Sales Transformation

Book Your Free Revenue First Podcast Strategy here!Get Your Free Dial Session here!Want Your Reps Hitting Quota in 2022? Get Your Wingman Free Trial HERE!HIGHLIGHTSA non-linear path that led to writing The Social SoulWe don't need more influencers Social selling vs social engagement with intentionalityYou don't necessarily need to create your own contentYou might need to prune your network at some point Your network and your interests need to be aligned Stop wasting your time and be authentically you If you engage with intentionality, good thing will come from iStrive for quality over quantity in everything you doEngage first; don't pitch right awayThere's power in video You are your brand: just be yourself QUOTESRob: "It's amazing what happens when you take a chance on things and you open up to life's experiences and that's what I wanted to convey in The Social Soul. It's when you do that, and start having these different networks and different things that you're doing, and different communities you serve, and different places you've lived, how do you manage that?"Rob: "A lot of us don't actually need to create a lot of content to start those conversations because we can go engage. Think about your audience.  If I engage on Collin's post and have a meaningful value added comment, it might be marked at the top, most relevant, get sub threads, other likes and comments, other people start seeing it and start conversations off that thread. And that's just as valuable as creating content." Rob: "We don't realize how easy it is to provide value through engagement versus thinking about how to be an influencer, and we don't need more of those." Rob: "I'd rather have 500 highly active and engaged followers that are saying, hey thank you, and I'm helping and providing value because those 500 will tell their friends and that will slowly grow with the right people in. I don't need a million people just to have a million people." Rob: "My network needs to be aligned to my conversation, my topic, what I want to learn, where I wanna grow into, and what I wanna do. And so I wanna prune it." Rob: "There's a lot of toxicity going on. People copying and pasting to be influencers, and the space and taking bigger peoples' stuff and calling it their own, it's a whole big mess. And that's something that I don't want to see more of. The whole idea is to stop doing that. That's not helping you grow at all. And it's not doing anything for you but likes and comments. And it makes you look bad. It's not driving business, it's not driving real relationships, it's not driving opportunity. Stop wasting your time."  Rob: "Build with intentionality. Follow, connect, engage with those that are gonna help you level up in the ways that you want to level up in. Be authentic. Talk about from a real place of who you are and what you learned, your experiences, and how to talk through that. And then engage. Engage, engage, engage."Learn more about Rob in the links below:Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robnap/Beacons: https://beacons.page/RobNapoliPodcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bear-necessities-of-entrepreneurship/id1569103336Learn more about Collin in the link below: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/collin-saleshustle/Also, you can join our community by checking out @salescast.community. If you're a sales professional looking to take your career to greater heights, please visit us at https://salescast.co/ and set a call with Collin and Chris.

Book Your Free Revenue First Podcast Strategy here!Get Your Free Dial Session here!Want Your Reps Hitting Quota in 2022? Get Your Wingman Free Trial HERE!HIGHLIGHTSEntering sales via the support role Moving into a new state and acquiring a new SDR roleJob hunt tips: Build your own relationships with the companyTransition to CSM and enjoying the long game Try different paths in sales and see where you really fit Run into the water and figure it outStarting a writing agencyYou don't have to have everything figure outQUOTESKelsey: "I wasn't the best cold caller. I'm not the best person that you meet on a call and 30 seconds I can pitch you and you see the value and you're like, yea, that was compelling enough. I had a lot of blind spots, a lot of weaknesses as an SDR. I'm definitely a better closer. And then for CS, that transition to Customer Success just really came down to, I like the adrenaline of sales, I'm just kind of tired of holding this heavy quota every month even though now I have churn and retention, and all these other things on my back, it's different."Kelsey: "If you can, anywhere you're at, try to carve a path into different roles. AE if you're an SDR, don't be afraid to go backwards if you're an account executive and you want to try your hand in SDR work, that's great too."Kelsey: "The vernacular of CS life is different. You have to learn a lot about advocacy and how you can champion and play into your customers. You're selling them constantly on the value, but you don't want to be a seller. So there's a fine line and a fine balance to walk there which was hard for me at first, as understanding the difference between demo and training and supporting and selling." Kelsey: "It is a role where you are given autonomy truthfully, and ownership. At the end of the day, if your accounts fail, it's the same as quota for sellers. Like if you don't hit quota, you got to look at your process. For CS it's the same thing. If your accounts aren't succeeding, you're gonna go back and keep tweaking your process and figure out how you can make it better."Connect with Kelsey with the links below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelseycalabro/Twitter: https://twitter.com/antisocialkelsEmail: kelsey.calabro1@gmail.comAlso, you can join our community by checking out @salescast.community. If you're a sales professional looking to take your career to greater heights, please visit us at https://salescast.co/ and set a call with Collin and Chris.

