The FAST principles were developed by Gordon Tredgold, who is interviewed on the topic by John Golden. FAST principles are a combination of focus, accountability, simplicity, and transparency that can be utilized by business to achieve success and drive results.

This expert sales interview explores the FAST principles

• Focus (on the goals)
• Accountability
• Simplify (to increase efficiency and probability of success)
• Transparency (get good performance measures, see how well we’re doing)

The FAST Principles:

The FAST principles came about after some introspective exploration. Tredgold wanted to identify specific things that he was subconsciously following and could pull out to help teach others. These things were focus, accountability, simplicity, and transparency. They work together quite well, and each serves a different specific purpose. In combination, they create a complete plan. Focus is the what, accountability is the who, simplicity is the how, and transparency is the how far.

Focus:

A lot of organizations are not successful because they don’t know what to focus on, and don’t have agreement on what to focus on. Or, they focus on too many things. This creates a convoluted situation where nothing gets done. “You can’t have multiple priorities because a priority means the prior one,” said Tredgold. This often comes from people’s resistance to commit. Additionally, it’s essential to identify what you are focusing on, the symptom or the problem? Is your focus on managing the symptoms, while the problem continues to cause havoc? There’s a lack of clarity and certainty that needs to be corrected so that companies can have a crystal clear, specific, goal to focus on.

Accountability:

Accountability is the real differentiator that makes these FAST principles unique. Most people would agree that accountability is essential, but so many individuals shy away from it for fear of being overly confrontational. However, there is a way to help hold staff accountable without creating a blame culture, which ultimately kills accountability. A real leaders job is to help people be successful. By asking, ‘what do you need from me to be more successful,’ you’re coming it at from a way of providing support to encourage accountability. Another important part of helping people stay accountable is understanding and accepting where you start out at. It’s very easy to be critical of the starting out point, but the way to handle that is to actively prepare to turn that around. After two to three months, if things haven’t moved forward at all, then things likely will become confrontational, and rightly so. “If you can do it from a ‘don’t be too critical of where we’re starting,’ and ‘being more supportive to help get where you want to go,’ you’ll find that people will be a lot more embracing of it,” said Tredgold. “Ask the question: ‘do you have everything you need to be successful?’ If they say yes, then they’ve accepted accountability. If they say ‘no,’ then give them everything they need.”

Simplicity:

Simplicity is one of the hardest things to achieve. People seem to be hard-wired to complicate things unnecessarily. It’s easy to simplify things, but often we don’t take that option. “People look at the simple solution, and say, that is difficult to do, so we shy away from it,” said Tredgold. “We have to find the approaches that are simple to understand that we can believe in.”When you lay out a small step by step approach, you begin to see how things can work out when you have a plan that you believe in. With simplicity, it’s not just about making it easier. It’s about making it easier to understand how we’re going to be successful. “As leaders, we should always be helping people simplify to help them be more successful,” said Tredgold.

Transparency:

Transparency is the “how far,” and “where are we.” It involves looking at how far someone needs to go to get to where they want to be. It can be challenging at times to look at work through a clear lens, but doing so allows you to create a simple and focused projection that will help keep you accountable.

For more information on the FAST principles, 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.

Pipeliner CRM empowers salespeople in all four of these areas. Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.

Wouldn’t you love to know the secrets to a perfect close? It sounds too good to be true, right? James Muir, interviewed by John Golden, reveals the secrets to an excellent close that is nonconfrontational, no pressure, and moves at the speed of the buyer to increase your final close rate.

This expert sales interview explains the perfect close, including:

• Why advancement is important
• How to work with a client, not against a client
• The importance of timing
• Two fundamental questions to achieve the perfect close

The Importance of Advancement:

60-90% of all sales encounters end with no close, or no advance happening at all. The thing causing this scary number is that many salespeople have been taught somewhat manipulative closing techniques that they aren’t comfortable using. As a result, they don’t do anything. “What makes the perfect close perfect is that it’s just two questions, it’s nonconfrontational, and every time we use it we’re either going to get an advance, or we’ll get a close,” said Muir.

Work With the Client:

When you work with a client, they are trying to make something happen. They’re trying to achieve a goal. And who wouldn’t want a coach that could move them closer to their goal? The buyer wouldn’t be engaging with a salesperson if they were able to reach their goal and solve their problem on their own. “They’re engaging with us precisely because they’re looking for someone to help them move forward, and they’re going to welcome a salesperson’s involvement in that opportunity,” said Muir. So why do things go wrong? “When we start pushing faster than the customer is ready, it starts feeling like pressure to them, and that’s when it starts to backfire,” said Muir. The goal is to create a dynamic that is nonconfrontational, with no pressure, but is still directive and continues to advance the sale forward.

The Importance of Timing:

So, how can a salesperson get in sync with the right pace for the customer to move forward? “If you ask the right way, you can go into the scenario almost clueless, and you can still move at the pace that the customer is ready for,” said Muir. Ideally, we would know where the customer is at in their buying journey, and we can understand what a logical next step is for them to continue their march forward. If you don’t know, asking questions and creating a connection with the buyer will assist in your understanding of where they are at in the sales cycle and their readiness to buy or not.

Question 1:

There are two fundamental questions to complete the perfect close. There are slight variations on each of the questions, but the most basic version is straightforward. A salesperson likely has an idea of what their best case scenario is, and what they want from the buyer. When the salesperson frames it as a question, for example: “Does it make sense to schedule an assessment,” you are gently suggesting a logical next step, as well as asking the customer their opinion. “Does it make sense to X,” where X is your idea advance, is question number one. It’s often very successful, especially because by making the suggestion, you’re adding value to the scenario. Customers who aren’t familiar with the buying process may not know what step to take next and are grateful for the recommendation.

Question 2:

If you get a yes as a response to the first question, then you have earned your ideal advance. If they say no, you utilize the second question, which is, “what do you think is a good next step?” You throw the buyer back the ball. Most of the time, they will suggest a logical next step that they feel comfortable with at that point in the buying process and will move everything forward.

For more information on how to achieve the perfect close, including more detailed variations of the two questions, watch the entire 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.

Pipeliner CRM empowers salespeople to go for the perfect close, every time.  Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.

Selling as we know it has shifted. Before, salespeople armed with price structure, territory and targets did fine as long as they managed their territory and produced results. Sales management provided oversight, bridged with corporate and could be hands-off.

Not today! A study by Docurated found that only one third of a sales rep’s day is actually spent selling, while another third is spent searching for or creating content. 25 percent goes to reporting, administrative and CRM-related tasks.

82 percent of sales reps feel challenged by the amount of data and the time it takes to research a prospect. Sellers today are different, and managers need to adapt.

Think of territories, customers and products as if they were a financial portfolio that you’ve invested in. Since your salespeople are part of that investment, you have to own their calendar, work flow and time management. This is not micro-management, because the rep doesn’t own the investment—the company does. So these are your new 7 new responsibilities!

Thanks to Tom Searcy for this incredible content. Read his original article here.

Sales management advice is much needed as we welcome in the New Year. Sales managers are a crucial part of a well-functioning sales organization, and without staying abreast of essential techniques, your organization will likely falter. The sales manager’s ability to coach, drive, and reinforce skills to the sales team creates for a much more successful outcome overall. Kevin Davis, interviewed by John Golden, provides concrete sales management advice.

This expert sales interview provides expert sales management advice, including:

• Why sales management is so important
• How the lack of support makes things so difficult
• How to use self-leadership to propel yourself

An Important Job:

The average tenure of a sales manager is 18 months. That length of time is significantly shorter than most other jobs in the sales world. Part of why the turnover is so high is that the situation is very stressful and challenging. Sales managers have the responsibility of translating the strategies determined by the senior level management and bringing them to the customers through the salespeople. This job is so crucial and vital to the life of an organization, and yet they are not regarded as important enough. One of the most significant challenges is that sales managers are not provided proper support or training.

Lack of Support:

One of the critical mistakes that many companies make is that they hire sales managers from the star people on the sales team, even though the two jobs are very different. “Often, sales managers are much better salespeople than they are sales managers,” said Davis. When you look at how many sales managers have attended skills workshops, or received formal or informal sales training, it’s usually very minimal. “It’s scary, the number of sales managers who are being asked to do their job without being taught how to do their job,” said Davis.

