Welcome to Episode #237 of "The Modern Selling Podcast" with your host, Mario Martinez Jr. ?️ Learn how to Convert more Prospects into Customers in this power-packed episode  Mario is joined by special guest David Kurkjian, a seasoned sales expert. Tune in as they delve into the secrets of converting more prospects into customers and achieving unparalleled sales success. Key Discussion Points 1️⃣ Sales Reps and Sales Leaders: Outshining the Competition  Discover how to outperform your competitors and leave a lasting impression on your prospects. Learn the art of presenting yourself confidently and professionally during sales calls to make a memorable impact.  2️⃣ Striking the Balance: Cause and Benefit Explore the delicate balance between showcasing the unique aspects of your product or service and highlighting the tangible benefits it brings to your customers. Gain insights into crafting a compelling narrative that resonates with your target audience. ??  3️⃣ Unveiling Value Perception: Changing the Customer's World Uncover the secrets of driving buying decisions by understanding how your product or service can transform the lives of your customers. Learn how to effectively communicate the value proposition and create a strong emotional connection with your prospects.  4️⃣ High-Value Discovery Calls: Building the Foundation  Discover proven strategies for conducting high-value discovery calls that lay the foundation for successful sales. Gain valuable tips on building rapport, uncovering pain points, and positioning yourself as a trusted advisor to prospects. ?? Whether you're a seasoned sales professional or just starting your sales journey, this episode is packed with practical insights and actionable advice that will elevate your selling game.  Don't miss out on this opportunity to learn from two industry experts.  ? Tune in now and unlock the secrets to sales success! ?

The Modern Selling Podcast

How to Convert More Prospects into Customers with David Kurkjian, #237

The Modern Selling Podcast Episode #236: Pitching To Investors: Strategies for Success and Growth with Angela Lee Our guest speaker for today is the amazing Angela Lee, who shares her valuable experience on what investors look for in startups.  Hosted by the dynamic Mario Martinez Jr., this episode is packed with useful tips and tricks to ace your investor pitch.  Some key takeaways include the 4 P's of pitching - People, Problem, Progress, and Price - and how to get a meeting with investors through Angel lists, warm vs. cold intros, and more. Angela also sheds light on the common mistakes founders make when pitching, including the importance of clarity, understanding your customers, and avoiding over-smartness.  Learn how to improve your pitch delivery through verbal, vocal, and visual cues and get an inside scoop on starting your journey as an angel investor. Don't miss out on this exciting episode and subscribe to The Modern Selling Podcast now! 

Pitching To Investors: Strategies for Success and Growth with Angela Lee, #236

The Modern Selling Podcast Episode #234 featuring Mike Cabot, CRO at Moogsoft. Sales Leadership: Inspiring Teams and Driving Results. Critical leadership success expectations and sales culture best practices for sales or revenue enablement organizations

Sales Leadership: Inspiring Teams and Driving Results with Mike Cabot, #235

The Modern Selling Podcast Episode #234: The Evolution of Selling: Buying, AI and the Impact Enablement on Sales with Ketan Karkhanis. In recent years, the world has witnessed a tremendous shift towards an all-digital way of doing things, especially after the Pandemic. From remote work to virtual meetings, the digital age has changed the way we do business. In this new era, web pages have become the main selling point for any company. With the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), web pages can now be personalized to cater to the specific needs of individual buyers. This personalized approach to selling has proven to be highly effective, and it is revolutionizing the way companies approach sales.

The Evolution of Selling: Buying, AI and the Impact of Enablement on Sales with Ketan Karkhanis, #234

 Get ready for an EPIC episode of the Modern Selling Podcast! Host Mario Martinez Jr. sat down with sales expert David Weiss to discuss how early-stage companies can crush it in today's market . With 20 years of experience in the technology and professional services industry, Weiss knows what it takes to build a successful sales team. As the CRO of The Sales Collective and founder of DealDoc, he shared his top tips on hiring your first salesperson and VP of sales, achieving product-market fit, and transitioning from founder-led growth to sales-led growth. This episode is a MUST-LISTEN for any startup or entrepreneur looking to scale their business and achieve sales success. Tune in to the Modern Selling Podcast now!

