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:

065: Cory Bray | Sales Enablement: The Ecosystem that Extends Throughout an Organization Nov 28, 2017

Show notes

Takeaways

Develop your Persona/Pain/Feature Content Matrix: Think through each persona you sell to. What pain or pains do you solve for that specific type of person or company? Then list out the features of your product that directly correlate to that pain and that person. Lastly, determine what content and stories you have that match all of the above.
Don't Conflate Sales Training with Sales Coaching: A good sales trainer can teach you what to do. A great sales coach can help you understand how to do it, but even more importantly, why you should. Take for instance prospecting, through training, I can teach you what to do all day long. But, it's not until you actually try to apply it that real learning begins. Then, you bring it back and we adjust based on our findings.
Write it Down: You can call me old school, but I still believe in physically writing things down. Regardless of whether you do it manually or digitally, reading over your notes helps you understand what you think you heard versus what was actually said. Recording calls is great for verbatim recognition, but your notes are what determine how well you actually understand something and/or what you think is important.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/cory-bray/

Book Recommendations

The Toyota Way by Jeffrey Leiker
Jobs to Be Done: A Roadmap for Customer-Centered Innovation by Stephen Wunker and Jessica Wattman

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.

064: Richard Vis | Why Every Salesperson Creates Their Own Audience Nov 21, 2017

Show notes

Takeaways

Attitude is Everything: A trend that I see becoming more and more prevalent every day is new grads thinking they should be able to jump from Sales Development Rep to Chief Revenue Officer. I'll admit, I too thought I knew everything at 22, and 25, and 30, but the more I learned the more I realized there was to learn. Carrying a learning attitude combined with a personal "why" will help you climb the rungs quickly.
Build Your Own Tools: It's easy to look to your manager or even the company as a whole to provide all the tools you need. Instead, look to them for guidance or a framework and build your own. This forces you to be both adaptable and personally accountable. Knowing something is one thing, but the next step is making it your own.
You Create Your Audience: This whole show is about the behaviors, attitudes, and techniques of sales success, and I think Richard summed it up nicely by saying it's the combination of all three of those things that creates the audience you sell to. The way you ask questions, your ability to read your prospect and put them at ease, whether or not you keep your word, think hard about whether or not you would buy from yourself.

Full Notes

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

Book Recommendation

The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon

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.

063: Mark S A Smith | 50/40/10: Why Your Product Only Makes Up 10% of Your Success Nov 14, 2017

Show notes

Takeaways

Sales is Change Management: This is especially true when we're selling disruptive products, but it's our job as salespeople to change how our prospects view the world and show them how we can help them achieve their desires. Anything else, Mark says, is narcissistic or even psychopathic.
Saving Money and Saving Time are the Two Worst Value Props: Both concepts are limited value propositions. The limiting factor of saving money is taking what a prospect is currently spending and lowering it down to zero — whatever the number, you can't go any farther. With time, there's no such thing as 100% efficiency, so this proposition is also limited to a finite ending.
Maslow Drives all Deals: When you're selling at the top of an organization, executives are more vision driven than they are pain driven. While I don't disagree with that, I did challenge the notion that pain based selling is counterproductive in those situations.Mark says once a person has moved past the first few rungs of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs they are focused on inventing a future that does not yet exist using methodologies that have not yet been invented and they will partner with companies that will help them get that vision.

Book Recommendation

Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/mark-s-a-smith/

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.

