Mental Selling: The Sales Performance Podcast

Most economic indicators point to a strengthening economy, now that the pandemic is beginning to wane with the widespread rollout of vaccines. That begs the questions: Is your sales team ready to compete by creating value, not by describing product? Businesses are sitting on piles of cash. People are ready to spend now. But Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is real. Is your sales team truly ready to compete and win – or will you miss the coming wave? Integrity Solutions’ Chief Sales Officer, Bruce Wedderburn, explains what’s different today, including the role of the virtual selling environment and navigating inevitable distractions– and how what worked before won’t do the trick now. Learn to differentiate through the human experience: Pretty soon most purchases – from small scale B2C to even some larger corporate B2B purchases, can be made through automation without even needing to talk to a sales person. This is the digitization and commoditization of all products and services. This can be bad news but also a tremendous opportunity for sales reps to rise to the occasion. One of the things that COVID-19 taught us, especially in the early months of the pandemic, is the need for a human connection. The foundation for great sales performance is empathy, understanding and reassurance. Sales reps need to become trusted consultants to buyers by solving their business challenges and sharing insights not selling products — and going beyond immediate needs. In 2021, your team will need to focus on building trust and rapport in an increasingly digital world while becoming intimately familiar with your buyers’ goals and pains. More and more products are being seen as a commodity so trying to differentiate through describing why you’re different is further putting you into the commodity basket – because that’s what your competitors are doing. Differentiation and sales performance will come from how well your team can deliver value throughout the buying journey, the customer experience, not by how well you can describe your product.

As the COVID-19 pandemic crosses the one year marker, what’s working today for sales teams — and what innovative sales strategies are connecting with customers? Integrity Solutions CEO, Mike Esterday, explores what we’ve learned in the past year, how customers are different today, and how the sales function is seen as the key to recovery for most organizations. Virtual selling, which in truth has been around for a long time, is now the norm. It will be part of every salesperson's role forever now. And it's shown to be better for gathering and coordinating growing numbers of decision makers, setting appointments, pre-call planning and having effective sales conversations. Hopeful signs of recovery. New skills developed under incredible pressures. Many companies have shown tremendous resilience, survived, and even thrived. Those companies doing well are focused now more than ever on customer loyalty while shifting both their mindsets and skill sets. They emerge now believing they can perform at a higher level in this new year. Mike also discusses how managers are shifting their skills too- how they teach sales teams to sell virtually and how they coach virtually.

How one leader's experience is perhaps part of a broader trend for coping with the challenges brought on by COVID-19. Our discussion with Principal Financial Group’s Gary Karthauser who explores how he’s adapting his leadership style to the challenges of leading teams in a pandemic. One seasoned leader’s insights into how values-based leadership and coaching provides a solid foundation for getting results in the most unprecedented of times.

Most organizations are quickly coming around to the view that virtual training is a must-have — given its obvious benefits. You might be relatively new to it and find yourself doing more virtual because of the crisis times we’re living in. Or maybe you’re more experienced — but you’d love a quick primer on some fundamentals. Seasoned trainer Johnny Walker has just that — with a look at how virtual compares to in-person training and insights for how to do it well. Virtual training is still sometimes viewed as not as effective as in-person, classroom training. But the reality is in some ways it's even more personal, engaging and creates greater training retention. What to know if you're testing the waters of virtual training- and how to get clarity around the fundamentals to create learning environments that generate greater competence and confidence. We also explore with Johnny what leaders need to do, the role of the facilitator and some fundamentals for making virtual training succeed.

In adversity lies the most opportunity. Opportunities arise in challenges and how you approach incoming storms. If you can step in and be a problem solver for your customers, you move yourself from being a vendor to a trusted advisor. See how finding sales opportunity during times of adversity requires shifting focus from selling, toward building connections with colleges and customers to set up future success. As the current economic downturn shows signs of changing where and how we work, what’s it take to adjust and lean in to new ways of connecting with customers and leading teams? Integrity Solutions’ Mike Fisher checks in with fresh insights to deepen how to adjust to the new normal.

Technology alone can't solve what ails the selling process in so many sales organizations. Mistakes so often made by salespeople today are based on simple mistakes grounded in false assumptions and beliefs about people, selling and buying. Our podcast interview with George Bronten, founder and CEO of Membrain and author of the new book 'Stop Killing Deals'. Our conversation with George explores his thinking around sales training, motivation drive, the role of sales managers and the importance of sales coaching.

What’s the art of quiet influence — and how can you excel at it? Learning how to exercise influence is vital in many work situations today — on teams, with customers, in flat organizations, and especially when you don’t have formal authority but you need to drive strong results. The latest podcast from Integrity Solutions features practical tips from the front lines — in an interview with Jocelyn Davis, learning & development industry expert and author of the new book, The Art of Quiet Influence: Timeless Wisdom for Leading Without Authority.

Sales enablement is one of the biggest- but also more confusing- buzz words in business today. Many sales leaders clamor to add a stream of data, content and technologies without a strategy behind it that may overwhelm salespeople and ultimately harm productivity more than it helps. How do you make the investment and promises of sales enablement actually pay off? Integrity Solutions Chief Sales Officer, Bruce Wedderburn, details how sales teams can use sales enablement to develop better quality conversations skills that can be used at the right time to advance sales opportunities.

Most sales managers claim to value coaching- yet most don't do it rigorously, effectively and in many cases at all. What's behind the disconnect? New research done by Integrity Solutions in partnership with The Sales Management Association looks at key challenges for making coaching work and drivers for making sales coaching yield better results. A discussion with Mike Esterday of Integrity Solutions and Bob Kelly of The Sales Management Association.

How can you know what works and what doesn’t for connecting successfully with prospects and customers? One important way is to focus on their Behavior Styles — a critical selling and communication skill which Integrity Solutions’ Mike Fisher explores in this podcast.