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Keynote Speaking - Podcast - Social Selling - B2B Sales
This sales podcast episode is focused on shifting our sales performance management from tactical to strategic. Although there are dozens of strategic shifts we can make, today we are focused on three key levers that can impact your personal and organizational sales performance.
Below you will find the video version of the podcast and an abridged version of the transcript. If you’re looking for a keynote sales speaker for your next sales conference you can contact us to book a quick discovery call.
[transcript begins]
Transcript:
I want to talk about strategic sales performance improvement today. Many of our sales performance improvements come down to tactics—slight shifts in interactions or key steps in our sales process. When I think of non-strategic sales performance improvement, I think of merely improving or increasing the numbers.
Instead of focusing on numbers, orders, or specific tactics, I want to delve into how we can impact performance improvement within our sales team, ourselves, or individual salespeople by emphasizing a shift in our strategic thinking. I’ve identified three levers that can alter the way we think or approach the marketplace and consistently impact our overall sales performance. While in many cases we’re thinking tactically, I want us to transition into strategy.
Strategy can also be influenced by tactics. For instance, if your organization aims to focus on larger accounts or more intricate, profitable deals, yet our salespeople still employ tactics suitable for the small to medium-sized industry, we won’t achieve our strategic result. This discrepancy shows how tactics can sometimes drive strategy. If we find ourselves able to close specific types of accounts due to the responsiveness of our marketing and sales processes, it might seem like that’s our ideal market. But often, it’s our tactics which target a specific segment.
So, when we strategically consider new targets or opportunities or evolve our external perspective on clientele and brand, it’s vital to ensure our sales tactics align with our sales strategy shift.
Discussing the first lever—acumen developing system—what is a system? A system encompasses a process, methodology, technology, and accountability. A reliable system has a clear process, robust methodology for each step, is technologically driven, and incorporates accountability to ensure each step is executed correctly. Acumen is often the missing ingredient for potential value sellers and trusted advisors. If my client possesses vast industry knowledge and I only understand the basics, how can I add value to our conversation? It’s nearly impossible. Building acumen is crucial to execute most modern sales strategies. These strategies center around transitioning salespeople from mere order-takers to valuable partners for clients, a shift that can’t happen without honing business acumen.
Too many salespeople believe they need more leads, and often, sales management assumes we need more leads in the funnel. However, the real issue may be the inability to convert, not the lack of leads. A significant cause of this problem can be a lack of business acumen, leading to reduced credibility in customer conversations. Thus, building our business acumen is a continuous process, not a one-time event. It’s not about just learning about our company’s products or market but making acumen building an integral and ongoing part of our process.
So when I think about business acumen, let’s start even with discovery conversations. Number one, before I start picking up the phone or reaching out to clients, do I know our key market segments? And then, do I know their business, their clients, their industry, and their market intimately? As a sales professional, do I understand their top five to ten goals, challenges, and hurdles? And that is of the typical client in my industry. I’m going to drill down through conversation and find them specific to that client.
But let’s say I’m focusing on the telecommunications industry for small to mid-sized telecom companies throughout the United States. For those types of companies, what are the typical five to ten major goals, challenges, and hurdles they’re facing right now in the marketplace? And then, do I know how we solve those challenges uniquely or which of those challenges we solve better than anybody else in the marketplace? So, do I know this? Have I spent time to educate myself? Have I, as a sales leader (and we’ll talk about how to do this later on), provided my team with the insights, resources, and tools to discover these things? And helped them develop the principles and expectations that they’re continually educating themselves as sales professionals around this?
The key, once you know all these things, for me, when I’m doing discovery conversations or meetings, is I want to build questions that unearth those top five to ten things that we can impact in a unique, powerful, and competitive way. So, I’m going to do a needs analysis or discovery meeting. I’m going to ask some of the typical questions a salesperson asks, but not too many.
What I really want to do is focus on asking the questions that unearth those drivers. I’m also going to be continually looking for industry authorities and really geek out on trends, technology, news, and advancements on a regular basis. So, great salespeople today, I believe, are great students of their client, their industry, and their marketplace who self-educate on a nearly daily basis. And that’s how you move from being a four out of ten in knowledge trying to sell to a nine out of ten, to a peer or above who’s specialized in industry insights and knowledge.
So how do we do this? I’m going to give you a real quick shopping list of all the ways that you, as an individual salesperson or as a sales leader, want to put together for your team.
Number one, industry and persona-specific training for our team. I have a client that sells assessment tools into specific industries. One of the things they do with new salespeople is they actually get those salespeople to go through fundamental training around how to be successful in the role of their customer. So, if you were selling into, let’s say, a service manager at a car dealership, they would actually put you through a training program on Service Manager 101. Why? So that you can see through their eyes, have true empathy, and understand not just my product and how it benefits them but understand holistically the day in the life of our ideal decision-maker within our ideal client. Then, our overall business or industry ongoing education. So, do we have that set up? We should have a series of resources, conferences, webinars, you name it, that they can access.
Then, what I’d suggest, something a couple of my clients do, is they hold a state of the industry or region stand-up meeting once a week. Each person on the sales team is responsible for sharing new insights they’ve garnered in the marketplace. It could be shifts from a competitive perspective, regulations, marketplace changes, or consumer shifts—anything that impacts their customer. This includes attending conferences, reading industry magazines and portals, and, at the end of the day, getting to know our clients intimately.
