Sales Thinker Radio

We were glad to reach across the pond and welcome popular writer and speaker David Tovey on the show to talk about his new book Principled Selling: How to win more business without selling your soul. SHOW NOTES AND HIGHLIGHTS: 1. Discussed the ever changing landscape for the sales professional 2. How to change the way selling is perceived 3. The importance of content marketing 4. Using social media to create pull 5. Selling ethically, with integrity and a conscience 6. How to sell through motivation instead of manipulation 7. The importance of investment in building trusting relationships 8. How sales and marketing complement one another 9. You can learn more about David Tovey at principledselling.org, and you can purchase the book here (affiliate link) ### If you enjoyed this show, and want to learn from more sales leaders like David Tovey, subscribe to our podcast on iTunes here. It would be greatly appreciated if you would leave a customer review – and a positive rating – too! And get Sales Thinker Radio sent direct to your INBOX by clicking here!

Executive sales coach, author, speaker, and CEO of Star Results Steven Rosen joins us on today's show! Steven joins us to discuss his new book, 52 Sales Management Tips: The Sales Manager's Success Guide. SHOW NOTES AND HIGHLIGHTS: 1. Lot of books about sales, but not many focused on the sales manager. 2. "Sales managers are the foundation of your sales force, and they are the drivers of performance." 3. We discuss the all-too-common phenomenon of the successful sales rep promoted to sales manager, and failing. 4. "Don't pursue sales results." 5. It is about hiring the right people, developing them, and then retaining the good ones... 6. Too many sales managers fall into the trap of managing numbers, instead of developing people. 7. The importance of coaching! 8. Training vs. consulting vs. coaching. 9. Steven outlines some of the unprecedented changes people in the sales industry are facing. 10. How does a sales manager develop coaching skills? 11. Steven shares some tips on how to do more with less, which a lot of us are being asked to do these days...the importance of FOCUS. 12. Tips in hiring some good sales professionals, including what to look for in hiring sales managers, and whether you should promote from within? Or bring someone in from the outside... 13. "Hire an attitude..." 14. We discuss some compensation plan design... 15. You can learn more about Steven here! You can purchase the book here (affiliate link): ### If you enjoyed this show, and want to learn from more sales leaders like Steven Rosen, subscribe to our podcast on iTunes here. It would be greatly appreciated if you would leave a customer review - and a positive rating - too! And get Sales Thinker Radio sent direct to your INBOX by clicking here!

A real pleasure to welcome friend Robert Terson to the show! Bob is the CEO of SellingFearlessly.com and the author of Selling Fearlessly: A Master Salesman's Secrets For The One-Call-Close Salesperson. Bob joined us to talk about his new book... SHOW NOTES + HIGHLIGHTS: 1. "You can't tell someone how to do it. You need to show them how." 2. The sales triangle: mental attitude, work habits, and salesmanship. 3. Are salespeople born? Or made? 4. Are you a salesman with a radar detector? 5. What is a "one-call-close simple-sale salesperson," and what makes them different from others? 6. The importance of self-discipline for a salesman. 7. Are sales managers measuring and tracking the wrong things? 8. The significance of learning from mistakes, and why that matters. 9. What are the critical mistake one-call-close salespeople are making? [my theory: they are reading scripts, instead of talking to the human across the table...] 10. Too many salespeople are afraid of the prospect. Instead, you should approach your prospects with an equality mindset. If a prospect doesn't respect you, he isn't going to BUY from you. Be the prospect's equal... 11. You can learn more about Bob at SellingFearlessly.com, and you can purchase the book here (affiliate link): ### If you enjoyed this show, and want to learn from more sales leaders like Bob Terson, subscribe to our podcast on iTunes here. It would be greatly appreciated if you would leave a customer review - and a positive rating - too! And get Sales Thinker Radio sent direct to your INBOX by clicking here!

A real honor to finally connect with Jonathan Farrington, business coach, mentor, author, and consultant. One of the prominent thinkers in sales, Jonathan joined us to share his keen insights on the future of the sales rep and that 80% of those careers are in jeopardy by 2020, the fact that all sales may be "moving inside," the true impact of Sales 2.0 and social media, the basic skills a sales person needs today, how sales training is going to change dramatically, the three sales phases, whether or not the customer service department is taking over client management and relationship-building, the best way to build a business development strategy, and what's changing and evolving in 2013. "The sales space has seen more changes in the previous five years...than it did in the previous 100." Jonathan also previews the upcoming Top Sales Awards, and finally, what does Jonathan Farrington do to hone and sharpen his own sales and business skills. He shares his own success formula. To learn more from Jonathan, you can go here and here. ### If you enjoyed this show, and want to learn from more sales leaders like Jonathan Farrington, subscribe to our podcast on iTunes here. It would be greatly appreciated if you would leave a customer review - and a positive rating - too! And get Sales Thinker Radio sent direct to your INBOX by clicking here!

