Andy Paul's Blog, page 20

663: Create Better Habits w/ Dave Blanchard; Education vs. Training w/ Bridget Gleason.

 

Dave Blanchard, CEO of The Og Mandino Leadership Institute and Bridget Gleason, VP of Sales for Logz.io and my regular partner, join me on this episode of #Accelerate!

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

First guest: Dave Blanchard

Dave is writing the screenplay for the movie of The Greatest Salesman in the World. He prayed for inspiration and had an incredible experience outlining the script. He is going to Israel for a cultural immersion.
The mission is to bring Og Mandino’s legacy into the 21st Century. The latest generations of salespeople are not familiar with the name but the principles resonate with them. They know what you achieve depends on you.
Dave talks about the mathematical measurements of habits. The Habit Finder is a tool for learning your habits of thinking that serve you and those that hinder you. Our habits of thinking impact every facet of our lives.
To change your actions, change your thoughts. Don’t wait for your manager to manage your bad behavior. Get to the thought process that forms those habits. Learn to become the very best version of yourself.
Dave helps people get to “the real stuff” that controls what they do.
Even in an adversarial work situation, some salespeople are good at listening, understanding, and serving. They are that way despite the culture where they work. They break the rules and become top sellers.
Dave describes the dichotomy salespeople feel who are naturally empathetic and intuitive but are pressured into observing quotas and processes more than meeting the customer’s needs. This leads to self-sabotaging thoughts.
When salespeople are selling out of fear and obligation, they are not happy. They have no self-esteem and they are not optimized. Dave teaches people to “embrace your mediocre” and take one step up (not too far). Repeat.
Dave asks the audience a question: write down what the word mediocre means to you. Then Dave explains what the word really means. Stop chasing “the perfect.” It’s unsustainable. Take small steps to raise your baseline.
Dave describes the process of taking the Habit Finder assessment. It is free now. It helps you to build on your strengths and build new habits of thinking and get rid of those things in the way of your maximizing your gifts.
Always go deeper and ask the right penetrating questions. Don’t delude yourself. Pay attention and get to ‘the next millimeter.’ Sales are won by millimeters, not stages. Dave expresses habits mathematically.
Andy foresees the ‘return of the human’ in sales. Don’t be a metrics jockey.

 

Second Guest: Bridget Gleason

The topic is on learning and educating yourself. Why do we train salespeople instead of educating them? Sales managers and salespeople need to invest in themselves to maximize their potential. Be the best you can be.
Bridget is starting a Sales Leadership Team, to grow and develop them into their best version. It’s about mentoring. She will do this for her team, and expect them to carry it down to their direct reports.
Andy does not endorse a specific sales methodology. He has been trained in many methods and keeps the best principles and practices from each of them.
Bridget finds that the people who are curious are always trying to extend their knowledge even into areas where they have no personal experience. Effective salespeople educate their customers as well.
Andy talks about innovation versus luck. Learn, keep learning, and apply what you learn into your work.
Conversations give you more data points that can be used in other settings. More knowledge can make you more interesting.
Andy coaches companies to reshape how they educate salespeople. Some have set aside time every business day for a company-wide sales book club: 20 minutes of reading and 10 minutes of journaling reflections.
Many managers will not send their team for educational seminars, or even online education. Andy asks them to consider why they are turning over SDRs every 12 months. Do they want to be leaders or managers?
Bridget Recommended Winners Dream, by Bill McDermott to her CEO. After reading it, he said it was the best book he had ever read. They agreed it would be good for the sales team and the whole company.

 

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662: Keys to Digital Transformation w/ Chris Aarons & What Motivates You to Work Hard w/ Bridget Gleason

Chris Aarons, a Partner at Inc.Digital and co-author of The Digital Helix: Transforming Your Organization’s DNA to Thrive in the Digital Age, and Bridget Gleason, VP of Sales for Logz.io and my regular partner, join me on this episode of #Accelerate!

