Sales Game Changers | Tips from Successful Sales Leaders

This is episode 217. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. MAJOR TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "We're not here to just survive. If we can adapt to these changes, we can actually thrive during this time and we can help our customers do that." Fred Diamond: For today's webinar I'm very excited to have Tom Snyder. Tom is an internationally recognized speaker and sales expert, he is the managing partner of Funnel Clarity, he's a world-renowned speaker on sales training and sales consulting practices. His company, Funnel Clarity, has customers around the globe that they do sales training and sales consulting for. He's spoken a number of times at the Institute for Excellence in Sales, he's also been a key note speaker at our award event and he's also the author of two best-selling McGraw-Hill business books. Tom, it's great to have you on today's webinar, I'm really interested to hear what you're talking about, you're going to give us 6 things sales professionals should do to be successful and productive. Let's take it over.

This is episode 216. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. MAJOR TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Empathy is the key right now." Darrell Gehrt is the Vice President of Sales, Mobile Solutions at Cvent. Listen to his podcast episode here. Randy Wood is the Vice President of Web America Sales at Akamai Technologies. Find his podcast episode here. Denise Hayman is the Chief Revenue Officer at Expel. Her show will broadcast in April.

This is episode 215. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. DONALD'S FINAL TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Sales is really the thing that measures how well our company is doing, you're selling or you aren't, you're winning against the competition or you aren't. You're out on the front lines, you're the engine that drives the growth here and it's very clear whether we're doing something right or not because we're selling and retaining customers." Donald Thomas is the VP and General Manager at Bloomberg Government (BGOV). Prior to coming over to Bloomberg, he held leadership positions at Dell, SRA and Ernst & Young. Donald can be found on LinkedIn here.

This is episode 214. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. [EDITOR'S NOTE: We conducted this interview in early 2020. Since the show was released during the pandemic, we asked him what his advice is for sales professionals during the pandemic. He offered the following: Empathy in these unprecedented times is a leadership trait we must exhibit with customers and employees alike. I've been coaching the team that while we need to be sensitive in this current environment, we have services that can help our clients in these trying times, and to that end, prospecting can and should continue. As trusted advisors, the message must clearly articulate on how we believe we can help vs. attempting to prey on fear, uncertainty and doubt. I'm also making it a point to conduct skip level check-ins and call 2 or 3 of my direct field reps each day to see how they and their families are doing. This gives me the opportunity to reinforce with them all we're doing at the corporate level to help, as well as gather feedback from the field on both their mindset as well as that of the customers with whom they're speaking. Finally, with everyone being remote we are promoting the use of webex to drive more engaged conversations. I'm also about to launch 'virtual office hours' where multiple times per week members of the team can log in and ask any questions they may have or simply chat with myself and their peers. CRAIG'S FINAL TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Prospecting can and should continue (during the pandemic). As trusted advisors, the message must clearly articulate on how we believe we can help vs. attempting to prey on fear, uncertainty and doubt." Craig Pentz is the SVP of Risk and Customer Information Sales at Neustar. Prior to coming to Neustar, he held sales leadership positions at TARGUSinfo and FRANdata. If you're a loyal listener of the Sales Game Changers podcast you might recognize Neustar, we interviewed Dorean Kass about a year and a half ago and Craig works in his organization.

Read the complete transcript on The Sales Game Changers Podcast website. RAZA'S FINAL TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "I think the most important thing is to not be afraid of chaos. The value that we bring as sales people to our organizations is really that ability, that courage to deal with chaos. Know that when you're out there you're not always going to have a linear response such as "I have done this, this, this and therefore, I will get that, that, that." Be able to deal with chaos and take it head on. And, in fact, use it to your advantage." Raza Latif serves as the President of NuAxis Innovations, an information technology services firm that supports a variety of major federal government clients. With over 20 years of experience in the ever changing IT industry, he leads NuAxis's Business Development and Service Delivery Teams maintaining a sharp focus on creating and delivering IT solutions for the Federal Government that maximize alignment of IT and mission objective. Raza holds a Master of Science in the Management of Information Technology from the University of Virginia, UVA, The McIntire School of Commerce and a Bachelor of Science in Electronic Engineering from the GIK Institute of Engineering. Find Raza on LinkedIN!

