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All Sales Start With a Why with Michael Manzur #205 Michael Manzur is founder and CEO of Flood Me Social LLC, a social media marketing agency. He helps companies find qualified leads and convert them into prospects. Michael is an unofficial LinkedIn Influencer and Host of LinkedIn Local Aventura in south Florida. Today we discuss common mistakes sellers make in social media and the process to turn leads into conversations. Ineffective  Social Media Too often companies have no idea why or what they’re doing on social media. All they know, is that they’re supposed to do it. The word Why is the driving force for selling according to Michael Too often businesses fail to base objectives around their Why Social media is merely a tool, doesn’t supplant effective communication People can see a marketing campaign a mile away Without a clear Why, campaigns fall flat Your Why comes from your Value Proposition. First define that. Effective Social Media Now that you have your Why, do the following: Set a business obje

What’s Not Working In Sales Today with Brandon Bruce #204 Brandon Bruce grew up in a tiny California town of 800 people where he only had one classmate at a school with outhouses as their bathroom. He went from these humble beginnings to now Cofounding and growing Cirrus Insight to $12 million in revenue and #41 on the Inc. 500 list (after a six-year rollercoaster of sales success and setbacks). Today Brandon and I discuss what’s not working in sales today. Times Have Changed for Sales Cold emailing and cold calling still work, but not as well as in the past. The internet is changing consumers behavior.  They are spending more time alone shopping and comparing before calling the sales line. It used to be that growing a big email lists was the path to success. But it doesn’t work as well as it did in the past. People can smell a pitch a mile away. A small list of targeted prospects is better. Sales Solutions That May Work Be eminently reachable – post your calendar online and let people find a spot that works

The Purpose of Sales with May McCarthy The purpose of this episode is to talk about purpose! Our guest May McCarthy discusses the value of aligning our day-to-day decisions towards some greater purpose. May walks us through a discovery process used by sales people and business owners alike. The purpose of sales is unique for each of us. In this episode let’s reveal what you want, how to achieve it and lastly how does your company help or hinder your success. Lack of Purpose Companies know what they do, but not why. Even if they do, large organizations fail to share it up and down the organization. A purposeless organization will experience: lack of innovation disengaged employees listless shareholders fickle customers lower profits A clear shared purpose can address these concerns and provide you your unique purpose of sales. Personal Purpose, Company Purpose Ask three questions to reveal the purpose of sales in your life: What did you do when young that you truly loved? Ask people who you know and respec

Time To Sell Mindset with Chris Spurvey #202 In this episode Chris Spurvey shares his uncomfortable sales journey. When he started in sales, he didn’t find instant success. It took time, but he discovered the right mindset that would allow him to connect with prospects, and convert them into loyal clients. He calls it Chris Spurvey 5.0.  In his new book It’s Time to Sell he explains his process for reinvention, self discovery and the right time to sell mindset. Achievement Demands a Vision Without a direction, you can’t reach a destination. Chris believes a compelling vision motivates you to go out and act. It’s all about mindset. By celebrating smalls win, successes will compile. Create a vision with a time to sell mindset Set aside time each day executing this vision What is your sales vision? Consider framing sales as a problem solver, not a pusher. If you can give your clients a good night sleep you’re doing it right. Create relationships with your clients and gain their trust with “Questions of Unders

Three Step Process to Narrow Your Sales Focus with Phil Boissiere #201 Phil Boissiere is a Silicon Valley tech startup and executive coach. He works with founders, entrepreneurs and sales people who struggle with attention fatigue. In this episode Phil gives us practical advice on how to boost your selling productivity.  His 3×3 method is a quick way to tune up your sales brain, vanquish stress and narrow your sales focus. Your brain is the most important tool you have in your bag. Use it! Sales = Stress The sales profession attracts people who are willing to put themselves on the line. Sales people are  evaluated on: performance factors – e.g. closed sales, advanced deals, prospecting, etc.. social factors – e.g. likeability, relationship building, etc… When stress goes up, performance goes down. When people are stressed, they make the wrong decision. Quick fixes have limits. Discover the root cause within you and what’s going on in your brain. for example, with dehydration your cognition drops! Tedious c

