When faced with new challenges, your ability to adapt will determine whether you succeed. In the past 12-18 months, the market has undergone a massive shift. In today’s episode, you’re going to get the facts you need to respond. Your host Donald Kelly sits down with Kate Ahlering (CRO at Calendly) to talk about how automation can save you time and energy so you can apply your focus to the moments that matter. Challenges In the Current Market The game has changed from placing importance on “growth at all costs” (2020–2021) to “path to profitability” (2022-present).  There is a lot more scrutiny from buyers on all types of investment. The path to profitability needs to be clear at the outset. The silver lining: sales organizations get to hone their craft, become more focused, and improve beyond what they’ve been able to offer in the past. Speed of Sales Cycle When balancing personalization with automation, some steps in the process require a more personalized approach than others. Find the parts you can automate. If a customer is already on your website, they’re ready to talk to you at that moment – most don’t want to send a lot of e-mails back and forth. Calendly Routing allows customers to easily book meetings with you from your website, cutting down the amount of time they spend in your pipeline. Getting the Right Meetings Booked Team selling is becoming increasingly common. Streamlining the booking process for collaborative meetings helps your customer get scheduled painlessly. Standardizing the process to whatever extent you can helps give your customers a consistent experience, and makes your process more scalable. Expansion Using Automation There’s nothing wrong with doubling down on your base, but must also demonstrate your value to that base or offer more value. Use analytic suites to become more educated on what works and improve conversion based on data. HackerOne, a global cybersecurity company, implemented Calendly and scheduled 114% more meetings while streamlining their process by 600 hours. “If you haven’t already, take a look at your customer life cycle map. What are the points in time that you really want to engage your customer? What are those high value conversations? What are those inflection points that are so critical? And [ensure] that you have the right amount and the right blend of personalization and automation to ensure that those moments happen.” – Kate Ahlering Resources https://calendly.com/ – Get started with a FREE trial Connect with Kate Ahlering on LinkedIn The Brevet Group: 21 Mind-blowing Sales Stats - check out this website for helpful stats Ahlering refers to How CI Assante Wealth Management Achieved 323% ROI with Calendly - Case Study HackerOne Realizes 169% ROI by Powering Customer Success with Calendly - Case Study Sponsorship Offers 1. This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn. Are you struggling to close deals? Cold outreach wastes the buyer and seller's time at every stage, especially when sellers are using shallow and outdated data. Your organization can overcome these challenges with technology that translates comprehensive, high-quality buyer data into real-time insights. These deeper insights empower sales reps and teams to adopt the habits of top performers, which leads to better outcomes - like more pipelines, higher win rates, and larger deals. We call this Deep Sales. And we’ve built the first deep sales platform with the next generation of LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Try LinkedIn Sales Navigator and get a sixty-day free trial at linkedin.com/tse. 2. This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Sales Foundation. I think we can all agree that sales should be fun. However, many times, we find ourselves in a quagmire where we’re not progressing and deals are not going the way that they should. This is why we created TSE Sales Foundation. It’s a program designed to help sales professionals just like you master the fundamentals of sales so they can radically improve their sales pipeline and close more deals. To find out more about TSE Sales Foundation and our next start date, simply go to thesalesevangelist.com/foundation. Credits As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.  

The Sales Evangelist

Why Automation is Key in Giving Revenue Teams a Crucial Edge Over Competitors | Kate Ahlering - 1672

By now, someone has already told you that sales is about building relationships. If you’ve ever been lured into the trap of trying to be your prospect’s best friend only to find out they weren’t interested, you’re not alone. As you’ll hear in this episode, JC Pollard isn’t afraid to ask tough questions, and that’s how he became a top seller at Gong, hitting 190% of his quota in his first year. Listen in as he and Donald Kelly discuss “soft closing” to get the facts about where your deals are at. Setting Expectations and Being Proactive As a rep, you are (or should be) experienced with your sales process. Take a leadership role in outlining the next steps in the process for your buyer. Give the buyer options so they know you can either close the deal quickly or take more time to evaluate, depending on what they want. Position the outcomes on every call and keep inviting your buyer to tell YOU where they stand. Soft Closing Many reps don’t know how certain their deals are. Instead of keeping yourself in the dark, set your buyers up with an opportunity to close at every step of the process.  If they say yes, this saves you a lot of time and effort. But if they say no, you have an opportunity to do discovery. Wrapping Deals Before the Trial Ends Never launch a trial or pilot without knowing what your customer’s success criteria are.  If you believe your product has checked all the boxes before the pilot is done, check in with them and see if they’re ready to buy yet. If they say no, don’t be afraid to ask, “Why not?” “The best salespeople are ones that are friendly, liked, create rapport, and can really drop the hammer when they need to... That’s what I try to be. I get close with my prospects. I truly care about making friends with them – I keep in touch with people I sold Gong to a year ago. But when they say something throughout the cycle where I’m like, ‘You’re not thinking about that the right way,’ I’m not afraid to also call that out and be like, ‘Hey, can I challenge you on that?’ If you can marry the two, I think that’s where you start to see some success.” – JC Pollard Resources Gong website Reach out to JC Pollard on LinkedIn JC’s post calling out Donald Kelly on LinkedIn! Sponsorship Offers 1. This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Sales Foundation. I think we can all agree that sales should be fun. However, many times, we find ourselves in a quagmire where we’re not progressing and deals are not going the way that they should. This is why we created TSE Sales Foundation. It’s a program designed to help sales professionals just like you master the fundamentals of sales so they can radically improve their sales pipeline and close more deals. To find out more about TSE Sales Foundation and our next start date, simply go to thesalesevangelist.com/foundation. Credits As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

