The Salesman.com Podcast

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**Cold Calling 101: 5 Steps to Cold Calls That Work! | Selling Made Simple** Aug 11, 2022
Show notes

Few things strike fear into the heart of sales reps quite like cold calling. Do you know where that fear comes from? A lack of **control**. The more control we have over any situation, the less afraid we’ll be. Same goes for cold calling.

So if you want to eliminate cold calling fears FOR GOOD, you just need a simple process or framework to follow so you know what to do at each step of the call. That’s where control comes from. And that’s what we’re talking about today.

The first step of the Cold Calling 101 is…

1. **Confirm**

Confirm you’re speaking to the RIGHT person. And that means the decision maker. You want to be speaking directly with whoever decides whether to buy. Because otherwise, you’ll be dealing with a gatekeeper who *then* has to go convince their boss to make the purchase. And along the way, your product’s value will likely be diluted.

So what does that sound like in practice?

*“Hi, Will Barron from Salesman.org. Who’s in charge of sales training at X?*

***Scenario 1****: “That’s me.” — Move on to the next step*

***Scenario 2****: “That’s Barry.” — Now we need to get in touch with Barry.*

*“Ok thanks. Could you connect me with him? Can I tell them that you referred me?”*

2. **Break**

This step is all about breaking the prospect out of their status quo, i.e. being comfortable with the solution they’re using right now. So ask them how their current solution is working out. As it turns out, most people will tell you there’s ***some*** kind of problem. Things could always be cheaper, faster, more effective.

So pop the question, like this:

*“OK great, how are you training your sales reps right now?”*

No matter *what* their response is, it’s important to still move on to the next step. Even if they tell you they’ve already got a solution that’s working great, **still push forward** to

3. **Value**

This is when you give a short snippet of the value you can offer. Don’t go too crazy on the details here. Just hit the biggest problem and the most important way what you’re selling solves it. One sentence should do the trick.

Now remember, you’ve **got** to push through to this step, regardless of whether they seem pleased or not with their current provider. Buyers will be open to new solutions more often than you might expect.

And if they push back, you only have three more sentences to get through (15 seconds max).

Now let’s look at what a value statement looks like in practice.

*“We help salespeople find and close more sales in the next 30 days or your money back.”*

See? Quick, succinct, and hit’s all the main points. Doesn’t have to be more complicated than that.

4. **Tie-In**

Here’s where you tie in the value of your product to what the prospect is going through.

How can you help? What kinds of benefits that matter to THEM can they expect to see from working with you?

And more than anything else, *why the hell should they care*?

Here’s what it might look like in our scenarios.

Scenario 1: “It seems like you’re not happy with your current sales training solution. Would it make sense to see if we can solve this problem for you?”

Scenario 2: “Would it make sense to see if we can turbocharge your current solution so you can train more effective sales reps more quickly?”

Once you bridge this gap, you can move on to the all-important final step…

5. **Close**

This is where the rubber meets the road ladies and gentlemen. Where everything you’ve done until now combines into the sweet success of a “yes” or the bitter pill of the “no”.

It’s time to make the ask.

Now of course the goal here isn’t to make the SALE. Because no one in their right mind is going to agree to buying after a thirty second conversation. Instead, your aim is just to set up a sales meeting. Schedule a call. That’s it.

So what does that look like?

*“Ok great, it looks like we might be able to help. Does it make sense to jump on a quick 10-minute call tomorrow to discuss?”*

Bam, simple as that.

Now the nature of cold calling here means you’re likely to get a “no”, even if you’ve done everything right. But that doesn’t mean it’s time to give up. Instead, give them your contact info and ask for theirs as well. You can then plug them into your nurture sequences so that if something DOES change on their end, you’ll be the ones at the top of their mind.

And if you get a “yes” out of it all, well then mark your calendar because you just scored a sales call with a brand new lead. Congrats!

The post Cold Calling 101: 5 Steps to Cold Calls That Work! appeared first on Salesman.com.

Personal Branding Examples (How To Become A LEGEND In Your Industry!) Aug 11, 2022

Show notes

Do you want to become a legend in your industry? How would that affect your sales performance? What would your day look like if you had inbound leads hitting your inbox rather than having to cold call until your fingers bleed from dialing? On this episode of The Salesman Podcast, Shama Hyder shares a bunch of personal branding examples and a step by step process to getting known in your industry Sharma is known as the “Zen Master of Marketing” by Entrepreneur Magazine and the “Millennial Master of the Universe” by Fast Company. You'll learn: Sponsored by: Free SalesCode assessment Learn your strengths and weaknesses in an instant. Taken by over 10,000+ of your competitors. Don't get left behind. Take the free assessment Featured on this episode: Host - Will Barron Founder of Salesman.org Guest - Shama Hyder Zen Master of Marketing Resources: FREE SalesSchool Workshop – Start HOT Calling To Remove The Fear And Failure From Cold Calling ShamaHyder.com @Shama Shama on Linkedin Book: The Zen of Social Media Marketing: An Easier Way to Build Credibility, Generate Buzz, and Increase Revenue Transcript Shama Hyder: So I think as any good salesperson will tell you, especially in the B2B world, relationships are everything. So the first thing that you have to keep in mind, especially with something like personal branding, is that you're going to have to look at the ROI in both quantitative and qualitative ways. It's not necessarily about how many people can you get in front of, it's how are you viewed by that audience? Are you another salesperson? Are you a respected resource? Are you someone they feel looks out and has their best interests in mind? Will Barron: Hello sales nation, I'm Will Barron, host of the Salesman Podcast. The world's biggest B2B sales show where we help you not just take your target, but really thrive in sales. If you enjoy this content, make sure you click subscribe. And with all that said, let's meet today's guest. Shama Hyder: Hey, this is Shama Hyder founder and CEO of Zen Media. Will Barron: In this episode, we're diving into personal brand in sales. Why it's important, how to measure it, how to leverage it the best you possibly can, and the first thing you should do after consuming this content to make a real impact on LinkedIn in front of your potential customers. Let's jump in. How to Analyze the Size and Depth of Your Personal Brand · [01:12] Will Barron: Before we dive into the how of building a personal brand. How do we, if we even can, how do we measure our progress with it? Is it the number of Twitter followers we have? Or for a B2B sales professional, is there a better way to measure the personal brand that we have in perhaps within our vertical? Shama Hyder: So I think as any good salesperson will tell you, especially in the B2B world, relationships are everything. So the first thing that you have to keep in mind, especially with something like personal branding, is that you are going to have to look at the ROI in both quantitative and qualitative ways. Shama Hyder: So the qualitative is that really important, hard to put numbers on at times, but just as important. So, it's your reputation, it's how someone says, “oh, you are everywhere”, or “I've heard of your company before”. Anybody who's been in sales knows the difference when they call someone and they get hung up on versus, “oh, I've heard of you guys”. And that's the game changer. When someone says, “I've heard of you”, and you have that instant credibility, your reputation precedes you. And I think that's what you're really looking for when you build a brand where you've already have that credibility, you have that respect, and you have that time. So if you get their time and you've got their attention, then you're one step closer to actually closing the sale. The Benefits of Being Super Specific with the Type of Audience You Want Be In Front Of · [02:27] Will Barron: I think you just touched on something here and I think you consciously did this of being everywhere. And I think this is the salesperson's biggest competitive advantage versus the marketing team or other development teams in that, my background in medical device sales, there was only 16 urologists here in Yorkshire here in the UK that I needed to be in front of. If they all bought something from me every year, I'd smash my target, which was a couple of million quid. It's not that difficult to be everywhere in front of 16 people, versus a CEO of an organisation, your customers, you're trying to be in front of thousands of people. So how can we leverage this fact that we only need to be in front of a handful of people rather than tens of thousands? How can we leverage that as sales people versus perhaps how a marketer would? “It's depth rather than breadth. And that is also something to be said about your personal brand. It's not a popularity contest. It's not how many people know you. It's what the people that you are trying to get in front of think of you. How are you creating resonance and relevance with that group?” – Shama Hyder · [03:17] Shama Hyder: Sure. So it's not necessarily about amplification all the time. And what I mean by that is it's not necessarily about how many people can you get in front of. Which of course, if you have a niche audience, that's not really the case. It's how are you viewed by that audience? Are you another salesperson? Are you a respected resource? Are you someone they feel looks out and has their best interests in mind? Are you someone they feel like keeps up with the industry, that cares about their patients, their practise. I think it's conveying all of this information. So it's depth rather than breadth. And that is also something to be said about your personal brand. It's not a popularity contest. It's not how many people know you. It's what the people that you are trying to get in front of think of you. How are you creating resonance and relevance with that group? Who Decides How You Are Perceived in Your Industry? · [04:03] Will Barron: Before we've picked up the phone, perhaps they've Googled us before we've outreached to them, or perhaps we have outreached to them and we're in the process of booking call and they've Googled us. Who decides that initial perception of whether you are an industry thought leader, whether you are to be trusted? Is it the content that we put out? We'll touch on content in a second. Or is it how they interpret the content? If that makes sense. Who's in control of that initial, oh, that seems like a reasonable person to chat to. Shama Hyder: So it's a combination of things, . And here's the crazy thing. We often think it's one person it's not always one person. Especially if you look at B2B tech sales, what a lot of research shows is that it's a group decision making process now more than ever before. And so it's not always one person who says, “aha, I think X, Y, Z.” I think about, like I do keynotes all over the world and more and more, my bookings are by younger millennials, people who are not necessarily in decision making positions, and roles in their company, but they've read my books, they've followed for a while. And they're the ones that bring me to their bosses and they're “we got to get her in.” And so you've got to be able to realise that it's not a one track, you have this one person you need to influence. You also have to influence this sphere of people that influence their decisions. Shama Hyder: And what you're really looking for is content, but also consistency in that content. And that's the other mistake so many people make, especially salespeople, which is funny because sales is all about multi-touch, multi-point we all know this. And so it's funny because it's not about one tweet, one LinkedIn post. It's what you do consistently over time. And I feel like consistency is such an unsexy word. People don't like it. It's the cousin of prudence, . Nobody wants to hear the word consistency. But it's absolutely crucial when you're building brand and you're trying to build that trust and credibility and shorten your sales cycle. Shama Hyder: So for B2B folks, they say, that's the best thing you can do as you build these profiles, as you build this presence, you are going to shorten that sales cycle considerably. That doesn't mean you can be shortsighted about it because it does take time, but where something might have taken eight months, a year, can be a lot shorter because they already trust you. They already think that you are the best of the best. How to Build a Personal Brand in B2B Sales · [06:56] Will Barron: For sure. I think it immediately separates you from the competition. If you're known, liked, and trusted within an industry, if you just do a couple of talks a year. I used to do it all the time to surgeons. I'd get up on stage and explain kind of the future of endoscopy, the different equipment that we're using. I worked for the two biggest competitors in the industry, so it'd be kind of a vendor agnostic. But I'd get people come and talk to me after the fact, and they'd very often become customers kind of a year or so down the line. So with that said, is there a series of things that B2B salespeople should be doing to build a personal brand? And then we can kind of dive into the nitty gritty of practically what they should be doing day in, day out. For example, context, speaking, are there any real high leverage items that people or activities people should be doing to build their personal brand in a specific vertical? “The highest leverage thing that you can do to build your personal brand regardless of vertical, is perhaps the most important and the most overlooked, which is ask yourself why and what are you trying to accomplish?” – Shama Hyder · [07:13] Shama Hyder: The highest leverage thing that you can do to build your personal brand regardless of vertical, is perhaps the most important and the most overlooked, which is ask yourself why and what are you trying to accomplish? And I know this seems like a simple question, but it's amazing how many people dive in because they think that's what they're supposed to be doing without really saying, what's the goal? Am I looking to shorten that sales cycle? Am I looking to build trust? Am I looking to just get visible? Maybe my target market doesn't even know who I am. I don't even exist. What does that look like? And I think then the question becomes, and again, this is so important, how do I add value to my target market? Shama Hyder: This is the big difference I think between sales from yesteryear and sales now. Perhaps it's always been this way, but that it's highlighted so much more now, how can you add value to your given audience? Absolutely crucial in sales. And most people never ask themselves that. If you asked yourself that, get on stage, you would talk about these vendor agnostic solutions that there might have been, but you're really trying to educate and you're providing value. So whether that's through the stage, whether that's through online, that's the key. What is it that your audience is hungry for? Shama Hyder: And I'll go a little deeper into this Will, if you don't mind, because I think this might be helpful for your audience listening. So many people don't know this, but I did my thesis on Twitter when it had about 2000 users. Yeah, so it's crazy, long time ago, about 10 years now, today, of course, Twitter has 375 million users. “Why do people use social media? And I think this is an important question to answer because before you can try to figure out how to use it, you have to understand what drives people to use it.” – Shama Hyder · [08:55] Shama Hyder: So very different landscape. One of the things that I looked at in my academic research for grad school was why do people use social media? And I think this is an important question to answer because before you can try to figure out how to use it, think you have to understand what drives people. Like as sales people, we're all about the motivation. What is the motivation? So when I looked at that, my hypothesis was that we use it to connect with each other, to have that sense of community, but I was wrong. The primary reason people use social media is to showcase their own identity. Okay. And I know it might sound narcissistic first glance, or, oh my God the world is a giant selfie. Shama Hyder: But if you stop and think about it, you realise that's how we've always become who we are. It's the feedback we get, who we are, and we adapt to fit our community and so forth. Identity is a very changing thing. But translate this to sales and marketing, and what this means is it used to be so much about what does your brand say about you? Like we've all been these branding exercises for a company perhaps, or we're looking at, what does our brand stand for? Who do we want to be? What do we… We've all been there, but what this research shows us is the right question to be asking isn't what does our brand say about us? The right question to be asking is what does doing business with us, allow our customers to say about their personal brand? How Your Personal Brand Affects the People That Choose to do Business with You · [10:10] Will Barron: What would be an example of that in the B2B space? “If someone chooses to do work with your company, they're doing it not because of what your company is, but what it allows them to say about themselves.” – Shama Hyder · [10:28] Shama Hyder: So if someone chooses to do work with your company, they're doing it not because of what your company is, but what it allows them to say about themselves. And so I'll give an example. We've done projects with McKinzie. They're a client, McKinzie Consulting. And so if you look at those guys, when people hire them, for business issues, big challenges, when the fortune 100 go to them for different things, they're going to them because it allows them to say, “we care about strategy and we're going to look for one of the best in the industry to help us”. It allows them to say about their brand. When a CEO hires a business coach, they're hiring someone because it says, “I care about my leadership. I care about my career. I care about this.” When people come to us for marketing and new media, and how do we how do we stay relevant and make sense in the digital age, what they're saying is “I want to be innovative. So I'm working with you”, and that's very important when you're in sales to try to figure out how can you help support your customer's goals? Shama Hyder: And I'll give you another great example. So Chase Business is one of our clients. We've got this amazing campaign with them right now called a Chase Bizmobile that has been going all across America. It's literally like an amazing trailer, for lack of a better word, but it's really outfitted cool. We help design, put it together, we got some great partners we're working with to roll that out. But the whole point was chase business, it's a bank, Chase is a bank they're in the banking business. But what they had to stop and ask themselves were “what does that mean for our customers?” And their customers are interested in their business. So Chase looked at it and said, “how do we help support our customers businesses?” Being, “yes we're their banking partner, but we want to be their business partner”. A…

