Social selling has increased significantly, in the last few years especially. Yet, there are some significant pitfalls that salespeople are still falling into. Tom Skotidas explores some of these pitfalls and how to avoid them this expert sales interview, hosted by John Golden.

This expert sales interview covers social selling:

• How to properly connect on social media
• Challenging unhelpful psychological blocks
• Navigating the shortcut culture

Connecting on Social Media:

One of the biggest pitfalls that people make involves how they connect online. When you meet someone in person, you create a connection based on appropriate protocols. This might include apologizing for the interruption, introducing yourself, giving context to why you are contacting them, and then shaking each other’s hands and have a chat. Online, however, people are keen on hitting connect over and over again without sending a personal message or providing context. “Salespeople do this with people they want to sell million dollar deals to,” said Skotidas. “I find it frustrating that people haven’t done more research on the platform to understand how to connect with people better.” It’s a strange disconnect that people have between online and offline behavior. Salespeople need to do more research on how to properly use social platforms and look to offline interaction to dictate online communication.

Preventing Psychological Blocks:

“There are different psychological blocks that I’ve encountered throughout the last ten years of working on social selling, and teaching it,” said Skotidas. There is one mental block, in particular, that is ultimately just a detriment to their social selling potential. “People say, I know I should be connecting on LinkedIn and Twitter with my customers and key partners, but I’m worried that if I do that, other competitors will go and poach them,” said Skotidas. “They are worried about too much exposure and the fact that interactions are all public.” Even if there is a competitor who might want to poach your clients, and the customer does leave, it means they were about to switch providers anyway. “The benefit of connecting with your customers far outweighs the cost of losing your customer because of competitors stalking your profile.”

Navigating the Shortcut Culture:

We live in a shortcut culture, where everyone is looking for shortcuts. It’s easy to forget that we are still interacting with human beings when using social selling. Despite this shortcut culture that is alive in all of is, it is still possible to take shortcuts and still make your communication personable. For example, if you are sending emails, you might have a template that is 85% the same per message. This is okay, as long as the 15% is unique and personalized. “It takes me about five to seven minutes per person to customize my messages,” said Skotidas. “That might seem painful to many. But, getting a meeting with the head of marketing with a major software company is worth the hassle. I am a shortcut kind of guy, but I will never dip below the minimum required human being interaction.”

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.

Pipeliner CRM greatly enables precise lead management. Try a free trial today.

Overcoming Sales Recruiting Challenges

Sales recruiting is difficult. Attracting, hiring, and onboarding good salespeople can be a challenge that is challenging to overcome. The turnover rate for salespeople is much higher than other jobs in the business industry. But, that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. Brendan Barrett, interviewed by John Golden, explores sales recruiting, and how to onboard great people.

This expert sales interview explores sales recruiting topics such as:

• The interview process for salespeople
• How to hire an established salesperson
• How to hire someone new to the sales industry
• Key traits to look for in potential hires

Traits of a Good Sales Candidate:

Several characteristics make for a good sales candidate. The first is having a long-term vision. “Often, salespeople think product knowledge is the ballgame. We know that sales is a martial art of its own, and a skill that needs to be learned alongside product knowledge,” said Barrett. “Make sure that candidates have a long-term vision, and that they’re motivated. Wins make people even more motivated. It’s hard to coach someone unless they’re motivated.” Another indicator that someone is going to be successful is that they ask a lot of questions, not just during their prospecting phase, but throughout their time at the company. “They’re always trying to learn something,” said Barrett. “They get excited by learning new things and connecting new things. Those are, at heart, problem solvers. It’s an admirable trait for a lot of professions, but sales especially.”

The Interview Process:

Many times with sales interviews, they are done in a way where the potential hire is asked to do a sample task. An alternative is to have them tell you about a time when they did a particular kind of task, and have them walk you through the process they took, and the problems they ran into. This allows them to unfold their thought process behind what they were doing. You want to look for someone who has the self-awareness to realize they don’t have it all together but seeks the help they need. As a result, this demonstrates coachability.

