How to Scale in Less Time with Fewer Clients (video)

In this Expert Insight Interview, Shayla Boyd-Gill discusses how to scale in less time with fewer clients. Shayla Boyd-Gill is a proven business coach and sales strategist who teaches people how to become multiple six-figure earners.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

How to achieve your scaling goals through high-ticket offers
Why it is crucial to offer a fantastic experience to your existing clients
How to have upselling conversations

High-Ticket Offers

We’re always chasing more and more, and we think that adding more clients will scale our business faster. Everyone believes that the more they do, the more they’ll get paid, and their lives will be easier.

The truth is, in fact, the exact opposite. If we continue to have more and more clients, that will bring us more work, which means more of our time will be occupied. Shayla Boyd-Gill believes that you can have the same scaling and money goals but achieve them through high-ticket programs, being able to use high-ticket offers, and boldly request what you want.

Being Amazing to Your Clients

The mantra is always “new business,” “new clients,” “new logos,” etc. We get very fixated on these things, even though everybody knows that it is harder and more expensive to win new clients than nurture, grow, and upsell your existing ones. We seem to have an innate bias for new business.

If you can offer a fantastic experience to your existing clients, you will retain them. Not only that, but they will likely appreciate you more and be more inclined to listen to your offers than new prospects who don’t know who you are.

Upselling

Sometimes when companies land a client, they become nervous about moving the relationship to the next step. If a client seems content and doesn’t express any unhappiness, we tend to leave them be and just wait for the renewal or the re-sale.

However, it will be easy to have an upselling conversation if you get to know your client and nurture them the right way. Think of it as inviting your client to an even more amazing experience rather than trying to sell them another service or product. If you do your job of serving them correctly, your clients may even bring these conversations up themselves.

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.

How Women Entrepreneurs Can Create Financial Wealth and Freedom (video)

In this Expert Insight Interview, Leslie Kuster discusses how women entrepreneurs can create financial wealth and a life of freedom that serves them. Leslie Kuster shows people how she started a seven-figure online business and how it’s never too late to change your life, whether you’re a man or woman in your 40s, 50s, or 60s.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

How it is the fear of success that often holds us back
How to be authentic and honest about what you want in your life
Why it is crucial to stop and take the time to think about what you want

Fear of Success

People always think that the fear of failure is holding them back, but it is often a fear of success. This is because, for many of us, success means having to work harder and having less personal freedom.

Both women and men are great at projecting our thoughts about the future onto reasons not to do something because it would impact our lives. This leaves us misaligned because we fundamentally want success, but we’re not prepared to make the changes required to achieve it.

Wanting Success

The first step is admitting to yourself what it is you want. You have to be authentic and honest in what you actually want. Whatever it is, don’t be afraid to go for it, and embrace it without apologizing.

According to Leslie Kuster, the first key to success is that you have to want it. Although this may sound too easy or too simple, it is deceptively powerful. So many people starting a business, or even thinking about starting a company, do not want it enough. It all boils down to what you want and being honest with yourself.

Authentic Freedom

Authentic success and authentic freedom are all about your definitions of these things. Making sure you’re following your authentic path to success is crucial. Interestingly, the way to find that out is by making sure you have the time to stop and check-in with the emptiness inside of yourself.

We live in a crazy world of information coming at us from all angles, and we’re addicted to our devices. It is almost counter-culture today to take that time out, be with yourself, be silent, block out all the extraneous things, and focus on being with yourself and understanding what you want.

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.

How to Keep Clients Coming Back for More (video)

In this Expert Insight Interview, Dina and Don Ortiz discuss keeping clients coming back for more. Dina and Don Ortiz are speakers, authors, workshop moderators, and global award-winning entrepreneurial leadership experts. They deliver a message of a how-to guide and lead success in dynamic environments.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

Why keeping your existing customers should be the priority
How to re-invent yourself and keep up with a dynamic environment
The fact that providing an excellent product or service is crucial

Keeping Your Customers

Most people in sales know that it generally costs less to sell to an existing customer than to acquire a new one. However, companies tend to focus on the new business and celebrate that more than keeping existing customers coming back. While it is by no means a mistake to pursue new business, foundational customers are the root of success.

Every company seems to be paying lip service to make customers happy, and many even have the phrase “customer-centric” proudly displayed on their website. Still, the experience with them tends to be very different.

Re-Inventing Yourself

Especially during the pandemic, many companies were forced to pivot and turn their businesses and figure out how to re-funnel their product lines or business connections. So how do you re-invent yourself and keep your product value in this dynamic environment?

One of the ways to do this, in today’s environment, in particular, is to be authentic. You have to have a relationship with your customers in which you help them meet their needs before, during, and after the sale.

Offering an Excellent Product

One thing to remember is that providing an excellent product or service is the first step. If you can’t do that, all the marketing and communication in the world will not get you anywhere. This is particularly true in the B2B space, as you and your sales team need to represent your brand, and therefore remain excellent at all times.

There are too many options for clients to choose from nowadays, so even a single mistake could mean that you don’t get another chance with a prospect.

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.

The Idea of Human-Centered Communication in Business (video)

In this Expert Insight Interview, Darin Dawson discusses human-centered communication. Darin Dawson is one of the co-founders of BombBomb, which makes it easier to build relationships through email, text, and social media.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

The idea of human-centered communication in business
How to get through to your audience by creating value in the message
Why it matters that your customers know, like, and trust you

Human-Centered Communication

Human-centered communication is all about caring about the person we are communicating with. The problem we see today is that we can’t stop sending our thoughts into the world.

This process has been accelerated through the pandemic. We couldn’t be with each other, so we collectively decided to send more of everything, including emails, LinkedIn messages, texts, phone calls, etc. Darin believes that we would all benefit from getting back to a more human approach to building relationships and communicating.

Creating Value

There are many tools that allow us to communicate in a text-based form or other ways, and there is nothing wrong with using tools that help us do our jobs more efficiently. We just need to find moments within these processes to get back to face-to-face communication, whether through Zoom, asynchronous video, or in-person.

The key to human-centered communication is asking yourself whether you’re creating value for the recipient or if your message is really about you. Think about whether the message is getting through and being heard. If not, you’re being ignored. With every communication you send, you’re training the person on the other end to either listen to you or ignore you, and you don’t get too many chances to build a relationship anymore.

Know, Like, and Trust

People still buy from people they know, like, and trust, and it is very difficult to build relationships with your customers without offering a human-centered experience. You can do a lot by putting a face to your brand, and the way to do that is by showing the people involved with the process.

Chances are you hired all these people for their extraordinary abilities to communicate; don’t handcuff them by forcing them to work in a closed system, sending pre-written LinkedIn messages and generic emails.

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.

How to Land and Expand Key Accounts Faster (video)

In this Expert Insight Interview, Brent Keltner discusses landing and expanding key accounts faster. Brent Keltner created the Winalytics value-driven growth methodology and has positioned the company as the market leader for repeatable revenue solutions.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

The definition of key accounts and how to take full advantage of them
How to think in terms of value playbooks
Thinking in terms of value created for each buyer

Key Accounts

Often companies don’t even have a clear definition of what a ‘key account’ is or a strategy around them. Brent Keltner defines a key account as one where there are multiple pockets of budget around the client. Your job is often to connect value across those so that you can tap into the different budgets.

However, sometimes when salespeople land a new account, they are reluctant to start fishing around them. It is as if they are intimidated by the prospect of ‘rocking the boat,’ so they don’t look at it as an expansion or growth opportunity.

Value Playbooks

One of the things Brent advocates is starting with ‘value playbooks.’ These deal with how your product or service drives value for your buyer rather than the product itself.

Once you start presenting your products in terms of value playbooks, your clients will begin to think about adding value to their previous purchases through your products. This allows you to present your products and services as opportunities to deepen the relationship with your B2B customer around a new area of value.

Creating Value for Each Customer

We live in an increasingly networked world, and to understand your buyer, you need to understand their network and their ‘personal universe.’ When you start to think about account planning and growing accounts, it is very easy to look at things in terms of your product — expanding and improving it. It is much more challenging to look at the ‘white space’ and think about where you can create opportunity and value.

Instead of thinking about which products you still haven’t sold your customers, try thinking in terms of the value you can create for each new buyer. This can allow you to connect technical value and business value.

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.

What Sales Enablement Is and What It’s Not (video)

In this Expert Insight Interview, Bob Britton discusses what sales enablement is and what it is not. Bob Britton has been in sales, sales enablement, learning, and development for more than 25 years. He is a Navy veteran, so his military leadership experience and his MBA provide a unique and accurate perspective on the current and future needs of our complex and rapidly changing business environment.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

The definition of sales enablement and what it means to different organizations
How to align with your buyers’ purchasing process
How to enable your “champions” to sell for you within their companies

Sales Enablement

If you asked ten different companies what sales enablement was, you would likely get thirteen different answers. This is because it is usually defined based upon the problem that the given company is facing. If they’re in the process of hiring, it might be related to onboarding. If they are trying to get a new piece of technology rolling, it might be related to sales operations, etc.