Full show notes at the publisher

The 5-Step Cure To Low B2B Sales Motivation Aug 10, 2022

Show notes

“What's my motivation?” Expert Note: “By a massive long shot, salespeople's biggest pain point is a lack of motivation” Kim Walsh Salesman Podcast Clichéd as it is, this question still resonates today. And not just with actors. But with retail workers, executives, laborers—with everyone. For sales reps, in particular, keeping up their sales motivation day after day is often a struggle. Boredom, anxiety, hopelessness, and downright depression can all be expected in the face of a too-far-off sales goal. And for some, the harder they seem to work, the less they seem to earn. If this sounds all too familiar, don't worry: You're not alone. But luckily, there's a way out. It just takes a bit of strategic work on your part. This guide shows you how to overcome a lack of sales motivation using a proven 5-point framework. And with it, you can boost your numbers, blow past your goals, and achieve more success as a sales rep. The Secret to Sales Motivation (Forget The Stupid Sales Quotes) Sales motivation is a tricky beast. On the one hand, it can inspire you to take on new challenges. On the other hand, it can give you the energy you need to truly test your limits. And it can be the impetus to winning record-level sales. But there's a dark side to motivation, too. If you relysolely on motivation to get things done, you're only setting yourself up for failure. For example, on high motivation days, you may feel bulletproof. You're packing your pipeline full of prospects, piquing the interest of leads, and closing deals like a boss. But on the bad days, you're erasing all of that progress. As a result, you're missing out on perfect closing opportunities, forgetting to follow up, and letting ideal buyers slip through your fingers again and again. So, how do you keep the sales motivation going? How can you wake up energized, enthusiastic, and eager to achieve every day? You can't. Surprised? Don't be. We are all human. We are all prone to having good days and bad ones. And anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you snake oil. Instead, you need discipline. “Motivation gets you going, but discipline keeps you growing. That's the Law of Consistency. It doesn't matter how talented you are. It doesn't matter how many opportunities you receive. If you want to grow, consistency is key.” – John C. Maxwell You don't need a sales rep motivation magic pill (because it doesn't exist). Instead, you need a system that takes motivation out of the equation entirely. And you need a way to succeed day in and day out—on the good days and the bad. And that's where the Selling By the Numbers 5-Point Framework comes in. The Selling By the Numbers Framework The Selling By the Numbers Framework is a simple yet effective way to take progressive steps towards meeting your goals every single day. It's numbers-focused, yes. But it's not overly technical. And don't be fooled here—this is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, the Selling By the Numbers Framework is a way of reverse-engineering your goals so you can better understand the steps you need to take to achieve them. The best thing about the Selling By the Numbers Framework helps boost your sales motivation when followed correctly. It'll also improve your performance, focus, help you beat fear and win more business. Here's how. A) Single Path to Success A significant factor in feeling unmotivated in a sales position is not knowing whether the steps you're taking actually lead towards a win. Maybe right now, you're “winging it”—you're reaching out to prospects when it feels right, switching up your cadences on a day-by-day basis, and trying out different approaches whenever you read about them. This attitude to setting goals isn't going to help you crush your performance targets. While there's value in experimentation, this haphazard approach doesn't let you determine what's working and what isn't. And as a result, you're left wondering what you did wrong when you haven't met your quota for the month. The Selling By the Numbers Framework gives you clear, weekly (and even daily) goals so you can quickly know when you're winning and when you're failing. And that clarity will keep you pushing forward. B) Easy to Communicate The framework is also simple to understand and break down for others. But how does that keep you motivated? On the one hand, the simplicity makes it a snap to keep sales managers and other members of your sales team onboard. A clear and quantitative end goal, regular waypoints to track progress, a focused roadmap you can refer to daily—it's a dream for the higher-ups. And the more your supervisors get behind a plan, the easier it is for you to stay on track. Beyond that, the framework's simplicity also makes it great for teaching to the rest of your sales team. With more hands-on deck, you can continually refine the process to make it even more effective. C) Forces You to Decide What You Want This one's important. Money isn't everything. It's important, sure. And having a lot of it is certainly a reasonable goal. But feeling satisfied in sales doesn't always have to be about reeling in a massive paycheck and owning ever crazy resources. This framework forces you to decide what's important to you. For example, are you looking for a way to finance a new home purchase? Do you want to demonstrate consistency and reliability to help accelerate your career? Are you trying to find a better work-life balance? Maybe you want to work in sales, win the incentives and release the pressure by semi-retiring at 40 rather than 70. I encourage you to forget the motivational sales quotes as you go through this framework and really focus on what you want to achieve in your career. By setting precise goals and following the plan each day, you can rest assured you're continually working towards those goals. D) Walk Away When You Want Last but not least, the Selling By the Numbers Framework gives you more control over lead management. How many times have you had to deal with a pain-in-the-butt buyer? They're sucking up all your time. They're rude. And to be perfectly honest, they're probably leading you on a wild goose chase. With this framework, you can easily refer to your plan, see if you need that buyer to hit your numbers, and if not, walk away from all the trouble. And that kind of freedom is inspirational in and of itself. The Downside of Not Selling By the Numbers Beyond those benefits, there are also plenty of downsides to not selling by the numbers. Here are just a few of the biggest. A) You Don't Know What Works When you don't follow a clearly defined framework, you're working from instinct rather than hard data. Sure, some salespeople get lucky. Maybe they catch a windfall client out of nowhere. And perhaps they succeed against all odds using a slapdash approach. But without a step-by-step plan, you can't collect the data points to see what's working and what isn't. That means you can't refine your process. You can't replicate great results. And you can't know for sure you're on the path to success. B) Relying on the Unreliable To people outside of your profession, sales is all about charisma. It's about charm, magnetism, and talking your way into a deal. But as a salesperson yourself, you know the gift of gab can only get you so far. A master charmer can certainly seduce some buyers into eating into their budget. But more often than not (and especially in the B2B space), a salesman that relies entirely on their charisma is a salesman that doesn't consistently hit their numbers. With the Selling By the Numbers Framework, you're putting in the work every day. And that means you don't have to bet the farm on charming your buyer into a sale. C) Stuck in the “Work Harder” Trap Finally, the framework lets you break free from the “work harder” trap. Researching and trying new sales approaches every week is hard. Guessing at what went right (and what made you fail) is hard. Working overtime again and again to make your number is hard. Convincing your manager that next month will be different is hard. This framework gives you a simpler, clearer path to consistent success. No guesswork. And no more working harder, just smarter. Breaking Down the Selling By the Numbers Framework So, what is the Selling By the Numbers Framework? Essentially, this framework starts from the end and moves backward to define how to get there. It does so in just five steps: Define Your Wants Set Your Income Goal Determine Your Starting Point Establish Your Waypoints Create Your One-Page Plan Now let's dive a bit deeper into each step. 1) Define Your Wants Part of what makes this framework so effective is the fact that you're beginning with the end—what you want to achieve—and reverse engineers those results. So let's start there. What do you want? The simplicity of the question is deceptive, though. “More money,” for example, is a goal. But it's not an end goal because it doesn't get to the WHY of it all. Do you want more money to fund your child's college? Do you want more money so you can be in a similar income range as your social circle? Is it all about getting that shiny new Corvette? There are two things important here. Dig Deep – Find out what's truly important to you. What do you want to achieve this year? What do you want to buy, to be, to do, or to have? Make It Concrete – The only way this framework is effective is if you can work back from a solid, non-abstract goal. Defining your ultimate goal and keeping it front of your mind is key to staying motivated. Perhaps Jarrod Glandt, President of Grand Cardone Enterprises, put it best in our interview: Expert Note: “That doesn't mean you have to have a million-dollar goal, but you have to figure out what's important to you, and you have to figure out a way to drive towards that every day. Otherwise, you will end up lacking purpose and lacking drive and lacking motivation, and then you're just going to be unhappy.” Jarrod Glandt Sales Leadership Show 2) Set Your Income Goal Next, it's time to set your yearly income goal. Working backward from the want you defined in the previous step, determine how much income you'll need to make to achieve that want. This step is pretty easy if it's a tangible good that you're after (like a car). But, first, find out how much extra income you'll need to afford that good comfortably and tack it onto your current income. For wants that you don't need to be fulfilled right away (like saving for your child's college), determine how much you'd like to save per year by working backward. For example, if you want to send your child to an Ivy League school, you can expect to pay about $225,000 in tuition. Over 15 years, you'd have to save an additional $15,000 per year. If your want is to be offered a promotion, you'll have to do a bit more thinking. Maybe becoming lead sales rep for 3 years running is the ticket to getting noticed at work. In that case, the goal is to bring in more sales than other reps on your team. 3) Determine Your Starting Point The next step is to take stock of where you're starting from. This, again, is simple—where are you now compared to your income goal? No need to overcomplicate things right now. Just take what you've earned already and subtract it from the final goal. After that, you'll also want to take into account the givens this year. Do you have returning customers that are going to be a consistent source of recurring revenue? Are you midway through a sure-thing deal and are just waiting to collect your commission? Are you going to be losing a longtime customer? Think about what is already scheduled for this year that's going to impact your income and build that into the difference you calculated earlier. 4) Establish Your Waypoints This is where things get slightly more complicated. Now it's time to build out the quarterly, monthly, weekly, and even daily waypoints you need to hit to earn your income goal and achieve your final want. Try to make these waypoints as specific as you can using data from your customer relationship management (CRM) tool—more on that later. Look at historical tables to find out precisely how many touchpoints it took to close a successful sale. For instance, your data might look something like this: Sales target = $15,000 Average dollar value of closed deals = $1,000 Calls made = 2400 Decision makers spoken to = 480 Discovery calls scheduled = 120 Demos scheduled = 60 Proposals given = 30 Closed deals = 15 Then, break down that data into quarterly, monthly, weekly, and perhaps daily goals. Using the data above, your goals might look like this: *Note: As your timeline gets shorter (e.g., daily goals), the math doesn't always translate perfectly. As such, you may want to reserve more time-intensive plans for longer timelines (e.g., closing deals on a monthly rather than weekly basis). Quarterly Calls made = 600 Decision makers spoken to = 120 Discovery calls scheduled = 30 Demos scheduled = 15 Proposals given = 8 Closed deals = 4 Monthly Calls made = 200 Decision makers spoken to = 40 Discovery calls scheduled = 10 Demos scheduled = 5 Proposals given = 3 Closed deals = 2 Weekly Calls made = 48 Decision makers spoken to = 10 Discovery calls scheduled = 3 Demos scheduled = 2 Daily Calls made = 10 Decision makers spoken to = 2 Discovery calls scheduled = 1 5) Create Your One-Page Plan Last but certainly not least, you need to create a one-page plan outlining the entire framework. Important: this is not meant to be exhaustive. Don't treat this one-pager like the single note-card you could bring to class—crammed from edge to edge with information. Instead, this is the boiled-down version that hits the core of each step. Yours might look something like this. My One-Page Plan Want: To have enough money saved up over 15 years to pay for Molly's tuition in full. Income Goal: $150,000 per year Starting Point: $130,000 + $5,000 recurring yearly revenue (additional $15,000 per year needed) My Waypoints: Quarterly Calls made = 600 Decision makers spoken to = 120 Discovery calls scheduled = 30 Demos scheduled = 15 Proposals given = 8 Closed deals = 4 Monthly Calls made = 200 Decision makers spoken to = 40 Discovery calls scheduled = 10 Demos scheduled = 5 Proposals given = 3 Closed deals = 2 Weekly Calls made = 48 Decision makers spoken to = 10 Discovery calls scheduled = 3 Demos scheduled = 2 Daily Calls made = 10 Decision makers spoken to = 2 Discovery calls scheduled = 1 Time to Execute: What You Need to Know to Get Started Now that you have a better understanding of the sales motivation framework let's dive a bit deeper into the details. What kind of information will you need to establish your waypoints? What research will you have to do on your accounts before getting started? And what considerations do you need to include in your calculations? The specifics will vary among industries and positions. But below are some of the most common pieces of information you'll need to consider along the way. A) Your List of Prospects How many prospects do you currently have in your pipeline? How many do you need to hit your goals according to your conversion rates? You'll need to consider this information when building out your daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly strategies. According to HubSpot, more than 40% of salespeople say prospecting is the most challenging part of the sales process. So be sure to factor extra time into your days for it. B) Average Account/Order Size How big is your average account or order size? And how…