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

First guest: Chris Aarons

Organizations that want the promise and rewards of digital business need to change how they think, act and behave. ‘Digital wrapping’ is not it. Chris compares transformation to steamships replacing sailing ships.
Amazon knows what you want before you want it. Target knows your wife is pregnant before you do. Data is changing our lives. Companies need to understand the value of insights to keep pace with their customers.
Chris talks about themes of information and streams of data available to any business. Stores build profiles on you starting with your Zip Code and your online behavior.
A company needs to be digital at their core to transform what they do and how they partner with their customers.
People are not naturally data savvy. Look for the moments that matter to your customers. Chris explains ways customers make a big purchase. Digital companies can be at the right place at the right time to serve them.
Chris gives a case study of a business learning how to spot the right moment to cold call a prospect. It is critical to see the signal through the data noise.
Digital transformation is an economic transformation. What are the keys to transformation? One in six companies sees themselves as digitally transformed to get a real ROI on their transformational efforts.
Digital transformation creates new possibilities, new markets, and new things that company can do. Chris notes Amazon’s AWS as an example.
A digital mindset is the starting point of transformation. How is data connected to the company? How can everybody work cooperatively, not in silos?
A two-person company today can function as large companies did years ago, using a digital architecture. Start by understanding the data you have and getting closer to your customers. Look at their social profiles.
Chris tells what AT&T should have done to save him as a customer but they missed the signals in the data.
Chris explores drivers of digital opportunity: near-instant fulfillment, customization, unlimited experimentation, new markets, competition against big companies, more ability at less expense, and innovation.

 

Second Guest: Bridget Gleason

Being in a startup, you end up wearing a lot of hats and working long hours.
In the last 10 years, the percent of women in sales leadership roles has not increased, by one study. Andy is astonished but Bridget is not. When Bridget was raising her children she deliberately avoided leader roles.
Bridget started to work longer when her children were in college. She had owned a business, with hours that met her needs. She sold the business to consult. Then, a client talked her into working full-time to build a team.
Bridget considered it a full-time consulting engagement. It lasted five years. Now at Logz.io, she is not interested in a Chief Revenue Officer role. If she wanted it, she would go for it. She has the experience, but others find barriers.
Bridget finds that where she really thrives and what she enjoys is creating a culture and a dynamic and getting the right people. She has done this before. She would rather do that than pore through sales reports and territories.
The bigger title is not always where you will find the biggest reward. The point is to continue to challenge yourself in the role you have. Never become complacent. Know who you are and what makes you tick.
Bridget does not think most women crave the pace of leadership in a startup. And some men consider that women are not ambitious. Bridget says the bias is definitely there.
We sell into a world with diverse stakeholders and buyers. The sales organization’s diversity at a minimum should match the diversity of their market. The salesperson needs to meet the market in their mental neighborhood.

 

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661: Convert Your Users’ Contacts into Leads w/ Jay Gibb & The Three ‘Rs’ of Selling w/ Bridget Gleason.

Jay Gibb, Founder of CloudSponge and Bridget Gleason, VP of Sales for Logz.io and my regular partner, join me on this episode of #Accelerate!

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

First guest: Jay Gibb

The biggest challenge Jay sees facing sales reps today is failing to personalize the message to the prospect. Jay gives a shout out to G2Crowd. Andy notices messages that are authentically personalized to him.
CloudSponge is a SaaS company for online businesses that want to generate leads or customers from their existing users’ contacts. It works with plugins and APIs to access contacts natively within a website.
CloudSponge started in a pivot. The founders were building something else and they needed address book importing ability. They tried open source software, scripts, and apps. They ended up building it themselves.
In developers’ forums, they saw others were working on the same thing they had already created. They decided to market what they had built, and it took off. Airbnb uses CloudSponge contact buttons in their referral program.
The contacts do not stay on the CloudSponge server. They are active in memory while the session is live and purged when the session is closed. Nothing is stored except for metadata about the transaction, not the contact.
The process usually offers a coupon or discount on the referring party’s or referred party’s first or next purchase. DropBox offers 100 MB of free storage with a referral. Jay mentions how companies guard against fraud and abuse.
CloudSponge has a plugin that allows the customer to import an address book from CRM. Jay explains use cases with Gainfully and Yelp as examples.
Fundraising and crowdfunding are other use cases. This works for event invitations by ecard, as well.
What does a site owner have to do to integrate CloudSponge?  In the easiest case, it is a turnkey task to drop in the widget. Setting up a CRM import may take a couple of hours on your server, depending on the scope.
CloudSPonge has EAQs and self-help resources, and if you email for help, they will provide assistance to help you get the most out of CloudSponge for your case.
The easiest way to get a customer referral is to ask for it when closing an order. The customer is willing to share. Dropbox, Airbnb, Yelp*, and NextDoor all ask for referrals at signup time.
CloudSponge makes it possible for companies with smaller budgets to compete with industry giants.

