition. Almost all messaging is self-oriented. It’s about the salesperson or their company instead of relating it to the client. This leads to two problems: The initial sales meeting isn’t compelling.  Most messaging fails the retellability test. The goal shouldn’t be first meeting success; it should be second meeting success. You should tell your story in that first sales meeting. But It’s even more about that person’s ability to retell your story and solution in their private meeting with a decision-maker later on (AKA the second meeting.)  Sales messaging has an important goal: retellability. You can’t speak just to the interest of the person in the meeting, you have to talk to the interests of that next meeting. This is even more difficult when virtual. It’s more complicated than remembering to wear pants; it’s moving a social practice to an asocial environment. Think about the clarity and specificity of your message. If you have too much information, you have even less chance of keeping attention. The loss of feedback and social cues when virtual can be a barrier to success. It’s a paradox of communication - we do things we hate to experience ourselves. We go back and do the things that don’t work - it’s out of habit and it’s easy to continue to do it. And nobody has ever given a workable model. The true key to breaking bad habits is to teach a workable and different solution. You’ve got to know your story. If you’re reading from a deck, you won’t succeed. To learn how to develop better communication habits, check out Tim’s books The Compelling Communicator and Mastering the Moment. Oratium has a ten-lesson e-learning for designing and executing a sales conversation, designed specifically for a virtual environment, on their website. Tim’s major takeaway? Many people try to whittle down their messaging by cutting a deck from 50 to 25 slides. Just stop using the deck altogether! Instead, fundamentally restructure your communication to no longer use a failed model. Create an aligned messaging structure based on what works. Connect with Tim on LinkedIn. Join Donald’s Facebook group, The Sales Evangelizers, to find a community of people to share, reflect, and grow with! 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 the fundamentals of sales 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, tune in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, and 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

Today’s episode kicks off the latest Sales Evangelist series: differentiating from your competitors! As we move into this series, it’s time you learn three easy ways you can stand out from the competition. (Best of all, the majority of sales reps aren’t doing these things.)  But why is differentiating critical? You have so many other salespeople to compete against.  When one person stands out from the other, they’re more likely to land the sale (even if your products do the exact same thing.) Be curious. Most salespeople go into a conversation and ask boilerplate questions. The problem? Everyone asks those questions, so you aren’t getting any more information than your competition.  Sales reps should come to the table with information that leads to better questions, which means finding the right intel. Not only what the prospect and their company are doing, but why they’re doing it.  Stay one step ahead. Determine how you can be one step ahead of the competition.  Have an agenda when you go into the meeting. Send a recap email once you’re finished. If a prospect sees those things, they’ll see the effort and understand that you want to make positive changes for their organization. Especially when you have a meeting with a business executive, they might have 15 meetings a day. Sending an agenda shows these business professionals that you mean business. Be creative. Think outside the box! Find ways you can do something other people simply don’t do. Find some way to personalize a message. Handwrite a note. Send a small gift. Just try to make yourself stand out, and the prospect will notice. And of course, a bonus tip: make them look good: Make the prospect look good, either internally or externally.  Maybe you write a nice post on LinkedIn talking about them, adding a quote they said to show you were paying attention.  Mention an article they published or were posted in, and share that with your audience. They’ll certainly appreciate the sentiment! Join Donald’s Facebook group, The Sales Evangelizers, to find a community of people to share, reflect, and grow with! 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 the fundamentals of sales 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, tune in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, and 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