Full show notes at the publisher

**Salespeople - Stop Trading Time For Money! | Selling Made Simple** Aug 09, 2022
Show notes

A lot of sales reps I work with have been caught in the time/money trap – what they make is DIRECTLY tied to how much they work. But the great thing about sales is you can create a “flywheel” system that SCALES UP your ability to earn without requiring more of your time.

And if you put in a bit of effort, your flywheel system will pay off BIG TIME.

What Is The Flywheel?

Let’s talk about what a flywheel is. Literally speaking, a flywheel is a heavy wheel that, when turned, continues revolving over and over again thanks to its size and momentum.

Think of the Price is Right. You know the big, heavy wheel at the end that keeps spinning and spinning? Like that.

Now what does this have to do with sales?

Well when you first start out in this job, it takes a LOT of effort to get things rolling. Making those first few sales, building up your network from scratch, getting into the groove with your processes—it’s a ton of work.

But once you DO start making progress, your flywheel starts spinning on its own momentum.

And that means:

You can ask for referrals

People in the industry already know you before you even reach out

Your sales process gets refined and improved

You can farm/upsell current customers rather than having to do lots of cold outreach

Simply put, everything gets easier.

You don’t have to work as hard to see results. And that means less effort for better outcomes.

The flywheel does all the work for you.

How Do You Get Your Flywheel Moving?

How do you get your flywheel moving? And just as importantly, how do you get it moving faster?

Well we’ve got three strategies covering just that. And we’ll start with…

1. Impetus

As the old saying goes…

“The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is today.”

Procrastination is wasted time. And the sooner you start doing something, anything for your future, the more that investment is going to pay off.

On top of that, it takes a LOT longer than you think to build a successful business or brand—7 to 15 years according to some experts. Do you want to be raking in the spoils of your success when you’re 35 or would you rather be on your way to 60?

If you’re looking for low-risk, high-reward things you can start doing TODAY to get things spinning, start spending more time with social selling. Interact with industry experts on LinkedIn. Connect with others you’ve met or talked to over email. Start building insightful, valuable content of your own.

But no matter WHAT you do, just do SOMETHING.

2. Focus

I’ve seen so many reps fall victim to having too many irons in the fire. It seems like a good idea at first, right? Diversify your approach. Casting a wider net yields more fish. Yada yada.

But what they don’t tell you is that you have a limit to the amount of energy you can spend. There are only so many hours in a day. You only have so much work you can do before you snap. And life, at least one worth living, isn’t just about the work.

So what you need to be doing is focusing your flywheel.

Stop spending time and energy on the tasks that don’t drive results. Don’t send in that RFP for a deal you’re never going to get. Cut out the in-person meetings that you’re always ditched on. Find what ISN’T WORKING. And get rid of it.

On the other side of that, double down on what IS working. Find the one channel that’s driving the most sales, whether it’s cold outreach, upselling current customers, targeting inbound leads—whatever.

And then hit that channel HARD. Get good at it. Like really good. And spend the majority of your efforts on knocking that channel out of the park.

Once you start seeing some really killer success here, only then should you think about getting your other flywheels going.

3. Scale

Your time is best spent on the activities that scale your earnings, that multiply your value without multiplying your work.

These are the activities that you can perform across your clients without having to deal with any guesswork.

For example, how are you following up with first-touch leads? Are you just emailing them randomly whenever they pop into your head? Or are you following a strategic cadence that’s proven effective?

The second option is of course going to be the best. When you follow a system, a framework, you don’t have to spend time guessing, hemming and hawing. Instead, you just follow the steps, 1…2…3…4… And because it’s so systematized, you can knock out MORE follow up work in LESS time than if you handled things randomly.

The hard part is knowing where to start with cadences. But not to worry, I’ve got you there too.

This is one of the starter cadences you’ll find in the Selling Made Simple Academy. Feel free to use it as a jumping off point for your leads too.

Day 1 – Connect on LinkedIn

Day 3 – Email – Case study for a related business using your product

Day 10 – Email – Link to a “how-to” blog post that focuses on a common problem in their industry and how your product can help solve it

Day 12 – Call > Voicemail to explain that you’ll send an email > Email link to another case study and reference your call in the email

Day 14 – Email – Provide some hard data on the buyer’s problem that they might find useful

Day 20 – Email – Straight forward ask for a meeting

Day 25 – Call > Voicemail > Email asking for a meeting

No one ever said sales is easy, especially when you’re first starting out.

But when you create a flywheel sales system, you make selling 10X simpler by being able to earn referrals, build trust at a distance, refine your process, and upsell current customers.

The post Salespeople – Stop Trading Time For Money! appeared first on Salesman.com.

SPIN Selling: 4 Steps To Predictable Sales Success Aug 08, 2022

Show notes

In sales, no two scenarios, and neither two customers are alike. So sales professionals have to cut through the clutter and get to the heart of what a client wants.

The best way to do this is by asking the right questions—questions that help salespeople build a strong rapport with sales prospects.

Following the SPIN sales methodology can be a good step in the direction where you can use sales questions with the most impact, easily overcome objections, and close more sales.

What Is SPIN Selling?

The SPIN sales technique makes it easier for sales reps to close deals. It identifies the core stages of questioning that a salesperson must go through to convert a prospect.

Neil Rackham introduced the sales training methodology in his 1988 book titled SPIN Selling. Based on data collected from 12 years of research and 35,000 sales calls (!), he outlined a framework for developing and timing structured questions sales reps should ask to close a deal.

The SPIN acronym represents four categories: Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need-Payoff.

Here's a breakdown of each category, along with SPIN selling method you can use to learn more about your target customer, build trust, and eventually close the deal.

1) Situation

This stage of the sales process is all about gathering information. You ask situation questions during the opening stage of a sale to better understand the prospect's current situation.

The purpose here is to understand the prospect and their exact situation (hence the name) and whether it aligns with your offering.

Situation Questions:

How do you achieve X?
What process does your organization use for X?
What is your role at the organization?
Do you have a person responsible for X on your team?
What do you currently use for X?
Why did you choose these tools and how often do you use them?
Do you have a solid strategy in place for X?

2) Problem

The problem stage of your sales call involves identifying pains and problems that the prospect experiences. Questions here are asked during the investigation stage to probe the prospect's frustration and pain points.

You want to bring the prospect into an awareness that they have a problem or highlight the problems they need to solve. Once you know the problems and issues, you'll use them later to drive the sale forward.

Problem Questions:

What's the biggest challenge you face with X?
How much time do you spend on X?
How much money are you paying for your tools to do X?
What are the common points of failure for this process?
Are you happy with your current vendor?
Is your current product always reliable?
How many people are currently working on X in your organization?

3) Implication

Implication involves underscoring why the prospect should focus on solving their problems. In addition, these questions highlight the potential impact of the discovered issues and issues that aren't addressed.

Your purpose here is to relate the prospect's frustrations with the previous stage's problems when demonstrating the value of your product or offer.

