The biggest challenge with KPIs is not to have too many, but just enough to be relevant. In this Expert Insight Interview, John Briggs discusses sales KPIs. John Briggs is a founder and CEO of Incite Tax and Accounting firm.

The interview discusses:

• Lagging v Leading KPIs
• Individual impact in the sales group
• Phone calls and quota hitting

Lagging v Leading KPIs

A good number of KPIs to focus on is anywhere between three to seven. Of course, that depends on the size of the organization. In a big organization, each department can have three to seven KPIs, but it is crucial not to overwhelm employees individually. Many people collect lagging KPIs as net profit, but they are hard to influence. On the other hand, leading KPIs are dynamic and easy to impact. Leading KPIs are easy to pick, easy to change if necessary, and support the company’s main initiative. The examples are the number of leads coming in, the number of phone calls generated from those leads, and the conversion rates.

Sales managers should focus more on leading KPIs to shape the sales rep’s behavior and push the right initiatives. For example, there is a direct relationship between having proper call planning and closing the deals. Proper call planning brings higher conversion, and it is also easy to track. Furthermore, it is of great significance to balance the KPI’s burden to its benefit. If the information is beneficial, but the gathering cost is too high, it is not worth it. Gathering KPIs should not be complicated. Explaining the importance of specific KPIs to the team and connecting KPIs to the team’s compensation creates the self-motivation for tracking and reaching them.

Individual Impact in a Sales Group

Tracking the conversion rates for each individual can help us find channels in which each employee is the most efficient. For example, someone is more efficient with Facebook clients, while someone works the best with Google clients. Managers should encourage employees to focus on channels that are their biggest strength. Today, there are so many different channels to work in that it is easy to help people focus on areas where they perform the best.

More KPIs

Average phone call time is another KPI worth mentioning. Having longer phone calls can cause higher conversion rates and higher revenue, but it can also have the opposite effect. It is important to be analytical on the allocation of time and economic returns. Also, hitting the quota KPI can cause burnout if an employee is a high performer. Instead of the constant and meaningless raising of quota for a high performer, a manager should talk with an employee to find KPIs and compensation package that increases his self-motivation.

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.

Why are there fewer female leaders than male leaders? In this Expert Insight Interview, Diana Fryc discusses how women leaders can contribute to a company’s success. Diana Fryc is a Founder and Host of a Gooder Podcast, where she interviews successful women leaders in the food, beverage, and wellness industries.

The interview discusses:

• Perfect balance within the organization
• Fewer women in leadership roles
• Time for self-reflection

Perfect Balance

Men and women open their businesses for different reasons. While men are more operational and competitive, women tend to start their businesses because they see the need to help the community. Women are better communicators, more collaborative, and nurturers by nature. Every business needs nurturing, but if the leadership is full of men, then the nurturing part easily gets neglected. The perfect combination for the company is the balance of strengths of both men and women, and that is why gender diversity in the leadership levels is of utmost importance.

Less Women Leaders

Many women are working in various industries, but not many hold leadership positions. One of the reasons might be that being an entrepreneur is not really family-friendly, and women still assume responsibility for taking care of the household. Eventually, being in charge of both business and a family becomes too demanding. Thus, having an open conversation at work about it would be very helpful. However, feeling uncomfortable or fearing the competition prevents many women from speaking up on this topic. This year, mostly due to the Covid19 pandemic, many companies had to reconfigure and accommodate their practices to employees’ circumstances. Thus, this is a perfect opportunity for women specifically to be vocal about their needs as well.

Moreover, women always feel like they have to prove that they are qualified for the job, opposite to men who feel confident about their qualifications even when they do not satisfy the criteria 100 percent. Statistics show fewer women apply for a specific job based on the job description because they underestimate their experience. Men are risk-takers, while women like to play safe. Thus, there is stuff in business that women could take from men by having a male mentor, for example.

Time for Self-Reflection

Women need to believe more in themselves and to feel comfortable taking credit for their achievements. Even when they dream, they adjust their dreams to be safe and not to bother anyone. So, if we can take one silver lining from everything that happened in 2020, that might be that people have more time to do self-reflection. Women should reflect on their thoughts about which directions they want to go career-wise and to try to be a part of reconfiguring the workplace in the future.