One of the best ways to figure out how your solution impacts your clients positively is to sit down with your happy clients who’ve implemented your solutions long after you’ve closed the deal.
We do this by having client focus and use case meetings. One of the best ways to figure out how your solution impacts your clients positively is to sit down with your happy clients who’ve implemented your solutions long after you’ve closed the deal. Interview them to understand how they’re using your solution, how it’s impacted them, and what you could do better. By doing this regularly with our key accounts, we start to understand and collect great case studies and stories that we can use in our sales process later on.
Listen to calls of other team members, have lunches with our internal team members and experts. As a salesperson, if I’m selling technology for my company, when was the last time the sales team had lunch with the CTO and their product development team to discuss what they’re seeing in the marketplace and what they’re working on and why? This helps in developing a real intimate understanding of your product and your solutions and where it’s evolving to. Additionally, maintain a list of must-follow industry leaders. As a sales leader, do I have a top ten or top five list of industry leaders that my salespeople should follow regularly?
So how do I build an Acumen system out of this? First, how do you take this from a great idea to systematizing it, making it part of your training and development?
So why do this? And as a salesperson, if you’re listening to this going, “that’s a lot of pressure on me here”, and do I really want my management leaning on me with my acumen?
They’re doing you a favor! If you can expand your knowledge, become an expert, and a true resource to your client everything from prospecting to opportunity and development to networking, to your discovery calls, to your demos, to your ability to take what they’ve told you and show them why your solution can impact their business in a way that makes them want to do business with you all happen from building that business acumen. So that’s the big one, that’s lever one. And they’re all built upon this in my opinion.
The second lever, which I’m not going to spend as much time on here, is the AZone Pipeline management. So we look at our entire pipeline, a lot of times it goes, “how much money or deals is in your sales pipeline?” And I say, “well, I’ve got a million dollars in there potential business.” But then when I start to look at, let’s take a look at everybody who stalled or hasn’t moved in the pipeline, and you kind of shave those off, and you look at who is progressing and moving on, and I’m staying engaged with on a regular basis. That’s a bit more of a realistic look on who’s really in our pipeline. In many cases, some of them are just stuck and they’re going to stay there forever or fall out.
But then on the next level is what’s our strategic pipeline? When I think of strategic pipeline, when I’m really looking at what’s the likely value of this pipeline, one of the biggest indicators for me isn’t the number of dollars, it’s the number of A category opportunities and the dollars associated with them. So our A’s, of course, are 20 percenters. They give us 80% of our business. We should understand who those are within our CRM but also within the marketplace.
And I want to know, if I’m managing performance, I want to actually look at focusing on the A’s. And that means how many do we add on a monthly basis to our pipeline, that salesperson? How many A’s have you taken from a suspect to a prospect to at least booking a first meeting with them? How many have you added to the pipeline at that stage? And then how many have we moved through a fulcrum step?
And what I mean by a fulcrum step is depending upon your organization, you’ll have a certain step in your sales process where things begin to flow. So in my business, almost always a fulcrum step is the needs analysis. If I get a client on the phone for a discovery call, if it’s a deal, if there’s a match, if they’re a true A, there’s a high likelihood it’s going to move forward. So that’s a fulcrum step. So how many people have I moved through that step now? For a client of mine it doesn’t matter how many of those beautiful discovery meetings, where we are happy and things seem like they’re going to go well happen – For them, it’s actually the number of quotes and proposals they ship on a monthly basis. That’s their key performance indicator that they can tell in X weeks they’re going to have revenues on the board. So I would look at those two KPIs only and really work as a team to focus on them: how many A’s were adding and how many were moving through that fulcrum step, not how many deals, not how many C’s and B’s, not how many kind of truly not qualified prospects, but the true A’s. And that will give you a better idea from a forecasting perspective.
Now. Why A’s? For me, an A doesn’t mean the biggest prospect, it means one that truly is ideal. You’re ideal for them as a supplier, and they’re ideal for you as a client. This is a truly good fit. And when you find those types of clients, number one, they convert more often, they convert quicker, it’s easier to drive customer success and success stories, they’re easier to maintain. And almost always, a happy A who’s ideal for you is also often our best referral source. So it has this knock-on effect that ah, not only are they larger and more profitable deals in most cases, but they convert more often and quicker and they also precipitate into better referrals and less stress on our customer service system or our actual delivery side of our business, whatever solution we’re selling.
So how do we strategic and tactical with implementing this one performance improvement piece?
So the in between meetings, this is the last one, and this kind of piggybacks on the first two is that many deals are closed and decisions are made outside of the sales or buyer steps in informal meetings, sidebar conversations, the meeting after the meeting, or even bumping into someone accidentally on purpose in the community or an organizational event. Relationships take more effort and frequent engagements than most sales processes allow or need.
So you’re in between key steps of the deal. You’ve got everything. Now there’s this sort of radio silence for a month. what are we doing to fill that silence? Sometimes it’s the in between meetings. It’s value added, just nurturing. But even after a deal is closed and they’re going to buy from us again a year from now or six months from now, are we leaving it till month five? Or do we have in between meetings or value added interactions that actually help increase our mind share, therefore our wallet share and expand the relationship.
