Sales Pipeline Radio

James Muir, the author of The Perfect Close. He's an accidental salesperson. Started out in operations assisting the sales team. He was drafted without knowing how to advance a meeting to the next stage. He created this method as an outcome of his own experience. Statistically, what happens is no question is asked to advance the sales. 50-90% of sales meetings end without a salesperson asking for any commitment, depending on the industry. This number is way higher than those who ask "incorrectly" - at least they ASK. What is it in the psychology of sales or people that prevents them from asking for the sale? If salespeople are not comfortable with the method they've been taught - manipulative - they won't do it at all. Teach them away that is in alignment with their personal values, there is no difficulty asking Visit puremuir.com - free report - 7 Deadly Sins of Closing In this episode, James Muir covered: 1. Fear of asking too early or being pushy. 2. Fear of the "No". Both of these involved in feeling mani

Host, Robert Pease welcomed Justin Johnson, CEO LeadMethod. This is about the challenges and opportunities of a scaled distribution model - through partners, resellers, distributors, outside reps. Some of what LeadMethod tackles is the fundamental challenge unique to channel partners distribution vs. opt in, direct method. To get the critical feedback to better understand who is where in your pipeline. This is a challenge they tackle to add to your efficiency. There are so many different elements that companies are creating in order to come together to collaborate and communicate that sometimes it falls apart. How do you get enough data to draw conclusions on what is actually working with partner networks? It becomes a black hole of information. Engaging the distribution group and collecting the critical feedback --THIS is key. You have to look at why CRMs were built. Understanding what the the customer bought, who they bought it from; and then it morphed into a lead management system. But they take a lot of

Our guest today is Jim Ninivaggi, Senior VP of Strategic Partnerships at Brainshark, Inc. Some of what we are covering in this episode is: How do you define sales enablement? Can you walk us through the evolution of the sales enablement function? What did it look like five years ago? What’s the state of sales enablement today? Where do you see sales enablement one year from now? What are some key, top-of-mind issues that sales enablement leaders are focused on? What are some issues they may not be focused on but should be? About our guest: Jim Ninivaggi is senior vice president of strategic partnerships at Brainshark, Inc., a leading sales enablement solutions company. He has three decades of experience studying and driving sales productivity. Prior to Brainshark, Jim founded and led the sales enablement research practice at research and advisory firm SiriusDecisions – publishing hundreds of research briefs, reports, and blog posts during his 10 years at the firm, and helping shape and raise awareness

Campaign refined emails are the key. Can't just put it in the byte bucket. Everyone is too busy. Lead Gnome is that solution to find the pockets of value the rest of the market is ignoring. Matt didn't see any solution to accomplish what he needed, so he built it. It's looking for insights into the internal buying machines. Surprising enough you can gain a lot of insights from "out of office" messages. You will basically be given the org chart of the company.  They looked at trigger events and campaigns around bounces. A bounced email happens when someone leaves the company. "Matt's no longer with the company, but Sally is here..." This gives you a lot of information and opportunity for an introduction and you can look for Matt at his next company, which is probably in a similar position. You can get two contacts from the one bounce. Who did Matt replace? Where did Sally leave to take Matt's old job? This is 4 contacts from one bounce.  This is about unpacking the information in the body of the email, t

Our guest, Jamie Shanks tells us he was doing Sales 2.0 and went BK doing so. He needed to change with the buyer and he was missing that step. Social Selling became a survival mechanism. He reversed the selling process to leverage social media. That's how it started. 03:45 :  Matt asked, "What is your definition of social selling in late 2016 and what does it mean for professional sales people?" Jamie asked us to picture three circles, like a Venn diagram. The intersecting middle is what social selling is. There are three types of sales processes Insight based selling Trigger based selling Referral based selling Conversion of those three processes is what social selling is. His new book is Social Selling Mastery and is available on Amazon. It has become a go-to resource for social selling. 05:45  Matt asked if Jamie still sees the companies that continue to block social media sites in house and see it as a distraction. REALLY? That still goes on? You may be surprised at Jamie's answer. You'll hav

