Predictable B2B Success

Gene Valentino was the founding President of CellularOne, a pioneering visionary of the online payment industry, is a serial entrepreneur, VC, investor, local government leader, major motion picture award-winning executive producer, race car driver, recreational pilot, Dive Master, Adjunct Professor at Pensacola State College, has interests in real estate, hospitality industry, and life sciences. Gene has over 8 years of public service. He was up close and personal as County Commissioner with the citizens in his precincts within his county. Several times each week, Gene had his “Coffee with the Commissioner” sessions at various coffee shops throughout the County, unlike most other elected officials. Gene wrote the first economic development incentive ordinance of the law, providing incentives for business. The focus was on jobs. He traveled to Farnborough, England, Paris, and Berlin to meet world-class businesses to identify their needs and to lobby for their interest in bringing their businesses to the Panhandle of Florida. Gene is a ‘rags to riches' story. His life is filled with designing, creating, developing, operating, and growing innovative enterprises through life stories of trials and tribulations. In this episode, he shares an investor and VCs perspective on how we can identify business opportunities to invest for profitable short-term exits. Insights he shares include: How to identify business opportunities to invest inWhat some companies don't realize in their quest to grow fastHow to identify business opportunities via research and analysisExamples of businesses that Gene has invested in and how he went about itThe trust signals Gene looks for in a potential business investmentWhy Gene examines the context of the marketplace for a business investmentHow to decide whether to invest for the long term or short termand much much more ...

Merit Kahn is the CEO and President of SELLect Sales Development, which is an organization that helps companies across the country with their sales development through more of a consultive structured sales process. Merit Kahn, CSP, is the author of Myth Shift: Challenging The Truths That Sabotage Success and creator of The Sales Mindset Mastery program, co-host of The Smarter Sales Show podcast featured on The Sales Experts Channel… and… writer, producer and star of the one-woman inspirational comedy show, “Book of Merit”. Prior to joining SELLect Sales, Merit was the Senior VP of Sales for a nationwide sales training organization and the youngest General Sales Manager for a start-up radio station in the country’s third-largest market. She is certified in Emotional Intelligence and earned the highest designation in The National Speakers Association, one held by less than 12% of professional speakers worldwide, The Certified Speaking Professional, CSP. In her various roles as a business owner, trainer, coach, consultant, and keynote speaker, she has worked with CEOs, business owners, entrepreneurs, sales management teams, and professionals across a wide variety of industries including financial services, manufacturing, engineering, professional services, technology, and even pest control. In this episode, she shares how we can stop selling and get selected to drive revenue growth. Insights she shares include: The problem that most businesses face with complex sales processesThe secret to the first step in closing a deal What is the Open for Business Framework and the science behind itWhy Merit advocates the Open for Business Framework for complex sales        Why we need to use the ABC of selling in a complex sales processWhat is the SELLect sales processWhy use SELLect sales process as a solution for your complex sales processHow to leverage the process and framework to build trust with future clientsFour words can really transform your businessand much much more ...

Mark Raffan is a serial entrepreneur and lover of marketing, developer of thought leadership brands, and founder of Content Callout, a B2B content marketing agency. He is also the co-host of the two incredible podcasts The Content Callout (about B2B content marketing) and Negotiations Ninja Podcast (one of the top negotiations podcasts in the world). Mark is an expert in influence, persuasion, and negotiation and has coached executives and teams in some of the largest companies in the world. He has been referenced in Entrepreneur, Forbes, Thrive Global, and many other publications. In this episode, Mark shares how we can inspire brand evangelism in people to drive growth. Insights he shares include: Why create brand evangelists instead of investing in influencer marketingThe psychology of brand evangelismWhat is brand evangelism and how can you inspire itWho can be a brand evangelistTypes of brand evangelistsAre brand evangelists the least expensive form of new businessHow do businesses create brand evangelists/superfansand much much more ...

