Same Side Selling Podcast

When you are recruiting talent, are you searching for candidates who fit objective criteria? This is one common mistake across sales organizations when growing their sales teams. Although you do want to make sure you have a qualified candidate, you also want to make sure you are recruiting sales people who are looking for the same culture and environment that you are investing in as a company. 

In this week’s episode, I share with you the best practices when recruiting talent to find candidates who will be long term invested in the culture of your company, not just on sales. 

Quotes: 

“If we're just selling salary, then don't be surprised when somebody decides to move because someone else pays them a little more salary. But if they're aligned with our culture, they're likely to want to stick around, because it's going to feed them in ways that go beyond just their salary”

“So remember when we're recruiting, we're in essence selling our culture and if we don't sell our culture, then all we're selling is salary.”

Looking for more guidance and support on handling all your B2B sales struggles? You can connect with Ian Altman and learn more about the Same Side Selling Academy through the links below: 

• Linkedin
• Twitter
• Website
• Email : [email protected]

A voicemail is an opportunity for you to pique a potential client’s interest. However, many fall into common traps that inevitably set them up for failure. In this week’s episode, I am going to share with you 3 common traps I see sales people fall into with voicemails. Join me in this conversation as I give you tips on the best strategy when calling potential clients and voicemails to help increase your business growth and get on the same side as your clients. 

Quotes: 

“The second trap they fall into is they don't plan on leaving a message or even worse, they don't plan for the person to answer the call. So now when it happens, they're at a loss.”

“ If you get their gatekeeper, if you get the person who is their administrative assistant, their job is to help make their time efficient. So you simply say to them, Look, I don't want to waste their time or my time if this isn't a fit. Can I share with you the top two or three things that people come to us who are in their position to help address, if one of those sounds like it's worth a discussion, I'm happy to speak with them. If not, let me know so I don't waste their time.”

Looking for more guidance and support on handling all your B2B sales struggles? You can connect with Ian Altman and learn more about the Same Side Selling Academy through the links below: 

• Linkedin
• Twitter
• Website
• Email : [email protected]

Are you making useful time with your sales kickoff meeting or are you just presenting your team with information you could deliver in a video or email? One of the biggest mistakes I see organizations make is not productively using their sales kickoff meeting to uncover what struggles or challenges they are facing. 

You want to utilize a sales kickoff meeting to energize, boost sales and hit the ground running but you can only do that when you give your team the tools to grow their business. In this episode, I share with you the important factors to incorporate in your next sales kickoff meeting as well as how to improve your team’s techniques and skills to increase sales revenue.

Quotes: 

“The point of a sales kickoff is to energize and boost sales and hit the ground running, then give the team the tools they need to grow their business, not just things to feel good about.”

“So at your next sales kickoff, it's fine to have awards. It's fine here from marketing and product development and HR. But let's try and minimize that interaction to the things that matter most and then spend more time on roleplay and practice of real life customer situations.”

Looking for more guidance and support on handling all your B2B sales struggles? You can connect with Ian Altman and learn more about the Same Side Selling Academy through the links below: 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianaltman/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IanAltman

Website: https://samesidesellingacademy.com/

Email : [email protected]

It is key that you are effectively communicating with your team, clients and potential customers. You want to make sure your message is being heard and your passion or emotion behind the words is being properly construed.  

In this episode, Darcy Webb, The Speech Diva, shares some key takeaways on how to effectively communicate better. During this episode, Darcy will share different exercises you can do to make sure you are properly communicating when speaking by correctly using your mouth and facial expressions. Join us in this conversation to learn the best techniques for effective communication to increase make sure your messages are clearly being articulated. 

This episode’s guest: 

D’Arcy Webb, an award winning voice and speech teacher, has been helping actors, performers, corporate executives, authors and speakers use their voices to connect with audiences around the world with power, eloquence and heart for over two decades. As former Associate Professor of Voice and Speech at the University of the Arts and current member of the performance faculty at Drexel University, D’Arcy has worked with hundreds of new and seasoned  performers to make their words resonate with clarity, precision and confidence. She has also served as voice, speech and performance coach for TEDxCambridge, and was the Head of Vocal Training for Heroic Public Speaking from 2016 to 2020.

Connect with Darcy Webb:

• Website
• LinkedIn
• Instagram

Quotes: 

“Speaking is just another form of signing.”

“Remember that a monotone isn't just in your voice. A monotone can also be in your facial expressions and other movements. And so if you're just standing there not moving your face, not moving your body, your audience might find that your words aren't so moving either.”

Looking for more guidance and support on handling all your B2B sales struggles? You can connect with Ian Altman and learn more about the Same Side Selling Academy through the links below: 

Linkedin

Twitter

Website

Email

How do you structure a successful sales organization? Do you focus vertically? Geographically? These are questions I am asked frequently and the answer may surprise you.

There are many variables that affect your sales organization I am asked about from lead generation and qualifying leads to the sales process and scaling. In today’s episode, I am going to break down each of these factors along with a key formula for you to follow. This formula will allow you to implement a successful sales organization that helps improve efficiency and increase your business growth. 

Quotes: 

“Think about when you're the customer who's going to pique your interest, a newbie, or someone who is a subject matter expert?”

“The bottom line is our goal in attracting interested potential buyers and determining if somebody who's qualified is, do they have a problem that they feel is worth solving that we're good at solving.”

Looking for more guidance and support on handling all your B2B sales struggles? You can connect with Ian Altman and learn more about the Same Side Selling Academy through the links below: 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianaltman/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IanAltman

Website: www.samesidesellingacademy.com

Email : [email protected]

Customer experience is important for retaining clients. When something goes wrong, it actually opens an opportunity to deliver a great experience for the customer. The recovery you have can better the experience the customer has when working with you. 

