The Sales Evangelist

Even if we have the right process or the best mindset, every seller is going to encounter difficulties, so we must figure out how we'll stick to our mission and achieve greatness in the face of adversity. Weldon Long has plenty of personal experience dealing with adversity in the form of 13 years in the penitentiary, homelessness, and dropping out of high school. He had what he calls a dysfunctional life, but he learned the ability to thrive in the face of difficulty. Difficulties are coming The truth is that difficulties are coming. It's easy in personal life or in sales life to feel overwhelmed and tempted to wave the white flag of surrender. Weldon was in federal prison when his dad died. He got a note to call home from one of the prison guards. He remembers realizing that his dad died with him in prison again. He had a three-year-old son that he fathered while he was out on parole. He realized that he wasn't being a very good father or son. He made the decision to change the course of his life but he had no idea where to start. He still had seven years left in prison, so he started reading. Copy successful people His master plan was to figure out what successful people were doing and copy that. Seven years later, he walked out of prison and lived in a homeless shelter at 39 years old. He learned how to sell reading books and he started knocking on doors looking for a sales job. It took about six months to find a job because he was a convicted felon living in a homeless shelter. He got a job selling air conditioners and had a great first year. The next year, he used his earnings to open his own air conditioning company. Though he knew nothing about air conditioning, he knew how to sell air conditioners. He hired the operations people and grew the company to $20 million in five years. In 2009, his company was selected as one of America's fastest growing privately held companies. His life has been a study in overcoming adversity, and the lessons are useful for anyone because everyone will eventually face challenges. Learning to face them is the key to achieving greatness in the face of adversity. Sales process Weldon points to the sales process as the secret to building a successful business. The prospects are 100 percent in control of the result. They get to decide whether they will write us a check or not. The sellers are 100 percent in control of the process. Far too many sales professionals focus on the outcome rather than focusing on what they actually control, which is the process. Weldon quickly learned all the difficulties of selling and he said he was amazed by the number of honest people who would promise to call him to follow up but who never did. Buyers will say one thing and do something else, perhaps largely because they fear getting ripped off or misled. They put a lot of protective mechanisms in place. Sales hallway In his book Consistency Selling, Weldon introduces a concept he calls the sales hallway. He and the prospect are at the beginning of the hallway together. At the other end of the hallway is the door he's hoping to get the prospect through. As they walk together, the prospects have a lot of questions about products, services, and guarantees. Most importantly, prospects have questions about price. When they have all the information, they tend to want to postpone the decision. They try to leave little trap doors or escape routes along the hallway. "I'll think about it."  "I'll call you next Tuesday." "You're too expensive." When Weldon learned to address those obstacles before they came up, it was the turning point in his sales career. Influence and persuasion Weldon read an article by Robert Cialdini, author of the book Influence. It was all about the consistency principle, which says that public declarations dictate future actions. The idea is that if you can get someone to make a public declaration, he becomes more likely to take actions that are consistent with that statement. He determined which objections he was facing most often, and he structured his conversation so that the prospect didn't struggle with those fears. When he did that, he found way less resistance at the end of the sales process. When he started selling, it was "kitchen-table selling." It was residential air conditioning to families who were mad that they were having to spend the money. He was on their turf and they had other bids that were half his price. Weldon learned to prosper in that situation. Price objection How do I deal with price objection? The problem is that most people don't bring up price until the prospect does at the end of the process. Once the prospect brings it up, he's in a super defensive posture. They know you're going to try to sell them on why you're worth the extra price. The heartbeat of his whole process is addressing those concerns. When he helped Farmer's Insurance address the price objection, he recommended looking on the Internet for considerations when purchasing insurance. He found a thousand different articles that all said that price isn't the most important consideration. Now when he's sitting with a prospect, he'll address the fact that price is a valuable consideration when purchasing insurance. But then he'll ask the prospect whether he agrees or disagrees with the fact that there are other considerations that are equally as important as price. Public declaration Weldon shared the example of a company that canvassed a neighborhood by telephone to find out whether residents believed it was important to fund research for childhood disabilities. The following week, when the canvassers came to actually collect money, the donations doubled because the people had previously made a public declaration that it was important. Weldon realized that if he could get his customers to acknowledge that price isn't the most important, and if he could get his customers to declare publicly that they would call him tonight with an answer, he was less likely to struggle against those objections. Sellers tend to focus on the door at the end of the hallway and they try to close. The key is to prepare yourself as you're moving through the hallway. [Tweet "The three most powerful words in sales are "Earlier you said..." When your prospect rec0gnizes a difference between what he said earlier and what he's doing now, it creates cognitive dissonance, which produces anxiety. #HandlingObjections"] The way to help the prospect get back into resonance is to take action consistent with the words you said earlier. Improving numbers There are those who will point out that this approach won't work every time, and that's true. But if you're closing four out of 10, my job is to show you how to get one or two out of the six you're losing. You're already getting the four. I'm going to help you get better margins. Everyone loves the idea of making twice as much money but no one wants to work twice as many hours. The key is to increase your productivity with your raw materials. Your raw materials are time and leads. How do you produce more output with the materials you have? Anticipate the objections If you're selling air conditioners, it shouldn't surprise you to hear that your price is too high. You should anticipate that objection. Lay the groundwork so you can have the right conversation. By the time you get to close, the time for debate and argument is over. Your only hope is to remind them what they said earlier about price. If I say the price isn't the most important consideration, I'm a salesman. If they say it, it must be true. [Tweet "Lead with your weakness. If you're a premium company with a premium price, hit that straight on. #PriceObjections"] Create the prosperity mindset to prosper before you face adversity. Get clear on what you want so you can achieve greatness in the face of adversity. Remember the FEAR acronym. Focus Emotional commitment Action Responsibility Build a plan that anticipates objections and create a sales process that addresses those objections. "Greatness In the Face of Adversity" episode resources If you text the word "Videos" to 96000, you'll receive free content about how to create the prosperity mindset and how to deal with objections in the sales hallway. Grab copies of Weldon's books: The Upside of Fear Consistency Selling The Power of Consistency If you haven't connected with me on LinkedIn already, do that at Donald C. Kelly and watch the things I'm sharing there. You've heard us talk about the TSE Certified Sales Training Program, and we're offering the first module free as a gift to you. Preview it. Check it out. If it makes sense for you to join, you can be part of our upcoming semester. You can take it on your own or as part of the semester group. The program includes 65 videos altogether, and we just completed a beta group that helped us improve the program and maximize the information in it. If you and your team are interested in learning more, we'd love to have you join us. Call (561)578-1729 to speak directly to me or one of our team members about the program. This episode is also brought to you in part by mailtag.io, a Chrome browser extension for Gmail that allows you to track and schedule your emails. You'll receive real-time alerts anyone opens an email or clicks a link. I hope you enjoyed the show today as much as I did. If so, please consider leaving us a rating on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or wherever you consume this content and share it with someone else who might benefit from our message. It helps others find our message and improves our visibility. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

