The Sales Evangelist

Believe it or not, changing your sales communication strategy can be all you need to close more sales! In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by the CEO and Founder of Ajax Union, Joe Apfelbaum, to learn how he changed his sales approach to land more deals with larger accounts.

Break into larger accounts without wasting too much time:

• Everyone says to go on LinkedIn, but many people don’t understand how to use LinkedIn effectively.
• Anyone will see through a counterfeit pitch, even if it's just a mutual connection request. 
• Don’t waste time talking to unqualified leads by creating a strategy to guide your connection requests.
• Know the buyer, their issues, and their goals to sell effectively.

Features tell, stories sell.

• Become a storyteller to motivate and inspire people to create positive interactions on LinkedIn. 
• Coaching without permission is criticism, so build rapport (through storytelling) to build the relationship beforehand.
• When you get a referral, the buyer or prospect doesn’t go to the company's LinkedIn page; they go to yours. Keeping your own page updated is critical to a good interaction.
• Get familiar with the contact by reading their posts and looking through their content on other platforms to see what you can mention. 

To the sellers who say they don’t have the time:

• It’s much easier to ask a friend for an appointment than a stranger. Build relationships, and you’ll have a perspective of abundance.
• Set a goal for how many conversations you want per week or month. Start with the end in mind.
• Joe’s secret? Exposure, credibility, and direct messaging. 
• LinkedIn has a high organic reach, so post engaging content that grows your personal brand.
• When interacting with others, discuss something of interest and don’t jump into a sales pitch.

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn for more great content, insights, and information. To find more than 200 pages of sales insights and the key to building lasting sales relationships, read Joe’s book High Energy Networking, available on Amazon. 

This episode is brought to you in part by Scratchpad.

Are you tired of a digital workspace cluttered with notes, folders, files, and half-filled spreadsheets? (Not that we’re speaking from personal experience.) Luckily, we’ve found the solution.

Scratchpad is the first Revenue Team Workspace specifically designed to adapt to each salesperson’s workflow, so you don’t have to change your habits. Scratchpad creates a streamlined workflow that allows everyone to be a little more productive each day without the hassle of updating a database with whatever info you can find. Get Scratchpad free at Scratchpad.com. 

As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

Mentioned in this episode:

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS

Some salespeople say LinkedIn doesn’t work for their industry. But LinkedIn is effective! (Chances are, you’re simply not using the platform correctly!) In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald explains the different LinkedIn features available to help make anyone a LinkedIn success. Connect with Donald on LinkedIn to share what features are effective for you that everyone should know!

Name Pronunciation

• By enabling pronunciation on your LinkedIn profile, people can listen to you explaining how to say your name.
• While simple, this powerful tool will foster better communication and greetings, especially when utilizing cold outreach in the sales process.
• If your name is easily pronounceable, it’s still a quick intro to your personality and how you approach greetings.

Utilizing video in messaging:

• The video introduction feature on LinkedIn is an opportunity for a more in-depth look at who you are, what you do, and what motivates your professional pursuits. 
• Engage your audience, direct them to a website, or add a CTA urging people to sign up for your latest class. 
• When messaging potential leads, supplying video explainers or commentary will build rapport and make you appear more trustworthy than a text message.

Utilizing voice in messaging:

• Recording audio messages is a mobile-only feature that allows you to quickly add an audio component to a message.
• This is an opportunity to explain your actions, engage your audience, or connect and build rapport.

Actually posting content.

• LinkedIn has close to 800 million active users, but only 2% of users post content regularly. Posting content is one of the most underutilized yet obvious strategies to drive lead growth and offer value to others.
• If directing people to a website off of LinkedIn, try linking the site in the comments instead of the actual post to generate more impressions.

The people who view your profile:

• Linkedin allows you to see who viewed your profile. While not everyone might apply, this is an excellent database of names to start connecting with potential leads.
• They clicked on your profile for a reason; you or the other person will benefit from the interaction!

This episode is brought to you in part by Scratchpad.

Are you tired of a digital workspace cluttered with notes, folders, files, and half-filled spreadsheets? (Not that we’re speaking from personal experience.) Luckily, we’ve found the solution.

Scratchpad is the first Revenue Team Workspace specifically designed to adapt to each salesperson’s workflow, so you don’t have to change your habits. Scratchpad creates a streamlined workflow that allows everyone to be a little more productive each day without the hassle of updating a database with whatever info you can find. Get Scratchpad free at Scratchpad.com. 