How I Used Soft Closes to Catapult Sales & Hit President's Club at Gong | JC Pollard - 1671

 Why do all presentations look and feel the same? Why does it feel like you have to leave your true self at the door and switch into ‘pitch mode’? Why isn’t there more storytelling? These are the big questions our guest Ravi Rajani sought to answer, and he packed this episode with so much of what he has learned. In this episode, your host Donald Kelly and Ravi Rajani get pumped about the art of telling exciting stories in a sales environment – and the energy is contagious! Understanding “STORY” in a Sales Context S: Simplify story-selling: A simple, but powerful story can get attention, tug at emotions, and build trust. T: Tactically create your story bank: Include the right kinds of stories in your arsenal. O: Obtain delivery mastery: It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. R: Ramp up your MVP story: Practice and fine-tune your story in low-stakes environments. Y: Yield long-term success: Over time, build up more stories to become second nature and conversational. Write Great Sales Stories With The ACORNS Checklist A: Attention-grabbing: Be unpredictable to interrupt your buyer’s pattern of thinking. C: Contain a relatable person: A listener should be able to see themselves as your main character. O: Organically unfold: Keep story arcs simple and easy to follow. R: Reveal a villain: Stories with a “villain” have more tension, which gets your listener’s attention. N: Nurture trust: The story should be a larger part of building a business relationship over time. S: Should add business value: Stories should lead right into your hook, prospect impact, and CTA (call to action).  Using Stories to Incite Emotion Bring someone into the room. Rather than narrating, “This happened, then that happened…” Include dialogue. Rajani uses highly descriptive, sensory-focused language to pull listeners in. “What is a story? Let’s take it back to my guy Ralph Emerson. He once said, ‘The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.’ I actually believe that the creation of a thousand relationships is in one story.” – Ravi Rajani Resources DM Ravi Rajani on LinkedIn with the word “Donald” so he knows you heard about him here! https://www.theravirajani.com/yourelevatorstory - FREE script for your Elevator Story Sponsorship Offers This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn. Are you struggling to close deals? Cold outreach wastes the buyer and seller's time at every stage, especially when sellers are using shallow and outdated data. Your organization can overcome these challenges with technology that translates comprehensive, high-quality buyer data into real-time insights. These deeper insights empower sales reps and teams to adopt the habits of top performers, which leads to better outcomes - like more pipelines, higher win rates, and larger deals. We call this Deep Sale. And we’ve built the first deep sales platform with the next generation of LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Try LinkedIn Sales Navigator and get a sixty-day free trial at linkedin.com/tse. This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Sales Foundation. I think we can all agree that sales should be fun. However, many times, we find ourselves in a quagmire where we’re not progressing and deals are not going the way that they should. This is why we created TSE Sales Foundation. It’s a program designed to help sales professionals just like you master the fundamentals of sales so they can radically improve their sales pipeline and close more deals. To find out more about TSE Sales Foundation and our next start date, simply go to thesalesevangelist.com/foundation.

How to Remove Friction, Be the Fastest, and Win More Deals | Ravi Rajani - 1670

 Take a moment to walk in your prospect’s shoes. Imagine you’re interested in a product and you reached out for more information, only to wait weeks to hear back. Chances are you went looking elsewhere for a more responsive seller – and if you want to BECOME that second seller, listen in. In this episode, your host Donald Kelly and Aleks Gollu, founder and CEO at 11Sight, discuss the undeniable effectiveness of video calls and rapid response time. What Causes Friction? AI chat bots, long survey-style forms, and delayed response time are all points of friction that drag out and endanger deals. There is no reason why responses can’t be instantaneous – if your turnaround isn’t immediate, you could very easily lose your prospects. Two Ways to Talk On the Customer’s Terms Give your customer the option to schedule the meeting. Give them an option to get on an instant video call. Over 60% preferred an instant call! These options work best for high-velocity sales (conversion in 30-60 days). How Can Reaching Out in Real Time Scale Globally? Record a video that explains that you’re not available at that time and offers them an option to schedule a call. Use an outsourced agency that follows a sales script for their first call to move things forward. “A lead is 10 times more valuable in those first five minutes than anytime thereafter. When the phone rings, answer.” – Aleks Gollu Resources https://www.11sight.com/ - Call through the website, and let them know you heard about them on The Sales Evangelist Podcast. You’ll be transferred directly to Aleks! Sponsorship Offers 1. This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Sales Foundation. I think we can all agree that sales should be fun. However, many times, we find ourselves in a quagmire where we’re not progressing and deals are not going the way that they should. This is why we created TSE Sales Foundation. It’s a program designed to help sales professionals just like you master the fundamentals of sales so they can radically improve their sales pipeline and close more deals. To find out more about TSE Sales Foundation and our next start date, simply go to thesalesevangelist.com/foundation. Credits As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

How to Remove Friction, Be the Fastest, and Win More Deals | Aleks Gollu - 1669

 New reps and veteran sellers alike are looking for the missing piece in their sales game – look no further. In this electrifying interview, your host Donald Kelly speaks with Amanda Holmes, CEO of Chet Holmes International, about how her finger-on-the-pulse approach connects with the foundational elements of her father’s work (The Ultimate Sales Machine) to bring us into the future of selling.  What is a Dream 100? There is always a smaller number of better buyers than there are buyers. Selling to your better buyers is smarter and cheaper than selling to anyone else. When he was a seller, Chet Holmes spent his energy focusing on his ideal clients rather than selling to 20,000 prospects. “In your face, in your space, in your place.” Chet Holmes used a lot of marketing tactics WITHOUT spamming. Aim to be interested instead of interesting!  Identify YOUR Dream 100 Start by going through your contacts and identifying the people who could be in your Dream 100 – without social media. Don’t get overwhelmed – start with a Dream 5 or Dream 10! Place your focus there, and build on it.  3 Dream 100 DON’Ts It doesn’t need to be “100”. The most important thing to do is find your better buyers – the customers who are really right for you. It doesn’t need to be people outside of your sphere. After looking through your contacts, check your social media, your CRM (customer relationship management), and other places in your SOI (sphere of influence). Bigger isn’t always better. Even if big accounts bring in a lot of money, they may not be profitable, and they may not need you. You may not like working with them, which makes them NOT a dream client! “My father was a fifth-degree blackbelt. He realized that there are only so many ways that you kick or you punch, and it’s just a matter of practicing these things over, and over, and over again. He’s famous for the saying, ‘Mastery isn’t about doing 4,000 different things, it’s about doing 12 things 4,000 times.” – Amanda Holmes Resources http://ultimatesalesmachine.com (Chapter 4 of the book is free!) Reach out to Amanda directly @amanditaholmes on Instagram Sponsorship Offers This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn. Are you struggling to close deals? Cold outreach wastes the buyer and seller's time at every stage, especially when sellers are using shallow and outdated data. Your organization can overcome these challenges with technology that translates comprehensive, high-quality buyer data into real-time insights. These deeper insights empower sales reps and teams to adopt the habits of top performers, which leads to better outcomes - like more pipelines, higher win rates, and larger deals. We call this Deep Sale. And we’ve built the first deep sales platform with the next generation of LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Try LinkedIn Sales Navigator and get a sixty-day free trial at linkedin.com/tse.  2. This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Sales Foundation. I think we can all agree that sales should be fun. However, many times, we find ourselves in a quagmire where we’re not progressing and deals are not going the way that they should. This is why we created TSE Sales Foundation. It’s a program designed to help sales professionals just like you master the fundamentals of sales so they can radically improve their sales pipeline and close more deals. To find out more about TSE Sales Foundation and our next start date, simply go to thesalesevangelist.com/foundation. Credits As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

3 Biggest Mistakes Sellers Make Deploying Their Dream 100 List | Amanda Holmes - 1668

 If you’re still trying to build pipeline by loading up your “spam cannon,” you’re living in the past. In today’s episode, your host Donald Kelly opens up a conversation with Drew Sechrist, the CEO and co-founder of Connect the Dots (a FREE program that helps you leverage your connections – see the Resources below for a tip to skip the waiting list). Sechrist shares the history of how he got his start as a seller at Salesforce, becoming a top seller, and learning the skills that helped him revolutionize his strategy.  How Relationships Helped a Young Rep Become the Top Seller When Sechrist first started selling, he didn’t have a network to tap into. As he started selling to bigger more complex companies, having connections helped him get his foot in the door. The amount of people selling creates a lot of noise in the market, leaving buyers unsure of who to trust. Personal relationships built Salesforce from the beginning. At the time, there was no way to see how to leverage relationships with the click of a button, but now there are options like Connect the Dots, which shows reps who the buyers are and how to connect with them through the network they have. Taking Sales Beyond LinkedIn 50-90% of your LinkedIn contacts are people you may not know well, so even if you want to make connections this way, you’re going to face the same lack of trust you’re trying to avoid. CTD offers assistance in tracking relationship strength: whether you have a weak, familiar, or strong relationship with your contact. CTD also shows you a consolidated record of each of your contacts so you can evaluate them at a glance. The Problem With Cold E-mails Cold e-mailing is out for 2023 – it could even hurt your brand. Buyers are inundated with cold e-mails that target and pitch but don’t offer value. Your open rate might be high, but your response rate might not! “Just think about it: somebody comes up to you on the street that you don’t know and they’re proposing something to you, it’s like ‘Whoa, whoa, I don’t know you. I’ve got places to go.’ But if your friend comes up to you on the street and says, ‘Hey Donald, I think I’ve got something for you,’ you’re going to give that person a minute to hear them out… Your brand suffers a little bit if you make a request of somebody’s time and it’s not considered to be valuable.” – Drew Sechrist Resources E-mail drew@ctd.ai and let him know you heard about CTD on The Sales Evangelist Podcast, and you will be bumped to the top of the waiting list for FREE access to this program! Connect the Dots Sponsorship Offers This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Sales Foundation. I think we can all agree that sales should be fun. However, many times, we find ourselves in a quagmire where we’re not progressing and deals are not going the way that they should. This is why we created TSE Sales Foundation. It’s a program designed to help sales professionals just like you master the fundamentals of sales so they can radically improve their sales pipeline and close more deals. To find out more about TSE Sales Foundation and our next start date, simply go to thesalesevangelist.com/foundation. Credits As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

Leveraging Relationships To Build Sales Pipeline | Drew Sechrist - 1667

 Creating and sharing content is the new frontier, but it can feel like a chore if you’re not sure how or why to use it. In this episode, your host Donald Kelly sits down with Zach Basner, digital sales and marketing coach extraordinaire, to show you how effective this type of content can be when used correctly. Listen in as they shed some light on the effectiveness of these strategies and how they can be used to up your game as a seller. The 80% Video What questions do your prospects always (or almost always) ask in your first conversation? This video should address those questions. This informs your prospects and can also disqualify leads without wasting your time or theirs. The Bio Video This is an employee bio video that allows a prospect to see, hear, and know the rep they’ll be in contact with. This isn’t the rep’s life story! Just include anything useful for your prospect to know so they have the opportunity to build some trust in you before they reach out. Think of it as a scalable approach to the time and energy that goes into building relationships with customers. Buyer’s Prep Guide This is for buyers who understand their problem and know what the solution is; they are ready to buy, but they’re deciding who to buy from. A buyer’s prep guide should give context as to the value of the product itself, not a biased view of why your product is the best. Walking buyers through how to evaluate your product will help eliminate objections before they come up in a call. “The best time to eliminate an objection is before it has to come up. Content like this will help us eliminate those long before they need to be brought up. If we’re not hearing the same objections that we used to, we know we’re doing this right.” – Zach Basner Resources IMPACT  Sponsorship Offers This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn. Are you struggling to close deals? Cold outreach wastes the buyer and seller's time at every stage, especially when sellers are using shallow and outdated data. Your organization can overcome these challenges with technology that translates comprehensive, high-quality buyer data into real-time insights.          These deeper insights empower sales reps and teams to adopt the habits of top performers, which leads to better outcomes - like more pipelines, higher win rates, and larger deals. We call this Deep Sale. And we’ve built the first deep sales platform with the next generation of LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Try LinkedIn Sales Navigator and get a sixty-day free trial at linkedin.com/tse. 2. This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Sales Foundation. I think we can all agree that sales should be fun. However, many times, we find ourselves in a quagmire where we’re not progressing and deals are not going the way that they should. This is why we created TSE Sales Foundation. It’s a program designed to help sales professionals just like you master the fundamentals of sales so they can radically improve their sales pipeline and close more deals. To find out more about TSE Sales Foundation and our next start date, simply go to thesalesevangelist.com/foundation. Credits As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

