Andy Paul's Blog, page 14

710: Sales Enablement in a Culture of Trust and Learning, with David Sill

David Sill, Speaker, Coach, B2B Inside Sales Authority, and Head of Sales Enablement at DiscoverOrg.com, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Reps need to seek learning and invest in themselves in order to continue their development. A culture of trust is necessary for reps to try new things and possibly fail. David tells how he learned to trust in an improv class.
Sales organizations benefit from a culture of trust. But the expectations that are set and the tools that are used value conformity and compliance rather than trusting reps to take risks.
If you’re not leaving your comfort zone every single day, you’re not growing. Some sales technology squashes the willingness to take risks. How can you reach beyond the cadence to improve the ratio of activities to outcomes?
David explains how the leadership at DiscoverOrg.com shows vulnerability by going first. Andy would like to see more latitude in the sales process. David categorizes tiers of leads.
Culture starts at the top. The early cadre of sellers at DiscoverOrg — still the leaders today — built a culture of trust and learning. It takes having the right people on the team, willing to teach and show the way.
Values and character are essential. David talks about interviewing candidates about failures and challenges.
Most failures are failures in communication. Sales reps are better at explaining than listening. Managers are better at warning than coaching. Build a culture where you can call each other out on issues.
Development is a responsibility between the individual and the organization. It takes individual investment. People need encouragement to be motivated. To practice is the sine qua non of finding the next level.
DiscoverOrg adds tools to their team’s sales stack to develop enablement behaviors they want to encourage that will make more money and help the company grow faster.
DiscoverOrg has a process to map a rep’s career trajectory and possibilities. For sellers, that involves “buckets of learning.” DiscoverOrg uses content and training to fill these buckets.
Parallel to a career path is an achievement path. Teach skills before demanding of people to use those skills. Teach new managers on how to coach. Train the trainers.
Andy shares a mantra: Manage the process. Coach the opportunities. Mentor the people. David encourages taking learning and reflection time. Mentoring is about leading people to discover and use solutions to their needs.

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709: Sell with Your Authentic Self, with Larry Levine

Larry Levine, professional coach, podcaster, and Amazon best-selling author of Selling From The Heart: How Your Authentic Self Sells You, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Larry quotes Simon Sinek in his book. “People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.” Larry filled the book with comments like, “You must lead with the heart and not the wallet.”
You can’t connect if people are suspicious about your motivations. When you say “but,” you are signaling to the prospect that everything you said up to that point really doesn’t matter but you just really want them to buy today.
Larry wrote the book to teach the importance of authenticity. Trust is the basis of a healthy relationship. Transfer the trust factors of your personal relationships to your business relationships.
After understanding overall why you are in sales, learn the ‘why’ of every step and interaction in your sales process. Don’t just learn how to follow the process; understand the why of each step of it.
Larry defines sales as “the art of the help.” Continually be helping people along the way, which requires continual learning on your part and bringing the goods to your clients. If you do not, you will be replaced.
Who should pay for your professional development? Workers under age 35 leave jobs when they don’t feel supported. Companies are not stepping up. Reps, invest in yourselves, even if by using free resources.
Your clients are some of the best sources of help. Understand your contacts’ roles. Ask them to help you understand the metrics that show when they are doing well in their job. Be vulnerable and teachable.
Take courses in accounting, in marketing yourself, in technology, and more. Should sales have continuing education and professional certifications for sellers? Larry explains how sales professionals pursue development.
How does being “good” relate to “excellence” in sales? How do you become the best version of yourself? There is no ending destination point. Keep going. Larry compares sales managers with baseball managers.
Are reps not working as hard or well now as when Andy was “coming of age” in sales? Andy says people are still the same. Larry discusses making excuses for missing quota. You are solely responsible for your outcomes.
Individuals at each level — reps, managers, and execs — should be improving themselves. Larry talks about CEOs investing in their employees. Andy describes his book club at work that creates an environment of learning.
Over the years Andy has received many book recommendations from client CEOs. Reading is a necessary habit, on a tablet or in paper form. It is easy today to publish sales content. We need a rating system!