Today’s plan is simple: Donald is sharing his number one productivity strategy for sales. What is it? Find out on today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist.    Focus on one thing at a time. (Earth-shattering, I know.) This idea might not be crazy, but the results that come of it sure can be. Only 2.5% of people are able to multitask successfully. (That’s a very slim number of people.) That means you probably can’t respond to clients, check your email, and prospect on LinkedIn while maintaining the standards you would for just one thing. But even if you can, no matter how productive you are, it isn’t as efficient as focusing on one singular task at hand.   How does this affect our productivity? You get an email. You leave your current task to check your email. That email leads you to check your availability for a get-together. You check Facebook for information about the get-together. You start to watch videos while on Facebook. Before you know it, an hour has gone by, and you still haven’t finished the task at hand. Sound familiar?  Donald’s advice? Close the tabs and remove the distractions that aren’t conducive to the task at hand. Even you’re one of the 2.5% who can actually multitask, do what you can to ensure you’re giving your best to the task at hand, and only do one thing if you find yourself slacking or not performing your best. Create the proposal or update the CRM. But close ESPN, Facebook, and those 15 different google docs.  Remember, the more productive you are throughout your day, the more tasks you’re able to check off.   Do you have a productivity hack? Share it in Donald’s Facebook group, The Sales Evangelizers! (But don’t do it while working on something. We’ll be here when you’re done.)   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 the fundamentals of sales 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, tune in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, and 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

If there was a way for you, as a salesperson, to make more money, would you? (We hope you’d answer yes to that question.) Don’t worry, we got you! Today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist features Roy Redd, who shares his three strategies for you to make more money, have a bigger impact, and take more time off (which sure sounds like a deal to us.) USP: Determine your unique selling proposition. Make your business unique. Dominoes Pizza changed the pizza game with their “hot and ready in thirty minutes or it’s free.” Know what your company offers, what your message is, and what you can deliver. What can you do that’s unique? Can you guarantee something? Is it speed? Is it language? There are many ways to be different. Roy’s podcast, The Entrepreneur Underdog, is different. Why? Because it tailors to specific emotional perception of some entrepreneurs.  The best method to identify your USP is to ask your audience. Ask them why they worked with you? Go through those responses to see what stands out to your customers. Positioning: Be the guru at the top of a mountain in your industry. Tony Robbins is the best-positioned person in his space. There are multiple ways to put yourself at the top. Get to the point where you’re realized as the best in your game.  How do you get to that point? It’s all about branding.  A brand is artifacts in the market that say who you are and what you do.  Depending on what your business, maybe you write a book, speak at a presentation or conference, or even create a course.  The most well-positioned people show they can help educate and provide information people want.  Systems: Money doesn’t create freedom, systems do.  You got into business for the freedom. Business owners have a hundred things they’re doing and a hundred things they aren’t. Figure out what’s working, and do that. Use lead results and measures to set up a plan to get you where you want to go. For example, Roy knows for every 150 managers he emails, he gets one repsonse. Plan your goals and daily schedule around that. Why do people have challenges creating systems? It’s not about time management; it’s about energy management.  You’ve got to hire, delegate, and prioritize the tasks that make you successful and develop systems around those strategies. Whether that’s email outreach, LinkedIn messaging, utilize it. (And take advantage of AI!)) Anything you do consistently can be automated. Figure out how to automate your workload to develop systems. Major takeaway: There are only two ways to grow sales: pricing (charging more) and improving business processes (which is utilizing the three strategies in the episode.) To get in touch with Roy, DM him on Instagram (@roy_redd) and visit his website for a free downloadable book that dives deeper into today’s topics. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn.  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 the fundamentals of sales 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, tune in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, and 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

