The Uniqueness of Entrepreneurial Sales:

Entrepreneurial sales present unique challenges that are different from frontline sales. When you’re a frontline seller or in professional sales, all you do is sell, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. As an entrepreneurial salesperson, you have so many different hats. Sometimes you’re CEO, or accounting, or marketing, and you have to learn how to sell your product and service in different territories amongst different markets. If you’re an entrepreneur working for yourself, you have to sell in order to make revenue, of course, but you also have to deliver it, prospect it, build your pipeline, pay your bills, and a host of other things in order to be successful. It becomes hard to find the time to do these things well, but it can be done, and it can bring success. Patti Pokorchack explains how to make this happen in this expert sales interview, hosted by John Golden.

This expert sales interview explores:

• Overcoming fear
• The SALES acronym

How to Overcome Fear in Selling:

Fear gets in the way for a lot of different people amongst various different professions, and sales is no exception. Especially in entrepreneurial sales, where there are more risks, more at stake, and fewer people to fall back on, it can be a very scary process. But, overcoming fear is mandatory if you want to continue doing this work and being successful. There are four things to do in order to overcome the fear of selling and being an entrepreneurial seller. The first thing is to stop hating on sales. If you’re an entrepreneur, if you don’t have sales, you don’t have a business, so it’s important to embrace sales for what it is and reframe the hate that might be in your mind surrounding sales. The second thing is to have a skillset. Sales processes require discipline, and sticking to that process and having discipline for your craft will help you overcome fear by giving you a specific procedure. The third thing is to always be prospecting so that you don’t have to worry about feast or famine, you can always have a steady stream of contacts being added to your pipeline.

SALES:

There is a specific acronym that can guide you through entrepreneurial sales. The acronym, fittingly so, is “SALES.” S stands for service to others. As salespeople, especially entrepreneurial salespeople, you’re not there to just sell anything. You’re there to sell a product or service to someone that will actually help them. Focusing on service to others will help you close more business, ask better questions, and do better for the world. A stands for adventure. Sales can be quite an adventure, one that is fun, tricky, sometimes scary, but always rewarding. L stands for leadership. You can show your leadership through confident responses and intelligent questions. E stands for entrepreneurial. As you go about your business, make sure to consider the uniqueness that comes with being an entrepreneurial salesperson. And finally, S stands for success, which is what you will have by embracing the uniqueness of entrepreneurial sales. 

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.

Crisis leadership is the ultimate type of leadership, and it can be utilized to help businesses who are currently facing uncertainty, and who will face uncertainty in the future. The state of the business world after COVID-19 left a lot of people really shaken. Many organizations found themselves unprepared and unsure of how to proceed. Mary Kelly discusses leadership during a crisis in this expert sales interview, hosted by John Golden.

This expert sales interview explores:

• The “what if?” plan
• Deciding what’s important

Contingency Plans:

Many companies don’t think about the “what if,” and find themselves unprepared when the “what if” happens. Businesses should be thinking about potential threats and harms, and coming up with contingency plans in order to prepare.

What’s Important?:

If and when you find yourself or your business in crisis, understanding what’s important can make a tremendous difference in rebounding. Part of leadership during a crisis involves business leaders looking at what is important in their organizations, and prioritizing resources and money for those things.

Leading strong:

Everyone takes queues from the leader. If the leader is panicked, or just looking for safety and shelter, everyone else will follow suit and do the same. But, if your leader is looking bold and courageous, it will help your salespeople, sales team, and customers do the same thing.

People need anchors. They need people in their life who are stable and calm and know what to do next.

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.

Customer success is a vital, yet often overlooked part of keeping and growing a business. All too often, companies struggle with onboarding and engaging their clients in a way that gives the customer maximum value. You put so much work into developing a great product or service, a ton of time and effort into marketing and talking to potential customers and clients, and highlighting how what you offer can meet a need, but the ball gets dropped when it comes to keeping and maintaining customers and getting them to renew with you. The customer success bow tie is made up of two parts, the buyer’s journey, and the customer’s journey. Together, the bow tie holds the key to customer success, customer retention, customer renewals, and ultimately more revenue for your organization. Donna Weber explains the customer success bow tie and how to implement it in this expert sales interview, hosted by John Golden.

This expert sales interview explores:

How low retention can damage businesses
The steps for successful onboarding

Consequences of low retention:

The bowtie of customer success is very important, for a lot of reasons. One of the main reasons, though, is based in the cost of acquiring new customers. It is very expensive to get a new client. It can be 6 times, up to 10 times more expensive to acquire and onboard a new client then it is to maintain relationships and continue doing business with old clients.

The importance of onboarding:

Onboarding is not just one person job. Customer success is not just one person’s job. Teams must work together to provide a seamless journey for their customers, from the time that they first interact with their new clients onward. There is a six-step onboarding process that will help you create great customer success.

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.

Customer experience has become a bit of a buzz word over the last few years, and for a very good reason. Customer experience can significantly influence your overall sales. If your customers have a bad or negative experience with your company or brand, it can be a death sentence for your organization. But, if they have a really remarkable, awesome experience, it can help you generate more profit. Dan Gingiss explores the importance of customer experience and how to use it to sell more in this expert sales interview, hosted by John Golden.

This expert sales interview explores:

• Defining customer experience
• The importance of retaining current clients

What is Customer Experience?

Customer experience is how a customer feels about every single interaction they have with your company. If you break it down, there are really only two parts that go into understanding and defining customer experience. The first part is how the customer feels.

Focusing on the Leaky Bucket:

Many organizations have their focus set on generating new clients and increasing their sales goals every year. These are great endeavors, and good goals to have, but they exclude something that is very crucial: the leaky bucket. The leaky bucket is all of the customers who walk out of your doors to your competitors because their experience didn’t remain positive.

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.

There are a lot of people out there who might be especially nervous about hitting your quota after the shifts that COVID-19 has brought into the climate. Some of you might have been nervous about hitting your quota before the pandemic hit, and are even more nervous about it now. However, everyone has been through experiences in the past, be it something that happened on a personal level, or an unexpected change that happened on a professional level. These things can be tackled, and can be overcome, and so can the current climate. Alice Kemper, interviewed by John Golden has three tips to help you get through this pandemic world and bust your quota.

This expert sales interview explores three actions to bust your quota:

• The benefit of joint listening
• The importance of one on one coaching
• The necessity of skill-boosting meetings

Action 1: Joint listening

Often times, a sales manager doesn’t have specific insight into what is happening in the sales calls that their team makes. When a salesperson comes back and reports on what was discussed in the call, they’re only reporting their perspective, and what they remember. This means that the sales manager is missing out on really valuable information about how to coach and educate their team.

Action 2: One on One Coaching

One on one coaching, done on a regular basis, is critical for busting sales quotas. Coaching should be done at frequent intervals, be it every week or every two weeks, and it should be done one on one.

Action 3: Skill-boosting Meetings

You can train your salespeople through joint listening and field rides, and one on one coaching, but skill-boosting meetings are the third step in busting sales quotas. Many sales managers are hesitant to host these kinds of meetings, because they don’t have the time, and they struggle to create curriculum and content for regular training meetings.

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 don’t understand the difference between inside sales and outside sales. Things get even more confusing once you throw in terms like direct sales team, and other expansions. Dionne Mischler explains what inside sales is, and how your organization can set up an amazing inside sales team in this expert sales interview, hosted by John Golden.

This expert sales interview explores:

Defining an inside sales team
How to set up an inside sales team
The importance of leading indicators

What is an Inside Sales Team?

Inside sales is a bit of an umbrella term. It’s like when you say you’re going to have a meal, there are a lot of different options that could be defined by that word. Inside sales could look like a call center, it could be a sales development team, a sales closing team, or some other variation. There is a rise in the creation of inside sales teams within a huge variety of different organizations throughout various industries, and the term might apply a little differently to each one. Ultimately, if you’re going to have an inside sales team, work on your own internal definition and make sure that everyone in your organization knows what it is so that it’s clearly defined for all employees.

Setting Up An Inside Sales Team:

It’s really important to set up your inside sales team deliberately, from the beginning. Often times, organizations will try to create the team as they go, and it ends up being disorganized and messy. When working with an organization, think about creating a team that is intentional, deliberate, and successful. Have a plan, brainstorm new ideas, and culminate those ideas onto paper so you have a baseline and ideas for the future. Also, make sure that you create your sales team with a “for now” mentality. Take into account that things will need maintenance, or there might be unexpected situations that you’ll have to adapt to. Have clear expectations, but keep your team agile.

Creating leading indicators

Leading indicators are also important when building your inside sales team. Leading indicators are all about the number of conversations and activity levels. We’re not talking about measuring calls, it’s about how visible you are with your clients, and how many genuine, real conversations you have with potential buyers. Campaigns are a great way to do this. Pick a strategic initiative so you know where to start, and have a campaign run for about a quarter. When you plan your campaign, think about the desired outcomes, and integrate that into your conversations.

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.

Most people do not associate the sales process with an enjoyable activity. Usually, the most common thing that comes to mind when thinking about a sales process is a horrible sales experience that still haunts your past. But there is a way to redeem yourself from those haunting sales calls, and turn the sales process into something is actually enjoyable. To do this, you must stop thinking about this idea of what sales should be, and start thinking about how it can become an enjoyable, efficient part of your everyday selling routine. In this expert sales interview, Tasha Smith, interviewed by John Golden, explores how to enjoy the sales process with five key steps.

This expert sales interview discusses five key steps to making the sales process enjoyable:

• Step 1: Set up an appointment
• Step 2: Provide an agenda
• Step 3: Gain insights and do a discovery
• Step 4: Make it personalized
• Step 5: Give two choices

Set Up An Appointment:

So many salespeople attempt to sell on the fly, and they end up in a conversation where they’re trying to build value over messenger or email. Many salespeople revert to this method because they can’t get their clients to come to appointments, but clients don’t want to come to appointments because they don’t know what to expect, how long it’s going to take, or what is going to happen during the conversation. In order to successfully set up an appointment, be specific! You could say something like: “I’d like to set up an appointment to go over your goals, a little about the company, and our most popular packages. Our first call will take about 45 minutes, and you don’t have to move to the next step. But, if you’d like to, you can, and I can tell you how. Is this something you’d be open to?” In this example, you’ve taken away any perceptions the client has and replaced it with exactly what’s going to happen in a non-threatening way that makes them feel comfortable.

Give an Agenda:

This step gives your client a specific agenda that mirrors the promises you made when you set up an appointment. This might look like, “today we’re going to go over x, y, and z (all things you mentioned when you made the appointment), it’s going to take 45 minutes, and you don’t have to sign up for anything but if you see something you like I can help you move forward today.” It establishes credibility and consistency with your client, which are both very important things.

Gain Insight

This is the discovery phase of the sales process. Ask your client what they want to go over, what their goals are. Inquire about how reaching the goals or solving their problems would impact their overall quality of life. People don’t want the product or service that you’re selling, they want what your product or service will get them. They want the health, the wealth, the status, the relationship, etc. What matters is how reaching the goals will impact their quality of life.

Personalization

Personalization is so important in the world of sales. Part of selling well is ensuring that you connect the dots for your client about how what you offer them will help them get what they told you about in step 3. Don’t make it so hard on them, tell them exactly how your product or service will help them improve their quality of life. You might say something like, “have you ever been in a situation where you weren’t prepared for x, y, or z? Our product can help you next time that happens by doing x, y, and z.”

Give Two Choices:

The statistics and the science of behavioral psychology suggest that giving people two choices is instrumental in gaining compliance. Many salespeople only give one choice, which makes the potential client feel trapped and scared. Give your prospects two choices that are the best for both of you, and it will help you move forward with closing the deal. Remember that you’re always selling to a human.

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.

Helping businesses get through a digital transformation of sales and marketing can be challenging. Many companies claim to have advances in technology, but are just putting out lip service and not actually delivering on those claims. With the changes that have come about from COVID-19, it is more evident and apparent than ever which companies have their digital transformation in check, and which ones don’t. The ones that don’t are now facing the consequences of not having these good digital processes, and will only continue to suffer more consequences as digital transformation accelerates in the business world. Influencer marketing is one of the best ways to up your digital performance. Neal Schaffer, interviewed by John Golden, explores the benefits of influencer marketing.

This expert sales interview explores:

• How influencer marketing and sales align
• Identifying an influencer
• The importance of building relationships

Influencer Marketing and Sales:

Influencer marketing sounds like marketing, but it’s a lot closer to sales than you might think. The goal of a salesperson is to get leads, put potential clients in the pipeline, move the client through the pipeline as quickly and efficiently as possible, and then close deals.

The Profile of an Influencer:

So what exactly is an influencer, and what type of person should you be looking for as you explore influencer marketing? An influencer might look slightly different from a sales perspective than a marketing perspective. From a sales perspective, an influencer is anyone who might be able to introduce you or bring you into an organization, whether they work directly with the company, or perhaps just partner with them.

Build Relationships to Leverage Relationships:

One of the most important facets of influencer marketing is being able to leverage your relationship with an influencer in an effective way. We all get bombarded on LinkedIn by people who just want to sell stuff to us, without ever getting to know us or getting to know what problems we have that need solving.

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.