As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

Mentioned in this episode:

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS

In pretty much any team dynamic, some will perform at their best and some less than up-to-par. So how can we utilize our tech stack to help low-performers blossom into the great sellers we know they can be? In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by the CEO of Logik.io, Chris Shutts, to understand how to best manage and create strong sales teams.

It’s commonplace for new sellers to struggle in complex industries.

• There’s often a massive difference between an experienced rep and a new hire, beyond what experience alone can account for in productivity and time-to-value ratio.
• Logik.io helps standardize sellers’ effectiveness to help everyone reach quotas and KPIs. 
• Buyers are becoming very particular in the way they interact with tools. In B2B transactions, people put up with complications. However, that impatience found in B2C transactions are moving into B2B.

If your company can respond faster, your margin will grow.

• Technology helps guide the user. With Logik.io, they want feedback from the sales team to iterate and make it ideal for the users.
• A $6 billion tech company client self-implemented the platform, and they were a nuanced company with a complex product. With Logik.io, they created a migration path to download data from one tool and upload it into Logik, moving hundreds of models.
• Because they have so many models, they wanted configuration inside their CPQ tools, primarily Salesforce, and in e-commerce applications.
• With this platform, any seller can utilize those configurations to help seamlessly provide clients the same value and options.

Indicators that mean you might need a tool like Logik.io:

• All companies want to grow and make transactions more efficient. The problem with existing configuration engines is that they don’t support an omnichannel experience either.
• From a cost efficiency standpoint, consolidating multiple engines into one for product data maintenance is a great way to reduce administrative workload.
• Speed of market and new product introductions. Logik.io requires a short window of implementation, helping companies deliver accessible channels quickly.

Chris’s final takeaway? There’s a shift in the market, and buyers and sellers are becoming more particular. Sellers want to sell solutions, not bundles of parts. This combination makes Logic an awesome differentiator, and it can help other companies differentiate and compete with others For more information and content, connect with Chris by visiting Logik.io or sending an email at [email protected].

This episode is brought to you in part by Scratchpad.

Are you tired of a digital workspace cluttered with notes, folders, files, and half-filled spreadsheets? (Not that we’re speaking from personal experience.) Luckily, we’ve found the solution.

Scratchpad is the first Revenue Team Workspace specifically designed to adapt to each salesperson’s workflow, so you don’t have to change your habits. Scratchpad creates a streamlined workflow that allows everyone to be a little more productive each day without the hassle of updating a database with whatever info you can find. Get Scratchpad free at Scratchpad.com. 

As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

Mentioned in this episode:

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS

Believe it or not, anyone can go from small-scale deals to multi-million dollar closes. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by sales and mindset coach Cheryl Parks to discuss how she gets the right people in the conversation to close large-scale deals.

Believe in your own story:

• You don’t need to be the best salesperson; you need to be the best thing your customers dictate.
• If you don’t know the answer to something, toss the answer to someone else. Be honest and approach situations as needed.

Starting the conversation with larger accounts: 

• In today’s environment, there are so many more opportunities. Sales is a treasure hunt, not a linear scenario.
• The insights you provide to a CEO or CFO mean more than just sending a case study or book; be the extra set of eyes and ears that provide concise thoughts.
• Large deals don’t happen overnight - you need to have conversations, talk to new people, and determine where they spend their time.
• Go to the companies you are loyal to, because you’ll be more excited about it.

Initial messaging outreach:

• Cheryl teaches the heart-centered framework, and one of the “h”’s is human-to-human contact.
• Don’t be a robot. Instead, be authentic and show passion for your work to trigger meetings and events that push prospects further into the pipeline.
• Relationships come from serving and providing value for the prospect. The buyer wants to support the organization and demonstrate competence. What can you provide to help them achieve their own goals and company goals? 
• Smaller organizations tend to be more agile, adaptable, and long-term. So larger-scale companies can and do work with companies that might be smaller than themselves.

How can we make large deals work?

• Determine their desired outcome, streamline customer experiences, and create specific and actionable reporting. 
• Throughout her deal, Cheryl based who would be in the meeting depending on who was in their meeting, but remembering there might be more people who need to be in the room. 

