The Sales Evangelist

Sales constantly evolves. As technology and tools change, we have new processes and strategies available to us. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we hear from Alex Glenn about the new world for CRM and mirroring pipeline and how it can help us be more effective in our sales processes. Alex runs automateddata.af, a place where customers can grab working automations for their businesses. The platform crowdsources solutions and wraps them up into a usable format for those in sales, marketing, and customer success. DEVELOPING CRM CRM has seen a bit of a shift over the last few years. Instead of being software that costs thousands of dollars and requires a great deal of training, your CRM must be more agile now. [3:51] CRM must work with your existing tools as well as the dashboards you regularly use for work. It must be easily accessible and easily connectable. Most founders are also coming around to the idea that CRM should serve as all-in-one solutions. It’s very convenient for people to access the information they need without having to lead the dashboard they already work in. BEST SOFTWARE POSSIBLE The first issue must be finding the best possible software for each process. [7:46] You want to conduct outreach — either cold emailing, cold calling or LinkedIn prospecting. Then you want to manage that person or that prospect using CRM. You’ll need post-conversion like signup, demos, and other options, and you’ll need nurturing touchpoints like email, and phone calls. Then you’ll need post-sale drips and one-to-one messaging. The problem is that all of that can’t exist in one tool, but several tools are trying to accomplish all or 75 percent of it. The “all-in-ones” represent themselves that way because they cover most of these activities, though many of the components will be somewhat bare bones. [9:20] There are issues with each of them that limit your capabilities. AUTOMATION Customers need to have timely messages that are appropriate for their specific situations. All-in-ones won’t ever be the best solution because they won’t be able to give you everything you need at every step. Google Apps is global now, and many people in the tech and startup scenes are using it because there’s so much collaboration possible. [11:55] But if your cold outreach system isn’t talking to your CRM and talking to your website, then you can cause a lot of confusion because you might be messaging someone in LinkedIn while you’re sending emails at the same time. It can make your efforts seem disorganized. You need a tool that syncs your pipeline stages. (Click here to access the video of Alex navigating some of these tools.) [17:47] BENEFITS This capability allows small organizations to do really effective cold outreach. You may have gotten slapped for cold outreach before because you were sending too many emails or you got blacklisted. That doesn’t mean cold outreach doesn’t work. That may result because you weren’t using the right platform or because your setup was wrong. The second possibility is that you weren’t doing it well. Perhaps you weren’t nurturing them effectively. [33:18] If your pipeline stages aren’t in sync through the different outreach systems or the different tools that you’re using, you could create a poor customer experience. Whether you use a system like this or an all-in-one system together with a cold outreach system, make sure your pipeline stages are clearly outlined. Know what’s going on at each stage. Make sure each tool is being updated based upon where the customer is and how he interacted with your tools. “NEW WORLD FOR CRM AND MIRRORING PIPELINE” EPISODE RESOURCES You can connect with Alex at automated.af and email him at team@automated.af. Automated hopes to build out so that it will offer something for everyone. Check out the tools Alex mentioned in the episode: persistiq.com for sales engagement with a clean interface user.com for automation software to track customer engagement useorca.com to find and engage new customers. You can also view the screenshare here. This episode is brought to you in part by prospect.io, a powerful sales automation platform that allows you to build highly personalized, cold email campaigns. To learn more, go to prospect.io/tse. It will help you with your outbound to expand your outreach and it allows you to set it and forget it. Your prospecting will never ever be the same. We’ll use prospect.io in the upcoming semester of TSE Hustler’s League to focus on prospecting. We’ll give you insights and tools that will help you gain new customers. In addition, we’ll provide training and strategies that you can implement today to ensure constant flow in your pipeline. Check out our new semester of The Sales Evangelist Hustler’s League. We’re taking applications for the semester beginning in January, and we can only take a limited number of people. This episode is also brought to you in part by Maximizer CRM, personalized CRM that gives you the confidence to improve your business and increase profits. To get a demonstration of maximizer, go to the sales evangelists.com/maximizer. Click on the link to get a free demo of what Maximizer CRM can do for you. It integrates your marketing campaign as well as your CRM, and it works whether you’re a small organization or a large one. 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, and share with your friends! Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we’ll talk to serial entrepreneur Justin Hartzman about how we can grow a business and why we should do it with the possibility of an acquisition in mind. Justin is the CEO and co-founder of Needls.com, the Internet’s first RoboAgency. It is the easiest and most effective way for small businesses to advertise online and bring in more sales. By answering just six questions, Needls.com knows who you are, who you want to sell to, and what you want to sell. It can create 50-500 ads in real time, deliver them to the network, and show them to your ideal customer.  