Startup Culture: the Pursuit of Sales Success with David Weiss, MSP #233

Vengreso's Modern Selling Podcast Episode: Innovative Tactics for Effective B2B Marketing and Sales with Camela Thompson, #232

Innovative Tactics for Effective B2B Marketing and Sales with Camela Thompson, #232

Unleashing the Power of AI for Sales with Oleg Bilozor #231

Navigating B2B Sales in Uncertain Times with Kate Kesby #230

Maximizing Your Success Rate: The Art of Selling to Sellers with Tom Rowe #229  

What’s the formula for building a hyper growth organization? This has been a hot topic for debate in many business circles. Because the key to tapping into accelerated growth often starts with understanding your audience, your market, and where you can enable your teams to exploit competitive advantages. All of this is easier said than done, but when done right, building in the key pieces you need to unlock hypergrowth can empower your sales teams to close more deals and transform passive buyers into lifelong superfans. In this episode of The Modern Selling Podcast we explore the concept of hypergrowth enablement, what it is, how leaders can effectively spark it within their organizations, and what specific strategies are needed to build a hypergrowth focused company. Our guest for this episode, Jerry Brooner, is the leading thought leader in this space and has worked with top technology companies to help them tap into incredible, exponential growth – while also serving their customers well. Jerry Brooner is the President of Global Field Operations at Enable, a collaborative rebate management platform that helps manufacturers, distributors, and retailers take control of their rebate programs and turn them into an engine for growth. He has over two decades of experience as a high-growth global enterprise SaaS technology executive. Previously, he was the former Chief Revenue Officer at Scout RFP, and has built high growth teams at Dropbox, SAP, Callidus, and Siebel Systems. Download the full episode to hear firsthand what Jerry believes is the winning formula to spur hypergrowth for any organization. Why is hyper growth enablement important? Enablement is a word that is often thrown around, especially in sales circles. I wanted to hear Jerry’s take on what the real power in enablement is and why he sees it as the core of being able to create hyper growth. His insights are eye-opening, “ I think enablement is very underutilized and often overlooked, especially at startups. Companies are spending tens of millions of dollars to recruit top talent, but once they’re hired they get very little support to be successful. This model is flawed. Enablement is about getting your people excited about their work and equipped with the right tools, resources, and support to be successful on day one – if not before.” And, it’s this concept of what you do before a new hire starts that sheds new light on the onboarding process for me. Jerry follows a simple, yet highly effective onboarding process that goes as follows: Education – he provides his new hires with key information about the company, the industry, competitors – any and everything they may need to get up to speed on who they’re working for and what they’ll be doing. Expectations – even before someone starts, Jerry shares their 30 day calendar with them that outlines all trainings, meetings, and requirements. This is a great tool because it helps new hires coming in the door understand the expectations they will need to meet and enables them to align their personal life to meet their business goals as well. Empowerment – Every new hire has a “shadowing” plan that shows them upfront where and when their hands-on learning opportunities will be. This positions people from the beginning to get excited about learning and aware of where they can go for more support – without trying to figure it all out on their own. This is such an effective strategy – Education, Expectations, and Empowerment – because here at Vengreso we employ a similar model and find that it accelerates onboarding and our reps and SDRs that do this are much more successful – faster. How does diverse hiring drive enablement? We hear it all the time – increase diversity in hiring to produce a more innovative organization. I was curious to get Jerry’s perspective on the role that diverse hiring has for enablement and establishing a hyper growth company. He shares, “Diversity in hiring is super important. But, the key is not just racial, ethnic, or gender diversity. You want to also have diversity in where and what industries you hire from. We recruit people from a much wider industry background than most companies do – by design. For example, if we know we’re going after a lot of manufacturing customers, we’ll go out and hire people who have worked in manufacturing because they understand the industry.” This is such a novel approach to diverse hiring. Jerry makes a powerful point! If you want to better serve or prospect a particular customer or industry, it would make total sense to recruit sales people who may have worked in those industries because they will know that industry, inside and out. Listen into the full conversation to hear what other unique ways Jerry recommends hiring so that your team will be primed for hyper growth. What key metrics and KPIs should you track for hyper growth? In sales, metrics are everything. My motto is: If you’re not tracking it, then you can’t improve it. Jerry agrees and outlines some key metrics he monitors within his organization to ensure that they’re exponentially growing. “The most important part about metrics is that they need to apply to everyone in the organization. Your KPIs need to also make sense for each position or role within your company – all the way up to the VP level as well. Because the power of metrics is it helps you to keep the pulse on what’s working, what’s not and where exactly you need to focus your attention to see improvements.” One thing that Jerry highlighted that I found to be profound was the lack of VP or Director level interactions with customers. He finds (and my experience also validates this) that when more levels of your sales team get involved with a prospect, you’re more likely to close the deal. I mean imagine what it would mean to a prospect to have the company CEO personally reach out to answer their questions. It seems like a simple task – but so many companies don’t do it. In our conversation, Jerry also goes through the six high value activities he focuses on to spark rapid growth. Be sure to listen to the full episode to hear these gems and hear why Jerry says it takes 98 of these high value activities to close a single deal. This episode of the Modern Selling Podcast is brought to you by Korn Ferry. Korn Ferry transforms sales teams using their world-class Miller Heiman, methodology, employee assessments, benchmarking and talent advisor capabilities to increase win rates and quota attainment. Korn Ferry offers Korn Ferry Sell, a sales effectiveness app available in App Exchange and app source that helps your sales team develop and replicate powerful sales strategies that help sellers win more deals and crush their quotas.  Learn more at kornferry.com/saleseffectiveness.