Cheryl’s parting advice? You’re living in your story, but change what story you tell yourself. Write affirmations to speak your future into existence. Walk yourself out of your shortcomings to go beyond your comfort zone. For more information, content, and advice from Cheryl, visit her website thesalesgrowth.com or connect with her on LinkedIn.

This episode is brought to you in part by Scratchpad.

Are you tired of a digital workspace cluttered with notes, folders, files, and half-filled spreadsheets? (Not that we’re speaking from personal experience.) Luckily, we’ve found the solution.

Scratchpad is the first Revenue Team Workspace specifically designed to adapt to each salesperson’s workflow, so you don’t have to change your habits. Scratchpad creates a streamlined workflow that allows everyone to be a little more productive each day without the hassle of updating a database with whatever info you can find. Get Scratchpad free at Scratchpad.com. 

As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

Mentioned in this episode:

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS

Unsurprisingly, most people work to get paid (a wild concept, I know.) Despite that, navigating and creating a proper pay scale for sales teams is a seemingly complex and difficult process. How can we create a pay scale that works for the organization and the workers themselves? In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by the CRO of LinkSquares, Steve Travaglini, to discuss what he does to strike a balance between these two sides. 

Salary open for negotiation in sales roles doesn’t make sense.

• If you have two people doing the exact same job, they should be paid the same.
• Pay isn’t the way to motivate people. If you pay people differently, that will eventually get out and will result in a lack of trust in the organization.
• Base salaries should be standard across a job title, but allow the variable income (i.e. commission) to determine how much a seller’s skills allow them to make. 
• There should be no questions or ambiguous items when an employee signs a compensation agreement. Set the rules before you play the game.

What items do sellers find annoying in the compensation package?

• Having different salaries but the same amount of experience should be a nonstarter.
• Structure annual bonuses around the hiring period, not the calendar year to give everyone an equal chance of reaching that quota. 
• Implement rewards and compensations beyond strictly monetary like parental leave, benefits, and even stocks or an owner’s portion of the company to keep employees satisfied.
• Consider advertising jobs based on income; it shouldn’t be the taboo topic that it is currently. 

Steve’s average retention v. other tech companies:

• Typically tech companies aim to be in the 50-75% range of employee
• This year, Steve’s company is around 80% retention and historically around 70%. 
• They take risks on sellers with no experience or without the 5-6 years of closing experience, people expect to see.
• It all comes down to the product and the company; you can be great at your craft, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be world-class at every company.

Steve’s final takeaway? Don’t forget what it’s like to be the rep. Listen to the account executives and those around you; put together a benefits package you would’ve appreciated if you were in their role. To get in contact with Steve, connect with him on LinkedIn or visit Linksquares.com to view available job openings (but he always enjoys a custom LinkedIn DM.)

This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio.

Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real.

But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com.

This episode is brought to you in part by Scratchpad.

Are you tired of a digital workspace cluttered with notes, folders, files, and half-filled spreadsheets? (Not that we’re speaking from personal experience.) Luckily, we’ve found the solution.

Scratchpad is the first Revenue Team Workspace specifically designed to adapt to each salesperson’s workflow, so you don’t have to change your habits. Scratchpad creates a streamlined workflow that allows everyone to be a little more productive each day without the hassle of updating a database with whatever info you can find. Get Scratchpad free at Scratchpad.com. 

As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

Mentioned in this episode:

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS

Sellers often look for the newest tool, software, or strategy to find success and increase performance. However, improving the core elements of sales is often overlooked. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by Dan Zavorotny, the co-founder and COO of Nurtisense, to learn what elements every great sales team should integrate into their culture.

Flexibility

• Culturally, you have to portray the values that work for your company. However, they might not fit other people.
• People operate differently. If you are a self-motivated individual and you know what will make you perform your best, you should have the flexibility to do that.
• People who like flexibility can find a balance in life that drives people’s ability to perform at their best time rather than the company’s best time.

Transparency

• Many employers sell potential employees on the dream of working with the company rather than the reality.
• Being straightforward with the reality of working with the company saves time interviewing, onboarding, and training because turnover will drastically decrease.
• Maintaining transparency after the hiring process and providing precise methods for improvement will make employees more comfortable asking how they are performing.