THE BOTTOM LINE OF ANY BUSINESS Some of us seek the independence that comes from being our own boss while others desire flexibility and creative freedom or want to achieve a sense of personal fulfillment. [1:59] The bottom line of starting any business though, as Justin explains, is to earn the financial freedom to live our lives the way we want. A successful business puts more money in our pockets and allows us the time to enjoy it. Trying to start a new business, however, is tricky. While there are more people now looking for opportunities to fund, there are also more people competing for those funds. The common approach is to build the product first. Then you find the money to produce the product next and then sell the product. Justin recommends the complete opposite approach. IF YOU SELL IT, THEY WILL COME. Sales are always first. Find out if people want your product and if they do – sell it to them.   With the sales lined up and letters of intent in your hand, it becomes much easier to find people to fund your product. [3:19] For example, Justin’s fiance’ told him that a friend on Facebook was looking for someone to build an iOS app. When that need for an app turned into an immediate $60,000 contract, the light bulb turned on and Needls.com was born. People always have questions and they will always ask other for answers. Justin and his team created a software program to scan their Facebook feeds for specific words that could lead to other sales. [4:32] They soon realized a 300% increase in their business. Those sales gave them the funds they needed to takeNeedls.com where it is today. PLANNING FOR ACQUISITION Ignore those instances when a fledgling business did well and was acquired without planning for it because those are few and far between. Instead, Justin firmly believes that you need to be organized and to plan for an eventual acquisition from Day One. [8:02] Have your data in order from the start because trying to organize it later is not only time-consuming but expensive. Instead, be sure you are incorporated correctly and have a handle on your finances. Build the processes you need and scale your business at the proper cadence. Make sure your books and contracts are in order, your IP is buttoned up and all the proper NDAs are in place. Simply put: Expect to be successful and plan accordingly.   ATTRACT ACQUISITION OFFERS Justin’s success has come from partnering with other businesses who can help him as he helps them. [9:01]  It all comes back to sales. Sell yourself first. Make yourself useful. Find partners who will benefit from what you have to offer and take advantage of the networking opportunities, learning experiences, and industry insight they provide in return. Then when an acquisition situation arises, you are in place and you are ready. “GROW A BUSINESS RIPE FOR ACQUISITION” EPISODE RESOURCES Justin truly believes that making oneself useful to others is the key to success and, as such, he is always happy to chat or answer your questions. He can be reached at JH@needls.comor you can find him on LinkedIn.    He is also offering 35% off his entire platform for a year via needls.com/salesevan and his team is on standby to answer questions and to help you make the most of it. Check out our previous episode about why buying your competition might be a good option for your company. This episode is brought to you in part by Maximizer CRM, personalized CRM that gives you the confidence to improve your business and increase profits. To get a demonstration of maximizer, go to the salesevangelists.com/maximizer. Click on the link to get a free demo of what Maximizer CRM can do for you. Maximizer is intuitive, simple, and personable. Maximizer integrates your marketing campaign as well as your CRM. It works whether you’re a small organization or a large one. It works throughout the whole organization and it’s customizable to the way you sell. This episode is also brought to you in part by prospect.io, a powerful sales automation platform that allows you to build highly personalized, cold email campaigns. To learn more, go to prospect.io/tse. It will help you with your outbound to expand your outreach and it allows you to set it and forget it. Your prospecting will never ever be the same. TSE HUSTLER’S LEAGUE We’ll use prospect.io in the upcoming semester of TSE Hustler’s League to focus on prospecting. We’ll give you insights and tools that will help you gain new customers. You can implement our training and strategies today to ensure constant flow in your pipeline. Check out TSE Hustler’s League and apply to see if it’s a good fit. Leave us a review 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, and share it with someone else you think might benefit. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

