The Razors Edge with Barbara Giamanco|Sales|Social Selling|Marketing|Customer Experience|Technology|Business

In my latest podcast episode, I talked with Cian McLoughlin, Founder and CEO of Trinity Perspectives. Cian is also the author of a new book called: Rebirth of the Salesman: The World of Sales is Evolving. Are You?

We discussed the changes that have eclipsed sales during the past 10 years and why salespeople need to be thinking about how to adapt their approach. We talked about the following:

 

• The driving force requiring salespeople to rebirth themselves.
• Why storytelling has become the #1 skill to master in sales and business today.
• How buyers really make their buying decisions. It might not be what you think.
• The role of emotional intelligence in the selling process and the ability to be situationally aware of what is going on around you.
• The greatest sales challenges facing businesses and how they can be overcome.
• Why you need to "know they prospect".
• Who will be the ultimate winner in the battle between salesperson and sales automation (and other tech tools in the stack).
• The ways in which Win/Loss Analysis can redefine your sales and business success
• The "so what card" and why you should use it in preparing every sales presentation you give.

 

About Cian:  

He hails from Dublin, Ireland, originally, but spent much of the past 18 years in Sydney, Australia. With a sales career spanning almost 20 years, including senior management roles in a number of the world's largest software companies, Cian is the found and CEO of Trinity Perspectives. A boutique sales training and consultancy firm, Trinity is committed to helping businesses unlock the latent potential of their customer insights.

  Cian has worked with and advised sales professionals from Brisbane to Bangkok, Christcurch to Cape Town and everywhere in between.   Author of the Amazon #1 bestseller Rebirth of a Salesman, and co-author of Secrets for Business Success, Cian is a regular sales and marketing commentator in the mainstream media. His blog was voted one of the Top 50 Sales Blogs in the world for the second year running by Top Sales World, and he is also a regular columnist with Smallville.com.au and the soon to be released MOB Magazine.   With ASX and Fortune 500 clients across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, Cian is a passionate proponent of an ethical, honest and authentic approach to sales.

Tim Sanders Interview:  Dealstorming

In this episode of the Razor's Edge, I talk to Tim Sanders about Dealstorming, a term he coined. Tim is also the creator of the Dealstorming sales process and Dealstorming is the title of his recently released book.

Tim's book is so meaty and packed with great information that my book pages are already dog-eared, sections are highlighted and I've been writing notes in the sidebar. Really good stuff!

There are lots of great nuggets of information that Tim shares about the best way to brings deals to close. We also talked about: 

• Today's more complex buying process.
• How salespeople and their sales leadership aren't adapting more quickly.
• What it takes to become an elite seller and how to create and elite sales organization.
• Why solving problems not pitching features is what creates sustainable competitive advantage. The 4 levels of a sale today.
• Why the lone wolf seller is a dying breed and more.

You won't want to listen to this podcast just once! So listen and enjoy and be sure to get your copy of Tim's book here.

I sat down to talk with Plutora's, Head of Marketing, Eric Mitchell to get his thoughts on the world of marketing today and in the future. Since sales and marketing go hand in hand, I got Eric's perspective on how the two camps need to align around a core objective - driving revenue.    During the conversation, we talked about:  

• Advice for anyone getting into marketing today.
• Trends in marketing like email/marketing automation platforms.
• What today's social media landscape looks like and how that applies to sales.
• Sales and marketing alignment the effect that alignment (or non alignment) impacts customer experience.
• Tools still useful in sales... like the telephone.
• The real scoop on social media vanity metrics and if they really matter when it comes to driving revenue.
• 2016 marketing and sales predictions.

    About Eric:   Based in the Bay Area, Eric is a passionate, digitally experienced leader who knows the SaaS community inside and out. The creator of the popular Social Hangout, Eric and his guests tackled the issues related to sales, social media, digital marketing, media, public relations and more. A straight shooter with boots on the ground experience has earned him the respect of a well known start-ups and companies throughout the Silicon Valley.   Connect with Eric on LinkedIn.

The 21st Century has ushered in the information age, and with it a new set of rules for success. In this current episode, I talk to Keenan about his new book – Not Taught. What it Takes to be Successful in the 21st Century that Nobody’s Teaching You.

Not Taught shares how the rules of 20th century and the industrial age no longer work and that if you want to be successful you must learn the new rules of success. Get ready for a dose of reality about work today and offers clear strategies on how to be successful in this crazy information-driven world. 

We talk about: 

•        What’s changed in business today and why you need to change too. 

•       The new keys to succeeding in today’s digitally driven world. 

•       How to be deliberate in managing your career and your brand. 

•       What happens when you digitally anonymous. 

•       Why your degree doesn’t have that much relevance today. 

•       Why experience is far less important than expertise and hard work. 

•       The fastest way to start ramping up new skills. 

In his blunt, motivating and passionate style Keenan tells you why doing what you’ve always done is no longer an option!

Enjoy the interview. Then go buy the book! 

About Keenan: 

Keenan, is CEO of A Sales Guy Inc., a sales consulting and recruiting firm. He’s a Forbes Columnist, a Top 50 Sales and Marketing Influencer, author of the popular sales blogA Sales Guy and is a highly sought after speaker. Keenan is the father of three crazy (but in a good way) girls, a PSIA Level 2 ski instructor for Vail Ski Resort and a finder of the elephant in the room.

Sales teams who are the most successful sell differently, not just more effectively. Largely, according to George, this is being spurred by global competition and the internet. Makes sense that salespeople need to be able to differentiate themselves from the competition. You can do that by helping your salespeople become skilled at consultative selling, which is married together with a solid sales process that is consistently followed. Avoid the common temptation to simply measure activity, because the right activities should be progressing the sales opportunity forward. 

During the conversation, we talked about: 

-Why sales organizations need to institute a solid on-boarding learning and development process for their people. Get beyond teaching product features and don't assume your salespeople really know how to sell. 

-Setting salespeople up for success by starting with a clear set of expectations. Don't assume salespeople know. 

-Key reasons why salespeople need to follow a process and stop killing deals by skipping important steps in that process. Did you know it can take 60% longer to lose a deal and that's the result of not following a process consistently. Your salespeople need an actionable checklist that they can follow. 

-Sales coaching and why that's critical to ensuring that salespeople not only follow the process, but that you keep reinforcing the skills and behaviors that will help them achieve their sales objectives. 

Finally, learn how the Membrain platform drives the right sales actions with a solid sales process. I've started to use the platform myself and love it! 

In my latest podcast conversation, I talked with Stu Perlmeter about why sales organizations should conduct a thorough win/loss analysis to understand why deals either closed or did not. 

  Those organizations that do some sort of win/loss evaluation are often making incorrect assumptions based on what their sales rep tells me or the data that they've asked the sales rep to try and uncover.    Human nature being what it is, you will rarely get the full picture of what happened throughout the course of the decision making process that led to a go/no go decision. This is especially true if the deal was a loss to a competing company. Having spent time with the salesperson during the process and recognizing that time and money has been invested in trying to secure the business, buyers are often very reluctant to be truthful about what went wrong. This is where a 3 party can help.   During my conversation with Stu, we talked about:

• What win/loss analysis is and why it B2B companies should care.
• How sales leaders can learn from the analysis and use it to drive and improve sales performance.
• The benefits to both the sales organization and the organization as a whole.
• How to get the most accurate data when doing an analysis of deals won and lost.

  And more...   Enjoy and feel free to share with others!   About Stu Perlmeter: Stu brings 30 years of marketing and research experience to 1st Resource, which he founded in 1996. Stu’s primary expertise is in understanding the market insights that tie to success formulas for companies seeking to grow their business in strategic ways. 

Stu is an expert in designing and implementing market research that incorporates a deep understanding of social psychology and behavioral economics. Stu leads a team of ten talented researchers at 1st Resource, covering all relevant components of research: primary, secondary, qualitative and quantitative.

 

Salespeople always seem to be looking for that quick fix, as if one actually exists. Rather than taking a targeted and focused approach, salespeople often resort to a "spray and pray" approach by broadcasting the same message to everyone. 

Now with social media, spamcasting has taken on a whole new level of "please don't do that". Broadcasting over social channels is a quick way to created a less than positive brand impression - for you and for your company.

In this episode, Barb Giamanco and Doug Lehman talk about the common misuses of social channels and why you should avoid them.

Most sales messaging is overly "me" centric and are focused on what companies and their sales people want to sell versus actually caring about what buyers want and need. 

"According to sales management, the salesperson's ability or inability to communicate value messages is the biggest inhibitor keeping salespeople from achieving quota." --SiriusDecisions

Can you really blame buyer's resistance to dealing with salespeople? Their experience is, more often than not, a waste of their precious time. The inability to create a value message is at the heart of this problem. Feature dumps don't cut it, and simply making more phone calls, sending more spam emails, or broadcasting your pitch to more people on social channels aren't helping you. Your sales messaging has to change!

Barb Giamanco and Doug Lehman talk about why your message matters and what yours is probably saying about you! 

 

The quota year is winding down for many of you, but that doesn't mean you can rest on your laurels. Learn how important it is to focus on solving problems for customers versus trying to pitch them.   While you are busy closing the deals you can in the final December push, don't forget that you need to be thinking ahead to the New Year. Planting the seeds for your sales future must be top of mind.   Sales acceleration is an inside job, and it is all about velocity. The common myth is that buyers slow down the sales process, but it might be a big shock to many sellers to know that they are the ones slowing down the purchasing decision.   If you sell, you have one job to do.  Contrary to what you might think, it isn't to sell something.   Selling is about helping customers solve their business problems and make buying decisions. Think about delivering value in a different way. Think of adding value as providing information quickly, in order to move buyers one step closer to a purchasing decision. Make it easy for them to make a decision.  

In this episode, Barb Giamanco and Doug Lehman chat about strategies for generating higher quality leads, in less time.

  WHY?   Access to decision makers is tough! An IDC study reported that inundated with data and sales pitches, buyers return only:

• 10.5% of phone calls
•  9% of emails from new vendors

Yet, pressured by management KPI's, every day salespeople use the same tactics - cold calls and cold emails - in an effort to convince a prospective customer to agree to a sales meeting. In IDC's Social Buying Meets Social Selling whitepaper they concluded that "While time is scarce, trust and confidence can be even rarer. Buyers making high-impact decisions will gravitate toward methods that make confidence building easier."