Our countdown of the Top 10 Tips from the first part of 2021 continues. Here’s #7.

746. 18% Increase in Acceptance of Proposal Using Video – Elias Crum

Our countdown of the Top 10 Tips from the first part of 2021 continues. Here’s #8.

764. Capturing Stories – Stephen Harvill

Our countdown of the Top 10 tips from the first part of 2021 continues. Here’s #9:

759. Stop and Recognize Your Wins to Build Confidence – Melinda Van Fleet

I’ve decided to kick off a Top 10 Series featuring the most popular tips from the first part of 2021 while I take a little time off for vacation with the family. Here’s the first one:

751. Putting the Customer First – To Save Our Profession – Todd Caponi

“What I want to do is I want to appear human. I don’t want to look like a machine, even though I’m going to use a machine to send a thousand of these, I don’t want it to look like I did.” – Patrick Joyce in today’s Tip 920

How about you? How do you get a meeting?

Join the conversation below and check out the interview with Patrick!

Patrick Joyce on LinkedIn
Patrick Joyce on Sales Succes Stories Interview

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 I’ve got another clip for you, this time from the latest episode of the Sales Success Stories podcast and this one is epic. I’m kind of known for doing long interviews on that show and this is the longest one yet. There’s a lot to it, but here’s just a taste from Patrick Joyce:

Patrick Joyce: If I’m going outbound and I’m trying to get meetings from a sales perspective. I’m a sales rep and I want to go get some meetings, either I’m an SDR, BDR, or I’m an Account Executive and I’m trying to build a pipeline that is a very, very different task than trying to do inbound marketing. And I feel like those two concepts get conflated a lot of the times. And I’ve done both. I mean, in my intro, like I skipped over the part where my stepbrother quit his job on the garbage truck. And while I was teaching, he was building his own business. And I built him a website and ran an Ad campaign and like generated a ton of business for him.

Now, I had no idea that I was doing marketing, that I was like writing… I didn’t know that’s what it was called. I was just hanging out on the internet. So I have a little bit of a background with marketing concepts. So I’m going outbound to do sales. I’m not that’s not what I’m doing. What I’m doing is I’m interrupting somebody’s day and trying to convince them that I have a new way to help them, something that they may have missed. And that’s like a very touchy subject, right? Like, it’s hard to not offend someone with that idea, especially if you’re a third-year SDR and they have no idea who you are, right?

So the first thing that I do is, number one, I strip down everything that makes me look like a rep. Remove the signature. No company logo. There’s no picture. There’s no links. There’s nothing. It’s plain text. I’m not going to give my title. I’m going to stay at the bottom of the email where the signature goes in plain text. I’m going to write Patrick Joyce, slash, name of company, slash, my phone number and that’s it. And I’m also going to make this message very, very short and succinct. It’s going to be three sentences. Max.

And the first sentence is designed to convince the person to read the second sentence and the second is designed to convince them to read the third and so on. Is the very basic copywriting techniques. Right? But what I want to do is I want to appear human. I don’t want to look like a machine, even though I’m going to use a machine to send a thousand of these, I don’t want it to look like I did. What I’ll do is I’ll make a mistake on purpose or I’ll use shorthand like one of my favorites is re with a colon, like regarding, r e colon. That’s like trademark Patrick Joyce. You know, curious if you open a chat, re-sales technology. Next sentence. “Acme was able to use us to decrease operational expenditure and get three hundred more rep hours per quarter the first six months if it makes sense when’s a good time to chat?” Send. Right. That’s my email and I’ll go to that, like I’ll go to that for every company. Right. Notice I didn’t even say who I work for or anything besides what the outcome that I got somebody else was.

Scott Ingram: This full nearly two and a half-hour interview is available as episode #124 on the Sales Success Stories Podcast and of course we’ll have a link for you as well as links for you to connect with Patrick Joyce at DailySales.Tips/920.

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

“We have been a sales-centric company from the beginning, and what we’ve done for benefit of our sales organizations is help them be buyer-centric.” – Mark Magnacca in today’s Tip 919

What’s your thought about this?

Join the conversation below and check out the full interview with Mark and Yuchun!

