Conquer Local Podcast

Kudos to our listeners for providing this weeks topic! George pulls together best practices when it making Discovery Calls on this edition of the Master Sales Series. Imagine you had 200 leads that came in and you were only going to close 10% of them or if you are a rock star, 25% of them. We get the nitty gritty details and proven tactics when having that first discovery call. As salespeople, we need to be very careful and deliberate in the way we are communicating with a customer when having those first calls. George runs through everything from that first initial call to discussing how leads come into your funnel, there are some different tactics for different scenarios. In some instances, we have been doing this for a long time, we know we have the answers and we can solve the problems of any customer. We have a tendency to skip over very important pieces for building rapport and trust.

Being able to sell to multi location businesses is becoming a necessity, we have Mike Giamprini to give Conquerors the scoop. Mike Giamprini, Managing Partner of G Partners, shares his struggles and wins when it comes to selling multi location listings to SMBs. He shares his experience with 411 on the transition from traditional to digital media and how he had to completely retrain an entire sales force.  Mike tells us that if he were to go back in time and do it all over again he would focus more time on the educational piece because where there is confusion there is opportunity. Mike is a veteran of the “local” space and has been leading sales and marketing organizations focused on helping businesses of all sizes thrive in a digital world. Knowing that national brands need to connect with audiences at the hyper-local level, Mike founded G Partners in 2016 with a best-in-class digital marketing stack of products and services and combined that with a deep knowledge of G Partners’ clients’ businesses to effectively drive growth at every stage of their customer’s journey.

What is forecasting? It's about creating predictable revenue model—you need a plan, it needs to be concrete, and it needs to have a strategy behind it.  The Master Sales Series tackles the pain points of constructing a revenue model for a new year. We take a look at the three different personas of forecasting; the sandbagger, the sharp shooter, and the optimist. George shares from his own struggles and the times when he has missed his projected revenue. After doing extensive research and having conversations with industry experts George has developed a new approach to forecasting.  George is responsible for business development with Vendasta’s large channel partners, as well as managing our in-house sales team. As the host of the Conquer Local Podcast, George’s personal mandate is to make local sales better. A digital interpreter, George has preached the gospel of online reputation management directly to the local businesses of hundreds of cities across North America. He translates his knowledge of the digital landscape into accessible information for those still stuck in the rut of traditional media. With nearly three decades of experience in marketing, sales and promotion, George is a highly compelling speaker, always in demand across North America — vital content and emphatic delivery are combined for an enlightening presentation. George’s expertise in sales, training, networking, management and marketing comes from the numerous executive and ownership positions he has held across multiple media and service-related businesses. His track record of success is continued here at Vendasta.

Discipline leads results with eight key metrics to drive revenue. Steve Whittington, Executive Vice President of the Flaman Group, is back for a second time! After getting plucked off the face of a mountain by a helicopter Steve gave up mountain climbing and decided to channel is passion into his work. We get the inside scoop on Whittington's new book, Thriving in the Customer Age.  The book lays out the framework with eight key metrics that can be applied and used to measure the customer experience initiative results, tied directly to the bottom line. Whittington has over 25 years experience in the (B2C) business to consumer, (B2B) business to business and (B2A) business to any space. From consulting, marketing agency work and as an executive and board member for manufacturing and retail firms.He is also Managing Director of a boutique digital agency, Graphic Intuitions. Steve's current board work includes serving as Chair of the Board for Flaman Fitness Canada, a national retailer; President of the Glenora Child Care Society; and a member of the Marketing Program Advisory Committee for NAIT's JR Shaw School of Business. Outside his professional life, Steve is a leader in the mountains. An avid mountaineer, he has reached the summit of 50 mountains, including Mount Everest in 2013. On many of his climbs he has been the expedition leader and/or lead climber. Steve believes his leadership in the mountains has a direct application to his successful leadership in his business life.