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708: Develop Extraordinary Sales Abilities, with Juliana Stancampiano

Juliana Stancampiano, CEO of Oxygen, and author of Radical Outcomes: How to Create Extraordinary Teams that Get Tangible Results, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Training is repetition. Education is perspective, knowledge, and wisdom. Oxygen modernizes corporate education. CEOs see no ROI in sales training. What’s the potential value?
Is sales enablement necessary for the experienced salesperson who knows the product and the prospects?  Juliana compares sales enablement to a musician’s jazz lead sheet. You improvise from it and build on it.
Salespeople don’t always come with critical thinking skills. Andy breaks sales into four core skills: B e human, A sk great questions, L isten slowly, and D eliver great value (BALD). A sales process without sales skills is ineffective.
If you’re stuck for more than 15 minutes, turn to someone and ask for help. Don’t spend hours on a problem beyond your experience. Work in an iterative and agile manner.
Juliana talks about making progress incrementally. She defines progress in her book as a 5% difference, on a day-to-day basis, toward a chosen outcome.
Companies spend on the wrong kinds of training. People who don’t go through education get atrophied. Andy wants people to invest in their own development.
Ask questions with a curiosity to know the answer. Ask how things get done, and what are the barriers and accelerators to doing them. Some companies teach questions but should teaching questioning skills.
Companies are afraid to invest time in educating people. Andy’s book club program takes reps 20 minutes a day to read an industry book and journal their ideas from it.
Satya Nadella is moving Microsoft from a ‘know-it-all’ culture to a ‘learn-it-all’ culture, going out and being curious and look at places where they haven’t looked before. That has had a hugely positive revenue impact.
Companies with missions to disrupt markets, ironically use rigid, conformity-based selling processes. Automation in sales has automated bad practices. Geoff Colvin says the key differentiator is the ability to be human.
Juliana recently presented a webinar about authenticity and social selling in a large company. An attendee came up to her for help with no clue how to initiate customer engagement. Juliana gave her an hour of role-playing.
LinkedIn surveyed people in the first 10 years of their careers. 75% of them thought the way to succeed was to master the hard skills. FYI, it’s the opposite. It’s your human ability that sets you apart.

707: Grow Your Revenue through Customer Success, with Emilia D’Anzica

Emilia D’Anzica, Partner and Customer Success and Account Management for Winning by Design, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Customer success is a driving force of revenue growth in the SaaS industry and is applicable to other businesses. Emilia points to WeWork as a non-tech company with a global Customer Success team.
The lifetime value of an onboarded customer continues after the original opportunity is closed. Look at sales not as closings but as commitments. The growth of the commitment can be 75% to 92% of the lifetime value.
Customer Success often reports to Sales. Emilia considers it to be at least as important as Sales. Companies that are invested in customer success bring the customer success team to the customer before the sale.
Customer Success managers should be familiar with the sales process and sales reps should be familiar with the customer success process. When Emilia hires Customer Service managers, Sales Managers are ideal candidates.
Andy explains how “land and expand” is not his vision of customer success. The full scope is not just selling the customer more seats for the same product but also selling more products to the customer.
Andy describes customer success as “fit in and stand out.” He explains how this improves on selling more seats. Don’t give discounts to sell additional seats. Emilia suggests requiring referral commitments.
How is customer success measured? Check non-renewals. What went wrong that led to the non-renewal? What are you missing? Keep customers on track all year.
Include the executive decision-maker on the kick-off call to understand their goals for purchasing; briefly engage them after the system is live for their goals for the next quarter. Do this quarterly, if possible.
Help the customer leverage the product in a way that will benefit their company. The decision-maker is the best guide for this. Always make the end-user the hero.
If you only bring the executive in for the renewal call, you miss the mark. Emilia saw a six-month check-in where the executive said, “This is not what I purchased. This is not what I wanted,” and stopped using the product.
Andy’s kick-off process: The first call reviews with the decision-maker what their goals were, how the product met those goals, why they bought, and what they expect from the product within time frames — no confusion.
Key customer success metrics: Net Promoter Score and Customer Satisfaction Score, if you use the data. An important metric is Time to First Value. Emilia shows executives how the product impacts their business.

