Social interaction is part of the business of selling. In the past, salespeople often met with prospects face-to-face and spent time with them in their homes or in social settings. In today’s sales environment, many of these in-person interactions have been replaced by online interactions on social media sites. However, these digital interactions are just as important as the in-person interactions that they’ve replaced.

Today’s guest is Jon Ferrara. Jon is the founder and CEO of Nimble, a contact management solution that enhances basic contact information with richly detailed social information that helps you gain new insights about people in your network. This can help you deepen your social media relationships. Listen to the episode to hear what Jon has to say about the importance of social interactions in business, how Nimble can improve those interactions, and what role artificial intelligence plays in Nimble. You’ll also get a special offer from Jon.

Episode Highlights:

• What made Jon want to start Nimble
• The importance of the social aspect of prospecting and business
• How to scale social media interactions
• How Nimble works
• What an effective curation methodology looks like
• Tools that can help curate content and engage prospects in conversation
• How Nimble is reimagining CRM and what it looks like to use Nimble
• How artificial intelligence factors into Nimble
• Why AI can automate processes but not replace human beings
• A special offer from Jon

Resources:

Jon Ferrara

Email Jon at: [email protected]

Nimble

Special Offer: Sign up for the Nimble free trial. Before the end of the 2-week free trial, enter promo code JON40 to get 40% off Nimble for the first 3 months.

In a world powered by social media, social selling is a crucial aspect of sales. Social media allows salespeople to interact with prospects in a way that provides real value for those prospects. You can answer questions and offer useful content in a way that not only shows the prospect why they want to buy, but also why they would want to do business with you personally. Social selling allows you to create more loyal, engaged customers. 

Today’s guest is Brynne Tillman. She’s an authority on social selling and the author of the book The LinkedIn Sales Playbook: A Tactical Guide to Social Selling. Listen to the episode to learn more about how social selling can be used to bring more predictability and reliability to your sales pipeline.

Episode Highlights:

• How Brynne’s book lays out the step-by-step social selling process for LinkedIn
• The four major pieces of social selling
• How to take your LinkedIn profile from resume to resource
• When to connect with and message prospects on LinkedIn
• How you can use LinkedIn to identify and target connections of your connections
• How to set goals for social selling on LinkedIn
• Metrics that can help track the success of social sales
• What a typical scenario for onboarding of social selling environment for sales looks like
• Brynne’s work with Vangreso, and how she got started with that team

Resources:

Brynne Tillman

The LinkedIn Sales Playbook: A Tactical Guide to Social Selling

Vengreso

How can you keep yourself at the top of your prospects’ and clients’ minds? LinkedIn is a powerful tool that can help you do just that, but only if you know how to use it. Unfortunately, LinkedIn can also be confusing and changeable, and even if you have a LinkedIn profile, you may not know how to leverage it to get the most out of it.

Today’s guest is Viveka von Rosen. Viveka is an author, speaker, and LinkedIn expert. She’s also a CVO & Co-founder of Vangreso, a digital sales solution provider that works with people to help create their personal brand online and create content for sales. Listen to the episode to learn more about what Vangreso has to offer, as well as what Viveka has to say about the benefits of LinkedIn, the challenges of using LinkedIn more effectively, and what you should do to turn your LinkedIn profile into a useful resource.

Episode Highlights:

• Viveka’s company and what they do
• The benefits that Viveka sees in LinkedIn
• The challenges of using LinkedIn
• Where to start learning how to use LinkedIn
• How LinkedIn can help you establish your brand within your company
• The importance of consistency when using LinkedIn
• Why it’s important to make your LinkedIn profile into a useful resource
• How creating a LinkedIn community to share content can drive visibility
• The importance of engaging with people who engage with the content on your LinkedIn feed
• How to use LinkedIn’s analytics
• How LinkedIn allows you to monitor and take advantage of opportunities presented when prospects move from one company to another
• What to do after creating a client-facing LinkedIn profile

Resources:

Viveka von Rosen

Vengreso

Email Viveka at: [email protected]

With artificial intelligence becoming more and more able to take over parts of the sales process, how can you make sure that you stand out as a salesperson? Your own personality can give something to the sales process that robots can’t.

