The Sales Evangelist

Sales leaders who neglect their own workload in an effort to help their sellers solve problems will find themselves falling behind, so it’s vital that sales leaders stop falling for the reactive trap. You hired your sellers to handle their assigned responsibilities and to solve problems. When your sellers distract you with problems, you’ll have less time to focus on sales plans or strategies. You won’t have time to conduct meetings or create reports because you’re trying to keep deals from falling apart. DISTRACTED LEADERS In his book, The Sales Manager’s Guide To Greatness, Kevin Davis talks about all the ways that sellers can distract their sales managers from their own workload. The problem with this kind of distraction is that the sales leader’s responsibilities are to grow the department or the business. The business will suffer if sales leaders aren’t freed to do their own work. Additionally, you’re teaching your sellers bad habits and cheating them of the opportunity to learn to solve their own problems. This is why many leaders feel stretched too thin. LIMITED GROWTH Sellers who never learn to solve their own problems will limit their teams’ productivity. Your team will never have extraordinary growth because you’ll always be limited by your own ability to solve everyone else’s problems. The sellers will never learn to solve problems, and they won’t learn to focus on solving problems for their customers. Instead, they’ll focus on features and benefits. Additionally, they won’t be able to function as well in your absence, which means they will struggle any time you aren’t available. So what will happen if you decide to take vacation? IMPROVING SELLERS Sellers will only improve if they learn to solve their own problems and handle their own accounts. As each rep learns to handle his assigned responsibilities, you’ll be freed to focus on other things that will improve the team as a whole. You may be tempted to think that you’re helping your sellers accomplish more, but the truth is that they’ll never learn to manage their own schedules and their own time if you consistently help them manage it. Kevin points out that your involvement won’t likely encourage them to use their time for other tasks. Realistically, your sellers will simply be freed to do things like check social media or email. Forty percent of sellers don’t like prospecting, so they won’t likely do it if they don’t have to. They are likely bringing you problems they don’t want to handle themselves. TEACH PROBLEM-SOLVING Kevin suggests asking two questions of your sellers: What have you done to solve the problem so far? What do you think ought to be done? Your sellers likely have basic problem-solving skills; otherwise, you wouldn’t have hired them. If this isn’t the case, you might have to start by making sure you have the right people on the bus. Perhaps we’ll discover that the rep didn’t really qualify the prospect in the first place. Maybe the rep isn’t talking to the decision-maker. Assuming those things aren’t true and that the buyer suddenly backed out of the deal, you must discover what caused the problem. ROOT CAUSE Coach the rep to ask questions that get to the root cause of the change. Teach your rep to use the 5 whys to figure out why the prospect changed her mind. It’s tempting for sales leaders to try to “save the day” and be the hero. Instead, you need to teach your seller to act as a guide to the prospect and teach your seller how to frame the customer as the hero of the situation. Consider identifying team leads who can help your sellers when they encounter problems. Maybe a senior sales rep can help answer questions or coach your sellers in weekly sales meetings. Schedule coaching sessions where you can teach your team members how to use these techniques to identify why their deals are disintegrating. Help them identify the common objections so they’ll be prepared when they encounter them.   Sales leaders must help their sales teams to work independently to maximize the efficiency of the team and the company as a whole. #SalesCoaching CLICK TO TWEET   BUILD REPLACEMENTS No doubt you hope to be promoted someday and you’ll need someone to take over your role so you can advance. Allow them to be part of the dialogue when you’re addressing issues in your area. Provide reassurance that it’s ok to try things and make mistakes. If you have a hard time saying “no” to your sellers, make yourself unavailable to them. Insist that they begin working on the problems themselves. If they make a mistake, you can still step in if you must, but give them a chance to try solving the problems. Take the time to coach your sellers. Make sure you give commands, give guidance, and give them room to run on their own. Whether you’re a sales rep, a sales leader, or a business owner, use these concepts to improve your efficiency and your output. “STOP FALLING FOR THE REACTIVE TRAP” EPISODE RESOURCES Grab a copy of Kevin Davis’ book, The Sales Manager’s Guide To Greatness. You’ll be glad you did. 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

Regardless of your industry or your product, relationships are the currency of your business, and though you can love people without leading them, you can’t lead people without loving them. Ty Bennett is an entrepreneur who fell in love with the speaking and training development aspect of building a sales team and it led him to write books on the topic and start a training company called Leadership Inc. Ty points out that we’re in the people business and we’re interacting with, networking with, leading and influencing people every day. The care, investment, and love you have for people will communicate that you have their best interest in mind. Those relationships engender trust, foster accountability, and build a level of commitment that you want in your team. And love drives it. MISSING LOVE Many business books never discuss love, perhaps because it isn’t considered a business-centric word. Ty addresses this issue in his new book called Partnership is the New Leadership. He interviewed a guy on his podcast named Tim Sanders who wrote the book Love is the Killer App but this hasn’t always been a business word. Traditionally it has referred to personal relationships but when it drives your actions and when you’re coming from a place of service and contribution, that’s where love exists. Leadership is much more effective