Welcome! We have had great feedback from our listeners about our Master Sales Interviews, and we have another great one for you today.  My guest is Kyle Lednicky, who works in sales for Emerson Process Management as their Global Key Account Director. Kyle is a graduate of Texas A&M, where he played football, and he is married with two young daughters.  He started out selling steel, but wasn’t thrilled with the long hours that sales required. He then spent eight years working in sales for Grainger, and then transitioned to Emerson, where he has been for the past three years.

Kyle shares the following about his sales career:

• Kyle identifies his two main struggles in sales: getting over the fact that you DON’T have to know everything, and being “too nice.”
• Kyle moved past these struggles in the following ways:
• By becoming good at utilizing any and all resources
• By knowing where to turn to find the answers
• By being intentional about creating relationships
• By gaining a “tough love” perspective on where others are coming from
• Kyle now sees his strengths as utilizing available resources, being able to communicate across all different levels in an organization, and knowing how to ask the right questions to connect with coworkers, superiors, and customers.
• Kyle’s sales career has given him the freedom to be home more, attend ALL of his kids’ events, and play a substantial role in their lives.  He says that, as a salesperson, you have to EARN the right to claim this lifestyle.
• Kyle’s advice to others? Be a “servant seller.”  Put others first. Leverage the value we bring to our customers’ organizations.

Welcome!  November is here, and that means we are heading down the back stretch of 2015. This makes a perfect time to begin planning for 2016. Over the next four weeks, we will cover a topic that we have used in my family for many years and that I still use. I use this in teaching Annual Webinars for my clients as well. We will ask Four Questions you should ask yourself to make 2016 the best year ever.

Question 1: What is working in our lives right now and how do we get more of it?

• Are you focusing on a particular product?
• Are you adding a new product?
• Are you focusing on a particular kind of client?
• Do you plan to expand your business?
• Do you need to be more focused on the sales process?

Find out why it worked and then duplicate it in 2016!

Listener Question of the Week:  I have a client who just reached out to me via email. We sell software products, and they are referencing a purchase they made seven months ago, and they’re telling us they can’t find the order. Quite frankly, I don’t buy into this; I think they actually lost it, but I want to know what you think I should do. I don’t want to be responsible for someone else losing the product we sent to them. What should I do?

Quote of the Week:  “Sales is living for a few years of your life like most people won’t, so you can spend the rest of your life living like most people can’t.”--Unknown

The Power of Asking Great Questions

We have looked at two tactical strategies:

1. The Columbo Approach

2. How To Ask the Tough Questions.

This week we are going to look at Questions to Keep You Out of the Price Trap!

1. If we were to work together and I brought you a proposal how would you go about evaluating price?  

Would it simply be the cheapest price?

Do added features and benefits matter?

How would delivery time and service figure in?

Would you look to us to create ideas and solutions that may be new to the mix?

2.  POWER Question – If I were to bring you a solution that was at a higher price but could show you better/higher ROI for using that product/service would that be a business case you are open to listening to?

What if they say – "All I care about is price”?  

1. “Typically that isn’t our strong suit but I would love to get involved and see where we are price-wise. How does that process work for you?
2. How would we get involved?
3. Gather the information and prepare to leave like a good little sales rep the buyer has controlled again. 
4. Columbo them on the way out with the power question … 

While there are tons of great questions in the business unit category, I love this Power Question because I want to hit the “price is too high” objection head-on, long before we have put together a proposal.  Use this Power question before you quote the work to:

1. Establish a high level of credibility with the prospect
2. Understand early on how they will evaluate your pricing strategies
3. Quickly determine if this client fits your “ideal client” avatar and are worth spending time on!

Listener Question of the Week – Jim you talk a lot about “ideal clients” and focusing on doing business with just them. So, when is it time to fire a customer?

1. When their ROI isn’t where I need it to be
2. When they are asking me to do things that would bring my integrity into question
3. When they aren’t fun to work with any more!

Quote of the Week - "The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus." - Bruce Lee

Hey, Gang!  My topic today is What All Top Sales People have in Common.  Over the past 20 years, we have helped our clients select, develop, and retain top salespeople.  We benchmark the top sales performers in these organizations by choosing 4-8 of them and collecting data from them.  We ask questions about how they wish they did their jobs.

Through this assessment, we measure three things:

• Behaviors
• Motivators
• Core Skills and Competencies—There are 23 of these skills, but we narrow them down to the top and most important, called The Big Five.

The Big Five Core Skills and Competencies are as follows:

• Resiliency—The ability to bounce back from adversity
• Personal Accountability—Do what you say you will do
• Self-Management—These people run their sales career as a business with an entrepreneurial mentality.
• Influencing Others—This can be a learned or innate ability.
• Continuous Learning—THE MOST IMPORTANT MUST-HAVE!