We were excited for the opportunity to talk with Matt Hartman, President and CEO of Tour de Force CRM, Inc. Tour de Force CRM is a leading provider of B2B Customer Relationship Management software with a focus in the wholesale distribution market.  Matt provided us with some fantastic insights on implementing a CRM into a sales force and other sales related topics. SHOW NOTES + HIGHLIGHTS: The top 3 mistakes companies make when implementing a CRM into their sales force Importance of implementing CRM from the bottom to the top How portable devices are changing the way companies use CRMs Customer retention as a software company and how Tour de Force has improved their customer retention The value of properly documenting the sales process Learn more about Tour de Force by checking out their weekly demos! Finally learn more about Matt Hartman here! ### If you enjoyed this show, and want to learn from more sales leaders like this one, subscribe to our podcast on iTunes here. It would be greatly appreciated if you would leave a customer review – and a positive rating – too!

We were glad to welcome David Bottoms into the Dreamland studio! David is Senior Vice President of Benefits with the The Bottoms Group. The Bottoms Group is dedicated to providing its  clients employee benefit, insurance, and estate planning solutions custom tailored to fit their ever changing needs. David provide valuable insight on upcoming changes to the insurance industry. SHOW NOTES + HIGHLIGHTS: Why hiring an expert to assist with your company's benefits is crucial in today's business environment. Difference between perceived employer cost vs. actual employer cost of employee benefits. Impact of Healthcare reform. The increasing focus on compliance. The tax impact of Healthcare reform on small businesses. Importance of employer communication of the value of the benefits that employees are receiving. How the Bottoms Group grows their business. What is absence management? Learn more about the Bottoms Group and the services they offer. Finally learn more about David Bottoms here! ### If you enjoyed this show, and want to learn from more sales leaders like this one, subscribe to our podcast on iTunes here. It would be greatly appreciated if you would leave a customer review – and a positive rating – too!

A real pleasure to welcome Mike Weinberg to the show! Mike is a sales coach, consultant, speaker, and author. He joined us to discuss his new book, New Sales. Simplified. SHOW NOTES + HIGHLIGHTS: 1. You can find Mike Weinberg online here. 2. And you can find him on Twitter here. 3. "There is a shortage of people who know how to create new business out of the dirt." 4. The power of simplifying things... 5. Where have all the sales mentors gone? 6. "SalesForce is supposed to work for us. We are not supposed to work for SalesForce." 7. How do we deal with the anti-salesperson reflex? And how to overcome it... 8. Does prospecting no longer work? Or are people doing it wrong? 9. Are you engaged in sales malpractice? 10. How do you create a good "sales story" -- and why. 11. Social media, email, and voicemail...and how most sales people aren't using them to their advantage. 12. Should you blindly do what the prospect requests and asks of you? 13. You can get a copy of Mike's book here: ### If you enjoyed this show, and want to learn from more sales leaders like this one, subscribe to our podcast on iTunes here. It would be greatly appreciated if you would leave a customer review - and a positive rating - too!

A real pleasure to welcome Jon Vander Ark, Partner with McKinsey and Company, and co-leader of their Sales Growth service line, to today's show. Jon is a co-author of the recent book Sales Growth: Five Strategies from the World's Sales Leaders (Wiley), and joined us to discuss the book... SHOW NOTES: 1. Jon explains why this sales book is different, in that there isn't a lot of material around the institutional capability to sell...and this book tackles that subject. 2. Jon reviews some of the critical sales challenges that most organizations are facing in today's more complicated times... 3. Should you be thinking ten quarters ahead? 4. The authors conducted 120 interviews with world-class executives. Jon talks about that process, as well as providing a profile of the typical executive interviewed... 5. The book shares five strategies...but we discuss whether these work for all market verticals, or whether they work better in certain verticals verses others... 6. The role that digital and social plays in modern sales... 7. Sales is more than just the sales organization itself... now it encompasses operations, IT, and talent management as well. Jon explains... 8. The disconnect between a lack of sales process discipline, and the fact that business cannot exist without sales... 9. Jon shares his views on the trends in the sales space over the next three to five years... 10. You can purchase Jon's book here: 11. You can find Jon on Twitter here, and the McKinsey CMSOForum here. ### If you enjoyed this show, and want to learn from more sales leaders like this one, subscribe to our podcast on iTunes here. It would be greatly appreciated if you would leave a customer review - and a positive rating - too!