706: Rehumanize Your Sales with Personal Video, with Ethan Beute

Ethan Beute, VP of Marketing at BombBomb and co-author of the new book Rehumanize Your Business: How Personal Videos Accelerate Sales and Improve Customer Experience, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Ethan shares how Conor McCluskey and Darin Dawson founded BombBomb. In 2006, they decided to build a better way to use video in email messages so they could be ‘face-to-face’ more with customers and prospects.
Ethan shares use-case examples. Tens of thousands of customers today use BombBomb for one-to-one and group video messages. Personal videos are natural and unscripted. Video is more authentic than writing.
You are your best sales asset. Recent BombBomb research shows we over-craft our emails and overestimate our ability to communicate clearly with email messages. Think of video more as a phone call.
Ethan comments on a business movement toward being ourselves and treating others as humans, not prospects. To rehumanize your business is to return to the old ways of doing business.
Faceless, digital communication has dehumanizing effects. Using video makes doing your job in sales more human for you and also shows the customer what it’s like to work with you, your service, and your company.
Video is a good tool to show natural human qualities. Andy talks about there being room for the person in amongst the technology. Ethan says that each technology provides a moment to be personal within the process.
Machines allow us to do ‘personalized’ mailings and also allow us to be more personal in sales and service. Ethan shares a hotel check-in anecdote from Joseph Jaffe.
A BombBomb video has an animated “proof of life” thumbnail showing that it is a truly personalized message relevant to the recipient.
Humans desire to be seen, heard, and understood as individuals. BombBomb has a screen-filming feature so you can put yourself into an inset on the customer’s own webpage, blog, or video page.
Ethan suggests questions to consider when selecting recipients. The better you understand how your offer relates to them, the more personal you can make your video. Feature your call to action clearly.
Ethan explains the layout of a video email. It’s best to keep a first-contact video under one minute. BombBomb videos are easy to forward. You might get multiple decision-makers viewing one sent email message.
Video is best for prospecting, process updates, holidays/occasions, saying thanks, bad news/apologies, invitations, saying “It was great to meet you,” internal communications, recruiting, and checking in/nurturing.

CONTACT ETHAN BEUTE

LinkedIn: Ethan Beute

Website: BombBomb.com

Book: BombBomb.com/book

705: Soccer Thinking for Sales Success, with Peter Loge

Peter Loge, an Associate Professor, a strategic and communications consultant, and the author of Soccer Thinking for Management Success, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Peter Loge reveals his career path from politics and lobbying to consulting and how he wrote about soccer thinking for management success.
Andy compares the scientific and human aspects of soccer to those aspects of sales. The art plus science equals the craft.
The best talent plus high enthusiasm do not guarantee success. It’s not about having a rigid system. It’s about building a system that takes advantage of the talent. It’s about how to develop the talent and bring in new talent.
There is freedom within a process by making sure people are unambiguously clear about what they’re supposed to do. “Process” does not mean micro-management.
Coach Bruce Arena always made his expectations clear. He immediately called out mistakes to correct them and successes to suggest improvements.
Use specific directions. Don’t say, “do better.” Explain what would make it better. Human connection is better.
How do the New England Patriots consistently win? You need a system in which everybody is in service of each other. Peter gives a business case study from a current client. A star player doesn’t get your team to the playoffs.
MLS executive Kevin Payne said that organizational success used to look like American Football — command and control; today it looks like soccer. Soccer is a fluid system. You have to solve a problem, together, in real-time.
Do you want to hire a generalist or a specialist? Peter explains. He knows what he doesn’t know and when he needs backup. You need both specialists and generalists, in a ratio that is effective within your system.
Develop individual strengths. Soccer player Lori Lindsey said to figure out your place in the team. How can you add to the team? Where do your strengths and weaknesses play? Teams win together.
Let your team express their individual talents and strengths. It’s about people first. Connect on a human level with a measure of humility. Hire people who make you better. Ask for feedback on your weaknesses.
It’s OK to have a conflict if you recognize that you’re solving a problem together and not proving who is superior. Problem-solving is in the service of being better people. If you make a lot of money on the way, fantastic!

 

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CONTACT PETER LOGE

Website: SoccerThinking.com

Website: PeterLoge.com

704: Pull Levers to Grow Your Business Quickly, with Pete Williams.

Pete Williams, an entrepreneur, advisor, marketer, and author of the new book, Cadence: A Tale of Fast Business Growth, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Pete’s core business in Australia is telecommunications. As he studied what did work to drive growth for his business and what did not, he discovered key profit drivers. Pete developed a methodology and applied it.
Pete had identified seven levers to improve in your business for a large cumulative impact. When he shared his system, it became a movement. That led him to write the book, over a number of years.
A 10% increase in each of the seven areas creates a compounding effect to double the bottom-line profit. Team Sky manager Sir Dave Brailsford has a philosophy he calls the 1% aggregation of marginal gains.
With a margin of victory of no more than one percent, improve everything you do by 1%. Sales managers often say they want to “hit it out of the park.” If they get a 5% boost, they think it’s not worth it to continue.
Success is “getting on base.” Make small, regular tweaks for cumulative results. Make sure you’re in the middle of the bell curve and growing. Be ready for the big successes but have a process to grow, apart from big contracts.
Pete’s first three levers are Suspects, Prospects, and Conversions. Suspects are “walk-in” shoppers. Prospects step up as qualified buyers. Conversions are people who actually purchase your goods or services.
Conversations with Suspects and Prospects are very different. When Suspects become Prospects, you shift the conversation. In a shoe store, first, you get them to try on a pair of shoes. When they do, you sell them the shoes.
Understand and identify the micro-commitments that signal that a Suspect has become a Prospect. A good goal is a 10% boost in Suspects shifting to Prospects and a 10% boost in Prospects shifting to Conversions.
For Pete’s B2B telco group, one micro-commitment is agreeing to a short site inspection; another is agreeing to get a quote. Andy says to make sure the Suspect has an outcome in mind, with results and a budget attached.
Pete’s next levers are Average Item Price and Average Items Per Sale. Pete lists some examples of 10% wins. Putting upselling items in the proposal, for instance. What practices can you put in place to get small increases here?
Pete makes Buyer’s Guides to make the product easier to access and to educate the buyer on the buying process, with upselling. ‘Tiebreakers’ win by added value, not by price concessions. The Buyer’s Guide pushes two levers.
The next lever is Transactions Per Customer. Automate repeat transactions. Do you have customers that you have never contacted again after the sale? Use systems to create “check” moves on the way to “mate.”

#704 Pull Levers to Grow Your Business Quickly, with Pete Williams.

Pete Williams, an entrepreneur, advisor, marketer, and author of the new book, Cadence: A Tale of Fast Business Growth, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Pete’s core business in Australia is telecommunications. As he studied what did work to drive growth for his business and what did not, he discovered key profit drivers. Pete developed a methodology and applied it.
Pete had identified seven levers to improve in your business for a large cumulative impact. When he shared his system, it became a movement. That led him to write the book, over a number of years.
A 10% increase in each of the seven areas creates a compounding effect to double the bottom-line profit. Team Sky manager Sir Dave Brailsford has a philosophy he calls the 1% aggregation of marginal gains.
With a margin of victory of no more than one percent, improve everything you do by 1%. Sales managers often say they want to “hit it out of the park.” If they get a 5% boost, they think it’s not worth it to continue.
Success is “getting on base.” Make small, regular tweaks for cumulative results. Make sure you’re in the middle of the bell curve and growing. Be ready for the big successes but have a process to grow, apart from big contracts.
Pete’s first three levers are Suspects, Prospects, and Conversions. Suspects are “walk-in” shoppers. Prospects step up as qualified buyers. Conversions are people who actually purchase your goods or services.
Conversations with Suspects and Prospects are very different. When Suspects become Prospects, you shift the conversation. In a shoe store, first, you get them to try on a pair of shoes. When they do, you sell them the shoes.
Understand and identify the micro-commitments that signal that a Suspect has become a Prospect. A good goal is a 10% boost in Suspects shifting to Prospects and a 10% boost in Prospects shifting to Conversions.
For Pete’s B2B telco group, one micro-commitment is agreeing to a short site inspection; another is agreeing to get a quote. Andy says to make sure the Suspect has an outcome in mind, with results and a budget attached.
Pete’s next levers are Average Item Price and Average Items Per Sale. Pete lists some examples of 10% wins. Putting upselling items in the proposal, for instance. What practices can you put in place to get small increases here?
Pete makes Buyer’s Guides to make the product easier to access and to educate the buyer on the buying process, with upselling. ‘Tiebreakers’ win by added value, not by price concessions. The Buyer’s Guide pushes two levers.
The next lever is Transactions Per Customer. Automate repeat transactions. Do you have customers that you have never contacted again after the sale? Use systems to create “check” moves on the way to “mate.”

703: Focus on Personal and Professional Development, with Scott Ingram.

