In this episode, Mike talks with Alexine Mudawar and Gabrielle Blackwell. They are the Co-Founders and Co-Hosts of Women in Sales Club. Find them on Clubhouse on Saturday afternoons.  Key Takeaways: The most unexpected thing about Clubhouse is seeing how much interest there is. People want to participate and contribute. There is so much noise in Sales, it is easy to get distracted.  There is value in the voices and strategies out there but it can create analysis paralysis. Set clear goals for yourself. Stay disciplined to your objectives.  We don’t leverage data enough. We need to teach new reps differently - show other activities that are important. Show the clear metrics and teach them how to look at and use the data. Find people that are entrepreneurial minded. Not everyone wants to be the CEO of their own business but they can be great for your team. Work hard to be better. Show Links:  Alexine Mudawar on LinkedIn Gabrielle Blackwell on LinkedIn Women in Sales Club on LinkedIn Women in Sales Club on Clubhouse This episode of The Catalyst Sale Podcast is brought to you by The Catalyst Sale G.A.M.E Plan. Find out more at www.catalystsale.com/gameplan  Work With Catalyst Sale: Listen to our free resource (this podcast) and then put the action items into practice. Share your work with us via Twitter or hello@catalystsale.com Invest in a Catalyst Sale course - self directed. Find our courses here  Hire us as a consultant/advisor within your team or organization  Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to hello@catalystsale.com or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. 

Catalyst Sale Podcast

Women in Sales Club - Guests Alexine Mudawar and Gabrielle Blackwell - 259

In this episode, Mike and Jody talk about how to overcome your fear of sales and why sales isn’t scary. Key Takeaways: Things are scary when they are unknown or uncertain Tools can be used to improve the likelihood of success. Ex: Catalyst Sale Account Plan, Catalyst Sale Call Plan, Catalyst Sale Territory Plan. Have a list of desired next steps to help limit the uncertainty. Once you start doing it, you start to get more comfortable. Taking in your environment and knowing what things should feel like, you can overcome some of those fears. Having someone who has gone through the path share their experience is good. However, that doesn’t take the place of the personal experience that you will need to gain to overcome your fears. Guideposts can help keep you moving toward the objective. But, at some point, you need to get rid of the rails. Do the work! This Episode of The Catalyst Sale Podcast was brought to you by the Catalyst Sale G.A.M.E. Plan - www.catalystsale.com/gameplan Show Links: Catalyst Sale Account Plan, Call Plan and Territory Plan Documents Work With Catalyst Sale: Listen to our free resource (this podcast) and then put the action items into practice. Share your work with us via Twitter or hello@catalystsale.com Invest in a Catalyst Sale course - self directed. Find our courses here  Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to hello@catalystsale.com or contact us directly on twitter or LinkedIn. 

Sales is NOT Scary - 258

In this episode, Mike talks to Liz Heiman, CEO and Chief Sales Strategist for Regarding Sales.They talk struggles, process, funnel and ways to identify your ideal customer. Key Takeaways: It’s fun to help people realize Sales isn’t a big, bad, scary thing. Many Founders struggle because they don’t realize they can ask certain questions of prospects. Work on becoming more comfortable talking about what you do. Ideal Customer Profile Customer that is most likely to buy from you Customer who is most likely to be happy with the outcome Customer who will continue to buy from you Customer with a short sales cycle Customer where the timing is right Customer who you really designed your product for Saying no to a prospect feels like we are giving up on what we could have. However, we have to say no so that we use the resources we have as efficiently as possible. If you focus on the wrong customers, your company will always go in the wrong direction. Pipeline - opportunities that are coming in and moving through the process to close. Can also be referred to as a funnel. Qualify Out - purposely look for opportunities to move people out of the funnel. Teamwork is the best thing that should happen in a team meeting. Focus on the things that matter in team meetings: Where do we stand? What’s new? Updates. What are our partners doing? Team exercise There is always a frantic focus on what’s closing right now, which is the worst focus! Pipeline reviews should be 1:1, not in a group setting! Pipeline/funnel review: What’s going on? What do you need from us? When is the deal going to close?  What have you done to put stuff in the top of your funnel? How is your prospecting going? What is going on with your qualification? During a pipeline/funnel review, it is important to have a discussion and not beat your Sales Rep up. It is important to have some sort of value exchange. We leave so much money on the table by not growing our existing accounts. Show Links:  www.regardingsales.com Liz on LinkedIn Work With Catalyst Sale: Listen to our free resource (this podcast) and then put the action items into practice. Share your work with us via Twitter or hello@catalystsale.com Invest in a Catalyst Sale course - self directed. Find our courses here  Hire us as a consultant/advisor within your team or organization  Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to hello@catalystsale.com or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. This podcast is brought to you by Catalyst Sale - you can learn more about Catalyst Sale, and the products and services we provide via the following links. Growth Acceleration - Plateau Breakthrough Product Market Fit