there. SOFT LEADERS Some people believe that leaders can’t be perceived as soft, so they shy away from the idea of loving the members of the team. If you’re too soft, after all, you’ll be walked on. If you were to line up 10 people and evaluate the production level of those people, you’ll find a relationship to how they feel about their manager. Statistically, most people will tell you that they hate their bosses, and also that people join companies and they leave bosses. People also show up differently when they are in the right frame of mind; when they feel supported; when they feel heard; and when they have opportunities to win. When people feel like part of a team, the commitment level changes drastically. #TeamCommitment TRAINING TO LEAD If you’re seeking to develop this kind of leadership without being perceived as soft, focus on being interested rather than interesting. Rather than figuring out how to stand out and making it all about you, focus on the other person. Great leaders are those who truly care about other people and become adept at asking questions. They have a genuine curiosity about people. They want to know what drives them and what’s important to them. As you get to know your people on a deeper level, it speaks volumes to your team members. Now take things a step further and focus on hearing them. Don’t forget the idea that people support what they help create. Give your team a voice. Welcome their feedback. Those efforts demonstrate that you care about what they have to say and you’re listening rather than simply issuing marching orders. You’re demonstrating that you’re confident enough in who you are to allow them to be part of the process. We no longer live in the era of top-down leadership where I tell you what we’re going to do and you implement it. Social media has changed us psychologically and it has given each of us a voice. INVEST IN PEOPLE Go above and beyond for your people. Do things that are not in your job description. Give more time, more energy, and more of yourself into your relationships. Reach out in ways that are meaningful to each person. No doubt each of us can think of someone who has invested in us this way. As leaders, those investments change our relationships. When you invest in people they become family. Ask yourself whether people would ever say that about you. This level of investment can be difficult because we’re busy. We have so much on our plates that it’s hard to think outside our own agenda. It can also be tempting to focus on the things we have to do and ignore the things that we could do but aren’t required to do. At the same time, we have to shift our mindset. Maybe we need to listen to a podcast or hear a story from a different leader. Maybe we need to find a leader who can open our eyes to different approaches. Perhaps read a book. FOLLOWING THE MANAGER Although every industry is different, Ty interacted with sellers recently who told him that their loyalty was to their manager, not to the company. The product matters a lot less to them than the manager does. If you’re seeking to become this kind of manager, start by carving out one-on-one time for your people as often as possible. Come in five minutes early and ask one of your people to come in five minutes early. Make time for it. Find time to connect with your people with no agenda. It’s just to show that you care. Ty also recommends reading The Go Giver, one of a series of books about adopting a giving mentality on the way to greater success. Relationships change when people invest in them. When a leader invests, it will impact the relationship in a huge way. “YOU CAN’T LEAD PEOPLE WITHOUT LOVING THEM” EPISODE RESOURCES If you’d like to connect with Ty, you can find him at tybennett.com and on LinkedIn, and you can check out The Relevant Leadership Podcast. Grab a copy of his new book called Partnership is the New Leadership. 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. 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

Stories pack a lot of power for sellers when used in the proper sales framework, and the good news is that stories are everywhere. Today we’re sharing an excerpt from TSE Certified Sales Training Program that addresses how you can effectively use stories in your own sales. UTILIZING STORIES Stories have existed since the dawn of time. Early cave drawings told stories of cavemen hunting, and those stories have been passed down. It’s true of cultures and of the Bible. Stories paint a picture for us. Stories exist in movies, songs, social media, and books. It all points to the fact that we love stories. Society loves stories because that’s how we make sense of the world. Imagine you’re meeting with a prospect for the first time. Instead of talking about your widget and your certification, which could be boring, share a compelling reason for your prospect to do business with you. Instead, share a problem and a solution to help me understand. STORY STRUCTURE Stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end. The beginning explains the problem so that the prospect can understand it and it introduces characters. The second part is the build or the escalation of the problem, where it seems that all is lost. The third part is the breakthrough. It’s the payoff or the climax. It’s where everyone lives happily ever after. USING STORIES EFFECTIVELY It’s important to understand when to use stories. Use them to reinforce a point or to help them understand the importance of your product or service. In the case of CRM, imagine a client who has been using Excel for years and he doesn’t understand the importance of upgrading to a better CRM. You can begin by explaining that you understand why he is hesitant to invest in something that he might not actually need. Then tell a story of another client who successfully used Excel as her CRM for years. The problem emerged when she hired a sales rep who wasn’t as familiar with the process as she was. The sales rep failed to log some of his contacts, and they didn’t follow up on the lead. The potential client chose another provider because the company didn’t remember to follow up. In this case, it cost them $5,000. If this happens multiple times a month, how much will it cost you? We gave this client an opportunity to test our CRM for 30 days, and the company doubled its earnings as a result. The ability to log calls automatically and schedule appointments easily changed the company’s output. CONTEXT   Instead of bogging the prospect down with nuts and bolts, provide context for the power of your product or service. #StorySelling CLICK TO TWEET   Consider using a free trial, too, to make the transaction less overwhelming. Don’t make yourself the hero of the story. Craft the story so that your prospect is the hero because he tried the new CRM and it made a huge difference for his organization. Apply these ideas and let me know how they worked. If you already knew them, stay with it. “STORIES ARE EVERYWHERE” EPISODE RESOURCES 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