Implication Questions:

How much money and time did you lose during your last outage?
If it wasn't for (challenge), how much time do you think you would have saved?
What happened the last time X failed?
How does (problem or issue) affect your KPIs?
How do your team members feel about your current tool?
Are you happy with the efficiency of this process?

4) Need-Payoff

This stage is all about leading B2B sales prospects to your desired conclusions on their own instead of you telling them how your product or service can address their pain points.

In the closing phase of the sale, you ask the prospect how important or urgent it is for them to solve the problem or issue and hand and tie the light on the benefit of solving it. You want the prospect to consider how valuable a real solution to their pain points would be.

Need-Payoff Questions:

Do you think your team members would be more productive if they had more time?
How can you simplify X?
What do you think will make a good tool for your organization?
Would your team like a tool that does X, Y, and Z?
If you find out that you can double your productivity by switching products, would you?
What do you think your team needs to succeed?
How productive do you think your organization would become if you gave your team the right tools?

Understanding the 4 Main Stages of SPIN Selling

Rackham and his team also details the four main stages of the SPIN selling method in his book. Let's take a look to get a better understanding of the sales process methodology.

Stage 1: Opening

The opening stage involves introducing yourself to your prospect.

This should be a warm, polite, and gradual process instead of you immediately rushing into a sales pitch about why your product is the best on the market. Stop talking about your features and benefits. Stop being the traditional sales pest.

You don't want to overwhelm or annoy your prospect; focus on establishing rapport and trust.

Stage 2: Investigating

Once you successfully engage your prospect in a conversation, you can start investigating. Focus on the common customer needs. Ask the SPIN selling questions you just learnt.

Your chances of selling your product or offering to a prospect you don't know are slim to none. It's a hard fact. You don't know what your prospect wants, needs, what they are willing to pay, and other critical questions that can help you tailor your sales pitch according to them. So how can you make them see value in your product?

That's why the investigation stage is all about discovery and asking questions that can help you learn more about your prospect. Getting this right will guide you on the remaining steps of the sales funnel.

Stage 3: Demonstrating Capability

At this stage we're accelerating through the buying process, you've established trust with your prospect and know about their needs, preferences, and likes and dislikes. Next, you start demonstrating the main capabilities of your product, where you highlight your offering's best features, advantages, and benefits.

When dealing with end-users, you want to focus on the descriptive elements of your product that make it functional and unique. On the other hand, emphasize your product's advantages and how it's better than what your rivals offer when talking to decision-makers. Decision-makers are more interested in benefits and the overall value provided by a solution.

Stage 4: Obtaining Commitment

In the obtaining commitment stage of SPIN selling, you want to overcome objections and get your prospects to commit to a purchase.

Objections fall into one of two categories: value or capability objections. While value objections stem from the prospect's belief that your product isn't worth their money and won't guarantee a stable ROI, capability objections stem from a premise that your product isn't going to help them solve the biggest problem.

Both objections won't bode well for your deal if you don't eliminate them effectively.

Under the SPIN methodology, the best way to deal with objections is to prevent them from arising in the first place. Then, by asking the right questions, you can get the prospect to see your product's value on their own.

Additional Tips to Succeed at SPIN Selling

According to Neil Rackham, “the best selling isn't at all about your products and what you can offer. It's very much about the customers and their needs. ”

Keeping this in mind in your sales training, here are a few additional tips to help you master the SPIN sales methodology:

A) Get Specific

The best SPIN selling questions aren't too generic or vague. You want to be as specific as you can and avoid beating around the bush. For example:

Bad Sales Question: What would your team members do if they had more time?
Good Sales Question: How do you think your team members would perform if they got six extra hours every week?

Get it?

B) Customize Questions—But Don't Go Overboard

Your SPIN selling questions should be customized for the specific prospect you're having a conversation with.

As mentioned, no two prospects are the same. If you ask everyone the same set of questions, it'll only come off as insincere and monotonous. It's why SPIN Selling emphasizes getting to know your customer before pitching your product or service.

While you want to ask thoughtful questions, asking more questions isn't necessarily better.

The best tactic is to adopt a minimalistic approach, so the entire selling process is efficient and valuable for your prospects. Ask a select few questions at a time—and make sure they count.

C) Listen and Adapt

When questioning prospects, you want their answers to fuel your approach. In addition, you want to use them to learn more about your prospect and improve yourself.

Think about how you can incorporate the information into your next sales call. It's also good to consider whether you're getting any customer feedback that can help you sell more effectively to other people.

D) Demonstrate Expertise and Authority

What makes you an expert in handling your prospects' pain points? How can you ensure the client sees your expertise without deviating from the process?

Figuring out the answer to these questions is critical to establishing your credibility, which, in turn, will help you close deals faster and more effectively. Play to your strengths, but always keep your prospect's requirements a top priority.

Become better at selling! Empower yourself with SPIN Selling knowledge, and improve your close rates right away.

The post SPIN Selling: 4 Steps To Predictable Sales Success appeared first on Salesman.com.

**How I Design My Ultra Productive Selling Days | Selling Made Simple** Aug 06, 2022
Show notes

Being productive is a major pain point in sales. I should know—I used to be lazy, procrastinate, and flake out all the time. But today I run a 7-figure sales training company, produce TONS of quality content, and still have time for coaching calls, hobbies, and a family life.

How? I’m tyrannical about how I plan and execute my days. Here’s how I do it.

**1. “Does it Make the Boat Go Faster”**

Only do “what makes the boat go faster.”

There was a rowing team in Great Britain that had a big audacious goal—they wanted to win the Olympics in two years. And to achieve that goal, they did something a bit unorthodox. They relentlessly asked themselves, “Does this make the boat go faster?”

It wasn’t just equipment they scrutinized. Though they tore that apart too. No, it was training, strategy, *mentality*, sleep schedules, nutrition, motivation. Everything that came into play was examined and evaluated. And if it didn’t make the boat go faster, guess what? They got rid of it.

At the end of two years, they had a completely redesigned team… and a gold medal.

If you want to be ultra productive and close more deals, you need to focus on what makes the boat go faster. Prospecting leads to sales. Gossipy emails don’t. Building your network makes the boat go faster. Facebook posts don’t.

Get relentless with it. Because if it doesn’t make the boat go faster, you shouldn’t be doing it.

**2. Time Block**

Organization is the heart of productivity. And when it comes to how you complete your mission-critical tasks, it should be no different. That’s where time blocking comes in.

Rather than getting to the real impactful tasks whenever you can, start scheduling them directly into your calendar.

But be deliberate here. Choose times and windows that you KNOW are realistic and that you can stick to. Because to maximize your productivity, you need to stick to those timelines like your life depended on it.

No handling other little tasks while you work on a big one. No spending an extra half an hour of unscheduled time on it. No fudging the numbers.

Work on the SINGLE task from start time to finish time. No more, no less.

Time blocking requires discipline. A hell of a lot of it. But when you get the system down, you’ll find yourself finishing big tasks faster and fitting more of them into your day.

**3. Capture Tasks**

We’ve all found ourselves realizing something important needs to be done only to forget about it completely by the end of the day. And by the time you realize it, it’s way too late to do anything about it.

That’s why it’s so important to have a task-capturing system.

Now we at the Selling Made Simple Academy actually have a whole system dedicated to this. It’s called the Bucket Productivity Framework. And if you’re interested in learning more about it, head over to the link in the notes.

But for now, here’s a quick overview.

You essentially want to capture tasks that come up throughout the day on a pad of paper you keep with you at all times.

Then once your day is almost through, take a minute or two to go through your list and define the next steps for each task. This will make it 20X easier to do later.

After that, you’re going to organize each task into one of four buckets: Urgent & Important, Not Urgent & Important, Urgent & Not Important, and Not Urgent & Not Important.

The Urgent & Important tasks you’ll handle yourself first thing tomorrow. The Not Urgent & Important ones can wait.

But for the Urgent & Not Important, you should delegate to someone else. And for the final bucket, Not Urgent & Not Important, just don’t do them. They don’t matter!

Again, there’s a lot more to be said about this system. So if you want to learn more, be sure to click over to the full explainer in the show notes.

**4. Use the Power of “NO”**

So much of your productivity losses are tied up in performing meaningless tasks you get assigned by others. A pointless meeting you agreed to attend, a 20-minute coffee break with a colleague when you should be on the phones, an hour-long video call when a simple email would do.

There’s **so much** time wasted on unnecessary engagements, especially when the information you need from it can be covered a simpler, faster way. Worst of all, a lot of the time you don’t even enjoy these engagements! So to recap, you’re:

Barely getting anything out of it.

Wasting time you could be spending on driving sales.

Hating being there anyway.

Rather than put yourself through that, get more comfortable saying no. “No” might seem like it’s costing you something when you say it. But the opportunity cost of saying “yes” to something that doesn’t move the boat forward is far higher.

**5. Sprint AND Marathon**

And finally there’s understanding the concept of the sprint AND the marathon.

On the sprint side of things, you should always be moving relentlessly towards completing something. Sprint to finish this video. Sprint to create the best YouTube channel for B2B sales reps. Sprint to retire early.

Whatever it is you’re doing with your life, always have a goal. And always look for ways to achieve it faster.

On the *other* side of things, you need to understand your limits. That’s where the marathon comes in. If you burn the candle at both ends for too long, it’s going to lead to burnout, exhaustion, and other life priorities that don’t get the attention they need.

The solution here is what’s called The 20 Mile March. It’s a concept developed in the book Great by Choice by Jim Collins. It describes how enterprises that last the longest tend to self-impose a rigorous performance mark that they hit with amazing consistency.

In the book, Collins equates it to hiking across the United States by marching 20 miles a day, every day. No more, no less. You don’t go further on great days. And you don’t go less on terrible ones. And at the end, the 20 mile marcher will ALWAYS beat out the opportunist that does the opposite.

The march imposes order amidst disorder, discipline amidst chaos, and consistency amidst uncertainty.

So chase down your goals relentlessly. But keep things to a reasonable limit. And remember that consistency always drives the best results.

The post How I Design My Ultra Productive Selling Days appeared first on Salesman.com.

