Servant Leadership Skills

Tracey Hughes is an icon in the hairdressing industry, an internationally recognized speaker and an educator who has won Educator of the Year many times as well as many other accolades. In this interview, she discusses how certain leadership skills can be taught and common pitfalls. She shares tips for leaders who already have creativity in spades.

This Sales Expert Interview covers:

Expert in your craft, novice at business

• Many people in the beauty industry are moving toward entrepreneurship but don’t necessarily have the business or leadership skills to take them all the way.
• These skills can be taught but creativity must come naturally.
• Tracey shares her personal story about how she got into the hairdressing industry.

Investing in a coach

• We tend to think initial training in our field is enough to carry us through life. Why do so many people not consider investing in a coach for leadership skills?

Common pitfalls in leadership

• The team leader must understand the talents of their team members. Not bringing that out is a big missed opportunity.

Giving in to employees

• You can’t give in to all requests. Tough love can go a long way. Being solution driven gives maximum results.

Self-awareness

• This can come down to a lack of self-confidence. Focusing on short term goals can help to build confidence.
• Build resilience and believe in yourself.
• If you focus too far in the future, you’re not really living life in the moment and feeling gratitude for where you are now.

Growing as a leader (not just leadership skills)

• Think about how you can give back in other ways besides financially.

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 is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

The Importance of Sales Management

Sales are the biggest revenue multipliers so sales management is such a critical role if you want to grow your business. Many times organizations will promote their top sales performer to a sales management position with little to no training. Mary Grothe is the CEO of Sales BQ that helps companies improve their growth and revenue. Her company uses sales rep and sales manager evaluations to discover the problems that exist within sales organizations. In this interview she talks about their process, the success it has had, and how they’ve made lasting changes for sales organizations and their leaders.

This Sales Expert Interview covers:

Assessing the state of your sales organization

• Mary first looks into the metrics because there is an emotional component when asking for opinions.
• Her first suggestion is to set up your CRM properly.
• She talks about other metrics to look at to help grow your business.

Surprising results

• Mary talks about what results are surprising to sales leaders after performing her initial assessment of a company’s sales team.

Data-driven

• Certain personality profiles don’t like getting into the data. A lot of sales leaders are this way. You may want to hire someone to solely focus on the numbers.

Leading indicators

• It should never be a surprise when a rep doesn’t hit quota. You can use leading indicators to have better visibility.

The feel-good funnel

• Too many organizations have deals in the pipeline that really shouldn’t be there. Having a qualification system helps with this problem.

Keep it going

• There’s always initial enthusiasm but then the work gets difficult. Mary talks about how she keeps teams engaged and makes a lasting impact.

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 is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Bold Vision and Behavior in Sales

For over 25 years Andy Gole has helped CEOs, owners and corporate leaders throughout the US with sales performance and is the creator of the Urgency Based Selling System. He has a new book coming out this fall called Innovate Now: Scale Up with 16 Breakthrough Sales Techniques about how to innovate and become more creative in sales. He talks about the importance of a heroic mindset (with balance) and moral certainty. He also offers a mantra for salespeople who aren’t having a good day, week, quarter, etc.

This Sales Expert Interview covers:

Negative stereotype of salespeople

• Andy strives to turn this around in his new book. He says the true salesperson is a hero and shouldn’t carry negative baggage.
• Andy talks about the 4-way crusade.
• Opening the closed mind is the true goal in sales.

Changing your mindset – breakthrough sales techniques

• Having a model and building your skill set is important.
• Pick a company that values their salespeople and a product you believe in.
• Companies – are you supporting your worthy sales heroes?
• Self-respect and respect are two important factors in changing your mindset.

Emotional intoxication

• A salesperson has to deal with a lot on a daily basis with rejection being the main thing.
• Andy came up with a formula to explain emotional intoxication that he provides.
• Everyone needs a way to clear their mind.
• Sometimes you have to move on instinct and not lay too much rationality on top of everything.

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 is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Why Most Sales Training Fails

If you aren’t training your sales team, this creates a huge opportunity cost for your business. Having a strong salesforce can help you stay one step ahead of the competition, among many other things. So if sales training is so great, why does it often fail and not produce real results? Host John Golden interviews Rob Jolles to get to the bottom of the real problem with some sales training programs.

Be sure to mark your calendar for Thursday, June 13th at 9am PT and join John Golden, Martha Neumeister and Rob Jolles to learn how to ensure your training program produces real results and how to measure that success.

Recorded Live 13th June at 9am PT/Noon ET

Episode Questions

1. Why most sales training often fails? What is the real problem? #SalesChats
2. Every year, companies invest millions of dollars on sales training. How can ensure that this money leads to significant improvements in sales results? #SalesChats
3. What are some ways to measure sales training success? #SalesChats

Our Guest

Rob Jolles

A sought-after speaker and best-selling author, Rob Jolles teaches, entertains, and inspires audiences worldwide. Rob draws on more than thirty years of experience and his keynotes and workshops are in global demand, including companies in North America, Europe, Africa, and the Far East.

Links › jolles.com | twitter.com | linkedin.com

Our Hosts

John Golden

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 is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Martha Neumeister

Martha is social media strategist, responsible for all social media platforms of Pipeliner CRM. She is a communication expert with social media affinity, which she has been focusing on throughout her professional career. She has a bachelor´s degree in Entrepreneurship & Management and a master´s degree in Online Marketing which supports her in her career as Social Media Strategist.

About SalesChats

SalesChats is a fast-paced (no more than 30 minutes) multi-media series that provides leading strategies, tactics and thinking for sales professionals worldwide. It can be found on Twitter (#SalesChats), as a live Google+ Hangout, and as a podcast available on iTunes, SoundCloud and right here on SalesPOP! If you think you would make a great guest for #SalesChats, please contact co-host Martha Neumeister.

SalesChats is co-hosted by John Golden, CSO Pipeliner CRM, and Martha Neumeister, Social Media Strategist Pipeliner CRM.

Building Businesses Strategically

When building businesses, it’s important to first make sure you have an edge. Also, what works for one person raising money might not work to fund your business. Joel Block runs a real estate hedge fund and speaks to corporate audiences across the country. In this interview, he talks about the importance of revenue and sales in building businesses as well as other areas to focus on.

This Sales Expert Interview covers:

The genesis of Joel’s book Stop Hustling Gigs and Start Building a Business

• Joel has been inside over 1,000 companies over his career and the best companies seem to do certain things.

Helping people raise money

• A lot of people think they want venture capital, but it’s not always what they need.
• You don’t want to make a deal with the devil.

Effectively building businesses

• It’s always about revenue and selling.
• What type of business do you have?
• There are a lot of different ways to be successful.

Sales is in charge

• When you have money coming in you have more flexibility.

The other side of the river

• To fund your business you have to show investors the stepping stones to get them to the “other side of their river.”

Looking for left-handed plumbers

• People have a hard time going from very general to very specific. You have to be specific about what you want.
• Joel talks about getting yourself on the “inside track.”

Choose clients that are easy to find

• Apply your skills to a group large enough to have an audience.

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 is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Grow Your Business with Integrity

Ian Altman, a CEO for over two decades and author of Same Side Selling, sees a big issue with common sales metaphors that relate selling to sports or battles. This is because in these types of scenarios, one person wins and another loses. In this interview and in the book, Ian focuses on the buyer’s perspective as well as the seller’s point of view and how they can work together and not against one another.

This Sales Expert Interview covers:

Topics in Same Side Selling

• The adversarial traps that pit buyer and seller against each other and how to get them on the same side
• The puzzle metaphor

The dreaded price conversation

• A selling process seems to go pretty smoothly until the topic of price comes up. Ian talks about how to set yourself up for success early on.

Sales personas

• Are you an order taker or a subject matter expert?

The decision-making process

• Ian talks about the research he conducted with over 10,000 CEOs and executives on how they make and approve decisions.
• There are a few ways they make decisions that aren’t very obvious to salespeople.

The same side pitch

• Instead of asking so many “what keeps you up at night” questions, talk about problems other clients of yours have had that your prospects might have too.

The client vision pyramid

• Ian talks about a model that can be used to help prospects see the value in what you offer.

Integrity

• Your solution will not always be the right fit for everyone. Ask the right questions and think about the far-reaching impacts of trying to sell to everyone.

The same side quadrants

• Ian created a tool he put in Same Side Selling that salespeople can use while in meetings to determine whether they were successful or not.

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 is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Mastering Adaptability – Change in The Workplace

Michael Diettrich Chastain, a professional coach, trainer, and consultant dedicated to peak performance, believes that self-discovery has positive effects in a business setting and that change in the workplace doesn’t have to be a frustrating, drawn-out process. In this interview, Michael talks about influencers of success and the acronym he came up with to explain them, CHANGES, which is also the title of his upcoming book.

This Sales Expert Interview covers:

Avoiding change in the workplace

• A lot of people resist change in the workplace because their personal lives are already so hectic. There is room for having structure and routine, but our ability to be flexible is a valuable skill as well.

Being more adaptive

• The more integrated we can become with the various aspects of our lived experiences, the more effective we are at change management.

Key indicators of success

• Very few people understand what to look for to know whether they are on the right path for success. Know what is influencing you at the moment.
• We can have a number of elements in our favor, but there might be just one thing lacking we don’t realize.

Fear of success

• The fear of success can be more debilitating than the fear of failure. Self-sabotage can be subconscious.

Emotional intelligence

• This is a flexible characteristic that can be developed and there are many characteristics under this umbrella.

Self-awareness

• There are a number of strategies and tools to help discover this. Michael talks about a few of them.

Focusing on what is important

• There are many ways to deal with high-stress situations in the moment, but daily proactive intervention is more effective.

Nurturing your spirit

• Have the courage to evaluate your beliefs and whether they are serving your goals.

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 is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Great Sellers

For over 36 years Ron Karr has been in sales and leadership positions and is widely recognized as a sales success expert. Ron discusses his methodology, the Velocity Mindset, and 7 traits of great sellers.

This Sales Expert Interview covers:

What is a Velocity Mindset?

• We all want to do more. But how do we gain speed? Ron talks about what we need to do, and not do, to achieve this.

Lack of focus

• The right kind of focus requires a customer-focused mindset.
• Are you going into the sales process as a salesperson or a leader?

Emails and voicemails

• Why don’t people reply to your emails or voicemails? Visualize your goals first and this might help. Don’t focus on the end-game.

Positioning and building alliances

• Be careful how you are positioning yourself when talking to prospects. Great sellers are seen as trusted advisors.
• Referrals are the best way to get business.

Asking good questions

• Questioning is a fundamental skill that some people still struggle with. Don’t ask status based questions.
• Make sure you aren’t making too many assumptions. Clarify, clarify, clarify!

Empathy

• If you don’t have empathy, you are more susceptible to a self-focused mindset. Help get people to where they want to be and you will reap the benefits.
• There are a lot of things you need to understand about your buyer like what kind of risks they are taking.
• Great sellers get to the heart before the mind.

Persuasion

• Ask people about their goals. Get to know them and help them get there. They will be more likely to listen.

Accountability

• If you can’t keep promises to yourself, you can’t keep them to others.
• Let people come to their own conclusions.

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 is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.