Sales Tuners

https://www.salestuners.com/sam-mckenna/

1. Be Polite: Prospects are more than just a number on a sales chart. He or she is a person with a whole life outside the office just like your own. Remembering that in meetings, phone calls and email outreach can make all the difference when it comes down to cultivating a relationship and ultimately making the sale.
2. Get Prospects Become Storytellers: Sales is not a pitch. It’s a conversation. How can you structure your questioning to get a prospect comfortable enough to just open up and tell you a story? Sure, you could tell them a million things about your solution, but what does their world really look like?
3. Show the Cost of Inaction: Sometimes it’s not about what they think they have. It’s about what they are losing. Showing your prospects the cost of inaction can often times be more effective than anything else. How much is it costing them to maintain the status quo? How can your product or service make their life easier? How can your offering keep them out from being embarrassed in their next meeting their boss?

• Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg

• Octiv – Transform the way your sales assets are created, distributed and tracked around the world. Because a better sales process is a better buying experience.

https://www.salestuners.com/matt-amundson/

• Sell to People, Not Companies: Starting at the top of the funnel and working your way down is a sales strategy that brings the big picture into focus. Most sales people wake up in the morning thinking about the companies they want to sell to, instead of the actual people that fill the roles able to buy at that company. Figure out what their personal motivations, incentives, and interests are and talk to them like human beings.
• Get Over Your Fears: President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s famous words about fear are just as true in sales as in anything else. The only thing to fear is fear itself. Truer words were never spoken, particularly in the sales world where fear is one of the most debilitating hurdles. Stop being afraid of sending the wrong content, calling the wrong person, hearing no or talking to strangers.
• Do More: When in doubt, do more. Come in early and stay late. While most CEOs will stop and take note, don’t do it to show off. Do it because you believe in what you’re doing. Show up to work every day because you’re passionate about solving problems for customers and striving to be better.

• The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson
• SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham

• Octiv – Transform the way your sales assets are created, distributed and tracked around the world. Because a better sales process is a better buying experience.

Full Notes:

https://www.salestuners.com/rowley

Takeaways

1. Share: Even if what you share is unrelated to what you’re trying to sell, doing so allows you to show you care, which drives future opportunities.
2. Focus on the Customer: Know the buyer from every angle at the company and personal level.
3. Provide Value: Constantly consume and share content that will be relevant to your buyers.

Book Recommendation

• Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin

Sponsor

• Octiv - Transform the way your sales assets are created, distributed and tracked around the world. Because a better sales process is a better buying experience.

1. Become a Subject Matter Expert: There have been many conversations on this show that have talked about the need to truly understand who your buyer is. Jess took that even a step farther by suggesting that she actually become a licensed health benefits consultant. Think about that. Are there certifications in your industry that could help you better relate to the knowledge your prospects have? Yes, you can learn these things at a high level likely through your companies sales enablement, but what would it take to be able to truly walk in your customers' shoes?
2. Your Questions Prove Your Credibility: Deals are won or lost in discovery. If the questions you are asking can easily be answered, you’re not asking the right questions. You want your prospect to actually think about what is being asked and that means showing you know their world. Use the words their peers use. Explain what you’ve seen other people like them go through. Then ask a question that makes them shift a bit in their seat. When they start showing emotion, you know you’re actually on to something.
3. Listen: Simply stated, but not easy to execute. Think about your last discovery call. Were you listening to understand what your prospect was trying to tell you or were you really just waiting for them to stop talking so you could advance the conversation. What does it mean to actively listen? It’s the idea of reading between the lines. You hear the words that are coming out of their mouth but know there is a deeper meaning. When that’s the case, repeat some of what you just heard, and ask them to elaborate. Remember, people love to talk about themselves. Let them.

• https://www.salestuners.com/jessica-mcqueen

• Daring Greatly by Brené Brown

• Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.

1. Ask Direct Questions About the Sales Process: Buyers that are interested and want to actually buy are more forthright with information than you may think. They want you to know what has to happen, but it’s your responsibility to ask, and you need to be direct about it. For instance, the last time you bought something like this, what did that process look like? Did you buy alone or were other people involved? How long did it take? Knowing these details can help you understand not only what’s real, but also how to accurately forecast your pipeline.
2. Arm Your Buyers to Help Them Buy: No, I don’t mean white papers or any collateral that marketing has put together. I mean, understanding what problems they are actually trying to solve, use cases they’re thinking about, or concerns they have about selling internally. Then, connect them with customers who have bought from you in the past. From a prospecting standpoint, you may even be able to host a dinner or event where you can get multiple buyers in the salesroom that have similar problems and let them talk about it with each other. Building these relationships when you’re not trying to sell them anything is even better long-term.
3. Know Your Funnel Math Equation: This still ceases to amaze me, how many people don’t know the math behind their quota or pipeline. So much, that I actually created a workbook for it that you can get at SalesTuners.com/roadmap. It’s quite simple. What is your average contract value? How many of those deals will it take to meet your quota, whether monthly, annually or quarterly? What’s your winning percentage on the opportunities you create? How many prospects do you have to talk to in order to create one opportunity? Once you know this formula, you put together a plan to 2X or even 3X your output.

• https://www.salestuners.com/frank-schneider

• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• Drown by Junot Diaz
• BUYology by Martin Lindstrom

• Costello - What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do.