When you have meetings that are outside of the typical sales process, you’re actually allowed to or you’re able to practice deep listening without an agenda and build trust. Also, space changes context, mood, and relationship dynamics. So what I mean by this is often in the sales process, maybe I’m always on a zoom call with them and it’s timed and it’s my sort of very this brick background behind me. And from this perspective, there’s not a lot to go on here. There’s no warm fuzzies we get out of this.
What happens if I can take that same client and just let them know I’m going to be in their area, and do they mind if I pop in for 20 minutes and say hello or invite them out for lunch or a coffee or to an event? These types of things where I can move someone out of the office space or a formal, rigid environment and into a more casual, relaxed atmosphere, actually can change the dynamic in the relationship.
One of the things I’ll do is if there’s major events in town occurring that I feel my clients would find valuable, I buy a ticket for myself, but I always buy an extra ticket. Invite out a key client who I know is open to maybe expanding the relationship, and that there would be value in building a relationship for both of us. And I often bring them to event with me. So I never go to event alone, if at all possible.
But many times those in between meetings, those conversations, the casual ones, actually help me understand them better and what motivates them in life and their business. And it really just makes it easier to grow the account, retain the account. And actually, for me, as a sales professional, it makes it more worthwhile. actually people like to do business with people who they like. And that goes for the seller too. I get to know people, I enjoy them, and it just makes it easier and my work more value added as well.
So make it part of your activities. So invite clients to lunch on a frequent basis. Actually set a goal or a KPI for that. How many of my key accounts or potential key accounts am I inviting out on a monthly or weekly basis? Maybe suggesting a meet up between steps of a long sales cycle to review notes, check in, confirm things haven’t changed, make sure that we’re on the right path.
Do an after sales service audit. So this is something we can do, I mentioned this earlier is set a goal that with each account at certain milestones after you’ve sold them, that the salesperson checks in with them again. Even if there’s a Customer Success Team, I think it’s important the salesperson that started the relationship originally does this. Because that’s going to drive maybe a different perspective. Maybe they’ll get some different information than the Customer Success Team gets. They want to share that, of course, but also what it also does in many cases is it plants the seed for referral business as well.
Attend industry events where you can bump into them. So this is another way that you can kind of manufacture these sidebar or informal conversations is making sure you’re out at industry and community events where your key accounts or key prospects are on a regular basis. Engage them on social media often. So you know that I’m a big advocate of social selling and these little casual, quick conversations or messages that we send to people or we congratulate people on stuff and we ask them key questions sometimes that can actually precipitate into a deeper conversation and a really valid reason to pick up the phone and say hello.
And then of course, participate in client events if they’re doing things in the community, if they’re holding festivals and conferences and trade shows, if the CEO is invited to speak at another conference, find a way to be there to engage them and meet their team. And again, create some more in between casual but vital meetings with your key accounts.
Manage these in between meetings by measuring it as part of your cadence. Give people a time and money budget they must spend on A’s. So this is important. Like, here’s your budget from a time perspective. I expect you to be spending 25% of, your proactive time on A’s. In addition to this, here’s your budget per A that you should be spending from a dollar perspective on entertaining them. Lunches, value added interactions, you name it.
And then make a list of gifts, value added tools, meeting types your team can use to engage sort of less formally and have a pre meeting question sheet built. Or at least get them in the habit of pre planning these get togethers so that although it’s a casual meeting, are there two or three key questions I’m going to ask that key account or client that might move the conversation in a certain direction?
[end transcript]
The post Sales Podcast – Strategic Sales Performance Management appeared first on Shane Gibson's Podcast – Social Selling – B2B Sales and Influence.
This sales podcast is focused on 12 Non-Negotiable Sales Truths. As a sales trainer and keynote speaker I come across people often who want to short-cut and negotiate the price of sales success. This podcast digs into some of the core truths we have to live with and work within. Following is the podcast transcript and video:
[Begin sales podcast transcript]
Today, I want to talk about twelve non-negotiable sales truths. There are also twelve not-so-popular sales truths. When we discuss sales truths, one of the things we consider is our desire for success and what it means to be a successful sales professional. As sales professionals and sales leaders, we’re always seeking an advantage, trying to find a shortcut, and aiming to reduce the time it takes to move from point A to point B. However, in many instances, there are core sales truths and principles that can’t be sidestepped. They’re a reality if we aim for long-term success in sales. I will delve into these in today’s podcast. This is available on YouTube @Shane Gibson. Clips/reels will also be shared on Shane Gibson’s Instagram (@ShaneGibson), as well as @ShaneGibsonLive on TikTok. You can of listen to Shane Gibson’s Sales Podcast on platforms ranging from Spotify to Apple Podcasts and many others.
(Please note that Truth #9 was omitted in the podcast and added to the text below)
Let’s dive into these twelve non-negotiable sales truths.
It’s crucial to understand that you can never be too occupied to prospect and manage your funnel. Prospecting is an investment for our future that we must consistently make. Often, I’ve observed (and experienced in my business) professionals getting overwhelmed with inbound tasks, client service, meetings, administrative duties, and other work commitments. We sometimes forget that prospecting is our lifeline. Part of this oversight is because results from prospecting aren’t immediate, especially with sales cycles ranging from three weeks to six months. However, top performers who secure deals regularly were consistently prospecting and maintaining their funnel weeks or even months prior. It’s essential to set aside dedicated time for prospecting and funnel management.
