Andy Paul's Blog, page 44

#437. Use Small Data to Compress Sales Cycles and Increase Conversions. With Mark Ripley.

Mark Ripley, VP of Sales for Insightly, a CRM and project management system, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

[:41] Mark sold retail car stereos in college, and fell in love with sales. He got an early start in technology in San Diego. He is now at Insightly, where the goal is to bring CRM to medium and small businesses around the world.

[2:06] In three years, CRMs have grown from 60 to 250, today. Insightly captures market share with its ease of use and simplicity. Insightly is the number one CRM globally for G Suite users, with almost half the market.

[4:40] The CRM market is not saturated. There are many large and small companies not using CRM. What is the big fear many companies have about CRM?

[6:23] Some of Insightly’s best features are the UI, and its integration into other extremely common tools, such as Gmail. Many Insightly activities are accessible through Gmail and Office 365. Ease of use makes adoption simple.

[8:15] Mark notes three values for SMB pain points: sales productivity; organizing all activities for a world-class red carpet customer experience; and data visibility for managing larger sales teams.

[10:33] Insightly CRM can help sales reps get a larger Return on Time (ROT). Automation manages drip campaigns and email logs. They are launching a call transcription feature this year.

[14:15] Performance and productivity vary per market and industry. Activity and skills drive productivity. If you keep effectiveness the same, increasing activity increases productivity, in theory.

[21:30] Mark sees through a customer lens and a salesperson lens. A good CRM provides pre-sale and post-sale service to grow the customer relationship through personal attention.

[25:30] Mark uses the term small data. The smart use of data should yield tangible, digestible, and actionable results in a time-compressed fashion.

[28:44] Accurate forecasting through the CRM is the next ambitious step for Insightly. CRMs will get better at putting more accurate forecasting at the fingertips of managers.

[30:50] Present forecasting methods are tied to the stage of the client along the funnel, which ignores competitors. “You can’t measure probability with a yardstick.” Mark looks at history to predict outcomes.

[33:28] Mark questions the wisdom in incenting forecasting. What problem does Mark see? It’s a very common thing to assume everyone on the team is forecasting the same way, but it is not necessarily so.

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#436. How to Improve Sales Productivity Through Coaching. With Keith Rosen.

Keith Rosen, CEO, executive sales coach, transformational expert, advisor to top sales leaders, and author of the number one sales coaching book, Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions: A Tactical Playbook for Managers and Executives, and his most recent book, Own Your Day: How Sales Leaders Master TIme Management, Minimize Distractions, and Create Their Ideal Lives, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

[1:01] Keith has created his ideal life. He has coached sales leaders for the last 30 years around the globe in over 60 countries, for all aspects of the sales process.

[2:27] Keith started sales in college, door-to-door, selling mortgages, remodeling, and home security systems. Keith focused on making salespeople into great coaches, and started his business to address that objective.

[5:31] Keith compares trusted advisors to coaches. In selling, the same questions apply as in coaching.

[6:39] Keith discusses best practices in three areas: questions we ask; critical questions we fail to ask; and changing what we do and how we think. Then he offers a simple way to change our behaviors. One key desired behavior is to ask questions.

[11:43] If you have to close someone, you’re not doing your job.

[12:48] Coaching wasn’t always common. When Keith started coaching, people wanted to know the team. Keith says the coaching gap today is with sales managers.

[16:53] Keith insists that technology and data do not replace individual coaching. Coaching isn’t to gather data, but to help improve behaviors. Data doesn’t reveal why a seller excels. Why is observation necessary?

[23:54] Hiding behind technology makes it easier to avoid personal connections. LinkedIn is for connecting, and building relationships, not for spamming.

[26:01] Consumer retail isn’t dependent on relationships, but  complex B2B certainly is. In B2B, you want to like the person from whom you are buying.

[26:59] A to-do list is ineffective, and usually you put things off, because there is no accountability. Anything that cycles consistently, needs to go on a calendar, not a list. Only one-time items belong on a to-do list.

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#435. Frame a Message That Resonates with Buyers. With Barbara Giamanco.