The Master Sales Series is back! George Leith gives the dos and don'ts of conferences. The man has attended over 500 conferences in his 30+ years of sales. George divulges over 10 different methods on how to improve yourself and your team when attending conferences.  Everything from making yourself memorable, creating goals for conferences, and how to gamify your team. This episode is one you will want to save and share with your sales teams before your next conference. George is responsible for business development with Vendasta’s large channel partners, as well as managing our in-house sales team. As the host of the Conquer Local Podcast, George’s personal mandate is to make local sales better. A digital interpreter, George has preached the gospel of online reputation management directly to the local businesses of hundreds of cities across North America. He translates his knowledge of the digital landscape into accessible information for those still stuck in the rut of traditional media. With nearly three decades of experience in marketing, sales and promotion, George is a highly compelling speaker, always in demand across North America — vital content and emphatic delivery are combined for an enlightening presentation. George’s expertise in sales, training, networking, management and marketing comes from the numerous executive and ownership positions he has held across multiple media and service-related businesses. His track record of success is continued here at Vendasta. Subscribe to the podcast now, on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

There are four sales formulas, one for hiring, training, managing, and demand generation for a scalable and repeatable revenue growth model. Mark Roberge, Advisor to HubSpot and former Chief Revenue Officer of HubSpot’s Sales Division, is our guest this week on the Conquer Local Podcast. Roberge and George Leith dive deep into his book, Sales Acceleration Formulas. They are four sales formulas, the sales hiring formula, the sales training formula, the sales management formula, and the demand generation formula. One important golden nugget from this week is for salespeople and sales leaders to get away from doing everything the same old way just because that's how their organization has been doing it. We need to apply data and be able to come up with ways to make it better. The most overused word is scalable, but that's what we're all aiming for. It’s to find repeatable models that are scalable to help meet the ever-growing goals in sales organizations. Mark Roberge is the bestselling author of the award-winning book, “The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to Go from $0 to $100 Million”. Mark is one of the instructors for HubSpot Academy's Inbound Sales Certification and also a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at the Harvard Business School, where he teaches Entrepreneurial Sales and Marketing in the second-year MBA program. Prior to his role as CRO, Mark served as SVP of Worldwide Sales and Services at HubSpot, increasing revenue over 6,000% and expanding the team from 1 to 450 employees. As a result, HubSpot placed #33 on the INC 500 Fastest Growing Companies list in 2011. Subscribe to the podcast now, on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

Conquerors you asked for it, we delivered. We are digging deep into the opportunity of political advertising.  Steve Passwaiter, VP/GM for Kantar/CMAG, is on the podcast to discuss the ins and outs of political advertising. Steve and George look at the chance salespeople have to be a part of the action that doesn't come around too often. They are estimating $6 billion will be spent next year between broadcast television, cable network, digital, and radio. A nice cash injection that a lot of media companies and salespeople who live on commission are really looking forward to. There are elections everywhere in the world, when we think politics we often think presidential elections, but there is way more than that in the local markets.  When we dig into the markets, there's Senate elections, election for sheriff, elections for governors, and elections for Congress and the Senate. Steve is responsible for general oversight of Kantar’s DC based political ad intelligence unit and leads business development efforts.  Prior to joining CMAG as Senior Director of Business Development, Passwaiter was the founder and CEO of SLP Media Strategies, which provided outsourced business development services. He is also a former Board Adviser for Sportsdigita, an interactive sports agency that specializes in digital sponsorship, ticketing and fan engagement products for professional sports teams, and served as Vice President of Business Development for BIA/Kelsey. Steve is a graduate of John Carroll University where he majored in Communications and History.

