Sales Game Changers | Tips from Successful Sales Leaders

This is episode 266. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. TOM'S TIP TO SALES LEADERS: "The more sudden, the more unexpected and the more dramatic the change, the greater is the opportunity to thrive or fail. Survival is not a strategy. Starting today and for the rest of the time that we are adjusting to this new world, I want you to pick a block of time every day on your calendar. You determine whether that's 10 minutes or 2 hours, I don't care, but I want that block of time to be something PROACTIVE. Work on your skills, take some training, reach out to people who you don't know, prospect through LinkedIn. It is the single collective biggest difference between people who are thriving and doing great against quota versus those who are barely getting there."

This is episode 265. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. BILL'S TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "You need to figure out a way to celebrate about your successes and your accomplishments in this new world. It used to be again, going back several quarters we were in an office, we would pull everybody together and you'd recognize someone. We still try to do a little bit of that online but I've encouraged people, "Listen, you had a great week, you got a big order in, share a bottle of wine with your loved one or significant other. Go make yourself a big dinner, turn stuff off, turn the computer off, put the phone down and use it as a way to celebrate the successes that you're having along the way." MIKE'S TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Empathy is the most important quality that anybody can have whether it's in sales or in life. I think that the most important thing that we can do as sales professionals as we leave this, as we go into the rest of the week, as we go into next week and as we continue in our career is to bear that in mind. Also, have an athletic approach to how we manage our business. We have to make sure that we're maximizing the time that we put towards this, that we maximize the amount that we're able to interact with our customers, the amount of information that we're able to convey, the amount of information we're able to get from those customers so we can be respectful of their time and that we can get back to them much more rapidly and quickly with good key answers to help them solve mission problems."

This is episode 264. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. ANDREA'S TIP TO SALES LEADERS: "Your reaction to yes and no must be equal. You want to get in the neutral zone so don't over-celebrate the yesses but you also don't badger yourself, beat yourself up when you get a no. More than ever, there are a lot of noes out there and more rejection. You have to stop yourself and shut down any negative self-talk about whether you feel that you didn't do a good job or whether things aren't working and get yourself off that emotional roller coaster to be most effective."

This is episode 263. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. RON'S TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "I'm a big believer in life balance to drive toward peak performance and it's not just about peak business performance. A big part of it is yourself. Everyone has to take care of themselves especially now. Be healthy, stay healthy, work out. It's about taking care of your family and friends and about a balance with community and different people. Practice spirituality in different ways. Everybody has a business plan for their profession and my challenge to everybody would be create a business plan for those other four areas: yourself, your family and friends, the community and spirituality. When everything comes together it's really magical what someone could accomplish."

This is episode 262. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. ALAN'S TIP TO SALES LEADERS: "Sales people need to make time for curiosity. We can't just assume that we're going to go about doing the normal stuff we do and brilliance is going to happen. Make time and even if that means you just start right now with an hour a day or an hour a week and that's all you can handle, make some time. Even during COVID you can get out, explore a little bit even if it's just in a park and as places start opening up. Wander around looking for some interesting ideas of businesses that are getting back and doing business and how those ideas could help you and your organization. The other is I'd like you to get together with your colleagues every week and pose a question that's a curious question that will spark your thinking and as a group, start to brainstorm questions like, "What do our customers really care about right now?" or, "'What if we could create the perfect new product or solution, what would be different?" or, "How could we do a better job of using technology?" or, "What would our amazing no-touch customer service look like?" or, "How do we make our customers smarter than they ever imagined possible?" Think about questions like that as a way to regularly spark your team curiosity."

This is episode 261. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. Elliott Ferguson is the President and CEO of Destination DC. ELLIOTT'S TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "People can see when you're happy. I gave my entire team mirrors years ago and I said, "Every time you pick up the phone, I want you to look in the mirror and look at your facial expression. I want you to smile when you're talking to them and see whether or not they see a difference in how you're talking because that's how people perceive you, that's exactly what they hear and that's really important as we're looking at developing our brand - because each of us are a brand - as we're looking at moving forward and getting out of COVID."

This is episode 260. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. MELINDA'S TIP TO SALES LEADERS: "Focus on what you can control and right now there's not a lot people can control except for their attitude. You can control your response to your customer. So whether or not your customer had budget last week and all of a sudden their budget got snatched back, you can't control that. Be pleasant to deal – make sure that they can hear the smile on the other end of the phone or they can actually see your smile and face on the Zoom call. It's important that you embrace as opposed to react."

This is episode 259. Read the transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. CHRIS' TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "If you haven't read The Challenger Sale go do it right now. If you have read it, go back and re-read the section on "A New Model for High Performance," in Chapter 2. It talks about the value that you bring when you bring insight to your clients. If you've read The Challenger Sale, go back and read that part. If you haven't read it, go read it. Bringing value to customers who are struggling right now will set you apart." WILL'S TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Practice doing Question Trees. Think about the bold open-ended question you want to ask, then think about the possible answers they could give you, and then think about what your response will be, given those answers. That's going to empower you not only to be prepared to ask the question but to respond to the answers. You do that today, you are going to get to the honest answers you deserve as a sales professional in order to move your deals forward or out."

This is episode 258. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. KLYN'S' TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Check in with your gut and ask "are you actually a professional?" Because if you are a professional what's happening right now isn't going to stop you. You're going to do the growth work, you're going to do the trainings, you're going to get educated and you're going to leverage it. Recognize what was that superpower that got you to be called a professional and then what is that extra thing you need to reach out and then go for the vision? What I want you to understand is what made you a professional and keep doing that."

This is episode 257. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. JAMES' TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Study your customer, study the prospect, know what their organization stands for, what their mission statement is. If you're going to be talking to an individual, a CIO for instance, go do your research on the internet. See if they've spoken on any webcasts. What's top of mind for them? Then mash it up against what your company stands for, what your value propositions are, the outcomes that you're trying to help your customers achieve. Curate your message, train yourself on a message, get a full command of it because when the lights come on and you get in front of that customer, albeit virtually nowadays, they're going to make a judgement on you. If you don't have the ability to allow them to differentiate you from your peers, you may never get that second call."