Sales Strategy & Enablement by Revenue.io

Samantha McKenna is the Founder of #samsales Consulting. She recalls the lessons from her time as a lifeguard at Disney there that helped her achieve incredible success in sales. Then, Samantha discusses the moment she decided to start her own company and its growth into a 14-strong all-woman team.She digs into educating sellers on how to communicate better and become self-sufficient to achieve consistent levels of success. Samantha also gives actionable tips on how to improve your LinkedIn profile and the many unseen benefits this has for your career.HIGHLIGHTS Breaking sales records and taking the leap into entrepreneurship Hiring veterans and military spouses Teaching how to communicate across generations Invest in people and provide mentorship Top tips to improve your LinkedIn profile QUOTESEnablement starts with the basics of communication - Sam: "When we think about enablement and we think about what we're focused on. One of the things that I see a lot of organizations focus on is how to sell our product. And I'm like ‘That's great. Fantastic. What are you doing to teach them how to sell?’"Figure out what you have to do to be successful by yourself - Samantha: "The reaction was we're LinkedIn, we don't have to do that. The reaction was, we're Salesforce, we don't have to do that. Outreach, we don't have to do that. The truth is, if you want to be consistently successful, nobody else is going to be in charge of your destiny than you."Create a strong network that can vouch for you - Samantha: "Make sure to build your network. People want to work with people they can backchannel and get vouching from. They want to know that you run in the same circles."Find out more about Sam in the links below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samsalesli/ Website: www.samsalesconsulting.com More on Andy:Connect on LinkedInGet Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on AmazonLearn more at AndyPaul.comSponsored by:Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.ioScratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.comBlueboard | World’s leading experiential rewards & recognition platform | Blueboard.comExplore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:Sales Enablement PodcastRevOps PodcastSelling with Purpose Podcast

Brandon Fluharty is the Founder of Be Focused. Live Great. Selling today leads to many unhealthy habits that result in the degradation of our health and well-being. Above all else, the top 1 consideration should be sleep.Brandon teaches others to take ownership of their sleep by adopting a healthy lifestyle and optimizing it with the help of apps. He is starting to see that a greater focus on sleep, skills, strain, and satisfaction are the critical areas in life that a seller must monitor to become the best version of themselves.HIGHLIGHTS Flexipline: Find the balance between flexibility and discipline A seller’s 4 key areas: Sleep, skills, strain, satisfaction Optimize and track sleep with apps Train sellers as athletes: Look at the human first and improve empathy QUOTESSleep is the number 1 metric in a sellers' life- Brandon: "We inherit a stressful role. There's a demand for predictability in a very unpredictable role. So we have to carry that stress around and, by making a sleep a foundation, you at least eradicate a lot of that physically, psychologically, emotionally."Increase performance metrics to increase sales metrics - Brandon: "This obsession on sales metrics, no, it's actually these other things. And I'm starting to go as far as to say, it's actually if you focus on those other things as the primary, that's what's going to lift the sales metrics and the sales results."Find out more about Brandon in the links below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonfluharty/ Website: https://befocusedlivegreat.com/ More on Andy:Connect on LinkedInGet Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on AmazonLearn more at AndyPaul.comSponsored by:Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.ioScratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.comBlueboard | World’s leading experiential rewards & recognition platform | Blueboard.comExplore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:Sales Enablement PodcastRevOps PodcastSelling with Purpose Podcast