In today’s episode, I’ll talk to Shawn Karol Sandy and Dianna Geairn of the SellOut Show about the importance of bringing personality into the sales process. Listen to the episode to hear what Shawn and Dianna have to say about the approach they recommend for sales conversations, how to experiment with sales scripts, and why you should try recording or videotaping yourself and listening to how you sound during a sales conversation. 

Episode Highlights:

• Shawn’s and Dianna’s backgrounds
• How Shawn and Dianna decided to start The SellOut Show
• Why Shawn and Dianna take a less-structured approach to sales conversations
• Where personality comes into the sales process
• The recipe for bringing personality into the top of the funnel
• Experimenting with sales scripts or templates
• How sales and marketing can work more closely together
• Why you should record and listen to yourself
• The importance of practicing sales skills

Resources:

Shawn Karol Sandy

Dianna Geairn

The SellOut Show

The Irreverent Sales Girl

The Selling Agency

Have you ever wondered what it might be like to be make a pitch on ABC’s Shark Tank? Today’s guest has been there and done that, and in today’s episode, she’ll share some of what she learned in the process.

Today’s guest is Michelle Weinstein. She is the entrepreneur behind The Pitch Queen, and she’s successfully raised money and landed contracts with companies like Costco and The Vitamin Shoppe. She has 20 years of experience in sales to draw on, and of course, she was featured on Shark Tank. Listen to the episode to hear more about that experience, as well as Michelle’s thoughts on the importance of continued learning, the value of persistence, and what it means to be “professionally annoying.”

Episode Highlights:

• How Michelle got started in sales
• How continued learning can help salespeople improve
• Michelle’s Shark Tank experience and how she prepared for it
• How Michelle’s experience on Shark Tank figures into her work on The Pitch Queen
• How persistence can add value in a sales context
• How cold outreach can not only offer solutions to problems, but also let prospects know that they have a problem in the first place
• Actionable steps that prospectors can take to improve their sales pitches

Resources:

Michelle Weinstein

The Pitch Queen

Five-Step Pitch Queen system

Success Unfiltered

All sales start with a conversation, whether that happens over the phone, in person, or through email or direct mail. When it’s your job to start the conversation that will lead to a sale, you definitely want to begin with the right words. Today’s guest knows a lot about which words will best help you approach those conversations.

Phil M. Jones is a professional sales coach and speaker. He’s also an author whose books Exactly What to Say and Exactly How to Sell provide the phrases and frameworks that can help demystify the sales process and increase confidence and sales success. Listen to the episode to hear what Phil has to say about the importance of word choice, the steps between a conversation and a sale, and the best kind of framework for a cold call.

Episode Highlights:

• The worst time to think about what you’re going to say
• The importance of word choice
• How Phil came up with the phrases in his book Exactly What to Say
• How the phrases from Phil’s book can be applied in both spoken and written conversations
• The steps between a conversation and a sale
• Sales scenarios where Phil’s phrases and formulas can be applied
• Why you should avoid asking if now is a good time to talk when calling prospects
• How to get to the heart of the conversation right from the start
• Why it helps to have a framework for sales conversations
• Why you should schedule a next action before you hang up the phone
• The framework that works best for a cold call
• Why it’s important to practice these conversational frameworks

Resources:

Phil M. Jones

Phil’s Website

Exactly What to Say

Exactly How to Sell

Phil’s You Tube Channel

In sales, perfecting your process can be the key to making more sales. But how do you find the right process? When do you know that you’ve hit on a process that works, and what do you need to do to customize it or improve on it for your situation?

Today’s guest is Scott Leese. Scott is the Senior Vice President of Sales at Qualia, a settlement platform for real estate professionals. Scott has also written a book about the sales process. Scott has an interesting background even before he got into sales, and this helps inform his success in the field and interest in process. Listen to the episode to hear Scott describe his history and talk about how he settled on a sales process, why he believes in the importance of delegating, and how to handle stress and pressure in a sales leadership role.

Episode Highlights:

• Scott’s background and how he got into sales
• How Scott settled on a process that worked for him
• Why it’s important to educate a prospect on the problem before selling them on a solution
• Why Scott thinks it’s important to get good at delegating
• How to handle pressure and stress when you’re in a sales leadership role
• Scott’s upcoming conference in Costa Rica
• The top challenges that startups face
• Scott’s thoughts on outsourcing the startup phase of a company or part of the sales funnel
• The Addiction Model Framework

Resources:

Scott Leese

Qualia

Addicted to the Process

The 2018 Surf and Sales Summit

It’s easy to be suspicious or hesitant about the rapid advances in technology, especially in the field of artificial intelligence. Many people worry about being replaced in their jobs by some type of technology, and for prospectors, the idea of artificial intelligence can seem like a direct threat to their jobs. But it turns out, AI is not the threat to prospecting jobs that it might seem. In fact, AI can actually be used to improve prospectors chances of getting great leads and closing deals. 

Today’s guest is Robert Käll, the CEO and cofounder of a company called Cien. Cien produces an AI-powered sales productivity app. Far from taking opportunities away from prospectors, Robert explains how Cien can be used to empower prospectors and help them increase their opportunities and ability to close deals. Listen to the episode to hear what Robert has to say about AI and how it figures into the future of prospecting.

Episode Highlights:

• Robert’s company, Cien, and how it got its name
• Why advanced AI technology doesn’t mean the end of prospecting
• How AI can affect pipeline quality
• How AI can be applied to the problem of incomplete or low-quality data
• The implications of using AI to help differentiate between good leads and bad leads
• How AI can help underperforming reps increase their sales
• The importance of routing tasks to people based on who can make the most out of that particular task
• Why it’s important to understand why some deals close and others don’t
• Why you shouldn’t assume that there’s a one-size-fits-all formula for closing deals
• How Robert’s app works with Salesforce

Resources:

Robert Käll

Robert Käll on Twitter

Cien

What skills and attributes make for a good prospector? When companies are looking to hire prospectors, what traits are they looking for? Today’s guest has a good idea, and has had great success in hiring and training for his business.

Phill Keene is the Director of Sales at Costello. Over the course of his career, he’s had the opportunity to get familiar with every part of the pipeline. Listen to the episode to hear Phill talk about the importance of self-learning, how pattern recognition relates to business, and the hiring process that Phill uses to bring on new prospectors at his own company.

Episode Highlights:

• How Costello got its name
• How to get people to put time into mastering prospecting techniques
• The importance of being a motivated self-learner in prospecting
• The skills that a good prospector needs to have
• How pattern recognition can help in prospecting
• Phill’s success rate for hiring prospectors
• Phill’s hiring process
• How Phill determines which person gets hired for which role
• Phill’s process for onboarding

Resources:

Phill Keene

Costello

Phill’s Email: [email protected]

The sales machine is constantly changing, which means that sales professionals need to be constantly learning to keep up with the changing environment, especially at the top of the funnel. Today’s guest is an authority on sales training with some interesting insights on the education side of selling.

David Priemer is the Founder and Chief Sales Scientist of the sales training company Cerebral Selling. Listen to the episode to hear what David has to say about what he calls the “sea of sameness” and how sales professionals can differentiate themselves in that sea.

Episode Highlights:

• The state of selling on the education side of things, and the difficulty of differentiating useful information when so much information is available
• David’s advice for people who are looking for useful ways to differentiate information
• How to demonstrate overt benefit
• How the exclusionary principle can be applied at the top of the funnel
• The importance of understanding human behavior in sales
• Why messaging and delivery mechanism are two of the most important things for sales professionals to understand
• How to mobilize authentic voices in the sales cycle
• How to showcase value in a delivery mechanism
• The importance of engaging customers in your messaging synthesis

Resources: 

David Priemer

Cerebral Selling