“If you want to sell more, if you want to enjoy it more, confidence will make that happen and confidence comes from practice.” – Tom Bloomer in today’s Tip 999

What sales kick will you begin to practice today?

Join the conversation below and share your thoughts!

OK Boomer, Teach Me Sales
Bloomer Associates
Teach Me Sales Book
Submit a Sales Tip

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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 Tom Bloomer. Tom has been a proven sales leader for over 30 years. Starting as an entry-level sales rep, he eventually worked as VP of Sales for three of the leading direct mail advertising companies in the country. He also hosts the popular sales podcast, Ok Boomer, Teach Me Sales. Here he is:

Tom Bloomer: Few salespeople will work hard enough to succeed, but that’s not you. You’re listening to this daily sales tip because you want to succeed. Martial artist Bruce Lee once said, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick, 10,000 times.”

What one sales kick should you be practicing today? How is your current value statement? When was the last time you really listened and refined it? When was the last time you sat down and truly practiced it? Does your value statement get delivered with confidence, pride, enthusiasm in a smile? Or do you kind of stare off to the side as you try to remember exactly what it was you wanted to get across? How is your opening? You know we all work so hard to get in front of key decision-makers, when we do, are we ready? Do we have that strong opening statement we need to make? Do we have it perfect? Can you do it in your sleep right now?

Let’s talk about objections.

Which objections seem to pose the most difficult for you to overcome. Which objections seem to just stop your sales call and bring it to a halt? It’s easy to think that there are literally thousands of objections out there, but with most in their sales process, there are a half dozen to a dozen key objections that we need to overcome on a regular basis.

How are you overcoming them? Are you practicing how you overcome them? Do you have visual materials or stories that really help overcome each of those objections? And are you practicing them until you can deliver them with that same confidence, enthusiasm, and a smile? Are there key materials in your sales presentation? Whether you’re presenting online, over the phone, or face to face, with each of those key materials, have you practiced what it is you want to get across as you show them?

Hey, if you want to sell more, if you want to enjoy it more, confidence will make that happen and confidence comes from practice.  Les Brown said, In the power of purpose, you don’t have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great. Few salespeople will work hard enough to succeed, but that’s not you. Today get started. What sales kick will you begin to practice today?

Scott Ingram: For links to connect with Tom and to get his brand new book: Teach Me Sales, just click over to DailySales.Tips/999.

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

“Be the customer of your customer.” – Ashley Welch in today’s Tip 998

Are you a customer of your customer?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Ashley!

Somersault Innovation
Naked Sales
Sell By Design Online
Somersault Innovation on LinkedIn
Somersault Innovation on Twitter

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 Ashley Welch. Ashley is the Co-Founder of Somersault Innovation and the Co-Author of Naked Sales: How Design Thinking Reveals Customer Motives and Drives Revenue. She’s endlessly curious to understand the “why” behind people and their ideas and has spent most of her 20-plus- year career in sales working with global companies to inspire collaboration and innovation and is always thinking of new ways to solve a problem or create something captivating. Here she is:

Ashley Welch: Be the customer of your customer, so that you can have an experience of being their customer and then share that with them. You learn all sorts of good information and your customer is going to be curious what you learn. So a couple examples, we’re working with a client right now. They do something called in response tests that’s essentially being a customer of their customer. They’ll go online to their prospect or customer. They will write in a query and see how fast it takes them to respond. They collect that data. They can compare it to their competitors, for example, and then they can serve that back to their customers and say, “Hey, I had this experience trying this out, and this is what I learned.” It’s a great way to get information, and it’s a great way to connect with your customer prospect.

Another example I love is we were working with an executive at Salesforce, and he was selling his house. So he was actually a real customer of a real estate agency who was also his prospect. So he had this experience of selling his house with this realtor, real estate company, and he had all sorts of things to share. So when he got in the room with his executive at this real estate company, he said, “Actually, I don’t really want to tell you about Salesforce right now. I want to tell you about my experience as a customer.” And he said it completely changed the game in terms of the conversation. And he ended up getting the deal. But it started from this conversation that was very authentic about his relationship to the brand versus what he was selling.

So check it out. Be creative. Find different ways to be your customer’s customer.

