Live Better. Sell Better.

This episode of the Live Better Sell Better Podcast recaps the best moments from our amazing guests for the month of June. We discuss numerous enlightening topics including openness to failure, the rise of work-life integration, how to ask for input for improvement, using momentum to continue success, predicting decision-making based on personality science, and so much more!

HIGHLIGHTS

• Mandi Graziano, Vice President of Global Accounts at Hospitality Performance Network and Author of Sales Tales
• Saad Khan, Business Development Manager at Dooly
• Rachel Nazhand, Head of Business Operations at Climate Club and Founder of Vice President in Residence
• Erika Davis, Vice President of Go to Market Strategy at Greaser Consulting, now Senior Manager of Sales Operations at sticky.io
• Todd Caponi, Founder of Sales Melon and author of The Transparency Sale
• Hana Elliot, Vice President of Revenue at Vendition
• Colin Specter, Vice President of Sales at Orum
• William Ballance, CEO of Lavender

Live Better. Sell Better. is sponsored by our proud partners:

Vidyard |vidyard.com

Dooly |dooly.ai

Chili Piper |chilipiper.com

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of the Live Better Seller Better Podcast features William Ballance, CEO of Lavender. How do you get personality science into the framework of decision-making to convert more sales? William shares the ins and outs of predicting personality using online data to help write more effective emails.

William explains the Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) and how people think through decisions based on action, vision, people, and data. William walks through each of these and how they are identified. He then discusses how you can approach each dominant personality to create more personalized emails and increase response rate and overall conversion.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The quadrants of HBDI explained and how they affect decision-making
• Identifying each personality type and applying it in the sales process
• Additional resources for communication psychology in marketing

QUOTES

William: "It's important that you have someone in your team that's going to be that vision-focused person, that action-oriented driver, some that think about the people involved, and some to research the data. It's normally used to structure leadership teams but we started applying that same framework on how people make their buying decisions both in marketing and sales."

William: "So part of your messaging would target the action involved or the vision, the big picture or the aspirational side of the sale, the people that it's going to impact, and the data behind it. And that can all be in one pitch or it could be in different steps."

William: "It's always interesting in demos. Sometimes I'll do the analytics and coaching dashboard last. And every now and then someone's like 'Man, I wish we could've started with that' and I never hear that. But every now and then, you get someone who just wants to dive really deep into the analytics."

You can find out more about William in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wmb1/
• Website: https://www.lavender.ai/

Live Better. Sell Better. is sponsored by our proud partners:

Vidyard |vidyard.com

Dooly |dooly.ai

Chili Piper |chilipiper.com

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of the Live Better Seller Better Podcast features Colin Specter, Vice President of Sales at Orum. Cold calling is as much an art as it is a science. Colin shares what the data has shown to work in the world of cold calls and how sellers can increase their own conversion rates.

There is a mathematical formula that you can use to derive the number of calls you have to make to get to your desired outcome. Colin shares what metrics you should be tracking and how you can tweak your messaging to increase conversion and book more meetings. 

HIGHLIGHTS

• Cold call metrics you should be tracking
• Increase conversion rates and identify call dispositions
• Buy more time and get permission to ask one question
• Trends and patterns in landing meetings through cold calls

QUOTES

Colin: "You want to look at your dial-to-connect ratio, you want to look at your connect-to-conversation ratio, how many conversations are you getting out of each at-bats? And then, how many of those conversations are leading to a meeting?"

Colin: "There's different openers, there's different ways people love to approach the cold call. It really comes down to tonality and enthusiasm in many cases. But there's all kinds of openers. You could try what works for you. The one that we use here at Orum most commonly is 'hey, KD, Colin with Orum here. Are they keeping you busy today?'"

Colin: "It's also not as common that you will book a meeting on the first connect. Most of the connects, we find, happen after that initial conversation after that initial connect. So do you have a playbook to get people back into your call list after those dispositions?"

You can find out more about Colin in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinspecter/
• Website: https://www.orum.com/

Live Better. Sell Better. is sponsored by our proud partners:

Vidyard | vidyard.com

Dooly | dooly.ai

Chili Piper | chilipiper.com

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of the Live Better Seller Better Podcast features Hana Elliot, Vice President of Revenue at Vendition. The cost of half-baked onboarding is reflected in lost potential revenue. Leaders must then realize that spending time to teach SDRs the fundamentals is more than just another box to tick.

Rather, it is a commitment. Hana shares their best practices that have helped thousands of sales professionals sell better. Onboarding imparts your culture but it should also include some professionalism basics as a good number of SDRs are actually fresh out of college.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Companies need to commit time to onboard properly
• Coach remotely with a buddy system for new SDRs
• Onboarding program: Teach the basics and use metrics  
• The balance between educating, building confidence, and ramping quota
• Remember that SDRs are human too

QUOTES

Hana: "I think it's a worthwhile exercise to look at the pipeline or revenue impact of not having a fully-ramped SDR in seat because that's what's going to help you prioritize your time. It's too easy to get caught up in the daily whirlwind... and say I'm too busy."

