Sales Tuners

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**Sales Tuners**

SalesTuners is an interview where I talk with great sales leaders and high performing individual salespeople about the Behaviors, Attitudes, and Techniques that have made them great. Learn more at SalesTuners.com

Latest Episodes:

055: Mike Chudy | The Science of Positioning for a Win/Win Sep 19, 2017

Show notes

Takeaways

Learn to Position Yourself: Rather than selling pieces of the puzzle, focus on what the entire puzzle should look like. Doing this helps you become seen as an expert in your field and one that can be a resource or even a consultant to your prospect so they call you when they have questions. If you do this successfully, price will rarely be an issue.
Get to the Root Cause: Let's be honest, prospects lie to us. Sometimes it deliberate, but other times they just don't know. Instead of trying to sell to the symptoms or indicators of pain, dig deeper to figure out the root cause of the issue they're experiencing. This may mean you need to be higher in the organization talking to someone who gets the bigger picture.
Know Your Walkway Point: When entering a negotiation, it's critical your know your BATNA - Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. Once you know the limit, you're able to frame the conversation and not be susceptible to low anchors your prospect is likely to throw out.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/mike-chudy/

Book Recommendations

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss

Sponsors

What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.
The pipeline-centric system is strategically built on a proven selling methodology that keeps teams focused on the only thing they can control in sales – actions that push deals to close.

054: Carrie Simpson | Pick-up the Phone: Getting Over Call Reluctance Sep 12, 2017

Show notes

Takeaways

Overcome the "Send Me Info" Objection: The goal of cold calling is not to just send information, but to get into a conversation. That said, I know every has to deal with the prospect who just says "send me some information and I'll take a look." One of the best ways I've dealt with this objection is to counter with, "I'd be happy to, but we have 347 different one-sheeters and I have no idea which one I'd send… can you tell me more about what you're looking for?"
Qualify Anyone Who Will Take the Call: What do you absolutely need to know from a prospect before you can move forward? All too often reps focus on titles thinking they can't get a deal done without talking to the highest person in an organization. If you understand the true qualification criteria, you may realize you can use multiple people in the organization to not only gather that information, but also to build champions for you internally.
Be Patient with The Process: Unless you sell a product that is conducive to a one-call close, realize you're not going close a prospect on your first call. I say that because if you get comfortable with your process, you'll start to see patterns form in the timing you're able to catch someone, you'll see patterns in follow-up strategies, and you'll see patterns in discovery and objections. These patterns can illustrate an opportunity to streamline your goals by practicing patience.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/carrie-simpson/

Book Recommendations

Reinvent Yourself by James Altucher
The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller

Sponsor

What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.

053: Katie Early | A Human Approach to Not Getting "Happy Ears" Sep 05, 2017

Show notes

Takeaways

Teaching Can be Detrimental: Spending too much time educating your prospect and not enough time selling opens up what I like to call the "friend zone" of sales. Sure your prospect likes you, but that's because you're providing them with free consulting. You have to understand this balance and get comfortable setting the right expectations in the sales process.
Sometimes You Need to Get Burned: Sales is a contact sport. All the training and coaching in the world can't prepare you for the first time you actually get hit. Spending time with a prospect, getting "happy ears" as Katie called it, only to have them go dark on you at the end is one of the biggest lessons you have to learn on your own.
Moving Up Isn't Always the Best: While I'm not yet an old man yelling "get off my lawn" to every passerby, I am one to tell you that skipping rungs on the ladder of success is not always the right choice. I've seen way too many people think "if I can just become the VP of whatever," I'll fix all the problems and everything will be better — only to burn out before getting there or be completely miserable once they do make it. Enjoy the journey and put more stock in that than on the destination itself.

Book Recommendation

Love Warrior: A Memoir by Glennon Doyle

Sponsor

What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.

