The Sales Evangelist

How Do I Stand Out From The Competition?   Are there still ways salespeople can stand out from the competition? This is an age-old question that was posed by a recent college graduate. If so, how?  In this episode, Donald will share four ways he’s learned, through his personal and professional experience, to stand out from your competition:    Be persistent Personalize Use your CRM and bring value Have energy and drive   Be persistent Studies have shown that many sales reps give up making contact after one or two attempts. In reality, it takes 8 - 12 points of contact before a potential prospect may respond. If you want to stand out from your competition, be consistent and persistent. Of course, this doesn’t mean sitting and calling eight times in a row within a day. You have to ensure you have an organizational flow process. This is the process that moves through the buyer’s journey to get to the interest and awareness phase within the organization.    Use an omni channel approach when strategically making multiple contacts with prospects. The buyers are not camping out in one location. Many salespeople think  the only way you can get in touch with a prospect is through phone calls and emails. With this digital world there are multiple platforms to utilize, like LinkedIn. Don’t just hop from profile to profile but truly invest your time engaging with people you’re already connecting with. Some suggested steps include the following:   Call Send an email  Reach out on LinkedIn and connect Follow them on LinkedIn  Follow their company  Give them a second phone call Send a gift through physical mail Send them a gift through digital mail,like a gift card You can modify these steps based on how you choose to reach out to your prospects. The important thing is getting beyond the first two tries.    Always Personalize Donald uses some important strategies when it comes to personalizing a message.  One of the most important elements in a message is to use their name. No one wants a generic message. Make use of a personalized message and let them know you’ve looked at the problems their company is facing. Address these issues in your message and bring some value that ties to their concerns. Provide a solution specific to their challenges.    A great way to personalize a message is by sending a video.  This way, a potential client can see your personality before they ever get to meet you in person.   Personalize your message! Your first impression is not the time to be lazy. #SalesImpression   Bring in value and use your CRM Another way to bring value is to go back to your CRM. If your company doesn’t have a CRM, you can visit Crmble. It’s an awesome tool that companies can use for free but upgrades are available. If you already have CRM already, go back to the very beginning and see what problems you were addressing then. Check out if it was a decent sale and read through a thread that might give you some current insight. While it may take some work, you'll be armed with the knowledge of the issues these customers were facing and be able to apply current solutions now and into their future.    Energy and the drive  Whether you are a seasoned salesperson or a new graduate, another way to stand out from the competition is to know that you are awesome! Your clients have the chance to get YOU - your passion, your desire, your work ethic … only you can bring that.  Know that you are your own best asset.     “How Do I Stand Out From All The Competition?” episode resources  Donald is currently working on his new book, Sell it Like a Mango. In the book, Donald has written about his experience in Jamaica, seeing people sell the same exact product and seeing some have greater success than others. You’ll learn what made them stand out in Sell it Like a Mango.    If you are interested in more sales stories, you can talk to Donald directly. Reach him via these channels: LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook about any sales concerns.  This episode is brought to you in part by Crmble, the easy-peasy CRM for Trello that helps you manage your contacts and leads without investing in complicated solutions, sync all your data, manage custom fields, and get powerful reporting on your sales. Try Crmble for free now at www.crmble.com/tse. This course is also brought to you in part by TSE Certified Sales Training Program. It’s a course designed to help new and struggling sellers to master the fundamentals of sales and close more deals. It will help them elevate their sales game. Sign up now and get the first two modules for free! You can go and visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals also call us at (561) 570-5077.  We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes so tune in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, and Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings to every episode you listen to.  You can also read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore this huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day free 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

How To Leverage LinkedIn For Better Networking   LinkedIn is an important social platform for people looking to broaden their network. In this episode, Bobbie Foedisch will be talking about how to leverage LinkedIn for better networking.    Bobbie Foedisch is the founding partner and Chief Social Selling Officer at All About Leverage. The company develops social selling, lead generation, and networking processes. Bobbie has been in the business development space for most of her career. She’s seen the power of leveraging social media and now, along with her team, they have cultivated a lead-generation process that they offer to their clients as a voluntary benefit business.   LinkedIn now has over 413 million users and they are growing daily. This makes LinkedIn a perfect platform for you and your business. You can use it to leverage your online and offline marketing presence.    Use LinkedIn Strategies available One of the best ways to start your LinkedIn experience is by using a picture of yourself as your profile photo. It’s tempting to use a company logo but people don’t develop a relationship with a logo the way they want to connect with people. When selecting a picture make sure the photo looks like you and you look professional. This is your first impression so make the most of this opportunity by having a great headshot.    Customize your message and be yourself The message is an important part of your LinkedIn profile as it shows effort on your part.  Don’t make it a generic.  Show your personality and let people know you care. Be yourself so people get a true sense of who you’d be face to face.     Build your network right away  The purpose of LinkedIn is to grow networking opportunities so be confident in building right away. Have a purpose to connect and know the worth of your business. Look for the people you can partner with or who will benefit from your service or product.  They are waiting to be found.     The social selling process It’s important to have your own social selling process. Here’s a process that Bobbie suggests:    Put your content out there You need content that will resonate with your network but be sure to tie it back to your subject, job, or area of expertise. Before you begin, assess how you are going to create your content. Will you create your own or curate your content? Either way, your content should be interesting or relevant to your audience.    Start the conversation As a thought leader, begin conversations that are compelling and will allow conversations to occur.  Post these “ice breakers” on LinkedIn network groups, Twitter, and add them to your company page on Facebook.   Time your posts well Do your research about what days and times to post on the social platform you’re trying to engage with so you have maximum exposure. This will help ensure you are reaching at least 60% of your network.    Join groups for content and networking LinkedIn groups allow you to reach beyond your network. Having the right content can help you leverage the groups for face-to-face networking events. You can search LinkedIn groups for the niche that reflects your target audience. Search for specific details such as company name, job titles, geographic locations, and other details that will help you narrow down the search. You can then offer your message to the group.   Advanced save and purchase Make use of LinkedIn’s lead generation. Do this by saving your purchase based on your ideal client profile. LinkedIn will automatically send you a lead generation list every week.    Leverage your first degree connection Learn to leverage your network. Look at your connections and narrow them down to exactly who you want to reach. Meet with your different referral partners weekly and aim for an average of five introductions. Statistics show that this type of warm lead generation has a 60% conversion rate.    The following features on LinkedIn will help you broaden your reach: Thought leadership Content marketing Face-to-face networking Online and offline social activity Reaching people in your community and across the world   Effective cold-calling  Even with everyone using social media as a way to connect, there is still a lot of value in cold calling. Bobbie suggests the following to be more effective: Narrow down the list Monitor recent activity and comment on the things you care about Engage with people and create opportunities for conversations.  Move from connecting online to connecting offline   LinkedIn is more effective the more you use it. Be visible on the platform and allow people to get to know you each day. Your LinkedIn profile is the first thing that pops up when somebody searches your name so make a great first impression. Match the sales process to the buying process if you want to be successful. Focus on people who are interested. Sales is no longer just about selling but guiding people through their needs and being there with a solution.    “How To Leveraging LinkedIn For Better Networking” episode resources  As a salesperson, focus on the relationships and don’t expect things to happen overnight. Take your time and learn from your mistakes.  Connect with Bobbie Foedisch via LinkedIn or Twitter using the handle: @linkedinbobbie. If you are interested in more sales stories, you can talk to Donald directly. Reach him via these channels: LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook about any sales concerns.  This episode is brought to you in part by Crmble, the easy-peasy CRM for Trello that helps you manage your contacts and leads without investing in complicated solutions, sync all your data, manage custom fields, and get powerful reporting on your sales. Try Crmble for free now at www.crmble.com/tse. This course is also brought to you in part by TSE Certified Sales Training Program. It’s a course designed to help new and struggling sellers to master the fundamentals of sales and close more deals. It will help them elevate their sales game. Sign up now and get the first two modules for free! You can go and visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals also call us at (561) 570-5077.  We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes so tune in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, and Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings to every episode you listen to.  You can also read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore this huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day free 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

How To Overcome Your Fear of Selling During Challenging Times   Fear can be common for salespeople regardless of where you are in your career. The fear of rejection can paralyze us and impact our performance. In the current climate of a pandemic, one fear that salespeople are dealing with is that customers won’t be interested in what we have to offer.  In this episode, we’ll talk about how to overcome fear of selling during challenging times.    Nina Cooke works with entrepreneurs, their coaches, consultants, and sales specialists. Her task is to help them overcome their fear in order to get them to move toward sales conversations. Nina helps salespeople overcome their negative thoughts and the lies people tell themselves. Nina’s goal is for her clients to see how powerful and magnificent they can be as they run their business.    The origin of fear The origin of a lot of our fears occur in childhood. We were all born with a blank slate and then picked up the programming of other people over time. From a very young age, we start to take in information and make assessments about our world and the people in our life as we observe activities and conversations around us. These observations can heavily influence how we view our place in this world. If we see others are fearful, for example, we tend to take on that fear and it can take a grip into adulthood.    Another example of a child making assumptions about their environment may come from their parent not playing with them, even though they promised. As this child starts to see this as a trend, they begin to wonder why the play isn’t happening. Is it because they aren’t important enough? “I’m not important enough” is now a limiting belief they take into adulthood. As their belief takes hold, they begin to collect evidence to prove it’s true:   Someone wasn’t listening to you while you were talking because you weren’t important. You spoke up in a group and no one listened because you weren’t important.  Parents didn’t take notice of you but  focused on your siblings because you weren’t important.    We build meaning around events and then live our lives as if these beliefs were fact. These limiting beliefs become a crippling way of thinking, especially if it keeps you from seeing your full potential. Change of mindset  We’ve got to be careful about settling because of a limited mindset. Changing your mindset is necessary to redirect your path.  These limitations are keeping you from reaching out to people during a pandemic:    -“People aren’t interested in what I have to offer.”  -”They don’t have the budget for my products.”   These are concerns but they’re not necessarily the reality. How do we know this?  Because other salespeople are thriving.  If they can do it, you can too.    One of Nina’s clients set a goal to have six new clients/customers in the month of April and while she wasn’t able to lock in all six, she was able to get five new customers! If we continue to reason our way out of growing our business, we won’t have a business to return to when this pandemic is over. We have to carry on taking action by knowing our value and realizing that there are people who need what we have to offer. There are people who are willing to invest in the solutions to their problems.     Breaking away from the negative influences It’s very easy to be influenced by the negativity around us but know that you have a choice in how you think. You can’t stop someone else’s negative outlook but there is always a choice to buy or not. Reset your habits of thinking toward hope and optimism. Accept only the mindset that will prompt you to take action.   Other people around you may have a bleak outlook about conducting business but don’t take that on. People are still purchasing! The more people you contact, the more people will know you are ready to do business but you have to call for them to know. If you can keep a resilient mindset, then you’ll be okay, even when people say no, because it’s one step closer to yes.    Perseverance through challenging times is going to take effort but it will put you ahead of the people who don’t even try. Know your value and stay active. It isn’t personal when someone says no.  Their “no” means they are not ready to purchase but they are not rejecting you.  Just allow your customer to guide the sales cycle and be available when they’re ready to go.  Transforming the mind Before you change your mind, it’s first important to know your goals. Let’s say for example that your goal is to generate 30,000 a month as your income. What thinking is stopping you from achieving that?    Nina helps you figure out your limiting beliefs. After rating your limiting beliefs from a 1-10 scale, she takes you through a simple process to remove that block from your subconscious once and for all.    The biggest  limiting belief Nina’s clients are currently experiencing is, “It’s inappropriate to make offers right now because people can’t afford me.”  This belief is keeping you from people who need your product or service. Once you remove the limitations, you’ll find the people who are ready to invest and start focusing on how you can add value.    Nina has another client who offers retreats and one of the activities is taking people dolphin watching. Due to the social distancing, she’s switched gears and now offers virtual retreats. At last count, 30 people signed up for her virtual retreats. This is now going to be part of her sales funnel moving forward. She pivoted and created a new market!    Take on new opportunities  There are opportunities available right now for the people who are ready to take action.  The expanding mindset will help you see the opportunities and take back control.  When you are in control you’re able to make things happen.    Oftentimes, we limit ourselves and can’t see the big picture. Our vision shrinks until it no longer serves our goals.  You need to become aware of these thoughts in order to remove them from your system. Salespeople have an unlimited untapped potential and the only thing that can stop them from digging deep and being the best they can, is themselves. You are the person getting in the way of your own success. You can have the best coach, the best strategy, the best prospect list, and the best scripts but all of these only work if you stop sabotaging yourself.   The best salespeople don’t have special powers.  What sets them apart is they change their mindset and take action. Everytime they face resistance, they overcome and win. They do this again and again for every block they experience.    Look at the big picture As a sales rep, always look at the big picture. Do not focus on your thoughts and the negative words that threaten where you want to be. Nina and her team are there to help you get clarity and replace negative thoughts with the positive beliefs that will prompt you to take action.    The best salespeople work on their mindset, take lots of action and build up courage and resilience. #BestSalesPerson   “How To Overcome Your Fear of Selling During Challenging Times” episode resources  Stay connected with Nina Cooke through her linkedIn account and her website.  If you are interested in more sales stories, you can talk to Donald directly. Reach him via these channels: LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook about any sales concerns.  This episode is brought to you in part by Crmble, the easy-peasy CRM for Trello that helps you manage your contacts and leads without investing in complicated solutions, sync all your data, manage custom fields, and get powerful reporting on your sales. Try Crmble for free now at www.crmble.com/tse. This course is also brought to you in part by  by TSE Certified Sales Training Program. It’s a course designed to help new and struggling sellers to master the fundamentals of sales and close more deals. It will help them elevate their sales game. Sign up now and get the first two modules for free! You can go and visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals also call us at (561) 570-5077.  We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes so tune in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, and Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings to every episode you listen to.  You can also read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore this huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day free 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