Hiring Established Salespeople:

Part of the challenge of onboarding good salespeople is attracting the right candidates. If you have a playbook, and a set in stone path to success for skilled people to execute, word gets around. When potential candidates see salespeople staying at your organization, hitting their number year after year, and getting treated well for it, that’s going to attract promising talent. “If you have that, great salespeople are going to come in. But, you’re going to have a compelling offer to bring them into your organization, and keep them there longer,” said Barrett.

Hiring New People:

Established salespeople can be difficult to find. The people who are great salespeople, and want to continue being salespeople, can be a challenge to bring on board. If this is the case, there are other options. “Often, we have to build an SDR team to create our own pool of talent,” said Barrett. “That can be another great tool for bringing on promising individuals who are motivated, who are hungry, who can follow directions, and who can be developed into these star salespeople.” A playbook is necessary here, too. Having a playbook enables proper coaching and mentorship because sales managers can coach the playbook and best practices.

For more information on sales recruiting, watch the expert sales interview! Or, check out other interviews like Matt McDarby Talks Sales Coaching.

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.

Change Management in the Modern Era of Sales

Change management is the concept of change, and how to keep abreast of these changes. Many times, salespeople are slow to change their methods or don’t realize the necessity of adapting to the newness of the sales world. This can have a detrimental impact on success. Alan O’Neill, interviewed by John Golden, explores change management.

This expert sales interview covers change management topics, including:

• How to cope with change
• The three components of customer experience
• Why connection is key
• Concrete tips for change management

Coping with Change

The Sales world has gone through a transition over the last few years as a result of the impact of technology and social media, as well as buyers being more empowered. But salespeople sometimes are slow to change. “The amount of change, the volume of change, and the complexity of change is growing exponentially,” said O’Neill. Coping with these changes has become a challenge for sales organizations at all levels. But, particularly for salespeople, it’s a serious challenge.

The Three-Legged Stool:

O’Neill explains customer experience with a three-legged stool analogy. The stool legs are made up of product, people, and place. The product is simple, that is the product or service that you are selling. The place is the distribution or go to market channel. The third leg, people, is the most critical. This is the ability of salespeople to connect in this ever-changing world, regardless of the change. It puts more importance on traditional skills, such as one to one rapport building, listening, and other things to show a customer that you care. It also involves being very solution focused, and demonstrating to a customer that you want to understand their needs. “Old fashioned connectivity and listening trumps everything for me,” said O’Neill.

A Connection is Key:

Over the last number of years, because of these technology changes, it has become very simple to have “disconnected connectedness.” It’s easy to have all of these tools firing out emails, or using automated tools like dialers. These technologies may reach more people, but the salespeople take an attitude of, “let the technology do all of the work for me.” This creates a very disconnected relationship with prospects. These technologies are great, but you have to stand out. You have to make a connection with your customers. You can’t let technology take over. “Technology is another tool to help you scale up and help you reach places you wouldn’t have reached before,” said O’Neill. But at the end of the day, technology remains one of many tools.

Two Key Things to Embrace Change Management:

For salespeople to learn to embrace change and overcome resistance, they have to understand context. Having context and big picture is vital for any individual, it is especially crucial for those in the sales world. “I say this for salespeople and anyone in the organization,” said O’Neill. “People have to appreciate the context.” Once you understand the context and the big picture, you can move onto things like incentivizing. Salespeople need to know whats in it for them. “If the salespeople don’t believe that there’s something in it for them, regarding a win, or an opportunity, or learning, why should they embrace it?” said O’Neill. Knowing these two things will help.

Watch the expert sales interview, or check out Sales – The New Normal, to learn more about changes in the sales industry and how to keep up with them.

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.

Predictable Closing

Wouldn’t it be nice to get sales tips that will help you close more leads, directly from an accomplished sales master and trainer? Ali Mirza discusses predictable closing in this #SalesChat, hosted by John Golden and Martha Neumeister.