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.

Do you like the idea of being paid by performance? In this Expert Insight Interview, David Stellato discusses performance marketing. David Stellato is a Chief Growth Officer at DFO Global Performance Commerce, a performance marketing agency.

The interview discusses:

• Tracking and attribution with performance marketing
• Experimenting as part of the process
• Surprises and misconceptions about performance marketing

Tracking and Attribution

The essence of performance marketing is to drive measurable results. CPA (cost per acquisition) and CPL (cost per lead) are models used in performance marketing, which can easily show which campaigns drive profit and which not. Many things in marketing do not offer proper tracking and attribution. For example, if you put a billboard on the street, you will never know how many people have seen it or bought that product. On the contrary, performance marketing is trackable due to digital media. After posting an ad, you can track how many people clicked on it and whether they clicked it through desktop or cellphone. You can even trace whether they used an app or social media for it. Moreover, once they land on the page, you can track whether they followed through and made the purchase or not. It is also possible to see exactly where you lost a customer, which allows you to optimize it accordingly.

Testing

Experimentation is a big part of performance marketing because it shows what brings results and what does not. Sometimes, the reason why customers do not follow through with the purchase is a thing that we would never think of on our own. Experimenting does not mean wasting money because every new thing learned is a valuable lesson for the future. These insights are of great help for decision-makers when they decide on scaling the business.

Surprises and Misconceptions

The thing that almost always surprises people about performance marketing is how quickly yet significantly it can drive business success. People who used it for selling on Amazon experienced a jump in their sales from selling around 20 items to selling above 1000 daily. The sales were rising gradually and with the right offers and media buyers, the profits maximized.

On the other hand, one of the misconceptions of performance marketing is that it can work for any product. A product needs to be meaningful, for everyday use, and to solve problems for the masses. However, if you still want to sell some high-end item, you will have to strategize. For example, people who love to drink wine primarily need a corkscrew and wine glasses. But, maybe some of them would want a wine fridge too. So, start with promoting the corkscrew and wine glasses, and then slowly introduce your audience to the expensive wine fridge.

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 embrace the pivot when making a transition? In this Expert Insight Interview, Dr. Cheryl Robinson gives tips on how we can successfully pivot in work and life in general. Dr. Cheryl Robinson is a regular contributor to ForbesWomen, and she focuses on interviewing women who have embraced the pivot in their careers.

The interview discusses:

• How to pivot
• How to establish initial and long-term sustainability
• Three core themes regarding pivot

How to Pivot

Everybody pivots for different reasons. Those reasons could be being laid off from work, deciding to switch a job, or starting your own business. However, no matter the reason, the crucial part is to recognize that you are pivoting and to believe that you have what it takes for it. Then, you can start making a strategy.

In order to know that you did the right thing when you decided to pivot, you need to have a certain level of ego and self-confidence. Having ego usually has negative connotations, but in this case enables you to know your worth, recognize the opportunity, and go for it. Moreover, your past gives you enough experience to have the self-confidence to take the necessary risk. We take risks daily, the risk is not possible to eliminate, but it is possible to prepare for it and manage it.

The Initial and Long-Term Sustainability

When experiencing some of the first challenges, your past is your best friend. By recognizing the new situation to be the same as one from the past, you can solve the new one with habitual behavior. Pivoting does not have to be one giant step, but rather many smaller steps. Allow yourself to be curious about things, try them, make mistakes, learn from them, and move forward. Also, it helps to talk with people who have more experience in it, such as mentors.
Things sometimes get hard. Thus, you need to have a support system, people you surround yourself with that you can talk about anything. Furthermore, celebrate small wins. Waiting for the big triumph in life sets you for the long wait and disappointment if you never achieve it. Instead, find smaller victories to celebrate daily.

Three Core Themes

Besides being self-confident and taking the risk, the third core element is networking. It is impossible to achieve success without networking. However, it is not about the quantity but the quality of relationships. In-person networking was limited this year due to the pandemic, but it did open the opportunity for virtual networking. While some people excel in both in-person and virtual networking, people who are more on the shy side have an excellent opportunity to create meaningful relationships through virtual networking.

