Sales Game Changers | Tips from Successful Sales Leaders

This is episode 246. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. Diane's segment begins at the 26 minute mark. MIKE'S TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Every successful person I know has been defined by difficulty at some point in their career that they fought through, that's without exception. These times are opportunities for us to power through it, to learn from it, to profit from it, this is an opportunity. It is a gift for us so don't squander it, take advantage of it." DIANE'S TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Awareness is the most important pivotal moment for you. When you notice something showing up for you just take a moment and notice it. That observing capacity makes it easier for you then to move and in these moments I'd just invite you to say, "What is one thing that you would do to move yourself forward?"

This is episode 245. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. EDITOR'S NOTE: We conducted this interview in February 2020. Since the show was released during the pandemic, we asked Todd what his advice is for sales professionals now. He offered the following: Show empathy in all your communications— As a sales leader, you need to give your teams ample oxygen to sustain life in the new normal. This includes being human. Some tactics to consider might include doing weekly, high-touch videos (that show you with your family) so your team sees all of you, and is reassured that we're all in this together. Additionally, be transparent. We've found that our employees like to hear from our leadership frequently, and that they appreciate the candor and open lines of communication. Remain tech-savvy—As sales professionals, we're all 100% inside sales reps now and there are incredible technologies we can quickly adopt so that we still can maintain intimacy with our customers, who by the way, are all feeling and experiencing the exact same things we are as sellers and company officers. Redefine success—We all want signed orders and uninterrupted revenue flows. However, we also need to adjust to this unprecedented time by adapt our definitions of success. Of course, sales is about bookings, but it's also about the 'building blocks' of bookings, including forging new customer contacts, implementing smart outreach campaigns, providing demonstrations of new features, and reminding people of the essence of your product's value. It's basic stuff, but it is authentic, and plants the seeds for eventual growth. Be pithy— Right now, people are starved for time, so cut to the chase. Nobody—not a single professional—can recall a time where you're simultaneously a) making the kids breakfast, b) responding to a forecast request from the board, all while c) trying to jam in a last-minute home-delivered grocery order (before your window closes). Be kind, be relevant, be brief.

This is episode 244. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. CHRISTINE'S TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "The biggest thing I've learned is an increased appreciation for being empathetic and really trying to understand where people are in their journey in life and how that impacts how they show up and what they can actually produce at work." IVY'S TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "A lot of what we're dealing with starts with a conversation. The issues that are going on in the country and how we deal with them personally and as a business in society and again, it starts with a conversation. When you understand people a little bit more, it takes a lot of that off the table of how we make decisions or not. That's part of what we've been doing more and more the past few months."

This is episode 243. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. This is a replay of the Creativity in Sales Webinar hosted by Fred Diamond, Host of the Sales Game Changers Podcast, on May 29, 2020. It featured author of Selling with Noble Purpose and Leading with Noble Purpose author Lisa Earle McLeod. LISA'S TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "The beauty of being in sales is you make a difference to customers every single day and you're part of the economic engine that the country needs very desperately right now. Right now, decouple your self-esteem from your ability to hit a target. Targets matter, money matters but they can't be the only source of your self-esteem right now. We owe it to the world to put forward right now the most emotionally engaging higher purpose, compassionate, empathetic, assertive sales teams that the world has ever seen."

This is episode 242. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast. Listen to Dominic Strada's original Sales Game Changers Podcast. DOMINIC'S TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "If you're not willing to change based on market conditions or whatever changes that day, you're going to fail. Consumers are shopping different, they're looking for different things. You're dealing with different things internally whether it's on the supply side or the people side so ask what do I need to start, stop and continue with my products, my route to market, my customer communications, my customer interaction and my people interaction."

This is episode 241. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. We conducted this interview with Matthew Pollard in February 2020 before the pandemic. Since the show was released during the pandemic, it's so valid as we need to draft interesting stories to help our customers recover from the resultant economic challenges. MATT'S FINAL TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "People remember 22 times more information when it's embedded into a story which makes it so much easier to sell. Block out time to write a story, perfect it, learn it and then actually put the skill into action and you'll see a transformation in your sales results."

This is episode 240. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. This is a replay of the Sales Game Changers Panel Webinar hosted by Fred Diamond, Host of the Sales Game Changers Podcast, on June 3, 2020. It featured sales leaders Frank Dimina (Splunk) and Craig Mueller (FireEye.)

This is episode 239. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. TREVOR'S FINAL TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "If you're going to get into sales, you've got to be prepared to handle pressure. If you're not confident it's definitely not the career for you. You always must be confident. You must be confident when you're winning and most importantly you have to be confident when you're failing. If you're not believing in yourself you're just not going to inspire anyone to purchase from you." Trevor Vale is the SVP and Global Head of Sales at Diligent. He worked at Intercontinental Exchange and Thomson Reuters Find Trevor on LinkedIn here.

This is episode 238. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. This is a replay of the Sales Game Changers Panel Webinar hosted by Fred Diamond, Host of the Sales Game Changers Podcast, on May 27, 2020. It featured sales leaders Tamara Greenspan (Oracle) and Tim Atkinson (ACS Group). Listen to Tamara Greenspan's Podcast. Listen to Tim Atkinson's Podcast . TIM'S TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "From Mahatma Gandhi. 'Keep your thoughts positive because thoughts become words. Keep your words positive because words become behavior. Keep your behavior positive because behavior becomes habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits define your destiny.' I'm an attitude guy, I talk about it all the time, I believe in it all the time, I try to live it all the time in terms of positivism with my team and clients. Words, habits, behaviors become destiny. That's what it's about."

This is episode 237. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. RAKHI'S FINAL TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Map out your short- and long-term goals and think about what you need to get there. I have acquired experience in sales, business development, financing and sales strategy and now my organization actually technically sits underneath marketing. I'm getting all of these different experiences and I encourage people to think about what you want your long term goal to be and how you want to fill your tool belt." Rakhi Voria is the Director of Global Digital Sales Development at IBM. Prior to coming to IBM, she was at Microsoft. She is Forbes contributor and is passionate about advancing women in sales. Learn more about the IES Women in Sales Leadership Forum.