Struggles, the Funnel and Identifying Your Ideal Customer with Liz Heiman - 257

In this episode, Mike talks to Shelton Banks, CEO of Re:work Training and Co-Founder of Sales For The Culture. Key Takeaways: People don’t ask the questions they should because they are scared to work and are afraid to fail. Grandma’s baby effect tends to happen in businesses too - no matter how much you grow, they will still see you as Grandma’s baby. We tend to want to help everybody, but we can’t. Sometimes we unintentionally make things tougher. At Rework Training, we take things that people are familiar with and relate them to what they are not.  Show Links:  www.reworktraining.org Shelton on LinkedIn Work With Catalyst Sale: Listen to our free resource (this podcast) and then put the action items into practice. Share your work with us via Twitter or hello@catalystsale.com Invest in a Catalyst Sale course - self directed. Find our courses here  Hire us as a consultant/advisor within your team or organization  Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to hello@catalystsale.com or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. This podcast is brought to you by Catalyst Sale - you can learn more about Catalyst Sale, and the products and services we provide via the following links. Growth Acceleration - Plateau Breakthrough Product Market Fit

Process, Learning, Problem Solving with Shelton Banks - 256

In this episode, Mike and Luke Thomas have a great conversation about remote work and the implications of the continuation of remote work. Luke Thomas is the Founder of Friday and the author of The Anywhere Operating System. Key Takeaways: People don’t need to be convinced to work from anywhere because they already are. Instead they need a series of practical tooling on guidance on how to actually make it work. The thing missing the most from the work from anywhere environment is context. We need to ensure there is an easily accessible place for people to get company announcements around strategy, new hires, company goals, etc.. The act of documenting requires a level of intention and care.  As more people work from home, more tools to help will become available. Be thoughtful about the communication channel you use to deliver your messages. Ask yourself, if the conversation has a job, what would that job be? 2x2 for communication:  Do you know the person? What kind of information are you sharing? Lasting changes will unfold or are currently unfolding. Hybrid work will probably be the default initially with a shift more toward remote work. We likely will experience a lower demand for commercial real estate and restaurants near large office areas.   Show Links: www.friday.app Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to hello@catalystsale.com or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. This podcast is brought to you by Catalyst Sale - you can learn more about Catalyst Sale, and the products and services we provide via the following links. Growth Acceleration - Plateau Breakthrough Product Market Fit The Catalyst Sale G.A.M.E Plan 

Remote Work with Luke Thomas - 255

In this episode, Mike and Vicki Znavor have a great conversation about authenticity and purpose in the workplace and in life. Vicki is the author of Authenticity Reawakened: The Path To Owning Your Life’s Story and Fulfilling Your Purpose and she is a certified leadership coach. Questions Answered: What is authenticity? Why do we struggle with authenticity? How often should we ask the question, “who am I?’ What are some good practices to get to authenticity? How do we overcome the fear of being authentic in the workplace? How can authenticity help us to reduce/manage conflict? How do we discover purpose? Key Takeaways: Authenticity is knowing who you truly are, knowing what matters most to you and having the courage to show up in the world in a way that reflects that. You need to fully understand your story in order to live a life of purpose. We struggle with authenticity because it is painful to look inward. Reawakening - we learn, we grow, we learn, we grow. There can be rewards especially in corporate America to show up in a non-authentic way. We get so busy with life that we forget to ask, “Who Am I?” Ask basic questions, write down the answers. Simple exercises to know who you are: Know what matters most to you Know what you value Think about 5-7 pivotal moments that made you who you are It is important to have leaders that talk about showing up as yourself. The heart of building better relationships with clients is authenticity. It’s common to not handle conflict well in the workplace. We aren’t really taught how to handle conflict and we don’t see a lot of good role models. Intentional Conflict Model - 8 Steps: State your Intention Describe what happened How are you impacted Describe your feelings Ask for explanation Describe what would make it right Negotiate how to move forward Express gratitude If you can name your fear, you are halfway to conquering it. Most of us don’t analyze our lives very thoughtfully at all until we are faced with a crisis. P.I.N.: Problem - can you state the problem in a sentence or two? Information - evidence of the problem Need - what do you need Purpose is really important Questions when considering your purpose: What do you want? When you are at your best, what does that look like? What do you believe? Show Links:  www.vickiznavor.com To purchase Vicki’s book, click here  Work With Catalyst Sale: Listen to our free resource (this podcast) and then put the action items into practice. Share your work with us via Twitter or hello@catalystsale.com Invest in a Catalyst Sale course - self directed. Find our courses here  Hire us as a consultant/advisor within your team or organization  Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to hello@catalystsale.com or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. This podcast is brought to you by Catalyst Sale - you can learn more about Catalyst Sale, and the products and services we provide via the following links. Growth Acceleration - Plateau Breakthrough Product Market Fit