Why is Continuous Learning so important?  No two days are ever the same.  Management, products, customers, and strategies are always changing.  Tommy Hopkins said, "The price of progress is the pain of change."

My advice to facilitate continuous learning is to adopt the mindset that LEARNING IS CRITICAL.  Also, start listening to podcasts and audio books while you commute.

Eric Hoffer said, "In times of change, learners will inherit the earth while the learned will find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with the world that no longer exists."

Listener Question of the Week:  How does someone get really, really good at handling objections?

Quote of the Week:  Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation. –Zig Ziglar

Welcome to another Master Sales Series Interview!  My guest is Robert Rice, who is a VP with Buckley Oil, which sells chemicals, solvents, and lubricants.  Rob is a young sales rep who is a friend and co-worker of my son.  I have hunted and fished with Rob and watched him get married and build his family.  I’m excited to have him on the show and share his sales knowledge with us today!

Rob shares the following about his successful career:

• Rob likes to focus on the small customers and mid-level customers, selling HIMSELF to them, and not just selling another commodity.
• Early in his career, Rob struggled with realizing that the success  that he desired is a process and takes time.   He admits that he struggles today with multitasking and keeping focused on the task at hand.
• Rob believes that even as a company VP, he should devote time each day to cold-calling on potential customers to maintain his skills and help grow the business.
• Rob identifies his biggest strength as his “You” attitude.  He always asks customers, employees, and even vendors, “What can I do for you?”
• Rob credits his sales attitude from his father, who is also in sales. 
• Rob keeps his attitude sharp by not letting the word “NO” bother him, and by living according to his faith.
• Performance-based incentives have given Rob and his family the life they’ve always wanted with security and stability.
• Rob’s advice is to be in a profession that will give you the life you want.  Find someone who does the job well and duplicate their work.  Be honest and ask a lot of questions.

Rob has great advice for someone who hasn’t even turned 30 yet!  Follow his tips to put more success  in your sales career.  Thanks for joining me for this informative interview with Rob!

Welcome!  Hey, Gang!  We are kicking off the 2nd year of the podcast here in October.  My topic today is one that all successful people will face and struggle to overcome.

Three Things to do When you Get Overwhelmed:

1. Ask yourself: What is NOT working? And how do I get rid of it or make it work?  Your time is your inventory.  What is not giving you the return on investment in your time?  Sometimes tough decisions are required about how you spend (and waste) time.
2. Learn to use the leverage of other people.  Use virtual assistants and part-time help.  Use tools and online resources to help.
3. Say thanks.  Be thankful for the fact that you ARE busy.  Many people would love to have that problem!

Listener Question of the Week:  I’ve noticed that your social media engagement on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter has gone through the roof.  How in the world are you able to take care of all the social media needs in such a consistent fashion?

Quote of the Week:  “Saying there’s not enough time is like saying there’s not enough air.”  Bob Pike

Welcome!  Hey—it’s the One Year Anniversary of the podcast!  It’s been a fast year and we’ve covered a lot of great sales information.  Thanks to all our loyal listeners!  I am committed to bringing you value with each episode, so I look forward to giving you more great tips and bringing you more great interviews.  

As we wrap up this first year, I want to share with you the #1 thing I’ve learned in the past year about successful selling, and it comes from my consulting work with Keller-Williams.  It’s database, database, database!  What I mean by that is that sales revolve around your contacts and the “touches” you make with your clients.

Consider the Four C’s:

• Capture the information from the client.
• Connect with others to show that you like them.
• Cultivate the relationship with the client.
• Email them, send them offers, and use mail and phone calls to “touch” them with value.
• Close that customer at their pace.

Statistics show that if you use the Four C’s on 12 customers in your database, you will close two transactions.  This whole idea of systematically using your database will transform your sales business if you will practice these tips!

Listener Question of the Week:  I just had a customer hit on me and I didn’t know what to do.  What are your thoughts?