052: A Year in Review | Conversations with 25 Sales Leaders Aug 29, 2017

Show notes

Top Book Recomendations

How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
The Joshua Principle, Leadership Secrets of RSVPselling by Tony Hughes
The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines into Massive Success and Happiness by Jeff Olsen

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/a-year-in-review/

Sponsor

What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.

051: Mike Julian | Humble Yourself: Getting Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable Aug 22, 2017

Show notes

Takeaways

Effort + Execution + Empathy: It used to just be a numbers game. You put in the work, you made your calls, you sent your emails and it produced results. Then everyone started ramping up the volume. Today you have to not only put in the effort, but also apply strategic execution and have empathy for your buyer. Have you done your homework? Do you understand the real challenges they're having? Do you actually care? Prospects buy from us because they believe we can get them to a place they can't get to on their own.
You Can't Lose What You Don't Have: Too many reps focus their energy on everything that could go wrong instead of what might go right. Very similar to Mike's story, I didn't come from much. So knowing that I've done without before and been fine, I have a different perspective on the world. I'm willing to take risks that others may not because I don't have a false sense of security.
Short Term Thinking vs Long Term Thinking: It's the difference between "I want to sell to this company today" vs "I want to build a relationship that may carry me throughout my career." Yes, I know you have a number to hit this week, month, and quarter, but if you put in the work today to build a solid pipeline, you can give yourself the freedom to build lasting value with your prospects.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/mike-julian/

Book Recommendation

The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

Sponsor

What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.

050: Richard Smith | Highlighting the Defining Moments of Sales Conversations Aug 15, 2017

Show notes

Takeaways

Sales Meetings are Not Coaching Sessions: Every sales team has a weekly call. The reality is, for most, this is nothing more than a transfer of information meeting. Debriefing the week that was and getting updates for the week to come. Coaching is "improved performance" and no sales meeting I've ever been in does that. Instead, let's work on getting into specific details of opportunities by way of what happened during the calls — the words that were used, role playing objections that could have been handled another way, or client stories to use as references in certain scenarios (with context). Breaking down those areas of improvement just like an elite athlete could be the difference between a promotion and interviewing at other companies.
Prospecting at all Levels: No matter what your title says, if you belong to a sales organization, some amount of time in your day should be spent on direct prospecting. I know this is counter to the populist movement of hyper-specialization, but I seriously believe everyone should be prospecting. If you work with me, you're either prospecting for new clients or prospecting for a new job. Sales is the lifeblood of an organization and prospecting is the only thing that will save you in the event of a downturn.
Challenge Your Prospects: It seems like everyone is comfortable hearing "no" from a prospect, maybe even too comfortable, but I rarely hear of sales reps being willing to say "no" or pushback on their prospects for fear of killing an opportunity. I've often seen requests for references, white papers, and trials as nothing more than stall tactics. Be willing to challenge a prospect and get them to help you understand what exactly will change if you do what they're asking.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/richard-smith/

Book Recommendation

From Impossible To Inevitable: How Hyper-Growth Companies Create Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin

Sponsor

What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.

049: Dan Fantasia | No Retreat: When Societal Norms are Misleading Aug 08, 2017

Show notes

Takeaways

Write Your Own Rules: If you're going to be a consultative salesperson, you must empower yourself. You must be able to think on your feet without sounding like a robot. You're not always going to be able to have someone whispering in your ear or reading off a script, so when you see something wrong, fix it. One of the biggest challenges I've had to overcome is thinking about what everyone else expected of me and trying to prove something to them instead of charting my own path.
Overcome Rather than Avoid Burnout: As Dan mentioned, burnout happens whether you're the CEO or the SDR, so accept it and learn how to overcome it. You could get burnt out on your car, the breakfast you eat every day, or even your favorite sub shop, so figure out the things that trigger the high highs as well as the low lows and work to maintain balance between the two.
Failure is Not Finite: It's only truly a failure when you decide to give up. I recently came off the biggest professional failure of my career and I can assure you there were times I felt like I should just take my ball and go home as if this game wasn't the one for me. Fortunately, I was able to pick myself back up, start another business (which included this podcast) and face the world that I thought would forever reject me because of my my recent performance.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/dan-fantasia/

Sponsor

Costello – What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.