Book Your Free Revenue First Podcast Strategy here!Get Your Free Dial Session here!Want Your Reps Hitting Quota in 2022? Get Your Wingman Free Trial HERE!HIGHLIGHTSDon't hurt your own reputationBe mindful in your reach outsEnsure that people are getting value from you Do everything consistentlyQUOTESColin: "You got to view sales as a relationship. And if you're doing things that are gonna hurt your reputation early on, it's really hard to recover from that."Colin: "Before you send an email or make a call, or send a message in Linkedin, ask yourself this simple question and think about it: will this have any value to the person that I am calling, that I am sending this to?"Colin: "Consistently, use all of the channels at your disposal. Consistently, look for ways to improve, and consistently look for new things to test."Also, you can join our community by checking out @salescast.community. If you're a sales professional looking to take your career to greater heights, please visit us at https://salescast.co/ and set a call with Collin and Chris.

Book Your Free Revenue First Podcast Strategy here!Get Your Free Dial Session here!Claim Your Free 200 Leads here!HIGHLIGHTSFrom psychology and philosophy to sales Find the path of least resistance when it comes to your natureSalespeople have to be go-gettersAEs should know how to prospect Sales is more than just a numbers game Treat your employees right  and take a long-term strategyHire fast, fire fastWhen you're cold-calling, you should know who you're callingSDRs and BDRs don’t have to be sellersQUOTESKevin: “One of the things that I highly advocate for other people to do is to try and find your path of least resistance when it comes to your nature. What's Kevin Hopp's nature? I'm kind of loud, I'm kind of outgoing, I am an extrovert.”Kevin: “The nature of sales is you have to have a forward-leaning mindset.”Kevin: "Salespeople are the kind of people that say, okay, I'm gonna go make it happen today. You gotta have a little bit of that spunk, little bit of that pizzaz in your attitude. Otherwise, it's not gonna work out well for you. You can't sit on your ass and wait for anyone to do anything for you in sales. You have to do things. Even if you got inbound leads, you have to call them."Kevin: “AEs absolutely need to remember that going out and creating a connection with someone, in an absolutely cold environment with no preconceived notion on either side, full stop. I will argue that against anybody. It's harder than closing, it's harder than you know, complex deal management, it's harder than enterprise sales."Kevin: “It's a rare breed of sales leader that understands modern prospecting and also understands the sales closing aspect of it, the higher level sales management stuff.”Kevin: "I think that's one of the biggest problems is, Sales leaders don't see SDR as a long-term investment and they don't put the thought into, okay, well their day can't suck. Like how come the AEs are travelling all over the country and taking their Zoom calls, whatever and they just get to say, oh the leads aren't qualified and they miss quota and they don't get fired but a BDR, whose doing 300 calls a day and not converting as high as they could or should, gets axed."Kevin: "When you're cold calling, you should know who you're calling. You should know what role they play in their organization and why that's relevant, what business challenge you can solve for them, and then you need to have a specialized, very differentiated pitch for them." Kevin: “Cold-calling and top of funnel is about aligning business challenges and valuable outcomes, and having high-level discussions about that. And that's when sales starts.”Learn more about Kevin in the links below:Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCthQXJkNh0Bhj_8IQOGtiAwPodcast: https://pod.link/1601548363Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khopp/Email - kevin@salesgig.comAlso, you can join our community by checking out @salescast.community. If you're a sales professional looking to take your career to greater heights, please visit us at https://salescast.co/ and set a call with Collin and Chris.

