Sharon Drew Morgen, Creator of Buying Facilitation®

If you’ve ever wondered what happened to those customers who said they would buy from you but never did, Sharon Drew Morgen may hold the key to solving your frustration.

Sharon Drew (don’t you dare call her just plain “Sharon”!) is the visionary and thought leader behind Buying Facilitation®, the new sales paradigm that focuses on helping buyers manage their buying decisions. She is the author of the NYTimes Business Bestseller Selling with Integrity as well as 5 other books and hundreds of articles that explain different aspects of the decision facilitation model that teaches buyers how to buy.

Her latest book, Dirty Little Secrets: Why Buyers Can’t Buy and Sellers Can’t Sell and What You Can Do About, is destined to be a game-changer…for those salespeople who are ready for it.  Sharon Drew contends that salespeople spend all of their time working out a solution to the potential customers need, but little to know time considering the system that the need developed in.  Without that understanding, she says, there is no possible way for the salesperson to influence the final decision.

Rather than focus on problem-solving or “solutions” selling, Sharon Drew encourages salespeople to learn about the subtle (and not-so-subtle) issues that are occurring in the background on the prospect’s end of things.  Politics, rules, assumptions, values, relationships…all come into play in every decision that gets made in a company, and salespeople ignore these issues at their peril.

Sharon Drew says that the average success rate of salespeople, which currently hovers around 7% across all industries, is abysmal, and that if sellers would learn to not only understand what is happening for the buyers they encounter but learn to help those same buyers navigate their buying decisions, that success rate would jump to nearly 40%.  That’s an increase in effectiveness that the sales profession can no longer ignore!

Make no mistake: Buying Facilitation® is not sales training.  Rather, it’s a revolutionary approach to relating to your customers and guiding them through the sometimes treacherous waters of making a buying decision.  Grab a copy of the book, read it with an open mind, and be prepared for an eye-opening look into the world of the buyers you deal with every day!

Thanks for listening,

Brad and Jerry

Jerry and Alex Rogers, owner of ARRC Technology and Chartec, Inc.

Alex Rogers is one of those guys who tells it like it is.  He’s the owner of ARCC Technology and Chartec, Inc. in Bakersfield, CA, and his goal is to be supplier of choice for IT consultants around the country.  It’s a pretty ambitious goal for a guy who started with a $300 investment, and he’s well on his way to achieving it.  So what is it that sets Alex and his team apart?  Alex says it all comes down to one word: differentiation.

And Alex isn’t just talking about product differentiation, either; he believes that everything about you needs to be different, from the way your sales people sell to the process they follow to get new clients.  If you can truly set yourself apart from the pack, you can focus on what really matter in sales: finding out what your prospects want to buy!

If you can be the salesperson who takes the time to ask the right questions and really dig down to find your prospects’ hot buttons, you have a much better chance of building rapport.  That rapport is the foundation of a successful sales process.  You can learn so much about what a potential client wants to buy if you take the time to listen.  Listening is just one of the qualities that will make you different from your competition, who are too busy pitching and closing to have a conversation with their clients.

How does Alex make this message clear to his team?  Practice, practice, practice!  Alex shared that one thing he feels truly sets his sales team apart is the fact that they are constantly rehearsing customer interactions until they have them down pat!  And for those of you thinking that excessive practice and rehearsal makes you sound like a robot, think again.  This kind of preparation makes you better able to handle any questions or potential roadblocks that might get thrown at you during your presentation.  Better to prepare now than fumble later!

We really enjoyed our conversation with Alex, and we’re sure you will, too.  Have a listen, take a few notes, and be sure to leave your feedback in the comments section.

Thanks for listening!

Brad and Jerry

Dave Crenshaw, author of "Invaluable: The Secret to Becoming Irreplaceable"

This week was a special treat: we got to talk to Dave Crenshaw, author of The Myth of Multi-Tasking and Invaluable: The Secret to Becoming Irreplaceable, which was just released yesterday.  Dave was a great guest, and he had a lot of insights to offer to listeners.

Of course, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to chat with Dave about multi-tasking, a favorite topic on this podcast and on Jerry’s blog.  Dave shared the term “switch-tasking” to describe what takes place when a person tries to toggle back and forth between different tasks simultaneously, what we normally refer to as multi-tasking.  Dave calls it switch-tasking because that’s what our brains actually do: they switch back and forth between the different tasks, and every time they do that, there is a switching cost.  That switching cost is what gets us into trouble.

Every time your brain has to switch between tasks, there is a reassignment of resources that takes place, similar to what takes place in a computer processor; one task is put on hold while the brain works on the other, then has to shift back when we switch our attention to the other task.  It may not seem like much is involved, but the cumulative cost of switch-tasking could literally be costing you hours a day.  It’s no wonder that Dave recommends total focus on a single task until it’s complete before moving on to the next task.

We also had an opportunity to talk to Dave about his latest book, Invaluable.  Invaluable is a business parable, the story of a young man named Jason who is dissatisfied with his position at work.  He seeks advice from his grandfather, a World War II Veteran who helps him to appreciate what it takes to become an irreplaceable employee in an organization.

Dave’s strategy for becoming invaluable is simple: focus on the task you’ve been assigned, become the master of the system you’re in charge of, and expand your sphere of influence.  If you’re the person that everyone asks about a certain system, the chances of you being let go are pretty slim; if, on the other hand, you never exert yourself to develop your abilities as a great employee, you’ll never get the chance to become a leader.