For business owners looking to scale their efforts, there are important factors involved in building a remote sales team, and implementing them can mean the difference between success and failure. Liam Martin runs three companies related to managing remote workers: TimeDoctor.com, Staff.com, and his passion project, which is a conference on building and scaling remote teams. His organization helps companies monitor their remote employees’ productivity and efficiency. He points to the fact that, early in his career, he waited too late to build a sales team, which is the meat-and-potatoes of his business. CREATE SOLUTIONS Founders of a company have an understanding of the product or service that most sales reps won’t have. Founders may recognize as many as 10 different problems that you could tailor your product around or have meaningful conversations around. Sales reps won’t necessarily recognize that many problems, so they may not have access to as many meaningful conversations. The key, then, is hiring a proper sales manager. Sometimes the founder’s ego causes him to believe that he can effectively run a sales team, and he doesn’t recognize his shortcomings. You must take a hard look at yourself and determine whether you’re truly a good sales leader. When Liam recognized that he wasn’t a good sales manager, he fired himself and hired a proper sales manager. Be honest enough to determine what you can best do for your organization and then do that.  HIRING PROCESS Liam’s company has three different stages of hiring remotely. He suggests that many remote teams aren’t as effective as the leadership believes they are. Liam points to the bullpen or the area where junior employees are grouped together in a single workspace. The idea is that the employees will train and work together and benefit from one another’s experiences. Remote employees don’t have a bullpen so it’s impossible to pick up nonverbal selling techniques that some employees are successfully using. Everyone is disconnected, so very often these sales teams won’t hit quota despite their training. As a result, they leave the company. To solve the problem, Liam’s company works with remote salespeople for about a month. During that time, he has to either close an inbound deal or generate some kind of outbound activity. Based on that success, the company decides whether to invest more into the employee. He says that although it’s an expensive system, building a remote sales team is ROI positive. SELF-MOTIVATED ACTIVITY Successful remote employees must be self-motivated. Once the company hires a new remote employee and decides to invest in him, the company flies him to the sales manager in Canada where he will train in the office for three months. The employee will either hit quota by the end of three months and will have a job, or he will not hit quota by the end of that time, and he will go home without a job. From that point, the system rewards good salespeople financially. Successful sellers will earn more with this company than they will at other companies. At the same time, the pay structure is such that unsuccessful sellers won’t be able to survive. The first three months, then, are critical to the seller’s success. Creating the bullpen experience has helped the company’s remote sellers be more successful. Additionally, the company allows any employee to jump in on any Zoom call to ask for help or guidance.   The key to building a remote sales team is to find a way to share best practices of elite sellers. Have a plan. It isn’t enough to hire good salespeople. #RemoteSalesTeam CLICK TO TWEET   MASSIVE INVESTMENT Liam points to a need to identify those sellers who can talk the talk but can’t walk the walk. Because the company is making a massive investment into its new hires, it must be able to quickly determine which employees are likely to be successful and which ones are not. On average, his company has found that it can take anywhere from three to six months to determine whether an employee will be successful. Its goal is to shorten that period when possible. The company would prefer a clear “yes” or “no” to a “maybe.” The more time it spends dealing with an employee who is a “maybe,” the more money it invests without fully knowing whether it will get anything in return. “BUILDING A REMOTE SALES TEAM” EPISODE RESOURCE If you want to learn more about building or scaling a remote team, visit runningremote.com. It’s a conference being held in Bali, and if you’ve never been to Bali, it’s another great reason to go. If you’d like to get in touch with Liam, he’s excited about his interactions on YouTube right now, and you can find him at youtube.com/runningremote. After consuming the content, feel free to ask questions in the comments and he’ll be happy to respond. 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. 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

