Andy Paul's Blog, page 16

691: Pursue Profitable Digital Transformation with Michael Gale

Michael Gale, Co-author of The Wall Street Journal bestseller, The Digital Helix, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

 

Research shows that any form of activity associated with digital transformation will generate some positive return. Digital transformation is endemic — in small amounts.
72% of all the net returns from transformation are going to 28% of the companies. Those that transform digitally, using the right tools, are laps ahead of everybody else. Digital transformation is imperative for business today.
If you are consistently 5% better than your competition, you will thrive. Digital transformation is accelerating that differential process.
The customer’s journey is like a ‘Catherine wheel’ with many moments when a conversation can happen. The knowledge of these moments is more important than ever and also more complicated.
Salespeople need to understand at extreme levels of detail how their customer’s sales moments occur. Andy cites Gartner’s research on buyer enablement. Michael talks about understanding the ‘spaghetti of moments.’
If you are not connected socially in some way to your prospects, it’s hard to see their moments. Follow top decision-makers in your accounts.
Smart digital thrivers integrate technology to make their people the best versions of themselves and automate the processes that do not involve human interaction.
You have to personalize for the exact moment. You want to exceed expectations in a way that your cost of sale is reduced and your margins go up.
Every salesperson needs to understand that the customer has a portfolio of experience; there are moments — not journeys — to manage, and tools make you a better version of yourself.
What about visiting the prospect? Run tests in your own market. Don’t cut your costs into being a subscription business. Michael tells a cautionary tale about ESPN. Test your playbook’s assumptions.
Successful selling in a digitally transformative world requires the integration of automation at one end and intimacy at the other.
The thriving 18% of the Global 2000 mix intimacy, reskilling, moments, and portfolios so amazing things happen. Sales improves all departments. Digital transformation is about becoming more human, not less.

CONTACT MICHAEL GALE

Contact Michael: Michael@Inc.Digital

LinkedIn: Michael Gale

Book: The Digital Helix: Transforming Your Organization’s DNA to Thrive in the Digital Age, by Michael Gale and Chris Aarons

Website: Inc.Digital

690: Increase your sales velocity with email with Bryan Wade

Bryan Wade, CEO at Sigstr, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

 

Bryan’s career led him to be SVP and CPO of Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Bryan’s responsibilities were social, advertising, email, mobile, and web.
After he left, Scott Dorsey of High Alpha called him for the CEO opportunity at Sigstr. Bryan had wanted to work for a prolific software company like Sigstr — one that serves all markets, not a vertical or a niche.
Sigstr hooks into your employee email system and adds a clickable banner to every message it sends. Sigstr also has a relationship intelligence product.
Bryan explains how each dynamic email banner is targeted according to your lists and the domain of the recipient.
Andy and Bryan discuss the potential marketing opportunity through this often-unused channel. Bryan explains the development of the product by Dan Hanrahan.
Bryan gives a customer example of results from using Sigstr.
How does Sigstr increase the velocity of the sales process? Bryan explains a study Sigstr conducted with EyeQuant.
Bryan contrasts top-of-funnel to bottom-of-the-funnel banners that are most effective. Marketing creates the banners.
Bryan talks about Pulse, an AI-based relationship mapping product for sales. Bryan tells how Pulse is great for event marketers, too.
Bryan notes how Sigstr’s Email Signature Marketing product matches signatures and banners to campaigns. Sigstr’s Pulse product ignores marketing messages and looks for human-to-human connections.
Sigstr targets business with more than 100 employees and marketing sophistication. Healthcare, insurance, marketing tech, professional consulting, accounting firms, and systems integrators tend to be great clients.
Anybody who emails a lot is a good prospect for Sigstr.

CONTACT BRYAN WADE

Contact Bryan:

Website: Sigstr.com

689: Learn Prospect Values and Lingo for Engagement with Jeffrey Shaw

Jeffrey Shaw, business coach, keynote speaker, host of the Creative Warriors podcast, and author of Lingo: Discover Your Ideal Customer’s Secret Language and Make Your Business Irresistible, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

 

Jeffrey talks about his book, Lingo. As he interviews and revisits the content of this marketing and branding book and finds more to add, he plans to make the audiobook an expanded version that includes the lingo of sales.
Lingo is the secret language of a group. Learn the value system, the essence, the lifestyle and behavior of your ideal customers so that you can learn to speak their lingo, create a bond of community, and join their clan.
Jeffrey maintains that 99% of businesses are built backward. They try to fit customers into their business. Instead, try to understand the lingo of the people you serve and build your business aligned with their lingo.
Jeffrey gives a glimpse into his background and how he learned the importance of the lifestyle and values systems of his ideal customer for his photography business, which led him to learn their lingo.
Speaking your customer’s lingo minimizes the impact of price and competition. Jeffrey never had a problem charging what his work is worth. He provides high-end service and charges commensurately.
Jeffrey reframes selling as moving. He moves people from indecision to a point of decision, from seeing their problem to investing in the solution, or from confusion to transformation.
To really move people, cater to what they don’t know to ask for but you know would serve them best. As the expert in your field, you know what they really need.
Andy relates this to The Challenger Sale for changing the customer’s buying paradigm by asking questions on things they should know about their business but don’t.
Jeffrey sees lingo as the evolution of buyer personas and avatars. A much deeper level of prospect individualization is needed. Individualization is possible for big companies as well as small. The company has to do the research.
Jeffrey talks about lingo and accents. Jeffrey gives a case study of a dog walker who believed she was providing exceptional service while Jeffrey saw it only as frustration. Learn what is exceptional service to your customer.
Jeffrey talks about the Brand to Blend exercise he uses with clients to give them an idea about their own brand essence leading to the lingo of their ideal customer.
Jeffrey says to ignore the Pareto principle (20% of your customers produce 80% of your income). Your brand may be too broad, which would draw in less profitable clients. Bergdorf Goodman is not for everybody. No company is.

CONTACT JEFFREY SHAW

Contact Jeffrey:

Website: JeffreyShaw.com/accelerate (a page created for Accelerate listeners)

 

688: Objective-Based Selling with Tibor Shanto

Tibor Shanto, B2B prospecting and sales expert, and author of the ebooks, Sales Happen in Time and Execution: Everything Else Is Just Talk, joins me again on this episode of #Accelerate!

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

 

Tibor teaches objective-based selling to bring in new customers based on their goals, not on their pain points. Look to help prospects to meet their objectives. Tibor explains the concept of the disintermediation of sales.
The no-decision decision results from bad discovery and qualification. Tibor advises sellers to look for context for their prospects. Andy advises them to ask the questions to truly understand. Show the value of the offer to them.
It is essential to understand the customer’s business, independent of the product offering. Read The 10-day MBA or equivalent, to learn your prospect’s business processes. Why do CEOs make the decisions they do?
When your prospect knows that you understand what they’re saying, they will open up to you. You need to have conversations with the upper-level decision makers who will know your offer’s value to their company.
Buyers are finding their buying cycles are twice as long as they anticipated — partly because of their infrequency of purchasing, partly because reps do not provide enough value to their process. Improve your discovery quality.
CB Insights lists points where the buying cycle fails: 1) no internal agreement on the issue; 2) no agreement on whether or how to address the issue; 3) no agreement on vendor selection. Point 3) is the least likely failure point.
Andy simplifies it further: 1) the go/no-go decision; 2) vendor selection. Point 1) is largely product-free. If you reach the prospect at point 1), you can greatly influence point 2). Win the sale by showing them how to get to “go.”
Go to the prospect with a blank canvas. If you get them to decide between go and no-go or help shape their buying vision, you are in the lead. It takes serious work to get to that point. Tibor walks through an example conversation.
Qualification doesn’t happen in the first call. Start with a gap analysis. Quantify the impact of customer objectives. This conversation must take place with a senior person. An SDR cannot qualify your lead. It is a continual process.
A good salesperson will disqualify opportunities when prospecting. Aim your questions to disqualify. Be very disciplined and rigid about disqualifying in the first call.
Leads are recyclable. They may qualify later. Visit with people who are ready to sign a check this quarter. Use key criteria to find the ideal customer profile. Take notes. Address comments that interest you when you reply.
We all have 24 hours in a day. Manage your activities, not your time. Look for your KPIs to do during the day and sales cycle. Time is your investment capital. Spend it well. Email Tibor for his ebook on time, Sales Happen in Time.

 

CONTACT TIBOR SHANTO

Contact Tibor: Tibor@TiborShanto.com

Website: TiborShanto.com

687: How to Work Through Conflicts Compassionately with Nate Regier

Nate Regier, CEO of Next Element Consulting and author of Conflict without Casualties: A Field Guide for Leading with Compassionate Accountability, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

 

There are compassionate ways to require results. Conflict is the gap between what you want and what you are experiencing at any point in time. Andy reflects on how this applies to sales.
Sales objections are not personal. They express the buyer’s angst. Nate teaches reps how to discern more quickly and effectively what gaps the seller and buyer have, and how they can work together to close them.
Nate is a psychologist ‘in recovery.’ Nate had a psychology mentor who taught him, “If you’re working harder than your client, then something’s wrong here.” In sales, the seller and the buyer need to work together to close gaps.
As a therapist, Nate realized people don’t come to therapy because they want to change; they want the pain to go away.
If a sales rep misidentifies the gap and doesn’t understand what the buyer is trying to accomplish, they will be at odds with the buyer and experience resistance.
Compassion requires seeing through the eyes of the other party. Start with openness. Disclosing your plans and agendas leads to understanding. Be transparent in your motivations.
Andy builds trust with MICE — Motives, Integrity, Competence, and Execution. Customers sense if you are not transparent in your motivation or have no integrity.
There is always a potential drama. You can play the role of a persecutor (‘It’s everybody else’s fault’), a victim (‘I’m the problem.’), or a rescuer (‘I‘m the solution.’). Nate avoids adopting these roles but asks questions, instead.
You can spend your money on those who promise to make the pain go away, or with someone who offers a path for change and transformation. The best reps help people understand what they want to accomplish.
When it’s a collaboration, the buyer feels better about the outcome. They have participated with skin in the game. The solution is rewarding when they have ownership of it.
It’s OK to talk about pain points, but quickly move up to ‘Where do you want to be? When that happens, how will you feel? What emotional endstate are you striving for?’ This identifies the gap. Identify the problem.
Nate’s one thing to leave with you: Always hold on to the belief that both you and your customer are worthwhile, capable, and accountable. Never forget that; always act to manifest those things and things will turn out OK.

CONTACT NATE REGIER

Contact Nate: Nate@Next-Element.com

Book: Conflict without Casualties: A Field Guide for Leading with Compassionate Accountability, by Nate Regier, Ph.D.

Website: Next-Element.com

686: What Makes a Modern Seller? With Amy Franko

Amy Franko, sales & leadership keynote speaker and author of the new book, The Modern Seller: Sell More and Increase Your Impact in the New Sales Economy, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

 

Amy wrote an article on the business case for sales enablement. Does everyone understand what sales enablement is? What is missing from sales training methods? 80% of CEOs see no value in sales training.
Amy tells how to build sustainable sales enablement in an organization. Build relationships with the influencers. Look at the pieces of sales enablement in the enterprise. Consider the top three things to do for the best impact.
Amy thinks that the practical implementation of enablement at the field level and feedback from the field on what’s working are most often missing. There must be links between learning, application, and feedback.
Education should be included in sales enablement. Relationship building is not something that fits into a training process. Andy says we train pets; we educate people. Set aside time for learning.
Andy’s sales education consisted of training in processes and making calls with sales managers who demonstrated the skills of selling. Having the right sales leader makes all the difference to what you do in the field, says Amy.
Andy explains the difference between coaching and mentoring. You need a learning plan as well as a sales plan. Amy sought out mentors. She didn’t wait. She still talks with them, years later. Actively seek out learning.
Andy offers a book study program to organizations to set aside 30 minutes a day. Salespeople spend a third of the day selling. There is a time in the day for education. Managers also need to accept the role of a mentor.
Amy just published The Modern Seller. A modern seller is a differentiator and a leader. They are acknowledged by clients and prospects as someone who makes a difference for them. They also add insight to the product.
Amy sees five dimensions sellers develop that make them modern: agile, entrepreneurial, holistic, social, and ambassador. These are the skills behind the sales skills.
Agile means a fluid thinker, a continuous learner, one who deals well with ambiguity and who has a growth mindset. Entrepreneurial people see themselves as the CEO of their book of business. How can SDRs do this? It takes vision.
Holistic refers to investing your finite time, energy, and discipline in the best way to impact your results directly. Social is investing in your networks and relationships. Studies show Boomers are the best LinkedIn networkers.
An Ambassador is a bridge between their organization and the community. They embody the values of their organization but stand uniquely in their own brand. They take a win and turn it into lifetime loyalty and value.

CONTACT AMY FRANKO

Contact Amy:

LinkedIn: Amy Franko

Website: AmyFranko.com

Book: The Modern Seller: Sell More and Increase Your Impact in the New Sales Economy, by Amy Franko

685: Your Morning Routine Inspires Your Day with Benjamin Spall

Benjamin Spall, co-author of My Morning Routine: How Successful People Start Every Day Inspired, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

 

The function of having a morning routine with intention is to make your morning successful and bring that success to the rest of your day. Benjamin started a website about it over five years ago and then developed the book.
Benjamin refers to ‘habit stacks’ from The Power of Habit. Your stack is a sequence of habits. Everyone has a morning routine but their routine might not have a positive intention. Modify your intention and habits.
Benjamin chats with his wife before checking his phone. The phone is for important needs, not for social media surfing or emailing. Do work email at work. Benjamin doesn’t allow the stress of work to come into his morning.
Benjamin interviewed successful people for the book. 60% of them check their phone immediately and the majority of those actually say they wish they didn’t! 49% check their email immediately. (Some habits die hard.)
Don’t fall for absolutism. For some people, the bad habit might be not checking the phone the first thing! Benjamin wants to get people to set their own routine. If you don’t put something into your routine, it likely won’t happen.
Benjamin works out at lunchtime instead of in the morning, but you are much more likely to do it first thing in the morning than later. There are some routines that work better for singles and some for families.
Put activities at the time that’s best for you. Set a constant, predictable breakfast that satisfies you until lunchtime. Experiment with your wake up time. Don’t hit ‘snooze’ on your alarm, if you use one.
Andy observes that successful people include exercise in their routines. Benjamin agrees. Exercise at a time that works for you. Your workout can be as simple as walking a few blocks.
Andy likes reading a business-related book in the morning and a physical book for pleasure at night. Andy uses Evernote to cut and paste from ebooks to take notes and email them to himself. He looks forward to reading.
Getting enough sleep is one of the most important findings in the book. Without enough sleep, your morning routine will not be energizing. You will not feel like working out.
Bob Moore talked about choosing what to wear. He was the oldest person interviewed and one of the most fascinating. Andy thinks people should wear a ‘uniform’ for their routine to cut decision fatigue.
Benjamin talks about decision fatigue. The fewer decisions you have to make, the better decisions you can make. Put out your clothes the night before.
An important part of Andy’s routine is giving himself the time to think. Then he sends himself an email with his ideas and thoughts. Benjamin includes high-level thinking about goals in his meditating.

CONTACT BENJAMIN SPALL

Contact Benjamin:

Website: MyMorningRoutine.com

Website: BenjaminSpall.com

Book: My Morning Routine: How Successful People Start Every Day Inspired, by Benjamin Spall and Michael Xander

Twitter @BenjaminSpall

Instagram @BenjaminSpall

684: How to Strategize with Pillars on Index Cards with Brian Margolis

Brian Margolis, Founder of Productivity Giant and author of the book The Index Card Business Plan for Sales Pros and Entrepreneurs: How to Use the Pillar System to Simplify Your Strategy and Magnify Your Results, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

 

The genesis of Brian’s book was a plan he had been using for years. A client asked him to write it down in a book.
Brian had been looking for a simple business strategy and plan and he found the pillar system. He modified it with index cards. He explains how the pillar index cards work.
First, identify your pillars. By completing tasks from these pillars each week, you do the most critical things for that week. By focusing on the important things you advance.
Andy relates strongly to the aspect of simplification in the system. We complicate sales unnecessarily with innovations and technology.
A card is not a checklist of things to get the most done. It is a proactive, focused effort to perform activities within your control that produce the most results.
Brian’s premise is that as long as you do your pillars, everything else “takes care of itself,” in a bleed effect. Pillars work by the compound effect. If you ignore them, you don’t notice results right away, but over time you do.
Choosing the triple cheeseburger or the kale salad for lunch doesn’t show up in the mirror tonight. Choosing one or the other every day shows up in the mirror, gradually, over time. Brian applies this to sales behaviors.
Brian has a learning pillar. The most important thing about the pillar is choosing the right thing to learn. The information is out there. Choose the skill that gives you the best return.
Brian gives a tip for instant application. Identify the key proactive things that you have to do every week so you feel on Friday night that you had a great week and your business is moving forward. Execute them continually.
You can run your business from an index card if it includes your critical activities. Brian’s plan has resulted in individual reps becoming seven-figure earners. Fortune 500 companies have taught their staffs this system.
Andy is sold on the simplicity of the concept and will start using elements of it in operating TheSalesHouse.com.
It is difficult to diagnose company problems either by the lagging indicator of closed orders or by activity reports. But those may be all managers look at. When reps use pillars and cards, they can review them with managers.

CONTACT BRIAN MARGOLIS

Contact Brian:

Website: ProductivityGiant.com

Book: The Index Card Business Plan for Sales Pros and Entrepreneurs: How to Use the Pillar System to Simplify Your Strategy and Magnify Your Results, by Brian Margolis

683: Using Brain Science to Sell with Christine Comaford

Christine Comaford, Leadership & Culture Coach to High-Performing Executives and author of Power Your Tribe: Create Resilient Teams in Turbulent Times, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Christine Mastered in applied neuroscience. Her purpose for the book was to help people create emotionally resilient teams. Brain science opens communication with the primal part of the brain where most conflict occurs.
It takes work to give someone the experience of ‘same as.’ Turbulence comes by people asking for an experience of safety, belonging, and mattering and not getting it. If we can find our common core, it makes a huge difference.
If we are stressed by political division, ask, “What do I believe, and how do I want to show up in it? Am I going to be a professional that lets people have their own points of view and just looks at what’s the business goal here?”
Issues of safety, belonging, and mattering are handled separately. Safety is handled by a discussion of plans and backup plans. Belonging issues require inclusion into the tribe. Mattering issues are resolved by extra appreciation.
Christine offers ideas for mitigating a buyer’s feeling of risk (or lack of safety) revealed by their objections. Other influencers may need to be assured of belonging and mattering. Christine explains how to blend messages.
There are multiple ways to establish that we are the same as you; you are the same as us, whether the issue is safety, belonging, or mattering. These are helpful in sales situations. Objections are just questions to be answered.
Safety, belonging, and mattering are contextual. Your emotional needs differ by your groups. Metaprograms are filters through which we experience the world. You can build rapport with others by their metaprograms.
Christine says a person is either toward or away, and that you need to see which one they are in order to build rapport with that person. Andy cites Daniel Burrus’s slices of time that people inhabit.
People focus either on options or procedures. Christine outlines the differences. A procedures person is compelled to finish the process. Spell things out for them so they see the process.
Andy cites Herbert Simon on maximizers and satisficers. Christine shows how to use blended messages. Blended messages are effective because the brain deletes, distorts, and generalizes.
A person can focus on the general or the specific. Be aware of their needs a blended article will have really good descriptive headlines. ‘General’ people will only read the headlines; ‘specific’ people will study the article.
How can you use safety, belonging, mattering, and metaprograms in sales and in hiring? Christine suggests some ways to look at various tasks. She offers some case examples. Andy talks about engagement and technology.


CONTACT CHRISTINE COMAFORD

Contact Christine:

Website: SmartTribesInstitute

Book: Power Your Tribe: Create Resilient Teams in Turbulent Times, by Christine Comaford

682: The Science of Success with Eric Barker

Eric Barker, author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller, Barking Up the Wrong Tree: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

 

Do we live better lives as outliers or at the middle of the bell curve? Outliers are very different. Gautam Mukunda of HBS studied leaders for effectiveness and divided them into two groups — filtered and unfiltered (outsiders).
Awareness of your own strengths and weaknesses allows you to navigate with and around them.
Metrics in Sales are built from non-existent averages. No one actually performs at the average. What are the fundamental differences between the poor and the excellent? They share some traits.
Mukunda studied intensifiers, such as stubbornness — a bad trait for a litigator and a good trait for an entrepreneur. We call stubbornness ‘grit’ in an entrepreneur. Negatives are positives, in the right arena.
In a study by Karen Arnold at Boston College, High school valedictorians are shown to do very well in life but they generally did not reach the heights of success. Grades in school measure conscientiousness, not rule-breaking.
Strict processes protect against downside risk, but also against great achievements. Top performers have already been vetted for excellence and have earned a measure of self-direction.
If you are optimized for conditions right now, you will not be optimized for the next coming paradigm shift. Try new things and expand yourself to catch the next wave. Make yourself relevant by learning something about everything.
Eric’s book has a section about changing your story. The story you tell yourself is critical. Consider yourself to be the hero. James Pennebaker of UTA has people sit down and write their stories. They start feeling better.
There is always another way to view the same events. Is your story optimistic or pessimistic? Don’t accept other people’s versions of your story. Take control of your own story.
Tim Wilson of UVA studied how to change people’s stories. If you start volunteering weekly, it becomes hard to tell yourself you are a terrible person. See yourself as a person with a certain behavior and it is a ‘given.’
BJ Fogg of Stanford talks about minimum viable effort. To start flossing your teeth, start out by flossing one tooth, every day. Then, start flossing two teeth. When that is established, start flossing your whole mouth.
Sir David Brailsford, manager of Team Sky winner of the Tours de France six out of the last seven years, talks about the aggregation of marginal gains. Do every single thing pertaining to racing a bike just 1% better.

CONTACT ERIC BARKER

Contact Eric:

Book: Barking Up the Wrong Tree: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong,

by Eric Barker

Blog: Barking Up the Wrong Tree