How motivated are you to be successful? In this Expert Insight Interview, Walter Bond discusses motivation as well as his book Swim! How a Shark, a Suckerfish, and a Parasite Teach You Leadership, Mentoring, and Next Level Success. Walter Bond is a former NBA player who is now an award-winning keynote speaker, business coach on building high-performance teams, and author.

The interview discusses:

• Extra level of motivation for success
• The right mindset to face the journey
• Shark, suckerfish, and parasite metaphor
• The accountability for the actions

Extra Motivation

To reach an NBA level of success in sports takes an extraordinary amount of motivation and daily commitment to it for years. The same stands for achieving success in the business world.
Most people are not aware of how much unbelievable effort it takes to become the best in something, and from those who are aware of it, very few people are up for that challenge. Besides, the journey to success is not only to achieve it but to sustain it as well.

The Right Mindset

We live in a world in which everything has to be instant and easy. However, success does not come immediately, and definitely, it does not come easy. To understand success means to understand the value of time. People get discouraged, or they decide to give up even though they are on the right path only because they do not realize that success is a lifetime journey where each decade has its passage. Thus, having the right mindset helps to overcome adversity, which is a common thing on the path to success.

Shark, Suckerfish, and Parasite

Shark, suckerfish, and parasite are the perfect metaphor for three different types of people. Sharks are very successful people, suckerfish are the people who have potential, but they need more work and support, while parasites are the selfish ones who only take and never give anything. In the ocean, sharks and suckerfish create a symbiotic relationship that benefits both. Humans need that same relationship. We need people around us in terms of mentorship, friends, and family for support and encouragement. Only like that, we can be like sharks, always to go forward and never to stop moving. However, we all have some parasite connected to us as well that we need to get rid of it.

Take the Accountability

By taking accountability for where we are in our life, we accept things, heal, and we mature. We need adversity and fear to go through in life so that the value of our success can increase. And then, when we do come to the top, we should not celebrate the talent but the resilience and perseverance that brought us there.

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 familiar are you with podcasting? In this Expert Insight Interview, Zach Moreno and Rock Felder, founders of SquadCast, discuss how podcasting can help business. SquadCast is a remote recording platform that enables podcasters to create meaningful conversations with their guests without the need to be at the same location while keeping the quality of audio and video production.

The interview discusses:

• Importance of podcast in the business
• The performance part of the interview
• Things to consider before podcasting
• The diversity of topics

Why Podcast?

A podcast is a unique way of interaction with the audience in which the audience gets to hear the friendly conversation between two people who usually never met each other before. It builds influence within the industry while it is very independent of any standards, so it allows complete flexibility and customization. People can express their stories and unlock their creativity for their audience. Since creating good content is a challenge for many lately, the advantage of the podcast is that it is in the form of conversation. Not all people know how to write blogs, but we all know how to have a conversation with another human being. And then, from those conversations, a content creator can write a blog.

The Performance

It is surprising that even though podcasting exists for quite some time now, up until recently, the quality content was a topic for debate. Podcasting does look easy, but in reality, it is not. Since there are no standards or scripts to follow, you have a blank canvas to play with it. However, you have to be able to improvise, empathize, respond creatively, and provide quality content during the conversation, no matter in which direction it starts to go. In some way, it is a performance.

The Fundamentals

Before starting a podcast, you should ask yourself why do you want to go into it? How would it benefit you? What kind of format would you have, and would you feel comfortable creating that spontaneous yet quality content? Also, another crucial factor to consider is your audience. Since you ultimately talk to your audience, which value can you create for it to be willing to come back for more of your podcasts?

Diverse Offer

Nowadays, podcasting is a way to go for so many people with different expertise and skills. There are various niche markets for which people make podcasts. The beauty of podcasting is that you do not have to be a top-level expert in your field, but you need to have something interesting to offer.

