Best Selling Podcast

Our guest on this episode is Sangram Vajre. Sangram is the Co-Founder and Chief Evangelist at Terminus. Terminus helps B2B marketers identify and engage Best-fit Accounts faster.    Sangram and I start the conversation discussing the history of account based marketing ABM and why its become a trending strategy even though it’s not a new prospecting method. Think of ABM as better B2B marketing. We also share the benefits of aligning your sales and marketing goals which typically lead to more and bigger deals. Near the tail end of the podcast you’ll hear the term “Flip my Funnel” that Sangram helped to term.    Hey Best Sellers are you looking for a fun event to attend? Then check out the T-REX Summit. T-REX is the Southeast’s premier B2B sales and marketing growth conference. So if you own a number or are contributing to grow at your company then check out the Revenue Exchange to find out more about our T-REX summit. We just announced our first keynote speaker Andy Paul. If you don’t know Andy you should. Go to andypaul.com to learn more about the Sales House and his podcast Accelerate!

Our guest on this episode is Chris Maher. Chris is the CEO at Ripple Street in New York. Ripple Street is the leading influencer marketing platform for connecting brands with their biggest fans.   Chris and I start the conversation discussing his transition from college basketball coach to the business world. As you can imagine that are a lot of similarities with coaching a sport to coaching a sales team. Chris and I also discuss the ups and downs of the startup world and the importance of culture.    Are you looking for a fun event to attend? Then check out the T-REX Summit. T-REX is the Southeast’s premier B2B sales and marketing growth conference. So if you own a number or are contributing to grow at your company then check out  the Revenue Exchange to find out more about our T-REX summit. We just announced our first keynote speaker Andy Paul. If you don’t know Andy you should. Visit Andy's site to learn more about the Sales House and his podcast Accelerate!

Our guest on this episode is John Costigan. John is the Founder and President of Costigan Companies. John is recognized as one of the top sales trainers in the world and the creator of “Selling without a Net”. He defines that as making live phone calls in front of a live audience. I you haven’t seen John in action before you should check him out.    We begin the discussion talking about sales training and specifically how he came up with the live calling concept. We’ll also dig into cold calling and how its still an effective tool for opening the door.   But before we get started, how you like to attend an event with 200 + like minded individuals? I guess that all depends on what “like minded” means right? T-REX Summit is the Southeast's premier B2B sales and marketing growth conference. If you own a number or are contributing to grow at your company then check out the Revenue Exchange to find out more about our T-REX summit. No commercials, no paid content and no boring panels. We offer a ton of great content and lots of networking.

Our guest on this episode is Steve Richard. Steve is the CRO at ExecVision which is a conversion intelligence software that empowers organization to coach people efficiently at scale, improving performance and driving revenue.    Steve and I start off the conversion discussing coaching sales reps and the difference between coaching and training. Steve introduces us to “the forgetting curve”. This principle is the foundation of the learning method known as “spaced repetition,” where material is learned then reviewed after increasingly large time gaps. Thus the reason why ongoing and consistent coaching is so important to sales development.

Our guest on this episode is Darren Pierce. Darren is the Founder and CEO at etailInsights a database solution that helps SaaS companies find etailers.    Darren and I start the conversation discussing how to sign your first 10 customers. Darren wisely created a paid beta program to attract early adopters and get them hooked. We then focused on how to retain customers and add more new customers. We’ll also discuss selling to SaaS organizations and the challenge that etailers are facing today.    Other topics Darren and I explore are; 

• SaaS Selling Triangle - CEO-VP Sales-VP Marketing
• BANT lead qualification process
• Outbound prospecting based on a defined TAM

Our guest on this episode is Chas Scarantino. Chas is the VP of Sales at Pendo in Raleigh, NC. Pendo is a fast growing startup that make software lovable.    Chas and I start the conversation discussing the impact of having a gender diversified sales team. There is a push and pull effect when you have both genders competing and collaborating, and the outcome is that everyone wins. Chas shares his experience managing teams that were 100% female and teams that were almost exclusively male.    Other topics Chas and I explore are; 

• Up-leveling yourself, self improvement
• Sometimes you need to slow down to speed up
• When does a startup stop becoming a startup
• Chas suggests reading “To Sell is Human” 

Our guest on this episode is Corey Richardson. Corey is the Vice President of Sales at Teamworks. Teamworks is a solution to help athletic organizations collaborate and communicate.    Corey and I start the conversation discussing the importance of a sales process. Is it more an art or more a science or a balance of both that works best. Who benefits most from a process and what’s in it for the sales rep? We’ll also get into something I call the “Service of You” where as a seller you’re building your creditability and trust by offering value to your prospect and expecting nothing in return.    Other topics Corey and I explore are; 

• Referrals are the best way in to penetrate new accounts
• The importance of building relationships
• Focus on outcomes and not pure activity
• What every manage looks for in a pipeline i.e. deal movement

Our guest on this episode is Christophe Lafargue. Christophe is the Director of Business Development at Lucid Dream VR. Lucid Dream designs and builds custom virtual-reality experience for enterprise industries.   Christophe and I start the conversation discussing how to sell a dream, an emotion, an experience. As you can image selling a product that has many different applications can be challenging so how do you help your customers prioritize their needs vs. their wants. It certainly helps to have a really cool demo experience. We’ll break this down during our discussion.    Other topics Christophe and I explore are; 

• The Concept Discovery Sprint
• The best referrals are warm intros
• Demos are the critical activity on the path to closing
• Selling when you have nothing to sell 

  P.S. the book Christophe references during the episode is called “Win without Pitching” by Blair Enns

Our guest on this episode is Tim Bryan. Tim is the Chief Revenue Officer CRO at Custora which makes customer insights more accessible for acquisition and retention campaigns.    Tim and I start the conversation discussing how to scale a SaaS Enterprise organization from 1 to many. Tim like other great sales leaders tells us how he uses data to inform his growth decisions when it comes to hiring and building his organization.    Other topics Tim and I explore are; 

• Lead assignment using a round robin approach
• Selling an ecommerce solution to marketers
• Level of effort matters in the decision making process
• How do you drive urgency
• FOA - Fear of Amazon
• Characteristic of Best Sellers

Our guest on this episode is Eric Boggs. Eric is the Founder & CEO at RevBoss. RevBoss is a startup in Durham, NC that helps B2B sales teams find prospects, build pipeline and grow fast.    Eric and I begin the conversation discussing “Founder sales”. As a Founder you are by default the first sales person at the company so how do you transition that responsibility and when is the right time to hire your first sales rep(s).    Other topics Eric and I explore are;  What are the characteristics of a startup sales person? When to hire your first VP of Sales? Is enterprise cold calling dead? Why mapping the sales process to the customer journey is important. Pick up the phone when the customer is engaged.   But before we jump into the episode, if you would like to be a guest or know someone that would be a great guest please contact us directly on Bestsellingpodcast.com. Click on the “Be a Guest” button in the top navigation.    Thanks for tuning in. This is Best Selling.