Leon Baumann is a Senior Account Executive and Client Champion at Dell Technologies. Leon’s focus at Dell Technologies and his career are both centered around being a Champion for his Clients. He is a firm believer Continue Reading …

I’ve got one more short update episode for you as we wrap up the year. We should be back with a new interview episode the first week of January, so make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast.

The first update is that the videos from the 2022 Sales Success Summit should be available just in time for Christmas. If you’ve already signed up and are waiting for those to be delivered. Keep an eye on your inbox. If you didn’t fill out the form at Top1Summit.com to get access to all of those videos for free, this is your last chance. You’ll need to do that before December 31st. After that, they’ll be going up behind a paywall. That said if you’re listening to this in 2023 and beyond. You can get a couple of access codes to individual videos by joining our mailing list at top1.fm. That’s T-O-P the number 1 dot FM, and the link to the summit page is available there as well. Hit pause and do that now if you haven’t already!

Now, if you’re looking to set yourself up for a super solid 2023 I’ve got an incredible offer for you in our All Access Pass and as I talk through this you can find the details at top1.fm/2023. You may have heard me say before that I’m really leaning into the community this year. In addition to our two-day Sales Success Summit next October, we’re adding another single-day event in May called Basecamp. Both events will feature presentations from the top performing sales professionals that you’ve heard here on this podcast and as excited as I am about both of those events, the thing I think is really going to make the biggest difference is the way we’re working to engage and connect the community in a more meaningful and impactful way. We just kicked off a gamified experience just for All Access Pass Holders that’s as much about bringing the community together as it is about public personal accountability and working together to execute at the highest levels.

I’ll make a quick distinction here on who I think this is and isn’t for. If you’re at a stage in your sales career where you’re not sure what you need to do, then this probably isn’t for you. If on the other hand, you know the things you need to do to be successful, you just need the appropriate peer pressure to get it done, then we built this for you!

Imagine surrounding yourself with the best of the best and others who are committed to taking their performance to the next level. Where there’s a strong dose of healthy competition and even some rewards along the way.

Right now, a solid percentage of these active community members are top performers who you’ve heard on this podcast. In fact, I was having a conversation with Luke Floyd who finished at 200% of his annual number again this year and he was talking about how all he’s going to focus on next year is the inputs. He’s going to control his controllables, because he knows that when he does the right things, the results come.

Jack Wilson shared that he wants to be who he says he is. I’ll let that one sink in for a minute, because it’s powerful. He wants to be who he says he is. Talk is cheap right? This community is about action and holding each other and ourselves to a higher standard.

I don’t know about you, but I need this myself. We don’t always get the right kind of support from our leaders. In the Sales Success Community, we’re all about supporting each other and helping each other win in the right way. We’re in this for the long haul. We see sales as our profession, as a craft and we’re committed to being better and doing better in a healthy and sustainable way.

A few people in the community are working to make sure they’re on the right path, because they may not be in the ideal position right now and we’re helping them find that place where they can thrive. In fact, I saw a great post the other day that said a bottle of water might be 50 cents in a bundle at Costco, it might be $3 at a restaurant and it might even be $6 at the airport. It’s the same bottle of water, but it’s valued differently based on the place. Are you in the right place and being valued appropriately?

If you’re in sales for the right reasons, and you have enough experience to know what you need to do, but you could benefit from a strong support system, then we built this community for you, and I’m underselling the heck out of it. Even if you can’t make it to the events that are part of this package, I’m confident that you’ll get a ton of value out of investing in yourself this way.

You’re welcome to use development dollars if your company provides funds for personal improvement, but I’ve personally found these experiences to be the most impactful when you invest in yourself. When you have some of your own skin in the game.

To put your skin in the game, to make that investment in yourself, just go to top1.fm/2023. As soon as you make that payment I’ll be in touch to get you plugged into the Sales Success Community Game so you can start realizing value right away.

And there’s one other thing that we’re offering for free as a bit of a trial, a bit of a test. Next week is the week between Christmas and New Year. A lot of companies are officially closed. It’s likely going to be a slow week. So I asked several members of the core Sales Success Community. The ones who’ve been on the podcast and continually give back and benefit from the community if they’d be willing to offer up some time to talk with podcast listeners in this down week. A bunch of them said yes, and this is your opportunity to have a conversation. To get some mentoring and help to make sure you’re on the right track for 2023.

If you’ll go to top1.fm/EOYCHATS for End of Year Chats, no spaces or anything just top1.fm/E-O-Y-C-H-A-T-S you’ll find links to book a conversation with David Weiss, Jacquelyn Nicholson, Dustin Brown, Chris McNeill, DeJuan Brown, Jack Wilson or myself. The hard part is that we’re asking you to only pick one of us. Of course, if you grab your All Access Pass you’ll have opportunities to interact with many of us one on one, but as our gift to you and a way to give back, we all wanted to offer up some time to see if we can help.

So let me give you one last rundown as a recap and repeat those links for you.

