“The problem with getting other people’s advice on these types of things is it’s often what would work best for them given their personality, style, and their approach.” – Scott Ingram in today’s Tip 769

What would the best version of me do?

Join the conversation below and go out there and inspire yourself.

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Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. In last week’s Encore Series session with Jacquelyn Nicholson and her presentation on Building Rapport and Relationships, I don’t remember exactly how this came up in the Q&A, but Jacquelyn’s answer to one of the questions was: “Do what you would do.” This immediately grabbed me and I thought it was such profound advice. Too often we ask people: “What should I say in this situation?” or “How should I react in this circumstance,” and the problem with getting other people’s advice on these types of things is it’s often what would work best for them given their personality, style, and their approach. That brilliant one-liner that might work wonders for them might completely backfire on you because you’re coming from a different place. Your tonality might be different. Who knows.

So this idea of doing what you would do is so good, and I tried to apply my best improv skills to ‘Yes, AND’ the concept. Because I thought that I wouldn’t necessarily always want to do what I would do in all circumstances. Instead, I would want to do what the best version of me would do. So that’s my challenge for you today. Try this out as your faced with different challenges and situations throughout the day. Ask yourself: What would the best version of me do, and I’d be willing to bet that that is the perfect thing for you to do. Now go out there and inspire yourself.

And then, come on back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Set the right information with your perspective buyer, about what it does and what it doesn’t do and where it’s winning clearly, and where it doesn’t necessarily win, people will appreciate that.” – Jason Cutter in today’s Tip 768

How do you preventing buyer’s remorse?

Join the conversation below and check out the links!

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

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 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: Congratulations you close the deal. Sale is done. Contract is signed. Money’s been paid. Everything is done. And then the endorphins wear off. Then your new clients, not even your prospective client, then your new client start to worry. They fear that they made a mistake. They go through all these scenarios in their head, keeping in mind that every single person that buys something consumer business doesn’t matter. They always have somebody to have to explain or justify their purchase to. They always tell somebody, even if it’s somebody in passing, right. If you buy a car, you could be excited as you want to be about that car. And eventually you will talk to somebody who thinks they know everything. And they’ll say, what did you pay for that car? And you’ll tell them, and they’ll say you got ripped off. You paid too much. You shouldn’t assign it for that warranty. And now you’re embarrassed. Now you don’t want to tell anybody about what you bought the car for, because you’re worried about getting that same reaction. And that’s what happens. Even when you’re selling B2B. You’re dealing with somebody there’s still a human. Yes, it’s a business transaction. Yes, it’s a company, but they’re still human. And when those endorphins wear off, that fear kicks in their primal side. That doesn’t like change that wanted to stay in their comfort zone. All of that stuff starts going in their head and they start worrying and wondering, and feeling if they even made the right decision or not. And that’s where the buyer’s remorse comes in. And that’s where cancellations, refunds people calling afterward and wanting to back out of contracts. All that stuff kicks in.

So here is my biggest tip. The main one, there’s two. The first one is that you always want to let people know that that buyer’s remorse is coming. There’s a disclosure type statement that I use every single time at the end of a transaction. And I tell people, Hey John, so here’s the thing I know I’ve been doing this for a long time. And one thing I know that happens is that once this is over at some point, usually, maybe the next day, maybe within a few days, sometimes two o’clock in the morning, you might have this sensation where you’re wondering doubting questioning, whether you made the right decision and here’s the deal. That’s normal kicks in for everybody. It happens to everybody. And here’s what I want you to remember when that does kick in, John is remember why we did this. Remember how my platform is helping you with your marketing and how this is going to help you achieve your goals and so on, whatever it is for them. And just remember that. So when that reaction kicks in, just remember why we did this, the value, the benefit, and then also know I’m here long-term.

So if you have those questions, those issues, I know you have your account manager, your deal with any time you want to talk, give me a call, send me an email, ask questions. I’m here to support you. You and I both know this is the right thing for you. You and I both know that this is the best platform for you to use and will help you be successful. And so call me if you want a reminder of that, we can run through it again, and I’m here for you.