What I Wish I Knew Before Going Into Sales   To benefit the many new graduates and new sellers entering the sales arena, I’ve spent time thinking about the things I wish I knew before going into sales. This episode goes out to my buddy Isaac, who is just entering sales, as well as the other new graduates and new sellers. Many sellers have initial experiences that leave them wondering if they made the right career choice. This month on The Sales Evangelist, we’re focusing on the class of 2020, but our messages will resonate with those who are entering the sales world for the first time as well as veterans who have been selling for a while.  Believe in yourself and starve your doubts Mindset is incredibly important, but I didn’t understand that initially. I remember watching movies like Boiler Room that portrayed a charismatic sales rep who would sweet-talk buyers and say anything necessary to land a sale. I figured sales was entirely about skillset. When I came into sales, though, I realized that mindset is probably 70 percent of the effort. Unlike football, which requires learning physical tasks, sales is largely mental.  Are you self-conscious about your ability to find prospects? Are you worried about people saying no to you? Do you believe in your product or service? All of these things tie back to your mindset and your belief, and you have to begin with a belief that you’re going to succeed. Believe that what you’re doing matters, and believe that you’re going to succeed. I give credit to my buddy Jared Easley whose podcast Starve the Doubts first introduced me to the idea of dealing with doubt and worry. Feeling overwhelmed by doubts can cause you to wonder whether you’re cut out for sales, so you must avoid the temptation to fuel your doubts.  There’s a Native American proverb that says that we each have two wolves within us: a good one and an evil one. Whichever wolf we feed most often will survive. You can feed the doubt or feed the belief in success. Create a proper mindset, develop some goals, and determine how you will overcome your existing belief system.  Sales is not about winning or losing Movies like Boiler Room perpetuate the idea that in any transaction, the seller is the winner and the buyer is the loser since the seller got money and the buyer got hustled. I wish I had understood that better before I got into professional selling.  When I started selling B2B, I realized that I was engaging with very intelligent people. These were smart executives who weren’t going to be tricked or bamboozled. I wish I had realized this when I started selling.  I realized after studying The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People that our job as sellers is to create a situation in which both parties win. We should create relationships in which both parties will benefit because the seller will close the deal and the buyer will solve a problem. Because the buyer needs our expertise, we’ll provide it and help them overcome a challenge. Once that happens, he’ll richly compensate us for our diligence and support. Sales is about helping the buyer identify a solution to a problem and then persuade himself that your organization offers the best solution.  You must be ethical. You must deliver the things you promise to deliver in order to avoid customer churn. When you lead with the belief that your goal is to help solve problems, you’ll create raving fans in your customers. Focus on how you can help.  Become an expert at asking effective questions When I started out in sales, I thought that sellers did all the talking. I was surprised to find that many of the successful sellers are like Dr. Phil: they ask effective questions.  Sellers who do this build rapport, and they are able to gather all the information they need to solve problems. And when you master the art of asking effective questions and doing follow up, your customers will tell you everything. Consider a situation where you ask the buyer why his company is considering making a change right now. Some sellers would stop with that question, but sales pros will go deeper.  “Why haven’t you been able to solve this problem in the past?”  “If your current vendor is working well, why are you considering a move to another?” I’ve spent too much time pitching my company’s great track record and providing information that my buyer didn’t really want to hear. By asking better questions and probing, I was able to gain true understanding and help my customers solve problems, which helped us close deals faster.   Don’t take rejection personally Your customers will not wake up this morning planning to reject sales reps today. They won’t conjure negative ideas about you or your product.  Most likely, when you call, they won’t be ready to talk. Give them a call back. Don’t take it personally if they reject you the first time. If you take these things personally, it can negatively impact your future phone calls.  I wish I had known when I first started selling that rejection wasn’t personal.  Compete with yourself I ran track in college, and I learned the importance of being as aerodynamic as possible. If you turn to look behind you to see where your competitors are, you create drag. The wind pushes against you and you lose your forward momentum.  We learned to focus on improving our times. Although we did compete with other people, we worked on beating our own previous performance. Eventually I want to beat my competitors so I can win the race, and I will definitely work toward that. In sales, work to beat your yesterday. Don’t compare your pipeline to that of other sellers.  Be disciplined Dedicate time to prospecting. Understand that you will make a lot of calls in order to find the customers who have a problem that you can help solve. You have to send out emails, connect with people on LinkedIn, and do all kinds of outreach in order to fill the top of your funnel.    You have to kiss a lot of frogs in order to find ideal prospects. #SalesTales Sales is a numbers game: the more you put in, the more you get out. New sellers may see veteran sellers succeed and assume that they aren’t prospecting much. What they don’t know is that the experienced seller goes to network events at night and generates leads in other ways beyond the phone. They are asking their current customers for referrals that lead to new business opportunities.  Put in the sweat equity to become a master prospector. Be disciplined enough to prospect daily.  Do the opposite of what everyone else is doing When everyone else zigs, how can you zag? If everyone else is relying on phone calls, maybe you can change things up a bit. Add something new. If the goal is to get to the prospect, consider sending something via snail mail. Use LinkedIn. Use video. There are many, many people trying to connect with the people you’re reaching out to. Find ways to stand out from the competition. We want to help We create content like videos and podcasts because we have been in your shoes. I’ve been a seller who was frustrated with rejection and worried that I chose the wrong career.  These things I wish I knew before going into sales changed my selling experience, and I want to do the same for you. I want you to find more ideal customers. I want you to know what to say when you connect with them. I want you to build value, close more deals, and challenge your mind to do big things.  “You Can’t Do It All On Your Own” episode resources Subscribe to the podcast. Connect with me on LinkedIn.  This episode is brought to you in part by Crmble, the easy-peasy CRM for Trello that helps you manage your contacts and leads without investing in complicated solutions, sync all your data, manage custom fields, and get powerful reporting on your sales. Try Crmble for free now at www.crmble.com/tse. You can also connect with me at donald@thesalesevangelist.com.  I hope you like and learned many things from this episode. If you did, please review us and give us a five-star rating on Apple podcast or in any platform you’re using - Google Podcast, Stitcher, and Spotify.  You can also share this with your friends and colleagues.  Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

Why Giving Your Prospects An Out Upfront Will Help You Win In The End Sometimes we need to lose a customer before they become a client. In the current climate of a pandemic it’s important that we give a client an out in order to be sensitive to their struggles but we still want them to know we’re open for business, right?  How are these two needs served in the way we communicate?   Jeff Kosser is the CEO and the founder of Zebrafi. The company is often known for its top-selling book, Selling Zebra, seeing the Zebra as the perfect prospect. The company’s philosophy is pretty straightforward. When people see Zebras, regardless of where that might be, they always know what it is. The simplicity and the purity of this fact  is the philosophy behind what keeps their business running.    Jeff Koser has also built a software business based on software-guided selling. It’s a tool that guides B2B salespeople through the best practices of how to communicate and collaborate with the prospects and customers to ensure both parties arrive at a mutually beneficial place.   Selling in the present situation  It’s imperative that salespeople be sensitive to the current world situation. Jeff’s goal sales goal is lofty, as he wants to change the way people sell throughout the world. However, to be able to do that, we first have to  recognize who we are as salespeople, what we are as a business, and what we’re selling. Our business may not represent something that is a priority for people right now, and that’s okay, but as we seek to keep our businesses going, we need to diversify our approach.    Jeff Koser believes that we must approach every sales situation, whether it’s prospects or customers, with language that gives them an out. When you want to keep in touch with your customers or prospects by email, for example, genuinely ask about the safety of their family and their employees. Not just in a way that allows you to check off the “sincerity box” but in a way that your customer knows you are there for THEM. Be respectful about how you reach out to them and acknowledge they may have very different priorities by the time you contact them. Let them know that if the timing is right, you want to help, but regardless the relationship is the priority and you will come alongside their needs on their terms.    