Elite Selling Podcast - Mastering Tech Sales

Why you should treat your sales "job" as a career instead. Bart shares life lessons from his time at Splunk, BMC, and OutSystems about the importance of coaching, feedback, and going all in. This is an episode you WILL NOT WANT TO MISS!

How to Avoid "Mid-Funnel Fallout"  Why your deals are dropping and not moving  5 key things these enterprise deals are falling out  You’re a business person, not a seller  your role is a consultant and go in and solve problems  remove yourself/your product from the equation Summary: Mid-Funnel Fallout and its Causes with Nigel Burns. 0:00 Five reasons why deals are getting stuck in the middle of the sales process. North Stars are important for setting direction and aligning the organization, but they can be lost in the shuffle if not big enough or compelling enough. Sales strategies for successful deals. 3:47 Focus on linking opportunities to strategic initiatives for faster approval. Developing relationships across departments is crucial for project success, especially with existing clients. Red Flags in dealing with champions: hesitance to involve other stakeholders in the business. Understand how the business evaluates and acquires new technology, as champions may not know the full process. Sales strategies for IT deals. 10:07 Sellers should help buyers understand the process of buying technology by providing a map or checklist of steps, ensuring a smooth and successful purchase. Sellers are afraid to lead in this area due to a misconception that it's not their job or that they're just facilitating the buyer's purchase, but it's important to help buyers understand the process to build trust and ensure a successful outcome. IT departments prioritize projects based on organizational goals, slowing down non-prioritized initiatives. Difficulty aligning sales efforts with IT group's strategic initiatives, leading to lost deals. Sales strategies for closing deals and improving forecasting accuracy. 17:06 The importance of addressing five key challenges in enterprise deals, including aligning with a North Star and understanding how the technology will be used. The biggest challenge people miss is not making the vision for the deal compelling enough, leading to confusion and overwhelm. Accurate forecasting helps sales teams close deals, gain strategic influence, and secure new resources. Prioritizing deals six months out allows for better forecasting accuracy, improved communication with leadership, and increased credibility. Sales strategies and techniques for moving deals forward. 22:17 Mid-funnel fallout by following a rigorous process in initial meetings. "Start with Why" by Simon Sinek for sales teams to build trust and frame conversations. An elite seller as someone who understands their client's business operations and can articulate how their product addresses specific business needs. Importance of being a consultant and building trusted relationships with clients.

Summary Team selling in sales with a focus on partnership with marketing and other departments. 0:02 The importance of team selling in email marketing sales. Team selling and collaboration in sales. 1:26 Team Selling is when sales engineers and BDRs work together to focus messaging and solve client problems, rather than relying on a single top-performing sales rep. Sales reps should own some of the responsibility for ensuring the organization is working together effectively, rather than relying solely on management. Taking time to understand the perspectives of other departments, such as marketing and product, can help sales reps identify areas for improvement and close deals more effectively. Sales skills, weaknesses, and delegation. 7:00 The importance of sales and marketing alignment, citing the need to address discrepancies in messaging and lead handoff at trade shows. Both honing one's strengths and delegating tasks to other functions (e.g., marketing, technical) is crucial for success in sales. Per discusses their journey from college to software sales, highlighting the lack of vocational training in sales and marketing. Sales strategies and career aspirations. 13:27 The importance of being introspective about one's career aspirations in sales, considering both big and small company environments. Advises sellers to be aware of their career goals and whether they want to work for a big company or a small one, as this can impact their experience and expertise within an organization. The pros and cons of working at a large company versus a smaller one, emphasizing the importance of understanding the company's direction and culture. "How to Make Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie, highlighting the book's practical advice on asking questions and showing genuine interest in others. Big companies have more resources, but smaller companies have more agility and personalized support. IBM had an interesting approach to sellers, where they gave autonomy and incentivized collaboration. Sales strategies and LinkedIn usage. 22:25 Importance of being close to clients in sales, citing an example from his experience at Barracuda. The importance of using LinkedIn to generate content and connect with others in the industry, as it can help establish credibility and lead to job opportunities. Defines an elite seller as someone who consistently hits their numbers, even if they don't hit every number every month. Be cognizant of their surroundings in their organization and to reach out to others for help, rather than being a lone wolf.