Hyper Growth Enablement with Jerry Brooner, #228

What do you do when faced with change? How do you handle conflict? What ways do you nurture the different personalities on your team? All of these are questions that sales leaders must navigate on their journey to inspire and motivate their teams. But, all too often, the focus for sales is on meeting quotas or constantly outperforming the competition, that the “softer” skills of leadership get left by the wayside. And, with trends like Quiet Quitting becoming the norm, how sales leaders manage and lead are quickly becoming a hot topic of conversation to curb employee turnover. In this episode of the Modern Selling Podcast we dive into the importance that sales leadership plays and what sales leaders should be doing to build up their teams for success. Our guest, Sebastian Schieke, is one of the leading experts in understanding the new era of leadership and the best way to engage, motivate, and train teams to not just hit quotas but to excel as sales professionals. Sebastian Schieke is a leadership mentor, entrepreneur, speaker, author, and angel investor. As a digital enthusiast, he has witnessed disruption in businesses in the past twenty-five years, and seen the need for more great leaders in the ever-changing world. Sebastian is dedicated to making a positive impact by empowering motivated individuals and organizations to become exceptional entrepreneurs. Tune into this episode to hear firsthand what Sebastian recommends leaders do today to step up to the new leadership challenge and position their sales teams to thrive.  What Is Resilient Leadership? Sebastian is most known for the concept of “Resilient Leadership”. So, I wanted to better understand what it is and how it can be applied to B2B and B2C organizations. According to Sebastian, resilient leadership involves responding to what he refers to as VUCA: Volatility – we live in a world of constant changes that require us to adapt in new ways. Uncertainty – we have to learn how to expect and accept uncertainty as a permanent way of life. Complexity – we operate in environments that are integrated, interconnected, and highly complex networks of connections and relationships. Ambiguity – we must learn how to get things done when we don’t always have the best data, the right answers, or the needed resources. Bottom line… As leaders, it is our responsibility to remain agile and flexible to adapt to what changes come our way, not only in the world, but also within our businesses and teams. And, it is within this space of needing to accept and be comfortable with change that leaders must develop a strong sense of resilience, so they can adapt while also reaching their goals. Download the full episode to hear how you can elevate your leadership style to be more resilient and aligned to excel even in the face of change. Why Is Resilient Leadership Needed? A recent McKinsey survey found that 86% of employees turn to their leaders more than public officials for guidance on how to navigate times of uncertainty. That means that as a leader, you truly do set the tone for the type of culture you have within your team and larger organization. And, since your teams are looking to you for continual guidance, support, and direction, how you respond is super critical. Sebastian shares his thoughts, “A resilient leader shows that even despite uncertainty, they always know how to find a way to get access to the resources they need. When you set this as the standard or example, it trickles down throughout all the levels within your company – from your executive teams, to your team leads, down to your individual employees.” Another way of looking at this is that resilient leaders are not afraid of change because they recognize that it is change that creates productivity, growth, and innovation. And, it is through this understanding of knowing why uncertainty and change is such a blessing that sets resilient leaders apart. As Sebastian adds, “It's so important to make sure to do things wrong because only through failure can we learn and can we build our muscle of resilience and persistence. Knowing the power of failure and giving your teams the space to make mistakes is how you build high-performing teams.” Listen into the full episode to dive deeper into the key benefits that resilient leaders bring to their teams and the role all of this plays in enhancing your team’s performance. How do you build high performance teams? In my 20+ years as a sales leader, knowing how to lead teams effectively has been one of my strongest assets and skill sets. Sebastian has a unique perspective on high performance teams and what it takes in this resilient leadership model to build teams that are positioned for success.  He shares his insight, “As a resilient leader who wants to create high performance as a standard, you must be a great communicator so you can generate buy-in. Buy-in is critical to all you do as a leader.” In addition, Sebastian outlines three (3) key components to nurture, as a leader, in order to create high performing teams.  They are: Behaviors – Identifying the behaviors and personalities in your team makes it easier for you to know how to navigate team dynamics to meet each person where they are. This is essential so that as the leader, you’re able to bring people together in a synergistic way to reach your goals. Motivators – Understanding what motivates the people within your team is how and why high performing teams are so successful. Motivators can be money, prestige, recognition, community service, etc. The important thing is to get clear on what motivates people within your team to take action and build this into your overall team structure. Critical Thinking – Giving your team members (individually and collectively) the ability to make mistakes and reason through decisions is such a much-needed skill that so many leaders don’t allow their teams to acquire. It is through this that you’re able to build a sense of independence so that your team won’t only be high performing, but also self-governing. Download the full conversation to learn more about resilient leadership and hear the 3-step system Sebastian recommends using to increase your team’s performance.

Building Resilient Leaders & Performance Teams with Sebastian Schieke, #227

With research showing that it can cost 5x more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one, learning the art of customer retention should be the top priority of every business. Add that to the statistic that even a 5% increase in customer retention can yield a 75% increase in profitability – there’s no wonder the power that creating superfans can have on B2B and B2C companies. But, the key is to understand how exactly to transform a hesitant prospect, into a confident buyer, and ultimately into a lifelong customer. No one understands this process better than our guest, Brittan Hodak – the mastermind behind the best-selling book, Creating Superfans: How to Turn Your Customers into Lifelong Advocates. If you’ve been struggling with keeping your customers engaged, perfecting your referral strategy, or increasing your customer lifetime value, then this is the episode of the Modern Selling Podcast to download! Brittany Hodak is an award-winning entrepreneur, author, and customer experience speaker who has delivered keynotes across the globe to organizations including American Express and the United Nations. She has worked with some of the world’s biggest brands and entertainers, including Walmart, Disney, Katy Perry, and Dolly Parton. She founded and scaled an entertainment startup to eight figures before exiting and is the former Chief Experience Officer of Experience.com. In this episode, we dive into all things customer engagement and retention to give you a true competitive advantage on how to give your customers such an incredible experience that they become superfans – for life! How should B2B and B2C companies engage with their customers? I wanted to jump right into the meat of Brittany’s book and understand, from her perspective, what she believes is the “secret sauce” to creating superfans. She shares, “I think one of the biggest mistakes companies are making right now is that everyone is siloed. In other words, we have ‘over-compartmentalized’ employees away from customers. So much so that many times employees are losing track of how their work affects customer retention. I say that it does not matter what department you're in – everybody is in the customer experience department.” Brittany also outlines a powerful “Supermodel Framework” that companies should be following to ensure that their customer experience is building superfans. The framework breaks down as follows: S – Story – It’s important to make it clear to even prospects what your true superpower is and why they should be interested. U – Understand – Sales teams must fully understand their customers’ stories and find that intersectionality between what their customers are looking for and what they can provide. P – Personalization – Prospects and customers alike now expect that all communications and interactions are personalized to their preferences and needs. E – Exceed Expectations – In a world where your customers could easily go to a competitor, you have to be in the business of meeting and exceeding their expectations every time. R – Repeat – Creating Superfans requires consistency in your customer experience. What leads them to stay is the experience and reputation you build. Listen into the full conversation to hear what Brittany says is the best way to nail the SUPER Framework and why she believes it will revolutionize how we approach our customers. How do you understand what your customers need? I was curious to know what Brittany recommends sales teams do to truly connect with prospects and customers in new ways by leveraging “stories.” She walks through a powerful framework – in her famous acronym style – that sheds a lot of light on the right way to engage and resonate with your ideal audience(s) in new ways. S – Struggles – Know what pain points your potential customers have and how you can speak to them in your outreach. T – Transformation – Getting clear on the transformation that your product/service can provide makes it easier for the prospect to envision working with you. O – Options – Understanding that every prospect and customer has multiple options is key so that you can always lead with value and become a trusted source of information for them. R – Reservations – Customers (even when they buy from you) may have reservations about making a repeat purchase. Be sure to make every touch point memorable and address any objections or concerns they have upfront. Y – YOU – Think about if what you offer is the best solution for your customer. All too often salespeople focus on the sale with no regard to if their solution can actually solve their customer’s problem. If you’re not best suited to help your customer achieve the transformation they’re seeking – then be okay with communicating that! Join the full conversation to hear Brittany’s story gems and how sales leaders should be training their teams to tell the right stories at the right times to convert prospects into repeat customers. What’s the best way to ask for referrals? Part of Brittany’s book, Creating Superfans, dives deeply into referrals – when to ask, how to ask, and also how to reward your customers for sharing your business with their network. What she explains was spot on and similar to what we do, here at Vengreso, “People ask me all the time ‘how can I get more referrals?’ And, something that I've found to be true over the years is, if somebody has never worked in sales, referring business to you is not top of mind. So, many times, unless you ask, you won’t get the referral.” This can seem very simple to just ask for the referral, however, I’ve seen it throughout my sales career – so many companies never actually ask their customers for referrals. Brittany details a practical system to follow to not only get referrals but to acknowledge and thank your superfans for giving them. I find her work absolutely fascinating and her quick tips to thank customers is why the people she works with get such incredible results! Jump into this episode and pay particular attention at the 37-minute mark to get her gems on referrals. This episode of the Modern Selling Podcast is brought to you by Korn Ferry. Korn Ferry transforms sales teams using their world-class Miller Heiman, methodology, employee assessments, benchmarking and talent advisor capabilities to increase win rates and quota attainment. Korn Ferry offers Korn Ferry Sell, a sales effectiveness app available in App Exchange and app source that helps your sales team develop and replicate powerful sales strategies that help sellers win more deals and crush their quotas. Learn more at kornferry.com/saleseffectiveness.

The Art of Creating Superfans with Brittany Hodak, #226

Efficiency and productivity have become major buzzwords in the business world. From sales teams who are looking to increase the number of outreach messages they can send, to customer service departments seeking to streamline communications, to online pharmacies wanting to quickly address customer FAQs – every industry needs tools to be more productive. Coupled with over 52% of the standard workweek being spent doing repetitive tasks, that distract knowledge workers from strategic work – over $16 billion in productivity is lost every week. That’s why our FlyMSG text expander is on pace to completely revolutionize how teams communicate, how customers are engaged, and how productivity is finally achieved in B2C and B2B businesses. In this episode of the Modern Selling Podcast, we dive into the problem that FlyMSG solves, what the market potential looks like, and how eager investors can get access to an incredible investment opportunity. Download the entire episode to hear the ins and outs of how FlyMSG works and what industries are already lining up to use this productivity tool to save time. What is FlyMSG? FlyMSG is a personal writing assistant and text expander platform that helps today's modern knowledge worker replace the copy and paste.  When we started on this journey over two years ago, we had no idea that FlyMSG would evolve into the powerhouse tool that it is today. As you may know, Vengreso, was started as an online sales company, pro But, after working with thousands of sellers, we found that many sellers had sets of scripts that were stored all over the place. Some scripts might be in a Google document, others might be in Notepad, and others might even be stored in a draft email. With all of these different scripts in different places, we saw sellers sinking tons of time just trying to track things down. So we launched FlyMSG to take all those prospecting messages, customer engagement messages, LinkedIn messages – you name it and put them in one cloud-based solution that they could tap into in seconds. Fast forward to today, FlyMSG is far more than a sales productivity tool. It has evolved into a business productivity tool – across nearly every industry! Our now 2,000+ users span sales, customer service, marketing, human resources, education, pharmaceutical, real estate, and even the tech industry! We have Google developers who leverage FlyMSG to call up repetitive code, online customer service teams that use FlyMSG to quickly respond to customer questions, HR Managers who incorporate FlyMSG to send out onboarding emails to new staff members. The number of use cases for FlyMSG has expanded exponentially – and is showing no signs of slowing down. Tune into the full episode to hear why FlyMSG is positioned to take a large share of this $42 billion productivity management software market and how you can be a part of this exciting new venture. What is the growth trajectory of FlyMSG? FlyMSG is positioned to penetrate the Productivity Management Software market, which to date stands at $42 billion but is estimated to balloon to $122 billion in the next six years, at an impressive 14.5% compounded annual growth rate. Since the pandemic, the demand on productivity tools has exploded and has become a growing need for every knowledge worker on the planet. According to our research, the average knowledge worker is spending at least 25 hours a week doing manual repetitive tasks between email and data entry. This topic of how to increase productivity has become a hot topic across all business verticals and industries. Which is why FlyMSG has the potential to attract millions of users, very quickly. Plus, unlike other productivity tools, FlyMSG has 200+ built-in templates that users can immediately use when they download the plugin. From 60 different HR scripts to 40 different sales scripts – you name it, we’re building it out in FlyMSG to make the need for copy and paste to become nonexistent. Join the conversation and hear the exciting stats of the industry and FlyMSG’s growth plan for early stage investors. What is FlyMSG’s competitive advantage? We’ve studied what our initial FlyMSG users are looking for and how they’re using it to build in a host of unique features including the ability to: Categorize content – you can seamlessly sort, label, and categorize your stored FlyMSG Fly Plates, making it easier for you to recall and share key messages and information. Use FlyMSG everywhere online – FlyMSG is not limited to one platform or one website. Instead, you can use FlyMSG – no matter what online platform you use and can easily pull in messages in email, social media, websites, etc. Educational support – unlike other tools, FlyMSG also comes with a robust library of sales and prospecting training that teaches users how to make their messages more effective for their various audiences. Plus, from the investor’s perspective, FlyMSG is the only productivity tool that offers $10+ monthly plans, which puts our Average Revenue Per Unit (ARPU) 3-5x higher than our competitors. By leveraging Vengreso’s previous success as a Sales Training company, we have a solid marketing and influencer foundation to get traction quickly and to tap into a prospective customer audience of more than 5,000,000 that we already have access to. Because of our existing thought leadership position in the market, we can get more traffic to our website just through social posts than other businesses can using Pay Per Click ads. Listen in to the full episode to hear the impressive bios of our leadership team and get an inside scoop into who is on our Board of Advisors. What’s the investment opportunity with FlyMSG? We forecast FlyMSG will have 2 million active users in the next five years and will be valued at $65 million. We’re confident we can hit these user numbers because we have a global team of developers who are actively working to scale FlyMSG and bring in highly unique integrations with AI copywriting, Behavior Analysis, CRM integrations, and much more! For this round, early stage investors can get in with an investment as low as $100. However, if you invest $5,000 or more you’ll receive lifetime access to FlyMSG as well as a host of other benefits. This is an amazing opportunity – and I don't just say this as the Co-Founder. We have been contacted by several large tech giants who are closely watching the growth of FlyMSG and would be interested in an acquisition in the near future. And, for all angel investors – regardless of the investment, we’re offering a 20% discount on all future rounds and a $7 million cap – whichever is greater. If you’re an interested investor, you can learn more about this FlyMSG investment round on our WeFunder page or feel free to email me directly at mario@vengreso.com!

Be In the Know: Investing in Vengreso’s FlyMSG with Mario Martinez Jr., #225

There’s a seismic, yet quiet, shift that’s taking place within the sales industry. Not only are modern buyers becoming more sophisticated and harder to sell to, but the modern seller is also evolving. The demographics of who is entering the sales industry is quickly changing, which is making it clear that a one-size-fits all approach to sales training won’t work. That’s why those B2B organizations that have been able to enhance how their sales leaders show up in the workplace and how they keep their sales teams continually motivated are silently carving out an impressive competitive advantage. Because when you have a highly motivated (and effective) sales team, then the customer experience is often better streamlined and supportive – helping to turn first-time customers into lifetime customers. And, what sales leaders must do to keep their sales teams motivated and improve their customer service experience are exactly what we dive into in this episode of The Modern Selling Podcast. Our guest is not only an expert in this field, but her insightful new book is poised to give sales leaders a much-needed new perspective and tangible strategies to use to elevate how they lead and inspire their teams. Dionne Mejer is the Founder & CEO of Inside Sales by Design and author of the highly anticipated book, The Stepped Approach: Onboard Better, Systemize Smarter, and Bring Out the Best in Your Sales Team. Her innovative inside sales training tactics and proven approach gets her clients results every time. As a 20+-year Inside Sales veteran and executive, Dionne specializes in establishing and growing inside sales teams at mid-sized companies. Her intimate work with sales teams of all sizes and experience levels allows each of her clients to thrive as they discover their own voice in leading their Inside Sales team or rep in shepherding clients to a positive outcome. Her global client Rolodex is equally long as it is impressive, with her clients consistently enjoying a 25% uptick in their funnel activities and a 30% increase in deal closings, as a result of working with her. Listen to the full conversation to hear what Dionne recommends sales leaders do today to revamp how they’re onboarding, training and motivating their staff. What should sales leaders be doing today? The pandemic has, in many ways, fundamentally shifted how modern buyers buy. The modern buyer is more informed, harder to reach, and is not easily sold on just features alone. All of these buying complexities make the job of a salesperson even harder. I wanted to hear Dionne’s perspective on what sales leaders can and should be doing right now to combat the high sales rep attrition that’s taking place. She shares, “The challenge is that we have multiple generations of sales people within our organizations. So, the question must become: How do we take this diverse group of folks with different experiences, different perspectives, different mindsets, and different experience levels, and bring everybody together to have a really, really good customer experience?” But, the key here is that to have a great customer experience, requires that every customer touchpoint (even with sales) is strategic, aligned, and productive. I’ve had my fair share of “sales fumbles”, where as a potential customer, my needs were never asked or even remotely acknowledged. So, in many ways, if B2B organizations aren’t careful how their prospecting and sales processes are set up, they could easily (and accidentally) be working against both their sellers and their potential buyers. I asked Dionne to dive deeper into what challenges she’s seeing right now in this space. Her insights were so good, “A lot of what needs to happen now is around how do we, as sales leaders, manage in a remote environment? How do we have a good customer experience? How do we have conversations? How do we set the stage and have expectations for our teams in this new world order, where we have four generations in the workplace and everyone may be working remotely?” Tune into this episode to hear what Dionne says sales leaders can do to answer all of those questions and craft a seamless sales training experience that empowers sales teams to improve how they handle prospects and customers. How should sales leaders train to improve the customer experience? This is a hot topic in many of the sales leadership circles that I’m in, which is why I had to ask Dionne her perspective. In many cases, B2B organizations are leaning in on following sales processes and protocols which often leaves little to no room for actual, valuable conversations that nurture the prospect. Instead, the focus is solely formulaic and too rigidly linear that it leaves many buyers turned off from the sale, with even the first email outreach. I know this space is Dionne’s zone of genius, so I ask her to share what she’s seeing right now: “In order to give a good customer experience, you have to review and often change your internal processes and/or your external ones. Too often sales teams are told to follow a specific sales cadence – without fail. The problem with that is if you start to systematize too much, then you make it harder for your sales teams to have the value-driven conversations they need to provide an exceptional customer experience.” Download this episode and listen in for the powerful example of what not to do during a demo call and why how you handle a sales rep switch is so important for building trust. What can companies do to create a motivating sales environment that benefits customers? It’s one thing to “talk” about what a good customer experience is, but it’s an entirely different story to define what that looks like for your sales leaders and reps. Here at Vengreso, our employees are spread out across the globe, so keeping those authentic touchpoints can be hard. We’re very initial with building a rock solid team atmosphere – even virtually – where everyone feels supported and personally developed toward their individual career goals. But, I know this is not the case with many other B2B and B2C companies. I ask Dionne to walk us through what companies can do to build truly engaging, inspiring, and motivating environments so that their sales teams want to sell and enhance the customer experience. She explains, “This doesn’t have to be complex. Building the right environment to promote positive customer experiences, starts with being clear with expectations. Sales leaders need to have that conversation with their team: What does a good customer experience look like and how do we consistently achieve it?” Dionne teaches sales organizations and leaders to take these three steps: Create a purpose statement – this is your guiding North so that everyone understands why you do what you do and what you are trying to collectively achieve. Put the right tools and systems into place – by having systems, you can automate steps that would free up your sales team’s time to focus on building relationships with your customers.  Give your team responsibility in the process – when you disconnect the team from having a say in the purpose of the team or action, then you open up the opportunity for them to disengage from their work. Listen into the full conversation to hear what other key steps and actions sales leaders need to take to uplevel their team interactions to skyrocket their customer service experience. This episode of the Modern Selling Podcast is brought to you by Korn Ferry. Korn Ferry transforms sales teams using their world-class Miller Heiman, methodology, employee assessments, benchmarking and talent advisor capabilities to increase win rates and quota attainment. Korn Ferry offers Korn Ferry Sell, a sales effectiveness app available in App Exchange and app source that helps your sales team develop and replicate powerful sales strategies that help sellers win more deals and crush their quotas. Learn more at kornferry.com/saleseffectiveness.

How to Motivate Your Sales Team & Improve Your Customer Service Experience with Dionne Mejer, #224

With the oversaturation of cold calling, messaging, sales emails – the modern buyer is savvy to all the ways that sellers reach out. That’s why, according to our poll of sales professionals, prospecting is THE most time consuming step of the sales cycle. But, there’s a loophole that sales leaders and their teams can use to not only find the ideal prospect, but to make it even easier to engage them in conversations that actually build relationships and lead to sales. It’s Content Based Marketing and when done right it can turn online content into a consistent pipeline of prospects. In this episode of the Modern Selling Podcast, we dive into the ins and outs of how this stealth prospecting strategy works, how to get started, and the best way to position your online content to sell. Our guest, Logan Lyles is a pioneer in this field and comes with a wealth of knowledge to share to help sales teams, sales leaders, and sales organizations scale their visibility through Content Based Marketing. Logan Lyles is the Head of Partnerships at Teamwork, a project management platform built for scaling client work. Logan previously served in several leadership roles at Sweet Fish, a B2B podcast agency serving mid-market SaaS companies. Taking over sales from the agency founder in 2018, Logan helped triple the business in his first 6 months.  He also played a key role in landing the agency on the Inc 5,000 List (twice), while helping the company  both 10x headcount & increase ARR by 1,283%.  Logan works from his home office (that’s slowly becoming a mini video studio) alongside his labradoodle, Mack, in Castle Rock, CO. If you’ve been looking for a way to enhance your prospecting effectiveness, this episode is the one to listen to. Download the full conversation now and see how easily you can start posting online to attract your ideal prospects. Does Content Based Marketing Work? The short answer is: absolutely! This podcast is a prime example of that. When you reach out to a cold buyer and ask for a sales meeting, you’re often met with objections – that’s if you can even get through to them. However, if you take a Content Based Marketing approach, you can showcase your expertise through posts, establish yourself as a thought leader in the industry, and have prospects come to you to learn more. I’ve used this strategy for almost seven years now to land some of our biggest accounts, here at Vengreso. I’m going into the fifth season of the Modern Selling Podcast and this strategy has enabled me to connect with hundreds of CEOs and key decision makers from startups through Fortune 500 companies. And, in my case, you could start your Content Based Marketing strategy with podcasting. Logan agrees, “Content Based Marketing or Networking is like a Trojan Horse. If you take the podcast route, it is actually a gift if you do the work to promote the person you’ve interviewed to create the content. Then if they share it on their social media platforms, it helps you, as the interviewer, get more visibility.” Join the conversation now and hear why Content Based Marketing is so effective in lowering the objection barrier and helping you establish key relationships with stakeholders. How do you start with content based marketing? The beauty of Content Based Marketing is, you don’t need expensive equipment or a marketing team to get started. Whether it’s short social media posts, blogs, or videos – the lift and the skills needed to create content is minimal. I was curious to hear Logan’s take on the best way to get started and what he shares is spot on, “After every sales call, there is at least one content creation opportunity. Write down the questions you answered and after the call take a few minutes to either write your response or hit record and make a quick video answering the question.” The way I see it, every sales call should create at least three pieces of content, a written post, a short video, and a possible blog article. Whether you're in sales or partnerships, or running a business, there is a strategy that can be leveraged in Content Based Networking or Account Based Podcasting by creating content with the people you want to know.  You get to highlight their work and they get the recognition – and either way, you’re creating a relationship that could lead to a sale. To make it even easier to capture this content, Logan suggests recording your sales call, getting it transcribed and using the transcription to create the content so you don’t have to spend much time producing content. What equipment should I use for Content Based Marketing? Getting started with Content Based Marketing doesn’t require a lot. The goal is to produce content that your prospect wants to read. Whether it’s common questions, addressing problems, sharing new perspectives, or even highlighting new solutions – you get to decide the type and frequency of content you post. If it’s video content, we walk through the best pieces of equipment to start with like: Logitech C 920 – this inexpensive HD webcam can record high quality content without much editing needed. Ring Light – make sure you have stellar lighting and this setup will help you create content in minutes. Audio Technica 2100 – get crystal clear audio with this affordable mic and have instant radio booth quality. Listen to the conversation and get the inside scoop of the must-have equipment to get to start producing content that will get your prospects to lean in. This episode of the Modern Selling Podcast is brought to you by Korn Ferry. Korn Ferry transforms sales teams using their world-class Miller Heiman, methodology, employee assessments, benchmarking and talent advisor capabilities to increase win rates and quota attainment. Korn Ferry offers Korn Ferry Sell, a sales effectiveness app available in App Exchange and app source that helps your sales team develop and replicate powerful sales strategies that help sellers win more deals and crush their quotas. Learn more at kornferry.com/saleseffectiveness.

Winning Content Based Marketing Strategies with Logan Lyles, #223

The Modern Selling podcast, hosted by Mario Martinez, Jr., is the go-to podcast for sales leaders, sales professionals, business owners, sales enablement leaders, and anyone responsible for generating revenue. Mario's guests are practitioners in the trenches, experts in their profession and influencers who are leveraging modern selling techniques to inspire you to create more sales conversations with your target buyer!

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The Modern Selling Podcast

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