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

A salesperson usually has a list of questions they want to ask a prospect. After all, understanding the prospect and their business is necessary to know if and how you can help them and their business. But often, these questions come across as overly prying. How do you fix this? By using Donald’s four tips to avoid sounding like you’re prying in their business. Build rapport before you ask questions. The private information you need will come only if the prospect feels comfortable. You don’t have the authority to ask those questions when you first start interacting with a prospect. The key? Don’t ask about the weather - surface-level questions don’t build the relationship you need.  Ask more profound questions and provide thoughtful engagement to show the client you care about their result. Let them know you’ll be asking tough questions.  Think back to episode 1275 and episode 452 about rapport building and rule-setting, respectively - these elements are critical to establishing before asking questions. Gi

Today on The Sales Evangelist, we’re joined by David Garcia. The current CEO of the pre-employment background check company ScoutLogic Screening, David’s 25 years of experience in B2B sales and marketing has made him well-accustomed to asking the right questions. With a specialty in big enterprise deals, David developed a strategic sales method to optimize his success chances. He’ll share some of that methodology by telling us four things to consider when drafting sales questions based on a customer’s personality. Rethink your role in the sales process.  Sales is shifting away from a sales-driven approach. Consider yourself more akin to an intelligence agent. (Think Carrie Mathison from Homeland.) Why is this important?  Because sales today is 80% research and 20% asking questions. Salespeople are versed in researching a company: check reports, Twitter feeds, social media; you can learn a lot that way. But when David says research, he means to learn about the buyer - the person on the other end of the call o

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we’re joined by David Goings, self-professed sales nerd and current SMB team lead at LogicGate.  David believes in making an impact in the prospect’s sales journey. Sales, at its core, should bring a positive impact to your customer’s lives. You might do that through your products and services. But also, sometimes it's just in the experience that you have with the customer. From an inbound perspective, you need to consider where the customer may be in the buying process. With an inbound conversation, the prospect may have already identified that problem internally.  In an outbound conversation, you may have just pique someone's interest. But the prospect is still identifying the problem.  David’s Three Tips to Avoid Conversations Feeling Like an Interrogation Change your mindset. You need to come in and understand that your job is to help the other person, not to make a sale. You morally can't pitch products and solutions until you know the prospect’s current sit

Sometimes we have in our minds that we ask stupid questions. This mentality creates roadblocks, and these roadblocks stop us from getting the information we need to help our clients in a way they need to be helped. In today's episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald shares with you what you can do to overcome this thought and how you can prepare to ask the right questions. The American Dream is Dead Donald asked everyday people a question: do they believe the American Dream is dead? Those initial nerves that come with asking strangers big questions turned to excitement when those strangers animatedly responded, “no, the dream isn’t dead!” (just more difficult to achieve.) What did Donald learn from the experience? Questions we might be nervous to ask often come lead to the most success.  Some of the reasons you don’t ask meaningful questions:  You are self-conscious. You focus back on yourself because you think it might sound bad. You think the question might be too rude, against social norms, or that you d

In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald Kelly gives us the scoop on one major closing question you’re neglecting to ask. But first, let’s picture this scenario. Dave is a salesperson who has been working with his lead, Bob, for three months.  His sale is in the bag; he gave a fantastic presentation, his sales engineer answered every question the prospect had, and Dave sent them a proposal. Despite going through every step in the process, Dave didn’t get the result he wanted; he got hit with the “we’re going to need some more time to think about it” conversation. Where did he go wrong? It’s simple - there’s one question he forgot to ask. The ultimate question: Would I make this purchase based on the same information I know if I were the buyer? Sales is shortsighted - we’re focused on our pipeline. Dave was focused on meeting his quota, impressing his manager, and making sales rather than his prospect’s needs.  How can you ask this question to improve your sales strategy? Habit #5 of “The 7 Habi