Summary Sales and marketing alignment for revenue growth. 0:03 Sales and marketing alignment means aligning around impacting the revenue number, starting from the top down. Asks for specifics on what sales and marketing need to be aligned on, such as communication and shared criteria for success. Aligning marketing and sales teams for growth. 4:13 Marketing teams should have a pipeline number and report on it regularly to align with sales goals.Standardized qualification processes and weekly pipeline forecast meetings can help marketing and sales teams row in the same direction.Clarity in roles and responsibilities is crucial for successful sales and marketing alignment. Lack of documentation and agreement on processes can lead to confusion and poor collaboration. Marketing and sales alignment in a small company. 10:13 Marketing and sales alignment is key to successful customer engagement, with clear communication and feedback loops between teams. Important to form relationships with people on different teams, even if not directly responsible for marketing, to better understand their process and cross-share insights Reach out to marketing leader to start the conversation if you want to know more about marketing trends in 2023 Marketing and sales strategies for a software company. 14:47 Work ramp is focused on generating pipeline and building brand through content, including a podcast, customer highlights, and a virtual conference. The company is optimizing its marketing spend to maximize efficiency and establish itself as a credible and top brand in the LMS space. Unknown Speaker: Sellers should leverage marketing team's efforts by using events as momentum for outbound prospecting. Unknown Speaker: Sales teams can provide feedback on marketing materials, such as slide requests, to help position the company's value to CFOs. Leveraging customer stories for sales and marketing success. 20:42 Importance of customer stories as pipeline-generating tools for sellers. Work Ramp's marketing team has a customer marketer on staff to gather and share compelling customer stories. Customers want to be highlighted and have their brands promoted, creating excitement and natural inflow of participation. Sales and customer success teams should collaborate with marketing to bring customers' stories and help marketing facilitate customer advocacy. Marketing and sales alignment, customer insights, and elite selling. 25:57 Importance of aligning sales and marketing teams by sharing the same goals and language, and having open communication and feedback loops to hold each other accountable. Use LinkedIn as a valuable resource for marketing and sales professionals to share information, inspiration, and examples of what's working or not working for specific teams. Get to know your product and the sales team to be a better marketer.Elite sellers build trust by being genuinely curious and transparent about how they can solve buyers' challenges. Jack shared valuable insights on how sales and marketing teams can work together more effectively, including the importance of speaking a common language and taking advantage of marketing's momentum. Importance of genuine curiosity and authenticity in sales, and how it can lead to more successful outcomes for both the seller and the buyer.

Summary Coaching in sales leadership with insights from experienced professionals. 0:01 Ben emphasizes coaching as a crucial aspect of sales leadership, citing personal growth and potential career changes as a result of receiving coaching himself. Leaders often mistake talking to reps as coaching, and avoid truly coaching them. Coaching in sales, purposeful vs reactive. 3:23 Coaching is purposeful, intentional time to help someone do better, not just rescuing deals at the Coaching can be opportunity coaching, career coaching, or helping champions, but it must be intentional and purposeful. Coaches should prioritize coaching during one-on-ones, focusing on specific deals and career progression. Griffin Reilly: Agreed upon operational cadence is important for coaching, with set times for coaching conversations and proactive discussion topics. Sales coaching and opportunity management. 8:15 Importance of trust and respect in a coaching relationship, emphasizing that it's essential for effective communication and building a strong relationship. Griffin Reilly asks how great sales leaders build trust with their team members, given that it's similar to building trust with prospects in sales. Sales leader emphasizes opportunity coaching for sellers to close deals before end of year. The importance of creating a safe environment for sellers to receive feedback and coaching from their managers. Griffin Reilly shares his framework for opportunity coaching, including the use of deal clinics and preparing sellers for coaching sessions. Prioritizing coaching sessions for sales teams. 14:11 Griffin Reilly discusses the importance of role-playing in sales coaching, citing Nathan Jamail's experience with improved skill development. Approach to realistic role-playing, incorporating deal clinics and other perspectives to help sellers improve. Leaders must prioritize coaching sessions with reps to help them succeed. Leaders must be intentional and proactive about scheduling coaching sessions to ensure they happen. Sales coaching, leadership, and mindset. 18:57 Sellers should seek out resources and coaching to improve their skills, while managers should prioritize coaching and provide feedback to help their team succeed. "The Five Secrets of a Sales Coach" and the Sales Enablement Society Conference. The Sales Enablement Society Conference in San Diego, where they will discuss the importance of sales leadership and coaching. Ben: Elite sellers value their time and prospects' time, focusing on solving problems rather than just closing deals. Ben: Coaching is key to success, prioritizing it over forecasting and loving the opportunity to share wisdom and impart knowledge.

Podcast Summary Intro to this episode. 0:00 Welcome to another episode of the elite selling podcast, breaking down productivity in 2023 and what it means to be a productive sales rep or sales leader in 23. Welcome to the episode. The importance of productivity in sales. 1:14 The story of productivity in his past life, when he was doing field sales at Cisco and covering colorado and Wyoming. What he could have told his younger self about productivity. The importance of being selective about who you spend your time with as a rep and controlling the things that you can control. The top KPIs for a rep. Step 1: Prioritize the right prospects. 4:17 The first step in revenue generating activity is planning, and how to avoid analysis paralysis by prioritizing the right prospects and accounts. The most important thing a rep can do is prioritize. The first step is to know which accounts to go after once you have planned that out. The second step is blocking off time for outbound pipeline generation at the beginning of the day, crafting your message the night before and outlining five to 10 objectives. How to have productive days. 8:18 Sales is all about having productive days and stacking those days every single day. The five objectives are the key to success. Pipeline is king. It's 10 emails, 10 phone calls and 10 linkedin messages every day. Keep it simple, consistent and beautiful. Measuring success with meetings. 10:41 How many meetings have been booked for the future that week, not just meetings completed, but meetings booked that week. The next level of focus is total number of meetings, how many of those meetings are tied to pain, and how many are discovery meetings. Time to pain is a good sign of a well-done meeting, but having a champion and a route to revenue is also important. Pipeline is crucial to running a successful business and not fluctuating up and down based on not doing all the things discussed.

Mastering the Fundamentals - Dan Cutler Summary You can't be a one trick pony. 0:00 You can't be a one-trick pony. People that are good for 10 years are the people that are malleable and flexible. The fundamentals of enterprise selling. Why fundamentals are so important? 1:34 Why fundamentals are so important to him and why they are important to his listeners. Why not having a good understanding of the fundamentals or not mastering the fundamentals can negatively impact his career and career. The importance of understanding the how. 4:12 The why is critical, but the how becomes more critical the larger the company you deal with. The first person to talk to is the same person that can make a decision. The two reasons that someone would buy something, to save money or to make money. He had worked with the pharmaceutical industry in a previous life. He knew that there was a funded initiative to push mobile technology to sellers. He latched on to one of the company's largest initiatives, and because he was able to marry it with one of their initiatives, he found success. Qualification and qualification of information. 9:36 Every interaction is an opportunity to qualify and to share information to provide technical resources to share pricing without deeply qualifying why that information is being asked for. Pricing is the currency. The knee-jerk reaction to asking for a demo, and why it is a waste of time. The importance of understanding what the demo would look like to custom tailor it. It’s okay to say no when you’re wrong about something. 12:55 Why it is so hard for sellers to have pushback with their prospects or customers, and why it is okay to say no sometimes. Why fundamentals are so important. How elite sellers get to the right people, or how an average seller struggles with spending time with the wrong person. How the great ones navigate the internal hierarchy and the political structure of who is the right person to make a decision. How to become multi-threaded. 18:10 Becoming multi-threaded is a multi-party game. If you're playing one on one, you should pursue three on three. How to navigate through the hundreds of salespeople trying to get time from you. The importance of understanding the personal win. 20:13 Getting to the personal win behind a potential champion and what is driving them to bring you on board. The balance of going in with a personal win vs professional win. The best sales reps have figured out a way to extract information that they probably shouldn't have, and sometimes they uncover that there is a motivation for that individual. What is in it for finance? 23:23 Finance provides unique discounts, tweaks to the licensing model, understanding things that are scalable or not scalable, and empathy both externally and internally. Non-negotiable or things that reps can't do from a fundamental perspective. The ones that fail are the ones that sort of give up the goods without getting them in return. Every engagement is an opportunity to qualify and leverage in your hands. The importance of fundamentals. 27:42 Fundamentals are like reading a children's book. Listeners can learn a lot from them. This is a stressful time for all of us right now in the market. How would you define an elite seller? 29:32 Make sure that you partner with your sales organization and your leadership team and your entire company to help you accomplish your goals. What Michael Jordan defines as an elite seller. Best sellers are malleable and can keep up with the times, but also not be a one trick pony. Focus on the fundamentals, the why, how and the people.