We can all learn something when things don’t go right, we have a choice to recover and make a positive impact or neglect the problem and lose trust with our clients. In addition, we can also do small things with little cost to make the customer experience that much better even when things are going to plan. In this week’s episode, I share with you my experience with great and bad customer service on my recent trip to Italy. Throughout these experiences there was one underlying theme, customer experience is very important and recovery when something goes wrong is key. 

Quotes: 

“Recognize that when something doesn't go well, it actually can present an opportunity to deliver an amazing experience. Namely, sometimes when you make a recovery, it actually creates a better experience than if everything had just gone kind of as expected from the beginning.”

“Take that time to give that extra bit of attention, that extra bit of follow through and you can create a remarkable experience for your customers. It doesn't necessarily cost money. It just requires you to focus time and attention.”

Looking for more guidance and support on handling all your B2B sales struggles? You can connect with Ian Altman and learn more about the Same Side Selling Academy through the links below: 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianaltman/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IanAltman

Website: www.samesidesellingacademy.com

Email : [email protected]

Are you losing deals to no decision? In recent research, it is found that 40% to 60% of deals for the average salesperson are lost to no decision due to the client sticking with the status quo. In 2020 after going 100% virtual overnight, sales calls went from in person to Zoom. Matt Dixon, while working at a machine learning company, was able to study sales meetings from several companies to determine some of the biggest pressing problems salespeople are facing. 

In this episode, Matt Dixon shares some insights from the research in his new Book, The Jolt Effect, to understand why salespeople often lose to the status quo. Matt and Ian discuss how to use these findings to better understand the seller and their fears or hesitance to implement change even if they believe in your products or services. 

Join us in this conversation to learn the best approach to increase your sales performance and business growth. If you’re interested in grabbing your own copy of Matt Dixon’s new book, The Jolt Effect, click here

Matthew Dixon is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of three of the most important business books of the past decade: The Challenger Sale, The Effortless Experience and The Challenger Customer. He is also a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review on sales and customer experience. He is a founding partner of DCM Insights, a boutique consultancy focused on using data and research-backed frameworks to help companies attract, retain, and grow their customers. Previously, he has held numerous global leadership roles at organizations like Tethr, Korn Ferry Hay Group, as well as the research firm CEB (now Gartner). He is a sought-after speaker and advisor to management teams around the world, including many of those in the Fortune 500

Quotes: 

“Beating the status quo is about dialing up the fear of not purchasing, overcoming customer indecision is about dialing down the fear of purchasing.”

“We find that about 40 to 60% of deals for the average salesperson are deals lost to no decision.”

Looking for more guidance and support on handling all your B2B sales struggles? You can connect with Ian Altman and learn more about the Same Side Selling Academy through the links below: 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianaltman/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IanAltman

Website: www.samesidesellingacademy.com

Email : [email protected]

Are you looking for a referral to help your business or to help potential clients? The recipient of a referral should never feel like the client has done you a favor. Instead, your potential client should feel that they are getting the favor. But how do you do this? 

In this week’s episode, I share with you the exact approach when seeking out a referral from a client as well as see dramatic growth in your business. 

Quotes: 

“We don't look for referrals until we've confirmed that we've delivered results for that client or prospect because if they don't love us, the referral isn't gonna be that great.”

“We usually don't have a shortage of opportunities, we have a shortage of the right opportunities.”

Looking for more guidance and support on handling all your B2B sales struggles? You can connect with Ian Altman and learn more about the Same Side Selling Academy through the links below: 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianaltman/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IanAltman

Website: www.samesidesellingacademy.com

Email : [email protected]

Proposals are an old school way of thinking. Now hear me out, if you could bypass the proposal stage and go right to an agreement, would you do it? In this week’s episode, I share with you how you can let go of the need to always send a proposal and start working towards a negotiation and agreement with a potential client. 

Instead of sharing your ideas on how you can solve their problems, this method helps you to uncover their true needs, urgency and the exact approach you’d take to solve their problems. Using this approach allows you to skip the proposal stage, move into an agreement and generate better results.

Quotes: 

“Avoid the temptation. Avoid the old school method of sending proposals. Instead, have these conversations agree on the principles and then send an agreement that they can execute, and you cut out a step that isn't necessary.”

“The major difference between a proposal and an agreement is that the proposal is basically signaling to your client, here's the idea that we have, do you want to negotiate some of this?”

Looking for more guidance and support on handling all your B2B sales struggles? You can connect with Ian Altman and learn more about the Same Side Selling Academy through the links below: 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianaltman/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IanAltman

Website: www.samesidesellingacademy.com

Email : [email protected]

You receive an RFP, how can you tell whether it is an actual potential lead or a waste of resources? Most procurement people know exactly who their preferred vendor is before sending an RFP. So how can you set yourself apart and not end up just being a column fodder for comparison? In this week’s episode, I share with you the exact approach to increase your  chances of being chosen from the RFP and the questions you can ask to set yourself apart.

Quotes: 

“When they're asking you to participate in the RFP process, they may just be looking to get additional ideas they can feed their preferred vendor. You may be what they call column fodder, which is just additional cells on a spreadsheet.”

“If on a blind RFP where they have no interaction, they win less than 5%. When they push for and get that conversation, they win more than 40%. So it's an eight fold increase.”

Looking for more guidance and support on handling all your B2B sales struggles? You can connect with Ian Altman and learn more about the Same Side Selling Academy through the links below: 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianaltman/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IanAltman

Website: www.samesidesellingacademy.com

Email : [email protected]