Scott Ingram, Account Director at Relationship One and the host of Sales Success Stories, Inspired Marketing, and Daily Sales Tips Podcasts, joins me again on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

New sales professionals expect that companies will invest in their development. Andy and Scott enjoyed extended onboarding when starting in sales, years ago. Scott encourages sales reps to own their development.
It is reasonable to expect your company to invest in your development but the fact is, it’s not going to happen except at major companies. Arrange for your own learning. Sales managers may work with you on cost.
Scott has interviewed 60 sales leaders on Sales Success Stories. The best of the best use a variety of methods with one common thread: being a student of sales and treating it as a craft that requires time and investment.
You have to read, listen, go to conferences, and find mentors, coaches, and peers that will help lift you up. It comes back to you. You have to be the one to assemble all that knowledge and fit it into your style and strengths.
One of the things the top 1% of sellers have in common is they are a little bit “rebel” and rule-breakers. They don’t follow the methodology or the prescribed process to a “T.” They’ve earned the right to some freedom.
You have to deliver the performance your leadership expects of you. Then layer on, in A/B style, doing your own thing, and measuring the results of both ways. It’s more work for a while. Present the results to your boss.
Scott has never seen a #1 sales rep who is there despite their boss. How do you have the conversation about doing it your way? Scott suggests asking reps who have worked for that leader how they worked together.
Mike Dudgeon of LinkedIn asked his team to treat their sales territory as a franchise. It’s all about revenue growth and sharpening the ax. We all need to continue to grow and improve in our careers, or we will be left behind.
Selling gets more fun when you treat it as a craft and hone your skill. Invest 5% or more of your annual income and time into learning. What you focus on must be something you know you can do and maintain every day.
Scott notes books he is reading now. He is working on the elimination of distractions, especially notifications and browser tabs and is rethinking the way he deals with LinkedIn — by checking it in the afternoon for 20 minutes.
Andy and Scott discuss Cal Newport’s books on cutting digital distractions. There are many needs for deep work in sales. Carve out response blocks on your calendar around your deep work. Get a virtual assistant.
Andy comments on responsiveness. Do the best you can, while respecting the person you are with. Andy offers, “Sorry I took so long to get back to you.” Figure out for yourself what works for you and your prospects.

702: Uncomfortable Goals and Growth, with Doug Holt

Doug Holt, Coach, Mentor, Growth Hacker, Lifestyle Engineer, Mastermind Group Leader, Transformational Coach, and Marketing Expert, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Doug is a digital nomad. Doug has always been an entrepreneur. He runs six businesses, including business coaching companies, marketing agencies, and a fitness trade journal. His health suffered from all the stress.
While he was in Santa Barbara in his early 20s, he trained many top celebrities and business people with his boutique private fitness training.
Doug learned that business success has a direct correlation with balance in personal relationships. Some mentors had urged him to choose between his personal life and his business but that didn’t sit well with him.
Doug noticed that the few of his clients who were happy had taken a balanced approach to prioritize fitness and relationships. If Doug had listened to some of his more business-driven clients, he would not be happy today.
Doug says if people are unfulfilled, they turn to something that they can control and have fulfillment in and for business owners, that tends to be business. Andy says when he wasn’t happy, his work suffered as well.
Andy and Doug agree on a balanced integration of all aspects of life. Doug found that the more authentic he was, the more authentic his clients would feel free to be. Putting on a business “front” decreases trust.
Doug quotes Dr. Seuss: “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” Make that your unique superpower. Andy works to enable people to become the best version of themselves.
Doug read and listened to business books that his executive father gave him as a child. He assumed everyone else did. He had a business persona. It took him a while to learn to open up his life into his business.
Today’s emphasis on sales “process” discourages taking risks. You have to have the freedom to explore what strategies aligns best for you. Doug is looking for risk-taking intrapreneurs for his businesses.
Citing Eric Barker, Doug says great rule-followers are very easy to replace; a maverick is invaluable. Doug explains why. Some employers just want interchangeable parts, but you may not want to fill that role for them.
Most business owners are rule breakers. Why should their employees be conformists? Andy talks about his criteria for new employment. He wanted situations that scared and challenged him to learn new things.
Growth happens outside of comfort zones. Doug marks his life in 90-day chunks to work in and make himself uncomfortable in each of five areas — Mind, Body, Soul Relationships, Business. He gamifies goals with points.