Victor Antonio is a Sales Trainer and Motivation Keynote Speaker at Sellinger Group and the host of the Sales Influence Podcast. A lot of factors naturally contribute to the elevating of individual and team sales performance.

Victor shares nuggets of wisdom about connecting with clients and prospects. He talks about why there's a misperception on salespeople no longer being needed because of the wealth of information available through technology and the internet. He also shares insight on how to approach self-improvement as a seller.

HIGHLIGHTS

QUOTES

There's a misperception that salespeople are no longer needed, says Victor: "I think salespeople are now more valuable than ever because there's so much information out there that buyers are actually confused. And it takes a great salesperson, going back to the domain expert piece, to actually help them clarify their thinking in order to make a decision."

Victor on how we train people to slow down: "When you measure the wrong KPIs, you get the wrong results. And also, salespeople are not stupid, they know how to game the system. If you're gonna measure me on the number of calls, well I'll just call anybody. Sometimes we're focusing on the wrong things."

Find out more about Victor in the links below:

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Kristen Taraszewski is the CEO of ElevenPoint2. Kristen talks about the challenges in training technical sellers and how they eventually came up with gamification as a way to personalize an organization's training structure.

She also shares about her journey from being a flight control engineer for NASA to sales and how this experience helped her create structured training for sellers. She provides insights on planning and the use of integrated learning to boost development in salespeople.

HIGHLIGHTS

QUOTES

You need a learning map while training salespeople, says Kristen: "You have to have a learning map. So, you need to tell someone on day one, 'This is what you need to know to be successful' or 'This is the generalized area.' It's like taking a trip from California to New York. You'd never just start driving and hope you get there. You'd map it. The same is true for salespeople."

Everybody comes with a different knowledge and skill set, says Kristen: "You cannot give the person who just showed and the person who's been around the same training, learning map, and training program. I mean you can but it's wasting all of that time whereas you can kind of customize it and identify specifically 'this guy doesn't know this, this woman doesn't know that' and train them on those things, you can just accelerate the whole process.”

Find out more about Kristen in the links below:

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Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.io

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Philip Squire is the Co-Founder and CEO of Consalia. Phil shares his take on the perspective that the buyer should drive how a salesperson sells and the key skills that mean the difference between education and training in sales. 

He also talks about critical thinking, why it's discouraged in unhealthy environments, and how it should align with your positive values for development. Philip digs into the positive values that buyers look for in buyers, and the negative values they encounter too.

HIGHLIGHTS

Find out if you have the Sales Mindsets that customers have said they want to see in salespeople: https://www.consalia.com/mindset-survey

QUOTES

There's a difference between relationships and building connections, says Philip: "You can have great relationships but actually it doesn't help you sell. Customers are looking for different types of relationships and when I talk about relationships and sort of break it down into the four mindsets, it's interesting."

Philip on being a great critical reflector: "Arguably, one of the most important traits that anyone needs to learn now is simply the ability to critically reflect and to think. And it's not easy to do because you are influenced often by what you know and your past which gives you a certain bias.”

Find out more about Philip in the links below:

More on Andy:

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Sponsored by:

Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.io

Scratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.com

Blueboard | World’s leading experiential rewards & recognition platform | Blueboard.com

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Data is great, but understanding how to use the data is even more important. Dana Therrien, Vice President & CRO Practice at Anaplan, joins Alastair and Howard this week to talk about how actioning your data can make you a better runner as well as a better sales professional.

Follow the Hosts on LinkedIn:

Alastair Woolcock (CRO, Revenue.io)

Howard Brown (CEO, Revenue.io)

And our Special Guest:

Dana Therrien (Vice President, Chief Revenue Officer Practice, Anaplan)

Sponsored by:

Revenue.io | Powering high-performing revenue teams with real-time guidance

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*If you'd like to ask the guys a question that could get answered on the show, call our new message line at (323) 540-4777. Just leave your name, where you're from, and your question and we'll do our best to answer it on an upcoming episode.