Scott Ingram:  For links to learn more about Somersault Innovation, Ashley’s Naked Sales book, and more, just click over to DailySales.Tips/998

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

“If you do that for a bunch of contexts, you’ll be able to blast through your dials a lot faster than the rest of the competition.” – Nick Cegelski in today’s Tip 997

How do you navigating phone trees?

Join the conversation below and check out the links!

SurePoint
Nick Cegelski on LinkedIn
30 Minutes to President’s Club Podcast
Nick Cegelski on Sales Success Stories
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 Nick Cegelski. Nick is a Senior Account Executive and the host of the 30 Minutes to President’s Club podcast. Here he is:

Nick Cegelski: One of the least exciting parts of making cold calls is navigating phone trees, but you should never manually navigate a phone tree again. What I mean by that is if you’re cold calling Scott and you’ve found that in order to navigate the phone tree. You need to hit 1. You need to hit 7. You need to spell Scott’s last name, and then you need to hit #.

Save that path or the inputs that you need to put into the phone on Scott’s Salesforce or CRM record, so that the next time you call Scott, you don’t have to listen to the phone tree and navigate the menu. You just know the buttons to hit. If you do that for a bunch of contexts, you’ll be able to blast through your dials a lot faster than the rest of the competition.

Scott Ingram: To connect with Nick on LinkedIn and for a link to the 30 Minutes to President’s Club Podcast, just click over to DailySales.Tips/997 and you’ll find everything you need there.

“Just giving myself a deadline create some really clear expectations for myself. ” – JoBeth Hanak in today’s Tip 996

How you’ve learned about yourself?

Join the conversation below and connect with JoBeth on LinkedIn

JoBeth Hanak on LinkedIn
2021 Sales Success Summit

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 JoBeth Hanak. JoBeth has been in sales for almost 6 years after moving from being a top personal trainer to now a top SAAS seller. She’s most recently moved into an enterprise BDR role selling dispute management software. Here she is:

JoBeth Hanak: Hey everyone, I’m going to be talking about the importance of learning about yourself. So for me, I’ve learned so much about myself throughout my career and what I need to be successful, and that makes it so much easier to be able to ask for what I need, especially when starting a new role. So I’m very process-driven, and that means that I either need to follow an established process or I need to create a new one. I’m not someone who can just wing it, and that’s not good or bad. It’s just how I’m wired, and that’s totally fine. And whenever I learned about myself that I need a process, I was able to replicate success.

So I started my career at a company that they had a very established process. They had great training, and so I was able to come in, and I had some really quick success, and I was consistently a top rep the entire time that I was there. Eventually, I moved on to another company, and I loved working there. But they did have a younger sales organization, and so they just didn’t really have their process nailed down yet, which worked for them. They had some really talented salespeople working for them that did extremely well. But for me, I came in and I had a really rough start because I was pretty much just trying to do whatever everyone else was doing and hoping that I would have the same results.

So what I ended up doing was I had a meeting with my manager and we sat down and we talked about what I needed to be successful. So I thought about a time when I was successful, and then I thought about what made me successful in that situation. What cause difficulties? What helped me overcome those difficulties? And, you know, it’s funny. Like the same month, like I made that change at the beginning of the month. And same month, I went from being super scared for my job to being a top rep, and I was able to do that the rest of my time there.

So another example I wanted to give Scott, you’re going to love this. Scott asked me to do this podcast, like, 2 to 3 weeks ago, super stoked about it. But I got super anxious because I’m a procrastinator, and it’s just how I am. I pretty much got through College by setting a little many due dates for myself on big projects. So, you know, if I agree to do something and there’s not a deadline, then I just get super anxious that I’m not doing it and I feel incredibly guilty even though there’s, like, I don’t know.

So what I have learned that I really need to do is whenever I agree to do something is, I need to be like, “Great. I would love to do that for you. I will have it done by Monday.” Just giving myself a deadline create some really clear expectations for myself. Very similar with how creating processes for sales really helps with my anxiety. And having a clear way to go about things. And being able to learn these things about myself really helps me be able to communicate it to others to improve my business relationships. In addition to, of course, my sales success.

So literally love talking about all this. I’d love to hear from you about how you’ve learned about yourself, because maybe then I can learn about myself through you. So thank you so much. I hope you have a good one today.

