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Buyer-Based Selling with Josh Braun #258

Josh Braun Sales Babble Sales Podcast

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Buyer-Based Selling with Josh Braun #258

Josh Braun Sales Babble Sales PodcastYou can be the greatest salesman in the world. But if the buyer isn’t struggling with a problem you can solve, you’re not going to make the sale.  More than 70 percent of B2B buyers fully define their needs before contacting a sales rep.  According to a new report from CSO Insights, almost half the buyers identify specific solutions before reaching out.  They know what they want and they’re informed. The internet has vastly changed the landscape towards buyer-based selling.  In 2019, this is the reality – buyers dictate the sales process.

In this sales podcast episode we meet Josh Braun the founder of Sales DNA, a company that helps  CEO’s and VP’s of Sales who want to increase cold outreach response rates and set more meetings. Josh  shares his beliefs in buyer-based selling and shares  concrete examples you can increase your response rates and set more meetings.

Don’t Study Selling

Business students should stop studying selling and instead study buying.  Although we are all buyers, too often we don’t look at the situation from the buyers point of view.  How often has this happened to you?

  • During the conversation the buyer sounds positive, they “get” what you’re talking about
  • When you follow up as promised, you can’t get them to respond.
  • You follow up and follow up, but no luck.
  • You thought they wanted to move forward, but the deal never happens.

This is the problem: we’re not taught how people buy, why people buy and why they don’t buy . As sellers our goal is to have someone take a call, schedule a meeting, sign an order form or pay an invoice. But in the end those goals have nothing to do with the buyers intent. The buyer is not interested. They don’t need us.

This is the harsh truth: the prospect is probably doing fine without you.

Struggle-O-Meter

Josh has a mental model he calls the struggle-o-meter.  He uses it to measure the severity of the problem a buyer experiences. Instead of assuming everything you sell has value, Josh recommends asking open ended questions to better understand the problem, then gauging whether to go forward.

  1. Problem is an opportunity to sell, but often the problem isn’t that bad. The problem must be in the red zone before they switch. If you think like a buyer, you can gauge if they are on the low end of the struggle-o-meter, or the high end. Don’t pitch until they are on the high end.
  2. If they are not ready to buy, put them into an email campaign. Drip out useful emails that slowly keeps you top of mind. Over time the pain will rise and when it does , it’s time to reach out again.

Take Action

By questioning with  finesse, you can dig into their motivation and better understand. Your solution has no value without a struggle.

How to Connect with Josh Braun

His website at Sales DNA

His BadAss Growth Guide

Josh on LinkedIn

Cold Calling Tips

Work on your cold calling today by listening the Sales Babble Sales Podcast!

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5 Things Sellers Can Do To Erase Sales Fear with Kristy Ellington #257

Kristy Ellington Sales Babble Sales Podcast

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5 Things Sellers Can Do To Erase Fear with Kristy Ellington #257

Kristy Ellington Sales Babble Sales PodcastFear is a real issue in sales, one that can be debilitating to the point of failure and firing. Our guest is Kristy Ellington. Kristy is an expert in overcoming fear and she walks us through her research, things she found true,  and advice on how sellers can turn that around. She has a 5 step process that sellers can use to overcome  sales fears and we babble about her NAMES process on this sales podcast.

Call Reluctance

Even seasoned sellers have moments where they hesitate to pick up the phone and dial. They are unsure exactly what to say, and they are uncertain if they will receive a question they can’t answer. Even Pat feels this at times, especially in a startup situation promoting a new product or service.  This is human. The trick is to not let the sales fears stop you dead in your tracks.

Imposter Syndrome

70% of executives experience imposter syndrome, a deep fear that people will find out that they don’t know what they’re doing and have the position by dumb luck. You are not alone if you feel this way. You are not a fraud.   We all have this experience at times.