Metrics

• Metrics shouldn’t be arbitrary or difficult to measure - they should be specific and actionable metric that allows people to know how they can best move forward and accomplish new goals.
• It’s easy to get busy with busy work, but this often has little impact on the organization.
• Before starting an activity, determine the baseline you’re starting with and what you’ll consider a success.
• Without that baseline, how can you determine if the work was worthwhile?

Bonus: Sleep and Nutrition

• When sellers get a good night’s sleep, they perform better. Their expressions, body language, and enunciation are dramatically better when well-rested.
• Sleep is derived from your nutrition, meaning the better your diet, the better your sleep will be. 

To learn more about Dan and his work, visit Nutrisense’s blog, and connect with him on LinkedIn.

This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio.

Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real.

But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com.

This episode is brought to you in part by Scratchpad.

Are you tired of a digital workspace cluttered with notes, folders, files, and half-filled spreadsheets? (Not that we’re speaking from personal experience.) Luckily, we’ve found the solution.

Scratchpad is the first Revenue Team Workspace specifically designed to adapt to each salesperson’s workflow, so you don’t have to change your habits. Scratchpad creates a streamlined workflow that allows everyone to be a little more productive each day without the hassle of updating a database with whatever info you can find. Get Scratchpad free at Scratchpad.com. 

As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

Mentioned in this episode:

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS

This is a conversation we need to have. Cold outreach is one of the core tenants of successful sellers, right? In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by the founder of Blueprint, Jordan Crawford, to discuss why there might be a better strategy.

Every job Jordan has, he’s either been fired from, or the company went under.

• He ultimately found his place helping startups scale and grow for long-term success, and it was through this endeavor he found a better methodology than personalized cold outreach.
• The ‘spray-and-pray’ method was the initial online sales foray. However, that soon led the way to personalized outreach. So, is a new method taking the lead?

Personalization has its uses, and there are times it is still functional. However, there are some where it isn’t.

• Personalization helps grab a prospect’s attention. But as a B2B seller, you should only want their attention if their company has a problem your solution can help solve.
• If you aren’t making a commercial transaction, personalization can have great power. 
• Sellers can’t test personalization systematically; you must have a way to process the data that is useful to prospects and act on it.
• Invest in data that leads to understanding product-market fit that solves your customers' core problems.

Personalize based on problems, not on the person:

• Once the potential problems are identified, sellers can sift through potential prospects and interact with them based on those problems the prospect (or their company) might be facing.
• We’re in the world of tactics. But if you lead with insight based on a prospect’s problem, you’ll be successful. 

How can a sales team can implement this strategy:

• Determine what channels and messaging work for your company.
• Do a bottom-up analysis to understand everything about the consumer and who you’re selling to. Only after this point should you go to market.
• Score existing customers by a ‘rubric’ of your ideal customer. If they are a rough match, you’ll know you’ve achieved a more scalable business.
• You must determine the data sources to find the consumers struggling with the products you solve.

Jordan’s final takeaway? If you’re in the sales system, spend time with customer success to determine what consumers already know. Because if you know what they know, you can build models that find more organizations like them. For more content from Jordan, connect with him on LinkedIn or email him at [email protected]. 

This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio.

Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real.

But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com.

This episode is brought to you in part by Scratchpad.

Are you tired of a digital workspace cluttered with notes, folders, files, and half-filled spreadsheets? (Not that we’re speaking from personal experience.) Luckily, we’ve found the solution.

Scratchpad is the first Revenue Team Workspace specifically designed to adapt to each salesperson’s workflow, so you don’t have to change your habits. Scratchpad creates a streamlined workflow that allows everyone to be a little more productive each day without the hassle of updating a database with whatever info you can find. Get Scratchpad free at Scratchpad.com. 

As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

Mentioned in this episode:

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS

Not all companies are created equal. Five key differentiators separate the cream of the crop for sales and sale-focused companies. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald discusses the five key components that successful sales-focused companies have in common.

Everyone in the organization is selling.

• This doesn’t mean every position in the company is a salesperson; we still need our accountants and other critical roles. 
• Instead, this means that the employees believe in the organization's mission, and they sell the organization because of its powerful mission.
• Adjust your focus and mission to ensure it is clear and something everyone can get behind.

Salespeople are treated as the best in the company.

• Salespeople are the front line of the people giving money to your company.
• Salespeople are crucial to bringing money into the organization. If you treat your sellers poorly, you’ll have high turnover (and thus lower sales.)
• The key? Treat sellers like they’re needed and appreciated. (And you should probably apply that mentality to every role in your company.)