Barbara Giamanco, a Keynote speaker, coauthor of the great book, The New Handshake: Sales Meets Social Media, and podcaster, joins me for the second time on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

[:51] Barbara’s company is Social Centered Selling, in Atlanta, originally focusing on helping organizations develop their strategy around implementing social media into their selling practice, and now, helping frame the entire buying experience.

[2:08] The biggest challenge for sales reps is in framing a message that resonates with what the buyer cares about. Barbara notes how management could improve rep training.

[3:03] Barbara says reps need to research their client and their client industry’s trends and pain points, to know many pertinent facts before engaging a contact. What problems interfere with this rep behavior?

[4:41] Barbara notes that very few colleges provide a degree in sales. To make matters worse, 40% of organizations are not onboarding sales staff with consultative training on sales skills. Kennesaw State University offers an amazing sales curriculum.

[8:04] Students coming from the Kennesaw curriculum are hired quickly, and hit the ground running with top skills. What does Barbara suggest to encourage additional colleges to pick up the sales curriculum?

[10:18] Barbara considers generational issues, such as the Millennial’s aversion to the phone. A sale doesn’t come from a Tweet! Inside Sales reps that are not trained may damage the company brand instead of bringing in profit.

[12:49] People need more training in how to researching industries, trends, challenges, and pain points, and how to spin that into a contact’s accepting a meeting. Quality of outreach is more important than quantity of emails sent.

[18:21] Salespeople call Barbara and ask her to tell them about her business. No. Look on LinkedIn before you call. Look at causes, charities, interests, and company focus. Don’t waste the contact’s time, and don’t roll right into the pitch.

[21:49] New technologies enable more phone calls, but it’s the quality of conversation you have when somebody picks up the telephone that counts, and that is a big gap in skill. Barbara has advice for managers.

[24:40] Harassing by email is not welcome. Don’t ask why someone didn’t respond. They didn’t respond because you didn’t offer them value that resonated with them.

[26:31] Organizations need to evaluate their processes. Hiring more salespeople to make the same errors will not move the needle for an organization. Quality plus quantity is needed. People are buying from people. See Google’s ZMOT theory.

[33:35] Individual salespeople can make a commitment to change the buyer’s perception. Don’t let the buyer lead you down the path. Learn what they need, and how you can help them.

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#434. How to Live a Life of Significance and Intention. With Larry Broughton.

Larry Broughton, an award-winning entrepreneur, CEO, bestselling author, keynote speaker, and mentor to other entrepreneurs, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

[:42] Larry has a variety of experiences — martial arts, Green Beret, motel night auditor, entrepreneur, speaker, and leadership coach. He is the CEO and owner of Broughton Hotels with 20 properties currently, and a goal of 80 in 2020.

[4:04] Some people seek success. Don’t chase success — be a great person, and live a life of significance. When you significantly impact your family, community, and investors, success is the by-product. Live a life of meaning, with a ‘why.’

[6:33] Build relationships. People want to do business with people they know, like, and trust. We tend to like and trust people living a life of significance and serving, more than we like those who just take.

[8:09] When you meet someone, find out how you can serve them. Be vulnerable. Larry learned in the Army to do the hard right, over the easy wrong. Success is just outside your comfort zone. There’s just one way to coast, and it’s downhill!

[9:48] Larry is a painful introvert. So he gets psyched up, and takes a wing person, and they play off each other. Larry uses small talk to break the ice, instead of talking business. It is clear if someone is assessing whether you’re worth their time.

[11:06] Sometimes the person you meet is not a good business fit for you, but you might know someone who can help them. Larry likes LinkedIn for the degrees of connection. Larry likes to build the know, like, and trust factor. Smile!

[15:38] Gordon Gekko did not get it right. The world is not a reward for greed. The competitive approach to success is hollow. Collaborative success is best. Larry elaborates on this.

[16:56] Larry believes that things are going to work out in the world, and what he can control is his own positive energy, and the way he responds to the world. Salespeople with positive energy are much more attractive.