Book Recommendation

How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie

048: Justin Fite | Replacing the Antiquated Approach to Sales Onboarding Aug 01, 2017

Show notes

Takeaways

Remove General Blanket Training: If you don't know where to spend your time, you'll fall into the trap of generalized training where every person on the team gets the same negotiation training or competitive update. Instead, modern sales organizations the fidelity of lessons need to be able to be created quickly by anyone and enable reps to consume it in 10-15 minutes. Because, let's be honest, none of us have four hours to stare at Powerpoints.
Focus on Business Mechanics: Justin broke the sales process down into a gear analogy stating the "deal mechanics" gear simply can't turn unless the "business mechanics" gear is in motion. Focus on determining what is actually wrong, who in the prospect's organization is truly responsible for fixing it as well as when they actually need to have it fix it.
Anchor Capabilities to Value: If you've been in sales more than 10 minutes, you've probably been told to sell the solution not your features and benefits. Yet, every single day I hear reps explaining how a prospect can accomplish a task simply by clicking a couple of buttons. Stop it. There's a reason you've never received a demo of Amazon.com. You're not there to learn how to click buttons, you're there to ensure a package arrives at your house in two days (or less).

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/justin-fite/

Book Recommendations

The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown

Sponsor

Costello – What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.

047: David Duncan | Know What You're Fighting For: The Spectacle in the Build-up Jul 25, 2017

Show notes

Takeaways

Set Tough, Aggressive Targets: I've always struggled with the concept of "quota" and "quota attainment." Yes, of course we have to have goals for ourselves, but in my opinion, these should be the minimum expectations, not the end result. Whether your quota is $100,000 or $1,000,000 set your targets more aggressive. For instance, if you set an outlandish number of say 10X your goal and build your prospecting plan from there, you're going to easily overshoot all expectations and leave your company wondering where they even got the number to begin with.
Balance Personal Coaching with Professional Accountability: Too many salespeople focus solely on the end results -- asking, "how much did you close?" I'm sorry, but this is the wrong question and a sign you're working for a poor sales leader. The only thing we can control is our daily behaviors and activities. That's why it's incredibly important to hold yourself accountable to consistent inputs. This is also where the balance of coaching should come into play. You can't wait to weeks to get the coaching you need for daily behavior.
Tie Personal Goals to Performance: What are the intrinsic motivations that cause you do what you do? Essentially, what is your why? Whether it's buying a house, raising a kid, or just leveling up in your career, tying these personal goals to your daily behavior creates the constant effort need for long terms achievement.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/david-duncan/

Book Recommendations

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation by Matthew Dixon

Sponsor

Costello – What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do

046: Cody Lamens | Strive to be a Sales Professional, Not Just an Account Executive Jul 18, 2017

Show notes

Takeaways

Take Advantage of Opportunity: There is a short window of time to take advantage of every opportunity. If you wait until an opportunity presents itself, it's already too late. Seek out chances to learn, be more efficient, and give 100 percent from the get-go so you're never in a position to wonder what might have been. Doors open on a daily basis, but oftentimes they are short and they are small. It's crucial to take advantage of them when they're there.
Preparation and Repetition Always Win: You know what you need to do. You've spent time role playing real scenarios. You've paid attention in training and during your one-on-one's. With that, don't think that your sales manager knows something you don't. You're the one facing live fire every time you get on a call. Make sure you're taking the time to prepare and let the repetition of muscle memory take control.
Don't Wait Until The End: The earlier you ask hard questions, the better. For instance, if you wait until the negotiation stage to start discussing budget, you've already lost. You need to be able to tie your value to real business problems without it looking like you're now just trying to close a deal. Figure out how to show your prospect they're better off with you, than without you by going deep in the beginning.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/cody-lamens/

Book Recommendation