Sales Game Changers | Tips from Successful Sales Leaders

This is episode 436. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. BARRY'S TIP: "I recommend using what I call a process play in email, where you communicate with the customer your understanding of the steps that they have to go through to get to issuing a contract or an order. You don't want to do that after the first call, but after you've spoken to the customer, validating those steps often gives you insight into, wait, there's an additional step or no, we can skip this step because of this size of the purchase. I really recommend putting that to use, a really crisp email, something that somebody can read right on their phone just verifying, here's the steps we're going to work through together to get this completed. MATT'S TIP: "Trust but verify what your customer's telling you. You need to ask them to make sure you understand their full process. Do they have a legal review? Do they have security review? Whether there are approvals and so on, and then hold them accountable to that. Also, stop asking times that your customer is free to schedule a call and instead, just send the meeting request. You can send your email that says whatever information you need to tell, and at the end you say, "I'm sending you a meeting request at this date and time. If it doesn't work, please suggest a new time." It cuts down on that process of going back and forth so many times, and it's been very successful for us."

This is episode 435. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. KRISTI'S TIP: "Learn how to tap into your inner voice or your intuition and taking time every week to be quiet and be still, and self-reflect. There's always a lot of things floating around in our head. Sometimes we're just on a go, go, go habit trail of motion. Being still, unplugging, being quiet, and really focusing on what you want to work through mentally, and having that quiet time is important." MEGHAN'S TIP: "Make sure that you are letting your boss, or your leadership know of your career interests. If you're really good at your role and you're really self-sufficient, they're probably not paying attention to you. They're focused on their problem children. You want to make sure you're staying on their radar, letting them know what you're doing, what you're interested in, so that when opportunities come forward, they think of you."

This is episode 434. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. BOB'S TIP: "Here are three radically authentic discovery questions to ask. (1) What do you think is the biggest priority or challenge your board is discussing? (2) Who is your customer and what's the biggest challenge they need you to solve? (3) Out of your entire job description, what's the one thing your company is counting on you to get done?"

This is episode 433. Join the exclusive Institute for Excellence in Sales. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website JEFFREY'S TIP: "The journey continues. I think for new sellers, we were talking about people who've joined the Institute for Excellence in Sales, people think that they can do something and then be there, they can have arrived and be successful, be a senior salesperson or a sales leader. The journey always continues as things change, what has been made very available to everybody is that embracing change, adapting to change and actually changing to get better is a big part of being a successful salesperson. Stay on a journey for making yourself more valuable to both your organization and your customers' organization, and you'll be well served." BILLY'S TIP: "Figure out the top 10 challenges that each one of your prospects have and how you can provide value. I don't think sales reps do this enough, they sell the product and/or service. Figure out the top 10. For me, the top 10 IT transformational projects at each agency level, that's what I want my AEs focused on and how we can provide value."

This is episode 432. Join the exclusive Institute for Excellence in Sales. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. KATHIE'S TIP: "Have a consistent morning routine. That's where you're connecting with yourself, body, mind and spirit before you let the outside world in. You're putting yourself in the driver's seat before the day takes off. You can walk in with clarity, you can walk in with confidence and then you're able to respond versus react. Then you're going to be able to be present instead of just going adrift through the day. The other thing is centering. The central question that you may want to ask yourself periodically when you're in decision making situations is, what choice can I make or action can I take in this moment to create the greatest net value?"

This is episode 431. Join the exclusive Institute for Excellence in Sales. Read the complete transcription on The Sales Game Changers Podcast website. MICHELLE'S TIP: "Choose an organization, an association that you can reach out to that is not similar to one that you have reached out to before. Whether it's a category of businesses that you've done business with or it's a group of people that you want to get more involved with, choose one and go online. It's not going to take you long. Choose one and then develop your relationships. It starts with one step at a time. One action is go find a different organization, and then start a conversation with someone that you typically wouldn't have had a conversation with before today."

This is episode 430. Join the exclusive Institute for Excellence in Sales. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. This episode is sponsored by Cox. Learn more about their For The Love of Sales Program here! Cox is a great place to start or continue your sales career. ALEASHA'S TIP: "Introverts are often failing at sales because they're trying to pretend they're an extrovert. They feel like they have to put on this weird suit or hat like we were talking about and act like somebody else. Introverts have amazing intuition and give yourself permission to just play up your strengths. You don't have to have a million hours of small talk if you don't like it. Don't force yourself to do it. The other person's going to feel weird too, because they can tell your heart's not in it. Just really being able to lean into your own strengths and obviously, the ideal is the blend of both. If extroverts can learn something from introverts' qualities, that would definitely make them a better salesperson."

This is episode 429. Join the Institute for Excellence in Sales. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. MATT'S TIP FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Be fearless. Don't worry about failing, there's beauty in learning and knowledge, and you will be better at what you do if you go through that. The biggest thing is be the number one resource and asset for your client. You're there to help them, you're an asset and a resource. Be their number one. When they need to call somebody, pick up the phone, send an email, send a text, make sure it's to you. PAUL'S TIP FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "I have a saying, you have two ears and one mouth, listen twice as much as you talk. Don't sell anything, ask big, broad, open-ended questions so that your prospect can give you the answers to the test. Don't ask questions that are yes or no or even directive, let them go limitless. Ask them, if you had a magic wand, what would you celebrate at the end of this year? And you're going to be able to back into a great client needs analysis. If I can leave that with everybody, don't try to respond to or even have anything preset into what you're talking to a client about. Respond to what their needs are, listen twice as much as you talk.

This is episode 428. Join the exclusive Institute for Excellence in Sales. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. Sales professionals struggle with converting leads to business, or at least getting them to move down the sales funnel. A lot of people get stuck somewhere in that sales funnel and a lot of people give up quickly because they feel like they've hit a wall. Take a step back, think about all the resources that you have at your disposal. Take a look at the top five targets on your target list, take a look at how many touch points you've already made with each and what you've done. Really take a good look and ask yourself, have I leveraged every resource possible to move them along the sale cycle and move them down the funnel? If you can't answer that with 100% confidence, my advice would be that if you're relying too heavily on the software that your company is using and the data and you really didn't push yourself in a certain direction where you were humanizing that process. Dig a little deeper and not just take your results for face value. If that means reaching out and clarifying a little bit more, because your buyer's journey, they're all unique. Who influenced them, how have they heard about the different brands that are out there? What kind of research have they done? Then a question that I heard a while ago which I love so much and it applies to anybody in sales, any industry, is tell me about the day that you decided that you had an issue or a problem that you needed to solve."

This is episode 427. Join the exclusive Institute for Excellence in Sales. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. JONATHAN'S TIP FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "All the economists that I speak to and everybody that I listen to that is a so-called financial expert are predicting a boom for the next two, three, four, maybe even five years. Beginning, they suggest, at the end of Q3 this year. If we're going to take advantage of all of this, we've got to be prepared. First of all, we've got to conduct an audit of ourselves, we've got to understand what we need to do to improve because the day we stop improving and the day we stop learning, we might as well pack up and go home, frankly. The next thing we have to do is to understand the people that report to us, and we do have a duty of care to them. We've got to make sure that they fully armed not just to win the occasional skirmish, but to win the war. Then third and probably the most important, think about customers. Get as close as you can to customers. Work across the line, work up, work down, understand their entire commercial objectives, understand their concerns, their fears and just get closer to them because they want you to. Stop selling, start understanding."