So that’s the kind of language I use at the end of my conversation, right before letting them go once it is assigned deal because I want them to know. And then what happens is when that fear does kick in, when that buyer’s remorse does kick in, hopefully, they’ll go, “Hey, this is what Jason was talking about. This is exactly what he said would happen. It happened. Okay, I’m going to call him or Nope. He said this and that’s right. I did want this. This does make sense. Okay. Now I feel better.” When you tell them something’s going to happen. And then it happens they will feel better. It’s when you don’t warn them about it. And it kicks in, they feel like something is wrong. And then you’re at a disadvantage and you’re going to have to try to scramble and save it.

So the other thing is the second part is that you always want to remember that nothing is perfect, no matter what you do, if you’re a founder or a salesperson, your product, your service is not perfect. There’s a trade-off, there’s a flaw. There’s something to it that doesn’t do it, right. It might help over here, but it doesn’t help over here.

There’s always a trade-off. It might help over here and do everything amazing. And it’s going to be expensive, right? So there’s always something. And so remember that always focus on that when you’re talking about your product and service, especially at the end, always make sure to point out the things that doesn’t do. Point those things out so that when their buyer’s remorse kicks in or when their client success account management processes moving forward, there are no surprises. They’re going to say, “Wait a second. I thought this thing did everything for me. They’re going to go, okay, that’s right, I’m getting this, but I’m not getting that.”

So make sure you set the right expectations. Set the right information with your perspective buyer, about what it does and what it doesn’t do and where it’s winning clearly, and where it doesn’t necessarily win, people will appreciate that. Most people in sales are afraid to point out the flaws or what is missing because they think that’ll kill the deal. Buyers actually appreciate that. And hopefully, this helps you overcome that buyers remorse stage.

Scott Ingram: For more about Jason and for a link to buy his book: Selling with Authentic Persuasion, just click over to DailySales.Tips/768

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

“Finding success as a manager starts with hiring the right people.” – Prateek Mathur in today’s Tip 767

How do you find the right seller for your team?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Prateek!

Manager Enablement
Prateek Mathur on LinkedIn
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 comes from Prateek Mathur. After leading global sales teams for the last 17 years, Prateek now focuses on helping new sales managers lead smarter, sell more, and grow their careers. Here he is:

Prateek Mathur: Finding success as a manager starts with hiring the right people. Here are three questions that have helped me to find the right status for my team.

Number one. What do you do in your free time? Now you’re hiring for a seller and sales as a competitive sport. What is your candidate doing over their evenings and their weekends? They may be the best NATO, the best SOA, but if they aren’t doing something competitive, like playing a sport, then they may not like the innate competitive nature of sales.

Two. What do you look for in your next leader? As simple and cliche as this sounds, you need to ask your higher what they look for in their next leader. You may find the best candidate on paper and they may interview really well. But if they like to be managed in a certain way, and if that isn’t your management style, then you are setting them and yourself up for failure.

And three. Tell me about the deal that you’re super proud of. Now. Sales is all about storytelling. And if your highest says that they’ve sold a large multi-million dollar deal and nothing else, then they may not be the best candidate. You are ideally looking for a candidate who can describe the deal in detail from identification of a prospect to that outbound cadence, the problem they were solving for the obstacles they encountered, and how they overcame to finally get the sale.

Scott Ingram: To connect with Prateek on LinkedIn and to learn more about his Manager Enablement program, just click over to DailySales.Tips/767

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

“I focused on startups is that is where my niche is because they like that.” – Alexine Mudawar in today’s Tip 766

How do you manage your manager relationship?

Join the conversation below and check out the full interview with Alexine!

