The Salesman.com Podcast

Rob Barnett is the author of NEXT JOB, BEST JOB and an experienced headhunter connecting the best candidates with hiring managers.

On this episode of the Salesman Podcast, Rob Barnett explains what you need to do to find and then close your dream sales role.

Will Barron:

This episode of the show is brought to you from the salesman.org HubSpot Studio. Coming up on today's episode of the Salesman Podcast.

Rob Barnett:

The greatest tips we've seen in our lifetimes, and what that meant, of course, is that the market got even more competitive. And take the hours or the day or two to figure out how am I going to speak to an actual human being at that company, not human resources? What we recommend people do is homework. Hours and hours and hours on what that company is doing, so that in the first thing they read about you, they're going to read the resume.

Will Barron:

Hello, sales nation. My name is Will Barron, and I'm the host of the Salesman Podcast, world's most downloaded B2B sales show. On today's episode, we have an absolute legend. It was a pleasure chatting with him. We have Rob Barnett. He's the author of the book Next Job, Best Job. And that's exactly what we're talking about on today's episode, how to find your next job and make sure that it is the best one, your most aspirational, whether it's in sales, out of sales, whatever it is, how to find your dream job and how to close it and get in the door and speaking to these hiring managers, no matter what the climate is, no matter whether we're in a global economic pandemic crisis or not, how to get this job done. Everything we talk about is available in the show in this episode, or at salesman.org. And so with that said, let's jump right into it.

Will Barron:

Rob, welcome to the Salesman Podcast.

Rob Barnett:

Thank you so much. It's good to meet you.

Will Barron:

It's good to meet you. I'm glad to have you on, Rob. On today's episode, we're going to get into how we can build a strategic resume or CV, if you're in the UK like myself. Curriculum Vitae. That might be new on some of the audience who's listening. But before we get into that, I guess I want to start on a wider context here, because clearly the world has changed. The workplace has changed forever. Salespeople seem to be always hopping and changing and jumping jobs regardless, but it might be that there's a whole chunk of the audience right now who want to change jobs, want to change roles might be looking at changing careers. So, with that said, Rob, what do we need to do differently now than perhaps when we were looking at getting a job or searching for jobs two, three years ago? What's changed post COVID with regards to getting a job? And then we'll move on to the idea of a strategic resume later on.

Rob Barnett:

Yes. Great. Well look, the odds got tougher, right? It got tougher because the cut took the greatest hit we've seen in our lifetimes. And what that meant, of course, is that the market got even more competitive. And so for every role, there's twice as many people going after it. And the same old same old is really not going to do it now on resumes, on cover letter, on LinkedIns. I don't know what it is, but it just seems like when you asked me to talk with you about this topic, I feel like people become possessed by some kind of robot from the 1950s when it's time to write a resume and they link it and they speak with these stilted old non-human tones that… I don't know. I think that people have this belief that I'm supposed to do it like everybody else does it. And then when that happens, you end up in the stack, the stack of thousands of everybody elses, and you don't stand out.

Will Barron:

So, I love this. We're going to be on totally the same wavelength of all of this, I know that for a fact, Rob, because what I wanted to ask you was out of… Say that we're applying for a complex, B2B sales role, a role that lots of people… Maybe it's software sales, enterprise sales, a role that lots of people want to get into. Well, say that there's 50 people in that pile, say there's 100 people in that pile. From your experience, how many of those individuals are we actually competing against? How many of those individuals just are never going to get a shot? Their resume or CV is just nonsense, they've not got the experience, we're never going to even look at them seriously. What number actually are we competing against? If there's 100 people that apply, what number of individuals are likely to be considered?

Rob Barnett:

This is such a great question. And you know, there's two ways that I would respond to you on it. The first is who the hell's looking in that pile, right? I'm always worried about who's that person on the other end. Meaning, is it a robot or is it, God bless her, or God bless him, a 23 year old who's some kind of a junior person in the human resources department with very few human skills, just looking for keywords and buzzwords. I mean, that part of it is terrifying. First is who's judging that pile. But the second thing that really I think is the primary problem that so many candidates can solve on a job search, is to make sure that if you're applying for a role, you're really lined up for the specifics of that role.

Rob Barnett:

Most job seekers are so bummed out and I've been there more times than I wish. They're so bummed out. They're having such hard luck that if a role is open for sales and I've sold anything, this pen, that then I immediately apply for that sales role, regardless of whether or not I've done the specific kind of requirements that that job is asking for. And you know what? If you haven't, it is really a waste of time to apply for that role. I don't know what it is, but people feel like, well, it's a numbers game, and I have to send out as many resume as possible. Not unless that resume is really lined up with the likelihood that if there's 15 requirements, you're going to be able to really check 12 or 13 of them no problem without saying, well, close enough, let me go for it. Don't bother.

Will Barron:

Is it fair to say that getting a job in 2021 onwards is similar to the shift that's happening in B2B sales? And what I mean by that, Rob, is that 20 years ago, perhaps you could hit your number by just cold calling people. Call, call, call, call. It's a numbers game. Eventually you're going to get the right person at the right time. You're going to do a deal with them. Now, you can't cold call people because no one has an office desk because no one's in their office. If you don't have the right message at the right time through the right person, and you're involved in the organisation and you've got multiple threads within it, it's very difficult to even have a hypothesis of what the buyer wants to engage that initial conversation. So, is it fair to say that not just sales, which we talk about on the show all the time, has transformed into a more complex sale? Is it fair to say that being… Not necessarily being [inaudible 00:06:54]… We'll, perhaps touch on that in a second, but applying for jobs has become more strategic in its nature as well?

Rob Barnett:

Yes. Beautiful. And I think that you have to get another job before you get this actual job. You have to actually decide that there's a need to become a private detective. If you're just going to upload a resume cold to a company, the odds are just terrible. But if you decide to become a detective and take the hours or the day or two to figure out how am I going to speak to an actual human being at that company, not human resources. I hope they're not listening. They're not going to love me after they hear this podcast. Not human resources, but if there's six degrees of Kevin Bacon, I like to tell people, cut that down to one degree of Kevin Bacon. If Kevin Bacon is the hiring manager, how are you going to talk to Kevin or one person separated from him at that company, in order to do the thing that you baked into your question? Which is you want to get some information about what's really going on there, beyond what's on the digital page, before you can really kick ass in the interview.

Will Barron:

Sure. And I guess it's even more appropriate for salespeople than if we are a marketer trying to break into marketing, right? Tell me if I'm wrong here, but it seems like if I'm a kick-ass marketer and I start ringing VPs of marketing, the VP's going to be like, “Okay, send your resume over to HR or add me on LinkedIn and we'll chat about it online.” Versus if you can get on a call with a hiring sales manager, sales leader, and you can really wow them on the call, you're demonstrating your skillset right there and then. So, is it fair to say then that this is even more appropriate as an approach for sales people than it is for other people in whatever industry or kind of segment?

Rob Barnett:

Yes, 100 times yes. I mean, I like to use this analogy for, over here in the baseball analogy, would be-

Will Barron:

This might go totally past me, Rob. You might go right over my head with your baseball analogy.

Rob Barnett:

I know, I know. Steal second base before even the first pitch is thrown. Because, in old days, you'd be lucky to go through multiple interviews. And then maybe as one of the final steps, you're asked to put your ideas in writing and really impress them with either the dreaded PowerPoint presentation or just a plain Word document that's got all of what you have to say to pitch yourself for this job. When COVID hit, we started recommending to all of our clients that you should come much stronger with content, with ideas, with specifics, with the proof that you've done more homework about this company than any other candidate. Come with all that in the beginning before you were even asked, because what the company wants to hear now is what are you going to do to make them money, right? And the people who offer that early on are the people who have the better chance of going through at least more than one dreaded 30 minute interview.

Will Barron:

Okay. So, let's get practical here. What does it look like to do this very literally? So, we can touch on perhaps the calling up of the hiring manager in a second, or adding them on LinkedIn, communicating, chatting with them. We'll touch on that in a second. But do we need to create a… Rather than just sending over and filling in the online application form, do we need to then send the hiring manager some kind of application pack with 30, 60, 90 day plans and things like that? How do we very literally separate ourselves from the competition here?

Rob Barnett:

Yes. Well, look, the cover letters, too, like we said earlier, they tend to all be written by the exact same person. I'll perform one for you now. Hi, Will. Or if I haven't done that, it's to whom it may concern, right? To whom it may concern. I'm very interested to see the job that you've posted for blankety-blankety-blank, because I am an award-winning salesperson with 15 years of experience and a proven track record at great oral and written communication skills. I have a demonstrated history of say… These cover letters are not cutting it now. And so what we recommend people do is homework. Hours and hours and hours on what that company is doing so that in the first thing they read about you, they're going to read the resume. So, why is the cover letter a copy of the resume in long sentences?

Rob Barnett:

I'd rather that that first letter that's written to the company be, “I've watched what you've been doing for this last year, and it seems as though the priorities of the business are X, Y, and Z. In my last job, I've worked on X, I've done Y, I've done Z. Are you interested in considering this?” In other words, bring the ideas, bring the content, bring the feedback on what you think that company is doing well, and then go ahead and take the risk and talk about what you think that company needs to do better. Bold is beautiful.

Will Barron:

Can you explain, because you kind of alluded to this earlier on with the 23 year old intern maybe sifting through some of these. What happens when we send off our resume, whether it's an online form, whether we send it off as a Word doc or whatever it is. What happens when it goes into this black hole and then we may or may not hear back out the other end of it?

Rob Barnett:

Yes. I think people are obsessed with algorithms now. And there's this belief that if I just write the phrase data analysis three times on my resume, it's going to get magically found by the system and then it's going to end up on the desk of the chief executive at that company. I'm much less concerned about being found by a robot as I'm concerned about finding people who can make the introduction that's needed, the warm introduction between myself the candidate and that hiring manager. And whatever it takes to do that… I mean, yes, you might… If you don't know people, as you say, you're going to try to make those connections on LinkedIn, but then you're going to try and turn something that's cold into something that's warm.

Rob Barnett:

Maybe it's a simple request to somebody else who works at the company. And you say, “Look, I'm applying for a job there. If you have a minute… You probably don't have 20 minutes to talk, but I've got three questions to ask you on an email that would be so helpful to give me a shot at getting this job.” Then ask three probing questions. When you've got those answers, you can now say, “I connected with so-and-so at the company, and I understand that X, Y, and Z. You've got to get into the dialogue some way with people who work there, because if you're just wishing that you're going to be discovered by a robot, I don't like those odds.

Will Barron:

I love it. I agree. And clearly you're the expert here, but you're mirroring my experience getting into medical device sales, which was extremely competitive at the time. And I'm sure it's even more competitive right now. My approach of all of this was, if I'm filling in an online form, if I'm sending off a resume, CV, I've failed. I'm now just a needle in the haystack, as you described it here, Rob. So, perhaps you can critique some of the way… In fact, even better. Let's go one step further, Rob. Let's say salesman.org, the training product, the podcasts, the advertising, everything goes to complete shit. Everything is dried up, and I've got a mortgage to pay, we've got a commercial mortgage to pay on this building, we've got staff to pay. I'm going to have to, just maybe for a year, two years, whatever it is, I'm going to have to go back and get a sales job, Rob.

Will Barron:

And let's narrow it down. I want to go back to medical device sales. So, there's only a handful of companies that I want to be involved in, because I enjoy the product services and I want to sell those. And perhaps that's a conversation for later on of whether we should settle, whether we should go for the job that we really want. We'll touch on that at the end of the show. What do I need to do, Rob? If there's four companies that I want to work for, do I need to start courting these managers now before I want the job, or am I waiting for a job opening to appear? What do I do if I want to move into this very competitive space?

Rob Barnett:

Oh, this is such a great question. There's so many things packed into this, that I'm going to try, in this bald head, to not forget at least three things that you opened up. The first thing I heard you open up is that you've had this background. Like, my neighbour does, right here in the great state of New Jersey, in medical equipment, right? That's been your background. So, the first thing you said to me, as a head hunter, gave me two big thumbs up, which is you're going back where your expertise lies. That's great. Then the second thing that you opened up in my mind is, do I start trying to warm those contacts up whether or not there is an opening there so that I'm warm for a future opening? Or do I wait until there's an actual job? I love this question. This question comes up all the time and I've actually changed my answer during COVID.

Rob Barnett:

My answer now, with all of us having one of the hardest, if not the hardest, times of our lives is that I've been counselling clients to drop the whole, “Can we meet? Can we chat? Can we have coffee? I'm a friend of so-and-so, they told me to call you.” The end result of almost all of those conversations when there isn't an opening is, “Will, you sound like a great guy. Listen, I don't have anything now.” Say it with me, “But I will definitely keep you in mind if there's an opening.” I think it's a much better move, during the dark times, to wait. Wait until you know there's an opening and pounce then, because now there's a real cadence to this thing. It's really specific, it's on. But it raises the third and final thing I wanted to share in this answer.

Rob Barnett:

There's a conspiracy theory in people's minds about jobs, and I hear it every day, and I am here to shoot this conspiracy theory down. People say, “Well, job listings are bullshit. You're never really going to know if there really is a job or not. The company's not going to list the job. They're just going to hire somebody internally.” I'm the guy to say not true. Not true. My experience is that when a job becomes real, that company must post the job, and even if they know they're going to hire Will anyway, they've got to go through the motions of putting that job up online so that other candidates can come in. So, I just want to say that this whole conspiracy theory about job listings are bullshit. No, they're there. And then at that moment when the job is listed, that's the time to pounce.

Will Barron:

Is there any secret source to finding these job listings or especially when we talk more about the enterprise side of things, large businesses as opposed to small, medium size companies. Did they all go on monster.com? Did they all end up on these job sites? Is there anything else that we need to do or is it okay just to monitor those websites?

Rob Barnett:

Yes. I think that this is a important piece of the conversation. A targeted company search is really going to say, look, in your example, there are only these medical device companies where I will logically land. Therefore, I'm going to go on all those company sites, I'm going to set up alerts, I'm going to set up Google alerts. I'm going to go on LinkedIn, I'm going to set up job alerts for those specific companies so that the moment anyone on my targeted list is looking, I'm pouncing.

Will Barron:

What happens? This is going to be massively subjective, right? But what happens if we're working… Right now, as we record this, hopefully coming out of the global pandemic, especially the UK, the US, Europe, and other parts of the world where the vaccines are being rolled out, right? So, hopefully, there's an end insight for some of us that are fortunate. What do we do, Rob, if we're in a role and we're like, “Right, I hate this freaking job. This job sucks.” But it's a terrible time to try and change careers, change jobs, change positions right now. Say we've took your advice, Rob. We've set up notifications on LinkedIn, we're monitoring these job sites, even if we've somewhat automated it, we're not checking every day, but something crops up. It's a medical advice company that we've always aspired to work towards, they have the best products. We've been competing against them, Rob. We've been competing against them and they kick our ass every time because they have the best products. We want to work there. Is now a good time to risk moving from one job to another? Is there ever a good time to do it? What I'm saying is, is there a big enough upside to risk kind of making these kind of moves right now? Or is it time that we kind of rest on our laurels and just suck it up and get on with it?

Rob Barnett:

Wow. What a great question. I think that I came up with a simple little trick in my brain, in my long 40 plus years of working somewhere. The device is called the alarm. And when the alarm goes off in the morning, whether it's 5:30, 6:00, 6:30, 7:00, whenever you like, there's that moment in your mind between sleep and full consciousness where you have this sort of gut feeling, do I want to get up and go to this fricking job or not? And if you start waking and having those bad, bad feelings that say, “I don't want this day to happen, I don't want this job,” then that's the deepest message your subconscious can possibly give you that you are not in the right spot. Now, your next question is, what happens if unemployment is raging? What happens if, God forbid, another virus hits us? I mean, would I take the risk of leaving what appears to be secure for something that I'm craving in my aortic muscles which says there's got to be something better out there? Depends on your level of risk.

Rob Barnett:

You're talking to a risk taker. I've taken risks my whole life, I would say yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Carefully obey what your subconscious is telling you, which is there's something better out there and go for it, but go for it without blowing what you've got, right? Because if you've got something that's keeping the roof over your head, even though you secretly wish you shouldn't be there, then carefully, carefully, carefully spend some time trying to better your situation. And let's face it, last point, you're certainly more hireable when you're in a job than you are when you're on your butt.

Will Barron:

Yeah.

