Salestuners: B2b Sales Training And Coaching From Prospecting To Negotiation And Closing

Takeaways Lock in on the Verbs: If you’ve ever been anxious on a sales call, thinking too far ahead or worrying about what your next question is going to be, stop! Your prospect will lay out the entire roadmap if you let them. As you listen to them, focus on the verbs they use. For instance, “we’re trying,” “we’re evaluating,” or “we’re thinking about.” When they use these verbs, seek clarity as to what they mean. Ms. Prospect, you mentioned you were thinking about X, what did you mean by that? What exactly have you tried? What are you still planning to try? How has it gone so far? What were you hoping would happen? If you pick up on the repetition of their patterns, you can remove all the stress from your call. Understand the Incentives: What’s driving your prospects' decision? And with that question, I don’t just mean the first person you talk to. I mean every person that you come in contact with at the account. Each person has their own set of incentives in an opportunity to either do a deal or not do a

Takeaways Give Your Prospect What they Need: Notice, I did not say “give your prospect what they want,” there is a difference. No longer are salespeople the gatekeeper to information. It is our job to facilitate the best buying experience we can for prospects. In that mutual exchange, it’s important to listen to your buyer and decipher the difference between what they need and what they want. Are they asking to see certain features? Guess what? They’ve probably done their homework and need to see that to determine if they want to engage in a full sales cycle with you. Forcing your process on them to start from the beginning could kill a real opportunity. Evangelize What You’re Great At: I don’t believe it’s possible for a product or service to be the best in literally every category. Yet, every day I hear reps talking about how they’re the best this and best that. Although you may not think so, I assure you this is a turn off to prospective buyers. That said, I absolutely want you to tell the world about th

Takeaways Remind Prospects of Their Priorities: When you’re talking with a prospect and seem to be slipping or losing ground, it’s your responsibility to remind them of why they’re even in the conversation to begin with. Ask them questions that harken back to the pains they’ve divulged, the goals they’ve shared, and try to dig into the emotional side of their brain. Remember, they are the ones that have the problem, not you. Email Should Not Look Automated: With nearly everyone trying to use some sort of automation these days, it’s very important to humanize your outreach. By that, I mean you should make it to the point that with every email you send, literally no one else could have been sent the same message. Some of the things Gabe mentioned and that I’ve seen work as well are: all lowercase subject lines, super short messages that get right to the point, any kind of personalization, and yes, even misspellings from time to time. Tailor Your Words, Tone, and Body Language: How people interpret you is guid

Takeaways Use Social for Call Prep: While doing research on prospects, it’s obvious you need to look at the company website and blog to see what their initiatives are, but it’s just as important to look at social channels like LinkedIn and Twitter to see what’s important to the person your going to be speaking with beyond their work life. Use this information to connect with them on a human level. Set Aside Time for Social Prospecting: It can be distracting to always have social platforms present while you’re working, trust me, that’s coming from someone who’s looking at Twitter right now. But, by setting aside time to specifically prospect via social, you can add a lot of leverage into your day. Take 30 minutes to scour your LinkedIn contacts looking for job changes. Set up searches on Sales Navigator for your ideal customer profile so you can be alerted with they post something. Set up TweetDeck to look for keywords and phrases that you can respond to in real time. And lastly, set a goal for yourself so y

Takeaways Prospecting: By simply picking up the phone you open up a world of new opportunities. Prospecting helps solves a lot of problems while developing you faster. Time: Time is the most valuable asset any of us have. When reaching out to a prospect be clear on the value by doing research, asking good questions, sharing insights, and testing out different approaches. Goals: Goal setting is one of the most important things any sales rep can do in their career, whether it’s daily weekly, monthly, or annually. The act requires you to ask yourself questions in preparation for prospecting meetings and help you to proactively address objections. Objection handling: Feel, Felt, Found - I totally understand how you feel, other people have felt the same way, what I’ve found is... Full Notes https://www.salestuners.com/john-barrows/ Book Recommendation Influence by Robert B. Cialdini Sponsor Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.

Full Notes https://www.salestuners.com/permission/ Book Recommendations The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin Barking Up the Wrong Tree by Eric Barker Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins First Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero Think Like A Freak by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner Sponsor Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.

Takeaways Be Real: Sales calls should be mutually beneficial. If you’re just talking at prospects, naturally their guard is going to be up. Yes, I know you have required fields and boxes you have to check on each call, but what would happen if you worked with the prospect and said “hey, I understand what you’re trying to accomplish, here are the couple of things I need to be able to get out of the call as well.” If you’re real with them, they’ll understand you have a job to do as well and this track will disarm them. Don’t Let It Go to Your Head: The rollercoaster of emotions in sales is real. Once you start seeing some success and you find a lot of your time is being spent closing deals, realize the only way to close any deal is to open it in the first place. Make sure you’re balancing the time needed with new prospects. On the flip side, if you find yourself stringing together a bad few weeks, don’t lose your confidence. Focus on the things right in front of you and continue doing the activities you know

