Purpose-Driven Sales - A Sales Leadership Podcast

In this episode, we will discuss a challenge that leaders face, and that is the other costs involved in hiring a salesperson. We will also discuss the practical solutions to fix it.

Salespeople are the frontliners of businesses. Salespeople are among the essential people in the business. Why? Simply because they bring in money to keep the business running. But, what are the true costs involved in getting a salesperson to work for you? In this episode, we will talk about the other costs involved in getting salespersons, aside from the usual salary and commissions, that leaders fail to consider ahead of time. We will explain the reasons why those other costs happen. We will also talk about practical solutions to fix the hurdles or avoid spending more on costs.

“Consider this a purpose-driven understanding of what a salesperson costs... If you have got a ramp-up plan, great! Define it. Define what that 30, 60, 90 looks like. What do they accomplish at each level? What is a milestone? What is a true takeaway at 30 days? Test, a quiz, whatever you want to do to make sure they are on track to button up the exact time frame or close to it that you believe it is going to take them to ramp up.” - Taylor Barnes

Leads equal money! With this thought in mind, lead generation for your business is crucial. It is essential to produce sales and grow organic customers. However, this takes some factors to balance to be able to get genuine leads. Among these are having the right process to generate leads and people to look for them. It is like managing a baseball team to make that home run! What are the reasons for having a team of closers but no starting pitchers or a team full of closers but have nothing to close? In this episode, Barnes and Sweeney will talk about the reasons why this happens. They will discuss this in the context of company pivots to adapt to the changes which come with the change in management and setting mindset. They will also talk about solutions to solve those bottlenecks to start generating sales. You are in for a meaty discussion. Listen to this episode to get the juices out from it.

“Pivoting is important. And if you are individuals who are not going to support that movement, whether you are going through an organizational change or a market acceptance change, you have got to make some wise decisions in the best interest of the brand.” - Taylor Barnes

Sales conferences can be great opportunities to meet new prospects, vendors, and get the word out about your brand and the services and products that you offer. But conferences are often packed with many social distractions, and opportunities to lose sight of the overall company goal. In this episode we discuss conferences, the pro's and con's and useful tips your organization can take for a successful sales conference trip.

"I would find the right conference and make sure that the dollars that you are going to spend (invest), are going to bring the best result." - Taylor Barnes

There's a balance to strike when sending documents and proposals quickly, and getting them in the clients hand as soon as possibly, but with as few mistakes and errors as possible. In this episode we discuss urgency and accuracy and methods to boost team productivity, performance, and overall accuracy in the review process.

"Training the sales rep on a method that helps them narrow the scope before they do the most amount of work, can save time and produce better results." - Josh Sweeney

In todays age of remote meeting, and living in a post-Covid world, it's important to utilize networking events and virtual meetings to the best of your potential. In this episode we discuss how to build relationships with events and virtual meetings during today's time.

"People talk to each other more politely and communicate better when they are in front of somebody, even if it is digital." - Taylor Barnes

Choosing words that express the right tone and emotion with clarity and brevity is an important part of communicating with clients. In this episode we discuss important need to knows for your sales teams emails, sales proposals, and even touch on some of the generational changes that we've seen recently.

"Creat[e] mutual accountability for your customer. Your customer wants something from you. Well, that's a give. And you should create some sort of get [in return]." - Taylor Barnes

Organic growth can develop a need to revisit your organization's written territory plan. In this episode, we talk about tips to improve territory performance, discuss the methodologies used by different business types and sizes, and the importance of community effectiveness and niching down.

"Any time that marketing content is too broad, it speaks to nobody." - Josh Sweeney

This year has presented many challenges, both on an individual and professional level. For the sales leader, one of those challenges is leading through uncertainty, but the path isn't always clear. In this episode, we talk about the difficulties leaders face during disruptive times and discuss what you can do to inspire your sales reps to forge ahead despite the uncertainty, building a stronger, more reslient team in the process.

"If we focus on what's in our control, we can keep forging ahead." - Josh Sweeney

Increasing the revenue your sales team generates is not about increasing the number of sales reps, but more about optimizing their effectiveness so that you can maximize the revenue per sales rep. In this episode, we challenge some of the entrenched methods of increasing revenue from your sales team and discuss ways you, the sales leader, can more effectively use the resources you have.

“People tend to equivocate working hard and working smart as the same thing.” - Taylor Barnes

Knowing where your prospects are in your sales pipeline gives you valuable insight as a sales leader, but that perspective is only as reliable as the data that goes into it. How do you ensure your sales reps are uniformly qualifying each stage of a prospect’s journey? In this episode, we dive into some of the reasons the view you have of your sales pipeline may not be as accurate as it should be, and talk about how to bring that view closer to reality so that you can make better decisions that set your team up for success.

“Unless we have the foresight to see things coming, we’re not going to be set up for success.” - Taylor Barnes