Displayr
Alexine Mudawar on LinkedIn
Alexine Mudawar on Sales Success Stories Interview
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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 in the form of a clip from the most recent Sales Success Stories episode that just released today featuring Alexine Mudawar. Alexine is the company high achiever at Displayr in her role as a Major Account Executive. Here she is:

Alexine Mudawar: I’m very organized. There’s never any question about what I’m working on. I’ve never once had a manager asked me to prospect more or check in on my prospecting or whatever. I mean, that’s not been a conversation, that’s come up much. So I’m very, very much self-managing and that’s feedback that I get a lot. On the other side of that. I also have the entrepreneurial brain, so I will see things problems or issues in the sales process, which sounds great. But I also will kind of like escalate those sometimes. I’m like, here’s this thing, like, how can we fix this? And like, can we think of a solution? So in some ways, it’s good because I’m usually able to identify things that are actually issues, but then some managers don’t like that either. Like they sometimes like people want to kind of stay status quo.

So for some managers who will do like having a rep who is really organized, who is diligent, but in can come up with creative ideas, that’s great. But I think that’s part of the reason I focused on startups is that is where my niche is because they like that. It’s someone that can kind of self-manage and self-handle their book of business and help some of the other reps kind of figure out their stuff. And then they liked that you can also be a resource to help them identify some of these problems. Whereas like a large company, they’re going to be like, hurry, thanks for letting us know, you know, it’s not going to have as much impact. So for me, that’s why I focus specifically on startups and smaller organizations.

Scott Ingram: Yeah. That makes a ton of sense. I’m curious about how do you manage your manager relationship? What is that dynamic?

Alexine Mudawar: Super transparent. Like I think what’s really important and this took me years to realize, I think as soon as you get a new manager, whether you change companies or internally, if you get a new manager, the very first conversation that I think you should have is like super like cards on the table. How do you like to communicate? Here’s how I like to communicate. And it’s like everything down to like, do you prefer Slack or text? Like I used to have a manager that would text all the time and it was like giving me anxiety. I was like, stop texting me on Saturdays about deals and things like that. You know, how do you prefer to be, to communicate and then talking about motivators. Like, how does he know for your manager? Like what is your role? You know, what are some of your goals? Like learning about what they’re actually trying to do is really important to you and as salespeople, we never do that. But then also like here are my motivators because what I want to shake up really quickly, especially if it’s a new manager is I’m not motivated. Money is not my number one motivator, successes, and then money comes with success. So that’s just a side effect of me being successful.

So for me, and I’ve said this in every single interview I’ve been in, if you were to hold the president’s club award in front of me and a $10,000 check, I would take the president’s club award every single time, because I’m already going to get the $10,000 check. So I’m not even thinking about it, but I think that’s where these kinds of are really important. I want them to understand what makes me tick and I’m very honest. I’m like, you know, I’m going to be super organized in Salesforce, but I’m also going to like think of some ideas sometimes. And sometimes you might think they’re interesting and want to escalate them. And sometimes you can just tell me like this is too soon, or like we’re not ready for this idea or thanks for bringing it to me, but no. So I try to just have like a very transparent communication with them.

Scott Ingram: For another hour and forty-five minutes of Alexine, check out episode 113 on the Sales Success Stories Podcast and of course we’ll have a link for you at DailySales.Tips/766 as well.

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

“If you align your reps with the company’s goals, they’ll defend the margins better.” – Steve Benson in today’s Tip 765

What can sales managers do to help their reps protect the margin and keep sales up in a bad economy?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Steve!

Badger Maps
Outside Sales Talk
Sales Hall of Fame
Steve Benson on LinkedIn
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 comes from Steven Benson. Steve is the Founder and CEO of Badger Maps, the #1 route planner for field salespeople. He also hosts the Outside Sales Talk podcast and is the founder of the Sales Hall of Fame. He sent me kind of a long tip, so I decide to break it into two parts, here’s part one:

Steve Benson: Hi, I’m Steve Benson, CEO of Badger Maps. Today. I’m going to talk a bit about the action sales managers need to take in a recession and some of the challenges and solutions that sales reps, selling into a recession can experience. So first off an economy that’s in recession can bring a whole bunch of new challenges for sales reps and sales managers. First of all, desperate competitors doing desperate things. A lot of companies are really hurting and they’re really willing to do things they would never have done before. So things like deep discounting liquidating their inventory to make ends, meet, giving away free consulting, or other low costs, but valuable things that are all structured to be given away, to steal your customers away from you.

