Sales Strategy & Enablement by Revenue.io

Whitney Johnson is the CEO of Disruption Advisors and author of Disrupt Yourself: Master Relentless Change and Speed Up Your Learning Curve. Discussed in the book is how an S-curve can be used to explain how people learn and grow. Whitney uses the example of her own career and how, after experiencing explosive growth and reaching the top of the S-curve, she wanted to fill an emotional need that was not being fulfilled on Wall Street. She explores all about this S-curve, from the element of risk involved in disruption to playing out the process of an S-curve to maximize learning and growth.HIGHLIGHTS Leaving Wall Street to write Disrupt Yourself and apply it to herself The S-curve helps to understand how people learn and grow Experimenting and the vulnerability of being wrong Embrace constraints because the greatest creativity comes from them QUOTESWhitney explains how the S-curve explains how people grow: "I was already thinking that disruption applies to products and services and people, I think there was a natural sort of extension of that, and again I come from the stock market, I was used to thinking about momentum, what makes a stock go up, what makes the stock go down, how do you drive that momentum, there was this notion for me of wait a second, I think this applies to people too. How does this S-curve apply to us?"Whitney on why jumping jobs prevents learning and can make unfit leaders: "There is that cycle that it's important to play that out. And I think, actually, that's where the Peter principle can come in is that if you jump too many times, you're getting all these basically false starts and so you're not learning anything. Then, all of a sudden, and I think this sometimes happens is, this is why people lose their jobs, is because they kept climbing, they haven't learned anything."Whitney on using constraints to your advantage: "As you're trying to climb an S-curve, your constraints, whatever they are and you're going to have them because you always do, is how do you turn those constraints not just into a victim of why me, and not even neutralize them, but how can those constraints be transformative for you?"Find out more about Whitney in the links below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitneyjohnson/ Website: https://whitneyjohnson.com/ Podcast: https://whitneyjohnson.com/right-risks/ 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

Steven Benson is the Founder and CEO of Badger Maps. As a tool for field salespeople, Badger Maps took a big hit because of the pandemic. However, now that many businesses are operating more freely, the industries that benefit the most from face-to-face sales are once again preferring this more traditional way to do sales. The need to ask questions and provide answers during large deals is simply better done in person. Steven also comments on the coming recession and what CEOs and sales leaders need to do to overcome it. HIGHLIGHTS Helping field salespeople with Badger Maps In-person sales pick up again after the peak of the pandemic  The pandemic was an opportunity to learn new skills  Change messaging to weather the coming recession QUOTESSteven: "There's 17 ways to do this, they all work great. There's a reason that it wasn't the best way then. It was a fine crutch when we couldn't do anything else but, like I said, I can't think of one industry that's been like, oh, well now that we've figured out that this exists, when we fired this field sales team or we told them to all just work over Zoom from now on, I don't have one example of that happen."Steven: "The people that do meet with you and want to meet with you probably have a higher probability of wanting to purchase your product, that's why they were engaging that way. But, if you don't use the time well and if you're not an expert, you're not bringing and delivering value to the client, then you're probably not really increasing your odds very much."Find out more about Steven in the links below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenbenson/ Website: https://www.badgermapping.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

Jim Irving is the CEO of Merit Consulting and the author of the bestsellers The B2B Selling Guidebook and The B2B Leaders Guidebook, as well as his latest book, The B2B Sales Top Tips Guidebook. He shares some insights he learned while gathering sales tips for this guidebook on how to realign how you sell with the prospect's buying process. They talk about a more streamlined definition of it, and how service-led selling sets you apart from even your biggest competitors when the norm today is all about conformity.HIGHLIGHTS A prospect's buying process and conformity Buyers don't want to talk to sellers, but they have to Differentiate yourself with service-led selling QUOTESJim: "How often do you ask your prospects what their buying process is? And almost every time, there's silence. And I think I have a concern about our profession generally in that way and that there seems to be a big move towards process, towards AI, towards dividing up sales roles and I'm concerned that we're forgetting about how people want to buy."Jim: "I've called it service-led selling, and when I was working for a smaller vendor against a giant, we thought our product was better, we thought we could do this. But it was the service that we gave and the responsiveness that made them think, we like these guys and we're not so happy with the big name."Andy: "Rule of thumb is your chances of winning a particular piece of business are in inverse proportion to the number of times you ask the customer to tell you their story or their problems."Find out more about Jim and get his guidebook in the links below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimirving/ Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/B2B-Sales-Top-Tips-Guidebook/dp/B09LZNXH46 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

Pouyan Salehi is the CEO and Co-founder of Scratchpad. Tools like Salesforce were created for the convenience and use of managers, not reps. Pouyan decided to change that by looking at the sales process from a rep's perspective. What he saw was that simplicity and faster access to information were the reps' biggest requirements for a workspace. With this in mind, Scratchpad created a workspace with simple yet useful features like text editors that pull data in and out of Salesforce. Pouyan also answers the same 7 rapid-fire questions Andy asked him during his visit to the show some 5 years ago.HIGHLIGHTS Growing Scratchpad to create workspaces specifically for reps Less drag and helping teams go through changes faster Simplicity for the end-user and faster access to data Pouyan answers the same rapid-fire questions from 2016 QUOTESPouyan: "We decided that that should exist is this concept of a workspace that is designed purely for a sales rep, but also for the revenue team, and it helps focus on the teamwork while together. But it's all connected to your database."Pouyan: "We connected that text editor to Salesforce, so when you link to a record, it auto-injects. It brings your fields to you and lets you interact with it in a way that works for you."Pouyan: "Nobody goes back and says 'Hey, let me clean up Salesforce. Let me remove those old fields. Let me see what's not working for the reps.' You just keep building on top of it. And, over time, this creates additional complexity and so this helps them hide that complexity and share with the revenue team just what they need to see and work with."Find out more about Pouyan in the links below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pouyansalehi/ Website: https://scratchpad.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

Michael Bungay Stanier is the founder of Box of Crayons and author of The Coaching Habit who also recently published his latest book called How to Begin: Start Doing Something That Matters. He discusses his process in writing this book and discovering that a worthy goal has three characteristics; it is thrilling, important, and daunting. Michael shares his insights on the steps to finding your worthy goal and challenging yourself to unlock your greatness. HIGHLIGHTS A worthy goal is thrilling, important, and daunting Draft your goals: Name the prizes and punishments Change: Fix what's broken or amplify what's working? Get motivation by understanding your worthy goal  QUOTESMichael: "We unlock our greatness by working on the hard things. It's not by winning. It's by working on the hard things. And so, the daunting is the work that's needed where you step out your edge and you're like, look, I'm pretty accomplished and I'm okay with my talents, and I know some stuff, but this is making me sweat a little bit."Michael: "It's better when you draft it. The first draft is not going to be as good as the second draft is not going to be as good as the third draft. Don't get seduced into thinking your first goal is the real goal."Michael: "If your brain spends too much time focused just on the outcome, it's actually demotivating because your brain is just not that good at telling the difference between what's happening and what you're imagining is happening. So if you spend your whole time visualizing hitting your quota or buying your house or whatever, at a certain point your brain goes, well, done. It feels like you've actually got this and you lose some of your motivation. It's bizarre but powerful."Find out more about Michael in the links below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelbungaystanier/ Personal website: https://www.mbs.works/ Corporate website: https://boxofcrayons.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

Dean Karrel is a career development advisor, sales trainer, LinkedIn Learning instructor, and author of Mastering the Basics. He has held senior leadership positions in major global publishing companies for more than three decades. He shares how the intangible things not taught in school are the things that will drive your success. He talks about emotional intelligence, learning empathy, and being authentic as defining characteristics of good salespeople.HIGHLIGHTS Master the basics: Your EQ separates you from the pack Learning trust and empathy in sales Always be learning as sales is constantly changing Leading versus managing QUOTESDean: "Focusing on the things that can separate you from everybody else–being ready for a presentation, working with you today, doing your research, planning and preparation, basic human relation skills. And I think this is not taught at the Harvard Business School. These are things that you learn through life."Dean: "Again, that word EQ, emotional intelligence, wasn't discussed when we graduated from college, but I think it's the foundation of what good salespeople have versus those who are too salesy. The emotional intelligence is listening, showing empathy, and realizing that the buyer on the other side of the telephone or conference call or in person, they're in the same boat we are."Andy: "Don't be a know-it-all, which I subscribe to, I think people need to be learn-it-alls, not know-it-alls. Especially for a sales role, you say ‘Don't take all the credit, share the wins’."Dean: "Find out what really matters to you. Values, goals, priorities. I think that's what it's all about."Find out more about Dean and get his book in the links below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deankarrel/ LinkedIn Learning: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/instructors/dean-karrel Amazon book link: https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Basics-Lessons-Achieving-Business-ebook/dp/B07S93KM4T 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

Shannon Minifie is the CEO of Box of Crayons. Curiosity is not just seeking the right answers but also seeking to know the right questions to get to the right answers. This changemaker behavior helps sellers be more client-centric instead of defaulting to simply giving advice. It helps remove biases that otherwise create wrong assumptions about the buyer and what they really need. A curious mindset also removes the anxiety entering into sales calls since you no longer feel the need to always be right.  HIGHLIGHTS● Curiosity leads to client-centricity● Innovation in an organization through curiosity● Empathy and understanding why people feel the way they do● Changemaker curiosity is a behavior toward the unknown QUOTESShannon: "When we say, "Be curious," in many ways, that's an imperative to be present for other people and to the parts of your own thinking that you haven't noticed or you may want to deny. So it's not just a desire to know something, it's really relationship-based and it's about openness and vulnerability. It's a behavior."Shannon: "If every interaction is a chance for you to build trust and build relationship, it's a great way for them to leave that interaction to feel just how invested you are in understanding what's going on for them and to really pinpoint the challenges."Shannon: "Curiosity becomes a sort of antidote to bias, to assumptions I might make about what motivates other people's thinking and behavior. It's a way of reminding yourself just how embedded you are in your own perception and experience and how subjective that really is." Find out more about Shannon in the link below:● LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-minifie-phd-she-her-bb8a5054/ More on Andy:Connect on LinkedInGet Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on AmazonLearn more at AndyPaul.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.com Blueboard | World’s leading experiential rewards & recognition platform | Blueboard.comExplore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:Sales Enablement PodcastRevOps PodcastSelling with Purpose Podcast

Shep Hyken is the Chief Amazement Officer of Shepard Presentations, an NYT bestselling author, and keynote speaker who helps companies deliver amazing customer service experiences. His latest book is called I'll Be Back: How to Get Customers to Come Back Again and Again which talks about operationalizing a great experience that gets customers to tell sellers, "I'll be back." Shep discusses how to deliver exceptional customer service throughout the buyer's journey, deliver that consistently, and ultimately produce loyal customers.  HIGHLIGHTS● The moment of truth: Create a positive experience for customers● Customers remember you through Peaks and Ends● Loyalty and operationalizing a great customer experience● Know your script well enough to go off-script QUOTESShep: "Customer service is not a department, it's a philosophy. It's part of everybody's job, whether it be an internal customer or external. But for a salesperson, the salesperson's job is to build a relationship, to create an experience that makes the customer say ‘Hey, I want to do business with you’.”Shep: "This is what we're looking for—service sensitivity or service awareness. We want people to recognize the opportunities they have to create that positive experience."Shep: "We need to know our material, our sales pitch if you will, so well that we can go off-script when the customer decides to ask a question that maybe no other customer has ever asked before or in a way that allows us to really get a little bit more information and insight from the customer so that we can do a better job of refining the rest of that pitch to meet their needs." Find out more about Shep in the links below:● LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shephyken/● Website: https://hyken.com/ More on Andy:Connect on LinkedInGet Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on AmazonLearn more at AndyPaul.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.com Blueboard | World’s leading experiential rewards & recognition platform | Blueboard.comExplore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:Sales Enablement PodcastRevOps PodcastSelling with Purpose Podcast

Garrett Rafols is the Senior Director for the Center of Excellence at Gympass. Enablement is an ongoing process, from onboarding new salespeople to everboarding existing members to keep them relevant and up-to-date. Andy and Garrett discuss the urgency with which companies deploy new sales teams and the need to balance this with treating salespeople as long-term investments too. When companies have this self-awareness, they have an openness to innovation that reinforces a growth rather than a fixed mindset.  HIGHLIGHTS Sales training today and Garrett's shift to enablement Everboarding for first-year salespeople Teach a growth mindset: Innovation necessitates some failure  Coaching to ensure productivity while also preventing burnout  QUOTESGarrett: "We want them to have more of a growth mindset than a fixed mindset. And when we go through discovery, we want to approach every conversation with genuine curiosity. That's what the most innovative companies do. They're curious. They try things out. They approach things not just with curiosity but also humility knowing that they won't have the answers."Garrett: "At the base level, just being self-aware as a company is the very first step to understanding whether or not it becomes more of an investment in sales enablement, maybe in-sales training, maybe in-sales leadership so that managers have more of a handle on how to be there for their people in ways that go beyond just being a boss but being a leader." Find out more about Garrett in the link below:● LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garrettrafols/  More on Andy:Connect on LinkedInGet Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on AmazonLearn more at AndyPaul.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.com Explore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:Sales Enablement PodcastRevOps PodcastSelling with Purpose Podcast

Darin Dawson is the President & CO-Founder of BombBomb.com. Video is the closest analog to face-to-face conversations which can communicate our nonverbal language. This massive advantage helps sellers close more deals in more condensed timeframes. Darin discusses how to use human-centric communication in sales and shares that, in an industry of similar products, likeability dramatically influences the decision to do business with you.   HIGHLIGHTS● Shareable videos help deals close faster● Casual vs formal: Dress the part to feel the part● Video exhibits soft human skills that enhance customer experience● Use human-centric communication to connect more QUOTESDarin: "It can condense that time to close. It can condense that need for more meetings, more time, so we're seeing that flatten a bit in that process and maybe skipping some of these typical checkpoints in that process along the way."Darin: "Uniquely, video allows you to experience who my people are above what the brand is. We try to articulate these brands, but you can't experience my people. And my people are some of my best things and that's why we've been successful."Darin: "To me, we're competing on, somewhat, likeability might be one of these things we're competing on. Capability, right? Do we have the wherewithal?"Darin: "Building relationships and having these relationships with people you work with matters. And I think, somewhat, the more we can do that and give an experience that brings to life the benefit that your company offers I think helps this problem we're talking about." Find out more about Darin in the link below:● LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darin-dawson-6a62351/ More on Andy:Connect on LinkedInGet Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on AmazonLearn more at AndyPaul.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.com Explore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:Sales Enablement PodcastRevOps PodcastSelling with Purpose Podcast