Iron Sharpens Iron “You have to sharpen yourself, iron sharpens iron, you have to be around people who are smarter than you and better than you. Let them show you how to be better at what you do.” These are the words of Laura Anne Hart, President of the Kennesaw Business Association (KBA) and owner of Quickie Coupons. During our interview a key theme quickly became apparent. Laura could not stress enough the importance of mentoring and learning from your peers. Laura shared all this plus so much more during our interview. Want to know how Quickie Coupons has a 94% customer retention rate? Just take a listen to learn that, and how the Kennesaw Business Association is working to make Northwest Georgia a great place to live and work.  

A pleasure to welcome Miles Austin, the "Web Tools Guy" for sales people, and blogger out of Fill the Funnel. Miles is the ringleader behind one of the cool sales education resources, launching in just few days, Sales Summer School! Miles joined us on the show to talk about the program, faculty, and the curriculum. SHOW NOTES: 1. Miles explains the origins of Sales Summer School, and explained that since August is generally a slow time for sales leaders, why not use the time to brush up on some sales skills and learning... 2. Miles listed several of the world renown sales thought leaders participating. 3. We also discussed the curriculum, and some of the wide-ranging webinars included. 4. The program is for novice sales reps, but also for the grizzled sales veterans. Learning for everyone! 5. Finally, we dive into brass tacks. In detail, we discuss fee structures, whether you have to take ALL the courses, or just select ones that matter, and how it all works. 6. You'll want to hear about the "All-Access Pass!" 7. You can learn more at SalesSummerSchool.com! And click here to see all courses offered (via Eventbrite). 8. Finally, you can learn more about Miles Austin here. ### If you enjoyed this show, and want to learn from more sales leaders like this one, subscribe to our podcast on iTunes here. It would be greatly appreciated if you would leave a customer review - and a positive rating - too!

A real pleasure to welcome Charles H. Green to the show today. Charlie is the Founder + CEO of Trusted Advisor Associates, and the author of three books. SHOW NOTES: 1. Charlie asks you to think out loud, and to understand the impacts this has on collaboration, building trust, being open, being transparent, more knowable, and more credible. You can only imagine what this does to increase sales success. 2. The connection between trust and sales. 3. How people who have a reputation of being untrustworthy can battle through that problem. 4. Why you should never say "Trust Me!" 5. Despite the good intentions of most sales people, they still do things that negatively impact trust. 6. The difference between trusting and being trusted, and what that means to your sales process. 7. What is the trust equation, and where do you measure? 8. The importance of treating prospects like human beings. 9. The problem with PRICE in the realm of sales and trust, and advice on how NOT to let PRICE dominate your sales process. 10. Ask yourself, how many times have you lost on price? And then, how many times have you WON on price? 11. Should you "always be closing?" 12. How does one build and hone skills to develop trusting relationships? Three steps, according to Charlie: Think out loud, listen, and admit when you don't know something... ### If you enjoyed this show, and want to learn from more sales leaders like this one, subscribe to our podcast on iTunes here. It would be greatly appreciated if you would leave a customer review - and a positive rating - too!

If you're a sales pro, you have to respect a guy who "carried a bag" for 24 years, then bought a sales consulting company and not only made it work, but is also thriving after 11 years in business.  That's Al Simon, President of Simon, Inc., a Sandler Training licensee. He serves small and medium sized business owners and sales people.  His focus is helping them build their revenue bases, shorten sell cycles and protect profit margins.  Call it like it is, he'll help you close more deals.  And he does so by sharing expertise in three areas: Technique:  What do you do when the prospect does this; what do you say when the prospect says that Behaviors & Activities:  Like where and how to network, how many cold calls to make, whether to make cold calls at all, how to develop strategic partnerships and a whole host of other critical sales best practices Attitude:  What's between the ears?  What are you thinking and feeling before during and after sales calls? All of that done without any of the old, tired, obsolete, high-pressure tactics.  "People buy for their reasons, not our reasons," he says. Simon also has a lot of pragmatic advice about the technology-driven changes in sales.  He repeatedly emphasizes that the best of the best use e-mail, social media and other digital tools extensively.  (Sounds like e-Rep to me...)  He advises keen awareness that buyers use the technology to commoditize the sales conversation.  Listen closely as he discusses how top sales performers use high-tech to "force" live conversations in the critical parts of the sell cycle to keep things moving forward. He also talks about the good, the bad and the ugly with regard to CRM.  Great stuff here. His "There's a lot of dead wood out there" observation was a real eye-opener.  "A lot of sales reps don't know what they're doing," contends Simon.  "Many companies could cut their sales teams by half and be just as effective."  Whoa!  This part of the interview alone makes it worth the price of admission. So what to do?  Keep the Sandler tag line in mind.  "There's power in reinforcement."  Get one-on-one coaching, leverage e-learning (especially during  drive time and other non-call-making parts of the day) and, "Fill your head with the stuff that will make you more effective!"