Hana: "Having more experienced AEs or some of your senior SDRs who have done it and are showing great results, have them listen in and shadow and give their feedback. Chances are, if you've been coaching them all along, they'll also know your mentality and be able to pass that along."

Hana: "I'm not a second week, throw somebody on the phone. That's not my approach or preference. But you have to hit it hard at the beginning. That's where you can take advantage of your mentors, of your buddies, that's where you can do a lot of group online at the same time cohort writing workshops."

Hana: "Being ready is so subjective. But are there assessments that you can build in at checkpoints and milestones throughout their onboarding process to determine are they actually ready? Make sure you know what you're looking for. Can they do X, Y, and Z on a cold call practice with you?"

You can find out more about Hana in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hanaelliott/
• Website: https://vendition.com/

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of the Live Better Seller Better Podcast features Todd Caponi, author of The Transparency Sale: How Unexpected Honesty and Understanding the Buying Brain Can Transform Your Results. Recognizing patterns of the past provides insights into how best to move forward into the future.

Todd gives parallels to economic downturns from previous decades and how we are seeing the same red flags today. He observes a bubble in unicorn startups and advises leaders on how to provide their people with the most certainty possible to survive the incoming slump.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Sales trends follow cycles throughout history
• Lead through a bubble by providing certainty
• Remind your team of the impact their work does
• Reward people with a sense of accomplishment
• The Transparent Sales Leader soft launch on Jul 5, 2022

QUOTES

Todd: "Uncertainty is like a kryptonite for our brain. Like, literally, when we're uncertain, we don't sleep, we don't perform well, we're less creative, and, at it's core, our IQ literally goes down in those situations where there's uncertainty."

Todd: "Create certainty right wherever you can within your teams right now, even if things are fantastic for you. You've got to do that because your teams are looking around and they're feeling like tomorrow is going to be the day."

Todd: "We cut out the stuff that really didn't matter a whole lot, so that's number one. Number two is we focused all of our spending on the must-haves, the things that were going to give us certainty. So that's number two. And then number three is that we sought ways to remove risk and extend runway."

Todd: "If you believe that sales reps are coin-operated, you're right if you're doing it wrong. You create an environment where your reps want to show up every day, want to stay, want to do their best, want to become advocates, and the variable compensation is the reward, not the motivator, that's when everybody wins."

You can find out more about Todd in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddcaponi/
• Amazon book link: https://www.amazon.com/Transparency-Sale-Unexpected-Understanding-Transform/dp/1940858801

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of the Live Better Seller Better Podcast features Erika Davis, Vice President of Go to Market Strategy at Greaser Consulting and mental health advocate. Knowing the nuances of burnout helps you determine what is truly important to you and how best to manage the stress of sales.

Erika defines what burnout really is and how it's different from simply being tired. She talks about the separation and connection between thoughts and feelings and how changing perspective and/or environment can create meaningful change. Erika also addresses sales leaders on how to manage people by acknowledging vulnerability and knowing what truly drives them.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Misconceptions about burnout and knowing what's truly important
• Burnout vs tired: The difference is the lack of meaning and purpose
• Thoughts are not feelings and experiencing the spectrum of emotion
• For sales leaders: Learn your team's motivations

QUOTES

Erika: "Burnout, a lot of times, comes not necessarily from working too hard but from putting yourself in a situation where you're working really hard at things that aren't important to you and you don't find meaning in those things anymore."

Erika: "When you feel like you've pushed as hard as you can with output, think about input, like what are you reading, what are you listening to, how are you getting new ideas so you're not just banging your head against a brick wall again and again and again."

Erika: "Do I need to change my perspective or do I need to change my environment? And if I can't change either of those things meaningfully, then I just know it's out of my control and I just need to take care of myself."

Erika: "Good mental health and being mentally healthy isn't about feeling happy or joyful all the time. It's about feeling the full spectrum of human emotion at the appropriate time."

You can find out more about Erika in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikardavis/
• Podcast: https://www.greaserconsulting.com/learn/revops-therapy-podcast/

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of the Live Better Seller Better Podcast features Rachel Nazhand, 4x startup operator, BizOps and RevOps Evangelist, and Founder of Vice President in Residence. Almost every department has an ops component to it and Rachel shares how to leverage ops when the goal is to scale a business.

She discusses how operations can do this by aligning the goals to the practical and best steps to achieve those said goals. Rachel also talks about the advantages of BizOps in various stages of growth, from making the correct first hires to building a dedicated ops team to hiring specialists.  

HIGHLIGHTS

• Operations are the glue to achieving company goals
• BizOps/RevOps provide the how to the what
• Insights from the data and empathy to stay grounded 
• Leverage ops in various stages of growth
• Advice to sales leaders and operators

QUOTES

Rachel: "Tell me what you're going for and I will give you an amazing way to accomplish it. Don't tell me that you need a dashboard. Tell me that you need your reps to know how they're pacing so that they can make an amazing decision on how to structure their day."

Rachel: "As an operator, I'm going to start thinking if that's really what's working for my top seller, is there a piece that I can replicate across the board for everyone? I've learned something new, I've built some empathy, I've figured out someone's secret sauce, now how can I start to sprinkle that out?"

