Sales Game Changers | Tips from Successful Sales Leaders

This is episode 296. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. AMY'S INSIGHTS FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "See your career as a jungle gym versus a ladder straight up. Especially for women in sales and women in really any role, our careers take winding paths. There is almost never a straight up type of career path so it's taking on a different mindset and then set an action that says, "I'm going to see my career as this very holistic thing, it's not just this small slice point in time here." You are trying out different things on the jungle gym. You might be going sideways, you might be going up, you might actually be going down, it's a different visual and a different approach that says, "I'm going to take on different things in my career to build skills and not necessarily just be focused on what's the next rung up on the ladder."

This is episode 295. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. ALICE'S TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "A free way to show gratitude is by making an introduction. There is no rule that you can't make an introduction just like there's no rule that you can't send a little thank-you note. That is a great gift, when you can make a very thoughtful introduction to someone that they might need to know either because they want to change their career or needed a resource. Or it's just someone that they've admired for a long time or someone that you just think they should know."

This is episode 294. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. NERTILA'S INSIGHTS FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Never be nervous, just believe in yourself, never think there's anything that you can't do. Never think of gender or anything as an obstacle. Always think about your successes, your strengths, what you're good at, what you love, what makes you happy and be confident about it. Talk about it, go for it, there's really nothing that you can't achieve. It sounds cheesy but it's really like that."

This is episode 293. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. This is a replay of the SALES GAME CHANGERS LIVE Webinar sponsored by the Institute for Excellence in Sales and hosted by Fred Diamond on November 18, 2020. It featured University of Virginia Darden School of Business professor Tom Steenburgh. TOM'S TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Make it new. The question is, "How do I refresh my sales approach in a way that makes it better?" Because of the pandemic I'm forced to do things in a different way so is it possible for me to make it better? Then my life goes back to normal, if you have made it better keep doing the new thing and if it hasn't become better, go back to the old one but always try to make it new because that's how we learn and grow and get better. Ask yourself, "Maybe there's some possibility here that I haven't been exploring" and it might get you unstuck."

This is episode 292. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. MIKE'S TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "There are five different ways to respond to an objection with the acronym READY. You can REVERSE an objection, hit it right back at them with, "That's exactly why." The reason a Reverse is so powerful is because the reason you're against it is the reason you should be for it. You can EXPLAIN what happened and that's a perfectly reasonable answer, it's not an argument, it's just, "Let me explain what this is. You can ADMIT something. Occasionally there will be a bad piece of news, they're going to look at how you DENY that. Vehemently, strongly, affirmatively deny that that happened. Finally, ask WHY. It buys you some time and it gives you more information."

This is episode 291. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. This is a replay of the WOMEN IN SALES Webinar sponsored by the Institute for Excellence in Sales and hosted by Gina Stracuzzi on August 20, 2020. It featured LinkedIn Sales Leader Alyssa Merwin. ALYSSA'S INSIGHTS FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "There's never been a better time to be a woman in sales. Women tend to have high emotional intelligence (EQ) and to be empathetic. These are the times when our strengths will really shine through. I think if we can spend time on controlling the controllable and leaning on our strengths, we will get through this and hopefully be in a better position on the other side."

This is episode 290. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. HOWARD'S TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Work the funnel from the top down. If you don't get your prospecting over in the morning or set time of the day, you'll get all the way till the end of the day having worked on proposals all day, it's 6 o'clock and your prospecting time got crowded out and then you go a quarter later and your pipeline is empty. You really want to work the funnel from the top down to do your best to avoid those feast and famine quarters, it's way too easy to do the in-front-of-you work of writing proposals and qualifying leads but you've really got to force yourself. After you close the deals that are closable that day, go right to the top of the funnel and work from the top down so that you're not having a famine quarter next quarter. JASON'S TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "I always encourage my sales team and sellers to focus on the customer first and prioritize those engagements directly with the customer. Look for new ways to engage, don't let a day go by where you're not at least texting, calling, maybe setting up a Facetime chat, whatever it is. There is an opportunity to really stay engaged more frequently now than ever before but it's not going to come in the form of a one hour sit-down followed by an hour long lunch or maybe a golf game. I'm sure some of those things are happening on an ad hoc basis but in general you need to think in shorter spurts and just engaging in meaningful yet quick and effective ways."

This is episode 289. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. MERRICK'S TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "If you're selling to someone and their style is different than yours, one of you is going to leave that interaction exhausted and it better be you because it takes energy to flex. Do you want your customer flexing, or do you want to be the one who is flexing? Notice how if you are imposing your style on your customer, you're focusing on YOUR needs, not on THEIR needs."

This is episode 288. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. This episode was hosted by Gina Stracuzzi, Institute for Excellence in Sales Women in Sales program leader. CYNTHIA'S INSIGHTS FOR EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Female-led sales teams are 50% female, they tend to be more female than male-led sales teams which are only 25% female. There is a huge benefit of having a female sales leader because she brings in more women in sales to her team, so if you are a C suite or a CEO out there and you're thinking, "How do we attract more women in sales, start with having female sales leaders? Women in sales know that they are being highly sought after and when they look at the leadership team of your organization, if they don't see anyone that looks like them they're going to pass and go onto a company that does represent them. Women hold 1 in 5 leadership positions and only 1 in 4 mid-level sales manager roles, which if you talk about overall sales leadership for women, it is 89% male, 11% female. We have a huge opportunity to advance women in sales not only on the individual contributor level but on the manager and leadership level as well."

This is episode 287. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. BILL'S TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "You can't focus 18 hours of your day on work. You really need to take time out and spend time with your family and friends and really balance that. If you don't balance your life, it will lead to a terrible outcome. As a sales professional, as you drive into another next sales goal and continue building a big pipeline, please remember to stay close to your partners, your customers and your family and friends."