Scott Cowley began selling at 15 and has helped industries ranging from Healthcare to Fintech to Event Management. Scott has personally closed deals on every inhabited continent (if you can help him with the only uninhabited continent, Antarctica, please reach out) and led teams selling in multiple languages. 

He is the founder of The Sales Mastermind, a business serving founders who sell but aren’t “sales” people with consulting, coaching, and community.

Some of the topics that we discussed in this episode are:

• What is it that most founders don’t know about sales?
• How sales is a process and how it works. 
• Why should you never think about sales as “closing the sale”.
• Implementation in the sales process.
• How to avoid proposals?
• How to lead the sale?
• Mistakes that founders make when it comes to building up their sales process. 
• When and how to find repeatability in your sales process so you can hire and grow your sales team.
• Why should sales be 6 months ahead of the product?

Link & Resources:

Scott Cowley on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/scottcowleyau

The Sales Mastermind: www.thesalesmastermind.com

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As the Chief Evangelist at BombBomb, coauthor of Rehumanize Your Business, and host of The Customer Experience Podcast, Ethan has collected and shared people’s video success stories in a variety of formats for a decade. He’s even sent 10,000 videos himself. 

Prior to joining BombBomb, he spent a dozen years leading marketing teams inside local television stations in Chicago, Grand Rapids, and Colorado Springs. 

He holds undergraduate and graduates degrees from the University of Michigan and UCCS in communication, psychology, and marketing.

Some of the key topics that we discussed in this episode are:

• How to rehumanize your sales process?
• What does it mean to be more human?
• How do we use videos as a tool kit?
• How video allows you to be more empathetic and curious in a way that email cannot do. 
• Being seen and heard by using videos
• The paradox of vulnerability
• The psychology of proximity
• Social reciprocity
• Commodified products 
• Video creates irrational buyer forces

Link & Resources:

Ethan Beute LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ethanbeute

BombBomb Website:   bombbomb.com

BombBomb on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/bombbomb

Rehumainze Your Business by Ethan Beute: bombbomb.com/book

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Andy has written two award-winning sales books, Zero-Time Selling and Amp Up Your Sales, is ranked #8 on LinkedIn's list of Top 50 Global Sales Experts. He has consulted with some of the biggest businesses in the world including Square, Philips, Grubhub, and more, making him one of the leading voices in the sales industry today. 

With more than 175,000 followers on LinkedIn, Andy is a highly sought-after speaker and sales sage who has made it his life's work to bring you strategies and insights that enable you to generate more wins and massive value. 

Some of the key topics that we discussed in this episode are:

Topics & Key Words:

• The importance of relationships in Sales
• Courage
• Sales Manager vs Sales Coach
• Misallocation of Attention
• Productivity Growth: https://www.bls.gov/lpc/prodybar.htm
• Returns of Time Invested
• Parado

Link & Resources:

Andy Paul on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/realandypaul

Andy Paul: Amp Up Your Sales: Powerful Strategies That Move Customers to Make Fast, Favorable Decisions: amzn.to/30IxUQ0

Sales Enablement Podcast with Andy Paul: 

www.ringdna.com/sales-enablement-podcast-with-andy-paul

Herbert Simon: Bounded Rationality: amzn.to/33IYeeK

Herbert Simon: Administrative Behavior:amzn.to/2Gv112x

Paradox of Choice: amzn.to/33IROwd

Peak-end Rule: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak%E2%80%93end_rule

New B2B Buying Journey & its Implication for Sales:

www.gartner.com/en/sales/insights/b2b-buying-journey

The Identification of Solution Ideas during Organizational Decision Making:

www.jstor.org/stable/2632813

Meet Liverpool's secret weapon: throw-in coach Thomas Grønnemark: es.pn/3nE9qBx

Zero-Time Selling: 10 Essential Steps To Accelerate Every Company's Sales: amzn.to/3nvfZpD

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When I was at Blend, Sunday afternoons were my best day. Why? Because the executives I was targeting were catching up on email and messages from their home office.

When I sold textbooks 25 years ago, I'd walk the university hallways into the late afternoon to find that one professor in the office.

Today, running SalesQualia, our future customers are startup founders. It's Friday at 5:16pm and we just booked two meetings for next week from LinkedIn chat messages.

Prospecting is a mindset – either you believe in your bones that your customers want to hear from you because you solve an important problem, or you're just going through the motions.

Make it happen for yourself.

Check out the LinkedIn Live here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/scottsambucci_whens-the-best-time-to-do-your-prospecting-activity-6710340824145702912-kPzm

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But do you have a system in place to get better along the way between those races – to build your strengths, to improve where you need?

For me, "getting out to the garage" means committing time and effort everyday, no matter what, to get better.

Where's your garage?

Check out the LinkedIn Live here:

www.linkedin.com/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:6701843992394440704

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Nick is the Director of Sales at Sendoso, the leading Sending Platform, where he’s responsible for the mid-market and enterprise sales teams. As the third employee and first sales hire, Nick built Sendoso’s sales process from the ground up before stepping into management to focus on scaling the sales organization. 

Nick is passionate about empowering sales reps to rise above the digital noise and connect with prospects and customers on a human level. Prior to Sendoso, Nick was an early sales hire at Talkdesk.

Some of the topics that we discussed in this episode are:

• The difference between implies versus actual ROI.
• How to track the results from sending a physical object?
• The three specific areas in your sales funnel where you could be using physical impressions. These are: 
• 1. At the start of your sale “engagement” stage
  2. Using it mid-funnel as a way to build rapport to pull a deal from early, to middle, to late stage.
  3. At the end of the sales funnel “close to conversion”.
• What are some gifts/objects that you could be sending?
• How gifts can help you with building a relationship and in your conversion rate. 
• Nick’s experience as an early-stage company leader and moving from Account Executives to Director role. 

Link & Resources:

Sendoso: sendoso.com

 Nick on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/casalenick

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Anthony is an expert in sales training, recruiting, goal achievement, and motivating salespeople to peak performance. He created his 1st business and built a team of over 100 sales reps at the age of 22 and has gone on to coach and mentor hundreds of top-performing sales professionals whose accolades have been national rep of the year, rookie of the year, and hall of fame. 

As an 18-year veteran of sales, Anthony has achieved top accolades in direct sales, B2B, and medical sales.  In his previous roles, he has trained and developed sales teams for Cutco Cutlery and Paychex.  His experiences have included managing teams of highly compensating sales professionals, facilitating international training programs, and launching products in new and emerging markets.

 As the author of the International Best-Selling book “Catapulting Commissions”, he provides strategies to get into the mental game of selling. Anthony has delivered numerous keynotes focusing on complacent sales syndrome, goal achievement, and S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goal setting.

He is also the host of the Catapulting Commissions podcast where he discusses the complacency that robs people of their full potential and interviews some of the world’s top sales performers and entrepreneurs.

His thoughts and opinions have been featured in Forbes, CNBC, FOX, and CBS.  

Some of the topics that we discussed in this episode are:

• The importance of identifying limits.
• The limitations that we have and could be preventing us from hitting your next phase of growth.
• “Crossing the Redline” when selling your product.
• The complacent sales syndrome and how it’s robbing your growth. 
• How can you become a “dream manager” so that you can understand your team?
• How do you help push your team to get to the outcome they want to achieve?
• Catapulting Commissions and understanding how to get to the next big outcome.
• The power circle of influence (people that support you). 
• How do you eliminate doubt?
• The importance of getting clarity with you and the people around you. 

Link & Resources:

Website: anthonypgarcia.com

Anthony on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/anthonypgarcia99

Catapulting Commissions by Anthony Garcia: www.catapultingcommissions.com/free-book-page1593218776016

Book: Dream Manager Matthew Kelly: amzn.to/3hA0IzD

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Doug has over 30 years of business experience as an entrepreneur and leader. His book, Nice Guys Finish First is a #1 ranked Amazon Best Seller.  As podcast host of The Nice Guys on Business Podcast, Doug has interviewed Gary Vaynerchuk, Arianna Huffington from HuffPost, Dan Harris from Good Morning America, Ron Klain, White House Chief of Staff, and dozens of celebs. 

Doug specializes in teaching others the "how-to's" of building relationships and strengthening connections. He is a nationally recognized speaker and writer.  

Some of the topics that we discussed in this episode are:

• The importance of using podcasts as a way to influence and create community.
• The virtues of podcasting and how you could be using it in your market.
• The importance of having a specific market niche and how it can be helpful for your audience.
• Ford Mustang Podcast by Doug Sandler and how his message educates people.
• What are some ways to start your own podcast?
• How do you go from idea to implementation?

Link & Resources:

Doug Sandler on LinkedIn:www.linkedin.com/in/doug-sandler-1a346649

Nice Guys on Business Podcast: www.niceguysonbusiness.com

TurnKey Podcast: www.turnkeypodcast.com/toolkit

Nice Guys Finish First by Doug Sandler: amzn.to/2Z0jQAs

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Doug has over 30 years of business experience as an entrepreneur and leader. His book, Nice Guys Finish First is a #1 ranked Amazon Best Seller.  As podcast host of The Nice Guys on Business Podcast, Doug has interviewed Gary Vaynerchuk, Arianna Huffington from HuffPost, Dan Harris from Good Morning America, Ron Klain, White House Chief of Staff, and dozens of celebs. 

Doug specializes in teaching others the "how-to's" of building relationships and strengthening connections. He is a nationally recognized speaker and writer.  

Some of the topics that we discussed in this episode are:

• Book: Nice Guys Finish First by Doug Sandler.
• How does being a nice person help you with sales?
• The importance of putting people over products whenever you’re selling.
• The importance of putting your clients over technology.
• Accepting the reality of the numbers when you’re selling and getting rid of the “Head-trash”. 
• The core tenants for making you a nice guy. 
• Focusing on your customers and being honest with them. 

Link & Resources:

Doug Sandler on LinkedIn:www.linkedin.com/in/doug-sandler-1a346649

Nice Guys on Business Podcast: www.niceguysonbusiness.com

TurnKey Podcast: www.turnkeypodcast.com/toolkit

Nice Guys Finish First by Doug Sandler: amzn.to/2Z0jQAs

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These announcements lead to a bunch of messages and questions –

What was it like starting the sales process as the first head of sales?

Where did we find our first customers?

How did you get on the path to unicorn status in the early days?

So... I decided to kick-off my LinkedIn Live account by sharing 4 key factors that made a huge difference in getting from 0 to 1 at Blend.

Check out the LinkedIn Live here: https://www.linkedin.com/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:6699690106762092545/

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With over 20 years of business and sales experience, Greg serves as the Director of the LSU Professional Sales Institute. Since 2015, he has been in the Department of Marketing conducting extensive work developing and executing strategy, acting as the industry liaison, chief fundraiser, managing budgets, overseeing internships and placements, overseeing & coaching the university sales team and sales competitions, job fares, and other PSI events.

Greg teaches two sections of undergraduate classes for Professional Sales and Sales Practicum. He also teaches Advanced Professional Sales and Negotiation Tactics & Strategies for LSU Executive Education. 

He successfully launched a CRM education program in partnership with HubSpot for all current and future LSU PSI students.

Some of the topics that we discussed in this episode are:

• The evolution of sales as an academic pursuit. 
• The evolution of inside sales and how it went from telemarketing to a true sales position. 
• The development and science of marketing and how it has augmented the evolution of sales.
• The percentage of business majors coming out of college to focus on sales as their first job.
• National and International sales competitions occurring across the country.
• How you as an employer can be involved in these sales competitions as a judge, sponsor, etc.

Link & Resources:

Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-accardo/

LSU Professional Sales Institute: https://www.lsu.edu/business/psi/index.php

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Jeroen is the co-founder and CEO of Salesflare, an intelligent CRM built for SMBs selling B2B, mostly popular with agencies and SaaS companies.

Salesflare itself was founded when Jeroen and his co-founder Lieven wanted to manage the leads for their software company in an easier way. They didn't like to keep track of them manually and built Salesflare, which pulls customer data together automatically.

It's now the most popular CRM on Product Hunt and top-rated on review platforms like G2 for its ease of use and automation features.

Some of the topics that we discussed in this episode are:

• Jeroen’s background story.
• How do you think about a CRM that you own and use?
• How do you follow up with leads and customers?
• How do you bridge gaps?
• How to make your leads feel as if they’re the only person you’re talking to?
• Proper account mapping and adopting the outreach/communication with your sales leads based on individual situations.
• What are some nudges for follow-ups?
• How do you get thoughtful with your follow-ups and establishing the links between accounts and people at the accounts you are targeting?