Rob Barnett:

So, your value is greater.

Will Barron:

There's two things here that come to mind as I asked that question. And me and you are probably aligned on this. You seem the same. I'm a massive optimist. So, I would hesitate to tell someone to change jobs if they changed jobs 6 months ago, 12 months ago, and they've been job hopping for months on end, or years on end, right? Clearly, the job isn't the issue. It's the fact that you've got shiny object syndrome or you feel the grass is always greener on the other side. I know from data wise, it takes about 6 to 8 months to ramp up a sales rep. And so if you are only in your job for 12 months, you're only just coming around to being trained, informed, and engaging central customers, especially in longer, complex B2B or what I was doing, business to government sales. There is an element of, you've got to hunker down just for a year or two, just to see what the deal actually is.

Will Barron:

But I'm a massive optimistic and I'm a massive risk taker as well, Rob. So, I think it was Steve Jobs who said if you do something every day for 60 days and every day you think this is stupid and you hate it, it's time for a change. That's how Steve jobs would frame things up. And someone else said this on the podcast before, of if something isn't… You should eliminate yeses, and you should only do no and hells yes. If there's something in between, it's not a good fit for you. And you should say no to it. So, clearly, I massively appreciate this and I know you do as well, and that's if you've got a job, you've got responsibilities, there's kids, there's mortgage, wherever it is, at some points in all our lives, we've just got to get our head down and get through them.

Will Barron:

But with that not on the table, or you've got a bit of cash in an emergency fund, or you've got a bit of savings, I would encourage people that life is so short that you have to be pushing towards… Not necessarily your dream job, because I want to be a Formula 1 racing car driver. That's never going to happen. But maybe I could do ad sales for the F1 and spend a load of time with the teams and that side of things. So, anything else to add on that point, Rob, before we move on, on this idea of aspiring for more with our careers and our jobs?

Rob Barnett:

Well, for us, the most important chapter in our book is chapter four. It's called your north star. And because life is too short, I believe that there is an actual logical way to answer the deepest question most people have in their career, which is, I know what's in my heart, I know what I want to do. Can I do it? Can I be a ballerina? No, I'm just kidding.

Will Barron:

I believe in you, Rob, I believe in you, mate.

Rob Barnett:

Yes. I can! So, we try to encourage people, as much as possible, to go through this three step process in answering the greatest question of all, which is… You called it the dream job, I just call it the north star. Can I have it? Can I really have what I want? The first question that you ask yourself is a spiritual one. It's in your heart. It says, “Look, what do I really want to be doing? If I'm going to be spending 8, 9, 10, 12, for me, sometimes too many more hours a day doing this thing, am I allowed to do the thing I love?” The answer to that question should always be yes. But now the next question is, can you do it? Can you do it? Because these awful people come into your brain next, I call them the no police. They're going to give you a million reasons why you can't be a ballerina, you stupid idiot.

Rob Barnett:

Well, the second step, once you have this feeling of what you know in your heart, the second step is much more logical. You've got to go into your brain and say, am I truly great at doing this? As much self-awareness as I've got, am I truly great at doing this? Is this one of my superpowers or is it just a vague notion? Is it a wish? Is there some evidence that I've done this before? The third and final step in figuring out whether you can have the job that you want the most, is about proving it. And proving it gets us right back to the damn resume and the damn LinkedIn. There has to be enough R&R, recency and relevancy. Sorry, recency and repetition. That R&R. Recency and repetition, that you've done this job not just once, but you've done it recently and repeatedly in order to make the entire pitch credible, right?

Rob Barnett:

The first part of the pitch is the easiest. You know you're going to sound great going for this job because it's what you love. The second is where all your confidence lives. It's, look, I know I can do this. I am a ballerina. And then the third. The third is you got to prove it. You got to prove it. There's got to be real clear evidence. I hate the phrase, by the way, going for jobs, I hate the phrase, “I have transferable skills.” That's a no-no. That's saying, “Trust me, I can do it even though I haven't really done it.” I don't think people should use that phrase in an interview. If I ask you a hard question about whether or not you've been a ballerina and the answer is no, then the answer in that interview should be no.

Will Barron:

What do you say, Rob? Because everything you just said is logical, makes total sense, and a lot of aspirational jobs, dream roles, I imagine… And you can tell me if I'm wrong here, say like I did want to work in the F1. Well, I would probably start some kind of F1 podcast, which would allow me to network with people in the space and I'm suited to podcasting, so that would be my kind of way in and format. I might build an audience, and maybe that'll get me in a few meetings and in a few conversations. So, what I'm saying is, perhaps with these more aspirational roles, these dream roles, if we don't have the experience, we need to do this extracurricularly, and do this out of office hours over the course of maybe even a few years before we even get the opportunity to have conversations about jobs and roles. Am I right on the right tracks with that so far?

Rob Barnett:

Yes, and, as they say in improv comedy. Yes, and. Because one way of doing it, as you say, is on your off hours, right? That you're going to spend time on the weekends figuring out how to get into that industry. But I also am a big believer in something that I'm simply calling the straight line theory. It means that if you know where you want to end up, if you know you want to be the most famous actor in all of Hollywood, then you actually shouldn't be working as a tax accountant on the side, you should be figuring out how to work in accounting on a film set, right? Because that will eventually lead you in a straight line to the secret, secret role of being an actor, right? You've got to be around those people. I just don't believe that it's a good idea to say, “Well, I've got to make money. I've got to keep a roof over my head, so I'm doing this thing that has absolutely nothing to do with what my soul really wants to do.”

Rob Barnett:

I think it's better to take less money in a lower job title working in that correct lane and betting on yourself and saying, “Look, I'm not ready to have the job that I really want as far as title and money goes. But if I get there for a year and show them all that I'm worthy, I'll move up.” But now I'm moving up in the right straight line and I'm not seven countries away.

Will Barron:

I agree. And so I might… Just about to decimate my audience and ruin my own business, but a lot of people fall into sales roles. Various few people, when they're young, go, “Hey, I want to sell accounting software to accountants.” It doesn't happen, right? We all want to be… I mentioned… Maybe there's Freudian going on. “Oh, it's because the F1 season's just about to start. The Formula 1. That's why it's obviously top of mind.” But when I'm a kid, I wanted to be a jet fighter pilot and I was too tall, I'm 6 foot 3. I would literally not fit in the jet. So, that was written off. The RAF was written out of my life. And then similarly with Formula 1 and professional racing, you have to start when you're like three in a go-kart. And I was only having these conclusions when I was 13, 14, 15, thinking about careers. So, that was totally out of the… Not necessarily out of the picture, but the highest level is out of the picture.

Will Barron:

So, you've answered the question I was going to ask you, which was, what do we do when our dream job says that they want to have experience and we don't have the experience? You get in an adjacent role, you get in the organisation, you hustle and bustle kind of your way to get a grain of experience, which then you can expand on over time. But final thing I want to ask you, Rob, and again, especially when we're dealing with perhaps the enterprise here, large organisations, is it still possible to work your way up, like seemingly you used to be able to do 20, 30 years ago where you start in the mail room and you work hard and you end up the CEO and your story's told on the front of Time magazine. Is that career progression within large organisations, and smaller organisations, whatever it is, is it still possible? Is that mobility available to people? Because I see less and less people that I engage with, even kind of the leadership that I engage with within these organisations as well, less and less people are staying companies for 10, 20 years. Everyone seems to be jumping around more often than not.

Rob Barnett:

Yes. There's no question that the average amount of years in a job has lessened over time. I think we all have DNA in ourselves from our parents and our grandparents that have this rule that you're supposed to get somewhere and stay somewhere for as long as possible. That's the one thing that drives most of my readers and my clients crazy, is this terrible feeling that the job just isn't going to last more than a few years. I believe that, if it still is your true desire to stay put, it can last longer, but only if you're willing to accept something that upset me greatly when I first learned it. I was working in this really cool job long time ago at MTV when it was the new, new thing and it was the coolest place in the world. And we just felt like we were on top of the world when we worked there. That's how it looked like from the outside.

Rob Barnett:

From the inside, people used to say, you know what it's really like working here? It's like going out with the hottest looking person on earth that treats you like shit. That's what people used to say. And what that really meant is that, like most companies, it had its fair share of politics, internal politics, right? She said, he said, they said. Why can't I do this? And so this guy took me out to a meal in my early weeks working there, and he said, “Look, I'm going to give you a little lesson. You better learn this. Half of the time you're going to spend here is doing the actual work that you've been hired to do. The other half of the time is going to be spent focusing on the people and all the relationships to keep them as strong as they can possibly be politically. Because if not, you're never going to make it here.”

Rob Barnett:

And I hated the whole sound of office politics. It just was disgusting to me. But I think that over time, I've realised that unfortunately half of our mind has to be based on, are Will and Rob getting along or are they secretly hating each other? And if they're secretly hating each other, we've got a choice, right? We're going to have to figure out how to fix it and reset this thing, or it's just a matter of time and it's going to go south. So, so much of the reason, I think, why jobs don't last is because I secretly did something 15 minutes ago in this interview that pissed you off, and then we're never going to talk about it. But it's there, it's real, it happened. And then if you're my boss, it's going to lead to my demise.

Will Barron:

I love this. I love you being so frank and open about it. I've talked about it on the podcast in the past. My biggest flaw in all the medical device sales roles I've been in, wasn't the ability to sell, it wasn't the ability to hit quota, it wasn't the ability to have customers that liked me and wanted me to return and be in the operating room with them. There's a low [inaudible 00:38:15] here. I would spend every Friday from like 1:00, 2:00 till 7:00, 8:00 PM in the… And just be chilling, hanging out with surgeons, having a great time, and they were my best customer. And one of the biggest accounts for this, the last company that I worked for, my issue was my internal stakeholders. My boss thought I was a bit of an idiot.

Will Barron:

I don't know, whether he thought I was thick or just not… How to describe it? I didn't do very well with taking criticism, in which I would not complain, shout, bitch, moan. I would just sit there and just go… And basically let it ping off me and ignore me. Now, this led to issues with the sales manager and eventually the national sales manager, because they both were trying to tell me off for things. And they thought nothing was sinking in and nothing was going through, when really I was taking what they said on board and processing it and improving my game and improving myself. But I give them just so little feedback that they were getting stressed out about, they were questioning their own managerial skills because they thought they weren't getting anywhere with me.

Will Barron:

And it was only on the exit interview that the national sales manager, he massively shifted. And he was like, “Hey, Will, I'm so excited that you're starting in the company. I'm really proud of you. I've always wanted to start a business, but I've never had the… I've never had the nuts to do it myself. We're all dead happy for you.” And I was like, “You've got any feedback for me?” Because this was a shock. We'd gone from this relationship of them basically telling me off all the time, even though I thought I was doing the right thing, I was hitting my target. My customers liked me. And I said, “What feedback have you got?” And he's like, “Just be a little bit more open and allow a bit more of conversation about when we're engaging with you. Don't take things personally.”

Will Barron:

Now, if he would've maybe had been a better manager and told me this three years prior so I could've actioned it, that would've helped me. If I'd been less stubborn and thick and seen it coming and had more self-awareness, I would've had a better relationship with them. But all my stresses in that last sales job with the internal politics of sales management, sales leadership being on my back, the things that didn't exist, because I was always hitting target and my customers were always happy. And so I engineered this problem into myself and I would've never had career progression in that company because the layer above me thought I was a great salesperson… I'm assuming they thought I was a great salesperson, but they didn't think I was the… They didn't think I was leadership material because, again, I didn't have that ability to look inside, see what the problem was, and make shifts on it. So, I've talked about this on the podcast before, but I think that's so valuable to just to have this understanding that, especially in sales, you've got internal stakeholders and they're just as important as your external ones aren't they?

Rob Barnett:

It's amazing it is. And you know, it's this tiny little mistakes that may or may not have happened in actuality that are perceived to be great offences. But if they're never discussed, they can create the end of a job. I wrote about this in the book. There was a time when I had to send a message to my boss, and I had a longstanding relationship with the manager above her. It's an old friend. We're all friendly, right? So, when I sent the message, I sent it to my boss and I copied the big boss. Well, like you said, it was maybe only about a year or two later that I found out this person was hating me. They were hating me because they thought that I was trying to do some kind of backstabbing kind of thing. There was no ill will in what I did. It was just a mistake. It was a mistake. Well, I definitely shouldn't have done it. It ended up getting me fired.

Rob Barnett:

But it was that small thing that, left out of conversation, turns into something much, much bigger. So, the last point on it is, if you're working for a manager that's been terrible at giving you feedback, if you know you should have had an annual review and it's been a year and four months and you never have the review, I think we all have to ask management for a check-in. We have to say, “Hey, would it be possible?” No agenda. “No, I'm not leaving. I'm not quitting. I'm not bugging you for a raise. Can we just get together next Thursday? I want to just make sure I'm on track,” right? Just a check-in because that'll save you from oblivion sometimes.

Will Barron:

Yeah. And look, these people are your assets and on your side, hopefully, when you do change roles. If you leave on great terms, maybe there is references, maybe they can post on your LinkedIn page, which we didn't even get to. We didn't even get to other strategic LinkedIn stuff.

Rob Barnett:

Oh, we didn't get to that stuff.

Will Barron:

We'll have you back on in the future, Rob, to dive into all this in more detail. But even I know I've done load of deals on the back of a few quotes and references from previous customers. There's no reason why you couldn't get quotes, references, something like that from a manager that you've got a great relationship with. And look, if your sales manager puts together a quote, a 15 second video saying, “Hey, this sales rep has done this, this, and this. They're reliable. They're this, they that.” That must have massive impact if we can include this on our outreach to a potential hiring manager, is that right?

Rob Barnett:

It has a great deal of impact on future customers when they hear it not from you, but from people that have great regard for the work that you've done. It's so important. I said someplace in the book, it's easier to ask for a recommendation on LinkedIn from a great former colleague than it is to ask to borrow money, but the recommendation, which most goodhearted people are willing to give, can go a long way at making you more money. It really does. It helps tremendously. There's a lot of people that don't even use those on LinkedIn, but it's very, very important. And one last trick about it, too, since you asked, if you and I worked for somebody 10 years ago and we had a great, great successful experience, if that person writes the recommendation for you today on LinkedIn, it populates with today's date. So, it's the most current thing that anyone will see on your profile, even though the goodness happened 10 years ago.

Will Barron:

Love it. Oh, that's super practical. I enjoyed that. Rob. That's a great way to wrap up this episode. With that, mate, tell us where we can find… We've alluded to it, but tell us what we can find more about you and of course the book as well.

Rob Barnett:

Yes. Thank you. Well, all the voodoo that we do is at robbarnettmedia.com. There's a link for the book there as well. The book is called Next Job, Best Job: A Headhunter's 11 Strategies to Get Hired Now. And you can buy it everywhere that you buy a book. Either hardcover, E-book or the audio coming out of my big fat mouth.

Will Barron:

Amazing. Are you doing… Or have you done the audiobook yourself?

Rob Barnett:

Yes, sir.

Will Barron:

I love it. Well, congratulations, because I hate getting a book, especially someone as charismatic and as entertaining as yourself, and you get it an audiobook and then it's some professional speaker who you've not really got that relationship with. So, that'll be amazing. I'll check out the audiobook as well myself. And with that, Rob, I want to thank you for your time, your insights. [inaudible 00:46:05] just mention the show notes over at salesman.org. And I want to thank you again for joining us on the Salesman Podcast.

Rob Barnett:

Thank you so much, Will, it's really great to talk to you.

A good sales pitch makes all the difference between a failed deal and a closed deal. That's why it's such a massive part of the selling process.

A sales pitch is your attempt at selling your product or service. It should ideally be a persuasive and engaging speech that communicates the value of your offering and encourages the customer to put down their money.

But what makes an effective, winning sales pitch is the million-dollar question.

This Salesman.org article will dive into the fundamentals of a sales pitch and discuss the best sales pitch examples and tips to set up sales reps for selling success.

A sales pitch is a super brief sales presentation explaining how your business will benefit the prospect. It should be compelling enough to convince the prospect about your product's superiority and persuade them to engage in business with you.

A good sales pitch can be anything—a script you go through on a call, a traditional presentation in front of decision-makers, or a two-minute elevator speech for networking opportunities.

The idea behind delivering a sales pitch is to connect with potential buyers. While every salesperson needs to be unique to make an impact, all the best sales pitch examples has three main components.