When you have sales meetings with your prospects, the last you need is a boring presentation turning people away from your awesome content. You want them to get excited! And on today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by Alex Dripchak, relationship manager at Mercer, to give us his inside tips to learn how to lead, run, and organize effective meetings.   Why is Alex so passionate about demystifying sales? Alex founded and runs Commence, a college to career development skill program. He’s also recently published a book on destigmatizing sales for younger people, which breaks down the positive traits and skills salespeople have. With 57 U.S. colleges having an official sales major, the word “sales” is slowly become less of a dirty word. However, there is an entrenched viewpoint people need to overcome.   How can you lead effective meetings in your sales life? There are components of meetings, whether virtual or in-person, that just suck. Namely, when people push their own agendas down your throat. So, how instead can you turn that into an effective meeting? Structure your meetings around reaching individual goals that lead to the end result. Keep yourself dynamic and versatile in responding to the needs of individual clients. Ask better questions that lead to higher engagement to encourage the prospect’s voice. To save time, create a framework to use for every first call, contract negotiation, or meeting with a specific purpose. Then, tailor that framework for individual clients, so you don’t recreate the wheel each time.   The Three Strategies: Shut up and listen Develop effective questions Rehearse and practice   Of course, what would TSE be without a bonus strategy? Understand the subtlety between question and engagement prompts.  The default is inertia, or lack of movement. Get your prospects to engage with you. For example, Alex responds, “did I answer your question in full” after answering a prospect’s question. Not only does this put the onus on himself, but it also encourages prospects to further indicate if they need more explanation.  Integrate engagement prompts throughout a presentation or meeting to keep people focused. Don’t set aside 20 minutes for a Q&A that may or may not be needed. Stop treating people as roles, prospects, and managers. Think of them as people. They aren’t just invested in the company, they’re invested in themselves.    Alex’s major takeaway: Especially in complex sales, make sure you spend time proportionally to its importance. If you aren’t bordering on something tedious and tiresome for an important task, you haven’t gone far enough.   To get in contact with Alex, you can find him at his website (which includes links and information to his new book), his coaching website for current college students and recent graduates, or connect with him on LinkedIn.   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 the fundamentals of sales 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, tune in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, and 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

Developing a sales pitch can be time-consuming and challenging, especially when creating an entirely new presentation or document each time. But there’s undoubtedly an easier process, right? That’s exactly what today’s guest did. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by Jason Lapp, the president and COO of Beautiful.ai, to explain how you can cut your pitch development time in half. But first, what is a pitch? Pitches can look wildly different for each person and company. Some might be an in-person meeting, some just a document, and others somewhere in between. In today’s world of remote selling, you have to be highly engaging, have great content, and be precise.   The biggest change? You can no longer expect a decision at that moment. You have to focus on the follow-up, sending the right information, in addition to the pitch itself. A big challenge with creating a deck is finding a balance between premade content and content for your specific pitch.  Branding should always be consistent, but the method you convey aspects of your pitch could vary. There are 30 million presentations created per day, and over 1 billion people with presentation software installed on their desktops. The challenge? Those common presentation platforms were created 30 years ago. Platforms like Canva and Beautiful.ai don’t force people to start from scratch; they provide a starting point to get things done faster. Beautiful.ai focuses on design automation. You create content based on what you want to say while the platform designs for you.  Marketing departments can (and should) build out templates to provide starting points for the salesperson. This way, salespeople have pre-approved content they can then tweak for their specific client. Creating a pitch: Once you know what you want to present, storyboard concepts before production. Storyboarding cuts down time by filling in the dots instead of plotting out where the dots need to go. Use some sort of collaborative platform, especially in today’s virtual marketplace. Salespeople need to focus on sales. They shouldn’t waste time on marketing elements when they could have pre-approved templates with design elements pre-approved. Somebody out there is asking, “why not use google slides?” Google slides is excellent. Any platform that allows for collaboration is certainly a step in the right direction. The challenge with slides, keynote, or PowerPoint is that they are primarily design softwares. You can use old decks, but you then make each design edit yourself, whereas Beautiful.ai makes design decisions for you.  We do things as sales professionals that were established over the decades. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s right. We no longer have to be designers.  Jason’s major takeaway? Don’t reinvent the wheel. If you’re creating a pitch, you should have content and templates to start from. Don’t spend time designing, spend time on selling. To contact Jason, visit his company website Beautiful.ai, and the software is free to trial and use. And, anybody that mentions they came from The Sales Evangelist gets 25% off! (How can you resist that?) 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 the fundamentals of sales 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, tune in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, and 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