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 grow a business and have more effective sales while adding spiritual intelligence? In this Expert Insight Interview, Stephen Rodgers talks about the importance of spiritual intelligence in business and life in general. Stephen Rodgers is a Spiritual Business Activist who helps companies and people to grow higher profits while focusing on achieving a higher purpose.

The interview discusses:

• Importance of spirituality
• Defining destination
• External focus
• Spirituality in the company

Importance of Spirituality

When defining spirituality, theorists equalize it with some energy that is floating around. Regardless of the word used to describe this energy, usually, it shows like a power that is outside of us, anything that we believe has higher intelligence. It reflects the experience of seeking our best version while pushing ourselves to do things better and practice more to accomplish our targets. Spirituality explains why even if you are wealthy, you can still lack joy, peace, or happiness. Reaching life’s goals does not necessarily mean that you will be satisfied. Here are more details to learn more about how to strengthen your spirituality.

Defining Your Destination

People often have biased thinking when it comes to the destination. That is why they have a vague idea of how they will feel once they reach a certain point. Many disappointments might occur since they did not formulate their destination so that they achieve higher values. Hence, ego standpoint comes, and a person can experience edging good out. Only when you accept your ego in favor of ‘calling good’ it can be achievable. All the questions regarding the business or your personal decisions must reflect ‘calling good’ in and sharing prosperity.

Focus Outside of Yourself

The spillover effect has been seen when it comes to sharing. That is why theorists introduce a leadership style called servant leadership. When you tend to share more with the people, they often give you back in many different ways. Prosperity is more than just earning money. Usually, it means giving, experiencing happiness, goodness, and joy. Instead of focusing on achieving your business targets, you should change the way of thinking and come with solutions for prospect’s problems as well as providing them with the best advice and serving them so that you create value.

Spiritual Intelligence in the Company

Nobody can have control over what is happening around them, but yet, the thing you can control is how you show up in the eyes of your clients and how you interact with them. Shifting of companies’ mindset can be the turning point when it comes to achieving better results. Hence, answering questions like how your company can help the world or what it can do for society is of great importance. Thus, you will not just perform transactions but learn and build trust relationships within and outside of the company.

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.

While having a high IQ attributes to only 6 percent of work success, having an emotional intelligence contributes to a much higher percentage of work success. In this Expert Insight Interview, Scot Halford discusses emotional intelligence and neuro leadership. Scott Halford is an Emmy award-winning author on emotional intelligence, critical thinking, neuro leadership, and influence, Hall of Fame speaker, and consultant to Fortune 500 executive teams.

The interview discusses:

• What role Emotional Intelligence plays
• Importance of being mentally present in the interaction
• How to build trust with the customers

Role of the Emotional Intelligence

In sales, we sometimes have to pick up the cues that people are communicating to us unconsciously. Communication is not just a verbal part, but a lot of non-verbal cues as well. Emotional intelligence enables us to read those non-verbal cues. Many people would say that emotional intelligence means having common sense, but rather it means knowing how to reason, behave, and bounce back during a crisis. For example, if you are in between two companies and do not know which one to choose because they both have bad reviews, go to see their responses to the bad reviews. Those responses show whether they deal in crisis with integrity and respect for their customers. In sales, the way how you treat customers in the moment of crisis makes a huge difference.

Presence

Nowadays, everybody loves to say how they are busy all the time. But is it busyness for real, or is it just a distraction? The modern world’s biggest distraction is definitely the smartphone. So, when we interact with someone, it is crucial to be mentally present in that interaction. That will make people feel valued and honored, and they will want to do business with you. Even though multitasking is a popular way of doing things, it is not efficient. We cannot efficiently focus on more than one thing at a time, and focusing on people we talk to is necessary to understand their intents and emotions. Thus, paying attention creates a certain level of trust in your clients.

Trust

Another component of trust is to make sure that you do what you promised. Emotional intelligence attributes to 69 percent of the work success, but the rest of the 31 percent goes to reliability. Make sure that you follow through with the people. That will make them look better in the eyes of their bosses, which will make them trust you more. Decision making in B2B sales is an emotional process because it can be career-enhancing or career-limiting. Many companies lose on the great opportunity because a client does not have that level of trust that the company is the right choice to decide to go with it.