Sellers who discover how to be successful without a marketing department, in a crowded marketplace, and when the customer isn't even looking will be successful in almost any circumstances. I got a question from a listener named Jon Billings who wanted to know how he could teach people who "don't know what they don't know." For instance, if the customer isn't looking because he doesn't know he has a problem, how do I communicate that? Especially in the case of sellers who don't have access to a marketing department, how is that even possible? Educate Your goal is to educate your prospects so that they will look to you instead of your competition when they need help solving a problem. Educating is the new sales. Regardless of the industry, you're in, your marketplace is likely crowded. How do you stand out from the competition? How do you help customers recognize you as a differentiator? You have to challenge the status quo, especially when many of your prospects already have solutions or they don't realize the existence of a problem. Build Community [Tweet "You must create content consistently and then share it so that you build a community. That way, when someone is ready, they'll come to you first. #ContentCreation"] Become a content producer. Even if you have a marketing department, you should have your own individual brand. Take that brand with you wherever you go. Even if you change industries, your brand goes with you. Answer questions Write down the top 10 questions that customers ask you or that prospects bring up in conversation. Whether they center around cost or service, answer those questions in the form of sharable content. You can write a blog or produce a podcast. Even better, you can create a LinkedIn article or video. Focus on the problem while you're answering the question. For example, what other issues could your prospect focus on if he outsourced his IT services to your company? What opportunity costs exist? Differentiate My friend Kyle invited me to do a LinkedIn Live with him recently and we recorded an episode with him for our show as well. Kyle told us about how he started sharing videos on YouTube answering questions, and though the videos weren't very fancy in his estimation, someone reached out to him from Coca Cola with an opportunity for him. He's in the tech industry, and though there are countless other tech firms out there that are sending out RFPs. Kyle decided to be different, and it grabbed people's attention. Tap into brains You won't want to pitch your prospects right away. Instead, connect with them and ask for their assistance. Maybe you're looking to write a LinkedIn article about things that the directors of large companies dislike and you'd like input from people who are filling those roles. Get one tip from 10 people, and then when you post the article, tag all of the people who contributed. They'll see your post, they'll likely see your profile, and they'll likely see your website. Now, when you ask for a chance to introduce yourself in the future, they'll be more likely to at least give you a chance since you connected on LinkedIn. Potential ideas Even if you don't have the benefit of written case studies, you may have some client testimonials or some stories you can tell. Talk about the problems your clients once had and highlight how you helped them solve those problems. Now that you've written an article about the 10 things that directors of large companies dislike, you could also pitch podcast hosts with the idea. You'll be educating more people and becoming a thought leader. But you must create content around the things that people want to hear. If you're doing the same things every week and you're seeing a diminishing return, put a little more effort in. You'll be on your way to building interest in something when the customer isn’t looking. "When The Customer Isn’t Looking" episode resources Connect with me at donald@thesalesevangelist.com. Try the first module of the TSE Certified Sales Training Program for free. This episode is brought to you by the TSE Certified Sales Training Program. I developed this training course because I struggled early on as a seller. Once I had the chance to go through my own training, I noticed a hockey-stick improvement in my performance. TSE Certified Sales Training Program can help you out of your slump. If you gave a lot of great presentations and did a lot of hard work, only to watch your prospects choose to work with your competitors, we can help you fix that. The new semester of TSE Certified Sales Training Program begins in April and it would be an absolute honor to have you join us. This episode is also brought to you in part by mailtag.io, a Chrome browser extension for Gmail that allows you to track and schedule your emails. It's super easy, it's helpful, and I recommend that you try it out. You'll receive real-time alerts anyone opens an email or clicks a link. Mailtag.io allows you to see around the corners. You can see when people open your email, or when they click on the link you sent. Mailtag.io will give you half-off your subscription for life when you use the Promo Code: Donald at check out. I hope you enjoyed the show today as much as I did. If so, please consider leaving us a rating on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or wherever you consume this content and share it with someone else who might benefit from our message. It helps others find our message and improves our visibility. If you haven't already done so, subscribe to the podcast so you won't miss a single episode. Share it with your friends who would benefit from learning more. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

[smart_track_player url="http://traffic.libsyn.com/thesalesevangelist/TSE_1091.mp3" background="blurred_logo" ] When you're looking to grow your business or your brand, it's important that you recognize the three things small businesses get wrong when marketing. We're at the Florida State Minority Development Council expo visiting with my friend Stephen A. Hart. He's a brand alignment strategist who helps entrepreneurs grow an amazing brand that is authentic, relatable, and profitable. Mistake #1: Overlooking messaging Many people hear the word branding and they think of logos or designs. But pretty websites don't sell things. Words do. People get unnecessarily caught up on design but what they need to focus on is clear messaging. You have to clarify your message so that customers will listen. Be deliberate about articulating what you do. In order to do that, you must understand who you're serving. Too many people think they are serving everyone with their product or service but that isn't the case. If I'm speaking to grandma and I'm speaking to my niece, we're not having the same conversation. The language is different. If you understand that you're speaking to a particular group of people, there is a language that connects to that person. When you understand their pain points and their demographics, you can communicate your message about how your product or service solves a problem. Dialing in Stephen recalled a realtor who focused on selling to millennials and young couples. That's who she was serving, but her message didn't reach those people. She was trying to serve everyone. Dial your message in. Understand who you're truly serving. When you do, your message doesn't have to be pitchy about your product or service. Your content can create a connection between you and your community. Then your community will share it with others in the space. Messaging isn't a static process. It's dynamic. You'll constantly be optimizing your message. Your brain We lack trust in those we connect and do business with. Understand that your brain is trying to survive and thrive. Within that, there are three things it's trying to accomplish. You want to make money or save money. You want to gain status. You want to associate with a tribe. Your brain is also trying to conserve calories. So if your website or your collateral is too busy, your audience will tune it out. For example, how many emails do you receive in a day? Most of them get deleted because the messaging didn't appeal to you. It isn't a design or branding that gets your attention. It's the message. Mistake #2: Neglecting web presence Your website is your digital home, and first impressions last. It allows you to redirect traffic to your products or services or other online avenues. Studies show that 57 percent of people are afraid to recommend a business because of its website. Decisions are emotional so if your website doesn't inspire confidence, you won't be able to convert the people who show up there. You must take care of your website, and specifically your home page. Get a good solid web design. Mistake #3: Lacking content You must have a presence on social media specifically for businesses. You also have to be on LinkedIn. Sharing content on LinkedIn generates so much more organic traffic than other platforms. It's a business-related social channel. As a result, the income and quality of the people you're engaging with there. There are more than 9 billion impressions on LinkedIn every week, which amounts to 468 billion impressions annually. Of those, only about 3 million users are actually sharing content, which means there's a lot of room available. And it's all free. Don't worry as much about buying ads on Facebook. Worry about who your audience is. Realize, too, that about 98 percent of your leads will come from LinkedIn. Video and long-form content are your friends on LinkedIn. Write longer posts. The sweet spot is 1,900. Also, write how-to and list posts to bring awareness to your brand. Be creative If no one is looking at your business, you'll never thrive. You must create content of value and place it where the customers are. Put it in front of their eyeballs where they can't dismiss it. Have a solid brand presence online. Avoid the three things small businesses get wrong when marketing. Branding course Stephen created an online course called Brand You Academy that allows him to serve people and help with branding. It's a 6-week online course that walks people through Stephen's 15-years experience in branding. When people Google you in 2019, whatever appears in your result will either leave people more or less inclined to do business with you. People who sign up for the course are getting lifetime access to the course. You can also connect with Stephen on his website and everywhere on social at Stephen A. Hart. Isolation [Tweet "You cannot grow in business in isolation. You must network and connect with other like-minded professionals. #Network"] The wisdom and the knowledge you gain from relationships is invaluable. The Florida State Minority Development Council is here to help you grow your business. Your goal is to make money, so you must align yourself with other people who understand what you're trying to do. "Three Things Small Businesses Get Wrong When Marketing" episode resources You can connect with Stephen at his website and everywhere on social @Stephen A Hart. You can connect with the Florida State Minority Development Council for more information about the council and its offerings. If you haven't connected with me on LinkedIn already, do that at Donald C. Kelly and watch the things I'm sharing there. You've heard us talk about the TSE Certified Sales Training Program, and we're offering the first module free as a gift to you. Preview it. Check it out. If it makes sense for you to join, you can be part of our upcoming semester. You can take it on your own or as part of the semester group. The program includes 65 videos altogether, and we just completed a beta group that helped us improve the program and maximize the information in it. If you and your team are interested in learning more, we'd love to have you join us. Call (561)578-1729 to speak directly to me or one of our team members about the program. This episode is also brought to you in part by mailtag.io, a Chrome browser extension for Gmail that allows you to track and schedule your emails. You'll receive real-time alerts anyone opens an email or clicks a link. I hope you enjoyed the show today as much as I did. If so, please consider leaving us a rating on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or wherever you consume this content and share it with someone else who might benefit from our message. It helps others find our message and improves our visibility. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

Hearing from other sellers can help us improve our own techniques, and today Troy Rackley shares his own killer message and how he communicates that he's selling more than water. Troy grabbed my friend Steven Hart's attention and Steven told me I had to interview him. Big shoutout to the Florida State Minority Supplier Development Council for connecting us with entrepreneurs like Troy. Water problems Troy's company, The Next Level of Performance, operates everywhere water flows: residential, commercial, or agricultural. He always begins by asking people what problem they are having with their water. They usually say it tastes bad or smells like chlorine. Troy customizes his solution for the problem the prospect is having. He then asks, "Do you drink out of the tap?" to which most of his customers say no. Troy challenges that answer by pointing out that because our skin is the largest organ of our bodies, taking a 15-minute shower is the equivalent of drinking 8 glasses of water out of the tap. The water is absorbed into your skin. So whatever you're avoiding out of your tap is being absorbed into your body anyway. Educating customers Troy educates his customers through a questioning process. It pulls the customer in and they naturally want to close the story loop. They want to know how they can fix this problem. Troy starts by administering a third-party test to the customer's water. He insists on a third-party test for integrity purposes. He figures if he's the one providing the solution, he can't also be the one telling you what the problem is. When water companies claim to have tested water for their clients, it's akin to the fox guarding the henhouse. They can literally tell you anything. Troy offers an independent, third-party assessment of what's wrong with the customer's water. Custom filtration Troy educates his customers about the undesirable things in their water and then describes the custom filtration system that will address those problems. Troy calls it water math. The municipalities add all kinds of chemicals into the water to kill bacteria. Troy's company works to subtract those things so it doesn't get to the customer. Troy personalizes the message. Unlike big box companies who want to push a single idea or product, Troy offers unique solutions to his customers. He's selling more than water. Not only does it help the customers, it helps his business. He hasn't done any marketing in his business since he started. All of his growth has resulted from word-of-mouth growth. His attention to detail has built a great reputation for him. Selling more than water Troy's focus isn't simply on customer service; he strives for customer success. If he can make his customers more successful in their health and finances because they aren't having to buy bottled water, the service becomes secondary. By making sure that the customer is educated moving forward, he distinguishes between customer service and customer success. Troy eliminates the number of problems that families have to worry about. If, for example, a customer falls under a boil water advisory, the system eliminates the need to actually boil the water. The company designs the system to create minimal disruption because he says you never know what will happen with municipalities. His ultimate goal is to make sure that your family never has a disruption to its water supply. Company growth Troy's company operates in about 15 states as well as Canada, Amsterdam, Sweden, and Australia, because water is a global issue. Water touches everything in life. The company installed its system in a fish farm it owns and they reduced the harvest time by three to five months. The water is so clean that the food is more bioavailable for the fish. Troy is doing something the industry hasn't even seen. It's an example of disruptive technology. They moved into residential work because the consumer must be educated. Municipalities will say that your water is clean when it leaves their plants. As a result, it's the customer's responsibility to address any water problems that exist. Troy wants to help the customer make an educated decision. Clear or clean Troy is fond of the phrase, "Just because it's clear doesn't mean it's clean." There are things in water that you can't see that can hurt you. Often, the things you can't see are the greatest threat. Cruise ships are notoriously dealing with norovirus, which originates from the water. Troy said they have answers to every water issue because they study it and design amazing solutions. He points to the fact that only one man made minerals, and those are the natural minerals they leave in the water. He's selling more than water. [Tweet "Understand what you're buying. Be educated in your decision. #EducatedBuyers"] Sell on value, not expense. "Selling More Than Water" episode resources Connect with Troy at nlpaqua.com. There's a contact form you can use to initiate the water testing process on your way to restoring your water. Learn more about the Florida State Minority Supplier Development Council. Try the first module of the TSE Certified Sales Training Program for free. This episode is brought to you by the TSE Certified Sales Training Program. I developed this training course because I struggled early on as a seller. Once I had the chance to go through my own training, I noticed a hockey-stick improvement in my performance. TSE Certified Sales Training Program can help you out of your slump. If you gave a lot of great presentations and did a lot of hard work, only to watch your prospects choose to work with your competitors, we can help you fix that. The new semester of TSE Certified Sales Training Program begins in April and it would be an absolute honor to have you join us. This episode is also brought to you in part by mailtag.io, a Chrome browser extension for Gmail that allows you to track and schedule your emails. It's super easy, it's helpful, and I recommend that you try it out. You'll receive real-time alerts anyone opens an email or clicks a link. Mailtag.io allows you to see around the corners. You can see when people open your email, or when they click on the link you sent. Mailtag.io will give you half-off your subscription for life when you use the Promo Code: Donald at check out. I hope you enjoyed the show today as much as I did. If so, please consider leaving us a rating on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or wherever you consume this content and share it with someone else who might benefit from our message. It helps others find our message and improves our visibility. If you haven't already done so, subscribe to the podcast so you won't miss a single episode. Share it with your friends who would benefit from learning more. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