Your hook should capture your prospect's attention, whether it's your email subject or the opening line of your cold call. Think strong, impactful, and attention-grabbing.

A strong hook is fundamental for a sales reps pitch because if you don't have the attention of the prospect, how are you going to influence them?

Here are a few ideas for writing the perfect hook for your sales pitch:

The context of your sales pitch gives the prospect an enticing value proposition. After delivering a hook that gets the prospect's attention, tell them why you've contacted them and explain what your product can do for them.

Here are a few essential context tips:

Add a clear next step the prospect can take to close your sales pitch. For example, include a strong call to action that pushes the prospect to do what you want them to do, such as calling you back or responding with availability.

Often if you've covered the bases and kept your sales pitch short, focused on the prospect rather than your own sales process and you've generated social proof, then the CTA is seamless.

Below are a few examples you can use:

Securing high-quality leads is hard work, but converting those hard-earned leads into a closed sale is even more challenging. To make your sales job slightly more straightforward, here are the five best sales pitch tips that effectively convey value and get you from successful sales pitch to commission bonus in your pocket. .

Concise and direct sales pitches are more effective than a long, draggy ramble for many reasons.

The prospect is more likely to listen to your whole pitch if you highlight and explain 2-3 key product features instead of a summary of everything your product can do. Also, you get your point across faster and more efficiently, allowing you to take the sales conversation forward with the prospect.

Remember, the prospect is only interested in what your product can do for them. So put the spotlight on precisely that.

“Hey, we can lower your distribution costs. Let me know who to talk to. ” 

That's it. That's what Adam Goldstein, CEO and co-founder of Hipmunk (now Concur Hipmunk), pitched to the CEO of United Airlines and got a response within 15 minutes.

This business sales pitch example shows you only need the right words—no matter how few—to make an impact.

Facts tell, but stories sell. That's why compelling storytelling is such a vast foundation of your sales pitch.

Use the power of storytelling in your pitches to single out your product from your competitors. Instead of reading out specifications, set a narrative around your product and service and tell your story.

“In 2012, one single belief brought LISNR's founders together: ultrasonic audio is better. These individuals understood the growing need for a device- and platform-independent solution for sending short communication back and forth at the software level. They believed that companies shouldn't have to spend on costly hardware or processes to drive more friction-less and connected experiences.”

LISNR uses its origin story to set a narrative and covers two critical aspects:

It provides customers more context to the product. It gets them on board that doing business with LISNR will not only solve their pain points (costly hardware and stunted processes) but also contribute to a greater mission and belief system.

Sales professionals often make the common mistake of focusing their sales pitch around the product or service instead of the prospect. Yes, you want to prove your product's superiority, but from the prospect's perspective.

Make your sales pitch relevant to your target audience by highlighting the benefits of your product from their context. Address their pain points and explain how your product or service can solve them.

“G2 is the user-voice platform for people to be able to say how they actually think about the software, and not be told by the analysts, people who don't use it, or the reference from your best customers. You're actually hearing directly from the user and engaging with people who actually use the product.”

This sales pitch highlights how the platform can benefit the user and solve a significant pain point: the disconnection between what customers need and what they get. Notice how the pitch excellently expands on the most significant benefit it provides customers—information from real, genuine users—and is still super short.

Your prospect has probably heard hundreds of sales pitches filled with bold claims. But, unfortunately, these claims start to sound far-fetched after a while, especially if the prospect has made purchases that didn't pay off.

You don't want your pitch to add to the numbers.

Back your sales pitch up with statistics, case studies, and data to provide credibility to your pitch. Even better if you can visualize as many elements as possible, especially data and stats. When writing your sales script, talk around stats to give more context and details. This will help make the prospect feel they're making the right decision.

Take a look at a slide from Zoura's sales deck.

Zoura provides solutions for businesses to launch and manage their subscription-based services. It's also the leading force behind the subscription economy.

Coming back to the slide, instead of claiming that the subscription economy is the future, Tzuo uses eye-opening data points that allow the prospect to draw their own conclusions: the subscription economy is the future.

Using stats and case studies in your pitches tells the prospect you're not making empty claims. In addition, it lends the conversation credibility, improving your chances of closing the deal.

Good sales pitches are all about the customers. But this isn't something that can be achieved through a formal monologue.

Your pitch should start a two-way dialogue between you and your prospect. You want to pique interest, trigger emotions, and make them see your value. Even better if you can spark sympathy and compel the prospect to buy your product or service.

The WOW, HOW, NOW framework is a very straightforward approach established by Brian Walter, a renowned speaker coach. It goes something like this:

Your sales pitch should help you take the sales conversation forward and build solid relationships with prospects. We hope the over tips and examples help you draft the perfect sales pitch to help you win more deals.

Follow the Salesman.org podcast to learn more about how industry leaders pitch their offerings and improve their win rate.

On this week in sales we’ll be looking at; AI on video calls, revenue operation platforms, answering your questions and much more!

The Emergence Of The Revenue Operations Platform

Revenue Operations – they are generally trying to describe a better way to manage the people, process, and technology of growth.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephendiorio/2021/12/13/the-emergence-of-the-revenue-operations-platform/?sh=b00f83f7aaf2

Unique closes $6M seed for its AI-driven video calls platform aimed at sales teams

Unique, a video calls platform that uses AI to teach sales teams how to improve their pitches, has closed a $6 million seed round from a bunch of angel investors. These include Philipp Stauffer (U.S based founder and general partner of Fyrfly Venture Partners) and Daniel Gutenberg.

Unique uses AI to analyse customer conversations. The video recordings of these then help sales people work out which parts of their pitch work best.

https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/13/unique-closes-6m-seed-for-its-ai-driven-video-calls-platform-aimed-at-sales-teams/

Sales Automation: The Puzzle of Reducing Salespersons’ Workload While Maximizing Profits

The sales automation process has 7 stages:

https://ceoworld.biz/2021/12/11/sales-automation-the-puzzle-of-reducing-salespersons-workload-while-maximizing-profits/

Sales Talent highlights the dangers of long-term working from home for salespeople’s mental health

Paul Owen, CEO of UK sales transformation specialist Sales Talent, has raised concerns around the lack of attention being paid to this.

“The problem is rarely immediately obvious but, over time, I have serious concerns about the mental wellbeing of work-from-home salespeople. We are extroverts, we feed off interaction with other people – a type of interaction we often don’t receive from prospective clients, so need to find elsewhere. In the office, we have plenty of places to feed the extrovert’s need for connection; at home, we’re alone. Very alone. And that can be very dangerous.”

Owen explains the conundrum at the heart of a salesperson’s DNA, saying that most people come into sales because they get on well with others, giving them a high sociability factor. Most good salespeople connect well with 90%+ of people they meet, often 95%+. However, when they start in sales, they fail for much of the time and that 90% is reversed: they might not be disliked by 90%+ of those they meet, but they are usually rejected by them.

https://www.newsanyway.com/2021/12/15/sales-talent-highlights-the-dangers-of-long-term-working-from-home-for-salespeoples-mental-health/

Effective selling goes beyond mastering Excel spreadsheets or knowing how to use the latest sales software. Technology can never replace sales skilld. That’s why you must be in tune with your soft and hard selling skills.

Many studies and books have attempted to identify what makes a good sales web, but there are no conclusive findings yet. So, having interviewed some of the most prominent names in sales and my own experience, I’ve listed some of the most critical skills for sales executives.

You can get some sales skills from on the job training, other important sales skills require an online course or other training instead. But everything listed in this post is achiveble for the average sales representative and they'll help you become a successful salesperson.

We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, so let’s get started!

Soft skills are informal abilities you learn over the course of your sales career. Generally, it indicates your attitude in performing common sales-related tasks and connecting with other people.

Communication skills serve as the foundation of building meaningful relationships with both potential new and existing customers. It allows you to set expectations and tactfully discuss your prospect’s pain points and position your offering as the superior solution.

What’s more, communication here goes beyond speaking clearly. It also involves:

If you’ve been following our blog, you’ll know I‘m a big advocate for using storytelling to get more deals.

Story telling isn't just underrated, it's one of the most important sales skills out there. You'll leverage story telling everywhere from a job interview to strategic prospecting with your biggest opportunities.

Selling isn’t just about discussing product features. You must also convince customers these features will solve their problems and benefit them by generating more money or improving processes.

Here, a good tip is to tell a story that deeply resonates with your target audience. This will help you supercharge your communication and guarantee your message meets its target. Moreover, compelling storytelling doesn’t only help with face-to-face conversations but also ensures your emails get opened and replied to.

Great sales reps have to gather and work through an ocean of data. But simply having access to the data won’t get you anywhere—you also need critical thinking skills to process the information, analyze disparate data, and identify relevant bits of data from the heap.

Knowing how to effectively negotiate and zero on terms that make both you and the prospect happy is a crucial selling skill. It’ll also help you overcome objections during negotiations and develop creative solutions to take your deal towards completion.

Aim to create an environment where your prospect and you can set mutual expectations and benefits.

You’ll always be under the pressure of closing more deals faster. To ensure you always meet your sales quotas, you have to master the art of managing your time wisely.

And while this may look very obvious, many sales reps fail to make the most of their time. Case in point: sales reps spend nearly two-thirds of their time doing non-revenue generating activities.

Try to be as efficient and productive as you can. I highly recommend using sophisticated CRMs like HubSpot to monitor key activity metrics and better manage your schedule. Trust me; you’ll see immediate results.

Hard skills are technical and formal abilities you learn from academic institutions, seminars, training courses, and workplaces. Role-critical skills specialized for carrying out a specific function also fall under this category.

In addition to knowing how to speak concisely and clearly, you should also know when to shut up.

Listening is equally essential in sales, as it helps help you understand:

Knowing this information will help you successfully execute other stages in the sales process, such as lead qualification and customer-solution matching.

The best sales professionals know everything they can about the product or service they sell—how it works, the business value it offers, how it compares to competitors, and why it appeals to their target audience.

This will help you write better sales pitches, as well as prepare for every question, objection, or comment a prospect makes. Interestingly, having in-depth knowledge and expertise of the product is what separates the top 1% of sales reps from the rest.

Study your product in detail and understand the market trends so you know what your prospect wants, like the back of your hand. Go through product marketing collaterals extensively, sign up for training courses, and ask questions to your superiors and other sales reps.

Giving excellent sales demos and presentations conveys subject mastery and makes it more likely for the prospect to trust you.

That’s why you should familiarize yourself with popular presentation software tools, such as PowerPoint, Keynote, Prezi, to make good sales presentations. Work on your presentation and public speaking skills while you’re at it for the best results.

As a sales professional, you should know how to use popular platforms, software, and tools your organization and competitors use to engage customers and streamline workflows.

Learn how to take advantage of various sales tools and sales enablement solutions, whether it’s a CRM, a workplace productivity app, a document management software, or a call intelligence tool. This will simplify the selling process and make it more profitable.

Now, you don’t have to be an expert at using sales technology. But you know enough to get the job done quickly.

Social selling is more important than ever. We live in a technology-first world today, where social media is turning out to be the most critical tool for sales reps.

Use it to oversee your organization’s (and yours) online presence. Implement social media best practices and tricks to engage with prospects on popular social media platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter—or any other network—that can help bolster your lead generation and sales conversion efforts.

Social selling can also be helpful to understand and build better relationships with your prospects.

Here are a few more sales skills to ensure your long-standing success.

Developing an ambitious and self-motivated mindset will help you work better under pressure, take rejection gracefully, and beat expectations.

Sales is a highly dynamic niche. Customer demographics, tools and technology, customer preferences—everything is changing at an extraordinary speed, and you need to be at the top of it all to succeed.

When you’re adaptable, you can easily sail these currents of change easily. Unfortunately, sales professionals that lack a flexible mindset find meeting their quotas a lot harder.

There will always be an ambitious, attainable goal to be reached in sales. Having a goal-oriented outlook will make sure you focus your attention and efforts on achieving—even surpassing—the target.

Some of us are born with extraordinary selling abilities. Those who aren’t can put in a little effort and learn these qualities to get on the same level.

After all, great sales professionals aren’t just born—they can also be made. Start small by improving your communication and listening abilities, and eventually, you can sign up for sales courses to iron out the technicalities of your sales job.

Watch our free sales training webinar and get a head-start in your pursuit to become better at selling.

James Palmer is the Regional Vice President of Sales, NEMEA at Seismic. On this episode of the Salesman Podcast, James Palmer explains the steps to making your sales outreach more personalized, whilst at the same time sending more of it. Is that even possible?

Will Barron:

This episode of the show is brought to you from the Salesman.org HubSpot Studio. Coming up on today's episode of this Sales Man Podcast.

James Palmer:

We, as B2B organisations are creating more content than ever. And the buyers that we serve are getting absolutely bombarded with this stuff.

James Palmer:

Something that has been a huge black hole for go-to market teams has been insight into this, the performance of content. So which content resonates in this geography, which content resonates in this industry.

James Palmer:

Salespeople think that marketing are the mugs and t-shirt department and that the content they come out with is very aspirational. And doesn't really speak to what salespeople see on the ground.

Will Barron:

Hello Sales H. My name is Will Barron, I'm the host of the Salesman podcast, world's most downloaded B2B sales show. In today's episode, we have an absolute legend. We have James Palmer. He is the regional VP of Sales, NEMEA over at Seismic.com. And on today's episode, we're getting into how you can personalise your outreach, make it more effective, your B2B sales outreach, and do it at scale. And we cover topics here that we've never covered on the show before. We're talking data, sales enablements, how to do this properly in the modern way, as opposed to just sending more and more spam emails. Everything that we talk about in this episode is available in the show notes over at Salesman.org. And with that said, let's jump right into it.

Will Barron:

James, welcome to the Salesman podcast.

James Palmer:

Thanks Will. Thanks for having me, I'm very much looking forward to chatting.

Will Barron:

I'm looking forward to chatting with you as well, Sir. And on today's episode, it's a topic that we've somewhat covered but I don't feel we've ever got to the bottom of it. So I'm hoping you can give us some insights and share your expertise here. We're going to touch on how to personalise your B2B outreach at scale. Now, let me ask you this, James, and this is a difficult question to get us started off with. But is this not a little bit of a paradox in that, to do anything at scale, surely we have to reduce the personalization that we need to be able to get it out in the hundred or thousand of contact points over the months or years that we're prospecting.

James Palmer:

Yeah. No, I definitely get the paradoxical nature of the question and I think my answer is going to be that it certainly is possible and actually pretty imperative that we do get this right. I think the world that we live in at the moment, we, as B2B organisations are creating more content than ever. And the buyers that we serve are getting absolutely bombarded with this stuff. So if you don't have the ability to personalise and personalise at scale, you're going to be lost in the noise. You're going to be disregarded. You're going to be in choppy waters and this has only really been amplified by the year that we've just had. We've had probably the salesman's favourite channel removed. We can't go and meet our customers and build a personal connection and discuss things in that format.

James Palmer:

So the importance of content has only gone up. But that being said, I don't think everyone is getting this right. I think a loss of the content that we, as sellers are sending to buyers is just disregarded and not on point. So yeah, it's absolutely imperative we get this right. To touch on the, is this a paradox angle of your question. I think this is really interesting. I think most of the best sales people I've ever worked with are very good at being appropriate to a given situation. So they'll understand who they're talking to. They'll understand maybe the correct, they'll correctly identify the sales stage this is at or the stage that the buyer is in their cycle. They'll understand the industry they're in, they'll understand all of these things and they'll provide content that's really appropriate to that given situation.

James Palmer:

But there's a couple of problems with that, right? So, number one, that takes a lot of time and effort, thus not scaling very easily. And secondly, not all salespeople are blessed with that high EQ, that level of experience. So the question really becomes, how can we make it easier to personalise without the constraints of using this much time and this much expertise so that more broadly, you can have more of your sellers be more effective in this way? Yeah.

Will Barron:

Are we trying to… So I agree with everything you're saying here, right. Expertise is clearly important. When you get on the phone with a seller, at some point in the buying journey, that could be make or break. If I'm buying new cameras for the studio and I speak to one salesperson, no matter how good the content is from the branding, the marketing from that organisation. If I speak to someone and they're an idiot, clearly that's going to turn me massively off on the brand and that purchase. Versus if I speak to someone who has the expertise, can answer my questions, and if they can't answer questions, has the business acumen and the appropriateness to go and say, hey, I will go and ask my boss, I'll ask the product manager, I'll ask whoever and find out the information and get back to you.