Time management is often considered one of the essential skills to master in the professional world. As one of the resources we never seem to have enough of, time certainly is a resource to use to the best of our abilities. But today’s guest, Antonio Thornton, argues that time management doesn’t exist. How does it not? Check out today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist to find out! Why does time management not exist?  How many hours in the day do you have? 24. Just like everyone else. You can’t manage time, but you can manage yourself according to time. Managing yourself within time comes down to three main criteria: monitoring, monetizing, and maximizing your time. Monitoring your time: Most people have no idea what they’re doing. Most people confuse busy with productive - they do not equate. Productive does not equate to profitable.  The productivity paradox: People tend to focus on tasks that make them feel productive, even if they aren’t profitable. Cleaning out your inbox or desk and shuffling papers might keep you busy, but those tasks aren’t productive. Monetizing your time: There is no difference between each other’s times. Most of us spend time on activities that don’t generate revenue - responding to email, completing training, and updating websites. While these things might be necessary, they aren’t RGAs: revenue-generating activities. It doesn’t matter how much work you put into these activities; you won’t make any money no matter how much time you contribute. Learning and training are productive tasks, and research is a productive activity that can inform you before a sales call, but those tasks in of themselves aren’t profitable. If you only do those tasks, you will not make a single dollar. Whether you’re a salesperson or entrepreneur, there’s only one thing that makes money in sales: getting an offer in front of people. Maximizing your time: The difference between a salesperson who generates $60,000 versus $6 million is all in what they do each day. Ask yourself how you can leverage what you’re doing to create an exponential result. Find the tasks and projects you can accomplish that lead to a higher amount of RGA. Antonio’s final takeaway? Time is our most valuable commodity. To have a great life, moderate, monetize, and maximize your time. To get in touch with him, visit his company website or send an email to time@timebank.gps.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 the fundamentals of sales 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, tune in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, and 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

We often overlook one area when working in sales, and it’s not prospecting, closing, or even relationship-building. It’s productivity. 79% of sales executives say improving productivity is the leading driver to reach or exceed a sales target. So, in today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald gives three reasons why salespeople have a hard time planning, and hopefully, you’ll be able to find the productivity that leads to sales success.     There’s no formal education to teach productivity for salespeople.   This is from a company standpoint. There are programs (like ours), but internally, organizations don’t spend time teaching productivity.  49% of organizations have zero or limited means of measuring productivity. Donald’s team uses an internal planner he designed to help prioritize productive and measurable tasks. Sales reps frequently believe they don’t have the time to do everything they need. But after analyzing their day or week, they always find areas where they can focus on more meaningful activities.     Multiple things change gears at different speeds.   Sales reps have multiple activities unrelated to success, like researching leads and updating a CRM. None of those directly lead to a sale, but it’s part of an overall process.  Only one-third of a sales rep’s day is talking to prospects, yet 21% of their day is writing emails. Is this a valuable way to spend time? Kevin Kruse’s 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management recommends blocking out your day in 15-minute intervals.  Designate one, two, or however many chunks of time you need for daily tasks, and be dedicated and focused for those specific segments.  Donald’s tip? Utilize a platform like Otter, Google Docs, or even your iPhone to use a voice-to-text feature that writes what you need to put into your CRM.     We have a reactive approach to selling.   Sales is traditionally reactive to the interest of the seller. Instead, you should have a strategy and process in place.  Think of yourself as a rocket scientist. Your schedule is likely filled with redundancies (although yours are probably far less important than the scientist’s. We know it’s true.) 50% of a sales rep is wasted on unproductive things. Are you focusing on the right activities? Look at and evaluate your day. Would you be able to say those are proactive activities?   The moment you can recognize that your time is valuable and you’re more than a cog in a wheel, you can take control of your schedule.    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 the fundamentals of sales 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, tune in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, and 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