An inquiry doesn’t always equate to a lead, no matter the sentiment behind it. It’s easy to get overly enthusiastic about someone filling out a form. Still, the debate between sales and marketing teams regarding what constitutes a marketing-qualified or sales-qualified lead is ongoing. Merely because someone shows interest or belongs to a targeted company doesn’t mean they’re a genuine lead. Various other factors determine an ideal prospect. Therefore, before adding someone to the funnel, ensure they meet the qualification criteria. Sometimes, an immediately available person isn’t the right fit. By effectively filtering these inquiries, we can focus our energies on filling the funnel with the right prospects.
While client needs analysis and discovery processes emphasize asking pertinent questions, there’s more to it. Some professionals mechanically go through the process: asking a set of questions, nodding, jotting down notes, understanding core pain points, and then drafting a proposal. However, when there’s no callback from the potential client, we must ask ourselves if we established trust and rapport during the meeting. Effective listening, responsive interaction, deeper probing when necessary, and even assertiveness can build trust and credibility. An effective discovery call or client needs analysis involves discerning when to listen, interject, lead, or follow. Ultimately, our aim during discovery is twofold: to understand the client’s deepest business motivations and to establish genuine credibility, rapport, and trust. This requires more than rote learning a script. It calls for empathy, curiosity, and confidence in our abilities to conduct the discovery process efficiently.
Conversations outside of the sales and buying process often yield significant results. While I emphasized the importance of questions during discovery, much of the progress in fostering relationships with clients often takes place outside official meetings. It’s the impromptu conversations after providing a solution, the moments between formal meetings, the chance encounters at social events, and other unexpected engagements that make a real difference. These interactions solidify your role as a trusted advisor and partner, establishing deeper value, credibility, and connection. Genuine relationships often blossom outside the confines of a structured sales or buying process, making it crucial to invest time in understanding both the client and their organization.
More often than not, you aren’t interacting with just one decision maker but multiple buying influencers. This is backed by Gartner studies which, over the years, indicate a steady increase in the number of individuals influencing B2B decisions. A few years back, this number averaged around five and a half, but today it’s closer to seven. The notion that connecting with a single “right person” or “champion” is sufficient is misleading. To truly grasp a client’s needs and make a sale, it’s essential to identify, understand, and engage with all the influential stakeholders. This involves time, trust-building, and navigating gatekeepers. Moreover, once a network is established, it’s imperative to consistently nurture all these relationships to ensure not only acquisition but also the retention and growth of key accounts.
Achieving substantial sales results isn’t about magnifying mediocre efforts. This principle is glaringly evident in the current scenario, especially on platforms like LinkedIn, where many are resorting to automation and mass messaging. Sending generic messages to large numbers with a minuscule response rate isn’t an effective strategy. While such an approach may yield some positive replies, it simultaneously alienates a vast majority who feel the outreach lacks personalization and relevance. The key isn’t necessarily to increase efforts exponentially. While a certain level of commitment and discipline is crucial, refining one’s approach is even more vital. Resorting to a strategy that relies on bombarding the marketplace in the hopes of securing a handful of positive outcomes is short-sighted and harms the brand reputation in the long run.
Practice does not make perfect. I learned this as a martial arts lesson from my teacher, Fred Shadian, many years ago. Practice doesn’t make perfect; it’s perfect practice that makes perfect. If I repeatedly practice the wrong thing, use a cheap imitation of a good sales approach, or recite a mediocre script, I won’t improve. Instead, I’ll become more deeply ingrained in the wrong method. What’s truly important is that repeating and training in proven methods helps us improve. This entails investing in best practices, sharing them, seeking external benchmarks, and adopting processes that have been shown to work. It isn’t merely about repetition or endlessly making calls hoping to improve. There’s a more effective approach that prevents us from forming bad habits or enduring terrible sales experiences.
This point is crucial. From a managerial perspective, I’m somewhat irked when I hear salespeople claim “my leads,” “my customer,” or “my territory,” suggesting that they don’t need to share information because it’s all about them. In reality, those leads, customers, and territories aren’t theirs. If you’re employed by a company to work in that market and are compensated with a salary and commission, those leads and customers belong to the company’s CEO or its shareholders. Your role is to cultivate opportunities for the organization. I mention this because salespeople often become possessive, which hinders teamwork. This possessiveness can cause them to miss broader opportunities to utilize the entire organization to serve clients. It’s essential to think as a team player, focusing on providing the best solutions and retaining clients for the long term, rather than as a lone wolf.
Sales isn’t fair. Within sales organizations that have inbound leads, a common comparison occurs among the sales team. Salespeople tend to “sniff around,” trying to discern if their colleagues receive more or perhaps larger account leads than they do. The prevailing notion is that every salesperson should get an equal distribution of leads or lucrative opportunities. However, in practice, sales organizations often adjust their lead distribution, directing more leads to those who have proven to convert them effectively. For example, if I spend $100 on a lead, and one salesperson can generate $100,000 from 100 leads, while another only produces $20,000, it’s clear that distributing the leads equally isn’t the best strategy. Sales professionals should realize that success isn’t just about accumulating more leads, but rather maximizing the potential of each lead they receive. Often, management observes and prioritizes lead distribution based on the demonstrated ability to convert. Any sales manager not allocating the most promising opportunities to the best converters is effectively leaving money on the table. It may not seem fair, but this is the economic reality of sales.
In sales, expertise holds more weight than sheer tenure. Duration alone doesn’t ensure top performance. My father once pointed out an intriguing perspective regarding someone with “20 years of sales experience”. He asked if the individual truly had two decades of varied experience or just one year’s experience repeated 20 times. Had this person genuinely evolved and learned over time? This reminds me of an experience with a high-end car dealership, where a newcomer to sales, previously in marketing, outperformed many seasoned professionals. This person was eager to learn, thoroughly studied the products and market, and was receptive to innovative sales techniques. Merely having years of experience under one’s belt doesn’t guarantee success. As the marketplace and competition evolve, it’s imperative to continually hone one’s expertise.
Attaining your sales goals is likely harder than initially expected. I’ve found this in my own endeavors, such as when I embarked on writing a book. I tend to form a mental picture of the effort it would take to complete a project within a given timeframe. Yet, based on my past experiences, I’ve often underestimated the time, effort, obstacles, and energy involved. Thinking about my major clients over the past two years, I’ve realized that the effort I had initially anticipated was consistently 25-30% short of the actual requirements. Recognizing upfront that ambitious sales targets will typically demand more resources, effort, and learning than initially expected can set one up for success.
AI, while potent, isn’t a panacea. I’ve noticed that some professionals believe they can solely depend on AI for tasks such as writing emails, conducting research, or even drafting blog posts. Often, the result, sans personal input, is generic content that melds into the marketplace background. This content can lack the human touch or the distinct creativity that sets an expert apart. However, on the flip side, AI offers remarkable advantages. For instance, when I use AI-powered plugins in my CRM, what previously took 10 minutes of manual research now takes mere clicks. With AI tools like “fathom” during my Zoom calls, note-taking has become automated. It prepares summaries, lists action items, and with minor edits, I can share these with a client, saving me about 20 minutes per meeting. These benefits, ranging from competitive intelligence to automating tedious tasks, are invaluable in daily sales and client service activities.
[end sales podcast transcript]
The post Sales Podcast – 12 Non-Negotiable Sales Truths appeared first on Shane Gibson's Podcast – Social Selling – B2B Sales and Influence.
This sales podcast episode is on the fundamentals of sales leadership with focus on behavioural change and coaching. I have taken the transcript from the sales podcast episode and am providing it below with minimal formatting or grammatical changes. It’s rather conversational but I’m providing it to those of you who prefer to read or want to highlight specific statements. It’s based upon the lessons I have accumulated working with sales organizations and delivering leadership training programs over the past 20+ years. Following is the full video version of this Podcast and below that is the transcript:
Here’s the transcript:
I’m shifting to both video and audio, so you’ll be able to find the video of this podcast on YouTube. But I’m also going to be sharing those on my Sales Academy website as well. You can find that at Salesacademy.ca.
So, my goal, of course, is to take this content I’m creating in my podcast and distribute it further and in different mediums depending on how you like to learn. I’m also going to be throwing these onto my Instagram channel @ShaneGibson and my TikTok channel @ShaneGibsonLive if you want to access this content in sound bites versus a long podcast.
Today, I’m going to focus on the fundamentals of coaching skills as well as the coaching process for sales leaders in particular. Now, if you’re a salesperson listening to this and you start to check the boxes around what your leader isn’t doing for you, this is really not what it’s about. In no organization is the coaching process perfect. It’s constantly evolving. And sometimes, as a salesperson, you have to step up to the plate and proactively seek that coaching from your peers and your sales leader in your organization. By no means is this meant to be an exhaustive list of criteria you should use to judge whether your leader is any good, but rather an indication of what gaps exist in your organization and where you might need to seek help. And of course, for sales leaders, I’m hoping this gives you a foundation to build upon, so you can have a more solid process in your sales coaching.
Let’s talk about leadership in general. Sales leadership, first and foremost, is all about driving results. And at the end of the day, driving results is often about behavioral change. So, as a sales leader, the better you become at sales leadership, the better you really are at driving behavioral change, whether it’s in your leaders, if you’re managing a group of sales managers, or your direct line salespeople, if you’re a sales manager yourself. Leadership truly builds people who then build the business. That’s the real core. Leadership also fosters innovation, accountability, momentum, and organizational growth. One of the most powerful parts of leadership is the coaching skill set—the ability to develop people.
With that said, I also know great leaders and great coaches who fail to meet their potential or sustain their organizational growth and success because they lack management skills. A great sales leader is one part coach, one part manager, and, I would argue, one part CTO or Chief Technology Officer. But we’ll delve into that at another time. Today, our focus is on coaching.
Before we delve deeper, let’s consider management skills. Managers maintain systems that sustain the vision. They create systems that grow that vision, and they manage both people and processes. Great managers are often excellent communicators, and they excel at developing systems and processes. It’s also about accountability. Thus, effective managers often have robust systems in place and demonstrate habits and disciplines centered on accountability. They are acutely aware of return on investment and adeptly organize their efforts around their goals. They also bring stability, credibility, and consistency to the table.
It’s not just enough to be a visionary leader or an exceptional coach; one must also develop these fundamental management skills. Many of us, having transitioned from Salesperson to Sales Manager, then to Director of Sales and eventually VP of Sales, might have bypassed these traditional management skills. We might rely heavily on our ability to sell and inspire others. But there’s a threshold we’ll inevitably hit unless we commit to a more systematic approach to sales leadership.
In my opinion, a significant portion of success in sales, as mentioned earlier, revolves around facilitating both behavioral and organizational change, primarily because we always need to address and adjust to the dynamics of the marketplace. And if we’re going to effectively communicate our vision, we should remember that understanding the ‘why’ comprises 90% of achieving any goal.
90% of getting your salespeople to shift their behaviors, habits, or to implement new disciplines or processes is often about effectively communicating the “why.” When we communicate our vision, I think the first step is asking, “Is it SMART?” Of course, SMART means Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. However, what’s missing in the SMART acronym? It also has to be contextual. How do I relate what’s beneficial for the salesperson with the impact it has on the organization and the significance of the team overall?
To succeed merely because “upper management wants it” isn’t enough. We truly need to understand, inspire, communicate, and contextualize significant shifts in the organization. Are you, as a leader, inspired by it? If you’re going to communicate your organizational sales vision or a major goal or initiative, you are the first person that needs to buy into it. Have you linked it to their individual needs? And is it easy to understand? A famous quote suggests that if it’s too complicated to explain, it’s too challenging to implement. If you can’t explain it succinctly, you probably don’t understand the topic well enough.
So, when I’m communicating a sales vision or goal, I aim to contextualize it in such a way that I can rally my team around it. If my communication feels top-down and isn’t tied to their values or the overarching “why” for them or their team, I’ve missed the mark. I won’t get buy-in from the team.
Now, let’s talk about coaching. This is one of the fundamental tools I’ll use to communicate vision and induce behavioral change. It’s intriguing how many sales leaders claim they are “too busy” for coaching. In my opinion, they’re not too busy; they’ve simply deprioritized it. They would never skip a meeting with their company’s CEO, yet many often neglect or postpone scheduled one-on-ones with their sales team.
A healthy sales organization’s key performance indicator suggests that the sales leader doesn’t just check numbers and projections but also conducts meaningful one-on-one developmental meetings. I challenge many sales leaders to move beyond coaching to a spreadsheet or dashboard. That’s not coaching; that’s ensuring compliance. Instead, focus on generative coaching which involves skill development and specific deal insights.
Coaching should align with the process. Successful sales coaching emphasizes the qualitative aspects of your key performance indicators. For instance, the quantitative aspect of a discovery call might involve asking seven key questions. The qualitative aspect, however, focuses on the manner of questioning, depth of understanding, and efficient note-taking. By integrating these qualitative aspects, we can offer a structured learning regimen to the whole team.
Sales scorecards and a corresponding sales playbook can help. By documenting best practices and scoring each step, we can produce projections based on how well the sales team executes these steps. Being formal is vital. Drawing a parallel with martial arts, I’ve realized that just as training requires regimented processes and timed check-ins, so does sales coaching.
My martial arts mentor, Fred Shadian, taught me this importance. Fred Shadian actually lives on Saturna Island. No matter how you look at it, it takes about 5 hours to reach him from my home, involving a couple of ferries, some driving, and other logistics. Because of this, we started doing Zoom check-ins. These are at a specific time each week. I have a series of specific activities I undertake, which he evaluates, measures, and coaches me on.
The combination of accountability and structured practice with specific exercises in a short period has refreshed and sharpened my skills. I had been pondering the idea for a while and practiced sporadically on my own for several months. But the moment I incorporated structure and accountability, I noticed improvements in my skills, awareness, and other aspects. My confidence also increased due to a consistent feedback loop. Good sales coaching operates similarly. As sales leaders, we need to prioritize formality.
One thing worth mentioning is the SalesAcademy,ca sales coach assessment. If you go to Salesacademy.ca/Salescoachassessment, there’s a downloadable PDF available for free. This document allows you to evaluate your sales coaching skills and the processes of your organization to identify areas needing improvement.
It’s also worth noting that as salespeople, and even entrepreneurs, begin to reap the benefits of coaching, they often attribute all the success to themselves. They may neglect the behavioral shifts brought about by the coaching. Hence, as a leader, it’s crucial to summarize the impacts of the coaching sessions on their sales results. This isn’t about claiming credit but highlighting the value of the coaching relationship.
On the subject of coaching, it’s about inducing behavioral change. Trust is foundational. Questions of credibility, integrity, and a proven track record in sales or sales leadership are paramount. Beyond this, the sales team must feel that their leader supports them. If coaching isn’t systematic, you’ll struggle to maintain momentum. Establishing routines, utilizing assessments, employing forms, maintaining credibility, and setting a consistent cadence are pivotal to the success of your coaching endeavors.
Being an effective coach means:
In essence, while the process and business side of sales is vital, personal aspects like mindset, empathy, and personal challenges equally impact performance. A skilled sales coach comprehends this duality and acts accordingly.
Now, not saying you need to be a therapist, but there are times when issues arise that are beyond our competency set. In such instances, referring someone to professional help might be the best course of action. However, at the bare minimum, we should be good listeners, exhibit empathy, and provide constructive feedback.
Unfortunately, I can’t delve into this deeply today, as this podcast episode is already jam-packed. That said, “Radical Candor” is an insightful book on delivering direct and effective feedback. Both leaders and their teams can benefit from its teachings. If everyone agrees to approach each other with candor and empathy, trust and transparency will thrive. Effective feedback fosters an environment where individuals can be both vulnerable and direct, eliminating the fear of treading on eggshells or suppressing feelings and thoughts.
Starting with a Benchmark: Begin with an assessment, plan, or benchmark. A strategic sales plan for the year or quarter is an ideal starting point. Incorporate a mindset plan, assessing aspects like confidence, personal development, communication skills, empathy, and emotional intelligence. Determine developmental goals for the next 6 to 12 months.
Understanding Connection: Every individual is unique. Recognizing their learning style, personality profile, motivators, and energy drainers is essential. This insight will allow the coaching process to adapt to each individual’s specific needs.
Setting Clear Criteria: Coaching must be goal-oriented, aiming to make impactful shifts both personally and professionally. Short-term objectives should hone in on specific competencies, attitudes, or behaviors.
Having a Structured Timeline: Regularly scheduled monthly coaching sessions, punctuated by laser-focused coaching sessions, can make a difference. These sessions delve deep into major challenges and also provide quick tactical solutions.
Using a Formal Process: Implement templates for feedback and tracking progress.
Contrary to what many believe, coaching isn’t just doling out advice based on personal experiences. Rather, it’s about molding someone’s thought process, shifting their perspective. The art of questioning plays a pivotal role here. While it’s impossible to run through all the valuable questions in one session, introducing a few of these during coaching can induce profound shifts in a salesperson’s mindset.
These questions are a mix of tactical and strategic inquiries aimed at understanding, guiding, and assisting salespeople in their roles.These, among many others, can become instrumental in steering conversations towards growth and development.
An essential point of discussion is the idea of being coachable. Dr. Denis Cauvier, author of “Coachable,” stresses the importance of leaders being open to coaching themselves. If a leader isn’t growing or evolving, it seeps into the team’s morale and productivity. Leaders should continually seek out new learning opportunities, mentors, and coaches, ensuring they remain relevant and valuable to their teams.
This has been Shane Gibson’s podcast from closingbigger.net. [end sales podcast transcript]
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Today’s sales podcast is focused on helping B2B Sales organizations prepare to succeed in 2023 and beyond. As a keynote speaker at sales kick-off events I get to look into the mindset and outlook of many sales organizations as they plan for 2023. The focus for many this year comes down to building resilient sales teams and strong daily disciplines.
Sales success in 2023 is not going to look like 2021 or 2019. It’s going to be harder, and even if it isn’t your competitors think it is. We need to take massive action, event if it’s just to build a new discipline. Tough and competitive times are when great salespeople and great sales cultures are built.
Following is my outline covering the key points in this B2B Sales Podcast:
This includes knowing why people leave suppliers and scan the market for:
Tell stories using video, most industries don’t have a well known salesperson that is building a brand using short-form video such as TikTok’s, Reels, and Shorts. These videos also get a lot of engagement on LinkedIn. Short-form video can include:
Advice
Events
Personal stories
Educate yourself on your clients
Know the regions and markets
Know your own solutions, applications, history, limitations, and the future direction. What vision would your CEO or CMO paint for the company. Get good at telling that story.
These 9 things you can focus on to make sure your B2B Sales efforts are successful in 2023. If you’re looking for a sales keynote speaker or sales training for your team in 2023 you can reach Shane Gibson at shane@salesacademy.ca.
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This podcast was inspired by a sales troll on TikTok. I posted a TikTok video on “Why sales is not like dating.” The response was 99.5% positive but there’s always one guy out there. His response was “Sales is like dating …. value-based selling is weak.” This got me to think of this analogy and why it’s so popular and also how sales and expectations of salespeople have changed significantly.
In this sales podcast I dig into how much sales has moved from a “skill set” to a true profession, one where today you can even become a certified sales professional.
True sales professionals are no longer about tactics and explaining the value of their product. The sales professional today knows they need to partner with their clients to create value. It’s a collaborative process and in many cases the customer knows just as much about the topic as we do.
Here’s the original TikTok Sales Video:
@shanegibsonlive Sales is not like dating. It’s an innacurate analogy. #sales #dating #b2bsales #salestips ♬ original sound – Shane Gibson
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This podcast episode is focused on sales leadership. As a sales leader, whether we are a CSO, VP of Sales or frontline Sales Manager – we want A-level results from our sales teams.
You can’t get A-level results with C & D players on your team. You need a team full of A-level players or players that are willing to pay the price to become an A.
It’s my belief that we can talk about A-level goals and exceeded targets but if we tolerate C and D level mindsets and behaviours it will erode the momentum and sales productivity of the entire team.
In this sales leadership podcast I dive into how to segment your sales team and where to invest your time. I also dig into when you want to move people up, across or out QUICKLY.
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This sales podcast episode is focused on shifting our mindset to one that drives sales success. Sales process only works as well as the mindset of the person using it.
Unproductive mindsets are often what is holding back exceptional people from reaching their true potential. Developing an empowered mindset can you produce greater results, consistently.
Here’s a list of common negative sales mindsets and a set of empowered mindsets that can help you take your sales career to the next level:
| Negative Sales Mindset | Empowered Sales Mindset | ||
| 1 | Reactive mindset | 1 | Pragmatic mindset |
| 2 | Passive mindset | 2 | Proactive mindset |
| 3 | Over optimistic mindset | 3 | Grounded mindset |
| 4 | Bargaining mindset | 4 | Committed mindset |
| 5 | Defensive mindset | 5 | Curious mindset |
| 6 | Win / lose mindset | 6 | Contribution mindset |
| 7 | Enabled mindset | 7 | Self-equipping mindset |
| 8 | Group thinker mindset | 8 | Self-driven mindset |
| 9 | I know this mindset | 9 | Learners mindset |
| 10 | Obstacle finder mindset | 10 | Outcome focused mindset |
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This sales podcast episode is focused on how B2B sellers can plug the most common holes in their sales pipeline. When I am working with sales teams part of my sales training and sales enablement process involves getting out in the field and helping individual salespeople build their sales strategy. I often hear people make statements such as:
I don’t understand why deals aren’t closing, I haven’t changed my approach!?
People just aren’t getting back to me, they were excited but now they have disappeared.
Many of my projected deals aren’t going to close this quarter like I thought they would.
I have a lot of new deals stuck at the proposal evaluation stage.
The client is going to buy but the order is going to be much smaller.
Do any of these sales pipeline pains sound familiar?
In this B2B sales podcast I cover 7 common reasons why opportunities get stuck or die prematurely and key strategies we can deploy to breath life into your sales pipeline.
In the podcast we discuss these challenges and how sales professionals can overcome them preemptively.
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Today’s sales podcast is on how discipline is the secret ingredient to massive sales success. Why I call it a secret is it’s not obvious to a lot of people that what they’re missing isn’t sales process, methodology, tactics or luck… it’s the lack daily disciplines that is holding them back from massive sales success.
Jay Conrad Levinson author of the Guerrilla Marketing series of books said this about consistency:
“Mediocre done consistently beats brilliant done once every time.”
When I am delivering my sales training or sales keynotes I find many people are excited to learn what’s new in the world of sales success, only to be surprised to learn that they already “know” the best practices. What most need to do to improve their success is simply be more consistent with their best practices in sales.
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Selling to senior decision makers or the “C-Suite” requires that we truly understand how our solution can impact their business. Not only that but we need to understand how we do it in a unique way that adds value over and above what competitive solutions do. Everything from our first conversation, to discovery calls, presentations, proposals and delivery needs to highlight how you’re driving positive outcomes in a unique and advantageous way.
Senior executives and business decision makers are results-orientated. Both tangible results and intangible results appeal to them. In order to be seen as a resource and potential supplier you must tap into their desire to produce results.
Show them how their overall volume can be increased; in other words, an increase in sales.
If they see that their employees, or their equipment, or other capital will be more efficient, then the chance of their buy-in is higher.
Top level decision makers are the ones who have to answer to the Board of Directors and to the Shareholders in a large corporation. Keeping the Board or shareholders happy is their main priority.
Lowering costs equal better margins and bigger profits. There’s many ways our solutions can do this directly and indirectly.
They are interested in advertising, marketing and business development strategies, tactics and methods to increase market share.
Can you show them how they will get a bigger return on their investment for the money they invest with your services, products, ideas and concepts?
If you come with solutions for market changes that affect them, then they will take the time to explore the possibilities with you.
The types of intangible results that appeal to top level decision makers are:
Anything that you can do to lower or eliminate the risk makes them feel better.
Senior executives and top level decision makers are at the top because they have personal pride and are proud of the business results that they achieve.
Yes the car they drive reflects their success level. The suits, the shoes they wear, the house they live in, the office address, and the image their marketing material portrays are all examples of personal and/or corporate image.
One could argue that these are tangible, there is a lot of data that shows that organizations that embrace these types of initiatives have lower staff attrition, more corporate goodwill, and have access to opportunities that organizations that score lowly in these areas can’t access. Are there ESG an EDI advantages and benefits to using your solution or partnering with your company?
The top level decision maker knows that you win when you have exceptional people working with you.
This is by no means an exhaustive list but I hope it gets you started. The key is for you to understand at a forensic level the top challenges and goals of your key prospects and accounts and how you can effectively and uniquely solve them – then put that into terms that resonate with their specific values, perspective and context.
*IMPORTANT NOTE: Don’t present outcomes and solutions generically, use your one-on-one conversations and research to customize your value proposition.
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Amanda is a wife. A mother. A blogger. A Christian.
A charming, beautiful, bubbly, young woman who lives life to the fullest.
But Amanda is dying, with a secret she doesn’t want anyone to know.
She starts a blog detailing her cancer journey, and becomes an inspiration, touching and
captivating her local community as well as followers all over the world.
Until one day investigative producer Nancy gets an anonymous tip telling her to look at Amanda’s
blog, setting Nancy on an unimaginable road to uncover Amanda’s secret.
Award winning journalist Charlie Webster explores this unbelievable and bizarre, but
all-too-real tale, of a woman from San Jose, California whose secret ripped a family apart and
left a community in shock.
Scamanda is the true story of a woman whose own words held the key to her secret.
New episodes every Monday.
Follow Scamanda on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
Amanda’s blog posts are read by actor Kendall Horn.
