Rethink The Way You Sell

This is an enhanced audio version of the Deeper Thought post, "Sales Professionals Who Get Back To The Basics Will Smash Their Sales Results In 2021" written by Larry Levine including an interview with the author and Liz Wendling.  EXCERPT --- Sales Professionals Who Get Back To The Basics Will Smash Their Sales Results In 2021. Could you enhance your sales results and become more successful, if you consistently learned how to master the basics? Vince Lombardi, the legendary Green Bay Packers coach, once said that football comes down to only two things: Blocking on offense and tackling on defense, and those are the basics his teams spent 80% of their time on in practice.  How many of you spend 80% of your time practicing the sales basics? Here is my concern, too many of you are wasting time chasing shortcuts, automation magic and excuses; before mastering the fundamentals The greatest skill in your sales endeavor is simple... just do the work. And it is for this reason, most of you don't need more time, more tips, or better strategies. You just need to do the real work and master the basics.

Justine Sones is a self-care coach who helps creative, high-performing women manage the stress of running a business so that they can focus on what matters. On this episode, Jeff and Justine discuss the importance of boundaries for top performers, deliverable-creep and the stories we tell ourselves.

Jeff is jumping back into the mailbag and answering your deepest sales questions.

Fresh off hosting and attending sessions at the Outbound Sales Conference Jeff is thinking about what metrics we should be paying more attention to and how to balance the equation between a social following and a bottom line.

This is an enhanced version of the Deeper Thought post written by David Weiss including an interview with the author. EXCERPT I was coaching someone recently who is struggling in their current role—not from a performance perspective, but in feeling a sense of happiness and fulfillment with the work. Nine months ago he joined one of the fastest growing companies in the world. It was a dream company, and during the interview process multiple people said to him, “When you get a seat on a Rocketship it doesn’t matter what the seat is, you just take it.” This resonated with him, and he took the jump. He was leaving sales leadership for the first time in 6 years to go back into an Enterprise Account Executive role. He had been a highly successful AE in multiple different roles over the years, so he understood what the job entailed and how to get it done; all the knowledge and capability was there. He was also motived to join the business, and be successful so he could make his way back to leadership in the near future.

Yes, in sales, you need to be persuasive. You need to create tension, you need to help the client understand that they are where they are and there is a place where they want to go, there's a place they will be better off. And there are steps that will need to be taken in order to get them from where they are right now to where they want to go. But...if you need to convince somebody that they need to do something that they don't really want to do...then you are just like every traditional salesperson. I just don't see that as a way of meaningfully, sustainably, making sales. I'll tell you why and how you can make those meaningful, sustainable sales inside the pod.

This is an enhanced audio version of the Deeper Thought post "Two things in life that are guaranteed" written by Vince Fowler including an interview with the author. EXCERPT They say, "Two things in life are guaranteed... Death and Taxes." Wrong. Death and Suffering.  While everyone dies, not everyone will pay taxes. Everyone will, however, experience suffering. The question then is, "What makes the suffering worth it?

This is an enhanced audio version of the Deeper Thought article "Sales Professionals Capture The Morning With Purpose, Are You?" written by Larry Levine, including an interview with the author. EXCERPT Have you ever stopped to think about your purpose in life? Or why you get up every morning? Are you going through the morning motions? Or are you capturing the morning with a sense of purpose, fulfillment and joy? I'm a firm believer that having a purpose matters more now than ever before. A sales professional thrives on being a part of a purpose. They live for becoming part of something that really matters, something that really makes a difference to the lives of their clients, their marketplace and their community.

Can you ever be "good enough" in sales? Sometimes the continual drive to get better actually gets in the way of being able to understand how much better you've become. Some ideas lead to poor outcomes. And those poor outcomes tend to feed the false premise. It's a cycle you don't want to be in. We've got to admit it's getting better...in this edition of Deeper Thought. Subscribe to Deeper Thought on Soundwise

Jeff sits down with the current producer of Deeper Thought and former producer of The Why and The Buy, Doug Branson for an impromptu but important discussion about the anxieties that keep us from realizing our full potential.

Cycles. They're everywhere. Our bodies, our minds, our economy, our ecology. Some cycles don't move towards an equilibrium. They spin out of control. Sometimes that's good and sometimes that's bad. Learning to differentiate vicious and virtuous cycles can be the key to making small choices that lead to the latter and avoid the former.

The allure of a new business plan, the seduction of a marketing expert that will open up new streams of revenue, the satisfaction in buying a new piece of tech we're sure will change the game for good. In the world of sales and business development, there are too many distractions to count. Sometimes we need a reminder to mind our own damn business before that business decides to walk away.

This is an enhanced version of the Deeper Thought post "I have a love-hate relationship with sales process." written by Andy Racic. It includes an interview with the author.  EXCERPT --- Why I love sales process: Point #1. With a properly defined process, you don’t really have to think very much, you just have to execute. While I am a thinker and I very much value thinking, I’m also a raving fan of cognitive efficiency. Solve a problem once, properly, and never think of it again. There’s a reason why people give so much credit to Jobs’ idea of a uniform (black polo, blue jeans, sneakers). Having to make fewer decisions lends to making better critical decisions.  Point #2. If the process was given to you by your manager/company, and you follow it honestly and truly, you’re severely limiting your own liability. If you do the work, as prescribed, and the results are there, awesome, end of story. If you do the work, as prescribed, and the results aren’t there, not so great, but your ass isn’t on the line. You were doing as you were instructed to. Then it’s back to the drawing board but with the support of your manager. Why I hate sales process: Point #1. Mindlessly executing a task the same way over and over (and over and over) again is absolute hell for me. I go a little bit nuts doing the same thing repeatedly. While there are a number of factors motivating why I’ve moved on from each of my jobs, one of the common drivers is simply boredom. Learning how to sell something and increasing my win rate is always a good challenge and reward in and of itself. But selling that same solution week in, week out, year in year out, is a kind of a torture for someone like me.  Point #2. The current process will never be as efficient as it possibly can be. There is always room for improvement. I have many, many strong opinions, weakly held. This is not one of them. I believe this on a deeply fundamental level - as deep as cereal first, then milk; or that the toilet paper should hang over the roll, not under the roll (excepting having toddlers or cats in the house). (Feel free to disagree with me on those, but fair warning, I will think lesser of you without compelling evidence supporting your case.) There will never be a perfect process as the market is never static. Case in point - Blockbuster didn’t care to evolve their process. When they were the big dog, they had the opportunity to acquire Netflix for $50M. Netflix’s current market cap is $216B and there’s literally 1 Blockbuster store left, operating as a AirBnB. Sales processes exist to give a familiar framework to the seller, but they should never, ever be static, written in stone processes. Find ways to improve yours or watch your close rates (or margins) erode and evaporate.   /rant.

There’s a dirty little secret for how high performing individuals get things done, a LinkedIn post by Mike Hook Anyone can do it. Here’s how… 1. Set your ego aside to ask questions around the things you don’t know Think big picture and get info from positions that agree and disagree with you 2. Be confident and own your stance - have conviction If you think for yourself and have a strong position, right for it and don’t back down simply because someone disagrees 3. Humility to change and admit when you’re wrong No one is right all the time and new information can, and should, alter our stance. Be willing to change and think about getting it right vs being right 4. Live what you speak If you say you’re going to do something you get it done. Accountability + reliability on a consistent basis 5. Over prepare Have an A, B and C plan + know all the info. This will make you unflappable when things don’t go as planned (and they never do) 6. Have grit Life is hard and all great things come from doing what’s hard. High performers can push through the hard times and have the resiliency to come out the other side - not unscathed - more experienced AND here is the big one… 7. They default to action (especially in the face of fear) Life and it’s experiences are our greatest teacher and rarely are people 100% ready when they get the call. All you need to do is start. Action compounds into confidence. Everyone can start doing these things today It’s hard work Are you willing?