Scott Ingram:  Today JoBeth will be with us at the Sales Success Summit where we’ll all be learning more about ourselves, and as always we’ll have a link for you to connect with JoBeth on LinkedIn at DailySales.Tips/996

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

“Block some time, get registered, and join the conversation.” – Scott Ingram in today’s Tip 995

Join the conversation below and register for the Livestream!

2021 Sales Success Summit

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 starts the biggest week of my year. Later this afternoon I’ll start welcoming the speakers and in-person attendees to this year’s Sales Success Summit and we’ll spend the next two days learning from the best of the best in sales. Not the best-selling authors or people who talk about sales for a living, but real top-performing quota-carrying sales professionals who are all at the top of their game right now.

You may have also noticed that this is episode 995 here on Daily Sales Tips, though that part might be a little bit anti-climatic as we build towards episode 1,000 and the 5 year anniversary of Sales Success Stories at the same time.

My tip for you today though is just to register for the Livestream. I know many of you already have, but if you haven’t you’re crazy. Go to Top1Summit.com. Thanks to our sponsors you’ll be able to watch every one of these presentations on Monday and Tuesday, not only that, but they’ll collectively be contributing $5 to UNCrushed in support of mental health awareness for every single person who registers. I’m also doing one other thing I’ve never done before and we’re going to make all of the presentations available on-demand for a limited time after this year’s Summit.

In previous years if you didn’t watch live you had to pay for access, but this time we’re going to open things up for a while. All you have to do is register for the Livestream for access at Top1Summit.com or you can just click over to DailySales.Tips/995 for links and a transcript.

Even if you’re watching virtually I think this is going to be a very very different experience from just about everything else you’ve watched over the last 18 months or so, because our presenters will be in a room with a real live audience, which just changes the energy. Hopefully, we remember how to even deal with that. So come join us virtually. You’ll actually be able to converse with other attendees during the Livestream and I’m working on some ideas to reward the most engaged participants.

So block some time, get registered, join the conversation, and even if you’re hearing this too late, you should be able to jump over to Top1Summit.com to get access to the presentations on-demand. Thanks as always for listening and be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip!

“When you do all the work ahead of time to create the space for yourself to make the selling part easier, wonderful things happen, and you never lose engagement with your prospect along the way.” – Jeff Bajorek in today’s Tip 994

How do you make your sales process?

Join the conversation below and check out the links!

Sales Success Summit
[email protected]
Books by Jeff Bajorek
Jeff’Bajorek on LinkedIn
The Why And The Buy Podcast

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 Jeff Bajorek, who will also be hosting a whole series of hallways conversations at the Sales Success Summit on Monday and Tuesday. Stay tuned at the end for more about that. Here’s Jeff:

Jeff Bajorek: Prospecting, discovery, and follow-up are all closely related in the sales process, and they’re related by this common thread of you trying to learn something. Now, I’m sure you’ve thought about that from a discovery standpoint before, because that’s literally the definition, right? But when it comes to prospecting and follow-up, are you trying to learn something too, or are you just throwing statements out there hoping that something is going to dazzle your prospect and compel them to call you back?

Think about that.

Questions tend to start conversations while statements tend to end them. So use both judiciously. So where do those questions come from? Those questions should come from your differentiators. Look, if you cannot differentiate, you cannot sell. So what a better place to start? Is there even a better place to start than that?

Here’s my exercise for you today, I want you to write down your three, four, maybe your five biggest differentiators between you and all of your competitors in the marketplace. The competitors, the other companies, the solutions that attempt to solve for the same issue that you solve for. And then underneath each one of those differentiators, I want you to write three or four, maybe five questions that would start a meaningful conversation about why your differentiator is so valuable.

So let me give you a quick example.

I create custom sales training programs for teams, and so one of my questions might be, Mr. or Miss, Vice President of Sales. What are you doing with your team to ensure that they not just get training, they get training that meets their needs where they are so that it is most easily comprehended and then put into use? That’s a question that’s going to make someone think.

So, if you can write down three or four differentiators, you can write down three or four questions for each one of those differentiators that might start a conversation. You’ve got anywhere between 9 and 16 questions that you really want to ask your prospect so you can learn a little bit more about their situation. Right?

Here’s the trick. I guess it’s a trick. It seems pretty straightforward to me. You can use those questions in your prospect and cadence. You can use those questions in between meetings or maybe if you haven’t scheduled the next step after the first meeting with your prospect, when you need to follow up, go back to that bank of questions and ask some more. You know, what’s really interesting, too, is when you do get that discovery meeting. Those are exactly the questions that you’re trying to ask.

If you do this work ahead of time, you create an environment where your prospect knows you’re trying to learn something about them so they feel validated. They feel heard. They feel seen. That’s important for developing that relationship. When you get into the discovery call, this is a great jumping-off point for starting a conversation so that you can then put yourself in a position to really go down rabbit holes in that conversation where it’s necessary and where it’s going to be beneficial. And it’s also giving you really meaningful and engaging steps for follow up when they just don’t seem to be calling you back and you don’t know what to say because that’s the toughest part about follow up is you haven’t thought ahead enough about what you’re going to do to follow up.

So when you do all the work ahead of time to create the space for yourself to make the selling part easier, wonderful things happen, and you never lose engagement with your prospect along the way. So I don’t know if you’ve ever made that connection before. I hope you understand that connection now. Go out and use it.

Scott Ingram: I mentioned at the top that Jeff will be hosting hallways conversations at the Sales Success Summit, like he’s done a couple of times before. To get access to those, make sure you’re subscribed to the Sales Success Stories podcast where we’ll be releasing those as quickly as we can. They typically come out on the same day!

As always, for links, just click over to DailySales.Tips/994 and then, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Be sure that you understand that each stage is clearly defined. Number two, have someone test your assumptions. And number three, validate your progress with the customer.” – Steve Gielda in today’s Tip 993

How do you avoid opportunities from stalling in your pipeline process?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Steve!

Steve Gielda on LinkedIn
Ignite Selling

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 Steve Gielda. Steve is a global Sales Enablement expert that has helped over 15,000 sales and marketing professionals improve their field effectiveness. Working with clients in the IT, Finance, Medical Device, and Pharmaceutical markets, he and his team have helped their clients identify and exceed their key business metrics. Here he is:

Steve Gielda: So here are three tips on how to avoid opportunities from stalling in your pipeline process. The first tip is to ensure that each stage of your pipeline process is clearly defined. Too often we work with customers that have some very generic headings for each of their stages, but they’re not defined much beyond that. It’s okay to have a stage called prospecting or inquiry or demonstration or negotiation, but those terms are too vague, and they mean different things to different people. So we would encourage you to be sure that each stage is clearly defined by a set of strategic actions or milestones. We call a critical milestone, a strategic action that if not accomplished, puts the opportunity at risk. That risk could mean it stalls, or it could mean even worse that it’s lost. So think about what are the critical actions or critical milestones that define each stage? What are the things that you must accomplish in stage one or stage two or stage three? That if those things are not done, puts the opportunity at risk? So that’s kind of my first tip here for you guys.

My second tip is to have someone test your assumptions, whether it be a manager, whether it be a peer. Have somebody test your understanding that those critical milestones have, in fact, been done. So, for example, if one of your critical milestones is to in fact develop a proactive strategy to neutralize in the adversaries, how do you know that’s really been done? Talk it over with someone because we can, If we’re really close to the account, we can actually make assumptions that people are, in fact, been neutralized or removed from the influence or have less influence or maybe have been conditioned to come more on our side and or maybe moving more towards that side of the advocacy because we’re so close to it. Have someone test your assumptions. Have them ask questions that you may not be thinking about to validate that the milestones that you have put forth in each stage have, in fact, been completed. One of the worst things that we can do is assume that certain things have been done to its fullest capability, only to find out later on that they haven’t been done. For example, if we find out that it’s important for us to one of our critical milestones is to identify the decision criteria our customers using to compare us against the competition. One of the things we often find out is that those things are not fully vetted, and therefore when we come to a decision and we lose. We often will blame price, but really, in reality, we come to find out we never really understood the different decision criteria of the top two key influencers. So have somebody validate or test your assumptions.

And the last tip that I have is to validate your progress in the process with an advocate inside the account. So check with them. If there are critical milestones that need to be done, such as, you need to understand what the critical business metrics are of your client. Well, test those. Test those with your advocate. Test with your advocate whether or not certain other adversaries are neutralized. Test your understanding around the decision criteria. Test your understanding around any potential objections that might be, that might have come up. So validate things with your customer. What you’ll gain from is we got a lot more clear insights, many additional clear insights as to really where you are.

So those are just three tips. Be sure that you understand that each stage is clearly defined. Number two, have someone test your assumptions. And number three, validate your progress with the customer. I hope these help and I look forward talking to you soon.

Scott Ingram: For links to connect with Steve and Ignite Selling, just click over to DailySales.Tips/993 and we’ll have everything for you there. Once you’ve clicked over there, be sure to click back here tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Things will get better and then bad things might happen again. But then things will get better again.” – Devon Banks in today’s Tip 992

What do you believe that the average sales professional would think is crazy?

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

Devon Banks on Sales Succes Stories Interview
Devon Banks on LinkedIn
HAAS Alert

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 my most recent interview on the Sales Success Stories podcast with Devon Banks who is the top SDR at HAAS Alert. Give a listen:

Devon Banks: I think you know what I believe that maybe the average person might even think is crazy. Is that really you can’t fail. There is no such thing as failure. And I think anyone can look back on your life and you can see where those monumental failures were down even to those very small failures and how those actually paved the way to your future successes. So even when you get hung up on, even when you get told, you know where you should go, it’s not the nicest place. Even when you lose your job or you put your foot in your mouth, all of those things, all of those what you looked at at the time, were failures really were the path to exactly where you are supposed to be. And I think you start to look at the perspective of your life like that. That when you stop, when you can let go of those failures, and until you can let go of that, you can’t move forward. So some people might think that that’s crazy because they want to evaluate those failures. And I don’t think that you should just, don’t forget the lessons that you’ve learned, but don’t hang on to them. You got to always be moving forward.

Scott Ingram: Yeah. That’s really good stuff. You’re reminding me of one of the stories that I contributed myself to the first Sales Success Stories book is called Fired Up. By the time that I got fired, and it could have been a monumental failure. It could have sent me down a completely different path. But I think it’s also about how you frame it and how you look back on it and how you take the lessons from it.

Devon Banks: Yeah. I think that, we’re in this society now where I really think that this kind of toxic positivity has gone really far and that people can’t even say, this really bad thing happened to me, that they do have to look back on it. I think maybe it sounds like I’m contradicting myself and that you can’t look back at and say, this really bad thing happened. Now, this good thing happened. You can’t talk about those bad things and you can be in a rut. You don’t always have to be like I said, you don’t always have to be getting better and better every. But at the same time, you have to realize that like I said earlier as well, this is not forever. This is for right now, and things will get better and then bad things might happen again. But then things will get better again. So it really is the big picture.

Scott Ingram: For my full interview with Devon in episode 129 of the Sales Success Stories podcast, just click over to DailySales.Tips/992 and we’ll have a link to that as well as a link for you to connect with Devon on LinkedIn where she’s appeared over and over again on our LinkedIn Sales Stars list.

Once you’ve checked that out, make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast so you can check out tomorrow’s tip. I’ll talk to then. Thanks for listening!

“Expect that you’re going to hear “No” at least twice late in any deal.” – Scott Ingram in today’s Tip 991

Are you ready to step up and respond to that test?

Join the conversation below and check out the links!

2021 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. Today as my team and I work through the last few days of bringing together this year’s Sales Success Summit experience I thought I’d talk about the final push. Those last few steps in a big deal that you’ve been working on for months or that complex project that’s finally coming together. There’s a special mindset required because what appears on paper to be just the last 5 or 10 percent of that effort can feel like close to 50 percent. It gets tough as you get down close to the goal line. The first thing for me is to prepare for that. To be paranoid in a productive way and think about what could go wrong.

This is the point where you really want to increase your communication and make sure that you’ve got access to as many people as possible. You also want to be communicating well internally to make sure that your own team is aligned, knows what’s going on, and is in a position to help if needed. I like to prepare that team to be challenged as well. They need to know that there’s a good chance things are going to get a little crazy and might try to go sideways and it’s our job to react quickly, creatively, and professionally.