 

Second Guest: Bridget Gleason

Andy is on the Whole30 reset program. He misses the adult beverages even more than sugar. He has become extremely conscious of what he eats and drinks. Meanwhile, he had signed up for a 62-mile bike ride.
Today’s topic is the three ‘Rs’ of selling — Readiness, Relevance, and Resilience.
Readiness is the mastery of the basic behaviors and habits of sales that allow you to connect with and engage on a human level with another person, inspiring trust.
Relevance refers to the buyer-perceived value you bring to a meeting. It is your depth of product knowledge and how your customers derive value from it, and your depth of knowledge of the customer’s industry and their needs.
Your company has few resources to devote to developing your relevance. Dive into your education. Learn all you can learn about selling, your product, and your customer. Be curious and make the investment to become relevant.
Resilience includes the work it takes where the payoff is not immediately evident. The only thing that’s 100% predictable in sales is that something will go wrong. Resilience counters adversity.
What are you doing to continue to improve, to serve your customers, and to increase your relevance and readiness?
The Three ‘Rs’ are basic building blocks. The simple things make the difference. One of Bridget’s sales reps says, “You’ve got to be brilliant at the basics.”

 

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660: Puncturing Prospecting Myths w/ Mike Schultz & Is the SDR model working? w/ Bridget Gleason.

Mike Schultz, Mike Schultz President of RAIN Group and Bridget Gleason, VP of Sales for Logz.io and my regular partner, join me on this episode of #Accelerate!

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

First guest: Mike Schultz

RAIN Group has full-time offices around the world, augmented by representatives in cities around the U.S. and one each in Germany and Dubai.
Mike sees the same challenges and hurdles in B2B sales everywhere. There are problems specific to each nation, but selling is selling, wherever the customer is found.
RAIN Group’s report, “5 Sales Prospecting Myths Debunked,” gets to the facts about sales. RAIN Group surveyed 488 buyers from 25 industries with $4.6 billion in purchasing power and 489 sellers across 26 industries.
Most buyers want to speak with a seller when they are looking for new ideas or solutions. Sellers largely do not approach buyers with relevance. 58% of CEOs surveyed said they do not find value in speaking to a salesperson.
When a buyer invests time with you, give something of value to them or there will be no next meeting. It takes up to 10 minutes for a CEO to decide if you are worth putting on their list. Ask CEOs what would be worth their time.
Don’t hide behind social media to get in touch with your market. Do your outreach. Cold calling is not dead. Buyers prefer outreach by email (1st choice) or phone call (2nd choice) out of all methods. Customized email is powerful.
82% of CEOs will take a meeting with sellers they don’t know, at least sometime each year. Research their industry, company, and the CEO before reaching out, so they know that you know who they are.
In prospecting, by doing the right things you can increase your averages. Research is not to lean on, but for illumination. Don’t rely on technology to get meetings.
It’s not how many outreaches, but how many high-quality outreaches, that get you good meetings. More calls may mean more low-quality meetings resulting in lower sales and higher turnover. Experiment with your process.
Buyers do want to know your capabilities and product features. Your discovery questions need to accompany information for them. Ask them what they want to know. Answer their questions as they answer yours.
Content is a relatively new factor in prospecting. Prospecting has been part of sales for decades; content can be an added value. But don’t try to be a thought leader if you are worse at blogging than at prospecting.
People of the cell phone generation do not know how to stay focused. Put your phone away while you work. Provide value to your customers and prospects so they know you are worth meeting. Call them.