Takeaways Don’t Be Afraid to Work Hard: Just like the quote at the beginning said, winners embrace the need to work hard, where losers see it as punishment. If you want to be great at something, you have to be willing to sacrifice. Just showing up and running through the motions is not going to make you better. Sure, you may have some short-term success, but it’s one of those things where in 10 years, you won’t have 10 years of experience; you’ll have one year of experience 10 times. It’s Okay to Ask for Help: You don’t have to know everything. Today’s culture seems to be one of needing to memorize answers instead of developing a perpetual curiosity. Don’t fall into that trap. Ask your peers how they do things. Invite colleagues who aren’t in sales to lunch to understand how they impact the business. Ask your customers what really matters to them. Get the notion of “I know” out of your head and start asking others. Know What Customers Say: Once a company has bought your offering, whether from you or someone

Takeaways Set Daily Goals: I know most of you listening to this are the type that set a really big vision for your year. Unfortunately, it’s too hard to see that far into the future. Break down that annual goal and know exactly what goes into it. What do you have to accomplish this quarter? What about this month? What about this week? What about today? The more incremental your goal is, the better chance you have of iterating on what works and achieving the overarching metrics. The last thing you want is to get too far down the road and realize you have no chance of success. You Have the Right to Call Prospects: Unless you’re day one at your company, the reality is, you’ve had more conversations about your product and solution than any of your prospects. What does that mean? It means you have a right to call and reach out to prospects you believe have the problem your company solves. I believe if what you’re offering truly does solve the problem you’re calling about, not only do you have the right, you have

Takeaways Manufacture Urgency: Pushing a prospect across the finish line is one of the biggest questions I get day to day. That said, without fully understanding what a company has to gain or lose with any decision will leave you standing alone at the finish line. Let me be very clear, I am not a fan of end of the month or end of the quarter discounts; however, Sean’s notion of “exploding offers” really intrigued me. If you know you’re in a competitive situation and you can get a prospect to show you their current bill or current contract, that would be worth making a deal. Don’t Position Yourself as the Best: Unless an analyst or third-party researcher has literally labeled your offering as “the best,” don’t talk like you are. Doing so will make you look foolish to any sophisticated buyer. Understand, I’m not saying you shouldn’t believe in your product. If you dig in and understand the competitive landscape - what capabilities each company has as well as the pros and cons of the different offerings - you’

Takeaways Understand How Your Prospect Makes Money: You already know how your company makes money and you already know how you make money once your company makes money. During the sales process, if you really dig in and figure out how your prospects make money, then you can sync your offering with their real incentives. It truly doesn’t matter what you sell if you can figure out how your offering impacts their revenue engine. That’s the key. Put Yourself Out There: Your network is not just going to build itself. You have to commit time in a given week or month outside your organization. Think about it just like you would building your pipeline. Who are the top 3-5 people you’d like to know? Reach out to them and ask for coffee or for lunch. Be genuine in your reasoning and figure out how you can provide reciprocal value. This effort you put in now will pay off in spades for a long time to come. Own Your Day: It’s been mentioned a few times on this show but understanding your own process and the things that

Takeaways Accomplish More With a System: I liked Bob’s personal definition of a system as simply the process of predictably achieving a goal based on a logical and specific set of how-to principles with the key being predictability. What I’ve seen is that pretty much anything we want to do has likely already been done. So, if we will put in the work and do the research to find the processes that worked for those that came before us, we can attain our desired results in less time. Don’t Have Money Be Your Target: If you set out on any venture with money being your main driver, you’re going to take some shortcuts that could do long-term harm. Your target should be serving others. Now understand, that when you hit the target, you'll get a reward that comes in the form of money. And you can do with that money whatever you choose. Another way to think of it is, there are always two profits: the buyer profits and the seller profits because both parties come away better off afterward than they were beforehand. Pul

Takeaways Executives are Like Everyone Else: Having senior level conversations is no different than conversations with anyone else, they just want you to get to the point a bit quicker. They want to know specifically why what you’re bringing them is important to them and what value it will add. The best way to show this value is to start with the why behind it. Research Matters in the Enterprise: We’ve talked a lot on this show about how much you should research before you start an outbound initiative, but in the enterprise, it’s imperative. You need to know not only the industry challenges but also specifically the business priorities of the individual company you’re trying to get into. If they’re public, read their investor documents and regulatory filings. If they’re private search for any presentations they have online or try to find who their investors are and research their investment thesis to open up the critical components of a conversation. The Only Thing You Can Control is You: While you can’t co

Takeaways Sell From a Place of Pain: There’s been a lot of debate lately, even on this show, about whether pain based selling still works. I’ll forever be in the pain camp as the way to go because basically, human psychology sees us trying to move away from pain more often, and with greater rigor than we do toward gain. That said, I like how Paige tied the pain concept to the greater “why.” Regardless of your opinion, digging deep enough to understand why a prospect wants to make a change will always put you in the driver's seat. Turn Chaos into Calm: Take a look at the immediate world around you. I’m talking about your daily calendar, your personal sales process, and heck even the notifications on your phone. Living in a constant state of chaos and distraction is a heavy mental burden and it’s exhausting. If you find yourself scatterbrained and never having enough time, stop what you’re doing and write down three things you can do to change your environment. Then actually do it. Make the Main Thing the Mai