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.

We all experienced failure in something at least once. So, in this Expert Insight Interview, Todd Palmer discusses a four steps formula for how business leaders can turn failure into success. Todd Palmer is a retired CEO who is now a keynote speaker, author, and coach to entrepreneurial CEOs and business leaders on mindset and business growth.

The interview discusses:

• How to recognize your mindset
• How to create an intention, strategy, and keep an open mind

Recognize Your Mindset

Pandemic happened, and it turned life upside down for so many people. It is normal to have a brief period to feel bad and sorry for yourself, but then at some point, you have to recognize the situation and retake control of it. By taking responsibility for your current situation, you are empowering yourself to make a new decision and to change your situation. When the brutal reality hits you, that is a defining moment to transform today’s failure to future success. However, your idea of success might have changed, so you have to redefine it. At some point, it might have been to grow your revenue to a certain amount, but now it might be to keep your business going.

Create Intention and Strategy

The second step, creating an intention, means finding a solution to the current situation, but not expecting that there is only one way to it. Instead, create a strategy around that intention, which is also a third step in the process. This strategy should determine where you want to be in the future and how you are going to get there. And the last step is to be open minded to try many different things which will eventually lead to the right path. If one alternative fails, celebrate that fail as a lesson and progress that you have made for later success.

Moreover, our daily self-talk has more negative thoughts than positive ones. For some reason, people like to focus more on the negative things than on the positive. For example, during a performance evaluation meeting, a manager would list the good things about an employee and then spend the majority of the time talking about fixing negatives. Instead, let’s focus on our strengths rather than on our weaknesses. We all have skills and abilities that are unique to us. The key is in changing the perspective. So, instead of thinking about how average we are, we should embrace our authenticity and leverage our strengths.

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 first comes to your mind when you think of salespeople? Rana Cordahi is on a mission to make people fall in love with sales, so in this Expert Insight Interview, she discusses her approach to selling and coaching. Rana Cordahi is a Director of The Selling Academy and Employment Services Training, writer, and speaker.

The interview discusses:

• How to see sales as a noble profession
• How to become more empathetic
• The transformation through training

Change in Perspective

The opinion that people usually have of salespeople is that they are pushy. That is the reason why many people feel uncomfortable to be associated with sales. But simple things can help us change our view of sales. Firstly, there has to exist a clear distinction between a pushy seller and an ethical trust advisor. Pushy sellers think only of the outcome while an ethical advisor tries to create a difference in a customer’s life. Secondly, salespeople should ask themselves which benefits they get from knowing how to close a sale. There are so many benefits, from getting a job promotion to being able to convince your kids to eat broccoli. And lastly, try to look at the bigger picture and identify the impact that you are making for your customers by solving a problem or creating possibilities for them with your product or service.

Empathy

The best way to become more empathetic as a seller is to put yourself in the customer’s shoes and to think whether you would want a seller who genuinely cares about helping you or who tries to close you fast. You have to find a balance in understanding the customer while trying to close a deal and earn money to pay the bills for the next month. One thing that many salespeople tend to forget is that communication with a client needs to happen in a way that is the most convenient for the client. Some people prefer texts or emails over phone calls, and the easiest way to find out which one is it is to ask.

The Transformation

With sales training, you can become your company’s top performer. Or you might start liking the cold calling because the problem was not in cold calling but in not having the right training. While some companies have regular internal sales training, there are many companies out there that do absolutely no training. With a lack of sales training, people focus on wrong things such as numbers and pipeline volume. Instead, you should be highly disciplined in building a pipeline of value that will bring you qualifying opportunities for closing sales.