Link & Resources:

Salesflare website: salesflare.com

Jeroen's LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jeroencorthout

Jeroen's podcast, Founder Coffee: foundercoffee.salesflare.com

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Todd is the author of the 3x best-book-award-winning, The Transparency Sale, a speaker & workshop leader as Founder & CEO of Sales Melon LLC, and the Managing Director of Chicago’s VentureSCALE. Todd is also a multi-time C-Level sales leader, a behavioral science nerd, and has guided two companies to successful exits.

Some of the topics that we discussed in this episode are:

• Tommy Boy the movie and ways to set up the distinction between Authenticity and Transparency. 
• Todd’s book – The Transparency Sale.
• The importance and techniques to disarm your prospects using The Transparency Sale method.
• Ways to be truthful when it comes to measuring ourselves.
• The Result’s Formula – It looks at four specific KPIs that if you’re moving in the right direction, larger changes and growth will occur in your sales or company.
• Prospecting and the importance of adding value.
• The importance of focusing and doing firmographics studies

Link & Resources:

Todd Caponi on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/toddcaponi

Todd Caponi on Twitter: twitter.com/tcaponi

The Transparency Sale: www.transparencysale.com

Book: The Transparency Sale: amzn.to/2BxenrF

Media Kit for more information: www.transparencysale.com/mediakit

Five Great Rules of Selling by Percy H Whiting: amzn.to/2XHRo5Y

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Steve is the Founder and CEO of Badger Maps, the #1 route planner for field salespeople. After receiving his MBA from Stanford, he joined Google, where he became Google Enterprise's Top Sales Executive globally in 2009.

In 2012 Steve founded Badger Maps to help field salespeople be more successful by optimizing their routes and schedules to save time and be on time so they can sell more. 

He hosts the Outside Sales Talk podcast where he interviews industry experts on their top sales tips. He is also the President of the Sales Hall of Fame.  

Some of the topics that we discussed in this episode are:

• Steve’s process of getting on to podcasts and shows.
• How to think through the process of ‘outside sales’.
• How do you make adjustments in a world where you can’t go out and sell?
• How to leverage your Product Champion in ways that you’re not doing but you should be doing?
• How to think through and how to build an account map?
• How to think about motivation as a Sales Leader or CEO?
• What should you be doing as a Sales Leader to keep your reps sharper?
• Why you should not be discounting your price.
• How to shift the structure of compensation plans for your sales team. 

Link & Resources:

Outside Sales Talk Podcast: www.outsidesalestalk.com

Badger Maps for Field Sales: www.badgermapping.com

Steve Benson on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stevenbenson

Sales Hall of Fame: www.badgermapping.com/sales-hall-of-fame

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As the Sr. Director of Sales Development at 6sense, Ernest leverages his passion for helping others succeed as well as his insights from the field to foster a winning team. With previous experience as an NFL athlete, Ernest thrives in team environments full of high collaboration and healthy competition.

Outside of the office, you’ll find him tackling the industry’s diversity problem by mentoring and empowering under-represented people so they can confidently grow their careers.

Some of the topics that Ernest and I discussed in this episode are:

• Ernest’s background as an NFL athlete.
• How to research and how to hire?
• What to look for in your SDR hire?
• How does it work being an SDR manager?
• What to look for and what are some lead indicators when hiring?
• Strategy Adjustments: What to do when you see a dip (things that worked in the past but no longer do)?
• How do you make strategy adjustments when you have dips?
• How Ernest runs his sales meeting with his team. 

Link & Resources:

6sense: 6sense.com

In-Market Demand Report: bit.ly/3f05XY8

Ernest Owusu on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ernestowusu

Jeb Blount, Fanatical Prospecting: amzn.to/3fZhM2g

Trish Bertuzzi,  The Sales Development Playbook: amzn.to/2OW0rLO

Jeremey Donovan, Leading Sales Development: amzn.to/3fTVlLM

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Doll, Founder and CEO of Aquagenuity, is an award-winning inventor & data scientist, a graduate of Harvard University, & TEDx speaker, honored on Google’s home page with the global designation of “Google's Woman of Water” for creating the “world’s largest water database.”

She has been featured by the New York Times, SoftBank, BMW, Coca-Cola, Forbes, WIRED magazine, and on the homepage of Google for making it easy for any citizen to safely answer the question: “What’s In Your Water?”

Some of the topics that Doll and I discussed in this episode are:

• The transition from being a data scientist to becoming an entrepreneur.
• The known data collection challenges that Doll had.
• How to make the data useful to test the quality of your water.
• The unknown challenges in her journey with Aquagenuity. 
• Doll’s experience as a Black entrepreneur.
• The ability to tell a story and transfer enthusiasm. 
• Becoming a TEDx speaker. 

Link & Resources: 

Aquagenuity: aquagenuity.com

Doll Avant on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/dollavant

Check your AquaScore for free at myAquaScore.com

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Adam has been the first salesperson for three startups, successfully growing to $1 Million ARR in under a year then scaling it out to $5 million.

He specializes in B2B complex sales and has helped over 100 companies create sales systems to get to and above $5 million in revenue.

Adam hosts the Startup Sales podcast which speaks with Founders, VC’s globally to create actionable insights for creating early-stage sales processes.

Some of the topics that Adam and I discussed in this episode are:

• Where to start if you’re an early-stage sales team?
• How and where to look for your first 10-paying customers?
• 2/2 metrics – Friction and Value: How many values can you add to a target customer and how many frictions it takes to implement your solution.
• When to hire your first salesperson?
• What are the biggest mistakes that Startups make when hiring?
• What are the problems when you’re hiring Mr. & Mrs. Rolodex? 

Links & Resources

Startup Sales: startupsales.io

Adam Springer on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/b2b-startup-sales-expert

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Over these past 6 weeks, I’ve coached and talked with over 100 B2B #startups across the health care, retail, manufacturing, construction, and financial sectors about their sales and selling strategy.

“Selling to hospitals is impossible…”

Two of our clients have signed 5- and 6-figure contracts in the past two weeks.

“Retail is dying.”

One client is on-boarding 7 new customers in the next 2 months. Two more teams selling to large-scale retailers joined our program because of the opportunities they're seeing.

“Manufacturers are getting hammered.”

Two teams have added customers, including a Fortune 500, to help with production systems and payments.

“I’ve got to cut back my sales team.”

One client just hired a salesperson to take over an entire customer segment and another has reps hitting 150% of quota.

These teams are no different than any other startup in this market, except for one thing…

They made the decision to #grow – to resist “ride it out" as a strategy.

The global economy is $80+ trillion. Your market NEEDS you now more than ever. Find them & help them.

#growth #startupselling

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Joseph is the CEO of Uvaro, a tech sales career accelerator, and of Kiite, a sales enablement platform purpose-built to provide sales teams with the information they need when they need it. 

As a graduate of the University of Waterloo’s Computer Engineering program, Joseph is a repeat Founder & CEO with multiple successful exits. He speaks frequently on the topics of sales leadership, diversity, and corporate social responsibility. 

He is an active early-stage investor who ensures that the majority of his investments are into women-led companies. Joseph also sits on the boards of Communitech, the Golden Triangle Angel Network, and the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony.

Some of the topics that Joseph and I discussed in this episode are:

• How I first got into sales 
• My transition to product management
• My biggest surprise in tech 
• My journey as a sales advisor

Links & Resources

Kiite - kiite.ai

Uvaro: uvaro.com

Podcast: uvaro.com/podcast

Joseph Fung on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/josephfung

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Latané was instrumental in aligning sales and marketing in her previous position as CMO of Appirio, resulting in 5x more effective field marketing programs and a 300% increase in inbound leads.

Now as the Chief Market Officer of 6sense, Latané empowers revenue teams to compete and win in the age of account-based buying through 6sense’s solution — allowing them to uncover, prioritize, and engage with demand by uniting one common, AI-powered platform. 

This allows them to know everything they need to know and do anything they need to do, ultimately generating 40% more opportunities, closing deals 2x faster, and winning 2x more often. 

Some of the topics that Latane and I discussed in this episode are:

• “The Dark Funnel” – The activity and research your buyers are doing before contacting the seller.
• Identifying which accounts are “in-market”.
• “New Inbound” – Get clear on the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), the buyer’s intent, and focusing your marketing and sales effort on the account that are “in-pocket”.
• “In-pocket” – problem aware and solution aware. 
• The importance of demand capture versus demand gen.
• The value card and how you create content for the different buyers.
• The importance of using video and how you can create quick content. 
• How to leverage AI to create an amazing customer experience.
• The importance of orchestrating to create a positive experience for your buyer.
• The importance of the “next best action” with your prospects.
• Racial inequality and improvements we can all be making when it comes to diversity within our teams, customers, and community.

Links & Resources

Rapid Adoption. Immediate Impact: 6sense.com

Latane on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/latane-conant

Manifesto for the Future of B2B Customer Engagement: 

hub.6sense.com/breakthroughplus/manifesto-for-the-future-of-b2b-customer-engagement-latane-conant-cmo-of-6sense

SV Academy: sv.academy

[book] White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism  www.amazon.com/White-Fragility-People-About-Racism/dp/0807047414

[assessment] Impact of Unconscious Bias 

trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/workplace_equality_inclusion_challenges

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Over the past two weeks, I've been watching and supporting the anti-racism protests across the world and embarking on my own personal journey of awareness and analysis about myself, my personal life and my company on the topic of structural racism, white supremacy and anti-blackness.

It's been scary and revealing.

In this episode, I'm sharing the details of my personal analysis because my guess is that you can relate to one or many of the experiences and environments in which I've lived and worked over the past 40+ years of my life.

I'm sharing some personal stories about growing up in South Jersey, getting arrested, joining a college fraternity that was unabashedly racist, and my observations working in the education, real estate, mortgage, and technology industries.

This isn't a proclamation or a statement – it's simply my way to share ideas about my own personal analysis and action in the hope that it will contribute to you and others in your own analysis and action.

Please share your ideas with me as a comment wherever you're listening to the show, or by sending an email to me at scott@salesqualia.com.

This isn't a later problem anymore. This is a now problem that all of us need to work on together.

#blacklivesmatter #blacksintech #blackcommunity #startups #leadership #listening 

Links & Resources:

Barbara J. Love & Liberatory Consciousness: www.barbarajlove.com

Ericka Hines: www.everylevelleads.com

Rachel Rodgers & Hello Seven's Town Hall Replay: www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=884985288645916 

The Anti-Racist Small Business Pledge: https://mk0hellosevencogaqta.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Small-Business-Pledge.pdf

Doing more, doing better – Overcoming the racial divide [LinkedIn post with links to people and resources: 

www.linkedin.com/pulse/doing-more-better-overcoming-racial-divide-scott-sambucci

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Carson Conant is the CEO and Founder of Chicago-based sales enablement solution provider Mediafly.

Having grown up in an entrepreneurial family, Carson is no stranger to the challenges and rewards of building a company from the ground up and assembling a brilliant team to successfully execute on his vision. 

Under Carson’s leadership, Mediafly has been recognized as an Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Company for five consecutive years, one of Inc.’s Best Workplaces of 2018, and a Best Place to Work by Crain’s Chicago Business. Mediafly’s software is currently leveraged by top Fortune 500 companies including PepsiCo, MillerCoors, Disney, and Goldman Sachs.

Some of the topics that Carson and I discussed in this episode are:

• What does sales enablement mean?
• The difference between marketing and sales content.
• When and how to use content in your sales process.
• The lessons from marketing and its functions in an organization.
• When to update your content whether it is a video presentation, case study, or powerpoints.
• When is the best time to establish a sales-enablement role in your organization? 

Links & Resources

Mediafly: www.mediafly.com

The Evolved Selling Institute: www.evolvedselling.com

Carson Conant on LinkedIn: ww.linkedin.com/in/carsonconant

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Aaron Krall helps SaaS companies drive more leads, convert more users, and accelerate growth. His proven, done-for-you systems and frameworks have increased conversions, automated sales, and reduced churn for companies like Reply.io and IBM.

Aaron also runs the largest SaaS community in the world: SaaS Growth Hacks on Facebook. 

He lives in Salt Lake City with his wife, Natalie, his son, Arlo, and dog, Penny.

Some of the topics that Aaron and I discussed in this episode are:

• Self-Serve vs Sales – What are the types of products that work with a self-serve system versus the types of products that require a sale.
• Selling vs Marketing – When & how should you be marketing and how should you be selling?
• What makes a good marketing strategy?
• Internal vs External Realities – How you can use your internal realities as part of your marketing strategy.
• What are key metrics that you should be looking at in your Marketing?
• The importance of looking at your metrics on a weekly basis and identifying the impact areas within the business.

