Making A Difference Podcast

I was privileged to be featured on the 100th Episode of Mark Hunter's "The Sale Hunter Podcast"

We are celebrating our 100th episode on #TheSalesHunterPodcast!

Today we welcome guest David Brock as he shares how salespeople can use AI as an educational tool, and even as a debate partner, but that humans connecting to customers effectively is the real end goal.

We can’t get too focused on how much salespeople are going to exploit AI because we’re forgetting our buyers will too. Listen in for great tips for using AI as a starting point in prospecting.

ChatGPT cannot be the end point, but it can be the starting point. Dave Brock shares how salespeople can use AI as an educational tool, and even as a debate partner, but that humans connecting to customers effectively is the real end goal.

We can’t get too focused on how much salespeople are going to exploit AI because we’re forgetting our buyers will too. Salespeople run the risk of becoming unnecessary and irrelevant if they can’t show they understand the prospect and understand their business. Listen in for great tips for using AI as a starting point in prospecting.

 Visit partnersinexcellenceblog.com to see what else Dave Brock has to say!

We are overwhelmed with technology solutions to help sellers.  Despite huge investments in technology, utilization by sellers is actually pretty low.

How do we look at technology and how do we get sellers to use these technologies effectively?  Join me in a discussions of how Corey Richardson, SVP of Sales for Teamworks is driving performance through the use of Akoonu. 

Jeff Freund, CEO of Akoonu, joins us to discuss how vendors can work with companies to maximize the value they achieve in their technology implementation.

Corey Richardson, Senior Vice President of Sales, Teamworks:  LinkedIn

Jeff Freund, Founder and CEO, Akoonu:  LinkedIn

I had the opportunity to have a great discussion with John Smibert, Wayne Moloney, and Jeff Clulow, authors of the Wentworth Prospect.  We discussed why they chose to present some very powerful sales approach in the format of a novel.  It was a fun discussion, how you enjoy!

In Q1/2020, the world turned upside down.  Covid-19 was spreading around the ----more----world.  Businesses, Schools, Social Events, Communities went into various types of shut down.  Work from home, Distancing, PPE became part of our lexicon.

This didn't mean businesses shut down, they just changed.  For sales people, it changed not only where we worked, but how we worked--with our customers and with each other.

We adopted new methods and tools to work with our customers.  Customer engagement and selling started going virtual.  We leveraged traditional tools, the telephone, email, text, Slack, social networking and other technologies.  We leveraged newer video technologies like Zoom, Teams, collaborative white boarding and other tools.

But sales success, customer and employee engagement is much more than just the tools.  It's about connecting with people in new ways.

Every organization is learning what this means and how to effectively sell.  Join me as I talk to Lisa Pope, Executive Vice President of Americas Sales for Epicor.  We had a fascinating conversation about how her team adapted, what they've learned, and where they are going.

Channels have always been a critical part of most organizations' Go To Customer strategies.  They are critical to extending our coverage of the market, accessing markets with specialized expertise, and in helping provide our customers more complete solutions.

Managing channels for optimum performance in the face of rapidly changing buying processes and cloud based solutions creates challenges neither suppliers nor channel players have faced in the past.

For example, many of the IT centric products and services are seeing radically changing buying--shifting out of IT into end users.  This drives a change in the channel, helping them shift their approaches to the buyers or finding partners that have access to those buyers.

Shifting from business models where products/services were sold outright, to today's models where products and services are frequently packaged as "As A Service" offering requires new business models, new skills, new capabilities both in the supplier and channels.

Rapid digitization of our customers businesses provide yet another challenge and opportunity to both suppliers and channel participants.

Managing these transitions, helping partners manage these transitions is a very complex process.  It requires new thinking, new relationships, new partner enablement programs, and in some cases new partners.

Simon Minett, Head of Global Sales Operations for Unify, has been leading their transition from a primarily direct field sales orientation to a channel deployed orientation.

The discussion Simon and I had, is one of the most fascinating and wide ranging conversations on this topic that I have had.  We cover everything from managing the transition to channel first, developing capability in the channel, shifting priorities and business model, rising complexity and managing that complexity, to critical elements in channel performance management and enablement.

It's a longer discussion than normal, but this topic is so critical, it was important that we cover this topic in some greater depth.