Mark and Yuchun on Sales Tech Podcast Interview
Mark Magnacca on LinkedIn
Yuchun Lee on LinkedIn
Allego
Mastering Virtual Selling 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. For today’s tip, I’ve got a clip for you from our most recent Sales Tech Podcast episode that features the co-founders of Allego: Mark Magnacca and Yuchun Lee. There’s a lot of really good stuff in this episode, but it was this one comment from Mark Magnacca that really got my attention. Check it out:

Mark Magnacca: I’ll tell you what’s unique. And it’s unique, actually, starting with Yuchun and I, is that he has a very technical background and I have a very sales-oriented background. So sales has been has literally had a seat at the table since the founding of the company. Not to mention that on our management team we have our number one salesperson who’s part of the management team. So in every company, in every prior to Allego, I also interact with a lot of technology companies, startup companies, and sometimes you had really smart technical founders who literally had never sold anything other than selling this vision of their company. And so because what Yuchun just described, we have been a sales-centric company from the beginning, and what we’ve done for benefit of our sales organizations is help them be buyer-centric. And when you put those two things together, it’s like you brought the art and the science together of this whole industry, thinking about the sales organization at the center of the circle and then helping the sales organization to put the buyer and the customer at the center of the circle. You do those two things and all of a sudden a lot of the secrets that have existed for so long, they sort of reveal themselves.

Scott Ingram: For the full interview with Mark and Yuchun as well as a link to their new book: Mastering Virtual Selling: Orchestrating Sales Success, just click over to DailySales.Tips/919.

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

“Once you start to learn about other people’s trades and also build curiosity, the relationship builds.” – Melinda Van Fleet in today’s Tip 918

How are you treating your sales relationships?

Join the conversation below and get a copy of her new book!

Life & Love Lessons
The Good Karma Success Coach
Melinda Van Fleet Website
Melinda Van Fleet on LinkedIn

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 Melinda Van Fleet. Melinda is an International Bestselling Author, Confidence & Peak Performance Coach, Speaker, and Podcast Host who works with businesswomen who desire to develop the confidence to level up their business/career or life and get results. Here she is:

Melinda Van Fleet: Have you ever seen someone’s post on LinkedIn that made you scratch your head? I bet you have and I bet we all have. I was on LinkedIn and saw a post from a sales coach that was hundred percent action and no relationship. Meaning she had a negative point of view around small talk with clients. I did a double-take. I did a double-take even as a fellow action taker. Yes, there are times when a specific client may talk for more time than your attention span can handle about something going on in their life, but it happens.

What does she do? Does she cut them off, not work with them anymore? And how does she advise her sales clients to handle that? And then I realize how big is her account base, because she just limited it. It makes you think, right? Realizing how other people are adapting is one of the strongest skill sets to acquire, build or evolve, we all have that power, but not everyone realizes it and maximizes it. I do believe the right people find you and connect with you based on your energy.

However, I also think there’s a balance between understanding yourself and understanding the other person. “See yourself as others” is one of my favorite quotes that I embody regularly and have mentioned in both of my books. I know I’m an action taker, and from there I can go further and layer in other personality traits that create my behavior and overall energy. I’m aware of where I am, my strengths, my weaknesses, and what I need to evolve. Taking the awareness further, I’m fully aware that no one else is exactly like me.

Once you start to learn about other people’s trades and also build curiosity, the relationship builds. You will authentically become connected and have rapport. A great tool I use is called Vag, there’s a section on my website, melindavanfleet.com, that has the free assessment that you can use. It’s an incredible place to start and once you start this mindset and behavioral shift, your relationships will grow. I love to talk about communication and I genuinely love to build relationships. It’s an innate passion of mine and I take it seriously. And if my coaching client, Nadya, wishes to update me on her sick cat for a few minutes, I’m OK with that. Are you?

Let’s take it from the very successful Mary Kay Ash. Pretend everyone has a sign around their neck that says, make me feel important. Not only will you succeed in sales, but you will succeed in life. Thanks for listening,

Scott Ingram: Melinda just released her second book: Life & Love Lessons and we’ll have links for you to get a copy of that and more when you click over to DailySales.Tips/918

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

“Maybe the most important thing that I did well in advance as I was planning this trip was to book a couple of additional days out of the office after I’m actually back from the trip.” – Scott Ingram in today’s Tip 917

Do you have a great vacation prep hack?

Join the conversation below and share your thoughts!

[email protected]
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. As we get into peak vacation season and as I get ready to take some time off myself, I thought I’d share a few ideas with you that help me prepare for fully unplugged time away.

Maybe the most important thing that I did well in advance as I was planning this trip was to book a couple of additional days out of the office after I’m actually back from the trip. This way, my out-of-office message provides air cover so I can more casually get caught back up without running headfirst into a wall of meetings and other demands so I can come back relaxed and not overwhelmed. We tend to go at it pretty hard with activities when we travel in my family. So this is quite literally that vacation from my vacation that we all joke about. This has made a huge difference for me in the past in actually achieving the whole rest and rejuvenation impact most of us are looking for from our vacations in the first place.