Generation Z will shape the new SMB landscape, what does that mean for salespeople? The Conquer Local Podcast travels to the Czech Republic to speak with Kimberli J. Lewis, President and General Manager of the Search and Information Association Europe. Kimberli explains how Generation Z is slowly but significantly changing the SMB landscape. By 2030 it is projected that 42% of SMBs will have Generation Z owners. While every generation has contributed to its share of disruption in the way we do business, Generation Z will significantly change the way local businesses are operated. Kimberli and George discuss how this evolution will affect our business growth strategies, our products, and the way we connect with the Generation Z SMB owner. Kimberli has over 20 years’ CEO experience in media, search, and online companies. She has managed or served on the boards of companies in Germany, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Poland, Gibraltar, Israel, United Kingdom, and United States. Kimberli is recognized as an expert in the industry of search, information, and digital advertising and has won over 29 International awards in marketing and product development. Kimberli is also a certified Executive Coach, Systemic Team Coach and Organizational Leadership Trainer with graduate degrees from Henley Business School and London Academy of Executive Coaching. She specializes in helping organizations implement diversity, generational management and leadership programs for succession plans.Kimberli is the host of the radio broadcast Leadership Beyond Borders which airs on VoiceAmerica Internet Radio every Tuesday 3 pm, PT and is ranked with 5 stars on iTunes podcasts. The show focuses on digital transition and organization leadership. Subscribe to the podcast now, on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

There are four Mental Leashes that are holding you back from being a top performing salesperson. Sales is a mental game and mindset is everything. Jason Forrest, CEO and Founder of the Forrest Performance Group, is back for the last two mental leashes—Rules and Self Image. Jason defines rules as anything that you need to see, feel, or hear in order to give yourself permission to engage. We are never going to have one prospect that meets all of our wishes. We need to be flexible, and like Jason said, we need to let those rules go because they are blocking our performance. The last mental leash is Self Image. Seems like a no brainer but sometimes as salespeople, we forget how important it is. Jason walks us through an easy to do exercise that anyone can do to gain perspective on their own self image.  A special gift for all the conquers out there from Jason, a copy of his new book—The Mindset of a Sales Warrior—visit book-salesmindset.com.  Jason is a winner of four international Stevie Awards for his Warrior Selling and Leadership Coaching training programs. He is an award-winning author and has written five books. Jason lives on the leading edge of the sales industry. As a behavioral change expert and maverick entrepreneur, Jason believes the only way to break your sales plateau is to completely change the way you look at sales. And that means an extreme focus on pulling the future of sales into the present. Jason’s mission is to give every sales professional, manager, and executive the tactical, real-world knowledge so they can remove any limiting beliefs keeping them from breaking their plateaus. In the course of that decades-long mission, Jason’s trained billion-dollar companies and everyone from high-powered CEOs to frontline salespeople to increase their effectiveness by driving more profit. Subscribe to the podcast now, on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij

Sales is a mental game and mindset is everything. There are four mental leashes holding us back, it's the challenge of unlearning vs learning. Jason Forrest, CEO at Forrest Performance Group, is our guest this week and he is a machine. He gives us a perspective and breaks down the gritty details on how sales is a mental game. Jason discovered a powerful realization that the best training isn't just telling people what to do, or how to do it, or even why to do it. It's unleashing their mindset. It's removing those mental chokeholds to help them see the true, fully realized picture of their abilities. The four mental leashes are limiting beliefs every person experiences it's that voice inside your head whispering you can't do something. We dig deep into the first two mental leashes: Stories and Reluctance.  Jason is a winner of four international Stevie Awards for his Warrior Selling and Leadership Coaching training programs. He is an award winning author and has written five books. Jason lives on the leading edge of the sales industry. As a behavioral change expert and maverick entrepreneur, Jason believes the only way to break your sales plateau is to completely change the way you look at sales. And that means an extreme focus on pulling the future of sales into the present. Jason’s mission is to give every sales professional, manager, and executive the tactical, real-world knowledge so they can remove any limiting beliefs keeping them from breaking their plateaus. In the course of that decades-long mission, Jason’s trained billion-dollar companies and everyone from high-powered CEOs to frontline salespeople to increase their effectiveness by driving more profit. Subscribe to the podcast now, on iTunes goo.gl/8vPm1B and Google Play goo.gl/uyDsij