A rich mix of the traditional and the cutting edge.  That's the most vivid impression I have of our conversation with Dave Brock, the founder and principle of Partners In Excellence. We started off talking about sales process.  Dave believes that a well-defined process is the absolute cornerstone of sales performance and sales performance management.  Lack of one causes losing track of the fundamentals, with sales pros doing nothing more than "taking an aimless, purposeless walk."  Even worse it leads to "looking for the miracle cure."  Something that magically causes problems to disappear and makes sales skyrocket. "Laying out a sales process isn't rocket science," he says.  "Give me a half dozen of the top performers and the top two laziest people who also make their numbers and lock us in a room for a day."  That "laziest people" comment really hit home for me.  The apparently lazy rep simply must know some things that nobody else knows.  An intriguing and obviously true statement! Dave then went on to talk about CRM, and how way too often it gets implemented to increase management reporting and control.  "What's in it for the sales rep?" Implementing a CRM with that in mind leads to tactical efficiency and effectiveness; to consistent replication of the selling strategies that work. That's when Brock switched gears and began discussing the critical nature of digital tools.  How does he keep up with making a personalized contact with 1,000 people every quarter?  And a less personal contact with 6,000 more?  And maintaining some form of "visibility" with 10,000 more?  The telephone, LinkedIn, Twitter, e-newsletters and a blog.  "Digital tools and a digital footprint are absolutely critical," he firmly states.  Yes, you need to establish what's best for you, but if you're not using at least LinkedIn -  especially your profile and groups - he feels you're ignoring a simple way of having a huge impact. He also talked about how blogging is therapeutic and that Twitter is amazingly effective at creating a large of number of quick, two-way communications. "Digital media has completely changed our prospecting and demand generation." "Digital content is a critical element of our strategy, " he asserts.  "If you're not using it, you're in the stone ages and we all know what happened to the dinosaurs."  There are many more compelling insights and tips in this interview.  You'll end up listening to it twice!   ### If you enjoyed this show, and want to learn from more sales leaders like this one, subscribe to our podcast on iTunes here. It would be greatly appreciated if you would leave a customer review – and a positive rating – too!

A pleasure to welcome Babette Ten Haken to the show! She is the author of Do You Mean Business: Technical/Non-Technical Collaboration, Business Development, and YOU. She is the founder and president of Sales Aerobics for Engineers, LLC. TODAY'S SHOW NOTES: 1. A discussion about the challenges technical people face when interacting with customers and prospects. 2. Engineering schools, business schools, and even some sales teachers don't actually teach you how to have a conversation with the people who matter to your business... 3. Discussion about simultaneous translation, and it's importance to your ability to communicate? 4. "You are the physical embodiment of your company." 5. Team-selling verses the solo salesman. 6. "Adapt, adopt, and apply." 7. You can learn more about the book and Babette's company here. 8. You can purchase Babette's book here (affiliate link): ### If you enjoyed this show, and want to learn from more sales leaders like this one, subscribe to our podcast on iTunes here. It would be greatly appreciated if you would leave a customer review - and a positive rating - too!

A pleasure to welcome Andy Paul, who is the author of Zero-Time Selling, and the principal and founder of Zero-Time Selling, Inc. SHOW NOTES: On the show, we discussed the following topics: 1. What exactly is zero-time selling? 2. How to sell with the sharp end of the stick (meeting customer needs faster). 3. Speed kills competition, right? Andy shares why his approach is different, and his theory on why there are SLOW sales cycles... 4. The importance of information content as a part of your sales process. But also, don't forget about context. 5. The importance of a CRM, and its role in the sales process, and collecting "company treasure," the data. And why too many sales reps see no value in a CRM. 6. The importance of the human touch. 7. Andy says do everything now. And he explains why. ["Later lives on the same street as never."] 8. "A sales lead is like a lottery ticket." 9. Andy shares some hints and tips on making good sales hiring decisions. Testing, he claims, is very important. You can learn more about Andy Paul, and the book, Zero-Time Selling, here. You can purchase the book below (affiliate link): ### If you enjoyed this show, and want to learn from more sales leaders like this one, subscribe to our podcast on iTunes here. It would be greatly appreciated if you would leave a customer review - and a positive rating - too!