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 define your digital marketing strategy? In this Expert Insight Interview, Karry Gaurd discusses how to create a sustainable digital marketing strategy and provide high-quality content to your clients. Karry Gaurd is the COO of MKG Marketing, a digital marketing agency of experts who help tech and healthcare brands grow big.

The interview discusses:

• Starting strategy and channel selection
• High-quality content versus fluff content
• Choosing the audience

How to Start and What Channel to Use?

Among numerous digital channels, how to know which one will be suitable for you? When formulating your entering strategy, you should start from the core of your business and answer the questions like what are your KPIs, who is your target group, and what message you want to send to the public. Once you have defined these points, you can pass on to building your channel. This channel will be the bridge between your message and receivers, in this case, your target audience. Furthermore, you will have to use SEO tools as an integral part of your strategy. It will allow your website to be positioned among first when typing keywords. Content, keywords, and building blocks are three unbreakable parts that permit people to find you when they are in need.

High Quality vs. Fluff

When designing content that will be on the internet, you should pay attention to the form and keywords. It is a common mistake that most companies are making. Firstly, the content has to be clear to the extent that it explains your business in simple terms in order to be understandable. Hence, high-quality content is preferred, and you should avoid focusing on quantity and fluff. Thus, you should not post things nor words that are not helpful so that you avoid junk content. You have to design ‘deep content’ that provides explanations on how you are doing things.

Nowadays, people are doing thorough research before they make a call. Once they pick up the phone, they are usually ready to make a purchase, and that is why content has to be actionable with the right keywords.

Audience Targeting

Regarding picking your target audience, it is necessary not to go after everyone. Rather than targeting numerous people from multiple target groups, the focus has to be on people who are more likely to use the same patterns. Hence, the content has to be strategic and answer the people’s questions on the chosen platform. By exploring the user’s preferred type of communication, you will know if that channel is right for you. Depending on the product, service, or target, you will have to switch from one platform to another. The key is to understand what your customers are navigating and what they are looking for while surfing.

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.

Let’s embrace the futuristic way of thinking and think of a seller and a cyborg combined into one. In this Expert Insight Interview, Justin Michael discusses how to revolutionize B2B sales. Justin Michael is a Founder of The Salesborgs, sales technologist and consultant, futurist, and author.

The interview discusses:

• Futuristic approach to B2B sales
• Innovative email strategy
• Innovative phone call strategy

The Futuristic View

Everybody wants to be cutting edge, but the majority still use traditional tools while trying to innovate. The secret is to be futuristic, nerdy, and creative in thinking of the most modern things to utilize. This description makes the gaming community a perfect place to position your brand around people who share the idea of a world supported by the magic of technology and who encourage action and experimentation. As a salesperson powered by technology, you can make 200 calls in 45 minutes. Those are two days of work packed in only 45 minutes. Besides, doing cold calling while others are listening and giving you their feedback is a new, experiential way of live sales coaching.

The New Email Strategy

Nowadays, when our inbox is full of the same type of template spams, two realizations can fundamentally change the future of B2B sales. The first realization is that the power of email is not in texts but the visual effects. Our brain processes pictures about 60,000 times faster than reading words. The second realization is that business emails are usually too long. On average, a business email has three paragraphs, and it takes our brain 13 seconds to process it. However, we can read a three sentences email in 3 seconds only. The beauty is in simplicity. Instead of sending long storytelling paragraphs, going straight to the point with hyper short messages brings the opening rate to a high 80 percent.

The New Phone Strategy

The mistake salespeople make during a phone call is being too pushy, forcing a potential client to almost immediately take a defensive position by mentioning the competitor’s product. Instead, take a different approach. After introducing yourself, find out which job position they hold with the company. That way, you shift the power to their end because now they talk about what they are directing. And then, by surprise, ask them how the competitor’s product works for them. By validating that they already have a cooperation with someone else, they will see you as a friend and start talking about it, which will eventually lead to enlisting the negatives, and finally asking about the product you offer. The control is back on your side now. However, do not try to sell your product but offer it as a solution to improve their current one.

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.