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

Relationships are important Doing business in Europe has some similar characteristics to doing business in the United States. Data privacy is one of the critical aspects of doing business effectively. Need to understand the payment platforms and the rules. Sensitive to the borders and cultures. Getting down to business is totally acceptable – don’t be offended. What to be aware of in selling to Europeans You have to be GDPR compliant to avoid a deal going south. Germany is extremely strict on GDPR. Navigating the potential language barriers of each country takes research. Consider investing in salespeople that can speak the language of the country you are prospecting too. Being aware of slang and how that can impact your ability to communicate. Stay aware of how the currencies rates are changing from day-to-day. Messenger tools are valuable in assisting your sales efforts Apps that have the ability to translate your marketing campaigns are key to your success. WhatsApp, Telegram and Viber are some powerf

Problems facing salespeople today Salespeople are struggling to make sales quota more today than ever.  Technology isn’t necessarily closing more deals.  Training is more focused today on tactics. Sales strategy needs to be the focus. Sales system to fill the gap Being willing to call an audible when in your sales process - being willing to adapt. Great quarterbacks do this. Changing your pitch based on who you are selling to. Pro-baseball pitchers do this. Taking time to be prepared before the call. Consider Pro-golfers. Identify the persona of your prospect. Focus on the value to your prospect What’s important to the prospect you are talking to at the moment? Map your strategy to the strategic growth objectives of your customer.  Align your product to the needs. Focus on the value and how you meet it. Go to the website of your customer to find how to align your offering. “Sales can be fun if you make it about strategy and you know how to deliver value to your buyers” – John Stopper     Check out John

Using a multi-thread approach Using data and being methodical going to market.  1% better each day is working smart.  Doing less than 6 and 7-figure deals tend to be more transactional rather than emotional. Make the buyer the champion internally. Clients crave being smarter.  Strategy to get these big deals Getting the key people involved who can commit budget. This is usually 3-5 individuals—cross-functional Value: Solving a variety of business problems. Creating the momentum or “ground swell” within the organization of your prospect. Work behind the scenes. Create Partnership Plan: Alignment with the prospect (pain points, desired solutions, collateral needs, etc.) Proof it works With this process Scott’s team has gone from 2% conversion ratios in outbound activities to 20%. Approach the sales process like a game.  Don’t overthink each call. Review what you did well and what could be improved each week. What can you do each week to improve by 1%? “Don’t overthink it, have a process and look at it obj

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald speaks with professional speaker, author, and sales trainer, Paul Reilly. They discuss Paul's book “Selling Through Tough Times”, how to thrive through a downturn, and 6 steps to staying mentally strong.  A “Tough Timer” mindset A tough-timer mindset is about finding the opportunity in a struggle, being steadfast, and staying humble.  During tough times, progress is more important than performance. When you are facing tough times you need to continue to progress toward your goal, this will help you to stay motivated.  Daily mental flex Paul has developed six steps to help you stay mentally strong.  Gratitude Continuous improvement Self-discipline Positive reframing Pruning negativity and planting positivity Make success easier tomorrow by taking action today Anyone can utilize these six steps no matter how much experience you have as a seller.  What do buyers think during tough times? Customers buy differently during tough times and you need to understan

Thanksgiving is a great time to show gratitude for the things you have and the people around you. In today’s episode our host, Donald Kelly, brings you what Sellers and Sales Leaders are Grateful for. Amidst all of the challenges going on in the world right now, there are still things to be thankful for. This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn. The sales landscape is totally changing. The way that we are selling is out of line with the way our prospects are buying. You need to adapt to succeed. Imagine if you could use data that could give you insights into when somebody is ready and the challenges they are facing so you can fine-tune your message specifically toward them. Deep Sales, a part of the next generation of LinkedIn Sales Navigator, can help you do just that. Check it out yourself and get a 60-day free trial at Linkedin.com/TSE. This episode is brought to you in part by Scratchpad. Are you tired of a digital workspace cluttered with notes, folders, files, and half-filled spreadsheets? (N

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, our host, Donald Kelly is joined by Rob Ashton to discuss the power of writing and three things that you need to understand to convert more prospects when writing emails. Reading is not speaking We are born with structures for speaking, but writing takes years of dedicated practice in order to rewire the brain.  Because reading is so complicated we don’t do it in real-time. Our eyes skip through the page and our brains fill in the rest.  Reading is much more complicated than we realize.  Writing is not great for everything You really need to put yourself in the shoes of the prospect. Think about how interested they are in this, how much they know already, what is their priority, and when was the last time we talked about this. Writing is not good for emotive issues.  Our brains are not computers and writing is not data transfer We often believe that emails should be short bullet points, but it is not always the case.  As human beings we think in narrative and b

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald talks with the head of sales at Transcend, Mike Orlick. They discuss the importance of use cases, how to effectively utilize them, and how to better provide value to your clients.  What is a use case and how do you utilize it?? A use case comes down to the business outcome and what they mean for your client.  Mike suggests getting quotes from previous clients who have had success with your product and then targeting similar individuals in your ICP. This helps to validate your product.  You can utilize use cases when new protocols impact your industry. When you understand a prospect's situation they are more likely to trust you with a solution.  Become an investigator and problem solver You get into enterprise sales by going deep and helping companies improve their business.  When you join an organization that has already started to prove use cases, you can go in with a use case and become a trusted advisor to a company by asking the right questions and tru

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