Future-Proof Selling

I very much enjoyed being interviewed by Elizabeth Frederick on the "Let's Talk Sales" Podcast for Criteria For Success. We deep dive into the challenges of sales Leadership and what is required of the modern leader to really elevate their career and the success of their team.

The theme for September was the sales playbook. This is something I'm passionate about and truly believe is critical for today's sales organisations. Elizabeth and I discuss this and much more on sales leadership.

Key Points of our Discussion on Leadership & Sales

∙ Long-term pressures on sales leaders

∙ Competitive advantage - and how it's transient at best

∙ Importance of specialisation

∙ MoF Strategy

∙ Recruiting and promoting the right talent

∙ Mastering sales storytelling

∙ How my book 'Future Proof Sales Strategy' can help sales leaders and managers, and assist in beginning to construct the sales playbook.

Larry Levine is an expert in B2B sales in the office products / copier sales category. With over 27 years experience, Larry knows what it takes to be successful in the sales world and now shares his expertise by coaching other B2B sales professionals.

Larry is the author of 'Selling from the Heart' and is a firm believer that pushy sales tactics should be shunned in favour of transparent customer relationships. Larry expands on this throughout the episode.

In this episode Steven and Larry explore:

• Larry shares the intriguing story behind what inspired him to write his book 'Selling from the Heart' and how the insights have helped him to gain success with client relationships and sales
• Embracing soft sales skills to build trust with prospects and prolong your business partnerships
• The key concepts of selling from the heart and how becoming introspective can improve your sales skills and approach
• Larry's approach to improving himself for both his sales career and personal growth
• Asking questions and using your customer relationships to learn lessons that will improve your career
• How the digital age may be causing a disadvantage when it comes to building an authentic relationship with your clients
• Through role play, Larry shows ways to have a more engaging and unique conversation with clients that goes beyond the typical sales pitch

You can check Larry out in the links below -

Larry Levine - Website

Larry Levine - LinkedIn

Carman Pirie is the co-founder of Kula Partners, an agency built to help leading manufacturers digitally transform marketing and sales to deliver more leads, close more prospects, and grow their competitive edge.

With over 3 decades experience in marketing and communications, Carman is a wealth of knowledge. He shares with us his learnings and insights from the B2B marketing and sales space, and gives us valuable examples of successful sales and marketing alignment outcomes.

In this episode Steven and Carman explore:

• Carman's story and how he got to his industry position today
• Carmans political background and how his experience running for an election translated to the sales world
• The evolution of B2B marketing and Carman's takeaways from the process
• What a good modern B2B function looks like and where to align goals and priorities
• The challenges of sales and marketing alignment in organisations
• Identifying verticals from an account list and how to best utilise them
• Carman talks through some use cases for B2B manufacturers
• The key initiatives that B2B marketers should be taking to be more effective

You can check Carman out at the links below -

Carman Pirie - Website

Carman Pirie - LinkedIn

In this episode I am interviewed by Marcus Cauchi for The Inquisitor Podcast.

Marcus and I share a passion for sales recruitment. Attracting top sales talent, and effective sales hiring and management is critical to our success as leaders.

How can leaders become the type of manager top salespeople want to work for?

I share some of the ups and downs of my career that ultimately shaped how I approached my work as a salesman, and as a sales and business leader.

Marcus and I also delve deep into the all important MoFu (middle of the funnel) sales strategies with some real life examples and actual questions all salespeople should be asking their customers.

James Muir continues his engaging commentary on The Future Proof Selling podcast for Part 2 of "The Perfect Close." If you missed the first episode it's a must-listen for salespeople and their leaders that left listeners wanting more. In Part 2 James shares the secret magic closing phrases that are 95% successful and only take five minutes to learn.

James is the founder and CEO of Best Practice International and the bestselling author of the #1 book on closing sales – The Perfect Close. With over 30 years experience in sales as well as having served in every role; James has become a highly valued sales resource.

James has extensive background in healthcare where he has worked with some of the largest names in technology and healthcare including HCA, Tenet, Catholic Healthcare, Banner, Dell, IBM and others.

In this episode James and I explore:

• Preparing your expectations for a meeting and having a back up plan or approach
• The two questions that are 95% successful for the perfect close
• Exploring the differences between add-ons and fallbacks for different situations
• Adjusting the pace to meet that of the prospects while still making advancements
• How to handle a customer that's being aggressive in pacing to avoid skipping steps in the sales process
• Tactics for controlling the pace of the sale and gaining insights into the potential timing for a sale
• Diverting the early price question towards discovery and ultimately not making price the focus
• The importance of not setting your anchor low early on in the sales process

For the chance to get a free audiobook copy of James' book 'The Perfect Close'

• Go to Twitter
• Use the hashtag - #growthacumen
• Tag @SteveN_Coach1 and @B2B_SalesTips

You can check James out at the links below -

James Muir - Website

James Muir - LinkedIn

Joining me on the Future Proof Selling Podcast this episode is James Muir, Founder and CEO of Best Practice International, and the bestselling author of the #1 book on closing sales – The Perfect Close. With over 30 years experience in sales as well as having served in every role; James has become a highly valued sales resource.