Tom Stanfill is the Co-Founder and CEO of ASLAN Training and the author of UnReceptive. A customer's willingness to listen matters more than your ability to communicate. Tom discusses the concept of receptivity and how unreceptive buyers refuse to be influenced by sellers.Tom digs into identifying emotionally closed customers and honing skills beyond playbooks and strategies to influence a customer's willingness to listen. Andy also puts a spotlight on many sellers’ reliance on top of funnel and a rather lazy acceptance of low rin rates.HIGHLIGHTS Find common ground in the customer's whiteboard Observing a shift from salesy to authentic sales behavior Influence a customer's willingness to listen Low win rates: Product-market fit or bad selling?  QUOTESPersuading an emotionally-closed person will backfire - Tom: "It comes from this principle that I call the Cornerstone Principle because it's a cornerstone of everything we teach is that, when someone's emotionally closed, the more you try to persuade them, the more closed they become."Start a conversation based on the customer's whiteboard - Tom: "Most people really do have a whiteboard. If they don't, metaphorically, they have a whiteboard and the whiteboard is real simple. They want something. Everybody wants something, and then they have a plan to get there. Everybody. And so, if I start with what's on their whiteboard, it always captivates their attention." Helping customers authentically creates a competitive advantage - Tom: "Drop the rope. Don't try to manipulate people and control them because control's just an illusion, and people will respond. And that is a competitive advantage that you will have that will separate you from the 98 other people that are sending the same emails and the same LinkedIn requests and the same message over and over again."Find out more about Tom in the links below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomstanfill/ Company website: https://www.aslantraining.com/ Book website: https://www.unreceptivebook.com/ More on Andy:Connect on LinkedInGet Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on AmazonLearn more at AndyPaul.comSponsored by:Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.ioScratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.comBlueboard | World’s leading experiential rewards & recognition platform | Blueboard.comExplore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:Sales Enablement PodcastRevOps PodcastSelling with Purpose Podcast

Garin Hess is the Founder and CEO at Consensus and John Cook is the Director of Demand Gen also at Consensus. They discuss the recently published3rd Annual Sales Engineering Compensation and Workload Report on where presales and sales engineering stand today.In particular, Garin and John highlight that buyers prefer interactions with sales engineers and that they spend less time engaging with vendors. They also go into detail on the role similarities and differences between SEs and sellers in buyer enablement, SE engagement with stakeholders, and SE compensation.  HIGHLIGHTS The 3rd Annual Sales Engineering Compensation and Workload Report Buyers prefer dealing with sales engineers vs their sales counterparts Profile differences between SEs and sellers The attributes of a top SE: Industry fluency, acumen, and selling skills Measure the probability of success based on the buyer’s journey QUOTESA greater focus on sellers becoming coaches to buyers- John: "It's not just the roles of the SE getting stretched and more in demand, it's that the role of the seller is actually changing from this hunter, as we often think of them, to a coach."  "Because the buyer journey, the real pain, the friction in B2B sales, and especially anytime you're buying software for a team, the friction is actually on the buyer side and in the buyer's org." "And that friction is going to be very painful for them, and the seller is the one who has been through this process, knows where that friction is going to come up because they've been through this process."A deep understanding of the buyer journey makes sales more predictable Garin: "What do the buyers have to do, what actions do they have to take to actually get the deal done? And the more you can measure that and the more predictable your sales are going to be."Find out more about John and Garin in the links below: LinkedIn (Garin) https://www.linkedin.com/in/garin-hess-0017a0/ LinkedIn (John): https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-cook-9049a630/ Website: https://goconsensus.com/ More on Andy:Connect on LinkedInGet Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on AmazonLearn more at AndyPaul.comSponsored by:Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.ioScratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.comBlueboard | World’s leading experiential rewards & recognition platform | Blueboard.comExplore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:Sales Enablement PodcastRevOps PodcastSelling with Purpose Podcast

Customer Experience and the Buyer's Journey are essential aspects to understand when building a RevOps org. Karen Steele, former CMO and executive from companies like LeanData, VMware and Marketo, joins Howard and Alastair to discuss the importance of 'experience'.Follow the Hosts on LinkedIn:Alastair Woolcock (CRO, Revenue.io)Howard Brown (CEO, Revenue.io)And our Special Guest:Karen Steele (Founder & Advisor, Alloy)Sponsored by:Revenue.io | Powering high-performing revenue teams with real-time guidanceExplore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:Sales Enablement PodcastSelling with Purpose PodcastRevOps Podcast*If you'd like to ask the guys a question that could get answered on the show, call our new message line at (323) 540-4777. Just leave your name, where you're from, and your question and we'll do our best to answer it on an upcoming episode.

Tiffani Bova is the Global Growth and Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce, a WSJ best-selling author, and the host of the What's Next! Podcast. The future of B2B selling is increasingly leaning on long-term customer relationships and building trust. Tiffani digs into allowing sellers the autonomy to sell in the most agile and effective manner, either virtually or face to face. She comments on why sellers should meet buyers where they are in their buyer journey and read to gain insights on customers. She also offers the top 5 tactics for success in the next 1 to 2 years. HIGHLIGHTS Engage with customers either virtually or face to face The buyer journey: Categorize your buyers into 4 Both brands and sellers need to earn the buyer's trust People processing: Manage sellers with more autonomy than control QUOTESYour reputation and how you show up are the only factors sellers can control - Tiffani: "The only thing a sales rep can control, the one and only thing, is the way they show up in front of a customer. That's the only thing you can control. So are you trustworthy? Are you knowledgeable? Are you adding value? Do your customers want to meet with you?"Building trust matters more than trying to close every deal Tiffani: "You have to become a master asker and then you have to be really good at listening to what your customers are telling you and, as a salesperson, it may mean back off from a deal, hold for a month, call them back later, but that's that empathetic understanding kind of conversation that isn't just based on the agenda of closing business."Tech is not the problem, people processing is Tiffani: "Change is hard, and I think when it comes to revenue, sales leaders are worried about disrupting the apple cart and actually making changes into the business like what we're talking about because they feel like what they've always done works. And I just don't believe that that's a recipe for success going forward."Find out more about Tiffani in the links below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffanibova/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/tiffani_bova/ Podcast: https://www.tiffanibova.com/whats-next-podcast/ More on Andy:Connect on LinkedInGet Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on AmazonLearn more at AndyPaul.comSponsored by:Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.ioScratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.comBlueboard | World’s leading experiential rewards & recognition platform | Blueboard.comExplore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:Sales Enablement PodcastRevOps PodcastSelling with Purpose Podcast

Michael Pedone is the founder and sales training mentor of SalesBuzz.com. Selling is selling regardless of industry, and Michael breaks down the steps of a first-time sales call that leads to deeper conversations.In Michael’s experience, the basics of cold outreach are the same then as they are now. He also digs into why sellers have to redefine what success looks like and the key metrics that sales development managers should be focusing on. HIGHLIGHTS Breaking down the first-time call 60 dials a day and/or 3 hours of talk time Learn the basics: Selling is selling regardless of industry Become great by investing in yourself QUOTESSelling to human beings is the same regardless of industry - Michael: "Even though the problems that your solution solves might be unique to that individual, the way they buy and make decisions is the same across the board, no matter what it is."The goal of a first-time call is to get the prospect interested - Michael: "First-time call, step one, you have to pique their interest. If you can't pique their interest in the first 15 to 30 seconds of the call, nothing else matters because then, if you don't pique their interest, you're going to get 'no thanks, I understood, we're all set.'"Research your prospects and qualify or disqualify them - Michael: "Your job as a sales rep is not to close every lead you contact. Your job is to close as many qualified prospects as fast as possible."Find out more about Michael in the links below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelpedone/ Website: https://www.salesbuzz.com/ More on Andy:Connect on LinkedInGet Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on AmazonLearn more at AndyPaul.comSponsored by:Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.ioScratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.comBlueboard | World’s leading experiential rewards & recognition platform | Blueboard.comExplore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:Sales Enablement PodcastRevOps PodcastSelling with Purpose Podcast

Brent Adamson is the Global Head of Research and Communities at Ecosystems, as well as the co-author of The Challenger Sale and The Challenger Customer. A buyer’s experience with a seller, from their ability to show fresh perspectives to plain human empathy, dictates the seller’s win rates. Brent dives into the way companies and sellers should view their quotas and how to get unstuck from a lack of innovation. He also talks about the need for greater focus on buyer enablement to become better sellers, especially during an economic downturn, and new approaches to selling that tap into human emotion.HIGHLIGHTS Buyer enablement: Have a conversation on what's important to them Human empathy is behind every sales interaction The seller makes the difference in a sale Solve not just what you want the customer to know, but also what to feel QUOTESYour reputation and how you show up are the only factors sellers can control - Brent: "Do relationships matter or not? And the answer, funny enough, was always of course they matter. The question is what is the basis of that relationship? Is it familiarity and knowing where your kids went to college? Or is it helping understand your business in ways that you yourself haven't understood it on your own?"Differentiate yourself by bringing your best in your sales interactions - Andy: "You can't predict in advance what's going to be the peak event for the buyer. And so, you really have to bring the best of you every time you interact with them because every one could be the event that was most memorable to them."Understand why someone feels the way they do to change how they feel - Brent: "Ask yourself not just what do I want my customers to know, but what do I want my customers to feel. And that's a superpower."Find out more about Brent in the link below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brentadamson/ Website: https://ecosystems.us/ More on Andy:Connect on LinkedInGet Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on AmazonLearn more at AndyPaul.comSponsored by:Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.ioScratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.comBlueboard | World’s leading experiential rewards & recognition platform | Blueboard.comExplore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:Sales Enablement PodcastRevOps PodcastSelling with Purpose Podcast

Janine Kurnoff and Lee Lazarus are the Co-Founders of The Presentation Company and Co-Authors of the book Everyday Business Storytelling. In connection to the basic elements of stories, sellers almost always focus on the resolution without even building the foundations and actually understanding their prospects.Today, Janine and Lee share their 4 basic elements of a story and why every story needs a big idea. They talk about applying these principles not only in presentations but even in some things as common as emails. They dig deep into the magic of storytelling in that you could even integrate data to deliver the best narrative for your prospect.HIGHLIGHTS Start with the customer and their needs and build a story from there  The 4 basic signposts for creating a story Who is responsible for creating stories? Applying the storytelling principles in emails Data is good but you have to wrap it in a story QUOTESThe basic signposts help sellers build a story - Janine: "To me, it's like giving people a common language. It's letting them learn how to speak a new language, it's called story. And if we all talk the same language especially as we work and collaborate with teams, it makes it a heck of a lot easier to put together narratives and iterate and collaborate with others." Empowering people to realize that they are the storyteller - Janine: "When you get these playbooks, templates, and scripts, that's awesome as a starting point. I think salespeople need to feel empowered to ultimately own the story. Because every time you get in front of that audience, the story may change a little because time has passed, things have transpired, and developments have been made."Your storytelling should support the buyer/prospect's journey - Lee: "Let's take the methodology but let's package it up with some storytelling fundamentals and even some visualization concepts. Because if I'm going to weave data into my story, then where does that data live and how do I unpack that data in a way that it's digestible and isn't just firehosing my audience?"Find out more about Janine and Lee in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janinekurnoff/                         https://www.linkedin.com/in/leelazarus/ Website: https://www.presentation-company.com/ Book: https://www.amazon.com/Everyday-Business-Storytelling-Simplify-Narrative/dp/1119704669 More on Andy:Connect on LinkedInGet Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on AmazonLearn more at AndyPaul.comSponsored by:Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.ioScratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.comBlueboard | World’s leading experiential rewards & recognition platform | Blueboard.comExplore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:Sales Enablement PodcastRevOps PodcastSelling with Purpose Podcast

Alex Kvamme is the Co-Founder and CEO of Pathlight. With the tools and technology available, we already have enough data to work with for managing and improving performance. Alex talks about how you can get the right data to enhance the quality of coaching managers provide.He shares his insight into what productivity means in sales, especially when it comes to feedback and self-improvement. He then builds into looking at the metrics so that everybody knows how they are doing, not getting lost in all the data, and setting goals efficiently.  HIGHLIGHTS What does productivity mean in sales? Alex walks us through the performance intelligence platform The role of experience and intuition in a data-driven world There's now a sophistication around goal-setting  QUOTESOne way to look at metrics in a performance intelligence platform - Alex: "Where do goals live right now? They live in spreadsheets. They live in color-coded dials on your Salesforce report. If you're on ops or you're a leader doing this for 20 years, you can interpret that. But productivity and performance come from the frontline employees understanding how they're doing and addressing issues before it hits their managers' desk at the end of the week."Identify what makes it easier for managers to do coaching - Alex: "Recognition is the thing that goes out the window when you don't have time. You just put the fires out. You don't have time to celebrate because all you have time for is keeping the wheels on. So what we see is when you make it easier for managers to coach, positive recognition actually skyrockets."Working on the right data can have a massive impact on a whole team - Alex: "A lot of folks underestimate someone's potential to improve. They assume that that seller because they did 400k last year, if they worked really hard could probably do 600k this year. How many folks have we seen did 400k and then did a million or 1.2? They just knocked it out of the park. It's possible!" Connect with Alex in the links below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akvamme/ Website: https://www.pathlight.com/  Sponsored by:Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.ioScratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.comBlueboard | World’s leading experiential rewards & recognition platform | Blueboard.comExplore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:Sales Enablement PodcastRevOps PodcastSelling with Purpose Podcast