Replay: How Buying Emotions Are Made And How To Create Them In Others Aug 05, 2022

Show notes

In this episode of The Salesman Podcast, Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett talks about how buyer’s emotions and feelings are formed in the brain, regardless if it’s positive such as happiness, or negative, such as remorse. We cover some sales training nonsense on the topic of influence and Lisa debunks a few more sales myths in this episode. You'll learn: Sponsored by: Free SalesCode assessment Learn your strengths and weaknesses in an instant. Taken by over 10,000+ of your competitors. Don't get left behind. Take the free assessment Featured on this episode: Host - Will Barron Founder of Salesman.org Guest - Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett Researcher of Psychiatry & Psychology Resources: LisaFeldmanBarrett.com Book: Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain Book: How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain Lisa on LinkedIn Transcript Will Barron: Can we go up on today's episode of the Salesman Podcast? Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Your brain makes emotions, emotions don't happen to you. They are made by your brain for particular situations that you're in. Your brain is always regulating your body. And your body is always sending information back to your brain. And you feel that information from the tug of your lungs, expanding, the rush of your blood through your veins, the feeding of your heart. Will Barron: Hello, my name is Will Barron and I'm the host of the Salesman Podcast. The world's most downloaded B2B sales show. On today's episode, amazing episode, we have Dr. Lisa, she's the author of How Emotions Are Made. And that's exactly what we're diving into in today's show. We're diving into how the buyer emotions are made in their brain, whether it's happiness, whether it's buys malls, whatever it is. We also dive into how to influence over people's emotions and we call that some of the nonsense that sales trainers have been talking about influencing other people and their emotions over the decades. Lisa dives into that and the book's a whole tonne of it. Everything that we talk about, and this episode is available at the show notes at salesman.org. And with that said, let's jump right into it. Can Humans Control Their Emotions? · [01:52] Will Barron: And we're going to talk some science, we're going to talk emotions, and we're going to hopefully be able to discuss where, well I'm going to call buying emotions come from. So that might be happiness. If you buy the right product, it could be the fear of missing out, if there's an offer a deal in place, it could be unfortunately regrets or buyer's remorse. I want to dive into where all these come from, then hopefully how we can help buyers have better buying experiences moving forward. So before the obvious question of where the heck do buying emotions come from? I want to tee things up with asking you, are we in control of our emotions? Because sometimes it seems like I can choose to be happy. I can choose to change my state of mind, but sometimes emotions come in crushing it and hits us like a car crash, I guess, a car wreck. So are we in control of the emotions that we feel? “Your brain makes emotions, emotions don't happen to you. They are made by your brain for particular situations that you're in. Your brain is automatically constructing emotions out of a set of ingredients. And you have control over seeding your brain with those ingredients to make emotions more automatic in an effortless way, but control in the moment as in stopping feeling one thing and in order to cultivate a different feeling is extremely hard I would say.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman · [02:17] Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Well, that's a really hard question actually. That could be answered in many different ways. I guess the answer would be, yes, you are more in control than maybe you think you are, but that control looks very different than what you think it does. So your brain makes emotions, emotions don't happen to you. They are made by your brain for particular situations that you're in, your brain is automatically constructing emotions out of a set of ingredients. And you have control overseeding your brain with those ingredients to make emotions more automatically in an effortless way, but control in the moment as in stopping feeling one thing and in order to cultivate a different feeling is extremely hard I would say. If you're very physically worked up, you can change the meaning of that worked up feeling and therefore change the emotion, but calming your body down is actually extremely hard to do for anybody. Do We All Have The Capacity to Feel The Same Emotions? · [04:10] Will Barron: Sure, you've touched on something here that I wanted to come to the end of the show or later on the show, but we'll address it now. These feelings that we feel, does everyone feel the same feeling? And then from societal, I guess, norms put a label on it, of I feel butterflies. And so I feel nervous, excited versus other people might feel butterflies and have a different association with that feeling so they feel a different emotion. What I'm asking is all emotions ubiquitous, and we all feel the same. They can be categorised, or do we add a layer on top of emotions that changes what they actually feel towards personally? “So your brain is always regulating your body and your body is always sending information back to your brain. And you feel that information from the tug of your lungs expanding, the rush of your blood through your veins, the beating of your heart.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman · [04:21] Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: So your brain is always regulating your body and your body is always sending information back to your brain. And you feel that information from the tug of your lungs expanding, the rush of your blood through your veins, the beating of your heart. You experience those sensations. As simple feelings of affect, feeling worked up, feeling calm, feeling pleasant, feeling unpleasant, those aren't emotions, they're simple feelings of mood or what scientists call affect. They're always with you every waking moment of your life. Your brain's job in part is to link the sensations from your body and these affective feelings to the words going on around you in the world in order to give them meaning so that your brain knows what to do next. And so it's more than just labelling. What your brain is always doing is categorising sensations to give them meaning a way to think about it as like this, your brain is trapped in a dark silent box called your skull. Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: It's receiving sense data from the world like changes in light, changes in sound, pressure, changes in chemicals. It doesn't know what the causes are of these changes. It only receives the outcomes of those causes, so when there's a flash of light or a loud bang, say a loud bang, what is it? Is it someone slamming a door? Is it a car backfiring? Is it thunder? Is it a gunshot? Depending on what caused that bang your brain would do different things to keep you alive and well. But your brain doesn't know what caused the sound. It only know it's receiving the outcome of some change, but it doesn't know what the change is. Similarly, when your brain receives sense data from your body and there's a tug in your chest, is it hum, anxiety? Is it heartburn from having eaten too much? Is it the beginnings of a heart attack? “This is what philosophers call a reverse inference problem. You get the answers, but you don't know the question. You have to figure out what caused these changes. And so that's what your brain is always doing. It's asking itself. “The last time I was in a situation like this, where I had these internal sensations and this feeling, what caused it? What did I do about it?” – Dr. Lisa Feldman · [06:50] Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: What is it? Your brain doesn't know what it is. It's only receiving the outcome of some cause. This is what philosophers call a reverse inference problem. You get the answers, but you don't know the question. You have to figure out what caused these changes. And so that's what your brain is always doing. It's asking itself. “The last time I was in a situation like this, where I had these internal sensations and this feeling, what caused it? What did I do about it?” It's asking what is similar to the present moment in my past and things which are similar in some way are a category. “Happiness for you is not the same thing each time you feel it or regret each time you feel it is not the same thing because your brain is constructing each moment on the fly in a particular situation. So, in some situations, when you're happy, you smile, in some situations when you're happy you cry, in some situations when you're happy you might you pound fists with someone. You do different things, your body does different things.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman · [07:43] Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: So your brain is basically forming categories to guide your action and create your extended emotional experience out of the sense data. So the question you're asking me, does everyone in the world feel the same thing? The answer is no, but happiness for you is not the same thing each time you feel it or regret each time you feel it is not the same thing because your brain is constructing each moment on the fly in a particular situation. So in some situations, when you're happy, you smile, in some situations when you're happy you cry, in some situations when you're happy you might you pound fists with someone, you do different things, your body does different things. You feel different things. When you're happy, depending on the situation that you're in. So it's not the same, even for you from moment to moment. The Brain’s Unconscious Reactions to Different Types of Emotions · [08:38] Will Barron: This is fascinating because we've never ponded on the idea before. And just you bringing that back to me adds different frames of references of what emotions are, which is amazing. And how much of this then is conscious versus subconscious or unconscious in this? “Everything that you experience right now, your brain is able to use in the future to help construct another experience. So in a sense, we're always cultivating our past as a way of controlling our future.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman · [09:18] Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Mostly unconscious. So your brain is all of this meaning-making is occurring under the hood really automatically. In fact, it takes me much longer to describe it to you than it actually takes for it to occur. So when you asked me before, how controllable are your emotions? Well, the meaning making part is easier to control if you think about control over the long-term, meaning everything that you experience right now, your brain is able to use in the future to help construct another experience. So in a sense, we're always cultivating our past as a way of controlling our future. So the best way to control your emotions is to give your brain a good, flexible set of options that it can use to construct your emotions with. And then your brain will be very flexible in how it does this on the fly with very little effort from you. Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: So can you think of it a little bit like exercising, you invest a lot of energy and then you replenish that energy because it's a really good investment in having a healthy brain in the future. And similarly, you can construct new experiences for yourself, cultivate new situations, curate new feelings. And that is effortful. But what it does is it's an investment in having a flexible brain that will control your emotions in a way that's more tailored to the situation. Chemical and Neural Activities in The Brain and How They Affect How We React to Emotions · [10:39] Will Barron: What is or I'll put this a different way. How much of this is brain activity and feedback from the body versus a chemical a cascade in the brain where once it starts literal chemical reactions are happening. And so it's difficult to put a stop to it in that moment. “There's a whole system in your brain of neurons. Their only job is to control other neurons. That's what we call attention. You experience attention from a subjective perspective. “Am I looking at this thing? Am I concentrating on this thing?” But attention from a neurons perspective is anything which makes it fire more or less.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman · [11:30] Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Well, here's the thing, all chemical, all neural activity in the brain is both chemical and electrical. Neurons communicate by chemicals. I mean, if you didn't have those chemicals, the neurons could not possibly talk to each other. There's a whole system in your brain of neurons. Their only job is to control other neurons. That's what we call attention. You experience attention from a subjective perspective. “Am I looking at this thing? Am I concentrating on this thing?” But attention from a neurons perspective is anything which makes it fire more or less. So you put a stop to the firing of some neurons by other neurons basically. And it's always possible to turn the dial up or turn the dial down on an assembly of neurons, it's just that your body takes longer to adjust to the neural signals. “You have these moments where you know nothing is wrong, but you're still worked up anyways. And you really would really, really like that worked up feeling to go away. But it won't it's because your body is just slower to listen to those signals from your brain.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman · [12:00] Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: So it can feel like, you have these moments where you know nothing is wrong, but you're still worked up anyways. And you really would really, really like that worked up feeling to go away. But it won't it's because your body is just slower to listen to those signals from your brain. How Salespeople Can Make Their Customers Happier By Helping Regulate Their Nevours Systems · [12:40] Will Barron: Amazing. Okay. So that's the baseline there. How do we, and we can very quickly move into the world of manipulation I'm not interested in that. I'm more interested in creating a better buying experiences. And I'm sure some of this works better in person than it does over a Skype call or over a phone call. But is there anything we can do as salespeople, as business leaders to make our customers happier, where we engage with them over the perhaps obvious stuff like, perhaps I'm assuming this is the case, but smiling seems to be somewhat contagious. And that hopefully affects the emotions of the people that are engaged with. Is there anything like that, that we can do to I guess, get people to mirror our own emotions? “When people smile for the purpose of trying to get me to smile, really what I want to do is give them the finger. Honestly, I don't like being manipulated that way. And I don't think people like being manipulated actually.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman · [13:20] Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Yeah. So I have to tell you that the more I learn about this, the more I think that smiling is… One day I'm going to write a book called the tyranny of happiness, I think. When people smile for the purpose of trying to get me to smile, really what I want to do is give them the finger. Honestly, I don't like being manipulated that way. And I don't think people like being manipulated actually. So here's what I would say. “The best thing for a human nervous system is another human. The worst thing for a human nervous system is also another human. So if you want to make your customers more comfortabl…

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Setting Sales Goals That Lead To SMASHED Sales Targets | Salesman Podcast Aug 03, 2022