Read the transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. JOE'S FINAL TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "This is the thought I give my employees and I give my kids, and I really believe in this. Life is short. Every day counts. Whatever you do, do it 100% and do it with passion, and at the end of the day use the mirror test. Look yourself in the mirror, you can't lie to that guy on the other side, and say, "Did I give everything I could give today?" If the answer is yes, you had a pretty good day. If it isn't, then you probably didn't." Joe Alvarez is the co-owner and chief sales officer at National Office Systems, also known as NOS. It's one of the nation's largest providers of automated storage and retrieval systems, bio-metric asset protection and asset tracking and records management. NOS is headquartered in the DC metro area. Joe and his partner acquired NOS in 1991 when it was a 5 person firm. Since 1991, Joe's main focus has been to grow profitable revenues directly overseeing the sales and marketing team. Today NOS employs over 100 employees and has grown revenue on an average growth of 12% per year. Find Joe on LinkedIN!

This is episode 213. Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. NOUR'S FINAL TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "You're going to meet individuals who fundamentally change both your direction as well as your ultimate destination. We call those individuals Curve Benders. Where are they? How do we find them? More importantly, how do we become one? What I want for your listeners is to look back and say, "Did I really make a difference? Was I one of those Curve Benders that changed the trajectory of someone's career, sales success, if not their life?" David Nour is a leadership adviser, executive coach and the best-selling author of 10 books that have been translated into 8 languages. His first book was called Relationship Economics, we're going to spend a lot of time talking about that. His most recent book is called Co-Create, it came out in 2017. We talked about how our listeners can get more value out of their business relationships. Nour can be found on LinkedIn here.

Read the complete transcript on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. MIKE'S FINAL TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "You are working at a fraction of your capability. What if you can grow your sales and income 20% a year? It's 1% more prospecting, 1% better referrals, 1% more skill, 1% better negotiation, 1% better networking, etc. You find 20 ways every year to improve 1%. If you can improve 1% a year, you will be a seven-figure sales leader in a matter of years." Mike Schmidtmann of Trans4mers is a business coach working with owners and sales leaders in the information technology field. He works with many high-profile salespeople including some who make seven figures and more. He helps them open new accounts, win new logos, and expand their share of customer spending.

This is episode 212. Find the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. ALYSSA'S FINAL TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Make sure that you're able to add value in every conversation - even those that have nothing to do with the solution that you sell. Find out what your buyers and prospects care about, whether that's on LinkedIn or elsewhere, and go in and help them get better at their jobs because they've spent that time with you." Alyssa Merwin is the Vice President Sales at LinkedIn and is the Head of LinkedIn's Sales Solutions business for the Americas where she leads a multi-national commercial organization dedicated to helping sales and marketing organizations leverage the power of digital selling. She was also a sales leader at CEB which is now part of Gartner. Alyssa can be found on LinkedIn here.

Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. ALEX'S FINAL THOUGHT FOR SALES LEADERS: Everyone I'm sure has heard the expression, "Life is a marathon, not a sprint" and I live that so I would introduce that people just need to understand 'what race do you want to run in' because it's certainly not a sprint and if you're in your twenties. Do you want to run a 10K, do you want to run a half marathon'? It's just calibrating your life ambition, career ambition and just understanding and having a very clear vision at that point in your life what race do you want to run in so you could prepare accordingly." Alex Bartholomaus is the President and CEO at People Stretch Solutions, a Washington, D.C. based management consulting firm specializing in sales growth consulting and C level advisory serving the mid-market throughout North America and EMEA. He's also a published author and professional speaker on the topic of sales, leadership, emotional intelligence and elite business performances. He started his career as a wine importer where he grew a family business from $1 million in revenue to $37 million in revenue over a 15-year period. Find Alex on LinkedIN!