Being a salesperson, or should we say a successful salesperson, is no easy task. In fact, being a salesperson can be one of the most challenging jobs because it requires tact in all aspects of the job while overcoming deal killing obstacles everyday. It also means that you are in constant competition with thousands of other people just like yourself, trying to close deal after deal in order to survive. The salespeople who are successful are able to win incredible new opportunities and climb the corporate ladder, while those that are not successful eventually burn out.

This expert sales interview explores:

• Must Win Deal Reviews
• Selling to Resistant Buyers
• Selling in a Gatekeeper’s World
• The Seller’s Challenge: How Top Sellers Master 10 Deal Killing Obstacles in B2B Sales

Must win deal reviews:

Williams discusses one of the major challenges in sales being the failure to identify a key buying influencer that is involved. This means being able to customize your value proposition to each individual that will be involved in the decision-making process. Are you able to provide information that resonates with the gatekeeper or decision maker, or are you telling the same thing to each of them like a broken record?

Selling to resistant buyers:

Today, we are armed with more information than ever before and are constantly bombarded via phone, email, social media, etc. which has made us more resistant to sellers than ever before. Williams address overcoming the status quo through the use of insight selling. Consumers appreciate the value of stories or storytelling to get their attention and change their opinion of a product. It is a major challenge to try and get consumers to see a different future for themselves, but it is a necessary objective. Facts and figures or visuals can also help contrast the ideas of then and now so that the buyer really gets a clear picture of what you are saying. Williams suggests that it is important to make it uncomfortable to stay where they are, despite the fact that change can sometimes be uncomfortable, too. There is a better position that they could be in.

Selling in a gatekeepers world:

Thanks to technology, and being bombardment through every aspect of our lives with new products and offers, gatekeepers have made themselves particularly hard to get past. Williams says, it is important to eliminate the word “gatekeeper” from your vocabulary because it can carry a negative connotation. Try thinking of them as presidents of access, or something more positive. Their job is to keep people out AND to let the right people in. If they aren’t letting you in, then consider your actions. Are you articulating a valuable message to that individual that makes them want to give you the time?

The Seller’s Challenge:

William’s discusses his book, The Seller’s Challenge: How Top Sellers Master 10 Deal Killing Obstacles in B2B Sales. The book identifies 10 of the most common obstacles that sellers encounter. From selling to buyers that are resistant to change, to selling to stakeholders, The Seller’s Challenge is a “tactical field manual” that provides current research, real-life examples, myths, best practices, and everything in between to help you combat common sales mistakes.

To learn more about the challenges that sellers face, watch the entire expert sales interview. If you would like to purchase Thomas’ book, it is available on Amazon and in bookstores.

About 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.

Some people spend their whole lives trying to achieve success, but do they even really know what success is or how it is measured? Is it based on the amount of money you make, the house you live in, the clothes you wear, or the car you drive? What about measuring someone’s success simply based on their personal accomplishments that have positively impacted their lives and those around them? Defining success is the easy part – getting there is the hard part.

This expert sales interview explores:

• Obstacles
• Teamwork
• Keeping Focus and Motivation
• Rise: How a House Built a Family

Obstacles

As a victim of domestic violence and a mother of four, Cara knew that she needed to take a big step to boost their lives. Brookins and her kids were tired of living a life with no control and more importantly, they really needed a place to live. This is where she decided that it was time to physically do something to better their lives and that is when she decided to build her own home.

Everyone is presented with obstacles in their lives and it would be very easy to be simply paralyzed by fear. Brookins says that in order to silence fear paralysis everyone needs to consider, “ if we do it wrong, what is the worst thing that could happen? If you can live with the worst case scenario, there is nothing left to fear. You can jump into anything, and each time you mess up, you know you are a little bit closer to getting it right.” And the reality is that nobody is really wanting you to fail – it is mostly just in your own head.

Teamwork

One of the biggest lessons that Brookins learned while building her house with her children was that they didn’t know each other or communicate very well. It wasn’t that they would fight, it was that they were silent. But when you are working together 20 hours a day for nine months to achieve one goal, it really brings you closer out of necessity and good communication becomes essential.