Will Barron:

That is a massive turn on. You're more likely to win my business on the back of that. So with that said, when we're trying to shortcut some of this process, when we're trying to hack some of this process, when we're trying to personalise outreach at scale, are we going the wrong way here in that, would it be more valuable for the buyer to have less contact points with more experienced salespeople versus more contact points with less experienced salespeople, with less personalization? If that makes sense. That was a long winded question to just throw at you.

James Palmer:

It was and I think the answer is going to be, it depends on what it is we're selling, where the buyer is in their journey. All of these things, the real question is how do we cut through this noise, right? So how can we be appropriate? So the content the sellers use has to be appropriate, has to hit the right note. It has to be the right piece of content for that buyer at that stage of where they're at. So that's the question is, how do we take what previously has been very reliant on a seller's expertise? How can we scale that? And so, I guess I'm not talking about mass personalization from a marketer's angle. I'm a career long sales person, I'm talking about, how can we do the good things, have those good interactions, but do them more often and spend less time and less effort to make them so. So I think that's the point that I'd probably like to focus on a little bit, because that's something I feel I can speak to reasonably knowledgeably.

Will Barron:

For sure. So tell if I'm wrong here, James, but it seems like the plan of action here is, rather than spam more nonsense emails that no one's going to open anyway, we want to spam more timely emails and we want to leverage less experience of a sales rep to say, Hey, this individual is at this part of the buying cycle. They probably want this content. And can we, am I right in saying, we can use software to realise some of that so that a less experienced salesperson can get the right tools, right media, right advertising, whatever it is in front of the right person at the right time. Is that what we're doing here? Leveraging software and tools to do some of this work, that experience would've covered in the past.

James Palmer:

Exactly. So to get to this point, what you require is insight. And I think something that has been a huge black hole for go to market teams has been sort of insight into the performance of content. So which content resonates in this geography? Which content resonates in this in industry? What content resonates for this persona? What gets the most time and attention? What is helping us advance our cause and close business? And historically there haven't been great data sets on this, but this, but this is insight is vital if you want to create a personalised experience or an engaging experience, at least. I think that it's really key that you have a way of harvesting insight to understanding what is useful for the people that we're serving. I think to have a data driven approach to content creation and the distribution of it can really help sellers become effective to be able to scale, as we just talked about, scale their expertise to have those great moments of communication, but to do it with a lot less effort and a lot less time sunk into it.

Will Barron:

For sure. So we'll perhaps touch on size back in a second, which clearly can do some of what we're describing here. I do want to get into data content. And because my experience with working with marketers at medical device sales was, they'd send us all this nonsense that I've never give to anyone because it was totally inappropriate to hand over a flyer in a meeting, so it never got used. So I won't dive into that in a second. But I guess the foundational level before this is, before we send content, how do we know where the buyer is in the buying journey? Now what I mean by this is, perhaps 20 years ago, you could cold call them and ask them where they are. But without that direct access to the buyer to call them and ask them where they're at, before we send someone something, how do we know where they are so that we can make a hypothesis of what they need?

James Palmer:

Yeah. Good point. So there are obviously some manual ways of doing this like you've just alluded to, like talking to them. Wouldn't that be fabulous if you could have a conversation and it would be just laid out for you like that? But there is this, some softer signals, content engagement. How are they engaging with your content? What content are they engaging with? There's a lot that can be divined from understanding what people are engaging with what content, and that will tell you a lot about where they are in a buying cycle and actually inform you of how you should be speaking to them, how you can help them, how you can best serve their buying process.

Will Barron:

So this is something… I'm going to be slightly selfish here. I'm going to perhaps twist the conversation towards more of implementation as opposed to individual sales contributor, what they're going to do with this. And we'll flip bit back to the [inaudible 00:11:16] in a second. This is something I'm intrigued about with our content marketing over at salesman.org for our training programme. So am I right in saying, I think what you're outlining here, but I want to hear it from yourself in case I'm totally wrong is, we don't just need a sales funnel, which is getting, it's crushed further and further towards the end of the buying funnel or buying journey.

Will Barron:

What we need is some kind of content funnel so that we can see via different tracking methods, using email gated kind of content. We can see where people are pinging and so we can judge where they are throughout the buying cycle. So am I right in saying that we need perhaps open-ended, broad industry content at one end so we get in the middle of the funnel, so in towards end of the funnel, which pushes people towards a sales call, and then when a individual goes from one to two to three, if we can use software to track that, that's when we know that we should be engaging with them. Am I on the right track Sir?

You're definitely down the right tracks. So going back to a comment you made earlier, I think time memorial, definitely the 20 years I've been in software sales or, well, yeah, software sales. Salespeople think that marketing are the mugs and t-shirt department and that the content they come out with is very aspirational and doesn't really speak to what salespeople see on the ground. And marketing probably think that most people are mouth breathing the [endethols 00:12:39] and want to use the same content they've been using for the last five years and that sales turn up and demand content because of the deal they're working on right here right now, so they want some [upskill 00:12:51] piece of content.

James Palmer:

So there's this slight disconnect. And I think that disconnect can also be tracked back to the fact there aren't good sets of data to tell you which of your content is performing. So marketing have got no way to say, listen, we're spending our time building out this content and it's valuable. There's no real way to say that. And there's no real way for sales to say, we know which is the right content for this specific situation. So what we're talking about here is building this loop where, not only can you see what content is being sent out, but you can also understand in much more specific detail when your buyer gets this content, how are they engaging with it? Which pages, which sections, where are they spending their time? And if you're able to have a feedback look for that content, then all of a sudden that begins to answer some of the really massive problems that go to market teams have.

James Palmer:

Marketing do create all of this content. And depending on whose data you look at, somewhere between 65% and 90% of it never gets used by sales. What a black hole of time and money and effort. It's a huge, huge problem. Similarly, sales people will send out content into the black hole and not really know… I mean, the most they can usually hope for is, did someone open it? You can have spent five hours building a proposal and only the pricing page gets read. If only we had some data to tell us they only ever read the pricing page, why did I spend five hours on all of this other stuff at this stage, in the cycle? They only ever read the price. Why did I spend this five hours building this proposal times, however many deal cycles you're in? It's a huge waste of time and there's no feedback for sales.

James Palmer:

So the data that you can get back from content, how people are engaging with your content has huge benefits, both on the micro and the macro level. On the micro level, as a salesperson, I can send content out to my prospect and know, do you know what? I sent them a technical white paper and I sent them a case study. They hugely engaged with the white paper, probably the next conversation we're going to have, I need to make sure we've got a technical architect and we're going to gear up for the right phone call. We're going to gear up with the right information. They didn't even open the case studies. They're not at that stage yet. They're not ready to… The final stage of a sales cycle where perhaps case studies become more interesting.

James Palmer:

So on the micro level, you, as a salesperson can get direct feedback from content to tell you, inform you the next best action should be, we should be thinking about this type of thing. On a macro level, as a marketing team, you can amalgamate all of this and say, this piece of content that we produced has been involved in 75% of our sales cycles. This is helping us close business. I can attribute real, honest to goodness, closed one business to this content. Similarly, these five pieces of content haven't been looked at for a year. Why are we spending cycles? Why are we spending cycles on updating this and maintaining this? The sales team either don't use it for good reasons or people don't read it for good reasons. So we either need to get rid of it or update it or do something. But we've got some data now to allow us to make great decisions.

Will Barron:

Let's do things that come from this, James and you're changing my paradigm with some of this content. Because it seems like we could create content specifically to generate insights. We could just do an FAQ document that has all the objections that we would usually face. And if everyone is skipping past the first four objections, we probably know that they're not that valid. They're probably not that big of a deal. And if they stick on page five, which is the pricing objection or whatever it is, the most common one, we know that we need to then feed that back into the content at the top of the funnel and try and alleviate that objection or bring it up ahead of time. Seems like we can create content to generate insights that are useful as opposed to, did someone use this or not. It seems like we get more complicated than this if we chose to.

James Palmer:

Oh, you can get really great insight from your content, that both informs your future content strategy and helps you with your day to day execution. Both. It's very much seller and marketing aligning and enabling.

Will Barron:

Yeah. And because if you ask a buyer on a call, we've got these commonly asked questions, yada, yada. One, they're going to be switched off immediately as you say that. Two, they're going to have the guard up at somewhat, depending on the level of trust that you've built with them, because they don't want to just give their information away. And I guess this is slightly weird and maybe we can touch on this in a second but, if they don't realise they're being tracked, which they should assume that they're being tracked, everyone should assume that everything you do on this, that it's being tracked at all times. But if they don't make that realisation, if they're doing this in their own time, they're probably going to give you more accurate feedback via the content than if you've got an engagement and interaction between two people, is that fair to say?

James Palmer:

A hundred percent. And I think both implicit and explicit. And so what I mean by that, they will explicitly tell you the things they're interested in by what they spend their time on. So previous example of the section A, they spend all of their time on this, they didn't bother with the other stuff. But implicitly as well. So salespeople are managing a prospect, five prospects, ten prospects, however many, and you'll be coming to the end of a quarter. And you'll have a forecast that you're committing to. The people that are engaging with your content regularly, they're sending it to other people, they're spending time on it. These are the people that, implied, these are the people who are going to buy from you. These are the people that are serious, that are actually going to… are doing the things they said they were going to do. If you've got ten prospects, the four that are really engaging with your content in the final stage of a sales cycle are the ones that you should be forecasting. You can definitely take some implied learnings from how people are engaging with your content.

Will Barron:

Whether it's seismic coin over tool, is there a way to pull, call it different things by different companies, right? But buyer readiness or likeliness to buy, can we get a score that could go into the CRM on the back of the content that's being consumed of? We know that people have done this, this, and this will make a purchase. And we know that in your funnel, there's 12 people that is in that stage right now. So we can predict some of this, whether it's AI or machine learning.

James Palmer:

Yeah. So further down the funnel… Up the funnel, down the funnel. Up the funnel, the wide open bit that marketing deal with. There's a bunch of technologies that obviously, and processes that's exactly what marketing are trying to do all the time, they're trying to score leads. As people enter the sales funnel, you're talking about exactly the Nirvana, right. It's a case of, if you combine some of the data we're talking about with perhaps some of your CRM data, so who actually bought, and when they bought and things like this. You can begin to score your content to say, if you send this case study out at stage two of your sales cycle to people in this region or this persona, you're 5% more likely to close your deal. You can actually get to the point where you're able to advise your sales team on what content is helping close business and is statistically more likely to help them close business?

Will Barron:

For sure. because that's valuable, not just for salespeople, right? It's probably even less valuable for salespeople than it is sales leadership, who have to collect this at scale and then report up the food chain as well. If they can say, Hey, last year we were at this place with this amount of content, with this many leads. Now we're at the same place with arguably or provable more effective content and more leads then people are going to be getting, throwing bonuses around. Aren't they?

James Palmer:

Yeah. And genuinely, we have customers who, once you've got some data flowing back on how your content's been used both internally and externally. We've had customers switch off 70% of their content and not receive a phone call from salespeople complaining because they know this stuff is obsolete or ineffective and they've just been spending huge cycles updating it, for no other reason than, they had no way of being able to stack rank their content and understand what was the most effective. So yeah, I think to segue for a second into a slightly wishy washy, personal opinion, I think all salespeople start out on a spectrum somewhere of they're either process-oriented people or they're people-oriented people. And then over a period of time, if you want to be good at sales, if you want to stay in sales as a career, you learn enough about the other end of the spectrum to be good at your job. Right.

James Palmer:

But I start out with the people and I like people, I like understanding, I enjoy that we're all different. I like understanding how we can work together to do something clever or good or make a difference. And so data from me in sales, a lot of it is very focused on the process end of the spectrum, right? How much pipeline do you have? We know that we want four times whatever your target is to be able to hit that. How many deals do we have at this opportunity stage? How many calls did you make this week? How many meetings did you have this week? Lots of it is very focused on managing people and process and that kind of thing. The reason why I personally like this data set, this data driven approach to content is because it really speaks to how can we do a good job for the people we're serving? What content is going to be really effective for them? What can… We're almost giving them advice. We're saying people in your situation-

Will Barron:

I don't think we almost. We are literally consulting with the way you're describing, which is really valuable.

James Palmer:

Yeah, exactly. We're saying, we happen to know, not just gut instinct but we actually do know that other of our customers in your situation, whether that situation be geography or persona or sales cycle stage, whatever it might be, we know that they found this kind of stuff effective and useful. So have this, we'll tailor it towards you and yeah, let us know what you think. And you'll let us know what you think both by inviting us into your sales process, but also you'll let us know what you think by how you consume that content. And that will keep feeding our approach, right?

Will Barron:

Sure. I love this because this goes layers and layers deeper of then when you intertwine like a gong or a [chorister 00:25:03] AI, and you go, oh, this report, this data points, this objection is coming up over and over and over again. Then you can create content. You're not just relying on sales people to feed it back, you can then rely on the buyer and conversations to feed back into all this. And I've said this on the podcast hundreds of times now, at some point, all this is going to be so automated that there's just going to be a human shaking hands over… No human at the end of it, both the buying and the selling process, it has to be. It's going to get so effective, it's going to get so nailed down that a bot is going to be able to add so much value at the top of the sales process, with content, with what we're describing, that salespeople who are just pushing round paper will just be obliterated.

Will Barron:

But with that said, James, you said something here, you key that anecdote with it being wishy washy, whether process, people. And I want to add a layer of data to that from ourselves. So over at salesman.org, we've had thousands of people go through our sales code assessment and 50% of the people who go through it have no defined sales process. So that number shocks me, these individuals who are paying for a training product most of this didn't include our enterprise clients. This is most people paying for a training product out their own money in their own pocket. So they're keen, they're clearly open to the idea of learning and developing. They're not just some sales person who's not done any work on themselves and no training in the past 20 years and they're just sat on their job, waiting to get sacked. These are productive individuals.

Will Barron:

50% of them don't have a sales process. And we know I won't quote the numbers because I'm not sure off the top of my head, but it's like 90% of individuals who have, if not more, nice fit of individuals who are successful and earn over a certain category within our assessment. Salary wise and commission wise and hit targets regularly, all have a sales process. So clearly sales process is incredibly important. 50% of the people who take the sales code assessment don't have a defined process.

Will Barron:

And what we're describing here, James, seemingly it falls apart if there's not a sales process, at least in the background that's being run through. Because if we're just sending random bits of content at random times, it's very difficult to pull that data and to make it relevant then of, if I've got a piece of content that marketing wants me to send towards the end of the sales process and I send it at the beginning, well, the metrics are going to get tanked, that it's no engagement, no one's viewing it, there's no consumption of the content. Whereas if it's put at the end of the sales process, it's going to do really good because that's what we've designed it for. So with that said, then James, how much of all of what we're talking about comes back to sales fundamentals of having a defined sales process?

James Palmer:

I mean, like I said to you, I start out with the people end of the spectrum. But after 20 years of doing this, you come to realise that, however great you think you are in any given situation, if there isn't a process to make sure you do the good things repeatedly and in a systematic way, then you're only ever going to be marginally successful or occasionally successful. To be repeatedly successful, it has to be underpinned by a process. And I think, what I'm advocating for here is not complete content automation because in the end we are humans dealing with humans and you need some flexibility to be able to make choices, to react to situations that you see yourself in. So we're not at the point where the bots are taking over vision of the future. We're definitely not at that point.

James Palmer:

But we can definitely give salespeople a pallet of good choices and promote to them what has been successful before and do so at relevant stages of a sales cycle, but it is all underpinned by sales cycle. It's all underpinned by sales fundamentals. If you can't do good discovery and qualification, then how can you really understand what the best content to providers? There's some off signals that you can pick up but in the end, you've got to understand what stage of a sales cycle am I at? What are the best things to be doing? What are the appropriate things to be doing at this stage of a sales cycle? Matching those up and then providing content, but with some extra insight, right? So not only can we be better consultative salespeople because we know this content has really resonated with people like you, but we can also get that informal feedback as people view it and read it. This was a good fit. They did get value from this. This thing over here, swinging a mess, not for them, wasn't important. Move along.