Our Host

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.

Clarifying, ideating, developing, and implementing are different problem-solving styles. Thus, in this Expert Insight Interview, Sarah Thurber discusses how to understand and interact with each of the four problem-solving styles in sales. Sarah Thurber is a Managing Partner at FourSight, an international writer, and a thought leader on creative thinking and problem-solving.

The interview discusses:

• Clarifying
• Ideating
• Developing
• Implementing

Clarifying

Clarifying the situation is the foundation of any problem-solving. It narrows it down and enables you to take the next step in the right direction. When dealing with people who are clarifiers, salespeople need to ask as many clarifying questions as possible. Buyers nowadays are overwhelmed with the selection of products and services on the market. Research shows that having 20 different jams offered to buyers is too overwhelming for them to make a purchase. Thus, the salesperson’s value can drastically increase if he manages to clarify the buyers’ needs.

Ideating

People who prefer the ideation process are creative, visionary, and they want something unique with a story behind it. For example, if deciding which car to buy, these people would like to hear some fascinating story about the car to choose it. Thus, salespeople need to help buyers to create an emotional connection with the product. Forming a big picture and emotional connection is the key selling point in this case because these buyers are passionate and intuitive rather than analytical.

Developing

Developers are very analytical and want to be sure that they made the right decision. These people are perfectionists and very detail-oriented. Salespeople should offer a couple of alternatives to buyers to see what differentiates their choice from the other ones. Developers need time to think, and this can be challenging for the sales process. Thus, salespeople must find a perfect balance between being patient with buyers and giving them a sense of urgency to decide to prevent them from becoming no-decision buyers.

Implementing

Most of the business people, especially salespeople, are implementors wanting to find the solution yesterday. Research shows that implementors like to work only with other implementors because they get each other’s sense of urgency. However, when dealing with implementors, it is crucial to make sure that they go through all previous creative problem-solving processes because, if not, they can get a buyer’s remorse later. Hence, salespeople’s job is to slow implementors’ point of urgency and make them go through clarifying, ideating, and developing stages. The too quick and easy sales process can cause a terrible post-sales experience.

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 become a great leader? In this Expert Insight Interview, Neil Thubron discusses developing into great leaders. Neil Thubron is an executive coach, motivational speaker, best-selling author, and event organizer at Extreme Energy Ltd.

The interview discusses:

• Characteristics of a great leader
• Communication
• Other things people look for in leaders
• Encouraging personal growth

The Characteristics

Millennials, the driving workforce nowadays, expect their leaders to communicate to them when they are doing a good job and to make them feel valued by listening to their feedback. Thus, great leaders are great communicators and listeners, understanding and empathetic, clear on what they want, and ready to receive feedback.

Communication

There is no one universal communication style. In order to be an effective communicator, you have to engage in communication with people using their preferred method. Communication is a two-way street in which both sides need to feel comfortable. Having consistent communication with employees is very important because they can quickly start to feel disconnected from work, especially with many people working virtually.

Many leaders are now concerned with the question of whether their employees really work while working remotely. The answer is having a regular and quality conversation with the employees. Employees need to know what good looks like for the leaders, so they focus on delivering it. Another significant factor for virtual work is to set proper expectations. People face different circumstances than before the pandemic. So, instead of replicating the traditional work setting used before, you should use this opportunity to ask employees what works the best for them and be flexible.

Things People Look for In Leaders

Every leader should have an inspiring vision for the team. Tesla is a leading example of a company for which people want to work because of Elon Mask’s inspiring vision. Employees have to be able to find meaning in their jobs. People often underestimate the contribution they bring to their work. Thus, leaders are the ones who should help their employees to understand the value they bring to the customers, no matter which position they have. A great example of that is when J.F. Kennedy visited NASA before the launch to the moon. J.F.K talked to the janitor and asked him what he was doing. The janitor replied that he was getting a man to the moon.