On today’s episode, we welcomed Michael Reddington, a certified forensic interviewer and President of InQuasive, Inc. His company integrates components of effective interview techniques with current business research to show others how to use the truth to their advantage. The topic for today? Why listening is critical to sales. Why is listening important? Humans aren’t meant to be good listeners. It’s difficult for us to sideline our egos and focus on the goal instead of the people while in conversation. Because it can be a rarity, actively listening while in the sales environment (or any environment) can be the differentiator between you and your competitors. Key steps to listening: Limit variables during an interaction. There can be distractions in your mind and environment that prevent you from listening. Have a good plan going into the conversation. This can limit distractions and result in more efficient and positive discussions. Michael’s three points to enhance listening: Have a plan - Focus on wh

In this episode, Donald Kelly shares ten questions to ask the prospects when you are meeting them for the first time.  What problems are you trying to solve today? Your goal is to get deeper and to figure out the problem the prospect is trying to solve.  Why is that a particular problem right now? This allows the prospects to vocalize what they think the problem is.  What’s the source of that problem? This will help the prospects think of the source of their problem if there is any.  What would happen if you don’t do anything today? Ask them this question to put the decision back. Don’t use this question right off the bat. Only use it when you’ve already established some rapport. Why is it a priority today? It allows you to figure out why there’s an urge to solve the problem.  Why hasn’t it been addressed before? This question allows you to probe deeper into the problem of the prospects.  What would a successful outcome look like in, say, for example, six months from now if we work together? It p

In this episode, Jose Quiroz joins Donald Kelly to talk about the easy ways to make new LinkedIn connections without sounding spammy.  Jose Quiroz is an immigrant, an entrepreneur, and a business guy. His mentality is always veered into finding opportunities and creating opportunities. For Jose, it’s more about creation than consumption.  He has a lot of experience with the family business and regional operations as his dad started a janitorial company.  After college, he got into the corporate world and fell under the Director of Digital Marketing sphere.  Jose’s unique selling proposition is adapting the digital strategy and the digital language to the overall brand strategy. He helps business owners understand how they can leverage digital strategies to scale up their operations.  Building connections Businesses can find a third party who can do their massive lead generation for them. At that point, connecting isn’t about building relationships. Connecting then becomes a numbers game.  This means that y

Join us in today’s episode as Doug C. Brown and Donald Kelly talk about the best practices for finding hot B2B prospects on LinkedIn. What are salespeople doing wrong on LinkedIn? Doug Brown often sees a lot of people on LinkedIn who are making prospecting a complex process.  The other mistake is that they’re not clear on their target audience.  Sometimes, it’s not the sales reps fault because they’re trained to prospect in a certain way. On LinkedIn, however, one has to think differently. Instead of targeting many people at once, it’s better to start narrowing at the top of the funnel and getting more focused going down.  Narrowing down prospects means that you’re able to pick 25-30 ideal target customers from your list of 100 people to prospect.  Think of the ultra-high quality prospects that you would love to do business with because the challenge on LinkedIn and other prospecting methods is the follow-up.  The power of follow-up is huge and impactful and this process has to start from the first conversat

Join Donald Kelly and Jon James in this episode as they talk about how to use the ‘Ask me Anything’ strategy to land more LinkedIn appointments.  Jon James is the CEO of Ignited Results, a digital agency specializing in leveraging LinkedIn to get more sales opportunities. They work with their clients and help them with their LinkedIn marketing to get more meetings with prospects.  The challenges on LinkedIn Part of the challenge is the failure of not identifying who they’re connecting to, which is the driver in terms of who you end up on a call with or having the opportunity to ask someone for a call.  Salespeople need to start with good targeting.  Jon James recommends having a Sales Navigator to target the types of people who can be your ideal prospects. With Sales Navigator, you can target teams or companies with a certain employee count of revenue mark.  The LinkedIn outreach process Before you begin the outreach, you first need to look at your profile and make sure that it’s good to go. Check out t

LinkedIn is a platform that opens many opportunities. In this episode, Daniel Disney joins Donald Kelly as they talk about how you can use social selling to turn LinkedIn into a lead, sales, and revenue-generating machine.  Daniel Disney released his second book called, The Ultimate LinkedIn Sales Guide: How to Use Digital and Social Selling to Turn LinkedIn into a Lead, Sales, and Revenue Generating Machine.  The book is a comprehensive guide on LinkedIn for salespeople, sales teams, and businesses that want to get the most out of LinkedIn.  Generating leads on LinkedIn Everyone can play the social selling game on LinkedIn. You can create viral content, grow your audience, grow your brand, and you can end up with a ton of leads.  The downside is that not all of these leads are good leads, they’re not your target customers, and they’re not likely going to convert.  Common mistakes salespeople make on LinkedIn #1: Keeping a weak profile. At least 80% of teams that Daniel has trained with have profiles th

LinkedIn is a powerful platform and you can use its features to your advantage. In this episode, Ollie Whitfield talks about how to use LinkedIn voice messages and videos to schedule more appointments.  Using LinkedIn voice message for effective appointments The LinkedIn voice message is something new and not many people have seen it before. That’s why many are prompted to open it and listen to it.  LinkedIn voice messages show that you’re giving effort; it’s a slightly elevated way of showing your desire to build a connection with others.  Showing your face or letting other people hear your voice improves your outreach. A mere text cannot convey your body language or your tone.  A video message allows the prospects to see your mannerisms and that helps in building trust between people and implores them to do business with you.  Improving your video messages or voice messages on LinkedIn Think of it as a very targeted approach. You can’t send video messages or voice messages to everyone. Pick the right peo

LinkedIn is a huge platform that’s great for prospecting. The question is, once you’ve connected with a prospect, what should you do next? Join Donald Kelly and Ahmad Munawar as they talk about what you should do next once you’ve connected with the prospects.  What to do next after connecting? Keep pitching until they say yes.  Even if the prospects don’t say yes, send them a contract or a payment link.  The challenge in LinkedIn or in any other platform is to game the system. This means wanting to get everything from the platform by doing the least amount of work possible. This method, however, rarely results in any positive outcome.  This is true for email outreach, for LinkedIn, and for advertising.  Many salespeople and entrepreneurs see LinkedIn as an automated lead generation tool but this isn’t how LinkedIn works.  What works in any business and in sales is relationship building. It’s not even about getting the prospects to like you, rather, it’s about getting the prospects to trust you.  Building Re

How does being human on LinkedIn help you improve your sales game and increase revenue? In today’s episode, Ellis Stone joins Donald Kelly for a great conversation about being human on LinkedIn and what it means.  LinkedIn is such a powerful platform for professionals, but everyone in the space is using it effectively.  One of the issues that many are facing is that they’re not human enough on LinkedIn.  Making human connections on LinkedIn People on LinkedIn aren’t being authentic and instead of being themselves, they try to emulate others.  Sales reps are too used to utilizing scripts and sending them out to hundreds of prospects. We don’t have much success with scripts because buyers know that it’s not coming from you. The truth is, people buy from people.  It’s difficult for companies to scale and track custom messages for every prospect. That is why companies opt for scripts or automated messages.  There is nothing wrong with using scripts, especially if you’re new to the sales game, but if you’re alr

LinkedIn is a platform that allows professionals to network and connect with others in their industry. In this episode, Donal Kelly talks about the three LinkedIn strategies that provide results.  The issue here is that there are too many people on LinkedIn, and when we find people, we start pitching right away without adding value to them.  Ensure that you are engaging and not just going to the platform pitching and pitching.  Three LinkedIn strategies you need   Make sure that you are sharing content. , Create videos that you can share., Utilize the LinkedIn polls.,   Share your ideas/contents You know a lot of information about your industry that you need to share with other people.  The goal is to become a thought leader and an expert in your own space.  Tribal Impact saw that 55% of decision-makers use LinkedIn content to evaluate potential partners.  Important people are looking at your content and the value that you add to every post you share. So make sure that you’re sharing content relevant

Sales objections happen all the time but with the health crisis today, it’s a standing question of how the pandemic may impact your customer’s sales objections or how it has already impacted them. Join Donald Kelly and Chris Mele as they talk about the pandemic, customers, and sales objections.  Being in a software company means that the people you’re working with are former executives from other software companies as well.  It’s a very complex environment and so people are critical of the academic principles and the things they adopt because there are real things that work for a software company and there are those that don’t.  For Chris Mele’s experience, how they price, package, and license their technology has a direct connection to the sales force.  The impact of the pandemic on sales objections One of the biggest changes is the aversion to risks and this comes in many different forms. Buyers today are more risk-averse, especially when it comes to new relationships.  Salespeople and companies start se

As part of the sales process, you can expect objections from everyone you’re speaking with, including your prospects. Join us in this episode as Donald Kelly and Matthew Pollard answer the question, how can you prepare for your prospect’s most likely objections? Matthew Pollard’s first book was entitled, The Introvert’s Edge: How the Quiet and Shy Can Outsell Anyone. It focused on selling as an introvert.  His most recent book is entitled, The Introvert’s Edge to Networking: Work the Room. Leverage Social Media. Develop Powerful Connections is a sequel to the previous book, and it’s focused on how introverts can out-network their extrovert counterparts. Many believe that extroverts have an advantage over introverts, but Matthew believes that this thought is just in peoples’ heads. The truth is, there’s no disadvantage. It’s just that the path to success for introverts and extroverts is different.  What is networking?  Networking is about fostering long-term relationships with champions and momentum partn

Women are doing great things in the sales industry. In this episode, Donald Kelly is joined by an amazing woman, Nadia Rashid. Listen as Nadia shares how to overcome the most common objections in B2B sales.  Nadia Rashid is the SVP of Sales for Seismic on the East Coast. She manages all the teams from the commercial mid-market all the way through enterprise and global.  Defining Objections For Nadia, objections are obstacles. These are the concerns that prospective buyers convey. Objections are buyers’ concerns that salespeople need to overcome.  The objection is almost needed in sales because it allows the buyers to do a clear assessment of what’s in the market.  It’s also a good indicator between a good salesperson and a great salesperson. How you react to objection when it’s thrown at you shows how much experience you have.  Overcoming objections Nadia teaches sales reps to ask difficult questions in every call - are there any concerns? Is there any reason we shouldn’t move forward to the next step? The

How do you get past objections? To make it more specific, what can you do if you can’t address your prospect’s objections during a call? Natasha Davis joins Donald Kelly in this next episode on objections.  Natasha Davis is a brand strategist, and she recently released her second book entitled, Unleash Your Millionaire Mindset and Build Your Brand. The book talks about the business from top to bottom and all the in-betweens. It’s about the things we’re afraid of and the things we don’t usually talk about.  As a brand strategist, it’s her brand to look at a company from the top to the bottom and all the in-betweens.  Natasha wasn’t always the entrepreneur. She started her working career as a nurse doing emergency and trauma, and she loved her job. She got bit by the entrepreneurship bug, and when she realized she couldn’t shake it off, she dipped her toes in it.  After a while, she realized that she likes being an entrepreneur, so she made the shift and went from being a nurse into what she is now.  Sometime

The idea of objections is always common in sales. You can’t get away from it but how do you handle objections? How can you handle price objections in this new COVID world?  What’s your view on objections? Objections have always been in sales; these objections are not going anywhere.  The real point, however, is the why. Why are you getting these objections? What are you trying to achieve?  Sales reps need to figure out the why of the objections to be able to move around them.  The sales process isn't only about getting your goal which is closing the deal. It’s about slowing down and understanding the journey. It’s about determining the reason why the prospect is talking to you and why they took the initial call.  We should remember to ask the why for every part of the sales cycle.  Overcoming objections It comes down to having confidence in yourself as a seller and this comes from experience in getting knocked down several times and the experience of getting those wins.  Sales reps need to ask the difficul