The rest is just prep. I’ll review my pipeline and think about anything that might come up while I’m out. From there, I’ll set up a review session with my VP to go through that list and where it makes sense, I’ll proactively give people a heads up and introduce them to my VP who is also my backup while I’m away. This is also a great opportunity to confirm status and ask what might be needed in the time that I’m away so we can get in front of any potential issues and keep deals progressing and avoid losing any momentum.

The last step is the out-of-office message, and I take this pretty seriously. Since thousands of you are on the listener list and get my weekly emails, I get to see a lot of out-of-office messages. Almost all of them are boring. And I’m sure I’ve talked about this before, but I try to have some fun with it. I’ll inject some of my personality and sense of humor because I want to make an impression. It is so easy to stand out with these because the bar is so low. I’m also going to use it to set expectations. And this is kind of the normal stuff. I’ll let people know when I’ll be back, who they can contact while I’m away. And I’m usually pretty aggressive about being clear that I’m completely unplugging while I’m away with my family and won’t be opening email until I return. For me, this actually takes discipline, but I really try to limit myself to one quick skim a day at the most. It’s even better if I only take a quick peek every few days and who knows, maybe I’ll make it all the way through without checking email because I’m only going to be away for a week. And it’s not like there aren’t other ways to reach me if something is truly, truly urgent.

What about you? Do you have a great vacation prep hack? I would love to hear about it. You can email me at [email protected]. You might even get an interesting out-of-office message. Just don’t be surprised if I don’t get back to you for a week or so. You know, you can also submit this as your own Daily Sales Tips. If you go to DailySales.Tips/Submit, that includes all of the instructions so that you can get featured on this podcast, and featuring listeners on this podcast is one of my very favorite things to do. So you should do that.

Anyway, I appreciate you listening to the show, and be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip.

“If you know why a buyer runs an RFP, you also know what your likelihood is to win business.” – Mark Schenkius in today’s Tip 916

Are you making sure you ask the appropriate questions before you enter into an RFP process again?

Join the conversation below and go check out the links!

ROI 10
The Other Side of Sales
Mark Schenkius on LinkedIn
771: RFP Motives – Mark Schenkius
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 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: In many RFP processes there is a so-called blackout period. Sellers are told not to talk to anyone else except the procurement person leading the process. I understand there’s always lots of debate on the sales side around what to do about this. And that makes perfect sense, because you have spent so much time putting a proposal together that it only feels fair that you are informed about the status of the project.

Firstly, I would like to say that if you haven’t done so already, I would recommend that you listen to Daily Sales tip #771. In this tip, I explain the motives behind an RFP process. If you know why a buyer runs an RFP, you also know what your likelihood is to win business. It will help you put things in perspective.

Secondly, no news doesn’t mean good news nor does it mean bad news. We often have the tendency to believe that no news is bad news which is not necessarily the case. I know that often these RFP processes lead to a “no decision”, however, don’t assume this is the case or you have lost already.

Instead, be aware that there is usually lots of internal debate throughout these RFP processes. Buyers believe the benefits are worthwhile changing supplier for while on the other hand, operational teams prefer to stick with the old supplier since change means higher workload and potential impact on service.

In the end, the full team needs to make a proposal to the senior leaders for approval hence the team needs to be aligned. This takes time. During this period, the risk is that you start compromising on your initial proposal out of fear of losing.

So, what to do about this? When you feel left in the dark, it’s ok to call the buyer and ask them. Please don’t send an e-mail since there is a high likelihood you will not get a response. Choose your words carefully when calling them. For example, you could say something like this:

As you might know, we have spent a lot of time with our team putting a proposal together that we believe suits your needs. Me and the rest of the team are very curious to hear what you think of it. Are you currently in the position to provide feedback to us?

If no, your follow-up question could be: Could you tell us at what stage you are currently in the process? Can you provide some more details on the expected timings?

Closing off with the question: Is there anything else you need from us currently? Are you ok if I call you again on date x to ask about the status of this project? As you know we are very eager to work with you.

If you can’t get through to your buyer, you could also use your own network to find out more.

Who in your organization might know someone in the buying team? A casually planned catch-up could already provide interesting information. Usually, the non-buying members of the buying team are not as commercially savvy as buyers are. Tread carefully though. You don’t want to upset the buyer here.

If all of this is not going to work, then I’m afraid you’re going to have to be patient this time and make sure you ask the appropriate questions before you enter into an RFP process again.

Good luck and 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/916

Once you’ve clicked over there, be sure to click back here either to continue your binge or for another great sales tip tomorrow. Either way, thanks for listening!

“Once you align yourself with the thing that you love doing, the opportunity is just absolutely endless.” – Bryan Elsesser in today’s Tip 915

Are you holding yourself back from President’s Club?