Links & Resources

Aarons Linkedin profile: www.linkedin.com/in/aaronkrall

SaaS Growth Hacks: www.facebook.com/groups/SaaSgrowthhacking

Understanding Your Customer’s Desired Outcome: sixteenventures.com/customer-success-desired-outcome

People & Products mentioned:

Bench: www.bench.co

Sujan Patel: sujanpatel.com

Mailshake: www.mailshake.com

ClickFunnels: www.clickfunnels.com

Superhuman: https://superhuman.com/

Russell Brunson: www.russellbrunson.com/hi

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Jim joined Chorus.ai as CEO to bring Conversation Intelligence, the fastest-growing category in sales technology, to the masses. 

As a former Co-Founder of ClearSlide and CEO of Apollo, Benton’s career is defined by revenue generation and applying the voice of the customer. 

Chorus will continue delivering solutions to improve the consistency and quality of the customer experience, quota attainment, and shortening new-hire onboarding for high-growth teams, like those of Zoom and MongoDB.

Some of the topics that Jim and I discussed in this episode are:

• Sales Productivity – connect rates and follow up meetings resulting from the initial conversation.
• How many times have phrases like “COVID” come up in your conversation?
• Tactical changes that can be made to the way that you’re operating your sales team. 
• How the work of a salesperson has changed as we enter into this new way of selling.
• The importance of getting clear on the problems and who the buyers are on the other side of the table.
• The importance of bringing both sides of the executive team to the meeting.
• The importance of authenticity. Give your team permission to be human in their conversation.
• Jim’s experience cold-emailing Steve Jobs and how he got a deal between Ticket Master and Apple.

Links & Resources

Chorus.ai: www.chorus.ai

ClearSlide: www.clearslide.com

Jim Benton on LinkedIn:  www.linkedin.com/in/benton

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Laura Janusik is a dynamic professor, trainer, researcher, speaker, and business consultant. Laura has won numerous research and teaching awards from different professional and academic associations, and she is one of the world’s leading experts in teaching and training listening.

All of Laura’s work is supported by the most current research, which she shares and applies in training, coaching, and consulting. Her approach to communication, both oral and written, is practical and other-centered. Her specialty areas include listening cognitions and metacognitions, healthcare, pedagogy, intercultural listening, and interpersonal communication.   

She is a past president of the International Listening Association, and she is published both nationally and internationally.  

Laura uses the ECHO Listening Profile™ in much of her work with individuals and teams. The ECHO is a scientifically validated instrument to measure an individual or team’s listening dominance. With this tool, listening blind spots are quickly identified, and Laura helps individuals and teams listen from their blind spots so that they can increase shared understanding, make sure everyone is working towards the same goal at the same time and decreases costs by reducing meeting times as well as rework.

 She holds a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Maryland at College Park and an MBA from Rockhurst University in Kansas City, MO.

Some of the topics that Laura and I discussed in this episode are:

• What does it mean to have a listening strategy.
• What is the process for listening and how does the brain work.
• The difference between listening and hearing.
• Cognitive pieces of the brain and how does listening work.
• How we understand the information that we hear and how do we process it from a response or no response standpoint.
• The four listening habits – Connective, Reflective, Analytical, and Conceptual.
• Defining and identifying which of those might be your dominant listening habit.
• Signal that you can use to identify other people’s listening habits to understand their type of communicating.

Links & Resources

Laura Janusik on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/laurajanusikphd

ECHO Listening Intelligence: www.echolistening.com

Interested in learning more? Feel free to contact Laura at LJanusik@gmail.com for a free consultation.

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Jason Everett is one of those rare individuals that have the ability to harness and leverage technology like a second nature superpower and use if for online teaching, training, and education. 

As the founder of several successful international digital training and technology companies, he is a powerhouse of information and can pack weeks worth of technology learning into an easily digestible short format class that makes learning it a pleasure.

 He breaks things down into simple to implement an easy step by step approach no matter what level of “tech nerd” you are. He’s has generated millions in sales as a result of his videos and courses and has been asked to speak in Japan, Peru, Paris, Egypt and countless other counties to share his passion for digital education.

 He has always been a pioneer and out-front leader in the virtual and real-world of all things digital.

If you are looking to upskill your team or kick your tech-knowledge to the next level then bring in Jason to share his knowledge and passion – he will leave you feeling charged up and ready to take on this new world over video. 

Some of the topics that Jason and I discussed in this episode are:

• The idea that everyone is running their own Ultra Marathon right now – and it’s a race without a finish line in sight. 
• Hair Salon Owners doing virtual consults, doorstep beauty kit drop-offs & give-yourself-a-haircut videos. 
• Making 10 calls every day to the books as a Hair Salon Owner.
• Action. Ownership. Leadership.

Links & Resources

Jason Everett: www.linkedin.com/in/jasoneverett

High Performance Salon: www.facebook.com/highperformancesalon

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Brian Robinson is a sales and marketing expert, best-selling author, and coach. He has worked for some of the best-known companies in the world, including Coca-Cola USA and Johnson & Johnson.

Upon leaving his corporate career, he helped launch a successful startup where he was the first person in the history of the industry to sell more than one million dollars in business in twelve months—entirely by phone.

He has over two decades of in-the-trenches, battle-tested, face-to-face, and phone-presentation experience that can benefit virtually anyone, from Fortune 500 companies to entrepreneurial ventures.

Brian is the author of the Amazon #1 Best-Seller, THE SELLING FORMULA: 5 Steps for Instant Sales Improvement.

Brian and his wife Cindy reside in the Oklahoma City area and have eight children - which could be the topic of an entire podcast in and of itself!

Some of the topics that Brian and I discussed in this episode are:

• THE SELLING FORMULA: 5 Steps for Instant Sales Improvement: Connect, Interview, Present, Share, and Close.
• The “Why” behind each of the five steps.
• The importance of having a pre-built list of questions in your sales calls.
•  The importance of using fact-finding and emotional types of questions in your sales call.
• Why is it necessary to set the agenda for every meeting? 
• Interview as if you are a reporter.
• Pricing strategies and ways to share your price.
• The importance of including and creating a guarantee with your products and presenting it early in your sales process.

Links & Resources

The Selling Formula (audio): brianrobinsonbook.com/free-audio-download

The Selling Formula: thesellingformula.com

Brian Robinson: linkedin.com/in/brianwrobinson

Calfussman: www.calfussman.com

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Neil is an entrepreneurial and versatile technology sales leader, skilled at exceeding quotas and maximizing revenue.

His experience in Fortune 100 Financial Services, FinTech, InsureTech, AI, and SaaS startups combined with storytelling talent allows him to convey value, ROI, and close deals. 

As a leader of people, Neil is not afraid to roll up his sleeves and get my hands dirty to find and address any challenge a business may face.

Some of the topics that Neil and I discussed in this episode are:

• What’s been working for me in this new environment?
• What have been the biggest changes in my day and life with COVID?
• The challenges and adjustments when you’re a parent with a child now home from school?
• How do you stay positive and find progress in daily life?
• The importance of discipline and exercise every day.
• Doing your best and accepting that you’re doing the best that you can.
• What’s changed in my life and what new activities have I done in the past two months?
• What are the sales strategies we’re recommending to our clients?
• The importance of setting small goals every day, celebrating those wins, and then keeping yourself moving.
• Why every person that’s struggling should ask for help?

Links & Resources

Neil Fontenot on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/neilfontenot

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Nicolas started his career by selling newspapers in the streets of Paris in high school, studied Maths at Ecole Polytechnique, and then received his MBA from Stanford GSB. 

He then started and sold 2 tech companies with up to 65 employees and $11M in revenues, and also ran sales for a $2B telecom firm negotiating billion-dollar deals with companies like Google.

After having his 3rd tech startup put out of business by Salesforce, Nicolas rebranded his company “Floating Apps” to “Chili Piper” and then self-funded with no remaining employees. He used the “Bull’s Eye” marketing strategy to close in-person the first $1 million in revenues himself with companies like Intuit, Square, Twilio, and Greenhouse in under 12 months.

Some of the topics that Nicolas and I discussed in this episode are:

• How to reduce friction in the sales process.
• The importance of a “Thank You!” page for requesting demos or other pieces of information from your page.
• How quickly you can get someone from ‘Interested’ to ‘booking the meeting’.
• The importance of selling a product that does not exist and getting your customers to prepay you.
• The importance of having a quick response rate in order to take advantage of the people that are interested in your product.
• Call times and conversion rate – How sales can be lost due to slow response times.
• The importance of reference points in making decisions when it comes to pricing and anchoring your customers to what your product does and how it can solve their problems.

Links & Resources

Chili Piper: www.chilipiper.com

Nicolas Vandenberghe: www.linkedin.com/in/nvandenberghe

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Lead Cookie helps B2B sales teams generate leads through LinkedIn prospecting. They manage your LinkedIn account and start conversations between you and your target customers.

Content Allies cater to Events associations and Consulting Firms where they create Podcasts, Articles, White Papers, and Social Content. 

Some of the topics that Jake and I discussed in this episode are:

• How to use LinkedIn for engagement and lead generation.
• Why you should think about your engagement campaign in “small segments”.
• The 3 factors of relevancy on LinkedIn.
• Technical factors such as the number of LinkedIn connection requests you can send on a daily basis.
• Sales Navigator and how it is designed for sales research and other sales activity.
• The 4 step process in your engagement to identify if whether the person you are connecting with is a lead or not.
• How can the leads that are not qualified be useful to build your LinkedIn network?
• Tips that will make you feel confident that ‘now’ is the right time to do prospecting.

Links & Resources

Jake Jorgovan: www.linkedin.com/in/jakejorgovan

Lead Cookie: www.leadcookie.com

Content Allies: contentallies.com

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed President and COO of Aspireship, Christine Rogers.

Christine is a seasoned sales and marketing leader with over 15 years of recruiting, hiring, training, and managing high-performing sales teams at Infusionsoft and Booker by MindBody to name a few.  

Currently, she's the President and COO of Aspireship, a platform designed to match high potential sales candidates with great SaaS companies looking to hire. They do this through an exclusive network of candidates who prove themselves through their training and assessment process, and also by providing tools to help companies better discover talent within their existing network. 

Some of the topics that Christine and I discussed in this episode are:

• “Should I be hiring now?”
• Bloat: Looking at ways to cut expenses.
• Taking steps forward to start building your business again.
• Getting clear on what are the real metrics for hiring.
• The importance of having a process for hiring and having alignment around culture, mission, and values.
• How do we access which salespeople are good versus the ones that look good on paper?
• How do we get the salespeople to role play – in this way, we can access their ability to sell. This gives your candidates an option to disqualify themselves.
• How to make decisions when it comes to moving forward with a candidate or not.

Links & Resources

Aspireship: aspireship.com

Christine Rogers on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/christinerogers2

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After consciously choosing entrepreneurship as a means to create a better life for his family, Chris realized that negative beliefs about sales were holding him back from taking his ventures to the next level. He saw this as a major hurdle to not only his businesses but the businesses of virtually every other entrepreneur. 

Chris spearheaded the growth of Plato Consulting to the point it was acquired by one of the largest management consulting firms in the world (KPMG). In the process, he sold over $300 million in consulting services.

Following the acquisition, Chris turned his focus to helping other “non-sales sellers” find a way to grow their revenue in a consistent, stress-free manner.

Chris’s newest venture is Dockridge Digital, a technology consulting and product development company focusing on helping businesses leverage digital to serve their customers.

Some of the topics that Chris and I discussed in this episode are:

• Chris’s background and his transition from the mindset “sales is something you do to people/being pushy” to “sales is a place for problem-solving”
• The general approach to sales – sales is not about doing something to someone, sales is about curiosity
• Diagnostic conversation – How to be related and being more relevant
• How do we sell in our current environment
• How to problem-solve for our customers

Links & Resources

LinkedIn:www.linkedin.com/in/chrisspurvey

Website:www.chrisspurvey.com

It's time to sell on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2R6vxSs

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1. Don’t believe everything you think.
2. Relationships first.
3. There’s no such thing “All” and “Everyone”
4. Christmas was 90 days ago…
5. Your Prospects don’t panic-buy, so don’t panic-sell
6. Customers buy Outcomes, and simple steps create stable outcomes.
7. Slow is Smooth, and Smooth is Fast.
8. Be the Mayor of your town.
9. People will borrow certainty from the person who has the most of it in the room.
10. Your customer is on their Hero’s Journey. If you found this useful, please Like, Comment & Share ASAP.

#enterprisesales #gofarther #startupsales #sales #saassales #salespipeline #salesplan #selling

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One client runs a live event every April that’s now going virtual. Other clients planned on conferences for lead gen & meetings. We run a live event in May and I’ve got a decision to make very, very soon.

What’s the opportunity in all of this?

For the one client, it’s the chance to build a whole new system of delivering value and serving her community.