We really appreciated having Dave as a guest, and we hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did.  Please leave your comments and feedback in the comments section, and we’ll see you next week!

Brad and Jerry

P.S.  Be sure to go to www.beinvaluable.com to register for the bonuses on the book the Dave mentioned in the podcast.

He ran track like plenty of other kids, but he pushed himself to break his high school’s mile record. He got the usual entry-level job right of college, but then he changed the sales process, earned millions of dollars for the company, and became CEO by the time he was 25.

These days, Dan is partner in a private equity technology accelerator and a former technology CEO. He is an early-early-early adopter of game-changing technology. He blogs regularly on his motivational selling blog Edge of Explosion. He is husband to a cute gal named Sara and father to two energetic boys.

He’s just an ordinary dude who happens to have an outrageous vision: he wants to change the world…

That’s Dan Waldschmidt for you: a rock-star entrepreneur with an infectious attitude of positivity and a lust for life you won’t find in many people.  We first got acquainted with Dan through his participation in the Sales Bloggers Union.  He writes some pretty powerful stuff, including an article we came across on his blog called “How To Succeed When Your Life Life Kicks the @$%*# Out of Your Sales Life”.  With a title like that, how could we not ask him to join us on the podcast?

Dan had a lot to share, not the least of which were his thoughts on the subject of pain as it relates to business.  Dan believes that many business owners fail in the final stretch because they just can’t push through the pain, and that you sometimes have to dig really deep to find the strength and courage to go on in spite of overwhelming odds.

That’s easy to say, but sometimes not so easy to do, right?  We’re reminded of Wesley’s comeback to Buttercup: “Life is pain…Anyone who tries to tell you differently is trying to sell you something.”  In other words, you’re going to have to learn to deal with it at some point; why not start now?

Dan shared some strategies for listeners to use when the going gets tough, and we outlined some of the basic components of the proper mindset.  This really was a great episode, and we covered a lot of ground.  Of course, no episode is complete until we have your feedback, so please leave a comment and share this one with your friends.

Thanks for listening!

Brad and Jerry

Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz, The Courage Crafters

Meet Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz, the authors of an amazing little book called “Go For No!” and the proponents of a powerful philosophy that could change your sales career for the better!

Richard and Andrea are no strangers to the struggles of the salesperson; they’ve been sales pros and sales trainers for many years and they have a deep appreciation for the importance of successful salespeople to a thriving economy.

As Richard and Andrea shared the “Go For No!” message with us, we realized that what they were saying could be life-changing for many of our listeners.  They encourage salespeople to set “No” goals for their week, focusing them on activity instead of results.  At first blush, that might sound counter-intuitive, but stick around for the explanation and we’re sure you’ll agree that counting your “Nos” is far more powerful than keeping track of your wins.

If after listening you find yourself wanting to learn more about how to apply the “Go For No!” philosophy to your sales career, be sure to check out Richard and Andrea’s blog, as well as the DVD they created called “Yes Is the Destination, No Is How You Get There”.  The DVD features the likes of Jack Canfield, Dr. Tony Alessandra and “Rudy” Ruettiger, and it’s packed with stories of how going for no has affected the live of these wildly successful people.

And for even more on the power of pursuing No, check out Jerry’s series on Getting to No over at the Motivation 101 Blog.

Thanks again for listening,

Brad and Jerry

Ralph Allora, author of "Winning Sales Letters - From Prospect to Close"

Think verbal communication skills are the only ones you need as a salesperson?  This week’s guest, Ralph Allora, says to think again.

Ralph is a passionate advocate for better written communication skills in the sales profession.  Ralph’s company, Allora Communications, has been serving clients as a consulting resource specializing in marketing strategy, promotions and creative services.  Ralph is the author of “Winning Sales Letters – From Prospect to Close” and a proponent of “social change marketing”.

Ralph joined us to discuss the importance of good writing skills to a successful sales career.  The value of being able to craft a great sales letter can’t be overemphasized, according to Ralph.  He says that the letters you write convey a lot about you to the person you’re writing too, and we agree wholeheartedly.

When you write a bad sales letter, think of the impression you make: here is a piece of communication, documented for posterity, that in many cases looks like it was written by a fifth grader.  Wait, scratch that: most fifth graders are better writers because they have to be in order to become sixth graders.

Salespeople do a lot of damage to themselves and their credibility by writing poorly.  Ralph shares several suggestions for improving the quality of your sales writing, such as taking the time to double-check your grammar and to run a spell check before you hit the send button on your emails.

Taking the time to learn to write well can have a huge impact on your level of success as a salesperson.  Give this episode a listen with a notebook and pencil handy.  Make notes of the suggestions, and apply them the next time you need to write a winning sales letter.  You’ll be glad you did!

Brad and Jerry

In this episode, we discuss (and debunk) the myth of multi-tasking.  The idea from the episode came from a blog post Jerry wrote called “Chasing the M-Myth”, which in turn was born from a discussion over beers with a couple of really smart guys (see that post for more details).  The gist of the discussion was basically this: there is no such thing as multi-tasking!

No matter how gifted you may be, it’s literally impossible for your conscious mind (the part that handles all your thinking) to do more than one thing at a time.  Don’t believe us?  Just try grocery shopping while you’re on the phone; we guarantee it’ll take twice as long as it would otherwise.  Why?  Because you can’t simultaneously carry out both functions at once.  You have to stop doing one in order to do the other, because both require the participation of your conscious mind.

So why the emphasis lately about the importance of one’s ability to multi-task?  Why is it listed in some companies as a job requirement?  We think it’s due to a fundamental lack of understanding of the damage that multi-tasking can do to your interactions with your customers.

Think about it for a minute: do you recall the last time you were “multi-tasked”?  You probably do, and chances are pretty good that you didn’t enjoy the experience.  Why?  Because you want to feel like you’re getting the full attention of the person you’re talking to, especially in a customer service setting, and you feel slighted when you don’t get it.  Why would you ever want to make your customers feel that way?

So what’s the answer?  We say do one thing at a time and do it well.  Forget about multi-tasking, and instead concern yourself with learning to focus like a laser.  You’ll be more effective, and your customers will appreciate the change.

It’s good to be back in the saddle, and if you have any suggestions or would like to participate in a future episode, please use the comments section or the contact form.

Thanks for listening!

Brad and Jerry

Well, according to this week’s guest, Christian Maurer, Sales 2.0 is much, much more than that.  You might recognize Christian’s distinctive accent, as he is a returning guest to the SM 2.0 Podcast.  We were certainly glad to have him back.

So what is Sales 2.0?  Christian says (and we agree) that Sales 2.0 is primarily an attitude.  As we wrote in the What Is Sales 2.0? (2366) e-book (click that link to download the full e-book for free), approaching your clients with what is of interest to them is the essential ingredient.  As Christian says, you’ll never get any benefit from social media and Web 2.0 applications if you don’t put your customers first.  In other words, it’s all about them.

One of the biggest challenges in adopting Sales 2.0 for many traditional organizations is the handing over of the brand to the customer.  Many companies are hesitant to lose control of their marketing message, and they fear that entering the social media space will cause that to happen.  Well, we hate to be the ones to break it to them, but the truth is that social media has already created a world where the customer owns the brand.  The only thing companies avoid by staying out of social media is the opportunity to participate in the conversation their customers are already having about them!

Christian also touched on an incredibly important topic: the “frenemy” relationship between marketing and sales.  Traditionally, sales departments have been kept in the dark and not allowed to participate in the marketing process until marketing is ready to hand over the leads they’ve created.  This is another place where Sales 2.0 is causing traditional systems to break down and be replaced by new, more effective ways of getting things done.

For example, what happens when a prospect finds your company’s website using Google?  Does your company have an effective way for your sales department to get in touch with that prospect while they are still thinking about what they saw on your website, maybe even while they’re still on the website?  If not, you may be missing out on a golden opportunity to strike while the proverbial iron is hot!

Sales 2.0 is changing the way business gets done. Are you keeping up? If not, it’s time to start paying attention.  Give this episode a listen, and leave a comment below to share what you’re doing to put the tools of Sales 2.0 to work!

Brad and Jerry

Terri struck a chord with us by talking about learning how to be “in rapport” with prospects and clients, in other words, taking into account their human side and really connecting with them.  As we’ve discussed many times in the past, this means being genuine, authentic and in integrity at all times.  The most important question you should be asking yourself is “How can I be of service?”, NOT, “How can I make the sale?”

According to Terri, the lack of trust on the part of consumers toward salespeople is rooted in the fact that many salespeople have forgotten this fundmental principle.  The whole point of Terri’s book is to encourage salespeople to stop using traditional selling techniques that are manipulative and pushy.  Consumers no longer want to be talked down to; buyers want to be an active part of the decision-making process, not be told by a salesperson what they should do.

The key word Terri wants people to get is “authentic”.  Letting people into your life can seem scary at the beginning, but it is well worth the reward.  Being human is a skill we seem to have forgotten, but if we focus on building relationships with other people, we’ll get everything we want.

Be sure to get your copy of “Sell Without Selling” today, and remember that your total purchase goes to help children with RSD, and that Terri is making matching donations.  Go to http://www.terrilevine.com/orderinformation.htm to get your copy.

Brad and Jerry

Randy is the co-author (with Mahan Khalsa) of the new book “Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Play: Transforming the Buyer/Seller Relationship”, and our discussion focused on the main idea presented in the book: creating true “win/win” buying situations by helping your customers find an exact match for their need.  Randy is a true believer in the philosophy that selling is nothing more than helping clients succeed.

Randy states that intent is far more important than technique in a sales situation.  In other words, when a seller’s intent is anything other than creating an ideal solution for the customer, the customer’s defenses go up and the presentation is basically over.  We all have a built-in “salesperson radar” that warns us when the person across the table is pursuing their own ends instead of ours, and we shut down the minute we sense it.

On the other hand, when a salesperson is truly looking out for the best interest of the prospective client or customer they’re dealing with, the game fundamentally changes.  Creating high-trust/high-integrity relationships is based on understanding the client’s needs, and the only way to understand a client’s needs is to ask questions and engage in conversations with them.  One of the best ways to get other people talking is to demonstrate a little humility.  Only when we do this can we expect to get to a solution that exactly meets the clients need.

Randy was an inspiring guest.  If you haven’t read it yet, get your copy of “Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Play” today.  You’ll find a practical, step-by-step “how-to” guide to creating winning relationships with your clients.  Enjoy!

Brad and Jerry

P.S.  We’re getting our schedule ready for 2010.  If you’d like to be a guest on the Sales Management 2.0 Podcast (or if you know someone who’d be a great guest) please use the contact form on this site so we can set up a time to chat about your topic.  Thanks!

Let’s face it: in today’s economy, there is a lot of competition for every piece of business out there.  As a salesperson, you need to be using social media tools to enhance your reputation and open more doors of opportunity so that you can stay ahead of your competitors.

As Alejandro says, social media has leveled the playing field to the point that a new saleperson has the opportunity to keep up and even surpass a more established but less internet savvy competitor.  At the same time, you have to be sure to go at it the right way.  In Alejandro’s words, “Don’t be annoying!”

Just like networking in person, networking and making connections on social media sites requires that you show respect for the person you’re talking to.  Coming at them with a canned greeting and a slick sales pitch is going to get you branded as a moron pretty quickly, and people will un-follow you faster than you can say “Tweet”.

Alejandro’s best advice is really simple: be yourself and do what you love with a lot of passion and you’re going to be successful in the long run.  Having 80,000 followers on Twitter means little if you can’t get them to do anything.  So how do you become a “person of influence” in the social media world?

The answer is simple: Take your passion and build your brand around that.  While you’re at it, be genuine, sincere, interested in other people and always look for ways to provide massive value to your audience.

Thanks again for listening!

Brad and Jerry

P.S. Please pardon the feedback between minutes 7 and 8…we did our best to get rid of it, to no avail.  Sorry about that!

According to Terri, coaching has the intent of inspiring and improving the recipient, as opposed to training, which in Terri’s mind is an activity that involves teaching and instructing (in other words, telling).  And Terri contends that sales coaching can take place in a group environment just as effectively as in a one-on-one setting.

When coaching in a group, Terri has found the interaction to be more inpsiring and energizing; she also observes better interaction and even mentoring between team members.  And when team members begin coaching each other, synergy happens.  Team members naturally begin to cooperate and make up for each other deficiencies, as well as to hold each other accountable.  This, of course, leads to bigger and better results for the team as a whole.

Terri talks about the seven facets of effective coaching: the art of coaching, inspiration, energizing, facilitating, performance, learning and development.  Each of these facets contributes to the overall effectiveness of the coaching effort.  For example, how do you help a coach develop the ability to energize their teams?  First off, you have to look at what’s working now.  This creates positive thinking that is focused on solutions, not problems.  This kind of examination makes us think differently and creates huge results.

If you want to be an effective coach, you have to coach your team on a regular basis and help the people you are coaching to be able to find solutions on their own.  That, coupled with great communication and bonding, makes for lasting improvement on a team.  Coaching, when it works, makes for great sales teams.

Thanks to Terri for joining us, and thanks to you for listening!  Don’t forget to email Terri (coachingguru@gmail.com) and tell her you listened to the podcast to receive your free gifts (a copy of one of Terri’s books and a free coaching session).

Brad and Jerry

P.S.  After a brief hiatus, we’re back! It’s been one crazy summer, but things have quieted down and we’ll be resuming our regular schedule of at least one new episode per week.  Thanks for your patience while we’ve been sorting things out, and we look forward to being a regular part of your week again!

What motivates sales people?  How do great sales managers keep their teams motivated in tough economic times?  Those were the topics we discussed with Jim Keenan in this episode.

Jim Keenan is the Regional Sales Leader for Emerging Service Providers at Avaya and author of the popular sales blog asalesguy.com.  He’s also the former CEO of CreateBuzz, the 2007 runner-up of Mashable’s Open Web Awards for Best Niche Social Network.  Jim has been a sales guy from an early age; Jim uses the same people skills today that he used to get out of trouble as a self-proclaimed “wild child”.

Managers have a choice when it comes to motivating their teams: they can do so in a positive way, using support, encouragement and rewards, or in a negative way, using threats, coercion and the dreaded write-up.  Jim considers writing someone up to be a failure on his part, a failure in the hiring process, the vision process or the support process.  In other words, if you hire the right people, give them a clear understanding of your vision for the results you expect them to achieve and provide them with enough support and encouragement along the way, there is no need to resort to the negative tactics.

Jim suggests that managers need to do two things when it comes to motivating their teams.  First, you need to find out what motivates your people, then you need to find out why it motivates them.  That knowledge will help you to have the critical conversations with your people that will keep them focused and motivated to stay on task, no matter what the economic climate.

Jim makes the bold statement that the only way businesses are going to get out of the current crisis is to have highly motivated teams of people who are confident they are not in danger of being laid off.  While recognizing the need for the tough business decisions that need to be made in times like this, Jim recommends that sales leaders do their best to create alternative solutions that will meet the needs of the company and at that same time take into consideration the human element of the concerned employees.

The basic idea is that people in fear for their jobs, not to mention their homes and 401(k)s, are far less effective  their jobs.  In order to sell effectively, your people, in particular your top performers, need to be confident that they are not going anywhere, no matter how bad things get.  Jim is one sales executive that we are proud to know.  Heck, he may even be a Business Heretic!

Give the episode a listen, then post a comment or start a discussion.  And definitely check out Jim’s blog and follow him on Twitter.  He’s a great guy to know!

Brad and Jerry

So, you wish you had a magic pill for turning cold calls into warm leads? Well, we just may have found the answer for you.

Meet Scott Anderson and Chris Heggem from MyWay Interactive.  Scott Anderson is the VP of Business Development at MyWay.  He spent 28 years managing commercial channels at Hewlett Packard.  Chris Heggem is the Marketing Manager at MyWay.  Chris is a public speaking and persuasion trainer, an award-winning debater and a social media marketer for B2B startups.  What did these two experts have to say about the power of Sales 2.0 to bridge the gap between cold calls and warm leads?

Scott and Chris began the discussion by acknowledging the fact that customers and sales people alike hate the unprepared cold call.  You know the one: “Hi Mr. Customer!  This is Joe from XYZ…I was just calling to follow up!”  We all know that those calls are painful to make, as well as to receive.  At the same time we know that, as selling professionals, at some point we’re going to have to pick up the phone and talk to someone we don’t know and who is not currently buying our product and talk to them.  How can we make these calls less awkward and more valuable to prospective clients?

Enter social media.  Social media has fundamentally shifted the kind of interactions we can have with our prospects.  It provides us with powerful tools to learn about the people we want to talk to and, eventually, sell to.  The information we can gather about our prospects online is virtually unlimited!  In addition to information gathering, we can begin to build great relationships with prospects all over the world.  Those social media relationships, if properly maintained, will eventually lead to business relationships for salespeople who know how to make the transition appropriately.

How can we make the salesperson’s job even easier?  You’re absolutely going to love this one.  MyWay Interactive and Sales Management 2.0 have teamed up to bring you The Lead Engine.  This incredibly powerful social media/Sales 2.0 tool is now available at http://leadengine.salesmanagement20.com and it absolutley rocks!  The Lead Engine is a worldwide, collaborative lead exchange tool that salespeople can use to work together to build incredible value for their networks.  This is permission-based lead trading at its best.  In addition, The Lead Engine is a cloud-based CRM software where you can manage all of your contacts in one place.  Best of all, Sales Management 2.0 is offering this tool absolutely free of charge.

So what are you waiting for?!  Click here to access the most powerful CRM and lead-exchange tool you’ve seen yet.  Thanks to Brad, Scott and Chris for creating this incredibly powerful engine to drive your business to the next level.

Thanks again for listening,

Brad and Jerry

As many sales executives are starting to realize, managing Gen Xers and Millenials (also known as Gen Y) presents new challenges that didn’t exist a decade ago.  That was the subject of Brad’s discussion with Tom Schaber, a sales management consultant who specializes in helping sales managers deal with the complexities of this situation.

Tom Schaber is the owner of Selling Dynamics , a sales management consulting company specializing in helping business owners hire and develop sales people.  Selling Dynamics also coaches owners and sales managers in the art of managing sales people.  Tom has spent about 35 years in the selling profession: ten years as a field sales rep in the medical device industry, managing five states and growing business on average 30% per year, then sales manager, national sales manager and VP of sales & marketing for medical device companies. He has built entire sales organizations, from interviewing and hiring new reps to skill development, creating targets and sales territories and conducting sales training.  He’s also the author of The Total Sales Manager sales blog, and the books Managing Those Who Make You Money: Taking the Mystery Out of Managing Salespeople and The Road Warrior’s Guide to Sales Management.

So what do managers need to take into consideration when working with the new crop of selling professionals?  Two things: genuinely care about them as people and be transparent in your communication.

If anything characterizes Gens X and Y, it’s a desire for genuine, transparent relationships.  Gone are the days of manipulation and coercion as management tactics: anyone still using them is a dinosaur on the way to extinction.  Why? Because the selling professional of today wants to be respected and, if they don’t get that respect, they will seek employment elsewhere.  It’s really that simple.

In order to effectively manage these folks, you need to really build solid, trusting relationships. Personally, I feel this is the best way to manage people of any generation. I don’t think any of of know people who do not prefer to be treated with respect and dignity. The primary difference with Gen x and Y is they will not stick it out someplace they are unhappy because of a paycheck or some perceived sense of security or loyalty to the company.

While we may be thinking these kids need to learn to suck it up and learn to work in the real world it is important to remember that Gen X is moving up the corporate ladder, Gen Y is on its way and the baby boomers are quickly retiring. This IS the real world now and we will all need to make some adjustments. Companies who manage this well will retain top talent and these who don’t will experience high turnover and the costs associated with it.

Thanks for listening!

Brad and Jerry

Kevin Cook is Director of Business Development at Target Teams, a Cambridge, Mass. organization that creates performance improvement solutions applicable for use with individuals, teams and executives.  Kevin has 15 years sales management experience with both startup and Fortune 100 companies.  He’s interviewed hundreds of salespeople over the course of his career, and has, by his own admission, made every mistake possible when it comes to hiring.  He is always looking for ways to help sales executives make better hiring decisions.  Kevin joined us on this episode to discuss how using assessment tools can do just that.

Making great hiring decisions is no easy task, and it can be even more difficult when hiring managers “fly by the seat of their pants”.  Kevin first encouraged managers to slow down in the interview process and not be in such a hurry to get a body in place that they overlook indicators of a possible bad fit.  He recommends a focus on the needs of the particular position and the of the stake holders (i.e. peers, managers, customers, etc.).  He asks managers to consider where they would rather spend their time: in the hiring process to make sure they get a great candidate, or in the re-hiring process when the person they hired too quickly falls out?  The choice is clear.

With an acknowledgement that gut feelings and intuition are important to the hiring process, Kevin recommends an approach that also includes a clear, unbiased assessment of the character traits and behavioral styles of the candidate.  In other words, you want to pay attention to how the sales rep is going to get the job done.  This can be difficult to determine in the hiring process; after all, we’re talking about interviewing salespeople, people who build relationships and rapport for a living.  That certainly increases the difficulty of the task!

One of the best pieces of advice Kevin offers is to slow down, take your time, and not rush into hiring decisions.  Always remember: no breath is better than bad breath in a territory.

Thanks again for listening, and feel free to share this episode and any others you enjoy with your peers and associates.  Also, we encourage you to leave your comments and feedback below.

Brad & Jerry

Shaun Priest has been a successful sales person and sales manager for over 15 years. He is currently Sr. VP of Sales for a technology company. He is often asked by executives and sales people for assistance with managing, deals, and career advice, so he decided to start a blog, CloserQ.com, for business people to post questions and get advice and opinions from Shaun and other selling professionals.  Shaun is also the author of Decisions, a novel about a sales guy with a gambling addiction.

Shaun has the distinction of being our first podcast guest to provide a PowerPoint to accompany his episode you can download it here to follow along: WinningSalesStrategies-Shaun Priest. The PowerPoint does a GREAT job of leading you through the ten best tactics for working through the objections and questions your prospects might present during the sales process.  The beauty of Shaun’s approach is that it takes the subject of objections and deals with it in a straightforward, ethical way, much as we discussed last week, and does so in a structured, well-planned way.

Shaun encourages salespeople to become familiar with the most common objections presented by prospects in their industry, to listen attentively to prospects concerns, and to tap into the power of “Feel, Felt, Found” as they guide prospective customers through the buying process.  He also discussed the choices salespeople have to make along the path, whether they will use their power of influence for the prospect’s good or their own.

Shaun’s perspective on working with prospects and helping them come to conclusions that are truly in their best interest should help salespeople work more effectively with potential customers.  Put these ten suggestions into practice in your career, and you’re sure to see immediate and lasting results.

Thanks for listening, and please leave us a comment to let us know how we’re doing.  Also, if you have any suggestions for future episodes, we’d love to hear those as well.  See you all next week!

Brad and Jerry

Steven Bachert is an accomplished executive and leader in the software industry with a 20-year track record of executive sales and operations management success. He has driven large and smaller/start-up organizations to superior performance. His executive management experience covers multiple functional areas. He has a proven track record of building, developing and leading successful professional service, channel/alliance, sales and marketing teams, developing strategic plans, and executing field operations plans domestically and internationally.

So why would a senior sales executive ask salespeople to stop “handling” objections? Steven believes that the best, most effective way to sell to clients is to engage them in real conversations targeted at discovering their needs and then crafting presentations that meet those needs.

Think about it: do you enjoy having your objections “handled”? Most of us don’t. In fact, it’s one of the reasons we find being sold to so unpleasant.  But when the pressure is on and we can feel we’re getting close to a deal, we sometimes forget how much we hate it and switch into full-on “closer” mode. When that happens, objections beware! We will do or say anything to make sure the sale happens, no matter how it makes the customer feel.

But what happens when we slow down and really listen to what the prospect or customer is saying? Two things: first, we remove the adversarial component from the buyer/seller relationship and second, we find out where we may have missed discussing something that was critical to the prospects buying criteria. So what should we do instead of ‘handling’ objections? Build relationships!

The intent of the sales process is (or at least it should be) to forge a relationship with your prospect. Once you have a meaningful, trusting relationship with someone who needs your product or service, you are almost guaranteed to make the sale.

We’d like to thank Steven for joining us and discussing this important topic, and thanks again to you for listening.  If you’d like a little more information on this topic, check out Brad’s related blog post “Why We Shouldn’t be ‘Handling’ Objections”.  As always, if you like what we’re doing or have something to say, leave a comment in the Feedback section and tell a friend about us!

Brad and Jerry

Joel D Canfield is an author and award-winning speaker on how customer-centric thinking is your primary tool to achieve your goals. He has written two business books, 49 Commonsense Business Observations, The Commonsense Entrepreneur (which more fully explores these commonsense business observations), and a mystery, Through the Fog, which takes place in the Irish countryside. Joel writes, speaks and consults with small businesses to show how customer-centric thinking is accelerates the achievement of your business goals.

Joel discussed the need for all business people, but salespeople in particular, to remember that they are dealing with other people.  Too often we get lost in the transactional side of business and forget the really important things: the relationships.  How often have you been to a networking event and met someone who seemed to be interested in you and your business, only to find out later that their one and only desire was to sell you something and put money in their own pocket?  Joel offers some great suggestions to help you make sure that you don’t treat others that way and to make your netoworking efforts more effective.

Joel also discussed the need to understand the Golden Rule: doing to others as you’d have them do to you.  As Joel explains, this isn’t so much about treating others as you’d like to be treated as it is finding out how they want to be treated and acting accordingly.  What could treating your customers like that do for your business?  You would almost instantly begin to turn your customers into friends, friends who’d refer business to you in a steady, constant stream.

We really encourage you to head over to The Common Sense Entrepreneur’s website to pick up your copy of Joel’s book.  While you’re at it, if you are local to northern California, you can catch Joel live at The Time Is Now 11:59 workshop series, which also features SM 2.0′s own Jerry Kennedy.  Visit the website for more details.

Thanks again for your loyal support.  Please leave a comment or start a discussion and, if you enjoy this episode, please share it with a friend.

Brad and Jerry

When Brad was in the hospital with his wife while she was giving birth to their second daughter, Jerry had the chance to chat with Colleen Stanley about how to build a high performance sales team.

Colleen Stanley is president of SalesLeadership, Inc. She is a monthly columnist for national Business Journals, co-author of ‘Motivational Selling‘ and author of ‘Growing Great Sales Teams: Lessons from the Cornfield.’ Colleen is a popular speaker for Vistage International, Women’s Leadership Exchange and was the featured speaker on sales for the 2006 New York Times Small Business Summit. She is on the board of directors for The Tennyson Center for Children, Association for Corporate Growth and National Speakers Association.

Collen’s advice was simple and clear.  She advises sales executives to hire the right people, have a solid sales process in place and develop leadership ability through emotional intelligence.

When it comes to hiring the right salespeople, Colleen suggests that sales organizations get really clear on their core values and hire only people who align with those values.    This kind of alignment leads to a more harmonious workplace and better results for the organization.  Managers need to be aware of the talents, behavior styles and workplace motivators of the candidates they are considering hiring.

When it comes to a good sales process, Colleen encourages organizations to quantify their lead generation efforts.  Going to network?  How many times per month?  Going to cold call?  How many per day?  Going to work with referral partners?  How many referrals are you going to send to them?

Once your prospecting efforts have resulted in a qualified lead, what do you do next?  Colleen recommends that all sales organizations spend some time developing their emotional intelligence skills, such as empathy and assertiveness.  These EI skills are crucial to success in today’s market, and sales organizations must begin training these skills if they hope to survive.

We look forward to reading your comments and feedback on this topic, and, as always, if you enjoyed the episode please share it with your friends, co-workers and peers.

Thanks again for listening!

Brad and Jerry

Karl is the Sales Evangelist, a startup sales mentor and the host of Sales Evangelist TV.  He also writes a blog and is a regular contributor to the Sales Bloggers Union.

Karl is passionate about developing teams for emerging companies. For the past fifteen years, he has shown the ability to deliver beyond expectations through continual innovation. By establishing a plan, then testing the boundaries of that plan, Karl provides methodologies that help to address particular challenges. He delivers strategies that allow startups to mold sales teams from the clay of their own attributes.

Karl’s philosophies stem from planning before execution, sound processes, and educating the evangelists. According to Karl, companies that react to problems as they arise are not as fluid as those that build a plan, train to that plan, and retool the development of their organization to define success. In today’s business world, argues Karl, we need to coach and mentor, not track and manage.

Karl shares some of the key differences between working for a startup and working for a larger firm.  For example, unlike his or her counterpart at a large corporation, the salesperson at a startup is in charge of his or her own marketing and lead generation.  Also,  the resources at a startup are much more limited: expenditures that wouldn’t cause a blink at a Fortune 500 company can be a real stretch for startups.  Finally, startup salespeople need to be able to think strategically all the time and to be able to manage their own sales without a lot of direction from management.

Whether you are a selling professional thinking of entering the exciting world of selling for startups or a startup company looking to hire your first salesperson, this episode will help you to identify the issues and questions you should address before taking the plunge.

We look forward to your comments, questions and other feedback, and, as always, please share the episode with your friends, colleagues and peers.

Thanks again!

Brad and Jerry

Christian is an independent consultant, trainer and coach with a proven track record of helping to increase the productivity of large, global B2B sales organizations.  For the last ten years, Christian has consulted and coached hundreds of sales executives and managers on how to plan and execute customer centric sales strategies by focusing on process management rather than trying to manage results.

Prior to becoming a consultant, Christian held management positions on subsidiary and corporate level with a global telecommunications equipment provider.  On the corporate level, he was responsible for the global strategic planning process and the global market, competitive and economic analysis.  In this role, he was also a member of mixed faculties together with professors from well known European business schools for company specific advanced management trainings.  He was also involved in a major initiative to change the corporate culture.

Christian was a fascinating guest (and not only because he has a cool accent!) with a vast knowledge of the sales process and good coaching and training practices.  His advice for sales managers and executives: make sure you are focusing on the right topics with your people, then make sure you follow the training up with great coaching!

Christian encourages a common sense approach to sales training, helping organizations get “back to basics” by stressing a focus on sales processes over sales results.  Taking this approach allows managers to direct their groups more effectively and to forecast more accurately.  This kind of initiative, in Christian’s view, must start at the very top of the organization and trickle down from there.

The areas we should be focused on training, according to Christian, are prospecting, qualifying, rapport-building and effective presentations.  Trainers should also be helping salespeople and managers remove the guesswork from their forecasts through an accurate appraissal of where prospects are at in the sales process.

Will taking this action, as many sales executives fear, slow down sales?  Not necessarily.  In fact, Christian belkieves it will have the effect of streamlining a company’s process by identifying those prospects that are truly engaged as opposed to “just looking”.  Doing this will allow managers and salespeople alike to better strategize their efforts and prioritize their time and will identify areas for improvement.  He also recommends spending limited training budgets on the executives and managers in an effort to implement new initiatives from the top down, as opposed the “bottom up” strategy many companies currently employ.

Be sure to check out Christian’s Ultimate Sales Executive Resource blog and to leave your feedback in the Comments section.  As always, if you enjoyed the post, please share it with a friend!

Thanks for listening,

Brad & Jerry

Have you ever wondered why a sales person can be a superstar at one company, only to fail miserably at another?  That was the topic of this week’s episode with Lee B. Salz, President of Sales Architects.

Experienced in both start-up ventures and turnaround situations, Lee works with clients to build high-performance sales organizations using his Sales Architecture® methodology to ensure companies thrive! He has been successful in differentiating seemingly commoditized products and services – in both complex and transactional sales – resulting in record revenues and profits.

Lee spoke to us about the need for companies to pay close attention to who they hire, considering every aspect of the relationship between the company, the salesperson and the prospects or clients the salesperson will interface with.  “The Sales Marriage” (Sales Gravy Press), Lee’s second book, teaches companies how to hire the right sales people. Business executives often go on a quest to hire great sales people – not necessarily the right ones for their organization. Salz presents the concept of a sales marriage, which is the relationship between a sales person and an employer based on a synergistic match of needs, wants, and desires. Lee works with companies to help them implement the sales marriage philosophy resulting in skyrocketing revenue and reduced turnover in their sales organization.

By examining every component of your sales process (or buying process, as Lee calls it), you can define and then find the ideal sales person for your organization.  As Lee explains, companies spend a lot of time and effort discovering and then seeking out ideal clients, but little or no time looking for ideal salespeople.  Instead, we hire the ones we think are superstars, regardless of fit for the specific job.  The result?  Frustrated salespeople and managers who are suffering under “bad fit” conditions.

With great advice for hiring managers and salespeople alike, Lee provides a great perspective for starting your new relationship on the right foot.  Have a listen, leave a comment and share the episode with those you think could benefit from it.

Thanks for listening!

Brad & Jerry

Mark Warnke Best selling author of Ono: Options Not Obligations.

We are very excited about this episode!  We got to catch up with best-selling author Marc Warnke to discuss his new book “ONO: Options Not Obligations“.  Marc is the Founder of the Family First Entrepreneur movement, an effort to bring entrepreneurs back in touch with the most important people in their lives: their kids!

Marc offers great advice for entrepreneurs and selling professionals who want to spend more time nurturing their relationships and less time at work.  Marc is teaching business people how to enrich their personal lives by rethinking their financial lives and attain a proper work-life balance. Ono is Hawaiian for delicious, and in his book Marc will show you how to have a truly delicious life.

Marc reminded us that parents only have 936 weeks with their children from the day they’re born until they leave the nest.  How many of those weeks will you spend with your kids? According to Marc, that depends not on how much money you make, but how much you save and invest.

If you’re ready to have ONO in your life, you need to rethink the way you approach you business life.  How much money do you need to make in order to sustain the lifestyle you desire to live?  Marc encourages all of us to take a second look and see if there is anything we’re spending money on that we can live without.  If we can learn thriftiness, we can shave years off our ONO timeline.

The bottom line is this: whether your desire is to sail around the world with your kids or travel the countryside speaking in front of audiences, you’re going to need money.  Marc will help you find the amount you truly need to make and how to get yourself on the path to a life of ONO: Options, Not Obligations.

Enjoy this episode; it’s one that can truly change your life.  Please share it with your friends and associates, and leave us a comment in the feedback section.  We’d love to hear what you have to say!

Brad & Jerry

Other books Marc refers to in the ‘cast: The Influencer, The Four-Hour Work Week, The Millionaire Next Door, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and Multiple Streams of Income.

So, you’re company doesn’t provide enough training?  They won’t send you to seminars?  Won’t reimburse you for books and audio programs?  Well, while that is unfortunate (sales managers, what are you thinking?!), we’re not going to let you off the hook!

In this early episode (we’ve been saving it for a special occassion) we discussed the need for sales people to take responsibility for and ownership of their own educations.  Whether you’re an MBA selling high-tech software solutions or a college drop-out selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door (or vice-versa), you need to continually improve your mind in order to succeed.  So how can you do it?

First, Brad discusses the importance of creating your own Automobile University, a concept recommended by greats like Jim Rohn, Brian Tracy and Zig Ziglar.  How do you spend the time in your car between calls?  If you’re not spending at least a little time each day listening to great audio programs, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity for growth!  Whether it’s “Acres of Diamonds“, “Ziglar on Selling” or “Motivation 101″, the knowledge you can gain while driving around is incredible.

Next, Jerry discussed the importance of becoming a reader.  You’ve heard before that “leaders are readers”, but are you taking the time every day to put that principle into practice in your life?  The time to do it is now!  But what if you don’t have money in the budget to buy new books?  Answer: find your local library and use it.  With all the free information available in books, there is really no excuse for not reading on a regular basis.  It will improve your results dramatically.

Lastly, we discussed learning from your peers.  This truly is one of the best educations you can receive, especially when you surround yourself with other great sales people.  Listen, ask questions and observe the things they do well, then go put them into practice in your own career.  Remember, imitation is the highest form of flattery.

Thanks again for your support.  We appreciate you listening and telling your friends about the Sales Management 2.0 Podcast.  We’re also enjoying your comments, so please continue to participate in making this podcast even better by sharing your feedback.

Brad & Jerry