Join the conversation below and connect with Bryan on LinkedIn!

Bryan Elsesser on LinkedIn

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 Bryan Elsesser. Bryan is VP of Sales at SaaStr, and an accomplished sales leader and strategist, having led numerous successful high-velocity sales and sales development teams across SaaS, AdTech, and MarTech. He’s a thought-leader, champion of the sales community, and has twice been named a LinkedIn Sales Star by Sales Success Media (hey that’s us!) Here he is:

Bryan Elsesser: You, you’re the thing that’s holding yourself back from President’s Club. What do I mean by this? I mean that you will find anything to get in your own way. “Oh well, I had to file paperwork.” “Oh, the leads aren’t that great.” “Oh, man. I mean, they just never followed up with me. It was a no.” You have to do the work. Presidents Club is for those that put in the grind. That’s it. That’s the trick. That’s the secret sauce. But what does it really mean, means being organized. You need a system. You need to have a way that you can organize yourself so that you can know what you need to do to get there. You need to have routine. You got to be that person, I don’t care if you’re up at 5:00 a.m. or not, I hear those talks. That’s not for everybody. That’s for some people. But what is for everybody is getting into a routine. And that routine has to be the one that allows you to lean in. Three you got to align your passion.

Let me put something out there for you. If you’re not passionate about what you’re going to sell, you’re not going to sell it. That’s no secret sauce. That’s just truth. Right? Could you imagine being super passionate? What’s the number one thing that you have in your brain that you’re super passionate about? And you think about it and you digest it and you’ll love it. And you wake up in the morning and you think about it, you just want to do more of it and you want to sell more of it. You want to be a part of it more. That is how you sell more. That’s how you sell more. You have to be aligned.

If you wake up kind of dreading following up with prospects, kind of dreading the product that you’re selling. It’s quite possible that this is just not the right one. That’s OK. Believe it or not, there are thousands of people out there right now looking to hire you and they’re all different products and they’re all different companies. So do yourself a favor. Go get aligned with your passions. Go sell that. There’s always that advice out there that’s like once you are aligned with what you love to do and you do what you love to do, then the money will come. Then all the great things will happen. That’s the same thing in sales. There are so many things to sell. Once you align yourself with the thing that you love doing, man, the opportunity is just absolutely endless, endless, and then you got to outwork everybody.

Listen, I’ve never met a President’s Club winner that just did it, that woke up, didn’t put in the work, was blessed with God’s sales. Like it doesn’t work that way. You got to put in the work. You got to be able to wake up before everyone. Work before everyone, work later than everyone or be smart enough to come up with a process that outperforms everyone. But the work is has to be there. There’s no such thing as Presidents Club without the work. And I put one of the things out there for you.

You might think that you’re selling the top line product that you have, that you’re pitching large. Right? Chances are right now you’re pitching safe. There’s nothing wrong with that. If you know you’re going to have quick wins that you by pitching safes, you can have some quick wins and great, do it. But you need to be able to pitch large enough as well and with confidence that those big deals come along with the smaller ones. Because when you start getting like a roll of large deals, that is how you hit goals quicker. That is how you accelerate your earnings. That is how you take yourself to that next level. And then all the other deals that come and follow it are what catapult you above everybody else. You have to know how to sell large.

I put one other thing out there for you, Mister or Miss Presidents Club Seeker. You need to be able to develop relationships. You have to develop relationships. Look, people buy from people. That’s an old phrase that I think actually goes somewhat like, “Yeah, OK, I know,” but it’s actually true, right? When you develop a relationship with somebody, truly like a friendship with your prospects. Now, now some magic is going to happen because believe it or not, as long as you stay in a similar field in this industry, those people will be the people you sell to for the entire career, for your entire career you will always go back and farm that list if you do it right.

People that are building relationships that get this accelerate their network and have a laundry list, a huge, huge Rolodex of people to go and prospect into. These are a top sellers do. They own these things and by owning it, they know that when they wake up in the morning, they’re going to maximize their day and they’re going to outperform and outshine anybody else that comes up against them. And these are your President’s Club winners.

I put this out there for you. What I just described represents 1% of the sellers that are out there, 1%. Is not because we want it to be that way, not because that’s a rule, not because that’s a law, because only 1% of our profession is willing to do what it takes to get there. There’s room, right? There’s 99% of other people that probably strive or want or desire to be in the 1%. And so if that’s the case, do what it is to make that 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%. There is nothing holding you back but yourself. So get in the motion. Get in the mindset of going and crushing it.

Scott Ingram: For a link to connect with Bryan on LinkedIn, which you should do right now, just click over to DailySales.Tips/915

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