With people being so stressed, overwhelmed, and distracted right now, being able to efficiently use the short window of your prospect’s attention is more critical than ever. That’s why our new guest is Chala Dincoy, the CEO and founder of the ‘Repositioning Expert.’ She helps companies with their messaging, particularly with their elevator pitches.

In this interview, you can learn more about:

• Common pitching mistakes
• ‘Celebritization’ of yourself
• Revisiting the messaging

Common Pitching Mistakes

People often talk about themselves because that’s what they are comfortable with, that’s what they know. However, your prospects don’t want to listen about you and your business, instead they want to hear how your product and service can help them. The secret is to immediately start talking about them. Your pitch needs to be relatable, and it has to resonate with your prospects, to make them care, or you will lose their attention.

The way out of the comfort zone is positioning yourself as a specialist, not a generalist. You can find out from the market what your super-niche should be and what are your pain points that you need to solve.

‘Celebritize’ Yourself

Pitch like a celebrity, so nobody cancels on you! It’s all about visibility, and due to the current situation, it mostly refers to an online kind. Make your target audience see your face all day. Become familiar to them, let them get to know you, use all available online tools and channels to deliver your message. Some people are comfortable doing this in person but freeze in the online world. It’s crucial to get over that fear because it’s harder than ever to get and keep somebody’s attention.

With today’s economy and growing competition, your value is in being different and being visible with that difference, but the difference needs to be about their pain. It is a matter of owning it and showing it to your audience every day.

Revisiting The Messaging

Everyone will have to change to survive. The world and the customers are dynamic, so you have to continuously look at your messaging and marketing. It is wrong to stick with what you have and hope that everything will go back to how it used to be. Your messaging needs to be where your customers’ heads are, and it needs to focus on them and their priorities. A level of humanization also has an impact, because people are now very vulnerable and stressed, so they look for that human element.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

What is the best way to make a remote worker both comfortable and productive during work? In this Expert Insight interview hosted by John Golden, Jacqueline Throop Robinson discusses how to bring work passion, collaboration, and cohesiveness together in remote work.

This interview discusses:

• Fundamentals
• Creativity

Fundamentals

Things that leadership needs to do during unusual circumstances do not differ much from things done during usual circumstances. What differs is the degree to which some things need to be done. The most essential thing is communication. The CEOs who are excelling at these times are the ones whose communication with employees increased since the pandemic. Some think of it as over-communication but talking to the employees at least once a week is very important. It feels genuine and transparent towards the employee. Especially in virtual organizations, there is no such term as overcommunication. If used correctly, internal communication creates value. People assume that virtual organizations have a dehumanizing effect in the business, but actually, because of the constant need for direct communication, virtual organizations create very strong internal personal relationships. Regarding employee engagement, team huddles have become more popular now simply because remoteness made it easier to have short, concise employee meetings repeatedly. Remote work also increases flexibility. The work-life balance is easier to manage since employees have the flexibility to choose when is the best time for them to do the work. Many CEOs realize that if they give their employees the deadlines until when the duties need to be done, the work will be done more efficiently. The reason behind that logic is that employees will do the work at times when it is the most convenient for them to do the work productively.

Creativity

In economically uncertain times like now, companies that seem proactive try to find unique solutions for the organization, employees, and clients as well. For example, a sales team should engage in meaningful conversations with its clients to learn what are their needs right now and how they can be served the best. Organizations should promote creativity. The inclusion of employees in finding the most effective way of working increases the level of employee engagement because everybody feels heard and appreciated. People are generally scared of making the wrong decisions. Thus, a belief that we can go through hard times together by partnering up, being creative, exploring, and being optimistic creates a win-win situation for all clients, employees, and leadership. In conclusion, people should look at this situation as a challenge to be more creative and braver with their decisions because good things can come out of it.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Nowadays virtual meetings have become a crucial part of doing business. In this Expert Insight interview hosted by John Golden, Katrina Cravy discusses how to improve your virtual sales presence.

