Do You Believe?

“The only faith that wears well and holds its color in all weathers is that which is woven of conviction and set with the sharp mordant of experience.” 

- James Russell Lowell

I'm an expert in sales. What makes me an expert is a combination of experience, education, and the practical application of both. Those aspects are then channeled into a potent storm of thought so when I’m sitting across the table from a client, they feel the full weight of my convictions when I open my mouth. It gives clients peace of mind to know that someone with deep knowledge and experience is helping them with a critical aspect of their business. Think about this… how would you feel going to a doctor for a life-saving surgery and during the initial consultation he projected as bumbling, distracted, and hesitant in his abilities to solve your medical issue? Are you really going to let him put you under and pick up a scalpel? 

So many great salespeople approach a client meeting the same way - lacking conviction and faith in themselves, their solution, and their ability to make a difference. Rest assured that we are more than capable of helping our customers with their problem but we need to BELIEVE that within ourselves.

Belief is such a powerful force. It can change minds, change lives, change everything. We need to ask ourselves if we believe in what we do, who we are, our product, our solution, our ability to change a customer’s life for the better? 

Do we have the courage to hear the answer? You’re fucking right we do. And the answer is YES.

Be Ambitious But Don't Be A Jackass

“Ambition breaks the ties of blood, and forgets the obligations of gratitude.”

- Sir Walter Scott

Like all professionals that want to be better, salespeople are constantly looking for opportunities to grow. We read, participate in webinars, attend online training courses, read some more, and generally try to absorb every last piece of information that relates to our profession. And quite frankly, we’ve been programmed that way (or should have been) since day one. A desire for growth and the ambition to achieve are built directly into our sales DNA. 

At the same time, we need to be mindful of how much of ourselves, and our time, we dedicate to our craft. It’s so easy to get consumed with the idea of “being the best”, but there are some subtle signs that can help us recognize when we need to rebalance, reassess, or just take a break. Here are the 3 triggers that stood out the most when I assessed my own habits:

• Easily getting irritated (especially when the stakes are low). Losing your cool over the coffee pot being empty or accidentally dropping your phone… yep, it may be a sign that burnout is around the corner. Stop. Breathe deep. Take a walk. Gain some perspective on your day and your goals and realize that You. Are. Only. Human.

• Sacrificing all your time with family and/or friends. Life-long learning requires dedication and sacrifice if you want to be good at something and there is no shame in making the choice to stay in and study rather than meeting up with someone or attending an event. It’s when you stop interacting and participating entirely that might be cause for concern. Give yourself permission to disconnect - it gives your mind, body, and soul a chance to power down and make you better prepared for the next learning sprint.

• Eating habits are drastically impacted. I’m guilty of eating at my desk or on the run at least 6 out of 7 days a week and I know many others in the same boat. Certainly not the greatest habit however I balance it out with quality family time each evening, and that includes sitting around the dinner table without distractions or stress. It also means eating a properly balanced diet! 

If this is something you have struggled with, I really hope these help. What are your triggers? Please feel free to share in the comments!

Are You a Tool?

“A politician divides mankind into two classes; tools and enemies.”

- Friedrich Nietzsche

Which one are you, tool or enemy? Better yet, when we think about the sales relationship which one is your customer? 

When we’re under stress from customer demands it’s easy to lose perspective and begin to think of them as an enemy. Sometimes we inadvertently add a snarky tone to an email or begin answering the phone with a sharpness that wasn’t there before. Remember - we are the experts. They are coming to us because we’re the ones who can help them reach their goals, and we’re damn good at what we do. Bonus tip: Just like us, they also have someone to answer to so the heat we may feel isn’t necessarily coming from the customer. They might just be the unfortunate messenger. 

Now, I really don’t want anyone going into their next customer meeting calling them a “tool” either. That would be a verrrrry short meeting... In this scenario, WE are the tools. We are using our knowledge, experience, and fortitude to help them achieve something that they may have never done before. Let that simmer for a moment and understand how critical a role we are playing in the success of their organization.  A tool is something used to carry out a particular function - we’re all tools of success if you think about it. 

Oh, and as we all know, reps already spend a great deal of time as the politician too. Comes with the territory ;)

Sell better. SellAssist.

Who Are You Talking To?

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” 

– Martin Luther King, Jr.

Don’t forget that the people you connect with on a daily basis are real. Cold calling, follow-ups, contracts, proposals - these are all interactions based on a relationship with real people. These people are customers to you, but they are friends, fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, cousins, sons, and daughters to the other people in their lives. It just so happens that you have connected with them because you have a solution that resolves a work problem they’re having. It’s easy to forget that we have more dimensions than just the current topic at hand.

Remember to maintain your humanity when dealing with other humans... and that goes for all things in life, not just business. We share this planet and as much as we all have individual histories, experiences, and beliefs, we are all trying to live our best life the only way we know how. The next time someone answers the phone when you cold call, be sure to envision them as the complex and unique people they are. 

Becoming a Disciple of Truth

“Here the ways of men divide. If you wish to strive for peace of soul and happiness, then believe; if you wish to be a disciple of truth, then inquire.”

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

It’s a quote that holds especially true today given the existing political climate of the world. We have the option to choose complacency and surrender our minds in exchange for “safety” and someone’s version of happiness. The alternative is that we ask the questions that are not always comfortable to ask and in turn, find truth. 

This is equally true in the selling process. Generally speaking, we have been wired to show a basic level of respect to those around us when doing business. In so, we also feel compelled to spare the emotions of our customers just as buyers sometimes try to spare the emotions of their salespeople. 

As much as one can appreciate the consideration of feelings, our job as sales professionals is to get to the truth. Without it, we cannot understand what sits at the core of the objections preventing customers from making decisions. Without truth, we simply can’t help our customers. 

The moral today is to ask questions - become a disciple of truth and both you and your customer will discover true peace and happiness. 

How to Build Your Sales Tech Stack

#TechTuesday

Have a look at the chart below: 

It represents the tech landscape of sales tools available - a plethora of software applications designed to make your professional life easier and more efficient. So, if I download all of these to my phone I should easily have a 4-minute work week, right? Hopefully you understand I’m joking as we both know it doesn’t work that way. What we’re really looking at is a massive volume of tools and the unenviable task of having to choose what will best serve us and our clients. 

If you take a closer look at the chart you’ll see that it’s broken down and organized based on 5 main categories: Engagement, Productivity & Enablement, Sales Intelligence, Pipeline & Analytics, and People Management. Each section is further broken down into several sub-categories to help identify tools that can fit a specific need which helps to narrow down the list, but that still leaves several apps in each sub-category to choose from. How do you narrow it down to the best choice from there? 

I can’t tell you what to use as there are almost as many variables involved in choosing as there are applications. What I can do is help you to focus on the types of tools you should prioritize. 

The typical sales stack for a company consists of the following:

• A CRM Platform

• A Social Prospecting Tool

• A Presentation/Video Tool 

• A Pipeline Management Tool

• A Data/List/Marketing Automation Tool

• An Email Management Tool

Not a bad list, but it isn’t exactly narrowing down our decision. Instead of looking at pure functionality, let’s flip this around and look at what we want to accomplish. In fact, Sales Hacker has done an excellent job of identifying the key activities for which you should build around. Here they are:

Intelligence: Sales intelligence refers to technologies, applications, and practices for the collection, integration, analysis, and presentation of information to help salespeople find, monitor and understand data that provides insights into prospects’ and existing clients’ daily business. (Wikipedia)

Enablement: Sales Enablement is centered around getting the right people in the right conversations with the right decision-makers in the right way. You can break the complexity of sales enablement into practical ideas through scalable and repeatable practices that will lead to increased revenue. (Roderick Jefferson)

Engagement: Called “the next communication revolution,” sales engagement combines the best capabilities of human sellers and artificial intelligence, making it easier and faster for businesses to reach customers at the right moment, on the right channel, and to engage them with the right message. As a result, it makes it possible to humanize sales at scale. (Sales Engagement, by Manny Medina, Max Altschuler, and Mark Kosoglow)

Pipeline, Analytics, Measurement: This is all about optimization. And the rule of thumb in optimization is this: If you don’t measure it, it didn’t happen. As prospects move from awareness to consideration to decision, it’s critical that you track the sales metrics that matter most.

Management, Coaching: Sales management is the development of a sales force, coordinating sales operations, and sales techniques that help a business consistently meet and beat its sales targets. Coaching (including pipeline reviews and role play exercises) helps sales reps do their part.

You can now use these 5 operations as a filter against the available technology on the market and look for tools that could provide more than one of these in their offering thus saving you money in the process. 

Push yourself, because no one else is going to do it for you.

4 Quick Tips on Getting Your Flow Back After Vacation

 Today is the first day back in the office for many of my clients, and it can be a little difficult to pick up from where you left off during the holidays. In order to maximize this Monday in particular, here are 4 quick tips on how to ease yourself back into the swing of things. 

1. Preparation. If you haven’t already done it, take some time right now to prepare your day and plan out your activities. We are creatures of habit and the best way to get your business mindset back is to jump right into it. 

2. Don’t cram it all in. You’ll have emails jamming up your inbox, voicemails to return, other calls to make, and any number of other items on your task list. You probably won’t get it all done today and that’s okay. Pace yourself, don’t stress about it, and make sure you have a plan. 

3. Reaffirm your “Why”. This really is an exercise that should be part of your everyday routine, however the first day back is a great time to remind yourself of why you do what you do and what role you play in the bigger picture. 

4. Remove unnecessary distractions. It’s tough enough to get the “flow” back in your day when returning from your time off, so don’t complicate it with items that would not contribute to completing tasks. 

#MaximizeYourMonday