James has extensive background in healthcare where he has worked with some of the largest names in technology and healthcare including HCA, Tenet, Catholic Healthcare, Banner, Dell, IBM and others.

In this episode Steven and James explore:

• How manipulative sales techniques could be killing your sales
• James's personal perspective on closing and what it means to him
• Definitions for advances and continuations in the sales space
• Problems that may arise from clumsy closing
• Being smart with closing techniques to avoid tarnishing clients trust
• The importance of intent over technique
• The secret weapon that sales people don't realise they have
• 3 questions you should ask to put your core planning to the test
• Examples of how James provides value to clients
• A look at the customer's potential actions and how to build engagement to drive a sale
• Understanding what you can and can't control in the sales space

You can check James out at the links below -

James Muir - Website

James Muir - LinkedIn

Kara Atkinson is a Headhunter of 18 years, CEO of 'The Sales Recruiter' and founder of 'SPARC The Sales Leader Network'. SPARC was launched in 2019 and is a network for elite sales leaders.

Kara works with CEOs and Senior Executives in medium to large organisations who are seeking to build dynamic, high performing and collaborative sales teams to deliver stable sales excellence.

In this episode Steven and Kara explore:

• How to retain and develop a top performing team
• The on boarding process and how it can be improved
• Hiring high performers and expectations around hitting targets
• How to keep high performers on the team by thinking outside of the box
• Using recognition with high performers to keep them inspired and on target
• How building workplace culture and spirit helps to recruit and retain people
• How sales leaders can make the most of social media
• Not taking your high performers for granted

You can check Kara out at the links below -

Kara Atkinson - Website

Kara Atkinson - LinkedIn

Jason Bay and I discuss the challenges with crafting the right messaging to build engagement, and start a conversation.

Jason and his team have written hundreds of cold email sequences and sent thousands of emails for their clients. Their biggest challenge was always coming up with a process that was repeatable but effective.

Jason developed the REPLY Method that allows you to scale up and improve the effectiveness of your messaging.

The REPLY Method focuses on WHY prospects buy. What are their job responsibilities? What challenges do they experience on a regular basis that relate with your product or service? What do they need to see in an email or hear in a cold call to WANT to respond?

The majority of salespeople don't have a closing problem. They have an opening problem. The REPLY Method removes the mystery of what to say in your cold outreach so you can schedule more meetings and close more deals.

In this episode we explore:

• The challenges with crafting the right messaging and building engagement
• Volume vs quality of messaging
• Using the right amount of personalisation in email copy and what research shows is the best formula
• Jason's guide to writing an impactful subject and opening line
• Jason's REPLY method framework and how to best implement it
• The importance of knowing how to troubleshoot a flawed campaign
• Asking prospects for feedback to improve your campaign

You can check Jason out at :

Jason Bay - Website

Jason Bay - REPLY Method

Jason Bay - LinkedIn

Denis Champagne is an expert on the voice and many aspects of sales and prospecting. Denis joins me again on the Future-Proof Selling podcast to talk what can be adopted from the world of elite athletes and applied to the sales domain, as well as becoming an ongoing learner to get ahead of the pack.

Some key points from this discussion:

• Sellers facing the challenge of weak pipelines
• The danger of cutting corners to make up numbers each quarter
• Denis's insights from training with Australian squash champion Heather Mckay and how they apply to the sales landscape
• Ensuring that upper management has the best interests of everyone, including staff and clients
• Why putting in the hours and volume of work is essential to growing sales skills
• How to have the confidence to jump on a sales call at any moment
• Denis's guide to call preparation and planning
• The balance between using multiple touch points or over-contacting leads
• Why you need to keep learning in order to succeed in sales today

You can check Denis out at the links below -

Denis Champagne - LinkedIn

Denis Champagne - Website

David Shepherd is the ANZ Country Manager for HubSpot. He's had a remarkable career and progression with the company, he joined the company nine years ago when they only had 150 employees compared to 3000 now.

So much value from David in this discussion as we cover a lot of ground in this discussion.

- How customers are more demanding than ever.

- The importance of personalisation in prospecting.

- Why we need to have strong pipelines so we don't need to chase deals that don't meet key criteria.

- Making it easy for customers to buy.

- Understand the why of your customers.

- How salespeople should be leveraging social.