For others, it’s a forcing function to create new lead gen systems through outbound, virtual events & podcasts.

For my business, it’s an opportunity for our international teams to join the event when we go virtual.

This morning, I made breakfast for my son and took him to school. This afternoon, I’ll pick him up from jui-jitsu and head to the skate park. 

In just ten years, he’ll be out on his own and I’ll be looking to plan a father-son weekend with him.

I’ll do a trail run on Saturday. My wife & I can do date night.

Right now, I’m enjoying a stellar coffee at my local shop instead of the lukewarm airplane swill.

Disruptions suck, but they can offer a gift. 

We can’t control what happens to us. We can control how we respond to it.  

#GoFarther #Leadership #startups

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A huge challenge in running a startup is the isolation that goes with it – building strategies, figuring out to implement them, identifying blind spots & mistakes to avoid.

This weekend’s trail run reminded me why we all need a strong peer group.

My friends Kelly & Katy invited me to join them for a run in “the Canyons” – a challenging section of the Western States 100 course. Both of them are doing this year’s race too. Kelly’s done it 3x, including two sub-24 hour finishes & Katy did it in 2014.

I learned all kinds of lessons I otherwise might not have learned. Small lessons –poison oak is already growing along the trail – and big lessons – the first mile of a 1500’ climb from Volcano Creek to Michigan Bluff is the worst part.

They pushed me to go one more mile before turning around to the car, adding an extra 10% to the day I wouldn’t have done on my own.

I considered the run to be a "bonus" – a jumpstart in my training, but we met at least 10 runners out there also in this year's race, including a guy who flew from Pennsylvania to check out the trail. My "extra" was just table stakes.

Elevate your thinking. Speed your learning. Find your peer group.

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It’s been two weeks since I finished the Tarawera 100 – a 100-mile ultramarathon in New Zealand. 

Usually the emotional overwhelm of completing a race like this brings me to tears at the finish line. That didn’t happen at Tarawera and since then, I’ve been struggling to figure out why.

Meanwhile, I’ve been giving myself permission to go lax on my diet. Friday night was the pinnacle – I ate more than an entire pizza, downed two large IPAs, then capped off the gluttony with a $10 ice cream sandwich.

Do you know how much ice cream and cookie goes into a $10 ice cream sandwich? 

My next race is on June 27th – the Western States 100, the world's oldest 100-mile trail race. More than 10,000 runners try to land one of the 369 available spots every year, and I got a spot in the 2020 race.

Not only do I want to cross the finish line, but I want to earn the silver buckle that goes with completing the race in under 24 hours.  I’ve never finished a 100-mile race in under 24 hours. The Western States is one of the toughest races in the world – 18,000’ of elevation gain,, yet I know I’m capable of reaching this goal.

After Tarawera, I told myself I’d go easy for a few weeks and start training sometime in March. I’d eat what I wanted. Train less. Give myself a break.

But I can’t. I spent Saturday morning mapping out the next four months of my life, work and training. I’ve been hitting the garage the past week and feeling strong. On Sunday, I paced a local 13.1-mile race, and felt good the whole way.

I’ve got four months to the race start and no excuses about why I can’t start my training now. Today. On February 24th. So I am. Right now./

I’m plenty proud of finishing the Tarawera 100, but what I realized is that was once a peak accomplishment is now my foundation, my starting point for the next big thing. It’s time to break through the next ceiling, to elevate my mindset and personal expectations because I know that I can. 

All of the work, all of the training, all of the endurance races that I’ve done over the past 12 years is all just foundation to get me here, to a place where I can seize this opportunity ahead of me over the next four months. The only person holding me back is me.

This is my public accountability to every single person reading this post. My goal is to run the last 1/4 mile around the track of Placer High School knowing that I’ve done it – to see a finishing time of 23:59 or better. To cross the finish line at 4:59AM or sooner on Sunday, June 28 because I know that I can, if I put in the right work and the right effort in the next four months.

Let’s do this.

#GoFarther 

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I’m so close to the starting line, and in the final weeks before a race, I get tired – I’m tired of training. I’m tired of early mornings. I’m tired of my diet. I’m tired of centering my life around one day in the calendar.

That’s when it’s most important to stay disciplined, to stay on track, to do the work. I didn't want to do the work this morning. I searched for reasons why I should skip this morning's run, but anything I thought of was just another excuse. So I got up, got out and did the work.

It’s the same with your startup. You’ve been pushing towards the next product launch, or the big conference, or that implementation with your “logo customer.”

It’s easy to get tired. You SHOULD be tired – you’ve been pushing for weeks and months to get there, so it’s natural to want to let down or back off a little and hope you can coast.

That’s exactly when you have to look at what you must to do to see it through, and usually that’s simply focusing on the task at hand – to just do the work.

Do the work. Go Farther.

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We talked about “making one decision to save a thousand” that Greg McKeown detailed in his book, *Essentialism.*

This week, I decided to skip all Super Bowl media - no ESPN, no news, no sports talk radio. I’ll be in New Zealand teaching a sales workshop when the game's on. If I can’t watch it, why do I care? 

You’ve got hundreds of decisions to make everyday – how to spend your time, which features to add, who to hire, how to price that one deal....

While many decisions are bespoke, many can be grouped so that if you make one decision, it saves a hundred later.

1. What if you decided to only check email 3x/day – at 10am, 2pm & 6pm?  

Think about how many rabbit holes you follow b/c you’re constantly checking your phone.

2. What if you decided to stop sending proposals when prospects ask for them?  

Think about how much time and energy is wasted writing them then chasing prospects, only to hear – “Ping me in …”

3. What if you decided to do 1:1s with every team member this week? 

Think how would that change your relationship abd what you’d learn about their work.

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I’m two weeks from the Tarawera 100-miler and I’m asked all the time –

“How to do have the time to train for ultramarathons?”

I don’t HAVE the time. I MAKE the time – every week, every day.

Today, I'm on the 5:50am train to spend the day at the Alchemist Accelerator Demo Day, so making time meant crawling out to the garage at 4am for a workout.

Every day, it’s the same - making time in between everything else that I gotta do – clients, workshops, picking up my son from jiu-jitsu, swapping kitchen duties with my wife. 

Making time means bolting out the door at 6am on Saturdays for a quick 10 miles. 

Making time means deadlifts at 7am on Sunday morning. 

Making time means running hills in Bernal Heights at 4am when I’m in SF for the night.

Making time means unapologetically blocking time on a Tuesday afternoon for midday run.

I get it – the investor meetings… product releases… candidate interviews… 

You never have the time to sell, but your company, and customers, need you to sell. Stop waiting until you have the time to sell, and make the time instead.

Type WORKSHEET below & I’ll send you our “10-Hour Sales Week Planner.” It’ll help you make the time. Because that’s what you gotta do.

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Richard has over ten years of sales experience working for and building high activity and scalable outbound software sales teams. He has been a regular contributor to leading sales content sites such as Hubspot and SalesHacker and was nominated as a Top 50 SaaS Sales Leader in the UK. 

Richard is passionate about fixing the broken mindset towards sales coaching and helping salespeople become the very best they can be.

Some of the topics that Richard and I discussed in this episode are:

• The importance of product demo as a catalyst in your sales process.
• Why is it important to qualify your leads.
• Understanding when it is fitting to have a smaller pipeline. 
• The importance of being vigilant when qualifying your leads.
• Keeping yourself accountable when it comes to selling your product.

Links & Resources

Richard on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richard-smith-refract

Refract website:  www.refract.ai

www.amazon.com/Sales-Acceleration-Formula-Technology-Inbound/dp/1119047072 

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Richard has over ten years of sales experience working for and building high activity and scalable outbound software sales teams. He has been a regular contributor to leading sales content sites such as Hubspot and SalesHacker and was nominated as a Top 50 SaaS Sales Leader in the UK. 

Richard is passionate about fixing the broken mindset to sales coaching and helping salespeople become the very best they can be.

Some of the topics that Richard and I discussed in this episode are:

• The importance of having a meaningful conversation that therefore creates a positive experience for your customer.
• Focus the discovery call on where the sales are won or lost.
• Create a checklist from your experience with leading indicators for good sales conversation.
• The need for approval that salespeople have and how it can work against them.
• Tips to create an environment where you can ask tough questions and lower the resistance in the sale.
• How to use the simplistic questions in your discovery call.
• Why the phrase ‘I think’ can negatively influence you in your sales.
• Frameworks to analyze your sales conversation to improve and make your own sales conversation better.

Links & Resources

Richard on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richard-smith-refract

Refract website: www.refract.ai

www.amazon.com/Sales-Acceleration-Formula-Technology-Inbound/dp/1119047072 

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If you've watched my videos lately you know that two months ago, I ran a 200-mile ultramarathon around Lake Tahoe.  For the last eight weeks, I've been celebrating and enjoying my personal glory of finishing this race. 

There comes a time where you've got to transition from what you've done to what you're going to do.  Even my friends around me are asking – "Man, that was really cool. What's next?" 

This past week, I've accepted a simple, important lesson –

The past is the past, and it's time to move on to the future. 

Too often, we can find ourselves lulled into a sense of completion, a sense of finality. We feel great about that product launch or that new customer or the leads we got from the conference booth.

When you've done something important and hard, you absolutely have to take time to celebrate. You must take the time to rejoice in your accomplishments.

After that celebration is over, huddle up with your team and ask, "Okay, what's next?" and get back to work.

For me, I registered for two new races, two 100-milers, one in February and one in June.  I might have a third in August. Regardless, I'm not past the past, and looking ahead to what's next.

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I just signed up for my next ultra marathon – it's in February down in New Zealand.

This past weekend, I built out the next three months – what does the training look like? What's January going to look like?  What's December gonna look like? What is the rest of November going to look like?

From there I break it down week-by-week – When are my long runs in the hills and how will I fit in my training with the holidays.

People ask me all the time – "How do you train? How do you get ready for these races?" 

And there's something that I realized over the weekend as I was getting ready for my one workout on Sunday morning. 

As much as I put together monthly training programs or three-month training programs and how I want each week to look, the one thing that matters is the next workout.

For your company, the lesson is the same.

When you're building your company and you're growing your sales, too often we fixate on where do we need to be by the end of the year? Where do we need to be by the end of next quarter? 

Yes, you've got to set the vision. You need to know where you want to go. 

But when it comes down to it, it starts with doing those 20 calls today. It starts with preparing the right way for the next meeting. It starts with having the right plan of action for that conference you're flying to tomorrow. 

Everything begins with that one thing that's in front of you – next sales call, the next customer, the next product release. 

Just do the next thing, do the one thing that's in front of you, that's gonna get you closer to where you want to do – one step at a time.

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Mark has over eleven years of experience in B2B sales and marketing. As the TaskDrive CRO, Mark leads the growth strategies across 100-person remote sales, marketing, customer success, and product teams.

 In his spare time, he helps B2B SaaS companies scale revenue with their sales and marketing automation and customer journey optimization.

Some of the topics that Mark and I discussed in this episode are:

• His process for lead research at TaskDrive.
• Signals to use when you are doing lead research. Some examples are hiring, press releases, online articles, technology change, and job titles.
• How to use inbound and outbound marketing strategies in your sales process.
• The importance of identifying the customers that are actively buying, open to buying and the ones that are not buying.
• Strategies to target and win back the customers that are not actively buying.
• Identifying some key lead sourcing playbooks for B2B companies.

Links & resources

TaskDrive: taskdrive.com

Mark Colgan on LinkedIn: 

www.linkedin.com/in/markcolganmarketing

[Blog Post] 14 Lead sourcing playbooks for B2B companies:

taskdrive.com/lead-generation/lead-sourcing-playbooks-for-b2b-companies

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This kid was 8-years-old and he needed to know.  This was serious business – a birthday party kickball game with all of his friends from school.

Another dad and I jumped into the mix to make things interesting for the kids.

Team captains were selected and it was time to pick teams.  This 8-year picked his best friend first, and when it came time for his next pick, the best friend pointed at me and said – “Pick him! Pick him!”

With my running and training regimen, I’m a pretty athletic-looking guy. Not to mention I’m a 45-year-old adult playing against a bunch of kids.  It was pretty obvious to me that he should pick me net.

But none of that mattered to him. He didn’t know about the three Ironmans. He didn’t know about my 100- and 200-mile ultramarathons. 

To him, I was just another person in the crowd. All he wanted to know is if I was going to help him win. That’s it. Plain and simple.

It’s like that with your company.  

Your customers don’t care about your funding. They don’t care who your investors are. They don’t care about what you’ve done before. They don’t care about your past success.

All they care about is what you can do for them, right now, today. Can you help them win in their game?  

He did pick me, and when he did, I felt like I had something to prove to show him that he made the right choice. 