[18:48] Larry speaks of 12 Keys to Greatness, including traits such as awareness, authenticity, being centered, gratitude, meditation, intentionality, loving self and others, self affirmations, talismans (symbols of accomplishment), etc.

[25:42] Jealousy comes from fear. There is enough opportunity, success, wealth, recognition for everyone. Larry’s daily affirmations helped him bless people he envied, until he could appreciate them. Good vibes come back to you.

[29:00] Liking goes both ways. When you are authentic, your “like” shows through. Larry’s office has a sign, “Authentic people delivering creative solutions.” The sooner we can be real, the sooner we can like someone, and they can like us.

[32:31] Larry prizes humility. He sees the need for advice. He has a board of advisors for his business, and a board of advisors for his personal life. Be more collaborative than competitive. Do something significant today.

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Accelerate! Expresso #02: Weekly Review Show – April 10 – 15

Accelerate! Expresso is a weekly round-up show that contains snippets from each interview from the previous week’s slate of guests on Accelerate!

These clips have been edited into a tight, short show that will give you just a taste of the insights you missed if you didn’t catch every episode of Accelerate!

In this episode, you’ll hear excerpts from my conversations with my guests during the week of April 10-15. That’s episodes 428-433 if you track Accelerate! that way.

Come listen as I was joined by the following experts: Gerhard Gschwandtner, Trish Bertuzzi, Giles House, Greg Dalli, Paul Kortman and my usual Friday guest, Bridget Gleason.

It will whet your appetite to go back and listen to an entire episode with your favorite featured guest.

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#433. Follow Your Own Path to Happiness and Success. With Paul Kortman.

Paul Kortman, Founder of Connex Digital Marketing, and digital nomad, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

[:58] Paul’s understanding of success has shifted. He notes that the American lifestyle does not coincide with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The pull of consumerism is strong in the U.S. The family now lives in Cancun.

[5:04] Paul feels guilty if he’s not working at 9:00 a.m., but there are billions of people who don’t work that way. He wants to do better for his children. He spends more time with them.

[7:52] Paul sold their Michigan house over two years ago, and the family of six flew around the world for a first adventure. They came back at Christmas, reconfigured the business, and bought an RV, and within months, they were living in Mexico.

[9:30] It’s a big RV. The children range from ages four to ten. They still obey! They are also homeschooled. Paul’s wife loves taking their home wherever they go. Living in 330 SF is a challenge. In an RV, you go outdoors more.

[13:33] Paul still manages a digital marketing agency. In Mexico they have unlimited 4G WiFi and data on their phones. They consume 200GB in a month, in streaming. Paul reconfigured his business model, after extreme losses.

[15:43] Most of Paul’s customers come because they know somebody who knows Paul. His network connections were not his clients, but they introduced clients to him. By Paul’s leaving town, his competitor’s business “blew up,” from referrals.

[17:23] Normal churn drained away most of Paul’s agency, and he lost 90% of his revenue. Paul explains what happened.

[18:17] In Paul’s trip back to Michigan, he rewarmed his network, but he was also able to develop a productized service, the “Holy Grail” in the service industry. He offered a simplified service at a flat fee, with no variations. It works.

[20:51] Paul is the only salesperson. Paul still networks. He found the sweet spot of pricing, need, and offer. Paul also says the key of search ranking is to offer quality content, with backlinks. He cites Brian Dean’s skyscraper technique.

[22:30] Skyscraper technique takes a topic that has proven successful, although with inferior content, and improves on the content. Paul explains how he productized that process for customers to double their site traffic in six months.

[26:30] Connex Digital Marketing offers the product at a fixed price per post; you set the number of posts per year. You describe your audience, website, and desired keywords. Paul explains how Connex moves forward from that point.

[30:44] Paul will not work with existing or supplied content. To guarantee the quality, and proven results, Paul has house researchers and writers to control the productized service.

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Build the Right Relationships with Your Buyers. With Bridget Gleason. #432

Bridget Gleason is VP of Sales for Logz.io and my regular guest on Front Line Fridays.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

[1:43] The topic is relationships with buyers. The definition of relationship is key. Unless they buy online, and don’t interact with a person, there is a relationship, but is it a friendship?