Book Your Free Revenue First Podcast Strategy here!Get Your Free Dial Session here!Claim Your Free 200 Leads here!HIGHLIGHTSStarting with paintball park and cruise tickets Sell the experience, not the productLearning how to overcome objections through old-fashioned cold-callsHow to lead people with more experience than you Just ask a lot of questions until you find one that only you know the answer Deify people on their strengths and they will open up about their weaknessesPurpose over product Scout ideas from your people and give proper creditThe logo challengeQUOTESCollin: "You got to know what motivates people. You can influence people to do things if you know what the important thing is to them." John: "You want to win people over? Put them on stage."John: "If you want to truly impact people, you need to hold them accountable by asking them questions. Quit making so many nice statements. Stop doing that. He said you need to ask them questions. When they answer the question, you ask them another question. When they answer that question, you ask them another one and another one and another one until they say, I don't know. When they say I don't know, that's when you become a value. Because you do know." John: "If you ask somebody what their biggest strength is, the likelihood is they're gonna tell you about that. If you build on that, and get them to build their own ego, they will, as a good human, typically bring themself down a level and open up what they tell you about that weakness. And then from there, before you pound down on that weakness, keep deifying them on the strengths." Collin: "You don't want to lead with like, hey this is what you're doing wrong. Here's how you're doing it wrong, and I'm gonna help you  fix it. They're not gonna listen."John: "A great idea typically has five or six other people's viewpoints on it and different spins and versions of it so there's a lot of ownership of it. You have a much stronger likelihood of getting ownership of it if other people have had a say in it and have been involved in it, and have received credit for it."John: The product is the product. It's about solving business problems that exist. We just happen to use marketing and promotional products and brand management as the vehicle to solve problems that exist within a business. Nobody goes out and decides that they're gonna buy promotional products just because they got a thousand dollars laying around."Learn more about John in the links below:Website: https://logochallenge.ccbrands.com/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%E2%98%98%EF%B8%8Fjohn-morris%E2%98%98%EF%B8%8F-96148716/Email - jmorris@clubcolors.comAlso, you can join our community by checking out @salescast.community. If you're a sales professional looking to take your career to greater heights, please visit us at https://salescast.co/ and set a call with Collin and Chris.

Book Your Free Revenue First Podcast Strategy here!Get Your Free Dial Session here!Claim Your Free 200 Leads here!HIGHLIGHTSThe right mindset is key to success in cold callingPermission-based openers workDon't go straight to value proposition after the openerLet the person on the line talk you QUOTESCollin: "The number one thing is your mindset. If you go into it with, cold calls suck, I hate this, nobody picks up the phone, my personal favorite: cold calling is dead, then you're not gonna have a good experience. So what mindset, what energy are you bringing to your cold calling block?"Collin: "You have to really be careful because it's tempting to want to pitch and you're really just trying to find information here to see if you can pique their interest to have the conversation to learn more."You can join our community by checking out @salescast.community. If you're a sales professional looking to take your career to greater heights, please visit us at https://salescast.co/ and set a call with Collin and Chris.

Book Your Free Revenue First Podcast Strategy here!Get Your Free Dial Session here!Claim Your Free 200 Leads here!HIGHLIGHTSA rebel without a causeGetting into selling commission-only real estate by accident Always test what works for you Find your "why" and go from thereFrom real estate to medical device sales Growing up with learning disabilities and developing a fighting spirit Following a leader and transition to IT and cybersecurity QUOTESKevin: "I think it's kind of in my nature. We'll call it a rebel without a cause. I kind of liked to pave my own path. I liked to work hard. I liked to play hard. So in doing so, everything I learned from sales while in school was you kind of create your own path. To me that was exciting."Collin: "Not everyone is for sales, but not everyone is for commission-only sales."Kevin: "I love the idea of just trying different things too. Hey I have been doing this and I have some moderate success. Let's go try this and let's test it, maybe I'll get some more success, maybe I won't. Maybe I'll create a blend of the two. I think that's part of the evolution as we continue to push and get better and don't just rest on our laurels.”Kevin: "I always had a chip on the shoulder or almost, like an insecurity like, man, I wish I could read like you and understand that. I wish I could  remember that. I wish. So early in life I said that that hurt me internally. But later on in life, it's become like a super power like I recognize that I own it and it's part of who I am." Kevin: "Look in the mirror, you're not competing with anyone else. There's a lot of things in the world that are gonna distract you and you're gonna look at people's highlight reels and look at that mirror and make that person proud and I think that's kind of what drives me."Learn more about Kevin in the links below:Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-bartlett-8555a41/Email: kevin@myaveragegreatness.comPodcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-average-greatness/id1508429171Also, you can join our community by checking out @salescast.community. If you're a sales professional looking to take your career to greater heights, please visit us at https://salescast.co/ and set a call with Collin and Chris. 