Encourage Personal Growth

There is no better time to invest in personal and professional growth than now. Leaders should encourage their employees to invest in themselves on their own, rather than to wait for the company to do it. There are many online options and tools designed for learning, and you should embrace them because the new job interview question might be to describe how you have developed yourself during pandemics.

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.

Do you think that you are getting paid your actual worth at your current job? In this Expert Insight Interview, Samuel Knickerbocker discusses how to maximize value exchange. Samuel Knickerbocker is an entrepreneur, legacy strategist, consultant, and host of The Fuel Your Legacy Show.

The interview discusses:

• Value in a corporate world
• Demanding your worth
• Not settling for less
• Being your own boss as an entrepreneur

Value in a Corporate World

In the corporate world, many people’s salary is not proportional to the value they bring to the company. Besides, people with technical skills but less cooperative with the team and company culture are easier to get fired because the company would rather have employees who are less skilled but cooperate better with the community. Thus, your value is not your skill to perform the job but who you are as an individual. In the corporate world, a manager controls so many aspects of your life that you have to learn how to manage your manager – upward management.

Demand Your Wroth

Before you go to the job interview, you should think of the value that you bring to the team. That way, you will be more confident to demand your worth. Nowadays, when everybody tries so desperately to fit the description required to get the job, demanding your worth brings the element of surprise and distinction. In negotiation, both sides want to get the best possible value. Thus, you should know what is valuable and what not. For instance, saying that you are a good team member means nothing unless you show them how you will improve the team.

Never Settle

Many people feel like they are underpaid, ask for a raise, get rejected, and continue to work there. Staying in the company after a raise rejection is disrespectful to yourself. Also, it destroys your self-confidence because you know that you settle to work for less than what your worth is.
There is no better time to negotiate your salary than now. Firstly, because job options drastically increased due to virtual work. And secondly, many companies save large amounts by not paying the office rent anymore. Thus, there is more money in the budget that can go to salaries.

Be Your Own Boss

However, when people realize their value and the price of that value on the market, they start looking into entrepreneurship and consultancy. They can open their own business and earn way more money that way. Think about how do you want people to remember you? If you want your legacy to be your current job, then you are on the right path. If not, use your unique personality, experience, and story to create your legacy.

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.

Storytelling is one of the essential skills in sales. Thus, in this Expert Insight Interview, Paul Andrew Smith discusses his book Sell with a Story: How to Capture Attention, Build Trust, and Close the Sale. Paul Andrew Smith is an expert and coach on organizational storytelling, Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 leadership speakers, and best-selling author.

The interview discusses:

• Different sales stories
• The pattern to follow in any sales story
• Adjusting the story to the situation

Different Sales Stories

As kids, we come up with the most amazing stories. But, as we grow up, something changes in us, and instead of leveraging that natural storytelling skill in business, we replace it with more professional speaking. As adults working in sales, we should embrace the same storytelling skill we had as kids and adjust it to sales. There are many different sales stories such as finding the problem story, customer success story, marketing story, building sense of urgency story, building loyalty story, etc. The first challenge is to figure out which one to tell. Storytelling always follows the same pattern, but the content and lesson are specific to the story because each story serves a different purpose. Breaking the storytelling pattern could confuse the audience.

Follow the Pattern

Following the right pattern consists of eight questions that a good story needs to answer. The first question is why the audience should listen to this story? It is crucial to give the audience a reason good enough to spend two minutes listening to it. Afterward, come the next questions. Where was the story taking place? Who was the main character, and what did he want? What was the opportunity or a problem in the story? What has the main character done about it? And how did it turn out at the end? The last two questions are to identify the lesson we learned and what action should we take next? They also allow the opportunity to recommend what we sell as a solution.

Adjust to the Situation

We should let buyers tell us their stories too. That way, we can better understand their problems or needs. Besides, while some people like to hear good drama in the story, others are more analytical and prefer stories with lots of data. Hence, we should always adjust the storytelling to the audience. Furthermore, some stories we plan on telling during the sales meeting while some are delivered ad hoc. Storytelling should take only 10 to 15 percent of a sales meeting. And no matter if planned or ad hoc, they should all be close to the truth. Changing little details like the name or date of a story is okay but changing key facts makes the story irrelevant.

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.