Many of the activities in our day don’t actually help us close more deals. We’re busy doing things, but they aren’t moving our deals forward. Today we’ll talk about the things that distract us as sales reps, and how we can stop unnecessary distractions that are actually hindering our efforts. DISTRACTIONS Email is a necessary part of our sales efforts but spending time cleaning up our email isn’t an effective use of our time. If this were a football game, you wouldn’t be in the locker room trying to learn plays. Once the game starts, you’ll spend your time trying to advance the ball and score. So why do we spend our time at work doing things that aren’t conducive to closing deals? [4:30] Very often, we are hesitant to do the things that we really need to do. We don’t want to make cold calls or try to upsell our existing customers.   Sellers often want to do things that are easy, so we do things that make us feel accomplished like cleaning our email instead of tackling hard tasks like cold calling and prospecting. #Productivity CLICK TO TWEET   RECORD YOUR ACTIVITY Spend an entire week writing down all your activity and the amount of time you spend on it. [5:14] If you go to the kitchen to get a drink, write it down. If you talk with other team members, write that down and record how long it takes. Record all of your activities: email, updating CRM, creating proposals and attending meetings. Write down how long you spend on planning and social media. If you get sidetracked by your cell phone, write it down, and write the time next to it. As you do this over the course of a week, you’ll begin to see trends in your daily activity. ANALYZE YOUR ACTIVITY Now look at your activity and figure out which steps actually contribute to your closing deals. [6:46] Be honest about your activity and look for places that you can use your time better. Could you take a shorter lunch break a couple of days a week to create more time for sales activity? Score every activity on a scale of 1 to 3: 1’s are things that don’t help you close deals, while 3’s are things that contribute greatly to your closings. You can even use a 1 to 5 scale if that works better for you. Find the activities that aren’t helping you close deals and pay attention to the amount of time you spend on those activities. REDIRECT YOUR TIME Once you’ve identified the things that aren’t helping your efforts, figure out how that time spent cleaning out your email can be better used. Over time, these small amounts of time add up to hours that we could be using to focus on something productive. [9:13] Instead of checking ESPN, I could reach out to a prospect on LinkedIn. Eliminate tasks that you don’t need to do. Ask for accountability from your manager or your coworkers. Use apps that prevent you from accessing distracting websites. Intentionally focus on those activities that scored higher on your list. Outsource those activities that bog you down. UNCOMPLICATE THINGS Eliminate things that keep you from being the very best seller you can be. [11:41] Audit your time to see how you’re spending it. Rate your activities and eliminate unnecessary tasks. Hyperfocus on the important activities. This will change your business and your personal life when you implement it. “UNNECESSARY DISTRACTIONS” EPISODE RESOURCES This episode is brought to you in part by prospect.io, a powerful sales automation platform that allows you to build highly personalized, cold email campaigns. To learn more, go to prospect.io/tse. It will help you with your outbound to expand your outreach and it allows you to set it and forget it. Your prospecting will never ever be the same. We’ll use prospect.io in the upcoming semester of TSE Hustler’s League to focus on prospecting. We’ll give you insights and tools that will help you gain new customers. In addition, we’ll provide training and strategies that you can implement today to ensure constant flow in your pipeline. Check out our new semester of The Sales Evangelist Hustler’s League. We’re taking applications for the semester beginning in January, and we can only take a limited number of people. This episode is also brought to you in part by Maximizer CRM, personalized CRM that gives you the confidence to improve your business and increase profits. To get a demonstration of maximizer, go to the sales evangelists.com/maximizer. Click on the link to get a free demo of what Maximizer CRM can do for you. It integrates your marketing campaign as well as your CRM, and it works whether you’re a small organization or a large one. 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, and share with your friends! Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

The last thing you want is to have your sales process abandon by your sellers. We will share with you how to prevent this. Listen to how. Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

On today's episode of The Sales Evangelist, we're talking with Curt Rapp about how sellers can benefit from the experiences and knowledge of others, and how that knowledge creates shortcuts. Curt works as an independent contractor selling luxury outdoor products to consumers. During the holidays, that means Christmas lights and decorations. During the warmer months, he sells outdoor cooling systems and mosquito control. He has access to marketing collateral like CRM and other resources, but he has to bring purpose and a sense of direction to the process. He has to take ownership in the sales process and get focused. TSE Hustler's League Curt took part in our online coaching program, previously called TSE Hustler's League. He said the most valuable part of the experience was learning from other people's mistakes. Curt calls them shortcuts because he's borrowing knowledge from other people. [03:15] Learning how other people handle the daily dogfight of sales helps him borrow their knowledge the next time he finds himself in a dogfight of his own. In TSE Hustler's League, even as the administrator of the course, I learned shortcuts and other tricks from people in other industries. Silos Salespeople tend to isolate themselves because they focus on the fact that their industries are different from other industries. The truth is that although the sales industries are very different, people who sell cars can learn from people who sell bicycles. Curt said it took him several years to understand that he could learn from other people. Early on, he didn't listen to people or their advice, and he ignored shortcuts