The 2022 Sales Success Summit videos will be coming out right before Christmas. Make sure you’ve filled out the form at Top1Summit.com

To get your All Access Pass and get into the inner circle of the Sales Success Community go to top1.fm/2023

And to book a complimentary session with one of these amazing community members, click over to top1.fm/eoychats

Make that decision, take an action, and take control of your success in 2023 and beyond. I’ll talk to you next year. Thanks for listening!

Thank you so much for listening and subscribing to the podcast. Rather than just skipping this week I thought I’d record a short update for you to share what’s going on and what you can expect over the course of the next few weeks.

Not everyone knows that all of this Sales Success stuff, this podcast, the Daily Sales Tips podcast, the Sales Success Summit, the books, and everything else is actually one big side hustle. Like many of you, I’m a quota-carrying sales professional, and while I’m well ahead of plan for the year I’ve still got quite a bit of pipeline to work through in these next 4 weeks before Christmas, as well as a lot of planning and prep to do to make sure that I’m all set for a successful 2023 as well.

If I’m really honest I’m also working through a bit of burnout having essentially worked 2 full-time jobs for the last 6 years! So I’m going to intentionally take my foot off of the gas with this podcast for the next few weeks, at least on the public side. I will be leaning into the paid Sales Success Community offering a bit more and you can learn more about that opportunity at top1.fm/2023

I’m also going to keep things going on the Daily Sales Tips Podcast side of things as well, though I’m sure we’ll do a big top tips countdown over there in a few weeks, as I’m going to try to completely take off the week between Christmas and New Years.

That’s it. I just wanted you to know that we’ll probably release just one last interview this year, and I’ll be resetting and gearing up to make 2023 our best year yet for you and for me.

Again, be sure to check out what’s going on over at top1.fm/2023 as the best way you can support this effort and yourself is to get involved there.

Oh, and I’m also working on booking more interviews, so if you or someone you know is going to finish as the outright #1 top performer for the year. Reach out and make an intro. To qualify, they must be in an individual quota-carrying role and have been a consistent top performer on a team of at least 5 sellers.

Thanks again for listening and I’ll talk to you soon!

In today’s bonus episode of the Sales Success Stories podcast I’ve got maybe the most unique share yet. Right after the Sales Success Summit in October my pipeline of tips for the Daily Sales Tips podcast was running quite low, so I asked some core members of the Sales Success Community to contribute some tips. Now if you’re a regular listener to that show, you may have heard a couple of these ideas from Jacquelyn Nicholson and Mike Simmons but the raw unedited version was so much fun I thought I’d just share the whole thing here. I’m going to have my audio editor make a few minor tweaks based on his judgement to clean up a couple of transitions, but other than that we’re going to keep it pretty raw and if you click over to top1.fm/JM for Jacquelyn/Mike, we’re going to include the full unedited video. Here they are, Enjoy!

I would love to hear what you thought of this? Would you be interested in having Jacquelyn and Mike do something like this again? Maybe you have a particular topic or question you’d like them to discuss. Let me know what you think. Drop me a note on LinkedIn or send an email to [email protected]. Remember the full unedited video is at top1.fm/JM and we’re still working on editing all of the videos from the Sales Success Summit, but if you hurry you can still sign up to get access to all of those for free at Top1Summit.com. Of course, that’s also where you can learn more about what’s coming up next year and how you can get involved in the Sales Success Community and interact directly with Jacquelyn and Mike. In fact, I was just looking at the list of All Access Pass subscribers and a full 1/3 of those core community members have been on the podcast and are by definition top 1% performers. I promise you won’t find that anywhere else, and there’s no better opportunity to surround yourself with the best of the best in sales. Top1Summit.com. Signup to get the videos and then learn how you can join the community in 2023. Thanks for listening!

Tim Zielinski is the RVP of Strategic Acquisition Sales at Dynatrace & the author of Sell with Swagger: The Quick-Hit Guide to Crushing Your Quota. Tim joins the show to share his career path from Java developer to SaaS leader and author. A lifelong individual contributor who has consistently crushed quota, Tim never thought he would end up in a management/leadership position. That is until he was given an opportunity he just couldn’t pass up. Tim is a Continue Reading …

In today’s bonus episode of the Sales Success Stories podcast I’ve got the first of a whole series of hallway conversations that Jeff Bajorek recorded at the Sales Success Summit. This first one is with Ian Koniak who opened up this year’s Summit with what turned out to be the top-rated presentation. We’re still working on editing those presentations, but to get access to them for free when they’re ready thanks to Outreach, Gong, and Sales Hacker, just click over to Top1Summit.com and fill out the form. Here’s Jeff and Ian:

I mentioned at the top that you can get access to all of the Summit presentation videos for free thanks to Outreach, Gong, and Sales Hacker at Top1Summit.com, and if you’re ready to invest in yourself and take your own results to the next level and join the Sales Success Community. Go to top1.fm/2023 where you can see what we’ve got on tap for next year and how you can get involved and reach out to Ian and Jeff, because they can certainly help you as well.

Andrew Claus is a Strategic Channel Manager and, through his partnership co-selling efforts, is the top-producing individual contributor at Kixie, the leading sales engagement platform that boosts sales team performance with ultra-reliable, easily automated calling and texting for Hubspot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, and other leading CRMs. Andrew is Continue Reading …

In today’s bonus episode of the Sales Success Stories Podcast, Jeff Bajorek is back with Scott Ingram to debrief the Sales Success Summit.

To learn more about what’s coming in 2023 and to get involved in the community, click over to top1.fm/2023 for details.

Perspective is everything, and nobody knows that more than today’s guest, Jason Walker. That’s because Jason recently went from President’s Club to being let go by his company, an event that would rock most people’s worlds. Instead of letting it get him down, Jason took this moment as an opportunity to pursue an idea that he’s had for a very long time. Hence, Jason’s self-described title of ‘Accidental Entrepreneur.’

Jason is a sales leader and tech founder who is commercially astute and vision-driven. He has over ten years of sales pipeline management, and operational strategy experience across a breadth of sectors – from renewables & environment through computer software, to e-learning. Jason is widely regarded for his propensity in leading business growth solutions, and today he joins the show to share his sales origin story, his journey to entrepreneurship, and challenges he anticipates facing as a first-time founder. Jason shares the top three things he attributes to his sales success, including gaining customer trust in a sincere way, understanding that context is king, and knowing the most about his product.

Jason gets specific, answering audience questions about how he thinks about crafting his pitch, what he thinks about developing competence and expertise, and what drove him to go ‘all-in’ on his idea. Jason speaks to navigating the sales process during product development, knowing when to share pricing with customers, and strategies for co-selling. Finally, Jason talks about the competitive landscape, the intentionality of spending more time with collaborators, and what has resonated with Jason the most throughout his time at the Sales Success Summit.

What We Covered:

00:24 – Scott introduces today’s guest, Jason Walker, who joins the show to share his unique journey from Sales to Entrepreneurship
07:20 – The top three things Jason attributes to his success
07:37 – Number One: Time to transparency – Gaining customer trust in a sincere way
08:06 – Number Two: Context is King
09:05 – Number Three: Know more about your product better than anyone else does
10:05 – Jason details his journey to entrepreneurship
12:17 – The process of getting to trust quickly
13:39 – The inflection point that led Jason to launch Keepsake
14:51 – Challenges Jason anticipates as a first-time founder
16:25 – How Jason thinks about crafting his pitch
18:01 – Developing competence and expertise
19:06 – What drove Jason to go ‘all-in’ on launching his own company
21:17 – Navigating the sales process during product development
22:46 – Knowing when to share pricing
23:38 – Jason’s sales origin story
25:18 – Healing, experience and challenges
26:25 – Strategies Jason employs to minimize the time to transparency
27:20 – The co-selling process, explained
28:40 – Choosing to spend more time with collaborators
30:16 – Understanding the competitive landscape
31:36 – Jason’s mindset going from President’s Club to being let go
33:19 – Why curiosity is the most important trait to have
34:53 – What has resonated the most with Jason throughout his time at the Sales Success Summit
35:29 – Scott encourages listeners to subscribe to the podcast for his follow-up interview with Jason Walker

Tweetables:

“I’ve been a ‘Sales Guy’ my whole life. I had no intentions of being an entrepreneur in any way, shape, or form. But, ideas happen and, if you’re like me, I’m a thinker, and sometimes ideas don’t leave. And if they don’t leave, they can turn into something different.” (03:27)

“Context is a full-circle thing. Context is understanding the problem well enough to be able to solve that problem in a meaningful way, but also making sure you’re explaining your things in a certain way.” (08:37)

“If you can come in as an expert – someone who knows this way better than them – you have the ability to provoke new thoughts, new lines of thinking, and new ways of thinking about the problem, which allows you to position your product in a much more unique and strategic way.” (09:17)

“One of the most powerful things you can do is own what you’re not. And own it, because either A.) you’re trying to sell to the wrong customer, or B.) they’re the right customer and they don’t care what you don’t do. Roadmap selling, future selling is just a disaster.” (21:50)

“So, going through these challenges and being forced to look in the mirror and understand who you are, and what you’re about, and really what lights you on fire, it’s a byproduct of that. . Once you’ve taken the time to understand the learnings you’ve gained from that, how strong you are, and what you’re capable of, if I fail at this, who cares? We have skills, as salespeople, where we will never not have a job in my opinion.” (25:53)

Links Mentioned:

[email protected]
ALL Enterprise Sales Episodes
ALL Sobriety Inspirational Episodes
ALL SDR Episodes
2022 Sales Success Summit
Jason Walker on LinkedIn
Keepsake
Keepsake on Instagram
Keepsake on LinkedIn

Podcasts Mentioned:

Idea to Startup

Jeff Bajorek is taking over the Sales Success Stories Podcast during the 2022 Sales Success Summit.