The Sales Evangelist: Sales Training|Speaking|Business Marketing|Donald Kelly

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, our host, Donald Kelly, talks with Matt Dixon about how top performers overcome customer indecision. At the beginning of the pandemic, sales went entirely virtual overnight. Matt, and his team, studied 2.5 million recorded sales calls to answer the questions: what possesses a customer to go through an entire sales process and then not follow through, and what do the best salespeople do to avoid that happening to them? The answer is the JOLT effect. What do most salespeople do when customers get cold feet? Many salespeople are taught that the reason this happens is that you haven’t beaten their status quo.  They dial up the FOMO. Matt found that this increases the odds that the customer will do nothing.  Two reasons that the deal could be lost to no decision The customer still feels the pull of the status quo and they believe what they are currently doing is good enough. They don’t see that switching to your product is a better alternative.  They are indecisive ab

Right now, more so than ever, it is critical for salespeople to learn how to navigate in a tight economy. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, our host, Donald Kelly, talks with the co-founder of DocSend, Russ Heddleston, about how to listen more, use the prospect's language, and how do ONE thing well for them.  Why won’t order-takers survive in a tight economy? Over the last few years, more and more order-taking roles are being pushed to automation. The role of the salesperson is changing because of the amount of competition and vendors. What can we do? Be curious and listen more Your first job is to listen and understand why you are having a conversation and how you can help your customer.  Look up who you are talking to ahead of time. Russ says that very few of the salespeople he talks to have done their research ahead of time.  The process will move faster if you are more patient on your first calls.  Bridge the gap between value and the company's goals Companies have been through the ringer i

If you are a BDR, SDR, or AE you are going to benefit from today’s podcast. In today’s show, Donald talks with Jenner Smith about three ways to train and ramp your team in half the time.  What problems arise when training a sales team? Productivity. Jennifer says that it is all about spending as much time as possible doing the thing that drives the most impact.  Scale yourself Scaling yourself is all about figuring out the core things you are good at and spending as much time on them. Take the other tasks that are filling your time and reduce them, automate them, or delegate them.  Jennifer challenges you to track how many interruptions you have and the time you spend doing various tasks on an average day. They add up.  Get people the things they need Get information to the right people at the right time so that they can be effective with their time. Scale your best rep Have your best reps, the folks who have been there a while and know what they are doing, record how they do what they do.  Share t

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald talks with Greg Nutter about three critical pillars of effective selling. Greg has been a consultant for 17 years and is the author of his book P3 Selling.  Three areas that B2B salespeople need to understand Problem Understand the problem, influence the perception of those problems, and message back to those problems about how well their solution addresses it.  Greg sees salespeople constantly talking about the product. Without the context of the problem, a customer wanting to solve any discussion around product features makes no sense.  Businesses don’t buy products, they buy solutions to problems.  How can you identify the problem? Ask questions to your customers. People Understand who is impacted by those problems, their perspective, and their decision influence.  Over the last 10 years, we have gone from 3 or 4 people involved in a B2B purchase, to 10 to 15. Try to understand everyone's perspective so that you can message them.  “The race doesn’t alw

The sales process seems to be getting more difficult and if you don’t know what you are doing it can be scary. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald talks with salespeople Ari and Kristen about how to overcome the fear of cold calling.  What makes cold calling scary? No being prepared to have conversations with high-level executives and to overcome their objections. If you learn what the prospect is selling and who they are selling to you will have a better chance. The fear of sounding stupid. If you haven’t done your research you will sound like you don’t know what you are talking about. The conversation will be more organic and authentic if you have done research beforehand.  The fear of hearing no. Once you accept that a majority of the people you call are going to say no, it is easier to handle it. Reframe your thinking and realize that the prospects who say no aren’t the ones you are looking for.  How do you effectively do research and still maintain volume? As you get better at research,

What are things you can do to improve the handoff to your AE? On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald talks with high school teacher turned salesperson Taylor Clawson about how to improve the handoff from SDR to AE.  What problem does ineffective communication bring?  Deals collapse because they make the environment seem unprofessional and give the impression that you are not knowledgeable.  Why do SDRs have bad handoffs? Depending on where you work, SDRs can get paid on how many appointments they set up.  If processes aren’t in place for SDRs to hand off qualified prospects, deals fall apart.  Taylor believes it stems from the organization and what process they have in place for SDRs.  What qualifying questions does Taylor have in place?  Truly understanding their needs. That is an ambiguous but important question.  What is their timeline?  Taylor says that the more information the better. What is their personality like, what are they expecting, who is going to be on the call, and what is the

As a BDR, nothing is more frustrating than doing all the work to book a demo and the prospect doesn’t show up. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist Donald talks with Nicolas Sosa, an automation specialist at IBM, about how to make sure you book demos that actually show up.  Why don’t people show up?  There are things that you can control, and things that you simply cannot control. You cannot control if someone shows up or not.  Focus on the right authority If you are not speaking to the decision maker, or the champion (a person heavily involved in the decision-making process), it is really hard to progress that call.  As a BDR, you need to make sure you are talking to the right people.  Gatekeepers do a very good job at gatekeeping, try building a relationship with them. Be transparent with the gatekeepers.  Make sure you understand the reason they are showing up Walk away with very specific challenges and pain points - wanting to make more money isn’t a good enough reason.  Knowing why the prospec

No matter what you’re doing right now, cold outreach should be a part of everyone's game. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald talks with Tanner Stewart, an account executive at Home Care Plus, about three tips he has for every BDR doing cold calls.   Biggest challenges sellers face when it comes to cold outreach? Know which people to call in the first place. If you’re calling hundreds of the wrong people every day, you can be a great seller and have little success.  Focus on the right people and the right message. 3 things every BDR must master when doing cold calls   Be a human, treat your prospects like humans   When you ask someone how they are, you have to actually mean it.  Be genuinely interested in them. If a prospect asks you how you are, be genuine and vulnerable. This helps them bring their guard down.  Instead of starting a call by saying “here's what we are doing and here’s how we can help you with” start with, “I've been talking to some folks, and here are trends I am seeing in

Sales and marketing have the same goal: to close more deals to make their organization more revenue. The relationship between sales and marketing professionals can be a powerful tool if connected properly. However, meaningful and practical connections are often lost between the two. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by the CMO at Allego, Wayne St. Amand, to learn deal-closing content strategies to help marketing and sales professionals become more aligned in their goals.  Three things to do less of as sellers and marketers: Don’t allow the relationship between sales and marketing to be treated like a drive-thru window. Salespeople ask for marketing collateral, create it, and the seller moves on.  Stop guessing what sales needs; the departments should co-create materials together. Don’t focus exclusively on top-of-funnel activities because interacting with all sales funnel stages allows the most opportunities to develop and move forward. Creating can be asynchronous; marketing can r

As technology, tools, and culture evolve, sales strategies evolve alongside them. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by the Director of Integrated Marketing at LinkedIn Sales Solutions, Garnor Morantes, to learn about “deep selling” - a powerful new way to connect and build sales-enabling relationships. Being loud and clear about the messaging is the best way to make new sales.  Since the pandemic, email outreach has gone up by 50%. However, responses have declined by 30%.  Buyers are getting more bombarded with messaging from sellers, so what are his insights? It’s a growing problem. Nearly 60% of the buyer journey is sent without the salesperson, meaning the buyer is researching and looking into solutions before contacting a seller.  B2B selling is in a crisis.  Buyers don’t want it because of the increased amount of sales without a seller. They can do information, talk to colleagues, or read online reviews, testimonials, and demos to see if it's right for them. Insights from th

To some people, building outreach sequences for prospects is easy. However, for most people, that isn’t the case. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by the co-creator of the Money Sequence, Miranda Morrison, to explain how she built a sequence that doubled engagement upon implementation. Sequencing, especially in tech sales, is critical. Before the money sequence, Miranda’s company had email segmentation for many audiences depending on their interests, position, and what information would be most pertinent to them. What made it successful was the combination of ‘spray and pray’ with highly personalized and individualized approaches.  Personalizing later in the sequence (by reference to an article or important piece) shows a degree of research that is most effective without spending too much time. Personalization at scale is the best approach. However, there are times a more personalized email is more appropriate, which is often later in the sales cycle. What metrics were they focus

For many people, entering the sales profession can seem overwhelming. What are the right strategies, tactics, and mindset to do the best job possible? In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by the Account Executive at Challenger, Brendan Kelly, to learn his takeaways and thoughts after working in sales for six months.  Before starting his job, Brendan assumed he would just make phone calls every day. However, he soon realized high activity isn’t the long-term solution; it’s a burn-out-inducing, needle-in-a-haystack mentality. Instead, who, when, and why he reaches out to prospects is far more important. Intention and consistency are what yield success for new sellers. He learned to keep it simple. The person on the other end appreciates the authenticity. Whether he gets the meeting or not, the person should have a positive experience from the discussion. The intention is to get the win, and a win doesn’t always equal a meeting.  Business acumen Brendan didn’t know: A lot of acronyms a

The best-sellers aren’t always the most charismatic, understanding, or intelligent. Sometimes, all it takes is an organized, structured, and productive day. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by tech sales Account Executive William Padilla to learn how he structures his day to make sales, make connections, and impact his work.  Many old-school sales organizations are built on price.  However, with tech sales, a single deal can require an 8-month process of creating the relationship first. BDRs might only have 6-8 qualified demos each month, but creating that number of opportunities requires much more leg work behind the scenes. Planning and prepping your day: Don’t go into your day winging what you plan to do. For example, Will realized he was too distracted and hit his metrics only by scrambling on a Friday afternoon. He decided to structure his day, achieving all his late-stage interactions in the morning to reserve his afternoons entirely for prospecting. He’s not more talented

For many sellers, there’s too much to do in too little time. So how can we find the extra time in our day to accomplish everything we want? In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by author, speaker, and the founder of The Free Mama, Lauren Golden, to understand how we can implement time management strategies to get more done in less time. Productivity is only so much of time management; busy work is a significant problem. Being “busy” doesn’t always mean you’re “producing.” There are many ways to feel busy without actually doing anything beneficial. Preparing for your next day at the end of the current day is a great way to ensure you stay on track and focused on what moves your bottom line. Never begin work before understanding what needs to be done. Implementing the Daily Five: It’s not about doing everything on your to-do list; it’s about accomplishing the major, most needle-moving activity you can. For sales professionals, the needle-moving business is closing deals, especially if

Cold emails are a hallmark of modern selling, yet many salespeople don’t include the correct information to yield the right results. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by content expert and sales professional Luke Charlton to learn how sellers can write better cold emails to see more success. How can sellers write better emails? When you start sending people new information, many notice the open rate drop markedly after a few weeks. People lose interest. That led Luke to question what media kept people’s attention - streaming, social media, film, and television. He realized that to get people to read his emails, he needed to make them more entertaining. Luke’s three tips for better email writing: When you tell a story, it doesn’t necessarily have to be personal. Instead, it could be something that sparks emotion in you.  What’s the lesson of the story? Whether it’s about sales, dating, or how to pick something for dinner, there should be a derived lesson from the story. Once the l

Stories are a part of the sales process, but there are better strategies and tools to help sellers refine their storytelling abilities. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by sales speaker and managing partner of Amp, Todd Mitchem, to learn how he utilizes storytelling to make more sales.  What’s wrong with storytellers today? Sellers tell stories thinking they should be solely personal anecdotes before the work conversation begins.  In actuality, the most powerful stories are upfront with a purpose that launches into the pitch, intro, or discussion. Second common mistake? Not setting up the story. Sellers either set up too much or don’t set up enough to give the listener the correct amount of information to engage properly. Three elements of a sales story: Set up the customer's struggle, allowing them to see how the story relates to them.  Dictate the solution and derive benefits or successes from implementing the seller’s product or service. Explain what the story means to the pr

Video content is a powerful tool to help any seller accomplish their selling goals. However, it’s only powerful when executed and distributed properly. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by digital marketing professional and owner of KickStart Dental, Chris Pistorius, to learn how any seller can capitalize on video production to garner prospects’ attention. What are things people get wrong with video production? There isn’t a process in place. He uses Lucidchart, a mind-mapping software that helps chart the process and gather steps for a seller to visualize. Map it out and have a plan, but continue with the understanding that it will likely change. Have your Dream 100 - the list of one hundred targets you’d like to acquire as clients. Get a CRM system that fits our needs. Chris uses Pipedrive, but Salesforce and other top CRM systems are viable options depending on your volume and process.  Maintain consistent communication: GoHighLevel is a tool built for marketing agencies that

Whether you’re a sales professional or work in another industry, hearing the word ‘no’ can get anyone in a negative mindset. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by Harry Spaight, a sales coach and consultant who wants to help every salesperson overcome their fears to find sales success. Why does discouragement affect us so badly? As sellers, we frequently take rejections personally.  Even if the sale is rejected for a myriad of reasons, the seller will still assume they are the reason the prospect is not interested in the sale. We make offers through options, just like a fine-dining server. Each time a server makes an option, they expect a rejection. If professional offers can get into the same mindset, we can lead with service in mind. If someone doesn’t want your offer, think about what other options might impact their business or be helpful to their work. Sales is a place of service. There are so many choices with what you’re selling. Make it easy for a buyer to work with you

Anyone in sales sends emails. (If you don’t, we’re a bit concerned.) But how can you go about sending emails effectively that generate results? In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald discusses five things you need to be aware of to send an effective email.   You don’t need to tell them your name.   Your email is full of precious information, and emails already have the ‘from’ section, email domain, and signature. AKA, the prospect already knows who you are!  While you might want to explain on a phone call, it is repeated information in an email.   Explain a relationship or medium the prospect can refer back to.   The point of reference connects you to the prospect. For example, did you meet them through LinkedIn, or did a mutual connection refer you? State this existing relationship to build pre-existing rapport with the prospect. If no relationship exists, tie your outreach to the organization’s goals or content the company posted online.   State the use case.   Give the prospect a reason to

When it comes to improving sales, all it might take to reach your goals is a shift in mindset. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by Justin Cunningham to learn how any sales professional can stand out, transform, and optimize their mindset for better performance.  You won’t be able to sell until you believe you can sell. Adjust your beliefs. Try integrating a value-based reframe - People will form their beliefs after an experience. During your next relationship or interaction, you’ll subconsciously look for those same affirming beliefs to support your existing notion.  Decide that you want something better and find evidence to support that new belief. Set yourself apart to win larger-scale accounts: Learn what they’re passionate about and what drives their bottom line to integrate a plan framed directly to them. A gatekeeper will pass individualized materials and information to a decision-maker rather than a mass-sent supply of information. Don’t act like an employee; act like a