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Here you are—another year gone by. And you almost, aaaaaalmost hit your sales goal this time! Just like last year. And the year before that. And the year before that… But this year is going to be different. Maybe it’s the world rapidly changing around you. Or maybe it’s you getting another year older. But this year, it’s time to get serious about setting sales goals and adapting your sales process. And I’ve got just the framework to help. In just eight steps, you can map out where you want to be next year, strategize the steps you need to take to get there, narrow down which goals are a good fit, and more. Ready to go? Let’s hit it. Setting Sales Goals: Why It Works Why should you be setting your own sales goals? And just as importantly, why should you start setting your goals strategically so that you don’t give up on them four months into the year? As it turns out, setting sales goals is one of the easiest low-investment, high-return wins sales reps can make. Here’s why setting your own sales targets is such a game-changer. A) A Clear Path to Success First and foremost, setting sales goals gives you a clear, indisputable path towards achieving massive professional success. We can all agree that if you don’t know where you’re heading, it’s going to be a real pain to get there. And setting well-defined goals lets you plan out your path to success milestone by milestone. What’s more, when you continually improve upon those goals (e.g., “I’m going to close 5% more deals than last year”), you’re creating the impetus you need to keep moving forward. And that means less career stagnation and consistent forward progression. Having a clear path to success is also valuable for sales managers and sales teams too. When you can effectively communicate your sales cycle and where the sales revenue is going to come from, management will get off your back and allow you to get on with your job. B) It Lets You Plan Ahead Setting sales metrics (that are reasonable, mind you) also gives you a better indication of what lies ahead. If, say, you need to close on 12 accounts this quarter, that means you need to aim for four accounts per month. If you’ve only closed two in the first month, that means you’ll have to work extra hard to close five in the other two months. Setting annual sales goals based on numbers rather than more a subjective sales goal like “improving customer lifetime value” enables you to directly track progress too. Added to that, your goals also help identify your busy seasons, your lulls, and when you should focus on other goals like filling your pipeline, streamlining your processes, or even taking a vacation. C) Feel More Fulfilled at Work Last (but certainly not least), setting and achieving your sales objectives boosts your confidence, teaches you self-management, and increases your proficiency on the job. All these perks allow for faster upward mobility which often leads to greater satisfaction. Don’t forget—achieving sales goals is often directly connected to bonuses and raises. And as we all know, compensation has a huge effect on overall job satisfaction. The Setting Sales Goals Framework Now that we’re agreed on why setting sales goals is so important, let’s jump into the how of it all. How do you set sales objectives? Is there a sales goals template you can use? What do I need to do to set me up for success this year? I developed The Setting Sales Goals Framework to answer these questions (and more). With this framework, you can evaluate your priorities, identify areas of improvement, establish impactful goals, and set yourself up for your best year yet. Plus, it’s made up of just eight simple steps. What Did I Achieve Last Year? What Were My Biggest Disappointments Last Year? What Did I Learn Last Year? How Do I Limit Myself & How Can I Stop? What Roles Do I Play in My Life? Which One of These Roles Is My Major Focus for Next Year? What Are My Goals for Each Role? What Are My Top 3 Goals for Next Year? 1. What Did I Achieve Last Year? The process starts with an act hated with a passion by some and absolutely adored by others—bragging. If you achieved something this year, you can do the same this year too. What were your finest moments over the past 12 months? When did you feel unabashedly proud? Or when did you receive praise from a supervisor, coworker, friend, or partner? Start with your professional accomplishments like if you hit your revenue targets and sales activities. But don’t stop there. Reach into your family and social life too. Here are a few questions to get your accomplishment juices flowing. Did you hit your sales target? Did you get closer than you have done in the past? Did you move house? Did you decorate or repair your current home? Did you start a new sales job or get a promotion? How much money did you earn in the last year? Did you pay off a debt? Did you get married? Have a child? Did you get through a rough family patch? Did you finally start to get fit? Are you exercising more than the previous year? Did you start to treat yourself to more enjoyable things? Did you read more books? See more friends? Celebrate Your Accomplishments You should force yourself to celebrate the wins no matter how small they seem. There are two reasons for this. First, you’re essentially rewiring your brain to associate completing goals with good feelings. When we skip the celebration phase of the productivity cycle, our brains get wired to associate completing a task with simply starting the next one. There’s no reward here. And that’s going to make it harder to stay motivated and care about actually achieving your goal. Added to that, this stage of the framework helps you balance your perception of yourself. You’re pulling up the celebrations that have been forgotten and weighing them against the losses in the next step. The cool thing is that often when people go through this part of the worksheet, they find that they are doing far better than they thought they were. Setting Sales Goals Pro Tip: Start a wins journal. Any time you get a compliment, a slap on the back, a “Great work!” or any other indication that you accomplished something important, write it down. Doing so helps you identify wins more easily and makes this first step much easier. “One of my favorite things that I recommend to my clients is to create a journal. Call it your wins journal. So every time you have a win, small, medium, or large, write it down. Like, “Woohoo, celebrate! Today I talked with John DOE at Google, and he's always super excited about bringing our stuff into his company.” Write that down. So when you do get caught in these anxious moments, go back to your wins journal, like, “Oh yeah, that happened. That was real.” Remind yourself that you are good at what you do. You are enough, you've got this. – Interview with Michele Molitor, Coach, Hypnotist, & Imposter Syndrome Expert 2. What Were My Biggest Disappointments Last Year? Next up is the opposite of the last step. When did you feel like your abilities fell short of your expectations? When did you not stack up? And when did you miss the mark? Writing out your disappointments shouldn’t be all doom and gloom. There is actually a lot of value in documenting your disappointments. For instance, it can be quite cathartic. I personally have always felt a great weight lifted from my shoulders every time I write down what went wrong rather than trying to pretend it didn’t happen. Did you fail to hit your stretch goal? Did you make less sales calls than you planned? Did your last monthly sales goal right down the crapper? Most people are more comfortable with their failures than their successes, and so they tend to keep them around, like cozy old friends. But when we hold onto our disappointments and don’t celebrate our wins, our self-perception becomes unbalanced. Instead, you need to accept that your failures are a reflection of who you were a year ago. They are not reflective of what you’re capable of right now or what you’re going to be capable of six months from now. Think of it as a garden. Pointing out our disappointments is like weeding the soil we’ve planted our seeds of achievement in, giving them the environment they need to grow. Document Your Disappointments Too Just as you started a wins journal in the last step, it’s important you document your disappointments as well. Here are some questions ask yourself to get you thinking about any downsides of the past 12 months. You didn’t hit your sales target, or you didn’t get the bonus you wanted Your debt got bigger rather than smaller You didn’t find that man or woman you wanted to bring into your life Your dreams didn’t come through Expectations were not fulfilled You lost someone close to you Your clothes are fitting a little tighter, but you’ve not gained any muscle You were hoping to go on an awesome holiday away, but things didn’t work out You wanted more time to yourself, but it didn’t happen Write them down throughout the year and come back to them once it’s time to set new goals. Setting Sales Goals Pro Tip: Be honest with yourself. Nothing good comes from sugarcoating the past. If you lie to yourself about your disappointments, you’re preventing yourself from avoiding those disappointments in the future and becoming a better, more successful sales rep. “What I teach people is, just change one word around, from the prospect to I. How could I have made them believe that they were ready to buy? How could I have made them understand the price was right? How could I have made sure that they had everybody there? If you can change that one word and put the onus on yourself, you're going to learn from your failures, and those failures are going to start to diminish.” – Interview with Harvey J. Eisenstadt, Trainer, Speaker, Mentor, & Author 3. What Did I Learn Last Year? Now is the time when you put the two previous steps together. You achieved some spectacular wins. You ran into some unexpected disappointments. So, what did you learn from each? What was the secret to your successes? What worked and what didn’t? And why were you able to achieve what you did and what caused you to fail when you did? Take the time to move through both your wins and disappointments journals and find the lessons in each. And then, ask yourself these questions about those lessons: What would’ve worked better? What was the lesson I should have learned? Have I actually learned this lesson yet? Is there any evidence to prove that I learned it? What is the evidence? Answering these questions gives you an opportunity to take on bigger challenges. If something failed last year, your answers to these questions give you an opportunity to learn what you can do differently next time to increase your chance of success. Asking the REAL Questions Struggling to find the lessons? Ask yourself these questions to tickle your brain a bit. What do I need to change in the way I operate to have success faster? Do I need more discipline? Have I been honest with myself and others? Am I taking care of myself as well as I need to be? Do I face problems head-on, or do I put my head in the sand? Do I let other people support me, or do I avoid getting feedback and help? Do I support other people as much as I should? Do I need to be more proactive in chasing my goals? Do I need to say no more often and focus on what really matters? As you learn from previous mistakes, you reduce the chances that failure happens again. And you also increase the chances of good events happening. When you do that, you are changing the climate that you’re growing your seeds of success in. You’re increasing the amount of sunshine and rain. And you’re reducing the frost and pests killing your plants. You’re cultivating success in your life. Setting Sales Goals Pro Tip: It’s vital that you learn to find a lesson in EVERY failure. That’s why it’s so important to jot down your disappointments over the past year. And that’s why this step is so important for setting sales goals that lead you to professional success. “I don't care if you're buying something or selling something. The easiest thing to do is give up and walk away. But if you can keep learning a lesson, asking why, wondering why, go back to your team, regroup with them and decide how to be bigger and better and stronger together; it's a formality that the byproduct is success.” – Interview with Derek Daly, Author & Motor Racing Legend 4. How Do I Limit Myself & How Can I Stop? We are often our own worst enemy. And in many cases, the things that are holding us back the most are things we do to ourselves. This crucial step of The Setting Sales Goals Framework is meant to help you identify where these self-imposed roadblocks are. Because once you do, only then can you overcome them. Ask yourself these four questions to uncover your own limiting beliefs and behaviors. How Do I Limit Myself? You may come up with tons of different reasons here. And I want you to make note of every single one of them. For instance, you may think: I don’t plan and think ahead I’m lazy I believe what other people say about me I don’t stand up for myself when my customers push me around I don’t follow through on what I say I’m going to do I spend more than I make I don’t ask for what I want Write them all down here. What Has It Cost Me to Do So? Next, analyze what each of those limits is costing you. This step of the process immediately throws everything into perspective. And as a result, you’ll soon be able to identify that 20% of the issues once removed will give you 80% of all the benefits. In What Ways Have I Benefited from Limiting Myself? What are the upsides of limiting yourself? Don’t be fooled here. There are always perks to limiting ourselves. If there weren’t, we wouldn’t be doing it in the first place. Some of the benefits you come up with may be: Living an easier life Avoiding having too much expected of you Living in ignorance and not having to face up to your issues Increasing the chance that people approve of you Having something to blame everything that goes wrong on Having the excuse that you could “do better if you really tried” when things do go wrong If I Knew How, Would I Be Willing to Stop Limiting Myself? The final step is to ask yourself, “Am I willing to stop limiting myself in these ways?” I don’t want you to worry about whether you think you’re going to be able to stop limiting yourself. Instead, ask yourself – “If I knew how, would I be willing to stop limiting myself in this area?” If the answer is yes, then this should be a goal of yours moving forward. Setting Sales Goals Pro Tip: Adopt an abundance mindset. An abundance mindset lets you see the vast potential in the world rather than being held down by scarcity and fear. And that means you can set better, more ambitious sales goals for yourself. “We have abundance on this planet. The only limitations that are set, are set ourselves in what we believe we're able to achieve in a world full of abundance. Literally when you open your mind to that understanding, then why wouldn't you want to go out there and get every single thing you can. Because you know everything you could ever want and more is right here in one place. And it's nothing new. It's just a matter of you getting your hands on as much of it as possible.” – Interview with Ryan Stewman, Sales Coach & Business Consultant 5. What Roles Do I Play In My Life? Next up, it’s time to define your roles. And not just your roles at work. But all of your roles in life. Answering the question of “what roles do I play in my life?” allows you to get an overall view of all the aspects and responsibilities in your life. And doing so sets you up to identify which roles you want to focus on in the year ahead. There are three benefits to identifying your roles. 1: It Provides Direction Identifying your various roles lets you see how you’re…

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How to Sell Against Competition: Convert Your Competitors Accounts To Your Own | Salesman Podcast Aug 01, 2022