Will Barron:

So let's rev up the show here, James, getting real practical for the audience. The quota carrying… As I would describe, even myself, quota carrying, knuckle dragon salesperson who doesn't have the budget to buy tens of thousands of dollars a month's worth of sales enablement software. Now the answer to this question might be to drop you a message on LinkedIn and introduce the sales management or marketing leadership so they can buy a product or service that does some of this for them. But for anyone that… And that's a fair answer if that is the case, but for someone who doesn't have the software in place, perhaps they have somewhat of a sales process at the back of their mind. Perhaps they have some kind of support from marketing, but they're not leading these initiatives. What can an individual salesperson do to implement some of what we're talking about to find out whether, what they're sending out is effective or not?

James Palmer:

Yeah. I think if I go back to something I said earlier, the best sales people I've worked with are very good at this. They just do it in a much more manual way, right? So it's having an idea that content is not one size fits all. Having an idea that, if you don't tailor this content, people are simply not going to… There's mounds of statistic that tell you people are not going to engage with it. So people spend the time tailoring your content, realise that content is trial and error. What works for one might not work for another, but look for some feedback, was that the right content for you? What other areas am I, what are we missing here? What could I be providing for you?

James Palmer:

Ask the questions, don't just think I'm going to send one piece of content and good luck with that. Ask for some feedback on it, because that will help you manually do what I've been talking about today. That's what the best salespeople that I've worked with have done throughout their careers is, assess the situation, ask good questions and react accordingly. The suggestion here is that the content that you send is part of that acting accordingly. Tailor it and send something that's going to resonate and work.

Will Barron:

For sure. So to just go back to the premise that we started the show with James, of personalising our B2B outreach at scale. I think what we're saying here, I don't want to put words in your mouth, you tell me if I'm wrong. What we're saying here is to test, have a hypothesis, have a process laid out in front of you. Test a piece of content at different parts of the process, different piece of content. Engage and suss out what works, what doesn't. And then we're looking for patterns. Aren't we? This allows us to scale. If we see that this piece of content, it should… Buyers are all over it to the same point of the process that then solves at scale. The email that we send when the buyer reaches out to us, when the buyer's asking about pricing, when the buyer does one, two or three things. Is that how we scale all this by working out through trial and error, through AB testing, through having a hypothesis and using the scientific method, we are looking for patterns. Is that how we scale all of this?

James Palmer:

It is. I think you mentioned medical device, the medical device sales industry. We're a medical device company, we build whatever machines, they're in hospitals all over the place. And a couple of years before they get end of life be, we need to send them a letter saying, your machine's going to be end of life. So you send them a letter and probably the data you're going to get back on that is no one really reads it or someone opens it once and never looks at it. But at that stage, they're a customer. They're somewhere between happy and not happy, but they're a customer.

James Palmer:

And what if we were to send an end of life letter, but we were to send them some content that showed them what their options might be for the upgrade, right? And we built that in, and now we send that along and we see that the engagement with that content is vastly different to a static letter that's telling them in a legal way, two years from now, your machine's going to end of life and we've got some other options for you. Please call us. How about we seed that with some content. And then we look at the engagement rates on that, and you'll probably find there's going to be a vast difference. That's a massive oversimplification. I know, but it is exactly exactly what we've been talking about.

Will Barron:

I don't think you're oversimplifying. The last company I worked for, multi billion dollar privately owned, family owned company. We did nothing like that ever. It was, Hey, let me just check the serial number on this box that's in the theatre, it looks a bit old. Then you'd call the office and go, Hey, this has been out of use of seven years. Why are they still using it? And then you would engage in the conversation.

James Palmer:

You should probably have a newer one of these for a whole host of reasons. But yeah.

Will Barron:

Yeah. The cobwebs inside, it's a part of the issue here. And I've been in some places, I can't see too much, because I don't want to be [could 00:34:56] again, liable for what I say, but I may or may not, allegedly have been in places where medical devices have literally smelt, they've been on fire because they've not been maintained. And some of the devices that I may or may not have allegedly worked with in the past, they use really high power bulbs to get light inside the patient. Now it's all switched to LEDs, I believe, but they were using incandescent bulbs to do this. And you could smell the fact and it's just because they hadn't been used in years. They'd be wheeled in an emergency and there was dust on the bulb. That's an instant fire hazard. Last thing you want when a patient is on the table is a fire on the camera system that's allowing you to see what you're going on inside the patient itself.

Will Barron:

And so I've had these conversations and it was because, and I'm doubling down on your point here because I don't think it's an oversimplification. An automated sequence like that, which can be done super easy with software, whatever that software is, would hopefully generate new business, but could add value to the buyer in that it's just a prompt to them that some of these things need to be looked at, updated, changed, and obviously then it restarts a conversation with you, without you having to call, call, pester, annoy individuals. And so that can, depending on the market size, whether you're in account management, as opposed to hunting for new business, that could give you an uptake of 10%, 20%, 30%, depending on the demographic of the people that you're engaging with, just by one simple automated email. So I think that's really valuable in its own right.

James Palmer:

Yeah. And you know, we've personalised some content not based on the doctor's name or whether he likes or she likes golf. We've personalised content based on people that are two years out from the end of life of this product. Here are the kind of things that they should be or will be thinking about. Let's provide them with the kind information that's going to resonate with them. And one of those types of information might be in three years time, this is going to smell like it's been on fire and that's not great. So yeah, I think if you think about personalization in a sales sense, not necessarily purely a marketing sense, but what is good information for them at this stage? Then yeah, that's how you scale yourself as a good salesperson.

Will Barron:

And think of that as an email subject line to get clicks. Does your camera system smell like burning flesh or something like that? You're going to get a high click through rate on that, right?

James Palmer:

If that's in my field of responsibility, I'm probably clicking on that email.

Will Barron:

Of course. Well with that, James, tell us where we can find out more about you mate, where can we find out more about you and everything that you're up to?

James Palmer:

Yeah, I'm on LinkedIn. I work at Seismic, you mentioned a couple of times and yeah, drop me a line on LinkedIn. I'd be happy to connect and hear from anyone.

Will Barron:

Good stuff. Well I'll link to Seismic, your LinkedIn profile. Everything that we talked about in this episode in the show notes over at salesman.org. [inaudible 00:37:53] with that James. I appreciate the… Hopefully this was a conversation that was at a high level for individuals who have aspirations to get into, whether it's sales enablement, content management within the organisation, and maybe like a sales adjacent role. But I think we got real practical at the end, which is useful for anyone. Any one of us, maybe I'm including you rightly or wrongly here, but us knuckle dragging, quota carrying sales people. I think there's value there as well. So with that, mate, I want to thank you for your time, your expertise and joining us on the Salesman podcast.

James Palmer:

Thank you, Will.

The post How To Personalize Your Sales Outreach At Massive Scale appeared first on Salesman.com.

Many people don't understand what we, as sales reps do every day. They think it's all about buddying up with leads. It's delivering that final “can't say no” pitch. And it's about popping champagne corks after a successful close.

But what most don't see is all the work that sales and marketing teams put in, leading up to the deal. The prospecting. The qualifying. The endless emails, phone calls, and messages—most of which go unanswered. Making it in this industry takes salesmanship, of course. But being a sales rep requires a lot of admin work, too.

And these days, if you're handling all that admin work on your own, you're wasting valuable time you could spend selling.

Enter sales tools.

These tools let you automate that arduous legwork rather than tackling it all yourself. From gathering info on leads to taking the guesswork out of when to ask for a sales presentation, these tools help streamline your process and ultimately make you a more successful salesperson.

This guide takes a look at 5 of the best free sales tools you need to start using today.

While the old pen n' paper and Rolodex way of managing your sales process may have worked at the start of your career, things have changed. And fast.

Both sales productivity tools and sales automation tools are now critical if you want to scale your sales outreach and generate a solid sales pipeline.

These days, a sales rep needs to be quicker, smarter, and more organized than ever to meet competitive quotas. And implementing sales tools into your processes is one of the best ways to achieve all three.

But let's look at the numbers here to give you a bit of perspective.

Here's how having the right sales tools on hand can make you a more effective salesperson.

So, now that we know why sales tools help make you a more effective salesperson let's get to the best tools in the industry. All of the tools listed are free to use or can be tested out using a free trial or demo.

HubSpot's CRM is a fantastic way to keep track of leads, automate your sales flow, and make your processes easier than ever. It includes tools for sales and marketing intelligence, email marketing, live chat, templates, click-to-call functionality, and so much more.

Best of all, it's free forever.

If you're looking for sales analytics, document tracking and a sales tools to track your sales conversations, then HubSpot has you covered.

They also offer more advanced CRM tools and functionality for a price. But for a free one-stop shop for a more efficient sales process, HubSpot is a great choice for sales professionals.

Alternatives to check out: Freshworks CRM (free trial), Agile CRM (free trial)

Sales professionals waste so much of their time following up with leads that just aren't a fit. And part of the reason for that is a lack of information about the lead. So the more information you have, the better you can segment which leads are a match and which are a waste of energy.

Zoominfo is a sales intelligence tool that fills in all the missing pieces about your leads, including company and contact info. It also offers a few email and phone automation features built right into the platform.

Plus, sales reps can try out the tool for free.

Alternatives to check out: Adapt (free trial), LinkedIn Sales Navigator (free trial)

Prospecting is a huge sales reps. And the less time you waste finding your perfect leads, the more time you can spend on converting them into a satisfied customer.

Apollo.io is a prospect searcher that identifies potential leads based on the qualities you set. It searches through a global database of 200 million contacts and 10 million businesses to find a match for your business.

For instance, if you're looking for VPs of Marketing in companies that raise Series A funding within the past three months, you can set the parameters and send Apollo searching. For fast lead generation and booking sales meetings, this is killer.

It has a free trial and costs just $49 per month to upgrade.

Alternatives to check out: FindThatLead (free version), Hunter (free version)

Plenty of apps and software integrate seamlessly and allow your systems to pass data between themselves. But there are twice as many that aren't set up for that kind of cross-talk.

Zapier helps bridge this gap. It's one of the most popular automation tools available today. And it's downright essential for sales reps that want to streamline their processes by cutting down on admin work.

There's no complicated coding required. And yes, there's a free plan (with some limitations).

You can link your customer relationship management sofware, sales productivity tools and even customer data together to make scheduling meetings as quick as possible.

Alternatives to check out: Integromat (free version), Automate (free version)

No sales tool guide is complete without touching on self-improvement. Even if you do use the previous tools to automate ¾ of your tasks, your success still comes down to closing deals. And if your salesmanship is lacking, you're simply not going to reach your targets.

Wingman is a great way to analyze sales interactions and identify areas of improvement. Did you not discuss pricing at a critical point? Are you connecting with a decision-maker? Did you miss your follow-up? Wingman documents and alerts you to gaps in your processes. And with it, you can tighten up your game, reduce sales cycle length and close more sales.

Wingman offers a 7-day free trial, and it's $60 per month per rep after that. They also do plans for a full sales team with multiple team members too.

Alternatives to check out: Drift (free version), Reply (free trial)

Being successful as a sales rep is about more than delivering an irresistible pitch. There's all the tedious lead scoring. The relentless prospecting. The no-response follow-ups. The sluggish nurturing. And that all takes time to do (and lots of it).

But with the sales tools above, you can streamline your processes and automate a lot of that monotonous work. And that means you can focus less on admin and more on getting that win.

Don't wait for sales managers to give you the CRM software, marketing automation and market inteligence tools that you need to hit your quota. Get a free trial, set up your own sales stack and prove the ROI before going to your sales manager and showing them what's possible.

Your sales team (and your wallet) will thank you for it.

The post 5 Free Sales Tools: A Guide for Serious B2B Professionals appeared first on Salesman.com.

Dan Tyre is a 14-year-veteran of HubSpot, hired as employee number six, and the company’s first salesperson. On this episode of the Salesman Podcast, Dan Tyre explains, from start to finish, the entire HubSpot SaaS sales process.

Will Barron:

This episode of the show is brought to you from the salesman.org HubSpot Studio.

Will Barron:

Coming up on today's episode of The Salesman Podcast.

Dan Tyre:

There's a tonne of things we're going to talk about today that have changed. The one thing that hasn't changed is the hardest part is getting to the right people.

Dan Tyre:

If you're engaging professionally, people love it. They will respond to you. And in fact, in the classes that I teach, cohort-based training for HubSpot, the average connection is about 12%.

Dan Tyre:

The empowered buyer is they don't talk to a salesperson until they're damn good and ready. First of all, globally, about 93% to 96% of people will Google or social media something before they talk to a salesman.

Will Barron:

Hello, SalesNation. My name is Will Barron, and I'm the host of The Salesman Podcast, the world's most downloaded B2B sales show.

Will Barron:

On today's episode, we have the absolute legend, absolute legend, Dan Tyre. He was the original of HubSpot Sales Team. He is now a speaker, an author, an executive over at HubSpot. On today's episode. Dan, step by step, tells you how to prospect for new buyers in 2021 and moving forward to 2022 and beyond. Everything that we talked about in this episode is available in the show notes over at salesman.org/Dan. And with that said, let's jump right into it.

Will Barron:

Dan, welcome to The Salesman Podcast.

Dan Tyre:

Boom. I've been the waiting for this three weeks, bro, super excited. As you know, I did my research. I want to make sure I'm bringing the big energy for all of your listeners, and I'm super excited to be here.

Will Barron:

I'm glad to have you on, mate. Okay, so you kind of posed me in our pre-interview back and forth, the topic of this show. I purposefully, I've not dove into it more of it with you, I purposefully left the open-ended. So Dan, with that, get us started, mate.

Will Barron:

In your opinion or if there's facts of there's data, there's anything goes alongside this, perfect. What is the biggest hurdle that me, as a sales person, and the thousands and thousands of people are going to watch and view this over the next few weeks, those salespeople as well, what's the biggest hurdle that we have to booking meetings, getting conversations started right now?

Dan Tyre:

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. And guess what? That hasn't changed in the last 50 years. There's a tonne of things we're going to talk about today that have changed. The one thing that hasn't changed is the hardest part is getting to the right people to even have that conversation. And in 2021, hold it, no one picks up their phone, or at least that's what people say. By the way, that's not true. So in the first two and a half minutes, I've contradicted myself. Lots of people pick up the phone. You just have to do it right.

Dan Tyre:

Number two, voicemail less, it's kind of a different reason why people and how people listen to voicemail, still important, but it's a little bit different purpose. And that hurdle of getting to the right person and talking to them about how it works, visibility, connection, and intention, is the biggest challenge that virtually everybody has. It takes the longest time. It's a very refined skill.

Dan Tyre:

When I started my sales career, like salespeople did prospecting today, SDR teams, specific and focused. Make sure that everybody is doing a special part of accelerating and identifying the best output.

Will Barron:

Dan, let me just take this totally sideways for a second, then we'll come back on track. Is this, everything you just said there, can we turn this on its head? Is this a golden age for salespeople in the fact that we have LinkedIn, the buyers are visible, and then we've got email. We've got all these ways to communicate with them that we didn't have. Well, I didn't have, because I wasn't selling 20, 30 years ago.

Dan Tyre:

Yeah, of course. It's a double-edged sword. If in fact you're doing it the right way, if you are engaging professionally, people love it. They will respond to you. And in fact, in the classes that I teach, cohort-based training for HubSpot, the average connection is about 12%. After they graduate from the class, it goes between 25% and 40%, and if you're not getting 25% to 40% connections, I'm going to teach you how. Just listen for the next 17 minutes. And it may be a little loud and a lot of high energy, but I'm going to teach exactly how to do it. Because if you do it right, people love it. They're like, “Oh my goodness. Yeah. I definitely want to talk with you.”

Dan Tyre:

But it's different and you're not calling everybody and you're not cold calling. People go, “Oh, I'm not [inaudible 00:04:37].” I go, “You don't cold call?” They go, “Yes.” I always ask in my phone presentations, “Raise your hand if you Coca.” There's always three guys, they're always in the last row. Always dudes, never women. And they're like, “I cold call.” I go, “No, you don't.” They're like, “Yes, we call people that we've never met.” I'm like, “That's not cold calling.” Cold calling is using the same script calling indiscriminately 110 times a day. And do you know the conversion percentage for actual cold calling?

Will Barron:

1%, 2%, 3%?

Dan Tyre:

Yeah, it's 1.2%, which means you're wasting 99% of your time, effort, and money. It's ridiculous. Anybody who does it, they … Oh, is there anything else in business if you wasted 98% of your time, effort, and money you'd still do it? Of course not. That's the antithesis of efficiency. But people still do it. I'm like, “What you got to do is warm call.” They're like, “Ooh, what's that?” I got a famous blog article about 15 things that you can do to warm call, and that's what most people do. They just categorise it a little bit different. Outbound can be as effective as inbound.

Dan Tyre:

Now you and I were just chatting about the inbound revolution and how it was totally amazing. And I wrote a book called The Inbound Organisation, which you have in front of you, which is super cool. But I've been in sales positions and sales leadership positions 42 years. First 30 something years, it was push, push, push. Now it's help, help, help.

Dan Tyre:

In 2007, everything changed with the inbound revolution, because you had the empowered buyer. You ever heard with the empowered buyer?

Will Barron:

Yeah. I hope I am one.

Dan Tyre:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You are. You just told me a story of what you are. The empowered buyer is they don't talk to a salesperson until they're damn good and ready. First of all, globally, about 93% to 96% of people will Google or social media something before they talk to a salesperson. And I'm thinking, what are the other 6% doing? They must be walking through an airport or something like that. Of course that's what you do. Oh my goodness.

Dan Tyre:

You want to find a little bit about a background. You want to see reviews, you want to understand a little bit about the texture of what you're purchasing. That's why social media and inbound is so important. And then you only want to engage with salespeople when you're darn good and ready. And what percentage of the sales process do you think people want to go through before they actually talk to a salesperson?

Will Barron:

The numbers are all over the place, but between 70%, 80%.

Dan Tyre:

Yeah, that's right. And so it goes all the way up to 99% if you're buying a car. When you're buying a Mini, you walk into that place and you're like, “Okay, I did my research. This is what I want to pay.” And if they don't give it to you, you walk out, that's 99%. That drastically changes the process. And so now with the empowered buyer, the inbound revolution has been going on for 14 years. It started in inbound marketing. Now it's inbound sales, now it's growth. Oh my goodness. HubSpot was the spiritual leader, invented the term. But now it's in the public domain. And just like you were saying, it becomes very, very valuable. So salespeople have to morph.

Dan Tyre:

One of my main foundation is you can't do it the old way. You have to do it the new way. That means you have to warm call in a way where you're helping, not selling. And sales plus helping is shelping, I just thought that up this morning. Shelping, say it there, Will.

Will Barron:

No, because that is a terrible, terrible … I don't want that to become a thing. Definitely don't want. I was shelping people.

Dan Tyre:

I invented shmarketing. You've ever heard of shmarketing?

Will Barron:

That makes slightly more sense.

Dan Tyre:

Okay. I know, I know, a little bit more. But I'm famous for taking words and making them a more dopey word together. But shelping, or helping people, is the foundation for engagement. All right, so when you're trying to get noticed by somebody, the first thing you got to do is you've got to identify your ideal customer profile. And in the old days, you called everybody.

Dan Tyre:

When I started my sales career, I'd pick up the phone and I'd call you. I'd called somebody in Spain. I'd call somebody in New York City and I'd say the exact same thing. That doesn't fly. You got to get the data. You got to get the facts. You've got to understand where you do your best work. And you've got to limit where and who you call to where you can add the most value, where you get all excited and energised and you're being like, “No, no, no. We work with manufacturing companies in Leads, who have at least $3 million worth of revenue, that are trying to get more productivity out of their website and want to lean into e-commerce. Does that sound like you?”

Dan Tyre:

And when you focus on that particular niche, you're going to do so much better. Why are you going to do so much better if you focus, Will?

Will Barron:

You're going to do so much better when you focus because, well, it's targeted. You're having a conversation as opposed to your marketing. You're not just spamming people. You're starting an insightful conversation.

Dan Tyre:

100%. Number one, you know that industry pretty good because you talk about it every day. You know the vocabulary, you know the seasonality, you know what's going on, they know … We're just talking about my co-author, Todd Hockenberry, when he walks into a manufacturing distribution, he starts talking about patents and delivery time and I'm thinking … In the first three sentences, is you're like, “Okay, this guy knows manufacturing in industrial.” And if it doesn't matter if you're professional services, recruiting, whatever, just pick a swim lane and stay in it.

Dan Tyre:

In the old days, it was call everybody. Today, the riches are in the niches. Oh wait a second, we're in the UK. If you want to go to the beaches, you got to work the niches. And you got to make sure that you are good at that.

Dan Tyre:

The next thing you got to do is let me-

Will Barron:

Dan, Dan, Dan. Slow down, slow down. Let me just reign you in for just a split second here. Because it's one thing to say we need to find an ideal buyer persona. We need to target them with our messaging, our communications. For an individual salesperson, quota carrying individual who's listening to this right now, is this something that they should be uncovering themselves? As in, they warm call, cold call, whatever, data gather across a marketplace, find who responds, narrow down the messaging? Or is this something that marketing should be giving them, sales operation should be giving them? Where do they get this information from of who they should be targeting?

Dan Tyre:

It's awesome. It's the latter if it is available, but if not, then you salespeople should figure it out their own. And guess what? They already know. They know when they call recruiting firms or podcast companies or marketing firms that they close in a higher clip. One of the key points of selling in 2021 that makes it better is you have access to all the data. If you have a modern CRM that shows you you're closed percentage by vertical market, you know the areas where you're closing deals at a 10%, as opposed to 90%. And if you're smart, where do you spend the time?

Dan Tyre:

You spend time with a higher output where you're getting a greater return on investment. And in the old days, we didn't have access to that information. You couldn't run reports like that in Siebel or Dynamics. It was impossible. Now, with modern CRM, you can get that information right there.

Dan Tyre:

So I'm all always looking at where I can provide the most value, where I get the best traction, and then I get to really understand that industry. I focus on, I understand. And then I'm like, “No, no, no, no. I work with professional services companies that practise inbound that are based in Leads, that have bestselling podcasts that want to get a little great speaker guest. Does that sound like you?”

Dan Tyre:

Now, when I start the conversation like that, what do you think?

Will Barron:

You think, “It's me. It is me. This person is speaking directly to me.”

Dan Tyre:

You're like, “Oh my goodness.” You're looking around, going, “That's weird. How does that guy know?” Guess what? I know you're a chemistry major. I know you went to Bangor University. I know you went to Leads. I know you. It took me three minutes to find that out. And yes, you're a little bit of a mini celebrity, but anybody you want, you can … You ever want to make somebody happy, you say, “Oh, Will, I just tweeted out that last Twitter promo about your upcoming …” And you'll be like, “What?” You're like, “Yeah, my 40,200 followers.” I don't care if you have three Twitter followers.

Dan Tyre:

Once I retweet you, I'm in a different category. Now all of a sudden you're like … Okay, so when you're doing your outreach, you get your ideal customer profile. The next thing you do is you practise your greeting. And when I call you, I say … Ring, ring, say hello.

Will Barron:

Hello.

Dan Tyre:

Will, this is Dan from HubSpot.

Will Barron:

Hi, Dan from HubSpot.

Dan Tyre:

Thanks for picking up the phone. And when I say that, what do you feel?

Will Barron:

I feel confused because that's not what I'm expecting.

Dan Tyre:

Ah, yes. You're like, “What? Who? What?” So the first time you hear, the first … What I tell everybody, when you're going in the engagement, you got to make sure you have good voice tone when you call. When I call, you know it's me. Now you don't have to be Dan Tyre with the big energy, because if I thought you were … I actually, I should use the small energy because you're a super smart guy. I'd be like, “Will, this is Dan from HubSpot.” Very articulate-

Will Barron:

If you call like that, I'd be thinking that you were thinking I'm thick if you're talking that slow.

Dan Tyre:

No, not necessarily, but I want to … And as soon as you jump in with your big energy, then I'm going to match it, behaviour modification. There is a plugin for LinkedIn called Crystal Knows that will give me the personality characteristics of the person I'm talking to. But I can see it in the picture. And with a little bit research, I can understand whether I go big energy, medium energy, low energy.

Dan Tyre:

Anyway, I want to sound good. I want to sound sharp. A lot of people who are doing outbound calling, they don't sound interested. They sound bored. They don't sound like they want to talk with me. I sound like I want to talk them and-

Will Barron:

One second though, how do you turn that on? Again, it's one thing to say or make the … use describing words. How do you turn that on? Clearly this is a skill that you have. It's something that I don't necessarily have.

Dan Tyre:

No, you have it.

Will Barron:

I have to listen to, for example, I listen to music before a podcast episode and get myself riled up for it.

Dan Tyre:

No, it's all right. You can do it.

Will Barron:

How do you go about just switching that up?

Dan Tyre:

This is how you do it. Number one, two cups of Guatemalan coffee. That'll get anybody rocked. Number two, stand up. When you sit down, all the stress goes through your shoulder. You're thinking, “Oh, this is a business kind of thing.” I'm moving around here, Will. I'm lifting weights. I'm boxing. I'm walking around. And the brain is a very interesting thing and when I say, “Will, this is Dan from HubSpot.” You don't think like, “Dan from HubSpot.” You're going through a little bit, it placed what we call your lizard brain with the Seth Godin … Do you know Seth Godin?

Will Barron:

Yep. Of course.

Dan Tyre:

Okay. The baldheaded marketing guru. Not Seth Rogan, the guy, the Canadian comedian who smokes a lot of dope.

Will Barron:

You're talking purple cows, not smoking weed.

Dan Tyre:

Yeah, you got it. He's like, “Okay, when you are connecting with somebody the first time on the phone, they don't really think through with their executive functioning. They go right to your caveman brain.” And I'm like, “Yes, that's true.”

Dan Tyre:

So when I say, “Will, this is Dan from HubSpot.” You may take between three and sometimes 25 seconds thinking, “Okay, Dan from HubSpot, do I know this guy? Is he my cousin? Did I like root for … Did I go to college with him? What did I do? How did I …” And you're going through and then you're going to do exactly what you're going to say. You may be confused. You're going to be like, “Yes?” And then that's where the line, “Thanks for picking up the phone,” comes in.

Dan Tyre:

We used to say, “How are you doing today?” But if I ask you, “How are you doing?” How do you feel?

Will Barron:

I feel like there's a salesperson on the other end of the phone.

Dan Tyre:

Exactly. You put me in a category, I'm never going to get out of that. So what we found about four years ago is if I say, “Will, thanks for picking up the phone.” You're like, “Okay, that's flat out weird.” I've already sent you two curve balls in the first 12 seconds and I'm totally in control. And you're like, “Okay” And then you'll say, “Okay, why are you calling me?” Or, “How can I help you?” And I'll be like, “Ugh, it doesn't sound like you're expecting my call.”

Dan Tyre:

Now in the UK, there's not a lot of uggers and I have to kind of push people to ugh, then that's … No one in the UK would say that. I have lots of people who call me in the UK that say that. And what you'll hear is people chuckle or they'll say, “What did you just say?” And I'm like, “Ugh.” You got to lean in the GH. Just do it. Do your ugh. Do it.

Will Barron:

Ugh.

Dan Tyre:

Okay. It's a little too harsh, but this is the first time you did it in front of 700,000. That's awesome. It's ugh, kind of a funny ugh. It doesn't sound like you're expecting their call and they're like, “I wasn't.”

Dan Tyre:

Now, you're going to address resistance. Now you're going to say, “Will, I saw that you run a great sales podcast. I listened to that episode, number 67, where you had sales leaders talking about the most difficult part of sales process, I saw that you have the number one rated podcast, and I work with inbound companies that want to double their podcast listeners in the next 12 months. Does that sound like you?” And what would you say if I said that?

Will Barron:

I'd say yes.

Dan Tyre:

Exactly. And then I'm going to stroke my chin, stroke your chin. Get that beard going. Stroke your chin and you say [crosstalk 00:17:37]

Will Barron:

This might sound weird in the microphone from rubbing this, Dan.

Dan Tyre:

Yeah, I know. Tell me-

Will Barron:

People might get weird feelings here in my rustle of the beard.

Dan Tyre:

Okay. This is the chin stroke question. If I don't have you stroke your chin, you'll forget it. But you have three connect call positions here. So here's the thing, you have your ideal customer profile. Then you research the company, just like we've demonstrated. You perfect your opening. “Will, this is Dan from HubSpot.” If you don't say that 1,000 times, I want the dog to walk out of the room. I want your significant other to say, “Really? Okay, we know it's Dan from HubSpot.” But I want it to sound like I really want to talk with you.

Dan Tyre:

And then you want to be human. If somebody sounds like they're having a tough day, I'm like, “Okay, Will, sounds like you're having a tough day.” And you're like, “Why are you calling me?” I'm like, “Will, do you want me to sing you a song? Do you want me to tell you a joke?” They're like, “No.” I'm like, “Ugh, doesn't sound like you're expecting my call.” And they're like, “I'm not.” And you're like, “Okay. I work with business leaders who are podcasts who are trying to extend their programme, does that sound like you?”

Dan Tyre:

And then you're going to say, “Yes.” If you say, “No,” I didn't do enough research. Because it's all online. I know everything about you, and we've never met before, 12 minutes before. And now, then I'm saying, “Okay. I also work with business leaders who have been practising inbound, who like to read business books and who believe inbound is a leadership principle. Does that sound like you?” And you're like, “Yeah, that sounds like me.” Stroke chin. “Tell me more about that.”

Dan Tyre:

Now you're starting to talk. Now I'm getting a feel for who you are. I'm listening, I'm reviewing. Then eight to 10 minutes in, after you're telling me all this kind of stuff, sometimes you'll say, “What do you want to know?” I'll say, “Everything. Give me the eight minute version. I want to understand.”

Dan Tyre:

Now I want. First of all, I got you to smile when I said, “Ugh.” Second of all, now you're talking, which is the hardest part. Third of all, halfway through the conversation, I'm going to say, “Hold on one second, Will. What I hear you say is.” And when I say, “Will, what I hear you say,” what am I doing?

Will Barron:

I hear you say you're acknowledging that you're listening.

Dan Tyre:

It's called active listening and it's the single key thing that prospects are looking for in a salesperson.

Will Barron:

It's a good job I answered that one then, otherwise it would look like I've just been zoning out for the past 15 minutes.

Dan Tyre:

Yeah, that's right. No, no, no. It's good a thing. You're paying attention. But I want to make sure these … Active listening is so important. It's why introverts and women tend to be a little bit better at the prospecting function because they actually listen. Guys, just talk about-

Will Barron:

Do you have, not you personally, is the data on that, I'd love to see if that's been studied.

Dan Tyre:

I have to dig. That's my own per personal experience. But everybody says, “You're a born salesperson.” I'm like, “No, that's not true.” It used to be true when sales was the land of misfit toys. If you couldn't code, you couldn't write, they're like, “Okay, maybe you can take somebody to lunch.” And that was what sales was in the 1980s.

Dan Tyre:

Now, it's hyper-thoughtful, super intelligence, psychology, focus, and engaging with people. That's why it's so much fun. It's different all the time. And you have to figure out the way in which you present the information so that the empowered buyer understands that, number one, you know his problem, or her problem. Number two, you're asking the right questions so that they think about the problem in a way that they might not have thought of.

Dan Tyre:

Lots of times people cycle in and they're like, “This is what I need.” And you're like, “Okay, Will, have you thought of this, this and this?” And they're like, “Actually, no.” And then you're like, “Okay, so lots of people ask for this, but what they're really looking for is this.” That's the change. You're not telling them how much it costs, what colour comes in, can you carry it up a flight of stairs? What you're doing is explaining to them how they can redefine the problem. All right.

Dan Tyre:

So after eight minutes of them talking, you're like, “Okay, that's kind of interesting. It sounds like there's some business pain around this particular issue.” You've already proven, number one, that you're willing to talk with them. Number two, you've proven that you can have a short conversation where you can get them talking. Number three, you've been very overt in saying, “What I hear you say?” So you're honouring them.

Dan Tyre:

Now, that lasts from 12 to 15 minutes, which is hard for many salespeople. Because you'll go through, have three of these conversations a day and you won't have talked to anybody since early this morning and then this person wants to talk to you. But at 15 minutes, the best practise is to stop and say, “All right. Will, sounds like there's something to talk about. This was a little bit of an interruption call, so what I'd like to do is I'd like to reengage. What are you doing tomorrow?” And you'll like, “I got some openings.” I'm like, “Okay, are you a coffee person or a tea person?”

Dan Tyre:

What's the answer to that? Are you coffee or tea?

Will Barron:

Both, if that doesn't ruin it. I'm a coffee AM, tea PM.

Dan Tyre:

Okay. “So I want to strategically schedule time after your second cup of coffee.” So you're ready to go. You're like, “I have all the answers to my question.” And then I want to schedule either 25 minutes or 50 minutes to ask you some questions around this issue.

Dan Tyre:

A connect call is what we call it in the flywheel model, lasts for 15 minutes. It engages, it uses those connect call positioning statements. It's all about you. They go, “Why? Who are you again? Tyre from HubSpot?” I'm like, “Dan from HubSpot. Don't worry about that. All I want to make sure is that you know that I know about you, that I have helped you identify that this may be something that is worth spending a little bit of time on.”

Dan Tyre:

They may say, “No, not right now.” They may be in consider, they may be in just visibility mode. And I'm like, “Okay. I'd like to just drill down into a little more just to make sure that I understand if this is a good fit or not. We'll spend 25 minutes. I'll ask you a series of questions. You can ask me some questions and we'll determine if there's a reason for move forward.”

Dan Tyre:

That's called a discovery call. That's the goal of the connect call. And the discovery call, oh my goodness, in 2021, it's new close call. You ask the right questions on the discovery call and you will get that deal. They should look across the Zoom at you or the Skype at you and they should say, “Will, those are the right questions to ask. Who are you, once again? Oh my goodness.” And then you can proceed from there.

Dan Tyre:

Now I got one other point though, because in 2021, when people say that people don't pick up the phone, they're kind of right. And how many times do you have to call somebody to be professionally persistent?

Will Barron:

10, 20?

Dan Tyre:

Okay. The best practise is you're going to call somebody four times over 12 days. The first time I call you, there's only a 4% to 7% chance that you're going to pick up. Sometimes you see my 602 number and you're like, “Who? Who's 602? I wonder who that is?” Usually it'll go right to voicemail. Even in the UK, I leave a voicemail, but my voicemail is different because you're going to see a transcribed content on it on your iPhone. But I still leave a voicemail.

Dan Tyre:

And then I send an email and in the email, it's your name first, an ampersand, my name, my company, trying to connect. And it's, “Will, as per my voicemail.” And then just two lines. “I'm reaching out because I saw that you want to get more listeners to your podcast. I'm reaching out because I saw that you had that great post on LinkedIn. I'm reaching out because I'm connecting with business owners in Leads who are trying to get more growth. And I've included my Calendar link in my email, just set up 15 minutes and I'm going to show you how I can help. See how I can help.”

Dan Tyre:

I send it out. It's like, it used to be you had two paragraphs. Today if you have more than two sentences, you're not doing it right. Then you have the first time and the statistics say you're going to pretty much ignore that. Which the next thing you got to do is you wait two days and I call again. Now you see the 602 number, which not a lot of 602 people are calling you, but you're saying, “Oh wait a second. Wait, that seems a little familiar.”

Dan Tyre:

I leave a second voicemail. It's a little bit different, but it's all about you. It's not, “This is Dan calling to talk about technology or do you need a CRM?” It's like, “Oh my goodness. Will, thanks so much for mentioning him on that podcast. I saw that you are leaning into a warm calling and I wanted to see how I could help.” I send the second email. The second email says, “Will and Dan.” It says, “Second ping.”

Dan Tyre:

Do you know what a ping is?

Will Barron:

In this context, just second touch?

Dan Tyre:

Yeah. A second touch, second. A ping comes from sonar in a submarine. It's like ping, ping. Some people who are over 50 don't really understand what it is. But most people like your age demographic, they're like, “Yeah, he's trying to reach out again.” And then I say, “Will, as per my second call, I want to spend 15 minutes with you, see how I can get in touch.” And in that one, I include a video. And the biggest transformation in prospecting, since the beginning of prospecting, is including video in your prospecting email. And you can use HubSpot video. You can use video. You can use Loom. You can use Wistia, Soapbox.

Dan Tyre:

They're all free. You just load it in your browser and now you see me. You see my glass, you see my swanky urban background. And I'm going to put your website on my background. I'm going to be a little hole on the side. And I'm going to say, “Will, I came to your website. I was doing some research on business owners in Leads and I saw that it looks like you're trying to generate more business. I had some tips about ways that could help you get your website working a little harder without you having to. Just put 15 minutes on my Calendar and we'll engage. Then we'll see how I can help.”

Dan Tyre:

Now you go to that video, you watch the video, usually about 75% of the time. Some people say, “No one's clicking on my video.” It's usually because you don't have the prospect's website there. That plays to the lizard brain. Then you're focused on it's only a minute. No one wants to hear about anything for more than a minute. You can't drone on for something. It's like, get to the point, it's 2021. And the ask is just get on my Calendar. When the prospect books, amazing things happen.

Dan Tyre:

Do you like when prospects' books on your website?

Will Barron:

Dan, we are just completely inbound. We don't have any booking or anything.

Dan Tyre:

Okay, so I'm going to assume on the app, when people drop their content [crosstalk 00:28:22]

Will Barron:

I do literally almost all of our deals, mate, just over email. Most of our deals happen over email.

Dan Tyre:

I know, it's amazing. It's amazing because now you know I'm coming. Now you can research me. You're like, “Tyre, you're in Arizona. Isn't it 6:00 in the morning?” I'll say, “Yes, it is, very good.” Now we're establishing that commonality. Now we're leapfrogging, what you said is the most confusing and the hardest part of that connection. Because first of all, you're in control. Second of all, you set the appointment. Third of all, you're going to show up more often. Fourth of all, I've given you the ability to have that conversation.

Dan Tyre:

All right. So if you don't answer my second one with the video, I-

Will Barron:

One second, Dan. One second. Just for the audience. Sorry to interrupt you there. I will document all of this out. I'll put it into a big flow diagram and we'll host over at salesman.org/Dan. So because there'll be people now who are on a treadmill trying to listen to this going, “Free.” They've got an arm full of pen as they're trying to scribble and they're running. They're up to their chest at this point, I've got a hairy chest, Dan. I can't write on this, mate.

Dan Tyre:

Okay, that's a little overshare.

Will Barron:

So I'll document everything. I'll document everything.

Dan Tyre:

I got it, I got it, but that's [crosstalk 00:29:23]

Will Barron:

Salesman.org/Dan. Go on, mate, carry on.

Dan Tyre:

Say it again. Salesman.org/Dan. Okay, we knew this was going to be good because you and I have complimentary, you're the big brain and I'm the energy. And this is the hardest part. I got lots of stuff to talk about the classic sales process, but I want to help and I've trained this for many years at HubSpot. I train our partner programme. I have a lady by the name of Amber. She was so scared. And in 2021, the prospecting process, everybody's sitting at home, you're at your kitchen. There's a lot of negativity going on.

Dan Tyre:

Sometimes you talk to Mr. Grumpy. You don't talk to Mr. Grumpy because you're all inbound. But sometimes you're going to hit somebody who's going to be like, “Why are you calling me?” And that's when you use your skills, address resistance. Got lots of ways to address that. This lady Amber, she got so amped up when she called people, she'd only call people on a treadmill. And so she'd be, “Will, this is Amber. Will, I'm on a treadmill.”

Will Barron:

Stop it. [crosstalk 00:30:28] That is on the verge of sexual as you're doing that, Dan.

Dan Tyre:

Guys can't do it, women … And then people would say, “Why are you want to a treadmill?” She goes, “I get a little nervous when I call people, so it alleviates my nervous when I …” And people would just start laughing, be like, “All right, what do you want?” And she'd be like, “I'm calling pharmaceutical companies in London who have a stage two or stage three product that they're trying to manage through their website and need a little help. Does that sound like you?” And they're like, “Oh my goodness, who are you, Amber on the treadmill?” And it's just a very nice and human way of engaging.

Dan Tyre:

All right, so if they don't answer your first two, which statistically about 25% of the people, if you include a video in the second one are then going to respond. You wait three days, because it usually goes over a weekend, and then you call a third time. And that third time you're going to reference something that you saw on Twitter, something, you listened to the podcast. It takes 10 seconds, people. If you call me and said, “Dan, I see you at HubSpot.” That's not good enough. If you say, “Dan, how did you get on the salesmen.org podcast?” I'm your friend forever. I can't control it. Now I'm like, “Okay, you did your research. You earned your 10 minutes. How can I be of service?”

Dan Tyre:

I leave the third, I say third ping in the subject, it's another [inaudible 00:31:47]. You know I've done my research. You know I want to talk to you. I've been professionally persistent. And then I wait two more days. This is the money call because you'll pick up usually on the fourth call because you've seen 602-432-7451 four times. You've seen the email three times. You've got four voicemails.

Dan Tyre:

So my voicemail there is like, “Will, this is my fourth voicemail. I'm pretty sure that you understand how to get ahold of me. You got four emails from me as well, two videos. Sounds like you're busy. Should I stay or should I go? If you want to know a little bit more about how I can help business owners in Leads grow their business over the next 18 months, just get on my Calendar. If it's not a good timing, just save this email. Just let me know. If you ever decide to grow better, just come back, get on my Calendar and I'm happy to help. My name is Dan from HubSpot. Thank you very much.”

Dan Tyre:

And for me, that connects at between, I don't know, 78% and 85%. Which people say, “That's not fair.” You're like, “I'm an e-celebrity.” And you're an executive at HubSpot. I'm like, “Okay, granted.” But if you follow those rules, you should connect between 25% and 40%. People who have never called before, if they use those techniques, especially leaning into video, you'll greatly accelerate the hardest part of the sales process. And it's like anything else, it's hard when you start because it's emotional and it leverages.

Dan Tyre:

People say, “They don't want to talk with me.” Which is not true. Because do you want somebody to call you and help you, Will?

Will Barron:

I do. And just to double-down on this point, until you've spoken with the individual, they have no idea who you are. They're not making judgements about you anyway. They just don't give a shit. They don't. They're just oblivious. You're making these emotions on your side.

Dan Tyre:

100%. But what I just taught you is to make it all about you, and I want it to be all about you because I have to be, it's the empowered buyer. I'm not talking to everybody. I'm talking to business owners in Leads that have a world-class podcast and want to double their listening audience in the next 12 months. And if you are nuanced enough, smart enough to do that, then you're going to win. Because I'm speaking directly to you. You're a segment of one, you're going to be like, “Oh my goodness, I got to call this guy back.” You won't call me back. You'll email me or you just get on my Calendar, anywhere from 75% to 82% of the time.

Dan Tyre:

And it's not just me. I just haven't had done it for a while. Have taught it to the folks at HubSpot, have taught it to partners at HubSpot, and now I'm bringing it to the world. The reason I got so excited is like, “Ooh.” I've travelled all through the UK. I've spoken in London dozens of times, Manchester, Chester, and UK audiences are a little bit different. UK humour is a little bit different, a little bit ironic, a little bit self-depreciating. I got to Google British humour, a little drier, yeah. Yeah. But it still plays. Unless you're an introvert, then my big energy is hugely annoying. Then I'm just going to back it down a little bit.

Dan Tyre:

But with these techniques, we know that you're going to engage. You just have to do the work. And what we found is if you use these techniques, if people say no, they don't really mean no, they mean not now. Because virtually everybody in the UK wants to grow. And it's not so much like that in Italy. I don't know if you have a big Italy following. But sometimes when I talk to people in Italy, I'm like, “Do you want to grow?” They're like, “Not really.” That's the only place in the world that I found that they're not, like it's not a number one thing.

Dan Tyre:

But in the UK, they're like, “Yeah, I want to grow.” I'm like, “All right. What's your strategy?” And they're like, “Well, this is what we're going to do.” I'm like, “Okay, can you hit your goals? Keep doing what you're doing.” And they're like, “Maybe I'm not quite sure.” I'm like, “All right, let's just get on the Calendar for 15 minutes. Let's see how I might be able to help.”

Dan Tyre:

And with that ideal customer profile, with that outreach four times over 12 days, with including video, with being of service, with ensuring that if somebody isn't ready to go, you're like, “Okay, it's perfectly okay. At the time in which you decide you need to meet my services, just remember the guy without a lot of hair with the black glasses who sent you the video and then just ping me and I'm happy to pick it up when you're ready to go.” And that is part of the flywheel. The new way of selling is helping, not pushing, to everybody's benefit.

Will Barron:

I've got one thing that I want to ask you about and we'll wrap up here, because I'm conscious of time because we could … I want to know what the next call looks like. I want to learn more about the flywheel.

Dan Tyre:

Of course you do.

Will Barron:

We'll have you back on, Dan, to dive into all this in the future. But one thing, and I think this is really important, and I've got zero budget in our company in the grand scheme of things. But salespeople reach out to me and I connect with salespeople typically, in your words, when they've earned the conversation or they've earned the call. That first email, I just delete. I just don't care. I'm probably not going to read it, I'm busy. The second, third-

Dan Tyre:

Yeah. Of course you're going to. Of course. You're a damn fine human being, Will, and you're just like every other business owner. How many emails do you get a day?

Will Barron:

To the actual account, past the filter, not many. But the pre-filtered account, 100 odd emails a day. But when people work hard, I feel you like, ah, come on. We work with salespeople, train salespeople. Salespeople in the audience, I'll give them a shot. I'll get on the phone with them. I'll just give them something.

Will Barron:

How important is it, Dan, to have that mindset of earning the conversation? As opposed to, I feel like a lot of salespeople make a few calls, try and use some weird manipulative tactics, do some old school selling. It doesn't work on the first or second, so they just give up. They almost feel entitled. Whereas the opposite end of the spectrum, the salespeople who purposefully try to earn a call, in my experience do way, way, way better. How important is that mindset shift to make that you're earning this?

Dan Tyre:

Of course. You're the empowered. Yeah, 100%. It's all of it. That's the leadership principle, The Inbound Organisation, the book that I wrote. And I also wrote the forward to a book called Inbound Selling by Brian Signorelli. My buddy Mark Roberge, she's the first vice president of sales at HubSpot, and now the entrepreneur-in-residence at Harvard Business School. And I wrote the forward and we talked about how it's completely different.

Dan Tyre:

What you want is somebody to help you and if I can convince you in four emails, in four phone calls that I can help you, it plays right to your heart. So selling is helping. And you don't sell technology, that's the big thing that HubSpot figured out in 2007. All we want to do is help you. We don't even care if you buy stuff or not. All I want to do is help you. Why? Because if I help you, you're going to have the exact opposite effect that that Mini car dealership had. Tell that story, take 30 seconds and tell that story about that-

Will Barron:

The audience have heard the story many times, but I'll give another analogy. You walk into a shop in the UK, be it some time of … Say you're buying a TV. You walk to a shop, there's someone at the door. I used to be super spotty. A spotty teenager and they go, “Hey, can I help?” And you go, “Nope.” You don't even think about it. It just comes from your subconscious brain, your reptilian brain. Nope. And the reality is they might be able to help you. They could save 10 minutes, 20 minutes of you faffing around, but you've just totally got rid of them. And that's what we're trying to avoid if I'm on the right tracks here.

Dan Tyre:

Yeah. Exactly. I'm going to give you the exact opposite.

Will Barron:

We're trying to not be that person that gives that instinctive response of salesperson.

Dan Tyre:

Will, I'm going to say, “No, no, no. Will, I know you, number one, I only deal with business owners in Leads. Number two, I know what you want, which is growth, because I've worked in your segment for a while. Even if you're brand new, you can figure out you want with three customer reviews and talking to your senior management. Number three, I'm at your service.”

Dan Tyre:

I tell people that. I wrote this famous blog article that was called Always be Closing is Dead: How to Always be Helping. There's another great blog article I wrote in HubSpot Blog called Warm Calling Tips that we have. They changed the name to Always be Closing is Dead, Always be Helping to a New Sales Mantra. But in 2014, I went back into the funnel to test certain criteria, and if I was even a little bit pushy, people would never call me back. They'd ghost me. They'd be like, “I'm not talking to that guy.”

Dan Tyre:

If I called them and said, “Will, I'm at your service.” They're like, “Excuse me.” I'm like, “I want to help.” And they're like, “Help with what?” I'm like, “It depends. What do you need help with? Usually it's around growth, usually it's around podcast owners in the UK who are trying to grow their listening audience. Does that sound like you?” And they'd be like, “Yes.” I'm like, “All right, tell me about that.” And then they just go off, sometimes for 15 minutes, then it's completely different.

Dan Tyre:

And guess what? If you and I met in a pub, that's exactly what would happen. I'd be making fun of your beard and the fact that you didn't know who your university mascot was. It's a tiger by the way, remember that. And that you, different things that we saw and things like that. As soon as you introduce a phone, then it gets all weird. But it doesn't have to. It's like that human kind of approach and what I just described is a great way of getting your humanity across in 20 seconds. And if you get Mr. Grumpy, you're like, “Oh my goodness.”

Dan Tyre:

I get hung up on about 1.5% of the time. I just get the guy, he had to take his dog to the vet. His kid got kicked out of school for smoking weed, something like that. And he's just in a bad mood and he hangs up on me. I send him a video. I'm like, “Oh, Will, I'm so sorry. I must have caught you a bad. I'm at your service. I ran this report about your ability to generate more leads inbound. I wanted to hand it to you. And if there's ever anything I could do.”

Dan Tyre:

People will actually call me on that one and they'll be like, “Who are you? Are you a Martian? Oh my goodness. I hung up on you and you sent me a video.” I'm like, “Yeah, that's kind of the way we roll.”

Dan Tyre:

Everybody has those kind of things. And in a global pandemic or emerging for a global pandemic, that humanity is really unique and people naturally gravitate to it. And then you build up your flywheel, then more and more people like, “No. It's the exact opposite of your car example.” Then people are like, “No, no, no, go talk to Tyre.” And that happens to me now eight times a day. After being at HubSpot for 14 years, people are like, “No, you got to talk to. This guy's amazing. All he wants to do is help, help, help.” You get that reputation, it's all downhill from there.

Will Barron:

Final question. This is massively loaded in that we all know what the answer is going to be from you. But I think this is be valuable for the audience. Should sales be, even if we're sat at our kitchen table, listening to this, making calls, should we be suited, corporate, boring, stagnant? Or should sales, if done right, be fun?

Dan Tyre:

It's unbelievably fun. The reason I would went into sales is number one, to have fun, number one. Number two, to learn stuff. Number three, to make money. I've changed my mantra in 2014 to, “Doing the most good for the universe.”

Dan Tyre:

The reason I'm still at HubSpot 14 years in is HubSpot makes this big impact. We teach this all the time. You go to HubSpot Academy, you can learn inbound sales. There's a plug right there. It's free. Two, three hours. It's a class. Professor Kyle Jepson will teach you what I just talk about in regard to engagement and outbound calling. And we give that away for free. Why? Because if you're doing it right, there's more good process in the world. If you're doing it wrong, people will never speak to you again. And it's still in the transformation process.

Dan Tyre:

Brian Halligan, our CEO, says, “We're still in the second inning.” Which for the UK means we're still in the first 10 minutes of the football match.

Will Barron:

First half, yeah.

Dan Tyre:

And it goes on from there. But if you're trying to do it the old way, if trying to sell technology services anyway, you're not going to. If you got a big heart, if you focus, if you are trying to help people, oh my goodness. It's a whole different ballgame. And then people are so nice, they're like, “Tyre.” They send me chocolate towers and knitted sweaters and all that and they're like, “Oh my goodness.” That's unusual behaviour. They're like, “You were so nice. You were thoughtful. You decided to help me. You weren't pushy at all. When I ghosted you for six months, you were like, ‘Eh, whatever.'”

Dan Tyre:

Now you have to run a little bigger funnel. You have to be available. You have to make sure you're providing the right information at the right time. But it's the right philosophy, a management philosophy to help not sell.

Will Barron:

If a customer sent me or a prospect sent me a knitted sweatshirt, Dan, I don't know how I'd feel about that. I might feel slightly uncomfortable.

Dan Tyre:

Yeah, I know. I got 25 of them. I know, I know. It's amazing. First of all, it's fun. Second of all, this is the new sales process called inbound selling or the flywheel. We have to do another session on that. This means that your customers are more important than your sales team. And I know that's very controversial on the salesman.org, but it's true. And there's ways that salespeople can be insightful, thoughtful to make sure that works. And the bottom line is you want to lead with helping. And if you do that, it will resonate with a large group of folks.

Will Barron:

For sure. We've covered the marketing flywheel before. I've had a conversation with your VP of marketing off the record about this, which is translating some content for the show. So I think we're all on board with this. It's not controversial at all, Dan. And with that, mate, let's wrap up there. Tell us a little bit about the book and then where we can find more about you as well.

Dan Tyre:

So when I started as the first salesperson for HubSpot, I didn't even do my bio. You're a good interview, Will, you skipped right over that. And for me, as the first salesperson, first sales manager and first sales director at HubSpot, it was different with the outbound reach. And inbound marketing resonated very, very well. But as a salesperson, I love those inbound leads. Then it moved over to inbound marketing, inbound sales, or what we called inbound growth. Then I'm like, “No, no, no, wait a second.” What we just talked about, spend the last half hour talking about the leadership principles of helping not selling.

Dan Tyre:

And inbound organisation is all about treating people like human beings, which is important in the outbound process. Number two, helping not selling. Number three, looking at the data. Number four, solving for the customer. Number five, ensuring that you're delivering the right information to the right time. And number six, being persistent in a way in which it doesn't feel like you're being overbearing. And those are foundations … I was speaking publicly about the inbound organisation and this guy, Todd Hockenberry, is like, “I talk about this all the time. Let's write a book.” And I'm like, “Hmm, okay.” I thought about for eight seconds. And I don't know, have you ever written a book, Will?

Will Barron:

No, have I heck.

Dan Tyre:

Okay. It's hard. It takes hundreds of hours. I thought writing a book was going to be like talking. It's nothing like talking, you got to be … But the good news is I have the best co-author in the history of books. And you can go to www.inboundorganization.com. You can download all this free stuff that we do because we believe in the inbound process. You can buy the book in bulk. You can see all of the great stuff. And it's been super fun to help spread everything that I've learned at HubSpot all over the world, 120 countries, to more and more sales, marketing, service, support business leaders all over the world.

Will Barron:

And where can we find out more about you specifically, Dan? And maybe some of these blog posts?

Dan Tyre:

DanTyre.com. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm an open book. Twitter @DanTyre, Instagram if you want to see pictures of my food, @DanTyre1. LinkedIn, easy to find me. DanTyre.com is my website. And I'm at people's service. To the extent of my bandwidth, I'm always happy to help accelerate the sales process or support that people need. HubSpot offers great sales products. Our CRM is free. HubSpot has got the number one CRM for scaling businesses, which is super fun, and I'm happy to be as associated with the company for the last 14 years.

Will Barron:

Amazing stuff. Well, the audience have heard a pre-roll from HubSpot, an advert probably about 10 minutes go from HubSpot. I'm clearly bought into HubSpot as well, so hopefully that speaks volumes with yourself, Dan. And with that, we'll link to everything we talked about in this episode, or I will visualise and make everything as visual as possible. We'll maybe put out some kind of download or something together that documents it all and we'll host that over at salesman.org/Dan.

Will Barron:

And with, mate, I genuinely appreciate your energy that you bring. The insight of all this, I might have to go for a freaking lie down afterwards to recover from the bombardment.

Dan Tyre:

Yeah, that's what my wife said. I've been sheltered at home for 14 months with my beautiful wife. She's like, “Okay.”

Will Barron:

The poor woman. The poor woman.

Dan Tyre:

“You move to a tent in the backyard.” She goes, “All you do is yell at your computer for 12 hours a day.” Which is pretty much true.

Will Barron:

Well, look, this genuinely comes across, it comes across as genuine. So I appreciate that, mate. And with that, I want to thank you again for joining us on The Salesman Podcast.

Dan Tyre:

Thank you very much.

The post HubSpot’s Entire SaaS Sales Process (Step-By-Step Guide) appeared first on Salesman.com.

The famous SharkTank entrepreneur, Daymond John, explained the importance of sales monitoring perfectly in this analogy:

“Imagine your ship is in a battle, and you have no command center giving visibility on whether or not your ship has been hit until 30 days later, nor visibility on whether enemies are behind or in front of you. What do you think will happen to your shit? You sink.”

Pretty much sums it up, doesn't it?

In the dynamic world of sales, you need an effective sales process for tracking sales performance. This will provide you with crucial insights that will make you more effective at selling, helping you save time and effort, earn revenue, and, more importantly, boost your sales career.

Implementing a sales monitoring system can seem like hard work. But the good news is, it doesn't always have to be.

It doesn't matter whether you're a B2B or B2C sales professional—or what size or industry your business is—you need sales monitoring to measure your progress and optimize performance to ensure better outcomes.

Moreover, you won't have to second guess every decision when you know the numbers. You can make smart, data-based decisions, which will make you a more efficient and savvy salesperson.

Additionally, you don't have to be a sales manager, leading a sales team to take advantage of a sales monitoring system.

Monitoring sales performance is also important for individual sales reps too. When you own your key performance indicators, you'll become a sales managers best friend.

To hit your ultimate revenue goal, you must know what sales metrics your organization's sales management uses to track sales throughout the sales funnel.

For this, you'll have to use past sales performance data and work backward up the funnel from the organization's projected revenue goal to set your goals. A good place to start is considering the following questions:

Notice the pattern?

Besides revenue, you should also be looking at:

Measuring indicators of activity level can also come in handy. This includes:

With the sales metrics covered, you can next focus on the actual monitoring of sales.

We've discussed the different metrics and KPIs. But before you start measuring them, you'll need to take a few extra steps to ensure accurate results. So here's a step-by-step rundown of monitoring sales effectively.

The first step to setting up a good sales monitoring system is to set clearly defined goals and expectations based on your sales quotas.

This will help you discover obstacles and understand how to make contact with your prospects more effectively. You'll also get a better sense of direction, which will make you more invested in working to achieve them. Here are some examples of common high-quality sales goals for inspiration:

When using sales monitoring systems, you want to keep a dual focus on short-term task completion and long-term performance.

While tracking your daily or weekly sales goals will keep you up-to-date with your sales performance, the inevitable highs and lows of sales may leave you demotivated or anxious. It's during these challenging times that long-term goals can come in handy. Long-term objectives provide a more realistic measure of success, which is why short-term failures don't seem like a dead-end anymore.

At the same time, if you find you're achieving your daily and weekly goals but are still nowhere close to long-term success, you'll have to change your approach. First, review whether your micro-goals are actually helping with your end picture and make adjustments as needed.

Closing deals shouldn't be your only goal. You should also aim to fill every stage of your pipeline, which involves tracking all your sales prospecting efforts and qualifying and nurturing leads.

You have to understand how to fill your sales pipeline—and fill it correctly. While you can always turn to your superiors for advice, you can also use sales monitoring tools and software like a customer relationship management (CRM) to measure metrics and track your sales progress at a single glance.

For instance, the best CRMs have customizable sales dashboard that give you tailored visibility of your sales pipeline, how much revenue you're likey to generate, your sales cycle length and they allow you to track other metrics that are relevant to you. As such, you can simplify your sales cycle and focus your efforts on converting leads that matter.

Sales professionals often develop an overly complicated system for tracking and reporting on their individual performances.

Don't be one of them.

Focus on streamlining your workload by making it more focused. Again, you can achieve this by using tools that support customizable sales reporting features. This will allow you to quickly visualize relevant data that can help you assess your overall performance.

You can keep track of the number of deals added to your sales funnel, the average age of your deals, and the number of deals and stage-to-stage conversion for each one of them at any given period. Even better if you can apply custom filters to reports to see the exact data you need at any given time.

Like they say, work smarter, not harder.

Next, it's time to apply the collected data and insights.

You want a fair picture of how your performance compares against the established goals and expectations. Now that you know where there is the scope of improvement, brainstorm ways to troubleshoot solutions and meet these gaps. Don't be afraid to get in touch with your sales manager if you need more training, support, or additional resources.

After all, great teams don't hold back from one another.

Take immediate steps to monitor progress and become better at selling! Become a part of our Selling Made Simple Academy™ to fix your prospecting and close more sales.

The post The Ultimate Guide for Monitoring Sales — From a Sales Professional’s Perspective appeared first on Salesman.com.

On this episode of the Salesman Podcast Brian Christian explains the power of algorithms and the guys dive into the question if they're so powerful, can they replace all human decision making in B2B buying process.

Coming soon.

Coming soon.

The post Algorithms VS Human Decisions: Should Buyers And Sellers Be Replaced? appeared first on Salesman.com.

​​Another day, another cold email.

As a sales professional, you understand cold emailing is part and parcel of the job. But not getting even a single response can feel disheartening.

You want results and are ready to change your current strategy.

Allow us to suggest a third possibility: targeted selling.

Not many sales professionals realize that all their business can come from the same group of customers. You can use this approach to make sure you're targeting the right people—people with a genuine interest in what you have to offer.

Sales targeting is the process of identifying prospects more likely to buy your product or service, followed by building a sales process that appeals to them.

You determine the ideal fit for your offering and then create a pitch based on their interests and priorities. You also identify people unlikely to buy your product, which lets you dedicate your attention to only those sales targets who matter the most to your business.

Targeted sales involve more than applying tried-and-tested sales targeting techniques. You need to build a solid strategy and clearly understand your ideal customer persona.

Sounds too much? Don't worry; here's a detailed step-by-step run down.

When it comes to creating awareness and narrowing down forecasts, less is more.

You need customers, even if smaller in number, that are likely to find your product or service valuable. A good starting point is to determine the benefit through the receiver's eyes. You can also use the 80-20 rule, where 80% of output will come from the top 20% of input.

When mapping out your territory, consider the following questions:

One of the key components of effective sales targeting is “bucketing your business. ”

Bucking your business is the process of categorizing your customers into various segments (“buckets”). You can create buckets based on:

This will help you understand where you're getting your business from and from whom, as well as uncover new opportunities or threats. You can also create benchmarks for what's working and what isn't and determine who you should be targeting to drive revenue.

Think of it as creating a better-diversified stock portfolio for your business.

But the question is how to bucket your business successfully? Here's how:

Make sure to do this regularly if you want to master targeted selling.

Removing emotion from your selling decisions is one of the more challenging aspects of targeted selling. You can unknowingly prioritize a sales target over another, which may hamper your sales targeting results.

To make sure you don't end up committing this mistake, you can follow author Tyler Menke's methodology:

Hold on; things are about to get technical here.

Suppose your factors are “budget,” “internal influence,” and “willingness.” “For each of these variables, assign a value from 1 to 10 for each customer (1 being most likely to and 10 meaning least likely to). Then run a sum function and stack-rank your third sheet from lowest value to highest.

Here's how it should look:

The resulting list will help you rank your customers from top to bottom based on three factors: current revenue, potential, and knowledge.

Using the formula, you have successfully reduced making decisions emotionally.

At this stage, you'll create your pre-sales call action plan. Remember how we mentioned you have to perceive your product's value from the receiver's eyes? You'll follow the same ideology here.

Ask your prospects insightful questions that can help you understand where and what the value is. Some of these questions can be as follows:

Identifying your prospects is only half the battle. You should also know when and how to chase them to close the deal. When you're certain, you have a big deal in your sight, prepare for it adequately and go all in to secure a win.

Once you've successfully landed the deal, think about how you can use it to sell to other customers in the same industry. After all, nothing works better to close a deal than a testimonial or a case study from a reputable insider.

When you're sure the customer is happy with your product or service, track every data point you can that made the deal successful. Then, build a case study around it, making sure it resonates with your customer success.

While sales targeting improves your chances of closing a deal, it doesn't guarantee success. So it would help if you also were prepared for failures. Don't lose hope—instead, treat them as learning opportunities.

Are you wondering how to practice sales targeting effectively? Here are our top tips to get started on the right track.

You should know how to choose the correct targets for your business.

Determine the demographics and personal quantities of customers that typically buy from your business or have expressed interest. For starters, you can consider factors like:

Another tactic to learn more about your prospective target demographics is by looking at your top competitors. What kind of competitors do businesses similar to yours usually target? What are the target demographics of your closest competitors?

Of course, you don't want to copy these qualities exactly in your sales targeting strategy, but these insights will help you better understand the most appropriate targets based on your industry.

You need to set up a consistent flow of leads for your sales targeting strategy to work. This involves implementing strategies that can bring the right person to you. Below, we've compiled a list of a few strategies that can work:

Another crucial aspect of effective sales targeting is taking out time to measure, analyze, and change as needed.

When implementing your targeting strategy, you will find there will always be room for improvement. That's why you have to be well aware of your weaknesses and eliminate them to ensure better outcomes.

Use sales metrics to analyze your overall performance. This will also help you figure out strategies to ensure better results. Then based on the new information you gather, refine your technique and adapt.

Become better at targeting selling! Empower yourself with targeted sales knowledge, and improve your close rates stat.

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