I got some really great advice early in my sales career that has served me extraordinarily well, and that’s to expect that you’re going to hear “No” at least twice late in any deal. You should actually worry if you’re not getting pushback. If you expect these No’s they’re so much easier to deal with. You realize that they’re just a door opener to what’s really going on. To what’s really behind those final sticking points. They’re something you’ll need to respond to and adjust for, and not a sign that all is lost and it’s time give up and walk away.

This is where the true champions emerge. This is the real test of your process, your mindset, your creativity, your ability to work with your team and with your future customer. Of course, it’s not always like that. Sometimes all the work you’ve done pays off and everything goes smoothly, and it’s awesome to be able to enjoy those experiences as well, but more often than not you’re probably going to be tested in that final push.

Are you ready to step up and respond to that test? That’s the game, and man do I love this game.

Thanks for listening to me today. Thanks for listening to and sharing this podcast, and as always, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip!

“Transaction is the seller’s ability to transfer their belief to the buyer of the prospector that they would say yes to the product or solution you offer.” – Meshell Baker in today’s Tip 990

How is your transaction?

Join the conversation below and share your thoughts!

Meshell Baker on LinkedIn
Meshell Baker On Youtube
Meshell Baker on Facebook
Subscribe to Meshell’s Mailing List

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 Meshell Baker. Meshell is a certified sales confidence igniter and an authentic selling crusader. She helps business owners and sales leaders tap into the unlimited human potential to create diverse and inclusive culture change and disrupt the sales training status quo. Here she is:

Meshell Baker: Hello today’s sales tip is around the word transaction. So I wanted to talk about a challenge your perspective on what a transaction is. So for most people, transaction is an exchange of money. Goods of purchases are given from one person, the seller, and then the buyer transacts with a credit card or money. So that’s what makes it. When I look up the word. Because I’m always curious about words. When I looked at the word transaction, the root word trans is the moving of something from one place to another, and the action is an accomplishment of something and act. So you put it together and that’s what you have.

I’m going to challenge you instead of thinking about it as the moving of money from one person to another. Think about emotion. Think about transactions as you the seller, transferring your belief in your product or service to the buyer so that they also believe then they say yes, because people are emotionally driven to purchase. Research shown by Harvard upwards of 95% of the driver component of a sale is emotional. So when you begin to tap into someone’s emotions, they are more likely going to say yes. They’re more likely going to continue through the selling process if you have a longer sales cycle.

So tapping into that is vitally important in this day and age, where especially we have so many products that are the same or quite similar, right? Nothing is ever the same. And there’s so many options out there saying that you’re the best. If you have not tried everything in your industry, there’s actually a lie at this point. It’s disingenuous. So being authentic and honest about what you have to offer and aligning it with the challenge the problem as the solution to that potential prospect or buyer is everything. And one of the top ways to align with a prospect or a buyer is to tell a story.

Stories are very emotional. Storytelling is how we transfer history throughout the generations before the books were written, and it really does engage people. That’s what a movie is. A movie is a two and a half hour, you know, 90 minutes or two and a half-hour story. And when it’s done well, you forget you’re sitting in the theater and you’re engaged in the characters and you as a top-performing sales rep. You have that ability. Again, it goes back to that practice, and you have that ability. So start looking at some of your top buyers. Start looking at some of the testimonials, not just of yours but of your company and your colleagues and gather them. So you are prepared instead of telling that prospect of that buyer about the product. When they say, “Well, tell me more. Tell me what it does.” They’re not actually asking me to tell you what it does. What they’re wanting you to do is to convince them why? Why is a reason and a reason is emotional. Tell them a story.

You know, in a similar situation, I had a client just like you and they had this problem. This is what we did. This is what we decided. This is how we worked it out. And this is the solution that they came away with. Guess what? Your prospect of that buyer now sees themselves in a solution. They are leaning in. You’re excited about the opportunity that they get to work with you and you get to deliver this amazing outcome along with them not to hand off something and run away.

Now, having said that, that takes time and practice. And I know you are watching this because you’re a top performer or you’re desiring to be a top-performing and you are all over this. So I’m not worried. Looking forward to hearing those testimonials and those stories about how you became a masterful storyteller. So again, going back to how we began, transaction is the seller’s ability to transfer their belief to the buyer of the prospector that they would say yes to the product or solution you offer. Wishing you all the best and happy selling. Thank you.

Scott Ingram: For links to connect with Meshell and her website just click over to DailySales.Tips/990.

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