Sheila Kloefkorn is a marketing expert with more than 25 years of experience. She leads a talented team of marketers in creating and executing award-winning marketing campaigns across the US and more than 100 countries around the world. After helping to lead the world’s largest youth marketing agency in the late 1990s, Sheila founded KEO Marketing in 2000. KEO Marketing is a full-service, business-to-business marketing agency located in Phoenix, Arizona. It specializes in marketing strategy, messaging, digital infrastructure, execution, and analytics. Sheila is the recipient of many local and national marketing awards. She was named one of the “Top 10 Business Leaders of the Year” and “Top 25 Dynamic Women in Business” by the Phoenix Business Journal. On behalf of her company and client, she received a Stevie ® American Business Award for “Marketing Campaign of the Year,” and a Stevie Worldwide Women in Business Award in Advertising, Marketing, and Public Relations. She was also named one of the Top 100 Marketing & Advertising Leaders by MarSum. In this episode, Sheila shares how we can make an Account Based Marketing funnel that drives growth fast. Insights she shares include: How best to determine how accounts flow through the marketing and sales funnelWhat is an Account Based Marketing funnel and what it looks likeKey characteristics of an Account Based Marketing funnel and why use itMetrics for Account Based Marketing funnelsDefining the stages of the new Account Based Marketing funnelThe funnel differences between a sales funnel and an ABM funnelWays in which you can get a fractional CMO and team to help get you underway and scale-upand much much more ....

Chaz Horn has gone from homeless to a suicide attempt to conquer his fear and develop his mindset to Become a top B2B salesperson in 9 unique industries over 25+ years. He has also spent 17,000 + Hours executing on LinkedIn to develop his LinkedIn Strategy. Over his career, he broke sales records for most sales in a month, year, and five-year period with established B2B businesses. He moved from sales to sales management, to starting his own business as a B2B sales and marketing coach after creating a unique process of qualified sales lead automation. The Mastery of B2B Sales process originated by personally surveying over 2,000 business owners, founders, CEOs, presidents, and C-level executives. This study revealed core problems that limit sales opportunities. These are answered in Mastery of B2B Sales. His passion is to help you unlock your true selling potential. His approach is 100% transparent with honest, engaging, and unfiltered conversation. In this episode, he shares how we can unlock our true selling potential to drive growth fast. Insights he shares include: How Chaz overcame a suicide attempt to get to where he is todayHow Chaz used a social media platform to eliminate cold calling in his sales team and build out a successful b2b sales processHow to identify pressing problems that prospects faceHow to leverage positioning to be viewed as an authority by prospects as part of your b2b sales processHow a 12-year-old girl broke the record of selling in Girl ScoutsHow to craft a B2B sales processHow Chaz builds a prospect profile around value propositionsHow to add automation to strategically attract high-value clientsand much much more ...

Nabeil Alazzam is CEO and founder of Forma.ai, a Toronto-based company striving to solve the massively under-appreciated pain point of sales-based compensation. Currently, the systems for calculating and awarding sales-based compensation are clunky, unwieldy, and often manual, creating a lot of work for operations teams and sales professionals. Nabeil identified that automation could solve this problem, and built a system (aka Forma.ai) that is able to take the many unique compensation problems that sales organizations face and create unified solutions that save time, money, and mental health for their customers. In this episode, Nabeil shares how Forma.ai is streamlining the process for over $1.5 billion in commissions per year. He also shares how we can craft data-driven plans that drive growth. Insights he shares include: Issues affecting sales compensationAre sales compensation plans necessary to truly motivate peopleCan sales compensation be done differently than just offering standard policiesThe lever that most businesses often overlook to drive their business strategyIn what ways are businesses not leveraging sales compensation to their advantageWhat are the impacts of ignoring systemic issues with sales compensation (data points and examples)What are the impacts of revamping sales compensation for the better (data points and examples)What lessons can sales operations learn from marketingCan sales compensation be tied to the organization's values and value proposition?and much much more ...

Nelson Gilliat is the author of the book called The Death of the SDR: Birth of Buyer Centric Revenue. He is also a Demand Generation Manager at Centerbase, a practice management software provider to law firms. Nelson proposes the Buyer Centric Revenue model as an alternative to help marketers and sellers have more productive and fulfilling careers while helping companies grow better: more, faster, easier, and at less cost.  In this episode, he shares how we can reduce our sales cycle by 33% and drive growth. Insights he shares include: Why Nelson believes companies are running on outdated modelsHow companies should go about sales prospectingDoes Nelson's sales prospecting plan suggest a model change? If so how do we deal with resistance within the organizationBest ways to get buy-in and build the culture requiredInsights from companies that have made the changeand much much more

Brynne Tillman is the LinkedIn Whisperer and CEO of Social Sales Link. For over a decade she has been teaching entrepreneurs, sales teams and business leaders how to leverage LinkedIn for social selling. As a former sales trainer and personal producer, Brynne adopted all of the traditional sales techniques and adapted them to the new digital world. She guides professionals to establish a thought leader and subject matter expert brand, find and engage the right targeted market, and leverage clients and networking partners for warm introductions into qualified buyers. Brynne is also the Co-host of the Making Sales Social podcast and author of The LinkedIn Sales Playbook, a Tactical Guide to Social Selling. In this episode, she shares how we can drives growth fast via social selling. Insights she shares include: Can social selling on LinkedIn be run via automationCan social selling on LinkedIn be scaled and used to build relationshipsCan relationships be built on LinkedIn to scale salesHow does social listening play out on LinkedInDo you need an elevator pitch for social selling on LinkedInHow to best get on our prospect's radarHow to leverage content to start conversations on LinkedInBrynne's unusual approach to using content to drive engagement and salesThe formula for creating the right profile on LinkedInand much much more...

Robert Hartline is a serial entrepreneur and the CEO of Call Proof which is an app for field salespeople which helps sales leadership track the daily sales activities so salespeople are on track to hit their sales objectives.   Robert used the same software to scale his wireless business in 2016 from $10 million in sales to nearly $100 million a year within 3 years.  One of Roberts's companies was also recognized as the fastest-growing company in Nashville for two years in a row.   Over the past 21 years, he has started and grown four companies from zero to $12 million. Just in the past few years alone is taken those businesses from $12 million to over $100 million in sales. In this episode, he shares how we can create high-growth companies through the use of the right sales development skills and strategies. Insights he shares include: Is sales a numbers gameDoes cold pitching really workSales development lessons from door to door salesWhy sales development teams should use a sales scorecardHow Call Proof helps track activity and build scorecardsKey characteristics to look for when recruiting sales development peopleHow to set the right culture in an organizationHow EOS has helped Robertand much much more....

Mandi Graziano is Vice President of Global Accounts for HPN Global where she finds hotels and venues; negotiates pricing/contracts for her client’s conferences all over the world. Here she has earned the awards of Chairman’s Club, President’s Club, and Top Producer. While on the hotel side Mandi worked in leadership roles in sales, marketing, and operations for Marriott, Starwood, Hard Rock Hotels, and Caesars Entertainment. While working for hotels she has been awarded Top Producer, Salesperson of the Year, Best Site Inspection of the Year, and Sales Strategist Award in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2008. Mandi is currently an instructor at San Diego State University Hospitality; Tourism Management program teaching Site Inspection; Contract Negotiation classes. Mandi is also the author of a relatable and remarkably funny book Sales Tales: The Hustle, Humor, and Lessons Learned from a Life In Sales, an Amazon best-seller in 5 categories and ranked #1 by Selling Power Magazine.  In this episode, she shares how we can use empathy in sales to easily influence and build trust to drive growth. Insights she shares include: Why we should develop empathy in salesHow to develop empathy in salesHow she overcame anxiety to become a public speaker and top salespersonThe business bedside manner and how she recommends we use it5 questions to ask to improve our business bedside mannerSWEATworking - what is it and why it's better than traditional networkingHow to keep up with public appearances and still build deep relationships Thoughts on events post-pandemic How we can use events to drive business growthand much much more ...