Sales education is provided to sales professionals

• You want your sellers to spread the word about your company's mission.
• Infuse your salespeople with the greatest of the organization. Provide books, seminars, and boot camps to help provide the techniques sellers need to thrive in their roles.
• These salespeople will stay with you because you’re providing value to them.
• The Sales Evangelist has training programs you can use to help your sellers master their profession.

Sellers are challenged to become better.

• Top organizations challenge sellers to be accountable for their work.
• The best sellers are the ones who consistently set new goals and hit new quotas.
• Look for ways to be better, and you’ll constantly raise the bar to make more money for yourself and your company.

You have the right KPIs in place that encourages you to grow.

• KPIs should not focus exclusively on the end result. While outcome-based KPIs are useful, the best companies understand which other metrics best drive results.
• Leading indicators make better KPIs because sellers have direct control over how they can fulfill the actions associated with them.

This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio.

Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real.

But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com.

This episode is brought to you in part by Scratchpad.

Are you tired of a digital workspace cluttered with notes, folders, files, and half-filled spreadsheets? (Not that we’re speaking from personal experience.) Luckily, we’ve found the solution.

Scratchpad is the first Revenue Team Workspace specifically designed to adapt to each salesperson’s workflow, so you don’t have to change your habits. Scratchpad creates a streamlined workflow that allows everyone to be a little more productive each day without the hassle of updating a database with whatever info you can find. Get Scratchpad free at Scratchpad.com. 

As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

Mentioned in this episode:

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS

Closing your next sales deal can be as easy as eight steps! In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by the founder and owner of Closers.io, Cole Gordon, to discuss his eight-step process to close every deal you have (or at least come close.) 

Cole’s beginning sales experience was not what he expected:

• Cole’s original sales team was exceptional. However, their end-of-sale closing conversations were not what he expected.
• He realized that every sale depends on meeting the beliefs of the buyer before you pitch them on the deal, and they'll create an objection-less close themselves.
• Cole's eight-step plan is based on the relief ladder concept but applied specifically to sales. 

Step 1: Pain

• There are two problems: actual pains and unfulfilled desires. The prospect might not have pain, but there’s a gap between where they are now and where they want to be.
• Establish the pain; because all sales are conducted based on solving a problem. The following six steps are all predicated on the initial determinant of pain. 

Step 2: Doubt

• The prospect must believe there’s an inability to fix the problem or that the product or service will make the solution happen more efficiently.
• To establish doubt, make the buyer believe your route is more efficient or profitable than if they were to handle it themself.

Step 3: Cost

• Anything that results in a delay of a decision is likely because of cost.
• The buyer should believe that staying where they are now is less profitable than purchasing your product or service.

Step 4: Desire

• Fixing the problem will yield a payoff, and you can only get through these steps if you’re aware of the problem.
• It’s not enough to understand the surface desire - the seller should know the vision and goal beyond the sales goal.

Step 5: Support

• Stakeholders around the decision should support solving the problem.
• This doesn’t necessarily mean they need to support you at this stage, but they should at least support investing in fixing the problem.

Step 6: Money

• The buyer must have the physical resources to fix the problem. 
• If the buyer doesn’t have the budget to pay for your solution, they just aren’t a viable prospect.

Step 7: Willingness

• Once you’re established that a prospect has the finances to purchase your solution, determine that they’re willing to allocate that amount to acquire your solution.
• Even if a prospect has the money, they might not consider the problem enough of an issue to warrant spending a certain amount of money on it.

Step 8: Trust

• Trust in the company is important, but rust in the methodology is even more important.
• You must be able to explain your solution and why your solution will work for them.
• If they’ve used a similar method in the past (but to no avail), you must be able to identify why that didn’t work, and how your methodology is different.
• Once you’ve educated the prospect on a differentiator, you’re going to solidify the trust and encourage the prospect to work with you.

Cole’s major takeaway? There are two parts to winning a sale: optimizing your energy and optimizing the mechanics. If you can master both aspects of the sale, you’ll be ready to win. To see more of what Cole does, visit his company website at Closers.io.

This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

The Great Resignation has become the Great Reshuffle, meaning it can be difficult for sales professionals like you to find leads and close deals. Luckily, Sales Navigator from LinkedIn is here for you!