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In the minds of many reps, competitor buyers are off-limits for prospecting. After all, why waste time with a buyer that’s already entrenched with someone offering a similar product? But as it turns out, competitor buyers are some of the best prospects you can target. They’re more qualified, they’re budget-ready, and they’ve already got a buying process in place for your product. That being said, these leads can be harder to win over, too. They’re more loyal, resistant to change, and they take a bit more convincing on why your product is superior. So, how do you sell to competitor buyers successfully? This guide dives into how to sell against a competitor to bring on their existing clients. Inside, we take a look at a proven four-step framework. And we also investigate why these leads can be so lucrative in the first place (and how they can skyrocket your commissions in no time). Why Sell Into Competitor Accounts? Before we get into how to sell against a competitor, let’s look at why you should consider selling to their buyers in the first place. At first glance, the prospect of selling to your competition’s buyers can seem like a failed cause. Existing customers are loyal. They’re already familiar with your competitor’s products. And they’re resistant to change (the “don’t fix what ain’t broke” mindset). That all adds up to harder sells, wasted time, and fruitless effort… right? But as it turns out, there are plenty of benefits of selling to your competition’s buyers. And once you’ve developed a system for converting them that actually works, you can start to reap those benefits. Potential Benefits (When You Do It Right) So, why go after your competitor’s buyers at all? Below are a few of the biggest benefits of making the leap. They’ve Already Demonstrated Product Interest – One of the hardest parts of bringing new customers on is demonstrating how your solution addresses their pain points. It’s why retaining repeat customers is 5X more valuable compared to finding new buyers, according to Invesp. Existing customers already see the need. And so do your competitor’s buyers. As a result, you don’t have to spend days and weeks explaining your product’s value—they already understand it because they’re already working with a similar product. The Budget Is Settled – In addition to already demonstrating product interest, a competitor’s buyers have already allocated the space in their budget. When there’s already space in the budget, you don’t have to work as hard to justify spending extra. Instead, you can simply swap out your expenses with those of your competitors (if they’re comparable, of course). Their Buying Process Is in Place – Last but not least, your competitor’s buyers know how this all works. They’ve done it before. The approvals, the training, the onboarding, the ongoing support—they get it. And they’re far less likely to be turned off by how extensive the buying process may be. For you, that means an easier sale and less feet dragging along the way. Why It Can Be So Difficult to Pull Off The perks are clear—your competitor’s buyers are more qualified, more price-friendly, and more efficient than bringing on new clients. What’s not to love about that? But there are also some downsides to going this route too. Namely, converting these buyers can be a tough sell. At least in some cases. Here’s why. Loyalty – If a buyer has stuck with a brand for years, you may have trouble overcoming loyalty. Loyalty is a powerful purchasing motivator. InMoment found 77% of consumers say they’ve held relationships with specific brands for 10 years or more. And 61% go out of their way to buy from them. That can make it especially difficult to bring loyal customers over to your side. Lack of Differentiation – Piggybacking on the last point, a buyer isn’t going to make a shift unless there’s an especially compelling reason to do so. How do you address needs better than the competitor? Are you faster? More feature-rich? Do you provide more value for less investment? If you can’t demonstrate why you’re better or even if you’re better, you’ll have little luck in closing a deal. Change Hesitancy – Finally, individuals are change-averse. But businesses and organizations are even more resistant to rocking the boat. Change is scary. And there’s risk involved in working with a new vendor. It’s up to you to show how partnering with your business addresses those risks and provides more potential benefit than the potential detriment of signing on. The Competitive Takeover Framework Now that we understand both the perks and difficulties of acquiring this type of buyer, let’s look at how to sell against competition. How do you convince a loyal customer to come on board when they’re already loyal to another company? The trick is to address unfulfilled needs, establish some buy-in, overcome objections, and drive urgency. The best way I’ve found to do just that is by following what I call The Competitive Takeover Framework. This framework is composed of four simple steps: Find the Gap Get Agreement Eliminate Self Doubt Answer “Why Now?” And when implemented effectively, it will persuade even the staunchest potential buyers to do business with you. 1. Find the Gap The first and arguably most important step to master if you’re wondering how to sell against lower priced competition is finding and exploiting “the gap.” To explain, the only reason a potential buyer would switch away from their current vendor to you is because they have an unmet need. Maybe that need is a specific feature. Maybe it’s more advanced technical support. The list of potential needs is limitless. But in the end, those unmet needs typically translate into hassle for the buyer. And if you can reduce that hassle, you’ve just found the most powerful change motivator of all. That is the gap. The gap occurs between the end of the competition’s sales cycle and the end of your sales cycle. You can think of these ends as the status quos after implementing each solution. Take a look at the graph below for a better idea of what the gap looks like. See how the gap is defined by where the buyer is now versus where they could be after implementing your solution? The goal is to identify how your product can alleviate the buyer's pain points in a way their current solution cannot. With the gap, you’re building a solid foundation that you can use to demonstrate how the buyer’s life stands to benefit from switching. And it’s the logical reasoning you need to convince them to make the change. A Few Notes on the Gap As you’re identifying and leveraging your buyer’s gap, there are a few things you need to remember. The bigger the gap is, the easier it’s going to be to convert the account. Essentially, a bigger gap means you have more value to offer. And if that gap is small, the risks of changing vendors to your company might outweigh the benefits. The process of navigating the value gap is slower but less painful than implementing the original solution. Once this process of change has happened, the next value gap is between the second sales cycle status quo and then the third. As you go further along (i.e., third to fourth, fourth to fifth), the value gap tends to shrink. Therefore, converting an account that has been converted many times over is tougher than converting an account that has only been sold into once. Gap Building Questions Now that you know what the gap is, let’s talk about how to identify it with your buyer. There are two questions you should ask during this stage: What pain points are you experiencing with your current solution? Are those pain points actually important to you? Let’s get more in-depth with each. With the first question, you are getting your buyer to both acknowledge that there are unaddressed pain points and coaxing them to let you know what those unmet pain points are. In the real world, that might look something like this: Seller – “I’m curious, when you tried to increase the number of sales that your team is making (remove pain) by using in-person sales training (benefits of a product), how did it go?” Buyer – “It worked well at first, but then quickly everybody went back to their old ways, and revenue stagnated again.” After that question, we’re going to further qualify that this is a gap we can sell into by asking a downplay question. The question might look like this: “Perhaps everyone selling as they always have (pain point just uncovered) isn’t that important to you because you’re hitting all your targets already (reason it might not be important)?” This question is invaluable at uncovering information. If the buyer fights back and tells us that this pain point really is an issue for them, then we know we’ve found the gap. If, on the other hand, the buyer agrees with you that the pain point isn’t that big of a deal, they’re probably not worried about it, and so it’s going to be difficult to close a sale with them. Pro Tip: After identifying the buyer’s unmet pain points in the first question, don’t jump right in explaining why your solution is superior. Doing so undermines the decisions the buyer made in the past. And that can lead to reactive discussions where they’re feeling defensive—not a very sales-receptive position. 2. Get Agreement Having highlighted the gap, it’s time for a simple—yet essential—step for getting buy-in from your prospect. And it all hinges on a very peculiar human quality. See, once you get a single “yes” out of an individual, all the “yes” responses that follow are easier to earn. The pill gets a little less jagged and easier to swallow each time. That’s why you must get the buyer to verbally agree that the gap you’ve uncovered is truly worth the risk and the pain of change. If they say no, then they’ve just disqualified themselves as a potential buyer, taking a lot of extra work off your plate. If they say yes, then they’re a good candidate and worth trying to convert them into a buyer. So the question is, how do we get the buyer to verbally agree to make a change? There are four steps in particular here: The “What” Question The “Confirmation” Question The “Reversal” Question Get Agreement Step 1: The “What” Question This question is designed to defy the buyer’s expectations that they’re about to get hit with some manipulative sales pitch. Instead of being pushy and off-putting, we’re going to probe a little bit deeper into their needs. This question may look something like this: In regard to (the pain), what would you like to see happen with it? It’s a simple question. But it's open-ended enough to bring to light some very serious pain points and solutions that you may not have uncovered otherwise. Step 2: The “Confirmation” Question Next up, we’re going to ask a question that confirms you’ve heard the buyer correctly about their pain points and desired solutions. Something like this: What I’m hearing you say that you want is (repeat what they said). Have I got that right? There’s quite a bit of subtlety in this question. On the one hand, you’re confirming that what you’re hearing is what the buyer wants, not what you’ve already pitched. This gives the buyer more agency and connects their wants to your product implicitly. Beyond that, you’re also demonstrating to the buyer that you are invested in their needs and that you’re listening—fantastic for building rapport. Step 3: The “Reversal” Question Here in particular, the buyer will begin dreading what they think is ahead—the pitch. That unbearable time when talking to a rep where they feel they’re being manipulated, cheated, and coerced into a sale. But what you’re going to do here is play off those expectations by asking the opposite of what they’re thinking. You’re going to ask them what they want. That might look like this: So, it seems like there are some issues here. What would you like me to do? With a big enough gap, your potential buyer will be enthusiastic about working with you and ask to engage in the next steps (send us a proposal, schedule a demo, etc.). Step 4: Get Agreement Finally, you need to seal the deal by getting a verbal agreement to work together from the buyer. This commitment helps lock the buyer into partnering up. And it also does wonders for preventing them from bailing out further down the line. This question might look like this in practice: If I can solve (the pain), will you move from (competitor) to us? Simple as that! 3. Eliminate Self-Doubt At this stage of the framework, you’ve already identified the value gap and gotten the buyer to commit to signing on if you can solve their current pains. Sounds like that should be the end of things, right? What else is left? As it turns out, logic alone isn’t enough to get buyers on board. Because buyers are humans. And humans are guided by emotions and social pressures. That means when there’s a risk of looking stupid, a buyer is going to be far less likely to sign on with you. For instance, if a buyer signs on with your competitor only to switch to another vendor, they’re going to feel embarrassed in front of their colleagues. That’s why it’s up to you to give the buyer all the tools they need to look like the hero of the story. There are two main ways to do that—give them customer stories and focus on the upside. The Value of Customer Stories Since humans are so innately social, it’s easy to understand why customer stories can have such a huge impact on how your buyer feels about signing on with you. The opinions of others are highly influential on our own courses of action. And when you feed your potential buyer with customer success stories, it can do wonders in eliminating self-doubt. Focus on customer stories where the case in question involves a buyer similar to your target prospect. The more similar they are, the more likely it’ll resonate with your target. On top of that, these customer stories have the dual effect of showing buyers that other people are in fact making big changes. And those changes have paid off big in the long run. Focus on the Upside To even further eliminate self-doubt, you can ask a series of rhetorical questions that get prospects to understand the value of making the change. What I call “would it be worth it” questions are fantastic for helping buyers focus on the upsides. These questions might look something like this: “If we move forward with the deal, get your team trained, and all it did was increase their performance by 10%, would it be worth it?” “If we replace the competitor’s camera equipment and all it did was eliminate all the breakdowns and lost time you’re currently facing, would it be worth it?” Again, the questions here are mostly rhetorical. But along the way you’ll also be uncovering underlying desires of the buyer that may not have been out in the open before. 4. Answer “Why Now?” Having identified the gap, gotten agreement, and eliminated self-doubt, it’s time to compel action. In a perfect world, buyers would act immediately. After all, the sooner you implement, the sooner you can start seeing the benefits. But we don’t live in a perfect world, unfortunately. And many buyers put off a purchase decision as much as they can. Maybe it’s next week, maybe next month, or maybe next quarter. But with each passing day, the odds of them pulling out of a deal grow higher and higher. That’s why it’s vital you get your buyer to act now. And that’s where trigger events come in. A trigger event is an event that gets people thinking about doing things a bit differently. It could be a superior product launch from a competitor. Or a CTO with institutional knowledge leaving the company. Or it could be a CRM breakdown that obliterates years of customer data. No matter what the trigger event is, it’s bound to spur rapid change. And they’re great leverage for inspiring your competitor’s buyers to switch to your product. You’ll know you’re in the right place at the right time when a trigger event is happening because you’ll hear your buye…

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How To Identify “Do Nothing Deals” And Win More Of Them Jul 29, 2022

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Tom Pisello is the current Chief Evangelist for sales enablement at Mediafly. On this episode of the Salesman Podcast, Tom uses data-backed evidence to explain “Do Nothing Deals” and how salespeople can break the status quo to close more of these deals. You'll learn: Sponsored by: Free SalesCode assessment Learn your strengths and weaknesses in an instant. Taken by over 10,000+ of your competitors. Don't get left behind. Take the free assessment Featured on this episode: Host - Will Barron Founder of Salesman.org Guest - Tom Pisello Chief Evangelist, Mediafly Resources: Evolved Selling by Tom Pisello EvolvedSelling.com The Transparency Sale by Todd Caponi Virtual Selling by The RAIN Group The Evolvers Podcast Transcript Will Barron: This episode of the show is brought to you from the salesmen.org HubSpot studio. Coming up on today's episode of the Salesman Podcast. Tom Pisello: Yeah, buyers are looking to make a choice or an improvement in their environment, and a do nothing deal happens when they decide to stick with their status quo. Maybe the investment that's required is so high compared to the change and the benefits they can get, the outcomes they can get, that it's not worthwhile. But one of the important things is that people move away from pain emotionally much more than being attracted to gain. Will Barron: Hello, sales nation. My name Will Barron, I'm the host of the Salesman Podcast, the world's most downloaded B2B sales show. On today's episode, we have an absolute legend, really enjoyed this conversation, we have Tom Pisello. He is the author of the book Evolved Selling, which you can find on Amazon and everywhere else as well. On today's episode, we're getting into what to do with “do-nothing deals.” So what do nothing deals are, how to break through the status quo and get some more of these closed. And Tom comes at this with tonnes of research and data. And so there's tonnes to go out with this episode, so let's jump right into it. Tom, welcome to the Salesman Podcast. Tom Pisello: Pleasure to be here, Will. Thank you so much for inviting me. What are “Do Nothing Deals”? · [01:38] Will Barron: You're more than welcome. I'm glad to have you on. On today's episode, we're going to get into what to do when we have do nothing deals. Now, to set things up, Tom, before I throw my thoughts into the picture here, what is a do nothing deal? Let's clarify this before we suss out how to deal with the situation. “Buyers are looking to make a choice or an improvement in their environment. And a do nothing deal happens when they decide to stick with their status quo.” – Tom Pisello · [01:41] Tom Pisello: Yeah, buyers are looking to make a choice or an improvement in their environment. And a do nothing deal happens when they decide to stick with their status quo, or their business as usual, and really the whole buying decision process that they've been through, all those meetings, all the committees, all the getting it together. All that time and effort from the buyer perspective is all thrown away, obviously your sales time with them is thrown away too, and they decide not to go with you, not to go with a competitor, but just stick with business as usual. Maybe relying on that legacy solution or the broke business processes that they're using today. And so, unfortunately we see too many pipeline opportunities ending with do nothing or as Gartner calls it, no decision. How to Handle ‘No Deal’ Sales Scenarios · [02:42] Will Barron: We are clearly biassed here on this podcast. Yourself and I, many companies, many roles within the sales space, and myself, all I do is help sales professionals close more deals, earn more commissions, and crush it in their sales jobs. Are there times when a no deal or a no decision is the appropriate decision for the buyer? “I think there are times as sellers that we need to be ready to sometimes say, “You know what, no decision or do nothing might be the most appropriate.” – Tom Pisello · [03:38] Tom Pisello: You know, there could be times where maybe their problem is not that big of a problem. Maybe the legacy solutions and business processes maybe aren't that broke. Maybe the investment that's required is so high compared to the change and the benefits they can get, the outcomes they can get, that it's not worthwhile, or sometimes the organisation just isn't ready for change. And so those are three just quick ones, where it is appropriate. That may be your advice to the customers is, “Look you might not be ready for this.” And I've given that advice to certain customers or, “What you're doing now, you could get some benefit from what I'm providing, but maybe not all of the benefits to overcome all the work and effort and risk of change.” So I think there are times as sellers that we need to be ready to sometimes say, “You know what, no decision or do nothing might be the most appropriate.” Examining External Market Forces and a Salesperson’s Ability to Influence “No Deal Scenarios · [04:38] Will Barron: For sure, because where I want to go with this, is it a sales person's responsibility to never have a no deal? Is it in our control or are there other kind of market forces that dictate some of this? Tom Pisello: Yeah, there definitely are these external market forces. And you know what, identifying a company that is going to end up at no decision or do nothing, as quickly as possible, should be one of the missions we have, right? Which is understand that the outcomes are going to be significant, that the company has the investment that they're ready to make, that they're ready to implement a change and be successful. Many of us now are selling subscription services. So our selling doesn't end with that. Firstly, we have to make sure they're going to be successful and going to achieve those outcomes. So if you're able to identify that a company maybe has one of these three issues, perhaps that's better, you don't waste as much time on them, and maybe you can advise them not to waste their time as well on a decision cycle that might end badly. Logical and Emotional Responses to Proposed Change · [05:13] Will Barron: For sure. It's somewhat common sense, we want to qualify some of this out, but why I find it difficult to do this practically when I'm selling our training to the enterprise, as opposed to individuals, I get into a lot of conversations where the buyer is stuck in the status quo. They've always done things one way, and now with COVID, they'd been given a big kick in the arse to do all the cliche stuff of digital transformation, remote selling, all these kinds of things. So now there's a bit less status quo in the marketplace from my perspective. But where I find it difficult to qualify is when logically they should move forward, but emotionally they get stuck. Do you have any thoughts on how to suss out when we are in the qualification process whether we want to invest our time into this buyer, whether we can suss out whether logically we know that they want to work with us, but whether emotionally they are ever going to come round. Tom Pisello: Yeah, there are a lot of organisations that are stuck, stuck in the mud kind of organisations. And I don't think there's a precise science for understanding whether those companies will move or not. If the company is willing to recognise that they are broken and that it is costing them a lot of money to stick the status quo, I think that that's one way where you can get them to maybe know that they're going to move. I think the other is that you have to think about the outcomes and the value, not just from an organisational or a company standpoint, but from a personal standpoint. So personally, does your stakeholder have the motivation to change? Are they feeling enough pain every day from what's going on, and are they willing to put their job on the line, or perhaps their reputation on the line, by being the champion behind your solution? And what is the business value benefits that they're going to ultimately get is important, but sometimes the personal benefits that they may be able to achieve by doing this is something that you want to amplify to understand whether emotionally they're connected with the solution or not. Why Change Only Happens When the Pain of Staying the Same is Greater Than the Pain of Change · [06:52] Will Barron: I know it's difficult because we're talking very in broad terms here, but are there any qualifying questions we could ask? One that comes to mind could be as I'm jotting down notes from our conversation here Tom, could we ask a question along the lines of, “Do you believe that there could be a better solution?”, just to see if there's a willingness to have someone put the solution in front of them and to move forward with it. Is there anything else we can ask question-wise? “People move away from pain emotionally, much more than being attracted to gain.” – Tom Pisello · [07:58] Tom Pisello: You can, Will. One of the big things with emotion though, is that you can ask questions about the benefits that they may be able to get out of it on a personal basis, an organisational basis, or a business basis. Personal are the things that impact them every day: recognition, raises, respect from the organisation. Business is the cost savings, the productivity improvements, process improvements, risk avoidance, and then revenue growth. And then on an organisational basis, how does this impact the ultimate end user and the customer and improving the experience of all those that are involved. So those are the three dimensions that we measure on, but one of the important things is that people move away from pain emotionally, much more than being attracted to gain. So the only change I would make, Will, in your question is focus on, “Does the person you're talking to, do they have a good perspective on the personal pain they're experiencing today and is that extreme enough for them to move?” Tom Pisello: And then on the organisation side and the business side, similarly. Rather than say, “Oh, do you believe you're going to be able to get these benefits out?” Say, “How bad is it? How bad do you think it is today? And what is that costing you perhaps by sticking where you're at?” And so if you're able to get them to clearly understand, and to be able to articulate back to you in a more amplified way, the pains that they're experiencing, that's when I find that you've made that emotional connection and that they're ready and they're primed. And you have to do that, not just for your champion, but all the other dozen or so other flippant stakeholders that we have in every deal now to make sure that everyone understands the pain that's involved. And too quickly as sellers, I think we understand our solution and we understand maybe the benefits that it can deliver. And I think too often, we jump to that rather than really spending time to make sure that the customer and all of the stakeholders really understand how much the affliction is costing them and how painful it is and making sure everyone is aligned on that before we jump to the solution and the ultimate benefits that get delivered. Why Most Customers Want Their Pains Fixed Rather Than Their Pleasures Enhanced · [09:33] Will Barron: It's interesting you talk about pain versus pleasure. We're actually going through, and this is marketing. The audience will appreciate this though. We're going through a massive change of our marketing over at salesman.org and our training product and the things that we offer at the moment. Cause we did a poll, and I think it's about three-and-a-half-thousand people replied to the poll, and now, polls are not ideal way to measure intent and different things, but the data is what it is. And we asked people essentially what they wanted from sales training. “What do you want to achieve by doing this?” I thought the answer would be, earn more money, more prestige, easier life. But the response was all negative. People were suffering, they talk about a lack of motivation, even the way that they framed up the answers. Will Barron: It wasn't, “We want more motivation.” It was, “I don't want to have this lack of motivation anymore. I want that pain to be removed.” What was another one? But that was the top one by a mile. Salespeople in our audience, for whatever reason, are massively unmotivated at the moment. Another one was complexity. People wanted things to be simpler, which is why we're pushing everything towards this selling made simple branding that we're doing now. And I'm really focusing on adding fundamentals and frameworks as opposed to more higher level conversations and topics like that. And it was really interesting to me that it was all, “How can I remove these negatives?”, as opposed to, “How can I earn bigger commissions?”, which was my assumption going into this. Does that surprise you? “Connecting to a pain is so much easier than trying to convince someone of a gain.” – Tom Pisello · [11:06] Tom Pisello: It doesn't surprise me. And I'll talk psychologically about where we're at with a couple of those things. But the good news for you, Will, is that you're connecting to a pain, which is much easier than trying to convince someone of a ain. So you should be leveraging that if you're able to solve that pain problem, because they're recognising they do have this pain and they want the motivation. They're suffering from a lack of motivation. You're in a great spot. So anytime we can get our buyers or customers to really connect with them on the pain side, we know that we're solving something that's worth solving and worth it for the client to invest in. And that's a good thing. Let's talk a little bit about simplification and why that is coming up. And I think this goes a lot to the no decision drivers, the do nothing drivers, that Gartner found. “40% of buying journeys right now are ending in no decision.” – Tom Pisello · [11:51] Tom Pisello: So first of all, when we look at the problem, 94% of buyers have participated in a cancelled buying cycle over these past two years. And with COVID, although you indicate that things like transformation and some of these projects, you can't stick with status quo, we're actually seeing more of an issue of change rather than less. And you wouldn't think that because the motivation is there to change, but there's a couple of factors, and 40% of buying journeys right now are ending in no decision. So what's changed and what's driving that? Well, there were three issues that Gartner came up with. One was, why are decisions ending with do nothing? Changes in priorities. So 49% indicated that that's the number one issue. So what's happening in organisation is, and what's happening as a seller, you're going in, and underneath the buyer, all of these things are changing, and things are in a lot of flux right now. Tom Pisello: So you start off selling towards one challenge that the buyer's having. And before, you know it, two weeks in, a month in, their priorities have been shaken up because their management and executives are having to move so quickly. And so we're facing this quicksand of changing priorities, and what you have to do with that, well, you really have to make sure you align with priorities and that you revisit those priorities. Like in subsequent calls, “Here's my understanding of the challenges we're addressing. Have any of these changed?” As new people come on, making sure you're gath…

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