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

        Takeaways Develop your Persona/Pain/Feature Content Matrix: Think through each persona you sell to. What pain or pains do you solve for that specific type of person or company? Then list out the features of your product that directly correlate to that pain and that person. Lastly, determine what content and stories you have that match all of the above. Don’t Conflate Sales Training with Sales Coaching: A good sales trainer can teach you what to do. A great sales coach can help you understand how to do it, but even more importantly, why you should. Take for instance prospecting, through training, I can teach you what to do all day long. But, it’s not until you actually try to apply it that real learning begins. Then, you bring it back and we adjust based on our findings. Write it Down: You can call me old school, but I still believe in physically writing things down. Regardless of whether you do it manually or digitally, reading over your notes helps you understand what you think you heard versus what

Takeaways Attitude is Everything: A trend that I see becoming more and more prevalent every day is new grads thinking they should be able to jump from Sales Development Rep to Chief Revenue Officer. I’ll admit, I too thought I knew everything at 22, and 25, and 30, but the more I learned the more I realized there was to learn. Carrying a learning attitude combined with a personal “why” will help you climb the rungs quickly. Build Your Own Tools: It’s easy to look to your manager or even the company as a whole to provide all the tools you need. Instead, look to them for guidance or a framework and build your own. This forces you to be both adaptable and personally accountable. Knowing something is one thing, but the next step is making it your own. You Create Your Audience: This whole show is about the behaviors, attitudes, and techniques of sales success, and I think Richard summed it up nicely by saying it’s the combination of all three of those things that creates the audience you sell to. The way you ask

  Takeaways Sales is Change Management: This is especially true when we’re selling disruptive products, but it’s our job as salespeople to change how our prospects view the world and show them how we can help them achieve their desires. Anything else, Mark says, is narcissistic or even psychopathic. Saving Money and Saving Time are the Two Worst Value Props: Both concepts are limited value propositions. The limiting factor of saving money is taking what a prospect is currently spending and lowering it down to zero — whatever the number, you can’t go any farther. With time, there’s no such thing as 100% efficiency, so this proposition is also limited to a finite ending. Maslow Drives all Deals: When you’re selling at the top of an organization, executives are more vision driven than they are pain driven. While I don’t disagree with that, I did challenge the notion that pain based selling is counterproductive in those situations.Mark says once a person has moved past the first few rungs of Maslow’s Hierarchy

Takeaways Create Visibility to Buy Time: To many, it seems like sales boils down to have you closed a deal or not. Most people don’t see or care about all the elements that go into a deal prior to a signature event happening. In order for you to have the time to execute, you must create systems that allow your CEO to see those incremental steps you’re taking. That information also allows you to have potentially difficult or challenging conversations. Learn How to Win Graciously: I used to have a big ego, going as far as to even thinking my sales effort was the reason everyone else on the team got a paycheck. Thankfully, I’ve had some events in my life humble me. That said, when you close a deal, be sure to thank those who played a role in your win. Did an SDR set that appoint for you? Did marketing influence the lead? Did the product team roll out a new update that made your talk track sticky? Thank those people. You couldn’t do what you do without them. Commit to Being Better: If you’ve been doing what y

Takeaways Call Executives Early: There’s been so many great takeaways on this show, that I’m surprised this has never come up. When you call on busy people, they are just that — busy. During the day they are serving the people in their organization. If you want to connect with them, do it before or after everyone else is in the office. I can personally tell you that I get more email response before 8am, than I do the rest of the day. I’ve also been able to connect directly with my prospects on the phone before their assistants come in. Reward the Little Things that Make Up the Big Things: I loved the Brian and I were on the same page with this. If all you are incentivizing or, as a rep, if all you are focused on is the end number or end goal, it can become very stressful when you don’t hit it. You also waste a lot of time figuring out what didn’t work. By having shorter feedback loop cycles and focusing on the smaller wins that create the big wins, we can all move mountains. Track Your Own Success: No one w

  Takeaways Create Replicable Processes: The best ways I’ve learned to master a concept are to first write it down, and then second is to teach it. Doing both of those naturally forces the ability for the process to be replicable. Once it can be replicated, it can be measured, and once it can be measured, it can be improved. Add Value in Every Outreach: If your calls, emails or social posts aren’t adding value to a prospect's life, why even do it? Put yourself in there shoes assuming they’re inundated with messages. Figure out how to make your point succinctly with a clear message of implied value. Ask Customers How You Could Have Improved Their Buying Experience: Most companies do some version of NPS surveys or Net Promotor Score to learn what customers think about using their product. But, when was the last time you asked your customers what you could have done differently in the sales process? For a lot of sales reps the only feedback we get is whether we won or lost the deal, which frankly doesn’t help

Takeaways Selling Your Friends is Not Traction: When launching a new product (or company for that matter), it’s easy to immediately to your friends for your first sales. The problem is, they have a vested interest in liking you and wanting to support you. Thus, you don’t have to overcome skepticism. You have to quickly learn the challenges non-affiliated prospects are going to raise and figure out how to sell to that in order to grow. You’ll Never Sell Anything While You are Talking: I know it almost sounds blasphemous, but customers will talk themselves into buying something if you let them. By asking the right questions and being courteous enough to shut up and actually listen to their answers, you’ll discover a whole new side of the sales process. Understand What Your Buyer is Up Against: Buyers are under assault every day. They’re getting bombarded with spam disguised as prospecting, dodging calls by getting rid of their voicemail, and making sense of the countless salespeople lying to them to get a de