3 Pieces of Content You Can Use as a Seller to Shorten Your Sales Cycle | Zach Basner - 1666

We’re all trying to find creative ways to build pipeline, but sometimes it feels like we’ve exhausted every possible avenue. In this episode, your host Donald Kelly encourages you to look for leads in places you might have missed. Donald and his team use all of these methods and have done the hard work of testing them for their effectiveness. Give them a shot! 5 Ways to Build Pipeline this Quarter Current Customers: Selling to your current customers is the simplest, cheapest way to build pipeline because they already understand and believe in your product. Stay connected with them and build strong relationships so you can keep them up to date on your new offerings. Lost Deals: Deals fall through for many reasons, so it’s a good idea to check in with leaders to see if they know what went wrong. There may be opportunities to rectify some of the issues that occurred before. Existing Connections on LinkedIn: Your connections on LinkedIn, like your current customers, know of you and probably have some trust in you. You don’t necessarily need to pitch to them, just talk to them and see if what you’re offering can help them in any way. Referrals: Many of our customers are willing to give referrals, but we don’t always ask for them. Rather than ask your customers “who they know who could benefit from your services,” go to their LinkedIn profiles and see for yourself. Then reach out to your customer about those folks specifically. Past Leads: Your past leads were interested in your product at one point but were disqualified for one reason or another. Their situation or your offerings may have changed, so it’s a good idea to reconnect and see if now is a better time for them to move forward with your product. “Some of these people may be friends from college, some of these people may be past customers, some of these people could just be folks in your network that you’ve connected to, but for one reason or another, you haven’t quite navigated the path where you ask them for an opportunity. It is a loss if you’re not doing that.” – Donald Kelly Sponsorship Offers This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Sales Foundation. I think we can all agree that sales should be fun. However, many times, we find ourselves in a quagmire where we’re not progressing and deals are not going the way that they should. This is why we created TSE Sales Foundation. It’s a program designed to help sales professionals just like you master the fundamentals of sales so they can radically improve their sales pipeline and close more deals. To find out more about TSE Sales Foundation and our next start date, simply go to thesalesevangelist.com/foundation. Credits As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

5 Overlooked Ways to Build Pipeline this Quarter | Donald Kelly - 1665

 There is absolutely nothing wrong with going to work every day for the paycheck. But if you go one step further, ask yourself, what is that paycheck for? What do you REALLY care about? In this episode, your host Donald Kelly and guest Will Yarbrough break down a word that all sales leaders should be thinking about constantly – “motivation.” Listen in to hear how you can improve yourself or your team by tapping into those unique drivers that go beyond the dollar sign.  Why Should We Go Beyond Being Money Driven? People want to spend their paychecks on the things that matter to them. There’s nothing wrong with making money, but it’s just a means to an end. Whether you’re a sales leader or an individual contributor, if you want to get better, you have to see how that fits into the big picture of your goals in life. Each decision you make should support those goals. Focusing on things other than money will reach sellers who aren’t that motivated by the money itself. This drives performance up and sets you apart from a hiring perspective.  How Can Leaders Help? Spend a lot of time with your team members. Make time for one-on-ones where you can ask questions and understand the things that motivate them. Each person is unique, and their motivations can be complex. Using the REKS framework, help team members identify how to proceed toward their goals. Be the coach in their corner, providing both encouragement and accountability. All the greats have coaches who help them practice and improve. Helping every team member achieve their goals is important – when one person cashes in on the improvements they’ve made, they’ll share their successes with the rest of the team, and that increases buy-in from their peers dramatically.  “I may want to make a six-figure salary, but at the end of the day, it may just be checking a box, where other things are much more important to me. Words of affirmation, getting opportunities to take on more responsibility, having trust and flexibility in the way that I go about my job – these are all things that I think can help inherently motivate folks, but you have to start with the fact that Donald and Will are going to respond to different tactics differently, and money is just one component of motivation.” – Will Yarbrough  Resources Will Yarbrough on LinkedIn Fleetio.com  Sponsorship Offers This episode is brought to you in part by Scratchpad. Scratchpad is the fastest way for sales professionals to update Salesforce. Move at the speed of thought with Scratchpad. Try it for free or learn more at Scratchpad.com.  2.            This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn. Cold calling will not work if you’re using shallow, outdated information. You need to go deep. Try Deep Sales by LinkedIn, the next generation of LinkedIn Sales Navigator. You can get a 60-day free trial - simply go to Linkedin.com/TSE. 3.            This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Sales Foundation. I think we can all agree that sales should be fun. However, many times, we find ourselves in a quagmire where we’re not progressing and deals are not going the way that they should. This is why we created TSE Sales Foundation. It’s a program designed to help sales professionals just like you master the fundamentals of sales so they can radically improve their sales pipeline and close more deals. To find out more about TSE Sales Foundation and our next start date, simply go to thesalesevangelist.com/foundation.  Credits As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

How to Encourage & Motivate Your Team Beyond Being Money Driven | Will Yarbrough - 1664

 You can’t control the changes that are currently happening with the economy, or the changes that are to come. What matters is how you respond in each moment. If you’re not sure how to approach selling in the current economy, fear not – our guest today brings the knowledge and experience that has helped him find great success in his business. Alex Levin is the Co-Founder and CEO of Regal.io, and he’s here today to sit down with your host Donald Kelly. Together, they share the wisdom that can get you through a tough period in the market and even help you see it as an opportunity for growth.  4 Tips for Success During Challenging Economic Times Invest in your craft. If you have enjoyed the luxury of a fairly passive sales experience during the last couple of years, now is the time to shift gears. Get better educated on how you can take a more active role in selling, rather than taking orders and filling them. Learn to create urgency. People get used to the way things are, and during a time when they’re cutting costs, they aren’t actively searching for new places to invest their money. It’s your job to help them see how much better things could be if they use your product or service. Go to conferences. During the height of COVID, doing everything online made a lot of sense. Now, buyers are starting to get out to conferences again. These are great places to network with peers and make personal connections with new and existing prospects. Do things that don’t scale. Now is the time to show your clients how much they matter to you. If you have the resources, find ways to meet with them in person or be physically present if there are events where you can support them. Become a respected part of their team rather than just a voice on the other end of a phone line.  Advice For New (or Experienced!) Sellers Trying to Build Pipeline Selling is a journey. Don’t put a ton of pressure on yourself to be perfect or know everything right from the get-go. The best sellers in the world had to start somewhere, too. Keep a learning mindset. When you have opportunities to get better educated about your product or sales, take them! Have real conversations with your prospects. Discovery calls are not a venue for you to grill your buyer or spew lists of facts about your product. Find out what they need and help them decide whether your product is right for them. Identify your champion. When you are reaching out to a company, locate who will actually be helped the most by your product, and get to know them. Honestly take an interest in their goals and see if your product helps them achieve those goals. Get in an SMS or Slack conversation with your prospect. Start a running dialogue and build trust. Be an honest broker. Build trust with your prospects by accurately representing what your product can do and actively listening to their pains and needs. “Sales is not a one-turn game” – you never know how things will shake out in the future. “Don’t ghost people. Don’t treat them with disrespect. Don’t do things that you wouldn’t want on the cover of the New York Times.” – Alex Levin Resources E-mail Alex: hello@regal.io  Sponsorship Offers This episode is brought to you in part by Scratchpad. Scratchpad is the fastest way for sales professionals to update Salesforce. Move at the speed of thought with Scratchpad. Try it for free or learn more at Scratchpad.com.  2.            This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Sales Foundation. I think we can all agree that sales should be fun. However, many times, we find ourselves in a quagmire where we’re not progressing and deals are not going the way that they should. This is why we created TSE Sales Foundation. It’s a program designed to help sales professionals just like you master the fundamentals of sales so they can radically improve their sales pipeline and close more deals. To find out more about TSE Sales Foundation and our next start date, simply go to thesalesevangelist.com/foundation. Credits As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

How to Generate Pipeline During a Challenging Economy | Alex Levin - 1663

 In this episode, your host Donald Kelly sits down with Chris Duprey, Chief Strategy Officer at IMPACT (impactplus.com). Duprey has an engaging, no-nonsense approach to sales training, and wants to help you and your team master the basics so that you can go from being decent at sales to being truly great. Check out the list below and see what’s holding your team back, then listen in as Donald and Chris delve into each one, point by point!  The 5 Habits of A Great Sales Team Have a team mentality. Top performers will burn out if they’re the only ones doing all the work. Go beyond sharing wins – share losses too. Even top sellers should be willing to talk to the team about what’s not working and why.  The best teams roleplay… a LOT. If you want to improve, practice! Work with others to get better. You’re not going to win unless you do the reps. Duprey recommends doing it weekly! The best teams watch their sales calls. Record your calls so that you can go back and review them later. Just like a sports team watching their old plays, watch the calls you make and watch calls other people make! Sales leaders: watch a lot of sales calls your team makes. Gain peer status with your buyer. Nobody wants to be sold to – people will accept guidance and assistance from someone who knows their stuff. Ask great questions, give realistic advice and don’t be needy! You proactively work on communication. Obsess over how you communicate. If something goes wrong, figure out what you missed. Also, learn how to deliver your message and have an engaging presence. “If you just do the basics, that’s what makes the best the best… I was a paratrooper and I had friends that were in the special forces. Everyone thinks we all did special things – we all just did the basics A LOT and got really good at them.” – Chris Duprey Resources Chris Duprey on LinkedIn IMPACT: Sales & Marketing Training Sponsorship Offers This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn. Cold calling will not work if you’re using shallow, outdated information. You need to go deep. Try Deep Sales by LinkedIn, the next generation of LinkedIn Sales Navigator. You can get a 60-day free trial - simply go to Linkedin.com/TSE. 2.            This episode is brought to you in part by Scratchpad. Scratchpad is the fastest way for sales professionals to update Salesforce. Move at the speed of thought with Scratchpad. Try it for free or learn more at Scratchpad.com.    3.            This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Sales Foundation. I think we can all agree that sales should be fun. However, many times, we find ourselves in a quagmire where we’re not progressing and deals are not going the way that they should. This is why we created TSE Sales Foundation. It’s a program designed to help sales professionals just like you master the fundamentals of sales so they can radically improve their sales pipeline and close more deals. To find out more about TSE Sales Foundation and our next start date, simply go to thesalesevangelist.com/foundation. Credits As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

5 Habits of Being A Great Sales Team! | Dr. Chris Duprey - 1662

  Having the right mindset is crucial to being a successful salesperson. So why do we often get locked up in a mindset of fear, and how can we change that? In this episode, your host Donald Kelly and Dr. Jean Oursler (Ph.D. in Business Psychology from the Chicago School) are here to teach us about our “Caveman Brain” so that we can harness the way we are wired and make it work to our advantage.  What is Your Caveman Brain? The amygdala is a part of the brain that controls our fear responses to our environment. Dr. Oursler calls this the “caveman brain” Our “caveman brain” exists to protect us from getting hurt or dying, so we can’t get rid of it or turn it off!  We don’t have to run away from predators or protect our young from danger anymore, so nowadays, we fear things like rejection, losing our reputation, or being a pushy salesperson.  How Do We Work WITH the Caveman Brain? The amygdala only knows what it sees and hears. Pay attention to the media and information you consume! Identify your personal fears. Know what is holding you back and why. Use positive self-talk to give the caveman brain information to overcome your fears. Think of these as affirmations or talking yourself up. "Almost everything that’s happening in your life that isn’t happening the way you want it to comes down to your caveman brain. When you realize that and you start to fix that, everything else falls back into place.” – Dr. Jean Oursler Resources https://cavemanbrain.com/ Sponsorship Offers This episode is brought to you in part by Scratchpad. Scratchpad is the fastest way for sales professionals to update Salesforce. Move at the speed of thought with Scratchpad. Try it for free or learn more at Scratchpad.com.    2.            This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Sales Foundation. I think we can all agree that sales should be fun. However, many times, we find ourselves in a quagmire where we’re not progressing and deals are not going the way that they should. This is why we created TSE Sales Foundation. It’s a program designed to help sales professionals just like you master the fundamentals of sales so they can radically improve their sales pipeline and close more deals. To find out more about TSE Sales Foundation and our next start date, simply go to thesalesevangelist.com/foundation. Credits As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

The REAL Truth Behind Why You're Not Prospecting Enough | Dr. Jean Oursler - 1661

 Today’s guest brings his top-tier track record to the show to help you and your team convert your prospects into customers using his proven, customer-first approach. In this episode, your host Donald Kelly sits down with David Bennion, the VP Sales at Apollo.io, which serves over 160,000 companies and more than one million users worldwide. Bennion shares his clear-eyed, precise understanding of his team’s success and the steps it takes to get there.  As a Seller, Learn to: Identify your customer’s issue, even if they haven’t identified it themselves Quantify that problem - how impactful will solving the problem be? Ask the right questions so you can truly understand where your prospect is coming from. When they trust you enough to describe their company’s pains (or even their personal ones), show empathy! Know whether your product can actually solve their problem - and learn to graciously walk away if it can’t  Common Mistakes in Selling (And How to Avoid Them) DON’T just drive your company’s agenda. Instead, think about what you can offer to the customer. DON’T limit your pitch to just data points. Instead, offer some real-life examples of your current customers’ success with your product DON’T add to your prospect’s list of problems they have to deal with. Instead, show them how seamlessly your solution can be implemented “I think, sometimes in outbound [sales], there’s a feeling like, ‘All I’m doing is creating a problem for somebody,’ when really, you have the opportunity to create a quick win for somebody and make them a hero inside their business.” - David Bennion Resources http://apollo.io Sponsorship Offers This episode is brought to you in part by Scratchpad. Scratchpad is the fastest way for sales professionals to update Salesforce. Move at the speed of thought with Scratchpad. Try it for free or learn more at Scratchpad.com.  This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Sales Foundation. I think we can all agree that sales should be fun. However, many times, we find ourselves in a quagmire where we’re not progressing and deals are not going the way that they should. This is why we created TSE Sales Foundation. It’s a program designed to help sales professionals just like you master the fundamentals of sales so they can radically improve their sales pipeline and close more deals. To find out more about TSE Sales Foundation and our next start date, simply go to thesalesevangelist.com/foundation. Credits As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

How to Encourage the Prospect to Make a Change on the First Call | David Bennion - 1660

 Writing intriguing, trustworthy e-mail content in today’s market can feel like a losing game. How do you stand out from the crowd without resorting to gimmicks (which doesn’t work anyway)? Enter your host Donald Kelly and our guest James Boreham with five tips on creating e-mails that create unforgettable first impressions your clients will still be talking about years later (true story!).  Current Challenges In Email Prospecting People are flooded with information. When you reach out to someone, you’re just one out of so many notifications they’re going to see that day Buyers are burned out when it comes to e-mail. E-mail prospecting is up 30% since the beginning of the pandemic, but reply rates are down 50% Do These 5 Things to Boost Your E-mail Open Rates 1. Use short, intriguing subject lines. Most e-mails are viewed on mobile devices. On a smaller screen, only a small amount of text makes it to your prospect’s eyes before they decide whether it gets opened or goes to the trash. TRY THIS: Send the e-mail to yourself before it goes out. Does it look like marketing fluff? Or does it look important? 2. See the prospect as your equal. Even though you might be reaching out to prospects who have a lot of experience in their field, you are the expert in YOUR field (which is your product). Don’t condescend, but don’t beg either. Know the worth of your information and your product to become a trusted advisor who commands respect.   3. Do your homework. Personalize your content to show that you’ve taken the time to get to know their business and their needs. Impress your customer with your hustle and commitment (without sacrificing the natural flow of the e-mail). TRY THIS: Check out the careers page on the company’s website. Get a sense of what roles and responsibilities exist so you can understand your prospect’s needs. 4. Stay actionable and objective. Don’t be too “sales-y”. Talk in terms of facts and keep things clear. Don’t add so much personality that your prospect loses the plot.   5. Follow up with one-liners. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel - one-liners work! Use them to connect with people and encourage their responses. “Each of these [5 tips to boost e-mail open rates] is to make it easy for the customer to buy and to put us in a position of power in those interactions and conversations so we are a trusted advisor. I think that is transformative to the whole sales process.” – James Boreham Resources Juro Contract Management (website) James Boreham on LinkedIn Sponsorship Offers This episode is brought to you in part by Scratchpad. Scratchpad is the fastest way for sales professionals to update Salesforce. Move at the speed of thought with Scratchpad. Try it for free or learn more at Scratchpad.com.  This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Sales Foundation. I think we can all agree that sales should be fun. However, many times, we find ourselves in a quagmire where we’re not progressing and deals are not going the way that they should. This is why we created TSE Sales Foundation. It’s a program designed to help sales professionals just like you master the fundamentals of sales so they can radically improve their sales pipeline and close more deals. To find out more about TSE Sales Foundation and our next start date, simply go to thesalesevangelist.com/foundation. Credits As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

5 Things You Must Do To Boost Email Open Rates & Close Deals Faster | James Boreham - 1659

Your social media presence can build your credibility, community, and pipeline… or break it. Most people don’t create content on LinkedIn, so they miss out on all of the opportunities that can come along with having a sizeable following on the platform. In this episode, your host Donald Kelly sits down with Richard Smith,  the VP of Sales for Allego. Listen in to hear how Smith grew his social media audience to the point where his content now generates conversation, interest, and qualified inbound leads. Why DON’T People Post on LinkedIn? People don’t think they have anything interesting or novel to contribute People are happy to read and don’t feel like it’s necessary to make the extra effort to post “Head trash” – people don’t want to embarrass themselves if no one interacts, or say the wrong thing and end up in trouble professionally How to Do LinkedIn Posts the Right Way Keep your day job. Smith uses LinkedIn to generate leads for his sales job, but it took years to build his audience. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Build a community, not an echo chamber. Discussion is healthy – while you don’t want to be inflammatory just for the sake of getting attention, don’t try to pander to your audience either. Your reputation on social media will follow you everywhere, so be educated, honest, and authentic. “The key is to almost “anti-sell,” and this is quite strange for some people to hear. You have to be on there, not wanting to sell your product – you have to be on there building an audience… And that is the key starting point.” – Richard Smith TSE episode 578: How to Use Technology to Better Coach Salespeople with Richard Smith Allego: Sales Training and Sales Enablement Platform Website Sponsorship Offers 1. This episode is brought to you in part by Scratchpad. Scratchpad is the fastest way for sales professionals to update Salesforce. Move at the speed of thought with Scratchpad. Try it for free or learn more at Scratchpad.com.  2. This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Sales Foundation. I think we can all agree that sales should be fun. However, many times, we find ourselves in a quagmire where we’re not progressing and deals are not going the way that they should. This is why we created TSE Sales Foundation. It’s a program designed to help sales professionals just like you master the fundamentals of sales so they can radically improve their sales pipeline and close more deals. To find out more about TSE Sales Foundation and our next start date, simply go to thesalesevangelist.com/foundation. Credits As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

How I Use LinkedIn to Shatter My Sales Numbers | Richard Smith - 1658

I believe in doing BIG THINGS! You should be earning 6 figures easily as a sales rep. But chances are you are not...yet! Sales is the most important department in every company but many sellers are never taught how to effectively sell, much less how to earn their way to high-income status. My own career limped along until a company I worked for invested in sales training to help me succeed. Immediately afterward, I closed a deal worth 4X what the company spent on me and saw hockey-stick improvement in my performance. So I started a podcast to “Evangelize” what was working. Today I interview the world's best sales experts, successful sellers, sales leaders and entrepreneurs who share their strategies to succeed in sales right now: folks like Jeffrey Gitomer, Jill Konrath, Bob Burg, and Guy Kawasaki to name a few. They share actionable insights and stories that will encourage, challenge, and motivate you to hustle your way to top income status. If you’re someone looking to take off in your sales career and earn the income you deserve, hit subscribe and let’s start doing BIG THINGS!

hubhopper

The Sales Evangelist

hubhopper