I hope you enjoy this podcast as much as I enjoyed the conversation with Simon Minett!

Channels have always been a critical part of most organizations' Go To Customer strategies.  They are critical to extending our coverage of the market, accessing markets with specialized expertise, and in helping provide our customers more complete solutions.

Managing channels for optimum performance in the face of rapidly changing buying processes and cloud based solutions creates challenges neither suppliers nor channel players have faced in the past.

For example, many of the IT centric products and services are seeing radically changing buying--shifting out of IT into end users.  This drives a change in the channel, helping them shift their approaches to the buyers or finding partners that have access to those buyers.

Shifting from business models where products/services were sold outright, to today's models where products and services are frequently packaged as "As A Service" offering requires new business models, new skills, new capabilities both in the supplier and channels.

Rapid digitization of our customers businesses provide yet another challenge and opportunity to both suppliers and channel participants.

Managing these transitions, helping partners manage these transitions is a very complex process.  It requires new thinking, new relationships, new partner enablement programs, and in some cases new partners.

Simon Minett, Head of Global Sales Operations for Unify, has been leading their transition from a primarily direct field sales orientation to a channel deployed orientation.

The discussion Simon and I had, is one of the most fascinating and wide ranging conversations on this topic that I have had.  We cover everything from managing the transition to channel first, developing capability in the channel, shifting priorities and business model, rising complexity and managing that complexity, to critical elements in channel performance management and enablement.

It's a longer discussion than normal, but this topic is so critical, it was important that we cover this topic in some greater depth.

I hope you enjoy this podcast as much as I enjoyed the conversation with Simon Minett!

The cost of a bad hire in sales can be millions of dollars.   We can't forget the hiring and salary costs are the smallest part of our investment in sales people.  The biggest part is the opportunity costs----lost business and opportunities--- if we make the wrong choice.

Too many managers are pretty cavalier about the process, the interview someone, see if there is "chemistry," then make a hire.  Too often, they settle for what they get, not invest the time in finding the right high performers.

Al Drucker has a completely different approach.  He has a rigorous screening process---first he's very clear about what he's looking for, he builds a "competency model," against which he evaluates candidates.  He leveraged behavioral tests and assessments.  Finally, he has a rigorous interview process, invoving everyone from his assistant, presales support, other managers and sales people.  He expects people to prepare for and go through role play and presentation scenarios.  Through this rigorous process, he does everything possible to make sure he is recrutigint "A" players.

But the job doesn't stop there.  Al recognizes that even the best people will fail unless they are onboarded correctly.

Join Al Drucker and me in a fascinating discussion about what it takes to recruit and onboard "A" players.

Thanks Al for a great discussion!

The cost of a bad hire in sales can be millions of dollars.   We can't forget the hiring and salary costs are the smallest part of our investment in sales people.  The biggest part is the opportunity costs----lost business and opportunities--- if we make the wrong choice.

Too many managers are pretty cavalier about the process, the interview someone, see if there is "chemistry," then make a hire.  Too often, they settle for what they get, not invest the time in finding the right high performers.

Al Drucker has a completely different approach.  He has a rigorous screening process---first he's very clear about what he's looking for, he builds a "competency model," against which he evaluates candidates.  He leveraged behavioral tests and assessments.  Finally, he has a rigorous interview process, invoving everyone from his assistant, presales support, other managers and sales people.  He expects people to prepare for and go through role play and presentation scenarios.  Through this rigorous process, he does everything possible to make sure he is recrutigint "A" players.

But the job doesn't stop there.  Al recognizes that even the best people will fail unless they are onboarded correctly.

Join Al Drucker and me in a fascinating discussion about what it takes to recruit and onboard "A" players.

Thanks Al for a great discussion!

Any kind of organizational transformation is hard.  But imagine tranforming your entire approach to the market.  Think of the challenges of moving fromp primarily a direct field sales structure to a hybrid structure, with heavy reliance on channel partners.

Why would you do this?

What are the challenges in making this happen?

How do you learn in the process and continually improve?

I cover this and more in my discussion with Colin McLean, Senior Vice President of North American Sales and Service Providers for Unify.

It' a fascinating discussion of transformation at a very large scale.