Second new challenges from your prospects and your customers that you may experience like resistance from customers that wasn’t there before. Not wanting to engage. I want to learn about your product, not wanting to meet with you, et cetera, resistance to spending money spending freezes can often come from the very top. You’re also going to have to watch out for aggressive procurement offices who are looking to leverage the down economy for discounts, better terms, and generally are going to try to jam down your margins.

So what can you do about these things? What can sales managers do to help their reps protect the margin and keep sales up in a bad economy? First, then you can, you can shove in the sword with some negotiation training, refocus on communicating the benefits and the value that your prospects will receive if they purchase your product, make sure that the value is really understandable in terms of the actual dollars that you customer will get to keep or will make. In addition, if they purchase your product or service, you want to show the ROI and you want to give your sponsor the ability to easily communicate that value up the chain to loosen those purse strings.

Another thing you can look for is, as a Manager, you can look to make some changes to the comp plan structure. If you have a product with tightening margins, for example, or in general need to defend your margins in these times, and your reps are currently comped on revenue, you can consider switching it to comping them on profit margin. The reason you do this is that for example, if your profit margins are 30% and your rep gives away a 15% discount, you actually need two deals of that original size to be worth as much as the deal would have been at fluid at full price. But if you align your reps comp plan with a profit, instead of with revenue, then you’re able to, well with revenue that 15% discount only cost them 15% of their commission. But if you’re aligned to profit that 15% discount just cost them half their commission, if there’s a 30% margin. So if you align your reps with the company’s goals, they’ll defend the margins better. And so align the comp plan with the profit line instead of the revenue line.

Scott Ingram: I’ll have part two of Steve’s tip next week, so make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast so you don’t miss that and for links to Steve’s LinkedIn profile, Badger Maps, The Outside Sales Talk podcast and the Sales Hall of Fame, just click over to DailySales.Tips/765, and finally for those of you who’ve been following my Texas disaster saga we finally got running water back late Sunday morning. We still have to boil our water, but turns out being able to take showers and flush toilets is a big deal.

Anyway, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Figure out what works best for you, but do not allow an idea to escape.” – Stephen Harvill in today’s Tip 764

How do you capture stories?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Stephen!

Creative Ventures
Steve Harvill on LinkedIn
21 Secrets of Million-Dollar Sellers Book

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 my friend Steve Harvill is self introducing, so I’m just going to let him take it away:

Stephen Harvill: Hi everybody, I’m Steve Harvill President of the Strategic Consultant Company, Creative Ventures and author of the bestselling sales book, “The 21 Secrets of Million-Dollar Sellers.” Today I want to give you a little tip around the ideas that we discovered while interviewing over $300 million producers.  Now, this is an idea that’s getting, you’ll hear many, many times, and it’s the power that story presents in the sales process. And I don’t want to give you a tip around the narrative arc or being able to craft and tell, or following a beginning, middle and end. Instead, I want to give you a short tip around where do stories come from? What’s their origin and Genesis point and the key element that allows you to leverage that Genesis point into a story that will help you connect emotion to your client relationship.

So the first thing is that ideas are all around us. They come at us at a speed and volume that’s unheard of, and here’s the key tip. And the thing that we’re weak on is capturing story. You see a great story idea is a cereal. It’s like fog. It comes and goes rapidly. And if you’re not capturing it, you’re losing it. You see the brain is a great source for creating an idea, but it’s a horrible source for storing the idea. So having a methodology of capturing a story when you hear it, that you’ll later be able to develop into something that attaches directly to the value and impact of what you do is critical.

Now, I don’t care how you do it. It doesn’t matter how you capture it. Maybe you’re going to capture it on your iPad, or maybe you’re going to capture it on your I phone somehow on your iPhone. It doesn’t matter. At Creative Ventures, we’re old-school analog pen and pencil to paper, and we’ve gone through a wide variety of methodologies trying to figure out what the best one is. We’ve gone through small little notebooks. We’ve increased it to note cards. We’ve had a scale of a notebook you could carry in your pocket. We’ve gotten a little bigger to allow us to draw and sketch. We’ve gone all the way up to folio size during the process of our company. But we settled on a number of years ago on the idea of an index card. And that’s what we use to capture all of our stories. We carry them in our pockets. We use them to design and develop story. We use them to capture story.