I get a lot of requests to appear on The Sales Evangelist, but Jason Bay set himself apart from the crowd by sending a video email and changing the email game. Jason started his sales career while he was in college, and he and his wife now run a company called Blissful Prospecting, where they remove the stress of prospecting by doing it for their clients. He quickly discovered that the smaller midsize business was overlooked in the existing offerings, and he wanted to provide a less robust service that still produced the same type of results. Mom and pop Jason discovered there weren't a whole lot of companies that were willing to work with smaller organizations. Those companies that don't really have any SDRs and maybe they don't even know the lingo. Jason wanted to help those business owners who are already multitasking with some of their business development. They don't have time to list build and personalize emails. We've discovered the same dynamic at The Sales Evangelist. Many of the companies that need help are smaller companies whose sales reps have no training and no real process. The company expects the rep to thrive but they have no basis for it. It becomes a vicious cycle of reps who wash out or leave to go to another company. The business hires another rep with no real training or process, and the cycle begins again. Video prospecting Jason's company prospects for itself, too, so the company does what it sells. Part of prospecting and selling is explaining to people what you do. People assume when he refers to video that it's YouTube and other content creation. Video prospecting is similar to writing an email. It's common knowledge now that your emails must be personalized beyond a first name. You must actually include something in the email that's personal to the reader. Many people take this approach: Hey Donald,  I listened to one of your recent podcasts about this topic and I discovered... (fill in the blank.) While it's personalized, it's a little redundant. We have to work to empathize with the prospect, and they may prove to be a little more difficult for men. Video allows you to put a face to an email. It allows the recipient to see a human being instead of reading an email, so you're changing the email game. You can still send an email or a LinkedIn message. You can't fake video. Everything in prospecting demands that you do it the right way if you want to succeed. Think about the type and quality of clients you want to attract. Changing the email game If you're engaging in the "murder by numbers approach" of sending 1,000 emails in order to land 5 appointments, think about the quality of customer you're attracting. It won't be really good. If you want to work with a specific group of customers, you must show them that you're their peer. You aren't a guy sending tons of spam and praying that it succeeds. Video takes a little more work, but if it produces more responses, it's worth the investment of time. I'd rather my sales team spend a few minutes researching and sending out 10 to 15 videos if I'll get responses from eight of them. They'll be much richer opportunities. Your numbers may not be as high with video, but the return will be better. It's the account-based approach. Instead of getting a big list of people, do research to come up with a list of companies that will be a good fit. Think of it as going to the gym. If you go to the gym with a plan for the session, you'll be much more efficient than if you go in and just wing it. Without a plan, you'll take twice as long and be half as effective. Do all the prospecting preparation on the front end so that you aren't spending your time with prospects who aren't a good fit. Focus your prospecting attention on companies you can actually help and serve. Video tips Many people avoid video because they worry about how they'll appear. You must work around that fear because there isn't a single scenario where video isn't a good option. Make sure to look directly into the camera so the person on the other end feels as though he is actually talking to a person instead of a screen. Use quality equipment. Most laptops and phones now have quality cameras. Video where you have good light. Smile. Don't be so serious. Create the sense that working with you is enjoyable. If you're at a small company, you're likely the person that the prospect will be working with. You're a reflection of the business. Limit your video to 30 seconds or less. Prepare bullet points of what you'd like to say. Don't be too scripted but plan for what you'd like to say. Your pitch shouldn't be more than 1-2 sentences. Connecting with video Video is easier to consume and it stands out in a crowded email inbox. [Tweet "Don't prospect to make a sale. Prospect to start a conversation. #Prospecting"] You're not going to sell a prospect over the phone or through email or LinkedIn. Your job is to simply sell them on the appointment. Your call to action isn't, "We can help you." It's "We help businesses like yours and if you're having a specific challenge, we might be able to help you too." Don't pretend like you know more than you actually do. And don't leave your prospect feeling like he has been insulted. Video options So many platforms have launched their own video capabilities that it's difficult to choose one over another. Be conscious of a couple of things, though. Consider tools that flow with the tools you're already using. If you're using Hubspot for CRM and they launch a video capability, it makes sense to use that one because they are built to go together. Make sure you can record the screen through video as well as the video of yourself. Make sure you have the flexibility you need. Don't spend too much money on video capability. Jason likes Loom and Soapbox right now. Loom is a Google Chrome extension that's a little clunky but effective. Soapbox has a free version that is very capable and good quality, and its pro version has useful features as well. AB test everything. Test your specific situation. Before you invest time and energy into video, try sending videos. Measure to see what happens. Test different areas of the email sequence. Try it at the beginning of the message or maybe at the end to see what works best in terms of changing the email game. Prioritize your prospecting based on who is the most engaged with the actual outreach. Use the software that shows you who is actually opening your messages and invest your extra effort into those people. "Changing The Email Game" episode resources You can connect with Jason at blissfulprospecting.com/Donald where he has put together some basic tools to help you get started in video prospecting. You'll find a PDF, a script, and the flow for recording that will move you toward changing the email game. You'll find lots of good resources on the website as well. Check out Loom, Soapbox, BombBomb, or Hubspot for video capability that meshes with your existing workflow. If you haven't connected with me on LinkedIn already, do that at Donald C. Kelly and watch the things I'm sharing there. You've heard us talk about the TSE Certified Sales Training Program, and we're offering the first module free as a gift to you. Preview it. Check it out. If it makes sense for you to join, you can be part of our upcoming semester. You can take it on your own or as part of the semester group. The program includes 65 videos altogether, and we just completed a beta group that helped us improve the program and maximize the information in it. If you and your team are interested in learning more, we'd love to have you join us. Call (561)578-1729 to speak directly to me or one of our team members about the program. This episode is also brought to you in part by mailtag.io, a Chrome browser extension for Gmail that allows you to track and schedule your emails. You'll receive real-time alerts anyone opens an email or clicks a link. I hope you enjoyed the show today as much as I did. If so, please consider leaving us a rating on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or wherever you consume this content and share it with someone else who might benefit from our message. It helps others find our message and improves our visibility. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

You may believe that social selling won't work for your company or industry, but if you take advantage of the 4 pillars to leveraging LinkedIn for business development, you'll be surprised at how it can help you expand your reach. Brynne Tillman is the CEO and "LinkedIn Whisperer" of Social Sales Link and the author of The LinkedInSales Playbook and she has spent more than a decade coaching people to unlock the power of the platform. LinkedIn profile LinkedIn has its own social selling index so if you visit getmyssiscore.com you get your personal score, out of 100, that will rate your social selling acumen. Your LinkedIn profile is where that lies. Sellers make the mistake of using their LinkedIn profile as a resume when, in fact, it should be a resource. Corporate Visions reports that 74 percent of buyers choose the sales rep that provided value and insight early in the buyer journey. Your profile is their first impression of us, so do it right. Value Prospects don't care about your mission, your passion, or your years in business when they first visit your profile. That may matter down the road, but initially, they care about value. They care about how relevant you are. Write your summary almost like a blog post. What kind of value can you bring from the first time they read about you? Identify the challenges that your buyers are facing. Provide three to five insights that will make an immediate impact. Strive to make a "vendor agnostic" impact, meaning that you share insights they can use even if they never buy from you. Sellers often create this as a pitch and we tell them how to buy from us. What we should do instead is attract them to us. We want them to ask themselves how they can work with us. This level of value will increase your credibility and move you much more quickly through the sales cycle. Challenges If you sell office furniture, determine who your buyer is and what her biggest challenge is right now. Maybe many companies are expanding and the big challenge is the inability to trade in old furniture to get new stuff. Determine what helps you stand out and then educate your buyer. Teach your customer how to buy office furniture in a way that leans toward you as the solution, but provide insights that can help them make better decisions for the company as a whole. Take advantage of the 4 pillars to leveraging LinkedIn for business development in order to move your prospects toward doing business with you. Pillar 1: Establish your professional brand Your professional brand is your profile. By positioning your profile to provide insight and value to your buyers, you are gaining credibility and creating curiosity. You're getting them excited to take your phone call. If they can learn something just by visiting your profile, they imagine that a conversation with you will be even more valuable. Position yourself as the subject matter expert and thought leader. Pillar 2: Find the right people How are you leveraging LinkedIn to find your buyers and your influencers? If it's true that there are 6.8 people who are involved in every large buying decision, how are we identifying all the right people within an organization? Instead of limiting our efforts to just the champion, who else do we want to touch? How are we finding these people and engaging them? The prospecting piece and the relationship building piece are the same. It's a combination of providing great value and leveraging our network to get introductions to our targeted prospects and buyers. Develop search strings which are literally the title of your buyers in whatever geographic location or industry you choose. Pillar 3: Engage with insights How are we sharing content, commenting, and engaging with content? How are we using hashtags to find the right content? Are we feeding our network with really valuable information that moves them closer to our solution? It's more than just liking or sharing. LinkedIn wants to see you engaging and sharing and commenting. Avoid "random acts of social." Anything we do without intention or purpose is rarely going to see success. Certainly, it won't succeed on a consistent basis. Pillar 4: Build relationships Connecting and forgetting is the equivalent of collecting business cards in a stack on the corner of your desk. How valuable is it? That's not a network. There's more value in truly connecting with a few people at a networking event and having meaningful conversations than there is in collecting a business card from everyone present. Bring that same thoughtfulness online. [Tweet "There's no reason to network differently online than you do in person. #SocialSelling"] Start a conversation. Learn about people. Ask questions. Get to know people a little bit. When you do, LinkedIn will be your most valuable networking tool. Strategy Establish what your goals are for social selling. How will you measure success? If your goal is to have one new client a month, you need four proposals a month. In order to have four proposals, you need to have eight conversations. In order to have eight conversations, you need to have 16 introductions to your targeted buyers. That means I need four introductions to targeted buyers each week. I must look at my KPIs to see if my 16 is converging to become 8, and then whether my eight is becoming four. If I need four introductions per week, I probably need to ask for 20. That probably means I need five a day, which could mean five from one person or one from five people. I need a good network of referral sources and great relationships with my existing clients. Reaching out Once you've identified those clients who can connect you to other people, you can start this way: Mr. Client, It has been a couple of years since we worked together. I hope you're still loving your furniture.  I noticed that you're connected to a few people on LinkedIn that I'm trying to get in front of. Would you mind setting up a 15-minute call where I can read names with you and get your thoughts on whether they might be a good fit? Two things happen here. If your customer needs more furniture, this is a great way to re-engage without being salesy. You'll also talk through the list of connections to figure out a way forward. You can either ask for an introduction or ask for permission to name-drop. Building engagement You must continually build engagement with your customers so that you maintain those connections even after the sale. If you're looking for new contacts, start with your second-degree connections because at least you have some people in common. It doesn't feel quite as cold that way and there are things you can do to warm them up before you actually reach out. Look at the profile. Click the "more" button on the profile and click the "follow" button. The person will get the notification that you followed him. Look at his recent activity. Read it. Engage with it. If there is something there, begin a conversation by engaging with the information he shared. Now you've engaged, followed, and the person keeps getting notifications about you. He'll likely be curious because your name keeps appearing. It's a little bit like flirting. Provide value Don't jump in and pitch immediately. Provide value. Build relationships. Get a consistent stream of great content that helps your prospect understand the importance of choosing the right office furniture. Once you've developed a conversation, you can offer a pitch when appropriate. Don't just build a network that doesn't know you. Create content, but realize that it doesn't have to be a blog post. Consider native video, podcasting, and interviews. Don't just generate noise, though. Use the 4 pillars to leveraging LinkedIn for business development to make sure it's worth their click. "4 Pillars to Leveraging LinkedIn for Business Development" episode resources The best way to connect with Brynne is on LinkedIn. Let her know that you found her on The Sales Evangelist podcast and she'll send additional resources. You can also grab a copy of The LinkedInSales Playbook. Try the first module of the TSE Certified Sales Training Program for free. This episode is brought to you by the TSE Certified Sales Training Program. I developed this training course because I struggled early on as a seller. Once I had the chance to go through my own training, I noticed a hockey-stick improvement in my performance. TSE Certified Sales Training Program can help you out of your slump. If you gave a lot of great presentations and did a lot of hard work, only to watch your prospects choose to work with your competitors, we can help you fix that. The new semester of TSE Certified Sales Training Program begins in April and it would be an absolute honor to have you join us. This episode is also brought to you in part by mailtag.io, a Chrome browser extension for Gmail that allows you to track and schedule your emails. It's super easy, it's helpful, and I recommend that you try it out. You'll receive real-time alerts anyone opens an email or clicks a link. Mailtag.io allows you to see around the corners. You can see when people open your email, or when they click on the link you sent. Mailtag.io will give you half-off your subscription for life when you use the Promo Code: Donald at check out. I hope you enjoyed the show today as much as I did. If so, please consider leaving us a rating on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or wherever you consume this content and share it with someone else who might benefit from our message. It helps others find our message and improves our visibility. If you haven't already done so, subscribe to the podcast so you won't miss a single episode. Share it with your friends who would benefit from learning more. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

Sellers who interact with and provide value to prospects using social media must understand the characteristics that turn this into the kind of social selling your customers want. We're tackling this topic all month, and even if you aren't a big social media person, we're providing an actionable plan to help you get in front of your prospects. It isn't enough to "set it and forget it" or generate large amounts of content in hopes that people will click through to find you. It's thoughtful preparation that gives buyers what they want and need right now. Trying to close I discovered the idea of using social media to sell when I was in college. I was seeking an internship with people who were in Chicago and our college professor told us that we needed a LinkedIn profile. He told us that we had to maintain that profile because that's where business professionals interacted. I thought it was a great idea because I was suddenly connected to millions of other professionals. I also thought it was great that I could pitch to all of those people. My professor knew a woman in Chicago so he introduced us with the intention that I would seek insights from her. In my mind, though, she was going to provide me with an internship or connect me with someone who had one. Instead of approaching it as an information-gathering phase, I was trying to close the deal. I think many of us make that mistake with social media. Instant access Sellers are often like kids in a candy store because social media gives them instant access to millions of potential customers. Why in the heck wouldn't we go ahead and pitch them all? Let's tell every single person what we're doing. And then social media turns into a pitch-fest. Because we can copy and share messages with groups of people quickly, we have access to millions of new prospects at our fingertips. Very quickly, though, prospects recognize that every seller is engaging in the same kind of social selling. Prospects are overwhelmed with the same messages from multiple sellers, so we have quickly realized that we can't continue using the same methods. Liking content In response, we settled on thoughtful interactions with people. We settled on the idea of liking everything they posted on social media and commenting on their content, sometimes arbitrarily. We didn't necessarily have a growth plan or a strategy. We just assumed that if we liked a bunch of their stuff now, when we eventually sent them a message, they would instantly want to work with us. The idea might have worked well initially, but again, sellers adopted the same strategy across the board and failed to stand out from one another. Curating content Next, we moved to curating content. That meant sharing content that others were sharing, so if I found a good blog post about technology, I would share it with my prospects who were interested in that industry. Our strategy was to be top-of-mind because of our content. We engaged with different platforms and pumped content everywhere, which ultimately became a bunch of junk floating around on the Internet. Again, every competitor was doing the same. The platforms realized that the content was taking their users away to other sites and they took steps to prevent people from being diverted away. Algorithms Social media platforms don't want you to send their users to other sites. As a result, you must adjust your social selling efforts so that you're linking to content on that same platform. LinkedIn wants its users to see the ads that its customers are paying to promote. If its users leave LinkedIn, they won't see the ads. The algorithm will penalize you for sharing content outside of LinkedIn. Sellers responded with LinkedIn articles, long-form posts, and videos. We moved to original content in our next iteration of social selling, and within the next year, we'll likely move to something different. Human interaction Despite all this change, there is one takeaway. Be a person. Be human and care about other people. The definition we shared from Hubspot is this: Social selling is when salespeople use social media to interact directly with their prospects. Salespeople will provide value by answering the prospect's questions and offering thoughtful content until the prospect is ready to buy. Do things in moderation. Use direct messages. Set a goal to connect with five new prospects each day on LinkedIn. Try something like this: Donald,  It's always great to learn from sales leaders in the industry. Permission to connect? Once we're connected, they'll see the content I've curated over time. Aligned content An article on PostFunnel reported that marketers who align their content with specific points in the buyer's journey yielded 73 percent higher conversion rates. Think about that. If you're able to produce content based on where your buyers are in that particular phase, it will be relevant to them. Your buyers want posts that showcase your new products or services and they want to learn something along the way. Use social selling your customers want in order to help them throughout their journey. Speak to the three stages of the buyer's journey: Awareness: when buyers don't know about you and you want to raise their awareness. Consideration: when buyers are evaluating and going deeper in their research. Conversion: when buyers finalize decisions and make a purchase. Sprout Social suggests weaving awareness- and consideration-stage content together. Those two stages are usually where people rely on social media. [Tweet "With social selling, open the door with entertainment and inspiration. Use memes or videos to grab attention. Then carry them the rest of the way with educational content. #SocialSelling"] Multiple approaches This is one of the most effective ways to prospect. When you combine this with your other techniques like cold calling or emails or regular mail, you'll see great success. Apply this today. Identify five people to connect with in your industry. If you do that every day for a week, you'll have 25 new connections by the end of the week. Strive to create the social selling your customers want to increase your effectiveness and improve your outcomes. "Social Selling Your Customers Want" episode resources If you haven't connected with me on LinkedIn already, do that at Donald C. Kelly and watch the things I'm sharing there. You've heard us talk about the TSE Certified Sales Training Program, and we're offering the first module free as a gift to you. Preview it. Check it out. If it makes sense for you to join, you can be part of our upcoming semester. You can take it on your own or as part of the semester group. The program includes 65 videos altogether, and we just completed a beta group that helped us improve the program and maximize the information in it. If you and your team are interested in learning more, we'd love to have you join us. Call (561)578-1729 to speak directly to me or one of our team members about the program. This episode is also brought to you in part by mailtag.io, a Chrome browser extension for Gmail that allows you to track and schedule your emails. You'll receive real-time alerts anyone opens an email or clicks a link. I hope you enjoyed the show today as much as I did. If so, please consider leaving us a rating on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or wherever you consume this content and share it with someone else who might benefit from our message. It helps others find our message and improves our visibility. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

Social selling is the new sales because it utilizes all the techniques and tools that we've always enjoyed as sellers in order to help us build better relationships. Although nothing will ever replace the face-to-face relationships that sellers have with their clients, social selling is a valuable tool. Today Carson Heady shares what he has learned over a 17-year sales career about prospecting and relationship building and how social selling helps with it. Social selling Social media can help you find the right person to talk to that can help you connect with the right people, get a meeting, and stay top of mind. It's a great compliment to the business relationships we should already be forming. Social selling isn't a replacement for the things we're already doing. It's the application of the tools that enable us to get insights or see what customers and their organizations are thinking, doing, and talking about. When I first started using social selling, I was guilty of blasting a bunch of messages on LinkedIn and pitching people there. I quickly realized that wasn't social selling. Social selling equates to brokering relationships but you're doing it online. It isn't sending mass emails to people sharing everything that you have to offer. Results Salespeople are interested in results, and Carson said that after studying reports about social selling, he has determined that it amounts to standing apart, being unique, and finding a way to differentiate. Social selling is a very targeted and specific effort to cast a wide wide net to reach maybe 30 people in a single organization in hopes that you'll land a single meeting. That effort resulted in one of the larger deals in Microsoft. Relationships Carson suggests following business journals and using Sales Navigator to help in your efforts. Following the trades to stay aware of new C-levels that join the organization. Last year, Carson was the first to the table when a new C-level joined a company he was connected to and now Microsoft is helping to drive change within that organization because of the relationship. The relationships drive the deals forward, and those relationships wouldn't exist without the strategic utilization of social selling. Innovate We're all just trying to do something different. We're trying to get a response or a meeting by setting ourselves apart from the others who came before us and failed. We aren't just sitting on the phone reaching out to people. We have so much technology at our disposal that we have to be careful to be focused and tailor our efforts. If we don't, we'll likely suffer from diminishing returns. Our past approach of "spray and pray" doesn't work anymore. You have to embrace the probability of success. In the past, people were willing to send out hundreds of notes with the understanding that they wouldn't get a whole lot of reception. Consistent If you want to connect with a C-level at an organization, you don't just go after them. You've got to start a few levels below where you'd like to end up. Once you're able to talk to someone who is receptive, you can use that momentum internally to get in front of the right audience. But you must be consistent in your approach. Prospecting never ends. You must revisit those prospects. Not surprisingly, many clients don't reply immediately like you'd like them to. Be persistent and reach out to the same folks, but change your messaging. Offer a compelling reason for your prospects to respond. Be aware, too, that you may catch someone on an off day. The prospect may be sick or he may have missed the email. He may be busy. Be adaptable with your process. There are a lot of things that we believe are good philosophies as sellers, but when we try them for a bit they don't work the way they want to. So we discard them. We tweak things a bit and we adapt. Concise Sometimes we send long elaborate emails in hopes that we'll get a reply. Truthfully, sometimes we get the best responses from emails with only one sentence. People are busy and they don't have time to read a 3-paragraph message. If you're specific and you offer a single task, they can more likely respond. Emails are not intended to close the sale. It helps you grab attention. Don't try to sell an enterprise solution within a few sentences of an email. Trying to sell in an email amounts to skipping steps in the sales process. You're jumping straight into the second or third date without wining and dining the prospect. Connection When you're seeking to connect with multiple people in an organization, your approach will depend on what you're looking to accomplish. It will also depend on your unique connection to that person. If you're searching for a job, don't reach out with questions about a job or an opportunity within the organization. Instead, try this: "I saw that we have mutual synergies and I'm looking to parlay my experience into your industry. I'd love to sit down for 10 minutes to pick your brain and get some advice." Determine your unique connection to that client and then approach using that angle. [Tweet "If you work to provide support, lend service, and add value to the relationship, you have a much better probability of getting a reply to your outreach. #AddValue"] When Carson reached out to 30 people in a single organization, he got replies from about 11 of them. Of those responses, he got one response that pointed him to a certain person in the company. He pursued it and landed one of Microsoft's larger deals. Your chances of getting a reply are small to begin with. Make sure you put your best foot forward. Reach out to all of the people who have a vested interest in what you're doing. Needs analysis Our process exists for a reason. When it goes awry, and when we get overzealous, we skip steps and we put too much information out there initially. Sometimes your connection can just be to share an article and engage in a real conversation rather than always sending a message about "following up." You can also share or retweet the other person's content as a way to engage. There is no single bullet that fixes all. Be cognizant that there are a lot of tools that exist that will help you succeed. The sales process is vital, just like it's vital that we only use social selling to get a meeting. Stay top of mind so your connections continue to see you. If the prospect knows that he owes you some information, it may stimulate the conversation to continue. It's a non-threatening way to follow up. Relationships are everything. If you lead with the goal of adding value you never have to worry about your sales numbers. "Social Selling Is the New Selling" episode resources You can connect with Carson on LinkedIn or Twitter, and you can grab a copy of his book, The Birth of a Salesman: The Transformation of Selling in America. You can also check out his blog, The Life and Times of Carson V. Heady. Try the first module of the TSE Certified Sales Training Program for free. This episode is brought to you by the TSE Certified Sales Training Program. I developed this training course because I struggled early on as a seller. Once I had the chance to go through my own training, I noticed a hockey-stick improvement in my performance. TSE Certified Sales Training Program can help you out of your slump. If you gave a lot of great presentations and did a lot of hard work, only to watch your prospects choose to work with your competitors, we can help you fix that. The new semester of TSE Certified Sales Training Program begins in April and it would be an absolute honor to have you join us. This episode is also brought to you in part by mailtag.io, a Chrome browser extension for Gmail that allows you to track and schedule your emails. It's super easy, it's helpful, and I recommend that you try it out. You'll receive real-time alerts anyone opens an email or clicks a link. Mailtag.io allows you to see around the corners. You can see when people open your email, or when they click on the link you sent. Mailtag.io will give you half-off your subscription for life when you use the Promo Code: Donald at check out. I hope you enjoyed the show today as much as I did. If so, please consider leaving us a rating on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or wherever you consume this content and share it with someone else who might benefit from our message. It helps others find our message and improves our visibility. If you haven't already done so, subscribe to the podcast so you won't miss a single episode. Share it with your friends who would benefit from learning more. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

There’s a huge prospecting opportunity right under your nose, and it’s a LinkedIn gold rush that can help you generate more leads and connect with more people. Even if you have been on LinkedIn since 2016 like I have, it’s possible that you aren’t even scratching the surface of what it’s capable of doing. LinkedIn isn’t paying me to say any of this. I’m telling you because I know how much you can do with LinkedIn and I want you to do big things. STATISTICS My friend Stephen Hart, host of the Trailblazers.FM podcast, shared some statistics with me that made my eyeballs pop. When he appeared on The Sales Evangelist, he shared with us the importance of creating content that connects with your audience. He also emphasized the need to incorporate social selling into your existing efforts. LinkedIn is designed to be more than a host for your resume. It’s created to be a community where people interact. CONTENT The article 48 Eye-Opening LinkedIn Statistics for B2B Marketers in 2019 reports that there are 9 billion content impressions in the LinkedIn feed every week. Every single week, the content on LinkedIn is seen 9 billion times, which leads to about 36 billion impressions per month and 468 billion per year. If you consistently take advantage of LinkedIn by producing content, you can take advantage of these statistics. You can even repurpose things you’ve previously created into LinkedIn content. The article also reports that only 3 million people share content weekly. There are 500 million total LinkedIn users, and maybe half of those are active. Only 3 million of them share content weekly. That’s about 1 percent of the monthly users sharing content. Three million users are getting 9 billion impressions per week on LinkedIn. Try finding that kind of ratio on Instagram or Facebook. PUBLISHING As you contemplate what to create, think about this. LinkedIn doesn’t want you to publish an article that has a link going back to your website. Like any social platform, LinkedIn wants your eyeballs to stay on the platform so you’ll see more ads and they’ll get more money from advertisers. Post your stuff natively on LinkedIn. Publish a LinkedIn article, and make sure to include a picture. Then share it. Long-form content gets more shares on LinkedIn. Dennis Brown mentioned this when he was on the podcast based upon research that showed that 1,900-word articles get the most shares. Aim to publish between 1,900 and 2,100 words in order to get more traction. CONSISTENCY   You must consistently produce content if you’re going to be seen as the subject-matter expert in your field. #contentmarketing CLICK TO TWEET If you’re thinking that you can’t write 1,900 words, I understand. Neither can I. Instead, dictate your thoughts and hire a virtual assistant or someone from Fiverr to do the work for you. Or, use Temi to transcribe your audio into a written transcript that you can tweak and publish. Don’t include links away from LinkedIn. Instead, trust that your website appears on your profile and as you appear in their feed, you’ll become the subject-matter expert. VIDEO LinkedIn also has video capability now and I did my first LinkedIn Live last week with my friend Kyle who is involved in the Beta testing. Because it’s new, the engagement was amazing. Many people will talk themselves out of using this tool because they don’t like the way they look on camera or they believe they won’t know what to say. But someone else in that 3 million will take advantage of it and they’ll see results. Start. Right. Now. You can record video directly to LinkedIn using the camera in the app. Our friend Tiffany Southerland who recently appeared on the podcast shared that she creates video content every week without doing any fancy editing using LinkedIn. Nine billion impressions and 3 million people. It’s a gold rush. “LINKEDIN GOLD RUSH” EPISODE RESOURCES Check out the article 48 Eye-Opening LinkedIn Statistics for B2B Marketers in 2019. If you haven’t connected with me on LinkedIn already, do that at Donald C. Kelly and watch the things I’m sharing there. You’ve heard us talk about the TSE Certified Sales Training Program, and we’re offering the first module free as a gift to you. Preview it. Check it out. If it makes sense for you to join, you can be part of our upcoming semester in April. You can take it on your own or as part of the semester group. The program includes 65 videos altogether, and we just completed a beta group that helped us improve the program and maximize the information in it. If you and your team are interested in learning more, we’d love to have you join us. Call (561)578-1729 to speak directly to me or one of our team members about the program. This episode is also brought to you in part by mailtag.io, a Chrome browser extension for Gmail that allows you to track and schedule your emails. You’ll receive real-time alerts anyone opens an email or clicks a link. I hope you enjoyed the show today as much as I did. If so, please consider leaving us a rating on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or wherever you consume this content and share it with someone else who might benefit from our message. It helps others find our message and improves our visibility. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

When we convince ourselves that we have nothing more to learn, we fail to ask enough questions and we sometimes even commit sales malpractice. Brian Robinson has been in sales for more than 20 years, but he said that he only thought he knew how to sell while he was in corporate America. He calls his plunge into entrepreneurialism the hardest thing he has ever done, and while it was successful, he said his eyes were opened when he entered the world of "you don't sell, you don't eat." Brian is the author of the book The Selling Formula, which codifies the steps he used to succeed in that venture. Intentional questions Many salespeople do the old "show up and throw up." We're so anxious to get to the presentation that we neglect to ask the very best questions we can ask to uncover the needs. We're seeking sincere engagement from our prospect, so this is the most critical component. Brian noticed that the best physicians diagnose illness with a list of carefully-crafted questions. That information became especially important when he worked for Johnson and Johnson selling internal devices for laparoscopy. Though the device was clinically superior to anything on the market, he wasn't getting any responses for trial evaluations. He knew the device was superior, so he combed through the features and benefits and put together a list of questions related to them. He structured them in a specific order and the wording of each was intentional as well. Asking questions He tested the questions, and within about 30 days his trial evaluations doubled because of that list of questions. When word got out that he had produced those kinds of results, people started asking for his list of questions. He passed it along and found that when people followed the questions exactly, they got the exact same results: they doubled their results. Brian grew fascinated with the whole idea of going deep on questions. He even developed a personal mantra that questions are the key to life. Although it took several iterations for Brian to get the list and order of questions exactly right, he stuck with it and he achieved success. There's still an opportunity to make it even better, but it's working very consistently now. Malpractice Brian defines sales malpractice as providing a diagnosis before you really understand the underlying issues. You won't be able to give your prospect the best possible answer, and until you've uncovered a need, you won't be able to proceed to the sales conversation. You have to earn the right to have that conversation. If you rush too quickly into the presentation, your sales presentation won't be nearly what it could have been. The key to all of it is how you create your questions. Get started Begin by making a spreadsheet with three columns. The first is your features, the second is the benefits related to the feature, and in the third column write down every question you can think of related to those features. Then take an 80/20 approach. Of the questions you've written, which 20% of questions will elicit 80% of the most critical benefits of your product? Start with general fact-finding questions and move into those 80/20 in the most appropriate order to identify the needs. Imagine you're selling premade home-cooked meals. What are two benefits to that service? One is that you're saving about 60 minutes per meal on grocery shopping, food prep, and cooking time. The other is simplicity. Now generate questions from those benefits. On a weekly basis, how many dinners do you cook for your family? How much time does it typically take you to make dinner? If all you had to do was move something from the freezer to the oven, how would that affect the frequency of your family meals? Now order the questions from general fact-finding to more specific. Then place the most compelling ones at the top 20 percent of the questions you ask. Emotional level Get down to an emotional level. We, unfortunately, avoid this, often because we aren't comfortable going that deep into our conversations. We also tend to approach these conversations with a transactional mindset instead of realizing these are human beings with deep emotional and physical needs. Go the levels that can motivate us to change. We're trying to make a difference as salespeople. Approach each situation with the mindset that you want to go deeper and ask heart-level questions. Strive to be seen as a trusted advisor instead of as a sales rep. You'll have a connection at the human level. Selling the concept If someone is willing to grab this idea and test it in their own sales conversations, the proof is in the doing. People have been shocked at the effectiveness of this practice because, shockingly, people don't think this way. Brian said he camped out on the questions because that's where the gold is. Sometimes management and metrics prompt us to rush the sales process. That causes us to focus on the wrong things. As a result, we end up working twice as hard with less impressive results. Instead of focusing on outcomes, focus on being so connected to the prospect that the outcome will take care of itself. We get comfortable where we are, so we live in ignorance. We are amazingly connected to our comfort level. We're addicted to it. But in order to grow, you have to embrace struggle. [Tweet "You could literally be one question away from doubling or tripling your sales outcomes. That's how important asking the right questions can be. #SolvingProblems"] "Sales Malpractice" episode resources You can get the first three chapters of Brian's book, The Selling Formula, by going to brianrobinsonbook.com. He also has content associated with the book available at thesellingformula.com. Try the first module of the TSE Certified Sales Training Program for free. This episode is brought to you by the TSE Certified Sales Training Program. I developed this training course because I struggled early on as a seller. Once I had the chance to go through my own training, I noticed a hockey-stick improvement in my performance. TSE Certified Sales Training Program can help you out of your slump. If you gave a lot of great presentations and did a lot of hard work, only to watch your prospects choose to work with your competitors, we can help you fix that. The new semester of TSE Certified Sales Training Program begins in April and it would be an absolute honor to have you join us. This episode is also brought to you in part by mailtag.io, a Chrome browser extension for Gmail that allows you to track and schedule your emails. It's super easy, it's helpful, and I recommend that you try it out. You'll receive real-time alerts anyone opens an email or clicks a link. Mailtag.io allows you to see around the corners. You can see when people open your email, or when they click on the link you sent. Mailtag.io will give you half-off your subscription for life when you use the Promo Code: Donald at check out. I hope you enjoyed the show today as much as I did. If so, please consider leaving us a rating on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or wherever you consume this content and share it with someone else who might benefit from our message. It helps others find our message and improves our visibility. If you haven't already done so, subscribe to the podcast so you won't miss a single episode. Share it with your friends who would benefit from learning more. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com