Mirza discusses:

• The elements of someone who is a good closer, including confidence and intentionality
• Knowing where you want to lead a conversation, and then taking an active role in helping your buyer take those steps
• Tendencies of salespeople of being confident throughout the sales process, but then losing confidence when it comes to asking for a contract signature
• The difference between positive attitude, which is believing that you are going to close the sale, and confidence, which is putting the belief in action, even when the buyer isn’t going in the direction you want them to go in
• Common mistakes that salespeople and sales managers make that lead to unpredictable closing
• The importance of objective handling when preparing for a close
• How to build a process to close a deal, including understanding the emotion involved on the buyers part
• The importance of starting the closing process as soon as you begin the selling process
• Your close should be the discussion about collecting money, not about convincing the prospect to buy your prospect
• Actionable pieces of advice for salespeople to utilize predictable closing techniques

Recorded  on 5th July 2018 9am PT/Noon ET

Episode Questions

1. What is the difference between someone who can close vs someone who can’t close a deal? Not just generic ability, but if all else equal, doing the same discovery, pitch, and close… Why can someone copy a top performer and not get the same results?
2. What are some fatal mistakes you see salespeople and/or sales managers do every day?
3. Is there a template or a proven system that helps to achieve more predictable closing or is each situation completely unique and hard to systemize?

Our Guest

Ali Mirza

Ali Mirza is an accomplished sales master and trainer! He has personally closed $100 million in sales for many companies, from small local establishments to large multinational organizations. Ali has brought his passion for closing deals to teaching others how to close.

Links › rosegardenconsulting.com | twitter.com | linkedin.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.

Evolving customer experience is a competitive advantage. It’s tough for companies for really stand out or differentiate themselves with prospects and customers without a positive customer experience. Chris Brogan, interviewed by John Golden, explore the customer experience.

This expert sales interview explores customer experiences, including:

• Why buyer orientation is better
• A general timeline of customer experience
• How to nurture relationships
• Using technology to your advantage

Company vs. Buyer Orientation:

Companies are often very focused on their side of the equation. “Me, us, our awards, and how great we’ll be,” said Brogan. Instead, we should be looking more at the perspective of the buyer, and adapting our organizations to match how the buyer buys. “I think that all of the marketing technology the sales technology all of the tools we’ve built have been so pushed and aligned towards how do we push our message, how do we deliver some kind of experience?” said Brogan. “It’s just not tied to the way buyers are looking at what they’re looking at.”

Customer Experience Timeline:

Brogan uses a reasonably simple timeline to understand the customer experience. First, the customer has some awareness of their need. For example, if they break their digital camera, they acknowledge that they need a replacement. Second, after this awareness is the evaluation stage, where the might research different camera brands and models. Third, after they’ve decided, they go to the purchasing stage, and actually buy the product they want. Fourth is onboarding, or what happens after. This is when a company decides if they’re going to do anything after the customer makes a purchase. Finally, after onboarding comes retention and referral. This stage involves what the company does to keep the relationship with that customer.

Nurture Relationships:

Although it sounds straightforward, it’s not as easy as it seems. “I think very few sales or marketing professionals truly thinking through all of those aspects,” said Brogan. “They mostly spend their time trying to figure out how to break through the noise in the market and get a massive response. This is opposed to nurturing the responses from the people who are in the exact right place to buy what the company has to offer.”

Use the Technology:

People don’t often use the technology available in a helpful way. There are excellent products and software available, like CRM Systems, which can be of assistance. “People rarely use them well. Salespeople fill them out begrudgingly, marketers almost never use them, and customer service almost never gets access to that,” said Brogan. “To me, there’s all this data that’s out there that’s not going to one central place. There is no system of record. I think we need to evolve, regarding the ways that we enter information into them. There’s a lot of opportunity in there.” Using the technology can increase the customer experience exponentially. This happens by keeping proper data on the customer, giving reminders about when it’s time to contact them, knowing what part of the sales cycle they are in, and providing general information about each potential buyer.

Watch the expert sales interview for more on the improving customer experiences!

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.

You need to know about Mindful Power. As a salesperson, do you ever get stressed? Maybe a little bit nervous, or afraid? The sales world is one of high pressure, where stressful situations present themselves almost constantly. If you let this stress take over, you won’t get the results that you want, almost creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. This is what makes knowing and implementing mindful power so crucial. In this expert sales interview, John Golden interviews Dr. TC North on his concept, mindful power.