So it doesn’t matter what you do. It doesn’t matter what tool you use, but if you’re not writing something down, if you’re not capitalizing on the neurology of the brain that says writing something down is critical to the memory process. You’re going to lose some of the great stories that you can leverage to connect your product and your service and you to your client.

So here’s the tip. Figure out what works best for you, but do not allow an idea to escape. Create a methodology of connecting and you’ll develop an inventory of stories that you’ll be able to use strategically throughout the entire sales process. So that’s it from Steve Harvill on Creative Ventures. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share the tip. And by the way, write it down

Scott Ingram: To see Steve in the video version of this tip, and for a link to get your copy of his book: 21 Secrets of Million-Dollar Sellers, just click over to DailySales.Tips/764

Then, come on back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Don’t be in such a hurry to get your value statement out there that you forget to give it a really nice soft place to land.” – Jeff Bajorek in today’s Tip 763

How do you pitch?

Join the conversation below and share your thoughts!

[email protected]
Books by Jeff Bajorek
Jeff’Bajorek on LinkedIn
The Why And The Buy Podcast
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. It’s Saturday, so here’s Jeff Bajorek with today’s tip:

Jeff Bajorek: So if you’re listening to this, you’re a top performer or you want to be a top performer. So you’re not the kind of person who’s going to show up and throw up all over your prospects, right? That’s not how it works, you know, better. Well, there are a lot of people out there who don’t know how it works and don’t realize that they could be better. So what I want to do is just break down why that show up and throw up approach is just no good. And I think that it’s missing two vital components. And then after I go through those vital components, I want to challenge you to do something at the end that may put you a little bit off balance may make you a little bit uneasy, but I think that’s exactly how you know that you’re going to be challenged in the right way.

So look, the first thing that your show up and throw up pitch first mentality is missing is attention. And look, I did this earlier in my career. I’d have prospects. As I sold from office to office in orthopedics, they would come right to the front desk. They’d see me. They’d be willing to talk to me. And I thought that was golden. I thought that was just a perfect opportunity. Problem is my prospect was never giving me their actual attention. We’re always in the middle of something else. And that lack of full attention really prevented me from delivering the message that I needed to deliver. It also forced me to rush a little bit. And when I started consciously making the decision to not meet with anybody on an impromptu basis, but instead work on just scheduling time for a later date. Yeah, I’ll trade you two minutes right now. Keep your two minutes. I just want 10 next week.

My results went through the roof and not only did I have the right attention from them so they could actually hear and interpret what I was talking about. I knew that, you know, we could have a clearer conversation. We had better mutual action plans. We understood what next steps were and it just, the sales process came much more easily. It flowed much better.

So if you’re not already doing this and Hey, I’m not talking to you, I’m talking to someone you might know, think about what the power of attention is and think about how much more success you would have if you weren’t in such a hurry. And we’re just able to give the process the time it needs to breathe.

The second thing is that when you pitch without context, when you just show up and give them everything you gotten on the load on them, because they need to hear what it is. You have you miss the opportunity to ask any kind of question and create any kind of tension. And you know, that tension is necessary in the process because it’s a stimulus to act. It is the reason that your prospect has to move. They understand where they are right now, but they’re nice and safe and cozy and warm. And that status quo. And they know they want to get somewhere else, but it’s going to take some work. It’s going to take some discomfort along the way.

So I want you to start thinking in those lines, I want you to start thinking about the opportunity to create tension. And don’t be in such a rush. Don’t be in such a hurry to get your value statement out there that you forget to give it a really nice soft place to land.