Eric Stine is the Chief Commercial Officer at SkillSoft. Building a foundation of trust is what our customers need and also what our own sales teams need from the leaders.

Eric shares his insights on understanding the buyer's experience and focusing on solving their problems with effective communication. He also shares some of his experiences traveling and how meeting people he otherwise would never have met influenced his outlook as a leader.

HIGHLIGHTS

QUOTES

Buyers and sellers are humans alike - Eric: "Humans have this unquenchable desire for new information and so if you show up with something of substance to say, if you are empathetic about solving a problem, and if you've developed a relationship rooted in trust, people are gonna show up to see you. They're gonna get on Zoom even though they really haven't done their hair."

You have to care about solving the customer's problem - Eric: "You have to show up knowing something. You have to have a different point of view, not just on what your product or service or solution, or offering does. You have to have a point of view on why it matters, not just why it's different. It's not just about being differentiated, you need to understand why it matters."

Find out more about Eric in the link below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-stine-49540a9/

More on Andy:

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Get Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on Amazon

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Sponsored by:

Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.io

Scratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.com

Blueboard | World’s leading experiential rewards & recognition platform | Blueboard.com

Explore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:

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Derrick Jenkins is the Head of Marketing at Owler. Derrick talks about the uses of Owler when it comes to sales prospecting and why, even with how crucial it is, some salespeople still don't do their research early on.

He also talks about the fear of missing out (FOMO) and how it spills over to the sale process and overall buyer's journey. Derrick highlights the buying experience and the many factors that come into play when deciding how to make your sellers more effective.

HIGHLIGHTS

QUOTES

On the importance of doing research beforehand - Derrick: "At the very least, I could guesstimate information about their competitors or ask a colleague for some information. And just before I even started planting seeds about my business or my solution, try to figure out a little bit about what they're all about. And if not, if I didn't know it, start asking questions about it."

The sense of FOMO and what it means for sellers - Derrick: "I think the only reason why we have so much news out there is to keep you informed. So, you're staying ahead, you're staying on top of [the] trend and that is a form of not missing out. So I don't think it's ever going to go away as a trend to attract people. No one wants to be the last to know something.”

Find out more about Derrick in the links below:

More on Andy:

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Get Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on Amazon

Learn more at AndyPaul.com

Sponsored by:

Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.io

Scratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.com

Blueboard | World’s leading experiential rewards & recognition platform | Blueboard.com

Explore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:

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Robert Koehler is the Director of Customer Success Effectiveness at Compass. Robert gives his insights on building sales effectiveness teams and helping them function both as individuals and as a group.

He shares about his time managing marathon runners and how this eventually helped him see the importance of accountability within sales effectiveness and the many people involved in each process. He also talks about understanding the buyer framework more extensively.

HIGHLIGHTS

QUOTES

The role of sales effectiveness teams - Robert: "What I care about is results and helping sellers be more effective in helping buyers. And that's what it's about at the end of the day. That has an implication that we have to get sharper on what we measure, what we communicate, and we're focused on performance rather than just knowledge."

On building human connections first and foremost - Robert: "Part of that trust is just being comfortable talking to them human to human, understanding their business, and an area that doesn't get much attention is understanding the economics of their business when they may not.”

Asking the right questions to identify what you're missing - Robert: "There's another question that I love that more experienced CROs and VPs of Sales ask internally which relates to the concept of opportunity cost that you raised and that is, 'why are we going to lose this deal?' Because I find that's the best anecdote or vaccination for happy ears."

Find out more about Robert in the links below:

More on Andy:

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Get Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on Amazon

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Sponsored by:

Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.io

Scratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.com

Blueboard | World’s leading experiential rewards & recognition platform | Blueboard.com

Explore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:

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The concept of Product-led Growth, or PLG, is a hot trend these days that can allow SaaS companies to grow users fast and keep them on the platform through excellent user experience. Sylvain Giuliani, Head of Growth and Operations at Census, joins Howard and Alastair on a dive deep into the world of Product-led Growth and Product-led Sales to help break down when it's the right strategy and how to execute it to precision.