[3:37] A relationship is a connection. There are fundamental parameters for a buyer-seller relationship that buyers want.

[6:24] The relationship is based on the seller’s performance in support of the buyer’s needs. Expectations of both parties must be met to maintain the relationship.

[9:39] Positive neutrality is the minimum relationship. A buyer who actively dislikes you will soon go to someone else. Should the buyer’s relationship be with the salesperson, or with the salesperson’s company?

[12:06] Doug Sandler’s Nice Guys Finish First, asserts that being nice is the key to attracting buyers. People buy from people — in particular, from people they enjoy.

[14:19] Gallup published a statement several years ago about a huge mismatch between buyers’ and sellers’ perceptions of the value of the relationship. Who values the emotional factor?

[14:55] Where do salespeople get the belief that they should be friends with the buyers? What do buyers want from the relationship? Techniques are easier to teach than likability.

[15:46] A bright person can learn the features of any product well enough to sell it, but can’t always learn to approach buyers on the right personal level. Interpersonal skills are not easy for everyone.

[17:14] Bridget does not hire “jerks.” In most instances, being nice carries you further.

[18:07] You need resilience in the relationship, if and when things go wrong during the purchase.

[19:41] Bridget recalls a sale with manufacturer production delays that were damaging to a buyer. Their past positive experiences helped them to see the purchase through.

[21:09] Difficult situations call for increased communications, not for hiding from the customer. Overcommunicate. Do not let the relationship fall apart from neglect.

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#431. Improving Productivity with Sales Enablement. With Giles House.

Giles House, CMO of CallidusCloud, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

[:49] Giles has been in sales and software for 12-13 years, with CallidusCloud since 2010. CallidusCloud’s mission is to become a top five cloud company, with ‘Lead to Money’ sales enablement.

[4:15] CallidusCloud offers a suite of connected sales and marketing applications, for a consistent, shared sales and marketing stack.

[6:43] Sales and marketing alignment involves shared information and consistent follow up. Giles explains the process.

[10:19] Giles gives his opinion on ABM. Aligned sales and marketing teams should be using it, but not exclusively.

[12:59] Lead to Money is a platform for generating more leads and prospect interest, helping marketing ROI, and providing rich information to sales for better buyer connection. It also involves sales training and coaching.

[15:14] Giles shares his understanding of sales productivity, concerning the organization and individual reps, with onboarding and goal attainment tracking.

[17:38] Productivity of a salesperson includes time they use for sales activities and tasks, and how effective they are. Giles considers CSO Insights’ report on quota attainment, and why it has been flat over the years.

[19:52] It’s difficult to correlate records between multiple systems in a typical sales stack, so history and other critical facts are not often available where they are needed.

[21:45] Giles discusses the concepts of productivity and quotas. He offers suggestions for setting quotas and commissions. Forecasting is critical.

[25:05] Giles would like to see quota attainment much higher than 50%, and he suggests how that could be done.

[26:55] Salespeople today carry great burdens of expectations, offset by great opportunities, if they can take advantage of them. The right technology stack is essential. The quality of the customer experience is critical to landing a deal.

[30:15] Giles says AI should refer to assisted or augmented intelligence. In Giles’ opinion, robots will never complete the complex sale, but machine learning is a great boost to sales.

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#430. Winning with Account-Based Strategies. With Trish Bertuzzi.

Trish Bertuzzi, President of The Bridge Group, author of the Amazon #1 bestselling book, The Sales Development Playbook: How to Build Repeatable Pipeline and Accelerate Growth With Inside Sales, joins me again on this episode of #Accelerate! (Please also listen to my previous conversation with Trish on Episode #77.)

KEY TAKEAWAYS

[:49] In 1998, Trish founded The Bridge Group, an inside sales consulting and implementation firm, focused on the B2B tech space. They have worked with over 300 companies, and if you are thinking about inside sales, she invites you to call!

[1:42] Trish sees changes in inside sales over the last year — the first being that the selling industry is waking up to the fact that they are boring buyers with lazy templates and approaches, and buyers have stopped listening.

