Shane Gibson's Podcast – AI and Digital Selling – B2B Sales and Influence

This is a question that I get a lot. I look at a sales professional’s prospect list and pipeline and it looks full. Then we begin to ask questions about what criteria has been used to qualify them for our time and energy through-out the sales process. We often find many un-profitable prospects on the list.

Symvolli has done a great podcast on this topic as well (I listened to it and thought I’d post a response via podcast). The key here is it’s better to “get real” about what we truly have for opportunities and then build a solid plan to help us get to where we want to go.  The alternative, pushing unqualified leads through the pipeline is exhausting and will have us show up short of quota at the end of the year.

Today’s podcast is an interview with Sarah Villeneuve Bundy Co-Founder of 49 Above Marketing a multilingual full service internet marketing firm with clients in Canada, USA and numerous other countries. Sarah was on the show today to share with us how to put together a comprehensive sales and recruiting strategy.  Some of the tools we discussed were Twitter, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) PPC ( pay-per-click campaigns ), blogging, and the power of “Long-Tail” keywords in attracting the right prospects.

On todays podcast we have Mike Desjardins, Driver of Virtus Inc. talking about “Leading in Turbulent Times.”  This discussion took us on a path to discussing everything from Authentic Leadership to Leading Millenials and several key steps CEO’s and organizational leaders need to take to succeed.

About Mike Desjardins:

Mike is a graduate of UBC’s Sauder School of Business with a specialization in Marketing. Immediately prior to joining ViRTUS as the “Driver,” Mike was the President of Purity Water Treatment Products, a company which manufacturers and distributes hot tub and pool treatment products throughout North America with offices in Surrey, Oakville, and San Diego. Under Mike’s direction, Purity became the only Canadian based chemical company to have its entire product line registered for sale in the US, distributing to twenty-nine states.

Mike is a health and wellness fanatic, an avid downhill skier, beach volleyball player, and motorcycle enthusiast. His energy and enthusiasm are matched well to his desire to build relationships and help connect the right people together in his ever-expanding network.

Mike’s role as the Driver is to focus on strategy, growth, day-to-day operations, and the quest to continually improve every aspect of the experience customers have with ViRTUS.

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Today’s sales podcast is about the law of attraction as it relates to selling to CEO’s. It’s not about “Can I relate to them?” it’s about “how can I make it easy for them to relate to me?”

I recently received a copy of Five Minutes with VITO. I had already read “Selling to VITO” several years ago and often suggest that sales professionals who want to close big deals read it.  VITO stands for Very Important Top Officer and is in my opinion your most important prospect and target market.  This most recent iteration of Anthony Parinello’s sales classic, now co-authored with David Mattson of Sandler Training is a timely, to the point and inspiring read.

Five Minutes with VITO is a must read for those that are frustrated with long sales cycles, corporate dead-ends in the sales process, and pretty much anyone else who is serious about meeting their sales targets.  The book will not tell you where to find CEO prospects, nor will it talk much about key account management or “Closing the Deal.” Instead it focuses on the critical 5 minutes with THE senior executive in your sales process, and how to deal with this true decision maker during this “make-you-or-break-you” window of time.

Listen ot my full podcast review below:

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