Follow the Hosts on LinkedIn:

Alastair Woolcock (CRO, Revenue.io)

Howard Brown (CEO, Revenue.io)

And our Special Guest:

Sylvain Giuliani (Head of Growth & Operations, Census)

Sponsored by:

Revenue.io | Powering high-performing revenue teams with real-time guidance

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*If you'd like to ask the guys a question that could get answered on the show, call our new message line at (323) 540-4777. Just leave your name, where you're from, and your question and we'll do our best to answer it on an upcoming episode.

Justin Roff-Marsh is the founder of Ballistix and the author of The Machine: A Radical Approach to the Design of Sales Function. The myth that sales generates revenue is debunked as salespeople don’t directly influence the 3 most common reasons that businesses lose accounts: poor operational performance, pricing, and product. 

Justin then discusses why sellers should shift their focus from conversion rates to opportunity flow and then dives into why he believes conversion is antagonistic to deal flow. Most sales teams conversion rates are already impossibly high—and the constraint they face in increasing sales is that their opportunity flow is dangerously low. 

HIGHLIGHTS

QUOTES

Debunking the myth that sales generates revenues - Justin: "If you look at why businesses lose accounts, in most businesses, the 3 most common reasons in descending order of frequency are poor operational performance. The company breaks its promises, number 1. Number 2 is pricing. Too expensive." 

"Number 3 is product. Insufficient range or competitors have a product that's technically performing better... which of those 3 are salespeople responsible for? Or which of them do they directly influence? None. Operations is responsible for all 3 of those."  

Selling is a team sport so compensation should reflect that - Justin: “When we strip away all responsibilities from salespeople apart from selling conversations, it becomes a team sport. We have a promotions team that's generating ops. We have an engineering team that's working with salespeople on solution design and budgets and proposals and so on." 

"And it no longer makes sense to say ‘Well, we're going to compensate members of this team on a piece-rate based upon the assumption that we want them all to work as fast as possible.’ We don't. We're trying to maximize throughput for the team as a whole."

Find out more about Justin and get his book in the links below:

More on Andy:

Connect on LinkedIn

Get Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on Amazon

Learn more at AndyPaul.com

Sponsored by:

Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.io

Scratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.com

Blueboard | World’s leading experiential rewards & recognition platform | Blueboard.com

Explore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:

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Ryan Gottfredson is an Associate Professor of Business and Leadership at 

California State University-Fullerton and the author of The Elevated Leader. Ryan defines vertical development as the process of elevating your personal operating system in cognitively and emotionally sophisticated ways. 

He discusses the 3 Mind Levels and how each operates, and the awareness needed to question paradigms and grow from Mind 1.0 to Mind 3.0. He differentiates between horizontal development and vertical development which is aimed at elevating a leader's ability to make meaning of the world. 

HIGHLIGHTS

QUOTES

Elevate your cognitive altitude to operate better - Ryan: "When we aren't very cognitively and emotionally sophisticated, it inhibits our ability to be effective in whatever we're trying to do. So if we can awaken to where we are at, identify what it looks like to operate at a higher level, then we could start the process of moving the needle."

A heat experience is the key to vertical development - Ryan: "In order for vertical development to occur, one needs to go through a heat experience. A heat experience is something where ultimately we are in a position to question our paradigms.” 

“Now, we could wait for a crisis to occur and then question our paradigms. But we're not necessarily in control of when crises occur or not. But we could create a heat experience for ourselves just by opening the doors to allowing ourselves to look inward and question the paradigms that we're holding on to."

Find out more about Ryan and get his books in the links below:

More on Andy:

Connect on LinkedIn

Get Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on Amazon

Learn more at AndyPaul.com

Sponsored by:

Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.io

Scratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.com

Blueboard | World’s leading experiential rewards & recognition platform | Blueboard.com

Explore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:

Sales Enablement Podcast

RevOps Podcast

Selling with Purpose Podcast