How To Overcome Sales Fears

Fear is not a defect, it’s something everyone has. Don’t play into it and go into a death spiral. Instead focus on the NAMES process and shift the fear from you and focus on the sale:

  1. Notice- you are feeling anxiety and fear. Mindfulness.
  2. Acknowledge – where you feel it in your body,
  3. Make a connection where the fear is coming from.  Past experience most likely
  4. Evaluate that the fear you are feeling is happening right now.
  5. Shift your focus to your client.

How To Find Kristy Ellington

Free Trigger Emotions Infographic: https://kristyellington.com/free-guide
Free 30 Minute Sales Fear Coaching Session: https://kristyellington.com/schedule
SOCIAL LINKS:
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How AI Can Give Sales Superpowers with Lars Nilson #256

Lars Nilson Sales Babble Sales Podcast

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How AI Can Give Sales Superpowers with Lars Nilson #256

Lars Nilson Sales Babble Sales PodcastArtificial Intelligence (AI) is a topic near and dear to my Sales Babble heart.  Most AI conversations center around the great possibilities that it brings to the world. Good examples in selling includes processes that automate, save time, increase quality. This includes ways to decrease frustration with more automated and intuitive software. But AI conversations can also center around the darker side. By that it means concerns of automation taking away our jobs and our humanity. In this Sales Babble sales podcast episode we meet Lars Nilson. Lars wrote an article on LinkedIn titled “Will AI Replace Sales Development, NO but it will give us Superpowers”.  Because of the concerns and interest of AI,  Lars and I discuss emerging tools and processes that you can use to become more successful in sales.

Good Time To Get Into Sales

Its not B2B it’s P2P, people to people.  Because of this Lars believes it’s never  been a better time to get into sales at a venture backed B2B company. If you pick a company with great management, great onboarding and  a set of great selling techniques, you can be successful.

Account Based Selling

Account–based selling is a multi-touch, multi-channel strategy coordinated across the entire company to pursue a target number of high-value accounts. Marketing and Sales work together from the very start, and throughout the revenue cycle.   Because prospective buyers take themselves down the sales cycle by accessing information online, sellers need to target individuals (stakeholders) who make buying decisions. Next target specific companies and a person which counters the past practice of branding and sending out messages to random people. We now consider that spam.

Tools to Target Opportunities

Lars mentioned a number of sales engagement tools that provide sales superpowers for sales reps.  These tools use AI to target ideal accounts:

  • Discover.org
  • Zoom.info
  • LinkedIn navigator
  • Outreach.io
  • Salesloft
  • Insidesales.com
  • Outreach.io
  • Gong.io

These tools can be used to do a one to many (1:M) cardinality of outreach. Meanwhile the goal of each of these tools is to personalize and automate your:

  • messages
  • emails
  • voice messages
  • direct mail
  • social media

Because humans are  still needed to make it all work, one of the best sales superpowers is the old fashioned warm introduction curated out of LinkedIn. LinkedIn is still one the best ways meet people and yes it used AI too. Next find people that have the titles who might best represent your company. Humans are necessary here! You have to do the work to find your ideal clients and the titles of the people that are relevant.

The CRM is still a solid technology to keep sales reps organized.  They leverage  read receipts on email and chatbots. Lars recommends that sales reps also turn to the tools leveraged by LDRs and SDRs. The more they work in an account-based selling environment, the better.

How To Find Lars Nilsson

Lars mentioned his company Sales Source

  • (415)   840-5168
  • lars at salessource.com

This was the LinkedIn article we talked about.  “Will AI Replace Sales Development? No… But It Will Give Us Superpowers”

Sales Tools Boost Productivity

Here are some past Sales Babble sales podcast episodes on sales tool that make a difference.

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How to Guide Your Customer to Becoming a Hero with Brandon Sok #255

Brandon Sok Sales Babble

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How to Guide Your Customer to Becoming a Hero with Brandon Sok #255

Brandon Sok Sales Babble Brandon Sok is Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of OneTeam Marketing Solutions, a full-service marketing agency. As a StoryBrand Certified Guide, he helps clients clarify their message and connect with customers.  He started a company that helps his customers prioritize their marketing program to they can grow their business. During this journey he found the path to success is making his customer the hero. In this episode he tells us the story of his success and how you can do the same for your customers.