In the broader sense, sales enablement is about looking for friction impeding top-line revenue growth and fixing it.

Aligning with the Buying Process

We hear people in sales often talk about aligning with the buyers’ purchasing process. However, if your buyer doesn’t have a process, or if they’re just as confused as you are, there’s nothing to align with.

This type of situation puts the ball in your court and forces you to think about helping the buyer find that process and acknowledge that they may not be as organized as you think.

Enabling your Champions

An important thing to remember during B2B interactions is that the people you’re selling to are usually not sellers themselves. This means we’re not selling to salespeople but budget holders, technicians, project managers, etc.

In this type of situation, you have to expect that your message will be lost in translation on its way to the decision-makers. You must enable your “champions” to sell for you internally and carry the same message throughout the organization so everyone is always on the same page. Otherwise, every decision-maker will hear a different message, and it will get diluted.

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.

Sales Skills – Why you Need Them (video)

In this Expert Insight Interview, Amanda Abella discusses sales skills and why you need them. Amanda Abella is the founder and CEO of Make Money Your Honey. This marketing and sales training company helps coaches, creatives, and consultants triple their revenue while working half the time.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

The importance of investing in sales training
Our complicated relationship with money and success
How the customer experience can be the difference between success and failure

Sales Training

If you asked a hundred salespeople if sales skills were necessary, they would all say ‘yes.’ You would get the same result if you asked a hundred CEOs. However, if you followed up with a question of how much they were willing to invest in this department, you might not get a highly enthusiastic response.

Many people pay lip service to the idea of sales skills, but the reality is that not many businesses invest in sales training. This has to do with the fact that small businesses are afraid of selling.

Fear of Success

Small business owners often start their companies because they are passionate about the product or service they want to offer. However, they don’t necessarily consider themselves salespeople, and they also have to deal with all the negative stigma around salespeople and how they’re portrayed.

Sometimes it also has to do with our relationship to money, which is often quite strange. Many of us have been taught that caring about sales means only caring about money. In reality, if you want to get really good at sales and build a sustainable business, you need to prioritize helping people.

Customer Experience

Customers generally see products and services as extremely commoditized now, meaning they don’t see a massive difference between them. What often differentiates companies today is the experience they offer their customers, and that starts with the salesperson.

Therefore, the helpful salespeople who are willing to understand customers’ issues and solve their problems will most often beat the competition.

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.

Finding Your Purpose is Key to Living a Fulfilled Life (video)

In this Expert Insight Interview, Adeyinka Adegbenle discusses excellence in leadership and why finding your purpose is key to living a fulfilled life. Adeyinka Adegbenle is a former financial service professional, who became an author, excellence strategist, and coach. She is the author of Joab, King David’s Top General: Essential Lessons on Character.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

Why finding your purpose is key to living a fulfilled life
We need to make a difference in the world
How and why to check back with your purpose

Purpose

Most people don’t know their purpose. They haven’t figured out why they are doing what they are doing. We understand it on a superficial level, such as knowledge that we need a job to provide for our family, put purpose seems to be a thing that not many people spend much time thinking about.

Sometimes we make “purpose” out to be a grandiose concept, but it doesn’t have to be. Purpose is all about having clarity on what you were placed on this planet for. So, it is not only different for each person, but it evolves as well.

Making a Difference

To find fulfillment and purpose, you need to be making some form of a positive difference. You need to ask yourself if you’re making a difference, adding value, and leaving your stamp on humanity in some tangible way.

Providing for your family can be an excellent purpose, as long as you acknowledge that this pursuit is what drives you. Thinking of your purpose as evolving and temporary can also be very helpful, as it allows you to fully embrace whatever it is that drives you at any given moment.

Going Back to the Why

Since your purpose will evolve with changing circumstances and situations, it is always a good idea to return to your purpose. This is especially helpful when you’re starting to feel frustrated or as if the world is bearing down on you.

Thinking about your purpose helps you understand whether you’re still in the same place as when you started on your journey and even whether your purpose needs to shift. When things get overwhelming, remember to go back to the ‘why.’

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.