Many sellers struggle to connect with their customers, but on today’s episode, Jacquelyn Nicholson addresses how to genuinely build rapport with any prospect. Jacquelyn is an enterprise seller and one of the inaugural members at Alpha Sense where she acts as an evangelist for the company and its work. WORLD OF SALES Jacquelyn landed in sales after a strange recession in Chicago prevented her from finding a job as an engineer for a defense contractor. She moved to New York and took a job as a sales engineer. Sometime after, she found herself heading a project for Johnson & Johnson and reporting directly to the vice president of the division. He told her to put together the very best team possible and trusted her to get the job done. During the course of the project, she made two unexpected realizations. She discovered that she didn’t like buying from salespeople because she thought they were horrible. Secondly, she discovered that she really missed sales. She didn’t like salespeople because they talked nonstop about how great their technology was. She found herself wondering, “Do you even know what I do? Do you even care?” “At the same moment, I was drawn back to the world of sales and also slightly repulsed by what I saw in the sellers I knew.” She decided then to return to sales, and she vowed that she would never be that kind of seller. SOLVING PROBLEMS Jacquelyn discovered that people buy things from people who can help them solve their problems. If I have a problem and you can solve it, I’m going to buy your stuff. But I also have to be able to trust the person I’m buying from. People buy from people they trust or they like, and they can spot fake people. Sucking up isn’t the same, and customers quickly learn to spot genuine people. She determined that the key was getting to know the people she was selling to. Learning about their problems and the things they care about. That only happens after you build rapport. The problem, she discovered, was figuring out how to do that at scale. The good news was, she discovered, that it doesn’t take additional time to be authentic. Researching to understand your client’s problems takes time, but kindness doesn’t.   If you’re already having a conversation with someone, it doesn’t take any additional effort to have genuine curiosity about them and their role in the company. #SalesRapport CLICK TO TWEET   SEGUE INTO SALES Jacquelyn realized that she wasn’t going to land in a quota-carrying role until she got some experience in front of customers. She ventured into the consulting world and she gained experience solving client problems and earning their trust. She loved the idea of solving problems instead of simply pushing products. Jacquelyn also realized that her time managing a project for Johnson & Johnson taught her that executives aren’t any different than anyone else. Many sellers struggle to have the confidence to approach them, but she said she was fortunate to learn early on how to interact with them. She counsels sellers now to be respectful of their time. Executives are short on time and short on people who want to be helpful to them for who they are rather than for what they can do. Don’t put them on a pedestal. Don’t become a “yes man” for executives. They are often surrounded by “yes men” who don’t want to rock the boat, but what they often need is real insight. Initiate a conversation around something relevant that matters to the executives. BAD RAP Sellers have gotten a bad rap from some of the bad behaviors of our predecessors, but the world has changed an awful lot. Consumers now have the ability to do extensive research before they ever reach out to a seller. Sellers must honor the time they have put into the process. At the same time, you deserve to be treated as more than just a vendor. If your customers don’t treat you with a certain amount of respect, you always have the option to walk away. Sometimes you have to fire prospects. TAKING RISK There isn’t a lot to be afraid of anymore. Jacquelyn faced a rare and aggressive form of leukemia and survived it, so she calls herself “fearless on another level” now. She defines success as being the best person she can possibly be. She wants to be the woman her husband would marry again; the seller her boss would hire again; the mom her kids are proud to introduce to their friends. If you constantly define your success in terms of other people and what they think of you, you’re doing it the wrong way. HELP Jacquelyn believes that help is always available. Sometimes you’re the one giving the help and sometimes you’re the one seeking it. Don’t be afraid to keep your eyes and ears open for the help that’s available. We have a tendency to believe that we have little to offer, but the truth is that you intrinsically have value because you’re you. Be aware of those who can help you, and those that need your help each day. Sales is a noble profession because we’re selling something that will help someone else. “HOW TO GENUINELY BUILD RAPPORT WITH ANY PROSPECT” EPISODE RESOURCES You can connect with Jacquelyn on LinkedIn, and if you’re interested in her personal journey, you can go to lxu.training/jacq. She’d love to connect with you. We are currently in the Beta portion of our new TSE Certified Sales Training Program. The first section is about prospecting, the second is all about building value, and the third is about closing. This episode is brought to you by the TSE Certified Sales Training Program. If 2018 wasn’t the best year for you, check out TSE Certified Sales Training Program. We 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

  Sometimes business leaders find themselves wanting to make sure that their team members get everything exactly right, but unless you’re willing to let them mess up, they’ll likely never learn. Perfect situations don’t exist. Imperfection is a factor in life, but it’s also where our growth happens. MAINTAINING CONTROL Control often gives us the sense that we can force everything to work. As a result, we avoid letting our team members try things their own way because we fool ourselves into believing that our way is always the best. In my own story, I landed an appointment with a huge organization, and I invited the CEO of my small company to go along. I wanted his support, but I also wanted to show my boss that I was working hard. I wanted him to see the opportunity I had landed. Most importantly, I wanted him to support me through the unknown parts of the appointment. If I found myself struggling in the conversation, I knew he could help me out. Turns out he took over the whole show. Instead of acting as a ride-along on my appointment, I was the tag-along. I had been talking to the client for months, so he felt a little bit ambushed. I had promised him one thing and then given him something completely different. Instead of a meeting with a sales rep, he found himself sitting in a meeting with an executive that he wasn’t really prepared for. MY PLAN I imagined myself leading off the meeting and asking for his input along the way. I didn’t imagine it becoming his return to the glory days. Because I wasn’t operating from a playbook, there was no real structure. The deal did close, but it was challenging. If you find yourself asking why it’s a big deal, the problem was that it eroded my confidence as a seller. Sometimes, because