Quote of the Week:  It’s not a quote today, but some statistics related to our topic:

48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect

25% of sales people make one follow up contact and stop

12% of sales people make three follow up contacts and stop

Only 10% of sales people make more than three contacts

2% of sales are made after the 1st contact

3% of sales are made after the 2nd contact

5% of sales are made after the 3rd contact

10% of sales are made after the 4th contact

80% of sales are made after the 5th-12th contact

Welcome!  I’m recording the show today from a road trip.  I’m also battling a cold and losing my voice, so bear with me!  My topic is a question I’m frequently asked:  What do I listen to and read that helps me stay on top of my game day in and day out?  I’m categorizing the answer into podcasts that I listen to and books that I read and listen to:

• Podcasts are a great medium for learning and growth.  Here are some of my favorites:
• Donald Kelly-The Sales Evangelist
• Michael Hyatt- This is Your Life (he has a great blog, too)
• Amy Porterfield-Online Marketing Made Easy
• Ray Edwards-The Ray Edwards Show
• Jay Baer-Jay Today TV
• Jim & Christy Jacobus-Your Marriage Matters 
• Books can be read, but my favorite way to read them is to listen to audible.com. Some recent favorites are as follows:
• Gary Keller—The One Thing
• Len Cioni—The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
• Greg McKeown—Essentialism
• David Newman—Do It! Marketing
• David Horsager—The Trust Edge
• Rory Vaden—Take the Stairs
• Brian Tracy—The Psychology of Selling
• Dr. John Gottman—The Ten Lessons to Transform Your Marriage

Listener Question of the Week:  How do you know when it’s time to shut it down rather than keep pushing through not feeling well?

Quote of the Week: “ If you don’t build your dream, someone will hire you to help build theirs.”

--Ray Gaskins

Today we are going to talk about why we can’t get them to respond to our e-mails. So … here are the 4 primary reasons why no one reads your e-mails!

(And What To Do About It!)

#1 Reason Why No One Reads Your Emails – it is all about us! Let me tell you about! Here is our newest! Guess what we just did! Market, market, market! Sell, sell, sell!!! I, I, I, We, We, We!!!

#2 Reason Why No One Reads Your Emails – we have a brand that says we don’t consistently deliver “value”

• But wait … a lot of my customers read my e-mails so they are perceiving value!
• Are they?
• Are we communicating the things they value?
• Is the value consistently communicated?
• With their best interests always at heart?

#3 Reason Why No One Reads Your Emails – no thought put into the subject line! It is boring and can’t compete with all of their other e-mails!

#4 Reason Why No One Reads Your Emails – the e-mail itself isn’t written to make it easy to read! They see the e-mail is from you and set it aside until they have time to read a book!

1. Find a resource that will help you write more effective copy – Copyblogger, Ray Edwards!
2. Learn to write compelling subject lines and use scanable copy!
3. Make it about them – you, you, you! Ask a lot of questions?
4. Always make certain your e-mail brings them value!
5. Info, did you know, articles, whitepapers, case studies
6. Use “google alerts” to stay on top of cool things going on with them!!!

Consistently communicating value, value, value + consistently delivered in a compelling way = the privilege of marketing to them! (Thanks Tom Antion!)

Our Listener Question of the Week – Jim, you are always talking about how it sucks to be “stuck in the middle”! I don’t get it … doesn’t someone have to be there?

To access the content at Copyblogger I recommend you start with their blog and then look at other resources they have available from there - http://www.copyblogger.com/blog/

And to get to Ray Edwards stuff go here - http://rayedwards.com

Quote of the Week – “Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small things, but not you. Let others leave their lives in the hands of others, but not you!” Jim Rohn

If you haven’t already you can connect with us on Facebook and Twitter to get even more content to help you build the sales career, and life you want!

Connect with us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/inthesalesarena

And on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/JimJacobus

Have a great week gang!

Jim Jacobus

Welcome!  Today’s Master Sales Interview guest is Donald Kelly, host of “The Sales Evangelist” podcast.  Donald grew up in Jamaica, watching his Dad be an entrepreneur. The family moved to the US when Donald was nine years old. He was always the kid who loved talking about the things he was interested in most.  He started selling and found that he was good at it and could make money doing it!  Donald went into corporate sales and sold various products after college.  He is primarily in software sales now.  You will learn much from Donald’s experience.  I hope this is the first of many conversations we have on the podcast with Donald!

Donald shares the following in our conversation:

• He uses social media for sales coaching and mentoring.
• Pride and admitting that he needed help were the biggest struggles.
• It was necessary to fall in his face and learn how to function in a new arena.

Donald shares tips for success in sales:

• Go to everyone and ask for help.
• Go to the experts who were the top performers in your field.
• Take advantage of sales training when it’s available.
• Have HUMILITY.  “I’m not as good as I want to be, but I want to learn.”

Donald’s ONE THING that can help you today?  Write down your mission for yourself and your goals.  Find a mentor and utilize their help.  This is a great starting point to leave mediocrity behind.

Listener Question of the Week:  I know you’re busy, Jim.  How do you keep that work-life balance in your life?

Quote of the Week:  The line between work and play should be SO THIN that no one ever knows which one we’re actually doing.