Self-Leadership:

First and foremost, it’s essential to help sales managers recognize that what got them here, meaning the job as a successful salesperson who earned a promotion, won’t get them there, meaning earning the same success in their sales manager position. The skills that made them great salespeople can actually in some respects inhibit their effectiveness as sales managers. “Ultimately your greatest strength as a salesperson, if you overuse that strength as a sales manager, it will diminish your effectiveness,” said Davis. “It’s helping sales managers recognize that they have to make the transition and change how they think about what they’re doing.” If your overall organization doesn’t provide the necessary support, use self-leadership to propel yourself and learn the skills that you need to do the job well.

To learn more about key sales management techniques and get advice for being a great sales manager, watch the rest of the 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.

Pipeliner CRM empowers sales managers to manage successfully and with precision. Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.

The economic outlook is an important thing to consider, especially at the end of a year. 2017 is coming to an end, and as we enter the New Year, economist Dr. Thomas Potiowsky reviews what’s ahead. This is important for salespeople so that they can orient themselves and prepare for their upcoming year. It’s helpful to know what is going on in the sales market, as well as the business world as a whole. John Golden interviews Potiowsky on these topics.

This expert sales interview explores the economic outlook for 2018, including:

• The overall outlook that can be expected for 2018
• How lending makes a difference
• What to plan for the upcoming year

Overall Outlook:

“Things are looking fairly good,” said Potiowsky. “We’ve had some robust job growth so far, and the unemployment rate is low.” The business cycle is arriving at full employment, where we likely won’t see the unemployment rate go down much further. We will see wages start to increase. Labor markets are becoming tighter, and businesses begin to compete for available labor. This leads to higher incomes and better sales for a company. This is excellent news for those working in the sales industry. If the economy is doing better, we have more job growth, hiring, wage growth, and capital investment. All of these make for a much more robust sales environment.

Lending:

When we were in the depths of the recession back in 2008, banks had to keep their liquidity to meet regulations. They didn’t have the availability to lend funds. As we’ve seen this lesson over the last decade, we’re starting to see banks get through their stress tests, and lending has begun to increase a little bit. “Even so, banks are a little shy to let those lending gates open,” said Potiowsky. This means that those individuals are looking to start a business, or expand their current one, may need to work harder or plan differently when they look at getting financing for their project. It’s a much better time to secure a loan than in the past, but banks are still gunshy for the time being.

What to Expect:

If you’re a salesperson and you’re going into 2018, you might wonder what to expect for the year to come. 2018 likely won’t be a better year than 2017 was, but it won’t be a bad year, either. “I think you’re going to see a little plateauing and a little slowing of growth,” said Potiowsky. “It likely won’t be as good as 2016 or 2017, but even in 2017, we started to see a bit slowing and plateauing. I think that’s just going to continue.” One positive thing to note is that people seem to feel better about their job situation and overall finances. Consumers are doing more durable buying of large ticket items, like car sales and home furnishings. This is a good indicator of consumer confidence, which is a positive thing for salespeople.

For more information on what to expect in 2018, or to explore more about the economic world of 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.

Pipeliner CRM empowers salespeople to take advantage of a steadily growing economy. Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.

When I ask sales managers in my seminars for the foremost issue that they face, the answer is always the same: not enough time! When asked what they would do if they *had* more time, they say they would spend more time coaching and teaching their reps–but again, they don’t have the time. Not having enough time to coach your salespeople is a huge problem–and it’s a vicious circle that leads to less and less time, and fewer and fewer sales targets attained. Find out how to unravel this!

Pipeliner CRM empowers sales managers to better control their time. Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.

Cold email prospecting has taken off in the last few years and has changed the sales world. It opens up so many new opportunities, and a new way to get in touch with people and open new accounts. The technology surrounding cold emailing has also improved, making it easier than ever to utilize this sales tactic. Interviewed by John Golden, Arvell Craig explores cold email prospecting.

In this expert sales interview, explore cold email prospecting topics such as:

• Why cold email prospecting is on the rise
• How to stand out amongst other emails
• How to use technology to your advantage

Why the Change:

Email has been around forever, and the sales world has been around forever. And yet, not many salespeople utilize cold emailing prospecting to its maximum potential. Part of the shift into cold emailing has come about with the change into more cloud-based email systems. As opposed to using Outlook and traditional email systems, more companies and individuals are using Google apps. This allows for more platforms that work well with cold emailing. “In the past couple of years especially, cold email has become a great alternative to cold calling and a lot of similar methods,” said Craig.