A solid qualification methodology is a cornerstone of your efforts. 0:00 Why a solid qualification methodology is a cornerstone of efforts to coach and develop talent, and how it creates a peer coaching environment Have you ever heard of MEDDPICC before? 5:46 He was referred to Medallia by someone who worked out already and was asked if he had ever used medic before. A month into the role, he was able to figure out why he had lost every single deal over the last five or six years in his career. Mark shares why he thinks MEDDPICC is the best sales methodology, and why it is the cornerstone of talent development in sales. Mark shares what it was like before and after bringing MEDDPICC into his organization, and what it has been like since then. Dysfunctions of a team. 10:01 Five dysfunctions of a team, peak performance as a team when everyone on the team is holding each other accountable vs leadership holding the team accountable. The definition of a champion. Champion is a hard behavioral shift for people to go from referring to someone as a champion to realizing that they are a coach. MEDDPIC has a bad rap in certain instances but is customer-centric and beneficial for customers for three reasons. What elite sales looks like in action. 14:18 If the answer is no, they will just qualify out and they won't waste the customer's time. The second conversation will be rooted in discovery. The three steps to creating value. Focus on metrics and pain first, then focus on decision criteria, and then champion enablement and build them up to help you. Elite reps control the sales process from the very start. How do elite sellers differentiate themselves from other sellers? 17:50 How elite sellers are quick to identify and not wasting cycles, and how it takes time and experience to get that consistent, consistent and quick process done. How LinkedIn's enterprise sales are changing. The tweak is that certain parts of the framework become more important when there is an established relationship in place. Identifying pain points and delivery of business impact is critical. Decision criteria and decision process. 21:27 Decision criteria and decision process are two separate things, but it is more important than ever to drive urgency around priorities. The decision making process has probably changed in the current situation, and salespeople need to be deliberate about their discovery. How often reps and leaders need to go in and rework their sales skills and make it part of their daily practice and how they think about it. Training and enablement every day. How to embed med pick into the operating rhythm of the organization? 25:35 How to embed MEDDPICC in the operating rhythm of the organization, and why the first line of managers need to know it well enough to be able to teach it and get buy-in across the organization. How to tweak the hiring profile if you decide to implement medic. In organizations or individual sellers, the two pieces reps most often fall short of are the implicate the pain and the champion. To be successful, sales reps need to have strong commercial acumen, curiosity and emotional intelligence to understand power and influence in an organization. Resources for reps. 30:10 Two resources mark would recommend to reps and sales leaders to check out, medic, and a new book called champion sell. Mark defines an elite seller as one who has commercial acumen, grit, resilience, growth, mindset, and coachability. Lead sellers have the ability to get customers excited about the future state of their solution and transmit that confidence and vision to the customer. Two key takeaways from today's episode, grab a buddy that you work with and figure out how to qualify your deals.

How to build your brand -How building your brand in 2023 has changed-Ways to kill your brand (common mistakes)-Why networking is so important-How to build your brand with your customers-What resources do you recommend-How do you define an elite seller

Summary: Introduction to this episode. 0:01 Welcome to a special episode of the elite-selling podcast. What Griff and Frankie wish they had known 10 years ago. Systems and habits are more important than goals. 1:06 Habits are more important than goals. Everything is negotiable, internally and externally. Be prepared to negotiate internally and externally. 2:36 Be prepared for negotiation, both internally and externally. Everything is negotiable. How to challenge your prospects. 4:22 Don't be afraid to challenge prospects. You are more valuable than you think. Don’t be afraid to have swagger. 6:39 Being a walking dream for a sales organization. The skill-will matrix. Mindset is everything in sales. 8:40 Mindset is everything in sales, especially in 2023. The importance of having a positive mindset. Creativity is the most underrated skill in sales. Pipeline generation is a creative profession. Have a mentor and be a mentor. 13:35 Have a mentor and be a mentor. Always be learning from someone. Don’t just ask someone to pick your brain. 15:36 No 8, genuine curiosity is a superpower in sales. Best sellers are genuinely curious. Enjoy what you sell who you sell to and who you work for. 17:45 Enjoy what you sell, who you sell to and who you work for. Knowing your value. Learn to qualify. 20:22 Tactical, learn med pick. Data-driven sales and strategic selling, and why med pick matters. Systems over goals is the number one thing in sales. Creativity is an underrated skill.