Authenticity Reawakened with Vicki Znavor - 254

Reflecting on 9-11 and the past 20 years.  This is an unedited podcast episode - we will do more of these going forward. Key Takeaways Take time to reflect Take time to push your imagination Thank those who serve, and continue to do so Find common ground Lead Thank you

9-11-2001 Reflections - 253

In this episode, Mike is joined by Amy Volas. They discuss the importance of listening, asking questions, and engagement - when conducting an interview or being interviewed. Many of the stories, ideas, and concepts discussed can also apply to listening in all aspects of life.  Key Takeaways: Learn to love active conversation again. Founders, Leaders - stop taking a back seat approach to interviewing Get to the practical nature of the work that needs to be done Basic questions can open up deeper conversation Our ego has a tendency to get in the way - we want to sound like the smartest person in the room. This isn’t necessary. The best business conversations aren’t laden with jargon Pause the minute you start making absolute statements Practice knowing when to insert your knowledge If you feel you have to push or convince, you have more work to do. The only way to be understood is to slow down The basics are the basics for a reason and there’s a reason why they stood the test of time. Show Links:  AvenueTalentPartners.com Amy on LinkedIn Amy on Twitter Thursday Night Sales Work With Catalyst Sale: Listen to our free resource (this podcast) and then put the action items into practice. Share your work with us via Twitter or hello@catalystsale.com Invest in a Catalyst Sale course - self directed. Find our courses here  Hire us as a consultant/advisor within your team or organization  Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to hello@catalystsale.com or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. This podcast is brought to you by Catalyst Sale - you can learn more about Catalyst Sale, and the products and services we provide via the following links. Growth Acceleration - Plateau Breakthrough Product Market Fit

The Power of Listening with Amy Volas - 252

In this episode, Mike is joined by Chip Huth. Chip is a division commander with the Kansas City Police Department, a Senior Consultant with the Arbinger Institute and producer/contributor to the Changing Discourse Podcast. Key Takeaways: You have to have people at the strategic level at any enterprise. Think about how your work impacts your partners.  To build credibility with others, involve them. Think about the impact of your work on other people. Have others operate with you. Help others to shift to long-term thinking, making an investment in the future. The cost of your good habits are in the present. The cost of your bad habits are in the future. Get your priorities straight right off the bat. Invite people in and look at the problem objectively. Network. Mentoring = customizing, modeling, talking, partnering together and making it relative to them. Focus on the process as much as you can Aim for the ideal. Show Links:  Changing Discourse Red Team Mastermind - August 20 - 21 Red Team Thinking Changing Discourse Podcast - can also be found on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Amazon and more. Work With Catalyst Sale: Listen to our free resource (this podcast) and then put the action items into practice. Share your work with us via Twitter or hello@catalystsale.com Invest in a Catalyst Sale course - self directed. Find our courses here  Hire us as a consultant/advisor within your team or organization  Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to hello@catalystsale.com or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. This podcast is brought to you by Catalyst Sale - you can learn more about Catalyst Sale, and the products and services we provide via the following links. Growth Acceleration - Plateau Breakthrough Product Market Fit