Book Your Free Revenue First Podcast Strategy here!Get Your Free Dial Session here!Claim Your Free 200 Leads here!HIGHLIGHTSFrom semiconductor engineer to serial salespersonRolling up the sleeves: Moving from Fortune 1000 to smaller companiesSmaller companies don't have red tape Coding on the side and forecasting quotas You can be a coder and a leader, but it may take some convincingWriting a book is not usually lucrative, but do it anywayQUOTESJeremy: “A cog in the wheel is the wrong way to put it but I felt that way sometimes that I had to stay in my lane very tightly. And then when I got into leadership at those bigger companies, I felt like my whole day was just meetings, this is long before the 'Zoom' world.” Jeremy: “One can delegate and code. You can be both. But a lot of companies I've worked in, you're sort of branded and it's hard for people to maintain in their heads that you can both be a great leader and a high impact contributor. It's really hard for people to manage those simultaneous brands.” Jeremy: “Know that if you want to be a wicked coder, or hacker, I should say, that may, in weird ways, limit your career opportunities. What's important is to understand what's possible -- that you need to know. And if you're not gonna code, you need to find somebody who can code.” Jeremy: "I can't remember the exact statistics but basically you just go in expecting you're gonna lose time and money writing books. I believe the reason you should write, particularly, business non-fiction books is because you're trying to figure something out and you're trying to structure those thoughts and learn and understand and then great if someone else picks it up."Learn more about Jeremy in the links below:Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremeydonovan/TruPeer: https://truepeer.com/Email: jeremy.donovan@salesloft.comBook: https://www.amazon.com/How-Deliver-TED-Talk-Presentations/dp/1468179993Also, you can join our community by checking out @salescast.community. If you're a sales professional looking to take your career to greater heights, please visit us at https://salescast.co/ and set a call with Collin and Chris.

Book Your Free Revenue First Podcast Strategy here!Get Your Free Dial Session here!Claim Your Free 200 Leads here!HIGHLIGHTSLess about the product, more about the client Ask only the questions that you really care about Connect with the problem and close with the value The disadvantages of using a call scriptPainful transition from SDR to AEYou can't teach negotiation skills Salespeople need to fundamentally believe in their productAdapt to the evolving sales technologies to avoid getting antiquatedQUOTESPradeep: "I hate call scripts. But the things is I can help you with the framework. Using that framework, if you are able to generate value for your buyer, you can be extremely successful. If you're failing, then keep doing it again and again, and eventually you'll learn."Pradeep: "The problem with call scripts is that you're just taking one person's opinion, and they are imposing it on tons of different people. And that often, to me, creates cringeworthy moments. Because even if I want to think of all the personas of Wingman, I cannot think of it in a blink. I'm only thinking about one persona, like the VP of sales. Then it might not appeal to a sales manager."Pradeep: "When you're hiring freshers, you will hire people who are incredibly passionate about selling. You hire people who are natural talkers, natural conversational-builders, and who genuinely care about customers. You look for all these traits. So, if all of this are in the check box, then you should let them operate in their way for quite a while to even understand and get to know-how of what their style is. Else you will just be making a flock of sheep."Pradeep: “In this kind of a complex marketing-driven, marketing-lead, then sales-led buyer persona, it is extremely important that you create value to every step of your sales process. And call scripts, they basically break that.”Pradeep: “You just got to stick with the value. And for that, as a salesperson, you need to fundamentally believe in the product. If you're not believing in the product, that is exactly why I'm saying negotiation cannot be coached. Because salespeople are not believing in the product, then they are just going to keep throwing away discounts.”Pradeep: “If you're not going to adopt these technologies, eventually, you're going to get antiquated. Because with the kind of millennial sales people, the way they think the way they sell is all different. They are too focused on the buyers and not very much focused on the admin work.”Learn more about Pradeep in the links below:Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pradeep-sridar/Email: deep@trywingman.comWebsite: https://www.trywingman.com/Learn more about Collin in the link below: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/collin-saleshustle/Also, you can join our community by checking out @salescast.community. If you're a sales professional looking to take your career to greater heights, please visit us at https://salescast.co/ and set a call with Collin and Chris.

Book Your Free Revenue First Podcast Strategy here!Get Your Free Dial Session here!Claim Your Free 200 Leads here!HIGHLIGHTSBe intentional in the people you reach out to for your podcastEnsure that the experience for your guest is ideal Arm yourself with research before the interviewBe genuinely curious about your guestsThe relationship starts after the interviewQUOTESCollin: "Have your show about this particular topic, invite these people that are your ideal customer profile on to your show, and you build a relationship with them in a very different context than you used to. You're adding value from day one, you're building a lot of trust, you're building a lot of rapport." Collin: "Show that you're an awesome host. Show that you genuinely care about them, that you're genuinely curious about them." Collin: "You gotta find ways as a podcast host and as a seller to continually stay top of mind. Engage with their content  with intentionality. Continue to further the relationship."Learn more about Collin in the link below: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/collin-saleshustle/Also, you can join our community by checking out @salescast.community. If you're a sales professional looking to take your career to greater heights, please visit us at https://salescast.co/ and set a call with Collin and Chris.