Completely silly, right? But that’s how it should work. Nothing is a given.

Earn every customer. Help them win. 

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Zach is an entrepreneur living in Oakland, California. He was previously the CEO of Osmo Systems, a hardware startup building AI-driven solutions for aquaculture (fish and shrimp farms), and now he and his co-founder are working to launch a new project that focuses on combatting climate change.

I first met Zach through the Highway1 Accelerator Program – he was a participant and I was one of his mentors.  About a year later when Zach and his team were starting their go-to-market work, he became a client in our Startup Selling Coaching Program.

Some of the topics that Zach and I discussed in this episode are:

• His journey as an entrepreneur and what led him to work on environmental challenges.
• Decision-making processes based on identifying a lack of clarity, weaknesses, and pain in the business operations.
• Using “Name it to Tame It” – a psychological process to articulate a problem and identify potential solutions.
• How to use questions to orient a decision-making process.
• Creating a clear set of rules for your team focus and daily activities.
• “Say it out loud” – sharing your idea with your team and have them reflect what you just said to their understanding. This creates clarity to prevent ambiguity.
• How can rulemaking allow you to avoid decision-making fatigue. 

Links and resources:

Highway1 Hardware Accelerator Program: highway1.io

[book] Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio

 www.amazon.com/Principles-Life-Work-Ray-Dalio/dp/1501124021

[book] The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: An Illustrated Leadership Fable

by Patrick Lencioni www.amazon.com/dp/0787960756

[book] The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business by Patrick Lencioni

www.amazon.com/Advantage-Organizational-Health-Everything-Business/dp/0470941529

Daniel J. Siegel, neuropsychiatrist & developer of “Name it to Tame It.” 

[book] The Whole-Brain Child

 www.drdansiegel.com/books/the_whole_brain_child/2

[Blog post] An Entrepreneur’s Lessons Learned

 scottsambucci.blogspot.com/2008/08/lessons-learned-confessions-of.html

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David is a speaker, coach, and author of nine books including the best-selling ‘Hyper-Connected Selling’ and ‘Networking in the 21st Century: Why Your Network Sucks and What to Do About It’.

With more than  20 years of experience as an entrepreneur and as a sales professional, he combines nuanced strategy and real-world tactics to help professionals become more effective, efficient, and happy.

Some of the topics that David and I discussed in this episode are:

• David’s book of haikus and his participation in Slam Poetry in Chicago.
• The importance of building trust and relationships with your prospects and customers.
• David’s concept of being a ‘‘Sales Sherpa’’ and why is it important to bring your customers through their journey and use information that they already have to understand what it means to their company.
• Why your product demo is not destinations in your sales process – it is the place to provide credibility of your promise.
• The Edelmen Trust Barometer - The value of relationships and how trust is a spectrum.
• Tactical tips for using LinkedIn for your networking and trust-building

Links & Resources

The Edelmen Trust Barometer: www.edelman.com/trust-barometer

David on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/iamdfish

Download a Free Copy of"19 Ways to Immediately Skyrocket your Sales Network” here: davidjpfisher.com/podcast/startup

About Slam Poetry on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry_slam

David’s books on Amazon:

• Hyper-Connected Selling: Winning More Business by Leveraging Digital Influence and Creating Human Connection – www.amazon.com/dp/1944730052
• Networking in the 21st Century: Why Your Network Sucks And What To Do About It – www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SGOGQ8M
• Five Seven Five: A Daily Glimpse of Chicago Life as Seen Through Haiku – hwww.amazon.com/gp/product/1944730079

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She leads an interdisciplinary team of problem solvers focused on developing data-driven, evidence-based solutions, models, and processes that reduce risk and enhance resilience, especially for the most vulnerable.  

She is passionate about harnessing data, analytics, and technology to solve complex challenges.  After more than a decade in emergency management and public health, Sarah founded Geospiza to transform the way climate risk decisions are made.   But the real reason I asked Sarah to join us on the podcast was because of the lead generation systems she’s built for Geospiza, specifically using LinkedIn and LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator tool.

Some of the topics that Sarah and I discussed in this episode are:

• Sarah’s experience in solving Climate change issues.
• What are some of the best practices to help you generate leads at the top of your sales funnel
• How Sarah and her team use LinkedIn for outreach and messaging structure.
• Sarah’s experience, challenge, and insights that she’s gained as a female founder.

Links & Resources

Sarah’s LinkedIn Profile  - www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-tuneberg

Geospiza company page - geospiza.us

Sarah’s TEDxMileHigh Talk:

“We know how to save lives in disasters - why don't we?”  www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=zmanP8WDNwQ&feature=emb_logo

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Oscar has spent years in product management and sales roles in the tech industry. Since 2014, Oscar has been hosting the public speaking podcast ‘Time to Shine’, in which he has interviewed more than one hundred communication professionals.

Oscar is a communication expert and his mission is to help technology companies present better, inspire people, and sell more. He regularly writes for international blogs and gives talks and workshops worldwide. 

Some of the topics that Oscar and I discussed in this episode are:

• The different types of product demos – ranging from the trade show booth to the pre-sales call to the full-on “Big Group” demo.
• The importance of having a different script for each product demo, with a consistent message for each one.
• The importance of having a “main message” that focuses on a central theme for your product demos.
• The ‘WOW’ moment in a product demo.
• Preparation and avoiding common pitfalls that happen around product demos.

Links & Resources

Oscar on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oscarsantolalla/

Oscar’s Book: Create and Deliver a Killer Product Demo: Tips and Tricks to Wow Your Customers: https://www.apress.com/us/book/9781484239537

Use Promo Code: KILLERPRODUCTDEMO for a 20% discount

Time to Shine Podcast: http://www.timetoshinepodcast.com/

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As the original leader of Infusionsoft’s "Built to Last" efforts, Brett spent 10 years helping Infusionsoft grow from less than $10M to over $100M in revenue.  Brett's roles at Infusionsoft included: Built to Last Champion, Strategic Advisor to the CEO, VP of Infusionsoft, and VP of Leadership Development. He also Co-Created the Elite Programs with Infusionsoft’s CEO, Clate Mask. 

Brett has experience in high-impact, trusted-advisor roles in both large and small organizations across multiple industries. He has worked with hundreds of $1M-$10M entrepreneurs and their teams to develop and implement the organizational and leadership processes and systems they need to grow. 

When he isn't busy serving Elite businesses, Brett loves family life with his beautiful wife, Sharon, and their 8 children!

Some of the topics that Brett and I discussed in this episode are:

• The five (5) stages of a small business.
• The definition of each of the five stages.
• The challenges that most entrepreneurs experience when they're in each stage.
• The challenges in growing from stage to stage.
• Solutions for overcoming the growth challenges in each stage.
• Company culture and the importance of setting the company’s vision as the CEO.
• The challenges when it comes to building, managing and growing a team.
• How can you ‘gift’ ownership of certain roles to the people on your team.
• Strategies and ways you can make your team grow.

Links & Resources

Connect with Brett:

Elite Entrepreneur: growwithelite.com

Brett Gilliland on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/built2lastchamp

To receive a copy of the 5 Stages of Small Business Infographic, text “Stages” to 72000

Books & Resources:

The Rule of 3 and 10: www.sequoiacap.com/article/the-rule-of-3-and-10

Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter www.amazon.com/Multipliers-Best-Leaders-Everyone-Smarter/dp/0061964395

Leadership and Self Deception: Getting Out of the Box

www.amazon.com/Leadership-Self-Deception-Getting-Out/dp/1576751740

The Anatomy of Peace: Resolving the Heart of Conflict www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Peace-Resolving-Heart-Conflict-ebook/dp/B00SGET4BS

The Outward Mindset: How to Change Lives and Transform Organizations 

www.amazon.com/Outward-Mindset-Change-Transform-Organizations-ebook/dp/B07V4GKZCV

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

www.amazon.com/Five-Dysfunctions-Team-Leadership-Fable/dp/0787960756

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't 

www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others/dp/0066620996

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the business.

Pango Group is a family of companies that provides personalized services for a diverse range of

real estate and escrow related transactions. In addition to escrow services, the subsidiary

companies focus on the areas of notary, insurance, document archiving and leasing: offering

clients a full range of services. Pango Group owns and manages 20 offices throughout California and has a staff of more than 50 escrow officers and over 250 employees across the state.

Some of the topics that Joe and I discussed in this episode are:

• The difference between a transactional sale and a relational sale.
• The importance of a follow-up system for the transactional sale.
• Terminal Unique Syndrome - what makes your company unique in your sales process.
• The importance of being your authentic self.
• How do I set a quota for my prospective customers.
• Why Joe doesn’t use sales quotas at his company.
• Training opportunities for your sales team in order to be successful.

Links & Resources

Find Joe on LinkedIn here: www.linkedin.com/in/joecurtis

Pango Group: https://pangogroup.com/

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His sales experience dates back to 2008. At 19, he ran his first six-figure business painting houses while attending school at Oregon State University. He's worked with hundreds of sales reps and personally closed millions of dollars in revenue during his career.

Some of the topics that Jason and I discussed in today’s podcast are:

• The importance of having a process for your outbound prospecting that reduces stress.

• How you can use the lesson from improv and stand-up comedy to you selling.

• How to use the REPLY method as the foundation for your sales messages.

• How infrequently we see our clients go back to their current customers to get verbiage about the problem they’re solving every single day.

• The importance of running your outbound cadence manually before you automating it.

• Being HUMAN in your sales.
• Segmenting your prospects - why you should not treat everyone equally.

• How to use video as part of your prospecting plan of action

Links & Resources

Jason Bay - www.linkedin.com/in/jasondbay

Blissful Prospecting - blissfulprospecting.com

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After successfully starting and growing Customer Success teams for over 8 successful startups, Leah decided to go out on her own and join BetterGrowth as a Founding Partner. BetterGrowth is an agency that focuses on in-house talent for SAAS companies around the world.

BetterGrowth's core offerings include a model where they hire, train, and employee Customer Support agents, sales agents, and recruiters in their Portland office.

 In just over 7 months BetterGrowth has grown its Portland Oregon team to over 15 full-time employees focused on servicing some of the world's top technology companies. 

Some of the topics that we discussed in this podcast are:

• Defining what is ‘Customer Success’ from the buyer's point of view.

• The importance of being an investigative reporter as part of your customer success work.

• Getting clear about your known outliers and challenges when creating your implementation plan.

• The importance of setting up a clear cadence with your new customers.

• The ‘80/20 rule’ - the biggest kryptonite in customer success.

• Who runs the quarterly business reviews.

• Conversation programs for customer success for upsells and renewals.

• The ‘triple-A’ scorecard for your customer success team.

• Leah’s dedication and active work around diversity and inclusion around the LGBT community.

Links & Resources

BetterGrowth: www.bettergrowth.co

Leah Chancy on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/leahchaney

Thanks for the rainbow logo... but let's do better.

www.linkedin.com/pulse/thanks-rainbow-logo-lets-do-better-leah-chaney

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Dan is a serial entrepreneur having built several multi-million dollar technology companies starting at the age of 17. He's also an award-winning angel investor, having invested in 35+ companies like Intercom, Udemy, Hootsuite, and Unbounce.

Today he's an executive coach focused exclusively on B2B SaaS working with the founders from ClickFunnels.com, Proposify.com, Carrot.com, and many others to help scale their businesses. He splits his time between Canada (where he grew up), and San Diego with his wife Renee and two boys.

Some of the topics that we discussed in today’s podcast are:

• Why Dan calls himself “The Chief Instigator”
• The mindset of thinking in decades – and why you should make decisions based on what you would want to be doing in the next ten years from now.
• The strategic mindset you need to take as a start-up founder.
• The importance of learning from the mistakes from other people make so you don’t have to make them.
• The idea of either fixing the track or the vehicle that you’re on or jump on a new one.
• The “Front Page” rule and the pain of indecision.
• The importance of building an achievement list for yourself to help you build confidence in yourself.
• Understanding why issues in your business are a reflection of your personal life.
• The challenges entrepreneurs face by not trusting themselves to take action.
• Dan’s story as an at-risk youth. 

Links & Resources

Facebook Personal Page: hwww.facebook.com/profile.php?id=829175116

Facebook Business Page: www.facebook.com/Danmartell

Instagram: www.instagram.com/danmartell

YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/danvmartell

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John currently leads North American Sales at Amplitude Analytics where he helps their customers leverage customer data to build the best product experiences possible.

 He has built sales teams at Enterprise B2B SaaS companies ranging in size from 8 to 500 employees for the past 10 years. He loves helping teams scale and figure out how to go from initial sales success to a team full of successful salespeople. 

Some of the topics that we discussed in today’s podcast are:

• Finding the ‘sweet-spot’ for hiring.