This interview discusses:

• How to own the situation
• How to embrace the situation

Own it

Many sales representatives are trained to walk into the room full of confidence and dominate the situation. But, when the situation calls for the virtual meeting, then the fear of technology comes into play. Usually, lack of tech-savvy and good equipment bring fear, but people also become much more self-aware. However, virtual sales can create greater connectivity with the people once when people get relaxed and start to own the situation. The key is to switch the camera on so that the people can connect a face with the voice. There is a 7-38-55 rule for the successful sale. Seven percent is what you are saying, 38 percent is your tone, and 55 percent represents your body language. The main mistake management and leadership make is that they invest a lot of money in software to put their people online, but they do not invest in teaching them how to act in front of a camera. It takes a lot of practice for a person to get trained and comfortable enough to make a good value proposition on Zoom calls and to earn a customer’s trust. Furthermore, the luxury of having a dedicated home office is beneficial, but the environment seen on camera can easily be made presentable by branding. Having uniforms with a company logo is always a great idea.

Embrace it

The constant repetitions of a script help the salespeople to better present their material in a specific period of time, but salespeople have to remember not to lose the natural flow of a conversation. Storytelling is always a better alternative than just offering statistical details to the customers. Storytelling offers the ability for a better connection between the participants. In addition, people remember more when somebody tells them a story rather than telling them statistical details simply because stories can bring emotions in people. The key is to make your customer comfortable while making yourself memorable to the customer. There are art and science components of the sales process. The science parts are message alignment, first impression, and delivery. The art components are empathy, authenticity, and confidence level. The biggest value comes from empathy and from listening to your clients to understand what they really want. And lastly, embrace and enjoy virtual sales because positive thoughts will make the job easier and more productive. Do not look at virtual meetings as unfortunate circumstances but as a more effective way of doing business. For example, virtual meetings eliminate travel and exhaustion, thus they save time and money.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Does your current relationship with money create negativity in your life? In this Expert Insight interview hosted by John Golden, Gull Khan discusses money mindset and how to recognize and change your relationship with money.

The interview discusses:

• Recognize and Change
• Money Avatar

Recognize and Change

From being around the age of seven, people are taught how to think about certain things including money. Basically, we are being programmed on how to think about money based on the social class we are coming from. That way the poor become poorer, and the rich become richer. The best way to recognize your relationship with your money is by looking at your bank account. When asked about money, the average person’s first thought is stress about the bills. It is important to bring the right energy in your money thoughts. Lifestyle choices determine the type of energy people allow into their energy fields. Earning money is one type of energy, but investing and growing money requires different types of energy. For example, millionaires have different mindsets than average people. Money is usually seen as a piece of paper that brings wealth to the people at the expense of health, relationships, and overall happiness. However, wealth and happiness and health are not mutually exclusive.

Money Avatar

People must learn to have respect for the money, but it is hard to respect it if it is seen only as a piece of paper. Quantum physics can change our way of thinking by giving us another perspective. In quantum physics, everything in its core is energy. Thus, think of money as energy. Good example to grasp this concept is if you imagine a money avatar. Think of it as your best friend, called Sarah. If you are too needy towards Sarah, she will eventually feel suffocated. But if you respect and appreciate Sarah’s time, she will always be there for you. The same is with money. Money comes, and money goes. Develop an attitude to treat your money with love and respect, and not with need and greed. Changing the perspective helps people to let the money go easier in order for the new money to come. Creating a healthy relationship with money also helps not to go back into old paradigms and panic moods when the financial crisis like Covid19 happens. Furthermore, the more self-confidence a person has, the more control he or she will have over the money as well. There is an old story of a strong bird standing on a very thin tree branch. The bird does not stand there because it knows that the tree is strong, but because it knows that it can fly off in case if the branch breaks. In conclusion, only confidence in yourself gives you confidence in your current situation as well. Your current situation cannot offer you any confidence because circumstances change easily.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Many people are avoiding self-discovery journeys because of the fear of what they might find. However, it is the process that can be beneficial to our overall well-being, and that can take us to a new, liberated, more successful, and fulfilled life. Today’s guest is Mia Hewett, the creator of the Aligned Intelligence Program and the author of the ‘Meant For More: Stop Secretly Struggling and Become a Force to Be Reckoned With’ book. Her mission is to help people find meaning and achievement and become the best version of themselves.

This interview explores:

• The ‘original trauma’ concept
• The birth of the ego
• Relation to the sales

The ‘Original Trauma’ Concept

Every person has experienced their original trauma when they were very young. A child grows and trusts by an emotional bond, and when that bond breaks, the child starts feeling alone and doesn’t know how to deal with that emotion. Because we were never taught how to process our feelings as children, a trauma happens, and we carry that into adulthood. It doesn’t have to be something big, but it does cause significant issues, such as the inability to trust other people, fear of the world, and the feeling that something is wrong with us. The trauma creates the pattern that we start repeating through life, and it is the reason for our self-sabotage. Once we learn how to process our emotions, we get rid of the trigger, stop struggling, and start living freely.

The Birth Of The Ego

After trauma happens, we create our false self. That is the birth of the ego, whose job is to help us survive the traumatic experience. The problem is that the very thing we use to protect ourselves from ever having that experience again is the thing that is blocking us from the awareness that we need to heal the trauma so we can set ourselves free. That way, our comfort blanket becomes our barrier. Everything is in the mind, but the mind blocks it from being seen, and it is the root of the self-sabotaging pattern.

Relation To The Sales

There are a lot of people who have all the attributes to be great salespeople, but they are struggling with something emotional that is holding them back. Until they clear what is stopping them, they will keep doing the same thing, without getting the results that they want.
It is the fight between the emotional and the intellectual. If you are dealing with a stranger as a prospect and some objections come up, the logic will tell you that it can’t have anything to do with you, but your emotions might be prone to appropriating it and making you feel like you are the problem. It is all because of the issues caused by the trauma that should be unraveled and confronted.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Economic uncertainty usually triggers people to look into their financial plans such as 401K and to rethink the financial decisions they made in the past. In this Expert Insight interview hosted by John Golden, Mark Willis discusses what is the best primary investment.

This interview discusses:

• Volatility vs Predictability
• How to Think for Yourself

Volatility vs Predictability

There has been a grand shift from pensions which is a guaranteed income to unguaranteed, market based, tax-deferred 401(k) retirement plans. The risk became the primary and default choice by many. People believe that they will bring the lost money back fast due to market volatility. But, the time value of money says it differently. A common misconception is that if you lose 30 percent, you need 30 percent to get it back. You actually need 43 percent to make it even. Thus, swop the volatility for predictability, or at least add some predictability. There is a predictable income stream guaranteed for the rest of your life such as an annuity. In addition, the Income Maximization Strategy allows direct rollover of money from your IRA or 401(k) plan to a product that will not be affected by the next downturn of the market. People love the thrill of the chase; however, the future should not be entirely leveraged by today’s risk. The Barbell Strategy enables safety and security on one side and speculative risk on another side. Basically, if a person puts some amount of money in a predictable, risk-free asset, then he or she can afford to be more aggressive risk wise on some other side.

“If you’re based in Canada, a TFSA (Tax Free Savings Account) is a great option. This account allows for tax-free gains and can be withdrawn at any point. You can measure how much you could earn using a tsfa contribution calculator.”

Think for Yourself

The best thing you can do is to ask yourself what exactly you want from your money. It is a thought process that does not need professional financial literacy. There are some basic questions to look at. Do you want easy access to your cash or to be locked up for future years? Do you want a fixed rate of return on your investments or not? When do you want your money to be taxed, during seed time or harvest time? There are strategies that align with your specific wishes. Furthermore, the global health crisis that we are experiencing now causes the biggest financial anxiety to people who are a couple of years away from retirement. This is a great opportunity for people to start negotiating about their financials with themselves. People can be more financially immune during the crisis if they lower their cash burn rate. Even an increase of one percent in savings per quarter is good. The average American saves five percent per year, thus an increase from five to nine percent would be a substantial increase in just one year.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Considering recent crises and events in the US, it is critical for businesses to adjust and reimagine themselves, not only to survive but to prepare for the post-COVID world. Kathy Bowman Atkins is the CEO and the founder of the Latitude Group, an expert who helps companies on this road, and she discusses the whole process in the new Expert Insight Interview hosted by John Golden.

This Expert Insight Interview explores:

• Why your business needs a plan
• Six-months planning cycles
• Adjusting the marketing strategies

Planning Is More Vital Than Ever

During this time, the employees are feeling a lot of uncertainty. They need straight and honest communication, but most of all they want to see that there is a vision of the future and what is coming next. It is clear that there are a lot of variables and that any plan will need to have some pivots and adjustments as time goes by, but it is a critical starting point.

Six-Months Planning Cycles

It is not the moment for making long and ambitious three or five year plans. Instead, Kathy suggests breaking planning into three six-month cycles. The first cycle is the emergence plan, and it is all about the financial viability and how to survive this period as a business. Changes are inevitable, and your product and service offerings might have to be different than before. The goal is to make the business as efficient as possible. The second cycle is the resurgence plan and it marks the transition from reactive to cautiously proactive mindset. In this stage, the target is to stabilize the business as much as possible, while assessing the internal processes, the external world, and the competition. The final phase is convergence, the time of determining what the new reality of the business is and bringing back marketing and a more strategic approach.

Adjusting The Marketing Strategies

Right now, it is essential to give your target buyer the reasons why they should do something with you in the next 6-12 months. People are becoming tired with emergency messaging, they want hope and positivity, but above all, they want to be heard. It is important to understand the personality of the people you are interacting with because everyone reacts differently to the conditions we are in at the moment. As a company, you want to acknowledge and be empathetic towards everything that is happening but still stays on a business foot.

If you have contact and you bring value to the people you are communicating with, you are building opportunities for the future.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

John Golden’s guest in the new Expert Insight Interview is Tim Kintz, automotive marketplace expert and author of the book ”Frictionless: Closing and Negotiating with Purpose”. As a top sales trainer, he will talk about the art of negotiation and share his secrets on how to master it.

The interview explores:

• Understanding friction
• The successful negotiation
• The importance of mental ownership

Understanding Friction

There will never be a 100% frictionless negotiating, during any type of purchase. However, it all comes down to two main aspects. First of all, the customer should feel like they are dealing with a professional. Also, you should find a way to make the customer feel like they are winning during the negotiation because, without the small victories, even if the purchase has been made, they will not feel as if they have gotten a good deal. A good deal is not just a number, but more of a perception or a feeling.

The Secrets Of A Successful Negotiation

The most important thing for any salesperson is confidence. The key is to use that confidence to gain your customers’ trust and explain to them why they should pay a certain amount of money for your product. You should be able to transfer your belief in the product, excitement, and enthusiasm to the customer. You want to be sure that you have earned the right to ask for money, and you shouldn’t be afraid to do it. Otherwise, you will show that you either don’t believe in your product or that there is not enough value to it.
Too often, negotiation comes out of desperation, instead of inspiration. Salespeople are frequently afraid of losing the deal when, actually, you should be inspired to make the deal.

The Importance Of Mental Ownership

The whole negotiating experience shouldn’t be just about the money. You need to explain to your customer how is your product going to make them better, more successful, or make their lives more convenient. Try to paint the picture of your customer’s life, and then put your vehicle into that picture. Create mental ownership in their heads by asking questions and trying to understand who your customer really is. Don’t listen to respond, listen to understand.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.