“A good discovery should be really conversational. It should be natural.” – Scott Ingram in today’s Tip 829

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Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Last week somebody asked me for a quick video that they could share with their team as part of a larger presentation they were doing on “what makes a good discovery.” I thought I’d share my answer with you here today since it’s also a nice compliment to Deb Calvert’s tip from yesterday. Here it is:

A good discovery should be really conversational, right? It should be natural. There should be some really great give and take in the discussion that you’re having with your prospect. It should be more about that conversation and less about interrogation. Right? Nobody wants to be subjected to just this list of questions. Certainly, you want to make sure that you’re getting to all of those key points and information you’re going to need that’s going to help make the rest of your sales process better but let your curiosity guide you. Don’t stress so much about what’s the next question I’m going to ask and how am I going to respond to this thing that they’re sharing with me. Just lean into the curiosity and be just wondering about what it is behind the answers that they’re giving you. A lot of times you get the greatest details when you ask why a couple more times than maybe feels natural. That is really going to make that discovery conversation that much more conversational.
And that’s what everybody wants.

If I can ever create a quick video like this for your team. Let me know. I had a lot of fun doing this and it’s super easy with Vidyard. You can see the video itself at DailySales.Tips/829. Make sure you join the listener list while you’re there as well.

Once you’ve done that. Be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“It’s important to differentiate right at the beginning because what’s the point of qualifying someone if you’re not also simultaneously getting them interested in doing business with you.” – Deb Calvert in today’s Tip 828

How do you discover and qualify a buyer?

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Deb Calvert on LinkedIn
People First Productivity Solutions
DISCOVER Questions Get Your Connected
The Sales Experts Channel

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Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Deb Calvert. Deb wrote DISCOVER Questions® and Stop Selling & Start Leading, founded The Sales Experts Channel and People First Productivity Solutions, and is a certified sales/executive coach. She’s one of the “65 Most Influential Women in Business,” a Top 30 Sales Guru, and inductee into The Sales Hall of Fame. Here she is:

Deb Calvert: In the buyer’s mind not all questions are created equally. You might have a certain set of questions that you need to ask in order to qualify or properly position the buyer with the right people on your team. But those questions they’re not engaging for the buyer. They’re very low value and they have limited tolerance for qualification questions. Better, much better. According to buyers are discovery questions, really good quality open-ended questions that help you discover something about the buyer, but also help them to pause, reflect, think, and discover something for themselves too. Discovery questions build bonds of trust, qualifying questions, simply don’t. Discovery questions enrich the relationship and give you much more context and deeper level of understanding of the buyer situation. Qualifying questions simply don’t.

Now I’m not saying that you should never ask qualifying questions. Of course, you have some need to do that, but why not mix them up? Why not sprinkle in a few really good discovery questions that make the buyer think that engage them and get them excited and interested to do business with you even as you’re qualifying, it won’t take that much time. In fact, in the long run, it will probably save you a great deal of time and it will help you to overcome some of those icky, stereotypical thoughts that buyers have about sellers. It’s important to differentiate right at the beginning because what’s the point of qualifying someone if you’re not also simultaneously getting them interested in doing business with you.

Scott Ingram: For links to connect with Deb, People First Productivity Solutions, The Sales Experts Channel and to get a copy of her bestseller, DISCOVER Questions Get Your Connected just click over to DailySales.Tips/828

Once you’ve done that, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“You have to know what actually want and why they want it..” – Jason Cutter in today’s Tip 827

How do you fix the follow-up trap?

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Jason Cutter Website
Authentic Persuasion
Cutter Consulting Group
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Selling with Authentic Persuasion Book

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Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Jason Cutter. Jason is the CEO and Founder of Cutter Consulting Group and he’s also the author of the book: Selling with Authentic Persuasion – Transforming from Order Taker to Quota Breaker. Here he is:

Jason Cutter: “Hey, I’m just calling to follow up. See if you got my email.” “Hey, I’m following up with you one last time before I close your file.” “Hey, I wanted to check in to see if you were still interested in what we talked about before.” “Hey, they’re just following up to see if you had a chance to talk to your boss yet and get approval for the project we talked about.” Have you said these things in your conversations, in your voicemails, in your emails to your prospects, especially the ones that seemed pretty promising and you thought they were going to move forward? And now you’re in this kind of follow-up game where you’re leaving messages, you’re sending emails, maybe sending text messages and you’re trying to get them to move forward. You’re trying to get them to pull their head out of the sand. Yet what’s happened is they’ve gone into what I called “The prospect witness protection program,” which is they don’t want to talk to you. They’re not answering, they’re not replying and they’re not interested in your follow-ups. And that’s the problem. I call this “the follow-up trap” because so many salespeople get into this trap and they end up with a pipeline full of follow-ups. And when they sit down with their manager or their lead, and they’re going through their pipeline, all they’re doing is talking about all the follow-ups they have and all the great deals that should be there. And all the people who seemed really interested during the demo or the conversation yet now they’re gone, right? One term would be ghosting, you they’re just gone. They’re non-existent.

So what has happened? Well, generally, what has happened is that you did not create enough urgency and enough value in the conversation that you had at whatever stage it was. It could have been the demo, could have been the appointment setting, could have been the proposal wherever that is for you, but there wasn’t enough value and enough urgency that was built by you for them, for them to take action and do what was agreed upon. Now, sometimes life happens. Sometimes something gets in the way, right? Sometimes they have an issue with work. There’s something more urgent. What you’re hoping they will sign up for, buy from you is not the top priority or the hot burning issue right now. And they’ve got something else going on, right? Sometimes they’re on vacation. Sometimes their boss is on vacation. Sometimes they’re going through restructuring. All kinds of things can happen at their organization outside of your control. Generally though, what I’ve seen is that people fall into the follow-up trap, where they get their prospects into this cycle and they literally don’t know how to move them out of it.

So how do you get out of this? How do you fix the follow-up trap? Well, here’s the biggest thing. You have to know what actually want and why they want it. And here’s where a lot of salespeople go wrong is they talk about themselves, at first. They talk about their company, their logos, their brand, their case studies. They talk about all kinds of things and they just assume everybody wants what they have. And the unfortunate part is they’re not asking questions. They’re not diving deep. They’re not finding out what the other person wants. If you get off the phone, whether it’s an appointment, whether it’s a demo, whether it’s a proposal stage, wherever you’re at, if you get off the phone and you can not succinctly answer, why do they want what you are offering? If you can’t answer that question, why do they want what you’re offering for their reasons. And again, it could be the Marketing Manager could be a VP of sales, but why do they want what you have? If you can’t answer that your sales process and your deal that you’re looking at is all based on hope. You’re hoping. They know why they would want to buy from you because if you don’t know, there’s a good chance, they probably don’t know as well. And so that’s where this follow-up trap comes in, is that instead of clearly understanding why do they need that? Most salespeople get into the habit of just thinking that everyone wants it and then hoping they’re going to fall through.

And the key is, is that when you do know why they want it, then your follow-ups become so much more important and valuable and constructive because instead of saying, “Hey, I’m just following up.” “Hey, I wanted to talk to you because when we spoke about this, I know that you had wanted to get our platform to help with X, Y, and Z, right?” Hey, in the email you send them say, Hey, I just, even if you want to say the words follow up, but feedback is a better way to go. “Hey, I just wanted to get some feedback from you because when we spoke about this, I know that this platform was going to be very helpful for you to meet your Q1 goals with your marketing. And I know that that was really important to you. So I just wanted to check in with you and move this forward.” Right? Now, my follow-up, now my checking in, now my feedback requests is all about what they want, why they want it, their urgency, not about me, not about my Q1, not about my numbers, not about my end of year. It’s about them. And when you do that, then those follow-ups will shift and become more effective.

Scott Ingram: As a follow-up to Jason’s tip. Do yourself a favor and click over to DailySales.Tips/827 where you’ll find a link to grab his book: Selling with Authentic Persuasion

Once you’ve done that. Be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Seek out accountability whenever you can and help yourself achieve your best performance.” – Jeff Bajorek in today’s Tip 826

Are you accountable for your actions?

Join the conversation below and feel free to share your thoughts!