Rachel: "In those early hires, give them as much visibility into the full life cycle as possible. The more that you are building a customer-centric experience, the better your results are on the other side. Nothing crushes a prospect's soul faster than having to tell their story 10 times, pre-sale, post-sale, etc."

Rachel: "Get really comfortable dumping all of your problems on the table and letting your operators help you figure out how to attack them. If you come to me with these one-offs, I might not be able to pick up on themes and I might not be able to support you. You give me all 15 of your problems at once, I'll show you that 3 of them are actually the same thing."

You can find out more about Rachel in the link below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelnazhand/

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of the Live Better Sell Better Podcast recaps the best moments from our amazing guests (and myself!) last May. We touch on incredibly relevant topics such as the power of taking the initiative to further your career, pursuing coaching to guide others through your own mistakes and successes, increasing awareness of the value of diversity, leveraging content to engage prospects on multiple channels, having a reason WHY to achieve your goals, and much, much more! 

HIGHLIGHTS

• Derek Anniston, Director of Operations at American Equipment Financial Services
• Casey Jacox, Executive Leadership Coach at Winning the Relationship, and author of Win the Relationship, Not the Deal
• Heidi Solomon-Orlick, VP of Global Sales at VXI Global Solution, Founder of GirlzWhoSell, and author of Heels to Deals
• Mandy McEwen, Founder of Mod Girl Marketing
• Kevin Dorsey,  SaaS Sales Consultant, Advisor, and Host of Live Better Sell Better Podcast

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This episode of the Live Better Seller Better Podcast features Saad Khan, BDR Manager at Dooly. The role of BDRs can be empowered to close deals. However, making full-cycle reps doesn't take away from their role of prospecting, it just adds to it. Saad discusses BDR leadership and the strategies he employs to implement it. 

During their Initiation, they teach the concept of Give and Get which informs a way to get past resistance while also ensuring your time is spent wisely, and Mirroring which helps keep the conversation going. Saad shares how this allows them to have a leaner but much higher quality team who get paid more too.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Make BDRs full cycle to close deals
• Training versus coaching
• Dooly’s Initation teaches "Give and Get" and Mirroring
• Training fewer reps with higher compensation

QUOTES

Saad: "Instead of BDR Appreciation Week, I'm giving my BDRs the opportunity to come start closing deals. I'm not promising them to become an AE in six months. I'm giving them the right tools and the right training and the opportunity to make things happen."

Saad: "Training could be just showing people how to use a tool, how to use Salesforce, how to use Dooly, what to do on a day-to-day. Coaching is you're on the trenches, you're on the field with them, you're working on plays every single day, you're executing plays. "

Saad: "People are always going to have objections. You can address an objection, get something else in return. Very basic example, somebody says at the end of a call, hey, just send me something. Okay, well, hold on. what can I send you that's not going to get deleted? How can I stay top of mind without being annoying? Get something in return."

Saad: "You know the buyer's conservation journey? People say the buyer's concerning journey is made of three phases: awareness, consideration, purchase. I disagree. I think there's one other phase which is the unaware phase."

You can find out more about Saad in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saad-khan-73329013b/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iaresaad/

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of the Live Better Seller Better Podcast features Mandi Graziano, sales veteran as both a leader and rep and bestselling author of Sales Tales: The Hustle, Humor, and Lessons Learned From a Life in Sales.

Today, Mandi delves deep into how you can differentiate yourself. She details ways you can be memorable in all the right ways, from sending "choose your own adventure" emails to following up regularly and authentically. 

She also talks about other ways to engage prospects aside from happy hour like sweatworking. To find your own voice, you have to make your sales your own. Mandi shares how iterating others' effective strategies is a great way to do something that works but feels natural to you too.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Be memorable with creative emails and follow-ups
• A student of the crisis: Surviving COVID in the hospitality industry
• Make it your own: Iteration and testing to find your voice
• Sales Tales is a collection of funny stories from Mandi's career

QUOTES

Mandi: "Choose your own adventure email is a great, memorable way to get a customer to call you back or email you back. And, the thing is, they may email you back saying uh, who are you and I don't want to work with you, but then that's an opportunity for a no and an opportunity to ask why or how you can improve or who they're working with."

Mandi: "Write your own haiku, choose your own adventure email, use video. There's so many ways you can be different and people now, I really believe this and this may sound crazy, but I think now people are more open to creativity and clever antics than they ever have before because they can't remember how it used to be done."

Mandi: "Iteration, I think, is one of the best ways to find your own voice. Just try a whole bunch of different ways. But I think closing your eyes, taking a deep breath, and thinking about what it is that makes it your own is really important."

Mandi: "You have to keep trying things and you have to be open to failing because the magic is in the fail. It really, really is. So you have to try."

You can find out more about Mandi in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mandigraziano/
• Website: https://www.mandigraziano.com/
• Email: [email protected]
• Amazon book link: https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Tales-Hustle-Humor-Lessons/dp/1949635945

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