062: Chris Dailey | The Difference Between Understanding and Implementing a Sales Process Nov 07, 2017

Show notes

Takeaways

Create Visibility to Buy Time: To many, it seems like sales boils down to have you closed a deal or not. Most people don't see or care about all the elements that go into a deal prior to a signature event happening. In order for you to have the time to execute, you must create systems that allow your CEO to see those incremental steps you're taking. That information also allows you to have potentially difficult or challenging conversations.
Learn How to Win Graciously: I used to have a big ego, going as far as to even thinking my sales effort was the reason everyone else on the team got a paycheck. Thankfully, I've had some events in my life humble me. That said, when you close a deal, be sure to thank those who played a role in your win. Did an SDR set that appoint for you? Did marketing influence the lead? Did the product team roll out a new update that made your talk track sticky? Thank those people. You couldn't do what you do without them.
Commit to Being Better: If you've been doing what you do for five years, you'd probably say you have five years of experience, right? Wrong! For a lot of you, you probably have one year of experience five times. What's the difference? If you think you can just show up to work every day and go through the motions, that's not making you better, and you're not gaining experience. You have to commit to self improvement. Outside of the work day, are you practicing and role playing new tactics? Are you listening to your calls and making notes on where you can improve? Are you seeking mentorship and guidance? It's up to you to decide whether you're going to get better or stay average.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/chris-dailey/

Book Recommendations

Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham

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.

061: Brian Trautschold | Understanding the Science Behind Personal Ambition Oct 31, 2017

Show notes

Takeaways

Call Executives Early: There's been so many great takeaways on this show, that I'm surprised this has never come up. When you call on busy people, they are just that — busy. During the day they are serving the people in their organization. If you want to connect with them, do it before or after everyone else is in the office. I can personally tell you that I get more email response before 8am, than I do the rest of the day. I've also been able to connect directly with my prospects on the phone before their assistants come in.
Reward the Little Things that Make Up the Big Things: I loved the Brian and I were on the same page with this. If all you are incentivizing or, as a rep, if all you are focused on is the end number or end goal, it can become very stressful when you don't hit it. You also waste a lot of time figuring out what didn't work. By having shorter feedback loop cycles and focusing on the smaller wins that create the big wins, we can all move mountains.
Track Your Own Success: No one will ever care more about you than you will. I know they say "what gets measured, gets improved" and while it's true, it's even more important on a personal level. Forget the technology, put a sheet of paper in front of you and write down your goals, track your in-day performance, and make notes to yourself about what works and what needs to be improved.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/brian-trautschold/

Book Recommendations

The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen Covey
Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore

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.

060: Simon Mutlu | Selling Technology to Today's Evolving Workforce Oct 24, 2017

Show notes

Takeaways

Create Replicable Processes: The best ways I've learned to master a concept are to first write it down, and then second is to teach it. Doing both of those naturally forces the ability for the process to be replicable. Once it can be replicated, it can be measured, and once it can be measured, it can be improved.
Add Value in Every Outreach: If your calls, emails or social posts aren't adding value to a prospect's life, why even do it? Put yourself in there shoes assuming they're inundated with messages. Figure out how to make your point succinctly with a clear message of implied value.
Ask Customers How You Could Have Improved Their Buying Experience: Most companies do some version of NPS surveys or Net Promotor Score to learn what customers think about using their product. But, when was the last time you asked your customers what you could have done differently in the sales process? For a lot of sales reps the only feedback we get is whether we won or lost the deal, which frankly doesn't help us get better.

Book Recommendation

Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/simon-mutlu/

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.

059: Kristin Zhivago | Sales Calls Should Happen with Prospects, Not to Them Oct 17, 2017

Show notes

Takeaways

Selling Your Friends is Not Traction: When launching a new product (or company for that matter), it's easy to immediately to your friends for your first sales. The problem is, they have a vested interest in liking you and wanting to support you. Thus, you don't have to overcome skepticism. You have to quickly learn the challenges non-affiliated prospects are going to raise and figure out how to sell to that in order to grow.
You'll Never Sell Anything While You are Talking: I know it almost sounds blasphemous, but customers will talk themselves into buying something if you let them. By asking the right questions and being courteous enough to shut up and actually listen to their answers, you'll discover a whole new side of the sales process.
Understand What Your Buyer is Up Against: Buyers are under assault every day. They're getting bombarded with spam disguised as prospecting, dodging calls by getting rid of their voicemail, and making sense of the countless salespeople lying to them to get a deal done. What they really want to know is what happens to them after they buy from you. Will you make them look like a hero or a chump?