What our business represents may not be a priority for everyone right now.  We are approaching every sales situation with a simple out. #SalesApproach   Respectful selling Jeff recently received 149 email messages in his spam folder within a 24-hour period. Due to automation and account-based marketing, there are several tools that can come with good messaging but unfortunately, even good messages are getting buried just from the sheer volume. There will always be those companies, however, that believe talking about the product at the very beginning of the message is the best way to begin an email.  During a pandemic, when people are struggling, this isn’t the best approach.  Making sensitivity and respect a priority in your communication will preserve the dignity of your business, and your prospect’s.  Doing otherwise could tarnish your personal brand or that of your company’s.   Despite the volume of spam email Jeff received, he opened a few of the emails with the more interesting subject lines. The most annoying emails came from companies that introduced their products as soon as he opened the message without any reference to the struggles going on in the world that we are in right now. Other emails that were only slightly better began with, “Hope you’re well and healthy…” before launching into the product information. Both approaches are typically ineffective but they’re even more inappropriate in the current climate.   What you can do To improve their approach, salespeople can do more research. First, they should know if their company fits the priority and needs of their prospects and customers. Jeff Koser recommends salespeople know the following before pursuing contact:    That their product or service can help solve their prospect’s current problems.  They’re talking to the decision makers. How much value needs to be created within the prospect’s timeline.  Jeff’s current clients take this advice to heart. Some of Jeff’s clients also seek his help because they’re preparing to launch well once this pandemic is over and they want to be able to reposition their businesses to accommodate future needs. One of the things Jeff recommends is to talk with their clients’ customers. Doing this allows them to ask their clients’ customers what problems have been solved by buying their clients’ solutions.    This method allows them to see their client through the eyes of existing or former customers. The customers’ words are always going to be more powerful than any marketing department. Additional information is gathered by talking to the executives who are the decision makers for the customer solution.    Selling to the executives  In the world of sales, the person with the most power is the one who makes the purchasing decision. Jeff Koser defines power as the people who can buy, even without a budget because they can move the budget around. Even now, if you’re able to convey the value you bring to these power people in a way that positions you as a problem solver, it’s possible to have a thriving business.   Many salespeople are mistakenly assuming that now is not the time to prospect but the reality is, these decision-makers are stuck at home too. While people are sheltered in their homes, we have an opportunity to reach out. Jeff Koser has clients that they’ve been respectfully reaching out to for months and they are wanting to talk. Why? People are now looking for something positive to do in their day. Many are ready to give back to their customers and the  company partnerships who have treated them well.    Getting by in time of corona  Sales is a lot of work, even more so if you add  the goal of talking to your client’s customers. However, it’s worth the effort. Many companies don’t directly work with the power person but they are always there, somewhere behind-the-scenes. Even if  you do meet them and they approve the purchase, the relationship doesn’t usually stay at the power level. Your relationships will be more consistent at the user level, the day-to-day person who is benefitting from the solution directly.    Research also entails doing a deep dive into the details of the business you want to work with you so have a better understanding of how your product or service can best align with their needs. Without this level of preparation, your contact may go no further than a conference call and this is not your end goal.    The information from the customers who use your client’s solutions serve as the raw materials for building the rest of the tools to help guide the sales through the software-driven path that Jeff’s company creates for each customer.    The software guided selling  Jeff Koser has a new product called Zebra Salesbot for Salesforce. It’s a little button within Salesforce and when you get a hit for a good prospect or  customer, it will look for five more similar companies within that industry. Their current industries include manufacturers of software, high-tech software companies, and services companies. They used federated search to comb the web to load the AI. Jeff Koser’s company has been working on it for several years and now, it’s coming to reality through beta testing.    Prospecting when the pandemic ends will be another challenge. Jeff and his team have created a talk track and email template to better approach prospects and customers. Always remember  your words will prove that you care and that you’re sensitive to the hardships everyone is going through while letting people know you’re open for business.    “Why Giving Your Prospects An Out Upfront Will Help You Win In The End” episode resources  Recognize that sales isn’t about you, it’s about the priorities of your prospects and customers so make respect a priority when you make contact and allow them to have a way out. Reach out to Jeff Koser via his website.   If you are interested in more sales stories, you can talk to Donald directly. Reach him via these channels: LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook about any sales concerns.  This episode is brought to you in part by Crmble, the easy-peasy CRM for Trello that helps you manage your contacts and leads without investing in complicated solutions, sync all your data, manage custom fields, and get powerful reporting on your sales. Try Crmble for free now at www.crmble.com/tse. This course is also brought to you in part by  by TSE Certified Sales Training Program. It’s a course designed to help new and struggling sellers to master the fundamentals of sales and close more deals. It will help them elevate their sales game. Sign up now and get the first two modules for free! You can go and visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals also call us at (561) 570-5077.  We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes so tune in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, and Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings to every episode you listen to.  You can also read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore this huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day free 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

The Sales Manager's Guide To Greatness!    You may have been a top salesperson, and still continue to be, but that doesn’t always qualify you to be a top sales manager. Both have very different skill sets and require mastery in very different skills.    Kevin F. Davis is the author of the book The Sales Manager’s Guide to Greatness: Ten Essential Strategies for Leading your Team to the Top. Kevin started his career in sales at an entry level position and worked hard to become a general manager. His new role gave him the opportunity to train and coach 250 sales people and directly manage the sales team and sales managers.    He also founded TopLine Leadership, Inc. where they have offered sales coaching and leadership workshops to corporate clients and groups of sales managers for the last 27 years. Other books Kevin has written include Getting into your Customer’s Head and Slow Down, Sell Faster.   On writing the book  There aren’t a lot of books written about how to effectively manage sales people so Kevin wrote his books to help fill this void in the marketplace and to offer support that was sorely lacking. Research has shown that up to 80% of all sales managers in North America don’t get the training they need in order to be successful. Their company may not have a budget for it or they offer management training that is too general to solve the specific problems of their sales managers.    Not enough time  Managers have to spend the majority of their work day answering emails, dealing with interruptions, going to meetings, and answering questions from their sales team. With this constant activity, they are too overwhelmed the distractions to coach their salespeople.       The self-serving bias   Most salespeople think they’re better than they actually are. We tend to overestimate our capabilities and underestimate our weaknesses. The result is a sales team who think they’re better than they are and don’t fully appreciate the mistakes they may be making. Because they aren’t being coached, they don’t know they’re making mistakes and end up perpetuating existing problems. Unfortunately, salespeople are getting a lot less feedback from overtaxed sales managers. Because they are so busy, managers tend to wait for a sales rep to come and ask questions instead of being proactive. An opportunity to coach comes from approaching the sales team with critical questions throughout the entire sales process. Kevin points out that the salespeople on the team who appear to be  the least needy are probably the people who need coaching the most.   