 

Second Guest: Bridget Gleason

Andy and Bridget have worked together on 132 episodes out of the 660 episodes of Accelerate. (Bridget provides a ‘mic drop.’)
Andy recalls a conversation with a VP of Sales at a high-growth SaaS startup. He brings up some thoughts. The SDR model is not working for them. Attending events is a new way for them to explore lead generation.
This company wins 50% of the deals they conduct at the CEO level and loses 100% of the deals where they do not get to talk to the CEO. Two-thirds of their reps hit quota. Andy invites Bridget as a VP to share insights.
SDRs have a high turnover. It’s a hard position without a career path. Does it belong to Sales or Marketing or is it shared? Bridget involves the SDRs in events and in ABM. Bridget wants SDRs to grow into other positions.
Should you organize your own events and invite the right level of people? Andy gives a case study. Bridget uses them to good effect.
People used to attend trade shows to discover. Now they attend specifically to meet with vendor representatives A, B, and C.
Bridget defends the SDR role. Andy wants to put SDRs into Marketing Lead Gen. Bridget is happy for it to be there. It is a shared resource. Keep Marketing and Sales aligned with each other on messaging and targets.
What about the VP of Sales position? Andy sees it as an enduring role.

 

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659: SEO for Sales Growth w/ Phil Singleton & Weird Sales Stories w/ Bridget Gleason

Phil Singleton, content marketer and co-author with John Jantsch of SEO for Growth: The Ultimate Guide for Marketers, Web Designers & Entrepreneurs, and Bridget Gleason, VP of Sales for Logz.io and my regular partner, join me on this episode of #Accelerate!

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

First guest: Phil Singleton

Phil’s first book project, Small Business Owner’s Guide To Local Lead Generation, changed his life and his career as he moved into content marketing and SEO.
Phil was miserable in a cubicle space. He moved to Taiwan and married. In 2005 they moved to the U.S. At age 35, he made a successful one-page website for a friend. There was no looking back!
In Taiwan, Philip had been working at DVD X Copy, after they got shut down States, and before they were halted around the world after lobbying by Hollywood studios. That’s where he learned about web design and SEO.
When Google cracked down on spam and emphasized content and social media trust, Philip went from SEO coder to marketer. He read John Jantsch’s Duct Tape Marketing and joined his network. That led to their book.
Small businesses should use their site as a marketing hub that is continually updated. Put valued content on your site, not just on social media where it passes out of sight.
Your website is like landscaping. You have to nurture it. You can use social media, so long as you put the content on your website and share it on Facebook from there.
Blogging is a fundamental piece of inbound and content marketing. It establishes authority on your website and increases ‘dwell time.’ It’s a way to build the ‘long tail’ of keywords so search engines lead to your site.
Most business owners are not professional bloggers. Their time is better spent on the operation of their business. Hire the posts out to writers. Give them the topics and SEO keywords important for your business.
A series of related posts is better than random posts. You can develop them into a book, giving you backlinks from Amazon. An e-book establishes expertise. A little investment in time yields a massive amount of value.
Philip invests time in podcast guesting with influencers. With a book and endorsements, it is easy to get on podcasts that are looking for guests.
Keywords are the most important factor in reaching your key market. Philip recommends the Adwords keyword planner for ideas. With enough keywords, blog topics to attract and educate your market suggest themselves.
Philip tells how to go national with a localized approach including unique local content.