Aim for the Ideal - with Chip Huth - 251

In this episode, Mike talks with Craig Sybert, Senior Systems Consultant at Envolve Media and Producer/Creator of the Music Musing Podcast. They discuss creativity and its importance in the workplace. Key Takeaways: You can be creative, but unless you have the basics, you can’t really starting playing with it and creating. Creativity helps you think things through deeper than the surface level In order to be creative in a certain field, you need to keep up with the current trends. Knowing your audience is definitely one of the things you have to do in order to pick the right tool. Everyone has an interest in something. The creative side comes out if you put the passion that you have for that hobby or that thing you like into creating a different way of looking at that or a different way of experiencing that. Creativity is not something everyone chooses to show or chooses to put out into the world. Creativity gets lost if you don’t know the tool well. Have people question you and challenge you to do something different. Go to a conference in your field and talk to people. ADDIE - Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation Show Links:  Craig on LinkedIn Craig on Twitter Music Musing Podcast www.Envolvemedia.com Work With Catalyst Sale: Listen to our free resource (this podcast) and then put the action items into practice. Share your work with us via Twitter or hello@catalystsale.com Invest in a Catalyst Sale course - self directed. Find our courses here  Hire us as a consultant/advisor within your team or organization  Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to hello@catalystsale.com or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn.

Creativity at Work and Life with Craig Sybert - 250

In this episode, Mike and Jody discuss the importance of a positive mindset and slowing down.  Question for the Audience: Do we lose people or your referrals because we say “Sales” in the name of the podcast? Key Takeaways: Our job in sales is to cover the gap between problems known or unknown and solutions that are known or unknown and helping our customers actually make an impact in their business. Slow down even when dealing with urgent things. Assess the situation, breathe, ask for help, then take action again. If you take a positive mindset when you look a these challenges that are in front of you, no matter how big or how small, you can get through it together with folks. OODA Loop - observe, orient, decide, act Leverage your network when you need it. For more on the OODA Loop, listen to episode 80 of The Catalyst Sale Podcast. Work With Catalyst Sale: Listen to our free resource (this podcast) and then put the action items into practice. Share your work with us via Twitter or hello@catalystsale.com Invest in a Catalyst Sale course - self directed. Find our courses here  Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to hello@catalystsale.com or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. This podcast is brought to you by Catalyst Sale - you can learn more about Catalyst Sale, and the products and services we provide via the following links. Growth Acceleration - Plateau Breakthrough Product Market Fit

Positive Mindset, Slowing Down, and the OODA loop - 249

In this episode, Mike talks with DeJuan Brown, Senior Director, Seismic. This conversation covers a number of topics including community, learning and the buyer journey.  Key Takeaways: Those of us that have any type of audience should make a better effort to bring attention to where attention is warranted.  Use the platform you have to magnify other voices. Look for the voices you learn from and help to amplify those Learn-Teach-Learn Best way to retain what you’ve learned is to teach someone else. Learning is never-ending This attitude makes it so you can learn from anyone and then can pour it out to anyone. Know what journey your buyer is taking. Know how you support the buyer journey. When buyers become aware of a problem, what do you have that meets them where they are? Know how you can serve them along the way. We can get better at asking simple questions of our customers. As leaders, in whatever sphere we lead in, I think a top priority is making sure the environment in which we lead is a safe environment for people to have ideas that are dissenting, for people to disagree appropriately and respectfully and for people to speak up often and frequently. Show Links:  DeJuan on LinkedIn DeJuan on Twitter Sales for the Culture Work With Catalyst Sale: Listen to our free resource (this podcast) and then put the action items into practice. Share your work with us via Twitter or hello@catalystsale.com Invest in a Catalyst Sale course - self directed. Find our courses here  Hire us as a consultant/advisor within your team or organization  Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to hello@catalystsale.com or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. This podcast is brought to you by Catalyst Sale - you can learn more about Catalyst Sale, and the products and services we provide via the following links. Growth Acceleration - Plateau Breakthrough Product Market Fit

Stories form the Field with DeJuan Brown - 248

In this episode, Mike talks with Darryl Praill, CRO VanillaSoft. They cover a myriad of topics ranging from Sales and Marketing Alignment to creating a culture where people feel comfortable with cross team collaboration. Key Takeaways: Misalignment comes when you think your view is the only way/view. Have an intentional perspective. Are you being intentional and trying to understand all perspectives. If you want the cheapest source of information that’s going to have the most profound impact on your success, identify 10 different customers you can talk to and ask them why they invested in your product/offering. When you ask existing customers you gain: An understanding of your prospect An understanding on how to engage your prospects The ability to utilize storytelling - the most powerful secret sauce. Do things because they will have a positive impact on the business in 3-6 months. No time like the present, do it. It’s hard to create a culture where people feel comfortable with cross team collaboration, you have to be intentional. Create actual teams. Bring issues to meetings for team troubleshooting. Create a community of people who support and invest in one another. Force each other to work together and learn from one another. Doing so, now gives you relationships in other departments. Give people time and space so they understand the desired outcome. Give yourself permission to fail and then give yourself permission to fix it. If you make the same mistake more than once, then you are in trouble.  You only learn from taking risks. Show Links:  Darryl on LinkedIn Darryl on Twitter Darryl’s handle on Clubhouse @ohpinion8ted Work With Catalyst Sale: Listen to our free resource (this podcast) and then put the action items into practice. Share your work with us via Twitter or hello@catalystsale.com Invest in a Catalyst Sale course - self directed. Find our courses here  Hire us as a consultant/advisor within your team or organization  Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to hello@catalystsale.com or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. This podcast is brought to you by Catalyst Sale - you can learn more about Catalyst Sale, and the products and services we provide via the following links. Growth Acceleration - Plateau Breakthrough Product Market Fit