Be Personable:

How do you get your email noticed ahead of other emails that are being sent out? “Being more human is a big factor. Being more transparent is a big factor. When you do cold email, if you approach the person from a more personal manner, that is going to get someone’s attention,” said Craig. Initially, communication should be 80 to 90% about the other person, and not about the salesperson. This makes the sales cycle a bit longer, but for a good reason. The Internet takes some of the personality out of communicating face to face. Having a conversation that is all about them can help intrigue them, and entice them to continue talking to you. “If you can open up a dialogue, you’re halfway there,” said Craig.

Using the Technology:

“Even though the technology is out there, I think the majority of people don’t use it,” said Craig. “They’re still using linkedin for sending In-mails, or they’re doing other things.” This outdated method of electronic communication is holding salespeople and companies back. Instead, come up with a clean list of targeted potential consumers, and use the correct emailing platform, and you will find much more success. “If people can make basic technology changes, they’re going to see results,” said Craig.

For more information on how to unlock the secrets of cold email prospecting, watch the entire 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.

Pipeliner CRM empowers sales teams to reach out with precision. Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.

Sales and marketing alignment is a challenge that has come about in recent years. Especially as the sales industry has undergone a technological revolution, it is even more critical than ever to unify the sales and marketing teams. Maribeth Kuzmeski, interviewed by John Golden, discusses some changes that marketing people can make to help unite these formerly separate entities.

This expert sales interview reviews sales and marketing alignment, including:

• The importance of marketing supporting sales
• Incentives for marketing
• How integration can produce successful results
• Why the message matters

How Marketing Supports Sales:

“My definition of marketing is to get people to want to buy the product or the service,” said Kuzmeski. That all happens through the support of the sales staff.” Typically, sales and marketing have been responsible for different parts of the sales funnel. Marketing gathered leads at the top of the funnel, and salespeople walked the lead through the sales process until closing. Today, both organizations require a hands-on approach throughout the entire sales funnel. The sales job is getting much harder, and they’re required to be more competent and proficient in areas that they never had to be before. They even engage in some targeted micro-marketing of their own. This creates lots of opportunities for the marketing team to support the sales team, and salespeople need marketers now more than ever. “It’s the marketing departments job to say, how can we help sales do that better,” said Kuzmeski. “How can we provide tools or guidance to help them do their job, which is to sell, better?” Getting these two groups unified is most critical to see more culminating results.

Marketing Incentives:

One tactic for encouraging this unification is to compensate marketing similarly to how salespeople are compensated. “I think that if marketing people were compensated based on sales, then everything would be different,” said Kuzmeski. Today, marketing people are often compensated based on the work they produce. The salespeople will sometimes give the feedback that it’s not wanted or needed. If marketing people were incentivized based on the sales, they would create more materials that were better for the actual salespeople and helped them do what they need to do which is to close deals.

The Importance of Contact:

Many marketing people are in marketing because they didn’t want to be a salesperson. This creates some resistance to going out into the sales field. “Marketing people, if they’re going to be effective, need to be out in the field and seeing what’s actually happening. Instead of insisting that they have no control, go travel with a salesperson and see what they’re saying and doing,” said Kuzmeski. This gives marketers the opportunity to see what’s happening in the world of sales and gives them more insight and information on how to target their marketing to what will be most effective. “Once they’re out in the field, they go,’oh, I see what you mean now.’ A lot of times marketing people will sit in the home office and do the work they’ve been asked to do, and do it very well, but there’s a disconnect. Even if they’re not compensated differently, they have to be in contact,” said Kuzmeski. That is one concrete change that marketers can make today. They can get engaged and involved right now.

The Message Matters:

“It’s about the messaging,” said Kuzmeski. If marketing is doing the research and understanding the best messages for salespeople to use in the field, they’re doing their job. The messages can be used in many places, like a website, or social media, or in an email, or a brochure, but the point is that they’ve done their research to figure out the best way to communicate a research-based message. The research has to be based on what the consumers actually feel. This research isn’t to over-script the salespeople, but rather to give them the best practices so salespeople can use them as they see appropriate.

For more information on how marketing and salespeople alignment can be more unified, watch the 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.