Building Your Sales Engine

Building Your Sales Engine

By Mark McGrawBusinessEntrepreneurshipEducationHow To
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Building Your Sales Engine episodes

  • How To Be a First-time Sales Manager with Katie Bodell

    Mark McGraw talks to Katie Bodell, the Senior Customer Success Manager at Numerator. Katie opens up about her journey into sales management–sharing her successes, missteps, and the strategies that truly work.

    To find our handout for this episode, click here.

    You'll learn how to navigate the pitfalls of bad leadership, coach your team to success, and create an environment where everyone thrives.

  • Katie Bodell starts the conversation by sharing the lessons she learned in her first year of sales management.
  • She also talks about her journey into sales and why she decided to pursue sales management.
  • Katie believes all leaders have to lead by example. When you lead by example, people will naturally be drawn to your actions and want to emulate your behavior.
  • Mark and Katie talk about the negative stereotype around sales and selling–and how sellers can learn to engage with skeptical customers.
  • According to Mark, sales is not about shoving products down people's throats. It's about identifying problems and helping people solve those problems.
  • Katie's advice to people going into sales management–understand that the skills that made you a good individual contributor are not the same skills that will make you a good manager.
  • Unfortunately, many people get into sales management for the wrong reasons. They want to be the boss because it sounds cool, or they're excited about a pay and title bump.
  • For Katie, it's cool to want to be a boss, but it's not cool when you're a bad boss.
  • According to Katie, the litmus test that you should go into management is whether you're genuinely motivated to help other people.
  • Although Mark believes there are a lot of bad managers out there, he believes good management is a skill and anyone can learn to become a good leader.
  • Love and enjoy what you do. Because if you don't like what you're doing, you are just wasting time.
  • As a first-time manager, you might feel like you have to have all the answers. The truth is, you don't.
  • Mark explains why you don't have to have all the answers and why sales leadership is more about fostering a culture of inquiry, curiosity, and thoughtfulness.
  • Mark and Katie agree that the best way to coach someone is to let them coach themselves. Guide them to answer their own questions and figure out stuff on their own.
  • Your goal as a leader is to be the person who coaches people, not the person with all the answers.
  • Mark covers the biggest mistake most new managers make--they go in and do the work instead of letting their people do the work.
  • When you do the work for them, you're taking the opportunity away from your team to become self-sufficient.
  • Mark and Katie break down the dilemma of managing your friends after being promoted–so you can keep the friendships and still get work done.
  • The benefits of keeping notes of each individual on your team because everyone's different and you need to understand what drives every individual on your team.
  • Katie reveals how she became successful at reinforcing and changing people's behavior.
  • The key lies in making it fun and engaging, so that people want to show up to work and want to implement the things that they're learning.

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    Mentioned in This Episode:

    BuildingYourSalesEngine.com/follow

    Sandler.com

    BuildingYourSalesEngine.com/sandler

    Katie Bodell on LinkedIn

    Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg

    BuildingYourSalesEngine.com/2

    36 min
  • Selling Inside Your Own Organization and Account Management Mindsets with Steve Popp

    Mark McGraw talks to Steve Popp about the often overlooked connection between internal collaboration and external sales success.

    Steve explains how improving the way you "sell" within your organization—asking questions, managing projects, and fostering collaboration—directly impacts the speed and efficiency of your external sales efforts.

    To find our handout for this episode, click here.

    Tune in to learn how strengthening your internal relationships can create a more supportive environment that sets the stage for faster, more impactful client interactions.

  • Steve Popp is an experienced sales, leadership and management training expert--and the Senior Vice President of Operations and Enablement at Epsilon.
  • Steve starts the conversation by explaining why he got into sales and how traveling can make you better at sales.
  • Steve explains how building strong internal relationships is the key to long-term sales success.
  • Building internal relationships is about gaining buy-in for ideas and navigating relationships to make the sales process smoother.
  • By soft-selling and managing relationships before you need them, you can ensure that your internal teams are ready to support you when it's time to close deals.
  • Mark compares the ability to manage internal relationships to being a conductor of an orchestra. You're not playing the instruments, but you're getting people internally to present music that the customer wants.
  • Steve breaks down the Parrot Syndrome. If you bring up your idea enough to people and make them feel like it's their idea, then they'll start parroting your idea as their own.
  • For Steve, to encourage people to take ownership and sponsorship of an issue, it's important to frame the conversation in a way that emphasizes their role in making a difference.
  • One of the key elements of being a master seller is consistency. Consistency equals trust. The more consistent you are, the more trustworthy you become.
  • According to Steve, it's more beneficial for a salesperson to be a general contractor than an expert in just one field.
  • By asking the right questions, you position yourself as someone who can find solutions and bring in the right experts when needed.
  • Mark and Steve agree that the value a seller brings to the table comes from the questions they ask, not from knowing everything about a product.
  • Steve talks about cross-selling and how it can make you a better salesperson.
  • Steve explains how the job as a seller is not to have all the answers but to show the client that you understand their pain points and have ideas on ways to solve them.
  • Steve talks about the power of asking the right questions. Clients feel more comfortable with you because you're actively working to understand their challenges rather than simply selling them a product.
  • Mark and Steve talk about successful cross-selling and why it's less about pushing products and more about understanding the client's unique challenges.
  • How to develop the mindset of a problem-solver, not just a seller.
  • Steve and Mark go through a four-step process to guide your journey from recognizing a need to proposing a viable solution:
  • Recognize: Stay alert to client cues or hints that reveal a possible need or challenge.
  • Qualify: Ask two or three key questions to confirm the potential of the opportunity.
  • Quantify: Assess whether there's sufficient pain or budget behind the need to pursue a solution.
  • Solution the Concept: Present an initial solution concept that aligns with the client's problem without requiring a fully developed plan.

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    Mentioned in This Episode:

    BuildingYourSalesEngine.com/follow

    Sandler.com

    BuildingYourSalesEngine.com/sandler

    Steve Popp on LinkedIn

    BuildingYourSalesEngine.com/1

    47 min

About Building Your Sales Engine

From the publisher's feed

A show where Mark McGraw, a top Sandler Sales Trainer and David H. Sandler award winner, interviews salespeople and sales managers to discover their successes and how they got to be the people they are today.