Sales and sales training have been our guest, Deb Calvert's, passion since she was a child earning money for extra weeks at summer camp. You need to catch the beginning of this show to hear how she was originally motivated to get into sales.  She talked about 8 reasons we'd ever ask a question are summarized in DISCOVER (this is an acronym). Most sales people only ask questions for 3-4 reasons. If you open it up to all 8, you open yourself up to be of real value in the conversation and prospects will share the same with you. Let's start within the first five seconds of meeting someone to make you more elegant and effective at advancing sales.Shoot her an email and she'll send you this list of questions. deb.calvert@peoplefirstps.com Her site has a lot of free tools to getting prospects to the point of curiosity fast to learn more about what you are offering. Visit PeopleFirstPS.com She has a great book: DISCOVER Questions(tm) Get You Connected – LISTENER SPECIAL! BOOKMARK this page. It is cont

Our guest is Lara Shackelford of Altify. Altify sells to sales professionals. With their software, every sales rep can sell like your BEST sales rep. More reveals followed at DreamForce as it ties to AI and Einstein. Matt asked what AI means to sales and marketing leaders. Lara told us, "It's important to bring the augmented intelligence piece to help humans perform better. An example - a sales rep is working 4-5 deals critical for the quarter, with our software they can be notified if a change is noticed affecting their influence on the sales decisions by looking at more than past data."  Matt then asked if there is there a difference between augmented and predictive analytics and intelligence. Lara gave a quick overview: Predictive - predicts what will happen in the future based on a lot of data. This involves high quantity of data. Augmented takes knowledge and context into providing a solution and be able to flag insights to alert the human to be more effective and generate results based on the data

Our guest today is Joe Chernov. He's VP of Marketing @InsightSquared. He also lends a hand to startups and wildlife causes when he can. Diving right in, he says, "It's unbelievable what you can get done if you don't care if you get fired!" Talking about his experience at Eloqua, "If we were to publish something that is valuable, we could edge our way into deeper coverage by the media."  Scorecard - even though we're not supposed to keep score:  16 articles after spending 2 years developing a product and writing up the release. An infographic got 800 articles. Very eye-opening. Joe says, "Content marketing is what happens when a marketing department shifts its thinking from knowing that the company that signs their paychecks needs to shift to the customer signs the paycheck." That shift in mindset turned collateral into an ebook, a self-serving whitepaper into a more valuable, lengthy piece of content. Shifting strategies from serving the executive to serving the buyer changes everything. Q. Is there

Nationally respected business etiquette coach, Arden Clise is our guest for this episode. She has just published her book, "Spinach in your boss' teeth" available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and on her site:  CliseEtiquette.com . This is a great gift for your team or for you. Many of the tips SHOULD be obvious, but perhaps you weren't paying attention when your mother tried to clue you in. She covers dining, online etiquette, business tips to make your value shine. Her specialty is assisting clients to confidently and comfortably navigate business situations. Some of what we covered in this episode includes these highlights: When is it appropriate to use your digital device in a meeting? Boomers are really bothered by people pulling out devices in meetings, texting, etc. If you are in a meeting, do not pull out your phones in the meeting. Start with that. If you are leading the meeting, set the tone at the beginning of the meeting. "Please put your devices away during this meeting." When you pull

Jim Obermayer sitting in for Matt today with guest, Ken Thoreson, of Acumen Management Group. Their firm is focused on execution, discipline, accountability to the sales organization. He has just published his fourth book in a series: SLAMMED: for the first time sales manager. The other three in the series are: Recruiting High Performance Sales Teams Leading High Performance Sales Teams Creating High Performance Sales Compensation Plans Some of what is covered in the book includes: How do you on-board a new sales manager? Within 6 months, new sales managers are usually slammed. Leadership and management skills playing together don't usually get taught. Lifespan of a sales manager is about 18 months.Marketing will go back and write a new plan, but the sales managers get fired. New sales managers seem to focus on micro issues, tracking numbers and activity, and forget they need to have emotional leadership and inspire people to execute. It is the manager's job to instill work ethic, intensity, high levels

Content Marketing, the term didn't exist 12 Years ago - let's review - We used to create a 10 second TV ad to send consumer to a website to fill out a form. We've evolved into industry, job level, geographic filters, rather than simply send the inquiry to IT. The precision of targeting has become so much more sophisticated. There is then a splintering of attention. We are talking MICROSECONDS for the initial and ongoing conversations. "The noise and clutter are at insane levels." NetLine addresses the HUMAN side of business. Problem-solving centric. You speak to the millisecond mindset. Perhaps you convey this with an image that displays the problem-solving you will do for them in the ONE glance to get them to stay and read more or take another action.     As you've grown in NetLine, what have you learned? "DELEGATION is key. People take it for granted that it's easily done. This is something that would impede my success if I insisted on controlling all aspects. This includes being more commun

It starts with the sales managers, and it then goes to the training, coaching and support THOSE managers receive. How can they pass it down unless they know it as they breathe? Steven Rosen has over 15 years of executive experience. His fresh approach to corporate leadership, strategy development, execution and team-building in the pharmaceutical and packaged goods sectors defined his success. His expertise in aligning sales and marketing initiatives to achieve key business results and exceed customer expectations has continually exceeded sales objectives from his days as a sales rep to his achievements as a VP of sales for Alcon and Biovail. If you manage sales managers, check out starresults.com and sign up for any guide you can find there, including the The 2016 Managers' Survey: Key takeaways Coaching Key performance Hiring Business acumen Leadership The answer to sales related problems can be an app, a program, a widget - but it may not solve the problem of RESULTS. Sales Management coaching d

Let's start with her first book, Predictable Revenue. Page 42 - formula in the Predictable Revenue book. Dogear it, bookmark in your Kindle version. This is what you need to focus on. Her latest book, Predictable Prospecting, is the result of the thesis of page 42. She spent five years developing this book by working with clients in the field to consolidate and fine-tune, grow the formula, scientifically focus to get benchmark of conversion rates and ratios that will add up to a predictable revenue framework.And then honing in on specific pieces, buckets, and components to put this channel in as part of a mutli-channel marketing effort to generate revenue in targeted accounts with the highest likelihood of closing with the highest revenue potential. Blending the knowledge of marketing, flipping it sideways and pulling out the pieces that will resonate with those at the top of funnel - this is one stream - OUTREACH for large accounts that close quickly. Premise in Predictable Revenue is the separation of ro

Mark Hunter is here to talk about sales. His new book: High Profit Prospecting, and his best seller give him the credibility that you need to listen in, take notes. We dove right in. If you have to discount the price to close the deal, that means you are prospecting the wrong people. You can't make a WalMart shopper into a Nordstrom Customer. Social Media without Social Community is Social Stupidity. It's a conduit. You must have something to share that is of value. Think about this, too - how to leave an 8-11 second voice mail message. Stop embarrassing yourself. Matt reminds us that phone and email are NOT dead. The phone is the most valuable tool he uses. Stop being afraid to prospect and defaulting to social media. Don't hide behind social posts, tweets, likes, and emoticons. PICK UP THE TELEPHONE. It's an amazing tool when used right. You should learn one piece of information about them in the first call and begin to engage them. Do you have call or prospecting reluctance? Why? You don't have to cl

Guest host, Robert Pease went through this pipeline performance checklist. Get your notepad out for this one. A few of the steps included: 1. Understanding our target customer.  What makes the best customer for the product you sell? What makes for the longest term customer? The goal is to get into the consumption patterns of this optimal customer. You have to be stingy with sales time and efficient with marketing spend. You don't want to reach out to marginal prospects. 2.Knowing what a qualifying customer looks like. It isn't just the person who has downloaded your most recent whitepaper. They are most likely not ready yet. 06:08 3. The message that you use.  Speaking to your ideal customer profile to attract the qualified leads you are looking for. Understanding their problem and provide the solution they are seeking. Understand a day in the life, the pressure - LISTEN first.  Be patient with the overall sales process. 07:00You can't close in the first contact. 07:15 11:15 4. Understanding

Reviewing your pipeline, making sure you have your fundamentals in place, taking a look at what’s working and making sure your reps and your team are performing optimally...all are vital to your sales success. Today’s guest, Steve Richard, is a perfect fit for our recent conversations. Steve Richard is the founder of Vorsight and Chief Revenue Officer of ExecVision. “Chop the dead wood out of your pipeline.”  Sales managers should be identifying what reps could be doing in the field to improve - more isn’t always better. The conversations sales reps have with customers is an asset. Get them into your CRM system.  Get Steve’s advice on how to coach your sales reps and make sure they are taking ownership of their own work - listen to one of your own sales calls per week. Cull the time spent on coaching. Even the best need coaching - continual improvement is the key. Ask yourself: What do my best reps do differently? This is a powerful episode filled with actionable tips for making the most out of yo

We’re walking you through some ideas and tactics you can employ right now if you are already behind on your sales pipeline goals; there are things you can do from a marketing perspective, you can take a look at your pipeline and get yourself back on track. What can you do at the beginning of the sales cycle to set the tone and feel successful? Get yourself positioned to hit your number. What are you doing daily in a disciplined, precise and focused that is helping you close those deals?  Matt covers a few scenarios of salespeople: employees that are doing everything right - focusing on the right things, doing the daily work of moving deals forward - but are not hitting their numbers, and salespeople who are hitting their numbers but not going about it the right way. Do you let them go? Who is coachable? Who is working with the core values of the company? This is an information-packed episode, and this time you get Shark Week comparisons. Don’t miss it!

What are we really doing to get prepared for the next selling season? We’re taking a look at why a lot of people don’t hit their number. Any time there’s an end of month or end of quarter, it’s a good time to reflect on what went well and perhaps what didn’t.  We’ll take a look at some things companies can do monthly or quarterly to review how sales and marketing is working. “Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the mouth." Why aren’t you making your sales goals?  1. You don’t have a plan to begin with - Setting a sales goal is NOT a plan. 2. You don’t commit the resources required to sell - do you understand what you need? No guest today, but we took live calls, which is a first for us - we tried something new for this show. Matt covers topics including, “How big does your pipeline need to be?” and “How many qualified leads do I need?” Don’t miss this episode! It’s basically a free consultation. 

Listen in as we hear from Sedric Hill, Entrepreneur, Author, Thought Leader, Business Coach, Consultant, Sales Expert. The journey to creating a more profitable business can only begin when people identify specific knowledge and skills that are necessary to skyrocket their businesses. In order to do so, they must learn how to unlock implicit cognitive skills present in everyone. Consciously applying these skills will help to increase profitable sales as well as overall personal success. In order to avoid wasting valuable selling time, business professionals must harness what the author calls “the expert advantage.” Simply put, they must learn how to communicate persuasively with clients, prospects and other stakeholders. Connecting with their audience is simple once the essentials that most influence successful outcomes are learned. Cognitive-based skills for communications are rarely taught today, especially in the sales and marketing fields. Hill, however, believes such skills are critical for anyo

Brian Hansford has been with Heinz Marketing for over four years running their marketing department. He's the head of Marketing Technology. They started with the overall landscape and Matt asked: How do you recommend a strategy? Brian says to: Assess your current state: what people, what workflow, what tools, what data, are you currently using. Identify what are your objectives are: customer engagement, revenue objectives. Think about these first and the technology after. That path will lead you to a technology structure that will support your objectives. Keep it simple to start with. You want to make sure you have good utilization of your CRM and then move on to your marketing automation. If you start buying these niche platforms you'll end up with a ball of gum. It will be hard to measure success and efforts coordinated.  Continue this conversation with Brian on Twitter: @remarkmarketing How do Martech & Salestech work together? How do you prioritize? How do sales teams prioritize to maximize their a