Great salespeople don’t always make great sales managers. #SalesTruths   According to Kevin, a great sales rep who has mastered  their sales role inhibits that individual’s success as a sales manager. As sellers, we love to take charge of a situation and work it through to have a successful outcome. Once you become a sales manager it can be tempting to jump into a conversation a sales rep is having with their client. This can send a message to the team you don’t trust their process and destroys an opportunity for valuable coaching following that meeting. Kevin further added that the sales people who report to you are your Number One customers so you should care about how to make them the most effective they can be.    From being task-oriented to people-oriented   One attribute of a great sales leader is recognizing the importance of sharing time between tasks and coaching their team. Sales managers need to be able to focus on their salespeople and connect on a professional and personal basis.    As a sales manager, it’s your job to ensure that your salespeople are with you and they know what the team is trying to accomplish. While it’s good to be task-oriented, it’s equally important to be people-focused. Kevin mentioned the valuable lessons he learned from the story of Beth Comstock (now the vice-chairman at General Electric) about how important it is to focus on people and not just be a task-master.    Understand the buying cycle    The sales forecast is a misnomer. The sales forecast should be a buying forecast. It is important to understand the customer’s buying process to maximize the sale. Sales managers need to be able to recognize when a buyer is purchasing differently from the way the sales rep is trying to sell. Oftentimes sales reps sell faster than the customer wants to buy. The buying process focuses on improving the accuracy of the forecasts instead of depending on the guesswork of sales. The key to this is by asking the right questions. One example would be to ask the sales rep, What are the buying criteria in order of priority?  When a sales manager asks the right questions, the sales rep knows what to ask the customer.    Managing sales people requires a completely different set of skills from selling. If you’re looking to get promoted, set a goal to become as masterful at  leadership as you are selling.   “The Sales Manager's Guide To Greatness!” episode resources  Connect with Kevin Davis via his website and you can also follow him on Twitter (@kevinfdavis) and LinkedIn accounts.  If you are interested in more sales stories, you can talk to Donald directly. Reach him via these channels: LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook about any sales concerns.  This episode is brought to you in part by Crmble, the easy-peasy CRM for Trello that helps you manage your contacts and leads without investing in complicated solutions, sync all your data, manage custom fields, and get powerful reporting on your sales. Try Crmble for free now at www.crmble.com/tse. This course is also brought to you in part by  by TSE Certified Sales Training Program. It’s a course designed to help new and struggling sellers to master the fundamentals of sales and close more deals. It will help them elevate their sales game. Sign up now and get the first two modules for free! You can go and visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals also call us at (561) 570-5077.  We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes so tune in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, and Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings to every episode you listen to.  You can also read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore this huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day free 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

Why Every Seller Needs To Create An Ideal Sales Profile    It is imperative for all businesses, no matter the size, to be able to describe their target customer. It is equally important for businesses to create an ideal sales profile. This will help you identify the right hire for your sales team. In this episode, Donald will talk about the  importance of defining the ideal sales profile in detail.    Oftentimes, as salespeople, we start our days with a list of things we want to accomplish in our day. By the end of the day, however, we realize we didn’t get to do what we set out to do. As a result, you come up with excuses for why you didn't get your tasks completed. You can avoid that by creating the ideal sales profile. This is about the picture you’ve set in your mind about how you will conduct yourself in each activity throughout the day, long before they happen.   Visualize your success The greatest swimmer of all time, Michael Phelps’ was taught by his coach about playing tapes to watch his performance.. His coach told him to visualize the perfect race and all the details surrounding those moments. His job was to play in his mind every scenario that could occur: What does the audience look like, what is the feel of the water temperature, how does he feel mentally and emotionally? He would visualize his win over and over again until eventually he knew exactly what to do to win the race. He visualized it before it happened.    The greatest people in their careers and fields have all visualised their success long before they ever got there. That’s exactly what you need to do - visualize your success before it happens.  In a sales situation, salespeople can get distracted because more often than not, we focus on external factors. We spend hours, days, and even weeks coming up with the ideal customer profile. Your task now is to create the mental tape of your ideal sales profile succeeding in every scenario.   The ideal seller Who is the ideal seller? The ideal seller is you, at your best,  able to sell in every possible scenario. It’s about more than what it looks like to execute a sale, it’s about what the seller can do under various situations.    In 2008, Michael Phelps was competing in Beijing and while in the water, his goggles broke but this didn’t stop him. He still won. How was he able to pull through? He had already visualized himself winning the competition with broken goggles. Michael Phelps had already created his ideal swimmer profile, planned out what he’d do in a variety of adverse circumstances and saw himself win anyway. His preparedness enabled him to perform without skipping a beat.    What does your ideal seller look like?  It’s you selling within the different scenarios you’ve already seen in your mind. #SalesProfile   Envision yourself It helps to see yourself accomplish everything on your to do list. If you have made up your mind to make phone calls at a certain time of day, then ensure you’ll do what you have planned no matter what other schedules will pop up. If you planned on making phone calls at 2 PM, then make the calls and prospect. Envision yourself sitting in your chair, making calls, and think about what you’ll do if you’re faced with any distractions. Let it play out in your mind until you’re positioned to get back on the calls. This will help you to know what to do and say in order to  take control of the situation. If you don’t, you have a greater probability of getting pulled away from the task at hand.    You can apply the same visualization technique to negative conversations. Some clients will not be receptive to your offer but you can envision how you’ll handle these scenarios beforehand and prepare what you’ll say. You don’t need to have all possibilities covered but you can have a better idea of how you’ll respond for a greater success rate.    Envision yourself to be a seller who hits quota  Envision yourself to do prospecting everyday Envision yourself to perform well under pressure   Play the situation in your head You may have created a habit of doing a different activity when you’re supposed to be prospecting but habits can be replaced with some creative visualization.  Believe that you will prospect at a set time and stick to it.  If you’re playing a tape in your mind of being distracted, replace it with focus and execution.    If you make prospecting a new habit and stick to it, your mind will replace the old tape and success will be the new norm. Your mind will recognize these habits as something you do on a regular basis. As a result, you’ll have the energy and the capacity to perform your goals. The key is that long before the habit is formed, play the tape over and over again in your head until your brain believes it.  Once that happens, the actions will start to match until it’s truth. Just make sure that as you release the negative scenarios you’re replacing them with your best actions.  If you don’t, your mind will fall back into old habits of thinking.  Get those new habits locked in!     The importance of mind setting  Instill in your mind that you are a problem solver.  What you think, you’ll become.    “Why Every Seller Needs To Create An Ideal Sales Profile” episode resources  If you have more questions, don't hesitate to comment on this episode. Donald will get back to you with the answer. Find Donald C Kelly in all the other platforms out there.  If you are interested in more sales stories, you can talk to Donald directly. Reach him via these channels: LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook about any sales concerns.  This episode is brought to you in part by Crmble, the easy-peasy CRM for Trello that helps you manage your contacts and leads without investing in complicated solutions, sync all your data, manage custom fields, and get powerful reporting on your sales. Try Crmble for free now at www.crmble.com/tse. This course is also brought to you in part by  by TSE Certified Sales Training Program. It’s a course designed to help new and struggling sellers to master the fundamentals of sales and close more deals. It will help them elevate their sales game. Sign up now and get the first two modules for free! You can go and visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals also call us at (561) 570-5077.  We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes so tune in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, and Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings to every episode you listen to.  You can also read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore this huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day free 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 all experience pain and grief and in these seasons, we can feel depths of emotion that are hard to resolve.  How does unresolved grief affect your sales potential? Let’s learn about dealing with unresolved grief today with Herdyne Mercier.    Herdyne Mercier is the Chief Grief Crusader and host of  Redefining Grief Podcast with Herdyne Mercier. Her job is to create safe spaces so that broken hearts can be seen, heard, and validated. The process helps you get unstuck from your unresolved grief and get you to a place of purposeful living.    Redefining grief  Herdyne defines grief as experiencing any kind of loss. This isn’t limited to losing a loved one to death. Grief can also be felt when you move to a new place, experience job loss, go through divorce, or when filing for bankruptcy. Herdyne had the exact feeling when along with her husband, they filed for bankruptcy back in 2007/2008. The real estate market crashed and they couldn’t sell their home. Her husband, James Mercier, could not find a job with a Master’s Degree.  Herdyne had to become the main provider for the family while James delivered newspapers and sushi. As a new mother, she grieved having only thirteen days to spend with her newborn son before she realized she had to go back to work. As James adjusted to being a stay-at-home father, he too grieved as a man because of the job he’d lost.     The grief almost cost them their marriage when Herdyne told her husband that she needed a divorce but James, in his wisdom, suggested they go to counseling together instead. The process of overcoming her own grief helped her create a brand that represents a woman who had forgotten to put on her MASK (an acronym we’ll explain) but is now healed. In her healing, she is now able to serve others.    Days of grieving Many are grieving loss due to the pandemic. People have lost their jobs and some have lost the people they love from this illness. We have all lost something in this pandemic and are trying to figure out how to navigate this new normal. There’s a lot of frustration and pain in the process.    The first step is to not compare your grief story to someone else’s. We may feel that our loss is greater than others but in truth, we can’t actually quantify loss. Our culture does not teach us how to deal with loss. Instead, we focus on aiming for the top and shooting for number one. We want the biggest house and the nicest car, but we aren’t told what to do with our emotions. We’re not guided toward healing when loss occurs.    This is nobody’s fault - not your parents, not your grandparents, or any other people around you. Circumstances are what they are; however,Herdyne teaches to be still and know your purpose. How do you go about doing that?    The truth and connection anchor Emotional anchors will set you free.  The first, is truth.  Be honest about your grief. The next anchor is connection. Look for that person in whom you can confide and be totally transparent. One of the biggest myths a griever has to overcome is the belief they have to do it alone.     Overcoming your truth They say time heals all wounds but Herdyne doesn’t believe this to be true. Time doesn’t heal all wounds. While time may pass on, you can remain emotionally stuck.    Some also believe that keeping yourself busy will help you forget your grief, that if you stay busy, the grief will eventually fade. The truth is, grief won’t just disappear.  Left unchecked, it will manifest in other ways. These alternatives are just pacifying and soothing behaviours. Giving a hungry baby a pacifier only means you’ve helped to delay, but not address, the real problem of hunger.  In the same vein, you need to heal and not just soothe by taking time for yourself,  finding a community, possibly hiring a grief coach or a therapist, and finding a wisdom circle. Seeking wisdom in your situation is how you’ll see the beauty of restoration.    The restoration anchor is the phase where you’ve already managed your grief and  taken care of the pain and the loss.    Your grief Everyone’s grief journey is different, so we can’t compare or police anyone’s journey. We all have our own time frame and can even experience grief flare-ups. Anchor into your truth, your sadness, and your heartache.    In seeking the wisdom within your situation, you can begin healing the grief. #Healing   The importance of dealing with your truth Oftentimes, people can be tempted to “go with the flow” in order to ignore the pain. For example, you may be hurt because your friend wasn’t there when you needed him/her. Instead of talking it out, you decide to get on with your life to get over it. You think you’re okay until your friend calls and you don’t answer your phone.  Because you didn’t address the root cause of your pain, your feelings haven’t been resolved.   The first step toward healing is to seek wisdom. Herdyn has many free resources about how you can find wisdom. This resource has 61 different ways you experience grief and how you can deal with each one. Once you know how to deal with grief, you’ll be closer to setting yourself free.    When we were children, we were told to go to our rooms when we cried. As parents, it’s our job to let our children grieve. Instead of asking why they’re crying, ask them to share what their tears represent. Allow them to express themselves and let them tell their story.    Follow the MASK At one point, Herdyne was wondering why she wasn’t selling the shirts from her brand. She was wearing the product, sharing it on social media, and once in a while, had it in her Etsy store. Still, the shirts weren’t selling. Herdyne sought wisdom by enrolling in the TSE course where she learned that she needed to do more than just wear her items, she needed to promote her brand, Wifedence. She realized she needed to share that her brand means standing up and showing love, offering support, and living life with a purpose. It means standing up and having the life you deserve.    When you’re grieving, remember MASK.    M - maintain your peace A - acknowledge your emotion S - seek community  K - this too shall pass   When facing grief as a salesperson or as an individual, don’t just ignore it. Address your grief and overcome it.    “How To Unlock Your Sales Potential By Dealing With Unresolved Grief” episode resources  This episode is brought to you in part by Crmble, the easy-peasy CRM for Trello that helps you manage your contacts and leads without investing in complicated solutions, sync all your data, manage custom fields, and get powerful reporting on your sales. Try Crmble for free now at www.crmble.com/tse. Catch Herdyne Mercier on May 7, 2020 7PM EST for her Master Class webinar where she’ll be talking about unlocking your purpose to heal your unresolved grief. Go to her website to check out the free webinar.  If you are interested in more sales stories, you can talk to Donald directly. Reach him via these channels: LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook about any sales concerns.  This episode is brought to you in part  by TSE Certified Sales Training Program. It’s a course designed to help new and struggling sellers to master the fundamentals of sales and close more deals. It will help them elevate their sales game. Sign up now and get the first two modules for free! You can go and visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals also call us at (561) 570-5077.  We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes so tune in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, and Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings to every episode you listen to.  You can also read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore this huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day free 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

Why Your Brain Lies To You: Cash Is NOT The Best Motivator   Although money is one of the indicators of growth and success, it’s not necessarily the best motivator when it comes to incentivizing a sales team.   Tim Houlihan and Dr. Kurt Nelson are consultants who have spent more than 20 years working with companies to design incentives that will increase productivity within sales teams.  Just a few years ago, they started a podcast that provides practical applications in the real world. One of their topics, motivation through incentivizing, is especially helpful for sales managers.    People tend to make decisions based on an emotional gut response, even though we mistakenly think these choices are made based on rational thought. Emotion and motivation come from the same root making it difficult to distinguish one from the other. Money has less of an emotional connection than we realize and because motivation is tied to our emotions, money can be a poor incentive for a sales team.    Human beings as emotional creatures Daniel Kahneman won a Nobel Prize in 2002 for his idea about the one thinking vs two thinking, an automatic response versus one's cognitive reflective thinking. Human beings respond quickly to a number of situations because that’s how we survive.    The brain takes only 3% of our body weight but it consumes 20% of the energy used. The brain then tries to conserve energy with the speed of decision making. When we make emotion-based decisions, non-rational judgements are made.    The illusion of motivation  Because we think we know our own motivation, we think we can analyze what motivates others.  While we can be sympathetic, knowing what others think has too many variables for us to make a consistent, accurate assessment.  If we focus on someone’s emotions, instead of assuming what they’re thinking, it is far more effective to ask directly.   Cash is a required component Cash isn’t bad as an inventive. It’s a required component in any business and it’s needed to pay the bills, mortgage, buy food, go on vacation etc. However, once those needs are met, incentives that are more material or experiential in nature move people into greater effort.   Tim did research with Dan Ariely from Duke University, the author of the book called Predictably Irrational. For their study, Tim and Dan took several call center reps and broke them into four groups, each getting a different reward. They found that the people who were rewarded with prizes such as bicycles, cockpots, and other non-cash items performed 30% higher than their counterparts who received cash.   Motivation and Emotion  When we evaluate the value of an incentive, a cash reward is easily calculated against the effort it takes to get it.  When a non-cash reward is offered, it’s harder to estimate. The thought process then goes to the level of desire for the prize and the motivation becomes emotion-based rather than calculative.    The Four Drive Model, developed by Paul Lawrence and Nitin Nohria, illustrates the different ways people can be motivated.    The four drive models:  Acquire and achieve:  Reward System Bonding and belonging: Organization’s Culture Challenge and creating: Job and Organizational Structure Defending and defining: Vision/Reputation and their Performance Management System   Competition as a motivator When Tim begins his lectures,  he asks the students to raise their hands as high as they can. He then asks them to raise their hands even more.  About 30-40% of them will continue to stretch a bit more which means they weren’t raising their hands as high as they could. They always had a little incremental effort reserved.    Tim would then say that whomever raised his/her hand the highest would get the candy bar in he was holding. Invariably, there would be people who stood on their chairs to get the candybar.  In this scenario, the motivation wasn’t the prize.  It was the competition.     The same is true for the sales reps.    Tim and Kurt often hear sales reps say that their whole lives revolve around money.  Was this true? Tim and Kurt decided to team up with a global automobile manufacturer in Saudi Arabia to test the dealer owners. These were extraordinarily wealthy men so cash was not a good incentive.   Instead, they were offered lunch with Nelson Mandela who was still alive then and living in South Africa. They then added another element of competition and told them they would get to land their private jets at the Johannesburg Airport in the order that they finish the contest. The team set up a big tent on the tarmac and received them as they landed. Each owner in the competition worked extra hard to not be the last one to land.   They didn’t need more money but they sold more cars in order to achieve something that would elevate them above their peers, a prize they couldn’t get on their own.   The hedonic component The hedonic component speaks to a prize being perceived as a luxury.. When we get cash, we tend to assign its function such as education, bills, mortgage, and other necessities. As a result, the mind has already spent the money.   However, if  the prize is a $5,000 trip to Hawaii you take it as it is. Our brain doesn't spend that value the same way it does a cash reward. The trip to Hawaii will be an experience that you get to remember far into the future.   Money becomes a less motivational tool because a cash prize isn’t likely something you will share with friends or social media. A trip to Hawaii, a bicycle, and other non-monetary prizes come with a story you’re happy to share.     Cash incentives tend to be allocated to needs. Merchandise and trips have a luxury component. #SalesTruths   The pinnacle of happiness  There’s research that says $70,000 is what it takes for a person to be happy and above that, happiness flattens out. The reality is we don’t have a good understanding of what is going to make us happy. For salespeople, they believe they will be happier if they’re paid more. This isn’t necessarily false because money can increase performance and motivation. However, money doesn’t really make us happier. Sales managers have to be mindful of relativity. Relativity occurs when salespeople see other sales reps doing the same things they do but are paid more. This is a big demotivator as they begin to compare themselves to others.   Stack ranking  Stack ranking is another misnomer in sales. A lot of sales managers say that peer pressure is good and believe people are motivated to greater action when compared to others.   This can backfire when middle tier performers are asked to compete with the highest performers.  The middle tiers may work hard but just not enough to be among the highest.  This can be very discouraging.    It’s far better to allow the same levels of people to compete against each other so they all have the same equal opportunity to win.   Take it one step at a time People want to be accepted so they remain content with the status quo.  Sales managers, however, can veer the incentive system toward a non-monetary reward.  When this is done, it’s important for sales managers to ensure they take into account perceived value. To illustrate, there’s an emotional difference between gaining $100 and losing $100. Even with the same amount, the idea of losing over gaining bears a much bigger emotional impact. The best way to make incremental change is by not taking away anything from the cash plan but do add a non-cash reward. You need to make changes from cash to non-cash in a very slow and incremental fashion.  Give your sales reps the time to adjust to the new system until they’re ready for a non-cash reward. Do not take away their X just to give them Y when Y is much less than X’s perceived value.    Examples of non-cash rewards The most powerful example of the non-cash reward that Keith has seen is a group travel reward. The award was by the sales district and winners all got to travel together with their spouses to places within 300-400 miles. It gave the winners a close-knit bond with each other, as well as their spouses.   Back in 2008, Tim was working with an insurance client that was declining at 35% annually. When Tim suggested the company use prizes that were non-monetary but equivalent to their commission, the business went flat instead of declining.    Structuring your incentive system There are a variety of ways you can set up incentive systems and Tim and Kurt can help define what’s best for your company. They work with the sales team to understand the psychological factors that motivate the team to increase sales.   “Why Your Brain Lies To You: Cash Is NOT The Best Motivator” episode resources  There’s always an emotional aspect to every decision but we don’t always react rationally. We need to understand how our brain reacts to emotional responses.  This episode is brought to you in part by Crmble, the easy-peasy CRM for Trello that helps you manage your contacts and leads without investing in complicated solutions, sync all your data, manage custom fields, and get powerful reporting on your sales. Try Crmble for free now at www.crmble.com/tse. Connect with Kurt Nelson and Tim Houlihan on Twitter. They also do their own podcast that you can check out.  If you are interested in more sales stories, you can talk to Donald directly. Reach him via these channels: LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook about any sales concerns.  This episode is brought to you in part  by TSE Certified Sales Training Program. It’s a course designed to help new and struggling sellers to master the fundamentals of sales and close more deals. It will help them elevate their sales game. Sign up now and get the first two modules for free! You can go and visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals also call us at (561) 570-5077.  We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes so tune in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, and Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings to every episode you listen to.  You can also read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore this huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day free 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

Building A Successful SDR Team From The Ground Up    The sales team is the backbone of a business. It’s composed of both SDRs and BDRs, both working to make sure the business is thriving through a steady flow of consumers. For this episode, we’ll discuss SDRs and how you can build a successful SDR team.    Kyle Coleman started his career in B2B tech in 2012 at an advertising agency in San Francisco. He supported clients such as Dell, VMWare and other large companies; however, Kyle eventually realized that advertising wasn’t where he wanted to continue his career.  In a timely move, he was able to pursue an exciting new position in sales and marketing with a start-up called Looker, a data analytics company based in Santa Cruz. Kyle was recruited and became a member of the Looker team in 2013. He stayed with Looker for six years and was able to experience firsthand the growth of the company from six people to roughly eight-hundred sales reps and 100,000 ARR to over 100 million in ARR.    In 2019, Kyle made the move to Clari.    Growing the team As a startup company, oftentimes it’s hard to know what really needs to be done. In the beginning, there can be a lot of trial and error. Sometimes you have to try different options to know what works and what doesn’t.    Kyle has observed  many startup companies are reluctant to bring on an SDR function because they think it’s too soon; however, as the SDR for Looker in its earliest days, Kyle knows firsthand that it’s never too soon. He wasn’t just getting coffee and making sure that everyone was fired up. His main role was to partner with marketing. The SDR team became a three-person team in the first 12 months and it allowed their marketing leaders  to test messaging in a variety of ways. They had the ability to use the tools to get in front of the right people from great companies and be the feedback loop for their marketing team.    The SDR team wasn’t just adding value in setting up appointments, they were also adding value on the marketing side. It helped them understand what they needed to do to differentiate themselves as sales reps in the market. They proved their value early and it was one of the reasons why success resulted in more successes. The impact was felt from the top-of-the-funnel column to the thought leadership marketing. The SDR team gave their company a solid start by offering insights about how to get to the  right people faster.  The sales process was different back in Kyle’s time with Looker. The email market then wasn’t as saturated as it is now and their root force also helped in getting a lot of messaging out in the market. Their aggressive SDR method made them stand out compared to other SDR teams of that time. However, regardless of the changes in the sales process now, outbounding for companies in its early stages is critical to understand the company’s ICP, the personas, and the kind of messaging that should be delivered to the market.    Make the first right hire A startup company has to make the right hires from the beginning. The ideal candidate has a little bit of experience but not so much he has forgotten how to actually do the work. The first hire should also be someone who is willing to take risks and to own success as readily as he owns his failures. Hire someone who is hyper, driven, and motivated. You can give them space to practice their own methodologies but also make sure to give them a support structure that allows them to fail with management ready to help with adjustments. You need somebody who is 100% dedicated to the cause, one who can communicate verbally and in writing, and someone who wants to help you achieve your company’s mission and vision.    Step 1: Describe your Ideal Customer Profile Knowing your ideal customer profile will help define the right hire.  While working at Looker, Kyle looked at the company’s number of employees and its funding. The ICP in Clari is much tighter due to the specifics around the tech stack. Ultimately, you want companies matched with similar personas.   Step 2:  Work with the product marketing team The product marketing team writes wonderful blog posts, white books, and e-books so don’t box them into just writing outbound emails. Blog posts and outbound emails are two different skill sets.  Hire a person who knows how to write outbound emails. These emails need to contain a call-to-action, personalization, and all the related content that  comes from your SDR. It’s good for SDRs to get their leads from LinkedIn. It has the most trust-worthy data and is always up-to-date.    There are other additional tools that  can be used as well such as ZoomInfo, LeadIQ, and Seamless.ai to get contact information.. Cold-calling may be an old method but it’s still mission critical.  Getting on the phone is how you get to hear a Yes or a No. Sometimes, it also depends on the personas. People who are more technical tend to stay away from phones. However, if you are connecting to salespeople who can talk about anything, then cold calling is a way to have real conversations and build relationships. Always include an omni-channel approach with your cold calling that includes email, LinkedIn, social media platforms, and other useful tools.    You can also make use of SalesAcceleration, Sales Automation, or SalesEngagement to make analysis easier for your SDR team. These tools will help the team report back to the product marketing team or the sales team.   Challenges in building the team Most companies struggle because they create work for their SDR team that is too prescriptive. Instead of giving the team user guide, they give SDRs too many scripts.   At Clari, they provide their SDRs with processed frameworks that they can follow to attain success. Within the framework, they still have room for autonomy and personalization. They can still make the presentation their own and develop it from the bottom-up. Companies struggle because they expect their SDRs to be doing top-down mandates and it can make no sense.    Of course there has to be a process and structure but you also have to allow the people you’ve hired to think on their own. Giving them the space to grow will make them feel like they are part of a team. Make them feel comfortable that they can share their failures in order to figure out what works and what doesn’t. This is important when you are building a team. People can’t be afraid to talk about their failures. Build an environment where SDRs are expected to try new things and where failure is the right of passage. Allow them to understand that if they’re not failing, then they’re not trying enough new things. They need to continue to push themselves in order to evolve.    The process time  There is no exact time frame for the entire process because every company is different. The role of SDRs and account executives are becoming more thoughtful and strategic so the ramp time is longer than it was in the past. Kyle has seen that it takes about six months for people to feel proficient in the process and then closer to nine to twelve months for them to become comfortable with the competitive ecosystem, the different personas, and the nuances within the culture. For Kyle’s company, it takes an SDR six to twelve months and then stay in that role for the same amount of time.    Kyle suggests that for people to be successful in their role, there needs to be gradations of incentives and levels that can be achieved. Without these in play the company risks losing high performers. Incentivizing is a great way to hold onto your best.  Keep your people in your team There has to be one hundred percent transparency when it comes to relaying how the team can be promoted and what is at stake. For Clari, they tell their team the quantitative criteria they need to move through the four levels that can be achieved at their company. Employees know that the quantitative criteria is effort-based and result-based.    In Kyle’s company, these are the four levels of achievement:    Level 1: SDRs start with inbound only roles which means talking to warmer leads and doing qualification.   Level 2: Promotion to either senior inbound SDR or junior outbound SDR, depending on what is needed in the company.    Level 3,4: Supporting larger sales segments from SMB to mid-market enterprise.    There has got to be ongoing performance feedback. Tell team members what they’re doing well and where they need to improve. If needed, tell them what is keeping them from getting promoted.  The review cycle should be a constant stream of feedback and this goes both ways. The SDRs should also be able to give feedback on how management can improve.    Treat your SDR team as strategic thought partners and not just as cogs in the machine. #SalesSDR   Calling it quits Some managers struggle in letting their sales reps go but if they are not succeeding in their roles and they are not happy with what they are doing, then it is reasonable to have the talk to find out where they would be better suited. These sales reps need something new, either in reinventing themselves within the company or letting them go.   The performance-based role should be explained as early as the interview phase of the hiring process. Let these potential hires know they will get the support they need but if that doesn’t work, they will get a performance plan, but if that performance doesn’t improve, you will have to go your separate ways. This way, they accept the job knowing exactly what is expected.    Being upfront in the beginning may cause you to lose some people you were excited about hiring but if you get someone who is not performing well, you owe it to them and to your company to create an achievable plan to improve their performance. It must have both quantitative (result-oriented and effort-based) and qualitative (attitude-based) measurements. If they don’t perform well then you have to help them transition out of the company.    Try Clari and other tools Clari is a tool that will help you get leads from Sales Navigator and into your CRM. LeadIQ also helps in skipping a step as you can export people directly from LinkedIn to  Outreach. Clari also uses Sendoso for direct mail for personalization.    Kyle suggests that managers should treat their SDR team as a strategic thought partner. Some of the best ideas come from them and you are doing the team and your company a disservice if you don’t listen to their ideas and feedback every step of the way.    As for  individual SDRs, it is important to develop cross-functional relationships inside your company.  The more the process is understood, the better the conversations with potential customers. Prospecting is born out of confidence and confidence is born out of expertise about the products, range of services, and the personas.    “Building A Successful SDR Team From The Ground Up” episode resources  Clari is a revenue operations platform that is useful for every single person across your entire revenue organization. Learn more about Clari by connecting with Kyle Coleman via his LinkedIn account.  If you are interested in more sales stories, you can talk to Donald directly. Reach him via these channels: LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook about any sales concerns.  This episode is brought to you in part  by TSE Certified Sales Training Program. It’s a course designed to help new and struggling sellers to master the fundamentals of sales and close more deals. It will help them elevate their sales game. Sign up now and get the first two modules for free! You can go and visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals also call us at (561) 570-5077.  We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes so tune in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, and Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings to every episode you listen to.  You can also read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore this huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day free 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