Takeaways Be Human: There’s a myth being perpetuated that buyers don’t have time for small talk anymore. This is just simply not true. Buyers want to connect with you on a human level, they’ve just had so many bad experiences with sellers that they turn off at the slightest hint of inauthenticity. Ask Killer Questions: Coming up with two to three anchor questions that spur conversation as it relates to your product or service should be the highest priority in your organization. Yes, even higher than a demo or pitch deck. You have to get a prospect thinking and that’s impossible to do if you are the one talking. The best possible question to ask is one they should know the answer to but don’t. Listen Without Filters: How do you receive information? How do you communicate information? What biases or filters do you have preventing information from getting through. When you’re listening to a prospect, are you focused on what they’re actually telling you or are you looking for a specific response that you can at

Takeaways Playbooks are Living Documents: Cold call scripts, prospect email templates, ideal customer profiles, objection handling, competitive differentiation — whatever you choose to include in your sales playbook should never be written in pen. Either quarterly or, at worst, monthly you need to revisit the elements to see what remains true and what needs to be changed. Anyone participating in the sales process should get a voice in the matter as they may have perspective you’re not privy to. Let Your Prospect Discover the Solution: Whether you’re selling into greenfield, replacing a competitor, or providing an alternative to an existing manual process, you’ll always be better suited to let a prospect discover the solution to their problem than by forcing a presentation down there throat. I’ve often said the best presentation you’ll ever give is the one your prospect never sees. Think about that as you put together your questioning strategy. No One is Above Coaching: MJ, Kobe, LeBron… what do those names

Takeaways Intellect vs Emotion: People don’t buy for intellectual reasons. They buy emotionally and then rationalize their decision after the fact. Rather than doing a feature/benefit vomit, get to know the person you’re attempting to sell to and understand what is motivating their desire to change. Define the Theme of the Opportunity: If you’re able to define the top 2-3 business drivers of an opportunity (I’m talking real pain, not just indicators of pain) you should be able to define an overarching theme for each individual opportunity. This will help you overcome typical objection BS by getting back the prospects real “why.” Create a Close Plan: Hope is not a strategy. I’ve heard way too many reps tell me they’re going to close a hot lead in 30 days, yet they can’t tell me a single step they need to take in order to get there. Creating a close plan forces you to think through a realistic timeline and put anchors on a calendar by listing every meeting you still need, which pieces of content the prospect

Takeaways Learn to Position Yourself: Rather than selling pieces of the puzzle, focus on what the entire puzzle should look like. Doing this helps you become seen as an expert in your field and one that can be a resource or even a consultant to your prospect so they call you when they have questions. If you do this successfully, price will rarely be an issue.   Get to the Root Cause: Let’s be honest, prospects lie to us. Sometimes it deliberate, but other times they just don’t know. Instead of trying to sell to the symptoms or indicators of pain, dig deeper to figure out the root cause of the issue they’re experiencing. This may mean you need to be higher in the organization talking to someone who gets the bigger picture.   Know Your Walkway Point: When entering a negotiation, it’s critical your know your BATNA - Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. Once you know the limit, you’re able to frame the conversation and not be susceptible to low anchors your prospect is likely to throw out. Full Notes ht

Takeaways Overcome the “Send Me Info” Objection: The goal of cold calling is not to just send information, but to get into a conversation. That said, I know every has to deal with the prospect who just says “send me some information and I’ll take a look.” One of the best ways I’ve dealt with this objection is to counter with, “I’d be happy to, but we have 347 different one-sheeters and I have no idea which one I’d send… can you tell me more about what you’re looking for?” Qualify Anyone Who Will Take the Call: What do you absolutely need to know from a prospect before you can move forward? All too often reps focus on titles thinking they can’t get a deal done without talking to the highest person in an organization. If you understand the true qualification criteria, you may realize you can use multiple people in the organization to not only gather that information, but also to build champions for you internally. Be Patient with The Process: Unless you sell a product that is conducive to a one-call close, re

Takeaways Teaching Can be Detrimental: Spending too much time educating your prospect and not enough time selling opens up what I like to call the “friend zone” of sales. Sure your prospect likes you, but that’s because you’re providing them with free consulting. You have to understand this balance and get comfortable setting the right expectations in the sales process. Sometimes You Need to Get Burned: Sales is a contact sport. All the training and coaching in the world can’t prepare you for the first time you actually get hit. Spending time with a prospect, getting “happy ears” as Katie called it, only to have them go dark on you at the end is one of the biggest lessons you have to learn on your own. Moving Up Isn’t Always the Best: While I’m not yet an old man yelling “get off my lawn” to every passerby, I am one to tell you that skipping rungs on the ladder of success is not always the right choice. I’ve seen way too many people think “if I can just become the VP of whatever,” I’ll fix all the problems a

Top Book Recomendations  How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie The Joshua Principle, Leadership Secrets of RSVPselling by Tony Hughes The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines into Massive Success and Happiness by Jeff Olsen Full Notes https://www.salestuners.com/a-year-in-review/ Sponsor What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.