This expert sales interview on mindful power explores:

• What is mindful power?
• The biological evidence behind why being fearful reduces performance
• A technique to use to embrace mindful power

Mindful Power Concept:

The mindful power concept includes a scale of being both mindful and mindless. If you are mindful, you are a master of your own thinking, and you have a lot of personal power. Personal power includes courage, confidence, emotional intelligence, and several other pieces. As a leader, or as a salesperson, you want to be a mindful person. You want to have both a mastery over your thinking and personal power.

A Biological Basis:

Using these thinking tactics actually has a biological basis for success. When you’re stressed, you release cortisol, which stunts the use of your frontal lobe. Your frontal lobe is the power center of the brain, responsible for critical thinking and problem-solving. It’s important to relax and be at peace so that you can have your whole brain available to you.

Embrace Mindful Power:

North has a specific technique for salespeople that you can use to become more mindful and centered. This technique is applicable in stressful situations where you’re about to perform, and need to relax. The first step is to think of a time where you were great at selling. This could be when you were selling popsicles as a kid or selling an idea to your spouse. It should be a reminder of a time where selling came naturally to you. Then, think of a distraction. Professional athletes will listen to music, for example. As a salesperson and an individual, find something that works best for you. Then, before your high-pressure situation, try to distract yourself. Ruminating on it will only tire you out. Then, after you can no longer distract yourself, think about the movie in your mind where you were doing your best, and not about your fears or failures. This will keep you focused, lower your stress, and ensure that you are putting your best foot forward when the time comes for you to perform.

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.

Sales POP! Executive Editor John Golden was interviewed by Big Biz Show host and Fox Business News contributor Bob “Sully” Sullivan on his syndicated Big Biz Show.

Sully and John discussed a range of sales-related issues from changes in buyer behavior to the image of salespeople in general.

Seen AND heard Weekdays on ON NETWORK TELEVISION:  The Big Biz Show is broadcast on HD television in 100 million broadcast homes on the YouTOO America Television Network, BizTelevision Network via Time Warner Cable, ATT U-verse and Cox Communications among others and an additional distribution on TIVO homes.  Moreover, Sully is a weekly contributor on the FOX Business Network.  

ON RADIO: Also broadcast on over 150 radio stations nationwide from 12-2pm EST daily on the IHeart Media, BizTalk Radio Network and American Forces Network in 175 countries and all the ships at sea, Wall St. Radio Network, Yahoo Radio, AOL Radio and  replayed on a total of 1400 stations weekly

Key Account Management You Should Know

Key Account Definition:

Account management should be the key to your grown and success. Without them, you will take a long time and significant effort to reach your goals. They will give you the credibility and help you generate business from their Industry.

Key Account Identification:

Identify your key accounts much earlier than your competition or you are not going to make many gains. Understand the customer’s business, priorities, market share, and industry grown projections. You need to be there before they call you.

The Number of Key Accounts:

How many Key Accounts do you want to handle? The most important thing about the number of Key Accounts is “don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” But if you have resources to manage only 100 Key Accounts, you should not take up to 200.

Key Account Strategies:

What strategies will you adopt for your Key Accounts? Create a process that you will follow. But, have the courage to change course if that process doesn’t suit the customer. Some of the strategies you can consider are:

• Partner with the client.
• Educate the customer at regular intervals.
• Map the entire Organizational Hierarchy.
• Meet all the Contacts at regular Intervals.
• Provide them value in each interaction.

Grooming and Growing Key Accounts:

• Share ideas for improving your clients business
• Get your customers to stand out from their competition
• Be creative. Crack some of their pestering problems.
• Act and work like a partner. And not like a vendor.
• Be there before they need you.

Key Account Management calls for focused efforts and specialized Sales Techniques. Providing value on a consistent basis is the key to success, in short.

Pipeliner CRM supports a company’s specific sales process and account management –visually and intuitively. Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.