CEOs and entrepreneurs started out selling their own product or service, they have a tough time letting that go. They see a problem and they address it themselves because it’s how they operated before they hired sellers. My CEO misunderstood my request for help and he took over the meeting instead. In a previous episode, Kevin Davis talked to us about the challenges that sales managers often face, and the book he wrote, The Sales Manager’s Guide to Greatness, that addresses many of those issues. LEARNING PROCESS When I finally had the opportunity to go on meetings myself, I fell into a habit of mimicking what I had seen my CEO do. I shared the same stories, even though they weren’t my own stories, but I hadn’t gained an understanding of the problem I was trying to address. Because there wasn’t any substance to my conversations, my opportunities started falling away. I wasn’t having a problem keeping things in my pipeline, but I was struggling to get them to close. The old adage of the butterfly struggling to get out of the cocoon applies here: the struggle makes the butterfly stronger. If you were to cut open the cocoon so he could easily slip out, he would never develop strong wings that would help him fly. You’ll never set the vision for your company moving forward if you’re busy doing the work that you hired your sales team to do. A BETTER OPTION We should have developed a gameplan before going into the meeting. By deciding who would say what and how we would build rapport, we could have avoided the awkward meeting with the client. My CEO could have reviewed the questions I was planning to ask to ensure that I was properly prepared. Then, he could have assured me that if I got into trouble, he’d be there to help. That scenario would have allowed me to at least try running the meeting. The sooner you prepare your sales team to operate on their own, the more room you’ll have to grow your company. Coaching is the correct answer. As you grow a more experienced sales team, you can add to is, and you can create repeatable success. You will have to let them mess up. That doesn’t mean you ignore any train wrecks that are happening, but you can help them understand where they went wrong so they won’t make the mistake again. Specify roles and responsibilities before the meetings so your team will learn to fly on their own. HELICOPTER MANAGER Sometimes, in the role of coach, it’s tempting to give your team members the correct answers so they’ll learn more quickly. Don’t do it. Helicopter managers tend to erode the team’s confidence and they actually lengthen the learning process by creating people who rely heavily on their help. When they discover the answers on their own, the learning will be more meaningful. Send us your stories about helicopter managers so we can all learn from the experience. “LET THEM MESS UP” EPISODE RESOURCES 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. 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

Many small business owners and sales reps face challenges with closing, and there are five closing mistakes that will prolong your selling cycle. I met Chala Dincoy at the Eastern Minority Supplier Development Council ROAR Conference, and today she’ll talk to us about the mistakes that can delay or prolong your selling cycle. Chala is an elevator pitch coach who helps people get into the room. Then, once they’ve landed a sales meeting, she helps them close it faster. The greatest challenge, she said, is getting the appointment because people don’t stand out. About 86 percent of buyers think you’re the same as your competition. Now she teaches reps how to get through the noise and stand out. Interestingly, she pointed out that many companies don’t use titles like “sales rep” on their business cards anymore because it puts people off to see that someone is in sales. THOUGHT LEADERSHIP   If you aren’t targeting a specific industry or interest group, you’re always in the wrong room because you’re too generic. Your message is too generic. #SpecificMessaging CLICK TO TWEET   That’s the first closing mistake. The second is you haven’t specifically addressed the customers’ pain points. So now you’re in the wrong room and the wrong people are in the room with you. You end up talking to lower level managers who pass you off over and over. As a result, you’re never able to get to the influencers that you need to reach. The real trick, then, is to change your marketing so that you’re in front of decision makers all the time. Since Chala’s sweet spot is diversity businesses, she works to get in front of conferences where those people are gathered. She has their business cards and they are talking to her at conferences. This is the kind of marketing you should do, via speaking, networking, blogging, and any other kind of thought leadership. BRANDING Your branding is one of the tools that gets you into the room. Sheryl Sandberg is a celebrity in the business world, and you can do the same thing in the world of your target. Chala recalls being at a recent conference where five people hugged her as she got off of an elevator. Though she didn’t know them, she says it’s a sign that you’re becoming known in your industry. Once they know who you are, it’s really easy to land an appointment. It’s easy to invite them to an executive round table and for them to say yes. Realize, too, that though everyone might be able to benefit from what you’re selling, not everyone needs it. We all sit in chairs, for example, but I may not need the kind of chair you’re selling. PAIN Seventy percent of humans purchase based upon pain, so if they have a problem, they buy. The flip side is that only 30 percent of people will buy if you’re selling based on improving something. Chala is fond of the saying, “No pain, no sale.” The third mistake is trying to sell something without addressing pain. Stories have to be about the pain. When you’re in a presentation, offer case studies of pain. Your elevator pitch has to be based on pain. And all of it has to be the same pain. We must niche down and focus. Stop talking about yourself. No one cares how many offices you have or how many awards you’ve won. Your prospects only care about the pain. THE PURSE You must have both the budget and the authority in the room with you. Failure to do so is mistake number four. We often call it the purse and the pain. If the pain doesn’t have the purse, no decision can be made, and