In many organizations, to get to the decision-maker, you have to get past a gatekeeper. So how do you get to them? Getting past that gatekeeper is a common challenge among salespeople. But we wanted to change that. So we brought in EksAyn “Eks” Anderson, the man who’s got the key to the metaphorical gate. And on today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, he shares his strategies to get to your decision-makers. Eks is more than just a salesperson.  In addition to speaking, training, and coaching for different organizations, Eks is also the author of The Key to the Gate. His book is an excellent resource for anyone who encounters difficulty reaching their desired decision-maker. Why people have a hard time getting to the decision-makers: Decision-makers don’t have time to talk to every single salesperson or person who wants a meeting. They employ gatekeepers (like a secretary, receptionist, or employee) to weed out people who might be wasting their time.  Strategies to get past the gatekeeper: Know that no organization is the same. What might work at one place might fail elsewhere. Apply the principle of positive reinforcement. When somebody does something helpful for you, reward them immediately.  Start higher than you think you need because influence flows downhill. If you’re in doubt about where to start in the organization, call the higher person than you think you need. Often, they’ll know who to speak to be in a position for success.  Is cold calling dead? It’s so easy to send mass emails or LinkedIn messages. And from a decision-maker’s perspective, they might want a service but have no time to wade through the immense amount of communication they receive each day.  To find more success, differentiate yourself from your competitors. Something as small as complimenting the secretary or researching some quick facts on your phone could make all the difference.  When the person you talk with provides names of others within the organization, note those names and their positions within the company.  If you understand the team and their positions within the organization, you’ll give a sense of deep familiarity with the company.  Eks’ final takeaway? Find out the principles of human relations to sales and then base your techniques around principles that work. If you understand certain principles, you’ll develop a thousand techniques to apply that principle. Techniques work because they’re backed by real principles. Connect with Eks through his website on www.xfactoredge.com or call him directly at 801-669-2425. 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, a course designed to help new and struggling sellers to master the fundamentals of sales 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, tune in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, and 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

Working in sales would be infinitely more manageable if you could get the gatekeeper to work for you instead of against you. But how do you start that process? In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by Taskdrive’s general manager Daniel Viduya to discuss making the gatekeeper an advocate through lead research.     Sales isn’t Lord of the Rings. While there can be a Gandalf “You shall not pass” situation when talking to a gatekeeper, there are ways to make them your advocate. Daniel’s advice: Don’t bro me until you know me; meaning you have no business talking about people in the company until you understand the company itself When convincing a gatekeeper to let you pass, personal information or questions about the decision-maker will not help you. Instead of talking about personal information, talk about the account itself and the problems they experience as a whole. See what difference you can make.   Demonstrate that you want to help and can provide solutions for that company’s specific problem. It's about knowing the business and how you can help the business. The gatekeeper wants to see how you can help the business because the gatekeeper is working for the company, not necessarily for the decision-maker. The goal is to measure how quickly you could even get through the first stage of your cold call. And if you can't do that, then there's something that has to be fixed. And more often than not, people will tend to hang up on you if they don't understand your cold call’s true intent and purpose.   How can you find information to start the right dialogue with the gatekeeper?  If you have a resource that can find this information for you consistently and constantly, day by day, then your SDR can simply rely on one thing that this resource can give.  It's about efficiency. And while multitasking is good, there are times when the prospect simply wants, needs, and deserves your full attention. There are several ways to save time while finding the information necessary to demonstrate knowledge to the gatekeeper. You could use an outsource provider, find someone inside your company, or even hire a freelancer. Your solution depends on your needs and your situation. The specific information you should find always depends on the target company itself. It could be recent team growth, acquisitions, new funding, or even a merger.   Daniel’s final takeaway? Bring out what's best to help your SDRs be efficient. Limit admin tasks and have them focus on what they do best. To get in touch with Daniel, connect with him on LinkedIn or visit Testdrive.com to access Daniel’s playbooks for better business.    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, a course designed to help new and struggling sellers to master the fundamentals of sales 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, tune in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, and 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