Whether it’s in a corporate setting or building a house, consider this: has the goal been articulated well enough? And if so, you need to trust your team to work hard to achieve that goal. Brookins job as a mother was to lead her children, but in order to be an effective and respected leader, she literally led from the trenches.

Focus and Motivation

Goal oriented and optimistic. She would sacrifice anything to reach a goal, but what she has learned is that she needs to give herself permission to take back some of the things that she has sacrificed. A sacrifice is usually meant to be a temporary thing. Finding balance and focus when you work for yourself is very hard, especially when you are interested in multiple things at once. Brookins explains that it is also important to remove any “get out of jail cards” and sabotage your plan B. Find your most important goal, focus on it, declare it and go for it. That is the key to success.

Rise

After escaping an abusive marriage, Cara Brookins had four children to provide for and no one to turn to but herself. In desperate need of a home but without the means to buy one, she did something incredible.

Equipped only with YouTube instructional videos, a small bank loan, and a mile-wide stubborn streak, Cara built her own house from the foundation up with a work crew made up of her four children.

It would be the hardest thing she had ever done. With no experience nailing together anything bigger than a bookshelf, she and her kids poured concrete, framed the walls and laid bricks for their two-story, five bedroom house. She had convinced herself that if they could build a house, they could rebuild their broken family.

To learn more about how to succeed, watch the entire expert sales interview. If you would like to purchase her book, it is available on Amazon.

About 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.

Is it possible to be stressed and productive at the same time? Does stress-free productivity exist, or does some of your best work come out of being stressed? Whether it’s hitting a golf ball, competing in an Olympic event, having a difficult conversation, or even just a conversation with a sales client, it is pivotal that you are present not only physically, but mentally as well.

This expert sales interview explores:

Getting in the Zone Without a Crisis
5 Stages to Getting Things Under Control
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

Getting in the Zone:

Learning to focus on one task at a time, or having appropriate engagement, means that you know what you need to do to get your head clear.  Allen suggests take everything that has your attention, little or big, and you get it out of your head. Write it down and put it someplace where you’ll see it later. When that time comes, and you are ready for that next action, it’s there for you to focus on. Using your head as your office is never a good idea.

5 stages of getting things under control:

1. Identify that which is not in control
2. Clarify the next action and the outcomes desired
3. Organize the results
4. Reflect and review the things you need to do
5. Engage

Getting things done:

Allen’s book was first published nearly fifteen years ago, but it has become one of the most influential business books of its era. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity serves as a guidebook to approaching tasks, both professional and personal, and has brought forth a slew of websites, organizational tools, seminars, and other offers.

To learn more about how you can get things done, watch the entire expert sales interview. If you would like to purchase David’s book, it is available on Amazon and in bookstores.

About 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.

As a salesperson, talking is part of your job. But what about as a marketing tactic? Can talking really help you? According to Hubspot, 90% of people believe brand recommendations from friends, and 70% of people believe customer opinions. Additionally, customers are discussing specific brands causally 90 times per week. So where does that leave you? Are you being talked about?

This expert sales interview explores:

• Being intentional in generating word of mouth
• Expectations, perception vs. reality
• Examples of successful word of mouth marketing
• Talk Triggers: Are You Assuming Word of Mouth Marketing is Occurring, or Are You Planning for it?

Being intentional:

Just like you would intentionally advertise your product or service in a specific magazine, it is important that you are intentional in providing something for people to talk about. Lemin explains that people have a tendency to assume that their business is being talked about, but they never actually have a plan to ignite the conversation or a roadmap for how to start a conversation. Providing a good product or service doesn’t mean that you are being talked about, especially when you have not done something operationally different that would be worth talking about.

Expectations:

As a society today, we are incredibly picky buyers. Just like we expect our hotel rooms to be clean, and our food to taste good, we expect that our product will work well, that the service will be good, and that the product and service will actually make our lives easier. Simply meeting the expectations of consumers will not help generate word of mouth marketing, because nothing we did was worth talking about.