Sales Navigator from LinkedIn is the only tool that uses real-time alerts and up-to-date insights to help you know when prospects are ready to buy. And, with over 30 advanced filters, sales professionals can quickly find genuine leads with the intent to purchase.

Gain the advantage of accurate, quality lead generation data from LinkedIn Sales Navigator. You can get a 60-day free trial of Sales Navigator at www.LinkedIn.com/TSE. 

This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio.

Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real.

But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com.

This episode is brought to you in part by Scratchpad.

Are you tired of a digital workspace cluttered with notes, folders, files, and half-filled spreadsheets? (Not that we’re speaking from personal experience.) Luckily, we’ve found the solution.

Scratchpad is the first Revenue Team Workspace specifically designed to adapt to each salesperson’s workflow, so you don’t have to change your habits. Scratchpad creates a streamlined workflow that allows everyone to be a little more productive each day without the hassle of updating a database with whatever info you can find. Get Scratchpad free at Scratchpad.com. 

As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

Mentioned in this episode:

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS

When you have the intention to change your sales approach, the behavior follows suit. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by Scott Savage, Managing Director at Franklin Covey, to learn how sellers can increase their close rate by winning more deals. 

Salespeople tend to think we close more than we do.

• In actuality, the close right is only around 17%. But imagine what it could be if that close rate were higher.
• Why are win rates so low? Many would say the pandemic, but it’s not one sole factor. 
• 42% of the time, decision-makers could not tell the difference between vendors.
• Sellers almost always think they're different. But it doesn’t matter how different you are if the buyer cannot differentiate between sellers.

Talk less, question more:

• Executives and other buyers judge sellers based on their questions, not necessarily their answers.
• Clients don’t want sellers to just talk at them; they want a discussion to know their problems are being addressed.
• It’s not that a seller is disliked, but rather that the meeting didn’t progress with the buyer’s needs in mind.

RDM is Scott’s strategy to close more sales: Relevant, distinct, and memorable:

• For relevant, ask yourself what the client truly cares about. What do they wish to buy or add to their current company?
• Distinct is explaining how they will be dramatically better because of what you can bring to the table. People make decisions based on differences, not similarities. People want compelling contrast.
• Juxtapose those distinct differences by making those differences easy to share and difficult to forget.

Start with the end in mind. 

• Establish objectives for each meeting to help guide interactions toward those pre-established checkpoints.
• Ensure your close rate is open: we get too focused on ourselves, and our intention is based on the sale, not the best decision.
• To stand out, take the RDM strategy. Next, understand what’s essential to each decision-maker to get everyone on board.
• Many people can veto a deal. But, if you know each stakeholder and help them improve, you’ll altogether avoid that issue.
• Your biggest competitor isn’t other companies; it’s the status quo. Be interesting and stand out to convince each decision-maker to choose you.

Scott’s final takeaway? Most sellers think they’re better than they are. Establish what makes you better and convince buyers of that factor. If you can set yourself apart, you’ll close more deals. For more content from Scott, connect with him on LinkedIn or visit franklincovey.com/sds to pre-order his book, Strikingly Different Selling.

This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

The Great Resignation has become the Great Reshuffle, meaning it can be difficult for sales professionals like you to find leads and close deals. Luckily, Sales Navigator from LinkedIn is here for you!

Sales Navigator from LinkedIn is the only tool that uses real-time alerts and up-to-date insights to help you know when prospects are ready to buy. And, with over 30 advanced filters, sales professionals can quickly find genuine leads with the intent to purchase.

Gain the advantage of accurate, quality lead generation data from LinkedIn Sales Navigator. You can get a 60-day free trial of Sales Navigator at www.LinkedIn.com/TSE. 

This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio.

Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real.

But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com.

This episode is brought to you in part by Scratchpad.

Are you tired of a digital workspace cluttered with notes, folders, files, and half-filled spreadsheets? (Not that we’re speaking from personal experience.) Luckily, we’ve found the solution.

Scratchpad is the first Revenue Team Workspace specifically designed to adapt to each salesperson’s workflow, so you don’t have to change your habits. Scratchpad creates a streamlined workflow that allows everyone to be a little more productive each day without the hassle of updating a database with whatever info you can find. Get Scratchpad free at Scratchpad.com. 

As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

Mentioned in this episode:

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS