Kent Copeland

Monday, October 26, 2020

The Million-Pound LinkedIn Message: Secrets To Social Selling – with Daniel Disney

My guest today is one of the world's leading authorities on LinkedIn & Social Selling. With over 16 years of sales and sales management experience, an audience of over 600,000 LinkedIn followers, millions generated from social selling, and content reaching millions every month, there are few out there in the marketplace who have achieved as much as he has. He is now on a mission to help as many businesses and salespeople learn how to generate more sales with LinkedIn and Social Selling.

Join The Sales Revolution: If you’re ready to do sales differently, you’re in the right place. This community is for entrepreneurs and sales pros to connect, grow, + learn the new (and highly improved) connection-based way of selling. Get ready to toss out all that you’ve been taught about sales up to this point. It’s time for a revolution.

Daniel’s Website: https://www.danieldisney.online/
Daniel's LinkedIn – Connect with Daniel on LinkedIn
Daniel's Twitter – Follow Daniel on Twitter
Daniel’s Facebook – Check out Daniel on Facebook

3 Value Bombs

We’re not salespeople. We are humans helping humans. Never forget that!
People are more digitally active than they’ve ever been. The pandemic has done nothing but increase the number of customers and prospects who are engaging using social media. As a salesperson, you have to evolve and pivot in order to continue to experience success.
Effort & Creativity: Effort – Make an effort. Do your homework. Do some research. Research their content; research their profile; visit their website. Don’t just research them. Research other people like them in their company. Creativity – Find unique ways to communicate your value to them.

Sponsors

VIRTUAL SALES TRAINING PROGRAM & PLATFORM: Our virtual training has helped thousands of people and companies turn-around sluggish sales. The mobile-enabled, innovative, flexible training is rooted in human behavioral psychology and provides easy-to-consume, on-demand training for sustainable results.

SALES STRUCTURE PARTNERSHIP: Accelerate your growth with a customized partnership! This partnership includes onsite coaching and role playing for skill reinforcement, 1:1 work with Jeremy Miner on your specific product or vertical scripting (aligned to the new model of selling) and coaching support and alignment for your sales managers and/or sales coaches.

Show Notes

**Click the timestamp to jump directly to that point in the episode.

Today’s Audio MASTERCLASS: The Million-Pound LinkedIn Message: Secrets To Social Selling – with Daniel Disney

3:15 I want to dive right into your story and your background and give our listeners a feel for how you arrived at this point where you are one of the elite authorities on sales and leadership. Please tell us a little bit more about your background and how this all started for you. How did you learn all these skills?

We are humans helping humans.
It’s all about helping people.

6:03 Let’s talk about your book The Million-Pound LinkedIn Message. Why did you write this book?

1. To Help salespeople.
2. Most of our LinkedIn inboxes are filled with terrible, spammy messages.
3. To tell his story.
4. 25 templates you can use effectively on LinkedIn.

7:14 Let’s talk about Social Selling. We all hear about the latest craze which is Social Selling, but in your mind what does that actually mean?

Social Selling is leveraging social media to create sales.
There is a difference between Social Marketing and Social Selling.
Daniel doesn’t want to just sit back and wait for leads to come to him, instead he wants to proactively create leads.
It’s doing everything you use to do as a salesperson only using social platforms.

8:29 A lot of companies are saying that LinkedIn has become a huge distraction for salespeople pulling them away from revenue-generating activities, what are your thoughts on that?

Daniel gets this question all the time. Companies don’t know what they don’t know. Most don’t understand the potential and how to most effectively utilize it.
You can’t stop your salespeople from using social media. If you try, you will just create a negative culture that may drive them away, looking for opportunities elsewhere.
If you trigger sales resistance with your messaging and the way you communicate, sales is going to become very difficult. It will be a numbers game for you and it simply doesn’t have to be that way for you when you learn the right skills.
It’s all about the quality of the conversations you have with your prospects, not the quantity if you want to be the very best at what you do.

11:13 Why is LinkedIn so crucial for salespeople right now to help them make more sales?

People are more digitally active than they’ve ever been.
The pandemic has done nothing but increase the number of customers and prospects who are engaging using social media.
As a salesperson, you have to evolve and pivot in order to continue to experience success.
You have to have the right skills and the right training to help differentiate you from your competition.
You need to reference as much relevant, personalized information as you can.
Your messages need to be shorter and more powerful.
Your messages need to contain something valuable not to you, but to your prospects. The more you make your messaging about them, the more likely you are to get a reply.

16:02 Let’s talk about your book again. You wrote this book in 2019. Social media changes rapidly, what’s one thing you would include in this book on social selling using the LinkedIn platform that maybe you didn’t even know about or have a firm grasp on when you wrote the book?

LinkedIn video messaging. When Daniel wrote his book, video wasn’t the big focus. Now it is.
It’s the closest thing to face to face sales that gets your prospects a chance to see you and know you where bodily language can continue to make a huge impact.
When they can see your face and hear your voice, it adds a whole new layer to it.
Think about your environment when selling using video. What are your surroundings like, what are you wearing, etc. Make sure you are looking at the camera and confident about what you are saying.

19:40 During the pandemic, in what way are you seeing top salespeople pivoting right now using LinkedIn specifically to stand out of the crowd?

Companies are encouraging their salespeople to focus on building their personal brands. They are starting to get their salespeople focused on growing their own personal audiences. Some SDRs now have bigger followings than the companies they work for and they are getting a hundred times the engagement, a hundred times the messaging, a hundred times the leads.
All they are doing is sharing value. They are not preaching or pretending to be the expert. They are simply sharing what is happening in their world and that’s what people want to follow.
From the prospects point of view, you become part of their daily routine if you are sharing the right content.
You become the “trusted authority” to help solve their problems and get them the results they want.

22:43 Can you share with us a few questions you teach companies or salespeople to ask while messaging a prospect on Linkedin early in the conversation and why do these questions work with getting the prospect to want to engage?

You need to have conversations that are not necessarily focused on your product or service.
Go through your prospect’s content and ask questions about their content. Talk about something that they are clearly interested in and passionate about and explore that subject in more detail.
Be sure and message people who view your profile. Just sent them a light, friendly message. This is another good way to create business.
The number 1 reason why salespeople deal with resistance and rejection is because they try to start presenting and talking about their solution too early in the conversation before they even know that a problem exists or before they know the root cause of the problem, and then how that problem is actually affecting them.
Don’t assume they have a problem or you are dead in the water.
You can accelerate the chance you get a reply or accelerate the chance of you getting them coming to you, and that is by giving value.
Make sure your profile is good before you message people.

29:13 Daniel shares 2 tips for offering value:

1. Share content on a regular basis that provides value to your particular target marketplace including: Insights, knowledge, tips, stories.
2. Engage in their content. If you see them checking out your profile, jump on their profile and make some likes to their content

29:55 How can salespeople leverage LinkedIn without spending hours per day on it?

There is a bonus chapter in Daniel’s book called Social Selling In 15 Minutes A Day. Daniel outlines 3 activities salespeople can do every day that will generate huge results:

5 Minutes – Spend 5 minutes growing your network every single day. Just focus on making 5-10 new connections. That may seem insignificant, but if you practice that every day it will build up over time.
5 minutes a day – Engage in content every day. Every day make a like or comment on 3-5 industry relevant posts.
5 minutes a day – Every day try and share a post, your own content.

Remember, it’s all about giving value. When you give value, you get value back.

32:35 Let’s talk about the future of Social Selling. What does that look like? What’s your advice on the future of Social Selling? What does that look like to you in your mind?

Video is growing rapidly.
Live videos with an industry expert.
Building your personal brand.

34:05 What are a few specific things salespeople can do using the LinkedIn platform to win accounts in a down economy that most salespeople wouldn’t even know about?

2 things: Effort & Creativity

Effort – Make an effort. Do your homework. Do some research. Research their content; research their profile; visit their website. Don’t just research them. Research other people like them in their company.
Creativity – Find unique ways to communicate your value to them.

36:27 Do you have any final thoughts or advice for our listeners?

Consistency. If you are going to leverage the power of LinkedIn you need to use it consistently.
It’s like going to the gym. If you want results, you need to do it consistently.
Use LinkedIn to learn, use it to network, use it to sell but just make sure you show up on a regular basis

37:06 Where can our listeners learn more about you and your company and how you can potentially solve some of their challenges with Social Selling?

Daniel's LinkedIn – Connect with Daniel on LinkedIn
Daniel’s Website: https://www.danieldisney.online/
The Million-Pound LinkedIn Message – Pick up Daniel’s book

Killer Resources

The New Model Of Selling: Learn from Jeremy Miner The Only Friction-Free, Persuasion Sales System Guaranteed To Increase Revenue.
Join The Sales Revolution: If you’re ready to do sales differently, you’re in the right place. This community is for entrepreneurs and sales pros to connect, grow, + learn the new (and highly improved) connection-based way of selling. Get ready to toss out all that you’ve been taught about sales up to this point. It’s time for a revolution.

The post The Million-Pound LinkedIn Message: Secrets To Social Selling - with Daniel Disney first appeared on Persuasion Sales Training with Jeremy Miner | 7th Level.

The Million-Pound LinkedIn Message: Secrets To Social Selling – with Daniel Disney posted first on https://7thlevelhq.blogspot.com

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

How Questioning Strategy Helps Close More Deals – with Antonio Garrido

Have you ever wondered what it takes to be a top business owner/top salesperson in your industry, the one who makes all the money, who gets the promotions and all the respect? My guest today is President and CEO of ‘Absolute Sales Development’ Inc. based in Miami, Florida – a multi-million dollar sales and sales management training company. He works with highly-motivated entrepreneurs, business leaders, and companies who are ready to work smarter and commit their time, money, and energy to attract new clients, sell more, and generate more profits – ‘Hope’ is not a high growth strategy, he says! He has written two best selling sales books, and he will be talking about them today.

Join The Sales Revolution: If you’re ready to do sales differently, you’re in the right place. This community is for entrepreneurs and sales pros to connect, grow, + learn the new (and highly improved) connection-based way of selling. Get ready to toss out all that you’ve been taught about sales up to this point. It’s time for a revolution.

Antonio's Website: https://www.absolute.sandler.com/
Antonio’s LinkedIn – Connect with Antonio on LinkedIn
Antonio's Instagram – Follow Antonio on Instagram
Antonio's Facebook – Check out Antonio on Facebook

Antonio shares his 4 Golden Rules.
Antonio shares one of the most important questions a salesperson should ask their prospect in the sales process? And Why?
Every sales professional hears the same kind of questions over and over. Start tracking the kinds of questions you get by writing them down. And then start crafting your answers to the questions including the stories and examples that will best help answer those questions. Then role play your answers with someone around you.

Sponsors

Show Notes

**Click the timestamp to jump directly to that point in the episode.

Today’s Audio MASTERCLASS: How Questioning Strategy Helps Close More Deals – with Antonio Garrido

3:10 I want to dive right into your story and your background and give our listeners a feel for how you arrived at this point where you are one of the elite authorities on sales and leadership. Please tell us a little bit more about your background and how this all started for you. How did you learn all these skills?

Antonio originally went to college to become an architect.
When a baby is born, the doctor doesn’t hand the baby to his or her parents and say: “Congratulations, it looks like you have a little salesperson here.”
He was recruited by his CEO to run a sales and marketing division.
He tripled his income instantly.
Found himself running a team of 30 sales people.
He went back to school and got his MBA.
Sales and Marketing should be aligned with each other.

9:00 How has COVID-19 been affecting your world first?

Everyone was entirely unprepared for COVID.
3 buckets
- Some businesses took off
- Some declined
- Some went out of business
Antonio had to help his customers pivot.

12:05 Let’s talk about your book Asking Questions The Sandler Way. Why are these questions so vital for salespeople to be asking?

Here are the questions that most salespeople have
- What percentage of time do customers speak the truth? How do we get to the truth?
- The salesperson typically wants more time than the prospect is willing to give. Our value as a salesperson is measured more by the information that we gather than by the information that we give.
- Question is one of the key ways to differentiate yourself from your competition.
- Most sales people have been taught how to ask surface questions.
- If you only ask surface questions, you only get surface answers.
- The most important question to ask of all the questions: We need to get permission to ask a series of questions.
- You have a limited amount of time so you need to carefully choose the questions you are going to ask your prospect.
- It’s okay if the prospect does not know the answers to some of your questions because you are making them think outside their box.

21:12 Antonio shares his 4 Golden Rules

Rule #1 – They never believe what you tell them.
Rule #2 – They rarely believe what you show them.
Rule #3 – They will often believe what a 3rd party tells them.
Rule #4 – They always believe what they tell themselves.

23:15 Antonio says he has never heard one of us customers say the reason they chose him or his company was because they were the cheapest.

So many salespeople get commoditized by the way they communicate.
If you ask your questions right, you will always win the business, even if your price is higher.
Rolls Royce does not advertise their product on T.V. because their clients aren’t sitting around watching T.V. all day.

25:41 Let’s talk more about your 2nd book: The 21st Century Ride Along. Who did you write this book for and why?

The coach never steps into the game to make a critical play for one of his or her players
A parent doesn’t step in and take over right when their child is starting to learn to ride a bike. Letting them fall off the bike is the best way to teach them to ride on their own.
Similarly, a sales manager shouldn’t step in when the person they are trying to train is about to do something difficult.

29:21 Regarding Leadership in an organization, how does your training apply to sales leadership specifically?

To succeed at anything it is a combination of the right kinds of behaviors, the right kinds of attitudes and the right kinds of skills and techniques.
A manager's primary job is to help their people succeed.
And the best way to succeed is to improve results by building a team of people (because a highly trained team is better than individuals) who are self-sufficient (meaning they perform even when you are not around) with a high degree of skill, coupled with a high degree of motivation.
Your Job: Self-sufficiency, High Degree of Skill, High Degree of Motivation
Your job is to help manage their behaviors, coach their attitudes and training their skills and technique.
Many leaders think they can manage behaviors, attitudes and skill
Manage the “what”, Train the “how”, and Coach the “why”
The best managers and leaders are coaches.
Antonio teaches his B.E.A.R. model –
- Belief
- Expectations
- Actions
- Results

35:09 What’s one of the most important questions a salesperson should ask their prospect in the sales process? And Why?

A question or questions that get a universal YES
Could I give you a super quick example?
Can I tell you my biggest fear?
Jeremy I was thinking about this meeting this morning, can I tell you what I was thinking?
Hard sell is good for one thing and one thing only – a hard push back!
Make it conversational by putting in these really good “lubricating questions” that get a universale YES.
It has to feel like you are talking to a friend and it’s strategically very conversational.

38:01 Tell me about how your clients typically start their sales training with you? What are they learning that first 30 days?

We always assess before we train anybody. We need to first determine if we can help the prospect. We don’t just assume we can help everybody.
We don’t do cookie cutter training
First thing we do is we take them through a process of bonding and report
Pattern Interrupt – Get permission to ask questions
Upfront Contract where we agree what the end looks like
Qualification Phase – Pain, Money and Decision
Fulfillment Stage
Post Sell
How to Prospect Like a Lunatic – Skilled Prospecting
Constant Reinforcement over time.
Is training something you did, or something you do?

42:53 Do you have any final thoughts or advice for our listeners?

Every sales professional hears the same kind of questions over and over. Start tracking the kind of questions you get by writing them down. And then start crafting your answers to the questions and the stories and examples that will best help answer those questions. Then role play your answers with someone around you.

44:23 Where can our listeners learn more about you and your company and how you can potentially solve some of their challenges?

Antonio's Website: https://www.absolute.sandler.com/
Anthony’s Phone Number (call or text him): (786) 527-0277
Text me your email address – Antonio will send you free stuff that will really help you

Killer Resources

The New Model Of Selling: Learn from Jeremy Miner The Only Friction-Free, Persuasion Sales System Guaranteed To Increase Revenue.
Join The Sales Revolution: If you’re ready to do sales differently, you’re in the right place. This community is for entrepreneurs and sales pros to connect, grow, + learn the new (and highly improved) connection-based way of selling. Get ready to toss out all that you’ve been taught about sales up to this point. It’s time for a revolution.

The post How Questioning Strategy Helps Close More Deals - with Antonio Garrido first appeared on Persuasion Sales Training with Jeremy Miner | 7th Level.

How Questioning Strategy Helps Close More Deals – with Antonio Garrido posted first on https://7thlevelhq.blogspot.com

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Modern Selling: How to Survive An Unexpected Global Pandemic – with Trish Bertuzzi

My guest today is founder & President of The Bridge Group and author of the best-selling book: The Sales Development Playbook. She is an authority on inside sales (if not “THE” AUTHORITY) and often remarks how lucky she is to work with an amazing team, helping sales and marketing leaders make the big decisions: on implementation strategy, performance improvement process, supporting technology, metrics and measurement. For more than two decades, she has promoted inside sales as a community, profession, and engine for revenue growth.

Join The Sales Revolution: If you’re ready to do sales differently, you’re in the right place. This community is for entrepreneurs and sales pros to connect, grow, + learn the new (and highly improved) connection-based way of selling. Get ready to toss out all that you’ve been taught about sales up to this point. It’s time for a revolution.

Trish's Website – https://www.bridgegroupinc.com.
The Sales Development Playbook is the best book to start with.
Trish’s LinkedIn – Connect with Trish on LinkedIn.
Trish's Instagram – Follow Trish on Instagram.
Trish‘s Facebook – Check out Trish on Facebook.

3 Value Bombs

Trish thinks sales is the best profession on the face of the planet and she is very passionate about it. She also thinks sales is a “craft”. As with any craft you have to practice it and hone it. You have to learn and stay current with it. Even though Trish has had The Bridge Group for 22 years, she continues to do outbound every day. “I hone my craft!” Her happiest times are at her stand-up desk doing outbound.
There is a misnomer out there that buyers have done 70% of their research before they talk to a sales person. How are they going to do their research when they don’t even know they have a problem yet?
To make selling fun, and it should be fun, you need to treat every interaction with a customer like it is an audition. When you hang up the call, you should ask yourself: “Did I get the role that I wanted?” Pretend like you are an actor and the role you are after is one of “Trusted Advisor.” Did I show empathy? Did I present valuable information with them that maybe they didn’t have before the conversation? Self analysis is a critical success factor in modern selling.

Sponsors

Show Notes

**Click the timestamp to jump directly to that point in the episode.

Today’s Audio MASTERCLASS: From Impossible to Inevitable – with Aaron Ross

3:02 I want to dive right into your story and your background and give our listeners a feel for how you arrived at this point where you are one of the elite authorities on sales and leadership. Please tell us a little bit more about your background and how this all started for you. How did you learn all these skills?

Trish has been selling for 35 years.
Trish thinks sales is the best profession on the face of the planet and she is very passionate about it.
She also thinks sales is a “craft”. As with any craft you have to practice it and hone it. You have to learn and stay current with it.
Even though Trish has had The Bridge Group for 22 years, she continues to do outbound every day. I hone my craft!
Her happiest times are at her stand-up desk doing outbound.
She loves figuring out how she is going to help people. What’s the story she is going to tell them to really help them. What are the channels in which she is going to tell those stories.
She uses all the latest technologies. She is a continuous student.
Is training something you did or is training something you do in order to become elite in selling.

5:55 The beginning of the sales process is equally as important as the end, can you tell us more about what you mean by that?

The hardest part of the modern sales process is getting to engagement. Getting that buyer to listen to you now is just exponentially harder.
We as sales people have done a fantastic job at boring the ever-loving crap out of our buyers with bad messaging, email as a spam cannon, social outreaches that do nothing but promote ourselves.
We have lost our way in that our job and focus should be all about helping “them” – meaning our prospects be successful.
The beginning of the sales process can be the hardest, because if you sound like everybody else, you’ll get treated like everybody else.
The sale is really made at hello and throughout the beginning of the call as you are asking discovery questions to help the prospect discover what their problems are.
You have to become a problem finder and a problem solver and uncover the root causes of their problems and how it it impacting them

9:00 Let’s talk about the pandemic. This is on everybody’s mind. How has the pandemic of 2020 impacted and changed modern-day selling?

Trish’s business is inside sales and sales development and that world has been virtual selling for years. That’s what her company teaches people to do: how to use the phone, web and social media to generate pipelines and revenue.
Field sales has changed. Field sellers have had to pivot their skills.
How to develop relationships and have great conversations in a little black box.
We are developing a relationship right now on Zoom. It doesn’t matter if we are in the same room.
The world is changing and you have to embrace it.

10:45 You talk a lot about how companies are “taking the people out of the process” and how they are ‘shooting themselves in the foot’ by focusing so much of their attention on technology and automation. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Companies want to push the “easy button” and purchase a technology to help manage their sales people and achieve success as opposed to sitting down and completely evaluating. What’s our process?, What’s our message?, How are those discovery calls going? How do I coach my people? That investment is way more than $35 per head per month.
That effort takes time and it takes specific skills and it takes continuity. It takes measurement and it takes individualized strategy based on the unique skills of each of your reps.
Easy button: buy technology.

12:00 Where does that leave most companies that are going down that dangerous “buy technology” path?

Trish loves it because those are the companies that end up being a client down the road.
Some companies have tapped the brakes on technology over the past few months. And some who have not done the hard work, have actually hit the brakes.

12:27 One thing you say is that you can’t automate Excellence – what do you mean by that?

Everyone talks about personalization in sales and Trish completely agrees with that.
Personalization at scale though is a little bit harder.
It’s not the process that makes you excellent; it’s not the message that makes you excellent. It’s the delivery that makes you excellent.
Where we see “pipeline leakage” the most is in that introductory discovery call.

14:24 You said you hate BANT. Tell us your thoughts on why BANT may not be that effective anymore?

I hate BANT when it is used at the wrong place in the sales process and when it is all coupled together.
BANT comes from a faulty understanding of what the sales process actually is in human behavior. BANT assumes that every prospect you talk to already knows what their problems are and that they have a budget set aside to fix it.
The problem is that most of your prospects don’t know what their problem is. 90% of them don’t.
Maybe they feel like they have a problem, but they are not sure what the true source of that problem actually is or what the problem is doing to them or the root cause of the problem or the potential consequences are if you don’t do anything about your problem.
So your questioning ability and becoming what we call a problem finder and a problem solver, not a product pusher. The questions you ask help them discover what their true problems are. That they might not have thought the had. It challenges their status quo.
Analogy: Everyone today is selling “vitamins,” which are nice to have. But many people need “aspirin.”

17:17 Are SDRs (Sales Development Representatives) at risk of being replaced by automation or is this just a ploy to get attention in the media?

It’s a ploy. It takes the whole “human factor” out of the equation.
automation can never find problems for your prospects, they didn’t know they had.
There is a misnomer out there that buyers have done 70% of their research before they talk to a sales person. How are they going to do their research when they don’t even know they have a problem yet?
Or what if you are selling to innovators and early adopters. You are selling something they didn’t even know about.
Look what automation has gotten us. Before automation, 60% of sales organizations made quota. After the onset of automation, 60% of sales organizations make quota.
Golf analogy: Golf technology has come so far in the last decade, but the average golf handicap has not gone down 1 stroke.

19:09 What are some flaws in the hiring, onboarding and training processes that companies need to fix now as it relates to inside sales?

Hiring has kind of flipped because previously the demand for inside sales far outweighed supply.
Companies need to systematize their hiring process as much as they do their sales process to get the best candidates in this market.

21:04 Your “Warrior Cry” to Executives has been: Look at your budgets, are you spending an equal amount of money on making your sales people better as you are on technology? Are companies investing in skill set enhancement?

It’s almost like they have an obligatory check box to get ii done for the year, and then beyond that there is not much support from the management team beyond that.
A lot of sales training today is like motivational speaking.
Motivational training is good but at the end of the day, when a sales rep picks up the phone they need skills…they need to know exactly what to say to get that prospect to engage in a conversation to see if you can help them.
In addition to “motivational training,” many companies are focused on product training next as opposed to skillset training, which is what is really needed today.
And then they wonder why there is huge attrition and they have to replace half their sales force every few months.

23:02 You say the pendulum has swung too far over on the automation side of the equation when in reality the sales process is still all about “people selling to people.” give us more insight into that?

To make selling fun, and it should be fun, you need to treat every interaction with a customer like it is an audition.
When you hang up the call, you should ask yourself: “Did I get the role that I wanted?” Pretend like you are an actor. And the role you are after is one of “Trusted Advisor.” Did I show empathy? Did I present valuable information with them that maybe they didn’t have before the conversation?
Self analysis is a critical success factor in modern selling.
The biggest problem in sales is if you don’t know what your problem is. Because if you don’t know what your problem is, how can you fix it? But when you do know what your problem is, whose responsibility is it to do something about it?

24:49 How and why managers aren’t correctly managing the inside sales process?

Trish places the blame on the executives that made them a manager. Often the best reps are promoted into management but they lack the leadership skills necessary to lift others.
They don’t know how to coach. They don’t know how to talk with someone about their career path. They don’t know how to handle problems. They don’t know when to step in or step out.
Trish’s company offers a service called “coach the coach” where they help turn individual contributors into good managers.
Mentoring has fallen by the wayside.
The greatest athletes have mentors and coaches.
Nobody owns your success but you. Don’t wait for your company to invest in your training. You should take responsibility for your own success.

27:46 I love how you talk about this final idea. I see this so much with salespeople. What is the “rush to demo syndrome” and how can it be fixed?

What is the hardest part of the sales process? The beginning.
Let me go back to the easy button.
When sales people try to present their solution too early.
Listening to your prospect is critical to fixing the “rush to demo syndrome.”
Push pull dynamic.

30:10 Do you have any final thoughts or advice for our listeners?

Hone your craft. Think about it every day. Self analysis is critical.
The biggest problem that many sales people have is their ego and it prevents them from learning and reaching greater heights.
You have to let go of your ego to make more income as a company or as an individual.

31:16 Where can our listeners learn more about you and your company and how you can potentially solve some of their challenges?

Follow Trish on Linkedin Trish’s LinkedIn
Website: www.bridgegroupinc.com
- Resources Page – They do a ton of research.
- Our Blog has a lot of good advice.

Killer Resources

The New Model Of Selling: Learn from Jeremy Miner The Only Friction-Free, Persuasion Sales System Guaranteed To Increase Revenue.
Join The Sales Revolution: If you’re ready to do sales differently, you’re in the right place. This community is for entrepreneurs and sales pros to connect, grow, + learn the new (and highly improved) connection-based way of selling. Get ready to toss out all that you’ve been taught about sales up to this point. It’s time for a revolution.

The post Modern Selling: How to Survive An Unexpected Global Pandemic - with Trish Bertuzzi first appeared on Persuasion Sales Training with Jeremy Miner | 7th Level.

Modern Selling: How to Survive An Unexpected Global Pandemic – with Trish Bertuzzi posted first on https://7thlevelhq.blogspot.com

Monday, October 19, 2020

From Impossible To Inevitable – with Aaron Ross

Have you ever wondered what it takes to be a top business owner/top salesperson in your industry, the one who makes all the money, who gets the promotions and all the respect? My next guest Aaron Ross is the co-author of From Impossible To Inevitable (with Jason Lemkin) and of Predictable Revenue (called the “Sales Bible of Silicon Valley”) about sales systems that helped Salesforce.com, Twilio, Zuora and other companies create billions in sales. He is married with 9 children (half through adoption), and lives in Edinburgh, UK. He’s Co-CEO of PredictableRevenue.com and a global keynote speaker.

Resources

Join The Sales Revolution: If you’re ready to do sales differently, you’re in the right place. This community is for entrepreneurs and sales pros to connect, grow, + learn the new (and highly improved) connection-based way of selling. Get ready to toss out all that you’ve been taught about sales up to this point. It’s time for a revolution.

Aaron’s Website – https://predictablerevenue.com/
From Impossible To Inevitable – is the best book to start with.
www.fromimpossible.com – get a free chapter of the book.
Aaron’s LinkedIn – Connect with Aaron on LinkedIn.
Aaron's Instagram – Follow Aaron on Instagram.
Aaron's Facebook – Check out Aaron on Facebook.

3 Value Bombs

A sales job is an amazing way to get paid to learn.
The biggest missed opportunities are missed on the frontend with lead generation because business owners are afraid to put themselves on the website, in the videos, in the newsletters, etc.
Elite salespeople are the best at asking the right questions at the right time in the conversation, with the right tone. They help the prospect uncover questions about their process or their problems that they didn’t even know they had.

Sponsors

Show Notes

**Click the timestamp to jump directly to that point in the episode.

Today’s Audio MASTERCLASS: From Impossible to Inevitable – with Aaron Ross

2:26 Aaron’s sales story really started when one of his companies failed after raising $5M in funding.

Every entrepreneur can sell with passion and enthusiasm, but that is different from having a system and knowing how to build and manage a sales team, and most importantly create “predictable revenue.”
He decided if he was ever going to build a successful company, he needed to really learn how to sell and how to build a sales team, and that led him to www.salesforce.com
He started out at the most junior sales rep job answering the 800 line at around age 30 or 31.
The best way to learn something is to do it.
A key to success in sales is being willing to “get into the trenches and get your hands dirty” and learn how selling works from the ground up.

6:14 How did you go from that junior sales position to helping Sales Force create hundreds of millions per year?

Sales Force to Aaron was like an MBA because he planned on starting another company someday
A sales job is an amazing way to get paid to learn
“When” not “If”
Aaron proactively networked inside Sales Force and met people all across the company
Aaron proved himself for several months and then found a big problem he could solve
He got executive support
The sales people were ineffective at prospecting and flailing around. There was no system.
He read a bunch of sales books. But the techniques were not working so he threw them all away.
He wrote several pain emails and mass sent them. It didn’t work, but it did start Aaron down the road of systematizing the process.

13:01 What do you feel is one of the biggest things that business owners and entrepreneurs get wrong about sales?

Many people do not put their own style and personality into the marketing messages they write.
They come across as boring and flat.
The biggest missed opportunities are missed on the frontend with lead generation because business owners are afraid to put themselves on the website, in the videos, in the newsletters, etc.
Often less (words) is more in marketing.
Focus on how what you do solves problems.

19:43 You say in your book that salespeople should prospect. What do you mean by that?

Think about a sports team. There is no sports team in the world where every player plays every position. So why do we do that in sales?
The principle is focus.
4 core roles:
- Dedicated outbound prospectors (outbound SDR) – find and book quality meetings
- Inbound SDR
- Sales people, closers, account executives
- Account management after the sale

23:01 What do you think leaders get right and wrong about outbound prospecting?

Expecting people to prospect part-time and do it well.
The lever for most companies growth is not found in the number of sales reps you have, but instead it is in having a predictable lead generating system.
Leaders underestimate how long it takes to build a quality system and team. It takes 6-12 months.

25:23 What do you feel are the biggest mistakes companies make when training their sales reps to sell?

Not having a training program
Not having an onboarding program
Is training something that you did, or is training something that you do?
The greatest athletes keep training. They don't just train their rookie season and stop.
The average salesperson spends less than $100 per year on their own sales training.
A lot of training programs are too focused on the product (features, benefits, etc.)
3 Eras of Selling
– Era 1 – Boiler Room selling (Wolf on Wall Street – manipulate them, posture them, push them)
– Era 2 – Consultative selling – ask logical-based questions. People think they buy on logic but it's all emotional.
– Era 3 – Dialogue – learn to ask the right questions (Neuro Emotional Persuasion Questions)
Buyers today don’t want to be talked to and sold; they want to be asked questions and listened to and understood.

30:58 Why is “nailing a niche” so important?

The attention span of the average person is squished. The amount of energy they are willing to spend to determine if something is relevant or not is more narrow.
Knowing what kind of customer needs you the most. How they think. How should you communicate with them?
Send out a clear signal so the right customers tune in and see that you are relevant to them.
Salespeople and business owners have to stop thinking like sellers and they have to start thinking like buyers. What problems do people have and how can my product best solve those problems.
You really have to understand what problems people have first.
What the best salespeople in the world do is they are the best at helping their prospects find problems they didn’t even think they had.
Average sales people ask a few surface level questions and then go right into their “pitch.”
Elite sales people are the best at asking the right questions at the right time in the conversation, with the right tone. They help the prospect uncover questions about their process or their problems that they didn’t even think they had.
Or maybe they knew about a problem, but they didn’t really know how bad it was, they didn’t know the root cause of it or the short or long-term consequences of what’s going to happen if they don’t do something about it.
Those kinds of salespeople are called “problem finders” and “problem solvers.”
One of the secrets to SalesForce.com is you have sales people selling to sales people
The best sales people listen to what the prospect means, not just what they say.

37:05 You have 9 kids? How do you manage that?

38:14 Why did you move your family from L.A. to Edinburgh, Scotland?

39:07 Do you have any final thoughts or advice for our listeners?

Regarding the journey, it always takes years longer than you thought to get where you want to go.
Whether you are a person trying to build your family or you are an entrepreneur trying to build a company, focus on learning and getting better and realize it usually takes longer than you thought.
The faster you learn the right skills, the faster you are going to take off.

40:27 Where can our listeners learn more about you and your training and your vision ?

From Impossible To Inevitable is the best book to start with
www.fromimpossible.com – get a free chapter of the book
https://predictablerevenue.com/ – website
Aaron’s LinkedIn – Connect with Aaron on LinkedIn

Killer Resources

The New Model Of Selling: Learn from Jeremy Miner The Only Friction-Free, Persuasion Sales System Guaranteed To Increase Revenue.
Join The Sales Revolution: If you’re ready to do sales differently, you’re in the right place. This community is for entrepreneurs and sales pros to connect, grow, + learn the new (and highly improved) connection-based way of selling. Get ready to toss out all that you’ve been taught about sales up to this point. It’s time for a revolution.

The post From Impossible To Inevitable - with Aaron Ross first appeared on Persuasion Sales Training with Jeremy Miner | 7th Level.

From Impossible To Inevitable – with Aaron Ross posted first on https://7thlevelhq.blogspot.com

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Shifting To Virtual And Selling Without Any Constraints – With Shari Levitin

Shari Levitin is an energetic, wickedly funny sales authority, who helps sales teams bridge the gap between beating quota and selling with an authentic, heartfelt approach.

As founder of her self-named, highly respected company, she has helped create over 1 billion dollars in increased revenue for companies in over 40 countries. She is the bestselling author of Heart and Sell: 10 Universal Truths Every Salesperson Needs to Know, which we are going to talk about today… (it’s now translated in 4 languages), and she is a contributor to Forbes, CEO Magazine, Quotable, Inc Magazine and The Huffington Post.

Resources

Join The Sales Revolution: If you’re ready to do sales differently, you’re in the right place. This community is for entrepreneurs and sales pros to connect, grow, + learn the new (and highly improved) connection-based way of selling. Get ready to toss out all that you’ve been taught about sales up to this point. It’s time for a revolution.

Heart And Sell: 10 Universal Truths Every Salesperson Needs to Know Paperback
Shari’s Instagram – Follow Shari on Instagram
Shari’s Facebook – Check out Shari on Facebook
Shari’s Youtube – Check out Shari on Youtube
Shari’s LinkedIn – Follow Shari on LinkedIn

3 Value Bombs

The best salespeople are not necessarily the best at talking. Instead, they are the best at listening and asking the right questions at the right time in the conversation.
Don’t just chase the money in your sales profession. If you find a product that you love, the money will follow if a couple of other things are there. In addition to choosing a product around which you have conviction and passion, make sure your product solves a real problem in the marketplace.
Find a qualified mentor who truly has the expertise to help you get to the next level, who can help you implement what you are learning.

Sponsors

Show Notes

**Click the timestamp to jump directly to that point in the episode.

Today's Audio MASTERCLASS: Heart And Sell – with Shari Levitin

4:06 Tell us a little more about your background and how you came to be known as an elite authority on sales and persuasion?

Started in the timeshare industry but she didn't like high-pressure sales so she got out of it. Then she got back in when Marriott started selling timeshares.
Shari doesn't consider herself a “born salesperson.”
She studied human behavior and learned from an earlier mentor that better communicators make better sales people.
Sales is a “life skill.”
Shari would keep a little black book and she would write down patterns she would see in human behavior. She would then for distinctions.
She became the #1 salesperson in all of Marriott for 2 reasons:
- She had a phenomenal mentor and after each presentation they would analyze it. You can lose the deal, but you can't lose the lesson.
- She had an absolute passion for learning and she did not ascribe to the belief that if they don't buy today they will never buy. She became exceptional at calling people back and following-up.

7:38 The best salespeople are not necessarily the best at talking. Instead, they are the best at listening and asking the right questions at the right time in the conversation.

Help the prospect uncover problems they don't even know they have.
Get into the heart and soul of the customer and see what matters to them most.
Become a problem finder and a problem solver.
What are the potential consequences if they don't solve their problem now as opposed to down the road?
Most salespeople are product pushers. They are trained to ask a few surface questions that every other sales person is trained to ask.

10:26 How come one sales person can make, let's say $300,000 a year in that industry, while another is barely getting by when they're using the same “system”?

This is really the thesis of Shari's book that what you do matters, to quote Brene' Brown, “who you are matters more.”
So when we talk about Heart And Sell, there are the 10 universal truths every salesperson needs to know.
5 of them are very tactical: How we ask questions, How we isolate objections, How we build rapport. And these things matter. They are skill sets.
But who you are matters more. Authenticity today has never been more important.
If you are not genuinely empathic today, the customer is going to know.
In virtual selling, which many have been forced to pivot to this year, it's even more important than it's been in previous years.

14:08 If you were starting over today as a salesperson, what specific steps would you take to be at the very top right now?

#1 pick a product that you believe in and are passionate about. What matters is that you genuinely have a conviction in your product.
#2 choose a company where your manager can provide mentoring and coaching. People don't leave companies; people leave managers.
#3 In sales “no never means no.” The more rejections you can endure, the farther you are going to go in your sales career. Get yourself in the emotionally resilient state of mind.

18:01 In several of your trainings you talk about re-humanizing the sales process. What do you mean by that?

Information overload has impacted us all. Accessing information today is not the challenge but filtering it.
To make it in sales we have to be able to do everything that Alexa can't do.
CALL method – Connect, Ask, Listen, Link
Alexa will never be able to connect to another human the way humans connect
Alexa will never be able to ask questions that break past the skin, through the bone and into the heart
Alexa will never be able to listen not only to the words but to the emotion behind the words and get the nuances

20:31 Why should salespeople be using the CALL Method: Connect, Ask, Listen, Link?

According to Harvard Business Review, there are 2 things that every salesperson needs in order to create influence
- #1 Empathy – knowing your customer
- #2 Competency – knowing your product
- Which one is more important? It's a trick question. They are both equally important. But here's the catch: the order does matter. We need to lead with Empathy to be successful today.
- Empathy is the cornerstone of trust.
- Empathy creates an environment where the prospect wants to engage.

23:49 Your company shifted to virtual presentations because of COVID-19. How are you adjusting your presentations to assure that they translate to a virtually medium, but still fully engage the person on the other end?

The 10 biggest mistakes salespeople make in a virtual environment. Sometimes you need to look at what not to do, in order to determine what to do.
There is a tendency towards laziness in default behaviors.
When we are virtual we automatically don't have the same level of trust.
There is a hormone called Oxycontin. There is a hormone that is release when we are in the same room; it's the trust hormone.
#1 The first mistake salespeople make is they don't get their customer to turn on the camera. So they can't see their body language.
Customers are 7 times more likely to buy if they can see you and hear from you.
You don't have to see them. That's not as critical.
But if you can, it's best for both sides to turn on your cameras.
In your confirmation, let people know it will be a video call.
#2 An over-reliance on technology can become a big challenge. It's not a matter of “if” but “when” there will be a problem with your technology, and you need to be prepared for it.
Shari shares an embarrassing story about a technology glitch that happened in the middle of her presentation.
“Ditch The Deck” – Don't be so reliant on your technology (competency) that you lose empathy and you lose the relationship.

31:29 What was the greatest challenge you experienced in pivoting to virtual as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Finding the time to do everything required to do it right. Shari and her team listened to over 100 virtual presentations during the first week to find the pitfalls because she did not want to make it up.
Being humble enough to admit that maybe she needed to reach out to other people with more expertise so she could get it right. Having the humility to say who are the experts and what can I learn from them.
Communicating to everyone that what you did live…you can't just turn on a Zoom and repeat it virtually.
Ego can be one of our greatest inhibitors to success. Ego can keep you stuck in the same income for years.

34:01 What are some trends you are noticing during this shift towards virtual selling?

Right now 90% of all sales people are shifting towards virtual presentations.
It works!
If you don't have a strategy for selling virtually you are going to be left in the dust.
Win rates may not be as high, but you can reach more people.
Sellers will have more balance in their lives.
It's more economical to sell virtually.
Video prospecting and following up are going to become increasingly more common and effective
- 10 times higher open rates sending a video as opposed to an email

38:01 Where can our listeners learn more about you Shari?

Linkedin www.linkedin.com/sharilevitin

Email me shari@sharilevitin.com

A Party Without Pants

Talk about the 10 Mistakes That Virtual Sellers Make And How To Avoid Them

But my book on Amazon and learn more about Learn more about the C.A.L.L. Method of selling. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1632650746

Killer Resources

The New Model Of Selling: Learn from Jeremy Miner The Only Friction-Free, Persuasion Sales System Guaranteed To Increase Revenue.
Join The Sales Revolution: If you’re ready to do sales differently, you’re in the right place. This community is for entrepreneurs and sales pros to connect, grow, + learn the new (and highly improved) connection-based way of selling. Get ready to toss out all that you’ve been taught about sales up to this point. It’s time for a revolution.

Shifting To Virtual And Selling Without Any Constraints – With Shari Levitin posted first on https://7thlevelhq.blogspot.com

Monday, October 12, 2020

Don’t Let AI Steal Your Commissions – With Victor Antonio

Victor Antonio had a poor upbringing from one of the roughest areas of Chicago, but that didn't stop him from earning a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, an MBA, building a 20 year career as a top sales executive and becoming President of Global Sales and Marketing for a $420M company.

Resources

Join The Sales Revolution: If you’re ready to do sales differently, you’re in the right place. This community is for entrepreneurs and sales pros to connect, grow, + learn the new (and highly improved) connection-based way of selling. Get ready to toss out all that you’ve been taught about sales up to this point. It’s time for a revolution.

Sales Velocity Academy: Online Sales Training To Increase your Sales Velocity with Victor Antonio.
Victor’s Instagram – Follow Victor on Instagram.
Victor’s Facebook – Check out Victor on Facebook.
Victor’s Youtube – Check out Victor on Youtube.

3 Value Bombs

If you understand the why to how people buy, then you can sell a lot more effectively.
Your ability to ask the right questions, your ability to guide the conversation through the right questions and then become aware of their problems, is key to your success in selling.
The best way to sell is to raise objections throughout the presentation, you block them and reduce that buyer's resistance.

Sponsors

Show Notes

**Click the timestamp to jump directly to that point in the episode.

Today’s Audio MASTERCLASS: Finding The Why In How People Buy with Victor Antonio

3:54 Victor talks about how a beer and a piece of meat in his belly were completely satisfying until he discovered he missed out on a $50,000 commission!

7:25 If you understand the why to how people buy, then you can sell a lot more effectively.

8:00 Are you focused on selling or helping?

9:00 Once you learn the right skills, your ability to make more money will increase exponentially.

9:20 Your ability to ask the right questions, your ability to guide the conversation through the right questions and then become aware of their problems, is key to your success in selling.

9:45 The average sales person practices what to say, the best of the best sales people practice what to ask.

Too many sales professionals are practicing their “power point” instead of the questions they need to ask.

12:27 Sales people have to do things different during times of economic contraction. During these times, your shortcomings as a sales professional are only going to be magnified.

13:14 Learning to pivot during difficult times is critical for sales professionals today.

Warren Buffet says when the tide goes out, that’s when you will see people swimming naked – referring to their financial unpreparedness. So it is true of sales people, many of them are unprepared and slow to pivot.

14:03 How has selling changed in the past 5, 10 even 15 years.

Before the internet the sales person was the many source of education.
The relationship is the result of your ability to help people
People today don’t buy from people they like, they buy from people who they trust will get them results. .
Become the trusted authority, land the business and your customer will never leave you.

17:17 The whole ABC aspect of selling is dead.

Customers today have information readily available with their smart devices and they will not be bullied.
Net Promoter Scores. Customer Satisfaction Scores – these are tools that will impact you today when you pressure people. This can lead to buyer remorse and people talking badly about you.

17:52 How selling has changed

Victor believes we have reached the “equality of quality” – meaning every product is the same almost every service is the same. So the real differentiating factor in today’s market is the sales person.. How you format, clarify and explain.
The quality of your questions will determine your success in selling.
Move past surface questions and learn how to dig deeper by increasing your questioning ability.
Learning these skill can help you make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year even as a W2 or 1099 sales person.
Challenger Sales – The customer isn’t always right.

21:24 What are your thoughts on Closing? Pressure vs. Persuasion?

Nobody likes to be hard closed
In B2B selling the number of decision makers keeps increasing, so there’s no ABC selling today. If it’s a low value sale, you can ABC sell. But as the sales process becomes more complex and larger, ABC doesn’t work.
Studies have shown that sales people who have been trained on closing techniques, their sales results actually go down.
You don’t need 101 closes today. Just practice 1 good close.
If you know the right questions to ask, you can work your way towards “sticking the landing” on the close.
You don’t have to close hard if you know where you are going.
Learn how to ask commitment questions and you never have to close at all. Your customers will close themselves.
Sales people shouldn’t close people who just shouldn’t be closed.

25:24 The best way to sell is to raise objections throughout the presentation, you block them and reduce that buyer's resistance.

Blocking objections vs. overcoming them.
If your prospect verbalizes something, they are going to stick with their position.
If the customer says “that’s too expensive” or “that’s too complicated”, they’ve now voiced an opinion and taken a position, and now you as a sales person are on your heels and you have to try to overcome that.
It’s more about Objection Prevention than Objection Handling.

28:11 Virtually Selling Vs. Remote Selling

Victor came up with a phrase called “Frame Casting.”
Step number 1 in the new way of selling is control the frame – what people are looking at.
Reading body language can be a little more challenging because only part of the body is in the “frame.” You need to use your ears more too.
The ability to use new technology fluently can also help you.

30:20 Are sales people becoming obsolete with the onset of new technologies?

A confused mind will never make a decision.
Victor tells an interesting story about a drone sales person.
BANT selling is much less effective in 2020 and beyond. It can still work in certain situations, but you have to be selective in how you use it.

37:52 To be successful in selling moving forward, what is some final advice you can give to our listeners?

The Universal Sales Formula
- Empathy
- Education – ask the right questions, offer insight that they have never thought about before
- Empower
- Showing empathy and that you are really there to help them, will completely set you apart from your competition.

Killer Resources

The New Model Of Selling: Learn from Jeremy Miner The Only Friction-Free, Persuasion Sales System Guaranteed To Increase Revenue.
Join The Sales Revolution: If you’re ready to do sales differently, you’re in the right place. This community is for entrepreneurs and sales pros to connect, grow, + learn the new (and highly improved) connection-based way of selling. Get ready to toss out all that you’ve been taught about sales up to this point. It’s time for a revolution.

Don’t Let AI Steal Your Commissions – With Victor Antonio posted first on https://7thlevelhq.blogspot.com

Monday, October 26, 2020

The Million-Pound LinkedIn Message: Secrets To Social Selling – with Daniel Disney

Subscribe

3 Value Bombs

Sponsors

Show Notes

Killer Resources

Subscribe

Subscribe

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

How Questioning Strategy Helps Close More Deals – with Antonio Garrido

Subscribe

Sponsors

Show Notes

Killer Resources

Subscribe

Subscribe

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Modern Selling: How to Survive An Unexpected Global Pandemic – with Trish Bertuzzi

Subscribe

3 Value Bombs

Sponsors

Show Notes

Killer Resources

Subscribe

Subscribe

Monday, October 19, 2020

From Impossible To Inevitable – with Aaron Ross

Subscribe

Resources

3 Value Bombs

Sponsors

Show Notes

Killer Resources

Subscribe

Subscribe

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Shifting To Virtual And Selling Without Any Constraints – With Shari Levitin

Subscribe

Resources

3 Value Bombs

Sponsors

Show Notes

Killer Resources

Subscribe

Subscribe

Monday, October 12, 2020

Don’t Let AI Steal Your Commissions – With Victor Antonio

Subscribe

Resources

3 Value Bombs

Sponsors

Show Notes

Killer Resources

Subscribe

Subscribe