Perception vs. reality:

Is your product or service actually any better than your competitors? Lemin discusses some real live examples like The DoubleTree Hotel, Skips Kitchen, and a particular Locksmith in New York. Have you ever checked into a DoubleTree hotel and received a warm, gooey chocolate chip cookie? Another example discussed is a restaurant in Sacramento called Skips Kitchen. Instead of handing the customer a boring table number, they lay out a deck of cards and tell you to pick one. If you pick the Joker, your meal is free. What about the Locksmith from New York that provides a free home security sweep and lets you know where your home might be vulnerable to a break-in? As if that weren’t helpful enough, he then orders you new locks and hinges so that you can ensure your home is safe. What do these three examples have in common? None of these required doing something extravagant, but it is something that no-doubt stands out from other businesses and generates word of mouth marketing.

Talk Triggers:

Lemin discusses his new book, Talk Triggers – Are You Assuming Word of Mouth Marketing is Occurring, or Are You Planning for it? Word of mouth is responsible for 19% of all purchases while influencing as much as 90%. Everyone relies on word of mouth to make a decision and yet less than 1% of companies have an actual strategy for generating these customer conversations.

To learn more about word of mouth marketing and the importance of talk triggers, watch the entire expert sales interview. If you would like to purchase Daniel’s book, it is now available on Amazon, and in bookstores today.

About 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.

Identify and Managing Your Greatest Selling Risks

There is risk in everything we do, from business to our personal lives. Risk is uncertainty. Giving risk a voice, and a safe way to express it, provides incredible value because without being able to identify risk, there is no way you can manage it. Risk is sometimes thought of as an impulse decision, but in the sales word specifically, this is not always the case.
Join Andy Rudin and John Golden on November 15th as they dive into how you can identify your selling risks and manage them more efficiently.

Recorded Live on 15th November 2018 9am PT/Noon ET

Episode Questions

1. Since every company operates in a unique environment, how can they identify their greatest selling risks?
2. What are the best strategies for managing selling risks?
3. Risk is part of life. Why is it important that risks will be taken and not always be avoided?

Our Guest

Andy Rudin

Andrew (Andy) Rudin serves as Managing Principal of Contrary Domino, Inc., and helps B2B companies identify, assess, and manage a broad spectrum of revenue risks. He has a successful background as a technology sales strategist, marketer, account executive, and product manager.

Links › contrarydomino.com | twitter.com

Our Hosts

About 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.

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, CSMO Pipeliner CRM, and Martha Neumeister, Social Media Strategist Pipeliner CRM.

Learn to Thrive, not Survive: Part 2

Mike Lipkin is back with more of his tips for dancing with disruption. Be sure to check out part one of his expert sales interview, if you haven’t already. John Golden interviews Lipkin on how to dance with disruption and overcome obstacles to find success.

This expert sales interview explores: 

• Being prolific
• Communicating like magic
• Collaborating like a champion
• Being unconditionally enthusiastic

Seven Steps to Dancing with Disruption: 4-7

4. Be prolific:

Do a lot of stuff. Develop your resilience. Winners will always lose more than losers because they try and do more things. Winners will always miss more because they take more shots in the first place. “Do the right things, and a lot of the right things, and some of them are going to pay off,” said Lipkin.

5. Communicate like magic:

Communication has the ability to create magic within someone. Sometimes, saying a single word or phrase can create a positive chemical change in the recipient’s body. You have to communicate in a way that makes people happy. If you can do this, you can communicate like magic, and help others feel like magic.

6. Collaborate like a champion:

There are two definitions of collaboration: working with people towards a common goal, and working with others in such a way that you want to invest more time and resources with that person. If you think about every sale, it requires two things. You have to sell your buyer on giving you their time, and you have to sell your buyer on the product. Creating a collaborative tone and environment between salesperson and customer is a requirement for success.

7. Be unconditionally enthusiastic.

You never know when your greatest opportunity is going to present itself.  You could encounter your biggest prospect at any moment. But, one thing that you do know for sure, is that if you don’t bring your game at the moment that opportunity arises, you may not win the deal. There are so many variables in the world, but one variable that you can control is your state.  Great salespeople are unconditionally enthusiastic. If the phone rings, if they have a meeting with someone, they turn it on.

For more information on how to dance with disruption, watch both parts of the expert sales interview. You can also learn more in Lipkin’s book, Dancing with Disruption: The 7 secrets to thriving on massive change so the best people want to partner with you, available on November 27th.

About 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.

Emotional Intelligence: A Top Trait for Successful Salespeople

Empathy and emotional intelligence are not always as present as they should be in today’s selling world. There is a necessity for open, genuine connection between every person that you come in contact with, be it strangers on the street, or really old friends. This kind of empathy for others can be extremely useful in the selling world.

Creating empathy involves focusing on the customer’s needs, overall demographics, the market that they operate in, and their overall goals and desired outcomes. This is counter to how selling used to be done, when the focus was more on the product or service being sold.

Watch this interview with Cian McLoughlin and Tony J. Hughes to learn why emotional intelligence in sales is so important, and how to use the skills to generate more revenue for your organization.

Improve Your Skills and Inflate Your Net Worth with the Ultimate Sales Book

The selling profession has been around for decades. Hal Becker has made his mark on the sales world as an author, professional speaker, and sales trainer. Interviewed by John Golden, Becker discusses his ultimate sales book and his experiences in the sales world.

This expert sales interview explores:

• The Ultimate Sales book
• Changes in the sales world
• Relationships between buyers and sellers
• Salesperson development
• The importance of preparation

Ultimate Sales:

Ultimate Sales is Becker’s latest publication. The book features short, three pages chapters, with humorous quizzes after each chapter to see if you have retained the information. “The ultimate sales book was an experiment,” said Becker. “The goal was to put a book and workbook together in a really short, two-hour read that covers everything in sales, from how to make a cold call, how to handle rejections, how to ask good questions, and everything in between,” said Becker.

Changes in Sales:

“Sales is sales, but what has changed is technology,” said Becker. “My opinion, and when I say opinion, that’s all it is, is that everything is relationships.” From the 1910s to the 1990s, there were only two ways to get an appointment: by making calls on the phone, or by knocking on doors. Things changed, however, with the invention of the internet. It changed again in 2007 when the iPhone was released, and social media became popular. The ways to get a meeting are now numerous. This includes old standards, like door knocking and making phone calls, but it also includes new options like texting, emailing, social media messaging, and other nuances created by technology. “What’s changed is the transaction, and how to get the appointment,” said Becker. “You have to be well versed.”

The Importance of Relationships:

Technology has also brought about changes in how people make connections and form relationships. The importance of having foundational relationships with your customers will not change.  At the end of the day, despite the new ways to communicate, the relationship is still a critical piece of successful selling. “Email is for information, not communication,” said Becker. “When companies marry the internet and the person, and make both accessible to customers, it’s the perfect world.”

Sellers Who Self-Invest:

People can come into sales without any training. It’s one of the few jobs that you can get hired for, even without prior formal sales education. Considering this, the salespeople who stand out, are the people who invest in themselves. There are a plethora of books written by top sales experts, and other ways to educate yourself on being the best possible seller. “The two most important qualities for a salesperson – and you can’t train either – are desire and empathy,” said Becker. “If you don’t have the desire, you’re not going to be great. And with sales, you have to hustle. You also have to have high empathy, where you’re putting the customer first, and not the sale.” A real sales pro will put the customer first, and convey to their buyer that they are empathic, understanding, and can see their problems.

The Importance of Preparation:

Every good salesperson knows the importance of preparation. One of the biggest indicators of success is doing proper call planning. And yet, so many salespeople don’t plan for their sales calls or prepare in advance for their meetings. Salespeople should understand the importance of having sales questions ready to go in advance of their conversation with the buyer, and sales leaders should foster the development of this skill within their team.

For more information Hal Becker, his expert opinions on the sales world, and his latest book, Ultimate Sales, watch the full expert sales interview!

About 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.