• The biggest mistakes that startups make when hiring their first sales team members.

• When is the right time to hire a sales team at a startup?

• Signals to tell you when to hire and bring in a new salesperson to the team.

• The “Whiteboard problem”

• How and where to find perfect recruits.

Links & Resources

John Messina on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jomessina

Amplitude: amplitude.com

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Susan is the CEO at Emerging Media which is an award-winning PR, branding, marketing, and social media agency, that helps the visionaries and entrepreneurial leaders make their mark in the ever-changing media landscape. 

Emerging Media creates and aligns a solid brand foundation, lead-generating marketing, awareness building PR and an engaged social community that helps disruptive companies to rise above their competitors to industry leadership. 

Some of the topics that we discussed in today’s podcast are:

• How to use storytelling in your sales process.
• Susan’s experience as an epidemiologist and getting Red Light District prostitution brothels to use condoms.
• The importance of thinking of your customer’s journey.
• The four-step process for creating a story behind your company.
• The importance of creating a platform around company’s goals and services.
• The four-step process for creating a story-telling environment to connect with your target customer.
• Four questions you should ask every customer after getting them onboard.

Links & Resources

Susan Lindner on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/susanjlindner

Emerging Media: emergingmediapr.com

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Erik started his tech sales career at 8x8, a cloud communications and customer engagement solutions provider located in Santa Clara, California. From there, he found himself at a small startup called DemandForce. 

Erik held a few different leadership roles and exited three years after Intuit acquired the company. Then he found himself back in the startup world, this time it was in the head of sales capacity at Zozi, a booking and resource management solution in the tour and activity space. 

Some of the topics that we discussed in today’s podcast are:

• How Erik and his team build their sales process. 

• “The Buyer’s Journey” - how do we truly create empathy around their situations or problems.

• Marketing qualified leads (MQL) versus sales qualified lead (SQL).

• What constitutes a sales qualified lead.

• How Erik and his team implemented ‘APV’ (always provide value) in their sales process.

• The difference between inbound leads and outbound leads and how to handle them. 

Links and Resources:

Erik Bulichi: http://bit.ly/2GxbSpr

Lever: www.lever.co

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Plus, whenever you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you grow your startup…

1. Grab a free copy of my book

It explains the core selling strategies that EVERY startup needs to sell, if you really, really have to and don’t know how…  Click Here

2. Join me on my monthly LIVE Sales Q&A

Every month, I tackle YOUR sales questions on anything and everything sales – Prospecting, Pipeline, Sales Metrics, Buyer Behavior and more…Click here to save your spot and send me your toughest sales question.

3. Work with me and my team privately

If you’d like to work directly with me to take your company from Start Up to Ramp Up to Scale Up, just reply to this message, put “Private” in the subject line, and tell me a little about your business and what you’d like to work on together, and I’ll get you the details! 

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Jonathan is the founder and CEO of Agency Labs, a powerful and trusted engineering partner that collaborates exclusively with leading digital, creative and ad agency teams globally.

He and his team have delivered more than 600 projects for IBM, Nestlé, eBay, and more, helping some of the world’s leading in-house teams and agencies achieve peace of mind in every aspect of technical production.

Some of the topics that we discussed in today’s podcast are:

• Collaboration versus competition with companies, whether the competition is direct or indirect.

• The idea of being honest and compassionate with your customer's needs.

• Vision versus purpose - balancing where you want to go with your company and what actions can be taken on a day to day basis to reach your goal.

• Practical tips to step away from spreadsheets and growth goals and to become more human when building your business.

• The idea of ‘being human’ when it comes to managing your company as a founder and CEO.

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

Stitcher | Spotify | iTunes | Soundcloud | SalesQualia.com

Plus, whenever you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you grow your startup…

1. Grab a free copy of my book

It explains the core selling strategies that EVERY startup needs to sell, if you really, really have to and don’t know how…  Click Here

2. Join me on my monthly LIVE Sales Q&A

Every month, I tackle YOUR sales questions on anything and everything sales – Prospecting, Pipeline, Sales Metrics, Buyer Behavior and more…Click here to save your spot and send me your toughest sales question.

3. Work with me and my team privately

If you’d like to work directly with me to take your company from Start Up to Ramp Up to Scale Up, just reply to this message, put “Private” in the subject line, and tell me a little about your business and what you’d like to work on together, and I’ll get you the details! 

Thanks so much for listening! Tell a friend or ten about The Startup Selling Show, and please leave a review wherever you’re listening to the show.

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Alex is responsible for generating millions in B2B sales for his clients over the course of his career. He also creates weekly YouTube videos to help agency owners grow their businesses and bring in more revenue teaching them how to optimize B2B sales cycles and put inbound marketing strategies in place.

He’s also a former director of marketing at the 60-person, three-time INC 5000 agency in NYC and a YEC member.

Some of the topics that we discussed in today’s podcast are:

• Creating emails that will get you a meeting with top Fortune 500 executives.

• How to craft a good email from subject line to closing, and how to iterate until you get it right.

• Alex’s use of YouTube for lead gen in his own business.

• The 3% Rule - Why you shouldn’t edit your marketing copy or the email template you’ve written. 

• The differences between sales and marketing and why they should be separated in a company.

Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode:

• x27marketing.com - Qualified lead generation 
• Alex Berman’s Youtube Channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UCAr7M4Pz-c1WCpIz3YAJQeQ

Listen & Subscribe to The Startup Selling Show Here:

Stitcher | Spotify | iTunes | Soundcloud | SalesQualia.com

As a Startup, if you’re interested in how to solve a problem, how to build a product, and most importantly, how to impact your customers and change your industry, feel free to grab a copy of my recently released book called: “Stop Hustling, Start Scaling: Ramp Up Your Startup’s Repeatable Revenue with The Q Framework”

And, if you’re interested in learning more about Startup Selling, one of the easiest ways for me to help you is to give you a (free) copy of my book called: “Startup Selling: How to Sell If You Really, Really Have To And Don’t Know How.”Just go to www.startupselling.co and you can download your free copyright there.

Thanks so much for listening!

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In today’s guest episode I had the privilege of sitting down with CEO and Founder Shawn Finder as we discussed the topic “Social Selling Strategies Using LinkedIn, Video & More.”  

Shawn is the CEO and Founder of Autoklose; the first sales email automation platform powered by machine learning. Their searchable database is jam-packed with millions of verified B2B leads. Pick a niche, generate a targeted list, turn autopilot mode on, and you’re done. You don’t have to make cold calls or deal with a gatekeeper anymore. 

In addition, Autoklose is a well-rounded outbound sales platform featuring an automated lead generation software, email drip campaign management tool, and different CRM integrations. 

Some of the topics that we discussed in today’s podcast are:

• Shawn’s background and how he made the transition from finance to sales. 

• How to use social media as part of your outbound outreach and campaigns - specifically LinkedIn

• Content development - How to get more likes, comments, shares, and reviews.

• The importance of being the “Brand” and using the different networks even before using the new automated platforms.

• The right way to use LinkedIn to build your network - starting from sending an invite to interacting with the prospect.

• When the best time to post on your social network is when you have a super busy schedule.

• New and improved software tools and features to promote your business on LinkedIn.

There you have it. Thanks for listening. 

Links & Resources

Find Shawn Finder on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/shawnfinder

Autoklose: autoklose.com

LinkedIn Live on TechCrunch: techcrunch.com/2019/02/11/linkedin-debuts-linkedin-live-a-new-live-video-broadcast-service

Meet Leonard: meetleonard.com

Automate your work on LinkedIn with Linked Helper: linkedhelper.com

Listen & Subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

Stitcher | Spotify | iTunes | Soundcloud | SalesQualia.com

Also, if you’re interested in learning more about Startup Selling, one of the easiest ways for me to help you is to give you a (free) copy of my book called: “Startup Selling: How to Sell If You Really, Really Have To And Don’t Know How.”  https://www.startupselling.co

Just go to www.startupselling.co and you can download your free copyright there.

As a Startup, if you’re interested in how to solve a problem, how to build a product, and most importantly, how to impact your customers and change your industry feel free to grab a copy of my recently released book called: “Stop Hustling, Start Scaling: Ramp Up Your Startup’s Repeatable Revenue with The Q Framework”

Thanks so much for listening! Tell a friend or ten about The Startup Selling Show, and please leave a review wherever you’re listening to the show.

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Marylou is the founder of Strategic Pipeline, a Fortune 1000 sales process improvement consulting group. Her client roster includes prestigious companies such as Apple, Bose, AMA, Talend, CIBC, Gartner, Prudential, UPS, Logitech, Orkin, AAA and Mastercard.

Marylou is also an author and a contributor of two #1 bestselling books – “Predictable Revenue” and “Predictable Prospecting.” Both books have sold over 60,000 copies worldwide.

She specializes in optimizing top-of-funnel sales process and implementing predictable new sales opportunity models. Her approach walks clients through a 7-point outreach framework that is part behavioral, part predictive and part creative, which when combined together, yields a persuasive storytelling process for sales outreach.

Here are the highlights of the topics that we covered in today’s episode:

• The Yellow Brick Road Matrix – Selling new products vs. existing products and selling to new clients vs. existing clients.
• Becoming a pleasant and reliable machine as a salesperson, entrepreneur and founder. 
• The five (5) levels of a prospect perception of a problem - starting from “unaware” and going to “extremely aware.”
• The Engagement Pyramid – a process for lead-scoring that shows what to offer your sales leads as the next step in your sales process.
• The importance of disqualifying potential customers that might not be ready to take action with you, and discover the ones that are ready to take action. 
• The Importance of Storytelling in your Sales and the five (5) steps of the story arc.

Show Notes

Marylou Tyler:

• Website: www.maryloutyler.com
• PredictableEDU: https://predictableedu.com

Robert Cialdini:

• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion: www.amazon.com/Robert-B.-Cialdini/e/B000AP9KKG

Nancy Duarte:

• TED - Talks Recommended:
• www.ted.com/talks/nancy_duarte_the_secret_structure_of_great_talks?language=en
• Nancy’s Books: www.duarte.com/books

Chet Holmes

•  The Dream 100 strategy: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol2j3NLguBM
• The Ultimate Sales Machine [book]: www.amazon.com/Chet-Holmes-Turbocharge-Relentless-Strategies/dp/B004S7Y002

Twila Tharp’s book, “The Creative Habit” – www.amazon.com/Creative-Habit-Learn-Use-Life/dp/0743235274

Listen & Subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

Stitcher | Spotify | iTunes | Soundcloud | SalesQualia.com

Make sure to grab your free copy of my book – “Startup Selling: How to Sell If You Really, Really Have To And Don’t Know How.”

Just go to www.startupselling.co and you can download a free PDF version of the book.

Thanks so much for listening! Tell a friend or ten about The Startup Selling Show, and please leave a review wherever you’re listening to the show.

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Erik Jacobson spent three years learning how the podcasting system works and what impact it can have on your business, while Jonathan Barshop fell in love with podcasting after listening to an episode from Tim Ferriss show: Focus on your obsessions. 

BeMyGuest is a Podcast company that books Founders and CEOs on podcast tours, creates original podcasts for brands looking to build authority in their market and partners with internal communications teams to create private podcasts. 

Today’s episode is all about how to use podcasts in your startup’s sales and marketing as a way to market yourself as an entrepreneur and target a wide audience. 

A couple of key topics that we discussed in today’s conversation with Jonathan and Erik are:

• Why every startup Founder show become a podcast guest on shows that reach their target market.
• How to approach and become a guest on podcasts.
• The steps in starting your very own podcast, how to generate topics and the technology tools you need to get started.
• Ways to leverage your podcast in a way to share your expertise, show your authority voice and as a result, bring good leads to your company.
• How to identify guests for your podcast show.

Also, if you’re interested in learning more about Startup Selling, one of the easiest ways for me to help you is to give you a (free) copy of my book called: “Startup Selling: How to Sell If You Really, Really Have To And Don’t Know How.” www.startupselling.co

Show Notes:

BeMyGuest [company website]: www.bemyguest.fm

Erik Jacobson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erik-jacobson-78811b54/

Jonathan Barshop: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-barshop/

Podcast Episode with Jonathan: www.choosefi.com/podcast-episodes

Masters of Scale [podcast]: mastersofscale.com

The Tim Ferriss Show: tim.blog/podcast

The Tim Ferriss Show episode #145 – The Interview Master: Cal Fussman and the Power of Listening: tim.blog/2016/03/11/the-interview-master-cal-fussman-and-the-power-of-listening

About The Hero's Journey: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey

SS

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Substantial is a software product development company that help clients bring new software product into the market. Paul has sold huge projects and have worked with large companies such as Amazon, T-Mobile, Google, Mercedes Benz, ADO, and many more.