vice versa. As an extension of that, lower level managers may talk about a different kind of pain that company leadership will. If you base your entire presentation around one person’s pain, especially if that person isn’t the decision maker, your presentation will miss its mark. You must have both people in the room. Finally, avoid leaving without a next appointment. You must establish a next step with your prospects. If they tell you they can’t commit to a date because there are other stakeholders involved and they don’t know all the schedules, then set a date to get a date. In other words, schedule a day that you’ll call to set up the next appointment. If they aren’t willing to give you a date, it’s a really strong indicator that they aren’t going to buy. Stop talking about yourself and connect with their pain points. “CLOSING MISTAKES” EPISODE RESOURCES You can connect with Chala at LinkedIn or at repositioner.com and you can take a quiz to determine how good your elevator pitch is. We are currently in the Beta portion of our new TSE Certified Sales Training Program. The first section is about prospecting, the second is all about building value, and the third is about closing. This episode is brought to you by the TSE Certified Sales Training Program. If 2018 wasn’t the best year for you, check out TSE Certified Sales Training Program. We 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

As you move closer to the end of a deal, you'll likely encounter more objections, and identifying key stakeholders is the secret to overcoming those challenges. As you move into deeper conversation with the prospect, you may not realize that there are other people involved in the process, even if you aren't directly interacting with them. Your job as seller is to find out who they are. Today we'll help you understand who those key stakeholders are, how you should work with them, and how you can prepare for the process. Initial interest Imagine you have an initial conversation with someone who is interested in your lawn care business. You generated some interest and they expressed a desire to know more. You'll naturally address how you've helped other people in the past and take other steps to build value. At this point, you'll want to find out who else will be involved in this conversation. Typically, though, sellers neglect to ask that question. Ideally, you should find out whether the prospect has made a decision like this before. If so, has it been a long time? You do this kind of work on a day-to-day basis, but the prospect doesn't. He needs guidance, and you can help him move forward. Identifying stakeholders Avoid making him feel as though he isn't competent to make the decision. Instead of asking him who should be involved in the next call, ask it this way: "At this point in the conversation, my clients typically invite other people into the conversation." Instead of asking whether he'd like to invite others in, I would simply ask him who he would like to invite into the conversation. He might identify the CFO or the decision maker. Next, I would point out that, in order to make sure the next meeting is as valuable as possible, I'd like to know whether I can connect with some of those stakeholders to find out what they'd like to hear. If he has an objection, reframe the request so that he's the one making the contact with his stakeholders on your behalf. Keep him involved in the process so he feels comfortable. Cast of characters The first stakeholder is your decision maker. He tends to be the person that sellers most often keep their eyes on because he's the one that will do the final sign-off. But he may not get involved until later in the process. The decision maker may expect the influencer and the champion to do all of the hard work. Second is your influencer or the person who has the ear of your decision maker. She may be the right-hand person of your decision maker, or she may just be someone who has a connection with him. In some companies, this may be an administrative assistant, and sales reps must be mindful not to overlook these people. These executive assistants often wield much influence with the leadership. My wife worked in a similar position once, and her recommendation often depended on how the sellers treated her when they called into the office. End users are the people who will use the product or service you're offering, and they're the ones you'll likely interact with the most. We must make sure that they understand us and that we understand them. The buyer will sign the check to close the deal. If he doesn't like the deal, he will likely have key influence in it. The champion is the person who likes you and who brought you into the fold. She invited your team to consider the possibility of hiring you. The champion We recently did an entire episode about the importance of the champion. The discussion centered around the fact that sellers often focus so intently on the decision maker that they neglect the champion. In actuality, though, the champion is the one that you'll interact with the most, and he'll be the one that has the most interaction with his team. He's the one that wrangles the group through the decision-making process. He's the quarterback, but he must have your support in order to succeed. If he doesn't have it, he may lose the desire to champion your cause. [Tweet "Focus on your champion at least as much as you focus on your decision maker. Perhaps even more. #SalesChampion"] The knights The dark night doesn't necessarily have interest in your product or service. He's usually the member of the organization who is a little bit apprehensive, and it's in your best interest to discover who he is and why he is a dark knight. The champion, of course, is your white knight. He will tell the company why it should hire you. He believes so strongly in what you have to offer that he'll work to sell you internally. The white knight will likely recognize the dark knight, so you can ask him who it is and what his concerns are. Gather as much intel as you can about the dark knight so you'll know how to address his potential objections. Handling the dark knight Make sure you have a conversation with the dark knight prior to the meeting. Present information to Doug that addresses those concerns and ask him during that conversation whether there is anything specific he'd like to see in the presentation. In some cases, the dark knight will be the person who made the previous decision and whose decision is potentially being undone by your company. Make him part of the process and compliment the work he has done. Add on to the value and break down the existing barriers. When you give the demonstration, you'll be more effective because you took the time to identify these characters. "Key Stakeholders" episode resources This episode is brought to you in part by our TSE Certified Sales Training Program, which teaches you to improve your sales skills, find more customers, build stronger value, and close more deals. The next semester begins in April. If you're not familiar with the TSE Certified Sales Training Program, it's a program designed to help brand new sales reps, as well as those who have been selling forever. The 12-week module offers videos you can watch at your own pace, as well as the option to join a group discussion. We address three topics: finding, building value, and closing. It's amazing and it's fun! 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. The episode is also brought to you by prospect.io, a sales automation platform that allows you to send cold emails in a personalized manner. To find out more about how it can help you automate your sales process, go to prospect.io/tse. Your prospecting will never be the same. 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

As you're working to expand your reach and grow your network, recognize the importance of building diversity into your network so you'll be better positioned to succeed in your industry. I met Sharon Manker at the Eastern Minority Supplier Development Council ROAR Conference, which connects minority-owned and women-owned businesses with Fortune 100 companies. Sharon has worked in supply chain for two decades, in both the for-profit and the nonprofit sectors, in utility and now in healthcare. In her words, she negotiates for a living. She also works to engage diverse suppliers in a woman-owned, veteran-owned, minority-owned system. Small business challenges Many small business owners lack the vehicle to connect with the right decision makers. They don't know how to meet the people who actually influence the contracts. When they discover their limitation, they often observe that they just didn't realize how it impacted their work. As a supply chain person, Sharon works to connect qualified suppliers to the businesses who need them. She also works to connect those same businesses with her business stakeholders. To that end, she attends events and even hosts events that allow people to connect and build relationships. The trick is to recognize that as you're working to connect with the decision makers, there are people along the way who can help you do exactly that. Diversifying suppliers When you aren't able to attend these events, Sharon points to other opportunities to connect with people: chambers of commerce and councils, just to name two. You'll be positioned to find corporate partners there. You'll encounter people who are actively engaged and ready to increase their supplier diversity. Even if you attend these events and find out about developments that are 24 months away, future gains will happen. Put in the work now and build relationships now. Benefits of partnership Many corporations prioritize working with small businesses because they have committed to certain diversity goals, such as spending a certain amount of their operating expenses with diverse suppliers. In some states, in fact, this diversity is mandated. This demands a pool of Minority Business Enterprises, Veteran Business Enterprises, and LGBTQ enterprises that can help meet the needs of those businesses. It can't be a last-minute effort, either. You don't want to wait until you're in an emergency situation to begin vetting partners. Those organizations must proactively work to find the best option in every category to provide the product or service they need. Some corporations connect with small businesses simply because they value giving back to entrepreneurs and small businesses. If you're an entrepreneur or a seller listening to this, find groups like this to connect with, because if you can land a large contract, you can eat pretty well for a while. If you balance your regular prospecting with your networking events while you work to connect with large corporations, you'll more easily keep a steady flow of connections. #CorporatePartners Strategic plan Create a strategic plan for your business. In your case, your plan for success is that failure is not an option. Instead, when you fail, you learn a lesson, and you repeat that until you get to a successful outcome. You can't give up. You must stay positive. There won't always be immediate opportunities, but building a network of resources or opportunities provides some security. Then, if you don't have a resource or an opportunity for those organizations, you could always help connect them with another partner that you've met and added to your network. We've talked recently about the need to focus on a champion rather than only focusing on the decision maker. Your network will help you accomplish that. You may bypass a champion on your way to connecting with a CEO, but the champion can be a much quicker connection. You can build a relationship with him more quickly, and then he can help you get to the CEO. Intentional communications When you're building relationships, be mindful of your communications. Some people are very aggressive in their approach, but they often overlook all the other restraints that these decision makers are facing. They want to do a deal now, but they aren't mindful of the other projects these professionals are working on. There are hierarchies of communication in every organization. There are also barriers to entry. Your champions can't advocate for you if you're perceived as aggressive or pushy. The vetting process may take weeks, and you must be willing to exercise patience. You don't know about all the things that the organization is working on. Be strategic. Recognize the structure in each organization. People will notice the way you communicate. Be prepared When your network does call on you for your product or service, make sure you are ready and able to give your brief, to-the-point presentation. Make sure you're being active so you'll stay positioned to meet other professionals. Make sure you're open and willing and teachable. Even if you aren't a minority, realize that if 51 percent of the company ownership is minority, that classifies as a minority-owned business. "Building Diversity Into Your Network" episode resources You can connect with Sharon on LinkedIn where she shares tremendous amounts of information about supply chain. We are currently in the Beta portion of our new TSE Certified Sales Training Program. The first section is about prospecting, the second is all about building value, and the third is about closing. This episode is brought to you by the TSE Certified Sales Training Program. If 2018 wasn't the best year for you, check out TSE Certified Sales Training Program. We 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

Sales constantly evolve and sellers who want to be successful must effectively map and create multithreaded relationships in order to close more deals. Peter Chun talks today about the importance of multithreaded relationships and the challenge for reps who must establish them. Peter fell in love with the convergence of sales and data and has found a personal passion for it. He loves strategizing about how to close deals and about how to help your company scale and grow. Evolving sales The biggest obstacle for B2B sellers right now is the evolving face of sales. Buyers are more sophisticated, and they have more information at their fingertips. They do a lot of research before they even engage with a salesperson. Additionally, the number of stakeholders within B2B deals is increasing, with research indicating that complex deals often include 6 to 10 stakeholders. The big challenge, then, is finding and creating multithreaded relationships because too often they are single threaded. Many reps, either because of laziness or lack of awareness, fail to establish more than one relationship within a deal. They rely on a single relationship to get the deal done. Multithreaded relationships Being multithreaded doesn't simply refer to your customers. It's important that sellers create multithreaded relationships within their own companies as well. Who else, besides your prospect, needs to be part of the conversation you're having? Who else on your team has relationships that can be leveraged to build a solid foundation? One of Peter's reps teaches his reps to always do discovery because it keeps them aware of the details of the deal and helps them to stay relevant. If you're multithreaded, you have other contacts that can help you move a deal forward. Unnecessary risk Even when you believe that you have the juice to close a deal, you leave yourself open to risk if you fail to be multithreaded. You may, in fact, be connected to the right person, but that doesn't mean there aren't others who can help move the deal forward as well. Many reps simply haven't been coached to do this well. Sales leaders must coach them well and teach them how to have a multithreaded perspective. In the case of a complex account, there may be hundreds of employees. There may be years of history between you and your prospect making it difficult to know where to even start. Peter says that visually mapping the process will help you keep track of your efforts. Who are you talking to? Where does each employee sit? Who does each employee report to? What are the relationships within that organization? Becoming multithreaded In order to establish a multithreaded perspective, begin by figuring out all the people you already know. Start with who you've met or spoken to in the organization. Step two is to identify all your targets or the people you'd like to talk to. Third, add the executive team. Include the CEO and any executive leadership that you think is relevant to the conversation. You can then figure out who reports to whom and who is pursuing specific initiatives. The goal is to drive consensus across the organization, so I must identify the leaders who can move this initiative forward. [Tweet "Multithreaded relationships demand that you're constantly adding to your map, even if you'll never actually speak to some of those people. #Multithreaded"] Recognizing your prospects' initiatives demonstrates an interest and it suggests that you're more than an order-taker; you're paying attention to the details. Common mistakes Some managers get so focused on their numbers that they fail to develop a real strategy. As soon as organizations allow their sellers to be a little more strategic, they'll find that their activities are much more scalable. Account mapping has been around for a long time, but now we have the technology to use a more systemized approach to it and tie it into our CRM. Young sales leaders simply haven't been exposed to enough deals to think that way. But great sales leaders think that way naturally. Help your less tenured sellers learn to think that way. It's easy to get overwhelmed with this idea but begin with your top account. Implement the three steps with that account, will help you begin really moving your deals. Build the discipline within yourself and your team to be multithreaded. Even if you're certain it will close, you can still consider who else you have access to. When you're multithreaded, you have more options when your contacts go dark. Remember to focus on internal and external connections. "Create Multithreaded Relationships" episode resources You can connect with Peter on LinkedIn and you can sign up for LucidChart and check out their sales templates. This episode is brought to you in part by our TSE Certified Sales Training Program, which teaches you to improve your sales skills, find more customers, build stronger value, and close more deals. The next semester begins in April. If you're not familiar with the TSE Certified Sales Training Program, it's a program designed to help brand new sales reps, as well as those who have been selling forever. The 12-week module offers videos you can watch at your own pace, as well as the option to join a group discussion. It's broken into three sections: finding, building value, and closing. It's amazing and it's fun! 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. The episode is also brought to you by prospect.io, a sales automation platform that allows you to send cold emails in a personalized manner. To find out more about how it can help you automate your sales process, go to prospect.io/tse. Your prospecting will never be the same. 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