Perfect You One Liner Pitch

During the interview Brandon gave advice on creating your pitch. The goal is show the possibility that your prospective customer can overcome their struggles and be the hero of the day. You as the seller will be their guide to success.

Here is an example:

Strong business owners struggle to find the time and execute the marketing their business deserves

so we started a company that can prioritize their marketing program for them so they can grow their business.

The Sales Guide Process:

  1. state the problem
  2. state how you can guide them to their solution
  3. speak to the success they would experience

How To Leverage Your Hero Story

This process can be used to qualify clients too. You can use it to  find referrals when networking when you meet people are not qualified. They may know people who are a perfect fit.

This pitch is also useful for your website messaging.  Be clear who you serve and how you help.  Have a clear call to action : buy now, call now, schedule a counsel today.

Here is an example consultation script you would say at the beginning. This will give the buyers a sense of direction and understand you’ve got a real plan. This builds trust.

  • Step 1  schedule a counsel
  • Step 2 at your counsel we’ll create customized plan you can follow for life
  • Step 3 we will finalize that plan so that you can sit back and trust the plan that grows your business.

How to Find Brandon Sok

 
 
LinkedIn Profile:
Free Offer:
 
Listeners of the podcast can submit their website for a free website audit. This audit will give them valuable feedback on clarity of messaging, design, and Storybrand principles.
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Are Sales Chatbots Going to Take Away Your Sales Job with Dave Gerhardt #254

Dave Gerhardt Sales Babble

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Are  Sales Chatbots Going to Take Away Your Sales Job with Dave Gerhardt #254

Dave Gerhardt Sales BabbleAdvances in sales chatbots are raising the ability to instantly engage in web visitors. In  this episode Dave Gerhardt, VP of Sales at Drift.com, explains how to answer website visitors questions immediately and then motivate them to engage in a deeper sales call. This is done with Artificial Intelligence (AI)  and decision tree technology. The goal is to  use conversational marketing and anticipate the questions most visitors have BEFORE they even ask the question.

Brick and Mortar vs Online

Consider the situation where you visit a store and no clerks step up. You walk out of the store and then get a call on you phone saying “Hey I noticed you came into the store. How can I help”. Silly right? That’s what happens on website.

Consider a different possibility. What if you could immediately get in contact with a person the minute you visit.

How Conversational Marketing Works

People visit a website for reason. Try to talk to them immediately. While you browse a website, you see a sales chatbot in the bottom of the website. It says if you have a question, ask. Each page can have the bot say something contextual e.g.

  • schedule a webinar
  • get more data, a blog
  • right brochure
  • an event
  • conference that’s been scheduled

Sales chatbots are programmed to answer the right question. They use reverse IP lookup to see if you (or someone from your company) have ever visited.  This is yet another aspect of conversational marketing.

How To Find Dave Gerhardt

Dave is VP of Sales at Drift.com   that creates sales chatbot technology.

This is Dave on LinkedIn.

Sales and Marketing Alignment

Let’s keep up the conversation with other lead gen episodes.

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How to Win the Game with a Sales Playbook with Rod Feuer #253

Dave Gerhardt Sales Babble Playbook

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How to Win the Game with a Sales Playbook with Rod Feuer #253

Dave Gerhardt Sales Babble PlaybookConsider the possibility of not just having a model to base your selling process, but a playbook like in sports that tells you what to say and when to say it. Last week we heard advice that  selling must go from models to mindset. Today we’re going to turn the conversation around to look at it from the perspective of going from mindset to models, a sales playbook.

Our guest is Rod Feuer, Chief Strategy Officer, and Co-Founder of Costello. He believes that the best way to have the right first time conversation  is to tip the scales in your favor with a sales playbook. Rod helps sellers navigate key conversations in the moment and qualify them on critical deal information to keep opportunities advancing to a close.

Conversation Playbooks

The goal is to put reps in best place and to help guide them through calls. Give them the best set of words to respond for two kinds of calls . The first one is outbound calls (cold call  you often get push back) and overcome objections. The goal is to schedule a meeting. The second call is an inbound call and discovery conversation.

Picture a playbook with all the right conversations and questions a prospect might take. It’s a decision tree with paths. Once you make enough manual calls you get a 80-20 idea what they are going to say and how they will respond.  The goal is not to be a robot.

  • What you ask always the same
  • How you ask is adaptive

Take Action Advice

Start on version 1 of your sales playbook by writing down the 7-10 things about a deal you want to know. Next come up with questions that answer those questions. Now you have a great start. 

How To Connect with Rod Feuer

Rod chief strategy officer at Costello

This Rod on LinkedIn 

Sales Process Episodes

Let’s keep the conversation going and listen to other past episodes on this topic!

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Moving From Models to Mindset with John Reid #252

John Reid Sales Babble

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Moving From Models to Mindset with John Reid #252

John Reid Sales BabbleEver read a book on sales, get excited and then put into action what you’ve read? Then to your surprise you find that it didn’t work out as planned.  This is despite the fact that you followed the steps to the tee!  Today’s guest believes it’s really about your mindset. John Reid, author of the book Moving from Models to Mindset, Rethinking the Sales Conversation believes we must have a mindset of  Curiosity, Wondering, Discovering and Empathy.   Once we do that, we’ll know what to do. 

Sales Models

Many authors have created a model and process for successful selling. The authors are trying to make it easy for the readers to remember and apply the principles. However most salespeople are not that curious and fail to internalize the lessons. This is a mindset gap.

Too often sales training is based on a Sage on the Stage who has a cookie cutter model. The world has changed so much and most likely it will not be a perfect fit for your sales organization.

Lessons to Learn

  • Be genuinely curious, use that to drive your questions
  • Just have a point of view but realize it’s subjective. Be fascinated in your customers point of view
  • Customers want to talk about themselves, let them
  • You don’t need to close a sale today, you’re playing the long game
  • Persuade through involvement, get the buyers engaged

Take Action

Ask the following: What  would you do if you were me  in your position?

How To Find John Reid

John is easy to find online:

Email John for a copy of his book (only 10 copies) john @ jmreidgroup.com

Moving from Models to Mindsets: Rethinking the Sales Conversation

Selling Mindset

Listen to these episodes and learn more about the selling mindset.

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Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell with Mike Adams #251

Mike Adams Sales Babble

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Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell with Mike Adams #251

Mike Adams Sales BabbleWhen it comes to story selling, author Mike Adams is the expert and our  honored guest. In this episode Mike shares 7 types of story you need to leverage when selling. Mike gives examples taken from his book “Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell” . He recommends that you learn the types, create your own stories, memorized them and naturally apply to your business. 

Three Problems Sellers Face

If you’re new to an organization you probably don’t know a lot of stories. Here are three problems you will face AND seven stories you should learn before meeting a  prospective client.

  1. How do I connect with prospective buyers
    • Personal Story
    • Personal Story of another person in the company
    • How did your company find success (strategy and origin story)
  2. How do you get them to change course and buy you
    • Story that shares an Insight you have about their business (great for startups)
    • Success story of YOUR customer:
      1. scene before you met your them
      2. they have a problem
      3. then they met you
      4. you gave them a plan,
      5. avoid failure
      6. achieve success
  3. How to Close the deal
    • The value story, explain how your company leader will behave after the deal is made
    • The sales manager story – teaching the client can sell to their management with a story

By learning the seven stories every salespersons must tell, you will be prepared when meeting clients and able to repeat naturally the stories at the appropriate time. Your clients will relate to the stories and persuade them to buy.

Take Action

Build a story library and practice them.

How To Find Mike Adams

To find Mike on the internet and his book Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell look at the following:

The Story Leader is focused on storytelling for revenue growth teams.
For a free how to blog post, discount, or a free product or service.
Our free online storytelling training course (links to the Seven Stories book)

Using Story in your Selling

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How To Grow 10K LinkedIn Connections with Jess Tiffany #250

Jess-Tiffany-sales babble

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How To Grow 10K LinkedIn Connections with Jess Tiffany #250

Jess-Tiffany-sales babbleOur guest today is Jess Tiffany, public speaker and author of the book  Growth Hacking: Strategically Grow Your Business Connections from Zero to 10K in 365 Days. Jess has over 18K LinkedIn connections in LinkedIn and leverages those connections daily to grow his digital marketing agency, book sales and speaking engagements. Now get this, he grew nearly half of those in just one year. In this episode Jess will share his process on how to grow 10K LinkedIn connections with practical advice on how to take action.

Grow Connections from Connections

The process for growth is really quite simple. It’s not a hack. The three steps include:

  1. Leverage the relationships you have
  2. Add new people strategically based on what you want to do
  3. Grow your business

But before we start,  this is question we must all ask. Why are you on LinkedIn?

If you’re trying to keep up on friends and past colleagues, that’s all well and good. But if you’re trying to build a business you need a different approach. Consider the people you wish you knew. Who are your ideal clients, dream mentors, possible employers, possible hires you want to meet in the future. Now is the time to take action. Build it BEFORE you need it.

Over 10K in One Year

Jess currently has over 18K LinkedIn connections. This is how he did it and recommends:

  • Personalize your messages
  • Have your profile stand out
  • Professional photography
  • SEO your LinkedIn
  • When they look at your profile they will see value
  • Send 10-30 invites a day, religiously

Personalize Your Reach

When you reach out grow your LinkedIn connections,  personalize your message. Answer

  1. why you want to connect
  2. what’s your purpose to connect

Use the term “open to connect”.    For example are you oen to connect with other top business professionals.

The less “pending” connections you have the less likely you will be put in LinkedIn Jail (Blocked from sending too many spammy connection requests). When you personalize (I see you’re in Boy Scouts too) the more likely they will connect. Then start a conversation.

Engage in LinkedIn Posts

Jess recommends not only posting but engaging in other’s post to build up some familiarity. Both Jess and I met this way. It was through a common conversation via comments in a post that we started communicating. Then we took the conversation offline onto a phone call and then eventually to this podcast episode.

Take Action Tips

Set aside some time every day. Use search tool and look for people with a common interests. Use the QR code to connect with people in the real world. Click the Find nearby and in LinkedIn and get large groups of people to connect with you quick!

How To Find Jess Tiffany

This is Jess’s book:  Growth Hacking: Strategically Grow Your Business Connections from Zero to 10K in 365 Days

Jeff’s speaker page:  https://jesstiffany.com/speaker/

Resources:  

Social media:

Social Selling

Let’s keep the conversation going. Check these other episodes out today!

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Goal Setting for 2019 #249

Goal Setting 2019

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Goal Setting for 2019 #249

Goal Setting 2019Happy New Year!

It’s a good time of the year to start thinking about our hopes and dreams for 2019. We’re past the Winter Solstice, Christmas and today is New Year’s day. The days are getting longer things are looking up. When I’ve been intentional in my life and thought wisely about what I want, goal setting has guided me to success and peace. When I skipped goal setting it’s just a mess.  Let’s not make the same mistake!

In this episode I’m going to lay out a process creating a vision and the set of goals to make that vision become reality. I’m going to walk through worksheet that I use and how to fill it out.  Plus I’m going to share the mindset necessary to complete these goals.

In the end I’ll give you some examples and some urgency to take action today.

Goal Setting Worksheet

This is the link to the Googledoc of the worksheet. Click here and make a copy.

This is the  Pdf download  version.     Print this off to create your vision and goals.

Here is a link to Pats 2019 Goals  Use these as an example.

Need help, got a question? Babble me!