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Books by Jeff Bajorek
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The Why And The Buy Podcast

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Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from a guy who I don’t have to work very hard to hold accountable to provide a new sales tip every single week. Here’s Jeff Bajorek:

Jeff Bajorek: As a top performer, you likely have a love-hate relationship with the word accountability. Some of you recognize it as being very valuable others. Well for you, it’s a little too close to micromanagement. And when you think back on some of the leaders that you’ve had in the past, some of the people you’ve worked for in the past, there have been some who have held you accountable and made you feel really good about what you could do. There have been others who have looked down on you and made sure that you were doing what you needed to right now, instead of looking at what you could become. And then there were some others kind of in-between really didn’t think much about accountability. And those probably weren’t very effective leaders, actually, neither of those last two were probably effective leaders, but I want you to disassociate accountability from micromanagement because they’re two very different things.

Now I’ve talked about this before. I don’t want to rehash that Daily Sales Tip. You can go back and you can find it. What I want to encourage you to do is find someone who will hold you accountable. Now, when I was the top performer, when I was the number one rep in my organization, I recognized that I performed better when I knew I had someone to answer to. And it wasn’t that they were making sure I was doing my job. It was that they were making sure that I said that I was going to do what I knew I could do. What I was capable of doing that was tremendously helpful. Sometimes it was my manager. Sometimes it was another colleague, another member of my team.

So what I want you to do is disassociate yourself from all the bad feelings you have about accountability. That should make you a little bit uncomfortable because that accountability is going to help you achieve what you know you can, but you know you’re not doing just yet. That’s very, very important, but I want you to seek out an accountability partner who’s going to support you. Maybe one that you can support. Maybe you find someone on your team. Maybe you find someone who’s a friend of yours that you used to work together with. And now you work in different organizations. I want you to find someone you can meet with regularly, just to have someone to answer to, someone to say, “Hey Jeff, did you do that thing that you said you were going to do? Because you said you were going to do it. I know you’re capable of it.” That is sometimes all you need in order to take that next step. And yes, I hated filling out call reports and yes, I hated having to make an additional phone call. And yes, it felt like, “Hey, can’t you just trust me and leave me alone to do what I need to do.”

Accountability is a huge part of trust. Your accountability partner is trusting that you are going to do that by the time you said you were going to do it. And then they check in on you because they support you. And they want to make sure that you have lived up to the promise you made. That’s trust. So think about accountability a little bit differently. Seek out accountability whenever you can and help yourself achieve your best performance.

Scott Ingram: For more from Jeff Bajorek, just click over to DailySales.Tips/826 and we’ll have links for you there.

Once you’ve done that. Be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Build up your ability to handle frustration and develop some grit.” – Carole Mahoney in today’s Tip 825

How do you handle the certain ups and downs that are going to happen during our behavioral changes?

Join the conversation below and check out the links!

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Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, who’s had at least 1% more coffee today, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Carole Mahoney. Carole has been called the “Sales Therapist” by a Harvard Business School professor where she coaches Entrepreneurial MBA students on sales. She has been featured as a top 15 Sales Influencer by LinkedIn, a Woman to Watch in Sales by Sales Hacker and a top sales coach by Ambition. Here she is:

Carole Mahoney: Have you heard the phrase or seen the phrase being tossed around lately about getting 1% better every day, as much as I have. Yeah, well, I’m calling it BS. I mean, have you ever watched the ups and downs of the stock market or a political poll or tried to lose weight and weighed yourself every single day? The things ever get 1% better? I mean, if only things would be so much easier, right? But you’ve been around long enough, you know that things just don’t happen in this nice, neat linear fashion. And I get that for the most part, the intention behind the statement is to focus on small improvements every day. But there’s a dangerous side to this way of thinking, because the truth is, is that setbacks and slip-ups and slumps and stuff just happens. Sometimes we have control over it and sometimes we don’t. And for that reason, if our focus is on getting 1% better every day, we could be setting ourselves up for frustration and failure.

For example, I mean, in case you haven’t noticed or heard I’ve started using the same cognitive-behavioral approach that I use in coaching to myself so that I could get healthy and lose 95 pounds. And I’m pretty psyched to share that I’m only 15 pounds away from my stretch goal, but it’s not like I’ve never done this before or tried before I have that previously, whenever I would step on the scale and it went up, I went from, “let my new journey begin to.” What’s the point? I’m never going to be able to do this. Kind of like when you do your sales kickoff for training and things, look like they’re going to get better only to have them regress back because we’re wired to follow our preset patterns in the path of least resistance. So we stop weighing ourselves. Do we ignore our activity and conversion rates? Of course not. I mean, how else are we going to know if we’re off course or not? So how do we handle the certain ups and downs that are going to happen during our behavioral changes?

Here’s three strategies that have helped me and my coaching clients to push through those downtimes. The first is to build up your ability to handle frustration and develop some grit by tackling the thought distortions you’re going to get up on never going to be able to do this with some recall. When was the last time you hit a wall and you eventually overcame it? When you remind yourself of these past successes in similar situations, it’ll give you hope and motivation to see it through. Remember so far, you’ve survived 100% of your worst days. You’ve got this too.

The second strategy is to come up with an “Oh well” statement. Now, I don’t mean, “Oh, well I give up,” but it “Oh well” acknowledges it. And then let it go and move on. Here’s a few, “Oh, well” mantras that I’ve used and others have used. “It’s going to get easier.” “It will turn around eventually.” “I’m going to come out of this better than I did before.” “The word hard everybody would do it.” “And it’s not the end of the world.”

Now the third thing, the third strategy is to start problem-solving. Sometimes when we’re stuck in a rudder frustrated, we get overwhelmed. We have no idea what to do or where to start. So to be a better problem solver for yourself, start by identifying what kind of a problem solver you are right now. There’s the impulsive problem-solver who jumps out the first idea that pops into our heads without really thinking about unintended consequences that that might play out, or there’s the avoidant problem solver, where we tend to avoid actions and problems and decide to just ignore them, which then leads us to never really getting to a better outcome. I get it, facing the long road ahead can be daunting, but by avoiding our problems, we’re also avoiding the road to the solution and that feeling of success, or perhaps you’re the rational problem solver who takes the time to prepare and look at the journey ahead.

Now, these types of problem solvers tend to use a four-step problem-solving method to ensure that we reach the goals. First, we need to define the problem and obstacles. Now, this can be something as specific as, when I get buying signals from my buyers, I tend to get wrapped up. Continue to narrow that down and identify what is it specifically that gets you wrapped up and excited. Now that you’ve aided it, you can come up with a variety of solutions and generate as many of these as you can.

Look at this as, like a brainstorming session, no solution is too silly or ridiculous. Maybe it’s as simple as putting a sticky note on your screen with the buying signal that you’ve identified, that trips you up with a big red X on it to remind you to stay present. Or if you find yourself wrapped up in your head, you might pinch yourself to keep your mind from wandering, or you might practice with your coach on what you should do or say in those situations when you start getting wrapped up in your head. And remember, this is not about perfection. This is about trial and error.

So the next step is to assess your progress and then reevaluate, where is it that you’ve made progress? And where is it that it’s not working? Use these tips to help you progress forward through the next time you’re facing a downtime or a wall or a slump. And remember everything is temporary. Until next time.

Scott Ingram: Now if you guest that there must be an entertaining video version of this tip then you’d be right. You’ll find that as well as a link to subscribe to Carole’s monthly newsletter where you can be the first to get her science-based sales tips at DailySales.Tips/825.

Once you’ve done that. Be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Think creatively what you can do during each step of the process.”- Mark Schenkius in today’s Tip 823

What’s your thought about this?

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823: The RFP Process Explained (Part 1)
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Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip is part two of a two-part series from Mark Schenkius. Mark is the founder of ROI 10 where he helps sales professionals get better at dealing with buyers. He’s also the author of “The Other Side of Sales,” where he shares his perspective after 15 years in procurement. Here he is:

Mark Schenkius: Hi everyone! I’m back with part two of the 16 steps of an RFP process that you didn’t know existed. Last time I covered numbers 1 to 8, so I encourage you to listen to my previous sales tip if you haven’t done so already. Today, I’ll be covering steps 9 to 16. These are the steps a buyer has taken before you actually get to see the RFP. They are in chronological order. Although the actual process can vary from buyer to buyer.

Step 9: Specification creation. As soon as a time plan has been created, the team can now develop the specification. As a minimum, this should include three elements.

1. A technical specification, which details all the operational and technical details of what needs to be bought.
2. A commercial specification that includes all the terms and conditions as well as the contractual element.
3. A quality specification, which focuses on all the specific quality requirements that you need to adhere to.

Step 10: Spent calculations. In order to calculate the savings achieved by running the RFP, a buyer needs to understand their spend figures. The two most common ways to make this comparison is to compare to last year spent or to plan budgets.

Step 11: Agree on selection criteria. Next up in the process is how the team decides on what basis they will make the final decision. This information is absolutely crucial for you as a seller. Is at 100% based on pricing or to service, quality, cost of change, sustainability, or even cultural fit play a role here.

Step 12: Contract creation. In the background, all the contractual requirements are put together. Sometimes buyers use template contracts in specific cases, a contract will be tailor-made. It’s important to know that professional buyers send a contract beforehand. So they have more leverage to negotiate. It’s harder for buyers to negotiate the contractual terms after a deal has been agreed.

Step 13: Tender tool selection. At this stage, buyers will select a tool for running the RFP. It can be as simple as an Excel spreadsheet. Although these days there are various used sourcing platforms to choose from.

Step 14: Supplier long list creation. Here, the buyer will draw up a list of suppliers against the minimum and preferred requirement. This is called a long list. Depending on the market this is usually a list of 10 suppliers or more.

Step 15: RFI set up. An RFI is a request for information and aimed at doing a pre-selection of suppliers prior to inviting them for the RFP. The RFI usually contains questions on quality surface, financial, sustainability, and more. After an RFI buyers will have a shortlist of suppliers they want to invite for the RFP.

Step 16: Communication plan creation. The last step in the process is a communication plan. This includes both internal and external communications. It’s about defining when and what information you are going to share with your stakeholders. After this step, the RFP process will be visible to you as a supplier, so that you’ll receive a first notification and perhaps even all the specifications.

So why am I sharing all of this?

Well, it’s because many sellers believed in negotiation starts as soon as they received the RFP. So after step 16. I’m just giving you a different perspective that this is actually not the case. Throughout the 16 steps, there are many possibilities to influence the RFP process and decision-makers. Think creatively what you can do during each step of the process. Happy negotiations everyone!

Scott Ingram: For more insights from the professional buyer’s perspective. Definitely check out Mark’s book: “The Other Side of Sales,” and as always we’ll have links to that and more for you at DailySales.Tips/824

Once you’ve done that. Be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“As soon as this step is completed, all internal and external meetings can be fixed.”- Mark Schenkius in today’s Tip 823

How about you? How do you process your RFP?

Join the conversation below and be sure to connect with Mark!

ROI 10
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Submit a Sales Tip

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip is part one of a two-part series from Mark Schenkius. Mark is the founder of ROI 10 where he helps sales professionals get better at dealing with buyers. He’s also the author of “The Other Side of Sales,” where he shares his perspective after 15 years in procurement. Here he is:

Mark Schenkius: Hi everyone. I’m sure you will all be familiar with the Iceberg Analogy, which is used for many business-related topics these days. Typically about 10% of the volume of an iceberg is above water, which follows from Archimedes’ Principle of Buoyancy. The other 90% is below the surface and it’s difficult to see. Do you know that this principle applies to RFPs as well?  As a seller, you only see a small fraction of the entire buying process.

In 2 Daily Sales Tips, I’ll share the 16 steps a buyer has taken before you actually get to see the RFP. They are in chronological order. Although it can depend on the buyer you’re dealing with.

Today, I’ll share a step 1 to 8.

Step 1: Market assessment. The very first step for a buyer is to assess the market. How does the market look like currently? What are the dynamics on this market? And importantly, are there enough suppliers available?

Step 2: Decide on the procurement approach. If there’s only one suitable supplier on the market, buyers will prefer to negotiate directly with them. Otherwise, they will focus on running an RFP. Obviously, they need competition to get the best result from an RFP.

Step 3: Project team creation. Next buyers will form a team with our internal clients to ensure the outcome is accepted throughout your organization. Mainly these team members focus on quality, service, or they are technical experts in their respective fields. As a seller, having this information helps to be able to influence the decision-makers.

Step 4: RFP scope agreed. The whole team then agrees on the scope of the RFP process. They decide what is in and what is out of scope. This also includes a decision to source locally, regionally, or globally.

Step 5: Objective setting. During this step, the team decides what they are trying to achieve. Is it just about price or do we focus on quality, surface, risks, sustainability, and or other criteria. From a sales perspective, it definitely pays to have access to this information.

Step 6: Senior management sign off. During this step, the whole project team presents the plan to the senior management team for sign-off. If they don’t sign off, it means going back to the drawing table. Otherwise, they can proceed as planned.

Step 7: Stakeholder mapping. Once they have received an “Okay” from senior management, they map out all stakeholders who are directly or indirectly impacted by the RFP. This way they assured the project can be executed. Once the final decision is made. If a buyer skips this step, it might mean they have troubles later on trying to implement the final outcome.

Step 8: Tender time plan creation. It’s now time to create a tender time plan. Typically this means working their way backward, starting with the implementation date. As soon as this step is completed, all internal and external meetings can be fixed.

That’s it for today. I’ll be back shortly, but steps 9 to 16. Happy negotiations, everyone!

Scott Ingram: For more from Mark, click over to DailySales.Tips/823 where you’ll find links to connect with him and his company, ROI 10 as well as a link to get your hands on a copy of his book: “The Other Side of Sales.”

Then, be sure to come back tomorrow for part 2 to hear the rest of the RFP Process Explained. Thanks for listening!

“If you’re trying to approach prospects with that short game mindset, it just doesn’t work.” – Qayam Noorani in today’s Tip 822

How about you?

Join the conversation below and check the full conversation with Qayam!

Klue Website
Qayam Noorani on LinkedIn
Qayam Noorani on Sales Success Stories Interview

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Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes in the form of a clip from the latest episode of Sales Success Stories that just released today with Qayam Noorani of Klue. Let me play this clip, then I’ll give you a bit more context before I tell you where you can go to get more:

Qayam Noorani: It’s really funny. Like I think folks at the bottom, sometimes I think one of the biggest commonalities is and I’m talking specifically about the SDR role here. They’re trying to take the SDR role and play a short game. And I know the SDR job is like a very, it’s kind of like a quick job, right? You get in and you get out kind of thing. But if you’re trying to approach prospects with that short game mindset like, hop on a call with me and let’s talk right now, you know, like it’s the first email I’ve sent you, but let’s talk or I’m going to call you right now and ask for your time. That kind of thing, it just doesn’t work. Like you got to get into your prospect’s heads a little bit and try and understand like, what makes them tick? What can I email them today right now that’s not going to them off. That’s going to actually make them, even if they don’t respond to the email just the “Hmm. Like, okay.” And just move on, you know? So yeah, just playing a little bit of chess rather than checkers I think. I don’t know if that gives enough context, feel free to dig in there.

Scott Ingram: Yeah, we definitely will. I want to come back to it, right? But that idea that even though it is sort of a transactional feeling role, you can still play it as a longer game. Right? Because if you do, if you do churn that person and you kind of burn them out, you can’t go back there and maybe just the timing wasn’t right. Which is often time.

Qayam Noorani: That’s true. And I have a really funny story to tell you later on Scott, about how sometimes you actually can go back there, but we’ll get there.

Scott Ingram: Now Qayam may just know what he’s talking about, because here he is talking about his results in the 2 years and a couple of months that he spent as an SDR before getting promoted to his current AE role a few months ago:

Qayam Noorani: It was really funny. I hit my ramp schedule. I think there was like a three or four or five-month ramp schedule. And one month something just clicked. And Scott, I can’t even tell you what it is like one month I went from hitting like my regular quota to doing 160% of it. And from that day on, I never did less than that. I was always between 200 and 400% of my monthly quota.

Scott Ingram: For the full conversation with Qayam, check out episode 117 on the Sales Success Stories podcast, and as always we’ll have links for you at DailySales.Tips/822

Once you’ve gotten started on that. Be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Sales careers are a long game. Plan in advance. Take calculated moves and be patient, but never forget, let your performance do 90% of the talking. And that 10% can be the few times that you bring it up to your boss.” – Collin Cadmus in today’s Tip 821

Do you spend more time and energy asking for promotions?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Collin!

Collin Cadmus Podcast
Collin Cadmus Website
Collin Cadmus on Instagram
Collin Cadmus on LinkedIn
Collin Cadmus Youtube Channel

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Collin Cadmus. Collin is a 2x VP Sales who’s hired and trained over 300 salespeople, generating over $50M in recurring revenue and over $300M in exits. With over 10 years of experience building sales teams, Collin serves as a Consultant, Strategic Advisor, and Executive Coach to top SaaS companies around the world. Here he is:

Collin Cadmus: I’m Collin Cadmus and here is a quick tip on how to get a sales promotion. You’re in sales and you want a promotion. Maybe you’re an SDR looking to become an AE or you’re an AE looking to become a Manager, or maybe you’re even a Manager looking to become a Director. Whatever it is, the process is relatively the same. The key here is to make sure that you’re letting your performance do most of the talking. That means let your performance do 90% of the talking. The common mistake is that a salesperson often spends more time and energy asking for promotions and complaining about it than they do crushing their own performance to make the decision a no brainer, even worse is that sometimes salespeople come off of a year or perhaps even two years of doing really, really well. They get burnt out and frustrated that they haven’t gotten the promotion yet. And now they actually let their performance start to decline because they’re frustrated. They haven’t gotten the promotion yet. Meanwhile, they may have been a month away from that promotion and they didn’t even know it. And they might be blowing the chance by letting their performance decline.

So remember to let your performance do 90% of the talking. Why is this important? Well, first of all, it’s important to recognize that promotions can’t happen on your timeline. They have to happen on the company’s timeline. It’s also important to recognize that you don’t have all the necessary context that your Managers, Director, or VP has. So you have to put some trust in them as well. And lastly, you need to stop thinking that your manager forgot about the topic. Maybe you brought it up to them. You talked about it in a one-on-one and you haven’t heard any updates. And so you’re getting frustrated and you’re letting that sort of affect you every day and are coming into the office or working at home, whatever it is. And you’re getting upset and frustrated that your boss hasn’t followed up with you about that promotion.

Here’s the thing. If you don’t trust your boss, you shouldn’t work for them. Okay? So let’s assume that you do trust your boss since you are working for them. If you trust them, then you bring this up and you wait and you see what happens and you continue to focus on your performance. There’s nothing more important than continuing to crush your current role. If you don’t do that, all cards are off the table.

So the process is really simple. First, crush your current role for 9 to 12 months before even asking for a promotion before even bringing it up. The next step is don’t actually ask for a promotion, okay? Express interest in a promotion. It’s a much better way to go about it because it puts you in a productive conversation rather than a demanding situation. So in a one-on-one, you may say, “Hey, Mrs. Manager, I would like to discuss my future and just wanted to express interest in X role. And I’d like to know A. if you think I could get there and B. what you think I need to do to get there.” And now you’re not putting them in a position where you’re asking for a promotion, you’re simply saying, “Hey, do you think I could do this someday? And if so, what do I need to do to get there?” Now they’re going to hopefully give you the blueprint of what you need to do. So step three is just focus on executing that and don’t bring it back up because all that does is it annoys your managers. What you have to remember is your managers are thinking about this stuff. If the company is going to have a need for a new role, whether it’s a new AE or a new manager, a new director, whatever it is, trust me, your manager’s thinking about it or their boss is thinking about it. Someone is planning that well in advance and they’re scouting the team and they’re looking for who the right person is. And the way to stand out for that is not to be the person who’s constantly begging for promotion. The way to stand out is to just express interest. So they know you’re on the list. Trust me, you’ve made it on deck. If you’ve expressed interest, but then focus on your performance. That’s it. That’s all you need to do. And things will work themselves out with due time.

Now, after you’ve had that conversation with your manager and you’ve expressed interest in the promotion, it’s very important to not bring up this topic for at least another three months, at least. Ideally, you’re not bringing it up again. And they’re the ones bringing it up next, but try not to bring it up. Don’t bring it up in every one-on-one, don’t be a nag that doesn’t really help. It doesn’t necessarily hurt, but it certainly doesn’t help. And it’s not helping you focus on what really matters in that moment, which is crushing your current performance.

So finally, the last thing that you can do is start taking advantage of any opportunity you get to showcase skill sets required for the promotion that you want. Do you want to be an AE? Ask if you can run some mock demos, ask if you can run a small SMB demo with an AE on the phone, maybe they won’t let you, but at least you’re taking the initiative to ask. And at least you’re taking the initiative to train yourself ahead of time. That will stand out when it comes time for that promotion. If you’re the one SDR who’s taken the time to figure out how to actually run a demo and you’ve memorized the script or whatever it is that stuff stands out. Now you’ve reduced your ramp time and you’re likely to be ahead of whoever else they are looking at.

So remember sales careers are a long game. Plan in advance. Take calculated moves and be patient, but never forget, let your performance do 90% of the talking. And that 10% can be the few times that you bring it up to your boss.

Scott Ingram: To connect with Collin, click over to DailySales.Tips/821. There we’ll have a link to his website where you can check out his new Modern Prospecting Playbook. There’s also a link to the Collin Cadmus podcast and of course, to his LinkedIn profile.

Once you’ve done that. Be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Make sure you’re asking the hard questions about how many people in an organization are actually achieving and exceeding quotas.” – Scott Ingram in today’s Tip 820

Are we in a seller’s market?

Join the conversation below and check out the links!

Register for Scott’s session with Amy Volas on All Things Sales Success
Sales Success Summit
Submit a Sales Tip

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Here in Austin, if you’re a homeowner it’s a seller’s market. There was an ad in the local community paper that I got last week from a real estate firm and in this ad, it shows 12 different homes, all of which sold for between 101K and 300K over the asking price. I’m going to include a picture of this thing at DailySales.Tips/820 if you want to take a look. Clearly, we’re in a seller’s market, and I’m seeing similar signs, though maybe not such ridiculous and obvious signs that we’re in a seller’s market in sales right now. In my entire sales career, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many companies trying to hire sales professionals before. The amount of money being raised by startups, the new records that public companies and public markets keep setting, all mean that there’s pressure on all of these organizations to keep growing and the fuel for that growth is us. Sales professionals.

I reached out to Amy Volas to talk about this and she’s agreed to come on my All Things Sales Success webinar series on The Sales Experts Channel to talk it through with me on May 10th. You’ll also find a link to register for that at DailySales.Tips/820, but I’m not going to make you wait weeks for my thoughts on this. Here’s what I think it means both for sellers and for sales leaders and sales organizations. First, if you’re a quota-carrying sales professional and you’re just not in the right place. Look around. There’s literally never been a better time to find a great new opportunity. Find something that you absolutely believe in. That you can be passionate about. That’s one of the key ingredients to ultra-high performance. Just be sure to really consider who you’ll be working for. Find a great leader who can help you get to the next level in your career, whatever that might be for you. Also, be careful about just chasing the dollars. I have a feeling we’re about to see compensation go up, but look before you leap. Just making a change because of the dollars is a dangerous path and often a trap. Make sure you’re asking the hard questions about how many people in an organization are actually achieving and exceeding quotas. Just do your due diligence. You’ve got a great opportunity right now to control and drive that process.

Now for the sales leaders and sales orgs, I think this means you need to look really hard at how you’re treating your sellers. The first thing to consider is retention. Are you taking care of your people? Are you helping them to be successful, are you giving them the tools, the training, and the coaching that they so desperately want so that they can perform better? That’s good for them and it’s good for you. And the reality is, if you’re not providing those things. They’re going to go somewhere else where they can get those things. Now is probably the right time to get proactive about this situation as well. Are your comp plans competitive? Should you consider giving at least the top half of your sellers a base salary bump to show that you appreciate them and that you’re invested in them? That’s usually a small price to pay compared to the cost of having to replace somebody who leaves. Treating your existing team well no only helps prevent churn, but it will also improve your word of mouth which is going to make your hiring a lot easier. Any decent rep is going to do their due diligence and talk to your sellers about what their experience is really like. That’s going to make or break your opportunities to hire the best performers who are going to have lots of options. Plus one of the best sources for new talent is the referrals from within your team, but those referrals only come when they’re happy and they’d actually recommend that their top-performing friend who they worked within a previous role should come and join them.

The last thing that I’m going to selfishly suggest for both groups is that you get involved in the Sales Success Summit this October. I so rarely talk about that on this show, but this two-day event is where we bring together a bunch of the #1 top 1% performing individual contributors who’ve appeared on my Sales Success Stories podcast to network and learn from each other. It’s a super intimate event with a max of just under 200 attendees. For the seller’s this event was purpose-built for you. The Summit was built for individual contributors by individual contributors. And for the leaders. I can’t think of a better way to reward your own top performers, then with an opportunity to connect with and learn from the best of the best to inspire them to achieve a whole new level. Is that what we all want? It’s what I want. Check out the Sales Success Summit. Check out my coming session with Amy Volas on May 10th and again we’ll have links to everything at DailySales.Tips/820

Once you’ve done that, and gotten yourself registered for one or both of those things, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!