The Advanced Selling Podcast: Sales Training | Leadership Coaching | B2b Sales Strategy | Prospecting Tips

In this week’s podcast, Bill and Bryan address a common question they get, “Does my message change depending upon who I call on in the organization?” The answer is YES. But hear some of their counsel on how to think differently when you’re in front of different people.

Well it's been a while since we posted a Mailbag episode. We're getting so much mail--and so many questions--that we take three of them today. The most important was from a young lady who feels her product might be inferior to her competition--and she isn't totally sold on it. This is a powerful topic. Bill and Bryan delve into the inner game of this--and give you some counsel if this is happening to you. They also answer the question of 'how do you handle it if your sales manager isn't aware of the "podcast teachings?"'If you have a question, go to www.askbillandbryan.com and post it there. We'll get to it as we can.

It’s not the sales funnel that’s important…it’s all the stuff “above” the funnel. So what action can you take to the suspects that are orbiting the funnel? In this episode, Bill and Bryan walk through the Top 5 Techniques (you can email us for the other 5 at listener@advancedsellingpodcast.com –subject line: FUNNEL).So if you don’t have enough in your sales funnel, you may not be practicing the right Rules, Tools and Attitudes to fill it up.

In this economic time, how you communicate your value—and WHAT it is—will be very important. Here, Bill and Bryan pick up on a topic they began a few months ago—what is your personal value to your customers and how does it show itself in the sales process? All sorts of goodies here.

Today, Bill and Bryan discuss the age-old-but-still-modern problem of how to get to the decision maker. In today’s economic climate, companies are more discerning about their spending patterns and that means the decision process is changing. You, as a sales professional or manager, need to know how to navigate through the maize of roadblocks inside companies. And this podcasts gives you ideas on just how to do that. By the way, go to www.askbillandbryan.com to submit a question for future podcasts.

Do ever feel like when you talk about your value it leaves people cold? Or maybe you wonder if your value really is special. We have a client who is wondering that very thing. So in this podcast, Bryan reviews the client issue, and we give you four ideas of how you can improve the value you bring. Then, we want you to weigh in on the fifth. The way you do that is listen to the podcast, then send an email to listener@advancedsellingpodcast.com with VALUE in subject line.

You are a leader—whether you’re in a position of leadership or not. In many companies, the leadership is not provided by the “one in charge” but by everyone else. So as a sales professional, you need to be in an “attitude of leadership.” Thus, we asked Kevin Eikenberry to be on this week. He wrote a book called “Remarkable Leadership,” which is a must read for anyone in business. Kevin gives us some tips on how best to have the attitude of leadership.

On this week’s episode, Bill, Bryan and Brooke talk about the framework for an effective Personal Business Plan and how to handle prospect resistance on price. We deal with this issue because we’ve heard from listeners that their prospects are suddenly quite price sensitive. While that’s understandable, we want to make sure we’re asking the right questions.

Catalytic Value. Ever heard of it? Listen to this entry of ASP and you'll dramatically change the way you think about what you bring to your market. The ideas in this episode are for ELITE salespeople only. BUT WAIT-THERE'S MORE! You also get our inaugural "ASP Premium Content" offer. It's an idea that made one listener a lot of money. You'll have the chance to get the same advice.  

Do price objections bother you? In this episode, Bill and Bryan talk at length about a popular formula for handling price objections. They debunk this formula and give you a new way to handle those pesky price objections from prospects. We realize that in this economy price becomes more of an issue and a resistance point, and we want to help you navigate through it.

In today’s episode, Bill and Bryan answer some of your mail. One question is “How do I handle an office where everyone is snooping on me?” And the other is “How do I continue to sell during a recession?” That last one has been a huge issue for many salespeople. We’ll answer this one and also bring it up over and over this year.  We also encourage you to go to http://www.2009salescompetencies.com and download the 12 competencies that every salesperson needs to have this year.

Well, this is part two of our series on 2009 sales competencies. We’ve had a lot of people request the e-book that we created. You can go to http://www.2009salescompetencies.comand pick up a copy. In this episode, Bill and Bryan address the second group of competencies which includes a) being a problem-finder; b) being a problem-solver; and c) being skilled at new business initiation.

This is part 1 of our 2-part series on sales competencies—what do you need to be good at to succeed in professional selling today? Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale address the background on these competencies and how you can make them your strong points. Good for B2B sales teams and salespeople. If you’re a sales manager, play this at your next sales meeting and create discussion on whether or not you believe in these.

There is a Caskey concept that keeps coming up and that is the application of Detachment in the sales process. Very few other sales strategies/systems deal with this because it’s a difficult notion to get your arms around.  In this week’s episode, Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale address this issue head on. What does detachment mean? How can it be used to strengthen your results? And what you should stay away from. (15:08)Check out the competencies you'll need for2009. Download your free E-Book at www.2009SalesCompetencies.com

In last week’s episode Bill and Bryan talked about how to communicate your value. But this week, they talk about that issue when it relates to the current economic climate. As sales strategies, your hosts deal with these questions in all of their current client work with sales forces around the world. The economy is on everyone’s mind—especially salespeople who call on prospects that are fearful. (11:42)

This is an extraordinarily difficult time to express your value to prospects. It seems like everyone is focused ONLY on money (“What does it cost?”). Yet there are ways to alleviate that. If you’re in professional sales today, you must know how to communicate what you do in a way people are compelled to hear more about. Bill and Bryan address tactics to use to sell your prospects more effectively. (13:12)

Today’s question came from a listener through www.askbillandbryan.com, who wanted to know how to respond to customer demands that could not be met. That in turn got Bill and Bryan talking about the various demands that customers/prospects put on salespeople. You’ll learn how to handle these when they come up, and maybe even avoid them altogether. (11:10)

Now that we’re well underway in 2009, we thought it helpful to take more questions from our listening audience.Question #1: How to change your mindset to get into prospecting mode. New business development is critical this year. So Bill and Bryan talk about this. Also, if you had trouble downloading the “2009 Sales Competencies” e-book, then go to http://www.2009salescompetencies.com and you can download it there. (13:56)  

So what do you need to be good at? I know that sounds like a crazy question but it might be relevant. In our sales training business, we believe this: If you’re struggling with ANY part of the sales process, then it’s probably a result of insufficient skill in that area. So, in this episode, Bill and Bryan talk about a few of the new competencies that the salesperson of the future needs to have. Then you can sign up for the rest of them online at www.2009salescompetencies.com. (12:36)

Sometimes we come across a person—a client in this case—who embodies our principles (and does what we say!!). In this case, the Direct Mail Diva (Stephanie Summers), sits down with us and tells us how she’s created a blog that is helping her sales efforts. She’s truly a sales 2.0 type—and you’ll learn from her. Also, you’ll get access to a PDF report on blogging—just for our listeners. Email us at listener@advancedsellingpodcast.com. Put BLOGGING in subject line.Check out Stephanie's blog at www.directmaildiva.blogspot.com.Duration: (13:56)