Takeaways Effort + Execution + Empathy: It used to just be a numbers game. You put in the work, you made your calls, you sent your emails and it produced results. Then everyone started ramping up the volume. Today you have to not only put in the effort, but also apply strategic execution and have empathy for your buyer. Have you done your homework? Do you understand the real challenges they’re having? Do you actually care? Prospects buy from us because they believe we can get them to a place they can’t get to on their own. You Can’t Lose What You Don’t Have: Too many reps focus their energy on everything that could go wrong instead of what might go right. Very similar to Mike’s story, I didn’t come from much. So knowing that I’ve done without before and been fine, I have a different perspective on the world. I’m willing to take risks that others may not because I don’t have a false sense of security. Short Term Thinking vs Long Term Thinking: It’s the difference between “I want to sell to this company today

Takeaways Sales Meetings are Not Coaching Sessions: Every sales team has a weekly call. The reality is, for most, this is nothing more than a transfer of information meeting. Debriefing the week that was and getting updates for the week to come. Coaching is “improved performance” and no sales meeting I’ve ever been in does that. Instead, let’s work on getting into specific details of opportunities by way of what happened during the calls — the words that were used, role playing objections that could have been handled another way, or client stories to use as references in certain scenarios (with context). Breaking down those areas of improvement just like an elite athlete could be the difference between a promotion and interviewing at other companies. Prospecting at all Levels: No matter what your title says, if you belong to a sales organization, some amount of time in your day should be spent on direct prospecting. I know this is counter to the populist movement of hyper-specialization, but I seriously bel

Takeaways Write Your Own Rules: If you’re going to be a consultative salesperson, you must empower yourself. You must be able to think on your feet without sounding like a robot. You’re not always going to be able to have someone whispering in your ear or reading off a script, so when you see something wrong, fix it. One of the biggest challenges I’ve had to overcome is thinking about what everyone else expected of me and trying to prove something to them instead of charting my own path. Overcome Rather than Avoid Burnout: As Dan mentioned, burnout happens whether you’re the CEO or the SDR, so accept it and learn how to overcome it. You could get burnt out on your car, the breakfast you eat every day, or even your favorite sub shop, so figure out the things that trigger the high highs as well as the low lows and work to maintain balance between the two. Failure is Not Finite: It’s only truly a failure when you decide to give up. I recently came off the biggest professional failure of my career and I can ass

Takeaways Remove General Blanket Training: If you don’t know where to spend your time, you’ll fall into the trap of generalized training where every person on the team gets the same negotiation training or competitive update. Instead, modern sales organizations the fidelity of lessons need to be able to be created quickly by anyone and enable reps to consume it in 10-15 minutes. Because, let’s be honest, none of us have four hours to stare at Powerpoints. Focus on Business Mechanics: Justin broke the sales process down into a gear analogy stating the “deal mechanics” gear simply can’t turn unless the “business mechanics” gear is in motion. Focus on determining what is actually wrong, who in the prospect’s organization is truly responsible for fixing it as well as when they actually need to have it fix it. Anchor Capabilities to Value: If you’ve been in sales more than 10 minutes, you’ve probably been told to sell the solution not your features and benefits. Yet, every single day I hear reps explaining how a

Takeaways Set Tough, Aggressive Targets: I’ve always struggled with the concept of “quota” and “quota attainment.” Yes, of course we have to have goals for ourselves, but in my opinion, these should be the minimum expectations, not the end result. Whether your quota is $100,000 or $1,000,000 set your targets more aggressive. For instance, if you set an outlandish number of say 10X your goal and build your prospecting plan from there, you’re going to easily overshoot all expectations and leave your company wondering where they even got the number to begin with. Balance Personal Coaching with Professional Accountability: Too many salespeople focus solely on the end results -- asking, “how much did you close?” I’m sorry, but this is the wrong question and a sign you’re working for a poor sales leader. The only thing we can control is our daily behaviors and activities. That’s why it’s incredibly important to hold yourself accountable to consistent inputs. This is also where the balance of coaching should come

  Takeaways Take Advantage of Opportunity: There is a short window of time to take advantage of every opportunity. If you wait until an opportunity presents itself, it’s already too late. Seek out chances to learn, be more efficient, and give 100 percent from the get-go so you’re never in a position to wonder what might have been. Doors open on a daily basis, but oftentimes they are short and they are small. It’s crucial to take advantage of them when they’re there. Preparation and Repetition Always Win: You know what you need to do. You’ve spent time role playing real scenarios. You’ve paid attention in training and during your one-on-one’s. With that, don’t think that your sales manager knows something you don’t. You’re the one facing live fire every time you get on a call. Make sure you’re taking the time to prepare and let the repetition of muscle memory take control. Don’t Wait Until The End: The earlier you ask hard questions, the better. For instance, if you wait until the negotiation stage to start d