Second Guest: Bridget Gleason

Is a sales career worth the risks of travel and in the field, and even of the job itself? Andy recalls when his car front fender was shot on a sales call early in his career. Bridget says risks are everywhere, whatever your job may be.
Andy recalls being forced by his CEO to call a client at home on Christmas Eve to get an order in during the last quarter. They got the order and lost the goodwill of the customer. The CEO was gone in 90 days.
Bridget tells a war story of dropping in with her VP of Sales on someone at their home because they had downloaded a whitepaper. Bridget refused to go in.
Andy once had to go to someone’s home with a sales rep to sell a $250K business system. The windows were blacked over and had iron bars. They wanted to pay cash for the system. The ‘branch financial person’ said, “no.”
Another customer wanted to pay for a $100K system with Travelers’ Cheques.
Andy was detained once at the Canadian border because his NDA would not allow him to disclose where he was going and whom he was meeting.
Bridget recalls her most painful sales call. Her vendor representative didn’t show up and the customer was raging at Bridget.
Andy shares his next-worst call — an international sale. The call went great. The deal closed. Back at the office, the VP of Engineering informed Andy that in one calendar day the delivery schedule had slipped by six months.
Resilience is a key skill.

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658: How to Stay Relevant w/ Allen Adamson & The Power of Having a Routine w/ Bridget Gleason

Allen Adamson, Co-Founder at Metaforce.co and co-author of Shift Ahead: How the Best Companies Stay Relevant in a Fast-Changing World, by Allen Adamson and Joel Steckel, and Bridget Gleason, VP of Sales for Logz.io and my regular partner, join me on this episode of #Accelerate!

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

First guest: Allen Adamson

Allen started researching his book after noticing how keeping ahead against the accelerating pace of change is getting harder. There’s nothing you can do if your product or service is not relevant.
Allen talked to 100 companies about branding and relevance. The vast majority of companies fail to shift ahead, even when they focus on it. Don’t use cruise control — shift!
Companies struggle to innovate because innovation pulls down their profit margin. Companies that look at the future as an “agenda item” are likely to fail. Bill Marriott said, “Success is never final.” Look forward, not backward.
Corporate missions may need to expand. Allen uses Conservation International and Sony as examples of rethinking where their organizations need to go.
Everything you do should be for the customer. Allen talks about future-casting. The CEO should always stay involved with customers in the marketplace.
Work to maintain relevance combined with differentiation. Energized differentiation is the process of constant innovation. Andy says a brand is not a location but a direction.
Most organizations are not able to move fast enough. There’s no time to make it perfect. Create the minimal viable product.
Allen talks about red flags, such as flat sales and eroding margins. By the time sales start to fall it is almost too late to shift. You run into a cascade of problems. Allen talks about Campbell’s Soups.
You need to be honest with yourself about your company.
There is a crisis in B2B sales productivity. Closing rates are down and profits are down per hour worked.
By the time the data shows a problem, it is too late. Another red flag is arrogance. Allen uses Blackberry as an example.
Staying in your comfort zone, being risk-averse, and focusing internally are all fatal decisions. When was the last time the CEO went to visit a customer? The answer to a problem is never found in the office. It’s in the field.

Second Guest: Bridget Gleason

Bridget’s peer Boaz says every day in the morning, “I’m alive; awake; alert; enthusiastic.” Andy notes that waking up every morning is a victory in itself. Boaz brings positivity to the office every day. That’s powerful.
Bridget does affirmations, shows gratitude, and writes her intentions for the day every morning. She gives some examples. Andy shows gratitude in the evening. Andy’s friends think of retirement; Andy builds businesses.
When you wake, are you enthusiastic about starting your day and accomplishing things? Even if you don’t feel it at first, can you bring enthusiasm to others? Every day is another opportunity to succeed.
Comfort zones hold people back from committing to affirmations. Self-talk is powerful. Andy started self-talk for positivity in college. Bridget ties it into sales. Affirmations bring energy, that you can pass to clients.
Andy stresses the importance of a morning routine. Something or things you will do every day to get ready. Affirmations, exercise, reading, family time. Bridget’s routine is very important to her. She starts at 4:00 a.m.
Next, she reads the NYT, writes in her journal, runs, reads, gets ready, and walks to the office. It’s a great morning for her. Andy exercises every day in the morning. He learned to be a morning person once he started a family.
Bridget had a jogger stroller. Andy fell over a stroller jogging in the park when the mother did a quick U-turn.
One of Bridget’s favorite affirmations, “I’m going to live each day as if the universe is conspiring in my favor.” (Even if it’s hard to see at the time.) Be alive to opportunities.

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657: What’s the ROI on Being Nice? w/ Doug Sandler /// RESPECT w/ Bridget Gleason

 

Doug Sandler, CEO and Podcastologist at TurnKey Podcast Company, and Bridget Gleason, VP of Sales for Logz.io and my regular partner, join me on this episode of #Accelerate!

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

First guest: Doug Sandler

Andy categorizes people by whether or not they are a good person. Before deciding to conduct business with someone, Doug’s client Nathan considers whether he could happily spend a day in a canoe with them.
Different opinions are fine, but can we be civil when we disagree? Doug says social media influences how people communicate. He quotes a teacher: “Be sure that brain is engaged before putting mouth in gear.”
Andy cites a recent case of a commentator denigrating a student spokesperson in a way that was not at all nice.
Being nice has a great ROI. Look at yourself and ask if you are being a good person. Being nice is not a sign of weakness. Doug quotes, “If you don’t think nice guys finish first, then you don’t know where the finish line is.”
Catch people in the act of doing something right. Show gratitude, empathy, and compassion — these are important for everyday life as well as for business. Personality and behavior are better than business skills.
Doug quotes Gary Vaynerchuk, “What’s the ROI of your mother?” Doug’s mom said, “You can land a plane 90% correct and still kill everyone on board.” It takes years to build a reputation and one comment to wreck it.
Doug always looks for the nice thing to do and say. This is how to build trust and relationships. Also, associate with and network with nice people with good reputations.
Doug’s team offers steps to improve professionalism. The first is to smarten communications. Attend to detail, spelling, grammar, punctuation, and tone. Your writing reflects on you and could cause injury.
How does the audience receive your message? For example, the symbol ‘#’ can represent tic-tac-toe, lbs., a social media phrase, the end of a press release, checkmate, or a musical sharp. Who is your audience?
Another step is to dress appropriately for the audience. Overdressing is not harmful; underdressing is bad. Andy suggests dressing one level better than the people you’re meeting. You can always take off a jacket if need be.
Another step is to be nice. Doug defines being nice by actions. Return all phone calls. Return all emails, and answer all the questions in the email. Be on time (early) for every appointment. Greatly exceed expectations.
Communicate clearly. Send two text messages a day to people you have not seen in the last 30 days. This ties thin threads of relationships into thicker cords and steel cables. Better relationships equal better business.

 

Second Guest: Bridget Gleason

Bridget ran in the morning. Andy is about to ride his Peloton bike for the 199th time. Andy went with his wife last month to a bike training camp.
Since the show is now released on Wednesday, what should it be called instead of Front Line Fridays? Bridget will come up with a new name in a future episode.
The topic is respect. Who is due your respect? Andy was taught that respect can’t be demanded; it needs to be earned. Do sales reps respect people they work with? Do sellers respect buyers? What do your behaviors indicate?
When emailing Andy, research him. Don’t comment on his blog while ignoring his podcast. Know about him before reaching out. Do the same for all your prospects, or your email message will be counter-productive. Respect them.
The more your message matches the interests of the buyer the more you show you care about them and respect them. Be enthusiastic. If your emails are not already hitting it out of the park, change them up.

 

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656: Elevating Sales Readiness w/ Patrick Lynch /// Coaching Reps Out of Their Comfort Zones w/ Bridget Gleason

 

Patrick Lynch, VP of Enablement Excellence and Innovation at MindTickle!, and Bridget Gleason, VP of Sales for Logz.io and my regular partner, join me on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

First guest: Patrick Lynch

Pat says the single biggest challenge facing sales reps today is the lack of effective and good coaching. Athletes need coaching to run plays. Why wouldn’t salespeople?
Andy clarifies the distinctions between managing, coaching, and mentoring. Pat calls the lack of coaching a plague. Begin with the end in mind. Pat shares research on increased win rates from a formal coaching program.
Pat finds that sales managers are not clear on what coaching and mentoring are. How can they coach better if they’ve never seen better coaching? A freshly promoted sales manager may never have been coached.
Big Data is a problem when leaders use it to confirm what they already believe rather than to question their existing assumptions. Do we want machine learning or should we be learning from what the data reveal?
Sales Enablement as a job title has skyrocketed recently on LinkedIn. Management seems to be aware that the overall quota attainment ‘bleeding’ needs to stop.
Pat cites Scott Santucci on sales enablement — “the person who is the fixer of broken things.” Pat says sales enablement should be focused on helping salespeople win. It grew out of sales support.
Pat shares a case study of a Fortune 500 company building a sales enablement team that was designed to do everything but help salespeople win. They left out the customer.
The top sales performers adapt and take risks when reality hits their sales process. Pat relates a story. A large company cannot be nimble, but they can build nimble teams. A rigid sales process is not nimble.
Trust plus empathy equals relationship. This is more relevant today than ever as technology leads away from the human touch. Learn how your customer buys.
Start with knowing that sales is a noble profession. Design your process to serve the customer from there.
Pat gives an example of ineffective training given to sales reps at various companies. Pat is not positive on LMSs. Instead, use a platform where the seller can learn while they are selling.
Sales stacks are not the best solution. Sales readiness measures proficiency. Reps need to demonstrate relevance to their customer. Always leave something of value. Pat details the history and mission of MindTickle!

Second Guest: Bridget Gleason

Andy shares a story of a sales cartoon: “That reminds me of the thing I was going to say next, regardless.” Are your reps over-scripted?
How do you help your sales reps break out of their comfort zones? Bridget reflects. Where do sales reps get stuck, or even hide? Do they take on cold calling? Being busy is not the same as being productive.
Managers set big-step goals but reps need repeated small-step successes to lead them out of their comfort zone or where they are stuck. Give rewards for success. Set a reward for yourself for reaching a small success.
When Bridget was selling she set up her cold-calling time at the beginning of the day and had a small reward for herself after it.
After repeatedly mastering one small step, a sales rep is ready to try the next bigger step. Andy recommends the Pomodoro Timer to reward with a break after 25 minutes.
Is deception a viable strategy to get reps to perform?
Repeatable small steps lead to ever greater successes.

 

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655: Never Hire a Bad Salesperson Again // Are You Spending Enough Time With Your Customers?

 

Chris Croner, Principal at SalesDrive and author of the book, Never Hire a Bad Salesperson Again: Selecting Candidates Who Are Absolutely Driven to Succeed, and Bridget Gleason, VP of Sales for Logz.io and my regular partner, join me on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

First guest: Chris Croner

What challenges do sales managers have in the search for effective salespeople? How do you find the right match? What is the central element for success in salespeople?
In his book — the product of 15 years of research — Chris describes drive as combining three main traits. The first is the ‘need for achievement.’ Chris describes this need.
Good salespeople are born, then made. Nature and nurture combine into an internal passion for excellence. Money is an important factor but is not the motivator.
The second characteristic of drive is competitiveness. Good salespeople want to be the best among their peers. They want to win the customer to their point of view.
Optimism is the third trait of drive. The optimist is certain they will succeed and is resilient when rejected.
The need for achievement carries the most weight. Competitiveness is next most important; then optimism.
A predictor of future behavior is previous behavior. Assessments help discover previous behavior. There are many factors to examine in the hiring process. Gather as much data as possible. Use a scorecard to evaluate.
The interview process should follow an assessment. Part of the process is to test for competency and skills. Is the candidate susceptible to coaching? Candidates are on their best behavior during the interview.
Chris describes the resume review. He reveals the ‘magic wand’ question he uses to expose guarded truths.
Some salespeople can be very persuasive during the interview and yet not very effective in the field. Look at their references before meeting them, so you can judge impartially. References are not for validation.
SalesDrive will soon be offering The Production Builder Report as an online tool for onboarding and developing new hires. The processes for hiring are as effective for small companies as for large. Mitigate the risks.
Probation is an important stage in hiring. Hold people accountable for the jobs you hire them to do. Make sure the candidate is clear on the terms. Make sure they have a realistic job preview before they are hired.

