The Sales Prescription Podcast

When it comes to the success of a company, many factors are at play. One of the most important is the positive culture of the organization. It’s a culture where everybody strives for the same goal, wants everybody to succeed, and celebrates each other’s successes. While creating a positive culture can be a challenge, how can leaders foster this culture at work?

In today’s episode of The Sales Prescription Podcast, our guest, Craig Wendler talks about the impact of positive culture in the organization, how to create it, and why it is important to foster a positive culture in the workplace.

Craig Wendler is the Director Of Business Development and Lead Generation at LiveVox, a next-generation contact center platform that seamlessly integrates omnichannel communications, CRM, and WFO capabilities to deliver an exceptional agent and customer experience while reducing compliance risk. He joined LiveVox for the challenge of creating scalable business development efforts across the organization. 

Craig is highly effective at planning, developing, and executing business strategies under challenging market conditions. He is a high-energy leader with distinctive people skills and knows a ton about building a great culture.

Enjoy!

In This Episode

3:19 - How Craig values culture in the organization

4:04 - Why business leaders should hire for culture

5:49 - How Craig defines a good and positive culture

8:12 - What it means to have a healthy and positive competition

14:56 - Craig's hiring process for a positive culture

16:43 - The concept behind the theme 'LiveVox's way'

18:15 - How Craig keeps the company culture strong

20:38 - How negativity breeds more negativity

24:02 - How to break the vicious cycle of toxicity in the workplace

24:55 - How Craig deals with top performers but are aggressively competitive

30:12 - Craig's advice to salespeople on how to contribute to a culture and be a team player

Favorite Quotes

15:40 - "And you look for, is this person gonna be a force for good inside of my organization because we're hiring people that we know can perform, but I'm looking for more than that. What can they do to help the rest of us elevate. High tides raise all boats and I'm looking for those people that are going to drive those things up by really understanding what more can they contribute besides those numbers." - Craig Wendler

3:43 - "It's important to me to create an environment with which people can thrive, where they feel they belong, that they feel like they're important, that they're valued, that their opinions matter and they can actually make an impact on the organization." - Craig Wendler

4:03 - "If you're a leader, it should be a conscious decision for you to hire for culture. You should be looking for people that are great team players. You should be looking for people that are highly recommended by their peer at a former company." - Ron Halbert

5:52 - "A positive culture is one that celebrates success. I think a really positive culture has a lot of healthy competition. A positive culture is one where everybody is striving to the same goal together and they're willing to take everybody with them. It's a culture of wanting to see everybody else succeed. It's a culture of seeing people accomplish goals, get promoted, move up and on. And everybody celebrates those successes." - Craig Wendler

20:48 - "One of the only things in life that get bigger, the more you give it away is emotion." - Ron Halbert

21:16 - "Don't be the person in your organization that brings negativity. There are good things and there are bad things that happen every single day. There's a proper way to handle negative things." - Ron Halbert

24:08 - "The way that I view the problem is, the problem is the problem and people are solutions to the problem.  But if you look at the person like that person is the problem, you create a vicious cycle of toxicity that is very hard to back out of." - Craig Wendler

27:01 - "It's your responsibility as a leader to make sure that it (your company) is a safe place for everyone to work and to make sure that the people that work for you can accomplish their goals. And if they're in a situation where they're going to work and they're dreading it because of someone that they work with that brings constant negativity, it's your responsibility to change that." - Ron Halbert

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Most people believe that they need to be born a natural salesperson in order to excel in the world of selling. This is not true at all. The art of selling is not something that is natural, it's something that people have to learn. Anyone can become a salesperson, but becoming a great salesperson is not something that just happens. What does it take for anyone to master the art of selling?

In today’s episode of The Sales Prescription Podcast, Rusty and Ron talk with Tony Glick, Channel Sales Director at NICE CXone, about what it takes to be a successful salesperson, how delivery of message matters in sales, and why delivering a product the right way has no shortcuts.