Takeaways Increase Your Failure Rate: If you’re the person being rejected or constantly being told “no,” it may be hard to hear that you need to increase the amount of times you should actually hear it. But, the real question for you is what opportunities are you leaving on the table simply by not asking the question? What deals could you have kept alive if you had just asked the question? What other products could you have bundled in the sale if you had just asked the question? What referrals could you have got if you had just asked the question? Stay Curious: After you’ve heard “no," what is the next best question you can ask? If you can start to plan your conversations to elicit “no” responses, you can then also start to plan for a strategic follow-up question. Think about what is actually being said when you hear “no.” What additional context can you gain by building upon their response? Practice in Everyday Life: I mentioned in the conversation, my #1 mantra is that you’ll never get anything in life yo

AskJB: “Is it better to research your prospect before cold calling or just pick up the phone and dial?” [2:35-3:22] “What does one do when a promising lead turns cold or goes dark?” [3:37-5:26] “I have a deal in my pipeline that has hit a wall, how can I go over their head to the person who is likely more interested in the solution we can provide?” [3:52-5:26] “When a prospect was very engaged in the sales process but then goes cold, what do you recommend to do to re engage them?” [4:10-5:26] “There’s a lot going on with GDPR right now, how might that lengthen or change the sales process for customers with international data implications?” [5:27-7:25] “What are a couple of things a new BDR should do first to get up to speed quickly and start dialing?” [7:30-8:22] “What is one thing an exceptional sales person does that the average sales person would find surprising, and similarly, what does an average sales person do that an exceptional sales person would find equally surprising?” [8:28-10:14] “What is the

Takeaways Run an Attraction Campaign: From primary research to brainstorming sessions and even success stories, these tactics can at least get you a first meeting. From there, it’s up to you to educate your buyer with new ideas and perspectives while simultaneously weaving in your capabilities and offerings. Shake Up the Complacency Mindset: Your biggest competitor in a sales cycle is status quo. You have to help prospects see that where they are is not nearly as good as where they want to be. Notice I said “where they want to be,” not where you want them to be. Figure out how to get them to see that it’s worthwhile for them to attempt a change and you unlock the best value in the relationship. Be Present for the Elusive Time of Need: For the short term thinkers out there, this one will frustrate you. There are some products and services that require an active need in order for the prospect to buy. For certain buyers that window may only be every 2-3 years. By building relationships now and growing your net

Takeaways Be Responsive and Get Shit Done: When you’re working at a company that is really going somewhere, everybody has a hundred things on their plate and constantly shifting priorities. If you want to stand out, be the person that volunteers for new projects and make sure to follow through. Once you say you’ve got it, don’t be the person that someone else has to follow-up with or check-in on. This exposure is what will make you great in the future. Hone in on Your Top Segments: The simplest definition of a segment is a group of people who can be reached with the same go-to-market strategy combined with the same product. This will not only help define territories by way of geography, industry, or company size but really it will help create repeatability in your messaging — making your product easier to sell at a lower cost-per-acquisition. This focus doesn’t mean you can’t go after other segments later, it just keeps you on target with your limited resources. Generate Interest First: When you’re doing ou

Takeaways Stick With What Works: Once you find a system that works, stick with it. As obvious as it may sound, too often we want to tinker with things out of boredom. Your goal should be to strip everything down to the smallest set of choices you can possibly have and then run those plays consistently. Lean Into Objections: The buyer knows every objection they’re going to come up with before they ever decided to talk to you. And unfortunately, they’re not just going to go away. That said, don’t shy away from them. Lean directly into them and have the conversations about known challenges as early in the process as possible. This will accelerate the good deals and get you out of the bad deals. Strip Out Complexity: Regardless of how much your product can do, figure out the top 3-4 pain points your ideal customers face and solve for those. That’s it. Now, you may be thinking that comment should be focused on your internal product team, but it’s not. When you talk about all the features you can provide, all you

Takeaways Words are Powerful: Your mastery of language and results driven communication is paramount to your success in sales. It’s one thing to be good, but becoming a student of linguistics and really understanding the nuance between conscious and subconscious states can take you to an entirely different level. Think about the notion of associated and dissociated language — such as using the royal “we” when you really mean “I.” Learning different communication styles can help you not only influence others but also yourself. Act Despite Your Feelings: Knowing yourself enough to realize there are times you don’t want to do certain things is totally okay. However, you still need to do them. Look, I get it — there are absolutely moments in a day or week that I don’t want to take a meeting, do a task, or even have a conversation. Give yourself the permission to have the feeling, but then figure out how to get over it and take the action you know needs to be taken. Learning how to overcome those emotions will c