Second Guest: Bridget Gleason

How much time do you spend talking with your existing customers? There is so much to be learned from them. Bridget talks to customers a couple of times a week. Customer success and executives often call them as well.
A sales leader should spend at least an hour a week talking to existing customers. Customers can advise you what you should be doing to get back on track. Make travel a part of the schedule. Be with them in person.
New topic: How do you manage the conflict between process and simplicity? Technology only helps you when it makes selling simpler. Processes are inward-focused. Customers are not buying your sales process.
Overwhelm is the single biggest challenge sales reps are facing. Don’t engage more with the process than with service to the customer. If you brag about your process make sure it’s about something of value to the customer.
Do customers benefit from your process? The customer never buys because of your selling process.
Accelerate episodes now come once a week to serve listeners more efficiently with multiple guests on an episode.
Listeners’ suggestions are always welcome!

The post 655: Never Hire a Bad Salesperson Again // Are You Spending Enough Time With Your Customers? appeared first on Andy Paul | Strategies to Power Growth.

654: Developing Your Sales Reps w/ Steve Preston & Bridget Gleason

Steve Preston, Chief Marketing Officer of QStream and Bridget Gleason, VP of Sales for Logz.io and my regular partner, join me on this episode of #Accelerate!

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

 

First guest: Steve Preston

 

QStream software taps into how people think and learn. It delivers information daily on a mobile device in interactive chunks that are easy to remember. It improves knowledge retention by 170%. It can change behavior.
QStream has been on the market for nine years. They focus mostly on sales enablement. It could be used by any knowledge worker. The information is in the form of a question or a challenge that sets up a learning moment.
The scenarios are set by the sales enablement or sales operations team. The algorithm presents each situation at least twice. When answered correctly twice in succession, a scenario is removed from the rotation.
QStreams are helpful in supporting product launches or methodologies. One challenge a day is good for most people. 16 to 20 scenarios make up a campaign. Campaigns can be run for teams in competition.
Steve talks about sales stages, discovery, demos, and closing. Higher proficiency in those skills theoretically correlates with better outcomes. Andy and Steve discuss other subtle factors that influence outcomes.
QStream adapts well to serve the areas of the brain that handle book knowledge (the prefrontal cortex) and skills and emotions (the basal ganglia). QStream has been used in clinical trials with diabetics for behavior change.
Steve discusses sales productivity. Streamline processes by removing wasted motion and automating rote tasks. Through repetition, conscious incompetence first becomes competence and then unconscious mastery.
Are there other paths to mastery besides a product like QStream? Be mindful of your blocks and practice them. QStream makes it painless with little sacrifice of time.
Observed data is misleading. What looks like a ‘discovery’ problem may really be a lack of built trust. A customer that does not trust will not respond accurately to discovery. Test sales proficiency at every stage.

 

Second Guest: Bridget Gleason

 

It’s time for getting those deals over the line for the end of the quarter. Bridget is stressed but confident. “There are 18 ways to get to the number!”
Andy talks to sales leaders who are confused between managing and coaching. Coaching isn’t about tactics, but about teaching skills one-on-one. It’s time to bring mentoring to the sales team to develop individuals.
Studies show the primary reason employees leave their company is their manager. If the manager is just tactical, they are showing no care for their employees. The salesperson also needs to care about their prospects.
Bridget manages by data, reports, and team meetings. She coaches and mentors together in one-on-ones. Sometimes it will be about how to execute the deals; sometimes it will be about the rep and their options.
Bridget shares a career mentoring success story from someone she hired at her past company.
Mentoring cements an employee emotionally to the company. Bridget says the CEO of Logz.io visits with her sales team. He knows them. He listens to them. They tell Bridget it matters to them.
Andy is frustrated by sales managers who forget it’s still a people business. Managers need to mentor and coach the team and manage the numbers. To help your team members to excel individually and as a team is thrilling.
Bridget likes her reps to come to her with a list for their one-on-one meeting. It encourages thoughtfulness.

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