Book Recommendation

Outlander Series by Diane Gabaldon

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/kristin-zhivago/

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.

058: Andy Paul|Reinventing Yourself: The BALD Truth About Selling Oct 10, 2017

Show notes

Takeaways

Be Human: There's a myth being perpetuated that buyers don't have time for small talk anymore. This is just simply not true. Buyers want to connect with you on a human level, they've just had so many bad experiences with sellers that they turn off at the slightest hint of inauthenticity.
Ask Killer Questions: Coming up with two to three anchor questions that spur conversation as it relates to your product or service should be the highest priority in your organization. Yes, even higher than a demo or pitch deck. You have to get a prospect thinking and that's impossible to do if you are the one talking. The best possible question to ask is one they should know the answer to but don't.
Listen Without Filters: How do you receive information? How do you communicate information? What biases or filters do you have preventing information from getting through. When you're listening to a prospect, are you focused on what they're actually telling you or are you looking for a specific response that you can attack? Your ability to show empathy here can get you a long way.
Deliver Value at Every Touch: If a prospect is going to give you their time, what value are you going to give them in return? What information is going to help them get closer to a decision? If you don't know the answer to these questions before every call or outreach, why are you even doing it? You need to be intentional and deliberate with your process. If you're not guiding them, then you're just hoping the see something along the way.

Book Recommendation

The Complete Works of Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 by Mark Roberge
Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People by Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/andy-paul/

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.

057: Paul Dean | How (and When) to Create a Sales Playbook Oct 03, 2017

Show notes

Takeaways

Playbooks are Living Documents: Cold call scripts, prospect email templates, ideal customer profiles, objection handling, competitive differentiation — whatever you choose to include in your sales playbook should never be written in pen. Either quarterly or, at worst, monthly you need to revisit the elements to see what remains true and what needs to be changed. Anyone participating in the sales process should get a voice in the matter as they may have perspective you're not privy to.
Let Your Prospect Discover the Solution: Whether you're selling into greenfield, replacing a competitor, or providing an alternative to an existing manual process, you'll always be better suited to let a prospect discover the solution to their problem than by forcing a presentation down there throat. I've often said the best presentation you'll ever give is the one your prospect never sees. Think about that as you put together your questioning strategy.
No One is Above Coaching: MJ, Kobe, LeBron… what do those names have in common? For one, they're three of the greatest basketball players to ever play the game. Second, they all have coaches and often times they even personally hire additional coaches to work on specific things in their game or with their body. I don't care how successful you've been, seeking out coaching can be huge for your career.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/paul-dean/

Book Recommendation

The Sales Development Playbook: Build Repeatable Pipeline and Accelerate Growth with Inside Sales by Trish Bertuzzi

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.

056: Dave Enmark | Cycling Through the Emotional End of the Sales Process Sep 26, 2017

Show notes

Takeaways

Intellect vs Emotion: People don't buy for intellectual reasons. They buy emotionally and then rationalize their decision after the fact. Rather than doing a feature/benefit vomit, get to know the person you're attempting to sell to and understand what is motivating their desire to change.
Define the Theme of the Opportunity: If you're able to define the top 2-3 business drivers of an opportunity (I'm talking real pain, not just indicators of pain) you should be able to define an overarching theme for each individual opportunity. This will help you overcome typical objection BS by getting back the prospects real "why."
Create a Close Plan: Hope is not a strategy. I've heard way too many reps tell me they're going to close a hot lead in 30 days, yet they can't tell me a single step they need to take in order to get there. Creating a close plan forces you to think through a realistic timeline and put anchors on a calendar by listing every meeting you still need, which pieces of content the prospect will likely need, who from your team will need to get involved, and dates each of those will happen.

Full Notes

https://www.salestuners.com/dave-enmark/

Book Recommendation

Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday

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.

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