Master Your Cold Calling Fear With This 4 Step Script One of the most difficult steps in sales is cold calling. It’s a task dripping with anxiety, dread and reluctance. People want to be loved and respected. Inserting ourselves into a place that yields rejection is scary. But this is the problem.  Prospects rarely seek out vendors and buy. Waiting around for the phone to ring is a bad plan. So it falls on the seller to make the first move. That first move is often on the telephone.  You need to master your cold calling fear.  My definition of a cold call is when you reach out to prospect and they’re not expecting the call. You only have a few seconds to elicit interest making it tricky work. The trick is to have a service mindset focused on learning about the client, understanding their situation, then ascertaining if you can help. To make this lesson real, we’ll use an example of a real phone call. This call contains a series of steps. Each step has a reason and builds on the previous step. Do you stink at

How to Find Sales Leads with Twitter with Madalyn Sklar #199 Sales Babble listeners are always asking about social selling and using social media of discover new leads. Sales people are ALWAYS looking for new leads.  We know that LinkedIn can be alot of help, but what about Twitter, what about Instagram or Facebook? Is Snapchat worth your time?Today we ask AND answer those very questions. My guest Madalyn Sklar and I review each of the social media platforms and Madalyn shares advice  on how to find sales leads with Twitter and common do’s and don’ts for Social Selling. Social Media Social Selling Sales is sales. Just like finding leads at a networking event or referrals, social selling is no different except for the venue! You can find leads in all social media! Your ability to find leads depends on two things: Knowing who you’re selling to Understanding the social media venue How to Find Leads with Twitter Be consistent Tweet everyday Tweet 5 times a day Check notifications people who respond Check D

The Birth of a Salesman One consistent message I get from the Sales Babble audience is they love that Sales Babble makes sales simple by sharing practical advice and selling stories. Well today we’re going to knock that out of the park. Our guest is sales professional and author Carson Heady and he’s the author of the book series,  Birth of a Salesman. Carson spins a sales adventures of fictional Vincent Scott as a vehicle to describe what makes for great sales. Superman With a Briefcase The protagonist of the book is Vincent Scott. The story starts with him entering sales right out of college. His is young, brash and soon finds he’s good at it. He appreciates being well paid and is soon promoted and promoted again.  Vincent represents all of us. We are all tested in our careers and personal lives. Like him, we make mistakes and have wins. In Carson’s mind, Vincent is a Superman with a Briefcase.  Vincent’s not afraid to take risks. Yes he sometimes fails but in the end he is a success in his profession.   T

Never Be Closing – Key To Better Sales with Tim Hurson #197 The second most difficult task of a sale is to ask for the business. Closing a prospect is a monumental challenge for many sales professionals. But maybe we’re looking at this all wrong. Tim Hurson is the author of the book “Never Be Closing”. In this episode Tim shares a process where prospects close themselves without arm twisting or sketchy wordplay trickery. Take your closing skills to the mastery level! Have a Don’t Close Mindset Tim recommends going into a sales conversation with the idea of learning something. Set aside the  expectation of closing quickly. People will close themselves if you do the process right.  It takes time to build a relationship. People fear purchasing from a stranger, but they do appreciate purchasing from those they trust. Purpose of a Sales Call What is the purpose of a sales call?  It’s not to make the sale, it’s to make the sale, AFTER the sale. Sales calls are measured on a binary scale: You closed or NOT closed.

Top 10 Sales and Marketing Tools for 2018 #196 In this episode Neil Kristianson from Email Splat visits Sales Babble in the international podcast studio. As we gather around the fire,  Neil and I drink homebrews, sample salsa, mustards, various cheeses and crackers. But this is not and end-of-year sendoff. Throughout this bacchanalia, Neil and I share the top 10 sales and marketing tools, we feel Sales Babble listeners should adopt in 2018. Below are links to each of the tools mentioned in this episode. Neils Sales and Marketing Tools Rescuetime – A personal analytics service that shows you how you spend your time and provides tools to help you be more productive. Web Merge – An online platform that allows you to easily collect data, populate a document and send it to any contact automatically. We provide you with flexible document types, dynamic content, and delivery options that fit to your business needs. Stepshot Guides – A unique software to create training manuals, technical blog reviews, software wor

Sales Jokes That Don’t Fall Flat with Jon Selig #195 There  are parallels between sales, improv and stand up comedy. Unfortunately sales jokes can fall flat and jeopardize a deal. In this episode Jon Selig shares advice on how to employ comedy to connect, build relationships and win deals. Sales and Comedy Each sales call has elements of standup. Open strong, close strong, probe the audience for their pain. display confidence. First you need to sell them on you. A simple  self deprecating joke is safe. Craft jokes specifically for a prospect’s pains and challenges within their industry. It is very easy to offend and alienate your prospect.  You only need to offend one person on a team to lose a deal. Don’t push anyone down Don’t marginalize anyone Don’t mock popular sentiments Be as politically correct as you can Have empathy and put yourself in your customer’s shoes. If you do that you won’t cross the line and have your sales jokes fall flat. Improv in Sales Frame your message within the problems and desi

How to Make Sales with Voicemail with Dave Moravec #194 Sales Babble listener Dave Moravec visits the podcast to share telephone and voicemail prospecting tips. I  was a guest speaker at his CEO Sales Summit at the Integrity Data offices. I gave a talk on focused listening and qualifying. After the talk,  I fired up the digital recorder and had Dave share how he make sales with voicemail and email to solicit interest and earn an appointment. Sales Voicemail Challenge Do you return your voicemails?  Probably not. The common etiquette is to ask permission BEFORE calling. This is what we do with friends and family. But this wasn’t true in the past. Back in the day, you could call without permission. given there was no caller ID to screen your calls. This idea of permission is flowing into the B2B space. In fact only 4.8% voicemails get returned.  That’s a ration of  1:20.  This is the challenge. Your challenge is to leave a good and pertinent voicemail that will solicit the prospect to take your call OR return

Why Commissioned-Based Sales Plans Fail to Work with Justin Clark Justin Clark is the Director of Sales for a janitorial and packaging products distributor. Over time, Justin’s company found sales reps spending more time auditing their paychecks than selling.  They also found the commission-based sales plans failed to motivate reps to do the best for their customers. To overcome this challenge they moved their sales staff to a pure performance review based salary plan.  In this interview, Justin shares the story of how they were able to make this extraordinary change in their compensation plan. Challenges Faced Money is emotional. 100% commissioned sales people would spend as much time making sure they’re paid what they earned vs selling. Reps pushed products that brought the most money. There were SPIFs (Sales Performance Incentive Fund) for products that were not good for the customer. Wanted to promote consultative sales and stop sellers pushing products and instead finding solutions. Commission-based sa

How To Learn The Secret Lingo of Your Customer with Jeffrey Shaw #192 Author Jeffrey Shaw visits Sales Babble to talk about his book Lingo – Discover Your ideal Customers’s Secret Language and Make Your Business Irresistible.   Jeffrey believes that far too often people sell the wrong thing to the wrong people. Unfortunately too few people understand for whom they are for. Your ideal client has a secret lingo that mirrors your traits and values.  Once you learn their lingo, you can quickly discern and serve this market. Five Step Process In his book Jeffery outlines a five step process for discovering your prospects secret lingo. Understand your ideal clients perspective Create familiarity and comfort Style – build one that matches your target Pricing – Use whole numbers for high-end customers Words – use language they speak How To Connect with Jeffrey Shaw To find Jeffrey Shaw, his book,  and the free secret lingo giveaways go here: Lingo mediate kit Inforgraphic Free Chapter of his book Audio version o

How To Generate Leads without Sales and Marketing with John Tripolsky #191 In this episode we meet John Tripolsky, CEO of JTE Marketing. John shares his process to generate leads through a referral process. When starting John had neither  marketing nor a sales staff. Instead he leveraged his existing network to find qualified prospects and generate leads. It worked and this is how to generate leads without sales and marketing! Hire a Team Without Hiring The JTE Marketing earned its first two clients from friends and family. They repeated the process by working networking meetings. John kept attending and connected with five people. From those five they built their portfolio. Building personal relationships is what matters. John is a strong advocate for LinkedIn. He has 7K connections. Almost all have gotten a personal message welcoming them to connect.   Not everyone is a qualified prospect. Yet all know people who ARE qualified. Referrals come from both existing and non clients Lead Generation Referral Proc

Why Nobody Gives a S*%T About Your Sales Goals with Mike Dannenfeldt #190 Highly effective companies collect and measure sales goals. These goals drive performance and results. Mike Dannefeldt and I talk about process management, goal setting and how to manage sales staff. The challenge is to meet and exceed the goals. Yet success is dependent on buy-in and communication. Why Sales Goals Not Met Nobody cares about company goals if the vision has not been communicated. Goals by themselves do not motivate. They they must have  meaning and value to all in the organization. Leaders must be transparent about strategic goals to ensure employees understand and buy-in (communicate and collaborate). Too often transparency is non-existent. Tools Drive the Process or Process Drive the Tools? We talked at length about the distinction between process and tools. Paper processes are rarely followed. The data collected must benefit all parties. Especially true if employees are responsible for data input Establishing regula

Phiology: The Secret Code of Leadership David Eisley #189 In this episode we meet Dave Eisley, author of the book  Phiology: The Secret Code of Leadership. Phiology is the  intersection of physiology, psychology, and philosophy in the context of leadership, but written from a sales management perspective. Phiology Focus for Sellers Dave and I discuss how Phiology addresses leadership especially in the case of  sales: Control your physiology to achieve optimal performance. Navigate obstacles by shifting your perception of events. Decode the origins and fallacies of decision making, in yourself and by others. Uncover vital parts of any system, revealing key leverage points that drive success. Expand your influence in an ethical and meaningful way. Sales and Leadership Sales is responsible for the rise of humanity.  Our ability to trade separates us from the other species on our planet. Without the idea of a trade, and a fair trade, humanity has been able to team and create civilization. It’s all based on tr

Repeatable Success for Sales Development Reps with Brendan Barrett #188   There is a growing trend for companies to separate business development from deal closing. We’re talking about two different people: One person setting up appointments the Sales Development Reps (SDR) and the other is the  closer. In this episode our guest Brendan Barrett and I walk through the SDR process with it’s pros and cons. We do some roleplaying in order to show practical advice for anyone prospecting and trying to set up an appointment.   What and Why an SDR? SDR stands for Sales Development Reps – appointment setters, prospectors and cold callers.  Brendon calls the the Roller to the Closer .  This is different than the traditional inside sales (an order taker).   This is all outbound sales and Business Development.  They are sometimes called Business Development Reps or BDR. More efficient for closers, who can be closing deals daily vs spending time in the office setting up their own meetings. Downside of SDRs. Details get

Sales Success Triangle with Glenn Mattson #187 In this episode we describe the sales success triangle. It’s based on Attitude, Behavior and Technique. Our guest Glenn Mattson is a business consultant and sales coach. Glenn speaks from experience on the issues sellers commonly face and things they can do to find selling success. Selling Personalities Gabby people aren’t necessarily the best sellers. Yes they are good at connecting and initiating conversation. But sometimes they are too bound to seek for approval. They struggle with the follow up and closing aspects of sales. Introverts and techy people, can be extremely successful in sales because they are process oriented,  they follow a system nor do they wing it.  More introverted sellers  don’t care if people like them, they handle rejection better. Issues top sellers face We discussed at length the problems, concerns and barriers to success. Glenn mentioned: Attitude Lack of Patience Guilt Worry Anxiety Risk Adverse Poor Discipline Poor Planning Non-Ta

Why Do I Need a Brand? In this episode I and  Brand expert,Kim Speed dig deep into the  question why do I need a brand. Everyone says having a brand is critical for success. But is it? What is the fundamental value a BRAND provides you and your company? How does a brand make it easier for me to acquire new customers and prospects? Brand vs Branding According to Kim, your brand is who you are and what people say about you when you’re not in the room. Branding is all the elements that supports your brand: website, ads, emails, logos etc…   Let’s focus on the former, before the latter. Sales and Branding Your brand is useful for your sales process. When done well it open doors and creates trust.  But it’s not an easy path to understand your brand. It’s built on knowing and viscerally understanding your ideal client. This requires companies to go through a value proposition process. Instead of focusing on logos and fonts, focus on who is PERFECT for you product or service. Who Is Kim Speed Kim is the owner of Pu