The Audible-Ready Sales Podcast

In this episode, we cover one of our most popular topics among our listeners: metrics. And its popularity is well warranted, as it remains a major stumbling block for many reps. John Boney joins us to give pointers on leveraging metrics to strengthen deals while steering clear of the common pitfalls. He discusses:

• The different types of metrics and what matters to whom.
• Why reps tend to struggle with higher-level metrics.
• Asking the right questions to align with the customer’s metrics.
• Turning metrics into proof points.

Here are some additional resources:

• Get MEDDICC Certified on Ascender!
• Achieving a Collective Yes | Ascender Course
• Executing Your Discovery Strategy | Ascender Course
• Navigating the Political Landscape | Ascender Course
• Ascender’s Best Content on Value-Based Selling | Ascender Article
• How Big is the Pain: Identifying Pain with MEDDICC | Ascender Article
• A Perspective on Metrics in MEDDICC | Ascender Video
• Freezing Up With Metrics and PBOs | Podcast
• Using Metrics Effectively in Your Sales Conversations | Podcast

Visit Ascender, a platform designed solely for salespeople who own a quota. If you enjoy the Audible-Ready Sales Podcast, Ascender is perfect for you! We put out content every day with insights to help you level up in your sales career.

Check out the platform here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/
Subscribe here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/PlanComparison

Check out this and other episodes of the Audible-Ready Sales Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.

Have you checked out Ascender yet? Our online platform to help reps with the daily grind of sales. 
Don't miss our upcoming events: 

Webinar: Selling to Experienced Buyers with Antonella O'Day
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As we approach the end of 2024, many companies are in the process of setting their priorities for the new year. In today’s episode, John Kaplan talks about aligning your solution with the corporate priorities of your customers as opposed to simply a department. He discusses:

• The need to talk to those with access to discretionary funds.
• Understanding the problems that you solve and the implications of those problems.
• Questions that will reveal the initiatives the Economic Buyer prioritizes.
• Obtaining a comprehensive view of the buying organization and being able to traverse it fluidly.
• Advice on selling to the CFO.

Here are some additional resources:

• Get MEDDICC Certified on Ascender!
• Getting to the Economic Buyer | Ascender Course
• How to Get Higher in Your Prospect’s Organization | Ascender Article
• Engaging the CFO | Ascender Article
• Our Best Content on Selling to the C-Suite | Ascender Article
• Rise Above the Noise | Ascender Video
• Selling to More Decision Makers | Force Management Article 
• Broadening Your Sales Conversations | Podcast
• Ascender Insights: Selling to the CFO w/ Jim Kelliher

Visit Ascender, a platform designed solely for salespeople who own a quota. If you enjoy the Audible-Ready Sales Podcast, Ascender is perfect for you! We put out content every day with insights to help you level up in your sales career.

Check out the platform here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/
Subscribe here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/PlanComparison

Maintaining contact with accounts provides many benefits for an organization, and salespeople play a huge role in setting the foundation for a long-term relationship between two companies. Today, Brian Walsh draws on his wealth of experience to explain what reps must do to keep their organization tethered to accounts. Topics of discussion include:

• Having a mindset of long-term growth and lifetime value.
• Laying the necessary pre-sale groundwork to remain tethered to an account post-sale.
• Positioning yourself to be able to ask the buyer for access.
• Avoiding mistakes reps often make when trying to stay tethered to accounts.
• Additional strategies to stay in touch with customers.

Here are some additional resources:

• Get MEDDICC Certified on Ascender!
• Getting to the Economic Buyer | Ascender Course
• How to Add More Value to the Sales Process | Ascender Article
• Building Up Your Referral Business | Ascender Video
• Time to Value | Podcast
• What the Best Salespeople Do | Podcast

Visit Ascender, a platform designed solely for salespeople who own a quota. If you enjoy the Audible-Ready Sales Podcast, Ascender is perfect for you! We put out content every day with insights to help you level up in your sales career.

Check out the platform here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/
Subscribe here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/PlanComparison

Staying in control of a deal is all about qualification. Today, John Kaplan gives advice on being proactive, not reactive, in ensuring that the deal progresses in your favor and with urgency. He talks about:

• Being prepared for and adjusting to unforeseen changes.
• Dealing with the entrance of a new competitor.
• Qualifying proactively with MEDDICC.
• The importance of meeting the buyer where they are.

Here are some additional resources:

• Get MEDDICC Certified on Ascender!
• Validating Champions | Ascender Course
• Adapt and Deliver: Positioning Value During Changes | Ascender Article
• Our Best Content on Decision Criteria | Ascender Article
• Being Audible-Ready to Change Tracks in Sales Conversations | Ascender Article
• Key Steps for Qualifying Your Deals | Ascender Video
• When Leadership Changes in Your Prospect Account | Podcast
• Making MEDDICC Work for You as a Rep | Podcast

Visit Ascender, a platform designed solely for salespeople who own a quota. If you enjoy the Audible-Ready Sales Podcast, Ascender is perfect for you! We put out content every day with insights to help you level up in your sales career.


Check out the platform here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/
Subscribe here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/PlanComparison

If you’re a seller, you already know that rejection is a way of life. Unfortunately, a negative mindset about rejection remains the barrier that prevents many salespeople from reaching their fullest potential. In this episode, John Kaplan explains how to handle rejection in a way that sets you up for success down the road. He discusses:

• Viewing rejection as a learning opportunity instead of a failure.
• Taking yourself out of it and becoming unoffendable.
• Leaving the door open for conversations down the road.
• The importance of resilience in sales.

Here are some additional resources:

• Get MEDDICC Certified on Ascender!
• Objection Handling | Ascender Course
• Training the Seller’s Brain for Positivity | Ascender Article
• Building Your Pipeline | Ascender Video
• Building a Rhythm Around Pipeline Generation | Podcast
• Roger Federer’s Commencement Address at Dartmouth

Visit Ascender, a platform designed solely for salespeople who own a quota. If you enjoy the Audible-Ready Sales Podcast, Ascender is perfect for you! We put out content every day with insights to help you level up in your sales career.


Check out the platform here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/
Subscribe here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/PlanComparison

Sellers must understand the more detail-oriented technical pains as well as the wider-ranging business pains of a customer’s organization. Elite salespeople are able to balance both worlds. You should be able to speak with those involved with the operational aspects of a company, learn their pain through effective discovery, and then move up and tie those technical pains with business issues that will catch the attention of C-level executives. In this episode, John Kaplan explains in depth the differences between technical and business pains, how elite sellers connect the two, and the importance of getting customers to put on their coat of pain.

Here are some additional resources

• Enable Your Salespeople to Help Buyers Stand in the Moment of Pain
  • https://bit.ly/2ZEoRgI
• Finding the Business Pain w/ John Kaplan | Podcast
  • https://apple.co/3IjzrRb

Check out this and other episodes of The Audible-Ready Podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.

Your customer may raise an objection at any point during the sales process, and there is an infinite number of objections a customer may propose. In this episode, Antonella O’Day discusses the mindset salespeople need to handle objections, and she explains three tactics sellers can apply to successfully deal with them. These tactics are:

• Showing the customer that you hear their objection.
• Understanding the customer’s why.
• Reframing the customer’s objection.

Here are some additional resources:

• Get MEDDICC Certified on Ascender!
• Objection Handling | Ascender Course
• Deepen Your Discovery | Ascender Course
• Key Ways to Prepare for Customer Anchors in Sales Negotiations
• Turn Skepticism Into Opportunity | Ascender Article
• Hesitant Buyers and Price Objections | Ascender Video

Visit Ascender, a platform designed solely for salespeople who own a quota. If you enjoy the Audible-Ready Sales Podcast, Ascender is perfect for you! We put out content every day with insights to help you level up in your sales career.

Check out the platform here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/
Subscribe here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/PlanComparison

In today’s episode, Rachel and John discuss the ever-pertinent need for sellers to identify and attach to the customer’s biggest business problem. John shares the mindset and the steps necessary for reps to make the right connections and get the information they need to do so successfully. He talks about:

• Tying technical requirements to business outcomes.
• Navigating the political landscape of the customer organization with savvy.
• The need to get the customer to stand in their moment of pain.
• Deepening your discovery to implicate the customer’s pain.

Here are some additional resources:

• Get MEDDICC Certified on Ascender!
• Navigating the Political Landscape | Ascender Course
• Deepen Your Discovery | Ascender Course
• Objection Handling | Ascender Course
• The Importance of Multi-Threaded Selling | Ascender Article
• The Coat of Pain | Ascender Video

Visit Ascender, a platform designed solely for salespeople who own a quota. If you enjoy the Audible-Ready Sales Podcast, Ascender is perfect for you! We put out content every day with insights to help you level up in your sales career.


Check out the platform here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/
Subscribe here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/PlanComparison

Don’t miss these upcoming Force Management Webinars: 


Your SKO: Common Mistakes You Can’t Afford to Make


Planning a hashtag is a big undertaking. Even more difficult is executing an event that focuses on execution. Force Management’s Tim Caito joins Rachel Clapp Miller for a discussion on how to get beyond the “event” of the SKO and make it a driver of your revenue goals. 


Sign up here: https://hubs.li/Q02PdLJ10 


Building Consensus with Metrics


If you’re struggling with how to talk metrics with your customer, this webinar is for you. If you’re a manager and your teams aren’t really grasping this skill, make sure to share it with them. We’ll dig into how you should be approaching these conversations with key buyer personas. 


Sign up here: https://hubs.la/Q02PG1Cf0

If you can’t make it, register anyway! We’ll send you the recording.