As the company founder, Paul has always been the lead salesperson and responsible for bringing in these companies as clients. And that’s exactly why I had Paul on the show...

Some of the topics to be discussed today are:

• The three types of company founders when it comes to sales and having a selling mindset.
• Why sales should be the number one priority for every company’s growth.
• The systems and frameworks Paul uses ensure that sales is the priority for him every day.
• The Goldilocks Rule for challenging yourself at the right level to make sure that your work is neither too easy or too difficult when it comes to selling.
• The importance of curiosity in the sales process.

Listen & Subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

Stitcher | Spotify | iTunes | Soundcloud | SalesQualia.com

Also, if you’re interested in learning more about Startup Selling, one of the easiest ways for me to help you is to give you a (free) copy of my book called: “Startup Selling: How to Sell If You Really, Really Have To And Don’t Know How.”

Just go to www.startupselling.co and you can download your free copy right there.

Thanks so much for listening!

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Over the past five months, I’ve been training and preparing myself for the race. As a runner, a sales coach and an entrepreneur, I constantly see parallels and lessons that I feel are important to share with my team, clients and startup CEOs and Founders.

The race took place in Bryce Canyon in Southern Utah, and took over 30 hours to complete with more than a few obstacles and challenges along the way – elevation, weather and a challenging course.

It was a nervous and exciting feeling at the start, knowing that I’d put in the time and effort to get myself there.

It is the same when you’re starting a company – you’re excited to get started, ready to build and  grow your business, but nervous for all of the challenges ahead.

As a startup, there are so many obstacles on your journey and so you have to figure out ways to work through them without affecting or damaging yourself and the business to get to where you want to go.

This is the journey we chose. Excitement gets you started, but recognizing the reality of the journey requires emotional maturity and perseverance. It’s hard, and we know it’s going to be hard – it’s the only way to discover what we’re really capable of doing, who we really are, and what impact we can make to the people around us.

I also wrote a series of articles about the experience. Here are the links if you’d like to check them out:

1. Starting the Journey: From Excitement to Reality – Startup Lesson #1 from the Bryce Canyon 100:

https://salesqualia.com/starting-the-journey-from-excitement-to-reality-startup-lesson-1-from-the-bryce-canyon-100/

2. Knowing What’s Ahead Makes It Even Tougher – Startup Lesson #2 from the Bryce Canyon 100:

https://salesqualia.com/knowing-whats-ahead-makes-it-even-tougher-startup-lesson-2-from-the-bryce-canyon-100/

3. The Reality of the Distance: The Long F&cking Road Ahead – Startup Lesson #3 from the Bryce Canyon 100L

https://salesqualia.com/the-reality-of-the-distance-the-long-fcking-road-ahead-startup-lesson-3-from-the-bryce-canyon-100/

Listen & Subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

Stitcher | Spotify | iTunes | Soundcloud | SalesQualia.com

Thanks for taking the time to listen to the Startup Selling podcast. If you are enjoying the content here, we’d love it if you would do two things, please.

One, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you are listening to The Startup Selling Show.

And two, please tell a friend or ten! The best way for others to find out about The Startup Selling Show is for them to hear it from people just like you. So if you’re liking the content here, please tell a friend or ten so that we can get the word out to as many people as possible.

Also, if you’re interested in learning more about Startup Selling, one of the easiest ways for me to help you is to download a free copy of my book called: “Startup Selling: How to Sell If You Really, Really Have To And Don’t Know How.”

Just go to www.startupselling.co and you can download your free copy right there.

Thanks so much for listening!

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Kelly started off as a Team Lead and Account Executive and has now become the Director of Small business and Corporate Sales at Lever. She enjoy helping small businesses source and hire the best candidates in the most efficient way.  

Below are some of the topics that we discussed in today’s Podcast are:

• Mistakes do people usually make when hiring especially when it comes to sales
• Where are good places to source great candidates (applications, inbound, where you put out your job post, referrals, etc), and what are the values of sourcing candidates
• Diversity in the hiring process and women in technology in the startup selling world.
• The importance of Cultural Fit and what would be the best practices when it comes to balancing technical vs non-technical and experienced vs non-experienced candidates

This Podcast is full of great hiring strategies that would be very useful when hiring a candidate for a post.

Also, if you’re interested in learning more about Startup Selling, one of the easiest ways for me to help you is to give you a (free) copy of my book called: “Startup Selling: How to Sell If You Really, Really Have To And Don’t Know How.”

Show Links

Kelly Del Curto on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kellydelcurto

How to balance untraditional backgrounds with a skillset to make an impact ASAP https://inside.lever.co/finding-a-company-and-community-that-celebrate-untraditional-backgrounds-in-tech-beddfe492c58

Women in Sales: https://inside.lever.co/how-to-avoid-the-horror-stories-of-being-a-woman-in-tech-sales-a59895a128d4

Lever: www.lever.co

Top Grading: www.topgrading.com

Book a Scale Session: www.salesqualia.com/scalesession

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Fighting to remain consistent is not an easy thing to tackle, especially if you're an entrepreneur with a busy schedule and your input is required for the business’s operation.

As a business, what the task at hand might be – such as consistently releasing new marketing content, finding ways to make your ten or twenty sales calls – and making it a habit regardless of how small the accomplishment might be, is the result of discipline, not motivation. Motivation is temporary while discipline is consistency.

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Think about your day-to-day work and interactions with your customers – nearly everything is done virtually  – from mobile phones to video conference calls to email to Slack and more.

Having like-minded people in the same room to share their experience is a great method to build their business and build a community. Since every business faces some sort of challenge every day, it’s a great opportunity to listen and learn where mistakes can happen, and how can they be prevented simply by the experience shared from someone else in the room.

One of the top reasons for running live events is to bring out these entrepreneurs at least once in a while to a physical space to share their experience in where they're succeeding and where they are facing challenges.

You can do the same with your customers and prospects – whether you run your own event, or organize an event in tandem with an industry conference or association. The gains from getting away from the office and in a new, creative environment ALWAYS overrides the one-day loss of time with the team.

If you’re interested in getting some help with building the sales process at your startup, be sure to grab a free copy of my book called: “Startup Selling: How to Sell If You Really, Really Have To And Don’t Know How.”

Download your free copy here at https://www.startupselling.co/

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A couple of quick notes about this episode. First of all, we talked about the importance of process versus outcome. How many times do we scramble, and work, and grit our way to an outcome; however, without a measurable, distinct, process that outcome might be achieved, but it is either not repeatable or we don't know exactly why we achieved that outcome. Second, the process is important because it allows us to then specifically test some new ideas and see how we can continuously improve. And third, in this episode, we give you a little backstage look on one of our processes that actually did not go as planned with a new client, what we learned from it and how we improved things moving forward.

Thanks for taking the time to listen to the Startup Selling podcast. If you are enjoying the content here, we'd love it if you would do two things, please. One,  leave a review on iTunes, SoundCloud, Spotify, or wherever you are listening to the Startup Selling podcast. And two, please tell a friend or 10! The best way for others to hear and to learn about the Startup Selling podcast is for them to hear it from people just like you. So if you're digging the content, please tell a friend or 10 so that we can get the word out to as many people as possible.

Also, if you’re interested in learning more about Startup Selling, one of the easiest ways for me to help you is to give you a (free) copy of my book called: “Startup Selling: How to Sell If You Really, Really Have To And Don’t Know How.”

Just go to www.startupselling.co and you can download your free copy right there.

Thanks so much for listening!

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So in this particular episode, we covered three main topics. The first topic that we covered was cold calling: when to cold call, is cold calling dead, how to cold call, and how to think about cold calling as part of an outreach sequence. We certainly tackled the question of cold calling, in general, more so what we did is talk about the importance of outbound calling. I don't call it cold calling cause I think there's no reason to do a pure cold call anymore, but I think of it as warm calling. And so we talked about how to use warm calling as part of it multitouch on the channel sales engagement sequence.

The second topic that I covered in this live sales Q and A was on partnerships, when to use partnerships and how to use partnerships as part of your sales funnel at your startup.  In particular there are three different places where you can use partnerships: one based on prospecting and legion, the second one being in your sales pipeline to co-sell or resell your product, and third, on the customer success integration side of your business. We talked in detail about those three parts of your sales funnel and how partnerships could be part of what you're doing to both distribute your product and of course sell and support your product.

The third topic that we talked about was how to assess an account executive. More specifically, how do we know if somebody is the right fit? How do we know that somebody is motivated by the right things to make sure that they're a good match culturally with our startup, and for our staff, as it relates to our vision, mission, and values of the company.  Not just are they the kind of person that can sell my stuff.

Those are the three big topics that we covered in the Live Q and A. I'd love to get your feedback if you feel like this is a good way to redistribute this information and content that we're doing.

We can certainly pop more of this type of content into the podcasts so that if you're listening on your commute, listening in the car, or maybe as you're shopping at Trader Joe's (it's one of the places I listen to podcasts all the time). If it's the same for you and if this is a way for us to get more content, more information and more ideas to you, the startup founder and the startup sales leader, then by all means, I'm happy to do it as part of our podcast sequence.

I'll make two asks of you: one ask is that if you are listening to this podcast and you are what I call a repeat offender, that probably tells me that you really like the content. And if you do like the content, please leave a review on SoundCloud, iTunes, Spotify. Where are you? I would love to see your review. Not just for me though, it helps other people just like you find the podcast and helps us to increase the number of people that are listening, downloading and subscribing to what we're doing here.

Number two is if you would tell a friend or 10 about this podcast, that would be awesome. A word of mouth is still the best way to get the distribution of this content out to more and more people.

Thanks so much for listening and look forward to seeing your review!  

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We touch on the mistakes startups make when setting up their digital marketing strategy, how to pick your marketing channels, why you need to pick a niche and focus on it, and so much more…

The interview focuses both on how a startup business owner can improve their marketing, AND common mistakes everyone should avoid.

Here are just a few of the topics we tackled in our conversation:

• The biggest mistakes startups make when setting up their marketing strategy.
• How to reverse engineer your marketing.
• Doing stuff and making noise vs driving towards specific results.
• The importance of focusing on a niche vs trying to sell to everyone.
• Why you need to set up strict KPIs for all of your marketing activities.
• The different types of channel: How to select the right channels. What is channel bias and how to avoid it.

You can listen to the podcast over here on the SalesQualia website.

Enjoy!

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As an entrepreneur, you're always expected to wear a mask, to wear a suit of armor, to wear your superman cape, and the truth is, that stuff isn't real. What's real is behind the mask, what's real is behind the suit of armor, what's real is the flesh and bones that are holding up the t-shirt that you’re wearing.

For me, yesterday was one of those days where I finished the day feeling exasperated and frustrated. It was one of those days that if you're a parent, a spouse, a partner, or all three - and you're also an entrepreneur - you might have had one just like it.

And I know I’m not the only person that’s had this kind of day, and that means I’m not alone out there, I know that there are others that are going through something similar.

So, if you’re working damn hard to build a company that is going to make an impact in our world, you must know that you’re not alone out there. There are others with similar problems and similar frustrations. 

And you know what? These “problems” are not problems.

There are people out there right now without food, without water, without shelter, that are in way worse shape than some dude (aka me) standing in front of his computer with a superman t-shirt at 6:20am, in his home office, complaining about billing issues with his client or complaining about how challenging it is to be a dad and a husband.

It’s all about perspective.

And that’s what we’re gonna dive into in today’s episode of the Start Up Selling Podcast.

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Some of the topics that we covered were: - Operational tracking for sales and go-to-market operations.

- Data quality, performance tracking, and deal quality. - The configured price quote. - Pipeline quality, and how it's different than deal quality. - Seven areas of sales operations, and what you should be tracking in each. - Time-to-close and time-to-loss. - Percentages of deals converted versus percentage of disqualified deals. - Lead-to-account matching model versus an account-contact model. - When to install a sales operations person in your company. - NPS and the Confidence Question and how to think through evaluating your accounts on the customer success side of your business. - Sale Not Acceptable (SNAP), and how at Culture Amp gives their salespeople the ability to disqualify sales leads. - Sales compensation. As you can see, we covered lots and lots of ground in less than an hour. You should follow Andy on LinkedIn, he writes articles about marketing, sales metrics, customer success metrics, tech, and operations. Where to find Andy: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amowat/

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Here's an excerpt from his LinkedIn bio: My consulting firm, The Revenue Growth Consultancy, creates an average annual revenue growth of 10-20% for my clients. Also. about once a week, I deliver keynote speeches, sales kickoffs, breakout sessions and workshops for various associations and companies around the country. The topic is sales growth, but I also dive deeply into confidence (instead of meekness), proactivity (instead of reactivity), and optimism (instead of pessimism). Fast sales growth is a function of mindset change and a system of simple behaviors.

After reading Alex’s book, I sent him a note on Linkedin. We talked on the phone, and we immediately clicked. So I invited him to the Startup Selling Show, and he graciously accepted.

The reason I wanted to have Alex on the podcast is to talk through the strategies he uses when he consults with large companies and their sales teams, and how you can implement them with your startup as you grow and scale.

In today’s conversation, we focused on how start-up sellers can change their mindset and use communication to increase sales.  

Here are some of the topics that we covered in our conversation:

• How to develop friendlies in the marketplace.
• How to increase positive psychology when selling.
• Overcoming fears and how to have positive conversations with the people in your marketplace.
• How to migrate away from lazy, low-risk communications and what to do instead.
• How to have “human” interactions with your prospects.
• Communication techniques you can use to increase your sales.

Where to find Alex on the interwebs:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexgoldfayn/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/alexgoldfayn
• Email: alex@evangelistmktg.com

Resources mentioned:

• Selling Boldly: Applying the New Science of Positive Psychology to Dramatically Increase Your Confidence, Happiness, and Sales - https://www.amazon.com/Selling-Boldly-Psychology-Dramatically-Confidence-ebook/dp/B07BFK97QD/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1545081598&sr=8-1&keywords=selling+boldly

That’s it for now!

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A couple of years ago I wrote a book “52 Sales Questions Answered” (get a free copy here).

Back then, I used to be really active on quora.com answering sales related questions. I got to the point where I had answered so many questions, that I decided to put them all together into a book and that’s how “52 Sales Questions Answered” was born!

Today’s episode is like an audiobook with comments. Meaning, I read the question, I read the answer I wrote back, and then I add comments based on new experience.

Since one episode is not enough to read the whole book, I chose a few questions that I think would be particularly relevant for CEOs or Sales Leaders that are managing a sales team.

Enjoy!

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In 2009, he started off with Google as a Strategic Accounts Manager. Since then he’s been quickly moving up the ladder. He was a Regional Sales Leader, then he was the head of Google Cloud Channel Business in the Americas, and now he’s the Head of Google Cloud Business in Latin America and the West.

A lot of his work today is focused on channel distribution, channel partnerships, channels sales, and partner development.

His LinkedIn job description says:

Lead team of 30 Channel Sales Managers and Partner Development Managers responsible for the Google Cloud partner business and channel go to market strategy for G-Suite and Google Cloud Platform across the US West and Latam. This includes owning the channel sales targets, ecosystem development of all channel types, including GSI's, MSP's, Regional Systems Integrators (RSI's), VAR's, Telcos, etc. and development of disruptive partner models that will drive significant scale.

Matt and I met around seven years ago.

I cold emailed him through LinkedIn and invited him to join a meetup group I was running back then. He graciously accepted and attended a meetup as a guest speaker to talk about enterprise sales. We’ve stayed in touch since.

I wanted to have Matt on the show to talk specifically about his work in channel partnerships and about indirect selling versus direct selling. Some of the topics we covered are:

• Compensation Neutrality.
• Compensating Partners VS Compensating Your Sales Team.
• Inbound VS Outbound.
• Different Channel Types.
• Different Layers of Partnerships
• Selling a Disruptive Technology to Fortune 500 Companies.
• Innovative Sales Methodologies.

Where to find Matt on the Interwebs:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewpharrell/

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Shannon Waller is a passionate expert on entrepreneurial teams. She’s been working with Strategic Coach since 1991 and she’s also the creator of The Entrepreneurial Team Program, a parallel program  - for team members of her Coaching clients - that focuses on fostering a winning entrepreneurial attitude in its participants.

Shannon is a sought-after speaker, presenter, and coach. She’s a Kolbe Certified Consultant, and the 2015 recipient of the Kolbe Professional Award for individual leadership in building conative excellence.

She also co-authored the bestselling book Unique Ability 2.0: Discovery and has written two books about entrepreneurial team success.

Her first book, The Team Success Handbook, is a wealth of her distilled teamwork wisdom and includes 12 actionable strategies for working successfully in any entrepreneurial company.

Most recently, Shannon published Multiplication By Subtraction, a comprehensive guide to gracefully letting go of wrong-fit team members.

Shannon has been working with entrepreneurs over the past 27 years helping them build highly functional teams and with their entrepreneurial mindset.

In today’s conversation with Shannon, we talked about:

• Shannon’s story, why she got into coaching entrepreneurs.
• The importance of creating an entrepreneurial organization.
• Small bureaucratic organizations Vs large bureaucratic organizations.
• Teamwork and team building strategies - How to assess/hire the right people.
• Behavioral assessments and behavioral profiles - Kolbe Index.
• The dangers of cloning.
• Core values and how to articulate them.
• How to let someone go - Graciously.

Where to find Shannon on the Interwebs:

www.yourteamsuccess.com

Team success podcast

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In this episode, the SalesQualia team talks about the meaning of the phrase “Life is a verb.”

Disclosure: Scott was highly caffeinated in this episode :-).

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Since founding the company in 2011, Cirrus Insight has been listed in the Inc 5000 ranking for three years in a row… A list of the nation's fastest-growing private companies.

Cirrus Insight is an all-in-one sales productivity platform with world-class Salesforce integration. 250,000 people use Cirrus Insight and its sister products Attach.io and Assistant.to to work faster and smarter from the inbox and calendar. It allows you to Track emails, schedule meetings, set follow-ups and more, right from your inbox...

In my conversation with Brandon, we covered a lot of the early days at Cirrus Insight. We focused on how Brandon and his Co-Founder, Ryan Huff, built the company from 0 to +250,000 users…

Some of the topics that we covered are:

• Getting their first users.
• Converting them into paying customers.
• Pricing in the early days Vs Pricing now.
• Making their first sales hire.
• The bottom up sales strategy.
• Creating your product roadmap based on feedback.
• Using partners to sell your product.

Brandon grew up in Los Olivos, a small California town of 800 people and had only

one classmate in grade school.

He loves endurance sports and raced his bicycle 508 miles across Death Valley in 2002 as part of the Furnace Creek 508 (https://www.the508.net/). He finished in 35 hours and 7 minutes. He also enjoys hiking, camping, and building with Legos. Brandon lives in Knoxville, Tennessee with his wife, Tricia, and their two children, Sonoma and Carson.

Brandon’s advice for Entrepreneurs and Founders:

“Stay curious.” & “Have the ability to make decisions.”

Where to find Brandon on the Interwebs:

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbruce/
• Cirrus Insight - https://www.cirrusinsight.com/

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In this episode, Scott tells us a story about an ultra marathon he ran where things didn’t go as he expected, the steps he took to deal with the situation, and how he ended making the best possible decision given the circumstances.

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In this episode, we talk about pulling the trigger on projects or initiatives you’ve had for a while… We give personal examples of how we delayed things, and provide some recommendations on how you can start your projects today!

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 In this episode, we talk about a couple of workout routines that busy,busy people can use to stay fit and healthy. 

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In this episode, we talk about "sticking to your guns."

• When you should and shouldn't stick to your guns.

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 In this episode, we talk about a couple of nutritional strategies that busy,busy people can use to stay healthy.

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In this episode, we talk about Extreme Ownership. 

• What is extreme ownership?
• How to implement it in your life.

Books Mentioned in the episode:

Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willing & Leif Babin

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In this episode, we talk about why/when you should change the way you work and try a new approach.

If you're liking this edition of the Startup Selling Podcast, please leave us a 5-star review and recommend our show to a friend (or 10 :-).

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SDRemote is an outsourcing & consulting company focused on helping early stage startups (Pre Seed - Series A) achieve market validation, logo acquisition and build the revenue stream they need to receive additional funding or reach profitability.

Prior to starting SDRemote, Niko spent the last 5 years working in sales and marketing with a number of different startups. Niko, along with his brother Anthony Hughes, decided to start SDRemote because they saw that early stage companies had a need to ramp up sales, but lacked the know-how.

Throughout the course of the conversation  Niko and I talked about sales process management. We specifically focused on the top of the funnel.

Some of the specific topics we covered are:

• Biggest mistakes companies make when kicking off their sales work.
• Personas VS Target Buyers.
• How to test a market.
• Laser focus selling.
• Length of the buying process.
• Cold Calling best practices.
• Warm Calling.
• How to qualify inbound leads.

Tools mentioned

• SalesLoft
• Outreach

Books Mentioned:

• Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

How to get in touch with Niko:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikohughes/
• SDRemote: sdremote.co
• Email: niko@sdremote.co - If you’re ever in Portland, Oregon, shoot him a note to go for coffee or beer.

Get a FREE copy of my book: “Startup Selling: How To Sell If You Really, Really Have To And Don’t Know How.”

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Prior to Disco, Justin worked at Intuit as Territory Sales Manager, he was also Account Executive at Gigya, and Director of Enterprise Sales at Nomu.

In this episode we dove deep into Company Culture and Core Values. Some of the specific topics that we covered are:

• What is company culture?
• Mission/Vision/Values - The difference between each.
• Growth mindset.
• Keep it 100 - Being brutally honest.
• Tying circles - Being able to iterate fast.
• Using qualitative and quantitative analysis.
• Cash Rewards vs Experiential Rewards
• Backward-bending labor supply curve.
• Most popular experiential rewards -- Personal/Career Growth, and Personal Wellness.

Some of the books, and resources that were mentioned:

• Backward-bending labor supply curve:
• Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio
• Payoff: The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivations by Dan Ariely
• Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely
• The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age by Reid Hoffman

Where to get in touch with Justin:

Email: justin@justdisco.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinlvandehey/

Website: www.justdisco.com

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Xan’s has been selling large enterprise software deals to the mortgage and financial markets for three and a half years, so given his success and experience I thought he would be an AWESOME guest for the Startup Selling Show.

In this episode we went deep into Customer Success, Account Management, and Enterprise Sales. Some of the specific topics that we covered are:

• Using a Situation Slide for your product demos.
• Tribal Cultures.
• Post-Sale Product Adoption & Usage.
• Implementation Plans.
• Product Road Maps.
• Hiring project managers for your sales teams.
• Agile Methodology.
• 3x3x3 Weekly Review Method.

How to get in touch with Xan:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandergentile/

Twitter:

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He’s also the organizer of The Sales Development Conference (Check it out here: https://tenbound.com/conference), and, as you can imagine, he’s an expert when it comes to sales development.

In this episode, we really focused on one main topic: sales development.  Just a few of the things that we covered:

• Cracking the code of sales development.
• Why founders need to be Sales Rep first.
• Why being an SDR is the toughest job in the sales process.
• Compensation Structures For SDRs.
• Traits to look when hiring SDRs.
• Why train on persona instead of product - Lead with the problem you solve not your solution.
• How to balance quality vs. quantity when doing outbound calls -- Use chunking.
• Outsourcing research for your SDRs.
• How to make your outbounds feel less cold.
• Why you need a sales navigator in your organization.
• The 18-month payback period - Getting ROI from your hires.
• The #1 key metric for sales managers and their SDRs.
• The "two-volley email" and why it's a key signal in your lead development and qualification.

Some of the books and resources that were mentioned by David:

• T Harv Eker - https://www.harveker.com/
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion - Robert Cialdini
• How to Get a Meeting with Anyone: The Untapped Selling Power of Contact Marketing - by Stu Heineck
• The Sales Development Conference

Where to find David on the Interwebs:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidkdulany/
• Personal Blog: http://www.daviddulany.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/dkdinsf
• Podcast: The Sales Development Podcast

Getting in touch with David: www.tenbound.com/contact

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In this episode we talk about why some entrepreneurs fail and others don't.

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Brian was also the CoFounder of Zocdoc's Enterprise Team and has been doing enterprise sales for 18+ years.

In this episode, we really focused on two main themes: Enterprise Sales and Sales Team Management. Just a few of the topics we covered include:

• The biggest mistake entrepreneurs make when selling to big companies - The Sales Process vs. The Buy Process.
• Helping your buyers through their own "Buying Process"
• How enterprise sales is a lot like project management
• Being empathetic in your sales process.
• How to sell innovation.
• The Access Audit.
• Known Said/ Known Unsaid/ Unknown Problems.
• How to use scarcity to move the sale forward -- Creating FOMO.
• Sales management - From individual contributor to manager.
• How to build effective, and real, relationships with your team - 1:1s, weekly, monthly and quarterly strategies.
• Sharing failures to create confidence with the team.

Some of the books and resources that were mentioned by Brian:

• The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation by Matthew Dixon
• Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott

Where to find Brian on the Interwebs:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briancmanning/
• Personal Blog: https://www.briancmanning.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bcmanning

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