Sales and Marketing Alignment with CRO Darryl Praill - 247

In this episode, Mike talks with Jen Spencer about the role of sales and marketing in demand generation and her new role as CRO at SmartBug Media.  Key Takeaways: You have to make hard decisions when it comes to demand generation, having data helps.  Organizations struggle when they don’t have that data - it becomes an emotional decision when data is absent. Use data to tell a story. Failure comes when you’re not aligned across the board. We are still in the early days of the CRO role in organizations, it will change things. But, we are in the early adoption stage of that philosophy. Cross-functional collaboration among teams is starting to emerge. Most people are sitting on a ton of data and they don’t know how to access it or organize it in a way that is useful. Initially it seems hard to justify carving out time to set up data gathering/documenting correctly, but it is worth it to spend the time upfront. Lay the foundation as early as you can.  Job shadowing work - members of the team participating in some of the conversations they might not otherwise, offers great insight and the ability to ask different types of questions of the client.  We don’t sell alone. Leverage members of your team to set better alignment.  Everything needs to roll back up to company goals and initiatives. Then it is about pulling the right levers.  Show Links:  Jen on LinkedIn SmartBug Media website Revenue Collective SDR Nation Work With Catalyst Sale: Listen to our free resource (this podcast) and then put the action items into practice. Share your work with us via Twitter or hello@catalystsale.com Download some of our free resources here Invest in a Catalyst Sale course - self directed. Find our courses here  Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to hello@catalystsale.com or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. This podcast is brought to you by Catalyst Sale - you can learn more about Catalyst Sale, and the products and services we provide via the following links. Growth Acceleration - Plateau Breakthrough Product Market Fit 

Jen Spencer Demand Generation and the CRO - 246

In this episode, Mike talks with Chris Walker about marketing, sales, and revenue operations. Chris is the Founder and CEO of Refine Labs. Key Takeaways: It’s the mindset of the executives at the highest level that drive everything down.  The first tree to plant is a ridiculously intimate understanding of your customers. It’s often marketing on the hook for continued growth. Figure out your logical benchmark conversion rate that you should be aiming for. Is there a gap? Focus long-term on brand, not sales. The failure of marketing comes in 2 buckets: The CMO doesn’t know what they are doing The metrics created force the CMO to operate in a certain way. Strategy: Capture existing demand. Do they find you when they are looking? Create new demand. Do this in a targeted way that drives product consideration and product awareness. Focus on organic brand marketing. People don’t set-up the environment to tell you the truth. Go into it objectively. Center everything around customer intimacy. Show Links:  Chris on LinkedIn Refine Labs website State of Demand Gen Podcast  Episode 206 of The Catalyst Sale Podcast with Chris Walker Work With Catalyst Sale: Listen to our free resource (this podcast) and then put the action items into practice. Share your work with us via Twitter or hello@catalystsale.com Invest in a Catalyst Sale course - self directed. Find our courses here  Hire us as a consultant/advisor within your team or organization  Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to hello@catalystsale.com or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. This podcast is brought to you by Catalyst Sale - you can learn more about Catalyst Sale, and the products and services we provide via the following links. Growth Acceleration - Plateau Breakthrough Product Market Fit

Chris Walker Returns - Demand and Revenue Generation - 245

Sales is a thinking process. The Catalyst Sale Podcast is a weekly podcast with Catalyst Sale founder Mike Simmons and host Jody Maberry. We discuss real stories with practical application, in the context of B2B Sales. Other topics discussed include - Sales Strategy, Revenue Operations, Training, Onboarding, Sales Enablement, Organization Enablement, Workforce Development, and Execution.

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Catalyst Sale Podcast

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