[2:51] Trish says the evidence is in dramatically declining rates of engagement from inbound marketing. Whitepapers, webinars, and other offerings are not attracting many new contacts. In the sea of content, maybe 2% has value to buyers.

[3:40] Trish explains where buyers are seeking information today, and it’s not from vendors!

[4:11] Buyers are also not engaging in conversations with salespersons about the product, company, or salesperson. How do you address the buyers’ needs to engage them?

[4:57] To be successful in sales, you need to start with one thing: curiosity about the buyer. Trish goes in depth about the knowledge you should seek around your buyer to enable engagement about them.

[6:44] We need a learning culture. Challenge your sales team. Provide testing, certifications, and rewards for continuing their self-education. Give them opportunities to stimulate their mind. That’s how you will hire A players.

[7:55] The American Association of Inside Sales Professionals has a certification process, at a basic level. Sales is still not offered as a major at most colleges, so it would be challenging to have industry-wide certifications.

[9:15] The second trend is account-based strategies, or ABR (account-based revenue). It is more than outbound. It takes the concentration of all company resources on a set of accounts. You need an account story, and persona stories.

[14:28] Know where your sweet spot lies. It takes many resources to use ABR on any account, so pick accounts carefully. Sales and marketing must work as one. Trish gives details how to do this.

[16:24] The ABR pentagon is five sides of sequential preparation to launch an ABR approach: Strategy & Alignment, Account Selection, Players & Positions, Account Insights & Plays, and Tools & Measures. Trish these discusses in-depth.

[28:09] Trish covers a company case study of growth from $10 million to $100 million, by an Account-Based Strategy, after refocusing on account selection. They needed to pick larger accounts. ABR is ineffective on accounts less than $50K a year.

 

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#429. Mold Your Mindset for Success. With Gerhard Gschwandtner.

Gerhard Gschwandtner, Founder and CEO of Selling Power Magazine, and CEO of the Sales 3.0 Conferences, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

[1:00] Gerhard became interested in sales by a chance meeting with a successful salesperson in a coffeehouse in Salzburg. Gerhardt later went from the theater into sales.

[2:56] Gerhard trained sales reps for a multinational French company. He traveled the world, and ended up in the U.S. He started a company, but still traveled. He reveals the reason he started into publishing, and the development of his magazine.

[4:14] Gerhard saw, as he interviewed successful  people, that there is a certain mindset that shapes the salesperson’s skillset. What else is needed, for sales success?

[7:41] The key to mindset is your inner CEO, or the prefrontal cortex of the brain, that has the power of awareness, and performs executive functions.

[9:17] No-limit thinking is about expecting to succeed. You change your belief systems about your ability, by what you tell yourself.

[10:51] Gerhard interviewed Cal Ripken Jr. (2,632 consecutive MLB games) who has a strong work ethic, shows up, and is committed to be the best he can be. He learned early, the path to success. Gerhardthelps people to envision their success.

[13:50] You have about 60K thoughts a day, with 80% of them negative. Gerhard suggests ways that an accountability partner can help. He also discusses the cadence of success and internal boosts you can give yourself.

[15:34] There are levels of mindset. Gerhard describes them, and how they can be changed. The mindset is your garden, so stop watering the weeds, just water the flowers. Gerhardt offers steps to work with mindset.

[19:42] Good examples can inspire you and help you get over your fears. Gerhardt gives a case study of Bob Carr, Founder of Heartland Payment Systems, whose father left when Bob was 13. Bob started studying U.S. Presidents for guidance.

[22:47] Gerhard encourages putting structure to the dream, and finding your success mentor. Ask. You are not alone, and life is much easier when you have a good support system. People do want to help each other.

[25:18] Technology is mindless. It accelerates everything, but we need to keep in mind that sales is a people business, not a technology business. Pick up the phone and call someone!

[29:28] Neuroscience and psychology are revealing amazing things that are possible. Looking at the science, Gerhardt has assembled 12 modalities into one course that can take you higher than simply “positive thinking.” It can be life-changing.

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