At NICE CXone, Tony is responsible for the overall direction, strategy, and leadership of the 7 Inside Partner Managers and 8 Sr. Channel Managers. The team covers all partners for NICE inContact in the US and Canada.

Enjoy!

In This Episode

1:35 - The driving force behind Tony's decision to become an entrepreneur

6:27 - What Tony's life was like in Central America

8:41 - The defining characteristics of a successful salesperson

13:48 - How confidence and passion can be translated into sales skills

21:05 - How anyone can become a good salesperson

22:51 - Why 'message delivery' matters in sales

27:35 - Why delivering a product the right way requires no shortcuts

Favorite Quotes

28:37 - "Honestly, what people have to realize is if you believe in yourself, if you have the motivation, doing it the hard way and delivering it the right way is going to bring you better rewards. You're gonna get referrals from that person. There are so many added benefits to doing things the right way that are unforeseen. You can't foresee the added benefits that come." - Ron Halbert

14:02 - "Nothing comes easy. You don't wake up and be a salesperson. You got to read books, you got to study. You got to obsess over the craft to actually earn the right to be confident and have belief in something." - Tony Glick

19:48 - "If you at some point, when you're trying to develop a new craft, and you don't end up dreaming about that craft or you're not pitching inside of a dream, you're probably not working or obsessing enough over that craft." - Tony Glick

21:05 - "I don't think there's anybody that's necessarily born a salesperson. This is why anybody can step into sales. Enough work is put in, you can be great at anything. You obsess over something, you're going to rise at whatever you do. It doesn't matter who you are, what your personality is. You'll figure it out if you put enough time and work into it." - Tony Glick

25:00 - "The biggest mistake some salespeople make is they want the deal closed. They want out. And a lot of times you leave a huge mess if you just think like that." - Tony Glick

31:20 - "Sometimes you get these deals that seem really easy and everything seems right. And those are the ones that end up sometimes becoming a disaster. Some of the best friends that I've developed over the years have been through hard negotiations. The ones that have gone sour usually seem like it was an easy entry. But when time is taken and it's hard and everybody's looking at everything usually develops good friendships." - Tony Glick

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Salespeople are often faced with the dilemma of making as many calls as possible. They are so focused on their sales numbers that they lose sight of the bigger picture. This approach usually leads to a lot of wasted time and resources. While the number and quality of sales calls are equally important in a sales process, there are steps that sales reps can take to improve their conversion rate and increase their bottom line. 

In today’s episode of The Sales Prescription Podcast, Rusty and Ron talk about the numbers game fallacy, why sales reps fail, and how organization is the key to some of the science of selling.

How salespeople can stop playing the numbers game:

• A good amount of effort
• Focus on organization

Rusty Jensen is the VP of Revenue Generation for Direct and Indirect Channels at NICE CXone, a worldwide leader in AI-powered contact center software. Rusty is responsible for all pipeline generation activities and oversees the channel and sales development organizations for all of North America.

Ronald Halbert is the Sr. Director Global Sales Development at Conga, a global leader in commercial operations transformation and helps businesses simplify and automate their approach to the essential quotes, contracts, and documents that drive commerce. Ron is responsible for overseeing direct pipeline generation globally.

Enjoy!

In This Episode

00:52 - Why economics is important in sales

1:52 - The numbers game fallacy

2:57 - Why sales reps fail, even when they have the skill

7:14 - The formula for generating a steady flow of leads

10:12 - Rusty Jensen as a young sales developer

11:51 - What Rusty and Ron learned from Dana Coates

15:42 - Rusty's advice for sales leaders

17:54 - What sales leaders can do to help their reps

21:21 - Breaking the cliché: work smarter, not harder

24:59 - How the balance between work, family, and personal time is the key to a happy life

Favorite Quotes

00:01 - "You can find success in all aspects of your life. But I will tell you this, if you are not organized, you will have to work a hundred hours a week to hit the same amount of output as someone that is organized working 40. So there is 'work smarter and work harder’.” - Ron Halbert

1:22 - "When you talk about Math, when you talk about Science, and when you talk about the dynamics of sales, it's not just the actual numbers. It's also the art associated with it. It incorporates human behavior. And human behavior is a huge aspect that you have to consider and that's what economics does." - Rusty Jensen

6:47 - "When you're trying to reach out to someone and you're trying to get hold of them, they have to see you everywhere. You have to establish a presence. It's not  just like a random chance you connect to someone." - Rusty Jensen

15:18 - "You can't get analysis paralysis.There are people that focus so much on making a clean list that they never make a phone call. You do need to have a combination of both. You can make a lot of phone calls in a day, but make sure that you're calling that same person multiple times, leaving multiple voicemails, multiple emails, and it's the right person to talk to." - Ron Halbert

17:54 - From a leadership perspective, when it comes to organization, you need to be able to be a doctor. You need to be able to diagnose exactly where your rep is breaking down." - Ron Halbert

22:55 - "When you become good and you start figuring out how to become effective at your job, don't back down. Don't burn yourself up, but don't back down. Take that time to learn new skills. Take that time to learn the next job. Take that time to earn more money." - Rusty Jensen

24:29 - "You don't need to work a hundred hours a week. You need to work 40 hours a week very hard, that's it. Then make an amazing family life. Have an amazing outside of work life. That's what true work-life balance is. It's putting your best foot forward in the office and then putting your best foot forward at home." - Ron Halbert

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Prospecting is one of the most important tasks for any salesperson, but it can also be the most challenging. Effective prospecting not only gets you in touch with potential clients, but it helps you develop a relationship with them and understand their needs before they know they need something from you.

Today, it seems that dialing is a thing of the past. However, there's still no substitute for a human connection despite the advances in technology. The effectiveness of a live conversation with someone on the other end of the line is unparalleled. How can cold calling effectively help salespeople reach their goals?

In today’s episode of The Sales Prescription Podcast, Rusty and Ron talk with Matthew Lampros, CEO at Sellemental Inc., author of top-selling books at Amazon, and a cold calling expert for closers.

Matt chats with Rusty and Ron about sales development and pipeline generation, his strategy for coaching people, and why calling is still the best way to connect with people. He will also provide great tips and advice that salespeople can use to close more deals.

Enjoy!

In This Episode

2:57 - Matt's strategy for coaching people

6:32 - Why dialing is not dead

8:49 - Mastering the art of prospecting

11:58 - How Matt qualifies prospects

13:25 - How Matt gets people to connect with him

18:39 - The two words salespeople should never use at the front desk

20:19 - The golden hour to make a call

23:56 - How Matt helps reps get people to say yes

28:49 - The number one selling strategy pre-COVID

31:02 - How the tone of voice conveys authenticity

Favorite Quotes

00:01 - "What they're saying is, are you worth my time or are you a waste of my time? If they get even an inkling that you're worth their time that having a conversation with you in the future will be valuable, they'll take the meeting. So your focus needs to be, how do I convince people that I'm worth their time?  And when you tell that to almost every salesperson, they immediately make a switch in their approach. They know what to do to tell people, I'm worth your time." - Matt Lampros

3:50 - "From a business perspective, I learned pretty early that a one call close is the best, most inexpensive thing I can do as a company.  And that comes from word of mouth or from repeat buyers. When you make your customers really happy, then they buy from you again or they tell other people about you, you have a one call close." - Matt Lampros

7:09 - "I don't think dialing is dead. The number one tool everyone uses for business is the phone, whether we're looking for a connection or not. We've got a hundred years of experience picking that thing up." - Matt Lampros

11:33 - "Every hour you spend on perfecting your list is much more effective than hours asking these questions to individuals on the phone trying to qualify them." - Matt Lampros

18:39 - "Every salesperson says something like 'available' or 'in', those two words are the worst. If you say the word available at the front desk, you will not get through. Get rid of that word." - Matt Lampros

28:13 - "Think the way they (prospects) think. They're not thinking about your company, they're thinking about themselves and whether or not they're going to gain value from a few minutes with you. And if you can approach them that way, I'm worth your time, they'll give you the time and then you can have the door open and then you can go sell." - Matt Lampros

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Every business needs to know who their ideal customer is in order to grow. When you have an ideal customer profile, it becomes much easier to make decisions about your marketing strategy and product development. It is a powerful tool that can help guide your business in the right direction.

It can be challenging to figure out who your ideal customer is. But luckily, Rusty Jensen and Ron Halbert have prepared a prescription to help individuals and organizations create their ideal profile of a customer.

In today’s episode of The Sales Prescription Podcast, Rusty and Ron discuss in-depth the key aspects of prospecting from a B2B perspective, why customer profiling is the foundation to effective prospecting, and how the salespeople's success should start at the leadership level.

The key aspects of prospecting:

• Market profile
• Account profile
• Contact profile

Enjoy!

In This Episode

2:16 - Why getting caught up in the numbers game when prospecting hurts salespeople

3:23 - Ron's story about how working hard in the wrong direction is demoralizing

6:04 - How the sales machine is similar to an actual engine

7:34 -The three aspects of prospecting from a B2B perspective

8:38 - The most important aspects of building a market profile

10:55 - What new sales reps need to do to sell their products

13:41 - The power of ‘intent’ when it comes to sales

17:55 - How to decide which persona to target within an account

22:11 - How to determine if you have targeted the right account, market, and contact

23:56 - Why data is important from the sales perspective

27:14 - How ‘the sales prescription' works for both individuals and organizations

Favorite Quotes

9:33 - "So it's not to say that you can't pursue any market. But when you look at your customer base, you'll start seeing these trends of which markets are actually fit. And then one of the things you have to avoid is this temptation that comes from scarcity to try to go after everybody. And you can, you just have to do it in order of priority. That's a secret sauce." - Rusty Jensen

21:51 - "You do not want to be working super hard, running the wrong direction. You're not going to finish the race running in the wrong direction. So you want to make sure that you're directed in the right way." - Ron Halbert

26:29 - "If you don't set your people up for success, you're doing the opposite. And so all this profiling that happens, there are tools out there that can do it. But it should happen at a leadership level. A rep should be able to walk into work and know exactly what market, what account, and what contacts they should be targeting because that should have been built out for them." - Ron Halbert

27:14 - "The sales prescriptions we're writing here, they're for you and they're for organizations. We want you to have the kind of skills where you can be thrown into any pond and you can swim. But what we also want to do is help clean up the pond." - Rusty Jensen

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Promotion is a topic that comes up often in the workplace. It's seen as the holy grail of professional advancement, and it can be something that people spend their whole careers striving for. Promotions are sometimes considered to be an end-goal or even a goal in itself. However, getting promoted isn't something that happens overnight. How can employees know that they are going in the right direction to get promoted?

In today’s episode of The Sales Prescription Podcast, Rusty and Ron talk about what it takes to get promoted, how leaders play a vital role in the advancement of their people, and why leaders and their teams alike need each other's support.

Enjoy!

In This Episode

2:10 - What it takes for someone to be promoted

7:24 - How Ron acknowledges performers

8:27 - The role of sales leaders in the promotion process

10:22 - The dark side of some leaders

16:37 - Rusty's advice to sales reps who want to be promoted

23:35 - The challenge of becoming a leader of your peers

26:21 - How leaders can help their people advance

29:32 - How leaders and employees can support one another

Favorite Quotes

22:52 - "Look at Ron Halbert, did he become a leader from when he was a sales developer? No, he was building processes, creating systems, leading people, and developing relationships. When you want to get promoted as a leader over your team, do you know how you do that? You have your team say, 'I want to work for him/her. She's the best. That's who I want to work for because she helps me.' That's what you want." - Rusty Jensen

2:39 - "We do not live in a culture where people are okay in one position for 30 years. It's different now than it was back then. And if you don't realize that as an employer or as an organization, then you're sorely mistaken. There needs to be career progression. There needs to be a career path." - Ron Halbert

8:27 - "Good sales leaders that know how to help their people to get promoted actually are 'as involved' in the conversations and the promotion process as the person who's trying to get promoted." - Rusty Jensen

9:50 - "Don't do yourself a disservice by going to a hiring manager and asking, I want to be promoted or I want to interview for this position. If you're an underperformer, don't hurt yourself." - Ron Halbert

20:37 - "When you create time in your job because you become efficient, use it to build the skills for the next position. Learn what that job is and start studying, learning, and doing it." - Rusty Jensen

26:35 - "You (leaders) need to build programs. You need to build certifications where you are making your reps the best candidate for the next position." - Ron Halbert

30:06 - "Leaders really need people who will line up, follow them, support them, and help them. It doesn't have to be like a lonely position where you're dictating to people. People need to work together, collaborate, and work to accomplish a goal. And as an employee, you've got to be able to get behind your leader, show a high degree of loyalty, support the plan, support the vision, participate in the conversations, really get behind them, and help facilitate it. Genuinely not fake. You're not gonna get promoted unless you get pulled up." - Rusty Jensen

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Welcome to the premier episode of the Sales Prescription Podcast.

The Sales Prescription is a podcast series hosted by Rusty Jensen and Ron Halbert. It is a cutting-edge educational series around complex sales processes, sales development, sales leadership, and demand marketing strategies. Both the art and the science of selling are explored and discussed in this educational and entertaining series of podcasts.

At the Sales Prescription, Rusty and Ron realize that much of the sales coaching out there is not specific, it's not easily applicable, and it doesn't really help you to build successful teams or your career. All the concepts discussed are real-world proven and highly effective. 

In today’s episode of the Sales Prescription Podcast, Rusty and Ron will talk about how storytelling is a powerful tool for creating human connections. They will also discuss the framework for writing effective stories. Therefore, breaking down barriers between salespeople and the people they're trying to do business with.

There are all kinds of problems that can afflict a sales organization. Let Rusty and Ron write you some highly effective and broad-spectrum sales prescriptions, and all you have to do is fill them.

Enjoy!

In This Episode

00:52 - Why relationships matter in sales

2:00 - How salespeople can overcome people's natural dislike of them

4:40 - How storytelling can influence buying decisions

7:30 - Breaking down the cliche: "People love to buy, but don't like to be sold to"

8:28 - The framework for writing a great story

12:46 - Three types of stories that should be told in a sales process

18:05 - The 'Who Am I' story of Ronald Halbert

22:27 - How showing vulnerability in your ‘who am I story’ can build human connection

26:09 - The core values of Sales Prescription

31:20 - How  Rusty and Ron have helped people become financially successful

37:34 - Why the 'who I've helped' stories are the most fascinating conversations you’ll ever have

Favorite Quotes

"Storytelling can really help build a bridge between people and not between someone who's trying to buy and someone who's trying to sell them something. But it's actually a conversation between people who can interact with each other." - Rusty Jensen

"People always say that sales is all about relationships. It's not about buying people lunch, making friends, or playing golf. What we're talking about is distinguishing yourself from a typical salesperson." - Rusty Jensen

"There is a subconscious dislike of salespeople that people have. When somebody identifies that someone's a salesperson, they almost have an unnatural knee-jerk reaction to not want to talk to." - Rusty Jensen

"Buyers do not like being told. They want the ability to opt-in." - Ron Halbert

"You need people that you work with to know who you are. You need to have connections with those people because they need to trust you." - Ron Halbert

"Storytelling works. And the reason it works comes down to something very basic, human connection. Develop real honest relationships with the people that you want to work with. You'll be happier as a person because human connection is what brings joy to all of us." - Ron Halbert

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