Now, my challenge to you once you’ve established that you need attention. And once you’ve established that you need to create some tension. I want you to think about leaving your deck at home. I want you to think about selling without a slide deck, without a presentation. I know you use it to keep your talking points in order. I know you use it to keep your calls structured. I know, I know, I know. You don’t need it. Maybe you need it as a reference. Maybe you need it as a visual aid. And in those cases, maybe you should have it available for your second. Maybe your third meeting to pull up some specific highlights from your presentation deck. But exactly what is it about what you sell that leads you to believe that you always know everything you’re going to say in the exact order you’re going to say it before you get into that conversation.

Just maybe think about that. I know you can do it. You’re a top performer. You’ve got command over your product. You’ve got command over this sales process and you are in a great position to have a meaningful well-connected discussion with your prospect. You got this now, go get it.

Scott Ingram: The tension in my household right now revolves around the fact that we still don’t have running water as I’m recording this. Hopefully, that gets resolved soon. What you can resolve right now is getting connected with Jeff Bajorek on LinkedIn and subscribing to his newsletter. We’ll have links for you to do both at DailySales.Tips/763

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

“The more you set the table accordingly deliver as promised and continue to do so at every step, the more your prospect grows to expect it.” – Jack Wilson in today’s Tip 762

Do you have a concrete timeframe?

Join the conversation below and check out the links!

Jack Wilson on LinkedIn
734: Granular (GREAT Expectations)
741: Reasonable (GREAT Expectations)
748: Explanation (GREAT Expectations)
755: Alternatives (GREAT Expectations)

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 Jack Wilson and is the final tip in his GREAT Expectations series. Here it is:

Jack Wilson: Hey there, Sales Tips Community. You’ve made it to tip five of five. I’m proud of you, but if you’re here, it’s no coincidence. It’s probably because I set GREAT Expectations about what you would learn if you listened, and what that journey would look like. Well, either that, or it’s that you just listened to a bunch of these anyways. Either way, good for you.

Tip five, puts the T in GREAT. And that represents Timeframe. Much like setting smart goals. The last and most often forgotten aspect is establishing a hard and fast timeframe. When we consider the time aspect of a sales process, we often take an acute view of what that means, we usually attribute it to one thing. When is the deal going to close? But there are several different timeframes you need to focus on. If you’re going to set GREAT Expectations and ultimately moving an opportunity across the finish line. I like to focus on three specifically. What now? What’s next? And what’s the end game?

What now focuses on the timeframe at hand, whether it’s the initial call discovery demo or you’re at the closing table. Your prospect is always thinking, how long is this going to take? Make sure that at the beginning of each conversation, you’re laying out the timeframe for the call or tasks associated and you’re getting feedback and better yet, buy-in. This is so simple, but often we blow right past it. You should always be saying something along the lines of, “Hey Jermaine. I know we’ve got 30 minutes on the calendar. Is that still good? If we go long, do you have extra time or is our stop a hard one?” Once you’ve completed the current step on time hopefully, it’s important to let your prospect know what’s next. Always, always, always set concrete mutually agreed-upon next steps. That means a date, a time, and a purpose that all parties involved are available for agreed to and have committed to participate in.

Did I say always? Cause I mean it, even if it’s your just checking incall, which I wish we’d eliminate from our vocab, have a purpose, get agreement and schedule it. There’s magic in the relationship between what’s now and what’s next. The more you set the table accordingly deliver as promised and continue to do so at every step, the more your prospect grows to expect it. They will thank you for keeping them organized. And if they ever goes to you, your in the driver’s seat to hold them respectfully accountable.

Lastly, actually firstly is making sure that everyone knows the end game. Think about trying to run a marathon without knowing where or how far the finish line is. The mental anguish of running just to run seamlessly without an end is no different than what your prospects feel when they have no idea when the deal should be ready to move forward. Set a deadline, one that’s reasonable wink, wink chip tick number two, and constantly check-in to make sure you’re on pace. If you’re not press hard for unmet obligations by your prospect before kicking the deadline down the road, otherwise it was a pointless deadline to begin with.

I hope you think this series has been great. All jokes aside. If you’re having problems with longer sales cycles, getting stuck in pending hell or opportunities falling off, do a self-audit and ask. Am I being Granular, Reasonable, Explaining providing, Alternatives and have concrete Timeframe. The more you do, the less of these problems you will have.

Scott Ingram: Let me tell you how much Timeframe matters. As I record this I don’t know how long it will be before Austin Water is able to restore service. Hopefully, this all gets resolved this weekend.

For more from Jack Wilson and this full series of tips, just click over to DailySales.Tips/762. I’m also going to create a Spotify playlist with this complete series of tips that you can get to directly at DailySales.Tips/GREAT

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

“We shouldn’t be ever trying to really truly sell ourselves on LinkedIn or brag about a product that we have or a new product release or something.” – Katie Mullen in today’s Tip 761

What do you learn about the LinkedIn Algorithm?

Join the conversation below and share your thoughts!

Katie Mullen on LinkedIn
Katie Mullen on Instagram
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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. As I record this I have power again, thank goodness, but now our water is out. Nothing like living in a disaster, but… the show must go on. Today’s tip comes from Katie Mullen. Katie is the founder of MMS Consulting, which provides specialized research, sales training, and consulting. Prior to founding MMS, Katie spent many successful years carrying her own quota and selling into multiple different industries, including medical devices, reinsurance, fund-raising, and online media. She also earned the #3 spot in the most recent LinkedIn Sales Stars update. Here she is:

Katie Mullen: So the LinkedIn Algorithm, it is a very tricky situation there to navigate that. And a lot of the things that we do on different social platforms that we think are going to work actually don’t work very well on LinkedIn. So I spent a lot of time over the past six months or so learning about the LinkedIn Algorithm. I really wanted to make sure that I understood it and was doing it right so that I could try to get, you know, more leads, more engagement, more interactions. And so I invested in myself and enrolled in a pretty expensive course and spent a ton of time studying and tweaking and trying and researching. And here’s some of the stuff that I learned that I think that would be helpful for other people to learn as well.

So number one, the LinkedIn Algorithm actually does not want us to post links to something outside of LinkedIn. This is probably the most important thing that we should do because it actually punishes us for this. And so if you’ve ever noticed, there are certain people who will they’ll post like a video message or even just a text post that does really well. It gets a ton of engagement and a ton of use. And then they’ll post a couple of days later, there’ll be thinking, “Oh good, I’m starting to get some real interaction going.” And then they’ll post something new. And at this time it will not go over well at all. And that’s because it’s a link to something outside of LinkedIn. LinkedIn actually punishes us for doing that. It does not want us to go outside of their platform.

So text posts do really well on the LinkedIn Algorithm. If you are going to post something to outside, for example, if you have a podcast and you want to promote it, do a text post, and then in the comment section, you can post something specific to, or post your link that you need to people to go to.

Now, let’s start to talk hashtags. So with LinkedIn, I’m sorry with Instagram and places like that, you know, the more hashtags, the better with LinkedIn, you really don’t want to get very many hashtags going. A lot of people say too, I’ve had good luck with up to four or five, but you definitely don’t want to get more than that. And there is a way within LinkedIn that you can go search for hashtags and see how often they’re used because sometimes you’ll think you’re doing a good hashtag. And then it turns out there’s like, you know, 25 followers of that or something.

So go to the search feature and type in the hashtag and type in the number signs with a hashtag symbol and then whatever it is that you’re, that you’re thinking about using, and then it will show you how many followers that are of that. I would make sure that you’re not using a hashtag unless it’s got at least, you know, tens of thousands of followers. Otherwise, it’s just a waste of a hashtag and a waste of your, of your space.

And then as far as the rest of the LinkedIn Algorithm goes what it really wants is people to provide value. We shouldn’t be ever trying to really truly sell ourselves on LinkedIn or brag about a product that we have or a new product release or something. LinkedIn is really rewarding people who are providing value and it’s about branding. So you’re really branding yourself as you’re doing this. And you’re trying to show yourself as an expert. And then hopefully when they go to your profile, that’s where you can sell yourself. In your summary, you can talk about yourself and your job description. You can talk about yourself. So hopefully somebody will get value out of your content, go to your profile, to check out who you are. And then they’ll feel like, “Oh, you know, actually hired this person to do such and such for me.” So, anyway, that’s just a little bit about that I’ve learned about the LinkedIn Algorithm that’s working for me, and I hope it works for you too.

Scott Ingram: For more about Katie, including of course a link to connect with her on LinkedIn, just click over to DailySales.Tips/761

Once you’ve done that. Be sure to come back tomorrow, to see if my water has come back on and for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“If you hit these four items, I think that you are doing all you can to set your salespeople up for success.” – Zeeshan Hafeez in today’s Tip 760

How do setting your sales team up for success?

Join the conversation below and check out the full interview with Zeeshan!

All Things Sales Success – Zeeshan Hafeez on Sales Team Success
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. The audio on this might not be at the usual level because I haven’t had power in over 30 hours, but the show must go on. Today’s tip comes in the form of a clip from my recent webinar interview on All Things Sales Success with Zeeshan Hafeez, Chief Revenue Officer at VeeMed and one of the best most innovative sales leaders I know. Here he is.

Zeeshan Hafeez: I think that bringing people into our culture adds is very important. I think building a foundational element, that’s going to set salespeople up for success is very important. My sales system is unique, Scott. You know that. It’s based off, of four fundamental items that I think are important to every single salesperson. I think that if you hit these four items, I think that you are doing all you can to set your salespeople up for success. I think things like not micromanaging them, giving them flexibility, allowing them to work from home. These are all table stakes. These are things that we don’t really need to talk about. But I think when we talk about the four major hallmarks of my system.

One is compensation. I think that this is something that sometimes people don’t want to talk about it. They don’t want to really say, Hey, salespeople are in it for the money while the fact is yes. Money matters. And so we shouldn’t be afraid of that. It’s not a bad word. It’s nothing wrong with making money in sales. And I think that on top of that, talking about, you know, some top performers, I’ve talked to top performers that were at Oracle that did mega deals. I’m sure you might even know who I’m talking about. One of the reasons they leave these companies is because they get capped on their commissions. And so why they’re closing mega deals should they get capped on commission? So create a system that has uncapped commissions that allow you to make as much money as you contribute to the organization. I talked to a lot of sales reps that are disappointed in their careers because they get leveled up or they don’t get compensated fully for what they’re doing. So that’s number one.

Number two is rewards. You know, not just warning people from a compensation perspective, but finding other ways to award them as well, to keep them engaged, awarding them for the right behaviors, rewarding them for hitting targets as a team that will allow you to align them to success.

Number three is recognition. Recognizing salespeople, salespeople need to be recognized for their achievements when they do something good salespeople. I think if you recognize them for small wins, big wins, getting. At early stages, it’s about calling out the early meetings or the early deals that get into the pipeline. When you start to build this momentum, people start to get excited and builds positivity. The best thing you can do in a locker room is have positivity around teammates, having success, and then building on that success.

The fourth thing, I think that’s unique to my system, but it is something that’s missing from most sales organizations as a whole. I wish this is something that people would really fix is the ability to promote and advance your premiere career to a very fast pace. My system provides unlimited career growth at extremely accelerated pace. And most companies I’ve been at Scott. A lot of people leave companies like Google and Microsoft because they get leveled to a point where they can’t really grow, or it takes them too long to increase their levels.

To be honest, I had a great rep on my team at Google. One of the best reps I had, he left to go to Amazon because he was able to jump two levels, which would have taken him years to do approval, and do it would never give that to him. And that’s just silly. If someone is performing at a certain level, you should reward them. And that’s why I look at promotions on a quarterly basis. There’s no limits, how many promotions you can get in my system. And at the same time, people that joined my system are able to have unlimited critic growth potential. That’s something that’s very important to their careers and keeping them at the company as a whole.

Scott Ingram: You can hear my full interview with Zeeshan, on yesterday’s bonus episode of Sales Success Stories. Check that out and come on back tomorrow to see if my power is back on and for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening.