Sales Babble

Honesty Sells with Colleen Francis #223

Colleen Francis is the Founder and President of Engage Selling Solutions and the author of Nonstop Sales Boom and Honesty Sells. Colleen is a successful sales leader for over 20 years, well versed on the challenges of selling in today's market. She is a Certified Sales Professional (C.S.P.) and an inductee into the Speaking Hall of Fame. In this episode we discuss the necessity of honest selling and advice on how sellers can build trust with transparency.

What Makes for Honesty Sells

1. Trust is built on honoring your word in all you do. Keeping promises matters.
2. Prove honesty through voice mail e.g., promise you will call them back at a set time, then do it
3. If you made a promise and have no news, make the call and share you have no news
4. Customer experience is the key differentiator
5. Have a culture of honesty in your organization. It will spread to your client interactions.
6. Always apologize when you make an error. Coddle them with kindness. Own it.
7. The top performers (upper 10%) have a culture of honesty.
8. Don't over promise and under deliver
9. Don't under promise and over deliver
10. Honor your word

Take Action Advice

Make sure you're creating an open transparent organization, both inside a team and outside of the team. Next make sure the sales team starts telling customers exactly what they are going to do, then doing it. Meet your committments!

How To Find Colleen Francis

• Website: www.engageselling.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/EngageColleen
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EngageSelling
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleenfrancis

Books Mentioned

Nonstop Sales Boom and Honesty Sells.

Consultative Selling

Here are some previous episodes on the power of honest selling.

• The Transparency Sale with Todd Caponi #221
• How To Sell With The Socratic Method with Roger Breisch #214
• How to be a Sales Sherpa with the Hyperconnected David Fisher
• How To Sell Hardware, Software and All Things IT with Mike Slowik #181
• How To Generate Leads with Relationship Selling with Michael Ross
• Four Skills You Need For Sales Success – HEAT
• The Perfect Close with James Muir #132
• How to Sell to the Obvious with Stephen Schiffman
• Educate While You Negotiate with Jeanette Nyden #85
• Why Can't I Get a Degree in Sales with Professor Shawn Green #80

The post Honesty Sells with Colleen Francis #223 appeared first on Sales Babble Sales Podcast | Sales Training | Sales Consulting |Sales Coaching.

Honesty Sells with Colleen Francis #223

Colleen Francis is the Founder and President of Engage Selling Solutions and the author of Nonstop Sales Boom and Honesty Sells. Colleen is a successful

The Transparency Sale Part 2 with Todd Caponi #222

This is the second of a two part series interviewing Todd Caponi, the former Chief Revenue Officer at Chicago's PowerReviews. Todd is in the process of authoring a new book titled "The Transparency Sale". This book is in response to the changing influence of social media in selling and the failure of former challenger sale strategies. Todd has held leadership roles with three tech companies, including ExactTarget, where he helped the organization to a successful IPO and a $2.7B exit to Salesforce.com.

Reality of Decision Making

Customer decisions are filled with imperfection, tied to subconcious decision making and feeling. People make decisions with feelings and back them up with logic. Sellers who understand this fact quickly learn to focus on feelings first to snag interest and then generate desire.

Negotiation Strategy

Negotiating policy commonly recommends holding your cards close. Todd disagrees. Play your cards immediately at the start of the negotiation. Consider the following values and leveraging them for discounts.

• How much you buy
• How fast you pay
• How long you commit
• When you sign

Discounts are based on what you're willing to agree. Each buyer can optimize their deal by applying the levers in tandem. This is a very tranparent way to negotiate. Never use any one lever by itself.

Presentation Mistakes

Consider the thinking of the audience attending your sales presentation:

1. Ugh I don't want to go
2. I hope they can help my problems today
3. Ugh they are only talking about themselves (First three slides talk about the vendor)
4. I think I'll check my Facebook account and see what my friends are doing

Have empathy for the people you're talking to. Start with their problems and find out their challenges. Provide no NASCAR slides showing what a great vendor you are, Nobody cares. What they want to know is HOW you can help THEM.

Transparent Contracts

If you have terms and conditions in a contract, lead with transparency. Point out sections in the contract where some customers have had an issue. It's very honest to call these out. This will speed up the signing the contract. If you hide stuff it chips away at trust e.g. auto renewal (explain the value to your company honestly).

Parting Thoughts

We can no longer be bartenders and serve people what ever they want. The Challenger Sale recommended we become personal trainers with advice on how to be better. Now we need to be doctors and neuro scientists to understand root causes. Lead with transparency.

How To Connect With Todd Caponi

• Website: www.transparencysale.com
• Twitter: @tcaponi
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/toddcaponi/

Books Mentioned:

• The Transparency Sale is slated to be published in Fall 2018

The Power of Social Selling

Here are some previous episodes on the power of social selling.

• All Sales Start With a Why with Michael Manzur #205
• The Art of the Help with Larry Levine #182
• 7 LinkedIn Strategies for Generating Qualified Leads with Janis Pettit #176
• How To Generate Leads with Relationship Selling with Michael Ross
• Take Command of the New LinkedIn User Interface with Brynne Tillman #151
• Myths on Social Selling with Mark Hunter #142
• How to Power Prospect with LinkedIn Groups with Liam Austin #135
• How To Be An Awesome Sales Professional with Thomas Ellis #102
• How To Generate Sales Leads Using LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter
• 7 Habits of Highly Successful LinkedIn Users with Dennis Brown

The post The Transparency Sale Part 2 with Todd Caponi #222 appeared first on Sales Babble Sales Podcast | Sales Training | Sales Consulting |Sales Coaching.

The Transparency Sale Part 2 with Todd Caponi #222

This is the second of a two part series interviewing Todd Caponi, the former Chief Revenue Officer at Chicago’s PowerReviews. Todd is in the process of authoring a new book titled “The Transparency Sale”. This book is in response to the changing influence of social media in selling

The Transparency Sale with Todd Caponi #221

Todd Caponi Is the former Chief Revenue Officer at Chicago's PowerReviews. Todd is in the process of authoring a new book titled "The Transparency Sale". This book is in response to the changing influence of social media in selling and the failure of former challenger sale strategies. Todd has held leadership roles with three tech companies, including ExactTarget, where he helped the organization to a successful IPO and a $2.7B exit to Salesforce.com.

Challenger Sale No Longer Effective

There is a false narrative that consumers have all they need online to make buying decisions. Sellers still have tremendous value adding insight and help to enable the purchase at the end.

The Challenger Sale teaches the following:

• Recommends sellers to provide insights and challenge prospects thinking
• Demands sellers to become industry experts
• Challenges buyers to think a different way but……

Due to Social Media, sellers need to be on top of what buyers are saying about them. Now there is a need to add transparency sale processes.

Social Media in Sales

Sellers must look at feedback from social media and control that conversation. Sellers must be awake to what's being said about their companies, products and services. The Internet provides a feedback economy. Control the feedback

Take Power Reviews finding:

• People read reviews first
• Sales goes up for reviews at 4.2-4.5 ranking
• Sell as if your NOT perfect. You can't be FUD'd (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) with transparency
• Sellers need to sell as they are NOT perfect.

Neural science is starting to get applied to sales. People make buying decisions with feelings, then back it up with logic. Sales process is too focused on the close. Should be focused on the opportunities of buyers to lose interest and regain momentum. When buyers reach 100% trust, they stop asking for more information. When buyers don't trust and keep searching, deals never close.

Email Take Action Tactic

Create a feeling with an email subject line then the first few sentences. Don't say I and Me but You. Your email needs to speak specifically to the reader. It must be short. Think Twitter! Have an easy link for more information below your signature.

How To Connect With Todd Caponi

• Website: www.transparencysale.com
• Twitter: @tcaponi
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/toddcaponi/

Books Mentioned:

• Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain – by Antonio Damasio

• The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less – Barry Schwartz

• The Transparency Sale is slated to be published in Fall 2018

The Power of Social Selling

Here are some previous episodes on the power of social selling.

• All Sales Start With a Why with Michael Manzur #205
• The Art of the Help with Larry Levine #182
• 7 LinkedIn Strategies for Generating Qualified Leads with Janis Pettit #176
• How To Generate Leads with Relationship Selling with Michael Ross
• Take Command of the New LinkedIn User Interface with Brynne Tillman #151
• Myths on Social Selling with Mark Hunter #142
• How to Power Prospect with LinkedIn Groups with Liam Austin #135
• How To Be An Awesome Sales Professional with Thomas Ellis #102
• How To Generate Sales Leads Using LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter
• 7 Habits of Highly Successful LinkedIn Users with Dennis Brown

The post The Transparency Sale with Todd Caponi #221 appeared first on Sales Babble Sales Podcast | Sales Training | Sales Consulting |Sales Coaching.

The Transparency Sale with Todd

Caponi #221

Todd Caponi Is the former Chief Revenue Officer at Chicago’s PowerReviews. Todd is in the process of authoring a new book titled “The Transparency Sale”. This book is in response to the changing influence of social media in selling and the failure of former challenger sale strategies. Todd has held leadership roles with three

Leadsology – Science of Being in Demand with Tom Poland #220

Today we meet Tom Poland the author of the #1 international best selling book Leadsology®: The Science of Being in Demand. Tom shares the process he uses to get prospects to self select and qualify themselves. We talk about simple marketing techniques, sales professionals can use to find great prospects.

For Tom a highly qualified lead is someone who

1. Searches and finds your link,
2. Knows your fee/pricing,
3. Books a sales call,
4. Views you as the only (or small set) legitimate choice(s).

These KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are most indicitive of sales conversion rates (for Tom typically 50%). The trick is to filter out unqualified leads prior to the meeting. Prospects self select.

Creating an Experience

The marketing experiences of the prospect includes:

• Preselection – only prospects with a set demographic criteria that self select via content marketing
• Lead Magnet – could be some information of value, commonly a pdf worksheet, essay, or maybe a webinar or live event. He calls this a "honey pot".
• A buyer is the intersection of an Ideal Client and a Marketing Message (Value Proposition)

Other Peoples Networks

Leadsology is dependent on the process of leverageing other people's networks:

• Find people with similar, but not exact clients
• Get introduced because it's free easy fast and simple
• For partnerships you need: Rapport Respect Relatability Reciprocity
• Build networks by sharing your networks.

Take Action Advice

1. Do some marketing! Anything! Don't wait to be discovered.
2. Do the Five Day Lead Challenge
3. Purchase the domain BookachatwithYOURNAME.com to make it easy for people to book a meeting.

How To Find Tom Poland

Tom can be found all over the internet:

• www.Facebook.com/Groups/Leadsology/
• www.Twitter.com/TomPoland/
• www.Amazon.com/TomPoland/
• www.LinkedIn.com/in/TomPoland/

Click here to get the #1 international best selling book "Leadsology®: The Science of Being In Demand"

Lead Generation Strategies

Here are past episodes on lead gen. Enjoy!

• Debunking Sales Myths with Mike Schultz #216
• How to Generate Referrals Without Asking with Stacey Brown Randall #206
• How to Find Sales Leads with Twitter with Madalyn Sklar #199
• How To Generate Leads without Sales and Marketing with John Tripolsky #191
• 6 Ways To Generate Leads With Fatima Zaidi #180
• 7 LinkedIn Strategies for Generating Qualified Leads with Janis Pettit #176
• How To Schedule Sales Appointments with Automated Emails with Neil Kristianson #157
• Take Command of the New LinkedIn User Interface with Brynne Tillman #151
• Referrals – The Master Key To Winning Sales with John Spence #127
• Looking for Leads with Social Media, an interview with Brian Basilico #34

The post Leadsology with Tom Poland #220 appeared first on Sales Babble Sales Podcast | Sales Training | Sales Consulting |Sales Coaching.

Leadsology – Science of Being in Demand with Tom Poland #220

Today we meet Tom Poland the author of the #1 international best selling book Leadsology®: The Science of Being in Demand. Tom shares the process he uses to get

Blizt Episode: Learning a Sales Language

In this short podcast Pat will share some selling thoughts based on recent work with clients. This episode is a "blitz" with advice for new sellers or seasoned sellers of new products and services on the necessity of learning your prospects sales language.

​A common Startup Challenge is to get Beta customers to convert into paying clients. Often times sellers wonder "How do I sell? What do I say? How do I close them?" This is a case of putting the cart before the horse. Sellers fail to deeply understand their market and learn the sales language before selling.

This comes with Practice. To become the teacher takes work and empathizing with customer's needs, wants, and desires. When the time comes, sellers show a path of success. All this work is focused on prospect, in the prospect's language.

Finding a Market

Brainstorm exercise 50 verticle market niches. Next align with pros and cons. Then pick 10 that look like a possible fit. Next market research companies in the niche. Ask people in those companies:

• What's their challenge
• What's the impediment to that challenge
• What's the cost of failure – Revenue, Profit, Time, Quality, Frustration, others
• What's the opportunity if the challenge is met

Discovery conversations will soon convert the interview into a sales call. Dont foolishly focus on your tech, your commisions and your end of quarter quotas. Do the work and the latter concerns will vanish.

Message of the Day

Take time to focus on a niche. Learn their language and let them guide your solution. Be like a mouse in a maze, finding dead end after dead end. Try and try again and eventually, like the mouse, you will find the cheese. Tenacity will get you there.

Entrepreneurial Mindset

Listen here for past episodes regarding the entrepreneurial mindset:

• The Key to Authentic Selling with Jeff Davis #207
• What's Not Working In Sales Today with Brandon Bruce #204
• Three Step Process to Narrow Your Sales Focus #201
• How to Pitch Shark Tank with Michelle Weinstein #184
• How to be a Sales Sherpa with the Hyperconnected David Fisher
• Startup Story Where Software Goes to Seed with Charlie Wiltgen #179
• Sales Cycling and Startups with Jon Woodroof #145
• Selling from the H.A.R.T. with Mega Cindy Vranken #143
• Lose Your Ego Gain The World with Todd Lemense #139
• Location Independent Business Essentials with Dan O'Donnell #138

The post Blizt Episode: Learning a Sales Language appeared first on Sales Babble Sales Podcast | Sales Training | Sales Consulting |Sales Coaching.

Blizt Episode: Learning a Sales Language

 

In this short podcast Pat will share some selling thoughts based on recent work with clients. This episode is a “blitz” with advice for new sellers or seasoned sellers of new products and services on the necessity of learning your prospects sales language.

​A common Startup Challenge is to get Beta customers to convert into paying clients. Often times sellers wonder “How do I sell? What do I say? How do I close the