sales and marketing alignment

Click here for the show notes, transcript, and more!

Don’t feel like listening? Read the Episode Cliff Notes instead below:

Overcoming Objections (0:22)

When an objection comes up in sales, that’s really where the sale begins. And it’s a lot easier to cover what not to do with objections. 

What you want to do is be curious. You want to learn more and keep your prospect engaged. 

For most sales reps to learn how to overcome objections, they have to lose many of them. So try not to get eaten by the same objection twice.

Objections can happen as late as your negotiation and contract phase or as soon as someone picks up the phone and says, “not interested.” 

The best reps don’t get rattled. It doesn’t take any wind out of their sale. They almost pretend like they didn’t hear it and move on to the next question that they were going to ask.

The best thing you can do is learn from each scenario and think about what you could have said differently after the fact. 

Don’t get beat by the same objection twice. We hear new objections all the time, but eventually, you should be building up a library of answers.

Expecting Objections (7:22)

You could get up to four objections on every call, and it’s not necessary to overcome them right away. It’s okay: you’re becoming more curious and learning.

You don’t even have to try to overcome the objection necessarily. Maybe the goal starts as extending the conversation or learning about the objection. 

Acknowledge what they say because they want to feel acknowledged. It’s essential to do this empathetically when you recognize something.

You have to understand your prospect. Then, find ways to put yourself in your prospect’s shoes.

Approaching Common Objections (13:08)

Most objections fall under the category of a lack of value. There’s not enough perceived value in what you’re presenting because if there were, they wouldn’t have a budget.

Then there’s just the brush-off. You hit on a lot of the brush-offs early on. “Hey, I’m busy, and it was this, it’s “not interested.’

Another is that you’re not listening. Reps are quick to hop off and try to have a conversation about a specific area or a value they might bring. As soon as the prospect says, “Nah, that’s not a fit for us,” they stop listening and start pushing.

Objections can feel personal, so separate your identity from the call’s outcome.  

You’re not going to make every sale, and there will always be someone else to approach.

Nick’s Bio:

Nick Krebs is a sales coach at Vendition with experience working in sales at Yelp and other high-growth startups!

Important Links:

Nick’s LinkedIn Profile

Click here for the full episode show notes, transcript, and more!

#77: Listen as Alvaro Garcia, SDR at Reside Worldwide, discusses bringing creativity into sales. He shares his experience in the hospitality industry, how it’s given him a unique approach to sales, and how to create opportunities.

Don’t feel like listening? Read the Episode Cliff Notes instead below:

Translate Energy into Sales Messaging (0:22)

Focus on solving a customer’s problem creatively so that they don’t realize that you’re solving their problems.

Interrupt the pattern of everyday conversations with your energy and see if it gets anyone to open emails or respond more often.

Just do what you think is right, and hopefully, people will find that interesting. 

Talk to the reps when onboarding and figure out where they excel. A lot of companies allow their reps to use their most considerable skillset.

Finding Your Strengths (4:37)

Companies also need to be comfortable allowing sales reps to change if they don’t see success.

Many reps need to have that conversation with their manager, so when some of their efforts aren’t working, they can figure out where they’re strongest. 

Multi-channel approaches mean not just focusing on one skill set. However, if a rep is solid in one area, it’s okay to have their sequences and outreach skewed towards that type of communication, most likely to start conversations at the end of the day.

Know that that situation can change at any moment, and you can also influence that change.

Solving Problems (9:50)

Coming from a hospitality background helps sales because you get an opportunity to be yourself, and not every day is the same. 

It’s great working in the hospitality industry where you’re always creating an opportunity to change someone’s attitude or creating an opportunity for someone else—or creating an opportunity for yourself. 

Companies are made up of people, and people work with people. We’re in each stage, human-to-human conversation; whether you’re B2B, B2C, or whatever industry you’re in, we’re all people trying to connect with other people.

Creating Opportunities (13:43)

Dive deeper into people’s LinkedIn profiles. It’s an opportunity for someone to post about themselves and capture someone’s attention, sometimes unknowingly.

You have to get good at telling a brief story about something about them and then weave it into something your company, service, or product saw.

Figure out your “why.” Figure out why you’re in this role and if that role or that company works for you.

Alvaro’s Bio:

Young professional with a wine/hospitality background that has recently jumped into the Relocation and Mobility industry. Passionate about building relationships and motivating others.

Important Links:

Alvaro’s LinkedIn Profile

Reside Worldwide Website

Click here for full episode show notes, transcript, links, and more!

#76: Listen as Tyler Lindley, B2B expert and host of The Sales Lift Podcast, revisits two of the most impactful episodes from 2021. First, we listen to Carl Ferreira and learn what it takes to crush the AE role at a billion-dollar scale-up. Then, we highlight our interview with Anna Rofsky and talk about taking calculated risks in your sales career.

Don’t feel like listening? Read the Episode Cliff Notes instead below:

Refining Your Mindset (0:22)

Carl just transitioned to Refine Labs, where he’s the Director of Sales, and Anna is a Sales Manager at Forethought. They both have been promoted from their days as AEs and are now in leadership positions.

In sales, a lot of us have that go-getter hunter mentality. We want to be at the top of the board. 

But it takes more than just that to be the top new rep at a big company or a small company, or any company.

Don’t allow yourself to get caught up in the “new guy” mentality. You were hired for a reason, and you want to have that confidence, even if you’re first-time selling.

You need to know your product inside and out better than anyone else because you are the expert, and learning that product can help to have better conversations.

Adapt Your Coaching Style (7:32)

Look for weirdness and be open to it, and personality is at the forefront of your training style.

Transferring knowledge isn’t the same as transferring competency. When onboarding reps, it’s not just about shoving as much knowledge as you can in front of them. 

Also, we also need the space to learn how to be competent on our own. Learn how to fail, learn how to get better. So you can’t always hold your trainee’s hand.

In episode 18 with Chris Walker, he and Tyler talked about how better selling starts with better marketing. 

Qualifying and Disqualifying Prospects (11:03)

You have to qualify and disqualify your prospects just as they’re qualifying and disqualifying.

You have to understand their pain points, why they would buy, their whole business structure, and what their goals are in the immediate three months.

We want to think about our prospects and our customers’ long-term goals as much as their short-term goals. 

Just understanding that consulting motion and how you can learn more about their business, goals, and overarching themes and strategies they’re working on. 

Then hopefully, you figure out how your product or service helps move those goals forward instead of just pushing.

Important Links:

Carl’s LinkedIn Profile

Anna’s LinkedIn Profile

Click here for full episode show notes, transcription, highlights, and more!

#75: Listen as Andy Paul, host of the "Sales Enablement Podcast" and author of the upcoming book, "Sell Without Selling Out," discusses the human side of selling in Part 2 of our interview. He covers what training works best for new hires and why starting with a humanistic approach is ideal.

Don’t feel like listening? Read the Episode Cliff Notes instead below:

Demonstrating Expertise and Integrity (0:22)

Starting strong comes down to making a connection, being sincere, and having a genuine interest in learning about them. 

Make sure you understand what is most important to them and see how you can help them get it.

Curiosity is more about questioning; you’re learning and gathering information. But there’s also a question the buyers ask, and it’s rarely asked aloud.

We answer it through operating with integrity, making sure our motivations are abundantly clear to the buyer that we act in alignment with those motivations and demonstrate our competence.

Then you need to keep them by evolving as their needs change. 

Understanding Uniqueness (5:45)

Look for opportunities to go back, revisit, and understand more about your buyer’s situation when things change based on new information.

The spontaneous insight that we collectively arrive at later in the sales process is the most impactful.

Now the buyer understands how smart we are because we gave them insight right at the beginning and evolved it to meet their needs.

Questions that trigger insights on the buyer’s part are infinitely more powerful and impactful than the pre-packaged ones we deliver at the beginning.

The heart of the matter is that every customer is unique and different, so their answers and needs will all be different.

Andy’s definition of business acumen for sellers is not understanding how one situation is different from another. Understanding that difference is an opportunity.

New Hires and Training (9:46)

Too many sellers think they need to have all the answers right away. And when you think of all the answers, selling becomes more of a zero-sum game because you will persuade people to buy. 

That’s not a very productive way to go about things, and you shouldn’t feel compelled to have the answers.

For many sellers, learning about business independent of your selling is learning about business. Learn how to read financial statements, Republic filings for public companies, and how a company operates. 

Being an SDR or any entry-level sales job is a tough job. Andy urges companies to hire old SDRs because they might do a better job and find another entry-level role for new sellers. 

It’s a different language, so teach your new hires to be human before you try to teach them how to be sellers. 

Andy’s Bio:

Andy’s hit “Accelerate Your Sales” podcast was acquired by ringDNA in 2020. Since re-named “Sales Enablement with Andy Paul”, the show continues to inspire thousands of sales professionals each week. Andy has also written two award-winning sales books, “Zero-Time Selling” and “Amp Up Your Sales”.

He is ranked #8 on LinkedIn’s list of Top 50 Global Sales Experts. And 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.

Important Links:

AndyPaul.com

Andy’s LinkedIn Profile

Click here for full episode show notes, transcription, highlights, and more!

#74: Listen as Andy Paul, host of the “Sales Enablement Podcast” and author of the upcoming book, “Sell Without Selling Out,” discusses selling vs. selling out. He covers what makes a good seller, why buyers often resist certain approaches, and why a humanistic sales approach is best.

Don’t feel like listening? Read the Episode Cliff Notes instead below:

Buyer Resistance (0:22)

We need to get a lot better at selling to humans, and part of the problem is that for so many sellers where they’re socialized, trained, and coached to behave in ways that buyers instinctively resist.

They use pushy, sleazy, and intellectually lazy behaviors Andy lumps into as “salesy” behaviors. So why are we still doing those? They don’t work, and the buyers instinctively resist them. 

Research shows a majority of the purchase decision, the criteria in the mind of the buyer purchase decision, are based on how they experience you as a seller. Not you as a company and the company you represent, but you as a seller, as an individual.

Connection, curiosity, understanding, and generosity are your ticket to the level of success you want to achieve in the world.

We’re all wired to want to connect with those innate human behaviors. Part of our empathy understands how other people feel and how we can help them. 

Automation in Buyer Experience (5:38)

Push back against a process because the established process doesn’t align with who you are. It doesn’t align with your values or how I see the world.

As we’ve become more automated, many people take the easy way and lose sight that they succeed only to the degree to which they help develop their sellers.

If you want a long career in sales, you must learn how to create a memorable buying experience and help buyers achieve the most important things. 

A Seller’s Job (10:45)

For many investors, their goals don’t align with those of the management.

If you ask most sellers, what’s your job? The most common answer is that their job is to go out and persuade somebody to buy their product or service. 

The job is not to persuade them to buy what you have; it’s to understand the most important thing to them and then help them get that. 

If you go in with the idea of needing to connect with a person and earn credibility and trust, you can use your curiosity to ask great questions and surface what’s most important to them. 

Ask great follow-up questions to make sure that you understand what’s most important to them. Then, give value to help them achieve the desired outcome.

In sales, we’re not trying to persuade someone to do one thing or another. 

We’re trying to connect, pique curiosity, understand their situation, and if there’s an opportunity to help, we help. Otherwise, we move on.

Nailing Down the Selling Process (16:17)

There’s an issue with how we train sellers. Often we give sellers a list of questions that you ask or through listening to your peers and the recordings.

We’re good at gathering information, but we’re not good at really understanding what’s most important to the buyer.

A competitor who understands that they sell and create this experience with a buyer, continually discovering, understanding, and exploring further will always beat you. 

Most sellers miss the killer question that comes after: what are we missing? 

We think we understand everything. We’re all in agreement. We’ve got it. Okay, but what are we missing?

You make yourself attractive to another person by being interested in them.

Andy’s Bio:

Andy’s hit “Accelerate Your Sales” podcast was acquired by ringDNA in 2020. Since re-named “Sales Enablement with Andy Paul”, the show continues to inspire thousands of sales professionals each week. Andy has also written two award-winning sales books, “Zero-Time Selling” and “Amp Up Your Sales”.

He is ranked #8 on LinkedIn’s list of Top 50 Global Sales Experts. And 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.

Important Links:

AndyPaul.com

Andy’s LinkedIn Profile

Click here for Episode #73 show notes with full transcript, links mentioned, and more!

#73: Listen as Kathryn Bennett, Director of RFP Excellence at Loopio, discusses her experience at winning with RFPs. She explains how to streamline the RFP process, the differences between RFI and RFP, and how it applies to public and private procurement efforts.

Don’t feel like listening? Read the Episode Cliff Notes instead below:

What is RFP and Why Does It Matter? (0:22)

RFP is the request for proposal that you get from enterprise organizations or entities often in the sales domain. 

You’ll hear it referred to as an RFX, an umbrella of types of responses that they might be soliciting.

So there are security, questionnaires, or DDQ issues like qualifications and documents. The RFP process is a formalized procurement process designed to advantage the buyer by providing specific types of information.

It requires a little more documentation simply because the entity is trying to do its due diligence by thoroughly reviewing its options.

In the RFP process, what it does, ultimately buyers are looking to save money by making more responsible decisions.

We want to make sure that we’re communicating the best value through our RFP documents.

You are often in a much more controlled environment because you’ve had to qualify to attempt to propose to these folks. And therefore, your pool of competition is much smaller, and you are in a better position to win the business.

RFPs in Startups and Scale-Ups (4:46)

One of the first things you need to consider in this instance is how you’ll find the opportunities. For example, if you’re selling into the business community, you usually have to get invited to submit to an RFP.

You may be discounting your pricing on a larger scale, but how you position yourself needs to be competitive.

You can get one small component of a larger project that helps you build your past performance and get your resume built up. Then you have that experience with the other entity partnerships. 

So being in that early startup environment and looking to win through RFP partnerships should be a key component of your strategy.

RFPs cost around $5k to $10k of labor and materials put together, and they’re not a small endeavor. And so, at least to those for larger enterprise efforts, that’s why the capture process is so important.

Maybe you fill out the RFI documents and never hear from the company again. That’s also pretty common, so don’t be discouraged.

RFI vs. RFP (9:52)

It goes down the sales and marketing funnels in terms of effort. One of the three main types of documents in this context will be the RFI at the top of the sales funnel.

RFI and RFQ stages don’t always happen. They’re optional and for very conscientious buyers or regulated buyers. 

By the time you get to the RFP, you’re building on those foundations, moving down the marketing funnel, and the buyer has decided that they are going to buy.

Many sales leaders will try to chase every RFP that comes through the door because they see it as a marketing opportunity. Kathryn makes it clear that by the time RFP has come out, you no longer have the chance to market.

Public vs. Private Procurement (14:00)

It’s vital to differentiate between public and private procurement efforts.

First of all, in private sector buying, they don’t have ethical rules around it. But they don’t have any legal prohibitions against public sector buying.

If there’s even a whiff of impropriety about the fact that maybe this person is in there influencing the sales process unfairly, those procurement people’s jobs are at risk. And in fact, they could be a legal liability. 

When it comes to public procurement, it makes sense to warm up. But no, the decision is not made before you walk in the door, which is why you would craft your proposal. 

For private procurement, you can often email the person leading the charge and say, “Hey, can I ask a question about this?” Then, maybe they’ll put it out to the rest of the buyers. That might not be true for public procurement. 

You need to be cognizant that they will publish the questions you ask, but you can strategically ask questions that torpedo your competition or that support your position.

If you intend to move into the enterprise space or sell space with governments, you have to have a good content management system.

The earlier you start managing content for your sales and proposal efforts, the more reliable and sustainable your processes will be.

Click here for the full episode show notes, transcript, and more!

Don’t feel like listening? Read the Episode Cliff Notes instead below:

Streamlining the Hiring Process (0:23)

Sales recruiting is extremely critical to any organization and necessary to get this right because your sales reps are at the forefront of your entire organization. 

People forget that the interview process is a two-way street: having your elevator pitch down is necessary for an interviewee; as an interviewer, a quick, detailed, and efficient interview process.

Being empathetic, kind, and diligent with feedback goes the extra mile when closing a candidate. For a lot of the junior candidates, it's about tonality and making them comfortable.

Questioning Strategies (5:45)

Pull from behavioral questions and situational questions.

Behavioral questions revolve around the candidate's accomplishments and their storytelling ability. For example, many companies will ask the question, "tell me about a time that you have seen success."

Situational questions are good because they assess how the candidate can think on their feet and use critical thinking.

Doing your best to try to make the candidate feel comfortable is key. You don't want them so bogged up with nerves they can't answer it.

Stick to more professional examples, but if you have a great personal story that makes you who you are, make sure you keep it relevant.

"Tell me about yourself" questions are critical. You have to be able to entice that interviewer in the first 30 to 45 seconds, just like you would a prospect, and this question is often one of the first ones you're asked.

The majority of the process comes down to whether or not they can do the job. But a good 30-40% of it also assesses if a candidate can work alongside the team. 

Common Mistakes (10:47)

Don't miss out on a candidate because you have FOMO. If they're a good candidate, they're going to get swooped up, so you better schedule next steps to keep them warm and engaged in the process. 

Companies should always provide feedback whether they move forward or reject a candidate. This helps them in the future while allowing you to assess their coachability skills. 

When an offer is made, and the manager doesn't reach out to congratulate the candidate, it doesn't feel like the offer is real since those team members aren't sharing excitement or encouragement. 

Some companies only have a one-step interview process. It's rare, but an individual needs to meet at least two to three folks on the team to understand if they can work there. So ensure you have more than just a single process is key.

Role of the Recruiter (14:19)

The recruiter is the strategic matchmaker and works with candidates to figure out what they are looking for in their new professional home.

They also work with companies to determine what they want in an ideal hire, soft skills, technical skills background, etc.

Recruiters want managers to interview three to five candidates and hire one of them. So they work closely with the companies before setting up interviews to figure out their ideal candidate and process. 

Trust your gut as a hiring manager and run with it. Set viable expectations and just be open to young junior people who don't have prior SDR experience because that's what the whole business model is.

Gabriella's Bio:

Director of Strategic Accounts at Vendition 

I have been recruiting SDRs for the past 3.5 years 

Placed over 100s of SDRs

Important Links:

Gabriella's LinkedIn Profile

Christine Selvaggio, Manager of Operations Consulting with Etumos, joins Kristin and Kristin to talk about the elusive perfect world of sales and marketing alignment. In perfect timing with the upcoming holidays, learn how marketers and MOPs professionals can come to the table and enjoy their time with their sales and SOPs counterparts. Hint, it involves a bit of altruism combined with some KPI planning. 

#71: Listen as Bryan Mueller, HubSpot Channel Account Manager, discusses how to build a sales team. He and Tyler cover the process of building a modern sales team, hiring new sales reps, and thinking about that process on a high level.

Click here for the full show notes, transcript, and more!

Don’t feel like listening? Read the Episode Cliff Notes instead below:

Getting Started with Hiring (0:23)

You don’t need an absolute all-star sales rep for your first hire, but you need someone with the business acumen and presence of mind to give you a feedback loop.

Before you even go looking for someone, take what you’re currently doing and put it down on paper. 

Get it into a process in a repeatable way of having conversations.

​​Hardcore prospecting that maybe you’re probably not doing your referring referrals, but you need leverage to get more people. 

Enabling Your New Hires (7:51)

Enabling your new hire depends on what your hope is for the organization. 

Bryan has worked with companies with a lifestyle-type business, and they want to grow it a little bit versus the companies who want to scale. 

Often the ones who want to scale, no matter how good they are at sales, can’t get out of their own way. Acceleration is what they need. 

Identify what you’re doing and document the main pain points you need hires to solve. It doesn’t matter where you are in the process. You need to ask good questions. 

Ideally, you’re bringing on people who are raising the bar each time.

It is hard to retain good sales talents, especially today, so you have to give them a reason to stay.

It’s a commitment to your organization’s vision and actual mission that gets someone so passionate. So it’s key to make sure you have that right person.

Once a hire gets their groove, focus on the knowledge and information they need to enable why you hired them.

Bryan recommends the book Working Backwards.

Measuring Success (17:02)

The core of it is to measure inputs, track outputs, and then start to see what you can do to change those outputs.

You’ve got to take that part seriously because if you hire sales reps and put them in the system, they may or may succeed over a long period without that consistent feedback and consistent outreach.

You’re not only making them productive for you, but you’re keeping them happy because they feel like they’re still growing and learning.

Sales is a tough industry, and most top sales reps leave because they get tired of the conversation. Of course, they’re good at conversation, but nothing is challenging. 

That’s why companies need to innovate, give them a new product line to sell you a new service, and have them figure out new problems.

#70: Listen as Collin Mitchell, Co-Founder and CRO of Salescast, discusses the benefits of selling with a podcast. He and Tyler cover what goes into podcast hosting, the best ways to get started, and how podcasting can make you into a better seller.

Click here for the full episode show notes, transcript, and more!

Don’t feel like listening? Read the Episode Cliff Notes instead below:

Why Podcast Selling? (0:23)

If you had a podcast where you interview the types of people that you want to build relationships with, it’s not with the idea you’ll never have to pick up the phone again; podcasts won’t solve all of your prospecting problems. 

But they are a great way to build high-quality relationships by adding value from day one.

Many sellers struggle with posting original content on social media, and a podcast can easily solve that. 

Inviting people you want to do business with or partner with in some way can drive revenue for you in your role. 

Then you can create pieces that are lifting them, and most of your prospects out there would be willing to hop on a podcast interview.

The more conversations you have, especially the more high-quality conversations, not every person that you have on a podcast is not going to become a prospect.

Podcasts as Skill Builders (5:46)

People always tell you to learn your prospects, understand their language, know how they talk, what makes them tick, what they care about, and all these things. You have to be very curious, and you have to ask great questions. 

All of those skills transfer to every other sales conversation that you have with your prospects. And you’re going to be a much more skilled seller by practicing through podcasting.

One thing people get nervous about is nobody is going to listen to the podcast. Does it even matter? 

But they’re skills you can build, and you’re getting a masterclass in how to be a better seller. So it isn’t a failure if you’re getting all these other benefits. 

Getting Started (9:08)

A host is a platform where you post your episodes and push them out to all podcast platforms. If you’re a new seller, free might sound good. 

Names should somewhat tell people what the show is about, especially if you want to build listenership over time. For example, if it’s a sales show, it should have sales in the title or something like that. 

If you don’t enjoy it, you’re not going to do it, so make sure you have passion driving you. 

Many new podcasters think nobody will want to be on a show that doesn’t even exist yet. 

However, there are so many people accustomed to being invited on shows that don’t exist yet because it’s very common for many people to start their show and record their first four or five before they actually launch that way.

Start with maybe four or five friendlies people you know that be on the show, who would give you feedback. 

Listen Notes is a platform that has the most accurate data source for podcasting to help you get started on improving your metrics and targeting your ideal listeners.

The Benefits of Podcast Selling (17:12) 

There is no outside to the conversation: it can’t be farmed out to someone else, or it wouldn’t be authentic.

Starting a podcast sounds nuts. So, guesting on shows might be a good, comfortable place to start. 

You should be guesting on podcasts regularly as part of your strategy because you’re going to be investing in your brand. You’re going to be elevating your thought leadership and getting your message out there.

The key is to ensure that you get on the right shows with the type of people you want to get your message in front.

Remember, it’s just a big sales pitch. Show up and provide some value and education for the listeners. That’s why podcast hosts do this.

Collin’s Bio:

Collin Mitchell is a 4x Founder passionate about Sales, Entrepreneurship, and Podcasting! Collin is the Co-Founder of Salescast and Host of Sales Transformation. Collin lives in Los Angeles with his beautiful wife, three kids, and a new puppy!

#67: Listen as Ben Rubin, Senior Business Development Strategist at Remotive, discusses commission versus commission-less sales models. Ben and Tyler examine harnessing motivation, where companies go wrong, and how fostering happiness impacts job performance and recruitment.

Click here to view the full show notes, transcript, and more for this episode!

Check out the Cliff Notes below:

The Role of Motivation (:28)

It's interesting to think of commission as extrinsic motivation to get you to achieve an objective.

People are setting higher quotas so that the company grows, but then you still have this missing alignment between what people are hitting and where they're getting to that point.

You have to find this intrinsic approach to motivate somebody, to get to a point where they're earning an income that satisfies their needs.

So we're looking at it from an approach, instead of trying to put a quote on you that's higher than what you can probably achieve. 

Where the Companies Go Wrong (4:39)

This is all tons of research and time trying to identify what's this good blend of setting a salary point in a quota and then how do you then continue driving on top of that quota.

There are a ton of variables involved in each of the companies. Then there's the scalability of setting quotas higher in different spaces, industries, and services. 

That's where the tricky part lies because you can find tons of articles and research about there with commission people in the SAS space, but not necessarily service. 

So, it comes down to figuring out a problem inside our space that everyone might not be going through the same kind. The best approach is a consultative, strategic selling process. 

Quotas and commissions exist because that's just how it's always been, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's the best model or the most motivating model for sales reps.

Balancing Stress (8:28)

We naturally think if we push harder, we can make more, but that doesn't always mean you hit quota. Sometimes, that means burning out and making less, which is a vicious cycle. It's why mental health and sales it's a hot topic.

Then there's the part about your customer suffering because you're stressed out now, and you're coming to these calls with stress.  

Ben is trying to challenge the status quo in a way that does make sense and does fit. They are trying to be the place where people want to work and enjoy working there. 

They also have a reduced work program where you can get paid the same amount but have reduced working hours. It adds sustainability and reduces stress, which increases performance efficiency. 

Attracting Quality Talent (12:39)

It's crucial to hold to your vision. When you start doing that, though, it seems like it attracts more talent. 

It's all about being with yourself, the people you would want to work with, and bringing together a culture. 

There's also the Steve jobs approach of hiring people that are smarter than you.

Many people coming out of school have few job opportunities and choose the one that has the biggest salary. They don't pay much attention to opportunities that will make them the happiest or give them a good balance. That comes later. 

Culture will be way more impactful on life, the commission structure follows, and then flexibility. That's what's going to drive your happiness. 

#66: Listen as Amanda Sleger, Sales & Marketing Director at Lone Fir Creative, guest interviews The Sales Lift host, Tyler Lindley, about building a sales operating system. They discuss how having a system impacts the bottom line, how businesses can go about developing one, and best practices for getting started.

Click here for full episode show notes, transcript, and more!

Why Systems Matter (0:55)

The five things a sales operating system should focus on are process, method, message, technology, and training.

The process is the steps that your sales team should take from prospecting to closing. The method is those tactics, behaviors, and best practices to turn prospects into buyers. The message is your ideas, value prop, and anything else about what your brand is saying.

Next are the materials you have to support your sales team throughout the buyer's journey and how you use technology to gather actionable data for your team. Finally, training looks at how you identify skill gaps in the process and level up your team through onboarding, one-on-ones, and coaching. 

Having organization around your sales system and process allows everyone to grasp it easier from a growth and training perspective as you bring new people into the sales organization.

As salespeople, we are driven by closing revenue, relationships, and communication, but we are not perfect. We forget things, things drop off, and that's why having a tried-and-true system in place is so beneficial. 

Developing A Sales Process (5:06) 

The first thing that happens is that you have a tough time adding people to the sales team and then retaining those you walked in. So you want your first impression as a boss is that you have everything you need to have together. 

Hiring and maintaining good talent is critical because there is so much turnover in this industry. Anything you can do to alleviate the chaos of onboarding helps. 

Creating a playbook allows sales reps to take it with them and make it their own. Lastly, make sure your marketing and sales efforts are aligned. 

Without a sales system in place, your sales team likely goes rogue. Everyone across the revenue organization should be speaking the same language, or else all sides suffer. 

Where to Start (9:30)

It depends on what stage of growth you're in. If you've started your business already and you have at least one client, you have to audit what you've done to that point. 

If you don't have a team, you may not be doing a lot of training and onboarding. First, you have to audit to see what you are doing in the five areas? From there, it's about deciding how to add your next person. 

The next people to join should be SDRs, marketers, AEs, and success reps added as you scale. The more you give to brand new employees joining the revenue organization, the easier their onboarding is and the faster they impact your prospects and buyers.

Good communication, coachability, and curiosity are all very important. These are all things you can vet for during the application and interview process.  

#65: Listen as Alex Buckles, CEO of Forecastable discusses the differences between SMB and enterprise selling. He and Tyler cover the transition into enterprise selling, what effective team selling looks like, and how to navigate the closing process.

Click here for full episode show notes, transcript, and more!

Difficulties When Starting (0:28)

Typically, the transition starts with an SMB company, typically a series B, closing many SMB deals, and then they get an enterprise deal that falls in their laps.

The biggest change is the number of stakeholders involved.

SMB can be intimidating because you have many people involved in the decision-making in a lot of different roles, and some of them are senior leaders.

Each stakeholder has unique, usually self-centered interests as to why they want to purchase one solution over another. 

It's your job as the sales rep to figure out, stakeholder by stakeholder, what is important to each individual, and then hone in on that.

Have individual conversations with every stakeholder when possible and pay attention to each stakeholder. If you don't know what's important to this stakeholder over here, that could be a wrench in your gears.

If at all possible, you want to close it this year to make it a little bit more manageable and keep yourself sane. But remember, you're playing the long game. 

The Process Behind the Deal (4:16)

There are two very distinct cycles in a deal's decision process in the enterprise world: generating group consensus and the procurement paper process. 

The lion's share of the two processes happens separately. You try to get the paper process going as early as possible.

If you're outbounding into the account, there is no defined initiative and no defined pain. So there's no budget set aside for this, but you generate some interest and uncover some pain.

The status quo you're selling against is always your biggest competitor.

RFP do themselves a disservice by not engaging each vendor the way they should be engaged. So they're generally hit or miss.

Even if you weren't involved early in the RFP creation process, you have a very solid shot in the deal. But if you can get in at the RFP creation process- that's awesome.

Smaller SMB sales might involve one person, maybe two or three, but it seems like the further you go upmarket and enterprise deals, the more stakeholders you'll need.

Team Selling (9:01)

You can't be a lone-ranger when teams are selling; if you're going to lose, don't lose alone.  

You should be working with your SDR or BDR on that account plan. Then as you get into the cycle itself, your team starts expanding, and your STR probably won't be so much involved anymore.

You, as the rep, need to spot the issues in the deal and bring in the right people to solve those challenges and convert stakeholders into supporters.

When looking at hiring an enterprise rep, the first thing to start with is talking about how they build up your territory. What have they done that similarly in the past, and are they creative?

Self-sufficiency is also something to look for because the last thing you want is a rep who sits around waiting for someone to give them direction. 

It's probably not a good idea to take a pure SMB rep that has never worked a large deal and throw them into an enterprise role. 

It's better to start them with Mid-Market deals and work their way up. 

Driving Sales (13:47)

There's usually very little room for growth in an SMB account, and you want to have a team specifically there for upselling and cross-selling.

The organization has to do with the comp plans. There's a lot that goes into whether or not it's worth upselling or cross-selling.

There is no better customer than your current customer, and that's where your loyalty should be: focused on them. Of course, then, they will continue buying from you. 

Don't just show up when there's a problem. Instead, try to break that text barrier as early as possible and use any excuse to get that first text message out the door. 

It's not just about upselling. It's about building and maintaining relationships. 

For businesses looking to break into enterprise selling, Alex suggests taking a break every so often to look at what you're doing. Then, ask yourself what it will take to close an enterprise deal and test the waters first. 

Build the process, figure out what works, and then scale it rather than jumping right in. 

Full Episode Cliff Notes

Why Passion Is Important (0:58)

The essence of sales, creativity, and personalization is what we do as human beings. We hear a lot about B2B and B2C sales, but never H2H or "human to human" sales. 

Think about how you communicate with your friends, your family, somebody that you're trying to date for the first time or your wife of 20 years, your husband or friend. It's okay to be human. And that's what makes us different in sales.

If you're not passionate about what you're selling, you might need to find something else to sell because creativity is fueled by passion.

If you don't have that passion, you have to get it. Start by asking yourself, "why?" Why do you do this every day?

Turn that "why" into your passion and turn that passion into creativity in your sales outreach. You need to make sure that you are focused on that passion and creativity because you're going to come across as bland and authentic without it.

Focus on what you can do today to bring passion and creativity to your outreach.

Finding The Passion (4:19)

Sales is a math game. In that regard, you've got to make sure you're doing the right amount of inputs to get to the output. But sales is also an art. 

The only way to get better at that art is to practice it every single day. 

You have to understand your prospect. A lot of being creative and personal starts with understanding your prospect. 

So you need to get into their shoes. You need to understand what their world looks like.

​​We have to understand that our prospects are getting hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of emails—all the time. 

Many of them are coming from sales reps, just like you, and the bland emails may not even end up in the inbox. And it starts with the subject line. 

Personalizing Video Selling and Cold Calls (12:22)

If you're not selling with video in this day and age, you're falling behind. Prospects respond to video because it's personalized and creative.

You want a good background, good lighting, and a strong voice. You want it clear, concise, and to the point.

Use those videos to your advantage. You can even create generic versions of these videos and send them to prospects. They don't all have to be personalized, but you want to make as many of them as personalized as possible. 

Everyone should have a script going into a cold call because it's critical to have a game plan.

And it's not just the words in the cold call script, but how you deliver them. So you are the punctuation of the script; just don't go too crazy with it. 

The difference between standing out and not is getting that email getting opened. 

#63: Listen as Mike Farrell, CEO of Green Leads, talks about his experience with sales development and startup companies. He touches on how to set up your growth stage strategically, things to consider with a new sales development team, and whether to insource or outsource sales development.

Click here for the full episode show notes & more!

Forming A Sales Development Team (0:38)

When thinking about adding a sales development team, talent, internal support training, and tech stack are common things people go to. But the time and opportunity cost is probably the biggest factor.

The growth speed depends on how much horsepower has been put behind it, budget-wise, and everything from the get-go. 

Once you get a full-time manager and have all the investments of the tech stack, the data, the sales enablement, the training component of it, and the training program, that's when you've started to recoup your investment. 

It could be a full 18 to 24 months to see an SDR organization mature, guaranteed that you start from scratch.

There are going to be bumps along the way. Mike has seen companies let go of an outsourced firm after they've built themselves up on their own, and then all of a sudden, a year or two later, they come back to the firm they initially hired.

Balancing Insourcing and Outsourcing (4:44)

The maturity level of the marketing organization in terms of driving awareness, driving leads, and driving people to the website is very indicative of where a company is in its sourcing. 

CML or a VP of marketing is one of the early strategic hires. A lot of the sales efforts initially are founder-led, but they'll hire a marketer and start building up that marketing infrastructure.

They have to have an SDR, either outsourced from an outsource SDR company like Mike's or insourced from hiring within the organization. 

As the company grows, there comes the point where the founders can't do everything. 

When you have a product-market fit and have to hit the gas, you have to have a sales professional or sales leader because, at that point, you're probably going to have some additional funding.

Marketing and Sales Alignment (8:17)

There can definitely be contention on who owns the SDR function. For example, is it owned by the sales leader or by the marketing leader? 

If the marketing leader is the first one in, they typically own that function because they generate leads that need follow-up.

Then, when the sales leaders come in, there should be a little bit of a turf battle because they're the ones who have to build an organization. So they've got to scale. 

The chief revenue officer is supposed to be the person that ties in sales and marketing and even customer success into a single leader. So maybe it's just as a VP of sales initially or a couple of senior sales executives, and that's how you start the sales organization until, eventually, it's a CRO.

Whether you hire one at a time or multiple at once depends on how much you have from a venture funding standpoint.

#62: Listen as Ben Stroup, President of Velocity Strategy Solutions, discusses building a revenue operating system for your business. He offers insight into how revenue operating systems drive revenue, how they play into common scorecards, and what roles managers have in overall success.
=====================
Click here for full show notes & more!
=====================
Read the Episode Cliff Notes instead below:

Revenue Operating Systems (0:33)

Everyone must agree on a framework, measures and dimensions, and different processes, workflows, and permission systems. Those are all core tenants that gum up the revenue process.

We all have to share the same scorecard, and we all have to be moving in the same direction.

Revenue operations are certainly the fundamental technical aspect of how you enable an organization to drive revenue. But sometimes, what happens is it doesn’t do a good job.

Each aspect of an organization (marketing, sales, service, management, etc.) plugs into revenue operations to be able to extract the value from it.

=====================

Building Revenue Operating Systems (3:58)

Ben starts with a three-step process of frame focusing and growth. First, you have to understand the current reality, and the truth is everybody defines their reality based on their perspective of the situation.

The second part focuses on what success is for each part, which is part of the cascading reality.

Once you decide on that, you have the two pivot points: where you are and where you want to be in the current reality vs. preferred future.

Spend the time to capture existing business processes, permission systems, and workflows.

=====================

Building and Using Scorecards (6:51)

We have to define a common scorecard by how it influences decisions and behavior at every level. So revenue, customer acquisition, MRR, ARR, growth- all of those kinds of things are lagging indicators that need accounting for.

The scorecard needs to have a combination of leading indicators to give everyone clarity around what was successful that day.

As a manager, you should know where your people are moving. The earlier you can intervene when a variable or variance is observed, the sooner you can resolve it before it becomes a real impediment to growth.

=====================

Role of Management (13:26)

The purpose of Revenue Operating Systems is to enable everyone to be more successful. For that to be true, the manager must believe that their fundamental goal is to enable other people to succeed.

What often happens on the revenue side is we promote substantial individual contributors into management roles because if you’re a great revenue leader, you’re a great revenue generator. But it doesn’t often work that way.

You, as a manager, can do what you knew best, which is resolving that friction. And they, as a contributor, can do what they do best, which is develop relationships and drive that revenue.

=====================

Ben's Bio:

Ben Stroup is Chief Growth Architect and President at Velocity Strategy Solutions, a next-generation business strategy, and management consulting firm focused on helping ambitious leaders align teams, reduce complexity, eliminate friction, and drive revenue. He is a futurist, disruptor, and data champion having served organizations from $5MM to more than $500MM in revenue for more than 18 years. 

Ben's written and edited dozens of books on leadership and growth and is a frequent speaker, podcaster, and guest for business and industry groups. His most recent book, Master the Pivot, was released in 2020. Ben and his wife and two boys live in the Nashville, Tennessee area.

#61: Listen as Jocelyn Quall, the Senior Director of Marketing and Sales Development at RESIDE Worldwide, discusses the role of scripts in marketing and sales. Jocelyn and Tyler look at the right way to approach scripts, how to ensure they’re dynamic, and how leveraging them can help you have the right conversations with prospective clients.

Click here for full episode show notes & more!

Approaching Sales Scripts (0:32)

It's understandable to be unsure of scripts because they can make people sound robotic and monotonous. However, the key to scripts is not just crafting a message but understanding it and working with it.

From a marketing perspective, it's about crafting the message of the brand and company, then adapting the value proposition so that the sales team can speak to a variety of clients in a way that works and that they can make their own.

Evolution of a Dynamic Script (4:40)

As the industry changes and companies pivot to selling a different type of product or to a different person, it’s important to keep your script dynamic. So you don’t get stuck on the words. 

In sales, it's really important to believe and understand what you're saying, especially as a new SDR. So your first ninety days or six months is all about getting comfortable with what you're saying.

Stop selling and start talking to people like they're human beings.

It's a matter of sheer respect. Marketing and sales are about hitting people in the right way, at the right time, so that they hear your message. SDRs are likely hitting people with the right message at the wrong time. 
If you've done your prospecting, you'll know when it might not be the right time. So asking that permission upfront is so important. Otherwise, your message may fall on deaf ears.

It's a conversation for a reason. You need to be adding value to the person you're talking to, and you need to leave that person better than you found them.

Different Types of Scripts (10:09)

There are certain key things SDRs need to find out before they can pass something over to sales to show they’re doing their job.

If you're just trying to hit five qualifying questions, you're not listening to what the person says on the other end of the phone. Or they've already answered it in passing, and you're not reacting to what they're saying.

Scripts are also important for setting the call's tone, whether it's a cold call, discovery call, etc. And they become a lot looser once you get past the intro of the call.

You have to have the tools and resources now to be smart about how we go about sales and marketing. The last thing you want is to insult people by reaching out to them when they never needed your services. 

Jocelyn Quall's Bio:

Jocelyn is the Sr. Director of Marketing & Sales Development at Reside, a leading prop-tech and B2B global hospitality provider. She is responsible for driving all lead gen and demand growth efforts for the Reside brand portfolio. 

Jocelyn has spent her career working with B2B and B2C hospitality leaders; growing with the industry as it pivoted toward technology-led and experience-driven. She is a passionate storyteller and loves crafting messages that elicit emotions and drive engagement with her audience.

After hours, you’ll find Jocelyn mastering her job as a first-time mom to Liam, honing her communication skills with her husband, and chasing her chickens and dog around her property in Monroe, WA. She’s always ready to host family and friends with a bottle of red, a new recipe to test and a story to share.

#60: Listen as Chris O'Connor, Head of Sales Development at Ambition, discusses sales coaching and the balance between accountability and encouragement. He offers insight into coaching sales reps and raising the bar to help your reps get the most out of their careers.

Please visit The Sales Lift Website for full show notes and more!

Show Notes:

Encouragement and Raising the Bar (0:42)

The perfect recipe is a balance between accountability and encouragement, and most sales leaders will fall closer to one of those two ends on the spectrum.

An important aspect is to know where your rep's ceiling is and raise it for them. For example, say, "I know you think that this is your bar, but I see more out of you, and I'm going to hold you to that until you get there."

We want to raise that ceiling for everyone because if we can do that across the board, we likely can hit our numbers more easily as a team.

Building Accountability (4:40)

It's important to be very open and transparent with your reps about expectations and where they fall. That makes accountability easy because the numbers do the talking. 

While a lot of reps are pitted against one another, it's really about competing with themselves at the end of the day.

Once you have the right visibility, it makes it a lot easier to hold them accountable and stay on the same page. Put the numbers in front of them and figure out together what's the right path to get there.

Look at those numbers consistently and set that standard from the beginning versus being a little more wishy-washy on what activities lead to the outcomes we're looking for.

Chris uses a productivity quadrant, and if you don't use Ambition you can easily create it. It's essentially a skill-versus-will chart.

Highlighting opportunities for the rep and showing them exact areas where they may have some weaknesses is important.

Coaching to Empower (12:21)

We want to build a muscle of self-awareness within our reps to begin self-diagnosing as they move on in their careers. It's important to empower them. 

That one-on-one interaction is the most important interaction you're going to have with your reps every week. So, you want your reps to look forward to that 30-minute slot.

When they lead that conversation, it tends to be more valuable for them, which is why Chris always suggests empowering them to lead that discussion.

It can be intimidating for them because they don't necessarily know what we should be talking about. So what Chris likes to do is give a really high-level agenda of what he'd like to talk about, but not set it in stone.

Setting The Agenda (16:23)

Working remotely poses other challenges since you're not face-to-face. 

A simple "how are you doing" is a great way to open up that discussion. Some reps will give a generic answer, but others will use it as an opportunity to let you know what they've been struggling with. 

The second thing Chris always covers in his one-on-ones is what goals the rep has for the week. Again, it's helpful to have the meeting early on in the week to set goals and make a plan.

The third is what the path to quota this month is. That's a really big area where you want the rep to take control of the conversation and make a plan for themselves. 

This leads to asking what the rep will need to win that week so you can help them get the tools they need to succeed.