that could have helped him be more successful. [05:31] By learning from others, he gets to benefit from new information, and then he gets to share it with other people. [Tweet "Learning new information and sharing it with others means you learn twice: once when you hear it, and again when you teach it to someone else. There's tremendous value in learning from other people. #sharedexperience"] Having a plan Curt said that early in his sales career, he took everything that came his way. He wasn't selective in the choices he made. He saw opportunities all around but he didn't wait for the right opportunities. [07:08] Many of his past mistakes stemmed from dealing with people incorrectly and failing to intentionally set his expectations. As a new seller, he got excited about phone calls and appointments because he didn't have the confidence to expect them to happen. Now, he has the confidence to know that he can set appointments and close deals, and it has changed his focus. Confidence has made everything easier in the sales arena. Also, it's important to be humble enough to acknowledge that you don't have all the answers. Once you do that, you can accept help from other people. Positioned for the future Curt learned from his TSE Hustler's League experience that you must always be learning. He came to sales from an IT background, and he didn't know what he was doing. He had to be humbled, and that happened when he got around other people who were also hungry for knowledge. [10:40] Group training sessions helped Curt in a variety of ways: It gave him situational awareness. When an unfamiliar situation cropped up, he could draw on discussions he had heard other people share about the topic. It improved his skills. Group training improved his accountability. He learned that he couldn't be the guy sitting quietly in the corner of the group. He had to share and contribute something to the group. To quote the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, if you aren't sharpening your saw every day, you'll be passed over. Nothing will be handed to you. Once Curt changed his mindset to understand that he didn't know everything, his situation started to change. The TSE Hustler's League group training helped him shift his mindset to always be learning. Engage with successful people Find people who are successful. Use social media. Use online training. Become aware of all that you can learn and then put yourself in a position to learn something new. Be open to the possibilities. Change your mindset and your mentality. [13:01] Your future may not look the way you think it will, but it will likely be better than you expected. "Shortcuts" episode resources If you'd like to know more about Curt and to find out about the project he's launching in 2019 connect with him at curtisrapp.com and on Instagram @CurtisRapp. This episode is brought to you in part by prospect.io, a powerful sales automation platform that allows you to build highly personalized, cold email campaigns. To learn more, go to prospect.io/tse. It will help you with your outbound to expand your outreach. It allows you to set it and forget it. Your prospecting will never ever be the same. Previously known as TSE Hustler's League, our TSE Certified Sales Program offers modules that you can engage on your own schedule as well as opportunities to engage with other sellers in other industries. This episode is 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. 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, and share with your friends! Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, I am introducing our new program – the TSE Certified Sales Program. If you are a sales leader in a company – this program is for you. If you are an executive or business owner of a small firm and your sales reps don’t have a process – […] The post TSE 975: TSE Certified Sales Program – What Is It? appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we talk to Chirag Gupta, founder of NoD Coworking, about documenting processes and how it will help your organization become more efficient and more profitable. Chirag has been an entrepreneur since college, and his coworking space in Dallas has achieved profitability, a goal many startups never achieve, largely as […] The post TSE 974: Sales From The Street: “Document Everything” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we talk to content marketing leader Pam Didner about the critical role content plays in sales and the importance of collaborative sales and marketing. Content plays a critical role in educating customers and prospects, making sales enablement a natural extension of content marketing. Pam is the author of Effective […] The post TSE 973: Achieve Sales Growth Through Collaborative Sales And Marketing appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we discuss the value of following every step in the sales process, and how you can prevent your sales team from skipping steps in the process. Sales processes aren’t intended to add burdens to your role as a sales leader, but should actually free you and your team […] The post TSE 972: How To Get Salespeople Not To Skip Steps In The Sales Process appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we talk with global sales team leader Michael Wills about how to develop a sales process that works. Many sellers have no real sense of direction, but they expect to be successful despite the lack of a plan. Defining a sales process A sales process provides a way […] The post TSE 971: How To Develop A Sales Process That Works appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.Mentioned in this episode:HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOSHubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com