The Audible-Ready Sales Podcast

Before you can sell a solution, you must establish a baseline of trust with your customer. You build trust, in part, by demonstrating your willingness to understand the customer’s concerns and solve them. Today, John Kaplan discusses the effectiveness of recapping sales conversations as a trust-building tool that facilitates alignment with the customer and allows sellers to expand the conversation to key stakeholders across the buying company.Here are some additional resources:Get MEDDICC Certified on Ascender!Advancing the Deal | Ascender CourseExecuting Your Discovery Strategy | Ascender CourseThe Seller Deficit Disorder | Ascender ArticleWhy Your Active Listening Skills Are Crucial to Hitting Your Number | Ascender ArticleEssential Questions to Help You Become a Better Salesperson | Ascender ArticleOvercoming Seller Deficit Disorder | Ascender VideoTips for Active Listening | PodcastOvercoming Challenges with Metrics | PodcastExpanding the Sales Conversation | PodcastVisit Ascender, a platform designed solely for salespeople who own a quota. If you enjoy the Audible-Ready Sales Podcast, Ascender is perfect for you! We put out content every day with insights to help you level up in your sales career.Check out the platform here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/Subscribe here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/PlanComparison

John Kaplan, a B2B sales expert, shares valuable insights on multi-threaded selling, which encourages salespeople to engage multiple departments for a successful close. He discusses the importance of fostering emotional connections and understanding customer needs to elevate sales conversations. Kaplan also highlights strategies for effective interdepartmental communication, emphasizing empathy in discussions, particularly with finance. Overall, the conversation focuses on expanding the sales approach beyond a single contact, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of the issues at hand.

John Kaplan, a seasoned sales expert, dives into the nuances of selling to experienced professionals. He discusses how new sales representatives can overcome intimidation by focusing on buyer needs and challenges. Kaplan highlights the importance of understanding problems rather than just product knowledge to build confidence. He also shares the power of proof points to foster trust and offers strategies for empowering teams through effective knowledge sharing. With practical insights, this conversation equips sellers to engage successfully with seasoned buyers.

Tim Caito, a sales negotiation expert, joins Rachel to share powerful insights into closing deals effectively. They dive into the importance of building a strong negotiating position early on and understanding customer needs. Caito emphasizes the art of summarizing client conversations to reinforce requirements and navigate long sales cycles. Additionally, they discuss empowering customer champions to advocate for solutions, enhancing internal support and improving outcomes. Key strategies for effective communication and decision-making in sales are highlighted.

In this chat, Brian Walsh, an expert on RFPs and sales strategy, shares his secrets to standing out in the competitive world of proposal responses. He emphasizes assessing your position and qualifying opportunities before diving into an RFP. Brian discusses the importance of strategic planning and building relationships to align solutions with client needs. He also highlights the value of engaging clients beyond the initial request, focusing on authentic conversations to truly understand their objectives.

On our online subscription platform Ascender, users can ask questions and discuss their perspectives on a wide variety of topics pertaining to sales. Among the regular contributors to Ascender’s Engage section is Force Management facilitator John Boney, who has made a number of recent posts about selling and leading from a foundation of empathy. In particular, he has written about the concept of carefrontation—an approach to giving feedback that balances directness and honesty with empathy and care for those on the receiving end of the help. In this episode, John joins Rachel to dive deeper into how salespeople and team leaders can implement carefrontation on a daily basis as they work and interact with colleagues and clients. Here are some additional resources:Get MEDDICC Certified on Ascender!Coaching Model Essentials | Ascender CourseCoaching the Coaches – Front-Line Sales Managers | Ascender CourseWhat Exactly is Carefrontation? | Ascender Community Post • Mastering Carefrontation: Avoiding the Pitfall of Brutal Honesty | Ascender Community PostNavigating the Balance of Carefrontation | Ascender Community PostThe Importance of Consistency in Carefrontation | Ascender Community Post How to Structure Effective Feedback to Your Sales Teams | Ascender ArticleTen Questions to Help Sales Managers Give Better Feedback | Ascender ArticleUsing Empathy in Your Sales Conversations | Ascender ArticleVisit Ascender, a platform designed solely for salespeople who own a quota. If you enjoy the Audible-Ready Sales Podcast, Ascender is perfect for you! We put out content every day with insights to help you level up in your sales career.Check out the platform here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/Subscribe here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/PlanComparison

There’s as much differentiation in how you sell as in what you sell, and standing out as a sales rep requires you to exhibit those special characteristics uncommon amongst your peers. Establishing differentiation is a tricky task, however, so today John Kaplan teaches how to simplify the process with ideas enactable by a mindset of open-mindedness, empathy for the customer and their needs, and conviction in the importance of what you have to offer.Here are some additional resources:Get MEDDICC Certified on Ascender!Solution Mapping to Create Strong Value Propositions | Ascender CoursePreparing for and Engaging in Virtual Meetings | Ascender CourseMaking Sure the Customer Understands Your Differentiation | Ascender VideoRise Above the Noise | Ascender VideoOvercoming Seller Deficit Disorder | Ascender VideoPreparing for Sales Conversations | Ascender VideoTips for Active Listening | PodcastArticulating Value and Differentiation After the Sale | PodcastVisit Ascender, a platform designed solely for salespeople who own a quota. If you enjoy the Audible-Ready Sales Podcast, Ascender is perfect for you! We put out content every day with insights to help you level up in your sales career.Check out the platform here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/Subscribe here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/PlanComparison

Tim Caito, an expert in sales negotiation strategies, shares invaluable tips for effective deal preparation. He emphasizes starting negotiations early and mastering the art of anchoring, both for yourself and your customer. Caito advocates for a well-defined 'give-get' strategy, ensuring team alignment on concessions to avoid surprises. He also discusses the benefits of providing customers with multiple options to enhance engagement and decision-making. Preparation and strategy, he argues, are key to maximizing value in every negotiation.

Whether you're the top rep looking for even greater heights or someone looking to improve, you need a plan for success. And, you need to put it in motion now.What is your plan to make your plan this year?Force Management’s Co-Founder John Kaplan has been on all sides of this journey as a rep, sales leader, and top-tier trainer. He joins our Ascender team for a practical conversation on how to improve your sales execution right now. We'll cover how you can gather and analyze, plan and strategize, and then organize and execute your way to your best year yet.We're giving away a one-hour coaching session with John to one attendee. Sign up here: https://hubs.la/Q033B0m10

With the extensive attention from leadership directed toward the planning of sales kickoffs, the need to focus on what’s to follow too often gets lost. Today, John Kaplan joins Rachel for a discussion on the incumbency of managers leading SKOs to dispense the knowledge, skills and cultural spirit to spark enthusiasm and a drive for success amongst employees in attendance. In the process, he also insists upon the need for sales reps to have a gameplan, as he puts it, “after the hoopla” of the SKO.Speaking of John Kaplan, you don’t want to miss our upcoming live Ascender Insights special, “The Plan to Make the Plan”, hosted by the man himself! Join us on January 23, 2025, from 10 to 11 AM Eastern Standard Time to hear John’s practical and time-tested advice on putting together a plan to improve your sales execution in no time.And that’s not even the best part—get this: All quota-carrying reps and first-line managers who register for the discussion are automatically entered into a raffle to win a free, one-on-one coaching session with John! Sound good enough? Click here to register!Here are some additional resources:Get MEDDICC Certified on Ascender!Plan to Make Your Plan | Ascender CourseGet the Most Out of Your Next Sales Training | Ascender ArticleThree Ways Managers Can Drive Value-Based Selling Practices | Ascender ArticleHow to Coach Value-Based Sales Messaging Aligned with C-Suite Priorities | Ascender ArticleSales Managers: Test Your Reps’ Ability to Compete in Deals | Ascender ArticleHow to Structure Effective Feedback to Your Sales Teams | Ascender ArticleSales Managers: Your Four Critical Roles | Ascender ArticleTen Questions to Help Sales Managers Give Better Feedback | Ascender ArticleOur Best Content on Decision Criteria | Ascender ArticleAsking for Help | PodcastVisit Ascender, a platform designed solely for salespeople who own a quota. If you enjoy the Audible-Ready Sales Podcast, Ascender is perfect for you! We put out content every day with insights to help you level up in your sales career.Check out the platform here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/Subscribe here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/PlanComparison